Sermon Tone Analysis
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“*LIVING STONES*”
(A Chosen People – Series in I Peter)
Westgate Chapel 11~/5~/00 I Peter 2:4-8
PROPOSITION: Coming to Christ you are built into His house, leaning on Him you are never put to shame, and believing on Him you share in His honor.
!
i. introduction
!! - IN Genesis 49:24, Jacob is on his deathbed and is blessing his sons.
Over his son Joseph he says that in the face of the enemy,
!!! “…*his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel*, (25) *because of your father's God, who helps you*…”
!! - IN Deuteronomy 32:4.
Moses is at the end of his life, and in the hearing of Israel sings to the Lord,
!!! “*I will proclaim the name of the LORD.
Oh, praise the greatness of our God*!
(4) *He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he*.”
!! - IN I Samuel 2:2, after the Lord has answered Hannah’s desperate prayer for a son, and Samuel was born to her, she sings,
!!! “*There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God*.”
!! - 2 SAMUEL 22:1 says,
!!! “*David sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul*.
(2) *He said: "The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;* (3) *my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior-- from violent men you save me*.”
!! - SO it is no surprise then that by the time we get to the Psalms, king David is singing songs like,
!!! “*For who is God besides the LORD?
And who is the Rock except our God*?”
(Psalm 18:31)
!! - OR Psalm 61:2,
!!! “*From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I*.”
!! - OR how about this one in Psalm 118:21,
!!! “*I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.*
(22) *The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone*; (23) *the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes*.”
!! - BY the time we get to Isaiah 28:16 God says to Jerusalem,
!!! “*See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed*.”
!! - AND who of us can forget from Daniel 2 that just when it looked like the empires of the world were in control, the prophet saw…
!!! “… *a rock was cut out, but not by human hands.
It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them*.”
(Daniel 2:34)
!! - AND then in verse 35 that rock…
!!! “…*became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth*.”
!! - MANY of the Jewish Christians to whom the apostle Peter was writing his epistle would have been very familiar with these Old Testament passages about the Rock!
!! - THEY are Christians who are drowning in an acute sense of their insecurity.
!! - UPROOTED from their homes and families in Israel.
!! - INSIGNIFICANT against the might and power of the mighty Roman Empire.
!! - OUT of place in a world where Peter says that they “*reside as aliens*.”
(I Peter 1:1)
!! - RIDICULED by society and their neighbors for their antiquated beliefs.
!! - UNCERTAIN about the future and very insecure.
!! - “*SCATTERED*,” Peter says about them, in the northwest provinces of Asia Minor.
!! - THEY are insecure to say the least.
!! - SO it is no surprise that in the five verses of I Peter 2 we are going to look at this morning Peter uses the imagery of a rock….nine
times.
!! - PETER was there the day Jesus said of Himself,
!!! “*The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.”*
(Luke 20:17)
!! - PETER was there the day Jesus said to the crowd,
!!! “*Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock*.”
(Matthew 7:24)
!! - AND who could forget the day Jesus had said to Peter, in anticipation of you and me sitting in Westgate Chapel this morning,
!!! “*And I tell you that you are Peter* (a small stone)*, and on this rock* (Jesus)* I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it*.” (Matthew 16:18)
!! - SO in the day of the church’s great insecurity, where does Peter take them?
To the Rock.
!! - DO you think the Holy Spirit is saying something to them that we can benefit from this morning?
!! - TURN with me please to I Peter 2:4-5 (page 1201)
!!
!
! ii.
coming to the rock…YOU are being built into a spiritual house.
!! - LET’S read verse 4 together.
!!! “*As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him*.”
!! - “*AS you come to Him*….”
!! - THE only way to any security, any stability in your life begins with coming to Christ.
!! - BUT I don’t like the way the NIV has rendered it.
“*As you come to Him*” sounds too casual.
!! - A BETTER English rendering of the Greek in verse 4 is found in the NASB.
It says,
!!! “*And coming to Him*…”
!! - IT is actually the present continuous participle, and doesn’t mean coming to Christ once, like when you and I were saved.
It means a constant coming, a daily coming to Christ.
!! - ONE commentator said that it is a drawing near with the intention of staying.
!! - TO whom are we coming?
!! - THE living Stone.
!! - AND the word used for stone is “/lithos/”, which wasn’t an uncut stone, but one shaped, worked on for a very specific fit and purpose….and
from Daniel we know who that Stone is and why no human hands had cut or shaped it.
!! - THAT Rock is Jesus, yes He’s the One.
!! - AND Peter knew all to well that it wasn’t a dead Stone.
It was a living Stone.
He has seen the resurrected Christ with his own eyes, had touched Him, had eaten meals with Him after finding the tomb empty on the third day.
!! - NOT only is Christ the living Stone, but He is also the life-giving Stone (I Corinthians 15:45).
!! - PETER had also been painfully close on the day in Herod’s courtyard when religious men had rejected that Stone as the Messiah.
!! - WE are ever coming to the living Stone.
!! - OTHERS clearly don’t want to have anything to do with Him, so they reject Him to this day.
!! - BUT God has chosen Him.
We learned from I Peter 1 that that word, chosen, means to cast the vote for Him.
!! - AND verse 4 also says that Jesus, the living Stone, is precious to God.
In this context that word precious means “honored, prized, highly esteemed.”
!! - THEN look at verse 5 with me,
!!! “… *you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ*.”
!! - COMING to Christ through faith in salvation makes you and me living stones also...because we are in Christ.
We are joined to Christ.
!! - AND the daily process of ever coming to Christ is the process whereby we are daily being built into a spiritual house.
!! - “BEING built” is the continuous passive tense.
It is something being done to us on a continuous basis.
!! - AND it is not a physical building, or budgets, or By-laws, or our ministry activities.
Those are all servants in the hands of the Holy Spirit to the goal that we are being built into a spiritual house….the
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