Family Matters

on a foundation.

EPHESIANS 2:20

When we are part of the family of God, we are built on a foundation. Remember back to the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus told a story about two builders. One built his house on a foundation of rock. The other on a foundation of sand. Of course, when the storms of life came along, the house with the rock foundation stood. The one built on sand came crashing down—the Bible says, “And great was its fall.” Now, why did Jesus tell that story? Was it to let the people know about proper building techniques? No—He used it to illustrate a point. If you just hear His Word and don’t do anything with it, you’re building your life on a sandy foundation. When the storms and trials of life come along, you’re heading for a big crash. And great will be your fall. But on the other hand, if you hear His Word and let it change you—let it mold you and make you into the very image of Christ—if you do that, you’re building your life on a rock-solid foundation. That’s what Paul is talking about here in Ephesians 2:20. He says that when we’re in the family of God, we build our lives on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Last Wednesday in our study on the Foundations of the Faith, we talked about how the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of Scripture. He inspired the apostles and the prophets and guarded them against error as they wrote this Bible. That’s what Paul is talking about here when he says our foundation is the apostles and prophets. They are the ones who wrote Scripture. And they wrote Scripture with one purpose in mind—to point the way to Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” Jesus Christ is the focus of the Bible from cover to cover. I heard a preacher named Alistair Begg explain it this way: In the Old Testament, we have Jesus predicted. In the Gospels, we have Jesus revealed. In Acts, we have Jesus preached. In the Epistles, we have Jesus explained. In the Revelation, we have Jesus expected. The apostles and prophets wrote the Bible. And they wrote it to tell us about the chief cornerstone—Jesus Christ. This Bible is the rock-solid foundation we are to build our lives on. Can people look at the foundation you build your life on and tell you’re a child of the King? That’s the first characteristic of a person who is in the family of God. If you’re in the family of God, you will be built on the foundation of the Word of God. The second characteristic is that the family of God is built with a design.

EPHESIANS 2:21

When we are part of the family of God, we are built with a design. It is not an accident that you are here this morning. There are no such things as accidents, nor are there coincidences. God designed each and every one of us here this morning to, as the passage says, “fitly frame together.” When my wife and I first got married, the first place we lived was a little group of Portuguese islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean called the Azores. One of the unique things about the islands was the rock walls. They were volcanic islands, so the local farmers would gather the volcanic rocks from their fields and build walls