The following message is by Pastor John Piper.
More information from Desiring God Ministries is available
at www.desiringgod.org Turn to Matthew chapter
10, verses 24 through 31.
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor
a slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he
become like his teacher, and the slave like
his master.
If they have called the head of the
house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign
the members of his household?
Therefore, do not fear them, for there is
nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or
hidden that will not be made known.
When I tell you in the darkness, speak
in the light, and what you hear whispered
in your ear, proclaim among the housetops.
Do not fear those who kill the body,
but are unable to kill the soul, but
rather fear him who is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a cent,
and yet not one of them will fall
to the ground apart from your father?
But the very hairs of your head are
all numbered, so do not fear.
You are more valuable than many sparrows.
Amen.
Father in heaven, guard my mouth, and put
a watch over the door of my lips,
and so incline my heart that I would
not hurt this people, but only help.
I pray that life would flow from a
fountain of truth.
You will know the truth, and the truth
will set you free, and so guard me
from error.
And quicken the hearts and enliven the minds
to hear, to see beauty and compelling force
in the truth, and to believe, and to
receive as a treasure, and to be transformed.
I pray that there would be a weight
of earnest glory from heaven by the Holy
Spirit through the word upon us now for
these next few minutes.
And that you would do a saving, purifying,
healing, encouraging, strengthening, guiding, reconciling
work in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Five reasons why I'm not preaching on today's
text, but have a new one.
Number one, every Mother's Day, I think about
my mother's death.
1974, December 16, in a bus accident in
Israel.
My father sitting beside her, inexplicably not killed.
This year, I'm 55, the exact age that
he was when she died, which gives me
a whole new sense of empathy.
I would miss Noel, a lot.
Number two, not getting $9 million in
pledges and getting 6.5 has required that
I think and pray and assess and try
to read Providence.
We'll figure this out and move forward and
feel grateful.
I feel profoundly grateful for every dream and
every sacrifice in your heart and mine.
And I mean that with all my heart.
We ended that midnight meeting on Monday with
this little mathematical calculation.
Divide 800, give or take a few.
Giving units that have pledged towards this into
6.5 million.
And what do you get?
You get over $8,000 per pledge.
Now, that doesn't include the kids bricks, but
includes every teenager that pledged, every old person
on fixed income that pledged, every family that
pledged.
The average, not for a 10 year pledge,
but a two year pledge is $8,000.
That's unbelievable.
So I'm not upset about that.
But I've had to think, why is it
we set our sights on nine?
Why is it we prayed towards nine?
Why is it we hope toward nine and
God settles in at 6.5?
Why is that?
That's number two.
Number three, Wednesday night in this room did
not go the way I hoped it would
go when we voted.
And I have had to strengthen my hand
with the steadying truth of God's sovereign goodness
over our church.
Number four, Christianity Today arrived in the mail
on Friday.
And the cover story is all about the
debate over open theology, openness teaching it's called.
And you wonder what that is.
I'll quote from the introduction to explain what
it is.
A few theologians are now teaching that God
doesn't know the future precisely because the future
doesn't exist yet.
Thus, while God is very good at calculating
the odds, He still takes risks, especially in
dealing with His free creatures.
Now, you know, those of you who've been
around, that it's a great sadness to me
that the leaders of our college and seminary
do not regard this unorthodox teaching as serious
enough to exclude from what is being taught
as acceptably evangelical by at least one of
our faculty at Bethel College and Seminary.
And the reason it's so relevant this morning
and so pointed in this moment in our
life as a church is because of one
very true sentence in that introductory essay in
Christianity Today that goes like this.
These theological debates have enormous implications for piety
and pastoral care, especially for how we respond
to the tragedies that invade our lives.
That's true.
Whatever else it is, it's not small.
Number five.
And this one put me over the edge
at 10 o'clock tomorrow.
Yesterday morning, I was fully intending moving into
this service.
I'm preaching on Romans 7, 14 to 25.
Who is this divided man?
I will come back to that.
We won't waste those tape labels.
But this article in the Tribune from the
Washington Post, so cynical about the sovereignty of
God in the mouth of a widower, put
me over the edge.
So, four weeks ago, in a Cessna 185
float plane flying over the Peruvian jungle, Veronica
Bowers, seven-month-old charity in her lap,
Kevin Donaldson at the stick, six-year-old
Corey, son, husband, Jim, and the Peruvian Air
Force mistakes it for a drug plane, opens
fire.
The pilot's legs are riddled.
He puts the plane into an emergency dive.
Bleeding, profusely manages to land the plane on
a river.
And as it sinks and turns upside down,
Jim and Corey pull dead Veronica and charity
from the plane, both shot by the same
bullet, and float, waiting until the canoes come
and pick them up.
The memorial service was in Michigan two weeks
ago on Friday.
The article was a report on what Jim,
the husband, said, and it was cynical to
the core, because he affirmed what I'm going
to affirm right now.
And I'm going to affirm it for all
those five reasons.
I live by this.
I have no other way to survive in
ministry than if what I'm about to say
is true.
And I say it for mothers especially, because
if I had to choose a title for
this message, you know what it would be?
It's what I told Sam.
I said, Sam, at 7.15 this morning,
if you can get the tape labels changed,
fine.
And he said, well, I'll try.
What's the title?
And I said, call it, To Be a
Mother is a Call to Suffer.
It's true at the beginning.
Remember what Jesus said?
He was groping for some kind of analogy
of pain followed by joy.
And what would he reach for, of course?
John 16, he says, whenever a woman is
in labor, she has pain because her hour
has come.
But when she gives birth to the child,
she no longer remembers the anguish because of
the joy that the child has been born
into the world.
And so, to be a mother is a
call to suffer.
But not just at the beginning, also at
the end.
Remember what Simeon, the old man Simeon, said
to Mary?
Behold, this child that you're holding there is
appointed for the fall and rise of many
in Israel, and for a sign to be
opposed, and a sword will pierce through your
own soul, Mary.
At the beginning, pain.
At the end, pain.
And in the middle, pain.
When the child goes into missions, or when
you take the child into missions, or when
the child is just foolish, a wise son
makes a glad father, and a foolish son
breaks the heart of his mother.
Now, to be a mother is more than
suffering, but every mother in this room knows
it is not less.
So that would be my title.
To be a mother is a call to
suffer.
And here's the question then.
Mothers ask it, and all of us ask
it.
What am I to do with this?
How shall I manage this?
How shall I handle this?
This frustration, or this disappointment, or this heartache,
or this calamity?
Shall I go the openness route, the open
theology solution?
Well, what would that be?
What would that sound like?
I'll read it to you from one of
the most articulate spokesmen.
What would that be?
Quote, When an individual inflicts pain on another
individual, one should not go looking for the
purpose of God in the event.
Christians frequently speak of the purpose of God
in the midst of tragedy caused by someone
else, but this I regard to simply be
a piously confused way of thinking.
In other words, God had no particular purpose
that Veronica and Charity die and Corey and
Jim live.
There's no particular purpose in that.
That's a piously confused way of thinking.
And everything that Elizabeth Elliot and Steve Saint
and Steve Green and Jim Bowers said two
weeks ago at that memorial service, and I'll
tell you what they said in just a
minute, was a piously confused way of thinking
and provided no sure ground for comfort for
anybody in that room.
Is that the way you want to go,
mom?
Now, as we move to those testimonies, which
moved me so deeply because I was so
upset at this article that I read that
gave the cynical rendering of that testimony.
I went online, found the memorial service and
read every word of it from every testimony
that was given that night.
And you can find it too.
So I want to tell you what they
really said.
But first, I want to tell you, it
doesn't matter what they say, nor does it
matter what I'm saying right now.
Zero significance, except for one thing.
If what we're saying is true.
That is what God says.
So before I give you their testimony, let
me point to God's testimony.
First from Psalm 105, then from the text
that Steve read in Matthew 10.
So go with me if you have a
Bible and you'd like to see it with
your own eyes.
To Psalm 105.
I love inspired interpretations of inspired stories.
I'm not inspired.
I am not infallible.
I point the best I can to an
inspired and infallible book, which I believe can
authenticate itself in the life of every open
person who is docile to it.
But I'm not it.
And don't ever treat me that way.
In Psalm 105, we do have an inspired
interpretation of an inspired story.
The story is the story of how the
Jewish people came to be in Egypt in
the first place.
Remember, it was about Joseph.
The young son who has the dreams and
all of his brothers are going to bow
down to him.
And they hate him and they can't stand
him.
And they're envious of him and jealous.
And so they sell him into slavery and
he makes his way down there.
And then they come some years later and
there's a big famine.
And that's how the Jews get to Egypt.
And then God rescues them, brings them back
to the promised land.
This is what this psalm is about.
And I only want two verses to make
two points.
Verse 16 and 17.
Here they are.
He, God, called for a famine upon the
land.
There's the first interpretation.
God summoned, God called for a famine upon
the land.
He said, famine, come.
He broke the whole staff of bread.
Verse 17.
Here's the second interpretation.
He sent a man before them, Joseph, who
was sold as a slave.
Sent, sent.
Notice two things.
Number one, God called for a famine.
That is, God governs natural calamities.
Famine, come.
The governance of God over the world includes
the calamities of the world.
That's point one.
Verse 16.
Verse 17.
Point two.
The governance of God over the sinful actions
of men.
These brothers hated their younger brother.
They wanted to get rid of him and
to get rid of him with envy and
jealousy and spite.
They threw him in a pit and then
sold him to the Ishmaelites into slavery.
And God calls this His sending.
Their sinning becomes God's sending.
That's how sovereign God is over the sins
of men.
The interpretation had already been given in Genesis
50, verse 20, where Joseph tries to calm
his brothers who were all panicked that he
was going to kill them.
He says to them, as for you, you
meant it for evil against me, but God
meant it.
Now, stop right there and do not read
words in here that are not here.
Just let these words stand.
God meant it.
It does not say God used it.
It says God meant it for good.
God meant something.
God had a meaning.
God had a design.
God had a purpose.
It is not a piously confused way of
thinking about the story of Joseph to say,
God meant it for good, rather than to
say God only played catch-up ball and
used it for good.
It's not the same.
This is more.
This is sovereignty over men.
Now, let's finish the verse.
God meant it for good in order that
He might bring about this present result, namely,
to preserve many people alive.
You know what?
There's an easier way to preserve people alive.
Don't summon the famine.
Don't call for a famine.
You want to keep people alive?
Don't call for a famine.
God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, is
always doing a thousand things in everything that
He does, that you know nothing about.
You know nothing about them.
You learn two things, five things, three things,
twenty things about what you think happened in
your life, and then you measure them out,
and seventeen of them look negative, and three
look positive, and you call God Almighty into
account.
Whoa.
That's dangerous.
God is always doing a thousand things in
everything that He does, that you and I
know nothing about, and all of them designed
for the good of His children.
That is your good, if you'll trust Him.
This is a rock, folks.
I have now preached this three times today
to about 2,300 people.
Never in the last two years have I
gotten the kind of tears and comments at
the front afterwards in each service.
The people that don't like what I'm saying
perhaps leave and don't talk to me, but
the people that talk to me, you need
to know about these people.
They are the people who've lost loved ones.
First service, my sister and my brother were
killed in a car accident and left two
little girls last December.
Thank you.
Preach it, John.
Preach it.
It's the only hope.
A missionary, her brother went down.
You know Becky.
Her brother went down, killed down in Ecuador.
A couple of years ago I did the
funeral.
Young 32-year-old dad, Easter, his widow
remarried.
She said, never, never lose this message, John.
Tell the people.
Second service, a single woman came up and
said, you know six years ago I heard
you talk like this.
The week before I had a hysterectomy and
knew I'd never have children.
And I went in and my anesthesiologist was
named Dr. Sovereign.
She smiled, tears running down her face.
He said, I'll pray for you.
She said, you know what God said to
me was, would you find fault with the
plan I have for your life because you
think you have a better one?
Or is my design for you good?
The other text is Matthew 10.
I say, I am laboring in this message
to put a rock under your feet so
that when the winds blow and the floods
come, you will not be shaken.
You will have a place to go and
a strong fiber in your faith.
And you will have a means of interpreting
what seems so absurd at the moment.
Why you will cry.
And I hope that after today you will
be able to rest in God's sovereign goodness.
Matthew chapter 10, Steve read it.
Let's just read a few of these verses.
28.
Do not fear those who kill the body
but unable to kill the soul, but rather
fear him who is able to destroy both
soul and body in hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
And yet not one of them will fall
to the ground apart from your father.
The very hairs of your head are all
numbered.
Do not fear.
You are of more value than many sparrows.
Now notice a couple of things.
One.
Jesus knows his missionaries are going to be
killed.
This does not take Jesus off guard.
He says, Don't fear those who kill the
body but are unable to kill the soul.
Fear not.
You can only be killed.
You're going to be killed.
Some of you are going to be killed.
This is the deal.
If they call the master of the house
Beelzebul and strung him up on a cross
and you follow him, what do you expect?
Easy life?
Approval?
Secondly, notice.
You don't need to fear when that hostility
comes.
Why?
Because it says, Not a sparrow falls to
the ground apart from God.
And you are more valuable than the sparrows.
Therefore, what?
God guides the flight of the sparrow and
God guides the flight of the arrow and
the bullet.
Now I dare to say that because that's
what the husband said.
In fact, it is the foundation of every
Old Testament testimony that victory belongs to the
Lord.
What do you think it means when it
says in the Proverbs, The horse is made
ready for the day of battle, but victory
belongs to the Lord.
What does that mean?
It means he guides the flight of the
sparrow and he guides the flight of the
arrow and the bullet.
Now let me let these folks talk for
a minute and then we'll close.
Jim Bowers, two weeks ago in Fruitport, Michigan,
at Calvary Church in front of twelve hundred
people, it's all printed on the web, said,
concerning his lost wife and daughter, Most of
all, I want to thank my God.
He is a sovereign God.
I'm finding that out more now.
Could this really be God's plan for Ronnie
and charity?
God's plan for Corey and me and our
family?
I'd like to tell you why I believe
so and why I'm coming to believe so.
And then he gave a long list of
circumstances that have flowed from it, led into
it, and we're in the midst of it.
He said, Ronnie and I, Ronnie and charity
were instantly killed by the same bullet.
Would you say that's a stray bullet?
And it didn't reach Kevin, the pilot, who
was right in front of charity.
It stayed in charity.
That was a sovereign bullet.
Now that's the sentence that stopped me in
reading the paper yesterday.
That was quoted in the Tribune, that sentence.
And it was quoted with great cynicism.
It was a sovereign bullet.
I said, I got to read this.
I got to find this.
I got to get the context for this
statement.
And figure this guy out.
Because clearly, Mr. Donaldson, who writes for the
Washington Post, thought that was the most absurd,
ridiculous, horrible thing one could possibly say at
a funeral.
That the bullet that killed my wife was
a sovereign, God-directed bullet.
Then he forgave the killers, the shooters.
Who knows what was going on there?
You don't need to know, I guess.
He said, How could I not forgive them
when God has forgiven me so much?
And then he adds, Those people who did
that simply were used by God.
Whether you want to believe it or not,
he says, I believe it.
They were used by Him, by God, to
accomplish His purpose so that this, maybe, is
similar to the Roman soldiers whom God used
to put Christ on the cross.
Steve Saint is the son of Nate Saint,
who was killed by the Raudani Indians in
Ecuador in 1956.
He is 50 years old.
He was at the funeral.
He spoke.
It's on the web.
Do the math.
50.
He was 6 when his dad was killed.
Corey's age.
He comes to the pulpit.
He looks down at this little boy and
says, Corey, my name is Steve.
You know what?
A long time ago, when I was just
about your size, I was at a meeting
just like this.
I was sitting down there and I really
didn't know completely what was going on.
But, you know, now I understand it better.
A lot of adults used a word I
didn't understand then.
They used a word called tragedy.
But, you know, now I'm kind of an
old guy, and now when people come to
me and they say, Oh, I remember that
tragedy when it happened so long ago.
I know, Corey, they were wrong.
You see, my dad, who was a pilot
like the man you probably call Uncle Kevin,
and four of his really good friends had
just been buried in the jungles.
And my mom told me my dad was
never coming home.
And my mom wasn't really sad, so I
asked her, Where did dad go?
And she said, He went to live with
Jesus.
And, you know, that's where my mom and
dad had told me that we all wanted
to go and live.
Well, I thought, Isn't it great that daddy
got to go sooner than the rest of
us?
And you know what?
Now, when people say that was a tragedy,
I know they were wrong.
And then he looked up from this little
boy to the 1,200 adults, and he
told them the difference between the unbelieving world
and the followers of Jesus.
This is what he said, For them, the
pain is fundamental and the joy is superficial
because it won't last.
For us, the pain is superficial and the
joy is fundamental.
Amen, Steve.
Thank you.
Amen.
He said it more than once about his
own dad.
I close with Elizabeth Elliot.
She wasn't there.
She made a recording.
And I'll pass over her comments, which are,
as you can imagine, strong and to the
point, as we've been saying.
But I'll read the poem that she quoted
by Martha Nicholson as we close.
And it doesn't get much better than this
theologically and faithfully to Scripture in poetry.
The word mendicant means beggar.
I stood a mendicant of God before His
royal throne and begged Him for one priceless
gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand,
but as I would depart, I cried, But
Lord, this is a thorn and it has
pierced my heart.
This is a strange and hurtful gift which
thou has given me.
He said, My child, I give good gifts
and gave my best to thee.
I took it home.
And though at first the cruel thorn hurt
sore, As long years passed, I learned at
last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without
this added grace.
He takes the thorn to pin aside the
veil which hides His face.
I cannot come close to improving on those
last two lines.
To link this sermon with the last five
sermons in Romans 7.
I learned He never gives a thorn without
this added grace.
He takes the thorn to pin aside the
veil which hides His face.
It isn't law keeping that justifies us.
It isn't first law keeping that sanctifies us.
What is it we found in 2 Corinthians
chapter 3 verse 17 and 18?
It is by grace the lifting of the
veil so that we see the glory of
Christ crucified on our behalf.
Risen for our justification, reigning over the world
on our behalf.
Interceding for us all authority under His power.
Working all things together for our good and
we receive it as the treasure of our
lives.
And are shaped from one degree of glory
into His image.
That is how we become sanctified.
And therefore, if this is true, this poem,
the words of Steve Saint, the words of
Jim Bowers, the words of Jesus in Matthew,
the words of the psalmist in Psalm 105,
my testimony from my mother's death and all
the hardships that my life brings me, little
ones or bigger ones, if all of these
testimonies are true, I say, if it takes
a thorn, if it takes a disappointment, a
frustration, a setback, a heartache, a calamity, if
it takes that to pin the veil up
so that I can see Jesus, bring it
on.
Bring it on.
Let's pray.
Oh God, it's a dangerous prayer.
It's a dangerous prayer.
But that's how much we want You.
We want to see You compellingly, beautifully, ravishingly,
attractively as our treasure.
The satisfaction of our souls.
The fulfillment of our minds.
The end of all our dreams.
Our righteousness before God.
Our hope for everlasting life.
Infinite joy ever increasing.
Oh God, teach this people that joy is
fundamental and suffering is superficial.
In the end.
Moms, we love you.
To be a mother is a call to
suffer.
Every mom in the room knows it.
You know it is that.
It is not only that.
There will be great and wonderful moments, but
it is at least that.
I hope that you have a very, very
sweet, deep, powerful, appreciated day.
You're dismissed.
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