Building God’s Kingdom #9: Women in the Church, Corinth, Ephesus and Biblical Submission

Building Gods Kingdom #9 teaches that Jesus builds His church the way Rome built its empire, by calling people out and teaching them to live by the culture of the kingdom they have joined. In this message the pastor uses that picture to answer one of the most debated questions in church life: what does Scripture really say about women in the church, and why do two verses seem to tell women to keep silent?

This message continues from Building God’s Kingdom #8: Dispensations & Apostolic Authority. Below you will find the video, a summary of the teaching on women in the church and submission, the key Scriptures (NKJV on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at NTC Ministries in Merrill and posted on June 3, 2025. It runs about 73 minutes and closes with a prayer for healing and restoration. The pastor opens by asking whether the church is starting to grasp the truth about women in ministry, and he warns his listeners never to be bamboozled by anyone who wants to bring bondage into the congregation or into their lives.

He says plainly that this is not a yes-or-no question. There is a background story behind the verses about women keeping silent: the culture of Corinth and Ephesus, the temple priestesses, and what Paul meant by submission.

How Jesus Builds His Church: When in Heaven, Do as the Heavenly Do

The pastor returns to Matthew 16, where Jesus asks His disciples who people say He is. Peter answers that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus replies that flesh and blood did not reveal this, but His Father in heaven did. Upon that rock, Jesus says, He will build His church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:15–18).

The question nobody asks, he says, is what a church actually was. This is the first time the word appears in the Bible, and it came out of the way Rome established its kingdom. Rome sent out an apostle, a sent one, to negotiate with a town or nation and invite it into the kingdom.

Rome took tax revenue, but it built roads, schools, theaters and markets, and the more a region became like Rome, the more help it received. That is where the saying “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” comes from.

The pastor teaches that Jesus said He would build His church the exact same way. When you are born again, you become a citizen of heaven, and heaven’s culture becomes yours. That is the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9–10). If you belong to heaven, you live like heaven.

From Feelings to Grace: How God Has Governed His People

Much of the confusion about women in the church, the pastor says, comes from mixing up the different ways God has governed His people. The first was innocence with Adam and Eve. When they sinned, people came under the rule of their feelings and senses. When Eve saw that the tree was good for food and pleasant to the eyes (Genesis 3:6), her senses were leading her.

That is why so many people today live by “you hurt my feelings.” After that came human government in Genesis 9, then promise with Abraham in Genesis 17, then the law. Each had bad in it because of hard hearts, and good in it because God still loved people. The table below follows his outline.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles (Galatians 3:13–14). Jesus was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law (Galatians 4:4–5). Now He rules and reigns from heaven by grace, and grace does not mean you can do anything you want. Grace teaches you how to do good.

Any other way of running the kingdom, he says, leaves people blind to the goodness of God. He pictures a dark room: after twenty minutes your eyes adjust and you can see, but someone who just walked in insists there is nothing there. Their eyes have not adjusted yet.

That is the kingdom. God has delivered us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of His Son (Colossians 1:13) so that we can see His blessings. Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

Women in the Church and the “Silent” Verses

The pastor reminds the church of what Scripture says when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost: your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and on My menservants and maidservants I will pour out My Spirit, and they shall prophesy (Acts 2:17–18). Prophecy, he explains, can foretell an event or reveal truth from heaven under the anointing, as preaching does.

Paul encouraged women to prophesy, and the church has seen women serve as teachers, pastors, prophets, evangelists and apostles. Yet twice the Bible appears to say that women must keep silent, and some people take that at face value. The pastor rejects that view of women in the church. Every joint is to supply, he says, and everyone who is born again becomes a king and a priest, not only the men.

He reads 1 Corinthians 14:26, where Paul says that when the church meets, one has a psalm, one a teaching, one a revelation, one a tongue and one an interpretation, and all must strengthen the body. Everyone is meant to take part, but with decency and order. Then he reads the verses that follow in 1 Corinthians 14:34–40.

His observation is simple. Before those verses, everyone may prophesy. After them, Paul says again, be eager to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues. In between, women must keep silent. He also notes that the law of God never said women could not speak in an assembly; that was Roman law and later rabbinic tradition. The passage, he says, does not fit what surrounds it.

He explains why many scholars believe these lines may have been added after Paul wrote. He calls it an interpolation rather than an interpretation, a term borrowed from mathematics, where you estimate a missing value from the two known values on either side. When the values around a verse do not mesh with the verse itself, the verse stands out.

Corinth, Ephesus and the Priestesses

Corinth, the pastor teaches, was a wealthy port on the trade route between Asia and Italy, and it was home to the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. He describes more than a thousand priestesses who served as temple prostitutes. When people began leaving that worship for Jesus, the religious order behind it pushed back.

John the Baptist spoke against a corrupt government and it cost him his head; Jesus spoke against a corrupt religion and they sought to kill Him. In Corinth, he says, the priestesses were sent in to disrupt the church.

He tells the story of Photini, whom he describes as an apostle who established more than ninety churches. Nero sent his own daughter to stop her, but the daughter was saved, and Nero had Photini thrown down a dry well. By faith the elders obtained a good report (Hebrews 11:2), and he says the word for that report is tied to martyrdom.

Paul labored at Corinth for a long time (Acts 18:11). Read in that setting, “let the women keep silent” was aimed at the priestesses who heckled and disrupted the meetings. The New Testament, he teaches, does not forbid women to preach or teach. He reads Psalm 68 as saying great were the women who heralded the good news, and quotes Charles Finney: the church that silences the woman “is shorn of half its power.”

Ephesus had the same problem. It was the center of worship of Artemis, also called Diana, later called the queen of heaven. The pastor reminds the church that there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5), and no one else is to be worshiped.

He reads the account of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus in Acts 19:11–20: unusual miracles, the seven sons of Sceva overpowered, and books of magic worth fifty thousand pieces of silver burned in public. The word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed, he says, because someone stood under the mission God gave.

Then came the riot in Acts 19:23–41. Demetrius the silversmith warned that Paul’s preaching would ruin their trade and discredit their goddess, and the crowd shouted “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” for about two hours. Into that kind of pressure, Paul wrote to Pastor Timothy.

Persecution under Nero cut the Ephesian church down sharply, and Timothy lost heart. That is why Paul told him to stir up the gift of God within him through the laying on of hands, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:5–7).

Building Gods Kingdom Under a Mission: What Submission Means

From Ephesians 5 the pastor teaches what biblical submission is. Paul tells the church to walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, filled with the Spirit and submitting to one another in the fear of God (Ephesians 5:15–21). Circumspectly, he says, means with eyes all the way around your head, open to all the truth of the kingdom.

Submission, he explains, is a compound word. Sub means under, as in a submarine that goes under the water or a subway that runs underground. To be in submission is to be “under a mission.” He asks whether that is a four-letter word to anyone. We have a mission from God, and we place ourselves under it.

Jesus said He only did what He saw the Father do (John 5:19). The husband is in submission to Jesus, the wife to the husband, the children to their parents. Nobody is better than anyone else; in biblical submission everyone is under the same mission.

In marriage, Paul tells wives to submit to their own husbands as to the Lord (Ephesians 5:22–24), and the pastor adds: to godly husbands. If a husband says let’s get drunk or watch perverted things, don’t you do it. If a husband uses his wife as a punching bag, he tells her to get out and use her sound mind, because that is abuse meant to produce fear, and God has not given her a spirit of fear.

Husbands, in turn, submit by loving their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her (Ephesians 5:25–33). The two become one flesh, so a woman can be a prophet and a man can be a prophet. Every wife wants to be cherished, and every husband wants to be respected.

Lifting Holy Hands and the Woman Saved Through Childbearing

The pastor then turns to Paul’s first letter to Timothy, written to a pastor rather than a congregation. In 1 Timothy 2:8–10, Paul wants men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting, and women to adorn themselves modestly, not with braided hair, gold, pearls or costly clothing. Why say that to a church, he asks, unless wealthy temple priestesses were coming in to allure the men?

He notes that the only folding of hands in Scripture is tied to poverty: a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, and poverty comes like a prowler (Proverbs 24:33–34). Jesus said that when trouble comes, look up, because your redemption draws near (Luke 21:28). We lift our hands to the King of kings, not as beggars, but as kings and priests.

Then he reads 1 Timothy 2:11–15, first from the Passion Translation, which renders it as women who are new converts learning with submission and not speaking out of turn. He agrees that no new convert, man or woman, should be given authority in the church.

Verse 15 says the woman will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love and holiness. Since we are saved by grace through faith, he asks, how could that be? His answer is that salvation came through a Child born of a woman: Jesus. Mary showed the redeeming side of womanhood when she said, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38), and Joseph then submitted to what God had told her.

He closes by showing what lifting holy hands means: prayer is confidence in who God is and what He has done, as kings and priests. Then he prays for healing and restoration in bodies, marriages, families and jobs.

Living Out Building Gods Kingdom This Week

The pastor admits this is a lot to take in at one time, which is why he took his time over the last couple of weeks to teach it. Here are the practical steps he draws from the message:

• Live by heaven’s culture. When in heaven, do as the heavenly do. Let the Lord’s Prayer shape how you act at work and at home.
• Refuse to be governed by feelings. Hurt feelings are not a reason to quit. He says that if he had quit over hurt feelings, he would have left in his first week.
• Read the hard verses in context. Before you take a verse at face value, ask what comes before and after it and what was happening in that city.
• Make room for every member. Every joint supplies. Encourage the women in the church to use their gifts with decency and order.
• Submit to the mission, not to abuse. Biblical submission means coming under God’s mission together; it never means tolerating drunkenness, perversion or violence.
• Pray with lifted hands and confidence. Come boldly as a king and a priest, remembering what God has already done for you.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Do not let anyone bring bondage about women in the church
• 0:56 What a church is: Rome’s way of building a kingdom
• 4:04 Different ways of governing the kingdom
• 6:30 Redeemed from the curse of the law
• 8:46 Eyes adjusting in a dark room
• 10:44 Your sons and daughters shall prophesy
• 13:01 Everyone becomes a king and a priest: 1 Corinthians 14:26
• 14:14 The “silent” verses in 1 Corinthians 14
• 16:24 What an interpolation is
• 17:36 Corinth and the temple of Aphrodite
• 19:57 The story of Photini
• 24:50 The church that silences the woman
• 28:45 Persecution at Ephesus and Timothy’s letters
• 31:02 Artemis, Diana and the queen of heaven
• 33:38 Walk circumspectly: Ephesians 5
• 38:26 Submission means under a mission
• 43:07 Wives, husbands and godly submission
• 46:26 Paul in Ephesus: Acts 19
• 50:54 The riot of the silversmiths
• 56:32 Lifting holy hands: 1 Timothy 2:8
• 1:01:16 1 Timothy 2:11–15 and new converts
• 1:07:24 What biblical prayer sounds like

Building Gods Kingdom Series

This message is part of an ongoing teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start at the beginning or keep going:

• First message: Building God’s Kingdom #5: House Owners Who Hold the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven
• Previous: Building Gods Kingdom #8: The Judaizers, Paul’s Stand and Women in the Church
• You are here: Building God’s Kingdom #9: Women in the Church, Corinth, Ephesus and Biblical Submission
• Next: Building God’s Kingdom #11: Knowing God as Father, Not Living as Orphans

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the pastor say a new believer should lead the church?

No. He agrees with the Passion Translation’s reading that new converts should learn with submission and not speak out of turn, and he applies that to men and women alike. In his view no newly converted person should be given authority in the church before being renewed and taught. He uses Augustine, who he says was made a bishop two years after conversion, as a warning about promoting people too quickly.

Why does he say Christians should pray with lifted hands?

He teaches that Scripture repeatedly speaks of lifting hands in prayer, while folding the hands appears only in connection with poverty in Proverbs. He says the habit of folding hands and bowing heads came from the Dark Ages, when poor people bowed before local lords for protection. Believers, he says, are kings and priests who come boldly before God, not beggars.

Should Christians gather or can they worship alone?

The pastor answers people who say they worship God by themselves while fishing or hunting. We are to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24) and not forsake assembling together (Hebrews 10:25). A father on the golf course is still a father in spirit, he says, but he is not fathering in truth.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Matthew 16:15–18 — upon this rock I will build My church
• Galatians 3:13–14 — redeemed from the curse of the law
• Acts 2:17–18 — your sons and daughters shall prophesy
• 1 Corinthians 14:26 and 1 Corinthians 14:34–40 — order in the meeting and the “silent” verses
• Acts 19:11–20 and Acts 19:23–41 — Paul in Ephesus and the riot over Diana
• Ephesians 5:15–21 — walk circumspectly, submitting to one another
• Ephesians 5:25–33 — husbands, love your wives
• 1 Timothy 2:8–10 and 1 Timothy 2:11–15 — lifting holy hands and learning in quietness
• 2 Timothy 1:5–7 — not a spirit of fear

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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