1 Peter 2:1-2 | Vision

Rev. Benjamin Kandt kicks off our annual fall vision sermon series with this sermon on 1 Peter 2:1-2

Episode Transcript

Raquel West (00:23):
Please pray this prayer of illumination with me,
Gracious Redeemer, as we hearyour word.
Open our eyes to your gloriouskingdom and bring us life
through your Holy Spirit, by thepower that raised Christ from
the dead, Amen.
Today's scripture comes from 1Peter, 2, 1 through 12.

(00:47):
So put away all malice and alldeceit and hypocrisy and envy
and all slander.
Like newborn infants, long forthe pure spiritual milk that by
it you may grow up intosalvation, if indeed you have
tasted that.
The Lord is good as you come tohim.

(01:09):
A living stone, rejected by menbut in the sight of God, chosen
and precious, you yourselves,like living stones, are being
built up as a spiritual house tobe a holy priesthood to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptableto God through Jesus Christ.
For it stands in scripturebehold, I am laying in Zion a

(01:33):
stone, a cornerstone, chosen andprecious, and whoever believes
in him will not be put to shame.
So the honor is for you whobelieve.
But for those who do notbelieve, the stone that the
builders rejected has become thecornerstone and a stone of
stumbling and a rock of offense.

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They stumble because theydisobey the word, as they were
destined to do, to do.
But you are a chosen race, aroyal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for his own possession.
That you may proclaim theexcellencies of him, who called
you out of darkness into hismarvelous light.

(02:19):
Once you were not a people, butnow you are God's people.
Once you have not receivedmercy, but now you have received
mercy Beloved.
I urge you, as sojourners andexiles, to abstain from the
passions of the flesh which wagewar against your soul, the

(02:42):
flesh which wage war againstyour soul.
Keep your conduct among theGentiles honorable so that when
they speak against you asevildoers, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God onthe day of visitation.
This is God's word.
Be to God.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt (03:00):
You may be seated.
Thanks be to God.

Raquel West (03:02):
You may be seated.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt (03:04):
Well, good morning.
My name is Benjamin.
I'm a pastor here with New Cityand today, because it's the
first of August, the firstSunday we're kicking off a
vision series.
We do one of these in Augustand in January.
So if you're a guest or avisitor, this is a good Sunday.

(03:26):
And really, when we say visionseries, what we really mean is
we just want, twice annually, tokind of realign ourselves with
the things that really matterhere.
And so this morning we're goingto be working through the first
of three sermons in August on aseries about what it means to
define our goals, like, what arewe after here as a church?
On August 24th, we're going tostart preaching through the book
of Numbers, because it's next.
If you've been with us for likeeight years, we've just been

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going Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers Guess what's next
after that Deuteronomy.
You got it Okay.
So all that to be said forthese weeks, really, I'm going
to set up this introductionright now as the intro to this
sermon and the whole series, andso I just want to tell you now
half of this sermon will be theintroduction.
So don't get nervous if you'relike he hasn't even looked at

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the Bible yet.
Listen, I don't like it either.
I feel most comfortable justteaching through a text of
scripture, but I think it'simportant for me to frame out
this whole series and that'swhat I want to do to intro this
sermon.
So, with that, anything thatyou do, whether it's your work
or your parenting, or yourfriendships or gardening,
anything that you do you'regoing to often ask yourself a

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couple questions about it.
One, how am I doing?
And two, how will I know?
How am I doing?
And how will I know, like, am Ia good father or mother?
Am I a good employee, boss,whatever that might be?
Am I a good student?
And how will I know?
And in a lot of those contextsthere's clarity on how you might
know your grade, your GPA orsomething like that right, and

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so any really endeavor worthdoing.
You're going to ask thosequestions.
Peter Drucker, kind of themanagement guru of our
generation, said it like thisEvery organization needs three
things Direct results, thebuilding of values and the
development of people fortomorrow.
Every organization needsresults, culture and people.

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Those things are reallyimportant.
Every organization.
Does that include a church?
Does that include New City?
Does it matter for us here, asthis church, to consider results
.
I don't know how that lands,for some of you Quoted a
management thinker, and I'mtalking about the church, and
some of y'all might get a littleirked by that.
I get that, me too.
I can go there.

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But Tim Keller begins his magnumopus, called Center Church, by
basically saying just what I'msaying now, which is every
church has to ask and answerthose same two questions how are
we doing and how would we know?
And he said there's really onlythree options for how you'd
answer that.
The first one is that you havemetrics of success, and so some

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churches measure success.
Usually that looks like numberof people attending and number
of dollars being given.
You've got a lot of peoplecoming, a lot of money given.
You're successful, you'reeffective, the church is doing
what it's supposed to do and inthat, one of the kind of
shorthand is you measure bodies,budgets, buildings and baptisms
.
That's where a lot of churcheswill measure what matters to

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them in one of those fourcategories.
Usually, that world thatmeasures a church by success
will borrow from business andmarketing and maybe psychology
in order to increase growth.
There's some dangers here.
One of the dangers is that itmakes you consumers, spiritual

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consumers, which you know, ifAmerica had a pantheon, if we
were just honest about ouridolatry, I think consumerism
might be Zeus, I think thatmight be the altar most of us
worship at more often, if it'snot Jesus, and so that's a real
danger.
To create a church context thatactually makes you spiritual
consumers of religious goods andservices that I'm a provider of

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Dangerous.
So people recognizing thatdanger, they end up swinging a
pendulum to the other side andthey say success is not what
matters.
What matters is faithfulness.
Just be faithful.
Usually that looks like you'refaithful to scripture
doctrinally and you're faithfulin your character, and that if

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you're just faithful to theBible, to're faithful to
Scripture doctrinally and you'refaithful in your character, and
that if you're just faithful tothe Bible, to theology, to your
tradition, and if you'refaithful in your character and
how you pastor people, that'senough, that's sufficient.
Well, somebody who usually isreally beloved in those worlds,
charles Spurgeon, says thisabout some people who are
applicants to his ministryschool.
He says this quote CharlesSpurgeon says this about some

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people who were applicants tohis ministry school.
He says this quote Certain goodmen appeal to me who are
distinguished by enormouspassion and zeal and a
conspicuous absence of brainsBrothers who would talk forever
and ever upon nothing.
They would thump their Bible andget nothing out of it.
Earnest, yes, awfully earnestMountains in labor of the most
painful kind, but nothing comesof it.
Earnest, yes, awfully earnestMountains in labor of the most
painful kind, but nothing comesof it all.

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Therefore, I have usuallydeclined their applications.
I think what Spurgeon is sayingthere is that you must be
faithful, but if you havenothing to show for it,
something might not be right.
If you have nothing to point tothat actually shows that your
faithfulness is producinganything, you should probably be

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asking some questions.
And so, in typical Keller-esquefashion, he gives you a third
way.
And so the third way it's notsuccess, it's not faithfulness,
it's fruitfulness.
It's fruitfulness.
That's actually how a churchought to measure what matters
for them.
A church that is fruitful isgoing to take up John 15, 8,
where Jesus says to hisdisciples you will bear much

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fruit.
I love the fruitfulness metaphorbecause it's a gardening
metaphor, it's an agrarianmetaphor.
This is what it means.
If you've ever met a farmer myfamily stock, all the way back
to Germany, is farmers and sofarmers wake up really early,
they work really hard, they goto bed late.

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Nobody looks at a farmer andthinks, yeah, just that's a
pretty lazy job.
Farmers are known for theirhard work, and yet farmers also
recognize there's so muchoutside of their control, like
weather conditions Are you in arainy season or a drought?
Like pests, like weeds, likesoil quality all those things

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that they can't actually controlor manage.
Inputs don't equal directoutputs.
They recognize that there aresome things outside of their
control.
You see, this metaphor ofsowing and reaping is actually
the more biblical metaphor formeasuring what matters.
And so, at New City, if we wereto measure fruitfulness, if
that was our criterion forevaluation, what would that look

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like?
What would that actually looklike for us?
How would we measure whatmatters?
How would we see what ourdirect results were?
According to Drucker, like agood gardener, if we're faithful
in our work, what would wemeasure as our produce, our
yield, if you will?
Well, our mission is to callform and send disciple makers.

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So if that's why we exist, isto do that thing, then that's
probably going to be core to ourmetric of fruitfulness.
Let me say it this way If we donothing else except make
disciples who make disciples, weare fruitful.
Let me say it another way If wedo everything else except make

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disciples, who make disciples,we are not fruitful.
It's important.
So what is a disciple?
What is a disciple?
If you were here with us inJanuary, you might recognize
this definition Disciples areunited to Jesus in communion
with God, community with oneanother and co-mission for the
world.
This is our definition of adisciple.
There are dozens out there thatare biblical and robust and

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simple and reproducible andcompelling.
This is just the one we'velanded on, and so when I put
this up here in January and wewalked through sermons over the
course of the month of Januaryunpacking this definition, it
was because we wanted to get itreally clear before you, our
people.
This is what we're aimed at.
This is what fruitfulness lookslike.
Now, if you've been around NewCity for a little while, this

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definition in some form orfashion has been in use for
about eight years.
I went back and did a deep diveinto my archives to figure it
out.
2017 is, I think, the first timethat this went public, and so
it's been around.
It's not new, but what might bea little bit new or something
that you've maybe never seen?
It put this way and kids.
I'm inviting you it's FamilyWorship Sunday.
I'd love for you to draw whatyou're about to see here and

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then come and show me afterwards.
I'd be so happy.
This is probably, maybe thenewest rendition of how to put
it.
I'm going to step over here soI can actually see and walk
through this with you.
Okay so, union with ChristCairo.
Those are the Greek letters forthe first two letters of Christ
.
That's a symbol that representsJesus throughout the history of
the church.
Union with Christ is thecenterpiece of our faith.

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I love having a two-sacramentSunday because, you see, we have
two sacraments.
Baptism is a sign of union withChrist.
The Lord's Supper is a sign ofcommunion with Christ.
Now, the difference here is ofutmost importance.
We're united to Jesus by grace,through faith.
Nothing you can do.

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And so, since you can't doanything to get united to Jesus,
you can't do anything.
To get ununited, disunited,separated from Jesus, you can't
do anything.
So the union with Christ thatwe have is static, it's
unchanging, but our experienceis Our joyful tasting and seeing
that Jesus is good, that ebbsand flows.

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That's our communion withChrist as we draw on.
All that is there for us inJesus Christ.
As Pastor Jason said at thebeginning, there's unsearchable
riches for us in Jesus.
As we draw on those riches moreand more and more, that's what
we call communion.
Now here we say communion withthe Father, son and Holy Spirit
happens through receiving fromGod and responding to God.

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That's how we experience thiscommunion with Christ.
But the union flows outwardimmediately through communion
into community.
This is what that means.
If you're united to Jesus,you're united to everyone else,
united to Jesus.
Think about the metaphors inscripture Body.
Jesus is our head, we're hisbody, many members, one body.

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Think about vine and branches.
You got one vine, all thesebranches coming off of it.
There's these metaphors tounpack this picture.
Because it's so important toknow if you belong to Jesus, you
belong to everybody else whobelongs to Jesus.
So how we work out community isthrough knowing and loving.
So if it's receiving andresponding is our communion,

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knowing and loving is ourcommunity.
And finally, that communitystructures and displaces outward
all the goodness that we havein Jesus Christ, in co -mission.
That is through work andwitness.
Now you'll notice the prefix co, co, co.
That's the prefix just meanswith.
There's something relational,profoundly relational about all

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three of these things.
Now here's a little bit of away to understand how this works
.
If you're a not yet disciple,maybe some of y'all are here.
This morning you were invitedby a friend.
They were like, hey, let's goget coffee.
Oops, we're at this churchbuilding.
I don't know how it happenedfor you, but we're so glad

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you're here.
We're so glad you're here.
Some people are not yetdisciples.
They don't know what to do withJesus yet.
Those not yet disciples aremost likely going to be
attracted to Jesus first andforemost by the credible work
and witness of a disciple ofJesus, also known as commission.
And so, as they're drawn inthrough commission, your work
and your witness, they might bewilling to be invited into

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community where they experiencepeople who know and love and are
known and loved.
And there's somethingcompelling about Christian
community.
In fact, jesus says in John 13that the world will know that we
are his disciples by the way welove one another.
In John 17, he that the worldwill know that we are his
disciples by the way we love oneanother.
In John 17, he says the worldwill know that Jesus came from

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the Father.
He's legit because of the waythat we have unity or oneness
among us.
So this is a communityapologetic.
There's nothing that makes thegospel look more true than a
community transformed by thatgospel.
And so people are drawn throughour witness and work into a
community where they're knownand loved.
And then there's an invitationto receive and respond to the
good news of Jesus Christ.

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Through repentance and faith inJesus, those people can
experience union with Christ andthey become disciples.
But then they need somebody towalk with them, to teach them
how to receive and respond toJesus through Scripture and in
prayer, through gathered worship, through the Lord's Supper,
through community.
They need to know how do I knowand love and be known and loved

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in community?
What does that actually looklike?
And then, what does it looklike for me to do everything as
unto the Lord in my workplaceand then to bear witness to
Jesus?
And they learn those things andeventually those people become
disciple-makers.
And the process repeats overand over and over again to where
you have what some people terma disciple-making movement.

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And so, going back to where Istarted, what does it look like
for us to measure what mattershere at New City?
That's it, that's it right.
There there's kind of two axes.
There's an x-axis, which iswhere we can numerically count
the number of not yet discipleswho become disciples of Jesus.
I'm totally okay with that.
You know why.

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They did it in Acts 2 and inActs 4.
2,000 added to the 3,000 addedto their number, 5,000 added to
their number.
They counted that.
That mattered to the earlychurch.
It matters to us at New City.
We would count people who gofrom not yet disciples to
disciples.
We would also count people whogo from disciples to disciple
makers.
What does that mean?
Are you taking responsibilityfor one person to walk with them

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through that process?
That's a disciple maker.
Super simple Takingresponsibility for one person to
say, hey, I'm going to inviteyou into what this looks like to
walk with Jesus and to followhim and to grow.
That would be the x-axis.
You could measure thatnumerically.
I'm okay with that, I want todo that.
But there's a y-axis as well,and that is this deepening of

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our discipleship to Jesus, whichnever changes or, I'm sorry,
never ends for any of us.
So some of you in the room Iwant to be tender-hearted here
because I feel for you in this.
You're like my life isoverwhelming.
Please do not put this on me.
This is what I would say Ifyou're in a season of

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extraordinary trial ordifficulty, there's few things
more powerful, apt to draw youinto a deeper communion with
Jesus, than suffering.
And so you're not exempt in onesense, but you're also not
benched.
This is what we want.

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We want to see people, in theirsuffering, learn.
How do I receive this?
How do I embrace the sufferingwith you, jesus?
How do I experience what Paulcalls koinonia fellowship with
Jesus in his sufferings?
How do I experience what Paulcalls koinonia fellowship with
Jesus in his sufferings?
How do I experience communion,even in my lowest places?
That's what deepening as adisciple looks like.
But then the people around you,hopefully, that you're in
community with, will know youand love you in that season.

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And so what do they do?
They're deepening as disciplesof Jesus, as they're loving and
serving and meeting you in thatspace, and I promise you,
there's few things that are agreater witness to the truth of
Christianity than when people dothat, and so it's happening.
So I want to be just reallyclear about how simple this
actually is.
Maybe not always easy, butsimple, okay.

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So with that, I want to saythat this is what I mean when I
start by saying we're not aftersuccess, we're not after mere
faithfulness, although that'simportant to us.
We want fruitfulness here, andthis is how we're going to
define it.
This is what fruitfulness willlook like in this context.
Now, some of you I probablylost you, either to boredom, or

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you just don't agree with this,or something probably lost you
either to boredom or you justdon't agree with this, or
something.
Well, I'm going to invite youback and I'm going to use the
appeal to authority, fallacy, totry to get you to believe me
here.
Cs Lewis put it like this.
He said this is the whole ofChristianity.
There is nothing else.
Oh, do tell Lewis, what do youhave to say to us?
It is so easy to get muddledabout that.

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It's easy to think that thechurch has a lot of different
objects education, building,missions, holding services, all
good things right.
The church exists for nothingelse but to draw men and women
into Christ, to make them littleChrists.
If they are not doing that, allthe cathedrals, clergy,
missions, sermons, even theBible itself, are simply a waste

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of time.
I didn't say it.
Lewis did Take it up with him.
God became man for no otherpurpose.
It is even doubtful, you knowwhether the whole universe was
created for any other purpose.
It says in the Bible that thewhole universe was made for
Christ and that everything is tobe gathered together in him.
I feel pretty good about that.
What Lewis said there, I likeit.

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Okay, I like it because this isnot new what I'm talking about.
It's not new for New City, it'snot new for the church of Jesus
Christ.
In all times and places, we wantto align our evaluation of
things with God's evaluation ofthings to the best of our
ability.
There's an audacity to sayingthat, but we want to try, we

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want to endeavor, and so withthat, to that end, let's look at
the standard which is Scripture.
I told you the intro was goingto be long.
Here we go.
If you have a Bible or a device, go ahead and get 1 Peter 2 in
front of you and let's look atthis text together.
My three headings will be thethree points of our definition
of a disciple.

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So point one if you look with meat 1 Peter 2, verse 4, it says
this as you come to him, aliving stone, rejected by men
but in the sight of God, chosenand precious, you yourselves,
like living stones are beingbuilt together, built up as a
spiritual house to be a holypriesthood to offer spiritual

(21:24):
sacrifices acceptable to Godthrough Jesus Christ.
That first phrase there, as youcome to him, is the clause in
this text from which everythingelse flows.
This is the most importantthing right here as you come to
him, coming to Jesus is thefountainhead from which

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everything else flows.
Why does that matter?
Well, because this is not aonce-for-all statement.
It's not a since you came toJesus or when you first came to
Christ.
It's not that.
It's actually an ongoingreality as you come to him and
keep coming to him, over andover and over again.

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What Peter's after here is acontinual communion with Christ
by coming to him day by day,hour by hour, regularly,
ongoingly, day by day, hour byhour, regularly, ongoingly.
Now Peter is painting a picturefor us and he knows what he's
doing here, because Peter hadthe luxury, I guess you could
say, of actually coming to Jesus, in the sense that Jesus came

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to him, looked at him and said,hey, come and follow me.
And Peter was, like could be inthe shadow of Jesus if he
wanted, he could get awkwardlyclose to him physically.
Peter knows that when he writesto this church, including us,
he knows that we can't come toJesus in the same way Peter
could come to Jesus.
And so if you look closely atthe text, there's places where
it's pretty clear what Petermeans by coming to Jesus as you

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come to him is by drawing nearto him by faith, and so we say
we receive communion isreceiving from God.
That's always the same thing asbelieving, trusting, confidence
, faith.
That's what it means to come toJesus as you come to him, as
you trust him, as he says who heis.

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You're coming and keep comingover and over continually.
And verse five says as you cometo him, you yourselves are being
built up.
One commentator says it likethis a God who is a Mason and a
carpenter for 30 years cansurely make short work of the
ruins of my soul as you come toChrist.

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This stone mason named Jesus isreally good at building you up.
It's what he's good at, it'swhat he does.
This is the way in which wegrow or mature as Christians as
we come to Jesus and we keepcoming to Jesus.
Union and communion is thecenterpiece of our existence as
Christians, this ongoing drawingon all that is in Jesus Christ

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for us.
And so to come to him is toreceive him, it's to believe in
him.
Verse 6 says and the oppositeof believing is to reject him.
Verse 7 says but if you notice,verse 4 is actually as y'all
come to him.
I wish we had that.
I think we'd have a revival ifthe people would just translate
you into you plural in the text,the way it ought to be as y'all

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come to him, as you all come tohim, over and over and over
again, because our union withChrist, our communion with
Christ, directly flows into ourcommunity with one another.
Look with me at verse 5.
You yourselves, like livingstones, are being built up as a
spiritual house, to be a holypriesthood, to offer spiritual

(24:52):
sacrifices acceptable to Godthrough Jesus Christ.
But you are a chosen race, aroyal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the
excellencies of him who calledyou out of darkness into his
marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, butnow you are God's people.
Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received

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mercy.
Now.
I wish I had another 30 minutesjust to unpack all that Peter's
talking about here.
We together, not individually.
We together, united together inChrist, are a spiritual house
verse 5,.
A holy priesthood verse 5, achosen race verse 5, a royal
priesthood verse 9.

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A holy nation verse 9.
A people for his own possessionverse 9.
Peter's just stumbling overhimself searching the Hebrew
Bible, the Old Testament, justgrabbing all the metaphors and
images and illustrations todescribe God's people in the Old
Testament, and he's saying allthat was true of Israel is true

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of anybody who's in the trueIsrael, jesus Christ, if you are
united to Jesus by faith,gentile that you are, all that
was true of Israel is now trueof you, because Jesus is the
true Israel.
And so what Jesus is about hereis creating a new humanity,
nothing less, nothing less thana new humanity who knows and

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loves and deepens in ourcommunity with one another.
From our union with Christflows our communion with God and
our community with one anotherand eventually, our co-mission
for the world.
Look with me at verse 9.
He says but you are a chosenrace, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for his ownpossession.

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Here's the purpose clause thatyou may proclaim the
excellencies of him who calledyou out of darkness into his
marvelous light.
It's a great definition ofwitness To proclaim the
excellencies of the one whocalled us out of darkness into
his marvelous light.
But notice the flow of thisFirst God, the Father, calls us

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out of darkness into themarvelous light of union with
Jesus Christ, and then he sendsus back out to proclaim his
excellencies.
You see, it begins with unionand communion and flows outward
in a centrifugal motion from theinside out.
That's the movement here, andso we are witnesses because
we're united to Jesus.

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He's doing something in theworld and we just get to join in
Him, in with Him in this.
But it goes on in verse 12, itsays Keep your conduct among the
Gentiles honorable so that whenthey speak against you as
evildoers, they may see yourgood deeds.
That's what we call work, workand witness your good deeds and
glorify God on the day ofvisitation.

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You see, I invited you toconsider that.
It's your witness and your workthat invites a not yet disciple
to consider Jesus Christ, toconsider the gospel.
That's what's happening in thetext here.
To consider Jesus Christ, toconsider the gospel.
That's what's happening in thetext here.
They dishonor you, they thinkthat you're a crazy person for
believing in Jesus.
But they cannot argue with yourwork, they cannot argue with

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the credibility of your witness,and so at some point, they
actually find it attractive,maybe even to the point where
they glorify God as a result ofyour good works.
And so when we live a crediblelifestyle before the watching
world, it does something.
And I think what it does isthat every human being builds
their life on something.

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Everybody builds their life onsomething, whether you're
religious or secular.
All people are kind of laying afoundation for their life, and
it might be their career ortheir relationships, or their
morality, their achievement,their freedom, even their
spirituality.
Something's going to befoundational in your life.
But if your cornerstone is notsecure, the whole building is

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going to have cracks throughout,and so human foundations,
anything that we would lay, aregoing to be fragile.
Success can collapse,relationships can fail, morality
can not sustain us.
And so, in those moments, we whorefuse to build our lives on
our own accomplishments, buthave rejected our own

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achievements and said we'regoing to build our lives on
Jesus Christ, the cornerstone,the one whose life was given for
my life, whose death was in myplace, whose resurrection allows
me to become a living stone,when we build our life on him
and the foundations aredestroyed elsewhere.
People might look at you andsay what is your life built on?

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What is it that sustains you indifficulty?
How is it that, when everythingaround me seems to be shaking,
you seem to have a firmfoundation?
What is that?
And in that moment we get togently, lovingly, kindly, bear
witness to the cornerstone thatwe have in Christ Jesus.

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Because when everything aroundyou crumbles and the things, the
faulty foundations that you'vebuilt your life on, actually
don't hold up, the Bible has aphrase for that it's called
being put to shame.
It's this simple.
I've had this happen to mewhere I've sat in a chair and it
broke under my weight and Ifell and I looked dumb.
I was put to shame because thething I rested my weight on

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could not hold me up.
Happens all the time, notnecessarily physically,
spiritually.
People rest the weight of theirexistence on things that could
never bear, could never bear upunder it, and they're put to
shame as their life crumbles.
And in that moment, yourcredible witness, your credible

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work, showing a life in unionand communion with Christ,
invites people to consider thebad news that all of us build
our lives on foundations thatcould never hold us up.
But the good news, the goodnews is that God has laid a new
foundation.
Look with me at verse six.
This is where we'll close, forit stands in scripture behold, I

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am laying in Zion a stone, acornerstone, chosen and precious
, and whoever believes in himwill not be put to shame.
So the honor is for you whobelieve.
But for those who do notbelieve, the stone that the
builders rejected has become thecornerstone and a stone of
stumbling and a rock of offense.
They stumble because theydisobey the word, as they were
destined to do.
It always comes down to this,this one question what do you do

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with Jesus Christ?
What do you do with him?
The text here says that you canreceive him as chosen and
precious verse 5.
It also says that we can rejecthim as offensive verse 7 and 8.
Why would we reject him asoffensive?
Because Jesus will allow noother basis for your existence

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but himself, profoundlywelcoming but intolerant of any
other foundation but himself,for you to build your life on.
That's offensive.
That's offensive In 2019,.
My wife and I did somerenovation work on our house and
our builder, who's also afriend, called me and he said
hey, Ben, we got under yourhouse and there's no footings.

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He said your house is notattached to the ground and I,
being frugal, was like that'snot a problem.
Is it Like it's not going to bean issue?
Right, it's a big issue.
It's a big problem.
And the reason why is becausewhatever you're built on is
going to shape the wholebuilding.
That's the metaphor of acornerstone here.

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You see, in ancientarchitecture a cornerstone was
just that.
It was a chosen stone that hada perfect 90-degree angle that
could be put in the corner ofthe edifice.
And the reason why it was soimportant is because it became
the plumb line, the measurementfor everything else that was
built.
The cornerstone had to have agood 90-degree angle so that

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everything could be built off ofit.
So if your cornerstone is off alittle bit, the whole
structural soundness of thebuilding is in peril.
But if the cornerstone is sureand true, then the building
that's built on top of it can bestructurally sound.
And so for Jesus to be ourcornerstone, it's not just a

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matter of aesthetics in abuilding, it's a matter of
structural integrity.
And so to end where we began,but shifting the metaphor from
fruitfulness to a buildingmetaphor the Bible does that.
So that's why I'm doing it.
If we measure ourselves here atNew City, we have to measure
ourselves according to thecornerstone.
Fruitfulness can only look likemeasuring what matters to us

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can only look like are we comingto christ more and becoming
like christ more.
He's the cornerstone.
Everything we do and say andare here at new city has to be
measured in christ's likeness.
That's what it means for him tobe the cornerstone, and so we
refuse the cornerstones ofsuccess or performance or self.

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We rest our lives on him.
We trust in Jesus, and all whotrust in him will never be put
to shame.
The hymn writer put it like thismy hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus's blood andrighteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetestframe, but wholly lean on
Jesus's name.
Let's pray to him now.

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Lord Jesus, you are ourcornerstone.
You are a sure, steady, stablefoundation upon which we want to
build our lives.
Jesus, you were rejected by men, but in the sight of God,
chosen and precious.

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In the same way, all of us whoidentify with you may be
rejected by our neighbors, butin the sight of God are chosen
and precious, because all thatis true of you, Jesus, is true
for all who are in you.
We pray these things in yourname, Amen.