Posted in Quotes, Sermons on December 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »
[Addition on Saturday morning: if the video link below isn’t working, you can access it through this page.]
Pastor John on the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, including the story of the moment he faced prostate cancer.
There is so much that is quotable in those 6+ minutes:
“He will give you what you need.”
“To that God be glory, forever and ever.”
“Don’t try to be strong in your own strength. It will not be there when you need it.”
Amen, Pastor John!
Posted in Scripture, Sermons on November 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »
If you think you’ve seen this before, you probably have. I am copying Justin Taylor’s post on Pastor John’s address to the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization because it not only speaks to those who want to serve those who are suffering, it also speaks to those who are currently suffering.
There is a kind of suffering people need to know about that is much worse than anything we experience in this life! And at the same time God also calls people to serve those who suffer – some to serve those living with disability, some with disabilities to serve the church, some to serve in other ways and other places, all for the glory of God.
And for those who are suffering, there are promises to cling to:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
Here is Justin’s post quoting Pastor John:
One truth is that when the gospel takes root in our souls it impels us out toward the alleviation of all unjust suffering in this age. That’s what love does!
The other truth is that when the gospel takes root in our souls it awakens us to the horrible reality of eternal suffering in hell, under the wrath of a just and omnipotent God. And it impels us to rescue the perishing, and to warn people to flee from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10).
I plead with you. Don’t choose between those two truths. Embrace them both. It doesn’t mean we all spend our time in the same way. God forbid. But it means we let the Bible define reality and define love.
Could Lausanne say—could the evangelical church say—we Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering? I hope we can say that. But if we feel resistant to saying “especially eternal suffering,” or if we feel resistant to saying “we care about all suffering in this age,” then either we have a defective view of hell or a defective heart.
I pray that Lausanne would have neither.
You can watch or listen to Pastor John’s entire message here.
Posted in Book Commentary, Sermons on October 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »
I have a hard time NOT looking at the books people keep around their homes.
While visiting my mother-in-law I picked up a little pamphlet she had saved from her uncle’s home after he died some years ago. Titled, Twenty Choice Messages by J.D. Carlson, it was compiled by friends of his who dedicated it “to those who have received rich blessing and spiritual benefit through 48 ½ years of his loyal labors for the Lord as pastor, evangelist, radio minister, and author of many hymns and sermons.”
48 ½ years! That got my attention.
In one little essay entitled “Is Anything Too Hard for God?” Pastor Carlson unpacks Genesis 18:14. I’ve included just the headings of his sections here:
That last one hit me squarely between the eyes. I’ve been guilty of thinking certain churches and denominations are just too far gone. God is not constrained, ever! And might he be pleased to use his chosen ones with disabilities to call them back?
I had never heard of J.D. Carlson, which is a reminder that someday few will remember those who labor for us today – like Piper, Keller, Carson.
But, Lord willing, their books will remain, and God-honoring books – or even little essays – can encourage hearts decades later. And I’m grateful God preserved that little collection of messages for me to find in October 2010.
Posted in Sermons on October 23, 2010| 1 Comment »
Earlier this week I mentioned how encouraged I was that Pastor Kenny took advantage of a natural opportunity during the child dedication to talk about the gift that all children, including those with disabilities, are to the church.
Pastor John does the same thing. And he also intentionally works in references to disability and the glory and sovereignty of God. Both are helpful to those of us experiencing it and to those who live with us in the body of Christ!
But there are other moments when questions arise like, How could God do this? or How could this possibly work together for my good? and a bunch of other how and why questions. And frankly, I think if we don’t give answers to those questions for people, they will stuff those questions. And in the end there will be a kind of internal atheism that will start to grow like a canker and they won’t even know what is happening until it comes out in all kinds of weird theology or rejection of Christ entirely.
In other words, the big picture of God has an essential role in the healing of our wounds.
For example, we’ve got folks in our church who have disabled kids: blind kids, kids who will never have a mind beyond that of a six-month-old, kids who don’t have the full use of their arms and legs, kids with Down syndrome. They’re all over the map. And what I’m finding as I try to pastor these folks is that they definitely need people to come alongside them, stand by them, help them, serve them, love them, understand them, get inside their skin. But oh, they need more. And they would tell you this.
If they were sitting where I’m sitting, they would say, “This theology that God is sovereign and great and wise and makes no mistakes is huge. It is huge in the self-understanding of the disabled child, and it is huge in the hope of the parents that they can endure a lifetime of providing support.”
The way it affects the children is that it teaches them “God created me, and I’m not a throw-away. God loves me like this, he made me like this, and I have a purpose like this. I will find it and I will bless.” That’s the way Joni Eareckson Tada thinks, and that’s the way Krista in our church thinks. “I’m not a mistake! He didn’t drop the ball when I was born! I have a meaning! I’ll be whole some day in the full sense that you regard wholeness, and in the meantime my brokenness is part of my meaning. And I’ll find it, and I’ll live it for God’s sake.”
And for the parents, who for years and years have their whole lives turned upside-down with a baby born that they never expected, everything changes. Where are they getting strength for that? Where are they getting confidence that this can be worked for their good day after day and year after year? No way will it work to say, “God had nothing to do with this. God is wringing his hands. God doesn’t produce any of this.” That is not comforting. It absolutely is not comforting.
And so, how does this God, majestic and grand and glorious, heal a bruised heart? Part of his grandness and part of his majesty is that he is both strong and tender. He is both affectionate and massively powerful. And both sides are essential to his glory. Both are essential to his grandeur. And if we don’t build both into the lives of our people, we will set them up for a terrible fall. (Emphases in bold are mine)
From How does talk about the grandeur and glory of God heal a bruised heart? by Pastor John Piper, December 5, 2008.
Posted in Sermons on October 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Through a planned death!
So Christ was and is equal with God. He is God. He became also a human being. He obediently suffered and died. Obediently. That means God the Father told him to do it. That means it was a planned death. And the point of the plan was that the Christ be a substitute for the damnation of all human sinners who would trust in Jesus. As it says in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” He bore our damnation as a substitute. This was God’s loving plan for the salvation of sinners like us who deserve hell. That’s why it says in verse 8, “He was obedient to the point of death.” He wasn’t just dying. He was obeying. God had a plan. God gave a command. The Son was fulfilling it, willingly, obediently. The plan was, “Be a substitute for the damnation of all who will believe in you. Bear for them my holy and just curse, and I will make them my children—fellow heirs with you of everything I own.”
And then in verse 9, you see the greatest “therefore” in the Bible. “Therefore, God has highly exalted him.” In other words, because of his obedient and successful life and death, God raised him from the dead and gave him great glory as the Lord of the universe. That is the stupendous assumption behind Philippians 3:20-21.
So now let’s go there again. “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (and now we know how he got to heaven: he was raised from the dead) who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body (and now we know how he has a body in heaven: he was raised bodily from the dead), by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” John Piper, sermon on March 27, 2005, “All Things Subject to the Risen Christ.” (all emphases in bold are mine)
Posted in Sermons on October 18, 2010| 1 Comment »
Yes, he does! But he cares 10 million times more about your soul!
A helpful reminder from Pastor John:
Posted in Scripture, Sermons on August 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »
First posted January 13, 2010:
I was blown away, again, by God’s purposes in healing the paralytic of his disability:
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” (Mark 2:10-11)
Do you feel the earth move at that statement? Healing this man of his disability was certainly a good and kind thing, but it was not the main thing. Jesus’ authority to forgive sins is the main thing. And he healed him “that you may know” that Jesus has this authority. This knowledge is a kindness extended to everyone, not just the one man who was healed.
So, it is good to fight the temptation to make physical healing the main thing in our relationship with Jesus.
And we see another example of this authority in John 5:1-18, the healing at the pool of Bethesda. Pastor John helpfully provided this statement in a sermon on that passage:
Jesus seeks out the man in the temple and tells him the real issue in his healing. “Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.’” What’s the issue? The issue is holiness mainly, not health. “I have healed you to make you holy.”
I pray earnestly for my wife, that God would continue to hold her cancer at bay. Praying for healing is a very good and appropriate thing. But it is a good thing only because it is subordinate to the main thing: Jesus Christ, my savior and my God.
Posted in Sermons on August 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Al Mohler unpacks John 9 in helpful ways during a chapel presentation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary this past February 2.
The man Jesus notices is the man born blind.
You can watch it here: That the Works of God Might Be Displayed – What’s Missing from Preaching Today?
I particularly appreciated that Dr. Mohler read the entire chapter before he began preaching. He loves and respects God’s word, and shows it by letting others hear it for themselves.
He spends the last 10 minutes or so talking directly to preachers: “we must not domesticate this story.”
It is worth the time to watch the whole thing. But if you only have four minutes, watch from the 43:30 mark to the end.
(One small note: I disagree with his assessment of the parents of the man. And the quality of the video is poor; the audio is fine throughout, however.)
Posted in Book Commentary, Sermons on July 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Many years ago when Pastor John was preaching in Romans, he introduced me to C.S. Lewis’ “God in the Dock.” He shared a quote from that essay in a sermon I have listened to more than any other, “Pastoral Thoughts on the Doctrine of Election.” More than any other resource, with the sole exception of the Bible, this sermon has helped me keep a proper orientation on who God is and who I am in relationship to him. And part of what was so helpful was this clarifying statement Pastor John offered from C.S. Lewis:
The ancient man approached God . . . as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defence for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the Bench and God in the Dock. (“God in the Dock,” in Lesley Walmsley, ed., C.S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces [London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2000], p. 36)
How often have I been that ‘kindly judge’ over God! I am grateful God asserted his rightful, helpful, merciful sovereign Lordship over me before I destroyed myself or my family.
As I have been reading arguments for and against abortion of those with various disabilities, God has recently guided me to look at the issue of cognitive disabilities in much the same way that C.S. Lewis described how ‘the modern man’ views God:
This wickedness leaves me shaking as I write it. And this connection between how we ‘enlightened, modern’ people view God and how we view those with cognitive disabilities is so obvious to me today I’m ashamed to say I never saw it before.
Yet it also brings to mind this from God’s word in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
This contains a stunning warning along with a promise. The warning comes in concert with God’s statements about disability in the Old Testament:
Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Exodus 4:11)
The warning: to those who think themselves wise and strong, God intentionally created those who you consider foolish and weak, even those you consider to be ‘non-persons’ – and he will use them to bring you down. Better to recognize your extraordinary sinfulness and God’s mighty power to save, give glory to God and serve rather than destroy.
The promise: to all who are disdained because of your perceived lack of cognitive abilities, God made you just the way you are. You are no accident nor an afterthought. You will be used by God in ways that bring glory to God through means that are impossible but for your ‘weak’ status in the world. God is for you, and knows what he is doing.
And to those of us granted the privilege of parenting one of these ‘weak’ ones, who are low and despised by the world, God has promised he will supply every need, he will grant us strength for the day:
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Praise be to the God who is sovereign over all things!
The Works of God 
Some resources on God and Disability
Posted in commentary, Sermons, Special Events on November 13, 2010| 1 Comment »
We have some new folks following this blog and I thought it might be helpful to highlight a few resources.
My friend, work colleague and BCS seminary student Bryan DeWire gathered this list of resources for the seminary students David and I spoke to this past Monday. Thank you, Bryan, for compiling it!
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