We're continuing our series called Trustworthy.
The idea, looking at this passage of Scripture, this
letter that Paul wrote to Timothy to find God's design,
and we're going to look at an important one today.
So turn to first Timothy chapter 3.
We're just going to go right into chapter 3.
I'm just kidding. We're going to go, we're going
to do the end of chapter 2 where we left off.
Some of you like we don't want to cover the, I want to cover
the fun stuff. The end of chapter 2.
Yeah, we will not skip over where we left off because we are
coming up to these final verses in chapter 2, which happened to
be some of the most contended verses in the Bible.
When we talk about God's design so that we can be a trustworthy
church and trustworthy believers, we're we're going to
allow it to cover every area of life.
And no matter how that collides with culture and one of the
great confusions of our time, divisions of our time, debates
of our time is how men and women fit into the church in the world
with roles designed by God or not.
So to get us started, I'll actually share with you a way
that this very topic was viral not many months ago.
If you pay attention to the news or you're part of the just the
social uproar when you know whatever the most recent trend
of news is, There was a commencement speech given by an
NFL kicker and it gave us a perfect picture to how what
we're talking about from this letter from Paul to Timothy is
something that is raging in our culture right now.
I'll share with you some of the highlights and some of the the
reaction to what he said to a group of graduating college
students. You women have had the most
diabolical lies told to you. How many of you sitting here now
are thinking about all the promotions and titles you one
day have in your career? Some of you may have successful
careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the
majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the
children you will bring into the world.
My wife embraced one of the most important titles of all time,
Homemaker, to which some of the audience erupted in applause.
She says she's the primary educator to our children and
ensures I don't let football or business become a distraction
from that of a husband and a father.
Her dream of having a career might not have come true, but if
you asked her today if she has any regrets on her decisions,
she would laugh out loud and say heck no.
Now, as you hear me read this and think about what we're going
to talk about today, some of you reacted exactly how half of our
culture reacted. The NFL itself distanced itself
from one of their players and said this is not an official
statement of the NFL. Of course, the talking heads all
over social media news were outraged in their outcry,
debating whether or not he had crossed the line of free speech.
Some of them even saying had he gone into hate speech towards
women And on the other side of the aisle, some of you listen to
me say that and we're like more of that.
Finish it. Read the whole speech.
The conservatives, the religious groups, those who are from a
traditional value that is now all under question.
We're applauding his bravery and courage.
And I don't share that so that we would just end the topic now.
I share that so that we would understand that there is a
fracture in our culture and it stands on the lines that we have
to discuss today. What is the role of women in the
church? How are we supposed to represent
God and His incredible love for all people and His design for
men and women alike? So that's the topic today.
If you're interested, then we'll continue in the sermon starting
in verse 11, verse 11. This is a continuation of what
we talked about last week. Paul is now in the 2nd chapter
in his letter to Timothy giving some direction to both men and
women. Last week he said men pray, stop
fighting and pray. Women don't dress.
So with with such high status and, and showing off your
wealth, dress modestly and both of you just pray for a peaceful
and quiet life and have a peaceable and quiet gathering.
And now the directions continue for women in the gathering.
Last week it was how women should look.
And this week we could say it's how women should learn.
And follow along with me as I start in verse 11, we'll read
all of the verses left in the chapter and then we'll look at
each one of them. Paul says let a woman learn in
silence with all submission, and I do not permit a woman to teach
or have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived fell into transgression.
Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if they continue
in faith, love and holiness with self-control.
This sermon will be a question answer format of sermon because
if you're like me, there's a lot of questions that just come to
your mind as we're reading this. I think that's good.
I love when the Bible does that because where there are
questions, I think the Bible gives some really good cutting
answers. And we'll break these this this
sermon down into really the way that it's presented to us.
Paul is going to give some rules for the gathering in the 1st 2
verses, 11:00 and 12:00. And then he'll give some
reasoning behind the rules. Wherever the Bible gives rules,
it gives you reasons and rewards.
That's why we we study it holistically.
And he starts first with again, the context of the gathering.
He says, I'm going to give some direction to men last week and
now some direction rules, guidelines for how this is all
supposed to look for the women of the gathering.
And so as I said, we'll start with questions.
My very first question as we look at verse 11, let a woman
learn in silence with all submission is what is Paul
really getting at When you study the Bible and it sparks
questions or maybe makes you feel uncomfortable, which I hope
it does at times, you should say to yourself, what's what's the
main point that he's trying to get at?
Because there's a lot of things words that can be packed into
this one single verse that we could emphasize as the word to
pick apart. But the main thing that Paul is
getting AT, and you find this with a very literal translation
of the Greek of this statement is this.
Listen to it word for word translated.
It says literally a woman in quietness should learn in all
submission. A woman in quietness should
learn in all submission. The main emphasis that Paul is
giving to the woman of this gathering and to women of our
gathering and all the gatherings of churches that would study
this letter is that women come in and learn.
That's the main point. He says to the men, you guys
pray and this is how you ought to pray.
Don't fight with holy hands. Pray with direction.
And now he says women learn and here's how you are to learn.
So before we get into weeds, which we're going there because
I know there's some fun stuff down in the weeds.
Sometimes you find coins and Legos and stuff in the weeds.
Before we get into the weeds, I want, I, I do not want to lose
the glorious, amazing truth that wherever the gospel goes, women
are elevated. The, the, the good news this
morning is that Paul is saying yes to women come in and learn
and he is going against the culture of his day.
And in the most of the ancient world where the schools and the
institutions in the world of academia was mostly reserved for
men, not so with the early church.
And we see that Paul really in the shadow of Jesus as he
brought to himself female disciples, disciples, and some
very famous moments where he is giving women the honor of a
rabbi, student relationship. Famously, we see in the Gospel
of Luke where Mary and Martha are going to host a big dinner
and and Martha's getting ready and Mary is at his feet like a
student at the feet of a rabbi. And this is beautiful good news
that has set into motion the Western world that women have a
place at the table of this whole gathering.
God bless it. So that's the good news.
He's setting some incredible good news, ground rules, and
this is what would happen as groundbreaking new invitations
would come, as people are welcomed in, they're going to be
welcomed in and say, and by the way, this is how it should work.
If you want to find a parallel for this, In fact, it's a recent
parallel you could look at if Paul was writing, let's say Paul
was writing a letter to the church in Saudi Arabia in the
year 2018. This is recent news, but in the
year 2018, Saudi Arabia allowed women to drive.
So if you were in Saudi Arabia, that would be the big
controversy in 2018. Men use like, should I allow my
wife to drive? It's legal now.
And, and Paul would say, let them drive.
It's OK, let them behind the wheel.
But here's some ground rules. You don't want to just start
ramming people and, you know, yelling at people and you don't
want to just take over the road. And as we continue the analogy,
maybe they don't drive the family car, but we'll get to
that later in the passage. So he says let the women learn,
bring them in. And now here's some direction as
they come into the gathering. He's going to give 2 directives
that will now give us, let's say a little bit more spice to the
sermon. This Is Us putting a little bit
of, you know, sometimes you get the hot sauce and I think these
things get a little spicier. This is why right here, this
sermon gets a little spicy. It's not because women are now
included. It's because as they're welcomed
in, he says once again, verse 11, let a woman learn in silence
with all submissions. So we have more questions.
Is Paul directing the church for it to be all set up where men do
all the speaking and women are in total silence?
Have we violated even this morning some of Pauls directions
and commands for what a church gathering should look at?
Because we've had women singers and I heard all of the
murmurings in both directions, male and female in our meet and
greet. Well, because there's churches.
There's churches that will say yes to anything under the sun.
Of course you will find some churches, I am sure of it.
And practically speaking, maybe some of you experienced it.
They would say, OK, this means no women choir, worship band, no
women. When you, you know, get greeted.
They could take this so literally that they would say,
OK, women, when you come, keep it, mom, and then leave.
No doing announcements. Now, practically speaking, this
sermon is not going to be corrective in any measure for
our church. Because if you've been coming to
our church, I guess if this is your first time, this is a
normal gathering of our church. Women, you have beautiful voices
for singing. We have times where women give
announcements and we're in all sorts of ways, women are very
welcome to engage vocally with our church.
So what is he saying? And by the way, I hope that
women are included because tonight we're doing a panel, how
cool is that, that the men decided to put this day on the
calendar where we all get together and have a big meatloaf
dinner and say, why don't we bring the women and ask them
questions? And it just so happens to land
perfectly on the passage of Scripture about women being
silenced. So as I went into, as I said,
Lord, I hope I get this right and I think so far I'm confident
that our women's panel tonight is going to be done in the
honouring of God's design for how men and women have distinct
roles and freedoms in the church.
So we we big picture this. If you look at the New Testament
and you look at all the ways that Paul is trying to help
churches be organized, 1 theme you will not find is Paul
telling women in every church. Remember, Remember when I told
Ephesus, be quiet, women. Actually, what you find is that
Paul honors women in the gatherings, the women that host
house churches. And he says to the church in
Corinth, women when you pray and prophecy, and he gives them
direction. So the Bible never contradicts
the Bible. And the grand view of the New
Testament is that women have a role vocally and verbally in the
church. And Paul would encourage them
with directions for what that should look like the very zoomed
in. So with just in the letter of
first Timothy, we actually find even more reason to just take
the edge right off this verse because I love the new King
James Version of the Bible. I've I learned it, I've
memorized my memory verses in it and I preach from it.
But it's not perfect. And I think this is one of the
areas where the new King James Version does not do us any
favors in its translation. And This is why, if you've
listened to me preach before, I tried to avoid all appeals to
the Greek because I think most translations are great and I
don't speak Greek. But this is a moment where it
pays off to know the root word, and I'll share it with you now.
So when he says learn in silence, he's using a root word
called hey, so Kia in Greek. And where else is that used?
Well, it's used in a couple places in the New Testament,
namely in verse two of the exact same chapter.
So Paul uses the same word in Greek for quietness, quiet and
peaceable life. In verse 2 and silence, Paul's
getting at the same idea when he said pray for our pray for kings
and those and authorities that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life. Choosing the same word that
wrongfully in my opinion gets translated silent for the women.
I think it's much better to to view this as Paul saying to the
women, come in and be quiet. Don't be disruptive.
In fact, all of you are practicing that right now.
What what Paul is trying to create is an environment for the
church to worship and pray and not be distracted by everyone
coming in and murmuring and talking and having side
conversations. And he's speaking to to the
women specifically for that. Not that men can't do that, but
he might be giving some corrective measures to that
specific church. There's another moment happening
on the church calendar right now that gives us a great teaching
view of why this is sometimes necessary.
So another church calendar event that's happening as we speak is
the high school winter camp. And if you've ever been to the
high school winter camp, you know that Parker needs this
Greek word in his heart and his direction because here's what's
going to happen. It probably has already
happened. They go to breakfast, lunch and
dinner, and then they leave the mess hall and they come in and
they actually look more like the New Testament church than we do
because typically girls congregate, boys congregate.
It just happens. And what will happen is that
there will be some that are new to the camp or some that are so
excited, some that are just amped up on cookie, cookies and
carbs that as the the service starts, Parker is going to be
like, alright, let's get in the word.
And there's going to be a bunch of chattering.
And then he's going to say to them, be quiet.
You must be quiet. He and he might even say ladies,
ladies, be quiet. Now he is not saying silence.
All of the youth girls of our church.
He's saying we have a gathering and it's not cabin time anymore
and it's not the mess hall anymore.
In the gathering we need to be respectful and quiet.
And with that in mind, we can now look at the second spicy
word of the passage, which is be be silent or quiet in
submission. Let a woman learn in silence
with all submission. So let's think about that word.
I'll give you a couple of official definitions and then a
definition that I find helpful as I just meditate on this.
Submission is to be arranged under a person in charge.
Right now, you guys and you girls are all being submissive.
Great job. You've tested out of the class.
There will be other areas of execution for this where you
need to practice it again, but you're just being arranged under
the authority of the Word as I preach it, and you're doing
great. It's a military term that just
means ranked under. And so here's how one
commentator gives us a picture of why this is not something to
run from. This is something that helps us
bring order and structure and a blessing so that we can do these
kind of things without it being an annoying distraction.
Here's Warren Worsby. Anyone who has served in the
armed forces knows that rank has to do with order and authority,
not with value or ability. Just as an army would be in
confusion if there were no levels of authority, so society
would be in chaos without submission.
And so it is with what we're doing right now and other
executions of it, like in home groups or in the kids ministry
or in youth group or in ways that we do small gatherings.
There needs to be an honoring of that moment where people are not
loud, they're being quiet, and they're not being argumentative
or disruptive. They're being submissive to the
moment. So here's my my simple
definition of submission because as a pastor, I think it's our
life work to to unpack certain words and submissions, just one
of them. So here's my most recent
definition with just two words because I think the simpler the
better. And these kind of instances,
submission is to be teachable and agreeable.
When you open the word, are you someone who's here to learn it?
You're teachable. And are you someone who's there
to have an open heart for what it might be saying to you and
how it gives direction to your life?
So here are two Tucker mail definitions.
You can throw them out. They're not official, but here
they are. Teachable a gentle spirit ready
to intently listen and learn from those who are leading and
teaching. Are you here ears to hear?
Are you here to listen? What is the word saying?
Not what? I'm already angry because he's
he's covering this topic in ways that I wouldn't or that I don't
agree with. Agreeable.
Here's my definition. A willingness to come under
those in a leadership role with a supportive and cooperative
spirit. So rather than every leadership
decision, every leadership teaching, every leadership
moment, you're like, not how I would have done it.
It's like, hey, I'm going to do my best to be supportive.
And in the way that this unfolds for the church, there are
certain roles that are going to be called into leadership.
And then for everyone else, be teachable and agreeable.
So very simply, what I would share on behalf of Paul from
first Timothy to the women, and I would say men, just like when
we shared on prayer, we said praying is just lift your holy
hands and surrender supplication, submission to God.
And you know women, you can pray that way too.
Men, this is a great way for you to have a heart posture for this
gathering as well. There are three things that I
think we clearly see in Paul's direction to women in the
gathering. Be peaceable, be teachable and
be agreeable. You find that for the gathering
for time in the word and you can take that in other areas that
the word calls you to submission and it's no longer a spicy word.
It is a healthy, joyful God honoring act that you can offer
to your spouse that you can train your children in all we're
saying when we say we're going to Commission you parents to
train a child in the way should go.
Teach them to be peaceable children.
Teach them to be teachable children and teach them to be
agreeable, to follow your lead and where.
Whatever the Bible calls you to submit, which we said it last
week, I'll say it again, all of us are being called to submit in
a certain office or area of our life.
Could be your work, could be under the elders of this church,
could be the word of God, It could be the God in prayer.
Be peaceable, be teachable and be agreeable.
So that is what that is the do's.
That's what you should do as we think through the gathering and
Paul is now going to give us the do nots, verse 12.
And I do not permit a woman to a woman to teach or have authority
over a man, but to be in silence, to be once again quiet,
to be peaceable. Two things that Paul is saying
for this particular structure of God's design for government in
the church. He doesn't want the women to
teach and he doesn't want them to have authority.
So once again, we can ask our questions.
We can be stirred with questions and let them drive our our
desire to to really know what what the design is, what it's
really going after. Is this saying that women are
never allowed to preach or teach or share or open the word?
No, there there again, the the the whole view of Paul's
direction to the New Testament church gives us other areas
where women are encouraged to share Titus chapter 2 and
encouragement. Older women teach the younger
women share with them, give them your wisdom.
And I don't think this is trying to set up a system by which
every extension of the church core has to be led by a man.
For example, I don't think this means that women cannot in good
faith to honor God, share with the children of our Sunday
school. And somehow they're now
exercising authority of our church.
They're serving the children of our church under the authority
of the leadership of our church. I know this doesn't mean that
mothers shouldn't teach and share the Word and preach the
gospel to their children. I'm so grateful for the ways
that the Word of God was implanted into my heart by the
person holding the office of mother in my life.
There's a great role for that, and I don't think that this
extends into the world at large. I think that Paul is giving
Timothy very specific governmental structure for the
gathering and the leadership of God's design for church.
And the other office that is closely resembled in that is the
home church, the household of God.
God calls a man to lead and a woman to partner and submit.
And in the same way we see a healthy version of God's design.
When you see this plane out in the home, when men step up to
the plate and they they hear their call of God to not be
lazy, but to work hard, provide for their family and lay down
their life in leadership for their family.
Those are the two offices that are being addressed.
And when we do those well, we give honor to God in his design.
All through this, Paul has been saying, I want you to sound up.
I want you to shore up the doctrine.
Doctrine is authoritative and to teach doctrine is to have
authority of the church. So as we will continue to see
this unfold today with the reasons that Paul is about to
give and as we continue in the letter, Paul is going to give
clear direction for leadership in elders to be men.
And it's the authority of the word to keep the church
according to the design of God. And and before we get into the
the reasons, so we look at 1st 2 verses of the rules and we're
going to look at the reasons. Before we look at the reasons, I
want to share some guidelines to, I hope now cut against the
grain of why sometimes these passages seem so divisive.
These passages, like all portions of Scripture, are for
the benefit of our soul and our gathering and our unity.
God's design is good and perfect, and if we can find it
in a more perfect way, we'll be blessed.
But there's things that are in all ways can get Co opted.
So let me give some guidelines to this.
There is no general rule in this church or in the New Testament
prescriptions and descriptions of a church where all women
should submit to all men. There is a a a submission to
church leadership that God has designed to be the role of man
and your own husband's women and that's it.
So men of the church get no false ideas that we're creating
a hierarchy that is simply men are in charge and all women
submit. That is not true.
And if a man tries that to one of the women, reject them and
report them to security, please. Again, there's there's no
outlawing of any office outside of the family in the church.
Now you could extrapolate the design and you could say, you
know, if I'm I'm setting up my business, I kind of wanted to
mirror a family in a church. But we just don't see guidelines
for the New Testament that prohibits amazing women to go
start businesses and lead organizations and coach teams
and lead a classroom that is out in the the the big world of
influence and power. You are are not prohibited women
from stepping out in faith and whatever you feel God is calling
you and gifting you to do. And I also will say that simply
being a man is not qualification for church leadership.
Once again, this is not a simpleton message to say men are
leaders of the church and that's that.
That will get into qualifications and it is a
narrow gate. In fact, I'll remind all men and
anyone who is in God's gifting and calling, stepping out to
share His Word, what it says in James.
My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we
shall receive a stricter judgment when we look at chapter
3. Starting next week, we'll see
all of the qualities, characteristics, and
qualifications of what it means to fit through the narrow gate
of being called into church leadership and being qualified.
And it is a select few of men that need to lay down their life
to serve the church, and everyone else is called to
follow their lead. And that leads me to the final
guideline that I think is so important to share.
The greatest threat to God's authority and order and design
is not when women don't submit properly.
It's when men don't lead properly.
That is the real threat. It is not a simple fix to say if
only women would submit. I think that is a gross
misunderstanding of what is actually happening in this
church and the church age we live in.
The problem is men look at leadership as something they can
Lord over people and they can stand on stage and be served
rather than serve people. And if we restore and renew and
have a revival of what Jesus Christ gave us in the picture of
leadership, the church would be cleansed from all of the ways
that we have lost the trust of the culture.
So I'll remind us once again, Matthew chapter 20.
Jesus called them to himself and said, You know that the rulers
of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who are great
exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among
you. But whoever's desires to be
great among you, let him be your servant, And whoever desires to
be first among you, let him be your slave.
Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve
and gave his life a ransom for many, leadership is to be the
first one to die. Leadership is in the household
for a man to be the first one to lay down your life.
Leadership is to be the one that is called to mirror the service
and the washing of feet and the selflessness of Christ.
It is not to mirror the outside world lording over selfish
positions. And so those are the principles
that we, I, I hope, can honor God in a way that He gives us
grace to do. And now we go to the final part
of this, when we'll have to move quickly.
And I assure you, I've thought a lot more about this than I'm
going to say about it because we're limited on time.
But I think that we have in principle, some solid reason
from Scripture to look at this and say, God, we want to submit
to you. Now as a church, it might not be
culturally trendy. It might not win US any points
with the outside world who's looking for a relevant church
that's figured out all the ways to, to to mirror the culture.
But if we submit to God's design and we know what we're standing
on, then he'll, I believe he will honor us.
And here's how we can do that with reason.
We can reasonably do this. So first Timothy chapter 2
verses 13 and 14 for this is Paul giving his defense for Adam
was formed first, then Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the
woman being deceived fell into transgression.
So more questions why is Paul bringing up Adam and Eve and I
will share with you there's this is such a contended passage of
Scripture. There are more theories on this
that can be shared probably even at a time Velasco midweek on one
verse. But I will I will share with you
at least some people's understanding of this.
Some are going to point out that there was a popular Gnostic
secret knowledge teaching at the time that Paul was having to
fight against. They might also put that in the
shadow of the cult of Diana, who was the, the, the, the goddess
that the town of Ephesus worshipped.
And they will say, you know, there was actually a myth that
Eve was born first and that myth gave rise to women who were
power hungry and they were priestesses and they had
religious power in their old ways.
And now they're coming into the church and they're trying to
bring that false unsound teaching chapter 1 into the
church. And you can even say, well,
remember when Paul was talking about endless disputes on
genealogy, maybe you could go all all the way back to the
first genealogy and said it was actually even an Adam.
Now, I don't know enough about Artemis and the cult of Diana
and Artemis to to give you all of the footnotes as to why they
come to that. And I say maybe that's true, but
what I can tell you it's not true just to make this whole
argument cultural. So if you're making the Artemis
the Artemis argument, saying you know he's all he's doing is
pushing against a cultural argument.
You can say that as long as you realize that to use creation as
one of your reasons means you're transcultural, that this is
stand on this truth because you live in a culture that is going
to push against not just this one, but in the future
unpredictable things that culture will push against.
Creation is always used transculturally.
When you talk about Genesis, you're talking about how God
founded the world. Creation informs reality.
And so when he says let's go all the way back to the beginning,
he's saying let's go to something that is free from
cultural influence. And we see this technique or
this defense using creation in other areas of the New
Testament, Jesus defending marriage.
For this reason, a man should leave his father and mother,
cling to his wife. They should become one and what
God brings together let no man separate.
He was going all the way back to the beginning of the story of
man and woman in the garden to defend monogamy against divorce.
And then we have Paul prohibiting homosexuality.
Romans chapter 1. He says you're going against
nature when you when woman lays with woman, she's doing
something unnatural. Go all the way back to getting
and it's man and woman. So he appeals to the beginning
to give information on reality that was being confused by
culture. And now Paul is looking at
creation once again to give us his reasoning.
Man was created first. Or what does that have to do
with authority? Well, we see that man being
created first was actually a special detail of the creation
account that we don't find in the animals.
We don't see that there was a male tiger and then a female
tiger and that is supposed to give us some story of how they
interact with each other. It was God created everything
and where he gives descriptions, they matter.
And he says Adam was created 1st and the woman was taken from
Adam a step further. The command, the only command,
the authority that God gave to Adam to know the rules of the
garden was given to Adam before Eve, which means you could by
reason say that Adam then had to give it to Eve.
God gave Adam authority, and Adam shared that authority with
Eve. He's appealing to creation, to
inform reality. And I will say it here and in
other areas, the creation account matters.
By wisdom, God founded the world.
As culture goes back and forth, up and down with tides and
currents, we can always say there is a reality that was
before all of it. And we see it here that man was
created before a woman. And so now we have another
question because he says in verse 14, Adam was not deceived,
but the woman was deceived and fell into into transgression.
So why does Paul, after already making a sound reason for order
of creation, there is order in creation.
Why does he bring up Eve's deception?
So I can give you a few vague answers, one bad answer and
maybe my best guess at an answer.
And then we'll we'll do the same thing with the most confusing
verse in the Bible in verse 15, a vague answer.
Some will say, you see the reason Eve was deceived is
because she wasn't being educated.
So Paul is just making a defense to bring her into the classroom.
And you will find that argument for people who think this is
more cultural and has more things to do with just that
specific church bringing women in, I think that's vague.
We don't really see that anywhere in the text.
I also think there is a bad answer and this may be an answer
you have heard or you have been taught.
I remember hearing this answer and thinking that might make
sense, but it kind of goes to why it's a bad answer.
One of the answers is he's saying it because women are more
easily deceived than men. So the reason that women should
not be in leadership and shouldn't be in places of
overseeing the church is because remember what happened when
you've got deceived. Let me just say, as we've looked
for different ways to try to understand what Paul is saying,
one of the tools we've used this theme of Scripture.
We don't see a theme of Scripture where women are
continually just deceived and men are always there to be like,
shoot, let me explain this to you so men don't cling on to
this one. We actually see a theme of
Scripture, other instances where the women kind of save the day.
I think of probably the most important moment for the church
to get right is the resurrection and the events leading up to it.
And thank goodness for the women who did not have their blinders
on. There was a woman when everyone
was wondering what Jesus was doing.
There was a woman who said, I'm going to anoint him for what's
about to happen. She anointed him as Christ in
preparation for the triumph. That was a woman.
And then of course, we can talk more about this on Easter.
But the empty tomb, there were a bunch of men who are not in the
Easter empty tomb story. They're actually hiding afraid
in the upper room, locked doors, not sure what's happening.
And there were some really brave women, women who are like, let's
figure this thing out. And then they report to everyone
what actually happened. And then the men didn't believe
them and they're kind of shamed for not believing the account of
the women. So in those two instances and
others, men, you have your own versions of this.
I just want to set the story straight that men are equally as
gullible and deceived as women. And for my own story, when I
first heard that women are easily deceived, I thought that
makes sense, I'm going to go with that.
And I was like, all right, didn't even think about it.
Nope, Nope. I was deceived.
I totally got deceived on that teaching.
So I would say that is not the take away from this moment of
the creation account. We go on to point out that Paul
is not just wholesale saying Eve should not be trusted, Adam
should be. Romans chapter 5 verse 14.
Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those
who did not sin according to the likeness of the transgression of
Adam. Adam is the federal head.
He was given the authority of the commandment and the
responsibility of the fall. So what could he be saying?
Well, I, I hope that it's clear that he's not saying that women
are worse than men, but I also hope that it's clear that he's
trying to point out that women are also not inherently better
than men either. There is for our cultural
pushback moment, the idea that's what's really wrong with the
world is this thing called the patriarchy.
And once we dismantle it, put women in charge, the future is
female feminism will win and the world will be at peace and we'll
all be rich and no one will fight anymore.
And to that I would say to any of the raging feminists, I would
say, you know, Eve was deceived too.
It's not as though that in the very beginning of human history,
man and woman didn't have a fair shot at showing us their
susceptibility to folly. The answer is not we just need
to replace this whole system with females.
The answer once again is that God has a created order and we
need to restore and renew it to His glory and do it in His
design, where men are serving in washing feet and laying down
their lives and women are being honored and honoring those who
they are called to partner and submit unto.
So finally we come to what many consider the most confusing
verse in the Bible. And so if I don't get it right,
I actually feel pretty good about that.
Read along with me. Nevertheless, she will be saved
in childbearing if they continue in faith, love and holiness with
self-control. What does that mean?
I have questions for everyone of these verses.
This question was really just what?
What is he saying? Again, there are more theories
than we have time to get into. There are so many different ways
that that people try to look at that and say, OK, here's one
idea. If you are faithful, if it says
if you can, if they continue in faith, love and holiness with
self and control, good news, you'll be safe and sound.
No harm will befall you in childbirth.
You'll be saved literally in that moment.
And that's encouraging, and God bless all of the mothers who
have have gone through that amazing act in safety.
But it could could turn into some awkward moments when
faithful, loving believers in Jesus fall prey to the sad
statistics of what's happened over the course of human history
with childbirth. It's not the magic bullet to say
if they died, they weren't following Jesus, and if they
lived, they were. So I'm not sure that is a very
helpful reading of it. Another reading is that women
are saved in the sense that they're set apart not for
literal birthing of the child, but for raising and child
bearing in the same idea that, you know, men, you have a role
to lead the household to work hard and provide women.
You have a role and it's an awesome role and you're set
apart for that role. And there are some versus even
in Timothy where we could see Paul hinting that he's
encouraging the women to maybe fight against a cultural moment
where because of the cult of Artemis and because of the
movement of women in in places of power, Maybe there was a, a,
a preview of to modern fantasy where feminism where these women
were encouraged to just go out, create their own life, abandoned
families and not have kids. And so Paul says in first
Timothy chapter 4, verse three, he says some are teaching
doctrines of demons, forbidding some to marry.
He didn't like that idea. First Timothy chapter 5, he says
that, you know, there's a problem with the widow.
Some of you are real widows. Some of you are just delaying
getting married so that you can qualify for the widow program.
If you're wrong, get married and have kids.
And then he says it again, I therefore desire younger widows
marry bear children. Chapter 5, verse 14.
So again, for this specific church, he's trying to give them
direction. And one of the directions is it
is a blessing for women to take part in that role.
Now the problem I have with leaving it there is of course,
Paul. Also another area says it's good
to be single too. You don't have to have kids if
God doesn't call you to it. And it's certainly is not Paul's
teaching to attach any work, let alone childbearing, to your
salvation. So lest we think that your
salvation as a woman is attached in any way to how fruitful you
multiply children, I think we reject that.
But we do say Paul's pointing out a role here.
Paul's saying your role may not be to lead the church on the
elder team, but your role may be something to do with
childbearing. Here's how I put it in my
museum. The gospel is a double edged
sword. On one side, it elevates the
status of all people. Women are not second class
citizens. They belong in the gathered
church to learn. Praise God, the gospel is all
inclusive. On the other side, the gospel
humbles the positions of all women of wealth and status in
the world and are called to live with a quiet and peaceable
spirit in the Kingdom. Praise God.
The gospel humbles all to a culture of misogyny.
The gospel lifts women's up to a culture of feminism.
The gospel calls women to humility.
And the gospel should be A2 edged sword for every single one
of us. You struggle with forgiveness,
Turn the other cheek. You struggle with the idea that
God is going to punish the wrath.
He's going to pour out his wrath on ungodliness.
Sin is real and it's destroying our world.
The gospel will always come to offend one part of the culture
and lift another part up, and it will do it in a way that honors
God. We should expect to be offended,
living, breathing this cultural air.
We should expect the gospel to cut against some of the ways
that we are products of the world that we've been placed in.
And we should also be a light to the darkness of the culture that
needs to know the actual design that women would not be bankrupt
looking for what it is they're actually supposed to be doing in
the world, in the church. The final reading.
And it will set us up for a time to put everything in its proper
place. The final reading or the final
explanation of this is it says that she will be saved in
childbearing. It very well might be pointing
to a continuation of the creation account started with
Adam before Eve. That's creation Eve with
deceived transgression. Hey, she's going to give birth
and it'll lead to salvation. And that is redemption.
That is the gospel. Eve will be saved when a the
chain of women give birth upon birth and raise children and
maintain families. And thousands of years later
there will be a coming one who will save the world from all of
this confusion and all of this chaos.
And women, you will not be saved from the hierarchy of a church.
Men, we are not saved by becoming leaders of churches.
The salvation comes when Jesus is visibly seen as the only
hope, just as we sang. The only hope that we have for
the cultural debates and the divides and the questions and
the confusion is that there is one Savior.
Of governments, of elder boards, of churches, of pastors who are
amiss, of churches that go off the rails, of households that
are divided and aren't run well. There is one Savior, and it came
through birth. What a beautiful gospel role
that the woman had to bring forth the Savior of the world,
born in a Manger to redeem us from all of the confusion.
There's coming a day when government will be very simple.
There will be a king sitting on his throne and we will all
worship him, and we will shout to the Lord.
And the Bible says when we take communion, we're actually
proclaiming his death until he comes.
I hope that you don't hear this message and think, man, well, we
got to get organized in our hierarchy.
Otherwise we're going to go off the road now that we want to.
But we never emphasize minor things as the thing.
This is how we're going to design it because God told us
to. But the gospel is that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners like us, and we
give him our life. We submit to him by submitting
to everything else.