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

Church Schedule Changes and a Clearer Preaching Method

Betsy, everyone's 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, you know, 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. I mean, we've got a year to change it, right? If we were going to switch from a year, we've 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 have 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've 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.

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 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 it's 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 one, and they look at their watch and they look back and all of a 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 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 it may be 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. It makes us even better for when new people come in, I think. So those are just some things.

Phoebe as a Servant and Leader in Romans 16

Now, since I'm in since I'm already in this thing with the we're in chapter 16, verse one 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 one. 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 and when we'll be coming back.

Is that fair? All right. I think it'll just make it better. It's not going to 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 one. 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 Sincrea. 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. He may be talking about 50 people, but he's commending them for being servants of the Lord in the church.

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 the Galatians chapter three and 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 3, 28. 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 going to 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 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. 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 five, 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 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. 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 that 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. 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 1 Corinthians 11 .3 for a moment.

1 Corinthians 11 .3 says,. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ. Now we see headship and authority, do we not? It's kind of like a top-down discussion here, whereas the first verse in Galatians 3 .28 was sort of horizontal.

The man and the woman are equal before the Lord as far as His love for them, their love for Him, their service, their walk, their relationship. It's equal. But 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 to just be under his submission and I'm just going to lead and you've got to 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'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? Anyone want to tackle that one? God the Father, but if Jesus is God, how can He have a head? So 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 Baptists a little bit. I've still got a lot of Baptists in me. The theology I have is reform, but I don't know. I love the Baptist history. I mean, the Baptists 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, and 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 that is so good to hear that because there are so many cult groups and all the other religions in 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 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 live in three dimensions. It's really hard for us to deal with 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 that the Bible talks about where all becomes one, 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. The Father. 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 think it's like any other illustration of the Trinity.

It doesn't work completely, but it's helpful. You know, like when you 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 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 3 .28 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. And it is not a contradiction of anything we've read in Galatians 3 .28. 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 seems like yesterday to me, but it's quite a while ago, right?

Some of you guys weren't born yet, but I was pre-med for a couple of years and I studied psychology. I took extra psychology. I took a course called Abnormal Psychology, and 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 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 get a punch in there. 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 wanted 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 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 a deity. However, the head of Christ is God. So they are the same in essence, but there is 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 translate into, it'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 kind of said 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 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 baptize. That's not an English word. That's a transliteration. It became an English word. So now when we say the word baptize, we picture water, but 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 prayer than I do and didn't have as many distractions as we do. So I like the way they translated it. Certainly in Romans 6 and 1, the word servant is the correct translation because that's what the word means.

Now, so it literally means it comes from a little Greek word, diako, 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 what the word itself means.

Now when you look at the office of the deacon, it takes on a greater meaning. 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 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 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. Same word. So the only way you can tell is by the context you find it in. A lot of that goes on in 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 deacon. It's talking about servants.

And secondly, when you look at all the scriptures we looked at three Sundays before that about the role of women in the church not being allowed to have authority over men or teach men in the church, then it sort of shows us that it's really talking about servant there, not deacon.

So we talked about that already. So Phoebe was not a deaconess, but rather a humble servant in the syncrean church. And also she was a leader, though, in the correct way in which women may lead according to New Testament scripture, which that's what we're going to talk about, is what is the proper role of the woman.

Doesn't mean she can't be a leader. She can lead in the proper way that God lays out for women in the church. So she was above a lot of the other women servants in the church, because for one thing, Paul called her out and said, you know, look at this woman.

Look what all she has done for all of these churches. And not everyone's at that level, right? Because of her growth, because of her service, her heart, all this, the gifts God gave her and all that. So the word deaconess does not minimize that at all.

And we'll see that as we go further through this. So in Romans 16, two, let's take a look at the next verse in Romans because it talks a little bit more about Phoebe. It says that you receive her in the Lord as becometh saints.

That tells you right there, neither male nor female. You see, he didn't say as becomes wimp, treat her like a woman. He didn't say treat her like a man. He said, treat her like a Christian. So they're neither male nor female is different in that sense.

So he puts that idea in that we saw in the book of Galatians at the first of today. And then he goes on and he says, receive her in the Lord as becometh saints and that you assist her in whatever business she has need of you.

So that shows that she has leadership position. There are things that she is supposed to get done in this particular church and you men and women need to help her get done. What she, what God put her here to do.

So there is a, you see a leadership position there, do you not? For she hath been a sucker of many and of myself also. So now we see two things. She's a servant and this word sucker means, well, the Greek word is prostatis, prostatis, which means an assistant, but also a patroness.

The word patroness is an old English word. We don't use much. They used it in Britain a lot, still do I'm sure. But if you look up in Webster's dictionary, you'll see what that is. It is a wealthy or influential supporter.

Often in today's world, it would be a supporter of maybe an artist or a writer who doesn't make an income. And you have a wealthy, in many cases, a wealthy woman who will give of her family money to this person to support them so they can be an artist until they start making money.

That's a very common use today. So it's one that uses wealth or influence to help an individual, an institution or a cause. And the Greek word means this, and we're just elaborating on what the English word, it defines it as patroness.

So what's that? So that's what it is. And so we can see that she had these leadership abilities. Now also to secure means to furnish relief. It kind of ties together, doesn't it? She goes about finding people in need and she, she furnishes relief to these people.

And so not everyone was doing that. Certainly not every man in the church was doing it and not every woman in the church was doing it. So Paul commends Phoebe because she was doing it. And he told all the men and the women in the church to help her get her business done, whatever she needs, you help her.

And so this is, this is giving us a lot of interesting information. So Phoebe was a servant to the church first, but she was one who furnished relief to others and others were commanded to help her do that.

So she had a leadership role. The word can imply that she was a patroness or an influential supporter who used her wealth and influence to help individuals. And the church was also helped by her as an institution.

Thus, she was a leader in the right way, in her God given role for women in the church. She was a leader within that role. And she rose to the top level in this role, perhaps. So now let's look and see what the proper role is.

Takes us to another level. It is not wrong for her to be a leader, but she must lead within the proper role. Does that make sense? Okay. So turn with me to Romans 16, verse three, the next verse. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus.

Notice that one of those is a female. One is a male. In fact, they happen to be married. And now he's going to commend another woman and her husband. And he says, they are my helpers in Christ Jesus who have for my life laid down their own necks and to whom not only I give thanks, but also all of the churches among the Gentiles give them thanks because they have helped them all.

So here you find another woman who is taking a role of patroness along with her husband in this case. So Aquila and Priscilla lived in Rome at first. And in AD 49, the emperor Claudius issued an edict exiling all the Jewish people from Rome.

Every Jew had to leave the city and these people were Jews. Aquila and Priscilla were Jewish believers in the first century. In fact, the first church in the very earliest, in the early portions of the book of Acts was predominantly Jewish.

That changed even in the book of Acts, even before the book of Acts was over, the history, the timeline that it covers, it became predominantly Gentile or moved in that direction. We saw practices and methods begin to change in the church because of that.

It became less Jewish and it became more like it is today. Mostly a predominantly Gentile, but Jews are part of the church. They get saved the same way as Gentiles. We're all saved by receiving Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and savior.

After he calls us and awakens us and regenerates us and, and saves us. Same thing with a Jew and a Gentile, right? So they lived in Rome, but they were cast out of Rome. So guess where they moved when they had to leave Rome, they moved to Corinth.