Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.
Each week, we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers,
too.
This week, we have John Piper, with his
message, At the Price of His Own Blood.
You will see in the text, Peter attached
to Jesus Christ, and the awesome privilege of
belonging to him by faith.
And so I invite you to turn first
to the book of 1 Peter, 1 Peter
chapter 1.
And when you have found that place in
your Bibles, put a finger there and flip
back to Acts chapter 20.
And I'll begin reading at Acts 20, verse
25.
And now behold, I know that all you
among whom I have gone about preaching the
kingdom will see my face no more.
Therefore, I testify to you this day that
I am innocent of the blood of you
all.
For I did not shrink from declaring to
you the whole counsel of God.
Take heed to yourselves and to all the
flock in which the Holy Spirit has made
you guardians to feed the church of the
Lord which he obtained with his own blood.
And now to 1 Peter chapter 1, verse
18.
You know that you were ransomed from the
feudal ways inherited from your fathers not with
perishable things such as silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ like that
of a lamb without blemish or spot.
He was destined before the foundation of the
world, but he was made manifest at the
end of the times for your sake.
Through him you have confidence in God who
raised him from the dead and gave him
glory so that your faith and hope are
in God.
Amen.
I've been moved very deeply in recent days
by reading about the life of Nicholas Ludwig
von Zinzendorf.
Some of you know who Zinzendorf is and
others of you may not.
He was a German and was born in
1700 and is perhaps best known as the
founder of a community in Germany called Herrnhut
of about 300 people in the early days
around 1727 when it got going.
And it became famous as part of the
Moravian Church for its unparalleled missionary zeal this
Herrnhut community.
In 1727 it started a round-the-clock
prayer watch they called it.
And of those 300 people people signed up
to make commitments to pray one hour in
the 24-hour period.
And that round-the-clock prayer watch lasted
100 years unbroken.
In 1792, 65 years after it began they
had sent out to the unreached peoples of
the West Indies and Lapland and Greenland and
Turkey and North America 300 of their own
people as missionaries.
These people were utterly, radically sold to Jesus
Christ.
Given away.
They were not their own.
They belonged to Jesus.
And the reason I mention this is not
only because I dream that Bethlehem might be
a church that saturated with prayer not only
because I would love us to have that
kind of heart for world evangelization especially among
those who have not had any witness in
their culture at all but mainly I mention
this because behind this movement, behind this community
there was an experience of the blood of
Jesus that Zinzendorf had.
And I want to mention it to you
and I want us to focus on the
blood and the purchase of the blood of
Jesus this morning as we prepare to take
the Lord's table and drink this sacred cup
this morning.
Zinzendorf was a count.
He was royalty.
He was rich.
One article that I read entitled it The
Rich Young Ruler Who Said Yes.
And he did.
He ultimately gave it all away and renounced
his title as count.
But he was rich when he was 22
years old and he took a trip through
all the high spots of Europe looking at
the cultural excellencies of his day and he
came to Dusseldorf and he went to the
art museum there and as he was walking
through he saw a painting by Domenico Fetti
entitled Ecce Homo, Behold the Man a portrait
of Jesus with a crown on his head
and the blood running down his face.
Beneath it were the words I have done
this for you, what have you done for
me?
And all of his life after that Zinzendorf
said that experience standing there watching that painting
and as it were beholding the sufferings of
Jesus for me changed my life.
Never again could I view myself as my
own.
Never again could I walk through the day
without asking the question whose am I and
what did it cost to get me and
for what was I purchased?
And it revolutionized his own life and it
became the foundation of the missionary zeal of
that little Herrnhut community so that the blood
and wounds of Jesus Christ enslaved them to
a kind of dedication that is rare today.
In fact, it's illustrated in a story I
don't know whether this story is true or
not but it could easily be true, I
like to think it's true it ought to
be true if it isn't of two of
the first missionaries that went out their names
were Leonard Dober and David Nichman they left
Herrnhut and went up to Copenhagen where they
were to catch a ship and go to
the West Indies and they had no idea
how they would make a living there none
of their missionaries were ever supported at home
they always supported themselves on the field they
were ready to become slaves to minister to
the slaves if necessary the people thought they
were crazy in Copenhagen but a few gathered
around them to support them and they kept
the faith and got on the boat and
as the boat was ready to disengage and
pull out to harbor their few friends standing
there saying goodbye perhaps to never see them
again 20 out of the first 29 who
went to the West Indies died they lifted
their hands as in sacred gesture and said
very loudly across the waters may the land
that was slain receive the reward of his
suffering they were referring of course to Revelation
5 and 9 that he shed his blood
to ransom men for God from every people
and tribe and tongue and nation and I
want to talk this morning about the reward
of the sufferings of Jesus and whether or
not you are letting him have those rewards
in your life or resisting letting those rewards
be it's a short message so that we
can go to the Lord's table it's intended
just to help you do some self soul
searching Acts 20, 28 says at the end
that we are to care for the church
of God which he obtained with his own
blood literally or with the blood of his
own son so Zinzendorf was right to stand
there and look in the face of Jesus
as it were and feel himself as part
of the church of God to be blood
bought and not his own but I want
to move beyond the text that David read
and look at three others and here's the
question I'm asking and I know from the
response I got at the end of the
first service this is jarring to some people
it surprised me in a sense but I
guess now that I think about it, it
shouldn't be we are very prone, I'm going
to preface this so that I can sort
of head off at the past the feedback
that I got at the end of the
first service we are very prone to only
think of one dimension of the purchase of
the cross namely our forgiveness our justification our
reconciliation our propitiation and our cleansing in conscience
and we stop there and we don't ask
how shall the cross master my dedication and
create in me a zeal for God did
Christ in his sufferings purchase for me more
than forgiveness and I think the reason it
came across as jarring was because maybe I
didn't make it clear enough that when he
purchases something he gets it when he purchases
something he gets it now there are three
things that he purchased for you as part
of his body that he will get but
you must ask am I with him in
the pursuing of those things or am I
striving against him in his effort to get
those things let me mention these three things
and they're for you to examine your soul
with you're welcome to look these texts up
with me in Ephesians chapter 5 verses 25
to 27 we have a picture of the
purchase of the Lord Jesus so what I'm
doing with each of these texts now is
asking this question practically speaking in your daily
life what is the reward of the sufferings
of Jesus so that if you were to
get up in the morning and lift your
hand in sacred gesture to the king of
kings and say may the lamb that was
slain receive in my life today the reward
of his sufferings what would that be let's
read verses 25 to 27 husbands love your
wives as Christ loved the church and gave
himself up for her why now what is
he purchasing he gave himself up for her
that he might sanctify her having cleansed her
by the washing of water in the word
so that he might present the church to
himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or
any such thing that she might be holy
and without blemish now I ask you what
did he bleed to purchase what was the
reward of his suffering according to verse 26
he gave himself up for her that he
might sanctify her your holiness is what he
died for he died to purchase the holiness
of the church or the beautiful words following
on in verse 27 he died to make
his bride splendid glorious with her wedding garment
ironed not a wrinkle in it no spots
anymore and so the question to ask yourself
is alright if he valued my holiness my
splendor my spotlessness and my wrinkle-free attire
of righteousness so highly as to bleed to
get it to die to get it how
valuable is the pursuit of holiness to me
is there a commensurate value in your heart
as was in God's heart he paid the
blood of his son to make you holy
and we're talking real holiness here not simply
the declared righteousness through justification we're talking real
day to day don't return evil for evil
holiness that was one of the misunderstandings in
the first service I believe he bought not
only free justification he bought sanctification that's what
verse 26 says loud and clear and he
will have it from his people if he
doesn't get it you're not his person he
will have holiness Hebrews 12,14 there is
a holiness without which we will not see
the Lord he bought it he'll have it
he will perform it but it was another
misunderstanding I'm preaching two sermons you can hear
here and we're going to go too long
if I do this all the way through
people draw the conclusion if he bought something
for me I don't need to pursue it
wrong it's written all over the New Testament
you are dead with Christ therefore what?
reckon yourself dead the pages of the Bible
are replete with pursue the holiness without which
you won't see the Lord strive to enter
at the narrow gate and if I preach
that people walk out and say he believes
and works and if I don't preach it
it's easy believism I'm trying to be holy
biblical I believe every sentence written in the
holy book and I must say to you
are you with Jesus in what he died
to achieve in your life or are you
against him that's the first thing he died
to achieve your holiness he bled that you
might be splendid are you pursuing splendor in
your life with the same zeal that God
pursued it when he gave his son second
this text is Titus chapter 2 verse 14
and the answer to the question what is
the reward of Christ's sufferings in this 14
verse 14 is this the reward of his
sufferings is zeal for good deeds in your
life zeal for good deeds in your life
let's read verse 14 he gave himself for
us to redeem us from all iniquity and
to pursue to purify for himself a people
of his own who are zealous for good
deeds now let's just break it down simply
into the first and the last part of
the verse he gave himself for us he
bled he suffered he died he was wracked
with pain picture him now stand with Zinzendorf
before some painting of the heaving Christ and
then finish the verse he did it all
that you might have a flame of zeal
zeal for good deeds in your life now
I ask you is it there is the
reward of his sufferings there in your life
what does it mean if you have no
zeal for good deeds but Jesus bled for
your good deeds to be zealous what does
this mean examine yourselves as you come to
the table because I'm going to say at
the table that the only people who should
eat are people who can say this there
is nothing that I want more in my
life than what Jesus bled to obtain there
is nothing that I want more in my
life than what Jesus bled to obtain and
the first thing is my holiness and the
second thing is zeal for good deeds and
I'm not talking here about getting up in
the morning going to work and coming home
and saying oh I didn't lie I didn't
steal I didn't kill and I didn't commit
adultery so I'll watch TV and I'll go
to bed that's not a zeal for good
deeds that's an avoidance ethic an avoidance ethic
that plagues the church I had lunch with
a Jewish rabbi this week and the most
powerful thing he said to me was you
Christians have no right to try to convert
us Jews the only thing you have a
right to do is ask for our forgiveness
that's a direct quote and what he meant
was 1800 years of anti-semitism does not
commend your faith very highly and he's right
there's some of it in this church I've
heard it slurs racial slurs Jewish slurs zeal
for good deeds is the only way we
will commend Christianity to the Jews today he
said very plainly we don't listen to talk
we look and the third answer to the
question is the reward of Christ's sufferings is
the ransom of a church from every people,
tongue, tribe, and nation a global redeemed and
ransomed people out of every cultural group every
language group every ethnic group on the face
of the earth now this is the one
I referred to earlier Revelation chapter 5 verse
9 and I want to read it again
this is what Leonard Dober was referring to
when he raised his hand and said may
the lamb that was slain receive the reward
of his sufferings he was basically referring to
Revelation 5 9 worthy art thou talking to
Jesus to take the scroll and to open
its seals for thou was slain and by
thy blood this ransom persons for God from
every tribe and tongue and people and nation
you know it would be not at all
unwarranted to paraphrase it like this Jesus died
to give you a commitment to world evangelization
Jesus died to secure in your heart a
commitment to world evangelization because it is impossible
psychologically to say I love the blood of
Jesus I cherish the purchase of the cross
but I'm not I'm just not committed to
gathering in the children of God from every
people and tribe and tongue and nation even
though he died and bled to purchase people
from every tribe and tongue and people and
nation that's not my interest can't say it
can't do it I'm not saying y'all
gotta be missionaries okay you shouldn't the Bible
doesn't teach that I'm saying commitment, care, prayer,
support, zeal and so we've got three answers
now to the question we could add a
longer list but let's just take these three
they're enough to put us on our face
I think before this table one Ephesians 5
Jesus bled and died to purchase my holiness
and yours two he bled and he died
to purchase a zeal for good deeds that
goes beyond the easy avoidance ethic of not
stealing, lying, killing and committing adultery and three
he died to fill me with a passion
for world evangelization and so I just ask
now how are you doing and the answer
of course is we're not doing very well
I told the first service that my preparation
of this message was a kind of rending
thing yesterday afternoon as I worked my way
through this and I don't want to give
the impression to anybody here that I've got
these three things nice wrapped up in a
package and I'm pointing my finger at you
it's a devastating thing to read text after
text in the New Testament and I've got
a whole page of them I haven't chosen
to talk about text after text that says
what he bought to achieve in my life
what he died to achieve in me and
how far short I fall and so I
want to remind you and maybe I didn't
say this loud enough in the first service
so as to give cause for misunderstanding beneath
these three things holiness, zeal for good works
and commitment to world evangelization there is the
purchase of forgiveness Ephesians 1.7 the purchase
of justification by faith Romans 5.9 the
purchase of reconciliation to God for the ungodly
Romans 5.10 the cleansing of conscience from
dead works Hebrews 9.14 it's all there,
that's just not been my message this morning
because the other one we need so badly
if we're going to be like the Moravians
of Herrnhut we need to have the blood
of Christ not only soothe our guilt so
that we can just be we need to
have the blood of Christ do that and
then just master us so that we say
if he bled for my holiness I will
give anything for my holiness if he bled
to give me a zeal for good deeds
I'll get up in the morning and plan
a hundred good deeds if he bled to
make me have a passion for world evangelization
I'll do anything, read biographies, study, pray, go
to conferences I'll do anything to have that
passion because his blood paid for it it
cost that much, it was worth that much
to the Father to have my holiness, my
zeal, and my commitment you've been listening to
the From the Pulpit in Classic Sermon series
this week you heard John Piper with his
message At the Price of His Own Blood
Tune in next week to hear John MacArthur
speak about abortion and the campaign for immorality
on From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons