Message
1 Peter 2:4-12
In Fellowship Together – Being Called
When did you know you were called?
It is a question I have been asked regularly as a Pastor.
The answer is for another time … but for now I want to get us to think about the question.
Because, for some who ask the question, there is a worldview that sees the calling to ministry as sometime extra special.
But let me show you the opening of Romans
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God
6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 1:1, 6-7
The underlined words are all the same in Greek.
When we are in fellowship we are all called.
YOU are called. Today we are going to focus on this question.
As people in fellowship together do we know who we are?
I’ll keep the question in front of us while we read 1 Peter 2:4-10
Through these words Peter is helping us to understand our calling. To know that we are a significant and important part in God’s plan. The way Peter helps us to see this is there are two building projects.
One building project is being built by mankind.
They are looking for a way to have identity and they have before them all sorts of methods and means. And they need to choose from the pile … a large pile.
Materialism is in that pile
Money makes me happy, I am what I own. Money will solve all my problems. Materialism helps me fulfil my calling.
Individualism is in that pile
I make my own decisions, I forge my own destiny. I can have pride in being able to say, “I did it my way”. My individualism helps me fulfil my calling.
Education is in that pile.
If I know enough I can get what I want. There is value in being able to come before others and say, “Look at my great understanding.” Education helps me fulfil my calling.
There are some of the options in the pile. And there are many others as well, lying around like stones on the ground. Stones which can be brought together to make up the foundation of my life.
And one of those stones is Jesus, and the hope that can come through Jesus. But so many people, as they go about their building project, look at Jesus and says, “No”.
He doesn’t give me materialistic gain.
He won’t let me be an individual.
He wants me to change my world-view.
I’m not going to use Jesus as part of my project. And so Jesus is rejected.
It is a powerful picture isn’t it. And the sad reality is that this is a situation which has been going on for centuries.
11 This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:
12 “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.
13 The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.
14 He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.
15 Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”
Isaiah 8:11-15.
Even back then,
… 800 years before Jesus
… in the land which God had given to His people
… even there and then everyone kept focussing on their own building project.
Thinking that this will give them identity and help fulfil a calling.
But it doesn’t.
All they are doing is stumbling around in the darkness and chasing after futility.
Which brings us to the other building project. As mankind builds, God also builds. But God takes up the very thing that has been rejected by mankind – the stone. Peter drives the point home.
The Living Stone ... God chose.
The Stone is precious and becomes the founding component ... the cornerstone.
That stone which rejected is the stone on which everything else stands.
We see it so clearly. That the stone is Jesus and what He has done.
Death - resurrection - ascension.
Giving the Spirit and building the church.
At the right hand of God interceding.
It is all in place – the foundation and the framework.
What God is building holds everything together. But foundation isn’t the complete building.
It is not complete until we understand that our calling is completed in Jesus.
You are living stones.
You are part of the spiritual house.
There is this massively close relationship which we are allowed to have with Jesus.
The same resurrection power lives in us. What an identity. We become part of the building.
That is a good image too, isn’t it. But see the image clearly.
Because it is not an image of individualism
I am this stone in the building … and you are that stone in the building. And we just look into our little part of the world and we do our own solid Christian duty.
That is not the picture we are being given.
It is not individual stones. The cornerstone is in place.
Then there is the building … one building.
This is a picture of how the kingdom of God works.
How we work.
As a church. As a family.
Being together in fellowship fulfilling the call that we have to build the kingdom of God.
As we do this we look the identity God has given to His people.
You are a … chosen people.
We have been set apart and judged to be special.
We look like so many other ordinary people.
We act like so many other ordinary people.
Yet for some reason God has extended His hand in our direction and said, “You are Mine”.
When you think about it in those terms you know something special is happening don’t you – because who are we that God should take notice of us?
In fact the reality is such that, in all of history, God’s called ones haven’t really been that much.
7 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.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8
We are not chosen because God desperately needed us.
We’re not that numerous.
We don’t have a lot of political influence.
We are not really that important.
We’re not even really that bright.
But God chooses us anyway. Ordinary people given an extraordinary task. In fellowship together to build the kingdom.
But it doesn’t stop there.
You are a … royal priesthood.
The phrase comes from the Old Testament and is found in Exodus 19:6. In the context the people of Israel have just arrived at Mount Sinai – it has been only 12 weeks since they were taken out of Egypt in a mighty way by God. Almost as soon as they arrive Moses goes up the mountain to talk with God. This is part of the conversation:-
5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Exodus 19:5-6
Do you know what the main task of priest is? It is to help sinners come back into a right relationship with God while, at the same time, helping the people draw nearer to God. Priests where the ones who had the personal access to God.
Note that it is not a special task given to a few – although there will be priests in Israel – the whole nation was called to be a kingdom of priests.
You … all of you … are a royal priesthood.
Not only do you have personal access to God. You are considered to be royalty when you use that access.
There are not many places in England where the Queen is not allowed to go. And she does not need to sit at traffic lights or worry about traffic jams. When she wants to talk to the prime minister all she needs to do is give him a phone call. And on top of that all she doesn’t have to pay tax if she doesn’t want to.
They are the privileges which royalty like the Queen enjoys. Can we even begin to imagine the privileges we have when God treats us like royalty? We are a royal priesthood. Ordinary people given an extraordinary task. In fellowship together to build the kingdom.
But that is not where it stops.
You are a … holy nation.
We have seen these words haven’t we ... they also come from Exodus 19:6. And that tells us a lot about the way God views us.
Think again about the context of that Exodus passage.
The people of Israel have only been out of Egypt for 12 weeks.
They were at the foot of Mount Sinai worshipping God. But it had not always been that way.
Until their release 12 weeks ago the Israelites for the last 300 years had been forced to work constantly as slaves.
They had little time to worship God.
They had forgotten and neglected the rituals and ceremonies.
They did not have a regular time to worship.
And they were oppressed by a powerful nation.
Their previous life was far from holy … in fact it was pretty well unholy.
Yet God doesn’t judge these people on the basis of what they were – he judges them on the basis of what he had made them into.
A called people.
The focus on holiness is a focus on transformation.
There is a wonderful passage in Isaiah 43:16-19 which talks about this attitude of God in action.
16 This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, 17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: 18 ‘‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Isaiah 43:16-19
Isn’t that incredible! Here comes God to a people who have let Him down constantly and He says “Let’s just forget the past … let’s focus on something new instead”. Ordinary people given an extraordinary task. In fellowship together to build the kingdom.
Do you know who you are?
A Chosen … identified, brought in, made a part of.
A Royal Priesthood … having full-time access to God and a full-time calling to share the message.
A Holy Nation … being able to move forward knowing that sin has been covered.
That is who we are … in fellowship.
That is the criteria … the only criteria … that matters.
So when we doubt our own call – go back to this foundation.
And when others try and make us doubt our call – this is the only foundation which matters.
If we think we are too small – think again.
If we are allowing the expectations of society to define us – think again.
If we think we are not significant – think again.
If we are allowing our agenda to be set by wrong agendas – think again.
If we think we can’t make a difference – think again.
If we are allowing our past to define us – think again.
If we think we can be pigeon-holed by people – think again.
If we are allowing our thinking to be defined by the ungodly thinking of others – think again.
When you know who you are …
When we know who we are …
We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us … in fellowship.
Prayer
