How God Uses Bad for Good

Isaiah 55:8-9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Some of you long-time members of this congregation may find this hard to believe, but Marilyn and I have been living out in the country now for over 12 years.  Prior to building our own home and moving out there, we lived in the parsonage just a block south of the church – the first house on the left as you go into Hawthorn Estates.  And when we lived there I used to pride myself on having one of the cleanest cars around.  I would spend many of my days off washing my car till it sparkled, cleaning my tires until they shined, Windexing my windows until they were streak-free, and vacuuming the inside until you could eat off the floor.  But then we moved to the country.  Now, because of a very muddy or dusty road, depending upon the weather, I have pretty well given up on keeping my car clean because as soon as I wash it, it gets dirty – very dirty – the moment its tires tread upon the rock road that leads to our house.

Now when I used to wash my car a lot, most of the time I would hand wash it, but once in a great while I wouldn’t have time to do that so I would run it through the automatic car wash.  And I’ll never forget the time I did that one Friday morning when I was babysitting my granddaughter Maliyah.  I think she was only about 2 or 3 at the time and without really giving any thought as to what this experience would be like for a little toddler, we pulled into the bay and the machine started up.  As soon as that happened I think Maliyah thought we were coming under attack.  And who could blame her as this loud-sounding machine started to blast away at us with powerful streams of water?  It was then that I heard this frightened little voice from the back seat say, “Pa-Pa.”  When I looked behind me, there was Maliyah holding out her hand to me, wanting me to hold it in mine.  So I did.  And when I did, everything was all right.  Her fears immediately disappeared.

But before I held her hand, Maliyah didn’t quite understand what was going on.  She didn’t grasp that this frightening experience was actually for our good – at least the good of the car we were in.  And oh how often don’t we find ourselves feeling the same way.  When we’re in the hospital or battling prolonged health problems, we may think that God has forgotten us.  If we lose our job, we think heaven must have dozed off.  If we’re having marital troubles or problems with our kids or conflict with friends we may feel as though God is too busy handling things in Iraq or Afghanistan or some other troubled spot in our world to even have a clue as to what’s going on in our lives.  And it never dawns on us that maybe, just maybe, God has allowed these difficult circumstances for a good reason – that not all of his training of us takes place at picnics and parties, but that sometimes it occurs in the pitfalls and potholes of life that we inevitably encounter sooner or later.  Or to put it another way, the blessings of life don’t always come dressed up in beautiful packages.  Sometimes they come costumed as disasters.

Do you find that hard to believe?  If so, I want to take you on a little journey this morning.  I want to take you to the top of a skull-shaped hill just outside the city of Jerusalem.  And I want you to stand on that hill and gaze into the face of the crucified man hanging on the center cross, the one called Jesus.  Then I want you to imagine yourself interviewing some of the people who were present there that day.  Go up to his mother and ask her, “Is this a good day for you, Mary?”  Go up to John, his disciple, and say, “John, does this appear to be a day of victory for this man’s followers?”  Then walk down the hill and enter the city and see if you can find anyone on the street who would say, “Oh, what a wonderful thing is taking place on Calvary today.  Someday we’ll be singing, ‘On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross.’”  Do you think you’d find anyone saying things like that on that first Good Friday?  Of course not.  No one that day who knew Jesus and loved Jesus had any hope that anything good could come out of this horrific event.  All they knew was that in a few hours all the power and promise and potential that they believed existed in Jesus would be sealed behind a huge rock in a borrowed tomb.  So no, this was not a good day from their perspective.

But what about Christ’s perspective?  Was he surprised by all the events that unfolded that day?  I think you know the answer to that question.  He knew well in advance everything that would happen that day.  And from heaven’s perspective, everything went according to plan, just as it had been foretold centuries before.  In fact, do you have any idea what one word was on Jesus’ lips more than any other during the 24 hours leading up to his death on the cross?  Some might say “love” or “forgiveness” or “mercy,” which are good answers.  But they’re wrong answers.  Let me share a few quotes from Jesus during his final 24 hours and see if you can pick out the word that I’m looking for.  By the way, these quotes come from the New Living Translation of the Bible:

  • 26:24 – “I, the Son of Man, must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago.”
  • 26:31 – “Tonight all of you will desert me,” Jesus told them, “For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’”
  • In the Garden of Gethsemane he could have called thousands of angels to help him, but he didn’t for this reason as stated in Matt. 26:54: “If I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?”
  • John 13:18 – “The Scriptures declare, ‘The one who shares my food has turned against me,’ and this will soon come true.”
  • In John 17:12 he prays to his Heavenly Father: “I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.”

Did you catch it?  The one word that was on Jesus’ lips more than any other in the hours leading up to his crucifixion was the word “Scriptures.”  It’s almost as if Jesus is following a mental checklist of things that needed to be done to bring to perfect and complete fulfillment all of the Old Testament prophecies about him.  Now why was that?  Why did the Scriptures matter so much to Jesus?  And why should it matter to us that they mattered to him?  I think it’s because he knew there would always be some doubting Thomases among us.  While some Christians are full of faith and short on doubts, others among us may be full of doubts and short on faith.

And if you find yourself in that latter category, my friends, you need to understand that Jesus spent the last hours of his life bringing to fulfillment an unbelievable number of prophecies so that you would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was who he claimed to be: the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God, the mighty deliverer and suffering servant who had been promised centuries before.  In fact, on the day Jesus died, did you know that no less than 29 different prophecies were fulfilled by him, the oldest of which was made 1000 years before?  Consider just a few of them:

  • The fact that he would be betrayed by one of his friends – Ps. 41:9
  • The fact that he would be forsaken by his disciples – Zech. 13:7
  • The price of his betrayal set at 30 pieces of silver – Zech. 11:12
  • The scourging, spitting, and mocking that he would endure – Is. 50:6
  • The fact that he would remain silent before his accusers – Is. 53:7
  • The fact that his hands and feet would be pierced – Ps. 22:16
  • The gambling for his garments – Ps. 22:18

And it just goes on and on.  Do you know what all this means, my friends?  It means that although it appeared that Jesus was the victim of his circumstances that day, in reality he wasn’t.  Rather he was the master of them.  In fact, so much so that he actually used the words of his enemies to proclaim truth about himself that day.  For example, when the Jewish leaders passed by the cross, they were shouting at Jesus: “He saved others…but he can’t save himself!”  Could truer words have been spoken that day?  Jesus could not at the same time save others and himself.  It had to be one or the other.  He could either die and let us live or live and let us die in our sins and be forever separated from him.  Aren’t you glad he chose the former?

Or what about this statement from Caiaphas the high priest who presided over Jesus’ trials before the Jewish council?  After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the Jewish leaders began to plot how they might get rid of him.  And it was Caiaphas who said at that time: “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”  Was Caiaphas a believer in Christ?  Hardly.  And yet his statement was full of Gospel truth.  For it was better from God’s perspective that one man die for us than that we all perish in hell.

What’s going on here?  I mean, we’ve got Caiaphas speaking truth about Jesus without intending to do so and we’ve got the Jewish leaders explaining the meaning of the cross at the cross without realizing what they were doing.  What I think we have here, my friends, is a powerful example of what I’ve stated in my sermon theme for today: “How God Uses Bad for Good.”  Remember how the Apostle Paul puts it in Rom. 8:28?  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  That little word “all” is a pretty inclusive term, isn’t it?  It includes chicken-hearted disciples, hard-hearted Pharisees, a two-timing Judas, nail-pierced hands and feet, a thorn-crowned brow, and an old rugged Roman cross.  In all of those bad things God was working something good.  In fact, something so good that it included the salvation of mankind.  Every dark detail of that fateful day was turned into a golden moment by the One who was really in control.  And at no other time did that become more evident than when the sun rose on the following Sunday, revealing an empty tomb and a risen Christ.

So how about it?  Do you think God can still do the same today?  Do you think there is any chance that he can turn your dark Friday into a glorious Sunday?  Some of you may doubt it.  I mean, how can God use cancer or death or divorce or a depleted bank account for my good?  Simple.  He’s smarter than we are.  And in our text he says to us: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  That’s God’s way of saying that he knows more than we do and is able to do more than we could ever imagine.

So what do we do when we feel like a two-year-old in a car wash who thinks she’s under attack?  We do what Maliyah did.  We reach out to our heavenly Pa-Pa, knowing that he alone can take our difficult circumstances and transform them into something good.  We place our hand into his and trust him to get us safely through.  We do what Maliyah did on another occasion.  As she stood at the top of the stairs leading into our basement and I was about 3 steps below her, I opened my arms and invited her to fall into them.  And with all the faith and trust that a little child could muster, she leaned forward and did just that, knowing that I would catch her, just as your Heavenly Father will do for you when you allow yourself to fall into his strong and loving arms.

Amen.