Women’s Ministry

Finally, in chapter 24 of Luke’s
Gospel, Luke chapter 24. And surprisingly, I want to talk
to you this morning about women’s ministry. And I see some of you
squirming already because you know that If it hasn’t been a
subject that developed in the 70s as a subject of controversy,
it certainly heated up in the 70s. The 70s, 80s, 90s have all
been decades where women’s ministry has been a very hot topic. I lost a full ride, as some of
you know, to seminary over that very subject. Church had sent
me out. And then when they found out
that I did not believe in the ordination of women to ministry,
then my full ride was pulled. And that was that. There had been many unbiblical
excesses in both sides. I know of some good friends that
studied the subject and concluded that women could not teach at
any time in any capacity church related matters, not even Sunday
school. Now, in time, they modified their
position and ultimately backed away from that position. But
essentially what they were reacting to was the unbiblical excess
that goes on in many circles where women’s ministry is almost
the paramount ministry of the church. We’ll look at the issue of women’s
ministry this morning. And really what we need to do,
we need to begin to do is look at what is ministry. I was. In the company of some who were
having a discussion about ministry, and I understood what was being
communicated, but there was a frustration being expressed that there’s
a lot of stuff out there taking place that is not ministry in
the true sense of the word. I understood where they were
coming from. But when you back away and you look at what ministry
is, what the word means, it is a very broad subject. It is a very broad and sweeping
term that encompasses all kinds of service rendered to God for
his glory. Some would have ministry be narrowed
to the point where only that which is disseminated from the
pulpit is really and truly ministry. Only that is ministry. Only sharing
the Word and teaching the Word and preaching the Word is ministry. Is that biblical? What is ministry? And better, what is not ministry? Is there any such thing as the
ministry? So and so is pursuing the ministry. Can a Christian not be in the
ministry, I think, is a better question in that context. Another
related question that often comes up is, is there a New Testament
ecclesiastical office of minister? Is it proper to refer to one
That serves God in this capacity, whether for full time pay or
not, is it proper to refer to him exclusively as a minister? Let me answer a few of these.
What is ministry of service rendered to God? Ministry is service rendered
to God. I don’t care if it’s setting
up chairs. I don’t care if it’s preaching the word, driving a
bus to camp. I don’t care what it is. If it
is service rendered to God, the scriptures speak of it as ministry. What is not ministry? What is
not ministry, a service that is not rendered to God, service
that is rendered to others, that isn’t directed Godward, that
isn’t done with God in view, that isn’t selfless. Just the fact that you have a
job doesn’t necessarily make that a ministry, but if it is
done unto the Lord, that is your ministry, that is the biggest
part of your ministry. Is there such a thing as the
ministry? I don’t believe so. Not in the sense that so many
people have it. What I would say is there are
a lot more of us that are in the ministry than what most people
even realize. In a very real sense, if you
have professed Christ, you are in the ministry, you are you
are tasked with the same thing. With which any of the three of
us elders are tasked with proclaiming the word, ministering to others,
serving, caring, praying. You’re in the ministry. And that
answers, obviously, the question, is there an office of minister?
I don’t believe that there is. There obviously is an office
of deacon, but that’s not what most people are referring to
when they talk about the office of the ministry. So the question then becomes,
can a woman minister? And my answer to that is categorically
yes. Do you call her the minister?
No. Is she in the ministry? No. It’s not necessary. The word so translated minister,
as I’ve already alluded in the New Testament, diakoneia, servant,
diakoneo, to serve. And as I said, there are a lot
more of us in the ministry, per se, than we ever really realize. That’s what we’re called to as
Christians. We’re called to serve. We’re saved for that very purpose. We are saved to serve. Now, as
the squirming picks up, let me just Pause for a moment to say
that when I say that can women minister absolutely categorically,
yes, I’m not saying for a moment, I’m not setting aside what I’ve
said elsewhere, that women are not to be ordained to the eldership.
They are not to serve in the capacity of pastors in the church.
First Timothy two makes it clear. Likewise, I want women to adorn
themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not
with braided hair. Let a woman quietly receive instruction
with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to
teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. The
Scriptures are clear. The office of elder is for exclusively
male leadership. We’ve talked about this before.
First Corinthians 14, let the woman keep silent, let the women
rather keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to
speak. And I take that to mean officially speaking in the church
authoritatively, but let them subject themselves just as the
law also says. And if they desire to learn anything,
let them ask their own husbands at home for it is improper for
a woman to speak in church. I’m not being inconsistent here.
I absolutely do not believe, even though it is currently in
vogue and has been increasingly so in various denominations throughout
the country, I do not believe that a woman could be ordained
to the office of pastor. I personally, we’ve talked about
this in the context of First Timothy, I personally don’t believe
in deaconesses. Do I believe in women as servants
in the church? I absolutely do. I don’t think
that it requires an office. It just doesn’t require it. Look
at our church. We have never even had deaconesses. And I would say that this is
the most servant minded group of women that I’ve ever been
a part of. If anything happens in our church, the first ones
to respond are the women of this body, right? Let’s back up and consider the
facts for a few minutes. To set the scene, we find ourselves
in Luke 24 post crucifixion. The courtrooms are quiet, the
crosses are empty, the Sabbath is now ended, and God himself
is about to mightily vindicate the Lord Jesus by raising him
from the dead. Incidentally, this is the passage
that to this day provokes the enemies of God and Christ Even
if they allow God to have a hand in creation, as
we sang about this morning, or they allow that He may have done
a few miracles on occasion, and that He is some significant being
out there in space. Even if they allow all that,
this doctrine they cannot allow. This doctrine they hate. This
doctrine they must deny and destroy. And there have been many attempts
to destroy this doctrine. Let’s hear the doctrine of the
resurrection from Luke’s point of view. If you would look at
Luke 24 verses 1 through 12. Where Luke records, but on the
first day of the week at early dawn, they came to the tomb,
bringing the spices which they had prepared, and they found
the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered,
they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were
perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them
in dazzling clothing. And as the women were terrified
and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them,
why do you seek the Living One among the dead? He is not here,
but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you
while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must
be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and
the third day rise again? And they remembered His words. and returned from the tomb and
reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
Now, they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother
of James, and also the other women with them were telling
these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them
as nonsense and they would not believe them. But Peter got up
and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in. He saw the linen
wrappings only, and he went away to his home marveling at what
happened. As I said, the men of the world
cannot have this doctrine. They will not have this doctrine.
They will give us a lot of other doctrines. They will give us
a lot of other truths about God. But the doctrine of the resurrection,
they cannot have. many obvious arguments against the resurrection.
Some said that if the human body disintegrates and almost immediately
begins to go into decay, how on earth can that body be reconstituted? Obviously, ignoring the fact
that miracles are possible, just like the founding of the establishing
of the world. And the interesting thing is
that when Paul and others speak of the resurrection, they use
the same kind of language that points to creation itself. The same kind of power that was
put forth at creation is the same power that raised Jesus
Christ from the dead. With God, all things are possible.
Modern science claims it can create life, right? They can’t
make the DNA. They can’t make anything from
scratch like God does. But even modern science believes
that it can reconstitute tissue There have been all kinds of
attacks and various arguments against the resurrection throughout
history. I’ve told you in the past about
the swoon theory that Jesus fainted, merely fainted. He didn’t really
die. He just swooned or fainted and
somehow survived three days in a cave. Somehow was embalmed. There is the falsehood theory
that The disciples of Christ stole the body and then declared
Jesus to be risen. And that’s why the Scriptures
are silent as to exactly what the details are. They speak of
an earthquake, but nothing more. Which would obliterate the trustworthiness
of the writers of Scripture, because almost all of the writers
of New Testament Scripture speak of the resurrection. As one said, we cannot deny The
physical resurrection of Christ without impugning the veracity
of the writers of scripture. Since they represent it as a
fact, this means that it affects our belief in the trustworthiness
of scripture. Moreover, the resurrection of
Christ is represented as having evidential value. It was the
culminating proof that Christ was a teacher sent from God.
In other words, it was God’s divine stamp of approval. It was God’s affirmation that
Christ’s sacrifice was fully adequate, that he was the very
son of God. It was the supreme attestation
of the fact of immortality. What is still more important,
the resurrection enters as a constitutive element into the very essence
of the work of redemption. And therefore, the gospel, it
is the one it is one of the great foundation stones of the Church
of God. The atoning work of Christ, if
it was to be effective at all, had to terminate not in death,
but in life. It wasn’t enough that Christ
died on the cross. Furthermore, it was the father’s
seal of the completed work of Christ, the public declaration
of its acceptance, Louis Burkoff. Now, as I said, many have attacked
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many in doing so have to ignore
a veritable mountain of data because the resurrection of Christ
was predicted in the Old Testament. It was foretold even by Jesus
himself. The witnesses to the fact that
Jesus was seen alive after his death were so numerous and competent
and on In so many ways, worthy of confidence and belief. Their
testimony was confirmed by God, ultimately in signs and wonders
in Pentecost, various miracles, gifts. The fact of the resurrection
has been commemorated by all kinds of religious observances
down to our day through even the observation of Easter. Paul
said it this way, I delivered to you as a first importance. This is a crucial doctrine. I
delivered to you as a first importance, which I also received that Christ
died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, he was buried
and that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures.
This is not something that the church or God’s people can easily
let go of as if the resurrection is irrelevant. It’s not irrelevant.
It’s absolutely crucial. As one said, the first doctrine which is undergirded
by the resurrection is that there is a God. And the God of the
Bible is the true God, the only cause adequate to account for
the resurrection of Christ is God. God raised him. And repeatedly
throughout the scriptures, the New Testament, it is God that
is seen as raising Christ. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
establishes the doctrine of our Lord’s deity. The resurrection
of Jesus Christ establishes the doctrine that all who believe
in Christ are justified from sin, that sacrifice was accepted,
that sacrifice made on our behalf was accepted. And finally, the
resurrection is a proof that death is not the end of this
life. There is a resurrection. There is life after. And as James
Boyce said it, the resurrection of Jesus is proof. that death
is not the end of this life. Death is, in fact, defeated for
all who by faith are united to Him. On the basis of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, the believer can have perfect confidence.
The only sure evidence of our resurrection is the resurrection
of Jesus Himself. It gives us great confidence.
And we rejoice in what God accomplished there on the cross that not only on the cross, we
rejoice in the time spent in the tomb because it too fulfilled
Scripture. And ultimately, we rejoice that
God did what he said he was going to do, and he raised the Lord
Jesus from the dead. And you say, this is all good.
And we could talk about the resurrection every Sunday. We rejoice to hear
of the resurrection. But I came here today and I told
you that I was going to talk about women’s ministry. I want
to talk to you now about women’s ministry in the context of the
resurrection. If you would, I want to take
you back to verse one. And as I said in the subject
of women’s ministry, there is really all kinds of unbiblical
misinformation. Some would say that women cannot
serve God in any capacity at all. Some would say that there
isn’t anything that women can’t do. Both are caricatures of the
facts. The facts are laid out before
us this morning. Women of God equally enjoy. And when I say
that, I want you to give pause That serving God is a joyful
enterprise. Serving God is invigorating. It’s just enlivening. It is a
privilege to serve him. And there are many who think
that only men have that privilege and only men should have that
privilege in any capacity. Women of God equally enjoy preparation
for ministry. Look at verse one. They equally
enjoy preparation for ministry. It is a joy for me throughout
the week. I sometimes feel sorry for the
rest of you. I get to all week long. I get
to study the word. I get to look at the passages.
I get to tear them apart. I get to go to all other places.
You have to read all kinds of commentaries from old dead guys.
And at the end of the week, I get to stand up here and tell you
what I learned. What a thrill! What a privilege!
But am I to think that I’m the only one who has this great honor,
this enjoyable privilege of preparing? Look at verse 1. On the first
day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing
the spices which they had prepared. I don’t want to be overly simplistic
in this. But these are godly women who
had set their heart to serve the Lord in a very basic capacity
and they took the time to prepare. Not many do. One of my concerns
about the pulpit is and teaching is sometimes people just wing
it. I don’t like that. That scares me. It should scare
you. Let’s back up and answer the
most basic question first. Who is they? Who is Luke referring
to when he says they? On the first day of the week
at early dawn, they. They came to the tomb. Who is
they? Well, Luke will go on to tell us down in verse 10, he
includes Mary Magdalene, Johanna, Mary of Clopas, and these are
all names that we’ve heard before. Women. And that’s what I’m here
to talk about today anyway, right? Women in ministry. And so I’ve
already tipped my hand that this day, first and foremost, refers
to a group of women. And Mary and Johanna and Mary
of Clopas are among that crowd, but who else could be there?
At the cross, which only recently contained Christ as our suffering
Savior, It is recorded that Mary was there, his sister Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee,
Mary of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Several of those mentioned at
the end of Luke. Later on, the gospel writers
present another list at the foot of the cross. Mary Magdalene,
Mary of Clopas and Salome. Mainstays, you might even say.
Those that would not be dissuaded, not by the horrific scene, not
by the great quantity of soldiers, not by anything, they were going
to stay by Jesus’ side and do whatever they could, even if
it was nothing more than praying on His behalf. Still later, Luke
alludes to women who had come with him out of Galilee. Who
is that? Well, we talked about this several weeks ago. Luke
8 tells us who they were. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, the wife
of Cusa, Herod’s steward. Now, if you’re Herod’s steward
and your wife is Joanna, you’re nervous, right? Here’s Herod,
who had a hand in putting the Lord Jesus to death. We know
his infamy. And now, all of a sudden, his
wife is a disciple of this Jesus. He’s a nervous guy. And then
Susanna. Luke 8 tells us of a person named
Susanna about Scripture. The entire rest of Scripture
never even mentions a syllable about her. Was she there? It’s certainly possible. It’s
certainly possible that she, too, tagged along only to worship
Christ indeed. in serving him in whatever capacity
she could. Matthew and Mark give us at least
a partial list of names at the very front of this discussion. They say Mary Magdalene and Mary
of Clopas. There’s no doubt that Mary Magdalene
and Mary of Clopas are there. Salome is likely there. Joanna
is there. And Susanna is very possibly
there. It is a group of women. And as
I said, I don’t want to be overly simplistic here. The women went
back to worshiply prepare for Christ’s anointing with these
spices. And while the Jewish elite who
promoted the crucifixion of Christ were preparing for some so-called
Sabbath, which at this point was utterly Godless, These devoted
followers of Jesus were preparing him the most basic and final
service of all. The anointing of the body with
these spices. And all this to observe and show
that women can and do minister, women can and do and should prepare. We should prepare for worship,
not only women, but men. And while it may include children’s
Sunday school and while it may include preparation for worship,
it isn’t even limited to that, is it? Women may play many other vital
roles in the life of the local church and in the worship service
itself, not the least of which is their personal worship. It
is done in a corporate setting. That is something for which women
should prepare. Peter said it this way, beyond
the adornment, not in place of, beyond the personal adornment,
the braiding of the hair and the dresses, Beyond all of that,
there should be a personal heart preparation for the worship of
Almighty God. Women enjoy that element of ministry
just like men. Women equally enjoy the preparation
for ministry. Secondly, women equally enjoy
revelation for ministry. And this one, I fear, may get
me run out if I don’t quickly explain. Look at the passage. And I’m
going to take you on a little detour, but it says in verse
two, they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when
they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While
they were perplexed about this, two men suddenly stood near them
in dazzling clothing and the women were terrified and bowed
their faces to the ground. This is an incredible scene,
but to paint the picture even more fully, I want to take you
to the Gospel of Mark. Turn, if you would, to Mark 16.
I’m going to need your finger in both places. Stay in Luke
24, at least a finger, and turn to Mark 16, verse 3. In Mark 16, verse three, Mark
gives a much more complete picture. Mark’s gospel is shorter, but
there are at times places where Mark gives much more detail than
any of the other gospel writers, just like all the gospels contribute
in their uniqueness here. Mark, look at verse three. They were saying to one another
who will roll away the stone for us at the entrance of the
tomb. They were in kind of a predicament because these stones weighed
hundreds of pounds. And they knew that this particular
tomb was guarded by soldiers. There were no friends there that
they knew of at the tomb. They weren’t going to be inclined
to let these women in. And so they were, in a sense,
thinking on their feet as they’re heading toward the tomb. They’re
thinking, OK, when we get there, what are we going to say? How
are we going to go about this? Who’s going to roll the stone
away? Perhaps we had forgotten completely this one little detail.
Looking up verse four, they saw the stone had already been rolled
away. Matthew tells us that it was
because of an earthquake. Luke and Mark leave it vague
as to how this even takes place, even though the stone was very
large. And Mark leaves off leaves off rather having them enter
the tomb. Now, some of the details are
different. Mark points to one young man sitting at the right
of where Jesus would have been laid, wearing a white robe. Luke’s
details are different. Two men in dazzling clothing.
The scene is the same. To have anybody other than the
Lord Jesus Christ there, lying dead, wrapped in funeral clothes
is completely shocking and in a sense, unacceptable. And that’s
why the wording is as such. They were amazed in Luke’s gospel. They were terrified. They bowed
their faces to the ground thinking, in a sense, they were seeing
a God. Back to Luke, if you would. And
it says they did not find the body of the Lord. That’s an understatement.
All they saw were what later Peter would lay out. in detail,
linen wrappings that were empty, as if the body had gone right
through them and the linen wrappings lying there. They did not find
the body of the Lord Jesus. And while they were perplexed
about this, too, men, as I said, this isn’t a conundrum. This
isn’t a problem. The fact that Mark only focuses
on one, perhaps he was the spokesperson. Mark just mentions the angel
who speaks. These two men suddenly stood
near them in dazzling white clothing, and the women were obviously
terrified, and they bowed their faces to the ground. And all
of a sudden, they’re about to get revelation. That’s another
word that frightens us, right? Here’s two for one. In one Sunday,
we’re going to talk about women’s ministry and special revelation. Hang on. Special revelation. Boy, when everybody when anybody
ever tells me, you know, they got the Lord told them, I get
nervous, don’t you? We should. Here’s what happened. It says that they found the stone
rolled away, they walk in, they find the angel sitting there.
And all of a sudden, the angel begins to speak to them. And
in Luke’s gospel, Luke records, the angel says, why do you seek
the living one among the dead? In essence, this is very mild,
but firm rebuke, they should have remembered. that Jesus prophesied
this, they should have remembered the scriptures spoke of this.
They should have known that on the third day, Jesus wouldn’t
be in the tomb. He would be alive, risen. And the angel adds the obvious,
he is not here, but he has risen. All three of these synoptic writers
record the identical phrase. He is risen. He is not here.
Just as he said, Matthew adds. Now, we know that, as I said,
when Peter later, if not from Luke’s Gospel, from John’s Gospel,
that when Peter ducked his head into the tomb to investigate
later, he saw only the linen wrappings and no body. The angel
in Luke’s Gospel now continues. And if you would look at verse
six again, about halfway through. Remember, the angel says, remember. Remember how he spoke to you
while he was still in Galilee? Saying that the Son of Man must
be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified in
the third day, rise again. Well, this is curious. There were only three times that
Jesus said this. One was near Caesarea Philippi,
not in Galilee. The Son of Man must suffer many
things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes and be killed and raised up the third day.
It was the first prophecy of his death. And then there was
a second while passing through Galilee. Let these words sink
into your ears, for the Son of Man is going to be delivered
into the hands of men.” And there was another on the road to Jerusalem,
still technically outside of Jerusalem. And in that passage,
it is a much more lengthy treatment of the subject. And it just says
this, He took the twelve aside and said to them, Behold, we
are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written
in the prophets about the Son of Man, see, they forgot that
too. They not only forgot Jesus’ words, they forgot the wealth
of data that was there in the Old Testament that all pointed
to this very thing. A suffering Savior. A suffering servant that would
come and would be killed and would rise again. All things which are written
in the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished,
for He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and
mistreated and spit upon. And after they have scourged
Him, they will kill Him. And on the third day, he will
rise again.” They had forgotten all of that. They had forgotten all of those
things. They had forgotten Psalm 22.18. They divided my outer
garments among them, for my clothing they cast lots. They had forgotten Psalm 3420. Not a bone of him shall be broken.
They forgot Zechariah 1210. They shall look upon him whom
they had pierced. They had forgotten all of those things, and they
had forgotten Jesus’ words as well. And the angel so gently
just looks to them and says, Remember? Remember how he spoke
to you while he was still in Galilee? Don’t you remember he
told you he wouldn’t be here today? They weren’t facing a situation,
as one pastor said, a totally unexpected fate that he had experienced
an unexpected deliverance. He had prophesied both before
his death and resurrection. It was important that his followers
should come to understand this wonderful happening. What was,
in fact, no more than what Jesus prophesied during his lifetime.
Remember, the angel says, Now, let’s face it, this is a
profoundly unique situation. There was one Lord. There was
one crucifixion and obviously one burial and resurrection.
Nevertheless, these women enjoyed that first Sunday, something
that Christian women can enjoy now any day, every day, revelation. They can open their Bibles, And
I’m not talking about something spooky, some word of knowledge,
a visit from an angel, a private prayer language that enables
you some special insight into God and His Kingdom. You have
access, regular, daily access to the revelation from Almighty
God written in His Word. What a privilege, women. What
a privilege that women equally enjoy revelation from God. God has spoken and God continues
to speak through His Word. And while you don’t need to expect
a special message as these women received from an angel, you can
enjoy the revelation of God’s Word each and any day. Thirdly, and here we’re going to get a
little more nervous. Turn up the heat a little more. Women
in ministry, women of God equally enjoy not only preparation for
ministry, revelation for ministry, they enjoy deputization for ministry. A great gasp went up from the
body. For this, I’ve got to take you
to Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew chapter 28. Deputization. Now, you already
told me that you don’t believe in ordination for women. And
now you’re telling me deputized. That means they’re being sent
out. Pastor, are you crazy? No. Just go into the facts. And the first word in Matthew
28, verse 7 is go. I didn’t send them. I didn’t
ordain them. The angel of God sent them. Go
quickly and tell His disciples, just in case there’s any misunderstanding
here. They are given a message. They
are given a divine message and they are told to go proclaim
this divine message. Go quickly, tell His disciples
that He has risen from the dead and behold, He is going ahead
of you into Galilee. And there you will see him. Behold,
I have told you. And they left the tomb quickly
with fear and great joy. And they ran to report it to
his disciples. Now, obviously, Mark’s Gospel
says that they said nothing to anyone. And this is an easily
resolved issue. They couldn’t have remained silent
forever about it. What it says is they didn’t go
blurt it out to all the townsfolks, but they made a beeline for the
apostles. They said nothing to anyone. Only as long as their
own fear kept them silent, their fear of God, and when that fear
passed away, they immediately began to share that with the
apostles. The verb here, this word afraid,
It doesn’t mean cowering in fear, cowering in fear of God or even
these angels. It’s reverential awe that is
being spoken of here. The amazing message that was
just shared with them, they were absolutely struck with awe. They couldn’t have spoken if
they had to initially. But as that begins to settle
in and joy begins to take over, not only fear, but great joy,
they can’t wait to share what it is they’ve been given with
the apostles. As one said it, we might have
expected that the good news would be first given to Peter or John
or some other member or of the eleven. But God’s ways are not
our ways. And the message was first given
to some women. People who did not rate highly
in first century estimation, the way women were commonly viewed,
And yet their faithfulness. Their faithfulness had qualified
them to be the first recipients of the good news. And laid on
them the duty of being its first messengers to his disciples. You know what? I’m still not
talking about ordination. I’m not opening the pulpit to
an unbiblical form of ministry that says, women, come on up,
take your turn. Officially placing women in the
capacity of pastor or elder. But here there is clearly and
obviously ascending. And it is ascending to proclaim
a message from the Lord. Now, I haven’t been able to locate
another instance like this. I’m not saying they’re not there.
If they’re there, there aren’t many. Still, there is this one. Here, this small group of women,
devoted followers of Christ, have their eyes open to a revelation
from the Lord, and they’re dispatched to proclaim that very truth.
That Jesus has risen from the dead and He’s preparing to meet
His disciples. And you know what? Your marching
orders are no different than theirs, ladies. You, too, are
dispatched, you too are deputized to go and proclaim, go and tell. And whether you go and you tell
a friend or you go and you tell a loved one, a family member,
a neighbor, what have you, the fact that you’re not doing it
from the pulpit doesn’t change your calling, doesn’t change
the command of God to you to go and to tell. You also, As
a great privilege of the gospel, enjoy the privilege of deputization
in ministry. You are sent. You are sent. Fourthly, and finally, and we’ll
close quickly. Women of God. As we look at a
biblical view of women’s ministry, women of God enjoy not only preparation
for ministry, Revelation for ministry, deputization for ministry. They enjoy faithfulness in ministry. And ultimately, it is all the
grace of God. If we come in on any given Sunday
and do anything ever for God, who gets the glory? God does. God does. And are we to say that
only men can enjoy that privilege? It’s not what happened here. It’s not what happened here.
As you consider the facts, women, too, enjoyed faithfulness in
ministry. Verse eight said they remembered
his words. They returned from the tomb and they reported all
these things to the eleven and to all the rest. They were sent,
they were told to go and to tell, and that’s exactly what they
did. You know what? There would be a lot less mess,
a lot less fights in churches, a lot less trouble if more of
God’s people just did these three things. And I didn’t even have
to alliterate it. The new American standard did
it for me. Remember, return and report. Right? Remember what the Scriptures
teach you. Return to your people. Return
to your workplace. Return to your families. And
when you get there, report. Tell them. Tell them what God
told you to tell them. And it’s only here that Luke
finally adds, now they were married, Magdalene, Johanna, Mary, the
mother of James, and also the other women with them that were
telling these things to the apostles. This wasn’t this wasn’t any light
ministry. This was the proclamation of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps the greatest
message the world has ever received. But these words appeared to them
as nonsense, and it’s tough, isn’t it? When family members,
when friends treat you as, you know, a knucklehead, you just
don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s hard to sustain that
ministry and these women would not let up. When it says they
would not believe them, it was almost like they kept sticking
their fingers in their ears. They wouldn’t hear it. They wouldn’t
have it. But the women kept on proclaiming that Jesus had risen
from the dead. Women, you’re not second class
citizens, not in God’s kingdom. The fact that the pulpit is not
open to women does not preclude women from ministry. Women are
in ministry already if they are in Christ and they enjoy not
only the preparation, they enjoy revelation, deputization and
faithfulness. They enjoy the grace of God as
members of this kingdom. Go and tell. Let’s pray. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves in your midst and we thank you For how you sort through
all the error that gets glommed on to the various subjects that. Come from your word. The very
title women in ministry. Is often so misunderstood and
father, we thank you for the clarification. And we pray for
the women in our midst, that they would be a mighty army,
that they would be a mighty force in this community, a force of
reaching to neighbors and friends and even family and proclaiming
the very message that these women, these faithful
attendants of Christ proclaimed, that Jesus is risen from the
dead. He is alive. Lord God, we thank you and we
praise you. We ask your blessing on our day.
In Jesus name, Amen.