Everything Makes Sense (but not now)

I want to let you in on a secret. Life doesn’t make sense to me.

Now – that is different than me saying that life doesn’t make sense.

(Philosophically the bigger the claim the more evidence is required for reasonable people to believe you. If I say “Life doesn’t make sense to me” that is a very small claim. A bigger claim would be “I think life makes sense.’ But a much MUCH bigger claim is to say, “Life does not make sense.” Because then you are not claiming a personal perspective but a Universal Truth – and to have Universal knowledge you would have to be God, but then if you were God things would make sense to you – so the claim “Life does not make sense” is self-defeating. Next time you hear someone say it, just remind them that their claim is what doesn’t make sense and that they aren’t God!)

So back to my opening statement. Life doesn’t make sense to me. What I mean is that when I look at the details of life – why this car crash, why this illness, why this tragic circumstance. Why do children suffer etc. – I can’t answer any of that. I really don’t try.

Now – on a grand scale – I think we can all see that life makes sense. If there is a God, and if the Bible is true, then we see that life is all about having a relationship with God, and all hardship in this life is either just a first little taste of the hardships we will face in an eternity without a personal relationship with God, OR they will all be overwhelmed when we enter into the presence of our Savior. And we know this because no matter how great our trials are they are ultimately finite and cannot be compared to our infinite God.

All reality can only make sense in relation to God.

So – small scale – on a personal level – life doesn’t make sense – Large scale, in the Grand Scheme of Things – all the pieces fir together. And so… when we don’t understand, why things happen the way they do, we have faith – and trust that if Jesus died for us, to save us, and rose again to show us He can keep His promises, then we can entrust ourselves to Him.

Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son….” Do you love God? Then you are in a category of people that God has predestined to become like Jesus.

Listen – God keeps His promises. He is never wrong. And you can take comfort and rest your soul in His care.

So Life makes sense! But not now. And that’s the title of today’s sermon.

OK lets begin our study of Acts 12 by turning to Matthew 20:20-28 Matthew 20:20-28 “20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.

21 “What is it you want?” he asked.

She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”

“We can,” they answered.

23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”

24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus had an inner circle of three – Peter, James, and John. For YEARS they travelled with Jesus, saw great miracles, did great miracles themselves. Obviously God had big plans for them right? God would use the 11 disciples but especially these three. Right?

Well He does. But it doesn’t look like you and I would have done things. About 10 or 12 years after Jesus’s death, rez, and Ascension back to Heaven, James gets his head cut off by Herod Agrippa – a grandson of Herod the Great. Peter has to flee Jerusalem. James, the brother of Jesus, who didn’t even believe in Jesus before His rez, becomes the leader of the Jerusalem church, and Paul, who starts off as a persecutor of Christians, who obviously was not part of the 12 apostles, becomes the preeminent figure of the early church.

Who could have seen that coming? No one. And yet – that’s the way things went. Why didn’t Jesus recruit young Saul to be one of His followers? Like He did with Doubting Thomas, Judas, and the rest? I don’t know. All I know is that it worked out.

OK turn to Acts 12. Last week we saw that Christians were first called Christians in Antioch. We saw that God could work through Agabus, Barnabas, Paul(abus), and all of us when we trust Him.

READ – Acts 12:1-3 Last week we heard the words of Justin martyr which he wrote to a Roman emperor, “You can kill us. But you cannot hurt us.”

READ – Acts - inside a time of fear, chaos, hardship - a super cute little story - 12:4-17

- James the brother of Jesus takes the lead and Peter is only heard of one more time in Acts. And when the Romans attack Jerusalem in 70AD it is James that history tells us leads the Jewish church to Pella – and that is pretty much the end of the Jewish Church in Jerusalem. In the future, churches in Jerusalem will be lead by gentiles. Who could have seen that coming?

READ Acts 12:18-25

The Jewish sources, including the Mishna tell us that Herod Agrippa was a popular king. He tried to shield the people from Rome, he cut taxes, he persecuted Christians (and that was a popular move), he carried his first-fruits into the temple himself to honor God, once when he was traveling a wedding procession came by and he moved to the side to let the procession continue on. He obeyed the OT law by reading the Torah out loud to the people and even was moved to tears while reading.

The historian Josephus (born in 37 AD), though has an intriguing parallel account to Luke’s record: “"Now when Agrippa had reigned three years over all Judea he came to the city Caesarea, which was formerly called Strato's Tower; and there he exhibited spectacles in honor of Caesar, for whose well-being he'd been informed that a certain festival was being celebrated. At this festival a great number were gathered together of the principal persons of dignity of his province. On the second day of the spectacles he put on a garment made wholly of silver, of a truly wonderful texture, and came into the theater early in the morning. There the silver of his garment, being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays, shone out in a wonderful manner, and was so resplendent as to spread awe over those that looked intently upon him. Presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another, (though not for his good) that he was a god; and they added, "Be thou merciful to us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature." Upon this the king neither rebuked them nor rejected their impious flattery. But he shortly afterward looked up and saw an owl sitting on a certain rope over his head, and immediately understood that this bird was the messenger of ill tidings, just as it had once been the messenger of good tidings to him; and fell into the deepest sorrow. A severe pain arose in his belly, striking with a most violent intensity. He therefore looked upon his friends, and said, "I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life; while Providence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I, who was by you called immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death. But I am bound to accept what Providence allots, as it pleases God; for we have by no means lived ill, but in a splendid and happy manner." When he had said this, his pain became violent. Accordingly he was carried into the palace, and the rumor went abroad everywhere that he would certainly die soon. The multitude sat in sackcloth, men, women and children, after the law of their country, and besought God for the king's recovery. All places were also full of mourning and lamentation. Now the king rested in a high chamber, and as he saw them below lying prostrate on the ground he could not keep himself from weeping. And when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life, being in the fifty-fourth year of his age and in the seventh year of his reign.”

Herod Agrippa kills James, the brother of John, and he is struck down. We tend to like that part because it feels like justice. It makes sense to us. But the Bible never actually tells us that he was executed by God for killing James. The Bible tells us he died because he failed to give God glory. And IF the Bible didn’t tell us that we couldn’t have known why he died.

As Christians we are called to faith – not to superstition. We shouldn’t be reading tea leaves, and palm lines, and the positions of the stars.

The general doesn’t always tell the soldiers why. Our job is to honor God even when life doesn’t make sense – which is probably most of the time.

I wonder – how James’s family took Peter’s miraculous escape. I bet they had been praying for James. Why didn’t God save him? Did he have a pretty wife? Children that adored him and NEEDED their Dad? How did John feel? Loud mouthed Peter saved but God let his brother get his head cut off by a nasty King who did it for political reasons, so that other nasty people would like him more?

So what do we do when life hurts and doesn’t make sense? Trust and obey. Lean in close to Jesus. Take joy in the fact that we are loved, and saved, and that God likes us. We are going to suffer in this life. Do we do it WITH Jesus or alone? John Piper “Don’t waste your cancer.” I not who I wish I was. And life often doesn’t make sense to me. But I’m glad I know Jesus. (talk)