Story of Redemption 6 // The Church as the Temple

Recap:

For 5 Minutes in your group, discuss how we have seen God working on His mission to fill the earth with His presence and dwell with His people.

*Jesus has come, and now the story is over… right?

Jesus has ushered in the Kingdom like He told us in Mark’s gospel, and now He has entrusted us to continue to carry out His mission by the power of His Spirit.

The picture of this new body, the church, that we will look at today is the picture of the Temple, and with that, here’s our main idea:

Main Idea: Through faith in the gospel, we become God’s temple.

Read at your tables Eph. 2, and then we will discuss together.

How the gospel works among God’s People (Eph. 2):

Saves Us Individually (v. 1-10)

What are we saved from? (v. 1-3)

Why are we saved? (v. 4)

What are we saved by? (v. 5-9)

What are we saved for? (v. 10)

Unites Us in Christ (v. 11-18)

Jew vs. Gentile

Dividing Wall of Hostility (Dividing wall in the temple)

For the Purpose of Peace

The Presence of the Spirit brings peace

Builds Us Together (v. 19-22)

Stones from different quarries put together to build one beautiful structure

For His dwelling

*The church is not merely intended to grow locally, but it’s supposed to expand, just like the garden in Genesis 1. To see how God grows the church, I want us to flip over to 2 Cor. 6:3-18, and

How God grows His Temple (2 Cor. 6:3-18):

Through Persecutions (v. 3-5)

Through the Power of His Spirit (v. 6-7)

Through Loving Christ and Others (v. 9-13)

Through His Presence Among Us (v. 14-18)

How do we represent God’s presence as the Temple (2 Cor. 7:1)?

Through our united witness of God’s holiness.

Consider all of the ceremony and cleansing that went into the temple worship in the Old Testament.

We’re not bound to that kind of ceremony now, but we are gifted an even greater purity and then commanded to steward our gift for God’s glory and the growth of His Kingdom.

We will talk about this more in our groups, and as we do, I want you to really consider with the people at your table what it means to be a people of purity striving to bring God glory individually and together.