Sunday, August 20, 2023 PM

Subsequent covenants that God makes throughout redemptive history, but if we really want to know what it means to be children of a father, then we have to look to where that revelation is brightest, and that is in Christ.

The Faithful Son Who Honors the Father

And so what does it mean for a son to honor his father? What does it mean for a child to honor his parents? For that, we're going to go and pay attention to our Savior Jesus Christ. So here in a little bit, we're going to read from John 5.

Before we do, let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this day. I pray that you would guide us and direct us as we think about your Word. Please help us to rejoice in our Savior Jesus Christ.

We pray all these things in. Now we are reminded of the need for the proper son. When Eve begot Cain, she named him full of hope. She was promised a seed, she was given one, and she named him in hope.

And after Cain murdered Abel, and she begot Seth, once again she named him in hope as well. The theme of the replacement son continues throughout all of Scripture. Not Cain, but Abel, or ultimately Seth.

What other replacement sons do we hear about? Not Ishmael, but Isaac. Not Esau, but Jacob. We keep on hearing the replacement sons over and over again, don't we? And the need for a replacement son, that whole theme culminates with Christ.

Out of Israel, I called my son, Hosea says, of Israel. Matthew 2 says, when Jesus was brought up out of Egypt and brought to Nazareth, this was to fulfill what the prophet said, out of Egypt I have called my son.

Not the unfaithful son, but the faithful son. Ultimately, this is the point of Adam. Not Adam, the unfaithful son of God, as Luke 3 calls him, a son of God, but Jesus Christ, who is the last Adam, who is the faithful son of God.

How faithful is Christ? How does he honor his father? This is put on display for us in the Gospels and spoken about as well in the letters. We see how faithful of a son Jesus Christ is. What does it mean for a child to honor his father?

Well, let's look. And so in John chapter 5, and let's look at verse 30 as an example. All throughout this chapter, Jesus is talking about his relationship with his father. It's a rather pithy statement, but let's go ahead and back up a little bit to a verse, verses 16 and 17.

Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, and so the religious Jews are very upset, religious leaders are very upset. Verse 16 says, for this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath.

Totally missing the understanding of the Sabbath, as Jesus points out in other passages as well. But notice how Jesus answered. Now they've accused him of working on the Sabbath. How does he answer? But Jesus answered them, my father has been working until now, and I have been working.

You accuse me of work, you have no idea how much work I'm doing. You think this is bad? Just wait. Well, let's add to the issue here. And then he begins to talk about how he, as the son, is doing the work of the father, whatever the father wants him to do.

And in verse 30, he explains, I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the father who sent me. You see, this is an example of honoring the father.

The son is doing everything that the father desires him to do. The son is not going off on his own accord, but is doing everything the father desires of him, not coming up with his own will, but doing the will of his father.

When this was put to the strongest test, it was in the garden of Gethsemane. What did Jesus pray? To his father. Not my will, but yours be done. So we have that example in Christ, the clarity. Here is the truly faithful son who completely and utterly honors his father.

In John chapter 8, in verse 28, not only is it true that the son only did what the father willed him to do, but it is also the case that the son only said what the father desired him to say. Now, you know, our actions can be considered and weighed before they are done.

They take a little bit more effort. How about just saying things out loud? How often do we say something out of line, or perhaps incomplete, or we mix something up, but what does what does Jesus say? Verse 28, then Jesus said to them, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, that I do nothing of myself, but as my father taught me, I speak these things.

So he says as the father says. In verse 29, he who sent me is with me, the father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him. As he spoke these words, many believed in him. So we're just confronted by these passages and many others that Jesus always did the will of God.

He always did everything perfectly and well honoring his father. Now, why is that so important? Why is it so important? Because the idea of salvation, the idea of being saved, is the idea, Jesus used the metaphor of family, of being brought into the family of God as children.

If we are saved, it means we are the children of God. Not everyone is a child of God that has the Holy Spirit within them crying out, Abba Father, that has Jesus Christ as the elder brother, God as Heavenly Father who looks upon them with favor, but those who are in Christ, those who are saved, have these privileges, have these blessings.

But why? Why do we have these privileges? Why do we have these blessings? Why is it that we may call God our father? Because of the merits of the Son. Hebrews 3 verses 1 through 6, let's turn over there, because Jesus Christ is the Son who always pleases the Father and fulfills everything that is required, then we have a relationship with God because of him.

Hebrews 3 verse 1, therefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, okay, so already we hear the language of family, you're a holy brethren. And sometimes the word brethren and brothers and brothers and sisters in Christ, I guess that gets used a lot, perhaps we lose the significance of it, but indeed this is a language of family.

Now in the Old Covenant there was a family, was there not? It was the children of Israel, remember that? The children of Israel? Those are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jacob whose name was changed to Israel, and members of the Old Covenant were called the children of Israel.

And they had this relationship with one another based on that affinity. In the New Covenant, it's not a question of whether or not you are in Israel, descendant from the man Israel, and therefore in relationship to one another.

The question is, are you in Christ who is the faithful son, where Israel was the unfaithful son? The question is, are you in the true Israel of God? Okay, so that's why we can be brethren no matter if we're Jew or Gentile, because we're in Christ.

There are those who are born in Adam, we're all born in Adam, but then there's a whole other group of people, a whole other family, those who are born in Christ, born again in Christ, born again in the last Adam.

So, therefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. Now consider him, what are we going to consider about him? Verse 2, who was faithful to him who appointed him?

Well, who appointed him as Apostle and High Priest? It was the father, and the son was faithful to his father. And this was typified, pictured by one of the former servants, Moses, as Moses also was faithful in all his house.

Now, if you didn't know, Moses's house was a lot smaller than Jesus's house. Beck and I like to drive around sometimes on our dates and just kind of drive through, and we go through various parts of Oklahoma City.

Some parts have huge houses, very large estates, and some places have very small houses and very small estates. Well, as we drive around in the neighborhoods of the Bible, Moses's house, that's pretty impressive.

Nothing compared to Christ's house. So, Moses was faithful in all his house, but verse 3 says, for this one, Jesus Christ, has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house.

Okay? For every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. Christ is far much superior to Moses. And Moses, indeed, was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward.

So, Moses was just leading up, ever as much as John the Baptist was, he was just prelude and leading up to verse 6, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are. And this is where, in the Greek, we have this word house that can be used to talk about a structure, an edifice, and also a family, a household.

Okay? So, a little turn on the word. Whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end, holding fast to Christ. Now, he is a son over his own house. In his faithfulness, he has brought many sons to glory, Hebrews has already said.

In his faithfulness, he is the epitome of the wonderment of the psalmist in Psalm 8, who said, you know, God, why are you so fixated on man, and the son of man, that you should be mindful of him? I mean, really, what are we?

We're just, you know, we're just dust. But, God's focus upon mankind, his love for mankind, his plans for mankind, his planned glory for mankind, is all caught up in the person of Jesus Christ. Everything that God desired and designed for humanity is in Christ the Son, and when we're in him, we share in that glory.

And so, he is the son by whom we have the promises. He is the son in whom we have the Father. Now, we may personally, truly, fully embrace God as our Heavenly Father because of Jesus Christ the Son, if we're in him.

We are co-heirs with Christ. All things have been given to him, Romans 8, Hebrews 1 tells us, he is the heir of all things. Romans 8 says, we are co-heirs in Christ. He inherits it all. If we have him, then we co-inherit together.

Galatians 4 says that because of the faithfulness of the Son, he has given us the Spirit by whom we cry out, Abba Father. That our true Sonship is in Christ. So, he's the son by whom we have the Father and the promises.

So, we must think of that first, a son who honors his father. If there's a penultimate meaning to the fifth commandment, it is that. Think about the way the commandment is structured, that children are to honor their father and mother, right?

So, and when they do, what's the promise? That you may live long, it may be well with you, and that you may live long in the land that God has promised to you. So, that all the blessings and the promises will be afforded you when the children, when the generation honors the generation before and so forth, as they keep covenant.

We've looked at that, but isn't this true of Christ? Who honors his father, who keeps the covenant, and all the blessings, everything that could be considered well with us, and everlasting inheritance is caught up in Christ because he's the faithful son.

Why is it that it is well with us? Why is it that we will have everlasting inheritance? Because the son honored his father, and it's well with him, and he inherits it all, and he inherits it forever because his faithfulness never ends, right?

So, 2nd Corinthians 120, as many as are the promises of God in Christ, they are yes. So, when we think about that commandment being one filled with promise, who are we to think of? Not, if I can get my children to obey me, they won't die young.

How many, how many parents have been crushed by reading the promise as about them instead of Christ? Oh, I encourage you to look at Christ. He's the one who fulfills the promises, okay? And I think we're going to see that even in Paul's writings when we come to it.

On the basic practical level, don't we see Jesus honoring his earthly father and mother, right? We know the story, how they lost track of him in the trip to Jerusalem, and then they found him later on asking very good questions of the religious leaders, and they said, you know, how could you do this, you know?

And he said, don't you know I should be about my father's business? But he submitted himself to them, we read. He honored his earthly father and his earthly mother. He honored them. He listened to his mother and was respectful to her at the wedding at Cana in John chapter 2.

And do you notice that as he was dying on the cross, he made provision for his mother by speaking to John, truly his best friend on earth, and he said to John, behold your mother, behold your son, making sure that his mother will be well taken care of even in his absence.

So we see how he honors his father and his mother. And again, this isn't all that particularly clear, but we do know that Jesus didn't start his earthly ministry until the appropriate time, the proper time, which of course was laid down by prophecies in Daniel, and it was decreed by God when Jesus would start his earthly ministry.

However, he was around 30 years old. You know, that's a long time to wait when you're the hope of the world, when you're the Lamb of God, full to God and fully man, to wait that long until you begin to do your public ministry.

Of course, he was being obedient to his Heavenly Father, but we don't know about Joseph. We don't know how long Joseph lived, but we do know that Mary was being taken care of one way or another. And how would that happen?

We don't know if Joseph died young or not, but we know that Jesus was concerned about caring for his mother, and so we see that he honored his parents. Now, how does this look in our households? The fifth commandment, ultimately, is a pattern and a promise that we see fulfilled in Christ.

Christ honors his Father, he exemplifies proper treatment of his own father and mother, and he calls us to continue in that. So, part of following Christ, and this is for all of us, no matter how old we are, part of following Jesus is honoring our father and our mother.

And if our father or our mother or both of them are no longer with us, there are still ways we may honor them. You know, there's a generation who are lofty in their eyes, they despise their mother and their father.

Let us not be a generation that is prideful and lofty in our own eyes, who despise the memories of their father and mother, and run them down, and so on and so forth. I mean, even if our father and mother failed greatly, even if they're long gone, we may still honor them, even in the simple aspects of giving thanks to God for the life that we were given through them, right?

We can still honor father and mother by memory, by the way we talk, and isn't that an example in a way of encouraging others to honor their father and mother when we do that? And this is just following Jesus, following Jesus, and if we follow him, he is our teacher, he is our rabbi, look, he bends under the limb this way, that's how we do it, he eats with his hand that way, that's how we do it, that's what it means for him to be our teacher and our master.

We just are following in his patterns and following in his ways, but let's look at a particular passage, and we're not going to get through all of this tonight, but I want to look at one particular passage, Ephesians chapter 6, because we did talk about the commandment with promise.

So Ephesians 6 mentions this, and this comes under the heading of Paul writing to the Ephesians, and he has told them in verse 15 of chapter 5, he has said, see then that you walk carefully or circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

What would be careful, what would be circumspect, what would be wise, what would be a redeeming way to live he says, verse 17, therefore do not be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is. What are the desires of Jesus?

You know, as subjects of the king, as the sheep of the shepherd, as the disciples of Jesus, ought we not be interested in paying attention to what the desires of our king and our shepherd, what his desires are?

What does he desire? What does he approve of? What is he for? What does he want? You know, isn't that the illustration as the eyes of the handmaiden are upon the the hand of her mistress? It's ready for the slightest gesture, so we're paying attention to the desires of our king.

What is it that you want from me? See, that would be wise, that would be walking carefully, that would not be foolish. Verse 18 says, do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

That is a, that is being, be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, what does that look like? Well, undoubtedly that looks like being very, being compelled and very, paying close attention to the desires of our king.

What is it that he wants? What is it that he desires? I'm gonna be about that. Well, under that heading there are many things, but it applies to the household. Paul begins to speak about husbands and wives and how they live to one another, how they relate to one another, and you know, it's, Paul doesn't cite a particular commandment from Moses.

He cites Jesus Christ dying on the cross for his bride, right? There's a lot of wisdom in the law about how husbands and wives ought to relate to one another. Great wisdom, but that's not what Paul points to.

He points to Christ dying upon the cross for his bride. Now we're gonna understand what it's like to be husband and wife. And then he talks about parents and children. He's dealing with the whole household, see?

The kingdom of God is everywhere, not just in, you know, not just in a church somewhere, not just in my heart, but everywhere. Jesus is king of everybody, every, everywhere, over everything, including our families.

Well, children, chapter 6, verse 1, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. And how do we know it's right? Well, it's been right for a long time, and he quotes the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.

Don't you remember? Right? How many of the children would have that instantly memorized, okay? But what does he say here? It's not simply a matter of honor your father and mother so that you can reap the benefits of the Old Covenant.

No, he says, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Isn't he the fulfillment of the promises? Very simply, children, obeying your parents is a matter of obeying your parents in the Lord, in the Lord, okay?

It's not obeying your parents because they always get it right, right? It's not obeying your parents because they've got it figured out. It's not obeying your parents because, always in the past, they've always done the right thing, right?

It's obeying your parents in the Lord, in the Lord, for this is right, considering him, right? A husband is not supposed to, a Christian husband is not supposed to relate to his wife without thinking about Christ.

A Christian wife is not to relate to her husband without thinking about Christ, and the same thing goes for children honoring their parents. That is the understanding, that is the lens through which you're supposed to be thinking about obedience to your parents.

Think about Christ honoring his father. Think about him, think about his righteousness. Trust in him and obey your parents. We also have verse four, and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Do we see again, fathers, parents relating to their children, they can't do that without thinking about the training of the Lord, training of the Lord Jesus Christ, without thinking of the admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's not, you know, children are not to be molded to the preferences of the parents, but led unto Christ, right? Children aren't supposed to be obeying parents if they fit my expectations, but obeying parents in the light of who Jesus Christ is.

Same with husbands and wives and how we relate to one another, because he just takes preeminence and supremacy and everything. Okay, so next time we're going to talk a little bit more about honor in the household, and then we're going to delve into a further subject about honoring father and mother from Mark 7 and 1st Timothy 5, okay?

All right, but let's close now by singing the doxology...