The Lord Builds His Church

Ephesians 2:19–22 AV

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

In tonight’s message, I want us to consider the church as God’s construction project. He built it by gathering, defending and preserving his people in the name of Jesus Christ.

Of all the books in the New Testament, Ephesians has one of the loftiest themes. Its theme is God’s eternal purpose for the church through Jesus Christ.

Fellow Citizens and Family

Throughout the book of Ephesians, Paul describes the church using the most exalted terms. Just in chapter 1 alone, he says that we are the adopted sons of God (v. 5), a purchased possession or treasure (v. 14), his inheritance (v. 18), and his body (v. 23). This continues into chapter 2, where he lays out how we have been transformed from being dead in our trespasses and sins to being alive with Jesus Christ. He calls this an act of divine grace, a work that only God could do. In fact, we are trophies of redeeming grace. Verse 10 says:

Ephesians 2:10 AV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Even our faith and obedience contribute nothing. Why? Because both are gifts from God. Faith allows us to lay hold of Christ, and our good works are its fruit.

No human being has a right to the grace of God. Even in the Garden of Eden, Adam had no claim on God other than the promises that God had given him. That’s all Abraham had, too, as well as David and all the saints of old. The Ephesians had even less of a claim on him. Paul reminds them of this in verses 11 and following. He says that they were Gentiles and not members of the covenant community. They had not been nursed on the hope of forgiveness and salvation. On the contrary, they were uncircumcised, without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants. As such, they had no hope and were without God in the world.

This is what the Ephesians had been. It’s what they were by birth. But by the grace of God it’s not what they had become. Look how our text begins. Verse 19 says,

Ephesians 2:19 AV

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

They had been transformed by the blood of Jesus Christ. His work on the cross brought them into a wonderfully sweet and precious fellowship with himself. It gave them peace when they had previously been at war. It made them alive, raised them up to a vital union with Jesus himself and seated them in heavenly places.

And please pay careful attention to the description of the Ephesians’ new standing before God. It’s important because most of us here today, perhaps all of us, are Gentiles by birth. Gentile Christians are not second-class citizens in the kingdom of God. We receive far more than the crumbs that fall from the master’s table, as a Canaanite woman once said to Jesus (Matt. 15:27). We are fellow citizens, having the blessing of full citizenship among the people of God. And we’re not just citizens with a loose connection to each other and to the one who rules over us, but we’re also members of God’s household — his sons and daughters, born of his Spirit through his Word, and yet adopted by grace. John wrote,

John 1:12 AV

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Yes, we can even address God in the most intimate way: we call him Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). This is what God has done for us.

The Holy Spirit gave us verse 19 of our text so that we can actually live as fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s family. We don’t have to worry about our status. We can look to Jesus Christ and his redemptive work to give us everything we need for life and godliness, casting our cares on him with the assurance that he cares for us.

The Foundation and Cornerstone

Paul’s description of the church gets even better in the next two verses. In verses 20 and 21, he changes the figure of speech again. Here he says that the church is an holy temple in the Lord.

What does this mean? The word temple implies many things in the Bible, but in our text it seems to designate God’s residence. When King David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, the Lord said, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? (2 Sam. 7:5). An even greater manifestation of this principle came in the incarnation, when the second person of the Trinity assumed a true and complete human nature to dwell with his people. As our Immanuel or ‘God with us,’

John 1:14 AV

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

And because of Jesus’ work, the eternal God is also pleased to dwell in us. We are his temple. First Corinthians 3:16 says,

1 Corinthians 3:16 AV

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Now, the fascinating thing about this, which we see both in our text and in 1 Corinthians, is the word translated temple. The New Testament uses two different words for temple. One word refers to the whole complex of buildings that surround the holy place, including the courtyards, the porticos, storage areas, living quarters, and so forth. That’s not the word used in these two verses. Rather, Paul chose a word (ναός) that specifically designates the temple proper — the holy place and the holy of holies. It’s where sins were forgiven symbolically when the high priest sprinkled blood on the mercy seat. It’s where God assured his people that their sins had been forgiven in anticipation of the Messiah yet to come. The temple’s holiness is paramount.

At this point, we have to ask ourselves a very important question: are we a fit dwelling-place for a God who is absolutely holy, without any hint of wickedness? And the answer, if we look only at ourselves, is painfully no. In fact, we can never achieve worthiness because all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6), as Isaiah said. And didn’t Paul explicitly exclude our efforts when he wrote these words just a few verses before our text: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:9)?

The church is never built on our accomplishments. That would be an incredibly shaky foundation. It would be worse than the foolish man who built his house on sand only to have it come crashing down (Matt. 7:26–27). Yet, too many so-called preachers of our day try to build on the sandy foundations of feelings, worldly philosophy, Marxist economics, evolutionary models, modern “social justice,” self-help therapies, and just about any other idea that comes screaming down the pike. Yet, none of them is strong enough to bear the load.

Well, then, what’s the answer? There’s only one foundation. The apostle Paul tells us what that one foundation is: the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Let’s make sure we understand exactly what this means. It doesn’t mean that the church is built on the apostles’ and prophets’ personalities or cleverness or charisma. They were mere men just like we are. Moses disobeyed God when he struck the rock in the wilderness, instead of speaking to it (Num. 20:1–13; cf. Exod. 17:1–7). Peter tried to rebuke Jesus (Matt. 16:21–23) and later denied him three times (Matt. 26:75). And even if we excuse these lapses of judgment based on the fact that they occurred before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, what shall we say of his hypocrisy in Galatians 2?

No, when Paul says that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, it can only mean that the church is built on their inscripturated Word, which is God’s Word. The Holy Spirit moved them to write eternal and unchanging truth without error (2 Pet. 1:21). In fact, the Bible is so much the Word of God that the Bible itself declares that the apostolic and prophetic word is God’s breath (2 Tim. 3:16).

And what is the heart and kernel of their message? Is it not the gospel of Jesus Christ — the proclamation of his victory over sin and death and hell? It tells about his substitutionary death on the cross for our sins and his victorious resurrection from the grave. It’s a message of forgiveness and hope and everlasting life.

From beginning to end, the Bible is about Jesus Christ. A Welsh Presbyterian by the name of William Evans put it well when he said,

Cut the Bible anywhere and it bleeds. The blood of Jesus stains every page.… The atonement is the scarlet cord running through every page in the entire Bible; it is red with redemption truth.

So, ultimately, Jesus Christ is the church’s foundation. Paul wrote,

1 Corinthians 3:11 AV

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

In our text, he calls him the chief corner stone because his person and work are the indispensable reality that holds everything together.

You see, this is the message that men, women and children must believe in order to be saved. It’s the message upon which this church is built and which it must proclaim to the surrounding community. God gathers his people together to seek his grace in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Growing in Holiness

Thankfully, the Lord isn’t done with his building yet. By his Spirit, he still gathers his people out of our fallen race. That’s what Paul wrote in verses 21 and 22. The words fitly framed and groweth are in the present tense, testifying to the Lord’s ongoing activity — a work that continues to this very day. Thus, the church must always be in hot pursuit of its God-given mission. It must be militant. It must wage war against darkness and unbelief and sin under the banner of its sovereign King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And get this. Every single one of you has a part in this. That’s what Paul wrote just a couple chapters later. In verse 16 of chapter 4, he compares the church to a human body, in which each part contributes to the body’s overall health and well-being. He writes,

Ephesians 4:16 AV

From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Now, if you’re wondering what this means, let me explain. The Word of God is not just the foundation for the church’s corporate life, it’s also the foundation for the life of every individual member. Every believer should know the contents of the Bible and how its story of redemption unfolds to be best of his or her ability. The puritan John Bunyan is a good example of what I mean. Listen to how Charles Spurgeon once described him:

Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress — that sweetest of all prose poems — without continually making us feel and say, “Why, this man is a living Bible!” Prick him anywhere — his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God.

Wow, what a testimony to Bunyan’s knowledge of and love for the Word! We also must be people of The Book. Paul wrote,

2 Corinthians 3:2 AV

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

Are you a living Bible, a moving and breathing mouthpiece of gospel truth? O, that we would all aspire to such!

This is what it means for the church to be an habitation of God through the Spirit.

I’ll close today with a contrast. The gospel that many preach today pictures God as a careless tourist. He gets into his car with no particular destination in mind. As he travels, he helps someone here and another person there. More often than not, those he wants to help turn him away, and he can’t do anything about it. So, he just continues his journey, hoping that the next person will be more receptive.

But the Bible in general, and Ephesians in particular, makes it clear that God is not a careless tourist. He has always had a grand and glorious purpose for the church, and his sovereign will guarantees that the church is and will be exactly what he wants it to be. Instead of a careless tourist, the apostle says that God is a wise master architect. He’s building the most glorious edifice ever on the shed blood of his Son. Though he pronounced his original creation good, his new creation is even better because there’s not the slightest chance that it will ever fail. On the contrary, it displays his glory and grace in a way that no other part of creation can.

With this glorious vision, we preach the gospel. With it we plant churches wherever and whenever we can. Why? Because we believe that God has an eternal purpose for his church, and that he works in and through his people every day to move the whole universe toward that glorious goal. Amen.