The Church and Her Widows

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Please enjoy the following sermon. There is a form of Christian liberalism that prevails in many churches today, even in many reformed, if I can put it this way, doctrinally meticulous congregations.

And this brand of liberalism comes in the most pernicious of forms.

It is the tendency amongst otherwise sound churches to elevate the importance of doctrine.

There's nothing wrong with the importance of elevating doctrine, but elevating the importance of doctrine to the neglect and exclusion of the ethical and charitable duties of the church.

Now, make no mistake about it. In your Bible, sound doctrine is never placed in competition with sound living.

By God's standards, Christians are never forced to choose between careful theological precision and a robust sacrificial love for others.

But sadly, this is exactly what we see in many churches, including in many churches in the broader reformed movement.

In certain places, if you were to suggest that it is right for a church to devote a generous portion of its budget and manpower to its charitable ministries, that is, its ministry of mercy, its ministry of benevolence, you might even say its ministry of justice.

If you were to do that, you would be met in some groups, in some circles, with suspicion.

If you were to suggest that the church should be in all of its efforts eager to remember the poor, just to subtly slip in a quote from the

Apostle Paul in Galatians 2 .20, you might be accused of favoring a social gospel.

And heaven forbid that you ever imply that it might be right for Christians to sell their possessions to meet the real needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Such a proposition would be considered the fanciful language of a social justice warrior or of a so -called communist

Christian. And yet, in many of these churches, you would find a peculiar inconsistency, an inconsistency that I think we must be careful of in our church.

In many places, you would find a zealous commitment to the priorities that Paul outlines in 1

Timothy chapters 1 through 4. These churches would be all about countering false teachers, praying for the salvation of all people, upholding biblical standards for godly manhood and womanhood.

They would highly esteem the offices of the church, take seriously the church's mandate to promote and to protect the truth.

They would be all about the public reading and preaching of Scripture. They would even be about the diligent self -watch, watch on themselves and on their teaching.

But there would be a notable absence of any emphasis on the ethical teachings found at least in the first half of 1

Timothy chapter 5. There'd be a robust application of what we've studied so far in this epistle to Timothy.

We'd see all of chapter 1, 2, 3, 4 in steady application.

But then in some cases, a wholesale neglect of certain parts of these final two chapters.

In fact, as I have studied this passage, not only over the last week, but having preached it in years past,

I've come across Bible teachers who would imply that everything in 1 Timothy chapters 1 through 4 is highly relevant to the church today.

Well, 1 Timothy chapter 5 verses 1 to 16 is of little relevance in our time.

Some have said that because there is an abundance of government services and social programs that care for the elderly and the vulnerable and the infirm, the church has been relieved of this duty and this responsibility almost altogether.

And at first glance, that might seem kind of reasonable. After all, some of the people that say this very thing have been fierce defenders of biblical inerrancy and of what we would call conservative

Christian values. But I want to assert right here and now that if any church maintains a commitment to studying and understanding and applying most of the

Bible while intentionally setting aside other parts of scripture as irrelevant, this is simply another form of theological liberalism disguised as conservative

Christianity. To say we will take this part and we will guard it jealousy, and this part we can do with or without it.

The promotion of sound doctrine is never at odds with the ethical obligations of the church.

To the contrary, to quote one Bible scholar, ethics is the testing ground of all sound doctrine.

How we live, how we apply our doctrine ultimately reveals what our doctrine actually is.

So brothers and sisters, today as we find ourselves now in first Timothy chapter five,

I have no intention of succumbing to that temptation so long as I can keep talking.

To set aside this passage or any other because it is out of vogue or costly or because the government has taken it upon itself to try to fulfill this mandate, albeit poorly.

As we will see here, Paul shows us that a biblically ordered church not only emphasizes prayer and the ministry of the word, it not only emphasizes qualified officers and the upholding of the truth, but a biblically ordered church also prioritizes the ministry of mutual love and care for the body.

The church as we will see is not merely a preaching center. It is not merely an evangelistic outpost.

The church is a family. It is a family that jealously guards the truth.

It is a family that prioritizes all that God prioritizes. And it is a family that walks by a biblical ethic that directs us to a kind of sacrificial love that the world has no category for.

So we'll look today at the church's care for her widows, as I've titled it.

And I want to invite you today to a fuller experience of biblical Christianity. One where doctrine touches all of life.

And so we have first Timothy chapter five before us. Brother, I'm going to cough a couple of times.

If you want to just turn me down for a second. If you want to turn to first Timothy five verse one, and I'm going to cough.

And Sam, I have this in full manuscript form. I might need your help. I'm not sure.

We'll see. It says, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity.

Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents.

For this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow left all alone has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

But she who is self -indulgent is dead. Even while she lives command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach.

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband and having a reputation for good works.

If she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted and has devoted herself to every good work, but refused to enroll younger widows for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith.

Besides that, they learn to be idlers going about from house to house and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies saying what they should not.

So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households and give the adversary no occasion for slander.

For some have already strayed after Satan. If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them.

Let the church not be burdened so that it may care for those who are truly widows. So today

I'm going to expound this text under three headings and we're going to do it in somewhat of a piecemeal fashion.

I'm going to hone in on various verses along the way and we're going to look at these three headings, the church as a family, the church's care for widows and then the character of true widows.

And so we'll look first at the church as a family. Verses one and two, we see Paul's instruction in this respect.

I'm not going to read it again just to spare my voice. Now what we'll see here is this. If you can recall the context from last week,

Paul has given Timothy instructions on how he is to conduct himself as a young minister of the gospel.

Last week we heard about some of the aspects of his ministry that he was to prioritize. The public reading of scripture, of exhortation and of teaching.

We also saw that he was to set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

And as Paul goes on, he enters now into his instruction in chapter five and he's next showing Timothy that he should be exemplary in his relations with every member of the church family.

And while his words are brief, they are instructive. In verse one, he says, do not rebuke an older man.

Now this word rebuke in context means to censure severely. And what

Paul has in mind here is not the prohibition of speaking the truth in love, but it is a warning against the harsh treatment of older men.

Now some might ask why our older men spared such treatment. Certainly Paul could have quoted from a passage like Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 32.

There we read something that I think most of us would be well to be reminded of in the church today. You shall stand up before gray head and honor the face of an old man.

You shall fear your God. I am the Lord. Now that's a good reason in and of itself,

God commands us to show deference to older men. But Paul does not root the treatment of older men alone in this divine command.

Instead, he roots it in the transformed relationship that the Christian enjoys with the older man.

We see this when he writes, encourage him as you would a father. The reason why

Timothy and each one of us is to interact with older men in a gentle and conciliatory manner is not only because God commands it, but because we are both members of the household of God.

What this means is that I am to show that man, that man the same honor that I owe my earthly father, because we have both been adopted into God's family.

Because he is not a mere acquaintance. He is not a mere friend.

He is not a fellow club member as if this is a social club. But he is a part of God's redeemed family.

And as such, my relationship to him is as near to anyone on this earth for the exception of my own wife.

Now I grant that my case would be rather tenuous if I was basing this idea of the church family entirely on this one phrase.

But watch what Paul does. Not only should we encourage older men as fathers, but younger men as brothers.

And the word encourage here that Paul uses speaking about all of these groups is an interesting one.

It means to exhort, to comfort, or to strengthen. It's the same word that speaks of the

Holy Spirit's ministry to believers in the world today as our paraclete or as our comforter.

And what Paul is counseling us to do is to deal with younger men with a kind of gentleness and patience that befits the treatment of a brother and not an enemy.

And we see an application of this in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 15.

We're writing about idol brothers. Paul says, do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

Now as we move from verse 1 to verse 2, we see how women are to be treated. Older women are to be treated as mothers.

This means that they are to be regarded as mothers of the congregation, as it were.

They're to be given the same honor that mothers are due. We see Paul doing this very thing in Romans chapter 16 and verse 13, where he writes, greet

Rufus, chosen in the Lord, also his mother, who has been a as well.

And finally, we are to regard younger sisters or younger women as sisters, he writes, in all purity.

This comes, if you'll remember from last week on the heels of Paul's exhortation to Timothy, to be an example in purity.

As Christians, the younger women in our assemblies are to be regarded as our dear sisters.

And this is to translate into pure and chaste relationships with them. It is to shape everything that we do as we interact with them.

I think of something that I spent a considerable amount of time doing with my son when he was just a little, little boy.

He's a big, big boy now. But when he was a little, little boy, I would tell him, you know, God made you a big brother to your sister, not so that you would mistreat her, but so that you would protect her.

It's a lesson, I think, that every boy with a younger sister probably has to learn. God has given you the mind that he has given you and the muscles he has given you and the maturity that he has given you, at least in relation to your sister, to protect her and to care for her.

In his providence, he has arranged your birth order so that you might have this privilege and responsibility.

And so it must be in our relationships with younger sisters in our church. And if I might go on a bit of a rabbit trail for a moment, what a remarkable contrast this is from the rest of the world.

Celebrity culture is rife with examples of impure conduct toward women, younger women.

Outside of that, there's an endless stream of headlines about the predatory treatment of girls by older men, or old men, or disgustingly older men.

I'm thinking of the Epstein files that were released. It's even reflected in the world religions that are around us.

I don't know if sometimes you hear about these things, but you don't know exactly where they are, if they're true. But in the

Quran, in Surah chapter 4 and verse 6, or chapter 65 and verse 4, these chapters, amongst others, allow a man to take an orphan child, not to be his adopted child, but to be his wife, if he deems that she is of sound judgment.

A man may take a young child to be his wife, though she has not reached yet the age of puberty, and she would be subject to a certain holding period.

Meanwhile, Hindu texts explicitly state that a man may age 30 may marry a 12 -year -old girl, while a 24 -year -old man may marry girls as young as 8 years old.

Many world religions allow marriage, in the case of Islam again, to one, or two, or three, or more wives, so long as they can do it honorably.

I would suggest to you there's no such thing as an honorable marriage to one, or to two, or to three, or to four wives.

What this all tells me is that we live in a characteristically impure world.

And yet, in contrast to that, the church is to relate brother and sister, one to another, in all purity.

Now, where am I going with this? What I want to offer us, or show us, is that these verses offer us a picture of the familial nature of the church.

I said it already, the church is more than an institution. It's a many things, but it can never be less than a family.

As we begin looking at the church's care for widows, in the coming verses, we must recognize that the foundation of this

Christian ethic is a right understanding of the church family. The reason why the church cares for its own is not because we're social justice warriors, it's because we're family.

It's because we know each other, and we love each other, and we have a new identity, one with each other.

The tie that binds every Christian together is our shared salvation in the

Lord Jesus Christ. It is our shared participation in the Spirit of Christ, and it is our shared adoption by the

Father, so that we are a family. I'm going to give you a few references, and I want you to chase them this week, because I'm not going to say them.

Matthew 12, and verses 49 and 50. How could I not say it? It's God's Word.

Hear my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brothers, and sister, and mother.

In Matthew 19, verse 29, and everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.

This is why men like John Stott have said the local church is rightly called the church family, and every imperative, every imperative that follows in this passage is rooted in this, not in who we must be to please

God, and to win Him over, but in who we are. We are the household of God.

We belong to Him, and we are His family. Next, we'll consider the church's care for widows, and what

I'll do, because I'm rigid, is I'll cough after every point. It doesn't help that I can't hear very well, either.

My sinuses are all plugged. So, we'll look next at the church's care for widows. That does not sound better.

It feels better. I should drink more. While the remainder of the passage deals with this theme more broadly, we're going to focus on two verses in particular, verse nine, verse three, excuse me, and verse nine.

So, in verse three, we read this, honor widows who are truly widows.

Now, if we look carefully at this verse, we might be inclined to think that this passage means that we're only to honor widows by showing them respect, or by paying them some esteem.

But when we look more closely, we actually come to learn that Paul has something much different in mind.

Here, this word, honor, that Paul uses in verse three, speaks to showing honor by providing material aid or financial assistance.

It's actually the same word, honor, that Paul uses in 1st Timothy, chapter five, and verse 17, if you look there with me.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor. Now, certainly some people read that and they go, well,

I know that I've been in a situation where maybe we're lining up for food, and someone says, well, no, no, you go ahead of me, double honor.

Well, brother or sister, I appreciate that. That's not what Paul means here. He says, especially for those who labor in preaching and teaching.

What does this double honor look like? Boy, that tea helped. For the scripture says, you shall not muscle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages.

What Paul is talking about in verses 17 and 18, he is providing materially for the elders.

That exact word that he uses there is the same word that he uses here in verse three, when we are to honor widows.

Now that Paul's established that we are a church family, and we are to relate to one another as fellow family members, he goes on to show how we as a church are to honor our widowed mothers.

It is not merely by paying homage to them. It is by caring for them and providing for their physical needs as they arise.

We see this in verse four, when he speaks about making some return to widowed parents.

You know how much you don't realize, I think sometimes, until you have your own children, how much your parents sacrificed for you, even for unbelieving and worldly parents.

I even wonder in my own mind, how unbelieving and worldly parents raise children as well as some of them do, without the hope of the gospel, without the

Holy Spirit dwelling in you, restraining you at times, helping you.

We're to make return to our widowed parents. Verse eight uses the language of providing for a widowed relative.

Verse 16 speaks about taking on the burden of caring for widows.

And what Paul is speaking about is the church's responsibility, and I want you to hear these words, the church's responsibility to take on the costly care of widows.

Costly in terms of its financial resources, costly, and I think most of us have more difficulty with this, costly in terms of our time and our energy resources.

And this is where some might label me a social justice warrior, but I assure you, I'm just preaching the text.

1 Timothy 5 tells us that the church has an obligation to provide for its widows, just as it has an obligation to provide for its elders who labor well in preaching and teaching.

Now, I grant that there is a difference. It does speak about double honor in reference to elders, but there is still honor for the widows, and all of this by the authority of God's Word.

And I want to put us into a scenario so that we can really appreciate this. Okay. You'll have to turn down the volume again, brother.

I don't like coughing, but I especially don't like coughing in front of people. Something I have to get over. I want you to imagine this for a moment, that we take you to another church in another city this

Sunday, and upon arriving, you find, you really quickly begin to take things in, and you see that the church is well attended, that it's evident that the church is well funded, that the primary preaching pastor, that man who gets up behind the pulpit, whose main responsibility is to preach the

Word, that he has obviously worked hard to prepare a rich meal for the people of God, and that by all accounts, as you look at this church, you say, this is a thriving church.

I want you to, I'm going to take you to that church. Now, imagine for a moment that after the service, you find yourself speaking to one of the church's members, and you learn that this wealthy and thriving church makes all of its elders work in secular vocations, in addition to working full -time for the church without compensation.

And though some of the elders would gladly give up their vocations to serve the church in that way specifically, those funds are instead allocated, the congregation feels at least, those funds are best allocated to the improvement of the church's facilities.

In fact, because of the cost saved on staffing, this member tells you, this year, the church will be installing a marble fountain in the church's courtyard.

And so, we're constantly improving our space, and our elders are happy to work for free.

I'm sure they are. But I know that if I found myself in a position talking with one of these church members,

I would be tempted to say, take me to your leaders, not the elders, obviously, take me to the power brokers of the church.

And I would be tempted to confront them with some great vehemence, and to quote the words of the

Apostle Paul in Galatians 6, verses 6 and 7 to them, where it reads, let the one who is taught share all good things with the one who teaches.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that he will also reap.

If you were in that situation, you might ask yourself, how foolish could this church possibly be?

That they would forsake the clear teaching of the Bible, though they are now thriving, one day, they will reap what they sow.

They will have a beautiful building and nothing inside of it. They will have a fabulous institution with no substance.

And it makes me wonder what would happen if a man like James, the Lord's brother, were to visit many of our churches today.

He would find churches that are well -resourced. He would find churches that are committed to defending the truths of Scripture.

He would find churches that are growing in number, churches with big pulpits because they want to preach the

Word of God. And yet, if he were to inquire about their care of the widows, what would he be met with?

If you were to ask a church, go to a church that really prides itself about its ministry of the

Word and say, you know, tell me about your pastor. Tell me about the education.

Tell me about the preaching. Tell me what books you've gone through. Tell me what is your view on this doctrine.

Tell me, how would you defend this idea in Tulip? Tell me this. Tell me that.

Tell me this. Tell me about your care for widows. Wait, care for widows?

What does that have to do with sound doctrine? You'd be met with blank stares. Some might say, we let the government take care of that.

Or some might say, well, we would do that if we had more room in the budget for it. Or we just find that all of our people are so busy with other more important ministries.

And how would someone like James respond if he were to quote scripture or maybe his own book?

Might he respond with words like this? Oh foolish man, have you not read what the

Word of God says? That religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

If our Christianity does not include caring for the widowed mothers of this church, it is impure and undefiled.

Sorry, it is impure and defiled before God. But if you think

I'm embellishing, let's look at verse 9. Paul writes in verse 9, let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband.

This word enrolled is an interesting one. I don't, you know this. I hope you know this.

I don't, my general rule is no longer to quote Greek words unless it's really, really important.

And it's the Greek word katalogeo. Katalogeo. Why do

I bring that up? Because it's where we get our English word catalog, right?

You go to a catalog. Maybe you're doing an inventory at work. You go to the catalog to see what you have there.

And what it means is to select for membership in a group. And some have looked at this verse and suggested that maybe what

Paul has in mind here is a third office in the church. They would say there are elders and deacons in chapter 3, and now an order of widows identified in chapter 5.

I don't think that's what Paul is getting at. Instead, what it appears Paul is doing is he's encouraging the church to care for the material needs of the widows in their midst, not only in a way that is determined, that is convictional, but that is also systematic, that is organized, that is intentional.

This means that the first century church's conviction that I must care for widows translated into a registry of true widows who received support from the church.

And even in the earliest days of the church, this is exactly what we find. And yet I would suggest that probably for most of us, we read these things and we just kind of gloss over them.

But what do we find in Acts chapter 6? We find nothing other than a formalized system for caring for the widows in what they called the daily distribution to the widows.

And we know that early on the apostles oversaw this ministry, caring for the distribution of support to all the widows of the church.

But as conflicts arose, the apostles, rather than sidelining this ministry, recruited other men to continue the ministry.

And when we search the pages of history, we find that there are frequent references to the care of widows throughout the early church.

We read about the church's care for widows in the Didache and from Clement in the first century, from Ignatius in the second century, from Tertullian and Cyprian in the third century, from Basil in the fourth century, and so on and on and on.

And what we find is this, those who are truly widows, and we'll get to who that is in our third point, these true widows would often receive support from the church.

And because their needs were provided for, they in turn would commit to serving the local church by visiting the sick and helping the women of the church, a

Titus 2 kind of ministry, and participating in the ministry of prayer. That is the context that helps us to understand why

Paul talks about in verse 11, a younger widow, who when their passions draw them away because they desire to be married, so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith.

See, that passage doesn't make sense if all we're talking about is a woman who is a widow, who's receiving support from the church, and she meets a godly man, marries him, and now you're condemned.

No, that's not it at all. It's not that a widow who's married a second time loses their salvation because they get married.

It's because here the church is providing support to them, and as they do, they commit themselves wholeheartedly to serve the church.

So what Paul is saying is, if you're going to be enrolled on the list of support, of care, you should meet a certain criteria.

And if you're going to do what all the widows do, it's to pour yourself then into the service of Christ's people.

We're not talking about an order of nuns. We're not talking about a new office in the church, but just simply women serving the

Lord wholeheartedly and receiving the support of the church. Now some, it's really interesting, some liberal feminist commentators have looked at this.

I always like using contrast for the sake of clarity. And they've said, this is just, you're trying to create a ghetto of widows.

And what you're trying to do is just unleash your patriarchal oppression upon women in another form.

So that now we're bound by the support of the church. We're just another group of helpless women.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This is so ridiculous. What this was meant to be was an expression of sincere love and care for the mothers of the congregation, for members of the church family.

Moreover, and we will end on this point in a little bit. It was meant to be an expression of the great love and care of our

Almighty God for those people. We read about this care in Psalm 146 verse 9.

And I challenge you, go home and look up the word widow in your concordance and just see how the theme of widows permeates scripture.

Think about the lives of some of the prophets in the Old Testament and how their interactions with widows are some of the high points of some of the darkest periods in redemptive history.

But it reads in Psalm 146 verse 9, the Lord watches over the sojourner.

He upholds the widow and the fatherless by the way of the wicked, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

When the church cares well for widows, we're not unleashing a patriarchal oppressive system.

We are unleashing the love of God for his people. We are being used of God to express the very love that he has for his own, even for those who are seemingly forgotten and alone.

This is why in the early church, men like Tertullian record that the response of pagans as they were blown away by the love, the

Christian love that was demonstrated within the Christian community. The pagans used to say of them,

Tertullian records it, see how they love one another. If people, and when

I talk about other churches, I use that to frame the idea, to frame the picture that we're entering into.

But nevermind those other churches now. If they would, these pagans were to come into our church, would they say of us, see how they love one another?

Would they say, see how they love the word? I hope they would say that.

See how they love preaching. See how they would love the idea of preaching or the idea of the idea of preaching.

Don't you see what I'm getting at here? I'm not seeking to diminish the importance, the prominence, the primacy of the preached word.

But I am really concerned, frankly, that in a lot of Protestant reformed churches, we are making an idol out of things that we ought not to be.

And frankly, things are getting out of balance. We must uphold the ministry of the word fully.

We heard all about that last week of reading scripture, of exhortation, of teaching, that when we do come together on the

Lord's day, this is one of the most important things that we will do in the week is to sit under the ministry of God's word.

But the ministry of God's word must move then into life. If it is all about this hour, if this becomes the end, we have lost the plot.

The ministry of the word is to instruct and inform the mind and the heart and the will and the life.

And if it's simply us becoming preaching connoisseurs, we've lost it.

Now, what does this look like then in practice? I think for one, this text gives us simply a strong biblical warrant to maintain a list or registry within the church to identify those who are truly widows.

This could also be further expanded to include those who require the extra care of the church in general.

In our church, this takes the form of a care list. If you come to our membership meetings, our members meetings, you'll hear about the care list.

This concept flows largely out of passages like first Timothy five.

And maybe one day we'll need a specific care list for widows. I'm not sure. But it means that we have, and we must have, an organized, a systematic, and a dedicated way to care for those who are in real need.

We as a church, you as members of the church, when we talk about our budget and our financial priorities, we all should be very concerned that we are allocating the

Lord's resources to care for those who are in need and to care for widows.

And for each believer in this room, really, I think the real point of application is it means cultivating a disposition of heart and broader culture in the church that values, highly esteems, and physically honors the widows in our midst.

That we would not only see them as the objects of our charity, but that we would see them for what they are.

Oftentimes, the godly, experienced, mature,

God centered, Christ dependent women that they are, from whom we have a great deal to learn.

We must understand that when we say it is the church's privilege and responsibility to care for widows, it does not mean that it's someone else's responsibility out there.

That it's the deacons, or it's the elders, or it's somebody's.

It's just not mine. Is the church a building? What is the church?

It is the family. It is the body. It is the blood bought people of God. And so when we say that it is the church's responsibility, let me just turn it around.

It is your responsibility. I was thinking about it this week.

Has anyone noticed the providential timing of this sermon? Do you know how many widows we have in this church?

We've one. Do you know where that widow is today? She's at home because she had surgery two days ago.

And she needs help, a lot of help, for the next several weeks. I don't know why the

Lord timed it exactly this way. Well, I do know, in fact. It's because we have a God.

We have a God who is sovereign. We have a God who knew that this date was on the calendar long before Nancy's surgery date was.

And they actually moved her date up to align with this sermon, interestingly. Because it was meant for later.

She was supposed to have surgery at the end of the month. And they brought it right up to the Friday so that you would hear this sermon on Sunday.

The Lord has given me a voice, and I praise Him for it, that you might hear this and apply these words.

And not just go home and say, well, that was a boring sermon. That was a convicting sermon. It was a something sermon.

No, it was God's truth. And now you may go and apply it. So I would encourage you, even in the short term, to bless this dear sister.

I wasn't going to name her, but it slipped. Whether a phone call, or a meal, or a visit, or really any other way that you can honor her.

I know she has a great vacuum. It's a Dyson. And she likes that carpet clean.

And I encourage you to use that Dyson. For those of us who have widowed and unbelieving relatives, we should learn how to show godliness to our own family members as well.

And I confess that I need to grow in this area. Sometimes I can be so consumed with everything that's happening here that I just need to do a better job with my extended family.

But godliness should not be something that starts out there. Godliness must start at home.

It must start with our own families. If we neglect our own families, and especially our own households, we're told here that we are worse than unbelievers.

John Calvin says this. He says, not to shrewd gratitude, sorry, not to show gratitude to our ancestors is universally acknowledged to be monstrous.

For that is a lesson taught us by natural reason. That even unbelievers, even pagans know how to show kindness to their families.

How much more do Christians? And we see the Lord Jesus teaching this in Mark 7 and verse 11.

He says, but you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is

Corban, that is given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the

Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And so many such things you do.

Sometimes we think about this and we go, we're sola scriptura. And we go to this verse, right?

No tradition above God's Word. And that is true. But what is

Jesus talking about? You need to honor your parents.

You need to love your family. And so I'm not here to tell you that your love for the church, as your church family, needs to trump your love for your biological family.

I'm just here to tell you, you now have two families. You need to love them both well. And then we'll look lastly at the character of true widows.

And this is, we'll see in verses five and verses nine and 10. There are some widows that the church should not enroll for support.

Widows who have surviving descendants should receive the support of their children and grandchildren.

Widows who are able to remarry should seek to do so. The church should not support widows who are self -indulgent.

That the context that what Paul is talking about here, in verse six, she who is self -indulgent is dead even while she lives.

Is that sometimes the widows in order to survive would be pushed into or would choose immoral situations to make a living.

You can think of Judah and some of the stuff that took place in that scenario.

The church is not to support widows who are self -indulgent or those who are likely to become busy bodies and gossips.

But instead, what Paul gives us is a summary or a list of the qualities of a true widow who should receive the support of the church.

And I would suggest that these qualities can be instructive for the way that widows should seek to conduct themselves.

That sisters, you should think about this. Because some of these things occur before the woman becomes a widow.

And brothers, you can pray that where these things apply, they might be true.

And where these things apply to your sisters, you might seek that in them. In verse five, we read this.

She who is truly a widow left all alone has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

Here we have this picture of a woman who though she is all alone, she has set her mind and her heart and her affections on God and seeks

Him in prayer. I'm going to cough brother. That's okay. I'm glad you guys are able to laugh at it.

And what we see here is, I think, or where we see a picture of this is if you can remember when the newborn

Christ was brought into the temple. If anyone remembers the scene in Luke chapter two, they run into a few very interesting characters along the way.

And I am convinced, as I'm sure most of you are, that there is no random or filler word in scripture.

That every scene, everything that takes place is there for a reason. In Luke 2 36, we get a picture of this.

There was a prophetess named Anna, we read. The daughter of the tribe of Asher.

She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin.

And then as a widow until she was 84, she did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

And coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

What a picture of a widow. I realize I'm speaking to an entire room full of people who are not widows.

But would you appreciate this with me and appreciate the way that it even applies to you?

That here was a woman who for, it would seem decades, did not depart from the temple, but worshiped with fasting and prayer night and day.

I'm reminded when I read those words, she who is a widow truly or left all alone has set her hope on God.

Some of you have heard me tell part of the story at least. I have a friend who served as a pastor in another church in the city.

He's no longer serving there. But he was counseling and visiting a woman who was in the hospital.

And she was, up to that point, always dealing with serious health issues and became bedridden and had no use of her arms or legs.

And then eventually when all of that went awry, she lost her vision as well.

And he was visiting her in the hospital. Here's this woman, bedridden. She will never sit up again by her own power.

She has no ability to see or to read God's word or to see anyone's face ever again, to see a blue sky or to watch a sermon on YouTube or whatever it is you do with your eyes.

And there she is laying in her bed. And she says to my friend, my brother, she said,

I feel useless. What can I do for the Lord now? Here I am.

I'm in a bed. I need help to do everything. And my brother gave an answer.

I wish I had the wisdom to give this answer. I don't know that I would have. But he said to her, he said, sister, you've been given a gift now to do one of the most important ministries in the whole world.

That is that you can be here and you can give yourself to the ministry of intercessory prayer.

And there you can do one of the most important things. And that is vision or no vision to seek the face of God and to seek

His face on the behalf of all those who you know of, who have need.

And what a ministry. I think of our sister who's not here today. That she doesn't need mobility.

She doesn't need anything. But even though all alone to set her hope on God and to continue in supplication and prayer day and night.

And I'm convinced that that ministry, to paraphrase from Leonard Ravenhill, that the ministry of intercessory prayer is one of the most important ministries in the church.

That there are people that, you know, we look at those in prominence and we say, you know, boy, there is something special about that guy.

And I think how many people are behind some of the biggest ministries that we know and what is important or what is behind them is this.

It is the power of God through intercessory prayer on their behalf. It's that great

Spurgeon illustration where someone said, you know, what is the power behind your preaching?

And he walked them into the furnace room below the tabernacle and he said, this is the source of our power.

And he opened the doors and it was a room full of people praying. And God has given that ministry to some degree to all of us.

And to a greater degree, I think, to widows. In verses 9 and 10, we see some of these qualifications laid out.

I'm not going to go through it exhaustively. I can encourage people individually, but not less than 60 years old.

Sixty years was still then considered about retirement age. Having been the wife of one husband.

It's interesting that this language is the exact opposite of the elder's qualifications.

It's a one -man woman. So we always talk about a one -woman man. Here's a one -man woman.

It's having a reputation. Oh, did I say one man? Someone's laughing.

One -man woman. I want to make sure that I'm not teaching something bad here.

Having a reputation for good works, not just a profession of faith, not just a profession of faith, but a track record of works of piety that she has brought up children.

This is significant because if you were to go to first century Ephesus, let me take you there for a minute.

We go into the city. As you're leaving the city gates, you'd come to a dump outside the city gates.

And some people would call that dump a baby dump because what would happen is this.

You'd be raising your family. You'd have boy, boy, girl, boy.

And then your next baby comes along and it's a girl. We already have a girl.

We need more boys. And so what they would do is take their baby to the baby gate, the baby dump, excuse me, outside the gate and expose the child.

And there the child would die under the hot sun outside of the gates.

And there's only a few other groups that you'd find in that baby dump. You'd find slave traders who would come and take the babies and raise them and sell them.

And you'd find Christians who would come and take those babies and raise them as their own.

Don't you see what the church has to be? Don't you don't you see the end to sermons like this?

It's not to say that was a good sermon. It's that we might love one another.

That this might characterize all of our lives. That she has shown hospitality.

That she has washed the feet of the saints. And that's not just foot washing, which was an ancient custom, but it's a foot washing disposition, a servant heartedness.

It is to care for the afflicted. It is to devote herself to every good work.

And this is interesting because in our world, we're told that retirement age is when you give yourself to what?

You give yourself to yourself. You've worked hard and now it's time for leisure.

You've spent the last 40 years of your life working and storing up money so that in the last 10 or 20 years you can blow it all on yourself.

What a terrible way to cross the finish line. But what

Paul, what God is telling us is that the way to finish your life, widow or not, is to cross that finish line devoting it all to Him.

That you can look back on your life and say, I've given it all to Him. And even when everyone says it's time for me to give a little to myself,

I'll give more to Him. And so then what we see is that a biblically ordered church is one that is committed to extolling

God, to upholding truth, yes, to preaching the gospel, to caring for its own.

And it's a church that's characterized by godliness and devotion. And when a church cares well for its own, especially when it cares well for its widows, it reflects

God's great care for His people. I think of one famous widow,

Ruth. Ruth was a famous widow. And when I remember teaching young children through the book of Ruth, and I want to give them little sticky phrases that they can hold on to, and probably none of them remember it, but it stuck in my mind.

And that's this, that Ruth is about redemption. It's a story about a widow who is redeemed.

And when we care well for our widows, we ultimately point to the love of our

Redeemer. We point to our Savior and our God.

We point to the one of whom it is said in Psalm 68 in verse 4, sing to God, sing praises to His name, lift up a song to Him who rides through the deserts.

His name is the Lord, exult before Him. It's a calling to worship

God. And what's amazing is it gives us the motivation for to the next verse, father of the fatherless, protector of widows is

God in His holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home.

He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

Here we have a picture of God scouring the wilderness and the desert places.

He calls His own to Himself. He becomes a father to the orphan, a

Lord protector to every widow, and He leads them out to prosperity. And if you're like me, you can see the parallels with 2

Corinthians 2 in verse 14, where it says, but thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.

So that when the church cares well for its own and especially for her widows, we show the world the true character of our

God and of our Christ. So that even when you care well for widows, you can look into the mirror of your own actions and say, this is the way that Christ has loved me and He has done it even better.

Brethren, let us learn how to love one another, that we might see more and more of that in this church, that we might glorify

Him. Let's pray. Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church.

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