Our present Position as Christians - our growth
Ephesians 2:20-22 · Roger Henderson · May 13, 2018
Ephesians (2018-19), No. 17
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926191031589

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, this morning we're going to finish out chapter two. And notice I've included in here a chapter review. So actually this time, actually Bob's going to do it. We kind of schedule it based upon people's schedule. And it just turns out that with all the shuffling around, Bob's going to do it. So Bob will be doing the chapter review for chapter two, which should be fun.

So actually we have the last three verses, which at first, it's interesting. They're some pretty cool verses. All right, so let's go ahead here. There we go. So actually I have this outline again from Macaulay. And as we talked about last week, it talks about the first part is our past as Gentiles. Let's go back here for a second. I'm talking about the uncircumcision and our present. We talked about early on our new position in Christ, our peace, our access, we talked about a lot last week, our citizenship. and foundation.

And the last part is our growth. And this growth is going to be interesting. It's not going to be so much personal growth, but the body of Christ. We're going to see some really neat things about it. And our foundation is going to be focused on the fact that we're pictured as a building, a building of God's household with the cornerstone of Jesus Christ being the cornerstone.

We have a stranger back there. Welcome to... There are handouts I think in the very back, on the back there. And actually the handouts got a little bit... I sent them automatically, but somehow they got... I don't know. They aren't as what I typically have them, so hopefully they won't be too different.

So our foundation is Jesus Christ. So basically the last three verses. Yeah, okay. So could someone read... these four verses 19 through 22. Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. In our built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone of human All the buildings fitly crammed together and wrote unto it a holy text on the board. And we were also building together for the habitation of God through the Spirit. Great, thanks Tom.

Okay, so actually I included a verse from last week in here because I wanted to make sure we kind of understood what verse 20 is talking about. When we get into verse 20, in fact I'm going to ask that question when we get into verse 20, but basically verse 19 kind of tells us what he's talking about in verse 20 here. Let's just jump right into verse 20.

Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. So it starts off, having been built, and the idea, we're thinking of a building here, signifies to build up, and there's some verses that talk about, you know, the idea of building is used a lot in the New Testament, building upon Christ Jesus, and there's other verses that talk about that. Like I mentioned here, we're going to talk about more the churches in view here, because it's going to talk about being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And we're going to dive in more to that in just a little bit. But let's just look at, could someone read 1 Corinthians 3, 10 and 11?

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like wise master builder, I laid a foundation and another building on it, that each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Great, okay.

So that points out the necessity. So that verse kind of mirrors this verse, but I think that talks about personally. No man can lay a foundation other than that which is laid upon Jesus Christ. But this verse is going to talk about, there's this emphasis on a building, and the foundation of this building is the Apostles and the Prophets, which is kind of interesting. And then it says, the cornerstone is Jesus Christ Himself. So very similar words, but it's focusing more on the collective body here. So what does this refer to?

So if you look back to verse 19, it says, kind of in the middle of verse 19, it says, But you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of the household of God. So it kind of sets the stage. You're of the household of God. You're fellow citizens with the saints. So it's a collective believer. So these fellow citizens are having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. So I think it's talking about the collective fellow citizens and the allusion there is Jew and Gentile.

In the New Testament, we're not built, you know, We are not looking at a physical building. Like in the Old Testament, they had the tabernacle, they had the physical building. Remember David said, I want to build a temple for the Lord. They wanted to build physical structures. Well here, it is going to talk about this metaphor of a building.

So let's kind of go on here. So, based on what Macaulay observes here, Paul now advances the thought of being part of God's household. of our position as the household itself. So we have a position, this is interesting, we have a position in Christ individually, but we have a position in Christ collectively. And that's kind of a thing I hadn't thought much about, and I had thought about, but these two verses really focus, these three verses really focus on that. That we collectively have a, and God has a building program for the collective body of Christ. Tom, you had something to add? I'm thinking of the Hallelujah Chorus that we're all joining in on. That's probably going to be the keystone to magnifying Him when the time is for Christ. Okay. Good. Okay. Cool.

It is on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. You are a fellowship of citizens having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. So let's just look at foundation first. Physically, it's nice to have a good foundation for your house. If you don't have a good foundation for your house, and we just read that earlier, the verse we read in 1 Corinthians 3 talks about the necessity of a good foundation. So we're going to see here, this foundation is going to refer to something that maybe you hadn't thought about as a foundation. if you have questions along the way and basically I think one of the key things in this definition here of foundation it's a metaphor the foundation spoken here is a metaphor for the the doctrine and the instructions so let's just look at the next chart here for a second it's it says of the apostles and prophets so some have you know in studying this out some have kind of objected and said well you know it's we're not really we're not hanging our hat on all the Apostles and the Prophets.

It's what they taught. It's a message they brought. It's not they themselves. So of the Apostles and Prophets, some have said it would be better laid by the Apostles and Prophets. So it's what they taught. It's a doctrine they laid down. Who is Christ? Who is the Church? Who are we? So they've kind of said, well, a better rendering of that might be laid by the Apostles and Prophets. Now I'm going to launch into talking about the Apostles and Prophets.

Actually, it's funny. I had not thought much about them. You know, Vernon is going through Acts. I'm thinking, boy, we haven't talked much about the Prophets. But it's in there. It talks about Prophets are mentioned. We have a few verses I want to look at here. So, 1st Apostles. So it's one sent forth to send. Apo, from, and stello, to send.

Actually, it's used of Jesus Christ in at least one passage, which I didn't include here. It's used of the twelve disciples. And it's also used of Barnabas and Paul. So it's not strictly just the twelve. At least Barnabas and Paul are included in that. Let's see, did I have a verse for that I was going to show you? Yeah, let's look at something here. For the Apostle, let's just look at Let's look at that Acts 4. Acts 14. Let's try that. Skip 4 and just go to verse 14.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd. crying out and saying, man, why are you doing these things? We also are men of the same nature as you and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. Great, thank you. Thanks for reading the rest of it. But what I was pointing out here, it says when the apostles, it enumerates Barnabas and Paul. Actually, it burdens me going through this. There is an example of the apostles. Now, let's go to the prophets.

Now, when you think about prophets, I often think, when I first looked at this, I thought, well, okay, he's looking at the Old Testament prophets. But the more I looked at this, and I said, no, no, you wouldn't be building on the Old Testament doctrine, you'd be building on the New Testament doctrine. So the prophets are the prophets that are mentioned in the New Testament and so you say boy Roger where I don't see too many occurrences of that but let's look at let's look at Acts 15 Acts 15 32 which is just if you're already in Acts you're very close there could someone read verse 32 actually how about 30 how about reading 31 and 32 Acts 15 31 and 32 when they had read it they rejoiced because of its encouragement Judas and Silas also be in prophets themselves, encourage and strengthen the brethren with a lengthy message. Okay, so it says Judas and Silas also being prophets, plural. So let's look at, and actually I didn't include this verse, go back a couple of chapters, go back in Acts 13, and I'll read this one, in Acts 13 verse 1, it says, Now they were at Antioch in the church Now, they were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets, teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, and so on.

So basically, this says prophets and teachers. So prophets are mentioned, and in the previous verse it talked about how they were encouraging and strengthening the body of believers. So prophets are in the picture. So when he says, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, They collectively presented the doctrine that we base our faith on.

And then here's another one. Here's a verse that talks about... Let's go back to Ephesians here. And I want to get the context of this one. Can someone read Ephesians 3, 4 and 5? Okay, Ephesians chapter 3 verses 4 and 5. If I refer to this when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men. as it has now been revealed through the Holy Apostles and Prophets in the Spirit.

Okay, so I think this is key, and we're going to get to this down the road here. We're talking about having been built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. So this verse says, this is really cool, it refers to these that they presented the mystery of Christ from verse 4 that it, I believe, refers back to the mysteries of Christ and has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets. So they were God's instruments to present the good news about Jesus Christ and that good news and the doctrine they presented is the foundation of of this group of body believers, this picture of the body of believers, with Christ Jesus as a cornerstone. And then also, that wasn't enough, there's some more.

So you see this phrase, Apostles and Prophets, so that's the occurrence there in Ephesians 3.5, but there's another occurrence we're going to be getting to, because I'm going to read Ephesians 4.11 and 12, there's another occurrence of that phrase. And this is a pretty familiar, especially 11 there, pretty familiar passage. Ephesians 4, 11 and 12. And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.

Okay, great. So that's a third occurrence, at least what I kind of am tracing through, a third occurrence. And this is a case where some people will claim, incorrectly, that there are still prophets around. And that's not good theology. The apostles and prophets were needed to provide the foundations for the church. There's no longer apostles needed and no longer prophets needed right now.

Go ahead. Then before the text was complete, one reinforced the other and they co-existed and co-encouraged each other. Go ahead, there was a question? This initiating phrase, having been built on the foundation, it's already been done. Right, good point. It's completed, right?

Paul's recounting here, and he's going to go, in the next verse he's going to continue on, but you go back to what we started with, back to verse 19b, But you are fellow citizens with the saints in our God's household, having been built on the foundation, So he's recounting what he described in verse 19. These fellow citizens with the saints, and they're of God's household, and oh, by the way, this household was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. It took me a while to get the flow of this, because you read that, and you say, well, he's kind of just jumping in, having been built. What's he talking about? He's talking about that the fellow citizens of the saints, they are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Their faith is built upon that. And then the next phrase we are going to talk about Christ as a cornerstone. And like I said, this is focused on the collective body of believers. These three verses all are focused upon that. But what we find is the collective body of Christ has as its position and possessions many of the same things as the individual believer has. We are going to see they have the same set of privileges, the same set of positions as the individual believer. The collective body of believers have, as you might guess, why would a collective, if we are all citizens of the United States in this room, then we collectively are citizens of the United States. It is sort of saying that individually we have these positions and possessions and collectively have the same ones.

But God has a plan for the collective body. These men constitute the foundation of the church since it was through them that God revealed and established the church. In practical terms this means the church is built upon the New Testament scriptures. So once again, our foundation is not a physical thing. It's scriptures that the Apostles and Prophets brought to us.

And we're not building on them, just like the verse about Peter. People get confused. They look at Peter, and here's this big massive rock. He's building a rock not on Peter. We don't want to focus on the Apostles and Prophets. It's what the doctrine they taught us.

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. So this is kind of a nit, but what do you think? Can I have the answer on there already? What I think the answer is. It seems like Christ Jesus himself, why didn't he just say Christ Jesus being the cornerstone? He kind of added another word in there. What do you think that tells us? You can look on the notes. He is the firm foundation we're looking at. This is from Zodiates. It uses an intensifier for emphasis. There's no one else that can be the cornerstone. I can't be the cornerstone. None of those apostles or prophets can be the cornerstone. They don't have the qualifications. He has the qualifications to be the cornerstone. And there's even more cool stuff about the construction of this clause here.

Being is this cool word called Amie. It's a to be verb. It's a state in which something continuously exists. So this is saying Jesus Christ himself, uniquely himself, continuously exists as the cornerstone. He doesn't someday say, well, I'm tired of being this cornerstone. This is kind of a heavy job here. I'm going to move on to something else. No, 24-7 he's the cornerstone.

And cornerstone is actually, stone is not, if you notice stone is in italics there, it's actually, he's a corner. And it actually denotes a chief cornerstone, a corner angle. In this clause, cornerstone, is a noun which identifies the subject, Jesus Christ himself. It completes, it tells us additional information. Jesus Christ himself, just like we have other descriptions of who Christ is and his attributes, more than his attributes. He is a cornerstone and a cornerstone identifies who Jesus Christ is. The construction is really pretty amazing here. So any thoughts about that? Or actually, I have a few verses here. I have a few typos. OK. Sorry. Go ahead. OK. OK. Yes. Exists. Not expects. Some people can continuously exit.

The idea of the cornerstone is really critical from. Historically, from a building perspective, because you lacked some of the modern day tools. There were no laser levels. None of the things that we have for precision. So you had to have something that you were going to measure everything else against. So the precision of the cornerstones was technical and critical. The direction of everything else.

Right. So I wonder, there's actually some cool verses here I wanted to look at too. So let's look at Luke 20.17. And actually it refers back to, that corner, the idea of a corner refers back to the Old Testament in many cases.

So Luke 20.17. And actually, let's see, is there more? Is that it? I might want to go back a little bit more. Yeah. Why don't you let me see. Don't want to go before 17 a little bit. I mean, look, I actually haven't got to it yet. Twenty seventeen. Well, let's just go ahead.

So, yeah, I want you. It's only eight, 17 and 18 in loop 20. and said, What then is this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. Yeah. OK, that's fine. All right. So.

So Crikeson's he he points out, you know, He is talking about himself, the stone which the builders rejected, and that theme is actually in Psalm 118 there. So that is a pretty important, being the chief cornerstone is very important. So let's look at Peter, more about the cornerstone.

First Peter 2.6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold I lay in Zion the chief cornerstone, elect precious, And he that believeth on him shall not be controunded. So I think as Randy was saying, the importance of the cornerstone, and scripture builds upon that. It's vital that it be Christ. Christ has to be the cornerstone.

Otherwise, you're in trouble. And then lastly, in Isaiah 28-16, Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. Good, good.

So there it's called the costly cornerstone. So just critical that we understand that he is the cornerstone. So basically, I'm going to review where we came from here. I was talking about the body of believers, the fellow believers having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

Okay, so from here we're going to move into the the last two verses. And they're kind of similar. And you read those two verses and you say, well, it sounds like he's saying the same thing in these verses. And there's some interesting things. OK, so it starts off.

So the main part, let's just look at the main part. So the main part of this, if you just look at the subject and the verb here, the whole building is growing, or grows. So we're going to see here that the Lord is interested in the collective body of believers, and their growth. He's not talking about individuals here. He's talking about the whole building, which is interesting.

So this is a focus on, as I mentioned before, the collective body of Christ. Actually, I've kind of given you the answer already. Who's the whole body? Let's see if I can... Let's just go on, and you'll kind of see as we go on. It's called the church, the body of Christ, basically.

Could someone read 1 Corinthians 3.9? And I just have the last part of that up there. For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building. Right. Okay. So he refers to the body of Christ as several metaphors. A field, a building. So he says a whole building. I think he's trying to, you know, he talked about Jew and Gentile trying to be inclusive here.

Okay, now it talks about, and then also, what was in 5.1 here? Let's see here. Actually, 5.1 is more about an individual believer. Why don't we just skip that for right now. We'll just skip over that. Okay, so this idea of grows or is growing. To grow, to increase. It can mean growing physically, but I think in this context it certainly means to grow spiritually. And it talks about, this is in the present tense, so the whole body is to be continuously growing. That's kind of the idea here.

So let's look at Colossians 2.19. Let's go back to 18. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement in the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen inflating without cause by flesh and mind, not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by joints and ligaments. grows with a growth that is from God. So God is the one who is going to grow the body.

What's interesting is, I was thinking about this. We often hear about church growth. So this talks about church growth in a different way. This is scriptural church growth. So it's saying here, the whole body is growing. And it's going to talk about how that's going to happen. It's going to be in whom. We're going to talk about that in a second. But it's God that's doing the work. We say, well, I'm going to have a church plant here. I'm going to do this. I'm going to grow the body. Well, man can do what he has the ability to do, but it's God that's going to grow the body. And these verses talk about how true church growth is going to happen.

So the first part is, in whom? If you look at that, the Amplified Bible actually renders that in Him. So it points back, if you look at the content, it points back to Christ Jesus as a cornerstone. So it's saying, in Christ, the whole building is going to be growing. And then it has this idea, it's not only growing, this is going to give some details about how it's going to be.

It's going to be being fitted together, to be fitted or framed together. Here's the Amplified. In Him, the whole structure is joined or bonded, welded together harmoniously. We think about the analogy of the hand and the foot and the head as being the body of Christ. All these different elements and each have a purpose.

So this is saying that God is the One. He's the One that's going to make that take the metaphorical hand and the head and the foot and make that fit together. He's the only one that can do that. If we try to take the metaphor, you know, okay, Randy, you're my hand, and, you know, Bonnie, you're my foot, and this is going to get together, you're going to do stuff, we don't do a very good job of that.

But he says he's the one being fitted together. And then he says, it goes on, and he says, Let's just talk about that for a second. The Fitted Together, Macaulay offered something here. And I found it hard to go much beyond the definition of that being fitted together. In a few verses there is not much. It's not like we have, okay, here's the Being Fitted Together handbook. And here's how it works. He just doesn't tell us that. And you think, wow. He tells us it's going to be Fitted Together, but he doesn't tell us. Where's my cheat sheet? He doesn't say that.

So we're left with understanding what it says there and then looking at other scriptures that try to explain that. So Macaulay says, the phrase being fitted precisely defines a function of the cornerstone. Perhaps to say the building is aligned on him gets at the best sense. So I think the point is, and we know this from other, certainly we are to focus on the head, to focus on the cornerstone. That's where the focus is individually and collectively.

If we get off that path, if we get off the path of the cornerstone, we're not going to allow God to fit us together harmoniously. And then the third part, He wants to fit us together harmoniously into a holy temple in the Lord. I was trying to think of I almost went out on the internet and started searching, but I decided that might be dangerous. Is there a picture here I can find that would try to portray this? If you look at what it is saying, being fitted together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord. These are my pictures of what the Lord is doing.

The temple is a shrine or a sanctuary metaphorically of the body of Christ. Well, it's kind of interesting that there was a kind of a dummy run of that in the Old Testament when the original temple was put together. God simply told David, this is not going to be yours. He set things up, but the son who follows Solomon will take care of the rest of it.

Right. So what's interesting here... Yeah, thanks, Tom. That's good. I want to show the contrast here. This is talking about a holy temple in the Lord. But don't forget, if you look at 1 Corinthians 3.16, you'll say, do you not know that you are a temple of God? So individually we're temples, but collectively, the whole building is a temple as well. So these last two verses are all focused on the collective body of Christ. In the Lord, it's not physical, but spiritual.

And here is a verse here that is kind of a similar parallel verse in Ephesians 4.16 From whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part causing growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

And we'll be citing this down the road a bit. So that's a cool verse to look forward to here. So this is, like I said, so this is verse one that's going to talk about this subject. We're going to come back to the second verse. It's going to be a very similar kind of structure and talk about a very similar kind of thing. OK, hopefully I haven't made this too difficult or too, Randy, you go first. You're fine. It looks like these pieces are being built. individual pieces being built together. Doesn't that you are being built refer to the individuals? Right, and actually we're going to see that, right?

This talks about, okay, the next verse is going to say, talk about you also. If you look at the next verse it's going to say, in whom you also. So, individually we're part of that whole collective body, and it's going to tell us we're going to be part of that too. It's going to try to explain the individual part of that. This talked about the whole building, the whole body is being fitted together. The next verse is going to talk about you individually. Is that kind of where you're headed with that? Yeah, good, good. Randy, do you?

Yeah, the temple in the Old Testament was dedicated to God as a place that was focused on bringing glory to him and directing the thoughts and the lives and the teaching about who the Old Testament saints, who they were supposed to be focusing on. And it was an outward thing that they all had to have as central. But for us we have this living temple principle The purpose is the same. It is a holy temple. The purpose is to bring glory to God and to focus our attention on Him. Not the sacrifices. The purpose is not the sacrifices.

But that was the ultimate goal was to have, this is where we commune with God all the time. Only you commune with God all the time. That's a really cool thing. That would have been shocking for the Jewish believers who would have been used to feeling there's a journey involved and salvation existence. No, this is, you have zero centimeters away from God.

Well, the parallel here is that you're a temple, and the body is a temple too. I mean, just after a while, your head starts thinking, well, I'm a temple, and we're collectively a temple, and so it's just, you know, pretty mad. But this right, this verse here, 21 is going to focus on the whole building. We're going to go to 22 here, in whom, as was pointed out, you also, so we're back to, you also are being built. The whole building is being built. Something is happening to you. You also are being built into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Okay, once again, the main idea is you also are being built. Who is the you? You as a believer.

Actually, one rendering has this... Where is the phrase? I lost it here. Anyway, it kind of talks about that the you, you know, this comes at the bottom of a long dialogue about Jew and Gentile. So it's going to say, you know, you also, you Jew, you Gentile, are also being built together. So it's going to kind of tie that, the person kind of went back and looked and said, well it's going to kind of tie that together. In whom, you also, Jew and Gentile, are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

So here's another building term, are being built together. To build in the company of someone, figuratively to build together with other Christians and spiritual. This is the present, continuous action, the present, but it's passive. We're not to go out and say, OK, time to get building here. No. Our job is by faith to focus on the Lord. Focus on Him. Focus on, for example, what our gift is in the body. Focus on things like that. Not to be out there.

The action is occurring toward us. So here's the Amplified Bible. I'm being built up into this structure with the rest. So Macaulay kind of offers his idea here. The present tense of being built together brings out the idea of continuous activity extending through the entire church age. Ephesians 4, 11 through 16 will tell us how this building is to take place.

What I found is that particular, and we're going to get to that down the road here, that particular passage is kind of key to the picture of the New Testament body of how it's to operate. And we've read portions of that already, so I won't go back and do that again. But that passage, we're going to see when we get to it, is pretty key.

Once again, it's in whom? It's in Christ. So both of these verses are linked to being in Him. So, in Him, into a dwelling of God, And this is where some have the idea of habitation, which I kind of like. I think King James has habitation. A dwelling place, a habitation. To form a fixed abode, a dwelling place of God in, or it could be by or through the Spirit. And then basically this is a spiritual activity.

So wrapping up here, I want to do a couple of things. I have a little summary I want to read. Now I want to show you this one chart. This comes from Chafer. Metaphors of the church in the New Testament. This isn't totally complete, but it has at least six of them.

The church is a flock in relation to the shepherd. You see that in the Gospels and other places. The body of believers is a flock in relation to the shepherd. And then in John 15 we see that we're the branches. He is a vine. We are the branches. That picture is the body of believers. Then we're a kingdom of priests in relationship to the high priest. We're a body in relation to the head.

We saw that at the very end, at the very end of Ephesians chapter 1. Remember it said, I'll just go back and read that. We just got through. In the chapter 1 it just talked about that very fact. It said And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all and all." So we're the body in relation to the head, the body of believers. We're the bride in relation to the bridegroom. And then today, we're a building in relation to the cornerstone. So those are all metaphors that are used in the New Testament.

I just wrote down, kind of comparing, so turn back to Ephesians and if you have verses, look at verses 21 and 22. So I was going to try to compare and contrast these two. And we already kind of, the question already came up about that already. So verse 21 talks about the whole building is growing. Ephesians 2, 21 and 22.

So the whole building is growing, as we saw, and that's the body of Christ, contrasted with you, and here's the term, you as separate and various members. I think that's pointing back to Jew and Gentile. You are also being built. So the church is growing, and you also are being built. So that's going on together.

And the commonality, it's in Him, in Christ, In verse 21 we're being fitted together. In verse 22 we're being made into a habitation or dwelling place of God. And then the last part in both those verses is into a holy temple in the Lord or it's in the Spirit. So both those verses track the whole building and you as individual members. This is for he himself is our peace, who has made both one.

And I'm wondering if this M19, now therefore you are no longer strangers. And then you also, I'm wondering if the contrary, what he's bringing in is the Gentiles, so that you also is referring to the Gentiles. Okay, okay, I wouldn't have a problem with that. Obviously in this passage, he wants to make clear the Gentiles are included in what he's teaching.

They are part of the body of Christ. Right? And they're part of, you know, God hasn't forgotten about the Gentiles. So they were separated from God in the Old Testament era, right? That's a good point. So you could, yeah, you also? And I don't know if the U in Greek is plural or singular. Even if it's singular, it would be U singular Gentile. I don't know. Yeah, okay. Well, that's good. That's good.

Well, definitely the thrust of this, a good part of chapter 2 is the fact that two groups are now one new man made into one new man. That union of two opposing groups, because the Gentiles were at odds with the Jews. The Jews had nothing to do with them. And the fact that they're brought in and now acceptable to God through Jesus Christ is pretty amazing. So I think these last two verses kind of fill in the details there.

So like I said, next week Bob's going to get another dose of Chapter 2, but kind of in speed form. He's going to go through all of Chapter 2 in 45 minutes, or whatever it takes here. And then we're on to Chapter 3. All right, let's see here. I love my buzzers. Seven minutes? Oh my goodness. I think it's really cool. I appreciate that you shared the multiple metaphors here.

The flock is a recognition of... I don't know if you ever spent time with flocks of sheep, but they're pretty helpless and stupid. And the thing is that a branch doesn't do anything by itself. If it's not connected, it doesn't do anything. Right, that's a good point.

A kingdom of priests, that would have shocked any of your Jewish readers. Yeah, that's for sure. Now you're saying it's everybody? That would have rocked their world. That body business thing. And the whole picture, I remember seeing, I think Hal did, other people did, they had a picture of the human body and they had the hands and the foot and the arm and the eyes. They all have different functions. Hopefully when we walk down the street everything works together, or we go to wherever, everything works together. It's a cool concept, the body and the head.

And the head is supposedly directing everything, sometimes you wonder. You'll sleep at the wheel, so to speak. Oh, there we go. OK. OK. I didn't I didn't jump two feet this time. So. All right. Anyway, go ahead. I really wanted. Interesting. Well that would be foreshadowing, yeah. Well that's probably from the Old Testament. I know. I need a verse. No, I understand what you're saying. That's interesting. Well it's certainly clear in the church age, that's totally his intent. and totally that we're temples.

All the metaphors of individuals and the body of Christ are just mind-boggling. The fact that we would be a kingdom of priests, the fact that we would be in union with Christ, and it just goes on and on. All the things that are talked about in terms of what we have in Christ are just something we have a hard time grasping. In fact, I think it's to the point where we maybe Because it's so overwhelming, we sometimes, you know, if we only believe a few, I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places.

That by itself is, now obviously it's not physical, you know. But positionally, you are there. From that place. And it says, we are to wait for Christ from that place. Seated with Him in heavenly places. Which sounds kind of... Boy, I'm waiting from heaven to go to heaven. Sounds kind of strange. Okay, let's close.

We thank you, Father. We thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for the marvelous truths and marvelous pictures, Lord. The marvelous metaphors that we see. We pray that you help us to understand them. Thank you for your word, Father, that's inexhaustible and just has many wonderful truths. Help us to believe those truths, Father. Help us to trust in what you've told us. In Christ's name, Amen.