Living Stones in God’s Temple: Ephesians 2:19-22b

SPEAKER 01 : 0:07

Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, and powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:44

Please bring your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 19 through 22. Ephesians 2, 19-22. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians living in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this while he was under house arrest in Rome in about AD 62, and he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers so they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God. We’re now in the middle of our doctrinal section that’s found in chapters 1-3. The call now is God’s workmanship, literally His poem, His masterpiece, is to earnestly pursue good works that honor Him, good works that glorify His name. Paul then told the Ephesians to remember what they once were before Christ rescued them. Why? Because remembering the bad exalts the good and ignites our love for Him all the more. So, the bad is really bad, but the good is oh so very good. And as we saw last week, how Christ brings all who believe, Jew and Gentile, near to Him and gives us true peace and makes us one with Him and with one another and gives us access to the Father and saves our lost, undeserving souls and rescues us from wrath. All that’s incredible because of who He is and what He did on the cross for all who believe. Think about that. Look at what He’s done. Now what? Okay, verse 19. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Now here in this passage, we can note four facts that should greatly encourage all of us in Christ. First, we are no longer strangers and foreigners. Okay, you say, what do you mean, Paul? What do you mean? Doesn’t the Bible teach us in numerous places that we are all indeed strangers and foreigners, pilgrims and aliens here on planet Earth? And yet here you’re saying that we are no longer strangers and foreigners. Isn’t that a contradiction? What’s the answer? No, it’s not, because Christ changes everything. Now, before we were saved, we were strangers and foreigners to God. And we were very much at home in this sinful place. But now that we’ve been saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ, look, we are strangers and foreigners on the earth. And this sinful place is no longer our true home. And again, Christ is the one who changes everything. Paul’s made that very clear up to this point, that while we were spiritually dead to God, and while we belonged to the devil before we were saved, and while we were without hope, and while we were children of wrath, look, God gave us life. He rescued us. He redeemed us. He brought us near to God and gave us access to the Father, and He gave us heaven. Because of what He did on the cross for all who believe on Him in repentant faith. And so because of Christ, here, we are no longer strangers and foreigners to God. That’s what it means. And so now, second, look. We are citizens with the saints and we are members of the household of God. What a change. We’re no longer strangers and we’re no longer foreigners to God, but now we are citizens and members. All because of Christ. Right? Citizens with, think about this, with the saints. Now, that’s pretty good. I mean, that’s incredible. Paul adds that we will be members of the household of God, the family of God. And as amazing and soul satisfying as our citizenship is, hey, being a part of the family of God represents a far deeper intimacy. We belong to God. We are His beloved children. He is our loving Father who cares intimately for us. Look, every earthly family is messed up. Anybody know that? Messed up. We’re all messed up because we’re all sinners. And some of you here right now have come out of some very hard and rough and sinful households. Some here have had terrible fathers, wicked fathers, careless and self-centered sinful fathers. But in Christ, God says, I’m your father now. And I’m good. Good. And I love you more than you could ever think or imagine. And I will never leave you nor forsake you. And I will never let you down. And I will only and always do what’s best for your eternal soul. You are mine. I chose you. Yes, you. I adopted you. I wanted you. And I made you my own. And I will keep you as mine forever. Forever. And while this new race is made up of a bunch of saved sinners, it won’t always be like that. And in glory, guess what? We’re all going to be made perfect. And we have oh so much to look forward to as citizens of heaven and as members of God’s household, as members of God’s family. You’re mine, he says. You belong to me. And he takes that very seriously. Note two things. First note that the apostles and prophets laid, or helped lay the foundation, verse 20. We know that the ultimate foundation is Christ, but the apostles and prophets are foundational to the church. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul spoke of himself as a wise master builder who laid a foundation, but then he went on to say, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. So again, the apostles and prophets weren’t the foundation of the church. Christ is, but they are indeed foundational, and they helped lay down the foundation of the church. So who are the apostles? The word apostle in the Greek literally means one sent forth, and it can generally refer to anyone who is sent forth for a task. However, this word specifically, as used here, is reserved for the twelve, with Matthias replacing Judas in Acts chapter 1, and then with Paul being added in later on. And it was these specifically called out men who were sent forth by Christ himself for the very special and unique ministry of laying down the foundation of the church. Biblically, these apostles were a unique group of men who had a very unique ministry during a very unique time in history. That means that there are no longer any more apostles today, not in the way that Paul uses this term. See again, this was a very exceptional time in history, the time after Christ died and the time before the Scriptures of the New Testament were completed. And in this special period of time, The apostles laid the doctrinal foundation of the church. They received direct revelation from God through the inspiration of the Spirit of God. They were the source of teaching of divine truth and they were able to confirm Their teaching is true by signs, wonders, and mighty deeds according to 2 Corinthians 12.12. And so again, it was all quite extraordinary. And so the apostles had a unique ministry of helping lay down the foundation of the church. And again, there are no more apostles today. Okay, what about the prophets? The word prophet literally means to tell beforehand. And it describes someone who speaks God’s message. Talking about someone who is specially endowed or enabled to receive and deliver direct revelation of the will of God. The Old Testament had many prophets and these prophets were called by God and God spoke to them and they proclaimed what God told them and sometimes that included things that were to come. But please note that Whenever they did that, their prophecies always came to pass because they were speaking the words that God gave them to speak. But while they sometimes foretold future events, the main part of their prophetic ministry was to preach God’s revealed word and to call the people to repentance. There were also New Testament prophets, and several of them are mentioned in the book of Acts as well as in 1 Corinthians and then here in Ephesians. I mean, think about it. The New Testament, which is fully sufficient, the Word of God is fully sufficient for everything that we need. The New Testament was still being written. So how was the young church going to hear from God? How were they going to know really what God wanted them to know and to do and what to believe and how to live and how to organize their church and so on? How? Prophets. Prophets. People who spoke God’s revelation, people who spoke God’s word, along with the ministry of the apostles, who also functioned, among other things, as prophets. See, I believe that all the apostles were prophets, but not all the prophets were apostles. In other words, there were more prophets in the early church than apostles because more prophets were needed as the church was expanding and as the church was growing. Picture it like this. We today have all the revelation from God that we need in His written word, the Bible. All of it. We need nothing more. But in the early church, the prophets functioned as the Bibles for the people in a sense because they were uniquely able to speak God’s word to the people until the Bible was completed with the book of Revelation. So question, are there prophets today? Answer, no. No. No more prophets are needed today now that we have the full, complete, and fully sufficient revelation from God found in His written Word. But in the early church, before they had the completed revelation of God the Bible, the apostles and the New Testament prophets laid down the foundation of the church and we owe much to them. That said, note this, that second, note that Jesus is the chief cornerstone. Of course He is. First, note that throughout Scripture, Jesus is portrayed as a stone, as a rock for His people. Daniel chapter 2 spoke of the Savior to come as a stone. Moses described the Lord as a rock in Deuteronomy 32. And 1 Corinthians 10.4 says that Christ is a rock and that Christ the rock was following the people when they wandered around in the wilderness. He was there with them. Psalm 18.2, The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Verse 31, For who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God? Verse 46, the Lord lives and blessed be the rock and exalted be the God of my salvation. So biblically, Jesus is a stone. He’s a rock for his people. What does that mean? It pictures Christ as our strong one, as our solid foundation, as the one that we can take true refuge in. As opposed to walking on shifting sands, Jesus is our sure and solid foundation where our souls can be safe. One said, who is a rock except our God? Where can I find lasting hope? Where can the soul find rest? Where is stability to be found? Where is strength to be discovered? Surely in the Lord Jehovah alone can we find rest and refuge. That’s right. Psalm 62, 7. In God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is my God. So He is our rock, is our strength, and He’s the one that we can flee to as a safe refuge, Him alone. Isaiah 17 describes God as a rock of our stronghold. Psalm 94 says that God is a rock of my refuge. Psalm 89 and 95 says that God is a rock of my salvation. On and on it goes. And clearly, in a world made of quicksand, Jesus is our rock of deliverance, of stability, of safety, and of refuge. Now look, after the people of Israel were miraculously freed from slavery in Egypt, they wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years because of their sin. There were times where they got thirsty. In Exodus chapter 17, the people had no water, and so like usual, they complained. Under the command of God, Moses then went to a specific rock. He struck the rock with his staff and life-sustaining water came out of that rock. That’s what Christ is for us. He is our rock that brings life to us who are spiritually thirsty and who are spiritually hungry. He’s our rock, our true rock. But not only that, Jesus is also, as Paul says here, the chief cornerstone for the church. That’s an allusion to Isaiah 28, 18 that says, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. That obviously is a reference to the Messiah who was coming, and very clearly, Jesus is that Messiah. Jesus is that chief cornerstone. So, what’s a cornerstone? Well, literally, a cornerstone most often referred to the large stone placed in the foundation at the main corner of a building. In biblical times, buildings were often made of cut, squared stone. And so, by uniting two intersecting walls, a cornerstone helped align the whole building and tie the building together. No cornerstone, then the building pretty much falls apart. See, the cornerstone was also called the foundation stone, and it was the first stone set in the construction of a building. The cornerstone was important because all the other stones will be set in reference to that particular stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Well, what we find is that Christ is indeed the chief foundation stone for the church, the cornerstone on which the whole building depends. The apostles and prophets then built out on the foundation from there. What’s the implication? Well, this, it’s not about being a Jew or a Gentile, and it’s not about your past or your heritage or your race or you. It’s all about Christ. And He makes all of us new, and He’s the one who brings us together. And together, our call is to glorify and honor Him with the precious time that we have left. Christ, it’s all about Christ alone. So forget about all the other junk that sidetracks you and focus together on honoring Him. See, we rest upon Him, but we also totally depend upon Him. We’re measured by Him, not by men. Every dimension we have as a believer has to go back to Christ. He sets the standard and all the growth and all the unity and everything else depends on the cornerstone, on Christ. And if we’re not focused on Christ, we’re in big trouble. Christ alone. But then look, third. The church is a holy temple in the Lord. Verse 21. In whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom refers to Christ. And here we find that Christ is building something of which every Christian is a part of. In 1 Peter. Peter says that Christians are living stones. And here, Paul is very clearly describing the same thing. Look, Paul refers to the church as stones in the temple, but these aren’t dead stones. No, they are indeed living stones because they’re growing into a holy temple. So this is the same imagery that Peter uses where Christians and the church are seen as living stones. See, Christ is building a building and He’s fitting us together. What does that mean? Well, if you look at the Old Testament temple, it’s very interesting to note that when they fitted these massive stones in place, some as big as buses, there were no sounds of hammer or chisel. Why? Why? Because all of that was done in the quarry, every single bit of it. And when they came to putting the stones in place, the stones were absolutely perfect. They fit exactly into where they needed to fit. And they had better because they were so massive and so heavy. And so back in the quarry, they used the chisel and the hammer and the sandpaper to rub off all the rough edges so that when they were fitted, they fit in exactly like they were supposed to fit. That’s a great picture of the Lord fitting us together with one another, so that each stone contributes a vital part to the entire building. See, individual stones aren’t of much value apart from the whole. However, when they’re fitted together, the entire structure becomes a beautiful building, or here, a beautiful temple, where God is worshipped and where God is lifted high. This means that the church is essential, right? Right? That being together and in close relationship with each other is when God truly uses us for His purpose and for His glory. And look, to do that, He has to chip off the rough edges. And it’s often through other Christians that that happens. Anybody know that? Thank you for that. Really appreciate it. Embrace the process. Let God chisel you and let God mold you and let God make you better and let God fit you for His glory. And when you face conflict in the church, be godly and humble about it. And God will certainly use that for your good and for His pleasure. See, as a living stone, I have no choice but to be sandpapered and I have no choice but to be chiseled because right now I’m in the quarry of life, right? We call it sanctification. And while I’m down here, God is chiseling away, often again, using all of you to help do that. And that’s good because I need it. One said, God tests me and proves me and rubs me and scrapes me and chisels me in the quarry so that I’m being fitted. And note that it doesn’t say that you have already been fitted. No, it says that you are being fitted, so there’s a process going on. Again, embrace it. Be humble. Be teachable. Let go of pride. God is doing something in each one of us, building us up individually and together into something beautiful. Don’t fight that good thing. No, go with it and thank God for it. So thank you for chiseling me. Fourth, Christ is building us together. Verse 22, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. One pictured it like this. Jesus is the massive cornerstone and his vitality is causing the stone to glow. Next, a foundational teaching of the apostles and prophets is laid upon and around him. He gives it its shape and stability, and the whole foundation assumes his glow. Then one by one, living stones are set upon it, and they in turn radiate the symmetry of the chief cornerstone, forming a luminous, ever-growing temple. Isn’t that a good picture? It’s a great picture. And we are all in Christ, a part of it, all Jewish believers and all Gentile believers, including the Ephesians and us today. Don’t you see? Like the Ephesian believers, we are no longer foreigners and aliens, but family members of God’s household. The foundation is solid. Christ is the cornerstone. And then the truth of the apostles and prophets that they preached is foundational. And look, God is building something amazing in this dark world in order to fulfill His holy purposes. And we’re a part of that. See, we, all Christians, are the bricks that form the walls of this temple, this house that God is building as it reaches toward heaven and fulfills His divine purposes. I’ve heard people say, I don’t do church. But God says you must. God says you must because we’re in this together. And one lone brick doesn’t make a temple. Right? No. A whole bunch of them being fitted together makes a temple. Right? And note that the church isn’t a physical building, it’s a spiritual reality, and everyone who has been saved is to be a part of that. Yes, we here at Faith Community Church make up a local body of believers, which is very important, but we’re only part of the true church, which consists of everyone who believes, everyone who is saved, everyone who surrenders to Christ in repentant faith, and everyone who loves Him. And while God’s Spirit dwells in each of us as individuals, look, there’s one single house or temple into which every believer is built, Christ’s church. Don’t slight that. Don’t minimize it in how important the church is to God. Don’t treat that lightly because God takes it very seriously. So, be a good stone, right? Hey, you want to be a part of what God’s constructing or what Satan’s constructing? What do you want to be a part of? It’s a privilege to be a part of what God’s building, right? And here we see that we in Christ are part of something truly remarkable, truly incredible. And this life is a time where God does what needs to be done to fit us and to mold us. What a privilege again. Embrace it. Be a good stone. May God continue to add more living stones to His building and may God be pleased with the construction that’s going on in His building as a whole and also within each individual living stone here this morning. Note also that the church is the dwelling place of God the Spirit. Yes, he lives in each individual Christian. What an honor. But we’re also a part of something bigger, the church of the living God, his earthly sanctuary. In saying this, Paul is clearly remembering the entry of the Shekinah glory of God that entered into the tabernacle at the time of Moses. Brightness, the glory of God. He’s also remembering the time when the same Shekinah glory of God entered into the temple in Jerusalem at the time of Solomon. God showed up there, see? His glory was clearly seen. But guess what? Those days of glory aren’t gone. They’re not. God didn’t work among His people only in ancient times. No. He’s still doing it in us and through us, His church, His people. What a privilege. God lives here. This has implications for every stone, for every Christian. Is there sin in the camp? You need to examine yourself. This also has implications for every local church. Is God pleased with this? Is the house, the temple, cleaned up and fitted for the dwelling place of the King of Kings? And then, this has implications for the church worldwide. What can I do? Be a good stone and never take your focus off the cornerstone. Or this, be a part… Connect to the other living stones in the building. Build them up and help smooth over the rough edges too. Come to church. Help the other stones that may be getting cracks. Be a part of the great temple that God is building locally and worldwide. Look, if God takes this so seriously, so should we. We are citizens. We are members of God’s family. We are the temple where he dwells when previously we were strangers, foreigners, pagans, Gentiles who were unsaved, dead, hopeless, lost sinners who were bound fast for hell. Look what God has done. And then respond accordingly. May we all respond accordingly today.

SPEAKER 01 : 24:28

Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on expository truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time. And to find this sermon in its entirety as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. Located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.