WHO ARE THE ENEMIES OF CHRIST TODAY?

Mark 11:27-33

²⁷ They came to Jerusalem again. While he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him ²⁸ and said, “What right do you have to be doing these things? Who gave you this right to do them?” ²⁹ Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you what right I have to do these things. ³⁰ Did the baptism of John come from the sky, or was it from men? Answer me.” ³¹ They argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From the sky,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ³² But should we say, ‘From men’?”– they were afraid of the crowd, because everyone regarded John as really a prophet. ³³ So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you what right I have to be doing these things.”

defiant agnosticism

Most people I meet who claim the title agnostic aren’t actually unsure—they’re resistant. The word becomes a shield, a way to critique the church or dismiss the gospel without ever having to take a stand. It’s a posture of distance disguised as neutrality.

The religious leaders in Jesus’ day didn’t use the word, but they lived the reality. When Jesus asked them about John the Baptist—whether his ministry was from heaven or from men—they suddenly found themselves exposed. They didn’t know, or rather, they refused to know. They had watched John preach repentance. They had seen crowds stirred. They had heard his testimony about the coming Messiah. But acknowledging any of that would have required humility, and humility was the one thing they would not offer.

So they hid behind a convenient “We don’t know.” It was agnosticism with clenched fists. Jesus had overturned their tables, challenged their authority, and exposed their corruption. Their uncertainty wasn’t intellectual; it was defiant. They didn’t want to discern the truth because the truth would have demanded change.

And that same spirit is alive today. Many in our cultural elite claim they “don’t know” whether God exists, but the moment His name enters a public conversation, their neutrality evaporates. The resistance surfaces. The defensiveness rises. The agnosticism proves to be less about lack of evidence and more about lack of surrender.

Yet Jesus didn’t panic in the face of defiant agnostics. He simply spoke truth in a way that revealed their hearts. He asked questions that exposed motives. He let the light do its work.

LORD, when we face those who resist You behind a mask of uncertainty, give us words that are steady, wise, and Spirit‑led—words that silence hostility not by force, but by truth.