Introduction

Elisabeth Elliot was as a marvelous instrument of God in participating in the great commission. She was the wonderful wife of the martyred Jim Elliot. Elisabeth Elliot was a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca of eastern Ecuador. She later spent two years as a missionary to the tribe members who killed her husband. She was the only biblically trained person left who could speak the Auca language. However, Elizabeth Elliot was so convinced in her heart that she could not violate the Word of God that we are studying today she took one of the Auca men and weekly taught that man a sermon so that he could preach it in the church on the Lords day. Much like Aquila and Priscilla, she would not step up to the preaching nor usurp authority over the men.

II. Quiet learning (v. 11-12

1. The context makes it very clear that what Paul has in mind when we read, “let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, culminates in verse 12, “I permit not a woman to teach,” and therein does he define the kind of silence he’s talking about, nor to usurp authority, and therein does he define the kind of subjection he is talking about. The word translated “subjection” in verse 11 is from the Greek word “hupo-ta-gay very similar to hupo-tasso”. The word here literally means, “to be under in rank.” It has to do with respecting an acknowledged order of authority. It certainly does not mean that men are more spiritual than women or those women are inferior to men. Some say Galatians 3:28 did away with all this submission stuff. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This does not do away with God’s order of things. This verse is talking about salvation. Not service. Submission is God’s way of doing things in the church and the home!

In the assembly of the church women are not to teach and preach, and they are not to rule. Now, there’s no doubt that that’s exactly what he is saying. In Ephesus some were seeking to do both of those things, that is why Paul deals with this. We explain this last week.

2. Paul’s focus here is the public worship of the church. God has established a clear chain of authority in both the home and in the church; this we learn that God has ordained. Women are permitted to teach– just not in worship. Older women should teach the younger women (Titus 2:3-4) Timothy was taught at home by his mother and grandmother (2 Tim 1:5; 3:5) But in their teaching ministry they are not to “lord it over men” There is nothing wrong with a godly woman instructing a man in private (Acts 18:24-28). But she should not assume authority in the church and try to take the place of a man. This is in the Church this is not talking about a school or a man sitting in a class. I would say a woman can do it just as good even better…

3. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses 34 and 35 we find there that Paul prohibits women in the assembly of the church from speaking in languages (tongues) and interpretation and also from expressing the gift of prophecy. He says, “Let the women keep silence in the churches.” So, we learn then from 1 Corinthians 14 when the church comes together women were not to speak in tongues when tongues were a valid gift, they were not to engage in the public interpretation, and they were not to be involved in the prophesying.

Here we add to that that they were not to be ruling in the church and they were not to be the preacher-teacher. Furthermore, we learned from verse 8 that women were not to lead the congregation in prayer, but the congregation was to be led in prayer by men. Paul’s focus here is the public worship of the church. So, when it comes to the worship of the church, the praying, the teaching, the speaking for God and the preaching is to be done by the men.

4. Beloved that is why there are no women apostles in the New Testament. There are no women prophets in the church. One prophetess is mentioned; she was prior to the church and functioned in a unique way speaking to individual people about the coming of the Messiah. But there was no prophet in the New Testament church that was a woman and there were no woman pastors. There were five pastors in the church at Antioch. There is no woman evangelist, and no woman has written any book of the Bible. Now, that is an affirming thing to indicate God’s divine order. And this is an issue of role, not spiritual inequality. But both men and women have abrogated their roles and look at the mess we are in! You say why is that?

III. The Divine Order vv. 13-15

1. God gave several arguments to back up his admonition that the men in the church should be spiritual leaders. First, there is the argument from Creation that Adam was formed first, then Eve. Keep in mind that priority doesn’t mean superiority. Men and women were both created in God’s image. The issue is one of “headship” man was created first. Eph. 5:22-24.The second argument emanates from the fall of man into sin (v. 14).

2. This last verse is complicated but the grammar in the original Greek language gives it some illumination. Women led in the fall but by the wonderful grace of God they are released from the stigma of that through childbearing. God has given them the privilege of leading the race out of sin to godliness. In the original, it says she will be saved in the childbirth. This has the sense, “Even though women were deceived, and fell into transgression starting with Eve, women can be saved by the Messiah – whom a woman brought into the world.” The idea here is that even though the “woman race” did something bad in the garden by being deceived and falling into transgression, the “woman race” also did something far greater, in being used by God to bring the saving Messiah into the world and having the blessing of childrearing.

Conclusion:
Susanna Wesley was a wife of a pastor and mother of 19 children. Every week she spend one hour to discuss spiritual matters. She also spend one hour each day shut up with God alone in her room praying for every one of her children. She raised Charles and John who were used of God to bring blessings to all of England and much of America. The most important occupation on earth for a woman is to be a God fearing mother before her children. It does not have much glory to it; there is a lot of grit and grime. But there is no greater place of ministry, position, or power than that of a mother.