Headship 2

00:02 Greet you this morning in the name of Jesus. And as Anita said, it was a real challenging weekend last weekend as we made various contacts in the Jewish community. And it's particularly interesting working with the Hasidic Jewish community, which would be the ultra-Orthodox, 00:22 which is what she was actually describing some of our conversations. So pray for the team there in New York City, in Brooklyn. And by the way, if you are looking for a ministry opportunity, Jewish outreach training held every year is a great experience. 00:42 It really is. And gives you a window into ministry among the Jewish people and into how they think and how they process and how they reason. 00:53 And we'll see tonight in the video, I commend it to you about a man who came to Christ even though one of the things that the Jewish people criticize about the church, and rightly so, is the Holocaust and what people did to them and have done to them in the name of Jesus through the years, 01:14 in the name of the church. And it was a privilege to be able to share with one of them. I said, "I apologize for what so-called Christians did to you and your people. They were not Christians. They did not understand the love of Jesus Christ." And we're here to share that with you. But be that as it may, I think you'll find the video tonight a challenge. 01:34 All right. In your copies of the Scriptures, would you turn in them to the book of 1 Corinthians? And I'd like to share with you this morning in our covenant series. And again, we're not trying to preach the covenant. 01:48 We're preaching the principles that are behind our practices and why we do what we do and why we teach what we teach. That's okay. I'll be all right. And titled the message, "Headship: Reflecting the Glory of God." And this is not just a message about the veiling, 02:10 but it's a message about headship. And as we talked in Sunday school this morning, if you're going to take a biblical position on anything but especially certain things in today's culture, you're going to be attacked. You're going to be misunderstood. You're going to be labeled. You're going to be persecuted. You're going to be hated. 02:29 And so such situations as divorce and marriage, remarriage, and homosexuality and transgenderism, those kinds of things are kind of given that the Christian church stands in opposition to the culture and vice versa. 02:43 But this is one of those subjects also that the enemy will attack because it despises the concept of headship. 02:52 And as you've seen this week in the national news, you've seen that the whole tension and not only tension but the war between men and women was on display this week in the Kavanaugh proceedings for the Supreme Court. 03:12 Incidentally, in case you haven't been following the news, he was approved by two votes, I think 50 to 48 yesterday. But that's not the end of the battle. That's not the end of the war. And not that the church is out there fighting that war. We fight it on a different level. We fight it with truth and not with politics and with prayer and not with politics. 03:33 But be that as it may, it is a lightning rod in our culture. It is a lightning rod. And if you want to set yourself up to be shot at, this is one of those platforms to do it from. 03:48 And even I think that the enemy would probably try to disturb our meeting here this morning even with misunderstandings. 03:58 And so I want to be careful to be understood because I think whenever you teach on these subjects that the enemy stands in wholesale opposition to, he is able to bring misunderstandings and even chaos into the body of Christ as we heard this morning in our Sunday school lesson. And so this morning, 04:18 I want you to turn in your copies of the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 11. And we're not necessarily going to do an expository message on this passage, but we do want to bring forth some of the Scriptures and particularly verses 7 through 9. 04:37 And we kind of come on the heels of teaching this week with the men on some of the responsibilities of biblical manhood. And so it says, "For a man indeed ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God." The image and glory of God. What does that mean? The image and glory of God. 04:57 And I hope that we'll be able to unpack that a little bit in this message this morning. But for the, excuse me, he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. So right there, right there, you have a distinction between man-ness and womanness, maleness, femaleness. 05:19 You have a distinction. Both men and women created in the image of God, both of them equally accessible to God's grace, to salvation, to worship, equally accessible to the cross, equally accessible to commune with God, and really equal of value. 05:39 Neither sex or gender is superior to the other. It just happens that we're different. Maleness is different than femaleness. And manhood, masculinity is different than womanhood, femininity. And it's part of who we are by design. And so for man is not from woman but woman from man. 06:01 For man nor was man created for the woman but woman for the man. Now go up to verse 3 where it says, "I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. And the head of the woman is the man. 06:17 And the head of Christ is God." So let's look at this thing of headship this morning. And I put some things up here on the slide so you can follow along. And headship, what is it? So I've taken our covenant on that article, put it down here, 06:36 and then written in or typed in the Scriptures that are in the references. And so we agree that the proper application of the headship order is for the Christian man to take seriously. Now I question that term right there, to take seriously. I think we ought to do more than just take it seriously. 06:56 I think we ought to do it. Amen? We ought to do it. To take seriously the biblical command to be a Christ-like leader in the home and congregation. And the Scriptures that are in parentheses there are typed out. 07:13 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior of the body. Notice the term is. The husband is the head of the wife. Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. And whether we like it or not, 07:34 whether we accept it or not does not change the fact of what is. What Scripture says, what the Apostle Paul under inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, is. This is the truth. This is the truth. 1 Corinthians 11:3, I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. 07:54 The head of the woman is man. The head of Christ is God. That's the way it is. Let a woman, Timothy 2:11-15, learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather she is to remain quiet. 08:15 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. I don't believe this means that, and you look at various Scriptures, I don't believe that this means that a woman cannot speak in church by way of testifying, 08:37 but it does mean that she is not to have leadership positions over a man nor is she to teach authoritatively over the man. That's just the way it is. 08:48 And we can go through all kinds of hermeneutical calisthenics and jumping jacks to try to explain it away, but that's the way it is according to Scripture. I want you to understand, and we already referred to that, that the head of every man is Christ and so on. 09:06 And so that's what our covenant says and that's what we believe and that's what we want to practice, that the man is to be the loving leader, Christ-like leader in the home and congregation. He is to take the initiative for family life and is responsible. What is headship? 09:26 Headship is responsibility. Responsibility. He is responsible for his wife and children's physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Ephesians 4:6-4, "And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition, 09:48 the nurture, and the instruction of the Lord." And then he says in 1 Timothy 5:8, "But if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his own household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." And so we look to men to take care of their families. 10:08 And if you remember, I've said this many times the last 19 years as pastor here, but when headship means taking responsibility. And it means that not that I'm the dictator or that I am the boss. What it means is as a man, 10:27 as a father, as a husband, is that when God comes knocking on the door as he did with Adam--well, he didn't literally knock on the door, but figuratively speaking--when God comes knocking on the door and says, "What's happening here? What's going on here? Adam, where are you?" Interesting that Adam was hiding in the bushes. 10:49 A lot of men still there. Still there. Hiding in the bushes. Passive. And if they're not passive, then they overreact in sinful ways and become domineering and dictatorial. Those are the results of sin. But headship is not that. Headship is about taking responsibility. 11:07 It is the one who is responsible for the well-being of those under our care. And so what is the evidence of this in the church? His short hair and bearded head when praying or prophesying symbolize his submission under the authority of Christ. 11:27 And so you want to know how we know that a man is taking this seriously. He comes to worship with his head uncovered. He sings with his head uncovered. He prays with his head uncovered. And he comes under the authority of Christ. He should avoid worldly hairstyles and thus encourage the sisters in their application. 11:48 He's not to be 11:52 what little hair we may have, to be concerned and overly concerned in fads and fashions of the world. And so that's part of this application is to say, "Men, man up. Be a man. Take your eyes off the world. Put your eyes on Jesus Christ." And can I get an amen? 12:16 I saw some sisters nodding their heads too. Very good. 12:22 The next one says, "We believe the scriptural mandate for women is that she submit to and honor and compliment her husband as his helper." Again, that word compliment does not mean compliment with an eye to tell him how good he is. Although that does help, sisters. That does help every once in a while to tell us how good we are in your eyes especially. 12:44 But to compliment means to complete. Yes, men are deficient. We're deficient in some areas. We are weak in certain areas. God has made us male and female. 12:55 To be a compliment to the female is to round us out, to make us whole, and to complete us. And so she is to compliment her husband as his helper. This is symbolized--what is the evidence of this being taken to heart? 13:17 Is this symbolized by her long hair and veiled head while praying or prophesying? We agree that in order to maintain a clear witness, the best application of the biblical requirement of long hair for the sisters is uncut and arranged up in a simple style to avoid excessive care, display, and attention. 13:36 We also agree that the best application of the headship ordinance is that sisters wear their veiling as part of their regular attire. The veiling worn should be a recognizable spiritual symbol of substantial size to complement the principle, non-decorative and clearly visible. Therefore, we approve the white covering and the flowing veil. 13:56 Those are some of the applications we have made of those scriptural principles. Now I'm going to just leave that up there for a moment and unpack this a little bit. Let's unpack this. What does this all mean? And how do we get there? What is the meaning of headship? And what does it mean to be the head? 14:17 And just the concept of headship, what does it mean? Someone has said it like this. This means that the husband is the one who takes primary responsibility for Christ-like servant leadership, protection, and provision in the home. 14:38 There is so much to unpack here, and it can be confusing for modern men to understand especially since a secularizing culture dislikes and even detests this concept. So it gets confusing. It gets confusing. What does it mean to be the head? Well, Jesus made it very clear to us. 14:59 If you want to be great in his kingdom, learn to be the minister. The minister. The servant. The server. And if you will be chief or head, be the servant. Be the servant. So leadership is really about serving. 15:18 And if you want to be first in God's kingdom, learn to be the slave. Those are some various translations of that passage. Yes, we are equal in value, worth, access to God, equal in worship, but we have differing functions just like the Trinity does. Just like the Trinity does. 15:37 The triune God. So I want to give you three points this morning to remember. First of all, headship is rooted in creation. Secondly, headship is rooted in the Godhead. And thirdly, headship is manifested in service. So let's look briefly at this thing. 15:56 Headship is rooted in creation. And we could take and go back to the book of Genesis and look at the creation order. You're very familiar with that. But I want to pull out some things to just address this issue this morning. Has headship been overturned at the cross? 16:17 Has it? Has headship been negated or ruled out at the cross? Because there are those who teach that headship was a result of sin. And because sin is overturned at the cross, then headship is overturned at the cross. 16:41 And what they would say is that headship is rooted in the fall. And because the cross overturns the results of the fall, then headship has been overturned. And Paul is just a product of his times and doesn't really know what he's talking about as far as the modern world is concerned. So what about that? 17:01 What about that? Well, first of all, let's look at some things that are a result of the fall. One of the things that's a result of the fall is death. Death. And yes, the cross addressed death. But do people still die? 17:20 At this point in time until the Lord returns and sets it all right, people are still dying and will continue to die until the rapture or the resurrection. And so that is rooted in the fall. Death is rooted in the fall. And death, yet people still die. 17:41 And so what happened with death at the cross is that there is hope given for eternal life. It does not negate the fact that people still perish physically, but what it does, it gives us hope of the resurrection that God's going to set all this stuff in order. 18:00 And in the meantime, we actually can welcome death as a Christian because it ushers us into the presence of God. Another thing that's definitely rooted in the fall is pain. Pain is rooted in the fall. Before the sin, there was no pain. 18:20 I guess there was nothing to cause pain, at least that we're aware of. Pain took on a completely different dimension at the fall. And so we can come to the cross and say, "Well, pain be gone." Is pain gone? Pain's still around. So that which is clearly rooted in the fall is still with us with a different dimension. 18:42 And that is that instead of pain being a time of despair, it is a time of purpose. It is an event with a purpose. God uses pain to get our attention to draw us to Christ, and he ministers to us in our pain. 18:58 So there are many things that are rooted in the fall that when you come to the cross are still with us with a different level of meaning and purpose. Another thing that's rooted in the fall is clothing. Before the fall, there was no need for clothes. We were clothed with the glory of God. 19:21 When man sinned, his nakedness was exposed, and there's a need for clothing. He tried to fig leaves, man's attempt to hide himself. Very poor job of covering himself. 19:36 And God said, "That's not adequate, so I'll cover you." And God then levels the instruction on what a covered body is about. But clothing, man's attempt to clothe versus God's attempt to clothe us, clothing's still around. 19:58 And so we could say if you take that argument that things that are rooted in sin are now overturned at the cross, we could say that we don't need any more clothes. 20:12 Well, you say, "Well, that's unbiblical. That's not " I mean, you look at Paul's writings. Hmm. We come back to Paul. Jesus didn't say much about clothing. He said, "Don't worry about it." But he didn't say how much you need or how little you need. Paul said to be modest, cover your nakedness. And so yeah, 20:33 we come back to the writings of Paul. Interesting. Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, giving us the word of God on how to conduct ourselves as Christians. So clothing's still in God's plan, folks. Still in God's plan. Now what about those things that are rooted in creation? 20:53 How about work? Work. Some people have the idea that work is a result of the fall. No, it's not. Children, work is not a result of the fall. Work has to work with the fall. But we were to work even when we had a perfect environment. 21:12 Amen? We were to work. God gave Adam a garden to tend. I don't know what all that looked like. How you tend a perfect garden because there had no weeds. Maybe he was just out picking fruit. I'm not sure what all he was doing, but he had purpose in work. 21:29 Now we could say if you use this analogy that what's back there is now overturned at the cross, that nobody has to work anymore because that's Old Testament. It's rooted in creation, not in the fall. What happened in the fall? Work became a drudgery. What happens at the cross? 21:50 Work takes on a new meaning. It becomes part of our life calling, and it becomes a joy. It doesn't abolish work. It reestablishes it with the right attitude and the right purpose. Now headship. Headship. Rooted in creation. 22:10 Rooted in the very creative order that Adam was first created. And God made them male and female in his image. But according to our text here this morning, God made man to reflect his glory in a special way. That has not changed. 22:32 And even if it were rooted in the fall, which by the way, 22:34 in the fall is when it got all messed up and men became passive and domineering and women became use their sinfulness with a lust to control and usurp authority. It all got messed up in the fall. What happens at the cross is it all gets sorted out. 22:56 It doesn't get negated. It gets sorted out so that now we can joyfully submit and lovingly lead the way God intended it in the beginning. So don't buy the argument that headship is rooted in the fall. It's not. But even if it were, the cross sorts it out. 23:17 It doesn't eliminate it. And so headship is rooted in creation. In fact, he talks about this. He talks about this in our text in 1 Corinthians 11. That man was created not for the woman, but woman was created for the man. 23:39 Important distinction. Man was not created to fulfill the woman. He was created to lead her, protect her, and love her. But he's not created to perfect her or to fulfill her. But she was created to perfect and fulfill the man. 24:00 And a great illustration of this, I worked and seen through the years, many, many, many men whose wives die. And you take one of the you take one of the most difficult things for marriage is when a man's wife dies. Brother Ed would testify to this. 24:21 We're somehow lost. And it's not very long until we're looking for female companionship again. And I'm talking we in a man's sense. 24:36 There is a weakness in man. There is an incompleteness of man that woman has been created to fill. And yet you take the woman, she seems to be almost stronger than us males. In the sense that when her husband dies, yes, there's loneliness. 24:54 And maybe you could say that it's because she doesn't have the role of going out and initiating a relationship again. But I think it's more than that. 25:06 Let me say it like this. What God said, it is not good for a man to be alone. Interestingly enough, you can interpret this how you want to, but he did not say it's not good for a woman to be alone. 25:22 There's something that's deficient with us men until we're completed by our wives. And so somehow this is all part of the creation order. The second thing I want us to see this morning is that it is part of the Godhead. 25:43 That manhood is rooted in the Godhead. I mean, excuse me. Headship is rooted in the Godhead. You have Christ reflecting God. I would have you know that the head of God or of Christ is God the Father. And the head of man is Christ. 26:03 And the head of woman is the man. There's an order here that's rooted in creation and rooted in the Trinity. If you take the role of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, three equal personalities of the Godhead. 26:24 Three equal personalities of the Godhead. Not one of them is inferior in any way to the other. And yet they have very different functions and very different roles. 26:41 And the Son voluntarily submitted himself to the Father to accomplish the work of the Father. 26:48 The Father does not dictate to the Son as an angry boss, "You will do this." Rather, the Son voluntarily says, "Father, I will submit to your will." And we see the Trinity here with equal 27:09 value and worth, equal godness, and yet different roles. And we see the reflection of glory. And I'm not sure that I fully I know that I don't fully understand what it means for Christ to reflect the glory of the Father. 27:30 Neither do I know what it means fully for the man to reflect the glory of Christ. Neither do I fully know what it means for woman to reflect the glory of the man. But this is what the text says. But woman is the glory of man. 27:49 But man is the glory of God. But Christ is the glory of the Father. What does it mean? Well, I think in a nutshell, it has the idea of representation. 28:09 The word glory in the Greek language has the idea of something being known accurately for what it is. 28:19 And so when the glory of Christ is revealed, it is a knowing of Christ for who he is with all of his splendor and all of his personhood. That's the idea behind glory. There's various kinds of glory spoken of in scripture and the New Testament, 28:38 but generally it means to know something as it is and as it should be known. And the image of God is known by Christ. And so when you see Christ, the reflection of the image of the Father, he represents the Father in a way that you get a picture of what the Father is. 29:01 The glory of the Father is revealed, is represented in the Son. 29:08 So it should be. It should be. And it is in those of us that are being sanctified. But it should be that the glory of the Son, the glory of Christ, is known by seeing man at work, exercising dominion, exercising leadership, exercising godliness. 29:30 And so you can look at man and see the glory of Christ, man in his sanctified state. In fact, someone has said that the glory of God is man fully alive. Man fully alive. That is an interesting concept that when we are fully alive in Christ, it reveals Christ. 29:50 And as Christ is fully known, it reveals the Father. Now somehow with woman being the glory of man, you could almost say that woman is man at its best. At his best. I tell you what. My wife makes me look good. 30:10 My wife makes me look good in a variety of ways. Not only is she concerned that suit's pressed, pants are on right, belt buckled right, hair combed, makes me look good that way, but she makes me look good as a father. She makes me look good as a husband. She makes me look good as a pastor. 30:28 She contributes things in my life that would be sorely lacking if she weren't here. 30:37 Somehow you see man at his best in the woman. You see Christ at his best in man. You see the Father at his best in the Son. I don't understand it. 30:56 But there's something there about the glory that is revealed through headship. 31:06 And so if we don't get anything else out of this section, just take away from it this. That headship is rooted in the Godhead. Does not mean that the Father is more important than the Son or the Son is more important than the Holy Spirit. What it does mean is that each one has a role to fill. 31:25 And guess what? They voluntarily fill it as a team reflecting the glory of God together. And so it is with husband and wife. So it is with men and women. It ought to be that we together reflect God's purposes and plan, 31:45 the plan of salvation with differing roles. The man providing loving leadership and responsibility, the woman providing joyful submission. By the way, this is rooted in the headship order in marriage. Man represents Christ in the marriage. 32:05 How does Christ love? How does Christ provide? How does Christ care? How does Christ nourish? How does Christ cherish? All of those things are our responsibility. They're up to us men to fulfill and to represent. Again, we're talking representing. Making an accurate picture of Jesus by how we live and relate and lead. 32:26 Take the woman. Just a different function. Not better, not worse. Just different. She is to represent the church. 32:36 Reverence, respect, appeal, submission, prayer. Not that she prays to us. Don't get me wrong. I don't mean that. But that she appeals to us as a junior partner to the senior partner, as a vice president to the president, 32:55 making appeals and leading by influence. Sometimes we think that unless we're the head, we have no leadership. Oh, that's very wrong. Very wrong. There's two kinds of leadership. There's a leadership of position, and then there's a leadership of influence. And while you sisters may not have the leadership of position, you certainly have the leadership of influence. 33:21 Third thing as we wrap this up this morning is headship is manifest in service. Jesus, in no way inferior to his Father, who thought equality with God not something to be grasped because he already had it, said this, "He that sent me is with me. 33:39 The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him." Voluntary pleasing of the Father based on the intimacy of the relationship of the Father and the Son. John 14:31, "But that the world may know that I love the Father. And as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. 34:00 Arise, let us go hence." And so because of his relationship of intimacy with the Father, he voluntarily comes under the authority of the Father and does the will of the Father. Not in a self-serving kind of way, but in a way that reflects the intimacy of the relationship with his head. 34:20 Jesus also went on to say that the world may know that I love the Father. And as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. I already used that verse. John 15:10, "If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. Even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abided in his love." What is this about? The son keeping the commandments of the Father. 34:39 What's part of that intimate relationship he enjoyed with the Father that he voluntarily come under that and performed the will of the Father as an expression of that intimacy? 34:51 Romans 5:19, "So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Hebrews 10:9, "Then said I, 'Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.'" Then man's mission. 35:06 So Christ's mission was to come under the authority, the leadership of the Father in intimacy and do the will of the Father to reflect the Father's will. So the purpose of man and woman. Woman voluntarily well, man. Let's go back there. 35:26 We missed a step. Man coming under the authority of Christ. 35:29 And because of the intimacy of his relationship with Christ, voluntarily coming under that authority and saying, "Christ, I have come to do thy will, to move forward your agenda, to move forward your plan, to move forward your glory so that the world may see the glory of all this relationship above me." And 35:49 then woman coming under the authority of man. Husbands, wives. Church versus men in leadership and women in the positions of influence, if not in leadership roles. And of course, women leading children. That's a whole nother dimension that we've not touched yet. 36:12 But be that as it may, here you have man and his wife with an intimate relationship that is a reflection of the intimacy he has with Christ, which is a reflection of the intimacy he has with the Father. Now he takes that same kind of intimacy and relates to his wife and she to him. And out of that, she voluntarily comes under his leadership and says, 36:30 "You lovingly lead, I'll joyfully submit and support and appeal and thus move forward the agenda of the gospel and of the Christian home and family." I realize this is rather theoretical this morning, but we're talking principles. We're talking then practice. 36:50 And the practice that corresponds with all of this is for a man to say, 36:55 "I love and am intimate with God enough that I'm going to uncover my head and have my hair short and unconcerned about the fads and fashions of the world's hairstyles." And the sister coming under the authority of her husband and said, 37:14 "Because of the intimacy that I enjoy with not only my husband, but with my Savior and with the Father all the way up the chain, if you will, 37:22 I'm going to voluntarily practice what God says in 1 Corinthians 11 with a sufficiently sized veil to cover the head as a reflection of the glory of the marriage relationship, the glory of Christ, 37:42 the glory of the Father, 37:44 the glory of the whole package." And I want to tell you, we don't know in our sheltered Mennonite community how much the world despises this. 38:00 Now some of you get glimpses of it in your interaction 38:06 with others. But we saw it on display. And we see it on display regularly out where feminism and extreme feminism has gone to seed. 38:21 But that should not surprise us. Satan has been messing with this whole plan since the garden. 38:30 I had more. I was going to share this morning for us men on how to lead lovingly. We're out of time. Maybe some other day. Let's pray. 38:41 Father in heaven, forgive us where we as leaders and as men have been passive and not taking responsibility or domineering and dictatorial and making demands and bosses as bosses instead of as leaders. 38:58 Forgive us, Lord, where we have failed the sisters in our congregation and in our lives and in our homes. Forgive us, Lord, as sisters where we have failed to joyfully come under the leadership of our husbands. Maybe he's not perfect and we resist his imperfection. 39:20 But Lord, help our sisters to know how to lovingly lead and support and compliment both with an E and with an I their husbands who want to reflect the glory of God but do so imperfectly. 39:35 And so Lord, I pray that this would be understood by us in greater degrees and how to make this work in the battle between the genders, between the sexes that has plagued this world since Genesis 3. 39:53 And may we find at the cross where Jesus went through with the ultimate act of submission and surrender, that we find there the grace and strength and power of God to die to ourselves so that we might live for the glory of God. 40:15 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.