[message mp3 coming soon]SUMMARY
Construction is a part of who we are as the Church. For our English word Church comes from Kirk which in turn comes from kyriokos, meaning “house of the Lord”. So the Church is the house of the Lord and, like any house, it has to be built.
Now, most major construction projects involve plans, blueprints, and sketches – pictures of what is being built. Well, in the construction work of the Spirit, we likewise have pictures of what is being built. We find some of these pictures in Ephesians 2.19-22.
This passage provides three pictures of what the Spirit is constructing us to be: God’s Kingdom, God’s Family and God’s Temple (see: John Stott, The Message of Ephesians, IVP, 1979). But before we focus on the construction itself, we need to take note of the materials used. What are the construction materials? They are people – human beings. Those whom God has called. Those who believe in and are following after Jesus. And this is a diverse group - from every tribe and nation and people and language – men and women, black, white and everything in between, poor and rich, educated and uneducated, Giants and Patriots fans, Red Sox and … even Yankees fans - all those that God has called to Himself through Christ. Sinners, enemies of God, the lost, broken, blind, deaf, dead – these are the people that the Holy Spirit of God uses in His construction work. People like you and me. Why does the Spirit use such damaged materials? To show that the glory of the Church rests not in the perfection of the original materials used, but in the One who is constructing.
And what is the Spirit constructing? We find the first picture in the beginning of v. 19. The Spirit is forming us into GOD'S KINGDOM. We read, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people.”
Paul’s described the condition of the Gentile people in 2:12: “remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.” That was our condition as well. Apart from Christ, we were enemies of God, alienated and separated from Him - without hope. But now, through Christ, we have been made fellow-citizens with God’s people. But what exactly are we citizens of? We are citizens of God’s Kingdom. And the Kingdom of God is the rule of God. As R.T. France states, “the kingdom of God is not making a statement about a thing called ‘the kingdom,’ but about God, that he is the king. Thus … to ‘enter the kingdom of God’ is to come under his rule, to accept him as king.” Life under the reign of God constitutes a new world-order, a new value system, a new allegiance, a new hope, a new future. The Kingdom is the radical in-breaking of God into history and human lives. So what does this mean to be a part of God’s Kingdom? How can we have all this (new outlook, new hope, new future)? We have it because we belong. To be part of God’s Kingdom means to belong. We were rootless outside of Christ. Now we have stability. We were outsiders, refugees now we are citizens.
The second picture is found in the last part of v. 19: “you are … fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household…” We are GOD'S FAMILY. More than citizens, we are children and heirs. And this reality of being the Family of God affects our relationships in two directions: vertical and horizontal – toward God and toward one another.
First, how does this affect our relationship with God? We have access to God because we are beloved children. John wrote, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3.1). As children we have access and we can therefore, “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4.16). And as children, we have acceptance by God. God draws us near. Because of Jesus, we are not rejected by God, but rather accepted. He runs to us, embraces us, welcomes us in and re-inherits us as His own. And as children, we have affection from God. God loves you. That phrase unfortunately has become a cliché - we print it on magnets and bumper stickers. However, though we throw the phrase around, it is true nonetheless. And, more than, it is the greatest truth you could ever know. We are loved by God. We are God’s beloved. Not because we are particularly loveable, but because God is love and He has shown us His love in Jesus Christ.
Secondly, how does this affect our relationship with one another? It revolutionizes it. In Christ, walls of separation come tumbling down. There is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. In Christ, we are not strangers but brothers and sisters. And as such, we are connected to one another. We are not alone. We are in this thing together. But far too often we rebuild barriers and fail to work together. That is our fault and not God’s plan. For God’s plan is that by the Spirit, we are brought together in the Son to serve the Father as His beloved children.
The third picture is found in vv. 20-22. We are GOD'S TEMPLE: “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” As we look at being God’s temple, I want us to notice first the foundation, then the cornerstone and then the temple itself.
Every building has a foundation. Foundations are critical to building. Whether a building stands or falls is dependent upon its foundation. Ours is a society that is removing foundations and is trying to hold itself up without a foundation. But unlike our modern society, followers of Christ have a foundation – a solid, immovable foundation. That foundation is the truth of God – the Word of God. Paul describes it as the apostles and prophets. This seems to suggest that the foundation is the inspired instruction that came through the apostles and prophets, or in other words, the NT Scriptures. As John Stott suggests, “The church stands or falls by its loyal dependence on the foundation truths which God revealed to his apostles and prophets and which are now preserved in the New Testament Scriptures” (Message of Ephesians, 107).
Essential to the foundation was the cornerstone. The cornerstone was the first stone laid and from it the line, structure and frame of the building was held together. The cornerstone established the building. Christ is the Cornerstone of the Church. We are held together in Him. We rise up, we grow because of Him. He sets our direction. He holds us up. He holds us together.
And in Him we rise, “to become a holy temple in the Lord,” for we are “being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” The Temple was the heart of the nation and the center of worship. The reason for this was that it was the holy place where the presence of God dwelled. Now Paul (and others such as Peter) takes this most sacred place and declares that those who are in Christ are now the real, true Temple of the Living God. God no longer dwells in holy buildings, but in holy people. Christians are, as the Apostle Peter states, “living stones being built into a spiritual house”. And as these stones come together a dwelling place is created – a Temple for the Lord. It is in the People of God, the Church, that the eternal and living God dwells by His Spirit.
So, we have seen the pictures. The Spirit is constructing us to be God’s Kingdom, God’s Family and God’s Temple. Therefore, as the Church, we are: a people formed by God’s rule, flowing with God’s love and filled by God’s presence.
We are a people. The Church is not a building or a program. It is people. Church is not something we go to or are entertained by or bored by. Church is us. We are participants in worship and we are the ministers of the Gospel.
We are formed by God’s rule. As citizens of the Kingdom, Christ’s character is to define our character; Christ’s way is to be our way. God’s rule is our life and joy. For that is our only comfort in life and in death – that we are not our own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to our faithful savior Jesus Christ.
We are flowing with God’s love. As children of God, we are dearly loved. We are shown grace, mercy and compassion. Therefore, we likewise must love. We likewise must show grace, mercy and compassion to others. Love is the defining mark of the Church. A church without love is not a church. If we do not love, we cannot claim to belong to Christ.
And we are filled by God’s presence. How is it that we are formed by God’s rule and flowing with God’s love? Because we are filled with God’s Spirit. God’s power is at work in us – transforming us from what we were into what we were meant to be. And God’s power is at work through us. God uses us to reveal who he is. He uses us to call people to be reconciled to Him. He uses us to minister to others with the love and truth of Christ. The light of His presence is with us and therefore (as I mentioned in the first message in this series) like a lighthouse, the Church draws people in – through danger into the safe haven of Christ; and like a flashlight, we do not just stand there, we go out in search of the lost and broken in order to help bring them to Christ. To be the Temple of God – people of God’s presence is to draw people in and to allow the word of life to go out.
We, the Church, are God’s construction project. As Paul says in v. 10: “we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We are God’s workmanship. The word is poiema – from which we get our word ‘poem’. We are God’s poem; His creation; His masterpiece. His workmanship. For we are being built into a people formed by God’s rule, flowing with God’s love and filled by God’s presence.
SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER
(linked to www.biblegateway.com & www.rca.org)
Context - Ephesians 2.1-22
Children of God - John 1.10-13
Love as defining mark of the Church - 1 John 4.7-21
Belonging - Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1
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