Sermon - Lent Midweek 2, 2025 - 3rd & 4th Commandments

Today we conclude the first table of the law (the first three commandments) and begin the second table of the law (the final seven commandments). As Pastor Matheny taught us last week, the law teaches us to love. So the first table teaches us to love God, and the second table teaches us to love our neighbor. You’ve thus far heard how we are to love God in the first two commandments, which are: The 1st Commandment? You shall have no other Gods. The 2nd Commandment? You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Specifically, we are to love God by fearing, loving, and trusting in Him, and by using His name not for evil but to pray, praise, and give thanks. 

Just as we are to speak His word aright, so are we to hear His Word aright. So, what is the 3rd commandment? Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

The 3rd commandment is perhaps the only one of the commandments which doesn’t literally apply to Christians living in the New Testament era. The word “Sabbath” refers specifically to the 7th day of the week, the day when God rested from His labors after creating the world. The Israelites were to keep the Sabbath in a particular way by resting on this day and doing no labor.

Christ fulfilled this sabbath law in its entirety when He was crucified on Friday, rested on Saturday (the sabbath), and rose on Sunday, the 8th day. As such, the laws regarding keeping the sabbath do not apply to Christians in the same way that they applied to the Israelites in the Old Testament. For that reason Christians in the New Testament era, from the very earliest days, assembled on the 8th day, the day of resurrection, on Sunday!

Sunday for the Christian is not a Jewish Sabbath, where we are obligated to keep the Sabbath by performing particular works. Instead, for the Christian, every day is a holy day, every day is a day that should be sanctified through the Word of the Lord. However, because the Lord is orderly and loves order, for the sake of order we Christians have set aside Sunday to be the day when all ought to rest from their other labors and attend to the word of God. The rest that the Lord desires for us isn’t merely to sleep in our beds or to lounge on a lake, those are nice enough, I suppose, but for this day to be holy it must be filled with the word of the Lord.

True rest is found only in Christ. “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest… You will find rest for your souls.” Everyone needs rest, and the only rest which is worth anything is found in Christ Jesus. Of course there are other leisurely activities, but none other can give you peace with God and promise you eternal rest with the Lord in the resurrection. Too often we make an idol of leisure where we forsake preaching. How often do we go on vacations over a weekend and we forget about church? How often does the Divine Service become secondary or tertiary to us? How often do we go to church when it’s convenient for us, and if we must sacrifice something, we sacrifice this? When we do that we are despising preaching and His Word.

 This should never be so among us Christians! We ought always to be occupied with the Word of God, and since we’re so busy typically during the week, we must dedicate at least a few hours on Sunday to be occupied with nothing but the Word of God. We should do that as a gathered congregation. “Do not forsake gathering together,” the scriptures teach us. We Christians need one another, and we need to rest in the Lord together.

For when you are here in the house of the Lord, this is true rest. Here the Lord is sanctifying you. Here the Lord is filling you with His Word. Here the Lord is feeding you His body and blood, giving you strength and renewed vigor for the week. Here the Lord is purging away your sins, and filling you with His righteousness. No greater rest can be found than you can find it here.

Following the commandments regarding God, we move to our neighbors, and particularly those who are nearest to us: our parents. What is the 4th commandment? Honor your father and your mother. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.

To all of the people around you, you owe them your love. But parents are owed not only love, but honor and respect. God has placed parents over their children not merely for the sake of friendship or providing a bunkhouse overnight, but to stand in the place of God for their children. As weak and sinful as parents may be, we are to remember that God gave those particular parents to us.

The relationship between parents and children is uniquely unequal because it’s a concrete representation of the relationship between us and our Heavenly Father. God is our true Father, and He cares for us through the vocations of earthly fathers and mothers. When children honor their parents, they are honoring their heavenly Father who cares for them. If the first three commandments were a bit abstract, since God is invisible and we cannot grasp Him, this fourth commandment and the gift of parents makes God’s love for us tangible through flesh and blood parents who stand in the place of God.

Now, parents are imperfect, since they are sinful, and are therefore imperfect images of God. Nevertheless, God still works through parents. God blesses the imperfect works of imperfect parents in order to provide for His people. But, before we move any further we should clarify what it is that parents are to be doing; what is the work of parents?

Proverbs instructs parents to: “train up a child in the way he should go.” In Ephesians we read: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Or St. Paul notices what Timothy’s parents did for him: “how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writing, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Or back in Deuteronomy, the job of passing on the faith and the Christian life was given to parents: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” 

Too often parents treat their children like amusements or objects for their pleasure. Home is like a bunkhouse people retreat to at the close of the day. Thus parents are just vending machines who buy stuff for their kids, and kids are window dressings for the parents to show off in all of their activities. What a sad state of affairs! 

Instead, the primary work of parents is to train up their children, to educate them in the faith, and to inculcate a love for the Lord. This is more than just teaching the children to memorize information, although that’s part of it, but it’s about living, it’s about life. Christianity is much more than knowing the right doctrine, but it’s about a way of life. Thus, the job of parents is to lead children to walk in the way of faith, and that happens when children spend time with their parents and observe their manner of living and learn to live like their parents.

This is an entirely different framework than what Americans are used to, and is actually much more daunting. Kids need more than good grades and a nice resume by the time they turn 18. Children need parents who spend time with them, who are living godly lives worthy of imitation, and who are imparting a Christian vocabulary. The goal of parenting is to make their children wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Flowing from this blessed work of parents, children are to respond by honoring their parents. This goes for all of us, not just little kids, but even 90 year olds. All of us are to honor our father and mother. Children should see God in the face of their parents, and thus treat them honorably as we would God.

What does this mean? What does this look like? Firstly, let us children hold our parents in esteem above all things, as the most precious treasure on earth; let us hold them dear in our hearts. Secondly, let us children speak modestly to our parents; let us not be defiant or address them roughly, but yield to them. Thirdly, let us children show them respect by our works and our treasures. 

Little kids, don’t get huffy with your parents or roll your eyes at them or talk back to them or argue with them. Instead, obediently trust your parents and believe that they want what is best for you. Simply do what they say. And when you honor them like this, God promises you that it shall go well for you and you will be blessed.

Big kids, you adults, listen to your parents’ advice and counsel and seriously consider it; don’t dismiss them out of hand or consider them stupid. When you speak of your parents to others, don’t expose their sins or their embarrassing failures. Instead, only speak well of your parents, and keep their embarrassing faults to yourself. As they age, give of yourself in order to care for them, whether that’s your money or your time and effort. When you honor your parents like this, do it gladly, with humility and reverence, as you are doing it before the Lord.

In conclusion, let me encourage you, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to examine our lives in light of these two commandments, and perhaps to make some changes for the sake of our eternal souls. Both the third and fourth commandments admonish us to dedicate more time to God our heavenly Father, and to our flesh and blood family. God the Father wants to shape you in the image of His Son Jesus in order to grant you everlasting life, and to do that, you must spend time with Him in prayer and His Word daily and in the Divine Service weekly. God wants parents and children to similarly shape each other in the image of Christ, and to do that you must spend time with each other devotionally and in all other parts of daily life.

What an incredible life we live where our daily lives, and all of the mundane works we do, are significant in the eyes of the Lord and have eternal consequences. For you are immortal Christians, with your eyes set on the prize of eternal life at the end of this race of life, and for you your daily lives are immensely impactful for your eternal life.