by John Piper
LET THE
NATIONS
BE GLAD !
Other Books by John Piper
God’s Passion for His Glory
The Pleasures of God
Desiring God
The Dangerous Duty of Delight
Future Grace
A Hunger for God
A Godward Life
Pierced by the Word
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ
What’s the Difference?
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals
The Supremacy of God in Preaching
Don’t Waste Your Life
The Passion of Jesus Christ
Life as a Vapor
When I Don’t Desire God
Taste and See
Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die
God Is the Gospel
What Jesus Demands from the World
Battling Unbelief
When the Darkness Will Not Lift
Spectacular Sins
Finally Alive
John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God
Rethinking Retirement
This Momentary Marriage
Velvet Steel
A Sweet and Bitter Providence
LET THE
NATIONS
BE GLAD !
THE SUPREMACY
OF GOD
IN MISSIONS
THIRD EDITION
JOHN PIPER
© 1993, 2003, 2010 by Desiring God Foundation
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2011
Ebook corrections 5.16.2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0764-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NASB are from the New American Standard Bible ®, copyright copy © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations labeled RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Italics in biblical quotations indicate emphasis added.
To
Tom Steller
in the precious partnership
of worship, prayer, and suffering
for the supremacy of God in all things,
for the joy of all peoples
through Jesus Christ
crucified and risen
Contents
Preface to the Third Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction to the Third Edition: New Realities in World
Christianity and Twelve Appeals to Prosperity Preachers
Part 1 Making God Supreme in Missions: The Purpose, the Power, and the Price
1. The Supremacy of God in Missions through Worship
2. The Supremacy of God in Missions through Prayer
3. The Supremacy of God in Missions through Suffering
Part 2 Making God Supreme in Missions: The Necessity and Nature of the Task
4. The Supremacy of Christ as the Conscious Focus of All Saving Faith
5. The Supremacy of God among “All the Nations”
Part 3 Making God Supreme in Missions: The Practical Outworking of Compassion and Worship
6. A Passion for God’s Supremacy and Compassion for Man’s Soul: Jonathan Edwards on the Unity of Motives for World Missions
7. The Inner Simplicity and Outer Freedom of Worldwide Worship
Conclusion
Afterword: The Supremacy of God in Going and Sending Tom Steller
A Note on Resources: Desiring God
Preface to the Third Edition
My passion is to see people, churches, mission agencies, and social ministries become God-centered, Christ-exalting, Spirit-powered, soul-satisfied, Bible-saturated, missions-mobilizing, soul-winning, and justice-pursuing. The supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ is the central, driving, all-unifying commitment of my life.
This vision is as clear and firm in my heart in 2010 as when this book was first published in 1993 and revised in 2003. In fact, this vision has been deeply solidified in the intervening years by the completion of another book relating to world missions, What Jesus Demands from the World.1 What drove that book was Jesus’ command in the Great Commission: “Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). That book is my effort to sum up from the four Gospels what Jesus meant by “all I have commanded you.” It is a handbook for discipling the nations in obedience to that part of the Great Commission.
So the vision has not faded. And I am thankful that God has been merciful to use Let the Nations Be Glad! to make himself more central in missions and more satisfying in the hearts of those who give their lives for the sake of his name.
I am thankful to Baker Publishing Group again for the privilege of partnering with them in an expanded and refined third edition. If I were to guess why this book continues to be useful it would be because it is mainly biblical reflection rather than methodological application. Methods change. But worship, prayer, suffering, unreached peoples, the gospel, faith, heaven, and hell remain.
John Stott has sounded the note I love to hear and echo:
The highest of missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God . . .), but rather zeal—burning and passionate zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ. . . . Only one imperialism is Christian . . . and that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and for the glory of his empire.2
He said this in relation to Romans 1:5. There the apostle Paul sums up his calling as a missionary: “[I am called] to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” Notice: “For the sake of his name!” Stott exults again in this great Pauline passion:
We should be “jealous” . . . for the honour of his name—troubled when it remains unknown, hurt when it is ignored, indignant when it is blasphemed. And all the time anxious and determined that it shall be given the honor and glory which are due to it.3
O for the day when more pastors and scholars and missionaries would not just say that but feel it as the driving force of their lives!
The apostle John applies this Christ-exalting passion to all missionaries when he says, “They have gone out for the sake of the name” (3 John 7). My friend and comrade in the Greatest Cause for over thirty years, Tom Steller, wrote an afterword for this book based on that text in 3 John. I have dedicated this book to Tom with deep affection.
As we get closer and closer to the finish line together, we want to give our lives to creating, sending, and sustaining world Christians who live and die “for the sake of th
e name.” Increasingly, what burns inside us is the question, Where do such God-centered, Christ-exalting, missions-driven people come from? We believe they come from God-besotted, Christ-addicted, Bible-breathing homes and churches and schools and ministries. That is what this book aims to nurture.
There is a God-enthralled, Christ-treasuring, all-enduring love that pursues the fullness of God in the soul and in the service of Jesus. It is not absorbed in anthropology or methodology or even theology—it is absorbed in God. It cries out with the psalmist, “Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. . . . Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth” (Pss. 67:3–4; 47:6–7).
There is a distinct God-magnifying, Christ-exalting mindset. It is relentless in bringing God forward again and again. It is spring-loaded to make much of the Triune God in anthropology and methodology and theology. It cannot make peace with God-ignoring, God-neglecting planning or preaching or puttering around.
Such God-entranced people are what we need. For example, even after all these years, I am still happy to say that Let the Nations Be Glad! is like a little skiff riding on the wake of the massive undertaking of Patrick John-stone and Jason Mandryk and their team in publishing Operation World. Would that every Christian used this book to know the nations and pray.
I look at this great, church-wakening, mission-advancing book, and I ask, “What kind of mindset unleashes such a book?” Listen.
All the earth-shaking awesome forces unleashed on the world are released by the Lord Jesus Christ. He reigns today. He is in the control room of the universe. He is the only Ultimate Cause; all the sins of man and machinations of Satan ultimately have to enhance the glory and kingdom of our Saviour. This is true of our world today—in wars, famines, earthquakes, or the evil that apparently has the ascendancy. All God’s actions are just and loving. We have become too enemy-conscious, and can over-do the spiritual warfare aspect of intercession. We need to be more God-conscious, so that we can laugh the laugh of faith knowing that we have power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). He has already lost control because of Calvary where the Lamb was slain. What confidence and rest of heart this gives us as we face a world in turmoil and such spiritual need.4
There it is. Where are the teachers and preachers and mission executives and seminary presidents who talk like that? Their number is increasing. I want to be one. I want to breathe any little spark of Godward zeal I can into the reader’s soul. Feel free to ransack this book for wherever you feel that breath. It doesn’t have to be read straight through.
Let it be clear: This book is not just for missionaries. It is for pastors who (like me) want to connect their fragile, momentary, local labors to God’s invincible, eternal, global purposes. It’s for laypeople who want a bigger motivation for being world Christians than they get from statistics. It’s for college and seminary classes on the theology of missions that really want to be theological as well as anthropological, methodological, and technological. And it’s for leaders who need the flickering wick of their vocation fanned into flame again with a focus on the supremacy of God in all things.
Tom Steller and I love Jesus Christ, we love the church, and we love missionaries. Our united prayer and commitment, from the home base of a missions-mobilizing local church, and the newly founded Bethlehem College and Seminary, is that God will be merciful to us and make our labors fruitful for Christ’s “Imperial Majesty.” May he raise up generations of world Christians who are willing to lay down their lives to make the nations glad in the glory of God through Jesus Christ.
1. John Piper, What Jesus Demands from the World (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2006).
2. John Stott, Romans: God’s Good News for the World (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1994), 53.
3. Ibid.
4. Patrick Johnstone, Operation World (Kent, England: STL, 1987), 21. The regularly updated online version is at http://www.operationworld.org/.
Acknowledgments
I am surrounded by people who energize me because they share the vision to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
This third edition would not have been possible without the steady help and encouragement of my executive pastoral assistant, David Mathis.
Thank you, David, for keeping my feet to the fire and holding back the ever-pressing demands.
Thank you to Bethlehem Baptist Church, who, under the leadership of visionary, globally minded, God-centered elders, give me the freedom to write.
Thank you, Carol Steinbach, friend and fellow-fighter for joy, for making the book more accessible and useful with the text and person indexes.
Thank you, Noël and Talitha, who strengthen my hand for the Great Work, and accept my imperfect efforts to love you as husband and father.
Thank you most of all, dear Jesus, that you have buttressed the command, “Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you,” with the double promise, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18–20).
Introduction to the Third Edition
New Realities in World Christianity and
Twelve Appeals to Prosperity Preachers
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.
So worship is the fuel and goal of missions. That has been the signature thesis of this book since its first edition in 1993. With all the change in the world, that has not changed. Worship has always been and will always be the ultimate purpose of God in the universe. It has always been the fire that fuels our passion to reach peoples who do not worship the true God through Jesus Christ. That’s where we’re headed in chapter 1.
But before we go there a new situation in world Christianity commands our attention. Lamin Sanneh, professor of history and world Christianity at Yale University, uses the word “breathtaking” to describe the new situation.
Among the many breathtaking developments in the post-World War II and the subsequent colonial eras, few are more striking than the worldwide Christian resurgence. With unflagging momentum, Christianity has become, or is fast becoming, the principal religion of the peoples of the world. Primal societies that once stood well outside the main orbit of the faith have become major centers of Christian impact, while Europe and North America, once considered the religion’s heartland, are in noticeable recession. We seem to be in the middle of massive cultural shifts and realignments whose implications are only now beginning to become clear.1
Europe and America are not the center of gravity in world Christianity any longer. The center is shifting south and east. The churches of Latin America, Africa, and Asia are experiencing phenomenal growth and are becoming the great sending churches.
Introducing the Global South
Philip Jenkins, professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University, has clarified this development perhaps more than anyone. The new terminology that has been introduced into our vocabulary is the term “Global South,” a reference to the astonishing growth of the Christian church in Africa, Latin America, and Asia while the formerly dominant centers of Christian influence in Europe are weakening. For example:
• At the beginning of the twentieth century, Europeans dominated the world church, with approximately 70.6 percent of the world’s Christian population. By 1938, on the eve of World War II, the apparent European domination of Protestantism and Catholicism remained strong. Yet by the end of the twentieth century, the European percentage of world Christianity had shrunk to 28 percent of the total; Latin America and Africa combined provided 43 percent of the
world’s Christians.2
• In 1900, Africa had 10 million Christians representing about 10 percent of the population; by 2000, this figure had grown to 360 million, representing about half the population. Quantitatively, this may well be the largest shift in religious affiliation that has ever occurred, anywhere.3
• The number of African Christians is growing at around 2.36 percent annually, which would lead us to project a doubling of the continent’s Christian population in less than thirty years.4
• By 2050, Christianity will be chiefly the religion of Africa and the African diaspora. By then, there will be about three billion Christians in the world, and the population of those who will be white and non-Latino will be between one-fifth and one-sixth the total.5
• At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the highest consultative body of the Anglican Communion, 224 of the 735 bishops were from Africa, compared with only 139 from the United Kingdom and Europe. Anglicans in Nigeria report 17 million baptized members, compared with 2.8 million in the United States.6
The New Shape of World Christianity
Mark Noll has an even more striking way of drawing our attention to the new realities of the Global South.
• “Active Christian adherence has become stronger in Africa than in Europe.”
• “The number of practicing Christians in China may be approaching the number in the United States.”
• “Live bodies in church are far more numerous in Kenya than in Canada.”
• “More believers worship together in church Sunday by Sunday in Nagaland than in Norway.”
• “More Christian workers from Brazil are active in cross cultural ministry outside their homelands than from Britain or from Canada.”
• “Last Sunday . . . more Christian believers attended church in China than in all of so-called ‘Christian Europe.’”7
• “This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined.”