Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
October 8, 2023
INTRO
We are at an inflection point in the life of our church. God is at work here. And chances are you are seeing the Lord work in your life. We had 27 women at a new Bible study Growth Group on Thursday morning. We continue to see our kids ministry growing. We are developing our property to be used for hands-on discipleship. And we are seeing the Lord use the proclamation of the Word to impact lives.
With everything that is changing and with all the new people recently in our congregation, I think it is important to ensure we are on the same page with our vision and our priorities as a church. We use three words to describe our core values, our DNA as a church: Welcoming, Transforming, Sending.
God has made us to be a Welcoming Church with a warm sense of family, where we embrace following Christ together as brothers and sisters in the household of God.
God has made us to be a Transforming Church with an expectation that we will be changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, through the sanctifying power of the Spirit, for God’s glory.
God has made us to be a Sending Church with a heart-felt motivation and urgency to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others near and far.
I want to take an opportunity during this inflection point in our church to spend the next three weeks expounding the biblical foundation on these themes of Welcoming, Transforming, and Sending. And this is really all about the gospel through-and-through. We are a gospel-centered church. And as we walk through a season of growth and development of our disciple-making vision, we want to be crystal clear on the gospel and the heart behind everything we do.
Here’s how this looks with our DNA as a church, and what this three-part series is going to look like:
(SLIDE 2b) We are a Welcoming Church because we have received the gospel. We are all sinners saved by grace. Our hands our open to receive this gift in full surrender, boasting in Christ, not in our merit. And because we have freely been welcomed into God’s family through Christ, we freely welcome one another with those same open hands, opening our lives to each other as a community of sinner-saints, on level ground at the foot of the cross!
(SLIDE 2c) We are a Transforming Church, which means we are stewards of the gospel. We want to see gospel fruit in our own lives and in the lives of others. We walk together in faith, seek the Lord together, and submit to God’s work in us. We want to take the precious treasure we have in the gospel and steward it for a Kingdom return that glorifies God.
(SLIDE 2d) We are a Sending Church, and because we have been given a free gift by God’s grace, we now have the privilege to freely give away the gospel to others. We received Christ with open hands, so we give away Christ with open hands.
This is the gospel-centered DNA of our church. And it is what we will be focusing on for the next few weeks.
So, let’s jump in and see what the Lord has to teach us today through his Word. Open with me to 1 Peter 2:4-10. (SLIDE 3, title) The Apostle Peter is writing to Christians who are scattered throughout the Roman Empire. They are challenged every day with the sense that they are foreigners and exiles in this world, and they realize how a gospel-centered church is essential to their survival. After he reminds them of the living hope they have in Jesus, and their calling to be holy in the midst of an unholy world, he wants to make sure these early believers view their relationship to Christ through the right lens. So let’s read. READ 1 Peter 2:4-10.
ILLUST — When you were a kid, did you ever play with legos? Or build towers out of your toys? Or construct forts with blankets and chairs? Or stack cards to make a pyramid? Or make a bunker out of snow banks during a snowball fight?
You probably know that there are tricks and techniques to make sure it doesn’t topple over. You’ve got to learn how to make the structure strong so that your little brother or sister doesn’t knock it over!
Well, one of the more popular toys these days are called “magna-tiles”. (PROP) These are magna-tiles. They come in different shapes and sizes, but each piece has magnets in the edges that allow them to stick together to make structures.
My kids acquired some used magna-tiles as a gift a number of years ago. They love playing with them. ILLUST — I remember once that Annabelle was making a house for her dolls and toys. As she was constructing the walls, she decided she wanted a different piece in the corner where two walls met. As soon as she removed the corner tile, both of the adjoining walls fell over flat on the table. That single corner piece held up both walls and was the key to the structural integrity of the whole thing!
The same principle applies to buildings that were made out of stone in the ancient Roman world. When you built a stone structure, the cornerstone was the most important piece of the foundation. A cornerstone with cracks and flaws won’t do. Neither will a small and insignificant cornerstone. If the cornerstone was not up to the task, the building project would fail.
This is exactly what Peter writes about in this passage. He calls Jesus the “chosen and precious cornerstone.” Remember, Peter is writing to Christians who find themselves in a hostile world, who face struggles and pressures everyday, and who feel like foreigners in their own culture or community.
PROP — This is what we need to be encouraged with in this passage: The only sure foundation for the church is the gospel of Jesus Christ. (SLIDE 4a)
ORG SENT — Peter reminds us of this truth in three ways: (SLIDE 4b) First, we see a whole new definition of who we are as the church (vv. 4-5). (SLIDE 4c) Second, we see that the church is built on the precious cornerstone of Jesus Christ (vv. 6-8). (SLIDE 4d) Third, we see the new gospel-centered task of the church (vv. 9-10).
MAIN 1 — Who We Are (vv. 4-5). (SLIDE 5a)
These two verses draw upon a key theme in the Bible: The theme of Temple. (SLIDE 5b) A temple is where God’s presence dwells, where heaven meets earth, where we communion with God personally, where we bring our worship, and how the rest of the world sees and knows that God is real. This theme shows up throughout the Bible:
(SLIDE 5c) In Genesis, the Garden of Eden was like a sanctuary where God’s presence was with Adam and Eve.
(SLIDE 5d) After sin enters the world and humanity is banished from God’s presence, God’s redemptive promises come as he dwells with his people in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and Temple.
(SLIDE 5e) Then the pinnacle expression of God’s presence comes in the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the fullness of deity in bodily form.
(SLIDE 5f) When Jesus dies, the curtain of the Temple is torn in two and now we have access through Christ’s blood, to enter God’s presence.
(SLIDE 5g) And because of the resurrection of Jesus, we can be born again of the Spirit of God and clothed in the righteousness of Christ by faith, we now have the Holy Spirit dwelling is us. We are now temples of God’s presence!
(SLIDE 5h) And the Spirit is a downpayment, a sign and seal that we will know the face-to-face presence of God forever in the future new heavens and new earth, the cosmic temple of God’s holy presence.
You see, Peter is tapping to a stream of temple theology that spans the grand story of the Bible, and it helps us see the good news of the gospel. It is good news because God isn’t distant! The Eternal Creator is present with you right now! The church throughout history, and our church today, we are being built into a spiritual house for the Spirit of God to dwell until the return of Christ! You are a living stone in the edifice of God’s own dwelling place! That is astounding! And we are called to live for him, to devote our lives to him, to show the world what the presence of God will do to transform us.
For our lives to be a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God, this is only possible through Jesus. That’s why Peter makes sure we are reminded that Jesus is the precious cornerstone.
MAIN 2 — The Precious Cornerstone (vv. 6-8). (SLIDE 6a)
There is a contrast that is developed in this passage by Peter. (SLIDE 6b) He wants us to realize through this repetition of three quotations from the Old Testament that Jesus is the dividing line of history, he is the only one worthy of our praise, he alone can save us, and we cannot be neutral about him.
Here’s another way to say this: Jesus will either build you up or trip you up.
Build you up (v. 6) (SLIDE 6c) — Peter quotes from Isaiah 28:16, which was a promise to the Israelites who were under threat of attack by the Assyrians. They will be safe because God himself will lay his chosen and precious cornerstone in his Holy City, and all who trust in HIM will never be put to shame. He is strong enough, he is perfect, he is the only cornerstone worthy to build God’s people upon so that they will not topple and fall!
Trip you up (vv. 7-8) (SLIDE 6d) — Then Peter quotes from Psalm 118, which is a Psalm often sung at the Passover festival, and from Isaiah 8, which is a passage about the promise of God’s deliverance. They both are warnings: Reject Jesus and it won’t turn out well for you.
Let me put this a different way by asking a question: (SLIDE 6e) Is Jesus precious to you? Is the message of who Jesus is and what he has done good news for you?
Answering this gets at the heart of the gospel. Answering this reaches deep down into our hearts to probe whether we truly grasp the gravity of what God has done in Christ. Answering this will set the tone for the culture of who we are as a church.
We live in an age where the attitude toward Jesus is “take-him-or-leave-him.” You can believe in Jesus if you want, just don’t impose your private beliefs on me, don’t bring him into the public square, don’t try to tell me that I need Jesus.
One of the central issues in our culture is that we’ve deceived ourselves to think that we are our own saviors, that we aren’t really that bad, and that we’re doing just fine here in the modern world on our own.
ILLUST — I read this week about a pastor who served many years ago in an internship at a secular detox center. He was tasked with leading a quasi-counseling session with over a dozen men and women detoxing from heroin. He was told that he wasn’t allowed to talk about religion or to share his faith. So he read through the self-help material provided and immediately perceived a profound disconnect with the people in the class.
Among many problems they faced, deep down they all felt a powerful sense of guilt, shame, and failure. They had let people down. They had hurt people. They had made a mess of their lives and lived with constant overwhelming guilt for what they had done. They were constantly told that the drug was to blame, not them. They were told they were good people deep down. They were told their guilt and shame was merely a feeling they needed to overcome, that they needed to forgive themselves and move on with life. It was all nonsense, and they knew it. They felt stuck, helpless to help themselves, and this babbling about making peace with themselves was completely devoid of the power to save them.
After the session, this pastor asked the group to describe how they felt. One man took the handout from the class and violently crumpled it up in his hands and threw it on the floor. He said, “This is what should be done to me!”
In other words, if the answer is to wish away my guilt, to pretend that I’m ok inside my heart, to pull myself out of this mess by my own strength, then all I’m worthy of is to be crumpled up in a ball and thrown in the trash. There’s no real hope for me, there’s no joy, there’s no redemption in this!
So even though he wasn’t supposed to, this pastor began telling the story of the Prodigal Son. This is the story of a young man who disrespected his father, squandered his money, decided to live in outright sin, hurt others, and he destroyed his life. He was full of shame and regret. He knew he was guilty. He knew he was powerless to save himself. And yet this helpless Prodigal found that his Father was overflowing with grace to welcome his son back into the family.
You see, this pastor looked at this group of dejected and hopeless prodigals and told them about what Christ had done for them. He told them about God’s grace to forgive and God’s power to redeem. He told them how every single one of us comes impoverished to the foot of the cross in desperate need for God’s grace. He showed them how precious the gospel of Jesus Christ truly is!
ILLUST — The great German reformer Martin Luther knew this well. When Luther died in 1546, a small slip of paper was found in his coat pocket that read: “Wir sind alle Pettler” — “This is true, we are all beggars.”
Friends, when we realize our deepest need, when we grasp the gravity of our sin, and then when we see our redemption won through Christ alone, and when we realize that the only way to receive the gospel is with our hands open in repentance and surrender, only then can we be a church built on the cornerstone of Christ. Only then are we ready for our gospel-centered task of shining the light of God’s Kingdom in our community.
MAIN 3 — Gospel-Centered Task (vv. 9-10). (SLIDE 7a)
Just listen to these words again and hear the beautiful picture of who we are in Christ and what our job is as his people. READ vv. 9-10.
Do you see the glorious transformation that has happened? God has done a mighty work within us. Peter first lists the new identity that we have as God’s people. (SLIDE 7b) Then he describes the new task we have in the church at the end of verse 9: “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light.” Let me explain this:
The word “declare” here is the same word for “messenger” or “angel” — (SLIDE 7c) it means that we are sent, we are envoys, we are messengers on a mission. Here’s our mission: to tell of the praises of God, that he has called us out of darkness and into his wonderful light!
The word “called” here means to “choose someone to receive a gift” — (SLIDE 7d) God isn’t merely beckoning or begging us to see his light. This word has the sense of “compelling” or “summoning” us, like a King with divine authority and initiative.
KEY: It means that we testify to the truth that God reached down and saved us. As Paul says in Romans 5:8, (SLIDE 7e) “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
It means that we boast in Christ alone, we stand in the mercy of God, we hold our arms wide open to receive God’s grace and continue to live in God’s grace every day!
APPLY
My prayer is that we would be a church where it is truly known that we all stand on level ground at the foot of the cross of Christ. That he would receive the glory. That the invitation and welcome of the gospel to become a blood-bought child of God, wrapped in the love of the Father like the prodigal son, would be proclaimed and that the lost would be found and those who are dead in sin would be born again.
ILLUST — The great preacher Charles Spurgeon founded a college for training pastors in 1856. He was convinced that the cross is so absolutely central that he made an emblem for his Pastor’s college with these Latin words: (SLIDE 8) “Et Teneo, Et Teneor” — “I hold, I am held.”
The cross is what we hold onto, it is what we hold out to the world.
The cross is also what holds us, it is the blood of Christ that saves us and we are secure in our redemption only because of what Jesus has done on our behalf.
We have been chosen to receive a gift. This is what the world needs to see when we talk about being a Welcoming Church that is centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are all sinners saved by grace. And the good news of the gospel causes us to say, “Welcome friend and fellow beggar, come, let me show you to the cross where my precious Savior died. I want you to know him too. He is the Cornerstone of our church, the rock of my life.”