Scripture
5Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. 7And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.” Matthew 28:5-7
Observation
This passage makes it clear the women were the first evangelists! This was by divine design. This was a narrative exclamation point against the argument that women cannot be ministers. Just look at it logically. Why would God entrust women to be the first to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and not entrust women to continue to share the Good New of Jesus Christ? The greatest news in all of history had to be entrusted to those who could handle it with urgency, accuracy and honesty. This is exactly what happened here in this Resurrection passage as well as many others in scripture.
Providers: God entrusts wealth to women for the advancement of the gospel. In Luke 8:1–3, we learn that Jesus and the disciples had patrons, and they were often wealthy women. Luke tells us Joanna and Susanna were among “many others” who “provided for them out of their means” (Luke 8:3). Similarly, Paul’s ministry was financed by women (Romans 16:2). A deaconess named Phoebe is identified as Paul’s “patron” (ESV), or “benefactor” (NIV), a term that literally means defender or protector. She also used her money and influence to help the missionaries fulfill their calling. Others—like Prisca (Romans 16:5) and Lydia (Acts 16:14)—opened up their homes.
Partners: “Workers in the Lord” such as Mary, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis “who has worked hard in the Lord” (Romans 16:6, 12). Priscilla and Aquila were essential partners, left behind to maintain the church when Paul departed for a different city (Acts 18). Priscilla being mentioned first indicates she was the leader in that house church.
Pastors, Preachers, Prophets: In Luke 2:38, Anna the prophetess is introduced as a woman who served the Lord by staying in the temple and worshiping. She would also teach the people, and "speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Timothy received training from his godly grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice in the doctrines of the faith (2 Timothy 1:5). This was where he received instruction in “the sacred writings” which made him “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Women like Priscilla are even used by God to help influential men like Apollos and “explain the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). In Philippians 4:2–3 Paul is clear that both Euodia and Syntyche “labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers.” This evangelistic effort bore much fruit. See Lydia (Acts 16) and even the Samaritan woman (Jn. 4) as further examples of women who, like Mary, were the first to bring the gospel to their own family and towns.
Application
This past Sunday both my wife Pastor Cyndi and a Deacon Barbara Christiansen shared from the pulpit at different points in the Sunday gathering and many were ministered to as a result. I just can’t wrap my head around an honest reading of scripture that can infer that somehow a women isn’t as gifted and anointed to preach Jesus as a man. When I read about the birth of The Church in Acts 2 through The outpouring of The Holy Spirit I don’t see any qualifiers. “1On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.” Peter gets up to explain this moment and doesn’t use any parentheticals when he quotes from Joel 2: 17‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. 18In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike—and they will prophesy.” I’m just not sure how you read into that passage anything other then that The Holy Spirit use who He wants how He wants when He wants. We don’t get to tell God how to minister. He tells us. What does He tell us? Men and women, young and old, rich and poor have all been filled with His Spirit to share His Good News.
Prayer
Lord, I thank You for the truth of Your Word and the joy of partnering with others, both male and female, to share Your Good News! You are alive and I pray that, just as Mary in todays passage, I would share the Good News with urgency, accuracy and honesty with everyone I come across. I pray that The Father’s House would continue to see many women raised up and released in their God-given callings to change this world with Your Good News!
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