arms for a little while. Children grab glasses. I raised four children and I know the children love to grab your glasses. I love this time of year when I don't need a coat and I can walk from parking lot to the car.
I don't have a coat underneath me when I'm driving. I always love the spring when we're greening up in the fall when it's nice to walk and there are no bugs. So I take off my corduroy jacket. I think that kind of dates me but I've realized that now that I'm retired even if I put on socks that don't match I've discovered that I don't care.
You hear corduroy pillowcases are being described in the media. They're making headlines. Somebody's awake. Warren Shocker and I torment each other with such jokes.
You have to know Warren. I think I'll keep my Bible here and here's my everything laser pointer and thing to advance. Good good. It's a pleasure to be here.
Shall we pray? Father it's always a joy and a privilege to look into your Word and yet we are dependent. We are dependent people. We need your spirit to guide our thoughts, our hearts, our minds to help us to focus.
May we this morning put aside those things that might distract and focus on the glories of our Savior. For we worship not a dead prophet but a living Savior. May we rejoice in Him as we consider His resurrection this morning and in His name we pray. Amen.
My message is entitled New Life in Christ and the risen Christ and I'm thinking of it not only from a historical point of view a little bit later on but from a you might say a highly subjective point of view, subjective as well as objective. I want to address the question what kind of new life Christians claim that they have new life in Christ. 1 Corinthians 5 says that you and I are a new creation in Christ. That is something that's alive.
You don't create people who are dead. God creates people in His image and then it is possible to be born again and to have a new life a second birth as we know from the Scriptures. When I was in my going from my first year of university at Memorial to my second I was conscious of something. I had been on a roller coaster academically knowing both highs and lows and it made me wonder about the meaning of life particularly it made me wonder about the purpose of my life regardless of what my marks might be.
So you get a degree so you get a job so you buy food and you get up in the morning and you eat some food and you go to work and people talk about the treadmill and the rat race and things like that. I began to be conscious of these questions. I had attended philosophy courses on the side in addition to the engineering program and had been reading about Buddhism and I found I'll tell you what I found I found bankruptcy I found bankruptcy spiritual bankruptcy and lack of solid evidence on which I might carry on now my mother had exposed me to the gospel as a boy and even growing up there was influence from Bible chapel people and that was very good but as sometimes happens as I entered into my teenage years into my university years I forgot all about those things and teachings at the university also negatively affected my attitudes and so as I say I had a academic roller coaster and I was looking at my I sat at the I remember sitting down at my parents dining room table and opening used to get it in the mail there's no such thing no such thing as the web or the internet you get a post and open my marks and my mother was pleased and I said to her but what does it mean and she had no answer my mother was a believer but she was a simple believer and that was probably too complicated a question to ask my mother so I had empty A's I had A's that were empty and I had a nothing life and I felt that I had no purpose in my life lack meaning and then I went into a far country and in Luke chapter 15 you read about that prodigal son who goes into a far country and it wasn't so much riotous living but I was far away I was far away far away in my heart far away in my mind and then God used a Malaysian Chinese guy who befriended me in in engineering school EC Lim and he shocked me I thought you know I don't use very nice language and I engage in some things that are unsavory and yet this Pentecostal young man came beside me and he said David I'd like you to be best man at my wedding you could have knocked me over with a feather filthy guy like me a non-believer like me you want me to go in the church and all of that he said yeah and I'll never forget the what shame the the cut the cut that came to my heart he introduced me to the man that would be marrying he and his wife and he said pastor this is David Hanson he's like the prodigal son why don't you just stick a knife in me right now and I began to think I began to think about things that I already knew but no longer believed knew them as a child and you know God brought me back I came to the end of myself and I one day in February of 1977 got on my bicycle and went down Portugal Cove Road in St. John's and went to inside of a Baptist Church to know anybody I wonder I wonder if they're going to give me an opportunity to get right with God they did it was very traditional come to the front I came to the front and then prayed with that pastor Davis in the back and I remember praying about this because the verse that was used in my life was this verse there's one thing I was very certain about a lot of you might say uncertainties there's one thing I was absolutely certain about and that was whatever this was talking about whatever abundant life that was being described in this verse I had no clue what that was about but I wanted it I wanted it I wanted what's just described here and as I say I did something that you I wouldn't believe it I wouldn't if you said you're going to come forward in a Baptist church right right that's going to happen that's exactly what happened and God spoke to me and dealt with me and brought me into fellowship with his son and I began to know what this verse means and meant did you notice in Luke 15 that the father says in verse 13 this my son was dead and now he's alive do you ever think about that notice that I sometimes ask this question on ESL to people at what point in this parable did the son expire and biologically die at no point did the son die and get put in a grave and yet the father said this my son was dead and now he is alive and they have feasts that is because the abundance part of the abundance that God brings us into is restored relationships first of all with him the father and secondly as I was to find out gradually over time restored relationships and a basis for relationships with other people people began of course giving me Christian books to read and one of them that was given to me was written by C.S.
Lewis a professor an apologist who had a series of radio broadcasts during the Second World War Clive Staples Lewis a very well-known Christian apologist and we were speaking about this earlier in the week wrote a book that someone gave me called the Screw Tape Letters the Screw Tape Letters now that's a funny title what is this now what this is is a fictional account of a man who was like me who became a believer and a demon gets assigned to him we think that perhaps we think that angels get assigned to believers in this book a demon to work against the guardianship and protection and blessing of God was assigned to this new believer and I believe his name was Wormwood and Wormwood needed advice from a more senior knowledgeable demon named Screw Tape and so it is an epistolary book it is a series of letters in which there are correspondence back between two demons as to how to wreck his life and this is a disaster that he has come to faith in Christ flat out catastrophe but maybe we can still ruin him and I'll never forget thinking back on my life when I read a sentence in that book Screw Tape advises Wormwood our father below not our father in heaven our father below has no not never yet produced one good thing what that's interesting Satan has never yet produced one good thing everything that Satan does is a twist it's a counterfeit it's a distortion of something good that God made keep your eyes open for that keep your eyes open for things that can get you off track which are merely counterfeits of something that's very good that God made Satan has no good creative ability in the sense that God has and so I went on in my Christian life and gradually grew it's hard to believe that that was 1977 and I changed venues from my studies and I didn't like my new university I will say that I moved from St. John's Newfoundland to Guelph Ontario well had a water resources I thought water was the most interesting thing I water resources degree and I digress but didn't like the program didn't like many of the professors didn't feel that it was really what I was looking for except I met my future wife and that made up for everything one of the things that is about this life this new life in Christ we quite rightly I think everybody thinks especially non-believers sometimes where will I go when I die I think that's a that's a pretty good question at least it's a very important question but it tends to move us away from a New Testament focus it tends to cause us to think that we go through life however we go through life and then we die and then the big question arises what happens then a lot of people outside of Christ would say don't know don't want to think about it I'm hoping for the best well that it's hell being hell that is a valid concern however when you read the New Testament what you realize is that the life that you can have in the risen Christ although it is an eternal life you can have it now the life that the Christian receives by faith is actually in them from the moment they trust in Christ and you might say that death is like a little hiccup the eternal life that we receive when we trust in Christ just simply continues on and brings us into the presence of God here are a couple of verses three verses I've been crucified with Christ it's no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me this is one man's testimony it is the personal testimony of a man who encountered Christ while traveling to Damascus and saw the risen Christ and he felt like his life wasn't really his anymore the life that he was living was in union with Christ that was his life the life which I now live is in Christ it's not really me who's doing the living by myself that's important we take that through our lives it is very important and it is based on knowledge of the Son of God having personal knowledge of the Son of God and the testimony is this that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his Son that's where it is we're alive with Christ the life that we enjoy with him is now and it is eternal second Corinthians one 22 who has also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts that spirit with a capital S some of God is given the old King James word earnest as a noun not as an adverb what is that that's interesting the original transactional sense was that you have something on deposit that is redeemed later in the commercial sphere but it has moved into a more it moved into a more general application and what is this earnest this is a noun this is a person this is a testimony in your heart because someone is living in your heart is it a portent is it a harvinger is it is it an intimation it is all of those things and in a way none of those things because all of those things sort of merely look ahead and this is more than that this is a gift the gift of God spirit for your heart so that you can walk with Christ so that you can live with Christ that is the earnest of the spirit that the original word arabon now in modern Greek culture I read means engagement ring so if you know anybody who goes to a Greek church or who speaks Greek and you see a lady with an engagement ring on I see you have an arabon they'll probably be very shocked that you know that an engagement ring is an arabon the believer is engaged to Christ has the earnest of the salvation is sealed ring is circular there's a ceiling that goes on when you trust in Christ and he has given us that in our hearts now I come to one of my favorite passages of scripture in one way it's quite a strange passage of scripture how in the world can you be talking in in almost the same breath about a historical figure named Pontius Pilate and the fact that God lives in an inapproachable light you're going to talk about the fact that God lives in inapproachable light in the same breath that you're speaking about Pontius Pilate that's very interesting that Paul would throw that in there that's because our new life is founded on history we have a historical event called the resurrection Christ died he was buried and he rose again when he was sent to the cross by Pontius Pilate it was a historical event there are archaeological evidences there are monetary evidences there are the writings of people like Tacitus and Josephus this is not some fictional character there's not fictional events it's historical and yet and yet we move here into what you might call Christian metaphysics Christian metaphysics physics of course is very scientific I love physics but we're not talking about gravity and things like that we're talking about spiritual things what does it say I direct you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who testify the good confession before Pontius Pilate that you keep the commandment without fault or approach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ which he will bring about at the proper time he who is the blessed and only sovereign the King of kings and Lord of Lords who alone possesses immortality and dwells in an inapproachable unapproachable light whom no one has seen or can see to him be the honor and eternal dominion I am amazed and comforted at the same time by the fact that the God of life all of life biological life spiritual life life is one God and he is the source of life the world would say well you know there's biological life that we can talk about scientifically anything else I don't know that's that's for the Christians maybe but I'll never forget an interview of the atheist Richard Dawkins who wrote the God delusion and they were pushing him back and pushing him back the interview was kind of pushing him back to the beginning of a single cell a single cell Dr. David Burchtinsky says is galactic in its complexity and yet if you put together all the chemicals in the right place is it alive no the moment after I die all the chemicals are in the right place and I'm gone everything is in its arrangement probably the worst for where but everything is in its arrangement and I'm gone conversely and you think of a cell it became alive the chemicals were all in the right place and all of these thousands of proteins arranged in just the right way and molecular machines is fascinating to look at the molecular machines so Dawkins was pressed go back to the how do you get the spark of life he said I don't know maybe it came from another planet goodness me you're a professor doesn't that just transfer the problem to the other planet come on I am comforted and encouraged that the God in whom I trust and in whom I believe is the author of everything the author of life the author of life itself and he is glorious he is the source of immortality in that sense here in first Timothy 6 he is that kind of source he has that kind of glory of in approachable life there's no one like him and the Lord Jesus is God the Sun and no one has seen the Father except the Sun and his full glory and so I think we can take comfort that it is a God of life in any respect whether it's biological life a spiritual life God is the source of all life and again with regard to this eternal life what is it about it's about knowing God and this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent the God of life is who you need to know he can give you life he can give you eternal life and there is no life like it it is an abundant life there is not it's not necessarily an easy life but it's a meaningful purpose for life it's an abundant life now I come to a relatively long passage but you know what it's Easter morning and we're gonna read it and you're gonna live with it and you're gonna take it in and this is very important this is amazing when I think about all of the religious theories of other religions I really found in my life and in my studies and in my thinking that that's what they were theories theories God has so arranged things that our faith hinges upon a person and an event and it's not a negotiable thing it's not really a negotiable thing to say someone was dead and now he's alive and people saw him and that's who I believe in and someone might hoot with laughter at that statement yeah they might or they might say on what basis are you saying that I'm saying it on the basis of historical records and eyewitness accounts so here we go now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already removed from the tomb and so she ran and came to Simon Peter into the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them they have taken the Lord from the tomb and we do not know where they have put him so Peter and the other disciple left and they were going to the tomb and you know what happened there's some very interesting details going in looking in seeing what's there the two were running together and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first and he stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there however he did not go in so Simon Peter also came following him and he entered the tomb just right on right on in I'm going in and he looked at the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth which had been on his head not lying with the linen wrappings but folded up in a place by itself so the other disciple who had first come to the tomb also entered then and he saw and believed for they did not yet understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead so the disciples went away again to their own homes but Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping so as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb she had already seen the stone rolled away earlier that morning and she saw two angels in white sitting one at the head one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying and they said to her woman are you weeping she said to them because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have put him when she had said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and yet she did not know that it was Jesus Jesus said to her woman why are you weeping whom are you seeking thinking that he was the gardener she said to him sir if you have carried him away tell me where you put him and I will take him away Jesus said to her Mary she turned and said to him in Hebrew Raboni which means teacher and so when we think of these accounts in the gospels and the one from John that we have just read we can think about it from the point of view of a lawyer we all know that from perhaps Francis Bacon we go back to the reproducibility of scientific experiments and so the scientific mind says well how in the world are you going to test things that happened a long time ago as to whether they actually occurred but of course the entire realm of archeology the entire realm of history even other realms in the humanities that look back on other civilizations and how those civilizations worked may have an element of science such as in archeology but essentially scholars who look at things in the past approach things from a pseudo legal point of view the way that a lawyer might examine the testimony of a witness on the witness stand when I was an expert witness that it was settled out of court they warned me they warned me about how to behave in the witness stand it's important not to digress it's important of course to tell the truth as simply as possible it's important to be coherent and systematic on the technical subject at hand and not jump back and forth and I think what we see here is coherent systematic eyewitness testimony and when lawyers have investigated and have evaluated the testimonies that are available to us today they have come to the conclusion that this is reliable eyewitness testimony that is being written about Harvard University has recently suffered a great blow to its reputation in fact more than one but the Ivy League universities you know many of them and especially Harvard and I was on Yale campus looking at some of their founding documents their their statements very Christian origins and now these are some of the most anti-Christian places you could ever find but when Harvard University was being founded in their law school was being founded there was a man named Simon Greenleaf Simon Greenleaf one of the founders of the Law School of Harvard University the top law school said to be he found this testimony these testimonies to be credible eyewitness testimonies there are differences of course there are different when you have eyewitnesses who come at something from different angles you might have a car accident at an intersection and interview 20 people there will be some differences and observations maybe someone will notice how many pedestrians were on the south side and someone else didn't but there's one thing they did all notice there was a car accident I got that part and when you look at the eyewitness testimony and you synthesize it there's actually a book called the Dydash which was a synthesis of the gospels that came out quite early on in the history of Christianity there are certain things that you can't escape you just can't escape these eyewitness testimonies they are credible testimonies one of the things that they might look for for example I watch my time is the reversion unconsciously by the tested testator the person giving witness the reversion to being in the moment when we read for example in John 1941 it says they placed him in a new tomb that word means a lot to me that means that the person who wrote this down it's almost like I I remember the mindset that we had that he was put in a new tomb in fact when he wrote that it was perfectly well known whose tomb it was it was the tomb of Joseph Arimathea the witness is bringing you into the event at the time we didn't know we put him in this is all can I get the body can I yes go ahead but you know from Friday to Sunday happens rather than takes you there when Jesus spoke with a two man on the road on the road to Emmaus he revealed himself to them and they came back and you can read in Luke 24 32 he's risen he is risen that's how it's recorded you like we say you had to be there he's in the moment this is how it was related this is I witness testimony I wouldn't just testimony also includes plausible details I have a question for you and I love asking questions that I can't answer or don't know the answer to did you notice that the eyewitnesses said and the face cloth was by itself folded up can anybody tell me why I sure don't know why ah that's a new one on me but I like it and so you have the unconscious presentation of details one of the things that false witnesses will do is they appear to have an agenda and they keep reverting back to an agenda and the continuity is broken the need to explain details people people sometimes feel if they're uncertain it's on every single detail I need to explain it you can just get this beautiful flow of this account details are presented but not necessarily explain now I have a question for people that say you know come on risen from the dead yes read it please read it hmm which part do you reject are you saying that no one saw that napkin by his head is that part that you didn't like what basis do you have for saying that that's as legitimate eyewitness detail that the eyewitness doesn't explain but everybody saw it and as it happened as God directed wrote it down eventually it became a matter of record these are the kinds of things that lawyers like Frank Morrison who wrote the book who moved the stone who was able who was motivated who had means motive and opportunity not the disciples that's the title of the book I recommended to you another lawyer who looks at these testimonies and said this is historical eyewitness testimony the fact is you know Jesus died people that don't even want to atheists who don't even want to talk about the reality of the spiritual realities scholars atheist scholars basically indisputable the existence of the historical person Jesus Christ of Nazareth is indisputable the fact that he died on a Roman cross is essentially indisputable in terms of the scholastic and historical information and what is called the historicity of the manuscripts which then leads us to the resurrection the resurrection when Peter got up in Acts chapter 2 and he said this Jesus you have crucified they were cut to the heart why didn't one of them say wait a minute the bodies in the Kidron Valley with the other two guys is burning there where they throw it's what they used to do criminals criminals don't get a decent burial then anybody say I I saw the body over 3,000 people 3,000 people who are in that place at that time trusted in the Lord Peter presents Jesus as the Messiah they had crucified the Son of God they had crucified the Messiah 3,000 of them I think it was the 3,000 who were cut to the heart trusted and believed the message of Peter later you'll remember Paul is going before Felix then fastest then Herod the second Herod Agrippa and it says that Agrippa and Bernice you got to hear this you got to hear this Paul guy you got to hear this all right I'm in says a real matter team anyway it says that Agrippa and Bernice came in with pomp and circumstance with all of their fancy clothing and all that pomp and circumstance I think it was a good thing I wasn't there I would have burst out laughing put me in jail but you have Paul saying these things were not done in a corner and you know it no no no no no time to go no confrontation of the facts well that's on if the individual is not willing to confront the facts that's that's on them we come to some passage this morning that was read by David McDonald and this is a life this risen life this resurrection life that the believer who trusts in Christ and walks with Christ enjoys one day this life is going to change everything it's going to change everything people sometimes say well you know it's kind of a crutch that you have you need a I guess you need this kind of some kind of pseudo emotional support in your life and if you found this Jesus stuff helpful that's fine that's fine for you I think you have a crutch called Jesus how disrespectful is that moreover it's not that I need a crutch I think I'm in a body bag on a gurney outside of Christ I am dead I'm not walking with a crutch I'm not walking at all I am dead dead in sin as it says in Romans so let's get it straight I am in a very very bad place outside of Christ but although outside of Christ I am dead in sin in Christ I have resurrection life and that resurrection life is described in 1 Corinthians 15 so let's read it for as an animal die so also in Christ will all be made alive but each in his own order Christ the first fruits after that those who are Christ's at his coming then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to our God and Father when he has abolished all rule and all authority and all power I am so looking forward to that because I'm very unimpressed with the present rule and authority of men it has always been thus men have never been perfect leaders I look forward to the day when the Lord Jesus will set things right and he will establish his own rule and his own authority using his own power I look forward to that day when everything will change jumping down to verse 42 so also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown a perishable body it is raised an imperishable body it is sown in dishonored is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power when you and I has believers are raised in power then our redemption will be complete you have I hope the engagement ring around your heart you are sealed you've been sealed by the Spirit as Paul reiterates Ephesians 1 the day will come when you'll shed this this is getting creakier every day if you know anything about that but the day will come when you will be raised in power and your redemption will be complete it's a glorious thing to think about the fact that he has risen and that you can know that resurrection power I have a verse that I want to share with you 1 Corinthians 15 19 and along along the vein of the world that says maybe you you have a crutch or maybe you believe in something that seems to help you get along in life this verse is quite important it's in the context of discussions of the resurrection it says this if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable most pitiable now my granddaughter Poppy if she has an imaginary friend and talks to people who aren't there Mary doesn't get worried because these things tend to pass away as the child gets older so if someone says you know I have my life with Christ and I pray and God works in my life God accomplishes things in my life God does things in my life and I talk to him every day am I crazy do I seem to you to be a deluded crazy person Paul says if all of this is fake we are the most pitiful my dad used to watch the jet clap at thing in the Beverly Hillbillies and when jet clamped from the backwards of Tennessee would see something that was very substandard he'd say in his southern accent just pitiful just beautiful pitiful that is actually where we are if all of this is false unless it's true if it's true and we do enjoy life in Christ and we do have that eternal life and we do have the earnest of our salvation and we are looking at a historical event that spells out the implications for our future both here and later then that is amazing and wonderful and I submit to you it is absolutely true I am not talking to an imaginary friend I do not believe in fairy tales so if your friends talk to you like that correct them and say actually I would like you to imagine me as the biggest idiot that you know if you really think that everything that I believe and all of my praying is something that's going on inside of this five inch diameter thing in here if you really think that I want you to think of me as a complete fool miserable pitiable idiot and then watch my life watch my life can an unbelievable look at your life and say no I don't think he's demented he has purpose in his life he has meaning in his life he has joy in his life these things don't come from talking to imaginary friends like poppy these are realities that come into our lives by the Holy Spirit whom we have been given shall we pray thank you Father that we have in your word the testimony of things that are true the Lord Jesus is the one in whom we trust with with him we walk and we look forward to a day in which our redemption shall be complete we pray that you would part us with your blessing and encourage us with your word today and this week we pray in Jesus name amen thank you for your attention