Paul Stewart

Washed & Waiting

Yesterday we continued our Elephant in the Church series by addressing homosexuality. You can listen to the message HERE.

One of the books that helped me most in preparing this message was actually one that I picked up just last week at the Story conference in Chicago. It's called Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality by Wesley Hill.

It is a powerful and moving story of struggle and faithfulness. 

Hill was raised in a loving Christian home, but at the age of 13 began experiencing homosexual desires. However, Hill has remained committed to Christianity’s traditional position that sex is intended to be experienced only within marriage between a man and a woman. 

Part-memoir, part theological reflection, Hill shares the struggles that gay Christians face as they seek to live faithful to God’s “no” to homosexuality. Hill places his struggle within the larger story of struggle that all of us are called into as we follow Christ. The message of what Christ has done for us on the cross reminds us that all Christians, whatever our sexual orientation, will need to pick up our own cross and follow him. We must die to our natural desires and affections and come into conformity with Him.

He quotes New Testament scholar Richard Hays who says that all Christians, including homosexual Christians who battle with constant loneliness, are “summoned to a difficult, costly obedience while ‘groaning’ for the ‘redemption of our bodies’. Anyone who does not recognize this as a description of authentic Christian existence has never struggled seriously with the imperatives of the gospel, which challenge and frustrate our ‘natural’ impulses in countless ways.”

Romans 5:12 says "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned." Since Adam’s fall, we are all inclined to reject God, to act selfishly, to hate our enemies, to lie on our taxes, and to cheat on our spouses. Homosexual desires are no different than any of these. In fact, I would argue that the cause of all sin may be said to be “genetic” or inborn in that it is a result of our fallen human nature. 

Salvation is about being delivered from these fallen desires and given a new Spirit-empowered desire to pursue God.

Some of us come to Christ with a propensity for alcoholism, fits of rage, chemical dependency, a domineering personality, or the constant need for attention. When we come to Christ we are called to put these things to death and follow Him. Does this mean the struggle is over? Hardly. It is a slow and arduous process that ultimately will not be complete until Christ's return.

Hill considers himself a gay Christian who each day takes up his cross and willfully chooses to live a celibate lifestyle, anticipating a day when all things will be made new (Romans 8:23). 

A Revolutionary, Revolutionary

This weekend we discussed the “Political Elephant” in the church (you can download or listen to the podcast HERE). Needless to say, religion and politics are dangerous topics. They ruin polite conversation.

Many young Christians I talk to suggest that maybe we shouldn’t talk about or get involved in politics at all. It is just too divisive.

While this is certainly tempting, when you study the Gospels themselves - and the political and socioeconomic backgrounds behind them - you begin to realize why Jesus was feared by all of the major political parties. Jesus’ message was incredibly political. His teaching and parables on law, taxation, party attitudes, the judicial process and foreigners challenged all of the political leaders of his day.

Jesus was a revolutionary. He came announcing the kingdom of God. This was not just a spiritual, inner peace. The Bible tells us that the kingdom of God was going to deal with real poverty, real injustice, real suffering and real hunger.

But Jesus was unlike any revolutionary that had come before. He was not just going to be a better king, but an entirely new kind of king, bringing an entirely new kind of kingdom.

Every revolution inside the kingdom of this world is not really changing anything fundamental; it just changes the players around. Every other revolt is about taking power from those who have it and giving it to those who do not. But Jesus’ revolution was about giving power away and changing the world that way. The climax of his revolution was not when he got elected, it was when he was executed.

Tom Skinner, an African American minister from inner-city New York, spoke about this radically new kind of revolution in his famous sermon at the Urbana Missionary Conference in 1970 (it is an incredible talk and I would encourage you to read or listen to it in its entirety). 

To an audience of over 12,000 mostly white college students and campus ministers, Skinner fearlessly exposed the racism within "Bible-believing, fundamental, orthodox, conservative, evangelical Christianity” and called for a revolution. A Jesus kind of revolution.

He concluded by comparing Jesus to Barrabas. Barabbas was also a revolutionary. He said "The Roman system stinks, it's militaristic, it's oppressive." And Jesus would have agreed. The difference between Jesus and Barabbas was in their solution. Barabbas wanted change within the system. Jesus wanted to change the system entirely.

So why release Barrabas instead of Jesus?

“Very simple: if you let Barabbas go, you can always stop him. The most Barabbas will do is go out, round up another bunch of guerrillas and start another riot. And you will always stop him by rolling your tanks into his neighborhood, bringing out the National Guard and putting his riot down. Find out where he is keeping his ammunition. Raid his apartment without a search warrant and shoot him while he is still asleep. You can stop Barabbas.

But how do you stop Jesus? They took and nailed him to a cross. But they did not realize that, in nailing Jesus to the cross, they were putting up on that cross the sinful nature of all humanity. As Christ was nailed to the cross, it was more than just a political radical dying; he was God's answer to the human dilemma. On that cross Christ was bearing in his own body my sin, and he was proclaiming my liberation on that cross. And on that cross he shed his blood to cleanse me of all my sin, to set me free. They took and buried him, rolled a stone over his grave, wiped their hands and said, "That is one radical who will never disturb us again. We have gotten rid of him. We will never hear any more of his words of revolution."

Three days later Jesus Christ pulled off one of the greatest political coups of all time: he got up out of the grave. When he arose from the dead, the Bible now calls him the second man, the new man, the leader of a new creation. A Christ who has come to overthrow the existing order and to establish a new order that is not built on man.

Keep in mind, my friend, with all your militancy and radicalism, that all the systems of men are doomed to destruction. All the systems of men will crumble and, finally, only God's kingdom and his righteousness will prevail. You will never be radical until you become part of that new order and then go into a world that's enslaved, a world that's filled with hunger and poverty and racism and all those things of the work of the devil. 

Proclaim liberation to the captives, preach sight to the blind, set at liberty them that are bruised, go into the world and tell men who are bound mentally, spiritually and physically, "The liberator has come!"

Dreaming of a Space

Dreaming of a space downtown Des Moines.

A space for musicians to sing.

For singers to write.

For writers to perform.

For performers to sketch.

For sketchers to talk.

For talkers to think.

For thinkers to inspire.

For inspiration to create.

A space to cultivate dreams and guide people into a relationship with God while bringing the neighborhood together. 

A space to celebrate, learn and renew.

This Weekend: Politics

This weekend we will try to tackle the "Political Elephant" in the church. How should a Christian vote? Should a Christian run for office? Was Jesus a Republican or a Democrat? 

Here are a few of the books I'm working through to come up with an answer.

The Elephant in the Church: Divorce

This weekend we began a conversation at Gateway. We talked about several “Gray Elephants” in the church - everything from alcohol, tattoos, music, birth control and even cosmetic surgery (You can listen to the podcast HERE).

During the service I took questions via text message, but unfortunately was only able to respond to a few. Several of the questions that came in had to do with divorce, so I thought I should deal with those here.

First of all, the Scriptures teach that marriage is a God-ordained, public covenant between a man and a woman that results in a “one flesh” relationship (Genesis 2:24; Proverbs 2:16-17; Ezekiel 16:8; Malachi 2:14). God’s design is that every marriage be faithfully permanent. God loves covenant keeping, and His strength is sufficient to enable husband and wife to be faithful. His redeeming grace gives us hope that even the most broken marriage can be restored.

However, in a broken world, marriages will fail and the church must be ready to respond with grace and truth.

Scripture allows for divorce and remarriage for either of two valid causes: sexual immorality (Matthew 5:31-32; 19:9) or desertion by an unbelieving spouse (I Corinthians 7:15).

1) Sexual Immorality: Jesus said, “whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery” (Matthew 19:9; see also 5:32). The exception clause (“except for sexual immorality”) refers to adultery and probably covers all the cases of sexual sin that deserved punishment in the Old Testament.

It’s important to remember that while the New Testament allows for, it does not require divorce for sexual unfaithfulness. God’s grace encourages us to forgive and have hope that God’s transforming power can redeem even the most broken marriage. However, when there has been sexual unfaithfulness, divorce and remarriage are allowed, and do not constitute adultery.

2) Desertion: One further exception is found in I Corinthians 7:15. In a marriage of a believer and an unbeliever, the believer should seek to preserve the marriage (1 Corinthians 7:13-14; 1 Peter 3:1-2). However, if the unbelieving spouse deserts, the believer, after patient prayer, may divorce and remarry.

There are many destructive behaviors that can threaten the safety of family members and jeopardize the health of a marriage. Even when sexual addiction does not include physical adultery, it is still a form of evil destructive lust (Matthew 5:27-28); the abuse of a spouse or children cannot be tolerated; and refusal to provide for one’s family (1 Timothy 5:8) is also a form of desertion.

Finally, the Bible teaches that if someone divorces without a valid cause, they are still married in God’s sight. If one of them remarries, their new sexual union is adultery against their former spouse, and the first marriage is ended. Their union forms a new marriage. The new couple should repent of adultery, receive God’s forgiveness, and seek to make their marriage faithfully permanent.

The Elephant in the Church

Churches are full of elephants. Issues that everyone thinks about, but never discusses. How could a good God allow suffering? How can a loving God send people to hell? Would Jesus vote Republican or Democrat? Does God really hate beer?

This fall at Gateway we will talk candidly about the issues that plague us, the topics that confuse us and the questions that intrigue us and this weekend we will kick things off by exploring a few of the gray elephants in the church. 

The Bible is black and white on a lot of issues, but there are also a lot of gray issues, or what the Apostle Paul calls "disputable matters" (Romans 14v1). Clearly God cares about the black&white issues, but I believe it is how we handle the gray issues that will define who we will be as a church. 

Some of these issues are trivial (secular music, dancing, rated R movies) others are peripheral (Calvinism vs. Arminianism, eschatology, spiritual gifts) and many are highly emotional (In vitro fertilisation, genetic engineering, life support and end of life issues). 

How will we be able to discern right from wrong? What will we do if we disagree?

The Apostle Paul exhorted the Romans to "Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God" (Romans 15v7). Our dream is to build a church with the capacity to widely embrace incredibly divergent views, opinions, practices and convictions - disagree about those views, even passionately - and still somehow find a way to gather around this raging bonfire that is Jesus Christ and bring praise to God. 

This weekend the conversation begins. We believe something special will happen in the course of this dialogue, and we want to share that with you.

Resurrection: Another Way to Look at the World

"If I take Easter as the starting point, the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those whom he loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and Easter a preview of ultimate reality. Hope then flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life." - Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew