A Blueprint for the Church

Well hey as you find your seats, go ahead and find your seats and let’s turn to the book of Ephesians. Grab your Bible. Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. And as we have journeyed our way through the book of Ephesians, just in chapter 2 alone we have seen some incredible and rich truth together. We have come face to face with the realization that we are the walking dead. Right? That there was nothing in us that brought us close to Christ. But rather everything in us pushed us further away from Him.

And then we have also seen that only through His saving grace, through His great and rich mercy, we were then brought near to Christ. We were saved from this death. And not only saved from it, but through the peace of God we now have access to God. The dividing wall of hostility has been removed between us and God and one to another so that we have access to the Father in a way that was never possible.

And this isn’t just an access for the Jews. This was an all access pass to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord to have a close and intimate relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ. And today Paul is going to give the Ephesians and by nature us here this morning a summary statement of everything that has happened in chapter 2, everything he has written down, to then say here’s what that now means. Because of everything that we’ve just gone through together in Ephesians chapter 2, in verse 19 he’s going to start saying, “Now what?”

So read with me in Ephesians chapter 2. Start at verse 19. Paul writes, 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. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Here’s the truth I want us to take away this morning. It is this, that we are welcomed into a new home, built on a firm foundation, to be completed as God’s future dwelling place. Let’s unpack that together. We are welcomed into a new home. Look back at verse 19.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Paul is saying in this verse both to Jews and Gentiles that at one time you were outcasts. You were foreigners. Your heritage or your race, your nationality, it meant nothing in the kingdom of God. You did not belong. You couldn’t even get near the border. And Paul is saying that now because of the cross of Christ you don’t just have a travel visa. You are a citizen.

I have a friend. We’ll call him Travis because that’s his name. And Travis was born in Canada but over 16 years ago now the Lord made a path for him to serve in ministry in the United States. And he faithfully responded to that call, but he encountered the spiritual warfare of work visas. And as he continued to work out his calling and follow the Lord, it became clear that the United States is where God wanted him to be long term.

And so he began the long, arduous process of applying for permanent residency. Sixteen-year-long process for him. And just recently it was finally granted to him. Thousands of dollars and countless forms and correspondence with different offices later and he had it. And it’s still not full citizenship. He has to hold his permanent residency for four and a half years before he can then apply for citizenship. But he has access now in the United States that he’s never had before.

And I called him this week and said, “What did that feel like?”

And he’ll say, “I’ll never forget where I was. I was standing alone in my apartment. I got a notification on my phone. And I opened it and it was the notification that it was granted to me. I had permanent residence.”

And he said, “I said out loud, ‘It’s finally over.’”

The wave of relief that washed over him, realizing that the people that he had called family for over a decade and a half all had possibilities that he could never experience. He was always limited to what the work visa said he could do, that he was confined to that. And he felt like he just couldn’t do the things that he was called to do all the time. And now it was finally over. The relief and the peace that washed over him in that moment.

Friends, this is how we should feel a thousand times over when it comes to what is being conveyed here. There is no long, arduous process. There are no fees. In fact, Christ paid every single thing that was due so that you could now have access that was never possible before. Because Christ paid it all, you and I are full citizens of the kingdom of God. But not just citizens, family members. Citizen, that’s one thing. Family, that’s a whole other thing.

I mean we can look around our world and realize that just because we’re all citizens of the same country does not mean that there is any relational intimacy. We can be completely separate from each other. But here Paul is taking it a step farther and saying that our citizenship in this kingdom of God equates us to the family, to the household, of God. You are no longer just a tourist in a place you don’t belong. You are adopted as sons and daughters and given a key to the house. Not just a transfer of location, but a brand new identity.

What a joy! What a joy this is. Being in the family of God is an incredible gift to us. And the implication that this has on the church is something that we must fight to protect, that the understanding that all who enter in if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then the church is your family. And family brings both privilege and responsibility.

When you walk through the door of my house as a guest, you are treated like a guest. Meaning I’ll cook you a wonderful meal. I’ll make you a great cup of coffee. We’ll have conversation. I will entertain you to the best of my ability. But there is an understanding that at some point you will leave. And you can come back the next week and we’ll do it all over again. That’d be great. But there’s an understanding that you’re not going to live there.

And if we were there in that moment and you said, “Hey, can I spend the night?”

Like ok, we’d have to know each other or maybe you just need a place to crash. And that’s fine. I’d love to do that for you. But if you just kept staying and then you were like moving things in and you hung your clothes in my closet and your mail started showing up, like ok, we’ve gone a little far here.

Like you were a guest but now you’re acting like a family member. But are you bearing any of the responsibility of the family? Are you paying rent? Are you doing the dishes? Are you mowing my yard? Are you please raking my leaves? That’s anybody. If you’re a guest just come rake my leaves. That’d be awesome. So many leaves.

I want to challenge you on this church. If you have embraced Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are saved by grace and you are coming and you are feasting on the Word every week and you are enjoying the amenities of things like Gospel City Kids and events that we host and Core classes or whatever, can I ask, are you just enjoying the privileges of the house or are you bearing the responsibilities of the family?

Galatians 6:10 calls us. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially those who are of the household of faith. Those words “do good” imply an act of service, giving of ourselves serving the household of faith, the family of God.

Can I be honest with you for a second? Can your pastor share his heart? Can I be vulnerable and transparent? Can we have that moment where you realize I’m not perfect? A long time ago when I was dumb enough to do something like this. So like a week ago. I was in this moment where you know, you just have days where you’re just done for the day. Right? Like I was talked out, thought out, just out.

And so I’m coming home and I’m just not in a great mood. I’m just kind of like, can we stop this day and start over tomorrow? But I’m trying to be cordial to everyone in my house. You know, I’m not being mean, but I’m just kind of grumpy. And so we’re kind of getting near the end of the night and we’re doing the things that we need to do to kind of close the house down, clean it up. Dinner and snack and you know, taking care of kids and just kind of putting everything away.

And there this was this moment where my wife is like, you know, holding one kid and bringing another kid along and all the trash from snack and everything. And she’s like coming over and I think I like decided in that moment that I should reorganize my coffee mugs, like something totally unhelpful. But I was like, oh, this will be good. Like right now I’ll start this project.

So she’s doing all that and she gets to the trash and I look over and the trash is overflowing. And so she has this trash and she just kind of sets it on top of the trash and then like walks away from it. And I’m like, uh.

And in that moment I had a choice, and I chose wrong. Right? So I’m like ok. So I go over to the trash and you know, you do the thing where you like shove it down and pull it up and you’re like shimmying it out of the trash can to get it out and tie it. And I stomp over to take it outside. And as I’m leaving I say, “I guess I’ll do everything.”

See? Wait. if you all had been there like a studio audience with that type of reaction, that would have helped me a lot. Because I may have realized in that moment, “I dont’ think I’m thinking about this right.” But you know, you weren’t there.

So I take it out to the trash and I’m in all my righteous anger. And I come back in and my wife, my beautiful, gorgeous, blazing wife is standing there. And she’s looking at me. I was expecting a look of like sympathy, apology, like gratitude. You’re amazing. Thank you so much for doing that. It wasn’t that. That was not the look. It wasn’t like anger or rage. It was quizzical, questioning. She was curious.

And she didn’t scream at me, yell at me, fight with me, anything. She said one word. And I think it was a question but it sounded like a statement, which is a spiritual gift women have. And she just said, “Everything?”

And it was in that moment that the Lord said, “Listen to your wife. It’s a good thing.” And I realized I had been thinking about this wrong. I had thought that oh, I carry so much weight. How dare I have to take out the trash in this moment? I forgot that my responsibility was to my home first and foremost. As a member of the family I have responsibilities. And even though I have responsibilities at work, work is not my home. Even though I have responsibilities to other things like hobbies or things that the kids are involved in, those things are not my home.

And if all those other responsibilities are taking precedence over or not leaving me with any margin for the responsibilities that I have to my home, something is wrong. Now hear me. I’m not equating your church family with your biological family. I am not saying that if for a season of your life you’re having to choose between your physical, personal family or the church family, please choose your personal family. Because healthy families make healthy churches.

But if that is the norm for you, it’s a lot like your budget. If you’re constantly overspeeding, it’s time to look at the budget and ask, “Where are we missing it?” Because the church is a priority.

If you consider yourself a member of this church but you feel no responsibility to it- “Take it or leave it; I’ll come when I want to”- something is wrong. And as a pastor I feel this. I sense this. Because Paul later writes in Ephesians 4 that the role of church leaders is not to do everything but rather to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the Body of Christ. That is not a delegation so that I can sit with my feet up. That is a work that God has called me to do is to help members of the house throw in.

And so this work of building is, yes, a responsibility. But also church, it is a great privilege. There is something amazing about watching God work and move through the service of all the members of the house rather than just a few. When we are all giving and pouring in, there is more glory that God receives. And the only way the church is built through this, building itself up in love, is because we are standing on the right foundation, because we are welcomed into a new home that is built on a firm foundation. Look at verse 20.

Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

Now you don’t need to know much about construction or buildings to know that the foundation matters. Right? Every home I’ve ever walked through in considering whether or not to buy this home, like you get to the basement and I just start asking questions because I know you’re supposed to. Like, “How’s the foundation? There’s a crack over there. Is that in the foundation? Or what’s going on with the foundation?” Right?

And I don’t know. They could actually be like, “They had the foundation cleaned and replaced in 2015,” and I’d be like, “Great, you should do that every so often.” That’s not how that works. Right? But I’m like, “Yeah, sure, foundation; it’s an important part of the thing.” Because we all understand that what you build upon will affect everything else. If the foundation is bad, the rest of the house can be amazing but it will crumble.

So he’s making the point to all believers here that the foundation is set and it is solid because of Christ Jesus. Without Him we have nothing. But because of Christ, because Christ is the cornerstone, we also have the foundation that’s been laid by the New Testament apostles and prophets. The apostles being the twelve disciples and Paul commissioned by Jesus Himself. And then the prophets, those that are delivering and sharing God’s Word with the early church.

And once the New Testament writings were finished, the foundation was laid. It was complete. And now we are being built up on that foundation with confidence that if we stand firm on it, we will remain true and correct. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 3: According to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:10)

Church, be watchful and aware of anything that is being presented to you lest it start to chisel away at the foundation that has already been laid. The foundation is set. There is no room for secular ideologies and philosophies of the world. There is no room for the idolatries of other religions. There is no room for the false doctrines of progressive and liberal Christianity when we understand that the foundation is Jesus Christ. Not your feelings or your desires or your personal interpretations of Scripture. Jesus is the beginning and the end. It starts with Him, ends with Him.

This foundation is because He put the Spirit of God into the apostles and prophets to write it so that as I stand here this morning I’m not laying a new foundation. I am merely building upon what has already been laid. And if you don’t like it or I don’t like it I will sleep just as soundly tonight because it’s not about me. It’s all about Jesus the cornerstone.

And the point of the foundation is that it would be built upon. Jesus Christ didn’t come and die and rise again so that we could recognize Him as the true cornerstone and then just stop there. Rather His purpose in doing that He could showcase His glory to the world through us as we are constructed into a dwelling place for the Lord.

So question: are you being built on the right foundation? In Matthew 7, Jesus gives us an amazing illustration and says that if anyone hears my words and does not do them, he is like a man that built his house on the sand. There’s no integrity there. It will fall at the first sign of trial and tribulation. But rather, if you hear His words and do them, you are the wise man who built his house on the rock. And the winds came and the floods came and the winds blew, and the house stood because it was founded on the rock.

Listen, this is a question for every believer individually, but it is also together as a church. Are we being built together on the right foundation? Are we trying to make much of the name of a church, of a pastor, a style or trend, or is our foundation rock solid on Jesus Christ with the end goal in mind of becoming a dwelling place for God? If our reason to gather every weekend is not so that God would inhabit the praises of His people, we are missing it.

And it’s so easy for things to start to creep in. And let’s pursue this and go after that thing. And it takes us off the foundation, and we start building things on sand that will crumble. But that thing that is built on Christ will last forever, because we are welcomed into a new home built on a firm foundation to be completed as God’s future dwelling place.

Verse 21: He says, In whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

I love how Paul is mixing his metaphors here to make a point. The structure built together, it gives us a picture of the way things are built with materials, a building coming together. And then he says the word “grows”, which is something that is alive. It’s what plants, it’s what bodies do. I’ve never seen a building grow organically on its own.

So Paul is calling us to not only think of the implications of what this means through the visualization of a building being built up, but also the way something grows and is alive and is fed and is nurtured, and it starts to become something more. It implies that there is a process, a period of time, where this thing will develop until it is fully matured. After the foundation of Christ as the cornerstone, after the foundation of the apostles and prophets where the structure is being joined together, it is growing into what? Into a holy temple, a dwelling place for God.

There’s a calling on everyone who believes in Jesus Christ to grow in holiness. 1 Peter 2:5 says, 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.

Living stones puts just this crazy imagery in my mind. Can you imagine walking out into your landscaping and the same way your plants grow, your rocks grew? Right? After a hard rain the little pebbles that you filled that garden bed with are three times the size. That’s just so…we don’t get that. That doesn’t make sense to us. But the writers of the New Testament are implying that the way you’re being built into this house, you are still a living, breathing thing and you are growing in Christ. Paul is going to expound upon this a little bit in Ephesians chapter 4 when he writes this: We are to grow up in every way into him that this the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:16)

This is what we are in this church age, the present time. Gospel City is being referenced here in this verse. And the point stands church that as we pursue holiness it is an active thing that you do as a living stone. You don’t get saved, transferred into the house of God and then just stay where you’re at. The building is continuing to grow. It’s being built up and you need to expand and grow with it to hold the weight of holiness.

If you look back on your life a year from now and you are not different, something is wrong. If you are in this present moment and you look back on where you were before you were saved and you have not changed much, something is wrong. We should be looking more like Jesus every single day. Not a competition, not a legalistic metric of doing these ten things every day and that’s what makes you grow. But rather a pursuit in our hearts of holiness. Do I actually want to be more like Christ?

And we need to understand that while each believer in Christ has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as 1 Corinthians 6 clearly says, there is also the church, the gathering of God’s people where God’s presence chooses to manifest itself now and in the age to come where it will reside permanently. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you’re a part of something much bigger than yourself.

And there is something that happens when the people of God gather together that cannot happen by yourself. That’s why we think this matters, that the gathering matters. That’s why we spend time in worship together. Because when you sing the truth of who God is, it encourages a brother or a sister next to you. It builds their faith. When you serve it blesses others and encourages them in their faith to be built up in love.

When you pray, it brings hope and healing over someone’s life. And when you hear God’s Word that informs your doing of God’s Word, you can live sent so you can go bring some more stones into the house. All that it would be built up so that together we would be a dwelling place for God.

SPLIT HERE

God’s desire is that we would be joined together, we would be built together into His dwelling place. And this is not a one time occurrence. It is a continual process of being built, as verse 22 says. It is an active phrase. It is still happening. God didn’t build once and end. He is building currently His church.

And when we talk about buildings being built, my mind naturally goes to blueprints. And if you didn’t know, in 2011 Gospel City Church joined together with a local church in this community. Anybody know the name of that church? Cornerstone. Cornerstone Community Church.

And years before that moment, there was a time when a local group of believers were being built in the Lord. And Pastor Russ Fish for a time was building upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone. And then they started to pursue a faith project of building a church. And through the Lord’s provision and faithful givers and men like Dr. Dan Kletzing giving land, this became a reality. The building of Cornerstone Community Church was God continuing to build His kingdom through this local church.

And you can imagine just the joy that was felt as they saw this become a reality. The space to gather and worship, the space to do ministry to children and students and offices for their pastors and leaders to help equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And then in 2011 Gospel City and Cornerstone joined together and this building needed to grow because God had been building His church. And so for the next nine years as Gospel City was faithful to stay on the foundation that Christ had already laid, the church continued to grow. And expansions were made throughout those years.

And then in the summer of 2020 this became a reality for Gospel City. And so you can see here this original kind of section of what was originally Cornerstone Community Church and how God has added on space to disciple thousands of children, how God has added places for more and more leaders to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and then a beautiful place for the living stones to gather and to bless the Lord. And this is a physical representation of what God has been doing spiritually in the lives of the believers who gather. Represented in those blueprints is the same truth that Paul is trying to convey to the church at Ephesus and what we need to take heed of now, that the church is God’s blueprint for expanding His kingdom.

And this building face, the emphasis of our church is not how big of a physical building we can build or what type of ministries we can start or how much money we can give away. It is the purpose of the church to pursue holiness together and share the love of Christ with others. If we focus on those two things, if we aggressively root out sin in our own lives, if we’re not afraid to call it out in others, actively pursuing holiness as God is holy. And then if we choose to live sent and tell those in our community how God has changed our lives, how the love of Christ has completely altered our eternity, the church will continue to grow and expand. And this is happening all over the world. Gospel City Church itself is building a dwelling place for God as much as it is one stone in an amazing, awesome, cosmic temple that is being assembled right now.

And so until every corner of the world has been reached, until this expansion has grown to reach every tribe and nation and tongue, we will continue to pursue holiness and sharing the love of God with others until we are in the dwelling place of God, the holy temple that will be complete. It won’t be confined to land or zoning or budgets or construction timelines. It will be established forever on the cornerstone of Christ. And the living stones of all the saints and members of the household of God and we will finally see that the purpose of all of this is for God to finally dwell with His people.

Since the beginning of time, God has been establishing His dwelling place. From the Garden of Eden where He walked with His people until sin, to the tabernacle where His presence would descend like a cloud and rest until sin. And then in Jesus Christ Emmanuel, God with us, His presence until sin. And we nailed Him to a cross. And now in this age He gives us the church to come with His people, pointing us to a future day that we look to with great fondness, hoping and praying that it comes sooner than we can expect.

In Revelation 21:3 it gives us this promise. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God.

Come Lord Jesus. If that’s something that you’d desire church, would you stand and pray with me for it to be so? Father, we are Your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, to be built up in love so that we would start to resemble a holy temple, so that the dwelling place of God would be a place where the world looks and sees that Your presence is all that makes us distinct.

So Lord, as we continue to build upon the foundation of Chrsit Jesus, God would You help us to stand firm? Would You help us to build one another up in love and good works? To look at one another as a brother and a sister of the same household with the same access, both pursuing holiness, one not further than the other, but all dependent on Jesus as our saving grace in our lives.

And so Lord, as we root out sin, as we come again and again to the altar and we declare that Your holiness is more than ours will ever be, but Lord, we pursue it with all that we have and we ask God that You would continue to come and put your mark on our church, God, that the physical blueprints would not be the only thing that people look at and say, “What a great building that they built.”

But they would look and they would see a people that are different than the rest of the world. And God, that everything in us would scream and cry, “God, come and dwell among your people. Your presence is more than enough for us. We are Your people. You are our God. make us holy like You are Lord Jesus, we pray in the power of the Spirit on the foundation of Jesus Christ, amen and amen.