Gender Roles in the Church

This morning we come to an extremely controversial
passage of Scripture. It is a passage of Scripture that may infuriate
some of you. As I read it you may wonder how anything so sexist
could be written in the Bible, and you may wonder if you could
ever embrace what this text is teaching. For this very reason many
have tried to reinterpret this passage or simply ignore it. Others of
you will simply be confused by this text. Maybe you'll be
confused by the verses as a whole, or confused by certain portions
of it. I'll tell you right here at the outset that I do not fully
understand every aspect of these verses. But I am convinced that
the main point is clear, and that it applies to us today and that it is
our duty and our joy to submit to God's instruction concerning
gender roles in the church. Our passage is 1 Timothy 2:11-15, but
before we go there I first want to read from Ephesians 5. We will
be talking about gender roles in the church, but I want to set that in
the context of gender roles in the home, which is what Ephesians 5
speaks to.