Isaiah 55:8-9 - “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
4 proper responses when facing terrible calamity
I. Believe that Jesus Invites Your Hard Questions
A. We all have to decide where to go for answers and direction
2 Timothy 4:3-4 - For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
B. These men and women took their questions directly to Jesus, knowing full well that His perspective might be dramatically different than theirs
C. God wants to engage and challenge our thinking
Luke 13:2 - And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose…”
Isaiah 1:18 - Come now, and let us reason together…
II. Understand that There is No Universal Relationship Between Calamity and Sinfulness
Luke 13:4 - Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?
A. Jesus’ clear answer: No
B. On the other hand, sometimes calamity does occur because of sinfulness
1. Sometimes people are ill because of their sin
James 4:14-15 - Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing his head with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
2. Sometimes calamity strikes because a person is reaping what he’s sown
Galatians 6:7 - Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
C. God can accomplish multiple purposes with multiple people with multiple spiritual conditions simultaneously
Psalm 119:71 - It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.
III. View God’s Mercy Upon You as an Opportunity for Repentance
Luke 13:3 - I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Luke 13:5 - I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
A. Of your belief that you could live successfully apart from a personal relationship with God
B. Of a tendency to find ultimate joy and satisfaction in lesser gods
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses)
Jeremiah 2:13 - For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
1 John 2:1-2 - My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
C. Of presuming on the future instead of trusting God for our daily provision
Matthew 6:11 - Give us this day our daily bread.
IV. Seek Greater Fruitfulness with the Time Entrusted to You
A. Growing in thanksgiving
B. Valuing relationships, hospitality, and fellowship with your church family
Hebrews 10:24-25 - …and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
C. Abounding in the work of the Lord
1 Corinthians 15:58 - Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
On this Lord’s day we’re going to look at a fascinating passage that transpired during Passover week
Luke 13 is a fascinating passage because Jesus is speaking to a group of people who
had a question about a recent calamity…
In Luke 12, Jesus has been challenging his listeners with truth that would have been
hard to accept – about topics like hypocrisy, and greed, and apathy.
These were difficult things to hear from the Lord to the people. Christ’s teaching was
often direct and pointed, as Jesus’ words often were.
It harkened back to what the Lord said in
Isaiah 55:8–9 – “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways
higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Since Jesus was the Son of God – it shouldn’t be surprising that much of what He had
to say required a radical change in thinking and behavior…it was challenging and not
always easy to hear…
Yet, He taught as One with authority…and that He spoke the words of life…
and much of Luke 12 fits in that category…
So now at the beginning of chapter 13, some of the listeners asked Him for direction
about how to think about a recent tragedy…
The incident probably transpired on Passover, because the people who died took place
while they were sacrificing
Pilate, the Roman ruler ruthlessly slaughtered a group of these people and then mixed
their own blood with the blood of the sacrifices.
That kind of brutality would be very consistent with what we know about Pilate...
- let’s see what happens – read Luke 13:1-9
So our point this morning is – Don’t Waste the Pandemic…and with the time we have remaining, let’s think through 4 proper responses when facing terrible calamity.
I. Believe that Jesus Invites Your Hard Questions
A. We all have to decide where to go for answers and direction.
Paul told Timothy that in
2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
You don’t want to be that kind of person…and part of what’s important to note about
what we will see in Luke 13 is that…
B. These men and women took their questions directly to Jesus, knowing full well
that His perspective might be dramatically different than theirs.
That is to say,
C. God wants to engage and challenge our thinking.
My friends, all of us here who are in Christ are a sanctifying work of God glorifying art!
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will
perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 1:6
One of the ways our Lord spiritually stretches us is to challenges us and to get us to
think with appropriate wisdom when tragedy strikes down upon this fallen world and
into our homes.
Do you really believe that? Whether you consider yourself a Christian, or perhaps
someone who is just thinking about making that decision, are you supposed to ask hard
questions or just be quiet and toe the party line?... and what were Jesus’ first three
words in response?...
Luke 13:2 – And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose…”
Now, what is he doing? He’s asking a question designed to help reshape the way the
Crowds were current about.
That may have reminded you of another verse from the OT…Isaiah 1:18 - “Come now,
and let us reason together,”…
Transition: That is to say
Jesus invites your hard questions…
II. Understand that there is No Universal Relationship between Calamity and Sinfulness.
It’s implied that the crowd asked Christ about these Galilean worshippers who had
been slaughtered…they wanted answers.
So our Lord responded, saying, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse
sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things?”
He was correcting a common religious belief in that day which suggested that when some
misfortune happened to someone, it was because of sin so heinous that it awakened
God’s wrath down upon them.
Transition: But the story doesn’t end there…our Lord raised a second example
just to be sure there’s no misunderstanding here…
Luke 13:4 – “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell
and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?”
Now, we don’t know a lot about that event either, but what is clear reinforces the core
question…
A. Jesus’ clear answer: No.
Should we assume that the Galileans who died were more sinful than the other Galileans and that God was therefore mad at them?...No.
Should we assume that the people who died when the tower in Siloam fell were more sinful than the other men in Jerusalem - No.
Do you remember when the Apostle Paul was in Malta? He was making a fire with a bundle of sticks when a poisonous snake slithered out and bit him on his hand – do you remember the reaction of the natives? Let me read it to you..
“…when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.” 5 But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.” – Acts 28:4-5
Do you see their thinking?
The same thinking happens even today with pandemics or other calamities or natural disasters or some misfortunate event therefore means they were.
Unfortunately, some well known influencers have done just that. I remember when Hurricane Katrina slammed down upon Louisiana back in August of 2005. It was a powerful category 5 hurricane that killed 1,800 people and 125 billion dollars in damage!
One well known person came out and said that Hurricane Katrina came out and said that it was God’s judgment against the City of New Orleans.
Others have said that the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11 was God’s judgment upon America. I could go on and on…that kind of thinking expressed in Jesus’ day about natural disasters and unfortunate events is also expressed in our day in age.
It was a theological palm to the face! So our Lord warns us not to be so quick to assume such things. Transition: Now, having said that…
B. On the other hand, sometimes calamity does occur because of sinfulness.
Scripture is clear on this.
1. Sometimes people are ill because of their sin.
James 4:14-15 – “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing his head with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”
There’s no question about that some illness is the result of sinful choices...but this passage is clear---you can’t automatically conclude that about every illness...
2. Sometimes calamity strikes because a person is reaping what he’s sown.
Galatians 6:7 - Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
So then, yes – sometimes that is the case...
But based on what Christ said emphatically in this passage...you cannot look at those who avoided serious calamity during the pandemic and say...God was pleased with them and those who had bad outcomes and say...God was displeased.
Transition: So how then do we make sense of all of this? Please remember…
C. God can accomplish multiple purposes with multiple people with multiple spiritual conditions simultaneously.
The Lord has been shaking up His creation pretty vigorously in the past 12 months…and is it OK for me to say – for many of us, that was a needed and necessary exercise? Sometimes, we can get pretty used to our routines and apathetic and even complacent about the things of God, can we?
So in God’s providence he allows certain events to shape and mold us…I want you to remember on this Easter Sunday that we are God’s portraits of grace. I want you to remember every Easter that comes and goes why we are what we are in Christ today…because of what he accomplished on Easter after having risen from the dead…we will one day rise again in power.
“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” – Romans 6:5
Perhaps at times we should say with the Psalmist…
Psalm 119:71 - It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.
So where does that leave us now in this fallen and decaying world as we emerge from
the pandemic?...if Luke 13 has taught us anything there’s little doubt about the
answer…
III. View God’s Mercy Upon You as an Opportunity for Repentance
Think about it for a moment: what is the clear and repeated key point in the text?...
Luke 13:3 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
That was in reference to the Galileans who had been slaughtered?...was the answer any different about those who died when the Tower of Siloam fell?...
Luke 13:5 - I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Please think about this in light of the day we are celebrating today…repentance is especially possible and appropriate because we have a Savor who died on the cross for those sins we are being challenged to repent of – and was buried and rose from the dead proving the price He paid on the cross was acceptable to our heavenly Father…
If forgiveness and new life is possible because of the power of the gospel – why
wouldn’t we use an event like a worldwide pandemic as an opportunity to consider any
possible need of repentance?...
Now some of you might say – of what? The answer to that is as varied as the spiritual
conditions represented in the room…But please consider this: what tendencies of your
heart, speech, and life were revealed by COVID-19?...
Those tendencies were already there – buried in our hearts…but the pressure of the
pandemic brought them to the surface…
That’s the point of our title…don’t waste the pandemic…
A. Of your belief that you could live successfully apart from a personal relationship with God.
I wonder how many people will hear this message who went into COVID-19 as men or
women who did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?...
Perhaps they believed that life consisted of the abundance of things a man possesses as
Jesus discussed in Luke 12:15…
Perhaps they were putting the issue of what would happen after they died to the further recesses of their minds…
What’s the first step required of a person being in such a condition? The answer is
simple: repentance…
That words means “to turn around” – to go in the opposite direction…In other words, I
used to think this way…but now I have changed my mind…
I used to be heading this way…and now I am going in the other direction…sometimes
it takes the Lord removing some of the things human used to trust in to bring us to a
point if recognizing we need a personal relationship with a Living God to sustain us
each and every day…
My friend, if you have never made that decision – I would urge you to do that today. It’s
one thing to go into the pandemic without Christ…it’s something entirely different to
come out of it in the same spiritually lost condition…don’t waste the pandemic…
Three members of my family contracted coronavirus – unfortunately, my mom passed
away on May 11 of last year because Coronavirus ravaged her body – she was 87 years
old. I was able to give her the Gospel one last time before she passed away. I’m hopeful
that I will see her again in glory…don’t waste the pandemic
B. Of a tendency to find ultimate joy and satisfaction in lessor gods.
For some people who call themselves Christians, their lives are wrapped up in the next
vacation, or the next sporting event, or the next good time…
Regardless of your view on how Coronavirus was handled, could you consider that
Maybe…just maybe…the Lord removed some of those pursuits for a period of time to
guide us to Someone who is more reliable and sustainable?
C.S. Lewis said, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too
weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition
when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making
mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a
holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory,
and Other Addresses
How about another question: is it possible that the Lord has allowed some of those lessor gods to topple so that we might find the only One left truly standing worthy of our ultimate adoration and worship…
Jeremiah 2:13 – “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me,
the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can
hold no water.”
Some of you might say “repentance hard! It means I need to change. It means that I
must give up the rule of my own life! Yes, that’s true – it’s not easy to admit
ways we need to change and give up the rule of our life over to Christ, but this is where
Easter enters the story again.
John’s first letter – he discussed the issue of walking in the light – of having an open
attitude toward admitting our sin…and then he says.
1 John 2:1–2 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not
sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but
also for those of the whole world.”
So then beecause Christ is both our propitiation (satisfaction) and our advocate – we can
come to Him boldly in repentance because we know we will find complete forgiveness
in Him along with the hope and power of change…
You don’t want to come out of the pandemic spiritually as the same person who
entered the experience 12 months ago…Don’t waste the pandemic…
C. Of presuming on the future instead of trusting God for our daily provision
Matthew 6:11 - Give us this day our daily bread.
When you’re not sure if you’re going to have a job, if the economy is going to
survive…and on and on…these things drives you to your knees…
One last important question:...what’s at stake in whether we use the pandemic as an opportunity to consider needed areas of repentance?
Ephesians 5:16 reminds us to make “the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
So how does this parable in verses 6-9 fit into the conversation?...
Here’s the answer
IV. Seek Greater Fruitfulness with the Time Entrusted to You
What should the Galileans who weren’t slaughtered do? ANSWER: use that tragedy as
an opportunity to consider needed areas of repentance so they can be more fruitful for
the Master...
What about those on whom the Tower of Siloam didn’t fall?...same answer…
What about the many millions of people who survived COVID-19 or any calamity for
that matter, thus far?
ANSWER: use that tragedy as an opportunity to consider needed areas of repentance so
they can be more fruitful for the Master...
Here’s something else to consider…
A. Growing in thanksgiving
We have a tendency to take the people around us for granted…
1. Healthcare workers and first responders
2. Janitors in our hospitals
3. Funeral directors
4. Educators
5. Moms who became teachers
6. Small business owners/restaurants
7. Government leaders
B. Valuing relationships, hospitality, and fellowship with your church family
Hebrews 10:24–25 - and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love
and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of
some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day
drawing near.
Can you believe that there’ a stat that suggests that 30% of evangelicals have no
intention of returning to in-person worship. My response to that is I doubt they
are even evangelical, let alone biblical.
C. Abounding in the work of the Lord
If our Lord has shaken up His creation vigorously this year, that also means the
opportunity for spiritual harvest is going to be everywhere we look…
Lastly, consider the way Paul concluded the great resurrection chapter in the Bible…
1 Corinthians 15:58 - Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
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