GENERATION ONE (Thaddeus)

"Extraordinary Obedience"

EPC - November 16^th, 2008 - Kevin Hale

John 14:19-30

I want to thank Mark and Scot for the wonderful job they had done in assisting me in this series Generation One.  Also, T has done a great job in communicating the Apostles songs for us as well.

It has been my desire to expose the truth about the twelve and their place in the foundation of our faith.  We as a staff have met many hours and prayed for all of you that you would be filled with the Word of God and get into it.  Also, that you would be filled with the Spirit of God and be molded or transformed or shaped into His image deep in your heart.

So right now please bow your head and begin to ask god to speak to you this morning.  Let Him speak to you. Block out everything and prepare yourself to hear what it is that God wants you to hear and what He is saying to you personally.

(Pause)

(Pray)

While we were away I was able to block out large portions of time to rest my mind and read the Psalms and Tortured for Christ.  For a long time I have tried to get you to the big picture of God's work here on earth or the big idea of passages that we have strolled through.

Sure He is personal and intimate but there is a larger picture than your personal devotions and private walk or special interests that you involve yourself in what people call the Lord's work or church.

One thing that brings real credibility to me concerning the bible is that it writes not what should have happened but what did happen.  These are true stories.

We have been promised so much but we tend to compromise rather that trust and believe.  We are challenged to trust and obey but many times we simply live lives of self will.

So I reason in my heart that many times we, in our walk with God, sometimes because of a lack of trust or disobedience will settle for far less than what God has planned for us.

Being an American in a "reward oriented" system of life (we get what get because we do what we do) we can blur what it means to be a Christian.  We celebrate DOING and many times are envious of the GETTING.

We can SING the truth but live our culture to excess.  We are going to explore how extraordinary ODEDIENCE helps us over come self will. (Satisfying one's own desire or adhering to one's own opinions and self interests.)

When we hear the word OBEY we go negative immediately.  Oh, he is talking about rules of things we cannot do and he is going to tell me what to do.  Our individual and independent spirit started long before America it goes back to Adam and Eve.  Disobedience is in our DNA.  To honor and obey one another is a bad thing today.

OBEY means to comply with or to be submissive to authority.  It implies weakness and oppression. We want freedom and think doing what we want to do is freedom. 

Illustrate with the Flip chart question. "I can't do anything by myself.  I can only do what my dad tells me to do."

They were asked to analyze this statement as counselors. *****

John 5:19 ¹⁹Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

So Jesus has this situation with these 12 that we have explored.  Judas Iscariot has now fallen and the others have quit one time or another.  They were being told that Jesus was not going to be here anymore and that His Spirit would fill them.  This was hard for them to take. I would rather follow a flesh and blood Jesus wouldn't you?  Now this inside part of me Spirit is difficult for me at times. (Acts 1:8)

Now they were to be sent out to be his witnesses (martyrs or proof of God).

Judas is a fine name it means "Jehovah leads".  It was only the actions of Judas Iscariot that has given it a negative association and very few people are named Judas even today.  So we have here a reference "not Iscariot" to make sure there is no misunderstanding.  He is referred to by three names Lebbeus (Matt. 10:3) and Thaddeus and Judas.  Judas was more than likely his given name and the other were nicknames.

Thaddeus mean "breast child" and Labbeus (Hebrew root) means "heart child".  He could have been the youngest child and favored by his mother thus a "momma's boy" in the minds of the siblings.

We get the impression he was much different than some of the more powerful personalities of the other disciples.  He could have had a child like heart or a tender more gentle personality. 

Again Jesus chose many different types of men.  He hung around Simon the Zealot but both did the will of God.

He is just little less obscure than James the less and we see a brief conversation with Jesus during the upper room meeting.

John 14

¹⁹"A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. ²⁰At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. ²¹He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

²²Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"

²³Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. ²⁴He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me. STOP

²⁵"These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. ²⁶But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. ²⁸You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.' If you loved Me, you would rejoice because ^£I said, ‘I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.

²⁹"And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. ³⁰I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. ³¹But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.

Notice his question is with reverence and sincerity and gentleness.  It is not harsh or bold or rebuking in any way.  They all expected Him to set up his kingdom now and exert His power but Thaddeus wanted to know simply why are you going to reveal yourself to us and not the world?

We can see in Jesus' answer a responding tenderness.

²³Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. ²⁴He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.

Jesus was not going to take over the world in the way these men hoped for but take the hearts of men and women one at a time.

We tend to want ANSWERS and Jesus seemed to be vague sometimes.  I think Jesus is all about understanding rather than knowledge alone.  He led them to understand.  We want to know the answers Oh I know the rapture and the tribulation and the second coming I been there done that.  I ask why do you hang out in the ministries and go weeks without worship and preaching oh I know all of that I will help Ken.  Maybe that is why our kids find it difficult to take God serious.

It is recorded by tradition that he took the gospel north to Mesopotamia in the area of Turkey and that he brought healing to the King of Edessa according to Eusebius the historian.  He was clubbed to death and was proof of God. (witness) Others say he was hacked to death.

Thaddeus obeyed the Lord and learned the lesson in John 7:17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.  Obedience to the truth is the key to spiritual growth.  If you do not obey what truth God is giving you know then you will not be given NEW truth.  We build our faith ... from faith to faith...

• Extraordinary obedience is connected to trust.

Obedience has become a dirty word for this culture.  People feel that they are free when they are able to make their own decisions and no one is going to tell them what to do.  But as we trust the Lord we are faced with obeying his leadership in our lives.

Jesus taught that obedience is freedom.

• Extraordinary obedience overcomes self will. (self interests)

It means to adhere to one's own opinions or desires.

The process of doing to get is basically selfish.  If we fail to recognize this and transfer it to our Christian walk it will destroy.

I see Jesus lovingly and patiently teaching these disciples that extraordinary obedience is not motivated by "getting".  Obedience can be very selfish.  The attitude of "What's in it for me?" or "What do I get?" appeals to our self will or interests. 

God's commands are a means to expose our selfish desires so he can transform or remake us into His people or His image.

So many view faith and prayer and obedience as a way to get what they want or think they need form God.  If we say a prayer and promise to do something and give this or that or serve in some way that you will get what you want.

Like God is little more than a Cosmic Vending Machine.  You see what you want and then pay the price and you get what you think you want or need.

• Extraordinary obedience is matter of loyalty and allegiance.

I read it out this way...if you get what you get because you do what you do then we must refocus the doing and the getting.

The question becomes "Why do I do what I do?"  Only God can be the why for us.  That is our struggle as we grow in the Lord.

It was the struggle for the 12.  The Sermon on the Mount that Jesus preached is contrary to that attitude.  God's commands are not to be obeyed as way to get what we want.

Jesus knew how much obedience is corrupted by self will or selfishness.  Genuine obedience to God is the path to freedom.

Matt. 6:5-6, 19-21 ⁵"And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ⁶But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you ^£openly.  ¹⁹"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

The Pharisees were very obedient and they went beyond what God even required.  God is not mocked.  He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts.  (It is not a virtue to go beyond what God requires)

When we read this passage we do not know who these hypocrites were because they are not named but we never think that it refers to us.  It actually applies to us first. "The lesson is that any prayer that is done for human approval is not a prayer for communion but a prayer for advantage." (F. Harry Daniel, Second Presbyterian Church - "Obedience and Selfishness" March 4, 2007))

We can do good things for the wrong reasons.  Knowing our heart is a struggle. Jeremiah says it is wicked who can know it.

I heard someone say be careful what you pray you might get it.  Deeper than that be careful why you pray.  Do you pray to get advantage or communion?  If our aim is to be seen or successful in the eyes of men then we have our reward.

I have learned that I/we must distinguish between being blessed from getting.  It is easy think that when I get then I am blessed.

J. Clinton McCann Jr. The Interpreters Bible, Vol IV, 978

"There is a persistent temptation to identify as the will of God what simply seems to promote selfish concerns and goals, which are often given high sounding labels."

We pray one thing but in the heart it is something completely different. 

F. Harry Daniel The whole of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' effort to undercut our self-interest by forcing us to give priority to God, and to our neighbor's or an enemy's needs. If we are to become children of God, it is by behavior like God's that we become God's sons and daughters. Each of us sets our heart on what we count important, and this allegiance determines the direction and content of our life. Praying in secret is the test of the sincerity of that commitment done without praise and reward of human beings. We know what Jesus means: looking to other human beings for their desires and wishes, so we may do what we do to get what we tell ourselves we have to get. We are called to recognize, root out, or discipline within ourselves those obsessive emotions, attitudes, desires, and ways of acting that blind us in our dealings with ourselves, each other and the world, and which corrupt perfectly good and useful impulses. Such corruption destroys, takes away our freedom to love.

Prayer is not a tool we are to use to get stuff from God that we want.  It is used in our relationship with God so he can communicate his will to us.

Do not try and use it to manipulate God to giving us our selfish desires. James says we ask amiss.

Extraordinary genuine obedience brings us inline to what God wants for us not rather we being given what we want.  Our happiness will come fulfilling His will in our lives.

Jesus brought all of these men to the true understanding of obedience and how the Love of God works.

Every one decides what is important to us.  The direction and content of our life is determined by what we count important.

I was not born with a bible in my hand quoting scriptures and singing hymns.  At some point I decided to listen to God and make him the highest priority in my heart.  Are you bored?  You decided that.  Not interested?  Know that you decide what your heart wants.

We can measure the sincerity of our heart by the private secret prayer closet.  No one seeing it or knowing it therefore there can be no reward form other people. 

True LOVE is the freedom to from self and self desires and interests not the ability to choose and get what we want.

Iris Murdoch puts it this way..."Freedom is the disciplined overcoming of self in order to see what is real..." (William Willimon - The Service of God page 83.)  When we speak of "deeper" we refer to RELATIONSHIP not knowledge. (genuine)

Growing in the Lord comes every time you do what you do there is the chance to move away from self to God.

CONCLUSION

Every time you do what you do, the opportunity is there for you to turn the central part of you into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are turning your life into a gracious, loving creation that is in harmony with God, and with your companion creatures and with yourself. Or else you are turning yourself into a self that is in a state of competition with God, and with your companion creatures, and with life itself. Each of us at each moment is progressing toward one or other. Do not despair. This same Jesus gave himself for us all and God raised him from the dead and by the power of the Holy Spirit he still is at work among us. This same Jesus wills life for us all: loving, fulfilled life. "While we were yet sinners Christ Jesus died for us." "God has poured God's love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us."

But the challenge is still before us to follow in his path. We have an important question to answer. Why do you do what you do?

RESPONSE

Trust And Obey Hymn

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain

Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.

Refrain

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.

Refrain

But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

Refrain

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.

Refrain