Citizens, Sons and Stones

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason, October 25, 3003

Ephesians 2:19-22

¹⁹So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. ²⁰We are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. ²¹We who believe are carefully joined together, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. ²²Through him you Gentiles are also joined together as part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

^{One day during the American Civil War President Abraham Lincoln was deeply involved in a very crucial meeting of his Cabinet. They were in the Cabinet Room working out some grand strategy when there came a knock on the door.}

^{There stood Willie, the President’s ten year old son, wanting to see his father for a moment. Abraham Lincoln laid aside all the duties of state and left the Cabinet members cooling their heels, while he saw what Willie wanted.}

^{He outranked all the others. He had access to his father.}

^{This is one of the great truths the Paul is trying to get across to us – the fact that we have access to the Father, a Father who is the King, with tremendous power and authority in the affairs of the world, in life as it is lived right now.}

^{To accomplish this Paul employs three beautiful figures in this passage. They follow one upon another and each one is an advance upon the previous one. They are designed to teach us great truths about what it means to be a Christian.}

^{There is the figure of a kingdom (fellow citizens with the saints)}

^{There is the figure of a family (members of the household of God – i.e. "sons"}

^{Then there is the figure of a building (a holy temple…for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit)}

^{Let’s look closer at what Paul is saying in this passage. ‘You Ephesians," he says, "are no longer strangers and sojourners." That is, "Once you were strangers and [literally] foreigners, but now no longer."}

^{What is a stranger? A stranger is characterized by not knowing much about the place where he is. We have all been strangers at one time or another. We have come into a city different from our own and haven’t known much about it. We don’t know where things are, where to go or what to do because we don’t understand the resources available to us.}

^{Paul says once we were strangers. We did not know what God could do for us. We had no idea about the resources of joy, peace and forgiveness available to us from God. We knew nothing of His capacity for handling our problems with pride, fear or hostility. Bu no more, now that we have come to Christ we are strangers no more.}

^{Not only are we no longer strangers, but we are no longer foreigners.}

^{A foreigner is different from a stranger. A foreigner may be very familiar with the country in which he is living; he may have lived there for a long time. But he is limited by the fact that he is an alien; he has none of the rights of a citizen of the country. He is living on a passport. He does not have a birth certificate which makes him a citizen of that land.}

^{There are many people in our churches who are essentially foreigners. They attend church regularly, often study the Bible and are familiar with the hymns or choruses we sing. Perhaps they have been raised in a Christian family and the language of the church is familiar to them. But they have never become a Christian. They are foreigners living on a passport.}

^{But of the true Christian Paul says, you are "fellow citizens with the saints. There are two kingdoms in this world…two spiritual kingdoms and each of us belongs to one or the other. The true Christian has changed his citizenship and is now a member of another kingdom and under a different authority. Once you were under the authority of the kingdom of Satan, but now you are a citizen of the kingdom of God.}

^{The Apostle Paul points out here that we share a tremendous glory; we are fellow citizens with the saints. Who are these saints he is talking about…well, obviously the other Christians who are alive with us now. But Paul is thinking about people like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, and Isaiah.}

^{We belong to the same King. Do you remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 8:11 when he said, "I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." Think of that. What a tremendous privilege to know these people who were the foundation stones upon which Christ built his church.}

^{The second figure Paul uses is that of "members of the household of God". That is translated as meaning "sons" of God. We have just advanced in status in Paul’s thinking from citizens to sons in the household of God. We are members of God’s own intimate family.}

^{John was amazed by this concept. In his first epistle chapter 3:1 he said, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are." A child always outranks even an ambassador, or a governor, or a senator. That was the message of the illustration of President Lincoln’s son Willie with which we began today. The protection and provision of a father is always more intimate and personal than that of a king.}

^{You and I are the objects of God’s deepest, most intimate, personal concern, as members of God’s own household. Could there be anything, any relationship that is more intimate that that?}

^{It is found in the third figure that the Apostle Paul uses in this passage, which speaks of an even more intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.}

^{Paul expresses it this way: You are "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ himself being the corner stone." (Eph. 2:20).}

^{In this section, he is stressing the closeness of the members of the household of God to one another and to the Lord. You may have family members scattered all over this country or even all over the earth, who are thousands of miles away. You are still related to one another, but you are separated from each other by wide distances. You haven’t seen each other for a long time.}

^{But in this figure of the building…we are stones and there is no separation in these stones. If they were separated, the building would crumble. We are very close to God and cannot be separated from Him, when we are in Christ. Paul ties us together; building us into this tremendous temple in which he himself has chose to live. The Apostles taught us that Jesus was Lord.}

^{The Holy Spirit taught them. It is upon their faith and teaching that we rest. For three and a half years, they lived with Jesus. He taught them. They were in the closest of relationships with Jesus. The whole building is tied together because of the cornerstone. Jesus is that Cornerstone. Paul makes it clear that everything is "in him", "in Christ," or "by Him." Everything comes to us in Christ. If you do no have Jesus, there is no way you can have intimate fellowship with God. Jesus is the great cornerstone of our faith and we are all members of it, the body of Christ, stones being joined together.}

^{The picture Paul gives us of all of this is of God knocking off the rough edges and shaping us, getting us ready.}

^{A missionary in South America needed a house built for him to live in. An Indian stonemason dug stones out from the river bank and began working with the stones so they would fit in the wall. He would take a chisel and a hammer and knock off a piece here or there and smooth off an edge or two and then he would place the stone where he wanted. If it didn’t quite fit, he would knock off another piece here and there until it was exactly right.}

^{That is the picture that Paul has for us in this passage. God is knocking off the rough edges and shaping us up, getting us ready. Sometimes it is situations and circumstances that knock off the rough edges. Other times God puts us with some people we don’t like and they are going to be the chisel he is using to knock off some of the rough edges.}

^{I am reminded of the time when some Texan Cowboys needed to get a large, long horn steer into the corral. They roped the steer and tied a little donkey to the steer real tight and then let the animals go. At first that steer dragged that little donkey around, knocking him down. But every time that little donkey got back up it took another step toward home. About two weeks later into that corral came the sorriest looking steer anyone had ever seen, being led by that little donkey who just wanted to go home.}

^{God is preparing his people, straightening them out, chiseling a piece here and chipping a piece there, sanding them down, smoothing them out, getting them ready; building them in, fitting them in place in this great temple God has built, the church of Jesus Christ, the people in whom He dwells.}

^{Jesus said, "I chose you …" (John 15:16). Keep these words as a wonderful reminder in your theology. It is not that you have gotten God, but that He has gotten you.}

^{God is at work bending, breaking, molding, and doing exactly as He chooses.}

^{And why is He doing it? He is doing it for only one purpose—that He may be able to say, "This is my man, and this is my woman."}

^{We have to be in God’s hand so that He can place others on the Rock, Jesus Christ, just as He has placed us.}

^{Never choose to be a worker, but once God has placed His call upon you, woe be to you if you "turn aside … to the right or the left …" (Deuteronomy 28:14). He will do with you what He never did before His call came to you, and He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way." Oswald Chambers: My Utmost for His Highest}

^{We are citizens, sons and living stones.}

^{Knowing the resources available to us as such…will help us to over come the difficulties and problems the world will send our way. Knowing the resources available to us will allow us to walk by faith and help others to find Jesus Christ.}

^{They are yours to use with power because you are a citizen of the Kingdom of God, a son in his household and a living stone he is placing on the foundation of Jesus Christ.}

^{-- Dennis Gleason}