Your Place in God’s Temple
By Pastor Matt Black
25
February 2007
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 2:21
Introduction: Open your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The title of this morning’s message is “Your Place in God’s Temple”. Let’s stand together and read Ephesians 2:19-22.
Ephesians 2:19-22, “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: 22 In whom ye also are [being] builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
Introduction: The Bible tells us about ourselves. The Bible is not a book about how much man loves God, but a book about how God in spite of all our ugliness loves us and brings us to Himself by substituting Himself for our punishment! One thing is clear when you read the Bible: man is totally out of place and out of step. It is everywhere in the Bible.
Paul tells us that “no man seeketh after God” (Romans 3:11).
Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.”
Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 7:20 that “there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.”
Listen to the words of Job. He testifies that “the heavens are not clean in his sight. 16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?” (Job 15:15-16).
Isaiah tells it like it is in Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
But God loves to walk into a hopeless situation and turn it around. God is all about giving us “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:3).
Transition: This is an amazing passage of Scripture. If you look at the entire context of it, it is all about making nothing into something—taking unworthy sinners, and putting them together as a place for God to dwell in. What an amazing change of destiny!
I. First there needs to be a transformation before the building of God’s Temple can take place. We read in verse one that we were dead in trespasses and sins, but a Christian goes from that state of misery and emptiness to a place of fullness. His cold heart of Winter is melted, and Spring comes! Verse 19 tells us, ““Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;” What a transformation! What a change in destiny!
Luol Deng Illustration: I recently have read an interesting article about the starting power forward on the Chicago Bulls. I’m not very much into sports, but the story of Luol Deng caught my attention. Luol is a native of the Dinka tribe in Sudan where civil war has gone on for almost a century. When he was 4 years old, his father Aldo, a member of the Sudanese parliament, moved the family to Egypt to escape the Second Sudanese Civil War. Later on they were granted asylum in Great Britain, and later moved to the USA. Luol’s basketball skills seemed to come out of nowhere, and before he knew it, he was drafted at No. 7 in the 2004 NBA Draft. Never in Luol’s wildest dreams did he ever imagine he would be starting for an NBA team. He went from one the most poverty stricken and war torn nations in the world in the world to become one of the richest and most successful people on the planet, and he is only 21 years old!
That sounds like a huge change in destiny, but we as Christians have had an even greater redirection. We were once part of the Kingdom of Satan, and now we have been translated into the Kingdom of God! We were foreigners and strangers, but now we are fellowcitizens with the saints. Paul calls us the temple of the God! Before we were controlled by the prince of the power of the air, but now God is putting us together as a magnificent temple for Him to dwell in!
Paul says it clearly in 2 Corinthians 6:16, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Application: Has there been a transformation in your life? Can you point to a time when you obeyed the Lord’s command to repent and turn away from all your sins and depend on Him alone for life now and in eternity?
Can you point to a “line of demarcation” that clearly defines the point when you went from being “dead in trespasses and sins” to being “raised up with Christ… and seated in heavenly places”? Do you have a new foundation? Is Jesus Christ the “chief corner stone” of your life? If not, what are you living for? What are you hoping to get in life? Even if you get everything you want out of the life (fill in the blank), if you don’t have your sins taken away at the end, you will have wasted your life, and you will waste away and be forgotten and alone for all eternity.
If you are a Christian you have been transformed! You are a “new creature” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). But it doesn’t stop there. There is a transformation, we are “no more strangers and foreigners” we are part of the “household of God” (verse 19). If you are a believer, then Jesus Christ is the “chief corner stone” of your life (verse 20)!
Now look at verse 21, where we will spend the rest of our time this morning, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:”
II. So secondly we see there is a new Atmosphere for you in God’s Temple. We are all fitly framed together “in Him” that is, “in Christ”. The Christian life is all about being in Christ. What is the atmosphere in your life?
Atmosphere is important. Atmosphere changes everything.
Illustration: If you take a fish out of water, what happens to the fish? Atmosphere is important!
Have you ever gone into a nice restaurant, and the only table available was smoking? Atmosphere is important!
I can remember when Jill and I were courting. We were going to college and Jill was 500 miles away in Pensacola Florida. I can remember as a Senior, we had one week where we could take off school and look for a job opportunity. It didn’t take me long to decide that I was going to look for work in Pensacola, Florida! I don’t remember what I applied for, but I do remember walking into the foyer of the Girl’s dormitory. Suddenly Jill walked in the room. The whole atmosphere changed. All the air was immediately sucked out of the room. It didn’t matter what was going on in the world, everything at that moment was right!
Application: What is the atmosphere of your life? Is Christ your chief corner stone? Is everything in your life directed toward Him? Do you want to know something? You are seated in the heavenlies. That ought to change the atmosphere in your life. Jesus says, “I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3). There is coming a day if you are a believer when you meet Jesus either through death or you will be caught up to meet Him in the air. Boy, talk about a change in atmosphere!
The thing about a Christian though is the atmosphere of His life changes immediately. That’s why Paul gives us the put off, put on principle in Ephesians 4. You ought to be walking in the Spirit and groaning after heaven continually. As you do that, the Lord will seize you with conviction about things that do not please Him. What are some things in your life that please God right now? What are some things that displease Him? Write them down. Bring them to the Lord. Put off the old man. Put off the deeds of the flesh. You are “in Christ”!
Look again at verse 21, where we will spend the rest of our time this morning, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:”
Transition: So we see there is a transformation, a change in atmosphere.
III. Thirdly there is an new Association for you in God’s Temple. Paul says in verse 21, “all the building” is “fitly framed together”. There is a sense in which you are now not the lone ranger. There is no “only child” in God’s family.
Explanation: If you are saved you are part of a new community, a new family, what the Lord calls “the household of God.” In a household, every one must take care of the needs of one another.
Application: One of the saddest things for me about our churches, is that it is so easy to “play church”. It is so easy to show up Sunday after Sunday and really not get to know anybody. Listen, church is a place of accountability and encouragement. If you are a Christian, your life ought to be lived out serving one another. That’s not a suggestion, that is a command from God.
Listen to the words of Jesus in John 15:12. “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
Think of the “one another” verses in the Bible…
Romans 12:10, “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;”
Romans 14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Romans 15:14 tells us we are to “admonish one another.”
Galatians 5:13 tells us that we are to “by love serve one another.”
Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another‘s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Ephesians 4:2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Colossians 3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Colossians 3:16 goes on to tell us we are to “admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
1 Thessalonians 4:18 tells us we are to “comfort one another”
Paul tells us several things in Hebrews:
Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:
Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:22 “see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently”
Application: How can we start to have this fervent community? Listen, I don’t want a dead church! I hope you don’t want a dead church. What makes the difference in any family is trust and intimacy. If you have that, then it is a great joy! We ought to build that trust and intimacy with one another. How can we do that?
Here’s an idea for building intimacy:
Someone once wrote a book, how to win friends and influence people. We are in God’s family. We have been won by God, so let’s influence each other to a more intimate walk with God and a more committed trust with one another!
So we see a transformation for God’s Temple, a new atmosphere “In Christ”, and a new association “all the building” is fitly framed together”
IV. Fourthly, there is a new Location for you in God’s Temple. Paul says in verse 21, In Christ “all the building” is “fitly framed together”.
I love this phrase “fitly framed together”. It is a word that Paul invented that is made out of three words.
A. Fitly: Picked out or chosen. Anyone who is a builder knows
B. Framed: Jointed—shaped. God has made you and gifted you for service to him. Are you depressed today? What are you depressed today about?
Ø Circumstances? God is sovereign over your circumstances.
Ø Sin? Repent and God will forgive you!
Ø Appearance? Too short, too tall—first repent of pride, and realize God made you just the way you are to fulfill His purposes on this earth.
C. Together. You can not please God alone! You need the rest of the body. Now what you can do is hide your sin and come to church and not grow, or you can be vulnerable to other people and grow and change!
Paul says in verse 21, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
V. Fifthly, there is a new Mobilization. Notice that word. We are saved to grow!
These stones are growing! We are chosen and shaped and put together to GROW! If you are not growing, you are backsliding. You cannot stand still in the Christian life.
A. This points to Inner man growth. Illustration: What happens to a limb—an arm or a leg—that is not in use? Have you ever had a cast on? The muscle tone goes down, it becomes a burden on the body!
Peter tells us that we are “lively stones…built up [as] a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
B. This also points to Outer man growth. Notice not only are the stones growing, but the Temple is being added to.
1. Are you going? evangelizing? Mat. 28 is a command, not a gift!
2. Are you giving? What do you give to missions? Anything? Mal. 3 tells us that we ought not to rob God.
Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
Application: We had a leadership meeting last month, and we found out that our faith promise is $400 short. We all decided that we are going to increase whatever we are giving.
How about you? Are you giving so the Temple of God can be growing?
VI. Sixthly, there is an amazing Sanctification. Paul says in verse 21, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Psalm 93:5, “holiness becometh [adorns] thine house, O LORD, for ever.”
God says, “as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15).
Application: Is your life set apart for God? Do you set aside the morning for God?
VII.Finally, there is a consuming motivation “in the Lord” Paul says in verse 21, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
What is your motivation for living? Some people live for vacations. Some people get up, go to work, go to sleep. Is this life? What is your purpose? You ought to live and grow “in the Lord” because one day He’ll either be your portion or you’ll lose everything! He is coming again. This earth is going to end!
I Thes 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Conclusion: What is your place in the Lord’s Temple? There’s coming a day when that Temple will be finished and Jesus comes again! Are you ready?