Ephesians 2:11-21

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 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, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Treasuring Christ Together: Building One People Launch Weekend

This weekend marks the official all-church launch of a campaign we are calling “Treasuring Christ Together: Building One People.” It is the third formal, concerted effort to advance the Treasuring Christ Together (TCT) strategy. “TCT: Building One People” is a 30-month fundraising campaign aiming to raise, Lord willing, $18 million. Therefore, the elders are asking us to pray, give and serve in this effort as Christ enables by his powerful, all-sufficient and abundant grace. Specifically, we plan to use donations to secure a 24/7 church facility for our people in the South Metro, to minimize our all-church debt, and to give 10% of what is donated to TCT to support new TCT churches and to assist the world’s poor.

Not into Building Buildings

Some of you are really into the building of buildings. You have gifts, skills and education for the building of buildings—building aesthetics and structural design. Perhaps you are preparing or working in the field of construction, engineering or real estate development. You are a gift to the church and to the world. I’m just not very much like you.

My own interest in building things was really high when I was a kid. I had several really big Tonka Trucks made of steel. I remember I had a red dump truck, a big yellow crane and a bulldozer. I would push dirt around and pretend to build stuff. From there my building interest shifted to Lego-like constructing and building model rockets. But that interest in building things faded with age.

When we lived in Iowa, we built our first house. Actually, the building process became something like one of those Amish barn-raisings since dozens of people from the church came and helped us. Even still, we didn’t build it simply for the camaraderie and challenge of building it but because we needed a house to live in.

Last week, I went to Target Field, the Twins’ new Major League Baseball stadium. All the construction stuff —design, use of limestone, lighting, and field drainage system—is interesting. But I want to hear, “Playball!” That’s what it’s for!

While some of us are gifted in the skills and knowledge needed to build buildings, all of us are more interested in the purpose for which we build. This TCT campaign is about the very purpose for which we exist as a church and the TCT strategy, we believe, God has called us to. (I’ll explain that in a few minutes).

So, my aim is to align our TCT campaign with God’s building efforts described here in this text. The text says that in Christ we are being “Built Together by the Spirit into God’s Dwelling Place.” First, let’s look at the text and see what God is doing in Christ. Then, second, let me explain how I see the new TCT campaign for Bethlehem as being in alignment with God’s global purposes in Christ.

Biblical Shift From a Place to a People

With the coming of Jesus Christ in fulfillment of the promises of the New Covenant, the emphasis regarding worship in the New Testament shifts from an emphasis on a geographic place of worship in the Old Testament to an emphasis on a worshiping people in the New Testament.

There are prophetic clues regarding this shift in the Old Testament. Ezekiel says, “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore” (Ezekiel 37:27-28; emphasis added).

In the New Testament, Jesus shifts the worship discussion away from the physical temple when he talks with the woman at the well in John 4. She asks about which mountain is the right place to worship, Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim (cf. Deut. 11:29, 27:12), the place where the Samaritans had built their temple. Verse 21 of John 4 says, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:21-24; emphasis added).

In Acts 17:24, Paul teaches the crowd in Athens that God is too powerful to live merely in a temple, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man.”

Three Observations of God’s Building

In our text, Ephesians 2, it gets even clearer. The apostle Paul here says that in Christ, God is building a new temple. However, this temple is unlike the old temple in Jerusalem that was built out of physical materials—stone and mortar, wood and nails. Observe with me three things from our text in Ephesians 2.

1. God is Building a Temple

The building that God is described as building is a temple. That’s what it is called in verse 20, “a holy temple.” And that is what is functionally described in verse 22, “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” The name we give to a “dwelling place for God” is “temple.” It is a place where you go to meet with God and worship God.

2. God is Building This Temple in Christ

This temple is built “in Christ.” This is not a physical temple but a spiritual one. “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Verse 20 says that the cornerstone of this temple is Christ. To put it another way, this temple is built on Christ. All the parts of this building connect because they are connected and built upon him. “Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

Verse 20 also says, with Christ as the cornerstone, that the rest of the foundation that spreads out to form the base of the building is the apostles and prophets—“built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” In other words, this temple is first and foremost built upon Christ’s person and work. And second, this temple is built upon the proclamation of the apostles and prophets. This temple is built upon biblical truth, all of which ties together in the person, work and gospel of Christ!

3. God is Building This Temple Out of His People, Diverse Yet One

This temple is made of out of ethnically Jewish and non-Jewish Gentiles. The temple is made up of people from every tongue and tribe and people and language. These diverse peoples are profoundly united in Christ in two ways mentioned in our text.

1. We are united because we are all reconciled to God by the work of Christ. Ephesians 2:17-18, “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off [i.e, Gentiles, the Nations, non-Jews] and peace to those who were near [i.e, Jewish people]. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” Earlier in 2:13, Paul wrote, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” So we can say that we are profoundly one with other believers of every tongue and tribe because we have all been reconciled to God in the same way, through the death of Christ.
2. We are united because we have been reconciled to one another in Christ. Additionally, we have not only been reconciled to God, but we have been reconciled to one another in Christ. Verses 14-22,

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility…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, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

God’s Building in the New Testament

Are there other texts that talk this way? Yes.

1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?”

2 Corinthians 6:16, “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’”

1 Peter 2:4-9, “As you come to [Christ], a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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…9 You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

We are the Temple

So where is the New Testament place of worship? It’s not a geographic place at all. The place of worship, according to this text, is within the people who are in Christ, indwelt by the Spirit. We worship God through the person and work of Christ, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is what we are right now in Christ. We are a temple, a place of worship, the dwelling place of God.

As believers we can say this: “In Christ, God is building us—together with believers from every nation—by his Spirit into one people as God’s temple.” This is the plan and intention of God. In Revelation, the new heavens and new earth are described like this, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘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’…And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Revelation 21:3, 22).

Ephesians 2 and the Building One People Campaign

What you can infer by the title “Treasuring Christ Together: Building One People” is that there is a greater purpose for this campaign than the mere building of more Bethlehem buildings. Please, do not align this TCT campaign with the mere building of buildings. Not unlike the temple in Jerusalem that was destroyed in 70 AD, our buildings are useful for a season, for a purpose, but they are secondary and temporary. They are not ultimate. The glory of God in Christ is ultimate. The people of God in Christ are eternal. And for his glory and our eternal joy, God is building us into one people in Christ within whom he dwells by his Spirit forever and ever and ever.

I assume you have more questions about this campaign. Let me answer some of the basic questions and direct you to the church Web site or to buildingonepeople.org for more information. So what is “TCT: Building One People”? It is a 30-month campaign aiming to raise, Lord willing, $18 million.

How do we intend to accomplish this? Mainly by calling us to pray, serve and give. If you have been around Bethlehem for a while, you have probably observed a few things about Bethlehem and capital campaigns. We don’t do big expensive fundraising dinners but do our best to communicate our vision. We don’t court a few big heavy-hitting givers to carry the financial load, but we do our best to call every one in the church to give. Did you know that the children raised the money for the bricks for the 2002 building downtown?

We also don’t step into these fundraising efforts because we believe we can do it. But rather, we enter into these because we believe that God can do it. And God has done it. He has been very gracious to us in our past fundraising efforts, enabling you and me to give generously and cheerfully—even beyond our means as a church. God has given us grace as a church to be very generous in the grace of giving. Thank you and thank God!