The objective of this lesson: To emphasize that the transition from Gods presence being in a geographical place to understanding Gods presence is in a people is a huge transition.
Transition is a huge challenge! People like the way things have been. The older people become, the more their desire for important things to remain unchanged tends to increase. People like the familiar. They like needed improvements they understand, but they do not like radical change.
Transition is not easily made. Typically, the older we become, the more difficult it becomes for us to make significant changes. When we find change difficult, we find comfort in refusing to correct. In that situation, it seems right or good to refuse to change. Often a refusal to change involves more than just a consideration of right and wrong or desirable corrections.
That is especially true in the practice of religion. A religious practice may not be very old. The practice may involve questions older than the practice itself. However, the questions do not matterif the religious practice is as old as parents or grandparents, the religious practice is ancient. The practice is not to be questioned or changed, and is without doubt correct.
Nowhere is transition made with more difficulty than in religious matters. Typically, people ignore valid questions in a refusal to see the validity of appropriate improvements (improvements that would move us closer to Gods will and intent.)
If we think religious change is challenging today, can we begin to imagine the challenges religious change produced 2000 years ago?
People after Jesus death and resurrection faced enormous religious transition (transition God wanted).
Some of those challenges involved truly ancient practices. There was holy ground, holy sites, holy geographical turf, temples, multiple gods, and idolatry. Temples were not built anywhere and everywhere like todays church buildings. They were built at an appropriate site on appropriate geography. If a church building is built, the two primary questions are, Is cheap land available? Is the place big enough for the buildings now needed, for future expansion, and for the vehicles we will bring? Their questions might be, Has the god touched this place? Is the site located on holy ground? We think about convenient parking; they thought about pilgrimages. We think about ease and accessibility; they thought about meaning and difficulty.
Those challenges involved their concepts of holy, concepts of appropriate approaches to God, concepts of HOW to worship, concepts of WHERE to worship, and concepts of what constitutes worship. The transformation from a temple/animal sacrifice worship to a worship centered in the execution/resurrection of a man that was offered by faith is a radical transformation.
Lest you think such considerations are strictly pagan, Moses stood on holy ground and was commanded by God to remove his sandals in Exodus 3:4, 5. A cloud (not people) determined when the tabernacle would travel and where it would go (Exodus 40:34-38). A cloud showed Gods acceptance of the tabernacle and the temple (Exodus 40:34, 35 and 1 Chronicles 5:14). The Jewish temple seemed to be built on the site where Abraham was called to offer Isaac (Genesis 22:1, 2, 14), and the site where King David sacrificed to keep a plague from entering Jerusalem (2 Samuel 24:15-25). Sacrifices were not to be offered at cultic sites (which were numerous in Canaan), but at one geographical place selected by God (Deuteronomy 12:1-14). The place the devout Jew performed a religious act definitely mattered to God.
Temple worship was God approved. Animal sacrifice was God approved. Worship through Jesus Christ is God approved. The transition was not from things that were wrong to things that were right. The transition was from the inferior to the infinitely good. God does things in Jesus Christ no human could ever do for self. The divine acts in Jesus death and resurrection are superior in every way to any human act any person could perform anywhere anytime.
That is drastically different from the Christian concept of today. Evangelistic Christian thought stresses that there are no holy places, no holy sites, and no divine geography. Evangelistic Christian concepts stress that it is not a matter of WHERE but a matter of WHAT. Evangelistic Christians stress divine acceptability is based on peoples behavior, not on place. Evangelistic Christians often quote Matthew 18:20 noting where two or three are gathered in Jesus namethe emphasis is on people, not geographical place.
We are so accustomed to a people-centered spiritual focus that we experience difficulty trying to relate to a temple/animal sacrifice focus. While we reject a temple focus, many hold dear a focus on the appropriate uses of the place of assembly of Christians on Sunday morning.
The gospels make it quite evident that Jesus did not shun the Jewish temple area in Jerusalem. Matthew made these points: (1) Part of Jesus early temptation occurred in the temple environment (4:5). (2) He is greater than the temple [Gods presence in him is more significant than Gods presence in the temple] (12:6). (3) The temple was a place of prayer [recall Solomons dedication], not a place of commerce (21:12, 13). (4) The temple area was one of the places Jesus healed (21:14). (5) The temple area was one of the places Jewish leadership challenged Jesus (21:23). (6) Jesus declared that the temple area, as impressive as it was, was temporary (24:1, 2). (7) Jesus taught publicly in the temple complex (26:55).
In all the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John references, remember the following things. (2) Jesus was born a Jew. (2) As a Jewish adult, he was subject to Jewish culture and to Gods commands in Judaism. (3) To reject the temple would be a rejection of something God accepted. (4) Opposition to inappropriate temple usages is not the same thing as a rejection of the temple itself. (5) When in Jerusalem, Jesus was obviously active in the temple complex.
Mark made these points: (1) When Jesus visited Jerusalem, he taught in the temple complex and emphasized the original purpose of that complex (11:15-18). (2) He confronted the Jewish leadership there (11:27-33). (3) It was a site for Jesus discussing the Christ, hypocrisy, and the basis of generosity to God (12:35-44). (4) Jesus presented the temporary nature of the temple (13:1-8). (5) During the last week of his physical life, it was the site of daily teaching (14:48, 49).
Luke made these points: (1) Jesus was presented at the temple as any Jewish firstborn male was to be. Jesus mission [when he was a baby] was confirmed then by Simeon and Anna (2:22-38). (2) When Jesus was 12, he was in the temple area learning and questioning (2:41-51). (3) The temple complex was the site of one of Jesus early temptations (4:9-12). (4) The temple area was the setting for some of Jesus parables (18:10). (4) The temple was to be a place of prayer, not a place for taking advantage of people (19:45, 46). (5) The last week of his physical life, Jesus taught daily in the temple area, and was extremely popular with the people (19:47, 48; 21:37). (6) Jesus was confronted in the temple area by the leaders of the temple complex about his teaching and actions (20:1-8). (7) He stressed the temple was temporary (21:5, 6). (8) The last week of Jesus physical life, people came early to the temple complex to hear Jesus teach (21:38). (9) Those who controlled the temple including its Jewish security force were among those who arrested Jesus (22:52, 53). The disciples [11 of the 12] continued in the temple praising God after Jesus ascended (24:53).
These things are mentioned by John: (1) Jesus cleansed the temple area (2:14-16). (2) Jesus talked to the man he healed at the pool of Bethesda in the temple area (5:14). (3) Jesus taught in the temple area (7:14, 28ff; 8:2, 20, 59; 10:23). (4) The arrested Jesus affirmed he taught publicly in synagogues and the temple (18:19, 20).
Acts documented the role the temple played in the life of the early Jewish Christians (all converts to Jesus Christ were Jewish in Acts 2-10). (1) The original converts visited the temple area daily (2:46). (2) The first recorded miracle performed by Christians was performed as Peter and John went into the temple area (3:1, 2). (3) The first arrest of Christians occurred because Peter and John were teaching in the temple area affirming Jesus was an example of resurrection (4:1-3). (5) When the arrested apostles were released by an angel, they were commanded to teach in the temple area, which they did (5:20, 21). (6) The apostles taught daily in the temple area (5:42).
There are numerous things to be remembered when seeing the involvement of Jewish Christian converts with the Jewish temple. (1) The temple, from the first, was a place of prayer (1 Kings 8:22-54). (2) If a devout Jew wished to be close to God, he or she went to the temple (Luke 2:25-32, 36-38). (3) Devotion to God expressed in the temple complex was NOT anti-God. There was no attempt of a devout Jew who was a Christian to rebel against God by going to the temple. (4) A person does not have to deny a culturally-approved way to approach the Father of Jesus Christ in order to be Christian. (5) God worked through Abraham to produce Israel. God worked through Israel to produce Jesus. God works through the resurrected Jesus to reach the world. See Gods work as an unfolding, not as disconnected segments.
Consider the enormous change for both Jewish and gentile Christians to understand that the Christian temple was not a geographical place with a structure, but the Christian temple was people who were in Jesus Christ , who placed their trust in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:16,17; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:19-21; 1 Peter 2:5-10). That was a radical change!
The transition from a geographical place containing Gods presence to a people with faith in Jesus Christ containing Gods presence is an enormous transition.
For Thought and Discussion
1. Discuss this: People, by Gods direction, recognized holy sites to be geographical sites.
The discussion should include an understanding that there were holy sites. Often this allowed people who lived in a world filled with idolatry to honor God in a way that was familiar in honoring gods.
2. Discuss Jesus physical association with Israels temple in Jerusalem.
Included in the discussion should be the understanding that Jesus had much contact with the temple. All Jewish people who were godly did.
3. Discuss the early converts association with the Jewish temple.
The discussion should include that Acts verified such contact happened.
4. What was a radical change for Christian converts?
The change from a holy site/building that contained Gods presence to a people who had faith in Jesus Christ containing Gods presence was a radical change.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 6