Blessed Ignorance, Jesus Is Mine Series

But Jesus opened the door to those who wanted to know God. Not just to know about God with an academic knowledge, but to those who wanted to know God personally. In the next chapter here in John’s Gospel He will tell us that we will know the truth, and the truth will make us free. But the critical thing is knowing God personally, not just knowing facts about God.

The issue is that the Pharisees and other leaders wanted to establish an elite, and they put down everybody else who wasn’t in that elite. What caustic language they used!

Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law--they are accursed.

Christian, church member, Christian leader, deacon: when you think you know so much that others have to be put down, then you know too much of the wrong thing. When you think you know so much that others are discredited and despised, then you know too much stuff and you know too little of Christ! When you use your knowledge to establish yourself as an elite, then I say, “blessed ignorance, Jesus is mine”! Blessed ignorance, for I would far rather have around me young Christians and novice leaders and fresh deacons who want nothing more than to know Christ and the power of His resurrection than to have deacons who are the sons and daughters of deacons who are the sons of deacons who are the sons of deacons, all the way back to the banks of the River Jordan!

It’s not so much about what we know; it’s about whether we know Christ. I was reminded recently of the story of the evangelist Dwight L. Moody, who heard somebody say that the world had yet to see what God could do with one man fully committed. And Moody, though he had only a third grade education, determined to become that man, and so influenced thousands of people toward Christ. It was not so much about what he knew; it was about knowing Christ. “Blessed ignorance, Jesus is mine.”

I’m so glad that here at Takoma we bring new deacons on board nearly every year! I’m glad that we do not put somebody on the Diaconate and keep them there for a hundred and two years! I’m so glad that we do not have an established elite that puts down everybody else, because that’s what racism is founded on – putting down those who are different. That’s what sexism looks like – putting down women as unworthy of leadership or putting down men as unspiritual. That’s what ageism looks like – putting down young people because they haven’t been tested yet. If our church is true to its Christ, then I pray that those who accept places of leadership here will be ignorant of all the pride, ignorant of all the pomposity, ignorant of all the prejudice that too often accompanies spiritual leadership! I pray that you will know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I pray and I sing, “Blessed ignorance, Jesus is mine”!

The first issue is that religious leaders want to establish an elite and do not want ordinary folks to have spiritual power.

II

The second issue is that the leaders of Jesus’ day wanted to close off new ideas. They wanted to maintain the status quo. They wanted to keep things as they had always been. They had their answers, they had their way of doing things, they had their patterns, thank you, and they wanted no change. They remind me of that old ditty, “Our fathers have been churchmen for a hundred years or so, and to every new proposal they have always answered, ‘No’” It’s so easy to freeze up, so easy to get stuck in a rut.