He will establish the kingdom of Christ on this earth and it will be a kingdom of refreshment

and the presence of the Lord and a restored creation where there is no futility, no frustration,

no sickness, no pain, no tears, no sadness anymore.

From this brief episode of Light and Truth, John Piper prepares his church to sing by

focusing on three glories of the kingdom of Christ from Acts 3, 17 to 21.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on December 16, 1990.

You'll notice that on the next page in your worship folder is a piece of music called

Gloria by John Ruther, which the choir is going to sing in about 10 minutes.

My job right now is to lay before you three biblically based reasons for why your heart

should leap up and praise to God when they sing and why when you're given an occasion

to sing just before and after they sing, you should do it with all your might and all

your mind and all your heart.

To do that, I want to open before you a text from the Book of Acts.

It happens to be the very next text and I invite you to turn to Acts chapter 3.

You have a Bible or want to reach for one in the Pew Pocket in front of you and turn

to Acts chapter 3 verses 17 to 21.

My desire is that your mind might not click off when the music begins, but rather that

it might be full of matter, biblical, God-exalting, Christ-saturated matter, truth.

And so I want to give you three truths and then point to the place in the text where

they come from and hope that they'll be lodged in your mind, seeping down into your heart,

releasing praise for the rest of this service, what I'm done.

Reason number one, you ought to say, glory to God in the highest with all your might, because

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