How much do you know about Buddhism?
Most Biblical Christians know next to nothing about Buddhism.
For example, most think that it was started by a man named Buddha.
“Buddha” means “awakened one.”
so too can Buddhism.
That was about the time that Israel began to return from their Babylonian captivity.
The young prince was kept in the royal palace in order to be trained and prepared for the throne.
But that palace had a lot of similarities to a sumptuous prison.
Even though his father made kingship very attractive, Gautama was curious: What is on the outside?
One night he became brave enough to bribe a charioteer into taking him out into the city.
The charioteer explained to the prince that there were a lot of sick people with a lot of different diseases, some very painful and others just nuisances.
And he said that everyone eventually gets sick, even princes and kings.
The charioteer explained that everyone gets old and their bodies wear out.
The charioteer had to explain death to the prince, and that all people eventually die – even kings.
The charioteer said that he was a mystic who had rejected the world and was searching for wisdom.
The basket was so that people could give him food on which to live.
He wanted to solve the most basic problems of life.
But his life of asceticism made him no wiser than he had been when he was sheltered in the palace.
Then after years of abstinence his hunger got the best of him, and he ate a full and decent meal.
except for five young men who became his first disciples.
Then when Gautama was 35 years old, while sitting under a sacred Bo tree, he declared, “I am Buddha.”
He turned to the other five and declared his “Four Noble Truths” – the heart and substance of Buddhism:
Truth One: LIFE IS SUFFERING.
To have what we wish that we didn’t have is suffering, and to not have what we desire is suffering.
We should strive to enter Nirvana, not when we die, but while we are yet alive.
The world tries to close the gap between desire & satisfaction with lots of stuff, but it never succeeds.
Buddhism tries to decrease and erase the desire for these things.
Depending on a person’s perspective Buddhism is one of many varieties of self-deification; or it’s a condition of total apathy.
If this story is true, then Buddhism began in an effort to answer the question of human suffering.
All religions have basic similarities.
One of those similarities is a search for the answer to suffering.
We can even include atheism into this religious equation.
But there are a few atheists, who choose that ideology because they can’t explain the great mysteries of life.
God didn’t know about them; He didn’t care about them, or He was unable to do anything about them.
“But,” say the untaught, “human suffering proves that these things are not true, therefore the God of the Bible, the God of the Christians, the God of millions of people is a myth.”
The problem for these atheists, and the problem with the Buddhists, and even the semi-Christians is that they haven’t asked all the questions or waited for the right answers.
In Acts 28, after miraculously surviving the storm of the century, or at least a storm of the previous 2 weeks,
After enduring a storm which may have sunk dozens of other ships, and drowned hundreds of men –
Paul was innocently going about to help ease the discomfort of his fellow survivors.
The great Apostle to the Gentiles was not above doing the work of a servant, gathering sticks for a fire.
But then, either in the bundle of sticks that he was carrying, or from wood already on the fire, out sprang a poisonous serpent, warping itself around and sinking its fangs into Paul’s hand.
He immediately shook it off into the fire and probably went out to gather some more fuel for the fire.
“And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.”
The God who can order ravens to steal royal food and bring it to feed a starving prophet –
The God who can put a money into a fish’s mouth and then have it jump into a fisherman’s net –
The God who can ordain the birth of sheep and goats according to color patterns and thus to enrich a man like Jacob –
Was undoubtedly in control of this venomous beast which attacked the hand of God’s Apostle.
So why is it that people in this world suffer?
When the people and the animals ate, it was on replenishable fruits and vegetables.
It wasn’t until after man first sinned that death and suffering were introduced into the world.
The Book of Genesis tells us about these things in chapters one and three.
But then the rest of the Bible reiterates that lesson and teaches us its consequences.
Forgive my constant repetition of Romans 5:12, but it is one of the most important verses in the Bible.
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
People, whom others call “barbarians” believe this even though they don’t have the scriptures to teach them.
As we said last week, there is a intuitive suspicion that there is eternal justice.
But it’s not just the barbarian who believes this; it is a universal gut feeling.
And for those who understand the word “sin,” there is usually a correlation between sin and suffering.
When Jesus’ first disciples were learning the principles of Bible Christianity, and while they were still primarily Jewish in their thinking they saw a blind man and asked the Lord Jesus:
“Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Paul teaches us all that the wages of sin is death.
Oh, what a blessing it would be if people would follow through on this intuitive logic.
Every time her child get’s sick and runs a fever, mother should be praying to God – not just for healing, but for deliverance from sin.
Every slip and fall on the ice should remind the witness that eternity is only 5½ feet away – the distance from the back of the head to the ice.
Every funeral should be an evangelistic service.
But this is not the way that self-reliant and self-righteous sinners think.
We look for more immediate and tangible causes for suffering and death:
“Those shoes that I bought have terribly slick soles.”
“Uncle Fred was nearly 72, we couldn’t expect him to live forever.”
Listen carefully to Luke 13:1-5 – “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
Does this answer the question about the cause of sin, or does it just add to the confusion?
Some point out that it was not the sin of those 18 men which caused the tower of Siloam to fall on them.
There was no sin which stirred the Mediterranean winds into a storm.
But on the other hand, what did Jesus mean when he concluded by saying, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”?
Repentance is something which we do between sin and God.
The Bible teaches that death is a result of sin whether directly or indirectly.
And repentance is the broken-hearted agreement of the sinner that God is right and just in punishing us for our sins.
Suffering and death are caused by sin.
And repentance of sin is one of the things necessary for dealing with sin and preparing for death.
“Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
“Good judgment comes from bad experiences, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment…”
We could rephrase that just a bit:
“We learn from things that we suffer, and we suffer because we’re still in the process of learning.”
Into a fictitious family triplets were born, but they were far from identical.
As they began to grow up, one of the three could be told not to do something, and he would know not to do it simply because his father or his mother told him – “no!”
Both children were blessed and protected because of their obedience.
The third child, however, had to prove to himself that his parents orders of were worthy of obedience.
And so he would often disobey, and then he would have to pay the consequences.
Not only was the third child often punished by his parents,
Unfortunately, sometimes it’s not because we have disobeyed and sinned that we begin to suffer.
Did they take the medicine that their mother gave them?
Yes, all three of them did, because they had learned the earlier lessons about obeying their mother.
As I have said many, many times,
When God permits us to suffer, the question to ask is not “why,” but “what should I do now?”
The Christian should know that sin is at the root of the problem,
We have been forgiven and there has been an atonement made for our sin.
Now, what should I do with this suffering?
How can this be used to strengthen me and to be a blessing to others?
We already know that a part of their theology said “though they have escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth them not to live. They are going to Rome to face the executioner.”
Do you suppose that they loathed Paul when they saw him carrying those sticks with his hands tied and chains between his feet?
But, what did they think when he was snake-bit, but didn’t fall down suddenly dead?
If they actually said that they believed Paul was a god, and they said it in a language that he understood, you can be sure that he promptly correct them.
“It’s not that I AM a god, it is that I HAVE a God.”
Do you suppose that it was because of that snake-bite that Paul & the others were invited to Publius house?
Do you suppose that Paul’s reaction to his adversity induced Publius to think that he might be able to help his father?
Isn’t it obvious that when that old man with dysentery was healed, that other islanders started bringing their sick loved-ones to Paul and other Christians?
And again, does any Christian here think that Paul didn’t use these opportunities to preach the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to those people?
What if Paul had not been bitten by that viper? Would he have had the same opportunities to witness?
This is not the only thing for which suffering is good, but unlike anything else suffering opens the door for Christians to speak for Christ.
When our lives are rolling along like a brand new diesel-electric locomotive, carrying tons of wealth and happiness into our lives, the lost around us will not think for a minute that Jehovah is the cause.
That is the attempted ministry of hundreds of radio and TV religious hucksters – but it’s doomed to fail.
That kind of ministry doesn’t bring sinners to their knees with their repentant hands up-stretched to God.
That kind of ministry brings sinners to their feet with their hands outstretched for their share of the wealth.
But when Christians learn to suffer with patience,
because pain and suffering are universal maladies, the barbarians around us take notice.
But there is one other aspect of this point, which is higher than all:
In Christ Jesus we have an example of suffering for the good of others.
It was the will of the Triune God that the eternal Son should come to this earth to suffer and die.
but as the God-man, he suffered MORE than any other human-being ever could.
We look at the cross, and we push our imaginations to their limits, but we can’t begin to feel the pain.
God has graciously told us, or we would never have believed it.
First, the Bible tells us in general terms the purpose for the incarnation and the death of Christ.
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
Unfortunately, there are millions of professing Christians who believe these verses and the multitude like them, but who are as hell-bound as Satan himself.
There is more, much more:
“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
“As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
Some day, there will be gathered around the throne of Christ, thousands of people who have been graciously blessed to see and understand these scriptures and these truths.
And as John the Apostle was privileged to look into the future through a prophetic vision he saw that …
“They sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”
A person might admire Siddhartha Gautama and his desire to understand and to rid the world of suffering.
But that poor man, like billions of others since, was trying to deliver himself – by himself.
It is a hopeless endeavor.
But there is deliverance from suffering and death, and from the sin which caused it in the first place.
That deliverance is accomplished through the suffering and death of the Son of God.
It is the only way.
What you and I need to do is repent of our sins before God and to trust the atonement which Jesus accomplished on the cross of Calvary.
That is the only solution to death and suffering, because that is the only solution for sin.
Is your love and trust in Christ? Have you repented of your sins before God?