Transcript
A (0:04)
Where do you go for stability when life feels unsteady? In Peter's first letter to early Christians, he likens Jesus Christ to a cornerstone in ancient architecture, the foundation on which everything else must rest. In today's sermon, Tim Keller looks at Peter's cornerstone metaphor and shows us how putting our full trust in Jesus and his ultimate act of salvation lays a foundation strong enough to sustain us no matter what comes our way.
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Foreign. We've been going through the book of First Peter and we get to a new section and I'm going to just read chapter two of First Peter, verses four to eight. That's all we have time to look at and just really get an introduction to this marvelous passage. But let me just read chapter two, verse four to eight and get us ready to meet God over his table in the Lord's Supper as you come to Him. The living stone rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious to Him. You also like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in scripture it says, see, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Now, to you who believe this stone is precious, but to those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. And a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they disobey the message which is also what they were destined for. And let's stop right there. This is this marvelous passage, come to him, to that living stone rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious to him. For it is written, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. That's just a tremendous statement and the background of it is ancient architecture. There are several characteristics of a cornerstone. The cornerstone was the first stone laid. It was the first stone laid because all of the dimensions of the rest of the house were projected off of the dimensions of the cornerstone. The cornerstone was the first stone laid and it had to be the most perfectly cut stone because you see what the cornerstone would be, would be what the house would be. The lines of the cornerstone become the lines of the house. If the cornerstone is not cut at perfectly right angles to the, for example, to the. To the ground, then the house will not be good right angles. Whatever the cornerstone is, the house is. You know, if you go to the Flatiron Building and you look at the cornerstone of the Flatiron building, it's a flatiron. If the cornerstone is rectangle, the lines go out from the cornerstone and the house is a rectangle. If the cornerstone is a flat iron, the house is a flat iron shape. If the cornerstone is. If the dimensions are off, the house is off. If the cornerstone is true, the house is true. And therefore, the cornerstone was the most perfectly cut and shaped stone. Thirdly, it was the first stone. It was the most perfect stone. Thirdly, it had to be the toughest and strongest stone, because if there was any lack of integrity in the stone, if there were any structural flaws or fissures, if it crumbled in any way, the house, the entire house would be compromised or even lost. It was the one stone on which everything else was really resting in many ways. And so if it crumbled more than any other one particular stone, the house would crumble. And therefore, since it was the first stone, it was the most perfect stone. It had to be the stone of the most tough material. It was usually the largest stone for all the above. Therefore, literally, the cornerstone was the most precious stone. It was most precious because literally, it was the most expensive. It was the most labor intensive. It was not unusual for a builder to spend as much time finding the cornerstone, quarrying the right kind of stone, finding the cornerstone and cutting the cornerstone perfectly, as much time on that as the whole rest of the building. It was literally far and away the most expensive part of the ancient building. Now, all of this is brought to the fore. All of this is the background when Peter says, come to him, to that living capstone which is the cornerstone, rejected by men, but chosen by God. For it is written, whoever trusts in him will never be put to shame. Now, what does this teach us about Jesus, especially tonight as we're getting ready to seek to meet him at his table through the bread and the cup. And the answer is, this tells us that Jesus is to be your life's foundation. This also tells us that Jesus is our federal head. And thirdly, it tells us that Jesus is to be the love of our life. He's the foundation. He's our federal head. He's the love of our life. It's all in the cornerstone metaphor. Here, look, number one, he's the life foundation. Notice it says, the one who trusts in him. Now, what does it mean to trust, to come to him who is the cornerstone? All the other stones came to the cornerstone, and all the other stones were set in place along the lines of the cornerstone. And therefore, when the Bible talks about Believing in Jesus Christ. It is not. It's talking about something far more than just assent. It's talking about far more than just sort of picking up his teachings and saying, I believe in his teachings, or I believe in his ethics, or even I believe that he died on the cross for sins and so on. It means much more than that. It means shifting the center of your gravity to him. There's an exercise which I hate. I don't know if you like it, but there are sometimes in group building retreats, somebody dreamed this terrible thing up, this form of torture, years ago to try to get groups to trust each other. Have you ever done it? You're supposed to stand in the middle of a circle, and everybody stands around you. You're supposed to close your eyes and keep your body stiff and let yourself. Have you seen that? This is supposed to build up trust. Now, let's not get into that. But let me just tell you what's interesting about it, is what you've got to do is you've got to shift the center of gravity. If you let yourself lean far enough over so that the center of gravity of your body is out from your own foundation, your own feet, if it's out far enough away, you have to fall, you shift your center of gravity to somebody else's. Somebody standing around you in this little tight circle. And that person has to hold you up, has to catch you. If you shift your center of gravity to that person, you are vulnerable. That person. Now, his or her feet, his or her foundation has to become your foundation or wham. You know what it means when it says, those who trust in him will never be put to shame. To trust in Jesus Christ is to make him the cornerstone of your life. It's to shift the center of your gravity, your cornerstone. See, whenever somebody says, I believe in Jesus, I'm a Christian, you also have to ask yourself, fine, great. But what is my functional cornerstone? What is the center of my gravity? The cornerstone is the thing that sets the course for the building. And your cornerstone sets the course of your life as a whole. I've seen this happen many, many times. Some people who are so frantic. Why are they frantic? Because what is their functional cornerstone? Maybe it's success, may. Maybe it's a claim. Maybe it's possessions. And your real cornerstone, the thing that you really base your life on, will always set the course of your life. It will project the lines out into the rest of your life. And you'll be frantic. There's other people who are really very, very different. Other People, essentially your cornerstone is stasis. People in big cities, your cornerstone is turmoil and getting ahead. But people in small towns, their cornerstone is stasis, which, keeping things the way they are, tradition, letting the normal family system, even a sick family system, stay in place, that's your cornerstone. That's what makes you feel secure. To become a Christian doesn't mean you just change your mind. It doesn't mean you just believe in a new set of doctrines. It's a tearing up, it's a taking all the stones of your life and instead of having them all, you know, see shooting off of the old cornerstone, you shoot them off of the new cornerstone. Jesus, you come to him, to the living stone. I've so often seen very frantic people when they really start to make Jesus their cornerstone, start to mellow out. And I've seen very, very lethargic people when they come to make Jesus their cornerstone, start to speed up. Because you see Jesus, to trust in him means you build off of him. He becomes your cornerstone. I preached a sermon on this text 14 years ago. I found the old sermon 14 years ago and evidently at the time my, I had only two children, not three. And one of the children was two and a half, the other child was about six months old. And I wrote this down as an illustration. I said, you know, I noticed that when my kids are sick, Kathy is very shaken, feeling that she's failing, feeling life is out of control, meaningless. And when the church is sick, Tim feels that he is very shaken, feeling like he's failing, feeling life is out of control and meaningless. It's not hard. I wrote down to find out what our functional cornerstones really are. Your cornerstone sets the course of the building. And if the cornerstone is crumbling, the building crumbles. How do you know what the functional cornerstone of your life is? It's very simple. When the winds come and when the storm howls and when the waves come and beat against the cornerstone. Cornerstone. The CornerStone is the one part of your life. If that shakes, if that crumbles, everything crumbles. Just look at yourself, look at what are the non negotiables in your life. They're your cornerstones. What are the things that say, if I lose that, I lose everything? Those are the cornerstones. And you know, the real. I mean, the Bible talks about this. Luke, chapter six. Why do you call me Lord? Lord says Jesus, and do not the things that I say. If you do my words, you're like a man building a house upon the rock. The flood came and the winds blew and it could not be shaken. But a man who says, lord, Lord, but does not do the things that I say does not build on me. He's like a man who builds his house on the sand. The winds howl and the floods come and the house falls, and great is the fall of it. That's how it goes. And when the floods come, when the troubles come into your life, and you feel like you're shaken to the roots, and you feel like your life's about to fall, you're not doing the right thing. If you say, if only I could get out of this storm, if only I could get out of this wind, if only I could get out of this flood, don't you see what you should be asking? Why am I so vulnerable? Why is my house shaking? Why? What is my cornerstone? What am I building my life on that would make me so vulnerable? It's not the flood that's your problem. It's the cornerstone. To believe in Jesus Christ is to never be ashamed. Which means, friends, if you're a Christian, what this really means, of course, is that you notice how Peter's talking to Christians here. He says, come to him, to the living stone. It really means that when you become a Christian, you tear up the old cornerstones and you say, from now on, I'm living for Christ. It's not just believing in a general way. You base your whole life on Him. You build everything around him, and yet you have to spend all of your life getting more and more of the stones of your house packed in against the cornerstone. The fact of the matter is, we're spending all of our lives pulling the stones away from the old cornerstones and building them back onto Jesus. We're going to spend all of our life doing that. And that's all right. That's the process of what it means to grow. And that's the reason why Peter doesn't just say this to people who don't believe. He says that to you. If you know today that you're really not a Christian, but you're really not sure what you'd have to do. Here's the start. Start trust in him. It means to build your life on him. But even if you are a Christian, don't you see? We are ashamed a lot. The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Well, we're ashamed all the time. You know why? Because we don't build on him completely. Don't you see? If he was our only cornerstone, if all of the stones of our lives were shooting off at all the dimensions of our lives were shooting off of Jesus, projected off of his lines. We'd never be ashamed. We'd never be let down. We'd never be disappointed. We'd never be shattered. Come to him.