Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Learning in a World Blind to God

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Learning in a World Blind to God · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Today we're learning about learning, looking at learning as a crucial part to the
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  Christian life. Lifelong learning specifically is what we're talking about today. The discipline
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  is essential for local churches as well, So much so I'm reminded of APJ
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  eighteen oh four, Pastor John, where you encourage pastors to build a lifelong
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  learning habit into their churches so that as God's people disperse out into the world
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  after that Sunday gathering, when they go out into all their various professions and
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  fields of influence, they can learn how to bring Biblical truth to bear in
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  the world, at school, at work, without expecting the pastor to be
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  the expert to answer all the ethical challenges that they will uniquely face in the
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  world. And so pastors are equippers getting their people ready to make wise and
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  discerning decisions in their lives. And to do this well, it requires a
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  congregation to learn how to learn on their own. For the next few weeks,
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  we are going to focus on this discipline of lifelong learning, and we
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  focus here because well, it's an important theme, and we focus here because
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  it's the theme of your brand new book titled Foundations for Lifelong Learning. Education
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  in serious joy in this new book, as to be expected, Pastor John,
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  you employ hundreds of Bible texts to make your points, over five hundred
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  sidations throughout this little book. But of the most frequently cided text in this
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  new book that I see include two texts that stand out Matthew thirteen thirteen and
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  Psalm thirty four to eight, texts that also factor prominently in your book Reading
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  the Bible Supernaturally. So that leads me to ask this question in your mind,
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  how do these two books, and these two different themes work together.
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  What are the similarities and what are the differences between talking about Bible study on
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  one hand, in Reading the Bible Supernaturally and the purpose of education more broadly,
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  which is the theme of Foundations for Lifelong Learning. How does the wise
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  study of Scripture set the stage for us to be wise Christian students of all
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  of life. In your new book, you write a statement that really stood
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  out to me. You said, quote, if we never observed the world
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  through books, especially the book, we will be very limited in what we
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  can know. Expand on that, let me see if I can take all
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  those threads, a lot of different threads, and weave them into some kind
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  of coherent fabric of an answer. So let's start with quoting those two passages.
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  I mean, I found this really helpful the way you posted the question.
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  It was really helpful me to think on how the books related and how
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  those texts relate to the two books. So let's start by quoting those two
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  passages and relate them to the two books. Matthew thirteen thirteen says, Jesus
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  says, this is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they
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  do not see. Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not
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  hear, nor do they understand. And I'm pretty sure that the reason this
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  text is a common question for our APGA listeners is because Jesus says he's actually
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  aiming to conceal things by his parables from people who are resistant to truth.
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  A couple of verses later, he says, this people's heart has grown dull,
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  and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have
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  closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears.
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  But then Jesus says to his disciples, but blessed are your eyes, for
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  they see, and your ears for they hear. So the point is that
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  there are two kinds of seeing. Seeing they do not see. Seeing is
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  one kind of seeing. They do not see. That another kind of seeing
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  now Psalm thirty four to eight. The other text you mentioned gives the key
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  to the difference between a seeing that sees and a seeing that does not see.
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  It says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good,
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  which I take to mean that there is a seeing which is also a tasting
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  of the goodness of God. And that tasting of the goodness of God is
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  the other kind of seeing. So some people read the story of the Gospel
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  of Christ. He dies for us, he rises triumphant, he reigns,
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  and they see these facts. They see them, they see them, but
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  they taste no goodness at all. These facts don't taste good and delightful and
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  pleasing and satisfying. They don't taste anything pleasant. Their spiritual taste buds are
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  dead. The only kind of seeing they have is natural seeing, seeing with
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  the eyes of the head, the mind. Nothing supernatural, nothing spiritual,
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  nothing from the Holy Spirit. But someone else reads the story of the Gospel,
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  and that person tastes the sweetness of it, the goodness of it.
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  They taste and see, And this is the second seeing Paul calls it seeing
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  with the eyes of the heart. If he's ins one pint eighteen, God
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  has worked a miracle. He has made the taste buds of the soul alive.
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  It's not nonsense to say taste and see. I mean, suppose I
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  tell you this dessert is really rich, and you say, we'll take your
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  word for it, and I said, no, no, no, taste
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  it, and you taste it and you say, oh, I see.
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  Now that's not nonsense, right. You see, that's what happens when we
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  hear the Gospel and God makes our spiritual taste buds. We taste and say,
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  oh, I see, this is wonderful. So now here's the connection
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  between those two verses and the two books that you mentioned. The new book
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  is called Foundations for Lifelong Learning subtitled Education and Serious Joy, and the older
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  book Reading the Bible Supernaturally. There are two main differences between the books.
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  The new book, Foundations for Lifelong Learning, is built entirely and explicitly around
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  six habits of mind and heart that form the foundations of lifelong learning or education.
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  But these habits are only assumed and implicit in the earlier book Reading the
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  Bible supernaturally. That's one difference so assumed in the earlier book, made explicit
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  built around them in the second book. The other difference is that the newer
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  book applies these six habits of mind and heart not just to the Bible,
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  but to both of God's books, the Bible and the world. So reading
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  the Bible supernaturally is about how to read the Bible, and foundations for lifelong
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  learning is about how to read the Bible and how to read the world.
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  So it's built around the question what habits of mind and heart are necessary for
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  lifelong learning from the world, Learning from the world as well as from the
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  Bible. The six habits of mind and heart that form the foundation of lifelong
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  learning are observation, understanding, evaluation, feeling, application, and expression.
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  There's the chapter on each of those and how they are a at least to
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  my taste, buds a delicious challenge for a lifetime of learning from the Word
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  and from the world. This is what we try to do at best in
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  college and seminary, build these six habits of mind and heart into our students
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  so they are catapulted into a lifetime of fruitful learning. That's what I hope
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  is happening on every apj as well. Now, the reason those two texts
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  Matthew thirteen thirteen and Psalm thirty four to eight are relevant to these two books
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  is that the problem of seeing but not seeing is a problem not only for
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  what we see in the Bible, but also what we see in the world.
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  In other words, not only do people look at the Gospel and fail
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  to see the beauty of its reality, but people also look at the birds
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  and the lilies and the ants digging in the ground and fail to see the
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  beauty of the reality that God has designed for them to see and what He
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  means to communicate. Some people will say that if we would just study our
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  Bibles more and more care carefully, we wouldn't have to study the world.
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  Now, Not to put it too strongly, that's crazy, not only because
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  the Bible assumes on every page, I mean virtually every page, the Bible
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  assumes that we have looked at the world and learned from it, so that
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  we know what the Bible is talking about when it refers to vineyards, wine,
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  weddings, lions, bears, horses, dogs, pigs, grasshoppers,
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  constellations, businesses, wages, banks, fountains, rivers, fig trees,
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  olive trees, thorns, wind, bread, armies, swords, shields,
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  sheep, shepherds, cattle, camels, fire, green wood, dry wood,
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  hay, stubble, jewels, gold, silver, law, courts,
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  judges, and advocates for starters. Right. I mean, the Bible assumes
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  we've got our eyes open and are looking carefully at the world and learning what
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  things are and how they work, and at society. That we have a
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  great store of knowledge of things of the world when we come to the pages
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  of scripture. And not only that, not only does the Bible assume that
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  we have paid close attention to the world that we live in. It commands
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  us to go back to the world and learn. Go to the Ant,
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  you sluggard, like sluggard reading the Bible, Go to the Ant and consider
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  her ways and be wise, learn from her diligence. Look at the birds
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  of the air and learn how your father will take care of you. Consider
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  the lilies of the field, and learn how your father will clothe you.
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  And the relevance of those texts Matthew thirteen and Psalm thirty four is that millions
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  of people seeing do not see when they look at the world. They see
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  birds and lilies and ants, and sunrises and stars, bright glasss of God's
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  glory everywhere, and they don't see it. They don't see God. They
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  don't see his glory and what He's revealing. So the good effects of Bible
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  seeing and world seeing go both directions. If you see the world accurately,
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  you will bring a fund of knowledge to the Bible that will enable you to
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  know many things, many of the kinds of things it's talking about. But
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  even more importantly, and you picked up on this, Tony in the last
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  part of your question, even more importantly, if in reading the Bible,
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  God gives us eyes to see the glory of Christ, to taste and see
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  that He's good, then when we turn to the world and look with these
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  new eyes, the birds and the lilies, and the ants, and the
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  sunrises and the stars, they all have a new message, They have a
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  new glory. They show us something of God. So that's what I want
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  for myself. That's what I want for our students at betht theem College in
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  Seminary. That's what I want for everyone who reads this book. That's what
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  I want every time you and I talk on this podcast. For our listeners
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  when we see the word and when we see the world, to really see,
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  to taste and see that the Lord is good, the Lord is glorious.
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  Yeah. Amen. Truly understanding the world in what it says of God
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  is essential for comprehending the Bible better and vice versa, all leading to the
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  delight of learning. There's an essential feeling and essential joyfulness that we aim at
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  in all of our learning. I think Pastor John, you're sort of getting
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  at that. You're pushing in that direction towards the end of this episode,
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  and I want to pick up on that theme next time. Thank you,
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  Pastor John. Thank you for joining us today. If you have a question
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  for Pastor John, ask him. Type out your question as briefly as possible
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  and email it to me at ask Pastor John at Desiring Good dot org.
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  I'm your host, Tony Rinky. We'll see you back here on Monday.
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  Learning for joy that's the theme next see then.