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Come to Me | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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You are listening to Reformed thinking.
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Welcome back to the deep dive. This is where we take a whole
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stack of sources, sort of pull out the key insights and give
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you that shortcut to being what really informed on a topic.
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Today we're diving into something absolutely central to
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the Christian faith. It's Jesus's personal
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invitation, his summons. Come to me now.
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Our main source material for this deep dive is going to be
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insights from John Piper, particularly from his work All
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the Jesus Commanded. He really unpacked the commands
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of Jesus there, and we're zooming in on the layers of
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meaning within the specific divine call.
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Our aim today really is to get a handle on what this simple
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sounding but actually incredibly rich call means for your life.
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You know, how does it promise rest?
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How does it promise joy, especially in a world that often
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feels just heavy, relentlessly burdensome?
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And what is this invitation asking of you?
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Maybe more than you? First thing, they want to sort
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of uncover the surprising sides of it, the radical shift.
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It really points forwards. OK, let's unpack this.
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Yeah, and what's so compelling right from the get go is that
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this isn't just, you know, 1 instruction tucked away
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somewhere. It feels like a central appeal.
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It supports so much of what Jesus taught.
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Piper really emphasizes that when Jesus says come to me, it's
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not just a casual suggestion. No, it's a core directive, a
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summons, really it. Really is a direct invitation
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isn't it? You see it pop up all through
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the gospels which signals how significant it is.
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I mean you got Matthew 11.28. Come to me, all who labor and
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are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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That's probably the most famous one.
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But then there's John 7.37 where he calls out right in the middle
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of festival. If anyone thirsts, let him come
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to me and drink. And John 6.35 as well.
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I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not
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hunger. Hurrah.
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So yeah, these aren't just isolated lines, they Pete this
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consistent picture, a really all-encompassing call.
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Indeed, and understanding the spiritual background here is,
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well, it's foundational. Piper really brings this out.
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For someone to genuinely, authentically respond to Come to
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me, there has to be a pretty fundamental spiritual shift.
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The Bible uses terms like new birth or regeneration, and
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that's coupled with repentance. This isn't just about making a
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mental decision like choosing between two options.
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It's described as a supernatural reordering of our deepest
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desires. Think of it maybe like a like a
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complete operating system overhaul for your soul, where
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your default settings for what you value, what you truly
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cherish, get totally rewritten. It shifts from being self
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focused to Christ focused. Without that divine action,
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Piper argues, our inner attitude about Jesus just remains, well,
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different. When we're in that natural
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state, you know, before God grants this new birth, our lives
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tend to center around 100 other things, things that just seem
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more attractive, more central. OK, so when you say 100 other
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things, could you maybe flesh that out a bit?
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Are we talking about obviously bad things like lices?
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Or could it even be good things that just get put in the wrong
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place? That's a great question, Piper
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points out. It can absolutely be things that
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aren't inherently bad at all. It's anything that ends up
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occupying the supreme place in our hearts, in our affections,
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our pursuits. He gets quite specific,
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actually. It could be things like your
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health, how much you focus on it, your family, which is
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obviously a good thing. But can it become ultimate?
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Your job, your career path, closest friends, or maybe your
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hobbies, your big plans for retirement even, You know,
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common everyday pleasures. Sports, music, food, intimacy.
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In our natural state, these are often the things we value most
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deeply. They're what we build our lives
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around, aren't they? They seem to be where we get our
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security from our identity or satisfaction, right.
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So before the spiritual reorientation you mentioned,
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Jesus isn't really the main character in our story.
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These other things, whether good or bad, in themselves become the
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supreme values. They take center stage.
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Precisely. But Piper makes it very clear
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that when God intervenes, when he grants that that radical
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change of new birth and repentance, something quite
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remarkable happens. Jesus himself moves.
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He shifts from being just maybe one option among many, or
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perhaps even someone you didn't think about much at all, to
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becoming the supreme value of your life, your ultimate
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treasure. And Piper stresses this isn't a
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gradual self improvement project.
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It's not something we earn or achieve through effort.
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It's described as a dramatic God, granted reordering that
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actually changes our desires and completely redefines our
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priorities. It's a whole spiritual
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realignment. It's a really powerful
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distinction that it's God's work.
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Is radical reordering, not something we managed to drum up
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on our own. I can imagine some listeners
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though, might be wondering, well, if it's all God's doing,
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where does my choice fit in my responsibility?
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How does Piper or Reformed Thinking generally handle that
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balance? Yes, that's a crucial question,
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and it's central to Reformed theology.
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Piper would definitely explain it this way.
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While the new birth regeneration is a sovereign act of God, He
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initiates that it doesn't cancel out human choice.
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Actually it enables real choice. See, before this new birth
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happens, our will is well as we'll get into more later.
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The Bible describes it as enslaved to sin.
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Now, that doesn't mean we don't make choices.
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We do freely choose what we want.
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The problem is, what we naturally want is bent away from
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God. So the new birth frees the will
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to desire and choose Jesus. It liberates it from that
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bondage. So while God absolutely
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initiates and enables it, our act of coming to Jesus is still
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a real willing choice from our side.
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It's just that the ability and the desire to make that choice
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are themselves gifts of his grace.
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Understanding that actually helps us move into the next
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point quite smoothly. Because if Jesus becomes
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everything to us through this change, then this command comes
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to me. Well, it can't really be seen as
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a burden, can it? Yet at the same time, the Bible
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talks about the path being hard. It sounds a bit contradictory
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when you first hear it. It really does seem that way on
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the surface, but Piper's work helps clarify this, doesn't it?
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The command itself, Come to Me, is explicitly framed as not
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being burdensome, and the core reason given is exactly what you
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were just explaining. It's an invitation to come to
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the One who has now become everything to us, the one who is
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our greatest good, our ultimate treasure.
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When Jesus holds that supreme place in your heart, his call
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isn't some heavy obligation you have to fulfill.
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It's the greatest privilege, the best opportunity imaginable.
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It's not like he's just adding another difficult spiritual task
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to an already long list. Absolutely not.
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That's not the picture at all. Piper's very clear Jesus's
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purpose wasn't just to introduce a new religion.
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You know, another set of laws and rituals for people to follow
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to try and please God. Instead, He came to offer
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himself. Himself is the source of our
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eternal contentment, our deepest satisfaction.
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His whole mission, including His suffering and death on the
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cross, was aimed at removing every single obstacle that stood
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between US and everlasting joy in Him.
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You hear this echoed so clearly in John 15 verse 11, where Jesus
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says these things. I've spoken to you that my joy
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may be in you and that your joy may be full.
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So when Jesus issues a command, including this core command,
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come to me. The real heart of it, the
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essence, is first to step into a life that most fully savers Him,
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delights in Him, and then naturally spreads His supreme
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worth to others. It's fundamentally about our
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ultimate satisfaction, joy found solely in Him.
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That really does reframe the whole idea of a command, doesn't
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it? It shifts it from being a demand
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for labor to an invitation into joy.
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Exactly. And think about the context.
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Think about the various belief systems out there, even the
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religious world Jesus stepped into.
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Piper draws attention to this, how Jesus looked out over the
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religions of the world, including the form of Judaism
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practiced in his day. And he saw people just laboring,
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carrying these incredibly heavy loads.
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They were striving, you know, through their own efforts,
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trying to adhere to countless rules and regulations, all in an
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attempt to earn favor from God or whatever deity they served,
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trying to appease God through their own works.
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And Jesus didn't arrive on the scene to just pile on another
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heavy load, right? Not just another set of rules or
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a new religious system for earning God's favor.
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That feels like a crucial difference.
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It's a massive departure. He didn't come to replace one
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laborious, God appeasing system with just another version of the
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same thing instead, And this is the really astonishing truth.
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He came to carry that load himself.
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He calls us to himself precisely for rest, not for more striving.
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This is captured so beautifully in that passage we mentioned
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earlier, Matthew 11.2830. It's so central here.
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Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
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you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
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from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will
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find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my
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burden is light. OK, so he says there is a yoke
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and there's a burden. It's not like following Jesus
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means suddenly there are no commands, no responsibilities,
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no path to walk. It's that Jesus himself isn't
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the source of the burden. That seems like a really key
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distinction that can easily get missed.
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That is the critical point Piper keeps emphasizing.
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Let's be clear when we come to Jesus, yes, there are commands
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he gives. There is a way of life he calls
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us into. There's discipleship.
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But the stress is always that Jesus is not the burden.
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He is the one who lifts the real burden.
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The burden of sin, the burden of trying to earn God's favor, the
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burden of finding meaning in things that can't deliver.
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He's the burden lifter. He's the soul satisfier.
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He's the life giver. He doesn't add to our spiritual
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toil. He releases us from its ultimate
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weight by bearing it himself, especially on the cross.
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So the freedom we find in Christ isn't freedom from obeying Him,
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but freedom to obey Him joyfully because He Himself has become
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our delight. OK, that makes sense.
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But then we are under that other passage, Matthew 7.14, where
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Jesus says something quite different, doesn't he?
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He describes the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads
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to life. This really seems to set up a
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tension, maybe even a paradox, with the easy yoke and light
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burden we were just talking about.
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How do we hold these two things together?
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How do we understand this apparent contradiction?
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Right. And Piper addresses this
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directly by clarifying where the hardness comes from.
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The sources are quite precise about this.
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The reason the way is described as hard is not because Jesus is
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some kind of harsh taskmaster. We just heard him describe
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himself as gentle and lowly in heart.
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That's his nature. No, the difficulty, the hardness
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of the way, comes from other sources.
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It comes from external pressures.
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Press passing in on us, and it comes from our own internal
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struggles. It doesn't come from Jesus
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himself or from the intrinsic nature of his commands.
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OK, so can we break that down? What exactly are these external
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and internal sources of difficulty that make the way
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hard? Well, firstly, Piper points out
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that the world itself, the culture, the society we live in,
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is just a difficult environment in which to truly cherish Jesus
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above everything else. It constantly bombards us with
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distractions, doesn't it? With temptations, with
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alternative treasures that promise satisfaction.
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But ultimately can't deliver lasting joy.
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Our culture, our consumer driven society, the constant pursuit of
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status or comfort, these all present pretty significant
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challenges. If you're trying to keep Jesus
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as your supreme focus, your greatest love, it really is like
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trying to swim upstream against a very strong current.
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Then along so that external pressure, there's our own
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internal struggle. Pepper uses a really provocative
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phrase here. He calls it a suicidal tendency
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to enjoy other things more. A suicidal tendency.
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Wow, that's a very strong phrase.
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Could you unpack what he means by that?
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Why use such dramatic language? Yes, it's definitely language
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designed to make us sit up and pay attention.
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He calls it suicidal because from a spiritual perspective.
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But prioritizing other things, even good things like health,
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wealth, relationships, comfort above Jesus, we are in effect
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cutting ourselves off from the only source of ultimate lasting
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joy and eternal life. We're choosing spiritual self
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destruction, in a sense, by chasing after temporary
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pleasures or securities as if they could satisfy the deepest
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needs of our souls. This isn't just a casual
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preference, you know, like choosing vanilla over chocolate.
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It's described as a deeply ingrained inclination within our
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fallen nature that actively pulls us away from valuing Jesus
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as supreme. And this inclination, the Bible
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says, must be recognized for what it is and actively fought
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against. It needs to be, metaphorically
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speaking, put to death or crushed.
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You see that kind of language in passages like Matthew 5 about
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gouging out an eye or cutting off a hand if it causes you to
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sin. That's how serious the battle
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is. It's a daily struggle within our
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own hearts. OK, so there's the internal
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struggle, this pull towards lesser things, right?
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And the external pressure from the world's values.
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And beyond those, Piper also points to direct opposition from
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other people, doesn't he? Absolutely.
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The text highlights that often many people become angered, even
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hostile, when we don't cherish the same things they cherish
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above all else, when Jesus truly becomes our supreme treasure,
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and as a result we stop prioritizing what the world
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prioritizes, maybe wealth or status or political power or
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just fitting in. It frequently leads to friction,
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animosity, sometimes even outright persecution for Jesus's
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name. Luke 21 warns about the success
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explicitly, even mentioning betrayal by family and friends
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leading to hatred and death. So the hardship of the way isn't
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because Jesus is demanding or oppressive.
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It's the unavoidable reality of following him faithfully in a
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world that is largely hostile to his claims and his supremacy,
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while also battling our own internal sinful inclinations
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that pull us away from him. The way is hard because of who
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we are in the world we live in, not because of who Jesus is.
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That explanation really helps resolve the tension, and it
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leads us nicely into thinking about how Jesus sustains us on
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this hard way. He doesn't just relieve burdens.
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He actually provides the very things we need to live to truly
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thrive spiritually. And he uses these incredibly
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basic, powerful human needs as metaphors like thirst and hunger
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to show us what he offers. First, there's a water metaphor.
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If anyone in thirst, let him come to me and drink from John
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7.37. Yes, and it's crucial to
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understand what kind of water he's offering.
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This isn't just temporary refreshment.
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The promise linked to this water is everlasting life.
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As Jesus explains to the woman at the well and John 4.14.
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Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be
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thirsty forever. The water that I will give him
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will becoming him a spring of water welling up to eternal
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life. So the command to come to Jesus
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is in essence a command to come to the very fountainhead of life
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itself and drink deeply. Drink until you're satisfied at
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the core of your being. He is the ultimate source that
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quenches that deep spiritual thirst we all have that thirst
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for meaning, for purpose, for connection, for lasting joy.
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He promises to satisfy it not just for a moment, but
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eternally. It becomes this continuous
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internal wellspring of divine satisfaction right inside you.
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A. Perpetual wellspring within us,
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always satisfying. That's an amazing image.
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And it's not just water he uses, is it?
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He also draws us with the picture of life sustaining
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bread, another absolutely fundamental human need.
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That's right, Jesus doesn't just stop with the image of life
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giving water. He uses another equally vital
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metaphor, bread. In John 6.35 he declares I am
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the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not
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hunker. He identifies himself as the
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bread of heaven, the very source, the substance, the
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essence of everlasting life. Again, this isn't just about
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temporary nourishment to get you through the day.
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This is eternal sustenance for the soul.
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He draws us with these promises of ultimate deliverance from
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perishing, which of course is famously articulated in John
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3.116. He is a spiritual food that
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genuinely satisfies our deepest hunger, ensuring that in the
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ultimate sense, we never need to hunger for anything else again
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to find true life. This isn't just about spiritual
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survival. It's about spiritual thriving.
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It's about finding our ultimate identity, our purpose, our
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nourishment in Him by feeding on His truth, His promises, His
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very person. These metaphors, water and
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bread, they're just so vivid, so foundational.
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And Piper, as you mentioned, helps us see the urgency and the
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incredible benefit of this call through some really powerful
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analogies he draws from the source.
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He uses that dramatic image of a father calling to his child,
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who's trapped in a burning building, maybe at a window, and
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the father cries out, jump, jump to me.
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Yes, that captures the life or death urgency.
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Or think about another analogy he might draw from scriptures
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themes. Imagine a rich, strong, but also
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incredibly gentle and wonderful husband speaking to a wife who
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has been unfaithful, who has wandered away, and his call is
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simply come home. It's not primarily a call of
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condemnation, though the unfaithfulness is real.
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It's a summons back to reconciliation, back to
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security, back to the place of belonging and restoration.
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It implies that the relationship is broken.
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But Grace is extending this incredible invitation.
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Despite everything, I still want you to come back to safety.
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You come back to love. And then there's that stark
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scenario, maybe like a Rescue Squad finding someone near
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death, totally dehydrated after days lost in the desert and they
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hold out water urging drink this, you need this to live.
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It conveys such a clear picture of absolute desperation met by
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immediate life saving aid. Exactly each of these analogies,
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though they come from different angles, rescue from danger,
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restoration of relationship, provision for dire need, they
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all carry this unified, compelling message about Jesus's
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call. They really under score that his
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invitation come to me is not a sum as to more hardship or
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heavier burden. Not at all.
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Instead, it's presented as this urgent plea for your safety, an
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invitation into complete spiritual satisfaction and and
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the actual offer of life itself, rescuing you from ultimate
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perishing. These analogies help strip away
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any lingering idea that Jesus's command is somehow for his own
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benefit or designed to add difficulty to our lives.
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No, it's presented entirely for our well-being, our rescue, our
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eternal good. It really makes the refusal to
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come seem even more tragic, doesn't it?
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When you see the offer presented with such urgency and grace, the
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fact that many people still refuse is quite sobering.
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It's something Jesus himself lamented, which shows the depth
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of this tragedy. We see it so clearly in Matthew
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23.37, His grief over Jerusalem. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the
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city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.
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How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen
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gathers her brood under her wings?
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And you would not. That last phrase is
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heartbreaking. You would not.
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It is heartbreaking. And he echoes that same
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sorrowful reality in John 5, verses 39 and 40.
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He's speaking to religious leaders who meticulously studied
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the scriptures. And he says you search the
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scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal
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life. And it is they that bear witness
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about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
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They had the book pointing to him, yet they wouldn't come to
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him. Piper really underscores the
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stark refusal has, in his words, the personal tragedy of sin and
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spiritual blindness. It's a profound sadness, isn't
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it, when people turn away from the only source of true life,
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even when they might be very religious or knowledgeable about
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spiritual things. So the big question then becomes
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why? Why do people refuse?
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What's really at the root of rejecting such a gracious, life
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giving offer? From a purely logical
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standpoint, it seems counterintuitive.
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Well, on one level the answer is quite direct.
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As Jesus put it, they refuse to come simply because they do not
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want to come. There's a lack of desire for
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him. The Piper, drawing straight from
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Jesus's own teachings, clarifies that this lack of desire isn't
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just a neutral choice made by a completely free will, in the way
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we might casually think about it, as if our will stands
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perfectly balanced and uninfluenced.
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Instead, Jesus describes this refusal as stemming from the
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choice of a will and slave to sin.
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Now what does that really mean? It's a very significant phrase.
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It doesn't just mean we sometimes make bad choices.
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It means that our very desires, our core orientation, our
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inherent bent as fallen human beings, are naturally inclined
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against God. John 8.34 really drives this
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header. Everyone who commits sin is a
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slave to sin. This means our freedom of choice
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is paradoxically bound by our deepest sinful preferences.
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We freely choose, yes, but our choices consistently align with
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our sinful nature unless God steps in to change that nature.
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OK, so it's not free in the sense of being totally unintered
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or neutral. It's a choice, but it's a choice
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driven by this deeper condition, this enslavement to sin.
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And that enslavement means our desires are fundamentally
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pointed away from God. Precisely.
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People don't come to Jesus ultimately because they are
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enslaved to their supreme preference for other things.
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We talked about that list earlier.
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Things like health, family, career, friends, hobbies,
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pleasures, retirement, security. These things, good or bad,
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become functional idols. They take the supreme place in
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our affections, the place only God should have, and they
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effectively prevent us from seeing and valuing Jesus above
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them. This enslavement means our
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desires are just fundamentally misdirected towards the creation
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rather than the Creator. And, Piper points out, it goes
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even deeper than just misplaced preferences, doesn't it?
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There's a more active spiritual dimension to this refusal,
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almost like an aversion to light itself.
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Yes, he definitely highlights that.
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He directs us to John 3 verses 19 and 20, which are incredibly
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revealing. It says that the light has come
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into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the
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light because their works were evil.
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And it continues, for everyone who does wicked things hates the
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light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be
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exposed. Notice the strong words.
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They loved the darkness, They hate the light, and they
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actively do not come to the light.
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This isn't just passive ignorance.
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It's portrayed as an act of aversion, A willful turning
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away. They choose darkness because it
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allows them to continue in their ways without being confronted by
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the truth. And this love for darkness, this
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hatred for the light, is directly tied, Piper explains,
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to spiritual blindness, A fundamental inability to truly
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perceive the truth and beauty of Jesus.
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If you genuinely cannot see him as supremely valuable, as
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irresistibly true and beautiful, as the ultimate source of
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reality and joy, well, then you will never truly want to come to
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him. This is the tragic condition,
21:12
the spiritual state that prevents people from responding
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to His gracious call on their own.
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Our natural condition is to be blind to His glory and worth.
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Wow, that paints a pretty bleak picture of the human condition
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apart from God's intervention. It leaves us with a really
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significant question then. If everyone by nature is
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enslaved to sin in this way, and spiritually dead or blind,
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unable to see Jesus, truth and beauty, how has anyone ever come
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to him? It sounds impossible if left
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purely to human initiative. And that's exactly the tension,
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the conundrum, that Piper highlights.
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And crucially, it's the point where Jesus himself provides the
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answer in his teaching. His explanation is clear.
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It's God. God, in his incredible mercy and
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sovereign grace, is the one who overcomes this natural
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resistance, This spiritual blindness and enslavement, and
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actively draws people to himself.
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This isn't something we can initiate.
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It's not something we achieve by our own merit or by just trying
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harder with our own willbower. And Jesus states this very
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explicitly, doesn't he? Particularly in John chapter 6.
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Those verses seem really critical here.
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Yes, he states it twice in close succession.
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They're really reinforcing the point.
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In John 6.44 he says no one can come to me unless the father who
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sent me draws him unequivocal. And then again just a bit later
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in John 6.65. This is why I told you that no
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one can come to me unless it is granted Him by the Father.
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These verses are absolutely central to understanding how
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anyone comes to faith. They point directly to a divine
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action, a sovereign operation of God's grace that enables us to
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come. The drawing he speaks of isn't
22:43
like a gentle suggestion. The Greek word implies a more
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active, powerful summons, an effective pull that brings about
22:49
the desired response. It's God taking the initiative.
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OK, So what is this divine drawing, this granting by the
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Father actually accomplish in a person?
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How does God make it possible for the spiritually blind to
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suddenly see and for the enslaved will to be free to
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choose Him? Piper explains it based on
23:04
Scripture. God grants the gift of new birth
23:07
and repentance. This is that radical change,
23:09
that spiritual regeneration, that fundamental realignment we
23:12
were talking about earlier. And the immediate, amazing
23:16
result of receiving this gift is that it opens the eyes of the
23:19
spiritually blind to the truth and beauty of Jesus.
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It's like scales falling off, as happened with Paul.
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Before this moment, Jesus might have seemed irrelevant,
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uninteresting, maybe even offensive or threatening.
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But when God grants this new spiritual sight, his true worth,
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his beauty, his sufficiency become undeniably clear and
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incredibly compelling. And when that spiritual sight is
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given, Piper says, all those previously powerful suicidal
23:43
objections, those deep seated preferences for other things
23:46
over Jesus, they just lose their grip.
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They dissolve. The person is described as being
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finally free from that enslavement to sin, free from
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the binding power of their preferences for lesser things.
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And only then are they truly able to come.
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And indeed, they want to come. The very desire to come to Jesus
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is itself seen as a gift of God's grace.
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That's an incredible picture of God's powerful grace at work.
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And Piper provides such a vivid illustration of this from the
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Gospels, the story of Lazarus. I mean, Jesus stands before a
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tomb inside as a man who's been dead for four days, and Jesus
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just commands him. Lazarus come out.
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That's in John 11, verses 43 and 44.
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And what happens? Lazarus, the dead man,
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completely incapable of responding on his own, came out.
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He emerge from the tomb still wrapped in grave clothes, but
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alive. Yes, that example is incredibly
24:32
significant. It powerfully demonstrates
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Jesus's absolute authority, his sovereignty, and the dramatic
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life creating nature of his spoken word, even over physical
24:40
death itself. Lazarus wasn't just sick or
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weak, He was dead, utterly unable to obey the command.
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Yet at Jesus's sovereign summons, life flooded back into
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him and he responded. He came forth.
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It shows that Jesus's call doesn't just invite, it carries
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within it the very power to enable the response he commands.
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And the parallel to our spiritual condition is quite
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clear then, isn't it? Piper uses it as an analogy for
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how God overcomes our spiritual death, our inherent resistance,
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and draws the spiritually dead to Himself, enabling us to come
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forth into new life. We are spiritually dead in our
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sins, unable to respond until His powerful life giving voice
25:18
calls us personally. Exactly this illustrates that
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Jesus's purpose, his mission, will not be thwarted.
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He came into the world, as John 11.52 tells us, to gather into
25:29
one the children of God who are scattered abroad, his sheep from
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all over the world. And though he might grieve over
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those who refuse his call, like he did over Jerusalem, Piper
25:39
emphasizes that Jesus will not be frustrated in his design.
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He will succeed in gathering of people for himself.
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This isn't just a hope or an aspiration on Jesus's part.
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It's presented as a certainty rooted in His divine power and
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His sovereign plan. That's a really powerful
25:53
assurance. Then he's not just putting out
25:55
an offer and hoping some people take it up.
25:57
He's actively, effectively calling and ensuring his people
26:01
will come. He states it with such certainty
26:03
in John 10 Pointman's team. And I have other sheep that are
26:06
not of this fold, meaning Gentiles, not just Jews.
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I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.
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So there will be 1 flock, 1 shepherd.
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Notice the definitive language. I must bring them, they will
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listen to my voice. There will be 1 flock.
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This is the heart of the divine summons.
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It's a powerful, effective, enabling call from God that
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guarantees that people will be gathered to Jesus from every
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tribe, language, people and nation, all united under Him as
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the one true Shepherd. OK, so we've journeyed through
26:35
the depth of this Come to me command.
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What it is, the radical change it requires, the profound
26:40
obstacles like sin and blindness it overcomes through God's
26:43
grace. Let's bring it right down to the
26:45
practical level. Now.
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What does responding to this ultimate invitation truly mean
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for us, for you, listening day-to-day?
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How does it reshape life and our understanding of joy?
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Well, Piper summarizes the outcome beautifully.
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Responding means stepping into and experiencing the kind of
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life that most fully savers Jesus, that finds its deepest
27:03
delight in Him and as a natural result, spreads his supreme
27:07
worth to others. It means finding that genuine
27:09
rest He promised rest and relief from all the heavy burdens you
27:13
were previously carrying or trying to carry on your own.
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Whether that was the burden of trying to earn God's favor
27:19
through your own efforts or just the crushing weight of trying to
27:22
find meaning and satisfaction in temporary things apart from Him.
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It really comes back to that core idea of satisfaction,
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doesn't it? That deep spiritual hunger and
27:30
thirst, which of those metaphors of water and bread captured so
27:33
well, finally being met, met in a complete and lasting way only
27:37
in Him. Precisely, it's about being
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truly satisfied by the bread of Life himself, and drinking
27:43
deeply from the fountain of living water so that you never
27:45
spiritually hunger or thirst again in that ultimate searching
27:49
way. And the final outcome of all
27:51
this, the destination this call leads to, is full and
27:54
everlasting joy in Him. It's His own joy becoming your
27:57
joy. A deep, settled happiness and
28:00
contentment that isn't dependent on your changing circumstances,
28:03
but is securely anchored in the unchanging reality of Christ
28:06
Herself being your supreme treasure.
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If we try to connect this to the bigger picture, it really sounds
28:10
like this whole process being drawn, having our eyes open,
28:13
coming to Him, fundamentally changes our entire perspective
28:15
on life, on God, and leads naturally to this deep sense of
28:19
gratitude. It absolutely does.
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And this raises an important question, maybe the most
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important one for anyone hearing Jesus's voice in the Scripture
28:26
saying, Come to me. How should you respond to that
28:30
call personally? Piper's instruction, drawn from
28:33
the sources, is quite clear. The response involves prayer.
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Specifically, pray that God Himself would give you the eyes
28:40
to see Jesus as He truly is, as irresistibly true and beautiful.
28:45
It's essentially a prayer for that spiritual sight we talked
28:47
about, a prayer for God to remove the spiritual blindness
28:50
so that your heart's deepest desires can be reordered toward
28:53
Him. And perhaps even praying to hear
28:55
this command come to me with the same kind of sovereign life
28:59
giving effect that Lazarus experienced in the tomb.
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So not just hearing the words intellectually, but receiving as
29:05
a call that actually creates within you the very ability and
29:08
desire to respond. It's a prayer for God to grant
29:11
that new birth, that repentance, to powerfully draw you to
29:14
Himself. Yes, that's the essence of it.
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Because the testimony of Scripture and Piper's reflection
29:19
on it is that for those who do come in this manner, those who
29:23
are drawn by God's sovereign grace have their eyes open to
29:26
Jesus, truth and beauty. The conclusion is absolute.
29:29
They will never cease to praise and thank Him for His sovereign
29:32
grace. Their very act of coming becomes
29:34
a lifelong testimony of God's powerful work in their lives.
29:37
And that gratitude won't just be temporary, it will be eternal, A
29:41
perpetual song of praise to the One who called them out of
29:43
darkness into His marvelous light, from death to life.
29:46
So what does this all mean for you?
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Listening right now, this divine call come to me is clearly far
29:51
more than just a simple invitation.
29:53
It's presented as a deep, life altering summons that can
29:56
genuinely redefine your entire existence.
30:00
If Jesus truly carries our ultimate burdens, if he offers
30:03
himself as a supreme, all satisfying treasure, how does
30:06
that reality reshape your daily priorities, What you strive for,
30:10
what you worry about? What might it actually look like
30:13
in practical terms to consciously, intentionally
30:15
pursue cherishing him above all other things, knowing that
30:18
according to these texts, he's already overcome every obstacle
30:21
to make your everlasting joy in him possible?
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That's something worth reflecting on.
30:25
We really hope this deep dive into Jesus's command come to me
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has given you much to consider and perhaps much to savor.
30:32
Thank you for listening.