Father, sometimes your word reinforces what we just long to hear and long to do
and things that we really just want to celebrate.
And sometimes your word seems to go against the grain.
Sometimes, Father, we're afraid of your word and we don't even want to look at it.
We worry, Father, that your word will hurt us, that your word will diminish us, make us less.
So, Father, we bring these things before you.
We confess, Father, that we often don't even articulate that we have these different dynamics going on within us.
But we come before you, Father, acknowledging our frailty.
And we ask, Father, that you would pour out your Holy Spirit gently upon us, but deeply upon us as we read your word.
And, Father, we ask that you would make us disciples of Jesus who are gripped by the gospel,
learning to read your word so that we will bring you glory in our everyday lives.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son, and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
Amen.
So, for some of you, that's not a good beginning, is it?
One of the commentaries, I always read some academic commentaries as part of my preparation for my sermons.
And one of the commentaries that I read was written in the late 1950s.
And when he came to this part of Titus 2, which was just read a couple of minutes ago,
when he came to Titus 2, I'm not making this up, he said,
this contains such uncontested common sense that I do not know what to say about it.
And I thought to myself, my, the world has certainly changed in 60 years.
I don't know how carefully you were listening to the text as it was written,
but for many people, as they're listening to the text,
they think the first thoughts that come to our minds,
maybe not yours, but to many people's minds,
or maybe another way to put it is, even if you thought that it's a fairly simple text,
imagine reading it in a Tim Hortons or a Starbucks.
Imagine taking it to your office and reading the text.
And inwardly, you would know that people are bristling.
This text treats men and women unequally and is discriminatory.
This text is an abomination because it tells women to submit to their husbands.
This text is an abomination because it seems to legitimize slavery.
And then, imagine having a text that gives advice to the different genders
in the day and age of Caitlyn Jenner.
And of trans bathrooms.
And for some people, they would just say,
this text is so completely and utterly hopelessly unhelpful at the best,
oppressive at the worst.
Why on earth are you even paying any attention to it?
One of the things we do here at the Church of the Messiah
is we read through books of the Bible.
When we read through books of the Bible and we preach through books of the Bible,
it means that we can't just pick and choose the little bits and parts of the Bible
that we like to read.
And it's part of a way of modeling.
In a sense, it's an attempt for the congregation to embark on a journey of common discipleship
where we learn to read the Bible together
and look at parts of the Bible that, left to our flesh,
we would probably avoid reading.
In fact, there's whole parts of the Bible in today's world.
And it's probably true in every culture, in every generation.
I mentioned in my blog, the thing in the bulletin today,
that if the Bible is in fact God's word written,
it means that it's always countercultural in every culture.
In a very, very militaristic or violent culture,
things about turning the other cheek might be deeply offensive.
It's going to be different in different cultures,
but there's always going to be, if in fact it is a word from God
and not just a word from our culture,
there in fact are always going to be things in the Bible
which are countercultural and hard for the culture to listen to.
And so there are parts of the Bible that are an undiscovered country
because we don't want to enter into them and reflect upon them
and meditate upon them and talk about them with each other
and try to learn what it is that this undiscovered country
is calling us to enter into and live in and flourish.
So that's what we're going to do.
We're looking at Titus 2.
So get your Bibles.
It'd be a really important Sunday to have your Bibles
to look at this for yourself.
And I'm going to do something a little bit.
Andrew, could you just put up the first of those Bible passages?
I think it's the one for older men.
Now, I'm not expecting you necessarily to be able to read it.
Some of you have eyesight that can read this quite effortlessly
and some of you can't.
But that's fine.
You should have your own Bibles or you can look up there.
What I want to make it first right off the bat as we get into it
is it's actually from a literary, as soon as I say literary,
I know that some people go like this.
So just the text, the Bible text is written in a,
if you wanted to sort of, I don't have a, I need a really big screen.
But it would be as if, you see at the top there it says,
verse 1, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.
And you'd almost want to have a colon there.
And then what's going to happen is after the colon,
he's going to say, here's a few specifics for older men.
Here's a few specifics for older women.
Here's a few specifics for younger women.
Here's a few, here's one specific for younger men.
Here's something for leaders.
Here's something for slaves.
And then he completes the thought beginning in verse 11.
So one way to read the text is if you're an older man,
in fact, maybe if you're going to meditate upon the text as an older man,
is to look at it in this particular way.
You'd read verse 1, then verse 2, then you skip down to verse 11.
And you get all of the weight of Paul's thought to you.
And if you're an older woman, you'd read verse 1,
and then you'd read verses 3 and the first few words of verse 4.
Then you go down to verse 11 to 14 to get the full weight for it,
all the way through.
And that's the way that the text is set up.
And you'll see that everything which he's going to say,
all of the advice for older men, all of the advice...
So when he says...
So here, I'll just read it as if I'm an older man,
because that's probably what I am.
By the way, I just, out of curiosity,
I checked the King James Version.
And rather than the word older, you know what they use?
Age.
Aged.
So for aged men.
You know, the nice thing about the King James Version
means that all of us are reading the stuff for younger men and younger women,
because there's no aged people here.
But anyway, so here's how you...
But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.
That's what he's going to say.
Okay, going to give you an example for some specifics for older men,
in verse 2,
older men are to be sober-minded,
dignified, self-controlled,
sound in faith and love, and in steadfastness.
And just before I read verses 11 to 14,
sober-minded,
I think some of your translations might say temperate or something like that.
Another way to translate it is
having an unclouded mind.
An unclouded mind.
Our minds can become clouded by lust,
by ideology,
by greed,
by anger,
by envy,
by hatred,
by alcohol,
by drugs.
There's a whole range of things
that can cloud our minds.
And here,
speaking to older men,
sober-minded means,
in a sense,
an unclouded mind.
Like,
just on a second here,
before we get in first,
isn't that a good thing to want?
Like,
it's really,
really interesting.
I was having a real hard time
trying to deal with this scripture passage.
I really was.
Somebody was saying,
I don't know why,
George,
it looks really simple.
I'm having a hard time with it.
And then I was starting to pray,
Lord,
what word is there in here for me?
And then it was like,
duh,
look at older men.
And then I read the first thing,
sober-minded,
and I said,
Lord,
I need an unclouded mind
to read this text.
Lord,
grant me an unclouded mind.
And,
so just go back again.
So,
verse one,
but as for you,
teach what accords
with sound doctrine.
Okay?
Older men,
you know who you are,
are to be sober-minded,
dignified,
self-controlled,
sound in faith and love,
and in steadfastness.
Now,
jump down to verse 11.
For the grace of God,
God has appeared,
bringing salvation for all people.
Pause,
I'm going to read it again.
So,
for every group,
older men,
older women,
younger women,
younger men,
leaders,
and slaves,
the specific advice
is always justified
or explained
or put in the context
of verses 11 to 14.
It's the same for everybody.
Same for everybody.
For the grace of God
has appeared,
bringing salvation
salvation for all people,
training us
to renounce
ungodliness
and worldly passions
and to live
self-controlled,
upright,
and godly lives
in the present age,
waiting
for our blessed hope,
the appearing
of the glory
of our great God
and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
Our Savior,
Jesus Christ,
why is he our Savior?
He gave himself
for us,
to redeem us
from all lawlessness
and to purify
for himself
a people
for his own possession,
a peculiar people,
if you read
the King James Version,
who are zealous
for good works.
And here was this challenge
to me all week,
verse 15,
declare these things,
exhort and rebuke
with all authority,
let no one disregard you.
So while I,
in my Canadian flesh,
wanted to run
from the text,
Paul says,
be a man,
be upright,
have a clear mind,
and exhort
and teach this text.
But here's the thing,
verse 11 to 14,
that's so important,
for the grace of God
has appeared,
bringing salvation
for all people,
the same grace
that's going to save us
trains us
to renounce
ungodliness
and worldly passion.
It trains us
to live self-controlled,
upright,
and godly lives
in the present age.
It trains us
to wait for our
blessed hope,
the appearing of the glory
of our great God
and Savior,
Jesus Christ,
who gave himself
for us.
He gave himself
for us
to redeem us
from all lawlessness
and to purify
for himself
as his treasured
possession,
a people
of his own possession,
treasured possession,
a peculiar people,
zealous for good works.
In the Second World War,
we all know about
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The war in the Pacific
had been very,
very brutal.
Missy,
who comes to the service,
she's part of it,
she's not here today,
she's part of the congregation.
If you never met,
it's too bad most of you
had never met
her husband Bruce,
but her husband Bruce
was an Australian,
and this is,
of course,
before he met Missy.
He fought the Japanese
in the Second World War,
and he had lots of stories.
I had the privilege
of doing his funeral
a few years ago,
and he had lots of stories.
It was very formative,
and it was a very,
very bloody and violent war
against the Japanese.
And on July 26, 1945,
the Allies called for Japan
to surrender
and warned them
that they had a weapon
that could level cities,
that they could not withstand.
And the Japanese
did not believe them,
or even if they believed them,
they did nothing about it.
And on the 6th of August, 1945,
the Allies dropped a bomb
on Hiroshima
and called upon the Japanese
to surrender.
They would not surrender,
and they did not surrender.
On the 9th of August,
the Allies dropped
the Americans and the British,
with the permission
of the British and the Chinese,
dropped a second nuclear bomb
and obliterated Nagasaki,
killing hundreds and hundreds
of thousands of people,
instantly and then eventually
as well through a variety
of cancers.
Still, the Japanese
did not surrender.
In fact, it was only
six days later,
on the 15th of August,
and even then,
it was when the Soviet Union
declared war
the same day upon Japan,
and faced with two nuclear bombs,
and now the Soviet Union
declaring war on Japan,
then the Japanese surrendered.
Now, here's the thing.
Why am I telling you
an old Second World War story
at this point in time?
If God sent Jesus
down to earth
to show us,
to drum some sense into us,
to show us that resistance
was futile,
that he was going to win,
that he was going to triumph,
that bad people
were going to be punished,
you better get in the program,
and you better start
a vain God,
and if God had sent Jesus
to earth for that,
you know what?
A lot of us would probably
still want to fight
against God.
I mean, if you think about it,
the Japanese continued
to fight the Americans
after they dropped
nuclear weapons.
Jesus wasn't nearly
as deadly as a nuclear bomb,
just cursed a few
fig trees.
But if you think about it
for a second,
if Jesus had come down,
if God had,
in a sense,
sent Jesus
to show that
he was going to win
and he was going to have
victory,
then we might still want
to continue to resist him.
But Jesus did not
come to earth
the way a nuclear bomb
came to Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
Jesus came
because he loved us.
He said that he came
to die for us,
to bear in his person
everything that keeps us
separate from God,
that he came
to live the life
of perfect righteousness
that we could never live,
and that he came
to live a life
of perfect righteousness
and to die
the doom that we deserved.
He came to do
all of those things
for us
so that when ordinary people
put their faith
and trust in him,
they can be made
right with God,
that God,
through Jesus,
would make ordinary people
right with him.
And this is a completely
and utterly preposterous story.
Who on earth
should possibly believe it?
The only reason
we possibly believe it
is because of the resurrection.
because Jesus,
who said that he was
coming to earth,
that he had come to earth
to do all of these things,
to give himself,
his life as a ransom
for many,
that Jesus,
on the third day
after dying upon the cross
as a condemned man
of no status,
on the third day
he rose from the dead,
appeared to many witnesses,
the tomb was empty,
and that's what launched
the Jesus movement.
And the resurrection
of Jesus vindicates
that God,
who had promised
throughout all of Scripture,
both that he would judge
but also that he would save,
had begun and dealt
with judging human beings
in the person of his Son,
and that he would save
through his Son.
It vindicates who Jesus is.
And it means
that Jesus came
to make us right with God,
to do what we could not
possibly do
by our own power
and our own efforts
as a pure gift
that we receive
by faith alone,
trusting in Jesus alone,
that God's gracious power
is at work in Jesus alone
to make us right with him.
And that's why Jesus came.
That's why he died.
Not to be like Hiroshima,
not to be like Nagasaki.
Human beings continue to resist,
they might continue to rebel,
but he came
to make us right with him.
And if the resurrection
really happened,
it changes everything.
It changes everything.
It vindicates who he is.
It vindicates his message.
And the Bible here is saying
that even though,
at first glance,
some of the things
which are said in this text
seem very scary to Canadians,
in a sense,
this justification
is asking us to say,
one second,
let's just
get off our high horse
and maybe set aside
our anger
and acknowledge
for the fact that,
God,
if you'd seen the way
that I've been treated
by so many human beings,
Father,
if you'd seen the way
I was treated by my dad,
if you saw the way
I was treated by my boss,
if you saw how I was treated
by my husband,
if you saw how I was treated
by the bullies
who laughed at me
because I was interested
in more artistic things
and not macho things,
God,
if you just knew
how I was laughed at
by coaches
and at gym classes,
if you just knew
how I was treated,
then you would understand
why when I read passages
like Titus 2,
I get very, very worried.
And God says,
you know what,
I know you by name.
And Jesus didn't die.
My son didn't die
for a principal
or for a class.
He died for every
particular individual.
And he knows
all of those things.
I know all of those things.
And I'm just asking you
to go back
and to look at this text
and bring your anger
and bring your worry
and bring your fears to me.
But all I want you to do
is just understand
the context.
My son gave himself
for you,
the real you,
not the imaginary you,
the real you.
He gave himself for you
to redeem you.
So,
let my son
put you on his shoulders.
Let my son
hold you in his arms
or sit beside you.
And let's look
at some of these things
which are so troublesome
for you.
And let's just look
at the text.
If you could put up
the first point,
Andrew,
in some ways
this first point
is the whole point
of the chapter.
In fact,
it's part of the whole point
of the book.
It's a slight rewording
of a point
that I gave you
last week.
Jesus came to earth
to save ordinary people
who put their faith
in him.
He calls each person
by name
to come to saving faith,
know the truth,
live a free
and godly life,
and begin
to live with him
forever.
He knows
whether you're gay,
he knows
whether you're
transgender,
he knows
whether you're
an abuser,
he knows
whether you're
abused,
he knows
whether you're
a bully,
he knows
whether you're
a victim
of bullying,
he knows
if you're rich,
he knows
if you're poor,
he knows
the dreams
you have
at night
that when
you wake
up in the
morning
you can't
remember,
he knows
the things
that keep
you awake
at night
in fear
and the things
that keep
you awake
at night
in anticipation,
He knows that some of the things that you fear are good things
and some of the things you fear are evil things.
He knows that some of the things that keep you up at night in anticipation
are because you want to do evil.
And he knows that some of the things that keep you up at night in anticipation
are because you want to do something really good.
He knows all of that and he knows you by name.
And he sent his son to die for you.
That's the gospel.
Jesus came to earth to save ordinary people
who put their faith in him.
He calls each person by name to come to saving faith,
know the truth, live a free and godly life,
and begin to live with him forever.
Okay, George.
It's okay.
We're going to maybe just pause here for a sec.
But, George, what about trans people?
You don't get this text today.
What about people who identify and just...
And I'm going to use this example
and I'm not using this example to cause...
to have anybody to laugh.
Okay, I'm really not.
Nobody...
I don't want to...
And people are now wondering what I'm going to say.
What if I were a person here
who looks like a male
but they would understand themselves
and identify
and understand that their identity
is that even though they might look like a male,
the real identity is a woman
understood in a non-binary way
who is in love with women
understood in a non-binary way.
And they want to take steps
or have begun to take steps
in terms of their social context,
in terms of how they demand to be treated
and expect to be treated
and how they dress
and maybe drugs and surgery
to have that inner identification
as a woman
understood in a non-binary way
who is in love with women
but who also understand
being a woman in a non-binary way.
And they want to move towards that.
How on earth do you understand a text like this
if you're here
and that's how you understand yourself?
Let's look back here again
at verses 11 to 14.
For the grace of God has appeared
bringing salvation for all people
training us to renounce ungodliness
and worldly passions
and to live self-controlled,
upright and godly lives
in the present age
waiting for our blessed hope
the appearing of the glory
of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ
who gave himself for us
to redeem us from all lawlessness
and to purify for himself
a people for his own possession
who are zealous for good works.
What this text is telling us
is that when Jesus came
to redeem people
he came in a body
and he lived a fully human life
in this created order.
He entered into this created order
and when he died
he experienced
what we experience of death
which is the separation
of the soul from the body.
And he experienced
all there is to experience
of death
at the level of his soul
and his body
experienced what normally happens
when souls leave body.
His soul,
his body would have begun
immediately to decompose.
And then on the third day
when he rose from the dead
he rose from the dead bodily.
The tomb was empty.
It's a very, very important thing
in all of the Gospels.
And one of the things
which this whole lesson teaches us
of the death of Jesus
entering in with the incarnation,
his bodily death upon the cross,
his experiencing death
which means the separation
of the body from the soul,
his resurrection
which isn't just a spiritual resurrection
but he now has a body again
and he has both a soul and a body
and he's defeated sin
and he's defeated death
and he's on the far side of it.
And even this thing of us
waiting for him to come again,
he's going to come to this created order
and what he's doing
when he comes to the created order
is not to take us all
to be like ghosts
in a spiritual realm
but when he comes again
our blessed hope is
that there will be
a new heaven
and a new earth,
that there will be,
that we will live there
with bodies
and there'll be a created order
and there'll be a planet
and there'll be stars
and we don't entirely know
what it is.
It'll be far more glorious
than what we experience right now
but it's an embodied existence
and the body matters.
And so here, Andrew,
if you could put up the second point
that would be really great.
The true and living God,
and I don't have time
to argue through it
throughout the whole Bible
about this,
but if you read,
if you read the Bible,
if you read the Bible
from cover to cover,
if you read Genesis 1
and you read Genesis 2
and you just look at the imagery,
you'll see that this is
the consistent message
of the Bible.
The true and living God
made human beings
to be a biological,
psychological,
social,
and spiritual unity
as either male or female.
And I would say,
and that's it.
That's what the Bible would say.
It didn't really sound good
on a point.
But the Bible teaches
that God made human beings.
We're not a product of accident,
but God made human beings.
He made human beings,
male and female,
equally in his image and likeness.
And he made human beings
to be a biological,
psychological,
social,
and spiritual unity
as either male or female.
That's how God made us.
Part of the fall
is that these things break down.
Their unity is the unity phrase
and in some cases,
for some people,
it's not just that there's
a frame of this unity,
but that there's a complete
and utter break with the unity.
And as you know,
if you live as a,
if you experience
same-sex attraction,
if you experience yourself
as maybe being in a male body
or a female body,
but identifying in some other form,
that's not necessarily
something that you chose.
it's a very powerful reality
maybe in your life.
But the biblical teaching here
is not dependent upon you
having chosen certain things.
The Bible tells us
what God made us in creation
and what will be restored to us.
And in the new heaven
and the new earth,
what will happen is,
if I,
the person that I just described
at the beginning,
the man who understood,
the male who understood,
biological male
who understood himself
in all of these other ways,
what will happen
in the new heaven
and the new earth
is not that you will be a woman,
but that you will be a male,
that you will be a man.
That's the direction
and trajectory of redemption.
And here's the,
if you brought up
the next point, Andrew,
no human being
can be free and whole
if they base their identity
in rebellion against God.
No human being
can be free and whole
if they base their identity
in rebellion against God.
And by the way,
even though I'm connecting this
to particular sexual matters,
if your identity
is based on being
a soccer mom
in Canada,
it's the same type of thing.
All of us,
if your identity
is based on being a liberal
or being a conservative
or being a professor
or anything
that doesn't involve God
in some ways,
you'll never really experience
wholeness and freedom.
So what this text
is saying as a whole
is that if you are
biologically male,
you should read it.
If you're an older
biological male,
that's the part
you should read.
If you're an older
biological female,
that's the part
you should read.
And if you say,
George,
that's going to be
really, really, really
hard and difficult for me,
I mean,
that's partially
what the church is for,
is to walk with each other
and to love each other
as we try to wrestle
with how hard it is
sometimes to walk
on the Jesus way
and how lonely
it can sometimes be for us
to walk on the Jesus way.
And if Jesus
comes into your life
as your Savior
and your Lord,
it doesn't necessarily mean
that you will no longer
experience yourself
or identify as a woman.
I have no idea
whether or not,
I have no more idea
whether you would be
healed of that
or whether you would be
healed of your
same-sex attraction
than whether
you're going to get
a promotion next week.
I have no particular
knowledge about that.
Some people are.
But sometimes
when people pray
into these particular matters,
it ends up becoming
something that's going to
shape what holiness
looks like in your life.
And all I can tell you,
because I don't suffer
from those types of things,
but all I can tell you
is that struggling
and seeking
to abide by God's word
is a blessing.
I mean,
for every man here,
I'll just talk to the men,
and the more common
heterosexual male's
way of experiencing
sexual brokenness
is that they find
too many women
attractive.
And it clouds their mind
and affects their body
and affects their time.
And it breaks them
in all sorts of ways
and harms their marriages
and harms their relationship
with their kids.
And that's the common way
that heterosexual men
experience their brokenness.
And for us men,
when you cry out
and call out to God
that you would be
a Proverbs 5 man,
that you would take
delight only in your wife,
and you call out to God
and pray that you would
be an Ephesians 5 man,
that you would start
to move towards
the sacrificial love
of your wife.
And there might be times
where that's really,
really, really hard
and really, really difficult,
but it's always worth it.
It's always worth it.
And for people,
maybe even who experience
very, very powerful
lusts,
whether it's lust
for multiple women
or very powerful lusts
if you're a man
who experiences
very, very powerful lusts
for every other man
or a man who's
identified as a woman,
who's attracted
to other women
and finds in a way
which maybe for those
of us who are
completely out of sight,
that's very, very hard
to understand.
But the desire
is very, very strong.
The longing
is very, very strong.
But as Jesus
comes into your life,
not that he's going
to deal with that
right away,
he might deal
with your pride,
your anger,
your envy,
your jealousy,
all sorts of other things.
But at some point in time
he will deal with that
and as he starts
to deal with that
by walking with you
and as you start
to walk with him,
I don't know
what will come of that,
but I know
that it can be good
and will be good
and can be glorious.
And maybe you will be
the one who will write
spiritual poetry
or autobiography
or write music
or songs
that will influence
the church
and influence
many countless people
for generations
and generations
of Christ's territories.
I don't know
how it will work out
in your life,
but I know
that it's worth it.
And the start
to walk to Jesus
in the direction
of redemption
is always worth it.
And we should pray
that we would be
a church
not filled
with condemnation,
not filled
with mocking,
but willing to walk
with other people
as they struggle
with real brokenness,
to walk towards freedom.
Because as my very
first point was,
Jesus came to earth
to save ordinary people
who put their faith
in him.
He calls each person
by name
to saving faith,
to know the truth,
to live a free
and godly life
and begin to live
with him forever.
I'm going to have
to go real quick
over the last
of these points,
but hopefully
this has been helpful
to you.
What about the text
being discriminatory?
What about the text
being discriminatory?
Different things
are held up
to older men
than there are
to older women.
Different things
are held up
to younger men
than are younger women.
What about that?
Why isn't it the same?
Well, actually,
if you look at it
for a second,
you'll see that
there's an interesting
balance of sameness
and difference.
Remember,
once again,
every single person
is called
to verses 11 to 14.
So even if you say,
well,
one moment,
like,
you know,
talking about younger women
and being married
and I'm not married
and all,
there's,
everybody is found
somewhere in this text.
Everybody in this text
is find something
in this text.
Even those parts
of being a younger woman
that doesn't involve
the family life,
there's still other things there.
But everybody
is caught up,
is called for 11 to 14.
Look at 11 to 14 again.
For the grace of God
has appeared,
bringing salvation
for all people.
For every person,
it doesn't matter
if you're single,
if you're married,
if whatever,
training us
to renounce ungodliness
and worldly passions
and to live
self-controlled,
upright,
and godly lives
in the present age,
waiting for our blessed hope,
the appearing of the glory
of our great God
and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
That applies to everybody.
And if you look
at verses 7 and 8,
I think the way
to understand this,
because now here's Paul
talking to Titus,
and I think the way
to understand verses 7 to 8
is to understand
that it's talking to leaders.
And everybody,
on one hand,
is a bit of a leader
because we have
some influence
over somebody.
Maybe it's even
just our neighbor,
but a lot of people
have a lot of influence.
And so if you're a leader,
you might say,
show yourself in all respects
to be a model
of good works,
and in your teaching,
show integrity,
dignity,
and sound speech
that cannot be condemned
so that an opponent
may be put to shame
having nothing evil
to say about us.
And that has obviously
a special meaning
in a church,
but even outside
of the church
in terms of the type
of teaching
and leadership
that you're called for,
you're covered there.
People are covered
all the way through it.
And there's a commonality
of the teaching,
but there are specifics.
There are specifics.
And I'm going to confess
to you that I don't
entirely know why.
I don't know why.
But I'm going to suggest
that in the modern church,
we're so afraid
of texts like this,
and maybe some of the reasons
that we're so afraid
of texts like this
is that some of us
are refugees
from a type of brutal
and unthinking
traditionalism
masquerading
as biblical Christianity.
And now we're afraid
of the texts.
But I'm just calling us
that there's this profound
undiscovered country
because surely,
if we're honest,
isn't this a time
when we need advice
to figure out
what it means
to be an older man
or an older woman
or a younger man
or a younger woman?
Isn't this a time
for us to be able
to be gripped
by the gospel
and think of Jesus'
death upon the cross
for us
and maybe start to listen?
And it's not macho.
This is really interesting.
You know,
as I was struggling
with this text,
asking for God
to give me some clarity
about it,
it's really funny.
You know,
sometimes God answers
prayers right away.
So here I am.
I'm in a coffee shop.
You can guess the one.
And I'm in a coffee shop
and I'm praying about this.
And just as I'm praying
about this,
I am not making this up.
Father,
help me to understand
how to explain this.
And just as I'm praying this,
the next thing I know,
I look up
because I hear a rumble,
like a lot of rumbles.
And there's like six Camaros
or Mustangs
all muscled up,
all in a row,
right in front of me,
all driven by a man
who looks like he's
between 45 and 55.
Big, beefy forearms,
big, beefy arms,
big, beefy guy,
serious looking face,
one hand on the wheel,
right type of sunglasses.
I'm a man who has nothing
to forgive or forget.
I drive a kick-ass car.
I'm a man.
And then you look
down at verse two.
Older men are to be
sober-minded,
dignified,
self-controlled,
sound in faith,
in love,
and in steadfastness.
I thought,
thank you, Jesus.
Sometimes that prayer stuff
works really quick.
Like,
this text isn't calling me.
I mean,
there's not that there's
anything particularly
wrong with that,
okay?
But the problem is,
right?
I mean,
this is the Bible.
Just,
like,
let's just listen to the Bible.
Not be afraid of it.
But some of you can say,
okay, George.
Okay.
Let's just look at
the older women
for a second.
Verses three to four A.
I'm just going to say
a few things about this.
I really have to watch
my time.
I know.
Older women,
likewise,
are to be reverent
in behavior.
Not slanderers
or slaves to much wine.
They are to teach
what is good
and so train
the younger women,
and we'll talk about
the younger women
in a moment.
I don't know why
they particularly
warn women
about the slaves
to much wine.
I know that
in North America
there is a huge problem
for women on drugs
to control their moods
and for painkillers.
I have no,
I'm not an older woman.
I'm,
but the text is there.
It would be really
interesting for older women
to talk with each other
amongst themselves
and say,
what do you think?
Like,
and you know,
it could be that
some of you say,
well,
I have no problem
with that.
Well,
that's good
that you have
no problem with that.
I don't know how,
but the word is addressed
to older women
and the word reverent.
Another way to describe
what the word reverent means
is practice the presence
of God.
That's what reverent means.
It doesn't mean
having a long face.
It doesn't mean
never laughing.
You know,
it doesn't mean
walking around
looking like you're
constipated.
it means
practicing
the presence
of God.
Like,
what's wrong with that
as a piece of advice?
If you're an older woman,
you're entering
into a time
of your life
where you should
call out to God.
And by the way,
in verses 1 to 5,
the verb tenses,
they're all aspirational.
This is an invitation
as to something
to aspire to.
That you have
so begun
to learn
the practice
of the presence
of God
that you see
every one
of your waking moments
is being done
in the presence
of the living God.
That it affects
the way you live.
I think that's
a wonderful thing
to aspire to.
In fact,
you know where
the first imperative
comes?
To the young men.
They only have
one imperative.
Get your life
in order.
Learn self-control.
Don't let anger
rule your life.
Don't let pornography
rule your life.
Don't let hatred.
Don't let envy.
Don't let your temper.
Don't give me
any excuses.
Learn some self-control.
Be gripped by the gospel.
Learn some self-control.
That's the first imperative
in the text.
The rest of it's
aspirational.
What about submitting
to your husbands?
I was actually saying
I'm going to run out of time
so I can't talk
about this now.
I'm just joking.
Oh, look at the time.
I guess I can't talk
about this.
Figure it out
for yourselves.
No.
Let's look at it
four being
through five.
And so train young women
to love their husbands
and children
to be self-control,
pure,
working at home,
kind and submissive.
Working at home
doesn't mean
what we mean by it today
about not having
a job outside.
It means
a specific responsibility
for the home.
Kind and submissive
to their own husbands
that the word of God
may not be reviled.
Now here's the thing
about submissive.
slave.
It's a curious word
and it's the same word
that's going to be used
for slaves.
How do I have
a consistent reading
for both?
That's going to be
the exact same word
that's going to come
a few words later
for slaves.
And here's the thing
about it.
Women and slaves
have a very different
social context.
If they don't,
you should.
Women aren't slaves.
Married women
aren't slaves.
Here's the thing
about submissive.
It's both on one hand
a far weaker word
than obey
and a far
tougher word
or deeper word
than obey.
Those of you
who work in bureaucracy
know that there's
a way to be obedient
that can cause chaos
in an organization.
That there's a way
to be obedient
that can stick it
to your boss.
Am I allowed to say
that in a sermon?
I just did.
Any one of you
who work in a bureaucracy
know there's ways
of being obedient
that undermines everything,
causes chaos.
And the word here
is an obedient.
It's submissive.
It's submit.
Here's the thing
to understand
about the text
and to look at the text
very carefully
and quietly.
The thing about
submissive
is in this particular text,
it's something
that's enjoined
upon the young women
to offer as a gift
to their husbands,
but they maintain
complete and utter control.
The husband
has no right
or authority
to demand submission
or to describe
submission
or to complain
about the behavior
of his wife.
The husband
is given no authority
to command.
The wife
is enjoined
to submit.
It's an appeal
to her freedom
and she gets
to determine
what it looks like
and the extent.
If she has a husband
who's violent
and abusive,
that's going to look
very, very different
than a husband
or it should look
very different
than a husband
who's very loving
and self-sacrificial
and attentive.
But it's a gift
that she offers
that it comes from God,
it's an obedience
to God.
And it's not to all men
or to the patriarchy,
it's just to her husband.
And on one hand,
for some people,
that's going to look
very, very weak,
but on the other hand,
this can be something
that goes very, very deep.
And it's beyond
the scope
of this one sermon,
all I can do
is hint at it
it comes to the
asymmetric relationship
often between
the sexes
and the commands.
And in fact,
actually,
if you even think about it
for a second,
you look,
who is it
who's training the women
to do this?
It's the older women.
The men are cut out
of the discussion
altogether.
Isn't that very funny?
You see,
one of the things
happens is
maybe in 1958
they would have read that
and they would have
just imposed
a patriarchal culture
onto the text.
But one of the benefits
in the sense
of our cultural moment
is that when you start
to question
a narrative
of patriarchy
and just try to read
the text
and listen to it,
you see that the mystery
in the text
is that the mystery
of the text
Actually,
I'm sort of running
out of time.
Could you just put
four and five up there,
Andrew?
The first one is
saving grace
is training grace
for everyday life.
You'll notice there
about women,
older women training
and also if you look
down in verses
11 and 12
where the grace of God
has appeared
bringing salvation
for all people
training us
to renounce ungodliness
and the same point
put in a slightly
different way
is verse point five.
The grace from God
which saves
also trains us
to live free
with others
for the glory of God.
So I just want to make,
I've already gone long
but I have to talk
about slaves.
Look at verses
9 and 10.
Bond servants
or slaves
are to be submissive
to their own masters
in everything.
They are to be
well-pleasing,
not argumentative,
not pilfering,
but actually
I'll go back here
read that again.
In the Greek language
there's two different ways
to put well-pleasing
and this version
is chosen one way
but I think
it's actually
more accurate
to read it
with a comma
in a different spot.
Bond servants
are to be submissive
to their own,
are to be submissive,
submissive,
comma,
to their own masters
in everything
they are to be
well-pleasing,
nether comma,
not argumentative,
not pilfering,
but showing
all good faith
so that in everything
they may adorn
the doctrine
of God our Savior.
Now,
here's the thing
about the Bible.
In the ancient world,
slavery was viewed
as normal.
You know,
in our culture
there's all sorts
of things
that are normal.
It's normal
that you have police,
it's normal
that you have an army,
you know,
it's normal
that there's money.
In the ancient world
one of the things
that would just be normal
was that there were slaves,
it was just normal.
One of the interesting
things about the Bible
is that the Bible
never once
argues for slavery,
justifies slavery,
encourages slavery,
never once.
But the Bible,
in fact,
puts in the seeds
to undermine slavery.
The Greek word,
when you look at words
that talk about
in other epistles
when it talks about
masters and slaves,
in English
they translate
the word,
the Greek word
as master,
but it's actually
the same word
that the word despot
comes from
in Greek.
And slaves
had no rights.
And
what the Bible
here does
is it
it awakens
within slaves
who have no freedom
and the Bible
is telling them
that they have
inner freedom.
That they have
inner freedom
and they have
an important
objective
for the good
of the gospel
that they can accomplish.
So that while
in their social location
it looks as if
they're just
under the thumb
or the rule
of their despot,
the Bible calls them
to exercise
an inner freedom
to understand
that they have
ways of submitting
that they can choose
and do
and offer
as a gift to God
and that they are
to try to shape
their submission
to their masters
in such a way
that the gospel
looks beautiful.
Now some of you
might say
that seems a little
bit insufficient,
but here's what
often lurks
behind the modern
mind when it's
complaining about
the Bible.
Imagine here
to bring it out
to the front,
imagine now
that we had a chance
to send a letter
to 150
North Koreans
in a prison camp
in North Korea
who had become
Christians.
They are in effect
slaves.
They have absolutely
no rights whatsoever.
No rights
whatsoever.
We would write,
wouldn't we like
to write and say
to them,
this is a terrible
evil.
You should cast
off your chains
and start living
as a free man.
Bear up your arms
in revolt.
Well, gosh,
that would make
us feel good,
but it would be
completely useless
advice to them.
In fact,
it's posturing
on our part,
not helpful.
What the Bible
here calls for
is something
which is
deeply helpful
for them.
From the eyes
of the world,
they are just
slaves.
There is maybe
nothing that they
will ever be able
to do about it
in a slave culture,
in a slave society.
They are a slave.
They will probably
die as a slave,
but their identity
is not slave.
Their identity
is one for whom
Jesus loved so much
and knew by name
that he died
for them.
And that they
have an opportunity,
even though they
are in a social
context of
unbelievably
restrained freedom,
freedom.
But the Bible
calls them
to recognize
that they have
an interior
freedom,
which no master
can touch,
that they are
to exercise
that interior
freedom in
such a way
that the gospel
is glorified,
not only in their
social context,
but in their
community and to
the ends of the
earth.
Their destiny
is not to die
as a slave,
but to die
as the precious,
peculiar possession
of God
with an opportunity
to show forth
his glory
by rediscovering
inner freedom
that carries
itself out
in action.
And such
teaching
eventually
makes slavery
seem
unthinkable.
Can you put up
the final point,
Andrew?
I'd like to ask
you to stand.
You've been very,
very patient.
In one level,
this is a very,
very,
we're not going
to be able
to pray this
prayer together.
And I left
a blank there.
I don't like
leaving blanks,
but I couldn't
figure out
how else to do it.
And I'm not
going to pray
this prayer,
but if you want
to find it
later on,
it's on the
webpage.
But I'm
inviting you
to pray,
Almighty God
and Father,
please make me
a disciple
of Jesus,
gripped by the
gospel,
who humbly
meditates upon
what your word
written says
about being a,
and maybe I
would say,
an older man
and a leader.
And maybe some
of you would say,
a younger woman
and a leader.
And maybe some
of you would say
that I'm not
entirely a slave
when I work
for the civil
service or work
for my boss,
but it has some
stuff to say
about what it
means to be
a good employee,
about being an
employee and a
younger woman
and a leader.
And you fill in
the blank.
You make the
prayer your own.
make the prayer
your own.
Let's bow our
heads in prayer.
Father,
make us
disciples of
Jesus who are
gripped by the
gospel,
and knowing who
he is and what
he did for us,
that we start to
lose our fear of
your word.
And Father,
help us to be a
people who walk
together,
who learn to walk
together as they
follow Jesus,
to share our
fears and to
share our joys
and to share our
aspirations and
our hopes,
to think upon
your word and to
look upon the
nuances,
to see what's
there and to
see what's not
there,
to be Bereans,
Father,
who study your
word and dwell
your word.
Father,
as we're gripped
by the gospel,
help us to lose
our fear of your
word.
Thank you,
Father,
that the same
word that saves
us is the word
that trains us.
The same word
that promises
salvation is the
word that will
make us free.
Father,
make us disciples
of Jesus who
are gripped by
the gospel,
learning to
live for your
glory.
And this we
pray in Jesus'
name and all
God's people
said,
Amen.