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The Most Extraordinary Experience in This World · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Today we're back talking about the most extraordinary experience this
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  Speaker 1: universe can offer us, and we're not talking about hiking, angels, landing,
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  Speaker 1: or traveling to Mars. The theme emerges from two different
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  Speaker 1: emails from two different listeners, Eric and Mike, both asking
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  Speaker 1: about parallel texts and our Bible reading this week, and
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  Speaker 1: the first one is First Samuel three twenty one, A
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  Speaker 1: great text. I love this in it says, and the
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  Speaker 1: Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself
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  Speaker 1: to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: The Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the
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  Speaker 1: word of the Lord. God revealed himself by his word.
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  Speaker 1: And Eric and Mike both connect that text to Second
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  Speaker 1: Corintheus three eighteen and Second Corinthien's four to four All
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  Speaker 1: Star texts for us we love so much again. All
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  Speaker 1: of them are texts in our Bible readings this week.
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  Speaker 1: So how does First Samuel three twenty one set the
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  Speaker 1: stage for understanding the role of the Word in the
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  Speaker 1: revelation of God and his glory to us, especially as
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  Speaker 1: it's unveiled in the face of Jesus Christ. How is
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  Speaker 1: God's presence mediated to us in and through His word.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, Pastor John, you have spent a lot of
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  Speaker 1: time working that very question out in an answer in
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  Speaker 1: your book Reading the Bible Supernaturally, which is a wonderful
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  Speaker 1: book that I heartily commend to everyone listening. But First
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  Speaker 1: sam three twenty one only gets a passing mention in
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  Speaker 1: that book. Do you have any fresh insights into how
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  Speaker 1: we experience God through His word as we read these
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  Speaker 1: three precious texts early in may Well?
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  Speaker 2: The short answer is yes. But first, the great question
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  Speaker 2: that we're dealing with here, it seems to me, is
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  Speaker 2: can we know personally the creator of the universe, God?
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  Speaker 2: Can we know him? And can we know him particularly
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  Speaker 2: in a way that transforms us to be more like him,
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  Speaker 2: to be more in accord with His will. I think
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  Speaker 2: people all over the world, in every culture, in every language,
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  Speaker 2: in every age of human history, have wanted an answer
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  Speaker 2: to that question, Can I know my Maker? So this
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  Speaker 2: is big, This question is big. We're not just talking
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  Speaker 2: about something marginal but very central to human existence. Now.
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  Speaker 2: I've been leaning on Second Corinthians three eighteen and Second
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  Speaker 2: Corinthians four, verse four, and First Samuel three twenty one
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  Speaker 2: for a long time in my own answer to this
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  Speaker 2: question and my own experience of knowing God. What's newer
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  Speaker 2: for me is the connections that I have discovered between
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  Speaker 2: these old, familiar texts and other passages of scripture, and
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  Speaker 2: these new connections have They have the effect of confirming
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  Speaker 2: and deepening the old insights and the old experience of
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  Speaker 2: knowing God and being changed by this knowing. So here's
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  Speaker 2: for Samuel three twenty one, just so people know what
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about when we refer to these texts. The
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  Speaker 2: Lord appeared again at Shiloh. For the Lord revealed himself
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  Speaker 2: to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. Now,
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  Speaker 2: we can't know God unless he reveals himself. God is God,
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  Speaker 2: We're not God. He must take the initiative. We can't
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  Speaker 2: climb up through the universe into Heaven to meet know God.
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  Speaker 2: God must stoop down and show himself, reveal himself if
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  Speaker 2: we're going to know him. And this text says God
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  Speaker 2: did that for Samuel. Amazing, he revealed himself. That's what
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  Speaker 2: he says. That's a personal knowing of the creator of
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  Speaker 2: the universe. Samuel met the living God, he knew him personally.
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  Speaker 2: And then we read these wonderful words that show how
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  Speaker 2: we can be included in that experience. It says God
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  Speaker 2: revealed himself by the word of the Lord. So a
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  Speaker 2: revealing and appearing, a kind of seeing, happens by hearing
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  Speaker 2: or reading. God has decided that the most ordinary way
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  Speaker 2: of knowing him personally is by hearing and reading his word.
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  Speaker 2: The most extraordinary experience in the world knowing God personally
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  Speaker 2: happens through the ordinary experience of reading or hearing God's word. Now,
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  Speaker 2: it was sometime before I made the connection between that
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  Speaker 2: verse twenty one of verse Samuel three and the earlier
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  Speaker 2: statement about the boy Samuel who didn't yet know the
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  Speaker 2: Lord when the word of the Lord came to him
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  Speaker 2: at night. We all know from our children's if we
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  Speaker 2: grew up in the church, our children's stories of God
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  Speaker 2: speaking to this little boy, and he runs to Eli
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  Speaker 2: over and over again because he doesn't recognize the voice
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  Speaker 2: of God. And so in verse chapter three, verse seven
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  Speaker 2: is fourteen verses earlier. It says, now Samuel did not
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  Speaker 2: yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord
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  Speaker 2: had not yet been revealed to him. So this confirms
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  Speaker 2: what we saw in verse twenty one, namely that we
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  Speaker 2: know the Lord personally by means of knowing the word
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  Speaker 2: of the Lord. Samuel, as a little boy, didn't yet
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  Speaker 2: hear the word of God as the word of God.
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  Speaker 2: He heard a voice, he understood words, but he didn't
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  Speaker 2: know as God. He didn't know the Word of God.
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  Speaker 2: And that made me think of first Thessalonians two thirteen,
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  Speaker 2: regarding our experience, where Paul says, when you received the
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  Speaker 2: word of God which you heard from us, you accepted
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  Speaker 2: it not as the word of men, but as what
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  Speaker 2: it really is, the Word of God, which is at
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  Speaker 2: work in you, believers. So first we hear the word
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  Speaker 2: of God in scripture, then the Holy Spirit opens our
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  Speaker 2: heart to recognize it as the very word of God,
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  Speaker 2: and then we meet God. We know God personally through
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  Speaker 2: the Word of God. So this is why when we
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  Speaker 2: read the Bible, we should constantly be praying, Oh Lord,
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  Speaker 2: open my eyes, open my ears, open my heart, open
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  Speaker 2: my mind to know you. We're not just collecting doctrinal
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  Speaker 2: facts or historical facts. We are meeting the living God
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  Speaker 2: in his word. That's where it happens. And then comes
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  Speaker 2: the issue. Are we being changed by it? Are we
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  Speaker 2: being transformed into the likeness of God. Are we conforming
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  Speaker 2: to his will bibe by hearing him like this? And
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  Speaker 2: that's where Second Corinthians three eighteen comes in. It says,
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  Speaker 2: we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: So he's revealing himself according to First Samuel, by his word.
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  Speaker 2: And now that revealing becomes a beholding in us. And
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  Speaker 2: it says we are being transformed by this beholding into
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  Speaker 2: the same image, from one degree of glory to another.
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  Speaker 2: So you could call this becoming good by beholding glory,
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  Speaker 2: becoming christ like by beholding Christ's glory. It's a foretaste
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  Speaker 2: of what John promises at the second Coming. He says
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  Speaker 2: in First John three to two, we know that when
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  Speaker 2: he appears, we will be like him because we will
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  Speaker 2: see him as he is. And then Paul adds in
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  Speaker 2: One Corinthians thirteen twelve, now we see in a mirror dimly,
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  Speaker 2: then face to face, which goes a long way to
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  Speaker 2: explaining why we are changed incrementally, now slowly, frustratingly slowly
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  Speaker 2: now by seeing Christ dimly. Oh, how we would love
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  Speaker 2: to see more clearly, know him more immediately and shockingly
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  Speaker 2: real to the eyes of our soul. But then at
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  Speaker 2: the coming of the Lord, we will be changed in
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  Speaker 2: a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when we
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  Speaker 2: see him face to face. And Paul does not leave
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  Speaker 2: us guessing as to where we should look now in
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  Speaker 2: order to see the glory of the Lord, which he
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  Speaker 2: says again thee in verse eighteen of Second Corinthians three,
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  Speaker 2: because four verses later he says in second Printians four four,
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  Speaker 2: the God this world that Satan has blinded the minds
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  Speaker 2: of unbelievers to keep us from seeing the light of
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  Speaker 2: the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the
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  Speaker 2: image of God. So where do we see the glory
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  Speaker 2: of Christ? Answer, he says, we see it in the Gospel,
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  Speaker 2: the story of the life and death and Resurrection of Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: written for us with the authority of the Apostles in
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  Speaker 2: the New Testament. That's the place where we behold the
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  Speaker 2: glory of the Lord standing forth from God's inspired word,
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  Speaker 2: and we are thus changed by it. Now. Maybe just
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  Speaker 2: two other quick recent insights that I've gotten as I've
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  Speaker 2: pondered this cluster of texts. I never noticed, for example,
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  Speaker 2: that Colossians three ten is probably saying the same thing
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  Speaker 2: when it says put on the new self, which is
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  Speaker 2: being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
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  Speaker 2: Now that new self is the transfer information we're longing for,
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  Speaker 2: and that's talked about in sewod Christains three eighteen. It's
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  Speaker 2: a transformation into the image of our creator. It's what
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  Speaker 2: Paul calls the new creation. We are new creatures in Christ,
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  Speaker 2: and he says it comes by knowing him. So we
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  Speaker 2: know the Lord through his word and we are transformed.
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  Speaker 2: That would put on the new self by being transformed
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  Speaker 2: through that knowing through the Word or more connection. I
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  Speaker 2: saw in John three to six something I'd never seen before.
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  Speaker 2: It says, no one who keeps sinning has seen Christ
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  Speaker 2: or known Him. In other words, if we go on
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  Speaker 2: with no transformation, in a path of sin, unrepentant to
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  Speaker 2: the end, we will show you never saw him. You
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  Speaker 2: never saw or knew his glory, which I think confirms
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  Speaker 2: amazingly that it's this seeing in two Christan's three eighteen
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  Speaker 2: which produces the transformation. The great question that people are
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  Speaker 2: asking all over the world and have for all history.
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  Speaker 2: How can I know God personally? That's the key question.
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  Speaker 2: How can I know God in such a way that
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  Speaker 2: I am transformed to be more like him, and that
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  Speaker 2: question the Bible wonderfully answers. God reveals himself to us
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  Speaker 2: by the word of the Lord, and by that self
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  Speaker 2: revelation we are changed.
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  Speaker 1: The most extraordinary experience in the world. Knowing God personally
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  Speaker 1: happens through the ordinary experience of reading or hearing God's word. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John for saying it and for celebrating it,
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  Speaker 1: and for living it out for us week after week
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  Speaker 1: after week on this podcast. And thank you for the book.
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  Speaker 1: Reading the Bible supernaturally. That is a gift to us.
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  Speaker 1: The book is deeply immersive and it pulled me in
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  Speaker 1: from the start. Colautions three ten, however, is a text
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  Speaker 1: we talked about here, but that never appears in the book.
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  Speaker 1: It's a good example of how, Pastor John, you continue
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  Speaker 1: to develop out an idea by discovering more and more
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible even after you've written the book. And
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  Speaker 1: you can see that on full display in the episode
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  Speaker 1: I did looking at DG's motto and where it came
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  Speaker 1: from a title DG's slogan coined thirty six years ago today.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to see kind of how the Bible
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  Speaker 1: continues to open up for Pastor John, even after he's
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  Speaker 1: written a book on a theme. Thank you, Pastor John
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  Speaker 1: for never stopping and always pressing deeper into the truth,
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  Speaker 1: and thank you for joining us today. If you have
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  Speaker 1: a question to ask Pastor John, find a link to
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  Speaker 1: email us and find our complete episode our archive at
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  Speaker 1: askpastor John dot com. Every episode with full audio and
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  Speaker 1: transcripts available for you. Well, can our past heavenly rewards
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  Speaker 1: that we earned in the past get erased by future
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  Speaker 1: bad deeds. It's a question from Carolyn and a question
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  Speaker 1: on the minds of many. I would assume I'm Tony Rinky.
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  Speaker 1: See you on Monday.