This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 20, 1994.
About this sermon
The ‘holy hands’ of 1 Timothy 2:8 describe a new man free to pray and worship anywhere, more than a posture to copy. That freedom rules out prayer offered in bitterness. Men lead in prayer with a humility patterned on Christ’s.
Sermon transcript
We are returning this morning to 1 Timothy 2, continuing our messages on the subject of the Church, and particularly on the question, who shall lead, or even who shall teach. So we are returning to 1 Timothy 2 this morning, as we begin our consideration for concluding our messages on this chapter.
Let us give our attention to God’s holy word. First of all, I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time. For this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I am telling the truth, I am not lying, as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension.
Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments. but rather by means of good works, as befits women making a claim to godliness. Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness, but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created and then Eve, and it is not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived fell into transgression. But women shall be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.
Father, by your invitation, we would march right into the sanctuary of your presence. And here, O God, we would listen to what you have to say. Indeed, O God, we draw apart from the world, and we have even come to this place that we might be instructed by you. Help us, Father, that we might receive that instruction with all grace and humility. We pray this through Christ, the one who exhibits that grace and humility perfectly. Amen.
Chapter 2 presents us with a different kind of man, the new man in Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 2 presents us with a different kind of woman, the new woman in Jesus Christ. Verse 8, which will concern us this morning, and that because there are important matters to say with regard to this verse as we launch then into verses 9 through 15, the debated text of our age. which concerns us this morning, speaks to us directly about this different kind of man.
First of all, note that he is no longer defined by a single location, by one place. Instead, he is described in terms of his relationship to every place, and by every place. He is a new man, recreated in Christ Jesus for a new time. That time, Jesus himself has demarcated where he spoke to the Samaritan woman, a conversation which is recorded in John’s Gospel, the fourth chapter.
It is a time, says Jesus Christ, when neither in a Samaritan mountain shrine, nor in Jerusalem, nor any other specific locale, will the true worshipper worship the Father. Instead, in the new day, there will be this universal worship in spirit and in truth by those who are the true worshipers of God. This different kind of man is a new man, no longer confined by race, by territorial boundaries, or by a sanctuary in Jerusalem, as were the Jews.
But as Malachi, the last of the canonical prophets, prophesied, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, the Lord’s name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every place, note those words, for those are words then that are picked up by Paul in that 8th verse in 1 Timothy 2, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name. Now, when Paul alludes to Malachi 1, verse 11, as he does in 1 Timothy 2, verse 8, He underscores the newness of this man that he has in view. Thus he speaks about prayer, but he doesn’t speak about incense.
And by this, he makes it plain that we have now been moved into a new reality of which the incense and the author of incense And all of the preparations and ministrations appropriate to that altar were by the symbols. Told by the act of God, by the sovereign act of God, we have been moved beyond the Old Testament sanctuary service and the prescribed ministrations of the Old Testament priests performed there. The new man, therefore, prays everywhere, not just at the sanctuary, not just in territorial Israel. The new man prays everywhere.
In fact, it seems The Paul here, in this New Testament setting, is not even talking specifically about what takes place in formal worship services. Not that they are unrelated to what he has to say here, but his specific concern is not with respect to formal worship services. Instead, he is speaking most broadly. He is speaking most comprehensively. and he is talking about what characterizes the life of the new man in Jesus Christ generally.
In doing so, he has taken sacral, temple language from the Old Testament, and he has applied that language to the life of the believer in the broadest sense, and thus he gives the whole life of the believer the most sacred description them that all of life is holy, and all of our life is our worship. So it is, secondly, that the new man prays as Paul says, while lifting up holy hands. Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray lifting up holy hands.
But Paul here speaks figuratively, doing the same thing here with these words, that he has done with Malachi’s words out of Malachi 1.11. Paul, therefore, does not have so much in mind our posture in prayer, in public gatherings for worship. He does not have in mind our posture in prayer, rather he has the character of our lives as we give ourselves to prayer. at any time, in any place.
The lifting up of one’s hands in the Old Testament had to do with blessing and oath-taking, a very important fact to keep in mind. The lifting up of one’s hands in the Old Testament had to do with blessing and earth-taking, blessing and earth-taking being very much related to one another.
And according to Numbers chapter 6, the latter verses of that chapter where he has recorded for us the great blessing which Aaron and his sons were to pronounce upon the children of Israel, These priests are given instructions from God that when God blesses his people through his priests, he is placing his name upon them. Numbers 6 verse 27. Think of it.
In the blessing or in the benediction, the name of God is being placed upon the people of God. But in the gift of God’s name to his people, he is actually giving himself, and he is binding himself in his person to them. Blessing and oath-taking together. This means that in the blessing or in the benediction, God is pledging his life to his people. He is, as it were, lifting up his hands in oath to them, solemnly committing himself to them, binding himself to them. On the other hand, the Old Testament also speaks about the people of God blessing the Lord. Not only does the Lord bless us, but we bless him. Or, if you will, we lift up our hands in prayer to him.
But by doing so, we are placing our names upon him in an act that is expressing the commitment of our lives. The lifting up of our hands in the Old Testament, and now as it’s carried over by Paul into this setting in 1 Timothy, has nothing to do with religious slums. It has nothing to do with ecstatic experiences that are accompanied by known or unknown languages. It has everything to do with a declared commitment on the pledging of one’s life to another. God pledging his life to us, or we pledging our lives to him. The Paul here speaks about our lives, then, is evident, is it not? that he speaks about our lives, not so much about our postures, is communicated by the use of the word holy.
We lift up holy hands. This word holy is then emphasized by Paul and explained by what he goes on to say. He says that we are to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath. That’s the King James. The New American Standard has wrath as well, but we might well translate that as anger.
Lifting up holy hands without anger and without bitter dissension or argument. Specifically what Paul has in mind, then, is not simply the way we pray, but the way we live. Specifically in view is the way in which we treat others, both outside the Church and also one another within the Church. cannot be compromised by anger and dissension. If they are, we do not lift up holy hands, and our prayers are unacceptable. Now, you think about it. You think about your life. You think about the rage in your soul. The bitter anger that is there and even unexpressed. Truly then, our prayers rise from lives free from anger and an argumentativeness. Our prayers rise from lives that are free from bitter contention.
The new man therefore stands, as it is now made apparent, This new man in Christ Jesus stands not only beyond the limitations and the imperfections of the old Jewish economy, but he stands in direct counter-distinction to the old man, and the corruption of the old man inherited from Adam, and in counter-distinction to all of the corruption that is internal in that.
Paul then in his statement is not going to rest content in just setting his position over against the Jewish position. He is going to set his position over against the world’s position. The new man then is in fact the agent. And here you see the beginning of 1 Timothy 2 comes together with what is said in verse 8. The new man, then, is the agent of the quiet and peaceable life lived with all godliness and serious dignity. Verse 2. He is the agent of a new world, the citizen of a new habitat into which all humanity is now being invited by the gospel, before this old world. and the corrupt humanity are destroyed because of their godless frivolousness.
But note, and this of supreme importance, this new man has no newness about him, no purity of life free from anger and argument. out of which he might offer proper mediation and intercession, proper prayer, apart from the one true mediator, the man Christ Jesus, verse 5. A sexual and pure prayer comes from no other source than incorporation into Christ, union with Christ, the one whose hands are eminently holy, the one whose soul is perfectly free from all wicked and unrighteous anger.
But you may be objective. Having listened to me so far, if you’re still with me, you may be objective. Because you observe that verse 8 of 1 Timothy 2 is specifically speaking to men. Yes, gender clarified. Not men generically, but males. Therefore, I want the men. And the reason you may be objecting is because nothing that I’ve said so far would seem to distinguish men from women in their general responsibilities and duties. Indeed, women, as well as men in every place, are to pray. lifting up holy hands without anger and dissension. Women as well as men are agents of a new world characterized by peace and quiet, in which godliness and serious dignity are the rule. Women as well as men are incorporated into Christ, are joined to Christ, that one out of whom flows perfect purity and serenity. In other words, from what has been said so far, we have said nothing that pertains especially to the male. And putting it positively, if not ironically, and even paradoxically, the female is just as much the new man in Jesus Christ as the male.
Does this mean then that verse 8 is not about males? No. Not at all. As verse 9 quotes. Paul needs to speak directly to the males in verse 8, just as he speaks directly to the females beginning in verse 9. But how can his remarks in verse 8 be restricted to only the males?
Certainly, as we have seen, not by way of subject matter, since men and women must pray and die in the manner prescribed in this verse. But neither can verse 8 be restricted to males only by suggesting that the verse pertains alone to the church daughters for formal worship, in which only men were supposedly allowed to pray.
Finally, this line suggests that the practice of the church in Paul’s day was to allow not just the men, but any male member of the church to lead public prayer in worship. that there is no corroborating evidence for this conjecture whatsoever, either biblically or historically. The line of demarcation you see in the early assembly was not specifically between male and female, even though the females were not to lead in public worship. Rather, the line of demarcation in the early assembly was between those who were ordained and gifted and endowed by the Spirit, and those who were not, male or female. The position of the Church, I would say the official position of the Church of Jesus Christ, never was that any male can stand up in the assembly and lead the congregation in prayer.
But to be sure, verse 8, there isn’t any way to get around it, verse 8 is addressed specifically to the male. The Paul speaks here as he does, not simply because he has something to say about prayer. An enterprise in which the women also are to be engaged, but because he has something to say about leadership. An enterprise in which, as he goes on to say, the women are not to be engaged. You see, the crisis in the Ephesian church was not about prayer itself. It was about leadership in the church. And Paul appeals to prayer in this context. He appeals to the activity of prayer in light of the pretentiousness and the arrogance of some men who aspire to leadership even though they are not fit for it.
And while they are aspiring to this leadership, they are even insisting upon their right to have office or position. In fact, they are quite angry and contentious about the whole matter. Now, it could be pointed out, as it has been, that Paul is just as discouraged about the doctrinal aberrations of these people, of these men. And Paul can hardly give a sense to their doctrine. He makes that claim, for instance, in the 7th verse of the 1st chapter. These are men who aspire to be teachers of the law, but they don’t know what they’re talking about.
But as important as the doctrine is in his consideration of these men, Paul’s judgment is that these men are also disqualified because of their lives, lives which fail to rise from Christ, and that in the most common expression of Christian devotion, these men will not humble themselves to pray. These men will not humble themselves in prayer. The new man or the new moral in Jesus Christ must be given to prayer because it is specifically in prayer that that new man actively and at the most basic level attacks his own stereotypical self-understanding. In prayer, the Lord expresses his helplessness and gives expression to that submissiveness that is proper to a Christian walk. Paul’s enemies at Ephesus have a motto. Real men don’t pray.
Why would they? They have all the answers. All males then claiming rebirth in Jesus Christ, claiming to be new men, must live in constant awareness of their own helplessness apart from Christ. And they must be perfecting that submissiveness. Yes, that’s the word, men! It’s not another word. This is not a word that belongs solely to the consciousness of women. Paul’s point here is that the males must be submissive.
And they demonstrate that submissiveness at a most fundamental and basic level in prayer. They are perfecting the submissiveness into which they have been introduced by and in Jesus Christ. Was Jesus Christ a male? Was he submissive? The male of the world wants nothing to do with such obvious signs of weakness and vulnerability. The life of these individuals is a life of self-sufficiency, independence, and even what they consider heroic resistance to coercion. But this is not the new male in Jesus Christ. In fact, a man is specifically qualified for leadership in Christ’s Church, not because he’s a male, but because of his humility.
And because of the appropriation that he has made of the sufficiency of Christ in all things. And because of his dependence, yes, his utter, abject dependence upon God. and because of his self-sacrifice for the sake of others in imitation of his Saviour. And it is specifically in prayer that all of these qualities are cultivated and tested. Therefore, Paul writes I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and contention.
May God give to his church such men, from among whom he would be pleased to grant us leaders, especially in this day when so many leaders have seemingly bypassed prayer and instead relied upon the and that for what they consider more important and even gratifying, satisfying pursuits. We could do with far fewer prayerless celebrities, and with far more prayerful servants of our who are determined to serve the Church humbly and without anger and without contention.
Lord, we dare not learn from the world what it means to be a man. O God, we would learn from you, and especially from Jesus Christ, your Son, who became man. We plead with you, Lord, that you would give your church, and even this congregation, men of prayer, who in prayer and with prayer are bringing to expression the essential character of their lives. And Father, we pray for a marvelous show in our midst of the kind of humility and graciousness and self-sacrifice exhibited in Christ. We pray, our Father, that as we claim our Savior, that our Savior’s claim upon us would register in lives that are reflective of his character. We pray, O God, we pray these things. Yes, even lifting up holy hands without anger and without contention.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.