Dorchester Baptist Church

Master Builder

1 Peter 2 : 4ff

We are a people with a master builder -  God

In His first mention of the church, Jesus compared it to a building: “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). Believers are living stones in His building. Each time someone trusts Christ, another stone is cemented by grace & love into His building. It may look to us that the church on earth is a pile of rubble and ruins, but God sees the total structure as it grows (Eph. 2:19-22).

 John Havlik Church is never a place always a people, never a fold always a flock, never a sacred building always a believing assembly.

But how is the building started? As we turn to 1 Peter 2, Peter uses one word to describe Jesus. He’s the stone upon which the whole church is built. 

In v4, he’s the “the living Stone.” In v6, he’s “precious cornerstone.” In v7  he’s “the capstone.”  In v8, he’s the “stone that causes men to stumble” and a “ rock that makes them fall”

But there is even more in our text about Christ the stone: He’s the rejected stone (v. 7).   He is the stone chosen by God (v. 4). He is the stone that is precious to every believer (v. 7).

 Peter wrote this letter to Christians scattered in five different areas, yet he said that they all as living stones, belong to one “spiritual house.” We belong to each other because we belong to Christ.  The true church is a growing collection of living stones, being built on and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

 The master builder longs for his children to have that sense of belonging and togetherness.  How will it happen?

 “As we come to Him.” (v.4)   Peter indicates that people who come to Jesus will grow in their faith.  How do we come? We come to Jesus through daily prayer, reading the Bible regularly  and worship.

Is Jesus the master builder  of your life?

We have been called to serve him, to build his kingdom in a broken world. This calling gives us not just a walk-on part in the greatest adventure on earth but the means whereby we can see and experience the kingdom of God.

We can be in danger of building church lives and not Christ centred ones.

Let the master builder recommence His work in your life.