THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
God’s Building
Message Four—Christ’s Building the Church as God’s Temple
in Resurrection
Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:13a; 1 Kings 5:5; 6:1-2; Matt. 12:6, 42
I. Solomon and the temple built by him typify Christ and His Body, the church, respectively, as the center, the reality, and the goal of God’s eternal economy—2 Sam. 7:13a; 1 Kings 5:5; 6:1-2; Matt. 12:6, 42; Eph. 1:10, 22-23; 3:9-11. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
II. The tabernacle and the temple typify two aspects of the church—Exo. 40:2; 1 Kings 6:2; Rev. 1:11: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
A. The tabernacle was designed for the wilderness and was transitory in nature; the temple was designed for the kingdom and was eternal in nature—Exo. 40:2; 1 Kings 6:1-2. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
B. The tabernacle typifies God’s church on earth, whereas the temple typifies the church as Christ’s unique Body; the church appears in different localities, yet the spiritual reality of the church is still one Body, which is unique and eternal—Rev. 1:11; Eph. 1:22-23. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
C. The temple replaced the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth; thus, the tabernacle was mingled with the temple—1 Kings 6:2. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
III. The temple was a type of Christ and also of the Body of Christ: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
A. The temple first typifies the incarnated Christ, the embodiment of God, as God’s dwelling place on the earth—Col. 2:9; John 2:19-21: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
1. As God’s house, the temple, which was the enlargement of the tabernacle, was founded upon a foundation stone—1 Kings 5:17; 6:37. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
2. The temple was built of stone (transformed humanity), cedar (humanity in resurrection), cypress (humanity through death), olive wood (humanity in the Spirit of God), and gold (divinity)—vv. 7, 9-10, 15-16, 21-23. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
3. With the temple we see the mingling of divinity with humanity through death and in resurrection and transformation. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
B. The temple also typifies the church, the Body of Christ, as the unique building of God in the universe—Matt. 12:6; 1 Cor. 3:1-17; 12:12, 27: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
1. This enlarged temple includes all the believers, the members of Christ, as the enlargement of Christ to be God’s dwelling place on earth— Eph. 2:21-22. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
2. Christ and the church are one, Christ being the Head and the church being the Body—1:22-23; Col. 1:18a. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
3. The Body is the enlargement of the Head for God’s dwelling place; hence, God’s dwelling place in Christ is God’s dwelling place in the church. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
C. In His resurrection the Lord Jesus rebuilt God’s temple in a larger way, making it a corporate one, the mystical Body of Christ—John 2:19-22: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
1. The body of Jesus, the temple, that was destroyed on the cross was small and weak, but the Body of Christ in resurrection is vast and powerful— 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 1:22-23. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
2. Since the day of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus has been enlarging His Body in resurrection life; He is still working for the building of His Body under the process of resurrection—John 2:19-22. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
3. Christ, who is resurrection and life (11:25), changes death into life for the building of the house of God; our living as Christians is a life of changing death into life for the building up of the mystical Body of Christ—2:1-21. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
IV. For the building of God—the church as the Body of Christ—we must be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ—11:25; Phil. 3:10-11: (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
A. The church as the Body of Christ is absolutely in resurrection—1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6; Matt. 16:18; cf. Gen. 2:21-23. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
B. “God sees the church as a being that can endure death. The gates of Hades are open to the church, but the gates of Hades cannot prevail against her and cannot confine her; thus, the nature of the church is resurrection” (The Orthodoxy of the Church, pp. 21-22). (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
C. The reality of resurrection is Christ as the life-giving Spirit—John 11:25; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
D. The principle of resurrection is that the natural life is killed and that the divine life rises up in its place—2 Cor. 1:9. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
E. When we do not live by our natural life but live by the divine life within us, we are in resurrection—Phil. 3:10-11; 1:21a. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
F. In order to live in resurrection we need to know, experience, and gain God as the God of resurrection; when the God of resurrection works, His life and nature are wrought into our being—2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:14, 16; Gal. 4:19. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
G. To attain to the out-resurrection means that our entire being is gradually and continually resurrected—Phil. 3:11; Eph. 2:5-6; Rom. 8:6, 10-11. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
H. Everything we say, everything we do, and everything we are in the church life must be in resurrection. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
I. Our natural ability needs to be dealt with by the cross to become useful in resurrection; in resurrection something divine is wrought into our ability; thus, our “dealt-with” ability is full of God—Phil. 3:10-11. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
J. We need to experience, in resurrection, a mysterious transfer out of “Tyre” and “Dan” into the tribe of Naphtali—2 Chron. 2:14; 1 Kings 7:14; Gen. 49:21. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)
K. To live in resurrection is to live by the grace of God; grace is the resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit to bring the processed and consummated Triune God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply that we may live in resurrection for the building of God—1 Cor. 15:10, 45b; 3:9, 16-17. (2006 FTTA-Spring, msg. 5)