April 6, 2003 Hebrews 5:7-9
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
The Premier of Australia said that when the Great War broke out, the Australian Commonwealth at once offered to do what they could to back Great Britain. They asked what was the most useful thing that they could do, and the reply came-"Build us ships: we want ships." The Australians did not build ships. Instead, they began to till the fields, sow seed, and reap harvests to send food to the motherland. Grain was gathered, put into sacks, and brought down to the water’s edge to wait for the ships. But the ships never came. The mice got in, and then found their way into towns and villages and cities, carrying disease with them-a disease that attacked the eyes of many and blinded some. And all the time Great Britain said, "Ships! ships! ships!"
All they had to do was "obey." But it seems that "obedience" is a lost art today. Kids don’t mind their parents. Employers don’t like to listen to their bosses. Patients won’t listen to their doctors. Wives don’t want it in their vows. It is probably considered worse than a cuss word to tell someone to "obey". Even kids will say, "you can’t tell me what to do!" It seems that we associate obeying someone with slavery. However, "obey" is NOT a dirty word. It does NOT mean INFERIORITY. It is something that God encourages. So today we will attempt to -
Learn the Lost Art of Obedience
I. Was found by Christ through reverence
Jesus once said of the Pharisees, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Mt 15:8) Even though on the outside the Pharisees seemed to be obeying God, on the inside - something was wrong. The peculiar thing about Christianity is you can have two people doing the exact same thing - but one will be blessed by God and one will be cursed - just like with Cain and Abel. More important than the actual action is the motive. So before we get to the art of obedience, we have to go one step back.
Several weeks ago we had a young man come into worship as a visitor, and he did a rather peculiar thing. When he entered into worship, he bowed his head and said a prayer. His attitude in approaching the throne of God was one of humility. That seems to be the sense of Jesus’ approach to His Father while he was on earth. He did it with "reverent submission." That word is also used in Hebrews 12:28 which says, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. In context, the writer was talking about how Moses approached God on Mt. Sinai where there was a burning fire, storm, darkness and gloom. Moses was shaking in his sandals and the people were also terrified. With the coming of Christ, a new kingdom had come - one that was even more glorious than that of Moses - an eternal kingdom. In light of the fact that God is in charge of life and death - that our eternities are in his hands - the last thing we want to do is to take Him lightly. We would rather be "devout" - remembering who we are and who God is.
The life of Jesus gives us an illustration as to what "reverent submission" is all about. What does it say Jesus did that showed reverent submission? He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death. The word for "petition" can mean "an olive branch." Strong says that when a person was in need, "they would implore holding an olive branch entwined with white wool and fillets, to signify that they came as suppliants." Maybe that’s where the white flag concept came from. Even though He was God, Jesus approached God the Father as someone that he needed desperately throughout His life. In his humility, He wasn’t using all of His powers. So he needed God’s help to keep the devil at bay, to stay strong, and to do what God told him to do.
Notice also HOW Jesus showed reverent submission in his prayer life. He prayed with LOUD CRIES and TEARS. He was not too proud as to cry to God for help, and even to sorrowfully beg His Father for help. When Jesus was in Gethsemane, he prayed so earnestly to God for help that his sweat came out like drops of blood. And finally, when Jesus was on the cross he cried out, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me." Before he died his last words were a loud cry, "father, into your hands I commit my spirit."
WHY did Jesus do these things? Because he realized that only God the Father could help him in these trials. He realized that only God could raise Him from the dead. Without the cooperation of the Father, He would be nowhere. In reverent submission, He realized He couldn’t go it alone. He needed the power and strength of the eternal Father to pull off our salvation.
And what happened? First and foremost, God heard him. He gave Christ the strength in Gethsemane to go to the cross. He raised Christ from the dead. He answered Jesus’ prayer. Secondly, he learned obedience from what he suffered. As Jesus studied God’s Word, it told him that he would be led like a lamb to the slaughter. God’s Word told him, "you will be sold for 30 pieces of silver. Your hands and feet will be pierced. The sins of the world will be put on your shoulders." As he experienced that suffering, he learned what obedience is really all about.
It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it. We often have to learn obedience by suffering. In other words, God’s Word says, "don’t get drunk." But we do, and then end up with a headache and an embarrassing story. We learn we should have obeyed God’s Word in the first place. So we learn to obey by disobeying. Now God’s law says that we have to suffer. But God’s love told Jesus to suffer, so he learned obedience by doing what He was told to do. What a sad irony - yet a happy one for us.
Why is it happy? As a reverent Son, Jesus only came to do one thing - His Father’s will. Throughout his ministry he made reference to His Fathers will. John 4:34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. In John 6:38 Jesus said, I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. Before Jesus went to the cross He prayed to the Father, "not my will, but yours be done." What if Jesus had for one moment said, "Father, I think you’re off on this cross thing, there has to be a better way." Then Jesus would have failed His mission. He would not have completed it. But Jesus did do what God told him to do. He stayed the course. He would not be distracted. And so the third result of Jesus’ suffering is that it made Jesus perfect. That might sound rather strange, since Jesus was always perfect. But another word for perfect is complete. In other words, by obeying what God’s Word told Him to do, Jesus completed His mission - to save the world. When he said on the cross, "it is finished" - that’s what Jesus was talking about.
II. Is illustrated for us for salvation
Besides the fact that the Father told Jesus to do these things, why else did he do them? The application is given to us in this last phrase. He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. Now, this phrase is a peculiar one - and one that could be and has been VERY misconstrued. For instance, the Mormon church explains it like this - "we owed God a great debt that we could never pay in our lifetime. So Jesus paid the Father the debt that we owed Him." It sounds good so far. But then they go on to says, "now Jesus is our creditor. He has stretched out our payments to HIM over a long period of time so that we can eventually pay God back by obeying him." And how do we obey him according to the Mormon church - getting baptized for the dead, going on missions, getting married and having lots of spirit children, the list goes on and on and on. Notice what they do with phrases like this. They turn Jesus from a Savior into a creditor - from one who gives us something to one whom we owe something.
So what does this phrase mean? Jesus became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. The word for source means an "author" or a "cause." Jesus used the picture of a well that never runs dry when he called himself the Living Water. The Bible constantly points to Jesus as a source of salvation - Jesus Himself said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me." I could point to many passages that talk about the salvation of Christ being a gift - last week we covered Ephesians 2:8 which so eloquently says "it is by GRACE you have been saved, not by works, so that no one can boast." When Jesus died He provided an unending source of holiness and righteousness that is unendingly poured out on us that makes us righteous before God. If we were to make this passage say that we are now saved by doing everything Christ told us to do - love our enemy, giving our first fruits, etc., it really would make God’s word a complete contradiction. But at first glance, it would appear that way.
However, let’s look at it in context and by examining what the word "obey" really means again. How did Jesus obey? He did it in attitude. Jesus showed humility - recognizing that in His humiliation He couldn’t use the power He had to save Himself - but He needed His Father. Jesus did it in faith. He obeyed by offering up prayers and petitions to the Father, and trusting in Him to deliver Him from death. In the fact that Jesus turned to the Father with these prayers and petitions throughout His life - that was the source of His salvation - because God was pleased with His reverent submission.
The whole problem with today’s society is that this idea of submission completely militates against the grain. The whole idea of approaching God in humility and prayer is just unheard of in today’s society - they’d rather draw attention to themselves and take pride in themselves. Even when we as Christians approach God’s throne every Sunday and begin with a confession, how often do we have a truly submissive spirit? We assume that this relationship with God is something that He owes us. We come to worship and act like this is an infringement on OUR time - and that God has no right to want more than an hour of worship. Instead of looking at prayer as a privilege, we look at it as a duty. Instead of approaching God with an attitude of, "I don’t deserve to be here," we say, "God, I’m here, now give me what I want." When we are called on to "obey" Christ now, it first of all starts by remembering that we are sinful and mortal human beings. We are not all powerful. We are not the masters of our destiny. We are not all knowing. We are weak, sinful, creatures who deserve only God’s wrath. God knows better than us. God is more powerful than we are.
The second concept of obedience is found in how Christ willingly did what the Father asked Him and trusted that the Father would deliver Him in the end. What does Christ ask of us? The best illustration I can think of is found in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. Here this Pharisee and teacher of the law came to Jesus, thinking that he knew the way to heaven, but not really sure. Jesus told him to be born again. Being born is a humbling thing. It’s being stripped of all your powers and lessened to a baby. He had to let go of all his "power" and "knowledge" he thought he had as a Pharisee - and be born again. But how? Jesus simply told him He needed to be born of the water and the Spirit. He needed to be baptized. Then Jesus gave him the gospel in a nutshell in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. What Jesus was saying to him was so basic - so easy - that Nicodemus couldn’t grasp it without the Holy Spirit’s power. But what Jesus was basically saying was, "let go of your knowledge, your prestige, and your works, and let me save you. Submit to MY righteousness and be saved." The whole message of Christ is that HE earned our salvation through HIS obedience and death. Just believe in Him.
Houdini, magician and escape artist, could get out of any jail, handcuffs or strait jacket that he ever tried-except one, a little jail in the British Isles. He worked at the cell door lock for more than two hours-at that terrific speed which usually unlocked doors in three seconds. But the lock wouldn’t spring. Finally, exhausted, he fell against the door. It swung open. It had never been locked. The problem with so many people in this world is written in Romans 10:3 that they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. They work and work and try to get to heaven by trying to do this and that. When in reality, the obedience of faith is so simple, humility and faith. That’s where the lost art is found.
Sir Leonard Wood once visited the King of France and the King was so pleased with him he was invited for dinner the next day. Sir Leonard went to the palace and the King meeting him in one of the halls, said, "Why, Sir Leonard, I did not expect to see you. How is it that you are here?" "Did not your majesty invite me to dine with you?" said the astonished guest. "Yes," replied the King, "but you did not answer my invitation."
Then it was that Sir Leonard Wood uttered one of the choicest sentences of his life. He replied, "A king’s invitation is never to be answered, but to be obeyed." In humility Jesus answered God’s invitation to save the world. This obedience caused much suffering. But he did it. As a result - he completed his mission and was raised from the dead as king of the universe. There is only one way to salvation - obey Jesus. Obeying Jesus is not a lost art. We don’t have to climb to heaven to get it. We don’t have to work our legs off to achieve it. You’ve already found it in Christ. If you haven’t, I encourage you to repent and believe in Christ as your Savior. Then you will be "obeying" Christ. More importantly, you’ll be righteous in God’s sight, and saved. Amen.
