Book Response: Let the Nations be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions by John Piper
Note: All of the following quotations are taken from Let the Nations be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions written by John Piper
John Piper, who is a reformed theologian, wrote Let the Nations be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions. Piper was writing to Christian churches across the globe to do missions because missions exists where worship does not. How can an unreached people group proclaim and give the glory to God when they do not even know Yahweh Elohim? John Piper divided Let the Nations be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions into three main parts or divisions to prove that missions exist where worship does not. These three parts are the following. The First part is “Making God Supreme in Missions: The Purpose, The Power, and the Price. The Second part is “Making God Supreme in Missions: The necessity and the Nature of the task.” The Third Part is “Making God Supreme in Missions: The Practical Outworking of Compassion and Worship.” These are the three parts of the Piper’s book. Piper’s Book argues, in these three parts, that Missions exists to glorify God, and The Glorification of God is the ultimate goal of Missions.
John Piper wrote that the primary purpose of Missions is to glorify God, where the worship of God cannot be done. John Piper proved that missions are defined as reaching the unreached people group who haven’t heard the gospel of Christ before to glorify God. Piper argues, “Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory.” So, Piper argues in this section of the book that Worship is paramount to the goal of missions. Without worship, Christians cannot glorify God.
Piper also argues that the power of missions is through prayer. Prayer is used during wartime. Piper has a convincing case why prayer is valuable on the mission field. Piper defines prayer and what it is used for. Piper writes, “Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief.” Without praying, a missionary might not have the support or necessities to go on the mission field. A strong personal relationship with God is paramount to go on the missions’ field. Without a strong faith, your faith will likely get shaken and knocked down when you minister overseas in a undisclosed location like North Korea.
John Piper argues that Missions cannot exist without suffering. He has six conclusions on how Suffering impacts the Christian faith. First, Suffering deepens faith and holiness. Second, Suffering makes your cup increase. Third, Suffering is the price of making others bold. Fourth, Suffering fills up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. Fifth, Suffering enforces the missionary command of go. Sixth, the supremacy of Christ is manifest in suffering. Pipe is correct in His six conclusions. The price of going out into foreign countries for the sake of the gospel is persecution. The Power to keep plugging away is through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Satan tries at every turn tried to discourage missionaries from pursuing God’s will for their life. Satan comes and unsuccessfully to seeks, kills, and destroys the missionaries work in their foreign country they are serving at. The Missionaries counteract this by befriending God’s faithfulness and God’s steadfast love. They pray to Yahweh Elohim to help them combat the devil’s evil schemes. John Piper emphasizes the importance of prayer in the life of a missionary and a believer in a local church. When Missionaries encounter Satan’s attacks, Missionaries should read Psalms 1-51 and note how many times David rested in God’s faithfulness and God’s steadfast love. David also viewed God as a Stronghold for him when He was going through a spiritual storm of discomfort. Psalms is a book of comfort. Strength rests in God alone. Strength also comes through prayer and trust in God. Strength also comes from not closing yourself off to friends and family members while on the missions’ field. Missionaries should write letters to their supporters to make sure that they know what the missionary is doing on the missions’ field.
In this section on the Purpose, Power, Price of the supremacy of Missions, Piper argues that the three main purposes of missions are worship, prayer, and suffering. Worship cannot exist without a strong relationship with God. When you have a strong relationship with God and give God all the glory and honor, he deserves, you will be in the right place to pray for the needs for your ministry to flourish and be a great success. Suffering always occurs when you have a strong relationship with God because Satan tries to destroy your minister and discourages you from going on the mission field. Missionaries should embrace God’s faithfulness and God’s steadfast love by worshipping God, by praying to God, and by witnessing to the unreached people groups in closed countries like North Korea. This leads to the inner workings of the Gospel message is which is found in the second part of John Piper’s book.
In this part, Piper lays the groundwork of the Gospel message. The main doctrine that is associated with the gospel is the Doctrine of Hell. Nobody, in their right mind, likes the concept of Hell because how can a loving God create something as bad as Hell? A Loving God creates something as bad as Hell for those who reject the Gospel message. Hell is defined as the conscious eternal torment of the soul that goes on for eternity. John Piper reveals a sad statistic that most scholars and biblical teachers are not embracing the doctrine of hell. The Gospel is not just about a get-free out of Hell message, but a message of love and grace. God was so grace to us that He gave his one and only son to save us from the punishment of sin. God’s son, Jesus Christ (Yeshua Christos), died on the cross for our sins and rose on the third day conquering death. If a person accepts this message and puts their 100% trust in Jesus Christ and how he redeemed us from sin, then you can have a truly magnificent relationship with the God of the universe. You do not have to fear death, but know that once you die, you go to a better place which is Heaven. Heaven is the polar opposite of Hell. Hell is the eternal condemnation of sinners. But Heaven is the safe heaven for redeemed sinners. Redeemed sinners are those who believe in Jesus Christ and confess their sins. Once a redeem sinner confesses their sin, Yahweh Elohim forgives them of their sin and cleanse them from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). “All unrighteousness” is significant phrase. If we confess our sins, God will forgive our past sins and our future sins that we might commit.
Believers, once they accept Jesus Christ, should strive for sanctification. Sanctification is the continually practice of growing towards Christlikeness. The only way we can grow towards Christlikeness is through Jesus Christ. It is not by our own doing but by the free gift of God which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only ticket into Heaven. John 14:6 “Jesus said to them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father, except through me.” Jesus is the only ticket into heaven. So why are Christians not pumped up to give this gospel message to the lost world? One reason is we are comfortable in our lifestyle. We do not give up the material possessions easily. We need to sacrifice our material possessions to witness the lost world. John Piper argues that if we do not the tell them the gospel, how can they accept the gospel. We need to tell everyone the salvation message in order to glorify God.
In This section, John Piper argues that Christians needs to witness to the lost world. If we do not witness, they cannot come to the gospel on their own. Christians need to plant the seed in which they can come to know the gospel through the conviction of the Holy Spirit. This is the heart of the John Piper’s book. This leads to the third part of John Piper’s book, the Worship and the outworking’s of the Salvation message.
In This Part, John Piper makes the case of why we need to have compassion on the lost souls who do not know the Gospel. John Piper says that we need to have compassion on the lost souls who do not know Jesus Christ because they are blinded from the Truth of the Gospel. In the Great Commission, Jesus Christ commands us to go out and make disciples of every nation. The only way we can do this is by having compassion on the lost souls and sharing the truth of the Gospel so that they can see the Truth again.
Another main point that John Piper is making in this section is that we are glorifying God by witnessing to the Lost souls who do not know Jesus Christ because they are blinded from the Truth of the Gospel. John Piper states that we need to show compassion because they do not know that what they are doing is wrong when they do not hear the gospel.
This Book made me realize the importance of spreading the Gospel not for our sake, but for the sake of Glorifying God. I agree with John Piper’s main thesis of missions exists where worship does not. This phrase at the beginning of the book confused me. But once I got to the end of this book, I realized his point. How can unbelievers worship God when they do not know the Gospel message? So this is my take on John’s Piper’s book. In summary, we need to witness to the unreached people group because they cannot worship God. Worship means honoring and glorifying God. This is one of my favorite books that I would recommend everyone needs to read in every point of life. Missions is more valuable than I originally thought. This opened my eyes to new perspectives. All of quotations are taken from Let the Nations be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions written by John Piper.
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