GUIDELINES IN THE WORSHIP OF GOD
(Part Two: The Role of Men and Women in Worship)
1 Timothy 2:8-15
Dorn Ridge Church Of Christ June 02, 20
Audio Link to Hear this sermon:
http://chirb.it/cg4z7K
INTRODUCTION:
1.) Most of this second chapter deals with the handling of worship services, and what was to be done, or not done in the church.
A.) Though the entire chapter deals with many aspects of worship within the church, I have divided this message into two parts:
aa.) Two weeks ago, we looked at the significance the early church placed on prayer in our worship.
ab.) Today, I want to examine the second half of this topic of worship dealing with the roles God has assigned to Men and Women in regards to worship and leadership within the Church.
2.) This passage of Scripture contains many controversial topics that are often left unaddressed.
A.) Because of the controversial nature of this message, I have probably laboured as much on this sermon as what I would normally do over 3-4 sermons.
B.) In preparing this message, I have read a great deal of material written over the course of the past 2,000 years on this.
ba.) I have read statements I would label as male chauvinism on the subject, as well as statements that would be described completely feminist.
bb.) To the best of my ability, I have tried to not lean toward either of these extremes, but to be as fair to the text as I am able to be, true to what God has given in His Word.
D.) Even still, I am certain that not everyone will be in agreement with the conclusions I am making.
I. THE CHURCH IS TO BE A PLACE WHERE MEN HONOUR GOD BY LIFTING UP HOLY HANDS IN PRAYER.
-- 1Timothy 2:8
1.) Lifting up holy hands in prayer was a common and ancient practice.
A.) Today in our churches we tend to not be comfortable with this practice.
aa.) At times someone will come in and worship with us and raise their hands as we go to God in prayer.
ab.) Though we have quietly accepted it, most of us have not felt completely comfortable with that practice.
ac.) I want to state this morning that even if we are not completely comfortable there is nothing wrong with it, and it is an acceptable practice in prayer.
B.) To be honest, this is the only place in the entire New Testament where we are told to do this in our times of worship.
C.) Having said that, it is a practice that was very common in the Old Testament Scriptures.
ca.) When Moses went before Pharaoh, God had instructed him to raise his hands in prayer, and that is what he had done.
caa.) Exod. 9: 22,29
cb.) When King Solomon dedicated the temple of God, he raised his hands to heaven in prayer.
cbb.) 1 Kings 8:22-23[ His actual prayer goes on till verse 53]
cc.) Many other passages as well speak of the same act of reverence in prayer.
cca.) Is. 1:15 “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you;”
cca-1.) Certainly, God in this passage addressed it in a negative manner because of their attitude toward him, but we still see of the practice of raising hands in prayer.
ccb.)Nehemiah 8:6 “6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”
cd.) In the New Testament, when the ministry of Jesus had been completed, the final act of reverence Jesus did for the disciples was to pray for them, and he did this with his hands raised towards God as He ascended into heaven.
cad.) Luke 24:50-51
B.) This practice seems to have developed in the offering of sacrifices and incense to God.
ba.) As the sacrifices were being offered to God, they would be lifted up and offered to God, as prayer would be made for the sacrifice.
bb.) From there, the practice of lifting up of hands became a common and acceptable stance to be taken in times of prayer.
bc.) There are certainly many passages of Scripture which deal with this, and which we could look at, but I am going to choose to refrain from that in order to focus more on the central theme of the text of the role of men versus women within the Church.
2.) The lifting up of holy hands in prayer is to be taken in contrast to the descriptions of women in the following verses.
A.) When you look at the passage of Scripture before us, the Greek language definitely shows man in this eighth verse, and women in verse 9-12.
aa.) When Paul selected the words he used, he did not give a generic term that could be translated as mankind, or man referring to anyone of the human race.
ab.) By use of the very specific words that Paul chose to use, He is explicitly stating that in the Church of Jesus Christ, it is to be men who raise their hands in prayer to lead the time of worship, as well as ultimately to have the leadership within the church.
ac.) This will become even clearer in the next two weeks as we examine the Biblical role of Elders and Deacons in 1 Timothy chapter 3.
B.) Throughout the history of the church, but especially since the last half of the twentieth century, this has been very regularly challenged, disputed,
and also ignored in a large number of churches,
including in many of our own in the Restoration Movement.
ba.) I am not sure which of the two sexes has been primarily responsible for this shifting of practice from what is in the Inspired Word Of God.
bb.) On the one hand, men have often tended to have the temptation to step back and not accept the leadership within the church.
bba.) The resulting failure on the part of men has at times left a vacuum within the role of church leadership.
bbb.) This void of real masculine leadership, has
at times forced women into the leadership of the church rather they desired that leadership or not.
bc.) The other side of this issue, is that some women have chosen to usurp the order of authority that God has instituted for the Church.
bca.) This is not a new issue, or problem for the church as it has been present in every age of the Church.
bcb.) Yet in a very real sense this has become a new issue or problem for the church to face.
bcb-1.) Though I believe the issue has always been there, I feel it is only since about the Second World War that this has become a major challenge to the leadership within Christianity.
3.) The lifting up of holy hands in prayer by the men is also to be seen in contrast to the Elders and Deacons who are listed in chapter three.
A.) This may come as a surprise to us as we often see the leading of the church service as well as the time at the Lord’s Supper as being some of the primary responsibilities of those who have been officially appointed to serve as Elders and Deacons.
B.) My understanding from this passage of Scripture is that it is not necessarily the role of the Elders and Deacons to be leading the worship, though certainly there is nothing wrong with them in that function.
ba.) I would see these men who are to lift up hands in prayer being from any of the
Christian men within the church, and not limited to those of the Elders and
Deacons.
bb.) It could be that the early church saw this as an area of training men into the service of Jesus Christ, so that at a later time they would have the spiritual maturity to become Elders or Deacons, within the church.
bc.) I must add that this is just my speculation, as I am not aware of a passage of Scripture stating that.
II. THE CHURCH IS TO BE A PLACE WHERE WOMEN ALSO HONOUR GOD WITH THEIR LIVES.
1.) Women are to honour God in how they are dressed.
A.) 1Timothy 2:9
B.) When we read that women are to come to worship dressed in decency and propriety our first thoughts are to the culture of dress that is becoming more and more prevalent today.
C.) If you drive onto the grounds of the High School or a college this time of year, or even go to the mall, you will find many young ladies who are dressed in ways that I would deem as inappropriate for a young lady to dress.
ca.) Perhaps, I am being unfair in specifically designating this age group of ladies, as
there are older ladies who may also do this, but my experience is that usually
it tends to be the younger ladies, in an attempt to make themselves attractive to the opposite sex whom most often will dress in this manner. cb.) There is no question that this makes these ladies attractive to men, but many do not understand that the kind of attractiveness they present brings back to them the type
of guys with minds set on desires for
which they are not desirous nor prepared
to be receiving.
D.) In the first century the issue and problem was different than the issue with clothing today..
da.) The issue was not so much clothing that left little to the imagination, but rather being dressed in other ways that were worldly.
daa.) In this ninth verse the issue is described as braided hair, the wearing of gold, or pearls, or expensive clothing.
dab.) Certainly this is not a statement that God is looking for us to come to worship Him in whatever is our shabbiest or cheapest of clothing.
E.) To understand the situation in Ephesus, we need to understand two truths of that city:
ea.) One of the wonders of the ancient world was the temple of Diana or Artemis situated in Ephesus.
eaa.) The shrine prostitutes of that temple would spend hours having their hair done up to be considered beautiful.
eab.) Our text speaks of the braiding the hair, but really this is a mistranslation of the word. It should be not braiding, but is better translated as plaiting.
eac.) These women would spend hours having pearls, and gems, threads of gold and silver braided into their hair as a thing of beauty.
eb.) The second truth is that Ephesus was a city of great wealth.
eba.) Because Ephesus was a city of great wealth, many of the women would come to church dressed in gowns and garments that would have taken massive amounts of money to make or buy.
ebc.) The ladies in the church at Ephesus were selecting their standards of physical beauty from the examples seen in the prostitutes in the temple of Dianna.
ebc.) Paul was saying when you come to worship God, to not have a standard of appearance in which you were relying on the image of a prostitute as the standard of your physical beauty.
2.) Women are to honour God with a true inner beauty.
A.) 1 Timothy 2:10
B.) Paul was saying that as Christian women, they did not have to look like a hooker to be considered beautiful.
ba.) As Christians, if they were truly living for Jesus Christ the world would be able to see beauty within them as a child of God that would far outweigh anything of praise given to a prostitute for her beauty.
3.) Women are to honour God by respecting the plan of God for worship and Church leadership.
A.) Before we get into looking at this matter I want to first of all state a few things in regards to this text:
aa.) When God gave directions for the leadership and worship of the church, he is not putting women down as inferior to men, nor less intelligent, nor less capable of positions of leadership. Likewise, Paul, and ultimately God are not placing women to a level of inequality with men or anything else.
ab.) Paul is merely describing what God has given for the plan of leadership within the Church of Jesus Christ.
B.) I want to also state this passage of scripture is not advocating a total silence of women within the church.
ba.) Both The Old and New Testaments give examples of women speaking in various capacities for the people of God.
baa.)The Old Testament speaks of prophetesses Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah.
bab.) Likewise, the NT describes Philip the Evangelist having 4 unmarried daughters who were prophetesses within the early Church. (Acts 21:9).
bb.) The Apostle Paul who is the strongest voice we usually use to reference women being silent in the church addressed the Church at Corinth (1 Cor. 11-14) on this issue.
bba.) Paul clearly speaks of women speaking in the church praying and prophesying, but with the conditions she has a sign of authority on her head.
bbb.) What this says to me, is that women were allowed at least in some capacities to speak in the church, but yet with restrictions on what level or degree of speaking they were allowed to carry out.
bbc.) I believe the Bible does give allowance for a certain degree of involvement and vocalization on the part of women within the church.
bbc-1.) Perhaps even more than I have traditionally been comfortable with.
bbc-2.) At the same time, I feel this practice should be practiced followed with the greatest of caution.
bbd.) I say this because once the practice is started within a church, it is often not long before it has traditionally within churches resulted in women being placed in positions of leadership.
C.) Whatever the degree of permission that women had to be vocal within the church Paul makes a few things clear:
ca.) In the worship services it is the men who are to lift holy hands in prayer for the congregation. (verse 8)
cb.) The women are to recognize that the leadership of the church is to be carried on by the men (verse 11-12).
cba.) As an illustration of the importance God has placed on this standard He has given, I want us to look at an example form the Old Testament with Miriam, who led her brother Aaron to join her in
opposing Moses, and wanting to
speak for the people of God as
well as Moses.
cbb.) God was not impressed with her desire to have the leadership and had to for a time punish her.
cbc.) Numbers 12:1-2; 9-15
cc.) When it comes to the teaching in the church the women are not to be the ones to teach the men, but rather it is the men who are to take lead in teaching, and not the women.
cca.) Certainly there are other areas where the women are given opportunities in teaching. They often will be teaching the children of the church, and Paul also tells the older women to be teaching and training the younger women of the Church.
(Titus 2:3-5).
D.) Paul gives reasons for this teaching from God.
da.) The first reason is that Adam was first in
order of creation.
daa.) 1 Timothy 2:13
db.) The second reason was that Eve was the one who was tempted by Satan.
dba.) 1 Timothy 2:14
dbb.) Adam had not been deceived into sin by the deceit and power of Satan, but rather by being enticed to enter into sin by his wife.
4.) Women will be rewarded for their willingness to honour God’s plan for the church
A.) The woman would be saved in childbearing.
as.) 1 Timothy 2:15
B.) I want to say that the NIV corrupts this verse of
Scripture.
ba.) The King James does a better job on this passage.
bb.) Rather than women being saved in childbirth as the NIV has, it should be more correctly translated as “the woman”.
bc.) In other words the judgment placed on Eve would not be so severe as to destroy, her, but that God would bless her in childbirth.
bd.) The other aspect is that even though women are not to have the position of leadership within the church, that God would treat her as an equal to man in regards to the opportunity to salvation through Christ.
CONCLUSION:
1.) To recount what I have said today, God has given men the position of leadership in worship and the church.
A.) Men are to not to step aside from the leadership within the church, nor are women to take it on themselves that position.
B.) Women are to worship God in a respectful manner
regarding their appearance, and honour God’s desire for the church leadership.
C.) women are still equal with men in Christ, and have the same blessings of salvation in Christ as men, but each sex has their own roles to carry out within the Church.
* All Scripture quotes in this sermon have come from the New International Version of the Scripture.
