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Ephesians 6: 1-3 Intro.: Latin-American Reformed Seminary Ephesians May 2018
Ephesians 6: 1-3 Intro.: Latin-American Reformed Seminary Ephesians May 2018
May 2018
Lecture 15
Ephesians 6: 1-3
Intro.
- Paul’s purpose
o In writing this letter
Is to help his readers understand
That the implications
o Of the Gospel
Don’t just bear
On what
happens when
we die,
o But have real
And important
consequences
For how we live in
And relate to
o This
present
world.
- Now,
o Wonderfully
The Gospel
Does change
o What happens to us when we
die.
o The first two chapters
Of this letter
Describe for us
o In wonderfully vivid ways
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“children of
wrath.”
We are destined to face
The just punishment
o Of a righteous God.
- But
o In chapter 2 verse 4
Paul, using one of those
Glorious conjunctions,
o Wrote
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he
loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up
with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his
grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4–7)
- For those
o Who put their faith in Christ
The wrath of God
Is transformed into the blessing of God,
And what lies before us
Is not an eternity of punishment
o But an eternal life
In which we will dwell
Enjoying all the
blessings
Of the sons of
God.
o An internal life
In which we will enjoy
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- He wants us to understand
o The glorious future
That lies before us,
o But he also wants us to understand
That that future
Informs and shapes
o How we live now
In this present world.
- Now,
o As we have mentioned before
This message –
This implication of the Gospel,
o Had taken root
Quickly
In Ephesus.
o In Acts 19
We read
Of how the Ephesians
o Very quickly understood
That to come to Christ
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Was to have
your life
reoriented.
o Both those who
Embraced the Gospel
That Paul preached
o And laid hold of Christ by faith –
Like the magicians
Who burned
the equivalent
of $6million
worth of books
As they turned
away from their
superstition
And profess
their faith in
Christ,
As well as those who didn’t
Like Demetrius and other silver-smiths
o Who led the riot against the
Church
Understanding enough
of what Paul was saying
To understand
That to
embrace Christ
Meant,
necessarily,
turning away
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from Artemis of
the Ephesians
The goddess
whose images
they made.
- Quickly
o It was understood
In Ephesus
That faith in Christ
o Means more than
Simply what happens
when you die
o But has real
And immediate
consequences
For how you
live in this
world.
- And in this letter
o Paul is seeking to build on that
Initial understanding,
And tease out more of its implications
o Particularly
When it comes to the
most close, intimate
relationships of our
lives.
- What Paul wants us to see
o Is that this is not just about
The grand gestures.
Its about the mundane.
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o Paul began
By giving the general
ethic
That we should
submit to one
another
Out of our
reverence for
Christ.
- Paul summed up
o The Christian life
As a radical self-forgetfulness
That is rooted
o In our understanding of the
Gospel.
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demand
anything from
anyone,
But instead are
servants of all.
- And we have been looking
o At how Paul
Has applied
That radical humility
o To the relationship of husbands
and wives,
o Showing us
That it creates a wholly
different paradigm for
understanding that
relationship,
And in particular
And wholly
different
paradigm for
what it means
to be a
husband.
- While the husband
o Is called
To be the Head of the head of his wife,
That calling
Is really a call
o To self-sacrifice
And a life that is wholly
focused
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On the welfare
and flourishing
of his wife,
Even at the
expense of his
own desire and
pleasures.
- And again
o Rooted
In the Gospel,
o Tethered
By our reverence for Christ,
Paul gives us a picture
o Of the relationship
Between parent and
child
That is wholly
different
From really
anything that
we can find in
the world:
Either the first
century near
Eastern world,
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Or the 21st
Century
Western world.
- What Paul commands the children
o To do here is relatively simple:
They are to obey their parents.
o The radical humility
That comes with the Gospel
Is to manifest itself
o In a Christian child’s willing
submission
To their parents.
- But,
o There are a couple things
We have to take note of here.
- The first is
o That the submission that Paul commands
The obedience
That we wants to see manifest
o In the lives of these children
Is not just and
obedience to fathers,
But to both
parents.
- Now that’s significant
o Especially when we remember
The context into which
This letter was written
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Goes to show
o That there is no concept of the
wife and mother
Being in a second-place
to her husband.
o While her role
May be distinct from that of her husband
Her dignity and worth
o Is fundamentally equal,
And Paul here calls
Christian children to
recognize this fact.
- Secondly,
o This obedience that Paul requires of children
Is not universal.
o It is qualified
By the statement
“in the Lord.”
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- Right?
o This goes back to v. 21
This whole way of life
Is to be tethered to our reverence for
Christ,
And so children
Are not required
o To obey their parents
When their parents
command them to do
something that is
contrary to the
revealed will of God,
And in fact
We could say
o That the flip side of this
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In the lives of
their children.
- “In the pagan world of Paul’s day, and even in many Jewish
households, most fathers ruled their families with rigid and
domineering authority.
o The desires and welfare of wives and children were
seldom considered.
The apostle makes clear that a Christian father’s
authority over his children does not allow for
unreasonable demands and strictures that
might drive his children to anger, despair, and
resentment.” (Macarthur)
- And that’s not just a first-century problem.
o There is always a temptation
For parents to provoke their children.
Just as it is relatively easy
o For a cruel and self-centered
husband
To manipulate and
dominate his wife,
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It is easy
o For an incredibly insecure man
To be try and turn his
children
Into his
servants.
He may not be anything in the world
o But he can come home
And rule with a rod of
iron.
In the words of the Catechism
o He can use his position within
the home
To seek his “own glory,
ease, profit, or
pleasure.”
o Every child begins life
In awe of their parents
And it is frighteningly easy
o To turn that
Into a strict domination.
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o That is tethered
To a reverence
First and
foremost
o For
Christ.
- And we see
o In that regard
Many similarities
With what Paul has just said
o To husbands
Don’t we?
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- Notice
o Paul here
Expects children to be present
In the worship service
o In which this letter was to be
read.
- He doesn’t say
o Parents tell your children to obey you in the Lord
For this is right,
o He addresses the children directly.
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- Sinclair Ferguson
o Commenting on that,
Writes
“Did he grasp something that we have
missed? When some churches complain
that they are ‘losing young people’ from
worship the truth is that they have
never actually been present at it.”
(Ferguson)
o Paul expects
There to be children present
With their parents
o In worship.
- Now, of course
o A child is not going to understand
Everything that is said and done
In a worship service,
o But the mere act of bringing them
Says to them
“This is where you belong, covenant
child,
o In the Assembly of the Saints.
This is where you belong,
o Singing with generations of
Christians,
o Reading Scripture with your
brothers and sisters, fathers
and mothers in the faith.
This is where you belong
o Studying Scripture
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----end----
Conc.
- Now,
o Just like with the marriage passage
You may well be thinking
How far you fallen short of this.
I am.
I feel the weight of this passage.
o I feel the conviction of my sin.
- But remember
o This instruction
Is given in the context of grace.
It is given
As the logical progression
o That began in chs. 1 and 2
In which we were
reminded of the lavish
grace
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That is poured
out on us in
Christ.
- Maybe you have failed as a parent.
o (Maybe you haven’t, and we rejoice in that)
o But maybe you have.
Maybe your failure has been spectacular,
And maybe your failure
Has been quieter
o But you feel it all the same.
- Confess your sin.
o Confess it to God.
Confess it to your children,
And seek their forgiveness.
o And
Never stop starting.
If your children are young,
Then start now
o To pursue Gospel-driven
parenting.
Start now
o To seek to intentionally raise
your children
In the discipline and
instruction of the Lord.
Start now
o To reexamine your words and
your actions,
o To reexamine your hopes and
dreams for your children.
Start now
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