Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
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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,
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,
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
Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon has encouraged
you to worship God and to celebrate the gospel
of Jesus. Please consider subscribing to this
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Thanks again for listening. God bless.