If You Don't Like What Phil Said . . .

. . . you probably won’t like much of what Jesus has to say about sin either.  Go ahead, bash away without reading the rest if you want.  Won’t bother me a bit.

And just a head’s up: It’s gonna get graphic up in here shortly.  This is your warning.    

Here’s what got Phil in trouble with A&E:

"Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.  Don't be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers-they won't inherit the kingdom of God. Don't deceive yourself. It's not right."

If this bothers you, Jesus bothers you.  You might be mad at Phil.  But you’re also mad at Jesus because this is from His Word.    

Here are a few things that Jesus said that would get Him in trouble with A&E:

“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” – Matthew 5:28

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” – John 3:19-20

“He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” – Mark 7:20-23

You see, everybody likes the warm fuzzy Jesus.  But not too many people are comfortable with the holy Jesus.  The Jesus that tells the truth about sin.  The Jesus that tells the truth about what’s evil and what’s righteous.  The Jesus that calls sinners to repentance and says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  The Jesus who says in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Jesus came to save us from sin, reconcile us to the Father and adopt us as sons and daughters of heaven.  He came to make us holy, pure and righteous. 

Here’s our problem.  We don’t like to talk about how Jesus calls us to holiness and about the reality of the yuck factor of sin.  We want a Jesus who sanitizes and waters down the truth and longingly pats on the head and says, “It’s OK if you love things that defile you and kill you.”

Phil’s in trouble because he speaks candidly about what I call the yuck factor of sin.  In our culture’s attempts to silence the Gospel, our culture has tried to remove the yuck factor of sin.  More specifically, Phil’s in trouble because he talks about the yuck factor of sexual sin. 

"It seems like, to me, a vagina - as a man - would be more desirable than a man's anus. That's just me.  I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying? But hey, sin: It's not logical, my man. It's just not logical."

Let’s be frank about gay sex for a minute.  God created us in his image.  He gave men penises and He gave women vaginas.  At creation, God tells Adam and Eve to enjoy sex with one another.  We were created to have pleasure from sex.  Just like everything else in creation, we’ve taken what God calls good and defiled it. 

Our culture wants us not just to tolerate, but to celebrate men sodomizing other men. Our culture wants us not just to tolerate, but to celebrate women putting foreign objects inside of other women.  Our culture wants us to say, “You know, I think it’s good and beautiful and wonderful for a man to stick his penis in the anus of another man.  I think it’s good and beautiful and wonderful for a man to take this organ that God gave him for procreation and recreation and stick it in the place of another man that was made to excrete waste that’s full of all kinds of toxins and bacteria.”

Are you disgusted by that?  Good!  You should be, because God is.  Sin has a yuck factor to it, and we shouldn’t try to sanitize it. 

Did you notice something else in what Phil said?  And what Jesus said?  And what the entire testimony of Scripture says?  It’s not just about sex.  It’s not just about gay sex.  It’s about all kinds of sin.

"Don't be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers-they won't inherit the kingdom of God. Don't deceive yourself. It's not right."

Idolatry, greed, drunkenness, slander and lying.

Scripture doesn’t discriminate against specific types of sin.  All of it has a yuck factor that we shouldn’t try to sanitize and rationalize.  But we want a God who rationalizes and excuses our sin.  We call this love.  But it isn’t love at all, at least in the way that God’s Word talks about love.  Love seeks to bring out the best in other people – holiness, purity and righteousness.  Love doesn’t turn a blind eye towards sin and bondage.  Love does something about it, and that’s what God has done for us through Jesus Christ!

And here’s why I don’t have a single problem with what Phil Robertson said; why I don’t feel any need to explain it away.  Phil Robertson’s been there.  He knows what it’s like to live far from Jesus.  He knows what it’s like to defile himself sexually.  He knows what it’s like to be a drunk, swindling, slanderous, greedy idolater.  He knows what it’s like to stand face to face with Jesus and be torn apart because of the gravity of our sin, and our hopelessness without repentance.  And he knows the reality of the power of Amazing Grace to save wretches like him and me. 

Even if you don’t have 26 minutes to watch the whole film, watch until the 8 minute mark and you’ll see:

The Good News of Jesus isn’t good at all until we all – me, Phil Robertson and you – come to the realization that we are sinners in need of a Savior.  It isn’t good at all until we realize the wretchedness of our sin and the beauty of what Jesus has done to reconcile us and make us whole.  It isn’t good at all until we realize Jesus did this for us. 

Phil Robertson said that in his interview with GQ, and goes to great lengths to talk about what this mean for him in the I Am Second video.  You probably didn’t catch this part of his interview with GQ:

"If you simply put your faith in Jesus coming down in flesh, through a human being, God becoming flesh living on the earth, dying on the cross for the sins of the world, being buried, and being raised from the dead-yours and mine and everybody else's problems will be solved. And the next time we see you, we will say: 'You are now a brother. Our brother.' So then we look at you totally different then.”

"We never, ever judge someone on who's going to heaven, hell. That's the Almighty's job. We just love 'em, give 'em the good news about Jesus - whether they're homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort 'em out later."

God hates sin.  And God loves sinners.  Notice I didn’t say, “BUT God loves sinners.”  It’s not an either/or proposition.  It’s a both/and proposition.  Here’s what Jesus says about it in John 3:16&17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good or good people better.  He came to bring dead people back to life.  People who are spiritually dead because of our sin – all kinds of sin.  All throughout the Gospels, we see this.  In Luke 15, Jesus was criticized for spending time with “notorious sinners.” Jesus didn’t get crucified because He was a nice guy.  Jesus got crucified because He called people to repentance; claimed to have the power to forgive sins and turned the world upside down. 

I have loved Phil Robertson and what he stands for, and I still do.  Is he Jesus?  Absolutely not.  Is he infallible?  Absolutely not.  But he’s a brother in Christ that loves Jesus, loves people and believes that God’s put him in a position to share the truth of the Gospel.   

Look closely at the life of Phil Robertson.  Listen carefully to his words.  This is really what he's saying: "This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners -- and I was the worst of them all." - 1 Timothy 1:15. 

He, like the Apostle Paul, isn’t “ . . . ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’"  - Romans 1:16&17

Don’t feel sorry for Phil.  I can’t imagine him wanting anybody to do that.  I have a suspicion that Phil is far more concerned about being faithful to Jesus than he is about pleasing a television network and tickling the ears of a culture bent on self-destruction.  Are we?  

What Does It Really Mean?

Although you might not guess it by looking at me, I do work out on a pretty consistent basis - Running long distance (I can hit 5 miles on most days) at a steady pace; running short distances at a more intense pace; lifting weights and doing some workouts on an x-box disc.  The reason it doesn’t show is because I often still eat too much.

But when I do exercise, I try to exercise to a point of near exhaustion.  Sometimes I just come in from a run and lay on the floor.  When I lift weights, I lift in my basement and when I’m done I’ll huff and puff and groan all the way up the steps.  And more often than not, my wife Jessie will ask, “You alright?” 

I’ve come to believe though that what she really wants to say, but doesn’t because she loves me, is “What the hell’s wrong with you?  If you’re gonna die, go do it somewhere else.”  I told her this once.  It didn’t go over so well, as you might imagine. 

Saying what you mean, and meaning what you say is pretty important to me.  Our culture values euphemism and tolerance over truth though, so that often feels like a losing battle to me.  Not something I really get worked up about too often. 

How about you?  Is authenticity and honesty important to you?  If it is, today’s reading from 1 John 5 has something vitally important to say to those of us who say that we love God.

In v.v. 3, John says this: “This is love for God: to obey his commands. “

In other words, when we say that we love God, it should actually mean something.  It should be revealed in the way that we live our lives.  John’s letters are all about the love of God for us and about how we live out our love for God.  Over and over and over again, John reminds us that the love of God actually means something beyond feelings and sentiment.  The love of God, as I talked abouthere, means that God demonstrated his love for us by sending His Son Jesus to save us from our sin; to reconcile us to our Father by adopting us into his family; and by promising us the incredible gift of eternal life in Heaven through His death and resurrection.

So when we say that we love God in return, it only makes sense that our actions would demonstrate that we love God.  I mentioned a few weeks ago in a sermon that it seems that many people, including myself more than I care to admit, don’t take obedience to God as seriously as we should.  We’re not passionate and focused on becoming like Jesus.  We’re not serious about the calling of Jesus to pursue righteousness and holiness in our personal lives and in our relationships with others.  Too often, we seek the lowest common denominator in regards to obedience to God.  We tend to be more focused on what we can get away with on our way to Heaven than we are about putting behind our past and living like sons and daughters of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

Verse 3 continues with these words: “And his commands are not burdensome.”  I think too often we think about what we can’t do, instead of what we have the privilege of being and doing when we’re in Christ.  

It reminds me of a girl named Shawna who was in my youth ministry many years ago.  She had a pretty rough home life, and things weren’t easy for her.  During her middle school years, she was saved by Jesus and really started experiencing some incredible transformation and healing in her life.  But by the time she got to high school, she was really struggling in her walk with Jesus.  There were some kids in our youth ministry who had trusted Jesus as their Lord and Savior who had never been baptized and wanted to be.  I encouraged Shawna to consider taking this step of obedience and to really go public with her faith. 

She was brutally honest with me, which made me weep for her, but which I also appreciated.  She told me that she didn’t want to make that commitment because she wasn’t ready to yet.  She wanted to smoke pot or drink when she wanted to.  She wanted the freedom to have sex with her boyfriend.  She wanted to live her life and experience all of these things.  She saw obedience to God as a burden that would rob her of her freedom to do these things.  At least she really said what she meant. 

Sadly, she was so confused.  What she though was freedom just increased the burden on her tender, bruised heart.  What she saw as a burden would really bring her freedom.  Although her story was kind of extreme, you and I are really no different when we balk at obedience to God because we see it as a burden, instead of the freedom it really is. 

V.4 says, “. . . for everyone born of God overcomes the world.  This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”  Having victory over the sin in our lives, and overcoming temptation, is one of the greatest gifts that God gives us through Jesus.  While our struggles against sin and temptation might seem like a burden to us at the time, they are preparing us for victory and freedom. 

I love hearing victory stories of faith.  People who have overcome drug and alcohol addictions that were killing them.  Couples whose marriages have been healed and restored by Jesus.  Teenagers who battled depression and suicidal thoughts who understand the magnificent love of God for them and are walking with Him.  I could listen to and recount these stories for hours. 

But the common theme is this: these people loved God because they saw His love for them expressed in Jesus.  They realized that obedience to God born of their love for Him was not another burden in their lives, but was the path to the freedom and victory that God wants to birth in all of our hearts. 

Maybe your story isn’t quite as dramatic.  I know mine isn’t.  My struggles to be obedient to God seem mundane and even easy in light of many of the stories that I’ve been privileged to be a part of.  But when we say we love God, do we really mean it?  Is it revealed by our obedience to God’s commands as revealed in Scripture?  Is our faith merely an intellectual assent to the promises of God, or do we live as if we believe those promises? 

What does your love for God really mean for you?  Is it something that’s brought about transformation, victory and freedom in your life?  Or are you still looking for the lowest common denominator? 

Is There Anything Better Than This?

It’s deer season in Pennsylvania, one of my favorite times of the year!  It’s been even better last year and this year, now that my son Isaac is hunting.  I love experiencing deer season in a whole new way with him!

Last year, we hunted hard to get him a shot at his first deer.  After a week of close encounters, he shot a spike one evening after school and made a great shot on it!  It was one of the most thrilling moments of his life, and one of the most thrilling moments of my life.  It was even better than shooting my first deer.   

 

Hunting is one of a handful of things that I’m really passionate about, outside of my family and being a pastor.  I love to fish.  I love the Steelers.  I love watching my kids play sports.  I can be in the midst of doing any one of these things, and think to myself, “It doesn’t get much better than this.”  A lot of you can relate.  Whether it’s pursuing a hobby or passion; spending time with your family; or maybe even working at a job that you love and find to be very rewarding and fulfilling. 

But there is one thing that is better than any of the things in life that can bring us joy and pleasure.  And that is just knowing that we are loved by God!  In today’s reading from 1 John 3, the Apostle John begins the chapter with these words: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us . . .”

We often don’t think about what a wonderful truth that is.  God’s love is often something I take for granted, and I bet most of you do as well.  In our pursuit of everything else we enjoy in life, we tend to forget this most basic and fundamental truth of our faith.  We are loved by God, and really, there’s nothing better than this!

Let’s get Greek for a minute.  The NIV translation completely misses an important word that appears in the Greek: Horao.  It should actually read, “See how great . . .”  And seeing here is far more than just a casual glance.  It means to perceive with the heart and mind; to meditate; and to deeply experience the thing that you are beholding.  In this case, it’s an invitation to drink deeply of the truth that God loves us.

As we continue on in verse 1, we see that it’s a love that he lavishes on us.  Lavish is such a powerful word.  It conjures up images of the finest things in life.  Things of great value and worth that are given or shared willingly with others.  Things that are absolutely incredible, but which we don’t deserve.  I don’t have many things in life that could be described as being lavish.  Not my house.  Not my car.  Not my clothes or possessions.  But God’s love for me is one of the lavish things that I do have.   And because of that, it’s the best thing that I have in my life.

God’s lavish love for us – a love that He invites us to perceive with our hearts and minds and to deeply experience – is far more than just a sentimental or excited feeling.  We live in a culture today that is very, very confused about what love really is.  Most of our cultural expressions of “love” are really lust.  Lust is self-serving and exciting.  Lust is fleeting and based on physical, tangible things like appearance and hormonal reactions in our bodies.  Love is self-sacrificing.  It can be exciting, but it also sustains and carries us through the mundane and even difficult times of life.  Love is enduring and eternal and is based on our worth as people who are created in His image.  

The love of God never stops and never quits!  When we are mired in sin and disobedience, the love of God pursues us!  When we walk through the darkest times in life, the love of God sustains us!  When we don't feel like loving God, he still loves us!  We most clearly and perfectly see the love of God for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  If you want to know what love looks like, look at Jesus. 

The love of God is magnified when we look at what remains of v.1: “. . . that we should be called children of God!”  The Biblical concept of being called something is deep.  Almost every name in the Biblical narrative has a deeper meaning that adds to the richness of the text.  And to be called a child of God is much deeper than being a biological child.  This means that in his great love for us, God has chosen us to receive a name that is borne of a great desire of His to be in relationship with us.  The entire testimony of Scripture – from Genesis through Revelation – makes a significant distinction between those who are children of God and those who are not.  The children of God – which is what we are when we have been reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ – are the special possession and heirs of the Father.  The children of God are the beloved of God. 

That’s pretty deep and cranial for a blog post but God has declared that this truth is something that we should meditate on and consider deep within our being.  As we wrestle with this wonderful truth, it just makes me wonder, “Is there anything better than this?”  Really.  Is there anything better than knowing deep in my heart and mind that God not only loves me but has chosen me for a relationship with Him?  Is there anything better than knowing that in His love, God sent Jesus to save me and to give me eternal life?  And remember, eternal life isn’t just life that starts when we die.  It’s a new life that begins the moment that we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. 

Charles Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers in history, and his writings and sermons demonstrate a deep and rich awareness of the truth of 1 John 3:1.   Yesterday, on a Facebook page devoted to sharing hisquotes, this was shared: "Surely there is no greater comfort under Heaven than a sense of sin forgiven and of reconciliation to God by the death of His Son!"

There’s nothing better than this! 

As you consider this, I’d invite you to consider what you’re pursuing today in your life.  Where’s your focus?  How are you spending your time?  How are you spending your money?  What consumes your thoughts and the deep places of your heart?  Is it something that’s really better than the love of God? 

It doesn’t mean that we quit life and go live in a desert.  But it does mean that as we live our lives that we always keep the love of God for us at the forefront of what we do and our thoughts about ourselves and others.  The remainder of 1 John 3 in a nutshell is this: Live like you believe that there’s nothing better than this!  As we focus on God’s love, we focus on becoming like Jesus.  As we focus on God’s love, we have a desire to purify ourselves.  As we focus on God’s love, we focus on the fact that when we sin, we can be forgiven.  As we focus on God’s love, we focus our desires on what pleases God.  And as we focus on God’s love, we focus on loving others and helping them to know this great truth: There really is nothing better than God’s love for us.