Nurturing the Nations Reclaiming the Dignity of Women in Building Healthy Cultures

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Nurturing the NationsReclaiming the Dignity of
Women in Building Healthy Cultures

• Servanthood

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Part 3 THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS

• 7 The Bible
• 8 The Trinity
• 9 Servanthood
• 10 The Transcendence of Sexuality
• 11 Gods Maternal Heart

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Outline

• Authority A Dirty Word
• Defining Terms
• The Trinity Archetype of Servant-Leadership
• Humility in the Godhead
• Hierarchy in the Universe
• Servanthood

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Authority

• A Dirty Word

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Modern Secularism and Feminism

• Subordination and equality are contradictions
• To be under authority is to be inferior
• To be equal is to be autonomous
• To obey God or any human authority is to restrict
  freedom. This is bad!
• Freedom without restraint is the modern virtue

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Form and Freedom

• Tyranny Form without freedom
• Anarchy Freedom without form
• True Freedom is within form
• The biblical balance establishes that we are most
  free
• when we are under authority
• when we are obedient to Gods ordinances

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The Two S Words

• Serve
• Submit (submission)

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Defining Terms
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Subordination

• Derived from
• Ordination the state of being ordained or
  appointed
• Order Regular disposition or methodical
  arrangement of things as the order of troops or
  parade the order of books in a library
• Subordination is to be under the appointment or
  ordination of another

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Submission

• Derived from mission
• sending or being sent
• delegated by authority, with certain powers for
  transacting business
• commission
• as sent on a foreign mission
• Submission To be on a mission, with another and
  under their authority

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Does submission mean inferiority?

• Yes
• If humility and servanthood are considered vices
• When tyranny is a virtue, then submission is a
  vice

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Does submission mean inferiority?

• No When humility and servanthood are virtues
• Making distinctions
• In being, there is no inferiority!
• In function, there is a distinction in rank or
  degree
• Submission recognizes authority, the legitimacy
  of governance, administration and leadership

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SubmissionManifesting the Divine Image

• It is often by submitting to others that we
  best display the ethical components of the divine
  image. How better to demonstrate Gods love, His
  patience, His gentleness, His self-control, than
  by submitting to others.
• John Frame

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Authority

• Legal power, or a right to command or to act as
  the authority of a prince over subjects, and of
  parents over children

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Godly Authority

• Authority does not authenticate my person.
  Authority is not a privilege to be exploited to
  build up my ego. Authority is a responsibility to
  be borne for the benefit of others without regard
  for oneself. This alone is the Christian view.

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The Trinity

• Archetype for Servant-Leadership

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Gods nature stands as a challenge to modern
mans arrogance!
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Human Divine Viewpoints

• Modern man sees
• Service (and self sacrifice) and humility as
  vices
• Power (and self fulfillment) and pride as virtues
• God honors humility, self sacrifice and
  subordination in man these are virtues that are
  a reflection of the nature of the love of God

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Archetype vs. Anthropomorphism

• Archetype is an ideal model, based on eternal
  principles, after which earthly activities are to
  be patterned
• Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human
  characteristic or behavior to non-human entities

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Four Loves

• Love for a detail of life, I love my dog.
• Phileo Love for a friend, brotherly love,
  affection
• Eros Romantic love, the love of a husband and
  wife
• Agape Self sacrificing love, Gods love!

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Agape Love

• Set 1 - Isaiah 5213 - 5312
• Set 2 - Matt. 2639 John 316
• John 1724b
• Set 3 - Philippians 21-8
• Question What do these verses reveal about the
  nature of God?

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Agape Love

• Humble
• Selfless
• Thinks of others first
• Is self-sacrificing
• Serves others first

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Agape Love

• love in its fullness, , meets two
  criteria. First, it will never make withdrawals,
  but only deposits. Second, it seeks to fill
  vacuums not in oneself, but in the other.
• Professor Henry Krabbendam
• Covenant College

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Agape Love

• Philippians 29-11
• Questions
• What is the reward for self-sacrificing love?
• What does this reveal about the nature of
  self-sacrificing love?

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God the Servant-God

• It was because Jesus was voluntarily and
  sacrificially willing to be a servant that God
  exalted him with the ultimate expression of
  Glory. He has been given the highest position
  that could be given. He has been given a name
  that supersedes every name. Every tongue will
  confess that this Servant is Lord. This is
  exaltation greater than any being has had or will
  have.

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God the Servant-God

• . Why did God do this? The answer is in the
  first word of verse 9 therefore. God honored
  Jesus in this exalted manner because Jesus fully
  reflected what God intended when He created man.
  Jesus fully expressed the highest expression of
  Gods image voluntary and sacrificial
  servanthood. God is a servant. Incredible! God is
  a servant, and Jesus modeled that servanthood.

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Two Kingdoms

• The Kingdom of the World
• Pride
• Self-serving
• Power

• The Kingdom of God
• Humility
• Self-sacrifice
• Service

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The Servant God His Character

• Hesed
• Means loving - kindness
• 250 times in the O.T.
• Refers to Gods loyal and steadfast love
• Agape Gods self-sacrificing, other-serving
  love

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Two Images

• Psalm 23
• Question What do these two images (verses 1-4
  and 5-6) reveal about the servant heart of God?

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The Servant God The Incarnation

• Set - John 114 Colossians 29 Mark 1045
• Questions
• What does this reveal about the nature of God?
• Is Christs serving a contradiction with his
  being God? Why or why not?

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The Excellencies of Christ

• infinite highness and infinite condescension
  infinite justice and infinite grace infinite
  glory and lowest humility infinite majesty and
  transcendent meekness deepest reverence towards
  God and equality with God infinite worthiness
  of good, and the greatest patience under
  sufferings of evil an exceeding spirit of
  obedience, with supreme dominion over heaven and
  earth absolute sovereignty and perfect
  resignation self-sufficiency, and an entire
  trust and reliance on God.

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The Cross

• The cross is an affront to the modern virtues
  of power, pride and self fulfillment.

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The Cross

• The cross would have been an impossibility
  without self-denial, self-sacrifice and
  submission.It hardly needs to be argued that the
  cross, or anything even remotely resembling it,
  could never have been initiated or achieved by
  man. Self-interest, self-service, and
  self-preservation would have precluded that.

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Humility

• In the Godhead

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Humility in the Trinity

• Set 1 The Father Gen. 126-28 220 John 316
• Set 2 The Son Matt. 2639,42,44 2746
  Philippians 25
• Set 3 The Holy Spirit John 1416 1526 167

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Gods Humility Towards the Created Order

• The Fathers divine humility is found in
• Human freedom Genesis 216
• Mans naming the animals Genesis 219
• The Cross John 316

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Gods Humility Towards the Created Order

• Jesus subordinated himself, not only to the
  father but to
• Human requests (Water to wine) John 23-8
• Came to serve Mark 1045 John 131-17 (Wash
  disciples feet)
• Unjust authority (1 Peter 219-25)

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Gods Humility Towards the Created Order

• The Holy Spirit is the Paraklete the helper
• John 1416
• John 1526
• John 167

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Hierarchy

• In the Universe

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Definition of Hierarchy

• Websters 1828 An order or rank of angels or
  celestial beings or a subordination of holy
  beings
• Etymology
• Greek hieros - sacred
• Archos - ruler or literally sacred rulers

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Hierarchys Contrasts

• hierarchicalist who structuralizes hierarchy at
  the expense of its glorious movement the dance
  of interdependent beings.
• egalitarians who deny any hierarchy in the
  created order. There is no inferiority because
  there is no subordination.

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The Universe

• The collective name of heaven and earth, and all
  that belongs to them the whole system of created
  things. Websters 1828
• Universe Unity of all the diversity
• Contrast with monism of Hinduism unity without
  diversity

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The Glorious Hierarchical Order

• .what I see as the arrangement of the
  universe and the full harmony and tone of
  Scripture. This arrangement is a glorious
  hierarchical order of graduated splendor,
  beginning with the Trinity, descending through
  seraphim, cherubim, archangels, angels, men, and
  all lesser creatures, a mighty universal dance,
  choreographed for the perfection and fulfillment
  of each participant.

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Hierarchy In Creation

• The Spiritual Realm
• Angels
• Human beings
• Animated life
• Animals
• Plants
• Inanimate objects rocks, minerals, etc.

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Unity and Diversity
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Revelation (Word and Works) Discloses

• The one and many in
• The Trinity
• Creation
• Humankind
• The authority structure between kinds
• God over all creation,
• Angelic over humankind,
• Humankind over the rest of creation

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Scripture

• Places equality and subordination in two
  different and complementary categories
• Equality of being
• Diversity of function

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The Fall Corrupts Hierarchy

• The tyrannical rebellion of Satan against God and
  the angelic order
• Humankinds dominion over nature the rape of
  nature
• Husbands headship of wife domination
• Women or men in leadership roles tyrannical

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Hierarchy in the Trinity

• Hierarchy in function, but not in essence, within
  the Trinity
• To be subordinated in essence is
  subordinationalism inferiority of being or
  nature of Jesus and the Holy Spirit
• This does not reflect the Biblical balance of
  equal in essence and diverse in function

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Submission within the Godhead

• in the Trinity the Parties are there
  not for themselves but for the others in a
  radical and total manner."
• Henry Krabbendam
• Covenant College

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Functional Subordination of the Son to the Father

• In Time (e.g. Matt. 1127 Phil. 25-8)
• In Eternity (e.g. John 317, 34 Rom. 832)
• In Eternity present and future (e.g. Acts
  427,30 Hebrews 13, 13)
• Jesus is under the Fathers authority in both
  time and eternity

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Functional Subordination of the Holy Spirit to
the Father and the Son

• John 1426
• John 1526
• John 1613-15

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When did the ideals of submission and service
begin?

• They did not begin! They have always existed in
  the character of God!

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Our Model

• The Fathers divine humility, the Sons
  modeling servanthood, and the Holy Spirit being
  our helper are examples of the nature of Gods
  servant heart and divine subordination.

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Servanthood
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Service is the Highest Form of Being in the Image
of God

• God does not command sacrificial service for
  its own sake. He invites it because it results in
  the demonstration of his greatest attribute,
  love. True love always results in the action of
  sacrificial serving. Loving service heals
  brokenness. It restores. It redeems. This is
  Gods agenda and when it is fulfilled those who
  serve are honored and he is glorified.
• Dr. Robert Moffitt

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Servant-Leadership

• Christ was a servant leader (Mark 1045 Phil.
  27).
• Serving and leading are not contradictions they
  are two sides of the same coin
• leadership is defined in the context of service
• service is defined in the context of leadership

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Just as serving was essential to Christs
identity as God,

• it is essential to our identity as human beings!

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Differing Value Systems

• The World
• The Great Man
• Servants

• The Kingdom
• Those Served
• The Great Man

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The Dominion Mandate

• Male and Female function as
• servants of the living God
• Vice Regents of creation
• Submit to one another as Sons of Adam and
  Daughters of Eve
• Both male and female are to function as
  servant-leaders

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Limitations

• All service roles are open to men with the
  exception of carrying a baby to term and nursing
  the baby
• All leadership roles are open to women with the
  exception of headship in the home and eldership
  in the church

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Servanthood is not a prerequisite for greatness.

• It is the standard for greatness!