OBEDIENCE
Read: Hebrews 5:8-9 Philippians 2:5-11
Many people who should know better still don't understand that the stirring of life, the awakening to faith in Jesus which is going on all over the earth at this hour
- is not a fad.
- It's not some kind of disease.
- It's not something cooked up by the media.
God is raising up a people to cover the earth with the gospel as this earth speeds toward it’s final hour.
As always God starts in the synagogue and the temple — the places where the gospel is already preached in some form. When these people harden their hearts to the message He goes out into the streets and lanes of the city, the highways and the hedges. Make no mistake about it, God is raising up a people to cover the earth with the gospel.
And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit and they shall prophesy.
It won't be some new sect, or some new organization, or some new teaching, or some new "Jesus Movement", it will be people who have been raised by God into the fullness of apostolic power. People who don't care two cents for their own lives. All they care about is to fulfill the purpose for which God ordained and sent them.
There will be old men who have waited all their lives to see these things and now to their great joy they will be part of it.
Women like Anna the prophetess climaxing a lifetime of fasting and prayer by suddenly being clothed with the authority of the ageless Christ. Young men waking out of their vanity into clear visions of God. Young women laying aside their own dreams and rising up into the purpose of God.
Don't look for these people on the pages of the Free Press, or Channel 7 news, or Time Magazine.
Don't look for them on the platform of the next big evangelistic crusade in Convention Hall.
Just go to your job, or your school, or your senior citizens meeting and soon you will be running into these people and hearing their witness. In fact, it is God's desire that you should be among them. That's why you're reading these words.
God is calling every person reading these words to be part of this people He is raising up.
"You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God's own people."
"That you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."
That you may proclaim Jesus Christ to this earth before the night of judgment falls.
But notice carefully how God is raising up this people — there's more to it than "accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior." More to it than "getting saved" as they say. More to it than "making a decision".
Decisions for Christ? Look at the people who made decisions for Christ on Palm Sunday. They must have had 20,000 decisions that day alone. If you had walked up to any one of those people and said to them, "Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?", they would have answered "Yes! Praise God! Hosannah to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" And they meant it – in all sincerity with tears in their eyes
It was no carnival in Jerusalem that day, it was an atmosphere of awe, worship, praise.
Jerusalem was visited by Heaven that day. The Messiah had come — and they were worshiping Him.
But it didn't last. Why?
They accepted Jesus Christ that day. Why didn't it last?
Because one basic thing was missing and it's still missing in 90% of the enthusiasts across your town who think that they've got hold of Jesus. They're praising Jesus. They're singing to Jesus - diggin' on Jesus - but the thing that's missing right from the start - and that's why nothing ever comes of it - is obedience!
You cannot have faith in Jesus –
You cannot know Jesus –
You cannot love Jesus –
until you obey Him.
"Launch out into the deep and let down your net for a catch."
How long would Jesus have stayed with Peter if Peter had sat there saying, "Praise the Lord!" and done nothing?
"Rise, take up your bed and go home."
What if the man lay there saying, "Hallelujah!" the rest of the day?
"Zaccheus, come down. I dine at your house today!"
If Zaccheus had kept saying, "thank you Jesus", but never left the tree?
"Go into the village over against you and straightway you shall find an ass tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me."
And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.
The ones who were used by Jesus in that glorious apostolic age — and the ones who are going to be used by Jesus in this day of the latter rain — are those who submit to Jesus utterly in obedience.
You say you want to have the Spirit of Jesus ruling in you. Don't you realize that the Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of Obedience?
"And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death on a cross."
You will save yourself a lot of grief if you will learn today that there are no short-cuts, no easy way.
There is only one way into the Kingdom of God — and it is the way of obedience.
"But I thought we were saved by faith. Doesn't the Bible say we're saved by faith?" Of course we're saved by faith in Jesus and His blood. But faith in Jesus is obedience. If you don't do what Jesus says, you don't believe in Him. And if you do what Jesus tells you to, you do believe in Him.... or you soon will.
If you're having trouble believing, the best thing to do is get under the yoke with Jesus and learn from Him to obey God in all things - to do exactly what God wants,
- not partly,
- not almost,
- all the way!
And soon you'll have faith.
People sometimes say — "Jesus was lucky.
If He wanted to go to Capernaum - He went to Capernaum.
If He wanted to go up into the hills and lie down under a tree - He could do it.
No schedule.
No phones to answer.
No appointments.
No deadlines.
No wife to support - no kids to feed.
He had it made!"
Did He? Jesus didn't draw a breath without that breath being in the will of His Father.
Jesus didn't smell a flower or eat a crust of bread without being in His Father's will.
In all things Jesus yielded to the press of His Father's Spirit.
"I come not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me."
"Not one word I speak is my own. It comes from the Father."
"Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through the things which He suffered."
- loneliness,
- misunderstanding,.
- rejection by these people He loved so much,
- followers who were forever letting Him down,
- people who were always there to take, - betrayed by a friend,
- mocked, spit upon, whipped, and finally raised up on that Cross while all the
powers of Hell broke loose upon Him.
Why did He do it? Because the Father wanted to save this stiff-necked human race - and this was the only way. So He obeyed,
obeyed,
obeyed, until Hit last breath left Him.
The redemptive work of Jesus Christ continues on the earth to this hour - through people who have submitted themselves all the way to His Spirit of Obedience.
Now ask yourself honestly - and don't be looking around measuring others –
Have you submitted yourself to that Spirit of Obedience?
Have you taken His yoke upon you? Have you yielded at every point?
There are a lot of people reading this who are going to have to say "No". You're afraid to obey! And do you know who's helping you to be afraid? The same Liar who helped Eve mistrust God and disobey.
You've got yourself thinking - with considerable help from Satan - that obedience to Jesus is a heavy, hard, weary, gloomy, unbearable thing. Whereas, in fact, obedience to Jesus is the most wonderful life you could possibly live.
Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
l. Obedience to Jesus is not gloom - it's JOY!
Do you think that Peter ever for a minute regretted the day he started obeying Jesus?
Do you think Paul ever had second thoughts?
When the believers at Caesarea tried to dissuade Paul from going to Jerusalem he said, "I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Obedience was their joy.
The person who finds obedience hard is the person who is only half obeying - the person who is holding himself back.
When you yield all the way, you experience joy such as you've never known in all your life. Your meat and drink is to do the will of Him who sent you and to accomplish His work.
Nobody ever yet got bummed out by being obedient.
Nobody ever got depressed by doing the Master's will.
"Who for the joy that was set before
Him endured the Cross"—- the joy of obedience.
2. Obedience to Jesus is not bondage - it's LIBERTY.
There are these people who say they don't want to get too wrapped up in Jesus because they want to be free.
"Naw, I can't be following Jesus. I don't want to give up my freedom!" –
and you look at the dude. He's got chains on his hands, chains around his mind, chains on his eyeballs, chains running right down his throat into his stomach.....
....and he's going to lose his freedom by following Jesus?
The beautiful thing is that when you start obeying Jesus every one of those chains break - those things that pulled you around like a puppet. Lust,
gluttony,
greed,
fear,
vanity, start falling away.
3. Obedience to Jesus is not natural — it's SUPERNATURAL.
You don't obey Jesus by means of your old will-power — that let you down a million times before.
You obey Jesus by means of that new heart and mind which God planted within you.
You obey Jesus with the same power by which the paralytic got up, took his bed, and carried it home.
You obey Jesus with the same power which enabled Peter to walk on the water.
There is no limit to that power. You take Jesus' word and start doing it and the power is there. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!
Jesus is calling for some definite things from people who read these words - talking to people reading these words
- about the way they treat the ones they live with,
- about their prayer life,
- about the way they handle their money.
He's talking to certain ones about the need to confess His name before men.
Jesus is telling a certain person "Get that chip off your shoulder and forgive".
He is telling somebody reading this never to take another drink - you can't handle it.
Jesus is telling a certain person "humble yourself".
Jesus is talking to somebody about living a double life. "You think it's the only way, but I have a better way for you...."
Jesus is not looking for Hosannah's - He's looking for obedience.
"Take my yoke upon you and obey and you will find yourself walking on a road of joy, liberty and power such as you have never known.
And I will use you in company with all the other sons and daughters of obedience to prepare the earth for my return."