No One Ever Spoke Like This Man!

John 7:40-52
When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This really is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?" The officers answered, "No one ever spoke like this man!" The Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."
What I want to do in this message is give a quick overview of the double division that happens in response to Jesus, and then focus on the words of verse 46, "No one ever spoke like this man!" and then, with the help of Bono and C. S. Lewis, show why the portrait of Jesus in the Gospels is so offensive and so compelling. And all of this in the hope that many of you will climb down off the fence of your wavering, and give yourself totally to Jesus.

A Double Division

So first, the double division: the division of verses 40–44 and the division of verses 47–52. In verses 40–44, we see that in the crowds there is a threefold division.
  • Verse 40: "Some of the people said, 'This really is the Prophet'"—referring back to Deuteronomy 18:15 that in the last days, God would raise up a prophet like Moses.
  • Then in verse 41, "Others said, 'This is the Christ'"—that is, the long-awaited Jewish Messiah.
  • Then in verses 41–42, others didn't see how he could be the Messiah because they thought he was from Galilee and didn't know he was born in Bethlehem. "But some said, 'Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?'"
So verses 43–44 it sums up: "So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him." This is the way it happened in Jesus' lifetime on earth, and it's the way it keeps happening wherever he is presented faithfully today. Pray that in this very moment you won't be on the wrong side of this division.

The Officers' Report: No One Speaks Like Jesus

Then in verse 45, the officers whom the chief priests and Pharisees had sent to arrest Jesus returned empty handed. "The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, 'Why did you not bring him?'" This is the hinge of the text; it divides the double division in the text. Verse 46 says, "The officers answered, 'No one ever spoke like this man!'" Of all the things they might have said about the volatile situation in the crowds and how an arrest might have caused a riot and gotten the Pharisees in big trouble, they did not cover their backsides that way. They said: "No one ever spoke like this man."
This is the fulcrum of the text: this fact—the uniqueness of Jesus in the world—causes a double division. We've seen the first division: the crowds have splintered into three different views about Jesus. Now comes a second division, this time defined by the Pharisees—only this time, there is an intensification because the Pharisees give their diagnosis for each of the three positions. And every time they give the diagnosis of what they think is a false view of Jesus, they dig a hole deeper and deeper for themselves and their own blindness.

The Pharisaical Diagnosis: Everyone Else Is Wrong

First, they say the officers are deceived. Verses 47–48: "The Pharisees answered them [the empty-handed officers], 'Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?" So the officers have a positive impression of Jesus, and the Pharisees explain it away as deception. But who is really deceived?
Second, the crowds are cursed. Verse 49: "But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." The crowds are in a confusion about Jesus not only because they don't know the law, but because they are under God's curse, so they say. This is astonishing. They write off the whole Jewish populace as missing the law, and put themselves forward as the non-cursed who get the law right. But who is really cursed here?
Third, Nicodemus, they think, is blinded by his bias. Nicodemas was himself a Pharisee, and had come to Jesus at night back in John 3, and had been told he needed to be born again. He gives a word of caution. Verse 51: "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" And to this word of justice and caution his fellow Pharisees accuse him of bias. Verse 52: "They replied, 'Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.'"
Rather than be open to Nicodemus's concern to know the facts before they condemn Jesus, they say, in essence, the only reason you would want to give him that kind of chance is that you're part of his clan—you Galileans must all hang together.

Tables Turned: The Pharisees Are Deceived, Cursed, and Biased

So the officers are blinded by deception. The crowds are blinded by a curse. And Nicodemus is blinded by his Galilean bias. But John means for us to see that in fact the tables are totally turned. All of these indictments are going to show the Pharisees themselves to be the really deceived, cursed, and biased ones.
And at the center of all this division and condemnation is Jesus and the words, "No one ever spoke like this man." That's the hinge and the fulcrum of this passage. John means for us to see that it is this uniqueness of Jesus in the world that is causing all the divisions and all the recrimination.

Jesus' Division-Causing, Utter Uniqueness

When Jesus was born, the old man Simeon said to his mother, "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed" (Luke 2:34). And Jesus confirmed this destiny when he said, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34). And he meant just what we are seeing in this text. It was his utter uniqueness that was causing this division. No one ever spoke like this man.
What did the empty-handed officers have in mind when they said that? What should we have in mind? Well, the last thing Jesus had said before they returned empty-handed to the Pharisees was in verses 37–38, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" What kind of human being talks like that? Come to me and drink. And if you do, rivers of living water will flow from your heart.
It seems to me, therefore, that the kind of thing John wants us to have in mind when we say, "No one ever spoke like this man," is the breathtaking claims Jesus made about himself. It wasn't only or mainly his wisdom or his intelligence or his forcefulness or meekness or courage or clarity. It was the over-the-top claims he made about himself. No man ever talked like that!

Eight of Jesus' Spectacular Claims

Let me give you eight examples of Jesus' spectacular claims from this Gospel. And we could give more. No one ever spoke like this.
1. He claims to be God.
"I am telling you this now [Judas' betrayal], before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he" (John 13:19). Literally, "that I am." I tell you the future to show you that I am the incarnation of Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament who identifies himself in Exodus 3:14 as "I am." "Tell them 'I AM' sent you." Or as he says in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one."
2. He claims to exist before he was born.
"Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am'" (John 8:58). Not only does he claim to have existed before he was born, but that he existed as "I am." He is Yahweh.
3. In this deity, he claims to have come as a shepherd to die for his sheep.
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). He claimed his death would be the key to the eternal life of his sheep.
4. He claims to be the only way to God.
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). The way, the truth, the life, the light. If we don't believe on him, he says, we "remain in darkness" (John 12:46)—forever (John 5:29; Matthew 18:8 25:42, 46).
5. He claims to be the bread and water that impart eternal life.
"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14). "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27–28).
6. He claims that we can do nothing without him.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. . . . I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:1, 5).
7. He claims to be the one who raises people from the dead at the end of history.
"I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live" (John 11:25). "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:40).
8. He claims to be the supreme glory that will satisfy us forever in the age to come.
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).
And of course these are just a few from the Gospel of John. There are many more here, and many more in the other three Gospels—like claiming to forgive sin, and return to earth in glory, and fulfill the whole law. But we turn now to draw out some implications of the fact that "no one ever spoke like this man."

Listening to Lewis


I want you to listen to C. S. Lewis and Bono. You'll see why. Lewis is famous from this quote about how you simply can't have Jesus as a great moral teacher while rejecting him as God.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (Mere Christianity [Macmillan, 1952], pp. 55–56)
In other words, the way Jesus spoke—like no one else ever spoke—makes it irrational to speak nice things about him while rejecting his deity. He was not nice, if he wasn't God.

Listening to Bono


C. S. Lewis's fellow-Irishman, Paul David Hewson, otherwise known as Bono of the rock band U2, seems to have read Lewis and been persuaded. A few days after the Madrid terrorist bombing in 2004, Bono did an interview with a French journalist named Michka Assayas. When the subject of religion came up as the cause of terrorism, Bono turned the conversation to Christianity and the theme of grace.
When Bono said, "It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven," the journalist replied,
Such great hope is wonderful, even though it's close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?
Bono's answer is really quite remarkable, and makes Lewis's point again, only perhaps more forcefully for our day in view of who he is and the context where he said it. Isn't all that "Son of God" talk farfetched?
No, it's not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says:
No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You're a bit eccentric. We've had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don't mention the "M" word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you.
And he goes: No, no. I know you're expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he's gonna keep saying this. So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was, the Messiah or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. . . . I'm not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched. (Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas [New York: Penguin Books, 2005], p. 227).
Is Bono born again? I don't know. If he's not, I pray that he would be. And I call attention to my uncertainty because I want to make sure something is clear: It is possible to be persuaded by the logic of Lewis and Bono and not be saved—not be born again and have eternal life.

More Than Being Persuaded He Is God

Which brings us back to our text and last week's message. The last thing the empty-handed officers heard Jesus say, before they said, "No one ever spoke like this man," was this: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:37–38).

In other words, believing on Jesus, means more than being persuaded that he is God. The devil is totally persuaded by Lewis and Bono. But believing on Jesus means coming to him to drink. That is, if you and I and Lewis and Bono are going to have eternal life, we must come to Jesus as our supreme and all-satisfying Treasure. Our thirst-quenching Water, our hunger-stilling Bread, our ever-guiding, all-illumining Light, our infinitely precious substitute, sacrificed Lamb of God.
No man ever spoke like this man. He is true. He is who he said he was. But don't leave it at that. Come, eat, drink, trust, find in him eternal joy.

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Sign In | Cart (Empty) | Contact | Support DG Desiring God International Home Resource Library Blog Store Events About Us Home / Resource Library / Sermons / Praying in the Closet and in the Spirit Praying in the Closet and in the Spirit January 03, 2010 | by John Piper | Scripture: Matthew 6:1-15 | Topic: Prayer Subscribe to... Watch: Full Length Listen: Full Length Excerpt Download Click To Play This is the first Sunday of our annual, year-beginning, Prayer Week. The very fact that we have such a thing as a Prayer Week raises the question I want to deal with today. But the question is much bigger than Prayer Week. The question is the relationship between discipline and freedom and spontaneity in prayer. Discipline By “discipline,” I mean planning to do certain things in regard to prayer, like… have a Prayer Week, or pray for before meals, or pray before an elders meeting, or kneel and pray in your wedding right after your vows, or at the beginning of a sermon, or early in the morning before breakfast going down in the basement nook with the space heater running, or with your spouse, just before you go to bed at night, or over the lunch hour in your cubicle, or on Tuesday and Friday mornings at church, or three times a day on your knees like Daniel (Daniel 6:10), or seven times a day like the psalmist (Psalm 119:164), or in the watches of the night (Psalm 119:148), or during and after your read your Bible in the morning. I call these “disciplines” of prayer because they don’t just pop out of you. You think about them, and decide they are a good thing to do, and then you intentionally do them. There is a certain measure of intentionality. Some people are very intentional, and we call them “disciplined.” And others are somewhat intentional. And others are not very intentional at all. And there are hundreds of gradations in between. We are all different. Freedom Alongside this, we think of “spontaneity.” Sometimes we use the word “freedom” to distinguish the difference from discipline. But I don’t want to put freedom alongside discipline because that would imply that there can’t be freedom in discipline. Which is not true. You can plan to pray in your wedding, and work out all the details down to how you will help her with her wedding dress, and hold each others’ hands, and yet, in that moment, feel an overwhelming, joyful, unfettered freedom of spirit—which means, you are doing just what you want to be doing and you are loving doing it. That’s what I mean by “freedom”—doing a good thing and loving doing it as you do it. The same is true for everyone of those disciplined acts I mentioned. In those acts of discipline, there can be wonderful freedom and joy. But it is also true that, because something is planned and we do it with some intentionality, we might also wind up doing it whether we enjoy it or not. You might be so light-headed when you kneel to pray at your wedding that you would just like for his moment to be over, and the sooner the better. This is not what we usually call “freedom.” You are not enjoying this moment, and can hardly compute what the pastor is saying. Or you might plan to pray with your roommates each night, and then have the joy go right out of the act because of tensions in the room. Or you might continue the tradition of praying before meals, and drift so far from God that the prayers become empty words, and they are done more like a machine than lover. Which would not be freedom. So I don’t put freedom alongside discipline as distinct from it. It can be wonderfully and powerfully present in any act of discipline. That’s what we long for. Spontaneity But alongside disciplined praying, like the ones I mentioned, I do put spontaneity. This is different from discipline. “Spontaneous” means that you didn’t plan it, but it rises up in your heart, and you do it without any specific earlier plan or intentionality. Something in the situation, or from the Holy Spirit, awakens the desire to pray. There is intention, but it happens in the moment spontaneously. You might… whisper a thank-you to God after a close call on the highway, or ask God for help in the middle of an exam, or confess to God your sin after saying something hurtful to a friend, or pray out in church during one of our congregational prayer times, or praise God for a beautiful sunset, or silently ask him for wisdom in the middle of a difficult phone conversation, or ask for strength when you are ready to drop and have another task to do, or pray for a missionary when you open his email and realize he needs help right now, or stop several times during an elder meeting to thank God and seek his guidance on some difficult matter facing the church. None of this is specifically planned. It is spontaneous. We tend to feel most free in our spontaneous praying, and often not as free in our disciplined, planned praying. A Swing of the Pendulum? So my question is: What does the Bible say about discipline and spontaneity and freedom in prayer? I was drawn to this topic this year because my sense is that, at least in the part of the evangelical church that I watch most closely, I think there is a swing of the pendulum from discipline to spontaneity in the name of gospel freedom. In other words, there is a concern to be gospel-driven, not discipline-driven. And this is often put in terms of legalism versus freedom. Or law versus grace. Overall, I think this way of thinking is a very good sign. If we don’t live on the gospel—that is, on the work of Christ for us on the cross—all our praying will indeed become a bondage and a stench in God’s nose. A Legalism of Resisting Discipline? On the other hand, it is possible to be a half-biblical person, and get real excited about the freedom and spontaneity of the gospel, and lose touch with the place that God has assigned to discipline, or intentionality. Our experience with God may be so shallow that the only way we have of conceiving of discipline is in terms of legalism—as though any intentionality that drives you to do a thing when you don’t feel like it can only be a work of the law, or an act of merit, or a way of earning salvation, or a strategy to get God on your side. And indeed, any act of discipline, no matter how good, may be just that. But what some fail to realize is that steadfast opposition to discipline may reflect a heart of legalism also. It is possible to turn any act or any resistance to an act into a legal performance that fails the gospel test. Which means that whether you are a person who leans toward discipline or a person who leans toward spontaneity, you are just as liable to trust in your own righteousness—your righteousness of discipline, or your righteousness of spontaneity—rather than Christ’s righteousness. The Heart of the Gospel The heart of the gospel is that Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). That is shorthand for saying that the only way to be right with God is on the basis of who Christ is and what Christ has done, not who you are and what you have done. Or another way to say the gospel is this: God’s being 100% for you is based on Christ alone, which we receive and enjoy by faith alone. You can’t get God any more on your side than he is on the basis of Christ alone received by faith alone. The biblical basis is 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” He takes our sin. We become his righteousness. And that happens not by our doing a few righteous works—like disciplined praying or like the anti-discipline of spontaneous prayer. It happens by faith in Christ alone. As Paul says in Philippians 3:9, I want to be “found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” The Dangers of Discipline and Spontaneity So when it comes to prayer and our standing with God, discipline counts for nothing, and resistance to discipline counts for nothing, but only faith working through love (Galatians 5:6). And that faith may be expressed in love through acts of discipline, or through warning against legalistic discipline. And that faith may be compromised by turning disciplined prayer into performance to get God on your side, or by turning the warning against legalist discipline into a performance to get God on your side. The opposite of legalism is not spontaneity. And the opposite of faith is not discipline. Spontaneity may be legalistic. And discipline may be an act of faith. Praying Both in the Closet and in the Spirit So let’s let the Bible teach us about the discipline of prayer and the spontaneity and freedom of prayer. I titled this message “Praying in the Closet and in the Spirit.” And the point of the title is to say that both are good and needed. The text from Matthew 6 refers to prayer in our closet, or our inner room. The texts that refer to praying “in the Spirit” are Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 1:20. Ephesians 6:18: “Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” Jude 1:20: “But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” Spontaneity in the Spirit What does it mean to pray “in the Spirit”? There is a good clue in 1 Corinthians 12:3, where Paul says, “No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” It seems clear to me that speaking “in the Spirit” means speaking under the guidance of the Spirit, or energized and helped by the Spirit. That’s why no one can say “Jesus be accursed” when speaking “in the Spirit.” And no one can say, “Jesus is Lord” (and mean it) unless he is speaking “in the Spirit.” So I take it that praying “in the Spirit” means praying under the guidance and with the help and energy of the Spirit. The Spirit is shaping our prayers and helping us pray. This is the way we pray when we are living on the gospel. This is the prayer-counterpart to faith in the gospel. When we are trusting God to love us and accept us and help us for Christ’s sake alone, the Holy Spirit is at work. He moves in and through that faith. How the Gospel Leads to Spontaneous Prayer The key verse is Galatians 3:5: “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” The answer is that God supplies the Spirit by hearing with faith. That is, the Spirit moves in our lives and helps us pray and do everything else God calls us to do, not by being coerced by works, but because we are trusting God on the basis of Christ alone for this help. We don’t work our way into the Spirit. We trust God that, because of Christ—because of the blood and righteousness of Christ—the Spirit comes to help us and guide us. This is how the gospel relates to our praying in the Spirit. We don’t deserve this help from the Spirit. How do we get it? By works or by faith? Galatians 3:5 says by faith. We look to God, not as our enemy or as a frustrated father who can never be pleased, but as our Father who is 100% for us because of Christ alone. Therefore, we trust him, that because of Christ (his death and righteousness), he will give us the Spirit—and everything else we need. That is how we pray “in the Spirit.” That is what it means to be gospel-sustained. That is gospel-praying. Discipline in the Closet Now, what about praying in your closet—in your inner room? Jesus says in Matthew 6:5–6, When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Jesus says in verse 6: “Go to your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” Now, to go to your room and shut the door requires some movement. You have to be intentional about it. To leave people and find a private place, where you won’t be heard by others, takes some effort. Jesus says this is good. Do this. This simple command stands for a hundred ways you may plan to pray or be disciplined. This is just one: Be sure to make part of your praying the private prayer where it is just you and God. Take whatever steps necessary to secure this kind of praying in your life. And if this kind of intentionality can be a fruit of the gospel, so can the other kinds that the Bible talks about. How the Gospel Leads Us to Disciplined Prayer And my point is that this intentionality—this discipline of private prayer where no one else can hear you—is indeed a fruit of the gospel. It is a fruit of faith in God’s love for us on the basis of Christ alone. You can see this in three simple ways. 1) Obeying Our Savior Gospel-based faith trusts Christ, so that if he tells us that something is good for us, we believe him and do it. We have no reason to doubt his word. He died for us to prove that he and his Father are 100% for us. So if he says go to your room and pray to the Father, we trust him—not to make him be on our side, but because he is on our side. 2) Desiring to Receive More Gospel-based faith has tasted and seen that the Lord is good and is always eager to receive as much of Christ as we can. So when he bids us go to the closet to be rewarded by our Father, we go with great expectation that he has a gift for us—more of himself. In the gospel, we have seen that not only is Christ the basis of all we need, he is the sum of all we need. Because of what we have seen in the work of Christ, we have fallen out of love with the praise of men, and now crave the surpassing value of Christ. We come to the closet to have all that God is for us in Christ. He is our reward. That’s what faith does because of the gospel. It seeks more of Christ, more of God in private prayer. It’s not what man can give that satisfies us, but the reward of God himself. That’s blood-bought, gospel faith. 3) Knowing All Our Needs Are Met Finally, because of the gospel—because Christ died for us—we know that everything we need has been purchased for us. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). “All the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20). In other words, every answer to prayer that would be good for us, Christ purchased by his blood. We did not and cannot purchase them. So when we go to our closet, we are not going to make a purchase. We are not going to negotiate. We are going because God has ordained that what Christ obtained for us, we receive by asking. Intentionality Rooted in the Gospel If you were starving, and the food of life were in a locked container, and Christ died to open the container, you would not be a legalist if you walked five miles and stood all day stood in line to receive your food with tears of expectancy and gratitude. Knowing that he had absolutely secured your food at the cost of his life would make you confident and humble and grateful, but it would not make you say, “I don’t need to stand in line. I don’t believe in such discipline.” “I’ll just wait till it spontaneously falls into my mouth.” No. There is simple discipline. Simple intentionality rooted in the gospel. Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7). “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:5–6). For More of Jesus For the sake of your own soul. For the sake of your family. For the sake of his church. For the sake of your vocation. For the sake of the nations. Plan this in 2010. Be intentional about this. Because Christ died for you, and through prayer God will give you what you need—mainly more of himself. © Desiring God Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. 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