- Today we're continuing to go through the 10 Commandments,
and there's a shift in our focus now,
whereas the first few commandments
deal with our life with God,
what it's supposed to look like,
and why it's supposed to look like that,
most of the commandments deal with how our love for God
shows up in our relationships with our neighbors.
And so in order to talk about that, well,
we need to define a very important word,
neighbor.
(gentle music)
Jesus was once asked the question, "Who is my neighbor?"
Jesus responded by saying this.
He said a Jewish man was once going down
from Jerusalem to Jericho
when he was attacked by robbers.
They stripped him of his clothes, they beat him,
and they went away leaving him half dead.
A priest happened to be going down the same road,
and when he saw the man
he passed by on the other side.
And so too a Levite, when he came to the place
and saw him he passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came to where the man was,
and when he saw him he took pity on him.
He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
pouring on oil and wine,
and then he put the man on his own donkey,
brought him to an inn,
and he took care of him.
The next day, he took out two denari,
that was currency back then,
and gave them to the inn keeper.
"Look after him," he said,
"and when I return I will reimburse you
"for any extra expense that you may have."
That's the end of the story.
And then Jesus asked the man which of those three,
the priest, the Levite
or the Samaritan do you think was a neighbor
to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers,
and the man replied "The one who had mercy on him.
And he identified something very important there.
Neighbors are not made by necessarily proximity
or by nationality or by position.
We look at our neighbors
and identify the people who need mercy,
who need our help.
Once he said that,
Jesus said you go and do likewise.
In Commandments four through 10,
when we look at how we do that,
how we do likewise, helping our neighbors in our own lives.
Now two things I'd like you to remember
as we get into this next commandment.
Firstly, remember that there are two different ways
of numbering the commandments that you can find
out there in the world.
We're using the way that the commandments are numbered
in a book called "The Small Catechism,"
written by a man named Martin Luther,
because the book summarizes the commandments quite well,
and their meanings quite well.
And, secondly, something else I'd like you to remember here,
for each of these commandments,
as we start with the fourth commandment,
we're going to state the general principle
of the commandment,
and then we're going to pull on other scriptures
to make specific applications to that general principle.
And, today, for the fourth commandment,
the general principle are going to look at
is the principle of authority,
the individuals or institutions
that have the God-given rights to make decisions
that impact our lives, authority.
And the fourth commandment mentions an authority
that most of us are very familiar with.
The fourth commandment says this,
it says honor your father and mother,
that it may go well for you.
That's the fourth commandment.
As we get into the fourth Commandment,
I'd like you to do something for me.
I'm going to give you a job description,
place is looking for a nice position
for someone to do some work,
and they put out a job description
looking for applicants.
I'm going to read you the job description,
and I want you to tell me
if you can guess what the position is.
I'm not going to tell you what the position is upfront,
you have to guess what it is
based on the description I give you.
So here's the description.
So this place is looking for
long-term team players.
We're going to be working in a challenging
permanent work environment
which will often be very chaotic.
You must be willing to work at all hours,
including nights, weekends,
and frequent 24-hour shifts.
You must be willing to be occasionally hated,
yelled at and called bad names
if you make wise
but unpopular decisions.
You must be able to go zero to 60 miles an hour
in three seconds flat in case you hear a scream
coming from the backyard.
You must be able to face
and conquer great challenges,
such as fixing small toys,
and unplugging toilets
and getting zippers unstuck.
You must be able to handle, understand,
and correct all levels of homework.
You must always hope for the best,
but be prepared for the worst,
while being criticized for not being fair
by the people whose laundry you do,
clothes you by and dishes you wash.
Regular responsibilities include
dinner prep, floor maintenance,
and janitorial work with no one helping,
even though there will often be multiple helpers
available in the next room watching television
or looking on their phones.
There will be no possibility at all for a promotion.
Your job is to remain in the same position
for many years without complaining,
without pay, while constantly retraining yourself
and updating your skills
with sometimes no one ever saying thanks.
And the wages that you'll get for this?
None.
In fact you will have to pay out of pocket
just to stay in this job,
and you will often have to give up whatever you have
so that the people underneath you can have a new toy
that they'll probably throw away within three weeks.
What is the job?
I bet you know,
it's being a parent.
God gives parents authority over their children
to make decisions that benefit them and care for them.
We have all benefited from this God-given authority.
When you were a baby
you were helpless in every way,
with no ability at all to keep yourself alive,
and yet here you are.
Someone did that.
Someone took their responsibility
of having that authority very, very seriously.
Your parents care for you physically.
They take care of your physical needs,
and they also do something else.
God gave parents a very special responsibility
that we find in Ephesians chapter six.
He's talking to fathers,
but you can apply to all parents,
where he says fathers, do not exasperate your children,
instead bring them up in the training
and the instruction of the Lord.
Parents have a dual responsibility
when it comes to their children,
provide for their physical needs,
and also provide for their spiritual needs.
That's their responsibility to their children.
And the child's responsibility to their parents?
Back up just a couple of verses in Ephesians,
where it says this.
It says children obey your parents in the Lord
for this is right.
And then he quotes the fourth commandment,
honor your father and your mother.
God gives parents
or legal guardians authority over their children,
and they're not the only ones
who have authority over our lives.
In Romans chapter 13 the Apostle Paul
mentions another authority,
and it says this.
It states this general principle.
It says the authorities that exist
have been established by God.
And you know what authorities he's talking about
in particular in that section?
He's not talking about parents,
he's talking about the government.
He says let everyone
be subject to the governing authorities,
for there's no authority except which God has established.
The authorities that exist have been established by God.
Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority
is rebelling against God,
what God has instituted,
and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
So God wants us to take our responsibility
to the authorities very, very seriously.
The Apostle Peter also mentions government
as a God-established authority.
In chapter two of his first letter
he says submit yourselves for the Lord's sake
to every human authority,
whether to the emperor as the supreme authority,
or to the governors who are sent by him
to punish those who do wrong,
and to commend those who do right.
So proper respect to everyone.
Love the family of believers, fear God,
and honor the emperor.
Our responsibility to the government,
the authority established by God,
is to be subject to them,
to willingly follow their rules, obey the laws,
make their already difficult job easier
by being good citizens.
And that of course also makes your life easier.
The Apostle Paul talks about that,
if you flip back to Romans chapter 13,
where he says the rulers over us,
they don't hold any terror for those who do right,
but only for those who do wrong.
Do you want to be free from the fear
of the one in authority?
Then do what is right,
and you will be commended or rewarded.
For the one in authority is God's servant to do you good.
But if you do wrong, then be afraid,
for rulers don't bear the sword for no reason,
the apostle Paul says.
They are God's servants,
agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrong doer.
Therefore, it's necessary to submit to the authorities
not only because of possible punishment,
but also as a matter of conscience,
just because this is what God tells us to do.
And so we serve
and we honor God when we willingly submit ourselves
to our government officials, to our parents,
or those who had a role in raising us,
and then also in one more category.
There's a third category of authority figures
that God has placed into our lives.
In Hebrews chapter 13,
the writer to the Hebrews says this very simply.
Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.
Parents, of course, are supposed to do that
for their children,
but there's another category of authority
that God has created that is responsible
for speaking the word of God to us.
Those are leaders within the church.
You know, God wanted someone in this world
who would be responsible for caring about your faith,
for supporting the work of your parents in doing that.
He does give that responsibility to parents,
but also going all the way back into the Old Testament
he established offices
and positions that are designed for one reason,
to benefit your faith.
In Ephesians chapter four, the Apostle Paul writes
Christ himself gave the apostles
and the prophets
and the evangelists,
and the pastors and the teachers,
and you go back to the Old Testament
it was the priest and the prophets,
to equip his people for works of service
that the body of Christ may be built up.
Until we all reach unity in the faith,
and in the knowledge of the son of God
and become mature, attaining to the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ.
God created spiritual authorities,
because he wants us to mature in our faith.
And so you can summarize the three authorities
that God has established this way.
So God is caring for our entire lives
with these three authorities.
He established religious leaders
to care about our spiritual lives.
He established the government to care
for our physical lives.
He established parents to care
for our physical and spiritual lives.
Those are their responsibilities to us.
And our responsibility to them?
Honor them.
Show them respect,
willingly follow the rules they establish.
Eh, (laughing),
you might say.
"Well, what if I don't want to follow their rules?"
You might ask do I still have to?
The answer is it depends on why you don't want to.
For example, if an authority figure
is telling you to do something God forbids,
or is forbidding you to do something God commands,
then you have the right,
the God-given right,
to not follow their rules.
We see that in Acts chapter five,
where some of the disciples were ordered
to stop preaching about Jesus,
stop sharing the gospels,
and they stood in front of those authority figures,
knowing that there might be a punishment
that was going to come if they disobeyed the government,
and they said very simply
"We must obey God rather than human beings."
And when you have to make that choice,
when God clearly says one thing,
and your authority figures
are telling you a different thing,
you have the God-given right
to disobey the authority,
even if that authority figure has been established by God.
But what if you don't?
What if you just don't agree with their decisions
or their rules or their laws?
There's nothing sinful about them,
you just don't think that what they're saying is wise
or beneficial, you just don't agree with it.
Then do you have the right
to not do what they're telling you?
Let's say you are a 14 year old,
and your parents won't let you
get a cell phone until you are 15.
I don't know if there are any parents
who wait until their kids are 15,
but let's just say that's the rule,
and all of your friends,
your other 14 year old friends,
they have cell phones,
and you're the only one who doesn't,
and you want to be able to communicate with them,
and you think it would be a really wise move,
so that you could even communicate with your parents,
but your parents laid down the law,
and they said "Nope not until you're 15."
Or what if you're a new driver,
and you think the the speed limit should be
85 instead of 25?
(Pastor Jeremy laughing)
You know, you can make your case.
This is what you can do.
You can make your case,
you can work within the laws to change the rule.
When it comes to government authorities,
you can work to have other leaders elected
that will make different decisions,
but, finally, if they make the decision,
and if you do something different
than the decision that they've made,
or you dishonor them by pouting
or complaining or telling everyone how unfair they are,
then you've broken this commandment,
and you've sinned against God.
Well, what if you don't trust your government?
What if you don't trust your parents?
What if you don't trust your church leaders?
These can be hard situations,
and they come up because every human authority figure
is a sinful authority figure,
and sometimes their sin is going to show up.
And sometimes their sin is going to break trust.
And so these can be very hard situations.
And so you want to pray for a lot of wisdom
in those situations,
you want to immerse yourself in scripture,
and then you also want to remember
that when Paul and Peter tell us
to submit ourselves to the governing authorities,
remember that the authorities that they're thinking of
killed Jesus,
had already killed Jesus,
and they were in the process
of killing other Christians who were following Jesus,
and yet they still tell us
to submit to the governing authorities,
to respect them, to honor them.
Remember also that Jesus himself
submitted to his governing authorities,
certainly to his parents as well,
and his church leaders.
He paid taxes, he followed the rules,
and he did all of that knowing
that his family would eventually turn on him,
or at least not be there for him
in moments when he needed them,
and his government would eventually kill him.
Paul and Peter and Jesus,
they weren't careless with their lives,
they weren't flippant what was going on in their lives,
they just remembered, it seems,
that above every human authority
is the God who gave them that authority to care for you.
And even though every human authority is sinful,
and less than perfect,
God will still use them to accomplish his will.
The worst they can do
cannot stop God from caring for you in the best ways.
God used the improperly motivated authorities
of Jesus' day to put him on a cross,
and save you and forgive you and love you.
God made sure that still happened.
And that's not to say
that following human authority is always easy,
it's just to say that there's a higher authority
whose love and power you can always trust
to make sure that sin,
anyone else's or even your own,
doesn't get final say on your life.
God's love for you in Christ Jesus does.
The fourth commandments, again,
honor your father and mother,
that it may go well with you.
And Martin Luther in his Small Catechism,
he summarized it this way.
What does this mean?
What does the fourth commandment mean?
He said we should fear and love God
that we do not just honor
or anger our parents and others in authority,
but honor, serve and obey them,
and give them love and respect.