Auto Generated Transcript
This morning. We’re going to look at a couple passages of Scripture related to a particular topic that I find very important to the Christian faith. It’s a it’s a question that if you ever pick up a book on popular questions people ask about God. This this topic is one of the prominent topics that individuals will often focus on. And and I want to say this morning as we dive into this, I’m not diving into every area that we could talk about, but but this morning, the topic that I want to deal with is, um. Male pattern baldness. Um, politics. Not okay. It’s not that either. It’s it’s it’s, uh, evil and pain and how that relates to God. Why does this world have suffering? And what does that mean? If there is a God who is good? And some of the premise that people come to as they approach Scripture and they ask that sort of question and thinking towards God is, is this it? Because there is suffering? If God is a good God, then he can’t be an all powerful God because suffering exists. Or the flip side of that is because there is suffering in the world. If God is an all powerful God, then he can’t be a good God because suffering exists. And. The truth of the matter is, is the the idea, the thinking from which that operates begins with a false premise. And we’ll get to a little bit of that in just a few.
But the idea of pain and and evil and God creates tension in the mind of a world who is wondering and questioning. How could God exist in the midst of evil? This morning, as we look at some passages of Scripture, we’re going to we’re going to bounce back and forth between an Old Testament and New Testament passage. We’re going to be going between Genesis three and Romans chapter five, whichever one that both of these passages say some similar things. If you want to mark one with your hand and look at one. Um, I’m going to put the verses up on the screen as well to help us out. But but we’re going to do is we’re going to build a theological framework, as the Bible explains how pain and suffering exists and why painting suffering exists. And then we’re going to make some practical applications of what God calls us to in this world, in light of pain and suffering existing. And before I jump into all of this, I just want to say that I don’t want to make light of anyone’s suffering or pain that they endure in life. And on the back side of that, when it comes to pain and suffering, I would I would also say, just let a cat out of the bag and just say, I can’t always explain the mind of God. Matter of fact, most of the time, unless God has communicated it clearly in Scripture, it’s sometimes difficult to understand.
It is difficult to understand. And when it comes to pain and suffering, pain and suffering is one of those things that requires faith in what God communicates in his Word. To understand that God is going to work it out. And so while God gives us some ideas of where it originates, why it exists, what we are to do as people, I don’t pretend to be able to explain completely the the mind of God, but one day he will explain himself to us. I’m going to say this morning, if if you’re not here and, and you feel like everything in your life is going well and all is good, I got to say this Thanksgiving, you’ve got plenty of reasons to be thankful and to rejoice over. But we all know, regardless of where we are with our lives, if we’re on top of the mountain, a valley is coming. You think of in the world today? It’s said that there are over 100 million slaves. Statistics say there are more slaves in the world today than there has ever existed in all of human history. Today every 40s someone will take their own lives. Today, over a billion people will go to bed hungry. There is suffering. When the Bible talks about the beginning. I love the first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis, because it really lays the framework for us of of why really life is the way it is.
And when the Bible was put together, it was written by the Jews in a time period beyond creation. And so when God shares with Moses the first five books of the Pentateuch of the Bible, what he does in the first 11 chapters is really explain the big questions of life. Why are we here? Why are things the way that they are and where are we going? The book of Genesis gives us those ideas. Tells us how we received nations and people of different languages and tongues. It tells us how we were formed and and where we were came from. It even tells us why the world has suffering. When you read the Book of Genesis in the beginning of chapter three, this idea comes to mind. God did not desire for evil to exist, but he permitted it. The theology behind evil and behind suffering and pain, and in the book of Genesis is that God didn’t desire for evil to exist, but he permitted it. And an evil exists because of sin. Bible says it this way in in Romans chapter. Let me read Genesis chapter two, verse 216. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, from any tree of the garden you may not eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in that day that you eat from it, you will surely die.
And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? Jumps a little bit ahead with that final statement from from Eve that when God created her, when God’s asking her, what have you done? She partook of the fruit that God had just asked her not to partake of. The Bible very clearly in the book of Genesis, gives us this idea that God created us to experience life with him. But the Bible goes on further and just say that that God in Christ, we know that Jesus offers us salvation. And the Bible is very clear in saying that Jesus doesn’t just give you life, but that Jesus is life. Colossians chapter one, verses 15 to 717 it says in Him he holds all things together, and by him all things consist meaning. If Jesus were to ever let go of this world, this world would fall apart. Not only does he give life, he is life. And when Adam and Eve came into the Garden of Eden, they had a decision being creatures created with a free will. Do you desire to experience the life that God is or life outside of him? Coincidentally his death. Anything that separates from life is death. The Bible tells us in the picture of the fruit that what Adam and Eve did. Was they chose death. They rejected life. In Genesis chapter three, and I believe it’s in verse 22.
God even says that now man knows good and evil. The idea of the word picture in the book of Genesis isn’t simply that man knows right from wrong, but rather that man is going to tell and dictate to God what is right and what is wrong, because they are trusting in themselves rather than the creator who gives life. And in so doing. There was death. The explanation of why evil began within the Bible isn’t because God created evil, but that God permitted evil when evil began. Evil began because of sin, and the origin through which sin came was through man. In question. People ask when they get to that position in Scripture, they tend to is to say this why did God create us with the ability to sin? The answer is because he wanted to create you as a creature that could love. In order to be able to love, you also have to have the ability to reject. When I was a little boy, my sister had this baby. I called it the Chucky doll, and it was this type of baby that had this mechanical ability to talk to you. And when it was in the closet put away, it would continue to talk to you. You know how that goes, right? The possessed doll. You wait at night as a kid under your covers for it to crawl out, and it said the same thing over and over.
Turn me over, turn me over I love you night night. That’s what it did. Right in that tone. All the time. Every night. I can just picture it. It was. It was demonic, this thing. But you know, the the the idea with this baby was no matter how many times it told me it loved me, I never felt like it loved me. You know why? Because it was programmed. It was a robot. It didn’t do it by choice. It did it because it was forced. God created you as a creature with free will, having love. To respond to your creator as he has displayed his glory in. And worship. You were never created in life to be independent, but rather dependent on the one who gives life. And any time separation exists, there is sin and there is death. This week I was up at a conference with my son and someone did the thing that they should never do when a child is getting ready to cry. They asked him if he needed his mommy and then the tears started flooding. And from that point on, we could never get him to go back into the nursery so he could sit in this conference. And so eventually I brought him out and I sat him down beside me, and I popped out my iPad and put a movie on and put some earphones in his ear. And this the first time he’s ever worn earphones.
And we’re sitting in the middle of this meeting and he can’t hear, and he says something and it’s extremely loud. You’ve ever been in that moment where you’ve got earphones in, you’re saying something. You can’t tell how loud you’re being, but but you’re screaming and you don’t even know it. Well, my son’s sitting there and and he goes, daddy interrupts this meeting. I’m like, yes, I love you, daddy. And I got to say, as a father, seeing that I just, I didn’t care. I was like, yes, I puffed up my chest. Yeah. Everybody here that he loves me. My son loves me. Great. Just I don’t even care what you’re talking about anymore. Everyone hear that? What a great kid. Just in his in his movie. And he just wanted to know. Wanted me to know that he loved me. That’s God’s desire for creating us with free will. To delight in you as you delight in him. God didn’t desire for evil to exist, but he permitted it to exist. And here’s here’s the big reason we know that God doesn’t desire for evil to exist is that God came into the flesh to destroy evil. Jesus walking this earth healed people from pain and suffering. At the end in the book of Revelation in chapter 21, I believe in verse four, it says at the end Jesus will wipe away every tear from your eye, and there will be no more pain and no more suffering in his kingdom.
One of the reasons that God allows or permits sin to exist in this world. Is that if God didn’t. You’d have to take me out with it. When Adam and Eve sinned. The Bible tells us in the book of Romans that all sinned. All of us experienced death and separation from the creator. It tells us in Romans chapter five and verse 12, therefore justice through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin. And so death spread to all men, because all sinned. All of us have fallen short of God’s glory. And the way that God identified this very early on in the life of the Jewish people was through the Ten Commandments. And when you think about what they say, if you just take a few of them out, thou shalt not lie. Let me. Have you ever lied? Yes. Thou shalt not steal. Have you ever stolen? Maybe. But you’ve definitely coveted. Thou shalt not lust. Have you ever lusted? The Bible says that he who has lusted in his heart has committed adultery in Matthew chapter five. Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain. If you’ve done that, that makes you a blasphemer. You can imagine coming before a holy God who standard for heaven and his presence is perfection. And you say to him, God, I’m a lying, cheating, adulterous, blasphemer.
Let me in. How he receives that. Bible tells us in First Peter that God says that not willing, he’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God did not desire for evil to exist, but he permitted it. If you were to ask more specifically about that, well then. Well then why does God want you to come to trust in him? Why? Why does God allow his people, his own people? Why does God’s people suffer? And I would say this. You can write this down already. I don’t know. I don’t know. But he gives us reason to trust in him through that. And I’ll explain a little bit beyond that in just a few moments. But God doesn’t desire for evil to exist, but he permits it. And the second is this God doesn’t want pain to exist, but he uses it to point us to him. Philip Yancey was an author who who wrote a book on suffering. And in the first couple of chapters of this book, he goes to an illustration of India. An a leper colony. And during this illustration there was a doctor who was living in India on this leper colony. And at this point in time, no one knew what what was the cause of leprosy and how it affected the body. Did did you start to get these sores and develop these problems on your skin and then lose feeling, or did your body lose feeling first? And then you began to develop these, these lesions upon your body.
And so this gentleman began to study the life of lepers. And he quickly found out that that previous to this, most people thought that people with leprosy began to get lesions and then lose feeling. But what he found out through his study that it was in fact the opposite, that they lost feeling in their body. And then because of that, their body began to deteriorate. And he began to observe this when he saw individuals who were doing things without recognizing they were doing damage to the body because they had no feeling people would go out and shovel and do it till they had blisters and cut themselves down to the bones. Or or. He talked about one little boy who went to a padlock door to unlock it, and it was rusty, and he twisted so hard that he couldn’t feel the pain, and the knife gashed him down to the bone on his finger. He went to somebody stick their hand in a, in a, in a hot fire to pull out a coal, burned his hand up, but never felt it. He began, in fact, to account for all of the markings that these individuals had to just confirm that yes, indeed, you lose feeling. And then and then your body begins to deteriorating. And he started marking down all the wounds that these lepers had.
And he began to notice that, that he could account for about 80% of them, but not 20%. And suddenly he began to watch them at night. And what he found out as he watched them at night, that some of the legions that he couldn’t account for, the wounds that they had, came from rats sneaking in at night. Gnawing on their faces and on their hands of the people who had leprosy. As he began to study the lepers, this man invented something to help them. It was something to recognize for them when they’re doing something destructive for their body, like if they reach into a fire, how bad that is, or if they’re if they’re using their hands and they’re doing too much to where it’s about to cause a wound to stop. And the first thing that he did was he created an electronic device that created a light for them to to say to them, hey, this is going to start hurting you if you don’t stop. And what he found out was they began to ignore it. They just they couldn’t feel the pain, so they didn’t care. And so the next thing that he did was he created something that not only caused delight, but it created a sound to annoy them, to say, hey, you’re about to do something that that is harmful to your body, you should stop. They said. After a while they began to ignore it and finally he created a device.
That when they started to do things they shouldn’t, it shocked them. So that they could begin to feel the pain that they were designed to feel, to recognize something is wrong. And what he found out was when the body received pain. It stopped. It paused and it observed. God doesn’t desire pain in our lives. But God uses pain. For his goodness and glory. The life of the leopard. Recognize something that the Bible both confesses to us. In Genesis chapter three and verse 16, When God created man, it tells us at this point in Scripture that Eve and Adam had already eaten of the fruit, being tempted of the serpent. And this is just portions of the section from verse 16 to 19. And it says this to the woman. He said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. And then to Adam he said, cursed is the ground because of you both thorns and thistles. It shall grow by the sweat of your face. You will eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken. For you are dust to the dust you shall return. The pain and the suffering of this earth recognizes the need for a creator through which gives it life. That’s what God says to us in the curse. You’re going to experience these things in your life, and it’s a reminder of your need for me and my goodness in this world.
Bible says in Romans chapter eight and verse 22, all of creation groans under this curse. But at the same time it says this in Romans or in Psalms 18, excuse me, Psalms eight, in Psalms 19, that God’s glory is displayed in creation. How do you reconcile those two terms? All of creation groans but but his glory is displayed in creation. I would say we as people experience it on a daily basis. I mean, when a child is born. It is a beautiful mess, right? I was just recently on the East Coast, and people gather all around the Appalachian northern Appalachian area during during the fall months because the leaves on the Appalachian Mountains are are unbelievably just beautiful as they just create a just an array of colors throughout the landscape. People gather together just taking pictures. If you’re a photographer, it’s a place you want to go at one point in your life. But do you know what happens a couple months after you see that beautiful glory? It’s dead. The trees look gross. You don’t want to go outside. It’s so nasty. Nothing’s on them. They’re just, you know, disgusting. Display of his glory. And a reminder of the depravity. We see this even in death. Now, no matter how much you know, we will lose one another in death. Still grieves our souls. Right? Life happens and we rejoice in that.
And it’s a beautiful thing. But then when death happens, no matter how many times you know it’s going to come knocking for everyone born, it still rips apart at you in such a deep level that you can’t even express it in words. Saying. In that pain. Something is wrong. And something is wrong in a level that both you and I can never even begin to think about reconciling. It comes to the one who gives life. And in the midst of pain. God points us to his glory. God uses pain to help us recognize our need for our creator. In the midst of evil and pain. The Bible tells us that Jesus has promised life. If I have it on here in Romans. Well, wait. Write down in Romans chapter five, in verse ten, Christ promises that life to us in him. In Genesis chapter three and verse beginning in verse 20, when the Bible starts, gets to the end of of the the reminder to man of the curse that sin brings. God then takes Adam and Eve, and it tells us that he cloaks them in an animal skin that he sacrificed, reminding us of us of a messiah who would come and be the sacrifice for our sins, reconciling us to our creator. Says this to you as parents this morning. As parents, you have the wonderful joy of of not only bringing physical life in this world, but you, as parents, can also have the joy of seeing spiritual life happening in the lives of your children.
That God, even though he he permits evil to exist, God doesn’t desire for evil to exist. God made a way to escape from evil and sin and death by being life and giving us life. And so we as people not only have the joy of experiencing physical life, but also new spiritual life in Christ. I’m not going to tell you this morning. If you know someone going through difficulty or pain. Typically in those moments, the theology of pain is not what they need. And the theology of evil and how it begins, not what they need to hear. All, you’re in pain. Oh, do you know it’s it’s our fault. And you can learn a lot from your suffering right now. That is not. That is not the way to go, okay? Now read the book of job this week, and at the end of the book, job’s friends were told by God to repent, and they were told by God to repent because they came to job and they kept saying, yeah, job, man, that’s it’s bad. It’s bad to be you, man. You done something wrong and and well, it’s all on you, man. It’s not a good idea. Can I give you the thoughts this morning? We’d see a theology of pain. What’s also important to recognize is how we enter into the lives of other people and journey with them through the difficult circumstances they experience.
And I think in our world, sometimes we empower our circumstance beyond the ability of our God. And in the end, we as believers have this hope to rest upon that God is in control. And regardless of what you’re going through today, God isn’t in heaven overdosing on Tums, saying to himself, man, I don’t know what I’m going to do. You look at this. This is unbelievable. God is not only God of today. Was also God of Tomorrow. God is in tomorrow before you even get there. God knows every heartache that you’ll go through, every adversity that you will face, and God is there in the midst of that trouble. Matter of fact this morning because I don’t claim to be any expert on on pain. And compared to some people in life, I would say that my experience in it is minimal. So to introduce you to a couple of people that have experienced difficult hardship within within their lives. Well maybe not. Give me a click. I don’t have power. Give me one more. This right here is Joni Tada. She is a believer in Christ who suffered a accident that left her as a quadriplegic when she was a teenage girl. And Joni Walks with Jesus, and she’s written numerous pamphlets and books on how how to understand God in the midst of suffering. Go and give me another one.
This one is Nick Vujicic. Nick Vujicic one of one of his favorite sayings is you can be happy or you can be angry about what you don’t have or rejoice in what you do have. And the interesting thing about Nick, you can kind of see right there is he has no arms and no legs. Nick loves Jesus. If you’re not a reader, you should get on YouTube and listen to him. Give me another one. This one’s the guy that we opened with this morning. His name is Ed Dobson. He’s got ALS, and it used to be a pastor still walking with the Lord, and he’s lost his voice, but he still using his opportunities in the life that God’s given him to still write and share what God’s done. He’s got a website online with video, and he’s got books for sale as well related to it. Give me one more. And this one. Corrie ten boom. I would call her a hero. She was in a concentration camp. And, um, with her sister. She’s written a few books. She’s spoke extensively. You can still, she was a speaker, a public speaker at a time when audio equipment wasn’t that great. So you can still catch some things from her online. But the interesting thing about Corrie ten boom is after she was let go of the concentration camp, get this, she opened a ministry to help Nazis deal with the after effects of the war.
Meaning Nazis were so distraught over what they did to people that they needed to find healing, too. And it was a lady in a concentration camp who opened a ministry to reach those hearts. Uh, share all this with you this morning to say, you know, I’m not an expert on pain and suffering, and I don’t claim to be. And, Lord willing, I never will be. But there are people who have been and they still love Jesus and their hope is still in Jesus. Matter of fact, give me one more click. Nick Vujicic. I was listening to him talk about his life. He actually came to Salt Lake City. We took our youth group to visit him not too long ago. And and he was giving a talk about his life. And he said, as a, as a young boy, even at ten years old, he can remember his dad putting him in the bathtub, and he pretended to be happy. And then as soon as his dad walked out of the room, he tried to take his life in the bathtub. Because he didn’t want to be a burden to his parents or to anyone else. I mean, he struggled with feeling adequate as an individual and enduring through some of the things that he has to go through. But he said this, this is the interesting thing that he said in pain, there should be the letter I right there.
It says in my pain, this is this is all I wanted to know. And I would encourage you this morning, you have a theology of how evil and and suffering and pain came into existence. But the theology doesn’t always help a person in going through the midst of that. And this is what Nick said in the midst of his his pain and suffering. And I think the Bible communicates it to us as well. He says this in my pain, in my suffering, this is all I wanted to know that everything would be okay and that I am not alone. Everything would be okay and that I’m not alone. Can I can I just tell you the Bible has two words for that everything will be okay. We as people need hope. We need a reason to lift our heads and to look to a bright and glorious future. We need hope. Nick says that we need everything. We need to know that it’s going to be okay. And second, we need to know someone cares for us as believers we would call love. Bible even tells us that we fulfill all of the laws and love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love others. Hope and love. In the midst of evil, pain and suffering and relationship to God. The best encouragement we give to people, the greatest encouragement you can give to people comes through hope and love.
Can I tell you this morning? Most intimately in all of that. It all comes through Jesus. We need to know that someone cares. And the Bible says this Jesus does. Romans five and verse six says, 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 love to you, in that while you were yet sinners, Christ died. Christ offers his love. Christ becomes personal, Christ becomes real. And the suffering that he took on for you and for me. I mean, when Christ came to this earth, the places that he walked were with what society would call the outcasts, and he loved them. Maybe one of the most famous passages in Scripture, especially at the passing of someone, is Psalm 23, which is a passage just filled with love and hope. Listen to this in verse four. Even though I walk through the darkness or the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me there is love. Not only does the Bible tell you that Jesus loves, but it also tells you that Jesus relates. Not only does Jesus love, but that his love goes to a depth that cannot even be compared. Jesus relates to our suffering. You ever met someone who endured a difficult time, and they encountered a similar person who went through a similar place in life, and how quickly those friendships bond because of that suffering.
I mean, you think of war veterans. You know, if me and two other dudes walk into a room and both of them are war veterans and I’m not, I already know how the conversation is going to go. It’s going to exclude me because they’re united on a level deeper than I can understand. They can relate to each other. I’ve seen it happen even with young mothers who lose a life of a child. Miscarry. How they can quickly connect through another mother who’s gone through a similar experience and pain. Bible says this about Jesus that not only does he love you, but in Hebrews 414, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Religiously as you compare. Gods. Gods in general are discussed as individuals who are isolated, indifferent, and far beyond your comprehension and be able be able to relate to them. But when it comes to Jesus.
The description is he is near. Revelation says, I stand at the door and knock. Receive me. Jesus not only loves you in your suffering, but he loves you through your suffering. By having experienced the same things that we go through as human beings. In our lives. We need to know that someone cares and that everything will be okay. Not only does Jesus just say, you know I love you and I’m here to suffer with you. But in addition to that, he also brings hope to our life. There’s something for us to look forward to beyond this circumstance. With the passing of time, we discover. I like how the book of Genesis ends. As you study the book of Genesis, you see in the beginning it’s just chaos. It’s God creating this perfect world for us, us rejecting God and sin. And that theme continues throughout the book. We relationally grow close to the Lord and sin devastates us. You’ve heard of stories of Tower of Babel and Noah, right? And you get to the end of the book of Genesis, and the life of Joseph, and Joseph is chosen by God to help lead the Israel’s nation. And the Bible tells us that his son, his friends and brothers excuse me, his brothers become jealous and and they sell Joseph into slavery and he becomes a slave in Egypt. And then the story goes on to tell us that his brothers in the land of Canaan need, need help.
They’re starving. And so they come. And they they visit Egypt because Egypt has food. And little did they know that Joseph had risen to power. And they find themselves confronting their own brother and didn’t know it. And when they find out and they begin to apologize. Joseph says this in verse 20. He says, you meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. For us as believers. In Romans chapter eight and verse 28, the Bible says this, and we know that he causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. What makes God loving and good at the same time is that God in his ability, infinite power is by far more than capable of taking every evil and every suffering that we’ve ever experienced, and turning it into good for those who love him, for those who are called according to his purpose. That’s where faith comes in. And the evidence of that for our lives is always the cross. Jesus can take the cross and turn it into glory. Jesus can take your life and work it for his glory. All things work together for good to those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. Fourth is this that I would say that God works all things for good. For those who are in Christ.
Not only does God love you, not only does God give you hope, but God is working all things for good in that hope for you and for me. You know, sometimes I think we look at life like this. We focus more on Band-Aids than cures. And I think it’s okay to pray. God, will you heal me from this? Or God, will you take this pain? God, will you help me in this suffering? I think that’s fine. I think sometimes the Lord answers those things and sometimes he doesn’t. The Bible tells us in the life of the Apostle Paul, he prayed that the Lord would remove the suffering from his life, this thorn in the flesh. Three times he prayed. And finally God said, no. My strength is made known. In your weakness. My glory is seen through this pain. Sometimes the Lord takes it away and sometimes he doesn’t. But the Lord promises that one day he will take it all away. Sometimes I think we focus on Band-Aids rather than focusing on the cure. I think Jesus looks at this world and he says, you know, I can keep prolonging you in the midst of this broken world. I can take away that suffering for a while. But. It’s a broken world. How about rather than continue to put Band-Aids on things that are broken, I just take you with me and make all things new. I mean, you think about what the Christian life is about.
It’s not fixing a broken world. It’s focusing on the King and his kingdom to come and focusing on that. We see things fixed in a broken world through Christ intervening in it. But the primary focus is on the King and his kingdom. Jesus even said, when you pray, pray this way. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom. What come? The lives of the New Testament believers when they were giving their life for for Christ. Pliny the Younger, one of the people that was taking the lives of the early believers, would often remark, these people are giving their lives like they’re immortal, like they’re living for something more than an earth that’s broken. Unbelievable, isn’t it? Not only does Jesus give you his love, but he also gives you hope. Bible says this in Romans 818, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Revelation 21. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. For the older the the old order of things have passed away. Last night I was reading this book. I can’t even remember what it was called, but I got to the last chapter and it was about a young boy who was questioning his faith. He’d just graduated college and he was a young man, just graduated college.
And he’s looking at the big questions of Christianity. And he’s for the first time owning his faith, asking questions, doubting some things. And his grandfather was a pastor in his 80s. And one of the things that that this young man had dealt with with his grandfather was, was just suffering and evil in this world and how God can exist in the midst of that. And and the grandfather had shared with his son, and the son was getting to see God’s hand in everything. And and finally, the story concludes this way. Your older gentleman, the pastor and the grandfather had had a stroke. And he can’t walk very well. And a month previous, his wife passed. She also had a stroke. He goes with his grandson to visit the grave. He was hesitant because this is the first time he had visited since his wife had passed. And he could barely move. The ground was icy where he was visiting, and he was afraid to walk because he had a stroke, but he just wanted to be next to his wife’s side. He told his grandson that at the end of her life, he had a couple of days with her in the hospital before she passed, and when he opened up God’s Word, and when he read to her the promises of the hope that Jesus brings and the love that he carries for her because she has placed his faith in him.
And he said, you know, she didn’t really respond to much the whole time she was in the hospital. But when I opened God’s word, as much as she could smile, a smile would ring through. And the last verse I got to share with her. Came from Romans chapter eight, verse 36 and 37, where it says, we are more than conquerors in Christ. Has it got to the grave? He said to his grandson, you know, I was there when they laid your grandmother in the grave. Everyone else had left, but I just wanted to stay there just to make sure they did it gently and with respect. He said as as he stood there and he watched. Then lay this body in the ground. He noticed that when they laid her in this casket, it was of this brass and sealed shut. And and and it was just dumped upon this dirt just poured on her cave. And how powerful that looked. But all he kept thinking about was in First Corinthians 15 when, when Paul says, O death, where is your sting? Thinking of the promise of Christ returning, resurrecting the body, saying, no matter how powerful this casket, this grave may look, it is nothing to be matched against in the power of God when he raises this body from the grave and he gives the hope that it promises, we are more than conquerors in Christ.
We like Band-Aids. Sometimes more than cures. I think death is the most difficult pain any of us ever experience. It’s one all of us can relate to because we all know someone who has passed. Whether close to us or not. We tend to think of death this way. People are leaving the land of the living for the land of the dying. But Jesus has the tendency of thinking of death this way. People are leaving the land of the dying for the land of the living. Jesus offers us enormous hope in the life that we live, and that hope is to be focused on the things to come and the glory of Christ. And it says this in Romans five and verse five, and hope. And hope does not disappoint. Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Hope and love. Do you see that? This hope does not disappoint because the love of God poured out on you. Two things people desire in the midst of suffering. To know that everything can be okay. And that someone cares. And whatever we go through in our lives. I mean, you understand the theology of how suffering began, but when you walk out into this world, you think of the presentation that brings for such a glorious God that you serve. There is always hope.