A Life of Submission // How to Live an Extraordinary Life, Pt 3

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

By and large most of us don’t have a problem with authority … most of the time. Until we disagree with the person who’s in authority over us. Then it’s a problem. And yet learning to submit to authority is – surprisingly – one of the first steps to living an extraordinary life.

One of the greatest joys in my life is being able to work with people of many different cultures. I do a lot of work with the British, the Poms as we Australians affectionately call them. You know those people way over there who shipped our forebears to this far flung colony on convict ships back in the 18th century.

I work with Americans, Indians, Africans, Sri Lankans, I even work with New Zealanders, ah well we all have our cross to bear, just kidding, I love my Kiwi brothers and sisters. And when you spend some time working across different cultures like that you become acutely aware of the differences between those cultures, you start to become aware of your own culture.

See most of the time we aren't aware of our own culture, we're so immersed in it, it's the reality in which we live and move and have our being, so we don't notice it because it's our frame of reference, our culture is the lens through which we see the world and it's not until you work with different cultures that you begin to be aware of your own.

And one of the things we Australians are known for around the world is our lack of respect for authority. We're not good at submitting to authority, well by and large most people aren't but we Aussies are in particular behind the eight ball because it's in the DNA of our culture to flaunt authority.

A good friend of mine, in fact he's my mentor, Graham, was an officer in the Australian army during the Vietnam War and the lads, the Aussie soldiers over there decided that tonight was going to be party night. No particular reason, we're Australians we don't need a reason; they just wanted to let their hair down and have a great night.

So Australians being Australians, the soldiers decided to declare that that day would be a celebration of Ho Chi Min's birthday, now it's not really politically correct but if you're an Australian you'll smile, you'll get it. It taps right into this innate desire that we have, as we would say, to take the mickey out of things. Ho Chi Min of course was the head of the North Vietnamese independence movement who our lads and the Americans and the South Vietnamese were fighting against.

So they drove around to all the different units that day declaring that today would be declared as Ho Chi Min's birthday but (and Graham loves telling this story) when they arrived at the American compound and rather loudly and boisterously, as we Australians do, announced "Ho Chi Min's birthday party was happening tonight back at the Australian compound". Well there was kind of a blank look on the American's faces, they didn't get the Australian humour. What planet are these Australians on?

Why was there such a disconnect? Because by and large Americans are a pretty patriotic bunch, they believe in truth and justice and the American way (sorry to borrow that from Superman) and they respect their leaders even when they disagree with them which they can and they do when there's a democracy. They kind of respect authority, Americans. Often I've been dealing with an American and they'll refer to someone more senior to themselves in their organisation as Mr So and So or Dr So and So. Well we Australians would almost never do that.

Whichever culture we come from, however much we do naturally respect authority, deep down I mean come on, I mean really deep down most of us do struggle with authority from time to time.

You see authority is always fine, I don't mind having a boss at work until you disagree with the person in authority. I mean it's fine to have a boss but then you want to go in this direction and somehow she's kind of saying, well no actually I want you to go in that direction, and so what do we do? Well we have our little silent protest don't we? We resist, we pout, we undermine and we back stab. We behave like a two year old and sometimes, I mean sometimes it breaks out into open warfare.

Does that sound vaguely familiar? Because our base position is "I'm right and she's wrong", "I'm always right and she's always wrong", "it's my way or the highway". Now we have a problem. We struggle, we complain, we become demotivated.

This week and over the next few weeks on the program we're looking at how to live an extraordinary life. A life that matters, a life that counts, a life with impact and satisfaction and contentment because most people, let me even say most people who follow Jesus aren't living that sort of life.

So here's a vignette, a short segment of Jesus life on this earth and it speaks into this whole thing about authority, about submission to authority because if we want to live an extraordinary life then Jesus is our mentor, He's our case example. Have a listen, Matthew chapter 3 beginning at verse 13:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptised by him. John would have prevented him saying, 'I need to be baptised by you and you're coming to me'. But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so for now for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.' So John consented.

Now these days we kind of understand what baptism is, it's an outward sign that we've died to self and risen to Christ. It's a public expression of laying down our lives for Jesus and putting our faith in Him.

But back then the only people who were baptised were proselytes. Now these were people who weren't born into the nation of Israel, Gods chosen nation, but who would put their faith in the God of Israel. Baptism was a sign that even though they weren't Jewish by birth they had become one of Gods people through faith in Him and that they would, wait for this, they would obey the Law of Moses. That's the crux of baptism.

And the reason that John the Baptist had been out there in the wilderness baptising not proselytes but Jews was a sign of repentance, of turning away from their sins, coming back to God, submitting to Gods law, get it?

So John was right to protest, hang on a minute Jesus, what are you doing? You're the Messiah, you're Him, what am I doing baptising you for crying out loud, if anything you should be baptising me. And Jesus' answer, 'Let it be so for now for it is proper in this way to fulfil all righteousness'.

Jesus had come to die for us, the perfect sacrifice so that you and I could have and could become the perfect righteousness of God. So that when you and I put our faith in Him have a complete perfect and forever right standing before God.

Why did Jesus submit to John's baptism, the baptism of repentance even though as the one man on earth who had never, ever sinned, He had nothing to repent from because this was the single most public, most visible thing that He could do to declare His submission to God through the law of Moses.

He wanted the world to know that He, although being the Son of God, had fully submitted, fully placed Himself under the authority of the Word of God. It was the very first step He took in His public ministry.

So how did Dad react? His Dad in heaven. What was Gods response? Matthew chapter 3, verse 16:

And when Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the water suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him and a voice from heaven said, 'This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

What an endorsement. I mean just imagine for a minute that you and I live for that, for God’s endorsement, to please Him, to delight Him by putting our lives under His mighty hand, by heading His voice, by loving Him, by obeying Him.

Imagine if that's the first thing we did, the very first thing before stepping out into what God has planned for us. Imagine the extraordinary impact our lives would have. Not such a bad start for an extraordinary life is it?