|
May
20, 2001 |
Bethlehem Baptist Church John Piper, Pastor |
sEEING AND sAVORING jESUS CHRIST
FOR THE SAKE OF MAKING HIM KNOWN
(2
Corinthians 3:15 – 4:6)
Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over
their minds; 16 but when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed. 17 Now
the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes
from the Lord who is the Spirit. 1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy
of God, we do not lose heart. 2 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 every man's
conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is
veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world
has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. 5 For what we
preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your
servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of
darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ.
One more
pressing topical message before I return to the exposition of Romans 7 next
week, Lord willing. At least four things precipitate this message.
·
First is the coming of summer with its golden outdoor
opportunities for seeing and showing Christ to those who don’t trust him or
treasure him, and especially the planned “Behold
Your God” evangelistic campaign of Jews for Jesus coming in August.
·
Second is the visit of the Dalai Lama recently to the Twin
Cities and the way some of the mainline clergy responded to him as the leader
of Tibetan Buddhism.
·
Third is the arrival last week of the book we would like to
give you this morning, Seeing and
Savoring Jesus Christ, and how it relates to these other two events.
·
Fourth is the message of 2 Corinthians 3:17 to 4:6: that
seeing and believing and treasuring the historical, crucified, risen, and
living Jesus Christ is the way to be transformed into his image and bear fruit
for God.
Bethlehem
has always seen summer as uniquely designed by God in Minnesota for more
personal evangelism than we may do in the winter when we all hide away in our
igloos because of the cold. We are outside with people in the yard and on the
streets and in the parks. So we try to go outside with some of our services on
Sunday and Wednesday. And we do backyard Bible clubs, sports camps, etc. And
this summer, Jews for Jesus is bringing their “Behold Your God” campaign to Minneapolis (and 60 other cities in
the world with the largest population of Jewish people) in August, and will be
on the streets and on the phones with the message that Jesus Christ is the hope
of Israel and all other peoples.
Now this
is highly controversial in the pluralistic atmosphere of progressive
Minneapolis. For example, when Bethlehem hosted the “Jewish Evangelism Seminar”
back in March in preparation for the “Behold
Your God” campaign we received a letter of protest and warning signed by
the senior ministers of the nine large Protestant and Catholic churches near
downtown Minneapolis. The protest went like this: “We feel that efforts by
Christians to convert Jews are counter-productive, injurious to
Christian-Jewish relations, and contrary to the true spirit of Christ” (letter
dated 03-9-01).
In an
earlier letter from some of the same group, the point was made even more
forcefully: “Unfortunately, ‘arrogant’ is the right word to describe any
attempts at proselytizing – in this case the effort of Christians to ‘win over’
their Jewish brothers and sisters. Thoughtful Christians will disassociate
themselves from any such effort” (letter dated 10-12-99).
To
dissuade us from participating in the Jews for Jesus campaign, or from any
Jewish evangelism at all, a warning was added in the recent letter from these
nine downtown churches: “In the event of a city-wide conversion campaign,
please know that we will respectfully bur forcefully make public our concerns
in every way available to us. Obviously dialogue before that time would be
invaluable in maintaining the peace of the church and strength of our shared
mission.”
I have
attended the Sunday morning worship service of the minister who drafted that
letter, and I have taken him to lunch. Following that I met for breakfast with
one of the most influential Rabbis in the city. Well, what is behind this
protest and this warning? Rather than going into details about those personal
conversations, let me clarify by referring to the coming of the Dalai Lama and
how some clergy and churches responded.
I think
the gathering of seven local clergy with the Dalai Lama at Northrop Auditorium
exemplified the worldview behind these letters (see summary article in the StarTribune, 05-19-01, p. V9). The Dalai
Lama is “the spiritual . . . leader of 6 million Tibetans, who believe him to
be the 14th earthly incarnation of the heavenly deity of compassion and mercy”
(05-19-01, http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/ND97/thurman.html).
He said, “All religions have the same potential to serve humanity. . . . All
religions carry the same teaching, same goal, same potential.” This is the
basic attitude of pluralism in Minneapolis today, even among many mainline
Protestant and Catholic clergy. Since all religions are that similar and have
the same goal and potential, it is arrogant of any one of these religions to
mount a campaign to convert people from other religions.
Specifically
it is arrogant – and offensive – to present Jesus Christ to Jewish people with
the hope and prayer that they would see him as their Messiah (which is what
“Christ” means) and believe on him for the forgiveness of their sins and for
the hope of eternal life. This was made very clear to me by the Rabbi. God
saves Jewish people without Jesus, and he saves Christian people through Jesus.
God has multiple covenants with multiple religions.
One thing is common to the pluralistic message of
Buddhism and Judaism and the letters we have received, namely, the effort to
sever the fruit of love from the root of truth. Or to be more specific: the
effort to build unity around a social agenda of good works with no necessary
connection to Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord. In other words,
Christians are welcome at the table of interfaith dialogue if they abandon the
historic Christian faith that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is
no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts
4:12). But if this is what we believe, we are not welcome, because this, they
say, is not dialogue but proselytism, and it is arrogant.
Thus one of the Muslim Imam at the Northrop gathering
said, “Converting people to one religion or another should not be our main
objective . . . Our goal, should be to make the world a better place by using
our various religions to improve the world so that God will be pleased with
us.” In other words, we should abandon any convictions that there is a
necessary connection between Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins and the
transformation of sinners. That forgiveness (if it were necessary) and that
transformation are possible in all religions. The fruit of reconciliation with God and man and the root of Christ’s person and work are
severed. That is the essence of the matter. We are not welcome to the table if
we bring the conviction that all people of every religion must trust in Jesus
alone for the forgiveness of their sins and the hope of eternal life.
Now what
does this have to do with the new book and with 2 Corinthians 3 and 4? The book
is called Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ.
It’s the first book I have written specifically about Jesus. And I wrote it
with both believers and unbelievers in mind. It is made up of 13 very short
chapters (about seven pages each).
1.
The Ultimate Aim of
Jesus Christ
2.
The Deity of Jesus
Christ
3.
The Excellence of
Jesus Christ
5.
The Power of Jesus
Christ
6.
The Wisdom of Jesus
Christ
11. The Severity of Jesus Christ
Essentially
it is an effort to give a faithful, Biblical portrait of Jesus so that
believers and unbelievers can look at it. Behind this approach is my conviction
that people come to authentic, well-grounded faith not primarily by long,
involved, historical arguments for the reliability of the Bible (though these
are very important; see p. 131, note 3 in the book), but by the compelling
power of the glory of Jesus Christ as he vindicates his own person and work set
forth in the Bible. My prayer is that God will take this little,
Bible-saturated book – this small portrait of who Jesus is and what he did –
and use it to open the eyes of many to see and savor Jesus Christ.
How should
we respond to Jewish people and Muslims and Buddhists and liberal Protestants
and Catholics who do not embrace the Jesus of the Bible as the unique and only
way to God?
We should
respond in four ways:
·
First, we renounce all
violence. True Christians, in spite of much deplorable Christian history,
do not take up the sword to spread or to defend their faith in Jesus Christ. We
repudiate all hate crimes and all mean-spirited attitudes toward other faiths.
·
Second, we honor all
human beings as created in God’s image. That is why we believe in
persuasion with words, not coercion with force. Animals may be beaten into
submission, but not human beings created in God’s image. We write, we speak, we
plead. As Paul said, “We beseech you
on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
·
Third, we love our
friends and our enemies by longing and working for their eternal good – and
being willing to suffer for it. We know that we are sinners saved by the
grace of God in Christ. But we do not believe it is arrogant to offer salvation
by presenting Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of sins.
·
Fourth, we will
therefore do all in our power to present Jesus – not the word “Jesus”
filled up with Buddhist or Muslim or liberal protestant or Catholic ideas – but
the Biblical Jesus Christ. We will present him in conversations and letters and
sermons and tracts and books. This is where I hope the book will be helpful. I
hope that you will be able to use it in personal evangelism. Give it to people
who are willing to consider Christ. Study it over lunch with colleagues. (You
can read a chapter in 15 minutes.)
·
Fifth, we will pray
that God do what Paul says he will do in 2 Corinthians 3:17-4:6, that is, cause
the light of the glory of Christ to be seen compellingly in the presentation of
Christ in the gospel. (See the Olive Tree Project of Jews for Jesus.)
Look
briefly with me at the text. This text is one of the most important in the
Bible in shaping how I understand both personal sanctification and personal
evangelism. 2 Corinthians 3:18 relates directly to your sanctification. “And we
all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed
into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the
Lord who is the Spirit.” We are changed by beholding the glory of the Lord and
standing in awe of him, savoring him. That is the first reason I wrote this
book: to help believers “behold the glory of the Lord” and so be changed into
his image.
But then consider how 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 relates to
our personal evangelism this summer. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is
veiled only to those who are perishing. (4) In their case the god of this world
has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.” Well, if Satan
is blinding the minds of people from seeing the glory of Christ in the gospel,
what should we do?
Give up
and go home, and surrender people to darkness? No. We should do two things over
and over again: hold up a testimony to the true Biblical Christ for them to see
(as verse 5 says) – conversations, tracts, sermons, tapes, books, etc. – and
then pray that verse 6 would happen by the power of the Holy Spirit: “It is the
God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.’” In
other words, the same power that created light in the first place gives light
to the dark human heart now so that Christ is seen for who he really is. That
is how you became a Christian. That is how those you love will become Christians.
You give them a faithful portrait of Jesus, and God gives them eyes to see.
Don’t make a mistake here when you think about how people come to believe
in the Jesus of the Bible. I am NOT saying that God whispers in our ear that the
Bible is true. It is rather God’s enabling us to see what is really there in
this portrait of Jesus. This is an important difference. If God whispered in
our ear, as it were, that the Jesus of the Bible is true, then the whispering
would have the final authority and everything would hang on that. But that is
not the path I see in the Bible nor the path I follow. Rather Jesus himself,
and his divinely inspired portrayal in the Bible, have the final authority.
The
practical effect of this path is that I do not ask you to pray, nor encourage
anyone else to pray, for a special whisper from God to decide if Jesus is real.
Rather I ask you to look at the Jesus of the Bible. Look at him. And pray that
you will see the self-authenticating glory that is really there. Don’t close
your eyes and hope for a word of confirmation. Keep your eyes open and fill
them with the full portrait of Jesus provided in the Bible. If anyone comes to
trust Jesus Christ as Lord and God, it will be because he or she sees in him a
divine glory and excellence that simply is what it is – true.
Therefore,
what I have tried to do in this book is put the Biblical portrait of Jesus on
display. The Bible itself is the only authoritative description of Jesus Christ.
That is why I have saturated these short chapters with Scripture.
I invite
you to join me in this serious quest for well-founded, everlasting,
love-producing joy in Jesus Christ. And that you do all in your power to
present this Jesus to as many people as you can – to Jewish people and to every
other religion or non-religion. Everything is at stake. There is no more
important issue in life than seeing Jesus for who he really is, and savoring
what we see above all else.
Copyright
2001 John Piper
Desiring God
Ministries | Piper's Notes
| Search Page | Sound of Grace