WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.880 Welcome again to another of our big questions. 00:00:10.620 --> 00:00:16.679 This one perhaps the most challenging having thought about truth. 00:00:17.400 --> 00:00:20.740 Now we're going to think about the goodness of God and especially 00:00:20.740 --> 00:00:26.780 how can a good God allow evil and suffering? 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:31.920 Something that I hope will be helpful to us, 00:00:32.480 --> 00:00:39.060 especially if you find yourself in a place where you're suffering right now. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:42.280 And we're going to begin hearing God's word. 00:00:43.100 --> 00:00:50.260 We're going to join a story where Jesus has heard of the illness of his friend Lazarus 00:00:50.260 --> 00:00:54.180 that he knows is going to end in his death. 00:00:54.179 --> 00:01:01.579 But beyond that, Jesus says God's glory and God's son will be glorified through it all. 00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:04.780 But we're going to pick up our reading in John 11 at verse 17. 00:01:04.780 --> 00:01:14.000 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:16.719 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:22.200 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 00:01:23.180 --> 00:01:27.740 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 00:01:27.739 --> 00:01:33.219 Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:37.119 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:41.299 Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:45.859 Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 00:01:46.619 --> 00:01:49.399 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. 00:01:50.099 --> 00:01:52.840 The one who believes in me will live even though they die. 00:01:52.939 --> 00:01:55.500 And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. 00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:57.500 Do you believe this? 00:01:58.280 --> 00:01:59.519 Yes, Lord, she replied. 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:04.120 I believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God, who is to come into the world. 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:08.800 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:12.599 The teacher is here, she said, and is asking for you. 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:16.340 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:21.500 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:33.240 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house comforting her noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:43.100 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:51.640 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:53.560 Where have you laid him? 00:02:53.640 --> 00:02:54.219 He asked. 00:02:54.540 --> 00:02:56.620 Come and see, Lord, they replied. 00:02:57.780 --> 00:02:58.540 Jesus went. 00:02:58.539 --> 00:03:02.340 Then the Jews said, see how he loved him. 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:08.180 But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? 00:03:09.099 --> 00:03:13.299 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. 00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:16.899 It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 00:03:17.459 --> 00:03:19.319 Take away the stone, he said. 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:27.199 But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odour for he has been there four days. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:34.919 Then Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God? 00:03:35.539 --> 00:03:37.060 So they took away the stone. 00:03:37.659 --> 00:03:40.979 Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 00:03:41.699 --> 00:03:48.459 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me. 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:55.299 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. 00:03:55.300 --> 00:04:02.680 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth round his face. 00:04:03.340 --> 00:04:08.900 Jesus said to them, take off the grave clothes and let him go. 00:04:08.900 --> 00:04:19.340 Now, as we begin our reflections, we need to recognise, don't we, that suffering is everywhere. 00:04:20.780 --> 00:04:30.959 Maybe it's been seen so clearly just now between the pandemic and the issues around racism and the refugee crisis. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:34.120 We see it on the global scale. 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:51.439 But we also know in a personal situation too, in a normal lifespan, illness and rejection and loss and tragedy will happen to us and to those around us. 00:04:51.439 --> 00:05:01.699 We appreciate too that there are times when the weight of evil can feel overwhelming. 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:06.899 Genocide, terrorism, human trafficking. 00:05:08.300 --> 00:05:10.180 And then of course there is death. 00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:12.720 The great enemy. 00:05:13.300 --> 00:05:15.459 The human problem. 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:28.159 Maybe COVID and the pandemic was a time of collective reflection on our mortality. 00:05:29.099 --> 00:05:37.779 We have been used to, I guess, comfort and security and death has felt far away from us as a society. 00:05:37.779 --> 00:05:43.379 But together we were forced to reflect on our mortality. 00:05:43.379 --> 00:05:58.560 Because no one is immune from suffering, the search for meaning and purpose in and beyond pain and suffering becomes almost universal. 00:05:59.879 --> 00:06:05.980 Many ask, and perhaps you have asked, why God, why this, why me? 00:06:05.980 --> 00:06:17.800 And can I just say to those who are listening who are Christians, when we know people who are in the furnace of suffering, 00:06:19.100 --> 00:06:24.879 that it's a time for us to learn to listen well, to love and support. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:29.300 It's probably not the time for philosophy. 00:06:30.139 --> 00:06:33.759 Probably not the right time to give sort of pat answers. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:35.759 But it's a time for friendship. 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:41.180 It's a time for coming alongside someone in their tears. 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:47.379 So today we're going to look at the problem of evil and suffering. 00:06:47.500 --> 00:06:55.079 And we're going to consider some of the solutions, the ways of looking at it and coping with it that are around. 00:06:55.160 --> 00:07:00.860 And we're going to compare that with the message of Christianity and what we discovered there of the God of the Bible. 00:07:00.860 --> 00:07:05.660 The Bible is an honest book, of course. 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:10.180 It's full of people crying out to God, how long, oh Lord? 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:14.800 There are stories of real suffering, such as Joseph and Job. 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:19.960 There are books of the Bible addressed to those who are suffering, like Hebrews and 1 Peter. 00:07:20.080 --> 00:07:23.280 There's a recognition that not all suffering is just. 00:07:23.280 --> 00:07:29.160 And we see that especially in the trial and the death of Jesus, the Son of God. 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:42.820 And what I hope from this evening is that we will come to appreciate that the Bible and Christianity has unique resources for facing the pain and suffering of our lives. 00:07:43.740 --> 00:07:54.440 To borrow from Tim Keller's helpful book, that we can walk with God and know God walking with us through pain and suffering. 00:07:54.439 --> 00:08:02.600 To appreciate that suffering in and of itself need not be a wrecking ball that smashes faith. 00:08:03.459 --> 00:08:07.439 But rather it's a crucial foundation of our faith. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:14.740 So let's begin thinking about the problem of evil and suffering. 00:08:14.740 --> 00:08:30.500 Perhaps you remember the horror of the 2004 tsunami around Christmas time that killed 250,000 people. 00:08:31.220 --> 00:08:36.799 Well, one journalist speaking and writing for many perhaps wrote this. 00:08:37.220 --> 00:08:38.580 Where was God? 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:41.100 If God is God, he's not good. 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:43.519 God is good, he's not God. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:49.600 You can't have it both ways, especially after the Indian Ocean. 00:08:50.579 --> 00:08:58.319 For that journalist, evil and suffering became evidence that there could not possibly be God. 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:15.940 In my experience, and I imagine it will probably be true for you as well, that suffering, seeing suffering, seeing evil, experiencing it, drives people both ways in a sense. 00:09:16.060 --> 00:09:17.040 In one of two ways. 00:09:17.160 --> 00:09:19.720 For some, it will drive them away from God. 00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:21.720 For some, it will drive them away from God. 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:28.540 But others are driven towards God, recognising he is the only source of help in that situation. 00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:33.519 But I want us to think for a little about the drive away from God. 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:37.899 Or attempts to limit God. 00:09:37.899 --> 00:09:46.179 And to ask ourselves, does that way of thinking help to give answers and does it help to give hope? 00:09:46.179 --> 00:09:53.419 One person who has considered that is a man called Dr. Paul Brand. 00:09:53.419 --> 00:10:00.219 Having spent 30 or so years as a leprosy doctor in India, he returned to America. 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:18.879 Returning to a society he considered to be less equipped and more traumatised by suffering than the society, the religious society that he left behind in India. 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:31.059 But let's think about the possible solutions that people suggest to coping with the problem of evil and suffering to providing answers or a way in. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:34.879 One is to simply to deny that God exists. 00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:46.399 Like that journalist to take the view, well, I cannot imagine a reason why suffering could be allowed if there is a God. 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:49.159 Therefore, there must not be God since there is suffering. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:55.079 And it has been remarked that there are significant problems in that way of thinking. 00:10:56.759 --> 00:11:07.159 If we remove God and if we remove an absolute and ultimate moral authority, who then is able to say what is evil or what is good? 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:12.600 All we are left with are particular preferences, our cultural preferences. 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:24.019 As C.S. Lewis engaged with this in his own thinking, he realised, how can I say a line is crooked without a sense of what is straight? 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:36.040 That reality of justice, a sense of right and wrong and those things being absolute, actually points us towards God. 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:44.959 And that actually to take God out of the picture still leaves atheism the problem of evil. 00:11:46.959 --> 00:11:59.299 Because in a belief system where everything is meaningless and random and chance, there then is no internal help within that way of thinking for helping people to cope and to find meaning and purpose. 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:29.279 To deny that God exists. 00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:59.259 That God's right. 00:12:59.259 --> 00:13:00.360 Okay, nobody was arguing. 00:13:00.360 --> 00:13:01.500 Life is meaningless. 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:03.919 No, we responded in a Christian way. 00:13:05.539 --> 00:13:07.779 With generosity and compassion. 00:13:07.779 --> 00:13:10.779 Richard Dawkins. 00:13:10.779 --> 00:13:17.860 Richard Dawkins, he wrote that we have purpose on the brain and that's a negative thing in his view. 00:13:19.159 --> 00:13:24.959 He says that we go through agony because we won't accept that life is meaningless and indifferent. 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:34.800 But to really live as if life is a key part of human dignity would deny a key part of human dignity. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:40.899 It would be to rob us of the value that we know that we have. 00:13:40.899 --> 00:13:48.899 To wrestle and to struggle and to think and to reflect is part of the dignity of being made in the image of God. 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:50.439 The Bible would teach us. 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:52.440 It gives us value. 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:52.960 It gives us value. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:14:02.560 There is a different solution to addressing the problem of evil and suffering which is when people try to deny God's power. 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:08.039 And some schools of Christian theology have tried to do this in a sense to try and get God off the hook. 00:14:08.500 --> 00:14:10.319 To argue that God was not involved. 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:13.899 God was not present in a particular suffering. 00:14:13.899 --> 00:14:20.000 An attempt to rescue God from accusations of being unfair or less than good. 00:14:20.079 --> 00:14:23.399 But the result is you end up with a non-God. 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:25.340 A God you cannot trust. 00:14:25.459 --> 00:14:27.199 A God you cannot hope in. 00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:32.579 A God who would love to help but lacks the power is no God at all. 00:14:32.580 --> 00:15:02.560 A God who would love to help but lacks the power is no God at all. 00:15:02.580 --> 00:15:07.020 God's commandments have chosen to hurt and to hate. 00:15:08.800 --> 00:15:17.900 But still we need to recognise that God as he's presented in the Bible is actively present. 00:15:19.740 --> 00:15:23.820 And therefore we must say that he would be able to intervene. 00:15:24.040 --> 00:15:32.000 And we certainly can never say that he is unaware of the evil and the suffering that fills the world. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:38.460 We cannot make God less than God to make him more comfortable. 00:15:39.340 --> 00:15:52.460 Better is the way of looking at life and God shown by someone like the Nigerian pastor Sigarga Nivalga. 00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:58.980 He was interviewed after two of his friends were murdered by Islamists. 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:09.000 And he spoke in this interview of his child of six having been attacked because he's part of a Christian family. 00:16:09.379 --> 00:16:15.060 Of being on a bus that was ambushed by terrorists in Nigeria. 00:16:15.220 --> 00:16:16.860 Many people being killed. 00:16:16.860 --> 00:16:19.220 And Sigarga said this. 00:16:19.300 --> 00:16:22.399 He said, we see God in the middle of the difficulty. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:27.779 And it helps us to strive through situations that seem hopeless. 00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:32.560 He said, I am strengthened by Jesus' words. 00:16:33.019 --> 00:16:36.159 In this world you will have trouble. 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:45.980 God is not powerless. 00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:53.480 God is seen to be with and in the midst as his people suffer. 00:16:53.480 --> 00:17:00.139 And there is that great promise from Jesus that he has overcome the darkness. 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:04.359 And that will be revealed in the end. 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:15.439 Another solution people look to in asking and answering the question about evil and suffering is to deny God's goodness. 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:19.919 So people look at suffering and evil. 00:17:21.559 --> 00:17:24.039 Cannot imagine any good for it. 00:17:24.139 --> 00:17:26.879 Anything positive that could come out of it. 00:17:26.879 --> 00:17:33.099 And draw the conclusion, well, if God is king, then he is a bad king. 00:17:34.359 --> 00:17:45.819 And this overlooks some of the many ways that God is good to us. 00:17:46.599 --> 00:17:49.699 It tends to just look at one aspect and neglects the other. 00:17:50.919 --> 00:17:56.659 To think about the realities of life and love and beauty. 00:17:57.359 --> 00:18:00.359 Our ability to create and relate. 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:05.240 Now, these are all gifts of a good God. 00:18:05.299 --> 00:18:11.359 And we need to learn to see the goodness of the God, of God in his world. 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:28.039 And we also need to be perhaps hesitant about making our judgments on a situation and saying there is no possible way that anything good can come out of this. 00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:46.319 Because there's a flip side in the sense that stories of human suffering have caused people to seek and to find God, have caused God's people to grow in their character, to draw on God's resources. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:51.339 So that pain and suffering have actually served to strengthen. 00:18:53.200 --> 00:19:06.259 So that people would give the testimony that while situations were desperately painful, as they realised all that God had done, they wouldn't necessarily change them. 00:19:06.259 --> 00:19:14.940 I remember years ago listening to Jonathan Aitken sharing something of his life. 00:19:15.019 --> 00:19:20.019 He was the former MP who was convicted for perjury and spent 18 months in prison. 00:19:20.019 --> 00:19:30.700 And he said it was only in that process of being found out, of being humbled, being in prison, that he came to know God. 00:19:31.220 --> 00:19:33.879 He came to delight in God. 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:37.319 And that totally transformed his life. 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:48.240 And so we need to, I think, allow for the passing of time and a change of perspective. 00:19:50.119 --> 00:20:00.599 And to have a sense of humility that says, there may be times when I cannot understand how God can use this for good. 00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:08.659 But I don't want to judge it and say, well, this is evidence that there can never be a God. 00:20:09.899 --> 00:20:12.639 Faith involves trust. 00:20:14.599 --> 00:20:18.559 The words of Joseph towards the end of his story are helpful. 00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:27.240 Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, who was falsely imprisoned and forgotten about for many years, 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:35.740 could say to his brothers, you intended this for evil, but God intended this for good time, perspective. 00:20:36.339 --> 00:20:40.799 And Joseph realised God had a good and a saving purpose behind it. 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:50.200 So thinking about what we've said, the best solution to approaching the problem of evil and suffering 00:20:50.200 --> 00:20:57.360 from a Christian point of view is to live in the tension, where we're not trying to get God off the hook, 00:20:58.580 --> 00:21:02.259 where we're not trying to ignore what the Bible teaches. 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:11.319 We want to affirm that God is God, that God is powerful and God is good. 00:21:12.779 --> 00:21:17.500 But that means sometimes we're going to wrestle with how things can be the way they are. 00:21:17.819 --> 00:21:19.000 That tension is real. 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:26.619 I've just finished a book by an American pastor by the name of David Platt called Something Needs to Change. 00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:32.980 A story of his trek through some of the highest mountains and most remote villages in the world. 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:37.539 And on that eight day trek, he met victims of child trafficking, 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:42.339 people whose lives were horribly changed by terrible disease, 00:21:42.700 --> 00:21:45.740 people who lived just with a daily struggle to survive. 00:21:45.740 --> 00:21:49.440 And he found himself constantly wrestling, why them and not me? 00:21:49.539 --> 00:21:53.120 Why do I have so much wealth and so many opportunities and they don't? 00:21:53.259 --> 00:21:54.240 Why God? 00:21:54.620 --> 00:21:59.220 Christians wrestle and struggle with this as everybody else does. 00:21:59.220 --> 00:22:04.299 But there is great comfort when we think about our foundation, the Bible, 00:22:04.420 --> 00:22:11.400 that we are in the hands of a wise, powerful, good, infinite God that's more comforting than chance. 00:22:12.019 --> 00:22:16.200 And it gives the hope of purpose even while we suffer. 00:22:16.200 --> 00:22:23.340 And that's why I want us to look for the rest of our time at the unique Christian resources 00:22:23.340 --> 00:22:31.819 that we find in the Bible for coping with pain and suffering, for facing pain and suffering. 00:22:31.819 --> 00:22:41.619 So that takes us back to John chapter 11, to Jesus and these two sisters, Martha and Mary, 00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:46.759 who've been left grieving by the death of their brother Lazarus. 00:22:46.839 --> 00:22:51.939 Now, what resources can we find in this text to help us? 00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:59.480 Well, the first thing to notice is the presence of Jesus. 00:22:59.480 --> 00:23:12.740 Jesus is not remote and distant and unconcerned. 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:18.759 Jesus has entered into a suffering world. 00:23:19.360 --> 00:23:23.220 Jesus moves towards suffering people. 00:23:24.339 --> 00:23:28.160 Jesus is described as a man of sorrows. 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:31.259 Jesus is familiar with grief. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:36.840 And that matters because as the book of Hebrews says, 00:23:37.420 --> 00:23:46.060 in Jesus, who is God, you will find someone who is able to sympathise with you. 00:23:47.100 --> 00:23:48.519 He has been there. 00:23:48.840 --> 00:23:51.759 He has walked in our shoes. 00:23:51.759 --> 00:24:02.420 And he is at the same time almighty God who is able to give strength and to help you to persevere. 00:24:03.460 --> 00:24:09.779 So the presence of Jesus matters to these sisters and to you and to me. 00:24:09.779 --> 00:24:15.359 Related to that is the comfort of Jesus. 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:25.139 In this text that we read is the shortest verse in the Bible, which is also so profound. 00:24:25.140 --> 00:24:27.140 Jesus wept. 00:24:27.140 --> 00:24:28.780 Jesus wept. 00:24:29.780 --> 00:24:32.080 Confronted by misery. 00:24:33.180 --> 00:24:35.120 Confronted by grief. 00:24:36.360 --> 00:24:37.520 Jesus wept. 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:42.680 Even as he knew what he would shortly do. 00:24:43.240 --> 00:24:46.000 He would bring resurrection life. 00:24:47.120 --> 00:24:49.040 He still wept. 00:24:49.940 --> 00:24:52.300 Jesus carried that grief. 00:24:52.299 --> 00:25:02.480 He answers the promise of Isaiah 53 that God's Saviour would bear our sorrows. 00:25:04.059 --> 00:25:07.619 Jesus holds us close. 00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:12.720 As his people lament and suffer, 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:17.859 Jesus is there to extend comfort. 00:25:17.859 --> 00:25:26.919 There is also the great hope in the resurrection of Jesus. 00:25:26.919 --> 00:25:30.259 Here again, the words of Jesus to Martha. 00:25:31.859 --> 00:25:34.819 I am the resurrection and the life. 00:25:35.500 --> 00:25:41.379 The one who believes in me will live even though they die. 00:25:42.439 --> 00:25:45.319 Jesus' words are amazing. 00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:49.679 What does Jesus say to Martha? 00:25:50.899 --> 00:25:55.000 What is it that you and I need in the face of suffering and death? 00:25:55.559 --> 00:25:57.559 We need Jesus. 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:02.439 Because he is in himself life. 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:04.419 True life. 00:26:05.220 --> 00:26:12.240 Again, it's the hope of Sagarga, Nivalga in Nigeria and his church as they suffer. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:14.900 He said a lot of people are looking forward to heaven. 00:26:15.579 --> 00:26:17.079 Of course, nobody wants to die. 00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:23.059 But the way things are happening, you don't know when or who will be the next person. 00:26:23.740 --> 00:26:29.359 So the consolation for the church in Nigeria, he said, is to go back to the Bible. 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:31.079 And what do you find there? 00:26:31.079 --> 00:26:37.039 You find there Jesus who promises life beyond death. 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:42.639 Who says that pain and suffering is not the end of the story. 00:26:43.359 --> 00:26:44.939 Resurrection life. 00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:51.679 Real, physical, perfected resurrection life is the great hope of Christianity. 00:26:51.980 --> 00:26:53.559 At the end of the Bible, what do we discover? 00:26:53.659 --> 00:26:55.319 We discover Jesus will return. 00:26:56.019 --> 00:26:57.740 He will make the world new. 00:26:57.740 --> 00:27:00.059 Evil will be gone forever. 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:06.680 And Jesus and his people will live together forever in a world of perfect love and joy. 00:27:06.859 --> 00:27:08.599 With all tears wiped away. 00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:11.120 With all pain and suffering gone. 00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:16.880 Jesus shouted, come out to his friend Lazarus. 00:27:16.900 --> 00:27:22.319 And one day that cry will be heard by all his followers who will rise to perfect physical life. 00:27:22.420 --> 00:27:24.200 And there is hope. 00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:31.200 Hope that the endless, seemingly endless cycle of pain and suffering and misery, it will be broken. 00:27:32.180 --> 00:27:36.840 Death itself will come untrue and be no more. 00:27:40.259 --> 00:27:45.480 And that's true because of the cross of Jesus. 00:27:46.460 --> 00:27:50.019 That's the other great resource within Christianity for helping us to cope. 00:27:50.120 --> 00:27:51.819 The cross of Jesus. 00:27:51.819 --> 00:28:03.039 We know from our Bibles that not long after raising Lazarus, this life-giving Jesus, the Son of God, would die on the cross. 00:28:03.819 --> 00:28:08.819 And in his dying, there are great resources for comfort and hope. 00:28:09.779 --> 00:28:17.939 There is the promise that we can live because he died for us and rose again. 00:28:17.940 --> 00:28:25.519 Jesus, on the cross, lost a sense of the infinite love of his Father. 00:28:25.900 --> 00:28:28.940 He experienced spiritual abandonment. 00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:31.279 He experienced a depth of suffering. 00:28:31.700 --> 00:28:37.480 We never will so that by faith in him, we need never be alone as we suffer. 00:28:37.940 --> 00:28:40.799 We need never be cut off from our God. 00:28:40.799 --> 00:28:43.180 We need never be cut off from hope. 00:28:45.619 --> 00:28:55.799 Jesus extends to us hope beyond pain and suffering and death because he offers in his sacrificial death forgiveness and eternal life. 00:28:55.799 --> 00:29:02.879 So that as we look at the cross, we cannot say God is distant or remote, that God doesn't love us. 00:29:03.019 --> 00:29:14.379 Rather, we see that God loves us so much that he enters into a suffering world, that he takes our misery so seriously that he comes and takes it on himself. 00:29:14.380 --> 00:29:30.460 What we have at the centre of Christianity is Jesus, God in the flesh, who offers himself to you to walk with you in pain and suffering, 00:29:30.460 --> 00:29:38.539 having walked that path before you in order to give the gift of salvation, 00:29:38.539 --> 00:29:50.539 if you would put your faith in him to offer you the certain prospect of infinite love and joy of a world of glory beyond suffering. 00:29:50.539 --> 00:30:02.720 Ultimately, as we look at pain and suffering, as we struggle through it, Jesus is God's answer to the problem. 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:05.539 Let's pray together. 00:30:07.779 --> 00:30:18.019 Lord God, thank you that while the Bible is honest about pain and suffering, it tells us of trials that will come. 00:30:18.019 --> 00:30:21.400 It tells us of heartache and heartbreak. 00:30:21.700 --> 00:30:27.180 It also gives us wonderful resources to give us strength to endure. 00:30:28.019 --> 00:30:35.220 We thank you that you are a wise and powerful and loving God, that you're not distant and remote. 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:38.559 We thank you for the suffering of Jesus. 00:30:39.339 --> 00:30:46.319 We thank you for his love and his sympathy, his being willing to bear our sorrows. 00:30:46.319 --> 00:30:53.960 We thank you for the cross of Jesus that gives us assurance that we can be saved, that we can have peace with God, 00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:57.740 that we can look forward to life with you forever. 00:30:57.879 --> 00:31:05.740 We thank you for the resurrection of Jesus and the hope that just as Jesus rose again, 00:31:05.899 --> 00:31:11.839 so we can anticipate a perfect life forever if our faith is in him. 00:31:11.839 --> 00:31:14.339 Lord, we want to pray. 00:31:15.799 --> 00:31:20.220 We want to pray for those who need this hope today, 00:31:20.720 --> 00:31:28.000 for those who are going through that furnace of trials and tears and pain and suffering, 00:31:28.679 --> 00:31:34.679 for those who are grieving, for those who are unsure what their future holds. 00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:39.140 Lord, we pray that you would draw near to them, 00:31:39.220 --> 00:31:40.700 that you would walk with them, 00:31:40.940 --> 00:31:45.500 that you would reveal your heart and your hope to them. 00:31:46.840 --> 00:31:51.779 Lord, this is beyond philosophy and reasoning. 00:31:53.259 --> 00:31:57.420 Lord, we need a truth to cling on to. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:00.799 We need meaning and purpose as we suffer. 00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:04.879 Lord, may we find it in the Lord Jesus. 00:32:05.980 --> 00:32:06.539 Amen. 00:32:08.159 --> 00:32:11.940 Now we're going to close with a couple of songs again. 00:32:12.399 --> 00:32:16.220 Abide with me and then a section from Psalm 27. 00:32:17.319 --> 00:32:22.279 And just a heads up that next week, we'll look at another difficult topic. 00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:25.700 I'm thinking about how can God be good? 00:32:25.700 --> 00:32:30.620 Can God be good if he judges people, if he sends people to hell? 00:32:30.700 --> 00:32:36.580 So again, another hugely important topic that maybe we have a very emotional response to. 00:32:36.660 --> 00:32:42.420 But I would encourage you to come and to think together about that. 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:45.220 So until next time, take care.