What does Tribe teach about encountering jesus?
Drawn from the message where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on encountering Jesus starts with a simple and uncomfortable observation: it is possible to be so fixed on what Jesus did in the past that you miss what He is doing right now. Pastor Brian opened 2024 with the walk to Emmaus in Luke 24, where two disciples were leaving Jerusalem, describing Jesus entirely in the past tense. Every verb was past tense. Their grief had frozen their picture of Him at the tomb, and they were walking away from the very city where the resurrection had just upended everything. Brian's word for them, and for anyone in the same posture, was direct: don't miss what is because you are stuck in the what was.
Brian pointed out that Jesus did not force the encounter. He walked with the two disciples without being recognized, asked questions He already knew the answers to, and even acted as though He would continue past them. The teaching here is that Jesus is looking for hunger. He will not impose Himself where there is no invitation. When the disciples begged Him to stay, He went in with them, broke bread, and their eyes were opened. The encounter became possible only when they stopped retreating and asked Him to remain.
The broader picture Brian drew was of people who, when hope runs dry and things get complicated, tend to move toward comfort and check out. He noted that the human pattern of retreating to what requires the least from us is exactly what these disciples were doing, and Jesus deliberately disrupted it. He had to disrupt that pattern, their tendency to move towards comfort. For anyone carrying the weight of a hard season into something new, the teaching at Tribe is that the past, however heavy, does not have to define what comes next. The invitation is to pay attention to what Jesus is doing now.
Taught from Luke 24:13-31 · Matthew 27:51-54 · John 2:19-22 · 2 Kings 6 · Psalm 11:3
“Don't miss what is because you are stuck in the what was.”
From Leave the Past Behind You
The passage taught · 2 Kings 6
1 The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See now, the place where we live and meet with you is too small for us.
2 Please let us go to the Jordan, and each man take a beam from there, and let us make us a place there, where we may live.” He answered, “Go!”
3 One said, “Please be pleased to go with your servants.” He answered, “I will go.”
4 So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- January 8, 2024 Leave the Past Behind You Brian Hunter walks through Luke 24 and the road to Emmaus, asking one question: are you so stuck in what was that you are missing what Jesus is doing right now?