Catechism Sermon Series: Ten Commandments
In the Name of the Father and of
the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Small Catechism, Martin
Luther recommends beginning each day like this: In the morning when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross and
say: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Then, kneeling or standing, repeat the
Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, and maybe the Morning Prayer provided… Then go joyfully to your work, singing a
hymn, like that of the Ten Commandments, or whatever your devotion may suggest.
Now, why go to
your work while meditating on the Ten Commandments? Because the Ten
Commandments sum up the order that God has designed for human life. The
Commandments show what the perfect will of God is. So as a Christian, a
baptized child of God marked with the holy cross, you should consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
You should pray each day for God’s blessing. And you should consider your
station in life, where God has placed you and what God has called you to do. And
the Commandments give you your direction.
God spoke these
Commandments with His own mouth in the thunder and fire of Sinai. Later, He
wrote them on two tablets of stone. Two tablets because they can be divided
into two sections. The first three Commandments deal with our relationship to
God. Love the Lord your God with all your
heart. The other seven Commandments deal with our relationships to those
around us in this life. Love your
neighbor as yourself. These Commands from God aren’t arbitrary – just made
up to keep us from having fun. And they aren’t reactionary, like human laws –
someone got shot so we need gun laws, or someone lost their client’s money so
we need investment laws. God’s Commands are good and well-ordered because they
are a reflection of Him and His perfect will. God is good and so He commands
what is good for His creation. His Law highlights and protects the good gifts
He has given.
The First
Commandment: there is a God and He’s not you. He is Father, Son, and Spirit. He
is the Author, Creator, and Judge of all things. He is to be feared and He can
be trusted. Everything else may fail, but He will not. And if you fear, love,
and trust in Him alone, then you have nothing else to fear. If you have this
God, then He says to you, “Do not be
afraid… I am the Lord your God.”
The Second Commandment:
This God has a Name. He wants to be known, so He gives us that Name. We don’t
need to search for Him. He comes to us and gives us access to Himself. That
means His Name is given to be used. That also means His Name can be misused –
taken in vain. But the Lord takes that risk so that His people may know Him. He
baptized you, put His Name on you with the water, so that you may call upon His
Name, pray, praise, and give thanks.
The Third
Commandment: This God speaks and works for His people. He is not lounging on a
cloud, demanding our sacrifices, getting puffed-up by our praises. This God
serves. This point was emphasized for Israel (God’s Old Testament people) by
observing the Sabbath (Saturday) when no work was to be done. The people were
to rest so they would recognize it was the Lord who made them holy, not their
own work. His Word creates, sustains, and sanctifies. His deeds rescue and
deliver. This still applies to us (God’s New Testament people). The Lord
sanctifies us by His Word and Spirit, without our works. By His Word He creates
and nurtures faith in Him alone, and it is faith that makes us holy as He is
holy. So listen to the Lord’s Word. This God speaks and He is worth hearing.
Side note:
Israel was commanded to keep the Seventh Day holy by hearing God’s Word. But
the prescription of that day was a ceremonial Law so it’s no longer binding for
the New Testament people of God. The day is not the essential thing – God’s
Word is essential. Hearing the Word makes the day holy, makes any day holy:
Saturday, Sunday, or even Wednesday. So, from the very beginning of the New Testament
Church, God’s people began gathering on Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection.
As New Testament Christians we still keep the Third Commandment in Spirit, as
we hear God’s Word and receive His Body and Blood on the First Day of the Week,
the Lord’s Day, the day when Jesus overcame death and the grave and by His glorious
resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life.
Now, that’s the
first table of the Law: life with God. The second table covers life with our
neighbors, and it begins with a Commandment bridging the two tables. The Fourth
Commandment: God is the ultimate authority, and He establishes authorities on
earth as His representatives. And the most fundamental authority on earth is
fatherhood. The Lord Himself is our Father and every fatherhood gets its name
and authority from Him. The Lord commands authority to be obeyed, and by using
His own authority for our good, He demonstrates that authority is for the sake
of those underneath it. The Lord gives authority in the home, where fathers are
head of the household; in the Church, where spiritual fathers look after the
household of God; and in the government, where authorities protect and preserve
order in the midst of this fallen, sinful world. The Lord is at work in all
three estates: home, church, and government, so it is important that we honor
the authority He gives. And it is just as important that those in positions of
authority recognize that it does not come from their own power nor is it to be
used for their own benefit.
Now the Fourth
Commandment authorities are meant to use Commandments 5, 6, 7, & 8 in order
to protect God’s other gifts. The Fifth Commandment protects life. Do not
murder. The Sixth Commandment protects marriage and family where new life is nurtured.
So do not adulterate marriage or sexuality by changing it or adding to it. The
Seventh Commandment protects the good earthly gifts that God provides for our
use. So do not steal. And the Eighth Commandment protects truth. The Lord who
gives us His name and reputation, also gives us our names and reputations. So
do not give false testimony.
Lastly,
Commandments 9 & 10 point us back to the beginning. The Lord guards the
heart against coveting. Coveting means wanting something that the Lord has not
given to you. Coveting leads to lying (8th), stealing (7th),
cheating (6th), even killing (5th), and defying any
authority that gets in the way (4th). While these actions are sins
against our neighbors, they are also against God. It is the Lord who promises
contentment in His Word (3rd), and rather than take for ourselves,
we can call upon God’s Name for every need (2nd), because He is the
trustworthy One, the true and never-failing source of life (1st). Faith
in this God leads to true love for the neighbor.
What a society,
what a world that would be! If we stood up to defend, rather than gossip. If we
protected and increased our neighbor’s property, rather than greedily worked on
our own at our neighbor’s expense. If sex and marriage was honored and children
were received as gifts from the Lord in His time and in His way. If life, both
new and old, was truly valued, and we sacrificed our convenience and money for the
sake of human life, rather than sacrifice human life for the sake of our money
and convenience. If authorities actually protected these gifts and if we
actually honored our authorities. If the Ten Commandments were kept by mankind,
that would be perfection.
We get a
glimpse of God’s perfect world in these Commandments, and if we’re honest, we
get uncomfortable. Worse than uncomfortable, we recognize that we have utterly
failed in keeping God’s Law. But that’s a good recognition. That is the chief
purpose of the Law. Through the Law comes
knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20).
So
this is why the Christian message must have two parts: first the Law and then the
Gospel. First
the accusations of the Commandments and then the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
The Law is
God’s demands. The
Gospel is that God meets His own demands in Christ. The Law says, “Do this.” But
it’s never done. The
Gospel says, “Believe this.” And everything is done already. Everything is fulfilled.
Jesus
fulfilled it, He accomplished it, He finished it, for you. Our God became a Man in
order for Him to meet and satisfy every one of His own demands in our place.
In His stations
in life, as a son, a hearer, a teacher, a citizen, He kept every Commandment in
its fullness. He
is righteous, sinless, blameless according to the Law. And yet He also suffered the
just punishment for our broken Commandments. He paid every last penny of our
debt. Believe
this Gospel, and everything is done for you by Christ.
In
this knowledge we Christians go joyfully to our work, whatever it may be.
We seek to live
in God’s good order for the world and we delight in what His Commandments
describe and protect. We don’t attempt to perfect our standing with God by our works.
Our standing
with God is already perfect on account of faith in His Son. But that means we are free
to work for others. We are covered with Christ’s righteousness in Baptism and as we
go to our work we remember this free gift of salvation with the sign of His
cross. And
throughout each day, in every station of life, we fall short, and we are
accused by God’s Law. So, we confess our sins, we ask for grace and we want to do
better. And
then we hear once again the Word of the Gospel. Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace. Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to
God in Christ Jesus.
In the
Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
