WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE
INTRODUCTION: Pastor Lee Strobel commissioned a national survey and asked people what question they’d ask if they could only ask God one thing. The Number One response was: “Why is there suffering in the world?” Why does God allow the righteous to suffer? I mean, I’m a Christian; I’m one of his children so why do I have to deal with this unjust suffering? Let’s see if we can get some answers to that question today.
1) Why does God allow suffering?
• To test our faith. 1st Pet. 1:6-7. We don’t know how reliable something is until it’s been tested. Our faith is no different. The validity of our faith is determined through the testing of it. Isaiah 48:10, “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” We need to be tested to see where we are strong and where we are weak. Warren Wiersbe said, “A faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted.” James 1:2-4. We should actually rejoice that our faith gets tested because of what it produces. How we respond to suffering is a test of our faith. Will we react in anger and defeatism or will we react with rejoicing and triumph? Will we become bitter or will we become better? Ill. book-pg. 743, ‘which verse’. We need to have the right response to our suffering. Job was the epitome of unjust suffering. He lost everything. Yet this was his response: Job 1:21-22. If we are going to persevere through adversity we need to have the right response to it. F. B. Meyer said, “Unbelief puts circumstances between us and God, but faith puts God between us and our circumstances.”
• To build character. Rom. 5:3-4, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Perseverance character and hope are godly blessings that are derived from the ability to rejoice in our sufferings. The ABC’s of spiritual growth-Adversity Builds Character. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Going through trials will shape us and cause us to grow. African proverb, “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” Rough seas and adverse conditions build character and make for accomplished workers.
• To bless us. 1st Pet. 4:12-14. Godly sufferings produce godly blessings. Rejoice that we may participate in the sufferings of Christ and consequently be blessed. Peter was speaking from experience. In Acts 5 Peter and John got in trouble for preaching about Jesus. The Sanhedrin had them flogged. In verse 41 it says that Peter and John left rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the Name. Malcolm Muggeridge said, “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful, with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.” Psalm 119:71, “It is good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.” David said that affliction was a blessing for him because it allowed him to learn God’s commands. Suffering is a blessing.
• To bring us closer to Jesus. Phil. 3:10, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” We can relate to someone who has gone through adversity better when we’ve been through it ourselves. We feel what they feel. We have a special common bond. So when we suffer hardship similar to what Jesus went through we identify with him on a deeper level, thus growing closer to him. Suffering helps us to intimately know more of the Lord’s attributes through a closer identification with His sufferings. Through suffering Satan wants us to move away from God. He wants us to blame him, be angry with him, etc. God’s purpose in our suffering is to draw us nearer to him. He wants us to seek him, to depend on him; to know him. Satan wants to drive a wedge; God wants to form a bond. Through suffering we can grow closer to Jesus.
• To show his power. John 9:1-7. Sin was not responsible. That was the underlying thought that if there is suffering there was sin. That’s what Job’s three friends thought. But, here we see that God had allowed the man to be born blind to demonstrate miraculous power. The blindness was needed in order for the miracle to occur and the testimony that followed. And we see that Jesus used a motivator to get the man to obey. If there was no mud on his eyes the man would not have wanted or needed to go to the pool. Jesus could have just healed him or he could’ve just told the man to go wash without the mud, but he didn’t, he instead used a process. Why? The mud was an incentive, a motivator for his obedience. I mean, who would want to walk around with mud covering their eyes? I would want to get it off as soon as I could. I’m sure the man went right away to the pool to wash it off. Sometimes God might need to put some messy, uncomfortable mud on our eyes in order to motivate us. Motivate us to move quickly to the healing place so that we could see. Sufferings come so that God’s greater purposes can be accomplished in and through our lives. Think about what things have to go through in order for them to be used according to their designed purpose. The nail is useless unless the hammer strikes it. The rubber band is useless until it’s been stretched. Steel cannot be shaped into a useful tool until it is placed under intense heat that it may become pliable. Can we truly be purposeful to God unless we go through such change? If not, then let’s embrace such challenges that we may become God’s instrument. Could salvation have been accomplished without suffering? Jesus asked if it could when he was in the garden but the Father’s answer was, ‘no’. God wants us to see that he is enough. 2nd Cor. 12:7-10. Paul could’ve been confused as to why Jesus hadn’t taken away this torment. But Jesus showed him that his grace was enough. He was weak but Jesus was strong.
2) It’s All Good.
• We can handle it with Jesus. John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world!” Notice the contrast-in the world we have trouble; in Jesus we have peace. When the troubles of the world come upon us the only way we can get through them is by clinging to Jesus. Jesus told us how it was going to be. He had just told his disciples in the previous chapter that if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. Jesus knew about trouble. He knew about unjust suffering. He knows what we’re going through. Have you been rejected? So has he. Have you felt alone? Everyone deserted him in the garden. Ever felt like you couldn’t take it any more? Jesus sweat drops of blood agonizing over what he was about to endure at the cross. But, he overcame. And because he did, we can too. Erwin W. Lutzer said, “God often puts us in situations that are too much for us so that we will learn that no situation is too much for him”. Romans 8:28, 35-37. Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” Someone asked C.S. Lewis, "Why do the righteous suffer?" "Why not?" he replied. "They’re the only ones who can take it." We are conquerors in Christ.
• We need to persevere before we will understand. We have a limited view. God won’t necessarily show us what he’s up to until we reach a certain point. When we look back, often times we see why God allowed adversity. The Old Testament gives us a great example in the story of Joseph, who went through terrible suffering, being sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused, falsely imprisoned. Finally, after a dozen years, he was put in a role of great authority where he could save the lives of his family and many others. This is what he said to his brothers about his suffering in Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Joni Eareckson-Tada said, “Every sorrow we taste will one day prove to be the best possible thing that could have happened. We will thank God endlessly in heaven for the trials He sent us here.” This is from a woman who has suffered in a wheelchair for more than 30 years after a paralyzing accident in her youth. Phil. 1:12-14. Paul was in prison yet this suffering produced his colleagues to be bolder for Christ. In Acts 8 you read about the church in Jerusalem being persecuted. It says that because of the great persecution the church was scattered to Judea and Samaria. But that ended up being a good thing because now, instead of just Jerusalem, now the gospel was going to be shared throughout these other regions and eventually beyond that. What some meant for harm, God used to fulfill what Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” I’m sure when they heard these words they wouldn’t have thought it was going to come about as a result of persecution. But God has a plan that we don’t understand and we have to trust him to work it out according to his wisdom.
• In the end it’s all worth it. Paul suffered severely for the faith. He was put into prison, beaten, whipped, shipwrecked and was in many dangerous situations and faced death numerous times. Yet these are his words in 2nd Corinthians 4:16-18. What we have to deal with here lasts a short time compared to eternity. This gives us hope. We have something better to look forward to. Our troubles may seem anything but light and momentary but in perspective to eternity it’s a fair contrast. British church leader Galvin Reid tells about meeting a young man who had fallen down some stairs at the age of one and had shattered his back. He had been in and out of hospitals his whole life and yet he made the astounding comment that he thinks God is fair. Reid asked him, “How old are you?” The boy said, “Seventeen.” “How many years have you spent in hospitals?” he asked. The boy said, “Thirteen years.” The pastor said, “And you think that is fair?” The boy replied: “Well, God has all eternity to make it up to me.” Romans 8:18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” When it’s all said and done it will be well worth it.
CONCLUSION: Blessings by Laura Story: We pray for blessings, We pray for peace. Comfort for family, Protection while we sleep. We pray for healing, For prosperity. We pray for Your mighty hand, to ease our suffering. And all the while, You hear each spoken need. Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things. Cuz what if Your blessings come through raindrops, What if Your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights, Are what it takes to know you’re near? What if trials of this life, Are Your mercies in disguise? We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear. We cry in anger, when we cannot feel You near. We doubt Your goodness, We doubt Your love. As if every promise from Your Word is not enough. And all the while You hear each desperate plea, Lord, that we’d have faith to believe. Cuz what if Your blessings come through raindrops, What if Your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights, Are what it takes to know you’re near? What if trials of this life Are Your mercies in disguise? When friends betray us, When darkness seems to win. We know the pain reminds this heart, That this is not our home. Cuz what if Your blessings come through raindrops, What if Your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights, Are what it takes to know you’re near? What if trials of this life Are Your mercies in disguise? What if my greatest disappointments, Or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst This world can’t satisfy? And what if trials of this life, The rain, The storms, The hardest nights are your mercies in disguise?
