How Can I Explain Christian Joy to Unbelievers?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - And welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast,
00:00:07.040 | especially if this is your first time here, welcome.
00:00:09.640 | I'm Tony, the host, and I pitch questions
00:00:12.240 | to longtime pastor and author, John Piper, that's his name.
00:00:16.100 | And we talk about life's most challenging questions
00:00:18.120 | and what the Bible has to say
00:00:19.320 | about those challenging questions.
00:00:21.940 | And maybe you just happened to see this episode online
00:00:24.440 | or maybe someone sent you this link, a friend or someone.
00:00:27.120 | Welcome.
00:00:28.640 | We do all this by taking questions from our audience.
00:00:31.160 | And today's question comes from a listener named Rebecca.
00:00:33.960 | Hello, Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast.
00:00:36.140 | It has blessed me, guided me,
00:00:37.800 | and strengthened my faith over the years.
00:00:40.580 | My question for you is this,
00:00:42.520 | how would you explain your experience of joy in God
00:00:46.320 | to a curious, unchurched non-Christian?
00:00:49.940 | Where would you begin?
00:00:51.280 | And how would you do it with language
00:00:52.960 | a non-Christian could easily follow?
00:00:55.920 | - Okay, let's do it this way.
00:00:58.360 | I'll write a short letter
00:01:01.760 | to an imaginary unbeliever named Michael,
00:01:05.440 | who has almost no experience of church or religious language,
00:01:10.440 | and who has asked me this very question
00:01:13.640 | to tell him what it means when I say,
00:01:17.360 | I experience joy in God.
00:01:19.560 | So here we go.
00:01:20.680 | Dear Michael, let's just call him Michael.
00:01:23.840 | You asked me what I mean when I say,
00:01:27.360 | I experience joy in God.
00:01:29.520 | Thanks for asking.
00:01:30.800 | There are not many things, Michael,
00:01:33.800 | that I enjoy talking about more than what I value,
00:01:38.020 | what I treasure most.
00:01:40.880 | You already know that my experience of God
00:01:45.380 | is based on the Bible.
00:01:47.200 | I believe it is the word of God.
00:01:49.680 | I believe that if you read it,
00:01:51.640 | especially its portrayal of Jesus,
00:01:54.360 | you can hear the ring of truth,
00:01:56.560 | the self-authenticating reality of God breaking through.
00:02:01.560 | So the first thing to say
00:02:04.080 | is that when the Bible talks about our relationship with God,
00:02:08.720 | it rings with the language of pleasure.
00:02:12.260 | In other words, I'm not just responding to the Bible
00:02:16.720 | with my own peculiar personality.
00:02:19.520 | No, I've been told by the Bible,
00:02:24.160 | by God himself through the Bible,
00:02:27.000 | that I should experience God as my pleasure.
00:02:30.520 | It's what God demands, not just what I desire.
00:02:35.480 | God's word is lavish with pleasure language.
00:02:40.480 | So let me give you some examples
00:02:42.760 | so you can get the feel of what I mean.
00:02:45.680 | And you can ask me sometime later
00:02:47.720 | and I'll show you these places actually in the Bible itself
00:02:51.320 | so you can read them for yourself.
00:02:53.200 | I think that would be helpful.
00:02:55.160 | Psalm 16, 11, "In your presence, O God, is fullness of joy.
00:03:00.160 | At your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
00:03:06.320 | Psalm 19, 14, "Satisfy us in the morning
00:03:10.760 | with your steadfast love
00:03:12.160 | that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."
00:03:18.160 | Psalm 37, 4, "Delight yourself in the Lord
00:03:22.760 | and he will give you the desires of your heart."
00:03:25.520 | Psalm 32, 11, "Be glad in the Lord."
00:03:30.840 | Psalm 19, 10, "More to be desired are your words, O Lord,
00:03:35.680 | than gold, even much fine gold,
00:03:38.400 | sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb."
00:03:43.840 | Isaiah 52, verse 7, "How beautiful upon the mountains
00:03:48.600 | are the feet of him who brings good news of happiness."
00:03:53.600 | Philippians 4, "I have learned in whatever situation I am
00:03:57.760 | to be content through Christ who strengthens me."
00:04:02.760 | Philippians 4, just a little earlier in the chapter,
00:04:06.200 | "Rejoice in the Lord."
00:04:07.800 | And again, I say, rejoice.
00:04:10.640 | Isaiah 26, "You keep him in perfect peace, O Lord,
00:04:15.480 | because he trusts in you."
00:04:17.440 | Psalm 4, "You have put more joy in my heart
00:04:22.240 | than they have when their grain and wine abound."
00:04:27.160 | Psalm 63, "My soul thirsts for you, O Lord.
00:04:32.120 | Your steadfast love is better than life."
00:04:36.280 | So that's for starters, Michael.
00:04:38.480 | Scraping the surface of the Bible,
00:04:41.240 | peace, rejoicing, contentment, happiness,
00:04:46.240 | gladness, delight, satisfaction, pleasures,
00:04:52.040 | all of it sweeter than honey, all of it better than wine,
00:04:58.540 | all of it better than life itself,
00:05:01.940 | as full as it can be, as long as it can be.
00:05:06.360 | So now the question is, how do I experience God that way?
00:05:11.360 | How does John Piper do that?
00:05:13.960 | And the first thing to say is that God himself
00:05:20.040 | has taken out of the way
00:05:23.120 | the greatest obstacle to my happiness,
00:05:25.840 | namely my ugly, God-belittling sin,
00:05:33.120 | and his just and holy wrath and fury against it.
00:05:37.860 | He sent his son, Jesus Christ,
00:05:41.040 | into the world to die in my place.
00:05:43.500 | The Bible says that he became a curse for me.
00:05:49.460 | He condemned my sin in the death of his own son.
00:05:56.900 | And he did this for absolutely everyone, indiscriminately,
00:06:01.760 | who would believe in him.
00:06:03.840 | So when I receive Jesus Christ,
00:06:07.020 | when I take him, welcome him, embrace him as my savior
00:06:12.020 | and my Lord and the treasure of my life,
00:06:16.100 | God sees me as united to Jesus
00:06:21.100 | so that his death counts as my punishment
00:06:25.080 | and his righteousness counts as my right standing
00:06:31.740 | before God so that now there's no condemnation for me.
00:06:36.740 | I'm forgiven for everything, no guilt, no punishment,
00:06:41.420 | no hell, no fear, accepted, adopted,
00:06:46.420 | loved, befriended, embraced as a father running out
00:06:51.640 | to welcome a long lost son.
00:06:54.680 | That's the beginning.
00:06:57.560 | That's the foundation, Michael,
00:07:01.060 | of all my joy, everything great and beautiful
00:07:05.820 | and valuable and desirable and satisfying in God
00:07:10.820 | is no longer dangerous for me.
00:07:14.500 | It's like a mountain range of endless discovery
00:07:18.660 | of more and more beauty where I will never fall off a ledge
00:07:22.800 | and die, but go further up and further in forever and ever
00:07:28.220 | because God is infinite and I'm not.
00:07:32.000 | Michael, every day I read my Bible
00:07:37.000 | and in the Bible, God himself,
00:07:40.300 | through the words that he inspired, speaks to me
00:07:44.140 | and I speak back to him.
00:07:47.220 | This is a real conversation.
00:07:50.020 | I don't hear voices.
00:07:51.340 | I read his inspired word addressed to his people, to me.
00:07:58.180 | I hear the voice of God in his precious word
00:08:01.980 | and it is sweeter than honey.
00:08:04.220 | That's what the Bible calls fellowship with God.
00:08:09.780 | And every day as we enjoy this fellowship,
00:08:14.540 | he shows me glimpses of his greatness
00:08:18.940 | and his beauty and his worth.
00:08:22.300 | The very things that I was made for,
00:08:27.300 | I was made to see and enjoy God in his greatness,
00:08:32.660 | his beauty, his worth.
00:08:35.100 | And you know this is true, Michael.
00:08:36.980 | You, Michael, know this.
00:08:38.740 | You were made to see and enjoy greatness in beauty
00:08:43.740 | and worth and love.
00:08:47.960 | Everybody was.
00:08:49.920 | God is the sum of all greatness and all beauty
00:08:54.760 | and all value and worth and all love.
00:08:58.700 | And he lets us enjoy him through his word
00:09:05.040 | and through his world,
00:09:08.600 | which also reveals his beauty and greatness.
00:09:12.320 | And when I face the ugliness and the sin
00:09:16.640 | and the suffering and the disasters of the world,
00:09:20.040 | he reminds me of spectacular promises
00:09:25.960 | that I will one day be with him,
00:09:29.840 | free from all pain, all sin, all depression,
00:09:34.840 | all discouragement, all anxieties,
00:09:39.000 | in a brand new, magnificent body.
00:09:45.200 | And with that hope that he renews every day in me
00:09:50.200 | through his word,
00:09:52.560 | he gives me strength to go out into the world
00:09:56.480 | and to try to be useful to people by doing good
00:10:00.480 | and pointing people to everlasting satisfaction in him,
00:10:03.760 | which is what I'm doing right now, I hope.
00:10:07.000 | And even though I'm not perfect,
00:10:10.600 | Michael, you know that pretty well.
00:10:13.640 | Even though I'm not perfect, he helps me do that
00:10:17.840 | and he forgives me for my failures, my shortcomings.
00:10:22.840 | And at the end of the day, my conscience is clean
00:10:28.040 | and oh, the sweetness and joy of a clear conscience.
00:10:33.480 | My conscience is clean
00:10:35.640 | because there has been some measure of obedience
00:10:41.560 | and because of his precious, precious forgiveness
00:10:45.440 | through Jesus that I can lay my head down at night
00:10:49.600 | on a pillow with peace and joy.
00:10:53.840 | You know that's what I want for you, Michael.
00:10:57.440 | That's why I'm writing this letter
00:11:00.000 | and I'm happy to talk anytime you want to
00:11:03.200 | to take it further, your friend, John.
00:11:07.120 | - Thank you for this letter, Pastor John.
00:11:10.560 | Doubt is a common struggle.
00:11:12.080 | Even among believers, it can be a common struggle
00:11:14.600 | and that's been a theme on the podcast recently.
00:11:16.560 | We just looked at it.
00:11:17.880 | Can I doubt God and have joy in him at the same time?
00:11:20.400 | That was APJ 1963.
00:11:23.360 | Just on July 31, we addressed that.
00:11:26.040 | And then the very next episode we looked at
00:11:28.280 | was fighting off the inner skeptic in our Bible reading.
00:11:31.960 | When we open the Bible, that inner skeptic speaks up
00:11:34.320 | and makes us doubt or question what we read.
00:11:36.800 | That was APJ 1964 on August 3rd.
00:11:39.760 | So recent episodes in our feed.
00:11:41.920 | And if you're listening and you maybe even doubt
00:11:44.720 | the existence of God, that too is nothing
00:11:47.040 | out of the ordinary.
00:11:47.880 | We looked at that in a previous episode,
00:11:49.560 | way back in APJ 48, way back.
00:11:52.720 | An old episode titled, "Do you ever doubt God's existence?"
00:11:56.080 | That was a question directed to you, Pastor John.
00:11:58.640 | Do you, Pastor John, ever doubt God's existence?
00:12:03.000 | You can find APJs 48, 1963, and 1964
00:12:06.920 | at askpastorjohn.com.
00:12:09.440 | Important and valuable episodes to check out.
00:12:12.440 | Thanks for joining us today.
00:12:13.440 | If you want to ask Pastor John your own question,
00:12:16.740 | email us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:12:20.120 | I'm your host Tony Rehnke,
00:12:22.120 | and we'll see you back here on Monday.
00:12:23.960 | (upbeat music)
00:12:26.540 | (upbeat music)
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