From the Shepherd's Heart...Friday, October 16, 2020

Here is a great word from a few years ago by Pastor John Piper:

“Christianity was born in a world of totalitarianism. For 300 years there was no legal legitimacy or protection for Christianity. To convert from one of the pagan religions and say Jesus is Lord was to risk your life. This was not strange. This was the world in which the New Testament was written. It would be a mistake to reel back on our heels as if good old white Protestant America has taken a blow on the chin. Rather, Christians should think that God is designing a situation like the first three centuries in the Roman Empire where Christianity took root and spread so dramatically. There was no Christian consensus and no reigning Judeo-Christian ethic. There was no most-favored religion status. There were, in fact, no guaranteed rights for Christians nor any constitutional freedoms. There were no common categories of monotheism or sin or eternity that Christian witnesses could assume. There was no TV, or radio, or internet.

“Instead there was pervasive pluralism with many gods and philosophies. In this pervasive pluralism, Christians came not primarily with a new idea to think about, but with news of something that had happened. It was relentlessly objective and historical and particular – and therefore absolute and offensive in its claim on people’s lives. God had sent his Son into the world to die for sins. He had lived in Palestine and had taught for a few years, and had been killed like a criminal, though innocent, and had risen from the dead to show that his death was a ran­som for sin, and had ascended into heaven where he rules the world until the time when he will come and establish his king­dom for all those who have put their life in his hands. It was a shocking message. Nothing like it had ever been spoken or heard before.

“In this process they had a lot of explaining to do. There is a God. There is truth. There is sin. There is wrath and judgment. There is love and redemption. There is Jesus and the Holy Spirit. There is faith. There is heaven and hell. Is it any wonder that when Paul evangelized the great pagan center of Ephesus, he spent two years teaching for (possibly) five hours a day (Acts 19:9-10)? There was so much to explain.

“Today God has a great work for us to do. We are his witnesses. Don’t be daunted by the developments of pluralism. Ask for the wisdom and the boldness and the love that drove the early believers and gave them such amazing triumphs. Don’t bemoan the disappearance of a lightly Christianized America. Rejoice that the Word of God has run and triumphed before (2 Thessalonians 3:1) in the very situation we find ourselves today. “`You are my witnesses,’ declares the LORD.” And he does not send his witnesses in vain.”