The Resurrection (Part 2 of 2)

If you listen to Truth for Life during the week, you know we are currently in a series featuring some of the most popular messages from the past 12 months.

It's a series we call Encore 2022. And on today's weekend program, we'll hear one of our Encore messages entitled The Resurrection. In this message, Alistair outlines the reality of Jesus' resurrection and challenges us to tell others about it. We're in Luke chapter 24. Why did Christianity emerge?

Why did it take the shape it did? Because of the fact of the resurrection. Aren't there alternatives? Yes, there certainly are. Should we pay attention to them? Well, it's good to know them. If we're going to engage our friends and neighbors in this matter, there are a number of facts we need to keep in mind. We've mentioned one or two.

Let me just run through them for you. Fact number one, the empty tomb. Everyone has agreed that this tomb, somehow or another, was empty—that this stone had been rolled away. Even with all of the angelic stuff and the women and so on, Colombo has to go and be confronted by the empty tomb.

You see him there with his raincoat and the little charout, and he's just looking, and he says, Yep, the tomb is empty. Right. We need an explanation for the empty tomb. Here is presenting evidence. This is a fact. This is not a fiction. We are all agreed, empty tomb. Secondly, fact—the origin and existence of the church.

Now, this is simply to reiterate in brevity what we've just pointed out. Why was there a church? Why did these individuals who were sad, sorrowful, defeated, confused, fed up—why were they all of a sudden the products of joy and hope and power and animation? Why did they begin to gather with one another and to sing songs of praise to this Christ? Why did they begin to tell others about this Jesus?

What are you going to do with that fact? Thirdly, the fact of the New Testament. Why do we have a New Testament? Why would anybody take the time to write down this material in such a way as it is done were it not for the fact that the Messiah was really alive? I mean, who needs a story about somebody who made these fantastic claims but yet, like many other spurious messiahs that had been around at the time, he finally came to a crushing halt and was buried in a tomb?

What do we do with the fact of the New Testament? How do we explain why it was that Luke and others picked up their pens and wrote this material down? Because they wanted to foist a great lie on their immediate readers and on subsequent history? Because they had a desire to create this bizarre notion that would be foisted down through time and throughout the ages? Or did they pick up their pens, because they were compelled to pick up their pens?

They were moved, as 2 Timothy says, or as 1 Peter says, that they were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they wrote as they were led along. We have to do something with it. Now, last night I had a tangential thought that I just want to mention to you. Because as I was going through this in my mind, I was reminded again of the Da Vinci Code that some of you have been reading. And where it really hits the high seas is in chapter 55, which is actually just about right in the middle of the book. Those of you who have read it will know. Those of you who haven't, I can't take time to tell you. It's a bit of a good yarn that begins, and they're all dealing with stuff, and they're running away in an armored car, the fenders hanging off the front, it's scraping on the ground, the police are chasing them, and eventually they find safety in the home of a chap called Sir Lee Teabing.

Sir Lee Teabing. A fairly erudite, wealthy, and intellectual soul, as the writer portrays him. And then, just as you've turned from page 229 to 230, as a normal casual reader, you're hit right between the eyes by this amazing diatribe that takes on New Testament Christianity—completely from nowhere. Now, I'll read you a little bit. Sophie sensed a rising air of academic anticipation in both her male companions.

A sense of academic anticipation—not silly-boy anticipation, not dumb-dumb anticipation, but academic anticipation. And after all, this is Sir Lee Teabing. This is not Billy Jenkins, you know, from Forty-Three Carsview Gardens. No, we've got this picture of someone of significance and erudition and worth. To fully understand the grail, Teabing continued, we must fully understand the Bible. "'How well do you know the New Testament?' he asked.

Sophie shrugged. Not at all, really. I was raised by a man who worshiped Leonardo da Vinci.

Teabing looked both startled and pleased and enlightened soul—superb. Then you must be aware that Leonardo was one of the keepers of the secrets of the Holy Grail, and he hid clues in his art. Robert told me as much, yes. And Da Vinci's views on the New Testament?

I have no idea." So he turns to Robert, and he says, Robert, just get me that book down there on the bottom shelf, and give me a couple of quotes from The Fly Leaf from Da Vinci. Quote number one, Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude. Here's another, Teabing said, pointing to a different quote, Blinding ignorance does mislead us, O wretched mortals, open your eyes.

Sophie felt a little chill. Da Vinci's talking about the Bible? Teabing nodded. Leonardo's feelings about the Bible relate directly to the Holy Grail. In fact, Da Vinci painted the true Holy Grail, which I will show you momentarily, but first we must speak of the Bible. And everything you need to know about the Bible can be summed up by the great canon Dr. Martin Percy. Teabing cleared his throat and declared, The Bible did not arrive by facts from heaven.

I beg your pardon? The Bible is a product of man, my dear, not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Now, this is really, really clever.

Because that is exactly true. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. So I said to myself last night—and it's months now since I read this book—I said, Who is canon Dr. Martin Percy? Real or fictitious? Online. Found him.

Real. In the university system, at the highest level in England, a self-avowed liberal theologian, the proponent of standard views of the New Testament, which every theological student knows. You're not theological students, therefore you don't know this.

You didn't do these studies. Let me tell you, when you go to school, you learn this stuff—that after the disciples had penned for us the New Testament, there were all kinds of knockoff copies. The argument of liberal scholarship is that the New Testament borrowed it from the Gnostics. But if you look carefully, you will discover that if anybody's doing any borrowing, it is the Gnostics that are borrowing it from the New Testament.

But they don't want that story out. Incidentally, I found the quote that gives us the quote here, The Bible did not arrive by thanks from heaven. This actually is in the Promethean Humanist.

You can tell how I spent my Saturday night. Under a heading, the Vatican has announced plans to rewrite the Bible, adding information from the Dead Sea Scrolls about the life and times of Jesus as a political activist. This won't cause consternation among believers around the world, says one biblical scholar—none other than our dear Dr. Martin Percy.

Why? Because there has never been a settled, definitive version of the Bible. Then here comes the quote. Only fundamentalists think it came in a thanks from heaven. No, we don't. In fact, we know it didn't. We know that the Scriptures were not written by the church.

Therefore, the church has no right to add to them or to redefine them. That the Scriptures were written as men were moved, carried along by the Holy Spirit. That the New Testament that we have is the product of divine human interaction. It is mysterious, it is compelling, and yet here, right in the heart of this book, it is picked up, and it is kicked completely out of the stadium. Now, why take all this time? I know how this goes.

People go. They go to the tapes, they say, I'd like the Da Vinci sermon. Which is such a shame, because this isn't the Da Vinci sermon. I'm just… This is a tangential reference. But unless you are living in another world from me, you are running across people who keep asking you about this.

And some of them are folks here from Parkside. What are we supposed to do with this? Don't be unsettled by it. This is standard, liberal hogwash.

It is routine. It is taught routinely in theological seminaries. It is founded and grounded in the German schools of theology at the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century.

There is nothing new under the sun. But the intriguing thing is that here on page 255 of one of the New York Times bestsellers, Dan Brown, for whatever reason, has determined that he's going to help to dismantle the notion that underlying the New Testament documents, there is nothing other than a resurrected Christ. Now, our time is gone, but the other two points would be the presence of communion. Actually, the presence of baptism and communion. How do you make sense of baptism and communion?

Especially the joyous way in which they engaged in it. How do you explain how they went up there and said, Kyrios Jesu? Instead of Kaiser, Kyrios. Caesar is Lord. They went out and they said that the Lord was the Lord of the world, that it was Kyrios Cosmo.

Why? If he wasn't? And what about just changed lives? What about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus? And what about the conversion of all the souls of Tarsus after him? Why did Christianity emerge as it did? Why did it take the shape it did?

Because—comes the answer of the disciples—because Jesus is resurrected. Are there alternative explanations? Oh yes, there are lots of them. We shouldn't be unsettled by that. We should assume it. There will always be knockoffs. Are there certain facts that need to be considered?

Yes, these amongst others. And finally, what then are we to do as we go back to work and school and play tomorrow? Well, we've got a story to tell. We've got a story to tell. It's a wonderful story. And at this point in history, apparently people really like stories.

Storybooks are selling well. So then tell them a story. Don't just throw big lumps of the Bible at them. Don't just start firing your verses at them, like you got a Tommy gun full of a few texts that you learn. Here come the Christians. Try that.

Try that. There's a reason why many of our friends think that we don't know what we're talking about. Because we don't know what we're talking about. Because we're like encyclopedia salesmen that have been trained along a certain line. If anybody gets us off the track, we have to start at the very beginning of the presentation again. Why?

Because we don't know where we are in the presentation. We have a story to tell. And the story is fantastic. Eastern morning was the dawn, was the birthday of God's new world. I don't have time to work this out for you. But Genesis 1—and he looked, and he saw that everything he'd made was good, and it was evening and morning, and it was the sixth day. And then on the seventh day, he rested from the work of creation.

What do you have here? Sixth day. It is finished.

The work of redemption is completed. Seventh day rest. First day of the week. First day of the new world. First day of the transformed existence. First day of the reality of the power of the Messiah. He's on that Easter.

Incidentally, I missed one of my points. The change from Saturday to Sunday is a fact to be reckoned with, isn't it? What are all these Jews doing this?

Doing this on the first day of the week. Don't they realize you're getting bothered for that? Haven't you read the Ten Commandments?

Don't you know the law of God? Aren't you supposed to be doing this? What are you doing here? This is the first day of the week.

Why are you doing this? Oh, he tells us in here. He says that the reason that everybody's doing this is because Constantine decided that the day of worship should be the day of the worship of the Son—S-U-N—and that everybody since has been guilty of sun worshiping and been hoodwinked into it by Constantine and the Roman Catholic Church. That is, of course, the same story that comes from Seventh-day Adventists, who write to me on a weekly basis to say what a dreadful rascal I am to be leading all you people into worship on the first day of the week, when if I had my head on square, I would know that the worship should be observed on the seventh day. Because after all, they say, the only reason this has happened is—according to Dan Brown, they say the exact same thing—because of Constantine. And who needs to listen to Constantine? Exactly!

He's good, but not great. The fact of the matter is, they were worshiping on the first day of the week long before Constantine. And Constantine just put it together for the sake of the calendar. Why were they doing this? Because it was the first day of the new world! They were up and at it!

Bursting forth in glorious day! Now, this is what we've got to get to if we're going to do the job. It's going to take far more than proof texts. It's actually going to demand much more of us than simply, He lives within my heart. No first-century Jew would have understand messiahship in relationship to, He lives within my heart. Remember, what did they want? They want a rebuilt temple, they want the pagans ditched, and they wanted justice served.

In other words, it was a far more comprehensive thing, and my loved ones, it is a far more comprehensive thing. There are plenty of people who will tell you about individuals that live in their hearts. Not only Jesus, but all kinds of other people, they'll tell you, live in their hearts.

Some will even tell you they've sold their souls to the devil who lives in their heart. Now, is that not an experience that is real? Yes, it is a continuing experience. But the experience of Christ in us is built upon an historic moment in time. It is the history of the event that gives credence to the experience.

It is not the experience that is read back to create the event. So we must go out. Go out to a world in which meaning is lost. Go out to a world in which people don't know who they are. Go out into a world where the idea of the story is completely gone. Go back into a world which has… There's just a big stew out there being eaten by everybody—a cultural, economic, moral, religious, spiritual stew. Nobody knows what it means, nobody knows what it should mean, nobody thinks it should mean anything at all, and the word is, just poke around in the stew, you'll probably find something you like. You'll probably find something to your liking. Find a little religious morsel. There might be some big bits in there.

Would you like a little rice with that? Now, that's the world we live in. It's not the world of a hundred years ago. The world of a hundred years ago, you could go into Starbucks or its equivalent, you could go down to the local store, and you could sit on the porch, and you could talk with someone about God, about sin, about judgment, about heaven, and about hell. And you would have, within the framework of that story, points of reference to which you could refer and from which you could extrapolate and teach. Not today. There is no story.

There's no story. I mean, the cultural picture of our day is the personal stereo. It's the iPod. Stick it in your ears, download the MP3, and live your own reality in a world of conflicting realities.

It's a perfect picture. Now, how are we gonna get over that? Well, I say to you again, it's gonna demand—it's gonna demand that I live out the resurrection life. I asked myself this week, Do I live out the resurrection life? Well, it's an easier question to say, Have I preached the resurrection life? That's not difficult.

I did that one. The question I asked myself was, To what degree do I live out the resurrection life? In a world of suspicion and mistrust and fear and doubt, how much of my life is marked by joy and hope and peace and genuine love? And what about our congregation? A congregation like this this morning, that represents music and art and philosophy and education and medicine and poetry and politics and theology. A congregation like ours, which has the opportunity now to walk out onto the leading edge of culture, or perhaps just stand where we've always stood, on the sidelines, shouting the odds about everything is going crazy and wrong and bad, and it wasn't like this in the good old days.

It's gonna take a tremendous amount if we're gonna do this and do it right. Living out the resurrection life in a way that will not only challenge but charm. Charm. Is there anything charming about our representation of Christ? Evangelical Christianity is good at the challenge.

You'll hear it all the time. We're challenging the views on same-sex relationships, and justifiably so. We're challenging the view on this. We're challenging the view on that. We're holding the line for this. We're doing the line for that.

Yes, very good, all agreed. I've signed up for every part of it. But here's the issue. Who is doing the stuff with the AIDS victims in the hospital? Who is doing the stuff with the orphans? Who is, in a culture of mistrust, displaying this amazing love of Christ that reaches into people whose lives are despairing, unraveled, broken, shattered, and ended, and communicating the fact that in this messianic story there is a whole new way of viewing the world—and doing it with joy and with gentleness, with humor, with good judgment, with wisdom—yes, and with genuine respect? See, it's not enough for us to circle the wagons.

That's too easy. You know, let's all get together, circle the wagons, affirm what we believe, close down the options, become like the Qumran community in the first century, go up in the hills and hide from it all, and hope that Jesus will come back soon. If the first disciples had done that, we'd never be here to say the benediction. And if not now, when do you think we should do this?

And if not us, who do you think's gonna do this? A couple of compelling and convicting questions from Alistair Begg today on Truth for Life Weekend. Keep listening.

Alistair will be back in just a minute to close today's program. If you'd like to share the gospel with others but you're not sure how to begin, let me encourage you to visit the Learn More page on our website. There are a couple of free videos there, each of them less than 10 minutes in length.

They're perfect for downloading to share with friends or to watch to get tips on how to talk to others. You can watch or share one or both of these videos as often as you'd like. Just visit truthforlife.org slash learn more. And this is the last weekend we'll be talking about the book Read This First. This is a book that will help you maximize your Bible study by walking you through some simple guidelines to help you get to the heart of what God is saying in his word. The book is perfect for sharing with friends who may be new to reading the Bible. Find out more about the book Read This First when you visit our website at truthforlife.org. And if you're wondering where to get started practicing some of the tools that are outlined in the book Read This First, let me suggest the Bible reading plan that's available from Truth for Life. This is a one-year guide that will take you through the Old Testament and the New Testament in 12 months. You can download the Bible reading plan for free, or there's a booklet that contains the plan.

You can order that from us at truthforlife.org slash store. Now here is Alistair to close with prayer. God our Father, send us out now with your blessing in the power of the risen Christ so that our lives may challenge and charm, that in every avenue of life—in the academy, at the workbench, in the home, in recreation, in art and philosophy, in manufacturing and business—the reality of the risen Christ may so permeate all that we are and all that we do, that we may be able to tell people the good news that the kingdom of God has come. And may grace, mercy, and peace from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one today and forevermore. Amen.

I'm Bob Lapeen. Thanks for listening. The fourth commandment calls us to keep the Sabbath holy. Is that even possible or necessary in our world today? Find out how relevant God's ancient law really is when you join us next weekend. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.