RESPECT AUTHORITY!

EPHESIANS 6:1-9

Adapted from a Jim Black sermonhttp://www.sermoncentral.com/

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Ephesians 6:1 NET Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. 2 “Honor

your father and mother,” (Exo 20:12; Deu 5:16) which is the first commandment

accompanied by a promise, namely, 3 “that it may go well with you and that you will

live a long time on the earth.”(Deu 5:16)

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but raise them up in the discipline

and instruction of the Lord. 5 Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and

trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, 6 not like those who do their work

only when someone is watching — as people-pleasers — but as slaves of Christ

doing the will of God from the heart.

7 Obey with enthusiasm, as though serving the Lord and not people, 8 because you know that each person, whether slave or

free, if he does something good, this will be rewarded by the Lord. 9 Masters, treat your slaves the same way, giving up the use of threats, because you know that both you

and they have the same master in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

God calls Christians to submit to one another and respect authority out of

respect for God.

Our submission plays out in the Parent-Child relationship as well as in our work

world.

I came across this list of what a parent had learned . . .1) There is no such thing as child proofing your home. 2) Baseballs make marks on the ceiling. 3) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on.4) A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

5) The glass in windows, even double pane ones, is not strong enough to stop a baseball that has been hit by a ceiling fan. 6) When you hear the toilet flush and the words “Uh-oh”, it’s already too late. 7) A six year old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a thirty six year old man says they can only do that in the movies.

8) If you use a waterbed as home plate while wearing baseball shoes, it does not leak – it explodes. 9) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 square foot house 4 inches deep.We want to be good parents and teach our children how to get along in the world, how to treat one another, but ultimately how to

love God and to respect authority.

In today’s text Paul continues his discussion on submission by turning to two other

relationships. You remember in 5:21 he has exhorted Christians …submitting to one

another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:21 NET

He has raised the standard! We don’t submit because it’s the natural thing to do; we don’t submit because the other person is always right, we submit out of reverence

for Christ! He illustrated that in the relationship of marriage. Wives are to

submit to your husbands as to the Lord and Husbands, love your wives just as Christ

loved the church and gave himself for her.

Notice where the authority is in these passages, it is Christ, the Lord! Keep that thought in mind as we move through the

next two subjects. Paul views these in the light of ‘Submission.’

First, Paul looks to the Family . . .1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” (Exo 20:12; Deu 5:16) which is the first commandment accompanied by a

promise, namely, 3 “that it may go well with you and that you will live a long

time on the earth.” (Deu 5:16) 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but raise them up in the discipline and instruction of

the Lord.

Children, Obey your parents!

This is so fundamental, so obvious that some of you might be thinking, “Why did Paul need to remind them of that?” But this is something that every generation must be reminded of! Paul reminds the Ephesians that THIS was a part of the

TEN COMMANDMENTS in the first place, in fact the first one with a promise!

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD

your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12 NIV

God knew that for the Israelites, part of living successfully in the land they were

about to inherit was dependent upon obeying their parents!

Paul knew that this wasn’t just for the Israelites, either. Part of living the Christian

life is living in obedience, submission to parents. Why? Because ‘this is right’ he

says! But, why is it ‘right?’ Notice he DOESN’T say, “Obey your parents, when

you agree with them.”

When my Mom told me to come in to eat pizza, I had no problem obeying. But when

she told me to come in to eat when we were having something I didn't like the taste of,

WHOA! I didn’t want to obey. She’d tell me, “Eat your what on your plate, people are

starving in Africa.” I would offer to send my plate of food to Africa!

It’s easy to obey when we agree with them. Notice he DOESN’T say, “Obey your

parents when you understand why they’re asking you to do something.”

Rather, he says, “Obey your parents in the Lord.”

Again, God is raising the standard of what it means to obey; to submit. As wives submit

to their husbands, ‘as to the Lord’ and husbands love their wives ‘just as Christ

loved the church’ SO kids, obey your Mom & Dad ‘in the Lord for this is right!’ It’s a matter of our relationship to God that we show honor and respect to our parents!

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger

I actually was hoping that Paul would continue talking to kids a little while

longer. I was looking for the verse that says, “Children, don’t provoke your

fathers!” THAT’S what I need to hear! Actually, not. I need to hear JUST what

Paul says. God places a high responsibility on fathers. WE are to be

the spiritual leaders in our families!

We are to teach our children the difference between right and wrong. We

are to teach our children to love God and to want to serve him. It’s not the

preacher’s job. It’s not the Sunday School teacher’s job. It’s YOURS,

fathers! Paul singles out fathers here because of that awesome responsibility!

Too many fathers have abandoned their role as leader and kids see that. If Mom is always the one in charge, if Mom is always the one who pushes everybody to do the right thing, if Mom is who they see getting everyone ready for church and reading the Bible and praying, then the kids will get the

idea that Dad is a weak leader.

Do you know why that is so terrible? Because when those same kids come to

church they will hear us talk about God as our heavenly father.

Dads, whether you like it or not, you are the ‘offensive line’ in teaching your kids about God. You are the first impression God gets

to make on them. You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to love those kids and

show them that you love them.

Make sure that when they hear the word ‘father’, they get a good image in their mind. And if that scares you absolutely to death,

and you think you aren’t up to the task, look at the best example to help you: God is the

ultimate father. He is the role model for dads everywhere. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. In other words, don’t push them so hard that they rebel against

you and against the church!

How horrible that would be! I can’t speak judgmentally here, but how many kids have left the church because of well-intentioned parents who just pushed too hard? This is

something scary. Where’s the line? What do you do when your teenage son tells you he

doesn’t want to go to church anymore?

What do you do when your teenage daughter tells you that she doesn’t believe in God? It’s something most every parent must grapple with and it depends on each individual child. Instead, we are to bring

them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Our children are one of the greatest responsibilities ANY of us have! They are given to us by God for only a short time.

We are given the charge to teach them. Deuteronomy 6:6 NIV These

commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when

you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and

when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your

foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your

gates.

How are we doing at these? How are children obeying their parents? How are

parents training their children?It seems to me that one of the problems we

have in our society and as a result of the breakdown of the family is in the parent-

child relationship. Edward, Duke of Windsor said, “The thing that impresses me most

about America is the way the parents obey their children.”

OUCH!This text should serve to force us as

Parents to re-examine our family life; to ask the question, who’s in charge? Where does the authority lay? Kids, it should remind you

that it SHOULD be Mom & Dad. As much as you hate to accept it sometimes, Mom &

Dad are in charge.

You’re to obey. Now, it’s not a forced obedience, but you obey because that’s what God WANTS you to do! Teens, you

obey, because it’s a part of what you do as a Christian! The greatest witness you could be for Christ in your home (especially if your

parents aren’t Christians) is to show them honor and respect even when they ask you to do something that you don’t want to do!

Have you been looking for a way to lead your Mom or Dad to Christ? Been looking

for a way to get them to take you seriously? Try that. Try humbly submitting in

obedience to their will out of your reverence for Christ! (Now, still don’t do anything that

would be immoral or that God wouldn’t want you to do. He would never want us to go

against HIS will to follow our Parents’ will.)

Next Paul turns to what I’ll refer to as the Work Place. .

5 Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, 6 not like those who do their work only when someone is watching — as people-pleasers — but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.

7 Obey with enthusiasm, as though serving the Lord and not people, 8 because you know that each person, whether slave or

free, if he does something good, this will be rewarded by the Lord. 9 Masters, treat your slaves the same way, giving up the use of threats, because you know that both you

and they have the same master in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

We have a little more difficulty understanding this next section because of

the time & circumstances in which Paul wrote, but he’s still talking about submitting

out of reverence for Christ. This time, he targets the Slave-Master relationship . . . a very common and household relationship in

that time.

We may get SO hung up on the language of slavery that we don’t hear God’s word for us today in this text, but it is there! You might ask, why would Paul mention slavery and NOT condemn it? Paul is not addressing

the rightness or wrongness of slavery. Look at the rest of the NT.

He never focuses on reforming human systems because they are never at the root of the human problem. The issue is always the heart. Paul’s message here ASSUMES that slavery is a reality (which it was at that

time) and writes to change the heart of those involved. Again he raises the

standard!

Slavery was a common thing in N.T. times, very much UNLIKE today, and also very

much UNLIKE what we typically think of as slavery that existed in America in our past. Some scholars estimate that as many as

1/3 of the people in Greece and Rome were slaves. One got to be a slave thru any

number of circumstances: birth, parental selling or abandonment, captivity in war, inability to pay debts, and even voluntary

attempts to better one’s position.

Race was NOT a factor. They were involved in every area of society, not just the menial

labor. Many were educated. Many could own property, even other slaves. They were

allowed to save money that might eventually buy their freedom. While the

situation wasn’t exactly ideal, it wasn’t the slavery that existed in this country.

For Jews, slaves still existed but were somewhat better off. The O.T. prohibited

Jews from holding other Jews as slaves for more than six years, after which they had to

be freed. For all, it was an institution that was simply not questioned. It was the norm for society. But what wasn’t the norm was what Paul called slaves & masters to; the gospel came and leveled the playing field,

so to speak.

Paul speaks elsewhere about there being ‘neither slave nor free…in Christ’ because

we are ALL slaves to Christ!

Galatians 3:28 NET There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,

there is neither male nor female — for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Romans 7:25 NET Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I

myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.The gospel created a situation where

Master and Slave could now be brothers in Christ together and so Paul feels the need to address Christian slaves and Christian

masters.

Slaves, obey your Masters!

Just as you would Christ! Again the standard is raised! Obey them, treat them

with respect, with fear and dignity NOT just to win them favor, NOT just because you

have to, but because your REAL MASTER is Jesus Christ! Work, Serve, as if you are

serving Jesus Christ!

Masters, treat your slaves in the SAME WAY!

With respect, fear and dignity, certainly not because you have to, but out of your

reverence for Christ! You, too, are a slave to Christ! Treat them well because you know that Christ is both their master and yours!

Why even spend time in these verses? None of us are slaves or masters today, are we? Perhaps not, but I do think that these

verses have a real application to our lives in the work place. Most have bosses to

answer to. And some of you have employees that work under you. What does this text have to say to those relationships?

Ever had a boss you just couldn’t stand?

Sure you have! Wouldn’t God say to you, ‘Keep working hard, and NOT just when the

boss is looking, but work as if you’re working for the Lord and He will bless you for it.’ Christians work hard because they

know who they are really working for. Paul told the Colossians; And whatever you do in

word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father

through him. Colossians 3:17 NET

You may have an eight hour boss, but you have a 24 hour Lord. No matter what the

boss sees or doesn’t see, Jesus sees it all. Bosses, have you been guilty of putting too much on an employee, of pushing too hard

or of being too hard-nosed? What would your employees say? What would God say to you about how you should treat them?

Did you realize that if you spent 40 hrs a week on the job between age 18 and 65

that you would amass an incredible 97,760 hours on the job? What would God want

you to do with all that time? Don’t you think he cares what you do with it? Are you using

your position in the workplace to bring honor and glory to Him? To point others to him? Bosses, are you as concerned about

the needs of your employees as your bottom line?

Employees, are you giving your boss your best as a witness, a testimony as to what

your Master, Jesus, gave you?

Part of living the Christian life is submitting to one another. God raises the standard of

that submission!Don’t submit to your husband because he is

the man and you’ve got no choice.

We don’t submit to others because of what they’ve done for us, or what they CAN do

for us.We don’t submit to our Parents because we agree with them, or even that it may be in

our best interest.We submit to one another because by doing so, we show our reverence and

respect for God!We respect authority, because of our

respect of the ultimate authority!

Romans 13:1 NET Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For

there is no authority except by God's appointment, and the authorities that exist

have been instituted by God. 2 So the person who resists such authority resists

the ordinance of God, and those who resist will incur judgment

Have you submitted to that ultimate authority this morning? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? Have you allowed him to re-order your priorities, yet? If you haven’t we encourage you to do so this morning!

Maybe this text has touched you and convinced you that you’ve not been living

your life in the correct manner of ‘submission to the Lord.’

Maybe you need to confess sin in your life that is keeping you from the fruits of relationship with God? We want to

encourage you to make that right with God right NOW while together we stand and sing

. . .