What Jesus Demands from the World (John Piper)

Let me share with you a blurb written by Mark Driscoll (Pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle) regarding this, the latest book from John Piper. Mark writes "This is a peculiar book. It assumes that the four Gospels are true and unified. It assumes that Jesus not only does things for us but also makes demands of us. And it assumes that Jesus has authority over everyone regardless of their religion, gender, race, income, sexuality, nationality, or culture. You will likely not agree with every point. But you will hear from a Jesus Who is more than a soft-spoken, effeminate, marginalized, Galilean hippie-peasant in a dress and has the peculiar notion that He alone is Lord."

Piper himself writes "My conviction is that if we are willing to find in Him [our Lord Jesus] our supreme joy, His demands will not feel severe but sweet...It would be a cheap and superficial spin to give the impression that Jesus does not in fact often speak abrasively and sound severe. This is true not only toward His adversaries, the scribes and Pharisees - for example, in Matthew 23, where He calls them children of hell (v. 15), blind fools (v. 17), blind guides (vv. 16, 24), hypocrites (v. 27), whitewashed tombs (v. 27), and brood of vipers (v. 33). It is also true toward His disciples. For example, He says, "If you...who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children..." (Matthew 7:11); and to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man" (Mark 8:33); and again to Peter, referring to John's destiny, "What is that to you? You follow me!" (John 21:22).

"And after a blunt and jarring teaching in John 6 ("Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life," v. 54), John comments that when "many of His disciples heard it, they said, 'This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?'...After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him'" (vv. 60, 66). Such was the price of how He spoke. My aim is not to gloss over the tough implications of the word 'demands' [as in the title 'What Jesus demands...'] or to soften the "hard" sayings of Jesus; the aim is to be changed in our hearts and in our understanding to such a degree that the tough Jesus is as sweet to us as the tender Jesus." What an aim of a book! Within this book our brother John outlines in relatively short chapters 50 demands given by Jesus - I myself am only at 'demand # 10' but am loving it...I would recommend that if you buy / borrow this book to not read many chapters [demands] at a time but rather to read each one separately and to dwell on each one. This book could therefore be read as a 'filler' while reading another book...preferably the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.