Grace Abounding

Sermon Title: God’s Never Ending Love
Speaker: Jonathan Matias, Pastor
Text: Psalm 136
Series: The Psalms: Where Truth and Beauty Meet

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Book Title: Jesus and the Feminists: Who Do They Say That He Is?
Author: Margaret Elizabeth Köstenberger
Publisher: Crossway (2008)
ISBN: 1-581-34959-9
Pages: 256

The most common question I’ve been asked as a pastor of Grace Church of Alexandria is this: “Does your church allow women to be pastors?  You don’t! Well, why not?” Since Christ is the head of the church, it’s vital for us to see what Jesus’s teaching and view was regarding gender and positions of leadership in the church. I’d like to recommend Margaret Köstenberger’s book Jesus and the Feminists which ably explores that question from the Bible.

An Overview of Jesus and the Feminists

So what did Jesus teach about the role of women in the body of Christ? How welcoming was Jesus of women into his band of followers? When it comes to gender roles, was Jesus a traditionalist or an egalitarian? In Jesus and the Feminists, Dr. Maragaret Köstenberger provides a careful study of Jesus’s teaching and interaction with women as well as looks in-depth at the figures who promote a feminist reading of the Bible.

I think at the outset, it’s important to state that in Holy Scripture, God speaks of women and men as completely equal in value and worth. Of this there is no doubt. Also, advances in women’s rights in America over the last one hundred years have been essential because women have been denied basic human rights. This book addresses a feminism that is altogether different than that, such as feminist viewpoints that insist during Jesus’s earthly ministry he completely erased gender distinctions in God’s kingdom or that God should be viewed in feminine terms (as “Mother God”).

To begin, Köstenberger surveys the wide-ranging viewpoints on Jesus and women in the church in evangelical, mainline, and secular circles. She gives brief biographical sketches of the main figures that have promoted a feminist perspective within the church and analyzes their presuppositions about the Bible and God’s nature, to see how they arrive at their doctrinal position.

The most valuable asset of Köstenberger’s book is her careful study of the Gospels weaved into every chapter, going to Scripture to see how Jesus interacted with women and what he himself taught about the role of women in the body of Christ. Chapter 14, entitled “Who Do You Say That I Am? A Look at the Gospels,” is especially poignant, for it combs through the Four Gospels to answer the question, “Was Jesus a feminist?” Köstenberger finds that “Jesus showed special sensitivity to women’s concerns” and “treated women consistently with respect, dignity, compassion, and kindness” (p. 210-211) yet our Lord never “gave any indication that Jesus envisioned a community where men and women would be equal in position of leadership” (p. 212).

Conclusions

Köstenberger concludes that “Jesus was not a chauvinist, but he also was not a feminist” (p.214) and that Jesus never “obliterated gender-related distinctions in the church” as is often claimed by evangelical egalitarians. Jesus incorporated women into his ministry while reinforcing the rest of the Bible’s teaching that God has given men and women differing roles to carry out in the local church.

Jesus and the Feminists is a scholarly, orthodox contribution to the question of gender roles and gives helpful background to the debates raging in denominations and churches today. As it’s drawn from her doctoral dissertation, it’s not for the faint-of-heart. But if you’re looking to hear from an evangelical female scholar about what Jesus himself taught about women in the church, this is a worthy read.

Today my friend Jordan Minnick shared with me this prayer about the incarnation. It’s a fitting reminder to render praise to Jesus at Christmas for coming to rescue us. This prayer is entitled “The Gift of Gifts” and is drawn from the rich collection of Puritan prayers published in a prayer guide called The Valley of Vision. From time to time we include historic prayers like this in our church services to teach us how to pray. The prayer as listed below has just a bit of modernized wording compared to the original. 

“The Gift of Gifts”

What shall I render to you for the gift of gifts;
Your own dear Son, begotten not created,
My Redeemer, my proxy, my surety, my substitute;
Self-emptying, incomprehensible;
His infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp.

Herein is wonder of wonders:
He came below to raise me above,
Was born like me that I might become like Him.

Herein is love:
When I cannot rise to Him, He draws near on wings of grace,
To raise me to Himself.

Herein is power:
When Deity and humanity were infinitely apart
He united them in indissoluble unity,
The uncreated and the created.

Herein is wisdom:
When I was undone, with no will to return to Him,
And no intellect to devise recovery,
He came, God-incarnate, to save me
To the uttermost,
As man to die my death,
To shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
To work out a perfect righteousness for me.

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
And enlarge my mind;
Let me hear good tidings of great joy,
And hearing, let me believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
My conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
My eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;

Place me with ox, donkey, camel, goat,
To look with them upon my Redeemer’s face,
And in Him account myself delivered from sin;
Let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart,
Embrace Him with undying faith,
Exulting that He is mine and I am His.

In Him you have given me so much
That heaven can give no more.

Sermon Title: The King Who Makes Everything Right
Speaker: Jonathan Matias, Pastor
Text: Luke 2:1-20

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Hey, folks! Grace Church of Alexandria‘s Christmas service will be at a different time and location on Sunday, December 25. We’ll meet for worship at 11:00 AM at a church members’ home in Alexandria. For the address, please contact GCA here, or call 703.639.4077 and choose extension 500.

Christmas-themed snacks and beverages will be served, and we’ll meet from 11 am to 12 pm, no childcare provided this time. Park at the Huntington Metro station parking garage and walk across the street to our meeting place. Why the location change? Our location is different on December 25 because the public school where we normally meet is not open on Christmas Day.

Sunday Worship on December 25

Time: 11:00 am –12:00 pm
Location: Huntington neighborhood of Alexandria.
Contact GCA here for the address.
Parking: Park at the Huntington Metro Station garage.
Childcare: none

Check it out! CCEF Now! is a free regular magazine that launched last week to help apply the gospel through the Scriptures to everyday life.

CCEF is a biblical counseling organization that writes, teaches, preaches, and counsels biblical truth to problems in daily living. I am thrilled at the publication of CCEF Now! so that many of the articles, ideas, and counselors that I benefit from as a pastor are now accessible to every Christian for free. As a resource for counselors, it is geared to believers who are speaking truth into broken lives. Yet the message and hope offered address situations and struggles everyone faces, and so every Christian would benefit from checking out www.ccef.org or following @ccef to read the latest magazine issues.

Here’s a sampling of articles and topics from Issue #1”

• “Living Biblically” by Mike Emlet
• “Preventing Sexual Misconduct in Counseling”
• “Meaningful Acts of Easily Forgotten Kindness”
• “Journal of Biblical Counseling Lives in Progress” by David Powlison
• “What Has Helped You In Your Troubles?” by Ed Welch
• “Embodying Christ’s Love for the Shamed” by Winston Smith

I’m excited about this first issue and highly commend CCEF NOW! to parents, small group leaders, pastors, and any Christian who seeks to encourage and build up others.
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12.14.11 update – Today I received a copy of CCEF NOW! in the mail, so evidently the magazine is also in print. Well worth it to sign up on CCEF’s mailing list to receive.

Sermon Title: He Will Not Forsake His Saints
Speaker: Ron Bean
Text: Psalm 37
Series: The Psalms: Where Truth and Beauty Meet

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The following is a guest blog post by Nathan Young, pastor and missionary to Scotland who has been a visiting speaker at Grace Church of Alexandria.

Title: When Will My Life Not Suck: Authentic Hope for the Disillusioned
Author: Ramon Presson
Publisher: New Growth Press, 2011
ISBN: 9781935273806
Pages: 150

When a review copy of Ramon Presson’s new book, “When Will My Life Not Suck?” appears in the mail, I have mixed feelings. I deeply appreciate New Growth Press, and I read nearly everything they publish. Ramon Presson intrigues me as a new author, but his book’s title really bothers me. It seems over the top—even rude—and the words “NOT SUCK” stick annoyingly in my mind. This tension between my admiration for New Growth and my aggravation over the title motivate me to read.

Ramon quickly demonstrates skill as a writer and an insightful observer. He draws from his years of experience as a Christian marriage and family therapist, and he reveals his own struggles with depression, anxiety, and despair. The book is accessible to a wide audience from young adults to seniors and believer or non believer. It is also brief (150 pages) and non technical so someone in the grip of suffering can summon the strength to read it.

This is not a self-help book, offering secret steps from depression to a happier life. Instead, Ramon writes out of his own weakness and models an increasing dependence on the gospel. Tracing Paul’s themes from his letter to the Philippians, Ramon addresses real life problems, asks perceptive questions, and shows readers a large God—the source of hope. For anyone in the midst of depression, anxiety, despair, or loneliness, “When Will My Life Not Suck?” is a companion through the journey. It wisely guides the depressed to hope, and it prepares the encouraged for depression.

“When will my life not suck?” is a blunt question. It makes us wince in discomfort because, if we are honest, it strikes too close to home. That’s why I am grateful Ramon Presson tackles the issue with serious reflection and Biblical hope. I recommend this book to anyone caught in depression, a friend of someone who is struggling, and church leaders who counsel the weary. It could easily be used for one-on-one discipleship or small group discussions. And the title is more than provocative—it is a perceptive lifeline to miserable sinners who need God.

This blog post first appeared at Nathan Young’s blog, Immeasurable Grace and is posted by permisson here at Grace Abounding.

Sermon Title: Two Ways to Live
Speaker: Shayne McAllister, Deacon
Text: Luke 22:7-23

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If you’re struggling with a sin that seems to keep on defeating you, where can you turn for strength to overcome? If you’re trying to help a friend who is in despair, heal a broken marriage, or aid a believer who struggles with anorexia or bulimia, what source of power can you point to that can surely change them?

Today I received a letter from a friend and counselor, Dr. Jim Newcomer, who gets right to the heart of the matter. Listen to what he identifies as the power in biblical counseling, that is, counseling that comes on the Bible:

Biblical Counseling is to be Redemption-Anchored. Merely opening a Bible and reaching for topical treatments of counseling themes does not alone constitute “Biblical” counseling. Such an approach may even produce a transaction-mindset (i.e. legalism) that makes demands such as, “I have read and understood what the Bible says about my problem, so God must change everything now.” For the child of God, all spiritual changes are directly tied to the Gospel (Rom 6-8, Eph 4, Col 3). In other words, once a person has experienced regeneration, any spiritual issue he will ever face will have its solution anchored in his positional status and resources in Christ (2Pet 1:2-4). To give answers, even “biblical” answers, that are not direct extensions of redemptive truth is to be inconsistent with the Gospel.

Our position in Christ, our relationship with Christ, and the resources of Christ are where we can turn and point people for lasting change! If you are looking for for true and lasting change, I invite you to come to Grace Church of Alexandria to hear more about Jesus Christ. Our preaching, our community groups, our pastoral counseling all find their hope and source in Christ.

Along with Redemption-Anchored counseling, Dr. Newcomer calls for Text-Driven, Christ-Exalting, and Local Church-Centered counseling. I’m grateful for the sound training in biblical counseling our pastors Garrett Lee and I received from Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Virginia Beach where Dr. Newcomer is Professor of Pastoral Theology. As Jim described, it’s our endeavor at Grace Church to take our brokenness and struggles to the feet of the cross and there “find grace help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).