A Body of Evidence
I would however like to share a story that has a connection to Ireland. I want to talk about the Titanic.
It took three years to build the great ship at a cost of over $7,500,000.00 in 1912 dollars and was the pride of the White Star fleet. To build it today would cost over 400 million 2007 dollars. She was the biggest ever built and was touted as unsinkable. She was 882 feet long and could carry 3,547 passengers and crew. Over 3,000 men were employed to build her for Harland and Wolff of Belfast Ireland.
The clear April night sky was filled with sparkling stars as the largest and finest steamship in the world sped through the calm sea of the icy North Atlantic. Many of the passengers had gone to bed, but some could still be found in the lounges, enjoying the Titanic luxury. No one was alarmed by the slight jar felt around 11:15p.m.but many noticed when they no longer felt the vibrations of the huge engines.
Ignoring iceberg warnings, the Titanic had been steaming full speed ahead. Suddenly she struck a large iceberg which ripped her side. Within fifteen minutes the captain realized the danger of the situation, and the wireless operator put out a call for assistance.
Lifeboats were quickly made ready and women and children were ordered to get into them first. It was a time when Christian culture recognized chivalry and men were willing to give up there lives as protectors of those who were weaker.
The captain ordered the band to play to keep up the spirits of the passengers. It began playing a rag-time tune, but soon was playing hymns.
There were only twenty lifeboats on the huge ocean-liner barely enough for 1/3 of the passengers and crew. Not all of them would be lowered.
One of the passengers traveling on that unsinkable ship was Pastor John Harper. Born in Scotland on May 29, 1872.
The early spring of 1912 found the Scottish pastor looking forward to the voyage across the Atlantic on board the Titanic to take a position with the Moody Memorial Church in America.
His six year old daughter would be accompanying him as well as his sister Jessie Wills Leitch.
At 11:40 p.m. a giant iceberg scraped the starboard side of the worlds biggest man-made movable object. The deck was showered with ice, as it buckled the sides ripping open six watertight compartments. The sea poured in and the stern of the huge ship began to reel upwards.
The Carpathia located some sixty miles away would eventually rescue both girls who had made it safely to lifeboats. Nina and Jessie would not learn the fate of John until they arrived in New York.
John Harper had been awakened and after securing the two girls to safety he began running up and down the deck calling out, Women, children and unsaved into the lifeboats. Such was his concern for the unsaved that he begged they seek a lifeboat if they had not yet sought Jesus.
While other people were trying to buy their way onto a lifeboat John Harper flung himself into the 28 degree water. Over 1500 people jumped or fell into the icy waters and as hypothermia quickly set in many died of exposure. Only six of the 1,500 people in the water were eventually rescued, one by one each gradually drowned or froze to death.
Harper gave up his life-jacket to one man and was seen swimming frantically from one passenger to another offering the salvation of Christ. Survivors report that he then began witnessing to anyone who would listen. John Harper clung to a board for nearly an hour listening to the feeble cries as he called out trying to comfort the frightened.
A message soon arrived at John Harpers church saying Miss Leitch and Nana arrived well. Lost everything. We have no hope that Mr. Harper was rescued.
Of the half dozen survivors that were rescued from the icy waters that night, one of them was a young man Harper had spoken to while they floated among the debris.
Historian Elesha Coffman tells about John Harpers last convert. She writes.
Four years later a Scotchman rose in a meeting in Hamilton Canada, and said, I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. John Harper, of Glasglow also on a piece of the wreck near me. Man he said are you saved? No, I said Iam not He replied, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
The waves bore him away, but strange to say brought him back to me a little later, and he said, Are you saved now? No, I said, I cannot honestly say that I am. He said again, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and shortly after he went down and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harpers last convert.
When the Titanic sank John Harper was 39 years old. He had preached numerous times in Ulster, especially East Belfast not far from the Harland & Wolff shipyards where the Titanic was built. There were many heroes that fateful night aboard the Titanic and one of them was Pastor John Harper. In 1922 the Harper Memorial Baptist Church in Glasgow, Scotland was renamed for the evangelist.
John Harpers body was never recovered.
This is the measure of Christian passion we need to re-discover.
I would like to speak for a moment about recent discoveries.
Lately the Titanic has become famous once again not for its sinking but for a Canadian director named John Cameron who made an Oscar winning movie about it. He has now partnered to make a new film. The new film takes a true story and distorts it with suppositions concerning the bones of Jesus Christ. The film is entitled The Jesus Family Tomb.
The Bones Argument
The filmmakers suggest that they have discovered the bones and burial place of Jesus.
If this discovery were true then the events concerning Jesus Death, Resurrection and Ascension can be disputed.
But the bible tells us Jesus rose from the dead bones and all. We would argue.
Luke 24:39-43
39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."
40When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate it in their presence. 44He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."
By their supposed discovery the suggestion is that Jesus was just a human being and is Not God or the Son of God or the Messiah.
In todays message we learned that John Harpers body was never recovered.
We also know that Jesus body was also never recovered.
Because we believe He rose from the dead.
With this line of reasoning they suggest if they can produce the bones of Jesus than all our teaching about Jesus can be proved false.
This is somehow supposed to dissolve 2000+ years of Christian faith and history.
If we took that same line of reasoning and applied it to the story of John Harper it would be like saying
We have discovered what we think are John Harpers bones so now we can prove he was never lost on the Titanic.
Half of this would be a true statement, the part about John Harper is true, the part about him being on the Titanic is true but the part about the bones being his is the false part.
How can they possibly have his bones when he was lost in two miles of sea?
The same could be said about Jesus. How can you have his bones when he rose from the dead?
Their accusation to us about John Harper would be since you dont have his body you can not prove he was on the Titanic and did the things he did.
These filmmakers turn this inside out and say.
We have Jesus body so therefore we can prove He was never raised from the dead. If this were the case then the Deity of Jesus becomes the issue. How could he possibly be God when we have his bones and he is buried with his family?
But there is no way for them to prove the bones they have are those of Jesus.
Its like watching a flea circus. We are supposed to believe that the fleas are moving the Ferris wheel but in actual fact there are no fleas its a mechanical contraption but the showman wants us to believe there are fleas involved.
The bones are not Jesus bones the filmmakers have built a contraption and want us to believe that these bones move their argument. We know that they can not for Jesus has his bones and they are not separated from his risen body they are a part of it.
Why now?
Well its our Easter season our great celebration our great distinction as a religion that our God is alive and that our God is the one true God. It is this assertion that the world can not tolerate. So we come under attack and like Christ we must bare the blows and forgive our attackers.
This new film is just a re-telling of an old discovery from 1980 by legitimate archaeologist who dismissed the find at that time and said it was not related to the Jesus of the bible.
Neither James Cameron or his partner are archaeologists. They are both film makers and story tellers. They have learned a lesson from philosophy that is true. The larger the lie you tell the more readily people will believe it.
One of the great responsibilities of the church is to root out heresy or lies made by religious and secular voices. In this case we have a documentary film maker who is known to make controversial films for quick attention and profit.
This is not about religious truth or archaeological accuracy it is about money. Yet I assure you they will find a wide and ready audience from both the religious community and the secular community.
St.Paul spent much of his ministry in defending the faith from local heresies of his time as well as defending it from popular culture and Roman paganism.
1 Corinthians 1:23 TNIV
but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.
