If you have ever been discouraged in the body of Christ, if you have ever been frustrated with the local church, if you have ever felt like giving up on church, and my guess is that probably most Christians have felt like that at some point in their lives, then this message today is for you. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. And Colin, if we ask for a show of hands if people felt like this at some point, I think just about every hand in the room would go up, wouldn’t it? Well, we live in a fallen world, and Christians are in a process of recovery. We’re not what we one day will be. I mean, the church is a hospital for sinners. It’s not a club for saints. So it’s not surprising that most Christians would be able to tell some story about some inadequacy in the church, some failure, and so forth. And if that’s your position, and especially if you’ve been deeply hurt, discouraged, and wounded, I’m so glad you’re listening to the programme today, and I hope that you will be helped and encouraged. Let me remind you of two things in particular. One, Jesus Christ never gives up on the church. And as you want to be like Jesus Christ, you won’t give up on the church either. And remember this, that one day the church will be radiant, glorious, a full reflection of all that Jesus Christ is forever and forever, and you will want to be part of the body of Christ then. And as you have that desire, you should be part of the body of Christ now. With all of its inadequacies, it is the body of Christ. So I hope that the programme today is going to encourage you, that it will have a healing effect on perhaps some deep wounds in your life, and that you will be strengthened and renewed in your vision to see the church as Christ sees it, and to commit yourself anew to the body of Christ. Well we’re in Ephesians and chapter 2 today, so if you can, open your Bible and join us there as we begin a message entitled The Building. Here’s Colin. We’ve been going through this series learning what the church is, and we began by discovering that on the lips of Jesus, the church means just two things. Jesus used the word just on two occasions, once to refer to all believers in every time and place, that’s one thing the church means, and second to mean a local congregation of believers, exactly like we are here in this place today. Now the word church nowadays is used in all kinds of different ways, but these are the only ways in which the word is used by our Lord Jesus, and his use of the word church surely must be defining for all of us who are his followers and look to him as our teacher. Now we began last week to look at some of the analogies of the church that the Bible gives to us. We saw that many people in our consumerist culture today really have very self-centered views of the church. So it’s not unusual for us to think of the church as like a gas station, you know, fill me up, or a movie theater, entertain me, or a drugstore, take away my pain, or even a big box retailer, you know, give me the programs that I need for me and for my family. Me is at the center of all these ways of thinking about the life of the church, and none of them are in the Bible. But God does give to us some wonderful pictures that show us what the church is, seeing that the church is the body of Christ. What that means is that he’s the head and we’re the body. And what that means is that as the head, Jesus Christ has joined himself to a body that is called the church. And here’s what that means for us. If Jesus Christ chooses to work through the church as a head works through the body, then wouldn’t we want to do the same? Wouldn’t if Jesus joins himself to this sometimes weak and feeble body, would we not want to be those who do our work through the body also? That is what we learned last week. I tell you, I have some big prayers for this series. Many in our congregation are younger, and you are thinking about how God is calling you and what he calls you to do. Some of you have gifts that could be strategically used in the work of the church here and around the world. And I’m praying that as we get a better vision of what the church is, that you may seriously think and pray about whether God would be calling you to devote yourself fully and directly to serving the body of Christ. Some of you are in midlife, and you are looking at how to readjust your focus. You’re in a position where you’re able to do that. And I am praying that there will be many folks in midlife who will get a fresh vision of the body of Christ and say, in the second half of my life, as God gives that to me, I am going to devote myself to the good of the body of Christ, that you’ll catch a vision for that. Many in our congregation have significant influence within Christian organizations. You are doing marvelous work, and you influence policy within Christian organizations. And I’m praying that as a result of this series, some of you will begin to say it is not enough for us to serve people by leading them to Christ and then discipling them as Christians. That’s not enough. In our organization, we need an intentional strategy to help the people we serve to become connected with a local church. That’s of huge importance. And if we understand the doctrine of the church, that will begin to shape vision. It will begin to shape policy. And pleading with us as a congregation through this month that we begin to engage with it in a fresh way, and that we try to take seriously what the Lord Jesus Christ says to us, what the Scriptures say to us about the church. So these are some big prayers. I hope that all of us as members of the church will come to the place of treasuring and valuing what it means to be part of a local congregation, that we will come to see that to be part of the church is the greatest privilege that God gives to me this side of heaven. It really is. And that may be fresh for some of us really to think in that kind of a way. Now today we come to the second image of the church in the book of Ephesians. It is especially important for people who’ve been disappointed with the church. You may be saying, well I hear all this about a local congregation, but I could tell you a story or two. Well, I’ve been a pastor for 30 years, I could tell you a story or two as well. And if you have ever been discouraged in the body of Christ, if you have ever been frustrated with the local church, if you have ever felt like giving up on church, and my guess is that probably most Christians have felt like that at some point in their lives, then this message today is for you. More than anything else, what we’re going to look at today is what you desperately need to hear and grasp and see so that you will be able to sustain a life of ministry within the body of Christ, wherever he blesses you. The church is unlike anything else in the world, and so God uses multiple images to teach us about the church, where the body, and as we saw last week, that means that Christ chooses to do his work through the church. Today we’re going to look at the image of the building, which speaks to us about Christ’s presence in the church. Three things, and then some brief applications today. Here’s the first. The church is a building, that is the picture that is being used here, a building of people. Look at verse 22, please, of Ephesians chapter 2. You too, you are being built together. You’re being built is a very important word that is being used here. When Jesus said, I will build my church, he was the one who used that word first, he was obviously talking about people. We’ve been seeing that the great purpose of God over all the centuries is to gather a people from every nation for himself, a people who he will call out to worship in local congregations, and a people he will send out to serve from local congregations. And this image shows that the purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ is that he wants to build us together. Notice the words, you too are being built together. Peter takes up this theme, of course, Peter having been referred to as the stone or the rock, and Peter says in his letter, chapter 2, he says, you are living stones. So here’s the picture, that Christ is putting together a building, and it is made of people, and each of us is like a living stone in the building that Christ is putting together. Now, it’s very important to understand that in New Testament times, Paul would have been thinking of building in a somewhat different way from the way we think about it today. We’re used to seeing building with brick, and the thing about bricks is they are all the same shape, they are all the same size, and they are all the same color. You notice that about bricks? But the apostle Paul is not thinking here about building with bricks, he’s talking here about building with stone. You are living stones, Peter says. Now, stones or rocks come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and colors. They are hewn out of the quarry. When they come out, they have all kinds of rough edges, and the great skill of the master builder is so to bring them together that each one of these unique stones, because no one is quite like any other, finds its special place within the building. One of the joys of traveling in Scotland is to drive past miles and miles of what we call dry-stained dike. Now, nobody here knows what dry-stained dike is, I’m sure. Let me translate that, dry stone wall. A dry stone wall is simply a wall that is built without any mortar. You see them all over Scotland and in some other places in Europe. Remarkable. I sometimes smile and say, you can always tell an American tourist because that’s the person who stops their car to take a photograph of one of the walls, because there are miles and miles and miles of these things. It is amazing. No mortar. And many of these walls have stood since the 17th century. They’re simply stones that, with the skill of the master builder, have been joined together. There’s a couple of other pictures, I think, of some dry stone walls there that you can run through as we’re thinking about this image. Here’s the important thing. You cannot make a dry stone wall with one size or shape of stone. It is impossible. The whole point of it is that the strength of the wall depends on the uniqueness of the placing and the shape of each of the individual stones. Now, it’s something like that that the Apostle Paul is speaking of here. Each of us is a living stone, we are told. We are all different. We all have our own individuality. And Christ uses this as he builds his church. Now, if you were to come to this congregation and you were to say, you know, I’m not so sure there are so many people who are like me here, then I would respond to you by saying that is exactly why you are needed here. That is exactly why you are needed here. Because it takes all kinds of shapes and sizes and colors of living stones to make the building that God is, as the great master builder, putting together. God created you as one of a kind, and he redeems what he created. And his great mercy, what he has placed in you by creation, he has now redeemed for the good of the church and for the ultimate glory of his son. So try to get this picture, it’s a wonderful picture. God is building together a great house and he is doing it out of living stones. Very different, none of us the same, and yet each having a unique place in the extraordinary strength and endurance of this building that Christ is putting together. If you see others who you say, well, I’m not sure I’m like some of these other people, that is precisely why you are needed here. Christians are not all the same. He redeems what he’s put in you already and he’ll use it for his glory. I hope you find the message as encouraging as I do. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message called The Building, it’s all about Christ and the church and part of the series, What is the Church and Why Does it Matter? And if you’ve missed any of the series or if you want to go back and listen again, you can always do that by coming online. Come to our website, openthebible.org.uk. You can stream any of our previously broadcast messages there. You can also find us as a podcast if you prefer listening in that way and you can find the podcast if you search for Open the Bible UK on your favourite podcast site. Back to the message now, we’re in Ephesians chapter 2 and here’s Colin. So try to get this picture, it’s a wonderful picture. God is building together a great house and he is doing it out of living stones. Very different, none of us the same and yet each having a unique place in the extraordinary strength and endurance of this building that Christ is putting together. If you see others who you say, well I’m not sure I’m like some of these other people, that is precisely why you’re needed here. Second, the church is a work in progress. The church is a work in progress. Look at this in verse 21 and 22. Notice the tense. The whole building rises to become. That’s present tense. It’s something that’s happening now, continuing. Verse 22, you too, notice it, are being built together. You are being built. Not you have been built, but you are being built, present tense. So what we are being taught here is of huge importance and especially for those who are prone to discouragement. The apostle is telling us here that the church is a work in progress and that God’s building is not yet complete. So nobody should be surprised if the local church looks and feels more like a building site than it feels like a showroom. That’s very important. Because we are in the process of being built. That is what we are being told here. Think about it. The church is made up of ordinary people who are in the process of being redeemed. We are all sinners in the process of being renewed. There isn’t one of us here today who is everything that he or she might be. And none of us here who are everything that he or she will be. It is an extraordinary thing that often we can allow great latitude to ourselves with regards to our failings and our foibles, and yet when it comes to the church, which is simply a gathering of other people very much like ourselves, we are expecting something that we do not expect of ourselves at all. It was St. Augustine, who I think was the first to use this description, he described the church as a hospital for sinners. And he made the point it would be very strange if a person were to criticize hospitals because the patients are sick. I mean, that would make no sense, would it? I mean, the whole point of the hospital is that people are there because they are sick and they are not yet recovered. Now, when you grasp this truth, it will help you in this way. Set your expectations of the local church wisely. Think of it this way. It is hard enough for two sinners to make a good marriage. So how much harder is it for 200 sinners or 2,000 sinners to make a good church? Set realistic expectations in the light of the fact that the work of building is in process and it is not complete. We’ve got to get rid of perfectionist illusions with regards to the church. When we see him, we will be like him. But until then, we are like a building under construction. A building site, not a showroom. So in any congregation of believers, you will find that there are things that are not yet done. There are things that are out of place. There are some things that need to be taken down. There are other things that need to be cleaned up. There are other things that are only roughed in and obviously need to be finished. It will always be like that until Jesus Christ comes. We are being built. Now, it is easy, you see, for the critic and the cynic to come into a local church and to kind of look at this and say, well, look at all this that is not yet done and look at all this that is not yet complete and so forth and so on. And to say, how can Jesus Christ be present in this? And the answer to that is that Jesus Christ is present in this as the builder. Here is the cheer line for the builders. There is always chaos when the builders are at work. Isn’t that right? Christ is present as the builder. Suppose you are doing a big remodelling job in your house. You hire a builder and you say, let’s give him the key, let’s go away on vacation and let’s try and be away when the worst of it is going on. And so you give him the key, off you go for a week and you say, well, we’ll see where we are when we come back. And you come back in a week and everything in your house is exactly as it was when you left it. What’s your conclusion? You’ll say, the builder didn’t even show up. There’s no evidence that he’s even been here. He could have been inside the door. But if you come back and there are drop cloths over all the carpets and there are ladders against the wall and there is half a wall that is taken down and there is drywall dust everywhere and there’s a huge pile of junk that’s outside on the front of the pavement waiting to be picked up, you know that the builder is at work because it’s chaos. Now get that picture deep into your mind and it will help you to think in a new and a better way about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is present as the builder and there is always chaos when the builder is at work. And the evidence of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in a local congregation of believers is not that everything is complete, but that everything is in process. The fact that the church feels often more like a building site than a showroom is evidence of the presence of the builder. Think of this. You are being built. If you do not understand that, you’ll spend your whole life looking for perfectionism. You never find it and you’ll end up on your own. And that is not the will of God for you. So grasp the doctrine of the local church. It needs multiple images to take this in. It’s the body to which Christ works. He’s the head. He’s the building. It is always a work in process. Third, the church is a home in preparation. The church is a home in preparation. Notice verse 22. You two are being built together. Okay, now what’s all this for? To become a dwelling place in which God lives by his spirit. Now this is beautiful. It is telling us that the Lord Jesus Christ will not be the builder forever. One day the building will be complete. And when it is, Christ will make it his home. In other words, Christ will be at home with his people. And all his work in and among his people is complete. You are being built together to be a dwelling place in which God lives by his spirit. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and our message, The Building. Part of a longer series, What is the Church and Why Does It Matter? The series is about the presence of Christ in the church. And we’ve been learning about how the church is a body. And we’ll hear about how it can be a bride. And today we’ve heard how the church can be a building. And if you’ve missed any of the series, or if you’d like to go back and listen again, you can always do that by coming online. Come to our website, openthebible.org.uk. You can listen to any of the broadcast messages that have already gone out on air. You can also find the messages as podcasts. Go to your favourite podcast site, search for Open the Bible UK, and subscribe to the podcast to receive regular updates. Open the Bible is supported entirely by our listeners. That’s people just like you. And if you’re able this month to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 per month or more, we’d love to thank you by sending you a gift. It’s a book called The Valley of Vision. It’s a book of prayers. And Colin, what makes this book so special? Well, it is a profoundly helpful book of prayers. And you know, sometimes when we pray, we have words and other times, you know, words don’t come so easily. And, you know, what am I going to say to God today? And I find that when you feel dry in that way, it’s useful to reach for something that will help you. Sometimes a hymn book may be helpful and just using these words will stimulate the mind and the heart. The Valley of Vision is an absolute gem for stimulating prayer when you feel dry. And it is beautiful. These are prayers that were crafted by believers in earlier centuries, and they bear not only reading and praying, but going back to again and again and again. That’s why they have stood the test over hundreds of years. They have continued to provide value to Christian believers. Let me just read from the first prayer here, speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me find your light in my darkness, your life in my death, your joy in my sorrow, your grace in my sin, your riches in my poverty. You know, this is a book full of wisdom and a beautiful expression of prayer to God. I think it’s very rich. And I think anyone who has this book will find that they’d return to it and use it again and again. Well, we’d love to send you a copy of this book, and we’ll do that as a free gift if you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds per month or more. Full details of this offer and lots more resources on our website, that’s openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I very much hope you’ll join us again soon. When the Bible refers to the church as a building, it’s not talking about bricks and mortar. Find out what the analogy really means next time on Open the Bible.