Women in Jesus’ Mission

Women are called by Jesus to follow closely in his footsteps and use every means the Lord has given them to fulfill the mission of Christ in the world.

Note: This transcript was auto generated and may have errors.  If you would like to volunteer to review and edit our sermon transcripts before they are posted, contact Gail Peterson, gpeterson@calvaryefree.church.

[00:00:00] Well, we’re going to look at an interesting little passage today. Uh, it’s the sort of scripture that is easy to miss, but it’s really intriguing. Most people would read really fast past this section of scripture that we’re going to look at and move on to the parable of the soils, which is right after it, which would easily be on Jesus’s Greatest Parables album if you had one. Uh, it’s what we’re going to look at today is that it’s a it’s a transitional paragraph giving us information to move the story along. So most of the time we we don’t look very closely at it at all. In some ways, it’s not even meant for us to study it deeply and closely. It’s just a little note about who was with Jesus on his journey in ministry. But this little note is fascinating once you unpack it, not because it gives us some deep theological truth, but because it tells us about the kind of church that Jesus himself is building, and it presents a challenge and a correction of culture. It’s a challenge to the norms of the first century Jewish culture, and it’s a correction of those who would say today that Christianity is oppressive. And there certainly are a number of folks who would say that if there’s one thing I love to do beyond preaching and teaching the gospel, it’s helping to correct our culture’s misunderstanding and misapplication of the gospel.

[00:01:35] And I want you to be well stocked church. I want you to be well stocked with good biblical understanding so that you can gently guide and correct sometimes others as you tell them about Jesus. As you speak about your faith in Christ, I want you to be able to guide people in the in the right direction. And this. This short note gives us a few details about the women who were part of Jesus disciples, and who used their means to support the ministry that Jesus was doing. Now, it won’t shock you to learn that the subject of women in the Bible is a hotly debated topic among biblical interpreters. Does that shock you? No, it does not shock you. I I’m not I’m not shocked that that you’re not shocked. Actually, it’s well known that this is a big debated topic. I spent a little time recently reading some of the scholarly materials put out by the prominent mainline Divinity School professors, and let me just tell you, it wasn’t encouraging, not very encouraging. There are countless articles and white papers and books published by scholars that are decrying the misogyny and sexism of the Bible. One scholar wrote, misogyny, which is the hatred of women. Okay, that’s what misogyny means. Misogyny is pervasive in the Old Testament. That’s what she wrote. Turning to the New Testament, another writer said women are usually portrayed through the male gaze. That’s her phrase male gaze.

[00:03:16] They are often virgins, wives, mothers, widows or prostitutes. Their identity is rooted in their relation to men. So these are what are called feminist readings of the New Testament of the Bible. And these these feminist readings of the Bible in universities aren’t really so concerning, except for the fact that their ideas have a tendency to bleed out into culture. And this is where this is where the problem comes. So today there’s a lot of people who have the vague notion, somehow, that the Bible doesn’t have a lot of nice things to say about women. That’s where it comes from. What our little note shows us today, this little passage, three verses that we’re going to look at today. What it shows us is just how highly the Lord values the ministry and gifts and the involvement of women among his disciples. Yes, the Lord has has made men and women differently. He has given us unique roles to serve within both the home and the church. But when it comes to discipleship, when it comes to following Christ, the role of serving within the body of Christ women are essential. Ladies. You are called by Jesus to follow closely in his footsteps and use every means that the Lord has given you to fulfill the mission of Christ in this world. Never allow the so-called scholars to tell you that the Bible has a lower view of womanhood than what our culture offers today.

[00:04:53] On the contrary, what Scripture offers is a view of womanhood that’s in line with the greatness of God’s design and his purpose uniquely for women. And that purpose includes a call to take every God given attribute and passion and skill and use it to put it on display. The glory and the greatness of God, the glory, the glory and the greatness of Christ our Savior. So if you would, if you please open your Bibles, you can go to Luke chapter eight. That’s where we’ll be today, right at the very beginning of the chapter, Luke eight one. Like I said, we’re looking at just three verses today. I will have it on the screen as well, but you can turn there if you have your Bible. And first, what I want to do this morning is I want to take you through this short passage so you can see what’s there. And then I’m going to point out a little historical note that we all need to remember the next time someone says the Bible hates women, or Christians hate women or whatever it is that they say. And then I want to give you three calls of duty, three calls of duty that are described in this passage that that I believe are vital for all disciples of Jesus today. Now, I’ll gear these specifically to women, but they apply to everyone. The passage is about the women in Jesus ministry, so we’ll talk specifically about that.

[00:06:12] But these these are for everybody. Let’s begin by by meeting these ladies. Soon afterward, he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the 12 were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna and many others who provided for them out of their means. So Jesus is continuing his his ministry of moving from city to city, town to town, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the Kingdom of God. Now, that word they’re bringing is more specifically the word evangelizing. Uh, the combination of evangelizing with preaching or proclaiming means that he wasn’t just telling people about the kingdom of God. He’s inviting people into the kingdom of God. Jesus ministry is an invitation. Jesus doesn’t want us just to know about God. He wants to invite us into a relationship with God. He wants to invite us into a kingdom over which God reigns. Jesus good news isn’t just about how to have an eternity with God someday after you die. Okay, it’s not just about the future, it’s it’s the news that you can come under the reign of God right now. It’s an invitation to come under the reign of God right now.

[00:07:56] If you if you have heard most of your life that salvation is something that you will need in the future, but you didn’t hear much about living a life of hope and peace and joy and worship and obedience under the reign of King Jesus right now. Well, you haven’t quite heard the whole good news, and that’s okay. But let Jesus fill you in, okay? Let Jesus fill you in on what he’s doing and what he came to teach. Jesus brings you and proclaims to you good news of a kingdom of God that you can enter by faith, by trusting in him right now. And that right now ness of the gospel is key for understanding what a disciple of Jesus is. Okay. You really won’t understand what a disciple is unless you understand the right now ness of the gospel. It makes sense of what we see in these disciples, because what do they do? They give up everything, don’t they? They give up everything to follow Jesus. They use their means, the finances, the everything that they have. They use that to provide for Jesus and His mission. They’re not they’re not not doing this just for future hope, although that is part of it. Of course, future hope is is an extraordinary part of this. But they’re doing this right now because they’re living within the kingdom of God right now. If you don’t feel like you’re you’re motivated or growing as a disciple.

[00:09:32] And I meet lots of folks who feel this way. They just I don’t feel like I’m growing. I don’t feel like I’m I’m becoming more like Christ every day. I’m not growing as a disciple. You’re probably missing this piece. This is this might be the piece you’re missing. We don’t serve the Lord because we’re just so thankful for what he will eventually do for us in eternity. There is that. No question. But we sacrifice and serve because we’re part of the kingdom of God right now. Jesus has brought this into our lives. Our discipleship is simply the daily life of growth and obedience. That’s the normal part of of living under the reign of Jesus kingdom every day. So two groups are mentioned here. Two groups of disciples are mentioned here, one in passing and the other in detail. In passing, the 12 are mentioned. This is the name that’s given to the 12 apostles who form the nucleus of the disciple group. And we saw this formed back in chapter six. So Jesus spent the night praying. Uh, then he chose 12 guys that he called apostles. Apostle simply means, uh, one who sent with a message or a messenger. These guys are being trained up to be sent out as an extension of Jesus ministry to reach the rest of the world, and some of them will write, uh, down and create resources that become the New Testament scriptures.

[00:11:07] Uh, Paul will be added to this group of apostles after meeting Jesus. They are a vital part of of the expansion of Jesus ministry. In fact, you could say our ministry here is part of the apostles ministry because they wrote down what we have as our Bible. So our ministry is based on their ministry. So they’re a vital part of this. But it’s really important to note that the 12 are not the extent of Jesus ministry through his body. Okay, they’re an important part, but they’re not the extent of it. All disciples will serve a role, a vital role in the expansion of Jesus kingdom across the earth to every people group, a task that remains unfinished today. That’s why we’re continuing to send people to places where the gospel has not been proclaimed, where they don’t have scriptures written in their language. We continue to put resources, send men and women into those places to spread the gospel, because that is an unfinished task that we have before us. And that’s where this other group mentioned comes in. And they’re the focus of this passage. And we know that because they’re named. While the 12 are not mentioned by name, Jesus disciples included all the men and women. And Luke wants to give us a little bit of a snapshot of the woman part of this ministry team he wants to show us here’s here’s how the women were involved.

[00:12:38] First, we have Mary Magdalene, uh, the second most famous Mary in the Bible, right? Mary Magdalene, uh, Mary Magdalene is one of those people from the Bible, uh, that most of us think we know more about than we actually do. We’ve got a sense. We have a sense for who Mary Magdalene is, but it’s probably a false sense for who she is. Uh, and that’s because she’s usually depicted in movies and in shows, with her character more filled out with details than we actually have in the Bible about who she was. Uh, also, she is often conflated with other unnamed women in Scripture. Uh, most famously, the woman caught in adultery in John chapter eight is usually a lot of times in books and movies and things. That’s that somehow becomes Mary Magdalene, even though that woman is not actually named in, in that part of the Bible. Actually, John, that passage isn’t even necessarily part of the Bible. We’re not sure it’s not part of the early manuscripts. Um, but that’s that’s someone she’s usually conflated with. Uh, or she’s sometimes she’s actually conflated with the woman who wipes Jesus feet with, with her hair, like we just read last week. Sometimes they think, well, maybe that that’s Mary Magdalene. Uh, or according to Dan Brown of The Da Vinci Code fame. There are secret documents that show us that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were actually married.

[00:14:11] Just fiction. We don’t actually know that much. On it goes, on it goes. We don’t actually have very much. We only have a tiny amount of biblical information about Mary Magdalene. We know that she’s from Magdala. That’s where the Magdalene comes from. It’s a small town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. She’s also the recipient of Jesus healing power. She was, as we see in this passage, possessed by seven demons, and she was freed by Jesus. Now, from what we know of demon possession and the stigma in that in that day, for people who were in the community who were possessed, Mary probably was a loner and an outsider. She’s probably pretty isolated from other people in the community, and being set free and following Jesus would have given her a life that that she didn’t have before. And that’s true of all of us who have put our faith in Jesus. We we now have a life of following Jesus we didn’t have before. Our life has been dramatically altered. We also know that she is faithful to Jesus during his whole ministry, because she reappears at the end of the book as one of the women who go to the tomb to anoint Jesus body and only find the empty tomb. Next we have Joanna, and we know even less about her. But what we know about her is pretty exciting.

[00:15:43] First, she’s also with Mary Magdalene, who when they go to the empty tomb. But the second thing that we learn about her, which I find to be very exciting, is that it lists her position here, that she is the wife of Chuza, King, Herod’s household manager. Now, a household manager would be something like the head of a work team. So Chuza would be in in charge of Herod’s finances and his estate. It’s probably mentioned here to give us a sense for how far the gospel of the kingdom has penetrated into the leadership and the earthly kingdom of that day. That’s probably why it’s mentioned. Remember, this would be this would be Herod that that is the one who beheaded John the Baptist after calling him out for his sin. This this guy was very powerful in that region. This Herod’s dad, Herod the Great, was the one that tried to kill Jesus as a baby. The gospel of the Kingdom of God is eroding the sinful kingdoms of this world. It is penetrating. It is taking ground within the kingdoms of this world. The gospel turns the hearts of leaders. It turns the hearts of kings. The Apostle Paul will stand before both Jewish and Roman kings, Roman officials, and present the gospel to them. And here we have an indication that the gospel is already even during Jesus lifetime, the gospel is already turning leaders of the kingdom to the true King.

[00:17:26] And the fact that that that this woman is, is, is married to Chuza. But following Jesus is probably a pretty good indication that her husband also is a follower of Jesus, or is at least inclined to support him because his wife has the freedom to be able to to do ministry with Jesus. And I tell you all this because passages like this, they encourage me when I think about all of the power, all of the structures, all of the, the, the important groups, all of the kingdoms of this world, there are powerful forces that are at work in this world for good or for evil. And the gospel is making its way through them because God is placing his people within them. Jesus is at work within the kingdoms of this world. The final woman listed here is Susanna, and that is literally all we know about her. That’s it. And Susanna. That’s where whole mentioned in the Bible. That’s it. That’s there’s not much else to say except I will say, as I often do. And you’ve heard me say this before, that the reason people are named in Scripture without any other description given is because they were known to the readers. And that’s very important. Luke. Luke is not introducing an unknown person. If he was introducing an unknown person, he would explain who that person is, but instead he simply names her because he knows that his original readers would know exactly who he’s talking about.

[00:18:59] And this is an excellent this is excellent evidence for the historical intention of the Gospels. These are eyewitness accounts told by real people in history. It might be that Susanna is mentioned here because she is the source for the information that Luke addresses, that, that he shares here. The critics who think that the Bible is all legends and fairy tales, need to account for the actual details of the documents that attest to their historical genre. They need to speak to these these details. And church, you can be very confident, right down to the details of Scripture, that when Luke tells us that he wrote a carefully researched historical book, that that’s exactly what you’re reading. Thanks, Susanna. Thank you for that. Okay, so why are these women mentioned? Why why take the moment to to go through and mention these women here? Well, Luke says these women, along with many other unnamed women, provided for Jesus and the apostles out of their means. So you can picture a team of traveling evangelists and teachers. They’re traveling throughout the region and they’re preaching the gospel. They’re performing baptisms. They’re gathering crowds together. Uh, these guys have left their their means of income. So they’ve left their their fishing nets behind. They’ve left their left their tax collecting jobs behind. And what they’ve done is they’ve taken on ministry roles. And also on this team are a growing number of people who have been healed by Jesus.

[00:20:36] So they get they get healed by Jesus, they get saved by Jesus. And now these people continue to serve in ministry alongside of Jesus, providing the necessary means for this ministry to continue. Now, it probably doesn’t take a whole lot of money for them to be able to to continue. I mean, they need some some food and some shelter. And Jesus sent the the apostles off with very little. So we know it took took very little to be able to do the ministry that they were doing. I mean, Jesus himself said he had no place to lay his own head, so he knew he wasn’t. This wasn’t a get rich thing, uh, for Jesus. But they needed to eat to continue. They needed to be able to to to eat and ministry, uh, all ministry, uh, requires resources. And these women have, have become part of the team that’s carrying out the mission of Jesus. And so that’s why they’re being talked about here. Now, before we talk about three calls of duty in this passage that I think are very inspiring for all of us, but particularly for women. Uh, I want to make a historical observation. I want to just make one little historical note here. Okay. Before we can look at at what the Bible says about our world today, we always have to look at what the Bible says about the world in which it’s written.

[00:21:58] So a critic of today might might have an idea about what the world should be like and then then claim that the Bible is full of sexism, sexism, and misogyny, as we heard earlier. But but a careful Bible reader would see that that Jesus elevates the position of women relative to the thinking of the first century society that is around him. For for for women to, to to support a ministry. Back then that would have been pretty normal. But I’ll tell you what, it isn’t normal. I’ll tell you what is radically different. What isn’t normal at all would be for these same women to travel around with their rabbi as a part of his discipleship team that they would not do. See, Jesus isn’t interested in just raising up a group of men who would be the next rabbis. That’s what rabbis did. They would raise up the next level. They would be had the male students. They would raise up the next level of rabbis. Jesus isn’t interested in that. He’s interested in building a team comprised of men and women who are faithful to the kingdom of God. That’s what he’s making. And not just not just men and women. Outcast men and women, sinners, prostitutes, formerly demon possessed people, isolated people. Jesus doesn’t create a team by by scraping the cream of the crop off the top of the society’s men.

[00:23:23] That’s not that’s not what he’s doing. He creates a team of men and women comprised of anyone who has been saved by his healing touch, and who are trusting in his grace. That’s what the church is. That’s what Jesus wants to make. And this is not because Jesus is some progressive visionary within his own, his own culture, his own society. This is because Jesus is in the business of restoring people to the way God originally designed this world to be. He’s restoring the world. He’s not elevating women to a new position. He’s restoring them to a very old position. So it’s so old that you find it. In Genesis chapter one, God created man in his own image. In the image of God. He created him, male and female. He created them. Men and women have different roles to play in the church and home for sure, but they were always to be his children. Equally, they stand before him equally, they worship and they serve him equally. Any vision of Christianity and the church today that doesn’t include a robust, indispensable and honorable role for women to play in the life of the church is a very deficient, unbiblical, and quite outside of Jesus vision for his church. So let’s look at three calls. Three calls of duty that are pictured in this passage. Now, these are not commands. You’re not going to find a command in this passage.

[00:24:54] These are not commands, but they are true statements about our call that are implied by this passage. And these these are true for everyone, okay? These are true for everyone. But because the passage is talking about women, let me let me apply them directly to you ladies here this morning. And the first is that that being healed means becoming a servant. Being healed means becoming a servant. Mary, being healed of seven demons and then joining the ministry team is part of the pattern that we have seen throughout the Book of Luke. Just before this, just last week, the woman who was forgiven of for her prostitution was anointing Jesus feet with her tears and covering them with expensive ointment. The widow of Nain had her dead son returned to her alive, and it says that she got up and she just she started worshipping. She worshiped Jesus. Back in chapter four, Jesus healed Peter’s mother in law and no sooner was she healed. It says she got up and she started serving right away. The point here is, is when when Jesus restores us with with his healing touch, when he rescues from our sins, it’s it’s not to restore us to our old life. It’s not to get you back on track. Serving yourself, doing your thing, being who you were prior to meeting Jesus. We’re healed for the purpose of entering a life in service of the mission of the Kingdom of God.

[00:26:24] That’s why we’re saved. That’s why we’re healed. Ladies, do you see yourselves as servants of King Jesus? Is that how you see yourself? I am a servant of the living God. I am a servant of the Savior of the world. Have you have you found and fully embraced your unique way of serving within the mission of the church? When I was in seminary, Rachel and I lived on what they called the North Shore of Chicago. It’s a north north side of Chicago. We were on the North Shore, and it’s a very, very wealthy area. It just happened to be where Trinity was located. So it was just like this little island of poor college, poor students, right in this sea of wealth that was was all around us. And and we went to church here in that area. And we were we went to church with a lot of wealthy families because of that. And when we would go to gatherings for church families, it was similar to the sorts of gatherings we’d had with any church that we’d ever been part of. People got together and just chatted and talked. But but what we learned was that their struggles were very different. The struggles, the sin struggles particularly, were very different in that culture than it was in cultures that we’d been in before. And I’ll never forget the time when we were at a gathering and one wealthy lady said to ask another wealthy woman, what do you do? And the woman’s responses I am a woman of leisure.

[00:28:02] Uh, I, I am a woman of leisure. That’s what she said. Now I get that what she meant was that she didn’t have a paying job to go to every day. I think that’s what she was. She was getting at. She didn’t. She didn’t have an occupation in that, in that sense. But let me tell you, the opposite of that should never be a life of leisure, okay? We’re not designed for that. Not if you follow Jesus. The call to follow Jesus is the call to live in service to the King. That’s what you’re called to. Using the time that he’s given you to complete the task of sending his gospel to the corners of the earth. That’s what we’re called to as followers of Jesus. Which leads to the to the second call and that’s that. God has you strategically located. God has you strategically located. The mention of Joanna’s connection to Herod’s household implies that the Lord values such connections wouldn’t be in the Bible if it didn’t matter. But the value is in that connection. Joanna is in a strategic position within society to bring the Gospel of Jesus into a strategic place. Tim Keller, who pastored in Manhattan for many years, one of my favorite writers and thinkers.

[00:29:27] He talks a lot about the need for the gospel to to go to places where it can have broader societal impact. He would talk about the strategy of planting churches in big cities and why that would matter. Now he knows that the gospel needs to go everywhere. Of course it needs to go everywhere. But, but, but, but any mission would be foolish to ignore strategically placed people. Now, how does that affect us? Well, ladies, you may not have the ear of Congress, although I know some of you actually do have the ear of Congress. I think one of you actually is in Congress. So that’s pretty cool, right? But but but you may not have that. That may not be your way in. You may, you may not be you may not have the ear of cultural shapers in Rochester or feel that you don’t. But let me tell you something. You are strategically placed. You have relationship webs that overlap with people that no one else has. You may be the only Christian that can actually have an in actually have a conversation with somebody, because they’re so isolated from every other Christian. You have the opportunity to cultivate relationships that perhaps no other Christian can cultivate, because they’re not placed the way you are. Some of you work in environments, building relationships with coworkers that have fully embraced secularism or spiritual views that lack the gospel. Some of you don’t have a 9 to 5 job per se, so you’re free to cultivate relationships in other venues.

[00:31:10] You probably have far more influence than you know. And that’s that’s so important for you to grasp and understand. You have far more influence than you know. And with a little strategic thought, you could go from simply building acquaintances to forging opportunities for the gospel. And here’s the thing. And this is you just got to keep this in mind all the time. You don’t know who your friends know. Okay? You don’t know. You know your friends. You know your web of influence, but you don’t know the web of influence for every person that that person knows. And the gospel has a funny way of moving from person to person. Your willingness to share will have a far broader impact than you will ever see, because that’s how the gospel works. And finally, the first two calls of duty lead to this final call. And that’s that you have means to supply Jesus mission. You have means to supply Jesus mission. These women provided for Jesus out of their means. That means they had means. Uh, I don’t know what they had. I have no idea. I have no idea what they had. They probably were engaged in trades. They probably used that money to buy food. If I had to guess, that’s probably what it’s getting at. But it doesn’t tell us exactly, because it doesn’t matter.

[00:32:31] Exactly. It’s not the point. Exactly. The point is they used what they had to serve Jesus in every way they could. Ladies, those of you who love Jesus because he’s healed your soul, because he reached in and he healed your soul, and he he made you new and he set you free of your sins. He’s he. Jesus has placed you strategically within his mission, and everything that God has given you is there to be used in his service. Everything. And I’m not just talking about your spiritual gifts, and I’m not just talking about your volunteering at church. I mean that God has saved you. He has picked you up out of your sin. He is set you on the solid ground of his love whole. And ready to serve. That means you are his. You belong to him. You are not your own anymore. You don’t belong to you anymore. You were bought at a great price and you now live within the Kingdom of God. And your stuff is his stuff. He has given you passions and abilities. He’s given you resources. He’s he’s strategically placed you in circles where you are. Everything that he has given you is a tool to be used in the service of his mission. He has healed your soul. He has placed you specifically. Specifically. And he has given you means. Use it all for his glory. Would you pray with me?