What does Tribe teach about knowing jesus?
Drawn from the messages 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 knowing Jesus starts with an honest question: is the picture of Jesus you have carried since childhood large enough to hold everything the Bible actually says about him? Brian has pressed this question by walking the congregation through John 7, showing that most Christians build their understanding of Jesus around the moment of belief in verse 31 while remaining unfamiliar with the noise and chaos surrounding it. Grumbling, accusations of fraud, fear, confusion, and angry crowds fill the same chapter. Brian's point is that a picture of Jesus built only around the belief moment will leave a person blindsided when faith gets hard.
Brian says, "We all know verse 31. We've all seen it. Few of us have seen the context in which verse 31 plays out." That narrowness, the teaching argues, is what produces a too-small wineskin. When Brian moved to Habakkuk 3 and read aloud the passages describing pestilence marching before Jesus and nations trembling at his return, he named the instinct many people have to skip those lines or call them metaphor. That instinct, he said, is exactly what happens when someone's picture of Jesus cannot stretch to hold the full biblical portrait of who he is.
The teaching also addresses what to do when Jesus feels hidden or hard to find. Brian has noted that God is often at work in ways that are not visible on the surface, and that Christians who only have eyes for the obvious moment of belief will miss what he is actually doing. As Brian put it, "He is working secretly, unknown to you. You may be looking for him in the midst of whatever it is that you're going through, not being able to see him." The call from these messages is to resist being distracted by surface-level events and opinions and instead press deeper, asking the Spirit to expand the congregation's understanding of who Jesus truly is.
Taught from John 7:31 · Habakkuk 3:3-6 · John 7:24 · John 3:16 · Psalm 2
“We all know verse 31. We've all seen it. Few of us have seen the context in which verse 31 plays out.”
From Look Beneath the Surface
The passage taught · Habakkuk 3:3-6
3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth.
4 His splendor is like the sunrise. Rays shine from his hand, where his power is hidden.
5 Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet.
6 He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- November 4, 2024 Look Beneath the Surface Brian Hunter preaches on looking beneath the surface of Jesus's nature, urging believers to build a faith big enough to hold all of who he is, not just the familiar parts.
- November 3, 2024 Look Beneath the Surface A Wyoming pastor walks through John 7 to challenge Christians to expand their picture of Jesus and stay grounded as national uncertainty grows.
Mentioned along the way
- April 19, 2026 Faith Under Pressure Brian Hunter walks through Acts 1:8 to show how the Holy Spirit empowers ordinary people to be faithful witnesses to a risen Jesus, no matter the pressure they face.