What does Tribe teach about heart vs head knowledge?
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 heart versus head knowledge starts with a simple observation: the disciples and the Pharisees in Matthew 12 had identical experiences. Same grain field, same words from Jesus, same synagogue, same healing, same teaching. And yet one group walked away free and the other walked away murderous. Brian has pressed on that contrast to show that proximity to Jesus and knowledge about Jesus are not the same thing as a posture toward him.
The frame Brian reaches for is 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, where Paul describes the message of Christ as a fragrance that smells like life to those being saved and like death to those who are perishing. The same truth, the same encounter, lands completely differently depending on who you are and what you are oriented toward. Head knowledge, in this teaching, is knowing the smell is there. Heart knowledge is whether it reads as life or death to you. A hard heart is not passive ignorance, Brian argues. It actively works against Jesus, and someone who treats him as a decent historical figure while withholding surrender is on the same road the Pharisees were on, just moving more slowly.
That is why Brian says, "You are fooling yourself if you think that you can have a neutral reaction to Jesus." He held up Matthew 21:44, where Jesus says the stone will break anyone who stumbles on it and crush anyone it falls on, and asked the room to find a third option in that verse. His answer was that there is none. The only real question is which direction you fall. Falling on Jesus willingly means being broken and rebuilt on his terms. The alternative is not safety or neutrality. Brian frames the whole thing this way: standing at the end of your life before a holy God, the only question is what did you do with his son.
Taught from Matthew 12:1-14 · 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 · Matthew 21:44 · 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.