Tana City Church Preaching
Kim Midgley | Questions series - Is God Male AND Female?
It's a let's pray and then hear the word of the Lord Everly father we gathered this morning because we're devoted to you We want to know who you are and we want to celebrate all that you have done And so as we look at your word God went to challenge our hearts to see the glory of what you have made and who you are in Jesus name amen So last week asked the question is God male and the confusion was no, he's not male although he uses male pronouns and today I wanted to go further and ask this God male and female and The real question is how does gender reveal more of God? Our main text perhaps quickly Genesis 1 verse 26 to 28 and I'll read Genesis 1 verse 26 to 28 to you You can read along with me if you want to then God said let us make men in our image after our Alakmus and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and all the earth and Over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth that was God's intention to create mankind in his likeness and to give us authority to rule as a kind of a representative and we should be able to have dominion over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and I still kill spiders Not to dishonor God's creation but because they're dangerous since the fall You know so things definitely changed when some came into the world I don't think spiders could bite you and kill you before sending into the world And we see God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them and God blessed him and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and full the earth and subdue it can have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth this is a very Grand depiction of God's intention for humanity. It's these are high thoughts great concepts that we truly entrusted with responsibility for the world we live in and we have authority that goes along with that responsibility and we're made in the image of God male and female and Genesis 1 verse 27 rightly connects both male and female as being made in the image of God not just male even though some people would want to diminish that concept when you look at the more detailed account of the creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 2 because in that description Adam is made and then later no help us suitable for a miss found and then he is put into a sleep and God Creates Eve out of Adam and so we see Paul even make mention of those things in Corinthians that if came from Adam woman came from man, but Genesis 1 verse 27 Correctly interpreted is explicit in God's ultimate plan being that male and female are the reflection of the image of God so we must be able to understand what scripture says in order to Become free or remain free and some people try to take certain scriptures and put You know at the exclusion of other scriptures I feel like we need to look at all of them and say what was God's ultimate plan? Yes in the process of making male and female He made Eve out of Adam But Eve is still made in the image of God as much as Adam is made in the image of God But male is not female and female is not male. They are different Equally bearers of the image of God, but what they bear of the image of God That's interesting. That's the difference. That's where glory is revealed and we need to see how wonderful God's plan is So last week we considered the question is God male the conclusion is no God is not male and to think of God exclusively in male gender would run the risk of thinking of God as a man who thinking that is a man, so you're not relating to God as if he is What men are in this world? That's what I mean by that God is above that He's however God does use male pronouns for all three of the persons in the Trinity God reveals himself in male roles through the father and the son and these are not things that are just adapted For our benefit, which I'll talk a bit more about but actually it's who God is God is a father not a mother God the son is a son not a daughter When we see in structure that God sometimes describes himself with characteristics we associate with the feminine We see there's a difference in how God refers to these qualities He uses metaphors that don't construe upon God the conclusion that he is also a she That's important in other words when God describes himself. He sometimes presents qualities we associate with feminine for example nurturing mothering sheltering Protecting with that the imagery of a mother hen looking after its chicks. This isn't for guys It's like I'm to relate to you know, let's go and kick a ball You know, but God is presenting parts of his nature Using the metaphors But the point of the use of metaphors is to close the door on the possibility that you could think of God as a mother He's a father not a mother and there's no way in scripture that you could construe upon God the confusion that he is also a she We must stick to addressing God in the masculine because this is how he does so himself But we must not think of God as a man or a woman God is not male and God is not female But should we think of him as the aggregation of male and female? As if he is Androgynous or some kind of hermaphrodite You know how to hermaphroditis did you do school biology if you got as far as I did Which is like great nine bodies you left about the snail and that freaky thing I say it's freaky because you learn about the sexual reproduction that you also learn about Sexual reproduction within one organism and it's unusual it's peculiar because the snail carries within it Male and female biology that's genetically capable of self reproduction So now this is this is how some people want to justify things in this world. They want to use Like an analysis of God and say see he's got male and female in him. So he must be like kind of a Snail This would certainly diminish God to call him male and female And I'm making a distinction now between we say it's not male and he's not female But some people would say that it's male and female. I'm saying no, he's not there either Some who see that God is both male and female characteristics in seeking to build the case For equality of the sexes have suggested that the only reason God refers to himself using masculine pronouns is to be taken seriously by patriarchal society. You see people get into knots about the biology of God But he's not biological He's spiritual but his spirit. He is not physical and so we've got to understand where this biological fit into the story that we're going to get there but If you want to construe on God an equal amount of male and female characteristics just Later saying then in that case God isn't a he so he must be referring to himself as a he in order to Compensate for something on earth. That's unable to grasp him like for example That God only calls himself he because Israel is so patriarchal. They won't listen to a god who says I'm an hit or a she That's not valid and I can tell you why this this is very important to you to follow Their implication is that God is not really father and son And we don't really have to refer to God using masculine pronouns But this reasoning does not take into account what we learn from sociology and history Which obviously you look at as well as the word of God It's sociologists people who study humanity and how people relate to people. They've observed that basically every society Even well one on the one hand matriarchal societies don't last but basically every long existing society on earth has been patriarchal in three ways Men have the upper hierarchical positions So like if you're an equality fighting social activists, you're gonna see justice injustice Which is true. It's true that if men get given better treatment Just because they're men or better pages because they're men those are problems of justice But the reality is in every civilization in every society They've been patriarchal in that men of the upper hierarchical positions Men control whatever roles society deems as high status and men dominate in male female interactions Now that we're not debating right now whether that is good or bad right or wrong just or unjust We're looking beyond that Because this phenomena Phenomenon is university observed it must have to do with nature not culture In other words, it's not men made that men have taken advantage of woman It's actually in their physiology. There is a physiological reason for this this patriarchy It's part of how men are created in relation to women now this is Effect I'm not saying it's good Because if patriarchal societies are a pressing woman, that's not God's design That's because of the fall, but at the same time the reason that patriarchal societies emerge Is because of something different between men and women in their design Okay in the New Testament, I think it's in pizza Woman are described as weaker It's true The weaker vessel not weaker in terms of resolve or weaker in terms of character just physically weaker That means generally men have the ability either to abuse that Privilege if you could call the privilege of being stronger or they have the ability to use it rightly I've said this before because there's a difference between me and my wife. I can bench press higher weights than she can even if she trains and I train and men can dominate women in Sports if they compete hit to hit in the same competition So women actually are weaker. So what what is the point of this? Well Where did it come from? The theory that God is It's because it's universally observed it has to do with nature not culture So there's a physiological reason for this. It is part of how men are created in relation to women It's a simple way of arguing that men and women are different and therefore all of these factors have Coalesced to cause things to happen in society So the theory that God is putting on masculine pronouns only in seeking to reach men would be credible if men If mankind wasn't created in the image of God however, humans and How we are made is not independent of God The reality is who we are is very much dependent on how God made us and He made humanity in his image to glorify him by reflecting his nature and so the point is that That patriarchy emerges and God comes as a man because man is actually Made in his image I'm going to try and clarify this thought a bit two examples from scripture In Ephesians 3 verse 14 it says for this reason are bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven And on earth is named So what we see there in Ephesians 3 verse 14 is that God is the proctor top father He is the original he is the source. It is not that we have fathers and project that image back unto God you know the words Fathers on earth exist because God in heaven is a father and So God doesn't it's it's that way around. It's not that God comes as a father because we made up fathers We have fathers and mothers for that matter because we are made in God's image also consider this In Ephesians 5 verse 31 and 32 it says therefore man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife And the two shall become one flesh Let's talk me about marriage This mystery is profound. It says in verse 32 and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church Marriage was created to reflect the mystery of the union of Christ and the church Jesus is the source of the image It is not that mankind invented marriage and then he expresses himself through that concept So the source of the image of marriage is Jesus himself. We as human beings didn't ordain and Institute marriage God instituted it for humanity because marriage is a picture of some mystery to do with Christ and the church and so we're I'm saying in the same way the fact that there is male pronouns is because God himself made Adam in his image and God then comes and Uses male pronouns. He doesn't use them to reach something that Adam created Man can't didn't create masculinity Man can't didn't create femininity God did and so by God using the pronouns he's using he's not adapting to a human institution Just for the sake of condescension he is he It is that simple there was like a long way to try to argue in defense of the fact that God uses male pronouns not To reach us but because in him is masculinity and he's presenting himself that way We got it from him So now let's go further God is not simply male and female in one God is not a biological creature nor some unisex being God is spirit and Human beings with their biological sex male and female are made in the image of God That's male and female exist to reflect something more than the biological or gender issues that the world is focused on In other words, there are greater things that were this source of these ideas We don't find biology in God But the fact that we have male and female on earth is tied back to something about God The they exist to reflect qualities that exist in God like Christ in the church. There is mystery Someone once wrote a book called the mystery of marriage someone else wrote about magnificent marriage Now I want to put it to that when we approach biblical sexuality as a subject We should do so in such a way that the mystery leads us to wonder and worship Not to weapons and war with one another about gender or sex If we get it right, we'll see that these ideas of male and female and masculinity and femininity Some expression originally in God of which they are just vehicles or carriers that should point us back to God God doesn't have physical form So sex and bodies are actually just the embodiment of some deeper truth that is found in God And yet in a world where you make an adult out of the physical and out of the biological and out of sex You turn it into some kind of trash and you focus all your arguments there The world is completely confused Male and female were made in the image of God. We should study the image of God to see what are the roots of those things So it should lead us to wonder and worship not weaponizing our speech against one another So we would have to understand what it means to be made in the image of God in order to understand how male and female represents something that finds its origin and perfect form in God and in this regard It's at least somewhat reasonable to see that the qualities we find in godly masculinity and godly femininity Find their roots in God's own nature But how how so how could we describe these things in God's nature? There are two great characteristics of God that have been given words that aren't even Necessarily terms that all translations in the Bible use Similar to the time that we speak of the Trinity, but the word Trinity is not in the Bible Trinity as a word encapsulates a concept for us that is very complicated and these loads of theology Behind the meaning of the term Trinity and yet the word Trinity doesn't even occur in the Bible But what we do found in the Bible is a triune God for the son and Holy Spirit Who is one God in three persons, but one essence one nature? So the two words that are used to describe something of God's nature Are transcendence and imminence now those might sound like big words to you We don't use them in everyday language, but to say that God is transcendent is to say something about him To say that God is imminent is to say something about him and we'll see that these two terms To a large degree Have masculinity and femininity parallels within What they define how human beings then in a sense reflect God's transcendence and imminence through masculinity and femininity So they're not necessarily biblical terms, but they're just as useful as the term Trinity to say that God is transcendent Is to say that he is high exalted in authority and in control? He is above and distinct from creation. So God creates He's the scriptures that describe him as being Above the circle of earth and thrown in in the heavens That's the kind of speaking about God is transcendent to say that God is imminent on the other hand is to say that he is present in time and space That he is near to us that he is with us and as believers he indwells us by his spirit So how can God be both far above us and near to us? Well, transcendence is not so much geographical. It's not that God is far away It's that God is far above for greater So transcendence is more about God's power and authority and right to occupy the heavens and the throne that we would have no Right to and no access to So speaking of transcendence Because in God's transcendence he is apart from that means he he takes initiative And he acts upon his creation, but God is not made up of his creation. God is not in the The material of this universe. That's pantheism pantheism Eastern religions where you can put an object there and by focusing on the object you say you focusing on deity or on the divine Christianity refutes that and says God is not in the substance of creation. He is distinct from creation that's a picture of God being transcendent and So being transcendent being apart from being Separated from his creation this means that the dynamics of God's transcendence come from without from the outside Come from the outside in for example. He initiates He creates but he stands apart above an infinitely greater than creation and Yet From the outside he gives life into it. He breathes into Adam His grace is bestowed upon us. We didn't generate God's grace from the inside by earning it God came and gave us his grace from the outside as a gift He imputes righteousness to us because he comes from the outside and he puts it upon us So does this idea of God's transcendent nature is that he's doing things of his own initiative and he is Acting from the outside in and he's bringing and giving bringing and given to us Giving life to Adam breathing his breath into Adam's being to give him life bringing his grace and putting it upon us He is the initiator and the pursuer of us So it's he is the author of salvation. He comes seeking to find us This is all him taking initiative God is chasing after you and me to save us to rescue us and to make us his own What is the way of a man with a woman? I Went and I found my wife Who pursued who? Yeah, she was trying to run away I'm not into this dematoxic masculinity caveman stuff meaning go find your woman clever over the head and drag her back to your cave I'm not into that it was an intelligent pursuit that gave her honor I didn't go and override her wishes. I would her and I won her How did God save you? He came looking for you and he would you and he won you it came from above from where you couldn't reach him And he found you he's transcendent. He's the author of salvation One John four verse nine says in this the love of God was made manifest among us That God sent his only son into the world. So we might live through him We love because he first loved us Initiation God loves us finds us Saves us we love him back. What did we do we responded to him? We love because he first loved us What we see in God's transcendence is initiative He takes initiative as we see sovereign planning. He acts. He takes action with authority He exercises lordship and he has a right to he is king of all he has created and some people have used God's transcendence as a reason to suggest that he is remote far away Like the secular songs about God. They just get it wrong. God is watching us from a distance He's saying that she should repeat He's not watching you from a distance only Though he's far above and thrown in the heavens Don't believe for a moment that he's uninvolved or Uninterested in us or inner-tentive or unreachable That's all to come in an idea associated with human authority Like if I want an audience with the president. I just can't get one I can't even get hold of the manager to run me to come play You know when you find the help desk on in South Africa It says you are number 4375 in the queue and you can wait forever You can't reach certain people in authority because they they've made themselves translated in an abusive sense as it I have authority. So you can't talk to me God's transcendence does not mean that He'd have every right to be unreachable But he took the initiative to make himself known to be knowable He revealed himself and not only does he reveal himself, but he comes to us Draw near to me. I'll draw near to you Imminence is that other term that I want you to Have in all when you look at God. He's transcendent. He's so great that he's Sending from the outside. He's taking initiative But he's imminent. He works inside of us. He works into his creation. He speaks then he acts He takes what is formless and void and he creates order So he created and then he created more he created transcendently when he said let there be light and let you know the world exists and then the earth was formless and void Come on God And of course he doesn't stop there the spirit of God was Hovering over the waters and then God started to separate life from dark and land front from sea and Full the sea with fish and so he's very intimately at work in creation. So he starts out with transcendence But he ends up with Imminence in how he deals with us. He takes what is formless and void and he creates beautiful in order Ultimately, we see him walking in the garden and talking with Adam. He ends up relationally intimate What do we do when we build things men? We build the structure We build the house. I see a piece of land. I say I'm gonna kill the spiders I'm gonna put concrete there gonna make a house. My wife come and says this is brick and mortar. We need Furniture we need curtains. We need beauty and so you come and you come on the inside and you start to make Beauty what is God do with us? He sends his word to us, but then he indwells us by his spirit He captures our attention and then he captures and changes our parts. We're talking about transcendence and Imminence He sends his word. He sends his son. He sends his spirit. He comes to dwell with us. This is his imminence He is Emmanuel Emmanuel Imminence. Can you hear the first immer part? I must have something to do God with us. He is with us by a spirit. He comforts He converts us. He is gentle. He is special regard for the weak and the poor He is compassionate Normally Ordinarily you can start to see These things you don't want one without the other You don't want the God that just commands from his throne. You want Jesus who comes from his throne to earth To bring the love of God and make it visible to us. What love what compassion what gentleness or Jerusalem Jerusalem I would have longed together you like a hymn gathered of chicks I'm here says God. I'm close to you I'm also able to command and able to have vision. I'm able to see where we're going But I'm with you. I'm not far away from you There is a kind of complementary Choreography going on here Where transcendence is often reflected in masculinity and imminence is reflected in femininity It just is so These are observations we can make If you want to say Stereotypes, yes Stereotypes exist. They do there are general ways in which men and women are different And we shouldn't be looking at that and being threatened by it. That's right. We should be looking at it and saying We need it We need men who reflect God as men. We need women who reflect God as woman It's glorious You know that God does nothing except for the display of his glory and we are the beneficiaries Of being able to see his glory didn't have to share his glory with us, but he acts in a way to reveal glory so we can Wow, God, you are amazing So there's this Deeper appreciation we need to explore in more detail to understand what God did when he made a man and a woman CS Lewis said one of the ends the reasons the goals one of the ends for which sex was created Was to symbolize to us the hidden things of God So to enact to symbolize to somehow reveal something that's hidden in God himself Male and female were created To embody masculinity and femininity That's step one there's biological sex which you could put down at the most physical level and say you're just a bunch of hormones And cells and tissues. It's not that simple. That's the container For something more glorious, which is the male was created to embody Masculinity and the female was created to embody femininity and the bodies look different because masculinity and femininity are meant to be different What you see is that a an embodiment and a Made in the image a likeness of unseen qualities in God that we see in his imminence and his transcendence Masculinity bears the image and characteristics of God's transcendence and femininity the image and characteristics of God's imminence Godly masculinity and femininity exists to display something of the glory of who God is Together when the two become one flesh It becomes even more spectacular Not because one is better than the other, but one is part of the other the other is part of the one They need to go together to give you this understanding of the glory of God And so am I complementary when it comes to marriage? Yes Because she's so different from me Am I egalitarian when it comes to marriage? Yes, because she's exactly the same as me She's born of my boy flesh or my flesh. She is I can relate And she's equal in God's eyes She's equally made in the image of God, but she's carrying a different reflection of the image of God And that needs to be born in the world with glory and dignity and honor So husbands there's no There's no superiority And inferiority There's just this glorious difference that we should celebrate Why don't these things exist in one from the start? Why couldn't we just be like God just? Adam without Eve I'll tell you there's one huge obstacle That God seemed to have fully understood when he created and that is that God himself is creative And he can create and in fact He's so much the author of life and stuff and creation that the word barra used for when God created Is only ever used for God's creation because he is the creator with the capital C However, when the two become one flesh there's also the potential to create new life This is decidedly profound that God would allow us to procreate That God would allow me to make love to my wife and that the result could be another life That God has made in the womb and through this male and female biology reflecting together The ultimate picture of God as a creator creating something new How God would make us in his image and even allow us to be able to Generate Regenerate to create That we can bear this resemblance to God who is the author and creator of life itself Now I assure you the devil would want to attack these ideas He desires to set them up in competition against one another He seeks to dilute them to distort them and ultimately deface and destroy them But true true believers need to defend them and unashamed leaders with delight in their demonstration I unashamedly believe that sex is holy and glorious and when I make love to my wife I see it as part of my worship to go And I'm not over spiritualizing because sex is not an idol to me God Is the author Of sex It is just the lowest of like these many beautiful glorious Depictions of who God is So rather than getting carried along in the thinking of this age We need to develop a biblical understanding of male and female And the glory that is revealed in godly masculinity and femininity Where are we going with this death? Because you'll have to wait a couple more weeks before I put some more handles on this There are only males and females in this room When rightly understood God himself is going to be the blueprint for your masculinity and femininity The very fact that God created you male and female is going to be a cause for reverential gratitude You would not envy the opposite sex or believe you carrying the inferior or superior condition You're just different To be glorious To reveal god in this world And these are subjects We can go into more deeply next time I get to share with you I want us to develop such a robust view that what god has made is good Without it being Oppressive or unjust or abusive because god didn't design that The oppression that abuse the injustice all of that stuff has entered into the world after sun into the world And it has corrupted a blueprint, but the blueprint itself is from god And it's perfect and it's holy and Jesus wants to redeem it in our lives Jesus wants to redeem your sexuality He wants to redeem your identity He wants to redeem your femininity and your masculinity and he wants you to be delighted that he has made you Won't you stand the band can come up so we can close with some worship? I'm going to pray for us Heavenly father Our father in heaven Hello to be your name We want to glorify you god. We want to hello your name We want to have reverential awe when we look at who you are God give us a high view of sexuality and gender The world is taking these things downward to Help us to raise up what reveals you We see that these things that we grapple with Find this source and origin in you A god who is neither male nor female nor male and female Yet still carries the blueprint of all true masculinity and femininity God help us to celebrate and delight in and To honor the glory that you have revealed in creation Take us beyond lord god The level that the world debates these issues Take us higher lord to see more of you That we can truly worship you for what you have downloaded who you are in Jesus name amen