Fortification

1
Fortification

• Ephesians 61-4
• 2 Timothy 314-17

2
What Now?

• Much soul-searching in light of the election
• Many evangelicals are sounding down in the mouth
• People are wringing their hands over the change
  in the direction of our country

3
What Now?

• People speak of God judging our land
• We are no longer a Christian nation, they say
• All of this says more about the weakness of the
  church in our culture than the weakness of the
  republic

4
What Now?

• We are perhaps seeing how our eyes have become
  too focused on the kingdom of this world
• We perhaps have wrongly come to depend on the
  culture to be the carrier of our values

5
What Now?

• Perhaps we need to focus upon recapturing the
  Church and our homes as opposed to recapturing
  the culture and political power

6
Early Church

• The documents of the early church, our New
  Testament, are documents of a minority movement
• They were not living in a Christian nation
• They were not insiders in positions of power

7
Early Church

• They were
• Maligned
• Misunderstood
• Resisted

8
Early Church

• Yet they, within a few hundred years,
  revolutionized their world
• In large part, that revolution began in their
• HOMES

9
A. Teaching Units

• These texts were radical in their time
• They still are today
• These people sought to live in distinctive
  communities (Titus 314)

10
A. Teaching Units

• They focused upon teaching their distinctives to
  their children
• Scripture Based
• The primary responsibility lay with the parents

11
A. Teaching Units

• Scripture Based
• They made sure their children knew the story
• The made sure they knew the Word of God was their
  source of authority

12
A. Teaching Units

• Verbally Reinforced
• Ephesians 64
• Refers primarily to verbal education
• Dt. 66-7 20ff

13
B. Nurturing Units

• Paul specifically speaks to fathers
• In the Roman world his words were radical
• Children in the ancient Roman world were not
  necessarily valued

14
B. Nurturing Units

• Patria Potestas
• Father had absolute power
• It extended all of life

15
B. Nurturing Units

• Custom of child exposure
• Mercilessness to sickly or deformed children
• Seneca Children who are born weakly and
  deformed we drown.

16
B. Nurturing Units

• Paul acknowledges need for discipline
• Eph. 64 training or paideia
• Discipline with accent on correction
• Always to be done in a spirit of loving
  self-control (ektrepho)

17
C. Vision Units

• In the nurture of the Lord
• Not simply Christian vs. Secular
• It is coming to submit to His vision and plan
• Matthew 69-10