Discovering the goodness of God - 2

Introduction

So last week we saw that one of the reasons that we suffer was so that the works of God could be displayed in you where the joy we recieve is to know that your suffering isn’t for no reason, but rather for an extremely important reason where through your specific suffering, people believed in the Lord receiving eternal life through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

This we saw through the stories of Jesus and the blind man, Aenus and Tabitha.

And so as we continue on our journey to discovering the goodness of God in our suffering, we will look at another reason behind our suffering which has been revealed to us in the book of Hebrews:

Hebrews 12:6–11 “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

We will understand where our suffering comes in by looking at situations that happen hypoethitcally and in the bible;

Situation 1 (Not knowing that we are sinning):

Imagine you are a parent and you’re cooking in the kitchen and you also have 1 year old child in his baby chair at the table waiting for his food. And then he sees a cockroach appear on his table and grabs a hold of it and is about to eat it. But then in the moment that he is grabbing it, you turn around and go towards him, snatch the cockroach out of his hand and kill it and the kid starts crying, screaming and shouting.

Kids perspective:

Now as the kid, the reason they took the cockroach was because they thought it was food and have absolutely no idea that it is bad, in fact they thought it was great because they were hungry and thought a little snack would be good

But when the parent snatches it out of his hand and kills it, the reason the kid starts crying is because they can’t understand why something that they saw to be good was taken away from them and start hating you.

Parents perspective:

Now as a parent, the reason that you took the cockroach away from them was because you know full well that if your kid ate that cockroach, it was going to be very bad (they would get sick, diseases, whatever its just bad) and so even though you know that he is going to cry, you take it out of his hands and kill it.

What we see here is that your intention wasn’t because they liked seeing their kid cry, it wasn’t because they wanted to inflict pain onto their kid, but it was all because they cared and loved their kid.

From another angle, IF the parent let the child eat the cockroach then I think we can conclude that the parent DOESN’T LOVE and CARE for their child because what would happen is that the baby will continue to eat cockroaches thinking that theres nothing wrong with it, but eventually face the consequences.

Now if we copy and paste this relationship onto our relationship with God, it is exactly this:

Child:

We are the child where from our perspective, there is something that we are doing which we see no wrong in, which we see no sin in, - which is the same as the child seeing nothing wrong with eating the cockroach.

And in the same way that the kid didn’t know why the cockroach was being taken away from him because he doesn’t understand why, we don’t know why we are suffering and have the question to God “If you are a good God, and I’ve done nothing wrong, I haven’t sinned, then why have you given me suffering?”

Parent:

God is the parent who is actively doing the good thing in our lives despite what we think because he cares and loves us. Because he knows the ultimate consequences of our actions.

So what this shows us that the reason why he puts us in what we think is suffering which in this case was to take something away is to teach and reveal to us that this thing we thought was good was in reality bad. (i.e) What we thought wasn’t sin was actually sin.

SHOW DIAGRAM

Explain the diagram and explain the period of suffering, and so the goal is to reduce that green line to reduce suffering.

God wants you to see what is different post suffering to pre-suffering and identify what the action was, then associate that action as being sinful and essentially not do it again.

And so from then on up until the end of God’s discipline, you end up not viewing it as suffering but as discipline and this is where we rejoice knowing that through discipline he is stopping us from sinning which we didn’t know we were doing.

Conversion of the Apostle Paul

Unintentionally sinning

Paul was a Pharisee where he went around killing Christians where he thought that what he was doing was in fact good. He thought from his perspective he was on the good side and not on the bad side.

Now Paul I believe wasn’t a typical Pharisee that comes to mind, but rather one that studied very hard under one of the leading Jewish thinkers at the time where he even ackowledges himself that he was great AMONGST the Pharisees in his passion for maintaining religious rules for God.

This is to say that his intention of killing Christians was in his perspective “for God” - to fight FOR GOD.

How does God discipline?

And so we see that now he is on his way to Damascus to kill more Christians but then a light from heaven so bright is in front of him that he is forced to the ground as he hears the voice of Jesus “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” and Paul asks who he is, and Jesus responds that it is Jesus (the son of God) who he is persecuting.

And after this, Paul rises from the ground and he tries opening his eyes only to see nothing. He becomes blind for 3 days where he couldn’t see

And so Paul is probably thinking what could be the reason I am blind and suffering - because he hasn’t yet been converted yet.

Now blindness actually relates to one of the many punishments God had decreed for Israel’s sin which we see in Deuteronomy 28:28 “The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind,” and Isaiah 59:10 “We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men.”

And so wiht the understanding that Paul studied Old Testamanent very hard, I think what he is thinking across these 3 days of suffering is this.

Okay I know in Deuteronomy and Isaiah he says that blindness is a punishment for disobeying God. This means that the reason for my blindness is because I have disobeyed God.

This means what I think I’ve been doing by killing Christians which I thought was good was in fact disobeying God, the very thing I DONT want to do.

Uncovering of sin

And so following this, he regains sight both in the literal sense and also the spiritual sense - he once viewed the world in the wrong way, but now views the world in the right way.

He becomes reborn and filled with the Holy Spirit to then becoming to be the greatest missionary ever to walk this earth

Conclusion of Situation 1

And so the reason for your suffering isn’t for no reason but it is that God has taken away something in your life which you didn’t think to be sin but truly was sin. And just like Paul, in his state of suffering God wants us to reflect on why we are going through this to then pinpoint what that sin was, recognise it, stop it and therefore turn away from it

And so our perspective ought to change from one that our suffering is God hating us, to God loving us by choosing to reveal to us something that is sinful which we didn’t even know.

Situation 2 (Knowing that we are sinning)

Imagine you are the parent again and you have a high school kid this time (Bob) who doesnt have his license. And then its like 11pm and you suddenly hear the car turn on and then hear the door close 4 times and because you are a smart parent and understand that you only have 1 kid and your husband or wife is next to you, you understand that he’s driving this car with his friends. And so he drives off before you even get out of bed.

And then he comes back home at 5am and you tell him he’s locked in his room with no phone and internet for 8 hours which is a big punishment especially for kids these days and so he goes up angry, slamming the door shut and screaming in his pillow saying that you control him and you don’t trust him.

Bob’s perspective

Now in this case, Bob knows full well that this is against the law because he’s underage and doesnt have a license yet BUT still decided to drive the car because it was fun, because he wanted to

Now psychologically, why did he choose to do it because he in that moment thinks its the best choice.

He weighed out the benefits and costs of this decision and came to the conclusion that the benefits did outweigh the costs (i.e) to have fun with his friends outweighed the cost of getting caught by the police or crashing.

But once he comes home and receives a punishment from you he questions and he argues that even though he knew what he did was wrong, nothing actually happened saying that you’re being restrictive and controlling.

Parent’s perspective

Now as a parent, the reason why you put him in his room without internet was because you know that if they don’t understand that there are consequences to his actions, they will keep doing it again and again and inevitably face the consequence of either crashing or getting caught by the police.

And so you punish him, not because you enjoy seeing Bob suffer, not because you want him to suffer, but because you CARE and LOVE him to show him that there are consequences.

That you are willing to put him through temporary and lighter suffering which to Bob is extreme suffering so that in Bob’s head the cost of driving without a licence increases with the purpose of not experiencing the real consequence of crashing or getting caught by the police.

Now if we were to copy and paste this relationship onto our relationship with God, it is this:

Bob: We are Bob, where we are faced with a decision to either sin or not sin where we know that sinning is bad and not sinning is good. But in the same ways as Bob, we psychologically choose the option which in our perspective is the best choice. Where if we weigh out the benefits and costs in that exact moment we choose to sin.

This is to say that we believe in that moment of making a decision that the joy of sinning outweighs the cost of sinning

Suffering: In the same way Bob cannot justify why he is suffering because he has yet to understand the true consequences of his actions, we think we are suffering for no reason because we think our sins have little no consequences

Parent: God is the parent where when we see it from his perspective, where God is putting you through this temporary and light suffering to prevent you from experiencing the eternal and heavy consequences of sinning.

He is doing so by revealing to you that the cost if sinning is severe and therefore when you are in the position of making a decision to sin or not to sin, you choose not to sin

David and Bathsheba

Intentionally sinning

Context

In 2 Samuel 11. David’s at home walking on his roof and sees Bathsheba and then inquires people around him asking who she is, and he finds out that it is Uriah’s wife (who was a loyal warrior of David’s Army).

Despite knowing this, he sleeps with her and gets her pregnant and now understanding she is pregnant, David asks one of his other commander (Joab) who’s out in the battlefield to bring Uriah back to David.

Uriah comes back and David tells him to go back home to rest and basically sleep with his wife to cover up the fact that it wasn’t David who got Bathsheba pregnant but it was Uriah

Uriah says no because he is THAT loyal and decides to sleep where the servants slept

David’s gotta figure out how to deal with this and so he tells Joab (other commander) to send him out into the front line to guarantee that he dies

And so Uriah dies, Bathsheba’s crying, and the baby is born where this chapter ends with the phrase “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord”.

By understanding the character of David to be one that was “someone seeking after God’s own heart”, we know for a fact that he knew that he was sinning for 1. Sleeping with another man’s wife. 2. Intentionally plotting for this same man’s death.

But psychologically in that moment of sleeping with Bathsheba, the satisfaction of sin was greater than the consequence of sin.

How does God discipline?

God sends the prophet Nathan to him to basically go off at him for sinning and choosing to sin than to run away from it.

And God tells him the punishment that he will bear for his sins which is evil on his house take his wives and have them sleep with other men to which David responds by immediately recognising he has sinned and repents (can see this in Psalm 51)

Now I want to preface here that the suffering I am referring to in the example is the period between us experience the discipline of God and realising that we are sinning and repenting. (DIAGRAM)

But in David’s case, his repentance was seemingly immediate, so does that mean he won’t experience the consequences of his actions?

No, even though David immediately repents, God does “put away” his judgement of evil on his house and wives sleeping with other men, but he still disciplines David and shows him the consequence through the death of his child which he had with Bathsheba

And so even post repentance, God will still discipline to make sure that you understand the consequences of your sin which is incomparable to the true consequences which is eternal separation from God.

But again, this is not because God hates you, but it is in fact the opposite, it is because God loves you, he is so gracious that he reveals to us that we are doing something wrong.

Conclusion of Situation 2

And so maybe the reason why you are suffering is because you sinned thinking that consequences were light or even non-existent and God is giving you a punishment to discipline you with whatever you are going through right now to prevent you from experiencing eternal life in separation to God (hell). The Goal is for you to not do it again.

And we see again that this is done out of love because if God was to let you continue on with your sin without some sort of punishment, then he wouldn’t be a loving father to his child, but he allows suffering to happen as a wake-up call, to discipline us into understanding the severity of sin.

And I am thankful that he does discipline me to drag me away from my fake and stupid desires and draw me towards the real and loving God.

Evidence that you are a child

And so based on these 4 situations, we can conclude that there exists a relationship between a parent and his child where the degree in which a parent truly cares for their child is positively correlated with the discipline that the child receives from the parent

(i.e) The more a parent truly cares for their child, the more discipline that child will recieve. (MAKE linear diagram)

And so this is what the author of Hebrews continues on from the very first verse we read “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Hebrews 12:7–10 “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.”

The author of Hebrews is communicating that the discipline you are going through is actually EVIDENCE that you are a son of God, a child of God -

That if you weren’t being disciplined, then you are considered to be an “illegitamte child”. What this essentially means is to be GRATEFUL that we are being disciplined because this proves our sonship in the body of Christ.

The author provides an analogy to how earthly fathers discipline and so he’s essentially saying IF our earthly fathers discipline us who still are not perfect and we understand why they do it which is because they care, SHOULDN’T we understand all the more if it is the perfect God who disciplines us so that we may share his holiness?

Therefore let us as Paul says in Romans 5:3–4 “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” . Let us have confidence that the suffering we seemingly go through is all in our process of sanctification (i.e to become more like Jesus), the ultimate good and not the fake good which is wordly values.