The Disappointed

Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D.

Greer addresses a common struggle. What do you do when God disappoints you? It is precisely in that moment of question, precisely when you say, God how deep is this pain and where are you? That is the place where God will show you that his love, his grace, his plan is deeper than the pain of despair. And that is the question that is being considered in John 11. When life goes tragically wrong, a loved one passes away, a spouse walks out, an illness ravages your body, a lot of people end up questioning their faith.

It just doesn't make sense. Why would a good God let that happen? Is he even there and does he actually care? Those are the questions that we're wrestling with today on Summit Life as pastor, author, and theologian J.D. Greer continues our series called Can't Believe. We're learning that pain can either drive us away from God or deeper into the truths of the gospel. Pastor J.D. titled this message The Disappointed.

Grab your Bible and pen and let's get started. This week we're going to look at the disappointed. By that I mean those who can't believe because they think God did not show up when he should have. It's some miracle that he didn't do, some question that he did not answer, something that they think that he should have done but he didn't.

It was something you were waiting on and you just can't understand why it is that God didn't do it because if you were God and you loved you as much as God says he loves you then you would have done this. I recently read an article about Ted Turner who is of course the creator of CNN and TBS and a number of other cable stations, multi-billionaire. He became a very outspoken atheist when he was in his early 20s. He's backed off a good bit from it now but what's really interesting is that when he was in high school he was completely on fire for Jesus. He was planning to be a missionary.

That was his agenda while he was in high school. When he was 15 years old though his younger sister Mary Jane, who was 12 at the time, contracted lupus, a degenerative tissue disease, and for several years he watched as her body was wracked with pain. She constantly was vomiting and he returned home from school quite often to her screams filling the house. He would come home, he would hold her hand, he would try to comfort her. He prayed earnestly for her recovery. She prayed that she would die to be released from the misery.

After many years of misery and struggling she succumbed to the disease and she died. Well Ted's dad, Ed Turner, said at that time if that is the kind of God that he is then I want nothing to do with him. That had a very powerful effect on Ted and Ted lost his faith. He said I was taught that God was love and that God was powerful and I could not understand how someone so innocent and precious as my sister should be made or allowed to suffer so. On March 5, 1963 Ted's dad had breakfast with his wife. He went upstairs put a 38 special inside of his mouth and pulled the trigger.

That sealed the deal for Ted. If that's the type of God that he is then I want nothing to do with that kind of God. And that's our question is what what do you do what do you what do you do when God disappoints you?

Because you got a few options. One you can lose your faith like Ted Turner. You can say you know what God's not there and he probably has never been there. For a lot of people what you'll do is you'll isolate the question from your faith. I find a lot of Christians do this.

They just don't think about it. It's too painful to walk away from your faith so you're just going to isolate your faith from that part. But the problem with that is it results in a superficial faith that doesn't really love God because you can't love God and you can't love a God that you won't let into certain parts of your heart and mind.

So you just got Christians that kind of give moralistic, pietistic answers to things that don't really deal with the pain that's going on in their lives and certainly not going on dealing with the pain that's going on in the lives of people around them. The third thing you can do is you can let those questions press you deeper into faith. I will tell you that it is the times of greatest struggle for me.

The times where I had the most questions. The times of deepest doubt that God has used to show me who He is and the sweetness of His presence. One of my other heroes Charles Spurgeon says that doubt is like a foot poised.

A foot poised to go forwards or backwards. You can certainly have doubt drive you backwards into unbelief but it is also certain that you will never be able to walk forward until you pick up your foot. It is precisely in that moment of question, precisely when you say, God how deep is this pain and where are you? That is the place where God will show you that His love, His grace, His plan is deeper than the pain of despair and that is the question that is being considered in John chapter 11.

Now for some of you, again this the question may not be this extreme. You might not be about to lose your faith but you know what? You're genuinely frustrated with God.

You're frustrated with God because your life has not turned out at this point the way that you thought it should. All your friends for example are getting married and you're not. You're like, God what's wrong with me? How come you're not giving this to me?

All your friends are getting jobs or promotions but it's not working out for you. They're like, God what's wrong with me? Am I that much worse? How come they're walking in all this blessing and nothing seems to be happening for me?

God why? I'm disappointed. Or maybe at this point in your marriage you thought you'd be having children but you're not. Or maybe you're approaching retirement and it's just not looking good. Or maybe your kids didn't turn out the way that you thought they should. Maybe at this point you thought you've been enjoying sweet fellowship with your kids and your grandkids but they're estranged from you. Or maybe you're 40 years old and your husband just walked out on you. Or maybe you're 40 and your parents just got divorced. Then you're like, God I just don't understand it.

How could this be your perfect plan? And to make any sense, John chapter 11 verse 1. Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus.

He was from Bethany which is the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters said to him saying, Lord he whom you love is ill. Now what are they hoping for? What are they hoping for?

It didn't take a genius to figure that out. I mean they'd seen what he could do. They'd seen him heal. Surely if Jesus would heal complete strangers who managed to get a hold of the hem of his garment as he's walking from one place to another, surely for a friend that he loved so much, surely he would come and heal. Verse 4, but when Jesus heard it he said this illness does not lead to death.

It is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Verse 5, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. And now one of the strangest words in the entire New Testament. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

So? Does that word make any sense to you right there? I mean it seems to me but would make better sense there. Now Jesus loved Mary and Lazarus and Martha but when he heard Lazarus was ill he waited two days. That's not what it says.

It says so. That doesn't make any sense. That's like me saying I love my wife so much so I forgot her birthday.

I didn't get her anything. You just don't, it doesn't make any sense to use the word so right there. Verse 7, then after this he said to the disciples, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep but I go to awaken him. He's trying to give him sort of some inside knowledge. So these you know intellectual geniuses they respond this way verse 12 and 13. They're like well Lord if he's asleep he'll wake up on his own. Verse 14, so Jesus told them plainly. You got to read that. Jesus told them and rolled his eyes. That's basically what that says. Lazarus has died.

I think Jesus probably spent a lot of time in the gospels rolling his eyes. He's like really guys that's what you thought I meant? You thought I meant that he was taking a nap and I'm gonna walk for two days go wake him up. Thank you.

Thank you for being so insightful. Verse 17, I'm really feeling good about entrusting the future of the church to you 12. Verse 17, now when Jesus came he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. You see Jews had a belief that someone after they die their spirit kind of hangs around their body for three days waiting on the chance for resuscitation but after three days that chance is gone so then the spirit goes off to wherever it's going to be to heaven or to hell or whatever. So the fact that Jesus waits four days means that he's showing that Lazarus is not just mostly dead.

Princess bride. He's dead dead. He's full on dead. He can't get deader than Lazarus.

Four days. Verse 21, Martha said to Jesus, Lord if you've been here my brother would not have died. See Martha's got the same problem with God that we do. God where were you? God you could have fixed this. Why didn't you come? Why didn't you come? I told you in enough time you could have come. Why didn't you come? You almost you got to hear the acerbic element that laces what she says there. If you were to bring here my brother would not have died but you weren't here and that's why he died.

Disappointment. Verse 23, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha who had just graduated from seminary said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Verse 25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this? And she said, yes I believe that you are the son of God. Verse 28, when she had said this she went and called her sister Mary saying the teacher is here and he's calling for you.

When Mary heard it she rose quickly and went to him. Now when Mary came to him where Jesus was and she saw him she fell at his feet saying to him, Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died. Verse 33, when Jesus saw her weeping he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled and he said, where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord come and see. Verse 35, and Jesus wept. Literally in the Greek it says and Jesus burst into tears. I want to focus here on how Jesus responds to these two sisters because I think understanding what Jesus says to those who are disappointed hinges on the two different answers that he gave to these sisters. You see what Mary and Martha said to Jesus was exactly the same, verbatim.

Lord if you had have been here my brother would not have died. But the reaction Jesus gives to both of them is completely different and that is not because he loved one more than the other, that is not even because they had different personalities. It is because when you walk through disappointment, when you understand what Jesus is saying to you, it's got to include both of these elements. These are the ways that Jesus responds to those who are disappointed.

So let's look first at Martha. Martha gets a theological answer. He gets a theological answer. I am the resurrection and the life and the one who lives and believes in me will never really die. Even when he does die he's not really going to be dead because I'm going to reverse all that.

Let me stop here just for a few minutes okay. Let me give you a theological case for suffering. Let me give you the theological answer for suffering. You see the objection is if God is so good and God could stop suffering then why doesn't he?

The fact that he doesn't stop suffering, does that prove that he's not really there? There are three important biblical truths to understand about suffering. You've got to get all three of these. If you have one without the other two it's going to collapse in on itself. You've got to get all three of them.

They're relatively simple but you've got to have all three together. Number one, suffering is the result of the curse of death on our sin. Our suffering is the result of the curse of death on our sin. God created the world with no suffering. He created it perfect. He created it in a condition that Jewish people called shalom.

Shalom meant harmony. It meant everything acted in harmony. There was no disease. There was no death. There was no global warming. There was no injustice. There was no divorce.

Everything was functioning as it should. There was no pain, no tears. It was beautiful. It was shalom. It was peace. It was our sin, our rebellion that interrupted that peace and brought God's God's curse of death upon ourselves. You see most of the objections that are raised against God about suffering are built on the assumption that we as a human race deserve good things. That we're owed good things and God is unjust in not giving them to us. So we talk about the problem of evil and that problem is why do bad things happen to all of us good innocent people?

But you see the Bible takes an entirely opposite approach. As a race we rebelled against God. A rebellion that each of us voluntarily participated in and the just result of that was the curse of death.

What we deserve is death. The fact that they're still good in the world. The fact that they we got this morning there's sunshine on our faces or not so much this morning but the fact that there are sunshine. The fact that we have food in our stomachs. That we have friends.

That we have happiness. That's all grace. And the fact that God has given us a space to repent of our rebellion and a space to teach our children to repent. That is unspeakable grace. The Bible doesn't wrestle with the problem of evil so much as it marvels at amazing grace.

It's a fundamental paradigm shift. You see for a person to look at heaven and yell at God and say God why are you letting this happen to us? To put God on trial for our suffering as if somehow he was unjust is what Jewish people called chutzpah. Chutzpah which they defined as the audacity of a guy who kills his mom and dad and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan. You can't do that.

You can't kill your mom and dad then appeal to the court for mercy because you're an orphan. You caused that. So we sit around asking why is all this bad stuff happening in the world? We're why it's all happening in the world.

We sinned. God didn't create it that way. So the question is not why me?

The better question is why not me? We live in a world of suffering because we rebelled against God and that suffering affects us all because we all as a race participated in that curse and it affects us kind of indiscriminately if I could use it that way. It's just part of the world that we live in. The curse runs rampant in the world and it affects all people and it's not that one instance is paying you back for a particular sin. It is a general curse on the entire rebellion. Does that make sense? Number two.

Here's the second thing. God in his love and mercy has reversed the curse by suffering it in our place. The only truly innocent sufferer ever in history was Jesus. He was the only man to walk the earth ever to live entirely free from rebellion and thus entirely exempt from the curse of death. But when Jesus got to the end of his life rather than being rewarded for his submission he voluntarily submitted to the curse so that he could take it in our place. When he did that he overturned the curse and started the process of healing. In other words Jesus is the one who will make the oceans recede and heal the planet. That's all covered underneath the cross of Jesus Christ. He started the process of healing by dying on a cross and the first thing he heals is us as he reconciles us to God and eventually it works its all the way out to the rest of the world.

Number three. God now uses our suffering, ours, the church, mine and yours, he uses our suffering redemptively for his glory and for our good. For his glory means that there are some things that can be best demonstrated about God to the world in our suffering and there are things and there are things about God's glory that can be demonstrated by our suffering better than they can any other way. For our good means there are some things that God can teach us about himself through our pain better than he can any other way.

Now there's a lot of people that balk at that last point right there and they say whoa all pain? All pain is for God's glory and our good? What about the Holocaust? Are you really going to tell me that some Jewish families out there saying yeah thank God for the Holocaust it did our family so much good and we're grateful for it now? Or about 9-11 how would you say that God brought good out of that?

But see you're forgetting truth number one when you ask that. Truth number one is that the suffering is the just result of the curse of death on our sin. We live in that world under the curse of sin and just watch this just like the sun comes up and randomly shines on both good people and bad people the curse of death in the world in some ways indiscriminately affects us all. Now you say well does that mean that God is not sovereign over all of it?

No yes or yes he is sovereign but you have to expand your understanding of sovereignty. Think of it like this you got a hundred people standing in the field right and the sun comes up the sun does not like choose different people to shine on you you you not you don't deserve it you you don't not you you didn't do that it just shines on all of them in a sense it almost is like it's random when the same way the curse of death operates in the world which causes disease deteriorating relationships and accidents and it extends to us all. I'm not saying every single bad act on earth leads to a good act as if every Jewish family that died in the Holocaust can say look at the good that came to my family through that. No sometimes the system as a whole serves the bigger picture of God's glory which is for our good as we see the glory of God his holiness and his majesty that sometimes it doesn't work so much on the individual level like this produce that it is on the whole the whole thing is working for God's glory and our good but for the believer hear this for the believer for you however God has taken this thing out of death all right and now promised to use everything in your life everything is going to produce something good that's something he does for the believer that's why Paul would say all things are working together for good to them who love God and are called according to his purpose it's why Joseph would look at people who create who who committed great injustice against them sold him into slavery and at the end of his life Joseph would look at them and say you meant it for evil but God repurposed it for good it is for believers that God promises to take every single thing that has happened and use redemptively for your good and his glory because you are the ones that he is redeeming and working in verse 38 then Jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb it was a cave and a stone lay against it Jesus said take away the stone Martha the sister of the dead man said to him um lord you see the problem is by this time there's going to be an odor because he's been dead four days verse 40 Jesus said to her did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God so they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said father I thank you that you have heard me I knew that you always hear me but I said this on the count of the people standing around so that they might believe that you sent me now when he said these things he cried out with a loud voice Lazarus come out and the man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face now wrapped with a glow what did that look like I mean if his feet are bound with hands let me like a mummy me did he roll out is that what he did is he was he trying to was he angry I'd be angry if I've been hanging out with God the father and all the angels for four days and all of a sudden you ripped me about put me in a thing and wrap my face up and he's like trying to talk through it and Jesus is like unbind him and let him go now watch this Martha had warned Jesus not to open the stone because it had been four days and she said the body would stink but Jesus said that they should do it anyway because he knew that what they would encounter when they rolled back the stone is not the stench of death but the glory of God you've got to notice the contrast she was expecting the stench of decomposition he knew that what they would find is the glory of recomposition and I think in this listen you are supposed to see a picture of how God in all pain is working for good in the pain in your life you expect to find the decay of decomposition but what you find is that when God finally rolls away the stone you're going to find that he has repurposed your pain for good and you don't encounter the stench of decay what you find is the glory of what God has made new sometimes he rolls away that stone here on earth and you get to see what he was doing you get to see the glory of recomposition has that not happened to you have you not ever gone through a season where you're like God I don't understand what you're doing why aren't you answering my prayers and like four or five years later you look back you're like thank God that you were doing that during my life because you were preparing me thank God you didn't answer the prayer the way I prayed it thank God I did not marry that girl thank God this did not happen I didn't see what you were doing now but now I see that you were doing don't you have places in your life where you can see that sometimes he rolls back the stone and lets you see it now but see there are other times that you don't get to see him roll away the stone at least in this life but when you go into eternity and you see because rest assured this story shows you that he will roll away every stone and you will see that in all things like Paul said in Romans 8 28 he was working for your good just like he says he was that he was working for your glory what will overwhelm you when he finally rolls away that stone is not the stench of decomposition it is the glory of how God made all things new and you will be confronted with the beauty of what he has recomposed not the ugliness of what decomposed and I know listen I know you can't see that now I mean just think about this logically if you can already already see a purpose for some of the suffering in your life how God was using it for good with just a few years a limited amount of time and just a little bit more perspective don't you think that given enough time and an eternal perspective you're going to be able to see a reason for all of it even though Jesus knows your suffering is temporary he knows what it feels like to you in the moment and he cares deeply an encouraging message from Pastor JD Greer on Summit Life maybe you've got a friend who would really benefit from today's broadcast from our website you can share this message with them visit jdgrier.com Pastor JD we often hear you say that we cannot earn God's favor there's nothing that we can do to become more accepted in God's sight but is there a right way to work for God now molly you just asked me a question that could take literally hours to answer in fact I wrote a book on this called gospel and it was on the wrong ways to work for God and the right ways to work for God but first you should be sure of this God doesn't need you and your work does not make him love you any more than he does and anything you fail to do doesn't make him love you less the gospel is a gift it's a free gift that he offers but the flip side of that is this even though God doesn't need us and even though our work for him doesn't make him love us more as recipients of his grace we're compelled to give back to him as an act of worship we want to love others the way that he's loved us our greatest joy we find comes when we are giving away ourselves in service to him not because we're working over time to impress him not because we've got to live up to a certain standard to earn his love but because we have such gratitude and devotion and joy in the one who has saved us that we just want other people to know him and we want to do things that delight his heart I've written a little devotional called what is the gospel it's a 20-day devotional and I want you to see in that that there's a difference in working to impress God and working because you love God in response to his love for you it's a difference in weariness and religion and joy and freedom in the Christian life I would love to give you a copy of that if you'll go to jdgrier.com you can find out how you can become a gospel partner with us and access a lot of these resources including this 20-day devotional what is the gospel that'll take you more into the wonder of the free gift that God gave you and what it means to be liberated from religion into the freedom as a son or daughter of God of working for him out of joy and not out of duty when you give we'll send you this new 20-day devotional from Pastor JD and for a small additional donation of ten dollars you can also get the book of john scripture notebook as you work through reading the gospel ask for the what is the gospel devotional book when you become a gospel partner and the book of john scripture notebook by calling 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can give online at jdgrier.com i'm molly vidovitch glad to have you with us be sure to listen friday when we continue this message about finding faith in the midst of pain friday on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries