Signposts
He had seen the dawn of many Tuesday mornings, but this one was different, this one was special because it was going to culminate everything he had lived for.
He slept little of the Monday night, rose several hours before sunrise, and met his accomplices before they set of on a mission that would bring about untold destruction.
Theirs was a cause they believed fervently, were given to completely, and followed passionately
-- And on this day they were going to give their lives so that tens of thousands of people could die in the name of their cause
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In his 33 years he had seen over 1500 Fridays’ come and go à but this was the Friday.
It was the day he had waited for, taught about, prayed about, and prepared for
It brought him to his lifelong goal
It filled him with a sense of purpose
It created a sense of gritty determination
He had spent Thursday night under lock and key
-- already bruised from a savage beating at the hands of some soldiers who used his vulnerability just to relieve their boredom and let out their pent up frustrations
But his was a cause ….
That was born in the mind of his father and fueled by his love
This Friday had been planned before time began
This event was going to change history
This act was going to affect people’s eternity
And on this day he would give his life so that billions of people could live in the name of his cause
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You’ve probably worked out who these two very different men are by now
The first is one of the people responsible for the atrocity that happened in New York last week
We don’t know much about him. But we do know that he believed in his cause so passionately he was prepared to give his life for it
And the tragedy of it is that his life was devoted to the wrong cause
The second man is Jesus
-- and he is so different
He was filled with love – not hate
His mission was to bring life – not death
He came to bring reconciliation – not war
Two men – who represent two very different ways.
-- but, you know, as we respond to the terrible events of the last week we have got to be so careful that we don’t get drawn into the kind of thinking that drove that first man.
That we don’t get full of bitterness, anger, and rage – baying for the blood of anyone who might be remotely connected with this atrocity.
The Bible says that we are ‘ambassadors for Christ’
-- and that means that we’ve got to respond to this appalling event in the spirit of the man who laid down his life for the right cause
So, this morning, we’re going to stand back from the initial impact of all we have seen, heard and read about. See what light the Word of God can throw on it. And respond in a way that pleases the one who gave His life for us.
How should we, as Jesus’ followers, respond to these events?
1. We must face up to the issue of suffering
One of the questions that would have been aired many times in the last week will have been ‘why is this happening?’
It’s natural to ask this, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with it
-- but it’s often asked because suffering is seen as something that doesn’t have anything to do with us
à it’s an enemy that has breached our defenses – it belongs somewhere else – not here
The truth of the matter is that we have a human tendency to cocoon ourselves from the massive amount of suffering that goes on out there and pretend that it doesn’t exist
The Bible has never invited us to keep up that kind of pretence
When sin first came into the world God said
Genesis 3:17-19
….. "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (NIV)
This theme carries on throughout the OT
Psalm 90:9-10
9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. 10 The length of our days is seventy years -- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Job 5:6-7
6 For affliction does not come from the dust, Nor does trouble spring from the ground; 7 Yet man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward. (NKJV)
And what do we find in the NT?
Jesus is born into a nation that has been occupied by one of the most ruthless powers in history.
Luke’s Gospel makes a point of telling us that it took place in the days when Herod ruled.
– they would have been days of untold tyranny and oppression
Jesus said that anyone who follows him must be prepared to lay down their life [not in the way that these suicide bombers did!]
He said that ‘the blood of the martyrs would be the seed of the Church.
He was Jesus executed in one of the brutal ways imaginable
And all but one of the apostles died because they followed js
Thousands of early Christians were put to the sword, thrown to the lions, or covered in pitch and set on fire.
The Bible never pretends that suffering, tragedy, and disaster don’t exist and, since the fall, it has never been absent from this world
-- we in the West have just been privileged to have been relatively free of it, so we have pretended that it doesn’t exist
The gospel is a message that was born from suffering, reaches out to those who suffer, and gives us hope that will enable us to overcome suffering.
2 Corinthians 4:8-11
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. (NIV)
Moving on from that
2. We must show compassion to those who suffer
In 2 Corinthians Paul writes that God comforts us in our troubles so we are able to comfort those who are troubled with the same comfort we received from God
Romans 12:15 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Hebrews 13:3
3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow-prisoners, and those who are ill-treated as if you yourselves were suffering. (NIV)
I know that we’re not directly involved – but we can pray
-- and this won’t be the only occasion when we’ll need to show compassion
A few years ago there was a terrible shooting at a school in Colarado
You probably know all the tragic details
But what you might not know is that many of the teenagers who were affected didn’t go to the school counselors. They went to young people from a local Church who had made themselves available.
Why did they do that?
-- The Pastor of that Church said that it was because these young people were prepared to listen to them, cry with them and put an arm around them
This is what he said
‘Some wanted to make sense of the deaths. I don’t think we can. Others would say, “Where can I turn? Is there any hope? Is there any comfort?” That’s the issue we addressed loud and clear.’
Isn’t that what we should be doing in the sadness and tragedy that unfolds in the lives of the people around us?
So – how we respond to these events, as followers of Jesus?
We must face up to the reality of suffering, and show compassion to those who suffer.
--- and as people who have given our lives to God
3. We must affirm our trust in Him
It’s easy to trust when things are running along smoothly
-- when the economy’s booming, the sun is shining, the family is healthy, and our nation is at peace.
But it’s not really trust until it’s been tested
That was Satan’s argument about Job – wasn’t it? <>
The Bible tells us that God is in sovereign
Isaiah 40:21-24 [p 725]
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. (NIV)
Have the deeds of these wicked men changed that?
-- of course not
How can we understand why He allowed it?
-- to be honest – we can’t --- and why should we
He is God – we are people
He is our creator – we are His creation
He is holy – while we are sinful
He is in heaven – we are on earth
He is outside time – we are within it
He sees the end from the beginning – we can’t see past this moment
Martyn Lloyd Jones was Pastor of Westminster chapel in the war years. In one of his early sermons he addressed the question everyone was asking - why does God allow war - and this is what he said.
‘God needs no defense, for He is on the throne. He is the judge of all the earth. His Kingdom is without end. Cease to question Him and to argue! Bow down before Him! Worship Him! Get into the right attitude and you will understand His actions’
ILLUSRATION
Christian in an Islamic country – attacked – facing possibility of death
‘there must be a reason’
‘I am content as if a had a thousand reasons’
We know that God is in control
We know that he hasn’t promised us a trouble free passage through life
We know that the Bible warns us that these kind of things will happen
-- and at the end of the day we’ve got to affirm that He is still on the throne and trust Him
Billy Graham preached at the memorial service for victims of the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 – and this is what he said
‘I pray that you will not let bitterness and poison creep into your soul, but that you will turn in faith and trust in God even if we cannot understand. It is better to face something like this with God than without him’
How do we respond to this tragedy?
We must face up to suffering – show compassion to those who suffer – trust in God
4. Examine our anger
This has been such an emotional week – [phone messages etc<>]
-- and our emotions have been swinging between sorrow, disbelief, and anger
And you may have been asking yourself – ‘is it right to be angry’
Well, there is such a thing as ‘righteous anger’
-- in fact Ephesians says ‘be angry and do not sin’
We have a right to be angry with a mass murderer who terrorises a planeload of passengers commandeers a plane and crashes it into a heavily populated building.
We have a right to be angry with the people who danced on the streets on Palestine at the news of such carnage.
We have a right to be angry with a man who walks laden down with bombs into a pizza parlor in Jerusalem and blows up 21 people.
à We have to be angry at what sin has done to this world. ß
It isn’t that our anger is reserved just for the man himself, although it is certainly right to have a righteous anger against one who violates the command of God not to kill-one who is so wicked and so wretched to take life.
It’s a bigger anger than that. It’s anger with the whole of the sinful reality that exists in our fallen world.
But at the same time we don’t want to be filled with personal vengeance, because in the Bible God says, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." And James warns us that a ‘man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God requires’
This righteous anger is channeled in a desire for justice
The men who hi-jacked those planes will already have had justice meted out to them
The wicked people who indoctrinated them with lies that they would be welcomed into paradise as heroes may have told them.
à but the fact of the matter is that they will have been judged by God as mass murders
Genesis 9:6
6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. (NIV)
What about the people behind the attack?
Well, the New Testament teaches that the state should be the instrument of such justice
Romans 13:4
4 For he [the one in authority over you] is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. (NIV)
But it’s justice that’s need – not blind vengence
-- and we need to pray that God would give President Bush and our Prime Minister great wisdom in this matter
However, on a personal level, Jesus calls us to show an attitude of forgiveness
Matthew 5:44
44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (NIV)
Jesus showed us how it was done too
… His body searing with pain, his ears ringing with the taunts of the crowd, his back aching from the beating he had taken at the hands of the guards – Jesus said ‘Father forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing.’
Nothing else will break the cycle of hate
Romans 12:21
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (NIV)
ILLUSTRA TION
After the shooting at the Columbine High School people left flowers in a nearby park to pay their respects.
But someone had hung a sign over it which said ..
"These flowers and prayers are for the innocent victims and their families, not for the two monsters that committed this selfish act."
One woman who was there to leave a bouquet of flowers saw the sign, she whispered "I want to give them to the monsters, too." And she left her flowers at another makeshift memorial.
--- what she was saying was – ‘I want to show that I don’t hate them – I want to stop the poison going deeper’
She broke the cycle of hatred – that’s the Jesus way
So – How do followers of Jesus respond to a tragedy such as this?
--- We must face up to suffering – show compassion to those who suffer – trust in God - examine our anger
4. Face up to the frailty of life
Reporters told us that Tuesday 11th September began as a ‘perfect New York morning’
Tens of thousands of people streamed into the city, and the building for another days work
-- and for most of them death would have been the last thing on their minds
-- But it came --
James 4:13-16
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Have you ever gone into the bathroom after someone has had the shower really hot?
-- you can’t see for mist
But open a window and it’s gone in seconds
ILLUSTRATION
Andy Day – interview with MOD
‘What would you do in the event of a nuclear attack?’
à ‘I should think I’d die!’
Life is frail – as the prayer book says - ‘even in life we are in the midst of death’
That’s why it’s important that we know we have eternal life <>
How do we – as followers of Jesus – respond to this kind of tradgedy
We must face up to suffering – show compassion to those who suffer – trust in God - examine our anger
5. Set our sights on Christ’s return
War, disaster, death, suffering
-- yes, Jesus said they’d all come – and there would be more and more of it until he returned
You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth-pains. (Matthew 24:6-8 NIV)
28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28 NIV)
We know that times are going to get hard
We know that these kind of atrocious things are going to happen
à but we know that in the end Christ will return in triumph, and rule over His people in justice and peace ß
Terrorists won’t bring history to a conclusion – Jesus will! <>
So – in the meantime we weep with those who weep, we urge people to forgive, we tell them about Jesus and we get on with the work of God’s Kingdom
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There are two ways to respond to the awful events we have witnessed this week
There is the way of hatred, rage, and fear
-- but, you know when you stand back and look at it – it’s not so different from the kind of things that motivated the people who did this in the first place
And then – there’s the Jesus way
Facing up to suffering – showing compassion to those who suffer – trusting in God - examining our anger so that we are angry at the wickedness but not vengeful towards the people behind it – and all the time setting our sights on Christ’s return
Jesus called us to be salt and light in this world
-- and this is an ideal time to be so
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I am grateful to Nick Lilo’s sermon ‘God’s message in the language of events’ in my preparation of this sermon
