Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would fall with gentle power upon us, not just at
this time as we open your word, but throughout the rest of the service, and in fact, Father,
for the rest of the day and the rest of our life.
We ask that the Holy Spirit would fall with deep but gentle and penetrating power, and
that your Holy Spirit would bring these profound truths of the person and work of Jesus into
our hearts, and that your Holy Spirit would make Jesus more real to us, so that we might
stand, in a sense, in who Jesus is, in his presence with us, what he has accomplished
for us, and what he will accomplish for us, and in us, day by day, until we see him face
to face.
And we ask this in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
So I don't know what led you here.
Some of you maybe were dragged here by your parents, or a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, or
a husband, or a wife.
I don't know why you were here, but you are very welcome.
And for those who are joining online, either right immediately live as we're doing it, or
later in the day, or later in the week, we welcome you.
I know that Christianity is not very popular right now.
And in fact, actually saying that it's not very popular is an exaggeration.
I know that Christianity is seen generally as something that adds poison or toxic stuff
to your life, and not something that enhances your life.
And so if you're joining us, or if you're here because you're a believer, welcome.
If you're here because you're a seeker, welcome.
If you're here because you're a skeptic, maybe even a very profound skeptic, I'd like to welcome
you here as we celebrate Easter.
I know that in Canadian culture, Christianity is seen as being something that's more likely
to be toxic and life taking away rather than life giving.
But I disagree.
Amen!
I paid him a lot of dollars just to clap and cheer like that.
Actually, I didn't.
I didn't know what was going to happen.
So if you're curious or skeptical or a believer, really on this Easter Sunday, I would just like
to share what the basic Christian hope is.
What the Christian hope is that makes people like me, who had a completely secular education,
want to become a Christian and would remain a Christian.
Even though I'm immersed, in a sense, in the secular world all of the time, I read the
newspapers, I look at news summaries, I read novels, all by non-Christians, and why I am
a Christian, became a Christian, and why I am still a Christian.
And the first thing to sort of just, we're going to look actually at an ancient text.
I'm not going to just sort of pop, say something that just purely comes from my own head.
And if you have your Bibles with you, I'm going to be looking at 1 Corinthians 15, verses
1 to 11.
But even actually when I say that, some of you sort of might, those who are a bit skeptical
or those of other, you know, religions who have other, have religious reasons and those
who have intellectual reasons to be skeptical, I say, oh yeah, okay, there he's going to
quote the Bible, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's all just sort of as if by quoting the Bible, you're doing something like telling
the story of Santa Claus or the Great Pumpkin or talking about the Easter Bunny or something
like that.
But it's actually, what you need to know about this little piece of stuff that I'm about
to read, what you need to know about it is this.
There's four ancient biographies of the person of Jesus and his life.
And there's so many different cross-references to things in history.
And by things in history, I mean not just Christian history, but the Jewish and pagan historians talk
about that scholars are able to know that the day that Jesus died on the cross was either
April 3rd, 33, or April 5th, 30.
That's the day Jesus died.
And the death of Jesus upon the cross is one of the most certain truths of history.
Even the most radical, skeptical scholars would accept that Jesus died upon a cross.
And there are so many cross-references to history that scholars know.
And not only history, but science, because the history is connected to when there's full
moons and all of that type of stuff.
And so they know that he died.
I would say that he probably died on the 3rd of April, 33.
But those who hold that he died on the 5th of April, the year 30, we would just have to
agree to disagree.
But it's one of those two days that he died.
And right away you see that what we're talking about is a thousand percent different than
talking to you, giving you a story about Santa Claus or the Easter bunny or the great pumpkin.
And the other thing which is really interesting is I'm going to read this.
And as I've said before at different times, it's in some ways unfortunate that I'm going
to read something.
And you can see that this is a book that has like expensive fine paper.
And it used to have some type of goldish stuff on the side.
And it makes it look like a special book.
And I, of course, for a wide range of reasons, believe that it is a special book.
But what I'm reading from is actually a letter that was written by a man who was, if we had
known him before his conversion, we would have wanted to always keep our eye on him and not
allow him to get behind us because he was a very, very aggressive fanatic for religious observance.
To think about it a little bit, it would be as if you went, if you, you know, you've seen
pictures maybe of Islamic, very, very fundamentalist Islamic countries.
And they have people who have sticks and stuff like that.
So that if they see a woman whose, you know, robes aren't sufficiently long or that, you know,
that goes a little bit too below her nose, they can get in all sorts of trouble.
Well, the man who wrote this letter was that type of guy for Jewish observance.
And the amazing thing is he's writing this and to a group of people who used to be pagans.
And that's very interesting because in the city where they used to be pagans, the main
goddess for that city is the goddess Aphrodite, which is the Greek version of the goddess Venus.
And it meant that the temple, as part of their worship, had prostitutes, which were part of
the temple and part of, in a sense, the service of the temple were prostitutes.
And in a sense, it was a non-discriminatory type of worship.
There were very inexpensive prostitutes for those who didn't have much money.
And then there were expensive prostitutes for those who had a lot of money.
And that's the, and the, so this fellow who used to be so completely and utterly against
anything other than most minute, minute, minute observance of the, of the Jewish law, even
to the point that he contributed to seeking people out and, and making sure that they were
either beaten or punished or jailed or even put to death.
And that's this guy, but now he said all of that behind.
And he's writing to a group of people who used to worship Aphrodite and Poseidon and
probably Caesar and who've left that behind and are now Christians.
They're both Christians.
And there's enough historical references that are made in this letter and other things around
it that are ancient that scholars know that he wrote this letter somewhere between the
year 53 and the year 55.
They know that they don't know for sure in between that, probably earlier rather than
later.
And, and so what that means is he's writing this letter to a group of ex pagans and he's
writing it approximately 20 to 21 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
So that's what we're reading translated into English.
Like that, that's what we're reading like a letter.
And, um, well, what does it say?
Uh, and by the way, so this is really important.
So what, what, if you're hearing me, what we're reading now isn't like the Quran and I'm
not going to say anything against the Quran or anything like that, but a devout, if you
have friends who are devout Muslims, uh, they will tell you that, um, God through the angel
gave, uh, Muhammad, uh, since divine revelations.
And these divine revelations, they happened to Muhammad in the 600s.
And these divine revelations talk about things in the past and things in the present and
things in the future.
And so what, what Christians are doing here, it's completely and utterly different than
the Quran, right?
Is we're actually quoting you a letter written 20 to 21, 22 years, maybe up to most 25 years
after the death and resurrection of Jesus that has so many historical references that historians
can date the writing of this letter.
And, and that's what we're, we're looking at.
So it's not six centuries later prophecies that we're just asking to believe by faith.
Um, this is very, very close to the actual facts.
And, and here's what this man says.
If we read it, it goes like this first one.
Now I would remind you brothers and sisters of the gospel and gospel just means good news.
Um, I, now I would remind you brothers and sisters.
If the good news, I preached to you, which you received in which you stand and by which
you were being saved.
If you hold fast to the word, I preached to you unless you believed in vain.
So what Paul is saying here is he has this profound good news, uh, which he's told them
before and he's reminding them of this good news.
And the good news is, uh, as we're going to find out in a moment about a person and what
that person did and what that person continues to do and can do and will do in people's
lives.
And that's why it's good news.
And I remember I began my sermon by thanking you for being here, welcoming you here, because
I know that for most of the people in Canada, they don't think of the Christian faith as
being good news.
They think of it as being bad news.
In fact, I know that maybe if you're watching this, you realize that if you became a Christian
and you told your friend that you'd become a Christian, they'd say to your other friends,
I don't know what happened to him or I don't know what happened to her.
They used to be so nice and they used to be so reasonable.
I don't know what happened to them that they would become a Christian because that's how
it's in a sense, that's how the culture forms us to think of the Christian faith.
But here's this fellow, an ex religious Jewish religious fanatic who would definitely hated
pagans writing to a group of ex pagans who used to worship Aphrodite and Poseidon.
And he calls them brothers and sisters.
He calls them brothers and sisters.
I mean, if you think about it for a second, we live in a world that's only becoming more
and more and more and more divided.
We live in a world that's where I'm assuring you a couple of weeks ago how a columnist can
call people names and call people names and then without any type of sense that they've
been calling people names for two years or longer than say the most important thing is
that we can build bridges.
And you go, what?
Like you've been called, you're like a name caller.
And we realize how there were in a world where people yell at each other across the divide.
And I mean, if nothing else, if you're a seeker or even a skeptic, surely something like this
where there is a possibility of going from a profound, even murderous divide to the point
where you would call a person on the other side, now your brother, your sister is worth something
thinking about and considering.
In a culture, in a time when everything is creating distance and permission to yell and
permission to cancel, canceling the other side is seen as a virtue.
And here we have this fellow calling the other people brothers and sisters.
And what they've done is they've received this good news about a person and what they've done
and what that person's still doing.
They've, they're standing on it and standing on it means that it becomes the basis by which
you start to understand yourself and you start to understand the world around you and you
start to, and you start to act.
It's, you, you, you, you act out of where you stand.
And then he uses this word.
Well, here's one of the things he uses this word believe.
And I've talked to many people over the years who have problems with this because they say,
George, how is it that just having a different idea in my head or a different opinion that
that's connected to me being saved?
Like that, George, that just, just doesn't make any sense.
But you see, here's the thing which is so wonderful about this word, right?
It's good news about a person and what that person's done and what he has done for you and
what he can do, will do for you and is going to do for you and he will do for you until the
point of your death.
And, and the word here believe isn't have an opinion.
It's, it's, it's really like, so the other day at a Starbucks, I saw this really neat scene.
I happen to know, cause I talked to her before, she's a homeschooling mom and she has a little
six or seven year old boy and a little girl who's like two years younger.
And the mom stood outside and gave the son a $20 bill and the little boy went into the
Starbucks and ordered for himself, his sister and his mom.
Isn't that sort of neat?
And the mom just stood outside, didn't come in, didn't stand over, didn't, wasn't being
a helicopter mom, just stood outside and watched.
And the little boy spoke with a nice clear, loud voice and kept using the word actually.
It was really cute.
The mom, what does the mom do?
The mom believed in the son, right?
The mom believed in the son.
And that's the word which is being used here for us in Christ.
We believe in him.
We don't just believe about him.
We believe in him.
So what, what is this good news?
Well, this is now what Paul is going to sort of just start to give it very, this very brief
thing.
It's going to look at, look at verses three to five.
It goes like this.
For I delivered to you as a first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our
sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried.
That he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to
Cephas and then to the 12.
And Cephas is just a different name for Peter.
And the 12, obviously it doesn't include Judas who's, who's been dead.
But the 12 in a sense, like the special group of disciples now in a sense, the 11, but it's
always referred to as, as the 12.
Now here's the thing.
And this is going to maybe bother some people when I say this, but I'm going to deal with
the bothering.
But if you look at that word in verse three again, for I delivered to you as a first importance,
what I also received.
So I was talking to a young woman after church last Sunday who speaks three languages.
I don't know if we have at least one person here who speaks at minimum of four languages
and a lot of you speak at least two languages.
And you know that it's impossible to perfectly translate from one language into another.
It's just impossible.
There's just words in one language where there's, you might need a whole sentence or three sentences
or a paragraph to try to explain any other language.
And, and, and, and so what, what you don't know is that here when it says delivered and
where it says received, it's technical language in the original language.
It's technical language.
And it's the technical language of handing on tradition.
And handing on tradition sounds, oh, boring, you know, snooze and who cares about tradition
and it's best not to have tradition.
But then I need to translate that word tradition because I'm using it and the scholars use it
in a sense that would have been understood like 200 years ago, but isn't understood today.
In a sense what it's, he's, he's handing you the DNA.
He's passing on the DNA.
He's passing on the foundation of the building block.
It would be as if, you know, there was to be a, you know, one of those virus movies
where the whole world is being destroyed by the virus.
And then in some little remote lab, they get the, they get the thing that fixes the antidote.
They get that little sample and they break that sample up into little bits.
And it would be the whole point of the movie that, that those people take that little bit
that they've received and they take it to the other small remaining labs.
And they take it without any variation.
They don't spit in it.
They don't add their own ingredients.
They say, I would be better with some salt.
They don't do anything like that.
They take that, that stuff, the antidote, the thing which has been perfectly made that
will destroy the virus and save the human race.
And it's taken without anything at all being done to it and given to these other labs where
the labs can create the vaccines, which is going to, is going to save the human race.
And that's this, that's what's understood with this word delivered and received.
And, and, and, and so the thing which bothers people sometimes is when they hear things like
that, they said, well, George, here's the thing about the Christian faith.
Like why, why couldn't God have just made it?
Why couldn't God have just made it that it was obvious?
Like why did he make the faith in such a way that I have to learn from you?
Like, why can't I figure that out for myself?
It seems like it's a, it's a mistake in the Christian faith, but all I can say to you is
no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
It's not a design flaw.
It's a design feature.
It's not a design flaw.
It's a design feature.
Like, why is it a design feature?
Well, for two reasons.
It's a design feature because God, when he caused these scriptures to be written, he wanted
people from every people of the group of the world to hear about himself in their heart
language.
He didn't want, he didn't want a remote tribe in the Amazon to learn Koine Greek and postmodern
Canadians in downtown Ottawa to learn Koine Greek.
He wanted us to hear about Jesus in our heart language.
And then that goes on with this other part, which is not a design flaw, but a design feature
that while we enter the Christian faith one by one, like we make a personal decision or
we recognize that a decision has been made sometime in the past, that sometime in the past
that we, we've come to this faith, but we, we enter it, but we don't walk it by ourselves.
We walk the faith with others.
If you haven't watched the Good Friday service, one of the wonderful things that Victory said
in her little, her little talk, it was a really wonderful point, is that, you know, she, she
comes from, she comes from a place.
You don't mind me saying this.
You said everything.
You put her on YouTube on Friday.
And she came from a place where everybody in a sense knew her name.
She had lots of mothers and brothers and fathers.
And she comes without her mother, brother, father to this place.
And then the Christian community, she can play with kids and she has mothers and fathers and
brothers and sisters.
And God doesn't want us to follow Jesus all by ourselves.
It's a design feature that we need to gather.
And the church has set aside people like me to study and to learn the resources and to,
and to, to, to, to trust the, the broader church that I, I can read a scholar who wrote a book
20 years ago.
I can read scholars that have died long ago and I can get to understand things.
I get to impart it to you.
And it's a design feature and it's a wonderful feature.
You can hear Jesus in your heart language.
Okay.
Well, I mean, why trust Paul?
I mean, in lots of circles, Paul is the big bad guy.
And Paul's the guy writing this letter to our Muslim friends.
They, they will tell you that Paul was the one you can't trust.
He changes everything.
There's many, many people throughout the last 150 years of scholarship.
And, and not only that, but throughout, throughout history of, of different others that who just
say, Paul gets everything wrong.
Why, why trust Paul?
Here's the other thing you see.
So what, what, what did Paul say?
There's two things here, which are just so profoundly cool about what this letter written 20 years
after the death and resurrection of Jesus by an ex-Jewish religious fanatic to ex-Aphrodite and Poseidon worships,
worshipers who are now his brothers and sisters.
And one of the things which is so cool about that is also the word that.
You didn't just, we'll read it again.
Look at verse 3b and, and, and, and notice this.
Remember I said, for I delivered to you and this delivered and received that that's like the language of receiving something,
which is like the antidote, the DNA, which you receive on and without changing it.
And you pass it on without changing it.
And then he goes, I'll receive that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12.
And one of the things is in the ancient writings, they didn't have quote marks.
The that, in a sense, functions like quote marks.
So here's the thing.
This is so cool.
That little bit that I just read.
Remember I said to you, we can now, scholars know, because there's so many historical cross references.
They know that Paul became, saw the risen Jesus and became a Christian somewhere towards the end of 33
or somewhere in the year 34.
And if Jesus died on April the 3rd, 33, and rose from the dead three days later,
that means that potentially only several months after Paul sees the risen Jesus,
what he's saying is he received this when he became a Christian.
He's quoting what he received.
When I read that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12.
You are hearing the witness of his mother, his brothers, the 500,
and all of the people who saw the risen Jesus.
This is their message.
This is their message carried through the years and through the ages to you and me today.
If you think about it for a second, it's a very, very simple set of statements.
It's a type of statements that if you were to go and try to teach a little three-year-old
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Bible,
Christ was buried, Christ was raised on the third day in accordance with the Bible,
Christ appeared to Cephas and the 12 and others.
And a little child could learn that off by heart.
And they wouldn't understand everything, but they could hear it.
And it wouldn't take very much to try to teach them those little bits of things,
which I'll say a little bit more of in a moment.
But at the same time, that very, very simple message...
Like one of the things when I talk sometimes about what Jesus does first on the cross,
I just remember the word rise.
Okay?
And when I remember the word rise, then I can say Jesus was our representative.
He identified with us.
He was our substitute.
And his death was an act of exchange.
There's simple little things that you can do that help you to remember.
And you could see these simple little words that a very simple child
or a person with a very low IQ could get them.
But at the same time, a poet, a musician,
a person with a profound...
an artist, a philosopher, a scientist,
one who has great education and a great IQ.
The child can believe it and understand it.
And people like Paul, who are very, very well educated,
he could take those symbols, those simple words,
and he could think through how they matter to a world that worships Aphrodite and Poseidon.
And he can think about all of the different Old Testament texts that refer to it.
And he can take that and he can go and look about how it fits with Psalm 2 and Psalm 110
and with this text in Leviticus and this text in Genesis chapter 1
and this text in Zechariah and this text in Malachi.
And he can think of how these things connect to what the Greek poets think,
which he does in Acts chapter 17.
And you see that on one level it's all there.
And somebody who's just very, very simple-minded or somebody...
And actually, by the way, I'm very simple-minded.
Where people have great powers of abstract thought,
it's a seed and it communicates everything
and it opens this door
just to see the world in a radically different place.
And it's the ancient witness
that those early people who were witnesses
still in the face of profound opposition
and we have to remember that,
well, people will, if you're maybe not aware of it,
people will, I mean, one of the really, really stupid things
that people will say, sorry, not stupid, I didn't mean to say that.
If you believe it, I didn't mean to call you stupid.
I apologize.
One of the things which is just not well-informed
is that somehow another Constantine,
when he became a Christian in the 300s,
somehow another forced all these creedal things on the church,
which is just not true.
For basically the first 300 years of Christianity,
to become a Christian was to become unpopular and persecuted.
And the early Christians weren't celebrated,
they were persecuted.
It wasn't very long after the Christians,
that Jesus died and rose from the dead
and the Christian faith began,
that the first martyrs were martyred.
And so we hear this very, very ancient testimony
of what had actually happened,
and structured in such a way that everything from the youngest
to the most brilliant minds
can be fed by it and can develop it.
And so it's not here that something that Paul is just trying to make up
out of his own head.
It's something that he's giving that goes right back.
And part of the reason, by the way,
that you should believe it is that, I mean,
Paul ends up going to the death rather than denying
that Jesus actually rose from the dead.
that he goes, he dies for a fact.
And he hands down the interpretation of that fact.
So what does he say again?
Well, let's look at it very briefly,
sort of getting close to the end.
Verse 3 again,
For I delivered to you as of first importance
what I also received,
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures.
And I just want to point out that one thing
that the word for,
in the original language,
it means for the benefit of somebody else.
So Jesus died for the benefit of you
because of your sin.
And this is just so profound.
You know,
sometimes those of you who've been blessed with children,
what was I,
it was,
it was not that great,
not that great of a,
of a movie,
the new Ryan Reeves movie,
The Adam Project.
And he's meeting his,
you know,
he goes back in time
and he's talking to his mom
and his mom doesn't know
that this is her son,
but like whatever,
30 years later.
And she's talking about
how difficult her son is.
And she says,
what is it she was thinking
of putting her son
in a boarding school
where it was like,
it was the ISIS stronghold.
That's,
that's how much he was driving her crazy
that he was going to put her,
she was going to put her son
in a boarding school
right in the center
of the ISIS craziness.
And sometimes we want to strangle our kids,
but,
and part of the way we,
we get around it
is we just,
we also think about the things
that are wonderful about them.
But the thing about,
about this word for,
is that Jesus died
for the worst of you.
Like he died
knowing the worst about you.
He doesn't die thinking,
that George,
you know,
gosh,
there's so many good things about him.
I think I'll die for him
because he just,
all those things,
no.
Jesus died for me
knowing the worst about me.
And his death
is a death
which creates a benefit for me.
The,
the other thing about for
is it's sometimes a synonym
for the word
in,
in the place of.
So that he dies
in my place
and he dies for my benefit.
And he dies for my benefit
mindful of the absolute worst
about me.
And then verse four,
that he was buried.
I remember still,
very clearly,
the first time
I touched a dead body.
And it was a shock.
And I have to confess,
I was nervous
about touching the body.
I wasn't sure
if I was going to get,
I don't know,
bad things
transmitted to me
by,
like I'm just,
I don't know,
just being honest,
right?
But if you touch a dead body,
it definitely doesn't feel
like a live body.
And,
and so this thing
is just emphasizing
the death of Jesus
that the,
the,
that some
two men
took the body
down
from the cross.
They don't go
into the details
about how they
got the nails
out of his hands
and out of his,
and his feet.
But they would have
somehow
gotten that
out.
And I,
I can imagine
the squeamishness
about it.
And they
get that out
and they,
they put him
in something
to carry him
or put him
on a donkey
or something
and they take him
to a different place.
And then they
would have
put him down
and done at least
a bit of washing
of him
and taking his clothes
off.
We didn't have
any clothes on
when he was crucified.
So they would have
washed the body
at least a bit.
They would have
applied spices
on him
and then they
would have
wrapped him
relatively tightly
and they would have
wrapped something
separate around
his head.
And they would have
done that
with their bare hands
and then they
would have
picked him up
and they would
have put him
on something
and then they
would have
carried him
to the tomb
which was a cave
and then they
would have
somehow still
picked up that
body
and put him
in a cave
and then the
soldiers rolled
the stone
and sealed
it and guarded
it.
And all of that
isn't covered
in that very
simple word
buried.
It's emphasizing
his death.
And then
that
he was buried
that he was
raised on the
third day
in accordance
with the
scriptures.
And one of the
things which is
really interesting
about this
you can see it
in the English
that he was
raised.
It's passive.
The text is
making clear
that it's
not some
development
of human
evolution
and that
Jesus is
this new
pinnacle
of human
evolution
and it's
some power
in him
by which
he is
raised.
It's not
some
technological
or some
communal
technological
thing with
him and
his buddies
that he
by his
power
is
resurrected.
It's
passive.
He is
dead.
He is
dead,
dead and
buried and
no one
thought he
would rise
from the
dead and
God does
something in
him.
He is
resurrected.
It does
not mean
he's
resuscitated
to this
size of
death only
to die
again.
He has
defeated
death.
He has
defeated
the sin,
the worst
in you
which contributes
to your
death.
He has
defeated
that.
He has
dealt
with it.
He has
in a
sense
swallowed
it,
eaten
it,
consumed
it,
drank
the
cup,
made
it
finished,
no
more,
for you,
for your
benefit.
And then
God raises
him to
life on
the other
side of
death where
death and
sin have
no power
over him
whatsoever.
And he
does it
for you
and for
me.
This is
the Christian
hope.
Not
butterflies,
not
seasons.
This is
the Christian
hope.
Is it
true?
The word
appeared
means
convincingly
made
present.
To
Cephas,
then to
the
twelve.
Then he
appeared to
more than
five hundred
brothers and
sisters at
one time,
most of
whom are
still alive,
though some
have fallen
asleep,
synonym
for death.
Then he
appeared to
James,
then to
all the
apostles.
Last of
all to
one
untimely
born,
he
appeared
also to
me.
To which
even with
this litany
of evidence,
someone might
say,
but George,
this is a
misogynistic
text.
Well,
it's not
entirely.
Apostles
include men
and women,
and brothers
and sisters
well implies
sisters with
brothers.
But why
doesn't he
mention Mary,
and why
doesn't he
mention his
mother,
and why
doesn't he
mention the
two people
on the road
to Emmaus,
one of whom
was almost
definitely a
woman?
Why does he
ignore those
people?
Nobody knows
why, but
here's, I
think, a
very, very
good reason.
Remember,
you have to
just remember
how historical
this is,
that this
is as if,
I mean,
we don't have
the actual
original letter,
but there's
no reason
to doubt
this,
and if you
went back
in time,
the suggestion
is that Paul
lists people
who are still
alive.
Well,
actually,
with one
exception,
because James
is probably
dead,
but he
mentions the
two biggies,
Peter and
James in
the 12,
that's in a
sense the
two biggies,
and then the
rest of
them are
probably people
who are still
alive.
He's in a
sense saying,
you know,
you're in
Corinth,
you can get
on a boat,
you can go
on a walking
tour,
you can go
back to
Jerusalem,
you can talk
to these
people,
and that's
maybe why he
didn't include
Mary Magdalene,
20 years,
Mary Magdalene,
just as there
are lots of
things that
kill us today,
there are even
more things that
would kill you
back then.
that's how
confidence he
is in the
story and the
reality of it,
and I just
need to,
you know,
and so why
does this matter
and why is
this good news?
Now here I'm
going to share
something which,
there was a
time once I
asked,
I've met a
couple of
people who've
translated the
Bible,
and I
remember asking
one of them
once,
like,
he was talking
about what the
word actually
meant in the
original language
and how it's
translated,
and I asked him
afterwards why
do they do
that,
and he said
well,
you know,
we could do
that,
but the fact
of the matter
is publishers
don't want to
publish it if
you put certain
types of words
in,
and so that's
why it's done,
and so they've
smoothed over
something,
and I'm going to
tell you what
they've smoothed
over,
and I know it
could be something
which is painful
for me to say
here,
so I want to
say,
because it's
going to be,
it's an abortion
reference,
and it's not me
imposing it,
because it's
actually there
in the underlying
language,
so what I want
to say is,
I want to say
that this,
I'm not,
I know this
could be a
trigger thing
for some
people,
but this
isn't an
us versus
them thing,
there are
people here
and watching
here who've
either had
abortions or
contributed to
abortions,
and so this
isn't trying to
trigger anything
or make you
feel guilty
or anything
like that,
many people
have had
abortions and
don't feel
guilty,
and some
have had
abortions,
many have
had abortions
and do feel
guilty,
I do want
to take this
opportunity to
say that
anytime,
anything like
this which is
painful that
comes up in
the Bible,
it's not,
remember Jesus
died knowing
the worst
about you,
he didn't
die for you
because you're
so cute,
good looking,
successful,
smart,
holy,
and now he
finds out
something bad
about you,
he knows all
the worst
about you
and he dies
for you,
so if you go
back and read
verse 8,
here's the
thing,
last of all,
as to an
aborted fetus,
he appeared
also to me,
the rejected,
the discarded,
the worthless,
ashamed,
the ashamed,
Paul is
saying that
was me,
some scholars
think that it
was one of the
ways that his
opponents
attacked him
and called
them names,
and just as our
gay friends have
embraced the
word queer,
he in a sense
embraces it,
and he says
in verse 9,
for I am the
least of the
apostles,
unworthy to be
called an
apostle because
I persecuted
the church of
God,
but by the
grace of
God,
see that's
why it's
good news,
by the
grace of
God,
I am
what I
am,
and his
grace toward
me was not
in vain,
on the
contrary,
I worked
harder than
any of them,
though it
was not I,
but the grace
of God that
is with me,
whether that
was,
it was I
or they,
so we
preached and
so we
believed,
but the
verse 10,
you see,
this is the
wonderful thing
about the
gospel,
you see,
if you're
watching or
listening to
this,
and you
think life,
as far as
you're concerned,
life is just
about having a
nice house,
making lots of
money,
having careers,
having nice
holidays,
having lots of
popular things,
then in a sense
Christianity has
nothing to say to
you whatsoever,
all I can say
to you is
hopefully a time
will come when
you will realize
that there's
something more
to life.
If you think
about Zuckerberg
who owns
Facebook,
I mean he
has a thousand
billion times
probably more
money than
most of you,
and he's
despised by
billions of
people,
isn't he?
why do you
think that
becoming like
Zuckerberg will
actually make
you happier,
more liked,
and not
despised?
see,
Paul cannot
change his
past,
he was a
very,
very bad
man,
but the
grace of
God,
Jesus dying
for the
worst of
him,
to give him
something,
gives him
something that
he cannot
give for
himself,
it gives
him an
acceptance by
God,
to be
connected to
God,
he cannot
change his
past,
but he
can change
his present,
and that's
what grace
does,
it changes
your present
and your
future,
and when
your present
and future
is changed,
it changes
your past.
The things
which most
were wrong
about him
and so
deeply
broken
about him
and yet
he was so
deeply
proud of,
now by grace
he sees
their wrongness,
and rather
than it
filling him
with constant
memories of
dread and
regret,
it helps
him to
understand the
depth of
Christ's love
for him
and it gives
him a heart
and compassion
for people
who are bound
and broken
by so many
things and
he can
understand at
the deepest
and most
profound level
their need
for Jesus,
their need
for grace,
their need
for the
message of
sins forgiven,
their need
for his
presence
and power
in their
lives,
the need
for grace
to be the
fuel that
gets you
through the
day and
that begins
to shape
your dreams
and your
imagination
and how you
see your
city and
your family
and your
future and
your past,
he can see
their profound
need for
grace.
that is
why I'm
a Christian.
That is
why I hope
you would,
if you're
not a
Christian now
that you
will become
one.
And if you
feel any
stirring in
your heart,
if you're
not yet,
say that you
are a
Christian,
feel any
stirring in
your heart,
if you
don't,
that's
fine,
maybe,
I pray
that someday
you will.
But if you
feel any
stirring in
your heart,
that's
Jesus doing
this to you
right now
and saying
it's time.
Lay down
your defenses,
the idols
that you
cling to,
and turn
to me,
and I
will take
you as
my own.
And as
victory
shared on
Friday,
I will
introduce
you to
your brothers
and sisters
as you
follow me
with them.
Please
stand.
bow our
heads in
prayer.
Father,
we thank
you for
Jesus.
We thank
you for
grace.
We thank
you,
Father,
that it
is a
wonderful
story.
It is a
powerful
story.
Yet it's
not like
Santa Claus
or the
Easter Bunny
or the
Tooth Fairy
or the
Great Pumpkin
or any
obviously
false story.
And it's
not like
the many
false cultural
stories that
Canadians tell
themselves,
that this
Father is a
story that's
rooted in
your heart,
that's rooted
in history,
that's
completely and
utterly true.
And it's not
just for the
mind, but it's
for the very
center of who
we are.
We thank
and praise
you that
Jesus,
he died
for us
knowing our
worst,
that he was
truly dead
and entombed,
that he rose
again on the
third day
and he appeared
to many
witnesses,
and that to
hear these
words today is
to hear Jesus
speak to us
and he speaks
to us to
come to him,
that we might
receive grace
from him,
that our sins
will be done
away with,
that he makes
us new,
that he
reshapes the
story of our
lives and
reshapes the
end,
that in Christ
the end will
not be how
bad you were,
how terrible
you were,
how much of a
failure you were,
how you were a
loser,
but in Christ
and because of
Christ,
the end of my
story and the
end of every
story of every
person in
Christ,
whether it be
Zuckerberg,
to the poorest,
most broken
person in the
world,
that not because
of who we are,
but because of
Christ,
the final word
will be from
you,
Father,
welcome.
I have so
longed to have
you see me
face to face,
come deeper
in and higher
up into the
love of the
Father and the
Son and the
Holy Spirit
this day and
every day for
all eternity,
that in Christ
that is the
final word that
transforms every
moment of our
lives.
God's people
and we ask
that that might
be the means
by which we
stand and see
the world,
see ourselves,
our past,
our present,
and our future.
We thank you for
this great act of
grace,
this great act of
love.
And we ask and
thank all these
things in the name
of Jesus,
your Son and our
Savior and all
God's people said,
Amen.