He Became Obedient

To obey means to act upon the command of another. In the Greek it is also translated to listen or to hear. I remember as a child when we were going to visit someone or go somewhere, there were six children for Mom to keep track of and we usually got a "talking to" before we arrived often in the car on the way to the event. Don't touch anything, if they give you anything you can take it and say thanks, or say no thanks, don't be loud, or run around, If this was a store it might be and keep your hands in your pockets. Often these commands were followed with the phrase, "Do you hear me?" It is hard to obey something you do not understand and she was trying to make sure we understood exactly what she was saying.

Jesus understood exactly what was being asked of him, what it would require, what it would take of him, and yet he did it.

The Obedience of Christ

Jesus "LEARNED" Obedience

He learned obedience according to Hebrews 5:8 through suffering

Not like parents who inflict punishment or pain from disobedience to help the child remember not to disobey again, but rather Jesus' obedience came at a cost (which it always does)

Remember the first sermon in this series, he was rejected, despised, ignored, thought of as foolish and crazy, hated all because he was obedient Jesus WAS Obedient -

All the time - not one time was Jesus ever disobedient to his heavenly calling.

Even when faced with the desparate hope of another route if that is what it was in the Garden of Gethemene when he prayed for another way, he even submitted by praying, Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. UHJ< "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." (John 5:30) Was obedient even to death - Paul says, obedient even unto the death of the cross.

Dr. J.H. Jowett has said, "Ministry that costs nothing accomplishes nothing." If there is to be any blessing, there must be some "bleeding." At a religious festival in Brazil, a missionary was going from booth to booth, examining the wares. He saw a sign above one booth: "Cheap Crosses." He thought to himself, "That's what many Christians are looking for these days—cheap crosses. My Lord's cross was not cheap. Why should mine be?"

Bible Exposition Commentary (BE Series) - New Testament - The Bible Exposition Commentary – New Testament, Volume 2.

D. A. Carson points out that the cross can be viewed from five perspectives.

From God’s perspective, Jesus died as a propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2). He absorbed God’s wrath and turned away God’s anger from us. From Christ’s perspective, Jesus obeyed His Father perfectly, saying, “Not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). He carried out His assignment to “give His life—a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This text in Philippians highlights Christ’s perfect obedience (also a major theme in John’s Gospel). He became “obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross” (2:8). From Satan’s perspective, the cross means the accuser’s defeat (see Rev 12:11). From sin’s perspective, the cross is the means by which our debt is paid. Finally, from our perspective, while acknowledging all of these truths, treasuring the love and justice of God as well as the substitutionary life and death of Jesus—His victory over Satan and sin—we must also note that the cross serves “as the supreme standard of behavior” (Carson, Basics, 42).

Quoted in CCE Francis Chan

What the Obedience of Christ is to us

Jesus' Obedience Is Our Pattern - Because he obeyed no matter the cost - we should do the same. Jesus' Obedience Is Our Victory

Romans 5:19-21 (KJV)

19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

C. S. Lewis writes in his book Miracles that the central miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation (143). He explains the descent and ascent of Christ vividly:

In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity. . . . But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders. Or one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in midair, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the deathlike region of ooze and slime and old decay; then up again, back to color and light, his lungs almost bursting, till suddenly he breaks surface again, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. (Miracles, 111–12)

Having considered Christ descending down, down, down, let’s consider how the Son ascends up to the highest place.