The Gospel Project® for Adults

POINT 1 JESUS CAME TO BE THE GREATER TEMPLE (JOHN 2:13-22).

13 The Jewish Passover was near, and so Jesus went up
to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling oxen, sheep,
and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there.
15 After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone
out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out
the money changers' coins and overturned the tables.
16 He told those who were selling doves,
"Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father's house
into a marketplace!" 17 And his disciples remembered
that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me.
18 So the Jews replied to him, "What sign will you show us
for doing these things?" 19 Jesus answered,
"Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days."
20 Therefore the Jews said, "This temple took forty-six years
to build, and will you raise it up in three days?"
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
22 So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered
that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the statement
Jesus had made.

Explain:

Verses 13-16 (the bold words fill in blanks

Jesus was passionate that God's temple be used
for worship alone, not self-serving greed.

Discuss:

• What do you think of when you hear the word temple?
• (a place for religious worship;
• a place marked by beauty, often large and ornate;
• many times people travel long distances to see and worship in temples;
• in the Bible the temple was a place where God promised to dwell
  with His people;
• a place Solomon built that was designed exactly
  according to God's specifications)

Explain:

Verses 17-22 (the bold words fill in blanks in the DDG):

Jesus came to be greater than the temple and to fulfill its true purpose.

Discuss:

• How is the temple of Jesus's body better than the temple building?
• (the resurrected Jesus is eternal, never to die again,
  unlike the temple, which was destroyed;
• Jesus cannot be corrupted like the temple;
• the person of Jesus is infinitely better than an inanimate object
  such as the temple)

Transition:

The temple wasn't the only Old Testament image
that Jesus came to fulfill. He also came as the true and better
Passover lamb.

MONEY CHANGERS

Those in the business of selling or changing currency
from foreign money to the correct currency needed.
During the festivals, Jews from other countries
with foreign money would need to change their money
to what was acceptable for Jerusalem and what was acceptable
for the temple.

VOICES FROM CHURCH HISTORY

"Such was the holy, heavenly zeal of our Great Exemplar! His were
no transient outbursts of ardor, which time cooled
and difficulties impeded. His life was one indignant protest
against sin;"--one ceaseless current of undying love for souls,
which all the malignity of foes, and unkindness of friends, could not
for one moment divert from its course. Even when He rises
fom the dead, and we imagine His work at an end, His zeal
only meditates fresh deeds of love.""‰1

"--John R. Macduff (1818-1895)