Hope Church LV Sermons
God I've Got a Question :: Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
I've got a question. This week I read a story by a lady named Helen. Helen was born in the early 1900s to a Christian family of Russian immigrants. While they were there in Russia, they were required to enlist in a concentration camp under the authority of Joseph Stalin. And over the course of time that they spent in that concentration camp due to combat and the disease and starvation and massacres, one by one, every member of her immediate family was killed. So Helen was left as a young orphan in Russia. A few years later she was taken from Russia to Germany, and while in Germany she was placed once again into forced labor in a concentration camp, this time under the authority of Adolf Hitler. She endured through that experience and after the war was over, she was taken from Germany and she ended up in Canada. And while in Canada she was able to connect with a distant cousin, and after connecting with this distant cousin, her cousin asked her, would she be open to him adopting her as his daughter, to which Helen was thrilled. She felt like her life had finally taken a turn towards normalcy, that she was finally going to get to experience what it was like to be in a real family in a healthy place. So the adoption went through, but shortly after the adoption was made official, her life took yet another turn for the worst. You see shortly after the time that the adoption went through, her cousin began to abuse her. And that abuse turned into rape. And the very man who had promised her and the government that he was going to take care of Helen did just the opposite and once again she was forced to experience something that no young lady should have to experience. You see Helen's story is a story of death, loneliness, suffering, abuse and pain. Her life was a graveyard of betrayal. But when she was asked on numerous occasions, based on her experiences, what she knew to be absolutely true, this was Helen's response. God is good, and he loves me. Now be honest tonight and say that even hearing Helen's story and her response, I have a lot more questions than I have answers because you see Helen's story is multiplied by millions when you look throughout history, and I believe it's natural for us as humans when we observe the disease that is across the globe, when we look at suffering, people who are helpless. When we look at the tragedies that take place around us every day, when we see natural disasters that are destroying entire countries, it's natural for us to ask two questions. First of all, we ask the question, why the suffering, why the devastation, why the pain? And secondly, we ask this question, where's God? In the midst of all the turmoil and the condition that the world is in, where is God in the midst of all this struggle? Tonight, as we conclude this three-part series, we're going to wrestle with this question. Why do bad things happen to good people? George Barna did a national survey and he asked a cross-section of adults, if you could ask God only one question and you knew he would give you an answer, what would you ask him? The most popular response offered by 17% of people was this, why is there pain and suffering? It's a challenging question. I mean honestly, how do you reconcile the status of our world, the condition of the planet with a God that the Bible depicts to be loving, caring, and good? James Merritt said it this way. He said, we understand why bad things happen to bad people. We understand why good things happen to good people. I believe most of us can even live with the fact that good things happen to bad people. But what bothers us most is when bad things happen to good people. It just doesn't seem fair, it is so difficult for many to reconcile this problem with a loving, benevolent, omnipotent God. You may be here tonight in our service and you would say openly that you do not believe in God. You may be here tonight and you would say you believe in God, but you see him as a distant being who does not care about the condition of the planet and potentially one of your primary reasons why you would choose to believe that is because of this issue of pain and suffering in the world. John Stott who was an influential theologian said this, the fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge in the Christian faith. So what I want us to do in our time together tonight is look at three clarifying statements from the scriptures because believe it or not, the Bible speaks to this question. And there are some principles that we're going to look at that will hopefully bring some clarity for us even though we are looking from a human and finite perspective. And I want to encourage you tonight to write some of these principles down because this is not an issue that is resolved in one sermon. The principles we're going to look at tonight are great principles to take and to pray through and wrestle through in your own time alone with God or with some people potentially in your small group to really have a discussion about what the Bible says regarding these issues. So here's the first clarifying principle. And then we're going to look at some places in the scripture where we draw this principle. Number one is this, the world we know is not the world God made. The world that we know is not the world God made. In the book of Genesis, through the creation account, we get a clear picture of God's original intention for the world, specifically in Genesis one and two, what we read about is what God desired for his creation and specifically what God desired for humanity. So if you have a Bible tonight, would you turn to the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, and I want to begin reading in just a moment in Genesis chapter two. If you don't have a copy of the scriptures, we're going to put this up on the screen so that you can follow along with us. Here's chapter two and I'm going to read a couple of sections in this chapter, starting in verse seven. Here's what the Bible says. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden towards the east in Eden and there he placed the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground, the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to his sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of a garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now look down at verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name." Verse 20. The man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found to help her suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept. Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh." And then verse 25, "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." We see a picture in these verses of the world the way God intended it. And I want you to see this picture. Adam and Eve woke up every day excited and cheerful about what God had for them. They woke up every day rightly relating to each other. Their relationship with everything God wanted it to be and their relationship with their heavenly father was everything that God desired for it to be. And every day they would go about the tasks that God had commanded them to be about. And in everything they did they worked at it diligently and never grew tired. They had everything they needed to be satisfied in the garden. There was nothing in the garden, no creature, no plant or no place that could harm them. Once they would finish the tasks that God had assigned them for that day more than likely they may have went swimming in one of the beautiful rivers there in Eden and ate until they were satisfied. But every day there was one thing that would happen that was the highlight of their day. Everything time with God in the garden. If you can imagine a young child running into the loving arms of their father that is what Adam and Eve experienced every single day. They experienced a level of intimacy with God that had no distractions and no hindrances. That's the picture we read about in Genesis 2. So let me give you a couple of lessons that we learned from this passage of Scripture. First of all, God created a world that was complete, not broken. God created a world that was whole, not broken. Now that's very difficult for you and I to understand because the world that we live in is the only world that we know. But the world God created was not only complete because it was absent of pain, disease, storms, fear, anger, stress and aging. The world He made was complete because everything in it functioned in perfect harmony. Everything in creation was as God intended it to be. The world God made was complete and whole. And here's a second lesson we learned from Genesis 2. God created a world designed for unhindered fellowship between us and Him. Imagine this, everything in the garden drove Adam and Eve to a deeper intimacy with God. Like anything that hinders your relationship with God now does not exist in the garden. It was perfect. Adam and Eve were experiencing complete and utter freedom. Josh McDowell said this about the garden, "God loved Adam and Eve and delighted in them. Man and woman loved God and each other. They felt the joy of freely giving of themselves to one another. They experienced the security of being accepted without conditions. They felt valued by the all-sufficient God who wanted to spend time with them." Listen to this statement, "The perfect circle of loving relationship was God's ultimate intention for all humanity from creation forward. Reintended Adam and Eve and all their descendants to be aesthetically happy in a loving relationship with Him and each other forever and in Eden it all worked perfectly." That statement is a glimpse into the world that God created. We would be here to not and say, "Well, that's obviously not the world that we live in. That's not our reality. Why is that?" Well, if we were to continue reading in the book of Genesis chapter 3, verse 1, here's what we would find. We would find Eve in the garden and a serpent approaching Eve speaking to her about the one commandment that God gave her and Adam. God said, "Do not eat of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil. You can do anything you want to do in the garden, but do not partake of that fruit." And what the serpent said to Eve was a lie. You see, the lie that the serpent told Eve was that God was withholding from them. And Eve and Adam had a choice to make. They could either believe what their heavenly father had said about that fruit or they could believe what the serpent was saying. So look with me in Genesis chapter 3, starting in verse 6. The Bible says, "When the one saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate, then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." Verse 8. "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man and said, "Where are you?" He said. "I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself." And he said, "Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate." Now we're not going to touch verse 12 tonight. That's a whole other sermon. Verse 13. "Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?' And the woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'" Now, obviously, somewhere between the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, something drastically changed. You see, Adam and Eve went from being in God's perfect design and experiencing total freedom to in chapter 3 being ashamed and hiding from their Heavenly Father. What changed? Well, over the course of that period of time, sin entered into the world. So let's look at a couple of lessons from Genesis chapter 3. First of all, our choice to sin brought death and suffering into the world. The decision that we made as humans to engage in sin is what brought death and suffering onto the planet. In most copies of the Scriptures, the subheading over chapter 3 says, "The fall of man." And that is a most appropriate heading because you see, in chapter 3, the world fell from being perfect to being broken, from being in harmony to being out of harmony, from being perfect in every way to being tainted by sin. The same is true for man. You see, in Genesis chapter 3, man fell from being perfect to sinful, from being spiritually alive to spiritually dead, and from being in complete freedom to being in bondage. And all of that took place because of sin. You see, the Bible has always been very, very clear about the severity, the depth, the damage that sin can do. But for most of us, we wouldn't know that. You see, our culture communicates a message about sin that is drastically different than what the Bible teaches, but it is vital for us today to understand exactly what the Bible teaches us about sin versus what our culture says about sin. Let me give you a basis of comparison to show you what I mean. Here are a few words that our culture would use to describe sin. Our culture's perspective would say this, that sin is entertainment, sin is fun, that sin is immaturity, it's an escape, it's an addiction. It's a bad habit, totally playing down the severity of this thing God calls sin. But in contrast, here's God's perspective. Through the scriptures, the Bible teaches us that sin is disobedience, that it's destruction, that it's missing the standard, that it's rebellion, that it's a guilt offering that sin is wickedness. And I share that with you this weekend because here's the principle. God has always been very, very clear about the danger and the severity of sin. But many of us fall into the trap, just like Adam and Eve did, of believing what our culture says about sin. But you see, it was our choice that brought sin into the world, and by bringing sin into the world, along came suffering and pain. Anytime we see issues or pain around the world, we begin to blame and question God when he's honestly not to blame. We as the human race are the ones who made the choice to allow sin to enter into the world and therefore we are to blame. Adam and Eve made a choice and because they chose to follow their plan versus God's design, everything changed. Here's a second lesson that we learned from Genesis chapter 3. Our choice to sin brought eternal separation between us and God. You see, when we chose our way over God's design, there was a wedge, an eternal wedge that was driven between us and the God who loves us. Because of one choice we were taken from being in God's perfect plan and freedom to being under God's wrath and judgment. Isaiah 59 says it this way, "But your iniquities or your sin have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear." In the moment we chose to sin, death and suffering began to reign over humanity. Not the way God designed it, not the way God desired it, but because of our choice that became our reality. Now, a question that always comes up in this type of conversation that's kind of the elephant in the room is this. Well, if God knew the severity of sin, why did he allow the option for evil in the first place? If he knew that humans were going to make the wrong decision, why did he even give us a choice? We don't have a lot of time tonight to really unpack that, but I do want to read a statement by Josh McDowell that I believe is the most concise and clear way to communicate an answer to that major theological question. Look at this statement on the screen. In the pristine perfection of the garden, God offered Adam and Eve a tangible way of expressing their unselfish love and trust in him. He gave them a command not to eat of a certain fruit, and so there it was. They had a choice to make, a voluntary choice to believe God was acting unselfishly and had their best interest at heart or that he was selfishly keeping something from them. So there was a risk within God's masterly plan to create humans in his relational image and likeness. The risk is that they could choose to reject such a relationship. Authentic love cannot be forced. God knew this as well as the consequences if they rejected him. He wanted Adam and Eve and all their descendants to worship him and him exclusively, but not because his pride is hurt if they don't or because he can't stand rejection rather. He is passionate about us loving him and jealous if we turn away from him because he knows loving him is the only way for us to truly find joy and completeness. So when God told Adam and Eve to avoid that fruit, he was actually attempting to lead them to unselfish others focused living in a relationship with him. You see, God created us for relationship, not to be robots that he would boss from task to task. And I believe that statement communicates God's heart in the way he designed creation. But as humanity, we chose our way over his design. That's the first statement I really want us to settle around. The world we know is not the world God made. Here's a second statement that builds on the first. The world we know is being redeemed by the God who made it. You see, we start with bad news that the world we know is not the world God made, but secondly, this world that we live in is being redeemed by the very loving good God who made it. You see, even though sin had major ramifications on the planet, it did not send God into a tail spin asking, "What am I going to do and how am I going to do it?" There has always been a plan, and here's the good news. The plan is a plan of redemption. In Ephesians chapter two, the Bible paints a picture for us of humanity in our natural state after sin entered into the world. It's in Ephesians two, verse one, it says this, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formally walked according to the course of this world. Among them, we too all formally lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." That's the reality for humanity after the decision an Adam and Eve made to sin. So if God is going to redeem the planet, here's the big question. How does He deal with the sin issue? If sin is the thing that separated us from a relationship with Him, if sin is the very thing that calls this world to be broken, what is God's solution for sin? Now we recognize according to the Bible that as humans, there's nothing we can do to change our reality as sinful people. We are helpless and hopeless and spiritually dead. So the only hope to remove this huge barrier of sin is that God in some capacity and in some way does something that we could never do. And here's the good news. He did through His Son, Jesus. I just read for you in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, the reality for humanity after sin. Let me continue reading in Ephesians chapter 2 starting in verse 4, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. God, because of His great love for us, made a way where there was no way. God made a plan of redemption. But what is that plan? Well let me give you a summary of God's redeeming plan for the world. In the person of Jesus Christ, God Himself came to atone for sin and provide eternal life. That's the plan. The centerpiece of God's redeeming plan is Jesus. And because of the plan that God has laid out to redeem the world, it tells us a lot about God's heart. You see many skeptics and different people who look at suffering and pain in the world, they think about God and they think, "Well, He just doesn't care." God has no concern about what's happening on the planet Earth. Here's what I would propose to you today. If you doubt in any way God's passion for the world, look at Jesus. The Bible says that He is the image of the invisible God, and there is no way that you can look at the life of Jesus, the way He suffered as an innocent Savior and was humiliated and killed, that you can't look and say God loves the world. Because of God's plan, it shows us the measure that God was willing to go to, to bring life to planet Earth. In Romans 5, the Bible says this, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." The cross of Jesus eternally solidifies God's love for the world. If we want to have a conversation tonight about why bad things happen to good people, we must first wrestle with the reality why horrific things happened to a loving Savior. Much the reason why it happened, because God has a great love and passion to see the world be redeemed into a relationship with Him. But not only does the way God designed a plan of redemption show us the measure that He was willing to go to to love the world, it also shows us exactly what we must do to find eternal forgiveness of sin. Later on in Romans chapter 5, the Bible says this, "There is a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man Adam brought death to many, but even greater is God's wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God. Even though we were guilty of many sins, for the sin of this one man Adam calls death to rule over many, but even greater is God's wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness. For all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ." The glorious news of the gospel, God's redeeming plan, is that God is offering forgiveness and life to a broken world, and you and I have a chance if we embrace the finished work and life of Jesus to once again have a relationship with the God who made us and the God who loved us. At the center of God's redeeming plan is not our works, it's not our best effort, it's Jesus. You see eternal life is not in a place, eternal life is in a person and His name is Jesus Christ. The world that we know is not the world God made, but the world we know is being redeemed by the God who made it. Here's the third clarifying statement tonight. One aspect of God's redeeming plan is turning my individual sorrow into meaningful joy. I want you to think on that statement for a second, that's heavy. One aspect, there's a lot in God's redeeming plan, but one component of it is turning our pain, our sorrow, our suffering into meaningful, purposeful joy. The one thing that every person in this room has in common, it's not money, not everybody has money. It's not a lot of friends or a lot of family, not everybody has that. It's not a certain type of house or a certain type of car. The one thing, the common denominator for every person in this room is that we can all relate with weakness, every person in the room. We know what it is to feel weakness. So the big question tonight as we think about God in relation to suffering and pain is can my suffering, can my pain have purpose? Well depending on if you're a Jesus follower or if you do not have a relationship with God, I would respond to that question differently. First of all, to the people in the room who do have a relationship with God, I want to give you a principle and it applies directly to your life tonight. First of all, if you know Jesus as a Jesus follower, God can use my pain for a greater purpose. He can. All Christians will suffer because we live in a broken world. It doesn't matter how much faith you have. It doesn't matter about your good works. Every Christian on the planet will suffer. There's a sector of our society that would teach you different. They would say if you just have enough faith, if you just give enough money, if you do enough good works, you will not have to experience pain as a Christian. I wish someone had told that to Jesus. I wish someone had said that to the disciples or to Paul. It's false. It's a lie. Every Christian will suffer but the way that you and I as believers respond to pain and suffering is drastically different than those who do not have a relationship with God. John 1633 says this, "In this world you will face trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world." In Romans 8, Paul describes suffering this way. He says that suffering is light and momentary affliction. Why would Paul, a guy who knew what it was to suffer, describe suffering as light and momentary? Well, I believe the reason he said it was light is because he knew that suffering on earth cannot even be compared to the horror of suffering for an eternity in a place called hell separated from God. Suffering on earth is light. He also said momentary and the reason he used the word momentary is because he knew for the Christian, all the suffering and brokenness that we experience is one day going to be taken away when we move from this place to the new heaven and the new earth that God is preparing for us. God can even use our pain for a purpose. In Romans 8, Paul makes two powerful statements. He says this in verse 28, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son." Here's what that means. That means that God does not waste anything. There's no experience, there's no moment, there's no struggle that can happen in the life of a believer, that God cannot use to conform us to the image of Jesus. Now, he doesn't say we'll always understand, he doesn't say it will always be on our timeline, but he says in this passage, "What happens in my life God can use to conform me to the image of Jesus and bring about at some point real everlasting joy." Peter Craff said it this way, "God has demonstrated how the very worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the world ended up resulting in the very best thing that has ever happened in the history of the world. I'm referring to the death of Jesus on the cross. At the time, nobody saw how anything good could ever result from this tragedy. And yet God foresaw that the result would be the opening of heaven to human beings. And if it happened there, if the ultimate evil can result in the ultimate good, it can happen elsewhere, even in our individual lives. Where God lifts the curtain and lets us see, elsewhere he simply says, "Trust me." There are some things that God can only teach us through pain, because when we're comfortable, we're not listening. And I know in the room there's probably a lot of stories and some stuff you're walking through. And I do not in any way want to play that down, because I would imagine it's pretty significant, but here's the promise I want you to know tonight. God can use even that to conform you to His image and produce in your life unspeakable joy. It's a part of His redeeming plan. But you may be here tonight, and you do not have a relationship with God. How do you deal with suffering? This is the principle for you to understand about finding purpose through pain and suffering. Well, I want to give you a principle as well, and it's this. The real purpose of life can only be discovered in a relationship with God. You see more than you need relief from your pain. You need Jesus, because apart from Him, there is no real purpose or meaning in life. Outside of God's redeeming plan, the only thing a person can know is the result of sin in a broken world. Only through a relationship with God do we find eternal purpose. Over weeks ago, Sara and I had a little daughter that was born, her name is Scarlet, and I remember walking out of the hospital. A lot of you parents may know that moment when you have your child in the car seat and you're nervous because you have no clue what you're doing, and you're afraid you're going to break this little baby, and you can't believe that the doctors would trust you and sign the discharge papers so that you can leave. I had that moment. And as we left, just the heart of me as a dad, looking at my child, I was thinking I can't wait for my daughter to live a life that is full and that is whole and that is complete and that is purposeful. No parent leaves the hospital looking at their child and thinks I hope my child has no purpose in life. I hope that my child's life is a waste. No parent thinks that, but here's the reality. Anyone who is outside of a relationship with God will never understand the true meaning of life. All that person who is outside of God's perfect plan and relationship, all they can experience, all they can know is the results of sin in a broken world. Nothing else will make sense. The Bible says that the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. The only place we find real meaningful eternal purpose is within the context of a relationship with God. And the struggle for so many people is you're working to find purpose in money. You're working to find purpose in status or in relationships. Listen, you were not put on earth to be remembered. You were put on earth to prepare for eternity. And only through a relationship with Jesus can you experience eternal life and eternal purpose. You may be here and you don't believe in God. A lot of this stuff is not really making sense. A.W. Tozer made a statement that's profound that I want to share with you as we close. He said this. He said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." And quite possibly you walked in the room today and when you think about God, you think about a distant judge. You think about some distant being or some ruler who really doesn't care. I want to give you as we close one verse of scripture that I hope when you think about God, you think about the truth in this verse. It's from 1 Timothy chapter 2. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. As in a broken world, that's what should come to our mind when we think about God. A God of love, a God of passion who wants nothing more than for this broken world to be redeemed through a relationship with Jesus. So you see with that in mind, we shouldn't be talking about or have our shaking our heads about why bad things happen to good people. Here's the thing we should be shaking our heads about today and that should be blowing our minds. Why a good holy God is so passionate about loving bad people. Here's the reason, grace. It's not because we deserved it or earned it. It's because of his unmerited, unstoppable grace that pursues us even when we're not worth pursuing and that God tonight is saying, my heart breaks for suffering just like your heart breaks, but I've done something about it. I've made a way where there was no way through the person of Jesus. I am offering a broken world, a chance to experience eternal life. [BLANK_AUDIO]