Mar Mari Emmanuel teaches that true daily living for God requires obedience, recognizing Christ as the true gardener who restores peace and victory over sin and death.
In this devotional sermon, Mar Mari Emmanuel explores the vital role of obedience in the believer's daily walk with God. He explains how Jesus, though divine, learned obedience through His incarnation and suffering, becoming the true gardener who restores humanity to paradise. The sermon emphasizes recognizing Christ through hearing His voice and receiving the peace only He can provide. Mar Mari Emmanuel calls listeners to respond to God's call with faith and obedience, highlighting the victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ.
Full Transcript
You want God to hear you, you need to be obedient to Him. My daughter, my son, when you are disobedient to your parents, don't ever expect them to do things your way. Anybody home? When the mom comes and says to you, darling, daughter, come let's go, you say no.
Come let's cook, you say no. Come let's clean, you say no. You always say no to mom.
Why are you expecting mom to do what you wish? You want mom to hear your request, to grant your request? You better be obedient to your mom and to your dad in order for the parents to respect what you're asking for. How much more God, the perfect Father, the perfect parents. How is He going to listen to us if we are disobedient to Him? We need to be obedient in order for God to hear our prayers and grant them and grant them.
You see, though he was a son, son of God, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Now a question, was Christ not obedient? Because you're saying, yet he was a son, son of God, he learned obedience. Does that mean he was not obedient? Of course not, he was obedient.
But what does that mean he was, he learned obedience? He learned obedience. You see, some criticize the gospel and say, how is it that Christ is the son of God and yet he learned obedience? We get attacked on this. How is it Christ, you Christians claim that Christ is the son of God, but here it says in Hebrew 5.8, he learned obedience.
So there is contradiction. On one hand, he's the son of God, he should be always obedient, but he's saying here, he learned obedience. So which one is it? No, no, no, he is the son of God and he learned obedience and it's so absolutely beautifully said.
I'll explain to you. Let's look at an example, John the prophet. John the prophet, God came to him and said, I want you to go to Nineveh, Iraq.
He went to Tarshish, Spain, opposite direction. He was disobedient to God. God put him through tribulations, hardships, the whale swallowed him.
He remained three days in the, in the belly of that whale, in the depth of that sea, absolute darkness alone. Nobody can hear him. Nobody can come to his rescue.
He realized his mistake for being disobedient, begged God for mercy. Just get me out of here. I'll do whatever you say.
John learned how to be obedient after going through tribulations, but Christ learned obedience. How? Prior Christ, prior to his incarnation, he, he commanded others and they obeyed him. After incarnation, he was commanded and he obeyed.
Prior to his incarnation, he is God and God gives orders and everybody obeys those orders. After this, God put on the flesh, he was commanded by God the father to do things and he obeyed. He had to learn how to be obedient once he put the flesh on.
He was never used to be given orders prior to the flesh being put on because he's God. No one orders God. God orders everyone and everyone listens, but this God became man.
When he became man, he became lesser and there is another authority above him. That's why he had to learn to be obedient. The one who commanded is now being commanded.
Amazing. I hope you got what I said. Now you see the picture in the garden of Gethsemane is absolutely beautiful.
The Lord Jesus laid the foundation that he will enter the cross press. He got pressed on the cross. That olive became crushed, that grape became crushed on the cross.
He trodden the wine press alone, Isaiah 63. He got crushed on the cross. He got crushed on the cross, my beloved.
He is the stone which David striked Goliath and Christ is the true stone which will strike Satan. Which will strike Satan and achieve victory to bring us back to the garden, i.e. paradise once again. For this reason, on resurrection day when the Lord rose from the dead, he was in the garden of Gethsemane.
Mary Magdalene comes looking for the Lord. Where is the master? She sees someone there. She calls him gardener.
Now was she wrong? No. Mary Magdalene was not wrong when she called Jesus gardener because he is the true gardener. You see my beloved, the first gardener lost everything that is Adam, but the second gardener brought back everything that was lost.
So when she called him gardener, she was absolutely correct. He is the true gardener. Adam got kicked out of the garden, paradise, for failing being a good gardener.
Jesus entered the garden paradise and accomplished God's will and word to the fullest and became the true gardener. Gardener, tell me, where have they taken him? And he turns and says, Mariam. The tone, she recognized him by his voice, not by seeing him, but by hearing him.
And this is how we recognize the Lord first. You can't see him unless you hear him first and recognize his voice because Christ is the logos, the word. The word in its nature can only be heard first and then when you hear it, believe it, accept it, then the word will reveal himself to you.
You cannot find him, he will find you. But your job is when you hear his voice, do not shut the door in his face. Believe in that voice, believe in the word you heard, and when you believe in what you've heard, Christ will reveal himself to you.
When he said Mariam, the tone, the voice of Christ, she recognized him and said, Rabooli, the teacher of all teachers. Well you just saw me, Mary. Why didn't you recognize me? Because I was faithless and faith cometh through hearing.
That faith was restored to Mary when she heard the voice of the logos, Mariam. The moment she heard the voice, believed in that voice, faith came back, she recognized him. And when you recognize him, that means Christ has revealed himself to you.
The second gardener brought us back all, brought back all that was lost. The gardener brought us all back to the garden again. Tears of the garden opened to us paradise.
The Lord Jesus, while hanging on the cross, said to the thief at his right, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. The true gardener brought us back to the garden paradise. Well, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
Luke 23 43. Here we recap on what we've said in the last four weeks. The Lord Jesus first teased.
The first teas were wept at the Lazarus, were wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Those teas, what did they do? Death was defeated, brought Lazarus out of the tomb and broke the sting of death. Death was defeated, brought Lazarus out of the tomb and broke the sting of death.
The first teas dealt with death and gave us resurrection. The second teas of the Lord, restored peace to the city of your heart, Jerusalem. Restored peace.
Why peace had to be restored? Because the moment we sin, the first thing we lose is our peace. Have we noticed? When we do something wrong, you feel empty, you feel void, you feel confused, you feel lost, disorientated, you don't know what you're doing, you don't know who you are, you don't know where you are, you don't know where to start or where to end. It is an absolute mess.
Why? Because peace is lost through sin and that peace Christ came to bestow on your heart. That's Jerusalem, the city of peace. So the second teas of the Lord were to bring that peace once again to our hearts and live in harmony with the Lord.
No more enemies. We are in peace now. No more fighting you Lord.
No more arguing with you Lord. No more being disobedient to you Lord. When the Lord called me to the church, I went to the club.
I was fighting him. I was going against him. The Lord says pray and I didn't.
The Lord says fast and I didn't. The Lord says come to the light and I went to darkness. The Lord says come to the church and I went to the club.
The Lord says come to me, I Jesus Christ and I chose Satan, not Christ. We were in a battle. We were fighting one another until he cried and wept over the heart that was conquered by sin and lost its peace.
The teas of Christ reinstated that peace. The moment that peace entered my heart, I said what have I done? Why did I do all that? I was so blind. I was so lost yet I thought I was doing everything right.
Until Christ wakes you up, you'll never realize what you're doing. Do not be shocked for the world to act so evil yet they think they're doing good. Do not be shocked because they're blind.
There is no peace in the world because the one who rules the world is Satan. Satan has no peace in him. Where are you going to get peace if there is no source for that peace? The only source of peace is Jesus Christ of Nazareth who is God and the only true living God my beloved.
That's where peace comes from. It doesn't come from a prophet. It doesn't come from a holy man.
It doesn't come from a good teacher. It doesn't come from no humans. It comes from God, the true divine living God, the creator of all and this true living God was revealed in the flesh over 2,000 years ago.
He was crucified in the times of Pontius Pilate. He was buried in the flesh but he rose from the dead and his tomb is empty. The sepulcher church cries out every year and every day.
Until when world are you going to be blind? Until when are you going to choose to remain in this blindness, spiritual blindness? Until when? Look at the world and see how it's behaving. Absolute foolishness. Absolute evilness.
To the core. To the core. They can't stand the truth.
They can't stand the light. Yet the light is so clear and the truth is so powerful. A world is sick and there is only one healer that can heal this sick world.
His name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. All glory to his holy and mighty name. The crown of our glory.
Sermon Outline
-
I
- Obedience is essential for God to hear and answer prayers
- Children must obey parents as a reflection of obedience to God
- Christ learned obedience through suffering despite being the Son of God
-
II
- Christ's incarnation involved submitting to authority and learning obedience
- The garden of Gethsemane symbolizes Christ's obedience and sacrifice
- Jesus is the true gardener who restores what was lost in Eden
-
III
- Recognition of Christ comes through hearing and believing His voice
- Faith is restored by hearing the Word and recognizing Jesus personally
- Christ’s resurrection opens the way back to paradise
-
IV
- Christ’s tears defeated death and restored resurrection hope
- He restores peace to the heart lost through sin
- Only Jesus Christ is the true source of peace and healing for a broken world
Key Quotes
“You want God to hear you, you need to be obedient to Him.” — Mar Mari Emmanuel
“He is the true gardener. Adam got kicked out of the garden, paradise, for failing being a good gardener. Jesus entered the garden paradise and accomplished God's will and word to the fullest.” — Mar Mari Emmanuel
“Faith cometh through hearing. That faith was restored to Mary when she heard the voice of the logos, Mariam.” — Mar Mari Emmanuel
Application Points
- Practice daily obedience to God as a demonstration of your faith and to receive His blessings.
- Listen attentively to God’s Word and respond in faith to recognize Jesus in your life.
- Seek the peace of Christ to restore your heart from the turmoil caused by sin.
