Father, we all come here in all sorts of different states of mind and heart.
Maybe some of us pretty excited and pumped, some of us depressed,
some of us here maybe against our will, wishing we were somewhere else.
But Father, we're all together, and we know that only you can bring your word
home to our heart with grace and power.
And so, Father, we ask for that.
We ask that the Holy Spirit would bring your word to our heart,
to the depth of who we are, that secret place at the center of whom we are,
that you would bring your word to our heart and just bring the gospel to us.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
I'm not a particularly brave guy when it comes to physical things.
But about, I don't know, maybe I was trying to figure out exactly how many years ago,
but it doesn't matter. Let's say it was eight years or ten years ago,
and we lived in our previous house.
It was on my day off on a Wednesday afternoon.
And Louise and I were in the house, and all of a sudden, our neighbor,
whom we'll just call Sue, because I almost said her name, but we'll just call her Sue.
As you know, if you come here, I call all women Sue and all guys Bob,
just to keep things simple.
And anyway, Sue comes knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell,
very, very concerned and very distraught,
because as she pulled up with her car into the driveway,
she could see that her front door was open a bit.
And the reason she was so distraught is that the kids were still at school
and her husband was out of town, like out of the country.
And we all know this, if you come home and your door is open,
no good thing can be involved with that.
No good thing can be involved when you come to your house and the door is open.
So she came and rang our doorbell, and she wanted me to go in the house with her.
Now, as I said, I'm not a particularly brave guy.
I haven't thrown a punch since I was in grade 8, and that did not go well with me.
I did not come out the better of that encounter.
But, you know, it's one of those things, I felt like saying,
why don't we just sit outside, we're better still in our house with the door closed
while the police come.
But she wanted to go in the house and clear the house.
And I had to man up.
So I got an aluminum baseball bat.
What would you do?
I got an aluminum baseball bat, and I went to the door, and I yelled,
we're coming in, because I don't want to actually see them.
I want them out of the house if they're still there.
But you had that sense when you opened the door that there's probably nobody in the house.
So you push the door open.
I yelled that we're coming in.
And, you know, don't mean any harm, which is an odd thing to say when you're carrying an aluminum baseball bat.
But that was for my protection, not to actually do anything with it.
And then I went and cleared the house.
And, of course, there's nobody in the house.
And she'd had some jewelry stolen.
And she closed the door.
She waited for the police.
And she was very grateful.
I share that story because it helps us to understand something which many people have puzzled over in this first account,
this early account of the resurrection of Jesus.
So if you get your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 20,
you'll see how this story helps us to understand something that goes on in the gospel text.
And it's John chapter 20.
And for those of you who don't have Bibles, as you can see, the words will be on the screen.
But there's something about having your own Bible, by the way, and maybe being able to make notes as you follow along.
And just before I start reading the Bible text, just to sort of clarify something which is really important for us to understand.
And that's this.
I mean, it looks sort of funny now because it's in a, you know, I have a fancy Bible.
It used to have a bit of goldish stuff at the edge and all that, which is now gone.
But really, what we're looking at right now is literally, literally,
it's one of the four ancient biographies of Jesus.
A biography written by an eyewitness and also bearing eyewitness testimony.
He used other eyewitnesses and written at a time when many, many, many eyewitnesses were still alive
who could have put their hands up and said, John, you got that all wrong.
That didn't happen or that didn't happen.
Lots of people could have disagreed or contradicted, wrote their own books.
And these are one of four ancient biographies.
And they're written, John's Gospel in particular, I don't, I forgot to ask somebody who takes Greek,
but it used to be when I was trying to learn Greek, the Greek in John is so simple you begin with John.
That's where you begin reading John because it's so simple.
It's written a very simple, direct, not flashy style.
And it's an ancient biography that goes back to eyewitnesses.
In fact, you might be interested to know that it, in fact, has unparalleled continuous manuscript evidence
from the ancient world until today.
So you can be very, very convinced that what you're reading is what this ancient eyewitness wrote
in the form of a biography.
And what's just happened before we read this, if you went back and back or listened online,
is that in very simple language just before this, John records Jesus' death.
And one of the things we looked at last week is the way the text emphasizes time and time and time again
that Jesus died, Jesus died, Jesus died, his body, and the handling of the body.
And the very significant thing that the guarantor of the death of Jesus was Roman soldiers.
It wasn't Jesus' disciples who said, took him down from the cross very, very quickly and hurried him away
and said, by the way, he's dead, he's dead, he's dead, just leave him alone.
No, no, no, the soldiers guaranteed that he was dead.
And ancient historians record that there's only one known case.
There were, I don't know, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of crucifixions.
Only one recorded time that somebody did not die as a result of crucifixion,
apart from what's going on right here.
And by the way, in this story, he does die, right?
That's what the story is telling.
So there's only one person in all of history recorded who did not die as a result of crucifixion.
And now the story continues.
Now on the first day of the week, that's what we would now call Sunday,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark
and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
That's the point of my story that I began with, right?
In those days, the custom was that they'd hollow out, make something like a cave where there was limestone,
a small hole and a bigger inner chamber with different things.
And to cover it up so that animals wouldn't go in and people wouldn't steal the bodies,
they'd roll a very heavy stone in front of it.
And Mary knew that there had been a very large stone in front of it and there'd been Roman soldiers.
And she comes early in the morning.
She'd been held up because of the Sabbath of being able to do more for the body.
And she probably was thinking something like,
I can't imagine the state two men would leave a body in.
It's probably terribly wrapped and they didn't apply the spices the right way and all of that stuff.
And so she's there.
And as soon as she comes up,
she doesn't have to go inside the tomb to know that something bad has happened.
Why?
Because when you come home and your door is open,
something bad has happened.
Okay?
And you don't know,
she didn't have an aluminum baseball bat.
That's why she didn't go in.
I don't know.
But you don't go in.
So what she does,
well, we find out what she does.
Verse 2.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple,
the one whom Jesus loved,
and said to them,
they have taken the Lord out of the tomb
and we do not know where they have laid him.
By the way,
that little word we is part of how you can see
that all of the different accounts of the resurrection morning,
how they balance.
Mary had been there not just alone,
but with other women.
But she's the one who goes to Peter and John,
probably two reasons.
One, because Peter's a little bit of a leader.
And second,
Mary,
the mother of Jesus,
is with John.
And so she wants to go and tell the people
that have Mary with her
that this has happened,
that something terrible has happened to the body of Jesus.
And so she goes and she finds Peter and John,
and then we see what happens.
Verse 3.
So Peter went out with the other disciple.
And by the way,
it's almost everybody agrees that John,
the apostle,
is the writer of this.
And he's very,
he writes this in a way that's for two reasons.
He never refers to himself.
He refers to himself as the other disciple,
and probably for two reasons.
One is a self-effacing way,
and also to try to make himself just another guy.
He's no different than Dave or Ann or Dick or Don or me.
We're just a disciple whom Jesus loved.
He's just a disciple whom Jesus loved.
And that's how he describes himself.
I'm just a disciple that Jesus loved.
And so back to the text.
So Peter,
verse 3,
went out with the other disciple,
and they were going toward the tomb.
Both of them were running together,
but the other disciple outran Peter.
That's John,
outran Peter,
and reached the tomb first.
And stooping to look in,
he saw the linen cloths lying there,
but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came following him,
and went into the tomb.
He saw the linen cloths lying there,
and the face cloth,
which had been on Jesus' head,
not lying with the linen cloths,
but folded up in a place by itself.
And just sort of pause here.
This is all very, very, very significant,
what's happened.
It's very, very significant.
You see,
what we saw last week,
or if you go back and read John 19,
you'll see that a very, very wealthy man
who's been a secret disciple of Jesus
comes and asks for the body of Jesus,
and he takes another man
who up until then had been a secret disciple of Jesus
by the name of Nicodemus,
and these two very wealthy men,
they do something.
They buy 75 pounds of spices.
That's enough to bury 100 people.
What they're doing is
they want to profoundly honor Jesus,
and they take the linen cloths,
they take this mixture,
but the thing about the mixture is
the mixture is very, very sticky.
It would be like taking a whole pile of spices,
mixing it with honey,
putting honey on the cloth,
and then wrapping Jesus up
in several layers of the cloths
with this honey and spice.
Very, very sticky.
You can just well imagine.
And so nobody who's going to steal the body,
there's two types of people
who would have stolen the body.
I guess there could have been
some people who wanted to do some mischief,
maybe play a trick on the disciples
to make them think that Jesus had risen from the dead,
or maybe the religious authorities
or the secular authorities
wanted to make sure
that nobody could do anything
to try to steal the body
and claim that Jesus had risen,
although there already was a Roman guard
out in front.
Or it could have been,
which is the more common thing,
which it could have been grave robbers,
because all of that aromatic spice
would have been worth a lot of money.
And I know it sounds unbelievably gross
that somebody would steal a dead body,
scrape everything off,
all the expensive spices,
put it in a jar and resell it.
Yuck.
But they did things like that.
Okay?
And so they did things like that.
And so the thing that you could see, though,
is that it's going to be an unbelievable mess.
Nobody would have done it right there.
They would have just grabbed the body,
all nicely wrapped up,
easy to carry,
I mean, relatively easy to carry,
taken it somewhere else,
and then at their leisure,
either, you know,
just scraped off the spices and the linen
and dealt with it
and then just disposed of the body
somewhere else.
But what they saw was that it was tidy.
The cloths were there,
and it was tidy.
There would have been a separate,
like a handkerchief
that went over Jesus' face
to sort of,
as sort of a way of,
you know,
it's just like we do,
and you want to honour,
you know,
when somebody has died,
you pull the blanket over their head,
and you could well see that
while you might do all sorts of stuff
to deal with the body,
you want to handle the head,
the face,
in a different type of way.
And so there's a napkin.
Still would have had some of the honey and all on it,
but,
or not honey,
the myrrh and aloes,
but it's sticky like honey.
And that, though,
is not just sort of crumpled up
the way a thief would do it
and thrown in the corner.
It's folded.
It's neat.
And the grave is empty.
And it doesn't make any sense
unless there's been a resurrection.
And that's what we see very,
right next.
And remember,
remember when I say that
this is an eyewitness biography.
This is an eyewitness biography.
You can go and do a little bit of research
around all of the battle around this,
and let me tell you,
there have been some of the smartest people
in the world
over the last 150 to 200 years
to try to discount
that this is
an ancient biography of Jesus.
And I can tell you
they don't succeed very well.
You can go do the research yourself.
They don't succeed very well.
It ultimately comes down to a basic,
I'm going to say it,
well, I'll talk about it a little bit more
in a moment,
what it comes down to.
But what happens next,
so it's verse 8.
Then the other disciple
who had reached the tomb first
also went in
and he saw
and he believed.
This next sentence
is a bit hard to translate
into English.
For as yet,
they did not understand
the scripture
that he must rise from the dead.
And basically,
what they're saying is this,
is that John,
and it's not entirely clear
because of the grammar
about what's going on with Peter,
but basically,
John realizes
that a resurrection happened.
He doesn't really have
the proper categories
to think about it
because the Bible
hasn't come home to him
and Jesus hasn't
appeared to him
and the way Jesus
is going to open
the scriptures
to help him understand
what's just happened.
But John goes,
he sees the stone
is rolled away,
the soldiers are gone,
and nobody would leave
the grave clothes
like that.
And even if they were
still left there,
they'd be sticky,
like they'd be filled
with debris.
You can just imagine
trying to remove
something like honey
in a dusty cave
and then trying to even
put it back in the rocks
would be filthy.
It just doesn't fit.
He believes.
He just believes.
And then verse 10,
then the disciples
went back to their homes.
And I, for a long time,
I've been thinking about this
a lot over the years,
of course.
The reason they went back
to their homes
is they don't want
to still be there
because they're thinking
to themselves,
the Romans are going
to come back
at some point in time,
the temple police
are going to come back
at some point in time,
and if they see me here
with no body,
I'm in trouble.
And as well as that,
what can they do?
The body's not there.
Jesus is gone.
So they go home.
Makes a special sense
if you remember
that Mary was probably
back to where they went.
They wanted to go
and tell the mother of Jesus
about what had happened.
So just sort of,
you know,
pause here for a second.
If the story
just ended here,
it would just be a mystery.
like a locked room mystery.
I love reading lock,
I love reading mysteries,
I love reading thrillers,
and I like locked room mysteries.
You know,
they're very,
they're fun to read.
I find them fun to read.
It would just be
a locked room mystery.
What on earth
happened to the body?
It would be just lots of,
yeah,
it would just be odd.
But here's,
um,
remember I said that,
um,
for almost 200 years,
a lot of people
with very,
very high IQs
and lots of degrees
after their names
and who speak
lots of languages
have done a concerted effort
to try to undermine
that this is,
in fact,
an ancient eyewitness biography.
And, um,
and at the end of the day,
what it comes down to,
and I hope I'm not offending
anybody here
who believes all those things,
but it comes down
to a basic prejudice.
They don't want to look
at evidence,
they just hold
at a deep level of faith,
at a profound level of faith,
that there is no God
and because there is no God
and because I believe in science
and because there is no God,
then therefore,
this cannot possibly
be an ancient biography
because it involves
something like a resurrection.
It's not that they look
at the evidence,
but that their prejudice
overwhelms
their ability
to actually look
at the evidence.
And one of the things here,
sorry,
a bit of a time out,
time out,
a bit of mercy,
geek moment,
okay,
geek moment for certain geeks.
Nothing in a,
no miracle
and nothing in this story
contradicts science.
Science,
here's the geek moment,
science to operate
has to work
with something called
methodological naturalism.
And what that means
is that science says
we're not going to look
at prayer and angels
and spirits,
all we're going to look
at what the natural processes are
that allow us
to explain things.
It's called
methodological naturalism
and it's central
to science being developed.
But many scientists
go from methodological naturalism
and a Christian
can be engaged
with that as well.
In fact,
that's what you want.
If you go to one of the scientists
here in the room,
it was an engineer
or something
and you want to know
why your DVD
isn't working
or why something's
not working,
you don't want them
to say,
well,
a demon
is invaded
your mechanism.
You want them
to say,
no,
it can't be a demon,
it has to be
something else,
okay?
Find what it is,
it must be a loose wire
or something's broken.
So we want our scientists
to use methodological naturalism
but what happens
is people,
scientists think
that somehow
or another
methodological naturalism
implies philosophical naturalism
which it does not.
Philosophical naturalism
which believes
that there's only,
there's no God,
there's only matter
and energy
and movement.
That's a faith.
There's reasons for it,
there's reasons
why it's not true.
It's a faith.
And this story
doesn't violate anything
in science
but it does
if this is true,
sorry for the graphic detail
for young children,
it is a dagger
in the heart
of philosophical naturalism.
It is a dagger
in the heart
of philosophical naturalism
if this evidence
is true.
And so many people,
what happens
when they look at this,
they don't even examine
the fact that they're
committed to atheism.
they're so deeply
committed to atheism
they disregard the evidence.
That's end of my geek moment.
Back to the text.
So what happens?
If it's just an empty tomb,
it would be a puzzling mystery.
So what happens?
Well, let's look.
Verse 11.
But Mary stood
weeping outside the tomb
and as she wept,
she stooped
to look into the tomb.
Now pause here.
This is actually
a really important thing.
If you look at all
of the resurrection accounts,
this is something
which cannot be
overemphasized.
Right now,
as Mary is looking
into the tomb
and she's crying,
she has the exact
same view
of Jesus
and his death
as Herod
who mocked him,
as Caiaphas
and Annas
and the religious leaders
who hounded
the authorities to death
until he was put to death.
She has the exact
same view of Jesus
as Pilate
and all of the Roman soldiers.
She has the exact
same view of Jesus' death
as Judas.
She is no different
than any of them.
She has the exact
same view of Jesus' death
as Richard Dawkins
and Sam Harris.
Jesus is dead.
Now,
everybody else
might be happy
about that.
Judas isn't.
He's committed suicide.
It's driven him
to suicide.
But she has
the exact same view
as all of them
and that's why
she's weeping
and that's why
she just wants
to find the dang body
so it can be treated
with some reverence
and respect
because she loved
this man.
She didn't love him
in an erotic way.
She loved him.
In fact,
part of the reason
she loved him,
I'll explain that
in the very next
little bit
which is right here
verses 12 and 13.
And she saw
two angels in white
sitting where the body
of Jesus had lay
and one at the head
and one at the feet.
They said to her,
Woman,
Why are you weeping?
She said to them,
They have taken away
my Lord
and I do not know
where they have laid him.
Now,
you see,
some people right now,
I can just,
I,
one of my friends
at Starbucks
at this point in time
if I was reading it to him,
he would just reach over
right now,
he would close that Bible
and say,
George,
angels,
mythological,
legend,
okay,
whoa,
I would just say to him,
that's your faith
in philosophical naturalism
not looking at the evidence.
The reason Mary Magdalene
loved Jesus so much
is that she had been possessed
by seven demons
and he had cast them out.
That's what the Gospels tell us.
She had been delivered
from seven demonic beings
who had possessed her
and she loved Jesus.
She trusted him with her life
after what he had done for her.
And now she comes
and she sees angels.
The Bible teaches
not that everything
that people say
about angels is true
but the Bible reveals
that angels exist.
And you need to go
to the Bible
to understand
what angels
and demons
are really like
but we'll get to that
again in a moment.
So she has this conversation
with the angels.
They're inside the tomb.
They just are there.
In verse 14,
having said this,
she turned around
and saw Jesus standing
but she did not know
that it was Jesus.
The text doesn't say why
but maybe she heard
the sound of a foot
on the gravel.
Maybe there was a bit
of a shadow
that passed in the room.
But she would have been
in darkness.
It would have been
bright outside.
And this is actually
once again
very important evidence
because you see
she just sort of glances
at him.
Verse 15,
let's read that.
Jesus said to her,
Woman,
why are you weeping?
Whom are you seeking?
Supposing him to be
the gardener,
she said to him,
Sir, if you have
carried him away,
tell me where you
have laid him
and I will take him away.
Just sort of pause.
She's in the room.
It's echoey.
We don't entirely know
why she didn't recognize
Jesus' voice very well
but she's in a small cave
and he's speaking
through that.
But one of the reasons
she wouldn't have thought
it was Jesus
is because she knows
that Jesus is dead.
And the thing about man,
and this is something
which we all have
a basic sense of,
he's a healthy,
strong man.
He doesn't look like
he's had nails
driven through his hands
and nails driven
through his feet.
He doesn't look like
he's been lashed
39 times so terribly
that the bones
of his back
were probably exposed
to the air.
He doesn't look like
he's had crown of thorns.
He doesn't look sick
or broken.
He looks like
a strong,
normal male.
But six or seven weeks ago
when there was
this terrible,
terrible ice storm,
between the services
I drove somebody home
and as I was just
over there
I fell on the ice
and I fell really hard.
I can't remember
a time in my life
I've fallen so hard.
Like it stunned me.
And as soon as I'd fallen
I knew that it was not good.
In fact,
I was worried
I would be able to get up.
And I must have
bruised or broken
at least three ribs.
My shoulder was
very sore
and my knee was sore.
And I got up
and I came in
and Owen and Anne
who were at the door
they didn't know
anything about me
but as soon as I came in
they said,
are you alright?
Are you alright?
Because they have
a basic sense.
I don't know
if it was my skin color
or whatever
but I don't look right.
I don't look right.
And Mary,
you know,
so we all have
that basic sense.
Somebody doesn't look right.
They've been hurt
in some fundamental way.
They just,
there's maybe something
about the way
they move or stand.
But Mary looks
and she sees a gardener.
Somebody who's a laborer
not somebody
who's deeply hurt.
And you might say,
well why didn't she talk
to the guy longer?
Well, come on.
Just be realistic.
Two angels this way?
A gardener that way?
Which way are you going to look?
Be honest.
I'm looking at the angels too.
I mean,
gardeners come and go.
How often have you seen
two angels?
You look at the angels,
right?
So there's a bit of a sense.
She says something
and she goes back.
And then,
in verse 16,
yeah,
verse 16,
Jesus said to her,
Mary.
She turned
and said to him
in Aramaic,
Rabboni,
which means teacher.
For Christians
who've been reading
the gospel,
one of the things
you know in John chapter 10
is there's a famous story
that Jesus is the good shepherd
and he calls his sheep
by name.
And you can't read this
without,
if you've read the whole story,
that will go instantly
into your mind.
And whatever it is,
amongst other things,
how on earth would a random
gardener know her name?
But as soon as this guy
says her name,
now she turns
and she realizes
and recognizes the voice.
the grave is not just empty
because the body
had been stolen.
Jesus is fully alive
and standing there.
If you look in my blog
this week,
I give a concise list
of reasons,
historical and other reasons
why it is
that the resurrection
of Jesus
is true.
And he's alive.
So verse 17 and 18,
she comes out
of the tomb,
obviously,
and Jesus said to her
and she starts
to obviously
cling to him,
just grab him.
And Jesus said to her,
do not cling to me
for I have not yet
ascended to the Father
but go to my brothers,
my brothers,
the people who
had abandoned him,
his disciples,
go to my brothers
and say to them,
I am ascending
to my Father
and your Father
to my God
and your God.
And Mary Magdalene
went and announced
to the disciples,
I have seen the Lord
and that he had said
these things to her.
Now,
sort of what does
this all mean to us?
We sort of have to
bring this home
a little bit.
I know I'm an old guy
and I know
that it can be
very dangerous
when old guys
talk about pop music.
So,
like,
just give me
a little bit of grace,
okay?
But,
a couple of weeks ago
I was at the supper table
with my wife
and two kids
and we're listening
to Magic 100.
And on Magic 100
a Lauren Daigle song
comes on.
And,
I don't listen
to the radio that much
but it seemed like
any time I was in the car,
whether it was listening
to Hot 89.9
or Magic 100
or whatever the other ones were,
I'd hear this
Lauren Daigle song on.
And that's not
what's so surprising
but Lauren Daigle
is a Christian performer
and the Magic 100 guy
says,
we're going to listen
to this Lauren Daigle song,
You Say.
Some of you know
what that is
as soon as I say that.
And then it said
the number one song
in Ottawa
this week again.
And I just looked it up
as part of the sermon preparation.
It's been on the number,
it's been the top 20
in Canada
for 39 weeks.
39 weeks.
The fifth most
uploaded
or downloaded
whatever the right word
song is
on Apple Music
if I read
the statistics correctly.
That's just this week.
39 as of this past Monday.
There was number 10
in Canada.
39 weeks
on the top 20.
But the thing about it is
I thought,
well this is a Christian song.
Like,
how is it
that it's so popular
on secular radio?
And then I thought,
oh you know what it probably is?
It's probably one of those
Jesus is my boyfriend
Christian songs.
You know what those
Jesus is my boyfriend
Christian songs are?
It means,
oh I love you,
I love you,
I love you.
You're so beautiful,
you're so wonderful.
And it never actually
says Jesus, right?
So it could easily
just be somebody
talking about their
boyfriend or their
girlfriend or their
husband and their wife.
And I thought,
well it's probably just,
but I seem to remember
some of the lyrics,
I didn't think it fit.
So,
so here,
you know,
give me some,
give me some grace.
Here's the lyrics.
I'm not going to do it all
and I'm,
you guys when I come to it
can do the ooh,
ah stuff,
okay?
I was joking beforehand,
I could have had Amy up here
and I could have just gone
like this to Amy
and then she could have
done it for us
because she can sing
and I can't.
But here's how the,
here's how the lyrics go.
39 weeks,
Christian song,
non-Christians,
obviously,
if it's in the 39 weeks
in the top 20 in Canada,
Canada is a profoundly
secular nation.
But listen to these lyrics,
it's very puzzling.
I've been really puzzled
as to what is happening
when non-Christians
listen to this song
and sing along with it
and keep wanting it
to be played.
It goes like this,
I keep fighting voices
in my mind
that say I'm not enough.
every single lie
that tells me
I will never measure up.
So right away,
you can,
it's,
I think it's well sung
but I'm an old guy
but I,
you can see why
people like this song.
I mean,
that's a very,
very common experience,
isn't it?
That we struggle
with voices in our head
that say that we're not enough,
that we'll never measure up.
But it continues on.
Am I just more than the sum
of every high
and every low?
Remind me once again
just who I am
because I need to know.
Ooh,
ah,
or something like that.
And then it goes on
and you can see
why this is very popular,
right?
I mean,
this is a very common experience
of feeling that within us.
Christian and non-Christian,
Buddhist,
Muslim,
Atheist,
and then it continues.
You say I am loved
when I can't feel a thing.
You say I am strong
when I think I am weak.
You say that I am,
you say I am held
when I am falling short.
When I don't belong,
oh,
you say that I am yours.
Now just pause here
for a second.
And it goes on,
I believe,
oh,
I believe,
what you say of me,
oh,
I believe.
Now you see,
if you're reading the lyrics,
the official lyrics,
you can see that she does something
which is grammatically
unpopular right now,
which I always do,
which is to capitalize
the you and the your,
that she's obviously
referring to God.
If you look at the written lyrics,
she's referring to God.
But when you're just hearing it,
that's not clear.
It could just be,
is it her mom?
Is it her dad?
Is it her boyfriend?
Her husband?
Is it her best friend?
Is it her kid?
But then the song takes
a very,
very puzzling turn.
And this is what,
this is what I think
makes me really wonder
what's going on in the song.
The very next two lines
are the only thing
that matters now
is everything
you think of me.
In you,
I find my worth.
In you,
I find my identity.
And can you just
skip down the next bit?
Skip that,
next one.
And then look after that.
She says,
taking all I have now,
I'm laying it at your feet.
You have every failure, God,
and you'll have every victory.
And the God there
doesn't mean anything
because a couple of years ago
when I was taping my radio show,
I had the guy
who sometimes produced
the three guys on the radio.
And I joked
that I like to listen to the show
because it was so religious.
And he looked at me
and said,
you're kidding.
I said, yeah,
because everything is,
oh God this,
oh God that,
oh God that.
It's like a deeply religious show.
He's talking about God all the time.
And he thought it was pretty funny.
So, you know,
for the average person,
just to hear,
oh God,
doesn't mean anything, right?
It's just, oh God,
I can't believe that that happened.
So what is,
like what's on earth going on?
Like on one hand,
you can see from this song
that it's,
it's talking about something
which is a very,
very persistent problem
of the fact that we have
these voices of doubts.
I'm a failure.
I'm a nothing.
I'm a complete and utter,
like, you know,
reject.
I'm hopeless.
And we have these thoughts.
Many of us here,
we don't even want to share it
with very many people.
Maybe our closest friend
that we have these things
that go on in our head,
these deep accusatory conversations.
And so this woman
is giving voice to all of that.
And she's giving voice to it
in terms of,
for many people,
it's just as if,
but you believe in me.
You don't say these things.
You say different things.
But then when all of a sudden
she says the only thing
that matters now
is everything you think of me
and you I find my worth
and you I find my identity
and every one of us
would say,
time out, honey.
Don't say that.
Your boyfriend will let you down.
Your dad will let you down.
Your mom will let you down.
Your teacher will let you down.
Terrible thing to say to you people
who have very young,
adorable kids.
Your kids will get over
and they will let you down.
Like I just so puzzled
that this song
is so profoundly popular in Canada.
Like what's going on with people?
So here's how this all sort of connects
with this great story.
If you could put up the first point,
that would be wonderful.
Almost 2,000 years ago,
just outside of Jerusalem
on a spring morning,
and historians,
because there's two ways
of dealing with how
the many instances
of the Bible intersecting,
the four ancient biographies
intersecting with secular,
pagan, Jewish history,
they know that it was
either the year 30
or the year 33
in April.
Of 30 or 33.
One of those two.
Some prefer 30,
some prefer 33.
Both work.
But almost 2,000 years ago,
just outside of Jerusalem,
on a spring morning,
because he had risen from the dead,
his grave was found empty.
The grave clothes were laid there.
The stone was rolled away.
He was then seen fully alive by Mary
and later by many others.
This truth validates and vindicates
who Jesus is
and all that he said.
This historical truth
validates and vindicates
who Jesus is
and all that he said.
Validates and vindicates.
That's why, you know,
when I try to talk to my friends
who believe in paranormal forces
and they say to me,
why do I privilege
the Christian account?
And I try to say to them,
listen,
amongst other things,
is, you know,
if Jesus really did rise from the dead
in the way he did,
he predicted he was going to rise
from the dead
and all that other stuff,
then that validates and vindicates.
Jesus says the Bible is true.
You believe the biblical account
of these things.
You believe their account
of what angels are
and what demons are
and what's right and wrong.
It all comes out of that.
If Jesus predicted
and prophesied his death,
his burial,
his crucifixion,
death, burial,
and resurrection,
he himself says
in Matthew and in John
that his resurrection
will be a sign,
an indicator,
a pointer
that what he has said is true.
And I think that's a completely
and utterly
and massively
reasonable response.
If it happened,
it's true.
It validates it.
But some of you might say,
okay, so yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know,
Jesus is alive,
Elvis is alive,
big deal.
It's just like a curious fact.
But no,
that's why what he says
is so important,
if you could put up
the next point.
Jesus ascended to the Father
to be with you
with love and affection,
with grace and power.
Jesus ascended to the Father
to be with you
with love and affection,
with grace,
and with power.
You see,
that's the whole significance of it.
Jesus wasn't saying like,
oh, yuck,
you're a woman,
you're touching me.
No.
The greatest honor
is bestowed upon Mary Magdalene
as the apostle to the apostles,
the first one to proclaim
the resurrection of Jesus
from the dead.
What he's saying to her is,
listen,
I am going to the Father
and because I am going to the Father,
I can be with everyone.
This morning,
I can be with the Christians
crying and mourning
in Sri Lanka
because their loved ones
were murdered.
And I can be with Christians
in Ottawa
and I can be with Christians
in Nairobi
and in Beijing
because I have ascended
to the Father,
because I am no longer
limited to this physical body
which is now going to be
with my Father,
in heaven
for all eternity.
I can be with you.
Don't cling to me
and hold on to me
in terms of just,
it's just going to be
me and you, Jesus,
and my apostles,
this small,
privileged few.
I ascend to the Father
to be with you.
To be with you
with love
and affection,
with grace
and with power,
which is why
Lauren Daigle can say,
I just want to listen
to what you have to say
to me, Jesus.
That's why she can say that.
Listen,
my identity
gets beaten up
and wrecked all the time.
I get harsh words
from my boss.
I get harsh words
from my husband
or my wife.
I don't have a husband
and a wife.
I wish I did.
I get harsh things
from my kids
and friends
and it can be
really hard for me
just to remember
who I am
and I have these voices
in my head,
but you are with me
and you love me
with love and affection.
If you could put up
the last point,
that would be great.
And only the truth
of the gospel
makes your unconditional
self-giving
and surrender
to Jesus
a reasonable
and desirable goal.
Begins as an act
but it's always a goal.
To say to the Lord,
I lay down my mask,
I lay down my defenses,
I lay down my high tower,
I lay down everything,
I give myself to you
and I surrender
and I surrender unconditionally.
It's really hard
for me to surrender
unconditionally
but help me
to surrender
unconditionally to you
and then I thank you
that you take me
even though I can't
really do that entirely
but you take me
as your own
and I give myself to you
and I ask that
throughout the rest
of my life
I will grow
in my ability
to give myself to you
and surrender
unconditionally.
And that's what
Lauren Daigle
is doing in the song.
And why is that
a reasonable thing?
Because this is
chapter 20
of the Gospel of John.
And if you read
all the way through
the Gospel of John
you discover who Jesus is.
At the beginning
of the Gospel of John
Jesus through John
reveals that life
and light
and love
is responsible
for creating all things.
And then human beings
turned away from God.
And what does that mean?
When they turn away
from life
you turn to death.
When you turn away
from love
you turn towards
indifference
and hatred.
And when you turn
away from light
you turn towards
the darkness.
And Jesus
when he dies
on the cross
he takes your
darkness on himself.
He takes your
hatred.
He takes your
indifference.
He takes your
death upon himself
and he dies
for you.
And so when you
are surrendering
to Jesus
you are surrendering
to love.
Why wouldn't you
want to surrender
to love?
To pure
uncreated
unfailing
eternal love.
You are surrendering
to life.
You are surrendering
to light.
And then the
gospel continues
to introduce
Jesus
and Jesus
is revealed
as the one
who can heal
turn water
into wine.
That Jesus
is the presence
of God
that is the fullness
of joy.
Why wouldn't you
surrender to a
fullness of joy?
He heals
the official son.
He is health.
Why wouldn't you
surrender to health?
He heals
the paralytic
who's grumpy
and doesn't like him.
Means that he is
grace
unmerited grace
in the flesh.
Why wouldn't
you and I
surrender
to unmerited grace?
He feeds
the five thousand
which shows
that he is
the creator
and the provider.
Why would we
not surrender
to our creator
and provider?
He walks
on water
which shows
that he is
in fact
the new heaven
and the new earth.
Why would we
not surrender
to the new heaven
and the new earth?
He is the man
who heals
the man born blind.
It means that
he is light himself.
He is sight.
Why would you
and I not surrender
to light itself
and sight itself?
He is the one
who raises Lazarus
which shows
that he is life.
Why once again
would we not
surrender
to life?
He is introduced
as the bread of life,
the light of the world,
the entrance into God
or the gate.
He is the good shepherd.
He is the resurrection
and the life.
He is the way,
the truth,
and the life.
He is the vine,
the one by whom
we can be connected to
and be connected
to the living God.
Why would we not
surrender
and give ourselves
to that?
Why would we choose
darkness
and hatred
and indifference
and darkness
rather than surrender
to that?
Jesus is introduced
in the beginning
of John's gospel
as the Lamb
of God
who takes away
the sin of the world
and we have just seen
that he has done this.
This is who he is.
Why would you not
surrender
and give yourself
to him?
And why would it
not be your goal
for the rest of your life
when you begin
the Christian walk
by surrendering to him
to have it your goal
to surrender more?
To surrender more
to love,
to joy,
to life,
to light,
to walk from darkness
and hatred
and indifference?
And why would we not
want to regularly hear
what he says
about our new identity
in him
and who we really are?
Please stand.
Just bow our heads
in prayer.
Father,
if there are any here
who have never surrendered
to love itself,
love made flesh,
light made flesh,
father,
they can feel
the knocking
of your son
on the door
of their heart
and we ask
that you help them
to open that door
and come in
to say,
I surrender,
I surrender all,
I give myself to you,
be my Lord,
be my Savior.
And father,
for all of us,
father,
you know how
we get beaten up
by the world,
you know the doubt,
the confused identity,
you know all those
things about us,
you know the chaos
that goes on inside us,
the bright shining moments
of goodness
and greatness
and those horrific times
of just being really bad
and dark
and you know all there is
about us
and father,
you gripped us
with Jesus
and he is our Savior
and our Lord
and so father,
we ask that you
fan into flame within us
a longing and yearning
to make it a daily goal,
a lifelong goal
to surrender
and give ourselves
to the one
who makes us right
with you.
And all God's people
said together,
Amen.