Pastor John, what do you mean to young people and children, at that time, about God and the Coronavirus?
I’m seventy-four years old. That means I’m old enough to be a grandfather and, perhaps, a great-grandfather of many who listen to us.
- My name is John Piper.
- You can call me Pastor John.
- I want to talk to you for a few minutes about coronavirus.
- The disease that changes the way people live in the world.
And I want to talk about God, I want to talk about Jesus and you. What does coronavirus have to do with you, God and Jesus?I hope you’ll listen to me for a few minutes.
What makes coronavirus so unusual and dangerous is that you can contract it simply by being surrounded by infected people without even knowing they are infected, and that makes it very dangerous, so everyone stays inside today, trying to contain the virus.
And it’s dangerous because it’s ten times more serious than the common flu, and the reason our leaders, like governors and the president, are so concerned is that maybe one, two or three out of a hundred people with the disease die. of that.
This may seem like little: one or two out of a hundred. But what if in my city, for example, Minneapolis, a hundred thousand people have fallen ill (which is not unlikely), it means that a thousand, two thousand, even three thousand will die from this disease. So, thinking so, many people who thought they would still live for many years will die if this virus spreads so much.
Now the Bible is God’s very word and the Bible teaches that God is stronger than coronavirus, I hope he believes it. We know this because Matthew 4. 24 says, “They brought you, then, all the sick, with various sicknesses and torments:?And he cured them?”
Is Jesus more powerful than sickness? Every one of them. In fact, the Bible tells us time and time again that God commands wind, rain, snow, lightning, plants, grass, grasshoppers, flies, frogs, mosquitoes, worms, whales, birds. and everything else. He orders them where to go and what to do, and they do what he says. They have to; he’s God, they do what he says. God has created the whole world and everything in it, and he has the world in his hands, He does what He wants with the world and in the world.
You can see it again in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in chapter 1 verse 11, where he says that God does all things, and that includes the coronavirus according to the counsel of your will?). This means that no one is above God telling him what to do, he is aware of everything. He is the one who makes the decisions about the world, no one can force God to do what he does not want to do, he created the world, he supports it, then he does what he wants with and in it, this never fails. . He always does what he wants to do, all the time and everything.
I hope you ask? And it is fair to ask, if we ask humbly and are ready to learn God’s answer?Then why is there a coronavirus?Why does the Lord, God, Jesus not stop this disease, if the Lord can?It is true; He could. It is God, the coronavirus is not God, the coronavirus is no stronger than Jesus, Jesus could eliminate it by simply snapping his finger and the time will come when he will decide to take it and it can happen overnight. We don’t know how that’s going to happen.
Then why is this virus here, why doesn’t the Lord get you out of here now?And the answer is this: because you have wise goals for it. God is perfectly wise. This means you know exactly what it takes to make the most of it all the time. This is called wisdom. When you know what’s best to do all the time, you’re a wise person and God is perfect in wisdom. He knows what needs to be done: he knows how it should be done and knows when it should be done.
And how is God perfectly wise and knows everything?Do you know much, much, much more than we know?Everything that makes it happen and everything that lets it happen is part of a perfectly wise and good plan you have, can’t we see everything?But we can see some of that. For example, let me share some of the things I can see that you too can see in the Bible about what God plans to do with the coronavirus.
1. Jesus said in Luke 13. 1-5 that things like coronavirus happen so that people who do not believe in Jesus can awaken, repent, and think of God, Jesus, heaven and hell, salvation, and the need for forgiveness, and that they can turn to Jesus and be saved. That’s one of the things he does.
2. Paul said that things like coronavirus happen so that people stop trusting each other and trust god. Many adults and children think they are much smarter than they really are, much stronger than they are and they control much more than they really are. Are. ? Am I the captain of my soul. ? Pure ball!You are not the captain of your soul; God is the captain of your soul and that kind of pride must be broken. If he’s going to break down the Coronavirus, God will. We have many arrogant leaders in this world who need to be humiliated, and if the coronavirus is necessary to do so, God will. God wants us to know that He is in control and that we must trust him, not in our own abilities or our own intelligence.
3. Et the third thing God does is this: the Bible says that things like the Coronavirus show us that we can love things more than we love God; we can love others more than God. And there is nothing in the world more important than loving Jesus more than we love one another or more than we love others (according to Matthew 10. 37-39). So, coronavirus shows people what they love best.
God is in charge of the Coronavirus, and he knows what he does, he is perfectly good and perfectly wise and this is the very good news that we want everyone to hear. I hope you will share with your friends the news that Jesus, the only Son of God, came into the world and died so that God would never punish us if we trusted him. Did he say the punishment you and I deserve for our sin?This punishment was imposed on Jesus.
What if we trust in Jesus? Then we’ll never have to be afraid of God. We’ll never be afraid of God’s punishment again, that’s wonderful. Does this mean we’ll never be afraid to die? Whether it’s a coronavirus or something else?For when Jesus died and rose from the dead, He turned the death of punishment into a door to eternal happiness with him.
So what does this mean to you? You don’t have to be afraid of coronavirus. God is stronger than coronavirus, and if you trust in your son, Jesus, God will make everything happen for your good, then be brave. Don’t be brave because you are strong; it’s called pride. All those superheroes on TV, they’re all proud. They do not base their strength on God; they just trust the things they have in them. Don’t be like them because you’re not one of them and you’re not strong. You’re weak. Be brave because you have a great Savior. Is your best friend, Jesus, your Savior and Lord, strong?Strong enough for everything to be good, including coronavirus (as Romans 8. 28 tells us).
When I was a pastor, I taught the children of our church a two-line poem, especially for children who believe in Jesus, hundreds of them have repeated it over the years.
Let me show you and we’ll be done. I want to recite it once, and then you tell me a second time, okay?
And then:
“When it seems that things do not go as they should, God always makes them good.
Maybe, kids, we’ll talk again someday. I don’t know, but for now, trust in Jesus, whatever the situation, you’ll never regret it.
We have a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel with our classmates and friends this season?Whether through social media, text messages, phone calls or video messages, or, who knows, when they can meet in person.
We want to encourage you to approach your friends in the hope of Jesus, we are at a good time for this. May the Lord give you courage and good words to speak of eternal truth in your friends’ lives this season.
In Coronavirus and Christ, John Piper invites readers from all over the world to remain on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ, in it our souls can be sustained by the sovereign God who commands, governs, and governs over all things to achieve his wise and good. plans for those who trust him.