Did Jesus Break the 5th?

Exodus 20, we've been there for several months now. At this point, there's no end in sight. I keep telling myself, oh, just a couple weeks per commandment. But God's commandment is exceedingly broad. but in Exodus 20 verse 12 we read honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which Yahweh your God gives you now when I say that God's law is exceedingly broad I'm quoting Psalm 119.

And so don't think I just made that up. That's verse 96. And one of the implications is not so much that, you know, when I hear broad, I just think of, you know, breath. Like, oh, it's longer and longer and longer. And the implication is more that God's law, we'll say there's more than you see on the surface when you just read it. so if you remember in the ten commandments that Jesus expounded on them in the sermon on the mount if you don't remember you can go read Matthew 5 and Jesus said things like you heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment that's of course true and that would be the next verse here verse 13 you shall not murder and Jesus says but I say to you that whoever hates his brother will be liable to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. Whoever even says you fool to his brother will be liable to the hell of fire. So what Jesus' point was is that murder starts in the heart. And the outward actions we perform that are the same heart motivation is as problematic in the court of God as if we actually carried it out. So some people have unfortunately been turned over enough to their flesh that they've actually committed murder.

Oftentimes, it's actually, I think, really rare that people do this kind of premeditated, thoughtful deal. I think most times it's passion. Someone's angry. Maybe they don't even intend to murder. They just swing something at someone and they end up killing somebody. They didn't mean to kill them, but in their heart they weren't doing all that was necessary to preserve that person's life.

Well, those of us that have never, we'll say, even come close to that when we have just called people names in hatred. If we've ever just wished somebody dead, in God's eyes, we've murdered. Because it's our heart that God is going to judge. he's also going to judge the deeds you do in the body but those are all the result of what's in your heart nobody accidentally sins you sin because it starts inside so when we look at the fifth commandment the temptation I actually experienced this discussion this week with someone is to think oh well this is the one that's for kids right so Mary, Jack, Jace Jude, Emery, Eris, Leora Ezra, Julia, Wesley Michael Easton and Henley this is the one that we've all been waiting for honor your parents right even A.V. even unnamed baby in the hallway there praise the Lord but I'm going to warn you parents that this commandment has a lot to say to you as well and I want you all to be very careful not to do the gotcha thing because I'm going to tell you things over the next few weeks where you're going to realize that your dad or your mom is failing or as parents you're going to realize your kid needs to do something better and in some of the parents cases you already know your kid's supposed to obey you and honor you, so you've probably been dealing with that since I suppose they were one and a half is when it really starts, I think.

But this has a lot to say to us as parents as well. It has a lot to say to us as wives, as husbands, as workers, as subjects to the government authorities as well. And so when I tell you the commandment is exceedingly broad, what I want you to understand is that this is not just a command to children to obey their parents there's more to it and we'll flesh some of that out if you don't agree with me you disagree with the catechism the one that comes with our confession in question 69 what is required in the fifth commandment the answer given is the fifth commandment requireth the preserving the honor and performing the duties belonging to everyone in their several places and relations as superiors, inferiors or equals so the catechism thinks God's law is exceedingly broad and that honor your father and your mother has more implications than make sure little boys and girls do what they told It says preserving the honor and performing the duties belonging to everyone in their several places and relations.

So you have different relationships. So the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother, also implies you're supposed to be respectful to aunts and uncles. Just a simple example there for you. it doesn't mean kids can go ahead and do whatever they want around grandma and grandpa, as long as they think they're obeying their parents. It means to honor grandma and grandpa, and you're going to obey them as well as a child.

And for adults, in fact, the verse referenced in the Catechism is Ephesians 5.21, to be subject to one another, submitting to one another, out of reverence for Christ. and so I want you to be ready to think about those implications question 70 what is forbidden in the fifth commandment the fifth commandment forbiddeth the neglect of or doing anything against the honor and duty which belongeth to everyone in their several places and relations the idea is you are supposed to do what you're supposed to do in every context. So this means, as I said, submission to proper authorities that are given by God. I will warn you, parents, that when your children perceive you to be disobeying the fifth commandment, and really any of the commandments, but in particular children are looking up to you to learn how to live.

They might not seem like they are at times. Although most of us, I think we notice our kids that practice some of the same sin habits that we practice or even practice before. I mean, I see in my children certain behaviors that I had given up before they were born. But it's like some of it's in our DNA. but children are watching to see if we're respectful of authorities they're watching to see if the mom and the dad function the way the Bible has defined that they ought to function and you are painting a picture for them of what God expects and if they see if children see that you do not practically seem to believe what the Bible says because of the way you live your life they will not believe it and they will think you're a hypocrite It's one of the most popular deconversion stories that you read on the internet.

It's the kid that says, I was raised in a Christian home, and we got to church, and dad was all dressed up, and he looked nice, and he was smiling, and mom was pretty looking, and they sang loud. And then when we got home, all hell broke loose. And that is a recipe for raising a child who's going to walk away from the faith that you tried to teach them in words. everyone hates hypocrites alright turn to Luke chapter 2 it's the closest you're going to get to a Christmas sermon it's going to be in the same chapter as Christmas stuff if we're going to talk about the commandments of God there's a number of things we can talk about One of them is that I can just get up here and I can tell you all how miserably you fail at keeping them outwardly.

And how much more you don't keep them inwardly. And that's easy to do. And you guys can all point fingers back at me as well because it's true about every one of us. And we'll do a little bit of that the next... We'll do that next year. I get to tell my next year joke.

I forgot. We'll do that next year. But one of the things we always want to consider when we're reading the Bible, when we're preaching the Bible, when you're studying the Bible, when you're doing family worship and you fathers, Lord willing, are leading your family in the Word of God on a regular basis, working up to daily, if you're not doing it daily, you're working toward that, you're hoping for it.

Even if it's small, I mean, five or ten minutes of a short devotion, that's better than nothing. but one of the things I want you to be able to do with your hermeneutic as you interpret the Bible as you're studying as you figure out what the Bible means is you want to be Christ-centric or Christ-centric you want to always have this mind on Christ that the Bible from the beginning to the end is about Jesus Christ. The last book, in fact, is called The Revelation of Jesus Christ. And when you read the book of Genesis, you see the garden and Adam eats the fruit and he sins against God and Eve did too.

And God immediately starts talking about, yeah, I'll send a Savior, basically. Genesis 3.15. I'll send someone who's going to take care of the problem. And then as we talked about, Jeremy talked about it, who were looking forward to the Messiah coming, they did the whole Old Testament. The whole Old Testament was just foreshadowing and bringing us to the point of the seed of the woman who would come to crush the head of the serpent, Jesus Christ.

And so we see him come, and it's really exciting to know that Jesus Christ died, was buried, according to the scriptures, and was raised again on the third day. He ascended into heaven. and it's all magical sounding, or supernatural is a better word in church to use. And it's all wonderful and exciting. But what's vitally important for you is that he lived a perfect life.

And what that means for you is that you can only be forgiven of your sins and granted eternal life with the Father and adopted into the family of God if the one who made the sacrifice for you actually obeyed God law So we're born, Jesus Christ was born under the law, it says in Galatians, at the proper time. Jesus Christ had to keep God's whole law. So in chapter 2, we have to resolve, chapter 2 of Luke, We need to resolve this man, Jesus Christ, or in this case, this boy, Jesus Christ, 12 years old.

We need to resolve how his actions all comport with or are in concord with God's law. Because at a surface level, it actually looks like maybe he disrespected his parents. But I can tell you that he did not disrespect his parents. He didn't violate the fifth commandment. He didn't violate any commandment. His entire life is unable.

It's perfect. But what I want you to see now is, let's read into the text here, verse 41. The only story of the boy Jesus that we see. We have a little bit about his birth, but they don't talk about what he's doing much. There's a song that tells us he didn't cry. We already talked about that, right?

But if you want to know about Jesus' childhood, you have only one option, and it is to read this passage in Luke. Now you can go to the bookstore, and you can buy dozens of books that people have written where they try to postulate what happened in his childhood, and they're all wrong. They make things up. But this is what God wanted us to know about Jesus the boy.

Verse 41, and his parents would go to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover, faithful Jews. And when he became 12 years old, they went up there according to the custom of the feast. Any 12 year olds in here? Any 11 year olds? 12? 11?

You 12? Yeah. The little boy Jesus, same age as some of these guys. and as they were returning after finishing the days of the feast the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem but his parents did not know but supposing him to be in the caravan they went a day's journey and they began searching for him among their relatives and acquaintances when they did not find him they returned to Jerusalem searching for him and it happened that after three days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers both listening to them and asking them questions and all who heard him were astonished or astounded at his understanding and his answers when they saw him his parents they were astonished and his mother said to him child why have you treated us this way behold your father and I have been anxiously searching for you and he said to them why is it that you are searching for me did you not know that I had to be in my father's house but they did not understand the statement which he had spoken to them and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and he continued in subjection to them and his mother was treasuring all these things in her heart that last line, and his mother was treasuring all these things in his heart.

Quick comment, most people think that's indication that Mary's the one that told this story to Luke for him to write down. Luke was not an eyewitness of this event. And so that's Luke's way of saying, yeah, Mary treasured this up. This was remembered by her in a vivid way, so it can be passed on to me to write the scripture. so a couple comments on this passage in verse 44 so let me just summarize it briefly they went down to Jerusalem from Nazareth and there was a big group of people it's not like Mary, Joseph, Jesus and a couple of his brothers and then it was time to go and they just left and they're like oh we thought we had three with us willing to.

This was a big group that would have gone together and to go down to the feast. And so if you've ever been in a big group with others, and I know most of us probably keep pretty good track of our kids, I hope, but if you're ever in a big group and you really think, well, he's 12 years old, we don't really have to watch him as close anymore. He knows when it's time to get going, right?

Somebody else probably has him and they're part of the caravan. We're not worried about him at first. It's not like if you left here tonight and you turned onto the street and you looked in your back seat and saw one less kid than you expect. It's not like that. And so they get away. And all of a sudden they realize after a day's journey, so they're a full day away, that they're missing their son Jesus.

And so they get frantic. Some of it's a little bit natural, the way a parent would react. And so then they look around for them. They kind of search. You know, there's a large enough group with them. It took a little while to ask everybody, Hey, is Jesus with you?

Is our son with you? And then when they didn't find him, they went back. And that's natural and good. And when they get back to Jerusalem, they find him in the temple. Now, it would have been a little bit odd for a 12-year-old to be found in a temple. First of all, none of them would have wanted to be there because they just want to play games, right?

In fact some of you kids not just the 12 you just waiting for me to stop talking so you can hope you can play games and do other things It a little bit normal again for kids to feel that way I get it But he's in the temple, and he's actually talking with the teachers. He's discussing things. He's asking questions that are indicating his wisdom and knowledge.

And he's most certainly led by the Holy Spirit the whole time as well. and then Mary kind of, we'll say, sort of rebukes him, right? So has any of you ever had this happen, where you're missing a kid for some period of time, and you start looking for him, and then you find him, and what should happen in that moment, you know, you open the closet, and there they were, like Michael we found one time hiding, like above his closet shelf or whatever, you know, and they get real quiet all of a sudden and it should happen you should rejoice and thank the Lord that you just found your kid that for a moment you thought was missing right and instead what do you say how could you do this to me you made me so frightened or you made me anxious right that's kind of I think what Mary did child she said to him why have you treated us this way she took offense to Jesus' actions. She was bothered by what Jesus was doing because of how it affected the way she felt.

And because I know the end of this story, I can say she was wrong. Her feelings, although true to her and certainly felt by her, were no indicator of wrongdoing on the part of Jesus. and then Jesus says something really amazing he first asks why is it that you were searching for me it's a rhetorical question he doesn't care why this wasn't the 12 year old curiosity he's like why why would you do this you should know where I was I had to be in my father's house or about my father's affairs our business. So, a couple comments and then we'll just comment on the end there.

One, when they did not find him in verse 45, they returned to Jerusalem searching for him. I stole this from Matthew Henry. I didn't make this up. he really pulled out. Matthew Henry did this searching for Jesus. Seek and ye shall find. Right? if you can't find Jesus in your life if you can't find him among your caravan today seek him and if you have to go farther seek him farther go wherever you have to go to find him Matthew Henry said go where you last had him which I think for some Christians I think there's people that have backslidden and I know that word can be disagreed about what it really means but for some Christians they've gone through periods where they had Jesus everything was great and then they started to fall into sin and now they don't see him as clearly and matthew henry says go back there return to your first love he quotes revelation seek jesus and ultimately where's jesus jesus is about his father's business jesus is found in the in a local church i don't mean physically but is people that sit at home thinking they're going to find Jesus when he's revealed himself to be present where two or three are gathered.

He's revealed himself to be the head of the church. And so they go to Jerusalem, the center of worship at the time. And right now the center of worship would be when we gather on Sunday. Seek him in his word. So seek Jesus. So three days later they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions I don't know how they count in three days here and I don't know for sure when it started but if the Passover was Thursday and Friday, Saturday, Sunday I find it mildly entertaining at least as a Sabbatarian that Jesus was teaching God's truth on the Christian Sabbath Sunday now they could have stayed one more day or something so yeah, I wouldn't take that one to the bank But Mary looks at him, noticing that they were astounded at his understanding, and she says, child, why have you treated us this way?

So she immediately accuses him of wrongdoing. I know a lot of you have been listening to Mary, Did You Know, on repeat for the last month. And if not, you should. I think it's a beautiful song. I love it. But anyway, Mary knew that Jesus was the Son of God.

Like, if anyone knew, Mary did, right? Like, if there was literally, there was one human being other than Jesus who was utterly able to be totally sure about his conception. The rest of the world could have considered her a liar. And they wouldn't have been crazy. They would have been unfaithful, what God professed there. But Mary knew.

Visited by an angel. Knowing her own virginity, conceives a child. And having watched him sinlessly grow up for 12 years, suddenly she has this outburst. And praise the Lord, he forgives us when we sin, even against him directly. Even when we question what he's doing, because we don't like the way it made us feel. Those sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ, just like all the big bad ones.

Mary references his father. It's interesting. She says, your father and I, Joseph, she's talking about. Joseph, of course, being a stepfather in this case, which, if we go back to the catechism, stepfathers, stepmothers, foster parents, all those different combinations of things, they all fall under the special relations that are owed honor. so if you have a stepfather you owe him honor if you have a stepmother you owe him honor some of us have half a dozen parents I got like what we had like 12 grandparents at one point this stuff happens we live in a sinful cursed world and things happen but she says your father and I have been anxiously searching for you and so don't be too hard on Mary I think it's kind of sweet that they were looking for him.

And I don't want you to walk away thinking, well, she shouldn't have even searched for him. No, it was Jesus' rebuke to her when she should have known where he was. But I find it interesting, though, in verse 48, she says, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. And Jesus' response at the end of 49 is, did you not know that I had to be in my father's house? he gives her a I think a mild reproof here remember who my father is now he was certainly respectful of Joseph in fact most people agree that it's at least implied that he simply followed in his father's footsteps and did the work his father did in a little town called Nazareth So I'm trying to think here.

I don't want to insult anybody. So Nazareth wasn't a nice place. Okay. Jesus was contented to be raised in seclusion, to be raised in a place that wasn't one of the nicer places. And he was happy to work with his dad, with his hands, in a non-exciting, low-profile type profession. And that should be commended.

When children follow in their father's footsteps professionally, particularly if they get to take over family businesses or start to run things like that, it is a really good thing. And it's one of the main ways everybody did things until recently. Now everybody can't wait to get out. It's one of the lines in It's a Wonderful Life. George Bailey, you know, bad theology, good movie.

But he says, Dad, I just got to get out of here. Right? He just had to leave. And what's funny, the movie may unintentionally have taught the lesson. If you just go help your dad with what he was building, you'll build something that even grows on top of that and you do a good thing. but so Jesus reminds his mother I have a father and I in his house or one of the translations there some people that disagree on what it could mean where I about his business right now And it's implied that she should have understood this. but in verse 50 it says but they did not understand the statement which he had spoken to them I give Mary a little credit in the hustle and bustle of having I think it was at least six kids that were named in the Bible maybe she kind of lost sight of the promise of the Savior from 12 years earlier as she kept going to the temple and going to Jerusalem and then bringing their little turtle doves for each boy they had and each kid they had because they were poor they brought the cheaper sacrifice maybe this whole the Messiah is coming to deliver you had been gone from the forefront of her mind a little bit but Jesus he knew his purpose at least by the age of 12 we can say with absolute certainty he knew and he understood and he gives us this lesson to remind us that even a child has a purpose before God I think now this story is about Jesus I'm not saying this was just about children in general but there are children in this room and some of the children in this room Lord willing will have a desire to serve God at an extremely young age and it is the role of a godly parent to promote that and to not throw a bag of water on it kids at a very young age can be called by God to serve him and to do things for him.

And when that happens, just like in the case of Jesus Christ, that is a higher calling than even obedience to parents. Now, a kid called by God is going to honor his mother and father. It's going to be obedient. And he's going to fight sin on a regular basis. But there may be things that you're young, or maybe not that young, but your Christian child will decide that they think they want to do with their life and those things may be very dangerous and those things may not sound super safe.

And it's the duty of parents to recognize when another person, a child of God, is doing his will and to not try to stand in the way of it. but what we see here in verse 51 is one of the most astounding statements in scripture that he went down with them and came to Nazareth and he continued in subjection to them Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, became man, lived a perfect life. And I told you earlier, we've got to be careful getting extra biblical, but this is what I'm going to tell you because I understand how things work. when he was a little boy I can tell you without a doubt because I understand families that his brothers and his sisters sinned against him and he never once retaliated he never once returned with sin I can tell you that his parents sinned against him I even And I would hypothesize that there were times Jesus ended up receiving the rod of correction from his parents. Because they thought he did something wrong even though he didn't.

You ever done that? You walk in the room and both kids are fighting. It's like, alright, everybody's getting a spanking. Maybe I've only once ever done it. So nobody really nodded. But that's how it goes sometimes.

You don't know how to sort it out. you weren't a witness of the events, you just see people crying, everyone's angry and you got your one perfect kid there and you just forget for a moment if you're Mary and Joseph, well wait a second, you know so I venture to guess that Jesus took beatings before Pilate gave him one, unjust, unlawful ones that he didn't deserve and he did that for our sake because everybody in this room disobeyed their parents, everyone in this room has at least one time as a child where they absolutely disrespected their parents, they disobeyed their parents, they lied to their parents about it, they were told to do something and they didn't do it. I got one who his thing is, he gets told to do something and he doesn't do it, then when he gets told again, he says, I'm doing it. Like, no, you weren't doing it.

But Jesus Christ, had to live a perfect life to be the Savior of all people. And for Jesus to live a perfect life, that meant that as a child, he had to worship God and serve him only. He couldn't have any idols. He never once would have blasphemed the name of God, which would have been unheard of in a community at this point, like Jerusalem anyway. Nazareth in this area.

He would have observed the Sabbath, and he would have honored his father and mother. and he did it all so that he could glorify God by showing that it is humanly possible to obey God, but only by Jesus. And so now he offers this perfect life to you and me. What does that mean He offers his perfect life It sounds kind of weird because we say all the time well Jesus died on the cross for our sins And we kind of get that You deserve to go to hell You deserve God's wrath.

You know, what did Jeremy read or did Elijah read? I think it's Proverbs 126. On the day of your calamity, God says, I will laugh. That's how God thinks of evildoers. You understand me? It's not like God's up there, like, feeling bad that he's got to send some people to hell.

He takes joy in all that he does. And when he punishes the wicked, he's going to love every moment of it. And so will you if you're glorified at the time. You understand me? And so Jesus had to hang on that cross. And God's wrath was poured down on him.

And that's horrible. And that had to happen so that that wrath could run out so there was no more for you and me. But if that's all that happened, all you'd be is some guy that in God's eyes never did anything wrong. but you'd still be some guy or gal that never did anything right. You read the catechism and what you see with each commandment is there's something required and forbidden.

It's not enough to just not lie, you have to be honest. It's not enough to not murder anyone, you have to try to preserve the life of others. And Jesus obeyed his parents so that when you stand before God, if you're a born-again Christian and you've been washed by the blood, God will not only see you as somebody who had never sinned or done a single thing wrong but you'll appear as if you had done all the righteous deeds of Christ.

It means every time his mom and dad gave him confusing directions to do something he figured out how to sinlessly follow their orders. Every time his brothers and sisters nagged at him, threw something at him accused him of things that he didn't do wrong because they knew he didn't do anything wrong so they had to make something up. So maybe he'd get in trouble for once.

Jesus did all that so that you could be seen as if you had done that if you're a Christian today and so I want you to remember when we look at God's law as I go week to week and I start telling you that you've done this wrong, you've done this wrong and there's going to be all these examples I can bring up I want you to remember that Jesus did it all right and he did it all perfectly and after he died he rose from the dead three days later and he ascended into heaven and so we worship him together today and if you are not worshiping him from your heart because you have not been born again you need to beg God for mercy you need to ask God, God forgive me because I'm a sinner forgive me and treat me as if I had lived the life of Jesus that's what you do and then you get baptized you join church, you do communion and all the other things there's more to it but that's the first step is you just come to God with humility pray with me Father we thank you for your perfect word we thank you that it portrays the perfect sinless savior and we know that we have absolute certain hope because of him and we praise you for that and we thank you. Amen.