Christ’s Blueprint for His Church: Believes in Equality

Christ's Blueprint for the Church:
Studies in the Book of Acts
“The Church Believes in Equality”
Acts 21:7-9

INTRODUCTION:
I want to begin this lesson with a poem written by Rachel’s great aunt, Eva Nell Nara-more, titled “My Greatest Desire.” As I read the poem, keep in mind it was written by a Christian woman…

Known only to God, my greatest desire,
That comes from my heart in my secret prayer,
Names are too many, I know but a few,
But God understands I’m praying for you.

My greatest desire, that sinners obey,
God’s word that gives life, death takes not away.
Come now and find rest, Christ paid all the cost;
To die without God your soul will be lost.
Why longer delay, this journey’s not far,
To life eternal, my greatest desire.

There comes a sweet thought in my feeble prayer,
When I tell to God my greatest desire.
If you feel condemned, obey now and pray.
Hear Jesus calling, don’t turn him away.

Here we’re so often heartbroken it seems,
But heaven’s enough to fulfill our dreams.
I’ll never give up as long as I live,
To wish you the best that God’s love can give.

This godly Christian woman wrote this poem with one thought in mind: the salvation of others. She mentions prayer, sharing the gospel with others, and encouraging them to obey that gospel message. Women have as important a role in the church of Christ as men do. We see that point exemplified in the book of Acts.

This year, in 2019, we are focusing on “Christ’s Blueprint for His Church,” as we study the book of Acts, the history of the church of Christ for the first 30 years after Jesus went back to heaven. Here’s the pattern, the blueprint, we have seen so far…

God wants us to get our message from His apostles inspired by His Spirit - the gospel that was first revealed in Jerusalem (Acts 1).
God wants us to preach the gospel, its broad outline revealed by the apostle Peter (Acts 2).
God wants us to share with others, those who are in need (Acts 4).
God wants us to live faithfully to His expectations (Acts 5).
God also wants us to fellowship with one another (Acts 6).
God wants us to know history - His history - His story of His interactions with His people - biblical history (Acts 7).
Jesus wants us to answer that question: “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 8)
Last month, we noted that God wants all men and women to be saved; that is, God wants the church of Christ, to be a universal body (Acts 10).

Not only does God make all nations equal in His eyes through Jesus Christ, He also makes both genders equal in His eyes through Jesus Christ, even if the roles men and women serve are different, by God’s design and God’s command.

The apostle Paul will write about this equality in Galatians 3:28…

Let’s see that verse lived out in the life of the early Christians in the book of Acts. We start with the woman’s role in the church, beginning with 1:14…

WOMEN IN THE EARLY CHURCH:
Following the ascension of Jesus into heaven, Christ’s disciples were meeting together in the upper room in Jerusalem, waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. There were 120 disciples meeting together, and among that number were many women, including Jesus’ mother, Mary.

What I want to point out here is that at this particular time, these women were not at home, cooking and cleaning, caring for the children, keeping house. They were right there on the chairs or benches, beside the men, devoting themselves to prayer along with the men. I do not know exactly what they were praying for; it likely had something to do with Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit and establish His kingdom. You remember that the prophet Joel promised the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh, including women (Joel 2:28-29). Peter quotes that promise and says it began fulfillment on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17-18). On that day, we have only the twelve apostles who received the Holy Spirit. However, in 5:32, we are told that all those who obey Jesus receive the Holy Spirit. We’ll see that promise fulfilled later in Acts.

While women are not specifically mentioned obeying the gospel on the day of Pentecost, it seems reasonable to believe that they were among the 3,000 who were baptized and we see them united together with all Christians in Acts 2:43ff, the wealthy women selling possessions to help the poor, sharing meals together with other Christians, and worshipping God through Jesus Christ with all the other new Christians. In 5:14, we see that multitudes of men and women were constantly obeying the gospel and becoming Christians.

Sapphira is the first named Christian woman in Acts and her story does not end well be-cause she and her husband conceive together to lie to God (Acts 5). In Acts 8:12, when Philip preached in Samaria, men and women were obeying the Gospel and becoming Christians. But we have a beautiful story told of a beautiful Christian woman in Acts 9:36-42. I want to point out two things about Tabitha / Dorcas. She was full of good works. I don’t think Tabitha believed making tunics and garments was small and insignificant. She was mature enough in her faith to understand that even giving a cup of water to a disciple was worthy of reward by the God of heaven. Secondly, it was through Tabitha’s resurrection that many, many people came to faith in Jesus Christ. Don’t you know both Tabitha and all of her quilting buddies shared that message with their circle of friends?

When we studied the household of Cornelius last month, there was undoubtedly women who heard Peter’s sermon and who were immersed in the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44) and who obeyed the gospel.

The apostle Peter, along with James, were arrested and imprisoned in Acts 12. King Her-od beheaded James and apparently planned to behead Peter but God sent an angel to save Pe-ter. When Peter was released from prison, he went to the house of a woman named Mary who was John Mark’s mother (Acts 12:12). She was likely a wealthy woman, perhaps a widow, and the church or some Christians were meeting in her home, praying together. We continually see women actively involved in the work of the church throughout the book of Acts.

Of course, we have Lydia in Acts 16 who was leading her own Bible study and prayer service with women involved. When Paul and Silas taught her and them the gospel, Lydia and her household were baptized (16:15). After Paul and Silas were imprisoned and then got out of jail, they met with the church that was meeting in Lydia’s house (16:40).

In Thessalonica, influential women were becoming Christians (17:4). The same thing happened in Berea (17:12). Paul and his mission team go on to Athens, Greece and preach there with very little impact. But, there were some who obeyed the Gospel, among them a man named Dionysius and a woman named Damaris, and others (17:34).

In Acts 18, we are introduced to a husband and wife couple named Aquila and his wife Priscilla (18:2). They left Rome and moved to Corinth. In Corinth, this couple met Apollos who was preaching an incomplete gospel message; he apparently did not know that Jesus, the Mes-siah, had already come and given his life on the cross. In 18:26, we learn that Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos preaching incorrect doctrine so they took him aside and explained to him privately the word of God more accurately. The wife, Priscilla, is listed first. You have to wonder why Luke mentions her first if it wasn’t for the fact that Priscilla may have taken the lead in teaching Apollos more accurately. This was a private setting and God does not place limitations on wom-en teaching men if it is in a private setting.

Finally, I want to point you to Acts 21 where we find the man, a deacon from the church in Jerusalem, named Philip who now lives in Caesarea. The text says Philip had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses. A “prophet,” of course, was someone who received a mes-sage directly from God to share with others. This word, “prophetess,” is a feminine form of that word, which means God spoke directly to these daughters of Philip for them to share their mes-sage with others. There are a number of ways they could have done that: privately, as Priscilla did with Apollos, or with women or children (Titus 2:3-5).

When we turn to the letter of 1 Corinthians, we find supported this idea that God gave women direct revelations from heaven to share with others: 11:4-5. This is not the time to dis-cuss the veil from this context; I am simply pointing out that women in the first century had the ability to prophesy and, of course, pray. But it is also in this same letter that Paul places limita-tions on when and where women could do that…

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and notice in verse 37 that Paul affirms this limitation is from Je-sus Christ. Paul gives a similar limitation in 1 Timothy 2:11-15.

Let’s turn back now and take a look at men in the early church…

MEN IN THE EARLY CHURCH:
The focus of the text, of course, is the spread of the gospel at the hands of the apostles, specifically the apostle Paul. Yet, if we examine the account of the spread of the Gospel in Acts closely, we notice that God used men from all walks of life to share his gospel with others.

It all starts, of course, with the twelve apostles on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. In Acts 3, a man who was crippled from birth is healed by Peter and John. This miraculous healing gave Peter and John an audience and visible verification of the resurrection of Christ since that mira-cle was worked in the name of Jesus Christ (cf. 4:10).

When the widows of the church in Jerusalem were being neglected in the daily food bank operated by the church of Christ in Jerusalem (Acts 6), the apostles appointed men whom we would recognize as deacons, in order to oversee this good work. But deacons are more than just people who get things done physically. Many deacons are also teachers and the next couple of chapters highlight that. Two deacons from the church in Jerusalem are pictured as preaching the gospel of Christ: Stephen in Acts 7 and Philip in Acts 8. Philip baptizes lots of people in Samaria which suggests that Philip was a deacon with the heart of a missionary. Of course, he also bap-tizes the treasurer of the Queen of Ethiopia.

The book of Acts turns its attention briefly to the apostle Paul in Acts 9 before going back to the apostle Peter in Acts 10-12, and again in Acts 15. After Acts 15, we don’t hear of Peter again in the book of Acts. Acts 15:7 is the last mention of Peter in Acts.

But from Acts 13, largely through the end of the book of Acts, the focus is on the apostle Paul but even he does not do his work alone. On his first mission trip, it is Paul, Barnabas, and for a time, John Mark who wrote the gospel of Mark. After the severe disagreement with Barna-bas over whether to take John Mark on the second mission trip, Paul takes Judas Silas on his second mission trip, picking up Timothy in Lystra and Luke, who wrote the gospel of Luke, in Troas.

In Corinth, Paul worked with the husband-wife team of Aquila and Priscilla. On Paul’s third mission trip, he had a whole team of helpers. Let’s take a look at Acts 20:4…

Of course, as we know, whenever Paul established a new congregation of Christians, he would appoint men to serve as elders over that specific congregation (11:30; 14:23).

What we see in the book of Acts is that God has his spokesmen reach out to both gen-ders, teaching men and women the gospel and baptizing men and women into Christ. Then, each Christian finds his or her niche in the church where they are members and they all work together, under the leadership of a male eldership, to serve their local community and share the gospel with those who are lost.

We again emphasize the importance of Galatians 3:28…

Take home message: Men and women have equal status in the eyes of God. Each of us are to use ourselves in service to Christ with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.