Bro Kenny Song
26 April 2020
Good morning church. Thank God for technology that we can still ‘meet’ online even with the MCO. I really believe when the Bible says we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, I believe it’s physical gathering. But at this moment, we believe as we meet online, God’s presence is right there with you. It is so important for us as believers to stay in fellowship. Our CG uses Zoom to meet every Wednesday for prayer meeting and Friday for CG. Let us always stay in touch. This is the last week of MCO 3 and I pray everyone is coping well.
The Covid-19 pandemic is a real crisis. People my age have probably gone through at least 3 recessions and this one is the worst one yet. I have survived 3 big ones but this is the biggest I’ve been through. And it’s not even over yet.
Governments have had to grapple with health and economic crisis. Medical front-liners have been pushed to their limits trying to cope and businesses have come to a near standstill. People are dying. This is not a regional crisis. It’s worldwide. This is not just a financial crisis. It’s also a health crisis. And in just 4 months, the world have changed.
MCO, social distancing, lockdowns, Zoom, are words that have become so common. I went to McDonald’s and on entering Tesco, my temperature was taken, hand sanitisers sprayed on my hands and when I reached McDonald’s, my temperature was taken again, hand sanitised before being allowed in to queue within a box that is on the floor to keep my distance from the next person in line.
That has become the new normal. How the world has indeed changed in just 4 months.
Uncertainty, anxiety and worry has crept in. Unemployment has hit a new high. Businesses are closing even before the MCO is lifted. Employers are just as anxious as employees. We realise that we are up against a ferocious enemy in this virus, and the consequences are staggering and if we don’t see some kind of a breakthrough, the most difficult days are still ahead.
And in the middle of it all, we ask – where is God? There was a newsletter in my In-Box from the New York Times which I subscribed to and the headline read: Where is God in a pandemic? Where is God in the time of crisis? And that’s the title of my message today. And I want to tackle this question today because the answer is unbelievable and it’s filled with hope.
We are being asked at a time such as this to have faith and not fear. To believe and not doubt. To hope and not despair. These are all valid assurance and I don’t want to belittle them. Have faith. Believe. Hope. By all means please hold on to the word of God and trust his unfailing love.
But the question remains. WHERE IS GOD? And it’s such a valid question.
On a personal level, I am going through a really tough time. It’s not easy to be a business owner with fixed overheads and no income coming in. Those of you in business knows exactly what I’m talking about.
As a responsible business owner, I need to do what I need to do to keep the business afloat and to keep my employees. Hard decisions need to be made and hopefully my team stays intact to sail through this storm together.
But I too wonder, where are you God at this time? What is your plan and purpose even in this crisis. Your word says ALL THINGS work together for good.
Romans 8:28 (NIV)
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.
Where is God? I don’t have the answers. So you may be asking Bro Kenny, then why you pick this sermon title? I don’t have the answers, but we can look into the word of God and look a particular instance in the Bible when God is silent. And draw some truths from those instances and see where was God when he was strangely SILENT.
I will be looking at a spiritual answer but it does not mean we do not need real time breakthrough to stop this pandemic. We have to do our part, in obeying the government who implemented MCO and the advisory on social distancing and personal hygiene. Faith without wisdom is foolishness. So let us always do the responsible things on our part.
To answer that question ‘Where is God?’, I want to take you all back to the epicentre of where that question would be asked. And that is on Day 2.
What is Day 2? What has that got to do with our lives?
The story of Jesus has its ultimate moment and climax in a 3 day window of time. Three days over 2,000 years ago. Where Jesus Christ, the Son of God gave his life for the sins of the world.
1 Peter 3:18-19 (NIV)
18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19 through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison
We have recently just had Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday services online. Do you remember the sermons?
On Good Friday, Pastor Melinda preached on the “Three Crosses at Calvary”. On that day, Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of the world to bring you and I to God. That was the first day. Day 1.
And on the third day, on Sunday, Pastor Koay preached on “The Resurrection” where Jesus came back to life and we all celebrate it as Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday, where the stone was rolled away, and the tomb was empty and what Jesus had promised has come to pass. Day 3.
That is Day 1 and Day 3 covered. And we all know what happened. That the Son of God dead on Day 1 is very much alive on Day 3. This is the story of God’s redemptive plan.
This is God’s salvation plan. Day 1, Christ died, Day 3, Christ is alive.
But I want to talk for a moment about Day 2. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a message on the second day. And this is the day I want to look at to draw some insights on what actually happen when God is silent. Where was He? What was He doing?
So I went to the gospels, to revisit the eyewitness account of this 3 day journey. This 3 day work of the Almighty God. I looked up Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Only one of the gospels gave any account of what happened on Day 2. And it’s in Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew tells us that on the second day, the Chief Priest of the Jewish leaders that put Jesus on trial and sent him to be crucified, went to the authorities and asked that the tomb be sealed and to set a guard so that no one can go and steal the body and come up with some story that Jesus is alive.
That’s the only comment that we have about Day 2. We need to do a little time stamp on the account so that we understand where God is leading us.
Jesus died at 3 O’Clock in the afternoon. Pastor Koay mentioned this. We also know this by reading the eyewitnesses account. Sundown in Jerusalem would be around 7 to 8pm. Let’s say it’s 8pm. Which means at 8pm, a new day begins. We are talking about a Jewish day, which begins at sundown and ends the next day at sundown.
So Friday is ending and the second day is beginning somewhere around 8pm, at dusk and Sabbath is about to start. So from 3pm to 8pm, there was 5 hours where Jesus was dead.
One of the leaders, Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate to ask permission to take the body of Jesus down from the cross and he was given authority. Even though he was within the Jewish Council, he was also someone who has become a follower of Jesus. John states that Nicodemus helped him to take Jesus’ body from the cross to a nearby tomb. They took a linen strip and wrapped Jesus’ body and all had to be done by 8pm before Sabbath begins. And scripture says a stone was put in front of that tomb and night falls. Day 1 is over.
Now it’s Day 2. 8pm, the second day. We all know how to fast forward to the third day right? The third day would have started at 8pm on Saturday. I hope you all can follow the timestamp because it’s essential. So it’s not Friday he died and Sunday morning he was raised from the dead. The third day morning would have started at 8pm on Saturday night. That’s the third day.
So technically, Jesus could have died at 3pm on Friday and raised from the dead at 8pm on Saturday. Are you following? Maybe 28-ish hours of death. And in the middle, no comment, no commentary, no eyewitness account of anything happening and it is the most probable time you would ask this question – WHERE IS GOD?
This man walked on water, raised the dead, did miraculous work, had power and authority, a man no one one we have ever seen before, and claimed to be the Son of God, and now he is dead.
So I want to ask in that context, in that 28 hours of time, where was God? And it is similar to now when we may ask the very same question. Where is God? And the answer is probably very much the same.
I think God was in a couple of places. There are only two things I want to talk about to assure you – ‘nothing separates us from the love of God’.
God is Near
On day 2, when the believers of Christ are afraid for their lives. Their leader was crucified and now they are coming for them. He was put on the cross, they may be next. Where were the followers of Jesus? They were dismayed, they were afraid, they were hold up for their own safety and probably asking this same question, where is God in all of this? Even Peter, who has been so vocal and said he will not forsake Jesus, denied knowing Jesus during Day 2. Not once, but three times.
Where was God in all of this while they were hiding on Day 2? While they were afraid and locked down in their homes on Day 2. God was near.
I don’t mean figuratively or spiritually near, but literally, the Son of God was near to them on Day 2. When Jesus, was born, his name was called Emmanuel, which means God with us. This was God in human flesh, the creator of the universe in a human body walking on planet earth and now he lays in a borrowed tomb, not far from where they were.
Close enough that on the account of John, the women went to the tomb and saw that it was empty and they came back to the followers of Jesus and said the tomb was empty, and John said Peter and I took off running to the tomb. I think they didn’t have to run far at all. Maybe a few hundred meters got them to the tomb.
Because the whole time on Day 2 when it looks like God was not near, actually Jesus was very close to where they were. And he’s close to you and all of us at this moment. Not literally because Jesus is alive because of what happened on Day 3. But in the Spirit and through the Spirit, he is still Emmanuel and God is still WITH US.
God doesn’t leave the scene when things get tough. He doesn’t evacuate under pressure, he does not leave the boat in a storm. God is near. In fact, God is here. Jesus is Emmanuel and he still is today, because God wants you to know he will never leave you nor forsake you. There will never be a time, a circumstance or season when God is not with you.
The second thing I see when we ask this question in the context of Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 is that:
God is Working
That’s where God is right now. God is working. It doesn’t look like God is working, I can’t see that God is working because the story and the news is getting worst. The numbers and statistics are going off the charts, it doesn’t seem that God is doing anything.
But here is the thing. We’ve got Day 2. Day 2, the Sabbath was a day of rest. It is a concept that God put into our lives. When God created man on Day 6, put them in the garden, gave them stewardship responsibilities and a relationship with Him and on the seventh day he said today we are going to have a day of rest. They didn’t need a day of rest. They just got there. They weren’t tired. They were in paradise.
It was not a rest because they were weary, but it was a day to stop and to remember and set apart this day as holy unto God. This is the day that we look up and remember that God is a giver of all things, the creator and sustainer of life. That is Sabbath at its heart.
And at Day 2, when it seems like nothing is happening, guess what day it was? It was the Sabbath. It is the day we remember that God is the creator and the sustainer of all things. And it was the day that God is finishing the greatest work that has ever been done for you and me. Something you cannot do.
Two other accounts in scripture sort of gives us peeks into what could have been happening between Day 1 and Day 3.
Ephesians 4 said that Jesus has now ascended into the heavens and is the same one who now descended into the lower parts of the earth. And in 1 Peter 3 in the next verse 19 says that Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison.
There are many ways that theologians interpreted this but where the gospel writers don’t say anything about Day 2, two other places hint at the fact that somehow and someway beyond our comprehension, God Almighty was defeating death, defeating hell, defeating the power of the darkness, defeating the power of our sins and condemnation, he was conquering forever the grave.
This was what God was doing when it looked like nothing was happening, God was accomplishing his greatest work.
God was working. God was accomplishing. God was finishing fully the work of liberating us from the powers of death. Where is God right now? He is working right now. You may say I can’t see it. Well, just wait till Sunday. Because I tell you, there is a Sunday coming. There is a time coming where this too shall pass.
And when that day comes, you and I will see and understand that through it all, the pain and the hardships, God was doing the miraculous. Wait for Day 3 and we will see how that big stone has been rolled away.
And even before that day, we have the confidence of the past to give us assurance that we trust God for the future.
Recently, people went to a parking lot across from Cartersville Medical Center in the U.S. and sang this moving anthem from the song we sometimes sing, called The Way Maker. The staff and medical workers came out on to the roof of the hospital overlooking the car parks and joined them in this confession. And all over now, this video is going viral all around the world.
That same song was sang halfway across the world outside the ICU of a hospital in the Philippines. Why?
Because God is still moving like he did 2,000 years ago on Day 2.
And the bridge of that song says:
Even when I don’t see it, You’re working
Even when I don’t feel it, You’re working
You never stop, You never stop working
If I can’t see it and I can’t feel it, that doesn’t mean God isn’t here and it does not mean that God is not working. How do I know that? Day 2, God was doing something that none of us can do.
God was working. The Roman soldiers guarding the tomb didn’t see it. Joseph and Nicodemus didn’t see it. Peter and the other disciples didn’t see it. But that does not mean God was not doing a great and mighty work.
I want to say that if you are in a situation where you are struggling with doubts and uncertainties, or you are in a difficult situation now, may Day 2 reminds you that God is near. And that he is working. Trust that indeed, all things God works for the good of those who love him.
I’m reminded of this verse in Genesis.
Genesis 50:20 (NIV)
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
We are a beacon of hope and his light at this time. Even through this, God can bring about the transformation of many lives. He is working.
And if you are going through a difficult time, may the grace of God be sufficient for you. We all can’t go through times like these without him. In fact, we can’t get through life without him. So even at this time of uncertainty, hold on to the one that never changes. Because he is doing a work through this all.
Day 1 meant the world to all of us, because we met Jesus at the cross. We gave our life to him and he forgave us our sins.
Day 3 meant we have eternal life as our inheritance. He conquered death so the grave has no victory and death has no sting.
But Day 2, is how we sometimes feel, especially in our seasons of struggle and we ask the question where is God in all of it. May this message assures you that He is near. And He is working. Even if you don’t see it. Even if you don’t feel. Trust in Him, the author and finisher of your faith. Let us pray.
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