back to indexLocal Atheist or Modern Pharisee — Who Is the Greater Threat?
Chapters
0:0 Intro
0:36 The Point of Greatest Conflict
7:0 Outro
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We are going to close out the week with an email from a listener named David. 00:00:11.560 |
Up until his crucifixion, Jesus faced more opposition from the Pharisees and others with 00:00:16.840 |
an unhealthy religious spirit than he did from the Romans and the secular society around 00:00:23.280 |
Do you believe that in a similar way the greatest opposition to God's kingdom today comes from 00:00:27.560 |
within the church or within the religious world more so than the secular world?" 00:00:33.160 |
Pastor John, how would you answer this question? 00:00:36.520 |
I think the best way to answer that question is to say that the point of greatest conflict 00:00:46.520 |
with the advance of God's saving rule, God's kingdom, is not the church or the world, but 00:00:55.320 |
rather to say that the point of greatest conflict with the advance of God's rule will always 00:01:03.440 |
be the very place where the point of the spear of truth is penetrating the sphere of unbelief 00:01:13.360 |
and unrighteousness and intruding upon the dominion of darkness. 00:01:18.880 |
In other words, there's nothing peculiar about religion or irreligion that makes it stand 00:01:29.920 |
What always stands in opposition to the gospel is sin and its root in unbelief. 00:01:36.960 |
And that unbelief and that sin may be found in the world and it may be found in the institutions 00:01:47.240 |
So the reason the gospels tell the story of Jesus in a way that shows how much conflict 00:01:57.280 |
there was with the Jewish religious establishment, which were embodied in the scribes and Pharisees 00:02:05.780 |
and chief priests, is not because they were less receptive than the Romans to the message 00:02:15.360 |
of Jesus, but because Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 00:02:21.400 |
In other words, the reason there was such resistance from the Pharisees is because that's 00:02:30.560 |
Jesus wasn't doing any evangelism among the Greeks and Romans. 00:02:35.120 |
He was doing evangelism among his own people, because that's what God said to the Jew first, 00:02:43.720 |
We get a pretty clear glimpse of the reception that Jesus would have had if he had focused 00:02:52.120 |
on the Romans by looking at Pilate and Herod, who became very good friends when they were 00:02:59.640 |
formerly enemies in their common animosity to Jesus. 00:03:05.400 |
And it was, as everybody knows, on a Roman cross where Jesus died. 00:03:11.960 |
So the implication of what I'm saying is this, because that's what I've been asked, what's 00:03:18.440 |
The implication is if the true radical, whole counsel of God's revelation begins to penetrate 00:03:26.440 |
a church that is full of worldliness and unspirituality and nominalism, with no passion for the gospel, 00:03:35.240 |
no zeal for the lost, no heart for missions, no brokenness because of its own sinfulness, 00:03:41.000 |
no fervor in worship, no love for the scriptures, if the true radical, whole counsel of God's 00:03:49.480 |
revelation begins to penetrate that church, there's going to be plenty of opposition. 00:03:56.800 |
And it might feel to a faithful pastor as though, "Good grief, I'm getting more opposition 00:04:07.360 |
On the other hand, if that radical, true, whole counsel of God's revelation is proclaimed 00:04:14.640 |
in a secular venue, like a university classroom or a businessman's gathering or a PTA meeting 00:04:21.320 |
or a non-Christian religious venue like a mosque or a Hindu temple in Minneapolis, say, 00:04:26.920 |
if that true, radical, whole counsel of God's revelation is proclaimed with conviction in 00:04:34.240 |
those non-Christian settings, there will be plenty of opposition. 00:04:41.220 |
So I doubt that we should have a mindset that says, "More opposition is going to come from 00:04:50.080 |
the church," or, "More opposition is going to come from the world." 00:04:56.220 |
Opposition is going to come from sin and unbelief wherever it is found to the degree that our 00:05:06.840 |
message is true and radical and full and faithful to the whole counsel of God in Scripture. 00:05:14.220 |
So I think the final implication then would be this. 00:05:19.980 |
Let's not fret about who our worst enemies are. 00:05:25.860 |
Let's look upon every person and every group as a group who needs the gospel, church or 00:05:34.100 |
non-church, and let's make it our aim to penetrate the darkness of unbelief and sin by the faithfulness 00:05:45.160 |
of our preaching and our witnessing, whether in church or in the world. 00:05:50.860 |
And it may be, it may be that in God's power and His mercy, He would cause a nominal church 00:06:00.180 |
to explode, not with opposition, but with awakening and reformation and joyful renewal. 00:06:09.580 |
And it may be that in our neighborhood or in our other non-religious connections, God 00:06:15.780 |
would be pleased by His power and mercy to bring about a stunning sensitivity to the 00:06:25.500 |
So let's never talk ourselves into defeat in either case, as though we knew where opposition 00:06:33.660 |
were coming from and where it's going to be more prevalent. 00:06:45.420 |
But the gospel is the power of God unto salvation in the church and in the world. 00:06:53.700 |
And you never know, you never know what triumphs may lie ahead. 00:07:01.220 |
That is hopeful and full of faith in the power of God. 00:07:06.980 |
Well, we publish this podcast three times a week, and you can subscribe to our audio 00:07:11.220 |
feeds and search our episode archive, and even reach us by email with a question you 00:07:15.060 |
may be having about the dangers and pressures that we face as Christians along the path 00:07:20.500 |
You can do all that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. 00:07:23.500 |
Well, we're going to break for the weekend now. 00:07:28.580 |
And when we return on Monday, we have a question from a female listener to the podcast who 00:07:31.780 |
is single, and she wants to know if her singleness, her ongoing singleness is pointing to a deficiency 00:07:38.740 |
It's a deep question rooted in deep insecurities, and it's an important question that we will 00:07:44.380 |
address on Monday with longtime author and pastor John Piper.