Always Ready

By John Piper

I have been pondering a possible relationship between the minimizing of the Bible in so-called seeker-driven churches and in some of the radical forms of contextualization that have emerged in missions. Perhaps there isn’t any connection. But I wonder. The common denominator that I am pondering is the loss of confidence that declaring what the Bible says in the power of the Holy Spirit can create and sustain the church of Christ.

This morning I just read John 2:11, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.†I bowed and prayed, “O Lord, this is how faith happens. People are given eyes to see your glory in your person and in your deeds. Please don’t let me turn away from the ministry that puts all the emphasis on the ‘gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God’†(2 Corinthians 4:4).

Then I was reminded of another text in John which connected the revelation of Christ’s glory to the written word of God. John 20:30-31, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.†The signs that reveal the faith-awakening glory of Christ are not mainly new signs being done today, but the signs that are written in the gospels. These are written “so that you may believe.†He “manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.†That is the way faith comes. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes “He will glorify me!†(John 16:14). Therefore we declare the fullness of the glorious Person and Work of Christ in history. That is how the church is created and sustained.

It seems to me that a growing number of pastors and missionaries have lost confidence in this truth. They have concluded that the gap between the glory of Christ and the felt needs of their neighbors, or between the glory of Christ and the religion of the nationals, is simply too great for the fullness of God’s word to overcome. The upshot seems to be the minimization of the Word of God in its robust and glorious fullness.

This is on my front burner just now because in recent weeks I have received a steady stream of testimonies from aching saints who say in so many words, “Our pastor doesn’t proclaim to us what the Bible says and means. The messages are not revelations of the glory of Christ. They are advice-talks with a religious twist.†And then I have been reading about certain kinds of gospel contextualization in missions that seem to minimize the fullness of the biblical revelation which converts should share with others. So I have been pondering whether there are connections.

I have no desire to naively equate the cultural conglomerate of western Christianity with the true, spiritual body of Christ. I can appreciate avoiding the word “Christian†in a missions context where it signifies: degenerate, materialistic, immodest western religion. And I realize that most of the ways we “do church†are culture specific rather than biblically mandated. But there are other questions that trouble me:

1) Are the essentials of biblical faith embraced by new converts to Christ, and do they make them known in love to others? For example, do they embrace and make known that the Bible is the only inspired and infallible written revelation of God, and that Christ is God and was crucified for sin and raised from the dead above all authority?

2) Are the former religious behaviors of converts to Christ, which they may retain, communicating regularly a falsehood about what the convert means and believes?

3) Are words being used by converts that mislead people rather than make the truth plain? Are missionaries and converts following Paul’s commitment to candor: “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God†(2 Corinthians 4:2)?

I may be wrong about a Bible-minimizing connection between seeker-driven pastors and radically contextualizing missionaries, but it is hard not to see a loss of faith in the power of God’s Word when I hear that the Bible is not preached at home, and when I read from the frontiers: “We have little hope in our lifetime to believe for a major enough cultural, political and religious change to occur in our context such that Muslims would become open to entering Christianity on a wide scale.â€

Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to come in power in our day for the sake of powerful displays of the glory of Christ in the declaration of the Word of God where those glories are revealed with infallible and converting authority.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.

“A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.” -Edgar J. Mohn

I saw this quote on the wall of the YMCA during a morning work out. I don’t know who Edgar Mohn is, nor do I know the context in which he originally said this quote. Nevertheless, it hit me as a true statement. Truth has, and always will, endure. Lies, on the other hand, will pass away (Acts 5:34-39).

Conrad Mbewe of Kabwata Baptist Church in Zambia preached this fantastic message on the only right motivation for missions: the glory of God.

Sometimes we get carried away when we pray and become wordy and verbose. It’s as though we think God will be impressed with flowery language and “vain repetition”. The prayer that God respects, though, is the prayer of the heart.

On Mt. Carmel, the prophet Elijah didn’t care about impressing anyone. He wasn’t praying so that those around him would think he was spiritual. He was praying earnestly and urgently because he knew God’s reputation, as well as the spiritual condition of Israel, was on the line. The great irony of this prayer is that the prophets of Baal had spent all day crying out to their false god and chastising themselves in an attempt to gain his attention. They never got an answer.  It only took two sentences, though, for God to answer Elijah with fire. I am convinced that we often struggle in our Christian lives simply because we don’t ask for God’s power. Just ask him in confidence that’s his will to show himself strong on behalf of those who trust him.

And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.”

1 Kings 18:36-39

The most profound human question is “why”? From a four year old child to a man with a PhD in Philosophy, the human heart always asks why. What is the purpose of everything? Why do I exist? Why do bad things happen?  The twenty four elders in the book of Revelation tell us: “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”  The end of all being is the glory of God.

John Piper expounds on the truth of God’s glory in all things in this article from Desiring God.

Thoughts on Why Everything Exists

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

One of the main points of the forthcoming book Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ is that sin and God’s wrath against it were part of God’s plan when he created the world. This is different from saying that God sins or that he approves of sinning.

The main reason for making this point is to exalt the revelation of God’s grace in the crucifixion of Jesus to the highest place. This is the point of the universe—the glorification of the grace of God in the apex of its expression in the death of Jesus.

Jesus died for sin (1 Corinthians 15:3). The death of Jesus for sin was planned before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8; Ephesians 1:4-6). Therefore, sin was part of the plan. God carries this plan through in a way that maintains full human accountability, full hatred for sin, full divine justice, and full saving love for all who trust Christ. And we don’t need to know how he does it to believe it and rest in it and worship him for it.

This morning I was meditating for my devotions on Ezra 8 and 9. I saw there another pointer to the truth of God’s planning for human sin and divine wrath.

In Ezra 8:22, Ezra says, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him.†This text leads me to ask: Did God know before creation that his creatures would “forsake him.†Yes, he did. The plan for their redemption was in place before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-6).

Was Ezra 8:22 true before the foundation of the world? Yes, it was. God did not become holy and just after creation. He has always been holy and just. “His power and his wrath are against all who forsake him†because this is, and always has been, the holy and just thing for God to do.

Therefore, since God knew that his creatures would forsake him, he also knew that his power and wrath would be against them. Therefore, this was part of his plan. He created the world knowing that sin would happen and that he would respond as Ezra 8:22 says he does.

This planning is what Paul means in Romans 9:22 when he says that God was “desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power. . .†And if you ask Paul why God would go forward with this plan, his most ultimate answer is in the next verse: “in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy†(Romans 9:23).

God knew that the revelation of his wrath and power against sin would make the riches of his glory shine all the brighter and taste all the sweeter for the vessels of mercy.

“The riches of his glory†are the riches we inherit when we see his glory in all the fullness that we can bear (Ephesians 1:18) and are transformed by it (Romans 8:30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2). These riches of glory reach their supreme height of wonder and beauty in the death of Jesus as he bore the condemnation of God’s wrath and power in our place (Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:13).

In other words, God’s plan that there be sin and wrath in the universe was ultimately to bring about “the praise of the glory of his grace†in the death of Christ (Ephesians 1:6). What is at stake in the sovereignty of God over sin is the ultimate aim of the universe, namely, the exaltation of the Son of God in the greatest act of wrath-removing, sin-forgiving, justice-vindicating grace that ever was or ever could be. The praise of the glory of God’s grace in the death of Christ for sinners is the ultimate end of all things.

Christ is the aim of all things. When Paul says, “All things were created . . . for him†(Colossians 1:16), he means that the entire universe and all the events in it serve to glorify Jesus Christ. May the meditations of our hearts take us ever deeper into this mystery. And may the words of our mouths and the actions of our hands serve to magnify the infinite worth of Jesus and his death. This is why we exist.

Jonah 2 contains a wonderful prayer for deliverence. God has brought disobedient Jonah so low that the only place he could look was up. God did deliver Jonah, and used him to bring repentance to the wicked city of Niniveh.

Consider also the Messaianic implications of Jonah being in the “lower parts of the earth” for 3 days and nights. Jesus himself said that he would give the nation of Israel the “sign of the prophet Jonas” to validate his claim of being the Messiah.

It seems likely that this prayer was written by a reflective Jonah a long time after the fact. This is further confirmed by the fact that the author uses past tense to describe what happened, and that it uses quite a bit of praise language– something you wouldn’t expect from someone inside a fish. Nevertheless, because it says he prayed this from within the fish, I’m sure it reflects the sentiments that Jonah felt, as well as those he felt after being delivered from it.

As with all prayers in the Bible, this one is saturated with truth about God and His Salvation. I especially love the closing truth which sums up the whole prayer, indeed, even the whole Bible: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying,

“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O LORD my God.
When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the LORD,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Jonah 2

The Old Testament woman Hannah was without a child for many years. In Old Testament days, being childless was perceived as being a shameful, embarassing thing; even a curse from God. Having no child grieved this godly woman greatly, and she prayed that God would remove her shame. God answered her prayer and granted her a son. This son she named Samuel, or “God has heard.”

To display her heart of gratitude, Hannah dedicated her son to the Lord and gave him to service in the temple. When the day came for Hannah to leave her son in the service of God, she joyfully poured out her heart in this beautiful song of praise.

It is intersting to note that while the Bible refers to this song as a prayer, there is not one request mentioned in it. It is simply adoring God for being the great God that He is. “Who is like the LORD?” I highly doubt that Hannah was what we would term a theologian; yet is amazing how much she knew about the character of God. Consider the following attributes of God in this prayer: mercy, sovereignty, omnipotence and strength. What attributes can you find?

Also interesting to note is the constant theme of God exalting the humble and bringing down the proud. This theme is reflected countless times throughout the Bible. Let us remember that we are nothing and that God is everything.

The Prayer of Hannah

And Hannah prayed and said,

“My heart exults in the LORD;
my strength is exalted in the LORD.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in your salvation.

“There is none holy like the LORD;
there is none besides you;
there is no rock like our God.
Talk no more so very proudly,
let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the LORD is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble bind on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
The LORD kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The LORD makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low and he exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s,
and on them he has set the world.

“He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness,
for not by might shall a man prevail.
The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces;
against them he will thunder in heaven.
The LORD will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king
and exalt the power of his anointed.”

You can often tell how one respects a person by how he speaks to him, and it is so with God when we pray. This prayer is the first of a series I will be doing on beautiful prayers of the Bible.

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, and said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ Now therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David my father.

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.â€

Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, “Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers.

1 Kings 8:22-30 , 55-58

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.†Romans 10:9

I have seen this verse used many times as the magic formula for salvation. How many people have been told this is how they are to be saved? How many people have been falsely assured of their salvation with this verse? We have to understand that belief and profession mean absolutely nothing. The issue is faith. On the last day there will many who will confess to know Christ, saying, “Lord, Lord,†but they will spend an eternity in hell. As one man once put it, the question is not do you know Jesus, the question is, does Jesus know you. You believe Jesus died and rose again? To paraphrase the book of James, good for you, the devils also believe– and they tremble at what it means for them.

What does the verse mean then? The original historical context is essential. You see, we often forget that Paul was writing to Roman Christians– Christians who were being persecuted and killed for their faith, many times in an extremely cruel fashion. Paul was writing to assure these suffering believers that if, when faced with suffering and death, they were true to their Lord, they would without a doubt be saved. Paul, then, is talking about faithfulness unto death, a result and sure evidence of salvation, not a formula for it.

Just this week, I read a vivid example of this very thing. I was glancing through a children’s textbook of Church history that I found on my bookshelf, and the first chapter dealt with the early church. It specifically addressed the sufferings they experienced, and recounted the martyrdoms of Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp, two early church fathers. It demonstrates what Romans 10:9 meant in the lives of these two early Christians, and what the verse still means today.

Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that mose ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause but which we call Our Father Which Art in Heaven.