McCracken Sermon, 1966-04-10, The Paradox Of Easter

it's b singer banks celebrated in this country it is something of a potter about churches throughout the land are prone to people go to church today we'll do not put in an appearance on any other sunday of the year while laws to say east there is oppression bullying have a point though only a samoan force of having homes for far more attendance at church on easter sunday is an established principal old served in much the way a national holiday is absurd

not always that is with regard to its real significant act of conformity of the past that's never lie something deeper are people drawn to set by the festival character of this day the hymns the anthems the note of jubilation and inspiration that runs through them are they drawing because east des meets some profound need are there being because it links springtime and the retirement kind of light in nature with the ancient cults and aspirations of the human heart if a poor were taken in the

churches today with loans for the questions or would be armed says reveal i speak of the model s all these stir for the reason that the mental climate of our time does not indicate that people for all to church on easter sunday because they are hungry for immortality many think first no immortality improbable many have no interest in it many consider it unhealthy to be much concerned about it and see light in this way you should pre occupy them not what happens when they leave they also an increasing number of field when they hear preachers talk about life after death

that they are being pulled off their rights in this wouldn't buy chicks drawn on the bank of heaven who's solvency they doubt it might be expected that non new laws on most sundays of the year would make a point of staying away from church on easter sunday it is the day on whats the christian church celebrates an event which won the twentieth century mind is cool off difficulties the resurrection of christ the solid job endlessly current director of common experience that peoples' outlook on life is predominantly secular are bound to be skeptical about it if they have

any scientific training and who does not they will be non loss by war they find in the new testament narratives and will raise questions about the possibility in the case all the new testament writers all practice the religion legendary development meant to me it would be so much easier if mr robert not one is an election when all that was playing for cries his body in a toe subject to decay is that living along and influence in the first century and in every century you should know that this is what many within which are a constant rate apartment belief in the resurrection of christ

too heavy a burden for their intelligence to bear they substitute for he believed in his immortality they are on a boat to upset in any literal sense what the new testament says about the christ of the state it seems to them but the narratives originated in the disciples expedience all the continuing influence of christ on no and that in keeping with the mental categories of that date was narratives where but with claims about some kind of ms deedee is bodily resurrection for themselves they believe not that the physical body of christ was resuscitated

but that his spirit survived and could lead to the disciples the certainty of his continuing presence with the reports by some psychological means similar to that which explains the mysterious phenomenon all communication between person's known as silica for possibly in a game some whale which at present we have no conception at all what i'm saying is that for many christians it could be the majority the central character of their faith is that christ is not merely an illustrious name an immortal memory bottom of it in prison since big issue presents however the new testament claims more than this

week peyton we always its very existence to believe in the resurrection of christ the conviction of the disciples that he had resumed from the good in some sort of a body was the starting point of christian faith they did not go out on the streets of jerusalem and afterward old roman empire saying that this all of that was the rule is immortal while his body me mall during in the grave was no more activist it expression all the conviction of all the disciples len peters declaration that they expected these embedded in the summer and this is it because declaration process it be the dog the bottom of our lord jesus christ by his great mercy

we have been bought oh i knew to a living all through the resurrection of jesus christ from the day in a thought oh grease the key word is a mark that in the new testament that he would has a resurrection its writers do not merely say the spirit jesus lived on often these days there would have been nothing distinctive about that that was what his disciples believed about socrates it was naacp what the apostles believed about them more this jesus it could be another that over from this morning this jesus that god to raise up was the substance of all the creature it is the theme of every address in the book of acts it is the gospel

which led to the writing math mr jiang it is the presuppositions implicit an ex puts it on the twenty seven books which constitute the new test mr echlin reports this is the question isn't any doubt about on about which is the city of the direction the question is could be tested discrepancies in the resurrection not people nowadays don't read their bibles and they're not aware of but that rare though they're not of us ought to affect the central point and there may have been you mentioned earlier creations for example the account in matthew over a mass

grave of teens open people coming out and going into generation i said the only a service today that one of my professors of davao a godly man and the conservatives well could never bring himself to believe that the risen christ in some sort of a spiritual body will be felt it must have been submitted sure if it could have pierre and disappeared couldn't bring himself to believe that as the gospel according to feed on records he ate growing fresh there may have been legendary accretion does this justify the radical position that the horror films start to finish his religion and over what has come under the closest scrutiny is three year total testimony of the disciples with as the crucial consideration the

possibility but since it was a regular say and we were courageous and therefore so susceptible to illusion and the illusion the possibility that they'd did indeed have visions of christ is risen but they went in that they were fantastic they were subject to mexico and of the scholars subject now and had no object in riyadh that this is the conclusion that has been out there by distinguished biblical scholars you should know it one of them be outstanding jewish biblical scholar apart montefiore it was with sadness that he came to re judgment that the resurrection appearances worked although only subject to hear oh

yeah to be content that grape or religious results have not had quite satisfactory cause this subject of vision was in one sense an illusion get apartment this illusion of the great religious result which we call christy hammett that two points to know and that connection one is that the disciples were not as courageous as often we're being made out to be the largest thing they expected was resurrection on easter morning the last was the case the crucifixion scene to then the end of everything the proof final and crashing that they had been their hopes to a lost

cause and that did lead the gospel according to mark it was the earliest american states remain that he was alive and had been seen by manet they would not believe it last month i mean to you know say as of the first report of the resurrection these words seem to them and i don't fail and they did not believe it is the case also a promise that don't so absolutely certain that always cool but that christ ago on the wave of oil rich that he declared he would not be convinced of that crime robbery by anything less than he could see with his eyes and touch were these hams cigarette or the yen contiguity of the disciple another point is brice

does the ceiling that provision was the disciples head of the risen christ where in those very imaginative aco for what happened doesn't explain me the change that took place in the disciples peter from being a poet becoming a hero james the brother of christ from being a skeptic in becoming a leader paul prosecutor of the first christians becoming the best the greatest advocate all the christian faith doesn't explain how the most sacred of jewish institutions it is to this day the sabbath the deal to arrest them wish it was changed from the seven they all the week to the first day of resurrection and does that explain how the worship both christians on the first day a lot of speech as

recorded in march obvious joy of week by week about oil does the theory adequately account for a phenomenon great any i have to mention the establishment and then the amazing the rapid expansion the all the check across the world of where they gunned down the centuries what brought the descent into existence the test of a faithless what it will survive as the reign of a faithless what it accomplishes historical facts call for an explanation and the explanation of the documentary record of the christian religion is jesus christ has risen from the day the only explanation that really explained it spruce validated

waltz by the transformation rot in the disciples and by the time didn't ewing consequences down the course of history those who don't deny the miracle of the resurrection still have to reckon with the psychological know something which brought the church into being which given you a new direction to this story something happened which changed the outlook of of rubble schacter and depressed man and woman in the one no assurance of the most joyful conviction of a life mission but anything less than the explanation given by the disciples into the darkness and moments sean like that

morse or as a reaction to how well what happened before he became an avant christian and probably affected in making eminent christian middleton murray wrote in all the reality all this conviction of the reality of the expedience that created this conviction i cannot doubt the christian church was built not on a lie but on truth pizza was not the victim of a whole nation nation north pole little bit of an illusion when i was a lead i read how the knights of the roundtable is ben when he not dyed the church of christ came into being when he died and roles the church

of the first century and every successive century is a dress the money to the resurrection it is the living community with a move which the east the gospel has been passed on from generation to generation every christian congregation is bound together into this continuing to say you know what this down the ages and across the world every church building every gray of people every way has signed yes is outstanding symbol and witness to the fact that price has risen many a time you and i sing we thanked me that likes that and sleepy while irs rules on looked into like who although in our war which is

keeping and arrests not know by day or night what america the church is an attack of the reason for its origin the system's problems stemming the resurrection of ritual and when i speak of that it i'm not thinking only of a worldwide institution but all living community i'm thinking and nineteen cents and he's in mind of those of its members who have been faithful truth and bow they have been that estimate to and approve all resurrection that might have been fashioned by cries and have borne the manifest into print off his

spirit to lead sentence in the post resurrection in the book of acts when they saw the boldness of peter and john they want and they recognize that they had been whipped jesus nevil authorities in him in jerusalem that much conflict over new force at work in the hearts and minds of the tour and join this was what happened not only in jerusalem far beyond jerusalem throughout the empire then he believed in the action not just because the apostles preached it but because by that contract and that conduct they provided evidence that christ was still alive they were part of the set of christ we would not have been what they wear or have done

what they did not want the impact of race on them but for the presence of christ with them and paul writing repeatedly and spoke in christ explanation of all that he was this seen by operating prisons battalion tells us how he and the majority of the contents all these they were drawn to through christ and the twisted way of it quieting the scriptures read not why you need the script has exploded but by walkie shame how christians lived and i first of all they watched out of curiosity and curiosity turned to

fascination then fascination became yeah they want to know for those people so obviously had to tell a lived a long time ago but his experience at the end of the second century has been the reporting experience far nineteen seventy john bierly ok tom this pulpit and addressed us at the johnston iowa meeting in the assembly will stick to the case only and headed to his statement a personal testimony testimony coach and because of the fact that he was drawing on his own experiences and also conjured because it has been the experience of hundreds of us here and we

look back on the war lauren story of a christian mission and asked what it was that really brought a man into the christian church i think we should have to say that it was never just preaching orleans supported witness or words made in the bali and all nations have not been drawn to christ just because a man stood up before them and recited two of them with roots of the scripture man bigger on price wars they saw his spirit to work in the widows because they found a new and wonderful thing at work in the life of the christian community then the personal testament why for instance i'm i myself a member of the christian what was it

that drew me it was never the parasite some of the things that will undoubtedly in general and it was robert because of the light of the christian will move into which i was born to convince me that these things were true i knew that price had risen from the day because i saw him at work in the line so my father and mother voted on it and so i'm sure many of you to see what it says east abbas who is made credible by what the character is and that i wanted to marry all and do so

on this great defender of the christian year we gotta to reaffirm the faith that rocked the church into existence that keeps it in existence the pavement as fashion the lives of men and women over sixty the king of norway all right now are the lasting son of the father where no hands over time the shops they loved it opened the kingdom of heaven to all really hallelujah for the lord god omnipotent