The Heart of A Disciple – Obedience

October 30, 2022 Pastor: Hardin Crowder Series: The Heart of a Disciple

Topic: Discipleship

Scripture Reading 

  • Genesis 22:1-19 
  • John 15:1-8  

Opening Prayer 

Father God,  we gather here this morning as an act of worshipful obedience. We pray that you would open our ears to hear, our minds to comprehend, and our heart to receive your word. We pray that you would spur us on this morning to a deeper faith and a greater obedience. May it be said of us that we hold nothing back from you, that we abide in you, and that when all is said and done, that our lives produced much fruit through you and for your kingdom. Amen.

Introduction 

Last week we continued our sermon series “The Heart of A Disciple” by looking at what separates a committed disciple from an uncommitted “would-be disciple”. We looked at the uncommitted rich young ruler who refused to give up his wealth to follow Christ, as well as the flawed but committed disciples who left behind friends, family, and career for the sake of following Jesus. We saw that what made the difference was that the uncommitted saw Christ as merely another good thing to add to their life, whereas the committed disciples understood that they were sinners in need of a savior, and that Christ had come to save them.

This morning we are going to be focusing on the idea of obedience. Being a disciple of Jesus is more than just being committed to following him, it also means getting up and doing the things he calls us to do. After all, a disciple who never does what his master commands is not really a disciple at all.

Now obedience can be a challenging subject for some of us. When we hear the word “obedience” our minds might instantly jump to a time in our lives when we were forced to obey against our will. Maybe we think of an overbearing boss or an overly strict parent. This is sometimes what obedience looks like, but my hope is that we do not mistake God for an unloving or domineering authority figure.

God is the ultimate authority, and as Christian’s we profess Jesus to be both our Savior and Lord. This means that the commands of God and Jesus are not optional. The good news, however, is that God is good all the time. Jesus is a good shepherd and a benevolent King. If the command comes from God, even if we do not understand how or why, we can rest assured that obedience to the command of God is always for our good. I can think of few greater examples of this truth in the Old Testament than the lived testimony of Abraham.

Complete Surrender (Genesis 22:1-19) 

While he was far from perfect, Abraham is considered by both Jews and Christians alike to be a model of faith. It took great faith for Abraham, as an old man, to leave the land he had known all his life and to follow God to a land he had never seen, but Abraham believed in the Lord and obeyed. At the age of seventy-five, God told Abraham that he would become the father of a nation that would bless the world. Abraham did not understand how such a thing could happen, because he was childless and far beyond the age where he or his wife could hope to conceive a child, but Abraham believed the Lord and obeyed. Though he stumbled in faith many times, God preserved both Abraham and his wife Sarah, and eventually (when Abraham was one hundred years old, and his wife Sarah was ninety years old) his wife conceived and gave birth to a child that they named Isaac. 

This child’s birth was nothing short of a miracle, and all of Abraham’s hopes and dreams rested on the shoulders of this child. He was a living breathing reminder of God’s faithfulness and goodness. This is why it is so shocking when, in Genesis 22:2, we read that God told Abraham:  

“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”   

Genesis 22:2, ESV

Try to put yourself in Abraham’s shoes for a moment. What thoughts would have been running through your mind? What would you have said to God at that moment?

We know that in Abraham’s day there were pagan people in the land of Canaan who would sometimes sacrifice children to their wicked Gods. When Moses was preparing the people to enter the land of Cannan, God specifically forbade such practices (Leviticus 18:21). Even later in Israel’s history, we are told of a wicked Moabite king who sacrificed his own son as a burnt offering to his god Chemosh, trying to persuade this wicked god to aid him in war against Israel (2 Kings 3:28). I bring this up only to say that, as hard as it may be for us to comprehend something like child sacrifice today, it was a wicked practice that existed in the world of Abraham and Isaac. Remember also that Abraham had no way of knowing that God would not ask such a thing of him. The Law of Moses had not been written, and Abraham was taking every word God gave to him on faith.

There is no way for me to imagine that Abraham was not greatly distraught over what God was calling him to do. In the command God himself emphasizes Abraham’s love for his son. This was the ultimate test for Abraham, requiring absolute sacrifice and full surrender to God. Amazingly, we are told that Abraham set out to obey the Lord. Imagine having such faith. In this moment, we see evidence that a person can be fully surrendered to God. Though it may be difficult beyond comprehension, it is possible to put God first regardless of the cost. Abraham had learned that God is good and always keeps his promises, but his choice to obey in this moment truly testified to his belief in God’s ultimate goodness.  

Scholars who have looked to verse five when Abraham tells his servants, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you” (Genesis 22:5) as evidence that Abraham somehow knew that God would spare Isaac, even if he did not know how. The New Testament sheds even more light on Abraham’s thoughts when the author of Hebrews writes:  

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 

Hebrews 11:17-18, ESV

Abraham knew that somehow God would raise his son from death to life so that the promises of God would remain unbroken. Abraham had chosen to obey God, and somehow or another Isaac would live and give rise to a great nation, and from that nation would come the Savior of the world. Even through death, God would keep His promises. Abraham believed this, and he chose to obey even when obedience seemed impossible.  

He embodied the faith that King David would later write in his thirty fifth Psalm:  

“Commit your way to the Lord; 

    trust in him, and he will act.” 

Psalm 37:5, ESV

Abraham committed his way to the Lord, trusted in Him, and God acted. God stopped the sacrifice, provided a ram in Isaac’s place, and blessed Abraham for his willingness to withhold nothing from God, not even his beloved son.

“By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 

Genesis 22:16-18, ESV

This is a reminder that the heart of a true disciple is one of obedience, even when that obedience requires us to be sacrificial. True obedience requires putting ourselves and all that we love on the altar before God and trusting God to use it as he sees fit. Paul would later write to the church in Rome:  

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 

Romans 12:1, ESV

Our sacrifice is a one of death, but one of life! It is in our willingness to surrender all to God, not because God needs the gifts we have, but because he wants our heart!

It is natural to feel nervous about making such a big commitment, but until we are ready to put it all out there for God we are limiting what God might have in store for us. Everything we have is a gift from God, and the God who gave us these good things will certainly bless us more and more as we learn to trust Him in all things.

Sometimes obedience will come at a cost, and we will simply have to take the Lord at His Word, but He does not put us through trials and tests needlessly. The goal of a trial is to overcome the trial and to become stronger as a result. The goal of a test is to pass and to be wiser as a result. God may lead us through challenging circumstances, but always with the goal that, through obedience, we would become more Christlike in the end.  

If we are ever tempted to think that our Father is asking too much of us, or if we ever feel like the cost of obedience is too high, we should turn our eyes to Christ. God, who spared the life of Abraham’s son, would willingly sacrifice his own Son for the sins of the world. The God who gave us all good things, did not withhold the greatest gift from us. No cost of obedience will ever compare to the costly obedience of Christ on our behalf. Nothing we may be asked to sacrifice in this life will compare to the riches we have been given through Christ’s sacrifice for sinners like you and me.  

It seems impossible to think that we could develop a faith and obedience like Abraham, much less an obedience like Christ who is the one we are called to imitate. However, Christ on his way to the cross tells us exactly how we learn to grow and develop this superhuman faith.  

Abide in Christ (John 15:1-8) 

Earlier we read Jesus’ parable of the vine from John 15. What you might not have noticed is that John chapter fourteen ends with the disciples and Jesus leaving the last supper and beginning their journey to the Garden of Gethsemane. This is where Jesus would spend his last night in prayer before being arrested, tried, and crucified. This means that the parable of the vines was a conversation that happened as Jesus journeyed toward his own sacrifice on the cross. 

In some of the last moments Jesus would share with his disciples, he instructed them on how to remain faithful and obedient in the years (and centuries) to come.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

John 15:1-2, ESV

In the past God had used imagery of a vineyard to describe his relationship with Israel. Jesus borrows this imagery and adds something new to it. Jesus says that he is the vine, his Father is the vinedresser, and we are branches shooting out of the vine. 

Jesus is the vine, meaning that we (as branches) only have life if we are connected to Him. If a branch breaks away from the vine it will shrivel up and die. Therefore, Jesus stresses that the secret to spiritual life is that we must “Abide in him.”  

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 

John 15:4-5, ESV

To “abide” is a command with muchmeaning. It carries the idea of dwelling with him, to stay with him, to journey with him, and to rest upon him. It is to be with Christ and to never leave Christ, to take Christ with you wherever you go. It is to do our best to live our lives in his presence daily. It is only when we are mindful that Christ is with us, that we can be bold enough to do all the things that God has called us to do.  

Listen to the words of Christ given just a few verses earlier:  

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 

John 14:15-20, ESV

Jesus says that love for him should be expressed in obedience to all he has called us to do. Notice, however, that as we seek to obey, we are not doing so out of our own strength and power alone. The Holy Spirit is with us, and Christ is with us, as he promised “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” True obedience to Christ is possible when we love him as our Lord and seek to obey him by relying on his strength and power.  

How did Abraham have the faith to leave his home of seventy-five years to travel to a new land he had never seen? How did he have the faith to wait twenty-five years for the Lord to give him his promised child, and then have the faith to be willing to give that promised child back to God when the Lord asked it of him? It was only by a continual abiding walk with God that he learned to grow in faith and obedience. We who have faith in Christ and have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us have the potential for even greater faith than this!  

Now life in Christ is not always easy. If we abide in Christ and obey his commandments, we are like a branch that produces fruit. Like any good gardener, God prunes the fruit bearing branches of his vine so that they grow the maximum amount of fruit possible. Pruning is good, but it is also painful. We may go through times of pruning and testing to remove bad spots, useless buds, or misdirected shoots with the goal of making us even more fruitful. The idea is that by abiding in Christ and obeying his commandments, we can expect to see God working in us and through us more and more. When we face trials or tribulations, we can know that the end result is not our destruction but that we will emerge even stronger than before. The purpose is not to punish or harm the branch, but to strengthen it and preserve it.  

It may be tempting to think that bearing fruit is not worthy the pruning, but notice the warning that comes with this parable. Branches that do not bear fruit will be be taken away by the Gardner. They may have identified with the vine, but they never produced the fruit of obedience and so proved that they never truly belonged to the vine at all. They were dead branches with the illusion of life.

This is a frightful thought, but one that can easily be avoided. As Jesus himself said in John 15:8, it is his will for us that “you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” By this he was not saying that we must bear fruit to be a disciple, but that if we are a disciple (one who follows Christ and abides in his love) we will see the evidence of this in the fruit of obedience we bear. This fruit will result in greater and greater obedience to Christ, which will not only take our faith to new heights, but it will also result in greater and greater effectiveness as we seek to bring the lost and dying to the one who saves and gives us eternal life. The time of pruning may be painful, but the harvest will far outweigh any momentary discomfort or sacrifice.

In the meantime, when we face the times of testing and pruning, may we always do so with the heart of an obedient disciple. May we trust in God’s goodness even when we cannot see it, and may we abide always in the ever present love of Christ, apart from which we can do nothing. May we bear fruit in our lives, and may the fruit of our obedience lead others to our good and perfect savior.

Prayer of Decision: 

Father God, as we enter a time of decision, I pray that you would search our hearts and bring to our attention any disobedience that we may have sealed away in our hearts or minds. Prune away anything in us that might hinder our fruitfulness as we grow in you. Help us to remember that all we have comes from you, and give us a heart that is willing to give it all back to you, that you might use it as you see fit. Teach us to abide in you always, because apart from you we can do nothing. Remind us always of your goodness and love, and bless any decision we need to make this day. Amen.

Prayer of Dismissal:  

Father God, as we leave this place, I pray your peace and blessings over each one of us. Protect us in the weeks to come and help us to be lights in darkness wherever you send us. Guide us and lead us Lord. Amen.