Let's take your Bibles and turn to Galatians chapter 3. We want to consider this morning women in the life and teaching of Jesus. But we'll begin here in Galatians 3. Paul says something very important here concerning women and men in light of Christianity. Galatians chapter 3. Verse 26. In Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Jesus had a high regard for women. He took time to minister to them and sometimes he singled them out personally for praise, like the woman who anointed him with perfume. He placed a high value on them, recognizing their intrinsic equality with men. Jesus did distinguish women from men in their roles and service. For example, he only chose men to be his apostles. to preach, to teach, to govern his people. And then the New Testament continues with that same thing, the biblical qualifications for an elder pastor as well as a deacon is that they are to be male. But this did not negate women from having different yet very important ministries. praying, providing for physical needs, and a very important part, we'll get to a little bit later, but being the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection. So though Jesus recognized role distinctions between the two genders, he did place a high value on women. which was totally different than first century Roman society as well as Jewish society. Women were regarded pretty much as second class citizens. But Jesus' regard for women was much different than his contemporaries. And we want to consider that this morning. Number one, he regarded their equality with men as persons. In Matthew chapter 19, Jesus is asked a question about divorce. And he responds by quoting from Genesis by saying, at the beginning the creator made male and female. Now let's read that in entirety from Genesis 1. I have it on your outline. Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. Now in these verses, humans were made the crown of creation over everything else that God had made. Both men and women were God's image bearers. They both had a personal relationship with God as his sons and daughters. They both were rulers for God over the rest of creation. And this gives them both a dignity and an equality between both of the sexes. They both display the glory of God's image. with equal brilliance. And Jesus' interaction with women in his earthly ministry reflects that. He treated women the same as he treated men. We see that in several ways. Number one, Jesus regularly addressed women directly while in public. Now this was very unusual for men to do in that society, even as the disciples, remember, were amazed that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman in John 4. He also spoke freely to the woman who was taken in adultery, the widow of Nain, the woman with the bleeding disorder, and a woman that called to him from the crowd. He spoke with them freely in public. His high regard for them also is seen by the way or the manner in which Jesus spoke to women. He spoke in a very thoughtful, caring manner. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each record Jesus tenderly addressing the woman with the bleeding disorder. and as he calls her, references her as daughter. The woman with the bent back for, I think, 18 years, Jesus addressed her also as a daughter of Abraham. And in Luke 13, 16, Jesus calls Jewish women together as daughters of Abraham. By doing that, he was giving them a spiritual status equal to that of men. And then his high regard for women is also exhibited in Jesus' teaching ministry on divorce and lust. In his treatment of divorce, Jesus clearly regards women not as property like the Roman society did, but as persons. They have legitimate rights in this regard. They should be respected. And with Jesus' condemnation of men looking at women lustfully in Matthew chapter 5, he was elevating the status of females, making them equal with men and not as objects of desire, which was pretty much all Roman society. Men and women can be together without sexual overtones. So frequently, Jesus traveled with men and women. They prayed together and ministered to each other mutually. Jesus told his disciples, lust does not have to be fed. Jesus calls upon his disciples to control their thoughts, to discipline their thoughts. And this control would allow females to then accompany them and work together with them in harmony in their discipleship in following Jesus. And this mutual discipleship was then continued in the practice of the early church. Paul writes, I mean Luke records in Luke 16 of Lydia in the church of Philippi ministering to Paul and his companions. And Paul in Romans 16 addresses my faithful workers with me in the gospel, mentioning Priscilla, Tryphena, and Tryphosa. But another way in which Jesus showed the value of women is that he personally ministered to them. both physically and spiritually. He didn't bypass women in his healing ministry. In fact, many times he focused upon them. He healed both genders. Peter's mother-in-law was sick. Jesus healed her so that she then in turn could minister to him. in Mark chapter one. Jesus cared for the weeping widow of Nain in Luke seven. She was already a widow and then she had lost her son. She had no male to grow up to help support her. And Jesus had compassion on her and raised her son from the dead. There was also the healing of the woman with the 18 year bent back in Luke 13. And he did that publicly on the Sabbath In the synagogue, the hostile religious leaders inside had shown no pity toward her whatsoever. But Jesus helped and defended this poor woman. He spoke to her, tenderly placed his hands upon her, and she stood erect and praised God. He then acknowledged her equal standing with the men in Israel's religious heritage by referring to her as a daughter of Abraham. And then there's his interaction with the woman with the bleeding disorder. All three of the Synoptic Gospels mention she had suffered 12 years of this malady. And one day she broke all religious and social customs by reaching out and touching Jesus as he passed through the crowd. Now she had this bleeding disorder that made her ceremonially unclean and she should not be touching people, let alone touching a man. Yet she was desperate and she was going to risk whatever. And we probably would have done the same if we were in her shoes, if you heard of a healer coming nearby. So she reaches out, touches Jesus, she's immediately healed. Jesus turns around and said, who touched me? And when she comes forward, Jesus speaks tenderly toward her. He addresses her tenderly as daughter and then publicly commends her faith and says, bids her to go in God's peace. It didn't, and then he leaves right away there and he goes to the home of Jairus and his wife who had just lost their daughter in death and he heals them. Jesus hadn't, there was no economics thing of who Jesus paid attention to and who he healed. Whether it was a high synagogue leader like Jairus or this woman with issue of blood. Same scenario here. And Jesus healed them both. He always ministered to needy and hurting females, even as he did to men. And Jesus showed compassion on more than just Jewish women. In Matthew 15, it records him helping a woman, a Canaanite woman from Syrophoenicia who asked Jesus to heal her daughter who was demon possessed. And Jesus could have ignored her because she was a Gentile. and unclean, but Jesus enlarged her understanding of spiritual truth, granted her request, cast out the demon of her daughter while complimenting her on her faith, a Gentile. And then, of course, there's also Jesus' concern for his mother. At the cross, when Jesus was dying, he was concerned about Mary's welfare, and so he put, had John be Mary's guardian. So he was concerned for the physical needs of women, but also especially their spiritual needs. He met the spiritual needs of the adulterous woman who was almost stoned. He also forgave the sins of the prostitute who washed his feet with tears. He delivered Mary Magdalene from seven demons, and she became one of his followers. But of course, I think the foremost example of this is found, of meeting the spiritual needs of women is found in John four, as Jesus brought the Samaritan woman to faith in himself as the Messiah. And it's amazing in that story. He went to Samaria in order to meet this woman. She was on his to-do list. She was important. This meeting wasn't an accident. Jews normally went around Samaria. They didn't go through it. But John 4.4 says, I must needs go through Samaria. Why? There's a woman there I need to talk to. So he deliberately went there to meet her, to keep that divine appointment. And meeting this woman, so meeting this woman in John 4 was just as important as meeting with Nicodemus in John 3. He showed her the same attention, the same care, the same interest that he showed to men. And he also taught her specific religious truths about God, about worship, and about the Messiah. That kind of instruction stood in contrast to the current rabbinical practices of only teaching men. But here was one-on-one teaching of spiritual instruction to this Samaritan of all people. Another example of teaching women, though very informal, is Luke 11, verses 27 through 28. As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed. But he said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Jesus didn't ignore this woman who cried out. He addresses her, and he did two important things. He gave her his undivided attention by listening to her comment, and then responding to that comment, but he pointed her toward further spiritual understanding. He said that hearing and keeping God's word are the primary spiritual tasks. And so Jesus was consistently willing to dialogue and interact with women. He ministered to them, meeting their needs, even their need to be heard. He healed them, conversed with them, and showed them the same care and concern that he showed men. And then thirdly, Jesus gave women dignity in his ministry. This is demonstrated four ways. Number one, Jesus used women as illustrations when he taught. In order, I think... a lot to awaken the interest in his female listeners. He used illustrations of women doing certain things, of a woman sweeping out a house looking for a lost coin, of two women grinding at a mill, of a lady mixing leaven into bread to show spiritual truth of God's kingdom. He mentions in Matthew 12 the Queen of Sheba, the Queen of the South who came to who travels far distance in order to see the truth about Solomon. And then he turns that and makes it a truth of warning, warning against judgment of those who reject Christ. He says, she will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and yet something greater than Solomon is here. And then there's a parable that Jesus gives that is exclusively about women, the parable of the ten virgins, Matthew 25, and Jesus uses them as an example of readiness or lack of readiness for Christ's kingdom. He mentions the widow Zarephath in Luke 4. She was the one that helped the prophet Elijah. gave her the last of her oil and food to feed God's prophet and how God blessed. And he brings that illustration up as an example of those outside of Israel who received God's blessings. The need for steadfast prayer was illustrated by a widow's persistence before a corrupt judge in Luke 18. And that must have really encouraged his female listeners at the time hearing Jesus praise a woman's persistence in their male-dominated society. Jesus also commented on a Poor widow, remember when his disciples were in the temple, and the people were coming, and in the ladies section of the temple, how they were giving their money, and she gave the last of her money, even though it was only two pieces of money, but that was her last, and how Jesus then uses that to praise her, her faith. She gave everything. He praised her sacrificial giving because she put her faith in God to provide for her from then on. Second, Jesus not only used women to illustrate his teaching, Jesus allowed women to sit under his teaching. Now that may not seem surprising to us in 2022, but it was very unusual in Jesus' day. Jesus shows that the study of biblical truth is not limited to men alone, but women also should study to show themselves approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of truth. In Luke 10, Jesus came to Bethany and he is welcomed to the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. And in the course of the visit, Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet, listening to him teach along with the rest of the disciples. Martha's busy in the kitchen preparing food, and she's upset with Mary not helping, and so she goes and interrupts Jesus and says, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me. But he answered, Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled out many things, but one thing is necessary, and get this, Mary has chosen what is better, which will not be taken away from her. Here Jesus points out the importance of learning from Christ. Service has its place and has its time. But learning about Christ and his kingdom, that must take precedence. And that's why we really support the ladies having their ladies' Bible study here. That's why we want everyone to come to Sunday school, to church, to Wednesday Bible study, both sexes. You both need to study. You both need to learn of Christ. Spiritual knowledge will help believers make the right decisions in life. It'll give us spiritual insight so we know how to rightly react to what's happening around us in the world. And so that he allowed Mary to hear his teaching in the presence of men, and that he told Martha that that was the more important thing to do, shows that there's just no gender distinctions for learning from Christ. On a later visit of Jesus to Bethany, after Lazarus had died, Jesus taught Martha again, and this time with reference to him being the resurrection and the life. And Martha's response showed her spiritual knowledge that she had been learning all along, for she says the same thing that Peter was commended for. She said in John 11, 27, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ. the son of God who came into the world. Jesus wanted women to learn, to know what the men know. He wanted them to hear his teaching. He also took the time on his way up Calvary to teach a group of women. They were crying. And in an extended proverb in Luke 23, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children, for the time will come when you'll say, blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. He was telling them to prepare. Judgment is going to, a greater suffering is going to come than what I'm suffering here. as far as their concerns. He says, you're weeping for me because I'm innocent and this is what Rome does to me. But what is gonna happen when Rome considers you guilty in the war that they're gonna rage on you? He just takes his time to teach women whenever there was the opportunity. And then Jesus had also women participate in his life and ministry. Luke 2 mentions female participation in the worship of Christ. Remember when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus at six weeks to the temple? And there's Anna, that elderly lady, and she recognizes Jesus' messiahship and praises him. And she is linked with Simeon, I think Luke purposely links both male and female in the worship of Jesus as messiah there in the temple. Just as he links Zechariah's story with Mary's in the first chapter of Luke. Care is taken to show both male and female participation in the worship of Christ. Another act of worship by women was their anointing of Jesus. Luke records an amazing anointing of his feet by a notorious sinful woman, a prostitute, comes and washes Jesus' feet with her tears. And the Pharisee rebukes what's going on for Jesus allowing this sinful woman to touch him. But Jesus forgives for sins. And then there's Mary's anointing of Jesus' head and feet with that pound of perfume. Remember that Judas didn't like? These women serve Christ out of love and appreciation. But Mary's anointing was even more significant because she did it with a view of his coming death, preparing him. Mary had true spiritual insight, no doubt gained from his teaching. And then we have to make mention of Mary's role, Jesus' mother, in her ministry to Jesus. I put out a Spurgeon quote from the bulletin. This is what Spurgeon has to say about mothers. Our fathers are all very well. God bless them. And a father's godly influence and earnest prayers are of untold value to his children. but the mothers are worth two of them, mostly as to the moral training and religious bent of their sons and daughters. And Mary had this impact upon Jesus. Mary's life was significant for at least three reasons. Number one, she was a firsthand witness of Jesus' divine origin and humanity. And she would have rehearsed these things. She kept these things in her heart, but she would have rehearsed these things to her child, teaching him the words of the angels and the events of his miraculous birth. Number two, she was a model of godliness and faith. And number three, she, along with other women, were praying in an upper room when the spirit fell. Remember at Pentecost? And then she was incorporated then into that first church. Other females ministered to his physical needs. Martha, as we've already seen, served at another supper just a week before Christ's death in John 12, suggesting that this was more than just an occasional thing. Luke 8, verses 2 to 3, speaks of a group of Galilean women who supported Jesus and the 12 financially. with whatever they needed. Now they served him in other general ways as well because these particular ladies are mentioned twice more without the context of financial help, but their labor was so important that the Holy Spirit wanted to make sure that they were remembered by name. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, Salome, and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph. Now we're not told how often these women ministered to them, probably more so when he was up in his Galilean ministry, but also Matthew 27 reveals that some of these women traveled with him all the way to Jerusalem. And a final indication of the dignity accorded to women in Jesus' ministry was their significant role in the resurrection accounts. In Jesus' day, women were not considered reliable witnesses. Josephus writes, let not the testimony of women be admitted on account of the levity and boldness of their sex. but God sovereignly gave them the important role of being the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection. All four Gospels record their loving efforts in coming early to the tomb on Sunday morning to pay their last respects. It doesn't matter if they were frightened or surprised by what they saw. They still faithfully bore witness of Jesus' resurrection to the disciples and probably many others in the months and years that followed. Now, some people have contrasted their faith with the doubts of the apostles. But neither the women nor the men were really ready for the resurrection. The women had prepared spices to anoint a dead body, didn't they? They were expecting the stone to still be in front of the tomb and they had to be convinced by the angel that Jesus was indeed risen. The important point though is that God did use women in this strategic juncture of redemptive history. The witness of these women was the first witness of the gospel. And what is the gospel? That Paul tells us, 1 Corinthians 15, that Jesus died, that he was buried, and that he rose again. That was the witness of the women. and that is witness of all of us, every Christian, every believer, man or woman, our message is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again for our justification. So even though there is this clear role distinction seen in Christ's choice of the apostles and in the exclusive type of work they were given to perform, No barriers of gender exist for believers in relation to Christ or in service to Christ. Jesus had a high regard for women, and he demonstrated it both in his life and in his teaching. He recognized the intrinsic equality between men and women. He valued their fellowship, their prayers, their service, their financial support, their witness. He honored women, taught them, ministered to them in thoughtful ways, and as a result, the women responded warmly to Jesus' ministry. And modern women can find the same rich fulfillment in serving Christ as did the Marys and Marthas of Judea. and the Joannas and Susannas of Galilee. Christianity is not a man's world. Paul makes this clear in the text we began with in Galatians 3. In Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. So whether you're male or female, Believe in Christ, serve Christ, love Christ, and then minister to one another for Christ. Let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for the ministry of women in my life. I thank you for my mother who taught me, who raised me in the nourishment and admonition of the word of the Lord. I thank you for her love, for her support, for her strength that she gave me growing up. I thank you for my wife and her support of me and my ministry and for her being a mother to our child. We thank you for all of the mothers here today. And I'm sure we are all thankful for our mothers growing up. Help us to continue even as we, as adults, to continue to honor our mothers and our fathers as you've directed us in your word. And we're thankful, Lord Jesus, that you set the right example for us as men in how to treat women. Help us to control our thoughts. Help us to be kind and gentle and speak words of kindness to them. Help us to minister to them and accept their ministry to us. We pray that your name will be glorified in how we treat women. In Jesus' name, amen.