Skip to content

Tag: submission

When God Calls

Since early this summer, we have been traveling through the book of Acts and today we find ourselves in Acts chapter 9. This chapter records one of the most significant events in the history of the early church – perhaps second only to the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Very few other events have changed the course of Christianity (or even the course of history for that matter) like the event we’re going to read about today.

Today, we’re going to read about how a man named Saul came to know and follow Jesus. And while his story seems fairly dramatic and out of the ordinary, the things he experienced and the process that he went through – bringing him to faith in Christ – are actually very similar for all of us who come to acknowledge Christ as our Saviour.

There is a certain pattern – a certain sequence of events that need to happen for any of us to experience God’s salvation. Of course, the exact details and the timeline and how it all unfolds are likely different for each one of us, but the process and the pattern that God uses will be the same.

And so even before we get into the passage today, let me just give you the four-point pattern of Salvation that we’re going to see in this passage – that way, as we go through Saul’s story, looking at the process that he went through, you can see if you can identify that same process in your own life and your own story.

So really quickly, here they are. 

  1. Jesus Christ reveals himself to you. In Saul case, it’s quite a dramatic reveal – but that may not be the case of you. Your introduction to Christ might be a little more subtle. Either way, Christ makes Himself known to you and calls you to respond.
  2. You respond by acknowledging Jesus as the resurrected Son of God. This is when you begin to see Jesus for who He really is. There’s a recognition and acknowledgement there that wasn’t there before.
  3. Having acknowledged who Jesus really is, you willingly submit your life to Him and seek to be obedient to Him. As your Lord and Saviour, you want to serve and obey Him with your whole life.
  4. As a result of your trust in Christ and your willingness to be obedient to Him, God begins the process of transformation. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell within you – changing you into a new person. You are adopted in the family of God as His child, and you begin to live a new life.

And of course, as I said before, the exact details and the timeline and how this all unfolds are likely different for each one of us, but the process and the pattern that God uses is the same. He did this for Saul, and he does this for us today.

So on that note, let’s take a look at the story of Saul and see how this pattern plays out in his experience.

But before we begin, let me just quickly review what we’ve already been told about this man named Saul. Back in Acts chapter 7, we read about the stoning of Stephan – the first Christian martyr. He was the first person to be put to death for his faith in Jesus. And Acts chapter 7 verse 58 tells us that as his accusers…

Leave a Comment

Submission Equals Trust

Last week, we waded into a potentially controversial topic. You see, for the past several weeks, we’ve been talking about the church in your house. That church being, of course, your family.

When we started this series, we noted that “church” is not just a building or an event – but it’s people. The church is the family of God. And anyone who has put their trust in Jesus is part of that family.

That means, that if your family is part of the family of God, then your home is really like a little mini-church. There is a church in your house – and each person in your house has a role to play in that church. So what are those roles?

Well over the course of these past few weeks, we’ve spend quite a bit of time looking specifically at the roles of husbands and wives in marriage and we’ve discovered that God has actually designed our marriages to be modelled after Christ’s relationship with his church. 

We’ve discovered that husbands are to play the role of Christ – and we are to do for our families exactly what Christ has done for us.  Not that we can die on a cross for the forgiveness of sins, but we are are to love our wives with that same self-sacrificing love that Christ demonstrated for all of us. Likewise, wives are to play the part of the church – relating to their husbands in the same way as the church relates to Christ.

And this is where the potential controversy comes in. In describing this role of the church as it relates to Christ and the role of wives as they relate to their husbands, the Bible describes this role as one of submission. Ephesians 5:22 says…

22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. Ephesians 5:22-24

Now in our modern North American culture of 2019, this idea of wives submitting to their husbands often comes across as a very negative thing. Many would say that it is demeaning to women – that it robs them of their true value and worth and degrades them as second class citizens.

But that understanding of submission is not at all what the Bible teaches. In fact, I would argue that Biblical submission actually goes the opposite way – it actually affirms the incredible value and worth of women. 

Think of it like this: It’s kinda like how the president of the United State puts his trust in his secret service body guards. To a certain extent, the president places himself under the care and protection of his body guards. The president is the important one – and those bodyguards affirm that because they are willing to take a bullet to keep him safe.

Well, in Biblical submission – the husband is the bodyguard. God has entrusted him with the job of keeping her safe. In fact, the definition that we’ve been looking at for headship is this:

Headship is the divine calling of a husband to take primary responsibility for Christlike servant leadership, protection, and provision in the home. ~ John Piper

The husband is the bodyguard. That’s why the Bible tells husbands to love their wives like they love their own bodies! We are to be willing take a bullet both figuratively and literally for our wives. We put her good ahead of our own!

Of course, this is exactly what we see Jesus doing for us. He took the bullet – he died on the cross for our sin so that we could live. Why? Was it because he thought we were worthless and second-class citizens? No way! He did that because of how valuable we are to him. Ephesians 2:4 says…

4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) Ephesians 2:4-5

Jesus took the bullet for us because he loved us sooo much! When we accept Christ as our Lord and saviour – when we willingly submit ourselves under his leadership, under his provision, and under his protection – that doesn’t de-value us in any way. It’s actually the opposite – what Christ has done for us affirms how valuable we are to God.

So when it comes to our roles in marriage, in the same way, I think submission only affirms the great value and worth of our wives.

For a woman to willingly submit to her husband means that she knows without a shadow of a doubt that he loves her like crazy – and that he will sacrifice his own good for her good! When she places herself under his protection and provision and leadership, that’s a huge responsibility for him! For him to take on that responsibility, he has got to think the world of this girl!

Biblical submission in marriage should only affirm the incredible worth and value of our wives.

But that being said, that’s not always what we see in the world around us, and it’s not always what we experience even in our own marriages.

1 Comment

Submission vs Subjection

I have done some foolish and dangerous things in my lifetime – some of them years ago when I was a kid, and some of them not all that long ago. For example, when I was probably about 9 or 10 years old, I decided one day I wanted to see how long and how far I could ride my bike with my eyes closed. For some reason, I didn’t really see the potential danger in this and so I took off down our driveway of our farm – eyes closed and pedalling hard! It wasn’t until I was slapped in the face with a spruce tree branch, that I began to realize that I may have done something foolish. I opened my eyes just in time to avoid the tree trunk but still ended up in the barbwire fence. I still have a scar on my arm to remind me of my foolishness that day.

But that didn’t keep me from doing foolish and dangerous things as an adult. A short time after my wife & I were married, we lived in the farmyard across from her family. Her brother Roger was still living at home at that time, and so we often got together to do guy stuff in the shop – like carefully filling up lightbulbs with acetylene and oxygen and watching them explode when you turn on the light and things like that. Well, we had learned that if you mix tin foil with a certain cleaner – there is a chemical react that lets off a couple gases. If you do this in a 2 litre pop bottle and close the lid, the pressure increases until the pop bottle explodes with a tremendous bang. So one day, we decided to explode a hot water bottle – It would be pretty exciting to see how big those things would become until they finally burst!

So we filled the bottom of the hot water bottle with little balls of tin foil and then Roger went to put in the cleaner. Well, it reacted so quickly, that as he was pouring it in, the pressure began spewing out the cleaner out the top of the bottle. Of course, we had never thought to wear eye protection or anything and so Roger got this highly corrosive cleaner in his eyes! So we immediately drop the bottle and rush to flush his eyes out. I think we put him in the shower or put his face under the gardenhose or something like that. I believe he eventually went to the doctor to get his eyes check out – and if I remember correctly, there was some marks on his eyeballs, but thankfully no damage was done to his retinas. But the potential for significant damage was great! We’re thankful that God was watching over us – even while we did those foolish and dangerous things.

That being said, I’m trusting that God will watch over us again today, as I attempt yet another potentially foolish and dangerous thing this morning. This morning I want to talk to you about the role of women in marriage.

Leave a Comment

God’s Design for Authority

This is now the fourth week of examining our Call of Duty. We’ve been looking at 1 Timothy to find out our responsibilities as Christians. So far, we’ve looked at our responsibility to help each other live a life of faith in God. We’ve looked at our responsibility to cling to our faith and keep our consciences clear so that we can fight well in the Lord’s battles. And just last week we looked at our responsibility to pray for all people.

And I hope many of you have been praying through our prayer calendar that we handed out last week and that you’ve been praying for your families, your church, and your neighbors. Don’t forget to come prepared to pray for our community next Sunday as we do our prayer walk through town following our morning service. This is going to be a great event and I think that both our community and our church will be blessed because of it.

Now today we want to carry on in looking at 1 Timothy chapter 2 – today verses 8 through 15. I want us to read that together this morning, but first let’s pray and ask God to show us what He would have us learn.

Leave a Comment

Bowing in Submission

For those of you who missed last week, or for those who have a terrible memory, last week we started talking about engaging with God. And the primary way that we do that is through worship. And we’re not just talking about worship music, although that is certainly a part of it. Worship in it’s simplest form, is just saying thanks to God. It’s about acknowledging who God is and what He’s done and continually having an attitude of thankfulness because of that. So, if you want to begin to engage with God – to really connect with Him, start saying thanks. And that’s where our list of “100 things to be thankful for” came in.

Now this morning, we’re going to continue exploring how to engage with God. And I think it’s important for us to remember who God is. If we’re going to engage with God, we have to realize that God is not just another person. We tend to try to bring God down to our level. To think of Him almost as an equal.

But that’s not the case. Yes, we are created in His image, but He is so infinitely more in every way than we are. So to help us keep perspective as we endeavor to engage with God, let’s just look at some of the ways the Bible describes God for us.

Leave a Comment