You may be seated, church. Alright, we're going to be in 1 Corinthians 11 today. Verses 2-16 to be exact. And the title of the sermon today is, Honoring the Head or the Covering? Honoring the Head or the Covering? Verses 2-16. I'm going to try to move through this. There's some heavy theological things that we're going to have to go through here. And we have a limited amount of time. Actually, we don't, because there's food, so I'll just go really long. No, I'm just kidding. Alright. 1 Corinthians 11, verses 2-16. Hear now the words of the living and true God. Now, I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man. For indeed, man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake. Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman, and all things originate from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering. But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God. Thus ends the reading of God's Holy Word. Let's pray as we approach the rest of His Word. Father in Heaven, I need You now, dear God. Lord, we thank You that You've given us this Word. Even this section is profitable valuable for teaching, for reproof, for training in righteousness. Every part of your word has value. And so, Lord, I pray that you would help us to see the great value in this passage. I pray, God, that we would be able to see what you really want us to adhere to here, Lord. So, Lord, we need you to be with us. We need you to direct us, especially me, dear God. Please let every focus be on You and Your Word this morning. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. So, we have just finished, what, three chapters? Chapters 8, 9, and 10 on the topic of idolatry and idol meat. And really, we ended with considering the conscience of other Christians as well as unbelievers being so selfless so that all come to Christ and stay with Christ. But the Apostle Paul is now switching topics. As he does in his letters, he's moving on to something else. The next four chapters from this church planter will cover various aspects of the Corinthian church as a whole, especially on the topic of gathering together. He's addressed that a little bit, but he's really addressed the internal, the human heart, the individual. But now we're going to see, what is this supposed to look like when we're together? And that's what this will be going over. And you know, that's kind of an intimidating thing for people when they turn to Christ and go to a church for the first time, especially in our state. That man or woman thinks, what are they going to want me to do? I imagine when people go to our service, they're like, OK, kneel down, stand up, OK, do this. And you're wondering, what's going on? Why are we doing that? Someone goes, what will it be like? What am I allowed to participate in? And of course, things as simple as What do I wear? Comes to mind. In fact, if you go to most churches' websites now, we even have this. I think it was... like a template, and we're like, all right, we'll keep it. What to expect on Sunday? And I think actually it has some value in this state. What can you expect? You know, we talk about how long a service runs. We talk about some people are convicted to wear their Sunday's best. Some come with Hawaiian shirts and hats, whatever, flip flops, you name it, whatever you are convicted in your worship to God. So, you know, Those things come up, but people often think that, especially I would imagine leaving something like the LDS Church. What do I wear? What do I wear? Is anything off limits? And so we come to this topic of headdress today, head coverings, head veils. And I have to tell you, this has not been a topic of debate for the whole length of the church. I will be honest with you, very honest with you, that this has only been up for debate for the last 150 to 200 years. And so you can say that the majority of church history has held to the use of head coverings in the worship service. Does scripture command that women wear head coverings today? And you might hear the statistics. Well, the majority of the church has done it, and for the majority of the church's length, case closed. Novel ideas in Christianity are typically false. I'll agree with you, generally, but not specifically here. We understand feministic ideology has seeped into even conservative churches. So is the return of head coverings among conservative churches a coming back to biblical standards? There's the word standard. Or is it a coming back to a long-standing and lovely tradition? Are many people unintentionally breaking God's law, God's commandments, by not wearing one? And that's really serious to me. In fact, when we started this church, Pastor Andrew and I sat down and we poured over this and we said, we have to know this. If we're going to stand at this pulpit and tell you how to honor God in your worship of Him, we ought to know, is this something that is commanded of us? This is very serious to me. So, I encourage all of us to let Scripture speak. Not just here, but other places where I will go. So, a quick Few words before we dive into the text. When it comes to head coverings, there are three main views. The first and most widely accepted view today is the cultural view. That the women in the first century who practiced immodesty and maybe even prostitution did not cover their heads. And therefore, to demonstrate a woman had virtue, she met the cultural expectation of that day to wear a head covering in the worship service. But today, those expectations no longer apply to us in the 21st century. Hair covered or uncovered communicates a neutral image among women adherents of this view would say. It doesn't matter anymore. That was their culture. We have a different culture. The second most popular view for this passage is that Paul is making an argument for long hair, and I admit it's a confusing passage. A woman's hair is her covering, he says, and it should never be short. She should always be easily distinguished from a man. But the issue with saying that the foreign or external covering is the covering he's talking about, that the hair would be that, is that Paul has made such a great distinction between the two. He talks about a category of an external covering, and then he mentions, just in one verse, long hair at the very end, that it's her cover. So that doesn't seem to make sense. Why go to such great lengths to ask women to cover their heads if hair was simply the remedy? It's not the case. Now the third most popular view, and widely accepted in Reformed denominations, conservative denominations such as ours, and as well as some Orthodox camps, Anabaptists, Mennonites, is that this passage applies to women today. Indeed, it is commanded for women to wear a covering in the worship service when they gather, And this is just as much as it was for them back then, it is for women of the 21st century. And John Calvin is often quoted from proponents of this. John Calvin famously says that if you uncover the woman's head, very soon they will uncover their breasts. St. Augustine and many other dear brothers and sisters and theologians agree and see head coverings for women in worship as timeless. It should be done then. It should be done now. And these are people we respect. These are people we read. These are people we love. Like I said, the universal acceptance for most of the church's history is very compelling to me, though church history is not authoritative enough. This morning, I will use biblical hermeneutics, that's the study of interpretation, to go through this text and others like it. Proper hermeneutics considers cultural context, historical context, geographical context, the author, the audience, the biblical context, where it's at in Scripture, the original language, the theology of it, everything. Everything. We must have some level of certainty from the Word of God in this one way or the other. And although it may not be perfect certainty today, we will strive for that biblically holistic understanding of this topic. This is going to be a full-orbed view of this topic. And I'll tell you right now at the beginning, as much as I respect these three views, except for the hair one, I just think that's totally ridiculous. I don't see them. I don't see these three views. We will be viewing this with fresh eyes as Bereans. So let's search the Scriptures together. Let's be charitable while we do it. There are brothers and sisters we love who are very convicted to do this, and I think that's fantastic. But let's go through the Scripture. Paul has given the Corinthian believers some heavy admonishment about idolatry, but he's now going to salute them. Look at v. 2. Now I praise You, because You remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to You. Despite all the troubles that the Corinthian church has had, they remember Paul and the traditions he's given them. Maybe even referring to the traditions of worship. This word tradition in the Greek has been used in the Bible in multiple ways. Traditions here. has been used in Scripture for the made-up traditions of men. And then even in the made-up traditions of men, you have two subclasses. You have good traditions of men that we're allowed to have. Then you have wicked traditions of men. And those were things that Jesus condemned with the Pharisees of course. And so that's one way traditions in the Bible is used. Then this word is also used in Paul's letters. where He says that we have handed you down the traditions from our words, our teachings, and from our letters. So this word, I have to tell you, is used for authoritative traditions and non-authoritative traditions, whether those be good or bad. We're allowed to have traditions. They can't go against Scripture. That's what Jesus was arguing against. And unfortunately, It's not exactly stated what kind of tradition, how this word is being used in this exact section. So, I'll tell you. I think he's obviously speaking of a positive kind. And they have positively held to these traditions he's handed down. It could be a mixture of even authoritative and non-authoritative, but there's one tradition that they have not held on to. And before he gets into that, Paul will articulate what I believe is the most important part of this passage. This is it. This is the most important part of this passage. This is the truly timeless portion. The thing that he's most concerned about that believers understand. Look at v. 3. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. So we're talking about heads today. And heads in more ways than one. Paul will use this term head in both an anatomical way, a physical way, like your head, right? Physical head. And then he'll use this word head in a metaphorical way. to indicate proper roles in a covenantal relationship. The word is kephale. Kephale or head is not about subjugation. It's not about dominion. Or I should say domination. Otherwise, Paul would have used the master and slave language that he typically uses in other places. Being the head of someone doesn't mean you are the master and they are the slave and they obey your every single word in that sort of sense. He doesn't use that. Head also doesn't mean origin or source here either. That would create theological errors, especially for the God and Christ relationship we see here at the end of verse 3. He uses it in kind of a positional sense. To be the head is to occupy the position at the front or the position at the top. Just like an actual body, what's at the top of your body? Your head. Each body part is needed to make the whole, but the head is just at the top. Preeminent is one word that a theologian uses. Pre means before. Eminent means to stand out. Christ stands out before us in front of the Father, and yet the Son is equal to the Father. The husband stands out before his wife and family, and yet is equal to them. To be at the front of other people walking is to be leading. It's to be at the head of something. The head leads. In Jesus' earthly ministry, His Father led Him despite their equality. They had different roles. The husband in covenant relationship with his wife is to lead her. It's his role. And lest anyone take verse 3 and think that the apostle is laying out in his sequence a hierarchy of superiority, Christ, head of man. Man, head of the woman. He ends the sequence with God is the head of Christ. You see, what he's trying to say is not that, well, Christ is better than man, and man is better than woman. That wouldn't make sense, because at the end, the sequence ends with God is the head of Christ. Father is the head of Christ. What he's trying to say is that everyone has a head. Everyone has a head. Everyone has a kafale. That's the point in verse 3. And though we could spend time talking about Christ as the head and the Father as the head, the Apostle intends to only talk about one headship relationship in this passage. The headship of a man and his one woman. You see that? That's singular. A man isn't to be head over all women. He gets to be head over his one woman. Singular, verse 3. But before we get to the woman, Let's settle something about v. 4 concerning the man. V. 4 reads, every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. And I'll tell you what, in the Greek, it doesn't actually say, has something on his head. It says, every man who prays and prophesies having down from the head disgraces his head. Something is hanging down from His head that disgraces His head. Who's the man's head in v. 3? Just say it. Christ. Christ. Something that a man can do while praying and prophesying disgraces and brings shame to Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying. And you know what happened in Corinthian culture is Men wore togas, and what they would do is when it was time to pray and prophesy to the gods, they would, in an act of Roman piety, the men would bring their togas up over their heads. Hanging down from their heads is their toga. And so Paul says, this disgraces Christ. If you do this like you used to do, you will disgrace Jesus Christ. You will bring shame to Him. If you do something that they did in pagan, ritualistic worship, and you do the same thing, because they went from praying and prophesying to false gods, Zeus, Poseidon, Artemis, whatever, and then they come and they go to genuine, genuine, real, Holy Spirit induced praying and prophesying, and the men would automatically, possibly, bring their togas up in an act of reverence, but Paul says that doesn't worship God. That's false piety. A man who has something hanging from his head like that brings shame to Jesus. And I'm not saying that this was necessarily a problem in the Corinthian church. It's possible that he's only saying this as an argument of why he's going to talk about why a woman should wear a covering. It's an illustration of comparison. Doing something with the physical head that dishonors the covenantal head. So, my brothers, Men, let it be laid to rest. This is not about wearing a hat at church. This is not about wearing a hat at church. It's a completely fine conviction. to not wear one during prayer. Obviously, you see men, when it's time to pray, we take off our hats. I think it's a great thing. I think it's something that we can continue to do. I'm just trying to say that this verse doesn't support that. So you can do that. You can wear a hat in here. You can do those things, whatever your personal conviction is. In fact, when you think about hats for men, In Exodus and Leviticus, the priests who prayed and sometimes prophesied wore what? A turban, a hat, to worship God. And eventually, when you get to the first century, you have Jewish men, layperson, synagogue leaders and all, what did they wear in the first century? Yamakas, head coverings for men. Paul wore this yamaka. And so really, he doesn't want the men to incidentally do a pagan ritual to God that was for idols. And this sets up his concern. His concern is doing something in the context of praying and prophesying that would disgrace their covenantal head in the case of the man Christ. Now here comes the actual problem for the Corinthian church. Look at verses 5 and 6. But every man I'm sorry, every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head. For she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head." Okay, again, who was the head of the man? Christ. who, according to v. 3, was the head of the woman. The man. The husband. Praying and prophesying while not wearing an external head covering brings shame to her head, her husband. Not to her own physical head. Not wearing a head covering while praying and prophesying brings shame to her husband. And in this hyperbolic language, Paul says, it's as if she's bald at that point. It's as if she's bald if she does not cover her head. In some cultures, even in Greek culture, some wives who committed adultery were banished often from their home, and the husband would have had her head shaved. And she would have been left out on the streets if she committed adultery, and every man, woman, child in the village would have known that woman committed adultery, her head is shaved. It's disgraceful. She was marked out. And Paul says, If a Christian woman does this, she might as well cut her hair off. And that's not literal, of course. He's not saying it's actually an option. Like, well, if you don't really want to be bald, then wear a head covering. That's not what he's trying to say. This is hyperbolic language where he's trying to make a comparison that if she doesn't wear this head covering while praying and prophesying, it's like she's bald. So if she doesn't want to be bald, which most women don't want to be bald, then she ought to wear the covering. So let's think about some of the context here. First, it was considered modest for a woman to wear a head covering. Jewish women wore head coverings. Greek women also wore head coverings. It was in many, many cultures at this time. Doing so often communicated, I am unavailable. I have a husband or I have a father that I respect. But I will say that the covering wasn't a failsafe for that. You see, prostitutes did often wear head coverings and even special veils. You see that in Genesis with Tamar, do you not? Judah recognizes, he doesn't see her face, but he recognizes a specific head covering on Tamar and a veil, and goes, oh, she's a prostitute. and she seduces him, and he lays with his daughter-in-law. And so obviously, this is not foolproof. The question is though, why did the Corinthian women stop wearing a covering at all? Well, socially, a woman was only able to remove her covering in the privacy of her own home. The family could see the mother's hair. the mother could let her hair out at home. And it's possible that with the use of family, and now they're Christians and they're using the word, hey brother, hey sister, as these new believers, these Christians thought, well, we're all family now. I can remove my covering around you because we're like family. But I think what's more likely is this. I think that since there were no church buildings back then, that this changed how they viewed their worship. And so whether this is in the context of a worship service or a prayer meeting or something, I believe that this was a public gathering just like this is a public gathering. That is what Paul addresses in chapters 11-14, but while it was public, the Corinthians associated religious gatherings with temples. They said, they thought to themselves, they were raised up this way, how do you do something spiritual? You go in front of a temple. How do you do something religious? You go inside that temple. That's what they thought. So now they've been saved and there are no church buildings. There are large homes though. There are large homes. And what started to happen is this family would host this Sunday, this Lord's Day. And this family would host this Sunday, this event. And in her home, because they don't quite understand yet the spiritual aspect of worship, taking off coverings. Women are just taking off coverings in homes, and they're performing the worship service. That's possible. I'm not saying that's 100% what it was. We don't ultimately know. Paul doesn't say. But they were meeting in homes. They weren't meeting in temples or church buildings. And the family coming to my home, I can have my head uncovered. That's a possibility. Now what is another layer of context? This instruction for no covering for men and a covering for women is highly specified to one occasion. What is the occasion? praying and prophesying. And in this context of chapters 11 through 14, I understand that praying and prophesying is to be part of a Holy Spirit-induced, charismatic event. So let's talk about that. I actually think The charismatic praying and prophesying of the early church has much to do with how we understand this passage on head coverings. So go to Joel 2 with me in your Bibles or go to your printout. Joel 2. This is going to be important. Hang with me a little bit. We'll get back to the head coverings, but we need to see this. Look at verses 28-32. Joel 2. Future of the New Covenant. It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days. I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. and it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls." In Acts 2, the Apostle Peter receives the Holy Spirit and he preaches his very first sermon to the people that day of Pentecost. And what does he quote? He quotes this exact passage from Joel chapter 2, indicating that this spirit, this pouring out of this spirit in this moment on Pentecost was prophesied so many hundreds of years before. He says it's happening right now. This Joel 2 moment, he says it's right now. That's what Peter says. And what I want to argue is that the rest of that Joel 2 prophecy about judgment and wonders in the sky and being rescued is not something that is thousands of years later at the end of time. Let me say it again. I do not believe that this rest of this prophecy in Joel 2 is to mean something that is thousands of years later at the end of time, that as if Peter says, hey, this is happening now, but then that's going to happen thousands of years later. I don't think that's what's being said. Joel and Peter are talking about a series of events that will occur from the ascension of Christ, which is the day of Pentecost, with the pouring out of the Spirit, prophesying in dreams that will occur in the middle. So you have basically the ascension of Christ, the day of Pentecost right here. In the middle, you have this praying and prophesying, charismatic moment of the church. And then you'll have the coming day of the Lord. So three sections. Pentecost. Christ ascending. The middle that the church lives in in the book of Acts. Then finally it ends with the coming day of the Lord. Forty years later, from the moment that Peter preached this, would be the AD 70 event, the year AD 70, which was the destruction of Jerusalem, that Jesus warned that not one stone of the temple would be left upon another in Matthew 24. He says in Matthew 23 and 24, He says, this will occur in your lifetimes. You will see this. And I believe that Jesus was not lying. That was the truth. Josephus even records seeing a sword in the sky, seeing signs in the sky, these amazing events in the sky. These signs did occur. And the Roman armies did, as Jesus says in Luke, surround Jerusalem. That indeed happened. And Josephus records that it was one of the most horrific days of judgment from God he's ever seen. Cannibalism because of hunger. I told you before in one of my sermons that as people walked up to Jerusalem, they thought they saw a fence around it, but it turned out to be so many crosses of crucified men, women, and children that it looked like a fence around the city. It was a horrific event, you guys. And historically, the Christians did get rescued. They fled to a place called Pella. Just as Joel 2 said, there would be survivors who escape, all whom the Lord calls. These were the ones who called upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as much as a lot of this language seems like earth-ending language, this same prophetic and hyperbolic language occurs in many other places in the Scripture. We see in Isaiah 13, Isaiah 34, Ezekiel 32, Amos 8. Those are just to name a few. And those did happen. And guess what? It says things like the moon will turn to blood, the sky will fall. And it says in Scripture that those days happened, but guess what? We're still here. Those are hyperbolic and prophetic moments to say something from God is happening and it's really big, and He's bringing judgment. This is called a day of the Lord. A day of the Lord. In other words, Joel's prophecy that Peter said was occurring right there at Pentecost was not followed by a break of thousands of years that you and I are still waiting to have happen. Rather, this is about the setting up of the new covenant church at Pentecost, and the next 40 years for the church, which is the church's wilderness wanderings, just like the old covenant. where God leads them until the winding up of the Old Covenant. What have I told you before? That the church in the book of Acts is in this unique position. We've never been in it. At this time in the book of Acts, these 40 years of the church, you have an overlap. The Old Testament and the New Testament are overlapped. And the book of Hebrews says one day, the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, will fade away. It will go away. And what will remain is the New Covenant. what's shaken and remains. I've told you about this overlap. We're talking about the fact that Jesus sacrificed Himself and He ascended into heaven. But in a town called Jerusalem, in a temple, priests were still dressed up with the ephod and the turban, and they were sacrificing animals to appease God. And God goes, I will not have that anymore. No one will sacrifice another animal in place of My Son. My Son's been sacrificed. And so this temple will be destroyed. This city will be ended. And you know what? It has not been rebuilt to this very day. I believe for that reason. Because Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. There will be no other sacrifices but Him and His alone. So, the old is passing away. The new has come. This is the period in which the Corinthian church lives. This middle area. This 40 years. And so, let me give you a few more things to help you wrap your mind around this, some typology. Think about it this way. Luke. Luke is a Gospel writer. He wrote the Gospel according to Luke. That was like the book of Genesis for the New Covenant. How the Creator God, in a sense, came down and recreated people. Jesus calls it, what, being born again. It is the new birth. It is the regeneration, the regenesis. And then Luke also pairs his Gospel of Christ with, what, the book of Acts. Acts. He is the author of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke. This is the account of the exodus made new. This is the departing from slavery from sin, like the Israelites departed from the slavery in Egypt. This is leaving the old taskmaster of Satan, like fleeing Pharaoh. The waters of the Red Sea were like our waters of baptism. Then, having God's own presence in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to lead His people is like at the day of Pentecost when fire rested on them as the Holy Spirit. And now, the Holy Spirit leads them. Just like the pillar led the Israelites. Heading to the Promised Land, which is the global establishment of the Gospel of the Kingdom. What is the new promised land? The entire earth. The whole world is the new promised land. There is not one place that will not be Christ. From the sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth, all of this is Jesus' and we will inherit this kingdom. And so this is the promised land. But to get to this promised land, The Israelites needed direction from God through revelation, and what did they get in the Old Testament? They got a prophet, Moses. Well, likewise, direction was needed for Christ's church in their 40 years being in this middle portion as they wandered and wandered, and the Gospel spread, and it was becoming solidified. They needed revelation from God. And so apostles and prophets were given during this time for that reason. And you think about it this way. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. That is to say, Scripture is often illustrated by bread. What happened in the wilderness? Manna fell from heaven. And I will use that analogy to demonstrate that during this 40 years of the church wandering in the book of Acts, they needed manna from heaven as little nuggets of prophecy. Dreams, prophecies, visions. They rained down. They came down upon God's people. They needed direction. There was no New Testament yet. There was nothing solidified yet. These things came down from God during this time. It was for the church's benefit until the canon of Scripture was formed, which is like our stone tablets. There was old stone tablets. Now we have the solidified stone tablet that God wrote called the Holy Scriptures, your Bible. They're set in stone. And the canon is complete today. So you see, Genesis, Exodus, Luke, Acts, type, fulfillment, shadow, substance. So, what does any of that have to do with head coverings for women today? I believe it has everything to do with it. As Joel and Peter said, your daughters will prophesy. There will be prophetesses. In fact, before this time, there were several prophetesses. You had Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, and Noadiah. They're all mentioned in the Old Testament as being prophetesses. Even in the New Testament, right when Jesus is born, they go to the temple and a woman named Anna Anna is a prophetess and Luke 2 comes up to him. However, in the 40 years between Pentecost and Jerusalem's destruction, the coming day of the Lord, there would not be the unusual, singular, lone prophetess. One random prophetess for 40 years. That would not be the case. There would be many, many prophetesses raised up. Even Philip the Evangelist in Acts 21.9 had four virgin daughters who possessed the gift of prophecy. So we see at this point in the church's history, it was no longer a rarity among women, but now is common in the church age to prophesy. So that leads us into the context of our passage in question. 1 Corinthians 11. During the time of the letter to the church at Corinth, it would have been that 40 years as I keep telling you, and they needed prophecy. head coverings were then for, as Paul says, not all of Christian life, but what? What does it say? While praying and prophesying. He doesn't say wear this always. Wear this when you see each other every day. Wear it all day. He says specifically, I find it interesting, he qualifies. He could have just said without any qualifier, a woman ought to wear a head covering. Why does he say, while praying and prophesying? It's a praying and prophesying occasion. And as I said, at that time Paul was writing, before the completion of the canon of Scripture, most churches would have had very little, if any, New Testament text that we have now. Some letters were circulating, but it was very early on. They needed more direct teaching from God. And it seems that the raising up of male prophets and female prophetesses foretold by Joel, just as Joel said, and just as it was confirmed by the Apostle Peter at Pentecost, it was precisely for this reason. The gift of prophesying spoken of in this epistle contains Not even foretelling. Telling the future. But it contains foretelling. What God has already done. And we're going to go more into that when we get into chapter 14. But the office of preaching was unique from this prophetic, charismatic praying and prophesying for women. We're going to see in chapter 14, and this is I'm telling you, I think that you've possibly been told wrong about 1 Corinthians 14 where it says a woman should keep silent in church. I can't wait to get to that because you might be looking at this. She's praying and prophesying in a public gathering setting, but then he says to be silent. I can't wait to tell you all about what that means. And we'll get to it. I was talking to Pastor Andrew about it earlier this morning. Let me just get you excited for that. But essentially, the office of preaching is definitely a prophetic one. But there's a distinguished element here from foretelling or revelatory prophecy that according to chapter 13, he says prophecies will be done away with. They will pass away. And so as much as we're heading a little bit into concepts of later chapters, I'll give more evidence then in the future. This is where we're going. We're going to be talking about the spiritual gifts. But what I will tell you today is that the spiritual gifts of healings, tongues, and prophecies, according to Scripture, have ceased in a normative sense among Christians today. Seeing as how these charismatic gifts Their greatest purpose was served to spread the Gospel like wildfire in an anti-Christian Roman empire, as well as these gifts were meant to edify and aid the church until the New Testament Word was given. Now, Pastor Wade doesn't believe in miracles. That's false. I believe that miracles are happening all over the world today. I've heard some of you express miracles that have happened to you yourself. But, each Christian man, each Christian woman, each Christian child, I believe is not getting these gifts indiscriminately. not in a normative sense. You simply won't walk in to Christian churches all over this country or even all over the world today and see these gifts used in their true and biblical and ordered sense that Paul delivered them. You just won't go in. Go to some of the most biblical, faithful churches. You just won't see this. Is there something wrong with them? Is there something wrong with you? Is there something wrong with me? I haven't broken out in tongues in the four years we've been here. What's wrong with us? What's wrong with the most faithful church? I'm talking Christ-loving people, and they don't possess prophecy, tongues, or immediate healing. What's wrong with them? Well, some people would say we're all not believers. And that's just completely erroneous. I believe the Scripture shows The gifts of charismatic praying and prophesying have ceased in a normative sense. Head coverings, therefore, have lost their time and occasion for which they were prescribed. This charismatic, Holy Spirit-induced praying and prophesying that was for the middle portion of the church has ceased in a normative sense, so this occasion for prophetesses who would wear head coverings has ended. There's no occasion for this. This is not happening in the world today. But the question might be in your mind, why were the head coverings needed at all? Read verses 7 through 12 with me of 1 Corinthians 11. For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man. For indeed, man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake. Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman, and all things originate from God. What was verse 3 about? Heads. Proper heads. Headship. Do you see how we just come right back to headship? This created order. This is what this is. Verses 7-12. This is the created order. Shows headship as well. And yet once again, just in case anyone thinks that these verses change the value of a woman, Paul states the husband's and wife's interdependence. They need each other equally and mutually. It says, although that this is the way it happened, he needs her, and she needs him. It clarifies. So what we see here is that headship plays out in this either shaming or bringing glory to your respective head. The wife is the glory of her husband and should honor him in her actions. She should seek to represent Him well. The Bible shows this headship in multiple places. We see it in Peter's epistle. We especially see it in Ephesians 5. We see it even in the Gospels. We see it in the Old Testament. If you want to even read, this word head, kephale, is in Ephesians 5. I put it in your printout. This headship. This is important to God. These roles. Even the Trinity has different roles. So you have to understand, the spiritual gifts weren't given to Christians indiscriminately. And what do I mean by that? What I mean is, oh hey, I'm a believer, so I'm going to get every single gift. I'm going to get tongues. I'm going to get prophecy. I'm going to get healings. I'm going to get exercising of demons. Whoa! That's like relegated to Christ and the apostles, right? And so even during this 40 years of the church wandering, as I keep calling it, you probably got one of those things. You didn't get all of them indiscriminately. You've got to think about it this way. A husband may have been given the gift of healing. He can pray over someone, and by the power of God, not the power in him, by the power of God, he could heal someone. But then, But then he goes and his wife is now a prophetess in the church. She gets the gift of prophecy and prophetic praying. Maybe this man had the gift of tongues, but his daughters can have this charismatic praying and prophesying. But I have to tell you, there is a temptation even back then, for when someone has the gift of revelation, to exalt them. Wow! This woman, she speaks for God. Wow! We should honor her. We should pay reverence to her. Wow! This man's daughters, we should give them gifts. We should honor these prophetesses. And that was a potential temptation for those in the church. And so because of the temptation to elevate people in the congregation with these revelatory gifts, getting direction from God, to maintain the created order of headship, to maintain the created order of headship, the women were given a symbol of authority on their heads while praying and prophesying. While praying and prophesying. While praying and prophesying. And it showed her humble nature. Though I have this gift, I will make little of myself. Because I don't want people to praise me, I want people to praise God. I have this gift, but I follow God's authority. I seek to make little of myself, and I will honor my husband, I will honor my father, in turn that honors God. So while speaking wonderful prophetic utterances from God, she demonstrates with this head covering, I submit to my head. I have this amazing gift. People hear me in the worship service or in a prayer meeting, but she has this covering on and it communicates, I submit to God's design. I submit to God's design. She's not like the prophetess in Revelation 2.20 in which Jesus calls her Jezebel. He says there's a woman named Jezebel, a prophetess, who leads people astray. She elevates herself above others. Above me, Jesus says, Revelation 2. Now, what does this have to do with angels? Have you always wondered that? Just raise your hand. Who's read this and gone, why? Because of the angels, right? I'm sure we all have. Well, Luke 15, 1 Timothy 5, Hebrews 1, Hebrews 12, and other places in the Old Testament demonstrate that there are observers of God's people God's holy angels like to observe God's people. Angels enjoy your worship of God. That is to say, when we meet here corporately on Sundays and praise God, it's possible that right now, even in this moment, angels are watching our service and enjoying our praise of God. That's the reality. They observe. Those texts show that they praise God when someone converts. All heaven rejoices when one repents and returns. Heaven watches. The angels watch. The angels enjoy it. They delight in it. And so because God's angels worship God as we worship God in our gatherings, we ought to do so with reverence and with order. And that is most likely why Paul says to do this because of the angels in v. 10. Headship or order in our worship service glorifies God and it blesses the observing angels and follows in line with the created order. Paul says they were there at the beginning. The angels witnessed the creation of the earth. And when God made man and women in his own image and likeness, the angels celebrated, praise God. He's made man. And so when a woman honors that created order of headship, the creation of man and woman, when they correct what has been destroyed for thousands of years from that moment in the garden of sin, when a woman honors her husband in that way, angels are observing and they glorify God in heaven. back to the way creation started. And the holy angels praise the living God as they watch us. They sing for joy. Now, if the Apostle Paul can't convince the Corinthians of this through headship and creation, he's going to even appeal to them with the society around them. These are the final verses. You see in verse 14, you see verse 15, You see these moments where Paul talks about here. I'm not going to go all into it. We need to keep moving, but essentially. What he's trying to say is men who have short hair are more masculine, he supposes. I think you could get some timeless principles out of this, that it's important for a man to look like a man, it's important for a woman to look like a woman, and that ought to be celebrated. But there are obviously times in the Old Testament where you see Samson with long hair, Long hair on a man doesn't always mean he's going against what Paul's talking about here. A shorter haircut for a woman doesn't always mean she's going against these very things. One thing that you have to think about is in this culture, there were statues all around Corinth of false gods. And in these statues of these false gods, there would be a man next to him, and the man would be very small, and the false god, the idol, would be very large. And the men would be in subjugation to the false god. And you know how they made the men look, the Greek men look? They made them have long hair, and they made them look effeminate. And then they made the male idols in Corinth have short hair and look very strong, muscular, and masculine. And so Paul appeals to them, even in their Corinthian culture, and says, look at the statues around you. Doesn't even your society show? That short hair on a woman is against that. Long hair on a man is against that. And so it's just another way for him to argue the need for head coverings in worship service. That's all. This doesn't derail the whole thing and go to the topic of hair and make the covering about hair. This is just another tool of this evangelist to convince them to wear it. And then it ends on verse 16. And Paul puts a pretty strong statement down. He essentially says, if there's anyone there at Corinth inclined to argue about this, we have no such custom of uncovered women in our church, nor do the other churches of God. Meaning to say, this is not a problem for anyone but you. We do this. We cover. Women cover their heads in all the other churches. And so if anyone argues there, just let them know that they would be the odd one out. But this head covering is done in what occasion, church? while praying and prophesying in charismatic utterances. And that's the key. The occasion is gone. The timeless principles still remain. But the charismata has ceased. The charismata is gone. Miracles are still happening today. But you and I don't each have these individual gifts. Neither do other people in the world. So let me conclude this morning with some application. from these timeless principles that we've seen. And hear me out. This is a loving challenge. Go to any church where coverings are considered a commandment, and you will not find the women praying and prophesying in charismatic utterance. Go to any church where the women cover, and you will not see that. Not in the worship service. Not in the prayer meeting or the Bible study. Go to churches Go to a church that says they still possess the charismatic gifts of the book of Acts today, and they do them daily, and go to those people who say they have the gifts, and try to find one woman with a head covering. Try to find one woman who speaks in tongues, or prophesies and actually wears a covering. You will not find it. You will not find it. And something you will certainly Not find among those types of churches is sound doctrine. They are doing fake charismata. It's my belief. I believe that's from scripture, and I don't say that to offend people. We're gonna go through that. Don't line up after church. Let me go through chapters 11, 12, 13, 14, then ask me questions, okay? Funny how that plays out, right? The head covering people don't do the praying and prophesying. The praying and prophesying people don't wear the head coverings. It's interesting. And what's difficult for me, churches, none of the language here, and I poured through the Greek, none of the language here is in the imperative. That is the command form. It's all in the indicative. It's all a description. Imperative language commands It's as if God expected this head covering while praying and prophesying to one day cease with the gifts. There's not a single commandment in the Mosaic law that a woman needs this to pray or to worship God. There's not a single commandment for this in the Gospels from Christ for women to do this. We find this in no other place in Scripture but here. And it has this specific context that I already told you about. I personally do not see how an external garment could communicate headship and submissiveness today like it did back then. I just don't see it. In all my ministry, although I have found many humble women, many God-loving, God-fearing, submissive, head-honoring women who are convicted to wear head coverings, I see it. I know they're out there, so this is not a hasty generalization. I will say, though, in my ministry, I've encountered many frustrated men whose wife disregarded his desire to study and pray about this and talk with their elders, or he decided he's not convicted of this, and she decides on her own that she will wear a head covering. Thereby going against the very heart of this passage, I think it's entirely possible today for you to honor your head in church. I think children can do the same. Even without the covering. And so ladies, does your demeanor show this? Do your actions prove this? Do your words indicate your submission to God's design? Meaning simple things like are you kind and courteous to others? Do you have a gentle and discreet spirit? Do you show preference to your husband and seek to honor him in front of other people in this church? Do you do it at home in front of the children? Do you practice modesty and biblical beauty? Do you cover your body in the right areas so that only your husband knows what it's like uncovered? Are you a woman who reveals she knows Christ and seeks to make Him known? Do you submit to your husband and give him respect as the Bible calls you to? If you do these things, it says here, you will be to your husband's glory. You will honor him before all the saints and before even angels and God. The heart of today's passage is for women to not make spectacles of themselves not making much of yourself, but making much of Christ and making much of your husband or your father. And in turn, that honors God. On Sunday mornings, before you enter here, consider less of your fashion and consider more of how you humbly present yourself to the people in front of your head and your husband. Listen. Listen to what a wife should be to her head in Proverbs 12.4. Listen to this. An excellent wife is the crown of her husband. Isn't that amazing? She goes on his head where everyone can see. An excellent wife is a crown to her husband. It shines. She shines. She shines on him. He's proud to wear it. He's proud to wear her. An excellent wife is a crown of her husband, but she who shames him is like rottenness deep in his bones." That's the heart of this passage. So at this point, head coverings are simply a wonderful tradition in the Christian church. I think if you loved the headship aspect of this passage, And you thought, that would be really neat to have a visual representation of that headship, because I really like that. I think you would be free to start wearing one right away. In fact, you could wear one next Sunday. Your leadership won't come up to you. We won't say anything. This is a freedom-related thing. You could wear it. I think it would be just fine. Any woman here can wear a head covering if her and her husband so choose. Or you could choose not to wear one. since you are not joining in in charismatic praying and prophesying, and you could simply just, both of you, both types of women, focus on honoring your covenantal head. These choices are related to freedom, not legalism. But what a woman is not free to do here is to be the cause of shame to her husband like the rottenness in his bones. Let's not let That piece of cloth on a woman's head distract us from God's design for her. And that's why I titled the sermon this way. I titled it, Honoring the Head or Honoring the Covering? Honoring the Head or the Covering? What do we honor more? Do we care more about a symbol of headship outside Or do we care more about the headship and the heart on the inside and in the private place? What do you do at home? What do you do elsewhere? So, someone said that should have been the Mother's Day sermon. There is grace for us. There is grace. There is grace for men. There is grace for women. If anyone should need it, repentance can be found today. And should anyone need it, and you do need it, and I need it, grace is ready to steadily flow from the hand of Jesus Christ to you this morning, who is our eternal head. He is the husband of the church. And so this point, There you go. That's the case. And I hope it blesses you. I hope you see the heart of this passage. Let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that it's sufficient. Lord, You know my concern. Lord, You know that I have seen the church do this for almost 2,000 years. That definitely makes me wonder. And yet, Lord, we cannot deny the authority of Your Word. It speaks louder than history. It speaks louder than man-made tradition, even though they're wonderful traditions. And so God, I thank You that today this sermon wasn't simply just about coverings for men and women. I thank You, God, that You really showed us the heart of headship, the heart of right relationships, especially towards husband and wife. So Lord, please continue to do a work among us. We need Your sanctification. We need to do this better, Lord. I understand, Lord, that men are not properly loving their wives like Christ loves the church. And that time will come when we preach on that. But Lord, I pray that we would let this sink in today, especially for the ladies here, how important it is to honor their head, their husband. And to understand that I'm not using language made up to subjugate anyone, but this is in the Holy Scripture. And so, Lord, thank you for speaking to us today. And Lord, we pray that you are pleased this morning and that you will continue to be pleased by our worship and the angels would rejoice. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. It is time to come to the table for the Lord's Supper. And that's actually what we're preaching on for the next two Sundays. So that'll be exciting. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this table is open to you. Please feel free to come to the table, enjoy, take of the elements. Remember the blood that was shed in seeing the red wine. Remember the body that hung on the cross in the bread. Jesus said, consume these things, eat of these things, and remember him. If you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, please