FITLY FRAMED TOGETHER
Monday – November 21, 2016
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ from Eastern Gate Ministries International. Another week is upon us. Let me ask us all, have we grown in the Lord, are we more like Him this morning then we were one week ago? Our goal every day is to be more like Jesus. We renew our minds to the Word of God studying to show ourselves approved of God and be changed into His glorious image and likeness.
Romans 8:29 (KJV)
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Now let’s get back to our text in the Book or Epistle of Ephesians. The Apostle Paul has been talking, teaching, about how the Jews were in God and now the Gentile by the Blood of Christ Jesus can also choose to be in God, the common root. By ‘common’ I do not mean ‘nothing special’ but a shared source of salvation, Jehovah God. When the Jews repeatedly rejected the Messiah their hearts were hardened and a darkness settled over the whole people (Jews), a blindness. When the Messiah came on the scene and bore the sins of mankind the sacrificial laws which were in place since the Garden of Eden were no longer in force. Now Jew and Gentile alike have salvation, access to God, by the one mediator, the man Christ Jesus. At salvation Jew and Gentile alike become part of one body, the body of Christ, which is the Church of God (not the denomination).
Ephesians 2:19-22 (KJV)
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Remember that the Apostle Paul is a Jew and he is speaking to Gentiles. So in Ephesians 2:19 above the ‘ye’ could be stated as ‘you Christians are no longer Gentiles (strangers and foreigners)’. The ‘saints’ referenced here are the departed Jews and the Gentile converts to Judaism (like Ruth and Rahab) under the Old Covenant. The saints includes the Jews who have accepted Jesus as Lord and the Gentiles who have accepted Jesus as Lord. All of these comprise the ‘household of God’. As we discussed before the foundation of the Church is the Prophets of the Old Covenant, the Apostles of the New Covenant, with the lynch pin being Jesus the Christ.
Ephesians 2:20 goes on to say that as each person enters the Kingdom of God, Jesus has a very special place for that person and they are a participant in forming this Holy Temple in the Lord (the One supreme in authority). As we will see as we study this, the Apostle Peter calls us living stones building a spiritual house. We are fitted together with others to form the perfect solution for our part in this Holy Temple. The Holy Spirit resides in the presence of each of us, in all that are born again, overflows and anoints those baptized in the Spirit and in that way we are a temple of God (Ephesians 2:22) but also we as a body form a temple for the Lord to be in the midst of us all. The following passage is the ultimate culmination of this idea, this reality that God, our God, longs for, which is being among His children.
Revelation 21:2-3 (KJV)
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Let’s also look at what we can readily tell is a companion or confirmatory passage by a different writer of the things we have been studying.
1 Peter 2:3-10 (KJV)
3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
I will pick up in Ephesians chapter three tomorrow.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
