The Place of Women in Gospel History

Good morning. Well, today is Mother's Day, and being Mother's Day, we wanna take a moment to, honor the moms that are with us in our service today. We're commanded. In the 10 Commandments, the 5th commandment is to honor not only our fathers, but also to honor our mothers.

And guys, the only reason That God would command us to honor our mothers is because the institution of motherhood is worthy of that honor. The role of mothers is central to the health of a society, to the health of a church, and also, to the discipleship of the next, generation. And moms, I want you to embrace. That honor.

The role you serve is an honorable role in the lives of your children. Don't let anyone look down on your ministry to your children. dads, I would encourage you to honor your children's mother. Honor them.

The greatest gift that you can give to your children. is to honor their mother and children, I would call upon you, not only on this day of the year, but how about every day of the year to honor your mother. Her role And your life is absolutely huge, and you open yourself up to the benefits. That, your mom's ministry can bring to you if you honor your mother in this way.

There's an interesting passage in 1 Timothy where Paul is speaking to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 5, and we are told, Timothy is told, and we are told to relate to older men in the church as fathers and older women in the church. As mothers, and we can infer from that instruction to Timothy that there are many moms. who are in the church. who play a motherly role in the lives of many people, even if they may not be their biological mom.

And so the church is all the richer of a community because of the biological moms and the adoptive moms and the spiritual moms that serve so many in the Church of Jesus Christ. So we are thankful for all the moms that are represented in this room this morning and we just want to, to honor you and recognize you and we have a gift for you. So if you are here today and you are a mother, physically or spiritually to anyone, would you please stand. And then.

please remain standing. we've got some ushers that will be carrying some heavy boxes here. Let's relieve them of their burden. Please remain standing, moms, until you have received, your, gift, this morning.

this is a mug, OK? And on this mug, it says, indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. For Father's Day last year, we gave to the men a mug and so we wanted to match that only, ladies. Your mug is larger than the men.

Because we love you. And you need the coffee more than we do. But yeah, please remain standing until you've received your, your gift. Indeed, my inheritance is beautiful and Psalm 127.

the psalmist tells us that children are an inheritance, from the Lord. So every mom can say my inheritance is beautiful and even beyond just the inheritance of children, in 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter tells us that all women, not just moms, are fellow inheritors. With the men of the grace of eternal life. And so ladies, your inheritance in Christ is a beautiful one.

And we hope that this mug will serve as a reminder to you, of, of that. And we do have some on the front row here that You can have mine If you are a woman who has put your trust in Jesus Christ, you can honestly say with the psalmist in Psalm 16:6, listen to this, the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Indeed, my inheritance is beautiful to me. Amen.

Why don't we, just take a moment to pray. Let me just pray over. You moms, just ask God's blessing upon you. Is there anyone else that is still standing that needs a OK.

Yeah, let's pray together. Father, we just want to take a moment in our service here to thank you and to praise you for the moms that are represented in This room this morning. We thank you, Lord, for all the work that each of these moms do and caring for their children and molding the lives of the children in their homes. Some of these mothers, Lord, are young and some are older.

Some have young children in the home. Some have older children that are out of the home. Some have a mixture of both, some have grandchildren, some even great-grandchildren. All of their situations and stages of life are different, Lord.

Many of these moms have husbands by their sides, and some of these mothers are single moms who must labor alone in many ways. Some of these moms have husbands who know you and are walking with you. They've been redeemed. By the blood of the Lamb, and some of these moms are spiritually single, seeking to raise their children for you.

Without the aid of A husband And a father to their children who has the same goal. Lord, we just come before you and cry out to you on behalf of these moms. We ask that you would bless these mothers in a, in a very special way. We ask that You would help each of them to understand how important their ministry is and how fraught with eternal significance everything they do is.

We pray, Lord, that you would give to these moms exactly the grace that they need to be precisely the mom that each of their children need for them to be at whatever stage of life that they are at. We know that being a mom. It is difficult and so for every heartache that these moms experience, for every anxiety, for every discouragement that they encounter, Lord, may you. May you be their encourager and the lifter of their heads, and may you be the bomb that brings healing to them and that Lifts their chin high and keeps them going in your grace.

Above all, Lord, we ask that you would help these mothers to mirror to their children what you are like. Help them by the lives they lead and the example they set by the things that they do and the ways that they go about relating to their children. Help them through all of these means, Lord, to show their children what you are like and when these moms fell short. May the moms here who have believed in the Lord Jesus, may they know that there is not a shred of condemnation upon them.

Only grace, only grace, and may they walk in your grace and claim the forgiveness that your word says belongs to them as daughters of God in Jesus. May they lay hold of that forgiveness and that grace with boldness and with confidence and with courage, and may that grace melt their hearts and serve as the wind beneath their wings, enabling them to soar higher than they ever had before. Use these moms together with the dads. Use all of us together as a community, Lord, to raise up a godly generation of men and women who will be champions of the faith.

The days we live in are increasingly dark. And the world our children will be living in 10 years from now, 20 years from now is sobering to consider. In all likelihood, Lord, there will be people, young people in this room who one day may be martyred for you. or persecuted severely.

May we work together to bring them up, Lord, to be articulate spokespersons for a gospel worldview. That they would be men and women in the generation to come who know their God and who do great exploits in the name of Jesus and who make the headlines of heaven. And we ask all of these things, Lord. In the name of Jesus, and for His glory, and all God's people said, Amen.

Well, we hope you moms will be encouraged today just with the love and the appreciation that is shown to you, and I hope that the message this morning will be an encouragement. to you, today, as you see on the screen. behind me, the title of the message this morning is The Place of Women in gospel, history, and I just want to encourage you, if not even overwhelm you with the honor that we see bestowed upon women in the telling of the history of redemption as it unfolds in, in scripture.

And I, I began in somewhat of a sheepish way.

I may lose my job over this actually, but I'm going to start off my Mother's Day sermon this morning with a football illustration. Two women are happy. I actually, I was insecure enough about it that I, I ran it by my wife yesterday and she said it's OK. So, to make things even, I will, try my best to start my Father's Day sermon with an illustration about something on Pinterest.

But here goes, last year, the Dallas Cowboys had a, a wonderful season that went farther than anyone at the beginning of the year would have predicted, and they found themselves in the playoffs against the Detroit Lions in the first game of the postseason. Dallas had not won, to my recollection, a playoff game in years, and it seemed That in the big games they always had a way of choking late in the game and just giving away their victory to the other team. And in this particular game late in the 4th quarter, Dallas had just driven down the field and scored a go-ahead touchdown, putting Dallas ahead 24 to 20 with 2.5 minutes in the game to go.

Unfortunately, that was still enough time for the Detroit Lions to get the ball and drive down the field, get a touchdown and pull ahead and actually win.

The game. So Detroit gets the ball back with 2.5 minutes to go and they start driving down the field. However, on the second play of that drive, Detroit fumbled the ball. And as the ball tumbled to the ground, there was a Dallas Cowboy player, DeMarcus Lawrence, who picked up the fumble.

All he had to do, given the time left in the game was essentially to fall on the ball, and that would have sealed the game. For the Cowboys. But for some reason, DeMarcus chose not to do that. Instead, he picked up the ball and tried to run with it and no sooner had he started running and dodging that he fumbled the ball and the ball ended up back in the hands of the Detroit Lions.

Meaning that it is still Detroit's ball with 2 minutes to go and Detroit is still alive with a chance to drive down the field and win the game. There was a collective groan that rippled through the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. This was the choke that every Dallas fan feared would happen. This was going to be one of those plays that lived forever in Dallas infamy.

You could see the dismay on DeMarcus Lawrence's face. He was crushed. He knew that he had blown it and possibly given away Dallas's wonderful season. And as I'm sitting there with others watching that play unfold, I had that feeling too.

This would probably, as fate would have it, be a decisive play that would come back to haunt. DeMarcus Lawrence. If Dallas lost this game, DeMarcus Lawrence would forever be known as the guy who fumbled away Dallas's season in 2015. The coach for the Cowboys could have pulled DeMarcus from the game, but he didn't.

He kept him in the game, and sure enough, Detroit promptly started driving down the field and with every yard they gained, the importance of DeMarcus's fumble loomed larger and larger. But then something amazing happened. When Detroit was 42 yards away from getting a touchdown, the Detroit quarterback went back for a pass and like a wild man possessed, DeMarcus Lawrence broke around his blocker and got to the quarterback and sacked him, knocking the ball out of his hands. As soon as DeMarcus saw that the ball was loose, he dove immediately toward the ball.

He gathered it under his body and lay on top of it, clutching onto it for dear life. It was the biggest play. Of his life. In one fell swoop, DeMarcus had sacked the quarterback, caused a fumble, recovered the fumble, and basically won the game for the Dallas Cowboys.

After that play, Dallas was able to run out the clock and win the game. How's that? I still remember DeMarcus Lawrence's joy as he celebrated. When he got up to celebrate, it was still a while before he was willing to let go of the football as his teammates were jumping around and celebrating, and I couldn't have been happier for him.

It was obvious that he wasn't just celebrating the fact that Dallas was going to win the game. He was celebrating his release from the stigma. Of his former failure just a few plays earlier. He was celebrating the fact that his former failure was now completely nullified and rendered of no account.

In fact, his former failure now would forever be remembered merely as the prelude to that heroic moment that followed just a few plays later. It's strange how our minds work. Throughout this week, I kept thinking of that play, ladies, as I put together this sermon for you today, and I apologize if this illustration does not work for you. But here's my message for you ladies today.

In the greater scheme of human history, Eve really blew it on that crucial day in the garden when she partook of the forbidden fruit. She represented womankind poorly in the decision that she made. She allowed herself to be deceived by the serpent. She partook of the forbidden fruit, and then she took that fruit to Adam and instructed him to eat it together with her.

He did, and the human race was plunged into sin as a result. From that point on, Eve probably thought that she would not only have to deal with the realities of sin. And suffering in a fallen world, but she probably also thought that she would be forever haunted by the stigma of being the human means by which sin got to Adam. And into the world.

The wording of the stigma would go something like this. In 1 Timothy 2:14, it says it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression. And in Genesis 3:6, it says, she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. These words would be her stigma for time and eternity, she may have thought.

But here's the amazing thing. Yes, Eve blew it royally, but after her failure, God did not remove her from the game. In fact, he indicates almost immediately in Genesis 3. that he will be giving womankind a vital role in the gospel story as it unfolds from there on.

God would not just allow for womankind to be a recipient. Of salvation, but he would actually make women prominent and heroic players in the story of salvation as it unfolds down through the ages. Where would man be if it were not for the woman? The old joke goes, The answer is man would still be in the garden.

That's the punchline of the joke, but what? God through the gospel changes the punchline of that joke. And he structures the story of salvation in such a way that now the joke is on the devil. Where would man be if it were not for the woman?

Man would be without a savior. And ladies, what I wanna do with the time that we have this morning is to run through the broad sweep of scripture and to show how amazingly true that punch line is. I want you, my sisters in Christ to be encouraged with the teaching of the Bible that not only do you get to be a recipient of salvation, but that womankind actually plays a privileged and a prominent role in the gospel story as it unfolds through scripture. And I want you to know that the gospel story continues through today.

And that God wants you despite your brokenness and your weakness and your past failures to play a prominent role in the further unfolding of redemption in the lives of many people. My goal is that this message will cause you to look differently at yourself, that it will cause your husband to look at you differently, and that it will cause your brothers in Christ to look at you differently. As you and they see the role that womankind plays in the unfolding of God's redemptive plan.

We're gonna move quickly through our points, but I have here on the screen 7 facts about the place of women in gospel history.

We probably are only going to be able to cover 5 of them. 7 facts, 5 to 7 facts about the place of women. In gospel history, and the first of these facts is this, the first woman, that's Eve, figures prominently in God's first promise of Christ's victory over Satan. After Adam and Eve sinned and confessed their sin in Genesis 3, God immediately speaks.

He speaks to the serpent first, and he makes this promise to the serpent. He says, I will put enmity between you and the woman. And between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise you on the head, and you. shall bruise him on the heel.

To be sure, God promises Eve that she will suffer pain in childbirth. We've studied that in recent weeks, but God says enough in Genesis 3:15 and following for Eve to know that she will not die right away. She will live and she will have children, and one of her descendants will rise up and crush the head of the serpent who deceived her. Adam listens to what God is saying to the serpent and what God says to Eve in Genesis 3, and Adam's very first official act after God finishes his pronouncements is that Adam gives his wife a name that enshrines the promise that God had made to the serpent and to Eve.

Adam names his wife Chava, Chava, which is the complicated way of saying Eve. It means life because he saw that Eve would be the mother of all the living. Eve is still in the game. There you have it, ladies, the first mention of the word mother in the Bible is right here in Genesis 3:20.

It's a title given to Eve even before she had any children. It was a title of destiny. It meant that God would not cast Eve aside. He would not replace her even though she had failed and sinned.

In fact, God chose to entrust children to her so that she could love them and train them and raise them. There's no greater trust in all the world to give to anyone, and God is giving this trust to Eve on the other side of her failure in the garden. And ultimately God will use Eve to be the one. From whom the Messiah would come.

She would be the mother of all those who would be born. She is the mother of us all, and she would be the mother of all those who would find life through The Messiah who would come from her. After he crushed the head of the serpent, and when the Messiah comes, he will be called her seed, not Adam's seed, her seed. Giving this first fact, we're not surprised at the second fact regarding the meaningful place that women have in the unfolding of the gospel story, and that is that women figure prominently in the incarnation of Christ.

Women figure prominently. In the incarnation of Christ. We see this on the very first page, in the very first chapter of our New Testament, which begins with the genealogy of the Messiah. In that genealogy, God enshrines four women.

And the ancestral line of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 1:3, the text says, and to Judah were born Perez and Zarah by Tamar, and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab, and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth, and to David, as we continue through the genealogy, to David was born Solomon by her who had been The wife of Uriah. In the 1st 6 verses of the New Testament, 4 women are mentioned and look at who they are. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah, the Hittite.

Most genealogies of this day featured only men, but Matthew is careful intentionally to include women. Four women and what is striking about these four women who are mentioned is that all of them had reputations that had been stained by sin and shame and rejection. Tamar, you read about her in the book of Genesis, was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of Jacob's sons. Because of the way that she was rejected and neglected, she played the harlot.

And got her father-in-law, Judah, to sleep with her, and she conceived by him. Rahab was a Canaanite woman from the city of Jericho. She was a harlot by trade, yet she sided with the Israelites when they came against Jericho. Then there is Ruth, a down on her luck Moabitti, who decided to cast her lot with the people of God, and then there is Bathsheba with whom David committed adultery.

And then afterward had her husband killed. All four of these women experienced a lot of brokenness in their lives, the brokenness of their own sins in some cases, and the brokenness of sins committed against them, and even the shame of being on the fringes of society. None of them. None of these women would have ever been considered by anyone to be prime candidates for the Messianic line, right?

None of them would have ever imagined that one day their names would be forever enshrined in the genealogy of the Messiah in the opening chapter. Of our New Testament. What this shows is that God has no problem using broken women to serve his purposes. And it shows that God doesn't mind highlighting and enshrining the role that broken women play in carrying out his gospel purposes.

In fact, he seems to find relish in highlighting the role that such broken women play. As for the incarnation itself, the whole story is a wonderful tribute. to womankind, even in the initial announcement of it. Think about it, the most phenomenal event in the history of the world up until that point in time was the incarnation of Jesus Christ, when God came from heaven to earth, when God became the God man.

This is a staggering development of such magnitude that God wanted Gabriel, the angel. To go from heaven to make the announcement, and to whom did Gabriel make the announcement? To marry A teenage girl. In Luke 1 verses 32 to 35, we see the account of Gabriel coming to Mary.

And making this announcement to her. It's noteworthy that the angel did not appear to Mary's father first, nor to her husband, Joseph first. He appeared on this occasion to Mary first. She is the first recipient of the announcement of the imminent incarnation of the Messiah, and she is told that she will give birth to him, and she's told how this conception would happen.

In her very own womb. Gabriel tells Mary that God the Holy Spirit will come upon her and cause her to miraculously conceive the Messiah in her womb, and that this conception would happen without the aid of any man, and that's what happened. The Spirit came upon Mary and she conceived in her womb and ultimately she gave birth to the Messiah. The fact that God would choose Mary to be the mother of the Messiah does not just say something about Mary, but it says something about womankind in general and about God's disposition towards women.

When Paul speaks of Christ's coming, Into the world in Galatians 4:4. He says, when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman. This is an honor to women. John Stott speaks on this point beautifully.

He says we must never forget what we owe to a woman. If Mary had not given birth to the Christ child, there would have been no salvation for anybody. No greater honor has ever been given to women than in the calling of Mary to be the mother of the savior of the world. The story continues.

Once Jesus is born and grows up and begins his public ministry, we see more deeply the place of women in God's redemptive plan, and that leads us to the third fact, and that is that women figure meaningfully in the life and in the ministry of Jesus. You read through the gospel accounts and you see that Jesus was good to women at every turn. In Mark chapter 1, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law of a fever. In Mark 5, he healed the woman with the flow of blood.

This particular woman in Mark 5, had a 12-year medical condition and it no doubt had something to do with her reproductive cycle. She suffered multiplied pains associated with the fall described in Genesis chapter 3 that we have studied, and yet Jesus heals this woman. Miraculously, she reaches out and she touches his garment in a crowd of people and she experiences a private healing and she wanted to keep it private but Jesus stops what he's doing and says, Who touched me? And he draws the woman out in front of everybody, not to shame her, but because he wanted everyone to know that he healed her.

And made her a recipient of His grace. This is Jesus' way with women on more than this occasion, as one writer beautifully says, though many women in this day were viewed as negligible entities destined to exist on the fringes of life, Jesus takes note of them. Listen to this, and in one gloriously wrenching moment, he thrust them onto center stage in the drama of redemption with the spotlights of eternity beaming down on them, and he immortalizes them in sacred history. That's what Jesus did with this woman, and she's not the only one.

In Mark 5, Jesus raises Jairus' little daughter from the dead. In Matthew 15, he heals the Canaanite woman's daughter. In John 4, Jesus speaks face to face with a Samaritan woman at the well, something no respectable rabbi would ever do. In Luke 7, Jesus is reclining at the home of Simon the Pharisee and a sinful woman of shady reputation comes in and begins to anoint Jesus' feet with her hair and with her tears, and Jesus does not push her away.

But receives her expressions of gratitude and affection. Simon and the others in the room are looking upon this critically and they're thinking if Jesus only knew the truth about this woman, he would not let her do what she is doing. But Jesus defends the woman's right to express her love for him in this way, and he receives her worship. In Luke chapter 7, Jesus sees a widowed woman weeping over her only son who had died.

The text tells us that he felt compassion for her, and he said to her, don't weep, don't weep, and he raises her son from the dead. And then the text says in Luke 7:15, he gave him back to his mother. In Luke 13, Jesus sees a woman who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years, and he called out to the woman and said, Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. That was on the Sabbath day and the Jews criticized Jesus for healing a woman on the Sabbath day, but Jesus basically says, is not this daughter of Abraham worthy of such a healing?

In Luke 10, Jesus allowed Mary to sit at his feet with the men and listen and learn and be a student of his teaching, and he defended her right to do so even when Martha tried to tell Mary that her place was in the kitchen. Throughout Jesus' ministry, the New Testament tells us that Jesus allowed women to travel with him. We learned in Mark 15 that when Jesus was in Galilee, women like Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, the less and Joseph and Salome used to follow him and minister to him.

And we also learned in that very passage that when Jesus made his final and his faithful trek to Jerusalem, That there were many women who came up with him.

They traveled with him along with his disciples to Jerusalem. Jesus loved women in the noblest and the best of ways, and he did good to them at every turn. He also received ministry from them, considering their ministry valuable. Women show up in meaningful ways in Jesus' public ministry, and they also show up in the narrative.

of his death, which leads us to the next fact about the place of women in the unfolding drama of redemption, and that is that women figure meaningfully in the story of Christ's death. Women figure meaningfully in the story of Christ's death. Shortly before Jesus' death, just days before he died, Jesus is in Bethany at a home and a woman comes in. With an expensive ointment, and she begins to anoint Jesus' feet, wiping his feet with her hair, and the fragrance filled the whole room.

The people in the room like Judas criticized the woman for doing this, but Jesus stands up for her. And he says, what this woman's doing? She's anointing me in advance for my burial. It seems then that this woman was among the first to actually perceive that Jesus was going to die, and she's anointing him now in preparation for that.

And Jesus not only defends this woman and explains the meaning and significance of what she is doing. But he does one better than that, and he says to all those present in the room, truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, that also which this woman has done shall be spoken of in memory of her. He's honoring This woman. For the way that she is ministering to him.

And preparing him for his death and his burial. He honors her with a very high honor. In Luke 23, we learned that as Jesus was on his way to the place of crucifixion, that there were following him a great multitude of people among whom the text specifically says of women, a multitude of women who were mourning and lamenting him. Nothing is said about men mourning.

Only the women mourning and lamenting, and it's only the women, to the women that Jesus speaks and tells them, don't mourn for me, mourn for yourselves, and he speaks to them. On his way to the cross of what is to come for the people of Israel. Additionally, we're told in the gospel accounts that women were present at the crucifixion of Jesus in Matthew 27, the text tells us this in Matthew 27:55, and many women were there looking on from a distance, among whom was Mary Magdalene along with Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

When you read the narrative, of the crucifixion, you come to these verses and you're left asking, why is this included in the story?

What does this information add to the narrative? I think this list is included in the narrative as a way of honoring these women who stayed with him all the way to the end, even when some of his own disciples had abandoned him. We also know from John 19 that when Jesus was hanging upon the cross, his mother was there. At the foot of the cross, standing there with John.

Even while hanging on the cross, Jesus tells John to look after his mother and he tells Mary, his mother, to look after John. Talk about honoring your mother. Jesus is dying on the cross and he's tending to his mother. Taking care of her.

Men, what's your excuse? Or maybe not reaching out to and loving and tending to your mother. You may say, man, I'd love to if I had the time, but my job, it's just killing me. Well, Jesus' job was killing him.

And even while dying, He's loving his mother and honoring her. He's looking after her and taking care of her. After Jesus dies, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus prepare his body for burial, and they put his body in the tomb and, and they roll the stone in place, and it seems like, OK, that's all that happens and it is all that happens, but The writers of the Gospels want us to know that they were not the only ones at the tomb on this occasion. In Mark 15:47, we're told that when Joseph of Arimathea had buried Jesus in the tomb, that Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, were looking on to see where he was laid.

Nothing is said about anything they did. The only thing said is that they were there, and they looked on. To see where he was laid. God wants us to know in the telling of the story that these women were there, and that leads us to the next fact that we observe regarding the place of women in gospel history, and that is that women figure prominently in the story of Christ's resurrection.

Women figure prominently in the story of Christ's resurrection. We know the story, right? Who were the first ones to show up at the tomb on Resurrection Sunday? It was the women, right?

Women were the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb. We're told in Mark 16:1 that it was Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Sallomi that had come to the tomb. They showed up at the tomb and they were the first ones to see that the tomb was empty. So women were the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb, and not only that, but they were the first to hear the announcement of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

It was to the women that the angels said, he is not here, but he has risen. The women were the first to hear that announcement of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It was also the women who were the first to see. The resurrected Christ.

In Matthew 28:9, we're told that as the women left the empty tomb, that behold, Jesus met them and greeted them, and they came up and took hold of his feet and they worshiped Him. So these women were the first ones to see and actually touch the resurrected Christ. We also see in the resurrection story. That women were the first officially commissioned messengers of the phenomenal news of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

And Matthew 28:7, the angel tells them, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. Here's the message, go quickly and announce this news to his disciples. When they encounter Jesus on their way to do that, Jesus himself tells them, go and take word to my brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they shall see me. So the women, they're the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb.

They're the first to hear the announcement of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and they are the first officially commissioned messengers of the good news of the resurrection of Jesus. Why did God structure these events in such a way? That women would figure so prominently in the telling of this story. Why did he structure these events in such a way that women would be the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection and the first messengers of the resurrection?

I really, I just want you to let this sink in. Why did God structure the historical events of the resurrection? This way, the role of women in the resurrection narrative is stunning. The symmetry of it all is dazzling, in my opinion, to behold.

Thousands of years earlier, there was a woman in a garden and she heard a serpent say, Yay, has God really said? And here thousands of years later in another garden, these women here an angels say he is not here, he has risen just as he said. Thousands of years earlier, a woman was in a garden and she heard a serpent say, You surely shall not die. And here thousands of years later in another garden, these women here an angel say, Why do you seek the living among the dead?

He is not here, but he has risen. Thousands of years earlier, a woman in a garden was influenced to Go and tell her husband lies about a forbidden fruit, and he seemed all too happy to just do what it was that she told him to do. And here thousands of years later, these women are being told to go and tell the men the truth that Jesus has raised. And when they announced that news to the men, The men were slow to believe their words and viewed their words as nonsense.

What irony No one making up the story about a resurrection would make up a story like this. If people in the first century wanted to make up a story. About a resurrection of the founder of their religion from the dead and they really wanted to get people to believe that story. They would never make up a story in which women were the first eyewitnesses of that event, especially having one of those women being a woman who at one time in her life was possessed by seven demons.

In Roman and Jewish law during this time, a woman's testimony was not even admissible in a court of law. Even the disciples didn't believe what the women were saying when they announced what they heard and what they saw. An early antagonist to Christianity capitalized on this part of the story. One of them was a guy named Celsus, who was a 2nd century philosopher who argued strenuously and mockingly against Christianity, and he made several arguments against the truthfulness of the Christian faith.

And one of his arguments was basically this. It goes like this, Christianity can't be true because the written accounts of the resurrection are based on the testimony of women, and we all know that women are hysterical. That's what early antagonist to Christianity would basically say encountering the resurrection narratives as we find it. So why did God set it up this way that women would be the first eyewitnesses and the first messengers of the resurrection?

Well, partly because he wants women in his story, but also he's doing something very deep and profound. And that is he's not just intending to bring salvation to women, he's erasing decisively a stigma. This idea was not lost on the early church fathers. Listen to what Gregory of Nisa, who lived late in the 300s AD said about this very thing.

He says, for since, as the apostle tells us, the women being deceived fell into transgression and was by her disobedience foremost in the revolt against God. For this reason, she is the first to witness the resurrection. Indeed, by making herself at the beginning, a minister, and advocate to her husband of the counsels of the serpent, she brought into human life the beginnings of evil and its train of consequences. Therefore, by ministering to Christ's disciples the words of him who slew the rebel dragon, she might become to men the guide of faith, whereby the first proclamation of death is annulled.

Jesus here is leaving women in the game. He's letting them Run this play. Or he's running the play, but he's letting them execute the play. He's letting them play a heroic and decisive role.

In delivering the news to the men. Of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. There's something else happening here. The death of Christ on the cross was the serpent striking at the heel of the Messiah and wounding him.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the crushing blow that he delivers to the serpent's head. The seed of the woman has crushed the head of the serpent, and Jesus wants the women to be the first to see what the seed of the woman has done. And he wants them to be the first messengers of that fact to others. The meaningful role that women play in the history of redemption is just phenomenal.

Let me just give you the final two pretty quickly. The next fact regarding the meaningful role that women play in God's story as it unfolds in the gospel, and that is women figure meaningfully in the story of the birthday of the church. It's like just every major thing that happens, the text specifically tells us women were there. It goes out of its way to tell us.

That women were there. In Acts chapter 1 verse 14, we learned that there were 120 people gathered. In the upper room for prayer. After Christ had Ascended and the text tells us these all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer along with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Luke says, I just want you to know there were women there at this gathering and as the text unfolds in Acts 2, we learned that these same people, and this would include the women, if you follow and track the grammar. We learn in Acts chapter 2 that they were all together on the day of Pentecost. That's everyone that was mentioned earlier in chapter 1, all of the disciples and all of the men along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, they were all together. In one place on the day of Pentecost, and in Acts 2:4, the text tells us that the Spirit was poured out and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with tongues.

This means that the women present The women who were present, including Mary, the, the mother of Jesus, were filled with the spirit and speaking in tongues right along with the men. This is the last thing in the text of scripture that we see Mary, the mother of Jesus doing. She's among the assembled crowd, speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost and speaking of the mighty deeds of God on the birthday of the church. You say, well, I'm not so sure that I, I wanna believe that women were speaking in this assembled gathering, gathering, speaking in tongues.

Let me just point you to this. If it's not already clear that women were speaking in tongues right along with the men on this occasion. let me just show you this, that people gather and they're like, what's going on here? Peter stands up and among the things that he says is basically what you're seeing here is a partial fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel in which Joel says, your sons and daughters shall prophesy, even on my bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of my spirit.

One final point regarding the place of women. In gospel history, and that is that women figure prominently in the story of the early spread of the gospel. Let me just Quiz you here. Who was the first Samaritan convert to Christ recorded in the Gospels?

The Samaritan woman. Jesus engaged her in conversation, she believed in him and then she went on to tell the men of the city, come and see a man. Who told me everything That I've ever done. And they came out and heard from Jesus and believed in him and it started with a woman who was the first Canaanite convert to Christ, recorded in the Gospels.

It was the Syrophoenician woman. Who came to Jesus crying out to Him on behalf of her demon possessed daughter. Jesus initially acted like he didn't want to help her, but she's like, hey, at least give me crumbs that fall from the master's table, and Jesus looks at this woman and says, oh woman, your faith is great. Who was the first convert to Christ in the region of Macedonia?

Lydia, very good. It was a woman. Paul comes into Macedonia, finds a group of women who have assembled by the riverside. And by the way, keep in mind, Paul was in Troas and he has this vision and it's a man from Macedonia who says, come over to Macedonia and help us.

And Paul surmised, being the sharp guy that he was, I think that's God telling us to go to Macedonia and preach the gospel there. So they go across the sea into Macedonia and if, I would imagine Paul was probably looking for that man. That's what I would do. I'd be looking for someone who looks like this man, and maybe that's how we're gonna get our first church planted, starting with this particular man.

But Paul comes into Philippi and he doesn't see that man. what he finds? He finds a group of women gathered by the riverside. What does he do?

The text tells us that he began speaking to the women who had assembled, and among those women, there was a certain woman named Lydia who was listening, and the Lord opened her heart. That's how the Philippian Church got started. It doesn't always, and all of the accounts from city to city start this way, but on this occasion. The Philippian Church got started with the conversion of a woman.

Whenever the story of the founding of the Philippian Church would be recounted, the conversion of Lydia would always be told in the telling of that story. Guys, we can go on at length. We've not even touched the New Testament epistles, but I think we've seen enough. Ladies, do not ever sell yourself short.

Don't ever think that God does not want to fully lavish upon you the blessings of salvation. Don't ever think that God is not interested in using you to accomplish mighty things in the unfolding of redemption even down to this very day. Don't ever think that you're too broken to be used by him. If he can use Tamar and Bathsheba and Rahab, he can use you.

None of these women were perfect women. If he can use a Samaritan woman who had a history of 5 failed marriages, he can use you. And I don't want you to just hear this message this morning. I want you to, to, to be overwhelmed by it.

God doesn't just want to save you. He wants you to loom large in the unfolding drama of redemption, a drama that continues to this very day. If you are a woman who has believed in Jesus, you are a daughter of Abraham, you are a daughter of God, and there are some great plays that God wants you to make for the glory of Jesus. He leaves you in the game.

He wants you to make a difference with the grace that he provides for you. Just like DeMarcus Lawrence of the Dallas Cowboys, Eve Blewett. In a far more serious way in the garden, but by believing in God through Christ and by living lives of godliness and usefulness to him, Eve and you can play a vital role in erasing the stigma of that earlier failure. When the story of redemption Is completely finished.

Eve's failure in the garden will be remembered, but it will be remembered merely as the prelude to a most amazing story of redemption and love and grace, a story in which women loom large. As major players in the drama of redemption. And so this morning, ladies, We salute you. And we honor you and we celebrate you.

Thank you, womankind, for giving us the Messiah and thank you for all you do and serving Christ and His purposes and may God help us as men to love you and to serve you better. And all the ways that you deserve as precious daughters of God. Let's pray together. Lord, if there is any woman that is here who has never put her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, may she look at the scope of The redemption story and realized that the greatest thing to ever happen to women.

was the birth of Jesus Christ. That is, as one historian said, the turning point. In the history of women. May such a woman know that there is no one who is a greater More thoughtful advocate for her true liberation.

Then you, Lord, And your son whom you sent. I pray Lord that here at Cornerstone, we would be a church that That honors the sisters that are among us, that appreciates the role that they play in the drama of redemption, that marvels at the many facets of your grace as, as manifested through them. And we would do as Peter tells us to do in 1 Peter 3, and that is we would honor them, honor them as fellow heirs of the grace. Of eternal life.

And I pray that all of my sisters in Christ this morning would be encouraged. If they have believed in Jesus, the daughters of God that they are. May they know that you, you delight. To use broken women.

And that a broken woman in your hand is a mighty instrument, just as the Samaritan woman was in your hand, Jesus. You're a good God, and we thank you. For your wisdom. Just the facets of your wisdom in the way that you have so structured salvation.

As we've looked at today. We thank You, Lord, for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you. We ask Lord that you would receive these funds and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said,