"would Jesus Allow Women To Speak In Church?"

Would Jesus Allow Women To Speak In Church?

1 Corinthians 14:26-35 Bridge City Church 8/11/2023

Jesus is to be our role model in everything in the life of the church and outside of the church. Jesus was the greatest liberator of women from all walks of life that the world has ever known. The first person Jesus revealed himself to as the Messiah and allowed to go and tell others about him being the Messiah (the Christ) was a woman.

Not just a woman, but a Samaritan woman who was despised by Jesus’ own people the Jews. She was not only despised by the Jews, she was despised by her own people because she had been married and divorced five times and was now living with a man that was not her husband. Yet, after one single afternoon encounter with Jesus, her life changed drastically. She became an evangelist that started a revival in her home town in which many people came to know the Lord because her testimony led them to Jesus.

God sent an angel to tell the women about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The first persons to actually see the resurrected Jesus and touch his body by clasping his feet and worshiping him were two women. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.

Jesus empowered them with the task to go and tell the disciples not only that he had been resurrected, but gave them instructions on where the other 11 disciples were to meet him. The amazing thing is that a woman at this time was not considered a valid witness. Yet Jesus chose two women as witnesses to announce to the world the greatest event to take place in human history. Christianity itself rises and falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now before I get to today’s text, I’m going to show you something that some of you may find shocking at first. Have you ever seen those disclaimers that say, “Do not try this at home?”

Well I’m telling you now, what I am about to do, don’t try it at home or anywhere else, because you have to listen carefully to what I am about to say. Pastor Keon may even bar me from future preaching.

I’m going to show you from a story in Scripture that Jesus has taken a pro choice position. In Matthew chapter 10 we find the story.

17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’[d]”

20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

As much as Jesus loved this man, he left the choice as to whether or not the man would follow Jesus completely up to the man. When it comes to our salvation, Jesus is pro-choice.

Now some of you are probably thinking, what does that have to do with abortion. My response is absolutely nothing. But I never said, I was going to say anything about abortion. I said I was going to show you where Jesus made a pro choice decision.

I wanted to you to see, how when we hear or see certain phrases, our mind goes into a particular mode, sometimes setting up defenses and arguments that are not fully justified.

We see and hear things that were never spoken. Words that the are on a page, are given a meaning that they never had at the time they were written. We look at the Bible through certain backgrounds which affect our willingness to accept the text as it is written.

We have been looking at passages in the Bible that have been taken out of context and used for a host of different things that were never intended. I am a firm believer in the Bible being the Word of God and that we should allow the Word of God to interpret itself if there ever appears to be a contradiction.

Rather than bringing our own biases and culture to a text we need to allow the text to speak to us from its own background and culture.

One word that is crucial to understanding today’s text is the word church. When you hear the word church, what comes to mind first; a building or a gathering of people? What you see first will affect how you read this passage in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35.