Romans Chapter 16:1-2

Honoring your mother and your father, that's one of those relationships of honor.

What's another relationship of honor? 1 Timothy 5.17, Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. And then 1 Peter 2.17 tells us, Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king. It's a great verse. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. That verse would keep you out of so much trouble if we just could do those four things, wouldn't it?

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. As Christians, we should honor one another, especially our parents and our leaders. Find out why this is important today as Pastor David continues in Romans 16 with his teaching, Honor.

Here's David. Turn with me to Romans chapter 16. It's kind of interesting because we get a glimpse into the heart of Paul, and chapter 16 is a lot about relationships.

So with that preface, let's read Romans chapter 16 verse 1. It says, I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cintria. Now, Cintria was near Corinth in Greece and introduces us to this lady, Phoebe, which is kind of interesting because Phoebe is actually kind of another name for Diana. And what's interesting about that is Diana was a pagan deity, if you will, the major pagan deity of Corinth.

And it's kind of interesting. So that tells us a little bit about Phoebe real quick. First of all, she's not Jewish because a Jewish person would not be named after a pagan deity. And also she didn't change her name when she became a believer.

And so it allowed her to probably operate within the Greek community and minister to them. We have an interesting thing that happens in verse 1 in the English and into the original language of the New Testament, which would be the Greek. And that is when this word servant is used, it is the word dikanios. Now, that is where we get our word for deacon. And some people take this verse and they make a case for a deaconess or a female deacon.

So, you know, what we're going to do is kind of open that up and look at that and, you know, is that a legitimate thing? Is it something that we do or don't do? And an interesting thing is that, and I don't want to bore you with original language stuff, but it does not use the word deaconess. It is the male form of the word, which is not unusual for the Greek and using that word servant. So, you know, is it a servant in an official capacity or is it a servant in an unofficial capacity? You know, there's probably arguments on both sides of this and discussions on both sides of this, but let's understand the word servant or deaconess is basic. It's a waiter, a servant. The word picture there is actually waiting on tables, waiting on people. And it's used in sometimes an official capacity and sometimes in an unofficial capacity.

Now, here's the thing. When you see a term and you're trying to figure out this verse, before you turn to a commentary, before you Google it, you know, go in the Bible and see what else it has to say about the subject you're curious about. And with this concept of a deacon, the Bible has a lot to say in First Timothy chapter three, verse eight. Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience, but let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons being found blameless.

They must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own house as well. For those who have served well as deacons obtained for themselves a good standing and a great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

When Paul, who wrote the book of Romans, wrote to Timothy in First Timothy, he was giving Timothy some concepts to establish the church. So he spent some time talking about this subject of deacon, talking about what a deacon is and a deacon is not. And of course, a couple of things in this discussion on deacon or deaconess leap out, of course, when you go to that First Timothy passage is it says that their wives must be reverent.

So obviously it's talking about a male in First Timothy. And then also it says, let the deacons be the husbands of one wife. Now, if you've been to church here, you know, I don't shy away from difficult issues and I'm going to launch right into this one. I think we need to approach this whole subject with a balance. OK, because here's what I've seen in churches, I've seen churches walk in imbalance in the sense that they take an umbilical approach to the roles in the church.

We certainly don't want to do that. But I've also seen churches that really, to be honest, don't think highly enough of the women in the church. You know, it's kind of like the guys will, you know, you're my wife, you need to submit to me, walk five steps behind me and speak when spoken to and such nonsense as that. And that's, you know, that's ridiculous.

That is ridiculous. Now, as we look at this passage in Timothy, let me comment on that husbands of one wife, because there's been people and interesting enough mentioned this Thursday. There's been people to take that to mean that if you are divorced, if you've ever been married and divorced, then you can never be a deacon.

Some people even take it further than that. They say that if you've ever been divorced, you cannot serve in the church, period. And people come to us and go, well, you know, I want to serve, but I realize I can't do it officially because I'm divorced. Now, let me ask you, the grace and the mercy of God, does it make sense that you could have been whatever, a heroin addict? You could have been a pedophile. You could have been a mass murderer.

You could have been all these things and all those things. You're OK to serve. But if you've ever been divorced, you're done, you're out, you're done. Does that make any sense according to the mercy of God? Now, this passage is, yeah, husband of one wife.

So let me be clear on this. What's Paul dealing with? I don't know.

What were they doing in Greek and that society of the day? Men would have multiple wives. So, you know, if you're here and you've got multiple wives, you can't serve in official capacity here, OK? But it says the husband of one wife. But we take joy in seeing people restored in the ministry. And this book takes joy in seeing people. You think of David, who was involved in adultery and murder and all this stuff, and God restored him.

You look at Peter, who denied the Lord three times and God restored him. So we need a balanced approach and we need to understand that women in this Bible always play a great role in the body and the ministry of Christ and always should, always should. You know, we have women on staff. We have team leaders.

We have them volunteering. I have decided that, you know, that we have elders and we have deacons. We don't have deaconesses here. I'm not saying churches that do that are absolutely wrong.

I'm just saying we have decided that this is the way we're going to approach it. I'm going to also use this as an opportunity to talk about the offices of the church that the Bible mentions. There's three main ones, pastors, elders and deacons. Now, people didn't come up with this. Denominations didn't come up with this. This is what, you know, the Bible mentioned.

And we'll get into that in just a moment. But I want to talk about the ministry of women because this is mentioned in Phoebe and we need to have a clear concept biblically. Personally, I'm very thankful for all the women who minister in this church.

I mean, there's hundreds of women who are ministering in this church. And listen, Christianity is not a man's religion. It's not a white person's religion. It's not a black person's religion.

And let me go ahead and clarify. It's not an American religion. It's how to follow Jesus Christ. And I think sometimes the church, yes, and I'm sure people are sitting here going, yeah, but sometimes they put ladies in unbiblical positions. Yep, and then sometimes we don't value ladies enough in ministry. I really thought I'd get an amen on that one, but I saw some elbows.

Now, here's an interesting thing. And, you know, the wives of the elders, the pastors, the deacons, and wives of some of the team leaders and stuff, man, I cannot imagine trying to do ministry without them. I don't want to imagine that. Part of our concept of the role of women in ministry and in the marriage and in the family, I think the enemy has slipped in and given us an unbiblical perception on what that's supposed to look like. There's an interesting passage, and I want to deal with this because we, you know, some churches, some movements, it's actually, you know, it's almost like they want their women to be weak. I call it the weak women syndrome. Does the Bible say that women are supposed to be weak?

Absolutely not. Now, here's an interesting thing that we've done with the verse. There's a verse that, if you've been around churches for very long, you've probably heard about the Proverbs 31 woman. It's a great chapter about femininity and womanhood and stuff, but there's a verse in there, Proverbs 31, 10, it says, who can find a virtuous wife for her worth is far above rubies. Now, virtuous or virtue, what does that mean? Well, today that means being morally pure. So, you know, the woman who's virtuous is morally pure. However, in, you know, a dabbling Greek, a speak and read Hebrew, and, you know, Proverbs was written in Hebrew, and virtuous, did it mean morally pure when the translators of the King James Bible, 1611, translated it from the Hebrew to the English and they used virtuous, did it mean at that time, 1611, that's, you know, 400 years ago, did it mean being morally pure at that time?

The answer is no, it didn't. That's not what it meant then. That's what it means today. That's not what it meant back then. We can see this through a couple of ways.

Don't just take my word for it. We can see this through a couple of ways. Is where else did they use the word virtue and did it mean morally pure in that place? Well, the one place it pops up is in Luke 8, verse 46. In the King James, it reads like this. It says, and Jesus said, somebody has touched me for I perceive that virtue has gone out of me. Now, if it meant moral purity, that's a very weird verse. What happened was a woman with an issue of blood, she touches Jesus, and Jesus says, hey, I perceive that virtue has flown out. That doesn't make sense.

I've perceived that moral purity has flowed out of me. That's weird. It doesn't work.

It doesn't flow. Now, in the New King James, they've actually changed that a little bit, and it reads like this, Luke 8, 46. Jesus said, somebody touched me for I perceived power going out from me. Power? Virtue means power?

Now, absolutely it doesn't today, but when the translators of the King James Bible translated, it absolutely did. Thank you for listening to Cross the Bridge. We'll return to David's teaching in just a moment. You know, it's often the case that during this time of year, many of us will make New Year's resolutions in order to better our life, and this year, Cross the Bridge wants to help with the Cross the Bridge Every Day devotional book. Cross the Bridge Every Day is filled with 365 days of Scripture, David's life lessons, and practical applications that will help you find victory in life and encouragement every day of the year.

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For who can find a virtuous wife for her worth as far above rubies? Leave that up for just a second. The word there for virtuous in the Hebrew is hahil. What does that mean? It means power.

It means warrior. Now, when I discovered that, it just, it blew me away. I found somebody, an Israeli, and I said, hey, hey, come here. Can I ask you a few questions, you know? And I started kind of quizzing the lady. What does this mean? And she's, and I said, what does hahil mean? She said, warrior, power, valor. I said, does it mean moral purity? She said, moral purity? What do you mean?

She said, absolutely not. This is interesting to me. So who can find a powerful wife her worth as far above rubies? Who can find a warrior wife her value as far above rubies? Let me show you some other places that hahil is translated.

I'll give you a few. Numbers 24, 18 says, and Edom shall be a possession, Seirah also his enemy shall be a possession, while Israel does valiantly. That's a Hebrew word, hahil. And then Judges 6, 12, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor, hahil. That's when God was speaking to Gideon and called him a mighty man of valor. And then in first Samuel 16, 18, describing David and says, anyone of the servants answered and said, look, I've seen a son of Jaseh the Bethlehemite who is skillful in playing a mighty man of valor, hahil.

A man of war, prudent speech, a handsome person, the Lord is with him. I know I'm rocking some boats in here today. That's my intention. It's my calling if you will. Because some of you are going, wait a minute, a powerful wife? Christianity, we don't want powerful wives. We don't want warrior women. Yes, we do. Let me ask you a question. If you were in a military engagement and you could somehow talk the other side into disqualifying half of their fighting force, that would be a real coup, wouldn't it?

Well, I think in some places and in some ways, the enemy has done exactly that. That men sometimes were intimidated by having powerful women, powerful wives. And you know what? My wife is a warrior. Now you may go, she's not tall, but man, she's a warrior. If you ever heard that woman pray, let me promise you, she's a warrior. And she does battle on my behalf and praying for me.

Anytime you see a guy that God's blessing his ministry, there's a woman that's praying for him. So the enemy comes and says, well, you don't want your wife to be powerful. You don't want her walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. She needs to walk five steps behind you and you need to be the one to hold the remote.

That's real submission there. Honey, give me that remote before you hurt yourself. But the enemy, look, if you've got your ally, your closest ally, speaking to you if you're married in here, your closest ally, do you want your closest ally to be armed? See, the enemy comes and says, okay, get your wife to put that bazooka down. I want my wife with a bazooka. I want my wife to be a powerful warrior woman of God. Away with this nonsense of trying to promote weak womanhood in the church and the body of Christ, amen. Away with that, man. That's... Guys, that was a very feminine clap just then. Away with promoting weak womanhood in the church, guys. That was a little better. Now, again, does the Bible speak about the roles of women in the home and the church?

Absolutely, it does. And we need to pay attention to what it says and we need to apply what it says. But again, this whole concept, who can find a powerful wife? Who can find a warrior wife? Ladies, be a warrior on behalf of the kingdom of God. Be a prayer warrior.

Be praying for your husbands, for your kids, for your parents. Be that warrior that the Word of God calls you to be. This life lesson, churches should be filled with powerful men and women. Churches should be filled with powerful men and women. Again, if you look through the Bible, you see women playing key roles often. And I'm going to make a real general statement, which is probably going to get me in trouble with half of you.

Oftentimes, and again, this is a massive generalization, okay? But oftentimes, women can be more spiritual and more perceptive than guys. You know, that's... Now, let me explain. I didn't say necessarily more godly.

So now I got in trouble with the other half. But there's a spiritual... They just tend to be more spiritual and sometimes that leads to bad things and I think that's why you probably see more females involved with witchcraft and stuff like that.

But they can also be more godly. And you see, in different places, you see... Well, you see Eve and what happened there and there was a potential, and I'm not going to teach on that this morning, but... And then you see the women who ran to the tomb. You see all the women in the ministry of Jesus.

You see all the women that are mentioned in this chapter. Now... And I mentioned the word perceptive. I'm amazed.

I'm amazed that my wife and other ladies in ministry, how they can watch somebody for like five minutes and like tell you more than I pick up. I'm like, how do you know that? Well, that's like... That's amazing. I feel stupid sometimes because they go, well, didn't you notice this? Didn't you notice that? And it's like, no. I didn't see that, you know. And that happens in the house. My wife will change something around, you know, and I'll walk through the house. I'm like, well, when did you do that?

I think it was 07. I moved that table over there. God made us both differently. Okay. And guys, we were built power and authority and all these things and I'll affirm you in another day. But, you know, we're looking at this ministry in this verse here, and we need to understand that be very careful if you grew up in an environment in church that degraded women or weakened women in ministry and the roles in the body of Christ, be careful friend.

And that's... I'm saying again, biblically, we want to apply what the word of God says to ministry roles, okay? Verse two. That you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of, for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also. Paul's saying, hey, this Phoebe, she's awesome. She's a great help. And actually it's believed that Phoebe was the one who was carrying this actual letter or this epistle to the Romans from Paul in Corinth to Rome, that she actually carried it to Rome. Obviously through this, you can look at these verses. She's been proven in ministry. She has a good track record of being in ministry. New Living Translation in this second verse says this. Receive her in the Lord as one who is worthy of high honor.

Help her in every way you can, for she has helped many in their needs, including me. Now mentions honor. And we need to understand honor is a biblical concept. And what is honor?

Loose definition here is honor is a recognition, a respect or distinction for position, office, or achievement. And the Bible indicates that we are to honor certain people, certain offices in our lives, if you will. One of them that comes out probably regularly if you have kids, Ephesians 6, one and three, leading back to the 10 commandments, it says, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. So we're supposed to honor our mother and father, not just obey, but to honor our mother and our father. Now, when does this honoring relationship, honoring your mother and father, when does that end? Does it end when you move out of the house?

No. It continues your whole life. You're to honor your mother and your father. Now granted, again, if you've got kids, you know that children always have a reason why they shouldn't honor their mother and father. They come up with reasons.

They're not really reasons. The Bible doesn't say honor your mother and father unless you just think they're a jerk and you don't understand what they're saying. It's not what it says. It says honor your mother and father, period, and that God will bless you for it. And that you will live long and be blessed.

That's the kind of, you know, if you were a Spock, you'd say live long and prosper. But that's, you know, he ripped that off from Judaism. Anyway, but so honoring your mother and your father, that's one of those relationships of honor. What's another relationship of honor? 1 Timothy 5.17, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.

So elders, does that mean somebody older than you? No, it's talking about the biblical position, the office. So honoring elders are official positions in the church. And then 1 Peter 2.17 tells us honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king. It's a great verse. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. That verse would keep you out of so much trouble if we just could do those four things, wouldn't it? So next life lesson, we should honor one another, especially our parents and our leaders. We should honor one another, especially our parents and our leaders. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him, and He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll-free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. When you call, ask about this month's special offer featuring David's devotional book, Cross the Bridge Every Day. This inspirational book offers 365 daily devotions as well as a detailed topical index to help you grow deeper in your relationship with the Lord. Cross the Bridge Every Day is available now for your gift of any amount. Again, the number to call is 877-458-5508. Or you can go online to crossthebridge.com. Thank you for listening. We pray that you will join us next time as we continue to cross the bridge.