Well, the scriptures are full of metaphors, full of comparisons and similes, ways of comparing one thing to another to help bring clarity to truth. Our Lord often used metaphor and images to explain concepts and realities like the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is like one who finds a treasure in a field, or the kingdom of heaven is like a sower who spreads seed. We see over and over again in Christ's own teaching, the use of images and metaphors, similes, We find this also in the New Testament authors. Paul often uses metaphors to explain what we are like as Christ's body, that we are like a bride being purified and prepared for Christ's coming. Metaphors are a very powerful tool for communicating rich content. But if you've ever taken a literature class or a writing class, you've probably been warned about the danger of mixing metaphors. Oftentimes you can mix a metaphor and the two metaphors that you're trying to use to communicate something end up confusing the matter altogether. That we should, by and large, use metaphors, but avoid using mixed metaphors. Well, the Apostle Paul wasn't there that day in class. And oftentimes we find in the Pauline literature, moves from one metaphor to another, With no explanation, we find that as we look at Ephesians 2, specifically verses 19 through the end of the chapter this morning. Paul begins by saying that we are members of God's household, that we are people who live in God's house. And then without explanation, we are part of the house. We are construction material that makes up this house. And then again, without any explanation, the building that we are apparently living in is like a plant. It grows. Paul uses gardening imagery to say that this building is growing up into like a tree, but he doesn't say tree. He says like a temple. And a few short verses, Paul's metaphor switches from one thing to another. Perhaps this is the reason why Peter himself will reflect on Paul's writing and say, you know, sometimes this guy's pretty confusing. Maybe Peter had trouble following Paul's switch in metaphors. So the question is, is does Paul Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, willy-nilly mix metaphors. Or is there something in this mixing that is critical for us to understand not only what Paul is saying about Jesus, but the entirety of the Bible? As you can imagine, it is that that I want to argue this morning, that as we see Paul's shift in metaphors, we actually see something very beautiful about Christ's redemption and our identity as his church. And I want to consider this passage under three sections this morning. First, a holy temple. Second, a holy garden. And then finally, a sure foundation. Well, Paul in verse 19 reviews what he has said that we covered in last week's section. He says, Paul repeats two words here from earlier in the chapter, strangers and aliens. As Gentiles, if you will recall, we were, according to verse 12, strangers to the covenants of promise, those covenants that belong to Israel of old. Last week, we summarized these various covenants with the covenant formula that is repeated often in the Bible around every covenant. I will be a God to you and you will be my people. The Gentiles, Paul says, were at one time strangers to this promise of God's presence. But now, he says, no longer strangers. He also repeats this word alien from earlier in the chapter. Paul says that formerly we were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. But now we are no longer aliens, but fellow citizens with Israel. This two groups, Gentile and Jew, have been made one new man, are all together now considered the household of God. Well, Paul doesn't do much explaining about this household before shifting to say that that household is built upon a foundation. Now, one of the things that is a bit obscured in our passage this morning is, is Paul does a lot of word play here in this passage, which might help us explain this move from being members of a household to then becoming building material that makes this household. The Greek word for house is oikos, and that word in different forms is repeated five times in these short verses. The word for alien, for instance, could be woodenly translated, not of the house, uses this word in the negative. The word for household could be translated people of the house. The word in verse 21 that Paul uses for structure or building is a form of this word oikos as well. The verb in verse 22 for being built together is the verbal form of this word. Paul keeps repeating this word. Even the dwelling place that he mentions in verse 22 is again, a form of this word, oikos, that Paul is playing with this word. Why even bring this up? Well, perhaps to try to display for you the word play and I'll attempt Paul says that you were once not a people of the house, but now you are of the house, of a house built on a foundation. And this whole house is being housed up, is being built into a house of God. That Paul is playing with this word in a very creative way, but I want to argue that he's not merely being creative. that he's, if you will, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, stealing this wordplay from the Old Testament itself. Paul is playing with the exact same word that 2 Samuel says in the passage that we read this morning. When translated into the Greek, it uses the same word for house. As we read this morning, David says to God, I'm going to build you a house to dwell in. And what's God's response? You think you're going to build a house for me? No, I will build a house for you to dwell in. But it won't be a house of cedar. It will be a house. It repeats the word, our translations say, and rightly so, household, but it's playing with this same wordplay of house. You think you're going to build for me a house of cedar? I'm going to build you a house of people, an eternal house that will come from your seed, a place for my people to be housed, 2 Samuel says. And when a faithful son comes, you shall build a house or he shall build a house for my name. and he will sit on this throne and this house forever. 2 Samuel does this same wordplay that Paul is using in Ephesians 2. We find as we continue in 2 Samuel that David's son Solomon will build a temple. He will build a house for God. He will carry on David's household name, but we find that it's not the ultimate fulfillment of what God is promising to David. And we know this because this house, this temple, ends up being destroyed during the Babylonian exile, the conquest of Jerusalem. Ultimately, this promise to David that God will build him a house is somewhere further out in the distance. Sure, Solomon's temple gives us a picture of this reality, but it's a temporary picture. We're waiting, the people of God are waiting for this house to be built. When Paul cleverly picks up the same wordplay to tell us that God is building a house, that he is building a temple, that the son of David has come, something that Jesus has said to be over and over again in the New Testament. and that this faithful son is building a household for God. And Paul says that you now are members. This eternal promise coming true in Christ that you are now members of God's household and building material that is making up this spiritual dwelling place, the spiritual house. First Peter picks up on the same imagery. It says, You yourselves are like living stones being built up as a spiritual house, a temple, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Paul building on the passage that we looked at last week is saying that this dividing wall has been so flooded out by the blood of Christ. That anything that would separate us from God is so far gone that we are the very dwelling place of God. That's how far he has gone to remove separation. That God now dwells within us, his church. So much to say that he calls us a temple of the Holy Spirit. That same spirit that led Israel out of Egypt, that same spirit, shekinah glory that filled the temple now fills the church, which is now the household of God, which is being built on Christ. Well, perhaps this makes sense of Paul's wordplay and mixed metaphor of members of a house and building material. But then Paul tells us that this building, this structure grows using an agricultural verb. Let's consider that next this morning, a holy garden. Verse 21, this house, which is being joined together, grows into a holy temple. This word grows here is definitely an organic gardening term. It's the same term that Jesus uses in the parable of the sower for that seed that grows, that sprouts and grows. Well, as we know, buildings don't grow. least organically. You can add on to them. You can renovate. But you can wish all day long that your attic would grow into a fourth bedroom and home office. But it's probably not going to happen because buildings don't organically grow. But Paul doesn't see it that way. And perhaps we could write this off as just a bit of a slight here, but Paul uses this same mixed metaphor even more explicitly in 1 Corinthians. It's a very much a parallel passage where he is speaking about a building structure that grows. He says this, he who plants and he who waters are one. and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers." Speaking of he and his fellow apostles. You are God's field, God's building. Which one is it, Paul? He goes on, he who has just talked about him being a planter and says, according to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each who take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Certainly a parallel passage. He's explaining the same theological realities of this temple building and using the same mixed metaphor. What gives here? Well, I would argue that once again, he's picking up this mixed metaphor from 2 Samuel 7. If you'll recall, we saw that Paul picks up this house wordplay, or rather the author of Samuel picks up this house wordplay, and God tells David that he will build a house for David, and that in this house, he will plant his people. Again, using gardening imagery. Turns out God himself really likes mixed metaphors. Further evidence, I think, that 2 Samuel is definitely in Paul's periphery as he's writing this. But as we continue to read of this temple building project in 2 Samuel and the other historical books, We find that this metaphor and this mixed metaphor is not only built into Paul's rhetoric, but that it is built into the very architecture of the temple itself. This is a description of this temple that is being built in 1 Kings. The cedar within the house was carved in the forms of gourds and open flowers. All around the walls of the house, he carved figures of cherubim, and palm trees and open flowers, both in the inner and the outer rooms. He covered the doors of Olivewood with carvings of palm trees and open flowers. Goes on to say that these would be overlaid with gold and that this gold should be spread all over these palm trees. And that all of the pillars would have pomegranates that were carved into them and at the very top of the pillars, lily work, flowers. If you were to walk into Solomon's temple, it would be constructed like a garden, but not just any garden, a garden that at the sanctuary, there are cherubim guarding the entrance. That the temple is not just, you know, nice flower wall print everywhere, but is created after the image of the Garden of Eden. The original temple. In fact, the Old Testament will continue to align these two realities, that the temple is created or constructed after the garden. God's presence in the temple is described with the very same Hebrew idioms used to speak of his presence walking back and forth in the Garden of Eden. The very unique Hebrew words that are given to Adam for his task to serve and to keep are the exact same words that the priesthood is given for their work in the temple and the tabernacle. Ezekiel will make it very explicit. He'll say that the garden of Eden is as a sanctuary on God's holy mountain. Well, these are all fun observations. I'm kind of a Bible nerd, so I enjoy thinking about them. But do they help us? Do they help us with Ephesians 2? Well, as we've said before, as we walk through Ephesians, that in many ways, the theme of Ephesians is new creation. God is bringing about once again a place where heaven and earth are united as they once were. That union that was torn asunder by sin. But we find in Ephesians that God's plan in Christ is to reunite all things in heaven and on earth. Well, part of this is the temple itself in the Old Testament. That this is a place where God's presence is. This is a place where heaven meets earth. And this architecture, this garden imagery all around is a reminder that this is as close to Eden as you will get until something further happens out in the future. That part of these covenants of promise is that there would be a temple, a meeting place between God and his people. And this meeting place is built like a garden. fashion to remind Israel of the reality when God walked with his people, but also reminder of the reality that that is not the case anymore, that they're waiting for something greater. As great as the temple and the tabernacle were, as much as they provided a way for God's people to interact with God, They still kept God's people separated from his full presence, right? The Holy of Holies was partitioned off. Only the high priests could go in there and only once a year. And even then they had to tie bells and a rope around him in case the presence of God would kill him. They could drag them out. Yes, the temple is wonderful, but it's also a constant reminder that God is not as with his people. as was designed in the beginning. But it does point to a greater reality. A reality that when God would build a greater temple, a temple where there is finally no separation between God and his people, a temple where the veil that separates off the holy place is torn, A temple that will be far more like the Garden of Eden than the tabernacle and temporary temple were, and that this temple will grow. It will expand, which was the point of the Garden of Eden to begin with, that this garden would grow and overtake the entire world, something that the temple was unable to do. You see, Paul isn't mixing metaphors. He's teaching us biblical theology. He's explaining that now in the church, God is doing what he had always planned to do from the very beginning. To build a new creation in place of the fallen one. A garden temple founded upon the resurrection of Christ Jesus. It is no wonder that Christ himself, speaking of his resurrection, will say, I'll tear this thing down, this temple, and I'll rebuild it in three days. And then on the day of his resurrection, he is found in a garden with a woman who mistakes him to be a gardener, like the first Adam. He has come to build a new temple, to build a garden temple, A temple that grows, a temple that is filled with God's Spirit. A temple that is founded upon the proclamation that Christ has come to save sinners. And as this temple and as this proclamation goes out, this is a temple that grows. It's a temple that we are promised will soon eclipse the whole creation upon Christ's return. And perhaps one of the most beautiful realities about this building project is the foundation that it is laid on. And that's what I want to consider finally this morning, a firm foundation. Verse 19 again. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but our fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. We might expect here for Paul to say that Jesus is the foundation of this temple, but it's interesting that he adds himself to the mix. That the foundation of this temple is built upon apostles and prophets. What exactly is going on here? Well, I would argue that Paul is not so much highlighting the men themselves, but their ministry, particularly their ministry to proclaim the message of Christ's kingdom. And that Gentiles and Jews alike are now welcome into it through the forgiveness of sins. And these apostles are to carry this divine message as sent ones. That's what apostle means. They're sent ones to proclaim a message, an authoritative message that Christ has come to reconcile sinners to God. Well, there's two primary ways that this takes place. One, we see the apostolic preaching, that the apostles are preaching. But what is so perhaps far more beneficial for us is the apostles are writing. They're writing these things down. They're inscripturating this proclamation that we, 2000 years later, might be able to read it and hear it preached. This is the foundation that this whole temple is built upon. The proclamation of the gospel, this message that in Christ, sinners can be reconciled to God. What about these prophets? It's built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Paul tells us. Some have suggested here that what is in mind is Old Testament prophets, but I don't think that's the case. More likely, Paul is talking about New Testament prophets. He will go on in the next two chapters to talk about the New Testament prophets and their role in the church. But who exactly are they? Well, we find them in several occasions. We find them in Acts. We find them in 1 Corinthians. Individuals like Agabus. Those that are responsible for proclaiming this message, but aren't given the task of writing it. See, in the early days of the church, there was a period of time between the preaching of the apostles and the full reception of our New Testament canon. And God and love provided for that time, provided prophets that would proclaim this authoritative message until the New Testament might be fully received by the church. And that is who I would argue he is talking about here. And again, the foundation is not them specifically as men, but on that which they proclaim. This apostolic gospel, this message, this mystery. that Christ has come and welcomed away to the Father. However you look at it, whether Old or New Testament prophets, the point remains the same, that the foundation of this church, this building, this garden temple, is the message that we hear week after week. That Christ has died, He has risen, and He has done so for sinners. that we might be invited into his household, the household of God. Which is why Paul says that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. He is the thing that makes the whole foundation square. That the content of this message is Christ. As Paul will go on to say, I have decided to know nothing among you, but Christ and him crucified. This is the apostolic gospel. And this is what the church, this temple is founded upon. Since verse 11 in the passage that we considered last week, Paul has made reference to all these covenants of promise. We saw that he alludes to the covenant of Abraham, that he alluded to the covenant with Moses and Israel. We looked at this last week. We see this week that he alludes to the covenant with David and that he goes back all the way to the promise of life in the garden. And Paul here says that all of these covenants find their fulfillment and foundation in Christ and his gospel. As Paul will write to the Corinthians, all the promises of God find their yes in Jesus. Just as Paul proclaims that our individual salvation from death is not our own doing, but as a gift from God. So here he proclaims that this cosmic redemption, this cosmic salvation, this temple building project is also not of our doing, but on the foundation of Jesus Christ and the message that he has made a way for sinners to be with God, that He would be a God to us, that we would be His people. This is good news for us because in it, we recognize that we don't build God's house. Just as David came to God and said, you know what? I'm going to build you a house. And God responded, you're going to do what? You aren't building me anything. I will build a house for you. And your faithful son's house will be your house forever. And it is that project that is underway even now as this foundation of the gospel goes out to the nations. All God's work. We find this from the very beginning of Ephesians that Paul wants us to know in many different ways that salvation is all of God. He calls upon us to recognize that this great redemption, both individual and cosmic, is not based on what we bring to the table, but founded on the good news that Christ has come to save sinners. And as it turns out, believing sinners are the only ones who are part of this great building, this great temple. God is pleased to save sinners for his own glory. And he is pleased to turn them into spiritual stones, and he is pleased to indwell them with his spirit. And he is pleased to do it all from top to bottom, all to the praise of his glorious grace. All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus. And today he promises life and salvation afresh for all who trust in this cornerstone, assuring you that if you trust in this cornerstone, you will not be put to shame. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.