About This Guide: This weekly groups guide, “A Light Has Dawned,” is designed as a companion to our Epiphany 2022 teaching series, fostering discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting. Join a group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
clearing the temple
Teaching Text: John 2: 13-25
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 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. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 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.
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Our purpose as the church
Presence
Take a moment of silence and think about these questions:
If for only today — this moment — you were going to write the story of your life, what would the first sentence be?
Think about yourself as an 18 year old. What would the first sentence have been if you wrote it as an 18 year old?
What do you learn about yourself and how God has shaped you between those two moments?
What are the major epiphanies or experiences that shaped you into the person you are now?
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
To be God’s house meant to be a place of presence, mercy, and prayer.
Israel’s vocation was to help show YAHWEH to the world.
In this text they were misrepresenting God. This made Jesus angry.
How might the church be misrepresenting God to our world today?
Think about this for a moment in silence: How might you (as part of the church) - be miss representing God?
What does Jesus expect to be at His Father's House?
PRESENCE experienced
MERCY expressed
PRAYER expected
What is Jesus doing?
He is enacting a prophetic protest
He is angry but I don’t think this is Jesus just losing his temper
He is contending for the true purpose of the Temple, a place where people can meet God
Who is Jesus revealed to be?
The son of God - Zeal for this Father’s house
Playing the role of high priest - making sure people can get to God
A true prophet - speaking the heart of God in real life matters
A lamb - the one who would replace all the sacrifices
What are we invited into?
Jesus was coming to personally embody the vocation of Israel
By his indwelling Spirit he now asks us to be the temple - embodying the vocation of Israel.
We are invited to be a people of:
PRESENCE - living from and with
MERCY - receiving and giving
PRAYER - the conversation of our lives
How far have you moved from the idea that our purpose of the church is connected to presence, mercy and prayer?
Are there things in our lives that Jesus is saying have taken away from your true life?
Think of a time when you experienced His presence. Describe it to the group. Think of a time when you were shown great mercy.
What conversation do you need to have with God right now?
Love
Read these notes and discuss the questions below:
Who in your life do you need to show mercy? Or who is hardest to show mercy to?
Ask God for ways in which you can acces grace to act upon the prompting to show mercy.
Pray for one another in the group.
