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Adventist Sabbath School Lesson

Sabbath June 20, 2015

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, O Mighty City


Leading Question: What strikes you most about Jesus' last week in Jerusalem? Is it the unrelenting hostility of the Jewish religious establishment; the disciples' failure to really see the picture of who Jesus really was; the fickleness of the common people?

Facing death: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” Could you be resolute as you approach your death? What advantage is there to knowing the time and the place where we will die?

Hosanna! People power! Many people were on their way to the city to keep the Passover, and these joined the multitude attending Jesus. The crowd shouted joyfully and noisily. The dignitaries of the temple are dumb with astonishment. Amidst all this celebration, why was Jesus was weeping? Was Jesus just an emotional person? The Bible records Jesus crying a least twice, both in public. Hebrews 5:7 suggests other occasions as well.

The people, chief priests and leaders of Jerusalem were blinded by their traditions and failed to recognize the coming of JesusHe wept over their condition and their impending fate. Not even the disciples understood.

The Temple visit: Luke tells us that Jesus was "driving out" those who were selling, and Matthew tells us that He was turning tables and benches upside down. He declares the temple to be a “house of prayer” and not a “den of robbers”. The outer court of the temple, a place for the instruction of Gentiles, had become a market place. What might Jesus say to our church today if he were to visit? Is it primarily a place of prayer? Should it be?

“The courts of the temple at Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart, defiled by the presence of sensual passion and unholy thoughts. In cleansing the temple from the world's buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin,- -from the earthly desires, the selfish lusts, the evil habits, that corrupt the soul.” {DA 161.1}

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