SERIES: 20/20: Seeing Truth Clearly
MESSAGE: Pain: God’s Biggest Problem
SPEAKER: Skip Heitzig
SCRIPTURE: John 9:1-7

MESSAGE SUMMARY
Perhaps the biggest impediment to believing in God (as stated by those who don’t) is the presence of pain and suffering in the world. How can there be a God who is benevolent and omnipotent with the sheer volume of grief, misery, travail, and torment at any given moment? Today we explore the theme of a loving God in a universe pockmarked by pain. As Jesus was in Jerusalem with His disciples, they came across a blind man. I’d like to show you four features of this most common and universal of human experiences.

STUDY GUIDE
Connect Recap Notes: August 23, 2020
Speaker: Skip Heitzig
Teaching: "Pain: God's Biggest Problem"
Text: John 9:1-7

Path

Perhaps the biggest impediment to believing in God (as stated by those who don't) is the presence of pain and suffering in the world. How can there be a God who is benevolent and omnipotent with the sheer volume of grief, misery, travail, and torment at any given moment? In this teaching, Pastor Skip explores the theme of a loving God in a universe pockmarked by pain.

  1. Pain Produces Questions (vv. 1-2)
  2. Pain Defies Our Explanations (v. 2)
  3. Pain Requires Clarification (vv. 3-4)
  4. Pain Brings an Obligation (vv. 4-7)
Points

Pain Produces Questions (vv. 1-2)Pain Defies Our Explanations (v. 2)Pain Requires Clarification (vv. 3-4)Pain Brings an Obligation (vv. 4-7)Practice

Connect Up: Theodicy means"the vindication of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil" (Wikipedia). Discuss the two key words from this definition below. How do they relate to pain and God working all things together for good?Connect In: Pastor Skip told us to ponder two questions: Are you willing to embrace suffering if it drives you to God? And are you willing to alleviate suffering to drive others to God? Answer these two questions. How has suffering drawn you closer to God? In what areas are you—or have you been—willing to alleviate suffering in the world?

Connect Out: How would you answer a skeptic or atheist regarding the problem of evil, pain, and suffering in the world? How can you show that Jesus is the final answer to pain, the vindication of God, via His resurrection and future eradication of all evil (see Revelation 21:1-8; 22:3)?Here's food for thought using a summary of Alvin Plantinga's argument: "Though omnipotent, God could not be expected to do literally anything. God could not, for example, create square circles, act contrary to his nature, or, more relevantly, create beings with free will that would never choose evil" (Wikipedia). Plantinga further argued that God could use the moral value of human free will as a morally justified reason for permitting the existence of evil.For helpful resources, see Norman Geisler's If God, Why Evil?, Alvin Plantinga's God, Freedom, and Evil,and C.S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain.

DETAILED NOTES
August 23, 2020
Skip Heitzig
"Pain: God's Biggest Problem"
John 9:1-7

  1. Introduction
    1. The most common reason people go to doctors is pain
    2. More than 50 percent of patients in the ER are there for pain
    3. Pain interferes with our quality of life
      1. Nearly 25 percent of American adults suffer with chronic pain
      2. Science Daily: The annual cost of chronic pain in the US is $635 billion a year
        1. Includes health care costs, lost hours at work
        2. More than annual costs for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes
    4. Before the end of this sermon introduction, scores of people will die from accidents, malnutrition, accidents, murder, and natural disasters
    5. "Many Christians would probably admit that pain was God's one mistake" —Philip Yancey
    6. The presence of pain and suffering presents a real problem for Christians
    7. Atheists and skeptics argue that since evil exists, the biblical God must not
    8. But God doesn't shy away from suffering—He doesn't see it as a problem
      1. Suffering is even a theme of entire biblical books: Psalms, Job, Lamentations
      2. Jesus Christ is described as "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3)
    9. John 9: a man with a disease brought the problem of pain to the surface for the disciples
  2. Pain Produces Questions (vv. 1-2)
    1. One thing pain does produce is questions, mostly Why?
    2. The story of the blind beggar in John 9 points to this question: Why is there suffering?
      1. The man's condition was not uncommon
      2. Causes include poverty (unsanitary conditions), bright sun, lots of dust, neonatal infection
    3. Human suffering is the number one roadblock to faith
    4. It's a question of theodicy: How can a loving and all-powerful God allow evil and pain to exist?
      1. We can offer evidence for God's existence (teleological and ontological arguments, history, fulfilled prophecy, etc.), but pain can stop us from believing in Him
      2. If only criminals and evildoers got injuries and diseases, we might see justice in that
      3. But many who don't deserve pain and suffering are afflicted
      4. Even C.S. Lewis questioned God when his wife died
      5. He eventually affirmed a loving, all-powerful God, but not before he went through a dark period of pain
    5. In Western countries, pleasure is the highest good
    6. Any pain disrupts our view of how things should be
  3. Pain Defies Our Explanations (v. 2)
    1. The disciples tried to explain pain, but their explanation was incorrect
    2. Here are a few common explanations for pain:
      1. Because of sin
        1. We live in a world that's fallen because of sin, so it's broadly true
        2. Not always true that someone suffers because they did something wrong
        3. God said Job was blameless, but Job's friends said he suffered because he had sinned
        4. Some Christians argue that if you have enough faith, you will have no pain
        5. This is false theology
      2. Because there is no God
        1. Atheist Richard Dawkins and journalist Susan Jacoby, among others, have argued that pain disqualifies a loving God from existing
        2. They believe the universe is an accident of fortuitous circumstances, and therefore suffering has no purpose
        3. But if there is no God, where does our standard of goodness come from?
          1. You can only have a notion of evil if you have a higher standard of good
          2. Without God's standard, how do we know what is good or evil at all?
      3. Because God is weak
        1. Some deists argue that God is not all-knowing or all-powerful
        2. They believe He is learning day by day, the same way we do
        3. Modern versions of this philosophy include process theology and open theism
        4. The idea is that God would help if He could, but He can't; He's impotent
        5. A God like that is no help at all
  4. Pain Requires Clarification (vv. 3-4)
    1. Pain needs a clear biblical answer
    2. Jesus didn't give pat answers for suffering but underscored God's sovereignty
      1. He didn't say the man was sinless, nor that his parents were
      2. He did say that in this case, there was no cause and effect between sin and blindness
      3. The purpose of the blindness: "That the works of God should be revealed in him" (v. 3)
    3. Jesus elevated the argument to the level of God doing what brings Him glory
      1. In Luke 13:1-5, Jesus provided a similar answer
      2. God may allow suffering to accomplish a greater purpose, like repentance
    4. Suffering in the hands of a loving God can be used for good
      1. What people may call bad or evil may be used by God for a great good
      2. Two harmful substances (sodium and chloride) put together create something good (table salt)
      3. God can take harmful things and combine them to make them helpful
    5. God can use pain in valuable ways
      1. To strengthen us
        1. James 1:3
        2. Many godly qualities are developed through challenges and trials
      2. To correct us
        1. Psalm 119:67; Hebrews 12:6
        2. We spank our children to keep them from a worse condition later on
        3. God does the same with us, because He loves us
        4. "[Pain] plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul" —C.S. Lewis
      3. To equip us
        1. 2 Corinthians 1:4
        2. Your pain equips you to help someone suffering the same pain
        3. Without trials, genuine empathy is hard to come by
  5. Pain Brings an Obligation (vv. 4-7)
    1. To Jesus, the blind man's pain was not a theological case study; it was an opportunity to do God's work, to show His compassion
    2. The word day in verse 4 refers to a temporary increment of time
      1. God has allotted a brief season for us to do His work in this life
      2. We don't know how long our day is, so now is our time to work
      3. As long as you are in the world, you are the light of the world
      4. Now is the time to show compassion, pray for others, and share the good news
    3. To deal with pain only academically is a cop-out
    4. We have an obligation to address pain practically
    5. How do we deal with the problem of pain?
      1. We affirm that God is loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing
      2. We affirm that one day He will eradicate pain
      3. Until then, we let pain change us and we help alleviate it in others
    6. Two questions
      1. Are you willing to embrace suffering if it drives you to God?
      2. Are you willing to alleviate suffering to drive others to God?
    7. In God's hands, pain can help us grow up into all He means for us to be
Figures referenced: Richard Dawkins, Susan Jacoby, Harold Kushner, C.S. Lewis, Philip Yancey

Cross references: Psalm 119:67; Isaiah 53:3; Luke 13:1-5; 2 Corinthians 1:4; Hebrews 12:6; James 1:3

Topic: pain

Keywords: compassion, evil, good, problem of pain, sin, suffering, theodicy, trials

Topic: pain

Keywords: compassion, evil, good, problem of pain, sin, suffering, theodicy, trials


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