Bible Students

As we’re going through our apologetics series tonight, we are looking at what is known as the problem of suffering and evil.

So you guys who are in here who have ever thought about the Bible or thought about your faith, can you guys raise your hand if you’ve ever in your life thought about why you are a Christian? Have you guys ever thought about why bad things happen all the time in the world? You guys have.

Would anybody be so bold as to say that you have never thought about those things before in your life? No one wants to say that. That’s good. Well, if you haven’t, then I’m sorry, but you might not be a thinking Christian who thinks about the Bible or thinks about their faith, which I don’t think that’s really you. I know you’re making a joke.

Okay, but the question tonight is why do bad things happen to good people? And that’s a difficult topic because how many of you guys in here have ever lost a pet? You guys have ever been upset about a pet?

What about how many of you guys have gone through great physical pain like breaking a bone? I see I see James in the back. You have a broken bone right now. How many of you guys in here have ever lost a family member?

Yeah, we go through difficult things all the time. We go through hard things as Christians. And it’s a valid question to ask God. If you are powerful enough to stop that pain and stop that suffering, and you love us and you want to stop that, then why is there still suffering in the world?

This is a question that lots of people have had throughout history, and it’s a question that I’m hoping that we’re able to dive into and dissect tonight, because I think that the Bible has an answer about it. And it’s a question that all of us need to answer if we want to consider ourselves thinking Christians who think about the reality around us.

So let me clearly lay out that question for us after we look at what we looked at last week. Last week we looked at the introduction to apologetics. And apologetics basically just means giving an answer for the faith that you have.

1 Peter 3:15 says, “But in your heart sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you, but respond with gentleness and respect and in your heart revere Christ as Lord.”

It says right here that we need to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in us. And part of that defense is knowing what people think about Christianity.

One of the things that atheists often cite as the number one reason that they are not a Christian is because they say if you have a God that’s so powerful and that loves us so much, why do my family members die? Why do my animals die? Why do I experience great physical pain when I break a bone? Why do people all across the world experience pain that I can’t even imagine?

And so because of that, they decide not to be Christians because of the problem that’s right up here. Christians say that God is powerful and God is loving according to the Bible, but suffering is all around us. So that doesn’t really make sense.

So either God is loving and people suffer, but God just isn’t really able to stop the suffering. Or maybe God is able to stop it, but people do suffer, which means maybe God doesn’t want to stop suffering. Or if God is powerful and God is loving, then maybe that just means we’re crazy and suffering isn’t really happening.

Does anyone in here think that suffering doesn’t really happen? Anyone? You really think suffering doesn’t happen? So, if I went over there, I go over there and I break your bones, are you going to say that you’re not suffering? It’s obvious to us. Bring it in.

It’s obvious to us that suffering is real because suffering is all around us. So, no one can deny that we all go through hard things. But the Bible, the Bible says that even though there is suffering, God is powerful enough to stop it. And He is loving and wants to stop it. But those three things don’t really go together.

That is the problem of suffering and evil in our world. Those three things seem to not be able to go together. So why doesn’t God do anything? That’s where we’re going to be diving into today.

And the first thing we’re going to be taking a look at is why is the world broken? Why is it that there is suffering all around the world?

And let’s check this out. In the book of Genesis, does anyone know why this book Genesis was written? Any ideas? Yeah.

Yep, you’re exactly right. The Israelites who were slaves in Egypt, they were wondering where they came from. And not just that, but also why they were slaves and why they needed the law to correct them.

The question that the Israelites were asking when they became God’s nation was, “God, how did everything become so messed up?” And so Moses wrote down the historical account given to him by God that is known as the Garden of Eden, which answers the question: why is everything so messed up?

Have you guys ever asked that question before? Why is the world so messed up? You guys can raise your hand. If you haven’t, I’m very surprised. But I think all of us in here have asked the questions, “Why is everything so messed up?”

So let’s take a look here. In Genesis 3, it says a few things. It describes the account of Adam and Eve, the first people who lived well with God. They lived well with God, but they chose to make a path away from God, and that path led to death.

But why is that? Well, let’s take a look. In the Garden of Eden, there were many trees. And in Genesis 2:16, it says, “And the Lord God commanded the man, you’re free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

What does He say they will certainly do? He says they will certainly die.

And then in Genesis 3:6, it says, “When the woman, which is Eve, saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and she ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together to make coverings for themselves.”

What we see here is the Bible’s answer to why everything is so messed up. In the garden where everything was perfect, Adam and Eve didn’t have sin in them, but there was a tree in the garden. And if they reached out and they tried to do things their way, it would lead to death. But that’s what they did.

And so what do you think happened to them? Eventually, they died. But they didn’t just die physically—it broke their relationship with God. In other words, they went on a path away from God.

And if you guys have been following along with our Galatians series, that’s the exact language I use when I talk about God’s way and the selfish way. The selfish way leads to death, away from God. And what Adam and Eve did is they said, “God, I love your way, but I’m going to try to do my thing and go my way.” And what did that lead to? It led to death.

But Adam and Eve are not the only ones who do that. Everyone—the Bible shows that everyone after that—did the exact same thing. Adam and Eve chose to go a different way, yes. But it’s not just them going a different way that leads to the world having so much suffering. Instead, it’s us. We also have chosen to go a different way away from God.

Adam and Eve decided for themselves what was right and wrong, and that brought evil into the world. And now people—people like us—suffer because we’re away from God. They lived good with God, but they chose to make a path away from Him. And now everyone suffers because of that.

And that’s why the Bible says that everything is so messed up. It’s because Adam and Eve, and then us, chose to go away from God—to do things apart from God—and now, separated from God, the world suffers.

So I think we all can agree there really is suffering in the world. And the Bible says this is why that is.

But then the question must be asked: why do bad things—why does that suffering—happen to good people? Any ideas? What do you got?

Testing our faith. Maybe that’s part of it. But did you guys know there’s a whole book of the Bible that answers that question—why do bad things happen to good people?

And what was that, Chase? The book of Job. Have any of you guys read the book of Job before? Okay. The book of Job.

The book of Job is a book about this good man named Job. He was great. It says that there was basically nothing wrong with him. I’m sure that he sinned, but the Bible shows none of that. The Bible doesn’t show how Job was a sinner, but instead says that Job was upright and righteous.

It says here, “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” And if I was Job and the Bible was describing me that way, I’d be very, very happy, because saying that you were upright and blameless and fearing God and turning away from evil—man, that Job guy, if anyone was a good guy, it was Job.

But in the book of Job, do you guys know what happens to him? What happens to Job? A lot of bad stuff. Basically, Job’s family was taken away from him. His stuff was taken away from him. His money was taken away. And he was actually put into such a bad illness that he would have to take shards of clay pots to scrape away at the boils on his skin to give him some relief.

Have you guys ever had to use, like, broken glass to shave away the pain that’s on your flesh? You have, really? Well, then you know what a horrible situation Job was in. Job was a good person, but bad things happened to him. And the Bible describes why.

Job had these friends who I would really not consider friends. His friends went to him and they said, “Job, shh. Don’t you know that only bad things happen to bad people? Bad people are the only ones who bad things happen to.”

Have you guys ever thought that if you’re a bad person, bad things are going to happen to you? I’ve thought that. And that if you’re a good person, only good things will happen to you. Well, that’s what Job’s friends thought.

But when Job asked God, “Why are bad things happening to me? Why do bad things happen to good people?” God responded by saying, “Job, you just don’t understand what I’m doing yet.”

And when confronted by God, Job responded. Job answered the Lord and said, “I know that you can do all things. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know.”

He basically responds to God and says, “God, now that you’ve spoken to me about this, I realize I’ve complained about things that I had no idea what you were using them for.”

God was playing 4D chess with Job, and Job was just playing checkers. He did not understand what God was using that suffering for. But God tells him, “I am using your suffering for something.”

But what is that something? We’ll look at that in just a second.

The question must be asked now—why doesn’t God do anything? I want to see what Jesus says about this. Because how many of you guys think Jesus suffered? Come on, guys. Of course, Jesus suffered.

But why doesn’t God do anything? I want to look briefly at something that happens with Jesus. Because the Bible explains that all suffering—and this is the answer to Job’s question—all suffering has a purpose.

If you’re going to write down anything, I want you to write down that all suffering has a purpose.

In Jesus’s life, how many of you guys know the person named Lazarus?

There’s one person—Lazarus. So, I know this person named Lazarus. And what happens with Lazarus is Lazarus is someone who is Jesus’s friend. And this friend dies.

So, one of Jesus’s friends dies, and Jesus understandably is very sad. Jesus is suffering. Someone that He cared for and loved is dead. And now Jesus is very upset.

And this is where we get the shortest verse in the entire Bible. Do you guys know what that is? Jesus wept. Shh. Bring it in, guys. Jesus wept. He was sad. He was suffering because of the death of His friend.

But do you guys know what Jesus says to His friends about the death of Lazarus? He says something crazy. He says—check this out—He says, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake, I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Do you guys hear that? Jesus said it was good that He was not there to stop the death of Lazarus. Does that sound insane to you guys? That sounds crazy to me! Jesus says it was good that Lazarus died—but then He says so that you may believe.

Jesus understood what we’re talking about here—that all suffering is for a purpose. And then, of course, He goes and raises Lazarus from the dead, but He says that He’s doing this so that they may believe in what God is doing—that suffering has a purpose.

So that’s why God doesn’t “do anything.” Why does God allow suffering?

We’ve looked at three short things about suffering in the Bible. But why does God allow this kind of suffering?

Well, God gives us a choice between life and death. Adam and Eve chose death. We choose death. The Bible explains that all of us are selfish, and we all have chosen death apart from God. And so, we wonder why things are corrupted in the world and why things are hard—it’s because we have chosen death and now we live with the effects of our choices and the choices of all the people before us.

But does God love us? Well, yes, He does love us. But we don’t understand what He’s doing in the moment—just like with Job.

And is there really suffering? Well, yes. Jesus suffered. Jesus knows better than anyone—there is absolutely suffering. Jesus died on a cross and suffered for us. There really is suffering. But suffering always has a purpose.

So what’s the deal?

Well, God is powerful. The Bible says that He works all things for the good of those who love Him. In fact, it says it right here: “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”

Suffering always has a purpose. It always has a point.

And then, well, is God loving?

The Bible explains that God allows suffering to tell us we do not belong here. We deal with the consequences of our selfishness and the selfishness of people before us because God needs us to know—and we need to know—we do not belong here.

And where is “here”? It’s on a path away from God.

We choose to be selfish. We go on that path away from God. We wonder why things are so difficult on that path. But God allows those things to tell us, “We do not belong on this path away from God.”

I don’t want to suffer. I know you guys don’t want to suffer. God allows that suffering to tell us we don’t want to stay in the situation that we have been in. We don’t want to stay with selfishness. We don’t want to stay on the path away from God forever. We need to go back to God.

Suffering has a purpose. It tells us we don’t belong here.

And there really is suffering. Like I said, Jesus knows suffering. No one can argue that Jesus didn’t suffer. He absolutely suffered and died on the cross. Jesus knows suffering.

And all those three things are true—that God is powerful, that God loves us, and that there really is suffering.

But what people who use that against Christians don’t know is that all suffering is for a purpose—even if we don’t know what that purpose is in the moment.

Do you guys know what that purpose is? No? Well, let’s take a look real quick.

If you guys were here with us for our I Am statements, when it was describing who Jesus was, we saw that all Christians—and by that, all people—are called into a relationship with God. And the purpose that we have as Christians, as people called in relationship with God, is to grow, to love other people, and to be like Jesus.

And if you guys remember, having a relationship with Jesus is a commitment to pain, sacrifice, and suffering. As Christians—as people who are called into relationship with Jesus—it should be no surprise that our lives have suffering.

And not just for us, but for all people. Because all people are called to be like Jesus.

And what kind of person was Jesus? Someone who suffered and who took on the burdens of other people. We are made to grow, to love, and to be like Jesus. And because of that that that life that God has promised us, we have to go through pain, sacrifice, and suffering. But this that that is what the Bible says. This is what the purpose of suffering is.

But the problem of evil and the problem of suffering is not something that you can just slap an answer on. If you go up to someone who’s suffering and you just say, “Oh, silly person. Don’t you know that God is using that suffering for something?” They’re probably not going to take that very well because the problem of evil and suffering is not something that is an intellectual problem where it’s like a math equation where you know God is powerful plus God is loving equals there really isn’t suffering. It’s not a math equation for us to slap an answer on.

The problem of evil and suffering is an emotional problem. An emotional problem does not mean that it’s not real. Emotional problems are absolutely real. We feel them. And that problem of evil and suffering is very very real to us. It is an emotional problem that doesn’t need an answer slapped on it. Instead, what it needs is people who will sympathize with them like Jesus did.

How are we supposed to respond to people who come at us with the problem of evil, the problem of suffering, who are going through hard things? Well, me, I have gone through suffering. All right? I’ve gone through things that are hard, things that I didn’t want to go through in the moment. And if I’m going through something hard, listen to me here. If I’m going through something hard and you tell me, “Oh, Jacob, don’t you know God’s going to use that for good?” He hasn’t yet. So, I don’t want to hear that from you.

If I’m going through something hard, I don’t want you to just try to slap a problem on it and tell me, “Jacob, don’t you worry, man. God’s going to use it for good.” Because he hasn’t used it for good yet if I’m still in the middle of it. So, don’t try to slap a problem on it. People who come to us and say, “Man, if you’re if your God’s so great and powerful and loves me, why am I going through this thing?” What we don’t do is just say, “Well, God has a purpose for all of your problems.”

Instead, what the Bible says we need to do is turn to God and mourn with those who mourn. Mourning means to be sad with or to sympathize with. The Bible says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” The problem of evil and suffering and going through hard things is not to just tell someone, “Yeah, God’s going to use that eventually.” Because if they’re going through something, God hasn’t used it yet.

Instead, we need to sympathize with those people because their their suffering does have a purpose, but that purpose has not been completed yet. We need to sympathize with people and weep and mourn with other people.

But are we just going to suffer forever? Well, the Bible has an answer for that, too. Where is everything headed for those who want it? Where is everything headed? To eternal life with God. That that problem of suffering being on our path away from God we suffer and that tells us we don’t want to be there because if we go back to the path of God back through what Jesus has done to God’s path then if we want that we can have eternal life with God maturity in Christ likeness and purpose in our suffering but we don’t get that apart from God we don’t get that if we continue to go down the path away from God and that’s what suffering is telling us we don’t want to go down that path we want purpose for that suffering so that we can become like Jesus and have relationship with him.

We want to go back to God so we can have eternal life with God, maturity in Christ likeness and purpose in our suffering because suffering always has a purpose no matter what it is. And I can tell you that personally all the suffering that I’ve been through all of it has purpose that I can become more like Jesus that I can be closer with God and it has purpose for you guys too.

But you have to choose that on relationship with God. You have to listen to your suffering and say, “I don’t want to be here anymore.” Turn to God and believe that he will turn your suffering into something purposeful to be more like him. Suffering always has a purpose to grow to be more like Jesus.

But again, we can’t just slap a solution on that. We need to bear one another’s burdens, mourn with those who mourn. And so what we’re going to do is I’m going to invite the worship band back up and we are going to.

We ended right on time so that we’d have plenty of time for our breakout groups because we’re going to have a special emphasis in our breakout groups today. Like what I just said, the problem of suffering sh the problem of suffering does not just need a solution slapped on it. If someone comes to you and they’re upset about something and they they’re saying, “Man, why would God allow this to happen to me? I I can’t believe a loving, powerful God would allow these horrible things to happen to me, my family, and people halfway across the world.”

What we don’t do is slap a solution on that. Instead, what we need to do is what the Bible says here, to weep with those who weep. So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to sing this final song and then we’re going to be dismissed to our breakout groups.

But what we are specifically going to do in our breakout groups is have an extended time of praying with one another and bearing one another’s burdens. What that doesn’t mean is that you have to open up about everything that’s going on in your life. But what that does mean is that I’d like our group leaders to facilitate praying with one another so that we can mourn with one another and do what the Bible says we need to do. Not slap a solution on something, but instead love those around us by being sad with them and helping them through the hard things that they’re going through.