11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹²Live 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.

I think this passage has much to tell us about being the church when going gets tough. So today, we’re going to take a look at the Mark, the Mission, and the Method of the prevailing church. For that church in Jerusalem, it was as if they were coming into the last round, down in the cards and they needed to pull out a victory. I believe this passage is to serve as our strategy for gaining that victory.

What are the marks of the prevailing church? What does a prevailing church look like? The way we look at answering that question is to take a look at the words Peter uses to describe the church. And, in this passage, the first thing we come to is that we are stones being built into a spiritual house (v5). Now, I don’t much about masonry, but I know that if I were to get a bunch of big rocks and pile them up really high, I don’t think it would make much of a house. The rocks probably wouldn’t fit together and the whole thing would come tumbling down. Before these rocks can be of much use, they must be shaved, sculpted and polished to fit the desires and vision of the builder. Peter calls the Christians living stones for the purpose of becoming a spiritual house. That means that, in order to fulfill God’s purpose in our lives, we must be willing to be broken into pieces according to the will of God. If you look at a house, all the bricks look pretty much the same

But, how contrary this runs to our value American individualism. Peter’s message is the polar opposite of a cultural gospel that preaches that salvation is found in just being true to yourself. Whereas the goal of pop psychology is self-realization, the message of this passage seems to be self-denial. Everything in my self protests against Peter’s exhortation. So then, how can I, how can we make sense of such a counter-cultural teaching?

I think there are two things that we must understand. First of all, we must recognize what is fallen in our culture. And, I believe that the cult of individualism in our American society has erected monuments to our selves. We see this even in churches where people come with the attitudes of, "How is this church going to meet my needs?" or "How can these ministries help me become a better person?" Notice that in each of these statements, neither God nor Christ is anywhere to be found. This is idolatry and pride; this is not the attitude of Christ.

Peter says that we are like living stones, but if you look one verse before, you see that he is actually comparing us to the living Stone, Christ. He then goes on to describe Christ as rejected by men, the stone the builders rejected. Yet, he also describes him as chosen by God and precious to Him. Philippians 2 says that Christ humbled himself, became obedient, made himself nothing and even did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. This is Christ’s attitude, and for Christ’s sake, this is to what we as his followers are called.

The second thing is that we need to realize that, as a church, we are in this together. Skip down to verse 9 and notice the four descriptions of the church.

BUT YOU ARE: this is the foundational identity of the prevailing church

1) A chosen people (gevnoV ejklektovn)

a) We did not choose ourselves, God chose us by his grace; therefore, let it be all about grace

b) Jesus also chose his (John 15:16) disciples; therefore, we should know that we have intrinsic value

2) A royal priesthood (basivleion ijeravrteuma)

a) Royalty: God is the King;

b) But, being sons and daughters of God, we are royalty as well

c) There is an inheritance of power, glory and strength made available to us

3) Priesthood: We are all God’s Ministers; priesthood of all believers

a) We are all mediators between our world and God

b) Declare the guilt of the world

c) Pronounce God’s mercy and forgiveness of sins

4) A holy nation (e[qnoV a{gion)

a) Holiness:

i) Morally pure; as people of God’s perfect kingdom

ii) Separated and called out (ejkklesiva) the called out one

b) Nation:

i) Demands loyalty - becoming a citizen

ii) Especially since we are in the midst of war (11)

5) A people belonging to God (lao;V ei;V peripoivhsin) a people in possession

a) We belong to God (I Corinthians 6:19) - camp verse

b) He purchased me with the blood of his Son Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:20) - camp verse

This brings us to the mission of the church. In light of who we are, what are we to do? I believe that we find it, not by accident, at the end of verse 9: "that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." Often times in Scripture, little words have big meanings. For instance, IVCF has this Bible Study technique which encourages the students to ask the question, "When you see a ‘therefore,’ you need to ask yourself, ‘What is the therefore, there for?’" Or one of my Bible profs at Bethel use to tell us that, "In the Bible, ‘but’s’ are big."

I think that is the case here with the word "that." The original Greek word carried a lot more meaning that our translation can pick up. The word translated here means "purpose or end; with the design of God in mind." Right after telling us who we are in God, Peter tells us exactly why God created us that way, what God had in mind, even as he planned everything out before the laying of the foundations of the earth. And what is the ultimate purpose; what is it that we do that fulfills God design? - Declare his praises, in other words worship. Our ultimate end is to worship God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins with the phrase, "The chief end of man is to glorify God..." All aspects of our life gain ultimate and eternal significance and meaning as we turn in the doing of daily life, we turn our hearts to worship.

And, as we do this, other people, in fact all people will come to know our God. Look at Psalm 96:

"Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples."

Worship should be missional and missions is an extension of worship. In fact, in his book Let the Nations be Glad, John Piper writes, "Mission begins and ends in worship." By the way, next week starts our mission emphasis month. I encourage all of us to be actively involved in all aspects of this foundational ministry of our church. Piper also writes, "When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth... But, where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak." Let us spend this week preparing our hearts for God’s call for our people to missions we no doubt will hear.

Not only does our identity fuel our ultimate purpose, but it also has a say in how things get done. There are two elements that I want to look at very quickly. The first is found in verse 11: "abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul." This is the negative element. When surrounded by a culture that embraces the very things that are not of God, Peter asks us to abstain, and to see ourselves as aliens and strangers wherever we are. Christians do not enhance their witness by becoming chameleons for Christ and blending into the culture around them. We need to abstain, flee, protect ourselves from being desensitized to the things around that are fallen.

Just some quick application: What does this tell us about the way we drive in our cars? What does this tell us about the way we play basketball or volleyball? How we react to injustice to other people?

The second element is that we must proactive in living out our God-given holiness. Verse 12 reads, "Live such good lives among the pagans (here it is) that they may see your deeds and glorify God..." Jesus makes a similar comment in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:14-16). Again, the missional aspect of living out our lives in light of God’s truth is brought to the fore.

These are tough times for the church. The world in which we live is simultaneously more apathetic and more hostile to the Truth of the gospel. In many ways, our enemy is more subtle and more dangerous than ever before. Yet, there are also before us unprecedented opportunities and avenues for us to declare his praise and his salvation that they may know and be drawn ever nearer to our Lord. Therefore, thanks be to God that it is He alone who calls his people and re-created them to be His church and He has done it and is doing in such a way that the gates of hell will not prevail against.