Luke 8:1-3 (3)
The Gospel of Luke • Sermon • Submitted
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Well, in the Providence of God, we’ve come to chapter 8...
…in our study of Luke’s gospel.
As always, I invite you to turn there and follow along.
I’ve mentioned to you before, that...
…Luke records more information about women...
…than any of the other gospel writers do.
-In today’s text, he’s going to show us...
…what role women played in the earthly ministry of Christ.
After that, we’re going to look at...
…what the Bible says elsewhere...
…about the role of women in the ongoing work of Christ...
…through His Church, and....
…how that all harmonizes together...
…and fulfills God’s original design for the female sex.
Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway)...
…this is going to be a very counter-cultural sermon.
But, we must remember these precepts:
Proverbs 1:7 (ESV)
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 3:5 (ESV)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
We must let these verses...
...guide our hearts and minds this morning.
Our text begins in verse 1:
Luke 8:1–3 (ESV)
1 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,
2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
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Pray
Let me draw your attention back to verse 1.
There, Luke tells us that “soon after” this incident...
At the Pharisee’s house...
With the infamous woman...
…that Jesus:
Luke 8:1 (ESV)
1 ...went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God...
notice something here.
Luke characterizes Jesus’ ministry in Galilee as:
“Proclaiming” (i.e., Preaching, Heralding, Announcing)
And...
“bringing the good news” (i.e., Evangelizing)
It’s important that we recognize this at the outset.
-In the rest of our verses, Luke tells us...
...who it was that:
Traveled with Jesus through these cities and towns...
Helped Him in His ministry.
The first group should come as no surprise to us.
Luke says:
Luke 8:1 (ESV)
1 ...And the twelve were with him,
These were his Apostles!
Authoritative Emissaries (Messengers)
They were the men, through whose preaching...
…He was going to build His heavenly Kingdom on the earth.
We would expect them to be there with Him...
…as He heralded the coming of that Kingdom, right?
But, who he tells us about in verses 2-3...
Not so much!
At least, not if we were living at that time.
First, he tells us:
Luke 8:2 (ESV)
2 and also some women...
Notice, (important) that...
…Luke clearly distinguishes these women...
…from the twelve Apostles.
-Also, keep in mind how (early on in His ministry)...
…Jesus’ disciples had responded to Him...
...speaking to the woman at the well
John said that they:
John 4:27 (ESV)
27 ...marveled that he was talking with a woman...
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From what I can gather, Jewish Rabbis:
Wouldn’t even teach women...
Let alone allow them to be their disciples!
But Jesus, does both!
(I said disciple, NOT apostle)
-Now, not only were they women, they were:
Luke 8:2 (ESV)
2 ...women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities...
These were women who were known to:
Have suffered...
Been afflicted...
And were probably viewed with a measure of...
contempt...
suspicion...
…because of it.
Luke names a few of them by name.
The first one (at the end of verse 2)...
…helps us to understand why they attached themselves to Christ...
…so tenaciously!
Look at the end of verse 2:
Luke 8:2 (ESV)
2 ...Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Think about that.
She was utterly controlled by Satan (seven demons).
She was a demoniac (remember those descriptions).
She had been a wild and wicked woman...
…fully serving the kingdom of darkness.
But Christ had conquered her captors...
Now she lives to serve Him!
-Luke mentions two more women by name in verse 3:
Luke 8:3 (ESV)
3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna...
Of Susanna, we know nothing more.
I would assume that Theophilus (or others in the first century)...
…would have known who she was.
-But of Joanna, we know a little more.
To begin with, Luke tells us that her husband...
…Was King Herod’s steward!
Unlike Mary (presumably)...
…this woman was a woman...
Of means...
Of considerable social status.
And in the Providence of God...
…she too, had been:
Afflicted bodily or spiritually...
…and had been:
Set free by the grace and power of Jesus!
And like Mary, she too had attached herself to Him...
In faithful servitude.
This was a big deal!
And Luke tells us that her situation...
…wasn’t necessarily unique:
Notice what he adds to the list:
Luke 8:2–3 (ESV)
2 ...Mary, called Magdalene...
3 and Joanna . . . and Susanna, and many others...
The fact is that many of Christ’s disciples (not apostles):
Were women.
And what we see so often...
In the Scriptures
In Church History
Our missionary endeavors today...
…Is that women are/were more receptive of Christ in general.
Why is that?
Well, it’s hard for us to see it in our society...
…but in most that have ever existed...
…women were humbled by their lower social status...
…in the same way that the the poor and the lame were.
Naturally speaking...
...It’s less of a journey to come to the end of yourself...
…if your self-esteem isn’t very high to begin with.
But, the proud and haughty...
…have a great barrier in their way:
Their pride!
Spiritually speaking...
...I think this is simply because...
…saving the lowly brings more glory to God.
Remember what Paul wrote?
1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (ESV)
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
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-Now, let me show you one more thing in our text...
…before we move on to a broader study of...
The role of women in Christ’s ministry.
Look at what the final thing Luke tells us in verse 3.
He tells us that all of these women...
…did one thing in particular:
Luke 8:3 (ESV)
3 ...provided for them out of their means.
Who’s the them?
Jesus and the Twelve
Why are they singled out as the objects of provision?
Why are they specified as being supported?
Everybody needed food, right?
It’s because of the primary ministerial task...
…that they were accomplishing:
The Proclamation of the Kingdom
The Preaching of the Gospel
The task of ULTIMATELY filling the world with...
…image bearers of Christ!
Making disciples through the ministry of the Word!
That was the primary task....
And these ladies were supporting that great work...
…through whatever means Providence had placed at their disposal.
I hope you can see the parallels...
…to the role of women in the original creation mandate.
Remember how it all began.
After having created everything else, we read:
Genesis 1:26–28 (ESV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
This was the commission that God’s image bearers were given.
This is how they would serve to glorify God on the earth.
But, here’s the conundrum:
How could Adam do that by himself?
That’s what God addressed in:
Genesis 2:18–24 (ESV)
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
After he had surveyed and...
...Established his authority over (by naming them)...
...All of the rest of creation...
…It became obviously clear that nothing else...
…was suitable to help Adam accomplish this task of....
…Glorifying God by filling the earth with His image bearers.
Then God provides:
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs...
22 ...made into a woman and brought her to the man.
23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh...
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Finally, a helper for Adam that was suitable.
A helper who shared in the one image of God...
…yet whose function in God’s world was different.
A helper whose essential worth and dignity was equal...
…but whose role and function was subordinate.
A helper whose role was:
Auxiliary
Augmentative.
Compliment the work assigned to her husband.
To make it possible for him to accomplish it!
-This was/is God’s design for the sexes.
And the ministry of these women in our text...
…is modeled after this same paradigm.
-This is often pretty upsetting to many modern ears.
But, what should it tell us about our hearts...
…if God’s design enrages us?
Should we not prefer and trust...
...His will/design more than our own?
We must:
Proverbs 3:5 (ESV)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
-Now, some may say:
That was the Old Testament way of things.
Things are different now.
They’ll point to:
Galatians 3:28 (ESV)
28 ...there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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Taking that HORRIBLY out of context!
They’ll point to the fact that the women in our text...
…were the first witnesses of the Resurrection...
…and they’ll say that they were the very first:
“Preachers” of the Gospel
This is nothing but Confirmation Bias.
Assuming a premise...
Finding support for it...
…because you’re wanting to.
Even in that scenario...
…Mary and Joanna didn’t go out preaching un-commissioned!
They went back and reported to the Eleven...
…and to the other disciples.
Brethren, does...
Jesus’ counter-cultural treatment of women...
Galatians 3:28...
…change the original design of God for the female sex?
Not in the least!
Regarding the relationship of a wife to her husband...
…Christ’s Apostle commanded:
Ephesians 5:22–24 (ESV)
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Regarding her function in the ongoing ministry of Christ...
...through His Church...
He wrote:
1 Timothy 2:11–15 (ESV)
11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve;
14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
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He goes on in chapter 3 to give qualifications for the pastorate...
…that can only be true of men.
And, I may not have all the answers...
…to the questions that this will bring up...
…but we mustn’t just ignore what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14.
1 Corinthians 14:33–38 (ESV)
33 ...As in all the churches of the saints,
34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.
35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
36 Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached?
37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.
38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.
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That’s a strong affirmation, brethren.
-Now, those are things that are prohibited.
But, there is even more that is encouraged.
-In Acts 16 Lydia is commended for doing for the Apostles...
…the same thing that the women in our text were doing.
Providing food, lodging, and help...
…as they went about teaching and preaching.
In Romans 16 we see Paul saying this:
Romans 16:1–2 (ESV)
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,
2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
A female benefactor
In 1 Timothy 5, Paul described a faithful widow...
…one who deserved to be supported by the Church...
…as one who, in her life prior to widowhood, had:
1 Timothy 5:10 (ESV)
10 ...a reputation for good works: . . . has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.
In Titus 2, Paul wrote that:
Titus 2:3–5 (ESV)
3 Older women . . . are to be reverent in behavior . . . They are to teach what is good,
4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
However, some will throw all of this away because Philip:
Acts 21:9 (ESV)
9 ...had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied.
Of course, I’m kidding
We don’t have time to parse this out...
…but I want you to see how powerful confirmation bias can be.
Of all the clear commands we’re given to the contrary...
…many will justify their contradictory opinions...
…on something as obscure as that!
This is to not consider the:
Redemptive-Historical setting of the book of Acts
Ecclesiastical setting of the verse itself.
-Brethren, we began with this:
Proverbs 1:7 (ESV)
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
The fear of the LORD...
…makes us to delight in the will of the LORD...
…over and above our own preferences and desires.
Here’s what that means for all of us in this context:
Paul said this:
Romans 12:3–8 (ESV)
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,
5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;
8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
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You see, Christ is:
The Lord of the Church
The Lord of our Lives.
The Lord of all Creation
We are His servants.
We live and serve...
…at His pleasure.
We know what pleases Him...
We know what His desire for us is...
By the written Word of God.
We must deny ourselves...
…and follow Him!
Let’s ask for grace and strength to do so.
Pray