Gospel 5- A Spiritual House (audio file)

Well, here we are. We’ve reached the final sunday in our series on the Gospel.  We have been learning what it is, and what it does.  We’ve done the flyover of redemptive history from Romans 1, where we saw that God made all things to point us to himself, we worshipped creation, rather than the creator. Then he gave the Law to diagnose our idolatry, and show us our sin, then he sent His Son Jesus to fulfill the law by living a sinless life, dying a sinners death, and raising from the dead, conquering Satan, sin and death, and now lives to intercede for us. we then learned from Ephesians 2 that we all either were, or are spiritually dead, we cannot raise ourselves, and Jesus raises us for his glory.  We spent the past two weeks studying the truth of what it means to be Justified, declared righteous through Jesus’ work on the cross. That we have right standing with God, not by our works, but solely on the basis of a righteousness that has been given to us by Jesus Christ, that He became sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. My hope for this series was to sure up our foundations in Jesus’ work and what his work brings to us.  I hope that God has driven these truths down into our hearts as a result of this series.

Today we are going to turn the diamond again and look at another facet of the Gospel, and see yet another great truth that is a direct outflow of God’s work of redemption through Jesus.  We are going to be looking at the book of 1 Peter, chapter 2, verses 4-10.

What we are going to see in this text is what God intends to do with us, once we have been saved by Jesus.

Ok, lets read.

READ

PRAY

Quick show of hands, who here ever goes window shopping for building materials?  Have you ever been in Lowes checking out and said, while I’m at it, ring me up for a pallet of cinderblocks?  do you do that?  So, what is the difference between a person buying a pallets of block on a whim, and every other person who buys that much block?  A plan, right. a Purpose.  Most sane people buy building materials to build with them, not to set them in their yard and watch them in all their palleted glory.  They are going to build something with them. They are not an end in themselves. They are useless unless they are employed in some project. We all get that right? They have a specific purpose for those bricks or blocks, or whatever it may be.  That is the good news that we see in this passage for us. This is a passage that explains to us and all believers that when God saves you through Jesus, it is for a purpose. He has a plan for you, he has not bought you with his blood to put you on a shelf as a trophy, he has bought you as a building material.  He is building a living house, with living stones. Now that may not sound as glamourous as some of us would like to hear, in our individualistic mindsets, and age of independence, but what it is really is an amazing act of God.  He is taking people and making them into something great. He first makes them alive, then he sets about doing something with them.  He is building a sweet mansion with each of us, something that would rival anything you could see on MTV cribs, or on one of those shows on HGTV. This is not one of those McMansions that you see popping up all over the place built with cheap material and thrown up in a few weeks.  This house is being built with stone. Living stones at that, and the cornerstone is Jesus Christ himself. It is going to be a sweet palace, that will show all the world just how incredibly awesome our God is.  When people look at this house, they will say, “what a mind to think of such a thing, and to build such a thing. Who lives there? I want to meet this person. I want to know them.”

Now here is the important part for each of us. Before we get too excited about what God tells us he is doing with us, that we get to be a part of his sweet mansion, it is important that we not start assuming how he intends to do this.

So lets dig into this passage and see how we get to be a part of this house. I think when we do so, we will see that what God has in mind is much better than what we could come up with on our own.

So let’s get into how God intends to do this, and the crucial aspects of what he is doing with us.   What I want us to look at is this:

Jesus Is the cornerstone, of this great house, that brings much Glory To God.

1. Jesus is the Cornerstone: As the cornerstone, he is the stone by which all other stones draw their placement.  If the cornerstone is not set properly, the walls will not be true.  Without the corners set, the building will not be built properly. It must be square, level and plum.  if not, the building will not stand.  All other stones are laid in reference to the corner stone.  Like that, every one of us is being laid into the house of God in reference to this cornerstone Jesus, and his saving work on our behalf.

1. Rejected by men- v.8- all men Rom 1. We all are guilty of rejecting Jesus, by virtue of the fact that it was our sin that he was on the cross for.
2. Chosen by God- Ch. 1:18-20 It says That God set him out before the the foundation of the world.  This was not a plan B. God had set it out as we saw in the book of Ruth to redeem a people for himself, and to do a work of salvation through his Son Jesus. God is the master builder, and he has a plan and a purpose for all that he does, just as he did when he sent Jesus to become flesh and dwell among humanity.
3. Precious – Jesus was not some pawn, created by God for destruction. He is God’s son. he is part of the Godhead, he was there when the world was created and had enjoyed constant fellowship with the Father and the spirit since eternity past. He is precious.

1. We are the House:

1. house means two things; 1. continuing the metaphor from the stones 2. but also a household, similar to the chosen generation in v. 9. He is making us into a family, a lineage, with an inheritance, and a family line. He is bringing us into the family of God, the same way we saw in the book of Ruth that he took a foreign woman named Ruth, who was from a pagan people, and put her in the direct line of Jesus. So, we, as believers are now brothers and sisters. We are part of the family of God.  Now that family has broad expressions and it has local expressions.  Emmaus Christian Church is a local expression of the family of God, and he has placed those of us who are members, here into this local family of God so that we might care for one another as a family does…I have seen that happen here as we share each others prayer requests, and as we visit with one another and as many of you have sat with others in hospital rooms in crisis.
2. Holy Priesthood: what does it mean that we are a Holy preisthood? Well if you remember in the Old Testament…..     No longer needing the intermediary of a priest to go between us and God, we can approach as sons and daughters. So that means that here at Emmaus, you don’t need for a pastor to be an intermediary between you and God…
3. A people of His own possession.  We were bought with a price, we are not our own, we belong to God. We were once far off, but now we have been brought near. God has set his affection on you through Jesus Christ.

1. To bring Glory to God through Jesus: Worship.

1. v. 5. Offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus. Our sacrifices are pleasing to God, because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ that we learned about last week.  And just like any gift, they speak more about the giver than the one who receives the gift…this house is not about you and me, this house is about God and His glory.
2. v. 9. we may proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into this marvelous light.
3. Have you ever noticed that when you experience something incredible, it is not complete until you tell others about it?….. That is what we do when we worship God, through songs, and through hearing his word, and applying it to our lives, and telling others about who he is, we are worshipping Him, and showing to others just how wonderful it is to be his children and to be a part of a spiritual house.