What Good News Do We Have in COVID-19?

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer.

What if God in love was shaking our physical foundations, letting us experience what really is a temporary tragedy in order to wake us up to a far more serious permanent tragedy, an eternal tragedy, the tragedy of dying and not being right with God. Welcome to Summit Life with pastor, author and theologian J.D. Greer.

I'm your host Molly Vidovich. Today Pastor J.D. tackles the difficult question, the question that perhaps we've all been asking for about 10 months now. What good news do we have in the midst of COVID-19?

Well, spoiler alert, our message hasn't changed at all this year. It's still that Christ has risen from the dead to save the world. In these topsy-turvy times, we have a unique opportunity to share and show the love of God to a watching world. Let's join Pastor J.D. in Matthew chapter 28.

Christ is risen, but here's the question. Is that true? Is that true? You know, one of the problems in this pandemic has been the prevalence of what they call fake news. You've probably heard contradictory reports about how long this is going to last and what precautions are the right ones to take or what are the appropriate social distance measurements, where the virus originated, whether 5G is making it worse, which medicines are going to work, how fragile our medical system is, or any number of things. Fake news can be disastrous when you make major life decisions based on it. By the way, I learned that the first major scandal in our country involving fake news occurred in 1835 when the editor of a New York newspaper published a series of articles claiming that signs of life had been discovered on the moon. The articles were able to gain traction because they featured a series of quotes that were misleadingly attributed to a very celebrated astronomer named Sir John Herschel. Well, because nobody knew where Professor Herschel was at the time, the editor figured that he would be difficult to track down and so the hoax would be safe.

It became known as the Great Moon Hoax. To many people, the resurrection of Jesus sounds like fake news. To some, it sounds like little more than wishful thinking, a fairy tale ending to life for people who can't handle the fact that we're all alone in the universe and there's no sweep by and by waiting for us in the sky when we die. Others assume that the accounts of the resurrection were just rumors that were made up by overexcited religious zealots to give themselves the trump card and the religious controversies of their day. I mean, after all, if your leader rose from the dead, then that gives you the final word on whatever you were talking about. So maybe inventing the resurrection was just their ploy to gain power or maybe even to raise money. I mean, tragically, we've seen religious charlatans do this throughout history and so people think maybe that's what was happening with the resurrection. But there's a phrase that's repeated over and over in the gospels that challenges that interpretation of these events and that phrase is come and see.

It's a phrase that we're going to see repeated throughout the life of Jesus. For example, in John 1, Jesus reveals the fact that he is the Messiah, one of the first people he reveals it to is a man named Philip. He does so by revealing to Philip secrets about Philip that nobody could have known. So Philip runs home and tells his brother, Nathaniel, that he's met the Messiah.

Well, Nathaniel just scoffs at him and said, he's just my younger brother's overactive imagination. What was Philip's response? John 1.46, come and see.

Come and see for yourself. John 4, a few chapters later, Jesus encounters a woman at the well, an outcast woman who was shunned by her society. Jesus does the same thing with her that he did with Philip. He reveals to her secrets about herself that she thought nobody knew and then he shows her that he cares for her anyway and that she's safe with him. So she runs into town saying to everybody, I've met the Messiah.

I've met the one who's been promised by all the prophets. And people kind of look at her and they roll their eyes and they're like, seriously? Why would we listen to you?

Her response? John 4.29, come and see. Come and see for yourselves. Without question, the most important of these happens in Matthew 28. In fact, I just want to read you the story. Matthew 28, verse 1. At dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake for an angel. The Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance, the angel's appearance, was like lightning and his clothes were white as snow.

The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and they became like dead men. The angel said to the women, do not be afraid for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified but he is not here. He has risen just as he said, come and see.

See the phrase? Come and see the place where he lay. Come and see. Come see if this is made up.

Come see if this is just wishful thinking. And so the women went to the tomb and they took a look for themselves. And then they ran and got the rest of the disciples, all the guys who were huddled together in a room out of fear that the authorities were going to come for them next. The women give their report and the men respond with disbelief. They dismiss it as the ravings of a woman who is overcome with grief. The women respond with basically the same words, Luke 24, 11, hey, just come and see.

Come and see for yourselves. So Peter does come and see. Let's keep going to Matthew 28 because I want you to see how the rest of the story unfolds. Verse 11, while the women were on their way, that is going to tell the 11 disciples who were huddled in the upper room about the empty tomb, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priest everything that had happened. When the chief priest had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money telling them, you are to say his disciples came during the night and stole them away while we were asleep. There it is, by the way, fake news, right?

There is a false report given. Then they told them, if this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him. We'll keep you out of trouble.

We'll make sure that you stay safe. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

So there we have it. The first counterclaim to the resurrection, deliberate fake news. The disciples stole the body and they made up the story of the resurrection to gain some political advantage.

But what you have to ask yourself is, does that claim make any sense? I mean, first, how could a group of untrained fishermen and carpenters successfully sneak past a Roman garrison guarding the tomb? I mean, these were elite Roman soldiers and they knew that falling asleep on guard duty was punishable by death.

And you're telling me that all 12 fell asleep at once while a group of untrained fishermen snuck past, hoisted away a two-ton rock that was covering the tomb and stole the body? Second, what motive would the disciples have had to make this story up? I mean, when you're going to make a story up and you're going to tell a lie, there's something you want to gain from it. What would they have gained from that lie? One historian said it this way, when what we teach we know to be false, what motivates us to do that is a desire to line our pockets with money not to get whipped and beaten and imprisoned and killed. Yet that is exactly what happened with the apostles.

Testifying to this gained them no political power, no monetary windfall. Every one of the apostles was hunted down, imprisoned, tortured. Most of them were, in fact, executed.

In fact, let me try to make this more real this way. If you're going to say that they intentionally lied about the resurrection, that means that sometime between Friday when Jesus died and Sunday morning when he was reported as resurrected, something like this went down. It's Saturday morning and all the disciples are out on an early morning fishing trip and they're pretty upset about Jesus being executed the day before. And so, they start talking about how much they miss him and they start reminiscing about how meaningful his teaching was. And Thomas, you know, doubting Thomas says, oh, remember that story about the Good Samaritan?

I love that story. And all the disciples are like, yeah, that was a good one. And Andrew says, hey, and remember the time that they were going to stone the woman for adultery and Jesus leaned down and he rode in the dirt and he looked up and he said, let him who was without sin cast the first stone. Remember that?

Yeah, that was awesome. And all of a sudden, Peter, he jumps up in the boat and he says, wait, wait, I know. I know the cause of Jesus doesn't have to end here. Let's say that he resurrected.

In fact, let's say that that was the whole point of his life to die for our sins and be resurrected and we'll go steal the body so that nobody knows where it is. And suddenly Thaddeus jumps up and he says, well, are we going to get popular by doing this? And Peter says, well, no, probably not. We'll be hated. We'll be cast out of our communities. We'll spend our whole lives running from Jewish and Roman authorities. And Matthew, the former tax collector, he says, well, are we going to get rich from this? And Peter says, no, probably not.

I mean, they'll probably confiscate our property and throw us in prison. And John, you know, the disciples says, well, will we at least have the satisfaction that we're pointing people to eternal salvation? And Peter says, no, not really because what we're telling them, we know it isn't true.

We know it's not true. So if there is a God, there'll be no heaven in this for us. And then they all kind of look at each other and say, well, sounds great.

I'm in. And out they go. And one by one, the Roman authorities and the Jewish authorities hunt them down. And as they and the people they love are being drug off to be killed, they're still winking at each other saying, hey, you know, stick to the story. This is going to be great.

It's going to be awesome. I mean, honestly, do you find that explanation compelling? Oh, no. I mean, the only thing I think with the power to compel them to do this was to actually be convinced that they'd seen the empty tomb for themselves. Listen, what transformed Thomas, who was famously called Doubting Thomas, what transformed him from a doubter into somebody who was tied to the back of a chariot and drug through the streets in modern-day India, was not that he suddenly found his courage or he read a Tony Robbins book. What turned him into a fearless witness was the simple fact that he'd seen the empty tomb. Or remember Peter? Remember Peter who out of fear denied Jesus three times on the night of his death?

One of them to a middle school girl, by the way, right? Ask yourself, what transformed a fearful, cowardly Peter into the bold leader of the early church, one who was willing to undergo crucifixion himself for this testimony? Well, I mean, what else could it have been except that he saw the resurrection?

I mean, do you think Peter, who denied the living Jesus, would have been willing to die for one he knew was dead? So you don't have to agree here with Sir Lionel Luckhoo, who is one of England's royal lawyers, who said it this way, I spent more than 42 years as a defense trial lawyer appearing in many parts of the world and am still in active practice. I have been fortunate to secure a number of successes in jury trials, and I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof, which leaves absolutely no room for doubt. Come and see. Come and see. The evidence is clear for all who want to see it. That's the first meaning of the phrase, come and see.

This actually happened. It's backed up by all the prophecies and what we call the older testament, the Hebrew Bible. Dozens of places prophesied that the Messiah would come, suffer, die, and be raised again.

Come and see for yourselves. But, you know, the presence of that phrase, come and see in this story, I think raises one other question for us, and that question is, well, why didn't everybody come and see? I mean, the invitation was public, the empty tomb was there for all who wanted to come and see it, yet many of those who heard about the resurrection, like the soldiers, like Pilate, they treated it with what you, at best, you would call indifference.

They just never took time to investigate it. I mean, Pilate just flat out said, meh, the question is not really that concerning to me right now. It just seemed to him like a religious curiosity, and he just wasn't that religious of a person.

Religion's not really my thing, he said. And furthermore, his life was consumed with more pressing matters like how to run the government, how to keep the peace, how to collect taxes, how to keep his boss happy. It's not that he went and investigated the evidence and found it lacking.

He just wasn't that motivated to investigate it. Well, see, this is where I find most people still are today. Honestly, I don't find many people who really consider the evidence and leave unconvinced.

Most just never press into the question because they just don't think of it as that pressing of a question for them right now. But why did some, why did some like the disciples? Why did they find it so pressing while others did not? Why did some risk their lives to run to the tomb to come and see for themselves when others didn't?

Well, think about it. For the disciples, everything in their world had been turned upside down with the death of Jesus. This guy that they had invested three years of their life with and been following for three years was dead. And if he really was dead, it meant that all their hopes for the future were gone and they've wasted their lives. But if he was resurrected, well, well, that changed everything. It meant that they had a reason to live after all.

Even more, he was the only thing worth living for. If he resurrected, that means that his death on the cross really was the payment for their sins, like he had said. It meant that they didn't have to be afraid of death. Earthly things need no longer be their primary concern.

What mattered was where they stood with him and what they were doing for his eternal kingdom. Well, like I said, for most people, the story about the resurrection is met with a shrug of the shoulders or a look of indifference. They've never really pressed into it because it's just not that pressing of a question to them right now.

They got so many other things that they're thinking about, bills to pay and bosses to keep happy and kids to raise. But now, see, now with the coronavirus, for many of us, life looks different. Many of us are realizing how fragile life actually is, how near and close death can be, just like the disciples had their world turned upside down, our world's been turned upside down. And if our only hope is the medical system or our physical health or our jobs or what we've got stored up in the bank or our national security or the quality of our leaders, then we're on shaky ground. And a time like this makes us realize that, can I say it, brazen stupidity of living as if the 70 or 80 years of earthly life are all that matters with no thoughts about death or the judgment or what comes next. Let me ask you, where is your hope for the future in a time like this?

What's the basis of your optimism, of your hope for the future? Is it just in the odds? Are you like, well, you know, only 3% die or maybe it's 10%, but I'm young and I'm healthy or I live in a rural environment or I'm practicing good social distancing, so I think I'm probably okay, I'm not in that 3% or 10% or whatever. And maybe that's true or maybe it's not. Playing the odds is just not a firm place to stand.

Because let me give you another statistic, even more reliable, 100%. It is appointed to every single man and woman, 100% of us wants to die, Hebrews says. And after this, the judgment, the eventual death rate of every person on earth holds steady at 100%. As John Piper says, this is a time when the fragile form of this world is felt. The seemingly solid foundations are shaking.

The question we should be asking is, do we have a rock under our feet, a rock that cannot be shaken ever? See, friend, let me ask you this, what if God in love was shaking our physical foundations, letting us experience what really is a temporary tragedy in order to wake us up to a far more serious permanent tragedy, an eternal tragedy, the tragedy of dying and not being right with God? I mean, maybe you're having a hard time seeing how something like this could be an expression of God's love.

And in one sense, it's not. I mean, diseases like this are a part of the curse, the curse from our sin, that curse that brings tsunamis, and cancer, and car wrecks, and the coronavirus. That curse is part of God's righteous judgment on sin, judgment that breaks his heart, but judgment that we, the human race, have brought on ourselves. Yet even though it's part of the curse, Scripture teaches us that God can still use something like this in love. He can use the temporary affliction of the body to wake us up to the eternal needs of the soul.

I heard it described like this recently. There once was a lumberjack who was going to cut down several trees right next to this rock face. And right before he cut down the first tree, he noticed that a robin had built a really pretty nest up in the top of one of these trees that he was about to cut down. And he didn't want to destroy the nest, and the eggs, and the robin. So he takes a sledgehammer and he goes over and he starts to knock on the tree until the bird, I guess, gets annoyed enough that he just flies off of the tree and begins to build his nest in another tree. Well, a couple hours later, he notices that this robin has built this nest in this other tree that he's got to cut down.

So he does the same thing. He takes a sledgehammer, knocks on that tree for a while until the bird moves, and the bird just moves to another tree. He does this five or six times until eventually the robin goes over to the side of the rock face and begins to establish its nest in the side of that rock. Now, you can just imagine how annoyed the robin was at the lumberjack, thinking, what does the lumberjack have against me? Why does he keep attacking where I'm going to build my nest? But you can see in the bigger picture that it was compassion. It was love that was motivating the lumberjack to do this. He wasn't just trying to destroy the nest.

He was trying to get this robin to build its nest in a place that would not be cut down. You see, the world that we live in, no part of it is a place for us to build a life. And you might think, well, it's going to be in a good career.

It's going to be a good family. It's going to be in health. And none of those places are sufficient as a foundation. The whole world is under the judgment of sin. No foundation that we look for here is going to last only in the resurrection of Christ. Only in that are we going to find that rock, that eternal hope that we're looking for. And see, that's our message. At the end of Matthew 28, after the disciples have come and seen for themselves, Jesus changes his command from come and see to go and tell. Every person in every nation needs to hear this message about forgiveness of sins and hope beyond the grave. So he says, go and tell them. Whenever I'm preaching, this is basically what I'm trying to get across. All right? Number one, every idol, every other foundations besides Christ is going to fail one day.

All of them ultimately are going to let you down. They're going to come crashing down in the chainsaws of judgment. Of course, this is true of us at all times, but in a time like this with the coronavirus, we feel it more. Richard Baxter, who was a 17th century British pastor, he used to pray before he preached. He would pray before he walked up into the pulpit, Lord, help me to preach like a dying man to dying men.

That's what I want to do. Sure, you and I may not have the virus and some of us may have it, but all of us are dying, whether it's seven months or 70 years, it's going to come for all of us eventually. You know, it was said that in the sinking of the Titanic, there was one pastor who was among those who were floating in the water after the ship had gone down. The pastor quickly realized that help would never get there in time and that because of hypothermia that most people were going to be dead in about 20 minutes. One of the survivors said that the last he was seen was frantically swimming around from passenger to passenger pleading with them to turn from their sins and trust Christ. That's what I'm doing, like a dying man to dying man pleading with you to turn to Christ.

Here's the second thing. Jesus is our only hope for salvation. That's our message. Our world stands condemned, but Jesus offers salvation. You know, some of you might be new to the Bible. I always tell people when they're new to Christianity that I can summarize the entire Bible in just four statements, bad news, worse news, good news, better news. Bad news, bad news is you and I are condemned because of our sin.

We have each chosen our own way because we thought we knew better than God and we've rather lived with us in charge and Him in charge. And because of that, we're eternally condemned to separation from God in a place called hell. The worst news is there's nothing that we can do about it. Religion can't fix it. Good intentions can't fix it. The law of sin and rebellion is written deep into our souls.

What's the good news? The good news is that what we couldn't do, God in love did for us. Jesus, God's Son, lived the life we should have lived, right? And then He died the death that we were condemned to die in our place.

He paid it all. He's conquered death. One day, we know He's going to recreate this world and He'll wipe it free of all the coronavirus and suffering and death. That's the good news. You say, well, that is good news. What could be better news?

Even better news is it's a gift that you only have to receive. A gift, John 1-12, as many as received Jesus, it was to them He gave the right, the privilege, the power to become the sons of God to those who believe on His name, right? Number three, number three, third part of our message, the last part, the same God that conquered death for us is going to take care of us in life. We know that if God did not abandon us at the cross in the moment of His death, there is no circumstance in our lives in which He will abandon us either. There was never, you understand, a more hopeless time, humanly speaking, than when the Son of God was in the grave. The disciples themselves were despairing, but Jesus is risen. And as sure as He walked out of the grave, He promises life to those of us who are still living in the shadow of death.

The same care He shows for us at the cross is the same care He holds us in all the days of our lives. So let me say something as I close here to those of you who are not yet believers. Are you ready to acknowledge in this that you need God?

I mean, each of us has two primary problems. Our first problem is that life without God just ultimately won't work because nothing can protect us, nothing can deliver us from death, right? Problem number two is that we stand condemned under God's judgment.

It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. You need to understand that in this, God is seeking you. He's using a temporary tragedy to wake you up to an eternal need of yours. God is like the Father in the prodigal son story who stands looking for you even in this to come back to Him.

He's shaking your foundations because He wants to be reunited to you. Do you need to receive Christ? Do you need to receive Christ?

You could do so right now. Why don't we just bow our heads together? And if you have never received Christ or if you're not sure that you have, you could do so with a prayer like this one. Lord Jesus, I realize that when you came to die for sin, you came to die for me. I believe that you died for my sin. I receive you as my Savior and I give you my life. Take charge of my life, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. Amen. Listen, to those of you who are believers, my challenge is to let this shake you, to show you the one place that you should trust and that is in Jesus who is the rock. And I want you to renew your commitment to go and tell everybody that you can about this message. He is risen.

So in a dark day, like the ones that we're in, we can hold on to this rock that is never shaken and that will never let us down. Christ is risen. You're listening to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian, J.D.

Greer. To learn more about Pastor J.D. and this nonprofit ministry, visit us online at jdgreer.com.

I asked J.D. if he would take a minute to talk about the challenges of 2020. A global pandemic, racial strife, political divisiveness, and general uncertainty have impacted us all in ways that we couldn't predict or imagine.

Here's what he had to say. My wife and I felt like this year has maybe been the most trying year of our lives or ministry. We felt several times that we were just going to buckle under the pressure of just trying to lead a church at a time when we're not meeting as normal.

There have been some tough talks around around what's going on politically and what's going on racially. And I know that we could not have made it through this year this far without the support and the encouragement of our family in Christ, our church, and folks like you. You're a very important part of our lives and ministry, and we're grateful for you. I want to invite you to prayerfully consider investing in our ministries here as we continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ. We would love to have you as one of our gospel partners that enables us to be on the air in times like this, sharing the gospel with people. So if you'll go to jdgrier.com, you can find out how you can become a part of this ministry team. If you've already given on behalf of our entire team and your fellow listeners, thank you.

But if you haven't given that crucial year-end gift quite yet, there's still time. When you give, you're helping more people hear the gospel in 2021. And so in reality, Summit Life is your ministry.

Will you join us today? When you do, we'll say thanks by sending you an exclusive resource. Ask for a copy of the 2021 Summit Life Day Planner when you donate today by calling 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or request the planner when you give online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovich inviting you to join us again tomorrow as JD addresses five things that God is doing during the pandemic. It's part of our series called The World Upside Down. And you can hear it right here Thursday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.