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By Pastor Glenn Pease
CONTENTS
1. THE WOMEN'S QUARTET IN THE GENEALOGY OF CHRIST Based on Matt. 1:1‑9
2. LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE Based on
Matt. 27:11‑26
3. THE MOST FAMOUS FEVER MARK
1:29‑31
4. THE STOLEN MIRACLE Based on
Mark 5:21‑34
5. DARING DEVOTION Based on
Mark 14:1‑9
6. DARING DEVOTION PART II
Based on Mark 14:1‑9
7. WOMEN IN THE GOSPEL OF LUKE PART 1
16. THE VOLUNTARY MARY based on Luke 1:26‑38
17. THE WOMAN AT THE WELL Based on John 4:1-26
18. MARY MAGDALENE Based on John 20:1‑18
1. THE WOMEN'S QUARTET IN THE GENEALOGY OF CHRIST Based on Matt.
1:1‑9
The
Bible makes it clear beyond all dispute that there are two roles in the drama
of life which women can play on a level of full equality with men. These two indisputable roles are, the role
of sinner, and the role of saint. Women
can be both as bad and as good as men.
When we deal with the really big and crucial issues of life we find that
the equality of the sexes is a self‑evident fact.
There are multitudes of insignificant issues in
which one sex may be superior to the other, but when you get to the major themes portrayed on the stage of life, such
as the themes of sin and salvation, then you find equality.
The
genealogy of Matthew clearly confirms this conviction. There is no equality of numbers, however, for
in the family tree of our Lord's human heritage there are over 40 names of men,
and only 4 women. Women are not equal
in Scripture when it comes to the legal and social role of preserving family
names. Even in our culture it is most
often the man's name that is preserved, and so the family tree is built on the
blood line of the male's.
In this
family tree of Jesus Matthew was inspired to include 4 women. Just as a beautiful flower can be found in
the most barren desert, so here we have a wilderness of dry names out of which
blossoms 4 roses. God inspired 4 men to
write 4 lives of Christ, and he inspired Matthew to record 4 women through whom
the Christ of the Gospels entered the stage of history. These 4 women make beautiful music together
because they reveal the good news of the Gospel by their very presence in this
blood line to the Savior. They will one
day be a part of that universal choir singing the new song of the Lamb, who
redeemed men and women out of every nation, language, and tongue.
As we
look at who these women were we can hear distinctly some aspects of the song of
salvation sounding forth from their lives.
The songs of this women's quartet dissolve all doubt about women's
equality with men as sinners and saints.
Let's listen to two of the songs which their lives sing to us.
I. THEIR SONG OF SOVEREIGNTY.
There
has never been a quartet anywhere who has made the message of God's sovereignty
over history more clear and beautiful.
These women have stamped the message on the record of history that God
can bring good out of evil, and harmony out of chaos. None of these women would have ever sung a decent note, or even
added a particle of beauty to the world apart from the grace and sovereignty of
God.
If ever
there was a group of women able to demonstrate that Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, this is it. Three out
of the four of these women had such bad reputations that their names were
stained for all time. Tamar was
involved in an incestuous affair with her father‑in‑law. Rahab was a harlot, and Bathsheba was an
adulteress. Ruth, the 4th in the
quartet hits higher notes in her life, and the result is that her name is still
popular, and used frequently by Christians.
They all, however, are equally involved in the blood line of the
Messiah. God has to use sinners in the
blood line from the first to the second Adam.
There was no alternative, for all are sinners, and all fall short of the
glory of God. But there are
distinctions even among sinners, and one wonders about why God chose women of
such bad reputation to be represented in this line to the Redeemer.
Is it
not obvious that God is saying to us all through this song of these women that
He is sovereign? Let no woman, or no
man, look at what sin has done to them, and say they are hopeless. God is saying through these women, you
cannot fall so low that God cannot raise you up, and then use you for His
glory.
The king can make the poorest peasant a prominent
princess. God has done it in these
lives, and they can sing the song of God's sovereignty; the song of the good
news that sin does not have the final word, but God does when we yield our
lives to Him. The Cinderella story is a
reality, and not a fairy tale, in God's sovereign plan.
Women
are equally under the sovereignty of God, and, therefore, they are equal in all
that really matters. They can be
forgiven, restored, and used of God to fulfill His purpose in history. So sings the women's quartet in the history
of Christ. Their song makes clear the
sovereignty of God's grace over His law.
Law said that even the best of these four women could not enter the
congregation of the Lord. Ruth was a
Gentile and a Moabite, and Deut. 23:3
says, "No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the
Lord..." But here in Ruth we see
this woman who is rejected by the law as part of God's plan to bring the Savior
into the world. Rahab was also a
Gentile, and she is in this family tree of the Messiah. God's grace to all men is being sung by this
quartet, for they represent both Jews and Gentiles, and they sing of the
universal nature of God's grace and plan of salvation.
Jesus
the Son of God was not a pure Jew. He
had the blood of Gentiles in His veins.
The blood He shed for the sins of the world was representative blood,
for it was both Jewish and Gentile blood.
God's sovereign purpose was to bring the Jewish Messiah into the world
by means of some Gentile women, and thus, make it clear that He was to be a
universal Savior. If man would have
invented a family tree for the Messiah, it would have been pure blood all the
way, and uncontaminated by any Gentile, or by any notable sinner. But God's inspired tree has all that man
would have left out, and, thereby, sounds forth loud and clear the song of
sovereignty.
This
song of sovereignty is a beautiful message.
It is the Gospel. God can, and
will, use any sinner in His plan.
Matthew, who wrote this genealogy, was a publican. His friends were the hated publicans and
harlots so often mentioned in Scripture.
It must have been a thrill for Matthew to be able to record these women
in the family tree of the Messiah. What
a message of comfort and hope to all those who felt forsaken and cut off from
Israel because of their sin, folly, and cooperation with the Gentiles. What a song of sovereignty! Next, let's look at‑
II. THEIR SONG OF SECURITY.
This
song of the women's quartet is one that should mean a great deal to the average
woman. None of these four could have
known they were being used of God to preserve the blood line of the
Messiah. Each of them could only thank
God for her deliverance from sin, and could have hardly dared to hope that He
would do more. Just to be accepted into
the family of God's people was grace abounding. To be a channel of His blessing to the whole world was more than
they could hope or dream. Yet each of
them, though unworthy, became a vital link in the plan of salvation which
opened the door of eternal life to all of us.
Let no
woman deprive herself of the comfort and security that can come from this song
of the quartet. So many women lack a
sense of security because they feel so inadequate, unworthy, and
unfruitful. They are nobodies in the
plan of God they feel, and so they are insecure. Such negative thoughts could be eliminated if they would listen
to this quartet sing the song of security.
Their lives sing it out loud and clear.
Everyone of them made enormous blunders. All of them were just average women, with no great talent or
leadership ability. All they had was
faith in God, and the capacity to have babies.
That is why they are in this family tree of the world's Redeemer. Web
Garrison said, "A woman who doesn't get a second look from her neighbors
may play an essential role in the on going divine purpose that involves the
destiny of mankind.
Faith in
God is all any woman needs to be used of God.
God uses women of great talent and great leadership also, but He does so
only because they respond in faith.
Faith is that which all whom God uses have in common. Faith alone can give you the assurance and
security you need to know that God will use you as a channel of His
blessings. These women make it clear
that faith can overcome all of the past, and enable one to start a new chain of
influence. We may have a horrible
heritage, but pass on an honorable heritage by faith. These women tell us that it is not only true that one rotten apple
can spoil all in the barrel, but that it is also true that one good apple can
start a whole new apple tree. Faith in
God enables every woman to become the start of a new and beautiful tree of
life. God can sometimes use the worst
people to do the best things.
Women
need to see that their greatest contribution to history and God's plan will be
through their influence. Women should
never exchange their supremacy of influence for any equality of power, for
positive influence is the greatest power.
None of these 4 became great and useful in God's plan because they
possessed unique gifts. All of them are
here simply because they were wives and mothers. None will question that women are superior in these two
roles. Women ultimately succeed or
fail, not in competition with men, but in fulfilling the roles they were
designed to do well. Mrs. Elaine
Stedman, wife of Ray Stedman, the well known pastor, wrote, "To love each
person we meet, laying down our lives, our "rights," as He laid down
His life, His rights‑caring, reaching out, giving, listening, pouring the
oil of His Spirit on troubled waters‑this is God's plan for beautiful
womanhood."
The
struggle of women to gain equality has been and up and down battle all through
the ages. If we look at the women back
in patriarchal times, such as Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel, we see them having a
great deal of freedom and power in the home and society. As we move into the period of the conquest
of Canaan there is a suppression of women's freedom due to the great immorality
of the nations around Israel. Paul's
negative attitudes toward women were really and outgrowth of the history of
temple prostitution in the nations of the world. Paul had nothing against women, but he was convinced that the
church must avoid the dangers that Israel fell into.
To this
very day the struggle goes on in the church.
Where standards of sexual purity are high, women gain freedom and
equality. In the early church there
were those called the Montanists. They
had women bishops and prophets. Their
moral standards were very high. In
groups, however, where the pagan lust was stronger than Christian love, women
had to be kept in the background. If
they were not, the church became a scandal to the world because of
immorality. Whatever the situation,
every woman who loves Jesus as Lord can join these women in the genealogy of
Jesus and rejoice that they can be used of God to fulfill His purposes in
history.
2. LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE
Based on Matt. 27:11‑26
Is
there a man alive whose wife has never said, "You should have listened to
me?" The pages of history are red
with the blood of men who should have listened to their wives. Calpurnia pleaded with Caesar on that fatal
Ides of March not to leave the house.
She had a restless night, and three times she cried out in her dream for
help. It was a sign to her, and she
urged her stubborn husband to heed her warning. But Caesar was not about to join that pathetic minority who give
credence to the silly feelings of their wives.
He would rather die than admit a woman's intuition had any validity, and
so he went out for the last time and died.
In our
text we are looking at another Roman leader who was equally heedless of his
wife's warning. Claudia Procula was her
name, and she was the wife of Pilate. She was the only person who came to the
defense of Jesus while he was on trial.
Jesus would not defend Himself, but Claudia had a dream about Jesus, and
she sent word to her husband not to have anything to do with this innocent man.
In
typical macho fashion Pilate ignored the message and made the biggest blunder
of his life. He sent Jesus to the
cross. Because he did not listen to his
wife he has been despised all through history on a level next to Judas. Jesus would have died anyway, for it was His
plan to do so, and the Jewish leaders would have defied Pilate. Nevertheless, by listening to his wife he
could have become a noble hero. There
could have been St. Pilate churches all through history, and Pilate could have
become a popular Christian name. But
Pilate blew it because he would not listen to his wife.
Her lone
voice said to Pilate, He is innocent, and it is wrong to condemn an innocent
man. Don't do it. But the loud voice of the mob mobilized by
the enemies of Jesus cried out for His blood.
Who do you listen to‑a mere wife or mean crowd? The majority of
men in Pilate's sandals would probably make the same choice. What does a woman know about the ways of the
world and political maneuvering? Am I
supposed to make major judgments based
on her dreams? Nonsense! I have to deal with political realities, and
this clamoring crowd is no dream. These people are out for blood, and if I
don't give it to them it may be mine they will be after. I know the man is innocent, and nothing He
has done is worthy of death. Yet what
is to be gained by sparing one innocent man and making a mass of people mad at
you. Better one innocent man dies
unjustly than risk many being hurt or killed in a riot.
Pilate
did resist the injustice before him. He
tried to get Jesus released, but they choose Barabbas instead. He did wash his hands of the whole ordeal
and say I am innocent of this man's blood.
But in the final analysis he refused to listen to his wife, and handed
Jesus over to be crucified. He is now
infamous for being the man who sent the Savior of the world to the cross.
From the
beginning of the second century Christians have recited the Apostle Creed which
begins, "I believe in God the
Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ His Son who was
conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius
Pilate." Caesar only died because
he did not listen to his wife. Pilate
lives forever in infamy because he did not listen to his wife. It is high risk
to ignore your wife. If this verse
tells us nothing else, it tells us that a wife may have insight that a husband
lacks, and, therefore, it is wise to listen to her.
This
dream Claudia had spoke to her, and she made it clear to Pilate, but he did not
listen. It speaks to us also and we are
wise if we give heed. This dream did
not come to Pilate himself, but came through his wife. God could have just as easily had Pilate
dream the dream, but He did not do so.
He gave the dream to Claudia, and she, because she was a loving and
concerned wife, sent the message of it to her husband. God makes it clear that we do not get all
truth and guidance directly. Often we
get it through others who love us and want God's best for us. It is a terrible pride that keeps men from
listening to their wives or others who care about them. If God wants to tell us something a man
thinks, he can talk to me directly, and not go through my wife, mother,
grandmother, or any other person in my
life.
Claudia
obviously loved her stubborn husband or she would not have sent him the
warning. But Pilate was not open to
advice and guidance from such a source.
Woe to the man who will not listen to the dreams of others as possible
guidance for him.
He would not go to school
Where the teacher was his
wife.
Thus, he became a fool,
And missed his greatest
chance in life.
Pilate
did not pay any attention to the dream, and the fact is, most people pay it no
attention, but we want to focus on it, for it was the only positive note in the
journey of Christ to the cross. Harold
Bell Wright in, The 13 Truly Great Things Of Life says, "Of the 13 truly
great things of life, dreams are first."
He goes on to say that what many of us become begins with our
dreams. This is certainly true for
Pilate's wife. She would have been a
famous lady of her day, but her lasting fame for all time was due to this dream
she had that put her into God's revelation.
It is a
mystery why God allowed the record of her dream to be recorded by Matthew. It almost seems totally irrelevant, for
Pilate does not seem to have been impressed, and as far as we know it had no
effect on the outcome of the trial of Jesus.
We would not expect it to prevent the cross, for that was the goal of
Jesus. He would not inspire a dream to prevent His own goal. The seeming irrelevance of the dream is what
lead Martin Luther to the conviction that the dream must have been inspired by
Satan as a last ditch effort to stop Jesus from going to the cross. The
evidence will not support such a conviction.
Pilate
already knew that the Jewish leaders had handed Jesus over out of envy. He was
working for the release of Jesus, but gave in to the persistent demands of the
Jewish leaders and their rabble‑rousers.
The dream of his wife only
confirmed what he already knew, but it did not altar the outcome because of the
bitter hatred of the leaders of Israel.
The point is, whether God or Satan inspired the dream, it does not seem to have had any measurable impact
on the situation for good or evil.
So why
is it here? For one answer we can look
at Matthew's interest in dreams. He is the dream collector of the New
Testament. The word for dream here is
ONAR, and it is used just six times in the New Testament, and all six come from
the pen of Matthew. If not for
Matthew's interest in dreams we would have none of the four references to the
dreams of Joseph by which he was guided to receive the baby Jesus as virgin
born, and by which he was led to flee to Egypt, and later to bring Jesus back
to Israel. The wise men were also
warned in a dream to flee from Herod. Five of the six dreams deal with the
birth and childhood of Jesus. Only the
dream of Pilate's wife deals with the other end of his life‑his trial and
death.
What are
we to make of these facts?
1. It is the
only dream in the Bible of a woman.
2. It is the
only dream concerning the end of Christ's life.
3. It was a
disturbing dream that was more like a nightmare.
It is
only speculation, but here is what Edwin Markam, the poet, felt Claudia's dream
was all about. It appeared first in
1902 on the cover of an American magazine called Success. It is to long to share it all, but here is
the essence of it.
Oh, let the Galilean go,
strike off his cruel bond:
Behold the fathomless
silence and those eyes that look
beyond.
There's more than mortal in
that face, ‑than earthly in this hour:
The fate that now is in the
bud will soon be in the flower.
O Pilate, I have suffered
many things in dream today.
Because of this strange
teacher of the strait and mystic way.
I saw Him hanging on a
cross, where the stones of Golgotha are:
Then laid, at last, in a
guarded tomb, under the evening star.
I saw him rise again one
dawn and down a garden go,
Shining like great Apollo
white, our god in the silver bow:
And then the wind of vision
tore the veil of time apart,
And love of him ran
greatening from camel‑path to mart;
His story was a wonder on
the eager lips of men,
The scourged Galilean walked
the roads of earth again.
I saw Jerusalem go down
before the wrath of spears,
And turn into a field of
stones under the trampling years.
World‑battles roared
around this man, the world's mysterious king;
But over the storm of the
ages I could hear the seven stars sing.
Rome crumpled and I heard a
voice across the ruin laugh;
A power had risen on the world,
shaking the thrones as chaff.
And down the ages ran your
name, a byword and a jeer:
"He suffered under
Pilate!" sounded ever in my ear.
The deeds of some are clean
forgot, but yours did breathe ... ...
and live;
Some are forgiven in the
end, but none could you forgive.
It is,
as I said, only speculation, but even the great Spurgeon agrees that it is
likely Claudia saw in her dream the crucifixion. She states clearly that she suffered, and what could her
suffering had been but the vision of this innocent man being crucified
unjustly. Claudia would have been the
first person to witness the crucifixion.
It was in a dream, but it was very real. Spurgeon goes on to speculate that she may have also seen in her
dream that this just man would one day be sitting on a great white throne
judging the world. This man her husband
was about to judge would be the judge of all men, and her husband was about to
condemn the only man worthy to judge all men.
Why else would she be so disturbed, and why would she rush her message
to Pilate? It could not wait until he
came home for he was making the most important decision of his life.
The
second fact is that the dream is a valid channel by which God has communicated
to both men and women. The dream is
still a possible channel for God's guidance in our lives. It would be folly to suggest that all dreams
have some significance, but it is equal folly to dismiss them as being
irrelevant. The great scholar Dr.
Benjamin B. Warfield of Princeton Seminary wrote in, Hasting's Dictionary Of
Christ And The Gospels, an article on dreams.
In it he makes this statement, "We surely can find no difficulty in
recognizing the possibly and propriety of occasional Divine employment of
dreams for the highest ends."
What he
is saying is revelation by dreams is real but rare. We are not to look to dreams as a primary source of
guidance. God gave us His word for
that. But He may on occasion give us
guidance through our dreams. Pilate's
wife could have dismissed her dream as a meaningless nightmare, but she took it
seriously and sent a message to her husband because of it. Was she a foolish woman to do so? Not at all.
According to Christian tradition she became a believer because of her
dream. So we learn it is not only wise
to listen to our wives: It is wise to
listen to our dreams, and recognize they may be conveying to us a message from
God.
A. J.
Gordon, the famous Baptist preacher and author of the late 19th century, had a dream that changed his whole
ministry. He saw a stranger come into
his church while he was preaching, and after the service the stranger just
disappeared, but he knew it was Jesus.
He realized that if Jesus was in his service he had to preach in such a
way that his Lord would be pleased. He
wrote, "It was a vision of the deepest reality. Apparently we are most awake to God when we are asleep to the
world."
John
Newton, author of Amazing Grace and many other great hymns, was a captain of a
ship when he had a strange dream about a ring that was to keep him secure. But he was ridiculed for trusting in that
ring, so he took it off and threw it into the sea. Then a stranger came and offered to dive to the depths and
recover the ring. When he came up with
it he did not give it back. He said,
"I will keep it for you and be forever by your side." He knew it was Jesus, and when he awoke he
left his life as a sea captain and became a pastor. He was one of the most famous pastor's in history, and it was a
dream that changed his whole life.
History
is full of such life changing dreams, and Pilate could have been a hero had he
listened to the dream of his wife.
Modern Jews have seriously considered having a retrial of Jesus and
reversing Pilate's decision. There was
so much that was illegal that the most mediocre lawyer could have secured the
release of Jesus.
The dream could have done it too. The dream was the only defense Jesus had,
but it was enough if Pilate would have listened. He is innocent, he is faultless, stainless, and guiltless. God's plea for His Son was, "Not
guilty!"
Claudia
believed her dream and knew Jesus was being framed. Because she believed, she, the granddaughter of the Emporor
Augustus, went on to become famous for the serving of Christ, while Pilate went
on to become infamous for the suffering of Christ. The difference being, one believed and the other disbelieved the
dream. Because Claudia gave heed to her dream she wrote part of the New
Testament. It is only a sentence, but
that one sentence is a powerful testimony.
She is the only female who wrote part of the New Testament. No man spoke up for Jesus. Only one woman did, and she said He is just
and righteous, and not worthy of the vile treatment He is getting. Without this one sentence coming from a
woman's dream, there would have been
not a single word of testimony in Christ's defense.
I really
don't know what difference it makes, but God went out of His way to get this
one testimony in His Sons defense.
However irrelevant it may seem to us, it was important to God, and
Pilate's wife was apparently the only mind God could use to accomplish this
task. The mind of one woman was open to
receive this revelation.
That is why we need to listen to our wives. Sometimes they are the only ones listening
to God. Let me share more illustrations
of this reality.
David
was about to act in anger and kill the fool Nabal for his refusal to help feed
his men in an emergency situation. Abigail
pleaded with him not to do this great evil.
David listened to the voice of this woman who later became his
wife. He calmed down, and got control
of his emotions, and he realized she had saved him from folly. He said, "Blessed be thy advice and blessed
be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood.."
Abraham
Lincoln listened to his wife Mary Todd when she refused to go to Oregon. This kept him in Illinois where the summons
reached him to go to Washington where he became the President of the United
States. Had she not intervened, G. Hall
Todd says, "Lincoln might have known only the virtual oblivion
of a Pacific coast outpost."
President Theodore Roosevelt once remarked that there had never been a
time when he failed after listening to the intuitive suggestions of his
wife. We don't want to give a false
impression that wives are not fallen sinners, for they are. Job refused to listen to his wife when she
urged him to curse God and die, and this was clearly God's will that he not
listen to her. Wives are not the
infallible voice of God. It is just
that they can be a channel of God's wisdom when other channels are not open.
Therefore, it is just practical wisdom to listen to your wife. She may not
always be right or wise, but it is always wise to at least listen.
3. THE MOST FAMOUS FEVER
MARK 1:29‑31
I
never heard of Thomas Sydenham, even though he probably saved my life, and
yours as well, if you have ever had a bad fever. The highest fever that anyone has ever survived is 109.8. Most people will die if they reach
109.4. But many have died with far less
because of bizarre methods of treatment.
In England in the 1600's, the standard method of treating a fever was
the hot bed. You piled blankets on the
patient, and kept a roaring fire in the fire place, and if necessary you posted
guards to make sure the patient could not escape this stifling inferno.
Dr.
Sydenham made an interesting observation about this treatment. It almost always was effective in killing
the patient. Even more interesting was
his observation that poor people who could not afford a doctor, and thus, had
to forego this special treatment, were more likely to recover from a
fever. One poor lad was stricken with
small pox while traveling. They took
him to an inn where he was smothered with blankets. When he went into a coma they thought he was dead. They took him out of the hot bed and laid
him on a table with just a sheet over
him. The boy recovered because
of his fortunate escape from the hot bed.
Dr. Sydenham put his observations together, and finally persuaded the
medical community that the way to fight fire was not with more fire, but with
ice, air, quinine, and anything that would lower the fever.
When he
died in 1689, he was immortalized as the father of clinical medicine. There is no way to know how many millions of
lives have been spared because of his observation on how to cure a fever.
In this
message we want to focus on the most famous fever in all the Bible. It is the fever of Peter's mother‑in‑law. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all record this
event, and Dr. Luke gives us a doctors perspective, for he tells us it was no
mere minor fever of 99 or 101.3, for he calls it a great fever. The Greek word is megas. It was a mega fever. She was very seriously ill.
The New
Testament has two words for fever:
Puresso and puretos. Puresso is
used twice, both times of this particular fever. Puretos is used six times, four of which refer to this fever, and
so six of the eight uses of fever in the New Testament refer to this fever of
Peter's mother‑in‑law this is the most famous fever in the
Bible.
It is also
the first physical illness that Jesus healed in the Gospel of Mark. Earlier He had cast out demons in the
synagogue, but this was the first disease that He cured. Jesus began His healing ministry as a fever
fighter, and he knocked it out with a single punch.
This is the only record we have of Jesus healing one of the family members of His Apostles. We have no account of any of the Apostles ever needing