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Welcome to day three of our Look Through Hebrews chapter five. We're going to
look at verses eight to ten today. In fact, I'd like to begin by reading those
verses talking about Jesus.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. And once made
perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. And he
was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

We've been looking through who Jesus is, the great mystery revealed of who Jesus
is, the one that goes to the depth of our heart. He is God and he is man. Jesus
is God, although he was a son, it begins here.

It's a reminder of the fact that he is God. But then he learned obedience from
what he suffered, a reminder of the fact that he is man. And we've been walking
through these three things in this passage that you and I can learn about how to
live the life that God has given.

Jesus is our example. He went before us. So now I'm trying to follow him.

We're trying to follow him. What does it mean to follow him? Well, as a man, we
learned he was a man of dependent petition.

He depended on God with all his heart because he knew that God was the only way.
The only way that God's will was going to be done in this world is through God's
strength, God's power. Now that may sound obvious, but I miss that too many
times in life.

I depend on myself because I'm depending on my strength, my emotion, my heart,
my willingness. But that's not how anything gets accomplished. It's through
God's strength.

So dependent petition, truly believing that. The more I believe that it's only
by God's strength, the more dependent my petition will become. And then we've
learned about reverent submission from Jesus.

The unselfishness, the kind of unselfishness that grows out of my relationship
with God in all of my relationships. Only Jesus can do this in us, and he will
do this in us as we follow him. But then there's a third thing we learned in
verse 8, verse 8 and 9, this learned obedience.

The scripture here says Jesus learned obedience through suffering. Now before we
talk about learning obedience, we need to deal with a couple of things in this
passage. It says once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation.

Jesus made perfect, what does that mean? I think we read this and our first
thought is he learned obedience, wasn't Jesus already obedient? Was there ever a
time when he didn't obey?

And you're right, he never didn't obey. So how could he learn obedience? How
could he be made perfect when he already was perfect?

The Greek word for made perfect there is the word teleotheis, which doesn't mean
going from imperfection or immaturity to perfection or maturity. It means
finishing something. It means completing something.

So the idea, as we talked about earlier in Hebrews, of being made perfect for
Jesus is the idea that he completed all that God had for him to complete. He
learned obedience from what he suffered. The idea of learning obedience there is
every time he suffered, he chose to obey.

As a reminder here though, for your life and my life, obedience is not imposed
upon our lives, it's learned in our lives. And that learning often comes through
suffering, it often comes through difficulty, it often comes through pain and
trials. It was true of Jesus, so it's obviously true of us.

In fact, the reason Jesus walked through this is to be an example for us. Now
the question, when I talk about learning obedience, the obvious question is, how
do we learn obedience? How are you going to learn obedience in your daily life?

Well, you sit down and you read God's word. And God's word, as you see the truth
in God's word, energizes God's spirit within you to focus his word in your daily
life, to do what God's word says to do. And the more you do that, the more you
read and do what God's word says to do, the more you're learning obedience.

That's a start, but that's not all. I would actually love it if that was the
only way we needed to learn obedience, but that's not how we're wired as human
beings. God knows that if he's going to really teach us obedience, it's also
going to come through suffering the consequences of not obeying.

That's how we learn. That's how we learn as little children. When I do something
wrong, when I put my hand in a fire, I get it burned, I know I'm not going to do
that again.

And that's even how we learn as adults. When I'm prideful in a business meeting
and has consequences down the road towards how somebody reacts towards me, and I
learn I'm not going to do that again. We learn obedience through God's word.

We learn obedience through God's spirit, but we also learn obedience through the
circumstances in life that cause us to turn to God's word and God's spirit.
Let's suppose you're reading God's word about pride, and you think, "I don't
want to be a person of pride. I want more humility in my life.

" And you pray that most dangerous of prayers. I'm not exactly recommending this
prayer, although Jesus did exemplify this attitude so it wouldn't be a bad thing
to pray for, but it's a scary thing to pray. To pray, "God, give me humility.

" When you pray that prayer, God will answer. He'll use the power of his word,
the power of his spirit, working through the circumstances in your life. So
there will be circumstances that come into your life that will humble you.

Now the truth of the matter is, whether you pray that prayer or not, you're a
human being. You're inadequate. You're living in a world where you don't know
everything that's going to happen.

Circumstances are going to humble you no matter what. But having prayed about
it, having looked at God's word and God's spirit, all of a sudden you start to
look at your circumstances differently. God has a thousand and one ways to bring
humility into your life.

You can multiply that by a hundred or a thousand and you're probably about
right. But even if you read the Bible six hours a day every day, read every
verse about humility again and again and again, that is not all you need for
your growth. Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered.

We're going to follow in his ways. So I need God's word, but I also need the
reality of circumstances. Now you might read the Bible six hours a day.

How many hours a day do you have circumstances? Well really 24 hours a day. Even
when you're sleeping, you get awakened sometimes in the middle of the night and
irritated by something and the pride can work up in your life 24 hours a day.

Now the difference between Jesus and us is he was totally obedient and we are
not. But even in our sin, even when we don't follow, God uses circumstances to
grow us. Proverbs 20-30 says, "Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us
change our ways.

" As human beings, we rarely change our ways until it's obvious, until sometimes
we even get desperate. We don't change when we see the light. We change when we
feel the heat.

God lights a fire under us and that causes us to get moving. And often we will
put up with things in our lives that we know need to be changed. We know they
should be changed.

The way I talk to people, the things that I look at, the heart that I have
towards that person, the unforgiveness that I'm holding in my life, whatever it
is, we know it needs to be changed. We have this idea that someday it will be
changed, but when we begin to feel pain about it, when it begins to affect our
relationship with God and others or maybe even our health, then we begin to
think about truly changing. Sometimes God has to bring some storms into our
lives to help us to know, "I've got to do something.

I've got to get some shelter in my life because there's a storm coming. " Jesus
was tested by the circumstances in his life and you and I will be tested as
well. We learn obedience through that testing.

Jesus moved from being untested to being tested and proven. He was always
perfect. He was always God, but he was tested and proven in certain sufferings
of his life.

The gold of his natural purity was put on a crucible. It was melted down with
white hot pain so that he could learn from that experience, and prove the purity
of who he already was. How did he suffer?

Verse 7 says he suffered all the days of his life. So there was suffering in
everything that he experienced because he's perfect. He's in an imperfect world.

Of course he's always suffering. He's always having grief, but many in this
passage particularly see the Garden of Gethsemane and the suffering that
happened then. Some think that the phrase "save him from death," he called to
the God, to the one, the Father who could save him from death.

When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Father, if it's possible, let
this cup of suffering pass for me," that this is possibly what this is referring
to. Whether it is or not, this is certainly part of the suffering that Jesus
faced. And a focal point, that moment when in that garden he talked to his
father and he said, "If it's possible, let this cup pass for me," this cup of
suffering of the cross.

He had limited himself. He did not know everything. So if there was another plan
that God had, now was the moment to know it.

Now was the moment to reveal it. And yet in his heart he knew that he would be
following God's way. And he prays that prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, the
prayer of dependent petition, the prayer of reverent submission, the prayer of
learned obedience.

He prays, "Not my will, but your will be done. " That's our prayer. That's what
we pray.

Let's pray together right now. "My Father, not my will, but your will be done at
my work, in my relationships, in my parenting, in my marriage, in my looking for
a marriage, in my friendships, in my goals, in my future, in my health, in every
area of my life, my financial life, my relational life, my sexual life, my
spiritual life, my social life, every area of my life. Not my will, but your
will be done.

I want what you want. And Jesus, I want to follow you. So help me to, instead of
trying to do this on my own strength, realize it comes from the strength of
following you.

I learn obedience from your word. I'm empowered for obedience through your
spirit. I'm encouraged to obedience through the circumstances of my life.

But in the end, it's all about following you through it all. So today, in the
circumstances of my life, give me the strength, I pray, to follow you. In your
name, I pray.

Amen. " Tomorrow, we're going to look at what to do when we get stuck in our
growth.