SPEAKER: STEVE ANDERSON

PASSAGE: 1 PETER 2:4-10

When Jesus Offends Us: Will We Obey or Stumble?

All right. Good morning, everyone. I must confess to you that I am a lot more encouraged to teach this message to you guys than I was in the first service. I came into the building this morning with a lot of fear because of this teaching, to the point where last night I couldn’t get to sleep. And I’ve always had a philosophy, as I’ve pastored for many years and taught for many years, that if I can’t preach it to me, I’m not going to preach it to thee. 

And as part of the teaching team, we kind of figure out where we’re going to land. We’re in 1 Peter. We’ve been in 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 10 for a few weeks now, and we see the schedule, and it’s like, okay, where am I going to land? What scripture am I going to be tackling? And then I saw I kind of saw the scripture that the Lord said I want you to teach on this. 

So I put it together during the week, and then of course we have our teaching team meeting, and we submit our notes, and I mean we go through a process. I mean we take great responsibility in presenting the word of God to you to the point where it goes through a gauntlet. I mean it goes through a filter. We want to make sure that we’re up here teaching truth to you. And so I put my notes together, we had our teaching team meeting, everyone said, “You know, you know this is good. It’s great,” everything.

Well, I finally, yesterday, had a chance to preach it to me, and when I did, I got scared because it hit me hard. It hit my heart hard. It hit me. It wasn’t, it wasn’t necessarily, Oh Lord, this is going to come off, you know, really hard on the people. It came hard on me, and so I came in here this morning, I went, Lord, please make sure that this lands softly. And when I finished the first service, I walked off the stage, it was just a hush, and I sat down, and I went, Was that too hard? But one by one, people started to come up to me afterwards and said, it was just exactly what I needed. 

And so I pray right now that this word will land softly, but it will penetrate your heart. That you’ll receive it as a word from the Lord. You’ll receive it as a word for today. We are Christians living in this age and this generation, and it is hard. 

I had breakfast with my daughter, who’s visiting from Omaha earlier this week. She took me out. She wanted a little father-daughter time, and she said, “Dad, what’s one thing that you can pass on to me that I can hold on to?” And I said, “Don’t compromise on this, don’t compromise on that,” and the reason I could tell her that is because that’s what I’m teaching on today. 

1 PETER 2:4-10

So if you have your Bibles, open up to 1 Peter chapter 2. Let’s look at verses 4 through- I think we’ll go through four through 8 today, and we’re going to focus on 7 and 8. Peter, talking to the church in Asia Minor, says this: “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very cornerstone,” and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.” 

I want you to imagine yourself walking down a dark path, there’s no lights. You don’t know what’s in front of you. You’re trying to stay focused, and then all of a sudden, there’s a little bit of, a little bit of a light, and it reveals something, and you’re able to see it, and it’s a big rock, and that rock is a fortress, and you’re able to look at it and see it for what it is, a fortress. That’s one scenario. 

The other scenario is that that light doesn’t reveal anything to you, and you stumble right over that same rock. You hit it with your foot, and you tumble to the ground. Same rock, different outcomes. The rock didn’t change. The only thing that changed was your relationship to that rock. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today: Jesus the Rock, Jesus the stumbling stone. 

In verses 7 and 8, Peter is referencing two messianic prophecies here: Psalm 118 and Isaiah 8. “This precious value, then,” Jesus, he’s talking about, “is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very cornerstone.” That’s Psalm 118, and verse 8: “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,” Isaiah 8, “for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word,” the logos, the word of God, “and to this doom they were also appointed.” 

See, Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of those prophecies, is the ultimate reality of the universe. He is the rock, the immovable rock. He’s not going anywhere. It’s in front of us, and we’re either going to hit it, we’re either going to embrace it, we’re going to stumble over it. To those that submit to Him, He is a precious foundation. To those who resist Him, He becomes an unavoidable obstacle that breaks them. 

REMEMBER THE CONTEXT: PERSECUTION AND PRESSURE IN ASIA MINOR

And now, while Peter is contrasting believers and unbelievers in this scripture, the mechanics of stumbling, the disobedience to God’s word, are a terrifying trap that even believers can flirt with to their own ruin. Now we need to remember the context of this passage. Who’s Peter talking to? When is Peter talking to them? 

This is around 60 A.D. that he wrote this, he’s writing it to the church in Asia Minor, and these churches were suffering persecution. Peter’s not writing, he’s not writing to a cozy, comfortable church environment. He’s writing to the chosen exiles that have been scattered in Asia Minor, and they are watching the political climate change before their very eyes. They’re watching the culture change before their eyes. Local hostility, slander, and state-sanctioned Roman persecution were mounting. 

But Peter in chapter 1 gave us the blueprint to obedience. He talked a lot about what you need to be embracing in order to endure these times. The last time I taught back in May, I talked about how we are to conduct ourselves in fear, phobos. We are to have an actual fear on how we are to go about our lives, on how we are about, on how we’re about to go about our lives with Jesus, with a fear. 

And he’s also bringing obedience into play. Verse 14 in chapter 1, he says, he calls them “obedient children,” telling them not to slip back into the passions of their former ignorance. In verse 22, he says they “have purified,” he says, “… you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth…” 

And there’s a parallel going on too. It wasn’t just Peter that was experiencing this with the church that he’s communicating with, Paul was also experiencing this. Timothy was pastoring the church in Ephesus, also in Asia Minor. Timothy was dealing with a lot of the same things that these churches were dealing with: the persecution from Rome, the culture. 

Timothy was crying out to Paul, saying, Paul, I’m struggling with this. If they’re not being killed in my church, they’re leaving my church, and they’re not accepting my teaching, instead, they’re leaving the faith. And so Paul writes from a prison cell in Rome in about 64 A.D. back to Timothy, to encourage him in his pastoring of this church. 

THE CULTURAL SHIFT: TRADING THE WORD FOR THE WORLD

So there’s a lot going on in that region, a lot going on during that time frame, and the connection between Peter and Paul is this: that both are showing a fragile church that their survival depends entirely on their alignment with the word of God, and when the world threatens you, obedience is your only spiritual anchor. Because the cultural shift at the time was this: they were trading the word for the world. 

The original stumbling block that Peter is referencing in verse 8 of chapter 2 were the Jewish people that turned over Jesus. And so some might say, Well, that’s who Peter’s really talking to, so it really doesn’t apply to me. It’s the Jews that stumbled over Jesus, and so it doesn’t apply to my life, I’m safe. But the New Testament writers and even Jesus Himself scream a collective warning, and that warning is this: that the path to unbelief is paved with small stones of disobedience. 

The modern stumbling block that we are all experiencing today in our culture and even in the church in whole is this: we’re witnessing a massive cultural phenomenon where people are walking away from Bible-believing, doctrinally sound churches, and some are even totally walking away from the faith. 

And I see some heads nodding because some of you have experienced that, not in your own lives, but in the lives of people that you’re close to. I’ve had several people close to me who were sound in their faith, excited for Jesus, serving Him like no other, and now they’re not serving Him anymore. And all it took was one small act of disobedience, one small thing in the word of God, that it’s like, I can’t really accept that. 

It’s like David Mitchell talked about a couple weeks ago. Remember when he talked about, you know, the word of God being a kind of a cafeteria or a buffet? There’s broccoli in here. This is the word, the logos. Jesus is the Word, the Logos. John chapter 1, the Word that became flesh. 

We are going to stumble over the word. This thing is going to hit us hard sometimes, and how are we going to react to that? 

And if we do one small compromise, well, I don’t like what the word says about this. I don’t like what the word, cultures change, times have changed, we’re not living two thousand years ago. The world has to adjust to the word, but the world is saying no, the word needs to adjust to the world. That’s what’s going on today, and it’s scary. 

Why are they leaving? Because the word of God has collided with modern cultural narratives on identity, on morality, on truth-they’re colliding with Jesus Himself. People are letting culture judge the word of God, and we can’t let that happen. When a Scripture makes them uncomfortable, they don’t submit; they deconstruct, or they exit. 

Have you heard about this deconstruction thing that’s been going on over the last ten years? I challenge you to Google deconstructing your faith. You will be shocked at what you find. Websites, YouTube channels from past Christians, influential Christians from years ago that have decided Christianity is not for them anymore. 

So what they’ve done is they’ve totally deconstructed their faith, and now built it on a foundation that they have established. And I’m going to build things back up based on my foundation, not the cornerstone of Jesus. It’s shocking, and it’s scary, and it’s influential, and why I’m sharing this with you today is because we are the body of Christ. 

The reason that you are here at this church is because we have made the decision not to compromise on the word of God, and that’s why you’re here. And I thank God for that. But every once in a while, we’ll say something up here that rubs someone the wrong way, and they will leave. I’m not saying they’ve left the faith, but they’ll leave the church. 

And my prayer is that they, I hope that they land at another Bible-believing church. But the only problem is that that Bible-believing church is probably going to say something that’s going to offend them again, and until we deal with this thing once and for all, it’s just the same pattern’s just going to keep repeating itself. 

We can’t stumble over the cornerstone, we must bow to its authority. We try to change the rock, we try to shrink the rock, we try to soften the edges of the rock, and we do that to our own peril, as Peter just pointed out, to our own doom. 

In short, as Paul said in Romans chapter 1, we exchange the truth of God for a lie. These are warnings in Scripture, and this was what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4. He said, “the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

See, Paul predicted this exact modern crisis that we’re experiencing today. They experienced it back then, we’re experiencing it today. When the Bible demands a lifestyle that culture mocks, people don’t look for truth, they look for a church, or a podcast, or a teacher that will validate their compromise and tickle their itching ears. 

It happens in every Bible-teaching, truth-embracing church, and that’s why I said that we, as a teaching team, are committed to making sure that when we get up here, it’s gone through a lot of filters. It’s gone through a lot of people, Bible scholars, pastors with years of experience, people that have taught the word for a long time. We all look at the notes, and we all make sure it lines up with what we see as God’s truth. 

It’s a fortress and a stumbling stone. It challenges us, but it looks different for every single one of us. We’re all dealing with different things. We all have different family dynamics. We all have different lifestyle dynamics. 

Some of you are dealing with sin types, sin type issues. Some of you are dealing with family issues, work issues. Where culture is trying to tell you one thing, when you know that the word of God tells you something different, and this is where we all need to be very, very careful, because we’re all, all of us, we’re all great at self-justification, right? Not enough amens there.

Hebrews chapter 3 verses 12 and 13. “Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another.” Encourage one another. That’s what I’m trying to do with this message. That’s what I want you to do with each other. I want you to encourage each other, “every day, as long as it’s still called ‘today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” 

I’m tired of people close to me falling away from the faith. It starts with sin’s deceitfulness, justifying just a small cultural compromise, and then it moves to a hardened heart, and it ends with an unbelieving heart that totally walks away from the living God. 

THE WARNING TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES

And you might say, Well, that’s Peter and Paul. You know, I’m a red letter Christian, I just believe in what Jesus says. Okay. How about the messages to the seven churches in Revelation? Remember when we studied Revelation? Five of those seven churches received rebuke from Jesus. Only two of those seven churches did not receive any condemnation from Him. And for time’s sake, I’ll only mention three.

The Church of Pergamum, the compromising church, Revelation 2:14. Jesus rebukes them because they have people holding to “the teaching of Balaam,” enticing the church to eat food sacrificed to idols, and embracing sexual immorality. Pergamon lived “where Satan has his throne.” The cultural pressure to conform to pagan society there was immense. To fit in and avoid persecution, they tolerated sin. They tried to mix the holy with the profane, and Jesus warned them, Repent, or I will fight against you with the sword of my mouth.

The church of Sardis, the dead church, Revelation 3, verse 1 and 2. “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.” This is Jesus talking to the church. Sardis was not actively being persecuted. You want to know why? Because they had fully compromised. They said, in order to avoid persecution, we’re just going to compromise everything that God stands for, everything that the word of God stands for. They had a great appearance of a church that was active, but in reality, because of their disobedience, they were dead. 

And then there’s the church at Ephesus. They had great theology, Ephesus was a great church. Timothy, the pastor at Ephesus, but they had lost their first love. Their obedience became clinical and selective, proving that without deep devotion, the fire will eventually go out. And Jesus said this, “I will remove the lampstand from its place–unless you repent.” 

HOLDING HIM PRECIOUS

Okay, that’s the hard part. What do we do? How do we guard against this cultural drift? How do we ensure that we don’t end up like those five churches in the Book of Revelation? How do we make sure that we don’t end up like people that we know that have fallen away from the faith because they made one little small compromise and then it opened up the floodgates? A little leaven leavens the whole loaf of bread. 

We return to Peter’s core phrase in verse 7, and that’s this: “This precious value, then,” Jesus, “is for you who believe;” and what does precious mean? Precious means, in the Greek, precious means this: it denotes honor, supreme value, and immense price.

 If Jesus is precious to you, it means His word is your final authority. It means you don’t adjust your obedience to Him based on what culture teaches, and it means you stay close to Jesus regardless of what it costs you in this everyday life. 

And so what I did is I said to myself, Okay, what can I do? What can I do personally now to make sure that this doesn’t happen? So I wrote down four things. Are you ready? Number one, this is me taking inventory, okay, I’m taking inventory on my life. I wrote these down for me, I’m passing them on to thee. 

Number one, examine the judge. Who is the final authority in my life? Is it the trending opinions of today’s culture, or is it the word of God? If you’re rewriting or ignoring Scripture to fit the world, then you’re currently stumbling over the stone. 

Number two, stoke the fire. Don’t let your faith become a historical monument of how you used to believe. Turn back to your first love. Recommit to daily radical obedience to his truth, no matter how countercultural it becomes.

Number three, obey God’s word. Psalm 119 verses 9 through 11, ”How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word. With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” And verse 105, “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” That path that we talked about at the beginning of this teaching. That light, when it illuminates the rock, you see it for what it is–the fortress, the cornerstone, instead of stumbling over it.

And number four, put on the disciplines of the priest. This is from Pastor Greg’s teaching last week. Priests love Jesus, they worship Jesus, and they cherish His word, and they see Jesus as who He is, “the precious value” of those who believe. Let’s pray. 

Lord, thank you for your word. It’s living and active, and sometimes it pierces and pierces hard. I pray, Lord, that as the word has gone forth this morning, that we will all be able to receive it, and that it will come alive in us, and that you will speak to us through it, and will not come back void. And that whatever areas it is that you’re wanting to work on in our lives, that you’ll be able to do that, and you’ll bring remembrance through the power of your Holy Spirit, things that we need to address, things that we need to take care of. I thank you for this church body. I thank you for their passion for your word, their passion to hold you precious. And I pray right now, Lord, for any that might be in here, as Pastor Dustin shared earlier, if they have not made Jesus Christ the Lord of their life, the cornerstone in their life, that they take that opportunity right now. That faith would rise up inside of them, that the word of God has penetrated them, and that’s how salvation comes. The word of God comes, you speak, and salvation and faith come out of that. I pray for them right now that this will be their day of decision, this will be their day of making Jesus the cornerstone in their life, and they will be changed from this day forward. Thank you, Lord. We pray this in Jesus’ name, and everyone said, Amen.