Easter 5 1 Peter 2:4-10

ILCW A 2017

It’s said that Albert Einstein once took the train to an out-of-town engagement, and as the conductor stopped to punch his ticket, the great scientist, preoccupied with his work, couldn't find his ticket. Not in the coat pockets. Not in the briefcase. The conductor said, "Don't worry, Dr. Einstein. We all know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket." As the conductor moved along, he glanced back to see Einstein on his hands and knees searching under the seats for his ticket. Hurrying back, he said, "Dr. Einstein, you really don't need to worry about it. I know who you are." Exasperated, Einstein looked up and said, "I, too, know WHO I am. What I don't know is WHERE I am going!"

In the midst of all the problems and frustrations of life as sinners in a sinful world we sometimes lose sight of WHERE we are going, too. In the upper room during the first Lord’s Supper Jesus told his disciples, “I am going to prepare a place for you…so that you also may be where I am.”Then he added, “You know the way to the place where I am going.” When his befuddled disciple, Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus replied,“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”Through faith in Jesus you are going to heaven! It says so right here on your ticket in the Bible: “Whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

And that’s how we knowWHO we are.You are not just someone who struggleswithsin, trouble, weakness,inadequacies, fears and tears. You area chosen living stone in God’s temple -you are a chosen royal priest in his service!

1. A living stone in God’s temple

Jesus’disciples knew something about rocks. Jesus even renamed one of them,Simon,“petros” (Gr.), “rock”, after he’d declared his rock-solid confession of faith, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Jesus had replied, “Blessed are you, Peter (Rock), for this was not revealed to you by men but by my Father in heaven. And you are Peter, and upon this rock” – this confession, this solid foundation – “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.”

There is no other foundation for life and eternity except Jesus Christ. He is God’s own “chosen and precious

cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” Jesus, God’s own Son, is holy,

perfect, righteous, of priceless worth. Only Jesus could ransom sinners from a one-way ticket to hell by

shedding his holy, precious blood.

Chosen and precious. That isn’t how unbelief sees Jesus. By nature wewant to draw our own blueprints for life and figure out our own way to heaven. So when Jesus came telling people that they were dead and lost in their sins and that they could not make themselves acceptable to God no matter how much they tried to chisel away at their lives and rework their sins, that he was the only Way, they tossed aside the only One who could save them.Jesus was “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.They stumble because they disobey the message— which is also what they were destined for.” Unbelief always ends up in the same destination. Reject Jesus and be rejected by God forever in hell.

But what if you don’t stumble over Jesus? What if you stand on him as the foundation for your life?What if you believe that Jesus removed your sin from God’s sight by covering them up with his own blood? Then you are a rock like Peter. But how did you get a place in God’s Temple? Stones can’t leap from the ground and insert themselves. They must be found, picked up and put in place by the builder. You believe because God chose you. Not because of anything you had done, but because of his mercy. He made you alive with Christ through the power of his gracious Word. No matter what anyone else thinks of you, God tells you who you really are in Christ: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” He can’t say in often enough. We hear him echo through the apostle Paul, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”Eph 2:21

One day you will join in the endless praises of gratitude & joy of heaven,andit begins today. We have been found, picked up, and placed God’s Temple to“declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

2. A royal priest in his service

Stones indicate permanence. They stand the test of time. That’s a god picture of our faith in Jesus. But stone buildings and monuments also seem so cold, silent, and lifeless. That’s not true of the stones in God’s temple. These stones are alive.They do something.So Peter adds another picture:“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. “

When we think of priests we think of the Old TestamentTemple worship. Priests were in a class by themselves. God chose them from just one family, the tribe of Levi, and told the people that the only way they could come to him was through the ministry of the priest. Only priests were allowed in the temple. Only priests could offer acceptable sacrifices for the sins of the people. Only a priest couldgo to God on their behalf. God used them as a preview of the coming great High Priest, Jesus, who would go to God on behalf of sinners of all timeby offering himself as the one-time sacrifice for all sin.

After Jesus came, the Old Testament priesthood of preparing for Christwas over, but there are still priests. Not just a select few men.Every Christian is a now a priest. And it is stillexclusive service.“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” As good as an unbeliever’s deeds may look, and as much as the unbelieving world praises them, without faith in Christ none of it is pleasing or acceptable to God. Only believers in the Saviorhave access to God’s heart in prayer because Jesus has made us acceptable to him. Only believers in Jesus can “offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God”because everything we do as believers in Jesus is offered in gratitude and praise to the Lord who bought us.

Each of us has a pulpit called our Christian life, and from it we proclaim Jesus to others by the things we say and do. We are priests when we talk to our children about Jesus and show them that he is the top priority in our lives. We are God’s priests when do our best in our jobs, put our best effort into our homework, cook our meals and wash our dishes, honor and obey our parents in love, love our husbands and wives, use our time and talents in our congregation, give back a part of God’s blessings to share his Word with others. We are priests offering acceptable sacrifices of praise because we do it “all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Look around. There are people everywhere on their hands and knees in life trying to find out who they are and where they are going. By God’s grace you and I don’t suffer from that “identity crisis” anymore. Purely by his grace we know who we are in Christ.In Christ we know where we are going. And now we can offer that new identity in Christ to everyone as we simply “declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.”We don’t have to argue the doctrine of creation, defend the Trinity or explain the work of the Holy Spirit through the gospel. As priests we just tell the simple truths of man’s sin and his need of a Savior and how God in his grace gave us that Savior. Through this message God gives life to rocks lifeless in unbelief and fits them into his Temple as living stones, too.

Living stones and royal priests. That is who we are. Declaring his glory in our lives.That is why we are here. The God of all mercy is worthy of praise, and the highest praise we can give is to tell others about his saving love in Christ. The whole world needs to know, and there will never be a better time to tell themthan now. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! Amen