Watch
Listen
Click here to listen to the episode on our website
Read
Maximum Perception
Have you ever wondered about being a Christian and having it be like super easy and that doesn't make sense to you? And as you look into different parts of Christianity because of all the different things being told, you kind of get this blurry vision? Well, I want to talk about that today in a message entitled Maximum Perception.
What Is Maximum Perception?
Maximum perception - the meaning is kind of a depth of understanding kind of thing, and I really feel that we need a refresher today in diving deep, getting focused, getting zoomed in. I want the skies to clear so we can see the road we are driving on clearly.
Now those of us from the north, we know that there are some major nasty blizzards we've had to deal with. And sometimes you're driving, you can't see clearly. One time I drove a rear-wheel drive sport old sports car from St. Cloud to Fergus Falls, Minnesota with a bad heater issue. So it's a normal hour and 20 minute drive. It took over 4 hours. It was constant foggy windshield, snow going sideways, like driving with your hair on fire at 20 miles an hour. It was crazy.
And I feel like our days trying to walk the narrow path with Jesus can get sketchy at times. Much like that drive, we get there so to speak, but it happens slower and harder than it should be. So what can help us? Maximum perception - not just to be our best but to actually survive and continue honoring Jesus on the narrow road.
See, God's promises are so incredible and so often it makes sense to refresh especially when things get blurry. It's a depth of understanding kind of thing. Not that you've never heard this before, but maybe it'll help you see clearly or fully if your eyes have fogged up a little bit.
Either way, here's the point: The more perception we have can increase in spiritual matters and our walk with Jesus, the better we will be for kingdom purposes and for our own sanctification. That's the point. So today I want to look at four things deeper so you can see that our walk with Christ and our walk together in a sharper color and a sharper contrast.
1. The Road Is Narrow
It starts with the fact that many folks have done a disservice to the overall message of who Jesus Christ is. What am I talking about? I'm talking about taking the greatest person, fully God fully man, and tone him down into this tame and soft dude and then take his message and twist it to be primarily about our needs of comfort, safety, and convenience.
Ah, if no one ever told you, allow me. But once you follow Jesus, you follow the most radical person who ever existed. He marches into the world as an incredibly aggressive and assertive personality that is bluntly kind and full of peace and full of love and offers mankind a whole new way of looking at the world and living in it. It's a most radical message in announcing the kingdom and what it is like.
This is what Jesus himself said in Matthew 11:12. Check it out: "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men take hold of it."
In other words, God is doing something so powerful and dangerous that only those who are willing to embrace it with forceful intensity may take hold of God's kingdom. You ever thought about it in those terms?
The revolution of Jesus in our day-to-day lives is not for the wishy-washy at the end of the day. It's not for the middle of the road. It really isn't safe as we understand safety. And it really isn't comfortable as we understand comfort. It's a totally different message than "your best life now." It costs us a great deal to legitimately say yes to Jesus. Is it free? Yes. Is it liberating? Yes. Does it take you from death to life? Yes. Is it cheap? No.
We have suffered as a body of believers by offering this liberating death to life good news that is free to all and then making it this cheap little thing. Narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads to life. Again if you want to grow a church, you don't preach this message. But if you want strong believers, this is where you stay.
Matthew 7:13-14 lays it out even in English, not Latin, not Greek, English. It's so plain: "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
Now when you hear that, I hope you can appreciate why I no longer have any patience for posers and fakers. Why? What point is it to even give them credibility of even one ounce? Now I will always try and love with a pastor's love. Don't get me wrong, but man is it difficult when you know the stone cold truth of what's actually going down.
Running From False Messaging
There are churches out there that advertise their smugness when they say "We take the Bible seriously but not literally because it was written by people after all. Run from those churches without apology." Or how about this one? This one's really really sketchy: "Biblical principles to maximize your life and living." Now there's nothing against biblical principles and seeing things like what Jesus intended for us, but the slogan is lame compared to what following and surrendering to Jesus' invitation actually is.
Look, there are those of us who have stood in the cold hard honesty and looked straight into the darkness of our own souls and the wickedness of our own broken hearts, and biblical principles are simply not enough. I have never needed enhancement. I need a new heart and a new mind. I need the King of Kings to invade my life, take it over. I don't want principles or some religion or some fake pretense. I want him. I want the King. I'm empty. And I'm not in this game for some new and improved self. I want something else entirely. I want to lay hold of the total revolution of Jesus Christ. And I want to get washed inside out and upside down.
But what I want is costly. Jesus promises life with him and a renewed soul. Wow. My heart and mind is changed and I get to live forever with him. Those results are not cheap.
2. The Road Is Risky
Knowing Jesus, you will quickly find out he is always inviting us to go deeper and deeper into this eternal revolution. It never stops till we get to the other side, asking us to hold on to him tighter and with greater intensity and with greater purpose.
You know, I've had various projects that I probably shouldn't have gotten involved with. I didn't want to do them. I couldn't afford them. We didn't even have the time. But I chose to do some of them because I will go all-in with Jesus. I will go all-in with him on any adventure that he calls. It's quite simple actually. I think sometimes our Lord loves to send us down a path he knows is going to fail just to see if we're going to be obedient. Think about the fisherman casting nets on the other side of the boat or going out mid-afternoon, all that yada yada yada.
CS Lewis says of the Jesus character, which is the lion in Narnia, he says about Aslan, "He isn't safe, but he is good."
Our Risk-Averse Culture
So what keeps us from a life of such deep faith? What blocks us? One reason is we are so skilled at assessing and minimizing risk. Our culture is all about risk management. We want to hedge our bets all over the place of life. We want every kind of insurance offered - health insurance, life insurance, car insurance. We wear seat belts and helmets, and we watched some people a couple years ago wear three or four masks.
Now look, listen, I understand the need and value of some of those things. They're legitimate. But the point is we've become a people who focus on minimizing and managing risk in every area of our life. "If I see a risk, I must minimize it," says the culture.
Add to it: We love the illusion of danger without it actually being there. Just not the real thing. We can ride a roller coaster and feel out of control while buckled right into our seats. Follow? We want Jesus the same way. All reward and no risk.
Many times people don't give them over fully to Jesus because they're afraid that he might send them to a third world country or ask them to be poor or have them do some other uncomfortable thing. But listen up: Walking with God by faith is not a no-risk proposition. It's truly one of the most dangerous things you can actually do with your life. Risk is inherent in the life of a authentic faith. Real faith? Risk and faith cannot be separated.
The Rewards of Going All-In
But here's the deal. Here's the cool thing. When you go all-in, you get two very, very, very awesome things:
- You get "it is well with you" regardless of your circumstances. It's well with you. Money can't buy that.
- You get the deep, deep love that your soul craves. Yes, you go all-in with Jesus. You get what we all want, what we all desire, what we all crave. The love, the true, pure, awesome love that can only come from the Savior.
And it touches us deep in our heart as our hearts are made new and our minds are made new. That's why we call it new life in Christ. That's why we get baptized as a public proclamation that we are no longer our old selves. We now belong to the master.
How many servants do you know tell the master what to do? See, we like the idea of being a servant till he tells us to do something uncomfortable.
3. The Road Away From Religion
Also I want you to know that religion can't come close to anything I'm talking about. That's point number three: The road away from religion.
Once I realized how awesome Jesus actually is, everything changed. I began to read the Bible differently. I noticed the ones who Jesus was giving the business to, who the Lord criticized severely, were the Pharisees who were incredibly religious.
Now these jokers took the 610 laws of the Hebrew scriptures and added 1,500 other rules, man-made rules. And no, don't kid yourself. These folks were stout in their devotion. They prayed, they fasted, they tithed, they sought converts, they memorized and taught and had all kinds of activity. Yet our Lord Jesus had his biggest smackdowns reserved for these peeps.
He called them snakes and fakers, hypocrites and blind guides. He said thieves were getting into the kingdom of heaven before them. One would have a hard time overstating how offensive and critical Jesus was to their faith, about how out of bounds their whole approach to the creator God really was. He loved them, no doubt, and many, many, many came to faith in him. But he straight up condemned any attempts at self-justification through religious performance.
Religion vs. Relationship
Jesus even went so far as to say that empty religion is more dangerous than outright immorality. Do I have a scripture to back that up? Well, I'm glad you asked. As a matter of fact, I do.
Matthew 21:28-31 says: "What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'My son, go to work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I don't want to,' but later changed his mind and went. Then the man went to the others and said the same thing. 'I will, sir,' he answered. But he didn't go. 'Which of the two did his father's will?' They said, 'The first.' Jesus said to them, 'Truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him, but you, when you saw it, didn't even change your mind then to believe him.'"
What's he doing here? He's reproving them for their contempt of John's baptism. And yet for the fear of the people, they were not willing to own it because it might have made them look bad. To shame them, he sets before them the faith, repentance, and obedience of the tax collectors and harlots which aggravated their unbelief and lack of respect.
Jesus told them - listen now - Jesus told them they were missing the kingdom because of their religiousness. They were so focused on doing this right and avoiding that wrong and keeping score and pronouncing judgment. They missed their Messiah completely. Even going so far as to accuse Jesus of being Satan's guy rather than acknowledge him as Lord.
4. The Road Is Filled With Whosoevers
Now this context will help as we go towards point four today. When you have your eyes open to the truth, it's wonderful, but it'll also reveal to the fact that you are in fact chosen by God. Do you remember, any of us that have been married, how exciting it was when our spouse picked us? Or you get that invitation to that party with friends or to go on that trip, and then the awfulness of being rejected? How that just affects the human condition. The joy of being chosen versus the pain of rejection.
That's the scene for point number four today, which is the crescendo of all of what I'm setting up here. It is number four: The road is filled with whosoevers. Whosoevers don't get invited to the parties. And many of us, all of us really, are whosoevers. I don't see royalty anywhere in the room.
Do we as supposed Christian people really understand the depth of the grace in which we claim surrender? That's an honest question. Do we have a clear road, or are we suffering from some blurry visibility?
Understanding the Cultural Context
So I want to take you a little deeper into the world of Bible times. The Jews not only divided the world into Jews and Gentiles, but also within the Jewish culture who is ceremonially clean, fit to go into the temple and offer sacrifice, and who are ceremonially unclean. That's where it started. But then they pushed that "divide us" concept out from there.
See, they took labels that applied to someone who was technically ritually unclean and unfit to offer sacrifice and then began to regard other Jews as being simply unclean, viewing the entire person as unclean. What did this do? It took a set of laws designed to remind people of God's holiness and provision and became a catalyst for exclusion and elitism.
Did you catch that? I hit you one more time: They took a set of laws designed to remind people of God's holiness and provision, and that became a catalyst for exclusion and elitism.
The Jews had a phrase they would use to describe people who were unclean. In Hebrew it's pronounced "am ha'aretz." The phrase in Hebrew means "people of the land" or designates a person as, listen now, untouchable and unredeemable. Am ha'aretz - untouchable and unredeemable. Think about that.
Commonly taught that the blind, crippled, and lame were am ha'aretz because their deformity was a result of their sin or their parents'. See John chapter nine when you get a minute. It was widely understood by the religious that disabled people were simply getting what they deserved. Same went for the poor. So stay away from am ha'aretz.
Once someone became unclean, it was hard to move beyond the label because no one "clean" would come near them. So the rules were strict, you know, from being contaminated: never go into the house of a gentile, never touch a deformed person, never share a meal with a sinner, and on and on and on.
Jesus and the "Whosoever"
This is the heartless religion setting that Jesus walked around in, sharing his radical message that the kingdom of God is available to everyone. Everyone. No matter who they were or what they had done. This was unconditional love on a display for all to see and all to hear.
Now in John chapter 3, Jesus has this incredible discussion with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. And it's in the middle of this discussion that Jesus uncorks the best known words in the Bible in John 3:16. Look at it with me. Many of you can say it by heart:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Now do not miss the most awesome word in this announcement. It's the word "whosoever." Think of the impact that would have had on a dude like Nicodemus, a Pharisee, stone cold expert on knowing who's in and who's out. He knows. Old Nikki must have been sitting there thinking, "Is this guy serious? Whoever? Whosoever?" I mean, does he mean women? Does he mean Gentiles? Does he mean am ha'aretz? For real?
Jesus not only talked it, but he walked it. Jesus demonstrated whosoeverness as he approached the castoffs to offer them healing, wholeness, and forgiveness. And the leaders hated him for it. And 2,000 years later, we still see it.
Two Powerful Examples of "Whosoeverness"
I'm going to give you two examples of whosoeverness from the scriptures today as we bring it home.
1. Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
Now if you grew up in the church you probably remember the Bible camp song "Zacchaeus was a wee little man." And for obvious reasons I hate that song. But let's get one thing straight - I would tower over this guy. All right, I have a saying: I'm not the tallest guy in the room, but I'm not climb-a-sycamore-tree short either. Okay?
See, Luke's account of Jesus's interaction with him was not on how short he was, but how wicked he was. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. Do you know what that means? This is bad on many levels for the Jewish culture. To be a Jew and work for the Romans to keep your fellow brother down was despicable in those days. But if you're a chief tax collector, it goes to a whole new level of despicable.
See, the estimate in those days was that it was a 12.5% tax on all income and crops that would go to the Romans. But the collectors could impose as much as they wanted and take it all. Just give the 12.5% to the Romans. And the Jews could do nothing about it because if you spoke up, you would face a harshness that we don't truly feel in this country.
So this guy is a huge reason why so many of the local Jews are poor while he lived in the luxury and wealth beyond imagined for that day. It's hard to see clearly how hated this man and his kind were in that day. Not only were they am ha'aretz, but they are viewed as the lowest scum of society. So much so that in Luke 15 verse one, it goes so far as to make a distinction between tax collectors and sinners with the idea that "sinners" is less offensive. Follow?
In the Zacchaeus story, we see Jesus pick the most disgusting and vile person he could find and announced that salvation was available and had come to him. Religion of the day had said you have to be ceremonially clean to approach God. And Jesus flipped this and claimed the kingdom of God was at hand and that you could approach God as you are, and he made you clean.
This is just a cultural whirlwind of revolutionary grace. Look who Jesus reached: The blind, the lame, the deaf, the demon-possessed, Samaritans, Gentiles, Roman women, paralyzed, any and all who were am ha'aretz, including me and including some of you.
2. The Leper from Matthew 8
If tax collectors were the most hated, then the leper was the most revolting. And when you get this, it's hard to even read it and not weep. Lepers were forced out of their homes, disowned by their families, excluded from all forms of society. They were not allowed to work. They had to live outside the city, usually with other lepers. They were never physically touched and were cut off from normal human contact. If they came within a 100 feet of anyone, the law of the day required the lepers to warn others by shouting "Unclean! Unclean!" Children would throw rocks at them, and adults would spit at them.
Think about this. Now I want to read the text again, verses two and three. And with that knowledge I just shared, I want you to lift the blurry visibility in this story. I want you to see. I want you to have maximum perception so you can hear the brokenness behind this request.
Verse two of chapter 8: "Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.'"
Verse three: "Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, 'I am willing. Be made clean.' Immediately his leprosy was cleansed."
Please see what Jesus did here. He touched this guy. He touched this man. He could have easily simply said, "Be clean," and the man would have been healed. But Jesus reached out and touched him. That is staggering to this audience because you never touch a leper ever if you want to stay clean.
Can you imagine what kind of joy this man would have had to run home to his family, to again attend temple and be able to have human interaction again? His joy would have been absolutely off the chain.
Coming to Jesus As You Are
Look, we don't have to be clean to approach Jesus. We just need to come to him, and he will make us clean. Before we were am ha'aretz. Now we need to go forward in that understanding of Jesus being our substitute and that we're washed from the inside out with this new life.
And with this understanding we cannot become so churched, so culturized, so rules and judgment bent that we miss out on the true grace of what life in Christ actually is. His body was broken and his blood was shed for all to redeem us all. Even the worst, even those of us who were am ha'aretz.
So now let's not get all caught up in our own self. Do you really believe this? Do you really believe that Jesus can cleanse you? Do you really believe that Jesus came to die for you so you could have eternal life and have it abundantly? Yes, you walk a narrow road. Yes, it's difficult. Yes, it's hard. But the joy of the love is so great, and it becomes so well with you that you know you have everything even if your circumstances on this earth bite for a few days.
Do we really want to live this out so we can proclaim with authentic purpose? You know, to do anything else is to preach a false gospel. Regardless of the circumstances you are in, you can have "it is well with you."
May his kingdom come, and may the Lord Jesus touch you this week.