Sermon Tone Analysis

SERMON TITLE: Jesus & Women

SERMON TITLE: Jesus & Women

Good Morning

Here me this morning.

Jesus elevates women.

It’s Mother’s Day.

Many of you in this room are mothers.

Many of you in this may become mothers.

Some of you in this room may long to be a mother but so far have been unable to conceive.

Some of you have lost you mother.

What do all of you have in common?

You are all women.

Whether you have bore a child or no you were created and designed to be able to carry a child.

You are a women.

You were created as an image-bearer of God.

Of equal value and dignity and design as men.

You are a woman.

Created To Rule

I’m going to say something that can be a little controversial in some circles, but woman, you were created to rule.

Notice something.

When God created Mankind God created us in His image - male and female.

Male and female equally image God.

Male and female were given the same task.

Male and female were given the same command.

Male and female were given the same creation mandate.

Male and female were given the same right to rule and responsibility to rule.

Male and female were both called to be fruitful and multiply?

Why?

Because it takes both male and female to create life.

Male and female were both commanded to subdue the earth.

Why?

Because they placed on the earth as partners and divine representatives of God.

They were both commanded to rule?

Why?

Because they were not created in opposition to one another but as co-equal representatives and rulers over God’s creation.

In Genesis 2 we see another creation account.

God take Adam, a created man and out of Adam he created a woman Named Eve.

Bone of my bones, Adam says.

Flesh of my flesh, Adam says.

Do you see the equality there?

Adan doesn’t see a women to be ruled over but a equal to rule with.

An equal to come alongside of him and fulfill the creation mandate of Genesis 1 - to multiple, to rule, to represent God, and to care for His creation.

The word that the KJV translates as “helpmeet” in Genesis 2:18 simpley means helper, but not one in subjection or subordination to someone else.

The word Helper is actually used multiple times in the Old Testament to refer to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s work within the Trinity.

The Hebrew word is EZER.

Robert Alter, a renowned expert on Hebrew literature and language, highlights the implicit strength in the word ezer.

In a comment on Genesis 2:18 in his translation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible he writes, “‘Help’ is too weak because it suggests a merely auxiliary function, whereas ‘ezer elsewhere connotes active intervention on behalf of someone, especially in military contexts, as often in Psalms.”

Alter translates ezer kenegdo as a “sustainer beside him.”[6]

That ezer has a sense of strength and rescue is clearly seen in Exodus 18:4.

Here we are told that Moses named one of his sons Eliezer, which in Hebrew means “My God is my helper” (Eli = “my God”; ezer = “helper”).

This verse goes on to explain why Moses named his son Eliezer: because God had powerfully delivered Moses from Pharaoh’s sword!

Ezer describes aspects of God’s character: he is our strength, our rescuer, our protector, and our help!

And ezer is the word God used to describe the first woman.

Eve was someone who would give vital strength to Adam.[7]

Eve was not created to be dominated to to take domination with her husband in the creation mandate.

In the Genesis 2 and 3 account Eve was not yet with Adam when Adam was given the command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Eve is then formed out of Adam.

And they are given instruction on sex and marriage.

What is that instruction?

Get married.

Have sex.

Be faithful and committed to each other above all else.

Become one (mission, purpose, sex, identity).

And fulfill the creation mandate of Genesis 1 together.

But in Genesis 3 something goes terribly wrong.

Paul address it like this 2 Corinthians 11:3

Eve was deceived by the serpent.

And Eve took the fruit.

Ate it.

And gave it to Adam.

And Adam ate it.

And this is the beginning of millennia of trouble, evil, strife, and curse.

Genesis 3:1–21 (CSB)

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.

3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’

”

4 “No!

You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman.

5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.

So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

THEY HID - SIN CAUSES US TO HIDE FROM GOD

10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

THEY HID - SIN BRINGS SHAME

11 Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?

Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

ADAM’S RESPONSE IS TO BLAME EVE AND THEN BLAME GOD

THE FIRST CASE OF TOXIC MASCULINITY IS FOUND HERE - ADAM DOESN’T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIMSELF AND BLAMES HIS WIFE.

THE FIRST SIN OF THE FIRST MARRIAGE WAS THE MAN BLAME-SHIFTING AND MAKING EXCUSES FOR HIS OWN SIN.

I THINK WE ARE GIVEN THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF WHAT MASCULINITY SHOULD LOOK LIKE IN GENESIS 3 - IT LOOKS LIKE HONESTY BEFORE GOD AND BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT WE KNOW TO BE TRUE.

13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

SO ADAM BLAMES EVE SO GOD ASKS EVE, WHAT HAPPENED?

THE SERPENT DECEIVED ME.

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: