Prayer, Modesty and Gender
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
As you learn to ride a motorcycle, one of the things you have to learn to do is fight your feelings. Sometime your natural instincts will get you killed.
God made our reactions to work best at a running pace, but when you start going 60kph, or 100kph with a hunk of metal with over 100hp between your knees, you’re in a whole other realm of physics.
One key area that you need to be careful with is your instincts in cornering. If you’re leaning into a corner on your motorbike, and you feel like you’re going too fast , and you’re going to go wide and fly off the road the worst thing you can do is sit up. It’s what you naturally want to do, but if you sit up, you will definitely go wide and ride off the road.
Another instinct is to stamp on the brake, but if you freak out and grab a fistful of brake, your tyres will lock up, and the bike will slide out from under you because there’s no gyroscopic force holding you up.
So, when you feel like you’re going to fast, you actually need to fight the urge to sit up straight or brake heard, and instead take a breath, lean in, and gently start touching the brakes.
There are two ways that this opening illustration applies to what we’re doing here today.
The topics we’re covering here today can be uncomfortable for some. And you may need to fight your natural instincts. You may want to shut it out, or run away from it, but instead you need to keep your wits about you, take a breath and lean in.
The topics we’re covering sit at odds with the world around us. Our culture is not happy with what the bible has to say bout these things! But we don’t need to apologise or equivocate. Where God is clear in his word, we can stand in confidence that we’re on solid ground. Lean into it. Don’t be sorry or embarassed about what God’s word says. As one commentator puts it: Resolve to have no problem passages. Lean into God’s design and commands no matter what the world says.
Three notes to start us off today...
I’m speaking today into a mixed audience.
What do I mean by mixed? I mean we’re all different people from different places. We come from different countries, different family homes, different generations, different spiritual journeys, different church experiences. And not to mention different genders!
All of us are going to bring different baggage to this passage based off where we’ve come from and what our “default” attitudes are.
On top of that, if you’re a christian you sit here straddling two different worlds. You belong to Christ, being a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, and you’re here as a citizen of the world.
You’re seeking to be in the world, but not characterized by the world.
So lets note that first - we’re different people coming from different places, and I hope that as we tackle this passage this morning, wherever you’re coming from, we can all understand God’s word better and be shaped by His word to be more and more faithful people. Wherever you’re coming from, we love you
Right now, in our cultural moment one of the areas that is most likely to cause you consternation if you seek to be a faithful christian, is what God has to say about gender roles.
Now I know even just saying the words “gender roles” has probably put me on some ASIO watch list. Plenty of propaganda seeks to undermine and dilute any such concept of gender roles. It comes from government departments, from media, from academics with agendas, from institutions, and even from “churches”. I’ve lost track of the number of pamphlets in doctors offices that makes gender roles a viscous boogeyman. I reckon there’s about 3 ABC articles a week that seeks to undermine ideas about gender and validate alternate worldviews as a more modern and healthy way to live.
So at the front, I want to put my finger on this issue. We all know it’s a problem, if not with our own views, it’s certainly a controversial issue in many places. You may be uncomfortable here today just because we’re even talking about the issue.
So lets note that second - we’re going to talk about gender roles in church, and it’s going to be awkward. You might get offended, but although I’m not setting out to offend you, it is better for us to get to clarity on God’s word and to be offended by it and have to grapple with it, than to sit back in blissful ignorance.
But it’s something that every Christian needs to grapple with. And if you’re not a Christian yet, it’s something you will need to consider if you do become a Christian.
Everyone needs to figure out what to do with this text.
Some options include:
It’s not really God’s word, so I can ignore it as misogynist ancient literature.
This doesn’t apply in the church today, and here’s the reasons why…
This does apply to the church today, and here’s the reasons why…
But here’s the thing, I’m not going to pretend like I’m some impartial party that has no dog in this fight. I’m not a lecturer just walking you through the potential options. It would be somewhat disingenuous for me to sit here and pretend otherwise. But I do hope and pray that I will proclaim God’s truth clearly, and as we let God speak from His Word there will be clarity about what God really wants his church to be like.
So lets note that third: I am convinced that it is the word of God. It is quite clear what it means (except for v15). and, there is no reason to believe that any of this should be dismissed as cultural hold-ups.
As we work our way through the text this should be very clear.
But what is the outcome of all of this. If the text is pretty clear, as we shall soon see, then all that remains is for us to hear and heed it. Or as I regularly remind my children, we must “listen and obey”.
Whatever God has for us to do as a church, we must be quick to act in accordance with His commands. Even if our hearts are
Now, as I talk, I may use shorthand or turns of phrase, that may grate against you, and you might not think it the best.
I’m working on the fly. Despite my best efforts to prepare well and be deliberate about what I say, my manuscript is is a guide, and I make changes, additions and adaptions on the fly as I preach. Sometimes that works really well, and sometimes I get tripped up and stick my foot in my mouth.
As I talk about this stuff, please give me a little charity.
Lets Pray:
MY MASTER GOD,
I am desired to preach today,
but go weak and needy to my task;
Yet I ask that your people might be edified
with divine truth,
that an honest testimony might be borne
for you;
Give me assistance in preaching and prayer,
with heart uplifted for grace and unction.
Present to my view things pertinent to
my subject,
with fullness of matter and clarity of thought,
proper expressions, fluency, fervency,
a feeling sense of the things I preach,
and grace to apply them to our consciences.
Help me to offer a testimony for you,
and to leave us inexcusable in neglecting
your mercy.
Give me freedom to open the hearts of your people,
and to set before them comforting considerations.
Attend with power the truth preached,
and awaken our attention.
May we be refreshed, melted, convicted,
comforted,
and help me to use the strongest arguments
drawn from Christ’s incarnation and sufferings,
that we might be made holy.
I myself need your support, comfort, strength,
holiness,
that I might be a pure channel of your grace,
and be able to do something for you;
Give us me refreshment among your people,
and help me not to treat excellent matter
in a defective way,
or bear a broken testimony to so worthy
a Redeemer,
or be harsh in treating of Christ’s death,
its design and end,
from lack of warmth and fervency.
And keep me in tune with you
as I do this work.
Instructions on Men & Prayer
Instructions on Men & Prayer
v8
What we said last time:
Teaching Timothy how to run a church
wage the good spiritual warfare against false teaching.
Our ground is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ
In Church we offer all kinds of prayer, for all kinds of people, remembering that God desires the salvation of all peoples across the world.
Jesus is the mediator for all those people, whose very life is a ransom paid to secure the freedom
Off the back of this Gospel summary, Paul the says this:
For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Paul is an apostle!
This is an interesting thing to add here, in light of what Paul is about to say next. Paul is
What follows is NOT Descriptive (what happened), but Prescriptive (what we must do). He is instructing in how to run church on the basis of his role and authority.
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;
I desire - Apostolic will - I intend, I purpose, I
Every place - continuing the “All” theme. All the church gatherings.
Men - specifically adult males (as opposed to the collective “men”/mankind/people, earlier in the chapter).
The men should lead the prayers mentioned in the previous part of the chapter - for all people.
How should they pray?
Lifting holy hands - a literal posture of prayer, but also a euphemism for doing it in a ritually pure way, as opposed to, anger or quarreling.
Without anger -
Without quarreling - arguing, at odds
Not about posture specifically, but about attitude. But yes, if people lift their hands in song and other prayer, that's completely OK!
Presumably this was an issue in the church of the day. And not unheard of in our own day - I have heard stories of guys who will stand up and pray competing prayers in church!
Don’t confuse answering accusations or defending doctrine with being quarrelsome!
We need more men who will step up and first be willing to fight for holiness in their manner of life, who will humble themselves before Jesus, and then be willing to take responsibility to pray in church. It will be done decently and in order, under the direction of the Elders.
But don’t come to me and say “I’m ready to lead the congregation in prayer” - show me that you are ready. Show me in your homes.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Instructions on Women & Modesty
Instructions on Women & Modesty
v9-10
A frought topic - modesty. The mere mention of the word in some circles would give rise to cries of oppression and misogyny.
We must remember that Christianity is the religion that gives freedom to women! This is what it has always done, from the foot of Mount Sinai down to the present day - God has always Given his women freedom, protection and love.
In the context of Roman culture, Christian freedom for women was a concern, and like all freedoms, some took it upon themselves to abuse it, and sin with it.
The women were not immune from this.
As Christianity upset the gender norms of Roman culture, there were men and women in the church who used it as a license to sin.
They may not have seen it that way,
In contrast to the men, women are given different instructions.
likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.
Double meanings - dress nicely outside & inside
Yes, dress well physically, but focus on the inside
Modesty - not too much, not too little.
No modesty guides, but we know in our heart what we’re aiming for.
If all you have is a skimpy outfit, butter that you wear that than nothing, but if we have a choice, we wear clothes that point away from us and to God.
There is a place for attracting attention to ourselves
God made women beautiful. He made you attractive to half the human race by design.
And in certain contexts you should make that beauty shine, like as a bride on her wedding day. Yet even there the beauty is veiled.
In the privacy of your marriage chamber that beauty should be fully unveiled in all it’s glourious wonder for the mutual joy of husband & wife in magnificent consummation.
But in Church, we don’t come here to see your beauty. You are the crown of mankind, but in church we come to glorify God, not his creation (as good as it is)
So don’t make yourself the centre of attention, with too much or too little.
The problem in Ephesus - Fancy clothes showing off wealth.
Our tenancy - show off good figure, style,
Comes from the heart - what you display to the world means something.
Paul says start dressing from the inside out
Adorn yourselves with self control, good works.
Goes beyond church - it’s not like as soon as you get outside you can strip down to super tight jeans and low cut top and be dripping with Prada. What you wear means something, wand while church clothes will be slightly different to there contexts, the heart behind what you’re showing is still very important.
This is the tenancy of women, but men can fall into the trap too.
Instructions on Teaching & Gender
Instructions on Teaching & Gender
v11-15
Illustration: Once I had a person contact the church I was serving at, saying that they were moving to the town where we were, and that they had seen our church online and they wanted to join our church. They said it looked like “exactly what they were looking for”.
The person move to town, started coming to church.
But after a couple months ai got an interesting email “I notice there are no women up the front”
I explained that we are complimentarian.
That person didn’t come to church again because of this, and instead suggested I reassess my stance on this topic.
This is not uncommon. All the biggest churcues in Sale stand in opposition to our local church on this front.
In the present moment Flooding Creek is the weird one.
But we have deliberately chosen this path on the basis of the clear teaching from the word of God.
What is the clear teaching:
Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
The historical account demonstrates why this is a bad idea:
For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
Adam was the leader, but he passively
Q: How can so many Christians be wrong on this?
Q: How can so many Christians be wrong on this?
The assumption behind this question is that the somehow the number of people who beleive a certain truth is a sign of it’s validity.
Let we answer a question with a question. Who’s wrong? Is it the church for the last 1900 years? Or large segments of the church now? Either way you go on whether or not women can teach in church, you end up saying a large number of people are wrong. Either all those before us have misunderstood it and cut women out of the authority structures of the church unjustly, or the modern movement toward women in leadership is a departure from faithful Christianity. Either way you end up saying lots of people a wrong, and that’s ok.
Despite your cultural conditioning, it is ok to say “you’re wrong”. We do it because we love people and we want them to know the truth.
In this case, it is those who say it’s ok for women to be in positions of church authority. We can confidently say, without any malice toward their gender, “You’re wrong. You’re in sin.”
Q: Why do you have to be so dogmatic?
Q: Why do you have to be so dogmatic?
Some may ask “why do you have to be so dogmatic? Why can’t you share alternative interpretations an leave us to figure it out?”
Well, when there are genuinely unclear parts of scripture, and that’s what we do do! But often the things that get the most “alternative interpretations” are the things where actually the Bible is pretty clear and it is just inconvenient for our own desires.
Gender roles is one of those things that is quite clear, but it has been “obfuscated” in last hundred years or so. And we will not let the clamour of the world and their critiques drive our biblical interpretation.
So what we try to do from the pulpit here is not pretend like there are valid viable alternatives to clear Gospel teachings, but when there is genuinely a passage that is not clear, we do flesh it out and discuss the options. Then I will suggest the one that I believe to be the best understanding of the text.
v15 is one place where there is genuine difficulty in understanding what God is saying. But the answer is not to suggest it doesn’t matter, lets instead dive in!
Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
This has been notoriously difficult to interpret. Lets walk through it, with a little grammar trivia to bring a little clarity.
“She”/”they”. This is not early attempts at mixing pronouns! Paul is commenting on a typical woman, a woman, women. Any Christian lady.
She will be saved - what does that mean?
Does it mean that her eternal salvation is secured through pregnancy? Does this mean men are saved by faith and women by a physical process? It’s absurd! Not only because some women physically can’t have children, or aren’t married, etc. but also because nowhere else in the whole cohort of scripture do we have anything that suggests salvation for women is through having kids.
Perhaps Paul is tying salvation to good works, as other biblical writers do suggesting that childbearing is one of the ways, along with faith and love, a woman can demonstrate her loyalty to God, and thus it is an evidence of salvation. So just like we are justified by Jesus but then we actually start to live in a more righteous way that deserves blessing from God, this view suggests that childbearing is one of those good works that has some merit before God. So, it is a definitely good work for women who are married and medically able to have kids but this view is too abstract from the plain meaning of the text.
A Woman who has usurped authority and started teaching men, will be saved from God’s judgement (not eternal, God’s displeasure) by returning to the natural and good pattern of having children in the context of a holy life. Good option.
The fourth option, and my preferred, is to see this verse in light of the previous verse about Adam & Eve and understand that the childbearing reference here is specifically a reference to the birth of Jesus by the Virgin Mary.
The word “childbearing” here is a noun. Noun = a thing. Like a bearing in your bicycle or car it is a verb in that it does “bearing” but it is a “thing”. In the greek, this phrase literally comes out as “she will (future) be saved - through/by - the childbearing (singular)”
I and others take this as a reference to the seed (singular) of the deceived woman Eve.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
It is through childbearing that all women are saved, the child borne by Mary!
This singular child offspring crushed the head of the Serpent
Sets all women free from their slavery, and will one day undo the curse that even effects your good childbearing with pains, and your desire to dominate your husband (or other men).
Put your faith and love on Jesus, and then bear that faith & love, holiness and self control to the world!
So What?
So What?
Men, lead in prayer without anger or quarreling. Right with each other and with a good attitude.
Women - be modest externally, (dressed appropriately, not too little, not too much) - To honor God & others, not draw attention to ourselves.
but also well dressed internally with self control! With Good works!
Learn in submission to God’s word, carried by your designated leaders. This doesn’t mean you don’t ask, or inquire or challenge, but we do it in the right way with respect to the authorities God has put in place.
God has made men & women a certain way - and there is good value in how we are made differently. But when those good attributes are misapplied, it ends in disaster. Not all men will lead, but there is something intrinsic about masculinity & femininity that means that church leadership is not for women. Just like it’s not a bad thing for women to be physically weaker than men, it is not a bad thing for women to be unsuited to church leadership.
If you are married & physically able, pursue childbearing!
But you will be saved through “THE Child” Born of the Virgin who came to save us from our sins!