WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 It took over 2,000 years to complete. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:16.000 From the 3rd century BC to the 17th century AD, with a total length of about 21,200 kilometers. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:21.000 At completion, it became the world's largest military structure. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:31.000 It was inscribed into the World Heritage List in 1987 as a property of cultural significance and outstanding universal value. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:40.000 The Great Wall of China is one of the most incredible constructions and most impressive architectural features of human history. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:45.000 The construction was not a single long project from start to finish, 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:51.000 but more like restoration of joining of different fortifications over time. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:59.000 It was done for the protection of the people and to provide better control of its country by different emperors. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:08.000 The Great Wall was constructed for defense and to provide a trade route along the Silk Road at a great financial and human cost. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:14.000 With up to several million people involved in the entire construction, 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:20.000 and close to a million died while working according to unofficial records. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:30.000 Today, we marvel at and praise such a great structure, even though when it was built, it was not for praise and wonder. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:36.000 The various emperors were not thinking about how people would marvel at their finished product. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:41.000 They were more concerned about the immediate needs of the emperor. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:48.000 In today's passage, Peter employs a fair bit of building terms and also talks about a building project. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:59.000 As we have participated in this building project, we are called by Peter to focus on how we may eventually declare the praises of Jesus, 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:03.000 who called us to become part of God's divine family. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:12.000 Three points for today are the call to new family, the ethic of the new family, and the power of the new family. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.000 And you can find this outline in our simple app. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:21.000 Reading through 1 Peter 2, 1 to 10, especially verses 4 to 8, 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.000 Peter says, 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:28.000 We cannot but agree that stone and rocks are the prominent features of this passage. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:35.000 As you come to him, the living stone, rejected by humans, but chosen by God and precious to him, 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:41.000 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:46.000 offering spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:47.000 Peter says, 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:48.000 Peter says, 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:55.000 People who come to Jesus and put their faith in him are like newborn babies being built into a spiritual household. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.000 First line says that, 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:07.000 As people come to Jesus, they will become a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a royal nation, a holy nation, God's special possession, 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:14.000 so they may declare the praises of him who call people out of darkness into God's wonderful light. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:22.000 The term chosen people and a holy nation denote that the new family that Jesus called his followers to become 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:28.000 is not the typical, natural, common, two parents and siblings kind of new kid family, 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:38.000 but a new race, a new citizenship under a new king, a family that is connected with the divine family as God's nation. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:45.000 We are not being called to join another migration rush to adopt a citizenship of another country on earth, 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:50.000 like what my family did more than 35 years ago moving from Hong Kong to Australia. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:58.000 My dad bought a business in the house and our family stayed for a couple of years and we were eligible to have an interview. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:04.000 There were no citizenship tests back then, but just a general chat. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:11.000 And I remember we were asked whether we know how to sing in French or French or French or make sure we learn it before the ceremony. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:17.000 And after all the boxes are ticked, we went to the Han Hall and be sworn in as citizens. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:26.000 Quickly after that, we were told and found out about all the benefits and social welfare we were entitled to or eligible to apply. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:32.000 I and other two siblings were only able to get all studied because our family is a business migrant. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:35.000 And we didn't get much out of the welfare system. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:43.000 But from my observation over the years, many people come to church, the family of God, with a similar mentality. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:48.000 They get involved with church mainly for what they can get out of it. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:54.000 People come looking for relationships, for support, for all the welfare the church is handing out. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.000 These are not bad things in and of itself. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.000 We all need friendship and support. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.000 And Jesus said and promised in Matthew 11, 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:07.000 Come to me, all who you are weary and burdened. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.000 I will give you rest. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.000 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:13.000 For I am gentle and humble in heart. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:16.000 And you will find rest for your soul. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.000 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:24.000 However, God's church is not a recharging station. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:30.000 So people can come and get charged up and keep going without taking Jesus into their life. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:38.000 Sadly, so many Christians will focus on telling people how they can get their needs met at church 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:43.000 without telling them about Jesus or about their own relationship with Jesus. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:50.000 People leave a church because they feel that their needs are no longer at the top of the priority list of the church. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:55.000 The new family that Jesus calls his disciples to become is not of this world. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:02.000 His disciples are built into a spiritual house to become a royal and holy priesthood 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:08.000 that offers spiritual sacrifice to the sovereign God who created everything in this world. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:12.000 We are called to see beyond what is happening around us. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:18.000 While we engage with our immediate physical world to something spiritual and far greater. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:26.000 What God is building, if it is physical structure, will leave the Great Wall of China like a mini-nation. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:29.000 What God is building is monumental. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:33.000 It is incredible because God is great and awesome. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:37.000 His greatness is beyond any human imagination. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:44.000 God builds his people to become his special, chosen, precious possession. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:52.000 Because they are built on Jesus Christ, the precious cornerstone that humans rejected but chosen by God. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:07:02.000 Before people came to come to Jesus to put their faith and trust in him, we are all like stones scattered about in the paddock. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:06.000 We lay about causing nuisance to those who are working on the field. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:10.000 Try mowing a lawn full of rocks and you know what I mean. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:19.000 People think of or hope themselves to be one big giant rock like the great natural beauty and significant like S rock in Aguru. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:28.000 However, people as individual rocks only take up space that grass is supposed to grow for the feeding of the livestock. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:37.000 They trip over others who are unaware of their whereabouts physically and especially spiritually. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:42.000 By ourselves as individual rock, we can do nothing good. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.000 Even though not many of us are willing to admit that status of our life. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:52.000 Everyone will try to build meaning in their life, have some achievement and live some legacy. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:57.000 At every stage of our life, no matter whether you are at school or about to leave university, 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:01.000 or you have been in a job for a few years or just starting a family, 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.000 or you have just become an empty nester or approaching retirement, 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:11.000 we all hope to make something of our lives to add meaning and value. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:19.000 However, if we are honest with ourselves, we all have to accept that nothing built by humans will last forever. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:26.000 Every human project requires constant maintenance and repair to keep them from crumbling down. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:32.000 God gathered us up from the paddock and built us on top of Jesus, the living stone, 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:36.000 rejected by humans but chosen and precious to him. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:43.000 Individual stones are built into a spiritual house, taking up the nature of Jesus, the chosen and precious cornerstone. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:49.000 Together, we become living stone. We become royal, precious and holy. 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:57.000 We become useful and fit for purpose because Jesus is the cornerstone that God set in place and built us upon. 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:07.000 The cornerstone Jesus that God builds his people on determines the nature and uprightness of the building. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:13.000 Jesus is one essential stone on which the integrity of the building depends. 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:17.000 He determines the ethics of the new family. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.000 Verse 6-8 says, 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:29.000 See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious stone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:34.000 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:42.000 Your trust in Jesus and your faith in him will determine whether you live in honor or be put to shame. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:44.000 The stone the truth is that important. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:52.000 It's more important than your academic or career achievement or how well your kids do at school if you have kids. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:59.000 Your connection with Jesus is and should be the most important element of your life. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:18.000 Paul also tells us in Ephesians 2, verse 19-22, that God's people are fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:24.000 In him the whole building is joined together and raised to become a holy temple to the Lord. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:31.000 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Jesus is the one who joins all stone together, so the whole building grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:44.000 And all the stones are built up together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:51.000 If you are a Christian, a follower of Christ, a disciple, that is who you are. 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:57.000 Being a disciple is a process of being built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:04.000 Christians live as one of the stones God is putting in his new structure that he is building. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:13.000 And as part of this holy structure, holy spiritual structure that God is building, how would you describe your situation and experience? 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:20.000 Stones of many different shapes and types will surround you. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.000 There will be other stones around you in every dimension. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:32.000 There will be others above you, underneath you, in front of you, at the back of you, on the side of you. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:34.000 There are stones all around you. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.000 Stones by nature have many rough edges. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:46.000 The reality is, your rough edges will cause as much discomfort to others as they are causing you. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:56.000 God, as a builder, will definitely have his very good reason for you and others why he placed you where you are with whoever is around you. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:03.000 We live in a society that puts so much emphasis on personal comfort and individual space. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:07.000 And Christians are not immune from the influence of our society. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:16.000 Many Christians move from one church to another until they find one that is comfortable and shoot their shopping list of what they want a church to be. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:25.000 They check out what programs are there for the kids, what social group they have during the week, what age group or life stage the members are attending. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:32.000 So many people come to church with a view of treating relationships at the church as transnational exchanges. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:38.000 They will only contribute to building relationships if they will get their needs fulfilled. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:45.000 When it comes to making friends and building relationships, they filter out any people that might make them uncomfortable, 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.000 or those that they consider not in the same class as them. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:59.000 People with this mentality tend to move on once they consider that the church they have been going to cannot adequately meet their needs. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:05.000 And what would happen is some of the stones in the structure decide to take themselves out of their place. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:10.000 All the stones surrounding that individual stone would be affected. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:20.000 We cannot stretch enough of the importance of you as a disciple to be in community with other followers of God. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:27.000 All believers of Jesus need a gospel community to keep us accountable to God and each other, 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:33.000 to help us rip ourselves of all the fights that Peter had listed in verse 1 and others. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:41.000 All malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander have one thing in common. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.000 They all need to harm towards others. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:54.000 Jesus prayed in John 17 for people who have come to believe in him through the message of his disciples to be one, 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:58.000 just as the Father is in him and he is in the Father. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:05.000 He also prays for his followers to be in the divine union of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:11.000 so that the world may believe that God has sent him and be brought into complete unity, 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:15.000 sharing the glory that the Father has given the Son. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:22.000 The ethics of the new family is to love one another deeply with a sincere love for each other, 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:26.000 like how Jesus loved the Father and this world. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:30.000 Jesus obeys everything that the Father requires of him, even to death on the cross, 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.000 because he loves the Father and the Father loves him. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:39.000 Peter repeatedly reminds us in his readers of who they are. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:44.000 We have tasted that the Lord is good in verse 3. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.000 We have been built into a spiritual house to be a holy priest, 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:53.000 offering spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ in verse 5. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.000 And we are all believers in verse 7. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:01.000 We are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:09.000 that we might declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into this wonderful light in verse 9. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:14.000 And we all have received mercy, and you are now the people of God. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:16.000 In verse 10. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:21.000 He urges his reader to live such good lives among the pagan in verse 11 and 12 that, 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:29.000 though they accuse them of doing wrong, they may see their good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:36.000 His readers face rejection and mockery from pagans, and so are Jesus' disciples in the modern day. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:42.000 If you tell other people you are a follower of Christ or a Christian, 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:46.000 you will be rejected by people like Jesus was rejected. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:56.000 You may even be falsely accused, but Jesus' disciples are to keep living our good life among others to bring glory to God. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.000 How is that possible? 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:05.000 Peter repeats in this passage twice the fact that the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.000 And he quotes a command from the Old Testament in verse 6. 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:28.000 The command for us is to see, to behold what God has done and is doing with the chosen and precious cornerstone. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:37.000 And before commanding us to see, Peter also commanded us to crave, to long for pure spiritual milk like newborn babies. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:46.000 Rejection and trials are to be expected when you put your trust, when you entrust your life with Jesus, 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:50.000 because he was rejected to by people that he is saving. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:55.000 He was rejected to guarantee your acceptance by the Father. 00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:05.000 God's people are commanded and urged to keep looking at what God has done through Jesus, and not the hardship they are facing. 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:15.000 When Paul was writing to the Corinthian church, and the writer of the Hebrews both referred to the teaching of God's word as milk. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:24.000 The word of God, the Bible, the spiritual milk is a fruit that nourishes our spirit and sustains us through all the trials and rejections. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:33.000 It is in God's word that we get to see and be reminded of the great work God is doing to save his disciples. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:40.000 The power of the new family comes from our connection to the precious cornerstone, the Lord Jesus. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.000 The spiritual milk is a Bible. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:49.000 That is why getting into a habit of reading the Bible four or more times a week is crucial for your faith to grow. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:56.000 Only in the Bible do we learn and understand how God choose individual stones for his building project. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:02.000 God's word is what connects us to his precious son, so we are holy and precious too. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:13.000 The reason we keep encouraging and urging our members to join a gospel community is to get into a rhythm or habit of spending time in God's word daily, 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:17.000 so to be connected and held accountable for your good. 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:22.000 Because we need you and you need us as part of God's building. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:30.000 If you are a Christian, you are being built into something far greater than the Great Wall of China, of monumental significance. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:33.000 It's like many Uluru and Ashok join together. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:37.000 There will always be other stones surrounding you. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:42.000 Your rough edges are causing as much discomfort to them as they are causing you. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:51.000 You are to share your discomfort and that should not be your reason for plucking yourself out of God's Great Building Project. 00:18:51.000 --> 00:19:01.000 People who do not have God in their lives will dislike you and reject you because they would rather stay in darkness and not come into God's light. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:11.000 You are part of God's spiritual house and we are all interconnected, interdependent and intimately linked to other disciples. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:16.000 If you think differently, you have misunderstood what you are called into. 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:19.000 You are unsettling the world. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:25.000 If you have not put your trust in Jesus and you are working very hard to try to keep what you are building together. 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:31.000 You are not certain what will climb on it that will break it and crumble it down. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:34.000 You worry about how long your effort will last. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:45.000 Jesus talks about our attitude and action towards his teaching and the result it will lead to in Matthew 7, verse 24 to 27. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:48.000 Jesus says, 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:51.000 Jesus says, 00:19:51.000 --> 00:20:21.000 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:42.000 God has a living stone that was rejected by humans, but chosen by God and precious to him. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:45.000 For in scripture it says, 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:50.000 See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.000 The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:02.000 God's new family is far greater and will never fall because God is building it on Jesus.