Piper: five purposes of suffering

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So often, we cry out, ‘Why?’ in the face of suffering.

John Piper writes:

‘We seldom know the micro reasons for our sufferings, but the Bible does give us faith-sustaining macro reasons.’

These include:

1. Repentance: Suffering is a call for us to turn from earthly attractions to heavenly treasures:

Luke 13:3–4 — “No, I tell you! But unless you repent, you will all perish as well! Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who live in Jerusalem?”

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English Puritanism and the Jews

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A precis of chapter 3 of Lewis, D. (2021) A Short History of Christian Zionism.  IVP Academic.

The hopes of the early church for Christ’s imminent return were tempered by Augustine, who held a less optimistic view of what the church could achieve in this present age.

The English Puritans found new hope in the apocalyptic writings of the Bible – especially Daniel and the Revelation.

The Puritans believed that God had a plan not only for individuals, but for nations. …

Mt 24:21; Rev 7:14 – ‘The great tribulation’

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Mt 24:21 — “For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen.”

Rev 7:13 ‘Then one of the elders asked me, “These dressed in long white robes—who are they and where have they come from?” 7:14 So I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation.…

Mt 6:1-6, 16-21 – ‘You hypocrite!’ – sermon notes (v2)

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Notes of a sermon preached at Holy Trinity Norwich on Ash Wednesday, 2026.

Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Everybody has an outside and an inside; a public exterior and a private interior.  On the outside are all the things that other people can see and hear.  On the inside is that collection of thoughts, feelings, motives, and attitudes that we call ‘the heart’.

But how well do our outward appearance and our inner reality match up?  We have a name for the person who is one thing in public and another in private: we call him or her a hypocrite.…

1 Kings 12 – Divided kingdom (sermon notes)

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Text: 1 Kings 12

The year is 940 BC.  Two strangers meet on the road just outside Jerusalem.

One is named Jeroboam.  He is from the northern tribe of Ephraim, and has been down in Jerusalem supervising a building project for king Solomon.

The other man is Ahijah, a prophet.  Ahijah is wearing a band new robe.  Solemnly, he takes off his robe, and tears it into pieces, twelve in all.  “King Solomon has forsaken me, and has set up places of worship of for many foreign gods. …

Repentance

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The first recorded words of Jesus, as he began his public ministry, were:

Mark 1:15 — “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”

But what does the word ‘repentance’ mean?

Jerome, in the Vulgate, translated μετανοεῖτε as poenitentiam agite (‘do acts of penance’).  As Ian Paul notes, this does several things to Jesus’ command:

it shifts it from being focused on attitude and outlook to being concerned with ritual acts;

it moves it from being a response to God to being set in the context of the institution of the Church (whose priests alone could dispense forgiveness through the rite of penance and confession);

and it became a habitual ritual rather than an urgent response to the ‘end times’ coming of God.

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Israel’s future in dispensational teaching

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I take, as a representative of moderate dispensational teaching, C.C. Ryrie, in his book The Final Countdown.

Here is a precis of chapter 5 – ‘Israel and her future’.

1. They will return

Isaiah 11:11f speaks of a ‘second’ return from exile:

‘The first captivity was known as the Babylonian captivity, and it lasted 70 years. From it, some Jews returned to Palestine to restore Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. But under the Roman rule, the Jews were dispersed (A.D.

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Whose Promised Land? – The land after Christ

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Whose Promised Land? (5th edition), by Colin Chapman.

 Synopsis of chapter 5 – The Land After Christ

5.1 The birth of Jesus the Messiah

The annunciation to Mary (Lk 1:31-33), the song of Mary (Lk 1:46-55), the song of Zechariah (Lk 1:68-79, the song of Simeon (Lk 2:25-32), and the words of Anna (Lk 2:36-38) all testify that the promises to Abraham and David have been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus the Messiah.

These individuals, and others like them, had been looking forward to restoration of Israel and the liberation of Jerusalem, now understood to have begun through the coming of Jesus.…

Jn 7:38 – “From within him will flow rivers of living water”

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John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and 7:38 let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 7:39 (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)…

God’s covenant with Abraham – from Genesis to Revelation

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Genesis 12:1–3 — Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. 2 Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”…