Peace/Bethlehem
10-1-2923
Special Sermon
1 Corinthians 15:10

“Be All You Can Be”

[at Peace]
Today Bethlehem in Yakima is having their
LWML Sunday, which highlights the women’s
ministry of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary
League.

[at Bethlehem]
Today we recognize the blessing the
Ladies’ Guild has been here at Bethlehem.
The Ladies Guild is part of the LWML, the
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, which
started here in the United States, but which is
now an International organization that does a
whole lot in the area of missions and mission
support.

So this is a special sermon highlighting how
Jesus regarded women in his ministry.

But I want to do this in the context of
recognizing that Jesus wants both men and
women to be all that they can be in His
Kingdom. I will focus mainly on the women,
but I will first talk about men in the church.

How can we minister more effectively to
the spiritual needs of men and boys? How can
we strengthen the spiritual leadership of the
husband and father in the family? I don’t have
the answers on exactly how to do that. But I
am convinced that raising the spiritual
maturity and engagement of men will bring
great blessing to both the family and the
church.

I admire and commend fathers who take
spiritual leadership in your homes. This is the
future of the church.

That being said, I also admire and
commend women who are taking spiritual
leadership in the absence of male spiritual
leadership. There’s a strong biblical example
in the person of Timothy who according to
Paul was raised spiritually by his mother
Eunice and his grandmother Lois. (2 Timothy 1)

For me the ideal situation for the spiritual
training of children is where both mother and
father take an active part. So I to encourage
men, fathers, and grandfathers to step up to
the plate and do more than commonly happens
in our society to teach and mentor children in
the Christian faith.

The way to revitalize the church is to raise
the spiritual maturity of the men in the
church. Be all you can be in Christ!

Recognizing that context, I want to talk
about now how Jesus treated with women in
his ministry.

I think it’s safe to say that most of the
work of the church is done by women. Have
you ever thought of what the church would be
like if it weren’t for the continuing work and
dedication of women? If you subtracted from
the church’s life everything done by women . .
. what sad shape the church would be in!
On a Sunday morning 2000 years ago
outside the city of Jerusalem, several women
were trudging along a path to a graveyard with
a sad and thankless task to perform. They
were carrying spices to anoint the dead body
of Jesus.
They expected the body of Jesus to look
absolutely wretched after Jesus has been
beaten and scourged and crucified the Friday
before. But out of deep love for Jesus they
were going to do this final act of honor and
respect for his dead body.
Can you imagine men doing this task? I
can’t. But these women were willing to do it,
just as it is often the women who have done
and continue to do the mundane and the

messy tasks of life to make life good and
pleasant.
Those women walking on the road to
anoint the body of Jesus, you can think of
them as the first Ladies Guild, [the first
LWML,] so to speak. For these women there
was special motivation to honor Jesus.
According to Luke 8, Jesus had cured
several of them of evil spirits and diseases. All
of the women who supported Jesus and his
disciples out of their own means had found in
Jesus a man who honored them and considered
them beloved.

To understand this better it helps to know
something about the way things were for
women at that time. When Jesus entered into
his ministry in the first century, the Jews
thought that women were inferior to men.
Legally women remained the property of their
father until adolescence, and, when given in
marriage, they were added to the list of the

husband’s possessions. Their witness was not
accepted in court.
Religiously, only males were allowed to
study the Scriptures. In the temple, the
women were segregated from the men and
could only enter as far as the women’s court.
A rabbi would not speak to a woman in public.

Jesus, in his ministry, went counter to all
these customs. He permitted women to be his
disciples, and his 12 male disciples were often
shocked by his acceptance of women as
equals. Jesus encouraged women to study the
Scriptures, as in the story of Mary and Martha.
He discussed deep religious truth with women
in the open, in public, such as with the
Samaritan woman at the well.
As a rabbi, Jesus even talked to prostitutes
in public, caring about their life and faith.
And in healing the woman with the flow of
blood by means of touch, he foreshadowed the
abolishing of the ceremonial laws on
uncleanness. His teaching on divorce

countered the idea that women were
property.
Some rabbis discussed whether or not
women had souls or could be part of the
covenant. Jesus recognized women’s faith,
accepted their offerings and service without
condescension, instructed them in religious
matters, shared monumental truths with them,
and encouraged their witness. He always
treated them as thinking, feeling, caring
individuals—the same way he treated men. He
considered women responsible and
accountable to God and beloved in God’s eyes.

Well, you know what happened when the
women got to the tomb to anoint Jesus. The
body of Jesus isn’t there, the angels announce
his resurrection and not long after they
encounter the resurrected Lord Jesus.
Astonishment is way too mild of a word for the
amazing thing that overwhelmed these
women. Jesus honored them with being the
first witnesses of his resurrection, and they
were told by the angels to tell the male

disciples. And isn’t that typical: that the
women have to tell the men what going on?
With all that Jesus had been to these
women before, now in the resurrected Lord,
Jesus is so much more. Let’s explore that.
Here are some of the new names for God
introduced in the Old Testament: God Most
High; God of heaven and earth; the living God;
the God of eternity; the holy God; the God of
glory; the righteous God; God our Rock; God
our Savior; the God of Abraham; Isaac and
Jacob; the God of Israel; and Yahweh, which is
the name revealed to Moses at the burning
bush. Yahweh means “I AM WHO I AM.”

In the Old Testament, the names given to
God revealed the nature of God and were used
to come into God’s presence. In the New
Testament, all that is fulfilled in Jesus. So
Jesus can be identified with all those names
given to God in the Old Testament!!
It’s amazing how many more names are
used to describe Jesus Christ in the New

Testament: Lamb of God, Living Water, Bread
of Life, Light of the World, the Good
Shepherd, the True Vine, the High Priest,
Messiah or the Anointed One, the Only
Begotten Son, the Beloved, the Alpha and the
Omega, the I AM, the Holy One, the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, Son of Man, King of
the Jews, Immanuel, Savior, Redeemer, the
Resurrection and the Life, and many others.
These names express who Jesus is. This
was true not only for the women who first met
the resurrected Jesus. It is also true for you
and me today, for all of us, both women and
men.
These names express who Jesus is for you
and me today. And if we have any sense at
all, we will come to a similar place of
astonishment that those women did, those
first witnesses of the risen Lord. And it will
motivate our worship and praise, and it will
motivate our love and our service.
So in the light of who Jesus is, do you know
who you are? All these are references from
New Testament.

From Matthew [5:13, 14]:
“You are the salt of the earth and light of
the world.”

From John [1:12 and 15:16]
“You are a child of God.” “You are
chosen and appointed by Christ to bear
His fruit.”

From Romans [6:18; 8:17]
“You are a slave of righteousness.
“You are a joint-heir with Christ, sharing
His inheritance.”

From 1 Corinthians [3:16, 6:19, 12:27]
“You are a temple of God.”
“His Spirit dwells in you.”
“You are a member of Christ’s body.”

From 2 Corinthians [5:17, 18, 19]
“You are a new creation.”
“You are reconciled to God and an
ambassador of reconciliation.”

From Ephesians [1:1, 2:10, 6, 19, 3:1, 4:1,24]
“You are a saint.”
“You are God’s workmanship created in
Christ to do His work.”
“You are seated with Christ in heaven.”
“You are a fellow citizen with the rest of
God’s people in His family.”
“You are a prisoner of Christ.”
“You are righteous and holy.”

From [Philippians 3:20]
“You are a citizen of heaven.”

From Colossians [3:3, 12]
“You are hidden with Christ in God.”
“You are chosen of God, holy and dearly
loved.”

From Hebrews [3:14]
“You are a partaker of Christ . . . and

share in His life.”

From 1 Peter [2:9, 11]
“You are an alien and stranger to this
world you temporarily live in.”

From 1John [3:1,2]
“You are now a child of God, and you will
resemble Christ when He returns.”

From John [8:24, 28, 58 and Exodus 3:14]
You are not the great “I AM”, Jesus is.
But, 1 Corinthians 15:10 “By the grace
of God you are what you are!”

This, finally, is our sermon text.
So, ladies and gentlemen,
BY THE GRACE OF GOD,
BE ALL YOU CAN BE IN CHRIST!

(Not used in manuscript)
Several years ago in Seaside Oregon I attended the Northwest
District All Worker’s Conference. This was a conference for all the
professional church workers of our district. The men who were there wer
mostly pastors and some teachers and DCE’s. The women who were
there were mostly teachers, a few DCE’s and deaconesses. I think the
women outnumbered the men about 2 to 1. In other words, most of the
professional church workers in our district are women. Just like most of
the workers in the average congregation are women.

Study after study has shown that the religious practice of children is
influenced more by the father than by the mother. Regardless of what
women do, the children will generally follow the example of the father in
spiritual matters.
The issue cuts both ways:
The church that loses its men will eventually lose its children. The
church that gains its men will eventually gain its children.
I think the best way to improve the health and vitality of churches
and families is to reach out more effectively to men and boys.

Sermon From Pastor Jack Flachsbart. 

October 1, 2023