Which gospel do you believe? Which gospel are you living? What are we showing the world of the gospel? If your next door neighbor was asked to explain what you (his next door neighbor) believed about the gospel, what would he/she say? Would what they saw in you match up with the first gospel? 2000 years ago, Jesus came to this earth preaching “the gospel of the kingdom” (Matt. 4.23).
This gospel (or good news) was about sinful human beings finding favor with God and being brought into a right relationship with Him through His Son. It was about those who were enemies of the Kingdom, becoming friends and servants of it. Jesus taught us that the gospel included many things, not the least of which was repentance toward God, and holy living. But Jesus’ gospel also included giving to the poor, and healing the sick, and loving the outcasts, and by that being salt and light in the world; generally, Jesus’ gospel was about people getting right with God, enjoying a close relationship with God, and loving our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. I ask you, is this the gospel that we portray to the world today? While half the church spends herself in winning right wing political battles against gay marriage or beverage alcohol, and the other half spends herself becoming one with the culture to the degree that there is no longer any difference at all, and while some in the church spare no effort in preserving the best 5 points of historical theology for posterity, is the world really seeing and hearing the gospel that Jesus preached?
Some have quipped, “If you were put on trial tomorrow for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” I think that is the wrong question to be asking. A better question to be asking is, “What is the evidence that one is a Christian?” Let me explain: People in our culture (even Christians) define “Christian” in different ways. For some, one is a Christian if he/she goes to church regularly. For others, one is a Christian if he/she goes to church as much as once a year. For some, being a Christian is about what you don’t do (don’t drink, smoke, chew, go with girls who do). Still for others, being a Christian is merely about the ideals or beliefs that one maintains (even if not actually living them out). And there are many in our culture who equate Christianity with violence and hatred, or political power. Which of these would be the criteria by which one would be tried as a Christian?
The reason I bring this up is that it is apparent that much of what the world percieves from the church today has little to do with the gospel that Jesus taught. Jesus taught a gospel that was actually “good news!” It was good news because it connected people, sinners, to God from wherever they were in life at that time. Prostitutes and traitors, liars and thieves, as well as everyday fishermen (or golfers) were all confronted with the “gospel of the kingdom” in a peaceful, loving, convicting manner, and some accepted it and believed it, and the entire world was changed because of it. That was the “first gospel.” That was the gospel that said, “I’ll go wherever people are, even if it is Samaria(or a gay bar) to get people back to God. Does that make you uncomfortable? Does it make you nervous to think that Jesus was willing to go where noone else was willing to go in order to preach the gospel? Do you get sick at your stomach at the thought of going to a gay bar with a coworker in an effort to show him the love of Jesus? Are you consistent in your discomfort? Does it make you just as uncomfortable going to a golf course with a buddy from work (or your boss!) whom you know is cheating on his wife, or stealing from the company, or lying, or drinking too much, or not obeying God with all his heart? Are you more angry at Brian McLaren for being “Emergent,” or at Rick Warren for wearing hawaian shirts than you are at yourself for never sharing the good news about Jesus with your next door neighbor, or the guy you play golf with every week? Do you need to repent of what you “don’t do?” I fear that some of us, especially in Southern and Reformed Baptist circles are so proud of what we “don’t do” that we forget about what we are supposed “to do.” You have grown up in the church, never done anything “bad,” and you would never (fill in the blank) for the sake of sharing the gospel with that person. Jesus was known for what he did with his life, not for what he was unwilling to do.
There was enough evidence against Jesus that they could accuse him of being, at the very least, “a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” They called him a “glutton and a drunk.” They called Jesus those things because he hung out with people who were openly sinful (i.e. not hypocrits), and he had a good time eating food, and drinking wine with them (and probably playing golf, and hanging out in the pub, listening to stories and jokes, and listening to secular music). Jesus attended parties and weddings. In some cases, he even brought the beer! I don’t know anyone who would say that Jesus’ holiness was compromised by his dealings with the sinful world. He was the holiest human who has ever lived, and I don’t think Jesus was afraid to be around someone who might sin in his presence. Somehow, we think that part of being holy and set apart for God means that we remove ourselves from the world altogether. This is unbiblical (read James, you know, in the Bible).
I think Jesus would have us evaluate where we are in our understanding of the gospel. He would have us put aside our fears and misgivings, and stop worrying so much about what other people (Christians) think about us, or what we are afraid might “defile” us in some way (again, read what Jesus said about what defiles), and start living the gospel before the eyes of the world. Remember, however, Jesus went to the parties, but he never compromised his message, and he never sinned. The sinners he hung out with always knew what Jesus was about. He was about (lovingly) confronting them with their sin, and calling them to repentance and faith in God, and good works toward others. That is the way the first gospel interacts with the lost world–in it but not of it, right? So let’s get out there (out of our nice “Christian” homes and church buildings, out of our ornately decorated “Christian” cars, wear something other than our nice, neat (highly) offensive “Christian” t-shirts, get out of our safe, family friendly entertainment venues) and rub shoulders with people that are sinning before our very eyes (I don’t mean sin with them), and show them that we are not afraid of them, and show them the love of Jesus, and show them the glory of Almighty God. We who are living the 21st century gospel desperatley need to get back to the first gospel of the 1st century.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Chris.
January 15, 2007 at 4:08 pm
You guys are good. The only thing I would shy away from is comparing “Samaria” to be the equivilant of today’s “gay bar”. To me, that is comparing apples and oranges. Samaria had her places of sexual immorality (sexual shrines), but you ever hear of Jesus going inside those. America has her places of polution too. But, I do not believe Christians should attend those places. Jesus attended parties, but I challenge you to find one occasion where Jesus went to an “idol worshipping fest”, or an “orgie party” or anything like it. I believe we sould preach the gospel to sinners and not be scared of who they are or what they do (as you suggest), but I do not believe that means putting yourself in situations to invite tempation to do evil. Paul warns us not to be overconfident in our ability to put ourselves in such crcumstances. GAL 6:1b…But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
), I would have asolutely no problem with temptation at a gay bar. Homo-phobia maybe, but certaily not temptation. 
Just want that to be known. 
You can rub shoulders with a sinful world to an extent. To overlook this is to be overconfident in your ability to handle sin. If you fall, what witness do you have?
Now, let me say (
January 15, 2007 at 5:03 pm
I don’t think we can equate gay bars with sex temples or orgies. Although there are those kinds of clubs, both for homo and heterosexuals, most gay bars are just a “safe” place for gays to meet and do what other sinners do in their own bars. It’s still against the law in this country to have sex in public. I was not talking about a Christian becoming a participant in sin. But it is wrong to allow our fear of falling into sin hinder our gospel witness to the lost culture. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin. What about when Jesus was alone with the whore at Jacob’s well (Jn. 4)? Don’t you think he had to resis temptation? Or do you think that the only temptations that Jesus ever encountered were the ones recorded at the beginning of the gospels? I don’t think so. Jesus was a man, a fully human man, and he (purposely) went to Jacob’s well for the purpose of witnessing to the woman. Now, I am not saying that this is the same as going to a gay bar, or a mardi gras parade to witness, but it does show us that it is possible to minister in potentially tempting situations. The answer for us is accountability. I would never go into a dance club full of attractive women by myself to witness, but I would go to a gay bar with a coworker if that is what it took to show him that I cared about him and get him to come to church with me to investigate the gospel. I would not like it, and I would be very uncomfortable, but I would go.
Trying to avoid temptation at all costs is errant. If you fall to temptation it does hurt your witness. But I ask you, what is worse? Going and failing, or not going at all. At least if you fall you can repent and let the lost world see you repent. If you don’t go at all, they don’t see any of the gospel.
My comparison of Samaria with the gay bar was simply to illustrate the need for “rubbing shoulders” with those people who are on the fringes of society. The religious institutions of Jesus’ day had nothing to do with the Samaritans, even though God told them in their law that they were to be a light to the Gentiles. Similarly, today most of the Christian church will have nothing to do with the homosexual community. This is something that will have to be addressed in the near future. As gays obtain more and more federal sanction for lifestyles, and as they get more and more rights to marry and to adopt children in this country, the church will be forced to have something to do with them. Right now, the church is content to keep them at arms length, practicing its ever so sacred doctrine of “political redemption.” Fighting against the gay community rather than preaching to them and loving them. I saw Mark Cahill once when he was witnessing in Atlanta. There was a big gay pride festival there, and the churces were gatered outside protesting it (the rest of the Chrisitians were at the “Christian Festival” that they began having on the same day so that they could make a statement against the gays and have a place to hide). Mark walks right by the protestors and enters the festival and begins sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with anyone who would listen. The result was surprising! I have to respect that.I think Jesus would have done the same. I think he would go the the bar, have a dark brewed beer (I don’t think he would drink American beer because it sucks) and love whomever he was talking to about the kingdom of God. Why are we so afraid to do what our master has already done?
Soli Deo Gloria,
Chris.
January 16, 2007 at 5:54 am
I think this applies to all areas of ministry to the culture we live in, but in this context we are talking specifically about our witness to the gay community. Homophobia is as much a sin as homosexual lust is a sin! And I don’t think homophobia = just being uncomfortable. Homophobia (fear of Homosexuals), (fear is sin, actually)-homophobia that leads to shunning people to the degree that we are unwilling to be around them, even for the sake of sharing the gospel is a sin. Homophobia is Dr. James Dobson declaring war on the gay community politically, and then declaring war on the missionaries that go to work for Disney in order to be there sharing the gospel with them, or who work inside Hollywood sharing a gospel witness there. That is the “christian” homophobia I am talking about. It is not the same as a woman being uncomfortable around vulgar men. It is not a sin to be uncomfortable, or to be offended. It is, however, a sin to withdraw from a certian group of people and rest on a “comfy little boycot” rather than preach Jesus to them the way Jesus himself did when he was here. I don’t mean to say that we should start ministries to gay bars and hang out there (in Sodom like Lot) all the time trying to witness to them. After a while they would begin to wonder why we spent so much time there as well. But we should be willing (like Abraham) to at least go to a gay bar (Sodom) if that is what it takes to reach a person with the gospel. We shouldn’t live in Sodom, but it is a good thing to go to Sodom to rescue a soul in danger. Again, I am not going to join the porn-world ministry tomorrow. But the last place I would worry about feeling tempted to sin would be in a gay bar. I know Christians who have interacted with men who were gay without knowing it. Some have had their hair cut by gay men, not realizing they were gay. When they found out that the man was gay they immediately found someone else to cut their hair (okay, I don’t know anyone who did that, it was ME!). That was a sin on my part. I should have used the opportunity, trusting in the grace of God, to preach Jesus to him. Instead I ran away and hid my face from him so as not to defile myself. The truth is that we never know what kind of sin people are involved in, unless we only live and breath in “the bubble.”
Would you stop seeing your doctor if you found out he was gay? Would you stop seeing your dr if you found out he was an adulterer? Would you stop seeing him if you found out he was a liar?
I am not advocating ministries to sex clubs, strip joints, or adult book stores. Nor am I advocating starting a ministry to all the gay bars in town. But I think we (I) need to develop a radical sense of mission that says I’ll go anywhere, and talk to anyone in order to show my neighbor the gospel. I think we need to at least be willing to get out of the bubble for a little while, even if it means that we will be exposed to sitautions where we might see something sinful happen, like the Mardi Gras parade, or any other public venue for that matter.
Can we maintain that a christian should never go to a bar at all? I agree that we as Christians must take action against sin in our lives, especially in the area of what we look at. But that doesnt mean that we must never go anywhere where our eyes might behold something sinful. If you went to Mardi Gras you might accidentally see a girl flashing someone, or you, or worse. But that doesnt automatically mean that your eyes have caused you to sin. The fact that you have seen a naked girl doesnt mean that you have sinned. It is how you react and what you do with what you have seen that causes you to sin. Seeing someone drunk doesnt mean that you have sinned, but it could cause you to fall into sin if you chose to get drunk with them. Your eyes can see sin at Walmart on a Friday night, or out on the street while you are preaching. Does that mean we should completely withdraw from the world? I dont think so.
I agree that we should not do as Lot did, and move into Sodom. But that doesnt mean we can’t go to Sodom to preach the good news on occasion, especially with proper accountability. It also doesn’t mean that someone cant go to a porn convention with their wife and ministry team to minister the gospel to those people. I didn’t always share that opinion. The first time I heard of xxxchurch.com I was appauled. But the more I thought about it and looked into what that guy is doing, the more I saw that there are some in the church that can have that ministry. We must never be afraid to take the gospel to the “ends” of the earth.
Paul instructs the church at Corinth: “. . . not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world”. (1 Cor. 5:9-10, ESV). I think it is clear that Paul would “rub shoulders” with, and probably did somewhere on his missionary journeys, people who fell into one of those categories. The sin is in disobeying this scripture, not in going to a gay bar to share the gospel with a coworker, or a friend from college. We have to get back to the “First Gospel” and join God in his mission of glorifying himself by transforming sinners (even homosexuals) into the image of his Son.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Chris.