Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Church of the Advent. One of the reasons I love and am thankful for the lectionary, which is the reading plan that we follow, which determines the texts that we look at on Sunday by and large.
One of the reasons I love this is because if we follow it, we end up looking at and preaching on very difficult passages, passages that might otherwise we might be very tempted to avoid.
And yet, because we follow the lectionary, we encounter these passages, and we have an opportunity to mine their riches, to wrestle with them and with God.
You know, the church fathers believed that God actually intentionally puts things in Scripture that are hard to understand, stumbling blocks, because there is tremendous value that comes from wrestling with difficult texts.
So we're thankful that we get to do that this morning. The passage that we're going to be looking at is 1 Timothy chapter 2.
We're going to look at the whole chapter. Part of it's printed in your bulletin, but we're going to be looking at the whole chapter.
It's probably one of the most hotly debated passages in the entire Bible. The mere mention of this raises the tension in the room.
And I think people begin to brace themselves for disagreement or maybe even division.
Ironically, I think this is the exact opposite of what Paul had in mind when he wrote these words.
He has in mind the opposite.
Paul's heart in this passage is clearly not to divide.
It's actually to call the church together, to come together as a community of prayer and holiness and gospel witness.
So I want us to look at this passage with that in mind.
You know, regarding the role of women in the church, there is a strong biblical case to be made on both sides.
This is one of several issues in our church and in our denomination where we believe faithful Christians can disagree.
So when we get to that part of this text, which is what it's most well known for,
I'm going to give you my best take on what I believe is happening in this passage.
For anyone who wants to ask questions or dig deeper, we're actually talking about this right now, this issue in our adult ed class.
And we had a great time this morning and we'll be together again next Sunday.
So if you want to follow up and talk more about this, come to that class.
That's the perfect place to have that conversation.
So I'm going to tell you what I think is happening here, but I also don't want us to lose the forest for the trees.
Because I actually think this passage has a lot to say to everyone in this room,
regardless of where you fall on that particular question and issue.
So let's pray and look at God's word together.
Our Lord and Heavenly Father, we thank you for blessing us with your word.
And we thank you that every syllable, every punctuation mark, or every jot and tittle in this Bible is here for our nourishment and our edification.
Lord, we cannot live, as your word itself says, without it.
And we pray that through your word this morning, you would give us life and that you would give us yourself.
We pray that you would prepare us to come to your table through your word.
Lord, we pray this in your son's holy name.
Amen.
So I actually believe that the key to understanding the entire letter of 1 Timothy is found in Acts chapter 19.
And the story of how the church that Timothy leads was originally started.
The context really matters.
The city of Ephesus was dominated by the Temple of Artemis.
First century Ephesus was dominated.
It was dominated architecturally.
It was dominated culturally.
It was known in the broader empire for the Temple to Artemis.
That temple was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
And the cult of Artemis worship had a massive influence over the culture of that city.
In Acts chapter 19, we see that Paul's ministry in Ephesus was very successful.
As a result, a large number of Artemis worshipers had converted to Christianity.
So many people had converted, in fact, that it had impacted the local economy.
The craftsmen who made idols connected to Artemis worship were in danger of going out of business.
They were losing tons of money because all of these Artemis worshipers were becoming Christians.
And there was a growing fear that if this continued, the cult of Artemis would lose its influence as the source of the city's fame.
And that the city's fame would be diminished.
And so people are so upset about this, the crowds come out and they begin to riot in the streets.
And for hours and hours they chant together,
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
There we go.
I thought I was going to be all smooth doing that.
So they're out there and they're chanting and they're rioting,
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
And this tells us something about the makeup of this church.
This church most likely had a mixture of people.
It had some Jewish people.
And it also had a very large number of former Artemis worshipers.
And if you read the whole letter,
it's clear that all of the challenges that Timothy faces,
I believe, are related to that influence.
And it's clear that the main issue that Paul is dealing with in this letter to Timothy
is the problem of false teaching.
That false teaching is running rampant.
Gordon Fee, one of the great New Testament scholars of our day,
says that nearly every verse in the letter relates in some way to false teaching.
In other words, I'll put it this way.
Timothy's main challenge is to help people disentangle their Christian beliefs,
their Christian doctrine and practice,
from all of these other ideas that are being propagated by false teachers
and these influences in the culture.
So we see evidence of Jewish influences.
So Paul references people wasting time on endless genealogies
or forbidding certain kinds of food.
But we also see evidence of pagan influences
likely from the cult of Artemis.
So Paul references people being led astray by myths
and devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.
So I believe the key to understanding this letter
starts by appreciating the significant influence
of the cult of Artemis on this church.
Timothy has to figure out, how do I disciple and catechize converts
who have grown up in a city dominated by the cult of Artemis?
So at the end of chapter 1, Paul commissions Timothy to fight the good fight
by upholding sound doctrine and godly character,
and that brings us to the beginning of chapter 2.
And the main concern of chapter 2 is not the ordination of women.
The main concern of chapter 2 in its entirety is the spread of the gospel.
It's the spread of the gospel.
Two things, that we pray for the spread of the gospel
and that we do nothing to hinder the spread of the gospel.
So I want to look at those two parts.
First of all, verses 1 through 7, that we pray for it.
Paul says essentially, pray for all people in every way you can,
especially for our leaders, so that we can live a peaceful life.
Now why is this so important?
Why is it important to pray for our leaders?
Well, so that the gospel can spread unhindered to all people.
Because he says, God desires all people to be saved.
Everyone.
So it says here, God our Savior, verse 4,
wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind,
the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.
Now this would be challenging to modern Western ears
because we don't like the idea of exclusivity
and people have a hard time with the truth and the reality
that Christ is the only way to salvation and to be reconciled to God.
It also would have been challenging to first century ears in Ephesus,
but for very different reasons.
We know from archaeological evidence that in Ephesus,
when people use titles like God or like Savior or like Lord,
they weren't talking about the God of the Bible.
They were talking about Artemis.
Artemis was God.
Artemis was Queen.
Artemis was Savior.
Artemis was Lord.
And the five most common titles used for Artemis include these titles.
First, Queen, Lord, Savior, and God.
So I actually don't think it's a coincidence that Paul makes a point
at the end of chapter 1 of referring to God as the King of the Ages,
Jesus, immortal, invisible, the only God.
And then he goes on in chapter 2,
there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men,
the man, Jesus Christ.
He is in everywhere saying,
our God is far superior to your God.
Artemis and the other gods in the Greco-Roman pantheon
demanded continual sacrifices.
And Artemis was known for being very petty
and very impatient if she was neglected to worship she believed she was due.
She was known to be vengeful
if you didn't offer the proper sacrifices
and the proper devotion.
Paul is saying, on the other hand,
our Lord, the God we worship, Jesus Christ,
he was the one who was willing to offer himself as a sacrifice for us
to give himself as a ransom for all.
So the point, I believe, that Paul is making is this,
that God's desire is for all people to come to know that truth,
that Christ alone is worthy of our worship and devotion.
Christ alone is worthy.
So Paul is calling us in these first seven verses,
pray for all people to know this.
Even the kings, even the emperor, everybody.
There wasn't a Christian ruler anywhere in the world at this time.
So he's not just saying pray for Christians,
pray for everyone.
At this time, you know who is the emperor?
Nero.
A man known for his cruelty and persecution of Christians.
Paul says, pray that Nero would come to know the truth of Jesus.
Pray for all leaders.
By the way, every time we do the prayers of the people
and we pray for all the needs of the world and all of our leaders,
regardless of whether we voted for them,
we're obeying this command, right?
So here Paul addresses first the need to pray for this,
and then he goes on to say,
and in the way you live and conduct your life as a church
when you gather for worship,
don't do anything to hinder the spread of the gospel.
Sometimes we need to get out of our own way as Christians.
So this is what I believe verses 8 to 15 are all about.
So apparently first, there's a problem with men getting angry
and fighting with one another.
That doesn't seem like too much of a stretch.
There's ongoing conflict, and Paul says that hinders the gospel.
When people outside the watching world,
when they see us fighting,
when they see unresolved conflict,
and when that is impeding our worship,
that hinders the gospel.
So Paul says, therefore, I want the men everywhere to pray,
lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.
That's to pray like this.
It's the Iran's posture.
It's the way that Jews prayed.
The Christians inherited that practice from the Jews.
Then for the rest of the chapter, Paul addresses women.
Now, why do women get so much attention?
Well, I think the answer is pretty obvious.
Because simply having women in church alongside men
created massive confusion for everyone,
Jews and Greeks alike.
For the Jewish converts,
they were used to women being segregated out during worship.
And women were not allowed to study the Scripture.
But that's happening in the church.
What do we do with that?
For the former Artemis worshipers,
they were used to the women being the ones who were up front.
In Artemis worship, the women lead in every way.
There were some male priests,
but they often occupied subservient lesser roles.
The primary spiritual leaders,
the people you would see up front leading in the rituals and services,
were the women.
And so they come into the church,
and it's a mostly male-led movement.
What do we do with that?
So everybody's looking at these women,
and even the women themselves are not quite sure,
how is this supposed to work?
So you see a lot of attention being given in the New Testament letters
to women's conduct in the church.
So they're trying to figure this out.
And so, you know, imagine being Timothy.
Your job is to figure out how do we integrate women
from all of these diverse Jewish and pagan backgrounds
to worship together as one church family.
And it gets very practical.
The first thing he addresses is their attire.
Apparently, women were dressing in ways that were causing problems.
What's the issue?
Well, they were wearing very elaborate hairstyles
and jewelry and things like that.
And if we look at the culture of Ephesus,
we recognize that for women,
particularly high-status women,
the way they wore their hair and their attire
was a way of signaling wealth and status.
So wealthy, high-status women had multiple braids.
They had plated hair,
often interwoven with gold threads and pearls and jeweled pins.
And by the way, this is particularly true
among Artemis worshipers.
They would decorate and adorn Artemis,
and the priestesses would dress in very elaborate ways
with elaborate hairstyles.
And so this was strongly associated with that.
And so Paul is saying when you do that
and when you come into church like that,
you're hindering the gospel.
It's causing distractions.
The church is a place where we don't assert status.
The church is a place where we don't put our wealth on display.
Right?
Leave the Rolex at home.
Right?
The church is the place where social hierarchies
are turned upside down.
The greatest among us are those who serve.
So dressing in ways that signal your superiority
is a denial of the gospel.
So he calls women,
adorn yourselves with modesty and self-control
and good works.
Don't hinder the gospel.
And then we come to the issues of behavior.
This brings us to the passage
that has caused so much controversy.
Paul goes on to say,
a woman should learn in quietness and full submission.
I do not permit a woman to teach
or to assume authority over a man.
She must be quiet,
for Adam was formed first,
then Eve,
and Adam was not the one deceived.
It was the woman who was deceived
and became a sinner.
But women will be saved,
or depending on if you look at the Greek,
but she, woman,
woman or women,
but women will be saved through childbearing
if they continue in faith,
love, and holiness with propriety.
Now one way of reading this
is to see this as Paul laying down
a principle of male headship
that is rooted in the order of creation.
Men are called to teach and lead in the church,
and women are called to a posture of quiet submission.
That is a well-established
and widely shared way of reading this text.
In my opinion,
it does leave some questions unanswered.
If women are truly meant to be quiet in the church,
how do we make sense of passages
like 1 Corinthians 11,
where Paul seems to assume
that women will be praying and prophesying
as part of public worship?
How do we make sense of the numerous women
named throughout the New Testament
who seem to occupy prominent leadership roles
in the church?
So as you might expect,
I do have a different take
on this part of the text.
For starters,
the word translated here in the NIV
as assume authority
is notoriously hard to translate.
It is not the typical word
that Paul uses for authority,
which is exousia.
It is the word authentine.
And depending on what version
of the Bible you have in your hand,
it's going to be translated differently
with very different implications.
So the NIV says assume authority.
The ESV and the NASB
translate it as exercise authority.
The Latin Vulgate and the New English Bible
translate it as domineer.
The Geneva Bible and the King James Bible
say usurp control.
So you can imagine
why there might be some disagreement
because one person's looking at their Bible,
another person's looking at their Bible,
and you're going to go
in two very different directions
depending on the translation.
The confusion comes in part
from the fact that this is the only time
this Greek word ever shows up
in the Bible.
And the meaning of this word
seems to have changed over time.
The same thing happens in English.
If you look at the way
certain words were used
two, three hundred years ago,
sometimes they almost mean the opposite
of what they mean today.
And the meaning of this word
clearly shifted.
Prior to Paul,
it seems to have had
very negative connotations.
This word root was associated
with murder and violence.
Fast forward several hundred years
after Paul was writing
and it came to mean
simply another synonym
for exercising authority.
It's very hard to know
exactly what Paul had in mind
when he used this word
in the first century.
But what we do know
is that any time an author like Paul
uses a very unique word
that is not the normal word he uses,
it seems to imply
he has a unique situation in mind.
So some people think
this is a general prohibition
against women teaching
or exercising any form
of authority in the church,
while other people think
that Paul is only forbidding women
from doing a certain kind of thing,
namely teaching in a way
that asserts or presumes
or usurps authority.
authority.
What you think about that
is shaped in part
by how you read the next verse.
For Adam was formed first,
then Eve,
and Adam was not the one deceived,
it was the woman who was deceived
and became a sinner.
Again, is Paul referring
to a timeless principle
rooted in creation
or something else?
And here is where I believe,
and I would submit to you,
that the influence
of the Artemis cult
helps us understand
what Paul may have in mind.
The origin story of Artemis
was massively influential
in the Ephesian culture.
Historical evidence shows us
that her origin story,
her birth story,
was regularly celebrated
through feasts, sacrifices,
festivals, contests,
music, acting, magic,
sacred games,
and birthday processionals.
It was rehearsed again
and again and again.
As the story goes,
Artemis was the daughter
of Zeus and Leto,
and her twin brother
was Apollo.
And when it came time
for the twins to be born,
Artemis was born first.
I told you that one of the five
most prominent titles
for Artemis is
she is first,
because she was born first.
It then took hours
for Apollo to be born.
It was an extremely
arduous, painful birth experience
for her mother.
And Artemis
had to help Apollo be born.
So she became the midwife
to help Apollo
come into the world
and saw her mother suffer
for hours and hours and hours.
So,
because she was born first
and because she was the one
who had to help Apollo come out,
that meant,
in the mind of the
first century followers,
that she was the stronger one.
So she's first
and she's stronger.
Therefore,
this justified the fact
that the Artemis cult
was led entirely by women,
because women were seen
as being spiritually superior,
as Artemis was.
So,
women lead in the temple
because Artemis was born first
and then Apollo.
And because this birth experience
was so awful,
the myth goes
that Artemis never wanted
children of her own.
She essentially said,
well,
I don't ever want to have
to go through that.
And so she refused to marry,
she remains a virgin goddess,
and then she demands
that her followers
do the same.
So serious women
who follow Artemis
would also renounce marriage
and abstain from having children.
By the way,
later in 1 Timothy,
Paul refers
and actually devotes
a large section
of his letter
in 1 Timothy
to women
who have been led astray
by the teaching of demons
and have therefore
refused to get married.
He's like,
we have all these women
who have refused
to get married.
And then he has to give
extensive instructions
on how to deal
with the apparently
large number
of unmarried women.
And it's not just
older unmarried women,
it's younger unmarried women.
And he's like,
how do we deal
with all of these
young unmarried widows?
He has to address that.
I think this is probably
the reason.
Also,
as a result
of the birth experience,
Artemis became
the goddess
of midwifery.
So women
who got pregnant
and they were approaching
their delivery date,
they would pray
to Artemis.
They would go
and they would buy spells.
They would buy charms
blessed by Artemis.
And these were charms
and spells
of protection.
And what were they
praying for?
They were praying
that Artemis,
that God,
would save them
through childbearing,
deliver them safely
through childbearing.
Right?
And so they were used to,
culturally,
women were used
to trusting in Artemis
to deliver them safely
through childbearing.
So imagine you are
a young woman,
you have come out
of the cult you grew up in
of Artemis worship,
you are getting to know
this new sect
called Christianity,
the followers of the way,
you're learning
what it means
to follow Jesus,
you're going to church
and your delivery date
is fast approaching.
And you're terrified
of a situation
like a breech child,
right?
C-sections wouldn't
be invented
for another 1,500 years
or so.
So you're terrified
that if anything goes wrong,
you could be in
for a long, slow,
horrible, painful death.
Childbirth was no joke,
it's no joke now,
it was definitely
no joke then.
And so you're trying
to figure out
who do I trust,
who do I rely on?
You know that Artemis
is easily offended,
you know that Artemis
is vindictive,
you know that Artemis
with her arrows
is just as likely
to euthanize you
during childbirth
as she is to save you
through childbirth.
And you do not want
to get on Artemis'
bad side.
And you go to your pastor
and you say,
what do I do?
Because I'm really afraid
that Artemis
will get revenge on me
if I don't trust her
like I did
with my first two children.
What do I do
now that I follow Jesus?
Right?
This would have been
a very real scenario
that people had to navigate.
So here's the way
I believe we are meant
to read this passage.
And I offer this
knowing that there are
some people who disagree
with humility
and respect for you.
As we said already,
apparently the presence
of women caused
a lot of disruption.
The Jews would have
been put off
by the fact that the women
are sitting right next to them
and that they're studying
the word alongside them.
The former Artemis
worshipers and Greeks
would probably have been
confused about the fact
that women weren't up front
leading.
Why is this movement
largely led by men?
And there may even
have been women
who came from the Artemis cult
who had previously served
as priestesses.
And they assumed
that in this religious context
they would be welcomed
to go up front and lead.
So Paul is having
to address this very
mixed audience.
And so he says this,
and I'm paraphrasing,
you should let,
and in fact if you want
to translate it,
the best translation is
I am not permitting.
Right?
So we'll get there.
He says first of all,
let women learn,
let women learn God's word
and when women learn
God's word
they should do so quietly
with a posture of submission
to God's word.
So he's saying to the Jews,
no, let women learn.
And when they do it
they should do it
with a posture of quietness
and they should submit
themselves fully
to what they're learning.
But then he says essentially this,
but hey,
just because I'm allowing women
to study scripture
don't assume
I'm not necessarily permitting
or I'm not necessarily allowing
women to teach in ways
that assume authority
simply because they're women.
So now he has
the Greeks in mind.
He's saying,
yes the women are here learning
but that doesn't necessarily mean
that we're putting them
up front right away.
Because,
he goes on to say,
unlike the origin story
of Artemis being born first,
in the Christian origin story,
let me remind you,
Adam was created first,
not Eve.
And let me remind you again,
Eve was the one
who was deceived.
So don't assume
that women should be up front
just because they're women.
Women are not necessarily
more qualified to lead
simply because they're women.
Their posture,
because they're new to this faith,
should be one of quietness
and submitting themselves
and learning God's word.
Because that's one thing
that all of these women
had in common.
The Jewish women
and the Greek converts,
all of them were,
for the first time ever,
being allowed to study God's word.
So most of them
were unlearned
and most of them
needed to devote themselves
to learning God's word
before you could even
answer the question
of whether or not
they should lead.
And so their posture
needs to be one
of submitting themselves
to the word.
And yet,
I believe Paul goes on to say,
he says,
Eve was the one
who was deceived,
but I believe he goes on to say,
but let us not remember,
or let us not only remember Eve
for the sin.
Eve's legacy is not limited
to her role in the fall.
She,
through all the women
descended from her,
also participates
in the redemption
of the world
through the gift
of childbirth,
which is an allusion,
I believe,
to the ultimate child
who was born.
Paul is alluding to
the means through which
God brings salvation
to the world,
namely the birth
of Jesus Christ
into the world
to save it.
Once again,
reminding us
that God in every way
is superior to Artemis.
You no longer
have to rely
on Artemis
to save you
or deliver you
through childbearing.
We worship a God
who is able
to bring about salvation
for the whole world
through childbirth.
He alone
is worthy
of our trust.
He alone
is worthy
of our worship.
As I said before,
if you want
to ask questions
or go deeper,
come to the adult ed class
next week
at 9 a.m.,
I do believe
that regardless
of how we read
this last section,
there are overarching themes
that do apply
to all of us.
So let me ask us all
to reflect on this.
Are we committed
and passionate
about the spread
of the gospel?
Are we passionate
to see the gospel
go to all people?
Are we committed
and passionate
about living lives
that glorify
and lift up
the name of Christ
above all other gods?
I think that's
the ultimate point
of this chapter.
So let me ask you this.
Do you,
do we,
pray for all people
to come to know Jesus?
Do you spend time
in your day,
do you spend time
on your own
praying for all
the people you know
in your life
who don't know Christ,
praying that they
would come to know Christ?
Pray for all people.
And then we should
constantly be asking
ourselves this question.
Do we hinder
the spread of the gospel
in how we live,
in how we treat
one another?
You know,
when people outside
the church
are looking at the church,
our behavior,
our conduct,
the way we love
or fail to love
one another
is probably
the most powerful
apologetic
for the truth
of the gospel
that people see.
So when people
around us
and people
in the broader culture
are only willing
to be friends
with those who disagree,
with those who agree
with them politically
and they're only willing
to associate
with people
who agree with them
politically,
when that's the reality
in the world,
but then when those people
look into the church
and they see that
in the church community,
we're the kind of people
who build strong bonds
of friendship
and love
and service
that transcend
political division.
When people see that,
we are holding Christ up
as superior
to the political God
that is worshipped
in so many other temples
in the city.
Whatever the 21st century
equivalent of Artemis may be,
right,
that's one example.
When we are doing that,
people say,
there's something out there
more important
than my political affiliation.
There's something
that creates a foundation
for a relationship
that is deeper
and stronger
than our political affiliation.
They're seeing
there's a superior God
out there.
There's a superior way
to order our lives.
When other people
want to make more money
so that they can spend
more money
so that they can get
nicer and nicer things,
and that's the motivation
for all that they do,
and then they look
into the Christian community
and they see Christians
equally ambitious,
striving to earn more money
so that they can give
more money away,
you're seeing something else
put on display there,
right?
The watching world
is seeing a different ethic,
a different relationship
to money.
Like our gospel reading
said this morning,
you cannot worship
both God and wealth,
and they're seeing
these are people
who don't worship wealth.
These are people
who worship something greater,
something better,
something truer,
something more beautiful.
They have a God
that is far greater
than the God
I've been worshiping,
right?
This, I believe,
is the central concern here.
And you know,
there may be
some theological issues
that good,
Bible-believing,
faithful Christians
disagree on.
There may be
some issues like that,
and that is frustrating.
Frankly,
I think some of these issues
may not be fully resolved
until Jesus comes again.
But I believe
that the way
we love one another,
I believe the way
that we treat one another
across those lines
of disagreement,
I believe that
that is a powerful
apologetic for the gospel,
arguably even more so
than our ability
to agree
on every doctrinal issue.
And praise be
to the Lord Jesus,
when it comes
to disagreement,
the gospel
is not an issue
we disagree on.
So because of the gospel,
right,
because we agree on that,
right,
regardless of what side
of the various issues
you occupy.
Our primary commitment,
our primary commitment
is to love one another
and treat one another
with mutual respects.
And I say that to people
on every side
of the issue.
And I will say
what I've already said,
I'll say it one more time.
I have changed my position
on this particular issue.
One of the things
I most hate
is when a person
changes their mind
and then immediately
proceeds to denigrate
those who hold
to the prior position.
I will not tolerate that
for the sake
of the gospel.
So if there's ever
a hint of that
in anything I say
or do,
I want you to let me know.
And if there's ever
a hint of that
anywhere in our community,
we need to put an end to it.
Because our primary concern
is that we don't
hinder the gospel.
It is that when people
see the way we
love one another
and serve one another
and they see the unity
in our community,
it compels them to ask,
what makes all
this possible?
And the answer
is the gospel,
which we believe
is the best possible news
meant for all people.
So let us pray
and live in ways
that make that happen.
Let's pray.
Our Lord in heaven,
we thank you.
We praise you.
We lift your name
on high.
And we pray
that in everything
we pray
and everything we do,
Lord, we pray
that your gospel
would go forth.
Lord, we pray
that the hope of Jesus,
that the name of Christ
would be exalted
above every other name.
And we know
that that will happen,
that one day
this city will be known.
One day this city
will be known
as part of the New Jerusalem
where your name
is lifted above
every other name,
where you are
the source of light
and life,
Lord, and you alone.
And until that day,
Lord, may we be
faithful witnesses
of your gospel.
And we pray this
in Jesus' holy name.
Amen.