The Church’s One Foundation

Introduction

The church is God’s plan for the World

It is not plan B after things went south in Genesis 3 in the Garden

It is not plan C after things didn’t really work out with Israel

The church was God’s plan from the beginning

It was always God’s purpose to glorify Himself by saving a particular people

To show forth His might and power and love and mercy and wisdom in redeeming a fallen people for Himself

Ephesians 3:7–12 “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord

There is nothing in this world of more consequence than the church of God

What is the Church?

There are many ways that the New Testament speaks about the identity of the church

The Greek Ekklesia from Ek + Kaleo called out ones

The Church is the assembly of those who are called out of the World and into God’s kingdom

A term which originally referred to the voting body of a Greek city that were called out of their homes and assembled to make decisions for the city

2LBC 26.5 In exercising the authority entrusted to him, the Lord Jesus, through the ministry of his Word, by his Spirit, calls to himself out of the world those who are given to him by his Father.

The Church is the assembly of the elect

The Church is the people of God

The object of God’s unique love

The Church is the people for whom Christ died

The Church is local congregations of professing believers in Jesus Christ

The outpost of God’s Kingdom in this fallen world

The three analogies that the NT uses to speak of the church that I want to explore this morning are the analogies of the body and the temple

The Church as the temple of Christ

The Church as the body of Christ

The Church as the Bride of Christ

The Temple of Christ

Ephesians 2:19–21 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

1 Peter 2:4–6 “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Biblical Theology of the Temple

The Temple is an interesting theme in scripture and we see it first in the opening chapters of the Bible

Though the word Temple is never used to describe the garden of Eden, it has all of the characteristics of a temple

Garden of Eden

Temples are houses for the gods.

Temples are where men go to meet with their gods and worship their gods.

The Garden was the dwelling place of God

Adam was a priest

Tasked with working and keeping the garden. The same two Hebrew verbs used to describe the duties of the priests in the Tabernacle in

Numbers 18:5–6 “And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting.”

Man was to dwell in God’s presence in peace forever

To glorify God and enjoy Him forever

Indeed this is our purpose and unless we fulfill our purpose, we are miserable and discontent.

And this is the tragedy of the Fall. When man was expelled from the Garden, we were expelled from God’s presence, the source of our contentment, joy, and longing.

And the way back to the presence of God was cut off from mankind.

This is the source of all suffering and sin and tragedy and discontent in our world. We are not where we should be

but it was not the end. The story of the Bible is the story of man’s banishment from the presence of God and God bringing us back again

Tabernacle/Temple

Man fell, and man was far from God until God called Abraham out of his people to Canaan

And then God rescued Abraham’s descendents from slavery, brought them to Sinai and gave them a means whereby they could enter once again into God’s presence

Through the washing of water and the sacrifice of blood God’s people Israel could once again go before their Creator in the Tabernacle

The Tabernacle was to be a copy of the original temple in Eden

The place of God’s dwelling and a sign of His covenant love to them

The Cherubim on the Mercy Seat, guarding the entrance into God’s presence

The colorful, garden like patterns stitched into the veil.

A reminder of what man was created for, where man could find joy, satisfaction, and purpose.

The Tabernacle was a reminder of what man had in Eden, and it was a foreshadowing of what was to come in the church

Meant for Worship

For what purpose was the Temple built?

It was where man could go to meet with their God

For the enjoyment and worship of God.

This is the purpose of the church

Because the church is the true temple of God

God, by His spirit indwells us and makes us, corporately, into His dwelling place here in this world.

In the end, our primary purpose is not to reach our community. It is not to evangelize, it is not to help the needy, it is not to disciple one another.

As important as all those things are.

We are a temple made up of living stones, our primary purpose is the worship of the infinite and glorious God who has created us and redeemed us.

When churches begin to think of evangelism or charity, or discipleship, or mercy ministry as primary and worship as secondary, they begin to shift off their base

Off of their chief cornerstone. This is what has led to such rank pragmatism in so many churches.

If my main goal is to evangelize, then I can justify almost anything that gets people in the doors.

Laser light shows, firetruck baptisms, a free chic-fil-a coupon in every bulletin, dance routines and movies. Whatever is attractive to the world so that they will come and hear the gospel.

Meanwhile, the worship of God is sidelined and becomes a mockery. What are we saving people to? We are bringing them to Christ so that they would see His beauty and sit at His feet and worship Him.

In the fall we were exiled from the glorious presence of our God

Yet in the church, we really truly enter once again into Eden every Lord’s Day through the death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession of Christ.

The main task of the church is worship

When we gather, Christ is with us by His spirit, and we fulfill the purpose for which man was created, fellowship with God and delighted worship in His presence

Until the whole world is made into a temple to our God

The wonderful thing about this living temple that we have become is that it grows.

New stones are continually being added. And it will grow until this whole world is the temple that it was destined to be.

And so John has his vision at the end of Revelation of the holy city Jerusalem descending from heaven to earth and the earth being transformed

The Body of Christ

One of Paul’s favorite analogies for the church is that of the body

Ephesians 1:22–23 “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

Colossians 1:18 “And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”

1 Corinthians 12:27 “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

1 Corinthians 12:18–20 “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”

The church is a living organism made up of many diverse and necessary members

All of God’s people are integral parts of the church

There is no member of any local church who is unimportant

There is no member of the church that does not have some role to play and some ministry to perform

You can live without your toes, but why would you want to?

you may not be the children’s ministry director, you may never step behind a pulpit, you may never play an instrument in worship, but your presence and your labors and your worship and your prayers and your fellowship are needed in this body

Furthermore, when any one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers.

An unhealthy liver affects the whole body, bad teeth affect the whole body

Allowing yourself to fall into sin, to live in unrepentant sin, or to otherwise be cold in your affection to the Lord affects more than just yourself

When you are spiritually unhealthy, that leads to the whole body being less spiritually healthy.

Labor by the grace of God, in the power of the spirit to put your sin to death and to grow in your love for God and his church.

The Church is the means by which God works in this world

This world belongs to Christ, He has been given authority and dominion as the second Adam to bring in the New Heavens and New Earth.

Christ is at work in this world.

He desires His name to be great among the nations, but not just the nations, also to the angels and demons.

He does this through the church.

Ephesians 3:7–12 “[He] created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are His hands and His feet and His mouth in accomplishing His will here until He inherits the nations

The Church must be about the work of proclaiming the gospel

The Church must be about the work of seeing this world transformed

He told us before His ascension that He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and light of His investiture of authority, we are called to disciple the nations.

The Bride of Christ

Finally, the church is the bride of Christ

He loves her, He has given Himself for her, He has redeemed her, he will protect her

Ephesians 5:25–27 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

If Christ so loves His church, how ought we to feel about her?

You are the church, and it is you who Christ loves, it is you for whom Christ will return. Not you individually, but you corporately.

And Christ’s purposes in this world are centered on you entering into eternal bliss with Him, inheriting the New Heavens and the New Earth and enjoying His glorious presence

You, church, are the point.

No matter how dark things seem here, no matter what forces are arrayed against us, we know we will prevail because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the World.

This is Christ’s Church

There is one theme that runs consistently through all of these different analogies that the scriptures use to describe the church.

It is Christ’s church.

He is the head of His body

He is the chief cornerstone of the temple made up of living stones

He is the husband of the bride

He is the Church’s one foundation

The church is His and He has authority over it

2LBCF 26.4 The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church. By the Father’s appointment, all authority is conferred on him in a supreme and sovereign manner to call, institute, order and govern the church.  The Pope of Roman Catholicism cannot in any sense be head of the church; rather, he is the antichrist, the man of lawlessness, and the son of destruction, who exalts himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God. The Lord will destroy him with the brightness of his coming.

all authority is conferred on him in a supreme and sovereign manner to call, institute, order and govern the church

We are not free to make up our own forms of worship, our own doctrine, our own practice

One reason we abominate Roman catholicism is because it more closely reflects the traditions of man than the desires of Christ.

Prayers to the saints, re-sacrificing Christ in the mass, penance, and all the doctrine of salvation by works are all derived from men.

The Popes of Rome thought they were free to make things up on their own since they were the heads of the church, and the abuses and corruption of Roman Catholicism is what we’re left with.

But we can so easily do the same.

Elders are not free to shoot from the hip and make things up as they go along

Just because something seems practical and expedient doesn’t mean it ought to be done.

We are bound to Christ our head who has all authority

He has communicated how he wants His church to be governed in the scriptures

He has told us how he wants to be worshipped in the scriptures

He has told us what our responsibilities are, what our goal is

He has granted us all we need to achieve these goals.

When we look at the church today, we see failure,

Failure to be true to biblical doctrine

Failure to speak the truth boldly in the face of opposition

Failure to live not by lies

And much of it can be traced back to our refusal to acknowledge Christ as the head of His church.

But the church belongs to Him. The Rivers Edge belongs to Him

You are His prized possession. You are His bride, you are His dwelling place, you are His body

You were bought at a price, church. Honor Christ your savior as your head