Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

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

3. Destined for the throne: the marriage Supper of the Lamb, Rev. 19.6-8

C. The Church is figured and typified as the temple of the Holy Spirit

Eph. 2.20-22 – built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. 1. Church as typos of the Temple, living stones making up God’s habitation in the Spirit, 1 Pet. 2.4-10 (cf. 1 Peter 2.9-10 – But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.) 2. Consecrated and set apart for God’s pleasure and purpose, 1 Cor. 3.16-17 – Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. 3. A community of the Spirit: the shekinah presence of God in the midst of God’s people, Rom. 8.11 – If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Cf. Eph. 2.19-22 – So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are 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, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.)

III. The Church of God in Jesus Christ Has Great Implication for Us in Urban Missions Today.

A. The Church stands out in urban mission as the pillar and buttress of the truth .