The Mind of Christ - Luke 5:17-26
June 12, 2011

I'm sure all of you have noticed an ongoing trend on TV these days: for some reason there are tons of detective shows (e.g. CSI, CSI: Miami, The First 40 Hours, Numbers, Dexter, Law and Order, Bones, and Fringe) But one show that is particularly interesting and somehow cheesier than any of the preceding shows is called Criminal Minds on CBS. The show's plot is essentially based on solving obscure and morbid murders by entering into the "criminal mind" to locate the killer or solve the mystery. But the thing I can't stand about the show is that the ending is always the same -- the criminal is always the same kind of person: a disturbed, angry, jealous, or vengeful murderer. In short, the show's plot is that all policeman have justice on their minds while all criminals have crime on their minds -- the criminal mind has only one thing on it: surprise, surprise, it's crime!

But what about you? What about me? What is the number one thing on your mind today? Is it justice? Is it crime (hopefully not)?

I had a friend in high school who liked this girl so much that he would drive some 30 miles every other day to her house in his 1986 Honda Civic DX without power steering, without air conditioning, and with a manual transmission. That’s almost 2 hours of driving to visit her in this dingy, small, and barely surviving car. Why did he do it? Because for some of us, romance is the number one thing on our mind: that special person, that significant other, or that potentially special person is the only thing some of us can think about. How about yourself? Is romance the greatest thing on your mind? Or is it something or someone else?

I know of a girl, and a boy, and other girls and boys who literally check their phones about every 2 or 3 minutes, throughout the entire day. They are so concerned with the people who want to get a hold of them that they often stop in the middle of a conversation to check their phone. In fact, I remember some years ago I was sitting with a young girl and she was sharing some serious problems in her life and in the middle of the most crucial part, she stops to text someone and tells me that she is supposed to go to a party that night and wanted to get directions. Why did she do that? Because the one thing on her mind may not be just a person but it's the idea of people -- being constantly around people, all the time, was the one thing constantly on her mind.

For others of us, the one thing on our mind is ourselves -- I had a Chinese friend who literally had to work out every single day. He had a girlfriend who loved him, he had a good paying job, and he had a good group of friends but that wasn't enough for him -- he had these standards for himself that he had to meet and those standards included what he thought was a fit body, a nice car, a motorcycle, and the image of luxury and wealth. I also have an American friend who can't hold onto a girlfriend for longer than a month -- he tells me that he doesn't want to ever be broken up with so he takes what he can from the relationships he's in and in about a month he breaks up, just to protect himself. Why do they do stuff like this? Because the one thing on their mind is themselves, their feelings, their worth, and their image.

Even for myself, about a year or two ago, I had one thing on my mind: motorcycles. When I think back to that time now and wonder why I was so obsessed with getting different motorcycles, I genuinely do not know. But at the time, all I could think about was getting a better and better motorcycle and riding all the time, 24/7, 365. One time I was really sick with strep in the winter (like February or so) but I wanted to ride, so I bundled up in several layers and went riding for several hours. When I got back home and sat down, I felt this incredible fever suddenly come over me and I was even more sick for the rest of that week. Why did I do that, apart from being an idiot? Because that's the one thing that was on my mind and like me and like these people I've shared about, all of you have one thing on your mind as well -- my question is this: what is the one thing on your mind?

Well, whatever it might be, today is the Lord's Day so as you think about what is on your mind, let's take a look at what was on and is on and will forever be on the mind of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…

Luke tells us of a story where a paralytic and some friends come to Jesus who is staying in a house and this house is so crowded with people that these friends can't take their paralyzed friend to Jesus. Now why do I say friends when Luke says "some men?" Because at the time, if you had any sort of physical disfigurement including innate cancer (e.g. possibly the bleeding woman), leprosy, blindness, muteness, crippled ligaments, or paralysis, you were considered to have such maladies as a result of something you or your ancestors did to disobey God. Therefore, you were considered unclean and impure, which is why the lame and sick never entered the temples of the time but lingered outside and along the walls of the temple. And if you touched or even looked at a disfigured or sick individual, you would have to go to the temple and purify yourself of what you have just seen or smelled. So the fact that some men would be willing to touch and hold and carry this paralyzed man, reveals that there is a sense of friendship and otherness in the minds of the men.

Why would these men do such a thing? Because there was something on their mind -- I could say there were some things on their mind: (1) That their friend is paralyzed and they don’t like that, not one bit and (2) that Jesus Christ can heal the flesh as well as the soul. To put in plainly, their minds were set not on themselves but on Jesus and on their friend.

So these friends bring their paralyzed friend to this house. Now during that time, a traditional Palestinian house would have stairs on the outside that led to a flat roof -- so the friends use the stairs, take their friend to the roof, and create a hole to lower their friend down into the room -- which totally sucks for the guy who owns the house… because now he has an irreversible and enormous hole in the middle of his ceiling, created by a bunch of random guys who probably don't even know the owner of the house… And when they do this, Jesus sees … what? Does Jesus see their deeds? Does Jesus see what they have accomplished and what they have done and what they have achieved? Do Jesus see anything physical in the first moment? While everyone there probably sees a random guy being lowered into a random hole in the middle of the living room, Jesus sees faith.

I remember when StarCraft the video game first came out -- I was about 8th grade and my friends and I would play the game nonstop for hours. I mean literally we would meet on Battle.net and start playing at around 7:00pm and we would stop playing around 7:00am the next morning. And whenever that happened, for the entire next day, all I can see and hear are the sounds of StarCraft -- even when I slept, I heard carriers and zealots. When I walked around, everything looked like something from StarCraft.

That's because when something is on your mind -- and that thing is the only thing on your mind, all you can see is that one thing. Everything else fades into the background, except for that one thing.

Why does Jesus, unlike everyone else in the room, look past the physical and go straight to the internal? Why doesn't Jesus first heal the paralytic and then forgive him of his sins and save him? Because what is on the outside is not what is on the mind of Christ; it's what's on the inside is what is constantly on the mind of Christ. This is why Jesus says things like even if you look at a woman lustfully, you committed a physical sin - the sin of adultery; even if you hate someone, you have essentially murdered that person… Because the one thing that is on the mind of Christ is what is inside, not on what is outside. Therefore, Christianity and living life as a Christian has nothing to do with what is on the outside: How you dress, how you talk, what you say, what you buy, what you drink, what you smoke, what you look at -- but it has everything to do with what is on the inside: what you love, what you hate, what you cherish, what you idolize, and what is constantly on your mind.

This is why Paul says in Romans 12:2, " Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Now what does this all mean practically? Well, it means two things:

The salvation of Jesus Christ always works from the inside out and never from the outside in; you can never be good enough to receive Jesus, you can never be bad enough to not deserve Jesus -- no matter who or what you are on the outside, if you have faith on the inside, you are saved. So if you haven't received Jesus from the inside out, not the outside in, and let Him be the king of all that is in you, not just all that is of you, then do so here today and ask Him to become the one thing that your mind is constantly set on.

For those of us who have been and are genuinely saved from the inside out, then our application is this: The one thing that needs to be on your mind is that salvation that is truly from the inside out desires to bring those on the outside, in.

There is a story of Jesus and his disciples having to feed over five thousand people after a preaching session and the disciples have one thing on their mind: the number of bread and fish. But Jesus has something else in mind: the number of hungry people. As the disciples see the impossibility of the circumstance and actually tell Jesus to send them away, Christ sees the opportunity to bring those on the outside together for a meal. How often are you leaving people out instead of bringing people in? Because there are many, many hungry souls who need the living Bread and the living Water, Jesus Christ.

There is another story of the first time Jesus meets Peter who is on a boat fishing. And at the time, Peter has one thing on his mind: fish. But Jesus calls out to Him and tells him to think of bigger fish. The Western mentality is to say, "There always other fish in the sea" when you break up with someone, as if people are things you can use and abuse whenever you'd like.
But Jesus challenges us to do something quite different -- to see each other as worth catching and bringing into this fellowship we share with Jesus Christ and with each other.

In fact, this idea of bringing those on the outside in is so profound that Jesus says in Luke 15:10 that "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The reality is that all the things on this earth that you now possess, you cannot take with you to Heaven -- think about everything you own now on this earth because the Bible says that you will never see any of that ever again: you will never see your house, your car, or your job ever again… but you might see me, and you might see each other.

So if we are the only things that will make it heaven and we are the only ones we'll see when we get there, why would we ever spend so much time with anything or anyone else? Why would we ever curse or hate or gossip about anyone else if the only thing that will outlast this earth is that person? Why would we ever perceive people with their faults instead of their talents, successes, and notable traits? Because who would have perceived a prostitute -- that is a hooker -- like one of many on Colfax or Broadway, to be weeping before the feet of Jesus Christ while all of His disciples abandoned Him? Who would have perceived a blue collar, uneducated, and hot-tempered man named Cephas to deliver the first accounted sermon of Jesus Christ in Acts? Who would have perceived a persecutor far worse than Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins, or anyone you can think of that hates Christianity to be the first Christian missionary into Asia minor and the most influential missionary ever to be born? And who would have perceived someone like you would be given the righteousness of God and the holiness of God through God's one and only Son, Jesus Christ?

No one would perceive these people in these days except for Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ, who saves from the inside out, loves to bring those on the outside in and your mission and my mission here on this temporary earth is to do the very same. So may your mind be truly transformed and changed and renewed by Christ who renews from the inside out… so that you perceive not as you do or as the world does but as Christ has perceived and as Christ does perceive. And in doing so, may our minds be set on bringing those on the outside into the depths and into the insides of Jesus Christ.