Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Sermon preached on Ephesians 2:19-3:6 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 01/25/2026 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Today, I will be focusing on chapter 2, verse 20, about the foundation that has already been laid for the church of Jesus Christ. I had us read through to verse 6, for further context, especially to see how the apostles and prophets are mentioned both in verses 20 and 5. Let us remember that this section we’ve been studying the last few weeks has been about how God is making one united people of God. Christ’s church is made of people of all the nations who trust in him. As we studied last time, God is forming believing Jews and Gentiles into a single holy temple of God. So today, I want us to focus further on the foundation of that temple which is described there in verse 20. We’ll approach it in three points. First, we’ll consider some characteristics of this foundation. Then, second, we’ll consider the role of these apostles and prophets in that foundation. Third, we’ll consider Christ as the cornerstone of the foundation. This calls us each to consider, “Is this your spiritual foundation?”
So then, let us begin with considering the characteristics of this foundation. I will give you three characteristics of it. First, it is a spiritual foundation. You see, a foundation is what you lay down first and build everything else on top of it. The foundation described here in verse 20 is for God’s holy temple. Remember, this temple is not a literal, physical temple like they had under the old covenant. This is a temple made up of Christians. Together, we constitute the one temple of God on earth, with God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We worship then in Spirit and truth, not is a single physical structure, anymore. The point is that if the temple is built of Christians, then it’s a spiritual temple, not a physical temple. That means the foundation is a spiritual foundation, not a literal, physical one.
A second characteristic of this foundation is that it is a solid foundation. A foundation is critical for whatever is built upon it. Remember how Jesus taught about the importance of a firm foundation in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7, Jesus compared a foundation built on the rock versus a foundation built on a sand. Jesus said that keeping his words was like building on the rock. Jesus said that disregarding his words was like building on the sand. The point he made with the comparison is that the foundation of rock stands up against the testing of the winds and the waves when the foundation of sand does not. This is an important significance of a foundation. You need to build upon a solid foundation because the wellbeing of the whole structure literally rests upon it. So, as we’ll see, this foundation we are studying today is ultimately Christ. Therefore, we can have confidence that it is solid foundation. No other foundation is suitable for the church. No other foundation compares to the rock of Christ Jesus. We would be wise to build our life and the church upon Jesus. We’d be fools to try to build upon anything else. Indeed, in matters of eternity and religion, every other foundation is but sand.
A third characteristic of this foundation is that it is already a completed foundation. This foundation has already been laid. Our job is not foundation-laying. Our job is to
build on top of this existing foundation. Paul literally says this in 1 Cor. 3:11. That says, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Just before that, Paul says that means we need to take care how we build on this foundation. This is why the epistle of Jude says that we need to, “Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” When Jude says that the faith was once for all delivered to the saints, he’s speaking in foundational terms. The foundation of our faith was once for all delivered. It’s already been laid down and now we have to hold on it to and pass it on to the next generation. When we pass that faith on, we must not change it, otherwise, that would be to make a new foundation. Our job is to continue this existing building project, not start something new.
Let’s turn next to talk about the role of these apostles and prophets mentioned in verse 20. Who are these apostles and prophets central to the foundation of the church? The context helps us to identify them. Start with the context of chapter 4, verse 11. There, a longer list of church leaders are mentioned. After apostles and prophets, it adds evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. The fact that apostles and prophets are mentioned first, surely confirms their foundational role. Since these other leaders aren’t mentioned in our passage today as foundational, that implies that the rest of the leaders in 4:11 are not the ones laying the foundation but building on it. The evangelists describe what we often call today as ordained missionaries. The shepherds and teachers are treated in the Greek as a single office, and describes pastors like me who minister to a local church. And so, these apostles and prophets had a foundational ministry, while the missionaries and pastors are the ongoing, regular leaders who build on the foundation.
These apostles and prophets are also referenced when you look at Chapter 3, verse 5, which is the most immediate context for us. Notice what we can glean about them from verse 5. Paul is saying that these apostles and prophets are contemporary. He says that in past generations, the people of old didn’t receive the revelation that has “now” come to these apostles and prophets. In other words, these apostles and prophets referenced here were either alive then or recently at that time Paul wrote this letter.
So, these two cross-references in Ephesians explain that these apostles and prophets ministered in a foundational role when the new covenant church was first being established. Surely, the apostles in mind here are those twelve that Jesus appointed, and additionally Paul, as an apostle who was untimely born. Together, they served as eyewitnesses to the risen Christ. Remember that the twelve apostles began as that inner circle of disciples that followed Jesus and learned from him during his earthly ministry. That number temporarily went down to eleven after Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, but the book of Acts appoints another qualified individual, named Matthias, who had also accompanied the twelve throughout the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry. They appointed him to fulfill that foundational office of the twelve, surely a number representing Jesus’ witness to the tribes of Israel. That foundational aspect is confirmed in the book of Acts because you later see one of the twelve is martyred, but they do not replace him. Paul, is an interesting case, because he was an eyewitness to the risen Christ through his supernatural vision on the road to Damascus. Jesus commissioned him to be an apostle to the Gentiles. Together, these apostles foundationally gave personal testimony about the person, work, and message of Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
So then, based on what we’ve said, these prophets, must refer to the New Testament prophets who lived at the same time as these apostles and by the Holy Spirit confirmed their foundational witness to Jesus. Now, let me note that some believe the prophets referenced here are the Old Testament prophets. I had traditionally assumed that interpretation as well. It made sense to me to think about the foundation of the church being built on both the Old Testament prophets prophesying of Christ to come and the New Testament apostles witnessing that Christ has now come. Yet, my continued study through Ephesians has led me to conclude that while it is true that Old Testament prophets foretold Christ, that is not what Paul is talking about here. In context, surely these apostles and prophets are the same ones mentioned as contemporaries in 3:5. While the New Testament prophets do not get as much attention as the apostles, there are actually a number identified in the New Testament, especially in Acts when we see the apostles doing their foundational ministry. For example, Acts 11 speaks of a number of prophets going from Jerusalem to Antioch, including one named Agabus, and that ministry complemented Paul’s. In Acts 13, a group of prophets call Paul and Barnabas onto a missionary journey. Acts 15 mentions two prophets named Judas and Silas, whom the Jerusalem Council commissioned to deliver their decision to the Gentile converts. Silas even later becomes a companion of the Apostle Paul on his missionary travels. We also see other broader references to prophets, like Philips’ four daughters in Acts 21 and the prophets at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 14, for example. So then, Paul wonderfully explains in verse 20 that these New Testament prophets are part of the foundational work alongside the apostles as the new covenant church is being established, made up of both Jews and Gentiles together who profess Christ.
That leads us then to our third point to say that foundation is ultimately Jesus. Jesus here is declared to be the cornerstone of this foundation. In ancient foundation laying, I understand that the cornerstone was the first stone laid down in the foundation. It was the most important stone because it united and locked together all the other foundation stones. It aligned the walls. It bore and distributed the load. While the apostles and prophets were important to this foundation, Jesus is essential to it. In terms of the building analogy, the whole structure would fail without this cornerstone. You would not have any foundation at all without Christ. The only reason the apostles and the prophets played a foundational role is how they bore witness to Christ. If you have no Christ, then the apostles and prophets have no function and thus cease to be foundational.
Isaiah 28:16 is the considered to be background for this cornerstone reference. There, Isaiah was critiquing the false foundations that God’s people had tried to trust. Isaiah prophesied that God is the one who lays a sure foundation for his people, one that is tested, sure, and precious. The New Testament quotes Isaiah 28:16 and two other stone references and repeatedly says Christ is the stone. Jesus is the foundation for our faith.
Let us appreciate why Jesus is ultimately this firm foundation God has established for his church. Jesus is the foundation of our salvation. He fulfilled all righteousness for us and put away our guilt that we would have eternal life. Jesus is the foundation of our peace. He brings peace between us and God by his offering of himself. He brings peace between Christians as he unites us in one church. He brings peace to our souls, as he puts away both our guilt and our anxieties. Jesus is the foundation for our knowledge of God, being the perfect revelation of God unto man. As we see and know Jesus, we come to see and know God. Jesus is thus also the foundation of our doctrine, the very Word of God manifested to us. Indeed, whatever any prophet, Old or New Testament has ever spoken, it’s to ultimately tell us of Christ, the power and wisdom and revelation of God. Jesus is the foundation for our righteous living. For he is our King who calls us to seek righteousness and justice. And he himself, as the one perfect man, went through all temptations of life, yet without sin. He is thus able and willing to help us overcome each temptation we face. Jesus is the foundation for the church’s government, as the head of the church. Indeed, all other human leaders but are but servants of Christ our King. Christ is the foundation of our worship, for we approach God not in ourselves but in him, with the access he secured by his blood that both atones our sins and purifies our souls. We can draw near to God in worship, not in fear of judgment, but in blessed enjoyment of God’s glory. For these, and other reasons, Christ Jesus is the tested, sure, and precious foundation for the church.
One interesting feature about the several Old Testament rock passages, is that the New Testament not only quotes them a lot, but often to describe how people reject Jesus as their foundation. For example, 1 Peter 2:7, applying Psalm 118 to Jesus, says, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The repeated warnings that come along with verses like that is to not reject Jesus. Jesus calls us to build our lives upon him and his Word. The church of Jesus is being constructed into a holy temple with all who seek to do that. Each Christian is a living stone built on this foundation of Christ. But if Jesus is not your foundation, then whatever else you may try to build your life upon, it is but sinking sand. Without Christ, a person is ultimately without hope or God in this world. That’s not my words, it’s what we find right here. Today’s passage implores all to find Jesus as your firm foundation.
If you have not yet found Jesus as your foundation, where do you start? Well, I point you back to the witness of the apostles and the prophets. What we have in the Holy Scriptures is the inspired Word of God that proclaims Christ to us. The Bible has been entrusted to the Church to use in teaching all the world about Jesus. The Holy Spirit works through the church as it preaches Christ from the Scriptures to build this church. This is what we endeavor to do here. We don’t lay a new foundation. We keep building on top of the existing foundation, until all the elect are gathered into the church of Jesus Christ.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, I’ve presented to the solid foundation of Christ Jesus. I’ve called us each afresh to reflect on what is your foundation in life. Let me offer some final application by addressing some common alternative foundations that can tempt us to build our life upon. Think first of some of the temptations that can be found within the church. For example, let us resist the temptation of moralism. Your life in Christ is not founded on your own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. Yes, Jesus will then look to build righteousness in your life, but don’t mistake that for the foundation.
Let us resist the temptation that the church with its worship and ritual is the foundation. Some people think they are right with God because they are faithful in their church attendance or church giving. Yes, Jesus wants you to be deeply involved in the worship and life of the church. He’s growing your heart to want that, but don’t mistake that either for the foundation. He’s building the church on the foundation, so that means it isn’t itself the foundation.
Let us likewise resist the temptation that church tradition is part of the foundation. Sadly, Roman Catholicism has attempted to put church tradition alongside Christ as revealed in Scripture. Yet, their so-called claim of possessing apostolic tradition cannot be faithfully substantiated apart from what we have written in God’s Word. Any other claim is apocryphal at best. Tradition may develop upon the foundation, but it must never displace it or add to the foundation that we have clearly written down in the Bible.
Let me complement that point with an opposite temptation, by warning us against ignoring the traditional and historic witness of the church to Christ. True, Christ is the foundation and not the church’s witness. Yet, the church has been building on this foundation for almost two thousand years. Sometimes people try to read the Scripture in complete isolation from how the church has always understood it, and that can lead to novel, even bizarre interpretations. That inherently threatens the foundation once for all delivered to the saints and through such an approach many have wandered away from God’s truth. Don’t try to find Christ on your own all by yourself. Find him together with God’s people in his Word.
Let us also resist the temptation that can come with claims to so-called new revelation. There is no expectation in Scripture that we should expect new revelations that would add to the foundation that’s already laid. As Paul said, if even an angel were to try to bring us a new gospel, let him be anathema (Gal 1:8). The apostles and prophets played a role at the start, but now the ordinary teaching ministry has been passed on to the pastors and missionaries, along with the elders, in shepherding the people. Even if modern charismatic movements are well intentioned, we must be careful to not let any “strange fire” into the church that would look to add or replace the foundation already laid in Christ. (This verse is an important contribution to the case for cessationism.)
Let us also beware of the many competing foundations the world may tempt us with. Some of the world’s proposed foundations are not good things. But some of them are good things in themselves, yet Jesus would still not have your whole life founded upon any of them. Science, philosophy, family, politics, false religion, career, sports, love, world peace, fame, sex, drugs, rock and roll – these are but a few things of varying value that can tempt you to build your whole life upon them. Don’t be deceived even by the good things. Instead, build your life upon Jesus!
If you do, you will not be put to shame. Here at Trinity, we seek to contribute to building the church on this sure foundation. One day, the final stone will be added, and the whole, holy building which is Christ’s church will be complete. Then our Lord will return to usher us into the glory he has prepared for us.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
