A Note About the Holy Spirit and Women:
The Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost on the whole church, men and women. Peter makes it clear when he quotes from the prophet Joel that men and women will prophesy or speak the word of God.
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. (Acts 2:17,18)
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, not is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.(Galatians 3:26-28).
Every believer no matter their ethnic background, economic condition, or gender has the privilege of serving in God’s kingdom.
The Holy Spirit has distributed gifts, or abilities, on all believers for the building up of Christ’s church. These gifts are not for personal aggrandizement but for service.
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. (I Corinthians 12:4-6).
One Lord, one body of Christ, one message. All of the members of the body work together to take the Gospel of reconciliation and peace to the world. There are a number of places where the gifts of the Spirit are listed (Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10; Ephesians 4:11-13; and 1 Peter 4:11) but in no place does God tell us that any of the gifts are for men only. All of the gifts or graces were given to every believer.
In this lesson we will look at the lives of two special women who used the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gave them for the benefit of the church.
Priscilla and Phoebe – Equipped for Works of Service
Priscilla
Let’s begin by turning to Romans 16:3:
Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
When the apostle Paul came to the great city of Corinth, he went looking for a job. He found a couple that had set up business as tentmakers. He was happy about this since that was his own occupation, too. This evangelist team was Priscilla and her husband, Aquila. It is interesting that in half of the six references in the Bible to this couple, Priscilla is named first. And so, the Bible refers to them as a wife-husband team!
We usually think that in Bible times women had to be silent and stay in the background. Yet the apostle Paul gives great honor to Priscilla. Let’s see why. First, here is what we know about her.
Priscilla and her husband had apparently met and married in Rome. She had come from a noble Roman family. Aquila was a Jew from Pontus. They had a flourishing tent making business.
In 49 A.D., the emperor Claudius expelled all of the Jews from Rome. So, Priscilla and Aquila moved their business to Corinth. Corinth was the New York City of the first century. It was a major port with a very long history. The people there were as wealthy as anyone could be in those times. They were living there when Paul came around the spring of AD 51.
The three of them worked very hard at their trade. We are not sure if Priscilla and Aquila were converted to Christianity when Paul first met them, but they surely were converted by the time he stayed in Corinth. Paul founded a church there and after eighteen months of ministry with his new team, Priscilla and Aquila, the three of them left and went to Ephesus.
Because of their great wealth, Priscilla and Aquila were able to open their home for church meetings. They did this while living in Corinth, Ephesus and later in Rome. Paul trusted Priscilla and Aquila enough to leave them in Ephesus while he went to Antioch. They opened another branch of their tent making business. They took complete charge of the mission in Ephesus.
A gifted man, named Apollos, came soon after. He was very knowledgeable in the Hebrew Scriptures (the only ones the New Testament believers had!) and he was an eloquent speaker. He was not completely up to date on the Gospel message however.
It seems that Apollos had participated in the “baptism of John” (Acts 18:25). What Apollos meant by this is that during the early times of the Church there were people who had received a baptism similar to the one that John the Baptist was doing a few years earlier while he was still alive (and before Jesus had fulfilled all the prophecies about Himself). During this baptism people were putting their faith in the promised Messiah but they had not heard about the Holy Spirit. These new believers had not heard about Pentecost. Paul came along and baptized these people in the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit fell on them as He had at Pentecost. (Acts 19:1-6)
And so, Priscilla and Aquila taught Apollos “the way of God more adequately.” (Acts 18:26) With their help, Apollos went on to be a powerful preacher.
The Bible says that Priscilla and Aquila took him aside. We can see from this that Priscilla played an active role in teaching him. She was not just in the background serving refreshments. She was teaching Apollos. Some churches do not allow women to teach males over the age of 12. I think that they are misinterpreting other verses in the Bible. This story certainly shows that women may be called to serve in the church with teaching.
Priscilla was also very successful at her business and there were other successful businesswomen mentioned by Paul as well. There was Lydia, whom Paul had already met in Philippi. There was also Chloe, who ran a business in Ephesus. These women all became zealous helpers for Paul. God used them mightily in this way to help spread the Gospel.
Eventually Priscilla and Aquila would end up in Rome. We know this, because Paul sent them affectionate greetings when he wrote a letter to the Roman Christians. There, he also greets the Church that is in their house.
Paul tells us that Priscilla and Aquila “risked their own necks” to save his life. We do not know the details of that story, but Priscilla is surely to be admired for her courage.
According to tradition, Priscilla and Aquila ended their lives as martyrs.
Phoebe
We read about Phoebe in Romans 16:1,2:
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.
These words were addressed to the church at Rome by the apostle Paul. Perhaps it was Phoebe who carried this epistle to the Christians in Rome. We know that Paul entrusted his epistles to others when he could not deliver them himself. For example, Tychicus delivered Paul’s letters to Ephesus and Colossae (Ephesians 6:21,22; Colossians 4:7-9).
Paul chose his co-worker Phoebe to deliver this letter and he had confidence in her. He asked the Roman Christians to treat her with respect when she arrived with his epistle. This was because Phoebe had been a faithful helper both to her church and to Paul himself. The Roman Christians were asked to show her kindness and give her any aid that she required.
There has been much controversy over the position that Phoebe held at her church in Cenchrea. Depending on which version of the Bible you have, the word diakonoshas been translated as “servant” or “minister” or “deacon” (the most accurate translation).
In the New Testament Church the term “deacon” became synonymous with selfless service to God for others. For example, in Acts 6:3,4, we see that seven men are called to “serve tables” so that the apostles can be free to pray and preach the Gospel. This same word is used by Paul to describe Phoebe and many of his other co-workers. Many women served in the early church in this way.
Phoebe was probably a wealthy businesswoman. She was from Cenchrea, the eastern harbor of Corinth. This was a major passage for trade along the shores of the Mediterranean. Perhaps Paul met Phoebe on his second missionary journey to Syria when he went through this port.
Paul wrote his letter to the Romans during his third journey. He was in Corinth when he wrote this letter. How he learned that Phoebe was going on a journey to Rome is not explained to us. We only know that he heard that she was going and that he knew that this trustworthy sister had independent means and could travel. Paul sent her with the letter and it included his commendation.
Travelers often took letters of commendation with them when they traveled. This gave them protection. It also certified that the person carrying the letter was indeed a legitimate envoy for the person who was sending the important message. Since Phoebe had been Paul’s helper, he could vouch for her. The Roman Christians could trust her as a faithful and dedicated servant of the Lord.
We don’t know as much about Phoebe as we would like. We don’t know if she had been married, or widowed, or was always a single woman. We do know that her service for the Lord in her church was so outstanding that Paul entrusted her with an extraordinary task and commended her to others. What high words of praise!
In our day, many churches have turned diakoniainto an office only available to men. The men meet once a month and decide how to distribute the donations. They let the women do the actual serving.
The deacon is supposed to be a servant. The original deacons waited on tables. Today the people in the church who wait on tables are mostly women. The ones who take meals to the sick and visit the lonely are women. Many churches will not recognize these women by giving them an office. But do women really want an office? Most women serve because they love Jesus.
“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.’’” (Mark 9:35)
Those who want to be honored in the church should be known for their service, not for the office they hold.
Phoebe was just one of many men and women who served faithfully in her church at Cenchrea. As time went on, women took their place among the men as servants in the early church.
Women had more freedom to serve in leadership positions while the church was growing. In contrast to the modern hierarchical belief that women were never allowed to be in leadership positions is the fact that women were ordained as deacons in the early church. When Origen wrote about Phoebe in Paul’s letter to the Romans he understood her to be officially ordained for the ministry of the church. Later John Chrysostom also wrote that women should not be hindered because of their sex since in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. During the fourth century, the Apostolic Constitution still recognized female deacons but women began to be gradually pushed out. When the clergy began to impose itself between God and the community, it became a male-only tent. The term ‘deaconess’, a diminutive of deacon, was retained to refer to women doing menial tasks, but women were stripped of the clerical office.
As we have seen in the Gospels and the book of Acts, men and women were to work side by side in the new community of faith. Jesus started it. The apostles continued it. Paul assures us that men and women would be equal partners in the kingdom. All have the responsibility to take the Gospel to sinners. All are to do these things in the name of the Lord, not in their own names. True servants are like Jesus –they are concerned about God and others, not their position.
Application
It is truly wonderful to see this example of a husband and wife team working together, not only at their business, but also in their mission. What a privilege it is for a man and a woman to have a business that they partner in.
There are many, many clever women with an entrepreneurial spirit who have started home businesses. In the Church we should be serving the Lord with the gifts He has given us. Priscilla certainly did!
The most important thing about Phoebe was that she was a faithful servant – so faithful and trustworthy in fact that the apostle Paul commended her. God has given us her example of faithfulness for all eternity in His Word. Phoebe did her work for the glory of God. What a wonderful example for us.
Discussion Questions:
1. How do spiritually gifted men and women learn to lead? How is it evidenced when someone is ready to take a significant position at church?
2. What are all of the ways in which Priscilla and Aquila were a team? Will husband/wife teams work today? Why or why not?
3. Whether or not we consider the role of deacon to be an office, how did Phoebe earn her respect from Paul? How was Paul expecting the church at Rome to treat Phoebe?
4. What are ways that men and women earn a title or recognition as a spiritual leader?
5. What does true servant leadership look like?
Handout for Lesson 12 –
Women of God – Priscilla & Phoebe
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, … Greet Priscilla and Aquila. (Romans 16:1-3)
Notes:
Priscilla
Romans 16:3
Phoebe
Romans 16:1,2
Discussion Questions:
1. How do spiritually gifted men and women learn to lead? How is it evidenced when someone is ready to take a significant position at church?
2. What are all of the ways in which Priscilla and Aquila were a team? Will husband/wife teams work today? Why or why not?
3. Whether or not we consider the role of deacon to be an office, how did Phoebe earn her respect from Paul? How was Paul expecting the church at Rome to treat Phoebe?
4. What are ways that men and women earn a title or recognition as a spiritual leader?
5. What does true servant leadership look like?
