Jesus Loves Homosexuals - Part 1

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. If God loved the world, then we should love the people that are in that world as well. Jesus loves people.

That's the theme of this whole series. He loves gay people, straight people, prostitutes, thieves, drunks, atheists, agnostics, religious people, and even you and I. Prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi goes, O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.

That's the mindset to have when you're reaching out to others. Today, we continue our countdown of Skip's top 40 messages on the Connect with Skip Heitzig YouTube channel. In the number 29 spot is Skip's message, Jesus loves homosexuals. In it, Skip turns his attention to the controversial topic of homosexuality and how you can have Christ's heart for that community.

Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will help you feel a deeper sense of purpose as you explore God's love for you. The year was 1962, and the United States was behind in the space race. Boldly, President Kennedy threw down a strong claim. We believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.

Three, two, one, zero, and liftoff. When JFK made this challenge, America had little space experience. Here's Levi Lusko with some background. This is the most incredible thing that mankind's ever done. The late President Kennedy makes this outrageous goal. We're going to go to the moon, and not only that, we're going to do it in the next 10 years, and it's going to end in safety when the man comes safely back home.

I mean, what an incredible thing to say when all of our space experience at that moment amounted to 15 minutes in space. The Last Supper on the Moon is an epic new hardcover book by Levi Lusko, and it is our resource offer this month. Receive your copy when you give a gift of $35 or more to support this program. Just go to connectwithskipp.com or call 1-800-922-1888.

That's connectwithskipp.com or 1-800-922-1888. Now, we're in John chapter 8 as we get into the message with Skip Heitzig. You'll be happy to know that at last a perfect preacher has been found.

I don't know the person, but here's the description. He preaches exactly 15 minutes, so I'm out. He preaches exactly 15 minutes against sin in such a gentle way that he never hurts anyone's feelings.

He works from 6 in the morning until 10 every night in every kind of work possible. He can clean the church if necessary. He helps overhaul the cars of the congregation and is an expert in almost every field. He always dresses in the best clothes, buys the latest books on every subject, has a well-dressed and well-behaved family, drives a late model car at all times, gives to every charitable fund, and gives $40 to the church from his $100 a week salary. He is 20 years old and has been preaching for 30 years. He has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends all of his time with older folks. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a good sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work.

He has a glowing personality with deadened feelings and iron nerves. The reason I preface my study this morning with that little quip is because I have a feeling that no matter what I say on the subject I'm going to speak on, that I'm going to offend someone. It is not my desire to do so. I speak to you not as anything but a pastor with love in my heart, knowing that I'm dealing with a very delicate subject. A few years ago, one of our previous vice presidents named Al Gore put out a film called An Inconvenient Truth. I'm not here to talk about it.

I never saw it. I'm not here to discuss politics. Except to say this, there are some truths that are inconvenient truths to hear, and people don't want to hear them. One of them, especially among church folks, is the topic of homosexuality. According to one study, homosexuality is one of the top ten issues facing the church today.

The Barna Research Group has noted that few pastors will speak on such controversial issues because they worry about losing members and about diminishing tithes. Frankly, I've never done a message by this title, Jesus Loves Homosexuals. It's not that I haven't dealt with the text before. We've gone through the entire scripture, and at appropriate times we have dealt with those biblical passages.

But I've never done one as blatantly as what is the title of this message today, and I want you to know that I do this message, I preach this message, I teach this message with a little bit of fear, with a lot of respect, and with all of the love of Jesus Christ in my heart. You know, one of the reasons that you don't hear messages such as this one is because, frankly, it's a difficult subject. And it is made more complicated in this day and age because of the heightened rhetoric in the political arena, because of the media spin that goes on whenever this issue is tackled, and because voices on both sides have been raised and people are very animated about what they believe in regarding this. Some don't like to talk about it, frankly, because some don't like to think about it. They just sort of want to not deal with it and they move on.

They can't even fathom thinking about such things. For other people, it's just too painful. They've had a son or a daughter approach them, and that son or daughter has announced, I'm gay, I'm homosexual, I'm lesbian, and immediately thoughts of, I'm a failure as a parent, all of that is dealt with.

It's just painful to go there. For other people, it's painful because of all of the bashing they have heard throughout the years by a number of preachers. They've had Bible verses flung in their faces without an iota of love or concern for the individual. I've asked you to turn to John chapter 8, which might seem like a strange passage at first because it's not about Jesus encountering a homosexual. You will not find such a passage in all of the New Testament.

There isn't one. That's because it wasn't the issue then that it is today. It was assumed in that culture of Judaism that heterosexuality was the pervasive norm. However, what you find in John chapter 8 is a woman being brought before Jesus because of a sexual act that she committed, sexual sin that she was involved with, and we are going to understand and see as we read how Jesus dealt with her.

Let's look at our text. In John chapter 8, the first verse actually begins to the previous chapter. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. The thought begins in verse 2. Now early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what do you say?

This they said, testing him, that they might have something of which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear. So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.

And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last, and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?

She said, No one, Lord. Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. The first thing I want to consider with you is just how candid Jesus was with all people.

He was always honest. In verse two we are told that Jesus was in the temple and he was teaching. Now in case you don't know this, and I'm sure most of you do, that is the activity that we find Jesus doing most of in the New Testament, teaching people. Yes he was healing and yes he was doing other things, but by and large the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, have a whole chunk of red words in them.

Those are the words of Jesus. He taught people on virtually every needful subject for them to hear. He told them about God. He told them about creation. He taught them about divorce and marriage. He taught them about love and peace and joy and how to get to heaven. And when he taught, he was always honest. He was always candid.

How do we know this? Well because many times when Jesus taught things, people didn't like what they heard. He was so honest it actually offended people. There are what theologians refer to as the hard sayings of Jesus, or the difficult statements. Things like, if you're going to come after me, deny yourself.

Pick up your cross and follow me. In John chapter 6, when Jesus was giving one message, the crowd reacted and some of them said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? Doesn't mean it was too hard to understand. It means it was too hard for them to tolerate.

Let me translate it another way. I don't like this preacher. He just offended me. It was hard because Jesus was always honest.

Here's one. You remember when our Lord was at the well of Samaria with a woman and they're dialoguing and he finally says go call your husband and she says in a very kind of smart, curt way, I don't have a husband. And Jesus said, you're right. You don't have a husband.

You've had five of them and now you're just living with a man and cohabitating with somebody who's not your husband. You think she'd love to hear that? That just cut her to the heart. Well, he was always honest. He's teaching people in all honesty. And notice how honest he is with this woman. In verse 11 he says, just the last part, go and sin no more. Now he just used a word there, a term, the term sin. And he is referring to her behavior of adultery as something that is sinful.

Notice that Jesus didn't say your mistake, your hang up, your propensity, your alternate lifestyle. He called it a sin. What he did in using the term was frame for her how God views her action of adultery. He's not condemning her sexuality. In fact, he's not even referring to her preference. He's referring to her practice, the sin that she committed.

Now this is important. Because instead of condemning her as a sexual being, what Jesus is doing is denouncing the way in which she chose to express her sexuality, i.e. committing adultery with some man. Let me be candid. According to Statista.com, a statistical research website, two in every 100 males in America claim to be gay. One out of every 100 females claim to be lesbian. Now some will dispute those facts, say more or less.

But the Williams Institute translates this into about 8 million adults in the United States that consider themselves to be gay or lesbian. Question, how do we respond to that? Short answer, before I give you the long answer. The short answer is we should respond to them at least in the way that the God we say we follow does. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. If God loved the world, then we should love the people that are in that world as well. Jesus loves people.

That's the theme of this whole series. He loves gay people, straight people, prostitutes, thieves, drunks, atheists, agnostics, religious people, and even you and I. It doesn't mean he loves adultery, he loves adulterers. It doesn't mean he loves prostitution, he loves prostitutes. It doesn't mean he loves homosexuality.

It means he loves homosexuals. But in loving them, please notice, because Jesus was honest, he was candid, that one of the most loving things you can do is to tell people the truth. And Jesus did that. There are some inconvenient truths in scripture. Now, I say without shame that I believe in the authority of scripture.

I make no apologies for it. I believe that God has spoken through his word and he has spoken on issues of morality and sexuality, sexual practice. Homosexuality isn't mentioned a whole lot in the Bible, but it is mentioned seven times, seven different passages. Genesis 19, Leviticus 18 and 20, Judges chapter 19, Romans chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, and 1 Timothy chapter 1 all have something to do either directly or tangentially with the practice of homosexuality. And the Bible's teaching on it is clear. According to the Bible, homosexuality is sin.

And it is contrary to God's plan and God's design for humanity. Now, I hope you will not switch me off at this point. Hold on. There's more to this message. I realize that in making the statement that I just made that I am considered by the vast majority of our public to be narrow-minded.

I'm not dumb. I understand that. In fact, not only am I considered narrow-minded by my view, I am considered to be intolerant by my view. And after all, we live in a culture now that worships tolerance. You have to be tolerant. There's only one group you don't have to be tolerant with, and that's Christians in this culture. I also understand something else, that in saying what I just said, one day I could end up in jail for saying that in our culture.

That could be labeled as something that would imprison a person. But I sort of feel like what the apostles felt as they stood before the council in Acts chapter 6, and Peter said, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge. But we must obey God rather than men. You see, we can't just simply handle biblical prohibitions irresponsibly. We can't shape them around our personal or cultural preferences. We can never think that God will bless what God denounces. No matter what culture tells you, no matter what your body chemistry or a genetic study will tell you, no matter how you feel, the Bible, I believe, trumps it all.

Because you know what? I've had all sorts of feelings in my past and was predisposed toward a number of behaviors that if I acted on them all I would be not alive or be in jail. It wouldn't be right. Just because someone has a preference for something doesn't make it morally correct in and of itself. But I want you to differentiate between something here. I keep talking about practice.

Jesus said, Go and sin no more. He was talking about her practice, not her preference. There's one thing to note that somebody has a preference or an orientation or a propensity or a proclivity.

There's another thing to practice it. This woman in our story had a preference. She was attracted to a man outside of her marriage and she yielded to that temptation, that urge, and it became an act.

Thus it became sinful. A few months ago I was in a restaurant and it was just a remarkable time. I was seated by a waitress. She introduced herself to me. She said, You don't remember me, do you? You invited me to one of your Easter services some years ago. And she said, I did not go.

But I did come to your church after that and I gave my life to Jesus Christ and he's changed my life. But then she said something and my whole family was there. It was quite remarkable how candid she was. She said, You can probably tell by looking at me that I'm a stereotypical lesbian. I'm just going, Okay.

I'm all ears. And she said, You know, I have lots of people around me who tell me either change the way you look or just hook up with someone. And then she said something that was so profound I wrote it down. She said, I'd rather struggle with my desires and remain single than to give in to those desires.

She goes, I trust that God will change the rest as time goes. But I have chosen to make a decision, my choice, to remain celibate rather than to give in to those urges. She admitted that she had a homosexual preference but she no longer was practicing it.

And here's the point I want to make. A sexual orientation does not have to define you when a spiritual orientation can define you. And that is the choice that she made. That she would be defined by her submission to God no matter how she felt.

I know it's cliche. I almost shun to even say this. However, it is true and we must demonstrate it that God loves the sinner. He may hate the sin but God loves the sinner. Romans chapter 2 verse 4 tells us it's the goodness of God that leads a person to repentance.

And you know what? Jesus came to remove the debt of sin from all people, from all unbelievers, all undeserving people. And he condemns all forms of sin including hypocrisy which is what I want you to notice next. So first, Jesus was candid with all people. The second thing I want to make note of is Jesus was confrontational with all hypocrites. You see that throughout the New Testament. Whenever Jesus encounters people like the scribes and Pharisees, look at verse 3. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery and when they had set her in the midst.

I just want you to picture that. The scribes and the Pharisees brought to this woman, set her in the midst and said to him, Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act. I can see him smiling almost when they said that. Now Moses in the law commanded that such should be stoned.

But what do you say? This they said testing him that he might have something to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, wrote on the ground with his finger as though he didn't hear.

I love that. When they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. And again he stooped down and he wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it being convicted by their conscience went out one by one beginning with the oldest even to the last and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. That's Skip Heitzig's powerful number 29 message on our Top 40 Messages Countdown.

It's from the series Jesus Loves People. Find the full message and more of Skip's teachings organized into playlists that take you through the entire sermon series at youtube.com slash Calvary ABQ. Now, if you love Bible study, a trip to Israel is a life changer.

Your Bible study will never be the same. Skip has lived in Israel and led tours many, many times. Here he is to invite you on his next tour. You know, there's always something new to see and experience in Israel. And I'm so excited to let you know that I'm taking another tour group in 2022. You're in for an incredible time as we travel throughout Israel and experience the culture that's so unique to that country. We'll start on the Mediterranean Sea and head north, seeing places like Caesarea and Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in and around Jerusalem and see the Temple Mount, Calvary, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives, and much more. This remarkable itinerary is made richer with times of worship, Bible study, and lots of fellowship. Now, I've been to Israel a number of times over the years and I can honestly say that visiting the places where the events of the Scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived, taught, and healed, it just never gets old. I can't wait to see you in Israel. Start planning and saving now to tour Israel with Skip Heitzig. Information at inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q.

That's inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares another Top 40 message and sheds light on angels, their purpose, and their role concerning you. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.