Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God willing, Mrs Holtslag and myself will become grandparents in just a few weeks. So I suspect we will feel much like the O’Neill seniors and the DeReuses feel today (And many others of us could be included in this as well): We remember the day when our child was born as though it were yesterday, but now the day has come when our child has become the parent of his or her own child.
And many of us also had parents who made the same VOWS we heard Sam and Helena make today, in relation to us, and many of us made those same vows ourselves, in relation to our children, and many of us will hear our children make those vows in relation to their children, and some of us even in relation to grand-children or maybe even great grand-children.
And all of this is wonderful and mysterious and sobering and astonishing and hard to believe all rolled up into one!
And we know that this is the cycle of the generations that has existed since Adam and Eve.
And if you are familiar with the story of ABRAHAM in the Bible, you will know that what we have witnessed today with the baptism of little Hugh has its origins way back in the story of Abraham. Around 4000 years ago now, God entered into a special relationship with Abraham and his posterity. He said to Abraham, I will be your God and you will be my people. And God required Abraham and his sons to be circumcised as the sign of belonging in this special relationship. So this is how the nation of Israel or the Jews came into existence. And God lived with the Jews in this special national and religious relationship for about 2000 years.
But if you read passages in the OT like Isaiah 44 and Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 16 and 34, promises are made about the coming of a new covenant. The nation of Israel had become largely disobedient and God was warning them of a time of Judgment to come. But as part of those warnings, He made these repeated promises about something new and something better and something permanent.
Well, at its very heart, those promises were about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He would be at the centre of the new relationship between God and His people.
• And no longer would it be an ethnic relationship restricted to just one nation; now people from all the nations of the world could belong.
• No longer was the symbol of belonging a bloody sign like circumcision; now it would be baptism by water.
• No longer would the sign be given just to males; now it was for male and female alike.
• And what made you a worthy recipient of baptism was faith in Jesus Christ. The new rule was believe in Jesus and be baptized. So throughout the NT you read about the Apostles’ preaching and people hearing and believing and then being baptized. This was the norm of the New Covenant, if you like.
Well previously, as we noted, God required that the infant sons of the Jews also receive the sign of the covenant, signifying that they too were in this relationship. Did that change with baptism? Was baptism to be, now, only on the basis of an adult profession of faith?
Well, partly to answer that question and partly to think through the implications of this verse, we turn our attention today to the words of Ephesians 6:1.
For in this verse, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD SPEAKS TO THE CHILDREN OF BELIEVERS.
And we begin by considering the SACRAMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE of this verse before we conclude
with the SPINE-CHILLING SIGNIFICANCE of this verse.
So firstly then, the sacramental significance of this verse.
1. Now, boys and girls, this sermon is called ‘Children!’. And this verse is addressed to children. So I better make sure I explain any $1000 words or big words that I use so you understand them, right? So let’s start with SACRAMENTAL. Sacramental means ‘to do with the sacraments.’ The word ‘sacrament’ is a very old word that joined together two smaller words that meant ‘sacred’ and ‘mystery.’ In Latin it came to mean ‘a sacred oath.’ And with the sacrament of baptism that we have witnessed today we heard Mr and Mrs O’Neill make vows about how they will raise Hugh. So in terms of the church, a sacrament is a sacred practice of the church. And the sacraments are baptism, which we saw today, and Lord’s Supper, which we saw last week. So the verse before us today has a sacramental significance. What the verse says and how it says it and its context reveal something to us about baptism and especially the baptism of infants. Let’s see that this is so and how this is so.
A. This verse is part of the letter to the Ephesian congregation. And if you turn back to 1:1, we read there, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the SAINTS who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” The Holy Spirit speaks through Paul to the saints in Ephesus.
i. And saint doesn’t mean a super holy Christian; it just means Christian. To be a saint is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It is sad that some church traditions have stolen this word from ordinary believers and turned into something for just a few. All who follow Jesus Christ are saints!
ii. But the main point here is that this letter is written to the saints – the followers of Christ – in Ephesus. And congregation, that doesn’t stop at Ephesians 6:1. Ephesians 6:1 and vv2-3, which are also addressed to children, are not in parenthesis or brackets. Paul doesn’t pause and say that he also has a few words for those who are not part of the saints in Ephesus. He is in a section speaking about Christian relationships. He has just spoken to wives and husbands. He will next speak to fathers and then he will speak to slaves and masters. So the very fact that the Spirit through Paul speaks directly to children tells us something about how the children of believers are viewed. They were included among the saints.
B. But there is more also, from the context, that demonstrates this. These relationship instructions have what we could call BOOKENDS. And boys and girls, bookends are L shaped things that you put in front of a stack of books on the shelf and at the end. The books by themselves would topple over. But if you put bookends beside them, they stay upright. And the relationship instructions here in Ephesians have words at the beginning and words at the end, which are an important part of the instructions.
i. If you look at v15, you will see that Paul is talking about wise living. And from v17, we are to “understand what the will of the Lord is.” And the key to all this is revealed in vv18-19 where we are pointed to the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures. But as we come to the detail of what this Spirit-led, wise living looks like, in the relationships that Paul addresses, v21 gives us the NIGHT-VISION GOGGLES that we need to put on to properly see what is said in vv22-6:9.
a. Some of you boys and girls may have worn night-vision goggles, or seen them on TV? If you have them on, you can see everything even though it is completely dark.
b. Well, unless you are wearing the night-vision goggles of v21, you will not ‘get’ vv22-6:4. Wise, Spirit led, and Scripture informed living means “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” And that is the phrase we have to pick up and keep repeating as we read through the relationship instructions.
1) You see, Jesus Christ submitted Himself to the Father and to the Roman and Jewish authorities and to the whip and to the crown of thorns and to the mocking of the people and to the jagged nails of the cross, all so that our sins could be forgiven. He humbled Himself to the point of death, for the salvation of sinners.
2) So out of respect and thankfulness and reverence for Him, that is why I, as a wife or a husband or a child or a father or a slave or a master, we submit to others.
c. Now, as you read through these relationship instructions, Paul includes phrases in each instruction that make this explicitly clear: “Wives, submit to your husbands, as to the Lord…”, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church…” And this continues in our verse, “”Children, obey your parents in the Lord…”
1) You boys and girls are being spoken to as those inside the church of Christ who have the Holy Spirit prompting you from within and who look to the person and saving work of Jesus in your obedience. You are to obey your parents “out of reverence for Christ.”
ii. So that’s the first bookend. THE SECOND WE SEE IN VERSE 10. For there, having finished with the relationship instructions, Paul says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord … put on the whole armour of God…”
a. And these words are also words addressed to children. Children, you will not be able to obey your parents in the Lord unless you put on the armour of God. You need the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith, etc, to obey your parents “in the Lord.”
C. In the Baptism form we read earlier and in Q/A 70 of the HEIDELBERG Catechism, we are told that baptism reminds us that just as water washes away dirt, so the blood of Christ and the Spirit of Christ wash away all our sins. By the blood of Christ, our sins are forgiven. And the Spirit renews us and sets us apart to be a member of Christ so that we more and more become dead to sin and increasingly live a holy and blameless life. Well, as we have seen, these are the truths set before us in these words in Ephesians. From his earliest days, Hugh needs to be pointed to Jesus Christ. Hugh needs to know that the Bible has instructions for him. Hugh needs to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit as He speaks through this Book so that Hugh also can more and more become dead to sin and increasingly live a holy and blameless life.
i. Earlier in the service we read from DEUTERONOMY 6. There, parents were commanded to teach the truths of God’s saving works to their children. Their children were born ‘inside’ God’s covenant family. And so, having received the sign of belonging to that family, they were to be taught the things of God from their earliest days.
ii. Well, Hugh has saints for parents – followers of Christ. And that means we view Hugh as one the saints at Dovedale. So today he has received the sign of belonging. Unlike many others born at the same time as him, Hugh will hear the truth of God’s saving work in Jesus Christ from his earliest days; he will hear it from his parents and his grandparents and his wider family and from the preachers in the pulpit and from his Sunday school teachers and school teachers and catechism teachers and when he is in our homes, as we have promised to do today.
iii. And the Spirit of God says to Hugh and to all you boys and girls who have been baptized, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.”
This is the SACRAMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE of this verse. This verse is part of the reason why the children of believers ought to be baptized. But that brings us, in the second place, to the SPINE-CHILLING SIGNIFICANCE of this verse.
1. Boys and girls, if I were to ask you for the word that is the VERB in this verse, you would know that a verb is a doing word and the doing word in this verse is? Obey. The thing this verse commands you to do is to obey. And you are to obey who? Your parents.
A. Well, the Greek word translated as “obey” is a word made up of two smaller words that mean ‘under’ and ‘to listen.’ So to obey is to listen under.
i. You have to LISTEN to your parents. That’s the first part of obedience. When they talk, you listen. When they call your name, you go to them and you listen. You don’t ignore their voice. You have to always regard what they say as very very important.
ii. And you have to listen UNDER.
a. (Illustration) Little boy told to sit in the corner. First he Stands. Finally he sits. But in his mind, “I might be sitting on the outside, but I am standing on the inside! That is not listening under.
b. Listening under means you don’t roll your eyes when they speak, or let out a big groan, or let it go in one ear and out the other, or straight away come up with reasons or excuses as to why you shouldn’t have to do what they asked, or put what they say on your to-do list when it suits you. No, you listen with the intent to understand and to do as instructed or requested. God has given you parents who have the enormous responsibility of being the first ones to teach you about Him and to point you to Christ. So you must obey them. You must listen under.
iii. And praise be to God that so many children know that this is right and strive to do it. When I see you here at church and when I am in your homes, I hear your parents giving you instructions and I hear you saying Yes Mum or Yes Dad and doing as instructed. Praise the Lord! It is our hope and prayer that Hugh will learn this very early on. It is our hope and prayer that Hugh and you children will one day have children of your own who are baptized and who obey you in the Lord. Right?
2. But I know that when I was a child that I DIDN’T ALWAYS OBEY MY PARENTS. And my children don’t always obey me. And you boys and girls don’t always obey your parents, do you. Hugh won’t always obey Sam and Helena. Sadly, there are times when we disobey this commandment to obey. But God is gracious. He tells us that when we sin like this, we can go to Him in prayer and confess our sins and he will forgive us. Isn’t that wonderful? Don’t we serve a wonderfully patient and gracious God?
3. But even more sadly than that, our own experience and the history of the Christian church tells us that there will be some who were baptized and raised by saints and among the saints who come to a point in their life when THEY COMPLETELY REFUSE to obey their parents in the Lord for they are not convinced this is right or even if they know it is right they just don’t care.
A. And that is why I have called this second point the spine-chilling significance of this verse. If you have listened to several sermons you will know that we ministers like to use ALLITERATION in our sermon points. We try and get the points to all begin with the same letter if we can. And we do this because it can help us more easily remember the main points of the sermon. So today we had the sacramental significance of this verse and the spine-chilling significance of this verse. Well, its not always easy to come up with alliterations. So I have this little program on my computer that gives me synonyms or words with similar meanings to another word. So the first word that came to mind was chilling but that doesn’t start with S. So I typed it in and it gave me ‘scary,’ ‘shivery,’ ‘shuddery,’ and ‘spine-chilling.’ And any one of those S words would have worked.
i. There is so much truth around the baptism of infant children that is encouraging and empowering. But there is truth around the baptism of infants that is also spine-chilling.
ii. You see, baptism does not save you. Let me repeat that to be clear. Baptism does not save you. None of us can say that we will go to heaven because we have been baptized. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, alone.
iii. And many baptized children, as they grow to adulthood, grow also in their love for Jesus. Then baptism is a great blessing!
iv. But some baptized children, as they grow to adulthood, turn their back on Jesus. They don’t want to live for Him. And if that happens and they do not repent and believe, then their baptism becomes a curse. For if they die in that state, the Lord will remind them of the enormous privileges He gave them as baptized people and it will be added to their eternal punishment.
v. And we simply cannot ignore this spine-chilling significance of these words in Ephesians 6:1. So let us regularly pray for those of our children who do not profess faith in Christ. Let us pray that the Lord would turn them to Him in faith and repentance.
Well, by way of conclusion then, we baptize infants, in part, because this verse is a part of the letter to the saints in Ephesus and because in it the Spirit speaks through Paul directly to children. He calls them to obey “in the Lord” and “out of reverence for Christ.” And to obey means to ‘listen under.’ May the Spirit of the Lord work His grace in Hugh and in all of us. Amen.
Pray for unbelieving children