Dimensions of Discipleship: Obedience

A Sermon on John 14:15-24

Preached September 15, 2002

By Donald M. Tuttle

"Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

Last week, as we began this series of sermons on Dimensions of Discipleship, I suggested that this affirmation of Jesus is the foundation for a meaningful spiritual life. It is the foundation that God has laid. It is the sure foundation that cannot be moved by even the fiercest of storms. Certainly discipleship begins with Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Yet discipleship means more.

Around the corner from our home is Heritage Church. I don’t know anything about it, other than the fact that six or seven years ago it had a slab poured for what was to be its sanctuary. It had what foundations have—lots of concrete with pipes in all the right places. But nothing was ever built on it. Not a single timber was ever raised on it.

Would we say that the job is done because the foundation was laid? Would we declare the building finished just because the slab was complete? Of course not. The same is true of our spiritual lives. Jesus Christ is the foundation. But he is only the beginning. Unfortunately, many never build on him.

Miroslav Volf is a professor at Yale. He is also co-author of a new book, Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in the Christian Life. In an interview about the book, Volf discusses what others call "cultural Christians." He says that for many people the Christian faith, that is being a Christian, has become largely irrelevant to how they live their lives. For example, he says that for many people Christianity is a Band-aid to soothe the hurts that come in life. Pastors see that regularly. We get calls from people who haven’t practiced their faith—maybe even thought much about it—since they were kids, but suddenly a loved one has died, the family needs the hope of eternal life, and their "faith" is invoked.

Let me offer another example. George Barna does extensive research into religious attitudes and behaviors. Two years ago he published a study on the unchurched. He defines the unchurched as those 18 and older who have not attended a church service in the last six months, not including an Easter or Christmas or a special event such as a wedding or funeral. One out of every three people are unchurched, roughly 65-70 million adults in the United States. More to our point here is the fact that two-thirds of those who are unchurched identify themselves as Christians. That is more than 46 million people who claim Christ as the foundation for their life but who don’t go to church. Since church attendance has historically been considered the minimal expression of faith, we might conclude that 46 million Christians aren’t doing much of anything to build on Christ.

We see the same reality—the separation between identifying one’s self with Jesus and with a substantive spiritual life—emerge in other ways. Volf points out that for many people, Christianity is merely a "cultural identifier." When Yugoslavia collapsed and war followed, much was made of the fact that the combatants were Christians and Muslims. But Volf notes that the Christian majority there does not think of Christianity in terms of a way of life. It is merely a way to identify one’s self—an inherited way of distinguishing one group from another.

What Volf has named is the fact that many may claim Christ as their foundation, but they have not built a way of life on him. Discipleship is a way of life.

What does it take to move beyond a bare slab to a glorious dwelling with God? What does it take to move beyond a spiritual Band-Aid to a healthy spirituality? It takes more than confessing Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It takes obedience to him.

It was only hours before Jesus would be arrested, tried and crucified. So he gathered his disciples in the Upper Room for the Last Supper and for final instructions.

• There he washed their feet and told them that they were to be servants to others.
• There he gave them a new commandment. They were to love one another just as Jesus had loved them.
• There he told them he was going away but that they could follow because he was "the Way, the Truth and the Life."
• There he assured them that God was in him and he was in God.

• "If you love me you will keep my commandments."
• Those who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me."
• Those who love me will keep my commandments.

Not once but three times Jesus tells the disciples that the next step in their spiritual lives is obedience. They are to build on the foundation of Jesus’ identity as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, by obeying that which he has taught or commanded them. They were to be—as the materials some of you will soon be studying puts it—Obedient Christians in Action.

And that is what they became. What those first Christians believed was quite amazing—that Jesus was the incarnate presence of God, that he had died for the sins of humanity, that he had been raised from the dead by the power of God, and that he had ascended into heaven where he would judge the living and the dead. But what was even more amazing was the way in which they lived. They loved each other. They served each other. They welcomed the stranger. They tended to the widow and orphan. So fully did they obey Jesus’ command to love on another than people were in awe, that they commented on how much they loved one another.

But they also shared their faith. Jesus, before his departure, gave them a second command, the command to go and make disciples, teaching them to obey—there it is again—all that he had commanded. So faithful were they in sharing the good news of what God had done through Jesus Christ that they even came to be called "Christians."

Their faith was not an addition to their life. It was their life. It shaped who they were and how they lived.

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for those in the Anabaptist tradition—those who are Quaker, Mennonite or Amish, for example. The reason is simple. They don’t just have faith up here, in their minds. They don’t just agree that Jesus is the Christ. They don’t make "belief" a matter of intellectual agreement. Their faith is a way of life. They recognize that obedience to Jesus Christ is embodied; it shapes their attitudes and habits, their motives and values, their thoughts and relationships. It is not just part of their life. It is their life. And even though I don’t agree with all their practices, I stand in awe of them because they embody that obedience to God.

Of course, I don’t know where you find yourself today. Maybe you are obeying fully all that Jesus commanded. I hope so. But if not, then today is the day to begin building on that foundation laid in Jesus Christ. Today is the day to decide that you will focus your life not simply on the identity of Jesus but on obedience to him.

If you do that, the difference can be substantial. Bill Bright is the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, an evangelical group that tries to reach college students with the Gospel. He makes an interesting observation. He noted not long ago that in 49 years of traveling, in visiting virtually every major country in the world, he has never met a Christian who disobeyed Christ’s commands who was happy and he has never met an obedient Christian who wasn’t.

My prayer is that we might all become happier Christians.