Note: these are devotional posts based on John Piper’s new book What Jesus Demands from the World.

Demand #6 — Listen to Jesus

He called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.” (Mark 7:14)

As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 8:8)

Take care how you hear. (Luke 8:18)

Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. (John 8:47)

Jesus’ Words are Special

• No one ever spoke like Jesus did — Jn. 7:46
• Jesus’  words were given Him by  God  — Jn. 14:24, 12:49
• Jesus’ words are powerful — (all the miracles in response to Jesus’ spoken words)
• Jesus’ words lead to eternal life — Jn. 6:68, 63

Jesus’ Words and Faith

Jesus’ words are said to give eternal life, yet faith is the condition for eternal life. How are these two concepts, faith and words, related? Jesus’ words awaken faith and thus result in eternal life. Ro. 10:17 says that faith comes from hearing the Word of God. And, the parable of the sower in Luke 8 presents the word of Jesus as the seed from which faith sprouts and flourishes  in the hearts of those whose hearts  are good ground. Further, Jn. 5:24 says you must hear and believe.

Jesus’ words awaken faith because they declare Who He is, and what He is going to (or has) accomplish, namely His atoning work for us on the cross. In short, Jesus’ words are the Gospel. They describe what He came to testify to — the truth (cf. Jn. 18:37a).

This point is important. God only saves by means of the spoken word of the Gospel. We must take the Gospel to the lost for them to become saved. More than this, the words of Jesus in and of themselves are not magical. They carry a message. And it is the message that saves and awakens faith. The message comes to us in words, but nonetheless it is the message that saves.

Jesus’ Words — Rejected or Received

Yet just because Jesus’ words are shared, does not mean faith is awakened. Jesus’ words are either received or rejected.

Why is it that some do not receive those words? Jesus tells us this much in the following verses.

You seek to kill me because my words find no place in you. (Jn. 8:37)

…Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. (Jn. 18:37b)

Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not of God. (Jn. 8:47)

Some have no place for truth. They are not “of the truth” or “of God” and thus do not receive God’s words are hear the message of Christ. Piper comments on these verses as follows:

This is a sobering revelation. It means that our condition as fallen sinners unfits us for hearing the truth—especially as it comes from Jesus….When Jesus speaks, unless God acts to give us ears to hear and eyes to see, there will be no place in us for the words of Jesus.

Piper then quotes Luke 10:21-22

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. [cf. Luke 8:8]

Those  who are graciously given the new birth and granted repentance and faith, they are Jesus’ sheep and thus “hear his voice”, Jn. 10:27.

Jesus’ Words and Me

In application of this chapter, a particular sentence jumped out at me.

The entire life and work of Jesus is one great argument why we should listen to his word. Page after page of the New Testament Gospels pile up reasons to turn off the television and listen to Jesus.

Ponder that sentence with me, will you? Let us purpose to feast on the glories of Jesus rather than the fleeting and often sinful distractions of this world.

—See all posts on, the Demands of Jesus

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∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

Note: these are devotional posts based on John Piper’s new book What Jesus Demands from the World.

Demand #5 — Love

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matt. 10:37)

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God.” (Jn. 8:42)

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (Jn. 14:15)

Love your enemies…and you will be sons of the Most High… (Luke 6:35)

The nature of love

Many have used Jn. 14:15 and other Biblical descriptions of love to conclude that love is an “act of will”. We simply determine to love. Love is an action not a feeling they conclude. Piper argues that while love is certainly more than a feeling, it is definitely a feeling. He describes the feelings inherent in love with this repeated phrase:

….deep feelings of admiration for his attributes and enjoyment of his fellowship and attraction to his presence and affection for his kinship….

In Matt. 10:37, love for Jesus is compared to love for father, mother, son, or daughter. And while love for family members is an action and a determination, it is also very much a feeling. Since Jesus commands us to rejoice and obey from the heart, Jesus is not averse to commanding feelings. Piper in a footnote gave a very good quote from a new book by Matthew Elliott entitled Faithful Feelings: Emotion in the New Testament from which I would like to quote one sentence here: “Not only do Christians live the ethics of the kingdom, they also feel the attitudes and emotions of the kingdom.”

The wellspring of love

So if we grant that love is a feeling,  we then find ourselves responsible to love Jesus deeply and truely. How can we who are such  diehard sinners do this? Piper stresses that such love flows from our new nature given us in regeneration (new birth  —  demand #1). Let us quote from Jn. 8:42 again, “…If God were your father, you would love me….” Piper gives a paraphrase of what Jesus is communicating here.

The reason you do not love me is that you are not in the family of God. You don’t have the family nature—the family spirit, the family heart, preferences, tendencies, inclinations. God is not your Father.

Piper also stresses that love for Christ flows from a deep appreciation of the forgiveness of sins Christ provides for us (cf. Luke 7:36-48).

The impact of love

Such a love for Christ results in obedience (Jn. 14:15) and a longing for Christ to be honored and blessed (Jn. 14:28, 5:23) among other things. Such love will also motivate us to forsake sin.

It is at this point that I should stress this love is the immediate fruit of conversion. It is necessary for ultimate salvation. It must be present in our lives. But like all the demands so far, it is a gift of God. It flows from our graciously imparted new heart and new spirit—indeed our new nature.

So, I ask myself. “Am I really loving Christ?” Sure in many ways I obey him. But do I experience in the words of Piper: “deep feelings of admiration for his attributes and enjoyment of his fellowship and attraction to his presence and affection for his kinship”? Am I “in love” with Him? When I read His Word and see His glory revealed, do I treasure that? Do I meditate enough on the glories of His infinite perfections? Does Jesus satisfy my soul?

Oh may the love of Jesus grow deeper and deeper in us as we live life in a constant awareness of our spiritual union in Him. May God graciously enable us to see and appreciate and love Jesus more and more each day.   May we be convicted anew of our obligation and our privelege of loving Jesus. May we be challenged to pursue a greater love and at the same time to depend upon God to graciously change our hearts into hearts that love Jesus supremely! And all this for God’s glory. Amen.

—See all posts on, the Demands of Jesus

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Introduction

Blogging can be so much more than mere fun. It can become a discipline. And it can even provide a measure of accountability.

That said, I plan to embark on a new venture with this blog. I intend to blog through the 50 demands that make up What Jesus Demands from the World, the new book by my pastor John Piper. I want to post devotional thoughts on each of these demands and intend to use the chapters in my personal Bible time. As such, I may post a demand a day. I can’t guarantee that this series will be finished in 50 days, however. I don’t want these posts to take away from my other blogging goals. But I think we will find them encouraging and challenging. But this series will be mostly for me—a discipline to post devotional thoughts regularly from my reading and meditating in God’s Word.

A word about the book, before I begin is in order. The chapters in the book are written in such a way as to be easy to read in one setting each. Thus they provide a perfect format for a devotional reading. With this book, Desiring God already has the entire book available to be read online for free! I would highly encourage you to read the introduction as it provides a great overview of the Gospel mission of Christ.

Today, there is a push to redefine the heart of the Gospel around the commands of Jesus to love God and your neighbors. Piper makes it clear, however, that the shadow of the cross is stamped all over the Gospels, and that Christ does not intend his commands to be able to impart life apart from a recognition of the centrality of the cross-work of Christ. So Piper tries to look behind each command and see the motivations given for it and the connection it has to the Gospel news of Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection on our behalf. And as such, he hopes to show how the commands of Jesus are given to accomplish 2 purposes. These purposes are captured well in this quote: “The obedience he demands is [1] the fruit of his redeeming work and [2] the display of his personal glory.” So on now to…

Demand #1 — You Must Be Born Again

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:3-8)

First, notice that without the new birth, no one can even see the kingdom of God. My Reformation Study Bible says it this way: “Without the grace of God, sinners cannot find the door, let alone force their way in.” Then notice that Jesus is amazed that Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus was meaning with the phrase “new birth”. This points us to look back to the Old Testament, in which Nicodemus would have been an expert, to find a reference to the new birth. We find such a reference in the new covenant promised blessing of a “new heart”.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezek. 36:25-28; see also Is. 44:3)

The phrase “born of water and of the Spirit” describes the one new birth. This is clear because it is parallel to “born again” in vs. 3. Unless you are “born again” and unless you are “born of water and the Spirit” you cannot “see” or “enter” the kingdom of God. In light of the parallel to Ezek. 36 and also a similar parallel to Titus 3:5, we should see the water as referring to cleansing from sin and the spirit as the infusing of a new heart and spirit which accompanies the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives now. Some try to make water refer to physical birth, but this is not how first century people would understand that. Others make it refer to baptism, and they are partly correct. Baptism is a rite which includes water. This hearkens back to the cleansing rituals in the OT ceremonial law. As Ezek. 36 shows (see also Is. 44:3), water is symbolic of cleansing. And Baptism is just that as well—symoblic of the spiritual cleansing we receive at the new birth.

To be born of the Spirit involves a dying to the past, and therefore it is only the Spirit that is spoken of in the subsequent verses; but it is essential that our past be recognised as needing cleansing and forgiveness. These two factors, water and spirit, are not strictly co-ordinate. Water is not an actual spiritual agency in the second birth; it is only a symbol. But in every true second birth there is a negative as well as a positive side, a renunciation of the past as well as a new life created. [quoted from Marcus Dods, “The Gospel of St. John”, The Expositor’s Greek Testament, vol. 1, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll (Hendrickson reprint, 2002) pg. 713]

Having looked a little closely at some of the parts, let us pause to take in the whole. Jesus says you need to be born. How many babies birth themselves? This is a passive action. Verse 8 indicates that the Spirit performs this new birth in a mysterious way, just as wind is mysterious. This new birth is referred to in John 1:12-13 where it is stressed that the birth happens: “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” In short, the new birth is an impartation of spiritual life which happens on the inside of our hearts and which only God can perform. Upon receiving this spiritual life we will believe in Jesus Christ as the rest of John 3 up to verse 21 shows. For a closer look at regeneration check out this earlier post.

To conclude, we are to be born again, yet we are unable to “just do it”, Nike style. This demand of Jesus indicates to us that we are sinful people in need of cleansing and rebirth which only God can provide. The good news is that Jesus came to enable us to see that kingdom and to purchase on the cross a grace to enable new birth to come to all who will believe. We can’t birth ourselves, but we can look to Jesus and be aware of our need for rebirth. We can follow on to know more of Jesus teaching, and this will culminate in spiritual rebirth.

To those of us who profess Christ, may this command remind us of our lowly estate apart from Christ. May it remind us that each day we depend on the Spirit to be continually blowing life on our dry dead bones, and that we need the Spirit’s work in us to be able to really see and appreciate the glorious realities of the Kingdom.

—See all posts on, the Demands of Jesus

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∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7