The Realistic Resurrection

Father, some of us in the room are very smart, and others of us maybe aren't quite as smart.

And so first of all, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would help us to think as clearly and see as clearly as we possibly can.

But secondly and most importantly, Father, as your Holy Spirit does this deep work of us to help us to think and to listen and to think and listen and see as best we can,

we ask, Father, that you would humble our minds and humble our hearts and humble our wills by the moving of your Holy Spirit.

We confess before you, Father, that unless your Holy Spirit, unless you draw us to yourself,

we never can truly understand or see the scriptures or even truth and facts themselves,

that we are dependent, Father, upon your Holy Spirit moving in our minds and hearts and wills.

You know how strong our tendency to bias and ignorance and self-conceit, how strong these are, even in your people.

And so we ask, Father, for a mighty work of your Holy Spirit to soften our hearts, to make us good soil,

so that your word will truly enter into us and we will bear much fruit to bring you glory.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

The Bible has been changed so many times over time, has been changed so many times over time that you can't trust it.

And even though you can't fundamentally trust the Bible, that we actually know what Mark originally wrote,

the little bit that we can see from Mark's gospel would be very clearly teaches us that Jesus didn't rise from the dead,

that that's not what Mark believed.

And most people believe that what fragments that we do have of Mark were the very, very first fragments which were ever written.

And so if, in fact, the gospel of Mark, we hardly know what it originally was,

but the little bit of evidence is that there was no resurrection.

If there was no resurrection, then it's quite understandable to believe that really Mark is telling us that Jesus didn't truly die.

And some of you who are guests here are wondering why on earth you came to this church on Easter Sunday.

But everything that I've just said are very, very common things that people tell us,

that people tell people like me.

Often they have to get comfortable with me for a while, but I can often tell just by looking at them

that they sort of think that I'm sort of very, very naive to actually believe anything in the Bible

because, as I've just said, there was different types of conspiracies by groups to change the wording of the Bible.

The Bible suffered under the many times it was copied, and so error after error after error crept in.

But even if you take into account of that, it's just very, very clear from Mark's gospel that there's no resurrection.

If there's no resurrection, then he didn't die on the cross.

It's a very, very common set of beliefs in our culture.

And so we're going to look at all of those things.

We're going to sort of try to just take some of these questions and put them a little bit in order.

A couple of years ago, I had a great privilege of going to a high school philosophy class,

the senior year of high school, grade 12.

And the teacher invited me in to sort of be, it was like a roast, the Christian, for an hour and a quarter.

And, you know, I did all right.

But afterwards, I've still been hoping that some teacher would invite me back to a class like that.

And if I could go back and do a second time, the one problem I had with the thing is that

the class was filled with lots of people, and they were asking lots and lots and lots of questions.

And there probably were a few people in the class who were asking genuine questions,

but most of it was just like a lot of very, very, you know, they'd actually read, you know,

thought about a couple of things, and they thought they could get Christians and theists with these things

as if nobody had ever thought of it before them.

But the main mistake I made is I think if I could go back in time and do it again,

or if I ever get asked to do it another time, I'd get them to sort of stop asking like 57 questions

and sort of agree on one or two or three or four, and I'd write them on the board,

and then I'd hold us and them to it to try to look at the questions.

And so I'll sort of do that a little bit this morning.

Let's just sort of look, first of all, at whether or not Jesus died.

Because obviously, if the, I mean, people are completely and utterly correct.

If Mark, in fact, is the earliest gospel, and if Mark tells us that Jesus didn't rise from the dead,

then he probably didn't die on the cross, did he?

I mean, he either died on the cross and something else happened,

or he didn't die on the cross, and it's, if there's no resurrection, maybe he didn't die.

Maybe he didn't die on the cross.

I mean, really, for agnostics and skeptics, the issue would just be, of course,

I mean, duh, of course, it's 2,000 years later, of course he's dead.

The issue is, did he die on the cross?

So it'd be very helpful if you take out the Bible.

We're going to start by looking at that.

And if you turn, if you don't have a Bible with you, there's a few extra ones here.

You're welcome to take them.

And please turn with me to Mark 16.

Actually, what we're going to do is we're going to look a little bit before Mark 16.

Mark chapter 15, verses 33.

Mark 15:33

And that will sort of lead us into chapter 16.

And we'll just look at this very, very basic question.

Did Jesus die on the cross?

Did Jesus die on the cross?

And we'll begin reading at verse 33 of chapter 15.

It goes like this.

And when the sixth hour, that's 3 o'clock in the afternoon, had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the whole land until the ninth hour.

And that was 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice,

Eli, Eloi, lima sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And some of the bystanders hearing it said, behold, he is calling Elijah.

And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.

This comes by the fact that Jesus was speaking an ancient form of Hebrew, a type of Aramaic.

And some of the soldiers would have been speaking either Greek or Latin or some other type of native language and then probably picked up Greek.

And it sounds to their ears a little bit like he's saying the name Elijah.

And so they've heard rumors of Elijah maybe taking him down.

And that's why it's a bit of a language difficulty where you know a little bit of another language, just enough to get it wrong.

And so that's what happens here.

Verse 36, and someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.

And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and note here what it said, and breathed his last.

So the text begins by saying that Jesus breathed his last, which is a very, very common way of talking about death.

I don't know how many of you have been in a deathbed, but when I've been in a deathbed, it's really funny.

You're with the family, and it's almost as if in the silence you keep watching them breathe.

And you see a person breathe, and then you wait.

and sometimes when a person's dying there's a bit of a pause

and you wait and you wait and you wait and then they take breath.

But then that time comes that they breathe and then you wait and you wait

and you wait and you wait and you wait and you wait and you wait

and then you realize they haven't breathed again and they've died.

So actually even in this very, very simple way,

in the original thing it would have been very, very obvious

because in a crucifixion as the body sinks,

it's hard to breathe so the person in agony has to push themselves up to breathe

and if they don't push themselves up to breathe,

they remain sort of slumped in such a way that it's very difficult,

if not impossible, to breathe.

And so they see that Jesus has breathed his last.

It's a very, very touching but very powerful description.

And the verse 38,

and the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom

and when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way,

notice again, what does it say?

He breathed his last.

The centurion said,

truly this man was the son of God.

Now, there were also women looking on from a distance

among whom were Mary Magdalene

and Mary the mother of James the younger and Jose and Salome.

That's three people.

It's not that Mary was the mother of these three people,

but Mary is the mother of the two young men and Salome.

And just sort of pause there.

If you go back and read the Gospel of Mark from the beginning to the end,

and it would be the topic of another sermon,

but this is Mark's sort of gentle way of saying

that that's Jesus' mother who's there.

If you go back and read the Gospel of Mark from the beginning to the end,

you'll see that earlier on,

the second time that Mary's introduced Jesus' mother,

that's how she's introduced.

And so this is actually very important

that three women all have given their historical names and identifiers.

And maybe that was partially why Mark used the names

Mary's children other than Jesus,

because if you went looking for Mary,

you could ask for this Mary who is the mother of these other children

rather than the mother of Jesus,

and it might help you to find her.

But we have to always remember when we read the New Testament

that there was no television, there were no photographs.

So unless you actually had physically seen someone,

you wouldn't have any idea in the world

what they looked like.

It's well, well, well before the Twitterverse

and emails having your picture on them and all that stuff.

Some of you, by the way, when you email us,

your picture's really old.

You need to update your picture a little bit,

but that's a separate point.

I mean, maybe you like the way you looked 10 years ago or whatever,

and if that's what you want to do, that's fine.

But these then were three women

who definitely knew who Jesus was,

and they're watching all of this.

That's what Mark is saying.

Verse 41,

And when he was in Galilee,

they followed him and ministered to him,

and there were also many other women

who came up with him to Jerusalem.

In other words, there's a crowd of women

who all knew him very well,

who watched all of this happening,

and three of them are Mary,

Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome.

Verse 42,

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,

and note what he asked for.

He doesn't ask that Jesus could be brought down.

He says,

Can I have Jesus' body?

And it's what that is in the original language.

He asked for the body of Jesus.

Pilate, verse 44,

was surprised to hear

that Jesus should have already died.

And that's what the original language is saying.

There's some tense issues there

in terms of the exact grammar,

but Pilate's a bit surprised

that Jesus has died already.

So, continuing on,

in summoning the centurion,

Pilate asked the centurion

whether Jesus was already dead.

That's another time,

three times,

just in a few words,

that Jesus is dead.

In verse 45,

and when Pilate learned from the centurion

that Jesus was dead,

he granted the corpse to Joseph.

And those are all,

if you look at the original language,

those are all accurate words,

and we see they're all put together

in a very, very powerful way.

The body, the body, the body,

died, died, died, corpse.

And all in the context

of a Roman official of centurion,

a prominent member of the Sanhedrin

and the council.

So, we've already seen

that the women have seen

that Jesus has died.

In verse 46,

and Joseph bought a linen shroud,

and you buy those

to do Jewish embalming in,

so Joseph wouldn't have spent

the money on this

if he didn't think

that Jesus was dead.

And taking him down,

in other words,

they had left Jesus' body

on the cross.

In fact,

it was the Roman custom

to, usually,

the Jewish leaders

were actually asking

for a bit of an act

of mercy for Jesus

and the two other thieves

that were crucified with him

to have their bodies

taken down.

Usually,

Roman custom was

that the body

would be left there

for quite a while.

As the body rotted

and decomposed,

animals would eat the bodies,

and it was a warning

to others

not to be troublemakers.

So the soldiers

weren't going to

mess themselves up

with Jesus.

The body's hanging there,

slumped,

not breathing.

It's a corpse.

Joseph takes it down.

Obviously,

Joseph wouldn't have felt

any tremor of pain

if Jesus was still alive.

It would have been

excruciatingly painful

to take the body down.

And so,

verse 46,

and Joseph bought

a linen shroud,

and taking Jesus down,

wrapped him

in the linen shroud,

and laid him

in a tomb,

because he's dead,

that had been

cut out of the rock.

And he rolled

a stone against

the entrance of the tomb.

And Mary,

Magdalene,

and Mary,

ultimately the mother

of Jesus,

saw where Jesus

was laid.

And when the Sabbath

was passed,

these same three women,

out of all the women,

in Mark's account,

just focusing on

these three,

Mary Magdalene,

Mary,

ultimately the mother

of Jesus,

but mentioned here

is the mother

of James,

and Salome,

by spices,

so that they might

go and anoint him.

And this is actually

quite a remarkable thing

that these women

had been doing,

were about to do.

The body has been

dead for two days,

it's a Mediterranean

climate,

it's April,

early April,

and so the body

would have been

decomposing for two days,

and it would have

started to smell.

But these women

obviously know

that Jesus

has died,

he's dead.

And they saw him

die,

they saw him

stop breathing,

they know that

he's dead.

And they go

to anoint

the decomposing

body of Jesus.

Verse two,

and very early on

the first day of the week

when the sun had risen

they went to the tomb,

because they're expecting

him to be in the tomb

dead.

And they were saying

to one another,

who will roll away

the stone for us

from the entrance

of the tomb,

said again,

and looking up

they saw that the stone

had been rolled back

and it was very large.

And entering the tomb

they see a young man

sitting on the right side

dressed in a white robe

and they were alarmed,

and for other linguistic reasons

we know that it's an angel.

And we won't get into that

historical aspect

of angels for now,

just listen to the account.

And this angel 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

Jesus is going before you

to Galilee.

There you will see him

just as he told you.

And here's the really

remarkable thing

about the story

is that they don't

all sing,

Christ has risen

from the dead

trampoline over,

they don't sing that.

They don't say,

hallelujah,

they don't get down

on their knees,

they don't pray,

they don't do,

they don't ask the angels

any questions.

They flee the tomb

for trembling and

astonishment had seized them

and they said nothing

to anyone for they

were very afraid.

They were afraid

in the original language,

it's the idea

that they were overwhelmed

with great fear.

They were terrified.

Now,

I mean,

if you,

often when people

talk to me

about the Bible,

what I often really know,

I mean,

it's not always true,

some people,

they really know their Bibles

backwards and forwards,

but often what they do,

they just know

that Mark doesn't have

a resurrection appearance

in his gospel,

and so they'll say

other types of things,

but you can't,

as I've just shown to you,

you can't actually

read the account

and not get the idea

that Jesus is dead.

I mean,

he died on the cross.

It's very,

very clear.

It tells them time

after time

after time

after time

in the text

that Mark is saying

that Jesus died,

and as a bit of

a separate thing,

while most people,

most scholars

would agree

that Mark

was probably the first,

today now,

they would agree

that Mark

was the first gospel

that was written,

written,

and just by,

from historical reasons,

you can actually,

Mark was probably written

about 22 years

after the death

and resurrection

of Jesus,

but there's actually

several books

in what we now call

the Bible.

There's actually

early letters

which were written

before Mark,

and these letters

all bear witness

of the death

and resurrection

of Jesus.

What we now think of

as the letter

of James,

as the letter

of first letter

to Corinth,

the second letter

to Corinth,

the first letter

to Thessalonians,

the second letter

to Thessalonians,

and Galatians,

these all were

originally letters

written by early Christians

to other early Christians,

and all of them

also say that Jesus

died and rose

from the dead.

So there's actually

quite a few documents,

all even preceding

this written

maybe in the year

55 or 56,

that say that Jesus

actually died.

And so that's

my first point,

if you want to put it up

here on the screen,

is that it's very obvious

from these early documents,

Mark and others,

that Jesus really

died on the cross.

Jesus really died

on the cross.

Jesus really died

on the cross.

You might not know it,

and I don't know

if we have anybody

who's a follower

of Islam

in the room,

and if you are,

we're really glad

you're here.

And I don't mean

to offend

by these comments,

but in fact,

it's a very,

it's a fundamental

Muslim belief

because they believe

it's taught

in the Quran

that in fact,

Jesus didn't die

on the cross.

I don't know

if you know that

about your Muslim

neighbors or friends.

Muslims believe

that Jesus didn't die

on the cross.

Muslims believe

that Jesus

was taken up

to heaven.

Muslims believe

that Jesus

will return,

actually.

In a sense,

a Muslim could join

with a Christian

saying,

Maranatha,

come Lord Jesus,

come.

I mean,

they're obviously

more focused

on Muhammad

and Allah,

but Muslims

believe that

Jesus didn't die

on the cross.

They believe

that God

took another person,

took Jesus

out of the hands

of the sinful men,

put another person

on the cross,

changed the face

of that man

so he looked

like Jesus

and that that man

died on the cross.

But Jesus,

because he was

a great prophet,

could not have

suffered such a

terrible fate

as dying

on a cross.

But we can see

here,

and with all due

to respect

to Muslims,

the Quran

was written

over 600 years,

700 years maybe,

after the death

and resurrection

of Jesus.

And unless

for other reasons

you believe

the Quran

is something

which directly

comes from God,

there's actually

no historical reason

from an evidential

point of view.

There's no reason

why you should

believe the Quran

over Mark.

Why would you

believe a document

written maybe

700 years after

compared to a document

written 22 years

after the death

and resurrection

of Jesus,

which follows

other documents

written even earlier,

which all say

that Jesus

died on the cross.

And I'm not

going to talk

later on

about the swoon

theory about

how Jesus

didn't really

die on the cross.

The early evidence

here is that

Jesus died

on the cross.

And whatever else

you have to

sort of understand

about things,

it's,

I mean,

the evidence

would say

that Jesus

died on the cross.

Now,

some of you

might say,

okay,

George,

George,

George,

George,

George,

you got all

this from

the gospel

of Mark?

Oh,

George,

come on.

Like,

George,

just look

at your Bible.

Come on,

George.

Like,

here,

your Bible

goes up to

verse 20,

you've only read

to verse 8,

and we all

know that,

you know,

people all know

now that verses

9 to 20

probably weren't

originally written

by Mark,

and you know

that there's

some textual

transitional problems

between chapter 15

verse 47

and chapter 16

verse 1,

and that there's

some difference

in the evidence,

and George,

come on,

we all know

that these early

primitive people,

they were far

more primitive

than us,

and they were

gullible in terms

of things like this,

and we all know,

oh,

come on,

George,

Mark had this

huge bias,

I mean,

so he's gullible,

he has this bias,

I mean,

the Bible text

has been changed,

who knows how many

times,

you don't even know

if this is the

actual text that

Mark wrote,

like,

how on earth

are you going

ahead and talking

about this

as if now

this is any

particular evidence,

it's actually

really interesting,

this happens

in lots of people,

but they'll say

that there's enough

evidence in Mark

that there's no

resurrection,

because there's

no resurrection

appearance,

but when you want

to talk about

something else

that goes against

their theory,

then they say

the Bible's worthless,

that's just a bit

of an aside,

but it's a very,

very common move

that people make

unselfconsciously,

in a sense,

just picking

and choosing

which bits

of the text

fit into

their theory,

and obviously,

if we want

to be hard-headed

and looking at

things from evidence,

you don't cherry-pick

the pieces of evidence

that you like,

you look at the

evidence as it

sort of lays out,

so you can't really

very well say

that there's no

resurrection appearances,

and therefore Jesus

didn't rise from the dead,

because that's somehow

trustworthy,

but all this other

stuff about him

dying on the cross

isn't trustworthy,

it's,

you have to sort of

go all the way

through it,

but let's just look,

let's try to pick

some of those

different things up,

I don't want to leave,

have you all leave

here unsettled,

I mean,

I'm not saying

anything to you

that maybe people

haven't said to you

already,

or that if they

haven't said it to you,

they think it,

you see it in the

citizen,

you see it,

I mean,

I hear it all the time

once you get to the

point where people

will have sort of a

beginning of an honest

conversation with you,

let's look again

at the text,

we'll try to unpack

some of these

different things,

look again at

chapter 16

verses 1 to 3,

when the Sabbath

was passed,

Mary Magdalene,

Mary called here

the mother of James,

Salome bought spices

so that they might

go and anoint him,

they believed

Jesus is dead,

and very early on

the first day of the

week when the sun

had risen,

they went to the

tomb,

and they were saying

to one another,

who will roll away

the stone for us

from the entrance

of the tomb?

Now what we see here

is not people who

are looking particularly

gullible,

we don't see any

evidence here of

anybody actually

believing that Jesus

had risen from the

dead,

everything here,

every single person

in the story,

even these women

who had,

on one level,

they had such a

huge respect for

Jesus,

that while the men

were all hiding

because they were

afraid they were

going to be arrested,

while the men

are all hiding,

these women have

such a respect for

Jesus that they're

willing to suffer

abuse from the

guards,

get a tongue

lashing from the

guards,

put themselves in

danger,

all to handle a

corpse which has

been decomposing in

the Mediterranean for

two days,

and is going to be

pretty rank,

and in fact,

they might lose

their breakfast

several times

trying to fulfill

the task,

it doesn't look

like people going

because they want

to fulfill some

type of a

resurrection,

you know,

belief or myth,

and then look at

the really funny

thing at the end,

verse 8,

and they went out

and fled from

the tomb for

trembling and

astonished to

seize them,

and they said

nothing to anyone

for they were

afraid,

like,

rather than Mark

writing something

down which looks

very pious,

and as if

it's,

I mean,

everything about

the account

puts the

original witnesses

in really a bit

of a bad light,

doesn't it?

I mean,

you'd sort of

expect that if

he was gullible

and he was just

trying to trick us

that, I mean,

the women would

come out looking

better than they

do,

don't you think

that?

And you'd

think he'd

end it in a

different type

of way.

But, you know,

here's the thing,

the text doesn't

really look at all

like Mark's being

gullible about it,

it looks like he

wants to try to

emphasize in the

most, in quite

intimate detail

that not only did

Jesus die on the

cross, but that

absolutely nobody

expected anything

other than a

stinking corpse.

And it doesn't

come across as

very gullible.

And then,

and here's the

thing about bias.

I became a

Christian, I'm

ancient of days

and so I'm from,

I went to high

school in Ontario,

they used to go

to grade 13,

I became a

Christian grade 12

and I had lots

of conversations

with people and

all the way

through grade 12,

all the way

through grade 13,

all the way

through first year

university and

well into second

year university,

one of the

constant problems

that I would

have talking to

people was that

they would try

to say that

they couldn't,

I couldn't,

they couldn't

listen to what I

have to say

because of my

bias.

And then,

believe it or

not,

in second year

sociology,

the light bulb

went on in my

head because I

studied Max Weber,

one of the

founders of

sociology,

and I started

to become familiar

with the sociology

of knowledge.

And what I

learned was that

everyone has

bias.

And all these

people who were

talking to me,

trying to beat me

up about bias,

they talked as if

every time that

we were in the

room, there was

only one person

with bias, me.

But the sociology

of knowledge says

what?

Who has bias?

Everyone has

bias.

You don't think

atheists have

bias?

Read Weber,

study the sociology

of knowledge.

You don't think

Islam or

Buddhists or

New Age have

bias?

No, that's not

how it works.

Every human being

has bias.

In fact,

even at a

scientific level

with experiments,

you look at

Heisenberg,

and Heisenberg

has shown that

the problem,

even there's

going to be

always a

fundamental limit

to scientific

knowledge because

even the act of

observing scientific

things changes

the reality.

And that,

the question then

comes back,

and for many

people,

the response to

that knowledge

of constant bias

is a type of

cynicism and a

type of despair.

fear.

But all it's

actually asking

us to do

is do something

else.

Be humble.

Don't think

you're God.

Be aware of

the fact,

and that's

actually what the

Bible would tell

you,

that the human

problem is

pride,

and that when

our pride is

pierced,

we tend towards

cynicism and

despair.

And the Bible

merely wants us

to understand

that we're

creatures,

that as

creatures we

are limited,

and because

we're limited

we will never

know everything,

and because

of sin there

will always

be bias,

and so the

question that

needs to come

before us is

to be humble,

not to believe

that you can't

know things,

but to be

humble.

And so,

Mark has

no more bias

than anybody

who asks

questions against

it.

I mean,

the question

really would

be,

is,

in fact,

excuse me,

you know,

if you read,

I love reading

detective novels,

I love a novel

where somebody

dies,

and the type

of detective

novels that I

most like

are ones

often with a

fairly damaged

type of

detective,

it doesn't

matter if it's

male or female,

and often in

these well-written

books that sell

lots of copies

because we know

that it's true

of experience,

often powerful

people,

influential

people,

higher-up

people,

the betters,

you know the

betters,

you know the

people who are

better than you,

the betters,

they don't want

to know the

truth,

they quickly

jump to a

conclusion,

they don't want

to know the

truth,

and what often

drives the

story is the

detective often

during having

to deal with

threats to his

or her career,

threats to whether

or not they're

going to have

to be put on

administrative

leave or

outright fired,

they persevere in

knowing the

truth because

they believe that

the evidence doesn't

point in a

particular way,

and so what we

see from detective

novels, what we

see from experience

is that in fact it's

a common human

problem to stop

pursuing the

truth,

and the question

isn't whether or

not it's just a

Christian problem,

it's a common human

problem, which we

all at one level,

nobody I think ever

reads a detective

novel identifying

with the mindless

bureaucrats.

If I'm wrong

about that and

you say, oh yeah,

the thing I love

about those novels

are the mindless

bureaucrats who

make up their

mind and they're

only concerned with

their own position

in power and how

things are going to

look on them,

those are the

people, that's

why I read those

books, that's me,

oh, look at me,

maybe that's the

case, okay, but

I'm guessing that

even if in real

life you're that

mindless bureaucrat

fearful of the

truth, only concerned

with your own

position, power,

prestige, when it

comes to reading

these books you

identify with the

detective seeking

truth.

In fact, the real

question isn't

whether or not

there's human bias,

whether or not

there's all these

things that want us

as human means to

stop looking for

the truth, the

question really is

does your

philosophy, your

theology, does it

provide resources

and impetus to

be more like the

detective and

less like the

bureaucrat?

In fact, that's

what we see here

in the text,

because the text

is going to hinge

everything on the

trustworthiness of

Jesus upon the

empty tomb, upon

evidence.

In fact, the

angel says, look

and see, look

and see.

That's this

constant refrain in

the scriptures is

to think, to

look, to

search, seek

the truth.

Seek the

truth.

I'm not going

to deny that

there's just as

many Christians

who are completely

and utterly

terrified about

truth, will

refuse to open

their minds, will

refuse to ask

any questions.

I'm not going

to deny that

that happens to

Christians.

I'm just going

to say is that

when we as

Christians do

that, we're

going against

what the Bible

tells us to

do, which is

to say, George,

be very careful.

It's very easy

for you to be

the bureaucrat.

I want you to

be the detective.

That's what the

Bible, that's what

God is saying in

the text.

And that's what we

see here in Mark,

is that Mark even

records things in

the story that go

against his case.

The fact that it's

women who are the

first ones to see

that the grave is

empty.

The fact that the

women don't respond

to this thing in a

very, very good way,

that they disobey the

angel, that they're

not pious, that

they're afraid, that

Mark is not afraid

to record things

that seem to go

against his case.

And I would say

that the implication

is that he just

wants to try to

get it right.

He just wants to

try to get it

right.

And even, you

know, even this

idea that somehow

there's this

conspiracy, that

there's a group of

people who want to

try to change the

Bible.

You know, I've

heard that all the

time.

Do you realize that

just under a hundred

years ago, there

actually was an

historical, there's

an historical case

of people trying

to do that to the

Bible.

Did you know that?

It's called Jehovah

Witnesses.

I'm not making

that up.

Jehovah Witnesses

just decided that

there's parts of the

Bible that they

don't like.

If you read a

Jehovah Witness

Bible, it will

have, in very

significant places,

it'll be different

than your Bible.

And they will tell

you that their

Bible is more

accurate.

And that's, I

almost said a

bad word.

That's not

true.

Sorry, I almost

had a Christian

equivalent of a

Justin Trudeau

moment.

And there would

have been lots of

bad Twitter about

me too, and well

deserved.

Okay, I'm not

trying to show I'm

middle.

I actually am from

lower middle class,

actually.

My dad only had a

grade 8 education.

So anyway, and

from Canadian

standards, I went

to Carleton and

Ottawa U, so I

didn't go to

high-rate universities

like Harvard and

Yale and all that

stuff.

So I have lots

stacked against me.

Anyway, I

completely lost my,

where was I?

Yes, okay.

So, you know, so

actually, so people

say, oh yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, you know

Constantine changed it,

or these bishops

changed it.

Well, the fact of the

matter is, is that

Jehovah Witnesses

tried to do that.

Now, who uses a

Jehovah's Witness

Bible other than

Jehovah's Witness?

Nobody.

Nobody, as they say

on television.

Like, it just hasn't

worked.

Like, it just hasn't

worked.

And all this other

stuff about the Bible,

the fact of the

matter is, is that

there's no document

in ancient times that

has more different

copies.

Copies not only in

Greek, but also in

Latin and in many

other languages.

That part of the

reason that we know

that Mark was

probably written in

around the year 55

is that because very

shortly after this,

lots of other

Christians were

writing letters, and

we have copies of

those letters, and

they're saying that

Mark wrote this time,

and John did this,

and Peter did this,

and this is how Paul

died, and it's

because the

Christians, at their

best, following the

Bible, aren't afraid

of the truth, and so

people study all the

different versions of

the Bible, and it's

correct.

You know the

principle that people

use?

This is not common

knowledge.

It's not on the

front page of the

Citizen or anything

like this when they

talk about things like

the Bible, but if you

go back and you read

the academic

commentaries on this,

the principle they

use is if you have

two early documents

that have, and they

differ in terms of

the wording, what is

it that scholars say?

The way bias works is

that people will smooth

out difficulties, not

create difficulties.

And so some early

scribe, noticing that

in chapter 6, Mary's

referred to as a

certain way, and now

seeing that in chapter

15, verse 47, and

chapter 16, verse 1, that

she's not referred to the

same way, and because the

scribe doesn't want to

cause needless confusion,

sort of he looks over his

shoulder to the left and

the right, and he changes

the wording to smooth over

the difficulty.

So the rule in

scholarship is you take the

difficult reading, always.

And so when you have, I'm

using the ESV, when you

use the ESV, this is the

result of scholars studying

thousands of documents,

always taking the difficult

reading, not the easy one.

In fact, it's often people

like Elaine Pagels and often

skeptics who take fanciful

interpretation, fanciful

things, not the difficult one,

believe it or not.

And that's why you can have

99.999% that what you read

here is a faithful English

translation of a document

that Mark wrote in the year

55, 22 years after the death

and resurrection of Jesus.

Put up the next point, please.

The Gospel of Mark is an early

and accurate account of Jesus

based on eyewitness testimony.

The Gospel of Mark is an early

and accurate account of Jesus

based on eyewitness testimony.

Just one little, I have to say

this, I'm sorry.

The fact is that, for instance,

Islam, without a tradition of

asking hard questions, while

Muslims will tell you that the

Quran is perfect word for word,

just as it came to Muhammad.

The fact of the matter is

is that nobody knows the actual

proper original text of the

Quran.

There's three early writers of

the Quran.

Muhammad didn't write.

Three early writers of the

Quran, they don't all have the

same bits in the Quran.

And because there is no

historical tradition of

criticism, you actually don't

know what's in the Quran.

It's a very, very difficult

thing to say to a Muslim.

But it's historically correct.

Evidentially correct.

Some of you say, but George,

okay.

What?

You said some interesting

things.

I hadn't realized that there

were thousands of early

versions of Mark that you have

lots to compare it to.

You can go across languages

that, you know, okay.

But even if I grant that the

gospel of Mark is an early and

accurate account of Jesus based

on eyewitness testimony, I mean,

come on.

It doesn't have a resurrection in

it.

But it does.

It does, doesn't it?

Look, let's look at verses

four to seven of chapter 16.

And looking up, they saw that

the stone had been rolled back.

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 he said to them, do not be

alarmed.

You seek Jesus of Nazareth.

They use a very concrete

historical term.

In fact, they even used the

denigrated word, the way of

denigrating Jesus that would have

been common by Jesus' enemies.

Because as some of you have heard

me say before, Nazareth was

between nowhere and nowhere.

So if you were nowhere and you

wanted to go to nowhere, you'd go

through Nazareth.

And so when they said Jesus of

Nazareth, it was like saying

Jesus of nowhere.

I sometimes have joked that if

you're, I used to be in Eganville

and Combermere and all those

areas.

There's a little place called

Brudenell.

Nobody lives in Brudenell anymore.

There's a Roman Catholic church.

It used to be a rectory.

I don't think a priest even lives

there.

And if you're sort of between,

going between nowhere and

nowhere, you pass right through

Brudenell.

And so it's like saying Jesus of

Brudenell.

It's the opposite of saying Jesus

of Harvard.

Jesus of Yale, of Oxford, you

know, of Stanford.

Jesus of the upper class.

Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus of nowhere who was

crucified.

The angel says he's risen.

And look at that how I put it.

He has risen.

He is not here.

He has risen.

He is not here.

Here's the thing.

The Bible, you can put it up.

In fact, I said the Bible here,

but I should really say Mark.

Mark teaches two complementary

truths.

The tomb was empty.

The tomb was empty.

Why?

Because Jesus, in the fullest human

sense, was resurrected.

And I say in the fullest human

sense by meaning whatever it means

to be part of a human being, he was

resurrected.

Whatever it means for a human being

to die, that died in Jesus.

Whatever it means to be a human being

and rise, whatever it means.

And you can't have human beings

without bodies.

Sorry, I was joking a little bit

before.

I love what Woody Allen said about

all these people who are always

saying, oh, well, so-and-so has

died and they live on in people's

memories.

And Woody Allen said, I don't want

to die and live in people's

memories.

I want to die and live in my

apartment.

Living in memories ain't any fun.

I want to live in my apartment.

I want to live in my condo.

And so, you know, it teaches this

complementary truth that the tomb is

completely and utterly empty and

that the reason that the tomb is

completely and utterly empty is that

Jesus in the fullest human sense,

body, soul, spirit, mind, heart, the

same person that he rose from the

dead.

And that's why the tomb is empty.

And this is the fundamental empirical

claim of the Christian faith.

It's the undeniable fact that all the

historical evidence, and this not only

includes historical evidence, which we

now have put together with, this used to

have sort of like gold edging, and it's

all put, look, fancy, that original, these

old scrolly documents.

But it's also, if you read Josephus, if

you read Latin and Greek historians, they

all make the claim that Christians

proclaimed that the tomb was empty and

that Jesus had risen from the dead.

And the easiest way to refute such a

bald historical claim was to produce the

body.

And no body has ever been produced, and no

evidence of any existence of Jesus, earthly

existence of Jesus afterwards, has ever been

produced.

Nada.

Nothing.

And Mark here proclaims, in the face of the

skepticism of the women, it's a very, very

appropriate gospel for us to read in Ottawa in

2014, in the face of skepticism.

So the text here shows these complementary

truths, that Jesus died and he rose again.

And so here's the thing, to wrap this up, to

put up the final point, the death and

resurrection of Jesus is a full vindication of

him.

See, there's always the so what question, right?

Okay, so what?

Huh, so what?

Now what?

Like, so what?

Well, here's the thing.

Notice back in the text.

Notice verses 6 and 7, what the angel says.

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.

Look at these five words.

Just as he told you.

Just as he told you.

In a sense, in fact, actually, if you read the book in the blog that I mentioned by Nabil

Qureshi, you'll see that in his intellectual journey, once he came to understand that Jesus

really had actually died on the cross, and then suspected that he might have risen from

the dead, and then he goes and he rereads the Gospels with a very, very different light.

And in a sense, this is an invitation now, oh, just as he said, to go back to the beginning

of Mark and read it from the beginning.

Because the resurrection vindicates who Jesus is.

I don't have time now because of the time, but you go back and you'll see that time and

time and time again in the Gospel of Mark, in Mark chapter 8, 31, in Mark chapter 9, verse

Mark 8 · chapter mention Mark 9:9

9, Mark chapter 9, verse 31, Mark chapter 10, verses 32 to 34, and in chapter 14, verse

Mark 9:31 Mark 10:32–34

25, Jesus says he's going to die and rise from the dead.

And then that leads us to this final thing.

What is it that fundamentally it is that Jesus said?

I don't have to guess what he said, what the purpose of his coming and what the purpose

of his death and resurrection would be.

Jesus tells us, Mark's Gospel is structured around three famous I came sayings, where Jesus

just very simple, I don't have to try to guess that, just why did Jesus come to do all of

these things?

Let's turn to the beginning of the Gospel, Mark chapter 1, verse 38.

Mark 1:38

Mark chapter 1, verse 38.

Mark 1:38

Actually, we'll begin in verse 35.

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus departed and went

out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him,

everyone is looking for you.

And he said to them, let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that

is why I came out.

That's why I came.

And the rest of Mark's Gospel, it's so when you read the Gospel, you go to the end and

you go, wow, maybe Jesus really, the tomb really is empty, he rose from the dead.

And it's all just as Jesus said.

And you go back and you see, oh, one moment, right at the very beginning, Jesus is going

to say, Mark's capturing all of Jesus' preaching.

And Jesus came to preach.

He came to tell us all about what he's going to accomplish.

And then in my version of the Bible, I don't think you even have to turn the page, you're

just on the same page.

Chapter 2, verse 17, right close to the beginning of the Gospel, you have the second I came statement.

And what is it?

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but

those who are sick.

I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

So Mark's Gospel is all going to be about listening to the teaching of Jesus, and he's speaking

not to perfect people, but to ordinary people like you and me who are far from God.

And then Mark chapter 10, verse 45, just before it gets into the heart of the Gospel, the story

Mark 10:45

of his betrayal, of his death, and his resurrection.

In Mark chapter 10, 45, we have the final great I came statement of Mark.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And it's after some of the disciples are trying to figure out who's the greatest.

And Jesus says this, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to

give his life as a ransom for many.

What did Jesus preach?

That he didn't come for human beings to serve him.

He came to serve human beings.

And the way he would serve human beings like you and me who are far from God is by giving

his life as a ransom for many.

Friends, just in closing, this is dynamite.

Let me give you, in one very simple thing, what every religion basically teaches you.

What every, even the self-made religions that people are trying to put together in spirituality,

they all have one thing in common.

They all basically portray a picture of saying, if you don't do too many bad things, and you

do enough good things, and you add them up, and if you haven't done too many bad things

and you've done more good things, you go to your great reward.

Whether that's nirvana, whether that's the end of all things, merge with the one, whether

it's just to go and live in your apartment in Manhattan for the rest of your life, like

whatever it is, that you don't do too many bad things, you do the right number of good

things or above, and basically you go to heaven.

And that is the common human religion.

The common human thinking of those of us who are far from God.

And Jesus says, that's all wrong.

Only in the Christian faith is something completely and utterly and radically different proposed.

And that is that God comes to pay our debt to free us.

That God does something that we cannot do for us.

That it's not about us making enough good things so we can climb to heaven, but God reaching

down to us to bring us up to him.

Not about us putting God in our debt because of our good deeds, but us recognizing that God

is never in our debt and that he pays our unpayable debts.

And he does that of love for you and me.

And that Jesus in his life and death and resurrection is paying our unpayable debt so that we can be

free in God.

And our human response is to say, thank you, Jesus.

Please be my savior.

Please stand.

Please stand.

The Christian way, the Jesus way, is entered one by one.

But we walk the Jesus way with Jesus and others.

And the Jesus way is entered when we say to Jesus, I realize now what you've done.

I turn to you.

Please be my savior and my Lord.

Come into my life and be my savior and my Lord.

And the Christian life is begun by being grasped by the gospel or having the gospel grasp us.

But we live the Christian life by being gripped by the gospel as disciples of Jesus learning

to live for his glory.

It all comes back to the gospel.

I'm just going to say, I'm not going to do a sinner's prayer.

I'm just going to say to you, if the finger of God is upon you, there's no better time than

I'm going to say to you.

I'm going to say, Jesus, please make me your disciple gripped by the gospel to live for your glory.

Please be my savior and my Lord.

Please be in me.

And I want you to come into my life and be my savior and my Lord.

I believe that you have, the resurrection has vindicated that you have come from God,

that you can really and actually do this and have done it.

And I urge you to do that today before you leave, to do it now.

Stop listening to me, do it now.

And for the rest of us, to pray that we will be so gripped by the gospel that as we follow

Jesus, that we will live for his glory.

Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father, thank you for Jesus.

Thank you, Father, for your call for us to seek the truth, to be more like the detectives

and less like the bureaucrats, to be willing, Father, even to have people be upset with us

because we seek the truth.

Father, create within us a great hunger and desire to seek the truth.

Thank you, Father, for Jesus.

Thank you for what he did upon the cross for us.

Thank you for his mighty resurrection.

Thank you, Father, that these are true.

Make us disciples gripped by the gospel, living for your glory.

Father, this is our prayer.

This is the cry of our heart.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.