Asking God the Tough Questions - And Getting Answers!

March 2, 2008

Old Testament – Isaiah 35:3-6  Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a dear, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

Epistle – Ephesians 5:8-14  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Gospel – John 9:1-7  As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned”, said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go”, he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Sermon –

For the past couple of weeks in Adult Bible Class on Sunday morning, God has had us stuck on a section of Matthew Chapter 4 about the temptation of Jesus where the Bible tells about the devil’s game plan and what he does in an effort to suck the peace, joy, and hope out of our lives. We’ve seen that the first thing the devil will do is try to create doubt in our minds. And what a great God we have because He helps us recognize how the devil tries to create this doubt. A number of you have commented on the interview that was broadcast on National Public Radio where a man who used to be a Christian said “I’ve given it up! How can God let all these tragic things happen? That cannot be a loving God; I’ve given up on God.” Also, one of our staff members at the school told me she was having lunch with a friend who said “You’re a Christian, you work for a Church; how can God let all these bad things happen?” Good question. It creates doubt in our minds when Christians give up their faith because of what they perceive God is doing. We think that maybe God is not what He’s cracked up to be; maybe there is more than just what we read in the Bible. Those thoughts start to erode our faith and trust and we begin to doubt God. We try to understand what God is doing and wonder if perhaps He is punishing us for our sins.

As we have talked over the past couple of weeks, when we have questions of God we can ask Him. If we want to know what God is doing, if we want to get to know Him and His ways better, we can have a conversation with Him. A conversation consists of us going to God in prayer and God speaking to us through the Bible. So let’s have a conversation with God and ask Him these tough questions.   Please pray with me… “Heavenly Father, are you punishing people for sin? What’s going on? Help us to listen and hear Your answers. We pray this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

In Isaiah 65:24 God says; “Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” When we read that passage we ask, “How can that be? We just called to God about 10 seconds ago, and He has already answered!” Our answers are in the Bible and, just as this particular question comes up, our Gospel Lesson for today, the fourth Sunday in Lent, is John Chapter 9. Isn’t it interesting that God says, “You don’t have to hunt through the Bible for the answer, I’ve given you the answer; for hundreds of years the Gospel Lesson for the fourth Sunday of Lent has been John Chapter 9.”  We didn’t have the hunt for the answer, God gave it to us.

So we asked God the question, “Are you punishing people for sins?” and see God’s answer in John Chapter 9; “As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned’, said Jesus.” Right there we have God’s answer; we can’t say something bad must have happened and God is punishing him. We ask again, “God, are you really saying that you don’t punish with specific things for specific sins?” Let’s hear God’s answer from Luke Chapter 13. Some people were slaughtered by Pilot, tragedies happened and it’s making the morning news in the “Jerusalem Sentinel”. Jesus said, “Do you think these Galileans who were slaughtered were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell, do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” God is saying to us, “When something bad happens, I’m not punishing people, I want them to repent.” Thank you, God, for your answer. Let’s pray, “Heavenly Father, we asked you a tough question and You answered! Thank You! And now the question comes, Lord God, why are You letting this bad stuff happen? Why did that tower fall? Why was the guy born blind in John Chapter 9? Why do bad things happen? Lord, help us to hear your answer. And we pray this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.” Let’s read further in John Chapter 9 and see what God says, “…this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” This happened so that God would be revealed, so that people would be directed toward God, so that they would see that Jesus is God, that He’s Savior, and that He’s the Solution! That’s what God is doing; that’s why the man was born blind. God wants people directed to Jesus – as God and as Savior of the world.

How many of us think those were pretty drastic steps and wonder why Jesus didn’t just tell people He was God? Reading in John Chapters 7 and 8, we see that Jesus is battling with the religious establishment. He keeps telling people that He is God, the Savior of the world, the One they’ve been waiting for, but all they want to do is kill him. They said, “This guy is blaspheming!” At the end of Chapter 8 Jesus says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad.” The Jews replied, “You’re not yet 50 years old and you have seen Abraham!” “I tell you the truth”, Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” Jesus is saying He is God, the designation “I am” was used only of God.  “At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.” So when we ask God why He didn’t just tell us and why He has to do such drastic things like having someone born blind, have a tower fall and kill eighteen people, or have people slaughtered by Pilot, the answer is “He did tell people, but when He told them, they wanted to kill Him.

Do you have any idea how bad Hell is? Let me read Jesus’ words from Matthew 5:29, “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out, throw it away for it is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into Hell.” That’s how bad Hell is. “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off throw it away for it is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into Hell.” Jesus is telling us that Hell is so bad that you need to do anything you can to avoid it. In fact, He knows Hell is so bad that He was willing to do absolutely anything to direct people to Him as Savior. That means someone is going to be born blind so they can be healed and people are directed to Jesus; that means a tower is going to fall in Jerusalem and kill eighteen people so that people are directed to the source of eternal life, Jesus; that means people are going to be martyred so others are directed to Jesus. Hell is so bad that God was willing to kill his only Son in your place and my place to give us a way out. God will stop at nothing so that people can avoid Hell.  To avoid Hell you have to be directed to Jesus as Savior, you have to see Him as God, you have to see Him as that sacrifice that paid for your sins. There’s no way out other than Jesus. But how is Jesus going to direct people to the fact that He is God, that He is Savior of the world? He already told them, but they didn’t believe it. So what is He going to do?

Jesus is going to prove that He is God by doing the same thing His Father did.  Instead of saying to the man born blind “Be healed” Jesus took some dirt, spit on it and put it on the man’s eyes.   In doing that He was doing the same thing His Father did; He was telling His opponents, “I am God; before Abraham existed, I was there.” God the Father manufactured people from dirt, from the dust of the ground. If God formed people from the dust of the ground, God can also make replacement parts from the dust of the ground! The man born blind needed new eyes so Jesus took the dust, spit on it and put it on the man’s eyes doing the same thing that God the Father did. Only God can create from the dust of the ground!   These events are all about God leading people to Jesus as Lord and Savior. So when we ask God why He lets this bad stuff happen, the response is right here in John Chapter 9… “so that the work of God might be displayed in his life”, so that people repent, so that people say, “God created man from the dust of the ground and Jesus created replacement parts from the dust of the ground. Jesus must be God! He’s the Savior! He’s the Messiah! He’s the One! If we place our trust in Him, we can never go wrong!” It’s all about directing people to Jesus. When people ask how a loving God can let bad things happen, the response is “To reveal Himself, to get people to turn to Him, to back them into a corner where there’s no help other than turning to God.” That’s what it’s all about – directing people to Jesus.

We have learned several things today. The first thing we learned is that God does answer when we have questions; ask God in prayer and let Him direct you to His answers in the Bible. He directed us today to respond to the person on National Public Radio. He has the answer; you just have to read it. So go to Him, ask, and then let Him speak to you with the answer. The second thing we learned is that God does not punish for individual sins; He guides and directs, but He doesn’t punish. If something bad happens this week, we don’t have to think that God is punishing, He’s not. Thank You God! What a loving God! The third thing we learned is that God lets these things happen because He is a loving God. Hell is so bad that you are better off gouging out your eye or cutting off your hand than ending up in Hell with all your body parts working. That’s how bad it is. And God has shown us that He will do anything, anything, anything to keep people out of Hell, to direct them to Himself. And that means a tower is going to fall in Jerusalem and kill eighteen people so that others will say “Life if brief, I had better repent and turn to Jesus.” Does God still use towers today? On 9/11/2001 two towers fell, what was that all about? It’s right here in John Chapter 9 “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed”. God will stop at nothing and sometimes He has to crank things up a few notches to get people to listen. Consequently death and tragedy happen. God will do anything to direct people to Him. Hell is that bad!

Lastly, God can use anything. Maybe you’re suffering right now. Maybe there’s some illness or problem that you’re dealing with. God can use absolutely anything. He used a tower falling and killing eighteen people to direct others to Him. He used Pilot slaughtering a bunch of people during the sacrifice to direct people to Him. He had a man born blind to direct people to Him. He used dirt to direct people to Him. No matter what’s going on in your life, God can use it for His purpose.