The following is a somewhat rough transcript of the message entitled The Gospel, Homosexuality and the Culture (Part 1) preached at Agape on 04/14/13 by Chase Thompson (dark red text) and David McConnell (dark blue text.) If you have any questions for us to grapple with this Sunday (or on our live simulcast next Wednesday night) then please text your questions for to 205.490.2768
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Opening question: Does the Bible call us to please people? Did the apostle Paul try to please people?
There is a tension that Christians must live in, and most of us tend to swing one way or the other and miss the whole counsel of the Word. This tension can be seen between Romans 12:2 “Don’t be conformed to this world.” and 1 Corinthians 9:22 “I’ve become all things to all people.” We mustn’t be conformed to this world, but we MUST become all things to all people. 1 Cor 10:32-33 “I Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.”
This is a paradox – a tension. It is a similar tension to the command to speak the truth in love. Most of us in the Body of Christ stray to one side – we are either truth speakers, or love actors. IT IS NOT A STRENGTH TO STRAY TO ONE SIDE. When we are living too far between one pole or the other of speaking the truth in love it is not endearing – it is not precious when we stand on one side or the other. We are not stalwart defenders of the truth when we do this uphold truth without love, nor acting in true love and compassion when we walk in love that never speaks truth.
John Piper calls these two sides – The pilgrim Side and the indigenous Side and notes, “If you only conform – you are not salt, you are not light….If you don’t conform in some measure, then you stay in the salt shaker and the light stays under a basket. Yes we confront the culture, but there is also missionary adaptation. Yes we are in the World, but no – we are not of the World. Yes- there is a measure in which we are to be all things to all people, but no, we are not called to be conformed to this world.” We have not balanced this tension well at all when it comes to the issue of homosexuality and those who have homosexual desires.
“We do not smirk at the misery or the merrymaking of immoral culture. We weep. Being pilgrims does not mean being cynical. The salt of the earth does not mock rotting meat. Where it can, it saves and seasons. And where it can’t, it weeps.”(Piper)
(David McConnell) Years ago, homosexuality was called ‘the love that dare not speak its name’. Today it is the most hotly contested debate in American culture. This is THE cultural issue of the day. Every religious figure, Every politician, every celebrity is being asked their stance on this issue. Secular corporations and organizations are having to define – in writing – their policies as it relates to same-sex unions and homosexual people. There is a cultural push, to portray in every medium available, the homosexual lifestyle as normative. And thus, anyone who would oppose this are increasingly being smeared as intolerant, narrow-minded and bigoted. Individuals and organizations that take a stance against SS unions, Homosexual lifestyles are being condemned as oppressive, antiquated and completely out of step with the modern times.
The church is not immune to this debate; rather slowly we are being pulled into the midst of it. The culture is constantly looking at us for a response. And if I may say – our response is often deficient at best. We have churches who are wholeheartedly embracing same-sex unions and homosexuality. “Church leaders” who tell us that this ‘ship has sailed’ and the church must go with the culture or perish in irrelevance. There are denominations and churches that are whole-heartedly embracing homosexuality, joining the movement and becoming advocates for the cause. In the process, attempting to undercut the very foundation of Christianity – including but not limited to the annulment of scripture as the authoritative word of God. William Kent, a member of a committee assigned by one of the largest American protestant denominations to study homosexuality declared, “the scriptural texts in the Old and New Testaments condemning homosexual practice are neither inspired by God nor otherwise of enduring Christian value. Considered in the light of the best biblical, theological, scientific, and social knowledge, the biblical condemnation of homosexual practice is better understood as representing a ‘time and place bound’ cultural prejudice.” In other words: Admitting the bible forbids this, the answer is straightforward; we must abandon the Bible in light of modern knowledge and sensitivities.
On the other side, there are churches that come to this debate, having completely forgotten the gospel. They condemn homosexuality as a special sin, unique from their own and one that dare not be spoken of inside the confines of their buildings; a sin that someone a person must overcome before they can come to Christ and once overcome never dare mention again or suffer the cost of shame and alienation. Churches that have turned the cross into an offensive weapon, a symbol of a political movement; no longer a reminder of the mercy and justice of God, but now a symbol to be placed on social media as a bull horn to proclaim their protest to same sex unions; Churches that would make those who struggle with this sin, the most hated persons in the eyes of God; enemies of the gospel, all the while forgetting that all of us were at one time enemies of God. And in the process defaming the very gospel by which they proclaim to be saved.
This series is intended to answer a singular Life Question. We do not care what politicians, celebrities or religious leaders have to say on this issue. I should not care what any of you have to say on this issue and you should not care what I have to say on this issue. There is only one opinion that matters – What does the gospel of Jesus Christ say to our culture and His church about the issue of homosexuality?
Today we are focused on what the gospel is saying to our culture. So very quickly I want to do a cultural critique. I do not have time to expound on these but I just want to show you 3 undercurrents of culture that are moving us and that have brought us in this day to the debate on homosexuality; and know that I believe the bible speaks against each of these, refutes them – but these 3 undercurrents will eventually take us past this debate and onto many others: 1) There is no absolute truth. No authority. No sense of right or wrong. Truth is relative. What is true for you is true for you; but what is true for me is true for me. 2) Because there is no absolute truth, every person has a right to their desires. You desires are your rights. You should be able to pursue – unhindered – whatever you want. And if you have a desire, and believe in a God, that desire must show you how that God intended for you to live or his will for you. 3) No one should be allowed to prevent you from attaining your desires. Since there is no truth and you have the right to your desires, anyone who tries to keep you from your desires are intolerant of you. (Which redefines what intolerance is.)
The point today is not to counterpoint these 3 undercurrents; but my prayer Chase is that as we present the gospel, the truth of God will pierce and shine forward, and in the light of that truth – the fallibility of these cultural ideals will clearly be seen.
When God is the center of our lives, our sexuality and desires come under His leadership/Lordship. When God is the center we follow His will and His ways when it comes to our sexuality, and everything else. This means that we don’t follow our every impulse and desire – we don’t commit serial adultery, we don’t engage in pornography, we don’t follow through with our every desire and whim – no matter how deep – and no matter whether those desires are homosexual in nature OR heterosexual. The clear testimony of Scripture – from Genesis to Revelation, from Moses to the Histories of the OT, to the Prophets, to Jesus, to the Apostles, is that God’s place for sex is ONLY in the context of one man and one woman who have covenanted together in marriage. This issue does NOT boil down to sexual orientation – it boils down to whether you are going to follow God or not!
Therefore, one of the fundamental questions we must grapple with first and foremost is whether or not God, through His living and authoritative Word, has the right to demand that we do things we don’t want to do, and not do things that we do want to do. And if you can answer that question, “yes, He does,” then you can get to the place where you can have a biblical worldview on everything – not just homosexuality. If you answer that question, “no, He does not,” then you are not going to have a biblical worldview on anything, including the issues of homosexuality and sexuality. That is the foundational issue – the authority of God speaking through His Word. Issues of homosexuality and sexuality – while important – are not foundational.
Our primary approach on this issue should be loving relationship, dialog and proclamation of the Gospel to the lost and imperfect; to this point, our approach has been legislation, argumentation and Facebookation. (Debating with people over social media, rather than dialogging with them in loving relationship.)
Foundation
I don’t want to just jump in and begin to show verses that point out the sinfulness of homosexuality. We can do that. But in doing so, we can easily miss the bigger picture. We need to look at this issue in light of the entire Gospel. Let’s begin with Romans 8:20-23. “20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
All of creation – the whole creation – is groaning under a curse; even those who have come to know Christ – which is who Paul was writing to here – are groaning waiting for our bodies to be redeemed. All of this finds root in Genesis 1-3. I preach on those verses most of my sermons, because they are foundational to understanding our lives and the world we live in.
So now what are the consequences? Every person is born with disordered desires. This is part of the groaning Paul is speaking of. All of creation wants to be free from decay. Part of our decay is dealing with desires that are not good; that are evil. No one in this room is immune from this. We all have disordered desires. Genesis 8:21 – EVERY inclination / intention of our hearts are evil. If we were to go around the room right now and take a list of all of the evil, disordered desires we have dealt with from our youth, the list would be enormous. And the desires would be all over the map.
But this shows us our commonality: All of these disordered desires we deal with have the same root cause. GO OVER TO 1 Cor 10:13A. “ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.” Paul is not saying that every person has been tempted in the same way. Actually, we have all probably been tempted in various ways. One person struggles mightily with lust, with no issues with temptation to drug addiction. While for another person, the opposite is true. But temptation is common to man – because of the curse. All men share this in common: we will struggle with temptation; sinful desires, disordered desires that find its root in the original sin, the fall. But Paul continues by saying, there is a way of escape. 1 Cor 10:13B “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.“
Living out those disordered desires is not inevitable. If we put all of this together, it does seem that temptation is to be expected. It is inevitable will be tempted; that we have evil desires. But what is not inevitable is that we give ourselves over to those desires. This is a counter-cultural thought. Remember the cultural critique: your desires are your right; and even point you to how God designed you. This is a huge part – or was – of the homosexual debate. Are you born gay? Or is it a choice? Because if you are born gay, how can it be wrong? If you are born gay, it can’t be changed. God made you that way. But the gospel answer is that: Yes, due to the fall we are born with evil desires. But no – we are not doomed to those desires. We can choose – by faith in God – to not live out our sinful hearts.
Which brings us here: The key question the Bible poses is this: will you and I abandon ourselves to Christ and His righteousness OR abandon ourselves to our Flesh and its unrighteousness? GO TO ROMANS 8:13. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” You and I will give ourselves over to Christ or to our disordered desires. If you abandon yourselves to Jesus and ‘by the Spirit’ put to death the sinful desires, there is life. SAME IN GALATIANS 5:16. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Which will you give yourself over to? If you abandon yourself to Jesus – there is the even greater news that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Therefore in Christ, abandoned to Him, striving away from sin toward Jesus – we are not condemned for those disordered desires.
But For those who abandon themselves to their desires, there is only death (Romans 8:13). This is the key: The focus is not what disordered desires do you have or do I have, but on whether or not we abandoning ourselves to those desires. Go to 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Disordered desires are not what puts us in danger of hell. They are common to us all. Abandoning ourselves to our flesh rather than to Jesus is what puts us in danger of hell. As Galatians showed us, these things – the flesh and the Spirit – are against each other. This passage in Corinthians listed many disordered desires and seems to say that if we practice without restraint, that shows that we are not in Christ. And plainly says, we will not inherit God’s Kingdom. Is practicing homosexuality on that list. Yes. You will also find it in Romans 1.But here is the distinction we must make. Because if we do not make this distinction, we will harm others; Is homosexuality a sin? According to 1 Cor 6, practicing homosexuality is indeed a sin; giving into it; abandoning yourself to it. Yes. It is. Is Homosexual desire a sin? They find their root in sin, but the desires themselves are not what put a person in danger of hell.
Plainly – Can you be a born again Christian – who loves Jesus and struggles with same – sex desires? Yes. And before you rise up against me, let me point out that practicing homosexuality is listed in Corinthians, with a whole list of other sinful desires – of which no one in this room is innocent. In other words, we are all guilty of something on this list. So, Can you be a born again Christian who loves Jesus and struggles against heterosexual lust or idolatry. Yes.
What does the bible say about homosexuality? The same thing it says about heterosexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, theft, greed, drunkenness. To give yourselves to these things, will bring death. The key question for us must be this: what are we abandoned to, Jesus or our disordered desires?
Quick Hitters / Questions
Does the Bible really and truly forbid homosexuality, or does it merely forbid sexual abuse?
My Father is a lawyer, and I respect him a great deal; likewise one of my best friends is a lawyer, and him I greatly respect as well. Nevertheless, in America, there is a long running backlash and frustration against lawyers, because they are thought to be people who try to bend the truth in agreements, contracts and documents, and to make them say and carry meaning that the original writer never intended for them to convey. We get very frustrated when people try to do this to us. Imagine a contract – you sell something to somebody with certain written agreements, and then they try to totally twist the words of the contract to their benefit – to mean things that they know was never intended by the contract. Perhaps you’re in college – imagine a professor who gives you a grade scale at the beginning of the year – 90 and up gets an ‘A’ 80 and up gets a ‘B,’ etc. What if you earn a 94, and then get your report card and are shocked to discover that your grade is a ‘C.’
How frustrating is it when people try to change written agreements and contracts? It is an integrity issue. We get frustrated when we make a bargain with people, and then they back away from it – turning a “yes” into a “no.”
Let me say this, with some gentleness and some force, to those who would say that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality: Don’t try to bend the Word to say what you want it to say, because that lacks integrity. The Bible is overwhelmingly clear – from Genesis to Revelation – and especially in the New Testament, that any sexual activity outside of that had between one male and one female in marriage is forbidden. (Next week we will address whether or not passages in Leviticus are applicable to New Testament Christians regarding sexuality…spoiler alert: I believe that they are essentially not applicable!)
Some have tried to argue that Paul’s use of Arsenekoites ἀρσενοκοίτης and Malakos ἀρσενοκοίτης, two Greek words for homosexuality found in 1 Cor. 6 and 1 Timothy 1:10, don’t necessarily refer to all forms of homosexuality. This is a grammatically unsound argument, but one need only look at Romans 1 in the Greek and the English to see how clearly – and without using any technical Greek terms – that Paul shows homosexuality to be against God’s will, and thus sinful.
If you write a note to somebody that says, “I love you, please meet me at 3pm – I am so sorry.” You don’t want them to interpret that letter as saying, “I hate you, I don’t want to see you today – I am not sorry at all for what I did.” It frustrates us to no end when people take our words and twist them to the opposite meaning. This type of miscommunication angers all of us – priests, monks, atheists, buddhists, agnostics, Christians, secularists, Democrats, Michigan fans. Don’t do that with the Bible – it lacks integrity. Simply reject it as authoritative to your life, or embrace it and follow it. Please don’t twist the Word of God according to your whims and what is acceptable or not acceptable in modern culture. Despite its acceptance in postmodernism, it is fraudulent to take a document and twist it to the opposite of the author’s intent.
To those who practice homosexual sex or heterosexual sex outside of marriage and say, “God loves me, God accepts me – God is happy with me.” How do you know this? Because you are going against every Scripture there is on sexuality. By claiming that your activity that contradicts biblical teaching is God pleasing, you are making yourself God through putting yourself over His Word. You need to see that – almost certainly – you aren’t just simply rejecting the small part of God’s Word that concerns homosexuality, but probably many other parts that concern sex outside of marriage, that concern drunkenness and foul language, etc. One who takes this line of reasoning is taking scissors to God’s Word and making themselves God- and…again – we can’t save ourselves.
Side note: In no way, shape or form does the New Testament ever condemn mixed marriages, nor does it EVER endorse slavery or racism of any kind. Instead, there is an entire epistle in the NT, Philemon, where Paul pleads for the freedom of a bondservant
Are Christians being judgmental when they proclaim Homosexuality to be a sin?
Possibly, yes. Romans 2:1-3, “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?” All sexual sin (lust, pornography, adultery, sex outside of marriage, homosexual sin) – all of it skews the original design of God. This was the original design and God said it was good. So any sexual thought, desire, or act that skews this picture is sinful. And we can probably safely assume that everyone in this room has sinned in that way. Anyone who has went through puberty has sinned in that way.
So we have to be careful. We cannot be unrighteous judges. Don’t roll your eyes in disgust at a same sex couple on TV, make some jokes, turn it off, get in the car, drive to the theater and pay $10 to be entertained by a movie filled with heterosexual immorality. Be careful to not lambast those who are lobbying for same sex marriage and make known your disgust for the gay community, while spending several nights a week looking at porn on the internet. Jesus warned ‘Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye’?
At the same time – 1 Timothy 3:15 notes, ‘the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth’. It is not judging to agree with God on sin. It is not judging to affirm issues of holiness or righteousness. It is actually a misconception that the Bible forbids us to judge. (it seems everyone knows that verse, even if they don’t own a Bible). We are actually told in John 7:24 ‘Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” What Jesus was forbidding was a hypocritical, self righteous judging of others. We must remember that we are not the ultimate judge of anyone’s soul – that role belongs only to God. But There are verses – like James 5:20 – that tell us to try and bring back to repentance those who have wandered. 2 Timothy 4 tells us to reprove and rebuke with the Word. All of this requires making judgments about right and wrong; sin and unrighteousness. To agree with God on these things is not hatred or judgement. As a matter of fact, hatred would be to understand the consequences of abandoning ourselves to sin, the horror of hell, and fail to warn people; That is hatred. To say you love someone, but fail to warn them or share with them the truth – is total hypocrisy. It is the weakest form of love there is.
Does embracing the viewpoint that homosexuality is a sin mean that Christians hate gays, or that they are homophobic??
Illustration from Dan Savage in the New York Times, “The crowd laughs a little nervously when Minchin, an outspoken atheist, begins to sing, “I love Jesus, I love Jesus.” They bought tickets to a comedy show, not a religious revival. Minchin prompts the audience to join him. “Who do you love?” he asks. “Sing it!” Soon the whole crowd is singing “I love Jesus, I love Jesus,” along with Minchin, in a video that has been viewed half a million times on YouTube. Then Minchin changes the lyrics: “I love Jesus, I hate {Homosexuals],” he sings. “I love Jesus, I hate [homosexuals].” The crowd stops singing along. Minchin looks up from his guitar, pretending not to understand what the problem could be.
“What happened? I just lost you there,” Minchin says. He makes a halfhearted attempt to get the singalong going again before giving up. “Ah, well,” he shrugs. “Maybe these are ideas best shared in churches.” Those ideas — loving Jesus means hating gay people — are proclaimed in Christian churches and on Christian television and radio broadcasts. The combined efforts of the Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage, “The 700 Club,” the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Westboro Baptist Church, and countless conservative Christian activists, preachers and politicians have succeeded in making antigay bigotry seem synonymous with Christianity.” Dan Savage: Nytimes.com
So -is Savage correct? Is it homophobia and hatred to uphold the biblical truths that marriage is to be between one man and one woman (Jesus, Matthew 19) and that all homosexual and heterosexual activity outside of marriage is sinful? I believe that this charge is grossly unfair. To believe that something is against the will of God does not lead to hatred or haughtiness when one has a biblical view of sin – that we are all stained by it. If Biblical Christians MUST be termed as homophobic, which is clearly unfair, then let us also be known as adulteryphobic, slaveryphobic, racismphobic, pornographyophobic, spousalabuseaphobic, and greedophobic. It is not homophobic to believe that homosexual sex activity is against God’s plan in the same way that it is not heterophobic to believe that heterosexual sex activity outside of marriage is also against God’s plan.
Nevertheless it is very sadly and tragically true that many Christians treat homosexual activity and desire as some sort of “super-sin,” and ostracize anybody believed to be guilty of it. There is indeed much homophobia in American churches, and it is deeply troubling and regrettable. The New Testament gives no indication whatsoever that homosexual sin is a sin of a different magnitude than heterosexual sin. When church people look down their noses at homosexual people, and treat them as some sort of peculiar or different class of sinners, then a tremendous, pride-soaked mistake is being made.
Invitation
1 COR 6:9-11, “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Some of you were practicing heterosexual sinners, some were practicing idolaters. Some were practicing thieves and some practicing homosexuals – but you were washed and justified by faith in Jesus. Justified means – declared NOT guilty by God in grace.
Anyone who says that practicing homosexuality is not a sin, is denying scripture. On the other side, we lose our minds on this issue. We act as if this particular disordered desire needs some special treatment to be fixed. (Illustration: Glenn Shaddix) We cannot bend on what is truth. But we cannot act as if there are human answers to sin issues; the answer is Jesus.
Yes – we all have sinful, disordered desires. But Praise be to God, according to Ezekiel 36, God overwhelms our disordered desires, by his Spirit. The best news in the world, is that Jesus died to save us from every temptation; The most vile sinner, finds His rescue in Jesus. We must uphold truth to our culture. There is absolute truth. Our desires are skewed because of the fall; to live into them, is to abandon Jesus. Homosexuality – in practice – is a sin. But Jesus is the answer.
And church – we must stop making it hard for people struggling with this sin from getting help and hearing the gospel. We do them no favors to affirm them in the sin. But we dare not be found hindering them by our fears or perceived disgust. David Platt: “To use derogatory names and off color remarks to speak or joke or make fun of this sin and those struggling with it or practicing it, is to defame the gospel that saved you and it has no place in the body of Christ.”
How did Jesus handle Tax Collectors in His Day? I believe He would handle the homosexual community the same. Here is what we want you to know – any struggle you have – we want to pray for you. Whatever your disordered desire is – Jesus is the answer. And you will find no condemnation among us, if you wish to come and be prayed for.
Stay tuned next week for part two of this series.
