Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Crema Chaj podcast.
[00:00:06] Well, spring is truly in the air. I go out, I walk every morning, and I'm watching the snowdrops are out, the white ones and we got purple ones, and the daffodils are preparing to reveal themselves. And I'm just. For all of us, I'm praying in early would break out. Because one of the things I do know is that as the different seasons come, we change.
[00:00:42] And so when we come out of winter into spring, there is a lift on us. And it's an obvious lift because the weather's nicer. But it is also a realization that God has placed the seasons so that we can move from one season to the next. It's not all the same all the time. And so I really think that as we come into this spring, we're coming into a season of new life and new opportunities. And it's a little bit of what I want to talk about today.
[00:01:13] And what I really want to talk about today we're going to go back into Acts is that no matter who you are, whether you're a man, a woman, a child, married, single, retired, God has a purpose for your life and you can step into all he has for you. Okay, so we're going to go back into Acts, and the next few chapters, I think, are amazing. Signs and wonders. Deliverance, leadership. The church of Jesus Christ is getting established. So if you've got your Bible, find Acts, chapter 18.
[00:01:56] And then once you've found it, why don't you stand? We're going to stand and read the Word of God.
[00:02:04] So Acts 18:1. After these things, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontius, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came to them. So because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked for by occupation. They were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
[00:02:43] When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit to and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from now on. I will go to the Gentiles. And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. And then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized.
[00:03:24] Now, the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision. Do not be afraid, but speak and do not keep silent, for I am with you. And no one will attack you to hurt you, for I have many people in this city. And he continued there for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. And I'm just going to jump just a few verses to verse 18.
[00:03:49] So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria. And Priscilla and Aquila were with him. Amen. Take a seat.
[00:04:04] So, as I said, these next few chapters of Acts are the best. They're going to unsettle you and challenge you. You're going to get provoked. Okay, but we're reading the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the real lives of people like you and I.
[00:04:27] So hold onto your chair and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and be careful not to take offense. And what I would say to you as we teach over the next few weeks, you know, you don't want to come to a church where you agree of everything that's said because there's no need to be there. You want to come somewhere where you're going to get challenged, to change lifestyle and direction, where the Holy Spirit will get a hold of your life and turn you around.
[00:04:59] So here we go.
[00:05:02] We have some new characters I want to introduce to you. Aquila and Priscilla and Justus.
[00:05:08] And we've now got to Corinth. So you can see on the map, last week, where were we? We were in Berea, Thessalonica, then down to Athens. And now over here, we find ourselves in Corinth. And again, the reason I show you the map, these are real places with real people with churches and gatherings, just like us today.
[00:05:31] The Bible is incredibly practical. And Priscilla and Aquila are from Italy. They are tent makers, just like Paul. And so he meets them, and the inference is that he stays with them and also works with them. And the first thing I'll say to you, it's good to have a job.
[00:05:52] You know, one of the interesting things of the Apostle Paul is he pays his way as he goes.
[00:05:58] And, you know, coming to Jesus is not a ticket not to work or to take life easy. Coming to Jesus is to get into the call of your life, which may well include work. You know, there are calls to be up here, but there are also calls to be doctors and lawyers and engineers. So wherever you find yourself, you are stepping into the call that God has for your life. And then justice is a prominent figure who provides resource, I think, for the establishment of one of the most exciting churches. Some people believe this is just as is actually Titus, who Paul writes to, and his house is next to the synagogue.
[00:06:52] And it looks like his resource enables Paul to establish the church at Corinth. And the church at Corinth is one of the most exciting churches in the Bible, where there were probably four letters to the Corinthians, but we only have two of them. And Paul says when he writes to the Corinthians, there is not a single spiritual gift you don't excel in. You've got it all. What an incredible description of a church.
[00:07:27] You've got everything.
[00:07:30] That's what we want. Sometimes we read Corinthians goes, oh, my goodness, there were all those problems. Well, of course there are problems. You're here, okay? That's what happens when people gather.
[00:07:41] But in that gathering was an incredibly exciting.
[00:07:46] And what Paul does is he, the Holy Spirit shows him a person of peace. Remember when Jesus sent the disciples out, he said, when you go to a place, don't take anything with you, but find a person of peace. And if you find that person, let your peace rest on them. Luke 10. And Justus, I think, is such a man.
[00:08:10] So here we have Aquila and Priscilla and Paul and Timothy and Silas and Justice. And a church is getting born. But what I want to look at this Morning is verse 18. Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Okay, what do you notice?
[00:08:37] What is the writer of Acts Luke trying to tell us?
[00:08:44] You see, the sharp ones about, you will notice he switched their names around.
[00:08:49] It was Aquila and Priscilla, the man and the woman. Okay, that would be the proper way of addressing but as Paul, after a year and a half in Corinth, as Paul leaves, it switched, it's now Priscilla and Aquila.
[00:09:08] And this is. You say, so what? Well, the reason this is important is because Paul had exactly the same thing happen to him. We read earlier on in Acts, it started off as Barnabas and Saul, Paul. And then once the anointing of the Spirit comes on Saul who becomes Paul, it is now it is then Paul and Barnabas. The names are changed round. Why? Because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
[00:09:39] Here the anointing of the Holy Spirit is resting on a woman.
[00:09:44] Oh, no, I Mean, if women are allowed to have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we're going to get into all sorts of trouble.
[00:09:54] You know, I'm playing with you. It's all right, I'm playing.
[00:09:59] But this is fun, but it's really important. So what I want to do is I want to talk about married couples, women leaders, and the role of men and women. The first thing I want to say, in roles, men and women are different.
[00:10:14] No matter what you're told outside, men and women are different. We're made different and we respond differently. It's how God intended. I think on the whole, men are built for battle. They're made to take ground. And the men like doing something. You know, we really. And I'm not saying that women don't, but women are way more sensitive to the Holy Spirit. They often hear first and they tend to listen before action.
[00:10:38] You notice that we'll just go and do it. We don't care. All other consequences. Women, no, they'll just. They'll think about it first and then do it. And what I want you to hear is Jesus is a great liberator of women.
[00:10:51] But the place of women has always been significant in the Bible. The God of the Bible has always liberated and released women in his kingdom.
[00:11:04] So Deborah Judges 4. 4. Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lapidoth, was leading Israel at that time. So Deborah is both the leader of the nation and a prophet.
[00:11:17] Rahab is the one that hides the spies. So when Jericho is about to fall, she takes in the spies. She's the only survivor of Jericho. She. She's the one Joshua honors, and she's the one that ends up in the genealogy of Jesus.
[00:11:36] Ruth is a Moabitess who puts her trust in the Lord. She marries Boaz and gives birth to Obed, the grandfather of David, and again finds herself in the genealogy of Jesus.
[00:11:52] Esther, an orphan who becomes queen in Persia.
[00:11:57] The Bible describes her as the most beautiful woman and she saves her people from destruction. You see, when the Bible talks about men and women, it often talks differently. It often uses with women the term beauty and for men, strength. Now you can have strong women and handsome men.
[00:12:22] But I never really wanted to marry a muscular woman. I wanted to marry a beautiful woman. And, you know, I can't speak for the girls, but my hunch is you don't want to marry a pretty man.
[00:12:39] I'm just saying get into all sorts of trouble.
[00:12:46] I love it.
[00:12:50] With the coming of Jesus, there is a further liberation of women. Mary gives birth to the son the sinful woman anoints Jesus. Mary and Martha invite Jesus into their home. The Canaanite woman sees her daughter freed. The woman with the issue of blood is healed at the cross. The women are present when the men have all scooted.
[00:13:22] And at the tomb, Jesus reveals himself first to Mary.
[00:13:28] Now, if you come from a more conservative background, as I do, you will have heard that this kind of teaching is a slippery slope. It'll get you in all sorts of trouble that the liberation of women has opened the door in the church for same sex marriages and all that. And what I want to say is, no, it hasn't. That's rubbish.
[00:13:55] It's all about trajectory. It's all about where is God taking us? What is the story of the Scriptures? And you see, throughout the whole story of the Bible, women are released along men and women are released to bring the purposes of God. However, there is never once in the Scriptures where there is a same sex marriage, where there is a homosexual or lesbian that God highlights to lead his people. Not one.
[00:14:31] You see, the Bible is crystal clear.
[00:14:38] Men and women can lead and marriage is between a man and a woman. Period.
[00:14:46] Okay, now I told you, you're gonna have to hang on to your chairs. In Acts 18, we see a married couple ministering together, but Priscilla is the lead.
[00:15:06] Now, we've already read about Philip and his four prophetic daughters earlier on in Acts, but now the Apostle Paul is going to release a married couple team with the wife as the lead.
[00:15:20] Now, often people tell me Paul is anti women. You know, you read through the stories and excuse me, but that is not the Paul I read about in the New Testament. You know, when he closes the book of Romans, he highlights Priscilla and Aquila, but he also highlights Mary and Andronicus and Junia. This is what he says. My fellow Jews who have been in prison with me, they are outstanding among the apostles. And they were in Christ before I was. Now, the new King James Version says that they were of note among the apostles, but it's the wrong translation. It's not right. The Greek clearly says together they are outstanding men and women among the apostles. And you go, ah, yes, but Junior was just making the tea.
[00:16:16] Really? No, you don't get imprisoned for making tea. You get imprisoned for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:16:24] That's why she was in prison.
[00:16:29] Now, every now and again, someone will come up to me at the end and they'll say, you know, they'll shake my hands. It's often a man in a suit. And they'll say, I Love. Really love this church. Really enjoy being here. But I can't stay here. I'll go. I'm really so sorry. Why is that? They say you let women speak in church.
[00:16:53] And what I want to say is, if Mary chose the better portion, if Priscilla was anointed, why would you choose a fat, pompous man over the spirit of God?
[00:17:09] And I don't want to be offensive, but what Bible are you reading?
[00:17:14] Because this is the story of God working amongst his people.
[00:17:21] Now, from this point forward, every time Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned, Priscilla precedes Aquila because a Priscilla carries the anointing. Except once.
[00:17:34] There's one time when Paul reverts it back and it's when he writes to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 16, Paul changes it back. Why? Well, where did it all start? Corinth.
[00:17:47] So when he writes to Corinth, Paul honors Aquila in Corinth because that's where it all started. It's his own town. And Priscilla couldn't have become who she became without Aquila.
[00:18:05] Paul honours him because he's a secure man who can see the anointing that's on his wife.
[00:18:14] Wives, honor your husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church.
[00:18:23] This is a kingdom principle. It's not about hierarchy. We've got to stop thinking. Yes, but who's in charge? It's about the anointing, the gifts and the purposes of Jesus Christ.
[00:18:36] So you might ask me. So is Quiller no longer the head of the household? Stop think. Of course he is. Stop thinking hierarchy. This is to do with function, not position. If you do, Jesus said, you're going to do greater works than me? Yes, in the Bible. So if you do greater works than Jesus, does that make Jesus less? No.
[00:18:58] When Jesus in Corinthians, we're going to read hands the kingdom the bride to the Father, does that make Jesus any less than he was? No, it's that.
[00:19:13] It's the plan. It's the purposes of God, not hierarchy. You see, too often we default to hierarchy. Who's in charge? But the more I walk with the Lord and I'm getting long in the tooth. Now, it's not who's in charge, it's who's in love.
[00:19:32] Because God is love. That's the Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit loving on each other.
[00:19:42] You see, if the anointing comes on you, whether you're a man, a woman, married, single, who cares?
[00:19:50] The anointing is the anointing. Of God.
[00:19:54] And, guys, if the anointing comes on your wife, be secure. Secure. Men have anointed wives.
[00:20:01] Insecure men have shut down their wives.
[00:20:05] I was at a meeting, and, you know, it was. It was man territory. And I was sitting next to someone saying, oh, can I pray for your wife?
[00:20:16] Because they didn't really know me. And he said, yeah, sure, sure. And I prayed. And she shook a little bit and stuff like that. And she said it was funny. Not many people ask me this. She said, what did you see? And I just said, oh, I just saw that there was just fog on you. What I didn't tell her was, there's a demon sitting on your head. There's a demons. They're literally covering your eyes.
[00:20:38] And as I looked around, what was happening was in the control of what women could do. They were shutting down.
[00:20:50] And that's not the Lord. You see, when the spirit of the Lord moves amongst us, men and women and children become free.
[00:21:05] So what do I believe?
[00:21:08] And this has moved, you know, I've been on a journey. So let me just tell you what I believe. If you want to throw things, do it afterwards. All right? You know, because we've still got a little bit more worship to do.
[00:21:20] Firstly, I believe that women can operate in lead in all of the offices of the church.
[00:21:28] I cannot see anything in the scriptures that doesn't release women to operate in any office in the church. Now, I do not believe that women can lead a church on their own outside of marriage. I believe we are made fundamentally different.
[00:21:44] And I'm speaking pragmatically as somebody who's released women to plant churches, and it has never gone well.
[00:21:52] I think that when they're out there in that situation, they tend to take on a more masculine approach, and it normally ends in disaster.
[00:22:03] I do believe that women can be the lead pastor within marriage. I think Joyce Meyer would be a really good example of that.
[00:22:13] And if you've ever heard Joyce speak, she always references her husband. And they've been married for 56 years.
[00:22:22] Even Deborah references her husband, but it's her that goes to war. Labidoth. So the scriptures, she's in marriage.
[00:22:33] I believe that a man can lead on his own, but there is a deficit. We miss what the wife brings.
[00:22:43] You know, men are often competitive, and none of this is bad.
[00:22:47] They don't always show mercy, and they often lack sensitivity to the spirit.
[00:22:52] I believe that when men and women lead together, there is a completeness.
[00:23:00] Man, woman, Holy Spirit. Ecclesiastes 4:12. It's always the plan. A three corded rope is not easily broken where men, women and the Holy Spirit are together.
[00:23:16] I have led a church as a single man and a married man.
[00:23:23] I could not be the person that I am today without Juliet.
[00:23:29] She is my helper. Now that sounds. Oh, she's just my little helper. Wait, before you throw anything, okay, because this is important because she's not throwing anything yet, okay?
[00:23:43] It's going to be all right.
[00:23:46] We do not lead equally. We lead differently.
[00:23:50] This is important.
[00:23:54] I do get the final say, but when I do disagree with Juliet, I'm usually wrong, See?
[00:24:04] And I get to answer Jesus. And I normally have to come back with my towel between my legs. Okay? You know, somebody asked me at first, is everything harmonious in your marriage? And I'm going, what?
[00:24:18] Oh my goodness. Now we fight all the time.
[00:24:23] We love each other. Let me give you an example.
[00:24:27] Some of you would have been here a few weeks ago. Chris Valentin was here and he got Juliet up and then he got me up and he anointed her as a prophet at the house. Did you see that? You see me? You know, we're standing up here and I'm up here like this. Like, when's my blessing?
[00:24:46] What about me?
[00:24:49] I'm just.
[00:24:52] Oh, he's finished.
[00:24:57] Look, Chris didn't have to say.
[00:25:03] There, there, Steve, you little puppy. Here's a little bit of blessing for you.
[00:25:10] I'm not a little puppy that needs his head patting.
[00:25:14] I'm a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called by the Holy Spirit to be a priest and lead this church. And isn't it time that women alongside men could be free to minister under the anointing of the Holy Spirit without anyone getting insecure?
[00:25:31] That's what Jesus wants to do.
[00:25:35] You know, we don't have to just because Juliet is getting a blessing. I don't need a blessing. I want a blessing, but I don't have to get one. I'm not any less because it's not about position.
[00:25:49] It's about the anointing. Okay? Now when God. We're almost done. When God created a helper in Genesis, referring to Eve, he created a partner who would be considered suitable or comparable to the man, not a subordinate figure.
[00:26:08] The Hebrew word ezer used for helper can also mean strength and support.
[00:26:15] Okay? Signifying a partnership, not a subservient role.
[00:26:23] The Hebrew word ezer, translated as helper, is used in the Bible to describe God as our helper.
[00:26:33] If he's our helper, he's not subservient to Us. Ever.
[00:26:38] Okay, we've misunderstood something. When Moses in Exodus 18 says, God was my ezer, my helper, he says he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.
[00:26:51] So when I say that Juliet is my helper, she has power and strength to save me from you.
[00:27:03] If you're throwing things at me to whatever situation, and likewise me to her, does it make sense?
[00:27:12] It's not the little lady, it's the big lady, just not the muscular lady who carries the anointing and the power of God.
[00:27:25] And that's in a marriage relationship. But if you're single, if you're not married, you can carry the anointing.
[00:27:32] You are powerful, whether you're a man or a woman.
[00:27:37] Look, friends, when we marry, we become one and three. Steve. Juliet and the Holy Spirit. In marriage, one of the pair can choose to become subservient.
[00:27:50] But I want you to know, when the Holy Spirit anoints us, he doesn't want us to become subservient. He wants us to multiply us. Marriage is not meant to put you down. Marriage is meant to multiply you. So when you step into marriage, you should both be multiplied, not become subservient. I am better because of Juliet. Juliet is better because of me. Hopefully you can ask her afterwards. And we are better because of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
[00:28:18] See, our marriage shouldn't be a hierarchy, but roles and giftings as he anoints. In the church, there are roles and giftings and anointings as the Holy Spirit wills, which liberate men, women and children alike to become whoever Jesus has called you to become.
[00:28:38] You see, I'm thankful for this book because this book is the story of God unfolding and revealing his wisdom to the lives of men and women. And Paul was willing to release an anointed lady to minister to the church with a secure husband whom she honours, especially in Corinth, because they complete each other in love.
[00:29:15] And that was always the plan for marriage.
[00:29:20] And if you're not yet married, you are looking for someone who will complete you and that together, you will serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Not someone that will lord it over you either way, but together, under the anointing of Jesus, you will thrive and become the people and the family and the children that God wants you to be.
[00:29:51] Thanks for listening to the Chroma Charge podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship, and how to donate, Visit our website Roma.chat.
