Jesus’ Example
Jesus always did the
Father’s will, even when it was painful, like when He expressed in the Garden
of Gethsemane the desire to have this cup pass from Him, but Jesus said,
“Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus knew that
“he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the
things that are pleasing to him” (John 8:29). In fact, Jesus said “My food is
to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:24), and
“even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life
as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at
Philippi to “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born
in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:5-7), and so Jesus “humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). Who could be
any more humble than Jesus Who washed his disciple’s feet, including that of
His betrayer, Judas?
Abraham’s Call
When God called Abraham in
Genesis chapter 12, we see absolutely no hesitation on his part to obey God. It
says “the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your
father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great
nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a
blessing” (Gen 12:1-2). Imagine this: Abram (later called Abraham) was to leave
his family, his friends, his occupation, his home, and his worshiping of false
gods to go to a land that he’d never seen before and called by a God who he had
never known about before , but we see no hesitation in Abraham at all. He
didn’t stop to think about it, stop to count the cost, or ask God, “Why.” It
simply said, “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him” (Gen 12:4). How many of
us would have dropped everything and left it all behind to go to a strange land
and being called by a God that was unknown to him? Abraham also went to the
most extreme ends possible in proving that he would obey when God asked him to
sacrifice his only son of promise, Isaac. That is the best example of obedience
that there is in the Bible, next to Christ’s.
Saul to Paul
Saul, before he became the
Apostle Paul, was ravaging the church, consenting in the death of many of them,
but Saul was about to meet more than his match in Jesus Christ, and because of
Paul’s zeal, “there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in
Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and
Samaria, except the apostles” (Acts 8:1) and so “Saul was ravaging the church,
and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them
to prison” (Acts 8:3). You have to wonder, as I did, why Saul persecuted the
church “except the apostles?” Perhaps he had a bit of fear in him about their
connection to God and he had heard many of the mighty miracles that had been
done in His name. Whatever the case, while “Saul, still breathing threats and
murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him
for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to
the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2) but
“suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he
heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he
said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”
(Acts 9:3-5). After three days, “immediately he [Saul] proclaimed Jesus in the
synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed
and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called
upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound
before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and
confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ”
(Acts 9:20-22). Saul knew he was to suffer very much for Christ, and yet he
joyfully took up his commission to the Gentiles.
Mary, Jesus’ Mother
I think you’ll be hard
pressed to find a greater example of obedience than in Mary, the mother of
Jesus. When she discovered that she would bear the Son of God, and as yet being
a virgin, she could hardly believe it. It started “In the sixth month the angel
Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin
betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the
virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27), but “she was greatly troubled at the
saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel
said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God” (Luke
1:29-30). Gabriel told Mary, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son
of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father
David” (Luke 1:31-32). What was Mary’s reaction? Did she hesitate to believe
it? Was she perplexed because she was still a virgin? All Mary said was “Behold,
I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the
angel departed from her” (Luke 1:38). Mary never wavered in unbelief, but
simply told Gabriel, “let it be to me according to your word.” She understood
that she was a “servant of the Lord” and that made her joyful enough to give
her “Magnificat” in Luke 1:46-55.
Conclusion
What examples of obedience
can you recall from the Bible? I could use Moses’ example of going back into
Egypt to bring God’s people out, or Gideon’s example of taking on the
Midianites, despite being severely outnumbered, but truly Jesus was the supreme
example of obedience to God and is our model for how we should be submitting to
the Word of God, which means we will be submitting to the will of God, because
God’s will is found in God’s Word.
