Women in the Book of Acts

These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. (Acts 1:14)

In the Gospels we see that Jesus’ disciples were often surprised at how He dealt with women. Their reaction during the time that Jesus was talking to a woman at a well in Samaria is a good example. John tells us that they were “amazed”. (See John 4:4-45) By the time that Jesus’ ministry on earth was finished, the apostles had learned to accept the fact that women were called to be disciples of the Lord also.

Women had followed Jesus even to the cross while the men had fled. Women were the first to witness the resurrection. These special events were enough to convince Peter and the other disciples that women were part of the mission of the church.

That is why that on the day of Pentecost there were many women present. Jesus’ mother, Mary, was the most prominent and that is why she is mentioned in our Scripture verse. But as we will see as we look at the stories in the book of Acts there will be many more women who will play a significant role in the life of the church.

Society at this time was strongly patriarchal. We already noted that Jesus did not try and change the patriarchal culture. (See last week’s post – May 6, 2014.) Jesus would show how women were to be treated by example. It was up to His disciples to follow that example. Gradually as more people became Christian, the culture would change. To see the eventual effect of this you only have to compare a Christian culture to a Moslem culture. While Christians are not perfect, they treat women a great deal better than Moslem’s do.

In the first century the Jews were governed by the Roman Empire. Women of wealth in this culture had a surprising amount of freedom. We will read about how some of these wealthy women participated in the kingdom work in the book of Acts.

It may surprise some to know that there were even women who held public office. In Macedonia, where Paul would take the Gospel, women were in all respects equal to men. They worked at many jobs that would only be held by men in the primarily Jewish culture, including trades, building, commanding armies, and ruling. In the upper classes women could get a divorce as well as a man, though marriages were still contracted by families for political or social reasons. Women could inherit property and control it however they wished.

Though women had these freedoms, the entire culture was basically patriarchal. This is similar to the United States today. We have many freedoms here for women, but it’s still basically “a man’s world”. In families, the husband/father is still the head of the household. This is possible in a Christian culture because there is respect for women. Society does not have to be oppressive or abusive just because it is patriarchal.

We saw that women began to respond to the Gospel by serving Jesus in many ways. While Jesus was on earth many women followers provided food, money, and shelter for Jesus and the disciples. They were also witnesses and evangelists. The woman at the well in Samaria, for example, left her water pot and ran to town to tell everyone about Jesus. As a result, many Samaritans came to hear Jesus and were converted.

During Pentecost all of the believers that were in Jerusalem were gathered and filled with the Holy Spirit. The women as well as the men began life as the church of Christ. Throughout the book of Acts we will see the many new ministry opportunities open to women. Women will participate in all the activities of the church.

Women will not only share in ministry, but women will get to be equally persecuted. Saul (whose name would be changed to Paul after his conversion), “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1,2). Note that men and women got an equal opportunity to go to prison for their faith.

Luke, the author of the book of Acts, makes a conscience effort to show how the status of women would be greater in the church than in their previous position in Jewish culture. There are twenty-three women or groups of women mentioned in the book of Acts. All except a couple of these are positive accounts. By that I mean that most of these stories are about women who responded to the Gospel with faith in Jesus and entered the kingdom of God.

They are first of all, Mary the mother of Jesus, and disciples, widows, professional women, other prominent women, and relatives of other disciples. We will see that they all joined in with the task of the mission of the church in various ways.

All of these women are an example for us today. They were not so very different from us. They provided hospitality to missionaries and opened their homes up for church meetings. They served in their communities by taking care of widows and the poor. Some used their spiritual gifts in the church. Philip had four daughters who prophesied. Priscilla worked with her husband to teach others about Jesus.

Why would Luke take time to tell all of these stories if he did not want us to see that the way for women to serve in the kingdom of God alongside men was now open in this new era? Though women live in a patriarchal society, they are no longer second-class citizens. All are members of the priesthood of believers.

While our corporate responsibility is to serve others and to take part in the mission of the church, spreading the Gospel throughout the whole world, Christ also came to give us individually new life in Him. In this new life we are free from sin and free from guilt. As we live in the joy of our new freedom, we give up our own selfish ways and serve others in our families and neighborhoods. In this way we imitate the kingdom women whose stories we will be reading about in the next few weeks.

“If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be freeindeed” (John 8:36).

“Act as freemen, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as servants of God”  (1 Pet. 2:16).