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[0:00] First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people. For kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

[0:17] This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

[0:38] For this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth, I am not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

[0:56] Likewise, also, that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair or gold pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who possess godliness, with good works.

[1:10] Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet.

[1:21] For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.

[1:38] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Well, I have a pretty good hunch that the elephant in the room is verses 11 through 15.

[2:03] And the size of this particular beast is of such proportion that it would have two negative consequences. First, I fear that if I don't say anything about it right away, you won't be listening to anything it said until we arrive at that verse, and that would be tragic indeed.

[2:23] But also, if we only speak of the elephant in the room, we will lose so many other things here that are beneficial for us.

[2:36] So, a couple of opening words on the elephant. With the advent of autonomous philosophical thought wedded to the ideals, particularly in America, of independence and freedom, it is true that these verses have been a source of increasing resistance, confusion, misapplication.

[3:01] On one hand, radical conservatives within Christendom have jumped on those verses in a way that vastly exaggerates a distinction in the language itself, by argument of semantic domain.

[3:19] How elastic are these words? And they'll take a word like quietness and absolutize it to abject silence, now and forevermore.

[3:31] Not only that kind of distinction in word, but a division they placed on verses later in the text about Adam being formed first gives this rising sense of the dominance of the man over the woman.

[3:48] And the consequence of both of these things is very bad exegesis and a rampant application that is entirely unhelpful.

[4:00] On the other hand, there is an equally large group, I am going to argue, perhaps even larger than the first group now, of what I would call enculturated Christians, who would sidestep the realities of verses 11 through 15 in ways that vastly alter the plain meaning of the text.

[4:25] And their arguments, more often than not, are entirely rooted in cultural analysis rather than exegetical discourse. And they limit the reach of the text to some isolated problem going on in Ephesus at that time, and therefore not our time, rooted in some educational deficiency of women at that time, therefore they were to teach, or even more so particular disturbance by women in Ephesus who were teaching, and so he puts the clamps down.

[5:02] And like the first group, my own opinion, their exegesis is unusually bad, and the undoing of any application at all is entirely unhelpful.

[5:14] There. I've said something about that elephant. I would also like to say, though, that I have two 45 to 50 minute long messages on those four verses.

[5:30] It equals 20 pages of single-space type preached in this church probably a decade ago. I've pasted them on the Hyde Park webpage.

[5:40] I'll keep them up for the next week, and you'll be able to see the thoroughness with which this church deals with those issues from time to time.

[5:51] So just go to htcchicago.org, hit Hyde Park, and you can read full analysis of those verses. So I don't want you to think I'm underselling that today.

[6:04] We'll get back to some of that application later. Now to the things that if we only looked at that elephant, we would miss, we would miss the beauty of the entire chapter, which connects, as the letter has been connecting, the words we speak, or not, to the ways in which we live, and the consequence they have on bringing life into the world, which is indeed God's desire.

[6:36] That seems to be the takeaway for me of chapter 1. So where are we coming into the letter at this moment?

[6:51] We're coming in at a connection between the words we speak and the way we live, and the consequence that has on bringing life into the world, which is God's desire.

[7:03] Take a trip back through the last couple of weeks into chapter 1. We've been in the company there, chapter 1, of two different sets of leaders.

[7:17] Legitimate leaders in the household of faith contrasted with illegitimate leaders in the household of faith. In verse 2, we saw that Timothy was actually termed legitimate in regard to the faith.

[7:32] He was the real deal. Paul joins himself with Timothy, and these two orchestrate their ministry, their word, and their way of life in ways that bring life.

[7:51] Indeed, for they are rooted in love. We also saw in chapter 1, though, illegitimate leaders in the household of faith. They were called in verse 3, certain persons.

[8:04] Interestingly, and I don't know how much the commentaries deal with this, by the time you get to chapter 6, there'll actually be a first person singular pronoun when he talks about false teachers. He.

[8:16] How many there were, I don't know, but in any consequence, certain teachers, among them named Hymenaeus and Alexander, whose word and way of life bring shipwreck to faith, actually lead to death.

[8:37] And there we enter. First of all, then, chapter 2, verse 1, other words, therefore, based on these two vastly different sets of leaders, one legitimate, one illegitimate, one whose words and ways bring life and one whose words and ways bring death.

[8:54] In light of that, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people. He's speaking to the church.

[9:08] Your words, our words collectively to God, and our way of life, the way in which we even speak and navigate with one another, have great bearing on God's desire to bring life to the world.

[9:25] So, I've come to think that it's wrong to deal with this book as if it's simply about false teaching. False teaching sets up this dichotomy as if you could have someone that teaches doctrine accurately, even faithfully, and that person would necessarily be a faithful teacher.

[9:50] It's not true. Can you teach doctrine accurately, faithfully, and still be a false teacher? Yes, because you're false. You're fake. You're pseudo. Your word and your way does not match up.

[10:02] It's not about false teaching as much as about contrasting legitimate and illegitimate leaders in the household of faith. For legitimate people, a life lived is in accord with the gospel proclaimed.

[10:21] So, when we begin to look at this then, chapter 2, verses 1 to 7, we see life-giving ways for our corporate church.

[10:37] These are life-giving ways where there is a union of a word before God and a way of life before another that is consistent with godliness, we are in accord with what He wants.

[10:52] Indeed, that is the way God will use us to bring salvation to the world. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made, notice, for all people.

[11:07] The allness of it is unique. It returns in verse 6. Christ, who gave Himself a ransom for all. Indeed, He is the Savior, verse 4, of all.

[11:25] God desires all people to be saved. Evidently, this illegitimate teaching group in Ephesus, they were sectarian by nature. They only prayed for their own.

[11:39] Their interest was not the world. And the corrective to their illegitimacy is that the church would begin to offer prayers of thanksgiving, supplication, and intercession for all people.

[11:56] Notice, for kings and all who are in high positions. Two consequences would result. First, that we would, as a church, be able to live more peaceful and quiet lives.

[12:11] For indeed, if we are making intercession for those in government and other places, and the Lord would bless our prayers, it would hopefully lead to a more peaceful resolution and way of life for us.

[12:24] And this is good. But notice verse 3 and 4, really the center of gravity of the entire chapter, as well as the undertow between your feet all the way through the letter.

[12:39] It pleases God, who is our Savior, and He desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there's one God, one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus.

[12:57] That's God's hope. It's His desire. That all people will be saved. The importance for us, then, is that our life lived with God in prayer would not be undone by our way with one another.

[13:21] Indeed, for this, Paul was appointed an apostle, a teacher of faith and truth. If you look at verses 2 to 1 to 7 as a general way for church life corporate, what you get, then, in verses 2 to 18 is that working its way out along the lines of gender.

[13:48] What does it look like in the sense, what does he have to say about this corporate life that brings life to the world to men? And what will it mean for women? In chapter 2, verse 8, you see, I desire then, that is, in light of all of this, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up hands without anger or quarreling.

[14:12] Likewise, here it is for women, that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, and on he goes. Notice, for the men, holy hands, as I think you'll see in a moment, concerns their way of life.

[14:30] And their words with one another, they're not to be done in a spirit of anger, agitation, or promotion of quarreling. Women, likewise, are to be adorning themselves in a particular way of life with good works.

[14:45] And their words are to be such that there's a spirit of humility and an absence of grasping for authority or the need to be instructor.

[14:57] And so here it is, in the largeness of the room, the fullness of the teaching is this, our words and our ways have a bearing, a real bearing on God's desire to bring life to all in the world.

[15:16] that's what's at stake. Life. A tall order indeed. Given that then, let's take a look at the particular nuances of this for men and for women.

[15:36] 2.8. Men are to pray lifting up holy hands. What does it mean, holy hands? Just a couple of observations.

[15:48] Notice, the emphasis in the language is on prayer, not lifting. I want men to pray. It's not so much on the manner in that sense.

[16:00] That's just one observation. Secondly, the problem may not have been so much one of posture, that is, the men were sitting in the church with their hands under their legs, as much as it could be a position of their soul.

[16:16] And that might be there because look what it's joined to. You are to pray in this way and it's explained by not being one in anger or disputation. Third, the word holy.

[16:30] The word holy here has a connotation of being clean, innocent, unstained, pure. Think of John Paul Sartre's dirty hands.

[16:42] It's the opposite of that. It's someone who is not living a compromised life. You're to pray with a life that is clean, innocent, unstained, and pure.

[16:54] In that sense then, the phrase holy hands could be synonymous with what you read in chapter 1, verse 5, that our whole work comes out of a pure heart. We're looking for a purity of heart.

[17:06] I think of Psalm 24, 4, Who is it that shall ascend the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not speak deceitfully.

[17:25] Fourth observation, holy hands, is probably an idiom which would have been known to the hearers in the first century. Sophocles uses it in Oedipus at Colonus and there's a moment where the choir says, Now make atonement for these deities to whom thou hast first come and on whose ground thou hast trespassed.

[17:48] The need for atonement. Oedipus replies, With what rights? Instruct me, strangers. And then they sing, First, from a perennial spring, fetch holy drink offerings born in clean hands.

[18:04] The idiom is with purity, holiness, not in anger, not in disputation.

[18:16] You don't come and make your prayers before God and then live a life with one another that is always in vain discussion, quarreling, and leading to deceitful ways.

[18:27] They don't match. When we speak to God, we are to speak to Him with a life that is aiming to be pure, not deceitful.

[18:43] That said, I have, as you know, nothing against praying with lifted up hands. I just wouldn't restrict that verse to that as the wooden construct of what He intends.

[18:57] But believe me, I have seen men in ministry who are argumentative. If you're the kind of person, men, who say, you know, I love a good argument, be careful.

[19:13] for those who love good arguments aren't always the best of men. Anger, quarrels, divisiveness, a way of life that divides, not unites.

[19:37] Paul says, in light of legitimate leaders in the household of faith and the connection of way and word, in light of the illegitimate leaders in the household of faith and their disconnect with life and word that brings death, you, all of you, make the connection clean.

[19:54] Speak to God with words that are united to a life and a way of peace. For this is good and pleases God.

[20:06] And it will go well with you. And in doing so, it will go well in the world. For God desires to bring others to know Him in the same way.

[20:22] What about the women? The women are here. Verse 9, likewise, also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.

[20:51] And again, how are we to understand these words? In a wooden construct that we would never have a woman braid her hair or wear a wedding ring? Or culturally, that they are just to distinguish themselves from the red light district when they come in on Sunday?

[21:09] No. Indeed, the Proverbs 31 woman had her clothes, her kids clothes, in scarlet. Fine linen and purple.

[21:21] I remember walking through this once with my wife, this text. She had a wonderful thing. She said, if I am to take the line about what not to wear woodenly, then I am not also obligated to take the line about what to wear woodenly?

[21:42] And what a day that would be. Imagine the sight of all the women coming into church dressed only in their good deeds. an iron over this shoulder, a pie tin on this arm, what they had done earlier in the week, a meal made.

[22:08] What an absurdity. The clear meaning of the text is that women are to live their life with modesty, self-control, with good deeds.

[22:27] Because that is a way of life that is consistent with the word they profess. And it's the word they profess and have faith in that actually, at the end of the day, saves them.

[22:40] That's the little bit of the end. The woman is not saved by literally giving birth to a child as if heaven is gained by childbearing in that way. No. The qualifier that he immediately moves on to talk about is if they continue in faith and love.

[22:55] In other words, the natural end of a profession of faith is a life lived which actually leads to salvation. So the women are to continue in love and holiness and self-control.

[23:09] Through all of these things, the union of your word and your ways, you are indeed saved. what a wonderful thing to remember.

[23:22] What a wonderful thing to us. We're to be like this and not like that. For the women here, this is how you prepare to come to church.

[23:35] Am I ready to go to church? How do I look? You won't find out by addressing yourself in the mirror. How do I look?

[23:46] It's not so much a matter of your clothing. It's a matter of your deeds. These will tell you if you are ready to stand before God. And what are those good deeds?

[23:59] Well, we see lists of these kinds of things later, even in the letter, I think of chapter 5, verse 10, where the widow had a reputation for good works.

[24:13] She brought up her children. children. She'd shown hospitality. She'd washed the feet of the saints. She cared for the afflicted. She devoted herself to every good work.

[24:26] Oh, it's a life lived in continual sacrifice to others, isn't it? And this is pleasing to God. When we arrive then at verses 11 to 15, all of the elephant sized notion of the text begins to subside.

[24:46] A woman's words in church are to be adorned with a consistent understanding of what is godliness. There ought to be a humility of spirit, a lack of grasping for authority, a need to be the instructor, and indeed two reasons are given, one rooted in creation, the other rooted in deception.

[25:10] rejection. Not as if the woman is more gullible than the man, and for that I have 20 pages of single space for you. What are we hearing, as Pastor Jackson also likes to say?

[25:27] So what do I want you to hear today from this text? the importance of our words lining up with our way for the purpose of bringing life to the world?

[25:50] We profess a gospel of grace, of peace with God through the death of his son, where mercy has been extended to us.

[26:06] Therefore, as we come and speak with him, let us be sure we are not being argumentative with one another. Therefore, as we come and learn from him, let us make sure that we do so in modesty and with a sense of decorum.

[26:24] For the center of gravity is here. Here. A church ordered in this word and way God uses to bring life.

[26:39] Our Heavenly Father, as we come to you today, we arrive at a very simple directive to be done with a life that causes division in the church and to give ourselves wholly to the gospel which makes peace, to holiness, to godliness, to an attention even this week to what we do and the importance of the spirit with which it is done.

[27:27] For indeed, your heart would go out to grab and grasp more and more from our streets and neighborhoods and to bring them to a relationship to you. Do this in our midst, we pray.

[27:40]  Amen.