Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 3
Using the Artemis temple in Ephesus, the speaker says temples give outsiders an “impression” of what the god is like and invite them into what matters to that god; if your local church were a “temple” that made God visible, what “impression” would your shared life currently give, and what would need to change for people to honestly say, “Jesus has the answer to our problems”?
Another way to ask: If your church life showed people what God is like, what “impression” would it give right now? What would need to change for people to honestly say, “Jesus has the answer to our problems”?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The transcript suggests a church “temple” should give outsiders an impression of God’s goodness through how believers live together—truthful, reconciled, generous, and building each other up. For people to say, “Jesus has the answer,” the church must become a visible, practical demonstration of Jesus’ way of life rather than a group that tears itself down.
- The Artemis temple made people “get an impression…experience what she was about and joined in the activity about the things that were important to her.”
- Likewise, God wants a people “that the way we act and the way we live together, people can see God.”
- The speaker’s stated goal: relate as a church so that “people look at us and say, ‘Jesus has the answer to our problems.’”
- The practical “temple-building” instructions include: “putting away lying…speak truth,” resolve anger quickly (“do not let the sun go down”), work so you can “give,” and speak words that “edify” and “impart grace.”
- He warns that corrupt speech and unresolved anger “destroy the body” and create division.