Resurrection Life: Honored Relationships

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

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sermon. God Bless. Lord, we're thankful for Your

Word. We're thankful that You give it to us in

love. You desire to instruct us in Your ways,

to reveal Yourself to us, to train us. God, like

the perfect Father, You desire our well -being.

You desire us to be nurtured in Your ways. And

so, God, I pray that this morning we'd be attentive

to Your Word, that we would desire it, desire

You, desire to honor You, to love You. to serve

you, to follow you. Now, O Lord, may the words

in my mouth and the meditations of our hearts

be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and

our redeemer. Amen. All right. You probably know

that the ancient Roman emperors did some kind

of wild things with their power. Let me share

a few of them with you. I read that Nero built

a spinning dining room. Which reminds me of the

spinning bar at the hotel in New Orleans now

that I'm thinking of it. I forget which hotel

that is. Which hotel is that, babe? The Monteleone,

right? Yeah, the hotel Monteleone in New Orleans.

And it had this ivory ceiling to it, kind of

wild. Elagabus, I guess that's how you say his

name. I read, played pranks on dinner guests,

including the ancient form of the whoopee cushion.

I don't know what that was like. It was probably

pretty funny for him. Commodus, he reigned from

177 to 192, and you may remember him from the

movie Gladiator. He renamed all of the months

in his honor. Let me read them for you. Amazonius,

Invictus, Felix, Pius, Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius,

Commodus, Augustus, Hercules, Romanus, and Exuperatorius.

Most of those were titles that he bore himself.

And you're probably scratching your head at that

last one as I was. So I looked it up. Exuperatorius

means all surpassing conqueror. Hercules, of

course, is from Hercules. Hercules, sorry. These

names of the 12 months were actually used during

his reign until he was assassinated, which happened

to 36 % of Roman emperors. Then they were dropped.

But still today, actually, we have two months

that were named after different Roman emperors,

Augustus and then his son, Julius. August and

July, right? The thing is that the world revolved

around them, right? They could do what they wanted,

name what they wanted. Time revolved around them.

Others were for their play, for their purposes.

Commodus actually renamed all of the Roman Empire,

Colonia Commodiana. It's my colony. World is

mine I'm sure some of you are wondering why I

would start a sermon on the fifth commandment

with all this Roman Emperor talk It is not as

you may be wondering because we have all heard

that the average American man thinks of the Roman

Empire ten times a day Which I find wild but

I watched this little video about that and the

guy that was being interviewed actually said

Yeah, that's too little Oh, really? Okay. No,

that's not why. Rather, I think it shows that

if we are able, if we are able to have sort of

the power of the world, we would make it around

us. Everything doing, orbiting time and space

and people under us. We view others out of our

lenses. Quite literally, we just see the world

out of the lens of our eyes, but also we act

out of the lens of our hearts, right? Out of

the heart comes our words and our actions, how

we live. The commandments began, right? You shall

have no other gods before me. And of course I

suggest to you that that's in part because we

actually have this innate kind of thing that

sin at its heart is this pride that says, I desire

to be God. to have the place of God, to rule

our world for ourselves. There's Sophocles in

there somewhere. But when we place ourselves

as God, the truth is that we don't just sin against

God, we sin against others, right? That's why

partly earlier I was saying also when we were

reconciled to God, we are also reconciled to

others. And we are brought from slavery to life

in this resurrection reality. We don't just have

a proper relationship with God, but we're oriented

towards our communities. As late moderns, we

often confess the 1960s creed, question authority.

And maybe you've heard, don't trust anyone over

30, something that most all of us believe until

we are over 30. You know, Boomer is not just

a name now for a generation that was born between

1946 and 1964. It has now become rather a dismissal

of those older than us. Okay, Boomer. We confess

equality as a central idea of life and society

And that kind of invites us to not think of people

as over us or under us as to be revered or to

be cared for intended to We believe in the self

-made man. We mold ourselves from the dust And

we are embarrassed by belly buttons that remind

us of dependence on others, right? We believe

in the holy word consent, the necessity of our

own giving of approval for anything to be right

and good. And so we come to the fifth commandment,

this hinge commandment between how we engage

with God and how we engage with others. Honor

your father and your mother. Honor your father

and your mother. that your days may be long in

the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

And I think we hear that, and there's part of

us that just, we know that there are ways that

you apply that, that we go against that in some

ways. And there's certain people that totally

go against that, right? We're like, we're thinking

about the Roman Empire all the time, 10 times

a day. And so we're like, Nero murdered his mother

bad. He did not keep this commandment. Amen.

Y 'all aren't sure okay weird Can I get amen

But also I think we think we hear this command

honor your father and your mother and we and

part of us thinks I antiquated hierarchical structures

We push against it as we mock dismiss dismissingly

dismissively 92 year old senator Chuck Grassley,

right? Honor to those over us care for those

under us So who's this who's this commandment

for First I want to say this command is for children

children listen And I say that first because

it's it's easiest to convince you of It's not

hard for us to get behind. It's certainly not

hard for parents to get behind on Saturday morning

when they want the chores done. After all, the

command does specifically begin, honor your father

and your mother. So at the very least, this is

for children. At the very least. But what is

this command? It's the command to honor. What's

that mean? To honor, that word in Hebrew is the

word Chaved, means weighty. heavy, like a big

presence, right? Something that is very present.

It's heavy. It's often a word in the Bible, actually

it's most often used in reference to God. God

and His glory, the weightiness of His divine

majesty, the call that we, as part of His creation,

are to give to the creator, the one who's over

all things, to be honored, to receive our attention,

our praise, our obedience. So to give honor to

somebody is to give weight to their presence

in your life. To give honor to someone is to

give recognition of their God -given role, often

over you. To honor is to respect, to esteem,

to value, to prize something. Just to say that

we give our attention to their words. We open

our ears, open our hearts. We understand that

their presence shapes us. It influences us. And

of course, the opposite of honor is dishonor.

So we could say this is not is it's not dismissing

a relationship. It's giving its proper do its

proper weight To dishonor is to not only to disrespect

but to treat lightly to act as though it's just

kind of some feather that can be blown away if

you will I read This week there was a teen magazine

whose cover read. Do you really hate your parents?

like who doesn't I feel like I had to read it

that way. Like who doesn't? And then the article

actually advised on how to deal with detestables,

which is unfortunately actually something that

is fairly common, right? It's rather assumed

that during at least your teen years that you

will dismiss the weight of your parents. And

let me say this, it is good and it's right and

it's actually a normal developmental thing for

you to become your own person with your own interests,

with your own loves and with your own sort of

way of being in the world. Yet the Bible and

history commends to you the honor, the constant

honor of your parents, kids and y 'all. This

is for the rest of you too, actually. I'm gonna

get there. Here's the truth. The relationship

you have with your parents is not only the first,

but it is the most fundamental relationship that

you have. It lays the foundations or the bedrock

from which you learn to engage in all other relationships.

It's the foundational human relationship. It's

the relationship where you learn life, being,

holding yourself, speaking, engaging with others.

If you meet somebody in your class who's hardworking

and diligent, who's kind and considerate, who

doesn't laugh at somebody else's misfortune,

you know, you fell over, you know, they're not

that kind of person. You probably have their

parent to thank because it's the foundational

dynamic from which they learn to engage with

others. It's certainly the case. Let me just

say, I feel like I can qualify so much of what

I'm saying today. It is certainly the case. that

there are bad parents and great kids, and great

parents and bad kids. But the way of the world

is typically that you learn to engage in the

world from this foundational dynamic of learning

to honor your parents. To honor your parents

is to give weight to their presence in your life.

This does not necessarily mean always obey, though

isn't that also a biblical command? But when

it is actually obey is as Ephesians 6 tells us

children obey your parents in the Lord So while

the default is obedience is obedience towards

the Lord and what he's commanded And let me say

this it's when we say talk about children, it's

actually it's not just the case right that your

children as a young child is it You grew up.

I am still a child My parents are still living

they have weight in the world, weight over my

life in a way, an ability to speak into my life.

The relationship that you have as kids with your

parents is what I'm suggesting, just how you

learn to engage with those around you and particularly

those over you. It's where you learn how to listen

and when to speak, how to engage with those about

you, how to respect those over you. I think this

is why this is such a practical command in the

Bible. And I think it's also why it's the command

with a promise. In fact, Ephesians chapter six

tells us that it's the first command with a promise

because this is the fundamental command that

organizes your social life. It sets you up in

life. This is why, again, I've mentioned this

earlier, but this is why this command, most theologians

take it as a hinge from your relationship with

God to your relationship with others. This is

the beginning point from which you begin to engage

with the world about you, your neighbors, and

all of the rest. This command says, honor your

father and mother, but it adds that your days

may be long in the land that the Lord your God

is giving you. Isn't that interesting? It's not

just a, hey, do this, but there's actually certain

effects that it has in your life. You will learn

how to speak to your teacher by honoring your

parents. You will learn how to speak to your

bosses by honoring your parents, treating your

parents with weight. You will have a greater

possibility of receiving helpful feedback from

your professors when you've submitted papers

if you learn how to honor them with your speech.

with your being, with your presence in the classroom,

all the rest. Let me give you an odd example

of this in my life. Actually, it's not that odd.

I feel really hesitant to give this example because

there is a rule in preaching that when a preacher

gives an illustration, they're not supposed to

be the one that looks good in the illustration.

I don't know if you've noticed that I really

try not to give illustrations where it kind of

makes me look like I kind of had it going, but

I'm going to break that. I'm gonna break that

today. So when I was in college, I went to Western

Washington University and a couple of the spring

semesters, I wanted to go on some bigger trips

with a couple of friends, trips that would take

longer than a week because they were far off

and there was a lot involved in them. And so

I thought, well, I would really like to just

not have one week off for spring break. I'd love

to have two weeks off for spring break, brazen

child as I was. And so what I did is at the beginning

of each of these spring semesters, I went to

all of my professors and I said, I am going to

be a good student. I'm going to show up to class

on time. I'm going to give my attention to your

words. I'm going to do what you say. I'm going

to submit my homework on time and I will participate

in class. Would you give me an extra week off

for spring break? You ever heard of anyone doing

this? I actually haven't, but you know what?

Both of those years that I did that. Every single

one of my professors said, yes, if you do what

you just said, if you show up, if you're diligent

in your work, if you participate in class, if

you turn your stuff on in time, I will give you

that extra week off. Every single one of them.

Which is just to say I honored the relationship

and it frankly went well for me those spring

breaks. Children, I'm telling you this. If you

want to ask your future employer, for greater

responsibility at work, for a greater, maybe

a pay raise. If you want to ask your professor

to meet with you that extra hour because you

are struggling in calculus, you need help on

that paper. If you want to interview well for

a future job, if you want your days to be long

in the land to which the Lord your God is bringing

you, desire to honor those over you. Seek out

what does it mean for me to honor the people

that God has placed over me and practice it in

the home? Because of course this command is for

natural parents, but it is not just for them

Right adults. Let me give you some advice Speak

honorably to your boss speak honorably about

them Let your words practice your words in the

home of how you would speak to them Don't badmouth

them behind their back because you're more likely

to do that in front of them It will go better

with you if you learn to honor those who are

over you isn't it crazy It's utterly wild to

me that Peter tells us Second Peter first Peter

to 17 right honor the Emperor who was the Emperor

at the time when Peter was writing that Nero

the guy who killed his mother It's not that the

of course the Emperor was doing always honorable

things But the Christian community was called

to engage with them in honorable ways Because

as you do so as you honor those proper authorities

that God has placed over you. It was more likely

to go well with you This is true. It's a very

practical command You learn how to engage with

those authorities over you primarily in the house

in the home but they extrapolate beyond that.

St. Augustine said this, if anyone fails to honor

his parents, is there anyone he will spare? Give

your parents weight. This command is for children,

but it is far from being only for children. It

is for us too, all who are under God -given authority.

But here's the truth, beyond sort of this idea

that this is for children, it's this authority

dynamic, right? It's a command also for those

parents and those who have authority. This is

how Christians have always taken this. This is

not just for those under authority, but this

is actually a command for those who have authority.

Think about this like this, okay? So the command

honor your father and your mother, and then it

goes to the promise that it may go well. with

you, right? That your days may be long in the

land the Lord your God has given you. Well, if

your days are long, eventually you grow up and

you actually are the one that is doing the instruction.

It's for you, all of the community. It's the

command for the whole community. So is this a

command only for children? No, it is not. Is

it a command only for employees? No, it's not.

Is it a command only for citizens, those who

receive laws? No, it's not. No, the desires for

the health of the entire community for the whole

of the all of the relationships The you cannot

just mean children here You cannot just mean

the the the fatherly motherly dynamic It can't

just be those who are under authority it also

must be those who grow up to have authority There's

a call there by the way. Okay quick side note

about this command for all the ways and times

in where the Bible is said to be an ancient patriarchal

text. Did you all notice that it says honor your

father and your mother? Like there is an equal

footing in this text there. Pretty interesting

for an ancient text where that would certainly

not have been the case, broadly speaking. Anyway,

contained in this command to honor your father

and your mother is also a command for the father

and the mother. For the ones who have a degree

of authority, which is to say, honor those who

live under you. Give their presence a weight

in your life. Don't dismiss the reality of who

they are, what they bring, how God's made them,

the gifts they have, the proclivities they have,

the personalities they have. Which is to say,

parents, it is your duty, it is our duty to understand

Parenting an infant is different than parenting.

Parenting a teen is different than parenting

an 18 year old is different than parenting a

28 year old. Do not coddle your 18 year old.

Send them out into the world with your blessing.

Teachers know this, right? I mean, like no teacher

is thinking I should give the same assignment

to a third grader as I do a 10th grader. We all

know how ridiculous that sounds. There's an attentiveness

to those who are under their care, where they

are, who they are, how they learn, how they grow.

There's an honoring of who they are, the weight

they are, their presence in the world. Parents,

let's grab onto this. Those in authority, grab

onto that. Learn those under you. So I don't

think I've ever really done this in a sermon,

but The theological text of our denomination,

actually of sort of the Reformed Presbyterian

Church historically and globally, is the Westminster

Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms.

And the Larger Catechism is amazing on the Ten

Commandments. I've been tempted the last few

weeks to read some of it to you and I have not

done so. But I wanted to I want to read to you

some of the Westminster Larger Catechism as it

speaks to Not the obligations of those who are

under authority, but the obligations of those

who have authority Okay, so I want to read some

of this to you today. Keep in mind. This was

written in 1647 it may use some words That are

not as common today and it talks about those

with authority as superiors, those under authority

as inferiors. We think of inferior as actually

lacking value. That's not how it's intended,

okay? So question 129 is what's required of superiors

towards their inferiors? What's required of those

with authority for those who are under their

care? It's required of those with authority according

to that power they receive from God and that

relationship, that relation wherein they stand

to love, pray for, and bless those under them.

That is our primary posture. That's the first

thing that's required that we love, pray for,

and bless those under us. If you have people

that work for you, that is how you are to care

for them, to honor them. Let me continue. To

instruct, to counsel, to admonish them, countenancing,

commanding, and rewarding. such as do well and

discounting and saying reproving and chastising

such as do ill protecting and providing for them

and all things necessary for soul and body and

by grave wise holy and exemplary carriage y 'all

haven't used the word carriage in a long time

that's not like a horse -drawn carriage it's

how you comport yourself in the world to procure

glory for god honor for themselves and to preserve

authority that god has put upon them great call

to those with authority. But here's the thing.

What are the sins of those with authority? Listen

to this. The sins of those with authority are,

besides the neglect of the duties required of

them. So you got to do the duties. What are the

sins? An inordinate seeking of themselves. I

mean, think of something that kind of hits home

for me, these commands in Colossians and Ephesians,

fathers do not provoke your children. When do

we provoke our children, fathers? In an ordinance

seeking of yourself, do what I told you. Listen

to me. Okay, let me keep going. In an ordinance

seeking of themselves, their own glory, ease,

profit, or pleasure. In an ordinance seeking

of your profit is actually where you sin against

those under you. Commanding things unlawful.

or not in the power of inferiors to perform.

Think of that, parents. Part of the way the confession

has applied this is it says it's actually sinning

against your children, let's say that, if you

are commanding them to perform something that

is not in their power to do. Counseling, encouraging,

or favoring them in that which is evil, dissuading,

discouraging, and discounting them Discontinencing

them in that which is good, correcting them unduly.

How about that, parents? I feel like I know that

in my life. The way we break this command is

we correct those under us unduly. Overly harshly,

too many times. Carelessly exposing or leaving

them to wrong, temptation, and danger, provoking

them to wrath, or in any other way dishonoring

themselves. See the confession says there is

an author that is due those under you What this

is to say is that this command is not just for

children or those under authority to honor those

above them This is just as much a command as

the for those who have authority who have those

under them who are to care for Protect love to

honor their weight and their presence in your

life Give their presence It's due. Which is to

say that all life has weight. There are no little

people. There's nobody that you can dismiss in

this world. There are no insignificant people

in this world. No people that do not carry weight.

The problem that we face in this command and

the reason why we all break it is that we do

not honor the role that others always have in

our lives. God has always placed you in certain

relationships and those relationships are always

to be honored for that relationship. And we do

not do so. We do not honor those who are over

us and we do not honor those who are under us

as we should because we are like the emperors

of old. We are like Adam from long ago, desiring

to be God. We want to decide what is best for

the world. And if you are not on board, as one

unfortunate preacher once said, you're going

to get run over by the bus. The Creed question

authority and frankly, it's accompanying Liberating

sexual revolution was largely actually the rejection

of the family structure rejection of authority

structures And it has not gone well It's not

gone well What I'm saying is that this command

is a command for all of us Do not dismiss this

as us for children It's a command for all of

us and all of our relationships and we all break

it, but there is good news. And interestingly,

I think the good news of this command is that

this command is followed perfectly by our Lord

Jesus and by our Heavenly Father. Okay, there

are a lot of texts I could go to for this, but

let me just kind of read a few of them for you.

First, one that most of you know, John 3 .16,

for God so loved the world that He gave His only

Son. And what does the Son do, but He obeys the

Father, right? He honors the Father. In Luke

6, Luke 11, how are we taught to pray the Lord's

prayer? But our Father, right? Hollywood, holy,

honored, be your name. The beginning of actually

our life and our conversation even with the Father

is how Jesus interacts with the Father, our Father.

And Jesus, we can read in John chapter eight,

says, I do not seek my own glory. The word becoming

flesh and dwelling among us doesn't seek his

own glory. Instead, we can also further read

in John chapter 12. Now is my soul troubled,

John 12 · chapter mention

and what shall I say? Father, save me from this

hour. No, but for this purpose I came to this

hour. Father, glorify your name. The Son, Jesus

in the flesh, God incarnate is honoring the Father

constantly. In Jesus' high priestly prayer, we

find this idea of course repeated again and again.

that Jesus honors the Father, I glorified you

on earth, having accomplished the work that you

gave me to do. He's able to say, I've honored

you by listening to you, obeying you, following

you. That's verse four, verse six. I've manifested

your name to people whom you gave me out of the

world. I made known to them your name and I will

continue to make it known. I'm honoring your

presence, your weight, your glory. When Jesus

is in the garden, of course, right before his

crucifixion on the night in which he was betrayed,

he's sweating drops of blood, right? And he says,

Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from

me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

He's honoring the reality of the Father's presence

in his life. He's obeying the Father. I can give

you more. But in Christ, we see the honoring

of the Father perfectly. Where we fail, the Lord

Jesus lives perfectly. And of course we see this

most clearly in his going to the cross, humbling

himself, being obedient to the point of death,

obedient to the point of death, even death on

a cross. In that same high priestly prayer, what

is interesting is that you see actually the combination,

not just though of the son seeking the honor

of the father, but actually the father seeking

the honor and glory of the son. because it's

a dual dynamic. So in John chapter 17, again,

John 17 · chapter mention

the night before our Lord's crucifixion, Jesus

prays, Father, the hour has come, the hour of

my cross, my suffering. Glorify your son. This

is honor the reality of me as your son, that

the son may glorify you. He goes on, now, Father,

glorify me in your own presence with the glory

that I have with you. existed, there's this dynamic

of honor at play. Of course, in Philippians 2,

which I already sort of alluded to, we read that

it was for the joy that was set before him that

Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame.

But it was for the Father's honor, right? And

it was in doing that, actually, this is interesting

in verse 9, all that is followed up by saying

that the Father exalted him, that's Jesus, and

bestowed on him, that's Jesus, the name that's

above every other name. So the father honors

the son and the son's obedience to the father.

There's this dynamic at play between the father

and the son, which is exactly what this command

is calling us to do. All this to say is that

in the glory of Rome, we see both the ugliness

of what happens when we think everything else

needs to revolve around us. The revolving dining

room. the renaming of time and 30 % of the world

is a slave. But in that same Roman world, what

we saw is God coming into this world and honoring

Jesus, honoring the father and in that dynamic,

the father honoring the son and lifting him up.

And that is our hope that where we fail, the

Lord Jesus succeeds. And we can rest in this

reality that what God has done in Christ, He

will do for us as we seek Him, as we pray out

to Him, our Father, hallowed be your name. And

so, brothers and sisters, let me end with this

simply. Honor your father and mother. And believe

that what the Lord tells us is true, that it

will go well for you in the land to which you're

going. This was true of our Lord. This is true

of our Lord. And may it be true of us as His

people. Let me pray. Lord, I pray that we would

see the weight of other people in our lives.

See the honor that we are to give others. The

way we are to consider their presence and their

role in our lives. And I pray that we be those

who desire, eagerly desire, actively desire to

follow this command. And that more than ever,

we will see that as we fail, the Lord Jesus succeeds,

and that He goes to the cross to honor the Father,

but also to pay for our sins, that we might be

those who die to sin and live to righteousness.

We might know that it's by His wounds that we

are healed, brought from death to life, from

slavery to freedom. And may we live this kind

of resurrection life that mirrors the reality

of the Son and the Father. Praise in Jesus' name.

Amen. Thank you for listening to Second City

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