For two weeks now, Deacons Jun Go and Alex Chun are going through a Freshmen Integration Training in preparation for their upcoming masters in the Int’l Graduate School of Leadership. Though I am not really a freshman, I have to join that immersion experience. One of its highlights was a cultural awareness session. Since we have more than 10 countries in our batch, we have to give them a crash course about Filipino culture. For example, we taught them how we gesture to communicate [demonstrate some examples like asking for the bill and raising our eyebrows to say ‘Yes.’]. I also volunteered to demonstrate how to eat our world famous, fear factor comfort food, “balut.”[1] And we did not even talk about the “tabo”[2] and other unique things about Filipinos. If we are in a foreign country, we know we are in a Filipino home when we see those things.
Now, we claim to be followers of the Lord. How can we tell if a person is a follower or not? Open your Bibles to John 8:31-32. “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”[3] Let us pray…
We are now looking in the “V” part of our series on the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Servant-Leaders.” A servant-leader… “Values the Word”. How do we value the message that God sent, that is, His Word? We already saw that we can only ENJOY freedom when we EXPERIENCE God’s Word. Now, in our first point, we discussed that obeying God’s Word REQUIRES our entire being. Our Lord Jesus gave us this condition: “If you hold to my teaching…” Circle the word “hold”. To hold to His teaching is to follow it continually. Holding to the Lord’s teaching require our mind, our heart and our will. With our mind, we agree with the Word. With our heart, we accept it. With our will, we act upon it. We need the mind, the heart and the will to continually obey the Word of God.
Verses 31-32 are actually one sentence. It goes like this in the NET Bible, “If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” In the Greek, this conditional sentence shows a logical connection. When we hold to the teaching of the Lord, two things will happen as a logical result. First, “you are really my disciples.” Second, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Let us look at the first result. “If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples”. Obeying God’s Word REVEALS who we really are. The word “disciple” means “follower.” So, obeying God’s Word reveals that we are really His followers.
The Gospel of John gave us three marks of a follower of the Lord. That’s where we got our mission statement. “Glorify God By Multiplying Biblical, Committed and Loving Followers of Jesus Christ.” The first mark is in John 8:31. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” This is the “Biblical” part in our mission statement. Then, the second mark is in John 13:35. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This is the “loving” part in our mission statement. And the third mark is in John 15:16. “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” This is the “committed” part in our mission statement. That’s the kind of followers we want to multiply. We want to multiply Biblical, committed and loving followers of the Lord.
It will be a contradiction if we claim to be followers of the Lord and not follow Him at all. In Luke 6:46, Jesus said, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Thus, the Lord had set this benchmark. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” When we obey, we prove that we are truly His followers. Note that He said these words to people “who had believed him”. That if they truly believe the Lord, they will follow Him. The call to faith in the Lord is also the call to follow Him. Believers are called to become followers also.
In the M-G-C… the Master’s Great Commission… we are commanded to “make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”[4] Note that it did not merely say “teaching them… everything I have commanded you.” If that’s how to fulfill the Master’s Great Commission, we would have fulfilled it a long time ago. We can just teach you and you can just take notes. Then, you are now followers. Mission accomplished! But it actually says “teaching… to obey”. Now, that’s entirely different! It is not enough that we teach you. We should teach you to obey.
You know I wonder why people think “how to” sermons are shallow. I wonder what would make you think a message is deep. Would you consider a message deep when it is peppered with Greek and Hebrew? Would you consider a message deep when it is full of theological words? What is deep really? Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying we should not check the Greek and the Hebrew. Whenever I would preach, I would seek to diagram my text in Greek. I am not saying that we avoid theology. I love theology. What I am saying is that just quoting Greek and mouthing technical words does not make a message deep enough. I just suspect that there are people who look for those so-called “deep” messages because it is easier to debate and discuss but it is much harder to do it. It is easier to argue but it is harder to apply. There are people who would rather play safe than really obey. But God is more concerned with our character than with our comfort.
We have already heard a lot of “ought to” sermons. “You ought to do this. You ought to do that.” But we end up feeling guilty. There are times we know what we ought to do. But we don’t know how to do it. That’s why we need to hear not just “ought to” messages but also “how to” messages. Practical is deep. When pastors prepare messages, we usually ask, “How does it look like in the life of my listeners?” So, when we listen to the Word, we must ask, “How does it look like in my life?” I will always say this: “God gave us the Bible not to inform us but to transform us.” The aim of our messages is not just to challenge us but also to change us.
We read this in Colossians 1:28, “We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ.”[5] Knowing a lot of things about the Bible does not automatically make us mature. Don’t just be content with merely having a lot of notes. By all means, take notes. But always remember that knowledge brings responsibility. Knowledge is not an end by itself. It is a means to an end. The end result is maturity. It is when we teach to obey and you listen to obey that you become mature. When you take down notes, also write there how you plan to obey what you heard. So, are you a follower of the Lord? Are you obeying His Word? If I look at your life, what would your life reveal about who you really are?
That is why we encourage you to join a small group. Many of us are afraid to join a small group because we are afraid of sharing. We claim we are shy. We feel safe with a big group. We are threatened with a small group. But we are supposed to share only when we want to. We are not really forced to share. We only open details of our lives to our group to the extent that we trust that group. What is important is that we gather with two or three people to discuss how we can apply God’s Word and to hold each other accountable in obeying God’s Word.
Let us read John 8:31-32 again. “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” So, the first result of holding to the Lord’s teaching is that it reveals who we really are. Now, let’s look at the second result. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” How come there are those who know a lot about the Bible and yet we still see them in bondage of sin? Circle the conjunction “then”. That shows that knowing the truth is a result of following the truth. In fact, in the Jewish perspective, knowing is doing. We don’t understand the truth until and unless we obey the truth. In the Greek, the word “know” does not refer to knowledge as opposed to ignorance. The word “know” means knowledge “acquired through experience”.[6] That’s why The Message version goes like this: “Then you will experience for yourselves the truth”. So, it refers to knowledge as opposed to disobedience. We don’t really know unless we truly obey. Knowing is obeying. That’s why my main point is that we can only enjoy freedom when we experience God’s Word.
One time, a person argued with me about tithing. He said he can’t accept giving ten percent of his income to the Lord through the church. He asked me, “What if I need 1,000 pesos for my expenses during the week? Then, what if I only earn 1,000 pesos? That’s exactly what I need. If I give my tithe, then my budget will fall short.” I answered him, “You will only understand tithing when you actually tithe. You will only experience the blessing of God when you give back what belongs to Him.”
When we experience God’s Word, we will enjoy freedom. Note what follows when we obey the Lord. Verse 32 tells us, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Obeying God’s Word RELEASES us. In the introduction of “Love Rules,” our Ten Commandments series, my main point was that the law of God liberates us and does not limit us. His commands are God’s protective boundaries for us. It is for our good. It is for our benefit.
There are some young people who could not understand why they have to wait till marriage before having sexual relations, why they have to obey their parents rather than their friends or why they have to follow God’s standard rather than the world’s standard. They imagine that they can test the limits. They think they can dare to disobey because they assume that they can always ask God for forgiveness. They think that their parents are just cramping their style. That they are just limiting their freedom. They even argue, “How can we know what is right and what is wrong if we don’t experience both right and wrong?” That is foolish! That is getting experience the wrong way. You don’t have to experience what is wrong in order to know what is right. Experimenting with what is wrong will always bring consequences even if you ask God for forgiveness. That is not freedom. That is bondage. You have to experience what is right so that you would not experience what is wrong. That is getting experience the right way. God’s limits actually set you free. When you obey your parents, you are truly free!
Brothers and sisters, we can only enjoy freedom when we experience God’s Word. Obeying God’s Word requires our entire being. It reveals who we really are and it releases us. Let us pray…
[1]Fertilized duck’s egg.
[2]Water dipper.
[3]All Bible verses are from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.
[4]Matthew 28:19a, 20a.
[5]The NET Bible.
[6]W. Bauer, F.W. Danker, W.F. Arndt, F.W. Gingrich , A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, third ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2000), 199.
