Understanding: Last week we read the account of Jesus turning water into wine. This was the first miracle that Jesus performed and in doing so he had revealed his glory. Although Jesus performs miracles, his Glory is still hidden from those who either haven’t witnessed one or who choose not to believe he is God.
In this passage we see Jesus clearing the temple and making the outrageous claim that those selling animals and changing money had turned his Father’s house into a market. Jesus saw this as an abuse of the temple – this was a place where Gentiles should have been able to worship but they couldn’t as it had been turned into a market of convenience for those who wished to purchase animals for sacrifice. The money changers were hiding the glory of God by occupying a place of prayer. Incidentally, by his statements and actions Jesus was again claiming to be God’s son.
Application: Those turning up at the Temple in Jerusalem could be seen as going through a ritual without making it an act of worship or sacrifice. It is possible for our worship time on a Sunday to be effectively a 'front led performance' with a crowd of spectators who evaluate how good it is. This is so far from what corporate worship is meant to be that Jesus might well want to turn over the tables in one of our meetings if they got into that sort of state!
Q. Do you ever feel like a 'spectator' in worship?
Q. God is worthy of all our praise ... what does that mean in practice on a cell group evening or on a Sunday?
Q. How do you prepare yourself for worship before you get to the meeting? [1 Corinthians 14:26]
It is also possible that issues of faith can affect how much we are able to be involved in worship for example, if you are not sure whether you have a 'relationship with God' then that would makes things pretyy hard!
Q. How do you think you are doing in your 'relationship with God'?
The whole purpose of these notes is to help us grow in our ability to worship God together and to help us improve in some of the areas where we may feel weak. Some people may find these questions very basic, essentially because they have a healthy walk with the Lord ... other people may find them very uncomfortable simply because they are struggling to make sense of their 'relationship with God'. Your job tonight is to encourage people to be honest and to work through these things. For some people, one evening is not going to sort it all out! If you find somebody is really struggling with some aspects of this, talk about it with your cell overseer.
