Sermons
THE MOTHER OF ALL LIVING
THE MOTHER OF ALL LIVING
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / May 10, 2015
The apostle Paul was one of the most prolific of all New Testament writers.
Paul was also one of the deepest thinkers of all time - - chosen & privileged to reveal profound mysteries of redemption.
Yet, as Romans chapter sixteen conveys, Paul was a also a practical person.
In what was likely his last epistle (2Tim.4:13), he makes a request that Timothy bring him “the books & the parchments”.
Paul excelled in the academic realm, but he was very much a people person.
Romans 16 is a postscript to the heaviest reading you’ll ever meet (Rom.9-11).
The closing words of the epistle to the Romans are filled with words of praise and gratitude for numerous co-workers.
Nestled deep down in a list of about three dozen names is Rom.16:13
“Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his MOTHER and mine.”
This salutation can be taken in one of two ways.
(1)It could mean that Paul had two distinct women in mind, the mother of Rufus and his own personal mother.
(2)Or, he could be saying, “Give my greetings to Rufus and his mother, who is like a mother to me.”
If it is the latter (which is most likely), it raises some interesting questions.
When and where did Paul meet Rufus’ mother?
Had she ministered to him during one of his many illnesses or beatings?
Did she serve as a hostess for him while he was on some of his missionary journeys?
What formed the special bond that Paul had with the mother of Rufus?
Mark’s gospel tells us that Simon of Cyrene, the man who carried Jesus’ cross:
And they pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country,
Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear his cross / Mk.15:21.
If this is the same Rufus, then his mother was the wife of Simon of Cyrene.
_______
The Bible is filled with all manner of women: From Eve (the alpha) to the widow of Zarephath.
Many of these women are mothers.
I wish that I could tell you that all of them were GREAT mothers,
but you know full well that such was not the case, and the Scriptures are not given to sugarcoating the truth.
Yet we can learn important lessons from all of these moms, even the not-so-perfect moms.
As special as our moms are to us, we all realize that they, like all of us, are made of clay.
To borrow a description from Paul, they, too, are but “earthen vessels” (2Cor.4:7).
I chuckled the first time I encountered one translation that rendered “earthen vessels” as “CRACKED POTS”.
In actuality, it is not at all a bad translation.
We all have feet of clay, which is another way of saying that we are flawed.
I don’t say this to diminish the significance of this day (Mother’s Day).
Instead, I would hope that these words (this sermon) will help deflate the notion that all moms are perfect.
Surely, all of us love our moms very dearly and very deeply, “warts and all”.
This morning I want us to look at Eve: the mother of all living.
I began this sermon thinking I would speak about three Old Testament moms and three New Testament moms.
Those six + Rufus’ mom would total seven - - and that would be perfect for mother’s day.
My first title for this sermon was, “Mothers Of The Bible”.
But then I realized that that would take about two hours and would therefore put me in hot water with you Moms.
Next I decided to just speak about Eve and Sarah, but then that was going to be still too lengthy.
I decided to rename my sermon, “The Truth About Motherhood.”
Finally, I have trimmed my sails, with plans to aim for the goal expressed in the saying, “brevity is the soul of wit”.
Blaise Pascal one wrote to someone saying,
“I have made this letter longer than usual only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”
That’s the trouble many of us preachers have. We don’t take the time to boil things down.
EVE
As the first woman of the Bible and the first woman of creation, Eve is both famous and infamous at the same time.
Gen.2:18 states, the Lord said, ‘it is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him’
Adam & Eve had a marriage that was made in heaven and lived out in paradise.
Both were “made in the image of God” (Gen.1:27) and both were blessed abundantly in every way imaginable.
Gen.2:22 / God fashioned Eve and brought her to Adam
Gen.2:23 / And when Adam saw her, he said, “WOOO-Man, she is b-e-a-u-t-I-f-u-l”.
Gen.2:25 / And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Sin with all its serious consequences entered the picture and Adam & Eve were subsequently expelled from the garden.
What began so well with life in paradise, was quickly lost when the first couple succumbed to sin.
Eve (and Adam) were deceived by the craftiness of Satan (2Cor.11:3).
Serenity and joy became severely tarnished and replaced by separation and heartache.
Gen.3:24 says that (God) drove (them) out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed
the cherubim, and the flaming word which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Have you ever contemplated how difficult it would have been to be the first ones?
? Where did Eve get her recipes from?
Anita Renfroe writes about a very serious matter by lacing her comments with a bit of humor.
“She was the woman who made THE monumental, mind-blowing, affects-everybody-forever mistake.
So she probably deserves the bad rap she gets…Maybe she was the first to partake of the fruit because she
was the only one who could remember where it was in the garden (women just know where stuff is).”
? Who gave her a heads-up about childbirth? Who was her Lamaze instructor? It certainly wasn’t Adam!
? Other than Adam, with whom could she consult about cultivating healthy child-rearing skills?
? Sadly Eve was the first mother to watch a sibling rivalry develop that had heart-crushing and life-taking results.
She was the first to bury a child. Her son Cain rose up against her son Abel and killed him (Gen.4:8).
What kind of score should we give Eve?
Eating the forbidden fruit was no minor shortcoming. What were her redeeming qualities?
Aren’t you glad that’s not our call to make. That’s God’s place not ours.
Steven Covey tells how he came to accept two great truths:
“There is a God!” and “I am not Him!”
Gen.3:20 states that Adam called his wife “Cruella DeVil”. Just kidding.
No, he called her Eve, “because she was the mother of all living.”
? ? More important that what Adam called Eve, is what God did for both Adam and Eve.
Gen.3:21 declares that “the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam & Eve, and clothed them.”
If we read this superficially we will miss the significant of this statement.
God shed the blood of animals to make for them a covering for sin.
This began God’s marvelous work of EXPIATION for sin.
The Old Testament is filled with all manner of detailed instructions about the importance of expiation.
The New Testament book of Hebrews recounts many of these Old Covenant stipulations.
In Gal.3:23-24 Paul writes, “before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law…
the Law became a tutor (schoolmaster) to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.”
-----------
One more Scripture and a little more comment and then we will close in prayer.
1Tim.2:15 is one of the most perplexing verses in the New Testament.
After discussing Eve’s role in the sin in the garden, Paul concludes,
women shall be preserved/saved through the bearing of children, if they continue in faith & love & sanctity with self-restraint.
Commentators and scholars offer a variety of explanations.
(1) Women will make it through childbirth if they live a holy life.
Yet some faith-filled, holy women have died while giving birth to a child.
(2) Women will be saved if their children continue in faith.
Surely the salvation of a mom is not contingent upon the faithfulness of her children.
(3) Women will be saved, even though she must bear children.
i.e., even though the Fall brought multipled pain to child-bearing, it will not hinder their salvation.
(4) Women will be saved “by means of child-bearing”.
i.e. through the birth of THE CHILD all will have an invitation to salvation
Maybe all that Paul means to say here is that woman’s natural role is
not to govern from the top down, but rather from the bottom up.
You moms are blessed by God with a very unique form of leadership.
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world!
After the fall, Eve’s focus should have been to continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.
This remains the challenge and focus of all moms in particular and all Christians in general,
married or unmarried, mothers and the motherless, men and women.
