A sample of evidence

Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

Amen. Acts chapter 1, verses 1 to 8. In my former book, Theopolis, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions to the Holy Spirit and the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke to them about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them a command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait until for the gift of my father he promised, which you have heard me speak about.

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they met together, they asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or dates that the father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes unto you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. This is Paul talking to the church at Corinth about why we must believe in the resurrection.

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one of normally born.

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Now to Mary, he had to dissuade her from touching him just immediately, because he said, I've yet to arise to my Father. But later on, in a different context, he's with Thomas, who said, unless you remember my address last week, unless I see the print of the nails and put my finger there and the wound in his side and put my fist there, I won't believe. All right, Thomas, touch me.

Touch me. You remember how John says when he writes his epistle, again, I referred to this last week, speaking of our Lord Jesus, him who we have seen, whom we have heard, who our hands have handled of the word of life, seeing, hearing, touching, the senses, all these were brought to bear by these early disciples of our Lord Jesus to determine what? Well, that he had come back. Many convincing proofs that there is a sense in which you can, and it's hard to describe this, because it's like describing sight to a man who's always been blind.

And unless you've had some experience of the Lord Jesus and of his grace, it's very difficult for you to acknowledge this, but there is a sense in which Christian people, even today, have the same experience of Thomas and know the presence of the Lord and feel the fact that, yes, he did go to the cross and he does bear permanent wounds as a sort of badge, as a trophy of what he endured. He showed me his hands, which were nailed for my sinning. He showed me his side.

Let me quote that aright. He showed me his side, which was marred for my sinning. He showed me his hands, which were nailed to the tree.

And now I love Jesus, and Jesus loves me. Again, perhaps you weren't so familiar with that, but the old hymn of Isaac Watts, he talks about the cross, as though he was there. When I survey the wondrous cross, that's what we do at the tab.

Every Sunday when we come around the Lord's table, we survey the cross. When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and poor contempt on all my pride. See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.

And so Watts continues. I was at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem some years ago, and it seemed to me that not only does one have a sense of the death of our Lord Jesus as a Christian, but also you have a sense of his resurrection, even a greater mystical, spiritual realization of what the Savior has done. And so I rewrote Isaac Watts' hymn.

When I survey the wondrous tomb, from which the Prince of Glory rose, refreshing joy sweeps all my gloom, for he has triumphed o'er his foes. Many convincing proofs over a period, continue in the verse, over a period of 40 days. This wasn't a one-off.

I don't understand the significance of 40 in scriptures. Maybe some of you who are more gifted than I, and I do say that very sincerely because I recognize that we've got some great men and women of God and of the book can help me in this. But it is somewhat strange in the way in which the figure 40 comes in scripture.

40 days flood, 40 days Moses is up on the mountain having intercourse with the Lord, 40 days, Elijah is in the same condition, 40 days our Lord Jesus is in the wilderness. And not just a flash in a pan, his resurrection appearances, but a prolonged duration, 40 days. Why is this? Well, to demonstrate surely that over a period of time many people, both sexes, different walks of life had an experience of him so that the cumulative effect of the evidence is such that none can say that the notion that Jesus was raised from the dead was a figment of the imagination.

You know, there are sort of inbuilt indications of the truth of scripture for those who are sensitive enough and objective enough to read them and to come to positive conclusions. When you take this notion of this lady, this dear woman, Mary of Magdalene, is seeing the Lord Jesus in the garden, the first to recognize him. Now according to Jewish custom, her testimony didn't count.

Chauvinism was there in the first century as it still is with us today in some degree and in some societies and it's not been evacuated from our own society. But in the culture of his day, he knew that he had to bring very good, robust evidence and so he speaks about the Lord Jesus appearing to Peter, appearing to James, appearing to 500 irons, says the apostle Paul. Last of all, he appeared to me who am less than the least of all the apostles.

You see how the evidence actually fits into the culture of the day and there's no indication of the manipulation or the writing in to bring about a sort of artificial credibility. Tim, quite rightly, a couple of notes and news issues ago made reference to Morrison's book Who Moved the Stone and you know that was a book that was never intended to be written by that title. In fact, the first chapter he calls the book that never was written because he started off as a skeptical lawyer and he sifted the evidence and his presupposition was that this whole business of Jesus being raised from the dead was a myth.

He had a sort of Durham theology. He believed in the Christ idea. He believed in the Christ ethic.

But the notion of Jesus physically coming back from the dead, that was too much. But unlike some moderns, when he sifted the evidence, he was prepared to shift his presuppositions and to come to the conclusion that the only explanation for the phenomenon of the Christian churches, this same Jesus was raised from the dead. I think of another man, James Phillips, one of the early translators of the more modern versions of the Bible.

And before he'd done the whole of the New Testament, in fact, he was into the Gospels. He was talking about the impact that the record was having upon his sensitive mind and he said that translating the Greek was just like going into an old derelict farmhouse as an electrician to rewire and suddenly he discovers, does this electrician, that all the plugs are live. There is an indication of power.

There is a vibrancy across every page. The old Puritans used to talk about the internal testimony of the Spirit to the truth of God's Word. And it's to that that I was referring just a little while ago.

There is a sense, a subjective sense, almost a mystical way, in which the Lord Jesus does minister by His Spirit to people who read this book. That's why, you see, we make so much of Scripture from this pulpit. How many times have you heard me, Tim, or anyone else who proclaims the Word of God here say, don't just listen to what we have to say, check us with Scripture.

The only thing that is important that we can bring to you is Scripture itself. And when you read of our blessed Lord, you discover that in many ways, in convincing fashions, over a period of 40 days, He appears and He convinces the most unlikely people. For example, you take His brother James.

Did you know that our Lord had a brother called James? Not just an apostle James, but His brother. Now, the brothers and the sisters, did you know Jesus had sisters? They were embarrassed by the ministry of Jesus. There is that in the record that allows you to make this conclusion.

Sometimes they came to the edge of a crowd where He'd been ministering and they sent a message through to Him and it would seem that they remonstrated with Him. He was an embarrassment to them. I'm not suggesting so much for Mary, but certainly for His brothers.

But the day came when Jesus, during this period of 40 days, appeared to James, His own brother, and so convinced Him that James becomes one of the leading men of the church in Jerusalem and ultimately pays a supreme penalty and offers His life for the advance of the cause of the gospel, but not before He's been able to write an epistle which is impregnated with the teachings of all that He'd heard from His brother during the times when He'd listened into His ministry, perhaps in an unbelieving state. He shows Himself to them. He does so over a period of 40 days.

And then you get another little piece of information that Luke supplies. When He appeared to them, He wasn't just revealing Himself in terms of, well, here I am, fellows, but He used the opportunity to buttress, to underline all that He'd been teaching during the 36 months He had been with them physically. He spoke to them about the kingdom of God.

Those of you who've been attendants on Sunday morning, it's good to see many youngsters present too, have been hearing us try to explain and expound the Sermon on the Mount. And we've told you that the King is setting up regulations for His citizens. This is how we are to live, blessed are the pure in spirit, for they shall see God.

There are certain things that members of the kingdom will do that is so different from the way that the ordinary man or woman in the world lives, that this distinguishes them. Well, this is what the Lord was teaching His disciples all the time, that there's a broad way, there's a narrow way. You're called to the narrow way.

There's the kingdom of darkness, there's the kingdom of light. You're called to the kingdom of light. The time will come when the gospel that I'm preaching will be deposited in you, and you will continue the work that I have commenced.

So when you read the Acts of the Apostles again, you get that same internal witness. These are the things that Jesus continues to do. How does He continue to do them? Well, through the apostles who are linked to Him spiritually, as I shall demonstrate in a moment or so.

He tells them about the kingdom. He affirms all that they have begun to understand, and now it's becoming that much more clear, because they're perceiving it from the other side of Calvary, from the other side of the empty tomb. And not only does our Lord tell them about the kingdom, but in so telling them, He must have buttressed their faith.

I love that illustration. I've used it before, because it's very difficult to get good illustrations of the resurrection of Jesus. But there is one of William the Conqueror.

On one occasion, this great man was reckoned to be dead, and it was untrue. The report was inaccurate. But the depression and the despondency that came upon his troops was such that he felt that the battle would go against his forces, unless they realized that William was still sound and also in brain.

And so he jumped onto his steed, and he galloped right into the thick of the battle, and he addressed his men, and he said, I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive. And as a result, he put heart into them. Now you see these men, these disciples, Galileans, the majority of them, they have been depressed.

We have thought that this would have been the man who would have done this and would have done the other. You remember the remarks of the two on the Emmaus Road. And so Jesus goes, and he shows himself to all of them so that it becomes an essential qualification to be called an apostle for you to have seen the risen Christ, confirming who he was and what he had taught, and sending them on into this world to continue the ministry.

And so we're told he spoke about the kingdom of God. But verse 4, on one occasion, Luke recalls he was eating with them. Ghosts don't eat.

Phantom spirits don't eat. Do you know that there will be eating in heaven? Perhaps you'll never put on weight there. Some of us can be like Margaret forever.

Eat and yet don't put on weight. Don't you wish you had that gift? Well, here is our Lord, and he's eating with the disciples. Cooks them breakfast.

Every piece of bread that's offered in the meals where he's in attendance becomes a sacrament. Every glass of wine a reminder that one day he will drink the fruit of the vine with them in the kingdom when it comes. For all the kingdom of God does not exist merely in terms of eating and drinking.

It does not preclude this. The day will come when Jesus is back, says the Scripture. The marriage supper of the Lamb will take place.

There's a new world coming. There's a new dimension. And all that is good and pure within this life shall be taken through and raised to the ultimate in terms of satisfaction out there in the days that are yet to be.

So our Savior eats with them. And what's more, he promises them a gift. He tells them that at the moment they are to stay in Jerusalem.

Those are the parameters of the instructions that he gives. Do not leave Jerusalem. Do not go back into your native Galilee.

Those of you who come from the north do not go into the hinterland of Judea. Stay in Jerusalem. Why Jesus? Why stay? Well, the gift my Father promised.

The gift which you heard me speak about. Sometimes I think that when the disciples listen to our Lord pre-Calvary, pre-the Resurrection, pre-Pentecost, his words must have been like the clues in the Times crossword puzzle. You know, there's an obvious meaning, but bless my soul, you can't tease out the answer to the problem, however much you cogitate on it.

And our Lord, before you remember, in the upper room had said to his disciples predicting his death, well, the day is coming when I'm going to be away from you, and yet I will be with you. And if I don't go away from you, then I can't come back to you, and so on and so forth. And there along, they're in such a conundrum, they've got a greater problem than the steel men in Sheffield, to work out just what he's talking about.

But now he says, fellas, stay in Jerusalem, and what I promised then will come upon you, and you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And so our Lord gives them this further affirmation that something so wonderful is going to happen, that even though physically he's away from them, spiritually he will be nearer to them than he ever had been before. You say, that's pulpit exaggeration.

No, not really. Think it through. You see, had our Lord Jesus not ascended into heaven, had he not poured out his Spirit, had he remained on this earth, physically within a mortal body, however perfect that body was, he would be restricted, wouldn't he? I mean, if legend is right in that Thomas went to India, and some of the disciples went to North Africa, and they split up the far corners of the world so that they could engage in evangelism, then Thomas, every time he wanted to see Jesus, would have had to get back to Jerusalem, and so forth.

If Peter was over there in Rome, then he'd have to nip back to Jerusalem. But when the Lord Jesus was received into heaven by his Father, he pours out his Spirit. And his Spirit is an extension of himself.

So that wherever the disciples are, they can have the fullness of his Spirit with them. They can know his empowering. They can know what it is to sense again the benefits of Calvary and the resurrection morning.

They can know that supreme experience, the great affirmation next to the Word of God, that Jesus is alive because he has moved into their own hearts, and because although every other creature in the world might get up and say they're wrong, they have such a dynamic experience of his grace that they will say, I know, contra mundum, against all the testimony of the whole world, I know this, that Jesus is Lord. You ask me how. I know he lives.

He lives within my heart. And you can test that. You can test it in terms of the difference that it makes.

That's our four baptismal candidates last week. Wasn't it extraordinary? Those testimonies from different walks of life. Differing people.

Mature people. And yet they were saying the dynamic of the Spirit of God had changed them. There is no answer to something like this.

It is another evidence of the reality of the resurrection. Says a man by the name of Charles Darwin of whom you have heard. As he's writing to a person who did some great some great service in the village where he was brought up.

He says of this person, Your services have done more for this village in a few months than all our many efforts in many years. But without your services I do not know how drunkenness in our village could have been dealt with. You see there is tremendous evidence in terms of changed lives in the 20th century and down the centuries.

There is this word of Scripture that speaks with an authenticity and the power that it makes the Bible utterly unique. All these things taken together. They're part of those great proofs that this same Jesus has been raised from the dead.

You say well will that save everybody? And the answer is no. The answer is no. You see it's not the historical facts of the resurrection that are basically in question.

Lots of people believe in the resurrection but they're not Christian. That doesn't fool Jesus. He taught a parable once in which he said towards the end of the parable a rich man speaking from the bowels of hell or rather Abraham speaking in response to a rich man's request from the bowels of hell asking that someone go to his brothers and warn them of the fate of living the sort of life that he has lived and Abraham is predicted as saying though a man was raised from the dead they wouldn't believe.

And don't you see that is the case today? You can have convincing proofs and you can abuse the proofs. You can dull your reaction to them. I remember reading of someone who got very upset on a series of articles that were being carried by a major newspaper a national newspaper on the dangers of smoking and the fact that has been demonstrated quite clearly that there is a connection between cancer and smoking.

And what was their reaction? Well they changed their paper. They changed their paper. You see here was the proof here was the evidence.

But there are people who know these proofs they know these evidences and it doesn't change them at all. Caiaphas, Pilate the whole of the Roman militia the leaders at any rate and the religious men who were holding authority in Jerusalem they knew they'd heard these rumors now they investigated here was the evidence men's lives being changed Jerusalem turned upside down priests leaving Orthodox Judaism and associating with these Jewish Christians the whole of the holy city in a state of turmoil and eventually the impact was being felt throughout Palestine and throughout the whole of the known world and yet these men they never committed themselves to Jesus Christ. It's not just the proof you require my friend that won't save you.

It's responding to the proof of the gospel and saying to almighty God I believe I believe that your son Jesus came on this earth was incarnated in a human frame. I believe that he preserved his purity for 32 years and that he was done to death not for any other reason but the foulness of my sin and I believe that you raised him the power of an endless life that that tomb in which he was placed never stank with the smell of death for you would not allow your holy one to see corruption. You brought him back the power of an endless life you have caused him to manifest himself to show himself to ordinary working class people and at the end of 40 days you took him back into heaven and there he is at your right hand interceding for me.

I believe I believe and I offer you my sins my apologies and my regrets I am convinced and now I ask you fill me to overflowing with the fullness of the spirit of Jesus and empower me to live a life approximating to the lives of those early Christians so that here in Worthing on the south coast in Sussex throughout the whole of England the Christian church me helping will spread forth the message of the gospel and push forward the frontiers of the kingdom convincing proofs. Can anyone answer me? Can anyone give me any other plausible explanation to account for the rise of the Christian church the change that's been made in the lives of many people from Hong Kong drug addicts in the 20th century to Hottentots in Africa in the 18th century and the revivals there and all the way down to the beginnings of the proclamation of the Christian gospel. My friend be a man be a woman be sensible be logical act on what you know and confess this Lord Jesus tonight as your savior.

Let us pray. All God's people said Amen and the saints shouted Hallelujah Let's say the grace to one another. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore Amen.