Tips for Teaching This Week’s Session of The Gospel Project for Adults

Listen to this week’s leader training podcast with Y Bonesteele, team leader for The Gospel Project for Adults, for a summary and guidance in leading your group.

This week’s additional resources for study and preparation:

• Article: “True Worship in the True Temple” by R. Dwain Minor
• Sermon: “John 2:13-22” by Albert Mohler
• Sermon: “Jesus the Temple of God” by Don Carson

Transcript of Leader Training Podcast:

Hi, this is Y Bonesteele, team leader of The Gospel Project for Adults. Welcome to another Leader Training Podcast. Today we are in Unit 21, Session 2: Worship to Zeal, with the core passage of John 2:13-22; and with the key concept of: Jesus has the authority to purify all things because it all belongs to Him.

In John 2, after John told of Jesus’s miracle in changing water to wine, he continued with a non-supernatural story. The Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. “In the temple,” most likely in the outer courts, “he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he found the money changers sitting there.” This is the issue that made Jesus make “a whip out of cords [driving] everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables.” Jesus was passionate about true worship and when people try to steal God’s thunder, He was going to do something about it. He told those selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” more accurately with the play on the word house, of “stop turning my Father’s house into a house of commerce.” After that, John noted that the disciples “remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Now, let’s address the debate over this passage. The cleansing of the temple in John is right after the water to wine miracle. In the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), they told of a cleansing later in Jesus’s life, right before the crucifixion. How do you reconcile this? Two possibilities: one, there was one cleansing and John just put His out of place. Or there were two cleansings, with John telling of the earlier one and the other Gospel writers telling of the later one. Here are some of the reasonings for the case for only 1 cleansing: All the Gospel writers only mention one cleansing and no mention of “two” or a “second” is in the Bible. Some scholars say John framed his Gospel more thematically and less chronologically, so he might have moved up the cleansing in the timeline to make a point about Jesus’s authority. The reasoning for the case for 2 cleansings includes: it makes sense in the timeline for all the writers. John’s account seems clearly in the beginning of Jesus’s ministry and the other Gospels account is clearly at the end of His ministry. The easiest framework is that there were two different accounts and the writers simply picked one to focus on. The wording of the description of the cleansings is distinct. John mentions a whip of cords that the others don’t. The words of Jesus are different: in John, Jesus told them not to turn His Father’s house into a “marketplace,” whereas in the synoptic Gospels, they all said Jesus said, “my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!” When compared, the stories have very distinct details and only in John do the Jews ask for a sign and Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days,” pointing to His future resurrection. All this is to say, I do lean toward two cleansings. But there is no definitive answer here which doesn’t take away from Scripture at all. The point is all the Gospel writers chose to write about a cleansing of the temple to show Jesus’s zeal and authority to speak up for true worship, rebuking those who blurred the lines with other distractions.

But back to Jesus, His zeal for true worship is part of His character as the disciples recalled Psalm 69:9. For more information on His zeal, scan the QR code on page 122. Jesus was bold and had righteous anger against those who took lightly the house of God, a sacred place. Their selling of sacrificial animals and money-changing could have been located right outside the temple, but the Jews’ disregard for Gentiles at that time and their allocated space in the outer courts to be a place of prayer for Gentiles allowed business and commerce to be a distraction in the place set aside for worship and prayer.

What practices help you worship God in a reverent manner, not taking worship lightly? First, take this question in light of going to a worship service with other believers. Perhaps, praying by yourself before worship starts, setting your heart right before God during the worship music time, not getting distracted by the type of music or type of song being sung, focused on the Scripture passage and on learning from the Spirit. It is easy sometimes to treat church as a social club rather than a time of worship with family. No doubt many times I’ve rushed to church or am late to church or distracted by my schedule for that day. God’s grace abounds but He does want us to treat His house and worship with reverence.

How has Jesus’s zeal for worshipers from all nations caused you to adjust your life? If we are not Jewish by blood, we are all Gentiles. And God’s mission has always been to call all nations to Himself. There should be no discrimination against any nationality or ethnicity when it comes to the family of God and the ability to worship God. This should tender our hearts toward those who love God from other nations.

As a response to Jesus’s actions in verse 18, the Jews replied, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?” And Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” The Jews took Jesus’s words literally and told Him the temple took 46 years to build as if He didn’t know that. But Jesus was “speaking about the temple of his body.” And John noted that the disciples remembered this after the resurrection and believed Scripture. The Jews tried to question Jesus’s authority, and He responded with a clue to His resurrection that they did not understand. Being God’s Son, the temple was His Father’s house. And His Father’s house was where God’s presence would be known to humanity and where forgiveness would take place. Jesus was saying the temple was His body. For after the resurrection, He would assume that role, being the One who would be present with His people always and being the One who would grant forgiveness to those who believed. As the Gospel Connections states: In purifying the temple, Jesus revealed His authority as well as pointed to His future death and resurrection.

What has helped you surrender to Jesus’s authority in your life? Maybe life’s circumstances, maybe accountability or encouragement from friends, maybe Scripture. Answers will vary here.

How did you become convinced that Jesus truly rose from the dead? Evidence of the resurrection abounds through eyewitness accounts as well as the growth of Christianity. Belief in Scripture also can be the evidence needed.

Into the Group Experience, start with the Arrival icebreaker on the top of page 126 of the Leader Guide. Transition into the Context highlighting the point that Jesus experienced a myriad of emotions, the same as we do, but He never sinned. His motives were always pure and for God’s glory. He was gentle but He was also strong. He was a peacemaker, but He also held true to convictions. We can learn so much from Jesus’s example.

Recap with the group, asking what stood out? Why was Jesus compelled to establish His authority? Why might Jesus have used this opportunity to testify to His resurrection? Jesus gave the disciples many lessons through His words and actions. Many times they didn’t understand till after the resurrection. Jesus might have been establishing a pattern of revealing His authority and identity through every interaction with those around Him. Although the antagonistic Jews at the temple did not understand what He was doing, many times, the disciples did not either. But it would all come together for them after Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Transition then to the Group Activity, duplicating the chart “Establishing Authority” on a board. Form 2 groups and assign each group a column. For the John 2:13-22 passage, answers can include:

• Actions: Jesus went up to Jerusalem; He found the people selling animals; He found the money-changers; He made a whip; He drove everyone out; He poured out the coins; He overturned the tables.
• Words: He told the people selling doves to get the things out of there and to stop turning His Father’s house into a marketplace.
• Scriptural Basis: The disciples remembered Ps. 69:9 as alluding to the Messiah, Jesus.
• Sign: Jesus in answering the Jews said that His sign would be destroying the temple and raising it up in three days, referring to Himself which the Jews didn’t understand.

For Matthew 12:1-14, answers can include:

• Actions: Jesus passed through the grainfields on a Sabbath and his disciples picked and ate the grain and then Jesus had interactions with the Pharisees; He then entered the synagogue, saw a man with a shriveled hand and healed him despite it being the Sabbath, arguing with the Pharisees.
• Words: When the Pharisees judged the disciples for picking grain to eat on the Sabbath, Jesus replied with the example of David and his men eating food from the house of God in 1 Samuel 21:1-6. Jesus also argued that the priests actually work on the Sabbath in the temple so there is a hierarchy of what is right. Jesus mentioned Himself as greater than the temple.
• Scriptural Basis: Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” saying that mercy and love has higher value than ritual and laws. The intent of the laws was to serve and honor God and people.
• Sign: Jesus’s sign was the healing of the man’s hand, showing He was Lord of all, including Lord of the Sabbath.

Compare the two stories and how they presented Jesus’s authority. And discuss, “Why might people struggle to imagine Jesus turning over tables and driving out money changers with a whip?” Some of our preconceived notions about Jesus is Him simply being a gentle figure with sheep and children, passively letting Himself die for us. He is gentle and He is a peacemaker, but He is also passionate and zealous and full of conviction and resolve. He was not passive; He was intentional in everything He did. And the importance of reading all of Scripture is that it shows us a complete picture, of God’s plan throughout history, and of Jesus’s character throughout His lifetime.

Then pass out Pack Item 13: Jewish Sects in Jesus’s Day. The Pharisees weren’t the only ones that doubted Jesus and His authority. There were other Jewish sects of the times who had their own view of who the Messiah was. Briefly review their false or incomplete perceptions of who the Messiah would be.

Debrief with: “When have you seen zeal for God’s house lead to reform?” Answers can include reform in someone’s own spiritual walk or in the dynamics of the workings of a church. “In the management of your own temple—your physical body where the Holy Spirit dwells—are there steps you need to take to keep it holy?” Your group may have personal answers here.

Summarize and tackle the Hands question in the Head, Heart, Hands section if time is limited. “How will you initiate a conversation this week with someone about their need to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior?” Jesus is zealous for worship and for those to have a true experience of worship. We as believers need to be zealous for His kingdom and mission to bring others toward worship of Him as well.

Bring up further application from the Next Steps section and end with prayer requests and praises, ending with prayer in Psalm 69 if time permits. Verses 29 -32 are a good portion: “29 But as for me ​— ​poor and in pain —let your salvation protect me, God. 30 I will praise God’s name with song and exalt him with thanksgiving. 31 That will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with horns and hooves. 32 The humble will see it and rejoice. You who seek God, take heart!”

Thanks for joining me on another Leader Training podcast. Reach me at [email protected] and hope you have a great group time!