Chapter eight, "What Jesus Demands from the World" by John Piper

Jesus demands us to follow him, even if it means leaving everything behind and/or suffering persecution; our lives should be totally focused on him. Being joyful in persecution shows Jesus' worth, it shows how valuable he is to us. When Jesus suffered the ultimate persecution he showed how valuable we are to him. He loves us so much and we don't even come close to deserving his love.

Jesus demands us to pick up our cross and follow him until he returns, and he has sent his spirit to guide us until that time. Jesus didn't mean a light and easy cross, in John 15:20 he said that we will face persecution. So he knows that it will be hard for us, but not so hard that we cannot bear it. That is why he sent his Holy Spirit, to strengthen us in those hard times.

We will receive eternal life and that is much greater than what we must suffer down on earth. So it is totally worth it to take up your cross and follow him.

Chapter six. What Jesus demands from the world, by John Piper

Jesus speaks with authority great enough to give and take away physical life. More importantly he has the power give us eternal life, this is why we must listen to him. His words are so powerful that even demons obey him, for example in Mark 1:25 when he commanded the demon to come out of the man, the demon came out. Jesus' authoritative words threatened the pharisees so much that their only alternative to end the threat was to kill him. But the only reason why they did eventually kill him was because he allowed them to. Jesus' authority is not threatened by death because as I said earlier he has authority over life and death. After Jesus died, he rose again.

In order to obtain eternal life you must hear and believe him. Many hear him but do not believe him. They do not believe him because they have no room in their hearts for him. God alone creates room in our hearts for him, but not just a little room, he deserves our entire hearts, in fact he demands that we give every last bit of our hearts to him. We shouldn't refuse him, we should let him clean out our hearts of all our impurities and sin. We should let him, so that we may be fit to enter his kingdom.

Chapter five, What Jesus Demands from the World, by John Piper

Love is a feeling and our feelings should be based on whatever Jesus commands them to be. One of his commands, is that we love him. Not a weak love, but a love that exceeds even the love of our family.
You might be wondering, ''How do I love someone who I've never met before, more than my family?'' Well, if you are in the family of God, you can't help but love him more than anything else John8:42- Jesus said to them, ''If God were your father, you would love me for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.''

Love is an action as well as a feeling and it is an action because when you love God you obey him Jesus said ''If you love me you will obey what I command(John 14:15). But loving God does not just mean that we obey him, we obey him because we love him.
We were God's enemies, yet he loved us and made us his sons and daughters and now he commands us to love our enemies as he did. He has forgiven the ultimate debt, our sin. We can never love as he loves nor can we ever forgive as he does. But we must still strive to forgive and love more.

Matt 10:37- ''Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.'' Being worthy of him does not mean that we deserve him, it means if we love him more than anything then we are loving him as he deserves to be loved.

I know that I do not love God as he deserves to be loved, my selfish desires and sin cloud his worthiness. My only hope is in Romans 5:5- and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. I don't have the ability to love God, God gives me the ability to love him. As Augustine said in Confessions, ''Give me the grace [O Lord] to do as you command, and command me to do what you will.

Chapter four, What Jesus Demands from the World, by John Piper

We are helpless and our attempts to save ourselves are feeble, so who do we look to for salvation? John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whosoever believe in him will not perish but have eternal life. This is the answer, Jesus is the one we look to, he demands us to believe in him so that we may have eternal life. We are in a very dangerous situation, but most people don't see this, they are blinded. Naturally they don't see the need to believe in him because they don't see the need to be saved. When we sin we are in complete rebellion against God, he is angered by this, and his wrath would be thrust upon us, but Jesus took all our sins upon himself. He bore God's wrath that was rightfully against us. Jesus demands that we believe in him because we cannot do anything to help him save us.

Believing in Jesus not only means believing that he can save us, it means that we must understand that he rose again. Believing in the physical things that he did are just as important as believing that he can save us. Also we must trust him, for it is not believing about him only that matters, it is also trusting in him.

Besides giving us eternal life he also gives us living water to drink so that we may never be thirsty again. But it is not a physical thirst that shall be quenched, it is water that will quench the soul. Jesus is this water and we must trust him that he will save us.

Chapter three, What Jesus Demands from the World, by John Piper

Jesus' third demand is that we come to him. When a person is born again he /she starts to view Jesus as the center of there lives , instead of other pleasures that the world offers. But a lot of people view Christianity as just another religion with a lot of rules to bear as a burden. No, Jesus didn't come to bestow a heavier burden on us , he came to lift the burden of sin off of us. Jesus doesn't give us burdens that will crush us he gives us tasks that we can handle, so that we may gain strength in our faith. Once a person experiences the change within Jesus gives us greater and greater tasks as we grow in our faith and we don't have to bear the burden of sin because he has lifted it by giving his life for us and in return we must be willing to lose our life for him. He demands us to come to him so that he may lift our burdens and replace them with a lighter load. But the lighter load that is given to us is not a physically light load, I mean, he doesn't give us health, wealth and no persecution, although sometimes he gives us these as blessings. Jesus said that the way to eternal life is hard and narrow and that you will go through tribulation. Christians want enjoy him but this world is a hard place to do that.

Jesus said that he longs for the day when he could gather his children like a hen gathers her brood but they were not willing. He weeps for those who do not come and grieves for those who do not accept his offer of eternal life.His offer is for all , yet some do not come. Piper states ''in other words people do not want to come. some call this the choice of free will Jesus would probably say it is the choice of a will enslaved to sin.'' If we are spiritually dead how do we come? John 6:44 '' no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him."

What are some ways you are enjoying Jesus in your life?
Do you ever struggle in enjoying the world, so that it is hard to enjoy Jesus?

Chapter two, What Jesus Demands from the World

Repentance has two signs of actual existence in one's heart, the first is a change of mind. A change of mind does not mean that one has an awesome new behavior although a new behavior is a result of true repentance, a change of mind means that a person is in complete awareness of his or her sin. Jesus said that he came to save the sinners not the righteous, everyone is a sinner so what he meant by 'righteous' are those who are to proud to admit they are sinners. God saves all who humble themselves and and admit they are in need of a savior because of their sin. That is what a change of mind is. The second sign is fruit bearing(good works)this a result as well as a sign, it also follows a change of mind. For if one has humbled oneself and admits they are a sinner then they will begin to strive to to sin less and to bear more and more fruit. Sin is not only harmful to oneself and others , it is an assault against God and when one truly repents it grieves them when they sin, and each time we repent God welcomes us back with open arms. Repentance is not a once in a life time thing, it is continual. We must constantly repent of our sin, for if we only have to repent once then we would be free to sin and then eventually there would no fruit in our lives at all. Repentance is essential to obtain eternal life, but this command to repent is also an offer given to us by a gracious God and it includes everyone, this command and offer comes to us so that we may proclaim it and to continue to proclaim it to all the earth.

Chapter one "What Jesus Demands from the World"

I'm going to be doing a series of posts on John Piper's book"What Jesus Demands from the World".
One of the things that Jesus demands from the world is that everyone should be born again. John 3:3- Jesus answered him, ''Truly, truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'' Being born again means that you have been born of the flesh and of the spirit. Men and women that have not been spiritually born have no desire for Jesus because they are spiritually dead .If you asked them,"Do you want to go to heaven?", of course they would say yes, who wouldn't want to live in a big house and have lots of food. If you asked them, "Do you want to spend eternity with Jesus?", they probably wouldn't want to. Why? To them Jesus is a boring person with a lot of rules, always telling them things they don't want to hear. Spiritually dead people are not interested in spiritual activities such as praying and meditating on his word.
You might be wondering why I say spiritually dead people, that worship false gods, pray and meditate are not spiritually alive. They're worshiping and praying to false gods but the only spiritual "life" is found in Jesus. If only people knew that Jesus came to set the captives free, that he came to take them out of bondage and that he came to give us life...abundant life!
Jesus came for those who are weak and wounded....aren't we all. Anyone who recognizes his need for a savior and calls out to Jesus can be born again. Jesus calls us to repent from our sin which means to turn away from sin and turn to a gracious, loving savior.