Jesus On Obedience
Part 13 in series Hearing Jesus Again
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
August 16, 2008
In 1887 there was a testimony meeting and evangelistic crusade in Brock¬ton, Mass¬a¬chu¬setts, featuring the famous evangelist D.L. Moody. A young man stood to speak, and it soon be¬came clear he knew lit¬tle Christian doc¬trine. But he fin¬ished by say¬ing, “I’m not quite sure—but I’m go¬ing to trust, and I’m go-ing to obey.” A man named Dan¬iel Town-er, was in that meet¬ing. He jot¬ted down the words “trust and obey” and built a melody around them and then gave them to John Sam¬mis, who then developed the lyric to the popular hymn Trust and Obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet, we will sit at his feet, or we’ll walk by his side in the way; what he says we will do, where he sends we will go; never fear, only trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Isn’t that what it’s all about? We can come here to church week after week and listen to sermon after sermon, share story after story, sing song after song. But when it’s all said and done, what must we do when we walk outta here? We must trust God, and we must obey him.
Obedience. Obedience is passé in our time. Obedience is not often talked about. The notion of obedience to God in our culture, is in fact kind of frowned upon. Because the popular idea of God is that God only wants what you want. That God only wants you to feel good, and that God only wants you to be happy and feel good in whatever ways you choose. It is not at all a popular belief that we are to come at this from the other end, asking the question, “What does GOD want from me. How does GOD define happiness and wealth and success, and how can I be happy and wealthy and successful according to God’s standards? Many people today are hooked on spiritual pornography. Know what I mean? Spiritual pornography – using God, using faith, using religion, to gratify themselves, only seeing value in it to whatever extent it makes them feel good, or inspires them, or gives them peace about the afterlife. We’re living in one of the most spiritual times in history. People are open to spirituality, to notions about the spirit realm. More people today will tell you they are “spiritual” than perhaps in any other age. But the idea of obedience is not part of it. Squishy spirituality, spiritual pornography does not feature men and women and children acknowledging a sovereign, living God who is the rock, the truth, the anvil, the standard for all value and all worth, and then laying down on that anvil and allowing this Sovereign and powerful God, through trials and testing, to hammer us into his image as we trust him and obey him.
Obedience is the key to the Christian life.
We do not sing:
Trust and obey, it is optional I say –
To be happy in Jesus –
Just go your own way.
And at the end of the day
Everything will be okay
No. The most distinguishing aspect of Christ-followers is that they are following Christ. Christ-followers are most wrong when they are not following Christ.
Today we bring to a close our series on the Sermon on the Mount. It is my hope that in these weeks you have been challenged, provoked, moved, stirred, and encouraged. Most of all, I hope you have heard Jesus in a new way – understood more clearly than ever before the kind of life he has called you to. And we wrap up our series (week 13) with the linchpin – the most important thing you must do. As we have said, in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, one thing builds upon the thing before it. That has held true all the way through Christ’s sermon, and this is no different. Any good sermon will end with an emphasis on the most important thing – the thing the speaker most wants you to remember. And so Jesus brings to a close his Sermon on the Mount with what matters most in following him, with four illustrations on obedience. I will treat each one separately tonight.
Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
This series is called Hearing Jesus Again, and what I mean by that is considering that maybe what we have heard before may not be correct, or at least that there may be more to it. Typically when this passage has been taught about in the church, it is assumed that the narrow gate is doctrinal correctness. In other words, the narrow gate would consist of things like believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus, understanding Christ’s atonement for our sins, and perhaps having “correct” views on issues like baptism, “eternal security,” Calvinism, and things of that nature. If you didn’t understand any of what I just said, you are probably no worse for it, so that’s okay. But this is what is usually taught. The narrow gate is considered to be doctrinal correctness – having all the right views about all the right things.
Now if Jesus said “Enter by the narrow gate,” and the narrow gate is believing rightly about everything, then the most important thing is making sure I’m right about everything I believe. And since I won’t agree with everything you believe, then it becomes my job to convince you that I am right and you are wrong. After all, it can’t be me that’s entering through the wrong gate, so it must be you! And you believe that it can’t be you, so it must be me.
But this is a wrong understanding of what Jesus is saying. The narrow gate, as Jesus talks about it here, is not doctrinal correctness – having all the right beliefs about everything. The narrow gate is obedience to Jesus. What has Jesus been talking about all the way through the Sermon on the Mount? He has been talking about a life that is built on trust in God and obedience to him. Every week as I have preached these messages to you, I have shown over and over again how the way of life Jesus taught about is counter-intuitive. If someone demands that we go somewhere with them, it’s not intuitive for us to be willing to go further than they demand. If someone strikes us, it is not intuitive for us to let them strike us again. If someone disagrees with us, it is often not intuitive for us to allow them to harbor opinions that we believe might hurt them. The way of life Jesus proposes is not obvious, it is not a broad path. It is narrow in the sense that it is not the way of living one would naturally drift toward. It is also narrow in the sense that it is a very specific rule for living. Most people drift through life allowing circumstances to dictate their responses to things, or just doing whatever feels good. Jesus has proposed a very specific way for us to live. So the gate is also narrow in that sense. The narrow road – the path so easy to miss – is obedience to Jesus and the trust in him that is necessary in order for us to obey. It is obviously not doctrinal correctness Jesus is talking about because many people come to place incredible faith and confidence in God while they know nearly nothing about right doctrines. And unfortunately there are many people who seem to know a lot about doctrine but have hearts full of hatred and unforgiveness. “Knowing the right things” (doctrinal correctness) is not enough. The narrow road is obedience to Christ. The broad road is simply doing whatever I want to do in life.
Matthew 7:15-20 (NIV)
15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
By their fruit you will recognize them. What is the fruit here? The fruit is obedience! In other words, if you want to know who is the person who truly belongs to Jesus, simply look for the fruit of obedience. Does this person love their neighbors? Does he/she give to the poor? Is he/she increasing in humility? Do they forgive relatively quickly? This is the person who belongs to Christ. The person who does not show the fruits of obedience does not belong to Christ. Good trees bear good fruit, and bad trees bear bad fruit.
Who is the wolf in sheep’s clothing Jesus talks about? It is the one who tries to look good on the outside, who tries to fake discipleship to Christ. It is the person who tries to look good but has not allowed Jesus to really transform his/her heart.
Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV)
21 "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Let’s look at verse 21 in The Message:
Matthew 7:21 (MSG)
21 "Knowing the correct password—saying ’Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills.
Here Jesus crystallizes what he has been getting at all along. It’s not some spiritual password that is going to get us in with God. It is in fact only one thing – obedience – doing what God would have us do. Living a life that is continually open to him, directed by him, in touch with him through prayer and praise and thanksgiving, and doing what he would do if he were living our lives.
Note something important. Jesus draws a connection between this life and the life to come. When do we actually enter the Kingdom of Heaven? I’m not talking about heaven, I’m talking about the Kingdom of Heaven. What Jesus has been telling us is how we can live now, in this life, in the Kingdom of Heaven, even though we are not yet in heaven itself. And Jesus says it’s not fancy spiritual passwords and information and formulas that are going to get us into the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. It is obedience. For those who do not obey and do not get into the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, what will happen one day in heaven?
Matthew 7:22-23 (MSG)
22 I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ’Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’
23 And do you know what I am going to say? ’You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’
Those who do not get into the Kingdom of Heaven in this world will not get into it in the world to come. Why? Because like I taught 13 weeks ago, the life we live in the next world will simply be an extension of the life we lived in this one. Life in the God’s Kingdom now leads to life in God’s Kingdom later. Life outside God’s Kingdom now leads to life outside God’s Kingdom later. If you get on I-75 and follow it long enough, you will end up in Florida. Why? Because that’s where it goes! No matter how faithfully or sincerely you travel down I-75, you will never get to Seattle. You can’t get there from here. Heaven and hell are both simply the logical endpoints of our chosen paths. Some criticize God for this, as if what’s he’s doing is arbitrarily saying, “I’m going to throw some of you in hell and let some of you into heaven, depending on what you believe.” That’s not the case at all. What Jesus is doing is standing next to the road that leads to the Kingdom of Heaven and holding up a sign letting us know where it is and urging us to get on it. And he’s telling us where the other road logically and naturally leads. Being mad at God for where we wind up is about as logical as being mad at Seattle because I-75 didn’t get us there. If we want to end up in a certain place, we must get on the road that leads to that place.
Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
Jesus is talking here about the importance of God not being peripheral in life. Notice that both the wise and foolish builders had heard the words of God. The difference is not that one heard and one didn’t. And here we don’t even see fine theological distinctions – like one committed their life to Christ and one did not. The only difference Jesus points out between the wise and foolish builders is what? One hears and puts into practice, and the other does not.
Earlier I mentioned that some people use God as spiritual pornography – to get whatever buzz we’re looking for. Motivation, encouragement, inspiration, or just some feel-good moment. Or maybe insurance that they will go to heaven when they die. When we use religion, when we use God for our own purposes, we are not building our lives on the rock. We can understand that if we realize that our purposes actually ARE the sand. What we want in life, our dreams, our aspirations, our chosen ways of achieving happiness and success – those are the sand Jesus talks about. They are the temporary things that are all going the way of the dinosaur even now. This society around you -- one day it will all be so far gone that much of your current way of life will be lost forever to history. There’s virtually nothing you see around you that has any real future! This world and its ways and means – it’s power and position, it’s values – they are all on the way out. God’s Kingdom is on the way in. That’s where the future lies. Knowing what you know now, would you go back and buy stock in Enron? Seemed like a great thing then. The future looked bright. But there was no future for Enron and it was only a matter of time before Enron would be sliced up and liquidated.
Listen, this is amazing. Jesus knows what does and does not have a future in this world. Jesus says to build your life on his words and teachings because they are a rock. They will not change. They have a future. But there is no future for hatred in this world. There is no future for hopelessness. There is no future for lack of forgiveness. There is no future for poverty. There is no future for sadness. There is no future for worry, for regret, for fear. There is no future for violence, for faithlessness, for guilt, for contempt, for lust, for manipulation, for jealousy. These things are doomed. They will not make it very much longer. Jesus is saying, “Don’t build your life on these things. Don’t buy stock in them. Don’t buy into them as ways of life. Don’t let your emotions and actions be controlled by them. They’re on the way out. God’s Kingdom is on the way in. Build your life on it. Build your life on peace. On forgiveness. On faithfulness. On love. On humility. On joy.”
Jesus paints the supreme picture here of practical obedience. Clearly to Jesus the most foolish thing a person could ever do is to hear what he had to say, then go on living as if he had not spoken. Clearly Christ’s words were meant to be taken into the mind and heart, and then lived out in daily life. Obedience is key. It is only through obedience that Christ’s words come to life. They don’t come to life by talking about them. Forgiveness does not come into being because we hear a sermon about it. We do not give up manipulation and control because we talked about it in small group. We do not become generous even because our church asks for our support. We become the people God desires us to be only as we obey and put Christ’s words into practice in our lives on a daily, consistent basis. Obedience. It’s all about obedience.
That brings us to the end of our 13 weeks we’ve spent on the Sermon on the Mount. If you’ve been checking your Bibles, we’ve barely scratched the surface, too! This has been an overview, but I hope an effective one. I hope it has shown you the brilliance of the one many us claim to follow. I hope you see Jesus was not just a good teacher, but the smartest person who ever lived, who knew more about your heart and how you are wired than anyone who ever came before him or has ever been since. Finally, I hope you have gained new confidence that Jesus is worthy of your allegiance and your obedience for the rest of your life. Because he is.
We’ll take a breather for the next few weeks before we launch into our next series. I have really enjoyed this one, and we will continue to bring you series all this next year that will challenge you, encourage you, and help you place your confidence more fully in Jesus. Because his kingdom in on the way in, and the kingdom of this world is on the way out. Let’s continue learn to live in the one that has a future! Let’s pray.
