Welcome to the Daily Blade . The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit , the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil . Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson , and they stand ready to equip men for the fight . Let's sharpen up .
Speaker 2Welcome to the Daily Blade . We are going to do a deep dive into John , chapter 11 , and in so doing we are going to talk about , this week , a whole bunch of philosophical and theological ideas that a lot of people question when they come to the Bible or Christianity
. The first one we're going to talk about is why do bad things happen ? John , chapter 11 , verse 1 , says Now a certain man was ill , Lazarus of Bethany , the village of Mary , and her sister , Martha . It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair , whose brother , Lazarus , was ill . So the sister sent to him , being Jesus , saying Lord , he whom you love is ill . But when Jesus heard it , he says this illness does not lead to death . It is for the glory of God , so that the Son of God may be glorified through it . Now , Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus . Now you would think maybe , especially if you are Mary and Martha , because Jesus
loves them , then maybe they would be protected from anything bad ever happening .
Speaker 2Now the way the question often goes is this all right ? If God is all-powerful and all-knowing and all-loving , then how can a good God allow bad things to happen to good people . Well , the question in and of itself is a bit flawed . So just to put this on the bottom shelf for you , there are no good people . There was only one good person . His name was Jesus and he was crucified on our behalf . But I understand what people are saying . Why do comparatively good people have terrible things happen to them that seem to be out of control ? Now I am going to give you five theological realities to explain why bad things happen , why there is pain , why there is suffering . Number one it is collateral damage of the fall . When Adam and Eve chose to sin , chose to rebel against God , that sin . When it entered the world , it held the door open for all pain , all strife , all hurt , all malice . Anything that you have ever experienced that was painful or traumatizing to you is at least collateral damage of the fall , because the whole creation was cursed and everything goes into chaos , from the macro level , like tornadoes and hurricanes , all the way down to the micro level , like cells won't obey . So one of the reasons bad things happen is collateral damage of the fall . The second one is this Sometimes it's an attack of the demonic , because we wrestle not against flesh and blood , but there is a demonic activity based on the king of demons himself , Satan , and he is a thief and he comes to steal and kill and destroy .
Speaker 2And , quite honestly , if you don't believe in a spiritual , dark realm , then you're just too dumb to talk to . Maybe you've never met a person with an addiction that feels like there's a thing not them trying to get them to do a thing that is going to kill them . What do you call that ? Just poor choices ? How do you explain human trafficking and the abuse of children around the world ? You think that's just a choice somebody makes . You don't think there is dark and demonic things of this world ? And the sad thing is , if you are not aware of the demonic , then you're already going to get beaten , because it is the person that is unequipped to fight that always loses the fight , so it's collateral damage of the fall . Sometimes it is an attack of the demonic .
Speaker 2Sometimes the reason bad things happen to you is because of you . Sometimes you are just experiencing the consequences of your sin or your dumb decisions , and if you play stupid games , you're going to win stupid prizes . I've talked about this before , but the number of people in my church that have come to me and say pastor , I need you to pray for me . The devil is attacking my finances and I go well , tell me more about your story . And essentially what they're doing is they're trying to buy things with money they don't have . And I go listen , darling , I got some news for you . You are the devil . You're so dumb . The devil doesn't need to attack you because you are inflicting wounds upon yourself . So sometimes the reason bad things happen is because of our own sin . And sometimes the reason bad things happen is because other people sin , and it's not your fault , but people make terrible decisions against you and you were abused or you were molested . It's because of sin , somebody else's sin .
Speaker 2And then the fifth reason is sometimes it comes directly from the hand of God . Now , this is a hard one to get your mind around , but the reality is it's all through the hand of God . If God didn't cause it , he at least allowed it . Like , how about Paul's thorn in his flesh ? God himself said he gave it to Paul to keep him humble .
Speaker 2How about Joseph in Genesis 50 , when he looks at his brothers and said what you intended for evil , God intended for good . So God intended that he would experience human trafficking and false imprisonment and domestic violence , and yet God was in charge . Or see the cross , the most brutal thing that ever happened in humanity . God sent his son and we killed him , and yet the reality is is no matter whether it's collateral damage , attack of the demonic consequences of your own sin or other sin , or directly from the hand of God , it is all under the sovereign rule and reign of King Jesus . The Bible says that God is at work in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose . You see , in this particular account , in John 11 , Jesus says this illness does not lead to death and the reason is because it's going to lead through death unto the glory of God . Come back tomorrow and we'll keep diving into John , chapter 11 .
Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go . If you want to help equip other men for the fight , share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review . Stay sharp .