Untitled Sermon (7)

Ephesians 2:11–21 KJV 1900

11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Fitly Framed Together

The phrase “fitly framed together” was in the original manuscript…which may come as some surprise to you…was not written in English…but in Greek. And the 3 words “fitly framed together” were originally one Greek word synarmologeo (syn-harmo low-gayo).

A straightforward definition would simply be to join closely together.

The word is found two times in the Bible and both times it is in reference to the construction of the church.

Here in Ephesians 2:19

and also in Ephesians 4:16

Ephesians chapter 2 Paul uses the metaphor of a building and in Ephesians chapter 4, the metaphor of a human body.

And in both metaphor’s the intent is to communicate the essentiality of the structure of the church and at the center of the church structure is the emphasis that the church only works when there is synarmologeo.

Now…just to let you know that I am starting out deep…using the Greek Lexicon…but the entire teaching tonight is not going to be this deep…just to prepare you for any disappointment that you might experience when it gets less philosophical the longer we go...

But to start and to build foundation…the word synarmologeo is actually the combination of 3 different words...

The first being the Greek word (syn) which means with or together. Speaking in the sense of companionship and relationship.

There are two other Greek words that can also be translated to convey this togetherness…but of the three words, syn is the most intimate .

The remaining port of the word…after the syn is a combination of two words…harmos, which speaks of joint in the body…where things are joined; and lego - which means to lay or to place…and this is speaking of being systematic in the placement…it speaks of being strategic and intentional.

Put those together…A fitly framed together is a church that is intentional about being joined together in close relationships with one another.

I want you to get the image in your mind of a lego structure. I don’t know if you have ever been to a lego store, but generally they have some sort of incredible lego statue or figure constructed....something like this one that is pictured…this particular work, constructed in the Capital of Wales, Great britian was made from over 200,000 lego pieces strategically pieced together.

You have to systematically join those pieces together in order to create the structure.

if you don’t snap them together, and you just sort of loosely lay them there in place, and then you keep adding pieces, the result is that it is going to fall apart.

This is the image that Paul is declaring to the Gentiles in Ephesus. He is providing to them an image of the structure of the church…That the church is to be fitly framed together

The church doesn’t work when it is loosely connected.

And I will say this that God designed it in such away that both the body and the member benefit from the synarmologeo…the body is stronger and the member is stronger.

When all of your organs and appendages are functioning properly, your body functions better and when your body functions properly, your organs and appendages are stronger.

So I want to take those three Greek words that make up this word that defines the structure of the church and apply to them to the church today.

The strength of the church is the synarmologeo…its the body being fitly framed together.

God designed the church to work best together. When you are disconnected from the body, the body is weakened and when the body is weakened, you can’t be as strong as you should be.

I don’t doubt that over the last 3 months, many of you have grown in your individual walk with God. However, I know that none of us can be as strong as God desires us to be when the church is divided.

The body must be fitly framed together. We must be the intentional about being joined together in close relationships with one another.

When the individual members of the body are not firmly fixed together, it simply doesn’t work.

The church…the true church only works with this close bond of relationship. This is more than sitting in the same building together. More than hearing the same preaching together. More than just watching the same online service together.

How many of you know that the Bible commands us to LOVE one another?

Eleven times, the call to love one another appears in the New Testament.

In John 15:12 and John 15:17 Jesus commanded that those that follow him are to LOVE one another.

someone said…well I have to love them, but I don’t have to like them...

There are 2 Greek words that are used in the New Testament to speak of the Love that should be in the church.

The first is Phileo - This is brotherly love…the love of a friend. To care for someone. to have a fondness for...

This Greek word appears 25 times in the New Testament and perhaps the strongest bond that it implies between believers is found in the book of Titus … Chapter 3 vs. 15....

Titus 3:15 KJV 1900

15 All that are with me salute thee. Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.

However, the second word that is used in the New Testament to speak of the Love that should be in the church is the word Agape.

This is an unconditional love…the very love of God.

John 3:16 For God so agape’d the world that he gave his only begotten son.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his (agape) toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

This is the love that we are called to have for one another. There is no passage in the Bible that calls for us to simply have Phileo…friendly love toward one another…but there are plenty that call us to have agape love on for another.

Romans 12, speaking within the context of the the gifts operating within the body, vs. 9…Let (agape) be without dissumulation…(hypocrisy) the NLT says it this way…not just pretend to love others....really agape them.

1 corinthians 13 is the love chapter. We read it at weddings. It is the call to the kind of love that makes relationships work.

Every time you see that word “charity” is the word agape.

John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have agape one to another.

Ephesians 4:1–3 KJV 1900

1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

the structure of the church only works when there is companionship and relationship.

And companionship and relationship only work when the church is built upon the right foundation. (bring up the last slide). In both Ephesians 2 and Ephesians 4 when Paul talks to the church about being “fitly framed together” in both places he talks about the foundation being Jesus Christ.

In ephesians 2 he calls Jesus the chief Cornerstone upon which the building is constructed. In Ephesians 4, he calls Jesus the head, from whom the whole body is joined together.

Jesus has to be the foundation...

If Jesus isn’t the foundation, the church is finished! If we are hoping that what we have in common holds the church together, we are through. If we are hoping our common love for a certain type of music or a certain style of preaching..or even a certain set of values…are what is going to keep this all together…Friends…it isn’t going to happen!

Look at the New Testament church…there was racism in the New Testament church…such strong Racism that Peter and Paul had a showdown over it.

The Apostle Peter had to receive a vision from heaven before he would be willing to go Cornelius and his household to preach to them.

The same preacher that preached the Holy Ghost message on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 were filled with the Holy Ghost had to be rebuked by heaven in order to visit with a Gentile. Boy, the cancel culture of today would have had fun with that.

The Holy Ghost that was given first to the Jews and now there were a group of people that were racially different them they were…people that were pagans that worshipped other God’s than they did…and now they were all being joined together...

The natural instinct is that we are divided over differences…But the New Testament church wasn’t divided…it was united…Because the cornerstone of the foundation was Jesus Christ.

Instead of being divided by their differences, they built on what they had in common.

And over the last 3 months, there have been so many things that could divide the church.

Politically…

Opinions about the virus

Opinions about how we should respond to the virus

Racial strife...

All of these are issues that if we aren’t building on the right foundation can begin to strain those close relationship and disconnect what has been joined together.

The first thing that I want to say to this church is that we must not lose sight of the foundation…the foundation of the church is not Jew or Greek....it is not white or black…it is not republican or democrat....it is not mask or no mask…it is not hoax or pandemic…no the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ....and the moment that we lose sight of that, the building will no longer be fitly framed together.

And we cannot lose that agape…we cannot lose those lego connections…we can’t lose that close companionship and relationship that God has blessed our church with!

The last 3 months have wreaked havoc on the church…the church in general.

Now…Living Hope…this is not meant to be a chastising or a correction…because I would say that Living Hope has been much more connected than the average church...

In the email today, I referenced a statistic, when I stated that most of Christianity stopped viewing their churches livestream after the 4th week of quarantine.

The actual statistics that support that reference were from a survey conducted by the Barna group and the survey found that after the end of March only 40% had watched their churches service online

23% had been watching another church online

And 48% hadn’t watched any church online...

I would say that living hope has done much better than that. According to the attendance records…Living Hope has been much closer to 90% attendance throughout the stay at home order.

So…Im not condemning you…however, all of the various things that have been going on have elicited so many opinions and so many points of view…and us just not being together…that even if you have viewed every streaming minute and been on every zoom small group call…and been here with us the last 3 weeks in-person…the connections have undoubtedly been strained.

Last week, my wife and I went down to Charleston, South Carolina for a few days to celebrate our 23rd anniversary…while we were there we went on a carriage ride tour of Charleston…the tour guide took us past these beautiful houses and pointed out these large saucer shaped plates on the front of the houses....He said they were called earthquake bolts…that on August 31st of 1886, there was an earthquake that registered 7.0 and destroyed the city.

when they began rebuilding, they took these giant bolts and ran them right through the middle of these houses to reinforce them, strengthen them and hold them together in case of another earthquake...

Right now, we need to run some earthquake bolts right through the middle of this church!

Our focus from now through the end of July is going to be “Fitly fraimed together”.

So…even if you watch the services on-line, our focus in going to be strengthening the church...

Everything that we do is going to be aimed at strengthening the agape within the church!

Go through the calendar.

Starting next Wednesday night, we will be resuming in-person services. There will be adult Sunday School in the sanctuary beginning at 7:00.

Go through additional steps we will be taking to ensure safety and sterility of the building.