| Introduction You can see how that is a very apt metaphor for Christ and his relationship to the Church. As a matter of fact, Paul uses three metaphors or images to describe the church in these verses with the construction one being the dominant: · the Church as a commonwealth/country; · the Church as a family; · the Church as a temple building. I. The Church as a Country, 19a. A. As we have seen in previous sermons, the Gentiles (nations – you) become citizens of Israel together with believing Jews (the saints) as they believe in Jesus Christ. B. Being part of Israel means that all who believe in Jesus are part of the covenants made with Abraham, Moses, David, and specially the New Covenant. C. And the most important promise that becomes ours as we are ingrafted into Israel by faith in Christ is that God will be our God and we will be his people. D.The imagery of the Church as a country helps express that God is the Sovereign King who is ruling through Jesus Christ. 1. We owe him allegiance. 2. He has the authority and power of the king to rule us. 3. Therefore, we follow what he says. a. If our king tells us to go to war, we go to war. b. If he tells us to be at peace, we remain at peace or establish peace. 4. These two concepts help us understand the relational side of the imagery of the Church being a country ruled by a benevolent, just, and perfect King. a. Our King tells us to go to war with our sin and be at peace with one another. b. We often do the exact opposite: go to war with one another and be at peace with our sin. c. Brothers and sisters, that cannot be so for our King has commanded otherwise – he only commands what is good. II. The Church as a Family, 19b. A. In the briefest of ways, Paul says that the Church is a family – members of the household of God. B. There is an escalation in connectivity here. 1. Being part of a country connotes a certain level of connection with the other citizens. 2. Being part of a family makes those connections much closer and intimate. C. The Holy Spirit wants us to think of the Church as a family. 1. Sure, as in any family there is the weird uncle and the creepy cousin. 2. Yet, there is a union that is not there with people who are not part of the family. a. That is well pictured in the context of bickering siblings. 1) Siblings may fight, call each other names, even hit each other. 2) But when someone from outside of the family tries to fight one of the siblings, or call him/her names, or hit him/her, watch out! 3) The other siblings come out as a team of highly trained SEALS to defend the one being picked on because only family members are allowed to pick on him/her. b. We understand the image of a family and that is what the church is. D.One becomes a member of this family by being born again into it. 1 Pt. 1:22-23– Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever…. E. Because we are children of God, we resemble God. 1. We are to be holy because he is holy. 2. That's the whole theme of Leviticus and a major part of 1 Peter. 1 Pt. 1:15-16– … but as He who called you isholy, you also be holy in all yourconduct, 16 because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." F. This imagery helps us understand what kind of God our God is. 1. He is the Father kind of God. 2. And not any father, he is a good and loving Father! One example: Ps. 103:11-14– For as the heavens are high above the earth, sogreat is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, sofar has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities hischildren, sothe Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we aredust. G.This imagery also helps us understand how to relate to one another in the Church. 1 Tim. 5:1-2– Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort himas a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity. III. The Church as a Temple Building, 20-22. A. Paul once again escalates the level of connectivity. 1. You can renounce your citizenship in a country. 2. You can move away from your family. 3. But if you are brick or stone in a building, you are literally stuck to the other bricks or stones around you. B. Let's consider the building that Paul is describing. 1. It is clearly a temple because he says so in v. 21b. 2. It is being built, 21a – not complete yet. 3. But foundation is completely laid, 20 – more on this in a moment. 4. The superstructure (the stuff above the foundation) is made of people, 22. 5. This is the longest building project in history for it will only be complete when Jesus returns (the Great Wall in China took 2,000 years). C. The Church has a foundation that cannot be moved – no tsunami, hurricane, or earthquake can destroy it, 20. 1. Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone. a. The cornerstone anchors the foundation – without it the foundation crumbles. b. The cornerstone sets all the angles of the building so that the building will be square. 2. Paul is referring to a prophecy in the book of Isaiah when he says that Christ is the Chief Cornerstone. Is. 28:16– Therefore thus says the Lord God: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily. a. This passage is a prophecy about judgment in the hands of the Assyrians for the unfaithfulness of Israel and hope for the faithful remnant. b. Paul is implicitly saying that a church that is not built on Jesus Christ is building judgment for itself. c. We can also say by way of application that a life that is not built on Jesus Christ is building judgment for himself/herself. 1 Pt. 2:7-8– Therefore, to you who believe, He isprecious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone," 8 and "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. 3. Now, at first glance there seems to be a conflict between what Paul says here and in 1 Corinthians. 1 Cor. 3:9-11– For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you areGod's building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. a. In Ephesians, Christ, the apostles, and the prophets are the foundation, but in 1 Corinthians only Christ can be the foundation. How does that work? b. The apostles and prophets are part of the foundation in that all their teaching is about Christ. c. That being the case, Christ is really the foundation. d. That is consistent with what Jesus said in Mt. 16:18. Mt. 16:15-19– He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealedthisto you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 1) Jesus is building the church upon the apostolic proclamation that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. 2) In that sense, he is building his church on what the apostles and prophets teach about him. "The Church rests on the total unique event of which Christ is the centre, but in which the apostles and prophets, filled and guided by the Spirit, and doing their work in unique closeness to Christ, had an indispensable and untransmissible part." Alan quoted in Skevington Wood 4. At this point, a word about the prophets is necessary. a. It would be nice if these were the OT prophets because then the case for the continuity of the Church in both the Old and New Testaments would be strengthened. b. But alas, these are NT prophets – a couple of reasons: 1) the word prophetscomes second; 2) in 4:11, Paul says that these prophets were given to the church by the ascended Christ. c. So, we see that there is continuity in the church between the Old and New Testaments and there are some discontinuities as well – a tree is not all trunk, there is discontinuity in it. D.Upon Christ and what the apostles and prophets teach concerning him, the Church is being built, 21. 1. Paul mixed the imagery here by saying that the building is growing like a plant or an animal. 2. Regardless, we see that this is a process. 3. And the building that is being built is a temple. a. Not the whole temple but the inner sanctuary. b. That's the place where God makes himself present and people meet with him. c. The Church is the sanctuary of God. 2) The community of people who are being saved and sanctified by the Spirit. "As the God of Israel had once taken up residence in the wilderness tabernacle and later in the Jerusalem temple by his name and his glory, no now by his Spirit he makes the fellowship of believers, Jewish and Gentile alike, his chosen dwelling-place." F.F. Bruce 3) This is a return to the garden where God walks with his people in the cool of the evening. 4. Notice how Paul says that every stone in this temple is being fitted together. a. Tim was telling me this week about his visit to Jerusalem. 1) He said that at the Wailing Wall (the last vestiges of the Jewish temple) people are always putting little notes with prayers in the space between the stones. 2) But they can only do that in between the stones of that were placed there by Zerubbabel and Herod. 3) At the lower level, where the stones were placed there by Solomon, you can't put a note between the stones because they fit together perfectly. b. That's the point Paul is making here: each one of us was hewn perfectly to fit in the Church of Jesus Christ. c. We all fit together as living stones. 1 Pt. 2:5– … you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. d. And as more stones and windows and roof and doors and gutters are added the more the presence of God is known. E. Notice that God dwells in and with the Church now, but there is a way in which the Church is being prepared for him to dwell with her even more closely, 22. 1. The Church is the dwelling place of God and is being built to be the dwelling place of God – I think this will happen at the return of Christ. Rev. 21:1-4– Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God iswith men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and betheir God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." 2. The Church is the kingdom of God and we are in the kingdom now, but there will be a future phase of the kingdom in which God's presence will be more palpable – an even better phase. 3. It is a mistake to put God's kingdom all in the present (as amillennialists do) or all in the future (as dispensationalists do). 4. We must remain faithful to the already and not yet tension that the New Testament presents. I cannot do any better than what James Boice said in his commentary on Ephesians as far as application goes. He says the following. · "First, the stones placed into this great structure are chosen and shaped for their position by God. It is his temple; he is the architect; it is not for us to determine where we will fit in or how." Like the image of the different parts of the human body in 1 Cor. 12. · "Second, the stones are placed into position in relationship to Jesus Christ. They are attached to him; if they are not, they are not part of the building." You may be in this building and not believe in Jesus, but you cannot be in the church without believing in Jesus. · "Third, the stones are of different shapes and sizes, perhaps even different material, and they are employed for different functions. Some serve in one way, some another." · "Fourth, the stones are linked to one another. From where they are placed they cannot always see this; they cannot always even see the other stones. But they are part of one interlocking whole regardless." Stones all over the world. · "Fifth, the stones of the temple are chosen, shaped, and placed, not to draw attention to themselves, but to contribute to a great building in which God alone dwells." Life is not about us. · "Sixth, the placing of each stone is only part of a long work begun thousands of years in the past that will continue until the end of the age when the Lord returns." Thus the Church is built!
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