Obey, Obey, Obey, Obey

Introduction

I think the title of today’s message makes the main idea clear. I didn’t need to repeat it 4 times but this is reminiscent of when our kids were younger and one of our parenting ploys. You have maybe heard the football anthem that goes like this, “Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole.” Well, Becky and I would keep our sanity in the midst of disobedient children by singing, “Obey, Obey, Obey, Obey.” Yes, the things you do as a parent to keep your sanity...

The idea of obedience is often a distasteful concept or idea in society. Why is that? Consider this quote by 19th century English author Oscar Wilde:

“ Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and rebellion.”

Or this one by American author Henry David Thoreau:

“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”

Many people chafe under the idea of being obedient and this is traced all the way back to our original sin in the Garden of Eden where we were given one rule to follow and we failed. One of the great paradoxes of life and of the Biblical worldview is that God gave us free will yet desires our obedience.

A few weeks ago we looked at the passage in Acts about Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch and I told you that we may revisit it because there are many themes in this passage. We are back in chapter 8 of Acts today to look at this idea of obedience. Please follow with me starting at verse 26.

Scripture Reading

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 8

26 An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.,) 27 So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem 28 and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud.

29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.”

30 When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this:

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,

and as a lamb is silent before its shearer,

so he does not open his mouth.

33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who will describe his generation?

For his life is taken from the earth.,

34 The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?” 35 Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that Scripture.

36 As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water. What would keep me from being baptized?” 38 So he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Please join me in prayer...

Background

In this sermon series going back to last Fall, we have been talking about first century church and the structures and things they did. We are doing that because we desire Creek Fellowship to be like a first century church by keeping the main things the main things: teaching and preaching the Bible, fellowship, prayer, and breaking bread together. If you come here seeking the latest discipleship programs or seeking slick presentations by the pastor or a production in our worship music, you will be disappointed and you might as well start looking elsewhere. That is not Creek Fellowship because that is not the church you read about in the Bible. In the Book of Acts, Luke paints a picture of a church body that gathers often in prayer and fellowship and diving into the Bible. If that is what you are looking for, then welcome home to your family.

Today we are going to take the idea of church to a more personal level...our mission at Creek Fellowship is “Seek, Save, Make” and that mission is to make disciples. We hear that word “disciple” in church circles but do we know what a disciple is? Have you ever really asked yourself, “Am I a disciple?” or is it something that you just assume that you are because you go to church. My goal today is that you leave here with a clear understanding of the defining mark of a disciple and I want you to be wrestling with the question, “Am I a disciple of Jesus Christ?” Today I want to focus on Phillip as a model disciple for us as people seeking to follow Jesus in the 21st century.

Exposition

We are first introduced to Phillip in Acts chapter 6 when the apostles needed some qualified people to serve the widows. The apostles turned to the church body and said, give us names of 6 people who are full the Spirit and wisdom and of good character. Phillip was one of the 6 chosen so we know that Phillip was well-regarded by his peers and God’s hand was upon him. Next, we see Phillip at the beginning of chapter 8 going to Samaria to take the Gospel. This was no small task. The Samaritans were half-breed outcasts to the Jews and they certainly would not have been likely people to include in God’s kingdom. But God blessed this ministry and brought huge crowds to Phillip to respond to the Gospel. Whether serving widows or leading a big evangelism movements, no task was too big or too small for Phillip.

In today’s passage we also see Phillip living up to his common name - Phillip the Evangelist - with the Ethiopian eunuch but I want us to focus on Phillip’s choices and behavior that got him into the position to evangelize the eunuch and bring the Gospel to the African continent. If you have your Bible, look with me at verses 26 and 27:

“26 An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.) 27 So he got up and went.”

Phillip had a thriving ministry in Samaria which was bearing lots of fruit. Certainly he was riding high on the Holy Spirit wave with preaching and healings and conversions. Then an angel comes and tells him to go to some remote road in the desert well south of where his ministry was booming. Let’s put this in a local context here, let’s say that you have your crab pots set in the choicest location - across the mouth of a narrow creek opening into the bay. Every day you are pulling in boat loads of crabs, literally. Then your wholesaler comes along and tells you to move all your pots to the center of the main shipping channel of the bay. You have a choice - ignore the guy you are working for and keep crabbing the creek entrance where the crabs are plentiful or listen to your boss and go do what seems to be the dumbest idea you’ve ever heard. Now you see the situation Phillip was in. What did he do? Verse 27: “So he got up and went.” He moved his crab pots. Phillip was obedient.

And this wasn’t just a one-time thing. In verse 30, Phillip is hanging out in the desert, probably wondering why he was there and, if he was anything like me, stewing over the fact that he wasn’t in the game. By all appearances he had been benched, sent to a desolate place with nothing to do. But while he was sitting there, the Holy Spirit grabbed his attention, showed him a chariot coming down the desert road, and told Phillip to go and join the chariot. Phillip ran to the chariot. He may have been thirsty or he may have been lonely but I think it is likely that this was characteristic of his obedience. Twice Phillip received a message from God to “Go” and he went. Obedience is a habit of Phillip. No doubt his ministry to Samaria was initiated through some act of obedience and his serving of widows was also an act of obedience after the church called him into service. Phillip’s life was characterized by obedience.

And let me say a word about the nature of Phillip’s obedience because I think it is important for us to see. The obedience that we see in Phillip and the God-honoring obedience that we see throughout the Bible has three qualities: it is immediate, it is complete, and it is joyful. In verse 27, after the angel finished giving instructions, Phillip got up and went. He did not stay in Samaria and spend a few weeks turning over all of his preaching and healing responsibilities to someone else. He got up and went…immediately. He didn’t say, “Let me pray about that” in order to buy time and hope the angel would forget. He got up and went…immediately. Phillip’s obedience was also complete - he didn’t go half way or go to the wrong road. He did exactly what he was told to do. There is also a joy in his obedience that is easily inferred. Have you ever been asked to do a job that you didn’t like, maybe it was dirty, smelly, difficult, or below you? Take out the trash, rake the leaves, or change a diaper. How do you approach those jobs? Maybe you drag your feet, grumble a little, or you “get distracted” on the way. You see none of that from Phillip. In fact, he ran to the chariot. Phillip modeled Biblical obedience - immediately obey, obey completely, and have a joyful heart in obedience.

Let me just be the first to say that my obedience is rarely characterized by those three. In fact, I have created a verb to describe the opposite of Phillip’s obedience. I call it to “Jonah” after that guy in the Old Testament who got swallowed by a fish. Why did he end up in the belly of the fish? God told him to go to Ninevah to save some heathen people and Jonah got in a boat and headed the opposite direction. I have been there - I was shown that I needed to lead my wife and my family, I ran the other way, and I ended up in what was my own version of a belly of a fish. In the end, Jonah was obedient though I don’t think he ever achieved joyful obedience. I, too, was brought around to obedience and joy came later, thanks to an incredibly patient and loving wife and a whole lot of grace on the part of God and Becky.

So what does obedience have to do with being a disciple? If you go back in this passage, you may push back on me and tell me that nowhere is the word disciple used so how can the main idea be about being a disciple? To see the connection of this passage to discipleship, we need to step away from the tree that is these 15 verses and look at the forest that is the whole New Testament. Rather than give you a dictionary definition or a churchy definition of what a disciple is, I want to look at three times Jesus defined the qualities of a disciple. Hopefully then you will see how this passage about Philip relates to being a disciple.

Here is the first one from Luke 14 verse 27:

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus is telling us that there is an active commitment to following Him in order to be a disciple. A disciple strives to be like his master and that requires obedience.

The next one is in John 8 verse 31:

“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.””

That word translated as “continue”

Finally, in the Great Commission, Jesus commands us to make disciples and not converts and then He instructed us what makes a disciple: “…teaching them to observe [or obey] everything I have commanded you.” Jesus emphasizes right here what a disciple is - someone who obeys everything that He taught.

Now, I am right on the edge of the cliff that drops off into works righteousness - the idea that you earn your salvation by being a good person. That is not at all what I am saying here. We are saved only through faith in Jesus Christ but faith has two parts - you first must believe and then you must act, or obey, in accordance with that belief. I can look at a chair and see that it has 3 or 4 legs and appears to be solidly built. I believe that it will support me. But until I actually sit in that chair, I have not demonstrated faith in the chair. With Jesus, I believe that He died on the cross and paid the price for my sin and out of the gratitude I have for his love for me, I try to obey everything He calls me to do. You can believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sin and is the Son of God but if you stop there, you have not acted in faith. As we see in scripture, even demons believe in Jesus and His power but they do not act in faith consistent with that belief. True faith in Jesus is characterized by obedience to Jesus.

Transition back to Philip to close exposition

Luke 14:27 CSB

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

John 8:31 CSB

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I need to work in about there being no middle ground like Bobby talked about. There are not levels or degrees of being a Christian. You are either a follower of Jesus - a disciple - or you are not.

Application

Result

Obedience brings us peace. Think of an untrained animal…like a dog or a horse...or even a young child. When they are untrained or undisciplined, they are wild and unsettled. They cannot find peace. But a trained, obedience dog experiences peace when it is under the authority and training of a benevolent owner. Likewise, a child is at peace when it is obedient and disciplined by a loving parent who provides solid boundaries. Without healthy boundaries and accountability, a child becomes wild and has no peace.

Invitation

We are called to obedience by our Lord who Himself epitomized obedience. In fact, this Holy Week from His entry into Jerusalem to His death on the cross was a progression of obedience.

Have you said what you are going to say, said it, and said what you said?