Signal Trust | Busy Signal | Week 3
Now a man was sick, Lazarus, from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters sent a message to Him: “Lord, the one You love is sick.” When Jesus heard it, He said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after that, He said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.”
John 11:1-7, HCSB
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and told Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died! ” When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, He was angry in His spirit and deeply moved. “Where have you put him? ” He asked. “Lord,” they told Him, “come and see.” Jesus wept.
John 11:32-35 HCSB
…God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
1 John 4:8b-9 HCSB
The Problem of Pain and Suffering is one of the oldest and strongest obstacles to accepting Jesus Christ.
The Problem of Suffering
See below for the YouTube Playlist.
Suffering must be tackled in two ways:
• The Intellectual Problem
• The Emotional Problem
The Intellectual Problem
Can a loving, all-powerful God exist in the same world as all this pain and suffering?
1.Suffering Was Not Part of God’s Intention
God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.
Genesis 1:31 HCSB
And He said to Adam, “Because you [disobeyed my command] ’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”
Genesis 3:17-19 HCSB
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away. Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.”
Revelation 21:4-5a HCSB
2. Free Will
For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.
Galatians 5:13 HCSB
Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
John 7:17 (NIV)
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15 HCSB
Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me.
Revelation 3:20 HCSB
I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.
Deuteronomy 30:19 HCSB
Can God Do Anything?
Can God force a person to freely choose something?
Plantinga counters that in a world with free creatures, God cannot determine their behavior, so even an omnipotent God might not be able to create a world where all creatures will always freely choose to do good. Its final version in God, Freedom, and Evil (1974) is now almost universally recognized as having laid to rest the logical problem of evil against theism.
3. Eternity
“And just as it is appointed for people to die once — and after this, judgment —”
Hebrews 9:27 HCSB
C. S. Lewis in his book, The Problem of Pain says this: God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
God may be doing something IN YOU, something THROUGH YOU, or TO OTHERS for His glory and for Eternity.
The Emotional Problem
Be Honest with God
“But as for me, my feet almost slipped; my steps nearly went astray. For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have an easy time until they die, and their bodies are well fed. They are not in trouble like others; they are not afflicted like most people.
Psalms 73:2-5 HCSB
Did I purify my heart and wash my hands in innocence for nothing? For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning.
Psalms 73:13-14 HCSB
When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless until I entered God’s sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny.
Psalms 73:16-17 HCSB
Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me up in glory. Who do I have in heaven but You? And I desire nothing on earth but You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever.”
Psalms 73:23-26 HCSB
2. Jesus Understands Our Pain
“Then He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me — nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. Being in anguish, He prayed more fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
Luke 22:41-44 HCSB
3. God’s Silence Is Not His Absence
During the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, the following poem was found on the wall of a prison camp, written by a Jew:
I believe in the sun,
even when it is not shining
I believe in love,
even when feeling it not
And I believe in God,
even when God is silent
Take Heart That Jesus Understands Our Pain
Jesus Suffered the Greatest of All
…God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
1 John 4:8b-9 HCSB