Condemnation or an offer of life?

This is a link to an article in the Independent and while reading it it struck me how different this is to the gospel. Mr Sodagar apparently described various ways in which gay people can be punished. These methods included being beheaded, thrown off a cliff, burning them, “tear down the wall on them” (whatever that means, stoning I guess) or some combination of the above! 

Now the gospel also says homosexuality is wrong, but it says it is wrong with a completely different motive and endview. The goal of the gospel in highlighting sins (and homosexual acts are only one example of sin) is that people repent and believe, that we give our lives to Jesus so that He can help us rebuild our lives the way they are meant to be.

As Christians it is vital that we are clear about this difference. There are two unChristian approaches. One is to point out sins so that we can condemn people. The other is to go along with the views of society and condone sin, such as homosexual acts. This is an equally unChristian thing to do. 

The gospel highlights sin, but it does so not to condemn, but to lead people to life. And this is why the gospel, and proclaiming the gospel, is not homophobic nor a “hate crime”, even though we may still be falsely accused of these things.

Luke 1:78-80 - The rising sun

1:78,79

Salvation comes to us because of the “tender mercy of our God”. We are completely dependent upon the mercy of God. The “rising sun” is the Messiah. He will come from heaven. In John’s gospel there is great emphasis placed on the fact that Jesus has come from heaven, that He is the one sent by the Father. Jesus was sent to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide us to the path of peace. Isaiah 9:1,2 speaks of those living in darkness seeing a great light. The gospel was sent to shine in the darkest places. We can be fearful of dark places, and understandably so, but the light overcomes the darkness.

1:80

John was born and became strong. He lived in the wilderness. Now why did this happen? His parents were old, so it may be that they died when John was quite young and he had to look after himself. The wilderness he lived in was probably the desert of Judea which lies between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. There was a time of preparation before he began his public ministry. Paul also had a time on preparation (Gal 2:1). There are times in our lives when nothing much seems to be happening. We need to be meditating upon the Scriptures, communing with God, for we all need times of preparation.

Luke 1:76,77 - Forgiveness of sins

1:76

Zechariah now turns from the general plan of salvation to the specific, and in particular to his newborn son. John would be a prophet of the Most High, and he would go on to prepare the way for the Lord, for one much greater than he. There is a general plan of salvation, a grand plan, but that plan is made up of individuals. We need to realise our own part in that plan. No one may write books about us, though that will happen to some, it may be a relatively small number of people whom you influence for God. And the world may not consider these people to be of any great importance, but all are important to the Lord.

1:77

The purpose of a prophet, of a preacher, of an evangelist is to give the people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins. Too often we focus on “salvation” neglecting the forgiveness of sins. John, Jesus and the apostles all preached repentance. Repentance is fundamental to the gospel. If there is no awareness of sin, no awareness of the need for forgiveness then there can be no appreciation of the gospel. We need to understand what salvation is and how it works.

The Joy of Being Forgiven - Sermon on Luke 7:36-50

A sermon on Luke 7:36-50, the joy of being forgiven

Luke 1:72-75 - Political and spiritual freedom

1:72,73

Israel requires God to show mercy, mercy for all the sin that Israel has committed throughout history. All this is done in the light of the covenant that God has made with Israel, and indeed with the whole world. In Genesis 12:23 God promises that all peoples, not just Israel, will be blessed through Abraham. The fundamental problem in the Bible is this. God has made a covenant with the people, but the people are all sinners, no one is worthy. How can this dichotomy be solved? It is only in Christ that the solution comes.

1:74,75

Again we have the idea of being rescued from our enemies, but this time with the added promise of being able to serve the Lord without fear, and in holiness and righteousness before Him. Now there is a fascinating mix here of political and spiritual freedom. The Israelites spent much of their time under domination, and have been victims of persecution, and much, much worse, at many times in their history. To be able to serve God without this fear is a very real blessing. Christians have in many places and at many times been persecuted, and have not been able to serve the Lord without fear. Now in the West though there is not violent persecution, our views on sexual morality in particular are increasingly becoming almost illegal.

Then there is the spiritual side. Anyone who genuinely seeks to do good, to serve God, becomes increasingly aware of their own sin, their own abject lack of “holiness and righteousness”. In Christ both the spiritual and political are dealt with, but the spiritual comes first. Israel wanted the political to come first, it is human nature to want the political, the circumstances, to change first. They wanted freedom from Rome, Jesus came first to bring us freedom from sin. In Christ we are made righteous, completely justified, and a work of sanctification begins in our lives. One day He will return and the old earth and heavens will pass away, the old order will go, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Political change will come, far more radical than any human revolution or mere change of government has ever brought. But it is Christ who brings this, not us. In the meantime we are in the days of people being set free spiritually, being set free from sin, and we are part of the means that God uses to bring that freedom to people. As we see a disintegrating world around us we are to make known the love of God, in Christ, to people. We do this through what we say and what we do.

Luke 1:68-71 - Benedictus

1:68,69

The song actually comprises of a single sentence in the original Greek, and is referred to as the Benedictus. As with the Magnificat, this comes from the first word of the song in Latin.

“He has visited and redeemed His people”. Through the Holy Spirit Zechariah realised what was happening. God has come to His people in order to redeem them. He is doing this by “raising up a horn of salvation”. Horn is a symbol of strength, and here refers to Jesus. Jesus is the One who will bring salvation. Humanly speaking, Jesus would come from the House of David. In these days when our society is increasingly anti-Christian we need to realise more and more that Jesus is the "horn of salvation", a strong saviour.

1:70,71

The promise of salvation permeates the whole of the Old Testament, even immediately after the fall (Gen 3:15). In Jesus that salvation comes to earth. V71 expresses things in rather political terms. The Israelites longed for freedom from the Romans, and tended to see salvation in these terms. Now we know that the salvation that Jesus brought was far greater than this, and that the blindness of most of the Jews to this fact was a large part of the problem, and led to their rejection of Jesus. However, we should also note that Israel has been hated by many nations throughout history, and is still hated by many nations. When Jesus comes back she will indeed be saved from the nations, but she needs to realise her own need of forgiveness first, only then can the “practical” salvation come.

Luke 1:64-67 - What is this child going to be?

1:64

As soon as Zechariah had confirmed that the boy was to be called John, his mouth was opened, and he began to speak praising God. One could see a picture here of our being set free from sin. Zechariah had refused to believe God, and so was struck dumb for a time. During that time he had clearly been meditating on what the angel had said. The point then came when he could express belief, and as soon as he did he was set free , and his response was to praise the Lord.

1:65,66

Being a priest, Zechariah would have been quite well known, and the manner of his becoming dumb would have been big news in the region, as would Elizabeth becoming pregnant. So when the child was born, and Zechariah could speak again, the news would be even greater. God was preparing the way, an atmosphere of expectation was being built up (see Luke 3:15). More specifically they were wondering who or what John was going to be. He was marked out as a special child.

1:67

Luke places a great emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit, both in Luke and in Acts, we have already seen several instances of this. Here we read that Zechariah was filled with the Spirit and prophesied. Prophecy is not just about predicting. In this song we see praising God for who He is, what he has done in the future, what He is doing now, and what He will do in the future. Prophecy comprises of all of this.

Luke 1:56-63 - He is to be called John!

1:56-58

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months, ie almost until the time of the birth of John. Elizabeth duly gave birth to a son. This impacted the neighbours and they all rejoiced with Elizabeth. This is a partial fulfilment of the promise in v14. In v25 Elizabeth had praised God for taking away her reproach. When God acts in our lives He restores our dignity. This does not mean we will never be mocked by society, there are plenty of verses promising persecution, but He does restore our dignity. The demoniac who was healed by Jesus is a prime example of this (Mark 5:1-20). Before he met Jesus the man was a wreck, in a pitifully sorry state. Afterwards he was “clothed and in his right mind”.

1:59-63

The custom was that the child would have been named after his father, so would have been called Zechariah. The baby was circumcised on the eighth day, and the naming would have taken place then. Zechariah had told Elizabeth that the child should be called John. When God intervenes in our lives there will be sometimes be an overriding of tradition or heritage. The people were surprised at the name change and went to check the matter out with Zechariah. Zechariah wrote down that the child should indeed be called John. This latter part may have been important for Zechariah, it gave him the chance to demonstrate his faith, to show that he believed what the angel had said to him.

Luke 1:51-55 - Filling the hungry

1:51,52

The converse of God looking after the humble is that He opposes the proud. We need to remind ourselves of this, for often, sometimes even in churches, it is the proud and boastful who seem to prosper. Pushing yourself forward seems to be the way to success. But God actively opposes the proud. In Acts one of the many Herods was struck dead by God because of his pride (Acts 12:23). By the way, never call a child Herod, all the Herod’s in the Bible seem to be evil. If you see someone who is proud you see someone who is heading for a fall. This is why we should be on our guard against pride in our own lives. If we spot it we need to get rid of it.

Mary has praised God for His acts of power. He brings down rulers. No empire has lasted forever. Again and again pride will take hold and the empire will then be heading for collapse.

1:53-55

We need to be careful in interpreting verses like 53. Clearly, there are still many hungry people in the world. But God works to feed the hungry, and He does so through people. When God moves by His Spirit in the church one of the effects will be an increased and active concern for the poor.  This verse can also be taken spiritually, ie referring to those who know their need of God. It is important that we recognise that we need to take it both ways, not one or the other. The Bible repeatedly states that God has a concern for the poor. The rich here means those who think they have no need of God. A person may think he has no need of God because he is rich materially and thinks he is therefore self-sufficient. Or he may be very religious and confident of his own righteousness. In either case, such a person will receive nothing from God until and unless they humble themselves.

In sending Christ God was helping His servant Israel, and Abraham’s descendants.

Luke 1:48-50 - Great things

1:48

A common statement throughout the Bible is that the Lord has regard for the humble. Jesus said blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth (Matt 5:5), echoing Psalm 37:11. Conversely, God opposes the proud (James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34). A humble person is one who puts their trust in God, knowing the limits of their own power and abilities. It is not someone who thinks themselves worthless and utterly useless (though there may be times when we feel like that). Rather we know the limits of the abilities we have, and that those we have come from God anyway. We recognise our dependence upon Him.

1:49

“For the Mighty One has done great things for me - holy is His Name”. So why does Mary glorify the Lord? Because He has done great things for her. Now what are these great things? In this case it is not answer to any specific prayer. From what we know it would appear that Mary had just been getting on with life, humbly trusting in the Lord. The great things are bringing Mary into His plans, and choosing her for such a purpose as bearing His Son. There can be a selfishness at times, eg God has made me rich, etc, and we rightly react against this. However, we must not go to the other extreme. The Bible is quite clear in that the greatness of God is shown again and again in what He does for His people.

1:50

The mercy of God goes freely to those who fear Him, and from one generation to the next. Fearing the Lord means knowing that He is the One who is Lord of All, who is sovereign over all. Knowing that our well-being depends ultimately upon the Lord. And knowing that He is just and that all, including ourselves, must give an account to Him. If we do fear Him, then we will receive mercy.

Luke 1:46,47 - Magnificat

1:46

1:46-55 is known as the Magnificat, this being the Latin word for glorifies. There are examples in the Old Testament of women giving songs of praise, Miriam (Ex 15:21), Hannah (1 Sam 2:1) and Deborah (Judges 5:1). Mary’s song bears closest resemblance to Hannah’s song.

Now remember that Elizabeth has just made her prophetic pronouncement (1:42-45), and perhaps Mary is now realising all the nore just what a momentous thing is happening to her.

“My soul glorifies the Lord”, this should be the goal of all of us. Man seeks to do God down, to pretend He doesn’t exist. We were created to glorify the Lord and will only find our true purpose and true joy when we do so.

1:47

But this glorifying of God isn’t a reluctant thing, it is not a drudge. When we glorify the Lord we will find that our spirit rejoices in God our saviour. We are to rejoice in the Lord. This is why the Westminster catechism states that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. In any and every situation we will do well to trust in the Lord, to turn to Him, to focus on Him.

Luke 1:39-45 - Blessed are you

1:39-41

Mary went to see Zechariah and Elizabeth. An incidental point to note here is the emphasis that Luke places on the role of women in all that happened. When Mary arrived at their house she greeted Elizabeth, and the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt. The immediate point of importance here is that the baby recognised Jesus. Back in v15 the angel had said that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born.

The second point is that this has profound implications for our understanding of life. A child in the womb is still a child, is still God’s creation. Our society’s thinking on abortion and related matters is completely wrong. We worry about Islamic terrorism, and justifiably so, but our secular societies in the west are responsible for many more deaths than Islamic terrorism has caused. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

1:42

The previous verse finished by saying that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, the significance of this is that what she said next was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth declares that Mary is blessed, and that the child she was carrying was blessed. Now we need to understand what blessed means. It most certainly does not mean a trouble free life, for Jesus’ life was definitely not trouble free. If we are blessed it means that we are part of God’s plans, He is working in us and through us to bring His plans about, and to bring blessing to others. This may well mean “good things” for us as well, may be in the short term, definitely in eternity, but we sometimes have a very superficial view of what it means to be blessed.

1:43-45

Elizabeth recognised that the child Mary was carrying was special, indeed was the Lord. It was the Holy Spirit who revealed this to Mary. Elizabeth considered herself favoured to be meeting the “mother of the Lord”. We should always rejoice when someone else is blessed. Elizabeth knew that Mary had believed the promises of the Lord, the words the angel had spoken to her. This may have been direct revelation from the Holy Spirit, or it may be that they had been talking to each other about their experiences and the Holy Spirit had enabled her to appreciate the full significance of it all. The text would seem to imply the former, but these accounts are condensed.

Luke 1:36-38 - I am the Lord's servant

1:36,37

The exact nature of the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth is not known. Given that Mary was betrothed it is likely she was quite young, and we know that Elizabeth was relatively old, at least in terms of having children, so may be Elizabeth was an aunt of Mary. The angel uses Elizabeth as an example to demonstrate the trustworthiness of God’s word. Elizabeth was unable to conceive, but God enabled her to do so. “For no word of God will ever fail”. We all do well to remember that, and we need to base our lives on God’s word, for His word is the only thing that is genuinely completely reliable. Indeed, we really are fools if we abandon God’s word and choose to follow the world’s “wisdom” instead.

1:38

Mary humbly submits to the Lord, placing herself in God’s hands. This is an attitude all of would do well to follow. The Lord loves us and is completely trustworthy. There is no safer place to be than in the hands of the Lord as His servant.

Luke 1:34,35 - Overshadowed

1:34

“How can this be since I am a virgin?”. Sometimes sceptics give the impression that 1st century people were ignorant and gullible. Well, they weren’t. They knew how babies were made and they knew what death was. In fact they had more contact with death than we have today. Mary’s question also implies that she took the angel’s words to mean that the promise was going to happen imminently.

1:35

The angel replies that the Holy Spirit would come on her, and the power of the Most High would overshadow her. The child would be the Son of God. Jesus was not born of the seed of Adam. Actually it is not necessarily the case that any egg cells of Mary were involved either. The conception of Jesus was a miraculous event. It certainly did not involve any man, and Scripture does not actually say it involved an egg cell from Mary. However, while the conception was miraculous, Jesus then developed and was born in the normal way. The true wonder here is not so much that there was a virgin birth, though that is miraculous, but that God should become incarnate. One aspect of the doctrine of the trinity that is particularly important here is that there are three distinct persons. He was still the Father when He became incarnate as the Son, and the Holy Spirit was still at work. The lazy view of the trinity is modalism, ie God acting in different modes. This view is incorrect, and most analogies that are used to try and describe the trinity actually describe modalism. Eg the water being ice, liquid and steam analogy. In summary, the doctrine of the trinity is:

• There is one God
• God exists eternally as three persons
• The three persons are co-equal and distinct

Luke 1:28-33 - Son of the Most High

1:28,29

The angel declares to Mary that she is “favoured”, and the the Lord is with her. Not surprisingly this rather troubled Mary. Life was just life, she had no reason to think that she was special. We have no idea what the Lord is going to do next, and the most wondrous things can spring from the most mundane of situations. Mary wanted to discern or understand what the angel was on about.

1:30,31

As with Zechariah, the angel told Mary not to be afraid. God had chosen her for a special purpose. Then Mary gets what was probably the shock of her life, the angel tells her she will conceive and give birth to a son. She was to call him Jesus, just as Zechariah was to name his son John.

1:32,33

This boy would be great and called Son of the Most High. He would be given the throne of his father David. So Jesus would be the king forever, the promised Messiah. Then the angel then goes on to say that Jesus would reign over Jacob’s descendants forever, and His kingdom would never end. There are unmistakable messianic reference here, especially to Isaiah. This was to be no ordinary baby, so it is fitting that he was not conceived in an ordinary way. Now imagine how all this would have sounded to Mary. First, becoming pregnant at all, and then the nature of the child she would have. Genesis 14:18-22 talks about “God Most High”, Melchizedek was said to be priest of God Most High.

Luke 1:26,27 - Thoughts on a virgin birth

1:26

Now we come to the birth of Jesus being foretold. It happened in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. The same angel, Gabriel, that spoke to Zechariah was sent to Mary who lived in Nazareth. Gabriel and Michael are the only angels in the Bible who are named. They both appear in Daniel (Dan 8:16; 9:21; 10:13,21; 12:1). Gabriel appears here in Luke, and Michael in Revelation (Rev 12:7).

1:27

We now come to the virgin birth. It is commonplace among atheists and sceptics to consider the virgin birth as just totally made up. This is not too surprising a reaction. More concerning is that a lot of Christians consider the virgin birth to be something of an optional extra or even an embarrassment.  I firmly believe in the virgin birth, above all because the Bible says that this is what happened (Matt 1:18,19; Luke 1:34,35). The objection that virgin births don’t happen is one of the weakest arguments there is against it. The Bible tells us that the Son of God was born of a virgin. Now if God is the creator of all things and the sustainer of all things, if He is the Lord Almighty, then a virgin birth should be well within His capabilities!

However, there is one point the sceptics make that does, on the face of it, seem to carry more weight.This is that the New Testament makes very little of the virgin birth. Only two of the gospels record it, and there is virtually no mention of it in the rest of the New Testament. This paucity of mention of the virgin birth supposedly gives credence to the view that it arose as a myth. I have been thinking about this argument and consider it to be totally false.

So let’s think about it a little. There are two key events in the New Testament that go completely against all human experience. One is the virgin birth, the other is the resurrection. The New Testament does indeed say little about the virgin birth, on the other hand the resurrection is absolutely central to everything the New Testament says, it is at the heart of the gospel. Why this difference?

Well consider this. Can I “prove” the virgin birth? No. The only grounds I have for supporting the virgin birth is that the Bible says this is what happened. I can argue that it is perfectly reasonable and consistent with the divinity of Jesus Christ. In fact I believe that a virgin birth is the only way that Jesus could have come into the world. But all these are just arguments, they are not proof as such. In the same way the early church could not prove the virgin birth. If it happened today then I suppose some DNA test might prove something, but it would be very interesting to see what God’s DNA is!

Now think about the resurrection. Yes I can still argue that it makes sense and is reasonable and consistent with everything else the New Testament says, and is indeed essential and the only way things could happen. But there is something else I can do, I can offer loads of evidences. Back in the first century the early church could offer even stronger evidence. The tomb was empty, neither the Jews nor the Roman authorities could produce a body or point to a non-empty tomb. Many people were direct witnesses to the risen Christ, and these witnesses could be questioned. Ie they could offer demonstrable evidence that the resurrection occurred, something they could not do with the virgin birth.

And that is why the New Testament is full of stuff about the resurrection, but says little about the virgin birth. Both are true, both are vital, but only one of them had evidence that could be presented to the world.

Getting back to the text, we read that Mary was betrothed to a man called Joseph, who was of the house of David. Betrothal was a legally binding state, much stronger than our nearest equivalent, engagement. Luke has carefully researched matters, and a key fact is that Joseph is a descendent of David. It is important that the human lineage of Jesus includes David.

Luke 1:21-25 -He has shown me favour

1:21,22

Outside the people were wondering what was going on, Zechariah taking a lot longer than one would expect. When eventually he did reappear they knew something was up and surmised that he had seen a vision of some sort. Zechariah was of course unable to speak, so resorted to using signs, but it seems that he was not able to communicate much.

1:23-25

Zechariah continued to serve out his time as a priest at the temple. The word of the Lord started to be fulfilled. His wife Elizabeth conceived and, for some reason or other, remained hidden. Why did she do this? We aren’t told, so anything is conjecture. Nor are we told just how old Zechariah and Elizabeth were. Perhaps she was fearful of losing the child, so did not want people to know that she was pregnant until she was absolutely certain that she would have a child. Coping with being childless was a heavy enough burden to bear. For the burden to seemingly be lifted  only to be let down again would be too much to cope with. We know that childlessness can be a difficult situation to deal with, in those days it was considered a disgrace as well. When the Lord acts it will involve the guilt and shame of people being taken away.

Luke 1:18-20 - Struck dumb

1:18-20

Not surprisingly Zechariah is rather surprised at this announcement, and he is rebuked for this, and struck dumb for several months. Later we will read of the angel giving similar news to Mary. She too questions the angel, saying “how will this be”, and she is not rebuked. Why the difference? I don’t think it is wise to be too dogmatic, and we have tendency to read into the text what we want to see, so anything I say is just a suggestion. The miracle in Mary’s case was much greater, for she was a virgin. Zechariah and Elizabeth were just childless and getting on. The general approach seems to be that Zechariah doubted, Mary wondered how it would come true, not so much if it would come true.

We should also note that the punishment was temporary. Zechariah was not cast off forever. Likewise, Moses was severely punished for his lack of faith, and not allowed to enter the Promised Land, but he was not cast off forever. He appeared with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. Sometimes God may seem to deal with us quite severely, this does not mean He has cast us off completely.

The angel’s answer to Zechariah is that he stands in the presence of God, so he is speaking God’s words so we had better believe it! In John’s gospel there is great emphasis on the fact that Jesus comes from heaven, sent by the Father. Jesus knows exactly what He is talking about. So we reject Jesus’ words at our peril.

Note that Zechariah’s doubt did not stop the word of God coming true.

Luke 1:15-17 - In the spirit and power of Elijah

1:15

There were instructions that Zechariah and Elizabeth must follow, namely John must brought up not to drink wine nor strong drink. This is reminiscent of the instructions for Nazarites (Numbers 6:1-3). He would also be filled with the Holy Spirit even in the womb. Now some might wonder how this could happen, especially before Pentecost. God worries far less about some things than we do. He can pour out His Spirit when and how He likes.

1:16,17

We now see the link between John and Elijah. Since the days of Malachi there had been a drought of the prophetic word, and at the end of Malachi (4:4-6) it speaks of Elijah coming and turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers. All this was to prepare the way for the Lord to come. Note that repentance prepares the way for the Lord. There needs to be a recognition of the error of our ways. It says John would go in the "spirit and power" of Elijah. Now John did not perform any miracles, unlike Elijah, What he did do was confront the people with their sin, and confront the powerful with their sin (at the cost of his life). God sometimes uses miracles to confirm His word, but His word is the main thing.

Postscript to Some thoughts on "Understanding Gender Dysphoria" by Mark Yarhouse

Yesterday I posted Some thoughts on "Understanding Gender Dysphoria" by Mark Yarhouse, I found the book rather troubling and my thoughts were generally critical. I was worried about this and have thought more about it since. Why was I so troubled? Was I been unfair? Was I failing to appreciate the complexities of the matter? It is impossible to to the latter after reading the book! Then I realised what it was I was looking for but not finding - the power of the gospel. Now I did mention this in the original post, but now let me illustrate it more clearly, by reference to another book and another person.

One of the best books on God and homosexuality is Is God anti-gay by Sam Allberry. Sam Allberry is same-sex attracted, but he holds firmly to the straightforward Biblical teaching on the subject. More importantly in the current context, what comes over from the book, and the times I have heard him speak, is a deep love for Jesus, an absolute commitment to Him, and a real joy in his salvation. Sam is part of Living Out (among many other things), and I have heard other members speak with same joy and commitment. When I have heard them speak I am both challenged and encouraged by them. So here there is no superficial approach to the matter of homosexuality, it doesn't necessarily magically go away, but I see the power and the joy of the gospel. 

Transgenderism is a very serious matter, very serious for individuals and very serious for society. We need as the church to be able to address the issue with the love, joy and power of the gospel, and I just didn't find that in Mark Yarhouse's book.

Luke 1:12-14 - Call him John

1:12,13

Not surprisingly Zechariah was afraid, a common reaction when seeing an angel! Equally common is for the angel to tell the person not to be afraid. God is awesome, and so are His angels, and there may be rare times in our lives when He gives us a glimpse of His awesomeness. In one sense we are right to be afraid, but in another there is no need for us to be so. The (super)natural order of things is that the dwelling of God is with men, and through Christ we have been justified so that this relationship can be restored. The Lord had heard Zechariah’s prayers for a son. Note that God both fulfills the desires of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and fulfills a much greater purpose, preparing the way for His Son. We can have complete confidence in God.

1:14

John would bring great joy and gladness to them, and his birth would bring a wider rejoicing. Of course, John’s life would not be easy, and he would eventually die for his faith. Since his parents were old they may well have been dead by that point. If this was the case then see God’s mercy in delaying them having a son, so they would not witness his death. Sometimes when God may seem to be “cruel” He is actually being very kind to us.

Some thoughts on "Understanding Gender Dysphoria" by Mark Yarhouse

I have just finished reading Understanding Gender Dysphoria by Mark Yarhouse. What follows are thoughts, reflections and reactions. This isn’t really a review of the book (there are several of these that can be readily found on the internet), nor are all the thoughts I express finalised, they are just a reaction to the book, with a number of concerns.
I have to say that I am so glad I have finished reading it, though I probably need to read it again at some point, but it was a most depressing read. He essentially does two things. On the one hand he gives much useful information and insight into gender dysphoria from a mental health/ social science perspective. In these terms the book is undoubtedly useful.  On the other hand he suggests there are three ways of looking at transgenderism.

• The integrity framework - essentially the Biblical viewpoint that God created us male and female
• The disability framework - a person experiencing gender dysphoria is suffering a disability and it is not their fault
• The identity framework - in simple terms the LGBT approach (I realise this is possibly an oversimplifying things).

Furthermore he suggests that what we need is some combination of all three, and this is where my concerns about the book start to come in. I have no problem with the first two being needed, but the identity framework strikes me as buying into the LGBT approach.
A lot of the book is concerned with describing gender dysphoria, then chapters 6 and 7 are entitled “towards a Christian response”. Chapter 6 is concerned with dealing with the individual, and Chapter 7 addressing the issue at the “institutional level”.  Chapter 7 is the most concerning and disappointing.  He contrasts a

Behave -> Believe -> Belong

approach with

Belong -> Believe -> Become

favouring the latter. However, neither of these approaches are Biblical. He points out the weaknesses of the first, and I would guess most evangelicals can see its weakness. The second approach is much more in vogue these days. However, if we look at the New Testament it is not the approach that Jesus took! He accepted all sorts of people (just as well, or you and I would not be included), but repentance was always a key part of things. The sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50 is an excellent example. She was probably a prostitute, Jesus welcomed her. But the key aspect of the story is that she knew she was forgiven.  Yarhouse seems to be too accepting of the LGBT “community” approach.
The book almost totally ignores the “LGBT agenda” aspect of transgenderism, ie its wider effects on society. These range from the breaking down of social norms that have served us well for thousands of years, and, most worryingly, the effect on our children (eg getting young children to doubt who and what they are).
My greatest concern is that the book has virtually nothing in terms of a Biblical perspective. There is nothing of the power of the gospel. Indeed, I am reminded of Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3:5 about “having a form of godliness, but denying its power”. It seems that so often in the church we are in such danger of falling into this category when dealing with such difficult issues as transgenderism.
We must avoid the condemnation route, for we will only end up condemning ourselves as well. But we need to know and to communicate the power of the gospel to the world, we may think we are communicating the love of the gospel, but if we deny its power then we are denying people the love of Christ.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on the book. The author does have an admirable concern for those experiencing gender dysphoria Some the criticisms may be a little harsh, if they are it is because they are motivated by a belief that there is far more power in the gospel than we realise, and what we need most of all is far greater appreciation of that power.

Note: I have since written a postscript to this article.

Luke 1:8-11 - An angel appeared

1:8-10

They actually had more priests than they really needed, so a sort of “squad-rotation” system operated to decide who was doing what at various times. The priests were also split into 24 divisions, hence the reference to Zechariah’s division being chosen. During one of the periods when Zechariah’s division was operating, Zechariah was chosen by lot to go into the temple. The duty was to keep the incense burning in the temple. This was done before the morning sacrifice, and after the evening sacrifice (Ex 30:6-8). During the burning of incense the worshipers were praying. The use of casting lots was quite common in the Bible, and the disciples used it to choose a replacement for Judas Iscariot. The casting of lots was seen to put the matter into God’s hands (Acts 1:24-26).

As an aside, this has interesting implications for those who argue against the possibility of God using any process, in particular evolutionary processes, which involve randomness. Evidently the people of the Bible don’t consider this to be a problem! By the way, I am not a proponent of evolution, I have written an article related to this issue here.

1:11

While Zechariah was carrying out his duties an angel of the Lord appeared. Angels appear periodically in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. It is worth noting that God decides when angels appear, it is not at the behest of men. Having a wrong view of angels was a problem encountered in the church, eg the beginning of Hebrews deals with this, and Paul mentions it as well. Supernatural things can happen as we go about our normal daily activities.

Luke 1:5-7 - Righteous and childless

1:5,6

There were quite a few Herods around in New Testament times! This one is Herod the Great who reigned 37-4 BC. Here we are probably talking of 7-6 BC. Both Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, were from priestly families. “They were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly”. Now this should teach us that a “literal” interpretation of the Bible requires us to exercise some common sense. Luke is not saying that they were perfect. What he is saying is that the origins of Jesus was based in good Judaism.  We will come to Jesus’ own human origins shortly, here we are concerned with John who prepared the way for Jesus. Neither of them were “failed Jews”, or rebellious Jews, just as Paul was by no means a failed Jew. Christianity is not the result of rebellion against Judaism and the Law, but is the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets. Zechariah and his wife were faithful adherents of the Law.

1:7

However, Zechariah and Elizabeth were childless. Many key people in the Bible were children of couples who were childless until God “opened” the wife’s womb. So we see some important points. Childlessness is not necessarily a sign of God’s judgement, many servants of God were childless. Indeed Luke has just said that Elizabeth was a devout woman. Secondly, we see that the giving of children is a gift from God. God is in ultimate control of life and the giving of life, both natural and spiritual.

Finally, many key people were children of couples who had trouble conceiving. If there is difficulty in our lives it does not necessarily mean that God has something against us. But in all situations, the grace of God can overcome and the most amazing things can happen.

Luke 1:3,4 - A careful investigation

1:3

Luke decided to write his own account. Why did he do this? Was there something lacking in the other accounts? Luke is probably not criticising the other accounts. Rather I suspect he was seeking to bring various strands of information together into an orderly account. Others perhaps had snippets of information here and there. Luke wanted to write a complete and orderly account from the very beginning, and Luke’s gospel is the most complete account. “Most Excellent Theophilus” indicates the Theophilus was a person of good social standing,or an official. Luke does emphasise the interaction of Jesus with outcasts and others regarded as second-rate by society. This is important, but we also need to have a balance. Luke also gives emphasis, both here and in Acts, to “middle-class” people.

1:4

The purpose was to confirm the faith of Theophilus. Atheists are very fond of talking of faith as if it exists with no regard for facts or reality. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible, and especially the gospel, is founded on facts, much of it is verifiable. Theophilus had been taught various things, there things were not made up, they were not the invention of men’s minds. Rather they were reports of who Jesus was, what He had done, and what He taught. It was all based on truth.

Luke 1:1,2 - Eyewitnesses

1:1

It was common in those times for historical works to begin by declaring their purpose and the recipient. “Many have undertaken ...” There were many people who wrote accounts of of some sort of what Jesus had done. It should be noted that none of these were the “other gospels” you sometimes hear about in news articles. The “other gospels” were written in the 2nd or 3rd century and were not gospels at all.

Note that Luke talks about “things that have been fulfilled”. The life of Jesus and the events of Acts are the fulfillment of many aspects of God’s plan. The gospel is about God acting in history.

1:2

These things were handed down by the first eye-witnesses, ie the apostles. They were also servants of the word. “Handed down” implies authoritative passing on of information. So Luke’s account is based on first hand accounts. The apostles were “servants of the word”. God has spoken, as the writer of Hebrews says (11:2), by His Son. The apostles were servants of God’s word, we too need to be servants of the Word. If someone is in the church and then starts teaching things that are contrary to God's words, then such a person should not imagine that they are any longer a servant of Christ.