Ephesians 2:19-22
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 prophets, with Christ 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.
Colossians 1:6
All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day your heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.
I have been blessed to be part of 2 major building projects at FBCG (we have also completed a number of smaller remodeling projects during my years here as well). We completed what is now the East Campus Student Center in 1994 and built the West Campus in 2004. During the construction of each phase I enjoyed walking through the sites just watching how the buildings came together.
The foundation of each building was poured concrete and the walls were made of concrete blocks. And every one of the thousands of concrete blocks that went into both buildings were fastened to each other with some kind of mortar.
Whenever I would walk through the buildings I would find myself thinking about two things. I would imagine that each block represented a person who had been part of our church over the 118 years of our history. And then I would imagine the mortar to be that which holds us all together; the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Read again how the Apostle Paul describes the church:
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 prophets, with Christ 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.
Then, in Colossians, he explains the role the gospel plays in the growth of the church:
All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day your heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.
Put all this together and we see three truths.
First, the church is born of the gospel. As Christians we celebrated Easter just last weekend. We celebrate the resurrection of Christ because the resurrection affirms that Jesus was the very Son of God whose death on the cross was the final sacrifice for our sins. We celebrate because the resurrection anchors both our forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. But the resurrection of Jesus also gave birth to the church. Prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus, there was no church. The church was born when Jesus commissioned his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Matthew 28) and then sent the Holy Spirit to empower them (Acts 2).
Second, the church is built on the gospel. When Paul refers to Christ as the “chief cornerstone” he is saying that the church is built on the truth and authority of Christ as Savior and Lord.
Third, the church makes the gospel visible to the world. In Acts 1 Jesus commands his followers:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
On several occasions in the New Testament the church is referred to as “the body of Christ.” We put these together and we see that the church is to be the body of Christ that bears witness to the world. The church is to make Christ and his gospel visible.
While there are many ways that we, as the church, are to make the gospel visible, I want to focus on just four this week.
The church makes the gospel visible by who and how we worship.
The church makes the gospel visible through the truth we proclaim.
The church makes the gospel visible by how we treat each other.
The church makes the gospel visible by how we serve the world.
For we, as the church of Jesus Christ, are to be the gospel community.
Pastor Brian Coffey
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