Fulfilling the High Calling for Children to Obey and Honor Parents
Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1-3
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)
Please turn to Colossians 3:20. Colossians 3:20 is our text for this morning. The context of our Colossians passage is that Paul is going through a series of household relationships in a typical listing that was a common kind of list found in the Roman cultural writings. In God's word, this kind of household list is found here, over in Ephesians, and also 1 Peter. At Colossians 3:18, Paul begins addressing wives. He says to submit to husbands. Next, Paul moves to husbands. Then he goes to addressing children. This is where we are. We are looking at Paul's address to children. To do this, we will study Colossians 3:20, with the parallel passage in Ephesians 6:1-3. Studying both of these passages together will give us a robust revelation from God's word concerning this important subject. Please read both passages with me now,
"Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, because this is well-pleasing to the Lord." Colossians 3:20
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right. 2 Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3 so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth." Ephesians 6:1-3
Please prepare your heart, to learn along with me in the preaching of God's word in this sermon titled,
Fulfilling the High Calling for Children to Obey and Honor Parents
[prayer]
As I get going on this, I think it is important to say that obedience to parents is a high calling from God. It is more than a command. It is a spiritual calling and a privilege in Christ. It is also important to realize that when Christian children are obedient they are manifesting the work of the indwelling Spirit in salvation. What this means is that what we are studying this morning is more than a sociological demand that cultures dictate. This is important to realize because there is a sense in the world where obedience to parents is expected and pressed. What God wants from Christians may seem similar, but it is very different. Obedience to parents is not something that evolved in the fictional fantasy land of Darwin's theories. It is not a concept either. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ. Obedience, as a mere concept, is something that cultures and governments think about, and then they mold it into various other concepts of what the lost thinks obedience to parents should mean; or whether it is even valid. But our starting point is simple: For God's people, a child's parental obedience is what God says He wants. God also wants parents honored. The honor is not temporary either. God's desire that His people honor their parents all their days is just as much a dictate of God, a fruit of the Spirit, and a high calling for His people to glorify Christ, as any other manifestation of godliness. With these things in mind, I want us to glean 5 principles from our texts for fulfilling the high calling for children to obey and honor parents. Spotlighting our passages, we notice the immediate call to attention. Paul reaches out and speaks directly to,
/1/
"Children, ..." Colossians 3:20
In the parallel passage, we see the same thing,
"Children, ..." Ephesians 6:1
@1 God talks straight to ______________________ in His word. Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1
The first principle that we will explore is that children were in, and among, the assemblies of the saints in the church meetings of the newly emerged church of the first century. We notice that Paul gets to this place in our text, and he addresses children directly as if talking straight to them. He does not say to parents,
"And also, I want your children to do the things that I am writing to you parents and telling you parents about."
He does not say,
"Make sure you let the children know that they are supposed to do what I am saying."
Paul directs this teaching straight to the children because this demonstrates that when these epistles would be read, studied, and preached, among the churches, like we are doing this morning, that children would be present. The children would be addressed, and the children would be included in listening to what the pastor had to say from God's word. The implications of this are many.
--a--
A primary thing that this demonstrates to us, is that Paul intends to point out publicly (in front of everyone) that parents are the authorities in the family as the leaders of the household. Paul talks straight to the child because Paul does not want there to be any misunderstanding of what he is saying. He takes the burden off parents of simply saying,
"Obey me because I am your parent."
Paul takes away any culture-driven excuses to counter such a directive from parents, like,
"Who says I need to obey my parents anyway?"
Paul stands in the parent's stead as a messenger of God to prophetically speak to Christian children with pure revelation from the Creator of the universe. He leaves no room for certain kinds of children within the family to try and figure out whether this applies to them or not. Paul addresses children without distinction, and this is important. Older children might think they have some special immunity to this responsibility. They could assume that the younger you are, the more this command applies. But, Paul doesn't say that. In fact, biblically, the authority of the father and mother applies to children that become men and women before they leave their father and mother to set out on their own. We read,
"a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Ephesians 5:31
In Paul's quote from Genesis, the maturity level of the person who leaves is a man. The point is that whether someone is a man or a woman, they are still the child of their parents. While in their parents household, where they have not yet left their parents to set out on their own, he or she is still under the parent's authority. When the child leaves, he or she gets out from under the stewardship of the father and mother's household. When married, the man is the authority in his household that he establishes. Both he and his wife are the authorities over their own children. I want us to notice something interesting in 2 Timothy 3:2. I think it is easy to miss an important reference there in a cursory reading. It is an important nuance in the prophecy. In fact what is there is very countercultural to what we see today in our society in both the church and out. What Paul does is use the Greek word andropoi which means adult males (men) when he describes the sinfulness of men being disobedient to parents in a last times teaching,
"2 For men [andropoi in the Greek] will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ..." 2 Timothy 3:2
I am really wanting us to get the sense of what the Spirit is pressing in these kinds of passages. God wants young children, and adult children, both, to obey parents if they are under the parents household. You say,
"But I am not a little kid anymore."
It doesn't matter. God says obey your parents while under their household before leaving them, and men, (not little kids) are sinning when they are disobedient to parents in the God ordained context. We really should not try to make this complicated. From our passage, we see that parents are the authorities in the family as the leaders of the household--children being the immediate focus. In addressing the children this way, then, Paul is also overriding any personal ways that the children who were previously outside of Christ could think they could continue to act. In other words, before salvation, children who are rebellious, and have grown up in a household where they were able to get by with it, could easily bring that old attitude of the world over into their saved life. Paul quickly disciples the children, along with the parents, against this kind of trend. It is not what you say. It is not what your parents say. It is not what is being allowed. It is what God says for His people to do by the Spirit. To do otherwise is sin.
--b--
At the same time, the fact that Paul addresses children specifically, also demonstrates something else. It shows us that God has ordained the local church assembly with the pastoral leadership of called and gifted overseers according to qualifications in 1 Timothy and Titus, to be spiritual leaders for both parents and children. This is consistent all throughout God's word. After Paul gave the qualifications for church overseers in 1 Timothy 3, he said,
"15... I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth." 1 Timothy 3:15
The children of Christian parents are expected to be in the household of God, the pillar and support of the truth, learning along with parents, under parental authority, by the Spirit, from teaching directly from the word in the legacy of what Paul directs Timothy in his follow up letter,
"preach the word; ... reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction." 2 Timothy 4:2
One of the primary ministry callings, and giftings, of elders is that they be Pastors who are teachers, Ephesians 4:11. God wants both adult children and young children to glean from the pastoral-teaching ministry that He has given to bless the body.
--c--
Another thing this demonstrates is the interconnectedness of the church community as a kind of family model itself. This is missing from so many business model churches today which is truly sad. I want us to think about something: When Christian parents call each other "brother" and "sister" spiritually they are referring to their relationship in Christ. When we, as the body, talk about the family of God, we are talking about being God's children. Follow me on this--We know this is true because we all know that we have been adopted in the Son, who is the one who makes all of us into children of God in Himself. I say all of this because, likewise, the parent's own children, who are saved, know the adults around them as part of their spiritual family too in which we are all children of God. When we are together as the body of Christ in fellowship in the Spirit around the word, we are all in the place that we all express our familiness together to one another as children of God who are brothers and sisters. All who are among us, including Christian children, are sharing in commonality in true koinonia of familiness that builds us up. This is why a huge need in our day is to be sensitive to the Spirit in all of this. The Spirit wants us to always be moving in the family way of ministry and relationship. In the church, then, God wants us to emulate the familiness of God in unity of the Spirit by manifesting the proper pattern. Think about Timothy. When Paul told Timothy to engage people, Paul said to be bold, right? But I want us to notice a pattern that Paul lays out. Paul told young Timothy to emulate the family way of rebuking and appealing in relationship,
"1 Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, 2 the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity." 1 Timothy 5:1-2
The lost world culture does not understand that this is more than a bunch of clever tactics on how to win friends and influence people. We understand that the One true God that we worship in Christ, is the One who designed the family in the first place. This is why ministry should follow the same pattern of the love of our brothers and sisters that God has shed abroad in our hearts through the Spirit. The world also does not understand the spiritual dimension to the family and its relationships. Consequently, the world has counterfeit philosophies about something similar but very different. This is why people of the world will change all their family theories in an instant according to preference. We even find political movements talking about the theory of the global community, where it takes a village to raise a child, and all kinds of social philosophies that try to counterfeit true spiritual ministry. They are not talking about the fact that it takes God's ordained parents to raise their own child along with God's ordained Christian community. In fact, the world bristles at the thought of Christian parents, who take God's word seriously, raising their own children, according to God's mandate, and doing so in Christian community with the saints. In God's kingdom, He wants His Christian parents to raise their children, and it takes the Christian community of the church to be part of that raising in our spiritual bond of truth, love, focus, and unity. God's church is the only organism that is focused upon Him, His glory, and His way. The body of Christ is made up of the people who God miraculously designed to obey Him.
/2/
This leads to the second thing I want us to glean for fulfilling the high calling to obey, and honor our parents. It has to do with obedience. Paul says,
"Children, be obedient to your parents ..." Colossians 3:20
In the parallel passage, we read,
"Children, obey your parents ..." Ephesians 6:1
@2 God wants me (children) to ______________ my parents. Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1
It is important to recognize that in the flow, Paul just finished telling wives to be subject to their husbands. When Paul gave that instruction, he used a word that is different than this one for being obedient. Paul used the middle voice for the Greek verb for wives subjecting to husbands. I realize I just went Greek on you, but this is easy--What this means in simple language, is that Paul was implying that wives have a voluntary submission. But, when Paul gets to addressing children here, Paul uses a much stronger word for them to be obedient. It is a military word that carries the sense of obeying orders. Also the tense is that children are to do this consistently as a matter of duty. Without a doubt children, your obedience to your parents is the expected pattern for you under your parents. God has ordained your Parents to be the authorities in their family. Children may not like this, but this is the way things have been designed by God. The lost world culture, as usual, is fuzzy on this Christian imperative given from God. According to the world, obedience is something that is loved whenever it has to do with what the world's agenda is. This is why you will find that the lost world culture will try to tell children that it is okay to have birth control even though their parents disapprove. Governing agencies will even do this.
· What are they really doing when they do this?
· The Christian child's obedience to parents is undermined. The sinful surrogate parent of the lost world culture is promoting sin.
Similarly, if parents in many States want to home school their children, the lost world culture's ever-changing philosophies may all of a sudden disagree with the parents of their children, and demand that the parents put their children in government schools. If the child thinks that they would rather not be taught at home, then the courts of the lost world culture jump on the child's side. They posture themselves as the wise decision makers and use their power to bolster disobedience to the parent's wishes. More and more we are being forced to deal with things in our age like The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
How many of you have heard of the CRC?
It is the international treaty that creates specific civil, social, cultural and economic rights for every child, including,
"the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,"--CRC
It states its main thrust in these terms,
"the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration."--CRC
These are incredible statements when we consider that God decides what the best interests of the child really are in respect to what He has ordained as His consideration for Christian families. But this so-called "treaty" dictates the exact opposite of our passage under study. It also reflects the attempt of godless nations to try to be God for humanity. According to the News report I read a couple of weeks ago, under the jurisdiction of this document,
1) Parents are no longer free to be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children.
2) The "best interest of the child" principle gives the government the ability to override every decision made by parents if a government worker disagrees with the parent's decision.
3) A child's "right to be heard" allows him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagrees.
4) Children acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.
5) Teaching children about Christianity in schools is held to be out of compliance with the CRC.
6) Allowing parents to opt their children out of sex education is held to be out of compliance with the CRC.
7) Children have the right to reproductive health information and services, including birth control, and abortions, without parental knowledge or consent.
This document reflects the way huge numbers of godless people think, and they want to "enforce" their way of thinking upon the body of Christ. What else is ironic, is that in my research for this sermon, I found various groups, that claim to be Christian, have signed resolutions supporting the CRC: The Roman Catholic Church; The United Methodist Church; The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Presbyterian Church (USA); (Not to be confused with the sound PCA) African Methodist Episcopal Church; Episcopal Church; American Baptist Convention, and the United Church of Christ. This kind of trend is revealing, especially concerning the lack of spiritual discernment in our age. The big point is that typical of the hypocrisy and confusion of the sinful minds of the world, obedience to an anti-God charter like this is being heralded as a great virtue, while obedience to parents, as is mandated by God, is considered to not only be questionable, but considered to be oppressive, and weird. Contrary to the philosophies of the world and apostate church movements, God has ordained for parents to be the leaders and the nurturers of their families, and God's commands are what matter. God says plainly,
"Children, be obedient to your parents ..." Colossians 3:20
/3/
This leads us to the third principle for fulfilling the high calling to obey, and honor parents. It has to do with the Biblical extent of obedience from God's design.
"Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, ..." Colossians 3:20
Governed by
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, ..." Ephesians 6:1
@3 God wants me (children) to obey my parents in _________ things, in the _________________. Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1
In the extent that God intends, the Spirit indicates that obedience is to be in all things. Without false utopian ideas of United Nations charters and other foolishness, what God wants is for children to obey all that their parents direct them to do that is not sin. If a mother or father commands that their child sin, then, the higher authority principle overrides obedience to the parent concerning that area. Why? Because God is the ordainer of authorities, as the authority over authorities. He is also the high authority over all Christian children. This is where the Ephesian's rule comes into play. Notice that there, Paul says for children to obey your parents "in the Lord." This means, that the only children that Paul is addressing are Christians, and so they are to act like Christians. Paul is not interested in telling the unsaved to act like the saved. He is telling Christians to obey in the Lord, because to do so is to obey in the Master. Obedience in all areas outside of sin brings glory to Christ as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit within. What this means, at the worship level, is that when you obey your parents, you are glorifying God with your life. You are being a living testimony of the character of Christ that you put on in the new man.
/4/
This leads to the fourth principle for fulfilling the high calling to obey and honor parents. It has to do with the inherent reason that God says exists in a child's obedience;
"... because this is well pleasing to the Lord." Colossians 3:20
"... because this is right." Ephesians 6:1
@4 God wants me (children) to obey my parents because this is well _____________________ to the Lord, and is _____________. Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1
At this point, there probably isn't much else that needs to be said for a defense (apologetic) or theological foundation to be laid for children to be obedient to parents. God wants it. It is well pleasing to Him, and it is right. But what the Sprit is teaching us, through the word, is that this is much more than an apologetic for obedience. This is an urging to Christian action where we live godly in Christ Jesus. In other words, obedience to parents is primarily a Christ manifestation issue. Children, you are showing Jesus in you, out to others, when you obey your parents. Understanding this is important for a lot of reasons. A primary one is that children don't always feel like being obedient, do they? I know that when I am going about in this life, I do not always feel like being obedient to authorities either, and I am an adult. There are times in my human nature, that I can seek to justify myself concerning certain actions that are not pleasing to God. This trait can raise up its ugly head in any Christian. What I am talking about has to do with things like reacting to people because we think we have been treated unfairly, or because we think we are wiser in the situation, or because we have been misunderstood. There are probably a host of other reasons we can come up with to justify disobedience to God ordained authorities. Much of the time emotions come in and bolster these attitudes. All of this happens with children too. What happens is that a child might have their feelings hurt, and so they may be throwing a fit, or they may be brooding in anger. In the midst of all of this, the sin of pride can well up, and the child manifests being rebellious. Disobedience is a way of getting back at parents. It is a form of hostility. It is attitude action that is directed at parents. Spiritually it is a lack of the manifestation of the love of Christ. The point with what Paul is saying here with these clarifiers is that parents are important, but parents are secondary. You say,
"What do you mean parents are secondary?"
Notice where Paul went with this. Paul is saying that God is primary, "... because this is well pleasing <to> the Lord." Think about this, because if you are a child who has not yet left your parents household, you must understand that your self assigned value of how you feel is not as important as you selfishly, and pridefully, want it to be. I'm talking to children here; Your self assessment of your own wisdom in a situation where you think it is greater than your parents is not as important as you selfishly, and pridefully, want it to be. If a parent wants you to sin, then that is a different issue, but that is not what God is talking about. Let's stay on track, because Paul is talking about obedience in all other issues that are not sin issues. In learning what the Spirit is specifically saying from His word, the point is that your self oriented evaluation of being misunderstood, is not as important as you selfishly, and pridefully, want it to be. You may say,
"Nobody understands me, especially my parents."
You might be right. You may say,
"Nobody knows what it is like--nobody knows what I go through."
I've got news for you, most children think that way. You may say.
"It's not fair."
You may say,
"My parents are mean."
Again, you might be right about all these things.
We can all make complaints about the arena where we are supposed to obey God by obeying His word. These are all the same temptations every Christian faces at every level in respect to all of God's ordained authorities. Follow what I am saying, because I do not want to be misunderstood. Yes, you are important to God. But, just like when it comes to focusing upon your parents where you are focusing on who is secondary in respect to obedience, when you focus upon yourself, then you are also focusing on who is secondary when it comes to obedience too. When it comes to obedience, God wants all of us to focus upon Him as the one we obey by obeying authorities. For all the children here, the ones I am talking about obeying are your parents. It is well pleasing to God, and it is right.
/5/
This leads to the fifth principle for fulfilling the high calling to honor our parents. Though they are secondary under God, they are important. This final principle has to do with the value of your parents and the honor the deserve.
"Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth." Ephesians 6:2-3
@5 God wants me (children) to _______________ my father and mother. Ephesians 6:2-3
In keeping with using Ephesians as our parallel, I want us to notice that Paul uses the Old Covenant Law of Moses to illustrate his point. The reason Paul does this is because Paul is an apostle, and in His unique revelations, we understand what aspects of New Covenant Theology we are supposed to understand. In other words, here is what God wants us to do:
· We look at the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament.
That is how God wants us to do it. He does not want us to go beyond what is written and try to figure it out on our own like we are modern day apostolic prophets that can make anything in the Old Testament mean what we want, or think, it should mean for us today. I have seen some people get into some really weird mysticism by trying to go to the Old Testament and intellectually make everything in to a "picture fulfillment" of Christ, or an "allusion" to this, and an "allusion" to that. Supposed types, shadows, pictures, and anti-type speculations, abound with these folks. To keep from making this same kind of mistake, we look at the Old Testament through the lens of recorded New Testament revelation that is clear, and sharp, where the New brings the Old into proper focus for New Covenant understanding and practice. In this passage, we have an area where the lens is placed right in front of our eyes for true illumination according to the true Spirit of God. At this point, I want to teach us a little bit more about the apostolic use of the Old Covenant Law for the true illustrations that God gave us from the Old Covenant Law. I also want to explain how we, as New Covenant people of God in Christ relate to the existence of the Old Covenant Law as it is recorded in the Old Testament. The overall rule in respect to the Old Covenant Law and its current work, is that the Mosaic Law exists for memory but not for method. Jot that down somewhere. It will help you to answer someone who asks you about how we relate to the Old Covenant Law of Moses today now that we are under the eternal Covenant of Christ, cf. Hebrews 13:20, 9:13. Another easy way to state it is that the Law Covenant given on Mount Sinai still exists as record and revelation, but not as rule and regulation. When it comes to apostolic revelation here for a point found in the Old Covenant that God brings over, in some respect, into New Covenant rule and regulation, Paul has spiritual insight given to him to recognize one exclusive command that is recorded in the Old Covenant. So, he uses it uniquely to illustrate a New Covenant regulation in the New Covenant. This is rare, and further, this is not something that you and I can do with any command in the Old Covenant Law. Only the New Testament writers could do that in writing the word of God and this is what God had Paul do right here. The Spirit has directed Paul to do this here for the New Covenant church in respect to the New Covenant "command" to honor your parents. In the Old Testament, the original command that Paul illustrates with, to honor your father and mother, was not meant solely for adolescent children or of adults under the household. It is a command for everyone. The same applies to the New Covenant, with this similar command that is now according to the ministry of the Spirit. What Paul is showing is that God has always ordained for our parents to be valued and honored, and that the honor due them is to be throughout our whole lives. It benefits them, it benefits us with a promise, and it glorifies God. But the main point is that continuous honor of parents has always been important to God. To illustrate this, I want us to think about what was going on by the end of the Old Covenant period. Some adult Jewish people began trying to get out of honoring their parents. The Pharisees were trying to do this. Jesus called it sin. He said to the Pharisees,
"3 ... 'Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, 'honor your father and mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.' 5 But you say, "Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God, 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother." And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 8 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. 9 'But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'" Matthew 15:3-9
Pharisees had become so sinful that they were trying to come up with ways to justify getting out of helping their moms and dads when they needed help. If parents would come to the adult Pharisee, who was their son, for help, the Pharisee thought he would be justified to get out of honoring his parents by giving the excuse that the money was given to God in the traditional practice called corbin. This became an excuse to be greedy, and also, to dishonor parents. It is an excuse, and it looks like it is supposed to be holy but it was far from holy. We all can come up with excuses. We can all try to clothe them with the suit of holy looking intentions if we want to. But God is not impressed. From the Pharisees to us, to try and get out of honoring our parents is a direct transgression against loving others, (our parents) and loving God.
Christ, Who we seek to emulate by His Spirit, lived an earthly life in respect to Joseph and Mary that manifests the proper honor for parents that we should all have. In Luke 2:41-52, we read about Jesus in His earthly ministry as a little boy. At the time, Jesus is twelve human years old. Jesus goes with his parents to the city of Jerusalem for the annual festival. When they arrive, there are people bustling everywhere. The streets are lined with outdoor markets. The atmosphere is lively, energetic, and colorful. While in Jerusalem, Jesus goes to the temple. He engages the theologians in talks about his favorite subject, which is theology. What young Jesus was doing at that time is one aspect of what He came to earth to do. He was doing what is well pleasing to Himself, to the Father, and to the Holy spirit. More than likely Jesus' earthly parents had traveled up to the festival with a number of friends and relatives. It is probably the same group that they later left the festival with according to Luke 2:44. Evidently they trust Jesus as a twelve year old, so when Jesus isn't immediately in view, they don't get too concerned. Finally, they are done with the festivities and so their caravan heads back home. Either they assumed that Jesus was with someone else, or they trusted Him so much that they didn't keep track of Him very closely. After a whole day of traveling out of Jerusalem, they notice that Jesus is gone. They look for Him and can't find Him, so they head back to Jerusalem in the typical panic of such a situation. They look frantically for three days. Think about that for a moment. Three days. Finally after three days of searching, they find little Jesus in the temple. He is listening, questioning, and amazing, everyone with His wisdom. What happens next is very interesting and very enlightening. The earthly parents of the King of kings and Lord of lords, scold Him. Mere mortals began scolding God manifested in the flesh.
How would you like to go down in history as someone who scolded Jesus?
We read,
"48 When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us this way? Look, Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You." Luke 2:48
Notice that the parental reaction is that the parent is the one who is focused on being treated a certain way. Why is that? Why would Mary ask about treating her and His father this way? Isn't the Father of Jesus, the Father God? Yes, the Father of Jesus is the Father God. But, the earthly parents of Jesus are the God ordained parental authorities of Jesus the child. This has to do with the stewardship of the ordained family, and it has to do with honoring the mother and father. This is Jesus so we know that He is not sinning against His mother and father. Jesus is without sin. Jesus is honoring His Father in heaven at this time as God manifested in the flesh. It was difficult for people to understand the fullness of Who Jesus was and what all that meant, especially while Jesus was a 12 year old boy. The same goes for Mary and Joseph. Jesus as the Messiah, has to explain things to them just like He had to explain everything to everyone. I want us to pay special attention to what Jesus says in response to His earthly mom and dad. Jesus uses the typical questioning technique that later marks His whole ministry,
"And He said to them, 'Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?'" Luke 2:49
@6 Jesus, as a child had to be in God His ________________'s house. Luke 2:49
You know, Jesus would ask these kinds of questions of people, and they would just look at Him thinking,
"Uh, I don't really know what to say."
Joseph and Mary must now consider who is treating who what way. They need to quickly get over their panic and move on to the bigger picture of the Messiah who is referring to honoring His heavenly Father, and where Jesus had to be in doing it. Now stay with me because some important dynamics are going on here that we need to see in respect to Christ as our example of proper obedience and honor of parents. Jesus is not talking about Joseph and Mary's stewardship at this point. Jesus is talking about His Father-God's house and the obedience and honor that is due His Father. He, the Messiah-Son is in it. This is where He must be at the moment. In this case, the house was the Jerusalem temple before it was destroyed in 70 AD after apostate Jerusalem rejected Messiah Jesus. Jesus is under the God-given authority of His earthly parents, yet He is the embodiment of ultimate authority. They are expected to obey and honor Him, as we all are. The next verse states that his parents still don't understand what He means. This was the typical response that Jesus got from people in His later ministry whenever He would reveal a profound point for the first time. The main point that I want us to see is that Jesus is in His Father's house. Jesus is not in Joseph's house, right? He says He "must" be in His Father-God's house, and so that is where He is. It is a "must." Also, He is well pleasing in the Lord, to the Lord, as actually being, incarnate, the Lord. At the moment, His parents don't quite get it yet. Not only are they not immediately catching on to the magnitude of Jesus' statement and the whole event, but their roles as parents in respect to God, though important, are secondary in the whole grand scheme of things. Nevertheless--and pay attention to this--they are the stewards, and authorities, of the family that God placed Jesus in. Mary is the mother that was chosen to be impregnated and carry Jesus. Joseph was chosen and told by an angel not to divorce Mary (betrothal divorce), and that He must marry her, thus becoming the earthly father, earthly provider, and the earthly authority over the household. Keep this in mind as I read the amazingly important fact in all of this that we need to apply to our own lives;
"51 And [Jesus] went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them;" Luke 2:51
@7 Jesus, as a child, continued in __________________ to His earthly parents He ordained to raise Himself up to adulthood. Luke 2:51
The magnificent King of kings and Lord of lords Jesus the Messiah (the God-man) goes with Joseph and Mary, and he continued in an ongoing basis in subjection (submission) to them in the proper honor due them under the Father in heaven. This is an amazing statement. We ponder this, and it is perfectly natural to think,
"How could this be?"
"Couldn't Jesus justify doing whatever He wanted to do, and just go ahead and do it?"
Sure, Jesus could justify doing whatever He wants to do, like needing to be in His heavenly Father's house, honoring the Father-God for three days after leaving His parents and not telling them where He was going; but, (and this important) Jesus could also justify continuing in subjection to them from that day onward--honoring them as the parents of their household. The reason is because Joseph and Mary are the ordained stewards of the family that God brought together for Christ's upbringing, protection, provision and so forth. Christ subjected Himself to Joseph and Mary because He decreed that it is the right thing to do;--that it pleases the Lord, and of course He is the Lord. "Subjected" here is the same Greek word that Paul used for the voluntary submission of wives to husbands in our Colossians context. Jesus voluntarily submitted to Joseph and Mary who were not perfect. They were full of sin like the rest of humanity. But that fact did not matter, which is the point for us to emulate. What mattered is that their status as parents was a perfect status to be honored. Jesus honored them for being parents--not for being perfect parents. What all of this demonstrates for us mere humans is an amazing example of what it means for us to obey and honor our parents.
I urge you to consider all the principles we have covered this morning for fulfilling the high calling to honor our parents. Christian children were in, and among, the assemblies, being taught Biblical doctrines directly from God's word. Be recognizing that children are commanded by God to be obedient to their parents as a manifestation of love for God, and love for their parents. As the evil world culture seeks to undermine this, be remembering that obedience to parents is expected of Christian children. Be mindful that the Spirit indicates that obedience is to be in all things. It is spiritual. It is accomplished in the Lord. Always remember the inherent reason for children being obedient to parents. It is right, and in its rightness, it is well pleasing to the Lord. It is a spiritual manifestation of Christ. Finally, God wants all of us to honor our parents. Jesus did this throughout His life, and so should we. Amen.
@1 God talks straight to ______________________ in His word. Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1
@2 God wants me (children) to ______________ my parents. Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1
@3 God wants me (children) to obey my parents in _________ things, in the _________________. Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1
@4 God wants me (children) to obey my parents because this is well _____________________ to the Lord, and is _____________. Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1
@5 God wants me (children) to _______________ my father and mother. Ephesians 6:2-3
@6 Jesus, as a child had to be in God His ________________'s house. Luke 2:49
@7 Jesus, as a child, continued in __________________ to His earthly parents He ordained to raise Himself up to adulthood. Luke 2:51
