How Have You Processed the Sin of Ravi Zacharias?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.500 | Our first email arrived on October 3rd from Marcus in Los Angeles, and since, over the
00:00:09.580 | past eight months, another 100 emails followed, all of them asking about the Ravi Zacharias
00:00:15.660 | sex scandal.
00:00:17.640 | Our emails can be basically boiled down into three questions.
00:00:20.940 | "Professor John, how are you processing the tragedy yourself?"
00:00:24.540 | "How should we think of his ministry legacy now?"
00:00:28.780 | And "What would you say to those who are shaped deeply or were even converted through
00:00:32.620 | his influence?"
00:00:35.700 | So even though your two ministries didn't overlap much, you got a lot of emails about
00:00:40.540 | this, like this one, a representative email from a listener named Jonah.
00:00:44.700 | "Hello Pastor John, with the substantiated allegations of sexual immorality in the life
00:00:48.840 | of Ravi Zacharias, how should we process it and respond to it?
00:00:52.740 | The initial impulse seems to be to delete him, to ignore him, and to never talk about
00:00:57.660 | him again.
00:00:58.980 | But that's not what we do with David, a man after God's own heart who infamously
00:01:02.940 | committed sins of lust and adultery leading to pregnancy, deception, and murder.
00:01:09.620 | David is a man of great faith we talk about and celebrate today despite his serious sins.
00:01:14.780 | Is it wrong to defend contemporary spiritual leaders in spite of their sexual sin?
00:01:20.460 | Does the death of a teacher factor into this decision, as in, would it be more dangerous
00:01:24.540 | to defend a living teacher susceptible to greater failures?
00:01:28.300 | Also, I know a number of people who have come to faith because of Ravi.
00:01:33.820 | What would you say to encourage a believer now enduring the trial of having their spiritual
00:01:37.620 | father torn down because of his own sin?"
00:01:41.860 | Well, let me begin with perhaps a word about why I would be so slow to speak.
00:01:50.940 | One of the reasons is wanting to know everything I should know, and the other is I just cannot
00:01:56.940 | imagine the sorrow that family members and very close associates must feel.
00:02:06.460 | And for people to publicly assess and criticize a husband, a father, a very long-term friend
00:02:16.180 | must be horrible.
00:02:18.340 | And so now I'm going to be a part of that.
00:02:21.100 | And so I get it.
00:02:22.460 | I mean, I just think the person is right to ask this question.
00:02:27.180 | Those hundred people are right to ask, "Okay, Piper, you knew him.
00:02:31.780 | How are you responding in your heart and mind to this?"
00:02:36.340 | So here we go.
00:02:37.340 | Let me begin with some biblical background of gospel ministers who for a season spoke
00:02:44.780 | the truth in useful ways and then made shipwreck of their lives and indeed their faith.
00:02:52.140 | These illustrations that I'm using from the Bible, I'm thinking here of Judas, Demas,
00:02:57.420 | and Hymenaeus, all of whom are explicitly named by Jesus and Paul.
00:03:04.380 | According to John 12, verse 4, Judas was very critical of Mary's anointing Jesus' feet
00:03:11.900 | with an expensive perfume, and he said, "Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii
00:03:19.540 | and given to the poor?"
00:03:21.140 | And John comments, he said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was
00:03:24.940 | a thief, and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself from what was put
00:03:30.060 | into it.
00:03:31.060 | So in other words, for a long time, three years, say, Judas was abusing the Lord's
00:03:36.980 | trust by stealing what others had given to the ministry, and I assume that during all
00:03:43.260 | this time, he was preaching the gospel of the kingdom, that he was sent out two by two
00:03:50.260 | with others, that he worked miracles, that he enjoyed the most intimate conversations
00:03:56.420 | with the Son of God, Jesus Christ, all the while being a son of perdition.
00:04:01.460 | John 17, 12.
00:04:03.620 | This deception was so exceptional that none of the other 12 even suspected him of sedition
00:04:12.540 | and betrayal, because they were stunned at the Last Supper when Jesus said, "It's
00:04:18.700 | one of you who's going to betray me."
00:04:20.220 | They didn't all look at Judas and say, "Whoa, of course it's Judas."
00:04:24.620 | He was a master of deceit.
00:04:27.260 | And what if, among the many people who were converted into followers of Jesus, some of
00:04:33.420 | them had been healed by Judas and had responded to his preaching with faith in Jesus, which
00:04:40.780 | was—his preaching was so orthodox, so apparently authentic.
00:04:45.580 | No apostles were looking at him saying, "Well, Judas never gets it right."
00:04:50.500 | They weren't.
00:04:51.500 | He was getting it right.
00:04:52.500 | He was preaching the truth.
00:04:54.460 | And lest anyone think that a phony apostle can't do miracles, remember the words of
00:04:59.380 | Jesus in Matthew 7, 22, "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not
00:05:04.300 | prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your
00:05:08.860 | name?'
00:05:09.940 | And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you.
00:05:14.420 | Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"
00:05:16.660 | And those works of lawlessness would, of course, include things like pervasive deception, greedy,
00:05:25.060 | lavish use of ministry funds, harmful manipulation of other people for your own private pleasures,
00:05:32.500 | adulterous dalliances, continually making provision for the flesh against the explicit
00:05:38.460 | command of the apostle in Romans 13.
00:05:42.140 | And then there's Demas.
00:05:43.780 | Twice we hear from Paul that he is a faithful partner in gospel work alongside Paul.
00:05:49.860 | Colossians 4, 14, "Luke, the beloved physician, greets you, so does Demas, greets you."
00:05:56.780 | Philemon 1, 23, "Epiphras greets you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke,
00:06:04.540 | my fellow workers."
00:06:07.740 | Demas is ranked as a fellow worker in the gospel alongside Luke of all people.
00:06:15.180 | And then in his last letter, 2 Timothy 4, 10, come these horrible words, "Demas, in
00:06:23.020 | love with this present age, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica."
00:06:29.500 | So it appears that for several years, Demas was a trusted gospel partner with Paul, just
00:06:37.420 | like Judas was with Jesus.
00:06:40.240 | During that time, there's no reason to think that he didn't preach the gospel truly and
00:06:45.100 | that people came to faith along with faith through Paul's preaching.
00:06:50.580 | Otherwise Paul would have sent him home like he did John Mark.
00:06:54.420 | You go home, you're not ready, Demas, and he never did that.
00:06:59.660 | But there came a time when Demas' true colors were revealed, namely what he really loved.
00:07:07.500 | It was not true spiritual reality, but only what this age was offering him through religious
00:07:18.500 | work—things like association with notable people, access to money, experiences of power,
00:07:26.580 | accolades for eloquence, commendations for courage.
00:07:32.140 | There are plenty of worldly pleasures to be had doing so-called otherworldly work.
00:07:41.540 | But Demas decided to stop playing the game and he abandoned Paul.
00:07:47.580 | And then thirdly, there's Hymenaeus.
00:07:50.740 | In 1 Timothy 1, 20, Paul says to Timothy, "Wage the good warfare, holding faith with
00:07:59.700 | a good conscience."
00:08:01.860 | I'm underlining that.
00:08:03.620 | With a good conscience.
00:08:05.340 | By rejecting this, namely, faith with a good conscience.
00:08:10.820 | "Some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom
00:08:18.100 | I have handed over to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme."
00:08:22.660 | They appeared to have faith.
00:08:24.420 | Well, what happened?
00:08:26.340 | They did not hold faith in a good conscience.
00:08:30.220 | What does that mean?
00:08:31.820 | It means that over time, they began to do things for which their conscience condemned
00:08:38.900 | them.
00:08:39.900 | But instead of repenting, they found ways to dull their conscience until their conscience
00:08:46.900 | was so seared that they could justify behaviors which were simply appalling, even to the point
00:08:54.300 | where Paul said they made shipwreck of their faith.
00:08:57.220 | A double life lived contrary to the Christian conscience is a shipwreck about to happen.
00:09:05.820 | So the lessons from Judas, Demas, and Hymenaeus are many.
00:09:10.700 | Here's three.
00:09:12.460 | One, soul-saving, Christ-exalting truth may be spoken by hypocrites.
00:09:20.740 | Two, forsaking a good conscience is prelude to moral disaster.
00:09:27.980 | Three, the amassing of money and the pursuit of lavish lifestyles in ministry are the alarm
00:09:35.660 | bells of the love of this age.
00:09:39.060 | Now let me make two observations specifically about Ravi in particular.
00:09:45.340 | First, Ravi's way of publicly narrating his past personal experiences really troubled
00:09:55.900 | me.
00:09:58.780 | I always found him difficult to listen to for that very reason.
00:10:06.300 | His rhetorical style was very distinct in this regard.
00:10:11.940 | Go to listen to any of his sermons, you'll hear it.
00:10:14.920 | He would recall an encounter with someone, and then he would proceed to narrate the interchange
00:10:23.940 | with exact quotations, "So-and-so said this," and then "I said this," and then "So-and-so
00:10:31.780 | responded with this."
00:10:34.180 | And I don't recall him cautioning the audience that, "Actually, these are approximations
00:10:41.220 | at best of my memory," and what was actually said.
00:10:46.160 | I don't like that kind of pretense of precision in remembered narration.
00:10:51.620 | It sounded careless to me at best and dishonest at worst.
00:10:58.780 | At any rate, it really made me uncomfortable, and looking back, I can't help but wonder
00:11:05.860 | if it was a symptom of looseness with truth about his experience.
00:11:13.260 | Here's a second observation, and it's way more important than what I just said.
00:11:18.980 | There's a lesson to be learned from Ravi's manipulation of people, a lesson to be learned
00:11:27.500 | about the need for tethered sympathy.
00:11:31.660 | And what I mean is this, every time sympathy is called for, it needs to be tethered to
00:11:39.500 | the truth so that it is given lavishly.
00:11:45.060 | Sympathy is given lavishly when the truth calls for it and is withheld when the truth
00:11:53.000 | clashes with it.
00:11:55.420 | And we usually think of this issue of tethered sympathy with regard to the victims of abuse
00:12:02.660 | who finally step forward at great risk and tell the truth.
00:12:06.780 | And at that moment, it can be very controversial to say that there should be tethered sympathy,
00:12:12.580 | sympathy that abounds and blesses and helps and heals in accord with truth.
00:12:18.780 | But it seems to me there is another lesson to be learned, namely a lesson about the value
00:12:25.300 | of tethered sympathy upstream from the crisis of revealed abuse, namely the point at which
00:12:36.100 | the abuse was happening.
00:12:39.380 | How did Ravi manipulate people into sinfully sending him nude pictures?
00:12:47.380 | How did he manipulate people into sinfully providing him with sexual stimulation?
00:12:54.020 | He did it by demanding untethered sympathy.
00:12:59.220 | He portrayed himself as an embattled, burdened, wounded warrior in the righteous cause of
00:13:06.940 | the gospel.
00:13:08.780 | And ironically, he turned his position of power into a form of neediness and woundedness.
00:13:17.780 | And then he tried to coerce untethered sympathy under the guise of calling for kingdom therapy
00:13:26.100 | for the wounded warrior.
00:13:28.220 | Now I have seen this kind of manipulation, Tony.
00:13:31.260 | I have seen this kind of demand and manipulation for untethered sympathy repeatedly among fallen
00:13:40.620 | Christian leaders.
00:13:42.280 | The burdens are so great.
00:13:44.300 | The wounds are so many.
00:13:46.500 | Those who understand me are so few.
00:13:49.260 | The weight of faithful ministry, oh, it is so great.
00:13:52.420 | I deserve some relief.
00:13:54.980 | Have some sympathy on this poor, wounded warrior.
00:13:58.460 | Empathize with your embattled hero.
00:14:00.820 | I need your body if I'm to carry on in the Lord's work.
00:14:06.860 | To which the administrative assistant or the old college flame or the teenage boy in the
00:14:13.820 | locker room should say, "That's disgusting.
00:14:18.700 | Don't ever talk to me like that again."
00:14:20.900 | My sympathy is not for sale.
00:14:23.460 | It's tethered to truth and righteousness.
00:14:27.140 | And I think the last thing I would say to those who came to Christ under Ravi's ministry
00:14:36.460 | or who had their faith mightily strengthened by what he taught is this.
00:14:44.740 | Don't let the imperfections and failures of men turn you away from the perfections and
00:14:53.700 | the triumphs of Christ, who will never, never fail you.
00:14:59.020 | Amen and amen.
00:15:00.580 | Christ does not fail us.
00:15:01.580 | Thank you, Pastor John, for your willingness to address this uncomfortable topic.
00:15:06.060 | And thank you to the hundred or so listeners who emailed, and thank you for your patience
00:15:09.860 | in waiting for the right time for us to address it.
00:15:12.660 | Thank you for joining us today.
00:15:14.020 | You can ask a question of your own, search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast,
00:15:17.580 | all at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:15:22.100 | And thank you for listening to this special episode of the podcast.
00:15:24.700 | We'll see you next time.
00:15:25.940 | [END]
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