The following 35 minute sermon excerpt of a John Piper sermon explains the underlying reasons that Jesus came into the world. Piper’s focus was different than mine in this post, but listeners / readers will get his points in addition to my focus.
I think it is important to explain the underlying reasons for our modern celebration of Christmas, because in Christmas movies and other media, Christmas is completely disconnected from Christ.
Today, the focus is on Santa Claus, family, “magic,” giving, being nice…and Christ is completely ignored.
I know many people who celebrate Christmas and love the season…but don’t go to church, read the Bible, or believe in Christ; I also know people who adhere to the teachings of other world religions and celebrate Christmas. That is easy in this culture, because Christ has been removed from this celebration which used to bear His name but is presently called “The holidays.”
So, this post has two purposes, to enable readers to understand the very reasons of Christ’s incarnation, via Piper’s sermon; and to help readers value Christ, and value being part of His kingdom rather than continuing on in their culturally-conditioned oblivion and soul-killing lifestyles.
Sermon text; Mark 8:31-38:
31And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
34And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
The following points are highlights of the sermon excerpt [bracketed statements, emboldening and underscoring are mine]:
Highlights:
- Verse 31 indicates that there is no gospel without the all-controlling sovereignty of God; Piper explained
- If Christ’s death had been a random event, it could save no one
- There have been many that wrongly disconnect the murder of Jesus from His purposeful suffering, rejection, death and resurrection
- The sovereignty of God is the golden stitching that holds the fabric of the gospel together; that is, the events spoken of in verse 31, are woven together by the sovereign ‘must’ of the gospel: they are the plan, prophecy, performance, and purpose of the sovereign creator of His universe
- The following three reasons indicate Mark’s inspired intention: 1) in Mark 10:45, Jesus describes the giving of Himself as a ‘ransom:’ 10:45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- Regarding verse 31 above, the suffering, rejection and bloodletting unto death, is the purchasing, the securing of the covenant, as is stated in Mark 14:24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
- Two things were promised in Jeremiah 31 regarding the new covenant in Jesus’ blood: 33… I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. …34…they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.
- The New Covenant has been purchased by the events of verse 31 above
- THE GOSPEL IS the good news that the sovereign, all controlling, creator of the universe orchestrated the payment of a ransom in the suffering, rejection and death of the Son of Man, to set many people free from the divine curse of unforgiven sin and to bring them into the resurrection life
- That is the heart of the gospel and it causes us to cry out, “what must I do to be included in the ransom?’
- What must you do to be included?
- Their are two selves described by Jesus, inherent in the text of this sermon
- One self aims to save its life in this world; to maximize all the world can give it; it loves the world. That self must be denied, killed, crucified (as Jesus prescribed)
- The other self, experiences Jesus and His gospel as being more valuable and satisfying than anything the world can give, including life itself [Psalm 63:3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.]
- Self one will be ruined eternally; self two, will experience eternal life
- Jesus’ opening call of His ministry to all, “repent and believe the gospel” is the short message, but that statement is not sufficiently understood by most
- The following points explain what Jesus meant by “repent and believe the gospel”
- The miracle of the new birth is discussed in terms of its impact on the struggle between the two selves
- How can one come to value Christ and His gospel more than the possessions and praise of the world?
- Suppose you are one of billions of people that value possessions more than Jesus; and you succeed all your life and you own everything, the world, google, apple…all of it – that is how Jesus envisages it in the text above
- Immediately after you die, you understand you have committed eternal spiritual suicide; and you bargain with Jesus, attempting to trade all your possessions for your soul
- Your Christ-replacing, Christ-belittling idols have no currency in heaven, you will perish
- The ransom for souls was paid by Christ and you preferred not to be part of that
- [The Bible makes clear that your choices on earth have eternal consequences, there is no mentioning of any purgation after death as some sects of Christianity believe; read the entire Bible, see for yourself]
- Verse 38, the idol of praise clarified: whoever is ashamed of Me and My words….
- There are two audiences for our lives: 1) this adulterous and sinful generation that finds value in the things of the world; 2) and the Son of Man, His glorious Father and millions of holy angels, who at His coming, will approve of you or turn away
- Whose praise are you most desperate NOT to lose?
- Verse 35, whoever lives to save his reputation, acceptance…will lose his respectable and popular life
- Whoever loses his life for Me will save it: that is, whoever experiences My suffering, rejection; My death and shameful crucifixion; My resurrection, AS more precious than respectability and popularity; you will live eternally in the presence of the Son of Man, the Father and His angels
- The SUM of the matter: Mark 8:31-38 is the greatest news in the world
- The way to become part of this New Covenant, is to be one who values Jesus and His gospel more than possessions and praise of the world is spiritual new birth
- [Piper does not herein elaborate on how one can actually become born again, but the apostle Paul states in Romans 10 that one must hear the gospel message before he can believe it…; so, reading God’s word and hearing preaching of the word are the arena in which the Holy Spirit gives the new birth; one thing is certain, you do not become born again by signing a card…; born again believers afterwards repent and live a life of continued repentance – see links at end of this post for more information on that]
- Piper made a few statements regarding how a born again believer confronts the self that must be denied if he is to be part of those who are ransomed
- This excerpt closes with Piper stating that few people understand what biblical ‘belief’ looks like and they miss the mark
- THE FOLLOWING 5 POINTS ARE THE APPLICATION, THESE WERE NOT INCLUDED IN THE EXCERPT AND WERE THE FINAL 10 MINUTES; I ALSO CUT THE INITIAL 20 MINUTES OF THE FULL-LENGTH SERMON. BOTH THE EXCERPT AND THE FULL-LENGTH SERMON ARE BELOW:
- APPLICATION POINTS:
- 1) Tell unbelievers the good news first, make it prominent; the world does not know the news; a summary of that news is as follows: God planned, prophesied, performed a ransom for sinners; Jesus embraced the plan, became the performance, suffered, was rejected, murdered and raised from the dead. HE did so knowingly, intentionally, obediently and triumphantly
- Make this Jesus-exalting news clear; the news reveals Him and one must fall in love with Him to be included among the ransomed
- 2) Urge them to look at Him in these events which make up the good news: His suffering, rejection, dying, rising [the New Testament includes 4 accounts of Jesus’ gospel ministry, a person should read them, study them to know Jesus via His words and actions]
- 3) Warn them: to love the world more than Jesus will cost one his soul eternally [I would add, do not listen to cultural ideas about Jesus, go to the source, the Bible; study it like it is the manual for living your life and you will find the truth – Proverbs 2 promises that]
- [From experience and observation of myself and other Christians, I have to say that potential converts and genuine converts don’t begin the Christian walk / race with a good comprehension of their sinfulness. It takes time of studying the word and delving in to personal sin to come to a more accurate realization of one’s sinfulness – the Holy Spirit will show each genuine convert his sin that it may be repented of, fought against…. I have heard many great preachers say that as a Christian matures in faith, he becomes more holy but he also comes to see more sin in his life. It will not be gone until by grace it is completely removed at glorification. The epistle of Romans speaks to that]
- 4) Fill them with promises, such as verse 35ff above
- 5) Be like Jesus and Paul…; make sure seekers know that Christian enter into the kingdom of God via many tribulations, such as those discussed herein
- [Popular, contemporary Christianity focuses, almost solely, on the grace of God; they err fatally therein. I have learned by experience and it is the message of every Christian who is engaged in the fight of faith, that God’s grace becomes a very precious thing as one experiences God’s forgiveness for known sins (in the school of Christ, the pilgrimage that is filled with tribulations). God, the Holy Spirit works the beatitude life into converts; He works poverty of spirit into them by revealing their sin to them. As He does this, they begin to see that they are nothing but sin, they are doing it all the time in thought, word or deed; and that they would be totally ruined and hell bound if not for the grace of God that is available to us because of Christ’s atoning work and His righteous life; simultaneously, one is moved to mourn his sin; the remainder of the beatitude are worked into convert thereafter – to learn about those, see CATEGORIES, Beatitude Life for narratives on the beatitudes; see, True Kingdom Citizen, for video posts on the beatitudes]
Sermon excerpt:
Full-length sermon:
STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS:
***The following link is to a post in this blog that speaks about the heresy of ‘the sinner’s prayer.’ That is, it is a false way of conversion, millions have been deceived by preachers telling them they are born again. To know about the true way of conversion, click the following link: