A Vision for God-Centered Community - Ephesians 2:22
To begin this new year we are revisiting the vision of Good Shepherd. We believe we can fulfill our mission by being “a multi-generational congregation worshipping according to Scripture in a contemporary style, gathering as one body on Sunday mornings and in small groups throughout Florence during the week, and introducing more people to the life-giving community of the local church.”
Last week we looked at our vision for worship according to Scripture. Today we will examine our vision for how we gather as a community. We don’t find the word “community” in the English Standard Version of the Bible, but a word we do see many times is “fellowship.” “Fellowship” refers to the existence of a unifying bond between those who gather together.
Acts 2 in the NT says that the followers of Jesus in the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship.” They were devoted to (they gave themselves to) corporate public worship (worship in a group led by equipped and ordained men), but also, they were devoted to each other.
And so, they assembled. They gathered, first and foremost for worship on the Lord’s Day, but at other times as well. They had in common the most central characteristic of their lives: salvation in Jesus Christ. Their commitment to one another was based on Him and His work. They shared a spiritual connection born from their understanding, beliefs, and convictions of who Jesus is and what He did and continued to do for them.
Those things were summarized in “the apostles’ teaching.” So as we aim for God-centered fellowship or community, we must look to the Word of God as well. Community is not something that only Christians seek. People everywhere pursue and enjoy commitment to others based on some criteria. And for that reason, we may assume that God-centered commitment to each other will just happen as we get together consistently, become friends, talk about our lives, and do things together.
But what naturally forms is a commitment that revolves around us. Human beings naturally form man-centered bonds to each other. One thing that is clear in the Scriptures is that anything centered on man will not last. This is why so many believers divide and are often never reunited. It is why congregations become worldly, shallow, and inauthentic: man-centered bonds. But Christ came so that we could enjoy God-centered commitment to each other. And that is what we must pursue. A God-centered community must be our vision.
But how do we get that? How does that kind of commitment grow? I’ve chosen verse 22 from the second chapter of the apostle Paul’s letter to the church in ancient Ephesus, a city once located in what is now the Middle Eastern nation of Turkey. Paul speaks to how God-centered community is formed, and I’ve outlined it for you on page 6 in the WG: God-centered commitment to one another grows where the congregation increasingly comprehends union with the Son. (v.22a), bears the fruit of the Spirit. (v.22b) and experiences the presence of the Father. (v.22c)
Leading up to 2:22, Paul describes for the Ephesians all that God has done for them.
They were chosen by God for salvation before the foundation of the world. (1:4)
They were able to hear God’s call to believe the gospel. (1:13)
They were made spiritually alive after previously being dead in sins. (2:4)
They were able to turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ. (1:4)
Their sins were completely forgiven. (1:7)
They were adopted as God’s children. (1:5)
They were now new creations in the sight of God with the hope of becoming
more and more holy in their thoughts, desires, and behavior. (2:10)
And their future with God in heaven was secure, and after this life, they would be totally transformed, unable to sin again. (1:14)
All of this was a result of their union with Jesus Christ. They were, in effect:
crucified along with Jesus
buried along with Him
raised from the dead along with Him
and seated at the right hand of God the Father along with Him.
Such is the relationship of Jesus to those He saves; we are in union with Him. When Paul uses phrases like “in Christ” or “in Him,” he is referring to this union.
Also in the verses just before 2:22, Paul refers to these people as “Gentiles.” Most of the people hearing or reading this letter were ethnically non-Jewish. Paul differentiates between them and the Jews. God had taken these two very separate groups (Jews who had become Christians and Gentiles who had become Christians) and made them one people. Later in Ephesians 4, Paul tells them, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”God brought in and continues to bring in people from every ethnicity, every race, every language, and from them He forms one big family, and He has done so “in Him.”
The context of their fellowship, the circumstances or conditions for their commitment to one another is union with Christ. The basis of their community is not religious background or any of the outward features of their lives. Therefore, those things are not what causes the growth of God-centered commitment to one another. God-centered commitment to one another grows where the congregation increasingly comprehends union with the Son of God.
Union with Jesus and an active, vibrant knowledge of that union is absolutely the first necessary step toward God-centered gathering. When we come together, whether for Lord’s Day worship or in a Life Group or a book study or Bible study or for a fun event or even for breakfast, lunch, dinner or coffee, we must recognize and treasure the reality of what God has done from us and who we are in Christ. As God renews our hearts and minds with this truth, He will produce true and lasting fellowship among us.
Do you recognize union with Christ as the one qualifier for belonging here at Good Shepherd? If you claim to be a Christian, would you agree that being “in Him” is the single-most characteristic of your life, the utmost reality of who you are? For the true follower of Jesus, identity is found “in Him,” and in the congregation, God-centered commitment to each other can only grow where there is an increasing comprehension of that truth.
Next, Paul writes that in Christ “you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” I’m saving the phrase “into a dwelling place for God” until the end. So let’s consider who is doing the building. It is being done “by the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, is literally constructing something from all these believers, both Jews and Gentiles. The Spirit is at work among and within them.
Earlier in Ephesians, Paul says they were “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” and he prays that the Spirit of God would give them wisdom and understanding so that they may have continual hope in all God has done from them in Christ. But each believer is not just an island to himself or herself. They are all connected. They all share in a glorious inheritance through Jesus. They form what Paul calls “the body of Christ” and “the church,” with Jesus being the head.
Our society is enamored with buildings. We love homes. Some like new styles; some like older styles; some like a mixture of the two. Huge office buildings are fascinating, like the ones we see in the big cities. We need a place to live, work, exercise, eat and drink. We care about buildings, and we should.
And the body of Christ is not very different. We gather, and so we look for a warm, dry, clean, nice place to do so. But interestingly, the apostles don’t discuss church facilities; however, they do talk about a building, a structure put together and held together by the Spirit of the living God. That structure is the people of God gathered together.
Notice again the words in verse 22: “you also are being built together…by the Spirit.” A key feature of Jewish history was their temple. It began as a big mobile tent called “the tabernacle” and inside it the triune God established His holy presence with those people. Of course, God is omnipresent; He is everywhere all the time. But He established His presence with the people of Israel in this special way according to His covenant of grace. He said that He would be with them, and He would be their God, and they would be His people.
Later on, a beautiful temple was constructed in Jerusalem by King David’s son, Solomon. That temple was later destroyed when God turned the people of Israel over to their enemies. A rebuild took place sometime later, but things were never the same. Israel was no longer a free nation, and this was the case when Jesus came into the world. The Jews longed for a temple like the one during their former glory.
But God had a better temple, a better building, in mind. When Jesus was criticized for expelling crooks from the Jewish temple, the religious leaders asked him for a sign of His authority to do so. Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” [20] The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” [21] But he was speaking about the temple of his body. [22] When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”
So Jesus is the better temple, but there’s more. Just before our focal passage today, as Paul explains that Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ, he writes, “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”
God’s people are His special dwelling place on the earth. It turns out that we don’t need wood and brick structures for this to occur. They are helpful and a blessing, but they do not indicate God’s presence. Only the Holy Spirit can construct such a place. And only the Spirit can take sinners saved by grace and form us into a place for God’s presence.
When I was a boy, and my daddy was teaching me how to work, he obviously had more knowledge and experience, and sometimes I would get in his way and hinder him from doing the primary part of the work. And playfully, he would say, “We got 25 cent holding up a dollar over here.” In other words, “What I need to do is more important, and you’re in the way!”
The Spirit of God must not be hindered from doing His constructing work. And we know what the results will be where the Spirit works among the people. Galatians 5 says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Where the Holy Spirit produces those things, God-centered gathering will happen. God-centered commitment to one another grows where the congregation increasingly bears the fruit of the Spirit.
This is not just rhetoric spoken to get a reaction; I mean it when I say that the Scriptures teach that the people of Christ are God’s house! We are His temple. Physical buildings and land are secondary and ultimately, unnecessary for the perseverance of the true church in the world. A physical building does not amount to a church.
A roadside sign does not signify the special dwelling place of the God of the universe. The proclamation of union with Christ and the fruit of the Holy Spirit lets you know that God is present in the place. God has done this among us, and all glory only to Him. Only His Spirit can build it.
You see, as we reflect both individually and together on the riches of union with the Son, we begin to walk by the Spirit, to live by the Spirit and to keep in step with the Spirit. Then He bears the fruit of true repentance and faith in us, and a God-centered commitment to one another grows among us. Are you seeking the fruit of the Spirit in your life? Are you turning from the fading delight of sin and pursuing a greater delight by looking to Jesus?
Now let’s look at this phrase that I saved for last, ““into a dwelling place for God.” I’ve already said much about this, because as we comprehend union with the Son and bear the fruit of the Spirit, experiencing the presence of the Father happens.
The biblical doctrine of the Trinity states that there is but one only, the living and true God who exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. The triune God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
Where the true God is proclaimed and worshiped in spirit and in truth, and where the people humble themselves and submit themselves to God and draw near to God, He draws near to them. James the brother of Jesus wrote to the churches, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
Certainly joy is ours in Christ, but ask yourself this: what is the source of my greatest joy? Is it my wealth or my health or my status among my peers? Is it my success or my ease of life or my opportunities? Is it applause or recognition from others? Is it another person or people? Or is the Lord your God your greatest delight?
If we are honest, we must admit that we so naturally put love for other things over our love for God. But you see, where the people comprehend union with the Son and bear the fruit of the Spirit, God is transforming the people so that their greatest love and devotion is for Him.
This is what Jesus Christ came to restore in the world. This is the vision of God for the church. This is His vision for us as we gather together in many different ways. His vision is that however and whenever we gather, we experience the presence of Father. To enjoy that presence, we must surrender our lives in repentance and faith.
Have you done this? And do you look continually to Jesus? Look to Him now.
Let’s bow in prayer.