Did God Cause the Fire in Southern California? (11/18/18 John #44)

ATTN: I’ll confess. When I first heard about the Southern California fire that engulfed million dollar celebrity homes, I thought of God judging Sodom and Gomorrah. I watched the footages of these houses and cars burning and I thought, that’s what Lot must have been looking at as he was fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah because God was judging that wicked city. But I soon repented because I thought about the verse (Luke 13:4, “those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” In other words, one of the reason for these disasters is for us know what we all really deserved and to repent. I am not better than them. And unless I repent and come to God, I won’t be spared either.

TRANS: Today, we come to a passage in the book of john that deals with the problem of evil – if God is all powerful and all loving, why is there suffering in this world? Suffering is bad. It makes us unhappy. And if God is loving he would want to remove it. And if God is all powerful, He WOULD remove it. But the suffering is still there. So, God must not be all powerful or all loving. That is the problem of evil. C.S.Lewis wrote a whole book on this topic. But rather than deal with this issue topically – I have done that before – I want to be expositional and deal with the way the text is written. I want to compare and contrast the perspectival difference between us and God regarding the problem of evil. And the evil we are introduced to is a man’s blindness.

The disciples and Jesus are interacting with each other about a man born blind. The disciples, more or less, represent us – the world. And Jesus represents God – how He views the unfortunate or the disaster-struck. So, how people view misfortune vs. how God views misfortune…

 

1. To the disciples, the blind man was a conversational topic. To Jesus, he was a person to be helped.

Jesus and the disciples were walking along and Jesus sees a blind man. Now, the disciples notice that Jesus is looking at this blind man and they ask him a theological question as to the cause of this man’s blindness. How much are they like you and me? When the fire erupted in southern california, my first question was, “I wonder if God is judging them like He judged Sodom and Gomorrah?” A theological question! To this, Jesus does not ignore the question – He acknowledges the importance of theology in everyday matters, but more importantly, he goes and helps the blind man. V. 6,Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

ILL: Imagine if a building is on fire. The disciples were like the ones who are watching the building burn down while discussing what might have caused the fire, how they might prevent it from happening in the future, and how much damage it will cause, while Jesus walks right through them, and goes into the buring the building to rescue as many people as He can…

No wonder we call Him the Savior! He saves! He acts. He doesn’t sit on the sideline and watches and talks about the problems of the world. He left heaven, came down to earth, got his hands dirty, and literally with blood and sweat, rescued us from going to hell.

APP: Regarding the issue of problem of evil: We talk. Jesus acts.

 

2. To the disciples, the blind man was a problem to be avoided. To Jesus, he was an opportunity to glorify God.

I want you to think about the question that the disciples asked Jesus little more deeply. They ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” In other words, what they are asking is, “Whose fault is it that this unfortunate event happened to him?” Why do they want to know? They are asking about the cause of his disability. Why? My conjecture is this: so that they can prevent it from happening to them or their loved one. If they know what caused it, then all they have to do is avoid that cause, and they will be fine.

ILL: I remember making a hospital visit with some older women in my old church, and one time we visited a man who was diagnosed with a liver cancer. And one of the visiting ladies asked what caused it. I knew why she asked it. If she knew the cause, then she can avoid it so that it won’t happen to her or her loved one. That’s natural human response in the face of a tragedy. If there is a known cause associated with it, then we want to know what it is so that we can avoid it. That’s why I believe the disciples wanted to know the cause of this man’s disability. But Jesus doesn’t focus on that at all. Listen to Jesus’ response: It was not this man sinner, or his parents, but the works of God might be displayed in him.” in other words, the cause is not important. It’s the purpose that’s important. It’s not why it happened that’s important. But what God will do with it that’s important.

This is difficult to understand. It sounds like Jesus is saying that God on purpose left this man to be blind for a better part of his life so that in God’s own time, he might be the object of a miracle performed by Jesus? As difficult as that is to understand, that is what Jesus seems to be saying. Although this man could have been spared of all that suffering, he was allowed to suffer much so that Jesus could display the power of God at this moment. Isn’t that baffling? But, this is not an isolated incident in the Bible.

The Apostle Paul was a Christian killer before he became a Christian himself. He was going around jailing or killing Christians trying to stamp out the new religion that threatened Judaism. But this is what he said about his own calling, “But when he who had set me apart before I was born,d and who called me by his grace, 16was pleased to reveal his Son toe me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.” Galatians 1:15.   

           Wait, he was called to be Jesus’ apostle before he was born?? And yet for a good part of his life, he went around killing Christians?? How does that make sense? If God was going to call him anyway, why didn’t he call him a little earlier so that he didn’t have to go around killing Christians, one of whom was a godly man named Stephen? (think about his family. What about his little girls who grew up without a dad?)  

There are many more examples like this in the Bible where God allowed much suffering to good people – not to punish them or even to discipline them – but to display His power and glory – Job, Joseph,

Daniel… But the greatest example of this is that He let His own Son suffer. He was sinless. He was perfectly righteousness. Yet, He suffered more than anyone else, dying the most cruel death and being cut off from His eternal Father, tasting hell…. But isn’t it this very act of Jesus that God is most glorified by? When we are down on our sins and all the weight is upon our shoulders, doesn’t the mention of Jesus bearing the cross for our sins and guaranteeing our eternal life, lift the burden off our shoulders and we thank God and praise Him for it?

To God, suffering is an opportunity to glorify God. I know some of us are still very troubled by this. Pondering this question of the problem of evil, the great apostle paul says this in romans 9:20-23 (MSG)  20-33 Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?” Isn’t it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right?

In other words, It is absolutely within God’s right to make some people be born 6’8”, 250 lbs, and with a vertical leap of 50” so that he can be an NBA star and another be born with blindness so that he needs another’s help all his life. How is this God good, then?

 

3. To the disciples, the blind man represented someone overcome by sin. To Jesus, the blind man represented someone who will be overcome by good. (He is the object of wrath vs. he’s the object of grace)

       How is it fair that this man suffered for 40 years when it could be averted? It’s not fair if there is no eternal life. It’s not fair if this life is all there is. God wouldn’t be good if this life was all there is and he made some people perfectly healthy to be an NBA star, and others be disabled so the he has to depend on someone else all his life. But this life isn’t all there is. Think about the blind man. He may have been blind for 40 years. But that was so that he would meet Jesus and not only get his physical sight back but his spiritual sight of seeing Jesus for who He is. He died soon after probably within 20 years, given the lifespan back then. But he’s been in heaven for the last 2000 years, fully alive, more so that you and me, and he will be so for the next 200 billion years. 40 years was just a blink in comparison. Now, think about the pharisees. They were physically seeing. They enjoyed life for 60 odd years. But where are they now? They had been in utter darkness for the last 2000 years and will be so for the next 200 billion years. If anything, we should be saying that it’s unfair that the pharisees were physically healthy. It would’ve been better if they were physically blind so that they could also recognize Jesus for who He was. In fact, that is exactly what Jesus says, “41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

It is far better if we suffer in this world and receive God’s grace for the next than to receive riches and health in this world and receive God’s wrath in the next.

Luke 16:25, “ [speaking to a rich man in hell]Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.”

 

App: 1. Be keenly aware that we are all sinners. We are not better than those who lost their homes in California. Our suffering lets us know that we live in a fallen world and the world is fallen because of us. Clean air act, switching over to bio-fuel, saving the endangered species will never save the world as long as we are here. We are the problem. We are sinners deserving death and hell. And the natural disasters and unfortunate events are just a glimpse of what we deserved to drive us to our knees in repentance.  

2. Know that your suffering could bring hope to others. We wrongly assume that our suffering is only for our future good. It is only partially true. God also lets us suffer also for the good of those around us. Aren’t you and I the beneficiaries of Christ’s suffering? Aren’t we beneficiaries of Job’s suffering as we hear about his suffering, we find comfort in it? So could your suffering be for someone else. I get far more blessed by hearing the stories of suffering and how God pulled them through it than these prosperity clowns who force-feed false hopes of wealth and health in this life and get rich by it themselves.  
3. We can and should use human suffering as a platform to share Jesus with unbelievers. An unbeliever once said, “I have no respect for those christians who do not try to convert unbelievers. If they truly believe they have the cure for the deadly disease that will send people to hell, it would be immoral for them not to share!” Makes sense, doesn’t it? If you found cure for cancer but don’t share it and keep it to yourself, you would be immoral. Whenever I have an opportunity to speak at a funeral, I preach the gospel. Some people might say that’s taking advantage of an unfortunate event to promote my own agenda. But what’s my agenda? Not to contribute to me but for them to get eternal life so that when they body dies, they will live forever in heaven in bliss!

We have the greatest news that will cure people of sin for all eternity. Let’s share it!