Ephesians - Building God's Church

Warren Wiersbe: Are you building today, are you helping the Lord Jesus Christ build His church? Are you a part of that church through faith in the Son of God?

Host: Welcome to Back to the Bible. We're glad to have you with us as we continue our series on the book of Ephesians. Today, Warren Wiersbe opens God's word and shows us why the church is the most powerful and important institution on earth. It's a message that will encourage you to join in the work of building the church and growing God's kingdom. Yes, you are important to the church and God's kingdom, and we'll find out why in today's message from Ephesians 2. Now, here's Warren to take us back to the Bible.

Warren Wiersbe: Gracious Father, as we read the word and see the glory of Your church, our hearts are filled with praise. Who are we that we should be a part of such a wonderful work that You are doing in this world? And I pray Father, that You might use us to help to build Your church. Now bless our study of the word, and grant that we shall be helped and strengthened and encouraged as we feed on the word of God together. I pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for His sake, Amen.

The emphasis in Ephesians is on the church. The church is what God is using to get things done in this world, and all who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are a part of His church. Paul uses a number of images of the church in Ephesians. There are in the New Testament scores of images of the church; one theologian estimates nearly one hundred different pictures of the church and the Christian in the New Testament. In Ephesians 1:23, the church is compared to a body. Jesus is the head in heaven, and we are the body here on earth, and He has gifted us to be able to get His work done here on earth. We are His hands, His feet, His voice to do His work in this world. 

In Ephesians 2, he compares the church to a nation. We are fellow citizens with the saints. I like that. Fellow citizens with the saints. We are the people of God, the holy nation of God, with our citizenship in heaven. Then he compares us to a household, members of the household of God. In Ephesians 3:15, he talks about the whole family in heaven and earth. I hope you're a part of that family because you've been born again through faith in Christ. The church is a body, the church is a nation, the church is a family. Ephesians 5, the church is a bride. What a marvelous picture that is, the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, married to Him in glory. The church is an army, Ephesians 6. We are to be strong in the Lord and stand against the wiles of the devil. 

But in Ephesians 2:20-22, we have the picture of the temple. He is building a temple. "Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the spirit." Now, did you notice that each of these images has the idea of unity plus diversity? Unity: one body. Diversity: many members. Unity: one nation. Diversity: many citizens. Unity: one family. Diversity: many different children. Army, unity: one battle to fight, one general to obey. Diversity: many tasks to perform. The wife and the husband: unity, they are one, one flesh; but diversity, they are each different. And now in the temple, God takes living stones and He puts them into His temple, cements them there by His grace. We are all different, and yet we're all a part of the one temple. 

I want to talk to you about the church as God's temple. Now, I'm not talking about the human body of the believer as God's temple. That's true, 1 Corinthians 6. Even the local church is compared to a temple that's being built, 1 Corinthians 3. Paul is talking here about the whole family of God, the whole building, not just the individual expressions of the church in local assemblies. Now both are important. Both are very important because without that local expression of the church, there can be no functioning in this world. The church is not just a concept in the mind of God; to be sure, you and I have never seen the whole church together. We've never seen the whole temple, the whole family, the entire citizenship, we've never seen it. God sees it, and God knows all about it. There is in this world a wonderful thing going on; God is putting things together through His church. Now the tragedy is too often the church is guilty of tearing things apart, and that is sin.

Let's talk about the greatness of the church. Oh, as Christians, we should glory in the greatness of the church! Paul was writing to the believers in Ephesus, and the citizens in Ephesus gloried in the temple that they had there—the temple dedicated to Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world. "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" they cried out. Well, we have something greater than that. We have a temple that God is building. The Jews boasted about their temple in Jerusalem; it was destroyed in 70 A.D., and we don't even have that temple today. Ah, but there's a temple being built in this world that is so great and so grand and so glorious, don't ever lose the glory, the splendor, the wonder of being a part of what God is doing in this world. I tell you, it'll help you overcome the difficulties of life. It'll make the things of God bigger than what's going on in your body or in your home or in this world. You find yourself getting discouraged and despondent? Just remember, if you're a Christian, you're a part of the great building program: God is building His temple. 

Let's talk about the greatness of the church. What makes a building great? Well, a great designer. When you go to London, they'll point out to you church after church after church designed and built by Christopher Wren. Of course, the greatest of all, the great St. Paul's Cathedral. And as you visit these many churches—I think there are at least fifty or more churches in London designed and built by Christopher Wren—the designer makes the building great. I lived in Chicago much of my life, and they would show you buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright or by Louis Sullivan—the Carson building in the Loop designed by Louis Sullivan, the Auditorium building. These are great buildings. Why? They've had great designers. Who is designing the church? God. This is God's great design. He designed the universe. He designed the tabernacle and the temple. He designed the heavenly city where we shall dwell forever, and now in His wisdom, He is designing the church. The tragedy is men and women have gotten in the way and they have written new blueprints, and the church that we are building sometimes is not the same church that God wants to build. Oh, the church has a great design because it has a great designer. And that designer has designed a church that will never grow old. You know, some houses don't fit the era. Some houses get old and dilapidated and they have to be taken down. They no longer serve. Not so with the church. Our great God has designed a temple, and that temple is going to last forever. 

What makes the church great? The church has a great designer. Secondly, the church has a great design. Some buildings are great simply because of the design. There are some church buildings, cathedrals I have walked into, and I have been overwhelmed by the design. The chapel at King's College in Oxford, the great cathedral in Coventry, England, some of the beautiful church structures here in America. Oh, how wonderful it is to see the design that has been made for these buildings. Well, consider the design of the church. Jesus Christ is the foundation and the chief cornerstone. In other words, Jesus Christ is the one on whom the church is built. It's not built on some preacher, and when the preacher resigns and goes, the church disappears. It's not built on some doctrine. It is built on the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this foundation was laid according to Ephesians 2:20 by the apostles and prophets. They went out and preached the gospel, and the church began to be built in this world.

Now the foundation is very important because the foundation determines the strength of the building. You don't build on the sand; you build on a good solid foundation. The foundation determines the shape of the building, and the foundation determines the size of the building. Now Jesus Christ is the strength of the building; it's going to last forever. He determines the shape of the building; that includes Jews and Gentiles. He's the chief cornerstone who ties Jews and Gentiles together on that foundation. And He determines the size of the building; it involves the whole world. Not just the Jews, not just a few here or there—the whole world! Oh, what a wonderful message we have: a great design. Jesus is the foundation, He's the chief cornerstone, and that holy temple is for the purpose of glorifying God. It's being fitly framed together, joined together, following God's design: a holy temple. The word "holy" means it's set apart; it belongs to God.

You can go to Washington, D.C. and you can rent the stadium, but you can't rent the White House. You can go to London and rent the Palladium; you can't rent Buckingham Palace. Why? They are set apart for a special use. And the church that God is building has such a great designer and such a great design and such a great builder. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, "I will build my church." When my Lord was growing up in Nazareth, He was a builder. He was a carpenter. He made chairs and tables and houses and yokes. He was a carpenter. One day they took that carpenter and nailed him to a tree. The Lord Jesus Christ is a builder. He built the universe. He has built the Jewish nation. Today in heaven He's building His people a home, and on earth today He is building a temple. Oh, what a marvelous thing! 

You see, there are two forces in the world today. There's the force of sin and Satan using the world to destroy, and there's the force of Jesus Christ using His church to build up. The church is not just supposed to build buildings—nothing wrong with church houses where the church family can meet together. If it's right for me to have a house in which my family lives, why is it wrong for the church to have a house? Just as long as you don't think that the building is the church. It's the house in which the church meets, the family of God. He is building His church. "I will build my church," and He went on to say, "the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." We are going to storm the gates of hell, and we are going to win the victory. 

I often think of the way Solomon built the temple back in the Old Testament, 1 Kings 6:7. And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. I like that. Most building programs are very noisy. I recall when I was a lad going to grade school, the school was building another building right next door to our room, and we couldn't have the windows open because it was too noisy and dirty. I was so glad when they finished that noisy building program. But when Solomon built the temple, it was quiet. Something was happening—you could see something happening—but you didn't hear a lot of noise. It's just the opposite today. You go to some churches, you hear a lot of noise but not much is happening. Why? Because we're not letting Jesus build the temple. Some preacher is building a church, or some program, or some formula. He builds His church. He gets living stones that are cut at the quarry: sinners saved by the grace of God, made ready because of God's eternal blueprint. And then He puts them into His temple, and they are safe there. 

Yes, the church is great. We have a great designer and a great design and a great builder and a great cost. Sometimes a building is great because of what it cost. The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. cost eighty-three million dollars to build. The Astrodome cost forty-six million dollars. William Randolph Hearst spent thirty million dollars on his castle out in California. But I want you to know that the church that Jesus is building cost Jesus Christ His blood. Oh, that statement of the Apostle Paul to those Ephesian elders, Acts 20:28: "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." In each of the three churches I have pastored, we have gone through some kind of a building program—in two churches, building new buildings, and in two other churches, remodeling. And it costs; it costs money. You make a budget, and you better add about a third to it because the price is going to go up. Well, here we have a great price. The Father gave His Son, the Son gave His life, and now the Holy Spirit of God is at work in this world, and God is building His temple. A great cost. Oh, the church is great because of the price of His precious blood! 

Finally, sometimes a building is great because of its occupant. The building itself may not look like much, but somebody important lives there. Oh, what is the occupant of this temple God is building? "In whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the spirit." We are living in a temple—we are making up a temple—where God dwells. In the book of Genesis, God walked with people. He walked with Enoch, He walked with Abraham, He walked with Noah. God walked with people. In Exodus, He said, "I want to dwell with you. Make me a tabernacle." They made Him a tabernacle, and then God's glory came to dwell in the tabernacle. Israel sinned, and in 1 Samuel 4, you find Ichabod—the glory has departed. Then they built Him a temple, and the glory of God moved into the temple, and then Israel sinned, and in the book of Ezekiel, you find the glory of God moving out of the temple. And then Jesus Christ came down to earth; the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Jesus was God's temple on earth. What did men do to that temple? Abused it, nailed it to a cross. But He arose from the dead, He's gone back to glory, and now we Christians are the temple of God, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. The church locally is the temple of God, 1 Corinthians 3. But here in Ephesians 2:20-22, the whole church in heaven and on earth is the temple of God, and God dwells in us. Oh, the greatness of the church! 

Now that leads me to say this: be careful what you do and say when it comes to the church. God is building His church. Be careful what you do. Be careful how you act. Be careful what you say. It is His church. He is the designer. The design is great. The builder is great. The cost is great. The occupant is great. The purpose is great: to glorify Him throughout all eternity. Are you building today? Are you helping the Lord Jesus Christ build His church? Are you a part of that church through faith in the Son of God?

[Interview]
Host: Up next, Warren joins Arnie Cole, CEO of Back to the Bible International.

Arnie Cole: Warren, sooner or later, we'll realize that the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground. Who or what are our enemies?

Warren Wiersbe: Well, he makes it clear, Paul does, in the book of Ephesians in Ephesians 2. He talks about the world, the flesh, and the devil. And the other authors in the Bible do the same thing. John talks about it. My first enemy is the devil. He hates me. He hates Jesus. He hates the church. He's a liar, he's a false accuser, he's a counterfeiter, he's a murderer, and he doesn't want me to be a happy Christian. The flesh. As we get older, we—we feel some of the temptations of the flesh. And the world. Love not the world, because if you love the world, you're not the friend of God, you're the enemy of God. So these are our main enemies. We've got to realize that our enemies are not flesh and blood. If your neighbor is a nuisance, that's some demon using your neighbor. Lead them to Jesus. If you have problems with people and they make life miserable for you, pray about it. I can recall some people in some of the churches that I pastored that just created problems for me, and I prayed. I said, "Lord, I'm not going to argue with them," and God always took care of it. So the church needs to know that trouble is coming. Right here and now in America, there are people plotting against the church. It's all over the world. It's going to get worse. And I say to pastors: equip your people. Preach Ephesians 6, because this world is a battleground, not a playground. But I encourage everybody to trust Jesus and follow Him.