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Afternoon. Would you take out your bible, please, and turn to first Peter? 1 Peter 2. We'll begin reading in verse 4 as Bryson read for us a moment ago. 1 Peter 2:4 here in just a second.

There are all sorts of metaphors used for the people of God in the church that we find in the Bible. A marriage where we are the bride and Christ is the groom. A nation or a kingdom where we are the citizens and Christ is the king. A household, a family where God is the father and Christ the older brother, a body where we are the members of the body and he is the head. But the one we are emphasizing for our congregational focus here is that of a temple, And our theme text is found in Ephesians 2:19-22 that talks about this idea of us being fitted together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord.

And that idea of a temple would have with it some ideas, some thoughts for both Jews and Gentiles. All of them had familiarity with temples and this idea of a dwelling place of God in the spirit, those sorts of ideas. But for the Jews specifically, they would have called to mind that temple that was found in Jerusalem. And this is the stone image that we've been using for all of our slides that the congregational focus. That's not some random image.

That is the corner or one of the corners of the foundation of the temple that is still there today, what we might call a retaining wall that held up the temple there at the Temple Mount. And we see this stone, and it reminds us of that foundation. But a lesser known passage that uses and really expands upon the same idea is what we find here in 1 Peter 2. And so this evening, I want us to think for a few minutes about building God's house with living stones, and I want us to make some very specific and pointed applications to us who are that building that is being fitted together, that is being built up into the temple of God, into a dwelling place of God in the spirit. So join me with...

Join me in that as we begin reading in 1 Peter 2 beginning in verse 4. Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, he is precious.

But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and he has become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. Notice especially what he says there in verse 4. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house.

Now Peter is writing on this occasion, and it seems as though his audience is not but primarily is made up of Jewish Christians. And they would have had all of the background tabernacle and the Temple Of Solomon, all of the things that Preston talked about last week when he when he talked about God's tabernacle and God's dwelling. But may I suggest that there's another thing, maybe a more concrete thing that they would have had in their mind, that they would have had from their current experience, and that was seeing with their own eyes the temple that was then standing in Jerusalem. I want you to imagine reading these words or read the words that are found in the book of Ephesians, and you yourself have made the pilgrimage as almost all Jews in the first century would have at some point in their lives. And for many Jews, every year, they're going to Jerusalem and going to that temple.

And you hear that you're being built up as a as a holy temple, that you as living stones are being built this house of God, what would you have in your mind? You'd have the temple of God that you yourself had seen. This is what we would have call... We would call the Herodian Temple, and there's a model of it on the screen behind me. It was one of the great building projects of the ancient world, and it was the subject of Jesus' prophecy that he makes in Matthew 24:1-2.

Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came up to show him all the buildings of the temple. Why? Because they were awesome. Look. This is our temple.

Look what has been built for our god. Look at all these buildings. And Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. And in 8070, that's exactly what happened.

The Romans came and they swept it all off, what we would call down to the foundation. You ever seen a house that's been torn down or a house that's been... That's burned down, and all that's left is the slab? Occasionally, in West Texas, you could see places like that. You knew they were there because the trees were there.

Trees that don't belong in West Texas are growing tall there, and you say there must have been a homestead there. And sometimes all that's left is just the slab, just the foundation. And that was exactly what happened to this great and beautiful temple in Jerusalem. And in fact, if you go to Jerusalem today, you can see some of those stones that were that were thrown down from from that temple so that the... That it was just swept clean.

And it was swept all off and cast down eight or nine years after the writing of first Peter. So while Peter is writing all of these stones and this temple is not just still there, in fact, it is still being built. It's not totally finished yet. The sad thing in some ways about the Herodian Temple is that it only stood for six or seven years in totality before it was torn down. Now the primary building of the temple and Solomon's porch and all of that would have already been built by this time, but some of the other buildings and some of the other furnishings finishings had not been completed yet.

Here, this building was still being built. And we think about the stones that made up that great temple. These are big, massive stones. So there's my dad and I. I'm six foot and a half.

Thank you very much. And you can see my dad is six one, just barely. Just barely. But you can see how tall some of these stones really are that are fitted together. But they're not just big and tall, they're also beautiful.

Even if you see these foundation stones, these retaining wall stones, some of which wouldn't even have been seen by people in the first century, you can see how beautiful these stones are and how they fit together. Each one of them had this kind of carved picture window, and every single one of them, you see that. Even in these stones that really don't matter that much. And you see even after two thousand years how well they still all fit together, how still it's all being held up there at the foundation. And even though just the foundation is left, even two thousand years later, this temple and these stones provide a vivid picture.

But how much more vivid would it have been for Jewish Christians who had seen it with their own eyes? Peter in 1 Peter 2 and Paul in the book of Ephesians are both saying, you as Christians, you're like this. As this, he says, but like what exactly? What are we talking about? May I suggest three things, how we are like this temple, this temple that they would have seen, and these stones that were being built, these big, beautiful, massive stones.

Number one, we are like the temple as Peter is describing it here in 1 Peter 2 because we are like Christ, the cornerstone. Did you catch that there in verse 5? He says, you also or you yourselves as or like living stones. Why? Because of what he said in verse 4, coming to him, Christ, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.

He is a living stone. That's the image. That's the metaphor, and so are we. That image of Jesus as a stone is rich with prophetic meaning. And in verses 6-8, we see that Peter quotes from Isaiah 28 and then Psalm 118 and then Isaiah 8.

But I want you to notice especially his quotation, his first quotation from Isaiah 28:16. This is what it says in the Old Testament. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Whoever believes will not act hastily, will not be brought to shame. But what I want to point out is Peter doesn't go on to quote, but what his audience certainly would have known.

The very next verse begins this way in verse 17. Also, I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plummet or the plumb line, the ESV says. So I'm measuring this way, and I'm making sure it's squared this way exactly as you would expect from a cornerstone. God is not just saying I'm laying a cornerstone and leaving it unbuilt. He's saying I'm laying this cornerstone so that I can use justice and righteousness to build up the rest of this building.

Christ is the chief cornerstone. He is a living stone, but we are supposed to be stones in imitation of him. This is the beginning of the building project when Jesus was laid, not the end of it. And God is measuring everything in all directions off of that precious cornerstone and sure foundation Jesus Christ. I might put it this way to borrow terminology from the Hebrew writer.

Jesus was made in all things like his brethren. Hebrews 2:17, he said he had to be made in all things like his brethren. But now we are to be made in all things like him. We're supposed to be conformed to the image of his son. We're supposed to be putting Christ on.

Christ is supposed to be living in us. And all of those images and all of those metaphors are saying the same thing. You as a Christian are supposed to be like Christ. You as a Christian are supposed to give everyone else an image of what Christ is like because God is using justice and righteousness to make sure you're in exactly the right position in the church to be that image and be that stone for everybody else. He is a living stone and so are we.

He is precious to God and so are we. He was chosen by God and so are we. He had a mission to fulfill in his life and so do we. And one way we might miss that, emphasized by Peter, is that Christ's suffering led to his glory. A common theme in this book is we'll read here in just a second.

He is a living stone, what? Rejected indeed by men, but precious to God. And so too often are we. You yourselves are sometimes going to be rejected by men, but that willingness to be rejected because of who you are makes you like Jesus Christ. And you, as you imitate Christ, become, in some ways, a continuation of that standard by which others will be judged.

Now that's the negative way of thinking about it. You are shining the light of Christ into their life that they have no excuse. Right? But also you're shining the light of Christ into their life, hopefully, so that they might come and become a living stone and be added to this building as well, that they might see that justice and righteousness and say, that's how I need to build my life too. You are like Christ the cornerstone, and we have spent most of this year emphasizing that Jesus is the foundation, that he's the cornerstone.

And when the apostles laid a foundation, there's no other foundation that can be laid except Jesus Christ. And all of that is vitally important for us to emphasize. But, ultimately, it brings us to the point where we say, now I'm being built on top of him. And that is the foundation, not just his church, that is the foundation of my life because I'm a living stone just like him. Secondly, we are like the living stones of the temple.

As living stones are like living stones, the ESV says. You ever known a living stone? I mean, maybe, you know, you think about a turtle or something like that. Maybe we can get our mind around that and think of a of a hermit crab, and, you know, he's got a shell and maybe he's a living stone. But I'm talking about a stone.

You ever seen a stone that was alive? Of course not. But maybe that's part of the point. We, outside of Jesus Christ, were as dead as a stone. We say dead as a doornail.

We could say dead as a stone. But God can, and he did make us alive. Living stones emphasizes his creative power to make alive physically and to make alive spiritually. I think John the Baptist hinted at this in Matthew 3. Remember the scribes and the Pharisees?

They come out to see his baptism from afar. They don't wanna be baptized himself... Themselves. And so he calls out to them and he says, you know, who warned you of the condemnation that is to come? You need to repent and bear fruit worthy of repentance like everybody else.

This is what he says. Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. Look at us. Look at our heritage.

We're we're Jews. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones. God is able to make alive where there is only death, and God is able to animate the things that are inanimate. God has that creative power. And if he has that kind of creative power to breathe life into something that is dead, how much more does he have the creative power to breathe life into our mortal bodies?

But not just our mortal bodies to breathe life into us spiritually so that we might know what it is to have life and to have it abundantly. Our life as Christians, as living stones, is found in Jesus Christ, and we are like those children of Abraham raised up from outside the family of Abraham, the physical family of Abraham. That's us. God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones? Well, the Gentiles, that's...

I mean, we are raised up, though not physically from that lineage because of our willingness to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. But maybe there's something more to this idea of a living stone, and I'm not entirely certain or convinced that Peter had this in mind when he wrote these words. Know for a fact that God was aware of this reality, and maybe some of those who were familiar with the building of that temple would have been here with it as well. One aspect of Herod's temple project, of which I was unaware until a number of years ago, I went to Israel, and I heard a tour guide tell all about these stones and what was going on with this. And then I did some of my own research when I got back.

These stones made from a specific type of local Jerusalem limestone called the royal stone. And this stone was particularly attractive to Herod, and he made lots of things besides the temple out of these stones as a great builder because it had two qualities. In its natural state, uncut, it was soft, which made it easy to cut, easy to quarry, easier to move, even these giant great stones. But what's amazing about this particular kind of stone is that once it's set into place and exposed to the elements, it hardens, it strengthens, becoming one of the strongest stones available to ancient builders anywhere in the world, certainly in the Kingdom Of Israel. And isn't that the way it's supposed to be with us?

As living stones, we are molded and placed by god where he would have us to be. And rather than being worn by trials, rather than being worn out by our exposure to those those trials and elements that that we face in life, those things only serve to strengthen us individually and as the temple of God. As the saying goes, same fire that melts wax hardens clay or the same fire that melts the butter hardens the egg, whatever that means. It is a totally different reaction to the same experience. The godly reaction of living stones is to go through trials and to become better because of them.

Now this doesn't mean that our hearts are hardened, of course. Instead, it's our resolve. It strengthens our faith. It solidifies our commitment to do what God would have us to do. And we see the same thing repeated over and over in the book of first Peter.

I'm tempted to read through all of these. 1 Peter 1:6-9, two nineteen through 25, three thirteen through 18, four one and two, and then later four twelve through 19. All of this talks about the fiery trial that you're going through and where that's gonna lead you, that this fiery trial is gonna lead you to a place of faith. It's gonna strengthen your faith. So you're not gonna be burned up by these things.

You're gonna be resolved like Jesus to be more who you who you are called to be in Jesus Christ. But I would skip to the very end to chapter five verses 10 and eleven because I think Peter really summarizes all of these passages that talk about our suffering leading to glory, our suffering leading to God being glorified, our suffering leading us to have greater faith. Read with me chapter 5. Start there in verse 9. Talking about the devil, how he's seeking to devour us.

We're told in verse 9, resist him steadfast in the faith knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. What you're going through, same thing in principle that these people were going through, same thing that other people are going through in different parts of the world, the same thing that other people have gone through or maybe are going through even in this congregation. So resist the devil. Others have before, others will in the future. Verse 10, but may the god of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

Now you're gonna have to suffer for a little while. All of those who are faithful in Christ Jesus will suffer some form of persecution. But know this, even if you're going through a period of trial or suffering or testing right now. The devil wants the elements that are coming upon you to soften and weaken your resolve, to leave you away from Jesus Christ, but God wants you to be able to use this trial to grow. A little suffering now is leading us into becoming mature that is perfect, established, strengthened, and settled.

How? By relying on God in the in the midst of that suffering and imitating Jesus Christ as he suffered. And continuing to grow through the tests and trials we face reminds us of the third thing that we are like this temple. This temple that they would have seen, the Herodian Temple, we are like an ongoing building project, that we are, as living stones, being built up being built up as a spiritual house. Not that we were built or even that we are built, but that we are being built up.

This is an ongoing process, not a finished project. And even as we think about the church, while Jesus came and finished all things in terms of the purposes of God to bring about our salvation, the church itself is continuing to be built. Now that certainly was the case with the Herodian Temple. It was ongoing, but almost finished when Peter wrote these words in the early sixties AD, and it's gonna be destroyed in seventy AD, ironically enough. And we see some insight into this.

In fact, one of the ways that we kinda try and date when Jesus' ministry was is by this phrase that's found in John 2:20. As Jesus is already having some conflict about the things that he's saying and him being a temple and all those sorts of things, the Jews respond on this occasion and say about that great temple, it has taken forty six years to build this temple. In other words, they've been working on it for forty six years already, and we know going back in time that that they had started working on this temple sometime around fifteen BC, and they had continued to work on it even up till the time of Jesus and his apostles that we find here in John 2. And though the main sanctuary, what we think of as the temple, was completed, the outer buildings weren't finished then. And so you imagine you're a Jew going to Jerusalem every year, every few years.

What do you see? You see scaffolding. You see stonemasons. You see the change from one year to another. Oh, look at how much they've built.

I mean, we see that sort of thing. Right? When we go to a town, maybe the town we grew up in or whatever, oh, this is torn down. This is built up. The road is torn up.

The road is fixed. All those sorts of things. And they would have seen that ongoing building of this temple. And Peter tells them, as God's temple, it's an ongoing process for you too. Ain't that reassuring?

I don't know. It is to me. That's the way it's always struck me that I don't have to be a finished product yet. And even the church isn't a finished product yet. Stones are being quarried and added by the master builder.

And we are built upon the stones below us. Right? That's how a building is built. We might say built upon the stones that came before us. And furthermore, we are all in that process that we talked about of hardening and strengthening and becoming more unified with one another.

And I would have you remember that you are not a solitary stone facing the storms of life alone. Instead, you are a part of a great temple. When I became a Christian, the word added me to that group of people that we talked about this morning, including the faithful in Christ who have passed on, and that they're still a part of this church too. They are the stones that were laid before me upon which I myself has been... Have been built, and I owe them a debt of gratitude for the things that they have done.

And I find some some comfort and hope and peace in knowing that those people who have gone on before are still a part of the church that I'm a part of. I've been thinking a lot about my granddad the last couple of weeks because of two things. Number one, my mother cleaned out a cedar chest that had a lot of his stuff, including a bunch of old sermon notes and an old hat and some other things that I snuck into the closet the other night. And the second thing was I digitized our wedding ceremony. I sent it off to be digitized.

It was on this, like, little tiny VCR tape, and my grandfather led a prayer. And so when I watched the digitized version of that, I heard his voice. I don't know how many years it's been since I heard his voice, and he led a prayer on that occasion. And I was thinking about all that, and I think I think about how much I've grown as a Christian since since he passed from this life. And I think he would be proud about that, but I'm thinking about how we are still a part of this same building project together and that that's the way it's supposed to work.

That one layer of stones is laid, and that part of the building is completed. And then another layer of stones is laid on top of that, and that's what we are, laid upon those who have come before us. And maybe that same image of... Is true of you, true of someone who has gone on before you, a spouse or a friend or a parent, maybe even a child. And that includes as well the faithful today.

You and me and others locally and around the world as we are being built together in this ongoing project of God. And it will include all those who come to Christ from this day forward as the Lord adds to the church daily those who are being saved. And I've had the wonderful opportunity to see some of you being added to this building project over the last sixteen years. In many ways, we are the holy spiritual fulfillment of the first great building project of mankind. What was the first great building project of mankind?

What what was it? Maybe the Tower Of Babel. Right? And they're gonna build this great building that's gonna reach all the way into heaven. Well, as the temple of God, what are we if not a building that reaches up into heaven?

And we are made up of the reunited nations of the earth who, though different in background and language and even time, worship God together and will be together when this building project is finished. And so Peter ends his thoughts on the matter in this way in 1 Peter 2:9-10. We are not disobedient to the word. He is not a rock of offense or a stone of stumbling. We have not rejected him.

We accept him and are built upon him. So we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood or a kingdom of priests. We are a holy nation. We are his own special people that we may proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, who were once not a people but are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Now look around this room.

There was a time when we were not a people. We were just a bunch of individuals. But now we have been brought together in Jesus Christ where we are the people of God, where we are living stones being built upon and built like an imitation of that chief cornerstone. And so I would I would ask tonight to allow the other stones around you to be fitted together with you. Allow us to help you and stand with you in the face of trial and testing and temptation and suffering.

And we ask you to stand with us in the same way against those same things, but even more not against those things, but with the one who is building us, God himself, and with his son Jesus Christ, is a... Our chief cornerstone. Draw us in with you with what you face and what we face so that you also, as living stones, might be built up as a spiritual house to God. And if we can help you to become part of Christ's church, the saved ones even this evening, come now while together we stand and while we sing.