Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How should Christians respond to Coronavirus

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

"How we respond to Coronavirus will tell the world something about Jesus." Throughout history, Christians have responded to pandemics like these with tangible expressions of love. When we do, the world learns something true about Jesus: he is the loving King. Keith & Patrick discuss how Christians should respond to Coronavirus today. How can we be led by faith instead of fear? How can we love our neighbors well? How can we protect ourselves against underreacting and overreacting? To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (Facebook), https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO. Will you be worshipping online during Coronavirus? Here are https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/stories/how-to-worship-online-with-your-family-and-friends/ (7 Tips fpr WORSHIPPING online). Social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO) Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO) Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo) Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. In this episode, Patrick and I are going to talk with you about the coronavirus, the news that no one can escape. It seems everywhere you turn, there's new information or somebody has a different perspective on it. Now, we are not going to talk about crisis management. We're not going to talk about this from a medical perspective. we're pastors. You shouldn't be getting your medical advice from us. Instead, we're going to think about

this Christianly. I was sitting with different groups of men this morning, and we just said, let's think about this as Christians. What are some things that we should learn? What are some maybe opportunities that God has given us that we can represent him well in our world and our spheres of influence? So we're just going to try as pastors to sit with you as Christians and think, how should we be responding to this pandemic? I think, answering that, that question is really important. Unrelated to coronavirus, one of our friends, Kelly Wompler, she tells this story from a few years back when there was someone, basically a house in her backyard right across a street, where there were people who were selling drugs. And there happened to be

some sort of drive-by shooting, and it was all incredibly scary. And while all this is going on, she's noticing that she's got teenagers cutting through her yard to get to this house. And finally, she's like, hey, I've got to get the neighbors together. We need to talk about this. We need to make a plan. And she calls them all over. And as they're coming over, she kind of realizes, most my neighbors aren't Christians. Most my neighbors aren't walking with Jesus. So how I respond to this is going to tell them something about who Jesus is. If I respond in a just completely hateful, vengeful way towards those people, even though they're causing great harm to our community, that's going to teach them something about Jesus. If I show love and generosity and care, that's going to teach them something

about Jesus. And I think it's the exact same case with the coronavirus. How we respond to this is going to tell people something about Jesus. Yeah, back to the group of guys I was talking with this morning. And we were just saying that how we respond in our home, with our families, or in our neighborhoods, or at work, well, that's going to shape a lot of people's perspective on this. Are we going to help people kind of walk through this with God's perspective? Are we going to help people walk in faith? Are we going to give people a sense of hope and confidence? Or are we going to be panicked ourselves?

And so we start spreading that kind of panic and fear. And if you're Kelly, think about how scary it would be to have drug dealers in your neighborhood. And there's that natural tendency to think of ourselves, to shriek back, to get scared. So let's don't do that as Christians. Let's think that how we handle this in our sphere of influence is going to say a lot about Christ. And he might not realize it, but this is far from the first time in the history of the church that Christians have had to deal with problems like this, with epidemics, with plagues. One of my favorite stories from the early church, it comes from a historian, his name was Eusebius,

but he writes how in the 250s AD there was a famine and a plague which hit Rome, and it was awful. I'm just going to read a little bit of his description of what happened, and a warning, it is a bit graphic, but I think it helps you see how bad things were. This is what he writes. People were shrunken, like ghosts at death's door, tottering, slipping around in all directions. Finally, they weren't able to stand. They fell to the ground. They lay face down in the middle of the streets, crying out to people, to hand them out even a tiny scrap of bread. Anything beyond this anguished cry was beyond their strength. The rich were astounded by the numbers of people. and after giving to some, they took on a hard and merciless attitude. Otherwise, they feared they'd end up in the exact same situation. Dead and naked bodies laid unburied in public squares and narrow streets for days on end. So how do the Christians respond to this? Well, again, Yusebius tells us, the fruit of the Christian's limitless enthusiasm and devotion became evident to everyone. In the middle of this terrible calamity, they alone proved their love for humanity with tangible actions. All day long, they continued, without rest of them.

tending to the dying and burying them. The number was so immense and there was no one else willing to see them. The Christians rounded up the huge number who had been reduced to scarecrows and distributed food to them all so that their praises were sung throughout the city. And all people glorified the God of the Christians, agreeing that they alone were pious and truly religious. And he ends with this question. It's a question I want to ask myself in the midst of all of this. Didn't their actions speak for themselves? How they responded, told the world something about who, Jesus was, and it told them that Jesus was someone who truly loved the world. There are other reports like this in church history. There's the story of the Dr. Galen. Now, he wasn't a Christian, but he's a well-known,

maybe the most famous doctor in Rome, and he talks about how when a plague came to Rome, everyone with resources fled, everyone who could got out of the city, but it was the Christians that stayed, and often at the cost of their own life tended to the sick. Then there's the letter of Dagenetus, which tells about how Christians cared for those in great need. Maybe it was financial need, or in some cases it was because of sickness. Or there's the Emperor Julian who gets frustrated with his fellow pagans because it's the Christians who are caring for the poor and needy, not just other Christians either. I mean, yes, they cared for those in the church, but they also cared for the pagans, for those outside the church, those who are often attacking them. So this is a pattern

that we can learn from. Those who've gone before us following Christ have set a pattern of loving Jesus and of sacrificing on behalf of others. And we come from that tradition. That's where we're from. That's the kind of people we are. When you follow King Jesus, you love him and you serve others, even at cost of yourself. In fact, I think you could probably make a case that if the Christians hadn't done that, that if those early Christians hadn't served and loved other people at great risk to themselves, Christianity wouldn't have spread the way it did. We probably would, wouldn't be Christians today. In some ways, them taking these life-changing risks are the very thing that have given us life in Jesus. Without them, we don't know them. So let's try to talk practically

about our response to this coronavirus, and specifically the people were around. I think there's one way to respond that might appear spiritual, but really is unloving, and that is to underreact. And what I mean by that is that some people are looking at those around them and saying, you shouldn't be afraid. This isn't a big deal. You're just going to get sick for a little while, and all of this is a great overreaction. And I think that's unloving because, and by the way, that's my temptation. If I'm going to respond in this way, it is to underreact in an unloving way. And so maybe that's why I feel compelled to say, let's don't do that, not me, not you. Let's realize that people are scared and meet them where they are. And some are scared for themselves. Some

are scared for people they're concerned about. Some are scared for physical health reasons. Some are scared because their business or their job might be in jeopardy. And so part of what Christians do is we respond compassionately. We understand where people are and meet them there. They're not where we wish they were. They're not where we think they should be. They are where they are. And let's meet them in their anxiety. Another temptation if you're an underreactor is to not do your part to say, well, you know, if all those other people don't want to go and meet up, and if all those other people are going crazy about washing their hands, that's fine. They can go do it.

But me, I'm not scared. I don't have to take those same precautions. And Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. I think part of that means that even if you're in a not-at-risk category, you have a responsibility to love your neighbor by taking reasonable precautions in your own life, by trying to limit the spread of coronavirus in any way that you can. And I think back to one of the very first stories in the Bible. It's about Cain and Abel.

And Cain murders Abel. And God comes along. He says, Kane, where's your brother Abel? And Cain says, am I my brother's keeper? And of course, the answer is yes, you are your brother's keeper. We do have a responsibility to people around us. And we can't underreact in a way that says, well, you know what, they're not my problem. They are your problem.

One more thing. And maybe it's just specifically applying that to people who are in the vulnerable populations. We know that the people who are most at risk are people who are older and people who have other sicknesses that make them more vulnerable to this virus. And there's this casualness about saying, well, it's just older people that are going to die. Watch that. Every human being is made in the image of God. When we start treating older people as though their life isn't worth as much, we devalue God.

We devalue what he's doing in every human human. in being's life, we can't be casual about it. And when you're saying that to someone who's younger, you might be saying that in jest. But what their hearing is, you don't care about my grandmother or grandfather that I really love and care about. So watch the jokes here. Most of them don't come across as you hope they will. If you've been blessed with courage in this situation, don't have courage to be cool, to look like the cool guy who's just saying, look how tough I am. I'm not afraid. Use that courage to sacrifice. Don't go out saying, hey, I'm not worried.

Go out and serve someone. If you've got the courage, put it to a good end. Give to others. Now, if all that's the underreaction, then you could say that another bad response is to overreact. And by that we just mean to be driven by fear instead of faith, to be riddled with anxiety, to be paralyzed and unable to do the things that God has given you to do in your own personal life, your family, your job. We have to remember that God is on his throne, that he reigns over the universe, that our life is in his hand. This whole coronavirus, it was a surprise to us. Six months ago,

none of us knew that this was going to come. But God did. He knows the end from the beginning. And not only is he in control and not only does he know all things, but he loves us and he wants the best for us. So there's the C.S. Lewis quote about God whispering to us in our pleasures, but that pain is his megaphone. God is at work here. He's teaching us. He's shaping us. He's causing our idols to be exposed. He's up to something. I don't pretend to know exactly what it is, but I do trust that God has a purpose and plan in this. I know it's easy to get overwhelmed by worry, but just try and remind yourself of this truth. It takes just as much energy to worry as it does to pray. When you have those fears and those anxieties about what's happening in your own life or in the life of those you love, just stop in that moment and turn it into prayer.

Give it to God and trust it to him. Know that he is on the throne. He is in control. And remember that our life, our ultimate destiny, the promises that he's given us, those are things that not even the coronavirus can take away. And so if you're caught in that fear, take yourself to the logical end. Think through if the worst case happened. And if you get to the end of that, always remember, I will be with Jesus. He will raise me back from the dead. I don't have anything in the ultimate sense to fear. Okay, so what can you do practically to help in this situation? Well, if you know somebody who's really

worried about this, just stop and pray with them. And if that's too awkward, ask them how you could pray for them. If you know somebody who's older and who is scared to get out, or it's just unwise for them to be out in public, maybe you could go to the grocery store for them to buy some of the necessities that they need to take care of themselves during this time. there are going to be lots of people who probably get hit financially by this. And so we as a church are going to need to be prepared to help those in our community who are undergoing financial stress because of the coronavirus and how it's affected our economy. So you could make a special donation to the benevolent fund that will help us help others in our community. I was personally really encouraged by how Chinese Christians in Wuhan

responded to the coronavirus. If you don't know a lot about Christianity in China, the first thing you need to know is that it's illegal. You can be put in jail for being a Christian. And so if there's anybody who had the right, we might say, to go underground. You know, there's a deadly virus. And if anybody knows that we're out here, we could get put in jail. You'd think it would be the Chinese church in Wuhan. That's exactly what they didn't do. The Christians, they went out into the streets. They gave out masks and they said, hey, we're here sharing the love of Jesus. We're giving these to you because of the love of Jesus. They found practical ways to serve medical professionals. They delivered food and supplies to quarantine families. They thought through, what does our community need and how can we give it so that they know that Jesus loves them? Again, it goes back to this bigger idea. How we respond to these things really is going to tell the world something about who Jesus is. Another story out of China, specifically Wuhan, where this virus started, concerns a woman named Mama Zhu. Now, I apologize if I'm mispronouncing her name. It's the best I can do. She was an older woman, 80 years old, in fact.

And she came down with the virus, and a pastor reached out to her through a friend, and they began a short relationship. She was quarantined, and so oftentimes he was taking Bible verses and other literature that would help her process her faith, because this woman wasn't a Christian, before she died. And not long before she died, about 24 hours, in fact, she sent word to him through the doctors that she had put her trust in Christ. And she spent that last day of her life singing hymns to God, hymns that had been smuggled in by the church. Now, I think of all this because it just is a reminder of how fragile life is, that we think we are healthy and then this virus comes along. Or we think that we are secure and we've got a great 401k or we've got good plans for our life and we know where we'll go to school or where we're going to live, what kind of job we're going to have, kids, family. It's all planned out. But then we get a curveball.

We get something completely unexpected. Maybe it's not coronavirus. Maybe it is a job loss or maybe it is cancer or maybe it's a car wreck. Just life is much more fragile than we're usually comfortable admitting. It's all part of this illusion that we are in control of our lives. And it's an illusion we like to tell ourselves because it gives us this sense of confidence that we're in charge. we're making decisions and if we just do things the right way, if we just make wise decisions,

life will turn out the way we want it to. But a lot of people have done things the right way. And right now, their 401k has tanked. They've done the right things, but they are getting laid off from a job, not because they've done something wrong, but because of a virus. Or they've done the right things and they've practiced for this sports tournament that's now been canceled. So we're not in control of our life. Now, we never are. We never were. But something like the coronavirus exposes what's always been true, that our life is in the hand of God. We're not in control of anything. Back in 1563, some Christians wrote a document called the Heidelberg Catechism. And in that document, the very first question that they ask is a question that I think we all

need to ask, and the answer that they give is one that gives me incredible encouragement in situations like this. So I'll just read it to you. The question is, what is your only comfort in life and death? This is the answer, that I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He's fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from all power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that, without the will of my heavenly father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him. What an encouragement to remember that at the

end of the day, my life is in the loving king's hands. My life is in the hands of the one who controls all things and who is promised in the end no matter what to secure my eternal life forever. So this is where we get the power to love others even when it's at our own expense. It's where we get the power to put others' needs and interests above ourselves. It's where we get the power to live by faith and not by fear. It's this confidence that in Christ we are secure, that in Christ we're saying. satisfied, that in Christ there's hope, that Jesus plus nothing equals everything. And that having everything in this world but not Jesus is to have nothing.

So what's the message here? Well, it's the message that you find in Psalm 37 to trust God and do good. Put your hope in the Lord, bank on him. He's everything you wanted and everything you needed. He's your rock, your fortress, your shield, your protector. nothing comes into your life apart from his hand. He loves you. He gave his son for you. We are people of hope because of Jesus.

And that frees us up to go love our neighbor. So let's do that. In this moment of crisis, when everybody's scared, when everybody's thinking of themselves, let's trust God and do good. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast.

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