We will continue our study of the Gospel of Luke today; but in honor of Father’s Day, we will start with a passage in Ephesians. Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 6. Read along with me Ephesians 6:1-3…
It’s pretty much self-explanatory isn’t it? We honor our parents by obeying them. We honor our dads by obeying them.
Let me just say a few words about this passage. What does the word honor mean? The original Greek word for honor is to value. Not only is it God’s command for us to value our fathers, I believe that is the greatest gift you can ever give a father no matter what kind of father they may be! And just a thought; maybe your father has not been a good father simply because you never valued him.
Value your father by professing it and expressing it! Maybe you’re like me; you don’t have a physical father anymore; find a father and value him.
And again, the best way to honor our fathers is to obey them; but should we obey everything they say? Look back again at Ephesians 6; look at v4……
God is very clear here: Mothers and Fathers are to be honored but it is the father’s duty not to exasperate their children!
God’s perfect plan is for fathers to be obeyed but the perfect plan for fathers is that they do not lead their children to anger and to teach them biblically. Also, look back briefly to Ephesians 5:1…..
It is God’s perfect plan that every Christian imitates God! But it is especially important for those who have been given authority, like fathers, to imitate God! We must value our fathers; but dads, we are to love our children by imitating Jesus Christ!
Honor and pray for fathers….
Open your bibles now to the Gospel of Luke Chapter 10. Read along with me verses 25-42….
Jesus used the parable of the Good Samaritan to answer the question who is my neighbor I am to love? Although the main reason for the parable is to answer the expert of the Law, we can learn Biblical principles from it.
We note 4 characters in the parable:
a. Man robbed, stripped, beaten, and left half-dead
b. Priest (refers to a man who serves God in the Temple or church).
c. Levite (refers to a religious man, from a religious tribe)
d. Samaritan (man from Samaria; looked down by the Jews; they are like Bear fans as looked down by Packer fans!)
Now, shouldn’t we expect “religious” people like the Priest and the Levite to help someone in need? But they didn’t help! Let me ask a rhetorical question; If there were other people watching, do you think the religious Priest and Levite would have helped the robbed man?
Deep in their hearts, the priest and the Levite really didn’t care about the robbed man and there was no one around to impress; so they both avoided the man who needed help.
Now, why do regular Jews despise the Samaritans so much? Before King David, Israel split into two kingdoms: northern Israel with its capital Samaria and southern Judea with its capital Jerusalem. Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter each other’s territories or even to speak to one another. Jews and Samaritans were both from the lineage of Abraham and Jacob but each one bragged to be more religious than the other.
But this Samaritan in Christ’s parable really didn’t care about the ethnic or religious background of the man robbed. Against the status quo, the Samaritan took action with a “Christ-like” heart for another human being, regardless of the man’s background.
The Samaritan obeyed God’s second greatest commandment; the Samaritan loved his neighbor, who was actually a stranger to him.
Last week we noted that we are to obey God’s commandments but we must prioritize our lives! And this is one of the major lessons Jesus taught Martha in v38-42.
Jesus just taught about loving your neighbor as yourself by providing for what was needed. Don’t we read Martha being a good neighbor to Jesus? Jesus taught to love your neighbor as yourself and Martha was busy, busy, busy trying to be a good neighbor! But Martha was reprimanded by Jesus.
The problem was simply this: Martha was so busy “doing” for Jesus that she neglected what Mary was doing, which was “worshiping” Jesus!
Let me close with one major Biblical principle to apply for our lives today. Let us note that all Christians are to follow this biblical principle but it is especially important to dads.
Against the status quo, Christians are to have “Christ-like” hearts.
What does this mean?
Let us remind ourselves of God’s Word:
Ephesians 5:1 – We are to imitate God. We can only imitate God by fully trusting Jesus Christ and yielding to the Holy Spirit.
Luke 10:27a - Love God first. Always worship Jesus Christ!
Luke 10:27b - Love your neighbor as yourself, starting with your immediate family.
