What does Tribe teach about responding to 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 responding to Jesus starts with a simple but uncomfortable observation: the disciples and the Pharisees in Matthew 12 had nearly everything in common. Both groups were in the grain fields with Jesus, both heard him speak, both walked into the synagogue, both watched a man's withered hand get healed, and both heard Jesus teach again. Same proximity, same words, same miracle, and yet one group left satisfied and the other left plotting murder. Brian's point is that proximity to Jesus does not explain the difference. Posture does.
To name what that difference actually is, Brian draws on 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, where Paul describes the knowledge of Christ as a fragrance that smells like life to those being saved and like death to those who are perishing. The smell is the same for everyone. What changes is who you are and what you are oriented toward. A hard heart, Brian says, is not a passive thing. It actively works against Jesus, and treating him as a decent historical figure while withholding surrender is not a neutral third option. As Brian puts it, "You are fooling yourself if you think that you can have a neutral reaction to Jesus."
He presses that point home with Matthew 21:44, where Jesus says that whoever stumbles over the stone will be broken to pieces, and that the stone will crush anyone it falls on. Brian held that verse up and asked the room to find a third option in it. His answer is that there is none. You either fall on Jesus willingly and are broken and rebuilt, or he eventually falls on you. The only real question, Brian says, is which direction you fall.
Taught from Matthew 12:1-14 · Matthew 21:44 · 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 · Hosea 6:6 · Luke 21:1-4
“You are fooling yourself if you think that you can have a neutral reaction to Jesus.”
From Smell Something
The passage taught · 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
14 Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.
15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish;
16 to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- January 27, 2025 Smell Something Brian Hunter preaches on Matthew 12, asking why two groups witnessed the same Jesus and walked away so differently, and why there is no neutral response to him.
- January 26, 2025 Shhhh! Smell Something? Brian Hunter walks through Matthew 12 to show why two groups can witness the same miracle and walk away with opposite reactions to Jesus, and why neutrality is not an option.