The Church the new Temple

2 Corinthians 6:16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God

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.

• Built by the son of God: adopted son Solomon (2 Sam 7:12-14) built the first Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kg 6:1); only beloved son Jesus, the new Solomon (Mt 17:5) built the Church (Mt 16:18)

• Built with the help of Gentiles: King of Tyre provided Solomon with the cedars and cypress from Lebanon (1 Kg 5:1-12); the Church is commissioned by Jesus to make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:18-20) e.g. first Gentiles were Roman Cornelius's household (Acts 10)

• Where God resides: the Glory Cloud filled the Most Holy Place of the Temple (1 Kg 8:10-11); the Holy Spirit in the baptised (Acts 2:4,38) the temple of God (2 Cor 6:16)

• Where worship (sacrifice) occurs: only in the Temple (Lev 17:8-9; Dt 12:5-6; Jn 4:20-22); the Church through the apostles (and their successors) to offer Jesus's body and blood (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor 10:16) and for individual believers to present their bodies to God as living sacrifices (Rom 12:1; ! Cor 6:19-20)