Life Ordered Under Christ

So for most of his early life, John Newton had absolute

authority over human beings. You see, before he ever wrote

Amazing Grace, Newton was a captain in the transatlantic

slave trade. On his ship, his word was law.

He decided who ate and who starved.

He decided who lived and who died, who was beaten and who was

spared. You see, the people below the

deck had no voice, no leverage, no escape.

Submission wasn't choice. It was forced.

You see, according to his logbook, he bought and

imprisoned roughly about 468 men, women and children. 68 of

those people died under his watch.

Years later, Newton would write that what haunted him most was

not only what he did, but how normal it felt to hold that kind

of power. Authority had been completely

untethered from love. Power had no accountability and

human beings paid the price. You see, eventually God broke

Newton slowly and painfully. His ship was thrown into a

vicious storm and it left him stranded.

And so for over 27 days the crew and Newton fought for their

lives till eventually their ship found land.

But during that time, he came to see Christ not only as Savior,

but as Lord. You see, Lord over his past,

Lord over his power, Lord over authority.

And Newton would later confess, I am a wretched Sinner.

Do with me as you please. She only then did Newton begin

to understand what authority was meant to be.

That's why Amazing Grace that we love to sing doesn't celebrate

power. It mourns blindness.

It it remembers fear. And then it rejoices that grace

can rule where authority once crushed.

This. This was written by a man who

owned slaves, and he writes about his chains being gone and

finding grace in Christ. And so for some of you, the

mention of the word authority tightens your chest.

You didn't choose that reaction most of the time.

I probably came from experience. Maybe it was a coach who used

humiliation as motivation. Maybe it was a parent whose

rules felt unpredictable and whose discipline felt harsh.

Maybe it was a boss who reminded you everyday how replaceable you

were. Maybe it was someone in

spiritual leadership showing that you should have been able

to trust someone that had power and authority who use scripture

to protect themselves rather than care for you.

And even some of you in this room, you can't even name the

moment, but your body feels it. Your trauma feels the weight of

of where authority has been untethered from Christ.

Authority shapes our sense of safety, right?

So when the Bible starts talking about authority and submission,

some of us don't hear it neutrally.

You hear them through memory. You hear it through pain.

You you hear it through mistrust.

And our culture offers a simple solution.

Authority is the problem, and so flatten it.

Reject authority altogether. Question everything or just

seize authority for yourself. In our text this morning, Paul

doesn't do that. Instead, Paul challenges us to

recenter the focus of our authority and submission.

Because the problem is not authority itself, You see.

The problem is an authority untethered from Christ.

And before Paul ever gives a command to a child, to a parent,

to a slave or a master, he gives us the lens everything must be

seen through, Ephesians 521 says submitting to one another out of

reverence for Christ. And so this morning we're going

to, we're going to kind of start a, a, what is known as the

household code, but we're going to do it in a little bit

different order. Now you see, before the ice

storm hit, this was supposed to be the passage I preached on.

It moved us a week back. And so if you came hoping to

hear about husbands and wives come next week, we will, we will

hit on that and that'll be Aaron's duty to do that.

But I'm a bit, I'm going to be talking about children and

parents and then slaves and masters all still within the

household code, as we will see. But that one verse, Ephesians

521 when we left off last week, that is the crucial element to

understanding what comes next in Paul's epistle to Ephesus.

What he's saying is don't read what I'm about to say through

your past as I walk through these areas of of your life

where there's authority and then there's someone that's

subordinate. Don't read it through your past.

Don't read it through your lens, but read it through Christ.

So submit to one another in reverence for Christ, because

when authority is detached from Christ, it wounds, it damages,

it destroys. But when Christ rules authority,

everything changes. Augustine once said where there

is no love, there is no true authority.

Paul is about to show us that authority, what authority looks

like when it's placed back under love because it's placed back

under Christ. And so when we come to Ephesians

6, children and parents, slaves and masters, Paul is not giving

us isolated rules. He is showing us what happens

when Jesus Christ stands over relationships where authority is

unequal. That is the question before us

this morning. How does Christ rule

relationships where authority is unequal if you're not already

there to Ephesians six term with me as we read our text this

morning. Paul says 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. Bond servants, obey your earthly

masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you

would Christ, not by the way of I service as people pleasers,

but as bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the

heart, rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not

to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does this he will

receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bond servant or

is free masters. Do the same to them and stop

your threatening, knowing that He who is both their Master and

yours in it is in heaven, that there is no partiality with Him.

You see, Ephesians is not a book about isolated commands.

It's a book about new creation, life under the reign and rule of

Christ. Paul has already told us in

Ephesians 2 we were dead, but God made us alive.

Later he says Christ has broken down the dividing walls.

There is no longer this division amongst one another and now we

are to walk in a manner worthy of Our Calling.

And so by the time we reach chapter 5, Paul is showing us

what life looks like. It's walking in love, walking as

children of light, walking in wisdom and and wisdom.

Paul says it's not merely knowing what is right, it is

living rightly under the lordship of Christ.

That is wisdom. That's why he says in 521

submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

This is not mutual submission in the sense that roles just

disappear. It's mutual submission in the

sense that everyone is under Christ.

Now, Paul applies that principle where power differences are most

obvious. Again, how does Christ rule in

relationships where authority is unequal?

Paul answers that in three ways by using the example of children

and parents and slaves and masters.

First, what we see is Christ redirects submission upward.

Christ redirects submission upward.

You see in Ephesians 61 children, obey your parents and

the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother.

Then it may go well with you that you may live long in the

land. And then he goes in, in verse 6

and talks or five. They talks about the bond

servants. He begins this passage

intentionally. He doesn't speak first to those

in power. He doesn't speak to those that

are in authority. He speaks to the one that's the

subordinate, one that does not have authority, children,

slaves, or workers. This alone would have gotten the

Church of Ephesus attention. All right.

As mentioned earlier, in order to properly understand what Paul

was saying, you must keep Ephesians 521 in your mind.

Paul fleshes submission out through three different

relationships. He starts first with wives and

husbands, and he goes to children and parents, and then

slave and master. In each relationship, Paul is

going to address the one who is the subordinate first, and then

he admonishes the one with authority.

And so he begins this intentionally, because in the

ancient world household instruction usually went

straight to the head of the house.

But Paul does something different here.

He addresses the ones with least power directly.

As Peter O'Brien noted, he says Paul's concern is not merely to

preserve social order, but to show how the Lordship of Christ

reshapes existing relationships. In other words, Paul is not

rearranging the furniture in the home.

What he's doing is he's changing the center of the room of what

the what the furniture is pointing to what our hearts are

pointing to everything that follows wives and husbands,

children and parents, servants and masters is Paul showing us

what ordinary life looks like under Christ's rule.

And so he begins with the children.

The charge children obey your parents in the Lord for this is

right. See Paul here doesn't soften the

word obey. Authority in the home is real.

Christianity never pretends otherwise.

He says children obey your parents.

But Paul refuses to let obedience just kind of stand on

its own. He anchors it in the Lord.

Those 3 words are not just a a fun decorative that Paul used

even though he loves to use in the Lord in Ephesians, but

they're decisive and commentator pointed out that the phrase in

the Lord places the child's obedience within the sphere of

Christ's authority and not merely under parental control.

That's crucial because what Paul is not saying is obey because

parents are always right. What he's not saying is obey

because parents are ultimate. He's not even saying obey if

your parents are believers. He's saying obey because you

belong to Christ. Throughout Ephesians in Christ

or in the Lord describes A believer's location where their

life is rooted, right. Chosen in Christ, made alive in

Christ, created in Christ for good works and now Paul brings

children fully into that reality.

Andrew Lincoln writes that this command assumes children are

participants in the Christian community where obedience flows

from their relationship to the Lord.

That means obedience is not a pre Christian morality, it's a

Christian discipleship. Children do not step outside of

their faith when they obey their parents.

Their obedience is one of the ways their union with Christ is

lived out, and that's always been the pattern in Scripture.

If you go back to Leviticus 19, as they're establishing the Holy

Code, it says everyone of you shall Revere his mother and

father. I am the Lord your God.

Notice how that command is framed.

He's saying parental authority is real honor and Revere your

father and mother, but it's immediately placed under God's

authority. Paul is doing the same thing

here in Ephesians. He's saying, hey parents, you

have real authority, but you're not the highest authority in the

home. Christ is O'Brien, again is

helpful here. He says that the Paul's wording

relativizes parental authority by placing it explicitly under

the lordship of Christ. You see, that means obedience is

real. Children, students, but it's

never blind. You see, children are not being

asked to trust authority, just in general.

They're being invited to trust Christ as they live under

authority. And that phrase in the Lord,

while it also deals with your relationship with Him, it also

sets the boundary lines for authority.

Paul doesn't spell them out, because Scripture already has.

But what he says is when human authority commands what God

forbids, or what forbid or forbids what God commands, the

hierarchy of allegiance is clear.

As the apostles put it, we must obey God rather than man.

That's right, Paul assumes that framework here.

You are to obey your parents in the Lord so outside of them

asking you to blatantly sin children, students, those that

are still under the authority of your your parents, you are to

obey Paul only gives 1 clear out and that's if they do what is

against what the Lord has told you to do explicitly from

scripture right. That's not the, oh, the Lord

told me to do this and ends up being going out late at night,

right? No, you, you listen to your

parents in that. But if they tell you, hey, you

cannot have a relationship with the Lord, you cannot read your

Bible and, and have partnership with Christ, then you obey God

first. Amen.

So kids, students, teenagers, when you obey, you're not just

doing what mom or dad said, which is a good thing.

What you're doing is you're practicing what it means to live

under Jesus as King. That's right.

John Calvin and his institute said all obedience that we yield

to men must be subordinate to the authority of God.

And then obedience is then further motivated by and based

on the fact that that it's just right and it's just a a common

thing in society that it is right for children to obey it

just that it just makes sense. It is right to do that.

And then Paul doesn't leave the command hanging.

He reaches back into the Old Testament.

He says honor your father and mother, for this is the first

commandment with a promise. This is this is not some random

reference Paul is pulling in the deep structure of God's design.

You see the 5th commandment sits at the center of the 10

commandments. Many believe it.

It's the bridge commandment. It bridges the commands about

loving God and commands about loving others.

As commentators regularly note, it is the first place where

obedience to God is worked out through obedience to a human

authority. You see, God designed the home

to be the first place authority is encountered.

Before a child ever meets governments, before a child ever

meets an institution or an employer, they meet authority in

the home. And so that is why Paul moves

from obey to honor, right? Because obedience describes what

children under the care of their parents should do, right?

And if you're like me, when I was a teenager, I was like, when

do I not have to do that, right? When do I become my own man and

I can do what I want, right? When do when does the obedience

command stop for me? Well, Paul tells us by bringing

up honor. It describes A posture that

lasts a lifetime. You see respect in speech,

humility and posture, gratitude for provision.

When was the last time you thanked your parents for what

they give you? Right?

Children, parents like, yeah. Can I get an Amen, Right.

It's care in later years, right? When they get older.

How you honor them is by taking care of them, returning the

favor. Clinton Arnold notes that Paul

understands the 5th Commandment not merely as a rule for

children, but as a foundational principle for ordered human

relationships. And when Paul highlights the

promise, when he says it's a first command with a promise,

he's not offering prosperity when he says so.

That they may go well with you and that you may live long in

the land. This is not a verse here to say,

well, if I just obey, I'm never going to die.

All is going to be well. Everything is going to be great

for me. What he is doing is he's saying

this command, the promise is wisdom.

Why? Because it as you think about as

a child, I want it when your parents said don't go in the

street and you chose to obey and not go in the street.

You're more likely to survive, right?

You're not going to get hit by a car, right?

When they tell you, hey, don't play with matches, they burn.

When you obey, you're more likely not to burn the house

down and live. I needed to be told that over

and over again in my life. I would light a match and just

watch it burn until it went to my finger and then I'd throw it

and praise the Lord that the house is not burned down.

But see, it's, it's this reality of like, it's, it's just common

sense of if you don't do this, then the likelihood is you're,

you're going to live. But there's more meaning to it

says in the Old Testament, long life in the land meant stability

and flourishing within God's covenant order.

Paul applies that principle to a church no longer tied to the

land. He's saying God has woven

flourishing into ordered life, not because parents are perfect,

not because authority never fails us, but because God uses

authority, especially in the home, to form hearts that know

how to live under Him. Right?

Authority is the in the home is meant to be a signpost, not a

substitute. It's a it's a signpost pointing

children toward a greater authority, right?

So that I tell my, my, my 4 year old and my 2 year old every

night when they fight going to bed is I know this seems silly

to obey dad right now, but one day the Lord is going to ask of

you. And what I am doing is I am

training you and helping you learn what it looks like to

submit to Christ and his Lordship, right.

The better father, the the the the wiser Lord.

And so he tells children, obey your parents and the Lord, and

honor your father and mother. And then he moves to bond

servants in verse 5 and he widens the circle.

You see, this is where meaning often gets lost if we move too

fast. As I was preparing for this, I

found very little people writing sermons on this whole Section 1

through 9. It was like one through 4, 5

through 9. They never did it together.

And I, I was sitting there going, man, how do I, how do I,

how do I make this mesh? Because it sounds very odd, but

when you understand the century and the, the world that Paul is

writing to is, he's not switching topics here, right?

In our modern world, our, our first interpretation goes to the

workplace. Now, that is not a a wrong

application of this, but it's missing the deeper truth in it.

You see, in the ancient world, servants were part of the

household itself. This is still under the

household code. The household was not just a

family unit, it was an economic and social unit.

You see, servants live there, they work there.

They were governed by the same authority.

And so before we move any further, we need to pause for a

moment and name something. Clearly ESV translates it bond

servants. Some of y'all's might be

servants. Some other translations will say

slaves. When Paul speaks to bond

servants here, he is not talking about the slavery as we know it

from modern history. And that is important to note,

right? Because we read this from our

21st century lens, this is not a a bond servant.

That was race based. That was chattel slavery that

defined the Atlantic slave trade.

You see, the system was that system was built on kidnapping,

racial hierarchy, lifelong ownership, generational bondage.

That kind of slavery here me is an evil distortion of God's

design and scripture will never bless it and never does. 1st

century slavery was still broken and still sinful and we'll see

that but it was different. You see in the Roman world

slavery was not race based. There were there were many

people, even doctors that were servants, bond servants of

someone. Many slaves were emancipated

during their lifetime. Most of the time it became age

of 30 was when they finally paid off all their debts.

Many of the servants, they entered it because of debt or or

just economic collapse. They needed to provide and so

they would go under someone's authority and be paid and get

make money and so they could be out of that.

Some were educated, many of them held positions of

responsibility, many lived within a household and could

earn wages or freedom, and many would use it as a way to become

Roman citizens and develop a relationship with their former

masters. That doesn't make it good

though, and Paul is not admonishing and celebrating it.

What he's doing is he's speaking into an existing household

structure, not endorsing oppression as God's ideal.

You see, Paul is not defending the system, he is redeeming

people within it. And notice what he does not say.

He doesn't say this system is just.

Masters are always right. And he doesn't even ground

obedience in the goodness of the structure, he grounds obedience

in Christ. You see, if we miss this, we

miss read Paul. Paul is not giving timeless

approval to slavery, and anyone that would say otherwise is

wrong. He is showing how Christ's

lordship enters broken systems and reshapes how God's people

live within them, and the seeds of that reshaping are already

here. Remember, Paul tells servants

that their obedience is rendered as to Christ, and then tells

masters that they have a master in heaven who shows no

partiality. He is quietly undermining every

claim of absolute human ownership in Christ's Kingdom.

No one ultimately owns another human being.

Christ alone is Lord. And as Lincoln observes, he says

Paul's instructions to slaves are not a new subject, but a

continuation of the household relationships already under

discussion. Paul is not changing subjects.

He's moving, moving deeper into the same household and notice

what he does inside that structure.

He does not minimize the power imbalance.

He does not praise the system, but he absolutely refuses to let

human authority be ultimate. Over and over again in this

section, he says as to Christ, as servants of Christ, doing the

will of God from the heart, as to the Lord and not to man.

Arnold comments that Paul redefines the obedience by

relocating its ultimate reference point where he says

not. He says obey your earthly

masters and he he reframes that ultimate point to Christ.

Your obedience does not end with the person who has power over

you. It rises to Christ.

Which means obedience is no longer just survival.

It's no longer merely keeping your head down.

It becomes worship as you serve and he gives six ways that the

bondservant is to do that with respect and fear sincerity of

heart, right? It resembles first Chronicles

2917 of of David, say in the uprightness of my heart, I have

freely offered these things says obey as they would obey Christ.

Colossians 317 not serving to be seen as people pleasers, right.

You're not doing it to be seen by man, but you're doing it for

the Lord, doing the will of God as servants.

And lastly, with a great attitude, Deuteronomy 10/12 and

now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?

But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways to love

him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all

your soul. And this is where one of my

favorite stories and all of the world hits home and helps us

feel what Paul is saying because it isn't easy for us to

understand because we don't live in this context that Paul's

addressing. There's a man named Brother

Lawrence. If you know his story, he wanted

to be a monk and he wanted to, to, to to work in the monastery,

but there was no opportunity. But they said, hey, we have a

dishwashing position. That's all we have.

And So what Brother Lawrence did is he spent his life doing

unseen, repetitive work in a monastery kitchen.

And yet he famously said he experienced the presence of God

as fully while washing dishes as he as while he prayed.

Because his mentality was, every dish that I wash I will do for

the glory of God as if God was about to use this spoon, and I

will wash every dish for that reason.

This is the attitude. Because yes, this does translate

to the workplace. This is the attitude that we

should take to our work, seeing that we work unto the Lord, not

man, right? Because it is possible for the

homemaker to cook a meal as if Jesus Christ were going to eat

it. It is possible to clean the

house as if Jesus Christ were coming to their house.

It is possible for teachers to educate students, doctors to

treat patients, shop assistants to serve customers as if they

were serving Jesus Christ. Because we do all for the glory

of God. Work is not the effect of the

fall. Work was there in the first

place. Our attitude towards it is what

fell. We started viewing work as as

laboursome. It became hard because of our

because Adam chose to sin, he now has to toil in his work.

That is Paul's point. When obedience is offered to

Christ, ordinary faithfulness is gathered into divine purposes.

You see, Christ sees it. So it's not by the way of eye

service as people pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ,

doing the will of God from the heart, doing all this knowing

that he will receive back from the Lord whether he is a bond

servant or is free. Christ receives it, he remembers

it, and again, he's careful. This is not blind obedience

because obedience is rendered to Christ.

It has limits. Authority is real, but it's

never ultimate. But the ordinary everyday spaces

of life, homes, households, work, we cannot easily escape.

Paul wants believers to know something deeply comforting.

You are not submitting alone. Christ stands between you and

has authority over you. Christ receives what you offer

in faith, and Christ rules even there.

So whether you are a child learning obedience in the home,

or someone living under authority that feels heavy and

unavoidable, or someone whose faithfulness feels unseen,

Christ sees it and he's a good Lord.

That is how Christ rules relationships Where authority is

unequal. He redirects submission upward,

and then he moves on to address the ones in authority.

Christ restrains authority downward.

He restrains authority downward. If in the first movement Paul

showed us how Christ redirects submission upward, here he shows

us something just as necessary. Christ restrains authority

downward. Paul has spoken to those under

authority, and now he turns to those who possess it.

And the tone tightens, not harsh, but serious, because Paul

understands something we often ignore.

Authority, if left unchecked, drifts toward harm.

So Paul speaks directly to parents, and then he speaks to

the masters. Paul begins.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring

them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Paul addresses fathers not because mothers are

insignificant. Paul addresses fathers because

they represented recognized authority in the home.

Now you've heard the studies, you've heard the statistics of

when the father comes to know the Lord, the family is more

likely to follow and the families that don't.

The father has no relationship with the Lord.

He's speaking to those whose presence, words, and discipline

shaped the emotional climate of the household.

Right. The Christian fathers, Paul was

saying, should look different than the Roman ones who use

their authority to control their kids, to get results.

They they, they use it as fear to obedience.

And Paul starts he does not begin with what children owe

parents. He begins with what parents must

not do. He begins with a negative, says

do not provoke your children to anger.

As Peter O'Brien notes, Paul's first concern is a place is to

place a check on the misuse of parental authority.

In other words, Paul knows authority needs limits.

You see, the word provoke does not describe a single failure or

a bad day. It refers to a pattern authority

exercise in a way that grates, crushes, or discourages.

Another way to say it is you have crushed your child's soul.

And he says, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,

harshness, unreasonable demands, favoritism, humiliation, or

discipline. That it lacks explanation.

That is what kind of provoking Paul is addressing.

Paul is saying authority that repeatedly frustrates rather

than forms has already stepped outside of Christ's design.

This is Christ's restraining authority, right?

So that I'm learning more and more as a father now with A4

year old and a 2 year old who, yeah, I wish I could just be

obey and do as I say. But as those who have kids, you

laugh because you're like, that ain't happening.

All right, if you have any advice about a 2 year old who

fights for three hours at nap time, please come talk to me.

And if you found a way to do it in a loving way, I would love to

know because I yes, we want our children to obey, but Paul says

do not do it in a way that provokes them to anger.

And he doesn't stop with a prohibition.

Then he gives a positive calling.

So how do we not provoke our children in anger, fathers?

It's by bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of

the Lord. That phrase bring them up is

deeply pastoral. It's the same verb Paul used

earlier in Ephesians 529 to describe how one cares for their

own body by nourishing, by cherishing, by sustaining life.

Not because authority in the home was never meant to

dominate, it was meant to cultivate.

When he says, bring them up in the instruction of the Lord.

You should be cherishing your children, admonishing your

children. They should know how loved they

are by you. And he defines that cultivation

with two words, discipline. This word does not primarily

mean punishment, it means training, a whole life,

formation, habits, love, character.

Andrew Leakin writes that the discipline refers to the total

process of education and formation, not merely corrective

discipline. Right, because correction may be

involved and punishment may be involved.

But if the aim is just to beat them in submission, then you

missed it because then all it is is behavior modification.

They're like, oh, yeah, I just don't want to get a spanking, so

I'm just not going to do that. But you've missed the heart of

that obedience. The aim is always maturity,

never control. It's the same word translated as

chastening in Hebrews 12. So Paul is telling parents, he's

telling us fathers to jealously guard your responsibility as

parent. Yes, we delegate some of that to

church. And if you if you put your kids

in this public system, you delegate that to their teachers.

So you're delegating some of it, but you're never surrendering

it. Parents, your responsibility to

bring them up is a God-given task.

Hear me when I say this parents, no one can replace you and

students, no one can replace your parents.

It's a God-given role that is beautiful, tethered to Christ.

Lloyd Jones observes. If parents but gave as much

thought to the rearing of their children as they do to the

rendering of animals and flowers, the situation of our

world would be very different. A more modern thing is if we

would give more thought to rearing our children than our

sports than our hobbies, than our pleasures and what would

this world look like if us parents, we would rise up and

take our God-given task and say we are to discipline our kids in

the way of the Lord. The second thing he says is

instruct them. This word refers to verbal

guidance, teaching, warning, explaining, appealing to the

conscience. Arnold notes in his commentary

addresses. It addresses the heart and

understanding, not merely outward behavior.

I didn't who in here has been the victim of It's just a

because I said so. Well, yes and Amen.

It doesn't get to the heart of it.

It doesn't instruct them. It doesn't tell them, hey, This

is why we're doing that. This is This is why we ask of

you. That's why we tell Silas at nap

time. We don't hate you because we

want you to sleep. Mommy and Daddy actually love

you and that's why we tell you to go take a nap because you're

cranky and you're mean and you need sleep.

And he'll run around going, no, I don't want to, but it's us

training them that right, Judas, in that stage of asking why,

why, why, why. And as much as I want to say

stop asking me, that is the moment we train them, we teach

them, hey, This is why we do that.

This is why mommy and daddy asked that.

Christian authority does not merely enforce rules.

It forms understanding. It gives them sustenance on why

they are to obey that rule significantly, both training and

admonition or or discipline instruction, whatever your your

your Bible translates in the English to those two words are

used to describe the purpose of Scripture.

Second Timothy 316, First Corinthians 10/11.

What Paul is doing is he says, how do you raise them in this

way? How do you do this?

Raise your children in the Word of God and through the Word of

God and both are governed by the same phrase Paul has already

used of the Lord. Bring them up in the discipline

and instruction of the Lord. Parents are not forming children

according to personal preference, fears, or cultural

pressures, right? They're not just trying to be a

buzzkill and not that you have fun.

They are stewarding lives that belong to Christ, and I have

learned that more and more over the years as I've had kids.

They're not mine. God has graciously given me

Judah and Silas. And until I see that like that,

my authority will be tethered, untethered from Christ.

And it becomes about me, becomes about no.

I want them to respect me. Parents, we have real authority,

but our authority is not ultimate.

Christ is and that's who we should pointing them to.

Paul knows how easily authority turns inward.

Parents can use authority to protect their ego, manage

embarrassment, enforce convenience.

Anybody that has kids knows kids are not convenient.

Demand outcomes without patience.

What does your authority produce in the people under it?

Does it produce fear or does it produce formation in the Word

and in the Lord? So Paul draws A theological

boundary. Christ does not rule by

provoking anger. He rules by forming hearts.

So parents, this passage is not calling you to perfection.

And children hear me, this is not you to look at your parents

and say, why aren't you perfect? It is calling you to

accountability. Paul is not saying children

should never feel frustration. He's saying they should never be

formed by anger. The goal is not compliance.

The goal is formation, right. The goal is for them to realize

their need for a savior and one day come to him and say I need

you and I want to be submitted under your authority.

If all Judah and Silas learn from my training in the home is

oh, I just fear Daddy, I've I've, I've failed.

I have failed in that moment because what I've hoped I've

done is said, Hey, fear the Lord as I submit to the Lord

discipline that trains instruction that explains

authority, that reflects Christ. And then he turns to masters

says masters do the same to them and stop your threatening right.

That phrase do the same is arresting.

He's saying hey, that same Christ conscious sincerity that

I've demanded of the servants I demand of you too.

Authority does not excuse anyone from obedience to Christ and

Paul immediately names the abuse stop your threatening.

Threatening is authority reduced to fear, compliance without

care, power without restraint. Right?

That's why it's be slow to anger.

I'd be slow to speak. It's like God knows our hearts.

And as O'Brien observes, Paul attacks the very mechanism by

which domination is maintained. Fear.

Paul is not naive about power. He knows exactly how it

operates. The most damaging thing that

could happen and your authority is to watch the person under you

cower in fear and not in submission and respect.

He says under Christ's lordship this stops.

And Paul grounds it theologically because he's he's

just knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in

heaven and that there is no partiality with him.

As Arnold puts it, earthly hierarchies dissolve before the

heavenly throne. Authority will answer to Christ.

This lands anywhere authority is exercised.

Parents, leaders, managers, pastors, teachers, coaches.

If you have authority over someone, you should rule and use

that authority in the Lord. If Christ is Lord, authority is

never for ego, convenience, control, or self protection.

It's always for stewardship, formation and care.

As we get to the the Third Point, Christ unites both sides

very quickly. If Christ redirects submission

upward and point to Christ restrains authority downward.

This whole section of Scripture unite shows us Christ unites

both sides under 1 Lord. He's spoken to children,

parents, He's spoken to servants and masters, and in every case

he has refused to let the relationship stop at the human

level. Paul keeps lifting our eyes

upward. Paul is dismantling the illusion

that authority ultimately runs horizontally.

Every relationship in this passage is triangular, not 2

sided. It's child, parent, Christ,

servant, master, Christ. No one stands alone.

No one stands above Christ. No one escapes his lordship

because he is Lord, and he places Jesus Christ at the

center of it. Paul does not flatten

distinctions. He does not erase authority.

He revitalizes it by saying Jesus Christ is Lord.

And so if Christ is Lord of the relationship, then obedience is

never wasted. Children obey not because

parents are perfect, but because Christ is worthy.

Servants obey not because the system is just, but because

Christ sees you. Faithful obedience offered to

Christ is never invisible. Paul is telling the church you

are never merely submitting to a person.

You are living before the Lord. So authority is exercised before

the face of God. And as we conclude, at the

beginning we talked about John Newton, not to admire his past,

but to confront the reality of authority.

A man who held power, a man who misused it, a man who lived as

though authority belonged to him.

Grace placed his authority under a better Lord.

And that's exactly what Paul has been showing us.

Christ redirects the mission upward, He restrains authority

downward, and he unites us all under 1 Lord.

The problem was never authority. The problem was who held it.

And when Christ becomes Lord, obedience is no longer

degrading, authority is no longer domineering, and power is

no longer unaccountable. So the question before us is

simple. Where does Christ need to be

acknowledged as Lord over authority in my life?

For some of you, that means trusting him and obedience where

you've resisted. For others, it means repenting

of authority you've carried careless carelessly.

And for many of us, it means surrendering control we were

never meant to hold. And so as we move to our

response time and as the band comes up, we're going to sing

words that confess what Newton learned and what Paul is calling

us to see. That faithfulness doesn't come

from our strength, that obedience doesn't rest on your

resolve, That leadership isn't sustained by our power.

The Christian life is lived not by self rule, but by grace under

a good king. So as we respond, may we say

with honesty and hope, not I, but Christ in me.

Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage

Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit

our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.