This is the third message in the series,
Understanding Marriage, from Ephesians chapter 5.
The title of this teaching is, What Submission
Is?
Let's join our teacher, Pastor David Guzik, speaking
at Calvary Chapel of Simi Valley.
Ephesians chapter 5, this morning we're going to
take a look at verse 21 in particular,
but I think it would be good for
us to get sort of a running start,
so let's start at verse 15 and get
a feel for the context of what Paul
is speaking about.
This is the third in a series that
we have of Understanding Marriage from Ephesians chapter
5.
And this morning, if I could give a
title to the message, I'll title it, What
Submission Is?
We won't even really be dealing properly or
specifically with submission in marriage.
That'll come next week as we start into
verse 22.
But I think since this whole theme through
this section of Ephesians, a major aspect of
it, is submission, we should understand what it
is, what we mean by it.
So let's start at verse 15 and get
an idea of our context here.
Paul writes, and he says, See then, that
ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as
wise, redeeming the time, because the days are
evil.
Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what
the will of the Lord is.
And do not be drunk with wine, in
which is dissipation, but be filled with the
Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks
always for all things to God the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting to one another in the fear of
God.
Our subject for today is submitting to one
another in the fear of God.
It's a subject that our culture and our
modern way of thinking isn't very friendly to.
Matter of fact, when you really think about
it, our culture is outright hostile to the
idea of submitting in the fear of God
or in the fear of anybody else, for
that matter.
You see, for more than a generation now,
our culture has rejected the idea that we
really should submit to anybody or anything except
to ourselves.
You could date it from the 1960s.
I don't know if there's any exact date,
but since that time there's been a massive
change in the way that we see, in
the way that we accept and regard authority
in our culture.
Many citizens do not want to submit to
the government's authority.
Many students do not want to submit to
their teacher's authority.
Many women do not want to submit to
their husband's authority.
Many children do not want to submit to
their parents' authority.
Many employees do not want to submit to
their employers' authority.
Many people do not want to submit to
the police's authority.
Some policemen do not want to submit to
the law's authority.
And some Christians don't want to submit to
the church's authority.
I believe it's important for us to ask
a very pointed question when we think about
how our culture's changed in the last 30
or 40 years in this regard, and simply
to ask, have these changes been good?
Do we feel safer?
Are we more confident in our culture?
Have television and movies and other sources of
entertainment, have they become better and more beneficial
for culture and society?
You know, the way to answer all those
questions is no.
In fact, our society's presently in and rushing
towards a place of anarchy, a place where
no authority is accepted.
And the only thing that matters is what
I want to do.
It doesn't matter what the government says, what
matters is what I want to do.
It doesn't matter what a moral code says,
what matters is what I want to do.
It's fair to describe our present moral state
as a state of anarchy.
There's really no moral authority in our culture.
When it comes to morality, the only thing
that matters is, again, what a person wants
to do.
We can even say that in the sense
of many communities, many neighborhoods in our society,
in our nation, they're given over to anarchy.
If you go into some inner city neighborhoods
where gang and drug warfare is rampant, do
you think that our government's authority is really
accepted in those gang-infested or drug-infested
portions of the city?
No, the only thing that matters there is
what a person wants to do.
Now, I'd say that we see this broader
attack on authority as a direct satanic strategy
to destroy our society and to destroy millions
of individual lives.
I think Satan wants to destroy these institutions
and the respect for authority mainly in two
ways.
First of all, Satan desires to corrupt people
or positions of authority.
I mean, after all, how can you respect
the politician who's corrupt?
How can you respect the pastor whose life
is filled with scandal?
How can you respect this person who cheats
or that person?
People who are in a position of authority,
when they are corrupted, it makes you not
want to submit to them.
You feel like you're free from that responsibility.
But then even beyond that, we see an
even broader scale of just the plain, flat
-out rejection of authority because it's not only
dishonest politicians that are disregarded, right?
It's not only the corrupt people who aren't
respected in authority.
No, sometimes many fine, upstanding people, their authority
isn't respected either.
Now, this whole idea, this whole issue of
order and authority and submission to the order
of authority, they're very important to God.
They're very near to His heart.
Matter of fact, I would say that they're
part of His very being.
I'll say that again.
These issues of authority and submission are so
important to God that they are a part
of His very being.
Let me give you an elementary lesson in
theology here.
The first person of the Holy Trinity is
called God the Father.
The second person of the Holy Trinity we
call God the Son.
Inherent in those relationships, inherent in those titles,
Father and Son is an order of authority.
The Father exercises authority over the Son, and
the Son submits to the Father's authority.
And this is in the very nature and
being of God.
Friends, He didn't have to organize it that
way, but He did.
Because order of authority and submission to authority
are part of God's very being.
When Jesus walked this earth, He said, I
don't do anything except that which I receive
from my Father.
He was in complete submission to the Father's
order of authority.
And our failure to exercise biblical authority, and
our failure to submit to biblical authority, it
isn't just wrong, it isn't just sad, it
sins against the very nature of God.
Remember 1 Samuel, chapter 15, verse 23.
In that passage of scripture, there's a statement
that's so dramatic that we read it, and
it almost seems extreme.
It's one of those passages that you read,
you almost wonder if God isn't going overboard
on this one.
But God says in 1 Samuel 15, 23,
for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
You read that and you say, you almost
want to say, lighten up, Lord, a little
bit.
You're taking this a little bit too seriously,
aren't you?
But of course, God never takes anything too
seriously.
Of course, He knows the right measure of
sobriety and the right measure of emphasis to
put on each individual thing.
And when God says that rebellion is as
a sin of witchcraft, He's indicating that rebellion
and a refusal to respect God's order of
authority strikes out at the very nature, the
very being of who God is Himself.
Some feel that this recognition and submission to
God's order of authority, some people believe it's
an unbearable burden.
They believe that if you submit to God's
order of authority, you're confessing your own inferiority.
If I submit myself to you and God's
put you in a place of authority over
me, I submit myself to you.
It's as if I'm saying, I'm not as
smart as you are.
I'm not as gifted as you are.
I'm not as capable as you are.
I'm not as spiritual or as godly as
you are.
Friends, we have to get that idea clean
out of our mind.
When you submit to God's order of authority,
you're not saying that you're inferior and they
are superior.
Not at all.
Inferiority or superiority has nothing to do with
it.
And again, I'd call you back to remember
the relationship between God the Father and God
the Son.
They are completely equal in their being.
Completely.
God the Father isn't any more God than
God the Son.
God the Son isn't any less God or
more God than God the Son.
They're each completely and equally God in their
being.
Yet one in an order of authority takes
the place of the Father and one in
the order of authority takes the place of
Son.
Completely equal in their being, but different places
in the order of authority.
So what does this mean then?
Submitting to one another in the fear of
God.
Well, the first thing we should realize is
that Paul just didn't write this one isolated
verse.
You know, sometimes we think that the Bible
was written almost like Ben Franklin wrote Poor
Richard's Almanac.
Where he wrote the little sayings.
You know, it's just one pithy little saying
after another.
Now, of course, there's some passages of Scripture
like that, right?
Proverbs is like that.
Just individual sayings put in there piece by
piece.
But by and large, the Bible is written
with a flow, with a context.
And you can only understand one statement by
understanding what comes before it and what comes
after it.
And this statement, submitting to one another in
the fear of God, it's a link.
It explains what Paul has been talking about
before as being one of the results of
being filled with the Spirit.
Look at it there in verse 18 of
Ephesians chapter 5.
There Paul says, And do not be drunk
with wine, in which is dissipation.
Dissipation means wastefulness.
My, it is a wasteful thing to engage
in drunkenness.
But Paul's point here is do not be
drunk with wine.
But look at the end of verse 18.
But be filled with the Spirit.
Okay, fine, Paul.
I want to be filled with the Spirit.
So what's next?
What's it going to look like in my
life if I'm filled with the Spirit?
Paul says, I'll tell you.
Look at verse 19.
Speaking to one another in songs and hymns
and spiritual songs.
Singing and making melody in your heart to
the Lord.
If you are filled with the Spirit, your
life is going to be filled with a
desire to praise and adore God.
You will want to praise Him.
Isn't it wonderful?
God has given us music, beautiful music, to
help us praise and adore Him.
You know, even if God wouldn't have given
us music to help us praise and adore
Him, we'd still be charged with the responsibility
to do it.
We'd still have the desire to do it.
It's just we wouldn't be able to do
it so well, so beautifully.
God loves music and He's given us this
beautiful gift.
So He says, if you're filled with the
Spirit, you'll want to praise and adore God.
But that's not all.
Look at verse 20.
If you're filled with the Spirit, you'll have
a sense of gratitude to God.
It says, giving thanks always for all things
to God the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, if you're filled with the Spirit,
you're going to have a thankful heart towards
God.
And then finally, if you're filled with the
Spirit, you'll be, verse 21, you'll be submitting
to one another in the fear of God.
So praise and adoration are a result of
being filled with the Spirit.
Gratitude is a result of being filled with
the Spirit.
And submitting to one another in the fear
of God is a result of being filled
with the Spirit.
But, I said this statement is a link.
Paul doesn't end his discussion here.
You see, this whole idea of submitting to
one another in the fear of God has
made Paul want to examine this issue of
submission in a larger or a closer detail.
If you notice here, it's an introduction to
a fuller treatment of the principle of submission
as it relates to different spheres of life.
All of it flows out of an understanding
of the Spirit-filled life.
Okay, Paul, I'm filled with the Spirit.
I'm praising God.
I'm adoring God.
I'm giving thanks to God.
And I'm submitting to others in the fear
of God.
And Paul says, great, let me tell you
how that works out now.
It's going to work out in your marriage.
And that's why he begins the discussion following.
And then in chapter 6, he says, it's
going to work out between parents and children.
And then in chapter 6, verse 5, he
says, it's going to work out on your
job with your employer and the employees.
You see how practical this is, how very
simple.
It all flows out of life in the
Spirit.
It's as if Paul is saying, you who
are filled with the Spirit, you must sing
together and you must submit yourselves to one
another.
And you must behave as follows in these
crucial relationships of life.
This is what it means to be filled
with the Spirit.
So we understand where Paul's coming at with
this.
What does it mean?
What does it mean when he says, verse
21, submitting to one another in the fear
of God?
Now, I wish that somehow up here I
had a magic wand and I could instantly
erase in your mind every previous understanding you
had of that word submit.
Now, some of you may have an understanding
of that word that that's Biblical or close
to the Biblical understanding of it.
Some of you probably have a very un
-Biblical understanding or very un-Biblical association with
that word submit.
I'm going to switch as if we were
teaching you a brand new language and our
word for today was submit.
And you say, well, my, what does that
word mean?
And I could explain it to you brand
new and afresh.
Now, obviously, I can't do that.
But we can try.
We can say, OK, let's let the Bible
tell us what this word means in a
Biblical sense.
Well, the word submit or submitting here means
something.
And the word is a military word.
It comes from the word of the army,
of the Navy, the words of the military.
And the word for submission here literally means
to be under in rank.
It speaks of the way that an army
is organized among levels of rank.
You have generals and colonels and majors and
captains and sergeants and privates.
There's levels of rank.
And you are obligated to respect those in
higher rank.
Now, we know that a person as a
person, I should say, a private can be
smarter, can be more talented, can be a
better person than a general.
I mean, you take two people.
Here's a private and here's a general.
The private is a smarter man.
The private is more honest man.
The private is a more spiritual man.
The private is a more talented man.
But at the end of the day, he's
still under rank to the general.
He is not submitted to the general so
much as a person, as he is submitted
to the general as a general.
In between services, a man told me a
story of his military experiences.
And I should say, I've never been in
the military, but I feel like I'm an
authority to speak on it because I've seen
a lot of war movies.
And so I feel like I know a
lot about the military.
Well, no, but this man was relating how
when he was in the military and a
jeep would come by, jeeps that carried officers,
officers jeeps were designated with a blue stripe.
And he said, it didn't matter who was
in that jeep.
It could be a general.
It could be the lowest officer.
It could be an officer's wife.
It didn't matter.
And he said, the way they refer to
it is that you salute the car.
Because it doesn't matter who's in it.
You salute the car because of the rank.
You see, the person is detached from it.
You're not submitting to them because of who
they are, but because of the order of
authority that they have.
The idea of submission, therefore, doesn't have anything
to do with someone being smarter or better
or more talented.
It has to do with a God appointed
order.
And when we understand this, sort of in
the military context that this word comes from,
we understand how important it is to be
under rank.
You know, in some branches of the military,
they have a word for it when you
no longer want to be under rank.
They call it mutiny.
And it's regarded as a very serious issue,
isn't it?
I mean, you have to do what the
people in rank over you tell you to
do.
And just as an army would be in
utter confusion if there were no levels of
authority, so society, so the church, so our
homes would be in chaos without submission.
And that is one of the key reasons
for the chaos we see in the world
around us today.
You know, in our own armed forces today,
there's a person who's in charge over all
of our armed forces in our nation.
He's known as the Commander in Chief.
And that's the President of the United States.
Now, someone who is an officer in the
army or in some branch of the military
may look at the Commander in Chief, and
he may not like the Commander in Chief.
He may not respect the Commander in Chief
as a person.
He may think he's dishonest.
He may think he's immoral.
He may have a whole set of personal
opinions about the Commander in Chief.
But nonetheless, when that order is given, he's
going to fulfill it.
He may say to himself, I would never
have this man in my living room over
for dinner because I don't respect him much
as a person.
But, he is the Commander in Chief, and
I am under-ranked to him.
I will submit to him.
That's the idea of this word, submission.
To be under-ranked.
So, when we read there in verse 21,
submitting, we know what that means.
But then Paul kind of complicates it for
us.
He complicates it for me, because I'm supposed
to be teaching you this morning.
It says in verse 21, submitting to one
another.
Now, you see, he's just kind of put
a little curve on the ball that he's
thrown to us.
Let me say, first of all, what it
does not mean to say submitting to one
another.
It does not mean that there is no
order of authority in the body of Christ.
Now, if this was the only verse on
authority in the body of Christ, you might
believe that, right?
You see, Paul's saying there is no order
of authority.
You submit to me.
I submit to you.
Everybody submits to it.
There is no order of authority among the
people of God.
None whatsoever.
You see, you would just say, well, it
says we should be submitting to one another.
So, I submit to you.
You submit to me.
Nobody has any more obligation to submit than
anybody else does.
If this was the only passage of Scripture
we have, we might believe that.
We believe very strongly that the Scriptures do
not contradict themselves.
And if Paul meant that by this passage,
then he would be clearly contradicting other things
that he wrote.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 1,
why don't we turn there together?
Keep your finger here in Ephesians 5.
Turn in your Bible back to 1 Corinthians
5.
You're going to turn left, not too many
pages.
1 Corinthians 5, beginning at verse 1.
The church in Corinth was a church that
had a lot of problems.
And sometimes Paul, to use a phrase from
our current way of speaking, Paul had to
get in their face a little bit.
And here at 1 Corinthians 5, verse 1,
we see Paul getting in the face of
the Corinthian Christians.
He says, In
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when
you are gathered together along with my spirit,
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
deliver such a one to Satan for the
destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may
be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus.
Now, it would be interesting for us to
go through and very carefully examine what exactly
Paul means by this, but I think we
get the general impression, don't we?
Paul's bringing down the hammer on these folks,
isn't he?
He's saying, you haven't been acting right.
Let me tell you what you must do.
You've been far too lenient to this man
who's been involved in sexual immorality.
You've been patting yourself on the back for
how loving you think you are towards him.
You're not being loving at all.
You need to put down a standard and
call this man to accountability.
This is what you must do.
Now, could you imagine the Corinthian Christians answering
back to Paul something like this?
Well, Paul, after all, you wrote that we
should be submitting to one another, so we
think you should submit to us on this
one.
It wouldn't go very far, would it?
Paul would say, listen, please, I'm an apostle
of Jesus Christ.
I'm a minister of the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
I'm a shepherd in the body of Jesus
Christ.
This is something that's clearly scriptural.
You need to submit to what I'm telling
you to do here.
Paul was recognizing that there was a legitimate
order of authority there.
So when Paul writes in Ephesians chapter five,
verse 21, he's not saying that there are
no orders of authority in the body of
Christ.
Another example is Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17.
And you don't need to turn there.
I'll just read it for you.
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17.
Part of that verse says, obey those who
rule over you and be submissive.
Now, again, that's clearly saying that there are
orders of authority.
There's levels of authority that God has put
among his people.
So whatever Paul means by submitting to one
another in the fear of God, he does
not mean that we erase any kind of
order of authority among God's people, whether it
be in the church or in the home
or anywhere else.
Now, I admit that this idea of the
military word used for submission, it's more easily
applied when one rank is above another.
If you're speaking to a group of privates,
it's pretty easy to say submit to the
general.
But if you're just addressing privates and say
submit to one another, then they have to
say, well, what does that mean?
What does it mean that we would submit
to one another?
You see, Paul is not emphasizing in verse
21 the idea of rank because he addresses
all Christians.
But there's something very important here.
Paul's emphasizing the idea that we should all
regard ourselves as being under rank in the
attitude of the military and apply it to
our everyday dealing with one another.
In other words, when a man joins the
military, what's the first thing that they do
to him?
They strip away his individuality, right?
They take him to the barber and they
give him a haircut.
It's not a little haircut.
It's a severe haircut.
And as they walk into the barber, they
all look different, don't they?
Boy, here's the man with short hair and
here's the man with long hair and here's
the man with curly hair and here's the
man with straight hair.
That's how they walk into the barber.
How do they walk out of the barber
in the military?
They walk out looking all the same, don't
they?
They don't do that just because there's a
shortage of combs among the military.
They do that because they're trying to send
a message.
They're trying to send a message that says
you're no longer individuals here.
You work together as a unit.
You're going to be placed in a company,
in a battalion, in a squad.
You're going to be placed on a team.
And you need to put the needs and
the desires of that team above your own
individual needs.
You are an individual, but there's something greater
than your individualness, to coin a word here.
There's something greater than that here at work.
There's your place on this team.
And so when a man joins the army,
he's no longer an individual.
You essentially sign away your right to decide
what you want to do with your life
and what you want to do with your
time when you join the army.
Isn't that marvelous?
You don't have to set your alarm clock
in the army.
They wake you up.
You don't have to decide, what time do
I want to get up today?
They decide it for you.
You don't have to decide, what am I
going to wear today?
They help you out with that.
What am I going to eat?
Where am I going to eat?
They have a place for you to do
everything.
Your whole day is planned out for you.
That's how it is in the military, right?
Well, an army is filled with individuals, but
they can never be individualistic.
And do you sense the difference in that?
That's how it is in the body of
Christ.
We're all individuals.
And glory to God, He's made us different.
That's part of the dynamic that God puts
in the body of Christ, that each member
is different, but at the same time, we're
all on the same team.
We're not individuals.
We're part of a team.
We can have our individuality, but we must
never be individualistic.
That is, putting our own individual needs, our
own individual desires first.
No, we're part of a team.
And you see, when somebody does not submit,
they aren't thinking of themselves as part of
a team.
They're thinking of themselves purely as an individual.
Here's the man in the army, and he
doesn't want to do what the rest of
the battalion is doing.
And so the rest of the battalion is
going to go off and do their thing,
and he says, no, there's just one thing
making him do that, it's self.
He says, I don't want to do what
the rest of them are doing.
He's thinking of himself more as an individual
and less as a member of the group.
In the Bible, it's filled with so many
marvelous illustrations of this principle over and over
again.
One of the great illustrations of this principle
in the Bible is that of a body.
Every cell in your body is different, yet
every cell in your body is part of
a team, isn't it?
And every cell works together.
Every cell in your body has a DNA
code that it shares with other cells.
And even though it's different, even though it
has its own job to do, yet it's
part of a team.
Well, no, not all the time.
Did you know that sometimes in a human
body, cells become individualistic?
They say, I'm going to live my own
way.
I'm going to do my own thing.
I don't really care much about the needs
of the body as a whole.
I'm just going to live my own way,
do my own thing.
Do you know what we call that?
We call it cancer.
It should never be that way in the
body of Christ.
So what does all this mean in practical
action?
Well, first of all, it means some things
that we should not do.
What should we not do?
Well, the Christian must not be thoughtless, but
they must think of others.
Right?
You need to think and consider others.
You're part of a team.
You know, in the army, and this is
one of the great things you love about
army movies and army books, there's such a
big culture of looking out for your buddy,
right?
Looking out for the other guy in the
company.
There's that whole ethic there.
Friends, that's how it should be in the
body of Christ, right?
We're not thoughtless towards one another, but we
think about each other.
Secondly, we could say that the Christian must
not be individualistic.
They must not be self-assertive.
I didn't say that a Christian must not
be assertive.
Passiveness is not a spiritual gift.
Passiveness is not necessarily submission or godliness.
Not at all.
But it's a difference between being assertive and
self-assertive.
Self-assertive means, yeah, you're assertive, but for
selfish purposes.
You're assertive to advance your own cause, your
own comfort, your own ways, your own promotion.
That has no place in the body of
Christ.
That's not playing as a team player.
No, self-assertion is the very opposite of
what Paul is saying here.
Look at it again, verse 21, submitting to
one another in the fear of God.
Could anybody say here that what Paul really
meant to say was, assert yourself in the
fear of God.
No, he didn't mean to say that at
all.
Next, we must say that the Christian must
never be opinionated.
Now, I didn't say that we shouldn't have
opinions.
Of course we should.
We all have opinions, don't we?
And it's wonderful.
It's wonderful to have opinions.
It's wonderful to share our opinions.
But there's a vast difference between having opinions
and being opinionated, isn't there?
You know, we use this illustration in the
first service.
And why not try it out again?
There you are.
You're discussing with somebody.
And it's your opinion that the best kind
of donut is a maple bar.
That's your opinion.
Now, you're discussing with somebody.
Maybe Chuck Carlson.
And Chuck's an expert in these matters.
And he's relating on this.
And he's saying, well, you know, my favorite
is a jelly donut.
That's it.
Well, you know, you have your opinion.
Well, you know, you could just say, well,
fine.
You know, you think it's maple.
I think it's jelly.
Whatever.
Then all of a sudden, you don't want
to let it go, right?
No, it's jelly.
I'm telling you, it's jelly.
And then you start to bring out the
charts.
Look at sales of jelly donuts are higher
statistically every year than the sales of maple
bars.
And you go on and on.
Let's survey ten people and see what they.
That's the difference between having an opinion and
being opinionated, isn't it?
Our opinions are fine.
Opinions help promote the variety in the body
of Christ.
But opinionated, that's divisive.
To be self-conscious and proud of your
opinions.
Such opinionated people, they always cause strife.
They always cause division in the body of
Christ.
Yes, the bottom line in what this means
we should not do is that we should
not be self-seeking.
Jesus had a recipe for how we should
deal with the self, because this is the
root of it all, isn't it?
When you get down to the root of
all conflict, of all contention, of all difficulty
among believers, of all difficulty in your marriage,
of all difficulty on the job, where you
get all this conflict and bitterness and anger
and fighting, you can all bring it down
to one four-letter word itself.
That's what it is.
Now, if I'm focused on self and you're
walking in the spirit, we might butt heads,
right?
But it's not going to be that bad.
It'll be a little bit of a conflict,
a little bit of ruffling of the feathers,
because I'm out to lunch, but you're walking
in the spirit.
What happens when I'm focused on self and
you're focused on self?
Then it gets ugly, doesn't it?
See, friends, we can make it all better
just by taking care of ourselves and doing
what Jesus said that we should do with
our self.
What did he say?
If any man comes after me, let him
deny himself.
Take up his cross and follow me.
Deny yourself.
In my flesh, that's the last thing I
want to do.
In my flesh, I want to promote myself.
I want to stroke the needs of myself.
I want to further myself.
But no, no, in the spirit, it's different.
In the spirit, I should be submitting to
one another in the fear of God.
I should say self isn't most important here.
What's important is what's good for the body.
That's what's important.
So you deny yourself.
And then what do you do?
Jesus had to go on.
He had to explain in vivid detail exactly
what this means.
He says you take up your cross and
follow him.
It would almost be easier if we could
just put a religious spin on this and
say, listen, I know what it means to
take up your cross and follow Jesus.
What it means, actually, is that you should.
Well, I tell you what, let's have a
service here and we'll make some wooden crosses
and then we'll just march around two times,
everybody with a cross around the room.
And then we could say, I took up
my cross and I'm following Jesus.
And we'll do it once a year and
we'll call it the cross bearing service.
And we'll fulfill that command of Jesus.
But that doesn't fulfill it at all, does
it?
You could carry a cross all the way
around the world and not take up your
cross and follow him in the sense that
Jesus meant.
Do you know why someone would take up
a cross in the ancient world in the
days of Jesus?
It was never for exercise.
You took up a cross because you were
a condemned criminal on your way to execution.
That was the only reason.
And isn't that almost a cruel twist to
put on a condemned criminal?
We're going to torture you to death in
one of the most cruel ways thinkable and
you need to carry your own instrument of
torture to the place of execution.
As that cross weighed on your shoulder, actually,
if I could be very specific, more so
the custom in the ancient world was they
would not carry the vertical beam.
They would only carry the horizontal beam.
The vertical beams stayed at the place of
crucifixion.
They just stayed there.
And when a person was coming to be
crucified, they would just carry the horizontal beam.
And that's what they would be nailed to
as they were put on the cross.
There you are, you're carrying that beam.
And you know that in a few short
hours, you're going to hang on that thing
and suffer the most excruciating torture there on
the cross.
You knew something about that piece of wood.
You knew that it didn't make deals with
you.
You couldn't negotiate with it.
You could say, hey, let me off easy,
all right?
No.
The cross was ruthless.
And one thing that the cross did better
than anything was it killed the self.
Jesus said, if any man comes after me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross
and follow me.
Well, denying self and taking up your cross
on a practical level in human relations, it
means verse 21, submitting to one another in
the fear of God.
So what does this mean?
We should do.
We saw what we should not do.
But what should we do?
Well, I think a good way to put
this is to simply say that Christians should
have a team attitude.
Right.
I mean, we're in the service together.
We're on the same team.
And the team attitude means that we don't
put our own personal needs or desires or
anything like that.
First, what we put first is the team.
How's the team doing?
I don't know if you've had any experience
with playing team sports over the year, but
it's a good experience.
It teaches you a few things, especially teaches
you how to cooperate and to put the
good of the team first.
Here's the player.
And boy, if it was up to him,
he'd be out on the field.
He'd be playing.
But the coach says, no, it's not best
for you to be out on the field.
It's best for you to be out in
the field.
So you come sit down on the bench.
And you know, the player who's off the
field, he doesn't like it.
He wishes he could play.
But at the same time, he says, hey,
I'll do what's best for the team.
You know, one of the worst things you
can say about a professional athlete who's on
an athletic team is to look at them
and say he's not a team player.
That means he's just out for himself.
They call them cancers in the clubhouse.
They don't like them.
They like people who would say, listen, I'll
do whatever you want me to do, coach.
You want me to lay down a bun?
I'll do it.
You want me to steal a base?
You want me to stay on the base?
Opening season is just a day or two
away.
It's heavy on my mind here.
But you get the idea, don't you?
You've got to have a team attitude.
I've had my time on playing on athletic
teams.
I could say I'm, well, really, I'm cursed
when it comes to athletics.
God gave me much more desire to compete
athletically than he ever gave me talent.
And so I enjoy it immensely, but I've
never enjoyed very much success at it.
But particularly in junior high and high school,
I was on athletic teams, but I never
played much.
Now, there I was on the football team
and, you know, I mostly just sat the
bench.
I wasn't ever very good, but I still
felt like I was part of the team.
I really did.
You know, when the team was there, I
was there.
When they put on the uniforms, I was
there.
At the games, I was there.
I mean, I was part of the team.
And certainly, I wish I could have been
there.
I wish I could have achieved more.
You know, you always wish you could, but
still, I was part of the team, and
whatever service I could do on the team,
I did.
You know, I performed a valuable service.
I was the guys that they beat up
on and tackled in practices.
Somebody has to do that, and it helps
the other players.
It's helpful for them.
So when that linebacker's out there and he
makes the bone-crunching tackle on a player
on the other team, and it's the play
of the game, and it's a beautiful thing,
you can stand back and say, you know,
he did that to me at first in
practice.
That's some sense of satisfaction.
You're part of the team.
And when the team succeeds, you succeed.
That's why it also means that we should
be happy when somebody else succeeds, when somebody
else does well.
Right?
Isn't that in the body of Christ?
You're not jealous of somebody else's success.
You're excited.
You're on the same team.
I mean, there you are.
You're on the football team, and you're one
of the receivers.
And the other receiver goes out.
He makes a spectacular catch, an unbelievable run,
and he scores a touchdown.
Well, what do you do?
Do you go back to sideline and slam
your helmet and say, well, I wish he
would have thrown me the ball?
Well, you might do that if you're not
a team player.
But if you're a team player, you're more
excited than anybody.
You're excited for two reasons.
First of all, you're happy that your teammate
made a great play.
But secondly, man, that points on the board
for your team.
So you're excited about that.
Friends, we have a team attitude.
We're happy when somebody else succeeds or does
well.
But it also means that we're to bear
our own discomforts, our own trials, and to
bear them with courage.
Why?
Because we're part of a team.
That's another thing you learn by being on
an athletic team, isn't it?
Remember when I was playing football and a
player would get injured and get knocked down?
Maybe their leg or their arm would get
hit hard and it would start to bruise
up.
The coach would come over and the coach
would look and see that it was nothing
serious, but it still stung a great deal.
What the coach would do is he'd grab
a handful of grass and he'd rub it
on it and say, now it's better.
Go out there and play.
Well, obviously the grass did nothing, right?
It was more so just a ritual.
It's a way of saying you're part of
the team.
You're going to be OK.
Now get back out there and play.
Don't sit around and whine about your trial,
about your discomfort.
Come on, let's go.
You're part of a team.
We're working on this together.
Let's go.
When we're part of a team, we bear
our own discomforts.
We bear our own trials with courage.
Do you see what it means?
We submit to one another.
Now look at the last phrase of verse
21.
In the fear of God.
Now, you should know, first of all, that
there's disagreement in some of the ancient manuscripts
of the New Testament.
Some of them say in the fear of
God.
Some of them say in the fear of
Christ.
Really doesn't make any difference, does it?
One way or the other, we're to do
it in the fear of God, the Father,
in the fear of Jesus Christ.
But what does it mean to do it?
Now, this is an important point, because wouldn't
you agree that when Paul says submit to
one another, he's asking a lot of us.
I believe he is.
He's looking at you and he's pleading with
you.
He's saying, I want you to put away
self.
I want you to put away your own
individualism and be part of a team.
Put it all away.
Here we are.
We're all part of a team together.
Now, you and I have every reason in
the world to look back at Paul and
say, why?
Why, Paul?
You give me a reason.
You're asking a lot of me.
Why?
God loves us enough to give us the
reason why.
And it says right there, submitting to one
another in the fear of God.
Now, this is such an important point.
Look how often it's repeated.
Look at verse 22.
Wives submit to your own husbands as to
the Lord.
Right.
The command to submit is followed by a
connection with the Lord.
Look at chapter six, verse one.
Children obey your parents in the Lord.
Right.
The command to submit, the command to obey.
Then the connection with the Lord.
Look at verse five.
Servants be obedient to those who are your
masters, according to the flesh, with fear and
trembling and sincerity of heart as to Christ.
You see, every time he gives the command
to submit, he makes the connection.
Do it is unto the Lord.
Do it unto Christ.
Do it in the Lord.
So what does he mean?
What's the whole purpose of it?
The words in Ephesians 521, submitting to one
another in the fear of God, the words
in the fear of God describe what should
be our motive for submitting to one another.
This is why we do it.
We no longer see ourselves in an individualistic
way, but as a unit, as a company
or as a battalion and out of respect
for God, the Father, and out of respect
for Jesus Christ, we are going to submit
to one to another.
Now, the motive for submission is not social
kindness.
Now, I'm all for social kindness.
We certainly could use more of it, not
less, but that's not the motive that Paul
gives here.
You know what social kindness is, right?
It's just everyday politeness.
It's sort of putting on a uniform, putting
on manners.
You know, yes, please, thank you, all that,
in the sense of putting on manners.
And that's wonderful.
That's good.
That certainly has its place.
But that's not what Paul's talking about here.
And you know why?
Because that even that can lead to pride.
Let me explain to you how.
And, you know, here you are.
It's after our time between services where we
open up for refreshments and such.
But let's say next week you're out there
at the doughnut table and you just decide,
man, I'm having, you know what?
I'm hungry.
I didn't eat breakfast.
I'm giving me about five doughnuts and I
want them now.
And so you're pushing and shoving.
And right there, that's self, isn't it?
You're being too individualistic.
You're putting your own needs above the needs
of everybody else.
Nothing wrong with you having a doughnut.
God bless you.
You have one, but you're doing it the
wrong way, aren't you?
And so there you are.
Now, here you are.
And somebody else looks at you and they
say, oh, my, they should really have better
manners.
And then they start thinking about in a
self-superior way about how much better they
are than that.
Now, these institutions of social kindness can lead
to that.
They don't necessarily lead to that, but they
can.
That's why Paul doesn't give that for the
motive.
Because we have a higher motive than mere
social kindness.
Again, there's nothing wrong with social kindness, but
it's not high enough as a motive.
But the motive for submission is not the
law of God.
He didn't say submitting to one another because
I command you to do it.
Oh, you see, the Christian understands love.
We respect it.
But now we're governed by a higher authority
than the law.
The higher authority is respect, honor and relationship
with Jesus Christ.
Friends, the motive for submission is look at
their verse 21.
Respect for Jesus Christ.
You do it in the fear of God.
So let me just point blank ask you,
do you respect Jesus?
If you respect Jesus, then you'll submit to
one another.
Say, wait, I don't catch the connection.
You know, if I respect person X, why
does that mean that I'll that I'll submit
to person Y?
Well, very simple, because person X told you
to submit to person Y.
Right.
If you respect someone, won't you do what
they say you must do?
And Jesus said that we must submit ourselves
one to another.
Look at what he said in Matthew chapter
20, verse 25.
Jesus called them to himself and said, you
know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded
over them and those who are great exercise
authority over them.
Yet it shall not be so among you.
But whoever desires to become great among you,
let him be your servant.
And whoever desires to be first among you,
let him be your slave.
Just as the son of man did not
come to be served, but to serve and
to give his life a ransom for many.
That's submitting to one another in the fear
of God, isn't it?
What Jesus told you to do.
If you respect him, if you fear the
Lord, if you respect Jesus Christ, you'll do
what he told you to do.
Let me ask you another one.
Do you respect Jesus?
Then why not submit to one another out
of gratitude to Jesus in light of all
that he's done for you?
You know, when you really respect someone and
they've done many good things for you, you
want to please them out of simple gratitude,
don't you?
You want to please them.
Do you respect Jesus?
Then please, Jesus, out of simple gratitude.
Let me ask you another way.
Do you respect Jesus?
Then submit to one another because you want
to glorify Jesus.
When you really respect someone, you want to
see them lifted up.
You want to see other people respect him
also.
And we do that when we submit one
to another.
Friends, if you really love and respect Jesus,
then submit one to another out of love
for him.
Isn't this beautiful?
Because what this does is lifts it up
to a whole different level, right?
I don't submit to you.
I don't look at myself as part of
a team with all of you and think
in this non-selfish, non-individualistic way.
I don't do it because I feel like
it.
I don't do it because somebody else told
me to do it.
I don't do it because it's just good
manners.
I don't do it because of all these
other things.
No, I do it because I love Jesus
Christ.
And I respect him.
And he told me to do it.
Shouldn't that weigh heavily with us?
He told us to do this.
He told us to deny ourselves and live
in this way where we serve one another
and love one another.
That's it right before us here.
When you really respect someone, you care about
pleasing them and you're afraid to disappoint them.
Now, next week, we take what submission is
and we start applying it to the home.
That's in verse 22.
So, come on back next week and we'll
see where it begins here at verse 22
to talk about this.
But I think it's been very important for
us this morning to talk about what submission
is.
God has an order of authority.
And might I give you the most elementary
lesson and conclude with this this morning.
Most elementary lesson in God's order of authority.
Here it is.
There's a God in heaven and you are
not him.
That's like starting at the basics there.
There's an order of authority there, right?
So, the first submission that we do to
God's order of authority is submit to God
himself.
And that's where it all begins.
So, have you submitted to God?
Or are you harboring a place of resistance
to him?
Have you given your life to Jesus Christ
in an attitude of surrender?
You know, I love that old song.
Rule over my soul, Lord.
Rule over my soul, sweet spirit.
Rule over my soul.
My rest is complete as I sit at
your feet.
Sweet spirit, rule over my soul.
Have you allowed the Lord to rule over
your soul?
That's where submission begins.
That's God's elementary lesson in a rule or
an order of authority.
Friends, let's let it begin there.
Let the Lord search your heart this morning.
Maybe in a large way or in a
small way.
You're not submitting to him today.
Let's bring our hearts before him and ask
him to do that.
You can make a decision and say, Okay,
Lord, I'll invite you to rule over my
soul today.
Let's pray about it right now.
Father, we thank you.
We love you for your order of authority.
Lord, even though we haven't always respected it,
sometimes we've chafed against it.
We've misunderstood it.
But Lord, we do thank you for it.
And we thank you, Lord, that you call
us to submit one to another.
To put away self.
To see ourselves as a team.
To see ourselves as a unit, as a
squadron.
Working and fighting together for your glory.
Lord, won't you move in us to really
submit and to let that submission begin with
you.
Father, I pray that you'd move on hearts
this morning to submit to you in every
way that's necessary, in every way that's needful.
And then to move out from there so
that we can submit to one another in
the fear of God.
We hope you've been blessed by this teaching
from God's Word, the Bible.
For more tapes and Bible study resources from
Calvary Chapel of Simi Valley, call us at
805-527-0199.
Or look us up on the internet at
calvarychapel.com slash simivalley.