I had a troubling thought this week: Why is it that spending
copious amounts of time with Jesus had very little transformative effect on his disciples? They were with him day in and day out for three and a half years, watching him perform miracles, listening to him teach publicly and privately. They were by his side as he lived out his perfect life. They witnessed his communion with his father. They went on missionary journeys and performed miracles themselves. And yet, despite all of that, their thinking was Action/Consequence to the very end of Jesus’ time with them.
What do I mean by that? Action/Consequence is humanity’s natural, default way of thinking. It is me-centered; about what I do and what I expect to achieve or receive as a result. An Action/Consequence life is focused on seeking our own gratification, recognition, glory, honor and praise. As a result, we will view others as competitors and opponents. We compare and measure, judge, condemn and blame in an effort to magnify our own achievements and avoid any association with failure or personal disgrace. We do this to validate our existence; to generate our own worth. This world view is the one from which the disciples operated during their time with Jesus.
Throughout that time, the twelve disciples frequently argued and fought over who would be the greatest in Jesus’ earthly kingdom. The mother of James and John, two members of the trio with whom Jesus developed an even closer relationship than he had with the other nine, came to make the case for her sons to be his right and left hand men when he came into power. The other disciples were appalled and angry at the power-grab. Peter, the third member of the trio, after realizing that Jesus’ earthly Kingdom wasn’t about to be established after all, took the politically prudent route and disavowed any association with Jesus in an attempt to escape guilt by association. The rest of the disciples also fled.
After spending forty days with Jesus after his death and resurrection, literally seconds before they watched him disappear into the clouds, the disciples asked Jesus if he was finally ready to restore the kingdom to Israel. Even at this point, they were still thinking about Jesus in terms of his temporal impact on their lives and the world; that is, in terms of Action/Consequence.
My questions are, why were the disciples not changed by their extremely close relationship with Jesus? It seems obvious that they were changed later, but what made the difference?
As Jesus was approaching his death he began to speak more and more frequently about the Holy Spirit. In John 16 Jesus tells his disciples it is actually good that he is going to leave them, because, unless he does, the Counselor, Advocate, or Holy Spirit, will not come to them. He goes on to explain that there is much more he wants the disciples to understand, but that they are not ready. He tells them that the Spirit will guide them into all of the truth. He says that the Spirit will bring glory to him (Jesus) by taking from what belongs to him (Jesus) and making it known to them.
We also find that Jesus, during the forty days after his death and resurrection, commanded the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit. The final words he spoke to them, as he disappeared into the clouds, were regarding the fact that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them, and that then they would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. His point was that they were not to run off and try to talk to anyone about anything until the promised Holy Spirit came.
We know that, according to Acts chapter 2, this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came and filled them; and quite suddenly, those same disciples who had remained steadfastly Action/Consequence oriented throughout their entire time with Jesus, were miraculously given the ability by the Spirit to finally see everything they had experienced with Jesus for the last three and a half years through the brand new lens of Death/Resurrection; and that new perspective changed everything!
At last all of the dots were connected; dots the disciples were entirely incapable of connecting themselves. Only through the Death/Resurrection lens were they finally able to see who Jesus actually was, what he had come to do and why he had to do it; and when the sheer magnitude of it hit them, they could not keep quiet! They began immediately to shout the news from the roof tops. They were instantly witnesses who began to testify not only about the facts of what they had seen and heard, but what those things meant; and they told those who were listening that they too could receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he would then open their eyes and hearts so they would be able to understand the meaning as well.
Without the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit opening our minds to this unnatural Death/Resurrection way of thinking, no one would ever be able to comprehend the meaning behind who we are in relation to God [dead in our trespasses and sins], and what the only solution is to our condition [resurrection, through Jesus Christ our Lord], we would remain in the same blinded state as the disciples were prior to Pentecost.
Without that divinely given understanding of Death/Resurrection, we will even view the work of the Holy Spirit through the lens of Action/Consequence! We will believe that the Holy Spirit is given to us primarily to make us into good moral people whose exemplary behavior will shine a light into a darkened world; as if our good behavior could save anyone! Only Jesus' good behavior is able to save, and not because we emulate it, but because his obedience is credited to our account.
The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to bring glory, not to us, but to Jesus, by taking what belongs to him and making it known to us. (John 16:14) It is only as the Holy Spirit graciously reveals to us, day by day and minute by minute, the truth of what God has done for us through the life, death and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ, that we begin to be transformed by the renewing of our Action/Consequence saturated minds.
What do I mean by that? Action/Consequence is humanity’s natural, default way of thinking. It is me-centered; about what I do and what I expect to achieve or receive as a result. An Action/Consequence life is focused on seeking our own gratification, recognition, glory, honor and praise. As a result, we will view others as competitors and opponents. We compare and measure, judge, condemn and blame in an effort to magnify our own achievements and avoid any association with failure or personal disgrace. We do this to validate our existence; to generate our own worth. This world view is the one from which the disciples operated during their time with Jesus.
Throughout that time, the twelve disciples frequently argued and fought over who would be the greatest in Jesus’ earthly kingdom. The mother of James and John, two members of the trio with whom Jesus developed an even closer relationship than he had with the other nine, came to make the case for her sons to be his right and left hand men when he came into power. The other disciples were appalled and angry at the power-grab. Peter, the third member of the trio, after realizing that Jesus’ earthly Kingdom wasn’t about to be established after all, took the politically prudent route and disavowed any association with Jesus in an attempt to escape guilt by association. The rest of the disciples also fled.
After spending forty days with Jesus after his death and resurrection, literally seconds before they watched him disappear into the clouds, the disciples asked Jesus if he was finally ready to restore the kingdom to Israel. Even at this point, they were still thinking about Jesus in terms of his temporal impact on their lives and the world; that is, in terms of Action/Consequence.
My questions are, why were the disciples not changed by their extremely close relationship with Jesus? It seems obvious that they were changed later, but what made the difference?
As Jesus was approaching his death he began to speak more and more frequently about the Holy Spirit. In John 16 Jesus tells his disciples it is actually good that he is going to leave them, because, unless he does, the Counselor, Advocate, or Holy Spirit, will not come to them. He goes on to explain that there is much more he wants the disciples to understand, but that they are not ready. He tells them that the Spirit will guide them into all of the truth. He says that the Spirit will bring glory to him (Jesus) by taking from what belongs to him (Jesus) and making it known to them.
We also find that Jesus, during the forty days after his death and resurrection, commanded the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit. The final words he spoke to them, as he disappeared into the clouds, were regarding the fact that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them, and that then they would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. His point was that they were not to run off and try to talk to anyone about anything until the promised Holy Spirit came.
We know that, according to Acts chapter 2, this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came and filled them; and quite suddenly, those same disciples who had remained steadfastly Action/Consequence oriented throughout their entire time with Jesus, were miraculously given the ability by the Spirit to finally see everything they had experienced with Jesus for the last three and a half years through the brand new lens of Death/Resurrection; and that new perspective changed everything!
At last all of the dots were connected; dots the disciples were entirely incapable of connecting themselves. Only through the Death/Resurrection lens were they finally able to see who Jesus actually was, what he had come to do and why he had to do it; and when the sheer magnitude of it hit them, they could not keep quiet! They began immediately to shout the news from the roof tops. They were instantly witnesses who began to testify not only about the facts of what they had seen and heard, but what those things meant; and they told those who were listening that they too could receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he would then open their eyes and hearts so they would be able to understand the meaning as well.
Without the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit opening our minds to this unnatural Death/Resurrection way of thinking, no one would ever be able to comprehend the meaning behind who we are in relation to God [dead in our trespasses and sins], and what the only solution is to our condition [resurrection, through Jesus Christ our Lord], we would remain in the same blinded state as the disciples were prior to Pentecost.
Without that divinely given understanding of Death/Resurrection, we will even view the work of the Holy Spirit through the lens of Action/Consequence! We will believe that the Holy Spirit is given to us primarily to make us into good moral people whose exemplary behavior will shine a light into a darkened world; as if our good behavior could save anyone! Only Jesus' good behavior is able to save, and not because we emulate it, but because his obedience is credited to our account.
The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to bring glory, not to us, but to Jesus, by taking what belongs to him and making it known to us. (John 16:14) It is only as the Holy Spirit graciously reveals to us, day by day and minute by minute, the truth of what God has done for us through the life, death and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ, that we begin to be transformed by the renewing of our Action/Consequence saturated minds.
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