Rev. David Holwick C
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 21, 2001
Luke 13:1-5
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I. The tragic accident.
A. I attended the largest funeral I have ever been at: 1000 plus.
1) Two separate funerals.
2) Daily I pass by the memorialized tree.
B. It happened Sunday night; that morning I had preached Psalm 91.
1) "A thousand will fall at your side, but it won't come
near you."
2) "He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in
all your ways."
3) It came near them anyway. The angels were silent and
their car wrapped around a sturdy tree.
C. I had said the psalm is not a cut-and-dried formula for success.
1) We all know that not everyone is delivered.
2) The only deliverance that is certain is our heavenly one.
3) The only tragedy that's certain is a life that misses Jesus.
II. Two stories by Jesus.
A. Pilate's atrocity.
1) Episode uncertain. May have been slaughter of Galileans
who opposed building of a water system in Jerusalem.
2) Human element of tragedy - often caused by deliberate evil.
B. Building failure.
1) Masonry tower in Siloam falls, 18 people killed.
a) They are in wrong place at wrong time.
2) But someone is guilty.
a) Builders, most likely.
b) God? Earthquake could have caused it.
C. Whose fault is it?
1) In both cases, the ones who are in clear are the victims.
2) They are innocent. They are also dead.
III. There is much danger in this world.
A. We have a level of control.
1) Most accidents have causes.
a) Few pure accidents; usually result of something we do.
b) We do not have total control, but can do something.
1> Christians should wear seat-belts, not speed.
2) None of us are perfect.
a) Described as good boys.
b) Area minister Ron Carey visited on Friday and said:
"When I think of the dumb stuff my friends and I did in
cars, it's a wonder any of us are alive."
B. Some danger unplanned and random; we call it "an act of God."
1) A little over a year ago, a two-year-old was crushed when
the wind collapsed a large tree on a family's car.
2) What do you say to child's mother?
C. We cannot say with certainty why horrible things happen.
1) Hidden reasons for Job's suffering.
2) Best to do what his friends first did: shut up and sit down.
IV. Why me?
It is the most natural human response to personal tragedy.
But we might just as well ask: Why Not Me?
Gerald Sittser and his wife Lynda once had a conversation about an
accident reported in their local newspaper.
A station wagon with six children and their mother had skidded off
the freeway and sunk in six feet of water, killing three of the
six children.
They both commented nervously that the problem was not simply that
something bad had happened to innocent people, but that something
bad had happened so randomly.
In the fall of 1991, Gerald and his family were returning from a
weekend trip when a drunk driver struck their minivan head-on.
As a result, he lost his mother, his wife of 20 years, and a
four-year-old daughter.
He and his three other children escaped relatively unharmed.
After this horrible experience and much reflection he wrote:
"Despite my having been a Christian for many years before the
accident, God has become a living reality to me as never before.
My confidence in God is quieter but stronger.
I feel little pressure to impress God or prove myself to him;
yet I want to serve him with all my heart and strength.
My life is bountiful, even as I continue to feel the loss.
Grace is transforming me, and it is wonderful.
I have slowly learned where God belongs and have allowed him to
assume that place -- at the center of life rather than at
the periphery.
So, God, spare us a life of fairness!
A world with grace gives us more than we deserve.
It gives us life, even in our suffering."
#3549
V. Fatalism vs. Faith.
A. Often heard: "Their time was up." Biblical basis is debatable.
JOB 14:5 -
"Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number
of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed."
(But this is Job's depressed view.)
Psalm 39:4
"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my
days; let me know how fleeting is my life."
(Doesn't actually say God has predetermined the
length of his life. His end is in view.)
Hebrews 9:27
"Man is destined to die once, and after that to face
judgment."
(We are destined to die, but doesn't mean a day is
picked out.)
B. God's will has an element of flexibility.
Isaiah 38:1,5
God tells Hezekiah he will die.
Hezekiah prays for all he is worth.
God adds 15 years on to his life.
1) Our actions make a difference.
a) Repentance of Nineveh at preaching of Jonah.
b) Their disaster was averted.
2) Our destinies aren't rigid but in the hands of a loving God.
VI. We must be ready to face God.
A. We may not be more wicked than others, but all are in danger.
One morning in February 1974 Jim Petersen was awakened in his
hotel room in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, by sirens.
Fire trucks were stopping outside.
He pulled on a pair of pants and a jacket and went downstairs
and out of the hotel.
Across the street a 25-story building was burning.
A column of fire was shooting up the center of it, and the
stairs and the elevator shaft were burned out so that
everyone inside was trapped.
On the roof about a hundred people were looking down on the
fire below them, sure that they would be rescued.
Many more had climbed out on the ledges outside their windows.
He stood there horrified as he saw the fire leap from section
to section.
The flames would burst through another room, there would be an
explosion and the glass would shatter.
People at that window would fall back and die or else fall to
the ground.
The building was too high for the hook-and-ladder trucks to
reach everyone.
Helicopters flew over and tried to drop ropes to the people, but
the updraft from the fire was too great and the helicopters
couldn't get close enough.
As Jim watched the vain attempts of the fire department, he
thought, WHY CAN'T THEY DO SOMETHING?
For three hours he watched 190 people die.
It was hard for his mind to take in what he was seeing.
Luke 13:4 kept running through his mind: Jesus commenting on
the headlines of the day - eighteen people had died when a
tower had fallen on them.
Did God decide these eighteen were so bad he had to do away
with them, so he herded them underneath the tower and let
it fall and smash them?
"No," Jesus said, "but it reminds you that unless you repent,
you will all likewise perish."
After the fire was over Jim was walking through this city of
eight million, being jostled by the crowds that are always
in the streets, and suddenly he realized what Luke 13
really says.
It meant every person in Sao Paulo was in that burning building.
In fact, every person on earth is there.
We are all terminal, and disasters remind us that unless we
repent we will all likewise perish.
As the truth of that hit him, Jim found myself saying to God,
WHY DON'T YOU DO SOMETHING?
As he studied the Bible, he found that God has done something.
#18760
B. God's rescue plan through Jesus.
1) Cross of Jesus overcomes defeat and tragedy.
2) Personal response is required.
C. Implied theme of funerals - everyone goes to heaven.
1) (very human-oriented, as so many funerals are)
2) We cannot judge where others are going.
3) But where are YOU going?
a) Hell is not a joke.
b) Salvation is not an accident.
1> You must decide.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#3549 "Why Ask Why?" by Gerald L. Sittser, Christianity Today,
March 4, 1996.
#18760 "God's Rescue Operation," by Jim Petersen, Discipleship Journal,
#1, Jan-Feb 1981.
These and 17,500 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Bible verses:
ECC 7:17 Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool -- why die
before your time?
PSA 39:4 "Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my
days; let me know how fleeting is my life.
PSA 90:12 Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain
a heart of wisdom.
MAT 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of
them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
MAT 10:30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
MAT 10:31 So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many
sparrows.
Isaiah 38:1,5 Hezekiah's illness.
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