1. On a new page, miss the top two lines and list as many people as you can
That have caused a friend, family, company, team or country to be disgraced (had its reputation damaged)

2. The Cleansing of the Temple
To know what happened when Jesus went into the temple
To know why this happened
To understand why this account is important

3. The Cleansing of the Temple
Prophecies
“Zeal for thy house shall destroy me.” (Psalms)
And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the LORD of hosts. 2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness” (Malachi 3:1-3, NKJV).

4. What Happened
Story
18 But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
 19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
 20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” 21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.

5. The Cleansing of the temple
This account is so important that it is mentioned in all 4 gospels.
There are many things that we can learn from this.

6. Group Work
Is it ever ok to get angry as a Christian? If so when? If not why not?
Prophecy- In what way is the prophecy fulfilled? Why is this important?
How does this passage teach us about the identity of Jesus?
In what way was the temple cleansed?
What does the fact the temple was cleared out teach Christians today?
What might Jesus be teaching Christians about their bodies?

7. The meaning
Jesus is the role model for Christians and so if he got angry then it is clearly acceptable to get angry if it is for the right reasons. It is not clear whether Jesus actually uses violence here. If he does, what might this teach Christians about war and conflict?
The prophecy from Micah was fulfilled which shows that Jesus was following God’s plan. We should do the same.
It shows us that Jesus is the Messiah as Micah predicted that the Messiah would cleanse the temple.
The temple was cleansed of the evil that was going on inside it. It is important that Christianity is kept clean in all respects. Can you think of any occasions when the reputation of Christianity has been damaged?

8. The other meanings
The fact that the temple was cleared out teaches Christians the importance of keeping the church “spiritually” clean.
Jesus talks about his body being a temple. This is because we ask the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. This means that we have to keep our body “spiritually” clean also. What might this mean?

9. Jesus’ Prophecy
When the Pharisees asked Jesus what right he had to cleanse the temple. He said that he would tear the temple down and rebuild it in three days. He meant that he would die and rise again three days later but the Pharisees thought that he was threatening to destroy the temple and they used this as evidence to get him killed. This fulfilled the other prophecy
“Zeal for thy house shall destroy me.”

10. Work by yourselves Why did Jesus Cleanse the Temple?
Why is this account important for Christians today? (anger, prophecy, identity of Jesus, treatment of our bodies) (8)
Why would some Christians say it is wrong to get a tattoo?
Do you think that the church is “cleansed?”