The Benefits of Obedience
A relationship is built on two pillars. Love and trust. You cannot love someone deeper than you can trust them. Trust is built on truth. Paul states in 2 Timothy 3:7 that in the last days people “are always learning but never come to the knowledge of the truth.” This describes our culture. There has never been a time in history where there is so much learning going on and so little truth. In John 14, Jesus declares that He is the truth. (Inserted at bottom of message)
To love you must have trust. Trust is based on truth. Truth is revealed through action. Talk is cheap. Words are not to be trusted. Action reveals the heart of a person. Action validates love. This is true in all relationships- including our relationship with God.
Five times in John 14-15 Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” He then lays out for them 5 benefits of walking in obedience before God.
Benefits of Obedience
Obedience leads to power in Holy Spirit- 14:15-17.
1. Jesus begins with this recurring theme statement, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” Then He introduces the first benefit of walking with Christ.
2. “I will ask the Father and He will give you another”- there are two possible meanings of another. One is another that is not of the same kind. The Greek word here though means “the exact, identical kind.” Jesus says that He will ask the Father and the Father will give us a clone of Jesus.
3. “Advocate or counselor”- the Greek word literally means “one called alongside to help.” Holy Spirit is given to us to come along side us and help us live out our faith. How does He give us help? He leads us into all truth. We will always have access to the perfect truth in all situations.
4. He will never leave you. The world does not have access to Holy Spirit. He is a gift to believers from God to empower them to live by faith and walk in truth. He lives in us. He will never leave us.
5. When we were saved, God gave us the gift of Holy Spirit to live within us till we see Jesus face to face. He gives us the strength to obey God. The more we walk in obedience to God the more powerful is the work of God in our lives. However, when we begin to walk in disobedience, the power of Holy Spirit is lessened within us. He doesn’t leave us; He just goes quiet. This is the cycle of obedience/disobedience. Don’t miss the importance of this truth. The more I obey, the more power I have to obey. The less I obey the less power I have to obey. There is a reset button. It is called confession and repentance.
6. Take a few moments and think about the value that Holy Spirit brings to your daily life. Now look at how Holy Spirit validates your obedience… He does this by pointing us back to God’s Word and revealing truth.
Obedience leads to revelation- 14:18-21.
1. Jesus tells His disciples that He will see them again after the resurrection. He is not abandoning them as orphans. Then He gives the same refrain again. “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me.”
2. Jesus gives the second benefit of obedience- “I will reveal myself to the obedient.” Obedience leads to revelation from Jesus. Jesus says that when we authenticate our love for God through obedience, we will receive the revelation of Jesus. Obedience reveals my love and allegiance. It is not the reverse. We don’t obey our way into loving God. Obedience without love is legalism. When we fall in love with God, obedience becomes a natural response. When we walk out obedience based on our love for God, Jesus promises to reveal Himself to us.
3. How does Jesus reveal Himself to us? The Word, friends, circumstances, prayer, and intuition. Obedience opens the pathway to communication between God and I.
4. Matthew 7:3-5. Once I remove the log from my eye, then I can “see clearly.” What enables me to see clearer? Obedience.
Obedience leads to intimacy with God- 14:22-26.
1. Judas asked, “Lord why will you reveal yourself only to us and not to the world?” Jesus’ response: “All who love me will do what I say. We (my father and I) will come and make our home with each of them.”
2. This is a beautiful word picture painted by Jesus. God wants to make His home in the hearts of the obedient. Home is the place of family. It is comfortable. It is where we go at the end of the day to enjoy those who love us most and “kick our shoes off.” It is a place of safety and security. It is a place of intimacy and love. That is where God wants to live. He wants to live in every part of our “house.”
Obedience leads to peace- 14:27-31.
1. Jesus wants to leave us a gift- peace of mind. It is a gift the world cannot give. His (He who is love), coupled with His peace has enabled us to live in freedom from fear.
2. It is the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), and it is a gift of obedience.
3. There are two rulers: the ruler of this world (Satan v.30), and the ruler of the universe (Jesus Christ). Jesus has all authority over everything. Satan has no power over Jesus. When we walk in obedience, Satan has no power over us either. The result is peace. The first thing we lose when we sin is our peace.
Obedience leads to fruitfulness- 15:8-10.
The fruit is the fruit that comes from remaining in Christ. Obedient Christians are fruitful Christians. We have fruit in relationships. We have spiritual fruit. We have the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The fruit of obedience is an incredible blessing that God gives those who walk with Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, each day I intentionally pursue things that make Godly peace. I see to it that my words, attitudes, and actions edify and build others up rather than injure or put them down. I obey the Lord’s command to make it my focus to edify others. Therefore, I give no place to the devil by allowing distrust, suspicion, or contempt to spring up and manifest in my life. I choose to follow the great plan of God, carried out through the direction of Holy Spirit, and I refuse to deviate from it so He can build us into the glorious design the Father envisioned before the foundations of the world!
I believe this in Jesus’ Name, Amen
John 14 – The Message
The Road
14 1-4 “Don’t let this rattle you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”
5 Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”
6-7 Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”
8 Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.”
9-10 “You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.
11-14 “Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.
The Spirit of Truth
15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.
21 “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”
23-24 “Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.
25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
28 “You’ve heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m on my way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of my life.
29-31 “I’ve told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, the confirmation will deepen your belief in me. I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father’s instructions right down to the last detail.
“Get up. Let’s go. It’s time to leave here.”
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Peter Henneberry, EMIC Groups Pastor |
