We're going to continue our journey through the Gospel of
Luke now entering into Luke chapter 13.
And you know, one thing you'll notice as you read the gospels
and as maybe you've noticed already, as we've gone week by
week through the Gospel of Luke, that so many of Jesus
interactions come from a question that someone has for
him. They they run up to him and they
want him to answer a question or, or, or figure out a dispute
of their life or they're challenging him with a question.
So to get us thinking this morning, let me stir in your
minds what that would look like in your life.
If you could ask Jesus a question, if you could call out
to God and ask him a question and, and you and you knew he
would give you an answer. What are the questions of your
heart in your life right now? And so I went before you in
this, in this thought experiment and that, that question
actually, I took me all the way back to my childhood thinking
through who God was in my life. And, and I realized the question
changes as I've grown. My first answer kind of stirred
in me a childhood memory. My, my parents had a basement
with a ping pong table in it. And I remember going back and
forth with friends and, and, you know, the competitive nature of
a child, we would get into a dispute about the score or
whether or not the ping pong ball was in or out, you know,
and, and I just remember marching off and then thinking
to myself, someday I'm going to see God face to face and I'm
going to ask him if the ball was in or not.
You know, it's like, you know, and then you grow and you
realize that, you know, the world is bigger than just your
little playground disputes and the things that you're so
determined to to know as a child, you kind of forget about
and, and you go through the stage of just questioning the
world around you. You know, you're going to ask
God someday, maybe about a point of theology, the age of the
earth, what happened to dinosaurs?
How does salvation work? And just you wrestle with, you
know, the the tenants of faith. And then as I thought about this
question, I remember a specific time in my life where I really
not only began to stir a question for God, but a question
about God. And we probably all have
different times in our life where you remember exactly where
you were. And many of you are old enough
to remember where you were the morning of September 11th when
on the the, the the TV before you is something that was so
impactful to your life that it actually stirred your heart for
God in a way that at first almost felt like you were
wrestling with God. I remember you know, going from
the that those early morning and watching reports to just
questions about what was happening in the world.
God, where are you in all of this?
God, what is your purpose in this?
And, and I know some people would will take the headline
news that are so, so seemingly tragic and even turn them into
questions about if God is good or if God is even still with
you. And that is ultimately the
question that every single one of you, as you live life long
enough, there will be a common question that we all ask.
And I'll share with you now the question that is the question if
you ask just a survey of people, there's a a recent survey that
was conducted that just asked the same question I asked you
this morning. If you could ask God one thing
and you knew who would respond. The number one response was why
is there pain and suffering in the world?
That is the question that brings people to wrestle with the
questions of faith. Where is God and how is God good
in light of everything that is happening around us?
And at some point in your life, it will not be a question of
the, the difficulties and the pain and suffering that seem
like, you know, headline news way out there.
There's going to come a moment in your life, some of you are in
it already where something will happen so real and so sincere,
you will begin to question where God is.
And as we've been going through the Gospel of Luke, the the
purpose has been to look for these moments where Jesus
handles the most difficult moments in his journey to the
cross, Because as he journeys to the cross, the path gets more
narrow and more narrow and more difficult.
And this morning, we now come to a moment where Jesus is going to
handle how people are supposed to handle suffering and tragedy
and literally the headline news of the day.
And so with that in mind, as we as we consider the question of
where is God in a world of suffering, turn to Luke chapter
13. This is the set up for the the
passage of Scripture that we'll look at this morning.
So read with me starting in verse one.
It says there was present at that season some who told him
about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to
them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners
than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such
things? I tell you, no, but unless you
repent, you will all likewise perish.
Or those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do
you think that they were worse sinners than all the other men
who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you
repent, you will all likewise perish.
This is a moment in the the journey to the cross that
reminds us that as we study the earthly ministry of Jesus, we're
looking at real historical moments that Jesus is wrestling
with people. And there's always a parallel to
our time. And just like in our day, there
are moments where the headline news seems so immediate, tragic
and difficult that we present it to God and say, what are you
going to do with this? It was happening in his day.
They, they essentially came to Jesus and said, have you heard
what happened? That Pilate mixed mingled the
blood of people who are going to offer sacrifices.
And there is a, there's a tragic headline.
There's something that was happening in real time around
their world without knowing all of the details 'cause it only
comes up in this specific gospel.
We know that it must have been something that people were
hearing about that was really sad and tragic.
And we can look at this through the lens of the first category
of the headline. That evil was on display through
the hands of an evil man. That pilot was a ruler that from
what we know about him, was kind of an off with your heads type
guy. And what we know about the, the
lead up to the cross is that Pilot was dealing with many
circumstances of, of Jewish zealots that were kind of sick
of the Roman occupation that pilot represented.
So there would be these little uprisings.
And in this instance, it seems as though pilot put an end to a
rebellion by murdering some people who are on the Temple
Mount to worship. Now that's tragic.
And it's headline news. And they said, Jesus, did you
hear what happened? And before we get into his
response, we can find our categories of the headlines.
I I hope you guys have been at least aware in the times that we
live in that this is something that we all struggle to give an
answer to at times. Have you heard what happened
lately? You don't have to go back to 911
to be reminded that there is evil in the world caused by evil
people. There will be more stories of
headline news that just seem tragic there.
There are stories of school shootings and you just think,
did you hear what happened this time?
There will be stories of collisions with protesters and
and, and police and there will be tragedy that comes from you
think, did you hear what happened with the collision of
people this time there will be reports of psychopath killers
that commit crimes against humanity.
And we think what is going on in our world and notice the
response of Jesus his response when they when they present with
him to him, the headline news that was in their world.
Notice what he doesn't do. He doesn't immediately comfort
them. He doesn't say you know, I I
know and we're praying for the families of the victims.
He also doesn't condemn the evil.
He doesn't say I know Pilot's evil and and we've got a plan to
to deal with him, but rather he just UPS the ante.
He responds by sharing more headline news.
Look what it says again in verse 4 as they report to him the evil
of Pilate and the blood that was shed on Temple Mount.
He says also if if you keep studying the news, you'll you'll
hear more reports of tragedy. He said You guys hear about the
18 on whom the Tower of Siloam felled and killed them.
He just shares another tragic news story.
And in some ways it, it appears as though he's upping the ante
of why this is causing some people to wrestle with the
question of God's goodness. Because at least in the first
example, in the first story of Pilate, you can see that there
was an evil person doing evil things, exercising the free will
that God gives us to choose evil and to do evil things.
In the story that Jesus shares, there's a tower that fell.
Innocent people seem to have died from a freak accident.
Another way that you will consume the headline news of our
world. It will not always be.
Look at the evil that is perpetrated by evil man.
There will be times where you read about something, you have
something happen in your real life world that is just the
tragedy of death. Not long ago there was news
reports of horrific flash floods in Texas that just wiped away
mother and children. There's reports of a burning
apartment complex that hundreds of people were trapped alive and
they just burned. There's reports of plane crashes
and car accidents that are just a reminder that death is
everywhere present. These are all reminders that
death is in fact tragic. And before we go any further,
our world is no different than their world and the the world we
live in is Jesus taking as a matter of fact, broken.
So let me share a prophetic word for us this morning.
For every single one of us listening to the words of Jesus
to comfort us in a broken world. It's coming.
It may not be a message you need today, but it is coming.
Here's a prophetic word. At some point, in some degree or
another, you yourself will be touched by a tragic headline
that will directly impact your specific world.
It will bring you to your knees to wrestle with your faith.
It will challenge your hope in the future.
It will call into question your view of God's goodness.
Every single person eventually wrestles with the goodness of
God in the broken world. And this is not just a prophecy
because I am in the mood to be gloom and doom.
This is just confirming the real difficult and hard sayings of
Jesus as Jesus is on his way closer in fact to the cross.
In the Gospel of John chapter 16, he tells his disciples why
he is discipling them with the worldview that he's giving them
a a solution to tragedy. And he says to them, very matter
of fact, in this world you will have tribulation.
It is not a some of you, it is not in different parts of the
world. It is a matter of fact living on
this side of heaven. Jesus says here's why I want you
to know my peace because this world is broken and you will
feel the sting of it. Every one of us will.
So you better have a theology that aligns with the world you
actually live in. Some of us need to be reminded
that that the path of following Jesus is not blessings and
prosperity until you meet him face to face.
Jesus is helping us find a path to deal with the sufferings of
the world. That is part of the the the
message of Jesus is how to deal with a suffering world.
And so let's look at how Jesus gives an answer.
So two times, in response to the tragedy of headline news, Jesus
is going to tell them what the answer isn't.
Starting in verse 2, once again he says, do you suppose that the
Galileans who died on Temple Mount by the hand of pilot were
worse sinners than all the other Galileans?
He says, I tell you they're not, and then he says it again.
Or how about the 18 upon the upon whom the tower fell?
Do you suppose they were worse sinners than all the other men
who dwelt in Jerusalem? He says, I tell you not.
In other words, to find a way forward in dealing with the
brokenness of our world. Jesus is saying don't think that
there are some people who are the bad people and that's why
bad things happen to them. Don't suppose that tragedy
befalls people and and the answer you can give is, well,
they got what they deserved. He says they were sinners and
they weren't worse sinners. The answer is not that they they
had a tragic event happen as some consequence to a life that
was unrighteous. He has to teach this lesson more
than once. And I think we need to hear it
because sometimes our mind can try to contextualize sin by
looking at the Sinner and trying to make some equation of bad
people, bad consequences. Once again, the Gospel of John,
Jesus on the road to the cross, he passes by a blind man, John
Chapter 9. And as he's passing by, it says
his disciples asked him saying, Rabbi, who sinned that this man
was born blind? Was it him or his parents?
Surely there must be an equation that can be found to help us
understand why this man would be given such a difficult and hard
condition to live with. To which Jesus answered them and
to all of us. Neither this man nor his parents
sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
So once again, Jesus is going to help help us unpack some of the
ways we shouldn't be thinking about this.
We can't look at horrible tragedy and try to come up with
an equation as to bad things happening to bad people and good
things happening to good people. So for example, when you know,
we get we go down to the homeless outreach.
Later at the end of the month, we will see tragic headlines all
over the place. People who literally need help
from the hands and feet of Jesus to get food and shelter.
And what we shouldn't do is say, well, of course, you know,
junkies are homeless and abuse happens within that community
because they're they're sinners and and they get the
consequences of sin. Now part of that is true.
This message is not taken so far as to say there's no consequence
for sin. And when we give our lives over
to unrighteous paths, we will walk towards the dead end ditch
that that leads to no doubt. But what Jesus is helping us
understand is we shouldn't look at tragedy and think that it's
some sort of punishment for our lives.
And that will help you. Your theology has to have this
intact, lest when tragedy befalls you, when you get the
diagnosis from the doctor, the the, the news report from the
coroner, you do not think to yourself, God, what have I done
to deserve this? What what did I do wrong?
Where where did my righteousness not align with blessing?
He says it's not because of your sin.
When trouble befalls you, you're not being punished.
There's there's place for discipline and and chastisement
of the Lord, but you can't divide the world into good
people and bad people and try to find the line of suffering on
and to cut to cut the line. I also want to point out where
Jesus isn't teaching. As we go through this series, we
continually present the Jesus according to his words and not
what pop culture wants him to be.
Jesus says, don't think that they're worse sinners, and so
they're somehow getting tragedy because of that.
Jesus is completely denying the idea of karma, which in, you
know, we're in the sanctuary of a believing church.
So, you know, hopefully there's not a lot of Hindu theology that
would be at least present in your heart, but it's all over
our culture. I just try to be a good person,
so good things will work out. And when I meet the Lord face to
face, if there is a heaven, hopefully I was better.
You know, I did more good than bad.
And there are these cosmic scales that people live in as
though that's more hopeful than a just God.
Karma is an evil way to deal with suffering.
When you lend yourself to this idea that bad things happen to
bad people as tragedy befalls someone, your answer might be in
a horrible way. Well, in a past life, maybe you
did something to deserve it. He says don't think they were
worse than you. So what is Jesus actually
saying? Well, the emphasis is on
sinners. Says they're not worse sinners,
but they are in fact sinners. And they're not worse sinners
than you, which means you are too.
And once again, we we find ourselves in the words of Jesus
that do not strike us as very nice.
You know, you get the headline news and he's like, they were
sinners. That's the reality is that bad
things don't happen to good people and good things happen to
bad people. The broken world that we live in
is a result of sin. That's what Jesus is saying as a
matter of fact. And if you're looking for the
Jesus theology for how to navigate the tragedy of our
world, you have to have an understanding of what God made
in the good creation and what man destroyed.
There is no navigating suffering without a a theology of sin.
We live in a broken world because sin has entered our
world. It wasn't God's design.
And yet, as it says in Romans chapter 5, just as through one
man sin entered the world, and death through sin, thus death
spread to all men, because all have sinned.
Romans 5, Romans 6 will say all have sinned, fallen short of the
glory of God and the wages of sin is death.
You cannot understand where the cross takes us until we
understand that brokenness and suffering and tragedy and
heartbreak and our disdain for death is because it wasn't God's
design. It is sins consequence.
Hebrews says it is appointed for all of us once to die, and then
comes judgement. I found this CS Lewis quote
helpful in his essay called Lore called Learning in Wartime.
So imagine this sermon, but you're hearing it in 1940s
England in the Great War, the Second Great War.
And he's trying to help people understand where God is, how God
is good in the midst of war. And he says this.
No Christian who remembers Gethsenamine need try to attain
a stoic indifference to death and pain.
There is no question of death or life for any of us.
The only question is which death?
Will it be a machine gun bullet now or cancer 40 years later?
What does tragedy do to death? It certainly does not make it
more frequent. 100% of us die and the percentage cannot be
increased. So the answer that Jesus is
giving is that the real problem is that sinners die.
And all the tragedy does, all the headline news that seems so
out of order, all they do is awaken us to that reality.
Tragedy doesn't make death more frequent.
We're all going to die. What tragedy does is it wakes us
from our numbness that someday in the distant eighty years of
life it may happen. Tragedy shakes us awake to the
reality of the brokenness and the fallenness of our world.
And this is how Jesus is actually going to use the
headlines of tragedy to call people to the goodness of the
gospel. In verse three He gives the
answer. This is the answer.
He says unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
He says it again in verse 5. Unless you repent, you will all
likewise perish. Jesus is giving God's purpose
how God could be glorified in tragic news that these people
present to Him. He says this is your wake up
call. You needed a reminder that
people die. You need a reminder that the
world is broken and nobody gets out of here alive.
And the real lesson that Jesus is teaching, he says unless you
repent, you're likewise going to perish.
Now, He's not saying it. You know, you're going to perish
like they perished. He's not saying that.
Be careful for Pilot. Avoid him at all costs.
He's a murderer. Repent.
He's not saying, you know, be extra cautious around towers.
There's a lot of earthquakes on the horizon.
Repent. He's saying unless you get your
right life right before God, your death will also be a
tragedy. Unless you get right with God,
your life will end with a tragic headline news report.
He's saying you in your current state outside of God, giving you
newness of life by the free gift of His Spirit, paying the
penalty for your sin, giving you a regenerate heart and a hope of
heaven in the salvation that He offers in His name.
If you do not repent and come into the free gift, you're
walking towards tragedy. Paul gives a beautiful picture
of the actual reality of your life apart from repentance and
into the Kingdom. He says you are dead in
trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the
course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of
the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of
disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind. And we were by nature children
of wrath, just like everybody else.
There's not a worse Sinner class that gets the real bad tragedy.
There are those who are dead in their sins, and there are those
who are made alive in Christ. And Jesus uses the headline news
to say, which one are you? So let me give you the second
prophecy for this morning. There's coming today in your
life, and it's coming quicker than you expect.
When you yourself will fulfill your appointment with death, it
will be tragic news to the people that you leave behind.
They will cry and they will look for some hope that your last day
on earth is not the end of your life.
Unless you repent, your death will be a tragedy.
That's the message, and I don't say that lightly.
I say that with the little bit of pastoral history I've had
serving in these moments that I have by God's grace been given
the front row view into how it all ends.
And there are very sad funerals because sometimes people go
before 80 years and sometimes children go before parents.
But then there are tragic funerals.
And the most tragic funerals I've ever done are never because
of the circumstances of the death.
It's never because of how someone died.
It's always because of the circumstance of the soul.
It's how someone lived before their death.
And as I was thinking back to all of the memories I have in
these moments, sitting in this church grieving with people and
offering people the, the, the gospel of hope in these moments,
I immediately thought of of two extremes.
One of the most tragic funerals I ever did was for a young man
in his 20s. He was, for all intents and
purposes, a a party planner, a a a local DJ.
He was living his life like the book of Ecclesiastes, eating and
drinking and being merry under the sun.
And then he died. He didn't have a theology that
he was walking towards. He didn't leave anyone any kind
of hope that he had some sort of hope for the future.
And most of his friends that came and were looking for
comfort, they didn't know where it came from.
And I remember we, we have typically an open mic where
people can share memories and try to encourage one another.
And there was one person who stood up and said, I just
imagine there's, there's some party somewhere in our universe
that that needed someone to come and make it better.
So that's where he is. I thought that's the comfort
that you are living with for your friend that died.
That is a tragic funeral. And then I think of another
example. In fact, this example is very
timely because it it's coming up on almost exactly 8 years since
we lost our brother in Christ from this very church at an age
that seems tragic. Just 18 years old.
Jeffrey O'Brien went to be with the Lord February 15th, early
morning hours, 2018. He was in a tragic accident that
he died right outside of his Bible college campus in
California where he was going to study to be a missionary.
And he died with the hope of Jesus just echoing through the
sanctuary. He died with people sharing
their last conversations with him about just trusting in
Jesus, hoping in Jesus. He died with his mom sharing
what she found in his journal. He just said in the in the end,
Jesus wins. And so I called his parents last
night and, and, and just wept tears of joy with them.
That they do not view his death as a tragedy, but as a glorious
picture of the gospel that they believe in.
That they come to church every Sunday and they worship with us
as the body of Christ, and they long for the day when Jesus
returns and the dead in Christ raised 1st.
And we're all living as one giant family with King Jesus as
King. They live with the hope of the
gospel, but that their son, although absent from the body,
is now present with the Lord. That's not a tragic funeral.
She says one of her favorite verses when she thinks about is
her son in Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse one.
For we know that if our earthly house, this tent is destroyed,
we have a building from God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. In this we've grown earnestly
desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from
heaven. She doesn't just have a theology
of death. She has a theology of life.
And she told me last night, if God is glorified, it's all worth
it. And this is the lesson of
suffering. It's that Jesus uses this moment
to awaken people to the goodness of God in the midst of a broken
world, says if you repent, you won't perish.
You you're walking towards tragedy.
You can walk towards eternity, CS Lewis says.
God whispers to us in our pleasures.
He speaks in our conscious, but shouts in our pain.
It's his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
There is tragedy in thinking that this life is all there is
to live. There's tragedy in thinking, you
know, someday in the distant future, I've got 70 or 80 years,
maybe someday I'll get right with God.
It's tragedy to live your whole life, to build up an earthly
Kingdom and it's gone in the blink of an eye.
And Jesus, the only time he calls someone's a fool is he,
says the rich fool. Tonight your soul is required of
you. And so along the way, in God's
kindness and his goodness, he gives you these little wake up
calls to remind you that the world is broken, that death is
real, that tragedy stirs in your heart, a longing for a world
that you have not yet arrived at.
Spurgeon says The same sun that melts the candle's wax hardens
the Potter's clay, suffering it. It can melt you.
It can it can turn you into someone who wonders if there
even is a God. But Jesus is saying, no, see
that this is your, this is your invitation to be turned into the
Potter's clay, a vessel for his glory, a shining light in the
darkness of a broken world. Tragedy is not meant to melt us.
It is meant to harden us so that we can be vessels for God's good
news. And that is the circumstances
that brings people into the Kingdom.
So often it is someone who had to get hardened through
suffering to be made alive in Christ.
And so he says repent. He says unless you repent, you
likewise will perish. This is the message that answers
the question we posed. Where is God?
How can he be good and we can say to a dying and broken world
our God is with us. Our God so loved this broken
world that He sent his Son into it, that whoever would believe
in him, listen to the word, will not perish, but will have life,
life eternal. As I was just thinking about
Jesus, hearing this story of Pilate and where Jesus is
walking to, we realize that Jesus is going to meet Pilate
face to face. It reminds me of the the
Apostles Creed and the detail it includes to encourage all of us
that Jesus knew exactly how to answer the question of where God
was. The Apostles Creed says I
believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and
earth. I love that beginning of the the
faith of the historical Christian.
I believe in the maker of heaven and earth.
When Job was going through his book of suffering, God said
where were you when I made heaven and earth?
If I can keep the world together, I can keep your life
together. And then it says and his and in
Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the
Holy Spirit, Jesus enters into our world.
That's where God is, says born of the Virgin Mary, suffered
under Pontius Pilate. These people say, didn't you
hear what this evil man did? Jesus answered with his life.
He stood before Pilate like a lamb goes into the slaughter.
He did not speak a word. He laid down his life freely and
spilled his blood so that no one who's following him does not
have an answer for where God is and how God is good.
Jesus, while we were still sinners, dead in our sins,
walking towards the tragedy of a funeral, demonstrated his love
for us by dying on the cross, spilling his blood, crucified,
died and buried, descended into Hades, and the third day he rose
again from the dead. So many people look and they say
this world is just getting worse and worse and worse, but the
believer in Jesus says, no, where we're going, the world is
getting more and more and more glorious.
So it's a very simple message for those of you who do not have
an answer for the tragedy and the brokenness of this world.
If you're looking for a politician to save you, if
you're just trying to just turn off the news and pretend it'll
go away, repent. This is not a heavy word.
That's not a doom and gloom word.
The word says repent, that times of refreshment may come.
Repent that you wouldn't perish, but you would receive
everlasting life. Join the Kingdom of God, where
there's coming a day where tragedy will be dealt with once
and for all. And for those of you who already
believe, may you not be shaken by the news of our of our hour.
May we be people who are not startled by the various trials
we are pressed, but we are not crushed.
We know where our God is. Our God is with us.
And our God now sits at the right hand of the Father, and
he's coming as the King of kings and Lord of Lords.
And every knee is going to bow, and every tongue is going to
confess that he in fact is Lord, May you live with the hope in
the midst of trial and tragedy that this present age and all of
its suffering suffering is not worthy to be compared to the
glory that awaits you. Thanks for joining us today.
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