I think it's important that you and I look to the Word of God as the authority in your life. Because apart from that, you may either be driven by culture, customs, traditions. And I will tell you that oftentimes in every one of those, in some way there's a flaw. So, you know, I know that sometimes people say, why did we do so much singing in church? Because oftentimes we take the Word of God, even in song, and we offer it up as an expression to God as truth. And you can see, oftentimes when you first become a Christian, you might not necessarily be so thrilled about singing a song. But when you come to more of an understanding of who Christ is and the truth that he has for your life and how it's affected you, it kind of comes out. It comes out of you. Well, even when we go to this passage, some of the truth that's in here does come out. It's kind of unique in a sense because I've entitled the message this morning. It is with the idea that Paul is looking at just this whole part of his concern when it comes to about order of worship. The order of worship. Now, we think of the worship just about what we just dealt with and what we were dealing with and we kind of go to that. And yet it is a matter of being applicable here in our worship. but a little different than, in a sense, the book of 1 Corinthians when it comes to those that we're actually assembling together. One is, how many of you think church in a school? That's just not right. Go ahead, be honest with me. This just doesn't seem right, does it? You can say that. It's like, pastor, when are we gonna get out of here? How many of you actually thought that? When are we gonna get out of here? Okay, honesty. How about this? We started Oasis after we changed the name from Berean Baptist Church that was meeting in a hotel. And a short time after that, we went to our house. Anyone remember going to the house? There's only a couple that know probably about going to the house. And you would not believe it if you saw my house and looked in my garage. We actually had that as our worship place at the house. That's where we met. And you think of that and say, but one of the things we are talking about when we look at this passage and we see the idea of worship, the early church began in its worship with the fact of actually meeting in a house. Well, I could say they were in a synagogue and then they really got out of the synagogue because of what they were preaching and the the fact that Jesus Christ has come as Messiah and that that Messiah has actually purchased our salvation through his death, burial, and resurrection and ascension to heaven. and people were placing their faith wholly and truly in Jesus Christ as Messiah. That was not going to fit in the area of a synagogue. And so they were a church that was in a sense wandering, and what they did is they met in homes, and in those homes in Corinth, And so we have a setting here when Paul talks about worship, and he's already talked with the idea here that they've taken to some of the traditions and the teachings that he has taught. He's moved from there to where he wants to establish them in understanding their worship. And yet it's one of these things that you see he's concerned. He's concerned about their worship because there's something within it that has drawn his attention that would say that in the future, this is going to be a problem. So we come on to a scene of this in the writing here. And so even as he says, and I will actually look at the verses again from verse four, okay? So you could say, well, last week that means we only got verse two and three. You're right, I guess you could say that. But if we start at verse four and go down to verse 10, it says this. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, But every wife or woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head was shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, she should cut her hair short. Since it is a disgrace for a woman to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her head be covered. And then he goes down farther again. He says, For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is in the image of the glory of God. But a woman is in the glory of man. For a man was not made from a woman, but a woman from a man. Neither was a man created for a woman, but a woman for a man. That is why a wife, a woman, ought to have the symbol of authority upon her head. And then here comes a statement. You can put this in bold. Because of the angels. Paul just like stops it like that. When you look at this, these verses actually establish the understanding of why Paul is concerned about the order of worship. And he's going to tell us this. And I say order because even the passage gives us a concept thought of order. It is like the arrangement of saying A, B, C. C, B, A. ABCCBA. You're thinking, what is that? It is a form that is set up that Paul's writing in here. Anyone know what the name is? I think it is chiastic. Chiastic. In other words, he makes a statement, then he makes another statement. And they parallel to each other. They're a contrast. And in it, he builds one topic, and then he establishes the other topic. and ultimately to bring out a point, a crux, a very important point that rises above others. And that actually comes in the area of verse 6. In verse 6, he says, let a woman cover her head. You say, well, this is the point of the passage? Yeah. And then he also makes it sure that you understand that this is the point of the passage. Because he says, because of the angels. And he's talking in relationship to the point here about women should be covering their heads. in the areas of worship. Now, what does that mean? We'll look a little farther with that, but let's go to the Lord in prayer. God, we thank you this morning as we come to you. We look at this passage and we see its difficulties. We don't just skip over it. God, thank you that you have given to us this instruction, and we ask that you'd help us to understand, even in our lives, Even though there may be so many different thoughts behind it, Lord, may we see that you have something for us here, that you draw without the scripture that we can rest upon as something that is from your word and also to help us in our daily walk and to know you as our God and creator. So Lord, we pray that you create in our heart a desire to know you, to grow in you, and to be. Lord, that glory that you set before us, and we'll give you the thanks in Jesus' name. So in this passage, we see Paul's concern about order of worship, and he does it with this. And I say that when we say that parallel. Notice in verse 4, it says, Dishonors that's the first one the parallel to that is then verse 5 verse 5 is every wife who prays and prophesies With her head uncovered dishonors Her head and then even there it says since it is this if she were shaven There's a statement here as we look at and it keeps going back and forth except for one verse One verse here is the thought that we see in verse 13. When he says there, he says, That is the point to the passage. In other words, it doesn't stand out in the contrast in the sense of man, woman. And here, man is used as setting the parallel part of what we're seeing in this passage, but then the woman in the contrast is the other section. And yet, this is actually where the problem lies within the church here at Corinth. It lies here and yet it does establish something. It's pretty interesting to think of because when you think of verses 4 and 5, there's something here that's kind of unique within this passage. One is that you see that every man who prays and prophesies. And then it says in verse 5, and every woman who prays and prophesies. That was not necessarily what you saw in the Old Testament. That's what you didn't, you necessarily did not see that in a Jewish life. But you do see it here. I think it's very unique. And yet it's unique. And yet Joel prophesies about that men and women will actually speak out, and I'll just paraphrase it, your name. And in that sense, it'll be a sign to you. To you for what? The work of God. The work of God in establishing the church. the establishing of the Holy Spirit being poured out. So this is a very unique situation that's happening, and it's going on in the sense in a house. Now I don't know about you, Chris got us started with this, but if you did come to my house and we were actually going to have service, that would probably be the one thing I'd be saying to my children and to my wife. Put on your shoes. You're like, what? What's the big thing about that? Well, in some cultures, shoes or feet are very, they can be offensive. You know, a naked foot. I don't want to see your feet or toes, and I don't want you to see mine. But you know, One of the things you notice in this is that there is this whole point that he's going to draw in here when he talks about the idea of head covering. And he says, put on. Because we'd like to think that it was actually just as clear as that. Go get yourself a head cover and put it on your head. When you look at the passage, the passage gives us a concept that we have to understand that Paul is simply talking about when he talks about head covering here. It is something that is has with the idea of having come down. Having come down. And of course, you may say, well, that's hair. Okay. Or it can be some type of cloth that wraps and hangs down. that's placed upon that goes well with what the Greek meaning is here. Because sometimes we do look at this passage and we kind of draw some ideas in it with the thought that women should have long hair and guys should have short hair. Which in a culture setting, we would say that's correct. If you were backing up, if you... I had a job in my teenage years that my boss, he was my father's boss, but they owned a trucking outfit. He was adamant about the fact you had to have short hair as a man. You couldn't work in the company if you didn't. I would wear hats all the time, stuffing my hair behind my ears and up in my hat just because I didn't want my hair cut. I didn't want it cut, but the custom was. My dad would even set me down in the barber's seat at the local barber in town, and he would say, and it would bug me every time, he would sit there, and as I'd sit up there, and they'd put the board across, then they'd put you down on top of the board, and then the guy would click on the buzzers, you know, the clippers, and they would make that tone, and he says, give him a man's haircut. I hated that. And so because of that, every time they would turn it on and they'd come at me with those shears, and this guy didn't care. I mean, he was a barber. Some say that's why guys go to barbers and women go to salons. You know, that might have been a concept. You know, it's like, you don't go there. It's not right to go there, Wayne. You're going to the salon, are you? I know you are. Yep. So you think of this, you know, it's kind of one of these culture areas. And so Paul takes, and yes, there's a topic that comes in here that we could look at and say, oh, men with their heads cuffed and it's a shame. And women with their hair, well, we would say if it was short, would be a shame. But that wasn't necessarily Totally clear because in the Old Testament you would find in the Old Testament In Jewish culture I should say if they made a vow do you know what they usually did when they made a vow or certain vows? They would shave their head not only men but women Both It was fine if they were actually in their own house with their family, they were fine to walk around bald-headed. Both. Especially the woman. One of the writers was saying this. And it's not all the point of the passage, but the idea we're establishing here is the thought of even the culture or tradition. And so for a woman, she would actually have to put something on her head to go out to cover up her baldness. That's why when he talks about it being short, if she's cut or shaped, put a cover on it. And so there was a culture concept. Because in the culture, sometimes that meant something specifically. If a woman went outside and she had her head shaved when she was outside, within a Roman and Greek culture, that really meant that she was actually living in this type of lifestyle that would be kind of free and fancy. Let's say it like that, okay? Free and fancy. So here a woman goes out, and not only just the idea of not having her head covered if it was bald, but if she went out and actually if her hair was let down. Because we think sometimes, oh, the Bible's talking about women should have long hair. Not out in public. Because if you had long hair and flashing it around, it was kind of one of those ideas that I could say to our young men here, Girls available! In a culture, it's like that was what we distinguished in the idea of when men were looking upon, they looked at certain things. And so Paul's got lots of things that are here. I think he has maybe some points that are here, but I would tell you the idea is it's not some of the traditions and cultures that we're looking at. So even when we look at the passage, we sometimes say, well, is it wrong for a woman to cut her hair? I had somebody ask me that. Somebody said to me, before you get there, she says, are you going to tell me what you say about whether women should have long hair or short hair? I said, I'm not going to tell you. Although there was culture that oftentimes dictated some of these things that were practices. And so Paul knows this even within the church at Corinth because they're influenced by a Roman culture, a Jewish tradition, a pagan goddess, Demetrius, or whatever his name is there. And so all this, even the idea when it comes to the thought of having your hair pulled up and braids, might not necessarily have been a bad thing, but having your hair pulled up, braids, with actually glittering tinsel of some type in it, or though, was actually a statement that would be made in the culture. And so there's a lot of things going on in Corinth and in this church. And so when Paul looks at it, he's not taking every part of the culture and trying to say that it is wrong, because within the culture, there may be things that we're doing, but there ought to be specific guidelines that we understand. And so he brings out this part of even this complicated topic of actually saying women should have their head covered. And so he then builds off of this literally the idea of having down from the head. Even in, as it said, verse 5-4 for men, it's like it's shameful for a man to pray and prophesy with a head covering. Then he says that it's shameful for a woman that she is actually praying and prophesying without a head covering. And so when you think of this, he sets forth in this with a difficult topic. Because if you look at the area of the culture, there is things going on within it. But we can say that one of the things he does, even in making a pattern here, he does specifically say that this is a problem when it comes to the area that women did not have their head covered. And so we have to kind of go to look at that and say, what does it mean? Is it talking about long hair, short hair? Is it talking about a dohli on top or not a dohli? that for whatever reason there is in this an absence of covering, Paul asserts that such behavior is actually shameful for a woman. Now this goes on with the idea that there's a Moffat here. And this is the idea, a point that there is that he said in verses 4 and 5 that the man was created with the concept that Christ was the head. And even as we look at this, we find that man was created in the image of God, and the thought that his image that he bears was one that it would be the thought of glorifying. And the woman was created in the image of man, and with that image that she has a head. And the idea of this head is that, in a sense, there are the same. If the man is actually to glorify God, the woman would be to glorify the area of man, which ultimately would be glorifying Christ. But if she's not bringing glory to her head, she's bringing shame. And so he's addressing a concept of shame here. with the area of relationship to the head and that correlation of where does the glory go? Where is it going? Is it to oneself? What is it caused to the person that you are actually, in correlation to the head, would be even the woman would be the man. And so you see throughout the passage that there's a relationship here that often talks about men, women, husband, wife, or even the relationship of headship. Headship in a family setting. You know, because there could be in a setting of the New Testament, slavery was part of it. Not that we think of it as today, but there would be those that would be actually purchased to be part of a household. And there were certain responsibilities and many times they had great privileges. Yet that person or the head of that house would have been the one that there was to be the expression of glory and glory to be given. And if it wasn't following in that right fashion, then there would be shame. And so what he wants to draw here is the principle that we see, once again, with the thought of glory and shame. Because if they're not carrying out what they should be doing in the relationship to headship, it's actually shame. And there was shame going on in the church. Maybe not even thinking about it. Even the thought of having church in your house. You know, you don't necessarily think of a head covering because you're at your own home. And so in this, he said there was those that were prophesying. with the thought of shame. And so it was pretty easy to kind of get caught up in this point without considering the thought of glory that's happening. So particularly in the behavior that reflected poorly, and it reflected poorly on the headship. Now this doesn't mean that, as he's saying here, and sometimes is what we think is this is an authority issue, this is a subservient, this is a matter of dictation or inferiority. It is with the mindset of even the scripture talks about with creation. So in the husband, especially when it comes to the area that shame would be brought with the idea that the way the woman was responding in public. Well, you wouldn't think of your home as public. But if there was a service going on there, it was public. And it was to be consistent. And so here, the shame would be given in the area of the headship when it comes up. So here, he's talking about some of these things we could probably draw out of some cultures that come in here, is the idea that one of the things you could see is maybe modest dressed. You know, when we think of it, is it wrong for a woman to have very short hair? Well, if she looks like a man, yes. But does that make short hair wrong? No. But what is the actual appearance? Is it wrong if she was long-haired? No. So we're not really drawing a conclusion based out of the areas of culture here, but the idea is who's getting the glory? in the relationship to the behavior. And so even the wife here, the husband is especially shamed through the area of the wife's uncovered in public. And so Paul argues with the idea here that it is a direct command. In other words, even in this passage he says here, let her cover her head. It is a statement. So it's the idea of, let's be considerate of what are we demonstrating. And I think this even goes, we say specifically here, this is talking about with this situation there with women. But it also goes to men too. When we think about what are we declaring? You know, what is it? I won't be able to say it. Those that take on as men take on as female expressions or traits. And that is a concern too. It's the idea when he talks about even the men having the non-head covering. Because what he's doing is creating a problem with the thought of why he was created. He was created for the glory of God, and acting outside of that would be wrong. So he wants to drive home a point that's particular that refers to, even here, to the woman's head. It seems like there was a problem with the idea of the situation with women, especially when it comes to occultic backgrounds, when it comes to the area of Roman influence. or even in the traditions once again. So here he gives us a kind of a concern. So Paul begins the idea, he gives an argument, and he ends it with the thought of this direct command. And so even when it comes to the idea of being out in public. And so this here is not necessarily a passage that strictly, you could say, expresses the idea of the restriction of spiritual gift, although he will talk about spiritual gifts in the future, because you see both men and women actually prophesying here. This passage isn't actually directly going towards the idea of prophesying, but the idea in the worship as that prophesy is, because what would happen is it's like having somebody that's not dressed modestly. And I said to that person, you know, when it came to service, if we were gathering in a house or together in public, and they weren't actually dressed well in modesty, They had the culture before them that maybe in their upbringing, even though they've come to Christ, this isn't an idea here that this person's not saved or anything like this. It's a matter of they're dealing with their culture and what's going on and what they've come from. And as they express that in the areas of worship, if it was to draw attention from the prayer and the prophecy part of it, it was wrong. Like, modesty. You know, when you think of it, it's essentially a key factor in the areas of a life because what type of attention do you draw on, especially in the areas here with a worship service? And so if the thoughts were given towards the dress and the individual instead of actually the praying and the prophesying, it brought shame. And so he's saying, it's got to stop. It's not saying cut your hair, let your hair grow long, because that's your actual veil. Or if you have it cut short, you're wrong. But how is it in the areas of your appearance and expression of gift? And the idea here is that he is protecting the thought of modesty and the virtue of dress, attire. And so it is a key thing when it comes to the areas of worship. So when you think that was actually one of the things you could see is that he's talking about as he deals with a problem. But then not only the area of a problem, but he has an argument that he wants to make clear. Because what is the argument that he wants to make clear is that he is actually building this on the basis of a premise. And this premise that he's introducing is the head concept. It's not just as we think of as our anatomical head. Anatomical head. And then also the idea of a metaphor. He builds it with this that it is this primacy, and it is with that everyone has a head, and Christ is the head of man, and the head of woman is man, and yet God is the head of Christ. So when you think of the sequence that he gives, it's the idea that he wants to set up this argument that is one that is going to be clear of glory, where it goes. And what we do is to be for His glory, not to His shame. And so that becomes, as in verse 3, but then he does it, he says here, he says, I urge you, the head refers to, in a sense here, the thought of what is preeminent. What surpasses all things. It's not about The length of hair, baldness. It's not about certain dress or attire. But what the premise is, or he refers to it, is his preeminence. It surpasses everything. This is what rules in our life. This is the direction. It's what's foremost. In other words, Paul's playing on this when he uses the concept of head, the thought that of the body, and that that is also metaphorical. You are actually created for God's glory. And so likewise, this is the part of how we participate in the areas of worship. And you wonder sometimes, how did we get to the place where we were so concerned? What do we wear to church? It's like, I don't know if we've ever done this. I've had somebody come up to me and say, Pastor, why don't we have pajama days? Why don't we have pajama days at church? I mean, we have sports days, right? We have sports days or we do culture things where it's like, let's dress up like a Western attire. Well, why don't we come to church in our pajamas? You don't want me to come to church in my pajamas. It's not going to establish the idea that what we do here surpasses all things. like culture, fun, activities, some of the factors that come into this. So foremost, Paul wants us to see here that likewise women are to participate in a public service with the idea that it is with the concept that it should not bring shame. Just like he said the man, although man wasn't the point, it was the actual comparison here that Christians should avoid bringing shame to their metaphorical head. And who is the metaphorical head? Christ. This is what he does here. So the explanation Paul offers here is this statement out of verse 4 with the fact that we reflect the image of God. We also see in verse 7 that the statement comes to us with that the wife reflects the glory of the man. And the glory here, this motif, the glory is that it counterbalances the thought of shame. Back and forth is what he's doing in this. And the woman and the man are both to bring glory because the fact is that they have an obligation to their head. Their head. So when he says here the concern about the man, whether or not he's uncovered, and the woman who is actually covered, because the concern is about where they're directing their actual glory. And so this is what he gives out of actually Genesis. Even out of Genesis chapter 2 verse 18, the woman was created for man and man was actually, a woman was brought out of man. It's not that she's lesser, and it's not that she's not in the glory of God, in the image. She is, just as He is. And so together they express this. So when you think of verse 10, he says, that is why the wife ought to have a symbol on her head because of the angels. So here was the problem. He does it again and states it at the end, the wife and her attire, what she was doing, and also her thought process, but she says, because of the angels. Now that is a statement, because of the angels. There is so many things about this, but Paul uses this as the idea that this is the case scenario to it. This is the reason or it's because. So then you have to look back and you have to look and see, what did the angels declare to us? Well, you think of the seraphims, don't you? And when they were crying, holy, holy, what did they do? Their wings covered their face. But what were they doing is giving glory, but that's not necessarily what do the angels do. The angels are actually messengers of God. Sometimes you think of, well, okay, as the angels do, well, being messengers of God. How about order and right? Old Testament, the idea of angels often were the thought that they were to bring forth the law, and not only the law, but the carrying out of the law and its integrity. They were also, in some ways, thought of being, in some areas, those that were part of being there in a worship service and within that worship. So when you think here, you say, what does it mean with the angels? I kind of like to think that Paul drawing a conclusion, and that conclusion had to deal with the fact that it is not clear, but yet you could say that it was probably with that he was wanting them to examine and be inclined to actually presume the thought of their worship. Observe their worship. Observe it in a way that is in the presence of God. So as the angels do, When some would say, well, the angels actually fought battles. You look back in the Old Testament, and they were ready to fight battles. When we think of different events, sometimes it was a matter of angels would arrive. And even, what was it, Daniel was actually, in a sense, he was like, I would have been here earlier, angel tells him, but I was hindered. you know, that they're fighting battles, or maybe they're part of worship, or they're part of league. But yet, here it is just the concept, as do as the angels do. In other words, being before in the presence of God, in necessity of playing a greater order, conveying, in a sense, the idea of modesty, changing the thought of direction or guidance. Do what the angels do. They're part of it. They take glory in the sense of what's happening on earth when salvation is being carried out in the lives of a believer. The scripture says the angels rejoice when a person comes to Christ. part of the worship. It even comes to the centrality of the gospel. What do the angels do? They're concerned. They're watching. If you haven't trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, the angels are watching. They're watching you hear the Word of God and the need that you have to surrender your kingdom, your own will, and give that over to Christ. That it would be about what God wants in your life. the direction, the guidance, not just going by culture. Sometimes we look at culture and we say, well, there's nothing wrong with that. It's not like it's unbiblical. And so we often think there's, you know, and yet we want to be biblical. But it doesn't mean that what we're doing sometimes is always wrong. And that's what he was saying even when you look at prior verses. The thought of whether we're eating food that was offered to a sacrifice or to an idol. Was it wrong? Maybe within the circumstances or situation, we could come to a conclusion it was wrong. And other times we could say, no, I can do this. So when people come up and say, well, should I have my hair short or long? Should I have a head covering or should I not have a head covering? We can look at that and say, that's not the argument. The argument is, where are you giving glory? And how are you acting it out? Has like the angels who are watching over And you, when you go to heaven, you're not going to be an angel that is going to be concerned about what's going on in heaven, or in hell, or excuse me, either one of those places. On earth, you'll be concerned about what's going on in heaven. You, in your relationship. The angels have a specific role. And so here, even you see this. So Paul draws a conclusion here. He says, that's why the wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head. And what is that that she might have? And later on, he's going to talk about this thought of this head and even building a little farther with it, that we clearly see that where this authority is. So is there something different? I would say that it's a little harder today because sometimes as we look at the New Testament church, it started and it started with a great change. Does that mean everything's the same? Today, everything? This is gonna cover topics when we start looking at the thought of the spiritual gifts. Different gifts, and when someone say, well, that's a sign gift, or that's a word of revelation, and you look at some of the things that are there, and it's like, well, what do we do with this? He's gonna answer that. And it builds out of this here. that even in this start, which was very unique, which is hard to actually define, that the church itself today and how it acts. But there is other parts of scripture, and later on we'll see even the other parts of the scripture, when it says, what are we supposed to do? Do what other churches are doing? So other churches, he's saying check out the other ones. The problems that are going on here, some of the things, and I'm not saying other churches just within our society, but when he was saying here in the early part of the church what was happening. This is kind of unique to the area of First Corinthians. And so he does say to them, examine the churches, God's people. Examine them. Look at them. Come to understanding of what I have to say. Not what is just being said by them, but what they're practicing when it comes to the truth of the Word of God.