CLICK
HERE TO RETURN TO LESSONS
AS YOU COME TO CHURCH!
There are a number of places in Scripture where
we are invited to come to Jesus. For example, in Matthew 4:18 - 20 we
read:
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee,
he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting
a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus
said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 20 At once they
left their nets and followed him.
Then in Matthew 11:28 - 30 we catch a glimpse
of Jesus' heart as we read:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
After Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem
he shared three parables with the religious rulers. In the third parable,
as found in Matthew 22, an invitation to come to the wedding banquet was send
out to the nation of Israel but the nation declined the invitation. Hence,
the invitation was sent out to a broader group of people who gladly accepted
it. We read,
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 "The
kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3
He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them
to come, but they refused to come.
"Then he sent some more servants and said,
'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and
fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding
banquet.'
"But they paid no attention and went off-one
to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants,
mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his
army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding
banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 Go to
the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' 10 So
the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could
find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
"But when the king came in to see the guests,
he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 'Friend,'
he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.
"Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie
him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
"For many are invited, but few are chosen."
Evidently, those who responded to the invitation
were given wedding clothes to wear. All but one of the guest responded
appropriately and were clothed in righteousness. One of the guest, however,
refused to appropriate what the king had provided for his guest. Hence,
he was quickly spotted by security and thrown out.
Now suppose you were one of the ones found on
some street of some unknown city and issued an invitation to attend this banquet. You're
tired of life in general, you're hungry for something good to happen in your
life, and so you respond to the invitation, thinking that it's the best offer
you've had in a long time.
A few days later you run into an old friend. What
would you tell him or her about the banquet? What did you enjoy the most
about it? What surprised you about the banquet? Would you encourage
others to accept such an invitation?
Now look at the first few words of I Peter 2:4. We
read,
As you come to him, the living Stone . . .
This introductory clause is not an invitation. It
is an expectation. It does not refer to the initial response of a sinner
who comes to Christ with hopes of being saved. Rather, it is a habitual
response to the Savior. It is coming to him again and again to enjoy
his presence, his food, and his people.
That is, when we come to know Christ it is assumed
that we will come to church. After all, we are not only Christian people;
we are also church people. We are not only committed to Christ, we are
also committed to the body of Christ.
But, aren't there un-churched Christians? Yes
and no! Yes, there are probably some who claim to know Christ and yet
choose not to attend church. However, they:
-
are not obedient Christians.1
-
are not healthy Christians.
-
are not generous Christians.
-
are not responsible Christians.
&
-
may not be Christians at all.
The New Testament, however, knows nothing of
such a person. For God does not save isolated individuals only to have
them turn around and perpetuate their loneliness. On the contrary, his
purpose is to "purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager
to do what is good." This, of course, is best done corporately.2 As
we come to church we discover that the cornerstone is indeed a "living
Stone." It has life within itself and gives life to others. Jesus
said, in John 10:10,
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that
they may have life, and have it to the full."
The best place to experience the abundant life,
the best place to be reminded ot the truth of this verse, the best place to
grow up so as to experience life, and the best place to help others experience
the abundant life, is by being a built-in member of a local church.
As we come to church we find that the one person
we can depend on day-in and day-out, the one person who will always tell us
the truth, is the "living Stone." Peter draws this name for
Christ from Isaiah 28:16 a passage he proceeds to quote when he says,
See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one
who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
In Isaiah 28, the prophet initially spoke against
those of the Northern Kingdom who foolishly supposed that they were immune
to invasion by the Assyrians. However, Ephraim was throwing away the
blessings of God as a drunkard throws away his money in pursuit of the next
drink. If they continued to ignore the lecturing of God though Isaiah
they would be lectured by a foreign tongue.3
Then, in v. 14 the prophet turned his words
toward those in Jerusalem who boasted that they were secure against
the threat of any invasion. They spoke as though they had made a deal
with death and hell so that no harm would come to them. God declared
that their wheeling and dealing, so as to protect their city, was no refuge. Only
one building could withstand the storms of this world - God's building, established
upon a sure foundation - the Lord.4
As we come to church we will see that we will
never be put to shame. That is, we will not be disappointed when we turn
to the "living Stone" for help. When the psalmist of Psalm
118 was in great distress he called out to the Lord. Others, I might
add, thought that he was in so much trouble that not even the Lord could help
him. But, they were wrong. Though the psalmist, perhaps the
king, was surrounded by those who intended to destroy him the Lord enabled
him to cut them off. As a result of his victory, this psalm was written
to glorify God. In vv. 19 - 24 we read:
Open for me the gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
20 This is the gate of the LORD
through which the righteous may enter.
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.
24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Peter quotes v. 22 of this psalm as he contrasted
those who believe, and consequently find the stone precious, with those who
don't believe and consequently stumble over the stone.
How did Peter know that the "stone," as
used by the psalmist referred to Christ? How did he know it referred
to the Messiah? Simple! After the triumphal entry into Jerusalem
Jesus shared three parables with the religious rulers. Earlier, we quickly
read through the third one.
If we go back to the second of the three parables,
we will see that Jesus quoted this verse, v. 22, at the end of the second one
and applied it directly to the chief priests and the Pharisees. In other
words, he used the word "stone" to refer to himself; a stone over
which the religious rulers stumbled.5
Peter added to v. 22 by quoting a verse from
Isaiah 8. In what was probably a familiar passage to anyone who grew
up in the local synagogue, the Lord encouraged Isaiah not to be like those
who feared the Aram-Israel alliance or the Assyrians more than they feared
God. For those who fear God, the Lord will be a sanctuary. But
to those who do not believe in the Lord, he will be a stone that causes men
to stumble. They stumble not because of the stone itself but because
they reject the Lord.6
So as we come to church we need to continually
be reminded that the stakes are high. Those who accept the "living
Stone" will never be disappointed, they will never be put to shame. But
those who don't are destined to be broken in their unbelief, and in rejecting
the stone they will experience eternal condemnation.
As we come to church we discover the wonder
of God's salvation. It is spelled out for us in verse seven (v.7) which
literally reads, "To you who believe is the honor." In other
words, because Christ is precious to the Father we too are precious to the
Father. Christ is the "living Stone," but we too are living
stones. The cornerstone of any building is precious, in part, because
it is labor-intensive in selection and preparation. Likewise, we are
precious, in part, as evidenced by the amount of attention and effort that
the Lord gives to each of us.
As we come to church we will be reminded that
we are a people of God's own possession. We are a chosen people. The
wonder, of course, is not that some are chosen and some are not. The
wonder is that God chooses any of us. Or as someone has put it, "we
are a chosen people but not a choice people." In other words, if
we really take an honest look at ourselves, we have no ground for pride.7
If God does not choose his people for their
worth or their serviceability, why does he choose them? The Israelites
were haunted by this same question. To give them something to think about,
Moses shared the answer with them in Deuteronomy 7:7 - 8. He wrote:
The LORD did not set his affection on you and
choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were
the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and
kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty
hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king
of Egypt.
He chose us because he loves us! We are
God's inheritance, his treasured possession, a holy nation, a people belonging
to God so that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness.
So as we come to him we discover the plan for our lives.
Finally, as we come to church we will discover
that not everyone is pleased with our decision to follow the "living
Stone." We will find out, perhaps the hard way, that we are
a people at war. But that's another lesson for another Sunday.
1 Hebrews
10:23 - 25 reads: "Let
us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but
let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
2 See Titus 2:11 -14.
3 See Isaiah 28:1 - 13
4 See Isaiah 28:14 - 18.
5 See Matthew 21:33 - 46.
6 See Isaiah 8:11 - 15.
7 I Corinthians 1:27 - 31 reads: But God chose the foolish
things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world
to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the
despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, 29
so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you
are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness,
holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him
who boasts boast in the Lord.
"PETER: THE MAN AND HIS LETTERS 1/20/08 1
CLICK
HERE TO RETURN TO LESSONS