Share Life
This term, let’s keep chatting about our evangelism as a church, so that we can pray for each other.
Who are you inviting?
How many days till Share Life Sundays?
Who are you inviting?
What do you need to do to move ahead with inviting someone?
Pray
Pray for your invitations. Pray for Big Fridays (kids & youth).
Opening Up
In today’s passage, we see the nexus or link between two defining features in the life of God’s people—the Passover and the temple.
The Passover was the annual festival commemorating God’s great salvation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt (Exod. 12). Just before their dramatic rescue, the angel of death ‘passed over’ the houses of God’s people, but struck down the Egyptian first-born.
The temple in Jerusalem was God’s place of presence. Like the tabernacle before it, the temple was at the heart of the sacrificial system which God established centuries earlier through Moses at Mount Sinai. It was meant to be a house of repentance and prayer, worship and sacrifice, teaching and response.
The temple had several courts, with the largest and outermost one known as the Court of the Nations (or Gentiles) where God-fearing non-Jews could come to pray. In today’s passage, Jesus arrives to find this court full of traders selling sacrificial animals and changing money.
It’s important to note that there was nothing wrong with these practices. People would come from far and wide to the Passover and were unlikely to bring their sacrifices over long distances. Instead, they would purchase animals or birds in Jerusalem having first exchanged their foreign currency.
The problem Jesus encountered was where the traders had set up shop. They had spied the outer court as a prime marketplace (literally, ‘emporium’) and moved their business into the temple complex itself.
Jesus’ response reveals much about himself and the revolution he brings to the relationship between people and God.
Read
John 2:13–25
Jesus Clears the Temple Courts
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
Digging In
What stood out to you or surprised you? What questions arise from the passage?
What is it about the behaviour of these people that makes Jesus so furious, as he echoes the zeal of David in Psalm 69:9 (v.14-17)?
When the Jews demand a sign to prove his authority to do all this, what future sign does Jesus offer them (v.18-19)? If you had been there, would you have responded to Jesus any differently (v.20)?
Consider the vital role of the temple in the life of God’s people. What profound change does Jesus announce in verse 21 (see also John 1:14 & 51)?
When did Jesus’ disciples understand and come to believe his words (v.22)?
Why don’t we need a huge stone temple today? Where do we go to meet with God?
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Ephesians 2:19-22
1 Peter 2:4-5
Consider honestly your daily and weekly life of faith and worship. Do you allow the world to intrude on the time and space that should be dedicated to the Lord alone? For example, do you allow your phone to intrude during church or personal devotion time, or give other activities priority over meeting with God’s people?
What concrete steps will you take to avoid making such compromises?
Taking it with you
Name one or two things revealed about Jesus in this passage that have challenged and/or encouraged you to deepen your faith in him.
Who can you share Jesus with this week? Who might you invite to Share Life this year? Pray for opportunities.