back to indexHow to Explain Christian Hedonism over Lunch
00:00:08.000 |
"Pastor John, how would you share the message of Christian hedonism, 00:00:12.000 |
that we exist to glorify God by enjoying Him forever, 00:00:15.000 |
from a single passage of Scripture with a co-worker or a fellow college student 00:00:19.000 |
over a 30-minute lunch meeting? Where would you go?" 00:00:26.000 |
I would go to Philippians, first to Pizza Hut, with a Bible or an iPad 00:00:32.000 |
and a napkin and a pen to write on, and I would go to Philippians 1, 20 to 23. 00:00:38.000 |
"It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not at all be ashamed, 00:00:43.000 |
but that with full courage now as always Christ will be magnified in my body." 00:00:47.000 |
So now that's one piece of what I want, because part of that statement is 00:00:50.000 |
God is most glorified in me when I'm most satisfied in Him. 00:01:00.000 |
That's what He wants, Christ magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. 00:01:04.000 |
Then he says, verse 21, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." 00:01:11.000 |
Now I'd stop right there and get my friend to talk with me about gain here. 00:01:15.000 |
What does he mean when he says to die is gain? 00:01:19.000 |
And he would probably say something like, at least I would tell him this is what I think it means, 00:01:26.000 |
"Paul believes that when he dies he's going to be more satisfied than when he lives." 00:01:36.000 |
"For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." 00:01:40.000 |
So if you die and it's gain, that means in the two columns of gain and loss, 00:01:46.000 |
if you put everything that this life has to offer in one column and you put death in the other column, 00:01:51.000 |
he says the death column is gain, which must mean he values something on the other side of death 00:01:57.000 |
more than he values all this stuff here, and it's more satisfying, and then you'd ask, "What is that?" 00:02:05.000 |
Verse 22, "If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, 00:02:09.000 |
yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I'm hard-pressed between the two. 00:02:13.000 |
My desire is to depart," okay, die, "and be with Christ." 00:02:19.000 |
Now there's the answer to the question, "What could be gain if everything in this life is lost?" 00:02:27.000 |
So I would put the language of satisfaction on that. 00:02:29.000 |
I'd say, "Doesn't that mean that Paul is saying to die is gain, 00:02:37.000 |
that is, to die means I will experience a superior satisfaction on the other side, 00:02:43.000 |
namely because Jesus is there, face to face, more intimate than here?" 00:02:49.000 |
And if I could get him to agree with that, then we'd go back to verse 20 and get the logic. 00:02:56.000 |
So it says, "It is my eager expectation and hope that Christ will be magnified, glorified, made much of." 00:03:09.000 |
"Christ would be glorified in my body, whether by death, for to die is gain." 00:03:16.000 |
And I would just say, "Now talk to me about that." 00:03:18.000 |
I'm trying to get him to give me what I see here. 00:03:22.000 |
He says, "Christ will be magnified by my death because to me to die is gain." 00:03:29.000 |
And we've already said that the gain is finding Christ more satisfying than everything in this world. 00:03:36.000 |
So wouldn't the paraphrase be, "Christ is magnified in my body when I die, 00:03:45.000 |
if I experience Christ in dying as supremely satisfying." 00:03:51.000 |
And then I would collapse it further and say, "Doesn't that say Christ is magnified 00:04:01.000 |
And I hope he'd say, "Well, yeah, that's what it says." 00:04:04.000 |
And then I would say, "Here's my rose story." 00:04:09.000 |
I take flowers to my wife. I ring the doorbell. She looks at me. 00:04:14.000 |
I say, "Happy Anniversary, Noel." And she says, "Oh, they're beautiful, Johnny. Why did you?" 00:04:19.000 |
And I say, "It's my duty." And she's not happy with that answer. 00:04:24.000 |
Instead, I run the video again. I ring the doorbell. She looks at them. 00:04:29.000 |
"Oh, Johnny, they're beautiful. Why did you?" And I say, "Because I can't help it. 00:04:34.000 |
I love buying flowers for you. In fact, I've got a plan for the evening 00:04:39.000 |
and we're going to go out on the town because there's nothing I'd rather do 00:04:45.000 |
Not a million years would she say, "Nothing you'd rather do than go out with me." 00:04:51.000 |
That's all you ever think about is you, you, you. What would satisfy you, you, you? 00:04:55.000 |
She would never say that. Why? Because when I say, "Nothing would make me happier 00:05:03.000 |
than to be with you tonight," she feels honored, glorified, magnified. 00:05:11.000 |
And the more satisfied in her I am, the more glorified she feels by me. 00:05:18.000 |
And therefore, we operate on this principle all day long when we're thinking clearly. 00:05:24.000 |
So I'd go to Philippians 1, 20 to 23, and I'd tell my rose story. 00:05:31.000 |
At Pizza Hut. Over a personal pan with a diet coke. 00:05:36.000 |
Well, this passage in Philippians 1 appears all over everything Pastor John produces. 00:05:41.000 |
But in another APJ episode, it played an interesting role in answering the question, 00:05:49.000 |
That's episode number 147. Be sure to check that out. 00:05:52.000 |
And like David did, please email your questions into us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org 00:05:58.000 |
and visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, 00:06:03.000 |
and other resources all free of charge from John Piper. 00:06:06.000 |
And all intended to help explain why God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. 00:06:12.000 |
I'm your host Tony Ranke. We'll see you tomorrow.