The Greatness of the Church

Reading the word of God from Ephesians 2, verses 14-22, our text will be 19-22. For he, Christ, is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, to make in himself of two one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and to them that were near. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. To think that God would want to dwell with men. May God bless his word to our hearts.

When blossoms flowered amid the snows upon a winter night, was born the child the Christmas rose, the King of love and light. Again the heart with rapture glows to greet the holy night, that gave the world its Christmas rose, its King of love and light. O come let us adore him, adore him Christ the Lord.

O come let us adore him. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. The latter part of that statement has a way of tugging at people's hearts.

There was no room for them in the inn. We think of the pity of it all. Poor carpenter, his wife, she's about to deliver her firstborn, and there's no hospitality for them in the inn.

We can look at that in a very sentimental way and wipe a tear from our eye, but I think it goes much deeper than sentiment, because the tragedy at Christmas was that God was coming to dwell with men, and men had no room for him. We read from Ephesians chapter 2 that God is seeking a habitation with men, and the greatness of Christmas is the greatness of the Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself a body that he might come to earth to die, be raised from the dead, and build his Church.

And Ephesians chapter 2 verse 22 tells us that we believers are being built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. That is the greatness of Christmas. There was no room for him in the inn, and so he has built himself his own temple, and there's room for him there.

God dwells in eternity. He dwells in light that is unapproachable. When you approach the throne of God, the angelic hosts are protecting that throne and singing, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his goodness. God dwells in eternity in light that is unapproachable, and yet he came down to dwell with us in a habitation, his Church. I want to talk with you today about the greatness of the Church, which is the habitation of God.

The Church is his temple. There are many pictures of the Church in Ephesians. The Church is compared to a body.

The Church is compared to an army. The Church is compared to a beautiful bride. But several times in his letters, Paul compares the Church to a temple, to a building.

We're asking the question, what is the greatness of the Church? It's a good question to ask at this Christmas season, because what he did at Bethlehem is involved in the greatness of the Church. What is it that makes a building great? Here in the city of Chicago, we have many beautiful buildings. We have many historic buildings.

We're worshiping right now in one of them, the Moody Church. What is it that makes a building great? I can think of several factors which individually and collectively would make a building great. First of all, the designer.

As you walk the streets of Chicago, you'll find people saying, now this building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, or this building was designed by Louis Sullivan, or this building here came from the Chicago School of Architecture down in Oak Park, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. There are several buildings that Mr. Wright designed. When you have a great architect design a building, it helps to add greatness to the building.

When you go to St. Paul's Cathedral in London, where Christopher Wren is buried, who designed it and built it, and of course you have that magnificent statement, if you would see my memorial, my monument, look around you. We came walking out of St. Paul's Cathedral one day, and my wife turned to the guide and said, why was this building built? Because it is not functioning as a church would function here in the States. The guide got a rather surprised look on her face, and she said, why, to the glory of God.

That's a good answer. You see, the architect who designed the church was God. The same architect who designed the universe.

The same architect who designed you. The same architect who designed the tabernacle. He said to Moses, see to it now that you follow the plans that I gave you up on the mountain.

The same architect who designed the temple, and God gave to David the plans for the temple. The same architect who is designing the heavenly city, a city so magnificent that the inspired writer runs out of pictures to give to us of the beauty of that great city. The church was designed by God.

In his wisdom, he is designing this temple. And I think we can safely trust the one who designed the universe, the one who is designing the heavenly city, the one who designed our bodies. In his wisdom and in his greatness, he is designing his church.

The blueprint for his church is found in the word of God. I've lived long enough and I've ministered long enough to realize you'll never build a church on anything other than the word of God. You'll never build a life on anything other than the word of God if that life is going to count.

Frank Lloyd Wright can design a building and within 30 or 40 years it's out of date. Interesting, perhaps even beautiful, but out of date. Louis Sullivan can design a building and within a few years, passe, not with it.

But the church has endured down through the ages. The church, though it is old, is ever young. The church, though it is 2,000 years old, is ever contemporary.

Now, there are churches that aren't with it. There are individual Christians that aren't with it. But the church that Jesus Christ is building, the temple, the habitation of God through the Spirit made up of living stones, is always fresh and always contemporary and always with it.

And the greatness of the church is seen in the greatness of the designer. It was designed by God. That means that you and I had better put on the shelf our cute little schemes for making the church the way we want it.

God has given us the blueprint for the church and we'd better follow it. There's a second factor that makes a building great. Not only the designer, but the design.

There have been unknown designers who have so designed a building that their names became great because of the design. One of the most interesting buildings I've ever visited is the great cathedral in Coventry, England. It is a magnificent place.

Most of us would perhaps not feel at home worshipping there Sunday after Sunday. It is a magnificent place. I read the story of the man who designed it.

When they announced to him that he had won the competition and was going to be given the job, he said, I became so frightened. Even though I believed I had a good design, I became frightened knowing how gigantic the task was. Some of the ideas he put into that building came to him when he was coming out from under ether in the dentist's chair.

You'd think it'd be rather grotesque, but it certainly wasn't. He designed a magnificent structure. The design made the architect great.

It was not the architect who made the design great. Now, what is the design of the Church? Why is it that the Church is so great? Because of its design. Well, he tells us here that the design depends upon the foundation.

Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Church. When Paul says the foundation of the apostles and prophets, he doesn't mean that the New Testament apostles and the New Testament prophets were the foundation on which the Church was built. It's the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets.

And Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3.11 what that foundation is. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Christ is the foundation for the Church.

Now, the foundation is the most important part of the Church. The foundation is the most important part of any building. I think I've told you in times past that when we were building our new church auditorium back in Covington, Kentucky, I thought we never would get out of the ground.

We spent thousands of dollars on soil tests. The architect said, I think we are building on an old riverbed. We'd better be sure.

And we dug and we dug and we drove in pilings and we laid concrete. And I said, are we ever going to get up out of the ground? He said, this is the most important part of the building. Because the foundation determines three vital things about each building.

The size of the building, the shape of the building, and the strength of the building. The size of the building. If Jesus Christ is the foundation, it's a big building.

Jesus Christ wants to build a church that's big enough for the whole world. He wasn't just building a temple for the Jews. He wasn't just building a haven for the Gentiles.

He was writing here through the Apostle Paul to people at Ephesus who knew what a beautiful temple looked like. They had the Temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world. Jesus Christ being the foundation determines the size of the Church.

And there were people in the early Church who wanted to keep it small. This is a church only for the Jews. This is a church only for Jerusalem.

Paul came along and said, I'm sorry, the foundation is much bigger than that. It's a church for any sinner anywhere. Anyone who believes on Jesus Christ is placed on this foundation.

The size of the building is determined by the foundation. And I want you to know we have here the greatest foundation in the world for the greatest temple in the world. The foundation also determines the strength of the building.

You can build a massive structure on a weak foundation and lose both. Many buildings have been built only to be torn down fifty years later. Not so with the Church.

The Church that Jesus Christ is building is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. God says, I have laid in Zion a foundation stone, a cornerstone. And that foundation is going to last for all eternity.

This is the tragedy of not knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior. I speak to some of you now who are building your lives on the shifting sand of this world. And one of these days it will be gone.

If you build your life on the foundation which is Jesus Christ, it's going to last forever. The foundation determines the strength of the building. It is eternal.

The size of the building includes the whole world. Any sinner anywhere can become a part of this temple by trusting Jesus Christ. It also determines the shape of the building.

When God planned the tabernacle, he said, put in a veil, separate men from God. When God planned the temple, he said, put in a veil, separate men from God. And there also was a wall.

I talked with you about this wall last Lord's Day. A wall that kept out the Gentiles. And so when they laid the foundation of the temple, they said, be sure you put a place there to put a wall.

We want to keep the Gentiles out. If a Gentile wants to come to God, he has to become a Jew. But when Jesus died on the cross, he rent the veil.

And now Jew and Gentile have access to God through Christ. Now that he rent the veil, but he tore down the wall. And now there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And so when Jesus Christ laid the foundation of the church, he said, there will be no veil. There will be no wall separating people, rich or poor, black or white, educated or uneducated, Jew or Gentile. We're not going to have that kind of a wall in my temple.

He's the foundation. And the structure that is being built is great because of the greatness of the foundation, the greatness of the design. Now, Paul tells me that Jesus Christ is not only the foundation, he's also the chief cornerstone.

We think of a cornerstone as some monument that we put into the corner of a building and we dedicate the building. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about that massive stone that joined the corners.

It determined the walls. It bound them together. It's as though Paul is saying, here is the Jew and here is the Gentile.

And not only has the wall been torn down between them, but a beautiful stone has been laid to bind them together. It's the foundation stone, the cornerstone that binds the walls and that determines the measurement of the walls. So the size of the church, the shape of the church, the strength of the church are determined by the foundation and the cornerstone.

And these are Jesus Christ. It's a holy temple, growing to the glory of God. What makes a building great? A great designer, God.

A great design, a foundation that will last for all eternity. No walls of separation. Any sinner can come and trust Jesus Christ and become a part of the temple.

I think a third factor makes for a great building. There may not be a great architect and there may not even be a great design, but if there's a great builder. Once again, I recall when we were building our new church auditorium, the architect said, now we want to let some bids out to see who's going to take this job.

He said, I have a suggestion for you. I said, what's that? He said, I would like to see Miller Beckman build this building. I said, why? He said, because they know how to build.

I have worked with many different men and they know how to build. And so we let out the bids and we did select Miller Beckman and they did know how to build. And because their name was at the front of our church during construction, Miller Beckman Construction, numbers of people said to us, you've got a good man building that structure.

Now, who is the builder of the church? Jesus Christ said, I will build my church. He is the architect and he is the design and he is the builder. You see, there are two forces at work in this world today, and I'm wondering which of the two controls your life.

There's a force at work in this world that's tearing down. As I drive through the city of Chicago and see progress, I see buildings being torn down. Some of the ancient landmarks we wish they would leave up, but I see buildings being torn down.

I see shacks being turned down, tenement houses being torn down. And I say, that's marvelous. There's a certain amount of skill, I suppose, in tearing down to make sure that you don't blow up the wrong place.

But for the most part, any of us could tear something down. There are people who go through life dedicated to the ministry of tearing down. Satan is the destroyer.

Sin is the destroyer. Satan is the scatterer. Some of us want to spend our lives building, building homes and building people's lives.

One of the most rewarding experiences I have is counseling with a person and praying with a person and feeding into that person the word of God and trying to build him. What have you done this past week as far as the Moody Church is concerned? Have you been tearing down or building up? Jesus Christ is in the business of building. And if you and I are in the business of tearing down, we are working opposite of our Lord.

He is the builder. There's a little verse back in the Old Testament that I think describes how he is building his church. It's a verse that is used to describe the building of the temple.

You remember that David gathered together money and materials to build the temple, and Solomon had the responsibility of doing the job. In 1 Kings 6, verse 7, we are told how the building was built. No building in Chicago was ever built like this.

And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone, made ready before it was brought there, so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building. Isn't that remarkable? Today in our churches we have all sorts of noise, but not much is happening. Back in that day, no noise, but a lot was happening.

You can't judge a ministry by decibels. You can't judge a ministry by all the noise. They built the temple from stones that were prepared.

You know what that says to me? It's an illustration of a New Testament truth. Paul has been teaching us in Ephesians that we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. All those stones, those huge stones, were prepared before they got on location.

You were prepared before you got on location. God had you chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. He so worked, He so guided and led and brought you to the place where He lifted you up out of the miry clay.

He took you out of the quarry of sin. Nobody heard the hammer, nobody heard the axe, but God did it. Then God picked you up, and when you trusted Jesus Christ, He put you into His temple.

Jesus Christ today is building His temple quietly, very definitely. He's got a blueprint. He knows what He's doing.

The temple is great because of the designer, God. The temple is great because of the design. The temple is great because of the builder.

Jesus Christ is building His church. There's a fourth factor, I think, that makes for the greatness of the church. A building can be great because of the architect, because of the design, because of the builder, and because of the cost.

William Randolph Hearst, who was a multi-millionaire, spent $30 million building his castle out in California. The Astrodome cost $46 million, and now they're building a bigger one out east that'll cost probably $100 million, and you can put the Astrodome inside of it. The Pentagon, and I hope it was worth it, cost $83 million back in 1943.

That's the most complicated building I ever saw in my life. I checked on the cost of the tabernacle. By modern-day prices, it cost about $5 million to build the tabernacle.

Then I checked on the temple. Apart from the stones and the silver and all the rest, just the gold—the gold that David gathered together for the temple—today would cost $8 billion. But I want you to know that Jesus Christ is building a temple that's been purchased not with silver and gold, but with his own precious blood.

The cost of the church is unbelievable. When Paul was saying farewell to those Ephesian pastors, he said, "...take heed to yourselves and to the flock over which God hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." Some translations give that verse, "...which he hath purchased with the blood of his own son." My friend, it is a tradition these days to criticize the church. We have just come through the most difficult era in modern church history.

We've just come through a couple of decades during which it has been the customary thing, the accepted thing, the spiritual thing, to blast the church, criticize the church. I want you to know that when you lay hands on the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, you're laying hands on the temple that he purchased with his own blood. Paul makes an interesting statement over in 1 Corinthians, speaking to a church where there was division and dissension and discord and carnality.

He says, "...despise ye the church of God?" I would ask you that question today. You be careful what you say about the church and you be careful what you do to the church. Paul warns the Corinthians, he says, "...if any man destroy the temple of God," not meaning his body, but meaning the church, "...if any man seeks to destroy the temple of God, him will God destroy." All I'm saying is that the temple that Jesus Christ is building is so great, it cost him his life.

And I want you to know that the greatest thing you and I can do is give our lives for this temple. No matter what you may do for a living, that's a sideline compared to the greatest job we have, building his temple. Whether it be through giving or praying or visiting or teaching or attending or worshiping, whatever it may be, share in the building of his temple.

And I would warn any who are trying to destroy his temple, you're touching the blood of Jesus Christ. The church cost God the Father his Son. The church cost God the Son his life.

The church cost God the Holy Spirit the joys of heaven. He's come down here to be maligned and blasphemed and lied about. He's come down here to be grieved and resisted, and the Holy Spirit of God so loves the church that he's busy calling people to come to Christ.

The greatness of the church because of its cost. Finally, I would suggest to you that a building may be great because of the designer, it may be great because of the design, it may be great because of the builder, and it may be great because of the cost. But it also may be great because of the occupant who lives in it.

When Abraham Lincoln was shot, they rushed him across the street, and that piece of real estate was made great because President Lincoln died there. When Mr. Kennedy, several years ago, went to visit Ireland, and he walked in and out of some of those little sod huts, they were made great because the President of the United States was there. What makes the church great? It is the habitation of God through the Spirit.

That's what makes it great. And this brings us up to the amazing miracle of Christmas. Back in the book of Genesis, we find that God walked with man.

He walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. He walked with Enoch. Enoch walked with God.

Noah walked with God. Abraham walked with God. When you get to Exodus, God says something interesting.

He doesn't say, I want to walk with people. He says, make me a dwelling place that I may dwell with them. In Genesis, God walked with people.

In Exodus, He said, I want to dwell with people. And so they built Him the tabernacle. And God moved in, and God dwelt in the tabernacle until they sinned, and men rebelled against God.

And you know what they wrote over the tabernacle? Ichabod. The glory has departed. And God said, build me a temple.

And so they built Him a temple. And they dedicated the temple, and the glory of God moved into the temple. And they sinned.

And God endured their sin for several years. And then when you read the book of Ezekiel, you see the glory departing. The glory departing.

And God says, I want a habitation with men. I was living in a tent, and they sinned against me. I was living in a temple, and they sinned against me.

And that's where Christmas comes in. He sent His own Son. And the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us.

And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1.14. When Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem, God came down in the temple of His body. Jesus Christ was the temple of God on earth.

And again, men sinned. And they took the temple of God and nailed it to a cross. If I had been God, I would have blown the whole thing up and started all over again.

But He didn't. In His love, in His grace, in His mercy, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.

And out of the blood of the cross came the church. Out of the death at Calvary came the temple. And now Jesus Christ has returned to heaven.

There is no more tabernacle. There is no more temple. There is no more religious real estate.

God does not dwell in temples made with hands. He dwells in our lives. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of God? You're not your own.

You're bought with a price. Not only is the individual believer the temple of God, but the church of Jesus Christ collectively is the temple of God. Where does God live today? He lives in His church.

Now, granted, local churches do not always measure up to what the church is, but it's the best we've got. I would rather be a part of a local assembly of God, a local gathering of God's people with all of its faults, and we have them, than anything else. I'm proud to be a part of God's church.

I'm sorry for our sins. I'm sorry we don't always glorify God as we should. But I'm proud to be a part of His church.

Today, Jesus Christ is building a temple, and this temple is the habitation of God through the Holy Spirit. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. There was no room for Him in the inn.

God wanted to come and dwell with men. They said, no room. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the children of God, even to them that believe in His name, who were born not of blood, you don't inherit it from your father, nor of the will of the flesh, you don't do it by your own strength, nor of the will of man, nobody can do it for you, but of God, born of God.

Living stones, says Peter, living stones built into the temple, a habitation of God through the Spirit. Do you know why the church is great? The church is great because God lives in the church, and God works through the church, and God wants His name to be glorified through the church. Christmas takes us to a stable, but the stable takes us to a temple.

Christmas takes us to a place where He was rejected, but it also takes us to a place where He is living. I would ask you today, are you a part of His church? Have you been taken out of the pit of sin and cleaned up and placed into the temple because you've trusted Christ as your Savior? If you have been, are you seeking to glorify Him? Are you reveling today? Are you exalting today in the precious privilege of being a part of the greatest building in the world? Great because its designer is God. Great because its design is grace.

Great because its builder is Jesus Christ. Great because the cost is the blood of Christ. And great because the occupant is God Almighty dwelling in us.

Is it true that He's come to your heart and there's been no room? Gracious Father, who are we that we should form a habitation of God? What are we that we should be built into such a holy temple on such a massive foundation? Who are we that we ever could give glory to God? Father, we just today adore and worship and give thanks for such grace. Forgive us that we have ignored the Church. Forgive us, Lord, that we have criticized the Church.

Forgive us, Father, when we have been destroying instead of building. May each of us, O God, become co-laborers to build a church, a habitation of God for your glory. And I pray that the lost sinner will open his heart to Christ and receive Him.

For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.