Local Atheist or Modern Pharisee — Who Is the Greater Threat?

00:00:00.000 | Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:00:06.720 | We are going to close out the week with an email from a listener named David.

00:00:09.920 | "Hello Pastor John.

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

00:00:22.280 | him.

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

00:01:27.520 | in opposition to the gospel.

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

00:01:43.280 | of religion, including the churches.

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

00:02:27.280 | where the spear of truth was pointed.

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,

00:02:40.040 | then we'll get to the Greeks very quickly.

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

00:03:17.040 | the implication?

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

00:04:03.480 | in the church than on the street."

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

00:06:23.100 | gospel and eagerness to hear the truth.

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.

00:06:36.820 | It will come from unbelief.

00:06:38.900 | It will come from sin.

00:06:41.140 | It will come in the church.

00:06:43.060 | It will come in the world.

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.

00:07:00.220 | Amen.

00:07:01.220 | That is hopeful and full of faith in the power of God.

00:07:04.460 | Thank you, Pastor John.

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

00:07:19.500 | of faith.

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

00:07:37.740 | within herself.

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.

00:07:48.260 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:07:49.260 | We'll see you then.

00:07:49.780 | [END]

00:07:50.280 | Desiring God.org/AskPastorJohn

00:07:54.280 | Page 1 of 11

Local Atheist or Modern Pharisee — Who Is the Greater Threat?

Chapters