Something is wrong!
1 Peter 1:3-12
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we were going to take a look at a few of the basic troubles with Christianity. We talked about how the culture believes that Christianity and religion in general are exclusive. The religion is the reason for a lack of Peace in this world. The end result of that If Christians are living as described in the Bible we are the non exclusive and open and peace loving religion.
This week’s trouble with Christianity is commonly referred to as “the problem of Evil.”
Said another way, If God is good why is the world so bad?
This is a huge issue to non-religious and even religious alike. The most common logical tool that is used to attack the existence of God is called a syllogism.
A syllogism is a basic set logical statements or arguments pointing to some kind of truth. It is a simple way of staking up simple truth statements to make a logical conclusion.
EX: All men are mortal. Tom is a man, Tom is mortal….
A simple logical statement that points to truth. So the logic to the problem that is used against God is often a little more complex and goes something like this.
It starts with a few assumptions:
God exists.
God is all-knowing.
God is all-powerful.
God is love. (all loving)
So far I would suspect that we would all agree with the basic assumptions. We have heard them all our lives. We can find references in scripture to support why we believe theses to be true.
We might go as far as to agree with one additional assumption.
Any being that did not possess all three of the above properties would not be the Christian God. All knowing all powerful all loving….
A different set of premises or assumptions: (2): Evil exists.
I think we will agree….
Premise (3): An all-knowing being would be aware of the existence of evil.
Premise (4): An all-powerful being would be able to eliminate evil.
Premise (5): A perfectly loving being would desire to eliminate evil.
Conclusion (6): Evil does not exist. Or at least should not exist!
But something is wrong because…evil does exist.
If Evil exists then there can be no being that is all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfectly loving.
Ultimately that means The Christian God does not exist.
Wow that sounds logical and convincing.
How can we argue with that?
I would suspect that when we watch natural disasters on the TV news, when a dear loved one has cancer, when a car accident takes the life of a missionary family we are at least in some tiny way making the same logical conclusion or at least struggle over the evidence of natural and human evil in this world and question …where is God? …. Does God care? ….. Why does God let this happen….? How can there be a God if my life is this messed up?
Where we are headed this morning is based on another detail about using logic to come to a conclusion.
Here is a different example: Women have headaches, (True) Tom has headaches, (True)…. Tom is a woman ---(Not so true)
The point is that sometimes the statements of truth, the logical questions that are put together are not specific enough or that they are irrelevant to the argument and the conclusion that is gained will be wrong.
The world’s questions about Evil and suffering may cause them to decide that there is no God.
Believers in a God, even Christians struggle with the reality of Evil, sin, injustice, illness and disasters often lead people to back off of their faith based on sometimes unspoken questions and truths that form conclusions in our minds when something is wrong in our lives.
Let me suggest that in reality, in the event of suffering and evil in our lives does not have to weaken or destroy faith.. In reality, it should have the opposite effect.
But how does that happen….
Peter shows us three ways of dealing with the problem of evil and suffering in our lives.
First is to look back at something, second is to look ahead to something and the third is to look into something.
Our Scripture this morning comes from 1 Peter 1:3-12 (New Living Translation)
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.
They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.
Peter is writing to people that know suffering. People that have serious questions about a God that would allow persecution and physical suffering caused by government and religious authorities.
The scripture describes the there will be trials….Some translation say “if” you suffer trials but in my study of the text I found that When you face trials is more accurate.
Can anyone in here say that they have not faces any trials or problems? Suffering of one kind or another is an obvious fact of life. We all have losses of loved ones, financial setbacks, illnesses, broken legs and hearts.
So peters first fact is that - there will be trials,
That is not the most hoped for truth but our lives prove that suffering – trials are normal in this world.
The second statement is that Faith is refined with fire like gold.
He seems to be saying that there are reasons for suffering and that the refining process that will result in a better knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Indirectly Peter is telling us that abandoning faith during trials does not help us at all.
Without God – there is no divine standard or law of which to base any cultural decision.
If there is no God, everything in this world would be based on natural selection. Survival of the fittest would be the only rule. Violence would be how everything was decided. The people with power and strength would make every decision…
Only if there is a God is there a measurement for justice, right, fairness.
For people without faith the only standard is their opinion and the rules that other people enforce and they have no reason to expect fairness.
If we really are struggling with how could God allow evil and suffering in this world it sounds pretty bad and difficult.
But consider this, if we had no standard to compare life too based on faith in a good, powerful and loving God. Then we have no basis to say that what is happening is not fair, that some illness al loss of life caused by a drunk driver is horrible and not completely natural.
What I am saying, is that if a person has no faith in a God, they have a bigger problem dealing with suffering and evil that a person of faith.
Because they have nothing to hope for. No promises of eternity. No relief from the pain in this life other than death that just puts an end to life experiences. No relief, no improvement just an end.
So getting rid of a belief in God will not help any of us in dealing with evil and suffering.
And according to Peter, the trial, the suffering will result in praise and Glory and honor when Christ is revealed.
Not surprise! – there is a Savior! But, Look The good news is true!
Peter explains that our faith in Jesus Christ offers us inexpressible joy even when our lives fill our minds with questions of why?
As a person of faith we at least have a person to ask our questions to!
To deal with the problem of evil and suffering in the world and our lives Peter encourages us to look back at the life, suffering death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Looking back does not explain the reason for evil, or disaster or disease or suffering. But it reminds us that God does know what suffering is. God sent is one and only Son to walk the planet as a human. To walk with us in earthly pain and suffering. To face the evil of man and life situations.
The cross of Christ is an event that tells us how far God went to be with us in our suffering and pain and even death.
On the cross we see God suffering unjust suffering.
The loss if a loved one is felt as God loses his only son.
And even the shouting of Questions in suffering were a reality when Jesus cries out My God , My God why have you forsaken me!!!
Jesus suffered more than we have suffered because his suffering went beyond the physical. His suffering is in our place and included the spiritual consequences that we deserve.
Let me try to explain what I mean. What are the consequences of a young adult that tell their parents, I don’t want to be around you anymore. I don’t want you controlling my life. I want to get out of this house!!!
What is the natural consequence of that….The parents eventually say fine! Go, take your stuff and get out.
The human race wants to be our own masters, we don’t want God to control us, we want to be in charge…the natural consequence of that free will desire is that we are cast out of the presence of God and that is the suffering that Jesus experienced on the cross on our behalf. That is the fire of suffering that Jesus suffered for us….
When we take the question of suffering to the cross and cry out why God does not remove suffering and pain from our lives we don’t find the reason why.
But we do find what it can’t be. We learn that it can’t be… It can’t be because God does not care.
Because he loved us enough to step into our place and experience suffering as we do and even goes beyond what we know as suffering to the spiritual separation from God
Looking back we find that the God of the Christian faith does not remove suffering, or explain evil but loves us enough to walk with us in our suffering and questions and even death.
Second, Peter also encourages us to look forward.
Based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the past we have evidence of a future. A future that includes an inheritance…not just a small nest egg but a priceless valuable inheritance that is kept in a perfect trust….it does not lose value based on the stock market, it does not rust away like a classic car or fall apart like an old home place.
So if the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened…..and it did…
Then our resurrection that is promised will happen and it will.
Then everything in the past that was sad, all of our suffering and loss will be restored. In our resurrection, We will be made whole and complete. All of the suffering will be completed and God’s work on earth completed to perfection.
So we have to look back to the cross and look ahead to the promises of God when we are facing suffering and loss…and all kinds of evil.
The final point we find in our scripture that we are encouraged in time of trial to Look into what God is doing through the power of the Holy Spirit in the world and our lives.
God is not finished working in this world, until Jesus returns. But he is not distant or inactive.
Listen to what he says: “It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.”
That sounds like the angels are watching what is happening, watching God work on the earth like some people watch soap operas or reality shows. They are eager.
At this point in our lives, the angels have a more perfect picture of God than we do. They are interested in the salvation process. That are excited to watch how God gets people voted into heaven instead of excluding and restricting people from heaven.
You know that they had to be shocked when Jesus came into the picture and instead of using ultimate powers to set the world right He joined the cast to be manipulated by satin and suffer and even be murdered on a cross.
If the angels are interested in the process. If after thousands of years they are still interested, it seems that we should pay attention and be interested how God is using good and evil, joy and suffering to accomplish the work of salvation for all human kind.
-- The logic that the world has seems sound. It contains truth. However they allow their opinion of what God should do and how he should do it interfere with their conclusion about God.
None is us has all the information, but a Christian is supported in faith by the power of God to survive the trials and even our own doubts and questions.
We have a knowledge of God that is documented in the past, we have a hope (a divine hope) in the future which is our inheritance and we have the ability , by faith to witness the power and love of God even in our time of trial and pain.
All Glory be to God!
