John Piper at Wheaton
John Piper spoke in chapel today. Here are the sermon notes that I took.
Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer
Seven aims for the sermon
1. To persuade you that suffering is an essential part of the Christian life (cf. Acts 14:22).
2. To encourage you to suffer in a way that makes Christ look great.
3. To encourage you to taste and see that Christ is more precious than anything else.
4. To help you to believe that nothing happens that’s not a part of His good sovereign will for your life. If Christ is for you, nothing can be against you.
5. To persuade you that you are in Christ by faith alone apart from any works before or after conversion.
6. To motivate you to embrace suffering, hardship, and risk to relieve human suffering, especially eternal suffering (i.e. take up your cross).
7. To introduce you to the power of the phrase “sorrowful, but always rejoicing.” (2 Cor. 6:10).
All theology is pastoral theology.
All suffering has the potential to make you treasure Christ or to destroy your faith.
Interesting, huh?
September 6, 2007 at 7:03 am
One of the things that really bothered me about John Piper was the piece he wrote after he got diagnosed. He gave some suggestions as to how Christians should respond when they are seriously ill. However, he never once mentioned the possiblity of illness being chastening because of sin. I think we should always ask, when we suffer ‘Is this God’s discipline?’
September 6, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Forasmuch I disagree with Piper on a lot of stuff, I like him. I think that he’s a passionate Bible teacher and he has brought some important stuff to the limelight.
September 10, 2007 at 5:01 pm
I think an emphasis on being faithful through suffering is a good antidote to the harmful effects of Joel Osteen-style “God wants you to be happy and healthy” theology.
By the same token, an over-emphasis on God’s punishing us can distract us from the fact that all suffering is for our deification, whether through our fault or not. Look at Job.