Transcription downloaded from https://bibletalks.htd.org.au/sermons/37680/glorifying-christ-our-head/.

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[0:00] I see it's because of the weeks though the way Andrew reads and my weeks worked out it just meant I could help him out with tonight there is an outline that I'll be following so hopefully you grab one of those on the way in we'll be following along with that now as I said this is the kind of passage that you know not many people love it's the kind of passage that you hope there are no visitors at your church at four in case they were when I thinking yep another one of those sexist churches and just for the record we're not but we are a church that works through the Bible and doesn't skip passages that might be politically incorrect in today's world and we are also a church that seeks to listen to God and what he's saying what he's not saying as well in his word and to help us understand what he is saying we need to remember something which is on the first part of the outline we need to remember that hair and clothing communicate so for example I've got a slide here what's this person trying to communicate by his hair and clothing you feel free I'm happy I like interaction what's he communicating he lives in the 70s yeah yeah he doesn't want to let go of the past yeah okay what about this one he's a cool man that's right in fact I don't think he was even allowed in Australia that's how cool he was apparently what about this person okay now it's the character let's go for the cat what's the character trying to say is Demi Moore in

[1:33] GI Joe or Jane thank you Jane of course it's a woman thanks buddy yeah she's tough she's one of the boys okay interestingly however when she went to the movie awards she really dressed up for it so next slide she put on the earrings she wore a dress and no kind of pantsuit because in her mind it seems she knew she looked pretty blokey and so she wanted to make sure that she expressed her femininity as I just find that interesting because it has something to do with our passage tonight the point is though hair and style hairstyle and clothes communicate in today's world and that they also did back in Paul's world in Paul's day what you wore and especially how you wore your hair communicated something and so if men wore had long hair then they were seen as barbarians because barbarians had long hair or they were seen as trying to be a woman in a homosexual relationship that's how they were perceived because women had long hair and so all respectable men had short hair so guys you're all looking pretty respectable tonight there's only one or two who need a bit of a trim but anyway but to be a respectable bloke meant I'm glad it's you take as a joke it was a joke but to be a respectable bloke meant you had to have relatively short hair on the other hand women had longer hair and if they went out in public then they would spend a long time doing their hair before they went out even today a lot of women still take some time although I know a lot of the blokes are giving a run for their money in the bathroom but you know with product and things these days but back in Paul's day they they usually did their hair up by braiding it and and then they'd cover it in fact the higher your hair got the more wealthier a person you were that's what it signified and so here's a sculpture of a wealthy person and you see how the hair is kind of braid at the back and it's kind of done up at the front that was kind of signified that they were pretty wealthy but as well as doing up their hair in public women often covered their hair with a veil called a pallor or a mantle and so here's another sculpture and here you can see that the veil or the it's quite a long flying thing it covers the hair goes around their shoulders and things like that and it was worn by married women in particular as a sign that they were respectable women they were modest women and then happily married under their husband's headship and one ancient writer comments that even young unmarried girls wore these kind of veils as a sign of modesty and so to wear your hair uncovered in public was a sign that you didn't want to be married anymore in fact you're inviting other blokes to come and talk you up chat you up or whatever the expression is these days that's what it signaled to people of the time in fact if you had uncovered or loose hair in public it usually meant you were morally loose i.e. a prostitute the point is clothes and hair communicated what type of person you were whether loose or respectable whether male or female and in this passage today these lines were starting to be blurred in the corinthian church and so paul is keen for the men to be men and for the women to be women by the way they dressed in public and so with all that background in mind let's have a look what the bible is saying and understanding our head which is point one verse two of 1 corinthians 11 paul says here i praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as i pass them on to you but i want you to realize that the head of every man is christ and the head of the woman is man and the head of christ is god and verse 2 paul says well done guys and girls for the way you're keeping the traditions that i gave you but verse 3 there's something i want you to realize there's something i want to tweak with your church practice and that is the way you pray or prophesy in church and what he wants them to realize is verse 3 that the head of man is christ that the head of woman is man and that the head of christ is god now what

[5:38] does all this mean and for us in particular what does it mean for how men and women relate well the last example helps us to understand the other two you see how does christ relate to god the father as his head uh well we've got a number of references uh that try help us to unpack this so the first one on the next slide there thanks alex uh is a verse from uh john chapter 12 it says for i did not this is jesus speaking i did not speak of my own accord but the father who sent me commanded me to say and how to say it i know that his command leads to eternal life so whatever i say is just what the father has told me to say you see here the father tells the son what to do okay next slide there's another quote uh from also from john moreover the father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the son that all may honor the son just as they honor the father he who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him so notice again the father sends the son in the scriptures the son never sends the father never tells the father what to do it's always the father telling or sending the son um so the herd head there i take it implies some sort of authority uh sending or telling them what to say uh like the head of a company you know the ceo is the head of the company now some people like to suggest that the word head means source like you know the head of the river you know and the river flows from that in fact i was uh speaking with uh chris bowditch many of you remember chris uh during the week and he recalls a lecture at ridley college and um how the class was arguing over this they were taking the readings and the lecturer was arguing for source and everyone else in the class said no no look at the readings it means head uh and he was just timely kind of story uh every time paul uses the word head in the bible it carries authority okay even if it did mean source in some way that they came source implies authority uh if you like um my son is from us i have authority over him though okay uh so the word head clearly uh means authority particularly because otherwise if it did mean source that would be saying that christ comes from the father that he was made from the father but the bible clearly teaches that christ always existed he was always god the son and so the word head uh means to have authority even the names father and son imply authority and responsibility don't they as a father as i said i have authority and responsibility over my son now in other words there is order in their relationship just like there is in god that's what headship means it means for one person to take the role as leader and have authority and responsibility over the other person now it does not mean that one person is better or superior to another no both jesus and the father are fully and equally god both are to be praised and honored but jesus has a different role jesus is the one who dies on the cross not the father jesus is the one who has been entrusted with all authority to judge not the father then he will hand it over to the father at the end of time you see they have different roles but they're of equal worth okay well having worked out uh what it means for christ and the father uh why the father is christ's head this helps us understand how it works out for men and women we are different but equal uh for example men cannot have children women can uh men are typically stronger than women except for when it comes to pain uh men are wimps compared to women have you ever heard the phrase the man cold it's it's a normal cold but the men think it's really bad and so we have every excuse to lie around and just watch tv and it's the end of the world okay that's the man cold we can't cope you see uh with pain the way women can the point is there are differences between men and women that's the reality but we are equal and part of this different but equal idea plays itself out in the different roles that god has given us from creation from creation as we'll see in a

[9:40] moment the man is the head of the woman and christ is the head of man just like god the father is the head of christ but this does not mean that men are superior and my wife michelle absolutely smashed me with a vce right kicked my butt all right she's smarter than i am but the bible teaches that i am her head and while that means i have authority and responsibility for her i am to demonstrate that as christ demonstrated it i am to lead like jesus and how did jesus lead well you know he laid down his life that's how he led he served sacrificially that's the model of headship for men especially so for husbands as ephesians 5 says but paul's point here is that while men and women are equal they play different roles which men are given as sorry men are given the role of headship just like god the father and god the son are equal but play different roles okay uh and when this comes to uh publicly getting up in church paul wants them to maintain their gender differences including this role of headship uh by the way they dress and so it brings us to uh point number two maintaining gender differences and verse four have a look at verse four uh to six uh paul writes here that every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head it is the same as having her head shaved for if a woman does not cover her head she might as well have her hair cut off but it is if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved then she should cover her head here we start to see what the problem was in the corinthian church you see as christians they were now free to worship god in fact women who were previously not allowed to worship in the same space as men were now allowed to gather together and do exactly what the men were doing in terms of praying and prophesying they were both allowed to pray and prophesy together but it seems that some of them were going a bit too far and blurring the gender differences by acting like the opposite uh sex by the way that they wore their hair in public and so it seems you know some women were uncovering their heads and some men were covering the heads that they were confusing the genders you see now the churches back then probably met in private homes except for occasions when they came together like the lord's supper or something like that so maybe they thought you know they could let their hair down in at home but paul is saying here that when you get up to pray or prophesy in public you're leading the people of god you're leading the church and so you need to do it in a way that honors you and your head both your literal head and your figurative head and so if a woman got up with her head uncovered or loose then in that culture that was a sign of sexual promiscuity which demonstrated or dishonored rather her physical head as well as her metaphoric head her husband i'm not sure if um you've got any twilight fans here at 6 p.m um it's a couple of laughs i've never seen it myself uh the only thing i know about the movies is is that the actors the couple in the movies they were going out in real life is that right they were together but who knows all right okay people are showing anyway i think that's right uh but then i think uh if memory serves uh the uh the girl kind of had a had an affair with someone else and i do remember seeing a news article where they were walking out of the restaurant and both of them had their heads down and there was this complete utter look of shame on their face it was more than just get away from me paparazzi it was a complete look of shame on their faces you see what she did not only dishonored her but also her boyfriend and that's what was happening here the woman's actions of flaunting her sexuality by uncovering her head in public brought shame to her own head and her husband her metaphoric head and paul says in verse 6 it's as shameful as having your head shaved which even up to world war ii was a way of shaming women the nazis would shave their heads uh the jewish women's heads off to shame them you see and so while paul

[13:42] wants them to enjoy their freedom to pray and prophesy together he wants them to do it in a way that still shows the men to be respectable men that still shows the women to be respectable women he wants them to uphold their differences and bring honor to themselves and their metaphoric heads but why should they do this why not create a culture of their own a start a new trend well paul goes on to give several reasons why uh point four verse three or verse seven sorry point three verse seven uh the first verse seven should actually start with the word for or because so have a look there verse number seven he says for or because a man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of god but a woman is the glory of man for a man did not come from woman but woman from man neither was man created for woman but woman for man it is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority overhead because of the angels now if you thought what we'd said or what i'd said so far was controversial then how about those verses uh verse seven following kind of ups the ante doesn't it but let me tell you what it does not mean it does not mean women are made in the image of men notice that the word image is missing in the second half of the verse it says men are made in the image of god but it doesn't then follow it through okay we read in genesis chapter one which is on the screen so god created man and mankind in his own image in the image of god he created him male and female he created them bible teaches quite clearly both men and women are made in god's image and that means they both have equal worth equal value and so to talk of any women being worth less than a man or being paid less than a man because they're a woman uh is abhorrent to god absolutely abhorrent and they have equal worth and dignity and honor rather the word glory in verse seven speaks about a reflected character and god created man to reflect his character his role in ruling over his kingdom and woman in turn reflects man's character in terms of his substance and role but to understand all this we actually need to go back to our first reading so bear with me and come with me to genesis chapter two just keep a finger of 1 quinnthians 11 and come back to genesis chapter two now i'm not going to rehearse all this because it was read for us before um i just want to uh highlight a few verses for us uh so in verses four to seven god creates adam first uh the man and then come down with me to um or cross the page actually to verse number 15 verse number 15 says the lord god took the man and put him in the garden of eden to work it and to take care of it you see this is adam's job this is his responsibility he's put in the garden to look after it to rule over it in a loving and caring way this is what man's responsible is responsible for the problem is he needs help to do it he can't do it on his own and so verse 18 the lord god said it is not good for the man to be alone i will make a helper suitable for him now the lord god had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky he brought them to the man to see what he would name them and whenever the man called each living creature that was its name and notice adam is showing his authority over creation by naming them and in verse 20 so the man gave names to all the livestock the birds in the sky and all the wild animals but for adam no suitable helper was found so the lord god caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and while he was sleeping he took one of the man's ribs and then closed it up the place with flesh then the lord god made a woman from the rib he had taken

[17:47] out of the man and he brought her to the man and the man said this is now bone of my bones flesh of my flesh she should be called woman for she was taken out of man and then in verses 24 and 25 they get married so to speak i notice here though that while adam was created from the dust eve the woman is created from adam you see she is his glory because she reflects his character as she does it in two ways first she reflects his very substance he says she is bone of my bone flesh of my flesh she's made from him as paul will say and so glorious is she that when adam sees her for the first time he is stoked and says oh man that's a joke okay that's a joke no no he names a woman because she came from him thank you all two of you for laughing so she reflects his glory in terms of substance you know made from the same stuff that's the first way she reflects his glory but she also reflects his glory or character in terms of the role of ruling over god's kingdom you see adam needed help and so he created eve to help adam in his responsibility of caring for the world is eve completes him it's kind of that jerry maguire moment you know the jerry maguire moment when uh tom cruise sees renee zelweger and he says you complete me you seen that movie no oh my goodness one two okay all right that's kind of what's happening here all right it does not mean that eve is made for him to be his slave or an incubator for his children no no she's made to be his glorious helper they have different roles but they're still equal now of course the problem for us is that we think worth is attached to position so a ceo of a company is more important because he is the leader but did jesus die for him more than us because he's the leader of a company is he worth more in god's sight than us of course not but that's what the world teaches us and we've bought into it but god says men and women are equal in worth and importance but they do have different roles given to them from creation one is the leader the other is the helper and so come back with me to 1 corinthians chapter 11 1 corinthians chapter 11 and as you do one of the problems with the word helper is that we often think it's demeaning but just by the by do you know who's called the helper in the bible more than any other person the person who's given the title helper than more than any other person in the bible god it's not meant to be a demeaning title no no just different roles but equal worth and so back in 1 corinthians chapter 11 verse 7 man is god's glory in terms of reflecting his character of ruling over his kingdom and so he's not to wear a sign of authority on his head but the woman is the glory of man that is she reflects his character in terms of substance as verse 8 says she's made from him from adam's rib i once heard a story by the way of a man who was asked to speak on this passage to a group of women it was all women and he was very nervous about it all and one of the women said to him oh don't worry we're not women's libers we're adam's ribbers anyway the woman is made is man's glory because she reflects the man's character in substance made from his ribs so to speak the same stuff and she's also his glory because she reflects the man's character in terms of role in terms of helping him rule over creation as verse 9 says she was made for him to help him to rule over the world together but he is to be the loving sacrificial serving head

[21:48] like christ but he's still the head nonetheless and so verse 10 the woman is to have authority on her head that is a symbol of authority like the veil that they wore back in paul's day which acknowledges her husband's headship for they have different roles though they are equal in worth and to make this equality clear paul says then in verse number 11 he says in verse number 11 nevertheless in the lord woman is not independent of man nor is man independent of woman for a woman came from man so also man is born of woman but everything comes from god you see men need women and women need men one is not better than the other we are all dependent on each other and each are god's gift to the other but there are differences between us there is an order as there is between the father and the son and we're not to deny these differences and order by the way we dress or do our hair in public worship says paul to the corinthians and so he continues his reasoning in verse number 13 verse number 13 he says judge for yourselves is it proper for a woman to pray to god with her head uncovered does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair it is a disgrace to him but that if a woman has long hair it is her glory for long hair is given to her as a covering here paul paul's reason is from nature you see he's saying that men don't naturally have long hair and if they do then in that day particularly it was shameful literally to them or at least in that culture as i said but even today while men still can have long hair and be blokey the norm though if you look around is for men to have shorter hair interestingly in fact i'm told in some countries you're not allowed through customs if you're a man who has long hair it's they see you as suspicious so they won't let you in however long hair is never a problem for a woman is it what's more they never seem to lose it as quickly either i've never i'm yet to meet a naturally bald woman uh but my own hairline just up the sides there well it's receding uh but guys if you have a problem with that remember the old chinese proverb that says loss of hair is gain of face yeah it's a slow release joke that one paul's point here though is that even the nature of things that women naturally have a head covering called hair teaches us that women should cover their heads as a sign that they acknowledge their role as a woman in god's created order different to men but equal with them and paul gives one more reason in verse 16 uh and this is about conforming to the practices of all the churches but but let me wrap up uh by thinking about what all this means for us today uh point four i have three questions on your outlines there the first is are men and women still different the answer is well hopefully you can see yes biologically we're still different uh when michelle did her thesis at uni her supervisor was a strong feminist and so she didn't want to acknowledge any difference differences between the genders women can do everything that men can do and even better and there is a lot of truth in that um but she had two children a boy and a girl and to prove her theory she gave them exactly the same toys gave a a car and a doll to the girl a car and a doll to the boy um and even i think gave a gun a toy gun to both as well or something or other and she was devastated when her boy didn't want to touch the doll but play with a toy gun in fact made guns out of everything he could find she was devastated but you see there are differences built into us wide we're wired differently there are differences amongst us and while feminine feminism has done uh some great things for us uh like women got the vote which is is is right and good uh they push for equal pay between men and women who do the same job which is again right and good feminism

[25:51] has done lots of good things uh but i think it's done some unhelpful things for example it's put loads of pressure on women to do everything they do as well as what men traditionally do and so women have to have a career and have a family and be involved with the school p and c or whatever it is and keep looking good and then get back to work they have to do all the roles and they put this unfair pressure on women now of course women can work they can do all sorts of things but feminism has pushed women to do so much and take responsibility away from men in the name of equal rights and in the end it's put pressure on them and it's made men lazy they just haven't done anything i saw on a tv show the other week called uh two greedy italians still hungry i've never seen it before uh they were talking about their new governor in italy and it was a woman and one man said i think it is good to have more women in the workforce because it gives more time for the man to play soccer with his mates he wasn't joking that was serious it was a serious comment now of course women can have careers don't mishear me they can do lots of things as we'll see if not better than men but no one can do everything can they but feminism has pushed women to do so to take all responsibility and in the end men become lazy and so instead of leading uh we sit back and watch tv or whatever it is what's more men now are confused about how to treat women i remember opening a door for a lady once and she turned around and said don't you think i can open it for myself and i thought okay i know what to do do i open it for them or not open i'm confused as a guy i was taught to serve and let ladies go first and so on but she took it as an insult and so feminine feminism has brought confusion i think for some men and who are quite frankly as i said happy just not to do anything except play soccer or something now this passage is not saying that we necessarily have to open doors for women blokes but it is saying that there are differences between men and women built into creation and we need to acknowledge those differences by the way we dress and by the way we act towards one another but the second question is is one of those differences then if the men and women are still different is one of those differences still headship and i think the answer is yes because it is based on creation not culture it is built into who we are of course it doesn't help that there are some useless heads out there men who abuse their headship and don't serve and that must stop there is no place for that kind of headship in god's way of life but a bad head is a bad head it doesn't mean the whole headship system is wrong as god designed it if some abuse it it doesn't mean it's all completely wrong but men will be judged more strictly than women for the way they have ruled over god's kingdom the way they have fulfilled their responsibility given to adam back in the garden headship i think still exists but thirdly the third question there is should women then wear a head covering in church you know is jillian breaking the bible's commandments by getting up here leading the service with her hair head uncovered well i don't think so because those things don't communicate that idea of modesty and headship in our culture in fact if you wore things on your head it actually communicates disrespect doesn't it you know you tell the kids when they come in the classroom take your hat off take your head covering off you know you're being disrespectful and so i don't think we need to keep that particular sign but i do think we need to express this principle in culturally relevant ways uh what do i mean well i think perhaps the most obvious one is that when the woman gets married to the man they take the husband's surname i know that's a symbol of headship because my wife's supervisor the feminist told her not to take my surname don't let him rule over you michelle she said so that's one example of uh symbolizing headship but there's no clothing

[29:57]  as such that signifies this like a veil on which you should wear in church when you pray or prophesy the wedding ring used to be signify that because only women used to wear it but now men and women both wear it however the way we dress and behave can still communicate can't it and what it needs to communicate is modesty and that we're happy with our manhood or womanhood and so if i speak to the women for a moment without you throwing anything at me