The Ephesian Christians must have felt very small. They lived at the very heart of the cult of Artemis, in the shadow of her magnificent temple. How unsettling that must have been! But the apostle Paul has some news for them in Ephesians 2. The Temple of Artemis is not the real dwelling place of God. They are! They are the true temple of God!

In the second half of Ephesians 2, Paul has been talking about how Gentiles can now be fully fledged members of the people of God. v11-12 teach that that hadn’t always been true of them. They had been outsiders. How dreadful to be an outsider from the people of God, without hope, without God in the world! But v13 shows that that’s no longer the case for them. They’ve now become God’s people, members of God’s kingdom, children in God’s family. They’ve gone from being outsiders to being insiders. It’s all happened “through the blood of Christ”. They’ve come to believe in him.

Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? If you don’t, you’re an outsider from his kingdom. And if you don’t belong to him and his people on earth, you won’t belong to him and his people in heaven. You’ll find yourself cut off from him eternally. So come to him. Pray to God and confess all your sin to him. Start to trust in Jesus Christ. Follow him. And He will save you. He’ll make you one of His people, a member of His kingdom, a child in His family.

Paul points us to various features of the church, likening it to solid building.

i The foundations

Foundations are vital. To construct a solid building, you’ve got to get the foundations right. Otherwise the whole place will be dodgy. v20 tells us about the foundations of the church.

Firstly, Paul says that the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church. They were the first to receive God’s new revelation in Christ. They received the very words of God as Jesus spoke them and as the Holy Spirit brought them back to mind. And Paul says that they and their message lie at the very basis of Christianity. That apostolic, inspired, God-given message supports everything which goes after it.

Now, that has important consequences for you and me. We have that apostolic, inspired, God-given message. It’s come down to us in the form of the New Testament, in the form of the whole Bible, in fact. Therefore the Bible must be at the heart of everything we do. Never add to it. Never subtract from it. Never modify it. If you do, you’re chipping away at the foundations. And if you do that, the church will fall.

Secondly, Paul says that Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone of the church. The cornerstone was the most important stone in the foundations of a building. It would be put down first. It would be used to line up the whole building. It would hold everything else up.

Jesus Christ, says Paul, is the cornerstone of the church. The church is built upon Him. It is held up by Him. It is held together by Him. It is shaped by Him. It is supported by Him. Quite simply, apart from Him, there is no church. If we ever try to do things without him, we might as well flog the chapel to McDonald’s and disappear. Christ is the cornerstone. Without Him, there is nothing, nothing at all.

ii The cement

v21-22 tell us what holds the church together. The Lord Jesus Christ does. He is the cement which binds us together. v14-18 give a tremendous example of that. There was a dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles. But Christ has bulldozed it. He has made the two one. That’s how it should always be in every church. How can there be any dividing wall between people who have been saved by Christ? Christ makes us all one.

If Christ has pulled down the dividing wall, then, how dare any Christian start to rebuild those walls? And yet, that’s just what we do sometimes. Never look down upon another Christian because of nationality or race or tribe or skin colour. Never look down upon another Christian because he/she belongs to a different denomination. Never allow yourself the luxury of nurturing bitterness against another believer. If you do, you’re undoing the work of Christ. You’re chiseling away at the cement which holds the whole church together. Do something about it. Romans 12:18 urges us to live at peace if we can. And that’s never been more important than in our isolationist days. Who knows whether the way we’re going to impact our hardened land in days to come is by showing ourselves to be a real community?

And we can do that! We can do it because Christ is our cement. He’s the one who joins us all together. He’s the one who unites us.

iii The building

In v21-22, Paul says that the church is a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.

In our New Covenant days, there are no longer any special buildings. But there is still a temple! God’s dwelling place can still be found on earth! It’s the church. We’re God’s dwelling place! We’re God’s home, so to speak! That makes us special.

Why would God want to live in us, though? Why would God want to dwell in a temple made of such odd looking stones as you and me? After all, we’re pretty resistant material. We’re difficult to shape. We’re reluctant to fit with the other stones. What would God want to live in us? Ephesians 3:10-11 tells us. The existence of the church roars out that God is wise. It tells the mighty spiritual powers which are at work in the world that God is wise. And he must be to take a bunch of people like us and form us into a church.

Christian, you are part of the most magnificent building in all the world. You are part of the temple of God. You are part of His dwelling place. You are part of His home. Rejoice in that!