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Fountain in the City SDA Church

Faith in Action

Eric Walsh

Making Sense of Suffering

We were coming into Sydney tonight from Warunga.

I was shocked that the traffic was worse going into the city on a Friday night than coming out.

Most American cities, the traffic goes the other way on a Friday night in which I get out of the city.

So it says that Sydney must be a really nice city that everybody's coming in on a Friday night.

We're going to go through a series of topics over the next 4 sessions.

And this 1 is 1 of the most important topics and questions to have answered if you're going to be a Christian.

And it is 1 of the reasons many people never become Christians.

Thank Pastor Tim and Christiana and your spouses for the hospitality.

And it can at times be lonely and difficult but there's something about doing what god asks you to do that brings peace.

And sometimes you just gotta abide in that peace.

A scripture reading comes from Psalm 56 in verse 8.

Thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears into the bottle, Are they not in thy book?

You tell my wanderings, put my tears in your bottle.

Our message this Friday evening is entitled, the science of suffering.

Why would a good God allow pain and suffering?

Father God, we ask you for Holy Ghost power now.

Father God, as we go through these verses and address this question, I ask once again that you just make me a nail on the wall and hang a portrait of Christ Jesus on that nail.

Lord, we don't need to hear from me tonight.

In the book of John chapter 9 is 1 of my favorite stories.

We'll come back to the story but it sums up what we're going to address tonight very nicely.

John 9 in verse 1 says, and as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

In the Jewish economy, or in the Jewish way of thinking, if you were born with a disease like this, someone had to have sinned to cause the problem.

The disciples are asking because they want Jesus, in a sense, to confirm their understanding of it and make the expound upon it.

And so they say, listen, either this guy caused this to come upon himself or his parents did something bad for it to come upon him.

Now obviously this is a bit of a bizarre way of looking at it because what could he have done to be born blind?

Obviously he was innocent in the womb, but they were so bent that every uncomfortable, unhappy thing that happened had to have a causative effect that they were willing to blame basically an unborn child for his own problem.

John 9 and verse 3 says that Jesus answered neither has this man sinned nor his parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Jesus said in John 9, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

And said unto him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation set.

He went his way therefore and washed and came see." And as we go through this, 1 of the key verses, which almost seems tangential in the conversation here, that Jesus is having with his disciples and ultimately with this blind man, is that Jesus says, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night comes when no man can work.

And he gives this time prophecy as it were, that somehow these difficult things that happen in the world are connected to what God is going to do to deliver the world.

And so Jesus says, listen, I don't have all the time in the world, I must do what I must do now because the night coming, this is speaking of his crucifixion and the end of his ministry but all of us are facing a night.

All of us are facing a time when we can do no more.

And so, the question, why Does God allow evil in the world?

And if you've ever done Bible study, this is often 1 of the main questions that come up that people will ask you.

David Hume, he says, if this is a, I believe he's a British philosopher, He said, if God is omnipotent, omniscient, and holy good, when's evil, or why does evil exist?

If God wills to prevent evil but cannot, he is not omnipotent.

If he can prevent evil but does not, then he is not good.

And this is the summary of this philosopher.

This is the attitude the world has towards Jehovah God, our creator.

Now, Even the DC comic book movie universe, this is literally 1 of the quotes in 1 of the Superman movies.

This is Lex Luthor, who I know from when I was a kid, Superman's arch enemy.

This is his portrayal in the movies, but he asked the same question.

So while many kids would never read maybe the Philosopher, they've definitely heard this question asked in popular culture.

Because Satan knows that unless you understand this, it is very easy for bad things to happen in the world and your faith to be completely shaken.

That's why this is such an important question and topic, especially as we begin to share with others.

So I'm going to answer the question with just 2 words.

And I don't want you to forget that God allows what happens in the world because God gives man the ability to choose, to have free will.

Now, I'm gonna go through a couple, I'm gonna go through this quickly.

If he's omnipotent, that was the question.

If he's omnipotent, then, and he allows bad things to happen, then he cannot be God.

His enemy and adversary, Satan, uses lies all the time.

In fact, the Bible says he is the father of lies, Satan is.

Watch this, Titus 1 and verse 2 says, In the hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.

Hebrews 6, 18, that by 2 immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.

If God said, the sky is plowed right now, guess what would happen when we looked up at the sky?

God cannot increase or diminish in knowledge.

It is impossible for God to learn anything.

First John 3.24 if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.

The third 1, God cannot be tempted with evil and cannot tempt others.

Let no 1 say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil and tempts no 1.

Making God’s Word Come Alive

Our message is entitled God's Word Alive.

And this is part of our Faith in Action Revival Series.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

He does not want us to have these meetings.

But right now we claim the blood of Jesus Christ and we rebuke the devil.

Lord we ask now that you bind Satan and his angels.

Father cast them far from this place and now Lord send your Holy Spirit and all him Lord to is now this is our prayer in Jesus is precious and holy name amen I'm gonna go back to John 1 1 in the beginning was the word the Greek word therefore word many of you have heard before it's the word logos The way that they taught this to me when I was at our Adventist University in northern Alabama at Oakwood University is that Jesus is God made audible.

He is God so that you can see him, touch him, feel him.

He's that aspect of God that has direct interaction with creation.

He is also the creator, the source of creation.

That's what the Bible says here in John 1, 2, The same was in the beginning with God and then it says a powerful thing about Christ All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made all things were made by him verse 4 says in him was life and the life was the light of men.

It says, and the darkness comprehended it not.

In other words, the word is not understood.

It is the mystery of godliness, something that is difficult to understand.

You see, in order for the price of our sin to be paid divinity had to come but in order for divinity to come it had to be clothed in humanity hence christ is born angels in heaven when they found out that someone was going to have to go to earth and die for the sins of man angels lined up to go They didn't want to see Christ go.

But Jesus took the low seat, and a word was made audible among men, and tabernacled with men.

And 1 of the challenges we have in the kind of ministry that is gonna be done by your church and a lot of what we do in the United States in cities, it is a difficult task.

If you missed last night, make sure you watch it whenever it's posted because 1 of the first questions many people are going to ask you as you do ministry in an environment that is urban, complex, in America, your cities, so far Sydney seems like incredibly safe, but if you go to America, you go into the cities, there's a little bit of trepidation and fear that comes with it.

If you're going to go into those environments, people are going to ask you, why would a good God allow suffering?

But the next question many times they're going to ask you is, can they rely on God?

And for 1 of our Bible schools in the States, I taught the apologetic section this last year, and I'll do it again.

The truth of the matter is we are taught in schools in America that we all are the product of the Big Bang and evolution.

Yet in its most fundamental state, evolution fails the scientific test.

Because never in the universe, nowhere, has life been seen to come from non-life.

It's a fundamental failure of the theory of evolution before you even start.

Life does not come from something that is not alive already.

And so I won't get into that part of it because there are other tests that when you look at God, he passes in a powerful way that tells you God is real.

But 1 of the things that's challenged heavily is the Bible and the existence of Christ, the Word.

So let's see if we can make the Word come alive.

Let's see if we can look at God's Word from extra-biblical sources and from prophecy, And can we leave with a more firm understanding as to why God's word is important, and most importantly, why God's word can be trusted.

Because I've learned once you trust God's word, his promises are the greatest anxiolytic in the world.

In other words, nothing treats anxiety and fear like the promises of God.

All the medications we prescribe for depression and anxiety pale in comparison to what trust in God's Word can do.

So let's go on an adventure here and look a little bit at God's Word.

The first thing I want to do is look at the historical evidence.

So let's look at in the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the word was God.

So there's some say Jesus didn't actually exist.

In fact, I have a lot of good friends that are Muslim.

Our church does a wonderful thing with our Turkish Muslim group.

We actually have Ramadan dinner with them every year.

And we do a lot of work with the Muslim group.

And this is 1 of the areas we talk about is that they don't believe Christ was actually crucified.

So let's see what the extra biblical sources say, right?

The first 1 I want to quote is someone I really became familiar with when I was studying in Israel.

It's a Jewish historian by the name of Josephus.

If you haven't heard of Josephus, he's a very interesting guy.

Jewish historian, like I said, a prolific writer and historian.

In his Testimonium Flavianum, that's Latin, about this time there lived Jesus, this is what Josephus writes a few a little while after the death of Christ, about that time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed 1 ought to call him a man, for he was 1 who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly he won over many Jews and many of the Greeks look at the statement he was the Christ and went upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross.

Those who had first come to love him did not cease." I hope you get that.

Now this is not, I'm not quoting the Bible or the spirit of prophecy.

You can look up Josephus' writings yourself.

There's some people who say, no, Christians added this afterwards.

But even when I was in Israel, my Jewish professor said, he believes this is authentic.

Josephus says he was the Christ, that Jesus was the Messiah.

And then he confirms Christ's death on the cross.

Pilate had condemned him to a cross, and that those who had first come to love him did not cease.

In other words, the church grew despite that, which is exactly what the book of Acts shows us.

Then he says, he appeared to them spending a third day restored to life.

This is the resurrection after the cross.

For the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him.

And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared." Is that powerful?

And Josephus, they say, never became a Christian.

Yet he speaks that God's word can be trusted.

When we read that Jesus died, and why is that so important?

I said it at The church I was at this morning, I'll say it again.

If next week on Tuesday, somewhere in Israel, they found a tomb and they found a body inside and could prove that that body in that tomb, the remains I should say of that body, was the body of Christ Jesus, the next weekend every church in the world would have to close.

Christianity, as Paul makes it very clear, if he has not resurrected we are among all men what?

The fact that there's an empty tomb, in fact, the better, in my opinion, the better symbol for Christianity isn't a cross, it's an empty tomb.

If they found it, and let me tell you something, the Roman Empire at the time, in many ways dwarfs the power of civilizations today.

The Roman Empire was a juggernaut of power if Christ death was faked if his disciples that hid his body it would have been found but they didn't why because he's alive just as Josephus says the other 1 is Tacitus and his annals a Tacitus was not friendly to Christians at all he hated Christians this historian and this is a great picture this is narrow the Emperor you can see him up here And this is how the Christians were killed.

I cut off a piece of the picture, but that's the part where they would take Christians and use them as torches to light the streets of Rome.

Nero was a terrible evil Emperor and you've heard the stories about Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burned some say that not that may not be historically accurate I don't know that it matters he was still crazy And he hated the Christians and came after them.

Here's what Tacitus says about what happened in court.

And remember, Tacitus is an enemy of Christians.

Pilatus, and this is how he writes Pilate from the Bible, consequently to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations called Christians by the populace.

Christus, this is Jesus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of 1 of our procurators, Pontius Pilate.

And in most mischievous superstition, he says, thus, checked for the moment, again broke out in all, not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.

This is, now again, this is a man writing, Tacitus, and you can look this up for yourself, in his annals, in annals 15.44, this man hates Christians because he's a pagan and sees the religion of christ as a threat to the religion of the roman empire and you can see from his words it is a class hated for their abominations called christians but he confirms that punches pilot also under the reign of tiberius caesar condemned him because he had a mischievous superstition, condemned him to be crucified, and that after the crucifixion, it was checked for a moment, which is what the Bible says, the disciples ran and hid, and Then what happened?

Being Remade to be Like Christ

Our scripture reading comes from Romans chapter 3.

We're gonna read verses 23 and 24, which says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So our last message for today, the God who remakes, being remade to be like Christ.

We thank you, Lord, for your mercy and for your grace.

Once again, Lord, I ask that you just make me a nail on the wall, and upon that nail hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Once again, Lord, bind the devil and cast him far away.

Fill this place, fill our hearts with your Holy Spirit, and Lord, have him lead us into all truth.

This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

We're gonna go to the book of Second Chronicles the 33rd chapter, 2nd Chronicles chapter 33 and verse 1, 1 of the interesting Old Testament Bible stories of conversion.

The Bible says in 2nd Chronicles 33 and verse 1, Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign.

And he reigned 50 and 5 years in Jerusalem.

This is the story of a boy king when he starts out.

Verse 2 says, but Nasa did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

For he built again the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had broken down.

And he reared up altars for Balaam and made groves and worshipped all the host of heaven and serve them also he built altars in the house of the Lord whereof the Lord had said in Jerusalem shall my name be forever.

And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the 2 courts of the house of the Lord.

And he caused--" this is where this thing gets tough.

And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Enam.

Also, he observed times and used enchantments and used witchcraft and dealt with a familiar spirit and with wizards.

And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon, his son in this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel will I put my name forever neither will I anymore remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them according to the whole law and the statutes and ordinances by the hand of Moses so Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel." This is 1 of the most interesting stories of the Old Testament kings.

In fact, if you look at the lineage of the kings of Israel, not 1 of them was ever right with God.

Not 1 of the lineage from the Northern Kingdom.

This is a man on the scene and he just rejects everything.

He is worse actually than the heathen, yet he's opposed to leading God's people.

And I want to submit to you that he creates an environment Jewish idolatry, selfishness, pride, thrive.

Do we live in the kind of environment that makes it difficult for us to serve God?

In fact, as a parent and as someone who has been a youth pastor, I can tell you, I don't know.

As a matter of fact, I think I can say this confidently, never in Earth's history has it been more difficult to be a person than it is today.

I mean, when I was a kid, to get into trouble, you literally had to go and get in trouble.

You had to go somewhere and get in trouble Today you can Through social media and the internet and get into serious trouble I've had nurses that work for me more than 1 who've had teenage daughters that have ran away to meet some guy on the other side of the country who's several, sometimes many more than several years older than them, and all of it happened on the roof of their parents in their own home.

We live in a different type of time, And it makes it so that it's more difficult for us to be like Christ.

In that, there are more distractions, more things for us to look at.

And we become by Christ, as I said in the last session, by beholding we become changed.

As the Holy Spirit works on us, and we lift up the image of Christ before us, and we look into his face, as I said, we read the words about Christ, the stories of Christ.

As we study these things, we are transformed.

But comfort, technology, the idea of love, you know we have eclipsed the truth of love.

A lot of people think the highest form of love is a romantic love.

The highest form of love is agape love, it's God's love.

And then when people say they think that The highest form of love is agape love.

And then when people say they think that this is romantic love and romance fails them and their relationships fail them, they often turn their back on love.

But if you turn your back on love, oftentimes it leads to turning your back on God, because God is love.

But this guy Manasseh really got into some mess.

This was an artist's rendition of Moloch.

This is from, I think, the National Enquirer.

The true history of Moloch, the ancient God of child sacrifice.

And it says that Manasseh causes children to pass through the fire.

It's pretty tough to read, but you can see that this is what he this is what Moloch looked like and there's a way that they would handle him.

2nd Kings 21 16, moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much till he had filled Jerusalem from 1 end to another beside his sin wherewith he had made Judah to sin and doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord Manasseh caused his children to pass through the fire, we'll talk more about that in a second, he shed innocent blood, he caused the people to sin, He was probably the wickedest of all the kings of Israel.

And again, I want to show you, you can trust your Bible.

Here is 1 of the stone slabs in the Tofit of Salamabot, which was covered by a vault built in the Roman period.

And you can see the rabbi actually describes it.

A medieval French rabbi, Shlomo Yitzhaki, otherwise known as Rashi, wrote an extensive commentary on this in the 12th century.

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