Sermons & Devotionals by John Piper
John Piper
The Son of God At 12 Years Old
January 11, 1981 Luke 2:41-52 "Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, b... Read More
John Piper
The Sovereignty of God and Prayer
I am often asked, "If you believe God works all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11) and that his knowledge of all things past, present, and future is infallible, then what is the point of praying that anything happen?" Usually this question is asked in relation to human deci... Read More
John Piper
The Third Word From the Cross
April 9, 1982 John 19:26-27 So Jesus, seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there, said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her into his family. There are at least three reasons that thi... Read More
John Piper
THE WISDOM OF MEN AND THE POWER OF GOD
July 13, 1980 (Morning) Bethlehem Baptist Church John Piper, Pastor THE WISDOM OF MEN AND THE POWER OF GOD (1 Corinthians 2:1-5) In coming to you brothers and sisters, I come proclaiming to you the testimony of God not according to excellence of word or of wisdom. For I decided not to know anything ... Read More
John Piper
The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 In coming to you brothers and sisters, I come proclaiming to you the testimony of God not according to excellence of word or of wisdom. For I decided not to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and this one crucified. I come to you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. ... Read More
John Piper
The Wisdom We Speak
1 Corinthians 2:6-13 Last week our text was 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 and the main point was that we should make it our aim to base our own and other's faith not on the wisdom of men but on the power of God. I came down really hard on the "wisdom of men" or as Paul calls it in 1:20, "the wisdom of the wor... Read More
John Piper
This Is What Was Spoken By the Prophet Joel
June 7, 1981 Acts 2:17 The Hebrew Old Testament, from which our English versions are translated, is divided into three major sections, the Law, the Prophets and the Writings in that order. The section of Prophets is divided into two groups called "former prophets" and "latter prophets," not because ... Read More
John Piper
Thoughts on Baptism
The New Testament teaches very plainly that we are saved by faith. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" (Acts 16:31). (Also John 3:16). "By grace you were saved through faith and that not of yourselves . . . " (Eph. 2:8). "For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through fait... Read More
John Piper
To See You Fills Me with Joy
September 27, 1981 Psalm 16:1-3 TO SEE YOU FILLS ME WITH JOY My heart was encouraged Wednesday night by the freedom and earnestness and affection for God with which you prayed. I think it is the mark of a growing people—a people growing toward God in their hearts—that they often move beyond delight ... Read More
John Piper
Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise
April 17, 1981 Luke 23:43 There are two kinds of responses to our own personal suffering: 1) We can rail against God and say, "If you are such a great and powerful and loving God, why am I in this hellish mess?" 2) Or we can acknowledge that we are sinners and don't deserve any good thing, and cry o... Read More
John Piper
Total Abstinence and Church Membership
October 4, 1981 TOTAL ABSTINENCE AND CHURCH MEMBERSHIP There are two questions I want to discuss tonight. One is: Should Christians in America today abstain from the use of alcoholic drink as a beverage? The other is: Should such abstinence be a requirement for church membership? My answer to the fi... Read More
John Piper
What Do Answers to Prayer Depend On?
Part One: Obedience January 11, 1981 Part 1: Obedience Unanswered prayer is a universal Christian experience. Every one of us has asked God for particular things that have been denied: we asked for help to make a B and only got a C; we asked for sleep and lay awake all night; we asked that her attit... Read More
John Piper
What Do Answers to Prayer Depend On?
Part Two January 25, 1981 PART 2 Two weeks ago I posed the question, "What do answers to prayer depend on?" The first and most fundamental part of the answer was that all answers to prayer depend on the death of Christ for our sins. The reason that a just and holy God is free to bless us with answer... Read More
John Piper
What Is the Fruit That Befits Repentance?
February 15, 1981 Luke 3:10-20 What we saw from Luke 3:1-9 last week was that John's baptism and his message were both a call to repentance, which means a call for people to stop relying on anything they were by birth or had achieved by their effort, and a turning to rely on the free mercy of God. T... Read More
John Piper
What Sort of Persons Ought You to Be?
June 13, 1982 2 Peter 3:10-14 In order to understand 2 Peter 3:10-14 we have to remember that Peter has in view a false teaching which, according to verse 4, says, "Where is the promise of Christ's coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep all things have continued as they were from the beginni... Read More
John Piper
What We See When the Spirit Reigns: Love
The response to last week's message was mixed. The more I thought about the responses the more I knew I had to expand on the things I said. So I am postponing the message I had planned to give on Christ's second coming to further unfold life in the Spirit. One lady called me, who was not a Baptist a... Read More
John Piper
Whatever Is Not From Faith Is Sin
The Old Testament (Psalm 32:1,2) and the New Testament (Romans 4:7,8) agree: "Blessed (or fortunate) is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity." Therefore, both, by implication, agree that the person whose transgression God d... Read More
John Piper
Where Is the Promise of His Appearing?
June 6, 1982 2 Peter 3:1-10 In the second chapter of this letter Peter has given us a graphic description of the sexual licentiousness, the love of money and the rejection of authority by which the false teachers were denying the Master who bought them, Jesus Christ. He warns the churches vividly th... Read More
John Piper
Who Made Man's Mouth?
August 1, 1982 Exodus 4:10-12 But Moses said to Yahweh: "Please Lord, I am not a man of words, neither formerly nor since you've been speaking to your servant, because my mouth and my tongue are clumsy." And Yahweh said to him: "Who made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb or deaf or seeing or blind? Is... Read More
John Piper
Why the Law Was Given
November 15, 1981 WHY THE LAW WAS GIVEN One of my very great desires for our church is that we be a people who understand the law of God and fulfill it in the Spirit of love. The law which God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai a few months after bringing the people out of Egypt has been the victim of som... Read More
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John Piper (1946 - Present)
is a Calvinistic Baptist Christian preacher and author currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His books include ECPA Christian Book Award winners Spectacular Sins, What Jesus Demands from the World, Pierced by the Word, and God's Passion for His Glory, and bestsellers Don't Waste Your Life and The Passion of Jesus Christ. The evangelical organization Desiring God is named for his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986).In 1980, after what he described as an "irresistible call of the Lord to preach", Piper became Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he has been ministering ever since. Piper hit the evangelical scene after the publication of his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986) and has continued to publish dozens of other books further articulating this theological perspective. In 1994, he founded Desiring God Ministries, which provides all of Piper's sermons and articles from the past three decades, and most of his books online free of charge, as well as offering for sale books, CDs, and DVDs and regularly hosting conferences.
John Stephen Piper is a Reformed and Baptist theologian, preacher, and author, currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the author of numerous books.
Piper's motto in ministry, preaching, and teaching is: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." He calls those who live out this motto Christian Hedonists. Piper places a heavy emphasis on the objective and absolute nature of truth and is confident in the Christian's ability to grasp that truth through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.