God On Trial

July 24, 2016      NOTES NOT EDITED

God On Trial

John 11:1-16

SIS— Even amidst all the pain and suffering of our world, through Jesus the Bible shows us how good God is and how much He loves us.

           

July 2, this year, the world lost one of the most influential men since WWII.  Elie Wiesel died at the age of 88.  He was 15 when the Nazis loaded his family in a train car bound for the death camp at Auschwitz.  His mother and sister were killed soon after they arrived.  He and his father would survive until near the end of the war, when his father would succumb to the torturous life in a German death camp.  Wiesel was little more than a skeleton when the death camp was finally liberated.  As with all death camp prisoners,  he saw unimaginable horrors done to human beings, mostly Jews, at the hand of Germans.  The images scarred his memory.  Yet, Wiesel worked hard to assure that the bitter stories of the death camps would never be forgotten, especially as most survivors have already died.

There is a story that rabbis in Auschwitz once decided to put God on trial for the horrible, unspeakable, incomprehensible evils of the death camp.  Either God was not all powerful, which they rejected, or He was not All-loving and did nothing while so many suffered.  According to this story, the rabbis found God guilty.  The idea of putting God on trial is so abhorrent to Jews, especially rabbis, that many have declared to event to be a myth.  Wiesel, however, during a dinner at a Holocaust Education Trust meeting a few years ago in London, “startled his audience when he declared: I was there when God was put on trial."

For as long as philosophers have put their thoughts in writing, God has been put on trial many times.  The most significant witness for the prosecution against the goodness of God has been, “the evil and suffering” in the world.  The accusation goes something like this, “If God is All-powerful then He is able to eliminate the suffering in our world; and, if God is All-loving then He should desire to eliminate all suffering.  Yet, our world is full of evil and suffering.  Therefore, God is either not All-powerful or He is not All-loving, or perhaps He is neither.  This was the case the rabbis in Auschwitz were staging when they put God on trial.

Today, I will not be able to give a complete treatment of the subject of good and evil, but I will be able to show without any question that God is both All-loving and All-powerful.  Even amidst all the pain and suffering of our world, through Jesus, the Bible shows us how good God is and how much He loves us.   Let’s read that lesson together as presented in the Gospel of John.

(John 11:1-37)  11 Now a man was sick, Lazarus, from Bethany,  the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Him: “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

4 When Jesus heard it, He said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God  may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. 7 Then after that, He said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea  again.” 8 “Rabbi,”  the disciples told Him, “just now the Jews tried to stone You,  and You’re going there again?”

9 “Aren’t there 12 hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.  10 If anyone walks during the night,  he does stumble, because the light is not in him.” 11 He said this, and then He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,  but I’m on My way to wake him up.” 12 Then the disciples said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” 13 Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought He was speaking about natural sleep. 14 So Jesus then told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. 15 I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.”  16 Then Thomas (called “Twin”) said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go so that we may die with Him.”17 When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem (about two miles away). 19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. 20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him. But Mary remained seated in the house.  21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Yet even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.”23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.  24 Martha said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.  26 Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever.  Do you believe this?”27 “Yes, Lord,” she told Him, “I believe You are the Messiah,  the Son  of God, who comes into the world.” 28 Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”  29 As soon as she heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.  30 Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met Him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. So they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb  to cry there.32 When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet  and told Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died!”  33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, He was angry  in His spirit  and deeply moved. 34 “Where have you put him?” He asked.

“Lord,” they told Him, “come and see.”  35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how He loved  him!”

Reading this passage, no one can doubt the love and concern of God.

There are many indications that God cares for us regardless of whether we know His plan fully or not.  First of all, we see God’s goodness

1.  in the FRIENDS that he gives us (3, 5)

 ³So the sisters sent a message to Him:
“Lord, the one You love [fr. phileos] is sick.”
…………………………

⁵ Now Jesus loved [fr. agape] Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.

We have two references to the word, “love” in this passage.  Both are significant.  We will deal here with the first one mentioned–the description given by the sisters.  They described Lazarus as the one that Jesus “loved.”  This is the form of the word that means, “a brotherly love, or a deep abiding and meaningful friendship.”  It is the highest degree of “love” which can be shown on a human level. 

Jesus, in his humanity, was a close friend of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.  During the last week of His life, Jesus retreated nightly to the Bethany home of His dear friends.  Friendship is one of the greatest gifts we could receive in this life.  I’m not talking about “FaceBook Friends” that are a dime a dozen, but true, connected at the heart friends. 

Do not miss the significance of this verse.  If Jesus, in His pristine humanity, needed close friends, then certainly you and I need close friends.

Here is the hardest lesson some of you must learn if our church is going to grow and reach the multitudes for Christ—in a growing church, pretty much any church really, you cannot be the close friend of everybody—but, you should be the close friend of a few!  If you do not establish close relationships with a few persons in the church, you will never become as strong as God intends.

A red hot coal soon becomes a cold, dying ember when separated from the fire.  Everyone needs to be involved in a small-group experience–Sunday School, support groups, and intimate Bible study

groups are essential to the life of our church.

To build a strong witness–we need the accountability of a few close friends.  This cannot happen in “worship” – it requires a small group experience.

2.  We see God’s Goodness in the TESTS he allows us (6;41-43;23-27)

6 So when He heard that he was sick,
He stayed two more days in the place where He was.

A great preacher reminds us: “Divine delays do not mean divine indifference.”  God moves according to His time-table, not man’s.

Divine delays help us in two ways: 

1.  It changes our passions.  Jesus already knew what was going to take place.  He already knew Lazarus was going to die and He was going to raise him.  We see only the temporal—God sees the eternal.  We see the snapshot.  God sees the the panoramic painting.  The essence of Christian growth is to change our attachments to things that are temporal and focus on that which is eternal. This truth is demonstrated in Jesus’ prayer:

⁴¹ So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You heard Me.  ⁴² I know that You always hear Me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so they may believe You sent Me.”

To experience abundant living we must change our passions.  God uses the trials and tribulations of our lives as a mighty wind to push us closer to him.  He uses the fiery trials of life to forge an unbreakable bond between Himself and His children. 

Any one familiar with welding knows that the strongest place on two pieces of welded material is at the point of the weld.  It takes tremendous heat to merge one piece of metal into another.  But, once the bond is forged, it is impossible to break.  The two become one!

2.  Tests change our perspective.  Merely changing one’s passions will not necessarily change one’s perspective.  I’ve met many Christians who have sincerely and consistently renounced the things of the world and embraced the things of God, but they still are not completely comfortable with God’s timing.  Yes, they know God will rescue them.  They quote confidently, 1Corinthians 10:13, ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful,  and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape  so that you are able to bear it.  Yet, many believes live in bondage to doubt over God’s timing.  Many of us have not yet learned to secret of seeing from God’s perspective.  We must learn to “see differently.”  We must set our clocks to heavenly time.

As I mentioned earlier, we see only snapshots, but God sees the whole moving picture of history.  In fact, he has given us that perspective so we can see as he sees.  It’s called the Bible.

²³ “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

²⁴ Martha said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.  ²⁶ Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever.  Do you believe this?”  ²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she told Him, “I believe You are the Messiah, the Son  of God, who comes into the world.”

                                                                                   

Jesus reminded Martha what the O.T. and He, Himself, had been teaching.  He reminded Martha that the Scriptures possessed the “full motion picture of God’s history.”  Jesus pointed Martha to the Scriptures.  The Scriptures allow us to live our lives according to God’s perspective.  It has been determined by many scholars that over 60 percent of the Bible is “prophesy”—that is, describing what is going to happen, not recording what has happened.

           

God cares for us by giving us THE SCRIPTURES. We must become students of the Word to experience the full impact and see the entire panorama of God’s Divine Care, even as we go through great trials and tests.  This gives us godly passions and a heavenly perspective.

           

3.  We see God’s Goodness in the LOVE he shows us (35;5;43-44)

His love is deep.               

³⁵Jesus wept.

Such sublime truth has never been uttered in so few words.  This is considered the “shortest verse in the Bible.”  In English, it may well be, but in Greek there are a few verses with less words and fewer letters.  That should not lessen the literary impact and theological import of this verse.  The word translated, “wept,” comes from a root word meaning “tears.”  Jesus was crying real tears over real sorrow.  The fact that Jesus is God does not mean He did not feel deep sorrow.  Quite the contrary.

His love is wide.  ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.

Recall earlier I mentioned that this Greek form of the word, “love,”  is different than the one that the sisters used to describe Jesus’ love for Lazarus.  We learned that the sisters described Jesus’ love in terms of the highest degree possible between humans–sincere, devoted, deep, brotherly love, or friendship.

Well, verse 5 is written from the point of view of the gospel writer as He was moved upon by God to demonstrate something completely different from “brotherly love.”  The gospel writer changes the term to “agape,” which in the New Testament refers not to human love or passion, but to the Love of God.  The sacrificial, undeserved passionate desire to see everyone enjoy the very best in life. 

God’s love is “deeper than the deepest ocean and wider that the sky,” to borrow a line from the great songstress, Petrula Clark—from a time long before many of you were born.

We cannot be close with everyone—our love is not wide enough.

But God’s love, is wide enough to encompass every man, woman

and child that is, was, or ever will be.  Not only is God’s love deep and wide but

His love is powerful.

⁴³ After He said this, He shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him and let him go.”

That’s a powerful love! The depth and breadth of God’s love is only matched by its power.  God’s love changes things! 

           

This is the kind of love that transforms situations.  This is the kind of love that dries out alcoholic, calms abusive husbands, binds up the broken-hearted, gives sight to the blind, strength to the weak, and a song to a life that has long been without a melody.  Nothing compares to the love of God.

The depth and width of God’s love shows beyond any doubt that God is indeed, “All Loving.”  The life-changing, situation altering, sin shattering and death demolishing love of God shows that God is indeed, “All Powerful.”

That’s why Jesus confidently declared, “This sickness will not end in death” (v4).  Notice Jesus didn’t say the sickness would not “pass through” death, “only that it would not park there!”  Sin and suffering may shout in protest against God in this age, but they will not have the last word!  The fact God will ultimately completely (ultimately) vanquish evil from the presence of His people is called the “Eschatological Theodicy.”  Eschatological means referring to the last things, and theodicy means “to justify the goodness of God.”  The appearance that evil has any “real” power in the life of a believer is an illusion that will be dispelled when Jesus returns in all of His glory in the Second Coming.

Albert Einstein gave us the theory of relativity. And with that theory, we created a weapon of destruction the likes of which the world had never dreamed.  Einstein gave us the key to unlock the most powerful forces of nature—but we instead unleashed the most horrible power of destruction.  Einstein grieved over the misuse of his calculations.

Even though Einstein never accepted Jesus as his personal Savior (as far as we can tell), Einstein did recognize the power of Jesus’ teaching on love.  He once remarked, “If any church would be content to have Jesus’ teaching of love as its creed, I would join that church.”

This is the conclusion of a man that understood “power” like nobody before or since. 

Jesus shows us His care by giving us His love: deep, wide, and powerful. In the low moments of life we may not always be able to see God’s Divine Care at work at any given moment.  But, we can be sure it is there.

One songwriter said it well, “When we cannot see God’s Hand, we must trust God’s Heart.” Jesus cares for us in a way that we cannot fully understand, perhaps, but in a way that we can fully appreciate. 

I cannot drift beyond Thy care,
My every burden Thou wilt share.

Grant me this rest of faith, dear Lord,
According to thy precious Word. (copied)

Suffering indeed raises an accusing finger at the goodness of God; but, the final verdict as we see in the Life and Work of Jesus Christ is this:  God is All-loving and All-powerful. 

Trust God’s heart even when suffering makes it difficult or impossible to trace His hand.