This morning we are looking at One Peter as we continue with our grace zone series, try to identify with God’s Grace and then stand in God’s grace. That was Peter’s intention, He said he testified this is the true grace of God, now stand in it. And that is what we are going to do today, but before we get to Peter’s letter, I want to remind you about Peter’s life. Peter was a fisherman; I had the great privilege this last week to be at the Hole in the Wall on the Wild coast. There was about twenty six or twenty seven pastors from around the country, just spending a week together, they fished and I watched them and prayed for them while they fished, and we walked and we swam and we had an amazing time together. And we ate and we celebrated and we had a great time together. And finally, they actually caught some fish. This has been my third year of going, but up to now we actually see the fruit of their fishing. Peter was a man just like that; Peter would have been one of those guys, out with his fishing rods. I want you to think this morning, about the first time that Peter met Jesus.
Up to that point, he was a
fisherman, even that morning. He was out in his boat most of the night; they
had a fruitless, frustrating evening, catching nothing. They were probably
sitting on the beach whining to each other while they were fixing the nets,
blaming the trawlers from Taiwan or the global warming for the lack of fish,
whatever it was, but whatever the reason was, they were mumbling probably,
there are no fish in the sea anymore. They were trying to fix their nets, and
then along come this Rabbi from Nazareth. They probably heard about Him, the
rumours that started to spread, there’s this new Rabbi who is stirring up the
crowds. Jesus walks down to the beach, and sees two boats. One belongs to
Peter, and one belongs to someone else. And He looks at Peter, and says “Peter,
would you mind letting me get in your boat and taking me out on the water. I
suppose at that moment, Peter faced an option. “I suppose I could let this
Jesus guy in my boat.” Or he could say:
“Phone a friend; ask my friend, I’m busy.” But he chose to allow Jesus in the
boat, and paddle out.
And for the next, I don’t
know, how long was Jesus’ sermon, maybe thirty minutes, or even two hours, I
don’t know how long Jesus sat in the boat, with the crowd all around Him, and
He began to share the heart of the Father, expounding in the old testament,
revealing the Kingdom of God, and I bet you Peter sat there spell – bound.
Peter was one of those guys, he likes to be where the action is, and he’s
sitting there right next to Jesus: “Hey guys, I’m the sidekick, I mean I’m
number two already.” And he must experience what it’s like to be at Jesus’
side, as Jesus preached and taught. And I think something must have happened as
Peter heard the words of Jesus, because once Jesus has finally said: “Amen.” He
turns to Peter and he said, “Peter, why don’t we catch some fish?” I’m sure at
that point, the temptation would have kicked in because Peter was a proud guy,
he struggled with arrogance it seems, he would have said to Jesus: “When it
come to the scriptures, you are way ahead of me, but when it comes to fishing,
there’s a few things I can teach you.
But by the grace of God, he didn’t. And he
said: “Listen Jesus, we have fished all night, and we caught nothing, but
because you say so.” Obviously he heard the authority with which Jesus had
spoken. And Peter said, “I will take you out. “ And Jesus said: “Throw out the
net.” And Peter threw out the net, and it said they caught so many fish that he
had to call his friends to drag them out of the water. And right at that
moment, the penny dropped, and something in |Peter’s life it was as if his eyes
were opened, and he fell down at Jesus’ feet and said: “Jesus, go away from me,
I’m a sinful man.” He realized this is not just some guy; this is not just some
Rabbi, some teacher. Could this be the Messiah? And Jesus looked at him and
said: “Peter, up to now you has been a fisherman. But from this point on, you
will be a fisher of men.” And from that moment, Peter’s destiny was radically
changed. My point is this: When we encounter Jesus Christ, and the cross of
Jesus, our destinies are forever divided. We can’t just bye pass Jesus after
hearing about Him and understanding Him, and go on as if Life will be the same.
But when you come to Jesus,
there’s a fork in the road. Just like Jesus saw two boats, and he chose to get
in Peter’s. When you encounter Jesus, when you hear the truth of the Gospel,
when we understand the power of what Jesus can do for a life, we face a
decision just like Peter did. Either you can get into the boat, or. ”no Jesus,
find another boat.” And your destiny from that moment goes in completely
different directions. Peter had no way of knowing that morning, just another
morning, everything was about to change. You see, this is the thing: The cross
of Jesus Christ is the greatest altering force that there is in the world. No
matter what your life looked like, no matter where you were, the moment you
say: “Jesus, would you get into my boat.” Your destiny will never be the same
again. That’s the beauty of the saviour we serve, that’s the beauty and power
of Jesus Christ. Having that in mind, this Peter who knows what it’s like to
have a life radically changed, he writes these amazing words.
9 But you are a chosen people, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare
the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 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.11 Dear
friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires,
which wage war against your soul. 12 live such good lives among
the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good
deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
.” What a beautiful passage.
What a powerful thing, What about what happens when we come to Jesus? There’s a
couple of Things I want us to grasp. If we are going to having the destiny
dividing moment that radically changed what our future looks like, one of the first things we have to know is,
even in Jesus’ life, he had two labels he could have lived under. I love this
that our saviour was rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him. I
wonder how many of us sitting here have lived with a rejection label that
becomes a rejection spirit. Maybe you grew up not good enough. You grew up as a
failure. You never are going to account to anything. Maybe you have spoken it
to yourself. Maybe others have spoken it to you. It’s like the world has a
destiny for you as well. The devil has schemes for your life as well. Rejection
and failure. But at that moment, Jesus, even though has rejected, even though
His best friend has turned and left Him. Even though His disciples had
abandoned Him, He knew I was precious to My Father. If we are going to live the
destiny that God for us, one of the
most crucial foundation stones is settling and our heart, whose label are you
going to live under? We live up to the labels that we carry around. Are you
listening to the world, rejected by men? Or are you listening to God. Precious
to God. Jesus knew that He was the Son of the living God.
Do you know that about yourself? Have you made
that, because that’s what sets us up for your destiny path? Second thing to
grasp is just how destiny goes about being changed. And the big focus this
morning is simply those first three words, it says: “As you come to Jesus.” The
fact of the matter is when you come to Jesus, stuff happens. Throughout
scripture, whenever someone came to Jesus, things happen in their lives. For
example on the beach, He called Peter, He called the other disciples, and he
said:“ Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” As soon as you come
to Jesus, things begin to change. He begins to mould us and make us and shape
us. One day Jesus was in the temple court, there was a big crowd around, and
with a loud voice, He calls to them, recorded in John seven verses thirty seven
and thirty eight. He said if anyone is thirsty, let them come to me. Whoever
believes in me, as scripture said, streams of living water will flow from
within him. What an amazing promise. Jesus says come to me, I will make you.
Come to me, streams of living water will flow from within you.
There was once a rich young ruler. A man of
influence, resources, we was wealthy, he was well to do, probably a great young
man. He comes to Jesus because he’s passionate about the things of God. He
hears about Jesus, and says: “Jesus, good teacher.” And Jesus began to question
him a bit. He said “what else must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus
answered: “You know the commandments.” He said: “I have done all these things.”
Jesus looks at him and says lovingly: “There is one thing you lack.” Because
Jesus could look straight into your heart. He can see the idol that is living
there. He said: “For you, you need to sell all you have and give it to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” It said he want away sad because he
was a wealthy man. You, when you come to Jesus, not only does He make you, not
only does He give you, but what happens when you come to Jesus, our very hearts
get exposed also. He deals with the secret things that are in your heart.
There’s no coming to Jesus without being changed and challenged by |Jesus as
well. To come to Jesus means to come to belief in Jesus. To come into Jesus
means to come into relationship with Jesus.
To come to Jesus means to follow and obey
Jesus. But when most people come to Jesus, they come to Jesus as, remember that
beautiful psalm, the lord is my shepherd, and we had this picture as the
shepherd, we come to Jesus as our shepherd, and it’s beautiful. We come to
Jesus as our saviour because He saves us. We come to Jesus as our Lord because
He leads us. What did Peter say? “As you come to Jesus, the living stone. “ I
want to take a moment, you see, for Peter; this thing about stones and rocks
was very dear to his heart. He wasn’t just throwing in arbitrary words here. He
says: “As you come to Him, the living stone.” Remember what happened to Peter
when he first met Jesus, which is recorded in the Gospels. He comes to Jesus,
and Jesus says: “Your name was Simon, which means to hear, from now on, your
name will be Petros, or Peter, Petros means a stone, something you can hold in
your hand. And I bet you he wondered about this. Why? Would Jesus change my
name into a stone? But as he walks with Jesus, he began to realize as he might
be a little stone, he was walking with the immovable, powerful unconquerable
rock.
When Jesus said these words to him, in Matthew
sixteen verses sixteen to eighteen, he spoken to his disciples and he said:
“But who do you say that I am?” And in verse fifteen: “But what about you? Who
do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered and said: “You are the Christ, the Son
of the Living God.” And Jesus replied and said: “Blessed are you Simon, son of
Jonah, for this has not been revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter, Petros. You are like this little rock Peter,
and on this rock.” Not the Petros, the Petra. Petra is like our difference
between a stone and this boulder. He says but you are a stone, and this boulder
I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. As much as
we are the little stones, Jesus is this mighty, immovable rock. And right there
I believe that Peter had this understanding that we are like Jesus, we not as
big as Jesus, but we can be built on Jesus to become a church of the living
God. And I think Peter carried this as a primary revelation of his heart: “I
might be the small stone, but He is the big rock, and I’m getting built on
Him.”
So He writes this letter to
all the churches and says: “But as you come to Him, the living Rock, we too
like little stones are being built on Him to become a holy temple to the Lord.
I want to catch that this morning. Our lives, like living stones, are being
built on the living boulder to become a spiritual house, the temple. Solomon
built this magnificent temple in the Old Testament. And in the temple the glory
of God fell, and people came to meet and to see and to understand who God is
because of this amazing temple. Friends, we are that temple now. Built on Jesus
the rock, He takes each one of us, as we come to Christ, like another brick in
the wall, he builds us in. So, when you go to the factory tomorrow, or when you
go to work, or you go to school, whatever you do, you are the temple of the
Lord. Built on Jesus the Rock. It’s a beautiful thing. And so, it’s interesting
that as Peter begins to write about the living stone, he mentions a couple of
things about the stone. The first one, we see in verse six. Why a living stone?
Well, verse six says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious
cornerstone, and the one who trusts in will never be put to shame.”
A cornerstone is a most interesting brick. I
was here and had the privilege when this building was being built, to watch the
first bricks being laid. They didn’t start just anywhere, they started right at
the furthest corner of the kid’s ministry. They dug the foundations, they got
it ready, and they laid the first brick in the corner. What a cornerstone does
is it’s literally a cornerstone, it’s the brick you lay in the corner that joins
two walls together at the foundation level to set the direction, to get it
vertically and horizontally straight. Jesus is the corner stone, the foundation
stone that joins two walls together. Jesus as the cornerstone, joins heaven and
earth, joins broken humanity with the holy and righteous God. As he begins to
speak, he says: “Once you were not a people. But now, you are the people of
God. Once you have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. When it
spoke about, “But you are a holy nation.”
Israel was that chosen nation out of all the
nations. Now, you are part of that. You have been joined in to that nation. He
said you are a royal priest that was one tribe out of the twelve, now you’ve
been joined in to that chosen tribe. Royal means one family out of all the
families, now you too are part of that family. Joined through the corner stone.
It’s a beautiful thing, Jesus our cornerstone, joins us as if we are always a
foundation stone that connects us to our Father in heaven. It carries on in
verse seven: “Now, to you who believe, this stone is precious, but to those who
do not believe, the stone the builders rejected the capstone.” Now, just as the
cornerstone is the very first stone that gets laid, the capstone is the last
one. It’s the crowning stone. If there is a stone of memorial, that is the
stone, the final brick, the top layer.
If you build an archway, you
will put the capstone right at the centre to hold it all together. It was the
most important, the most celebrated stone, most significant of all bricks laid.
And Jesus is the capstone. Another beautiful thing is when Jesus is front and
centre, he takes even that is broken and lowly and he raises the dignity. He
raises us to become significant and glorious in God’s eyes. You are a chosen
people. A royal priesthood, a holy nation. A people belonging to God. In Jesus,
your dignity is restored. Everywhere the Gospel is preached, no matter how poor
a nation, no matter how broken a family, when Jesus becomes the capstone of
their lives, He raises our dignity, the cornerstone joins us. The capstone
raises us and our worth. But there’s another one. It said in Verse eight: “A
stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” He’s not
just the cornerstone; he’s not just the capstone, but the levelling stone also.
When John the Baptist came preaching to
prepare for Jesus, he would go out and begin to cry out to the crowds to repent
for the Kingdom of heaven is near, prepare the way for the Lord. And he would
quote from Isaiah. In Luke chapter three verse five and six, it says: “ Every
valley shall be filled in. Every mountain will be made low. Every crooked road
shall be become straight, the rough ways smooth, and all men will see God’s
salvation.” I love the fact, when Jesus is proclaimed, the valleys get raised
up, and the mountains get brought down. That’s the levelling stone. The thing
about this living stone is when you come to the living stone that stone is
going to do two things to you. It will make you stumble, in other words it’s
going to humble you, and that’s your choice. Every human heart wrestles with
this thing called pride. And manifests itself sometimes in insecurity, sometimes
in arrogance, but both of them have the same pride, it’s all about me. And the
levelling stones either, someone humble themselves, and then Jesus fills in the
valley and raises us up. Or, we stubbornly resist him. You stubbornly say
actually, I don’t need you Jesus. I can save myself.
That rugged independence, I
did it my way, that arrogance and pride of man that rejects Jesus, I don’t want
you in my boat, I’m good enough thanks. I don’t need that crutch that
Christians seem to lean on. It says that rock crushes them. Either we humble
ourselves and get raised up, or we don’t humble ourselves and that rock falls
on them. Jesus is the levelling stone. As we come to Jesus, the cornerstone
joins us. As we come to Jesus, the capstone raises our dignity. As we come to
Jesus, the levelling stone deals with the pride in our lives. And as He does
that, he builds us into this most glorious temple of the Lord, to display His
glory. Now church, this is the grace of God. We are the temple of the Living
God. This is not the church, we are the church. And as we go into the world, we
go as the temple of God, but there’s the thing.
This is God’s grace, how do we
stand in it? What Peter did at the same time was not just tell us what we are,
but because this is who you are, this is how you can now live. And he comes to
mention a couple of ways that we can out work being a temple. Now, I must say
at this point, Jesus, I’m so thankful that I am not an Old Testament priest. I
was with these men this last week, and one point they were telling stories
about their hunting, about who killed this and how they killed that, and I
thought to myself, I could never be a hunter. I was given chickens once as an
honorary, in the village it was a great honour to kill the chickens, and I said
thank you for the honour, bless you my son, I receive it, but please kill it
for me. I’m not even into killing a chicken. If I was an Old Testament priest,
I would be slaughtering bulls and goats and pouring their blood on the altar
and pulling out their insides. Thank you Jesus that you died for me. Having
said all that, there are sacrifices that we are called to bring as this temple
of God. Peter said: “You are coming to the living stone, you also like living
stone, and God is building you as a temple, and what happens at the temple is
sacrifices are brought to God. And here are three of them he mentions.
One: “You also like living
stones, are built into a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ. We can stand on this grace of being the temple of
God by offering a sacrifice.” I think Paul nailed it, when he wrote: “It’s not
about bulls and goats, it’s not about giving stuff.” In Romans chapter twelve
verse one: “Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer
your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your
spiritual act of worship. God has had enough of bulls and cows slaughtered in
the past. What God is looking for is you to give yourself completely as a
sacrifice. What God is looking for, what honours God the most, is when you take
your whole live and you say: “Jesus, I’m giving myself to you. Jesus, I want to
live for you, Jesus, I want to put you first in everything. In my marriage, in
my family, in my business, in my parenting, in everything I do, in my career, I
want you to be first, I want to live for
my King. That’s the sacrifice he is looking for. It’s one thing to say I will
die for you, but are you willing to live for Him. We have the grace of being a
part of this glorious, magnificent temple. And the sacrifice that Jesus wants
us to give, it’s not stuff, but that’s everything that’s in our hearts given to
Him. That is the temple of the New Testament. But then there’s another one.
He says a little bit further
one, in verse nine: “But you are a chosen people, a royal nation, a people
belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of
darkness into His wonderful light.” Here is the sacrifice that we are called to
bring. It’s called a sacrifice of praise. In the book of Hebrews thirteen,
fifteen. It says through Jesus therefore let us continually. Continually means
all the time. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise. Do you what is a sacrifice
is? A sacrifice is when something, when you give it, it hurts. A sacrifice is
something you give even when you don’t want to do it. When Abraham offered his
son Isaac. That was everything he loved. That was a sacrifice. I’m laying it
down. God says: “I want you to offer a sacrifice of praise. It’s easy when
things are going well.
When the angels are singing and the birds are
flying, and the sky is blue and everyone is happy, it’s so easy to say Jesus
you are wonderful, but what about when they are not? What about when things are
tough, and the moneys has run out, and the relationship is strained, and God is
not doing what you want Him to do. We spoke two weeks ago about that. About
finding joy in the trials of life. How do we do that? Through this. We offer a
sacrifice of praise. Have you ever praise Jesus with your teeth clenched? If
you have not, I want to encourage you to start learning. Because that is what
changes everything. That is a sacrifice of praise. Jesus, I want to worship you
through this. I want to ask you, what have you given you tongue and lips too?
Take a moment to take a self-audit of your
inventory of the things that are coming out of your mouth. If you are honest
right now, is it criticism, it is judgement, is it negativity, is it cynicism, and
is it anger? What is coming out of your lips? As the temple of Jesus, we stand
in His grace with this glorious temple, and he says now, this is the sacrifice.
Use your lips to bring me praise continually. This is how we worship God. It’s
not the singing of songs on a Sunday, moment, day by day, good situation, bad
situation, I’m giving my all in surrender, and I’m giving my lips in praise.
Verse eleven, “I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from
sinful desires which war against your soul. Life such good lives among the
pagans that though they accuse of doing wrong, that they may see your good
deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. Here’s a thing: The temple that
Solomon had to build had to be magnificent, and was the most glorious building
ever built. It had more gold in it than more than Fort Knox right now.
Everything was covered in gold, it shown, everyone was awestruck by its
magnificence. We are the glorious temple. And what people see when they see
you, is they see the conduct of our lives.
They see how we live. And so, what Peter is
saying, is we are the temple, this is how we glorify God. By the good deeds, by
the way we live, not surrendering all the time to those desires warring against
us, our flesh ones, our sin ones. We say Jesus; I want to live to glorify you
by what I do. Jesus says it like this in Matthew five verses fourteen to
sixteen, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden,
neither do people light a lamp and put in on a bowl, instead, they put it on a
stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your
light shine before men that they may see your good deeds.” What is that light?
Is our good deeds, it’s the way we treat people. It’s the way we treat our
workers, how people, our boss, it’s the way we treat our family, it’s how we
treat a total stranger. Let them see your good Father in heaven. As we come to
Jesus. The destiny divider. Coming to Jesus, our destiny is never the same
again. We come to Jesus as the cornerstone; he connects us in to heaven. You
come to Jesus as the capstone who raises our dignity and worth. We come to
Jesus as the levelling stone, who humbles us, or we humble ourselves. And as we
do that, he builds us brick by brick into this glorious temple to display His
glory. And He says: This is how I want you to do it. I want you to give me
everything, your heart in surrender. I want you to take your lips and your
tongue and bring praise. I want you to use your life as an expression of my
glory in your daily deeds. Friends, this is the grace of God. Now, let’s stand
in it. Amen.
Web Address: www.outlookchurch.co.za
Senior Pastor: Brent Brading
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