And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
6 sermons cite this verse
… we ought to be fitted together. Then it said we ought to be built together. And then it gives us the reason why. So that we become a dwelling place for the glory and the presence of God. Understand what Paul is describing. As beautiful as this building is and this auditorium and all of our campuses is, he's not talking about brick and mortar. He's not talking about concrete and carpet. He's talking about the people that I'm looking at right now that are sitting on these seats. He is talking about you. You are the church. You are the body of Christ. And he said, our responsibility now is that you and I must be fitted, being built up so that we can become a dwelling place for the glory and the presence of God. Can I tell you this morning that God has not changed his mind about the church. I know we live in a time and in a culture where everything wants to make the church obsolete. …
… in him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. This is God's Word. We've been looking at the passage and we say there's a number of metaphors that Paul uses to explain what the church is and therefore what kind of lives we have in connection with Christ. We've been spending most of our time on the longer metaphor, which has to do with the idea that Christians, that the church is God's dwelling place, a holy temple. But tonight we take a look at the first of the metaphors in this sentence, in this paragraph. Consequently, you are no longer strangers, or as the translation we have here, you are no longer foreigners or aliens, But, fellow citizens with God's people. What is that teaching us? There's a lot of profound teaching here, and this is what it is. It makes a negative, then it makes a positive statement. …
… In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. and in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. For a number of weeks we've been looking at this idea, this metaphor, this concept, this teaching, that to be a Christian means that you are, as it says here, a dwelling place of God the Spirit. We are being joined together and are rising to become a holy temple in the Lord. and we've seen that Paul is really teaching us quite a few things. In one week, we talked about the fact that Paul is saying that Christians are not designed to stand on their own. No human being is designed to stand on his or her own, that we need each other, and we talked about the unity, and we talked about the fact that just attending a church and getting some inspiration out of it is not the same thing as being built together at all, and that's another sermon, isn't it? Yes, so let's avoid it. Then the second week, we looked at the fact that this also teaches us that since we are a dwelling place of God the Spirit, we're His house, that means we have an access to Him. He interpenetrates us with His presence. We have access to His very face, and we looked at all of that and all that that meant, and that's also another sermon which we …
… the page where you are if you've been singing, along with the rest of the congregation. Ephesians 2, verses 19 to 22. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. and in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. we've said that there's actually three metaphors in this particular paragraph that describes the church. And the first one is we are citizens in a kingdom. And then secondly, we are members of God's household, members of his family. But thirdly, and the one we've been looking at for a couple of weeks and which we are going to continue to look at tonight is we are building blocks in a house. It says here we are actually built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ being the cornerstone. We are building blocks in a building joined together, rising to become a holy temple, a dwelling place of God where he lives by his spirit. Now, a couple weeks ago we said that Paul's trying to get a number of things across to us. He's trying to show us if we're building blocks in a temple of God's spirit, it means that we need each other. …
… and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. and in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Now, this section, as we said last week, gives us three pictures of the church. It's possible for a church, for a local church, for the church in general, to be characterized by such supernaturally excellent quality, a supernaturally excellent quality to its relationships. It's possible that our community would be so remarkable that people flock to it like moths to a flame. The only time I can ever remember being in what probably the Bible would define as a revival. I mean, people are always talking about revival. I've actually been through one. I saw a little group of Christians scared, huddling together, 10 or 12 on a college campus, scroll to about 120 people, mostly through conversions over a very, very brief period of time, over a matter of months. And I do remember, because I was a part of that, I was one of those 12 little scared ones, brand new Christian really myself, and not a terribly consistent living Christian at all at that point, a lot of hypocrisy in my life. Yet I saw a scroll largely through the strength of the quality of relationships in the community. We did not know how to articulate the gospel. We did not know how to answer the objections. We were not at all bold in talking to other people about what we believed. What really happened was God sent his spirit into …
… Arise is to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Now, we're talking about the church. We go back to it. Why? Two things, I think, in my experience, are necessary for people to cross the line from unbelief to belief. To cross the line from being outside of the Christian faith into the Christian faith. Two things. You have to demonstrate to people, and some of you are in the midst of seeking this out and this happening to you right now. you need first of all to have the credibility of the christian faith demonstrated to you and then secondly you need to have the plausibility or the personal relevance of the christian faith demonstrated to you the credibility and the plausibility the credibility means is it intellectually coherent does it stand up to the evidence the credibility the plausibility has more to do with, does it have the ring of reality? …