Father, we thank you that you are a God who speaks.
We confess before you that you are far more willing to speak to us than we are to listen.
And we confess before you, Father, that you are far more willing to listen to us than we are to speak to you.
We ask, Father, that you grant us a hearty desire to pray
and that you grant us a deep desire to listen deeply to all that you have to say.
Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us as we look at your word.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
About seven or eight weeks ago, I asked you to pray for me
because one of the ministries that we run during the school academic year for university is Church on Wednesday,
which is a time where we sing God's praises and the Bible is opened and you preach from the Bible.
And then we're going through the book of Colossians.
This is in a public place at the University of Ottawa.
And the text talked about wives and slaves, amongst other things.
And so I had the great privilege and honor to go and stand in public at the University of Ottawa
and talk about this controversial topic.
And I know many of you prayed for me and God was very kind.
And I think it went well.
Anyway, I think it went well.
Today, I'm going to talk about a controversial topic.
And in some ways, I'm going to be talking not about wives and slaves,
but in some ways, I'm going to talk about slaves.
I'm also going to be talking about women.
I'm going to be talking about the role of women in ministry.
In my flesh, I didn't want to do this.
I still don't want to do this.
I'm a Canadian, eh?
And, you know, it's not a very popular topic in Canadian circles,
which is why often there's a profound silence in churches.
But the reason I'm doing it is the same reason.
When I talked at the University of Ottawa,
and I said, why on earth would we talk about something
that can be a bit controversial like that?
And here's the reason.
Here's one of our commitments.
One of the things which non-Christians say about Christians
is that we pick and choose what we want to hear in the Bible.
You know, there's been some best-selling books,
a year of living biblically,
the year of, you know, being a biblical woman,
and they've been best-sellers.
And it's a very, very common complaint about Christians
that we say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we love the Bible,
we trust the Bible, but yeah, we only really like this part,
and we sort of ignore this part and don't do this part.
It's a very standard complaint about Christians.
And unfortunately, it often hits the mark, if we're honest.
And so one of the things that we're very committed to in this church
is that we preach through books of the Bible.
And by preaching through books of the Bible
in an attempt to declare the whole counsel of God,
it means that the Bible is going to force us to talk about things
that as Canadians we wouldn't want to normally talk about.
And so on one hand, we're doing this to try to, in fact,
not be pick-and-choosing Christians,
but to be Bible Christians, Gospel Christians.
And the other reason we're doing it
is that one of the other complaints
that non-Christians often have about Christians
is that it's, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
God has a wonderful plan for your life,
and oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all great, etc., etc.
And then you get in, and it's like there's fine print
in the contract that you didn't realize.
You know, like you get, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
but get this cell phone contract.
It's like no money.
You know, it's all free, and then you get into it,
and good grief, how do I get this huge bill, right?
There's the fine print.
And we don't want to be a church like that.
We want, you know, we want to just,
the Bible is a public revelation from God.
That's how he wrote it.
It's not a secret revelation just for the Illuminati,
the anointed.
It's a public declaration of the truth.
And, you know, I really urge,
if you have not given your life to Jesus,
that before this service ends today,
that you will give your life to Jesus.
Because the gospel is the power of God
to make you right with him.
And we were created to be at one with our creator.
And Jesus, in his death upon the cross,
is God's provision for you,
for him to make you right with himself.
And as his grace is poured into your life
to give you freedom and self-possession,
to live a self-effacing life to the glory of God,
which is what you were designed for.
So I urge you to give your life to Jesus.
And we're going to look at some of the fine print today.
We're going to talk a little bit about women in ministry
and ordination.
I'm going to talk about it this week and next.
And actually, I'll tell you now why I'm doing it.
So I pray a lot,
and I know others pray for me
in terms of how we're going to go through books of the Bible
and how the teaching is going to work.
And so, you know, I had made the decision under God
that we would go through the Book of Romans.
This is our last sermon in the Book of Romans.
And then I'd been praying about what we would do during the summer,
what would be a good series to go through during the summer
that I could share with Daniel.
And I came up with it.
It would be really good to go through the Book of Amos.
It's good to hear an Old Testament preaching series every year.
And I'm going to do 2 Corinthians in the fall.
But I knew when I was looking at the weeks,
I was going to have about three or four weeks,
depending on whether there was a guest speaker,
three weeks, as it turned out,
between Romans and Amos.
So I went looking for texts,
like Bible books that I could do in three weeks.
And Titus jumped out.
I hadn't preached on it in quite a long time.
I don't think I'd ever really preached on it in a church context.
I've taught it in other contexts.
And it's three chapters.
It fits.
And here's the thing.
In Romans 16,
you have some of the most important texts
in arguing for women's full inclusion in ministry.
And that's what we're going to look at today.
And next Sunday, I'm going to preach on Titus 1.
And Titus 1 is one of the most important texts
that restricts women in ministry.
And I didn't do this on purpose.
I'm not smart enough or clever enough.
And it only struck me on Monday as to what I'd done.
And so now I've maybe made a lot of you a bit anxious,
some of you a bit curious.
So let's charge in and see what it is that the Bible has to say.
Here's the thing we're going to say.
Romans 16, verse 1.
We should never be afraid of the Bible.
The Bible will confront our hearts.
The Bible will confront the idols of our hearts.
The Bible has different ways that it says exactly the sorts of things
that Canadians long for.
And the Bible has things to say that are exactly what Canadians fear.
But the Bible is God's word written.
It's God's word to us because he loves us.
It is an outline of sanity.
And I encourage you, if you get nothing else out of this sermon,
if, in fact, at the end of this sermon,
well, don't read the Bible just so you can prove that George is wrong.
George isn't always right.
I know that.
I'm not the Bible.
But if you get nothing else,
I hope that you get a deep desire to read the Bible every day,
to read it cover to cover, and to read it deeply,
that the Bible might form you,
and the Bible might form me,
and the Bible might form that, our church.
So it's a bit of a long introduction.
Romans 16.
I commend to you our sister Phoebe,
a servant of the church at Sencray,
that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints
and help her in whatever she may need from you,
for she has been a patron of many,
and myself as well.
Now just sort of pause here for a second.
And believe it or not,
there's pages and pages and pages written around this simple word,
servant, in academic commentaries.
You know, I notice here it says,
I commend to you our sister Phoebe,
a servant of the church at Sencray.
And depending on the Bible you have,
you might have a little note there that says that the word servant
might also be translated as deacon.
And so right off the bat,
you can see why,
especially if you're guests here from certain churches,
whether they allow women to be deacons or not,
this is potentially an explosive text for a lot of churches,
or an encouraging text for a lot of churches,
depending on how you sort it out.
Now, I want to deal with a heart issue here first.
I want to deal with a heart issue here first.
And this is true of every church,
but it's probably even more true of Anglican and Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.
I mean, technically,
I could introduce myself as the Reverend Canon George Sinclair,
Rector of Church of the Messiah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
We love titles.
Human beings love titles.
You know, in The Office,
isn't that so funny?
You watch The Office,
Dwight is always wanting to be like the assistant regional district manager,
and it's an ongoing joke.
People love titles.
One of the ways to demote somebody or get them out of trouble
is you give them a grand-sounding title with no authority somewhere
to get rid of him or her when they're problematic.
Isn't that true?
So here, if you could wrap the first point,
here's the hard issue.
Human beings love titles.
God loves right action.
So whether or not,
the fact of the matter is that you can't actually solve the issue
as to whether we should call Phoebe a deacon or a servant.
You know the important issue?
She's dead things.
Like, I'll be very honest with you.
I would have loved to have been elected bishop.
Why would I have loved being elected bishop?
Because, you know, it means I could boast that people liked me.
Would I actually like to be a bishop?
I would hate being a bishop.
I would hate being away from my family half of the year.
I would hate it.
I would loathe it.
But I sure would have liked the title.
Wouldn't want to do it.
But I'd like the title.
And I don't think I'm alone.
And so, you know, the bottom line is,
Phoebe here is an important person.
In the customs of the ancient day,
Paul has just introduced the person who brought the letter of Romans to the Romans.
He's saying, okay, you know the person who brought this letter?
Her name is Phoebe.
She's a person of substance.
She's a person of gravitas.
She is a person who is not just a talker.
She is a person who is a patron.
That means she has put her economic acumen,
her economic resources,
her organizational resources,
her property,
she has put them at the use of the church.
And she has brought her resources to bear to the church
for the church to flourish and accomplish what it has to accomplish.
She is a trustworthy servant,
a person of gravitas, importance, and authority.
Help her.
That's who she is.
That's what he's saying.
And so it's important for us just to remember here,
behind all of the things,
and I'm not saying that the other debates aren't important,
but it's really easy for us to get caught up in,
you know, intellectual arguments
without realizing that partially what motivates
our intellectual arguments
is a heart issue of our love for titles
and our lack of interest in actually doing things.
Okay, maybe I'm the most sinful person here in the room,
and it's only me who has this temptation,
but I think it's a pretty common temptation.
So that's the big heart issue.
Let's continue to continue reading verses.
But you notice how this has a bit of an impact for some churches,
where for some churches,
women can't have any type of position of authority in the church.
And yet here we have Paul.
And listen, money is money always.
And if somebody is a main financial giver,
a main giver of property,
a main giver of her business,
we don't know if she was a business person
or a person of independent means,
but she had some financial resources
and she was a smart cookie,
she knew how to use it,
and there's no way she didn't have authority.
I mean, that's just psychologically and humanly impossible.
And this is like a bit of a blow to a lot of Christians.
Let's continue reading.
It actually gets more interesting
with the very next two verses,
next three verses,
verses three and five.
Greet Prisca and Aquila,
my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
who risked their necks for my life.
In other words, literally,
they came to a point where they,
it wasn't clear whether they would die.
They intervened in a way that meant that they might die.
But they did it to try to protect Paul.
Who risked their necks for my life,
to whom not only I give thanks,
but all the churches of the pagans give thanks as well.
Greet also the church in their house.
And just sort of pause there.
It's very significant that the woman is mentioned before the man,
that the woman has a name of affection and intimacy,
and Prisca and Aquila are actually quite well known
in the New Testament.
And one of the things which is significant about this
is that one of the most important characters in the early church
was a man by the name of Apollos.
And he was an important teacher and evangelist in the church.
And who did he learn the Christian faith from?
Prisca and Aquila.
So she taught him in an important way.
And they are obviously leaders,
and you have a woman teaching.
So this is a very, very significant text.
And it's a very, very significant text.
Now just before I read the rest of the list,
and I'm only going to actually,
I'm not going to read all of the next 26 people who are,
next 24 people who are mentioned.
It is interesting that the first two people mentioned are women.
But before I,
I'm not going to read all of the rest of the thing.
But what I want to tell you here,
and I'm not going to go through every one,
but almost a half of the rest of the list are slaves.
In our day and age,
if, well, we don't have slaves in Canada.
Well, I mean, there's a problem with sex slaves,
but as a general rule, it's illegal.
But in the ancient world,
there would be names that a citizen would have,
and there would be names that an owner would give to a slave.
So for almost half of the names in the rest of the list,
we don't know now whether they had been,
had been slaves and were now freed men or freed women,
or whether they were still slaves,
but they were slaves.
And 10 of the women who are mentioned,
the list of 20,
10 of the 26 people who are mentioned in the list are women.
And, and then the language of the way they are talked about,
these are all important leaders in the early church.
And so it's very,
very interesting.
In the list that we're about to see,
we're going to have slaves.
We're going to have rich people.
Phoebe is rich.
Erastus, which is mentioned later on,
is very wealthy.
We have rich people.
We have slaves.
We have Jewish people.
We have pagans.
We have people who were Roman citizens.
We have people who,
there's a woman here who's from Persia,
which is outside of the Roman Empire originally.
She must have been captured in some way,
or for whatever reason,
she was captured as a slave.
She's a slave woman,
probably a freed slave woman.
You have a very,
very diverse picture.
You're going to have a picture of slave churches,
which are completely and utterly equal to the other churches,
which would have been mixed slave and free.
You know,
it's very,
very interesting for some people.
When I said that I was going to be doing something controversial for most people,
when we look at Romans 16,
what's the big obstacle we have to it being in the Bible?
Boring!
Right?
Am I the only sinful person here in the room?
Your eyes glaze over these names you can't even pronounce.
But if you actually dig into them,
it's a fascinating glimpse of the early church.
It's absolutely,
and it's dynamite,
as I'm going to talk about in a moment.
It's a dynamite thing
in terms of how it affects social movements
and social structures and institutions
and how we think about a whole range of roles.
Like,
just before we get into it,
no,
I'll save this point for a moment.
Hopefully I'll remember it in a moment.
But here,
just before we go any further in the list,
could you put up the second point,
Rebecca?
And for any of these points,
if you don't have time to write,
if you want to write them down,
if they're helpful to you,
they're all going to be on the webpage on Monday,
I think it is.
There is only one gospel
from the one true God
to every person and people group.
That's one of the things
that we see here from this text.
It's very, very, very important
for us to understand.
There is only one gospel
from the one true God
to every person and people group.
There's a really, really good book.
I don't know how to pronounce his name.
It's a Muslim name.
A Muslim who became a Christian.
I think it's pronounced Tabidi.
I can't remember his last name.
It's an African Muslim name.
And he, in his book
about the gospel for Muslims,
the very, very beginning is,
he said there is no special gospel
for Muslims.
There's only the gospel.
If we want to go to China,
you don't come up with a Chinese gospel.
There's only the gospel.
You want to go to Tunisia?
There's no Tunisian gospel.
There's only the gospel.
You want to go to the transgendered community?
There's not a transgendered gospel.
There's only the gospel.
And what we really need as Christians
is to have a clarity about the gospel
so that with a clarity about the gospel,
when we're talking to somebody,
we can try to figure out
what images and analogies and metaphors
will help them to understand the gospel.
But there's not a separate transgendered
or Muslim or Chinese or atheist gospel.
There's only one gospel.
And we see this here
because who has been affected
by the one gospel?
Rich, poor, slaves, free,
men, women, Jewish, pagan,
Roman citizens, Persians,
all hear from the one true and living God,
the one gospel.
So, it's a very, very, very important thing.
Could you put up Romans 1, 16 to 17?
This will be the last chance we get to read it.
I'm going to have you all read it with me out loud
in a second.
Remember, some of you remember that I said
that the way Romans is written
in a very, very curious way
by its literary structure,
this basically summarizes the entire book.
It's as if Paul wrote
what we would now call an abstract
at the beginning of the book
that summarizes the entire message.
And so, everything in the book
is an unpacking of this.
And if you could read it out loud with me,
that would be very, very good.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God
for salvation to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in the gospel,
the righteousness of God
is revealed from faith to faith.
As it is written,
the righteous shall live by faith.
Two verses to memorize.
And what this is saying
is that God saw human need.
God saw that human beings
could not reconcile themselves to God
and that human beings were made
to be in fellowship and harmony with God.
And God saw our great need.
And so, He acted in a way which is right.
That's what righteous means.
And it also means He acted in a way
which is right
to make us right with Him.
He did it, not us.
And so, when Jesus is dying upon the cross
and He descends into the dead
and He rises on the third day,
and as I tell you about that,
I am not just telling you a story.
I am not just giving you metaphors.
I am not just giving you examples.
These are not just mere words.
When I tell you that Jesus died upon the cross,
that He rose again,
this message is power from God
to make you right with Him.
It doesn't matter if I raise my voice
with Him, I'm excited,
or if I speak very, very quietly,
or if I'm very, very stuffed up.
It has nothing to do
with my charisma or lack of it,
my eloquence or lack of it.
This is news that comes from God.
It is news that God has acted
with power to make you right with Himself
by what His Son did on the cross
for you and me.
And we receive it
not by accomplishment,
but by faith.
In a sense,
nothing in my hands I bring.
Lord, have mercy upon me.
It humbles the rich.
It humbles the victim.
It humbles those who believe
they're racially superior.
It humbles those who believe
they're intellectually or athletically
or sexually superior.
It humbles all human ideologies.
Because all we can say is
we cannot say,
I have a PhD,
I am rich and I am important.
All we can say is,
Lord, only You
can make me right with Yourself.
Only You.
Please receive me as Your own.
And the Bible says that
God turns none away.
There is none too bad,
none too broken,
none too unspiritual,
none too irreligious,
none too angry at God,
none too broken or a failure
in the eyes of the world,
none too successful,
none too brilliant or good-looking
or powerful,
that God will turn you away
when you humbly ask Him
to make you right with Himself
through His Son's death upon the cross.
God rushes in
with power to make you right.
Let's get back to reading.
So,
could you just go back
and put the second point up again?
Rebecca, back,
sorry, okay.
That's why there is only one gospel
from the one true God
to every person
and every people group.
Let's go back to reading verse 5.
Greet also to the church,
also the church in their house.
Greet my beloved Eponidas,
who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.
Greet Mary,
who has worked hard for you.
Greet Andronicus and Junia,
my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners.
They are well known to the apostles,
and they were in Christ before me.
And pause here for a second.
And you would not believe
how many pages there are
in commentaries over that one verse.
Is it Junia or Junius?
Overwhelmingly,
it's a woman,
not a guy.
And what does it mean
about being amongst the apostles?
So, this is another one
of these dynamite texts
here in the Bible.
Here, Paul says
that these two people
could be brother and sister,
or it's more likely to be
a husband and wife.
Andronicus and Junia.
By kinsmen,
it means they're Jewish.
They were early Christians.
And they're apostles.
Now, in the New Testament,
there's basically two ways
that the word apostle is used.
It's used for the twelve,
and obviously,
these two are not part of the twelve.
But it's also used
in another sense.
It's used as a type
of an authoritative
taker
and creator
of new outreaches
and new ministries
and new missions.
I gave the example
at the eight o'clock service.
There's a fellow
who goes to the eight o'clock service.
His name is Carl.
He's on our council.
And he was very involved
in one of the many ministries
of Power to Change,
a ministry that works with men.
And he, in a sense,
was an apostle from them.
He was granted an authority.
They recognized a gifting in them.
He was granted the authority
and the commission
to come to Ottawa
and begin this ministry
in the Ottawa region.
I think there's now
fifteen men's groups.
It's become so successful
that after he had created several,
God used him to create several.
He stepped back,
continued to be a volunteer,
and they hired a staff person.
And in a sense,
what he did there
was an apostolic ministry.
It's an authoritative commission
to go and to create
new Christian ministries
or go into new areas
that do not have
Christian presences
and be used by God
for churches and ministries to come.
And that's what apostle,
that's the other meaning of apostle.
And here it's saying
that there's a woman
who's among them.
It's a very, very important text.
It really is.
Let's keep reading.
Verse 8.
Greet Ampliatus,
my beloved in the Lord.
Greet Urbanus,
our fellow worker in Christ,
and my beloved Stachis.
I don't know how to pronounce that at all.
Greet Apellas,
who is approved in Christ.
Greet those who belong
to the family of Aristopolis.
And I'm going to stop here
with the list of names
to draw something out.
There's no little asterisk here
beside the word family,
but afterwards during coffee
we can have a debate
whether some of your Bibles
say household,
some say family.
We can have a debate
about which is the better term.
Here's where I would say
that household
is the better term
to translate it.
In the original language,
what he's noticed,
he's not saying that Aristopolis,
and it's going to come up
a second time
with a different person,
they're not Christians.
So what he's doing
is saying,
greet the slaves,
the Christian slaves,
who are owned by this man.
And in fact,
what it's saying
in the original language,
in the ancient world,
there's only one church in Rome,
only one church in Rome,
but the one church in Rome
is made up of a series
of what we would now call
small churches.
And the implication is here
in the next case
that there's a church of slaves.
But they're not second-class churches.
It's not like it was
in the worst parts of apartheid
or the worst parts
of the American South
where black churches
would be second-class churches,
not equal with a white church.
You know,
there's a very important movement
in the States
called Black Lives Matter.
And in a sense,
what Paul is just saying here
in huge, bold print
is slaves' lives matter.
Their church is just as equal
as the other churches,
the ones in people
of means houses.
Here's two big takeaways from this.
If you could put up the third point,
that would be great.
God desires to use
every person gripped by the gospel
to make a powerful difference
in the world for his glory.
God desires to use
every person gripped by the gospel
to make a powerful difference
in the world for his glory.
I put in here desires
because, of course,
some of us spend days,
weeks, months, years
resisting God.
God wants us to do something.
We know God wants us
to do something
and we don't do it
because it would make us look geeky.
It would make us look foolish.
It would make us look stupid.
It would make us look unpopular
with the hip people
or the cool people
or, I don't know,
we just don't.
Maybe I'm the only sinful person here
once again,
but I have a suspicion
that many of us
who are maybe with tears
would say,
yeah, that's really described
a lot of things in my life.
But here's the thing.
This text is showing us.
It's not saying,
okay, well, here,
it's really, really unfortunate
that all you slaves
became Christians
because, like, you're slaves.
Like, you have a pagan master.
He has no interest
in letting you go free.
He has no interest
in letting you serve
this stupid supposed God
who died by crucifixion
showing that he's unimportant to Rome.
He's not one of the powerful Roman gods.
Oh, it's really,
it sucks so much
that you're under him.
Too bad you can't do anything.
No.
It's not, oh, too bad you're a woman
and you're powerless.
Too bad you're single,
a single woman or a single man.
That's the spectacular thing
about this list.
There's Roman citizens,
there's slaves,
there's rich,
there's poor,
there's single,
there's married.
All being used by God.
And they're all being used by God
because he knows them by name.
That's a really important thing for us.
Like, if you give your life to Jesus,
you're not saying,
oh, it's not as if,
okay, God is looking for
a transgendered person
to become a Christian.
Oh, God's looking for
an old white guy
from Canada
to become a Christian.
It's not,
he doesn't love classes.
He loves you by name.
He died for you by name.
He knows you by name.
And maybe you have,
you feel you have nothing
you can do to offer.
You come to Jesus,
he can use you in powerful ways.
I can't tell you,
he will use you in powerful ways.
Sometimes when I visit people
who are shut-ins,
you know,
I know that being a shut-in
can be a really, really, really,
really, really, really hard thing.
But it might be that God
is calling you to do
an unbelievable work of prayer.
Or of writing encouraging notes
or whatever.
And here's another thing as well.
If you could put up the next point.
The Bible read from the perspective
of the biblical gospel
is God's gift
of an unendingly healthy virus
for every society and people group.
I don't know if virus is the right word.
It's a good word
because people are afraid of the Bible.
But it's actually
Bible read from the perspective
of the biblical gospel
is God's gift
of an unendingly healthy virus
for every society and people group.
So, you know,
if you think about it for a second,
from a human being's love,
I'm going to get in trouble.
What the heck?
I'm going to get in even more trouble
in a couple of minutes.
Here's the thing.
And if you've had an abortion,
I'm not picking on you.
Jesus loves you.
And the best thing you can do
is to give your life to Jesus.
And he won't turn you away
for anything you've done.
But when you listen
to abortion activists,
a lot of their language
is the same way
that slaveholders
and proponents of slavery
talk about slaves.
It is a reintroduction
of the rhetoric
and narrative of slavery
in Canada.
The way they talk
about a woman's relationship
to the baby in her womb
is the language of slavery.
And the Bible here
acts as a constant check
to sense that there are slaves
who are making
a profound difference for God.
To sense,
and here in this text,
to take this boring part
of the Bible
and realizing that the Bible
is saying that slaves
are used to the glory of God.
That their church
is just as equal
as Prisca and Aquilus.
That they're all,
in fact,
equally important ministers.
This is powerful dynamite.
And let's be honest
about our society.
We are not living
in sexual
and political nirvana.
It isn't as if people
could say,
good grief,
it can't get any better
than this.
We're living
in a perfect society.
Everybody is sexually whole.
Nobody is sexually tormented.
Everybody has an unbelievably
wonderful relationship
with money
and with power
and with themselves.
There's no depression.
There's no unhappiness.
Well, that's not our society.
And here's the thing.
Any,
I'm not picking on feminism.
Any, you know,
whether it's feminism,
whether it's
types of different nationalism,
whether it's different,
you know,
philosophies of money
like capitalism
and socialism,
every ism
and every philosophy
and every ideology
protects,
presents itself
as the final word
that will be here forever
and it's all wrong.
Talk to some of us
old people
who went to university
in the 70s.
And if you were
a thinking Christian
in the 70s,
what did you feel?
One of the things
you had to deal with,
you had to deal with
behaviorism.
You young people,
you don't even know
what that is.
This was like
big
Marxism.
Sort of,
I know it's still
a bit at universities
in an odd form,
but a whole pile of things
which seemed
here forever,
the final word.
20, 30, 40 years later,
you don't even know
what it is.
Like in the 50s
when C.S. Lewis
was writing,
it would have been
Freudianism.
Who reads him anymore?
And yet,
it would be as if
it was the
final word.
All of these
ideologies,
they come and they go.
Some of them are helpful,
they're helpful in different ways,
they're unhelpful in different ways.
I'm not saying
you shouldn't be aware of them,
but the fact of the matter
is that the Bible
is God's word written
and presents this
constant,
silent witness
as an outline of sanity.
So now,
some of you are wondering,
George,
having said all of these things,
I have to keep in mind
my time.
It sounds,
George,
as if
all those churches
that don't allow women
to be ministers
have made a terrible,
terrible,
terrible mistake.
Now,
as some of you know,
and I'm going to talk about this
a little bit more next week,
I first came out,
don't get worried,
I first came out
in 1973
in favor of the
ordination of women
and
up until about
seven years ago
where I changed
my position on it.
And
six or seven years ago.
and
you're going to see
why,
not why I changed it
just specifically
in a moment,
but I became aware
of the thing
about more,
like at first
I supported it
really because
I didn't know
the Bible very well,
just to be honest.
Not that people
who support it
don't know the Bible
very well,
but I mean that,
but at some point in time
I started to become aware
of the fact
that there was
contradictory texts
in the New Testament.
So here's why
I'm talking about it
because this is what
we're going to look at
next week
and if you turn
in your Bibles
to Titus chapter 1
you're going to see
the problem.
So Titus chapter 1
and we're going to look
at verses 5 to 9.
Now remember
this is the same
Paul writing.
He's probably writing
about eight years later.
He knows that
Phoebe's a patron.
He knows that
she's a person
of substance.
He's best buddies
with Prisca.
He knows all these things.
He's quite willing
to shock society.
To talk about slaves
and women
and men
in all sorts of ways
which would have been
very, very shocking.
He follows somebody
who was crucified
which was a profound
offense
to all Roman society.
And here
he says this.
This is why
I left you in Crete
so that you might
put what remained
into order
and appoint elders.
The word is
presbyter.
I'm a presbyter.
Okay?
In every town
as I directed you
if anyone is above reproach
the husband of one wife.
The husband of one wife.
And his children
are believers
not only to the charge
of debauchery
and insubordination.
And then he uses
the word that we get
bishop from
overseer.
And he sort of
puts them
the two things together
episcopus
and overseer
presbyter
and an episcopus
and an elder
and a bishop.
He puts them
sort of together.
So they're also
bound by verse
five and six.
By the way
five and six
and seven
are a profound
rebuke to Roman
Catholic and Eastern
Orthodox churches.
If you hear
from those churches
I didn't mean to offend you.
I'm just making you
aware of the Bible.
An overseer
or bishop
as God's steward
must be above reproach.
He must not be arrogant
quick-tempered
etc.
So here's the thing.
The Bible seems
to contradict itself.
Now next week
I'm going to talk
about this a little bit more.
And so what happened
with me
is
there's a variety
of ways to deal
with one or the others
of these.
From my egalitarian
perspective
that's how it's called.
But you know
so basically
the part of the way
that people deal with it
they try to talk about
there's a trajectory
in the biblical text.
They try to talk about
that's just what they
thought back then
and we can dismiss it.
They have other ways
about saying
you can't possibly know
and there's a whole
pile of ways
to get around it
and I basically knew
that all of those ways
to get around it
were wrong.
And I don't mean
to offend people here
who hold that
but I think
they don't work at all.
I don't think
they fit with the Bible.
And so I came
to the position
where I just had
to say to myself
the only two options
that I knew
was on one hand
you had churches
that basically
didn't allow women
to do anything.
On the other hand
this other position
of women
could be bishops
and priests.
And I was uncomfortable.
I didn't know how to
put the Bible together.
And so I came
to the conclusion
which is one of the reasons
I haven't taught
on Titus in the church
for about a decade
or more
is that I don't ever
believe that the Bible
is filled with any
contradictions.
I don't think
there's any incoherence
in the Bible.
But I know that my mind
doesn't always see
the clarity
of the Bible.
The problem is
in my mind
not this.
That was my view.
And I did something
which is actually
very Anglican
in an old fashioned way
and not very modern
or post-modern.
I was just prepared
to live without knowing
because I didn't know
the solution.
And I'll talk about this
more a bit next week
but I actually believe
that if you look
at all of the texts
in the New Testament
and if you say
that God calls
some men
and only a small
number of men
to the position
of a presbyter
or an episcopist
who have an authoritative
teaching role
in the church
and no women
then all of the
different contradictions
in the Bible
go away.
And our goal
has to be
to try to find
a consistent
coherent way
to read the Bible.
In other words
what it's saying here
is that both men
and women
they can be presidents.
Men and women
they can be generals.
Men and women
they can be race car drivers.
Men and women
they can own businesses.
Men and women
they can care for children.
Men and women
they can become athletes.
Men and women
they can write books.
Men and women
they can teach.
Men and women
they can perform miracles.
Men and women
they can live lives of prayer.
Men and women
they can be used by God
to perform healings.
Men and women
you can go on and on
and on
and on and on
but the office
of elder
and overseer
are limited
only to men, but not all men.
This isn't patriarchy we're talking about.
It isn't that a woman in the church
has to listen to a man because he's a man,
but that God calls only some men
out of the majority of men
to be a presbyter or a bishop.
And I think that if you have that insight,
almost all of the apparent contradictions
in the Bible vanish.
So I've offended some of you, maybe,
but the key to this is to read the Bible
and search the scriptures.
I just want to know what the Bible teaches.
That's all I want to know.
I just want to do what the Bible teaches.
And some of you might understand,
I'm going to take a moment here,
I'm running out of time to share my heart.
That's why I believe, I've been praying for quite a while
that God would use our church to plant churches
not only in the eastern Ontario,
but across the country.
And we don't have the resources, it's impossible,
but I believe that we can pray that God would raise up
eight young men who would be married,
who could come to our church,
who could be equipped and loved and prayed over,
and that they could build a team of men and women,
no slaves or anything in our society,
but men and women from all classes,
and they can go and they can plant churches.
And I think it would be really wonderful
if that was the thing that we as a church would pray for.
And that we would also pray for a mighty move
of church planning in all the urban centers of this country,
and that God would use us in some small way
to raise up 100 young men
who are capable of being ordained,
married, building a multi-generational,
multi-gender team to reach the cities.
And I look forward to the day
that we can wholeheartedly embrace this as a church
and make it a matter of prayer
and a commitment of resources.
I just want to finish this text.
I've noticed my time.
Here's one of the things about this, by the way.
Actually, let's go back to Romans.
I want to go back to Romans.
I want to just share something.
If one of the real takeaways about this
is to search the scriptures,
search all of the scriptures,
read them widely, read them deeply,
seek to try to put them together
to get the mind of Christ,
just jump down to verse 17.
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,
to watch out for those who cause divisions
and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine
that you have been taught.
Avoid them.
For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ,
but their own appetites,
and by smooth talk and flattery,
they deceive the hearts of the naive.
And some of you might think
that that's just what I've just done.
I actually struggled with this text all week.
But you'll notice it's not that there's not division,
but that it's by the very nature of false teaching
to create obstacles and division.
And it's a call for us to have our minds formed
by the pattern of biblical teaching,
the whole Bible in its depths.
And that will always cause problems
with every society that we're in.
It'll be a different problem
to different societies at different times.
In a highly capitalistic society,
the Christian teaching on the poor
will be highly, highly offensive.
In a culture like ours
that wants to promote abortion on demand,
thou shalt not take innocent human life
is profoundly divisive.
But we have to be willing
to have our minds formed by the mind of Christ.
And I realize as well
that it's very, very possible
to be completely and utterly orthodox
and serve your own appetites.
The Bible here is calling us
to search our motivation
and to search the scriptures
so that our motivation
will be to bring glory to God
for the good of the world
and that we'd be willing
to submit our minds
to the mind of Christ.
In fact, you know,
one of the interesting takeaways
because I always pray,
Lord, what is the word
in this scripture text to me?
You know the surprising thing?
All week I've struggled
to talk about this
because I want to be a people pleaser.
And I know that in post-modern Canada
of 2016,
to say that there's anything
that limits somebody
is to be profoundly un-Canadian.
And I didn't want to talk about it
because I wanted people to like me.
In other words,
it wasn't that I was avoiding
the pattern of sound teaching,
but you know what?
I wanted to serve my appetite
of being a people pleaser.
This was God's word to me.
And I know that many of you
as well struggle
with that desire
to people please
or other types of appetite.
So the text is
that we'd be so gripped
by the gospel
that we know the truth
and that we come
to that point of humility
where our desire is
to bring God glory,
to serve him.
If you could put up
the next point,
God's grace grows in me,
the self-possession
to be self-effacing
in serving
to the glory of God.
That's the big takeaway
of this text.
God's grace grows in me,
the self-possession
to be self-effacing
in serving
to the glory of God.
What does self-effacing mean?
Self-effacing is
normal,
a lot of Christian services.
This is our temptation.
Applause,
applause.
No, no, no, no.
This is what the gospel
wants us to do.
Look at verses 25
and following.
Now to him
who is able
to strengthen you
and is able
meaning that the word
underneath that
is dynamite.
It's power.
Okay?
Now to him
who is powerful
to strengthen you
according to my gospel
and the preaching
of Jesus Christ
according to the revelation
of the mystery
that was kept secret
for long ages
but has now been disclosed
and through the prophetic writings
has been made known
to all nations,
all people groups
according to the command
of the eternal God
to bring about
the obedience of faith
to the only wise God
be glory forevermore
through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
To the only wise God
be glory forevermore
through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
To the only wise God
be glory forevermore
through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
That's what the gospel
as it grips us.
God's grace
comes in
to give us
such freedom
and self-possession
that our profound addiction
to want this
and you wish
you had two other arms
because while you're doing this
the other two arms
could be asking for applause.
That we could come
to the point
where our goal
is that we all
with unveiled faces
beholding the glory
of the Lord.
We're going to talk about that
in 2 Corinthians.
Could you put up
the final prayer?
You know,
my goal for all of these things
is that we would pray
the scriptures
and this is in a sense
a way to bring the book
of Romans to it.
And I'm going to ask you
to stand.
I'm going to ask you
if you would pray
this prayer with me.
If this prayer
is at all meaningful to you
it will be on the webpage.
You can copy it down
later if you want.
You can sort of look at it
as I talk
but you know
as we're gripped
by the gospel
he wants us
to read his word
from the perspective
of being gripped
by the gospel.
He wants our minds
to conform
to the pattern
of sound teaching
but it's not just
so we can be
have some unbelievably
elaborate false system
we can go around
saying aha
you're wrong
aha
you're wrong
aha
you're wrong.
That's not why
he wants us
to read the Bible.
He wants us
to read the Bible
and be gripped
by the gospel
so we're willing
to do this
for his glory.
and not like
they do in a lot
of churches
you know
where the praise band
says let's all
give a hand to God
but it's really
to the praise band
we all know that
right?
It's really to God
so if God
has touched your heart
in two ways
first of all
if you have not
given your life
to Jesus
there is no better
time than to say
God as I pray
this prayer
may this be
my conversion prayer
I want to be
your child
make me your own
forever
and for all of us
who need it
if you would join me
in praying this prayer
Heavenly Father
please make me
a disciple of Jesus
gripped by the gospel
who so reads
your word written
that my mind
conforms to your
pattern of sound
teaching
and serve you
self-facing joy
in the power
of the Holy Spirit
to make a difference
in the world
for your glory
in Jesus' name
Amen
Father pour out
your Holy Spirit
upon us
that we might be
disciples of Jesus
gripped by the gospel
living for your glory
and we ask this
in the name of Jesus
Amen