Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, welcome to NHCC, please open your Bibles to Ephesians 6.

Upcoming- Light From Darkness

Responsibility of children, meant two ways.

The responsibility that children have in family life.

The responsibility that parents have to their children.

Read Ephesians 6:1-4- Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Pray.

Genesis 12- God calls Abram, promises that he will be the father of a great nation.

The rest of Genesis- Follow the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

Genesis ends with the death of Joseph, leading straight into Exodus.

Egypt enslaves the growing Israelites.

Enslaved for 430 years.

US less than 250.

Consider the identity of the enslaved Israelites, what was their reality?

Moses, by God’s power and authority, leads Israel out of Egypt and God saves them from the pursuing Egyptians (Exodus 14).

In Exodus 20, Moses ascends Mount Sinai to receive the law from God.

Specifically, the Decalogue, the ten words, commandments.

Before God gives the ten words, notice what He says.

Exodus 20:2- “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

God was in the position of authority to give to the Israelites their instructions and boundaries for life.

Consider the context in which these instructions were given.

Israel enslaved, unable to save themselves.

God delivers them from their bondage.

Because of HIS deliverance, God defines what life is meant to look like beyond the slavery in Egypt.

John Calvin- “The bondage of Israel in Egypt was a type of that spiritual bondage, in the fetters of which we are all bound, until the heavenly avenger delivers us by the power of his own arm, and transports us into his free kingdom.”

The delivering of Israel foreshadowed our deliverance from sin.

Israel was freed from the slavery of Egypt, just as we have been freed from sin.

Romans 6:6- We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

This was a rescue that only God was capable of accomplishing.

Romans 8:7-8- For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Just as Israel was called to a new life, new priorities, new expectations, the same is true of us.

This is what Paul is getting at in the book of Ephesians.

Chapters 4-5.

Ephesians 4:22-24- ...to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Chapter 5- do not do these things, but instead do these things.

Paul, by God’s Spirit, defines the Christian life, before turning to marriage and parenting.

This will not be easy- Remember Israel wanting to return to Egypt.

Life as a parent- would rather ignore Ephesians 6:4.

Life as a child- would rather ignore 6:1.

Being a parent and being a child will both be transformed from our own carnal desires into what God has planned for such relationships.

1.

The responsibility to children.

Ephesians 6:4- Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Fathers are addressed as they are primarily responsible in the culture of the time with the tasks of bringing up children and instructing children.

What is said can easily be applied to mothers as well.

We often think of disciplining our children, but notice this text is about disciplining oneself.

Do not rouse to wrath.

Charles Hodge- “They are not to excite the bad passions of their children by severity, injustice, partiality, or unreasonably exercise of authority.”

What are these bad passions?

Sinfulness.

It is possible to parent in such a way that we draw sinfulness and sinful attitudes out of our children.

Remember what we learned about marriage- Genesis 1 and Ephesians 5 remind us that husbands and wives have a responsibility to one another.

Husbands sanctify your wives.

Wives partner with your husbands.

Both of these instructions are meant to show that we have this responsibility to one another.

The same is true of parents with their children.

We can help them in sanctification, or, we can help them in sinfulness.

2. The responsibility of children.

Ephesians 6:1- Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

A complete obedience- rather than a mixed obedience.

Val and me cleaning the van.

Did I vacuum?

Yes.

Did I vacuum well?

No. Did I obey?

Hard to say.

Even the winds and sea obey him.

In the Lord

Not if they are in the Lord, but instead that your obedience to your parents is in the Lord.

Obedience to one’s parents is indeed obedience to the Lord.

Some make the claim that they are in right relationship with God while having zero interest in obeying, honoring and respecting their parents.

This is right.

This is the intended order of things.

The call to obedience in children is not a New Testament Church practice only, or even an Israelite practice only.

It is God’s created order, His intended purpose in the parent/child relationship.

This is a big deal.

We tend to think of disobedience as no small thing, and yet Paul is stating that disobedience goes against God’s created order of life.

God created the world and society to work a specific way, and disobedience goes contrary to God’s design.

Consider what God expects in the relationship between parent and child.

Klyne Snodgrass- “In effect, children are asked to give back what their parents give them: respect and love within the framework of their commitment to Christ.”

Both the parent and the child are to model Jesus.

The child in their submission and obedience, in their honoring and respecting of the parent.

John 8:28-29- So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.

And he who sent me is with me.

He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

The parent in their loving service and servitude of their child or children.

Mark 10:43-45- “But it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Do we model and thus proclaim the love and servitude of Jesus in the way that we parent our children?

And do we, as children, proclaim the love and obedience of Christ in the way that we behave toward our parents?

All of life is meant to proclaim the glory of God and the love of Jesus.

How we live in relationship with our parents and children is no exception.

Let’s pray.