GREETING:

Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. (Psalm 96:2)

SERMON TEXT:

¹⁹Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²²And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

It is great being part of Sola Fide Evangelical Lutheran Church and School at this time. These are exciting times. There is so much going on. God has led us to a level of growth unequaled before in our history. Our programs and ministry continue to expand. Our outreach into our community is greater and more diverse than ever before.

This weekend, we ordain and install our first Staff Minister, Jon Woldt, and our new school principal, Christopher Fischer. How blessed we are! What an awesome God we have! In writing to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul talks about the same joy and excitement among the members of the Ephesian congregation. In our sermon hymn – The Church’s One Foundation – author Samuel J. Stone is celebrating the part of the Apostles’ Creed in which we confess: (I believe in) the holy Christian church, the communion of saints. Let's use our sermon text and sermon hymn to consider -

3. We Look Forward To The Future In Christ

1. WE ARE ONE IN CHRIST

A. We have talked much about the Ephesian church in Bible studies this year. This congregation had a core of Jewish Christians. After Paul was put out of the synagogue by the unbelieving Jews, he took his message to the Gentiles in the marketplaces of Ephesus. This congregation in Ephesus consisted of both Jews and Gentiles. This, in itself, was a miracle only God could bring about.

Paul describes the miracle of salvation already in chapter one of Ephesians. He tells them and us how God had chosen us from eternity to become his holy people and heirs of eternal life. In the first ten verses of chapter two, he tells them how God accomplished this in time as we studied in connection with John Newton’s hymn – Amazing Grace. In verse one of our sermon hymn today, the lyrics talk of being a new creation by water and the Word and how Christ came from heaven and paid the full price for all of our sins by shedding his blood and dying on the cross. What a marvelous summary of God’s plan of salvation!

Paul uses two illustrations to describe the oneness in Christ in that congregation in Ephesus – verse 19: ¹⁹Consequently, you (Gentile Christians) are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people (Jewish Christians) and members of God’s household, . . . God performed an awesome miracle in that New Testament congregation – he brought Jews and Gentiles together into his kingdom to be one people. Ephesians 2:12-13 – ¹²remember that at that time you (Gentiles) were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. They were also now members of God’s household, . . . Through saving faith worked in them by the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel by Paul and his co-workers, they were now children of God and heirs of eternal life. They are also part of the Christ’s church and the congregation at Ephesus.

B. God has brought about the same miracle here at Sola Fide. Just look at our name and heritage. We have a Latin name, with a German heritage, in the heart of Dixie. Yet, God has permitted us to reach out to a community that is becoming more diverse ethnically and culturally every day. An article in the newspaper a while back talked about the coloring of Gwinnett County. Our congregation is becoming more diverse. We saw that in Vacation Bible School. We see that in our Little Lambs program, Sunday school and our Lutheran elementary school. Samuel Stone addressed that in the second verse of our hymn. Notice the use of ev’ry, all and one.

Elect from ev’ry nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation:
One Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With ev’ry grace endued.

A. Paul switches from the illustrations of nation and family to that of a building to describe the Christian church in verses 20-21. ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. The tenses in the Greek verbs is important here. Built is an aorist or what we would call a past tense. This is an accomplished fact for the Ephesians. They are part of Christ’s church. In verse 21, Paul switches to the present tense to talk about the continual action of more and more people being added to the church.

B. Notice the foundation of this church. ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. The apostles and prophets is the Word of God. What these men of both the Old and New Testaments were inspired to write by God the Holy Spirit. With Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. There really is a double picture here. This could refer to the capstone, the stone used in the middle of the arch that is the load bearing stone. This stone holds up the arch. Christ is the capstone of the church. He carried the burden of all of our sins to the cross. He paid the full price for our full and complete redemption. He is always with us, constantly carrying our burdens every day as we learned last week when we studied What A Friend We Have in Jesus . . . All our sins and griefs to bear.

Christ is also the cornerstone. He is the first stone in this spiritual house of God. All the lines of the building are determined by the cornerstone. Christ and his Word is what guides, guards and directs the Christian church, as we see in verse 3 of our hymn:

The Church shall never perish.
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain and cherish,
Is with her to the end.
Though there be those that hate her
And strive to see her fail,
Against both foe and traitor
She ever will prevail.

C. Christ has been with us here at Sola Fide from the very beginning and continues to be with us every day. He was here in July 1977 when this congregation first started. He provided pastoral ministry in the person of Larry Zahn. In 1990, he led me to this congregation as your second resident pastor. In 1995, Christ led us to open a Lutheran Elementary School and call a second pastor. In 1997, Christ led us to begin the relocation project. Last July, he brought phase one and two to fruition when we moved into these facilities. He has led Jon Woldt to accept the position of Staff Minister. He has also led Christopher Fischer here to be our principal.

Every week, Christ provides his love and forgiveness to us in our worship services. We have the opportunity to receive his true body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine of holy communion, as we did last week and will do again next week. In our 11:00 a.m. service today, he will wash away the sins of Connor Lynn Hanna and make him his brother, a son of our heavenly Father. His church continues to grow. The members of his church continue to grow spiritually through the use of the means of grace – the gospel in Word and sacraments – at this location through worship services, Bible classes, Sunday school and Lutheran elementary school. Christ has provided Jon Woldt and Christopher Fischer to continue these programs and develop even more. In our homes, Christ provides for our spiritual needs as we have family devotions, husband and wife devotions, personal Bible reading and prayer.

When we consider the sinful, unbelieving world in which we live, we need all these programs and more to battle Satan, the world and our own sinful flesh. Where can we turn for refuge and safe haven? People are being shot everywhere – in school, at home and even in church. What confidence and assurance do we have? Christ is with us. This is his church and we are his people. We are part of his kingdom, members of his family. Samuel Stone reminds us of this in verse four of his hymn:

Though with a scornful wonder
The world sees her oppressed,
By schisms rent assunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping;
Their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.

A. These are exciting times here at Sola Fide. Those were exciting times in the church at Ephesus as Paul writes in verse 22 of our sermon text: ²²And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Wow! What comfort, what assurance Paul gave them in Christ. Jew and Gentile gathered together in Jesus’ name. Jew and Gentile working together as brothers and sisters in Christ. The Holy Spirit worked and strengthened saving faith in both Jew and Gentile through the means of grace. God is with us, they could all shout together. Regardless of what was going on in the world around them, they had peace with God through Jesus Christ. God was with them.

B. God is with us. These are exciting times and these are challenging times. We are considering the most comprehensive ministry plan in the history of our congregation along with the largest budget for this next fiscal year. How could we do that with such a mobile society and such an uncertain economy? We know whose church and school this is. This is not Pastor Schuppe’s or Mr. Woldt’s church. This is not Mr. Fischer’s school. This is Christ’s church and Christ’s school. We have the privilege of being members of them.

Yes, God has work for us to do. There are many more lost souls in Gwinnett County, in Georgia, in the United States and throughout the world. God wants us to reach out to them where we are, personally and then nationally and globally, through our Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. We sense the urgency, don’t we? We don’t know how long it will be until Christ returns for us, either personally in death or collectively at the end of the world. But we will keep on working as the Holy Spirit provides all that we need. We don’t have to worry about getting tired or worn out. We have all eternity to rest in heaven. Such is our confidence, such is our goal. Samuel Stone expounds on this in the final verse of our hymn: