The Sweetness of Christ in 2020

00:00:00.000 | As we draw near the end of 2020, we should take a few moments to look back on the year.

00:00:08.560 | It's been an eventful one for sure.

00:00:10.720 | It's been heartbreaking, it's been sorrowful, and yet it's also been full of joy as well.

00:00:15.840 | Pastor John, as you look back on 2020—I know a lot has happened in your world—as

00:00:19.440 | you look back on this year, what has God been showing you?

00:00:24.240 | As I look back over 2020, the most fundamental experience for me that colors everything else

00:00:32.280 | and has shaped everything else is the experience of sweeter fellowship with God and with Jesus

00:00:42.280 | through His Word and through the mercies of the Holy Spirit.

00:00:46.920 | As I have tried to figure out why this is, I think the most persistent reason that I

00:00:54.280 | come up with is that I have lived this year as though walking along the precipice of eternity.

00:01:03.400 | COVID-19 means that floating around me in the air are invisible viruses that specialize

00:01:13.440 | in killing 74-year-olds.

00:01:17.160 | And then add to that, my city blew up last summer, and 1,500 businesses near my home

00:01:26.680 | were burned.

00:01:28.740 | And even through the election, buildings just blocks from my house were boarded up out of

00:01:34.000 | fear at what might happen with the election results.

00:01:37.640 | And as Noelle and I have sat together in the evening, night after night, month after month,

00:01:43.960 | she would read to me the statistics of the thousands in Minnesota who are infected anew

00:01:51.200 | with the virus and the numbers of how many had died and what their ages were.

00:01:56.440 | So more than any other year of my life, this one has been lived with an almost daily consciousness

00:02:06.160 | of my mortality and the ease with which the entire infrastructure and social order could

00:02:14.260 | dissolve all of this while causing us grief for so many who suffer.

00:02:21.200 | It sounds odd, I know, for me to say, "This year's been good for me," when so many have

00:02:26.040 | died, so many suffer.

00:02:27.720 | I mean, not just suffer from the disease, but suffer economically.

00:02:32.320 | When all of that is taken into account, I have to say this has been very good for me,

00:02:37.160 | very good for me.

00:02:38.480 | A keen sense of my own mortality and a realistic view of the inevitability of meeting Jesus

00:02:46.320 | face to face momentarily, perhaps, or quite soon, has had the effect, both privately and

00:02:54.480 | with my wife and with others, of making the bread of heaven sweeter and the living water

00:03:01.240 | more satisfying.

00:03:02.240 | I just read, in fact, yesterday in John 10, "I am the door.

00:03:08.640 | If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture."

00:03:17.280 | And I suppose I've read John a hundred times.

00:03:21.280 | Why would it be that now, just now, in the closing of this year, that phrase "finding

00:03:29.080 | pasture" would stand out to me as obvious and real and precious and sweet and a palpable

00:03:38.960 | reality?

00:03:40.480 | Jesus promises me that during the pandemic, if I come to him and he becomes for me the

00:03:48.080 | single door to God, to reality, to life, to joy, then I'll be like a sheep going into

00:03:56.760 | his secure sheepfold and coming out to graze in pastures of beautiful provisions and perfections

00:04:06.000 | of Christ, right in the very midst of the pandemic and the crumbling culture.

00:04:12.440 | So in answer to your question, Tony, it's been a sweet year.

00:04:17.360 | It has.

00:04:18.560 | You said that this experience of sweeter fellowship has colored and shaped everything else this

00:04:23.200 | year.

00:04:24.200 | What did you mean by that?

00:04:25.200 | Do you have any specific examples?

00:04:27.520 | I suppose one of the easiest things to say about the effect of a pandemic on my life

00:04:33.000 | would be to say that it shut down all travel and a good many speaking engagements and therefore

00:04:39.520 | freed me up to have a lot of time left over for productive writing.

00:04:45.360 | But that's an easy thing to say quantitatively, but what I want to focus on is not so much

00:04:52.200 | the quantity of time that this enforced seclusion has produced, but the nature of it, the nature

00:04:59.720 | of the time, the nature of the seclusion, the nature of the effect and the way it connects

00:05:06.280 | with this sweetening of the fellowship with Jesus.

00:05:11.160 | For example, I finished three books this year.

00:05:16.680 | Finished three.

00:05:17.680 | I didn't finish three whole, but finished three.

00:05:21.800 | But the one that has occupied my mind the most is called "What is Saving Faith?"

00:05:28.520 | subtitled "Reflections on Receiving Christ as a Treasure."

00:05:34.040 | Now that book that I wrote during my writing leave last summer is riveted on the question

00:05:41.400 | of what the actual experience of saving faith is like, and the answer to that question is

00:05:49.080 | it is like drinking living water with satisfaction.

00:05:53.920 | Saving faith is like eating bread, the bread of heaven, with pleasure.

00:06:00.440 | It's like basking in the light of the world with delight.

00:06:05.720 | In other words, the very subject matter of that book has been my experience, especially

00:06:14.360 | during this year.

00:06:16.560 | That's what I meant when I said that the experience of sweeter fellowship with Jesus,

00:06:22.640 | sweeter drinking, sweeter eating, colors everything, like the books I wrote.

00:06:28.560 | And then, besides that book, I finished the two-year project on providence, which I think

00:06:36.560 | is supposed to be available in January.

00:06:39.560 | And the point of that book is that God's all-pervasive, all-embracing providence, his

00:06:47.960 | purposeful sovereignty will guarantee that God's elect people from every tribe and language

00:06:58.320 | and nation will perfectly glorify him in the age to come precisely through the enjoyment

00:07:06.120 | of eating the bread of heaven and drinking the living water and basking in the light

00:07:11.280 | of the world, Jesus Christ.

00:07:14.320 | So this purpose that God has for all the world, in all the details, by his providence, this

00:07:21.440 | purpose cannot fail because of God's all-embracing providence.

00:07:27.800 | And then thirdly, I wrote that little book, Coronavirus and Christ, back in April, which

00:07:33.520 | was simply an application of providence and the purposes of saving faith to the pandemic.

00:07:40.880 | One of God's purposes in the pandemic, I argued, is to summon the world, the whole

00:07:46.600 | world, to bring their lives into alignment with the infinite worth of Jesus Christ, the

00:07:52.720 | Son of God.

00:07:53.720 | And of course, that alignment means drinking the living water with satisfaction, eating

00:08:00.400 | the bread of heaven with pleasure, basking in the light of the world with joy because

00:08:06.080 | God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in him.

00:08:10.800 | So that's what I had in mind, Tony, when I said that this experience of the sweetness

00:08:17.000 | of fellowship with Jesus has shaped everything else I've done this year.

00:08:20.920 | That's really good.

00:08:21.920 | I know book writing is a passion of your life, obviously, but that's not the only thing that

00:08:25.600 | you do.

00:08:26.600 | I mean, obviously we do this podcast as well, and before the month ends, before the new

00:08:31.560 | year begins, we're actually going to devote a whole episode just to looking at the stats

00:08:35.400 | of APJ.

00:08:36.400 | I'm going to do a whole episode just by myself, just walking through those stats.

00:08:40.400 | There's a lot of updates to give on the year of 2020 and what it has meant for the podcast.

00:08:45.880 | What about the effect of this?

00:08:47.040 | You called it "enforced seclusion."

00:08:49.920 | What has been the effect of that on your video series that you do, "Look at the Book"?

00:08:54.920 | When I realized that I would have weeks—I forget how many—but weeks of unplanned time

00:09:02.840 | that was supposed to be dedicated to international travel, what filled my heart—and I didn't

00:09:07.560 | see this coming, frankly, I think it's of God, that's what I'm counting on—what

00:09:12.920 | filled my heart was the desire to give myself to this online Bible teaching method we call

00:09:22.400 | "Look at the Book" as never before, and to set a goal for the rest of my life—and

00:09:27.400 | of course, only God knows whether that's conceivable in his providence—namely, to

00:09:34.800 | work my way through all the letters of the Apostle Paul, all 13 letters in "Look at

00:09:41.240 | the Book."

00:09:42.240 | So I plowed into Ephesians.

00:09:43.640 | Like, "Here we go!

00:09:45.680 | Get this going!"

00:09:47.360 | Actually, that's a lousy analogy, because you don't plow into Ephesians.

00:09:53.440 | It's the Matterhorn.

00:09:55.880 | You don't plow the Matterhorn, right?

00:09:58.880 | In fact, it would be wrong to say, "I started climbing the Matterhorn of Ephesians," because

00:10:05.280 | the book starts at the top of the mountain.

00:10:07.840 | You've got to have a helicopter of the Holy Spirit to drop you in verse 4 at the top of

00:10:17.760 | the mountains, so that's not right either.

00:10:22.120 | Whatever you describe it, I've done at least 175 labs up through chapter 4 in Ephesians,

00:10:32.480 | and I'm eager to finish it very soon and get on to the next book, and I'm not even

00:10:37.400 | sure what book is going to be next.

00:10:39.320 | So that's my answer to the question of, "Okay, you've got extra time here.

00:10:43.360 | What are you going to do with it?"

00:10:44.680 | And we've got new sights set on some major efforts with "Look at the Book."

00:10:51.320 | Yeah, amen.

00:10:52.320 | You not only work full-time for Desiring God, but you're also the chancellor of Bethlehem

00:10:57.320 | College and Seminary in Minneapolis, and 2020 was a big year for that side of your life.

00:11:02.720 | Can you walk us through some of the highlights of what 2020 meant for the school?

00:11:07.160 | The most important thing that I was a part of at the college and seminary was the search

00:11:14.040 | process for discerning God's call on the next president of the school.

00:11:22.480 | Tim Tomlinson has led us for about 12 years now, coming up on 12, since the school's

00:11:30.480 | founding, and Tim announced last year his readiness to hand off the leadership after

00:11:36.200 | a long and fruitful—amazingly fruitful—tenure.

00:11:41.720 | And after a long process, over a year long, the trustees voted unanimously to call Joe

00:11:49.360 | Rigney, who is the professor of theology and literature at the college now, to be the next

00:11:55.320 | president of Bethlehem College and Seminary.

00:11:58.000 | And to watch God work in this process was a beautiful thing.

00:12:04.400 | It had its ups and downs, but overall, I stand back and I say, "Wow, what a privilege to

00:12:10.760 | have been a part of God's work in setting the stage for the next decades of our beloved

00:12:19.080 | school."

00:12:20.080 | I am profoundly thankful for Tim's founding leadership, and I am profoundly hopeful and

00:12:28.280 | thankful for what Joe brings to the school.

00:12:32.080 | That has been a historic moment for the school, and in my life in particular.

00:12:39.240 | And I know it's getting long, Tony, but before we sign off, I should throw a question

00:12:43.280 | back to you.

00:12:44.280 | I'm not the only senior teacher at Desiring God.

00:12:48.440 | David Mathis, for example, our executive editor and senior teacher, published a book this

00:12:54.400 | fall for Advent.

00:12:56.960 | Some of us are right in the midst of using it for our Advent celebration.

00:13:01.600 | It's called The Christmas We Didn't Expect.

00:13:05.320 | So he's a productive teacher, and you not only do Ask Pastor John, but you have a writing

00:13:13.200 | life of your own.

00:13:15.320 | And so I'm pitching it back to you, Tony.

00:13:17.780 | What have you been doing this year in your amazingly productive writing efforts?

00:13:23.760 | I appreciate that.

00:13:24.760 | I normally love asking the questions, but yeah, here I am finishing a big project.

00:13:31.040 | Yeah, this next book for me is the most ambitious one I've ever attempted to write.

00:13:35.640 | It's my most intense writing project.

00:13:37.960 | And it's due at the end of next month, at the end of January.

00:13:40.840 | It's titled God, Technology, and the Christian Life, and it's with our friends at CrossWipe.

00:13:45.880 | It will be out, Lord willing, in January of 2022.

00:13:50.160 | So it's kind of a capstone book to my smartphone book, 12 Ways, and then a book I wrote on

00:13:55.960 | mass media culture called Competing Spectacles.

00:13:58.400 | This is sort of like the third book in a series.

00:14:01.240 | Tony, pause right there.

00:14:02.380 | Say something about the translation of that book.

00:14:04.880 | Competing Spectacles has been translated now into five different languages and continues

00:14:08.680 | to grow.

00:14:09.680 | Yeah, I think 12 Ways is now, 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You is now into nine languages.

00:14:13.920 | And so it's just amazing.

00:14:14.920 | It's the work of CrossWipe, and they have a whole team devoted to that.

00:14:18.680 | And DG has a team devoted to translation.

00:14:21.160 | It's amazing.

00:14:22.160 | It seems like every other week I'm getting an email or a picture on Instagram.

00:14:25.800 | No, no, it's incredibly encouraging.

00:14:28.040 | So, this book, God, Technology, and the Christian Life, is the hardest book I've ever attempted

00:14:32.560 | to write because I wanted to press into nine key sections of scripture and see if we can

00:14:37.360 | come up with some clarity over how God relates to human innovation.

00:14:41.040 | And very specifically, is God inside of Silicon Valley, or is he on the outside of Silicon

00:14:47.240 | Valley?

00:14:48.240 | How does he relate to scientists and innovators, men like Einstein, men like Steve Jobs?

00:14:55.160 | Does God make these men?

00:14:56.680 | Does he gift these men?

00:14:58.080 | Does he merely permit them to exist, or are they sort of flukes in the system?

00:15:01.720 | How do we think through these types of guys?

00:15:03.960 | And then on top of that, I try to answer whether or not, just as we look around the material

00:15:08.320 | creation, are there any clues to tell us how God designed technology to unfold over time?

00:15:13.880 | So I've been writing this for over 18 months now.

00:15:16.480 | As my travel got shut down and the coronavirus hit, I was like, "You know what?

00:15:19.760 | I wanted to spend a lot more time researching this book.

00:15:22.600 | I wanted to spend several years researching it."

00:15:25.040 | But the Lord seemed to say, "Nope, travel's ended.

00:15:27.920 | Get to work on this hardest book I'll probably ever write."

00:15:30.200 | And so here I am coming to the end of it.

00:15:31.960 | So I would appreciate prayers in these final weeks as we get to the end of that writing

00:15:36.000 | project.

00:15:37.000 | But we need to wrap this episode up.

00:15:38.000 | Pastor John, do you have any closing thoughts to share with us as we end today?

00:15:41.520 | Well, before I say anything by way of closing, let me just observe, Tony, that I'm not aware

00:15:47.360 | of anybody doing quite what you're doing with regard to technology and Scripture.

00:15:52.640 | I mean, lots of people think about technology and write about that.

00:15:55.920 | Lots of people think about Scripture and write about that.

00:15:58.200 | But I don't know of anybody doing what you're doing, and I commend it.

00:16:03.240 | I'm excited about it.

00:16:05.160 | To put together God's Word with God's world in this way is really quite a remarkable thing.

00:16:13.200 | I appreciate that.

00:16:14.480 | Yeah, you're welcome.

00:16:15.920 | To close this up, let me just say thank you to our listeners here near the end of the

00:16:21.080 | year who support Desiring God, make our work possible.

00:16:24.520 | My prayer for the new year for you is that you would drink deeply from the fountain of

00:16:32.000 | life and that you would eat the all-satisfying bread of heaven and that you would bask in

00:16:40.440 | the light of the world, Jesus Christ, and that he would become more precious to you

00:16:46.760 | in 2021 than ever before.

00:16:49.680 | Amen.

00:16:50.680 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you to our generous ministry partners that make all

00:16:54.480 | of these labors possible.

00:16:56.360 | All of this work is possible because of your generous giving.

00:17:00.000 | Thank you.

00:17:01.000 | We are grateful that we get to do what we do.

00:17:03.040 | And speaking of what we do, we are going to return on Friday with another one of your

00:17:06.560 | excellent questions.

00:17:07.560 | Until then, I'm Tony Reinke.

00:17:08.560 | We'll see you on Friday.

00:17:10.560 | (Break)

00:17:12.560 | (Break)

00:17:14.560 | (Break)

00:17:16.560 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

The Sweetness of Christ in 2020

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