INTRODUCTION: We had been out in the field for about a week moving from one position to another. This time we had stopped for a short rest. It was late in the morning, probably around 2am so I was standing around with several Marines when one of them asked, “Hey Chaps do you believe in martians?” I laughed and answered, “What kind of question is that?” The Marine responded, “Seriously do you believe in martians, you know like e.t.’S, you know life beyond earth?”
It is said that over one million people took to the streets in a panic when Orson Wells book War of the Worlds was read over the airways. People believed the martians had invaded earth and had destroyed most of the east coast.
In 2013 a survey of voters reported that 14% said they believed in bigfoot. About 17% believe that Nessie, the Loch Ness monster exists. 29% believes aliens exists, 21% of voters said a UFO crashed in Roswell, NM in 1947 and the government continues to hide this fact and 7% say the landing on the moon was faked. I am not sure how many the figure goes somewhere between 1% and 10% of people believe the earth is flat.
Can I admit to you that I find these statistics a bit amusing. I chuckled with my Marines because I did not really take their question serious. It just seems a little weird to me that people, intelligent people have these kinds of thoughts. It just does not seem very rational or logical to me?
What do you think?
Would you would be willing to surrender your life on any one of these claims?
Body: The disciples have returned to Jerusalem, a place of open hostility towards anyone who believes in Jesus, a place of certain death for anyone who announces that Jesus is the promised Messiah and that Jesus is the Resurrected One and yet Peter and John have done just that and as expected they encounter immediate resistance from the religious leaders.
The religious leaders, Pilate and the disciples are stuck, they are stuck trying to figure out a way to prove their story. Each understands the significance, the importance of proving the other wrong. It is a matter of life and death. It is a matter of authority. If Jesus is resurrected then His claim to be the supreme authority must be established. If Jesus is not resurrected then Rome and the Jewish religious council can once again establish their authority as leaders.
So what must they do? They must attempt to discredit one another. Each side must attempt to prove the other side is false. The validity of Christianity rises and falls on this one claim - Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is the Resurrected One. Paul tells us that if Christ is not resurrected then your faith is pointless (1 Corinthians 15:17).
So the battle is set and we sit here this morning as the jury and it is our responsibility to make the decision of which party is telling the truth. The disciples claim Jesus is alive, but cannot produce a body, but they do produce witnesses who tell of events like Jesus feeding them fish or breaking bread with them.
The Romans and the Jewish religious leaders claim that the disciples stole the body in order to perpetuate this false teaching, they also cannot produce a body, but they are presenting the guards, elite guards who stood watch that night and these guards are prepared to tell you that they fell asleep and the body was stolen.
There is no question about the tomb being empty because both parties agree that the tomb is empty. The tomb being found empty is odd considering there was a seal and a rock placed upon the entrance. The disciples confess that they did not have first hand knowledge, but it was a group of women who reported the body missing. Likewise the religious leaders share they also did not have first hand knowledge but rather it was the soldiers at the tomb that told them they body was missing.
You decide that you would like to hear from the soldiers first. They tell you that they fell asleep and while they slept the body was removed from the tomb by the disciples. You are impressed that these soldiers would admit such a story considering the penalty for such negligence of duty was death. You wondered how could such elite soldiers fall asleep? How did they all fall asleep at the same time? It is also a curious thing that while they were asleep they also knew that it was these disciples who stole the body - how if they were asleep? Did they not hear anything? There are a lot of unanswered questions but nonetheless there must be truth to this story because they no doubt have just signed their death certificates admitting here in public that they let their “prisoner” escape.
Why would they admit such a thing if it were not true? I mean no amount of money could guarantee their safety. Why would they risk their lives for a lie?
Let’s hear what these disciples have to say - so the religious leaders say that you stole the body in order to perpetuate this story. What do you say to this charge?
So let’s see if I have this argument right - I am scared out of my mind that the Romans and Jewish leaders are going to kill me because of my association with Jesus. I have watched Jesus be crucified and buried that was hard since I thought He was actually going to vindicate Himself from the cross. I thought He might actually call down angels from heaven, but He didn’t. So the argument is that I have gone to a heavily guarded tomb, without anyone seeing me I have stolen the body so that I can say he is resurrected?
So let’s say that I was able to break the seal, roll the stone away and grab the body, the body that now weighs over 200lbs, and without anyone seeing or hearing me I take the body some where, bury it and then I make a return trip placing the clothes neatly folded back in the tomb again without anyone seeing or hearing me so that I can make people believe that Jesus really rose from the grave?
Why in the world would I take such a risk with soldiers surrounding the tomb? How would I have planned all of this? Wouldn’t it have been easy for folks to figure out where I went? Not only that why would I even return to Jerusalem to share this as truth if I knew that I had hidden the body in some other cave, knowing full well that I was going to end up where I am right now - facing imprisonment, being beaten and perhaps even crucified. That just makes no sense to me.
Why in the world would I sacrifice everything for a lie?
The disciples point is a good point, but the soldiers are also making the same point - why would we risk everything for a lie?
How do you decide?
Both groups were willing to die for their truth. In our own time we have watched people die for their truth so the number of people willing to die for a “truth” cannot be an overwhelming argument. That used to be the convincing argument for me - “How in the world could the disciples, the early Christians die the way they died if it was for a lie? But then I watch and observe others who die believing that their truth is truth. I look to scripture and I see plainly soldiers willing to die by saying they were asleep at their post.
What am I to do with that?
How am I supposed to know what truth to follow if people are willing to sacrifice their lives in order to perpetuate a lie as a truth? Or to perpetuate a truth as a truth?
CONCLUSION: Peter and John are in the midst of that dilemma. They are in front of a hostile crowd, determined to shut them up. Prior to this moment they had already demonstrated second thoughts about Jesus’ truth - why else did they run and hide, but then something, they had an encounter with the Resurrected One and from that moment forward they did not care what came against them, they had already determined Jesus was the authority, the only authority they would submit to.
They could not be distracted or tempted to look any other way. They had made up their mind that if they were going to be wrong, they were going to be wrong on the side of Jesus. From that moment forward they had said, “Whatever Jesus had told us to do we will do. Whatever Jesus tells us to do we will do. We will obey Jesus no matter the cost. If Jesus said, “Love your enemies” then we will love our enemies no question asked. If Jesus said, “Feed the hungry” they would feed the hungry, no question asked. If Jesus said, “Do not worry about your life, what you eat or drink or what you will wear” they did not worry because they were submitted to His authority and His authority alone.
Church we have a problem. We have an authority problem. Perhaps I should say - I have an authority problem. I like to be in charge. I like to be in control. I like to call the shots. Jesus says, “Tim, both you and I cannot be the master of your life. Either I am your master or I am not. You cannot have it split 50/50. I am either fully in-charge or I am not. You either fully trust me or you do not. You must chose this day who will be the master of your life. If I am the master then what I say goes. You cannot call me master and then decide to choose your own course. If I am the master then you must be fully submitted to me, you cannot rebel, you cannot wish for a new master. You must be surrendered to me completely. How will you choose?”
Peter and John looked the religious leaders in the eyes, for the religious leaders were saying, “You must choose, who will be your master, us, the ones who have the power to spare your life, or this one you claim is resurrected from the grave.” They both responded, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
From that moment on their center of gravity was in Jesus Christ and if they chose to deny that center of gravity they would experience pain and loneliness, but when they chose not to deny that center of gravity they experienced life and power.
How will you choose? Will it be obvious that you chose Jesus as your center of gravity?
