Obedient by Pastor Abidan Shah

OBEDIENT by Pastor Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson

Introduction: How many parents have ever said these words to their children – “Who is the parent here: me or you?” “Why? Because I said so, that’s why.” “As long as you live under my roof, you’ll do as I say.”My favorite: “When I was your age…” The goal of all these statements is to get our kids to obey us. So also, God repeatedly commands us in his word to obey him. He is our Heavenly Father who wants our total, immediate, and cheerful obedience. Partial, delayed, and disgruntled obedience is also disobedience. We’re in our series on the Parables of Jesus and today we come to the Parable of the Two Sons and our message is titled “OBEDIENT.”

Matthew 21 28“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘Igo,sir,’ but he did not go. 31Which of the two did the will of hisfather?” They said to Him, “The first.”

Question: As you know, parables are like mirrors. They reflect who we are in the story. Who are you in that story? Are you the son who said “yes” to his father but didn’t go or are you the son who said “no” but actually went? Is there disobedience in your life? Is God your Heavenly Father? Only through Christ you can be his child.

Context: The parables that we’ve looked at so far have been generic parables, applicable more or less to all the people who were listening to Jesus. The parable we just read is a specific parable, applicable especially to the religious leaders. There were 2 groups of people in Jesus’ audience: the religious crowd and the “out crowd.”Jesus gave this parable to confront the stubbornness of the Pharisees, the scribes, and the Sadducees in rejecting him. To understand this, we have to look at the context of the parable starting in Matthew 21:23Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”In essence, they were saying to Jesus, “We’re in charge. You have to prove to us who you are before you do anything around here.” Now, keep in mind, they had a legitimate reason to question Jesus. Just the day before he had cleansed the temple in Jerusalem. If their hearts had been truly open to him, they would’ve known that everything that Jesus did was fulfilling prophecies given about the Messiah and the temple. Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Malachi had talked about this. Listen to Malachi 3:1“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple.” Can you get any clearer than that? But, since they were rejecting him and refusing to obey him, they couldn’t see that.

Listen carefully: Obedience brings Illumination. Disobedience breeds Incomprehension. F.B. Meyeronce said, “If a man refuses to obey the truth, so far as it is revealed to him, the glimmering light dies out from his soul, and his eyes become dimmed, so that he cannot see.”

Application:Is there some disobedience in your life? Is there some place in your life that God has shown you what to do and you are still refusing to obey him? Just know that disobedience will always breed incomprehension. Many people are stuck in their spiritual lives because they are refusing to obey God at some command in their life.

So how did Jesus answer the religious leaders when they questioned his authority? He didn’t pull out his list of endorsements. Instead, he asked them a question – 24“…I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: 25The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?”And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” 27So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” This was not some brain teaser or some riddle that Jesus used to dodge their question. He was making a very important point – Since the religious leaders had rejected John’s authority, there was no need to explain the source of his authority. Their disobedience to John had left them unable to understand what he was doing.

At this point Jesus gave the Parable of the Two Sons. It’s a very simple parable. A father had 2 sons. He commanded both to go and work in his vineyard. The first son said “no” but later regretted and went. The second said “yes” but did not go. The question is “Which of the two did the will of hisfather?” Of course, the answer is“The first.” Now Jesus gave the meaning of the parable –“Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you sawit,you did not afterward relent and believe him.”Tax collectors and Prostitutes were the lowest members of the society in that period. The Tax collectorshad sold themselves out by working for the Romans and fleecing their own people. They were considered to be unclean like the lepers. They made a house impure just by entering into it. They would even resort to beating the poor people for not paying their taxes. It was so bad at times that people fled their land, completing depopulating entire villages, because of this extortion. Eating with them was approving their actions. The Prostituteswere no better. The Bible forbade prostitution. Gentiles also looked down at prostitution as something shameful, foolish, and hurtful. Now, John’s preaching was no feel good, positive, and ear tickling preaching.It was hard hitting, direct, and confrontational. Just when you would think that lost people (tax collectors and prostitutes) would have been offended by it, they actually obeyed from the heartwhat they heard from John. They repented. They changed their ways. What’s the result? Their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus for who he was. To the contrary, the religious crowd accepted John at first until his words began to expose their sins. Instead of confessing, repenting, and submitting to what God was saying, they began to oppose John and criticize him. They held on to their “Table Fellowship” and “dietary laws.” They were more into comparative religion, comparing how much better they were to the tax collectors and the prostitutes. What was the end result? Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.”

In my time as a pastor, I have often noticed 2 kinds of people in church. There is the “in crowd” and then there is the “out crowd.” The “in crowd” are those who have grown up in church. They know the ropes. They know how to act and behave in church. They know the Christian lingo. They haven’t done anything “really bad.” The “out crowd” are those who haven’t grown up in church. They don’t know the ropes. They don’t know how things are done in church. They don’t know how to talk “Christianeese.” They have a long list of stupid things they have done in life. They have a lot of regrets. The “in crowd” has a tough time when the “out crowd” shows up. They try to tell the “out crowd” the house rules. The “out crowd” try the rules for a while and then slowly drift away because they see the hypocrisy in the “in crowd.” The “in crowd” continue in their behavior and always keep an eye out for any other “out crowd.” Which one are you?

Are you the “in crowd”? Here are some tell-tale signs:

You love to hear great messages but you don’t do anything with them.
You say a word of prayer every morning but you don’t confess and repent for your sins.
You often complain about how terrible the world is getting and how good things used to be back in the day but you don’t take one step be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
You love discussing the Bible. You may even read it cover to cover but you just don’t do anything that God has commanded in the Bible. (Forgiveness, Evangelism, Giving, etc.)
You love going to Church but you never serve anywhere.

Are you saved? When you got saved, you made a promise to God. Are you keeping that promise? Have you created your own standard of righteousness?

Illustration: F.B. Meyer was rooming next to the great missionary C.T. Studd during some convention. His spiritual life was just up and down, nothing consistent. But then that morning he noticed that the light was on in Studd’s room at 7am. So, he remarked to him, “You have been up early.” “Yes,” said he, “I got up at four o’clock this morning. Christ always knows when I have had sleep enough, and He wakes me to have a good time with Him.” Meyer asked, “What have you been doing this morning?” And he replied, “You know that the Lord said, if you love Me, keep My commandments; and I was just looking through all the commandments that I could find and putting a tick against them if I have kept them, because I do love Him.”

Illustration: Father with the firewood story.

Are you lost?No amount of good works is going to save you.