A Dwelling Place for God

I remember a simple illustration used to describe the church when I was a kid.  In it one would hold their hands clasped together and start by saying, “Here is the church.”  Then pointing and joining their index fingers saying, “here is the steeple.”  Finally as the hands were turned to an open position the saying was “open the doors and see all the people.”  This childhood activity characterized the church as any building with a steeple and the people simply filled that building.  But is that an accurate illustration of the church described by Paul in the New Testament?  When you say church, how do you mean it? 

For years, I referred to church as the building where Christians would gather.  I held to a common misperception that a building was the house of God.  It’s still a common misperception about church buildings today.  But Scripture teaches us that the church is much more than a constructed facility.  The biblical description of the church is as a collective or body of people that follow Jesus together.  And rather than people filling the church, it is God’s Spirit that fills people to make them His church.  In our recent study of Acts, we saw actual descriptions of these churches in various cities and regions where the Spirit of God was at work filling people and bringing them together for His mission.  The descriptions of the church in Acts were primarily about the groups of people rather than the edifices where they gathered.   

In our text this week, Paul uses construction terminology when he says that Jesus is the cornerstone of the church.  Why use such terms if this is not about erecting buildings?  Such terminology is used because the church is contingent on the building work of God’s Spirit to bring people together to live on mission for the Kingdom of God.  Christ Jesus is at the heart of accomplishing this in His followers.  Let’s be clear, the church is not a building but rather people together in Christ. 

Following the course of Paul’s statements about the church in our text for this week, may we be a people that recognize our common fellowship in the supreme hope we have in Christ together.  Let us continue to be receptive and open to the work of God’s Spirit to build us together into a dwelling place for God.  May The Bridge Family be recognized by our community and world as people of God unified by His Holy Spirit.  And may our local expression of the New Testament church be a biblically faithful illustration to young and old alike by the grace and to the fame of our Heavenly Father.     

Grateful and hopeful in Christ,   

Jon