May 2022 Sermon - Women in the Church - Acts 2:16-21; Galatians 3:26-29
Today we are beginning a short series on an issue that is very close to my heart. That issue is to do with the wellness of the body of Christ, the overall health of the church.
And it’s to do with the responsibility of the church to glorify God. The primary purpose of the Yonge Street Mission is to glorify God and to discern the mind of Christ. I have always loved that.
As the church, our responsibility is to make disciples. And when you make disciples, church always forms.
And as church forms, its members, all of its members, utilize their spiritual gifts and ministry passions for the glory of God and the building up of the church.
So the issue is just that. All members of the church have spiritual gifts and ministry passions. They have them because God gave them. God is the author and giver of all good gifts.
He alone has the right to choose what gifts He gives and to whom He gives them.
Now all of this may seem pretty tame and obvious. And it is obvious in our context here, because we encourage everyone to grow and to serve in the church. Helping set up is serving the Lord in the church. Putting out and putting away chairs is serving the Lord in the church. Participating in worship is serving the Lord the church.
Other areas, such as teaching and leading worship and things like that, we encourage everyone to explore and begin to serve in.
Including men, when they are ready and willing and capable and mature and quite committed to this local body. Including women, when they are ready and willing and capable and mature and quite committed to this local body.
Again, that’s a no brainer, right? For us, yes, and we also need to be aware that there are some churches and some Christians who believe that one people group in the church, generally 60% to 70% of any local church body, should not be allowed to...anyone want to guess?
To open their mouths in church. This group should keep silent in the church. Don’t speak. Don’t encourage another with words. Don’t talk. Period.
And that people group is...anyone want to guess? Women. According to a very particular way of reading the Bible and understanding the Bible, some churches and some Christians believe it is wrong to allow a woman to speak in the church, to teach in the church, or to serve in the church as a leader.
And if you’ve read much of Scripture, particularly the writings of the Apostle Paul, and if you’ve been paying, I would say, a little bit of attention to his overall message, you might think that what I’ve just said makes sense.
Perhaps women should be limited in what they can do in the church.
But…if you’ve read the New Testament and have been paying a lot of attention to the teachings and attitudes of Jesus, the writings of the Apostle Paul, particularly as relates to women in the church,
you’ve likely noticed and possibly been confused by Paul saying, apparently, different things, even in the same NT letter, or even in a single paragraph.
We are going to try to unpack some of this today, and then over the course of this short series on Women on the Church, we will hopefully grow in our understanding of the liberty that God gives all people to serve according to how he equips them to.
Here’s a quick overview of the points we are going to look at today.
Points:
1. Jesus’ broke the mold and elevated women far above their usual stature in His day
2. Paul did not universally ban women from speaking or teaching in church.
3. Only God decides who gets what gift and where to use it. The body of Christ recognizes who God calls (Arleen, Jan, Lee)
4. Seek to be knowledgeable the attitude toward women in Christian circles you are or become connected to.
5. Determine in your own life to love and serve God according to how God has equipped you, not how any man might seek to limit your service in the body of Christ.
Are you ready to dive in? Let’s do it!
1. Jesus’ broke the mold and elevated women far above their usual stature in His day
Did you know that women were not allowed to vote in Canada in 1918? In the US it was 2 years later in 1920. Women of colour were not allowed to vote in the US until 1965.
That seems incredible to us, perhaps, unless we know that the status of women throughout history has been a ongoing struggle.
If around 1920 in North America we were just coming around to the fact that women had the right, the human right, to vote, then perhaps it’s not too hard to imagine that in much earlier, ancient times, the status of women was much, much lower.
Not only could they not vote in earlier times, but women were typically viewed as property. There are still remnants of that view in our culture today.
In a lot of modern wedding ceremonies there’s a moment early on when the minister asks the husband of the bride, “Who gives this woman to this man?” Seems innocent enough, right?
What that’s from though is the wedding practice, which is ancient in origin, of the passing of the woman, as the property of the father, to then becoming the property of the husband.
Gross, right? To modern sensibilities, to the modern ear and the modern mind, that’s ridiculous. Of course the woman is no one’s property. Nowadays there is a sense that in the wedding ceremony, the responsibility for the welfare of the woman is perhaps transferred from the parents to the husband officially during the wedding.
And then the husband and wife adopt the welfare of the other. They promise to love, honour and cherish each other, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health.
So yes, if we go back in time, to the time of Jesus, women were property. They had very low status.
Roman women had a very limited role in public life.
And one of the ways in which Jesus surprised his contemporaries (for the most part) was by validating women as equal persons as men in the eyes of God. Jesus was very affirming towards women in a culture that, well, wasn’t.
Consider the following:
Roman law described women as “weak” and “lightminded.” Jewish law did, too. The ancient historian Josephus points to one such law that states, “let no evidence be accepted” from women... In other words, a woman’s word in court was useless.
Imagine having a crime committed against you, and no court would acknowledge your eyewitness testimony.
Women were viewed in the Jewish world as belonging to the same class as loan sharks and slaves. For a rabbi to speak to a woman in public was disreputable.
Women, it was thought, belonged in the home. Their job was to bear children and manage the household (both very valuable things, I might add), but that was considered the extent of the value they brought to the world.
Women were generally irrelevant when counting numbers and attendance at major religious events and irrelevant when calculating the number of people needed for a quorum in the synagogue. Their very presence was, in a word, irrelevant. Sad and wrong, but true.
Lee Strobel writes in his book 'The Case for Christ', “Women were on a very low rung of the social ladder in first-century Palestine.
There is an old rabbinical adage that says, ‘Let the words of the law be burned rather than delivered to a woman.”
Renowned scholar and expert on the resurrection, Gary Habermas asserts that in that day the testimony of a woman would have been equal to believing the testimony of a criminal.
Even still, despite the views of women at that time, the Gospel writers left the testimony of women in the Scriptures.
By doing so, the early church showed they had nothing to hide regarding their testimony despite how it sounded to others. It shows us today that resurrection stands on its own two feet and that the God of heaven has free course to choose who will champion His message of victory and salvation.
So the culture of the day had a low view of women. Jesus, on the other hand, took a very different view. He spoke to women in public - think of the Samaritan woman. He taught women about theology and worship - think of Mary and Martha. He defended women against accusation in public. Think of the woman caught in adultery in John 8.
He wept with women. He included women among his friends and disciples. He first revealed his Messianic nature to a woman. He let women eat with him, touch him - think of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years who Jesus healed after she touched his garment.
Jesus commended Mary for sitting at his feet, the posture of a disciple, as he taught in her house. That was for sure something only men were supposed to do in that day.
Women simply didn’t engage in this kind of conversation with rabbis. But Jesus praises her for it – over and above her sister, Martha, who was busy fulfilling the typical role of a "good" Jewish woman.
Furthermore, Jesus relied upon women to bankroll his ministry. It was the women who stuck by his side at the cross when (almost) all the guys fled.
Women were the first ones to the empty tomb, and possibly most significantly, Jesus first appeared to women to announce his resurrection. Thanks to Matt Rollins for some of that breakdown.
https://www.vancouverchurchofchrist.org/jesus-and-gender-equality-part-5-of-6
Jesus rejected the notion that women were weaker, lightminded, or deficient. He embraced them as equals with men.
And honestly, if he did that, and he's God, then I'd better do it too. Jesus’ treatment of women carried forward into the life of the early church, where we’ll see Paul strongly affirming women in ministry.
2. Paul did not universally ban women from speaking or teaching in church.
In fact, the Bible endorses women in leadership. Paul’s first epistle to Timothy seems on one hand to limit women’s roles in leadership 1 Tim. 2:11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.
Yet Paul also gushed with praise for the women who served with him as co-laborers—women such as Phoebe (Rom. 16:1-2), Junia (Rom. 16:7) and Priscilla, who helped lay foundations in the early church (see 1 Cor. 16:19). In Phil. 4:2-3, Paul expresses solidarity with two women leaders, Euodia and Syntyche.
And he refers to other women who obviously led churches, such as Chloe (1 Cor. 1:11) and Nympha (Col. 4:15), and he does not try to silence or restrict them.
Those who insist on barring women from leadership positions always refer to 1 Tim. 2:12 as an ironclad rule—yet they ignore the women who served with Paul.
The obvious question is: Why did Paul tell Timothy to clamp down on the women in Ephesus when he allowed Priscilla to teach?
Context. That’s an important word. Context helps us to understand literally everything.
I study Spanish as a major interest in my life, and the key to understanding Spanish or any other language, I’ve learned, is understanding the context, the situation, into which words are spoken. That how to figure out what people mean when they’re speaking.
The most sensible interpretation of 1 Timothy, given that Paul himself does not follow what he says here dogmatically, is that something was going on in the church at Ephesus.
The Ephesian women may have been teaching error. So had no business teaching the Bible or leading the church. Neither should any man who teaches error. Yet Paul encouraged faithful women.
Context. Here’s another example. Let me sing something for you. [Speak only] “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see”.
What did you think of that? Pretty awesome, right? Not at all. What was missing? Melody. Harmony. Feeling. Amazing Grace, as lovely and meaningful a song as it is, means very little as a song without its proper context,
which includes melody, harmony (the chords that the guitar would play) and some sense of feeling. Minus that context, it’s a pretty lousy song. It isn’t a song at all, in fact.
So context plays an extremely important role in understanding everything, including the Word of God.
If we miss the context, the situation, the realities of the time, the pieces of the whole that make up the whole understanding of Scripture, we will, guaranteed, miss the point. And if a teacher misses the point, he will teach the wrong thing.
In 1 Corinthians 11, when talking about practices that were clearly culturally specific and not universal (or else every other culture would practice them), Paul refers to women prophesying with a head covering.
1 Corinthians 11:4 “Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off...”
Again to prophecy means to to instruction (to teach and to encourage)
[Show without reading] 31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.
So Paul is giving a direction to both men and women to be attuned to cultural norms wherever they are, to behave in ways that those cultures accept as respectable.
And in doing that Paul specifically speaks positively and as though it’s normal, for women to prophecy – to teach and encourage - in church.
There are many more such examples that we don’t have time to go into, but the bottom line is that Paul accepts, embraces and teaches that women are to speak in church, to prophecy.
There were, for sure, localized situations where limitations were put on women in certain cities, where Paul wanted them to not disrupt the worship gathering but rather to ask their questions of their husbands, which in that culture were generally afforded better access to education.
To silence women in response to Paul’s clearly strong affirmation of women is to, in my view, commit grave sin.
Sadly, for much of the history of the church, women have, in fact, been muted, kept from exercising their God-given teaching and encouraging gifts.
I believe that that led to what we now know as the sometimes sketchy history of the church throughout history.
I believe that if women had been allowed the voice God intended, that was practiced in the early church, there would have been greater wisdom overall in church leadership and far fewer sins resulting from the abuse of power by men.
3. Only God decides who gets what gift and where to use it. Humans dare not, on the basis of a sketchy malformed view of scripture, dictate who does what. The body of Christ recognizes who God calls
We teach a course about once a year or so called Network: Spiritual Gifts and Ministry Passions.
The reason we teach this course, and otherwise teach about the way God gifts us and equips us, is so that we can know, and therefore grow, and our exercise of our spiritual gifts.
This is so the body of Christ is built up as a whole, and so that individual members of the body of Christ are able to discover God's purpose for their lives, and their purpose in God's kingdom.
This is very important, because it is essential that each of us serve God based on God's will.
A very basic beginning point for this course, and for our understanding of this topic is that only God decides who gets what gift, and where to use it.
It is the responsibility of the leadership of the church to nurture and help identify the spiritual gifts and ministry passions of each member of the congregation,
and two include all those members of the church who want to be included, in service to God into the church.
Humans dare not take on themselves the role of limiting anyone in the church in their service of God. Especially considering how Jesus elevated women, and considering how Scripture so very positively addresses women in ministry.
Of course we look for people who are growing in Christ-like attitudes, and behaviour and character. Those are things that are essential to the foundation of a person's life.
But in terms of spiritual gifts, in terms of ministry passions, which can be understood as the chunks of his heart that God gives to people so that they can serve as Christ's hands and feet on earth;
In terms of these things, no human should dare to tell another human, a fellow believer that they can or cannot do something based on a worldly, and not godly, distinction.
Galatians 3:26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ,then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
This is why we have always had male and female leaders in this church, and why we always will have male and female leaders in this church. All you have to be to serve here is human.
4. Be aware of beliefs about women in new churches. If those churches are “complementarian”, if you’re a woman, you will be restricted in how you can serve God. Men will make those restrictions, and some women will support that view of Scripture
Church at the Mission is an independent evangelical church. We are, as a church, not a part of any type denomination or any other governing body, aside from the Yonge Street Mission.
Many churches, are a part of our denomination, and that is perfectly good. However God chooses to bring glory to himself, through denominational churches, through independent churches, that is all good.
It is good for us, though, to be aware when we go into certain churches that have beliefs about women serving in ministry that are quite opposite to what I'm talking about today.
Many of these churches will call themselves "complimentarian." That means that while they would say that then and women are equal, they believe that men and women have separate and distinct roles that must be strictly adhered to.
In those settings, men will make restrictions about how women are permitted to serve. And some women in those settings will also strongly support that.
So all I want to say about this is, please be aware, if and when you transition to another church body, that this is a reality within the Church of Jesus Christ.
I know a couple who were part of a "complementarian" church for many years.
They did not agree with this separation and distinction between the roles that men and women could have, but for a time they said that the fellowship was much more important than this particular issue.
Eventually, the woman found herself so restricted, so unwelcome and unable to use her gifts, that the couple moved on into a church setting where they were both allowed to serve God as God gifted them and as God equipped them.
So I say this just so you are aware, when you go from church to church.
5. Determine that in your own life, by his grace and the filling of the Holy Spirit, as in the day of Pentecost, you will glorify God and seek, together with the body of Christ, to love and serve God, as you love and serve within the church according to how God has equipped you
So here we begin wrapping up the message for today. If you are a woman, if you are a man, if you are a teenager or younger, and if you are a follower of Jesus Christ,
a believer in Jesus sacrifice on the cross for your sins, then you need to come to a place where you accept and begin to live a number of important things.
Firstly, you are an adopted child of the Most High King of the Universe. The God who is Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer and the Lover of your soul has made you His very own. That, I would say, is the most important thing about you.
Connected to that reality is the fact that God has many other adopted people who He loves, who He calls you to understand as your Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
So you are a member of the family of God, which is diverse and wonderful and imperfect. But you truly matter.
You truly matter to God and to the Body of Christ. You are here by God’s design, and if you call Church at the Mission your church, you are intended to be here for such a time as this in order to
a) worship God, b) learn and grow and c) serve God in the church according to the way God has gifted you. For
1 Peter 2:9 ...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Secondly, since God has poured out His Spirit on all flesh, female and male, and has enabled and equipped all to prophecy (to instruct, to encourage), you are at liberty to do this.
Encourage each other in our most holy faith. Lift up the broken-hearted. Mourn with those who mourn. Rejoice with those who rejoice. And serve.
In God’s economy, to serve is to lead. To lead is to serve. We are all, in Jesus Christ, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession. Live into that truth.
Thirdly, as you worship God, as you grow in Him, determine that you will glorify God and seek to love and serve the Lord with your whole life - all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength.
In many churches, as here, you will be able to grow in your service to God without restriction based on whether you are male or female.
Your gender is honestly not a thing we consider when it comes to opportunities to serve the Lord.
So may we all learn to read and understand the Holy Bible with open hearts and open minds.
May we read carefully and deeply, and so come to understand more fully God’s amazing, astounding and beautiful grace. And so that we can operate as a church according to the teachings of the Bible, read and understood as intended.
This will enhance and strengthen the church, as we all, female and male, worship and serve the Lord together as He and He alone gifts and equips us to serve.
For the glory and honour of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen? Amen.
