Does the Bible Support Women in Ministry?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Matthew 28:19, Judges 4, Acts 2, Romans 16, Acts 18, Acts 21, 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Timothy 2:12, 1 Timothy 3

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--does-the-bible-support-women-in-ministry
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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we do believe it's biblical for women uh to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ so let me step back and give you kind of a broad historical perspective and then I'll give you a Biblical perspective in the early centuries it appeared that women were prominently used in Ministry and especially the original Christian churches were in homes so there wasn't the you know public building and stage and pulpit and so it was quite natural for a woman to lead in her own home for example and to lead her family and her friends and her neighbors and to share the gospel with them so in the early centuries when you study church history it seems that women were prominently used but as the church became more institutionalized uh the move of the spirit diminished so when the gifts of the Spirit and the calling of God is prominent uh the the move of the spirit then women's anointing becomes evident and and they're used but when the church lost the spirit became more public more institutionalized to formalized it conformed to the secular culture for public meetings and so as the Catholic Church developed uh it never allowed women to be preachers or priests and still doesn't today the early Protestant churches followed suit coming out of the Catholic church but then in when their Revival movements it's very interesting whenever their Revival movements moves the spirit that's when women had prominent roles because it wasn't based on institution or culture it was based on gifts and callings and anointings of God so the early Methodist movement women begin preaching the Holiness movement women begin preaching Pentecostal movement women begin preaching so at the beginning of the Pentecostal movement the the first Oneness organization the first list list of ministers we have in the one that's Pentecostal movement it comes from 1919.

based on the first names of the people or in some cases the title Mrs 29 of the credential preachers on that first list of one is Pentecostal preachers were women when the United Pentecostal Church was formed in 1945 the very first list we have is from 1946 21 of the ministers were women in our own UPC and that included the wife of our first general superintendent Howard Goss so we have a history of that now whether that's right or wrong we we need to talk about but when we go to scripture we do have to look at the whole of scripture because a prominent example would be if you want to support trinitarian baptism you go to Matthew 28 19.

it says baptized in the name of the father son Holy Spirit it says what it means it means what it says end of subject we don't have to look at any other scripture there it is black and white but we say hold on just a minute when you read the whole of scripture you find that the apostles consistently baptize in the name of Jesus Christ throughout the Book of Acts you find the Epistles always refer back to the Jesus name formula so with that in mind what does Matthew 28 19 mean and we focus on the name singular that fulfills Father Son and Holy Spirit from the rest of scripture it's obvious it's Jesus and in Jesus draws all the fullness of the godhead bodily so that's how we look at one scripture in isolation so let's take the case of women in Ministry when you look at the whole of scripture you'll find God used women in the Old Testament yes it was predominantly a patriarchal culture so men typically had leadership roles but you have a number of women who are identified as prophets or female prophets prophetesses you have Isaiah's wife you had holda the prophet just who who prophesied to King Josiah and it specifically says uh it identifies her as the wife I think it's of Shalom so she wasn't in Rebellion against her husband he was uh he was identified as the leader of the home I think the scriptures clear because typically when it introduced a prophet like Isaiah or or um you know name any other Prophet Amos or Elijah it doesn't say who was the husband of so and so but hold up being the wife of I think the scriptures make a point she was a good wife she followed the spiritual leadership of her husband in the home but that did not preclude her from being a prophet who and and she was under subjection to the king she obeyed her King but yet she could be a preacher to the king and to the whole nation including your own husband and yet that didn't violate scripture and then we find this amazing example the Book of Judges chapter four Deborah was a judge which is the Civil leader of the nation of Israel and a prophet which is a spiritual leader of all the other judges only Samuel is could also called a prophet so she was unusual as a spiritual leader as well as the Civic leader and some have said well God used her because no man would do the job you know Barrick said I'm not going to go to war without you but the point is she wasn't appointed during the war she was already a judge and so so no there were thousands of men in Israel who could have been judges but God chose Deborah so even though you might say well that's exceptional the fact that God would do it show it's not violating scriptural principle or creation principle we do believe that the husband should be the head of the home but we do believe that that essentially the marriage is a partnership but that does not limit a wife from having a role that God chooses and again in the case of Deborah it says she was a mother and it says she was the husband of the wife of her husband lapidoth so once again I think scripture is being intentional she didn't violate the proper uh guidelines for the home she followed her husband's Godly leadership but yet she exercised this role now you find that precedent already established in the Old Testament so if it was wrong for women to be a leader or a preacher or a prophet or spokesman for God it wouldn't have happened one time in scripture at least not with God's approval but multiple times it's with God's approval when you come to the New Testament in Acts 2 there is an expansion of ministry under the New Covenant and specifically says your sons and your daughters shall prophesy prophecy speaking for God now it could be just a momentary thing such as inspiration of the moment an utterance but you find examples in the New Testament so in Romans 16 now this is the Apostle Paul he's writing and giving greetings to the church at Rome and he mentions a number of women who are workers in the gospel and he uses the same Greek titles for them that he uses for males so you have in Romans 16 Phoebe who's a servant literally Deacon of the church now whether he was using it generically or in the in the sense of Deacon as in other patients passes the New Testament and she was a supporter a protector of the church she had a prominent role in fact he used her to deliver his his letter uh so she was an emissary of Paul and then he mentions Priscilla and Aquila they're mentioned five different places in the New Testament and whenever the connotation is the family Aquila is mentioned first but whenever it's talking about their Ministry Priscilla is mentioned first well it's unusual for the woman's name to even mention it all and doubly unusual for the woman's name to mentioned first indicating that she had the leading ministerial role well he says Priscilla and Aquila were his fellow workers and that they were um they had a church in their home so at the least they were joint husband and wife we find as pastors we find from acts 18 that they jointly taught Apollos a leading preacher and led him into truth and again a Priscilla's mentioned first so she was definitely a Christian teacher and a Christian Pastor then Paul mentions andronicus and Junior and Jonathan is a masculine name junior is a feminine name we don't have much information about them I presume by being mentioned together they must have been husband wife they wouldn't have been unmarried male female teen but he says they were notable apostles and they had risked their lives for the gospel so they they were he used the term Apostle for them then later he mentioned several other uh women like trifina and trifosa and says they were co-workers in the gospel using the same terms he used in other places for men so here we have these different titles and then uh acts 21 Philip the Evangelist had four dollar four daughters who prophesied they regularly prophesied so Apostle Prophet Pastor teacher uh co-worker Deacon all of these technical terms in the New Testament use for ministries of various kinds all were used for women so in that context and um and there there are two passes in Scripture that would seem to limit women the one you mentioned and the one in First Corinthians now for a full discussion I've got three chapters in my book The Apostolic Church in the 21st century which goes in a much greater detail than I can do here but you find a passage First Corinthians 14 which is talking about disruption in the church it talks about uh disruption caused by people indiscriminately speaking in tongues with no interpretation so it gives guidelines for that it's not forbidding tongues but it's proper use of tongues in the public service then it talks about women asking questions of their husbands apparently some women were disrupting the service and so he says be silent the church ask questions at home it's not an absolute prohibition but it's regulation for some problem that existed in the church but we know it's not absolute because Paul had already said in First Corinthians 11 if a woman is going to pray or prophesy in church she should have her head covered and her long hairs are covering so he's basically saying women can preach prophesy and pray in public worship but they need to do so as women as feminine not as imitation men not usurping the male role but in the feminine role so it with that in mind we come to First Timothy 2 if you read the whole book Paul is dealing with a problem of false teaching in the church at Ephesus he has appointed Timothy as a young minister to go to the church at Ephesus take charge probably Timothy isn't married and so there's an issue in the church and then he says I don't allow a woman to teach or usurp Authority so that it's a rare word in in the Greek and I actually think the King James translates it better than a lot of other translations because it's not just having Authority but usurping taking Authority wrongfully and it could be that the teaching and usurping Authority is combined to usurp authority to teach and it mentions a woman singular so he could have a particular woman in mind so here's the context I see Timothy's a young Minister probably single he's supposed to take charge of this church and here's a woman a prominent woman in the church that she is causing problems by teaching false Doctrine and she's probably married her husband is probably prominent as well Timothy doesn't know what to do and so Paul says look Timothy you might be young you might be single you don't want to interfere with another man's wife but in this case I don't allow a woman like that to teach or take authority so Timothy you need to take authority and then he used the example of Adam and Eve which some people say well this is an absolute rule no he's using a very specific example Adam knew the truth he told Eve what God had said eve said let's do something different Adam should have said eve be quiet don't talk about violating God's word we need to follow God's word but instead Adam said okay I'll go along now that doesn't mean all women are deceivers it doesn't mean no women can teach but he would Paul was using that as an example so Timothy here's this woman don't make the same mistake Adam said was okay you're a prominent woman the church your husband is supporting you so I'll just leave you alone no take authority say no you can't teach this false Doctrine that's contrary to God's word sit down be silent be quiet and so that's what he was saying and so that would not apply to all women but it would apply to any woman who's teaching Doctrine contrary to the church or who is trying to take authority over the proper authority of the church that but if a woman is under Authority so if she's married she follows The Godly leadership of her husband in the home and she follows The Godly established leadership of the church follows the established doctrine of the church then she is freedom Minister she can prophesy as Acts 2 says she can prophesy as First Corinthians 11 says she can hold offices such as uh mentioned in Romans chapter 16.

so that's why the United Pentecostal Church International ordains women when we look at the whole of scripture and especially the New Testament including specifically the example of the Apostle Paul he endorsed women in Ministry so just because he gave one instruction for handling a problematic situation we should not allow that to override everything else scripture says and everything else Paul himself said and did now one final thing in First Corinthians First Timothy 3 when Paul gets qualifications for a bishop which in the New Testament context would be like a senior pastor he said he should be the husband of one wife and his children's objection so some people say see husband one wife uh has to be a husband has to be a man but they're missing the bigger picture yes Paul is using the typical example uh husband a man who's married who has children so given that example yes he should be so he's speaking against polygamy and he's speaking for faithfulness in marriage but that is setting a principle using that typical example is not meant to be exclusive if you say it's meant to be exclusive then he has to have children plural he has to have a white pearl so no single man could qualify no man who is divorced because of scriptural principles because his wife left him um no man who's widowed no man who's married and has no children or he only has one child but he doesn't have children so if you're gonna if you're gonna say that typical example is meant to be an exclusive exhaustive definition then you would not allow Paul to be a preacher you would not allow Jesus to be a preacher and you you would only allow preachers who are currently married to one wife who never been divorced or never been widowed or never been remarried and who have at least two children who are living for God then they could be a preacher that's clearly not what Paul meant because he wasn't trying to exclude him himself from being a preacher so I think that's going off in the wrong track I think if you look at the whole of scripture there's adequate justification uh for both men and women if we are under Authority and if we follow our proper gender distinction as given by God then yes we can have a ministry that's given by God and also recognized by the church