Sermon Tone Analysis

*/The Sixth Commandment:  A Savior is Murdered/*

Pastor Oesterwind

December 21, 2008

 

“You shall not murder.”

Exodus 20:13

*Introduction:   *Preaching this text a few days before Christmas will probably leave people a bit stunned.

Especially when our society defines The Ten Commandments as follows:

    1.

Have a good day.

2.

Shop.

3.

Eliminate pain.

4.

Be up-to-date.

5.

Relax.

6.

Express yourself.

7.

Have a happy family.

8.

Be entertaining.

9.

Be entertained.

10.            Buy entertainment.

Of course, the Savior born became the Savior murdered some 33 years later.

Speaking to his fellow Jews, Stephen said, “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.” 

1 Thessalonians 2:15 states that the Jews “killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men.”

Actually, a text often connected with the birth of Christ tells the story of quite a bloody massacre: 

“Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: /A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more./

Herod sought to murder the toddler Jesus.

The sixth commandment forbids the unlawful killing of a person.

The NKJ uses the word /murder/ to communicate this.

“You shall not murder.”

*Background:*

·       The Hebrew language has many words related to the concept of killing.

The word used in the sixth commandment is a word that….

o   ….always

tells the story of a person being killed.

o   ….is

not used of killing animals or even persons during war.

o   ….does

not communicate the means of killing.

o   ….implies

intentionality.

It may be premeditated or it may not be.

o   ….often

refers to violent murder.

Psalm 94:6 “[The wicked] slay the widow and the stranger, and */murder/* the fatherless.”

Isaiah 1:21 “How the faithful city has become a harlot!

It was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it, but now */murderers/*.”

Jeremiah 7:9 “Will you steal, */murder/*, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know?”

·       ….is

used in reference to self-murder (suicide) and in reference to the actions of accessories to a murder (2 Sam 12:9).

This verb is never used for killings that take place in self-defense or killings that occur accidentally.

It is not used when the death penalty is commanded by God.

Some struggle with this command as it relates to the death penalty.

For example, in Exodus 21:12 God commands, “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.”

Many wonder how God could command people not to kill in the sixth command and then command that murderers be put to death in Exodus 21.12.

The answer to the dilemma is found when one realizes that Exodus 21:12 is not a command to murder, but a command to carry out capital punishment for capital crime.

There is no contradiction between these two passages.

Genesis 9:6 states, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.”

When a man is put to death because he has murdered it stops him from killing again.

It also deters others from following in his footsteps.

However, the reason God gives for the death penalty is clear:  “Don’t murder another because that person is made by Me in My image.”

*/Desensitizing America/*

 

The average child witnesses many murders and acts of violence through regular TV viewing.

Movies are made with more intense violence; much of it trivialized with no respect for the life that God grants.

Those making movies today even make it humorous when a person is killed.

Children watch this and play violent video games to such an extent that they become desensitized to murder.

When children practice killing over and over again in the video world, we ought not to be surprised when they carry it out in the real world.

When America fails to keep a biblical worldview with regard to the sanctity of human life, it leads to the end that some lives are less worth living than others (Ryken 619-20).

That’s why abortion, euthanasia, and suicide are so common today.

This would be unheard of a few generations ago.

*Transition:*  There are four common types of murder committed today.

The first is abortion….

*/Abortion is Murder/*

 

Abortion effectively becomes a picture of the idea of sanitized murder in our country.

One passage I shared with my Sunday school as we listened to an anatomist describe the birthing process is found in Isaiah.

“And so it shall be: Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench; Instead of a sash, a rope; Instead of well-set hair, baldness; Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth; And branding instead of beauty” (Isaiah 3.24).

There is a five-fold exchange going on in this verse.

It is an exchange that crippled society in Isaiah’s day, and it will do the same today.

Note what is being exchanged:

 

1.

Sweet smell of perfume accentuating the beauty of a woman becomes stench

2.                The beauty of a silken sash become the rough hewn, utilitarian rope

3.                Well-set hair becomes the scab-ridden baldness of an unhealthy, deprived woman

4.                The rich robe becomes the rough sackcloth

5.                Beauty of freedom is replaced with the branding of slavery

 

Beauty and gentleness were set aside and mangled by women in the day of Isaiah.

They had forgotten that that they had been created in the image of God.

Today, women fail to understand that biblical Christianity liberates the woman; other religions of the world and society itself subjugate women.

No matter how it is dressed up; it is bondage.

Women appreciate beauty and order and bring those qualities to men.

Women complete the image of God because they are created in the image of God.

Aesthetic finery is the forte of biblical womanhood - God created the woman in this way.

Women love beautiful things.

Men love women adorned in beauty.

Women love children because God made them to nurture and have compassion upon them.

Generally, motherhood is very fulfilling for most women.

You just need to look at my family blog to see a good example of that!

Since God protects, women also seek to protect.

This is why they may even defend their children to a fault at times.

Contrast this with a woman who would seek an abortion.

Such a thing is rebellious opposition to God’s will for her.

She demands rights and the choice to be the captain of her own fate; yet she is made in the image of God.

Everything special about women demonstrates the image of God.

The safest place in the entire world for a child should be the womb of his mother.