"What are you making?" I suppose we have asked that question many times - whether as a child watching some construction of a father or as a parent watching some creation of a child. Whatever we do, we are making with a purpose. We are trying to do something. We have a goal in mind. We don't always achieve our goal. Sometimes it is beyond our skills. Sometimes we get bored or distracted or question the time it is all taking. Sometimes the materials we are using cannot lead to a satisfactory result…
"What are you making?" Have you ever watched an expert making something? They seem to know where they are going - and how to get there! They choose good material and have quality tools. They don't give up, but keep on working until the product is complete.
Jesus was a
master carpenter. "My yokes are easy" could easily have been the sign
up in the
It was away
up north away from the crowds, at Caesarea-Philippi which was near the sources
of the
One of the big debates over centuries is whether this means that the Roman Catholic church, supposedly founded by Peter, is therefore the only true church. What each side of this debate so often failed to consider is whether, in talking about a "building", Jesus was essentially referring to an "organisation" at all. Of course, any human activity - even when divinely directed - will have some degree of organisation. But can that organisation ever be regarded as absolute?
Peter himself didn't seem to see it that way when he wrote, "Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by man as worthless but chosen by God as valuable. Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ... You are a chosen race, the King's priests, the holy nation, God's own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvellous light" (1 Peter 2.4-5,9).
In the Greek of Matthew 16 there is a distinction between the word for Peter (petros, a rock) and the rock (petra, bedrock) on which the church is built. Peter himself seems to have this same distinction in mind, seeing every Christian (himself included) as "living stones" built on the foundation of the Living Stone, Jesus Christ himself. And he describes us as "living stones", neither passive nor inert, who, facing inward, are priests "offering spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ", and, facing outward, are "chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvellous light."
Paul, writing about divisions in the Corinthian church, uses the same image, "You are also God's building. Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and another man is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds. For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid" (1 Corinthians 3.9b-l 1). And in Ephesians 2.20-21 - "You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the corner-stone being Christ Jesus himself. He is the one who holds the whole building together and makes it grow into a sacred temple dedicated to the Lord."
We notice that the building of the church is not envisaged as a kind of fortress, a place of refuge from the hostile world, a place of isolation and safety. Even in the original reference in Matthew 16 we detect a mixing of metaphors. It is not really a question of the church being proof against the "gates of Hades", but the "gates of Hades" being unable to withstand the attack of the church!
Paul loved
to speak about the church as a body - the Body of Christ. You really need a
body for living in this world. What could you do without a body? When Jesus
lived here in the world nearly two thousand years ago, he had a body like yours
and mine. He needed to eat and sleep. His legs took him places. His hands
brought healing to the sick. He used his voice to speak to people. His eyes saw
and noticed, his ears heard… He still needs a body today. He could do it all through
his Spirit, unseen, but he lives and works through his Body. A Roman captain
Cornelius has come to a point where he is ready to receive Jesus Christ as his
Saviour and Lord. God sends an angel, not to tell him the Gospel, but to direct
him to Simon Peter who will tell him the Gospel. The Lord Jesus himself
appeared to Saul of Tarsus as he went to
One of the powerful things about the picture of the church as a body is that it reminds us that we need one another. It is a "diversity-in-unity". The Head of the church gives a whole variety of spiritual gifts to the members, so that the whole Body can function properly, doing his will.
To quote
from our
1. The church is people, the people who receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and acknowledge him as Lord.
2. The church is the community of the Holy Spirit who indwells and enables each believer and who binds the individual believers together as the Body of Christ.
3. The Holy Spirit has given believers a variety of gifts whose use will build up the other members of the Body and bring glory to God.
4. The Holy Spirit has provided for leadership in the church, not to replace the gifts of others, but to encourage, equip, interpret, facilitate and co-ordinate the gifts within the Body.
5. Christ is the Head of the Body, and the Body - in its leadership and membership - must always be in submission to his will.
6. The whole Body exists for the worship of God and for the fulfilment of Christ's mission in the world."
Jesus had said to the four fishermen, "Follow me and I will make you…" But, of course, we are not just like lumps of wood in the hands of the master carpenter. We have choices to make that allow him to take and transform us - to make us new people on the inside, to give us a functioning place within his Body, to do his will in the world.
Peter writes about this in his letter. Already in the first chapter he has been telling them about it - "have your minds ready for action", "keep alert", "be holy in all that you do", "love one another earnestly with all your heart" (vv. 13-15,22).
Listen to him in chapter 2. "Rid yourselves, then, of all evil; no more lying or hypocrisy or jealousy or insulting language. Be like new-born babies, always thirsty for the pure spiritual milk, so that by drinking it you may grow up and be saved" (vv.1-2).
In
But then Peter writes about being thirsty for the pure spiritual milk. There is something wrong if a baby isn't thirsty. The young mother may complain that the baby wakes up for a feed several times during the night. It can become so exhausting. And yet the desire for milk is natural and healthy, even though the management of feeding times can be a trial.
Are you thirsty for spiritual milk? Do you say, "I am having trouble fitting in my Bible reading these days"? or "I start reading the Bible and I can't get enough. The time seems to have gone so quickly"? A strong spiritual thirst is a sign of a healthy Christian life.
"Come to the Lord", Peter says. Bring your life to him - your time, your abilities your possessions - all that you are. Make yourself available for all that he wants to do in you and through you. It is that call all over again, "Follow me and I will make you..."
Come to him. Worship him. Offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to him. Let him be the central focus of your life. Be a living stone within his spiritual temple.
Then live it out and tell it out. Proclaim the wonderful acts of God who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Your life and witness is not just within the gathered Body of Christ. The reality of who God is and what he has done for us has to burst out of the walls of the church into the community about us.
The light of the world has to be put on a lamp-stand! The salt of the earth has to be shaken out of the salt-shaker!
© Peter J. Blackburn,
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture
quotations are from the Good News Bible, © American Bible Society, 1984.
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