Easter Sunday 2015

We all have a sense of the divine. Of their being something more than just what we see or hear or touch. We can feel a greater purpose, a greater meaning behind life. This life is not all there is. There is more to our lives than just what we see.

Throughout history many have come claiming a revelation from God or a revelation about the spiritual or our greater purpose. Nitsche, Russel, the unknown founders of Hinduism and Shinto, Muhammad, Bhudda Guatama, Zoroast, and so on, to the modern TV evangelist who sees in your future that you will give money to him for his new jet....

But 2000 years ago a man came on the scene who did not claim a revelation about God or a revelation from God – he claimed to BE the revelation of God. To know him was to know God. Repent and believe he said, for the Kingdom of God is here. That’s how he started his ministry! What a ridiculous claim! God’s Kingdom is here. Ha. You? The King of the Kingdom? Ha.
But there was power – this man, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth – he had power. Power to heal, power over evil spirits. Power over even creation. Be still he says to a storm – and it was still. Have you tried that? He walked on water, he produced food out of thin air. This was no magic trick, some illusion that fooled the simple backwater peoples – no. The best brains from Jerusalem came down to find him out. Those who could sniff out a faulty argument or a false teaching – those who could spot a law breakers and a blasphemer from a mile away – keen minds, sharpened by years of religious inquisition… and they were stumped, nonplussed, amazed, confused. How can this be? They could not deny his power, but they could not agree with his claims- he saves sinners! He claims to forgive sins! He hangs out with the scum: law-.breakers and sinners, not good people like us. So they decided to kill him.

But that was expected. Jesus said so. Told his disciples that is why he came:- it was planned by the decree of God, as revealed to his prophets hundreds of years before: by his stripes we are healed.

And so he willingly went to his death – this man of power who merely spoke his name and the soldiers fell over, who had power to tall the ground to open up and swallow them – Jesus went willingly to his death. And he died

And it was all over.

The disciples, his followers, were all depressed. They thought he was the Messiah, the rescuer, but he clearly wasn’t. He was dead. Oh, he had said he’d rise again, but who believed that?

And then he rose from the dead. And that changed everything.

He had power... over death! He suddenly was not just a man, but clearly the Living God – the one from outside who had control over what happens here on earth. He had power over creation because he was the Creator. And the amazing message he came with was not that he had come to destroy us, but that he had come to forgive us. He had come to bridge the gap between us and him. He had come to make himself known so that we could KNOW God. And not only know him, but live with him as our God. The resurrection changes everything.

In 1 John 1:1 the Apostle John (apostle means a close friend and follower of Jesus), writes We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He [Jesus] is the Word of life.

But surely it was just a myth? It can’t actually be true. Can it?

Well, let’s examine some of the common objections to the resurrection.

Myth no. 1 “It was made up by Emperor Constantine in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, the first Church Council”. This is very popular – Dan Brown used it in his novels, and if you type it into Google you’ll get a massive amount of websites claiming this to be the SECRET TRUTH NOW REVEALED. The fact that they’re all wrong doesn’t stop them. It makes a great story – but doesn’t fit the facts. This theory was popularised in the early 1900’s and gained some ground because we didn’t have any documents from before the Council of Nicaea. So it could be possible, however unlikely, that Constantine managed to change the beliefs of 318 bishops plus all the Christians of the time who up until that moment had been willing to die for their beliefs (and over 800 000 had already died for their faith – the first 300 years of Christianity was martyrdom and persecution) but these people who had stood strong suddenly caved into the Emperor, claim those who like this theory. So, not very likely. Do you think Obama could call all the Christians in the US together and say “we’re changing Christianity”. How well do you think that would work?
And, anyway, in the last 100 years or so we’ve discovered nearly 100 manuscripts from before 325. And these manuscripts had exactly the same text as the manuscripts after 325, and indeed the same as our Bibles today. Oh dear.

So the theory that Constantine just made Jesus up to unite Rome is just wrong. The evidence points the other way. It is not possible for him to have made it up.

Myth no. 2 “The disciples made it up.”
Okay. Why?

There’s nothing in it for them. They gain nothing by it. All of them were persecuted, tortured, rejected for it. They gained no power, no wealth. In the gospel narratives – which they are supposed to have made up – they look like complete idiots! Would you do that? I’m going to make up a story to give me power, but in the story I will look like an absolute fool, get everything wrong and even abandon my God.
This myth “they just made it up” has no plausibility. There is no motive for the disciples, no upside, no gain.

The other problem is that in their supposedly made up story everything happens publically. Their main character Jesus: his death happens in a major city - Jerusalem – not some deserted cave. And so does his resurrection! What’s more, they claim multiple people seeing Jesus after his resurrection – around 500 at one time! All it takes is going to speak to one of these people and asking “is it true” “no it was made up” -. And the whole thing comes crashing down

“Oh the disciples made it up” sounds good, but as soon as you start to examine it just falls apart. It fails the test of plausibility – where’s their motivation? It fails the literature test – because people didn’t write historical fiction like we do today. That style of writing has developed over hundreds of years – the gospel writers doing it would be astounding – in literary terms like discovering the atom 2000 years ago.
And if they were so clever they would have made it more convincing for their audience: they had huge cultural problems, like women being the eye-witnesses of Jesus’ death and resurrection – women weren’t even considered reliable witnesses in a court of law at the time – so why would you have them as your first eye-witnesses in a story you’re making up – unless, embarrassingly so, it was the truth. I could go on – there are many such details in the gospel narratives that make it highly unlikely that the disciples made it up. They really did see Jesus die, and they really did see Jesus risen from the grave. As I read from John’s letter “We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands”.

Ummm, but maybe they hallucinated, or really, really wanted it to be true that they forced themselves to believe it. Or maybe Jesus just swooned on the cross, not actually died, and then reappeared to them….

Do any of those sound convincing? Sounds like someone desperately looking for a reason to reject Jesus other than the real reason: I want to be God in my life, and so I don’t like it when the real God makes himself known. So I block my ears and make up stories...

Mass hallucinations? Maybe once, for 11 guys in a room, maybe smoking some weed. Yeah, man, I see Jesus…. But Peter’s out fishing and Jesus calls to him. Peter’s given up, you see, as a failure – he betrayed Jesus before his death. So he thinks even if Jesus is risen from the dead, he won’t have me. He wasn’t wanting to see Jesus! So he goes fishing. And then a figure calls to him from the beach. “Peter!” And Peter rows the boat closer. It’s Jesus. And they talk, and have breakfast together. Later 500 people see Jesus. And later still they are all gathered together and Jesus rises up into the sky after telling them to make disciples. For forty days Jesus appeared to different people at different times – once on the road to Emmaus, a village a few hours walk from Jerusalem, and then immediately after that, to the disciples in a home in Jerusalem. How’d he get there so fast?

And his appearances weren’t like a man in the shadows speaking in a muffled voice saying “hey, I’m Jesus”. No, he was amongst them saying touch me, feel the scars in my hands and feet, he was with them in daylight on the beach eating breakfast, and he was with them on the mountaintop in Galilee when he rose up to heaven before their very eyes. He was not a ghost because they could touch him, touch his hands and feet. He was not a twin or some other weird trick – he really had died on the cross because here was the wound in his side where the spear had pierced him. Here were the scars from the nails driven through his hands. It was Jesus. The same Jesus who had died.

But, but maybe Jesus swooned (fainted) on the cross. Yes, and the Roman soldiers didn’t know the difference between a man who has fainted and a man who is dead? Oh, and they stabbed him in the side with a spear to make sure. And then they wrapped him in a burial shroud. So this theory means that you believe that a man beaten to a pulp, crucified, then stabbed and bleeding, regained consciousness two days later in a cold dark tomb, fought his way out of the burial cloths, rolled away the huge stone, overpowered the guards, then broken, bleeding, half dead, appeared to his disciples... and they responded “my Lord and my God”.
Then you must have great faith indeed. And if you then say oh, the disciples made it grander then the question is why? Again, they have no good motivation to tell this story unless it is the truth. The only plausible rational reasonable explanation is that this man Jesus truly was who he said he was: God Himself. Come from the outside to us to reveal God to us and to open the way so that we could know him.

In the gospel of Luke, Luke writes to his sponsor, Theophilus “Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. 2 They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. 3 Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honourable Theophilus, 4 so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.”

Any other questions?

What’s your objection? Because you do have one. You must have one to explain it way because otherwise you are forced to consider the truth. That Jesus really is the revelation of the living God. That he made you. That you belong to him. And that the only rational, logical thing to do it to serve him.

You know when a building is demolished, there’s the moment when the demolitions guy presses the button and you hear whooom and see a bit of smoke – and then nothing happens. There’s a pause. The building’s foundation has been blown away but it’s still standing, just for a moment. And then WHOOOOOMFFF it collapses in a huge pile of rubble and dust.

Well, the cross was that explosion on the foundation of this world. Jesus’ death and resurrection blew out any ideas we might have that there is no God. And we live now in the pause, the pause before the fall – before Jesus returns, this time not as Saviour, but as Judge. We live in the pause before the fall. And in this pause, we have an opportunity to be rescued. To know God, and to serve him living a life of great meaning and purpose.

Two implications, two results of Jesus’ death and resurrection being true:

1. We can know God!

I started off by saying that we all have a sense of the divine – of there being something or someone out there. Something more to life. Well, Jesus confirms that. “Here I am” he says. “You cannot reach me – so I have reached down to you.” And through his death and his resurrection we can know God – personally. Each of us.

Because the reason we can’t know God is because we have sinned against him. Like a barrier between us and God, my rebellion, my sin, my pretending to be God and ignoring the real God, means I cannot know him. I am cut off from him. I cannot reach him. Even if I try to be really really good, the Bible says it is no use. He is perfect. I am not. He is holy, I am unholy. Religion is a waste of time. Being good is useless. We cannot know God

Praise God that he then did what we could not. He bridged the gap, broke open the barrier, so that we could know him.

Every other religion or worldview says do! You must do this or do that to achieve a higher consciousness or be a better person or please God or the gods. Christianity does not say “do” it says “done”. Christ said on the cross “It is finished” it is done – and then proved it by rising from the dead.

Because of what Christ has done, we can know God! He has wiped away our sins, covered over our filth (like the donkey on Friday, remember?), paid the penalty for our rebellion of God and our ignoring Him. It is done. We don’t have to do anything to try to win God’s favour – it is done. He did it. It is His gift to us.

We can know God. You can know God.

2. Our life has great meaning and purpose

The fact that there is a God means that our lives are not just lived out here, on this stage, and we die to be eaten by worms and eventually forgotten. Jesus reveals that our lives are lived before Almighty God: before Him. He is raised up, seated on the throne in Heaven. Everything we do reflects back on our relationship – or lack of relationship – with him. We are eternal creatures, created with a spark of the divine – we are created, made to be with God. And so what we do here matters. In the movie Gladiator the main character Maximus utters a great line just before they ride into battle “What we do in life echoes in eternity”
“What we do in life echoes in eternity”
It’s true. What is your life echoing into eternity? Are you bringing glory to God? Is every moment of your life consumed with Him, honouring him, bringing him glory, doing what you were created to do?

Or are you in rebellion against him? Ignoring him? Bringing glory to you and your petty and small ambitions?

Because everything is done. The way to know God is open. But just like getting married or having kids - or even getting a dog - changes your life, knowing God changes things completely. You now live life in a different reality. The reality of heaven and hell. Ter reality of eternity.

Be warned, dear friends. Heaven and hell are real. The resurrection shows that. Jesus went through the pain of death – to rescue us from HELL. He believed in Hell. He knows it. Where is your life leading you? What is your echo in eternity? Heaven? Or Hell? Are you trusting and obeying Christ? Or yourself?

And are we telling others this? This is real, this is urgent! People around us are dying and going to hell! Jesus came to DIE in order to rescue people from Hell and we claim to be his followers yet can’t be bothered to even tell people. Risk inviting our neighbours to church because ooo they might think I’m weird. On that Final Day when we see them condemned to Hell will we still be worried about what they think of us? I say this to myself, to increase the pressure on myself to not be so apathetic, so lazy, to get myself to do what I know I should. This is reality. God forgive us for our laziness and disobedience! Praise Jesus that he came to die for sinners like us, that even our failures are taken care of – but that should drive us to proclaim all the louder!

I heard a story recently of a woman who’d just become a Christian. Overjoyed she said “does this mean I’m forgiven. Completely forgiven?” “yes, Jesus has taken your guilt and shame”. Overjoyed she just was bursting to tell people, and so opened her phone book and starting ringing systematically, every single person in her phone book to tell the joyous news: Jesus is alive, and he has forgiven me, and he can accept you too!

This Easter, let us be gripped by the joy of the good news: Christ really DID rise from the dead, and so we can know God, and live a life filled with meaning and purpose – a life lived in the reality of eternity, a life lived with heaven and hell in mind. Friends, as we go out this door, may God grant that we see this world, see our friends, neighbours work colleagues and family through his eyes – eyes that saw people heading to hell to eternal death – and so he came Himself to die, to rise again, to rescue us. Amen.