Pastor John from 1988:

From the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ the strategy of our mission is incarnation. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He left one place and went to another place. He gave up the glories and comforts of his heavenly home in order to go where the people were and tell them about the Father. And he said, "As the Father has sent me so send I you."

Bethlehem's mission in Minneapolis must never be mainly a come and see mission. It must be a go and tell mission. Suppose that all 1,000 of you had just arrived on the scene in Minneapolis as a team of tent-making missionaries. You know what they are — people who will work at secular jobs t…

Continue Reading →

Theology Refresh is a new podcast for pastors hosted by David Mathis, executive assistant to John Piper since 2006 and editor or contributer to a number of books, including recent release, Don't Call It a Comeback.

The aim of the podcast, in David's words, "is to sharpen and refresh spiritual leaders on key aspects of theology that are useful for everyday Christian ministry."

In this episode David Mathis conducts Part 1 of an interview with John Piper on the gospel and sanctification.

Download or stream the podcast.

[Subscribe to Theology Refresh through iTunes.]

---

Recent Theology Refresh podcasts:

• Francis Chan on the Sovereignty of God

Jack Miller:

What I finally came to as I walked and prayed for you is the old, old story of getting the gospel clear in your own hearts and minds, making it clear to others, and doing it with only one motive — the glory of Christ. Getting the glory of Christ before your eyes and keeping it there is the greatest work of the Spirit that I can imagine. And there is no greater peace, especially in the times of treadmill-like activity, than doing it all for the glory of the Lord Jesus.

Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters from Jack Miller, (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2004), 22.

John Owen:

Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of Christ, and virtue will proceed from him to r…

Continue Reading →

I recently spent a whole day tucked away at a local library. It was a golden spot. Quiet. Secluded. I sat beneath a shower of grace: an open Bible, a hungry soul, a copy of Owen’s The Glory of Christ. I spent several good hours there reading and praying and preparing for a sermon about Jesus and his glory. It was easy to walk close with Jesus alone in the library.

I left that spot and within an hour found myself quickly ushered back into the mess of everyday life in the form of my defiant three-year-old and her younger sister who really needed a diaper change. I longed to be back at that library, tucked away from the mess and headache of real life — that is, until it dawned on me that …

Continue Reading →

John Piper from 2001:

It seems to me that we are always falling off the horse on one side or the other in this matter of being tough and tender — wimping out on truth when we ought to be lion-hearted, or wrangling with anger when we ought to be weeping. I know it's a risk to take up this topic and John Newton in a setting like this, where some of you need a good (tender!) kick in the pants to be more courageous, and others of you confuse courage with what William Cowper called "a furious and abusive zeal." Oh how rare are the pastors who speak with a tender heart and have a theological backbone of steel.

I dream of such pastors. I would like to be one someday. A pastor whose might in the t…

Continue Reading →

The late John Stott writes,

The sincerity of a preacher has two aspects: he means what he says when in the pulpit and he practises what he preaches when out of it. In fact, these things belong inevitably together since, as Richard Baxter put it, "he that means as he speaks will surely do as he speaks." . . .

Paul told Timothy and Titus to be models of Christian behaviour. Peter similarly instructed the elders, instead of domineering, to be "examples of the flock." The emphasis is plain. Communication is by symbol as well as speech. For "a man cannot only preach, he must also live. And the life that he lives, with all its little peculiarities, is one of two things: either it emasculates hi…

Continue Reading →

Earlier this year at Passion in Fort Worth, TX, Pastor John spoke to a group of young leaders about the value of Scripture memorization. He gives five reasons why it matters:

1. Conformity to Christ
2. Comfort for yourself and others
3. Conflict with sin
4. Communicating the gospel
5. Communion with God

Stream or download the message.

Pastor John gets to the heart of Jesus and his metaphors:

Stream or download this week's entire sermon from John 10.

G. K. Chesterton writes,

The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life.

The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do…

Continue Reading →

What are the qualifications for elders in the New Testament? Chances are hospitality doesn't make our quick list, though it's listed in both 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8.

In this two minute video, Jeff Vanderstelt, a pastor at Soma Communities, explains how his church takes this qualification seriously when they're assessing elders:

Jeff Vanderstelt, Ed Stetzer and Dave Harvey will be speaking on church planting at our upcoming National Conference, "Finish the Mission: For the Joy of All Peoples."

________

Other videos with Jeff Vanderstelt —

• How Does a Pastor Make Time for Evangelism?