Lessons From Unexpected Disaster, Part 1

You see, when unexpected evil takes place, the question isn't, I wonder if they were bad sinners. You see, the question Jesus wants them to answer is much more personal.

It isn't about what Pilate did with them. The question they and you and I need to answer is, what will God do with us? You'll never be able to answer all the ifs and whats and whys behind unexpected evil. You'll notice Jesus doesn't even begin to explain it, does he?

He just wants them to answer the question, what if it happened to me? The Gospel is an offer of mercy from our sins and grace from the Divine Creator coming into our lives. And the Gospel is available to everyone for as long as they're alive. It's never too late to respond to the Gospel call, but far too many people allow this open-ended invitation to lull them into complacency. The Gospel is a very urgent call which we should respond to now. We need to approach it with the same sense of urgency that Jesus did. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart.

Stephen Davey is in Luke 13 today. His message for you is called, Lessons from Unexpected Disaster. Well, the news reports have been filled with the results of the earthquake and the flooding in Turkey and Syria.

One of our staff pastors is in Turkey and is already talking about how to help partners on the ground with funds to assist them and we'll be talking a little bit more about that in the future. Whenever a natural disaster, we call it, takes place, it doesn't really take very long before people begin asking questions. Where was God? Why didn't he stop this from happening? If God was real, couldn't he have done something about it? Even atheists who don't believe in God question why God didn't do something. Often the immediate response is, well, God is judging people. I read yesterday a Muslim cleric was saying that God sent this, Allah sent this, to judge these people who didn't respond with enough vigor after a Quran was burned in Sweden. So this was judgment.

Here in the West, a more common reaction would be that, well, you know, the devil probably did this. He just sort of went rogue and got a little carried away. He loves chaos. He loves disaster deaths.

He does. But the book of Job crushes that false view. It reveals that Satan is on a leash and can't do anything apart from the will of God, the ultimate plan and purpose of God. Though he may be the indirect cause of chaos or disaster, the direct cause behind it all is the plan of God and God most often doesn't explain himself.

Another popular reaction that I've noticed over the years is the idea that God's aware. He cares about it, but he isn't really powerful enough to control it. He can't control everything. He can't control everybody.

It's just too much for him to handle. That view was popularized in more modern times in the early 80s by a Jewish rabbi who lost his son, his young boy, and he wrote a book called When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He makes a sincere yet feeble attempt to defend God as loving and kind, but he ultimately concludes, and I quote, God wants the righteous to live happy lives, but it is too difficult even for God to keep cruelty and chaos from claiming innocent lives. He's either all loving or all powerful. He wouldn't be both in cases like these, and he found that comforting.

This author did. God wasn't involved because God can't control everything, but he is loving. Is that the interpretation we get from scripture of God?

Does the Bible tell us that he can't quite keep up with all that he created? Well, listen to David in Psalm 147 as he writes, he gives snow like wool. He scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs.

Who can stand before his icy blast? He makes his wind blow and the waters flow. Ultimately, his hand is behind it all. Listen as God speaks through his prophet Isaiah and declares, I made the earth and created mankind on it. It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their hosts, that is all of the universe, all the stars. I form light and create darkness.

I bring prosperity and create disaster. I am the Lord who does all these things. So here, perhaps even those within the average church are trying to get God off the hook, and God is saying, no, I make full responsibility for everything that occurs in the universe. Some things sent directly, some things allowed indirectly, but ultimately, God says my plans and purposes will succeed. While God established physical laws by which he governs the forces of nature, he operates behind the scenes, as it were, moment by moment, control over his creation.

Of course, the alternative view is that God can't handle creation. Some things get past him. It is a big place. There's a lot going on.

Is that comforting that something just slipped by him or that his hand is in control? Think about a conversation that he might have had or could have had he didn't have, but with that alternative view with Noah. Can you imagine God saying, you know, I can tell that all of the torrents, the rivers underneath the crust of the earth are probably going to explode upward, and I can tell by looking at the clouds that it's going to rain.

I don't know, but I think you ought to build a boat, and you better build a big one. In his book entitled Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, the author John Piper writes that the shallow theology of the church at large today has lost sight of the depth of God's attributes. He said this, much of the church has become shallow and entertainment oriented and therefore irrelevant. The popular God of fun church is simply too small to hold a hurricane in his hand. A group of pastors I read about who were meeting on the West Coast some time ago after an earthquake decided that God had nothing to do with it, that he wasn't in control of it, that it occurred independently of what he certainly would have wanted. But then they closed their meeting with one of the ministers praying, and the minister thanked God for the timing of the earthquake that had happened in the early morning instead of rush hour, which is ironic to consider that you're thanking God for controlling the timing of it, but not the occurrence of it.

He could hold it back, but he couldn't shut it down. Jerry Bridges, in his wonderful little book Is God Really in Control, writes, all expressions of nature, all occurrences of weather, be it a devastating tornado or a gentle rain on a spring day, are acts of God. That is, God controls all the forces of nature, both destructive and productive on a moment by moment basis, which means we are never victims, we are never victims of nature or disaster.

They may be the indirect cause of suffering or death, but the direct cause is the plan and purpose of God. Do we really believe the lyrics of what we have just sung? Do we believe the lyrics of our hymnal, the great hymn of Isaac Watts that we sing here every so often? I sing the mighty power of God, who made the mountains rise, that spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies. I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day. The moon shines full at his command, and all the stars obey. There's not a plant or flower below, but makes thy glories known.

Now listen to this. And clouds arise, and tempests blow by order from thy throne. But still, when it occurs, don't we wonder in our hearts why, certainly? Would we dare wonder if someone might have deserved what they experienced? Maybe there's something behind closed doors we weren't aware of.

Isn't the rule of thumb? Good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people. Now we might not put that in a frame and hang it in the church lobby, but don't we wonder? Well, certainly, they were good people. Good things should happen to them. They're bad people. Why is God sending rain on their yard?

I'd let it dry up, mine nice and green, not theirs. Bad things happen to bad people. And besides, what could God possibly be telling us?

What could he possibly be communicating to us on the heels of unexpected disaster, unexpected events? That's really an age-old question, by the way. In fact, 2,000 years ago, Jesus has a crowd around him. They're pressing in on every side, and that's the question on their mind. So take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 13.

You were probably wondering. Everything we've just said is introduction. We're now in chapter 13, and I find it timely that this occurs in our exposition. There are two events that have made it to front page news during this period.

It's on everybody's mind. Jesus is preaching, and he barely takes a breath and, again, is interrupted with these questions. Now, we'll call the first event an unexpected evil. Verse 1, there were some present at that very time. As he's preaching, they're part of the multitude, who told him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. They want to know why. They want to know why God would allow something like that to happen to people who are worshiping God.

Good question. We're not really given much, and we'll look at what Jesus has to say, but we can surmise that these Galilean Jews, which is the immediate context, were either in the temple offering to the priests their sacrifices, or they were there in the city, and this was part of their plan. The implication is this is a festival season, and they've come from a distance to worship at this festival time. Pilate takes advantage of this. Again, we're not told what's behind it, but we do know a little bit about Pilate. Pilate was that governor appointed by the Emperor Tiberius, and Pilate didn't like Jewish people. We would call him an anti-Semite today. Since he had been appointed by Tiberius to this far outpost of the Roman Empire, it was really an insult. He was not very high up on the food chain.

He knew the promotion was probably not going to take place. In fact, Pilate will be recalled later on and deposed by the Roman Empire. He took pleasure in showing his authority, his power, to the Jewish people in Jerusalem where his head office was.

His rule, if you study him, will be marked by bribery and violence and theft and persecution and insults to the Jewish people. I took that over here, and I think we've been given a clue by the reference to the fact that these Jews were Galileans. Galileans were known historically as a loving revolt. They hated Rome as a region.

It was just their personality more than any other. In fact, Josephus, the first century Jewish historian writes, the Galileans, he writes, are ever craving revolution, delighting in sedition. Now Galilee was outside of Pilate's jurisdiction, so he evidently waited until certain Galilean Jews, zealots, more than likely, arrive in Jerusalem to be part of the festival, and he moves then. He's got them, and he has them killed.

This is front page news. Can you believe what Pilate did to those Galileans? I mean, think of it. Can you imagine God letting that happen? They're bringing sacrifices. I can't believe the timing of this, but there were many who would have been saying, well, but consider who they were, probably plotting a revolt. They had it coming. These Galileans were sinful men. We don't know the exact question they asked Jesus, but the next verse says Jesus answered them, and by virtue of what his answer is, that was their question or their thought. They deserved it. Verse 2, so he answered them, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?

No. I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. You see, this crowd around Jesus were living with the same assumption that many people have today. Good things happen to good people. Bad things happen to bad people.

That was a bad thing that happened to them, so they were really bad. Jesus says, no, you're missing the point. The point is, what if it happened to you? Are you ready to meet God? Have you repented of your sin? You're comparing yourself to those Galileans. Oh, boy, those early rotten sinners.

What about you? Jesus asks. You see, when unexpected evil takes place, the question isn't where was God?

I wonder why God let this happen. I wonder if they deserved it. I wonder if they were bad sinners.

No. You see, the question Jesus wants them to answer is much more personal. It isn't about what Pilate did with them. The question they and you and I need to answer is what will God do with us? You'll never be able to answer all the ifs and whats and whys behind unexpected evil. In fact, you'll notice Jesus doesn't even begin to explain it, does he? He just wants them to answer the question, what if it happened to me? Now, with that, Jesus, without any provocation, pulls another event from the headlines, and this occurs in verse four.

We'll call this an unexpected accident. He says here, beginning in verse four, or what about those 18, on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them? Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?

No. I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Now, the idea here is the warning of perishing, which is not, you know, don't walk near a tower.

That's not his point. The idea is of future judgment. In fact, he uses that word when he declares in John chapter three, in a familiar verse, verse 16, God loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not what? Perish. That is, face the judgment of God. Well, what happened here in this tower? I wish we had the Jerusalem Journal or the Galilean Gazette to read so we could turn the pages and get all the details, but we do know some things from history. Pilate wanted to address the water shortage there in Jerusalem, and so he decided at one point to build an aqueduct to the pool of Siloam. The Jewish people love that idea, by the way, until they discovered that what he was going to do was finance it by stealing the money from the Jewish temple treasury, which he did.

Sent his soldiers over there and said, well, there's plenty of money there to, you know, finance this government project, and besides you benefit from it, so I'll take your money. Well, the Jews gathered to protest, and Pilate sent his soldiers to mingle among them with clubs and ended up clubbing many of them to death, dispersed the crowd. The building project moved forward, but then somewhere along the line a tower on the wall collapsed.

It seems to have been connected with the city wall near the pool of Siloam, and for some odd reason, we're not sure what, maybe it was older and they were replacing it or it was part of a new tower, it collapsed and killed, crushing to death, 18 people. Now the implication is clear from what Jesus says. These 18 lived in Jerusalem as they're contrasted in people's minds to the other people who live in Jerusalem. So think of what they've done. These implied Jewish men had accepted this job from the Roman governor, whom they despised. These 18 had stooped so low as to become part of the payroll of Rome, even though they knew that the money they would be paid for building this had been stolen from their own people. I mean, how could he be that wicked? They're thinking the popular opinion would have been concluded. We know why that tower fell.

We know why those 18 got it. Bad things happen to bad people. And Jesus, back in verse four again says, do you really think they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem? The word for offender, by the way, is a financial term for being in debt. It's the idea in the New Testament of being indebted to God because of sin. So Jesus is essentially asking them, what are you going to do about your debt?

Even if you've come to the conclusion that theirs is heavier than yours, what are you going to do with yours? When you stand before the Lord, he says you only have one way to be freed from that coming judgment, verse five, and that is that you repent while you still have time. Confess your sin to God. Admit you're a sinner and ask for his mercy and pardon.

And maybe there's somebody in this audience who would say, that's wonderful, but I know my debt and it is too great. I've sinned too much. I'm too far gone.

I'm too old to turn back now. I can't do that. God isn't going to accept me. I don't stand a chance. Wait, check your pulse. Are you alive?

As far as I can tell, everybody is at this point. Good. You still have an opportunity to repent. Now with that, the Lord ties it all up by delivering a parable, which is connected to these news events, and we'll call this parable an unexpected mercy. Verse six, and he told this parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vine dresser, look, for three years now I've come seeking fruit on this fig tree.

And once again, I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? Take space here in my vineyard. We're going to plant another tree.

That's what he's implying. And the vine dresser answered, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good.

But if not, well, then you can cut it down. The fact that Jesus refers to a fig tree is not a coincidence in this parable. The Jewish people and certainly the religious leaders would have immediately gotten the connection to Israel. The prophet Micah back in his prophecy in chapter seven referred to Israel as a fig tree to whom God was coming to seek the fruit of righteousness and he couldn't find any. Throughout the Old Testament the fig tree is given as an analogy.

There is a positive analogy. It's related to the blessing of the promised land. In Deuteronomy eight everybody's going to sit under their own fig tree, prosperity.

It also portrayed an image of judgment on Israel, Joel chapter one, Amos chapter four. In fact, go all the way back to the Garden of Eden and it's the only tree that we know was were specifically or implicitly told is in the garden and that was a fig tree. We know that because instead of repenting, Adam and Eve took the leaves from what? A fig tree and instead of repenting they decided to go into the garment designing business and they sewed fig leaves together. So it became an analogy of self-work, self-righteousness. It's the first religious act in human history. We're going to take care of our sin.

We're going to cover it up ourselves instead of repent. I'm glad you were with us today for this message called lessons from unexpected disaster. There's more to this message but we don't have time to complete it today. We're going to bring you the second half of this message on our next broadcast.

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