IN OUR JOY

IN OUR JOY JOHN PIPER TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ....................................................................... 5 PART ONE: THE HARD ROAD OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE CHAPTER ONE Coming to Jesus Is Not Easy ............................................. 9 CHAPTER TWO Following Jesus Is a Hard Road ..................................... 17 CHAPTER THREE The Road Is Hard, But It Is Not Joyless .......................... 29 PART TWO: JESUS, JOY, AND STRIVING TO ENTER THE KINGDOM CHAPTER FOUR Strive to Enter the Narrow Door ..................................... 45 CHAPTER FIVE Without Jesus Our Striving Would Be Losing ................. 59 CHAPTER SIX Our Joy in Jesus Sustains Our Striving .......................... 73 Endnotes .......................................................................... 89 More Resources ............................................................... 92 IN OUR JOY Published by Desiring God Copyright © 2007 Desiring God International Standard Book Number: 978-1-60402-877-5 All Scripture quotations are taken from: The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Selections from What Jesus Demands from the World by John Piper, copyright © 2006, used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 60187, www.crossway.com. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a fi eld, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that fi eld. MATTHEW 13:44 INTRODUCTION The title for this little book is adapted from one of Jesus’ shortest parables: The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a fi eld, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that fi eld. (Matt. 13:44) Fifteen minutes before his discovery in the fi eld, the thought of selling all that he owned would have seemed unwise to this man, even excruciating. But fi fteen minutes afterward he was off to do it with joy. What made the difference? The treasure. This man suddenly found something that transformed his whole outlook on life. It restructured his priorities. It altered his goals. His values changed. The treasure revolutionized the man. There was a cost to obtaining the treasure. View- ing it one way, it was a high cost. Imagine being his neighbor. You would have been bewildered as you watched him liquidate his assets. You might have questioned him. You might have warned him of the dangers of imperiling his family. You might have talked to other neighbors, wondering if the man was going bonkers. You would have been puzzled at his joy. But viewing it another way, the cost was very small. The man was shrewd. Standing there in the fi eld, he did a quick cost-benefi t analysis. It didn’t take much time to realize that selling all his possessions was going to make him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. What he did might have appeared foolish at fi rst. But in reality the benefi ts so far outweighed the costs that he would have been foolish not to sell everything. That’s what this little book is about—the treasure. And it’s about the cost. There is a cost to obtaining the treasure. We must be realistic about it: it will cost us everything. But if we’ve really discovered the treasure, the most realistic conclusion is that we would be foolish not to go and in our joy sell all that we have to get it. Jon Bloom, Executive Director Desiring God PART ONE THE HARD ROAD OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. MATTHEW 11:28 Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” JOHN 7:37 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger.” JOHN 6:35 You refuse to come to me that you may have life. JOHN 5:40 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out. JOHN 11:43-44 CHAPTER ONE COMING TO JESUS IS NOT EASY When a person is born anew and experi-ences repentance, his attitude about Jesus changes. Jesus himself becomes the central focus and supreme value of life. Before the new birth hap- pens and repentance occurs, a hundred other things seem more important and more attractive: health, family, job, friends, sports, music, food, sex, hob- bies, retirement. But when God gives the radical change of new birth and repentance, Jesus himself becomes our supreme treasure. HI S YO K E I S EA S Y , A N D HI S BU R D E N I S L I G H T Therefore, his demand that we come to him is not burdensome. It means coming to the one who has become everything to us. Jesus did not come into the world mainly to bring a new religion or a new law. He came to offer himself for our eternal enjoy- ment and to do whatever he had to do—including death—to remove every obstacle to this everlasting joy in him. “These things I have spoken to you, that 10 JO H N P I P E R IN OU R JOY 11 my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). When Jesus demands that we do things—like “Come to me”—the essence of these demands is that we experience the life that most fully savors and spreads his supreme worth. As Jesus looks out over the religions of the world—including the Judaism of his day—he sees people who are laboring under heavy loads to earn the favor of whatever deity they believe in. He did not come to replace that God-appeasing load with another one. He came to carry that load and call us to himself for rest. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will fi nd rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). Make no mistake, there is a yoke and a burden when we come to Jesus (there would be no demands if this were not true), but the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. TH E R E I S A BU R D E N, BU T IT ’ S NO T J E S U S But perhaps it’s not easy and light the way we think it is. Jesus also said, “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life” (Matt. 7:14). The rea- son it is hard is not because Jesus is a hard task- master. It’s hard because the world is a hard place to enjoy Jesus above all. Our own suicidal tendency to enjoy other things more must be crushed (Matt. 5:29-30). And besides our own sin, many people are angered that we do not love what they love. So Jesus warned, “Some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (Luke 21:16-17). But Jesus is not the burden. When we come to him, he is the burden-lifter, the soul-satisfi er, and the life-giver. “Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink’” (John 7:37). Coming to Jesus means coming to drink. And the water we drink in fellowship with Jesus gives ever- lasting life. “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). The demand that we come to Jesus is the demand to come to the fountain of life and drink. Jesus is not satisfi ed to lure us into obedience with images of life-giving water. He will also draw 12 JO H N P I P E R IN OU R JOY 13 us with promises of life-sustaining bread. “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger” (John 6:35). Jesus himself is the bread of heaven—the source and essence of everlasting life. He will draw us with promises of deliverance from perishing (John 3:16). The demand that we come to him is therefore like the demand of a father to his child in a burning window, “Jump to me!” Or like the demand of a rich, strong, tender, handsome husband to an unfaithful wife, “Come home!” Or like the demand of a rescue squad that fi nds you on the point of death, dehydrated after days in the desert, “Drink this!” “YO U RE F U S E T O CO M E T O ME TH AT YO U MAY HAV E L I F E” But the personal tragedy of sin and spiritual blind- ness is that people do not come. Jesus grieved over his people. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Matt. 23:37). “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). Why don’t people come to Jesus? At one level the answer is because they “refuse to come.” In other words, people do not want to come. Some call this the choice of free will. Jesus would probably say it is the choice of a will enslaved to sin. “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Jesus would say that people do not come to him because they are enslaved to their supreme preference for other things. “The light has come into the world, and people loved the dark- ness rather than the light . . . everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light” (John 3:19-20). How then has anyone ever come, since we are all enslaved to sin and spiritually dead? Jesus’ answer was that God, in his great mercy, overcomes our resistance and draws us: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65). God grants the gift of new birth and repentance, which opens the eyes 14 JO H N P I P E R IN OU R JOY 15 of the spiritually blind to the truth and beauty of Jesus. When this happens, all suicidal objections fall. We are fi nally free. And, fi nally free from slavery, we come. “LA Z A RU S , CO M E OU T!” Jesus came into the world to gather his fl ock from all the world (John 11:52). He lays down his life for them and demands that they come to him. Though he weeps over those who do not come, he will not be frustrated in his design. He will succeed in gathering a people for himself. He speaks with absolute sovereignty when he says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one fl ock, one shepherd” (John 10:16). He must bring them. They will heed his voice. They will come. When you hear the voice of Jesus saying, “Come to me,” pray that God would give you eyes to see Jesus as irresistibly true and beautiful. Pray that you would hear this command the way Lazarus did when he was dead. “[Jesus] cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The man who had died came [out of his grave]” (John 11:43-44). When you come to Jesus like this, you will never cease to praise and thank him for his sovereign grace. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will fi nd it. MATTHEW 16:24-25 Follow me, and I will make you become fi shers of men. MARK 1:17 I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. JOHN 8:12 Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead. MATTHEW 8:22 If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. MATTHEW 19:21 CHAPTER TWO FOLLOWING JESUS IS A HARD ROAD Jesus’ invitation to come to him was for the purpose of discipleship. When we come to Jesus, we come to follow him. This can be seen concretely in Jesus’ life on earth. Jesus was fully human and fully God (John 1:1, 14). He was not God with a human veneer—like a costume. He was a real, fl esh-and-blood man, a carpenter’s son (Mark 6:3). So when he said to fi shermen or tax collectors, “Follow me,” their obedience was a concrete, physical act of putting their feet on the ground and walking behind Jesus and being part of his traveling team. FO L L O W I N G J E S U S WH E N HE I S NO T HE R E But Jesus knew that he would not always be on earth to have followers in this physical sense. “I am going to him who sent me. . . . I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:5, 7). Jesus was fully aware that the movement he began would 18 JO H N P I P E R IN OU R JOY 19 continue after he had gone back to his Father in heaven. This was his plan. Therefore, the demand that we follow him was relevant not only for his physical days on earth but for all time. He made this clear at the end of his earthly ministry. He had risen from the dead and was about to ascend to the Father. He told Peter that he would suffer martyrdom someday after Jesus was gone. Peter wondered if he was the only one and asked Jesus what would happen to his fel- low apostle, John. Jesus answered, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (John 21:22). What this implies about “following Jesus” is that it happens after he is gone. Until Jesus comes again, he expects his disciples on earth to “follow” him. So following Jesus is not limited to physi- cally walking around Palestine behind him. Jesus demands it of every person in every country in every age. FO L L O W I N G J E S U S ME A N S JO I N I N G HI M I N WH AT HE WA S SE N T T O DO When Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, who were fi shermen by trade, “Follow me, and I will make you become fi shers of men” (Mark 1:17), he was using imagery relevant to them for something that applies to everyone who follows Jesus. The demand to follow Jesus means that everyone should join him in what he came to do. And he tells us repeatedly what that was. “The Son of Man came . . . to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). “What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27-28). In summary, then, he came to “die for the nation [of Israel], and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (John 11:51-52). He came to gather a people—specifi cally, to gather a people in allegiance to himself for the glory of his Father—by dying to save them from their sins and to give them eternal life and a new ethic of love like his (John 13:34-35). Therefore, when he demands that we 20 JO H N P I P E R IN OU R JOY 21 follow him, he means that we join him in that task of gathering: “Whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 11:23). There are no neutral followers; we either scatter or gather. Following Jesus means continuing the work he came to do—gathering a people in allegiance to him for the glory of his Father. FO L L O W I N G J E S U S I N T O SU F F E R I N G Continuing the work he came to do even includes the suffering he came to do. Following Jesus means that we share in his suffering. When Jesus calls us to follow him, this is where he puts the emphasis. He knows he is heading to the cross, and he demands that we do the same. He designs his entire life and ministry to go to Jerusalem and be killed. “I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). So he “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). And he knew exactly what would happen there. It was all planned by his Father when he sent him into the world. “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and fl og him and kill him. And after three days he will rise” (Mark 10:33-34). That’s the plan—down to the details of being spit on. That was the design of his life. And he knew that his own pain would also fall on those who fol- lowed him. “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). So the unfl inching focus of his demand was that we follow him in suf- fering. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). Jesus put the emphasis on self-denial and cross-bearing. SU F F E R I N G F O R J E S U S W I T H JOY SH O W S HI S SU P R E M E VA L U E He did not die to make this life easy for us or pros- perous. He died to remove every obstacle to our everlasting joy in making much of him. And he calls us to follow him in his sufferings because this life of joyful suffering for Jesus’ sake (Matt. 5:12) shows that he is more valuable than all the earthly rewards that the world lives for (Matt. 13:44; 6:19- 22 JO H N P I P E R IN OU R JOY 23 20). If you follow Jesus only because he makes life easy now, it will look to the world as though you really love what they love, and Jesus just happens to provide it for you. But if you suffer with Jesus in the pathway of love because he is your supreme treasure, then it will be apparent to the world that your heart is set on a different fortune than theirs. This is why Jesus demands that we deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. SU F F E R I N G F O R J E S U S I S TE M P O R A RY ; PL E A S U R E I N J E S U S I S ET E R N A L Of course, the pain is temporary. He does not call us to eternal suffering. That’s what he rescues us from. “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25). “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). Suffering for Jesus is temporary. Pleasure in Jesus is eternal. When Peter said (perhaps with a tinge of self-pity), “See, we have left everything and fol- lowed you,” Jesus responded, without coddling Peter’s self-pity, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hun- dredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Matt. 19:27, 29). In other words, there is no ultimate sacrifi ce in following Jesus. “You will be repaid at the resur- rection of the just” (Luke 14:14). “Your reward is great in heaven” (Matt. 5:12). Even before heaven, joy abounds along the hard road that leads through death to resurrection. Nothing can compare with the joy of walking in the light with Jesus as opposed to walking in the dark- ness without him. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in dark- ness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Following Jesus does indeed lead through suffering and death. But the path is luminous with life and truth. Jesus promised, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). And where Jesus is present there is joy—joy in sorrow for now, but joy nevertheless. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). RU P T U R E S I N RE L AT I O N S H I P S W I T H PE O P L E This is why the ruptures caused by following 24 JO H N P I P E R IN OU R JOY 25 Jesus are not devastating. There are ruptures in relationships with people, re