当孝敬父母 Honour Your Father and Your Mother
出埃及记 Exo 20:12
Remember these points
I put these points at the top of my sermon-prep template to remind myself every week:
- Show that main point of passage relates to Jesus and his saving work
- (1 Cor 1:18) A truly gospel-centred message will not be acceptable in a synagogue or mosque
- Did I proclaim the gospel as the headline news of the sermon, rather than as a “by the way…”?
- Unbelievers are called to repent, believe, and be saved
- Believers are encouraged to abandon their old self, renew their minds, put on the new self in Christ
- Preach simple sermons, so that God’s people can see Christ more clearly and love him more dearly
News
Review
Hook
Which is easier: Obey 10 commandments, or 7,000?
Ten Commandments look simple, but they’re anything but.
They require not just our minds in knowing and accepting them, but also our hearts to obey them.
It’s not just intellectual knowledge, we need to change our whole being.
Passage
“Honour” in Hebrew comes from the word for heaviness.
To see someone as “heavy” means to give the person weight, giving the person honour and respect.
The opposite is to to look at someone lightly, not giving the person any weight, so to dishonour and disrespect that person.
In Hebrew, it lists father and mother separately, and most English translations follow this.
In most Chinese translations, they shorten it to 父母, which is most commonly understood as parents.
Contempt for father and mother (dishonour, disrespect, etc.) is part of the reason they were exiled.
Doesn’t this sound just like our society today?
Nothing has changed in thousands of years; we’re just as sinful now as before.
Don’t give this responsibility to the school or the church.
You as parents have the most responsibility in properly bringing up your children with a biblical worldview.
But also know when your children can make their own decisions.
Our job as parents is to train them so that they can become independent.
Don’t fall into this trap of always wanting a say in your child’s life.
与我有什么关系? So What?
- “Honour your father and you mother”: Same rule in both OT and NT.
- This is first commandment that comes with a promise.
- But there are also dire consequences if we disobey (same for all the other commandments).
- How do we honour our parents?
- We as parents: How do we teach our children?
- Jesus Christ obeyed his parents his entire life:
- When he was a child, he obeyed his parents (Luke 2:15)
- When he was an adult, he obeyed his Father in heaven,
took our sins upon himself, and went to the cross so that we can be saved.