We are one in Christ
Sermon
When you sit down, I’d like all the men this side and all the women this side please.
Doesn’t it seem odd sharing the peace with people, and then not being allowed to sit with them?
Continuing on from the last few weeks where we have been speaking about the reality that, when we are in Christ, we are formed into one body.
Our Key text has been Galatians 3:26
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Paul was saying to the Galatians, “Through baptism you became one, you became joined, united, firstly to Christ, but just like you marry your wife’s whole family, when you “get married” to Jesus, you marry His whole family.
Sociologists have a word for families which don’t relate well, they are called “dysfunctional”. Can you imagine the body of Christ being dysfunctional because of race, or money, or gender?
I find it tragic when Jesus has set people free, and we try to put them back into their little boxes.
The good news of the gospel includes the fact that the divisions which used to separate us are removed between people who are born again.
Paul says our baptism washes away the cultural division, “there is no longer Jew nor Greek”
There is no longer class or economic divisions, “There is neither slave nor free”.
This morning we look at the third category of division, because when we are in Christ “there is neither male nor female”.
A friend of mine went as a nurse to Saudi Arabia 5 years ago, and within the compound where she lived she had relative freedom. But when she left the compound to go to town, it changed. She was not allowed to drive, because if there was an accident and a woman was involved, it automatically meant that it was the woman’s fault.
Another friend of mine is a minister of a church in Zambia. Being a woman, she was allowed to conduct funerals at the church, but was not allowed to go to the graveside. Their thinking is that whenever a man dies, it is a woman’s fault. Either she failed to care for him or she bewitched him.
Just think for a minute, do we have different rules for men and women?
Scripture tells us that Jesus came to not only take away our sin, but to remove the curse of our sin.
In Jewish understanding, mankind were under a curse because of the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden. Men needed to work to produce food. The Jewish theologians understood the hierarchy between men and women to be ordered by God’s words, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
But the story of redemption does not stop there, because if women are under the rule of men because of a curse, then we thank Jesus doubly today for Galatians 3 v 13 which says, “13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
If women were under the rule of men because of sin, when we are in Christ the curse is broken and the sin is removed and women are perfectly equal.
We live 2000 years after Jesus and Paul, and so sometimes we miss the finer nuances in the Bible because we read the Bible through modern glasses.
Let’s try to read a little from Acts 1 & 2 with 1st century eyes.
Let me set the scene. It is just after Jesus ascended into heaven.
For Jews at that time, they usually worshipped either in synagogues or in the Temple. Now in a synagogue there was either a gallery or a section cordoned off with a lattice partition to separate the women from the men.
In the Temple there was the Court of Women where the women met apart from the men.
It was thought inappropriate for men and women to worship together.
But in acts 1 we read – Acts 1 v 12 - 14
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Already the early Christians began to live their lives differently as the men and the women came together to pray. Their lives had been set free by Jesus.
Jesus had been an example to the His followers. They watched His behaviour and discovered God’s ideal through His actions.
Jesus never made a joke at the expense of a woman.
In John 4 we read of Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well. His disciples saw Him and were shocked, “How could Jesus speak to a woman”.
When Jesus was with Mary and Martha, Martha was complaining because Mary sat at the feet of Jesus. Sitting at Jesus’ feet was not just about the physical position, it was the phrase used to describe the position of a student in relation to their rabbi.
When Jesus was touched by the woman with the issue of blood, Jesus wanted to know who touched Him because He wanted to restore her dignity.
Jesus cares about women, and He want to restore the dignity of every women.
The disciples learnt from their master that when we are following Jesus, women were equal to men.
Acts 2 goes even further. It says: Acts 2 v 1 - 4
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2
(The WOMEN were there)
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Men and Women were in one place and the Holy Spirit filled all of them, every single one of them. They were in unity before the presence of God arrived.
This is the same all who met in the upper room to pray.
You probably remember that some of the Jews and the God fearing Gentiles started mocking the Christians saying, “They have had too much to drink”.
I suspect that if there only been men around, the Jews would have accepted this as a wonderful religious experience, but because there were women present, they thought it had to be a drunken party because men and women did not worship together at Church.
Suddenly it makes sense that Peter quotes the prophet Joel.
‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
Joel’s emphasis is not on the behaviour of the Christians, but on the fact that the Holy Spirit would fill all kinds of people, and Joel emphasizes that God would pour out His Holy Spirit on women.
Peter was justifying the fact that the Holy Spirit had filled men and women.
When Jesus died, it reset the clock to the Garden of Eden where God created persons, mankind in his image, male and female created He them.
It resets the clock to a time when men and women are equal and united under God.
Today we read that God filled women with the Holy Spirit just like He did men, with no distinction, and maybe today we skim over that, but to the first century readers of Acts that was a huge statement.
Because for the first Christians, they understood that Jesus had removed the lattice between men and women. It wasn’t one day in heaven, it was here on earth.
Maybe we can amplify the significance if we read the story of Peter visiting Cornelius the Gentile.
Peter as per the Lord’s instruction went to the house of Cornelius the Gentile.
Listen to what Peter said. ACTS v 28; 34 – 35 & 44ff
28 He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man (PERSON) impure or unclean.
34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.
Peter then shared the gospel of Jesus Christ.
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
Then Peter said, 47 “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
For Peter it was incontestable evidence of God’s acceptance that Cornelius and those with him were filled with the Holy Spirit.
For the first readers of Acts, it would be incontestable evidence of God’s acceptance that on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled not only the men, but the women too.
I have seen the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues severely abused to exclude people. Silly people say, “Because you don’t speak in tongues you aren’t saved.”
Nonsense, Peter never used tongues to exclude people, he used it to include people.
I want to just pick up something else with regard to this.
When God set up the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17, the mark of the covenant was circumcision. But as the mark of the covenant, only men were circumcised. Inclusion in the covenant was not only for sons of Abraham, but his servants and slaves too.
Abraham is blessed as he and even the foreigners in his camp receive the mark of the covenant. But for Sarah the blessing is just to bear a son, to produce another male.
In the New Testament baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of the covenant; baptism is the symbol of death and rebirth into the covenant people of God
And so it is amazing to read the words in Acts 8 v 12 which say, “they were baptized, both men and women.”
Why did Luke emphasise “men and women”? It is because it signifies that no longer are women a part of the covenant only because they produce sons, but now they receive the sign of the covenant in their own right.
Imagine what it felt like for women to finally be included in receiving the mark of the covenant in their own standing.
Jesus’ death and resurrection is not just to save us from hell, Jesus died to set men and women free to be equal here on earth.
Jesus died to save women from being ruled by men.
Today we sometimes still debate should we baptise infants or adults. But for 1st century Christians the real questions were, “Can women and Gentiles become part of Gods’ covenant people?”
And Scripture comes back with a resounding “yes”.
I need to speak about this more next week and to look a some practical implications.
But in closing let me say, To all the women, ladies, if you have gone through life feeling like a second class human being, Jesus Christ died for you, and no matter what anyone else thinks, in His eyes you are tops.
TO all the men. I don’t say this because I have it all together, but Ephesians tells us to love our wives as Christ loves the Church. Jesus gave up heaven for us.
May I remind you that Jesus does not oppress or beat down the Church, He builds us up, He gave His life so that we could experience a full life, life in abundance. If we love our wives like that, we will do everything in our power to see our wives reaching their full potential, even at our expense.
Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry has one bullet left. On one side there is a man stealing a car, on the other there is a man about to stab an old lady, his dilemma is that he can’t do everything at once. So he shoots …The man with the knife.
The problem is that some people would look at that scenario and review what took place and say, “I think Dirty Harry is in favour of car theft because he never shot the car guy”
Paul is facing a world that knows nothing of Jesus, so like Dirty Harry, he faces a choice. “Does he try to rectify all the ills of society, slavery and chauvinism and run the risk that he doesn’t achieve the far more pressing goal, that people hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Or does he ignore the
Paul – women who prophesy. Prophets are second highest calling. Apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors evangelists
Women learn in silence – the emphasis was that women learn
Jesus removes the curse -
Romans 16 – Junia the apostle.
Ephesians – mutual submission
Statistically the happiest married couples are those which are egalitarian, each person does what they are best at.