Flipping Tables

Didn’t See That Coming, Pt. 1

Every time we gather as a group, these are some ways we ensure the best group discussion:

• We make the circle safe by staying honest and transparent - leave the masks at the door.

• We keep it inside the circle. Each person’s story is theirs alone to share.

• We look to the Bible for wisdom and truth, and work together to let it shape how we see the world.

• We don’t try to fix each other in front of each other or give unsolicited advice. We lovingly save hard conversations for private moments.

• We respect each others’ time by starting and ending when we say we will.

• We believe that in Jesus Christ, there is hope for everyone.

Matthew 21:12-13

“Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves.  “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’  

Ephesians 4:26

“In your anger do not sin”

What made Jesus mad?

• Legalism

• Judgmentalism

• Hypocrisy

• Indifference to need

• Denied access to God’s love

Matthew 23:13

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”

Isaiah 56:7-8

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
    a house of prayer for all nations.”
The Sovereign Lord declares—
    he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
    besides those already gathered.”

Matthew 27:50-51

“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split…”

What tables would Jesus overturn in your heart?

What’s your response to Jesus inviting you in?

Start with M.U.D.
Memorable + Understandable + Doable

• What was the most memorable part of the message or service this weekend for you personally? Why?

• Did anything you heard challenge or influence how you think about God or your life?

• How can what you learned influence or change how you live in everyday life? What tangible steps would it take to make that change a reality?

Additional Questions

As you’ve learned about Jesus throughout your life, what has surprised you? What stories or truths in the Bible were different than you expected or heard?

Jesus is clearly angry when he flips the money-changers’ tables in the temple, and for good reason. Paul also tells the Ephesians, “In your anger, do not sin.”

• What have you been taught about anger throughout your life? How do these two examples challenge, confirm, or confuse what you’ve learned about anger’s role in your life?

• How does it make you feel to think about an angry Jesus that calls people “broods of vipers, whitewashed tombs, and sons of hell?”

Jodi said that there were a few clear things that made Jesus MAD: legalism, judgmentalism, hypocrisy, and indifference to need. The problem with all of them is that they deny people access to God’s love.

• How have these hurt you? Have you been denied access to God’s love?

• Do these things make YOU angry like they do Jesus?

  • If so…

    • Can you identify some deeper emotions that are presenting as anger? Use this Emotion Wheel to work back from anger and see what resonates →

    • What do you do with that anger? How do you channel it in a healthy way so you don’t sin in your anger, but do flip tables that Jesus would flip?

  • If not…

    • Why do you think that is? Could you be avoiding the pain of the injustices that make Jesus mad? Could you be concerned that you actually play a part in the things that deny access to God’s love?

    • What might it look like to pray for or seek out some of Jesus’ righteous anger? What help or guidance would you need to do that?

Jodi challenged us to ask this question: What tables would Jesus overturn in your heart? We are now the “temple of God” (1 Cor. 3:16), and we aren’t called to be bouncers. We are called to be door holders.

• What “kind of people” frustrate, disgust, irritate, or feel absolutely “other” to you? Who do you want to keep in the outer courts of your life? Who is most challenging for you to love?

• What might be your responsibility to them? What kind of person would see you as a bouncer instead of a door holder - and how can you change that?

Jodi challenged us to another question: What’s your response to Jesus inviting you in?

• What recurring thoughts, actions, or memories tempt you to think that you’re not allowed in - that Jesus doesn’t want you?

• What truth of God speaks against that temptation and reassures you of His love for you?