Let the Nations Be Glad!

by John Piper

  GOD WAS BETTER SERVED IN PRISON

  On January 9, 1985, Pastor Hristo Kulichev, a Congregational pastor in Bulgaria, was arrested and put in prison. His crime was that he preached in his church even though the state had appointed another man as the pastor, whom the congregation had not elected. Kulichev’s trial was a mockery of justice, and he was sentenced to eight months of imprisonment. During his time in prison, he made Christ known every way he could.

  When he got out he wrote, “Both prisoners and jailers asked many questions, and it turned out that we had a more fruitful ministry there than we could have expected in church. God was better served by our presence in prison than if we had been free.”23 In many places in the world, the words of Jesus are as radically relevant as if they had been spoken yesterday. “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to . . . prisons. . . . This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:12–13). The pain of our shattered plans is for the purpose of scattered grace.

  6. The Supremacy of Christ Is Manifest in Suffering

  The suffering of missionaries is meant by God to magnify the power and sufficiency of Christ. Suffering is finally to show the supremacy of God. When God declined to remove the suffering caused by Paul’s “thorn in the flesh,” he said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” To this Paul responded, “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9–10).

  Paul was strong in persecutions because “the power of Christ” rested upon him and was made perfect in him. In other words, Christ’s power was Paul’s only power when his sufferings brought him to the end of his resources and cast him wholly on Jesus. This was God’s purpose in Paul’s thorn, and it is his purpose in all our suffering. God means for us to rely wholly on him. “That was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9). The reason God wants such reliance is because this kind of trust shows his supreme power and love to sustain us when we can’t do anything to sustain ourselves.

  We began this chapter with this claim: Loss and suffering, joyfully accepted for the kingdom of God, show the supremacy of God’s worth more clearly in the world than all worship and prayer. We have seen this truth implicit in looking at six reasons why God appoints suffering for the messengers of his grace. But now we need to make explicit that the supremacy of God is the reason for suffering running through and above all the other reasons. God ordains suffering because through all the other reasons it displays to the world the supremacy of his worth above all treasures.

  Jesus makes crystal clear how we can rejoice in persecution. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matt. 5:11–12). The reason we can rejoice in persecution is that the worth of our reward in heaven is so much greater than the worth of all that we lose through suffering on earth. Therefore, suffering with joy proves to the world that our treasure is in heaven, not on earth, and that this treasure is greater than anything the world has to offer. The supremacy of God’s worth shines through the pain that his people will gladly bear for his name.

  GLADLY WILL I BOAST OF WEAKNESS AND CALAMITY

  I use the word “gladly” because that is the way the saints speak of it. One example is Paul saying, “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses . . . insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” (2 Cor. 12:9–10). He says the same thing in Romans 5:3: “We rejoice in our sufferings.” And the reason he gives is that it produces patience and a tested quality of life and an unfailing hope (Rom. 5:3–4). In other words, his joy flowed from his hope just the way Jesus said it should. And Paul makes clear that the reward is the glory of God. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2). And so it is the supremacy of God’s worth that shines through Paul’s joy in affliction.

  The other apostles react the same way in Acts 5:41 after being beaten for their preaching: “Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41). This fearless joy in spite of real danger and great pain is the display of God’s superiority over all that the world has to offer.

  YOU JOYFULLY ACCEPTED THE PLUNDERING OF YOUR PROPERTY

  And then there were the early Christians who visited their friends in prison, rejoicing even though it cost them their possessions. “For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one” (Heb. 10:34). Joy in suffering flows from hope in a great reward. Christians are not called to live morose lives of burdensome persecution. We are called to rejoice. “Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13). “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).

  THE LOVE OF GOD IS BETTER THAN LIFE

  The basis for this indomitable joy is the supremacy of God’s love above life itself. The “steadfast love [of the Lord] is better than life” (Ps. 63:3). The pleasures in this life are “fleeting” (Heb. 11:25), and the afflictions are “light and momentary” (2 Cor. 4:17). But the steadfast love of the Lord is forever. All his pleasures are superior, and there will be no more pain. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).

  GLAD SUFFERING SHINES BRIGHTER THAN GRATITUDE

  It is true that we should bear testimony to the supremacy of God’s goodness by receiving his good gifts with thanksgiving (1 Tim. 4:3). But for many Christians this has become the only way they see their lifestyles glorifying God. God has been good to them to give them so much. Therefore, the way to witness to the reality of God is to take and be thankful.

  But even though it is true that we should thankfully enjoy what we have, there is a relentless call in the Bible not to accumulate more and more things but to give more and more and to be deprived of things if love demands it. There are no easy rules to tell us whether the call on our lives is the call of the rich young ruler to give away all that we have or the call of Zacchaeus to give away half of what we have. What is clear from the New Testament is that suffering with joy, not gratitude in wealth, is the way the worth of Jesus shines most brightly.

  Who can doubt that the supremacy of Christ’s worth shines brightest in a life such as this:

  But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

  Philippians 3:7–8

  You cannot show the preciousness of a person by being happy with his gifts. Ingratitude will certainly prove that the giver is not loved, but gratitude for gifts does not prove that the giver is precious. What proves that the giver is precious is the glad-hearted readiness to leave all his gifts to be with him. This is why suffering is so central in the mission of the church. The goal of our mission is that people from all the nations worship the true God. But worship means cherishing the preciousness of God above all else, including life itself. It will be difficult to bring the nations to love God from a lifestyle that communicates a love of things. Therefore, God ordains in the lives of his messengers that suffering severs our bondage to the world. When joy and love survive this severing, we are fit to say to the nations with authenticity and power: Hope in God.

  HOW IS HOPE IN GOD MADE VISIBLE?

  Peter talks about the visibility of this hope: “In your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Why would people ask about hope? What k
ind of life are we to live that would make people wonder about our hope? If our security and happiness in the future were manifestly secured the way the world secures its future, no one would ask us about it. There would be no unusual hope to see. What Peter is saying is that the world should see a different hope in the lives of Christians—not a hope in the security of money or the security of power or the security of houses or lands or portfolios but in the security of “the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).

  Therefore, God ordains suffering to help us release our hold on worldly hopes and put our “hope in God” (1 Peter 1:21). The fiery trials are appointed to consume the earthly dependencies and leave only the refined gold of “genuine faith” (1 Peter 1:7). “Let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1 Peter 4:19).

  It’s the supremacy of God’s great faithfulness above all other securities that frees us to “rejoice insofar as [we] share Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13). Therefore, joy in suffering for Christ’s sake makes the supremacy of God shine more clearly than all our gratitude for wealth.

  Wartime Austerity for the Cause of Missions Jesus presses us toward a wartime lifestyle that does not value simplicity for simplicity’s sake but values wartime austerity for what it can produce for the cause of world evangelization. He said, “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail” (Luke 12:33). “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). “Do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you” (Luke 12:29–31).

  The point is that an $80,000 or a $180,000 salary does not have to be accompanied by an $80,000 or a $180,000 lifestyle. God is calling us to be conduits of his grace, not cul-de-sacs. Our great danger today is thinking that the conduit should be lined with gold. It shouldn’t. Copper will do. No matter how grateful we are, gold will not make the world think that our God is good; it will make people think that our god is gold. That is no honor to the supremacy of his worth.

  The Deadly Desire for Wealth

  The desire for riches is deadly. Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, was struck with Naaman’s leprosy because he could not pass up a reward (2 Kings 5:26–27). Ananias dropped dead because desire for money prompted him to lie (Acts 5:5–6). The rich young ruler could not enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:22–23). The rich man who feasted sumptuously and neglected Lazarus was tormented in Hades (Luke 16:23). Paul said that the desire to be rich plunges men into ruin and destruction (1 Tim. 6:9).

  God tells us about these tragedies not to make us hate money but to make us love him. The severity of punishment for loving money is a sign of the supremacy of God. We scorn the infinite worth of God when we covet. That is why Paul calls covetousness idolatry and says that the wrath of God is coming against it (Col. 3:5–6).

  “I Had No Shirt”

  It is almost impossible for Americans to come to terms with Jesus’ commendation of the widow who “out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:4). To see this spirit fleshed out, we may have to leave America and go elsewhere. Stanford Kelly illustrates it from Haiti.

  The church was having a Thanksgiving festival, and each Christian was invited to bring a love offering. One envelope from a Haitian man named Edmund held $13. That amount was three months’ income for a working man there. Kelly was as surprised as those counting a Sunday offering in the United States might be to get a $6,000 cash gift. He looked around for Edmund but could not see him.

  Later Kelly met him in the village and questioned him. He pressed him for an explanation and found that Edmund had sold his horse in order to give the $13 gift to God. But why hadn’t he come to the festival? He hesitated and didn’t want to answer.

  Finally, Edmund said, “I had no shirt to wear.”24

  Retirement and the Unreached Peoples

  Two phenomena in America are emerging together: One is the challenge to give our all to do our part in finishing the task of world missions, and the other is a huge baby-boom bulge in the population reaching peak earning years and heading toward “retirement.”25 How will the Christians in this group respond to the typical American dream? Is it a biblical dream?

  Ralph Winter asks, “Where in the Bible do they see [retirement]? Did Moses retire? Did Paul retire? Peter? John? Do military officers retire in the middle of a war?”26 I mentioned earlier that Oswald Sanders ministered around the world until he died at ninety and that he wrote a book a year between the ages of seventy and eighty-nine.

  Why Simeon’s Strength Quadrupled at Sixty

  Charles Simeon, the pastor of Trinity Church, Cambridge, two hundred years ago learned a very painful lesson about God’s attitude toward his “retirement.” In 1807, after twenty-five years of ministry at Trinity Church, his health broke. He became very weak and had to take an extended leave from his labor. Handley Moule recounts the fascinating story of what God was doing in Simeon’s life.

  The broken condition lasted with variations for thirteen years, till he was just sixty, and then it passed away quite suddenly and without any evident physical cause. He was on his last visit to Scotland . . . in 1819, and found himself to his great surprise, just as he crossed the border, “almost as perceptibly renewed in strength as the woman was after she had touched the hem of our Lord’s garment.” He saw in this revival no miracle, in the common sense of the word, yet as a distinct providence.

  He says that he had been promising himself, before he began to break down, a very active life up to sixty, and then a Sabbath evening [retirement!]; and that now he seemed to hear his Master saying: “I laid you aside, because you entertained with satisfaction the thought of resting from your labour; but now you have arrived at the very period when you had promised yourself that satisfaction, and have determined instead to spend your strength for me to the latest hour of your life, I have doubled, trebled, quadrupled your strength, that you may execute your desire on a more extended plan.”27

  How many Christians set their sights on a “Sabbath evening” of life— resting, playing, traveling, and so on—the world’s substitute for heaven, because they do not believe that there will be one beyond the grave. The mind-set is that we must reward ourselves in this life for our long years of labor. Eternal rest and joy after death is an irrelevant consideration. What a strange reward for a Christian to set his sights on! Twenty years of leisure while living in the midst of the last days of infinite consequence for millions of unreached people. What a tragic way to finish the last lap before entering the presence of the King who finished his so differently!

  Why Not Be like Raymond Lull?

  Raymond Lull was born in 1235 to an illustrious family at Palma on the island of Majorca off the coast of Spain. His life as a youth was profligate. But all that changed as a result of five visions that compelled him to a life of devotion to Christ. He first entered monastic life but later became a missionary to Muslim countries in northern Africa. He learned Arabic, which at the age of seventy-nine he was teaching in Europe.

  His pupils and friends naturally desired that he should end his days in the peaceful pursuit of learning and the comfort of companionship.

  Such however was not Lull’s wish. His ambition was to die as a missionary and not as a teacher of philosophy. Ever his favorite “Ars Major” had to give way to that ars maxima expressed in Lull’s own motto, “He that lives by the life cannot die.” . . .

  In Lull’s contemplations we read . . . “Men are wont to die, O Lord, from old age, the failure of natural warmth and excess of cold; but thus, if it be Thy will, Thy servant would not wish to die; he would prefer to die in the glow of love, even as Thou wa
st willing to die for him.”

  The dangers and difficulties that made Lull shrink back from his journey at Genoa in 1291 only urged him forward to North Africa once more in 1314. His love had not grown cold, but burned the brighter “with the failure of natural warmth and the weakness of old age.” He longed not only for the martyr’s crown, but also once more to see his little band of believers [in Africa]. Animated by these sentiments he crossed over to Bugia on August 14, and for nearly a whole year labored secretly among a little circle of converts, whom on his previous visits he had won over to the Christian faith. . . .

  At length, weary of seclusion, and longing for martyrdom, he came forth into the open market and presented himself to the people as the same man whom they had once expelled from their town. It was Elijah showing himself to a mob of Ahabs! Lull stood before them and threatened them with divine wrath if they still persisted in their errors. He pleaded with love, but spoke plainly the whole truth. The consequences can be easily anticipated. Filled with fanatic fury at his boldness, and unable to reply to his arguments, the populace seized him, and dragged him out of the town; there by the command, or at least the connivance, of the king, he was stoned on the 30th of June 1315.28

  Lull was eighty years old when he gave his life for the Muslims of North Africa. As a hart longs for the flowing streams—and longs the more as the brook approaches and the smell sweetens and the thirst deepens—so longs the soul of the saint to see Christ and to glorify him in his dying (cf. John 21:19). It is beyond comprehension that soldiers of the cross would be satisfied in retiring from the battle just before the trumpet blast of victory—or just before admission to the coronation ceremony.

  “Senior Discounts” Are for Missionary Travel

  I am not saying that we can make professions and businesses keep us employed beyond sixty-five or seventy. I am saying that a new chapter of life opens for most people at age sixty-five. And if we have armed ourselves with the “thought” of the suffering Savior and saturated our mind with the ways of the supremacy of God, we will invest our time and energy in this final chapter very differently than if we take our cues from the American dream. Millions of “retired” people should be engaged at all levels of intensity in hundreds of assignments around the world. Talk about travel! Park the RVs and use the senior discounts and “super savers” to fly wherever the agencies have need. Let the unreached peoples of the earth reap the benefits of a lifetime of earning. “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14).