New recurring series: Church Near Me
The most common Google search for someone looking for a church is “church near me”. This is the second of three messages. This time around we’ll investigate into “foundation”.
There are things in this world we don’t know. And there are things in this world that we don’t know we don’t know.
There are some things we know a lot about. The progress of the sciences over millennia has taught us many things. It has also taught us that there are some things we thought we knew, but after taking a closer look, we realise we didn’t.
Even though we as humans do know a lot about some things, it turns out that we don’t actually know a lot. There are many things no humans know.
Dark matter, where memories are stored, the biological origins of our thoughts…we just don’t really know. Even as we use our brain to think up amazing things, we still are clueless as to the origin of thinking.
What we can learn from this reality of collective ignorance, is that we build our lives on things that we probably don’t know much about. The foundation of who we are, the reasons we do what we do, believe what we believe, feel the way we feel.
For us as humans, we all have cracks in our foundation. We all build our lives on things that aren’t fit for purpose, or just can’t take the weight. Let’s make sure we build on a foundation that’s the right shape, has proper suitability, and will be sustainable.
“…Ephesians 2:20: “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
A Reconstructed Foundation
Shape
A reconstructed foundation changes the shape of the building itself. Different types of buildings require different kinds of foundations.
What is the shape of our foundation? The OT, the NT, Christ Himself. The shape of Jesus is the cross. That’s what cruciform means, the shape of the cross. The shape of the cross is persuasion through suffering. It’s not demanding anything from others, but inviting them into something. The prophets: longing and seeking after the Messiah shaped them. The apostles: following the footsteps of Jesus, the Messiah, shaped them. Christ Jesus Himself, his body on the cross, one of the cross.
Cruciform is the shape of the cross. This shape isn’t a fighting stance, it’s a surrender. It’s an open shape towards others. An embrace cannot begin with a closed body. Embrace begins with open arms. It is true that the shape of Jesus is one that can lead to hurt, it can lead to harm (look at Jesus after all!). Our lives are supposed to be so close to each other, so open with each other, it’s the right distance for someone to hurt you. But it’s also the only way to receive love. You won’t be able to receive unless the shape you take on is cruciform.
And, regardless of the hurt you will experience, the harm that others will do to you, know that nothing comes close to what Jesus has already endured. It’s beyond your experience. The first instinct to hurt is to close up. To take on the shape of Jesus means to live a cruciform shaped life, a walk of faith that He has done what He’s said He’s done and that He is doing what He said He’ll be doing. This allows us to live in the posture of an embrace and not a battle.
Suitability
Foundations are built with a purpose in mind. A foundation suitable for a house won’t be suitable for a warehouse or a castle. Each has a different use. The wrong foundation or a cracked foundation is disastrous for the building.
Paul tells us we have a massive calling from God in a previous verse.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
This massive calling, to be works of art called to create in the good way God has created, needs a solid foundation. This is why Paul is telling us the right foundation is the apostles, prophets, and Christ Himself. The Word and the Word.
The OT and the NT and Jesus all tell us how to live. What to base our lives on so that we can do more than withstand difficulty, but live into our big purpose. They tell us to look to God first before others. To make spaces in our lives for us to focus on Him.
They tell us how to live, what wisdom is. How to make our way in times of famine and feasting. They tell us about who God is, what He’s about, what His passions are and how He works them out in this world for our good. They tell us who we are—we can’t really know who we are unless we engage with the God who made us.
And over and over again, with broken voices, these stories tell us that any hope worth anything in this world comes from the Lord. Meaning comes from seeking Him.
Only the foundation of the apostles, prophets, and Jesus can take the weight of such a weighty purpose. Every other foundation is simply not suited.
When you find cracks in the foundation, when things go wrong, our first instinct is to make life easier, make it lighter, give up a little bit. It may not be the weight that’s the problem, but the weakness of the foundation.
In this life God will give you more than you can handle, but never more than He can bear. You see, the foundation isn’t just the Bible, it’s Jesus Himself. And He’s more than enough. The foundation we’ve been given as the church is the platform that allows us to withstand difficulty and, more than that, to flourish.
Sustainability
Your individual walk with Jesus, your own relationship with Him. It’s a long term community project built for the long term and for the community. Redeemer, if Redeemer is your church, we, together, are a long term community project, built for the long term and for the community. Thinking beyond us, for Greater Manchester, seeing the gospel go out in our city: this is a long term project with communities working together.
Something sustainable, in the right shape and suited to purpose, doesn’t pop up overnight. It takes time. It’s good, slow work. The foundation took a long time to build, as will the building. Even after pouring a foundation, for an actual building, there is a time for it to cure and strengthen. This can take 60 days to get there in the end. If that’s how long it takes for a physical building, we have to know it will take longer with us. You—and this church—together is a long term project that will span the length of our lives. It will be as sustainable insofar as it is built on the Word and on Jesus.
The parts that aren’t, it’s good when they fail. They leave room for a decent foundation to be set and cured.
Jesus talks about a sustainable foundation at the end of the sermon on the mount. The sermon on the mount is Jesus’ most famous sermon, all about God’s kingdom and what it means to live in His kingdom. At the end of it all, though, He says this:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
The sand is not sustainable. The rock is. And it takes more than hearing, it takes “putting them into practice”. The words of the apostles, prophets, and Christ Himself are meant for practice. If we don’t practice them, the foundation that should be like a rock will turn to sand.
As the church, the fundamental reality here is this: this foundation is who you are. You are built on this foundation. You don’t get there by working, you got here through Jesus. He is the chief cornerstone. A cornerstone is the first part of a foundation that’s laid, and it’s how the rest of the foundation orients itself. Everything focussed and orientated towards Jesus.
This is what Jesus has built and is building. Jesus was broken so that our foundation will never be. We had cracks, but He took them upon Himself, saving us from our dilapidated state and eventual ruin.
We get to be saved from foundations of the wrong shape, that aren’t suitable to our purpose, and that won’t sustain us. If you are in Christ, your life is held firm on Him, the Rock. The foundation of the apostles, prophets, and Jesus Himself is the only way we can be shaped, made suitable, and stay sustainable in this world.