Sermon Tone Analysis

Harmony/Unity Starts at Home

Insert personal story, “where did we go wrong?,

Seems in our world no matter where we look we see antagonism, division, and rebellion.

We see lack of commitment, covenant is not spoken of very much and discipline can end you up in jail.

Husbands and wives forget the covenant they entered and divorce each other.

Children are rebelling against parents knowing parents have their hands tied in some ways.

Employers are taking advantage of employee’s and employee’s are looking for ways to get away with things when employer is not looking.

In our society we have tried education, legislation and many other approaches which do not really reach behind the doors of the home, into the heart of the family.

Paul offers up a way to those in Ephesus and for us today.

Knowing what was entrusted to Him.

That administration, that mystery was the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the sum of all things and the mystery is the Church.

Spiritual unity is found in Christ, Harmony starts in the family and is the responsibility of the members of the family, both home and work family per se.

(slide) In our passage today we will see

(slide)Paul addresses Children

(slide) Paul addresses Fathers

(slide) Paul addresses slaves (employee’s)

(slide Paul addresses masters (employer’s)

Man made chapters and verses in the Bible but I believe that Paul is just continuing on here with the riches of relationships

I. Relationships: Children

Need to give some cultural background so you can get some understanding of the family in the Greek / Roman culture at the time of this letter.

(Slide) Father had absolute authority and power over family

The Roman - Patria potestas gave the father the authority and the power.

He could sell his family as slaves he could work them in chains and a Roman child was always no matter the age under the authority of his father.

It did matter, age or position the father was the ruling authority.

Now not that it was always exercised but it could under Roman law.

Then there was the custom of child exposure: When child was born he would be laid at the fathers feet, if the father stooped and picked the child up, then the child was accepted and acknowledged as child of the father, if the father turned and walked away then the child literally could be given away, thrown away

So in the time Paul wrote this letter it is a time where marriages are falling apart, children are thrown away and then you have things like this.

(Slide) Seneca wrote “We slaughter a fierce ox; we strangle a mad dog; we plunge the knife into sickly cattle let they taint the herd; children who are born weakly and deformed we drown.”

This is the background in which Paul is writing.

If you ever wonder what good Christianity has done for humanity beyond reconciliation we see the passages Paul is addressing in Chapter 5-6

Now that finally brings us to first part of our passage today.

Notice who Paul is addressing here.

He is not talking to the parents to admonish their children to obey them.

He is speaking directly to the children who would be there, hearing the letter.

Obey as it was from the Greek gives the indication it is obedience as if your life depended on it.

In the family, life, unity, harmony does depend on it and then Paul tells you why.

(Slide) IT IS RIGHT IN THE LORD

This goes hand in hand all the way back to (v.21)

It is right in the Lord, Paul expounds on it a little more in his letter to Colossi

COl

So it is right and it is pleasing to the Lord.

(slide) As a wife submits to her husband “as to the Lord” (5:21)

(slide) Husbands love their wives as “Christ loved the church” (5:25)

(slide) Now children are to obey “in the Lord” (6:1)

(Slide) OBEDIENCE IS RIGHT

I’m sure you are familiar with “I brought you into this world I will take you out” it is the natural order of things.

Parents bring children into the world to raise them in the ways of the Lord so it is right for a child to be obedient to the parent.

Though in today’s society this verse may read.

(Slide) Parents obey your children, for this will keep theme happy and bring peace at home

We may chuckle at that but in reality it seems true these days doesn’t it?

Though it is contrary to God’s natural order of things.

(Slide) OBEDIENCE IS COMMANDED

Paul quotes from 5th commandment (Exo20:12; Deu5:16) while we are no longer under the bondage of the Law the righteousness of the law is still a revelation of the holiness of God (partial quote from W. Wiersbe)

Something to think about if a child is to obey because it is right, he sure should obey because it is commanded, but it commanded with a promise

Now Paul changed from the original commandment

Exo20:12

Deu20:

To fit his audience the children listening to the Letter then

This this saying “live long” does not necessarily mean quantity of time, but it can mean quality of time.

God enriches the lives of the obedient believers.

(slide) Sin robs us and obedience enriches us

Again bringing it back to today’s world we see the results when a child is not

A child does not raise itself it needs teachings, it needs guidance, it needs presence of the parents.

The results we see today are some that were noted back then too.

God gave them over, but the reality is God gave them order in the first place, God gave them parents not a system.

God gave them His instructions not institutions.

God gave them fathers who are the be present in the raising of the child.

The child cannot, should not be neglected nor should the child be pampered it needs to be raised right with the right balance.

Paul goes on to address Christian Father’s

Christian Father’s

The Bible gives some examples of neglect by fathers or poor discipline practices

David pampered Absolom - cost Absolom his life, David grief

Eli failed to discipline his sons and brought disgrace to their father and defeat to the nation

Isaac pampered Esau while where Rebecca pampered Jacob- end result division within the family.

(Slide) HE MUST NOT PROVOKE THEM

As previously mentioned back in the day the father had absolute power and authority over the child and the family.

Paul again expounded more in Colossians.

the opposite of provoke is encourage, or at least that is how I’m going to look at it.

(Slide) “Do as I say not as I do”

That should not be a motto of a Christian father.

Fathers should lead and teach by example and to do that they need to be present.

Providing for your family physically is good but spiritually is eternal.

The Word from the husband to wife, from Father to child is vital to the unity and the harmony of the home.

so brings me to the next point on fatherhood.

(Slide) HE MUST NOURISH THEM

Let me put the verse back up there so you can read it

Nourish in discipline and in instruction this is the same verb used in 5:29

The husband it to nourish the wife and children by sharing love and encouragement in the Lord.

- - - - it is good to nourish physically by providing daily needs but children need to be nourished emotionally and spiritually too.

(Insert story or dinner in the Rogers home and typical life)

Because of the nourishment provided by Jesus parents he keep increasing.

He was well balanced including in discipline.

No turning him over to some institution to raise Him, no government agency to oversee how he is raised.

Parents are responsible and held accountable for the raising of their children.

And that includes discipline.

(Slide) HE MUST DISCIPLINE THEM

An interesting fact that the word “nourish” used in this verse is translated the same word as “chastening” in .

heb12:

We often learn from the chastening we receive.

As evidenced by the scripture here we are chasten in love.