Source of Morality

Exodus 20: 1 – 21.

Introduction.

I have been preaching every Sunday for 11 years. I have been preaching every Sunday in this church for almost 5 years. And, this is the first time I can honestly say…I am disappointed to see you this morning. It would have been much better for us to have been “raptured” out of the earth and into the presence of God.

In fact, I had planned to entitle my sermon “If you are reading this, the world did not end on Saturday.” But, I didn’t think that would be an appropriate sermon for Baccalaureate Sunday…It would probably not be the best idea to preach about the end of the world on the Sunday we call a new youth minister.

Instead of the “end of the world,” I would like to preach about something safe… Like morality and how we can determine if our actions and choices are moral.

There are several options for determining moral behavior in a purely secular sense.

Some people determine morality based on logic or reason. Morality and right behavior is what makes sense logically in different situations. When faced with a choice, a person should think about each option and choose the one that makes the most sense to them.

Another option is to determine morality based on emotions. If you are facing a difficult decision, imagine yourself making each decision and imagine the outcome of each decision. Then, you should ask yourself how the imaginary decision and the imaginary outcomes make you feel. The right thing to do is the thing which will make you happy. Closely related to this is to base morality on what is called “creative emotion.” This view states that your emotions are capable of creating reality. For example, a musician may find it joyful to play an instrument or to sing. Therefore, the musician’s emotions are capable of creating something good.

A final option is to determine moral behavior based on what will bring more pleasure than pain to the rest of society. In other words, if no one gets hurt by your choices and your actions, then you are acting in a moral way. This method seems to place little emphasis on the things a person does in the privacy of their own home. If no one knows what you are doing, and if no one gets hurt by your actions, it is moral.

None of these options reflect a Christian view of morality. For Christians, morality includes the things which are pleasing to God. Morality is not always the most logical choice, or even the choice that feels good at the time. And, Christian morality certainly does not depend on societal norms.

This leads many Christians to a very simple view of morality. Morality is doing what the Bible tells us to do.

Josh McDowell published a book in 1994 entitled, Right from Wrong. The first half of the book publishes the troubling statistics about how Christian youth think about ethics. In a survey of “churched” teens, they discovered over 60% of our teens do not believe in absolute right and wrong. What is right for some people is not necessarily right for everyone.

The second half of the book describes a method for reading the Bible and determining absolute right and wrong. McDowell proposes a three-fold approach: precept, principle and person.

Precept = the biblical teaching.

Principle = the universal principle of right and wrong behind the biblical teaching.

Person = the character of God.

Let’s look at some of the moral teachings of the Bible and see how they fit into this pattern of Precept, Principle and Person…

Read Exodus 20: 1 – 21.

1 And God spoke all these words:

2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3 "You shall have no other gods before me.

4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

6 but showing love to a thousand of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.

11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

13 "You shall not murder.

14 "You shall not commit adultery.

15 "You shall not steal.

16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance

19 and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."

20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."

21 The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

(NIV)

Do you remember when I taught you how to memorize the Ten Commandments in order? It’s a very simple way to remember. There are ten commandments…You have ten fingers. That is one commandment for each finger.

Hold up one finger…God is number one…No other gods before me.

Hold up two fingers like scissors…Like cutting out paper dolls…Do not make an image of God…

Hold up three fingers…Three fingers looks like the letter “W”…Take the word “God” seriously…Do not take the LORD’s name in vain.

Hold up four fingers…When we hold up four fingers, something is missing… When we skip church on Sunday, something is missing…Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

Hold up five fingers…Like taking a pledge or being sworn in in a court of law… On my honor…Honor your father and your mother…

Hold up six fingers…Point the one finger at the other five like shooting a gun…Do not murder.

Hold up seven fingers…Two fingers are separated from the rest…Like a husband and wife who are separated from all other people…Do not commit adultery…Always keep your marriage promises.

Hold up eight fingers…Four fingers on each hand…You are missing your thumbs… In some countries, thieves are punished by cutting off their thumbs…Do not steal.

Hold up nine fingers…It is possible to hide your thumb…Hiding something from others is like lying…Do not lie…Do not bear false witness.

Hold up ten fingers…Make a grasping motion with both hands…Give me, Give me, Give me…Do not covet.

Each of these commandments is a commandment God made to his people. The Ten Commandments reflect God’s will for his people. There is a universal principle behind each commandment—a principle that applies universally to all people at all times in history. Behind each universal principle, there is a characteristic of the Person of God.

Another way to say this is to say, these commandments apply to us, because they are in the Bible. AND…These commandments are in the Bible, because they reveal something about the character of God.

Commandments 1 – 3.

There is one universal principle behind each of the first three commandments. There is only one God.

A popular view among non-Christians is to say that all religions lead to the same God. It doesn’t matter if you worship Yahweh, Jesus, Allah, or even Buddha. Each of these gods reflects a different expression of the same religious reality. However, that view cannot be supported by the first three commandments.

Exodus 20: 2, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

There is only one true God. The only true God is the God who saved his people from Egypt. God’s character is salvation. And we are to worship the only God who can save us and who has saved us.

There is only one true God. The only true God has revealed himself through his word, and not through images. Therefore, we are not supposed to worship gods who can be captured in visual images…And, we are not supposed to create an image for God. Worship God in the way he has revealed himself.

There is only one true God. The only true God works on our behalf to bring about our salvation. However, God cannot be controlled by invoking his name. Therefore, we are to be very serious about the times when we invoke the name of God.

Commandments 6 – 8.

These three commandments seem to be the most obvious commandments. Most people will acknowledge murder, adultery and stealing as immoral behavior. In fact, we can apply some secular sources of morality…Logic / Reason…Greater Good… The emotional views of morality could go either way. A person could feel emotional happiness or satisfaction from murder, adultery or stealing.

The fact that these commandments can be supported by a logical view of morality proves that there are universal principles behind them. Don’t kill other people, because you don’t want other people to kill you. Don’t commit adultery, because you don’t want your spouse committing adultery. Don’t take stuff that belongs to other people, because you don’t want other people to take your stuff.

There are logical reasons and universal principles behind these commandments. However, these also reflect characteristics of God’s nature.

God is the source of life. As God gives life to his creation, we are to give life to other people and not take life away from them.

God is faithful. As God is faithful to us, we are to be faithful in all of our relationships…Faithful to God…Faithful in our marriages…Faithful in our friendships…

God gives blessings. He sends the sunshine and the rain to provide for his creation. Just as God is generous to us, we are to be generous in all our relationships. Generous to God and his church…Generous to people who are equal to us economically, above us economically, and below us economically…

Commandment 9.

This commandment can be deconstructed and qualified to the point that it is completely watered down. We can interpret the phrase “bear false testimony” to be a reference to the activity of a witness in a court of law. We can interpret the phrase “your neighbor” to include only a limited number of people who either live in our specific area or to include the people who are related to us by nationality, race or religion.

However, even if we view this as a commandment about a specific action against a specific group of people, we can still relate it to a universal principle. God wants us to tell the truth. This applies to a witness in court as well as a person talking on the telephone or even sending out an email. Tell the truth.

God wants us to tell the truth, because Truth is very basic to the character / Person of God. God always tells the truth and places high expectations of truth-telling on all of God’s people. We see this in the Old Testament teachings about prophets and prophecy. If a prophet claimed to speak in the name of God, and if his prophecy proved to be false, there were severe consequences. This was a capital offense. The Law required that false prophets be put to death.

God always tells the truth, because God’s character is truth. God’s character is truth, therefore, all truth belongs to God. We see this concept show up in the New Testament teachings of Jesus. In John 14: 6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Conclusion.

Everything in the Bible points us toward the character of God. True ethical behavior is found in a life patterned after God. The best place to find the character of God in the Bible is in the life of Jesus.

Jesus is the One and Only, Unique Son of God. Jesus reveals the character of God to us in two ways.

First, Jesus teaches us how to live in his words, spoken to his original disciples and recorded so that we might know God.

Second, Jesus teaches us how to live in his life as an example for us. Jesus upheld all the Precepts and Principles of the Old Testament. Jesus reveals what a moral life looks like.

This means Jesus is both our teacher and our subject. Yes, we learn the words and the teachings of the Bible. However, ultimately we are learning Jesus. The only way to learn Jesus is through a relationship with Jesus.

Lord of the Sabbath

Luke 6: 1 – 11

Introduction.

Last Sunday we looked at the stories Luke told us about the life of Jesus as a child. I find it interesting that the only thing we know about Jesus’ childhood are stories that took place in the Jerusalem Temple. This makes for a good Mothers’ Day sermon, since it demonstrates how seriously Mary and Joseph were about keeping the Jewish Law.

It is obvious in Luke’s Gospel that Mary and Joseph kept the Law. They followed the letter of the Law when it came to their son, Jesus. They had him circumcised when he was eight days old, just as the Law required. When Jesus was 41 days old, they traveled to the Temple to fulfill two legal requirements.

First, they offered a sacrifice to purify Mary from childbirth. The Law stated that a woman was ceremonially unclean for 40 days after giving birth to a son (80 days after giving birth to a daughter). Mary had to wait 40 days and then offer a sacrifice in the Temple to regain her religious purity.

Second, Mary and Joseph offered a sacrifice to redeem their first-born son. The Old Testament required that every first-born among the Jewish people belongs to God. This applies to animals the family owns and to the children born to the family. In the case of the animals, Jewish people had two choices. They could kill the first-born animal as a sacrifice to God, or they could redeem (or buy back) the animal by substituting a lamb as the sacrifice. For babies born to the family, God did not allow human sacrifice. So, the first-born baby was to be redeemed (or bought back) from God by sacrificing a lamb. If the family was poor, the Old Testament allowed the family to substitute two doves in the place of a lamb.

In Luke 2, we learn a lot about Jesus’ family when Luke tells us they offered two doves to redeem Jesus as their first-born child. We learn that Mary and Joseph were very religious parents. They kept the Old Testament Law. And, we learn that Mary and Joseph were poor. They redeemed Jesus with two doves and not a lamb.

I think it is fair for us to look at the religious life of Mary and Joseph and to project that religious life onto the rest of Jesus’ childhood. Mary and Joseph demonstrated the life of good Jewish religion. They taught Jesus how to follow the Old Testament Law. And, as a result, Jesus grew up to be a good Jewish man who followed the requirements of the Law.

Jesus kept the Old Testament Law through his entire life. Jesus even taught his followers the importance of the Law in his Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5: 17 – 20, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (NIV).”

Those were strong words about the importance of the Law. But, it wasn’t enough to convince Jesus’ opponents. The Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law didn’t believe that Jesus took the Law as seriously as they did. So, there were many times when Jesus faced challenges from these religious leaders.

Read Luke 6: 1 – 11.

1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.

2 Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"

3 Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."

5 Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.

7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.

8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there.

9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"

10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored.

11 But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

(NIV)

This controversy between Jesus and the religious leaders was not a small controversy. It was based on two opposing views of what it means to keep the Sabbath. Again, this is no small controversy. Keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments… Even if it is the commandment we tend to pay the least amount of attention to in contemporary Christian life.

For the Jews of Jesus’ day, the Sabbath Day was the most important way of identifying themselves as faithful in a pluralistic culture. Israel had lost her national identity to the Roman Empire. The Jews were free to practice their religion in the Roman Empire, but they faced a serious threat from the Roman pantheon and the patriotic religion of Emperor Worship. The Sabbath Day was the one public sign which set the Jews apart from the non-Jews. As a result, the religious leaders were very serious and very protective of the Sabbath.

In fact, the Pharisees had more rules and regulations about observing the Sabbath than were found in the Old Testament. This is where Jesus got in trouble with the Pharisees.

Legalism

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were the most religious men of Israel. They dedicated their lives to studying the Old Testament Law. They believed that all Jews should keep God’s Law in every circumstance of every day. This much they had in common with Jesus. Jesus did not come to abolish (or do away with) the Law. Jesus came to fulfill the Law.

In order to apply God’s Law to every aspect of daily Jewish life, the Pharisees devoted their lives to making new rules and regulations. The Sabbath Day is a good illustration of what the Pharisees did.

In the Ten Commandments, the Fourth Commandment is really very simple and open ended. “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” It is a very broad commandment and probably a little too broad for the Pharisees. So, they made it more specific by making a list of 39 different types of work to be prohibited on the Sabbath. These 39 categories included over 1,000 specific actions.

This is what upset the Pharisees about what Jesus’ disciples did on the Sabbath Day. The disciples were walking through or near a grain field. They were hungry and began to eat grain from someone else’s field. That was not a crime. In fact, the Old Testament allowed hungry people to collect grain from someone else’s field as long as they only used their hands and did not use any harvesting tools.

However, the Pharisees took exception to what the disciples were doing, because it was on the Sabbath Day. Luke provides us with a clue to the Pharisees’ objection by saying the disciples picked grain, rubbed the heads of grain in their hands and ate the kernels. Perhaps the Pharisees interpreted the disciples’ action as harvesting and threshing—two forbidden activities listed among the thousands of activities in the Pharisees’ rules and regulations about the Sabbath.

I love the way Jesus answers the Pharisees’ objection. He told a Bible story from the life of David.

The story about David cuts right to the heart of purpose of the Law. In the story of David, David was running away from King Saul. He ran to the Sanctuary of Nob and asked the priest for two things: a sword for himself and bread for his men. The only sword in the sanctuary was the sword of Goliath, which David took after he killed Goliath. The only bread in the sanctuary was the “Bread of the Presence.” Every Sabbath Day, the priest placed freshly baked bread in the presence of God. Then, the priest removed the week-old bread that had been there since the previous Sabbath. The week-old bread was to be eaten by the priest as a part of his livelihood—it was part of his wages.

David knew the Law but did what was contrary to the Law. He ate the bread and shared it with his men. Human need took precedence over ceremony.

There is another interesting thing about Jesus’ answer. By appealing to a biblical story from the life of David, Jesus shows us that he places more value on what the Bible actually says than on the Pharisees’ interpretation of the Bible.

Appropriate Work for the Sabbath

On another Sabbath Day, Jesus went to the synagogue to teach the Scriptures. This was an acceptable type of work for the Sabbath…Notice that a group of Pharisees showed up to hear Jesus preach.

Actually, there were two kinds of people gathered in the synagogue that Sabbath. There were Jewish people who had heard Jesus’ teachings in the streets and had witnessed his miracles. They were there to see Jesus. Then, there were the Pharisees. They too had heard Jesus’ teachings in the streets and had witnessed his miracles. But, the Pharisees weren’t there to see Jesus. They were there to WATCH Jesus.

The Pharisees did not doubt that Jesus had the power to heal. They had witnessed many of his healing miracles. They doubted that he respected the Sabbath Day the way they did. So, they watched him.

Again, the Old Testament commands us to “Remember the Sabbath Day.” The Pharisees had added restrictions to that. In the matter of healing, the Pharisees said that it was OK to heal on the Sabbath as long as it was a matter of life and death. This was not a matter of life and death. So, they watched Jesus to see if he would do the right thing. Of course, they thought the right thing was to tell the man to wait until the sun went down.

I suppose Jesus could have given the man his business card and asked him to call the next day. Or, Jesus could have whispered in the man’s ear, “This really isn’t a good time for me. I can heal you…And I am willing to heal you on the Sabbath. I would just prefer that we not do this in front of the Pharisees. They are watching me right now. Let’s get together somewhere a little more private.”

But that is not what Jesus did. He asked the man to walk out to a highly visible position in the synagogue. And right there in front of everyone, Jesus healed the man. But before he healed the man, Jesus offered a brief teaching about what is appropriate on the Sabbath Day.

Jesus offered the crowd two choices. Luke 6: 9, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it (NIV)?”

The way Jesus asked the question tells us a lot. Is it lawful to do good or to do evil? Is it lawful to save life or to destroy life? Doing nothing is not an option. Waiting until tomorrow is not an option.

This reminds me of a teaching from James, the brother of Jesus. James teaches us in James 4: 17, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins (NIV).”

According to the Pharisees, Jesus had broken the Sabbath. He didn’t keep all their rules about Sabbath keeping. But, Jesus did something even better. He reformed the Sabbath by releasing people like you and me from the burdensome restrictions. But be careful here…Jesus didn’t tell us we can do away with the Sabbath. And, he didn’t tell us we could do anything we want to do on the Sabbath.

You and I can’t redefine what can and can’t be done on the Sabbath. Only Jesus can do that. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, because he is also the Son of Man. Luke 6: 5, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” The Pharisees are not Lord of the Sabbath, and you and I are not Lord of the Sabbath. Only Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.

Conclusion.

Sabbath is still an important part of our lives. Keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments. It does not go away just because Jesus fulfilled the Law with his life, death and resurrection.

The Old Testament was clear that the Sabbath Day was to be a holy day. “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy” shows up in both places where the Ten Commandments are mentioned (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). However, Exodus and Deuteronomy give two different reasons why Jews ought to keep the Sabbath.

Exodus 20 tells us that Jews ought to keep the Sabbath holy because of what God did in the act of creation. God created everything in six days. Then, God rested on the seventh day. Therefore, God’s people should imitate God…Work for six days a week, and rest on the seventh day.

Deuteronomy 5 gives us a different reason. Here we read that it is important to keep the Sabbath, because God’s people used to be slaves in Egypt. Keeping the Sabbath Day is a good way to remember that you are not a slave. Slaves don’t get to take a day off of work. Only free people can take time off.

I suppose there are at least a couple of ways that we can interpret this reference to slavery. On one hand, slaves don’t work for themselves. Slaves work for their masters. The master controls when the slave works and when the slave takes time off work. On the other hand, slaves can’t set their own schedules. Someone else assigns the work and sets the schedule.

Someone is probably thinking right now that slaves are not the only people who work all the time and never take time away from work. There are men and women of many different occupations and stages in life who work all the time. However, I suggest we are all slaves to something. We may not be slaves to an earthly, human master. Yet, it is possible to be a slave to work.

Maybe this is why Sabbath ought to be more important to us. Keeping the Sabbath can be a profession of our faith in God. People who cannot take time off of work believe that God NEEDS us. People who stop working realize that God keeps on working, even when we are not working. … This is an act of worship: acknowledging that God is God, and I am not.

Sabbath is a time for us to rest…Like God rested after Creation.

Sabbath is a time for us to worship God…We are free to take time away from work, because we are not God.

Sabbath is a time for us to go good and to save life…As Jesus demonstrated in his life’s work.

A Mother's Influence

A Mother’s Influence

Luke 2: 41 – 52.

Introduction

Our Scripture this morning is the Scripture I preached in my very first sermon. As far as I know, I have never told you the story of my first sermon. I preached my first sermon in the Zama Baptist Church of Zama, Mississippi. (Zama is pronounced Zamer. It is not spelled with an “R,” but it is pronounced with an “R.”)

It happened when I was working as a camp counselor at the Central Hills Baptist Retreat in Kosciusko, Mississippi. I had just finished my freshman year of college and was beginning to feel that God was calling me to ministry.

The pastor of a small church outside of Kosciusko, MS called the camp director, Brother Dan West, and asked him to find someone to fill the pulpit for him for the upcoming Sunday morning and Sunday night. Brother Dan asked Chris Dufrene to preach both sermons, because Chris had experience as a preacher. Chris was willing to preach the Sunday morning service but didn’t feel that he had enough time to prepare two sermons. So, Brother Dan asked me to preach on Sunday night.

I had never preached before, but I was willing to give it a shot. I had a sermon idea that I had been thinking about for some time. The title of my sermon was “Following Jesus.” It was based on the story of how Mary and Joseph lost track of Jesus and left him behind in the Jerusalem Temple.

I studied the Scripture and used a yellow legal pad to write out my sermon. I filled up 5 yellow pages of notes.

When Sunday morning arrived, all of the Central Hills counselors went to the church to support our friend, Chris. He did a good job. His sermon lasted about 45 minutes. We didn’t get out of church until close to 12:30 in the afternoon. I figured that was a good thing, since my sermon filled up 5 pages of notes…Chris was getting them ready for what they were going to experience in the evening service.

Sunday night was different from Sunday morning. The church didn’t have a full worship service. We only sang a couple of songs, and then it was time for me to preach. The service started at 6:00, and I remember getting up to preach at 6:15. It was perfect…I figured that would give me about 45 minutes to preach through my five pages of notes, and we would get out around 7:00.

I took my 5 pages of yellow paper into the pulpit. I preached and preached and preached. I preached my heart out that night. I carefully went through every word on all five pages of my notes. When I got to the very last point on my very last page, I looked at my watch. I had preached my entire sermon in 7 minutes!

If you have ever spoken in front of a group before, you know that it is possible to be talking to the group and thinking about something else. All these thoughts were running through my mind. “What am I going to do? I can’t stop after only 7 minutes! But I don’t have anything else to say. I have already said more than I know. Well…I guess there is only one thing I can do. Preach it again!”

I turned back to the first page of my notes and said to the congregation, “Let’s recap.” And I preached the whole sermon a second time. 14 minutes from start to finish.

On the Sunday of Mother’s Day, I am always faced with several questions. How can I preach a sermon that honors our mothers AND honors the Risen Lord Christ? How can I preach a sermon that relates just to the women of our church—and even then, just to the women who are mothers?

Today, I want to broaden our focus somewhat and preach about godly families and the High Calling of Parenthood.

Read Luke 2: 41 – 52.

41 Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.

42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.

43 After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.

44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.

45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.

46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."

49 "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

(NIV)

Jesus was one of those children who was in the church every time the doors were open. His parents were very serious about following the requirements of the Jewish Law—we know this because they had him circumcised on the eighth day. Jesus’ parents were serious about supporting the local synagogue in Nazareth—we know this because they made the customary sacrifice for a first-born son by offering two doves. And they were serious about attending the annual Passover Festival in the Temple at Jerusalem—we know this because Luke tells us a story about what was probably Jesus’ first Passover in Jerusalem.

In order for Mary and Joseph to attend Passover in Jerusalem, they had to make several sacrifices. They had to use up their entire two-week vacation from work to travel on a journey that lasted several days all the way from Nazareth down to Jerusalem for a week-long celebration…And then travel back home again.

More than likely Mary, Joseph, Jesus, James and the other children did not travel alone. The Bible does not tell us specifically, but we have discovered from ancient culture that in the interest of safety people usually traveled in groups. And it would not have been difficult for Mary and Joseph to find a group of religious pilgrims—just like them—who were willing to make the 70-mile trek from Nazareth to Jerusalem. After all, the Jewish Law actually REQUIRED all Jewish men over the age of 12 to attend the Passover celebration in Jerusalem.

Now 70 miles doesn’t sound very far by modern standards. However, there were no interstate highways and gasoline powered cars in the ancient world. The only way they had to travel was by foot. And the standard rule of thumb was that a person could only travel about 25 miles in one day. That puts Jerusalem about three days away from Nazareth.

The Passover festival was a special time for the Jewish people. You and I normally think of Passover as a time when the Jews remembered what God did for them to rescue them out of Egyptian slavery. God sent nine terrible plagues on Egypt, but Pharaoh refused to let God’s people go. Then God sent the tenth and final plague. The firstborn child of every family died suddenly, in the middle of the night. That is every family except the Hebrew families who had the Blood of the Lamb splattered on their doorposts. Death PASSED OVER these homes, and God commanded Moses to institute a feast to mark this as the beginning of the year for God’s people.

However, Passover was more than just remembering what God had done for the people long ago. It was a seven-day event that did two things…Remembering that God saved his people long ago…Celebrating that God has saved me…

After a week of celebration, worship, and feasting on wonderful foods Mary, Joseph and the other vacationers were tired and ready to get home. They gathered everything they had; they divided into two groups and they began to head home.

It was normal for large groups of pilgrims to travel in two groups. The first group was made up of all the women and children. The second group was all the men. The women and children traveled ahead of the men for one main reason. Since Nazareth was too far away to make it home in just one day, the women had to go ahead to find a comfortable place to set up camp for the night and to begin preparing the evening meal. The children traveled with their mothers and could normally be found playing and laughing and dancing alongside as they traveled.

I imagine that as Mary and the other women traveled along, Mary had a lot on her mind. She had to set up the tent for the family and prepare supper before Joseph and the men arrived. She had all that laundry to do once she got home. She had a full week ahead of her when she, Jesus and James finally got home. Where are Jesus and James? I haven’t seen them for several miles. Well, there’s James…I guess Jesus is traveling with the men now that he has finally turned 12.

I think this is probably how Jesus got left behind. A Jewish boy was considered a man when he became a bar mitzvah or the Son of the Covenant. Since this happened at age 12—and Luke tells us Jesus was 12—Mary thought Jesus was with the men, and Joseph never gave it a second thought.

When Mary and Joseph finally realized that Jesus was not with them, they did what any parent would do…They PANICKED! They rushed back to Jerusalem as quickly as they could and began searching in all the places where they thought Jesus might be. They looked on the Streets…In the Market Place…In the Toy Stores…On the Playground…At the Ball Field…Then, in a desperate move they looked in the Temple—Surely he won’t be in the Temple…

And that is where they found him…In the Temple…Sitting…Listening… Asking questions of the religious leaders…And the religious leaders were amazed that such a young man of only 12 would be so knowledgeable and interested in spiritual matters…

We can’t really blame Mary for being angry. She was just being a good mother who was worried about her child. Mary snapped at Jesus, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you!”

I just love Jesus’ answer… “My father? No, ma’am. I am in my Father’s house. I never left my Father’s side.”

Most of us are accustomed to hearing Jesus’ reply as something like, “I must be in my Father’s House.” But actually, Jesus never used the word “House.” He literally said, “I must be in my Father’s…”

This expression could mean “in my Father’s House”… “in my Father’s Business”… “in my Father’s Presence”… And Jesus spent his entire life doing just that…He spent time in the Temple…He did the Father’s Business…And He lived daily in God’s presence…

Jesus’ answer is not a smart alec reply. No, Jesus is surprised that Mary couldn’t find him. Jesus was surprised because Mary and Joseph had taught him about God’s Love…They had trained him to follow after godly ways…And they had demonstrated the importance of spending time with the Heavenly Father. He was only doing what he had seen them model for him.

This is the highest calling any parent could ever fulfill…To rear children in such a way that they develop into men and women of God…Men and women who earnestly desire to please God and spend time with him every day…

Jesus ENJOYED spending time with God, because that is how his parents trained him…

How can we fulfill this same calling with our children today? I say that we should follow the example set by Mary and Joseph…

They Lived Out a Godly Example for Their Children.

This is the only story the Bible tells about Jesus’ childhood…But it implies a lot about his parents’ spiritual life…

They lived and obeyed the Law and demonstrated what it meant to be faithful…

How can we truly expect our children to love God and live godly lives, if we are not modeling that for them at home? A hard truth for any of us to accept is the fact that most of us turn into the same kind of adults we watched our parents model for us.

They Took Their Children to Church.

Don’t you think it is interesting that the only story we have about Jesus’ childhood happened in church?

The Father’s House…God’s People…Both played an important part of Jesus’ life and development as a child…

How can we expect our children to go to church and grow with God’s people if we don’t take them to church as children? Ask yourselves a question: Do you go to church as often as your parents took you to church as a child? For many of you the answer is that you go to church LESS frequently than your parents. And, our children will more than likely go to church LESS frequently than we do.

They Helped Their Children Develop Into Whole Persons.

Read Luke 2: 52…And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Jesus grew and developed in four important ways…

Physically…Food, Shelter and Clothing…

Mentally…Education and Training…

Spiritually…Discipleship…

Socially…Children must learn how to get along with others…

Conclusion

The High Calling of Parenthood requires more than simply providing physically and educationally for our children…We are called to develop children into the Image of Christ.

If we do not model Christ like behavior and Christ like desires for our own children, then where do we expect them to receive that? Will our children learn to live Christ like lives at school? Probably not! Will our children learn to live Christ like lives at church? The answer is “Yes, But…” Yes, children will learn to love and follow Jesus at the church. BUT, parents have to bring your children to church.

The Authority of Scripture

2 Timothy 3: 16 – 17

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, my family made a very quick trip to Mississippi and back, because my grandmother died. She was almost 90 years old and had suffered with some form of dementia for the past several years. It was not a sudden death, and it was not a sad death. We knew that she was a Christian. We knew that she would be better off in Heaven than she would be if she kept living. In many ways, her funeral was a family reunion. I saw cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts and great uncles that I haven’t seen in years.

I learned in my first churches that smaller churches usually have one or two prominent families in the church. Most of the church members are either members of the prominent family, or they married into the prominent Family.

My grandmother had been a member of the Farmington Baptist Church for over 70 years! And she had married into the Pittman family. At Farmington Baptist Church, the Pittman family is one of the prominent families in the church. My first cousin, Brandon, is the bi-vocational music minister in the church. His wife is the church pianist and children’s music director. My grandfather and his brother physically built the church buildings. The cemetery next to the church is filled with grave markers with the name Pittman on them.

Back in 2004, the pastor of Farmington Baptist Church called me. My grandparents were declining in health, and the pastor wanted to plan a special Sunday for them. He invited Shauna to sing, other grandchildren to participate in the worship service, and he invited me to preach.

I remember being very worried about preaching in my grandparents’ church. I wasn’t worried about preaching a good sermon and making my family proud of me. I was worried about not using my Bible. You know that I preach from the New International Version of the Bible. My grandparents’ church is a “King James only” church. I had to borrow a King James Version to preach in their church. (In fact, when I preached my grandmother’s funeral a couple of weeks ago, I was using Aubrey’s KJV Bible.)

I have no reason to criticize the KJV. In fact, I grew up reading and memorizing from the KJV. Some of you prefer to read the KJV. It is the Bible my grandparents read. It is the Bible my mother continues to read. She believes that if it was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for her.

There is no reason to criticize the KJV, because it has literally changed the world. The KJV was the best selling English book every year from 1611 until 1988—378 years! In 1989, the New International Version surpassed the KJV as the most popular English version of the Bible. Just try to think about how many churches, pastors and Christians have read from the KJV during that time.

The reason I bring this up is that Monday, May 2, 2011 is the 400^th anniversary of the King James Version.

The KJV was not the first Bible to be published in English. That distinction goes to the Wycliffe Bible around 1409. Then, there was the Tyndale Bible and the Great Bible. The Great Bible was so named, because it was a great size and a great expense. Later a group of Calvinists, who were facing persecution in England, fled to Geneva Switzerland. In Geneva, they translated the Bible into English and used the latest technology to print it economically and import it into England.

In 1611, King James I didn’t like the Geneva Bible, because it was a study Bible written by Calvinists. The study notes challenged the hierarchy of the Anglican Church. In an effort to protect the Anglican hierarchy, King James commissioned a team of 54 university scholars to translate the Bible into English from Hebrew and Greek and to print it without study notes. This Bible eventually became known as the King James Version, or the Authorized Version—because it had been authorized by the King of England. The King James Version was immediately accepted by the Anglican Church as the official Bible to be used in public worship.

In addition to being the year the KJV was published, 1611 was also an important year for Baptists in England. This is the same year that John Smyth and Thomas Helwys formed the first Baptist church in Spittelfield, England. I would like to find a book or another resource that can connect the dots between the KJV and the formation the first Baptist church. After all, two foundations of Baptist theology include the authority of Scripture and the priesthood of all believers. We believe every Christian has the ability to speak to God directly and to read the Bible and hear God’s word in Scripture. Surely there is a connection…

What exactly do we mean when we say we believe in the authority of Scripture? I suppose we could go back in Baptist history and read what our Baptist forebears had to say about the Bible. But, I think we would do better to look at what the Bible has to say about itself. One of the best Scriptures to define what we believe about the Scriptures is found in the writings of the Apostle Paul…2 Timothy 3: 16 – 17…

Read 2 Timothy 3: 16 – 17.

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

(NIV)

Tradition tells us that Paul wrote 1 and 2 Timothy from a Roman prison at the very end of his life. Since Paul is still alive at the end of the Book of Acts and was in prison in Caesarea, we have to believe that Paul got out of prison and was eventually arrested a second time and put in prison in Rome. This fits well with the tradition about Paul’s death. Church legend tells us that Paul was beheaded in Rome.

With this in mind, we ought to read the books of 1 and 2 Timothy with an urgent tone. Paul believes (correctly) that he doesn’t have very long to live. Therefore, he also feels a sense of urgency to communicate the most important details of life and ministry to his young protégé, Timothy.

Paul warns Timothy about false teachers infiltrating the church. These false teachers are dangerous for a couple of reasons. On one hand, they can easily lead people into believing false things about Jesus. On the other hand, false teachers stir up conflict in the church. Conflict in the church runs counter to what Paul wants to happen in the church. It can cause Christians to stop acting like Christians. But even worse, conflict distracts the church from the work of mission and ministry that God wants us to perform.

In the present context, Paul tells Timothy that Timothy has to make a choice between two possible influences. Timothy can be influenced by the false teachers. OR, Timothy can be influenced by the Scriptures. The false teachers teach a changing message. The Scripture teach an unchanging message. The false teachers teach a message that is new. The Scriptures teach a message that Timothy learned as a child.

One of the things we can affirm about the Scriptures is the way the message never changes. The story of Scripture is the old, old story. We learned it as children. We repeat it as adults. The message never changes, but the message never gets old. There are new ways to apply the message of Scripture to different stages of our lives and to the different cultures we find ourselves in.

All Scripture Is God-Breathed.

The world we live in is always changing. We are aging and changing. Our communities are changing as jobs come and go, as new people move in and move out, and as community morals and values change. But there is something that does not change. The Bible does not change.

The reason the Bible never changes is the fact that it has been breathed by God. This is where we get our concept of “inspiration.” The word “inspire” means to breathe in, or to inhale. It is the opposite of the word “expire,” which means to breathe out.

Do you remember the story of how God created the first human in Genesis 2? God reached down and picked up a handful of dirt. God molded and shaped that dirt until it took on the form of a human man. When God finished shaping the dirt into a man, there was no life in the man. So, God bent down and breathed his own breath into the man. Now, the man was alive. He had the breath of God in him.

There is an interesting thing about the Hebrew and Greek languages. In both Hebrew and in Greek, there is only one word that is translated “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit.” There is a close connection between the “breath of God” and the “Spirit of God.” (For example, in John’s story of the resurrection, he tells us that Jesus “breathed” on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit [John 20: 22].”)

So, when Paul says that Scripture has been “breathed by God,” he is telling us the Holy Spirit had a role in writing the Scriptures. On one hand, the Bible was written by human authors. On the other hand, these human writers were led by the Holy Spirit—the breath of God.

Technically, we have it backwards when we say that the Bible is “inspired.” That would presume that the Bible is taking a breath, breathing in the Spirit of God. Paul doesn’t say that the Bible took a deep breath from God. Instead, he tells us that God breathed his Spirit into the Bible. Perhaps it would be better to say that the Bible is “expired” by God… but that doesn’t sound right…

If the Bible comes to us from the breath of God, then there are several things we can affirm about Scripture. It comes from God, therefore it is Truth. It comes from God, therefore it is Unchanging. It comes from God, therefore it is Sufficient. God has given us what we need in Scripture. There is no reason to add to the Bible.

All Scripture Is Useful.

Of all the things we can claim for the Bible, there is one things we can say the Bible is not. The Bible is not an end in itself. It is never good enough to say that you believe the Bible. There are many people who claim to believe the Bible, but they never use the Bible. It simply sits on the coffee table, collecting dust. It’s not good enough to believe the Bible if you never use the Bible. The Bible is to be read and applied to your life.

This is why Paul tells us that the Bible is “useful.” God has breathed the Bible to us so that we will open it up and read it…study it…apply it to the way we live our lives.

The Bible is useful for teaching. God has given us everything we need in the Bible. The Bible can be read and understood by anyone who can read. We don’t need priests or pastors or biblical scholars to tell us what the Bible says. Some people believe the Bible was written to conceal truth about God and God’s plan for our world. There is a special code that only certain people can break to discern God’s truth from the Bible. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that the Bible conceals God and God’s plan. It was written to reveal God and God’s plan.

The Bible is useful for rebuking. Be careful here. Some people read this and get excited about going out to rebuke other people. (Some people are probably making a list right now of the folks they want to rebuke this afternoon after church.) Keep in mind; this is not actually your job. It is the Bible’s job. We can probably understand the concept of “rebuking” as something similar to “convicting of sin.” This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins. But, the Bible tells us what sin really is. Therefore, we can say that when we read the Bible, the Holy Spirit speaks to us about the sin in our lives. It is not our job to convict other Christians of their sins. If they are not listening to the Holy Spirit…If they are not listening to the Bible…Why do we think they will listen to us?

The Bible is useful for correcting. This is the positive side of “rebuking” and “convicting.” On one hand, the Bible tells us what sin is. On the other hand, the Bible shows us the correct way to live our lives. Ultimately, this is found in the example of Jesus. We read about the life of Jesus in the Bible. The way he lived and ministered to others and sacrificed his life to demonstrate God’s love…This is the correct way to live your life.

The Bible is useful for training in righteousness. We usually think of righteousness backwards from what God intends. We think that righteousness includes all the good things we do for God. The Bible teaches us that righteousness is the good thing God has done for us. We cannot live righteous lives. The only righteousness available to us is the way God makes us righteous through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. God places us in a right relationship with himself through Jesus.

All Scripture Is Equipping.

The point of the Bible is not to decorate our houses. The point of the Bible is to use it, so that through reading and studying and applying the Bible to our lives God can equip us for the good work God has planned for us. This is not something we can do on our own strength. We need God to work in us and to change us. Ultimately, the purpose of the Bible is to change your life.

We don’t read the Bible so that we can learn all the facts and dates about Israel and the church. We don’t read the Bible to memorize sound doctrine. We read the Bible so that we can have an experience with God that changes our lives.

The best place I know to find this is in the reason John gave us for writing his Gospel. “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20: 30 – 31 NIV).”

The Bible was breathed by God. But, it was written by humans who had experienced God in their lives. They wrote about their experiences, so that you and I could have the same experience with God. If we are reading the Bible and not meeting with God, we are doing it wrong. If we are reading the Bible and our lives are not being changed by God, we are doing it wrong.

Conclusion.

We believe in the “authority of Scripture,” because we believe the Bible has been “breathed by God.” In other words, the authority of the Bible comes from the authority of God. Therefore, we need to look in the Bible to discover how God exercises his authority.[1]

God is the Creator of the entire universe. God is in control of history from the way the creation began to the way creation will one day end. Everything and every person is under the authority of God. But, how does God exercise his authority?

God exercised his authority by demonstrating his love through Jesus. God sent his Only Begotten Son to live a sinless life as an example…to die a sacrificial death…to rise again as the promise of eternal life. God beckons for us to believe in Jesus and to follow him as our Lord. For those who believe in Jesus, God is molding us and shaping us into the people he wants us to become. God loves you and wants to change your life. BUT, God does not and will not coerce us.

That is like the “authority of Scripture.” It is one thing to believe in the authority of Scripture. It is another thing entirely to pick up your Bible and read it…to allow the Bible to change your life…to equip you for the work God has planned for you.

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[1] http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Bible_Authoritative.htm