Romans 16:1-5 - God's Roles for Women in the Church, Pt. 4 (04/30/2023)

Betsy, everyone is saying we're missing you today, we missed your voice. Good morning everyone, good to see you all.

We made this announcement at Sunday school, let me make it again, we've got a little bit of a new schedule, we're going to begin

Sunday school at 10 sharp from now on and be done at 10 till so that we can start this one at 11 sharp and it'll help us to be on a little bit better schedule.

I've had some talks with several people this week about some things that could help our church perhaps be more prepared to grow a little bit.

You know we've been a small country church for so long that we don't really have to worry about exactly when we start, you know those kinds of things and if we're going to have new folks coming in though that are used to that, we don't want that to be a hindrance so we're going to step up our schedule a little bit and one other thing, with some new folks we've had some discussions about when we do the

Lord's Supper, how often and what it means and all that and of course we know what it means so mainly the difference is like how often and so I'm going to get several of us that are interested to start doing a little bit of a study on that as far as the early church fathers prior to Constantine who started the

Roman Catholic Church, he didn't really start it but he funded it. We want to go before him and see if we can see any evidence of early church fathers speaking of the

Lord's Supper and what they thought it meant and things like that to get a clue and of course the scripture is the main reference and we've got that so we may, we probably will begin to have it quarterly instead of once per year as we've been doing it the last few years and I don't have a problem with that,

I don't think I would want to do it every Sunday like some churches because I don't want it to be like something that's not special.

So that's something we'll be discussing together, we're not, I mean we got a year to change it right if we were going to switch from a year we got a little time so we'll have time to do a little bit of a study together, talk about that and then another thing

I have come to learn that because of my method of preaching where, now let me just explain it even you guys been here forever you don't really know how it evolved but when

I first began as a pastor I did topical messages,

I would just pick a topic and preach you know go find scriptures for it and preach on that and one thing about that is you know during the week you got to pray and ask the

Lord well what should the topic be right and that's something that sometimes for a pastor that's the hardest part is picking a topic, anytime you give a speech of any kind picking the topic if you can just get that done you're well on your way right but what

I found was a lot of times I would in my younger years I would be a little out of context perhaps

I would look back later and say you know what I preached that on that verse the verse doesn't even mean that but since I wasn't going verse by verse

I didn't see the stuff above it I just took that verse preached on it so I decided well a lot of my favorite preachers that I read

I like to read the older preachers going back a hundred years ago they would preach verse by verse three books of the

Bible so I thought I'll start that so I started doing that and what

I found was is I went just straight to the verse and the next verse the next verse like this where you maybe get through a whole chapter in one

Sunday it became kind of dry and boring to be honest and so the

Lord showed me after that after I don't know how long of doing that that what's better to me is as you're going verse by verse when you see a major Bible theme or a major doctrine you go off and find parallel passages around the scripture and then you come back and go and continue the verse by verse and as you know that's what

I've been doing ever since I met you guys for sure but longer than that I don't know a couple of decades how long

Raymond forever a long time not forever but for a long time you've heard me do all three types you guys have been here that long so I still feel like that's the best because it's verse by verse you're in context in addition to that the second rule of Bible interpretation is got to fit the whole of the

Bible so when you go off and you look at the parallel passages you're making sure that's true too so it's very strong but what

I've learned in these discussions in the last week is some new people in particular get confused if I say

I'm in Romans chapter 16 verse 1 and they look at their watch and they look back and all the sudden

I'm off in Jeremiah or something and I've started going on this topical thing or I'm talking about the role of women in the church when they think

I'm supposed to be talking about Phoebe and it can be a little confusing well confusion you know

God is not the author of confusion so I'm going I'm going to make some changes not in my method in particular

I still like the idea of tracking the major Bible themes it's really the greatest thing there is is studying systematic theology together that's just my way of doing it but I'm going to try to make it more clear when we're in the verse by verse mode and when we switch to the topical for a while and maybe three

Sundays and then we come back and I'll try to make that more clear we may even make outlines available or something because that's a problem we can solve that makes us even better for when new people come in I think so those are just some things now since I'm in since I'm already in this thing with the we're in chapter 16 verse 1 of Romans where it's talking about Phoebe and other things

I had to point out to some friends this week that I'm not preaching on Phoebe I'm preaching on verse 1

I think I mentioned that last Sunday and so basically where we began this particular verse is where it calls

Phoebe a servant and we pointed out that that's mistranslated in at least five or six very such as the

NIV very popular some more popular than others but some popular Bibles and they interpreted deaconess or deacon which is incorrect and so I chose to talk about that first and I said

I'm going to come back and talk about Phoebe so that's what we've been doing and I need to continue that because I promised that I would come back and talk about Phoebe and also rather than going through the problem created by the word deaconess and talking about the role of women in the church in the negative sense because what that does is allows people to then say well then women should be preachers or they should be deaconesses or things like this which the scripture does not say that that's why we covered that it's a big problem in America today and I said

I'll come back and we'll talk about what is the proper role of women in the church and that's where we are today all right so I'll finish this topical part and then from then on is when

I'll start a slightly new method where it's verse by verse but if I'm going to go into a topic I'll make it clear

I'll try to estimate how long we'll be in it when we'll be coming back is that fair all right

I think it'll just make it better it's it's not gonna it's not a drastic change but I think it will add clarity and that's always good all right so I want to thank the folks that brought that to my attention so let me start this morning we're talking about let me let me get my

Bible open to the right place first that's always a good idea you can turn to Romans chapter 16 verse 1 and let's pray and we'll get started

Lord we thank you so much for the service already today we thank you for the fact that you've brought us together as a church family you've given us love in our hearts for one another and Lord you we help one another through the tribulations of this life in this world and we're here for each other we thank you for that and we thank you for your son

Jesus thank you for the wonderful Sunday school lesson this morning and for blessing that and now we ask you to bless this time in the service bless your word and teach us what you want us to learn today in Jesus name

Amen Romans 16 one says I commend unto you Phoebe our sister which is a servant and that's the word

I have circled from the last several Sundays other than Easter of course she is a servant of the church which is in syncria well we talked about this word servant and now we're going to talk about Phoebe and we're also while we're doing that since what this passage is about is there are about 35 people that are being commended but we can't get the exact count because sometimes he'll say he'll name a person and say and your household so it's more than 34 people 34 35 more than that when he may be talking about 50 people but he's commending them for being servants of the

Lord in the church for in that and for taking it does not mean that Phoebe was not a leader but I'm going to explain that carefully as we talk about the proper role of women in the church on the positive side starting right now so the first verse

I'd like you to go to and we're still in a topical study at this point we're studying the role of women in the church and so Phoebe was doing it the right way she was a servant of the church but she was even a little more than a servant and we'll talk about that as we get to it so to start out today

I'd like to start with Galatians chapter 3 in verse 28 if you turn to that with me and I do like for you to be looking at the scripture when

I'm preaching because I want you to see it's God talking so Galatians 328

I've got lots of women in the church that have been rooting for me to get to this part so here we are

I hope Betsy's listening she was rooting for me too so all right there's neither

Jew nor Greek and you know sometimes that's translated Gentile it's the same the

Greek word there is translated Gentile or Greek there's neither

Jew I'm just gonna say nor Gentile there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus now what does what does that teach us it's an interesting thing where there's no difference in God's view between the

Jew and the Gentile they both have to be saved through Christ receiving Jesus Christ their personal

Lord and Savior do they not and yet the Jew wanted to make a huge difference between the

Jew and the Gentile he didn't the Jew didn't think God would save a Gentile Paul was on them all the time saying no you're wrong

Jesus died for all kinds of men he died for all men right but now he talks about male and female and says there is neither male nor female what does he mean by this well we begin with this verse because it speaks of how

Jesus views his children both male and female as far as the love he has for us and the value that we have to him there is no difference between the sons and daughters of the

Lord what we see as we put this verse in the context of the whole Bible is that though there is no difference with respect to love and relationship and that is between a female in the

Lord or a male in the Lord while there is no difference with respect to the love and relationship and value of the sons and daughters of the

Lord there is a difference with regard to position authority service or you might say ministry so let's illustrate let's keep going a little bit turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5 verse 23 and those two ideas do not contradict and we'll show you a little bit more how scripture lays that out as we go here

Ephesians 5 23 for the husband is the head of the wife and so that shows there is a difference with regard to authority and position but the

Lord loves the husband and the wife the same the Lord values the husband and the wife the same and the husband and the wife can each have the same or one could have a better relationship with the

Lord than the other that has nothing to do with whether you're male or female and it yet at the same time it says the husband is the head of the wife but look what it says next even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the

Savior of the body which means the body is us the church he is our head so here it talks about headship or authoritative structures in time and space on this side of the fall from the

Garden of Eden and we know that in the book of Genesis as soon as they fell and were kicked out of the garden one of the first things

God said to the woman was that she would serve the man that he would have authority over her that was a result of sin ladies and gentlemen but we have to say it didn't surprise

God did it it was God's plan from the beginning but yet at the same time if you go back into the garden before sin you didn't have this authority issue at least it wasn't revealed to them by God yet and there is the principle that Adam was made first and then

Eve was there from the beginning but God had not discussed that with them yet you are you with me after sin

God had that discussion verse 25 in Ephesians 5 says husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it and gentlemen if you ever want to figure out how to get to a place where your wife respects you and honors you like Sarah did

Abraham the key is to love her like Christ loves the church but how do you do that is it even possible or is or is that a something to shoot for or is it even possible

I personally don't think he would tell us to do it if it weren't possible now is it possible to do it every minute of every day

I don't think so because it's not possible to be spirit filled I shouldn't say it's not possible my mentor dr.

Freeman would say it's not probable that we would do it every moment every second of every day that we would choose to be spirit filled but every second of every day that we choose to be spirit filled we will in fact love our wives like Christ loved the church exactly think about you may have never thought about that but it's a fact and ladies that should be an encouragement and ladies when you are spirit filled you will honor love and admire your husband even though he's not perfect because the

Lord tells you to and when you're spirit filled you cannot sin so you will so the key to all of this is to will to be spirit filled more moments of every day that builds really happy marriages builds happy churches where we get along with each other and we're in unity because the holy spirit always brings unity satan wants to bring division the holy spirit always brings unity think about it the more moments that we're filled with the spirit it causes these things to happen and to please the lord now let's look at first corinthians 11 3 for a moment first corinthians 11 3 says but i would have you know that the head of every man is christ now now we see headship and authority do we not levels i mean you can it's kind of like a top down discussion here whereas the first verse in galatians 5 uh i'm sorry galatians 3 28 was a sort of horizontal the man and the woman are equal before the lord um as far as his love for them their love for him their service uh you know their walk their relationship it's equal but now is now we have a vertical concept being set up here where there is a head and there's someone who follows and here we say that every man has a head and it is jesus so in a home the head of the home has to be jesus not the husband do you see that do you think that might help some of these legalistic guys that want the wife to wear something up to here and down to there and you know to just be under his submission and i'm just gonna lead and you gotta listen to everything i do and do everything i say if he understood he's not actually the head of the home jesus is the head jesus is over the man and then look at this and the head of the woman is the man now that that's a hierarchy that is a headship or a leadership or an authority situation but i want you to see this one because this helps us understand all of this and the head of christ is god now how can that be anybody want to tackle that one god the father but if jesus is god how can he have a head so you have you have three but you have one well do you know that there are a lot of baptists i grew up baptist so sometimes i pick on baptist a little bit i still got a lot of baptist in me not the theology i have is reform but the i don't know i love the baptist history i mean the baptist accomplished enormous things in history i believe like every other denomination they all go full circle from god's sovereign to man's running it when that happens it ruins them but i still love the baptist history and yet as i grew up in a southern baptist church i never heard anything except god and jesus are equal jesus is god that's all i heard and and that is so good to hear that because there are so many cult groups and all the other religions of the world are off they don't understand jesus is deity but how do we say then that the head of jesus is god if jesus is god well here's the how jesus and the father are one in essence they are made of the same stuff they are the same in that sense so jesus is fully god and as you say you know i love this theological concept it's totally wrong but i mean we we live in three dimensions it's really hard for us to deal with the what is god the father he is a spirit what's that is it steam is it smoke what is it you don't know what it is you made up a word to describe something you have no idea you don't know what it is all you do know it's everywhere at once and it's also can be outside of time and space but because of the holy spirit god can be inside of time and space and in us and yet the father can be separate from sin by being outside of time and space and then you have jesus who can do both he's been with the father and he said he came forth from the father and then came here to be with us and so in time and space god the father and jesus agreed before there was time or space that jesus would take on the form of men and women humans and he would come here and die for us and the moment that decision was made and otis would say it's a decision that was never made because god wasn't in time he just knew right he just knew but from our viewpoint there was a time when that decision was made and it was before time how about that at that point there became an authority structure where you had the father sending the son and the son later sending the holy spirit and there is that order and it shall always be at least until the end of age upon age upon age the bible talks about where all becomes one the where god becomes all that might change it at that point but until then that authority structure will be there but does that authority structure of the head of jesus being god mean that god and jesus's essence is any different no does it mean that the love is any different or the power is any different it doesn't yes i'm seeing is one holding it all together the father and that is what man is supposed to do for a statement well that's interesting that's a good point that the father could be viewed as holding everything together and that's what the husband does in the home yeah i i think it's like any other illustration of of the trinity it doesn't work completely but it's helpful you know like when you try to say it's like you like try to say it's like liquid ice and vapor they're all h2o kind of helps doesn't it but it falls way short but your illustration helps as well so so here we see that there is an authority structure even when the essence is the same so with a man and a woman the love of god for each is the same the relationship that each can have the potential for that is identical and that's what galatians 328 teaches and yet there is an authority structure that many many scriptures from genesis all the way through the new testament teach that the man is the head of the household in america today women are trained not to like that it's not a problem in our church i'm preaching to the choir here but um and it does it is not a contradiction of anything we've read in galatians 328 it just is how god has set it up because of sin but sin did not surprise the father sin was he's an all -knowing god he did not tell adam and eve that they had to sin in fact he told them not to sin but god knew they would do what they wanted to do and he would hold them responsible for it that was never a surprise to god so here we are and this is how it is when you have families where the man is not the head of the household terrible things happen when i was in college in the 70s it seemed like yesterday to me but it's quite a while ago right some of you guys weren't born yet but um i was pre -med for a couple years and i studied uh psychology i took extra psychology i took a course called abnormal psychology you've heard me mention this before but in that book it mentioned a particular sin problem that is caused specifically by a diminutive father and an overly strong mother and i won't name the sin but that's what caused it that's all been changed in the psychology books today they don't say that anymore but that is what every universally 100 of every uh psychology text said in 1975 all right so you see that's a problem if the man is not the leader he needs to be the leader and the spiritual leader in the home and the wife needs to be a follower knowing full well that she has complete access to god as he does and may even be closer to him than he is but it still doesn't change the authority structure it can mess things up in the home if it's not right though can it and whose fault is that ladies no don't say it men ladies say finally you let me finally let me get get a punch in there it's it's the man's fault when it's not right god holds the man accountable and so there's so much we could say about it if we want to do a full -blown study on marriage and the role of the man and the woman but we're trying to hold this to the topic of in the church right but you can't you can't just have in the church because the church is built of homes and so it has to be right in both places one before the other actually so obviously god and christ are one in essence the father and the son are deity however the head of christ is god so they are the same in essence but there's an order in their authority structure at least in time and space which is where we live so the same is true of the man and the woman they are equal in essence before god but there is an order and authority and service while on the earth so phoebe was first of all a servant now this word servant is diakonos in the greek and we have an english word that sounds very similar what does it sound like deacon right and it is used to uh translate in today's not really translation it's a transliteration it's not even a real english word well it is now but it wasn't and it was called a transliteration where you took the greek word and you just try to kind of set it in texan right instead of diakonos you just said deacon and you made an english word out of it that's called a transliteration it can be a good thing and a bad thing it's a good thing because it enables the translators to put deacon when they are when they think the scripture is talking about the office of the deacon in the new testament which it is an office and they put servant when they think it's not talking about the office but the word never meant deacon it means servant you have to keep hold of that one other word that bothers us in that same way is the word baptized that's not an english word that's a transliteration it became an english word so now when we say the word baptized we picture water but it does in greek it doesn't always mean water in fact usually it doesn't mean water it means to be surrounded by something or engulfed in something so would it have been better maybe if they just translated engulfed i don't know but i'm not going to quibble with the translators they were smarter than i and pray more than i do and didn't have as many distractions as we do so i like the way they translated it certainly in romans 61 the word servant is the correct translation because that's what the word means now so it literally means it comes from a little uh greek word diaco which means to run an errand it can mean an attendant or a waiter one who waits tables or other menial duties now that's that's what the word itself means now when you look at the office of the deacon it takes on a greater meaning and you say well how do you know i know because the scripture also tells us the role of the deacon and the qualifications of the deacon and when you read the qualifications you see that there are some leadership concepts that you want to look for when you pick a deacon the one thing that i see that's overwhelming that's missing is he does not have to be apt to teach whereas the elder does and larry you might come up with some other slight differences too that i'm not thinking of because you're you you you grew up in churches where they had elders and we grew up in baptist churches where they didn't have any elders they just had deacons and one pastor but we both have the same bible and that's why we've switched to elder rule here or we're in the process of accomplishing that switch we believe in that let me just put it that way so that's one of the outstanding differences but but there are leadership qualifications and qualities of a deacon so when it's the office of the deacon it does not just mean that they take care of menial duties but that's what the word means the same word so the only way you can tell is by the context you find it in a lot of that goes on the bible even more in the old testament with hebrew so phoebe was not a deaconess and we discussed why last time two reasons because it lists 34 other people that weren't deacons and it's the same word they're all servants so in the context it's not talking about the office of the demon deacon it's talking about servants and secondly when you look at all the scriptures we looked at three