Step 1: Opening and Introduction to the lesson – Personal Testimonies from last week’s study and Reflection: What room or area of your is cleanest? What area is the dirtiest?
Step 2: Hear – Read: Jesus Clears the Temple. John 2:13-25.
Step 3: Explore – Discover the Passage
- The sellers and money changers were set up to provide sacrificial animals for sale at the temple as a help to Jews from far away. How might this once useful practice have deteriorated into a racket? Why else was Jesus angry (Psalms 69:9)?
- What happens in the temple? Describe Jesus’ character and emotion. What command does he give? As one of the sellers, how might you feel about Jesus’ actions? As one of the disciples, how would you feel?
- How is Jesus challenged (v.18)? Why? What sign does Jesus give the Jews for his actions? How does he refer to temple in verse 19? What effect does his response have on them?
- Why doesn’t Jesus entrust himself to the crowd in verses 23-25?
Step 4: Connect – Apply the Passage:
- If you compare your spiritual life to the rooms of a house, which room do you think Jesus might want to clean up?
- How is your library – the reading room? How is the dining room – appetites, desires? Your workshop – where you keep your skills?
- How is your recreation room – where you hang out after work? How is your Family room – where most of your relationships are lived out? How is your closet – where your hang-ups are?
- How does Jesus know all men? How does his knowledge affect the openness and honesty of your prayers?
Step 5: Reflect: …He did not need msn’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in man.
