What does parenting have to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Absolutely everything, contends Russell D. Moore.
Moore, dean of the School of Theology and senior vice president for academic administration at Southern Seminary, spoke recently at the first-ever Desiring God Parenting Seminar hosted by Bethlehem Baptist Church, March 5-6 in Minneapolis, Minn. Desiring God is affiliated with the ministry of John Piper, Bethlehem Baptist Church’s pastor for preaching and vision.
Preaching three sessions on “Crucified Parenting” to more than 500 reported seminar registrants, Moore rooted the biblical call to parenting in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Preaching on what Joseph of Nazareth can teach families about raising God-imaging boys, Moore said that fathers provide for their sons identity, provision, protection and fidelity.
Calling on fathers to raise their sons to be masculine, Moore noted the difference between satanic masculinity and Christ-honoring masculinity. Satanic masculinity, he said, seeks to sever fathers from sons. At Calvary, however, even when it seemed that God had abandoned his Son, Jesus cried out in prayer to His Father. Just as sons will identify with their earthly fathers, so Christians are to identify with the Son of God in relating to their heavenly Father.
Likewise, Mary of Nazareth has much to teach families about how to raise God-exalting girls, Moore said. Mary’s life exemplified honor, submission, power and a lack of fear.
Lastly, Moore preached on how Jesus’ childhood has much to teach families about how to raise God-anointed boys and girls. The Bible demonstrates how Jesus’ rootedness, submission and obedience, wisdom, humility, maturity and discipline are evident even in His earliest years of life.
Speaking to the issue of the so-called “silent years” of Jesus – that is, the lack of explicit biblical reference to Jesus’ life between the ages of 12 and 30 – Moore argued that the Bible does display Jesus in every stage of life: as an embryo, infant, child and adult. Churches, then, ought to be training children to be adults, not focusing on the adolescent teenage years as a separate life stage category.
Moore also preached at Bethlehem Baptist’s Saturday evening and Sunday morning worship services. Moore filled in for Piper, who is currently on writing leave. Moore’s title and text for the sermon was “Jacob and Esau in the Church Nursery: Protecting Your Boys and Girls from Satanic Masculinity and Femininity” (Gen 25:19-34). Moore likened filling the pulpit for Piper to “Little Jimmy Dickens singing for Amadeus Mozart.”