How to participate in Jesus’ gospel movement

Song: You’ve Got to Know This Jesus Well

You’ve got to know this Jesus well, you’ve got to know this Jesus well. You’ve got to study and pray, you’ve got to walk in his way, you’ve got to know this Jesus well.

You’ve got to know what he really taught, you’ve got to live how he really taught. Let the mind in him be also in you, you’ve got to live how he really lived.

You’ve got to know why he died, you’ve got to know why he died. Good shepherd laid down his life for his friends, you’ve got to put your life on the line.

Let’s pray for the extension of the spiritual family of God.

In order to participate in the gospel movement, there are three awesome essentials:

·       soak in the truths of the many-sided gospel

·       study Jesus’ many-sided gospel experientially

·       find the Spirit of Truth therein

How to do this? I’m going to give you two methods. The first is based on study, used as a springboard for experience. The second is based on experience, and it includes study.

First method

Select one of Jesus’ expressions of the gospel of the kingdom. Ponder it at length. Let it sink into your mind and heart and soul. Reflect on it intellectually; you may find added meaning in some of its key words and phrases by associating them with other teachings in The Urantia Book. Take time in silence to allow the spirit to bring home the truth of this expression to you. The experiential part is to put this truth into practice. If you have a study group that is willing to do this with you, commit to reporting your experience back to them, and see how teamwork can multiply your effectiveness. Repeat this process with other expressions of the gospel that highlight different sides of the gospel, for example: God is your Father and you are his sons and daughters, and this truth, if you wholeheartedly believe it, is your eternal salvation.

Second, get to know people well.

[Jesus] sends in his place his Spirit of Truth, who is designed to live in man and, for each new generation, to restate the Jesus message so that every new group of mortals to appear upon the face of the earth shall have a new and up-to-date version of the gospel, just such personal enlightenment and group guidance as will prove to be an effective solvent for man’s ever-new and varied spiritual difficulties.

Third, connect gospel truths with others’ needs and receptivity

“Go, then, into all the world proclaiming this gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men to all nations and races and ever be wise in your choice of methods for presenting the good news to the different races and tribes of mankind.

Second method: How did Jesus accomplish these essentials?

By growing up. We can grow up with Jesus in a balanced and vigorous way. The experiential study of Papers 123-129 enables us to grow up with Jesus.

Realizing the deep truth of life, which is the gospel he would proclaim.

Identifying totally with the Father, choosing his will by personal and wholehearted moral decisions.

Participating in the religious life of his people.

Going to extraordinary lengths to get to know people well, including diligent study of the scriptures and religious writings of the people he was working with.

Adjusted his teaching to the different ages and stages of the human life cycle.

Whetting appetites by teaching in small doses.

Attracting inquiry by his truth-coordinated life, which integrates scientific living and spiritual living in his beautiful wholeness of righteousness.

Gaining experience in personal ministry before undertaking public ministry (mass communication media).

Jesus was the truth that he taught, and how he taught was perfectly unified with what he taught.

In the light of these two methods, please refresh your prayer in total faith for the extension of the family of God.

Additional resources? To guide you into the beautiful wholeness of righteousness, a philosophy of living can help, a philosophy commensurate with man’s intellectual and cultural development. Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. And if you are thinking of getting some education to prepare yourself to participate in the gospel movement, I definitely want to speak with you.

We conclude with a skit.

The neuroscience prof and the enthusiast

JHW: Hi, how are you?

MAT: Fine, it was nice to see you in the cafeteria this morning before class.

JHW: Yes, your Introduction to Neuroscience is a really great class. . . . Say, I’ve got something I want to share with you. A few words that you have dropped in class made me think that you might be open to it. It’s this awesome book.

MAT: Actually, I know that book.

JHW: Cool, I just found it a few months ago.

MAT: How much have you read?

JHW: A little bit from the beginning of Part I; then I pretty much skimmed until I got to Part IV, but with my Christian background, I was naturally interested in the stuff about Lucifer and Adam and Eve. It’s Part IV that really grabbed me. This gospel is what the world needs. I just want everyone to see this book.

MAT: Would you like to learn to express that gospel so well as to lead persons to seek further and perhaps eventually discover the book?

JHW: I sure would. Can you help me?

MAT: The book has lots of teachings that help you to do that; but there’s one main thing I would like to emphasize with you to begin with.

JHW: What’s that?

MAT: The receptivity principle.

JHW: The receptivity principle? What’s that?

MAT: Let me give you a quick quote. “Always must the religion of revelation be limited by man’s capacity of receptivity.”

JHW: Wow, you’ve got that memorized. Very impressive.

MAT: Not really, I’m reading a script.

JHW: What about Jesus and receptivity?

MAT: We are told that by the end of his adolescence Jesus was “becoming expert in the divine art of revealing his Paradise Father to all ages and all stages of mortal creatures.” Think what that implies about how Jesus, the master teacher, would adjust his expression to different levels of receptivity.

In the ordination sermon, Jesus told the apostles not to cast their pearls before individuals with zero receptivity who might react aggressively against them.

JHW: That’s right. Some people out there are very hostile to religion.

MAT: As the apostles were beginning their public work, Jesus expressed the principle of receptivity in these words. “When you enter the kingdom, you are reborn. You cannot teach the deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh; first see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple.”

JHW: This is a vivid image, and it stood out to me when I first read it. This is a psychological truth that spiritual teachers need to recognize. It’s just like you have to know something about chemistry and biology before you can get very far with neuroscience.

MAT: You got it. The principle of receptivity is about balancing spiritual idealism with scientific realism. Spiritual teaching becomes more effective when guided by psychological, sociological, and personal understanding. Is the principle of receptivity beginning to become clear in its implications?

JHW: Yes, professor. But this is all so new to me that, to be honest, I’m barely comprehending it. What you have said sounds wise, but at the implications could make me change my approach. I’m going to need to pray about this.

MAT: Good. And it’s not just about other people’s receptivity; it’s also about your receptivity. If you are really going to pray deeply, then I have one more recommendation for you. Satisfy the challenging conditions of effective prayer at the end of Paper 91. As a neuroscientist, wish to offer a word of caution. In the Thought Adjuster papers we are told that we mortals are “so largely electrically and chemically controlled, so highly animallike in our common behavior, so emotional in our ordinary reactions, that it becomes exceedingly difficult for the Monitors to guide and direct them.” We can pray quickly and feel good about the answer that we seem to get; we can interact and feel good about how things went. But the hormones that are typically involved in these positive emotions—the oxytocin, the dopamine, the serotonin—all make you feel good, and you might get the idea that your thinking, feeling, and doing are divine. I simply wish to remind you that there are various causes that can stimulate the production of those hormones. You are entitled to feel good when you are doing your wholehearted faith best to seek and find and choose and do the will of God. But remember not to take your positive emotions as a reliable guide to how well attuned you are with divine truth, beauty, and goodness. A full prayer process gives you a better chance to discern God’s answer.

JHW: That is a sobering reminder. I had not expected neuroscience to help me become better at sharing truth.

MAT: If you become truth-coordinated, by integrating science and religion in your daily life, and if you learn to “exemplify in your life the beautiful wholeness of righteousness, then others will seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired.”

JHW: Gimme a break! My capacity of receptivity has been exceeded! Who wrote this script anyway?

MAT: Gimme a hug! My capacity for love is overflowing!

JHW and MAT hug and then turn and gesture hugs to the audience.