Word of Salvation – Vol.26 No.30 – April 1980

 

Jesus Christ Commands Children

 

Sermon by Rev. L. F. Blakston on Ephesians 6:1-4

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 6:1-20

Psalter Hymnal: 20, 241, 45, 459

 

How do you like being told what to do?  If you are like I am you probably don’t like it very much.  It depends how you’re told sometimes.  Sometimes it depends on what you’re told.  If someone told you to all line up to receive a present you might not worry too much.  Jesus Christ commands children.  That means he tells them what to do.  But Jesus is good, everything he commands is good for us.  But if we don’t do what he says we will miss out.  Jesus Christ commands children.  What is a command?  It is when someone tells us to do something.  Who gives commands?  The person in charge of something, the boss.  Why are they given?  For the good of the thing he is in charge of.

There is a letter from Jesus Christ which has a part in it where he speaks to children telling them what he wants them to do.  In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 1, Jesus says to children to do something.  He is called there ‘the Lord’.  That means that he is the master, the boss.  In the Bible God is called the Lord.  Jesus is called ‘the Lord’ because he is God’s Son.  He is the boss of the whole church, he is the boss of everything But in Ephesians he has written a letter to the church.  And children are included in it.  The Son of God is interested in children in the church.

It is important to get straight that Jesus is God’s Son.  He is God the Son.  He is the same as God.  He says the same things as God.  He tells us to do the same things that God says, because he is the boss, the same as God the Father is the boss.  So don’t just think that Jesus is someone who loved little children but never tells them what to do.  He tells them what to do because he loves them.  Commands are given for the good of the thing they refer to.  Jesus Christ tells children what to do because he wants them to be good.  It is good to be good.

Being good has been one of the things God has planned for his people for a long time.  Even in Abraham’s day God showed that this was what he had planned for children then.   Abraham believed God and God said, I will be your God and your children’s God.  And you and your children will be my people, and I will be good to you and give you a country to live in and all the things you need.  There were some rules that went with this promise even then.  But what we want to notice now is that even in the Old Testament times God told the people what he wanted and promised them good things too.  And this way was the same for children as well.  God told the people what they should do and promised them good things.  This goes for grown-ups and children too.  And Jesus does the same.  He is the boss of children.  He is the Lord they should listen to, he is the lord who will do them good.  This is why it is good to be good, because it is God’s way, It is right.  Because he made it that way.  It is right that he should be boss.  He is the one we all should listen to.  He will tell us the right things to do, and the right way to do them.

But how will Jesus tell us what is right?  How will he tell us what is the right way to do them?  By putting us in families with parents who already know.  Isn’t that a great thing?  Your parents have been specially given to you by the Lord Jesus Christ to tell you what he wants you to do and to show you how to do it.  Isn’t that a great thing parents?  Your children have been given to you especially by the Lord Jesus so that you, their parents, can tell them the things he wants and show them how to do them.

He wants you to tell them.  Not just try and show them.  Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.  But if children are to obey, they must be told what the Lord wants.  Obey in Paul’s language seems to say, ‘listen under’.  Children should listen under the authority of their parents, they should do what they say, because the Lord Jesus, who is the boss of children in the church has put these children’s parents in charge of them.

Does anyone want to say they are happy the way they are without worrying about telling children what God says?  Do any families here say, we are happy the way we are, going our own ways, not interfering with one another’s plans?  You may be happy now.  But is it right?  Mother and father have a duty given to them by Christ to tell their children what he wants.  The father has the responsibility to see that this is done.  Children obey your mother and father.  Fathers, you are involved in this because of your physical strength, because of your headship over your wife.  Your children expect you to be involved in a leadership capacity, so does Jesus Christ.  But beware that he doesn’t expect you or want you to take this responsibility in your own strength.  Beware you don’t allow this temptation to overcome you.  Carry out your responsibility in dependence on the spiritual power which Christ gives.  Ask for the Spirit to help you.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  See what God is aiming at?  He wants the children in the church to be trained and learn from the parents, so they learn from Him.  This is not something which happens in one day or one year.  God wants your children to come to Him He wants you parents to show them the way.  He wants you to tell them so they learn; to tell them and show them.  This is your responsibility, not the Sunday School teacher’s.  These children have been given to you.  You know them.  You know how tender they are, you know what ways they want to go, what ways they don’t want to go.  You are the ones who can deal with these things carefully, constantly, nursing and training.

Does anyone say this idea of training is unfair to the child’s individuality?  This instruction is to the child’s mind.  But it is designed to put things into the mind.  Not to make it a different mind.  We can’t do that any way.  Only God can do that, but he promises to do it by the gospel.  Through the parents God trains.  That is a great thing

It is a good thing when children do what the Lord says.  This is the first and most basic command to children in the Bible.  Honour your father and mother, this is the first commandment for children.  This is the main commandment for children, as they come into contact with the Lord’s promises.  If they miss out here, they miss out on receiving God’s promises altogether.  Paul says that this is the first commandment with promise.  He uses the words ‘in promise’ to show the connection between commands and promise is very close.  The commands are in promise, like as if they were wrapped up in it.  They are in an envelope of promise.

When you listen to what your parents tell you to do, you won’t always feel well.  No one likes being told what to do.  But sometimes it depends on how you’re told.  It depends on the kind of voice the person uses when they tell you, if they shout or encourage.  But Christian parents have good reason to be encouraging as they tell their children what the Lord wants.  It is really for their good.  Not just because they say that, but because God promises it to be so.

Your children should believe God about this too.  He is the one who has put his commands in this envelope of promise.  He has sealed the envelope with his promise.  Jesus came to take away the sins of his people just like he said he would Honour your father and mother, and it will be good for you.  God said this a long time ago, but he means it.  He said it again in this letter.

It is hard to do what he says, when you are young.  But it is just as hard when you are older.  Just as hard.  But it is still right to do what he says.  Children aren’t the only ones who do wrong things.  We all do.  How then can it ever be good for us if we can’t do what God says?  One of the main things Jesus Christ commands children, through their parents, which we should all learn, is to trust Jesus Christ to put us right, even though we are wrong.  Even though we have been wrong as parents.  Even though we have been wrong as children, Jesus Christ is the one who can put us right.

He is the only one who can make us what we should be.  And he says for parents to tell this to their children.  He wants you to pass this message on to your children.  There is salvation for them in him.  Bring up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  What a great blessing!  Christ Jesus says to instruct your children regarding his death for the sins of his people.  He wants them to know.  He wants them to obey.  They have to learn one thing at a time.  When they learn to obey parents, they will listen to the gospel.  But how do you make a child obey?  We can’t.  Only the Spirit of God can do that.  Only the Spirit of God can apply the gospel and wash away sin.

But the great thing is that God promises to give his Spirit also to the children of believers.  So let’s depend on him to make us the kind of faithful parents and children that he wants us to be, for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.