Okay, here’s the scenario. Your friend has
invited you to a big party he is throwing so you load up the car and you head
towards the place where it will be. You are following some other friends
in their car and some others are following you and it’s going to be a big
time. You have never been to this new place before but every few miles
there is a sign pointing the way.
But about half way there you see a little old
man walking down the road and so you decide to pick him up. He’s old and
not much to look at but he says he is going to the same party and so you take
off again. But the old man says you are going the wrong way. He
says you need to get off this road and take the cow path that goes across this
field.
What do you do? The man is insistent but
you see the signs and all your friends are going this way down this nice,
smooth road so you try to ignore him but he continues that the only right way
to the party is across this field that has no road. It’s rocky and rough
and it goes against what you think is right and what you see so you don’t know
what to do.
Then the man points out that all down the smooth
road there are cars piled up on both sides, wrecked and burning but you point
out that, while you don’t know what happened to them, that it won’t happen to
you. You have a nice car and you are a good driver so it will be
okay. But the man insists. What do you do?
Do you kick the man out and go in the way that
seems right or do you take the advice of the crazy, old man and 4-wheel it
across the rocky field? Would it help you make the decision if you knew
that the old man was none other than the Apostle Paul? If you knew that
he was telling the truth and just wanted to help you, would you listen to
him? I hope you would because that is similar to where we find ourselves
today.
We know that God has told us that we can have
joy and peace in our lives and we really want that and so we take off in search
of it. The world is full of signs about how to have a good life and that
is the way that the vast majority of people go. They don’t know any
better and so they go down the nice, smooth road that looks like it goes where
they want to go but for some reason, most people never find that destination.
Are you struggling with peace and joy
today? Is there strife and trouble in your household or even in your
church? Paul tells us the right way to go to avoid crashing and to get to
the destination of joy and peace in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 but I guarantee if
you have never heard this you will think that Paul is a crazy old man who
doesn’t know what he is talking about.
The first half of 1 Corinthians chapter 11 is so
divisive and contentious in some circles that lots of preachers just skip
it. I have to admit I was sure tempted to but I am called to preach the
whole council of God as Paul himself said in Acts 20 so I studied and prayed
and actually look forward to this because it is so needed. I know if we
are obedient to what God says through Paul we will have the peace and joy in
our homes and church that God intends for us.
We are continuing our sermon series entitled
“Our Church” as we look through the book of 1 Corinthians to see what God wants
and what the Bible says about what Christ Fellowship should look like and act
like. I will say again that I don’t care what Baptists think or what
Methodists, Catholics, Democrats or Republicans think. I want to know
truth and so I want to know what the Bible says.
I don’t care how we have always done it or what
is popular or what the mega churches do. None of those are my rock that I
cling to or the light to my path. I believe the Bible to be inerrant and
every verse is there for a reason so let’s look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11
and let’s start reading at verse 3 and go through verse 16.
But I want you to realize that the head of every
man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered
dishonors his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies
with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head
shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as
well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her
hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.7 A
man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but
woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman,
but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but
woman for man. 10 It is for this reason that a woman ought to
have authority over her own head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless,
in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For
as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from
God. 13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray
to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of
things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but
that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her
as a covering. 16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this,
we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
Well, there you have
it - the scariest passage of scripture in all the Bible if you are a preacher
or a biblical commentator evidently. For
you here today, some of you are mad.
Speedy is scared (because he has long hair) and everybody is
confused. But you needn’t be. Do you remember the passage we looked at last
week in chapter 8 that talked about sacrificing meat to animals and I told you
that chapter was not about sacrificing meat to animals even though it talked
about it all through the chapter?
I want you to know
that this passage is not about hairdos or head coverings. It’s not about how long your hair should be
and it’s sure not about angels. (What’s
that all about anyway?) No, this passage
is not about any of that. This passage
is about submission. If our church is
going to be a biblical church; a church that is blessed by God then we all have
to be able to submit but we have to know who submits to who and when so let’s
look closer at this fascinating passage.
I join in a long line
of Bible students who wish Paul had stopped after he wrote that 3rd
verse – and he could have. He could have
just said, “But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ,
and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God” and just
went right on to the next subject because that is what this whole passage is
all about. Paul, though, says that and
then goes on to illustrate his point in a way that is confusing to us today
because we have a different culture.
That’s all this
is. This passage is about submitting and
Paul gives some illustrations that the early Corinthian church would easily
understand but it makes it difficult for us because our culture is different. So, let’s talk first about the main point and
then we will get into his illustrations.
It’s the point that Dr. Tony Evans made in the Bible study that some of
us men attended a few months ago called “Kingdom Men” at FBC Decatur. He called it “alignment.”
Have you ever driven
a car that was out of alignment? Not
only do the tires wear funny but it can be hard to steer. The car doesn’t go where you want it to
go. The steering wheel shakes and you
have to fight it and it feels like the whole car is about to fall apart. The same thing can happen in a church or even
in your own home.
Are things out of
alignment in your home? Does it feel
sometimes like it’s not going like you want it to or even that it’s all going
to fall apart? It’s because God’s plan
for the home and for the church calls for alignment. It calls for order. Nothing about God’s plan for anything
includes chaos. There is a right way and
a wrong way to live and God’s way requires submission and alignment.
This submission
started with Jesus Himself. He says
several times that He came to earth to do the will of the Father. He spoke only what the Father wanted Him to
speak and did only what the Father wanted Him to do. He voluntarily submitted to the Father’s
will. Let me ask you a question. Are God the Father, Jesus the Son and the
Holy Spirit all equal?
Yes, absolutely they
are equal. Do they all have the same
jobs? No. Each of the Trinity have different jobs but
we are told that Jesus willingly submitted to the Father and that idea of
submission flows down from there into the church and home. Paul is saying that the order of things;
perfect alignment is attained when the wife submits to the husband, the husband
submits to Jesus and Jesus submits to the Father.
So, now we get to all
the jokes from the men and all the complaints from the women and I understand
that. As I said to begin with in my
illustration about picking up the Apostle Paul in the car, this is not what the
world says is the right way. All the
signs in the world point out that men and women should be equal and the same in
every way and that anything a man can do a woman can do and should do and should
be treated equally in doing it.
But that is not God’s
plan. First and foremost, God is not
saying that women are inferior to men.
Not at all. Just as Jesus and the
Father are equal, so are the sexes. This
isn’t saying that women are any less than men or not as important or anything
like that. It is simply the order of
things. Just like the military has
different ranks, it doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. The private may be a better person in every
way than the general but without order, there is chaos and you can’t win the
battle if there is chaos in the ranks.
Most of you know that
this is not the only place that Paul talks about this. Ephesians
5:22 starts a long passage about how the woman should submit to the husband
but the responsibility is the husband’s to make sure he is aligned under Jesus
and that he loves his wife as his own body.
*Illustrate with
blocks*
Perfect alignment and submission is Jesus under the
Father, the husband under Jesus and the wife under the husband. If the
husband doesn’t fulfill his responsibility then even if the wife does her part
then there is still misalignment. Acts chapter 5 tells about
Ananias and Sapphira where the wife followed her husband’s leading and because
the husband was not submitted to Jesus, they both wound up dead.
Alright, look. Don’t worry. I’m going to get
to all the rest of what Paul was talking about in this passage later tonight at
6. We are going to figure out what in the world he was talking about hair
and stuff then and what that has to do with submission but for now if you have
a problem with this talk about submission then I have some good news and some
bad news for you.
The good news is for the ladies. Ladies, if this
idea of submission leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth and you don’t
think you could ever voluntarily submit to your husband even though this is
God’s plan for marriage then I have good news for you. There is nothing
in scripture that says you have to get married. There is nothing in
scripture that says you can’t be the big king kahuna in the workplace.
Outside the home and outside the church you can be the alpha dog and you don’t
have to submit to anybody if you climb that corporate ladder high enough.
If the man you are dating is not someone under whom you
can willingly submit to; if he is not trustworthy or godly enough then don’t
marry him. It’s that simple. But in the church and in the home, the
woman is to be submissive. The reason for that is that the church and the
home are both symbolic relationships to Jesus Himself.
The church is called the bride of Christ. Jesus
called Himself the Bridegroom in John 3:29. In Isaiah 54, Isaiah
says, “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name.”
Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ
loved the church and gave himself up for her.” We are all called to
submit to Jesus as a woman submits to her husband and as a church submits to the
Bridegroom Jesus. Outside of those two places, the woman is not called on
to submit…except…and here’s the bad news for all of us who have a problem with
submission, well let me just read you a few verses.
Obey your leaders and submit to them. Hebrews 13:17
Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:21
Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. 1 Peter 5:5
And lastly, Philippians 2 that says, “in
humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look
not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this
mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in
the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness
of men.”
If this church is going to call ourselves disciples then
we have to be like Jesus. Do you remember what the definition of a
disciple is? We have talked about this several times in the past.
Our definition of a disciple is one who learns from Jesus and then teaches and
encourages others with what they have learned. Here we see that Jesus
submitted not just to the Father. He made Himself a servant.
Peter said to the men in 1 Peter 2:13, “Submit
yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men.” He
said to slaves in 2:18, “Submit yourselves to your masters with all
respect.” Then he said to women in chapter 3, “Wives, in
the same way be submissive to your husbands…so they will see the purity of your
lives.” He goes on to say to women, “Your beauty should not come
from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold
jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your
inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of
great worth in God’s sight. 5 For this is the way the holy
women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They
submitted themselves to their own husbands, 6 like Sarah, who
obeyed Abraham.”
It’s not about hairdos. There’s nothing wrong in
our culture for a man to have long hair or a woman to have short hair or to
wear gold jewelry. Submission in marriage is not about being a doormat to
be walked on or abused. One of the most powerful forces on the planet is
a married man and woman who, while retaining their individuality, work together
as a team toward the same goals as disciples of Christ. They can’t be
beat.
When there is order and alignment of God the Father,
then Jesus, then husband and then wife, it is a well-oiled machine with great
peace and joy even in the difficult times. But it starts with both
individuals being fully submitted to Jesus. It won’t work otherwise.
If that is not what your marriage looks like then it’s
not too late. If that’s not what your life looks like then it’s not too
late. If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus then you can expect to
have disorder and chaos. You won’t have peace. But
today if you need to ask God for forgiveness of whatever sins then He is
faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all
unrighteousness. Repent – turn away – from those sins and fully rely on
Him for not just your peace and joy in this world but for eternal life in
Heaven with Him in the next world. Do it right now as the music plays.
No comments:
Post a Comment