WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.700 Father, thank you so much that we are able to gather here in person, and thank you so much 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:12.839 that there are these electronic means whereby others can enter into worship as well. 00:00:13.339 --> 00:00:18.440 Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would fall with gentle power and deep conviction upon us at 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:24.539 this time. And Father, bring the gospel home to our hearts in a new and powerful way that we might 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:30.579 learn to live and that we might, so refreshed and gripped by the gospel, that we might live humble, 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:38.979 winsome, confident lives in Jesus, filled with joy, so that we will bring you glory in this world. 00:00:38.979 --> 00:00:42.859 And this we ask in Jesus's name. Amen. Please be seated. 00:00:46.739 --> 00:00:53.719 So I was ordained on a Wednesday. Actually, it makes me feel like I'm unbelievably old. 00:00:53.719 --> 00:01:01.659 You know, this May 15th, I'll be ordained 36 years. It's a long time. And anyway, I was ordained on a 00:01:01.659 --> 00:01:08.099 Wednesday, and the rector was very, very big-hearted and told me I didn't have to show up for work the 00:01:08.099 --> 00:01:13.759 next day or Friday. But I had to show up on Sunday at both the 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock services, and 00:01:13.759 --> 00:01:18.759 that was fine. And between the two services, he told me that the next day there were two funerals, 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:25.320 funerals, and I was going to be expected to help him with the funerals. And that was fine. Sort of an 00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:29.480 interesting way to begin your job is to go to two funerals. It's a story for another time, but in 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:34.820 fact, the first funeral was one of the saddest funerals I've ever been to in my life, actually. 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:39.340 One of the things about me going to these two funerals is I'd never attended a funeral before 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:46.200 I had to assist at one. So anyway, I go, and two different funeral directors, and the funeral director 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:50.140 in the morning and the afternoon, told me the same thing. He said, you know, when you go to the grave, 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:54.120 here's how you move, and here's how you do this. But they all warned me, you be careful, because 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:59.260 there's the frame that is used to lower the casket down, and there's two planks along the side of it, 00:01:59.600 --> 00:02:07.079 and there's artificial grass, and you have to be careful, because nobody ever cuts the hole for the 00:02:07.079 --> 00:02:12.920 grave, for the casket, just really, really tight like that for the casket. There's always a bit of 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:17.359 room, a bit of give, and so you just need to be careful. You don't get too close. Stay on the 00:02:17.359 --> 00:02:21.379 wooden planks, and both the morning and the afternoon, and over the first couple of months, 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:26.179 funeral directors would regularly give me that advice, and I'm a slow learner, but I did learn. 00:02:26.699 --> 00:02:31.279 Anyway, you fast forward about three years and, you know, a month and a half. In fact, 00:02:31.379 --> 00:02:36.399 interestingly enough, when I went to my new church, a rural church, within the first week, 00:02:36.439 --> 00:02:40.500 I did a funeral. I don't know, join the Anglican Church of Canada and die. I don't know, 00:02:40.500 --> 00:02:45.879 but I did a lot of funerals while I was part of the Anglican Church of Canada, and anyway, 00:02:46.020 --> 00:02:51.620 and about a week later, I had to do another funeral, and in this second funeral, the grave, 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:57.639 we did the service in the church, and the burial was going to take a place about a 25-minute drive 00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:04.080 away, and the reception afterwards was going to be like another 10 minutes past that, so I didn't go 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:09.400 in the funeral director's car. I hopped in my own vehicle, went ahead of the procession because I 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:13.719 wanted to get there early. One of the things I learned, my boss was a big believer in that, 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:19.379 so I arrive early at the graveside. I park, I go up, I'm looking around, and I thought I'd just go up 00:03:19.379 --> 00:03:23.379 and get a bit of lay of the land about where I was going to speak. I'm very careful, of course, 00:03:23.420 --> 00:03:27.819 about the fact that, you know, the planks and all that, but what I didn't know was, well, as I'm 00:03:27.819 --> 00:03:33.980 walking towards it, all of a sudden, I fall into the grave. I step on the green covering, and I fall right 00:03:33.979 --> 00:03:39.899 six feet plus into the grave. I'm less than six feet tall. It would mean you couldn't see the top 00:03:39.899 --> 00:03:46.979 of my head. I'm, of course, completely, you can just, you can imagine what it's like. I'm in this 00:03:46.979 --> 00:03:52.560 rural parish a week in the job, week and a half, two weeks in the job. I'm in the grave. What I didn't 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:58.299 realize was that the soil there was very, very, very sandy, so that as they dig the hole, the sides, 00:03:58.500 --> 00:04:02.759 you know, it's as if your kids go to the beach, and they want to dig a hole, and the side sand, 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:09.599 unless it's very wet, just keeps going in, and so there was about this far from the planks to the 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:15.639 edge of the hole, and I'd slid right into it. So, of course, I try to climb out, and it's hard to 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:23.439 climb out of the grave. Why? Because it's sandy, so all I'm doing is just making this side edge bigger, 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:29.659 but finally, desperation gives you extra superpowers. I'm finally able to crawl out of the grave, 00:04:29.660 --> 00:04:35.380 terrified that the two, that the cast, you know, the funeral procession is going to arrive any second. 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:39.840 So, fortunately, I still had my white robes on. By the way, if you're thinking of getting ordained, 00:04:39.900 --> 00:04:43.620 you don't use your white robes for this, but it was desperate, and there are washing machines, 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:50.300 so I use my robes to try to get all the dust off my black clothes, and, of course, I pull the 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:57.000 green stuff a little bit even farther, just so you could actually see the little bit of the edge there, 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:01.000 that it didn't get covered by the green grass, and the car came, and they never knew. It wasn't 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:08.660 until later on that I shared what had happened. Now, I share all of this because there's a big 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:12.439 problem that we Christians have when we try to commend the Christian faith to our non-Christian 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:19.300 friends, and maybe if you're watching this, you would know exactly what I mean, and that is this. 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:27.480 I could tell you, truly, that, in fact, what we read now, what we read earlier, Matthew 28, 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:32.540 it sounds very fancy and all, but it was originally a book, and it was, in a sense, a biography of Jesus. 00:05:33.420 --> 00:05:38.460 The biographer is Matthew. He was an eyewitness to most of the things that happened in Jesus's life. 00:05:38.819 --> 00:05:42.400 He wasn't, obviously, an eyewitness of the story that he just told, but he would have known all 00:05:42.400 --> 00:05:46.960 those people, and he was an eyewitness that saw Jesus rise after he was resurrected, 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:52.919 and the same would be true of Mark, and Luke didn't see the resurrected Jesus, but he interviewed 00:05:52.919 --> 00:05:57.139 witnesses. It was written while lots of people were still alive and could have said that it was wrong, 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:04.459 and we have this spectacular, unparalleled in the history of the ancient world, unparalleled in terms 00:06:04.459 --> 00:06:09.259 of the math that we can trust, that what we read here, whether it's Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:15.259 is an eyewitness account, and we know that the words are, and all of that stuff, and so we have an 00:06:15.259 --> 00:06:18.360 eyewitness account of the resurrection, and then we say, so therefore you should believe in the 00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:22.860 resurrection, but there's a big problem, and the big problem is this, George, no amount of historical 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:29.099 evidence will overcome the fact that dead bodies don't come to life. I mean, George, it's very funny, 00:06:29.259 --> 00:06:34.279 and we're quite prepared to see a live body coming out of the grave. I don't know how many of you have 00:06:34.279 --> 00:06:42.519 ever lived in small towns, but if the locals had seen me trapped in the grave, I would not have been 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:46.419 able to do a single thing for the rest of my ministry there without being coming up in my face 00:06:46.419 --> 00:06:50.319 and being a source of jokes, by the way, but that's just a whole other thing, but they're all you, 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:54.779 everybody's used to the fact of a live body, well, not, I mean, it's not that common to see a priest 00:06:54.779 --> 00:07:00.259 at the bottom of a grave alive waiting to be rescued, but if you get out of it, it's no big deal. 00:07:00.439 --> 00:07:04.740 Live bodies come out of graves all the, you know, potentially it's no big thing, but we all know, 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:11.120 no amount of historical evidence will convince us that Jesus was dead, and then he came alive. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:14.819 It doesn't matter how good the eyewitnesses are, all of that, we just don't believe it. 00:07:15.780 --> 00:07:21.860 So here's three reasons why you should reconsider your certainty on this particular thing, 00:07:22.060 --> 00:07:27.340 and the three reasons are not just some special clever type of argument, but three reasons that 00:07:27.340 --> 00:07:32.000 if I can tell you this, that if you were to go to the Ottawa U, if you were to go to Carleton, 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:36.480 if you go to the National Research Center where all the brainy scientists are, there's brainy 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:43.259 scientists at Ottawa U and Carleton, if you were to go to CBC or the Globe and Mail, if you were to 00:07:43.259 --> 00:07:49.200 go to any high school teacher, all of these groups will teach you things, and all of them believe 00:07:49.200 --> 00:07:57.300 in three cases that life came out of death. All of them believe in three cases that not only did life 00:07:57.300 --> 00:08:01.420 come out of death, but that if you don't believe this, it shows that you're stupid. 00:08:01.420 --> 00:08:06.840 It shows that you're ignorant. You don't know what you're talking about. You're knuckle-dragging, 00:08:07.400 --> 00:08:14.780 fundamentalist, whatever. But all three of these groups, Ottawa U, Carleton, National Research 00:08:14.780 --> 00:08:24.000 Center, Globe and Mail, the CBC, high school teachers, they all teach you, in three cases at least, 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:29.939 that life came out of death. What are they? Well, first of all, how did all things come to be? 00:08:29.939 --> 00:08:33.720 If you go and ask, in any of those places, they'll tell you that it's the Big Bang. But what is the 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:39.840 Big Bang? The Big Bang is that trillions and trillions of years ago, all of reality, so to speak, 00:08:39.940 --> 00:08:47.240 was a singularity, something which was infinitesimally small, and that exploded. And out of that explosion 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:51.600 came everything that exists, including life. In other words, what do they believe? Life came out of 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:59.659 death. Life came out of death. That's what they believe. And in fact, if you went to the 00:08:59.659 --> 00:09:05.000 to Ottawa U and told the physics department that it was nonsense, that that didn't happen, 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:10.000 that it's no way that the Big Bang is true, they would just say, oh, come on. Like, they wouldn't 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:13.360 even, I mean, they'd maybe talk to you about it for a few seconds, and they would just dismiss you 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:20.879 as a kook. Yet they teach that life came out of death. Second example, they're sort of all from that, 00:09:20.959 --> 00:09:25.360 but the second one is how they teach evolution in any of those different places. And normally, 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:30.080 when they talk about evolution, naturalistic evolution, they normally focus on the fact 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:33.659 that, of course, there's this single cell organism that comes to be, and then out of that, 00:09:33.779 --> 00:09:39.139 there's genetic mutations. And from those genetic mutations come eventually multiple cell and 00:09:39.139 --> 00:09:44.039 then different, more complex organisms. And out of those more complex organisms come other types of 00:09:44.039 --> 00:09:48.620 things, everything from trees to human beings. And it's all to do just with genetic mutations. But 00:09:48.620 --> 00:09:55.840 what they miss in all of that is the first bit. That before there was anything that was life, 00:09:55.960 --> 00:10:00.519 before that there was no life. In other words, before that first little bit of life came, 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:09.019 all there was, was matter and energy. And out of death, they say, life emerged. 00:10:09.019 --> 00:10:17.399 And if you tell them that they're wrong, that you don't think that just all of a sudden, all by itself, 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:22.100 out of death, life emerged, they would once again tell you that you don't know what you're talking 00:10:22.100 --> 00:10:28.919 about. They would tell you that you're foolish and uneducated. So educated people, smart people, 00:10:29.220 --> 00:10:37.500 say that science proves, in two cases here, that life comes out of death. The third one is sort of 00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:42.399 just a bit of a development of it. It's a development of mind. Human beings have minds. 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:48.100 And with those minds, we have imagination, we have creativity, we have all of these things that 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:54.759 flow. And yet, mind had to emerge out of non-mind, out of death. That's what they teach. They'll teach 00:10:54.759 --> 00:11:00.500 it at Ottawa U. They teach it at Carleton, the National Research Council, CBC, Globe and Mail, CTV. 00:11:01.059 --> 00:11:06.220 All high school teachers teach the same type of thing. That all on its own, out of, in a sense, 00:11:06.220 --> 00:11:12.840 a non-functioning brain, no brain, no mind, right? I mean, one of the ways that they measure that 00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:18.279 somebody has died is that there's no brain activity left whatsoever. So there's a, it's still alive, 00:11:18.379 --> 00:11:24.720 but there's no brain. And if that body was held there with no brain activity for three days, and 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:30.500 all of a sudden it started to work, and well, but you see, they, once again, they see that out of death 00:11:30.500 --> 00:11:39.500 comes mind. And that's just what educated people have to believe. So you see, if you think about it, 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:46.340 we have in our culture three very, very powerful, in fact, foundational beliefs, part of the 00:11:46.340 --> 00:11:51.399 foundational beliefs of secularism as it's practically, as it's practiced right now, are 00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:59.039 these three fundamental ideas. And they all teach that life came out of death. And so if that is, 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:06.019 in fact, the case, surely, it is at least open to possibility that there's a fourth case of life 00:12:06.019 --> 00:12:13.240 coming out of death, because we do know that that happens. Of course, as Christians, we would 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:19.500 disagree that that could happen by itself. But even on their own terms, they have to be open that there 00:12:19.500 --> 00:12:24.219 might be another case. If there's three, and I could give you other examples as well, all from educated 00:12:24.220 --> 00:12:33.340 things, where, in fact, life comes out of death. So maybe this is evidence of a fourth one. You have 00:12:33.340 --> 00:12:38.379 to at least consider that. And so let's look at the particular text. In fact, actually, another thing 00:12:38.379 --> 00:12:42.560 which is very interesting about this text is, if you ask yourself, how did they come up with the idea 00:12:42.560 --> 00:12:48.019 of the Big Bang? Well, what they've done, I have to be careful here, because there might be a physicist 00:12:48.019 --> 00:12:52.740 in the room. And if there is, we're really glad you're here, or a physicist watching. But what they 00:12:52.740 --> 00:12:57.919 basically noticed is that everything is moving away from everything else. And so scientists started 00:12:57.919 --> 00:13:01.899 to track how everything was moving away from everything else. And they traced it back and 00:13:01.899 --> 00:13:06.960 traced it back, and they traced it back. And they come up with this idea that at the beginning of all 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:10.779 things, in fact, if people asked what was before the Big Bang, they'd say there's no before, 00:13:10.919 --> 00:13:15.539 because time doesn't begin until the Big Bang happens. That would be the scientific answer. 00:13:15.539 --> 00:13:21.819 And so you trace back all of the movement, and it goes back to a singularity, a singularity which 00:13:21.819 --> 00:13:29.399 is infinitesimally small, which somehow or another explodes and explodes rapidly. And everything that 00:13:29.399 --> 00:13:34.659 we see, hundreds of millions and all years later, is everything still moving away from that original 00:13:34.659 --> 00:13:39.339 bang. But it's very interesting. One of the other reasons that you could consider this, and I got this 00:13:39.339 --> 00:13:45.419 idea from Glenn Scrivener, an Aussie living in England. But if you think about it, today, what is the 00:13:45.419 --> 00:13:49.699 largest religion on the planet? The most practiced faith on the planet is the Christian faith. 00:13:50.659 --> 00:13:57.179 In North America, the Christian faith is in decline. But in fact, at a world level, the Christian 00:13:57.179 --> 00:14:02.759 faith continues to grow and expand. It's very interesting to think that it might very well 00:14:02.759 --> 00:14:07.679 be, although obviously they have to live secretly, that there are estimates right now that there might 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:17.000 be more practicing Christians in Iran than in Canada. And there are definitely more practicing 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:21.259 believing Christians in China than there is in all of North America. 00:14:21.259 --> 00:14:28.620 And so in places like this and all around the world, in fact, one of the things that we're going to see 00:14:28.620 --> 00:14:34.439 between the sort of the word part of the service and the communion part of the service is something 00:14:34.439 --> 00:14:38.679 from all over the Anglican communion, people saying Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, hallelujah. 00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:44.139 So what you can look and you can see here we have the Christian faith continuing to expand all around 00:14:44.139 --> 00:14:48.779 the world. And what happens if you trace that back? Just the way they discovered the Big Bang, 00:14:48.779 --> 00:14:54.299 what happens if you trace that back and trace that back and trace that back? It all comes to a 00:14:54.299 --> 00:15:04.299 singularity. It all goes back to this singularity of Easter Sunday, that on Good Friday, they know 00:15:04.299 --> 00:15:08.480 that he's died. And if you go back and you read all of the evidence, all of the eyewitness evidence, 00:15:08.600 --> 00:15:15.059 you read the early letters, it's very, very clear that they, that Jesus died. And in fact, if you go back 00:15:15.059 --> 00:15:20.059 and you read the eyewitness accounts in the early letters, which we have records of, they all believed 00:15:20.059 --> 00:15:25.219 that he was dead and they all believed what the average Canadian says, which is that dead people don't 00:15:25.219 --> 00:15:31.219 come back to life. Jesus was dead, he was dead, he was dead. And by the way, did I tell you that he's dead? 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:37.799 He was dead. And all of the eyewitness accounts are that people who are going to the tomb on this particular 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:45.179 day are going to deal with a dead body, not a live body. And the early, many of the early Christians 00:15:45.179 --> 00:15:50.679 suffered martyrdom. And it's not like people to die who give their lives for Islam or give their lives 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:56.479 for communism or give their lives for capitalism or give their lives for some other ideology or belief. 00:15:56.579 --> 00:16:02.120 The early Christians didn't die for a religion or an ideology. They died because they would not bend 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:09.840 on a fact, what modern people call a fact. And what was that fact? That the grave was empty. 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:18.240 The body was never found. And they saw Jesus physical and alive. And you can take this two 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:24.000 billion plus strong movement that continues to expand. And it's very unique. It's the only religion 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:30.500 that expands in virtually every people group of the planet in Africa and Asia and South America, 00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:36.700 North America and Europe, that this movement, and you trace it all back, and it goes back to this 00:16:36.700 --> 00:16:47.000 singularity, this explosion, so to speak. And it goes back. It's not like Islam, where Islam grew because 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:55.720 their armies were top-notch and they were very good at killing people and striking terror. This singularity 00:16:55.720 --> 00:17:02.519 is the death of a man who was powerless, who died a shameful death, who was crucified naked between 00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:11.559 common thieves to completely and utterly humiliate him. And he had no armies, no empire. He had no 00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:17.720 educational qualifications. And his enemies taunted him that he didn't even have a legitimate birth. 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:27.000 And it goes back to the singularity which is described in these historic origin documents of 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:35.600 eyewitness testimony. And what does it say? Let's listen. Just Matthew's account. Matthew chapter 28, 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:42.299 verses 1 to 10. Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the 00:17:42.299 --> 00:17:50.139 other Mary went to see the tomb. By the way, this is an old thing. Remember the old New Heart show? Was 00:17:50.139 --> 00:17:55.039 there Bob and my brother Bob? Every time I read this, I think of the New Heart show. I mean, I know I 00:17:55.039 --> 00:17:59.799 should be thinking of holy things, but I think of the New Heart show. Bob and my brother Bob. Anyway, 00:18:00.220 --> 00:18:04.440 we'll read that again because I just ruined it for some of you. But anyway, Mary Magdalene and the 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:09.099 other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord 00:18:09.099 --> 00:18:15.059 descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like 00:18:15.059 --> 00:18:20.879 lightning and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like 00:18:20.879 --> 00:18:28.159 dead men. But the angel said to the woman, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was 00:18:28.159 --> 00:18:35.500 crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 00:18:35.500 --> 00:18:42.440 Now, just sort of pause here. There's lots of very interesting things here on the right off the bat. 00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:47.259 One of the reasons that the Christian faith has grown, of course, is it's very interesting here. 00:18:47.339 --> 00:18:53.460 Right at the original origin document, it shows that Christians are open to questions and open to 00:18:53.460 --> 00:19:00.240 evidence and open to reason. The angel says, don't just believe me. It's not as if the angel shows up 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:05.640 and says, he's risen. And if they said, well, we'd like to go in and see if we can find the body. No, 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:10.660 no, no, no, no, no. Just take my word for it. If you don't believe me, read Isaiah, read Psalm 22, 00:19:11.099 --> 00:19:18.640 and pray more. Now, there's lots of Christians who, in fact, part of the group that was responsible for 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:22.859 me becoming a Christian, as I started to raise some of my intellectual doubts, their response was I 00:19:22.859 --> 00:19:27.539 needed to read the Bible more and pray more. They also probably thought that if I spoke in tongues, 00:19:27.539 --> 00:19:32.440 I'd believe it as well. And that's not putting down the gift of tongues, by the way. If you have 00:19:32.440 --> 00:19:36.539 that gift, praise God. And if you don't have it, feel free to pray for it. It's a gift that's 00:19:36.539 --> 00:19:40.980 mentioned in the Bible. But there have obviously been some Christians who've been afraid of evidence, 00:19:41.139 --> 00:19:46.079 afraid of reason, afraid of questions. But in fact, that is not part of the Christian faith. Why? 00:19:46.220 --> 00:19:50.899 Because we're Canadians? No, because of the gospel. Like right at the very beginning, the angel says, 00:19:50.900 --> 00:19:59.360 he's risen. Come and look, in a sense. See, he's not here. And another thing which here, which is very, 00:19:59.460 --> 00:20:05.200 very interesting, it goes in a complete opposite type of way. Some Canadians are very bothered with 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:10.220 the idea that there's an angel mentioned in this story. Of course, for many other Canadians, that's 00:20:10.220 --> 00:20:15.180 actually a very interesting feature, because many Canadians believe in angels and demons and spiritual 00:20:15.180 --> 00:20:20.900 things. And in fact, throughout the world, there are many people who believe in such things. But here's the 00:20:20.900 --> 00:20:27.700 thing, which, one of the things which is very wonderful about this story. There is a deep, you see, part of 00:20:27.700 --> 00:20:32.539 the reason, part of what people don't understand about the Christian faith, and I know that some of us 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:37.220 struggle with depression, and some people, some Christians struggle with anxiety. And I know that we have 00:20:37.220 --> 00:20:42.960 dark nights of the soul. And I know we have times when life is very, very dry and very, very hard. But the fact of the 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:49.079 matter is, is that there's a deep emotional truth and power to the Christian faith. There's a deep 00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:54.440 imaginative power to the Christian faith. And it's partially seen even here in this story. Because 00:20:54.440 --> 00:21:00.160 the fact of the matter is, is that we human beings have a longing to talk to the non-human. 00:21:02.660 --> 00:21:09.000 Human beings have a longing to be in a world where you can talk to the non-human. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:16.319 One of the reasons people have dogs is that they can talk to them. There's lots of dog owners who 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:21.240 say, the more I meet people, the more I like my dog, that would rather spend time with their dog 00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:26.740 than with a person. And in fact, at the eight o'clock service, I said this, and then Barbara, 00:21:26.980 --> 00:21:33.359 who's very helpful around the church, she said, I talk to my birds all the time. But it's not just 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:38.699 that we talk to dogs and wish that they could somehow talk back to us. But you look at what 00:21:38.699 --> 00:21:44.240 most, look at what many of the most popular movies are, and what many of the most popular stories are. 00:21:44.679 --> 00:21:50.359 There are stories that win prestigious awards that are just full of depression and suicide and death 00:21:50.359 --> 00:21:56.240 and despair. And they win prestigious literary awards, but they end up selling like 500 books in 00:21:56.240 --> 00:22:01.579 all of Canada or something like that. But the books that actually sell, well, there's elves and there's 00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:10.140 extraterrestrials and there's beings that aren't, they're non-human that we talk to, that they talk 00:22:10.140 --> 00:22:17.099 to, that you see portrayed. You look at the literature of history of other cultures, it's filled with 00:22:17.099 --> 00:22:28.199 talking to talking to gods and talking to trolls and talking to monsters and talking to heavenly beings 00:22:28.199 --> 00:22:37.419 and talking animals. There's this fundamental human desire and longing to talk to that which is non-human. 00:22:37.539 --> 00:22:44.219 And here in this story, we have an angel non-human in conversation with the angels. 00:22:44.220 --> 00:22:51.640 In fact, as C.S. Lewis put it, that what you see in the gospel is myth becoming fact. And what you see 00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:56.539 here is that we live in a world where there is a longing, and it's in many, many cultures and even 00:22:56.539 --> 00:23:01.440 powerfully in our day, that we could talk to something and commune with something which is 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:08.180 non-human. And that which is fiction, and that which is fantasy, and that which is myth becomes fact 00:23:08.180 --> 00:23:13.799 here in this story. That in fact, it's talking about a longing, an emotional longing, 00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:19.599 and resonance of coherence. There's a non-human world. And what the Bible is saying is that the 00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:27.200 original normal, which got broken in the fall, and the end of all things, there will be the 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:29.500 conversation with the non-human. 00:23:29.500 --> 00:23:29.579 Amen. 00:23:33.299 --> 00:23:37.940 And there's something else which is very powerful here in this opening thing. Our charismatic friends 00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:43.839 are familiar with the thing called being slain in the spirit. And many evangelicals and reformed and 00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:49.299 other types are very uncomfortable with that. And I'm not saying, I've prayed for somebody who 00:23:49.299 --> 00:23:54.380 got slain in the spirit. And I have to confess, I think they want it to fall down. But on the other 00:23:54.380 --> 00:23:59.780 hand, I know people, hard-headed people, I have a friend who was a hard-headed Scott, who did not 00:23:59.780 --> 00:24:04.220 believe in falling down, did not believe in falling down, said he would never fall down. And he went to, 00:24:04.300 --> 00:24:08.620 I think it was a John Wimber event. And as he's walking down the aisle, saying, I'm not going to fall 00:24:08.620 --> 00:24:12.780 down, I'm not going to fall down, I'm not going to fall down. But eight feet from the guy, the guy 00:24:12.780 --> 00:24:19.500 raised his hand, and my friend fell down. It's called being slain in the spirit. And we see that here, 00:24:19.500 --> 00:24:26.140 this supernatural thing, the angel just appears, and all of the tough soldiers do FaceTime without 00:24:26.140 --> 00:24:31.039 conversion. Now, it's very interesting that two women don't experience it, just the enemies of 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:37.960 Jesus. And this, of course, shows the overwhelming power of God over imperial ambitions, that God is, 00:24:38.099 --> 00:24:42.140 in fact, still sovereign. But here's the other thing that helps to show this in the story, 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:48.539 that in the story, it said, Jesus, if you really are God, prove that you are God by coming down from 00:24:48.539 --> 00:24:53.839 the cross. And what this story shows is that Jesus could have just asked one angel, the least angel, 00:24:53.940 --> 00:24:59.159 and the least angel, all the Roman guards, all the tormentors, they would just fall down. In fact, 00:24:59.220 --> 00:25:04.279 if you read, I think it's one of the accounts of Jesus, when the people go to arrest him, he just 00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:10.079 says, I am Jesus, and they all fall. There's two times in this last little period of time where people 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:17.599 just fall down at the mere presence of God declaring his presence in his reality. And so what we see in 00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:22.459 this is it helps us to understand why it is that Jesus died on the cross. You see, he died on the 00:25:22.459 --> 00:25:29.319 cross not because he was captured, not because they overpowered him, because one angel would have 00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:35.399 meant that he could have just gotten down effortlessly. But he died on the cross out of love, 00:25:36.339 --> 00:25:40.919 out of love for you and for me. You see, this, once again, is why, if you think about why it is that 00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:47.539 there's this deep emotional and intellectual coherence and beauty and power to the gospel, 00:25:47.779 --> 00:25:55.220 it speaks to the mind, it speaks to the imagination, and it speaks to the heart and the emotions that 00:25:55.220 --> 00:26:01.500 Jesus would die on the cross out of love, and not out of love in some abstract way, but out of love 00:26:01.500 --> 00:26:08.620 for Ian, and out of love for Harold, and out of love for Susan, and out of love for Andrew and for 00:26:08.619 --> 00:26:14.500 Lisa, not out of a, not out of any type of abstraction, but because he loves you as an 00:26:14.500 --> 00:26:21.639 individual, and that's why he died. And the grave, that the tombstone is blown away, not so that Jesus 00:26:21.639 --> 00:26:29.559 can get out, but so that witnesses can see that in fact the body is gone. And it is from this 00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:38.599 singularity, this spiritual equivalent of the Big Bang, that this movement has continues to expand, 00:26:38.599 --> 00:26:46.639 as people are gripped with the coherence and the emotional depth and beauty and power and resonance 00:26:46.639 --> 00:26:55.939 of the Christian faith. It continues, verse 7, then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen 00:26:55.939 --> 00:27:01.399 from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee, and there you will see him. See, I have told 00:27:01.399 --> 00:27:07.099 you. Just by the way, what this isn't saying, it's not saying that they're only going to see him in 00:27:07.099 --> 00:27:13.179 Galilee. What it's saying, it's actually, when Louise and I had our children, when we have the 00:27:13.179 --> 00:27:17.419 ultrasound, they'd always ask us if we wanted to know what the sex of the baby was. And Louise and 00:27:17.419 --> 00:27:22.980 I, old-fashioned, said, no, we don't. We wanted that experience of being in the delivery room, 00:27:23.319 --> 00:27:29.599 and the baby comes out, and they say, it's a boy! It's a girl! And we wanted that experience. So we 00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:32.319 didn't, you know, nothing wrong. If you want a different experience, that's fine. That's just, 00:27:32.319 --> 00:27:37.339 old-fashioned, that's what we wanted. But nowadays, there's a very, very common thing that people will 00:27:37.339 --> 00:27:42.679 find out what the sex of the baby is, and they have a reveal party, right? I mean, many of you have 00:27:42.679 --> 00:27:48.099 probably gone to a reveal party. Come to our house, and at a certain point in time, and you have 00:27:48.099 --> 00:27:53.099 different ways that you do it, and we reveal that we're going to have a boy or a girl. And that's, 00:27:53.139 --> 00:27:57.720 in effect, what's going on here. It's in Jesus. The angel isn't saying that Jesus isn't going to appear 00:27:57.720 --> 00:28:04.160 to any of them until Galilee. He's saying that there's going to be a special reveal in Galilee. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:10.839 And in fact, just to see that that's, in fact, what he's saying is, look at verse 8. 00:28:11.420 --> 00:28:16.339 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And 00:28:16.339 --> 00:28:22.759 behold, Jesus met them and said, greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped 00:28:22.759 --> 00:28:28.140 him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Remember, that was what the angel said as well, 00:28:28.200 --> 00:28:34.660 do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. 00:28:35.539 --> 00:28:41.180 If you just skip down a few verses to 16, we see what the reveal is. And the reveal helps to show the 00:28:41.180 --> 00:28:49.500 connection to what happens on Easter Sunday to the fact that 2,000 years later, or 1,990 years or 00:28:49.500 --> 00:28:57.920 whatever it is later, here we are today. Part of that explosive, propulsive movement from the 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:05.539 singularity of the resurrection. Verse 16, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to 00:29:05.539 --> 00:29:11.859 which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And just 00:29:11.859 --> 00:29:17.059 to pause on that, it's a whole other sermon. But basically, the word worship means either that 00:29:17.059 --> 00:29:25.619 they're prostrate or kneeling, usually prostrate. And so the doubting isn't doubting that they're 00:29:25.619 --> 00:29:36.139 seeing Jesus. It's like, do I kneel? Do I prostrate? I mean, they're still trying to get their mind 00:29:36.140 --> 00:29:44.860 around this singularity and all that it means, right? Because they deeply believe that the dead 00:29:44.860 --> 00:29:53.160 stay dead. And they're having problems processing this singularity, some of them. Maybe seeing Jesus 00:29:53.160 --> 00:29:59.720 for the first time. But then it continues. Jesus said, came to them and said, verse 18, 00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:05.720 all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all 00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:10.500 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Actually, 00:30:10.740 --> 00:30:17.019 it would be better to say, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the 00:30:17.019 --> 00:30:21.600 name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have 00:30:21.600 --> 00:30:27.519 commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Just sort of, you know, wrapping 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:32.240 this up. Here we see several things which are really important about the Christian faith. First 00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:37.740 of all, that you really literally are included. And that when you give your faith, when you give 00:30:37.740 --> 00:30:45.900 your trust to Jesus, you are, in a sense, put into him and he comes into you. And the thing is that you 00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:50.839 now receive, this is one of the things which is so powerful about the gospel, is that you get a new 00:30:50.839 --> 00:31:00.179 identity, a new identity based on Jesus' defeat of death and sin, a new identity that will form you 00:31:00.179 --> 00:31:07.639 and continue to form you into all of everlasting life, the new heaven and the new earth. This new 00:31:07.639 --> 00:31:14.579 identity of disciple, this new identity of child. And it's a very, very interesting thing. 00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:19.980 Colombian Christians will have a Colombian accent. Singaporean and Chinese Christians will have that 00:31:19.980 --> 00:31:26.799 Chinese accent. Canadian Christians, that Canadian accent. U.S., that Canadian accent. The Ugandans and 00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:35.140 Rwandans and Nigerian, they'll have their own accents. But we have this new identity in Christ. 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:42.559 This new identity. Are you an alcoholic? That is no longer your identity. Your identity is in Christ. 00:31:43.839 --> 00:31:48.819 Do you think that your goal in life is to sleep with as many women as you possibly can? You have a new 00:31:48.819 --> 00:31:54.579 identity in Christ. Is your identity based on sleeping with people of the same sex? You have a 00:31:54.579 --> 00:32:00.799 new identity in Christ. Is your identity the fact that you are troubled with the disconnect between 00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:07.319 who you feel you are and your body? You have a new identity in Christ. Are you a neo-Nazi or an alt-right 00:32:07.319 --> 00:32:14.159 member? You have a new identity in Christ. Are you a social justice warrior or a communist? You have a new 00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:23.600 identity in Christ. And the proper way to speak to another Christian that you meet is brother or sister. 00:32:28.620 --> 00:32:33.759 And so part of the wonder of the gospel is this new identity. The other possible thing which is so, 00:32:34.100 --> 00:32:38.940 that still reflects those aspects of being Canadian or being Dutch or being American or 00:32:38.940 --> 00:32:47.340 or being Italian or, you know, whatever, is that in fact, that you will always have Jesus with you. 00:32:47.940 --> 00:32:52.779 And that with Jesus with you, you can pour out your heart. The heart of true prayer and Christian growth 00:32:52.779 --> 00:33:00.480 is not pretending, but being honest. Jesus, I'm afraid. Jesus, I'm depressed. Jesus, I'm lonely. 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:05.559 Jesus, no one loves me. Jesus, I'm having a very hard time. Jesus, 00:33:05.559 --> 00:33:12.379 I am so filled with joy. Jesus, I am just so filled with creativity. Jesus, that you can pour 00:33:12.379 --> 00:33:16.700 out your heart honestly to him. And his response to you is, do not be afraid. 00:33:18.599 --> 00:33:24.659 Remember what? I have defeated death. I have defeated sin. I have defeated all hostile spiritual powers. 00:33:25.419 --> 00:33:32.319 All authority is mine. Even if you suffer, even if you die, there is a new heaven and a new earth. 00:33:32.319 --> 00:33:40.839 And in your new identity, the end of your story is only good news. In Jesus, the end of your story 00:33:40.839 --> 00:33:45.399 is only good news. I invite you to stand. 00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:57.460 And if you haven't, those watching online, if you haven't given your life to Christ, he died for you. 00:33:58.440 --> 00:34:03.320 And there's no fancy special word, but just say, Jesus. You know, for some of us, it's a Jesus. I've 00:34:03.320 --> 00:34:07.700 been, I don't know where I am with you. I've been wandering from you. I'm so glad that you are my 00:34:07.700 --> 00:34:12.740 Savior and Lord. And help me to put aside all those things that have been just weighing me down. And I 00:34:12.739 --> 00:34:17.039 recommit to you. And there's nothing wrong with recommitting. And if you're not clear, just say, 00:34:17.099 --> 00:34:22.679 Jesus, be my Savior and Lord. And I don't know the other fancy word. Just Jesus. Jesus, be Jesus, be 00:34:22.679 --> 00:34:29.819 Jesus, be my Lord, my Savior. And he figures out the words. He doesn't care about the words. There's no 00:34:29.819 --> 00:34:36.919 magic formula. And for us, it's just really important to be reminded of this profound singularity 00:34:36.920 --> 00:34:45.180 that respects the full depth of our humanity, that our imagination, our memory, our fears, our 00:34:45.180 --> 00:34:51.519 intellect, our thoughts of the future, our understandings of our past, that that is all 00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:57.480 encompassed and dealt with in this profound act of grace that we see in the death and resurrection 00:34:57.480 --> 00:35:02.860 of Jesus. Father, pour out the Holy Spirit upon us. We ask that you would grip us with the gospel, 00:35:02.860 --> 00:35:09.800 that you would make us disciples of Jesus, gripped by the gospel, learning to live day by day out of 00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:14.980 this new identity that we have in you, out of gratitude, not out of obligation, but out of 00:35:14.980 --> 00:35:19.220 gratitude for what you have done, that you would help us to live this new life to your honor and glory. 00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:22.539 And all God's children said, Amen.