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Pulpit sermon 2026-03-09

Is He Leading or Ruling? | Ephesians 5:25-33 - Conrad Macintyre

Verse-by-verse teaching through Ephesians 5:25-33. Examines what headship means — sacrificial love modeled on Christ, not authority or rule over.

Ephesians 5:25-33 Ephesians 5:21 Genesis 2:24 egalitarian marriage Ephesians
Pulpit sermon 2019-09-01

Women in Ministry - Prof Craig Keener

Paul's letters stand at the centre of the dispute over women's role in church ministry, with each side of the dispute championing texts from the Apostle. How do we understand the text in 1 Corinthians 14 where Paul instructs women to be silent, or the 1 Timothy 2 passage where women are forbidden to teach or exercise authority over men? Are these texts addressing a specific cultural situation or should they be treated as universal prohibitions? Craig Keener delved deeply into the world of Paul and wrestled with these thorny texts in his book [*Paul, Women and Wives: Marriage and Women's Ministry in the Letters of Paul*](/library/25) (Hendrikson, 1992). In a public lecture at Laidlaw's Henderson campus in September 2019, Professor Keener looked at the arguments for both sides of the question: 'are women allowed to be in ministry?', and the approaches various theologians and church traditions have taken throughout the centuries. He gave insights into the culture at the time Paul wrote his letters, and of the way false teachers were targeting women. He notes the importance of considering the original situation of Paul's letters, and that Paul does affirm women's ministry which helps us to see that Paul himself did not prohibit women from teaching the Bible always.

Exodus 15 Numbers 2 Kings 22-23 Women in Ministry Complementarianism egalitarianism
Pulpit research note

Commentary: Created Order Does Not Establish Hierarchy

Ardavanis says: > "First is not always best, or else beavers would be better than humans." Then immediately: "God had positioned Adam in the garden to be the priest and protector of Eden." He underc

Genesis 2:7
Pulpit research note

Commentary: Naming as Epistemology, Not Authority

Ardavanis says: > "Adam is given the responsibility of naming Eve, providing indication of God's design of the male operating in leadership with responsibility." The text gives its own stated purpos

Genesis 2:19-23
Pulpit research note

Commentary: Complementary Means Shared Roles, Not Divided Authority

Ardavanis says: > "God made man and women different and complimentary." Agreement: Yes — and this is precisely why God didn't make another man. He made a woman to rule WITH him. Their differences co

Genesis 2:18
Pulpit research note

Commentary: One Flesh Cannot Be Hierarchy

Ardavanis says: > "This beautiful picture of men and women, a groom and a bride... this is the central metaphor in all of the Bible... complementary yet different sexes that come together in union pa

Ephesians 5:21-33
Pulpit research note

Commentary: Genesis 3:16 Is Descriptive, Not Prescriptive

Ardavanis says: > "God tells Eve that as a derivative of the curse, you will desire to master your husband... Women are going to fight against God's design for male leadership." **Ge 3:16** is descr

Genesis 3:16
Pulpit research note

Commentary: Adam's Failure Comes from Preparation, Not Rank

Ardavanis claims the Genesis narrative is "a warning for when God's design for leadership is distorted." But this presumes hierarchy onto the text. If God was preparing Adam through the naming/identi

Genesis 2:15-3:7
Pulpit research note

Commentary: The Format That Silences Correction — 1 Corinthians 14:30-31 and Church Authority

**1Co 14:30-31** says: "If a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first must be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be encouraged." Paul's model

1 Corinthians 14:30-31
Pulpit research note

Commentary: Deception Is Not Gender-Specific — Paul Fears It for the Whole Church

Paul writes: "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" (**2 Cor 11:3,** NASB). Paul is

2 Corinthians 11:3
Pulpit research note

Commentary: God Never Said She Would Want to "Overpower" Her Husband

At 11:31, Ardavanis claims that God tells Eve she is going to want to "overpower her husband" and "subvert God's design," and calls this "one of the most timeless wars waged in culture." ### God Says

Genesis 3:16; 1 Corinthians 7:3-5
Pulpit research note

"Words Matter" — Elder, Pastor, Overseer Distinctions

At 12:19, he says "Sometimes people say it's just semantics, but words matter, they really matter" — and then proceeds to flatten the very distinctions God's inspired words preserve. He claims elder

Pulpit research note

Children's Minister vs. Pastor — The Self-Contradiction

At 13:52, he claims that a pastor is an elder and an elder is a pastor, and says this is why they do not call a children's minister a "children's pastor" — because a pastor is an elder. Words really