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Faith Triumphant – Habakkuk 3:1-15

This is a book about faith. It starts with Habakkuk’s faith being tested, crying out to God asking why His people are so corrupt. His replies by promising judgement through the Chaldeans. This continues to test Habakkuk’s faith, and he asks why – but he seeks to listen. God replies with a teaching of faith – the righteous will live by faith, and we can have faith that He will bring all things fulfillment.

In chapter 3, we see the outcome of faith triumphant, in Habakkuk’s song of response. The song is a “Shiggaion” like Psalm 7 – but we don’t know what that means, exactly. It could mean a wild, mournful song, or it could mean a song of meditation and humility, which is certainly the spirit of the song. The other musical term used is “Selah” which we also do not know the meaning of – or could be a pause, or an intensifier, or a line repeat.

The song starts with an acknowledgment that Habakkuk is fearful. While we know that “God has not given us a spirit of fear” we still experience fear. Habakkuk also sees that the only rescue from his fear is the revival of God’s work, even though that work is part of what is making Habakkuk afraid. From Paul in the New Testament, we can have confidence in the promise that “He who began a good work in [us] will be faithful to complete it.”

The core of Habakkuk’s request is this: “In wrath, remember mercy.”

Then he gets to the poetry of the song, painting a broad picture of the seeds and power of God. First, he recounts God meeting Israel in the wilderness (the wilderness of Teman here is used as a more general term) and Mount Sinai (called here and Deuteronomy Mount Paran). He points to the flashes of glory shown to Moses and in the pillars of cloud and fire, and to the plagues sent on both Egypt and, later, the wandering Israelites.

He calls out God’s power over those things that seem permanent, whether mountains or kingdoms or rivers. All of them fall before God’s “chariot of salvation” – his “merkabah yeshua”. Even the sun and moon are under His command, calling back to how God gave the land to Israel in the first place.

Then he pivots from what God had done to what He will do. He again brings in the term salvation, “yeshua,” twice – He will work the salvation of His anointed people through His anointed. Habakkuk and others of his time may have seen this pointing back to David or even ahead to Cyrus, but we see how this is ultimately fulfilled by Yeshua himself. The head of the wicked will be crushed, as His promised at the beginning would be the end of the deceiving serpent.

That gives an additional perspective on next lines, which serve as multiple hopes: hope that the rule of the Chaldeans would not be permanent, that the oppressors of the poor would not last, but also that the rule of sin within our lives and our world is not permanent, either.

We can sing our songs of hope like Habakkuk, because we know that Yeshua the God-man is the ultimate fulfillment of all the promises of the prophets of Israel. Have we sought the salvation that He offers.”

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 16, 2021

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The Righteous Will Live by Faith – Habakkuk 2:2-5

In chapter 2, Habakkuk shifts from being a complainer to being a learner, with the key line coming in verse 4 – “the righteous will live by faith.”

God’s answer to Habakkuk’s second complaint begins with an instruction to make the message public, and a note that understanding the His answer will require patience. He is about to share a vision of the future, a vision that starts with the coming invasion of the Chaldeans and stretches through the unfolding of His plan to the coming of Christ and Christ’s return.

To recap, Habakkuk started with a complaint about violence within his own society – God’s answer is that the Chaldeans would come to bring His judgement on Judah. Habakkuk then objects to the use of this evil people, but closes his second complaint with a promise to seek and wait for God’s answer.

And so God answers, contrasting the arrogant with the righteous and the upright – those who do what is right in their own eyes versus those who seek to follow the way of God. “Righteous” here is innocent or justified in a legal sense. Faith is the firm, faithful response to the word of God. Martin Luther says, “Faith is a living, unshakable confidence in God’s grace.”

The object of our faith, though, is of vital importance. We cannot let faith simply be wishful thinking – if we put faith in things that do not deserve it, we will be let down. Blind faith is like dropping a coin into a wishing well – Biblical faith is like tracking a package. Faith requires understanding God’s promises and submitting to His sovereign will and plan. Faith in things that God does not promise will be disappointed – but so also will be a faith that does not expect anything of God, which inevitably turns into faith in ourselves, in our own ability to make the change that is needed.

The full importance of this verse is only for revealed in the gospel of Christ. New Testament writers quote this verse three separate times: Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38.

In Romans, Paul cites this in the context of introducing the gospel, within which “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.” In Galatians, Paul uses this verse to show that even in the Old Testament, the Law itself was insufficient to achieve righteousness: “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law” – because the righteous live by faith.

This verse is one of the many breadcrumbs God scatters throughout the Old Testament – some of which Habakkuk may have been aware of. Ezekiel, who was likely a contemporary, also prophesied about the coming exile, and about God’s ultimate response:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

We see similar promises across the prophets – that God will ultimately upend the natural order of things, that righteousness will no longer be something we do in order to gain God’s favor, but will become something that God imputes to us if we rely on Him in faith – which itself returns itself back to God as an act of worship and sacrifice.

Are you righteous today? What do you base your righteousness on? Do you want to be made righteous, founded upon the saving work of Christ, through faith in His death and resurrection? That righteousness through faith is only true righteousness we can achieve, and it is offered to us freely.

And if we have taken that step of faith, how are we living that out? Are we living with the faith of the centurion, knowing that Jesus has things well in hand even if we cannot see it? Are we seeking the promises of God that we can rest on in faith? Are we living every day in that “living, unshakable confidence in God’s grace?”

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 2, 2021

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Habakkuk Reacts – Habakkuk 1:12-2:1

The opening of Habakkuk is about what righteous people do in the midst of difficult times. Habakkuk cries out to the Lord about the evil he sees around him and is answered – eventually. It may not have been immediate – Habakkuk may have been praying for answers for a long time before receiving one. And then, when it came, it was kind of a terrible answer! He is going to bring in the Chaldeans to discipline His people. It may have been startling to finally get an answer, especially one so dissatisfying.

So he replies, opening by acknowledging how much higher his God is than he is. God is from everlasting, from before, outside of time. The word he uses is qedem, before time.

Then he interjects the statement, “we shall not die.” Habakkuk knows about the covenants with Abraham, with Moses, with David, but clearly he understands that there is an everlasting thread to this. He will protect his people – but we get a whisper here of the everlasting life that comes in the New Covenant.

So Habakkuk acknowledges God’s higher perspective and His promises to His people. But then he pushes his questions again – why is God using the Chaldeans, who are so much worse than the Israelites?

He calls out God on His own terms – if God cannot even look at evil, how can he countenance these invaders? It is easy to compare ourselves to others, to focus on other people’s sin rather than our own, to focus on other group’s sin rather than our own.

Habakkuk continues to press his case, now against the invaders instead of his own people. He speaks in terms of fishing implements, hooks and nets, both because of the importance of fishing to the Mesopotamians but also because the Neo-Babylonians would even use those tools in their conquests.

Habakkuk closes with a promise to wait for God’s reply. This time, he will not be caught off guard. This time, he is ready for correction – he is ready for the reproof of God, just as God has prepared the Chaldeans for the reproof of Israel. There may be some softening here, now that he has had a chance to say his piece.

We should similarly be situated on our own watchtowers, ready for reproof from God. All of us need that correction. God is changing the focus for Habakkuk from the world around him into focus onto his own need for reproof.

But God indeed is also working in the world around us, even when we don’t see it. But for God, who lives outside of time, there is no delay between sin and His judgement, but in His mercy he leaves opportunity for repentance.

And more than that, He came to earth in the Person of Jesus Christ who lived, died and rose again in order to make that repentance possible.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, April 25, 2021

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The Morning Everything Changed – Luke 24:1-12

Each gospel brings out a different view and perspective of the resurrection. Luke’s emphasis is on more everything is different now that Christ is risen, about how the world changed overnight, and how the news of that change went out from the disciples.

The moment was like the first time a deaf person is able to hear after a cochlear implant, or a colorblind person sees color for the first time. Or even something traumatic, like a car accident, or sprinting down a hall in the dark and hitting a new checkin desk at a full sprint. Everything changes in an instant, and it takes a moment to understand that the world will never be the same.

The group of women who made the first discovery were heading out after Sabbath in order to prepare the body in ways that there was not time for after the crucifixion. What they found confused them.

Sometimes the search for Jesus is confusing and elusive. But that’s because he is a person, not a doctrine. Meeting Jesus is more like a conversation, a relationship, then it is a set of rules, beliefs and rituals. We are seeking a living, breathing, resurrected Savior.

These women knew the living, breathing Jesus, but even after all that time they did not know the fullness of Who he really was and what He came to offer. Jesus can be confusing, and in response we all tend to create imagined Jesuses in our own image. To the extent that confusion can lead us away from those mistaken perspectives, that confusion can be a good thing. Here, it certainly was – they thought Jesus was dead, but confusion eventually led them to the truth of His resurrection.

And then, suddenly they were met with two men in dazzling robes. They ask a question we can ask ourselves still – “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” We can do this easily – looking for the living Christ among the dead things of the world, in dead religion, in dead ritual, in dead culture.

But they also provide the way to address the women’s confusion – pointing back to the words of Christ Himself. That is always the answer.

The disciples respond with doubt and disbelief – Thomas gets the bad wrap, but he was certainly not alone. Peter, though, responds differently – leaping up and running to the tomb. This Peter, who had just denied that he even knew Jesus, must have seen some small opportunity to make right what he had broken. Like says that Peter “marveled” or “was amazed.” We can see an echo of this in both the hymn “Amazing Grace” and the life of its writer, John Newton.

The reality of this story continues to confuse and amaze, and we continue to have the opportunity to meet the risen Christ and watch the whole world change.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, April 4, 2021

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The Preparation of the Lamb – Exodus 12:1-14

On this Palm Sunday, we are looking back to the Passover that brought the crowds to Jerusalem in the first place. We can also think back to our Advent series, looking at the three prophecies about the coming of Christ, a key fulfillment of which we celebrate today.

We think specifically back to Ezekiel’s vision of God’s presence leaving the temple, a vision of God on a throne in glory – because now he returns, incarnate upon a donkey. Love returns.

We’re going to look at the Jewish perspective on the events of Palm Sunday and the Triumphal Entry, and the rest of Holy Week in the context of the events in the time leading up to Passover.

The Passover Lamb is a picture of Christ. Paul writes to the Corinthians: “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Even before His death, John the Baptist called him “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus also entered at the time when the Jewish people would have been seeking the Passover Lamb.

This calls to mind a story even older than Passover, the story of Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, but miraculously given a sacrifice in his place. This happened on Mount Moriah – the same location, per 2 Chronicles 3:1, as the Temple, where Christ approaches on Palm Sunday.

In addition, the time described in Exodus – twilight, or “between two evenings” – is the same time of day we know Jesus himself was killed.

In terms of the specific day, Jesus was killed on the Day of Preparation – in fact, his execution was rushed because the Jewish leaders wanted it all done before the time of Passover began.

The Passover lamb needed to be “without blemish” – as Christ was. It could not be either younger or older than a year, in the prime of its life, just as Christ was. The lamb was to be killed by the Jewish people themselves, and done publicly. Like the lamb, Jesus was killed publicly by God’s people.

In Exodus 12:7, we also see that the blood of the sacrifice was not to be spilled out but captured and applied for deliverance from God’s wrath. Romans 5:9 says, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” We see the wrath of God’s also in the fire where the lamb was to be “thoroughly” roasted – fire in scripture is a picture of God’s holiness and wrath, and Jesus took the full brunt of that.

The bones of the lamb were not to be broken, which we know was the case with Christ, despite all expectations.

All these connections were not just coincidence, but there to show that Christ is our Passover lamb. Christ was slain publicly, in the time and place, publicly, so that the wrath of God will pass over us.

Just as the Jews would take all of the leaven out of the house, representing sin, Christ’s sacrifice removes our sin. And as during Passover, we must apply the blood to our lives.

Have you “applied the blood,” accepting and requesting the salvation that Jesus offers through His death and resurrection?

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, March 28, 2021

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Closing and Review – Ephesians 6:21-24

As Paul wraps up his letter, he begins his closing with a shout out to Tychicus as a “beloved brother and faithful minister.” Tychicus is mentioned five times in the New Testament, usually in the context of him bringing a letter from Paul to a church or even an individual.

Consider the weight of the responsibility of bringing those messages, messages we are still reading today. Behind every Paul is a legion of Tychicuses, faithful church members taking the message out and doing the work of the ministry.

Keep in mind the difficulty of travel in the First Century – Tychicus’ task was not easy. The roads were long, the seas were rough, but he was diligent and got the message out.

We need to do the same in our own lives. We should want the words at our funeral to be about the seeds of the gospel we have sowed in people’s lives – sometimes big seeds, sometimes small ones. God can use all of them.

In the next part of the closing, Paul wishes peace, love, faith and grace to the Ephesians. This echoes the opening of the epistle when Paul wishes “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This is a moment to consider the role of these concepts in our own relationships. Grace, the unmerited favor of God that we have received – are we extending that same grace to others?

Peace, then, is not simply the absence of violence, but the wholeness and stillness that comes when things are working in the way intended by the creator, especially between people.

Faith, next – the gift of God that connects us to His grace. But more than a single moment, we are meant to grow in faith as we mature.

Then love, a word used 14 times in the book of Ephesians. We see the love here from Christ and for Christ. A question arises around the term translated as “love incorruptible.” Is our love incorruptible? Not generally, but we know that Christ’s love and grace are both eternal. The New Living Translation may have it more correct here – “May God’s grace be eternally upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And that closes the book. To review, Chapter 1 walks us through this concept of predestination. Some of us may be uncomfortable with that concept, but we should consider that this is a discussion of God’s nature, rather than our response to Him.

Chapter 2 we walk through both the darkness of our struggle with sin and separation and the path into the light – by faith, which we are given as a gift, preparing us for good works.

Chapter 3 focuses on reconciliation, both of us to God and between people and peoples, through the mystery of the gospel – all with the purpose of the glory of God, the church here in order to make known the manifold wisdom of God.

In chapter 4, we get clear instructions on how to behave towards each other as we seek unity: “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” We must be “truthing in love,” tender hearted, bearing with one another with that same grace we have received.

In chapter 5, that gets even more real – we must imitate Christ, discarding immorality and filthy talk. Look for the fruit and, oppose deception. Then it shifts into a call to submit to Christ and each other, in our direct relationships, husbands and wives to start, then children and parents, then masters and slaves as we move into chapter 6 – mutual submission being the theme across each of them, with special attention to those hiding earthly power.

And then from earthly power to the “power and principalities” we are called to stand against. This brings up the “armor of God,” the tools we use in order to stand against the powers of darkness. These battles are battles that require righteousness, faith, truth, peace and the word of God. And Paul moves into the close we discussed today with a call to prayer and to recognize its power.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, March 21, 2021

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Prepared with the Armor of God – Ephesians 6:13-18

Looking at the story of David and Bathsheba, what is it that makes someone as close to God as David was jump as he did into adultery? We’ll leave that as a question and come back to it.

Coming back to Ephesians, Paul has been insisting on a couple important things. One, our enemies are not people, but spiritual forces – even when people, like the guild of craftsmen in Acts, sure look a lot like enemies. Second, in order to wage our battles against these enemies, we must be unified as a church.

And so Paul tells us to “put on the armor of God.” The tense here is immediate, not ongoing – implying this is something we should put on once, and then never remove (like Denethor!) Keep in mind that the Devil does not attack us when we are most prepared, but when we are least.

The first example is the “belt of truth.” Belts of the time were not there to hold up pants, but rather to gather in your tunic, giving you freedom of movement and giving you a place to attach your weapons.

What does that truth look like to us? In John 14:6, Jesus holds himself out as the truth that matters. By knowing this truth, we are prepared for the battle.

Next, the breastplate of righteousness – a breastplate was the last line of defense for a soldier’s vital organs, for anything that gets past shields and swords, often overlapping sheets of metal

We know, from Paul’s writing in Romans, that this righteousness comes from faith, and that Christ imputes His own righteousness to its.

Next, the “feet fitted with the gospel of peace.” Unlike today, shoes and feet were closely linked to messages in the ancient world, especially in the military world where couriers or runners often moved about on foot, like in the story of Pheidippides and the Battle of Marathon.

Likewise, we are fitted out to bring the good news of Christ, the promise of peace that He brings to mankind, the story of victory over sin and death.

Next, the shield of faith versus fishing arrows. Roman shields were large, built to defend against swords, spears, arrows and more. The “flaming arrows” referenced were built to kill even when they missed their target.

In Hebrews 11:1, we’re told that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” When we undergo attacks of all kinds, whether spiritual or just circumstantial (health, poverty, etc.), a head knowledge of the truth (even the belt of truth) is not sufficient. We need faith to truly protect both us and even, like a shield, those around us.

Next, the helm of salvation, protecting our most vital organs of all, not only the top of the head but also the face and the neck – while still managing to give freedom of movement to the soldier. It protects the brain, vision, hearing and speech.

Likewise, with assurance of salvation, we can go into battle with confidence whether the outcome of victory or death.

Next, the sword of the spirit. The Roman gladius was a very specific short sword built specifically for thrusting from a well defended shield wall. It was not a claymore used to bash obey people’s heads, but carefully and precisely. It was the core of a soldier’s offensive equipment.

Likewise, we must use the word of God offensively, like Jesus himself does against the tempter in the desert. We must be trained to use it properly and methodically. We do not use it as a blunt weapon or claymore to bash over people’s heads. But this means we must spend time getting comfortable and familiar with our weapon.

Paul’s last point in this passage doesn’t seem like it is continuing the military metaphor, but in fact communication is a vital aspect of any battle – we must keep lines of communication open so we can receive our orders.

This passage is largely about being in readiness, fitted with and prepared to use the gifts God has given us. It is also about heading into the fight – a key contrast with David, who stayed behind while his men went out to war and this fell into temptation.

This is a stark contrast with the story of Stephen, who stepped forward to serve the church as one of the first deacons. This ultimately led to his martyrdom in front of Paul, who wrote these words. Stephen was wearing the armor of God before Paul ever wrote the words, and your wonder how large the example of Stephen loomed in Paul’s mind here.

So why do we struggle? It may be less about the difficulty of putting that on, and more about the difficulty of taking off the bitterness, mistrust and despair that we often wear.

We do have both gatherings and people on hand to help you equip your armor and hone your capabilities.

– Sermon Notes, Aaron James, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, March 7, 2021

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Spiritual Warfare – Ephesians 6:10-13

Paul has been alluding to spiritual warfare and an unseen reality since early in the epistle, all leading up to this final section when he calls on the Ephesians (and us) to gird themselves for the struggle that they have ahead of them.

First, he instructs them to be “strong in the Lord.” This is much what he says he prays for the Ephesians:

…that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19

This is what strength in the Lord looks like.

Paul is speaking into a community that had seen up close the way spiritual darkness could impact their community. In Acts 19, we see the story of the Sons of Sceva, ineffectually trying to cast out demons but in the process demonstrating the power held by those who are truly “strong in the Lord” and inspiring a mass turn away from occultism in Ephesus.

After being strong, we are called to stand firm, like an army resisting a charge. This term “stand” is used multiple times in this passage, and is in many ways the main theme.

Specifically, we are to stand against the “schemes of the devil,” which raises the question of “who exactly is the devil, who is our enemy?” The Hebrew terms for Satan intermingle seemingly incongruous concepts like serpents and seraphim and light and deception. The concept is not entirely clear, but what’s clear is that he is alluring despite being fundamentally opposed to God and His people.

We do see his strategies, though – deception, disunity, pushing us away from Christ and from each other. Psalm 1 shows the movement he seeks, from standing to sitting: walking in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the way of sinners, sitting in the seat of scoffers.

This means our response must be the reverse of that – coming closer to Christ, coming closer to each other. Our response is not mystical or esoteric, but the everyday Christian living that we know we must do, the prayer and fellowship and seeking of Christ’s will.

Spurgeon said, “The howling of the devil may tend to drive us nearer to Christ, may
teach us our own weakness, may keep us upon our own watchtower, and be made the means of preservation from other ills.”

Paul uses a wide variety of terms to describe the various forces of darkness: thrones, dominions, world-powers and so forth. There does seem to be some kind of relationship to geographic area, which comports with some of Daniel’s visions as well. What this means to us is not entirely clear – please don’t go on the internet to try to figure out which demonic kingdom you live in – but it does mean we should be zealous about making the places we control to be places of peace, live and prayer.

We can do this by doing as Paul instructs, to put on the armor of God and keeping in mind what Paul tells us in Romans 8:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

We can also look to the promises made to those who overcome in the letters to the churches in Revelation – each one promised something to those who overcome. From the tree of life to hidden manna, to authority over the nations to sitting with the father. The specifics of what all this means is unclear, but it’s certainly exciting.

When feeling oppressed or attacked spiritually, we should be vocal – these “authorities” are not omniscient. We should sing, as called to in the Psalms and elsewhere. We should pray, and immerse ourselves in scripture.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, February 28, 2021

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Servants of Christ – Ephesians 6:5-9

Off the bat, this passage is pretty uncomfortable for us. The term slave here is οἱ δοῦλοι – it’s important to understand that the systems of slavery discussed in the Bible were not the same as the racial-based chattel slavery of the United States. That doesn’t mean it was good or even defensible, but it was a reality throughout human history – and still is today in many parts of the world and even our own society.

The Bible is not silent on the evils of slavery – in Exodus, firm regulations are put around the practice, including limiting the time it lasts, strong penalties against kidnapping, and other instructions that stand in stark contrast to the society around them. This was the beginning of a longer term change that God was working. Why didn’t He just ban it outright? We don’t really know.

We see a similar story with polygamy, which God tolerates even though it clearly does not match His ultimate plan. Jesus addresses a similar concept when discussing divorce, where he says Moses’ allowances were “because your hearts were hard.”

Even in this chapter, we see Paul undermining the entire institution. We see the same thing in the book of Philemon, when Paul instructs a slave owner to accept back an enslaved person who had run away, not as a slave but as a brother.

There are instructions for slaves, as others put in a position of submission by the society around them, is to follow the material lines of authority, but to do so “as to the Lord.” This means behaving as if the work we do is done specifically for God, as is generally instructed elsewhere in the epistles.

Then he gives further details on how to obey – sincerely, in good will, serving as to Christ. That means we don’t just work in a way that is visible, but that actually accomplishes the tasks we have been given. In fact, we don’t even serve to please those in charge at all. Working for Christ should mean we are focused on outcomes, not on how we look in providing those outcomes.

And then, in a moment that is mind blowing even today, and must have been staggering at the time, Paul instructs those in charge to “do the same” to those under their earthly authorities. This means no threats, and a recognition that we are all equal in the eyes of God.

So how do we apply this? The most straightforward way is through a theology of work that both honors the work itself as God-ordained, and imbues us with respect for those we work with and for. The work we do for our employers is part of the good works we are called to, that those around us will see and praise our father in heaven. We should be praying for ways to be and share the gospel in our work.

More challenging, perhaps, is the theology of authority. Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew tells us “all authority has been given to Me.” But we see in Philippians that the One who has all authority has emptied himself of all that authority and made himself like a slave – δοῦλοι. In case we missed the point, Jesus acted this out by washing the feet of his disciples and insisting that they do likewise. If we do not, we are saying we are greater than Christ.

In John 15 Jesus explicitly cites his foot washing as he instructs the disciples to prepare to serve, to be hated, but to bear fruit and above all to love.

Paul, likewise is about to talk about how we are to go out, kitted out in armor of God. We are being called to something very different than the world. We have all the greatness and authority we could ever want in Christ, but like Him are called to empty ourselves and to serve.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, February 21, 2021

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Co-submission Between Parents and Children – Ephesians 6:1-4

Ephesians, as discussed, is broken into two parts. The first part is about Christ and who he is and what he has done for us. The second part is about our relationships between each other, both generally and in the specifics. This passage looks at children and parents but has implications for everyone who lives together in community.

It’s wild to think that, despite the difficulty and importance of the job as parent, there are no qualifications or applications for the role – and the same is true for kids!

We can use dogs as a good way to look at obedience. Some dogs are motivated by food or toys – they will do what you want as long as there is something in it for you. But other dogs obey because they want to please their master. That is the kind of obedience we want to achieve – pleasing not even those in charge, but pleasing God with our obedience to earthly authorities, particularly children obeying parents. Though children are not alone in having difficulty with obedience.

But note that the verse doesn’t just say “obey your parents” but to do so “in the Lord.” We use that kind of language a lot, but what does it really mean? Jesus describes it as the branches of a vine, calling us to “abide” in him, a relationship even deeper than obedience. We want to be branches that are fully connected to the tree, that do not break in the wind or under a lot of snow. So, children shouldn’t just obey their parents because they have power over you, but because it pleases them, who you love, and God, who you love, and because “it is right.”

But what’s more, Paul points out that there is indeed a dog treat involved here! The commandment to honor father and mother comes with a promise, that “it will go well with you.” This is general wisdom, not a guarantee that all good kids get rich and live long, nor that all bad kids get their just desserts, but it is still broadly and crucially true.

We discussed last week how a good marriage is a symbiotic relationship, like a clownfish and a sea anemone. That is true in its own way of parents and children as well. We see this in Proverbs – the teaching of parents are the lamp and the light

So when is it OK not to obey parents? What if they aren’t believers? Well, no – even in those circumstances you need to obey. There are extreme exceptions – situations like denying Christ or abuse, in particular. This includes emotional abuse from parents or authority figures, insulting or calling names, and physical abuse, touching, hitting and any violence or physical action that makes you uncomfortable. As adults, we need to be receptive to it when children talk us about this sort of thing. Jesus tells us in Mark 9:42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

Then the passage shifts to parents, fathers in particular. In that culture, fathers had absolute authority over their children even into adulthood. And while mothers can struggle with this as well, fathers have a particular tendency to react in anger or other exasperating ways. This includes self-righteous or prideful anger; unrealistic expectations about their maturity level and not allowing them to fail; caring more about their material success than their spiritual well-being; impressing our passions and desires on them; cruelty through sarcasm and jokes; and certainly disengagement from our children and their lives.

Instead, we are to raise up, nourish and instruct our children, especially in this time of pandemic when so much is being expected of them.

One of the most critical ways to do this is to pass on to them a love of God’s word, which provides what we and they need to live in relationship – perhaps most importantly, grace. We also need to consider that when our children come to Christ they become our brothers and sisters in Christ. We want them to build a faith independent of our own – abiding in Christ like the branches and the vine.

This is another in a list of ways Paul gives us to “co-submit” to each other. We see this co-submission instructed to husbands and wives, now to parents and children, later to masters and slaves. Paul gives specific instructions as to how to live out that co-submission in our various relationships. But this is not the only passage that gives us guidelines for living in co-submission – all of scripture is there to teach us to do this.

This means to accomplish our goal of co-submission to each other and abiding in Christ, we need to be marinating in the Word and letting the Holy Spirit speak through that and other people into our lives.

As Paul writes elsewhere in Ephesians, we are to put off the old self and put on the new self and be renewed – whether as parents or as children.

– Sermon Notes, John Lehigh, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, February 14, 2021