Main idea: Strive for the ideals of complementarity by seeking Christ and serving His church in the role to which He has called you.
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Thanks, Nathan. I am so thankful for who I serve with Nathan in small groups and outreach with that burden to see people trust Christ. Joe Swanson in our children's ministry and discovery thankful for the discovery, folks, you should give them an applause, although they're probably out there serving kids somewhere. But that's really that's really thrilling to see. Christina and Julie lead the choir and I love serving with John who's whose vision of generational training we have a kids choir, so that in a generation, we have an adult choir, so that we have men and women who can lead songs and worship in the home and at the church. It's it's very thrilling. If you're new with us, I just want to add my welcome. I'm so glad that you're with us this morning. Our mission to be a loving community making disciples of Jesus Christ is an all together thing. We're doing it all as families. And it's a very thrilling time as a church. We are going through First Corinthians last week, Brian looked at the issue of headcoverings in First Corinthians chapter 11. And I would encourage you if you're new with us this week, and you haven't heard that you should go back. But one of the issues that shows up in First Corinthians 11 is the issue of headship. The elders have been planning a pause this week to unpack what we talked about in churches, our stance on complementarianism the roles of men and women in the church. And we're going to look at that today. And I'm going to do a rocket tour of the teaching on complementarianism today. And as a result, you're going to need to have your electronic fingers fast if you're doing the Bible that way or your page flipping fast. Because we're going to look a lot of different scripture standards me for the reading of God's Word. And we're gonna look at Genesis chapter one to start with, and, and then be ready to jump to Ephesians, which is later in the Bible, if you're new to the Bible, and the New Testament, and where we see complementarianism in marriage, you can see the attitude that is to go along with that I'm gonna get both of them ready right now. So I'm slow with pages. Genesis one, verse 26. After God made all the animals, and told them to be fruitful and multiply, he brings to the pinnacle of creation, the making of men and women. Then God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him, male and female, He created them. And God bless them. And God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on Earth. Ephesians chapter five, verse 22. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ as the head of the church, his body and is himself its savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. This is the word of the Lord. Father, thank you for giving us your word and a created order that is good and sparks human flourishing and spiritual flourishing in a local church. For Jesus, we thank you that you set the paradigm, the example for leadership. And as men in the church, take on the mantle of leadership, I pray that they would do it in a Christ like way as women in the church lead other women, help them do it in a Christ like way. And I pray that all of us would fulfill our roles as you have called us to do. I pray that You would help us see your scripture. There are some people who are brand new here today who've never heard any of these things and help the gospel stand out clearly and powerfully that you might bring peace to their hearts in Christ and order in life. We ask this in Christ's name, Amen. You may be seated. Well, it would be an understatement to say that the whole world is in angst and chaos over gender and roles. Once you agree, it would be an understatement. And if you're experiencing this kind of chaos, I want you to see that God has a good redeeming a plan to bring peace, order and hope. He does. That's been his plan from the beginning, as a loving community, making disciples of Jesus Christ. I want to begin the sermon illustrating with one of the many beautiful examples of complementarity in the New Testament. In other words, what I'm saying is man, men and women together in the church, husbands and wives, as couples, each taking on their roles in in a co laboring way, move the gospel forward. Here's a story in Acts chapter 18. Do you want to turn to x 18. You can see it I don't have a lot of time to introduce it. But there is a man named a policy who's the Alexandrian and who was trained in Alexandria was the university city of all university cities and the Roman Empire. And he's heard about John the Baptist. Let me start reading now a Jew named a Paulus. A native of Alexandria came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus. Though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. This the same verse, specially verse 26, with Priscilla and Aquila is striking for three reasons. The first Palace was a Jew, and it would have been unusual for a woman to instruct a Jewish man. He was a native of the leading academic city in the Roman Empire. He was a trained orator, which means he had the highest training and philosophy and speaking that was available. He was the one being instructed by Priscilla and Aquila. And both Priscilla and Aquila filled in a policies, theology. His theology about Christ he knew accurately, all the way up to the point of John the Baptist. If you read the gospels you would be that's not very far. There was a lot he didn't know. And Priscilla and Aquila, were both together, able to walk him through the rest of the golf cations. He was able to walk through all of it
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it's a it's an amazing scene. That's how complementarity is supposed to work. New Testament Christianity is not brutish patriarchy. It is gracious complementarity where men are charged to loving sacrificial leadership. And women are charged to co labor in respect. There's two views of leadership in the church today. You'll see them in various ways. One view we would call egalitarianism which calls for the equality of of leadership in roles both in the home and the church. There's no head in the home. There's just two equals there's no head in the world all leadership positions, because he egalitarian believe there are leadership positions but They can be equally helped by men and women. That's the egalitarian view. And you'll you'll see it in many churches today. The second view is complementarianism complementarianism holds that men in the home have been charged with loving, sacrificial leadership, wives co labor and respect respectful submission. Likewise, in the church, the roles of an elder and pastor are to be held by men. roles like deacons, servant roles can be held by men and women. Faith Bible Church has always been complementarian. We've always been complementarian. You heard it last week and Brian's sermon, as we looked at First Corinthians 11, verse three, where the man is the head of the wife, there is an authority there. The last time we visited the topic was 25 years ago when I was an intern. And what I want to do this morning is review that topic. Lots of forces in culture, keep bringing this out. And I want to inspire you to strive for the beauty of complementarity. The big idea I might summarize this way, which is hard to summarize this big idea, it's big, giant idea. It's a little wordy, but you can bear with me, strive for the ideals of complementarity by seeking Christ and serving his church and the role he has called you. I see this happen all over faith Bible Church, from the men and women who host growth groups, the men and women who co lead growth groups where the man might do the facilitating of the Bible study. But she is discipling and caring and helping both the running of the evening and the care for the women. You have seen complementarity in action as a church, you can see it in children's ministry, you can see it in any servant area of ministry, you can see it in our women's ministry where women are teaching women under the leadership of elders, for the purpose of this message, I'm only going to focus on life in the local church, there's a whole message about complementarity in the home. And I don't have time to do all of that. But what I will say the four major calls or charges that we're going to see today would apply equally well as at home, they would apply there as well. So here's the path we're gonna we're gonna work through, we're we're all going to be called to step up to the dignity of the created order. That's why we start in Genesis, when we look at something like this. In order to do that, though, in order to step up, we first need to shudder at the consequences of the fall because the consequences of sin. And what it's done in the relationships between men and women in our world are far reaching and devastating, and we need to seek Christ. Third, we need to see Christ and what he brings in the new creation rather than the world's self centered overreactions, or actions. And once we see ourselves rightly, then we can, then we can serve Him in the roles that he's assigned us, and appointed for us in local churches. So let's, let's take a look at this. We're going to walk through this. Let's let's start with that that beginning step up to the dignity of God's created order. So back in Genesis chapter one, we're going to take a look at this. God's grand glorious design and creation brings dignity to the roles and personhood of both men and women, male and female, sin has corrupted it. But what we want to see is what it's what it started with, and then what Christ is doing in redemption, calling us back to the original plan. Look at verse 26. I wish I had time to just unpack all of Genesis one, but just realize this about Genesis one. The author is telling us Moses is telling us about the order from nothing, chaos, creation, animal life, you know, all of this order. And at the pinnacle of his creation, he is making men, men and women, male and female. He's made the living creatures and he told a sea creatures and all living creatures Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth than we ever saw. 26 Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth, over every creeping thing that is on the earth. It just stopped even at those first two words, let us let us let us make it first it's vital to understand even this when we see the plural here that within the Godhead Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is equality in essence and being all three persons of the Trinity are all equally God all equal in being. They have one will. And yet there's an authority structure. There's an authority structure and how they work. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. I wish I had time to unpack all of that and give you all the verses. But Paul gives one leg of three important legs last week. And when we looked at it, First Corinthians 11, three, and he said, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of every wife, as her husband, the head of Christ is God. So even when we looked at this last week, we saw there is an authority structure in the working of the Trinity. The kids were singing about the Trinity as we opened, those were some of the doctrines that they've been learning. And just for the sake of time, I can't go through it. But we're at about podcast 14, on the doctrine of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So if you want to go and dive in and get all the cross references in verses for that, you can check out those podcasts. But I'll summarize it this way. The father is the first person of the Trinity, the Son is the second and the Holy Spirit is the third, there's an order. If I want to be really specific, and just really simple about it, the Son and the Spirit, never send the Father. The Father sends the Son and the Spirit. All are equal, co equal, same essence, same deity, all attributes, and nobody's envious. It's a perfect relationship there is order, even among the members of the Trinity. So God says, Let us make man in our own image and our image after our likeness. Genesis one is the cosmic view. Genesis two will be the personal view. If you notice and follow the follow the dignity here follow the the nouns and pronouns. Verse 27, so God created man in His own image, there is man in that general sense mankind in the image of God created him. Adam is made in the image of God, male and female, He created them. So man and woman, each bear the image of God. And God bless them. So together they were recipients of divine favor and prosperity, he blessed them. And God said to them, you get them a job, be fruitful, and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds and over the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. They were to be fruitful together, they were to tame the wild perfection, God made life so abundant and so great that it needed taming. exercised dominion over it over all of the creation. And they were to rule over it as gods, representatives, co representatives, co regions, stewarding the world now, there's a vital sidebar, I need to say, because God uses unmarried men and women throughout the Bible to produce spiritual children. When we look to the New Testament, and we see the Great Commission, Matthew 2818, through 20, and Jesus says, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He's talking about making spiritual children and there are many singles in our church. I thank God for that many singles in our church men and women who are making spiritual children, they're called disciples.
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But if we come back here the point I want to make is that femininity and masculinity from the beginning, have dignity in the cosmic realm. There is a dignity to femininity, there is a dignity to masculinity. Genesis to when we get the personal accounts turn over to that God first makes Adam he gives him commands to cultivate the garden. Look at chapter two. He forms. It makes the garden He forms the man he gets down in the in the dust in the mud, so as it were, and He forms the man, verse 15, he gives them a task, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it And you should underline those things because work it is till it, make it productive keep it is to pay special attention, but always in the word keep is going to be an idea of protection. What's a perfect world? What's the need to protect? Chapter Three. He gives him a task, talks about the tree. The Lord commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat for and the day that you eat it, you will, you shall surely die. Then the Lord God said, it is not good, that man should be alone, I will make him a helper fit for him. He goes on to talk about the fact that Adam when he was formed, he was awake was given the task to name all the animals. So we started to look around at all the animals. And he sees that all the animals had a mate and all the animals remaining, and he's like, where's mine? Oh, it's not good that I'm alone. Gods it is not good, that you're alone. Now, I want to say this, just make sure we're clear. He's not saying that. Adam had a need that God couldn't meet. He's not saying that. God is fully satisfying. He has everything we need. What he's saying is that in order to fulfill this creation mandate, in order to fully reflect the glory of God, God makes community and God provides a partner. It's not good that he's alone. He says, I will make a helper suitable. And this is the idea that in that great charge that he's going to have to multiply fill the earth and subdue it. He needs a helper. He needs a complement, where we get the title complementarian comes from this verse, a helper suitable fit for him.
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So Adam is made first, therefore his head Eve is made from his side, the story unfolds, verse 21. So the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed it up in his closed up its place with flesh in the rib, the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said, this last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man, therefore a father shall leave his mother and father and mother, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
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So here you have the origin of the equal dignity. At man's tarde took charge to lead, he's the first created. She comes from his side, not his feet, comes from his side, she co laborers alongside him in respect. And if you're a little bothered by the idea of helpers, she's just made us his helper. Well think of it this way. Psalm 54. David says, God is my helper.
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There's no lack of dignity. Before we leave that, verse 31 131, just notice how God summarizes the whole of his order. God saw everything that He had made. And behold, it was very good. was very good. God's assessment of the created order was that it was very good. But why is that not the case today? Well, most of you know why. We come to the second point, which makes us shudder at the consequences of the fall into the fall into sin the the fall into sin is where the battle of the sexes began. And the results have been brutal, dehumanizing and chaotic. Ever since. Adam failed to protect Eve, from the serpent love to unpack chapter three, don't have time to unpack chapter three. But Satan comes to the woman. The serpent does come to the woman and promises her that if they go ahead and eat, they will be like God. And he is standing passively by while she is being deceived. Key to likes the idea of being able to set autonomous rules for his own life. That's the knowledge of good and evil. I have the knowledge I can determine my own rules. I can be like God, they both ate from the forbidden tree, both are cursed by God, and every man and woman will die. The first sin in the garden is not eve listening to the serpent the first sin in the garden is the man not stepping between the serpent and the woman.
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And significantly as a result of the fall, all men and women will engage in a perpetual power struggle, jumped down to 316. God announcing a curse on the devil are on the serpent Satan. And man and woman says this at the end of 316, your desires will be contrary to your husband, he shall, but he shall rule over you this idea desire to be contrary, that same phrases used and four seven with sins desire to overtake Kane, and he needed to beat it back. So the literal word is your desire shall be toward your husband, but it is toward toward it for domination. And he shall rule but he shall rule over you. I mean, if you can think of a kind of oppression, a kind of violence, a kind of manipulation, a kind of, of conflict between men and women, if you could think of any one of them, the most brutal and the most inane, you could think of they all come back here. This is where they're from. This is the source. They'll say that despite that, in this very chapter, just in the verse ahead of this, God had had announced a plan and unfolding plan, that Eve would bear an offspring and that offspring would lead to Messiah and the destruction of Satan in 320, notice that even though the cursor is now locked in on humanity, God has a plan for redemption and there is still a dignity. Verse 20, the man called his wife's name, Eve, because she was the mother of all living. I mean, there's the dignity, there fruitful and multiplying, it's going to be harder now, but she is the mother of all living. From Genesis four and five, there are still remnants of dignity all the way till we get to the New Testament. We could track the progress of the male seed from here to Christ, and there's going to be a few noble men who step forward, not perfect men, still flawed men. But I don't want you to miss this. There are many women used by God to rescue and CO labor among the people of God. And I would love to go through a long trail of men of women. But let me just highlight a couple of those. Deborah, in Judges four and five acted as a judge and led Israel to a military victory. And she announced the song like a psalm that's recorded for us and judges five. Hannah in First Samuel one provided the replacement for Eli and his sons, Eli and his sons, Eli especially was disobedient and he failed to care for that new version of the garden, the temple and the priests and he failed to protect and his sons were sinful, and God judged them. And it was through Hannah. It was through Hannah and her baby Samuel. Samuel becomes the new king priest. She gives a praise to God and her Psalm is recorded in Scripture in First Samuel chapter two in First Samuel 25. There's this great story about Abigail. Abigail was the wife of a man named fool. Her husband's name is Naipaul Naipaul means fool must have been a great name. Come here, fool. Give me a hug. Naipaul was a fool. Well, here's the story. David and his men were in exile. And the place that they were hanging out were were a place where Naipaul's servants shepherds were caring for the sheep. And David basically was a wall around them protected everything for them, kept them safe, kept them safe from what you know the creatures wild, wild animals and from robbers. Eventually, David was running out of food, and he sent a neighbor hey, we've been helping you. Could you help us? Here's what we would need for provisions enable the fool says, oh, there's always some young upstart guy taken off from a king. I'm not going to help him. David is furious. He mounts a bunch of soldiers He is just in hot pursuit, he is going to go down to Naples household and he is going to destroy everybody. Abigail heard what Naipaul said, and the response that was said and she said, We're toast. She gathers all the things that David requires, she rushes up to meet him on the way she's the first person and says, My Lord, here's all the provisions that you need my husband's a fool. That's my editing. And David said, You saved us all today. Sheep protected Naipaul's life, all his servants life, God judged neighbor like at the end of the chapter, but protected all of that. And here you have Abigail, rescuing her own household. And she's the rescuer of King David, the rescuer of Israel. complementarity, still, with alive and well. The pinnacle of its proverbs 31, where we see the Proverbs 31 woman in her wise role in the home and in the community. Giving her husband the ability to have political and spiritual impact on his own community, he was able to sit at the gates, the place of, of public government. There's so many examples I could say about that. Now, there are far more examples in the Old Testament of the highlight of the highlight the consequence of the fall, and we shudder at the consequences of the fall. And we see it today. So you think of anything like the me to movement or any of the that is a response to the consequences of the fall, in which men have been brutal and barbaric? Word women. Any other kinds of movements, often simply responding to men's patriarchy and domination also leave us equally hopeless. So it brings our attention to Christ brings our attention to Christ. Third, we need to see Christ in new creation. So first, we need to step up to the dignity of the original created order. Second, we need to shudder at the consequences of sin. And the only way we're gonna see a resolution to this is to see Christ in the new creation, the answer to the battle of the sexes is not the removal of authority structures. It is it is to see Christ and what He has brought. Christ in Christ's likeness in every arena. That's what Jesus came to do. And he's bringing the new creation, our sin brought the curse of death. We were kicked out of the garden. Conflict at every level of existence, and Christ, who is head of all became the servant of all, to save all types. He came to save men, women, slaves, free to Gentile, how does he do this by becoming a servant of all through His death and resurrection, you can jump over to Mark 1044 and 45. The disciples don't understand the power structure and the authority structure, like any feminist of our day. And I don't say that, trying to be disparaging. Everybody thinks that authority is meant for I get my way. That's the way the world thinks of authority. I get to have the influence, I get to call the shots, I get my way, and then people have to respect me. And so in Mark chapter 10, there are two disciples vying for the right hand and the left hand of Jesus. One of the other Gospel accounts mom also says, Come on, look at my boys. You should choose them. Here's Jesus answer to their heart. Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. What did we just read in our opening scripture, that Christ came to give up his life so that the church might be spotless and blameless. Jesus has done this by his death for us. Another great illustration of this is in John 13, and John 13, Jesus washes the feet of the 12 disciples and as that chapter opens, Jesus knows he's about to die. And he knows that Satan is about to enter into Judas his heart, he knows that the betrayers at hand. And what he does is he stands up from the Passover table, he takes off his robe, and he puts on the servants towel and he goes and he washes everybody's grimy, mucky, crusty feet, which was the place for the lowest house slave. He did that for Judas. Judas was one of the people who had his feet washed. Imagine that scene. Jesus knowing Judas is going to betray him wash his feet. Peter protest, you can't do this because your great and great people don't do this. There's an interchange. Jesus finishes the task. He sits down, he puts on his robes again, he sits back down. Here's what he says, You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right for so I am.
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If then your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do, just as I have done to you. Jesus did the most menial task of foot washing he did far more than that. His foot washing fits that paradigm of the high and holy God humbling himself by taking on the form of a servant. Being rejected, crucified, dying in our place and punishment, and then rising from the dead. headship and authority in the new creation, is to be humble and servant hearted. Jesus showed us this by paying our ransom with his life. So I just want to stop there, friend, you might be here and this is you're, you're new, or you're getting your mind wrapped around this thing that we call the gospel. Your sinful or difficult conflict in relationship is just evidence that you're a guilty sinner, and there is a savior, here for you.
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Your envy, your selfishness, your sinful conflict, if you're married with a spouse, not with others. The reality that you're a sinner, you're ungodly, and you're going to face judgment, but God shows His love for us. And that while we're still sinners, Christ died for us. And he died and he rose. And you need to call out to Him to save you. Repent from your thirst for power, control and recognition. Repent from your manipulative, even violent behavior, trust Him as Lord and Savior. Every man every woman who trusts in Christ does so and becomes part of Christ's new creation. We see it plainly in Paul's letter, we see dignity restored in this new creation. Galatians 327 28. Turn over there. Plainly, the apostle Paul talks about the dignity of every person under the gospel in Christ. Basic 327 says, For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. He doesn't mean there were no more Jews, suddenly Jewishness disappeared. He doesn't mean that there is no more greatness, he doesn't mean that suddenly there's no gender anymore. He's not saying that. What he is saying is it doesn't matter who you are, or what status or nationality you had before. There is a new unity and dignity among all those who are in Christ. Halls not saying there's no more authority structures. Turned to First Timothy two eight, verse Timothy two, eight. It's critical to remember this. The church is the inauguration of the new garden of Eden. It's the inauguration of the new garden of Eden. But it's not plants that were cultivating its people. And so first Timothy is written for order and care, proper shepherding in the local church. That's the purpose of the book. First Timothy two starts to talk about when you're gathered together, prayer for certain things. And he lays out this ideal that should be happening. Verse eight, he says, I desire that in every place men should pray lifting holy hands without anger, or quarreling. And you think you mean, people could come to worship, and then leave worship and be angry and Quarrel? Yes. How many weeks have you done that? Have you ever come in, in a squabble in a fight with a spouse or another member of the church and then showed up in song? Yeah, you have you know it. Like that's not ideal men. If you're gonna lead in prayer, then you've got to deal with your sin that makes you angry and you have to deal with the conflict. wants you to come in here. godly. Likewise, also women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self control, not with braided hair and golden pearls or costly attire is not saying that, that women can't have jewelry. But the point of modesty is, is proper attention. Putting attention in the proper places not showing off hair, how did women show their status in this time? Well, one of the ways was by their clothing, because you sew the wealth into your clothing for everybody to see. You put the jewels in the gold and the hair for everybody to see. So that's that's not what we're about. He's not saying you can't wear something pretty in your hair. He's saying what you should be known for. What you should be known for? Is godliness. Good Works. Verse 11. Let women learn quietly with all submissiveness and do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man rather she is to remain quiet. Now last week, just so that you put these proper scriptures together first Corinthians 11, the headship issue was when, when in a corporate worship service, a woman praise publicly or prophesize, publicly back then God was still giving new revelation. And there were women prophets. And so they would stand up, and they would give their prophecy. They would sit back down, they had to have a symbol of authority in the in the city of Corinth, showing that you're married and not trying to put that aside. So Paul's not saying there's no place ever for a woman to speak publicly. In our day, we would say, it's great for women to pray in public, it's great for women to speak scripture in public. Scripture is prophecy that's already been prophesied. Here we have another situation similar in First Corinthians 14, were probably prophesize. Somebody's prophesying, and then others need to explain it, or deal with it, that there is now this word and the the task of proper doctrine and authority has been assigned to men. That's the way it was in the garden. That's the way it is here. He actually ties it back to the garden for Adam was formed first, then Eve. Remember, Adam had the job of keeping the garden protecting it, he failed at it. But that was his job. Nour Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. He's not saying here that men don't get deceived. He's not saying here that men don't fall into false doctrine. He's saying the task in the new garden, like the task of the old garden, is that the men are to have the courage to study their doctrine, know their doctrine, protect the doctrine, and expound the doctrine for the church. They're the ones who were should be teaching that authority is another word. So the authoritative role of pastor and elder is to be held by men, not because men are somehow superior, it's because God has created an order and assigned a task.
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Verse 15, yet she will be saved through childbearing. Well, that's one of the most. That's the one of the easiest verses in the whole Bible. He is not saying that there are two ways of salvation, one for men by faith, another for women by having babies. He's not saying that the word saved can very often simply mean, preserve. Endure. The idea is, she has been given a role in the new garden, like Eve was given a role in the first garden. She's the mother of all living. She through having her own children, if she if God gives her a husband and marriage and gives her children, she is going to persevere in her faith, having children and spiritual children if they continue in faith, love and holiness with self control. She'll persevere. saved people persevere. So there's an order in this. So in this new garden, Christ is redeemed. And I find that if we're all trying to be Christ, like then here's what's at stake. Men are called and concerned for the spiritual growth and well being of their wives. They are not to stand back act passively. Men are to take the lead in doctrinal and spiritual understanding. I'm going to say in a minute women need we need women theologians and I'll tell you why. But this is their role. Signed by god there's there's a role and an order. In the members of the Trinity there's a role and order in creation. If each person does that role in a Christ like way, we have flourishing and peace, which leads us to for number four, we need to serve in the role that God has appointed us, serving the role that God has appointed you every Christian, by definition is the servant of Christ, servant of Christ, people were all called now to fulfill the Great Commission the new the new creation mandate. By new creation I mean that birth of the new creation called the church
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the believer is so compelled by the sacrificial death of Jesus so compelled by the reality that Jesus prays for us so compelled about Jesus humble service that she he are eager to serve in the church. Eager to co laborer and a witness to the last. As we think about serving, I just want to keep calling out to our singles, and for our single single men and single women on our church make a massive contribution to our church often add an outweighed level to those who are married because they have a little more free time at times. Many of our singles serve in an outdated way or in multiple ministries, at one time. Women weigh in midway in. So in the church, God has ordained male leadership for elders and pastors First Timothy, chapter three, there's a description of elders and pastors there. These are the ones who are qualified. These are for the men and chapter three, verse eight, there's a list of qualifications for deacons. And there we have the women there, Deacon, SS. So there is a place for leadership under the authority of elders. They're called Deacon SS that can have a wide range of, of role and they're designated with authority to carry out that role or that specific ministry on behalf of the elders and we have many deacons and deaconesses. We have now quarterly meetings with the deacons elders, including the deacon SS, we talk about their ministry, we hear what they're doing, it's such a thrilling thing to see. So we have ample opportunity for women to lead and exercise authority as deaconesses. And at the same time, they have ample opportunity to teach other women and children Titus two calls older women to teach and train younger women. Yes, they're under the oversight of the elders, but they're training the younger women he calls women to disciple and be discipled by other women, a man will never be able to disciple a woman the same way a woman disciples a woman, and that's self self evident.
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One of my favorite stories in this last year favorite things that's happened last year is the institution of a program to teach women how to study and teach expositionally we've called it aspiring women to pair it although pair the aspiring men aspiring women term that we have. They're not aspiring to be elders, they're aspiring to teach the Bible well. So I asked Marty turnquist, who is a great Bible teacher gifted to teach she developed curriculum, she trained seven women to to study expositionally to teach expositionally they wrote the curriculum for Philippians. And they have been leading through and teaching and now those women will be able to together write more curriculum for more books to teach more at another level. Because we need women who can teach women accurately from the scriptures.
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complementarianism works in my preaching prep team, I have three men, three women, one single, one single woman, and she often fills me in on a perspective of singleness. One of the most relieving things about the last six or seven years as a leader that I've come to embrace is I don't have to know everything. I thought I had to know everything I had to be expert about everything has a lot of pressure to be an expert about everything. My wife is an expert in a lot of things. What I need to do is initiate to get her expertise out And then do something with the expertise. And the same with the preaching prep guys. I studied the passage I studied the Greek I studied the Hebrew, I unpack the exegesis, I tell them this is what the text means. Now, would you guys help me apply it and think through it and make sure I don't shoot myself in the foot and say something stupid. Mostly they win. I still say stuff that I shouldn't say from time to time, but it's not their fault. It's a beautiful thing. You know what happens in your homes, men when you have a godly woman?
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The elders put together a paper just revisiting it's been 20. Some years since we've talked about this covers much of what I've said here, you can get it at the information center. It's also online, I think, I think the copy of it went out this week with the with the notes, and the announcements. And if you have questions about how this works out at a practical level, we're happy to do this. One really practical thing is we're going to double our pool for getting people to pass plates. Women, if you're able to help Charlie pass plates, for whatever reason, only men have done it and and Charlie and their teams are scrambling to get enough guys to pass plates. And the elder said, that's not an authority position is passing plates. And you've been doing it for 31 year is a faith Bible Church anyway, because somebody passes the plate and the woman goes like this. So you've been doing it the whole time. All you need to do is help. And we'll double our pool for that sort of thing. And I want to say the elders always need your wisdom and input women. And if you're cranky and disrespectful, it is our job to figure out where's that coming from? And how can we help you? We need we need input. I want to finish with my story of Priscilla and Aquila. Back in X 1824 to 28. Priscilla and Aquila together took a palace. This immensely well educated Jew. It's great order gave him the fullness of the the gospel, gospel stories, the Gospel implications. And then it says this about him and when he wished across to a Kea go across the sea to Greece. The brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him when he arrived he greatly helped those who through grace had believed he'd become now a church strengthener for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. Priscilla and Aquila filled out his doctrine and he became an even more powerful witness. All of us in our homes and our marriages, singles among us, all of us together, that loving community making disciples of Jesus Christ. Work together to be instruments used by God to advance and defend the gospel. Let's pray. Father, thank You for this word. And I pray that you would continue to help us be submissive to your word and you're good designs. You are good and you do good. What you created in the first week of creation, you said was very good what you're doing in the new creation. The church is very good. We still battle sin, selfishness the desire for control and a host of remaining sin issues. Help us continue to repent of those so that we can display the glory of redemption create peace and harmony and homes and the church between men and women. Christ's name we pray
Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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