Acquiring The Mind of Christ — Zac Poonen

I don't know whether you all know the answer to a quiz from the parable that Jesus spoke. He spoke about a sower who went out to sow seed in Mark chapter four and verse, the first few verses there. How many types of ground were there?

Most people say four, that's not right. The answer is six. There were three types of bad ground, the wayside, rocky ground, thorny ground. And then there were three types of good ground. Mark 4 .20, one that brought forth only 30 fold, one that brought forth 60 fold, and one that brought forth 100 fold.

If you think in terms of percentage, 30%, 60%, 100%, so it means more than that, 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold. But they're all called good ground. So there is a difference between believers who are sincerely, it says, about these people in a honest and good heart, they accept the word, but yet some people with an honest and good heart, at the end of their life, they are brought forth 30, some 60 and some 100, there is a difference.

And it does not depend on gifts. It depends on something else altogether. Jesus spoke two parables on a noble man who went away and gave money to his servants to trade with. And when he came back, he asked them what they did with it.

Faithfulness With Different Gifts in the Parable of the Talents

But there's a difference there. If you read carefully, those two parables are described, one in Matthew 25 and the other in Luke 19. But in Matthew 25, the difference is that he gave each of them a different amount.

To one, he gave five, Matthew 25, 15, to another two and to another one. It was not the same amount to each person. And the person who produced five brought 100%, another five, and the person who brought two brought only two, but that was 100%.

And so he got the same reward as the man who brought five, because in both cases, it was 100%. But the man who had one, he buried it, and he didn't do anything with it. He dug a hole in the ground and left it there.

And that's a picture of a man who invests his life in the ground means in earthly things. And so when the master came, I want you to see what he says to the master in Matthew 25, 24. Why did he not make use of that one talent?

Using Every God-Given Gift

This is a picture of different gifts that God has given us. Some people have many more gifts, five times the gifts you have, some have twice, some maybe like Paul have 10 times. This parable speaks about different levels of gifts, but the important thing is not how much we produce, but in terms of how much we receive is the percentage the same?

You know, you can get the same reward as the apostle Paul, even though he never traveled around the world. If he had 10 talents, he's got to produce 10 more. If you've got only one, you need to produce only one and you get the same reward as Paul because it's percentage.

But why didn't he do anything with that one? Listen to this, verse 24. I knew you, Matthew 25, 24. I knew you to be a hard man reaping what you did not, where you did not sow, gathering where you scattered, no seed.

The reason why he did not make use of the gift God had given him, and many, many believers are like that. You can be a part of a church where there are some very gifted brothers and they do all the ministry, that's fine.

You are not called to, you don't have five talents or 10 talents, but you have one. The question is not whether you have a public ministry like those others, the question is what do you do with one? The great danger in many churches is that number of people with one talent do nothing with it.

They just sit and listen. I'm not saying they should preach in the meeting. Please don't misunderstand me. That one can be used in witnessing to friends or in some way, but every person has a gift. You know, in the one chapter on gifts, in 1 Corinthians 12, it says God has given different gifts, but then he uses the picture of the human body where Christ is the head.

And there is no part of this human body that does not have a function. Every part has a function. The internal hidden ones, the visible ones, and there it says the body of Christ is like that. So if you're really born again, then you are a member of the body of Christ.

And there it says very clearly in 1 Corinthians 12, to everyone God has given a gift. I wonder whether you know that. I wonder whether you realize those clear words in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, that says God has given to everyone, 1 Corinthians 12, 7, to each one is given some gift of the spirit.

It may not be as spectacular as somebody else's. Maybe someone has got 20 talents, but you'll have one. There's nobody who gets zero. That's like saying there's some part of the body which has no function at all.

So that's the first thing we must remember. The danger is of the people who have less, doing nothing with it. But the reason is they think God is a very demanding God who expects much more than he gives.

And that wrong picture of God in a person's mind is what makes his life useless. So a proper idea of God is very, very important. Now turn to the other passage where Jesus spoke, this parable that looks similar.

Equal Opportunity and Accountability in the Parable of the Minas

We must compare scripture and be very careful in reading it. And that is in Luke 19, verse 11, where he speaks a parable of, again, a noble man went to a distant country. This time he called 10 servants.

In the previous one, he had only three. Here there were 10 servants. And the interesting thing here is he gave exactly the same amount to each one. Each person was given one mina. So here is an area where all of us are equal.

In gifts, we are not equal. Many have many outstanding gifts. And there are some believers who have so many gifts and some who have very, very little. But when it comes to this mina, everybody had the same.

And yet when the noble man came back, one person, verse 16, produced 10 minas out of the one, 1 ,000%. Another person produced five minas out of the one, verse 18. I told you in Matthew 25, they all got the same reward.

If five brought five, if two brought two, he gets the same reward, exactly the same, because it's percentage. Here, the reward is different. If one person produces 10, he gets authority over 10 cities, verse 17.

And the one who produced only five gets authority over five cities. It's just like we go back to these parable of the seed that was sown. Some produced 30 fold, some produced 60 fold, some produced 100 fold, even though it's the same seed and it was all good ground.

So it speaks about some believers who are more wholehearted than others. That's true in every church. So what is this one mina where all of us are equal? I think it refers, first of all, to time. All of us have got 24 hours, one mina.

Nobody in the church has more than 24 hours. A day. One person may do a lot more with his 24 hours for God than you do with your 24 hours for God, because you waste a lot of it in a lot of useless worldly pursuits.

I don't mean we should not relax or have a vacation or sleep, don't misunderstand me. But there are people who do all those things, who have vacations and who go to sleep and relax with their family and all that.

And yet, who produced 10 minas with one? And others who produced only five, maybe some others produced only two. And this again, this man with one, he wrapped it up in a handkerchief. When the master came, he said, where's 20, I kept what you put away in a handkerchief.

Why did he put it away? The same reason as before, Matthew 19, 21. I knew you're an exacting man. You're a very strict God. Do you have that idea about God? Very demanding God who expects you to do certain things which are beyond your ability.

That's what I mean by an exacting taskmaster. Now, believe it or not, I'm absolutely convinced that many, many believers have that idea about God. But there are some Christians who've got a very loose idea about God.

Particularly I've seen among a lot of charismatic people. It doesn't matter what you do. You just speak in tongues and God is happy with you. And if you sin, just ask him to forgive you and do things like that.

And that's why there's a lot of adultery among such people. They speak in tongues and commit adultery. Because there's a very loose idea about God. And then we have those who preach holiness and victory over sin, who go to the other extreme and have an idea of a very demanding God who says, you must not slip up once in your words.

You must never get angry once, never get discouraged once. Always rejoice all the time and love everybody. You must forgive everyone. Everything is so absolute. And they hear it like that. And they hear it as commandments.

And they haven't seen the face of a loving father. And that's possible in NCCF, New Covenant Christian Fellowship, where we can think of God as very demanding. Can't do this and can't do that and must do this.

And it's all 24 hours a day, I must be like this. What happens as a result of this is, very often we become like that. We become like the God we worship. That's something I've said many times. I want to show you a verse in Psalm 115.

Becoming Like the God We Worship

Psalm 115, it's speaking about those who worship idols. It says in Psalm 115 that there are people who make idols. Verse four, silver and gold. And these idols have got mouths they can't speak, their eyes they can't see, ears they cannot hear, and so on.

And then it says in verse eight, those who make them will become like them. Now, we may say we are not idol worshipers. But if you don't have a true concept of the God of the Bible revealed through Jesus Christ, there's a sense in which the God you're worshiping is an idol of your own making.

I believe many Christians, born-again believers, are worshiping a God which is not the God revealed by Jesus Christ. It's an idol. A very strict, demanding God. And the result is, like it says here, they become like that.

They become like the God they worship. They behave like that to their wife, hard, demanding, or they behave like that to their husband, or to their children. Because that's the God they worship. And they're trying to be like that, this idol they have made in their mind of what they think God is like.

Turn to Psalm 135. Psalm 135 also, it speaks about those who make idols. In verse 15, the idols of the nations. They have mouths that don't speak, eyes that don't see. And then it says in verse 18, those who make them will be like them.

Why is that repeated twice? I sometimes feel that some verses in the Bible are repeated twice for the sake of careless readers who read very fast and miss it. And God says, I've got to get that to you.

If you miss it the first time, I'll catch up with you the second time. For example, like God gives us grace to the humble and resist the proud. It's written in James 4. If you missed it, you'll hear it, read it again in 1 Peter 5.

So it's repeated here. Those who worship idols will be like them. So it's very important for us to understand, dear brothers and sisters, that if we don't have a correct concept of God, the one revealed by Jesus Christ, and if you haven't seen that clearly, not just in the Bible, but as the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us, we will be like the God we worship.

Hard and demanding. And if you see some parts of your personality, we're all born with different personalities. That doesn't matter. But once we come to Christ, God's purpose is that we might become like Christ.

Jesus Reveals the Father’s Character

That's the ultimate goal. He made man in his image way back in Genesis 1, and man sinned and lost that image. And Jesus came to restore that image of God in us which Adam threw away by sin. But to have that image restored in us, that's why Jesus demonstrated by his life what God was like.

See, in John 1, verse 18, one of the purposes with which Jesus came to earth, many Christians think only that he died for our sins and rose again. But one of the things we emphasize in New Covenant churches, in all CFC churches, is that Jesus, when John 1, verse 18, the last part, Jesus has explained the father by his life and by his words.

This was a ministry he came to fulfill because the world was full of, I mean, the Jewish system, the land of Israel, which is the only land that knew the true God, all those people had a completely wrong concept about God, which they got from the Pharisees, a hard, demanding God who would not allow you to pluck grain on the Sabbath day, even if you're hungry, who would not allow you to be healed on the Sabbath day, even if Jesus came to heal you.

And it says Jesus looked with anger, you read in Mark's gospel, at those people, Mark chapter three, at those people who told someone, come on the Sabbath, come some other day to be healed. Jesus was so hard on people who lacked compassion, even though they knew the Bible so well.

It's one of those places where he says he looked with anger. Is it right? Is it right for a true disciple of Jesus to look at people with anger? I believe it is. Mark three, verse five. He looked at certain people with anger.

I wanna be like Jesus. I wanna look at certain people with anger. Who are these people? Those who are hard on others. Elders who are hard on somebody in their flock. I wanna look at them with anger. I'll tell you why, because I wanna be like Jesus.

Jesus has explained the father to me. And we know that he took a whip once and chased people out of the temple who were making money in the name of God. And I don't think he was smiling at them. I believe he had a very stern face, an angry face.

How dare you come into the house of God and make money for yourself from these poor people? And when I watch a preacher on television or YouTube or anywhere, preaching for money that he gets from poor people, I want to have the same attitude to them that Jesus had towards the money changers in the temple.

Otherwise I'm not like Christ. We're not like Christ just because we're kind and nice and sing nice songs on the Sundays. We have to be angry against these people who exploit people. So Jesus explained the father.

Compassion, Holiness, and the Woman Caught in Adultery

You see, for example, in the story of the woman caught in adultery, you see the heart of God there and you see Jesus explained the father. The Pharisees went by rules. They made their own rules, for example, about washing hands and all, but here they quoted Moses in John chapter eight and said, this woman was caught in adultery.

And there's a verse in Deuteronomy, which says that such a woman must be stoned to death. A woman caught in adultery. In the five books of Moses, that's what Moses said and got it from God. What they didn't realize was the person sitting there, Jesus was the God when he was in heaven who gave Moses that command.

Didn't he know that? Of course he knew it because he gave it to Moses from heaven. But then they had no compassion. The God they worship was one who did everything by rules. They lived by a rule book.

And it's very possible, dear brothers and sisters, to hear the message of the new covenant and make it into a rule book. A rule book where even if you keep it yourself, you'll be very strict on others and inwardly condemn some of the others for not living up to what your rule book says a Christian should live as how he should behave.

Well, here they had a rule book. That was God's own book. It was very clearly said that a woman caught in adultery must be stoned to death. What was Jesus gonna do? Was he gonna live by the rule book?

Well, he didn't say, don't do it. He said, he who is without sin, John 8, 7, let him throw the first stone, go right ahead. And it says, they all went away beginning with the eldest and not one Pharisee was left.

So it looks as if Jesus was breaking the rule by not stoning this woman because he himself had told Moses woman caught in adultery must be stoned. But he didn't do it. And not only that, he further said himself in Matthew 8, 7, the one who is without sin, let him take the first stone and throw it at her.

And there was one man there without sin that was Jesus himself. Why didn't he do it? Why didn't he practice what he preached? Why didn't he take a stone and throw it? I'm just giving you these examples to show how we can take verses of scripture and be very hard on others with those verses.

And maybe we are not keeping them ourselves. And that would be the worst type of hypocrisy. But even if we do, we don't make allowance for others. But Jesus did not come here to stone women. He came to redeem women.

And so he did not throw a stone. He told that woman, has no one condemned you? No one, Lord, I do not condemn you. It may look as if I'm violating what Moses said, which I myself told Moses to write. It may look as if I'm violating what I myself said just now that the one without sin can throw the first stone.

It looked as if Jesus was disobeying scripture. Have you seen it there? It looked as if Jesus was disobeying what he himself said should be done. Let him who is without sin throw the first stone. When you understand the heart of God and the compassion in the heart of God, you will see he's not here to stone people.

So many preachers, they fling stones from the pulpit at people. Sometimes they fling it knowing that somebody is sitting there whom they wanna hit. I've heard so much of this. I pray that we shall be saved from it.

Not only if you preach, even in conversation with people. Remember what that man said. I knew you to be a hard man, he told his master. That's why he did nothing. And that's how we can waste our life.

Of course, we know at the opposite extreme, people have a wrong understanding of compassion where they permit people to sin and sin and sin and sin and say, well, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.

Well, it does matter because Jesus spoke strongly against sin, but he was full of compassion. So how to have this balance of grace and truth of kindness and severity. It's only the Holy Spirit who can make us like that.

Renewing the Mind Into Christlikeness

And for that, we must allow the Holy Spirit to change our mind. Our mind is one of the most important things that God has given us. Man is body, soul and spirit. The body is, we know what it is. The spirit is the part of us, which is a conscience that tells us when we do something wrong.

But in the soul, when man became a living soul, like it says about Adam. In the soul, the important part there is the mind. And that mind is the one that God wants to change. And our mind is changed that we become Christ-like.

So turn with me to Romans in chapter 12. Romans is the great book explaining the gospel. Starts all the way from godless sinners, Romans 1. Religious sinners, Romans 2. Justification, Romans 3, 4 and 5.

Overcoming sin, chapter 6. Freedom from the law, chapter 7. Life in the spirit, chapter 8. And then about God's sovereignty and his righteousness and his faithfulness in chapter 9, 10 and 11. And then at the end of this wonderful gospel, he says, now what's gonna be your response to the gospel?

That's the beginning of chapter 12. If you really understood this amazing gospel that Jesus brought and paid such a price to give us, what would be your response? He says two things. First of all, you have to hand over your body completely to God as a living sacrifice.

Presenting the Body as a Living Sacrifice

You know, I used to think when in the Old Testament, God said, when you offer an ox on the altar, you must cut it up into pieces and then put it on the altar and burn it up. I said, what a waste of time, I thought.

Why cut it up if you're gonna burn it? But there's a spiritual significance to the ox being cut into pieces and being laid on the altar as a burnt offering and the fire of God would consume it. And we understand that when it comes to Romans 12, where we are to present our bodies like that ox as laid as a living sacrifice, as a burnt offering to God.

You know, we understand the New Testament better if you've read the Old Testament. So don't neglect the Old Testament. And then we see that that body needs to be cut up. So when I give my body to God, I must give it like the ox was cut up and put on the altar.

Not, Lord, here, take my body. No, cut it up. Then it will become meaningful. Lord, here are my eyes. I never want to read again something that'll dishonor you. I never want to look at a picture that'll dishonor you.

I never want to look at a person and lust. This eye is yours. Lord, these two eyes, I put them on the altar. It's like cutting up the ox, remember? And now, Lord, here's my tongue. I'm gonna cut that now and put it on the altar.

I never want to say what I feel like saying with this tongue. Examine yourself, my brothers and sisters. Many times we speak what we just feel like speaking. We hurt people. We react. Our speech very often is a reaction to the way somebody else spoke to us.

It could be in your office. It could be in your home. Well, there must be at least one Christ-like person in your home, either the husband or wife. Wonderful, if both are like that. But the tongue has to be laid on the altar separately.

Lord, I don't want to speak. Not just I don't want to tell lies with this tongue. I don't want to say anything that's unloving. I may have to say something very strong and hard like Jesus did. You hypocrites.

He spoke to the Pharisees. He was hard sometimes, but he was also gentle. I don't condemn you. So to know that balance, Lord, I want my tongue to be used by you. These hands, I cut that up and put it there and say, Lord, I don't want to use my hands.

I don't want to write anything or type anything or send a message to anybody, which is going to hurt them. Unless you lead me to do that, to challenge them. It's in a divine way, okay? But I don't want to write anything or do anything with this hand, which is not yours.

Present your body, a living sacrifice. Here are my legs, Lord. Don't, they are yours. Don't let them ever take me to a place where I should not be found. And let me be willing. I'm willing to let these legs take me if you want me to go somewhere, even if I am rock bottom tired, I will not make my tiredness as an excuse to disobey your will if you tell me to go somewhere.

You can never serve God if you're going to say, Lord, I'm too tired today. Imagine the apostle Paul saying that. No, I never want to say that to God. He calls me to do something. I want to be available to him every day.

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. All the functions, your sexual function, you have to give it to God and say, Lord, I want to use this in a way that will glorify you according to your word. Okay, we've gone past the body.

The Renewing of the Mind and Knowing God’s Will

Then your mind, verse two. You know, this is the response to this wonderful gospel that we've heard in 11 chapters. Present your mind by renewing it, allowing your mind to, it says you renew your mind.

You must be transformed. Transformed means you can become like Christ. That's transformation. Romans 12, two. This transformation takes place through the renewing of your mind. If your mind is not renewed, you will not be transformed into the likeness of Christ.

That's why I told you the mind is most important. You've presented your body, fine. And now you must allow your mind to be renewed. Renewed means to think like God thinks. About 500 years ago, there was a astronomer in Germany called Johannes Kepler, who discovered some things in astronomy in the heavens when he was a Christian.

And he said, all that I do as an astronomy man is to think God's thoughts after him. Became an expression used by many scientists. To think God's thoughts after him. That means God was the first person who thought up this wonderful universe where everything works so perfectly in time.

And when we discover that, he says, I'm just thinking God's thoughts after him. So I thought of that expression for a Christian to think Jesus' thoughts after him. How he was thinking, what was his way of thinking?

That's the meaning of being transformed by the renewing of your mind. And if I allow God to do that in my mind, gradually I'll be able to know God's will without his having to speak to me with a voice from heaven or with a word from scripture.

I will know it. I remember in the early days of my Christian life, a lot of my guidance came by finding some verse of scripture that I read that day or something like that. I would sometimes open the Bible.

That's okay at a very young age. And we can say it's the baby level of the Christian life where you open the Bible and say, what shall I do today? Or expect guidance like that. But I found more and more nowadays when I seek for guidance and I don't get anything there because God's not gonna speak to me like that.

He says, it's just like for a two-year-old, you tell everything what they must do. Little children, we say, brush your teeth, go to bed, change your clothes, et cetera, take a shower. But when you grow older, you don't talk to a 20-year-old like that.

And I realized that when we are young, you expect God to tell you every little thing. Do this, do that, do the thing like God spoke to Abraham and Samuel and all in the Old Testament, but we are not like that.

We're not babes. We should be growing up where God does not have to speak to us from the outside. By the renewing of our mind, we know what is the will of God. It says, we don't hear what the will of God is.

We prove it ourselves, Romans 12 too. If I have presented every part of my body as a living sacrifice to God, and I allow my mind to be renewed as I study the scriptures and look at the life of Jesus, I can prove myself.

Yes, this is what God wants me to do here. Without any voice from heaven, without any verse of scripture that I received that day, Jesus wasn't acting on a verse of scripture that he had to go to the synagogue and read for that day.

His mind was so in tune with the father's. Isn't it a wonderful thing that through the Holy Spirit, he wants to do the same thing in us? My brother and sister, it's a tremendous privilege. It's more than God making you a millionaire or something like that.

That's nothing compared to God making you think like he thinks. Make that the passion of your life. And then you'll be able to prove yourself in different situations what the will of God is. Should I take this job?

Should I go here? Should I move to this house? What shall I do with my money? How shall I spend my time? More and more. There's no way another person can tell you. You have to prove it yourself. And when you're young, it won't be so clear, but you should be growing.

In fact, you should be knowing God's will much better today than you knew God's will five years ago or even last year. That is God's will. If your mind is being renewed, if you're a lazy Christian, not interested in the renewing of your mind, it will not happen.

The Natural, Carnal, and Spiritual Mind

So the next question comes. Let me show you a verse before I move on. 1 Corinthians chapter two is an amazing statement that Paul says here. Verse 14 to 16. 1 Corinthians 2, 14 to 16. The natural man, that's the unconverted man, he does not accept the things of the spirit of God.

As in, when you're talking about the mind now, think of the mind of a natural unconverted man. He cannot accept what the Holy Spirit says. It's all crazy to him. Love God more than your father, mother, brother, sister, children.

Love God more than money and possessions. You can't understand all that. And then it speaks about the carnal person. The carnal person also cannot fully understand God's ways because it's all spiritually appraised.

But he who is spiritual, the carnal person, it speaks about the carnal person in verses one to three of chapter three. Yeah, verse three, three. They are fleshly, there's jealousy and strife among them.

That's because, I mean, they are born again, but they are carnal. But the spiritual man, verse 15, he appraises all things. That's not a word everybody understands. And sometimes we have in India people called appraisers.

They are people who evaluate what a building is worth. They are experts at that. A spiritual person appraises all things. How much is this worth spiritually? What value has this got spiritually? What value has this particular thing I'm doing or this particular program I'm watching, what value does it have spiritually?

He appraises everything. And he evaluates everything and decides to, just like a good businessman will invest where he can make more money. So a spiritually minded person evaluates and decides, yeah, this is what I should be doing.

He evaluates. And, but he himself cannot be evaluated by anybody. Do you know the Bible says a truly spiritual man, you will not be able to evaluate him. The most spiritual man that walked on earth was Jesus.

They could not evaluate him. They thought he was bilgeable. And that's often what happens. Truly godly people are sometimes misunderstood. They are called heretics. Some of the greatest prophets in the history of Christianity, in their lifetime, they were called heretics.

After they died and went, then people appreciated them. That is true of John Wesley. It was true of Martin Luther. It was true of all the great men throughout the years whom God used in a unique way. So he's not appraised.

Then he goes on to say, who has known the mind of Christ, of the Lord? That's quotation from the Old Testament in Isaiah 40. Who has known the mind of the Lord? And then it says this amazing statement.

This is what I want you to see. We have the mind of Christ. Paul could say, I have the mind of Christ. I mean, the Corinthians did not have it. He says later on, he says, I cannot speak to you like spiritual men.

Next verse. So we should work towards that goal to have the mind of Christ. And that is God's will. He has given us the Holy Spirit. And for that, let me turn to one last verse. Second Corinthians chapter three.

The Holy Spirit Transforms Believers Into Christ’s Image

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is described most fully in second Corinthians chapter three, verse 18. The mirror there is the word of God. Probably we get that from James chapter one. We look into the mirror, not in a legalistic way.

The veil is a picture of the law, as you read in verse 15. The veil is the law. And if you can read the Bible in a legalistic, according to the letter way, you won't understand it. And there's a veil over the Bible.

But he says, the veil has to remove. That means we get rid of this legalistic attitude in our mind, then look into the word of God. And what we see there is the glory of Jesus Christ. The glory of the Lord.

I'm not to get doctrines from the Bible primarily. I'm not to get teachings to hit other people with. I must see the glory of Jesus. And then that's the first thing the Holy Spirit does. And then secondly, the Holy Spirit changes me into that image from one degree of glory to another in my mind.

Then I will make most use of this one Mina. This one Mina is the 24 hours God gives me. And the other thing is this one self-will that we all have the same, the flesh. Everybody's got the same flesh.