May 26, 2024: Sunday School

Order of Service

• Prayer of Invocation
• Sermon

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Sermon Title: Raising Children in the Discipline and Instruction of the Lord

Scripture: Ephesians 6:1-4

I. The Context: Paul's Teaching on Submission Within the Family

A. Paul addresses whole families — both children and parents — continuing from Ephesians 5:21 B. Historical background: Roman Patria Potestas — the father's absolute authority over the family for life

1. Children could be accepted or rejected at birth (child repudiation)
2. The church, following Christ's teaching, began transforming society's treatment of children C. Jesus himself elevated the status of children: "Let the children come to me" — the church carried this influence into Roman culture

II. Three Grounds for Children's Obedience to Parents (Ephesians 6:1-3)

A. Natural Law — "for this is right"

1. Honoring parents is a principle found across all cultures and civilizations, even among pagan teachers
2. Romans 1:28-30 — disobedience to parents listed as a mark of a society that has abandoned God

B. The Revealed Law — the fifth commandment

1. Paul combines Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16: the first commandment with a promise
2. Jewish teaching placed honoring parents on the same tablet as honoring God — reverence for parents is integral to reverence for God
3. Leviticus 19:1-3 — God links his own holiness with reverence for father and mother
4. The promise of long life and prosperity, originally tied to Israel as a theocracy, is understood today more broadly as social stability when children honor parents

C. The Gospel — obedience "in the Lord"

1. Children are called to obey not merely out of duty or fear, but out of their own personal relationship with Jesus Christ
2. Christ established the family order in creation; the new community in Christ does not abolish but renews that order
3. Sin has distorted family relationships — love twisted into lust, authority into oppression — but Christ's work restores them

III. Instructions for Parents: Restraint and Nourishment (Ephesians 6:4)

A. The Negative Command — "Do not provoke your children to anger"

1. Misuse of authority produces resentment and lasting harm
2. Unreasonable demands, harshness, sarcasm, ridicule, humiliation, and favoritism are ways parents can wound children
3. Discipline should be carried out calmly, with explanation, and with loving consistency — never in anger or loss of temper
4. Martin Lloyd-Jones: self-control is an essential prerequisite for disciplining others

B. The Positive Command — "Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord"

1. Paideia (discipline/training) — correction and discipline, including punishment where appropriate
   • Hebrews 12 — earthly fathers and the heavenly Father who disciplines for our good
   • Proverbs: "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him"
   • The opposite of wrong discipline is not no discipline, but right and controlled discipline
2. Nouthesia (instruction) — verbal teaching and guidance
   • Reading God's word to children from a young age is among the most powerful parental investments
   • Children learn God through their parents; as they grow, they observe the relationship their parents have with God and desire it for themselves
   • Parents modeling daily Bible reading and prayer leaves a lasting imprint
   • Isaiah 30:21 — "Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it'"

C. Closing Illustration — John Newton and Amazing Grace

1. Newton's mother taught him Scripture before her death when he was six; he later descended into a life of sin and slave trading
2. During a violent storm off Scotland, near death, the verses his mother had planted in him came back and led to his conversion and transformation
3. Parents may not see the immediate fruit of their investment in their children's spiritual formation, but God is faithful to use it — trust him with your children