Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Have you ever had that teacher that was great at teaching subjects but lousy at teaching students?

This week it came up in conversation as Lisa and I had coffee with a couple.

I remember both kinds of teachers from my school days.

There was a particular environment in which I could learn optimally.

These were the keys to teaching young Lucas something.

You had to be a person of character who I could respect.

If this was missing I just wasn’t willing to learn from you.

I know, immaturity at its finest but still true during that time of my life.

In fact I failed Biology my senior year in part because I had no respect for my teacher.

I just wouldn’t show up for class and it was hard to thrive in that environment.

The second component to the optimal environment for me to learn in was having a sense that the teacher wanted me to grow, succeed, and was not just there to teach a subject.

You see.

In many ways for me to come under authority and teaching I required these elements to be present in the class room.

Not being easy or a push over as a teacher but rather genuinely interested in the success of students.

In fact one of my favourite teachers of all time was a guy we would call Mr. S.

He would kick your butt but you knew he was in it to make you better.

He was the architect of his classroom and he was successful in creating a space where students wanted to come and learn in.

He was respected and he was in it to invest in students.

That made all the difference.

Today I want to chat about what it is to be an architect in the home.

In fact the title of my sermon today is “Architect”

If you’re taking notes write this down.

Men have a responsibility to be architects of the environments of the home.

Let me say that again.

Men have a responsibility to be architects of the environments of the home.

Now I want to be clear from the get go.

You are not the lone ranger in creating the environment but rather you are responsible for it.

This is done, thank God in mutual partnership with your wife.

You areArchitects

So why Architects.

It’s because there is a difference between architects and engineers.

Engineering the home is how most men operate.

Engineers are about utility and function.

Here’s a picture of a building produced and designed by an engineer.

Show Picture

An architect consider structure and utility but through the lens and filter of how does my building evoke emotion.

An architect is obsessed with how people feel when they walk into an environment they create.

Show Picture (The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain) Frank Gehry

Paul is going to challenge the status quo of the first century, and frankly the

We’re going to unpack this as we move forward in Colossians Chapter 3.

In order to do this we can’t just read verse 19 of Chapter 3 in isolation though.

We need to get a sense of the pattern that Paul is laying out.

You see Paul is more interested in this idea that the Christian life is more than just theory and theology.

In verse 18 he makes a shift from understanding the premise to now understanding the function of how this faith in Jesus looks.

Let’s look at this pattern.

18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

You are serving the Lord Christ.

19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

Do you see the pattern of responsibility.

Wives, Children, Bondservants (Workers).

Submit, Obey, Obey & Serve.

Now this is too often where we leave it but there is another pattern of responsibility at play here.

I would argue an even greater responsibility and it follows those commands.

It’s about who’s responsible for the being the architects of the environments in which these commands are to be lived out.

Husbands, Agape your wives.

Father’s, Don’t provoke

Masters (Boss’s, Managers), treat your employees, direct reports justly and fairly.

Now we’re going to talk about these subsequent relational dynamics in the coming weeks so I don’t want to steal from those sermons but I want you to recognize the patterns of responsibility in the midst of Pauls commands.

As it pertains to the relationship of husbands and wives we need to understand the historical context in which Paul is saying these things.

It’s interesting to me how the dynamics of culture shape our responses to scripture.

This is why we need to check our culture at the door when we study scripture so we don’t try and make Scripture say what we want it to say based on our culture and society.

Once we establish the principles and truths of the author we can then look at our culture and filter it through what the scriptures are saying to us.

Lisa spoke to the tensions of last weeks sermon that was entitled, “Me, Submit?”

Our culture has swung to a particular place which then gives emotion and tensions to the truths of God’s word.

Let me share with you the tension of the first century because it looked very different.

As Paul was writing this, the dynamics of husbands, wives, men, and women were very different.

Women were considered not much more than property and a means to an end for children, family, and in particular, sons.

When Paul wrote these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he was writing a completely new paradigm.

Women would have celebrated this news.

The tension lay with the men of the first century, because to follow Jesus meant loving their wives with a sense of equality and partnership in their shared mission together.

I say it a lot in conversation but Gordon Fee is famous for speaking of finding the radical middle in the study of scripture.

This is a case in point.

God’s plan so often is found in the middle of the extremes of society and culture.

Paul turned first century Christianity on it’s head with this teaching and quite frankly it’s this teaching, and the propagation of Christianity that has given us this free society of equality and mutual respect that we live in, unprecedented in human history.

William Barclay makes this observation.

The Christian ethic is an ethic of mutual obligation.

It is never an ethic on which all the duties are on one side.

As Paul saw it, husbands have as great an obligation as wives; parents have just as binding a duty as children; masters have their responsibilities as much as slaves.

This pattern that Paul lays out is one that gives each part of society their God given responsibilities.

Wives, submit to your husbands, followed quickly by the responsibility of the husband to be an architect of the environment in which that happens.

Men have a responsibility to be architects of the environments of the home.

So let’s talk about how that happens.

19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

The first thing to notice in this command is the use of words that are used.

Love: The word used here is agape.

Husbands, agape your wives.

Why is this important?

Because this is the word that describes the love that Jesus extends to humanity and to the church.

Paul writes the same command to the church in Ephesus in

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body.

31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”