Ask Pastor John

How do churches decide when repentance is real, discipline is done, and someone removed from membership is ready to be restored?

How can faithful parents maintain a meaningful relationship with a wayward child? Pastor John helps moms and dads walk wisely through the pain.

If the world was already fallen with Adam and utterly corrupt at the flood, why did God wait thousands of years before sending Jesus?

How do we face death and broken relationships, especially when they pile on at the same time? Pastor John helps us find wisdom, love, and strength in deep loss.

How can women navigate a corrupt and confusing world? Pastor John offers biblical strategies for confidence, strength, and freedom.

In a world where Christians deal with chronic pain and awful sickness, how can we understand and apply the promise that “God heals all your diseases”?

Can we lose eternal rewards by becoming incapacitated or less fruitful as we age? Or can our sin cancel out rewards we would have received?

Knowing God is the most extraordinary experience in the world. But how do we come to know him authentically, deeply, personally?

Did Paul know about self-harm and poor body image? If he did, how could he still say that “no one ever hated his own flesh”?

Persecution, troubles, heaviness of heart — are these different forms of God’s discipline? Pastor John traces God’s good purposes in different kinds of pain.

We know the new heavens and new earth will be a place of perfect, endless joy. But will we really never get bored, even after millions of years?

Those who try to live the Christian life outside of community are missing something crucial. So, how might Christian loners move toward life together?

If God has already promised not to withhold anything good from us, then does asking him for more imply that yesterday’s good wasn’t good enough?

If knowledge puffs up, will formal Bible education make us proud? Pastor John points out pride’s craftiness and offers five weapons of humility.

What does the Bible say about Mary, Jesus’s mother? What is Mary’s true legacy for Christians today?

What is the difference between guilt and shame? And when do true feelings of guilt or shame become false feelings that reject God’s grace?

Is the purpose of life to find meaning? Pastor John responds to Jordan Peterson’s claim that happiness cannot be our goal.

God promises never to leave us nor forsake us, but sometimes the Bible says he withdraws his presence from us. How can those both be true?

How can our faith turn from nominal to authentic? Pastor John reflects on God’s power to establish and sustain belief through his promises.

When God commands a godly life of genuine affections, how do we obey? John Piper draws our attention to the transforming mercies of God.

As Jesus headed toward the cross, he knew he was fulfilling the script that was written for him. So, how did he authentically choose a death already decided?

How much of the Christian faith has already been revealed to us now, and how much of it remains a secret that we won’t understand until we get to heaven?

If sinners cannot seek God, how does anyone receive salvation? Pastor John shows that God must give his power and grace precisely because we cannot seek him on our own.

Why are Christians most to be pitied if there’s no resurrection? Don’t we still experience more joy than non-Christians? Pastor John gives four responses.

If we have no memory of hating or opposing God before he saved us, then how should we understand the Bible’s claim that we were his enemy?

Why does Pastor John believe Romans is the greatest letter ever written? And how would he encourage Christians to benefit from this monumental book?

Should pastors and ministry leaders use artificial intelligence as a tool to write their sermons and newsletters? If so, how? If not, why not?

How much life application should pastors offer in their sermons? Pastor John commends interweaving exposition and application throughout each sermon.

When Jesus taught that impurity comes from within, was he departing from the Old Testament? Pastor John considers purity across the covenants.

If God justifies by faith apart from works, then why do some passages seem to suggest that forgiveness comes through the act of baptism?

Acts 20:24 has encouraged and challenged Christians throughout the centuries. How, in particular, has it shaped the life and ministry of John Piper?

In the Old Testament, witchcraft is met with capital punishment — but not in the New. Why does God handle this sin differently across redemptive history?

Do the signs and wonders in Scripture justify using righteous magic in fiction? Pastor John helps us discern the kinds of stories that serve our sight of Reality.

Sometimes, the story of another Christian’s joy in God serves to kindle our own. Pastor John takes us to a remarkable moment in the life of Hudson Taylor.

God could have designed the world so that all the help we need comes from him directly. Instead, he often ministers to us indirectly through other people. Why?

How can we begin to grasp the meaning of biblical narratives and their application to life? Pastor John offers an example from the story of Joseph.

In Acts 12, God allows Herod to kill James, but he thwarts the king’s plan to kill Peter. What might this chapter teach us about God’s providence?

How does a promise about the future help us fight for purity today? Pastor John unpacks the power of the greatest pleasure purchased at the greatest price.

People for millennia have said, in one way or another, “There is no God.” Pastor John describes five ways we suppress the knowledge of God’s existence.

Is heaven a physical place that exists right now? As Pastor John answers, he encourages us to focus mainly on the relational, not the spatial, aspect of heaven.

Even when our prayers for protection feel pointless, they are not. God is our good and sovereign Father, and it is never pointless to ask him for what we need.

As we begin a new year of Bible reading, what obstacles can we expect to meet along the way — and what benefits will keep us reading day by day?

If someone is convinced that he knows God’s will for us, yet we disagree, what can we do? Pastor John offers five ways forward.

Hear John Piper’s invitation to partner with us. A $10 monthly gift enables us to reach 70 more people with God-centered resources. https://dsr.gd/3AYGuj2

God gives the church teachers, including Bible commentators, to help us understand his word. But how can we tell if we’re relying on commentaries too much?

At Christmas, Jesus came to bring God-exalting happiness through peace with God — and merciful warfare against everything that destroys such happiness.

In his infinite wisdom, righteousness, and power, God designs even the deeds of evil kings for the good of his people and the glory of his name.

Sometimes God delivers us from affliction through affliction. But what kinds of affliction does he use — and how can we know when he does so?

How can we know that we love God more than his gifts, especially during the Christmas season? Pastor John unlocks the answer with two keys.

Single Christians may be tempted to despair over missing the experience of marital love. But God himself will see to it that our joy is eternally full in Christ.