Piper's Preaching Pickle

On Sunday evenings I've been preaching through the Gospel of Matthew for over a year and a half. Occasionally I get asked "why is this taking so long?" I usually have pointed to the story of Joseph Caryl, the puritan preacher who supposedly preached through the book of Job verse by verse for over 17 years (fyi, I have his 12-volume series on my bookshelf just to drive my point home).

The other day I noticed the following post by John Piper on the Desiring God blog:

"God willing, this Fall I will begin a new extended series of sermons on the Gospel of John. When Jon Bloom, the Executive Director of Desiring God, heard this, he wrote me a note. He was both thrilled and curious:

I’m thrilled that you will be preaching through the Gospel of John! It is my favorite Gospel. Over the last two years, 2006-2007, I memorized it, and it was so rich. To have you preach through it will be a great joy! Hebrews has 303 verses: You preached 52 sermons. Romans has 433 verses: You preached 224 messages. John has 879 verses...

He left the sentence dangling. The curiosity is: How long will this series of messages on the Gospel of John last? Romans took eight years. John is twice as long..."

In the longer version of that post (found here), Piper perhaps threatens a little when he writes:

"I am 62 as we begin. So someone may ask, “Why start a series of messages on the fourth-longest book in the New Testament? Do you want to die in this book?” I cannot think of a better place to die."

Looks like I'll have another 12-volume series to put on the shelf next to Caryl. I better add reinforcing brackets to the wall.