There's a beautiful little city just an hour west of Cedar Rapids called Belle Plaine. The name means "Beautiful Prairie," and it still is. Rolling green hills and wide valleys of rich, fertile land. Add a bit of water, and Belle Plaine is a slice of heaven.
In 1886, a local businessman planned to build a large creamery there, and the city fathers voted to proceed with a major new water source.
Little did they know that Old Jumbo was rumbling beneath their feet. Waiting for his moment, Old Jumbo had a song to sing.
Being the frugal city fathers they were, they took bids on the well, and awarded the work to the lowest bidder: Willy Weir. Low Budget Willy lived in Monticello, and he and his sons made a good living finding and drilling artesian wells.
At a discount.
There were two secrets of Low Budget Willy's success. First, he had a knack for knowing where to drill. Second, Low Budget Willy used the same drill head for every job. It was a 2 inch bore. Belle Plaine spec'ed a 3 inch bore, but Willy wasn't worried. He used his 2 inch on everything, no matter what the customer required. For a 3 inch well, Willy had a secret: he'd ream out the hole and then let the water pressure of the artesian erode it to 3 inches. He'd done that for years and had never run into any trouble.
But then, Low Budget Willy had never run into Old Jumbo.
I should tell you about Old Jumbo. Jumbo was an underground river - an aquifer. Centuries earlier, the weight of the Northern glaciers had pressured Old Jumbo into silence. And now, less than 200 feet below Belle Plaine, there was a song pent up in the heart of Old Jumbo...and that boy was ready to sing.
Low Budget Willy met his match when he drilled into Old Jumbo.
Called from the darkness into marvelous light, Jumbo cleared his throat and began to sing. That 2" hole blasted water 50 feet into the air.
Unfortunately, Willy decided to apply his proprietary secret reaming technique to increase the size of the hole to 3 inches. Given Jumbo's enthusiasm, that hole kept growing, and there was no way to stop it. Soon, Jumbo was a gushing geyser erupting out of a 3 foot crater in the ground. On the corner of 8th and 8th in Belle Plaine, Low Budget Willy had opened up a high velocity aquifer. Jumbo was roiling from the ground at about 50,000 gallons per minute.
(GRAPHIC #1 of OLD JUMBO)
Finally, Old Jumbo had the chance to sing his song. It was a big song. Low Budget Willy had never heard a song quite like it, and had absolutely no idea what to do. The City Fathers of Belle Plaine were understandably concerned about the song. It was washing their fair city right off the map.
News of Old Jumbo spread all over the country, even the world. Reporters visited Belle Plaine to take pictures of Old Jumbo.
They nick-named him the "Eighth Wonder of the World." A newspaper in Paris published cartoons of Belle Plaine submerged in Old Jumbo's water, with small children standing on roof tops calling for help.
It was only a small exaggeration.
Low Budget Willy was plainly out of his league. He loaded up his wagon, and told people he was getting more help and equipment. William Weir was never seen in Belle Plaine again.
In the meanwhile, Old Jumbo continued to sing and sing and sing. He was thundering out about 3 million gallons a day, and other wells in the area were shutting down. Every able mind and body in Belle Plaine labored together to reign in Old Jumbo. The University of Chicago offered their best engineers. All to no avail. Old Jumbo just kept singing.
(GRAPHIC #2 of OLD JUMBO)
He sang for 14 months!
A local foundry owner, George Palmer, finally came up with a solution. According to a local historian, to silence Jumbo's song, it took...
• 163 feet of 18-inch pipe,
• 77 feet of 16-inch pipe,
• 60 feet of 5-inch pipe,
• A custom iron cone 3 feet in diameter and 24 feet long,
• 40 carloads of stone,
• 130 barrels of cement,
• more sand and clay than could be measured.
It might have appeared like they'd quieted down the old boy, but the song on Jumbo's heart is still ready to ring. In 1982, almost a century later, the US Geological Survey revisited the site. They drilled a test hole, and Jumbo starting singing again! It took four hours to seal it off!
(INSERT GRAPHIC OF STONE AND PLAQUE)
Belle Plaine will never forget Old Jumbo. A bronze plaque stands on the corner of 8th and 8th; it marks the place Old Jumbo and his song entered the history of that town. Every September, the people of Belle Plaine celebrate Jumbo Well Days.
Child of God, like Old Jumbo, you have a song to sing. It's a song of praise for your God...that song is welling up in your heart just waiting to be released. I can say that confidently because Scripture says it.
Let's stand and read 1 Pet. 2:9:
...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Pet. 2:9 NIV)
Let's pray: "Lord, we thank You for providing beautiful, life-changing truth from Your Word. On the cornerstone of Jesus, you have made us a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, Your own possessions, that we might erupt with Your praise. You have called us out of darkness into Your marvelous light. Lord, we will not be silent. We will not hold back the praises You are so richly due."
In Jesus' Name, Amen
I love this passage. It's spoken to my heart many times over the years and infused me with power and purpose when I haven't felt much like a worship leader...or even much of a Christian.
We need the reminder that every blood-bought Saint of God (no matter how big or small) is Old Jumbo. God has given you an important and unique identity - and you have - in the words of Martin Luther - "no higher office" no higher calling than to release an unending fountain of praise from the depths of your soul.
Last week, Pastor Randy left off at verse 8 - we've seen that Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone. We've seen the sober reality that for one group of people, He'll be the stumbling block. For another group, He'll be their Stepping Stone into a life built by Him and on Him alone.
There is no third group.
In North America, the Continental Divide is formed by the crest of the Rocky Mountains. The rain that falls on the west side of the Divide will eventually drain into the Pacific Ocean.
(INSERT GRAPHIC OF GREAT DIVIDE)
The rain on the east side of the Divide will end up either in Hudson Bay or the Mississippi River.
Spiritually, Jesus is the great divide. You can't be neutral about Him; you'll either embrace Him as your King and your hope or you'll reject Him.
As we come to verse 9 this week, Peter turns his attention to those who have found their life in Christ. The passage brims with two great truths:
First: God has conferred great privilege upon us -
He's given us an identity
Second: God must receive great glory from us -
We'll give Him our praise
We'll unpack this a bit. Let's consider the - privilege - the honor - the identity - that God has conferred upon you, Child of God. The gift that He's woven into the very DNA of who you are.
Look at Peter's description of that honor: He begins by telling us you are a chosen people.
The Honor God has Conferred upon us
A CHOSEN PEOPLE
When Mitzi and I first met Rod and Debbie, they knew in their heart that God had called them to travel to Romania and adopt a child from an orphanage. Rod's a maintenance guy. Debbie signs for deaf children. It took them years of planning and cost them all they had, but they followed their call.
One night, they arrived at the Romanian orphanage; there were lots of beautiful children to choose, but Rod and Debbie knew that these would easily find good homes. They asked where the disabled children were. A nurse ushered them to a dingy nursery - in a crib was Aleah. Abandoned by her mother, Aleah had little twisted stumps where her legs should have been. This dingy nursery was all she'd ever known.
That night, Rod and Debbie chose Aleah. In their first moments as a family, that little girl was showered with more love and attention than she'd ever known. They wrapped Aleah in blankets and took her home to be their own daughter. They gave her a future and a hope. A new identity and even a new last name.
I remember the week Aleah was old enough to get her first set of legs. Our praise team led Tommy Walker's "He's turned my mourning into dancing!" Aleah spontaneously stood up on her little metal legs and began to dance unto the Lord. Her black hair and her white dress twirled, and I've never seen the glory of God declared more beautifully or eloquently than it was on that day. She erupted like Old Jumbo!
Child of God, YOU ARE CHOSEN. When there was nothing attractive about you - Scripture says you were worse than dead - you were God's enemy - He came looking for you. He came down from heaven into your world and He chose you. He called you by name. It cost Him more than you'll ever comprehend, but He adopted you. He wrapped you in a royal robe and gave you a home, and a future and a hope.
According to this passage, He did this so that you would openly declare His praise. Can you do that, Saint?
I'd like to piggy back on something Pastor Randy said a couple of weeks ago. I've been leading worship for a long, long time now. Over the decades, there's not much I haven't seen or heard. Most Christians - in my observation - are like Old Jumbo (an artesian well I refer to earlier in the message). They walk through the doors of their church ready to erupt with praise.
But some people - consistently - come to church with folded arms. Closed. Sitting in judgment of those around them. Some are even proud of how unhappy they are with their leaders or with the style of music. Silent week after week. Disengaged. Over the years, more than one person has informed me they will do this until their preferences are sufficiently met.
Saint: Aleah stood on her rickety prostheses and publicly praised God with her dance. She probably would have preferred having legs of flesh and bone, but she gladly danced before the Lord with all she had, for all she had, bursting with thanksgiving.
If you're withholding the praise God is so richly due, I'm asking you to take a serious look at your heart. Our petty human preferences seem so big to us. If we hold them too closely, though, they'll blind us to the miracles God is doing all around us.
God has also made us...
A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD
We are called priests, royal ones at that.
Royal because we've been adopted into God's royal family, co-heirs with Jesus...and He is the King of Kings. It's a kingdom, though, that's not of this world...and this is why you won't see castles, and armies and wealth. Jesus came as a servant-king...and He calls us to follow His example.
But royal? You bet. When a man or woman is regenerated, they are "born from above!" They become a new creation. A royal creation.
How would life be different if you viewed the person you saw in the mirror as royalty? How would life be different if you treated the person sitting next to you this morning like the royalty he or she is?
The passage says we are priests and priestesses. As priests, we can communicate directly with God - because our relationship with God is built on Jesus, the great Cornerstone, the great mediator.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all... 1Ti 2:5, 6a
At great cost, Jesus has arranged an open door policy between you and God. You don't need a human middleman to talk to the Almighty.
You've heard those Geico insurance ads? "We cut out the middleman!" Well, in a sense, Jesus has done exactly that.
History tells us that cutting out the middleman is great...for everyone but the middleman! Middlemen don't like to be cut out. Remember, it was the PRIESTS - the religious professionals of Jesus' time - who sought His death. The spiritual middlemen.
He told them plainly that "No one comes to the Father, but through me," Jesus said. The human priests felt threatened. They were right to feel that way - their power was about to be stripped away by the Great Mediator.
1500 years later, heroes of the Reformation like Luther and Calvin and Zwingli rediscovered the truth of the Priesthood of the Believer. They opened passages like 1 Pet. 2:9, and showed plain vanilla Christians, like you and me, that through Jesus we can approach God as priests. Many were persecuted for that teaching. Many were martyred. Middlemen don't like to be cut out, and the truth of God's Word threatened their power. They were right to feel threatened. In 1521, those religious middlemen demanded that a young Martin Luther recant, and he said, "My conscience is captive to the Word of God...here I am and here I stand. God help me."
One of the biblical truths that held the conscience of Martin Luther captive was this: You can address the One Who dwells in unapproachable light as Father. Jesus said you can even call Him Abba, Daddy. Anytime, anywhere. High-speed, full-time access to the Throne of God. That's the nature of your relationship to God in Christ. All that power, all that wisdom, all that good.
I found it interesting to ponder what priests do...
The Work of Priests...
• They connect with God personally (Grace - Worship)
• They learn and teach about Him (Growth - Word)
• They provide care (Gather - Warmth)
• They are God's representatives (Gifts - Witness)
• They offer sacrifices (Good Stewardship - Harvest Worker)
In that list, you might recognize the five purposes of Cedar Hills Evangelical Free Church. The leadership of this ministry is absolutely committed to helping you plumb the depths of your priestly relationship with God.
Peter goes on to describe us as
A HOLY NATION
Peter's words here aren't really new to him; he's quoting the very voice of God in Exodus chapter 19. It's what God spoke just prior to giving Moses the 10 Commandments. In that passage, God revealed His intention for Israel, and it parallels his intention for you and me - His church:
Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6)
God intended Israel to be that kingdom of priests who would represent Him to the world. They were to shine like a light in the darkness, and all nations would come to them, seeking God.
But look at the if/then equation built into that verse. Do you see it? "IF you will obey my voice...THEN you shall be..."
Sadly, the story of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, is that Israel consistently failed to obey His voice. Israel did not hold up her end of the bargain. It was a deal-breaker.
Any reasonable mind would think, "wait - I fail to obey God a lot! Is that a deal-breaker for me, too?"
The marvel of the New Testament, the New Covenant, is that Jesus carries the entire responsibility for your relationship with God - he's done it all. The onus is not upon us, but upon Christ. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus has rendered the Old Covenant - the law, the sacrifices, the festivals - obsolete! He tells us that Jesus' blood is...I love it...BETTER. He is the sacrifice and the High Priest, and He lives forever.
So Peter doesn't begin his passage with an IF/THEN equation - he begins with a glorious explanation of Jesus as the CHIEF CORNERSTONE on which our lives are built. The moment Jesus makes us "living stones", infused with HIS LIFE, we are reckoned to be members of His Holy Nation. The right side of the Great Divide.
We are holy because He's begun a good work in us. We express that holiness in our lives as He completes that good work just as He's promised.
Those who trust in Christ ARE a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and finally, a people belonging to God.
A PEOPLE BELONGING TO GOD
This is translated various ways. A people for God's own possession. The King James says we are "a peculiar people." Sometimes that's hard to argue. The best translation is probably "a people purchased by God." The bottom line is this: You are not your own, Saint. You were bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus.
Maybe that's the clearest difference between the Old Covenant and the New. It's not about contract we have to live up to. We're not business partners with God - we're his treasured possessions, his beloved children.
During my teenaged years, I was...difficult. One day a well-meaning friend of my mother took her aside and confronted her with just how bad I was. Trotted out the evidence and said, "If he were my child, I know what I'd do!"
Mom's response was priceless: "Well, then I'm glad he's not your child! He's mine."
Christian - Scripture tells us that Satan is the accuser of the brethren (and I like to add: the abuser of the cistern). He likes to take God aside and confront Him with your failures. Can you hear him? "If that were my child, I know what I'd do!"
But Jesus lives forever to intercede for you. He's the Chief Cornerstone on which your life is built. The great mediator between God and man has chosen you, made you a royal priesthood, a holy nation and his prized possession....
Jesus listens to all Satan's charges against you and answers, "well, I'm glad he's not your child! He's mine."
You are His. And like any prized possession, your heart is safely under lock and key.
It's at this point the passage converges into a radical truth. In fact, when every confusing mote of dust has settled and only the light of God shines unfiltered, I believe we'll find this to be the central truth of all reality.
God has made us a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that...
God Must Receive Great Glory from Us
"That you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light..."
All of creation - including Old Jumbo, but particular you, Saint - ultimately exists to glorify God. Revelation 4:11 sums it up in a prayer at His throne:
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Rev 4:11
Nothing in heaven or earth, Saint, can worship God like you and I. Made in His image, we were created - designed - equipped - to resonate with His praise. It's what we're for. We're the Praise Race.
Praise - worship - is pent up in the heart of every man and woman. We are born to worship. It's universally encoded right into our DNA. Everyone worships...whether it's the guy polishing the chrome on his '67 Malibu or the 8-year-old girl admiring her Barbie collection. It's just that until we trust in the Chief Cornerstone, we worship wrongly. Apart from a right relationship with God, our worship is misplaced. Some will worship a spouse, and others will worship their own intelligence or their strength or their possessions or a pop star. It makes little difference: it's misplaced worship.
We were born to worship God, and when we couldn't manage that, God arranged for us to be born again...to worship him. Like dog is Man's best friend, mankind is to be God's best friend.
They are my own people, and I created them to bring me glory." Isa 43:7
At the end of A.W. Tozer's life, he found himself disgusted with the dusty, dry worship of the Evangelical Church. He gave the last months of his life to teaching worship renewal. This is from his final sermons.
Man was made to worship God. God gave to man a harp and said, "Here above all the creatures that I have made and created I have given you the largest harp. I put more strings on your instrument and I have given you a wider range than I have given to any other creature. You can worship Me in a manner that no other creature can." And when man sinned he took that instrument and threw it down in the mud and there it has lain for centuries, rusted, broken, unstrung; and man, instead of playing a harp like the angels and seeking to worship God in all of his activities, is ego-centered and turns in on himself and sulks and swears and laughs and sings, but it's all without joy and without worship....
I say that the greatest tragedy in the world today is that God has made man in His image and made him to worship Him, made him to play the harp of worship before the face of God day and night, but he has failed God and dropped the harp. It lies voiceless at his feet.
A.W. Tozer - From Worship: The Missing Jewel
Saint, hear the Words of God as delivered through Peter: "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." The pressure of praise is in your heart - have you let it erupt to God and God alone? Is the harp in your hands or is it lying voiceless at your feet?
Sing together...
Thou art worthy, thou are worthy
Thou art worthy O Lord
To receive glory, glory and honor
Glory and honor and power
For Thou hast created
Hast all things created
Thou hast created all things
And for Thy pleasure
They were created
Thou art worthy, O Lord
