Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Stay With the Ship

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

The biggest problem people have in believing in God is probably the problem of evil and suffering.  In the Greek imagination, the voyage was a metaphor for your life’s journey, and a storm was a metaphor for the evil and suffering and tragedies that come upon us. In this passage in Acts, Luke is in a boat, and he includes this account to teach us about the problems of evil and suffering. Let’s take a look at what he teaches under three headings: 1) the paradox of the storm, 2) the product of the storm, and 3) the presence in the storm. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 2, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Acts 27:15-32. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Finding consensus in today's culture is hard to come by. We are surrounded by competing worldviews about identity, morality, and truth. It can be difficult to know how to engage with people about Christianity. How do we navigate the skepticism or even hostility toward the Christian faith? Join us today as Tim Keller explores how we can respond to a fragmented society with courage and hope that comes from the gospel. After you listen, we invite you to go online to GospelInLife.com and sign up for our email updates.

When you sign up, you'll receive our Life in the Gospel quarterly journal with articles that feature how the gospel is changing hearts, lives, and communities, as well as highlighting other gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at gospeloflife.com. The reading this morning is from the Book of Acts, chapter 27, verses 15 through 32. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind. So we gave way to it and were driven along. As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cawda,

we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure. When the men had hoisted it aboard, they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Sirtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said, Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete. Then you would have spared yourself this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost. Only the ship will be destroyed. Last night, an angel of the God, whose I am and whom I serve,

stood beside me and said, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar, and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island. On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later, they took soundings again and found it was 90 feet deep.

Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved. So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it fall away. This

is the word of the Lord. Christianity was born into a culture extremely resistant to the claims of Christianity, extremely unsympathetic and even hostile. And yet, the case for the truth of the Christian message was so strong that people believed in such numbers it changed that brutal old society. Now what was that case then? And that's what we're looking at each week by dipping into selections, taking out selections from the book of Acts. And today we get to what's probably the biggest issue, the biggest problem people have in believing in God. Maybe last week was the biggest problem

people had with believing in Christianity. This week we're looking at the biggest problem people have with believing in God, and that is the problem of evil and suffering. Luke Timothy Johnson, who's a historian and a Bible scholar, sort of world class in both, says that when you get to this part of the book of Acts, it's a very long account, we could only print part of it and read part of it, when you get to this part of the book of Acts, Luke shows us his Hellenistic roots, his Greek roots, because the Jews were not seafarers, and so you'll find Jewish literature,

the Old Testament is not filled, well, there is one, not filled with sea stories and sea voyage and shipwreck stories. Here's one we'll talk about in a minute. But the Greek literature was, it was filled with stories of shipwrecks and voyages and so on. And therefore, in the Greek imagination, the voyage was a metaphor for your life's journey. And a storm was a metaphor for the evil and suffering and tragedies that come upon us. And how you handle yourself in the storm is crucial

to knowing who you are, to seeing what your character is, and to recognizing how you're going to address and navigate life itself. Now Luke was actually in the boat, as you can see all the references to we, you can see that, we passed to the lee of a small island, you know, we did this, we did that. Luke was there, but that's still, the question is though, why did he include this account and why was it so long?

What is he trying to teach us? And he's teaching us about the problem of evil and suffering. Let's take a look at what he teaches us under three headings. He talks about the paradox of the storm, the product of the storm, and the presence in the storm. The paradox of the storm, the product of the storm, and the presence in the storm. First, the paradox of the storm.

Now, you remember the two dominant schools of philosophy at the time of Paul, the time of the early church. We mentioned them when we looked at Acts 17. It was the Stoics and the Epicureans. The Stoics were absolutely fatalistic. They believed that everything was fixed and it didn't matter what you did. So their favorite story is Oedipus. Remember Oedipus?

He was fated to kill his mother and kill his father and marry his mother. And in spite of everything he did to avoid that and everything everyone else did to avoid that, he ended up killing his father and marrying his mother because it was his fate and it doesn't matter what you do, the fate is fixed. On the other hand, the Epicureans were the opposite.

The Epicureans believed that history was random, and it was completely up to you, through your choices, to create the history and the life you wanted. Stoics believed, therefore, suffering needed to be embraced and accepted. And Epicureans believed that suffering should be avoided at all costs. But here in this account, we see an approach to evil and suffering, an approach to the

relationship of God to the events of human history that is far more complex and far more nuanced than these two views, which are still with us today basically. The situation is that Paul is a prisoner and he's on his way to Rome to stand trial and as we know eventually to be executed. And he's the warden is a centurion and there's a group of soldiers and he's on this boat on his way to Rome. They obviously as as you have read, are caught in a terrible storm, and this is near October, November, with a terrible storm.

They've been stuck in a storm for almost 14 days, and they're all losing hope. But there's two things that Paul says in the midst of the storm, which shows, which expresses an understanding of the relationship of God to human events of history that is far more nuanced, far more complex, far more paradoxical, far beyond, far more sophisticated than any other human category we have for this. In verse 22, notice he says, God has said to me, no one will die.

An angel of God appeared to me and said, absolutely no one will die. An angel of God appeared to me and said, absolutely no one will die. The ship will be lost but no one is going to die in this storm. Now the reason that's very important to realize, it's very important to realize if you want to understand Paul's thinking here is that the Bible says that if anybody says they have a prophecy from God and they give the prophecy and the prophecy doesn't come true that prophet was to be put to death God says in Deuteronomy 18 when I give you a prophecy when I give someone a

Revelation it will come true if it doesn't come true. You can know that that's a false prophet So when Paul gets this revelation from God and he says, everyone is going to be saved in this storm, he knows that can't be changed. He knows that that is fixed. He knows that that prophecy can't be changed. And yet, in verse 30, Paul finds out somehow that the sailors in the middle of the storm, even though they pretend to be lowering the anchor or letting go of some ship equipment, they're actually getting into lifeboat to abandon ship.

When Paul hears about that, he runs to the soldiers and he says to the soldiers, unless we keep the sailors here, we're all going to die. And of course the soldiers stop the sailors and ever since then the Army-Navy game has been bitterly fought. It's part of the problem. It's a long old history behind the antipathy there. Now, what does this mean? This is startling to us.

Paul says it is absolutely sure that we're all going to be saved and if the sailors get off of here we're all going to die. What's that? To our mind it's got to be one or the other. If it's absolutely sure that everybody is going to be saved, if God has said so and God is in control and it's absolutely sure everyone's going to be saved, why not let them take the boat? In fact let's all go snorkeling. I mean you know, who cares? It doesn't matter. We're not going to die. We can't lose it. So it doesn't matter what we do.

If our destiny is fixed, then our choices don't matter. Or if we believe our choices matter, that means we would think then that history's outcome depends on our choices. And that history is open and unsettled and contingent on our choices. And Paul will have none of it. And Paul will have none of it. And Luke will have none of it. And the Bible will have none of it. It's neither the stoic approach that our destiny is fixed in spite of our choices, nor the

Epicurean approach that says basically things are up in the air. No, no, no. Oh no. God is absolutely in control and our choices absolutely, and we are completely responsible for them. Now, what this means is we have got a relationship between God and the events of human history that is infinitely more sophisticated than any other one, than any human being,

any philosophy, anyone else has ever put forward. It's paradoxical, it's mysterious, it's complex. Now, why do I point that out? What does that mean? How does that help us? Here's how it helps us. An awful lot of people, probably people in this room, are absolutely unable to believe in God because of pointless evil and suffering. Pointless evil and suffering. Mark Sluca

wrote a very, very discussed, much discussed essay in Harper's, an excellent essay in Harper's Magazine June 2000 called Blood on the Tracks. And in here he gives the most elegant and eloquent expression of this objection to God on the basis of evil and suffering that I've ever read. Blood on the tracks. What Mark Sluka points out here, by the way, is it's not just suffering in general, or even horrendous suffering, but pointless suffering that is the real problem

for our hearts and minds. If we know of someone who died tragically, or some terrible thing happened to them, maybe even a horrendous death, but if we know that that tragic horrendous death accomplished something, if we know that it saved a family or a village or accomplished something major, then that's still very sad, but it doesn't create the same problem for our hearts and minds. It's pointless suffering. That's the problem. Now Blood on the Tracks is basically an essay about an incident that happened in Fairfield,

Connecticut, or outside Fairfield, Connecticut in 1999. An immigrant family was walking on the railroad tracks and they were mowed down, a family of five, and they were killed by a passing Amtrak train. And Slouka points out that many, many investigative reporters around the country tried desperately to find a point to it. I mean, you can't write a story about, even in a newspaper, without a narrative. And he said, everybody just, just did everything they could to find a point. For example, one of the first things we said is it was the railroad's fault.

There was some negligence or some incompetence or some corruption or something on the part of the railroad or the engineer or the railroad company. No, they couldn't find any. Well then maybe it was the government's fault, the local government, lack of proper regulations, something like that. No, they couldn't find any. Well then they delved into the family history and they were looking for particularly good parents Which means it would be so unjust or particularly bad parents, which would mean it would be so just or maybe They're looking for some point some narrative some meaning some anything and still could point it out There was none there was nothing but blood on the tracks

We looked and looked and looked and blood on the tracks. And then he gets very powerful and he says, you see the old adage, well it's God's will, is too pat. It won't work. And here's how the argument goes. The biblical God, all powerful and all loving God would not fill a world with pointless suffering. That's part A. Part B, the world is filled with pointless suffering. Therefore part C, that God can't exist. God would not fill a world with pointless suffering if he was the God of the Bible. The world is filled with pointless suffering. therefore that God just can't exist.

Pretty powerful. And yet, there's a huge fallacy right in the heart of it. A huge fallacy in the heart of it. And what is it? When you say, when you look at a particular thing like this, this incident here, and you say all the great investigative reporters couldn't find a point to it. Do you remember what you're saying? Here's what you're saying.

You might say there's a syllogism inside the syllogism, there's an assumption inside the train of logic, and here's what that assumption is. I can't see any point to why this happened. I can't see any greater good. I can't see any point to why this happened. I can't see any greater good. I can't see any particular reason. I can't see anything it accomplishes. I can't see any point to this terrible thing happening.

Therefore, there can't be any point. All the great reporters can't see any point to it. Therefore, there can't be any point. And that, of course, is obviously fallacious. Think about this. Imagine you have a five-year-old child, some of you do, as I can hear. And let's just say you suddenly get, you're living in a particular place,

and you suddenly get a job that will pay you five to ten times more. A job far more satisfying. A job that uses your gifts, a job of your dreams, a job that's going to pay you so much more. It's going to change the entire family's prospects. But you have to sit down and say to your little five-year-old, we're going to have to move, so you're going to lose all your playmates,

you're going to lose your backyard, you're going to lose everything familiar to you, you're going to lose the little pond that you play in. And the five-year-old looks at you and says, in five-year-old language, there's absolutely no point to this. There's no good reason for this. Why? You're inflicting this on me. There's no good reason.

So explain, go ahead, you explain. We'll be able to pay for you to go to the best colleges. Colleges. Five-year-olds sitting in colleges. What? The distance between you and the five-year-old is such that there is absolutely no way she will ever see the point.

You're just gonna have to grow up, kid. Sorry, you're coming anyway, that's that, it's easy. But don't you see that the distance intellectually between God and us would be infinitely greater? And so how could you ever say, how is it possible to say, even though people do it all the time? People in New York are doing it all the time, it's sort of hidden in the syllogism that sounds so strong.

But they're always saying, basically your assumption is, there could be no point to the suffering I look at that God might have that I can't think of. And that just can't be. And so here's the irony. Agnosticism about God because of suffering comes from a refusal to be agnostic about the suffering.

You say, well, I just can't understand why God would allow this. Because you assume you understand the suffering too well. No, no, I can't understand the suffering. Yes, you do. When you assume, because you can't see a point, there can't be a point. You're refusing to be agnostic.

You're refusing to bow before the paradox, before the mystery. In other words, because you can't see a point, there can't be a point. You're refusing to be agnostic. You're refusing to bow before the paradox, before the mystery. In other words, because you're so sure you've figured out the suffering by saying it can't be figured out, that now you can't figure out God. Agnosticism about God, because of suffering, has actually been fueled by the fact that you won't be agnostic about the suffering. Or put it this way, if you have a God so great, so great that you can be mad at him for not

preventing the evil and suffering, then you've got to have a God so great and infinite that he could have some reasons for letting it continue that you can't discern. You can't have it both ways. If he's great enough for you to be mad at him for not stopping it, then he's great enough for him to have some reason you can't think of. You can't have it both ways. Do you see the paradox? Paul, Luke, the Bible gives you an incredibly complex, incredibly sophisticated understanding of the relationship of God to human events. He is in charge. He is in charge. On the other hand, evil is not the thing that he designs. He's somehow involved and overruling it and working out into his plan. At the same time,

he's not the author of evil. Oh no, I just don't, I don't buy that. If you don't buy that, what you're saying is, I will not admit the limits of my knowledge. I will not bow before the paradox of the mystery and therefore I can't believe in God. But you see, you brought that on yourself. So the first thing we learn here is the paradox of the storm. How can we understand the meaning of life's milestones through the lens of the gospel? In the How to Find God series, Tim Keller offers three short books on birth, marriage, and death that will help you understand the meaning of these milestones within God's vision of life,

with biblical insight for how the scripture teaches us to face each one. These books of pastoral care are designed for specific life situations you or someone you know will go through. When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of April, we'll send you the How to Find God series as our thanks for your support of this ministry. To receive this short three-book set, simply make a gift at gospelonlife.com. That's gospelonlife.com. Your gift helps us share the message of Christ's love all over the world. So thank you for partnering with us because the gospel truly changes everything. The second thing that we learn here though is this, the product of the storm.

Though we don't understand the reason behind suffering, we do understand very much in the Bible what will happen in your life if you receive it in a certain way. What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at how Paul receives it. One of the things that's amazing about this whole passage, and unfortunately as I mentioned, we couldn't print it all for you, is Paul's calm. It's like inside, Paul has got an incredible calm that is absolutely the opposite of all the roaring and the crashing and the waves and the wind. There's an inner peace that enables him to handle the storm outside, and it's astounding. He's going around assuring people, and he's going around giving people courage and he's absolutely at peace

himself and just a little further down in the passage he says this, he goes to the men of the boat and he says, I urge you men to take some food, you need it to survive. Now one of you will lose a single hair of your head. So he broke some bread and he blessed it and they were encouraged and they ate too. Now well isn't that very nice? There's more to it than that. Because Luke who wrote the book of Acts also wrote the book of Luke. And when Luke has Paul say, not a hair of your heads will be harmed. Not a single hair of your head will you lose. He is getting us to think about Jesus who said the same thing on the eve of his death in Luke chapter 21. Now what Jesus said in that place, I've been thinking about for two or three years, it

is an astounding statement. Can I read it to you? Jesus said, you will be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, but not a hair of your head will perish. So by patience and endurance, you will possess your souls. Now let me read that a little more slowly. They will put some of you to death, but not a hair of your head will perish. What?

Does that mean I'll just look wonderful in my casket? I mean, what is that? What kind of assurance is that? Not a hair of your head will perish, and yet they will put some of you to death, so that by patient endurance you will possess your souls. Now let's break this down. Number one, he says, not a hair of your head will perish.

That is a way for Jesus to say God has an absolutely detailed loving plan for your life. But then secondly, he's also saying this, that plan is to bring peace, greatness, love, salvation to you and through you and that will entail suffering. See, he's got a detailed plan, not a hair of your head, you know. He's got an absolutely detailed plan to bring to you and through you greatness and peace and love and salvation. But that will entail suffering. And yet, when that hits, through patient endurance, you will possess your souls.

Now what's going on? Paul actually explains what's going on. Paul makes reference to these things that he's going through right now. In 2 Corinthians, one of the later writings of his life, and in 2 Corinthians he says this, I have been in prison, flogged, five times I've received 39 lashes, three times I've been beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times shipwrecked, three times, this is the third time here, okay. I've been in prison, flogged, five times received 39 lashes, three times. This is the third time here. I've been imprisoned, flogged, five times received, thirty-nine lashes, three times beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times shipwrecked. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses

for when I am weak then I am strong. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day for our light momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that outweighs them all. Get that, light momentary. Can you hear that? Five times 39 lashes, three times beaten with rods, one stone, three times shipwrecked, light momentary. Compared to what?

What's being achieved for me? What's being achieved for me through the suffering? Glory. What's being achieved for me? What's being achieved for me? Through the suffering, glory. What's that mean? Well, here's another inspired passage. This is from the Velveteen Rabbit. Real isn't how you are made, said the skin horse. It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time,

not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real. Does it hurt? Asks the rabbit. Oh yeah. But that's why it doesn't happen to those who break easily or have sharp edges or who have to be very carefully handled. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and you look

very shabby. But these things don't matter at all because once you're real, you can't be ugly except to people who don't understand. When you're real, you can take being hurt. Fairy tale stuff, no, nothing more practical than this. Nothing more practical. Think of the people that you know of, who partly through being sheltered, and partly through luck as it were, have had almost no storms in their lives.

They've had pretty much clear sailing. Maybe hardly even cloudy days. And what do you know about them? They're shallow. They really don't know who they are. They have very little self-knowledge. They're of no help when trouble does come. They get out of there. They certainly aren't very compassionate to other people who are suffering. And when problems do come, they can't stand on their own two feet. Why? What is Paul saying? No suffering, no glory. You're not a person of substance,

you're not a person of depth. What is glory? The word glory means weight. It means something, it means ballast, it means something that lasts, it's something that can't be blown away. The suffering turns you real. Suffering makes you someone who's not blown about

by the circumstances. That without health you can still have joy. Without money you can still have joy. Without relationships you can still have joy. Why? Why has Paul got this inner calm? This is his third shipwreck. Suffering has made him a person of substance. It's made him a person of glory. It's made him a person of weight. It's made him a person of weight. It's made him a person of depth. That's what's going on. And listen, suffering can ruin your life because it can make you bitter and it can make you filled with self-pity if you don't receive it rightly. And I'll talk in a minute about how you do. Just saying, oh, it's God's will. Is it a pat answer? And

it won't help. Just saying God must have a reason for it will, is it a pat answer and it won't help? Just saying, God must have a reason for it, is a pat answer, yes, and it won't help. But if you receive, so you can let suffering ruin your life, fill you with bitterness and self-pity, which actually makes you less wise and makes you less understanding of who you are, makes you less compassionate. So suffering can ruin your life, but no suffering will ruin your life No suffering Absolutely will ruin your life So that leads us to this question. How can we receive it? See the product of the storms? Because how many see he's been through three shipwrecks all the rest of them only been through one

He's fine He's become a person of fine. He's become a person of glory. He's become a person of balance. He's become a person of weightiness. He's not blown about, you see, inside, so he can handle being blown about on the outside. So there's the product if you receive it rightly. And that leads us to our third point and the third question, the real question. How do you receive then suffering in your life? If suffering can ruin your life but a lack of suffering absolutely will ruin your life, then how can you receive it in a way that it really makes you real?

That it really makes you someone like Paul? And the answer is the presence in the storm. One of the neatest verse I think in the passage is the place where Paul describes that an angel came from God to tell him this information but look how he describes God. It's in verse 23. The God whose I am, okay, the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me. The God whose I am, how does he know that? When the average person, when storms come and bad things happen and money, health, relationships, family, terrible things are happening, tragedy. They don't feel loved.

They feel rejected. And here's Paul saying, the God whose I am, not whose I hope to be someday if I really live up, no, whose I am. In other words, I know, Paul says, that I am God's treasured possession. I know he loves me and cherishes me, and he looks at me the way you look at a precious possession.

I'm his. And in the midst of this storm, there's the secret. Where other people are wondering if there is a God, and other people are saying, or yes, I thought there was a God, but it looks to me like he's abandoned me. No, no. The God whose I am, There's the secret. He knows

he's loved. In other words, he knows in this storm he's being loved real, not being rejected. How does he know that? Because he has something. You know what you really need, friends, about evil and suffering? It's taken me a very long time, I'm sorry it's taken me so long as a minister to feel this out. Over the years people have said to me, I have trouble believing because of the things that have happened to me or the things I've seen happen in the world or the things I've seen happen in my friends' lives. Because of evil and suffering I have trouble believing and I thought they needed an answer. And I would give them answers. And there are kind of answers.

I gave it to you under the first heading. You know, there are ways to take people, argument who says, well, because of the evil and suffering, therefore there can't be a God. And it's actually fairly easy to take that argument apart. I just tried, I did it, I think. In the world of philosophy right now, it's pretty much believed now

that you really can't disprove the existence of God from suffering because of the way in which I argued. I'm just giving you kind of a bit of a synopsis of what's going on in the philosophical world, what Christian philosophers are saying. But I came to realize people don't just need an answer. Even when they get an answer, their hearts are still hungry and empty and still mad

and still upset and still put off What do they need? I'll tell you what they need. You know I think I may have told is before but if some years ago People from my original church in Virginia Through a reception for my wife and myself and my family in the summertime It was a wonderful thing. And during the reception, there were about 50 people there and almost everybody got up and said, because I was a pastor in Virginia for nine years when I was a very young man, and when they all got up and every one of them

shared what they remembered from my ministry, what they remembered that I had said to them or how I helped them the most or something like that. Now one of the things that Kathy and I couldn't help but notice is they all got up and they said something, they said something and nobody, nobody mentioned a sermon. Now this was nobody, nobody remembered anything I ever said in my sermons.

Now what's weird about this of course is this is a particular rebuke to my younger self because when you get out of seminary, you say, I have paid all this money to learn Greek and Hebrew and I even took a course in Aramaic so that I can even translate that middle part of Jeremiah that most of the rest of you don't even know is written in Aramaic. And I'm going to preach on that right away. And therefore I'm going to have all these pearls of wisdom that are going to fall from my mouth and the people are going to come and take notes and they're going to say, that's really changed my life. It didn't. Do you know why? That was answers. You know what they kept talking?

Well, what did they say? I'll tell you what they said. When I was at the emergency room, you said, I'll never forget. When I was at the jail what they said. When I was at the emergency room, you said, I'll never forget. When I was at the jail, you said. When I was at the hospital, you said. When my father died, you said. And Kennedy Smart, an older minister in town, when I was just brand new, looked at me one day and said, listen, let me just give you a little bit of advice. Your preaching will take care of itself.

But these people are not going to listen to a thing you say. Nothing you say is going to amount to a hill of beans to them unless they know you're with them in their troubles. Unless they know you love them. Unless they know that. They don't need a bunch of answers. They need somebody who's going to stand with them in the emergency room and at the funeral home and at the jail. And you know what? He was right. What you need is someone with you in your suffering. Now here's what's so fascinating. There is no other religion that even claims this on the face of the earth that even claims this. No other religion is crazy enough to claim this. Only Christianity says God is with you. Only Christianity says God is with you.

Only Christianity says God lost a son. Only Christianity said God has been tortured. God has been rejected. God has lost friends. God has been the victim of act of violent injustice. Only Christianity is crazy enough to say, God cried out, why? Why? He's been through there with us, he's been right there with us.

Of course, it's a pat answer to say, God's will. That is a pat answer, that's not enough. And of course it's a pat answer to say, well God must have a reason for this suffering. But that's not enough. How do I know he's got a reason for this suffering? This, Jesus Christ on the cross. I don't know what his reasons are for letting suffering go on,

but it certainly can't be indifference. He's involved, he's with me, that's what I need, I don't need the answer, I need to know he's with me. And he is. In all points like you, he has suffered. You see, this is how Paul can say, the God who's I am. I know I'm being loved real. I'm not being rejected.

I'm not being cast off. I'm being loved real. How does he know that? Because he knows the words of Jesus Christ who said, as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days. So the son of man will be in the belly of the earth for three days for a greater than Jonah is here. You know what Jesus is saying?

He says, remember the storm that Jonah was in? Jonah was disobedient. And the anger and justice of God took the form of a storm. And everyone in the boat was in danger. But Jonah looked at everyone in the boat and said, throw me overboard, sacrifice me, throw me into the guts of the wrath of the storm, and you will be saved.

And they did, and they were. But Jesus says, do you know how you can get a complete inner calm, like Paul has? Get rid of your guilt, get rid of your struggle for love, get rid of your need to prove yourself, get rid of your sense of inadequacy. You know how you can get such an incredible calm on the inside that you can handle any storms outside, is to know that I am the ultimate Jonah. I was thrown into the ultimate storm.

I took the punishment and paid the debt that you know in your heart of hearts you owe. And I took it. I took it all for you. That's proof that you are loved. And that's also, if you believe in me, the way you know that at this moment, in any storm, you belong to God. He's not casting you off. He's loving you real.

You know, Marilyn McCord Adams, she's a philosopher at Yale, and she's written some wonderful stuff on horrendous suffering. And let me just close by telling you her amazing insights. She says the Stoics believe that suffering should be accepted. Is that exactly what you have in Jesus on the cross? He's attacking suffering there. On the other hand, the Epicureans believe that suffering should be avoided.

Is that what you really see with Jesus on the cross? Absolutely not. He's certainly not avoiding it. So the Stoics say, accept it. And the Epicureans say, avoid it. But the Gospel says, and this is her words, engulf it. What? Adams is a medieval philosophy expert, and she gets really deep into Julian of Norwich

and many of the especially the women Christian mystics and she points out that the women Christian mystics of the Middle Ages understood that our salvation is so great that when God comes back when The resurrection happens when we get to our salvation. It won't just eliminate suffering It will take the suffering up into itself and use it to make it greater. How? I remember some time ago, some years ago actually, I remember having a horribly vivid nightmare that my whole family was dead.

Now before that nightmare, I loved my family. But when I woke up and realized it was a nightmare, I loved my family. But when I woke up and realized it was a nightmare, I loved my family. Because what happened was my joy and my family took the nightmare into itself and I appreciated them more deeply for having had the nightmare. The nightmare made me love them more. Do you realize what's gonna happen

on the day of the resurrection? Everything sad will become untrue. This is the most radical view of suffering. Our salvation is not just going to eliminate suffering. That means that every bad thing that's ever happened to you will become a nightmare. The reality of the resurrection will relativize the reality of anything that's ever happened to you. It'll all come untrue. And you will be infinitely happier than you ever would have been if you had never suffered those things.

That's why Paul puts it like this. He puts it like this. He says, behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we shall be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised, and we shall be changed. For when the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality then the saying that is

written shall come true death has been swallowed up it's engulfed in victory oh death where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory I could we actually don't have answers for the problem of evil and suffering we've got something much better it's Jesus Peter Kreff says say, how do we get God off the hook for evil and suffering? But he says, go to Jesus. Jesus is not God off the hook. Jesus is God putting himself on the hook for us of evil and suffering. You've got something better. You've got the gospel. Bring Jesus Christ doing that into your heart instead of an answer and you will be transformed. You'll be made real.

You'll become a person of glory. His love in time past forbids me to think. He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink. By prayer let me wrestle, then he will perform. With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm. Let us pray. Thank you Father for showing us that the broken body and the poured out blood of Jesus Christ is the response, the completely more than adequate, overwhelming engulfing more than adequate, overwhelming, engulfing response of you to our evil and suffering. When we take that into our lives, it changes us forever. Help us to do so in new ways.

As we partake of the Lord's Supper, the emblems of His suffering and death, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. death we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Just subscribe to the Gospel in Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other valuable resources. Again, it's all at GospelinLife.com. We also invite you to stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. This month's sermons were recorded in 2003. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.