This coming Sunday, Lord willing, I'll be preaching one of the last passages from the book of Hebrews that we are going to consider in our fourteen month exposition of the book. I have from time to time, as I've prepared sermons throughout this book, reviewed John Piper's sermons on the same book. Yesterday I sat down to study in the late afternoon and decided to look on John's website (www.desiringgod.org) and read his sermon on the same passage I'm going to be preaching. I realized very quickly that the context in which John wrote his sermon had nothing current to do with my situation. He wrote in 1997 just a few days after the earthquake in the San Francisco Bay area that collapsed a bridge. The earthquake and the devastation it caused provided the backdrop for his message the following Sunday but it had little relevance for where I thought we might be headed in Grand Marais, MN in January 2010. So I finished browsing the sermon then set it aside and moved on to other things.
Then, this morning, I woke up to the news of the earthquake in Haiti. I've been in Haiti. Did a six week ministry there in 1984. Had dinner at a restaurant in Petionville. Took pictures of the Presidential Palace. Watched people washing their clothes in the sewage ditch that runs through the center of the city. Visited a hospital. Listened to children reciting their lessons in a school. I've spent today visiting the various internet news outlets trying to get a better look into the very first non-US site God ever allowed me to minister in His name.
A few minutes ago I made the mental connection between Piper's sermon and it's 1997 context and the fact that I'm preaching the same passage and there, in the background, is a devastating, children killing, life-shattering, mortality enhancing earthquake. The passage is Hebrews 12:18-29. The verse of greatest relevance is verse 28: "Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, (29) for our God is a consuming fire."
I'm not ready yet to preach these verses, but I thought you might benefit from reading John Piper's sermon on Hebrews 12:28 written in the aftermath of an earthquake. Here's the link: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/sermons/byscripture/26/695_A_Kingdom_That_Cannot_Be_Shaken. I think you can either read it or watch John preach this message. I believe it us more than well worth the time.
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How fascinating! God is obviously speaking.
ReplyDeleteI happened to read a poem that John Piper wrote this morning about Jesus in Haiti. When I stumbled
upon this poem, I had just been asking God how to pray regarding this devastation.
Our first horrified reaction is to pray for help and relief for those affected by the earthquake, to pray that it has not claimed as many lives as people are estimating, that
those who are trapped alive will be found and saved. That I did. But I also felt compelled to pray that the people of Haiti and anyone who witnesses this destruction (us?) would
heed the warning: God will not strive with us forever. He's trying to get our attention, and His message has not changed. He wants us to repent, to turn to Him in sincerity of
heart, not deception, not half-heartedness. He wants us to love Him back.
It was like bittersweet confirmation to read John Piper's words as if from Jesus:
But there, in those United States the boot
Is on my face.
“Saul, Saul,” I ask, “Why do you persecute
And not embrace?”
Your King, I lift my arms to you in peace
And patient grief;
And summon now to Haiti enemies
For my relief.
As I was studying Luke 13 this evening where Jesus makes reference to two tragic events of that time, He twice says, "unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3,
5) In His compassionate way of repeating Himself, I believe He wanted to makes sure I didn't miss the message.
As you have reminded us, the kingdoms of this world can and will be shaken, but those who repent belong to a kingdom that will never be shaken.
Sorry for the strange formatting in my previous comment. Not sure what happened. Makes it a little difficult to read.
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