Ephesians 2:19-20 *
Dear Friends in Christ,
There are Fords, Chevrolets, Toyotas, Buicks, and a bunch of others, but unless you want to be specific most people simply lump them all into the general category of “cars.”
The same could be said of many people’s understanding of the
general Christian Church. We at
What I am specifically referencing is the front-page news that the Episcopalian Church (the 2.3 million strong American branch of the worldwide 77 million member Anglican Church) this past week elevated to a position of spiritual leadership and authority a man who is openly, actively, and unapologetically homosexual. Some within that church body applaud this decision as a victory for tolerance and acceptance; others (and we join them) mourn it for what it is: a strident and striking departure from what God says about this subject in the Bible.
The Bible is not fuzzy on this issue. It condemns the practice of a homosexual lifestyle as a sin. There are any number of passages which make this clear. In addition, up until the last few decades just about any church that called itself Christian and gave at least lip service to the Bible took this position.
What it boils down to is this: if the Bible is true, then practicing homosexuality is a sin.
That being said, the Bible also declares that it is not an unforgivable sin. It is a sin that is covered by the atoning blood of Christ and from which one can be delivered with God’s help. Moreover, it is a sin which some Christian people may struggle with just like others struggle with drinking or gambling; but to say it is not a sin is simply Scripturally wrong.
But that is not what we’re hearing. So now people both inside and outside the church are confused. And in the midst of these monumental moral shifts undoubtedly the thinking of many can be summarized with a single question: What does the church stand for? In other words, what is the basis for its decisions, proclamations and mission?
Here’s the answer. What the church stands for depends upon what the church stands on. And what the church stands on is the subject of our text for this morning. Using imagery we are very familiar with as we come to the end stages of our building program across the street, Paul talks about
THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRUE CHRISTIANITY
The first verse of our text sets the stage for a more thorough examination of the construction of true Christianity. Let me introduce it with a little background on the people to whom Paul originally addressed these words…
The Christian congregation in the ancient city of
The very fact that these two groups of people formed one Christian congregation was, humanly speaking, amazing, because normally they didn’t get along with each other. In fact it is not too strong a term to say that in their pre-Christian days they despised each other. But here they were – together in Christ and moving forward in Christ. The Holy Spirit had led them to understand that what they shared in Jesus and the Gospel message was far greater than their individual differences and backgrounds. And as a united Christian congregation they exhibited their love for their Savior by loving each other and reaching out to others.
In the opening words of our text Paul is especially
addressing those believers with a non-Jewish background. (This always has personal meaning for each of
us because ethnically we fall into this category.) After speaking of the oneness that Jesus
creates between Jews and Gentiles, he writes:
“Consequently, you are no longer
foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of
God’s household...”
There are some interesting designations here. The idea of being a foreigner and an alien means not being a part of a particular people or culture. Spiritually speaking, that’s what the Gentile Ephesian Christians at one time were – outside the household of God. But now Paul says they are in it. What changed?
What changed is that the Holy Spirit working through the
Gospel preaching of Paul brought them to faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of
God and Savior from sin. And through the
Gospel in Word and the waters of baptism the Holy Spirit has brought us to that
same faith – a faith that Paul describes as being “built on the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets, with Christ
Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
Here we have it. This is what the true Christian faith is constructed of. The foundation is the Word of God (referred to here by the designation of “Apostles and prophets”), and the central message or “chief cornerstone” of that foundational Word is Christ Jesus. Let’s talk about this.
What is our Christian faith founded upon – as individuals, as a church, and as a church body? The Word of God. We can add to that. The verbally inspired Word of God. We can still add to that. The verbally inspired and inerrant Word of God. And we can still add to that. The verbally inspired, inerrant and immutable (unchanging) Word of God. The true Christian faith – our faith – is founded upon the one true God, and the one true God has actually spoken to us and has actually stooped to reveal Himself to us in His Word…
How do we know that? Paul would later write to his young colleague Timothy and tell him how all of Scripture is “God-breathed.” Peter would write and tell us in his second letter how God the Holy Spirit so “carried along” the writers of the Bible that what they wrote were not their own words, but the very words of God. Scripture is full of references to this grand and glorious fact: The Bible is the very Word of God.
But the headlines referred to at the beginning of this sermon are the sad reminder that many church bodies – even those that call themselves Christian – have abandoned this foundational, Scriptural teaching. Yes, they may give reverence to the Bible as the Word of God, but with the next breath they will say that its teachings were historically conditioned by the times or that ancient man back then doesn’t know what modern man does today or that much of what is in the Bible simply doesn’t apply anymore. They’ll talk about the Bible being inspiring, but not inspired. And so man becomes God, altering decisions and changing truths that God has already made – all in the name of “progressive” Christianity.
Well, you can call the sun the moon and the moon the sun, but that doesn’t make it so. In the same way, regardless of the tampering and redefining of mere mortals, the Bible remains the very truth of God.
And central to the Bible, as Paul points out to us in our text, is Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone. And He is necessary, because without Him, we’re in big trouble.
The Bible as well as everyday experience tells us what we already know through our own powers of observation. Man is sinful. Personalized, we are sinful. God laid down His laws in the Ten Commandments and tells us not to break them, but we do. All of them. On a regular basis. We don’t give Him the glory He deserves, we often misuse His name, we don’t take His Word as seriously as we should, we argue, fight, and generally try to order the world around our own personal, selfish desires.
And whereas the world talks about these things in terms of being character flaws or personal weaknesses, God has a name for all such action. He calls it sin. And He says the wages of sin is death – eternal death in a real hell.
So on our own, we’re sunk. We’re more than sunk. We’re damned. What’s the solution? Jesus Christ. He became one of us and kept all those commandments perfectly as our substitute. And then He suffered the punishment we deserve. Three days later He rose as a testimony that everything He said and did was the acceptable payment in our behalf. And everything Christ did – His perfect life and righteousness, His sacrificial atonement on the cross to take away the sins of the world – is transferred to the account of those who look to Him in faith as the Savior He is. This is a vast upgrade, because it means that when we die we will go to heaven, not hell.
This message of “justification by faith” – the teaching that we are saved through faith alone in the work of Jesus Christ – is, in the words of the Lutheran reformers of the 16th century, the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls. This is the cornerstone of our faith.
And there’s more. The Gospel message of Jesus Christ does not just pay dividends upon our death but gives us fullness and freshness of life in the present. The same Savior who says He loves enough to die for us also tells us that He will never leave us or forsake us. The same Savior who suffered bitter pains in our behalf tells us that He will see us through whatever temporary pains He allows to come into our lives. The same Savior who went the lonely way of the cross tells us that He is always at our side to help and encourage, even in our loneliest of moments.
The bottom line is this: Jesus Christ – the crucified but risen Savior; the substitute sacrifice for all of our sins; the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world – is the cornerstone of both the Scriptures as well as our personal faith.
The two go hand in hand. The Word of God is the foundation; Christ is the cornerstone.
Consequently, if you lose God’s Word as the foundation of truth you will ultimately lose Jesus Christ and the Gospel message. And that is why this past week’s headlines are so sad and confusing and troubling. It’s far more than just the election of a gay bishop. It is a segment of the Christian Church’s open repudiation of the Bible as the foundational Word of God. And when the foundation crumbles, the cornerstone quickly follows.
Therefore, let us do three things before the day is over.
First, let us pray that those who are troubled by the conflicting portrait being painted by the headlines will be driven to Scripture for answers and that there they will find the only foundation for their faith comes not from the arbitrary or politically correct decisions of man, but the changeless will of God.
Secondly, let us thank God that by grace alone He has led us to believe, understand and find infinite solace and comfort in the truth of God’s Word and the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.
And finally, let us ask God that the precious message of true Christianity, founded on God’s Word with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone, will find its way into the hearts and lives of more and more people, even as God in His grace has allowed it to come to us. Amen.