The Holiness of God with R. C. Sproul, The Holiness of Christ 6

Hostility Toward Christians and the Rarity of Criticism of Jesus

I spoke with a gentleman the other day who had delivered a message on a college campus, and in the midst of his address he was heckled by hostile students. He was talking about Christ, and in the midst of his speech somebody hollered out, Who cares?

And he went on to explain to me, he said, the audience was hostile, and that more and more it seems that there's a growing hostility in our nation towards the Christian faith and a growing sense of militancy from pro-christian and anti-christian forces.

We were just talking about that during the break, and on some occasions I think the unbelievers in this country are deeply afraid that militant Christians are going to try to force religious adherences through law and so on on unbelievers, and they're justifiably afraid of that.

I try to remind my brothers and sisters that the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States protects the non-christian as much as it protects the Christian, and we need to be very, very careful about that.

But there is this often sense of anguish and hostility directed against Christians, against ministers, theologians, televangelists, and so on, but in the midst of all of that what I find exceedingly rare is someone who publicly will criticize the integrity of Jesus.

I think, for example, of a comment that George Bernard Shaw once made where he was being critical of Jesus. He was not a Christian, and Shaw said of Jesus when he criticized his behavior, he said there were times when Jesus did not behave as a Christian.

I thought there was some irony in that, that when George Bernard Shaw wanted to criticize Jesus he could think of no higher moral standard by which to criticize Him than the standard of Christ Himself.

Why Jesus Provokes Love and Hostility

And as I said, when I find pockets of real hostility directed against me, against the church, against the history of Christian influence, nevertheless there's a kind of restraint about Jesus that of all the human beings who've ever lived, I doubt if there's ever been a human being who has engendered more universal respect for His integrity than Jesus of Nazareth.

In fact, the world is so complimentary about Jesus, the question I am left with is why, if He was such a wonderful person and so loving and kind and compassionate ministering to all kinds of sick people and outcasts and so on, Mother Teresa of His own generation and then some, why was He killed?

Not only was He executed, but the masses were clamoring for His blood. What was it about Jesus of Nazareth that inflamed people's passions either for Him or against Him? I'd like to read a passage from Mark's Gospel that I think begins to get at this particular question.

The fourth chapter of Mark's Gospel, beginning at verse 35, we read this. Now that day when evening came, He said to His disciples, let us go over to the other side. And leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along just as He was in the boat.

Jesus Calms the Storm on the Sea of Galilee

And there were also other boats with Him, and a furious storm came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped, and Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. Do you get the picture?

This is taking place on the Sea of Galilee, which is a rather anomalous topographical phenomenon in Palestine because of the wind tunnel that exists between the desert in Transjordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

So that what happens in this geographical situation is a sort of wind tunnel is aimed at the Sea of Galilee, and storms of violent proportion can arise without any warning whatsoever on that lake. In fact, I was over there a couple of years ago and took an excursion cruise across the Sea of Galilee in the most modern nautical equipment, and the contemporary sailors were telling us that they still live in mortal fear of these rare storms that occur even now over there.

Well here the disciples were seasoned fishermen. They had been out on that lake a thousand times, and one of these violent tempests break out in the middle of the night, and the waves are in gigantic proportions.

The wind is howling, and at every second the boat is in imminent danger of capsizing and killing the fishermen. And all the while Jesus is sleeping in the boat. I hate people like that. I've seen them on airplanes.

I've been on airplanes where the stewardesses were screaming in panic, where the plane was dropping a thousand feet at a time in violent turbulence, and the guy next to me is sound asleep, and I want to shake him and say, what are you a Calvinist or something?

What's the matter with you? Don't you realize that we're about ready to crash at any moment, but these people can just have this calm, tranquil spirit sleep through anything. Well this is Jesus, sound asleep in the back of the boat.

Now the Bible says something fascinating here. It says that the disciples were afraid. Now there's nothing particularly fascinating about that, but I want to apply that to something. When I was teaching in the seminary in Philadelphia years ago, I taught a course on academic atheism, where the students were required to read the primary sources, the writings of the most articulate atheists of Western history.

I made the students read the objections of David Hume and of John Stuart Mill. I made the students read the works of Nietzsche and of Ludwig Feuerbach. I made the students read the critique that Marx gave against Christian theism and of Kauffman and others, Sartre and Camus, and we did these readings, and we found that the atheists, particularly of the nineteenth and the twentieth century, were trying to answer this question.

We know, they said, that there is no God, but the problem that still vexes us is that in spite of the fact that we're convinced that there is no God, why is it that mankind seems to be incurably homo religiosus?

That is, why is it that everywhere we go, we find people devoting themselves to the pursuit of religion? Madeleine Murray answered that question. She said, it's because the masses simply are given to superstition, and they're not thinking critically about this thing, and we just need to educate people further.

But people like Freud and Marx and Feuerbach and Nietzsche wanted a more sound explanation, and so to a man they agreed on this, that religion emerges historically out of the psychological needs of people, out of man's human frailty.

The one thing that we all share is our mortality, and so as Freud suggested and Marx seconded the notion was that every human being has a built-in fear of natural forces that threaten our very lives.

Freud, Marx, and the Psychological Origin of Religion

And what happened historically was that people began to invent religions where the first step in the evolutionary process was to impose the idea of a living soul inside these forces, so that there was a God in the storm, a God in the earthquake, a God in the pestilence.

Freud said the first step was the personalization of nature. Why? Very, very fascinating theory. The idea is this, that there are all kinds of things out there, ladies and gentlemen, that threaten my existence.

Cancer, fire, flood, war, other people. But I have learned as a human being how to survive, at least this far, the hostility of other people. When you come at me and you're gritting your teeth and you're angry and other, or you're reaching for a gun, I've learned how to deal with that.

I can, if you're angry with me, I can beg for mercy, or I can compliment you and say, you don't want to shoot me. After all, I'm the president of your fan club, you know. I mean, hey, I love you and all that stuff.

Or I can try to bribe you. I can say, look, if you'll spare me, half my kingdom is mine, is yours, and so on. We learn these little devices of how to short-circuit personal attacks against us. But the question Freud was asking is this, how does one negotiate with a hurricane or a flood?

You can't plead with a storm. You can't bribe an earthquake. You can't flatter cancer and make it go away. These are impersonal, non-personal forces that threaten to destroy us, and so Freud said what we do is we project onto nature personal characteristics so that we can talk to the storm, and pretty soon we sacralize nature.

That is, now we talk about these deities who are in these forces, or above in a simplified version is monotheism where you just have to talk to one God about all of these problems. And so if you worship God and honor God and pay your tithes and send in your check and do all that thing, then God, who's powerful enough over the storm, will protect you from all of these problems.

You've seen the incidents in television ministries where the emphasis on prosperity now and health and everything. God always wills these things, and we hear this concept, name it and claim it, that all you have to do to experience prosperity and healing at all times is to name it and trust in it and believe in it, and God will deliver these things.

I was playing golf with a man here in Texas the last time I was in town. He was having a miserable time. For the first nine holes, he hacked the ball all over the place. We got him the tenth tee, and he drew a line on the thing, and he said, okay, starting right now, he said, I'm going to begin to play golf.

No more bad shots. I said, okay. He hit a ground ball off the tee. He went up, took out a five-iron, shanked it into the rock. After hockeying it six more shots and still not in a green, he turned around to me, and he said, so much for name it and claim it.

But we certainly have an ability to project our desires and our wishes upon nature, as Freud indicated. And so he said, religion is this. Out of our fear of nature, we invent God. It's that simple. So that God becomes a crutch or an opiate, as Marx suggested, for people who simply can't bear to live in a hostile or indifferent universe.

Holy Fear Before the Power of Christ

Now what reason why this episode in Scripture is so important to our consideration, ladies and gentlemen, is this, that here we find the disciples of Jesus terrified because of an encounter with the destructive forces of nature.

Their lives are in jeopardy because of the tempest arising at sea, and the Bible says that they are frightened. And what do frightened people do in the midst of a crisis? They immediately go to their leader.

And so they came to the back of the boat, and they shook Jesus awake, and they said, Master, do something or we perish. What did he do? He looked around and apprised the situation, and then the Lord God incarnate, the Creator of heaven and earth, issued a verbal command not to men but to the impersonal forces of nature.

He addressed the sea and the wind and commanded in a loud voice, Peace! Be still! And instantly the response of the cosmos in obedience took place, so that the sea became as glass and the wind was so still that there was not even a zephyr in the air.

The grasp of my attention about this narrative is the next line. What is the response of the disciples when Jesus removes the clear and present threat of nature? Does it say they throw their sou 'westers in the air and rejoice and say, Oh, we knew you would do it.

No. The text tells us that at that moment they became very much afraid. That is, rather than having their fears assuaged and ameliorated, their fears now became intensified. The thing that Freud didn't understand is that, ladies and gentlemen, there is something within the human heart that we fear more than any of the impersonal forces of nature, and that is the power and the presence of a person who is holy.

Now the disciples are trembling, and they ask this question. What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? Do you remember in an earlier session I talked about xenophobia, the apartness of God, the difference of God that threatens us and frightens us?

Peter's Fear in the Presence of Holiness

The disciples say, Wait a minute. We have just now witnessed a display of a kind of humanity with which we are utterly unfamiliar. Every time that you meet a new person, your brain goes through a computer cataloging of responses.

If that person's smiling, you know, that tells you one thing. If that person's frowning, that tells you another thing. And tall people, we have all these categories and catalogs that we use, and from our experience as human beings, and we learn how to be with other people through our experience.

A few years ago there was this movement in this country for therapy, whereby everybody was supposed to sort of strip of their clothes, literally, let it all hang out, and to reveal the deepest secrets of their hearts, and a premium was placed upon openness, right?

Remember that? And everybody said, I want you to be vulnerable, and that movement was very short-lived because people got brutally hurt when they opened up too much. It reminds me of the story of three ministers who came to the locker room after playing golf, and they had a spontaneous session of confession of sins.

And the one minister said, you know, he said, my conscience is really bothering me. I'm trying to be a pastor and to be righteous, but I have this weakness that I've battled with for all my life, and that is a weakness with drink.

And he said, I'm a closet drinker, and I haven't been able to have victory. And the other two men said, oh boy, that's true. We'll really pray for you in this. And the second one said, you know, I have to confess that I have a struggle, too.

I'm tempted with lust all the time, and I've been able to control my behavior, but my thoughts have not always been pure, and I just don't know how to get victory in this situation. Will you men pray for me?

And they said yes, and the third one didn't say anything. And the other two said, well, don't you have any temptations? He said, yes. And they said, well, what is it? He said, I'm a compulsive gossip, and I can't wait to get out of it.

So much for being vulnerable. I mean, the reason why we're so closed and so careful not to reveal everything about ourselves to every person that comes along is that every person in this room has had a secret betrayed, where you poured out your heart and your soul to somebody, and they tramped all over your soul.

That happens two or three times to a human being, and we learn to put some armor on, don't we? And so we don't want to be vulnerable and to be open, and so we use this mechanism of the computer very carefully to categorize every human being.

Is that person safe? Is that person not safe? Well, the disciples saw Jesus, and their computers went haywire, and they said, wait a minute. We don't have a category for this man. We've never encountered one who is so other, so different, so separate, so apart from normal humanity that He could command the sea, and the sea obeys.

In other words, ladies and gentlemen, what terrified the disciples was that suddenly they realized that they were in the presence of the holy, and their fear was increased. This isn't the only time that sort of thing happens in the New Testament.

Another occasion, the same people, the same sea, where we read that the disciples had been out all night fishing, and they come back, and their nets are empty, and Jesus approaches them. You know the story, and He says to Peter, you know, how'd it go?

And they said, oh, it was a lousy night, you know, no fish. So He said, well, Peter, why don't you take your nets and put them over on this side of the boat? Now remember, Peter's personality profile in the Bible is one that describes him as rather impetuous.

Can you imagine what Peter's thinking when Jesus tells him to throw the net over this side of the boat? I can hear him, at least in his soul. He's saying, hey, hey, Jesus, you are a fantastic theologian, a rich religious teacher, par excellence, but give me some credit for crying out loud.

I'm a professional fisherman. I've had this net over every side of the boat there is all night long, and you're going to try to tell me now how to fish, but hey, you're the master. I'm the disciple. Well, humor him, fellas.

Throw the net over the side. You know what happened? Every fish in the Sea of Galilee jumped in the net, and so they had to bring another boat alongside, and they're about to sink because they're so filled with fish.

Now what does Peter do? Now remember, Peter's Jewish, and he's a businessman. He's not fishing for fun. He is fishing for profit. I know what I would do if I were Peter. I would have reached in my tunic for a contract and said, okay, Jesus, here's the deal.

Full partner, 50 of the profits. All I want is five minutes a month. You just come down here one Saturday morning a month and tell me where to put these nets, and that's all I ask, 50 of the profits.

That's what I would have done. That's not what Peter did. Can you believe what Peter said to Jesus? Peter looked at Jesus, and he said this. It's astonishing. He said, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

Peter said, Jesus, please leave. I can't stand it. Do you see what happens is that when one who is holy comes into our midst, immediately we are uncomfortable. We are aware, dreadfully aware of our unholiness, and we want that person to get as far from us as we possibly can.

Billy Graham, the Pharisees, and the Fear of Exposure

A few years ago a golf tournament was held in North Carolina, and the defending champion of this PGA Tour event had been the previous year's winner of the golfer of the year award, and because he was going to get this award at this year's tournament in North Carolina, and he was also the defending champion of that tournament, part of the recognition was this, that he was to play his first practice round with Billy Graham, with the President of the United States, and with Jack Nicklaus.

He was the golfer of the year, Nicklaus, Billy Graham, and the President of the United States. That is a heavy foursome, and so they went out on the course, and they played this practice round, and when they came in, a friend of mine was there, and he went up to this golfer, and he said, hey, what was it like playing with Billy Graham and Jack and the President of the United States?

And this golfer was furious, and he responded in anger. He said, I hated it. He said, I didn't need to have Billy Graham shoving religion down my throat for eighteen holes of golf, and he stormed off in a huff and went over to the practice tee.

He took his driver, and he just started pounding one ball after another in fury and releasing all of his anger. So my friend just went over and calmly sat and watched him until the bucket of balls disappeared, and he came up, and he said, gee, he said, Billy really came on strong, huh?

And the golfer said, no. He said, actually, he said, Billy never said a word about religion. I just had a bad day. The Bible says that the wicked flee when no man pursues. Luther said that it is the experience of the unbeliever to tremble at the rustling of a leaf.

Here was a man who spent this time with Billy Graham, who's one of the most gracious human beings you will ever meet, and Billy Graham didn't have to say a word about Christianity, and this person was feeling uncomfortable.

I find out when I'm playing golf on the golf course, I do everything in my power. When I hook up to a strange group, I know that inevitably the question's going to be, what do you do? And all I have to do is to destroy the fun that the people are having on the golf course is to tell them I'm a minister.

So I, you know, I fudge. I say, well, I'm a writer. Well, what do you write about? Oh, lots of stuff, or I'm in the insurance business, you know, whatever. I try, not because I'm ashamed of being what I am, but I don't want to ruin their day, because as soon as I tell them I'm a minister, then, you know, they start moving away and giving all these apologies for their language.

People are uncomfortable. Imagine somebody being uncomfortable in front of me. That's ridiculous, but people are uncomfortable in our presence, not because we are holy, but because we represent the one who is, and it's interesting to me that the most vehement enemies that Jesus had in His lifetime were the Pharisees.

Those men who were devoted to righteousness were the self-righteous ones, and the people that were most comfortable with Jesus were the outcast sinners. You see, because they had no illusions about their own righteousness, but those who took pride in their moral purity, when Jesus came, He exposed their unholy character, because when the light comes, the darkness cannot stand in its presence.

You know, when Peter said to Jesus, please leave, Jesus wouldn't leave. To Peter's everlasting joy, but Jesus didn't take him up on the invitation. Instead, He said, Peter, come here. You come unto Me.

You're burdened. You're heavy laden. I'm going to give you peace. You see, ladies and gentlemen, the worst kept secret in the whole world, it's well kept, but it's a horrible thing that it has been kept, is that we are invited to come to the presence of a holy God.

Justification, Grace, and the Righteousness of Christ

Sartre said in his writings that the last thing he ever wanted to do was to be submitted to the unremitting gaze of a holy God, and yet David, after he was subjected to the scrutiny of God, said to God, O Lord, search me and know me.

The secret the Christian carries around with him is the knowledge that the one place where we can really be vulnerable, the one place where we can be comfortable, the one place we can be naked without fear is in the presence of Christ.

We must come to understand that even though we have this built-in antipathy and fear towards the Holy One, and even though we recognize that we are unholy, in Christ, ladies and gentlemen, we are welcome.

The first fruits the Apostle tells us of a person's justification are these two things, peace with God and access into His presence. I'm sure that there are people in this room right now and who will be watching this series on tape who have no peace with God, who are still saying with Peter, Please leave, Jesus.

You make me uncomfortable. And I say to you, I beg you, that if you've been listening to this series on the character of God, that you consider a couple of things. One, that there is no possible escape ever from the holiness of God.

You are going to have to deal with it now or at some point. And so I plead with you that right now you get it settled, that you understand that there is a righteousness that God has provided for you in Christ that is not your own righteousness.

It's an alien righteousness. It's a foreign righteousness. It is the righteousness of Christ that is freely offered to you if you will submit to the Lordship of Christ. All that He has and all that He has done becomes yours, and the worst storms of divine wrath that you can imagine are silenced forever.

And God declares peace, and you will experience the experience of Isaiah when he knew the Word of God that said, Behold, your guilt is taken away. To be a Christian is to be forgiven. The essence of the Christian faith is grace.

The essence of the Christian ethic is not arrogance but gratitude. And forgive us, if you are an unbeliever, if we have presented ourselves to you as self-righteous, because I guarantee you that there is no Christian in this room who is righteous in and of himself.

But get it settled now and forever. Let's pray. Father, forgive us for fleeing from Your presence in terror. Father, forgive us for participating in hostility toward You. Father, cover us with the righteousness of Christ, that for once in our lives we can be comfortable in Your presence.

For we ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.