The Resurrection of Jesus

Father, you know how easy it is for us to get distracted.

You know how easy it is for me to get distracted.

You know how easy it is for me to hear something and maybe get offended and then want to stop

listening.

You know how easy it is for me, Father, to cling to my own fantasies and preconceptions

and idols rather than face the real world.

We ask, Lord, that you would gently but deeply pour out the Holy Spirit upon us this morning,

not just those who are here but those joining with us online and those who will be joining

with us online downstream, not live but downstream.

We ask, Father, that you would gently but deeply pour out the Holy Spirit upon us, that you

would form our minds and our wills and our imaginations and our affections and our desires.

So that we might seek to know that which is true and beautiful and good.

This we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

This could easily turn into a rant from an old guy about how the world has changed and

not in good ways.

But I'm going to make my best effort to not do something like that.

It's not becoming of a minister to ever do rants about how one time period was better than

another.

Only God knows that, actually, doesn't he?

But it is the case, I think, for many people in our culture today that they've lost a sense

of honouring the dead.

And I don't mean ancestor worship.

I just mean that the practice is around having a loved one or a neighbour die.

That increasingly, there's no funerals.

Increasingly, there's not really anything at all to mark the death of that particular person.

We pay some money for some professionals to dispose of the body.

And we just sort of keep on with our very life.

And so if you're here and that's sort of your attitude, or if you're watching online and

that's sort of what you think, this next bit is going to be very weird to you.

But it is a very deeply human thing to desire to honour a loved one who has died.

It's, I think, deeply human to want to do this.

And the story that I've heard, and so I didn't hear this directly from the person who did it.

I heard it one person removed.

And it's this.

When I, before this, I looked after four little rural churches in Killaloo, Eganville, Clontarf,

and Tremor.

And three of those small churches had their own graveyards.

They're way up the Ottawa Valley, just small little churches with graveyards.

And I began my ministry there on June 1st, which is, of course, quite hot.

And when I went to the church in Killaloo for the first time, I noticed that there was this shed

just off to the side, a very big shed, but a shed off to the side, very big shed with sort of in the trees.

And I just assumed that that was where they kept the yard maintenance stuff and ladders and all that type of stuff.

I just assumed that was the case.

But in January, I discovered that that actually wasn't the case.

I discovered that that's where they stored the caskets of people who died in the winter.

Because I did a funeral in January, and I went with the hearse, and I went and we put the body in there.

And I discovered that it was sort of like not just an Anglican body storage, but sort of for the community.

That's where we stored the bodies over the winter.

And this is a story that I was told that had happened about 30 years earlier, but it was still very much talked about.

And it's all about honoring the dead.

There was a woman who had a, I guess we'd call it a phobia.

She hated the idea that if she died in the winter, that her body would be in that shed, just with strangers, going down to minus 30.

And she hated the idea that that's what would happen to her body.

And she talked about it a lot.

And as she got older, and as she got closer to death, she asked her sons and her sons-in-law if they would promise her that if she died in the middle of winter, that they would bury her.

Now, some of us are city folks, and we don't know what the ground is like in the winter, but it's frozen.

You can't just dig a hole.

Well, lo and behold, she did.

She died in mid-January, and so even as she died and her sons paid their respects, they left that place and began the preparation and planning to see that their mom would be buried in the hole.

So they knew where the grave site was, and they had the others to make sure it was marked off, and then they cleared away the snow, and they made a very large fire to cover the area.

And they let it burn for a little bit, and then they took the fire away, and they scraped off a little bit of dirt, and then they made another fire, took it away, scraped off a little bit of dirt, another fire, on and on and on.

A long, long day in very, very cold temperatures, standing there, taking away a tiny little inch of earth at a time, until they finally got past that which was frozen, was able to dig the rest of the hole relatively quickly, says George.

She's just standing there.

I mean, now.

And then that next day, they buried their mom.

They buried their grandmother.

They buried their mother-in-law.

They buried their aunt.

Because it was a group of about six or seven men, and that's what they spent the whole day doing, sometimes going back to get warmed up and do all that other types of stuff.

But the women would bring food for them to eat during the day so that they did it.

But that's how they honored their mom.

And I think that's quite a remarkable story about honoring your mother.

The story which we're about to read is a story about honoring the dead.

It's a story about honoring the dead that goes sideways in a very remarkable way.

So if you have your Bibles, we're going to begin reading at Mark chapter 15, verse 40.

Mark 15:40

Mark chapter 15, verse 40.

Mark 15:40

And Mark, I mean, there's two ways that you could look at Mark.

On one hand, you could be like a Christian and believe that it's God's word.

But another way to look at it, which would be how scholars or whatever literary critics would look at it, is it's an ancient biography.

It's an eyewitness biography written while eyewitnesses were alive.

And here's the story that they tell.

And just immediately before this, we have the account of Jesus breathing his last.

And the centurion, seeing Jesus breathing his last, makes a comment about Jesus.

And now here's where the story takes up at verse 40 of chapter 15.

There were also women looking on from a distance.

Among them were whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger, and Joses, and Salome.

When Jesus was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him.

And there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

And I just sort of pause here.

The women had been observing the crucifixion from a distance.

They didn't want to be amongst the mockers, and they didn't want to be amongst the gamblers,

and they didn't want to be amongst those who, in every culture, there are bloodthirsty.

If we had a public crucifixion, there would be many people who would film it,

because there's always people who like blood and gore.

It's something they enjoy.

And they didn't want to be part of that, but they see him die.

They see him breathe his last.

The story continues.

And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,

Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God,

took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Now, once again, it's the body of Jesus.

He's clearly dead.

But just as an aside, why is it that it took courage to do this?

Well, a moment's reflection will help us.

Some of you know this, and some of you don't, but on the 16th of April, 2008,

this congregation voted to separate from the Anglican Church of Canada

and come under a different jurisdiction, still remaining Anglicans,

but not at all connected to the Anglican Church of Canada.

And when we did that, I, as a minister, had a lot of fears about it, anxieties.

I had a peace about it, but I had anxiety, of course, because it's not unusual for people to say,

yeah, we have your back, Pastor, but then when you take the step, they leave the pastor all alone.

And in fact, the way my former diocese talked about it was there was just this one kooky guy named George Sinclair

who wanted it, but the congregation didn't want it.

And they, in fact, sent messages to the congregation assuring them that after the vote,

Jesus, we would just fire George and that we'd provide another priest for all the people

who wanted to stay with the Diocese of Ottawa.

So that was the way that everybody in the diocese expected that it was going to happen.

Maybe they'd know that there'd be two or three other weird people who would go with me,

but fundamentally nobody would leave such a beautiful building

and all of the resources in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.

But, of course, I became persona non grata.

There were well over 100 clergy in the Diocese of Ottawa,

so in the week after I left, how many of them called me up to say anything to me?

I'll give you the answer.

Out of the 100, 120 active clergy and retired clergy, maybe 150, 180, how many called me?

One.

One minister called me and offered to bring me groceries because he didn't want to see me go hungry.

To the rest, I was a leper.

I mean, very truly, most of the diocese would have allowed a Wiccan to speak in church, but not allow me.

But we all know what it's like if you see somebody that they make a spectacular wrong move,

and to associate with them is to be tainted by them.

And so it took Joseph great courage.

Even though Joseph, Jesus, was now dead, the threat was over, they had won.

It takes great courage to want to ask for the body of Jesus.

But you know what?

Joseph wanted to honor the body of Jesus.

Because if he hadn't have done it, what would have happened is what happened to the other thieves,

which was the normal Roman custom.

The bodies would be taken down and they would be thrown in a dump.

And Joseph wanted to honor Jesus.

And so he took this big risk.

Now, Pilate's a bit confused about this.

Look what happens next, verse 44.

Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus should have already died.

He would have seen Jesus as a strong guy, and normally people wouldn't have died so quickly,

and he'd probably forgotten the Jewish custom and the fact that they would guarantee the death.

He'd just forgotten why would he remember Jewish superstitions.

He was a great Roman.

But he's surprised.

Verse 44, Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus should have already died.

And summoning the centurion, sort of like a captain or a major,

he asked him whether Jesus was already dead.

And when he learned from the centurion that Jesus was dead,

he granted the corpse to Joseph.

Joseph.

Now, once again, notice the text continually says dead, dead, body, corpse.

It continually emphasizes the, you know, if I had been doing the scene things for this,

this whole scene would have been called Jesus is dead, dead, dead, dead.

That's what I would have called the scene if I was doing that with scenes.

He's dead, dead, dead, dead.

Now, sometimes people, when they're downstream trying to explain why the grave is empty,

the tomb is empty, they'll talk about how Jesus maybe didn't die.

And they'll say things like, Lazarus wasn't a doctor.

Maybe he didn't really die.

And that sounds very convincing.

But we forget that there's two types of people who are experts in being able to make this determination.

One, of course, is doctors.

And we do know that, in fact, if a doctor makes a mistake and issues, says somebody's dead when they're alive,

there's, I mean, lots of people will make fun of them for a long time,

and there may be some questions of their judgment.

But there's a whole other category of person who's expert in knowing when somebody's dead,

and that's professional killers.

I'm not being funny.

Professional killers are experts.

And the fact of the matter is, if a professional killer makes the mistake,

people don't just make fun of them.

Something far worse could happen to that guy,

because they're paid to make sure the person's dead.

And the centurions and the duty officers connected with the bearer,

and they would have potentially, this same group of guys would have done dozens,

scores of crucifixions,

I think they estimated that when it came time a few years later,

when the Jewish people started to revolt against Roman rule,

they'd crucify a thousand at a time, a thousand at a time, crucified.

So Jesus was dead.

Verse 46,

And Joseph bought a linen shroud,

and he took Jesus down,

and he wrapped Jesus in the linen shroud,

and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock.

And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

And Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph,

saw where Jesus was laid.

Once again, you notice the language, the tomb,

the laid, the body,

this continuing hammering away at this continuing thing,

which, as I said, if I had done the Netflix things,

it would have been called,

Jesus is dead, dead, dead, dead, dead,

like he's dead.

Now, here's the thing which is going on in the text.

If you could put up my first point, Claire,

that would be very helpful.

On Friday afternoon,

April the 3rd,

33 AD,

Jesus died.

On Friday afternoon,

April the 3rd,

33 AD,

Jesus died.

I was talking to somebody the other day

who's sort of friendly towards Christianity.

I'm not sure where they are with their Christian faith,

but they're friendly to them,

and we were talking a little bit about it.

And he assumed,

he was actually completely floored

that, first of all,

the things like the Gospel of Mark

go back to being eyewitness accounts.

He had never dawned on him

that there are ancient Christian letters

that talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus

that go way back.

The first letter,

Christian letter,

which we have,

which is an undisputed letter

from that time period,

is from 15 years after this,

15 or 16 years after this.

And he was floored

that they actually know the date that Jesus died.

And the scholars debate

whether it was the 7th of April,

30 AD,

or the 3rd of April,

33 AD.

But there's enough historical references

in these ancient biographies

connected to Roman emperors

and other historical characters

that they can sort of figure out

that there's only two possible dates

while Pontius Pilate was in that area

where you had the combination

by solar calendar of a Friday,

you know,

the Thursday,

Friday,

Saturday,

when the Passover

and the Sabbath would happen.

And I think the evidence is best

for it being April 3rd,

33 AD.

But the point is

that what's being recorded here

is history.

That's why I can say,

you could say,

on Friday afternoon,

April the 3rd,

33 AD,

Jesus died.

Now,

the next part of the story,

you know,

this is part of the thing about,

and why you might like

want to have a little journal like this

to reflect upon the text.

The next part is deeply human.

At least it's human in my experience.

Maybe it's not yours.

But,

you know,

every one of us

probably knows people,

and hopefully we aren't that person,

who sort of says,

yeah,

yeah,

yeah,

yeah,

you know,

the family members

or my friends,

they can sort of do those arrangements,

but,

you know,

at the end of the day,

they don't really get it quite right.

They need somebody like me there

just to make things better,

just to make them really proper.

They do their best.

They mean well.

But really,

unless I sort of come and,

you know,

fix up whatever,

it's not quite done well.

And that's what's going on here.

Look how it goes.

It's chapter 16,

verse 1.

When the Sabbath was passed,

Mary Magdalene,

Mary the mother of James,

and Salome,

bought spices

so that they might go

and anoint Jesus.

Now,

what's going on here?

Actually,

if you could put up the point,

that would be very helpful.

On Saturday evening,

April the 4th,

33 AD,

some women bought spices

to cover the stench

of Jesus'

decomposing body.

That's what's being communicated here.

On the evening,

Saturday evening,

April the 4th,

33 AD,

some women bought spices

to cover the stench

of Jesus'

decomposing body.

You see,

Jewish people didn't embalm.

And so what they did

is they would put spices

on the body,

if they could afford it,

to help cover up

the stench

of decomposition.

And so what would have happened,

it's not mentioned

in Joseph's case,

is that Joseph,

in another account,

knows that he had

at least one person

helping him

and maybe servants.

And when they had

the linen shroud,

they would have put

the spices down

on the shroud.

They would have

put some spices

on the part of Jesus

that was probably,

you know,

he's probably on his back

facing up.

And then they wrapped

it all up.

And the women probably thought,

well, you know,

those guys,

they're guys.

They meant well.

But, you know,

I bet they didn't get

enough spices

and I bet it's not

tucked in right

and I bet it's just

not done right.

You know people like that?

That's what they were thinking.

And so,

so they went

and bought extra spices

and they weren't

buying spices

to make cookies

to celebrate

the resurrection

of Jesus.

They were buying spices

to put on the

decomposing body

of Jesus

so it wouldn't smell.

That's what they were doing.

That's what they were doing.

And they were doing it

at night

after the Sabbath is over,

the stalls

and the business is open

and they felt comfortable

doing that.

And those of you

who are women,

know what this is like,

you feel comfortable

doing that

because there's lots

of people around

and you feel safe

but the idea of walking

way out to a tomb

in the middle of the night

all by yourself,

just a couple of women

and it's going to be dark

and you can't really do it,

well that's a very,

very different proposition.

So they go home,

they go to bed

and the next morning

they wake up

and here's what they do.

It's verse 2

and 3.

And very early

on the first day

of the week

when the sun had risen,

they went to the tomb

and they were,

notice again the death,

right?

And they were saying

to one another,

who will roll away

the stone for us

from the entrance

of the tomb?

Now if you could just

put up my next point

that would be handy.

With the first faint

light of dawn,

April 5th,

33 AD,

some women left

for the tomb of Jesus

to put additional spices

on his body

to cover up the stench

of decomposition.

They went to honour him.

They went to honour him.

I mean for us

it sounds pretty gross

that you'd want to

unwrap the body

and touch the body

after it had been dead

for that many hours

and that sounds

very gross to us,

some of us more than others.

But for others of us

you understand

that great desire

to have that one time

to make sure

that you can,

they didn't have time

on Friday

to really see him dead

and just to be with him,

to be with his body.

They didn't have that time

because there's soldiers around

and people screaming

and yelling

and the hustle and bustle

and then it's taken away

and all they can do

is look at a distance.

They don't have that time

and they want that time.

They love Jesus.

They're deeply sad

that he's dead.

And yes, it's gross.

They would have been familiar

with those type of grossnesses

back then

because you can't just,

it was harder

just to pay a professional

to go and do it

and you don't have to be bothered

and they wanted

to unwrap his body.

They wanted to put

the spices down.

They wanted to wrap him back up.

They wanted to make sure

it was done well

and they wanted

a quiet time alone

with him in the tomb.

It's deeply human.

It's deeply human.

And the text doesn't tell us.

It might have even been

that some others

who couldn't handle

the gross aspect

were planning to come

and do their respects later

as well,

privately, quietly,

just to see him.

See, all of these

are stories

of people who love Jesus

who wanted to honor him

in his death.

And then

the story takes

a weird turn.

And by now,

I hope you've gathered

that what they're making

is a claim

that it goes

really, really, really weird

and completely

and utterly

against what they had expected

and what they were preparing for

and how they were preparing

to live for the rest

of their lives.

Look what happens.

Look at verses

four to seven.

And looking up,

they must have been coming

from the bottom

and the cave

slash tomb

has been cut in the side.

And looking up,

they saw that the stone

had been rolled back

and it was very large.

And entering the tomb,

they saw a young man

sitting on the right side

dressed in a white robe

and they were alarmed.

And just sort of pause here

before I read any further.

It's clear from the original language

and it's clear from the other accounts

that this is a way

of describing an angel.

They're seeing an angel.

Verse six,

And he said to them,

Do not be alarmed.

You seek Jesus of Nazareth

who was crucified.

He is risen.

He is not here.

See the place

where they laid him.

But go,

tell his disciples

and Peter

that he is going before you

to Galilee.

There you will see him

just as he told you.

If you could put up the point.

On the morning of April 5th,

33 AD,

some women found

the stone rolled away

from Jesus' tomb

and his body was gone.

Now up until now,

you could go to the religion faculty

at Ottawa U.

You could go to the ultra-liberal

religion faculty

at St. Paul University.

You could go to the religion faculty

at Carleton.

You could go to just about

any school.

And they would not disagree

with a single thing

of my points

that I've set up until now.

They might,

you know,

my explanation,

they might have different nuances.

That's fine.

But the four points

that I've put up right now,

that would be just,

that's part of the bedrock thing

that nobody would disagree with.

Some of them might disagree

with 33 and 30,

but,

you know,

at the end of the day,

all of this stuff,

I've completely and utterly,

they all agree.

But in that text,

in particular,

in verse 5 and 6,

this is where they lose it.

Okay, George,

you're saying an angel

talked to the women.

Like, seriously?

An angel talked to the women?

George,

and you say it's history?

You say it's biography?

And you have an angel talking?

George,

that's completely

and utterly ridiculous.

Now,

they might say it

with more scorn

and not affection.

And we might get deeply red

in the face

and uncomfortable

and not know what to say.

And I'm not going to give you

a whole account

of what they,

of what to say.

But I am,

if you could put up

the fifth point,

I am going to maintain

that this sentence

makes complete sense

as an historical account

of what actually happened.

Amongst other things,

because I'm not going into it,

the person who is,

well, no,

I'll make the point first.

On the morning of April 5th,

33 AD,

an angel told the women

that Jesus had been resurrected

from death,

from the dead.

Now,

angels,

you know,

that's completely impossible.

It's completely implausible.

Well,

amongst other things,

that only makes sense,

of course,

if angels don't actually exist.

If they do exist,

then there's nothing wrong

with this.

Now,

here's what,

here's what's going on,

you know,

and that's why,

by the way,

this is one of the reasons

I've made all of my points

by giving the actual date

of the resurrection

and the claim

that's being made.

That you can't read

the Gospels

and not realize,

you know,

if you want to think,

if you think

that they may be

trying to just be symbolic,

well,

the Bible has

an account

of Christian truth

which is symbolic.

It's called

the Book of Revelation

and nobody can read

the Book of Revelation

and read one of the Gospels

and think that

they're the same genres.

Like,

early Christians,

just,

they weren't dummies.

They're writing

an ancient biography

and they're making

these claims.

They're claiming

that that's what happened.

Now,

here's the issue

with it

and this is why

on one level,

and I think increasingly

in our culture

there's maybe

going to begin

a new openness to it

and I want to park here

just for a couple of minutes.

I see the time.

I want to park here.

I have,

I know somebody who,

I know several people now

who might have been

a bit far

from the Christian faith

for a while

and I don't know

if they're definitely,

at least a couple of them

that I'm thinking of,

they're definitely

not Christians

but they have a respect

for Christians

that they didn't have before

and that's because

on a very fundamental level

they're starting to realize

and recognize

something which has

always been true

that Christian truth,

the Christian faith

has been a bastion,

has been a bastion

of truth

and of evidence

and of reason

and of what is real.

like I talk to people

and once they start

to realize

what I think about things

they come to realize

that there's people

in our,

like there's actually

people in our

educational institution

that think that

two plus two

equals four

isn't a statement

of something which is true

but is a patriarchal construct.

That there are people

in our culture

who think that

you should have

different ways

of knowing

taught alongside science

because they're both

equally valid

that something

that you get

from a dream

or a legend

is going to be

equally as good

at treating people

or handling things

as evidence-based,

scientific-based medicine

and that's just

completely ridiculous.

And the next bit,

this isn't a political rant

and I know normally

I try to make

a whole pile of covering

for it

and I don't want

to offend

and I'm going to offend

and I'll take you

out for coffee

and I'll give you

lots of nuances

around it

but I know people

who sit through

and these are people

who are scientists

with graduate level

degrees in biology

and they sit through

a workshop

where they say

that you can't refer

to women breastfeeding,

you have to refer

what's the word

to milking agents

like, you know,

chest feeding?

And they sit

through things

where, you know,

you might have seen

an viral clip

that you couldn't tell

in an autopsy

whether the corpse

was a male or female

and they go,

like, what?

And I know several people

who, you know,

ten years earlier

or five years earlier

they would have been

very dismissive

of Christians

but all of a sudden

they just look at Christians

and they realize

that Christians

have had this long tradition

deeply formed

that we're concerned

with evidence,

that we're concerned

with the truth,

that we're concerned

with reason

and they see our culture

getting unmoored

and all of a sudden

they realize

that if they're going

to go and have some people

they can at least

have conversations with

and maybe have,

start to realize

that there's something

grounding,

just actually what's real,

that that's where you go,

that's where Christians

inhabit.

and for some of them

it's a very shocking

realization

that that's sort of

that they're on the same

side of the playing field

with guys like me

and you folks.

You see,

I mean,

you just look at this story.

Christians say

that they didn't roll

the stone away

so Jesus could get out.

They rolled the stone away

so that people could go in

and verify

that the body was gone.

Kathy Keller

has a wonderful line.

She says,

it's always been part

of the Christian tradition

to trust and verify.

Trust and verify.

That that's part

of the Christian tradition.

Even the angel says,

look,

the body's gone.

Christianity would be

a radically,

radically,

radically different religion.

In fact,

it would be like

the religions

of most of the world

if we were to say,

yeah,

Jesus rose from the dead.

Oh,

did he rise from the dead?

How do you know?

Well,

you know,

we know that the body's gone.

Can I go?

No,

no,

you know,

it happened right here

in this tomb.

Well,

can we go and look?

No,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

you know,

maybe it's ancient myths

and ancient stories

and I'm not,

I'm not putting them down at all

and ancient practices,

you have stories,

you have myths,

you have practices,

you have legends,

you have,

you know,

poetry,

you have all of these types of things

and the person who follows them

has to follow those things.

You follow the myths

and you meditate upon the myths

and you make them your own

and you do the practices

and that makes you acceptable to God.

But at the very,

very heart of the Christian faith

and this is something

that Protestant and Catholics

and Eastern Orthodox

we all agree on.

At the very heart of the Christian faith

is,

I mean,

it's obviously important to us

what Jesus taught

and it's important to us

that we do what Jesus told us to do

but at the very heart of it

is that God in his son

does something in history,

that he accomplishes something.

That's the heart of the Christian faith.

That on April 5th, 33 AD,

the tomb was empty

because Jesus rose.

That's the heart of the Christian faith.

It's the heart of the Christian faith

that I'm not made right with God

because I'm really good

at keeping the teachings.

You're not made right with God

because you suck at keeping the teachings

and you suck

and I'm way better at it

and so I'm acceptable to God.

No,

that's not what the Christian faith is.

The Christian faith is that

I'm an unworthy person

and Jesus did something for me

that I cannot do for myself

and I receive it by grace

and so right in the very, very center

of Christianity

is a concern

not just with stories and myths

and allegories and symbolism

and metaphors

but of something actually happening

in the real world

which is why Christianity has miracles

and the others don't.

It's all about what happens

in the real world

and it's a very different way of living

but at the same time

and this is what makes

Christianity so weird

to people on the outside.

I had a fellow,

maybe he's watching this

today or downstream

and he's an engineer.

He was from a communist country,

raised an atheist.

He fled the Iron Curtain,

came to the West

and I've had quite a few conversations

with him

and I got him all wrong

for the first three or four months.

I just assumed he was an atheist

and it finally dawned on me

that by his own thinking

he had rejected atheism

and come to believe

that there were beings like angels.

And you see,

the other thing

which is just so weird

about Christianity

is we have this concern

for truth,

for evidence,

for reason,

for thinking,

for being careful,

for being clear

but at the other hand,

we believe there's a soul,

we believe there's angels,

we believe there's meaning,

we believe there's beauty,

we believe there's goodness,

we believe there's right and wrong,

we believe that there's

these transcendent truths,

we believe that

because the creator God,

the triune God

has created all things,

that different things in creation

just aren't mere things

or mere stuff

or mere collections of atoms

but that they communicate

in some ways,

that they point to things,

that they're metaphors of things,

that the body has a type

of a significance to it

and you can't discover that

from science,

from cutting it up

and dissecting it,

that there's this whole world

of meaning,

of beauty,

of goodness,

of dance,

of poetry,

of laughter

and Christianity

is not just the bastion of truth,

it's also the bastion of that

which believes that there is more

and the two are held together

with no contradiction whatsoever,

hence if that statement is up there,

why that statement makes

all the sense in the world

that on the morning

that April 5th, 33 AD,

an angel told the woman

that Jesus had been resurrected

from the dead

and no Christian

has to blush at that

and we say,

yeah, that's exactly what it is.

Don't you believe in minds

and souls

and beauty

and goodness

and love

and truth

and justice?

Don't you believe

there's something more

than what you can just consume

or push around?

Don't you believe

there's something more?

And don't you believe

that in a,

don't you wish

there was a world

where there's both

something more

and something that,

and you can think about it

and there's no contradiction?

There's a coherence

and doesn't that sound

beautiful and attractive?

And if you think

that's beautiful and attractive

then what you are being attracted to

is only Christianity

and nothing else.

If you were,

wish that there was a world

where you could do science

and do art,

where you could

analyze things

very carefully

and think really hardly

and at the same time

recognize beauty

and awe

and mystery

and you wish

there was a way

that both of those things

could coexist

in one,

perhaps one way,

what you are wishing

for is that Christianity

was true,

is true.

And I want to tell you,

friends,

I want to tell you,

brothers and sisters,

it's true.

Go listen to some

of Mike Lacona's tapes

and many others.

There is no better

explanation

for the historical facts

around the death

of Jesus

than that he is

resurrected from the dead.

There is no better

rational,

reasonable explanation

for the facts

than what that angel

just said.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

I have to wrap things up.

My voice is going.

April showers

bring May flowers

and they also bring allergies.

Could you put up

the next point

just briefly?

Excuse me.

On Friday afternoon,

April 3rd, 33 AD,

death appeared

to swallow Jesus.

I just say it appeared

not because he didn't die,

but it appeared

that death

had swallowed Jesus

and death had won.

On Sunday,

April 5th, 33 AD,

people began to learn

that Jesus

had swallowed death.

This tiny little man

probably wasn't much taller

than five foot tall,

scrawny

and not very good looking.

scrawny

because he was

lower working class,

not good looking

because that's what

the Bible tells us.

He died on the cross

amidst blood

and gore

and jeers

on Friday,

April 3rd,

and on Sunday,

April 5th.

We began to learn

that he

had swallowed death.

Now,

I'm going to go

through these things

a little bit quick.

You know,

for Christians,

this is why

for Christians,

the grave

is a bed of hope

for those in Christ.

the sweetest lie

that Canadians

tell themselves

is that they

will never die.

And the second

sweetest lie

that Canadians

tell themselves

is that even

if they die,

it will all work out.

We know

from the teachings

of Jesus

that those things

are not true.

Of course,

it's just biologically

the case that we're

all going to die.

And for many people,

as their death becomes,

their upcoming death

becomes a reality,

they face terror.

But for Christians,

for those who are

in Christ,

in his finished work,

in his arms,

where he has come

into them

to be their savior,

and they are in him,

the grave becomes

a bed of hope.

If Jesus tarries,

there will be a time

when my eyes close,

and I don't know

what I will see

as my eyes close.

Maybe I will be

in a coma.

Maybe I'll see

the ceiling.

Maybe I'll see

the loved ones

around me,

and my eyes

will close.

And the moment

my eyes close

on my loved ones,

my eyes open

in glory.

And that is

the Christian hope.

hope.

That is the Christian hope.

Why did they go

without fear?

Why did they go

with fear?

Look at,

if you could put up

verse 8,

and they went out

and fled from the tomb

for trembling

and astonishment

had seized them,

and they said nothing

to anyone,

for they were afraid.

I put this,

I had not talked about this

all the way through

Mark's gospel.

If you go,

I'm going to make

this little point.

If you go back

and you read

Mark's gospel

on your own,

one of the things

you're going to find

is his disciples

kept getting it wrong.

They kept not doing

what he wanted them to do.

They kept getting it wrong,

like all the time,

like his mom thinks

he's insane.

I'm not making that up.

Like his sisters

and brothers

think Jesus is insane.

Like, you know,

just after Jesus says

he's going to die

on the cross,

the disciples get

in an argument

about who's going

to sit at Jesus' throne

when he rules the world.

Like they keep

getting it wrong.

And so the gospel

of Mark ends

in the most brilliant way.

How do I believe

that Jesus died?

I couldn't go see

the empty tomb.

I believe it

because the tomb

is empty,

and I've been told

that Jesus rose

from the dead.

That's how all of us believe.

And the question ends

in a bit of an ironic

type of way,

like an odd type of way,

because it's a challenge

to you and me.

Am I going to be

like the woman

and be afraid?

Like, I'll be honest,

when I made that comment

about chest feeding units,

I wondered whether

I should say something

like that in Canada

in 2022.

And you all know.

You all know

that that's the case.

Because we can be afraid

to speak and bear witness

to the truth.

And the text

is calling you,

it's calling me,

to listen to what

the angel said,

to listen to what

Jesus promised,

to trust that it's true,

and to not live out

of fear.

Not be like those women

who obviously changed

their mind later on,

and, you know,

there's all that other stuff,

but not to be like that.

To walk with a confidence

not based in my flesh,

not based on my accomplishment,

but based on Christ,

to not live in fear.

Jesus doesn't want us

to live in fear.

He doesn't want us

to live by fear,

live by fear of death,

live by lies,

live by injustice,

live by hatred.

He wants us to live

by the truth.

He wants us to live

by goodness.

He wants us to live

by beauty.

He wants us to live

by justice.

He doesn't want us

to live by fear.

That's what he wants us,

that's how he wants us

to live,

brothers and sisters.

so the last two points very briefly if you put up number seven Jesus confers grace

triune God-given life-giving grace to the unworthy his grace to the unworthy disciples his grace to

the unworthy Peter the grace to the unworthy women his grace to unworthy George his ungrace

his grace to unworthy Adam I mean Andrew his grace to the unworthy Joe his grace to unworthy

Ken and unworthy Uzo and and and Amy and Deborah and and Diane and Louise grace to the unworthy

George proclaimed and then the final point your only hope my only hope in life and death

is the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that is my hope in life and death

that is the only hope and he wants us to live as people of hope and we are people of hope when

the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ become the story that we live by when

we are in him because we trust him as our Christ our savior our Lord and that is a life of hope your

only hope in life and death is the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ invite you

to stand please stand let's bow our heads in prayer

father you know how frail we are you know how many fears we have and you know better than even we do

how unworthy we are time and time and time again so father we thank you for grace we thank you for the

grace that comes to us through Jesus we thank you for what he did for us on the cross we thank you for

his defeat of death we thank you that he made sure that people understood that not only was the body

gone but that it was gone because he was alive we give you thanks and praise that even now he is in

heaven and that he intercedes for us that when he's he walks with us and intercedes for us that he is

with us that he still is Emmanuel God with us and that one day he will come visibly powerfully in glory

to bring this created world to its end to to knit together that which should be knit and and and to

put to death that which should be put to death and to bring in the new heaven and the new earth and that

he has died and risen from the dead to fit us for heaven father we thank you for what Christ has done

we thank you for what he will continue to do in our lives and we ask Lord that you help the gospel

to be real to our hearts so that we will not live by fear but that we will live by hope and we ask this

in the name of Jesus your son and our savior and all God's people said amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amen