The Supremacy of Christ

John Piper's Legacy

My wife and I have been members of Bethlehem Baptist Church for several years and have greatly appreciated the biblical teaching of John Piper. This video was shown at a celebration service thanking Pastor John for his years of ministry and praising God for what He has done.

John Piper on Regrets and Retirement

John Piper looks back on 33 years of pastoral ministry.

So What's the Deal with John Piper's Hand Gestures?

From PiperGIFs.com

My wife and I have been members of Bethlehem Baptist Church for the past several years and have greatly appreciated the teaching of John Piper. Known for his dynamic and animated preaching style, he recently addressed a couple questions regarding his hand gestures on the Ask Pastor John podcast:

It is possible to leap and wave and holler and entertain and say nothing and be useless. And I don’t want to do that. Therefore gestures in my mind are not of the essence of the demonstration of the Spirit and power. That is just not what they are, because people can listen to sheer audio of messages and have their lives changed. They can’t see you at all when that is happening. …

Whatever I do in the pulpit just comes naturally and I have never studied gesture. I have never planned gesture. I don't think about gesture while I am preaching. … For me, it is just who I am and what I do and it is part of my language.

Listen to the full episode here.

John Piper on Healing and Exorcism

Last week I posted videos of John Piper discussing the gifts of tongues and prophecy. Here, he discusses healing and casting out demons.

John Piper on the Gifts of Tongues and Prophecy

On the subject of spiritual gifts, John Piper would fall in the continualist camp. He has stated as much from the pulpit:

Virtually all the great pastors and teachers of history that I admire and that have fed me over the years belong to the first group who believe that signs and wonders were only for the apostolic age (John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, Benjamin Warfield, my own father). But I am not fully persuaded by their case. On the other hand, there does seem to be something unique about the way God did signs and wonders in the ministries of Jesus and the apostles.

So what I think I can say for our guidance is this.

1. On the one hand, we ought to honor the uniqueness of Jesus and the apostles and of that revelatory moment in history that gave us the foundational doctrines of faith and life in the New Testament.
   
   
2. On the other hand we ought to be open to the real possibility that this too might be a unique moment in history, and in this moment it may well be God's purpose to pour out his Spirit in unprecedented revival—revival of love to Christ and zeal for worship and compassion for lost people and a missionary thrust with signs and wonders.

I want to have my keel deep and stable in the once-for-all biblical revelation of God, and I want to have my sails unfurled to every movement of God's Spirit upon the deeps.

Here, he discusses his views on speaking in tongues and the gift of prophecy in the New Covenant:

I have greatly appreciated my time at Bethlehem Baptist Church under the teaching of John Piper. While I may not agree with his position on every issue, I don't think I've ever met a man more humble and more biblically oriented when tackling controversial issues.

"The Innkeeper," a Christmas Poem by John Piper

From the author:

Dear Friends,

Have you ever wondered what became of the innkeeper in Bethlehem who let Mary and Joseph have their baby in his barn?

Did he have little children? When the soldiers came from Herod, did they hunt for the birth place of the dangerous baby and start the slaughter there? What did it cost the innkeeper to house the Messiah in his first hours?

In the poem called The Innkeeper, I tried to imagine what might have happened when the soldiers came. And what Jesus might have said if he showed up 30 years later to talk to the innkeeper about it. It’s fiction. But its aim is truth and hope and joy.

Desiring God and Crossway Books have teamed up to make a new video recording of my reading of this poem. We hope it will touch some deep place in your heart, perhaps through a wound. Maybe it will find its way into your Christmas family celebrations, or your small group, or even the gathered church.

If you’ve ever lost a child, or ever faced a tragedy, just when you thought you were doing good, we hope The Innkeeper will bring you comfort and strength. In my experience poetry has a way of touching us sometimes when simple sentences don’t. In one sense, I hope you enjoy it. But there may be deeper emotions too. May the risen Lord Jesus turn your Advent and your Christmas into something really extraordinary this year.

John Piper

(via Desiring God)

All-Reformed Radio, All the Time

Ligonier Ministries introduces RefNet (short for Reformation Network), 24-hour internet radio dedicated to the historic Christian faith. Along with teaching and sermons from the likes of R. C. Sproul, Alistair Begg, and John Piper, it also features audiobooks, scripture reading, music, news, and more. It's available as an app for your mobile device, but you can also listen online through the RefNet web site.

Two Free Audiobooks by John Piper

Think:

John Piper's newest book will help Christians think about thinking. Focusing on the life of the mind helps us to know God better, love him more, and care for the world. Along with an emphasis on emotions and the experience of God, we also need to practice careful thinking about God. Piper contends that "thinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God." So how are we to maintain a healthy balance of mind and heart, thinking and feeling?

Piper urges us to think for the glory of God. He demonstrates from Scripture that glorifying God with our minds and hearts is not either-or, but both-and. Thinking carefully about God fuels passion and affections for God. Likewise, Christ-exalting emotion leads to disciplined thinking.

Think is Christianaudio's free selection for the month of October.

Let the Nations Be Glad:

Why do we do missions? We are told, by Jesus, to preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations. So missions is duty, right? Wrong. If you do missions purely from a sense of duty you will not honor those you are reaching out to, nor will you truly honor God. Duty is the wrong place to look, so where do we find the answer to why we do missions? We turn, according to John Piper, to worship.

In our worship of God we encounter God's glory. The overflow from our worship is a desire to share God's glory with others (the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever), and we naturally become missional. When Jesus was asked what the kingdom of God was like, he compared it to a pearl so valuable that one would sell all they owned simply to possess it. Does that seem like duty to you? Instead, Jesus calls us to a new mindset, which flows from the mindset that worship creates in us. Thus, according to Piper, does worship become the goal of missions and the fuel which makes missions possible.

Just enter GLAD11 as the coupon code when checking out to download it for free.

Bloodlines Documentary

In this short film, John Piper shares his own experiences growing up in the segregated South.



Piper's new book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, is now available.

Trailer for John Piper's Upcoming Documentary

John Piper's new book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, will be released at the end of this month. Here is the trailer for the companion 18-minute documentary:



More info here.