church

INI
Cantate, The Fourth Sunday after Easter
May 10, 2009
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

CHRISTIANS ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE CHURCH
Ephesians 2:19-22

To Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by
Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. The Word of God that
forms the basis for our meditation today comes from the Second Letter of Paul
to the Ephesians, beginning with the 19th verse, as follows:

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
cornerstone, in=2 0whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into
a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a
dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So far the Holy Word.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Who is our Cornerstone, uniting all the Church in
one, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

The prophet Elijah was feeling pretty lonely and isolated. He'd been doing his
best to preach God's Word to the people of Israel. He tried and tried to make
them realize their sinfulness and turn back to the Lord, but as far as he could
see, it wasn't doing any good. It seemed like the whole country was worshipping
Baal, the false god of the Canaanites. So Elijah gav e up. He went to Mount
Horeb, and holed up in a cave on the mountaintop. "And the word of the Lord
came to him, and He said to him, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' So he said,
'I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of
Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your
prophets with the sword. I alone am left.'" Elijah whined, It looks like I'm the
only true believer left, God, so you may as well take me now! Do you remember
how God replied? Basically, He told the prophet to quit feeling sorry for
himself, and get back down there and get to work! Now hear this, Elijah: "Yet I
have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to
Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him!" -- 1 Ki 19:14,18.

You see, the Lord knew exactly who the true believers were, even if Elijah
didn't. And the same is still true today. With our human eyes, you and I cannot
see the structure of God's invisible Church of all believers. And sometimes that
can make a person feel pretty lonely and isolated. You might start to think that
you're all alone in your faith. Why keep up the struggle when so few people are
in church here on Sunday . Why go on fighting when the number of believers in
our society seems to be getting smaller and smaller as time goes on? But
remember, God's got a heaven's-eye view of the Christian Church. He sees the
whole beautiful building, and he knows where every stone belongs. You are part
of that building! Our text for today tells you that there's a particular niche in
that structure that the Lord designed especially for you. In the words of our
theme,

CHRISTIANS ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE CHURCH

I. Each block is connected to the Cornerstone.
II.20Each block rests on the foundation.
III. Each block fits with the other blocks.

Isolation can be an awful feeling. I have to confess I felt a little isolated when
our family first moved to the Pacific Northwest. Of course, none of my friends
in the Midwest had ever heard of DuPont, where our family first lived. Some of
them didn't even know where Tacoma was. It did make me feel a little remote
and isolated. Sort of like a single block of stone standing all by itself in the
middle of a quarry.

In this part of his letter to the believers in Ephesus, Paul was addressing that
same problem of isolation. Here they were, after all, one little Christian
congregation on the coast of Asia Minor. They were surrounded by a vast
empire of hostile unbelievers. It might seem like you're all alone, he told them,
but you're not! Before you came to faith in Jesus - that's when you were really
alone. At that time you were blind, foreigners to the truth, strangers to God.
But Now, Paul says, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow
citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. He tells them: as
believers you are now part of a vast, invisible structure - the Christian Church.
You people are the very materials the Church is made from. You Christians are
the building blocks of the Church!

The same is true about this littl e group of believers we have way out here in
the Pacific Northwest - a place that most of the rest of America considers pretty
remote! No matter what it looks like, we are not alone. Each of us is tied into
the mighty structure of the Christian Church just as intimately and solidly as
building blocks that are cemented into a towering stone structure. What is it
that unites the Church, and holds it together as a unified body? Well, it's several
things.

First, and most important: each block is connected to the Cornerstone. You
know what a cornerstone is. You often see them on churches and schools, and
other public buildings. Sometimes it has the date of construction etched on its
face. It's usually considered the most important block in the structure. In the
case of the Christian Church, the Cornerstone is more than just important - this
one stone supports the whole structure! Through the Old Testament prophet
Isaiah, the Lord said, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation." -- Isa 28:1 6. He was talking
about the Child who would be born in a stable in Bethlehem, the Man who
would die on a cross at Calvary. Jesus Christ is the Cornerstone of the Church!

In the days when Jesus was preaching in Israel, there were a lot of people who
rejected Him. They just couldn't believe that this humble carpenter's Son from
Nazareth could be the Lord's Messiah, the Savior of the world. Not even the
religious leaders themselves recognized who he was! But the Lord had predicted
that, too. In Psalm 118, our Old Testament Lesson for this morning, He says,
"The Stone which the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone."

You know, pe ople are still rejecting that Cornerstone today. Sometimes it
seems like folks will take anything but Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of their
religion. The Roman Catholics make good works the center of their faith. The
Presbyterians concentrate on church government. The charismatics focus on
emotion and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. -All of these are parts of Christianity.
But they're not the cornerstone. Only Jesus can be that!

All the building blocks of God's Church are connected to the Cornerstone. If
you're a true Christian, then your faith rests solidly on Jesus Christ, and Him
alone! Peter told the Jewish council in Jerusalem, "Jesus Christ of Nazareth...is
the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief
cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name
under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." --Ac 4:10-12. As
a sinful human being, you can't save yourself, no matter how hard you try to do
the right thing. And nobody else can do it for you, e ither. Nobody, that is,
except Jesus Christ! Only Jesus offers the perfect righteousness you need to win
God's approval. Only Jesus' blood will work to blot all your many sins out of
God's book, and earn you a place in eternal paradise. How hard is it to get these
precious benefits? That's the astonishing thing - it's not hard at all! It's as simple
as Paul's advice to that jailor in Philippi: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you will be saved, you and your household." --Ac 16:31. Just receive the Good
News about Jesus, and you're in!

If Jesus is the Cornerstone of the Church, then the Bible is the foundation. In
the Christian Church, each block rests on this foundation.

I was watching a program the other day about how they build skyscrapers.
Special attention is given to the steel that goes into the base of the building.
The huge bottom girders are even subjected to x-rays and ultrasound, to make
sure there are no hidden flaws. If they're anything less than perfect they have to
be rejected, or else the whole building could collapse at any time. Well, the
Bible is like that for us Christians - it's the strong bottom structure of our faith.
God's Word is the only thing in this world on which our faith can safely rest,
with no fear of collapse. There are no flaws in this foundation. Every word,
every fact, every promise is utterly true and reliable. It speaks to us sweet words
of forgiveness through Christ, and promises us eternal life in His name. Of all
the books in the world, the Bible is the only one that comes with the Lord's
personal guarantee of truth: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness." --II Tim 3:16.

Our text says that Christians are building blocks that are "built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets." But here again, there are many in our
day and age who aren't satisfied with this foundation. They think they have to
tinker with the Bible to bring it up to date. If the scientists now say that all life
evolved from one-celled organisms, why then we'd better take the Genesis
account of creation with a grain of salt, hadn't we? If miracles are scientifically
impossible, then perhaps it's better to view the miracles of the Bible as myths
and legends. If homosexuality is nothing more than "a legitimate alternate
lifestyle," if keeping a strict guard against false doctrine is no longer very
important, if it's only fair that we allow women to be pastors as well as men,
why then we're going to have to adjust that "foundation" a little bit, aren't we?
In that case, there are certain very clear passages of Scripture that we're either
going to have to explain away somehow, or else discard altogether. And of
course that's exactly what most modern religious leaders do - they discount or
discard those parts of the Bible that they don't like. But do you think it's safe to
do that?

You’ve probably had the experience of sitting on an airplane while it’s waiting
to take off, watching the airline workers load the luggage, put in fuel, etc. Well,
how would you feel if you saw a worker reach into a panel, pull out a handful of
parts at random, and throw them on the tarmac? I’d get off that plane, wouldn’t
you? You’re counting on that thing to get you to your destination alive. A
modern jet aircraft has over three million parts, but you can’t safely discard any
of them! Because they’re all integrated and connected with each other, each
part effects the other parts, and each part plays an integral role in getting you
safely to your destination. No one in his right mind would tinker with a jet
aircraft. Should we tinker with the Bible, taking out the parts we don’t
understand, or don't think we need?

God forbid! In fact, God does explicitly forbid us to tinker with His eternal
Word! His stern command in Deuteronomy leaves no20room for
misunderstanding: "You shall not add to the Word which I command you, nor
take anything from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your
God which I command you." --4:2. Why do we in the CLC cherish this Word so
much? Why are we so careful not to add a single syllable to the Bible or subtract
a single syllable from it? Because this Book, in all it's parts, teaches us about
Christ. It is truly "His-story", and that's what makes it the foundation of your
faith, and my faith, and the faith of every member of the Christian Church. We
dare not tinker with any of the teachings that we're relying on to get us into
heaven!

Let the liberal Christians call us names, and say we're "unloving," and complain
that we don't have "the right Christian spirit." That won't kill us. Jesus said
we'd never make a lot of friends by standing up for the Gospel. We know that
what the Bible tells us is true: let even a little false doctrine creep in, and it can
destroy everything, just like a little yeast causes the whole batch of dough rise!
=0 A

As the building blocks of the Church, each of us is connected to the
Cornerstone, which is Christ, and each of us rests firmly on the foundation,
which is the Bible. But there's something else: in this building, each block fits
with all the other blocks. Paul says, In Christ, the whole building, being joined
together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built
together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

The Christian Church is like a building - but not a brick building. If it were
made of bricks, then every member of the Christian Church would be exactly
like every other member. That's not so, and God never meant it to be so. The
Church is more like those beautiful stone structures - you know the kind I
mean? -Where every block in the wall is different, but each block fits perfectly
with those around it. In fact, Paul also compares the Church to a human body,
which has many parts. All the parts are different, but each one carries out an
important function. "And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of
you'; nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'" --I Cor 12:21. No,
we Christians do need each other. We fit together with one another, and we
serve one another in mutual love for our Lord Jesus. God has placed you exactly
where He wants you in the structure of His Church, so you know beforehand
that there's work for you to do and talents for you to use right here in this
congregation, in Tacoma, Washington.

Now, Christ has promised you a mansion in heaven, and you'll be m oving
there someday, as sure as He died on the cross to pay for your sins. While you're
waiting, though, why not use your talents to serve your fellow Christians here in
this congregation? Have you ever thought of stopping in to visit someone who’s
sick or shut-in? How about taking a moment to call and encourage a member
we haven't seen in church for a while? If you can teach Sunday School, then do
it! Ask the pastor how you can help with our congregation’s outreach. Perhaps
you can lend your counsel at voters' meetings, or serve as a congregational
delegate. Our country is challenged by a shrinking economy lately, but maybe
your financial situation will allow you to lend more economic support to the
Gospel than in the past. All of these things are good outlets for the natural
fruits of your faith. They're ways to say "thank you" to your Lord, and to serve
your fellow believers. Not because you have to. Not because it's your duty. But
because Jesus is taking you to heaven, and that tends to make a person joyful
and happy to serve!

Isolated? Remote? Alone? Not us! You and I are building blocks in20the most
beautiful temple ever built - the Christian Church, the dwelling place of the
Holy Spirit. The invisible link of faith in Jesus Christ connects you with every
other true believer the world round. And have you ever considered this? -You
are a block in the same structure that includes Moses, Noah and Abraham; the
disciples and the martyrs; Augustine, Martin Luther and C.F.W. Walther. The
building isn't finished yet, either - God willing, our children and grandchildren
will find their place in this temple, too. And on the last Day, the whole intricate
structure of this mighty temple will be revealed, and then all men will realize
that we were never alone at all!

In 1678, John Bunyan wrote the Christian classic, "Pilgrim's Progress." This
great communicator often referred to the Christian Church as "the Palace
Beautiful." People were always surprised to learn that the place he worshipped
in on Sundays was a rude country church, little better than a barn. But when he
lifted his eyes to God in worship he saw, not the rough-hewn rafters of the
building he was sitting in, but the lofty peaks and gorgeous structure of the=2
0Church Universal, the invisible Church of all believers. Our place of worship
here is likewise a rather humble dwelling. May God grant us grace to remember
that, for Jesus' sake, we too are part of a much greater structure. We Christians
are the building blocks of the Church! AMEN.