“Why”
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 11 viewsNotes
Transcript
John Stott tells a story about an imaginary poor man from the slums of Brazil who climbs 2,310 feet up the mountain to the colossal statue of Christ that towers above Rio de Janeiro—"The Christ of Corcovado." After the difficult climb, the poor man finally reaches Jesus and says,
I have climbed up to meet you, Christ, from the filthy, confined quarters down there … to put before you, most respectfully, these considerations: there are 900,000 of us down there in the slums of that splendid city … And you … do you remain here at Corcovado surrounded by divine glory? Go down there to the favelas … Don't stay away from us; live among us and give us new faith in you and in the Father. Amen.
Stott asks, "What would Christ say in response to such an entreaty? Would he not say '[in the suffering of the cross] I did come down to live among you, and I live among you still'"?
Then Stott adds,
We have to learn to climb the hill called Calvary, and from that vantage-ground survey all life's tragedies. The cross does not solve the problem of suffering, but it supplies the essential perspective from which to look at it … . Sometimes we picture [God] lounging, perhaps dozing, in some celestial deck-chair, while the hungry millions starve to death … . It is this terrible caricature of God which the cross smashes to smithereens.
It is the message of the cross that continues to be our answer for all of life’s toughest questions. The amazing thing that continues to bewilder is how we can go to church on Easter Sunday celebrate the cross and resurrection of Christ and quickly forget in despair in confusion and in deception asking questions in insecurity and disillusionment. We can and do suffer today from not knowing from the Scriptures the knowledge of the character of God or suffer from bad knowledge of the character of God causing us to make ill informed accusations of our Lord in times of difficulty.
But even if we have a clear understanding of biblical attributes of God we can still come to the place where inquiring minds want to know. We still have questions about the goings on in the world. Many times things just don’t make sense. Sometimes we just don’t know what things are happening or more specifically, why is the Lord allowing all of this to happen.
So much happening today with utter defiance and rebellion against our Lord… why does he allow this to happen? The blasphemy challenge… the documentary where he denied and claimed to blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Why does he let them get away with it? Habakkuk had to deal with this tension… lets take a look.
You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
He brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
and his food is rich.
Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and mercilessly killing nations forever?
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.
Firm Foundation
Why
The Cross
The first thing we will look at today is the foundations that were laid by the prophet serving as the basis for his questioning. The second thing we will look at is the inspired questioning of the prophet of God in view of what He knows to be true. Finally, we will see that our focus on the cross is the answer to all difficulties and uncertainties leading us away from investigation toward adoration.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world may cause us to fall into disillusionment and deception when it comes to the word and work of the Lord, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of Scripture that will shed light on the incomprehensibility of the Lord leading us not to investigation but instead...adoration.
I. The Firm Foundation
- God is there, God is eternal, God is Pure
A. Remember we saw just before Habakkuk begins the questioning he laid some important pieces of the important foundation. We saw last week just how frustrating it can be when accusations are made by those who do not have the facts right. We do not want to be those who question the words and works of God without the facts. We don’t want to be those who fall into the categories of why do you not know this… and who told you that? Having either no information about God’s character or having wrong information about God’s character.
B. We should note that Habakkuk did question the Lord. Habakkuk did struggle to understand the plan. But it seems that all that he was certain about the Lord is what continued to give him hope and for that he was able to praise in the shadow of all that he was experiencing.
C. He was certain that the Lord was not a God who was absent at times or far away…needing to constantly be called upon. He did not believe in a deistic God, but one who is there, one who is immanent, one who is actively involved in the day to day moment by moment lives of His people. The covenantal name of God Yahweh.
D. He was certain that the Lord is also eternal. The belief in the eternality of God is vital when we are faced with difficult circumstances. Habakkuk is reiterating the biblical fact that God is eternal, because it means that nothing that is happening is a surprise to God, nothing that is happening is too big for him to grapple with, nothing that is happening to hard for him to handle, nothing that is happening is beyond his control. He has known about it all along and has always been ready and therefore able to deal with it.
E. Then the last thing he asserts is the biblical fact that our God is a pure and Holy God. The Lord is free and will always be free from any moral impurity.
F. This is foundational to Habakkuk’s place of peace and hope. To distort any of these truths or to even deny these truth would have serious ramifications on our hope and peace in times of difficulty. This is the reason why many struggle in our society today to have hope or even steadfastness or patience when things in our world look bleak.
G. It is characteristic of our age that people want to have God but do not want to have the Devil. People are inventing gods for themselves, with what I have elsewhere called their do-it-yourself God Kits. But they are gods who do not demand much of them, and they certainly are not gods who punish, although they are allowed to reward. On the contrary, their gods absolve them from conflict and doubt, massage them, pat them on the head. ... But above all they are gods who will not trouble them with the fact of evil. The problems of evil, suffering, and death are not confronted, but evaded and dismissed.
H. Today many of us are like little children who cover their eyes thinking that the monster will just go away if we don’t see it. But we all know that this is not reality. And we need to see it. Dr. Gene Edward Veith wrote in his book postmodern times that when times of difficulty and moral degradation begins to happen the world will see the church as either the answer or just part of the problem. What are we giving the world right now?
I. Hillsongs misappropriation of funds and tax evasion, Ravi Zachariahs’ conduct unbecoming, former Liberty University president ongoing and seemingly never ending scandal, Willow Creek’s continuing disaster, Televangelists asking for money to buy privates jets, one televangelist investigated and found his net worth to be over 700 million, Pastor’s stacking the deck to get on NY Times best seller list, continued pragmatic ministry methods, sermons that have more in common with TED talks then the Reformation, embarrassing PR with christian healing ministries shutting down healing services because of COVID-19 and the countless countless false prophesies concerning the end of the disease and who would be the next president. And these are just a few of the things that made the news. Family we are in trouble and if we do not recognize this issue we will be part of the problem.
J. The Lord called us to be salt and light in this world. We are called to be a remnant. We are supposed to shine like stars in the universe. We are supposed show the world that we are truly His disciples. We are supposed to be those who deny self take up our cross and follow Him. We are supposed to be those who are examples in life love faith speech and purity. We are supposed to show the world that our citizenship is in heaven. We are supposed to show that world that we store up treasure in heaven. We are supposed to show that we are in the light as He is in the light.
K. At some point, people in the world are gonna want some real honest answers… and we are supposed to be able to tell them. Because we are supposed to actually know the truth and know actual truth.
II. Why
- How does this accomplish Your purposes?
A. So knowing the certain attributes of God outlined by Habakkuk, he is puzzled. So he asks why? What I am seeing here is the opposite of what I believe about you? Why do you tolerate those who are treacherous? Why do you tolerate those who are unfaithful in relationships, those who do not honour agreements, those who unscrupulously commit themselves but have no intention of being true to their promises. Why oh Lord? All this is happening from them and I wonder why you are letting them get away with it and why you don’t immediately do something about it. Like Asaph declared...
Why do you hold back your strong right hand?
Unleash your powerful fist and destroy them.
B. Why do you allow the Babylonians to swallow up your people? This is a frightening picture. The image of being swallowed up is a picture of the people being unable to resist as they are completely destroyed by their enemies. Like Moses and the people sang...
You raised your right hand,
and the earth swallowed our enemies.
C. We rejoiced with the swallowing up of our enemies… but now we are being swallowed. Why is it not happening to our enemies now?
D. And now Habakkuk uses the imagery of a fisherman to illustrate the rest. But more specifically in light our their deities. Scholars have said that Babylonian major gods were pictured carrying nets full of people they conquered. Before the Babylonians the Lord has made the people of Judah like helpless fish wandering in the sea aimless without a leader… running only on instinct. And the Babylonians are known for successfully taking advantage of that situation.
E. The Assyrians when they led their captives off into slavery would put a hook in the bottom lip of their captives. And the babylonians seems to have continued that practice. And the picture of catching fish in a net is pretty vivid. When you look at the fish in the net it is just over. Hopeless helpless and devastating. Imagine humans in that situation. And no… I have been fishing for many years now and I have never had fish, do like the finding nemo thing swim down and break the net. None are able to evade their advance.
F. They rejoice and are glad… obviously with their successes. They celebrate and rest in their success. Again we see success as the great methodology. The great purpose and the great morality. All is good and well because success means its right. And all their luxury and riches are as a result of their methods. What they do makes them rich and makes them live in luxury.
Barker writes,“The Babylonian rejoices and shouts for joy because of his success. Then he worships those things that make him rich and successful. How prone are people today to worship whatever makes them rich and successful?”
G. Again, we see the power of pragmatism in effect even before Willam James at Harvard. Right and wrong is decided by success. Method and worth are decided by success in its efforts. Value is decided by success. We just cannot seem to get around it today. What the world defines as success brings value, worth, and significance. What the world defines as success brings the elusive standard for morality.
H. How many times have we heard… wow the church is big and growing, they must be doing something right. That is not scripture talking thats pragmatism.
I. This is the kind of behavior that we have seen from nations all throughout human history. Like Habakkuk, this has always caused much concern for the church.
III. The Cross
- Fixing our eyes upon Jesus.
A. And so in the end, we wait. But the Lord did not leave us empty handed, he gave us the best expression of His love and compassion. The cross. We know He understands. We know He can sympathize. We know that He went though difficulty. Christ even asked why
At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
B. And we know at the cross… it was accomplished. And that is the good news for us today.