Just a heads-up: links for all three of C.J. Mahaney’s sermons at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN are up now. If you like C.J.’s style, I’d recommend you subscribe to his local church’s sermon podcast. He may not preach there as often as he used to, but pretty much all the guys who do received some degree of training from him!
(Photo by Sola Lumina Captura. You’ve got to check out his other photos!)
In the days following the T4G conference, I’ve noticed mentions here and there about C.J. Mahaney preaching at John Piper’s church, Al Mohler preaching at C.J.’s*, etc. Wondering if this is some sort of strategic follow-up to the conference, I’ve decided to compile all the T4G guest-speaking sermons here, in the hopes that we can develop a sort of T4G Apocrypha. 
I’ll keep this page updated with any additional preaching engagements I come across.
On a somewhat related note, according to J. Ligon Duncan, C.J. preached at (John MacArthur’s) Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA on August 21, 2005. However, their sermon area lists Phil Johnson as having preached that day. I was able to find record of C.J. speaking at Grace’s Resolved conference this past January, but that’s it.
* I realize C.J. passed the Senior Pastor role onto Joshua Harris last year. Gimme a break, okay? 
“Am I missing it, or is there an unusual silence in the blogosphere about the Muslim outrage over the cartoons of Mohammed. To me this cries out for the observation that when artists put the crucifix in a flask of urine, Christians were grieved and angered, but not one threatened to kill anyone. Our longing is to convert the blasphemers with the Good News of Christ’s death and resurrection, not kill them. Our faith is based on One who was reviled not just in cartoons but in reality and received it patiently for the salvation of the cartoonists. These riots are filled with intimations about the glorious difference between Christ and Mohammed, and between the way of Christ and the way of Islam. And the cowing of the press around the world and the US government is ominous for the fear we are under of Islam–not just extremist Islam. I do not respect the teachings of Islam which when followed devoutly lead to destruction. So I have been pondering which will take me out first, Islam, Uncle Sam, or cancer. No matter, all authority belongs to Jesus. I just want to bear faithful witness to his glorious gospel of peace to the end.” — John Piper
(Source: Justin Taylor, with thanks to Michelle Malkin for posting the cartoons.)
Thank God for men like John Piper, who aren’t afraid to speak the truth! It is indeed a stark contrast between the reaction of Christians and Muslims in their respective situations.
(Thanks to Rae for the heads-up.)
Tim Challies has just posted that “John Piper has just announced to the members of Bethlehem Baptist Church that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.” Along with Tim, I ask that you would keep Dr. Piper in prayer; that he would be healed, of course, but moreso that Jesus would be even more wonderful to him through this experience.
In John’s letter to his church (which Tim has posted in its entirety), he wrote the following:
This news has, of course, been good for me. The most dangerous thing in the world is the sin of self-reliance and the stupor of worldliness. The news of cancer has a wonderfully blasting effect on both. I thank God for that. The times with Christ in these days have been unusually sweet.
[...]
God has designed this trial for my good and for your good. You can see this in 2 Corinthians 1:9, "Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." And in 2 Corinthians 1:4-6, "He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God . . . If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation."
Oh, that I could have the same attitude in a time such as this!
John Piper sends out once a week or so what’s basically an e-mail devotional, called Fresh Words. The one I got today is titled, “Enemies of the Cross and How to Respond to Them,” and I highly recommend it.
Anyway, toward the end of it (yes, I’m spoiling the ending!) Piper says this:
“My greatest longing in response to this enmity is that Christians walk in the way of the cross. Yes, militant Islam is big and threatening. It may even be the true Quranic Islam. There are alarmists whose whole tone seems to awaken political and even militant responses from Christians. My concern is that as the church we distance ourselves from this kind of response and focus on the truth that we will never spread the Christian faith by the sword. Some Muslims may kill to spread their faith. Some Christians have. But it is not the way of Christ. It is not the way of the cross.”
Amen! I’ve also got a new candidate for my e-mail signature: “We will die to make [Christ] known. But we will not kill to make him known.”
