Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

160 • P LANTING C HURCHES AMONG THE C ITY ’ S P OOR : V OLUME 1

A. The sovereign God underwrites all time and happenings in human history.

1. Whatever he pleases, he does, Ps. 135.6.

2. God’s counsels and plans stand forever, to all generations, Ps. 33.11; Ps. 115.3.

3. God declares the end of all things from the beginning, Isa. 46.10.

4. Nothing and no one can withstand the plan of God for salvation and redemption, Dan. 4.35.

B. The LORD is the central character in the unfolding of the divine drama, Eph. 1.9-11.

1. All things are being recapitulated in the person of Jesus Christ, the perfect Anti-type of the foreshadowings in the Hebrew Scriptures.

2. As saints of God, we participate as characters in the epic and cosmic drama of God being played out on the stage of earth.

3. As aliens and sojourners, our duty is to be God’s counter cultural community fleshing out the life of the Age to come in the here and now, 1 Pet. 1.13-21. 4. As citizens of the heavenly realm and ambassadors of Christ, we are called to declare and demonstrate the life of heaven in the darkest, most dismal, and most dangerous places on earth, in every generation, 2 Cor. 5.18-21. C. The Church bears witness of the Already/Not Yet Kingdom in its life and works, that reign which was lost at the beginning of time.

1. God’s sovereign rule, Mark 1.14-15

2. Satan’s infernal rebellion, Gen. 3.15 with Col. 2.15; 1 John 3.8

3. Humankind’s tragic fall, Gen. 3.1-8; cf. Rom. 5.5-8