This week’s sermon: “Do Not Labor for the Food That Perishes”

Jesus isn’t eager to be useful to our natural desires. He’s too loving to be content with us seeing him as anything less than our supreme Treasure.

So the Gospel of John was written to make known the glory of Jesus, not the glory of his gifts. The story points again and again to the person of faith, not the product of religion.

Jesus tells us in John 6:27 not to labor for the bread that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life.

Laboring for the enduring food does not mean earning his favor. Rather, Jesus turns our inclination for doing upside down. This is what we're required to do: Believe in Jesus. It’s a kind of doing that isn’t doing. Those who eat the enduring food, Jesus himself who is the Bread of Life, don’t work to earn him but believe to receive him.

But what does it mean not to labor for the food that perishes? Stop working altogether? Quit our jobs? No, but our jobs should be changed. When Jesus is our highest Treasure something about everything changes. And the effect isn’t lazy, sloppy, gloomy labor, but zealous, excellent, joyful work that magnifies the beauty of our Bread and gladly meets the needs of others.

The media from last week's webcast of Ask Pastor John—where John Piper fielded questions sent in through Twitter—is now online.

• Ask Pastor John Live—November 2009, Part 1
  
• Ask Pastor John Live—November 2009, Part 2
  
• Ask Pastor John Live—November 2009, Part 3

Not until recently had I ever felt the weight of the fact that those outside Christ have no defense against the devil. God can restrain the devil from doing his maximum worst. But the world cannot. They are helpless before Satan’s supernatural power. They are utterly in his sway, except for God’s restraining providence.

This should make us tremble for the hopelessness of the world and marvel at the magnitude of God’s power and grace to keep the world from being ten thousand times more violent and miserable than it is.

Consider these passages to show the plight of the world...

Read the whole article.

**Contest Closed**

We have 12 different packages on sale for Christmas this year. One of them is especially for pastors.

Leave a comment on this post with the name of your pastor or retweet this with his name, and tomorrow morning we'll draw one of your pastors to send the gift set to for free.

Update: The contest is over now and the winners have been notified. Thanks for participating.

This week's sermon: “Twelve Baskets of Bread and the Walk on Water”

Jesus walks on the water—an amazing story, of course. So it’s remarkable that John’s Gospel has nothing more to say about it in John 6 or the rest of the Gospel. John returns to the storyline about the bread and feeding 5,000 from earlier in the chapter. Why no long dialogue about Jesus’ water-walking ability?

The reason is that water-walking, impressive as it is, isn’t the most important thing about Jesus. More important is that he is the Bread who satisfies the souls not only of those sitting on the grass who the disciples served, but the souls of the ones in the boat—the disciples—as well. Jesus is the one who comes to them in the storm, the one who they welcome with joy into the boat, and the one whose presence is the miraculous gift

When Jesus climbs into the boat and stills the storm, he is showing the disciples (and us) the point that underlies his feeding of the 5,000: When we serve Jesus by giving of ourselves to others, he will always be enough for us. If we pour out our life to provide bread for others, he will be our bread. The more we satisfy others, the more he will satisfy us.

Jesus’ presence, and the satisfaction that only he can give, brings the kind of fullness that produces generosity and risk-taking in his disciples and in his church.

I'm extremely grateful to our volunteer Alice Rogan for getting these translations posted. I just review her work and summarize it in a blog post. Second to the translators themselves, she has done the real labor and made them available online.

Bulgarian (2)

• The Tornado, The Lutherans, and Homosexuality (Bulgarian)
  Торнадото, лутераните и хомосексуалността
• Clarifying the Tornado (Bulgarian)
  Обяснение на торнадот

Portuguese (1)

• The Family: Together in God's Presence (Portuguese)
  A Família: Juntos na Presença de Deus

Spanish (33)

• All Things for Good, Part 2 (Spanish)
  Todas Las Cosas Para Bien, Parte 2
• Do Not Let Sin Reign in Your Mortal Body, Part 1 (Spanish)
  No Reine el Pecado en Tu Cuerpo Mortal, Parte 1
• Do Not Let Sin Reign in Your Mortal Body, Part 2 (Spanish)
  No Reine el Pecado en Tu Cuerpo Mortal, Parte 2
• Faith: In Hope, Against Hope, For the Glory of God (Spanish)
  Fe: En Esperanza Contra Esperanza Para la Gloria de Dios
• The Father Has Given All Things into Jesus’ Hands (Spanish)
  El Padre Ha Entregado Todas las Cosas a Jesús
• The Food of Christ Is to Give Eternal Life (Spanish)
  La Comida de Cristo es Dar Vida Eterna
• For God's Sake, Let Grace Be Grace! (Spanish)
  ¡Por Amor de Dios, Dejen que la Gracia Sea Gracia!
• Free from Sin, Slaves of Righteousness, Part 1 (Spanish)
  Libres del Pecado, Esclavos de la Justicia, Parte 1
• Free from Sin, Slaves of Righteousness, Part 2 (Spanish)
  Libres del Pecado, Esclavos de la Justicia, Parte 2
• The Free Gift of God Is Eternal Life, Part 1 (Spanish)
  El Regalo de Dios es Vida Eterna, Parte 1
• The Free Gift of God Is Eternal Life, Part 2 (Spanish)
  El Regalo de Dios es Vida Eterna, Parte 2
• Gentiles Rejoice in the Root of Jesse (Spanish)
  Los Gentiles se Regocijan en la Raíz de Isaí
• Go, Your Son Will Live (Spanish)
  Vete, Tu Hijo Vive
• God Did Not Spare His Own Son (Spanish)
  ¿Por Qué Dios No Escatimó A Su Propio Hijo?
• Gospel to the Nations, Generosity to the Poor (Spanish)
  El Evangelio a las Naciones, Generosidad Hacia los Pobres
• The Greatest Thing in the World: An Overview of Romans 1-7 (Spanish)
  La Mayor Realidad del Mundo: Una Visión General de Romanos 1-7
• Greatness, Humility, Servanthood (Spanish)
  Grandeza, Humildad, Servicio
• Healed for the Sake of Holiness (Spanish)
  Sanado para Ser Santo
• How Is It Right to Justify the Ungodly? (Spanish)
  ¿Cómo Puede Ser Correcto Para Dios Justificar al Impío?
• How to Kill Sin, Part 1 (Spanish)
  Cómo Matar el Pecado, Parte 1
• How to Kill Sin, Part 2 (Spanish)
  Cómo Matar el Pecado, Parte 2
• How to Kill Sin, Part 3 (Spanish)
  Cómo Matar el Pecado, Parte 3
• The Importance of Knowing Our Sin (Spanish)
  La Importancia De Conocer Nuestro Pecado
• Jesus: Equal with God (Spanish)
  Jesús: Igual a Dios
• Justified to Break the Power of Sin (Spanish)
  Justificados Para Romper el Poder del Pecado
• The Kingdom of Heaven Is a Treasure (Spanish)
  El Reino De Los Cielos Es Semejante A Un Tesoro
• The Reformed Faith and Racial Harmony (Spanish)
  La Fe Reformada y la Armonía Racial
• The Suffering of Christ and the Sovereignty of God (Spanish)
  El Sufrimiento de Cristo y la Soberanía de Dios
• Ten Aspects of God's Sovereignty Over Suffering and Satan's Hand in It (Spanish)
  Diez Aspectos de la Soberanía de Dios Sobre el Sufrimiento y la Mano de Satanás en Ello
• Thank God for Famous Faith (Spanish)
  Gracias Dios por la Fe Famosa
• Treasuring Christ Together Above All Things (Spanish)
  Atesorando Juntos A Cristo Por Encima De Todas Las Cosas
• What God Has Joined Together, Let Not Man Separate, Part 1 (Spanish)
  Lo Que Dios Unió, Que No Lo Separe El Hombre, Parte 1
• What God Has Joined Together, Let Not Man Separate, Part 2 (Spanish)
  Lo Que Dios Unió, Que No Lo Separe El Hombre, Parte 2

We've lowered our prices on the John Piper Small Group Series DVDs.

Each one is at least $7 cheaper than before.

• God Is the Gospel
• Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ
• TULIP
• What's the Difference
• When I Don't Desire God
• Why We Believe the Bible

You’re going to be buying presents for all sorts of people this Christmas, so we thought for our Christmas sale we'd put together sets of books and other resources aimed at different kinds of readers.

We've created 12 packages and put them on sale. We hope that this will make it easy to choose a perfect present for some of the people on your list.

Check out your different options:

• The (Almost Complete) John Piper Library
• For Mom
• For Dad
• For the Little Ones
• For the Bargain Hunter
• For the Student
• For a Missionary
• For Your Pastor
• For a New Christian
• For Anyone in a Hurry
• For the Conference Lover
• For the Armchair Theologian

We use the term “glory of God” so often that it tends to lose its biblical force. But the sun is no less blazing, and no less beneficial, because people ignore it.

Yet God does not like to be ignored. “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!” (Psalms 50:22). So let’s focus again on the glory of God. What is it? How important is it?

What Is the Glory of God?

The glory of God is the holiness of God put on display. That is, it is the infinite worth of God made manifest. Notice how Isaiah shifts from “holy” to “glory”: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). When the holiness of God fills the earth for people to see, it is called glory...

Read the rest of the article.

This week's sermon: "The All-Providing King Who Would Not Be King"

Bread exists to point us to Jesus. Its goodness and nourishment beckon us beyond the bread itself to the One who is "the Bread of Life."

But the large crowd in John 6 doesn't yet see beyond the bread to Jesus. They see him as the Prophet, but they don't see that he is God and not simply like Moses. They see him as king, but they don't see that his power is not military conquest but the power of the cross and of radical new desires.

Jesus didn't come into the world to lend his power to already existing appetites. That's the kind of claim that Jesus walks away from, not the gospel.

Posting all of our content online for free is something we love to do. There is also a theology behind it. We made this video to talk a bit about that. In it I discuss three reasons we post everything for free:

1. It reduces friction
2. The gospel is free
3. We exist first to serve, not be served

You might also be interested in a couple of articles I wrote about this:

• Make it Free
• Objections to Making it Free

C.S. Lewis is one of the top 5 dead people who have shaped the way I see and respond to the world. But he is not a reliable guide on a number of important theological matters. Hell is one of them. His stress is relentlessly that people are not “sent” to hell but become their own hell. His emphasis is that we should think of “a bad man’s perdition not as a sentence imposed on him but as the mere fact of being what he is.” (For all the relevant quotes, see Martindale and Root, The Quotable Lewis, 288-295.)

This inclines him to say, “All that are in hell choose it.” And this leads some who follow Lewis in this emphasis to say things like, “All God does in the end with people is give them what they most want."...

Read the rest of the article.

Mark your calendars. For the first time, Desiring God is going to live-stream a session of Ask Pastor John.

It will run from 8-11am (CT) on our site next Wednesday, November 4th.

Pastor John will be responding to questions posted to Twitter with the hashtag #apj.

More details to follow. Hope to "see" you there.

This week's sermon: "The Legacy of Antioch"

The term Global South refers to the astonishing growth of the Christian church in Africa, Latin America, and Asia while the formerly dominant centers of Christian influence in Europe and North America are weakening.

"In a word," Mark Noll says, "the Christian church has experienced a larger geographical redistribution in the last fifty years than in any comparable period in its history, with the exception of the very earliest years of church history."

So does this mean that day of European and North American missionaries is done? That would be a tragic misunderstanding of the situation. Partnership in mission with the Global South does not mean that all the unreached peoples of the world can be reached by people who are in the Global South because 1) in pioneer missions, there are no local churches to do the work and 2) proximity to an unreached people doesn't necessarily mean more effectiveness in learning their language, entering their culture, and loving them, and teaching the truth.

The story of Antioch in Acts 11:19­26 leads us to at least 8 implications that will help us see how to partner with the Global South:

1. Someone must cross the cultural barriers that separate unreached peoples from the gospel (Acts 11:19­20).
2. Don't wait to be forced out by persecution (Acts 11:19).
3. The hand of the Lord will be with you, when you follow him into his mission (Acts 11:21).
4. Be willing to serve a work that God has already begun (Acts 11:22­23).
5. The main prerequisite for this work is not great gifts but great grace (Acts 11:23­24).
6. When you sense God's leading, recruit others to go with you (Acts 11:24­25).
7. In all your evangelism and church planting, don't neglect to teach the converts and to take them deep into the gospel and build them up so they are stable and strong (Acts 11:23).
8. Be open to a significant change in your life (Acts 13:1­3).

The Legacy of Antioch is that it was a mission church that became a sending church through the partnership of Barnabas and Saul, who in the end were sent out by the church to which they were sent. And how many Antiochs are there around the world yet to be created and yet to be strengthened, where we can send our men and women who are willing to cross cultural chasms to reach the lost? Will you be one of them? Will you rededicate yourself to support those who go with rock-solid faithfulness?

Arabic

• The Great Offense: Was Jesus Really Crucified? (Arabic)
  اإلساءةاألعظم:هلحقًا ُصِلبالمسيح
• How Shall We Love Our Muslim Neighbor? (Arabic)
  كٌف ًضتطٍع ٔاى ًحت جبسًب الوضلن

Russian

• Audio and video added to the 7-part Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ series
• Discerning Idolatry in Desire (Russian)
  Чем отличается идолопоклонство от простого желания
• Why Expositional Preaching is Particularly Glorifying to God (Russian)
  Почему разъяснительная проповедь в высшей степени прославляет Бога

First of all, why am I asking this question? Three reasons:

1. Because in our delicate and dangerous setting of global religious pluralism, how we speak about our aims can get us kicked out of a country or worse.
2. Because we want to follow Paul’s pattern of honesty: "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).
3. Because we need biblical clarity about our role in converting others to Christ, lest we shrink back from the aim of conversion for mistaken reasons.

Let’s begin with a definition...

Read the rest of the article.

1. Taste & See articles from 1992, 1993, and 1994

2. The Prodigal's Sister (free online book)

3. Small group study guides for

• Why We Believe the Bible (PDF)
• What's the Difference? (PDF)
• TULIP (PDF)

4. Transcript of Sinclair Ferguson's 1990 pastors conference message, "The Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of Eternal Punishment"

5. Funeral Message for Ozzie Nelson

6. "Other Sheep I Have," John Piper's message to students at Crown College

7. Audio and video of "Beholding Glory and Becoming Whole," John Piper's message to American Association of Christian Counselors

After preaching in Germany, John gave the same messages in Samara, Russia. You can now listen to these with Russian translation:

• Feel Christ
• Think Christ
• Preach Christ
• Q&A

While in Germany, along with the 3 messages he gave at the Hirten Konferenz, John Piper also was interviewed and participated in a panel discussion. You can now listen to these:

• Interview
• Panel discussion

He also preached a Sunday morning message entitled, "What Makes the Good News Good."

John Piper’s final message in Bonn, titled “Preach Christ,” called pastors to…

1. Preach the truth that God’s highest goal in history is the display of his own glory.
2. Preach that it is loving for God to do what he has to do to open our eyes to see his glory.
3. Preach the cross from its eternal foundation in the past to its eternal consummation in the future.
4. Preach conversion as the Holy Spirit's act of opening blind eyes to see the glory of Christ in the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4-6).
5. Preach sanctification as the effect of seeing the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18).

John Piper said that 1 Corinthians 15:3 may be the clearest definition of the gospel in the Bible. It shows us 6 aspects of the gospel:

1. The cross was planned (“in accordance with the Scriptures”).
2. The gospel is a historical event (“Christ died”).
3. The death of Christ achieved something (“for our sins”).
   
4. That achievement is freely offered to everyone for faith alone. If that achievement were offered on the basis of my performance in any measure, there would be no gospel.
5. When I do believe in Jesus, the achievement is applied to me.
   
6. The end of the gospel is to see and enjoy the glory of God. God is our highest treasure; we are reconciled and forgiven and justified and given eternal life to enjoy God (1 Peter 3:18).

When we are fully and finally purchased and converted and sanctified in this way, then we will be fully satisfied in God and God will be fully glorified in us. And that’s why the universe was created and exists.

American Sign Language

• 7 video sessions from last month's 2009 National Conference

Burmese (New language!)

• Quest for Joy

Chin (New language!)

• Quest for Joy

Russian

• 6 transcripts from the 2005 Regional Conference: When I Don't Desire God

Spanish

• Live translation audio of all 8 sessions from the 2009 National Conference

Right thinking about God exists for the sake of right feeling for God. This was the main point of John Piper’s Friday night message, “Think Christ,” at the Hirten Konferenz in Bonn, Germany.

Expanding upon Thursday night’s message, “Feel Christ,” Piper said that being satisfied in God will not glorify God if our satisfaction in God is not based on right thinking.

Piper gave 10 arguments for the indispensible role of right thinking and right knowing in the life of the Christian:

1. It is possible to have strong feelings and be lost if the feelings are not based on knowledge (Romans 10:1-2).
2. God has planned that thinking about the Bible is the means he uses to give understanding (2 Timothy 2:7).
3. Paul is given as an example of reasoning with the Bible (Acts 17:2-3).
4. Jesus assumes and requires that we will use logic in understanding both what is natural and what is spiritual (Luke 12:54-57).
5. Jesus refuses to deal with people who use their reason to conceal truth (Matthew 21:23-27).
6. Thirteen times in Paul’s letters, he asks the question, “Do you not know?” Paul assumes that if his readers knew something, they would see things differently, feel differently, and act differently.
7. The Bible tells us that Christ has given pastors and teachers to the church and tells us that they should be apt to teach—because God intends that the Bible be explained to ordinary folks who don’t have the time or ability to go as deep as God wants them to go. Christ would not have given teachers to the church if he thought they were not needed.
8. The Bible declares that we should proclaim the whole council of God (Acts 20:27). That implies that there is a coherent unified whole, a body of doctrine, that should be given to the church. It is not easy to find this whole council in a book with 1,500 pages! It’s mainly mental labor. Finding the unified biblical theology that the people need to know takes hard thinking.
9. The Bible is a book, which means that it must be read.
10. An example of how thinking and valuing and acting relate to each other is Matthew 7:7-12.

On the final point, John Piper said that thinking is necessary to get meaning from a text and to then present it to others. In particular he pointed to the first word in verse 12.

I read Matthew 7:12 for 25 years before I asked how it relates to the previous verse. Why does verse 12 begin with "so"? Because confidence that God will meet our needs is what frees us to take radical risks in loving other people. "Do unto others . . ." because you know God is going to answer your prayers and take care of you.

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him. But that satisfaction in God does not glorify him unless it is based on right thinking and right knowing. God is all-satisfying because he’s a Father who gives us everything we truly need. And that kind of deep unshakeable satisfaction in our Father causes us to value things differently than the world. Therefore, we will love our neighbors. Right thinking with right feeling changes our behavior.

Saturday morning is Piper’s final message in Bonn, titled “Preach Christ.”

John Piper is back in Germany for the first time since he finished his doctoral studies in Munich. Yesterday, he opened his 3-part series at the Hirten Konferenz (Shepherds Conference) with a message titled “Feel Christ.”

The Konferenz began in 2001 and has been in Berlin until this year. The organizers moved the event to Bonn to be further West where most of the attendees live and minister.

Last night's message is to be followed by “Think Christ” this evening and “Preach Christ” tomorrow morning.

John Piper gave his opening remarks in German, then gave 4 clarifications on feelings:

1. The emotions we’re talking about are internal, not various physical manifestations.
2. We are emphasizing feeling over thinking because right thinking is a means to right feeling.
3. Right behavior without right feeling is not really right behavior.
4. How emphasizing feeling relates to God: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

After showing from the Bible that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, he looked at the implications this has on a pastors' people, work, and preaching.

He concluded with a discussion of some of the challenges in the wider evangelical world.

You can listen to the audio for more.

John Piper will speak again this evening on what right doctrine is and why it matters.