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.
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?
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
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,
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.
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.
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
9, Mark chapter 9, verse 31, Mark chapter 10, verses 32 to 34, and in chapter 14, verse
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 chapter 1, verse 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
of his betrayal, of his death, and his resurrection.
In Mark chapter 10, 45, we have the final great I came statement of Mark.
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.
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.