The Worthiness of Jesus

Mark 1:22 NIV

The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

What Do You Think of Jesus?

I make it a regular practice of weighing myself on our bathroom scale.  Recently it started indicating that I weighed 120 pounds, 17 pounds and 3.8 pounds.  Now I am more than glad to lose weight but that was a bit extreme and so I changed the batteries but it continued to give me similar readings.  Why it was so important to me to know precisely how much I weighed as if where my belt notched did not give me all the information I needed, I can’t say.  Maybe it is a mild form of masochism; perhaps I needed a fresh dose of bad news each day.  I was determined to get an accurate measure of my weight though, so much so that I bought a new scale.  I was very happy to read that with the new scale, I apparently had lost 75 pounds.  Unfortunately, my belt told me that could not be the case.  Off I went back to the store to return my new scale so that I could have an accurate measure of one important area that I judged myself.

One of the characteristics of being human is that we regularly measure not only ourselves but more often others on a wide range of scales.  Is he smart?  Is she unsophisticated?  Is he creative?  Is she strong willed?  What is she really?  Talented?  Funny?  Depressed?  A good conversationalist?  Honest?  Caring?  Egotistical?  Full of love?  When it comes to Jesus, there is perhaps no one in history who has been categorized as often.  Yet, what do we really know about Him?  If you were hanging out with Jesus at Starbucks, what sort of impression would He leave you?  He was a carpenter and perhaps poor.  Would that be what struck you?  Would you have considered Him charismatic or witty or quiet and thoughtful?  Today we will consider just one aspect of Jesus and that will be His mind.

Early in Jesus’ life He famously camped out in the Temple of Jerusalem for perhaps an entire week and met with the Jewish teachers there.  Luke described Jesus’ conversations with the teachers as being eye-opening for all who were a part of the discussions.  Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.  When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.  After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.  Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.  When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.  After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. (Luke 2:41-47 NIV)  Clearly, Jesus was a mentally sharp young man who gave great thought to the Scriptures and had a well-organized mind.  The best teachers in all of Israel were at the Temple and they were impressed by Jesus’ thinking.

Nearly two decades later Jesus taught on a hillside and a large crowd came to hear what He had to say.  This extended teaching session became later known as the “Sermon on the Mount”.  At the time, Jesus’ fame was growing but not many yet had heard Him speak.  When He got finished, the crowd was in awe of what they heard.  When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (Matthew 7:28-29 NIV)  No one, as far as we can tell from ancient writings, came close to Jesus’ insight into ethics and moral decision-making.  His teaching that day was pure genius.  Like the crowds, we too are amazed by how He interpreted Scripture and the way He presented a complete approach to life.

The Gospel of John gives a similar assessment of Jesus’ effect on others.  Temple guards who had been sent by the priests to arrest Jesus were not psychologically prepared for the task.  Their “mistake” was they took the time to listen to Him preach.  When Jesus finished, rather than arrest Him, they returned to the priests with genuine awe at what they heard and reverence for the one who delivered the message.  When asked why they had not seized Him, their response was not what the priests expected.  "No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards declared. (John 7:46 NIV)  The Pharisees who had sent them were not impressed by the guards’ assessment of Jesus’ sermon.  Certainly we can guess that the guards themselves were not expecting to come away as captivated by Jesus’ words as they were.  The guards were not “spiritual groupies”.  They were full-blown skeptics who found Jesus’ mind captivating.

There is a fascinating response of Jesus in Matthew 22 to those who did not believe in a resurrection from the dead. The ones who argued against a resurrection were influential and no one had been able to refute them because they refused to turn to anything other than the first five books in the Bible as authoritative on the matter.  Bible scholars at the time who believed in the resurrection could not find a scintilla of evidence for it in Genesis to Deuteronomy.  Jesus however quoted from Exodus God’s arresting call to Moses at the burning bush as proof of life after death.  But about the resurrection of the dead — have you not read what God said to you, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."  When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. (Matthew 22:31-33 NIV)  And why not?  Who would have ever considered such an argument as that?  Jesus did though.

Let us look at one final example of Jesus’ mind at work.  John 8 is the explosive account of Jesus being brought the woman caught in adultery.  The background of this is fascinating.  The text in the Greek indicates that the woman had been caught in the very act of adultery; as she and her “lover” were in bed.  To catch them so, especially given the very delicate circumstance of committing adultery and not wanting to be caught indicates that somehow the Jewish leaders who brought her to Jesus knew in advance what the pair were about to do and where.  At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.  But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.  When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  (John 8:2-7 NIV)

If we strip away all the maneuvering of the teachers of the Law to get Jesus to say something that could land Him in trouble with Roman authorities for promoting an execution or cause Him to lose face with the Jewish crowds who would rebel against Jesus allowing for sexual immorality, we come to these two primary aspects of this report.  First, are we not impressed with Jesus’ shrewdness to give permission to whoever was without sin to begin the stoning of the woman!  Not a man in the crowd dared say he was sinless.  What sort of great mind is able to turn the tables on a crowd out for blood?  It is simply spectacular how quickly Jesus thought of a solution to the dilemma He faced.

Let us though turn to the second revelation we have in this passage of Jesus’ mind.  At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.  Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"  "No one, sir," she said.  "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 8:9-11 NIV)  What is most illuminating in Jesus’ response to the woman is how Jesus’ mind worked.  Mercy saturated His thinking and His decision-making.  If He was going to have to choose between condemning someone and being merciful, He decided upon mercy.  He made this clear in the Sermon on the Mount.  Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:7 NIV)  That is how Jesus thinks.  I will be merciful.  I could criticize.  I could judge.  I could condemn and be justified in blowing up a person’s life for what she has done.  That though is not how I think.  I will be merciful.  What about us?  How do we think?  Will our first choice be mercy?    Will we think like Jesus?  Will we give up our right to judge and criticize and condemn and like our Savior, be happy to show mercy?  What kind of world might we have if just Christian people (we won’t concern ourselves with any other sorts of people) would live by this one approach to life, “If I will err, I will err on the side of mercy.”

Spirit Intelligence

Romans 8:9 NIV

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

What Is Your Spirit IQ?

One of the great questions in the field of psychology has to do with intelligence.  What is intelligence?  Is it the ability to solve problems, how quick you think, your verbal skills, your creativity?  Do you have to be great at math to be considered intelligent or able to grasp spacial relations?  Are you intelligent if you have a great memory or are smart people forgetful?  How important is intelligence anyway?  Does it make you a happier person?

The Bible is adamant that intelligence is important but it takes a unique stance on it.  Psalm 53 gives us a measure or a standard of intelligence rarely considered but it is crucial for us to consider.  The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."  They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.  God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. (Psalm 53: 1-2 NIV)  Perhaps we could call this “moral intelligence”” or “spiritual thinking”.  It is easy to discredit spiritual thinking by calling it impractical or just something religious people think about but it is anything but impractical.  Spiritual thinking is the most practical way of understanding intelligence because it is universal in its scope.  Spiritual thinking demands that all of our thoughts must run through the Holy Spirit or else it always comes up short.  Without God in our figuring and evaluating, we lack the most critical component of thinking, the mind that is behind the life of every mind in all creation.  It is like trying to decide what would be best to wear outside without any idea what the weather is.  In Russia yesterday it was cold and rainy despite being the middle of July.  How smart would it be to go traipsing outside there in shorts and a light blouse?  Spiritual thinking gives us the ability to think with facts unavailable to the mind without God.

Let me give an illustration of the importance of spiritual thinking from an event described in Mark 4.  Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat when a great storm arose on the Sea of Galilee.   The panicked disciples, several of whom were seasoned sailors, shook Jesus awake when it looked like they all might drown.  Quickly Jesus reacted to the storm.  He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. (Mark 4:39 NIV)  Without God, the mind is chaotic, wild, unpredictable.  After Jesus quieted the elements, the disciples were amazed that even the wind and waves obey Him.  When the Holy Spirit enters a mind, it gains a freedom it did not possess before.  The mind can see things clearly without the wild nature it once had.  What it never noticed because it was too spasmodic to comprehend, the mind can grasp with the Holy Spirit as part of the thinking process.  Important details are processed with spiritual thinking that go unnoticed or are unattainable for the mind without the Holy Spirit directing the elements of our thinking.

The Lord told a story that helps us get a handle on spiritual thinking. There were ten virgins, all pledged to be married to a single man.  The wedding was delayed though because the groom had to be away for a while.  But when he returned, the wedding would begin.  Part of the ceremony was to have lamps ready and lit when the groom arrived.  Without them, they could not participate in the wedding.  Five of (the virgins) were foolish and five were wise.  The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.  The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.  The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. "At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'  "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.  The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'  "'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'  "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.  "Later the others also came.  'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'  "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' (Matthew 25:2-12 NIV)

What was the difference between the two groups of virgins?  All of the virgins had the same information available to them that they had to have their lamps lit when the groom arrived.  What separated the groups was the way each group processed that information.  At the time when they all fell asleep waiting for the groom and even before that, the five of the virgins thought it did not matter how much oil they kept with them.  The other five with varying degrees of urgency believed it was best to have extra oil for this crucial night.  The first group, the group without extra oil provides a clear picture of the chaotic mind, the mind without God working through the thinking.  They did not think far enough or process the information they had with enough clarity to avoid being kept out of their wedding.  The second group had spiritual thinking at work and although they may not have known why they needed to have extra oil, they took the information they had of the coming wedding and made sure they kept with them extra oil.  The second group of virgins thought in a different way than the first group of virgins and the way each group thought was critical…life altering.

There are key moments, and we never know when they will come and rarely know their importance at the time, when we need a higher intelligence, a smarter way of thinking and that is spiritual thinking.  When Jesus came across a man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years, the man had no idea the importance of that day.  But then when Jesus healed him, he started to see God’s hand upon him but because he lacked spiritual thinking, he could not process the data correctly.  For some reason, the man did not even pay attention to who Jesus Christ was, did not bother noticing even the slightest bit of information about Him.  When the Jewish authorities found the man carrying his begging mat that day and it happened to be the Sabbath with its regulations against carrying such mats on that day, he was asked why he was violating the Sabbath.  (H)e replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" (John 5:11 NIV)  When the Pharisees demanded to know who told him to pick up his mat, the man did not know.  Of course it seems odd to us that this fellow did not even know the name of the one who healed him of his thirty-eight year disability but that is the sort of thing that happens when we lack spiritual thinking.  We aren’t able to process the data we have coherently so that it makes sense for what is important.  Later, Jesus met up with the man and told him to stop sinning or else something worse would happen to Him.  What that something worse was, the man never bothered to try and discover.  Instead he just ignored Jesus’ warning and went on with his life.  Without the power of God working through our thinking, we become arbitrary in our actions, disordered and unable to make sense of the most important factors we encounter.  Spiritual thinking allows us to see and think about what is most important and how to understand what we see.

When the rich young ruler who met up with Jesus as described in Luke 18, was told that if he wanted to inherit eternal life, he had to sell what he had, give it to the poor and follow Jesus, he mentally collapsed at the words.  He could not process how important it was to leave behind his wealth if he was to have a happier and more joyful life that could never be ruined by circumstances or even by death.  Jesus was not good enough for him and that was because of the inability he had to utilize spiritual thinking.  Zacchaeus on the other hand without even having to be told, as soon as he met Jesus, realized that he had to pay back everyone he cheated four times over and give up half of all of his possessions to the poor if he was to be happy.  You cannot be talked into such a decision.  Who willingly would do such a thing with a glad heart?  It is not logical in any way unless of course you process it using spiritual thinking.  Of the two men, who made the smart decision?  The rich young ruler met Jesus, looked carefully at him with all his mental acuity and decided it was best to hold on to his wealth.  Zacchaeus used the same mental skills as the rich ruler but added to it was spiritual thinking, and he decided to give away his wealth.  One famously went away sorrowfully.  The other was joyful in his decision.  Spiritual thinking determined the quality of life each gained.

There are two parts to spiritual thinking.  The first is a determination that the Bible is the ultimate authority in our decision making.  If this is not decided, we will be unclear in our thinking and unable to process rightly what we face.  Who knows what to think of the person who gossips about us at work?  The Bible gives a clear answer.  Who knows how to respond to being unemployed?  The Bible tells us.  Who knows what we should do if we can’t stand our neighbor?  The Bible has a plan for that.  The Bible has an answer for every moral decision we face.  The second part of spiritual thinking is that it thrives off a craving that borders on desperation for the Lord to direct us in an ever growing way.  To develop spiritual thinking, we must be eager to be led by God.  For us, it is a sort of Promised Land.  We can stand on the edge of spiritual thinking like the rich ruler of Luke 18 and watch as others enter into a joyful and intelligently peaceful life or we can enter in and be like Zacchaeus, glad beyond measure to be with Jesus.  Others may not think much of the decisions you make but you will know, as you let the Bible and the Spirit of God dominate your thinking, that you have a better life than they can ever imagine.

Living by the Moment

The danger for the Christian is not that he or she might fall into terrible sin.  It is that the comfort of one’s own goodness and intelligence is enough to get along.  Great sin creates a rush of horror and it wrecks the personal confidence one has.  It is then that the Shepherd is known intimately to be good.  Experientially the blood of Christ must work its way through and through until the love of God is certain.  Before then it seems a fantasy, this mercy of God, this dependence upon Christ for everything.  We have life worked out, we are pretty good, our job may not be perfect but it pays the bills, our loves aren’t always agreeable but they keep us warm and responsible.  Yet this is a sham; fool’s gold.  We are dead in our sins and hopeless without Christ.  It is not damaged goods but utter wreckage we have and that great need we faced when we were lost in our sin has not diminished a whit since we came to Christ and were born again.  We need Him just as much now as that spot of time we faced ourselves fully and saw the hatred and filth and hopelessness and cried out to God for a Savior.  God has not called us to succeed.  He has brought us into complete immersion in the life of Christ that we might fully live in Him.  Are we to pray by the day or the week?  It is moment by moment that we need our Lord and it is in those moments that we succeed at the point of His call.  Why do we become satisfied with the ebb and flow of Holy Spirit living when we can be living on the mighty Mississippi of filling?  Certainly we can act as if it doesn’t matter whether or not we are in union with Christ at any given moment of the day but it is sheer arrogance to think we have enough of God to function well.  What does it take to make us see our need?  A fierce burst of anger, a jealous rage, a wicked spell of depression, a broken heart, the flaring fear of loss, a dirty little mind that feeds off lust, a swelling loneliness that public places exacerbate; what makes us pause long enough seek out our Savior?  There is a gate that is wide as Kansas and it takes us into the far away country where everything is plastic and full of selfies.  But there also is a narrow way where we are never alone and we can live with the Glorious Christ who loves and nourishes our souls and who massages our troubled minds with tender hands.  Can you pause just long enough to gaze into the mind of your Savior?  Do you need to take time with Jesus?

To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  Revelation 21:6 NIV

I Get It! Introduction

“I Get It”

1 Corinthians 1: 18-25 GJW
18 For the word of the Cross to the ones being destroyed is foolishness but to the ones continually being saved, to you, it is the power of God. 19 For it has been written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise ones and the intelligence of the intelligent, I will push out of the way.” 20 Where is the wise one, where is the learned one, where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For in as much as in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God took pleasure through the foolishness of the proclamation to save the ones believing. 22 And in as much as the Jews demand a sign and the Gentiles seek wisdom, 23 we on the other hand, we proclaim Christ having been crucified…to the Jews it is a stumbling block, to the Gentiles moronic. 24 But to the called ones, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the stupidity of God is wiser than (the wisdom) of man and the weakness of God is stronger than (the strength) of men.


The “ah hah!” experience is famous in psychology as the moment when suddenly you get it; when your eyes open to what you never understood before, when your brain synapses all at once fire into inspiration mode. We’ve all had something like this happen to us; maybe not as world changing as the Wright Brothers suddenly knowing what was wrong with their airplane design or Thomas Edison realizing what he needed to do to correct his first light bulb but our ah-hahs are pretty important to us. You remember where you put your brush. Ah-hah! You think of your friend’s daughter’s name. Ah-hah! Inspiration comes for fixing your car’s carburetor. Ah-hah!

Recently I have been bemused by the “ah-ha” so many in the political world seem to be having about Jesus. The slogan that has sprung up recently as an “ah-hah” of sorts is that Jesus was a community organizer. Listening to a conservative talk-show, I was floored by the ah-hahs bandied around regarding Christ. A caller, decrying the slogan of Jesus being a community organizer told the host that Jesus was most certainly not a community organizer; he was a “teacher”. Now, as soon as the caller made his point, the host immediately corrected him. “Oh no” he expounded, “Jesus was not a teacher, he was truth”. That is what the Bible tells us about him and what Christians believe. So that was it. Three ah-hahs! Jesus was a community organizer, Jesus was a teacher, Jesus was truth. Honestly, I cannot find fault with any of the ones who thought they could define Jesus as they did. They each based their impressions on what they thought they had figured out and normally that is good enough. The trouble with Jesus is that your ah-hah will never be adequate…for that matter an ‘ah-hah can be your most fatal mistake when it comes to Him. Jesus is not an explanation, a definition nor even a biography. But to know Him is an impossible task if you rely just upon your common sense.

There are two types of understanding. The first is a natural wisdom, a common sense intelligence that everyone possesses to some degree or another. It takes things in and then makes decisions based on experiences, impressions and influencers. The ah-hah for natural wisdom is the result of mental synthesis, putting it all together and then the brain remaking what is there into an understanding. We operate out of this in practically every area of life. We discipline our kids based on it, choose careers based on it, form friendships and develop opinions through natural wisdom. For most people, that is all they know. We may see Gorillas using sign language to ask for water but you will never hear of one writing a book about family relations or discussing the grief process because it is not possible for them. Natural wisdom is all the wisdom the world has and so it cannot be charged with ignorance for being unable to go beyond it. Paul insists there is a wisdom that rises above natural wisdom just as distinctively as the wisdom of man soars above the understanding of a gorilla.
To Be Continued