Good News!

It’s hard to believe that Crossroad is almost 21 years old. You know, that’s a big year for Americans because unlike Japan, people can’t legally drink until they’re 21. So now that Crossroad has reached legal drinking age by both Japanese and American standards, maybe we can now switch from grape juice to wine for communion. Then again, maybe not.

Anyway, we’ve come a long way in 21 years. And every year as we celebrate our anniversary as a church, we always want to remember not just where we came from, but where we’re going. As we think about that today, perhaps a good question to ask is: Why is Crossroad here?

Why do we exist? What is our purpose?

Is it just to make people’s lives better? To be a blessing to you?

Of course, we do hope that your lives are better because we are here. We hope you’ve found healing and blessing in your lives through Crossroad.

But our goal at Crossroad is not simply that each of you have a happier or better life. There’s something far more foundational that we’re aiming for. We want to be part of the plan that God has had since before time began. What plan? We saw it a few weeks ago, but let’s revisit it very briefly. Look at Ephesians 1:9-10.

He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him. (Ephesians 1:9-10)

What is God’s plan? It’s to bring all creation under his good reign through Christ.

We are living in a broken world. Have you noticed? All you have to do is look at the news to figure that out. We don’t even have to look past our own lives to figure that out. So much hurt is in this world because of all the sin and evil that is in it. That is in us.

There’s only one solution to all that: that this whole world would come back under God’s good reign.

In Christian churches, we often talk about the gospel. The word gospel means “good news.” What is the good news? The whole gospel message comes down to one thing: The King has come. Come back under his good reign.

You see, Christianity is not primarily about making your life better. It’s not primarily about the healing of your spiritual or emotional wounds. Nor is it simply about upgrading your life. It’s about bringing God’s good reign to this entire broken world. And that happens as God’s reign spreads out one by one into individual lives.

Our goal at Crossroad, then, is to start that process in every single life here. To bring each person here under God’s good reign. And as each person here comes under God’s good reign, that you yourselves would then go out and bring more people under God’s good reign. And that they in turn would go out to bring even more people under God’s good reign.

We’ve talked about changing the number in Japan. What number? “Less than one percent.” That’s the number of Christians in Japan. That number will not change with one big event like some kind of revival meeting at Koshien Stadium or Tokyo Dome. It changes as each one of us comes under God’s good reign, and we go out to bring the people around us under that reign too. That’s the purpose of Crossroad. That’s what we’re aiming for.

But let me ask you a question: How does it make you feel to hear that? That our goal as a church is to bring people under God’s reign? That you yourself would come under God’s reign in every area of your life?

I don’t know that any of us here have had any experience of living under any kind of real king who has absolute power. And when we look at some of the dictators who have that kind of power around the world today, I don’t think any of us have a good image of them.

So again, I ask, how do you feel about inviting people to come under God’s reign? And how do you feel about you yourself coming completely under God’s reign? Because unless we come to grips with that question in our hearts, we will never be the church or the people God wants us to be.

We see that in Jesus’ words at the start of his ministry in Mark 1:14-15.

After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15)

Here we see that from the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he was already talking about God’s reign in our lives. What did he say? First he said, “God’s kingdom has come near.” What does that mean? For one thing, it must have meant God’s kingdom had been far away. Something cannot come near unless it was first far away. In what way was it far away? I think it was far away in that the King was nowhere to be seen, and people were definitely not living under his reign.

Before John the Baptist came to Israel, no prophet had appeared there for 400 years. Between the last book of the Old Testament Malachi and the gospels, God did not speak to his people at all. Why not?

If you read Malachi, you quickly find the reason. God had brought them back from exile in Babylon and their lives were getting back to normal. By his grace, Jerusalem was rebuilt. Their temple was rebuilt. But despite all God had done for them, they were not still willingly and joyfully living under his reign. How do we know?

For one thing, they were questioning his love. They were questioning his goodness. They were questioning whether it was worth serving him. Even his own priests had been dishonoring him. And my guess is that Malachi’s message did little to change their hearts. So God went silent for four centuries.

By the time of Jesus, not much had changed. Don’t get me wrong. There were still people in Israel who loved God and were following him. But it’s hard to say that God was reigning in most of his people’s hearts. Many of the priests were still corrupt. The high priest and many of the chief priests definitely were. And many of the other religious leaders, though they looked good to the people, were also corrupt. Jesus would later say they honored God with their lips, but their hearts were actually far from him.

But it wasn’t just the leaders. So many of the “regular” Jews showed superficial interest in God, but it never went beyond that. You would see that in Jesus’ ministry. Thousands followed him around. They loved to hear his stories. But very few actually stuck around to find out what those stories meant. And when Jesus started saying hard things, many of them walked away.

Yet, do you know, many of these same people would have told you in all sincerity, “I want to see God’s kingdom come”? It seems contradictory, doesn’t it? But what did they mean by that?

For the most part, they meant, “God, get rid of the Roman empire. Re-establish our nation. Destroy our enemies and bless us. We want to be the powerful nation we once were.”

But while they wanted God to bless them in that way, they had little interest in having God actually reign in their day to day lives.

Put another way, they wanted God’s blessings. But they neither trusted nor loved him enough to to truly hand over the reins of their lives to him. Why not? It goes back to Malachi. Deep down, they still harbored doubts that God was truly good and that he truly loved them.

Oh, I’m sure they would’ve told you they believed these things. All good Jews would have. All their lives, they had been singing songs like, “The Lord is good. His love endures forever!” Maybe to some degree, they even believed it. But somehow, that belief never got beyond their heads to their hearts and hands.

And it was to these people that Jesus came proclaiming: the Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.

What was the good news? “God’s good reign is coming.” What then were they to repent of? Of course, they were to repent of things like greed, sexual sin, or all the other things we think of as sin.

But there was something much more fundamental they needed to repent of. They needed to repent of their attitude toward God: they needed to believe that God’s reign in their lives actually was good news. But for them to believe that, they needed to start believing that God himself is good and truly loved them.

So how does this all connect to us at Crossroad?

Let me ask this question. Do you consider God’s reign in your life “good news”? Is it something that you welcome? Do you gladly say, “Yes, Lord, reign over every area in my life?” Or are there parts of your life you still want to hold on to as your own? There’s a saying I heard a long time ago that I’ve never forgotten: Either Jesus is Lord of all in your life. Or is he not Lord at all.

Jesus once asked the Jews this question:

Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say? (Luke 6:46)

Could Jesus say that to you? Honestly speaking, there are times in my life when he could say it to me.

But again, I want to get back to that first question because it’s the most important: Do you consider God’s reign in your life “good news.” Or is there a part of you that says, “That sounds scary.”

Why would it sound scary? At root, it comes down to those two things that the Jews struggled with. Struggling to believe God is good. And struggling to believe God loves them. As long as you struggle with these two issues, you will always struggle to give God full reign in your life. And the dirty little secret of most Christians is that we do often struggle with those two questions in our hearts.

Why would we doubt these things? I suppose one reason is precisely because we see all the evil in the world we do. After all, if God is good, why does he allow them? Why allow wars? Why allow the crimes we see? Why does he allow so many people to hurt each other?

For the Jews in Malachi’s time, that’s the kind of things they complained about. Look at Malachi 2:17.

You have wearied the Lord with your words.

Yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?”

When you say, “Everyone who does what is evil is good in the Lord’s sight, and he is delighted with them, or else where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17)

And again in chapter 3, verses 14-15.

You have said, “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Armies? So now we consider the arrogant to be fortunate. Not only do those who commit wickedness prosper, they even test God and escape.” (Malachi 3:14-15)

Have you ever felt that way? Why does it seem evil people prosper and those who are innocent suffer? If God is just, if God is good, why doesn’t he do more to stop it all. And when these kinds of things touch us and our loved ones, it becomes even harder to understand.

Part of the answer for all this is found in that God will ultimately judge all things. And though people may get away with evil on this earth, God will deal with them with perfect justice when all stand before his judgment seat. That is in fact one of the answers he gave the people in Malachi’s day. (Malachi 4:1-3)

Another part of the answer is that were God to deal with all evil now, executing perfect justice, none of us would be alive now. All of us are guilty. Can you honestly say you’ve never hurt or wronged anyone in your life? I can’t. But though we’re all guilty, God is patiently waiting for us to repent. He’s not eager to judge us. He doesn’t delight in anyone’s destruction, even the worst of people.

The truth is, though, there are no easy answers as to why God allows all this evil in the world. I wish I could lay out all the answers for you in a logically and emotionally satisfying way. I can’t. Nobody can. Why not? Our brains are too small. We know a billionth of a fraction of all the things in the universe. How then can we possibly judge all the decisions God makes? Do we really think God has not weighed every possibility? That we, with our limited knowledge and wisdom, can see things he can’t? That we’ve considered things he hasn’t? It’s ridiculous when you think about it that way.

Here’s what I do know. The greatest evil ever committed in this world was crucifying God’s Son two thousand years ago. Jesus was the only perfect man who ever lived. And yet God allowed him to suffer and die on a cross. But through Jesus’ death, God reconciled us to himself. And if he had a purpose for allowing the greatest evil ever committed to happen, and he could turn it into something good, then he has his reasons for every other evil that we see, whether we can understand them or not.

Ultimately, it comes down to faith. Will you believe that God is good? Will you believe that he loves you? The answers to those questions center on the cross. Because that’s where God demonstrated his goodness and love toward you and me.

We, in our ignorance, criticize God. We question his love. We question his goodness. We question his wisdom. We question his right to reign in our lives. And yet he still sent his beloved Son to die for our rebellion. And there on the cross, Jesus paid the price for every stupid, rebellious thought we ever had against him. More, he paid for every sinful action that those stupid and rebellious thoughts produced. The apostle Paul put it this way.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

It would have been easier, I suppose, for Jesus to die for people if they loved him. If they trusted him. If they never questioned his goodness, his justice, his wisdom, his love, his right to reign in their lives. But when we were still questioning all those things, living in rebellion against him, Christ died for us. That’s amazing love. That’s the goodness of God.

So where do we go from here?

Some of you here are struggling to give full reign in your life over to God. And there could be any number of reasons for it.

Part of it could be what we just talked about. You look at this world and all the evil in it, and you’re saying, “Is God really good? I can’t understand all this evil if he is.”

Here are two things I want you to remember. First, God has a plan. And second, that plan will not be thwarted. What is God’s plan? To bring all things in heaven and earth under Christ. This world and its evil is not forever. I repeat: it is not forever. Look at what God told his people in Malachi.

At that time those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord took notice and listened. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the Lord and had high regard for his name.

“They will be mine,” says the Lord of Armies, “my own possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.

So you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. (Malachi 3:16-18)

God is not ignoring evil. He will bring justice. And at that time, the difference between the wicked and the righteous will be clear. And though we may go through suffering because of all the evil in the world, you will ultimately know his compassion and love in your life. So as Pastor Mark talked about a few weeks ago when preaching on Luke 18: keep praying. Keep connecting with God and don’t give up. We saw Jesus’ challenge at the end of his parable in Luke 18. He said “God will bring justice to his loved ones. But will he find faith in them when he returns?” Will he find faith in you? Faith that he is good. Faith that he loves you. (Luke 18:6-8)

Others of you, though, question God’s goodness and love because of personal pain in your life. It’s one thing to think about evil that we read about in the news. It’s another to actually deal with that pain in our lives.

Some of you may be divorced. Others of you have been abused. Others of you have experienced other tragedies because of this world broken by sin. Where is God in all this? Again, there are no easy answers. What I can say is that God understands you. How? 2000 years ago, he became a man and experienced all that we do.

Jesus knew the pain of losing his father to death, probably in his teen years. He knew the pain of rejection from people in his own family. He knew the pain of being betrayed by those he loved most. He knew what it’s like to be insulted and physically abused, being punched, whipped, and then nailed to a cross.

Jesus didn’t need to through all that. He could have stayed in heaven apart from all the pain in this world. But he experienced all that, first, to understand you, and second, to bring reconciliation between you and God. He experienced it because he loves you and is good.

Others of you fear to come under God’s reign because you have had bad experiences with authority, abusive parents, teachers, or bosses. You have no reference point for a “good king.” But this King isn’t uncaring, selfish, and unloving. Like Hide talked about last week, he saw us in the latrine, covered with the filth of our sin, and he came down into that filth to rescue us. Your King did that for you.

Again, he could have kept himself distant from us. Or he could have blasted us for being so stupid for jumping into that muck. But in his grace and mercy, he reached down and he saved us. Because that’s the kind of King he is. Caring. Sacrificial. Loving. Good.

So what will you do? Will you choose to believe he is good, that he loves you, and come under his good reign? I made my choice years ago. But this isn’t a blind faith. The longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve experienced his love and goodness in my life.

I’m not saying my life has been all happy, happy, joy, joy. I’ve gone through heartbreak. I’ve gone through grief. I’ve gone through health problems. Family problems. Financial problems. But through it all, God has proved his goodness and love to me time and again.

That said, I still struggle to give him full reign in my life at times. Daily surrender to God is not an easy thing. But in those times, I choose to remember his goodness and love in my life. My prayer is that you would too. That Crossroad would be a church full of people living under God’s good reign. And a church that is so convinced of God’s goodness and love, that we invite others to come under God’s good reign too.