Tyndale Chapel Podcast

Well, first, let me say coming back, thank you for inviting me back. And it's great to hear the worship team when you come back, and I've spoken at a lot of campuses over the years, and recently, and in Calgary, and more and more schools are going quite liberal. So to hear songs, uplifting the sovereignty and, and the power of God is very encouraging for me, coming back to my alma mater here. So, that doesn't count as part of my talk time, by the way, and thank you, for those undergrads who said nice things about me. The cheque is in the mail. And I will say Tyndale has a big part in my, well, everything I do. Every sermon I give, every talk, every counselling session, has a fingerprint of somebody from the school. Could be, you'll hear a lot of Victor Shepherd. Who knows Victor Shepherd? Yeah. So I love Victor. And so Victor Shepherd, and so many of the profs here will be oozing out of me every time I speak. So if this talk is affirming, then thank them, if it's terrible, blame them. And George is right. I'm bringing a message from, generally it's a good Friday passage. But if Christ is found in all the scriptures, then there's no passage that we should not be worried about preaching at anytime, because they all point to our glorious King.

So let's read Mark 14, verses 42, to 52. "Rise, let us be going. See my betrayer is at hand. And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the 12. And with him, a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, and the scribes and the elders. Now, the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard. And when he came, he went up to him at once, and said, Rabbi, and he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by, drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled. And they all left him and fled. And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked."

All right, so, English American poet, W.H. Auden had this to say about Good Friday. Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible, it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith. Now, I understand what Auden is getting at, being around a lot of skeptics and having become a Christian only while I was at University in Toronto. I understand most skeptics think that the cross is a scandal. They think it's archaic. They refer to it as cosmic child abuse. They can't understand why an all powerful and all loving King, God, would dare what, by what grounds does this all powerful God have to exact the penalty for sin, and then choose a penalty that is so bloody and primitive, and then to commit his son to die for that sin? So it seems primitive, it seems bloody, it seems primarily unnecessary, because Canadians in general, don't feel that they have any guilt. There's no culpability. So when you say, well, he had to die for our sins. The critic, the cynics response is what sins. And I understand, so Auden is right, that the cross is a stumbling block to faith for the skeptic. For the Christian it may not be a stumbling block, but it is a challenge, because Good Friday and these passages, and Mark specifically, is he, he unleashes this assault on our assumptions that we are good. And he just hammers us. And he reminds us that 2000 years before Nietzsche said that we killed God, we actually did it. And he won't let us off the hook. He wants to show that we are culpable. That in these scenes of the crucifixion and the betrayal, you and I are there with the crowd, and that humanity has failed. But there's also, shining through this, the love of God, it's a bit harder to see, but it's there. And so because the love of God is present, even at the crucifixion, and that's why we call it Good Friday. We can't, I can't agree with Auden entirely, because I disagree. I think we can sing about the cross. Because when you see a movie, and you know it ends happily. You watch it a second time and you can engage with the sad parts, but not in the same way as if you didn't have hope. Because we know how it ends, we've peeked at the end, we know that we live on this side of the resurrection. So there is hope, there is good, even at this scene.

So we're going to just look at those two things as quickly as I can, as any pastor can, the failure of humanity and the goodness of God, and the love of God. So, failure of humanity. GK Chesterton, everybody knows him. He commenting on Good Friday said, "The tragedy of it is not so much that we failed at our very worst, but that we failed at our very best." And engaging with that idea. I read this passage and I think he's onto something, or was onto something. So, in this scene, we're do, we see that humanity isn't, we are at our worst, when we're nailing the Son of God to the cross, don't get me wrong. But the tragic part is we're actually at our best. That's the sadness of it. Let me explain. Here in this moment, we see the failure of just about everything human. The failure of civilization is the first, well, in no particular order, civilization. So Rome at this point in the history of the world, the first century, is probably, not probably, it is the most sophisticated civilization, the most awe inspiring civilization humanity had ever seen. The heights of archi, of architecture, of engineering, of arts, philosophy, medicine, all these things. It is the greatest we have. These great thinkers like Cicero, and, and the Stoics, and Seneca, they're all there. And yet for all of the great accomplishments of human civilization, it produced only ignorance to God, when he showed up. So the great civilization of humanity, the best we could produce, failed to recognize God, and to and to love Him, but instead, they kill him. And lest we think this is just an ancient problem, remember that in the 20th century, Germany was arguably the most heightened, most refined culture. Most of the theologians, many of the ones you study here, were German. Many of the great writers, great musicians were German, and they didn't exactly achieve the heights of moral rectitude in the 20th century.

Think about today. What's the superpower today? It's America. Are they really, God honouring all the time? Sorry, if there's Americans, I'm married to an American. But it's, you know, civilization has failed at the cross. But it's not just that. Religion had failed. It's arguable, but I believe I can say with some confidence that at that point in human history, there is no system of religion more sophisticated, more nuanced than that of Judaism. No other people are claiming that they have this special revelation from God, that he's spoken and has encapsulated His word and writing to them. No other nation was claiming that they were beaten on the anvil of history and of the desert in the wilderness, into a shape that looked like their God. No other people. Okay, I know other people. But think about the Pharisees, and I'm a good reformed type, as you can tell, by my solos of the Reformation t-shirt. But note, these Pharisees were the height, we may mock them, but they're the height of moral obedience weren't they? They were good guys. They were trying to obey God. And for all of this, Mark tells us without any shame, to indict us, he says, the guards came from the Jews, not from Rome. The guards came from the high priest to arrest Jesus. The the, the indictment came from the leaders of this religious establishment. And over and over and over again, we're being told that the religious elites, whose life, they existed to honour God, didn't even recognize Him when He came. It's like being the head of the Wayne Gretzky fan club, but kicking him out of the meeting when he shows up, because you don't recognize them. And so civilization has failed. Religion has failed. Human courage fails at the cross. Here we have Peter taking out a sword to defend Jesus to keep him from being arrested. And it feels on so many fronts, it's almost almost laughable if it isn't so sad. First it accomplishes nothing. It's misguided. And Jesus is arrested, so he accomplishes nothing with it. The second I marvel at Mark and here's another perk for Tyndale. I took a class on Mark, which helped me here. Mark is the only guy, the only gospel writer who doesn't draw attention to what Mark, what Peter does. You see in the other Gospels, Jesus says, Peter put that sword away. What are you doing? That's not the kind of people we are. But Mark, has Peter, attack the servants. And then this the narrative moves on? There's no mention. This great courage of Peter receives zero acclaim from Mark, it's not even mentionable. That's how not effective human courage is. It fails. And think about this. Peter proves willing to die for Jesus, but not with him. He's willing to die in a fight. But the moment it becomes, hey, let's go and put you in jail and have you crucified like your Saviour, he runs. Human courage fails at the cross. Men move on, about human loyalty. Here we have 12 men who have had Christ pour into them for three years, and maybe more, because we have this naked guy who we'll talk about in a minute, who runs away, and not just poured into theologically but poured into, He loves them he shared his life with them, and the best they can do with this loyalty is run from Him when He when they he needs them. And Mark, again, is masterful because what does Mark do? He doesn't say. And then when everything went to pot, they all ran and fled. It's not quite what he says. It says, And they left Him. Mark wants to make sure you know that they're not just leaving a dangerous situation. They're leaving Him, their friend. So human loyalty fails. Then, let's say human love is on display and it fails. And we live in a time that's, I just preached on singleness, we're going through singleness and marriage at our church. And we live in a time of this, this cult of romanticism, that we believe that if we say nice things, and we feel nice things, they're necessarily true. And we believe that our, that love conquers all. Now understand as Christians, we believe that. Love does win. But I'm sorry, Rob Bell, not the way you say. Love wins, but not human love winning. God's love wins. But we don't believe that in the height of optimism. In the world, of the this perfect expression of human love. Maybe the most optimistic expression of it comes from a British philosopher named Rick Astley, from 1987, when he said "Never Gonna Give You Up, never gonna let you down. Never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry. Never gonna say goodbye. Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you." You know, it's funny, but we laugh because it's true. When you met your spouse, if you're married, and I did, you know, we become very poetic, very hyperbolic, you say nice things. And you say things like, Baby, I'd swim an ocean for you. No, you wouldn't, you'd die, you know. You're not going to do it. I would get three feet in and say you know what? There's lots of fish in the sea.

But that's because devotion, human love is rather skin deep. It doesn't go nearly as far as we think it does. But we want to make it. You know, you watch your shows on Netflix, you watch Virgin River, you watch all these things. And you're under the impression that human love is supreme. No, it's not. It fails constantly. And at the cross, it fails supremely. And Mark wants us to see it. Specifically, look what Mark does. In here, we've been introduced to Judas in chapter three of Mark. And yet, he has been referred to throughout the narrative. But in chapter 14, he's mentioned two times directly when Mark refers to him as Judas, one of the 12. And then on two different occasions, he's called the betrayer. And Jesus calls him intimately, my betrayer. Now, listen, what's Mark doing? Does he think we're dumb? Does he think we've forgotten who Judas is? No, he wants you to know something very important. He wants you to know that this is not a stranger, who is abandoning Christ. It's his friend. It's a friend who's abandoning him. And this is why that kiss of death is now a phrase that we use, it comes from this scene. Now if you Google it, it's I believe it comes up as something like a kiss of death means to bind yourself to someone, or some thing, that will eventually be your death, destruction or downfall. Now, when Mark uses this word kiss, in the Greek here, he could have used other words, and the commentators often note that the term is for an earnest kiss, not a romantic kiss, liberals, but for. Sorry, did I say that out loud? He's not saying that. But he's saying an earnest kiss, the kind of kiss you give somebody if you haven't seen them for a long time, the kind of kiss you give to somebody who's honoured in your world. And why does he use that term? It's because he wants you to know that Judas, and humanity, mocks love. He's using love as a guise to betray, and he wants to make sure you know that the best that they could muster of human civilization, courage, loyalty, all of it fails. And lest we think we can distance ourselves from that time, remember, we have to put ourselves in the story. And Mark asks us to, because Mark says, get into the story and see your purpose. And he says it, by not saying two things. Two things. He doesn't say draw us in. Okay. So the first thing he doesn't tell us is, he says, and I've got to run off my notes, and I've got to look back. He doesn't tell you what Judas' motives are. See, it's commonly assumed that Jesu, Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. But if you read the gospels, you're gonna see that's never said that's what his motive is. It says that he was paid for it. But he doesn't say I'm doing it for the money. So really, we don't know. But I'll tell you what, Mark definitely doesn't tell us. He doesn't say anything about the motives. And I think it's because he wants you and I to look at this, at Judas and say, What are your motives when you betray Christ? Because you do, we all fall short. None of us are Rick Astley. So what Is it? What are our motives? He's asking us, what are your motives when you hand him over and sin? And the second thing that, that he doesn't tell us, is he doesn't tell us who this naked man is. This naked man, scholars debate, is it Mark writing himself into the gospel? Listen, I don't know. It could be, maybe, I don't know. But what I do know is when I read the text, Mark doesn't tell me who it is. And he must not want me to know who it is, or else he would tell me. And the reason he's not, we're not told, is because when Mark leaves this naked man, who runs from Christ, unnamed, you're being told that this man is representative man. He is every man. It's like when you go to those carnivals, and it's got the picture of the farmer with a pitchfork, and the pig, and you get behind it and put your head in. Right, and you become the pig and the farmer. You are the naked guy running away. Mark wants us to see that we are culpable in human failure. It's not just one generation, as if if he came back now we're more sophisticated, or more nuanced as people. We're not primitive we'd recognize him. No, we wouldn't. So human failure, okay. I've, the good Calvinist in me has beaten you up.

Now, what is the the evidence of God's love here? Now, the evidence of God's love in this passage comes in a number of ways. But let me start here. In chapter 11, of Mark, from that point on, when he enters Jerusalem, Jesus is no longer following the narrative, he's no longer going with the flow. You know, Jesus, at the start of all the Gospels is saying, ssh don't tell people who I am, you know, he's kind of playing his cards close to his vest. But in Mark chapter 11, onwards, he begins to take control. Not that he was ever not in control, but he begins to forcefully direct his own story, saying, now go into the town and find this donkey, find this guy, speak to him, tell them this, find this place for us to have dinner, go and do it. He's directing things. And in this passage we just read, you see this, again, where he says specifically, you know, he says in verse 42, my betrayer is at hand. Now, it's interesting, he says, my betrayer is at hand. And then classic Mark says, immediately, Judas appeared. Now, he knows he's coming before he comes. And that, along with the next time when he says, Let the Scriptures be fulfilled, you know what Jesus is doing? He is saying, he is not caught off guard by any of these betrayals. He knows they're coming. He knew, in fact, you want to get really deep theologically. He knew when he made you, you're going to betray him, Judas. He knew it from the beginning, and he did it anyway. And this, when he says this, it's it's an encouragement to us to know that Good Friday is not God, being caught off guard by our sin. But instead him even orchestrating that our evil would come out for his good, for our good somehow. And when, sorry, let me jump back. I'm conscious of my time here, so I don't want to be too far off. And when he does this then, it's difficult for me to dis, to agree with Auden, the poet we mentioned at the start, because when I see that He knew it was coming and planned it for me, I can't really only mourn. I can't mourn only because I know it's for me. I know that there's hope. I would like to weep at the tomb of Lazarus as much as I can. But even Jesus said the tomb of Lazarus weeps, knowing he's about to resurrect him 30 seconds later, because Jesus can't see our pain without entering into it. I however, struggle sometimes I look and I want to be somber on Good Friday, I want to, but there's part of me that says yes, it's good that I reflect and I'm so really thinking about what it cost. But there's a part of me saying, boy, am I glad it cost him. Boy, am I glad he did it. And I can't help but rejoice at it. But let me get even begin to close.

This is the classic pastor line. Here's where where do you see the actual love of God clearly on display here, it's in the naked men. Now, Mark is speaking I think I learned this year as well. Mark is writing in his probably his third language. It's not Greek isn't his primary language, which is why it sounds more simplistic, it's shorter. And as a result, when Mark uses words, there's a great economy of words, but they're important. They're all there on purpose. So when certain things are said, you should take note of it. Like when you watch a mystery show that's 30 minutes long, and the prime suspect says that he went out and it was sunny that day. You may think it's a throwaway line, but it's not, because it's only 30 minutes, and they got to get a lot of info in, so pay attention to it. And when Mark says that this naked man was naked, and that he was cl, well, no that he was naked comes after but still, naked, but that before that he was clothed in linen. Those two points shouldn't be forgotten, because I think in them you see the love of God so incredibly on display. So first, naked. This man is the anti-disciple. Disciples in the Gospel of Mark and every gospel give up everything to follow Christ. This man gives up everything, including his clothes, to not follow Christ. And so when he takes his, you know, when, presumably somebody grabs him, when he's trying to flee the scene, and he shakes out of his his robe, and leaves it on the floor, kind of like one of my toddlers will do when you're trying to get them for a bath. And he leaves it on the floor. Now, symbolically, that robe lays on the floor, and it becomes a symbol of our failure. It becomes a symbol of the the lost love, the failed courage, the failed loyalty, the failed intimacy, the failed everything. That rag becomes that. And so then when he says, when Mark says, but it's not just the robe, he could have said he was clothed in a garment, like, like gospel writers often say, but instead he uses the word linen. And the word linen only pops up twice in the Gospel of Mark. Here. And a few verses later, when Jesus after being crucified, is taken down by Joseph of Erimathea and he is wrapped in a linen shroud. What is it we're being told is this, that garment that we left on the floor as a symbol of our of our failure before our King, Christ takes on himself, he wraps himself in the shame, the human humiliation, the weakness, the sin of humanity, and puts it on himself. And he does it so that you can put on his clothes of righteousness. And think about how incredible this is, he chooses to be identified as a sinner when he is not one.

When I was in Portugal, I was 12 years old. My parents are Portuguese. And when I was there, I was in Lisbon, if you know that, I love soccer. If you guys know anything about soccer, primary team in Lisbon, there's a few, but one of them is a team called Benfica. Somebody bought me, however, a jersey of a team two hours north called Porto. Yeah, exactly, who said ooh, you're right. So I'm walking through a carnival, very proud of my Porto shirt, and a kid spits on me. So of course, not being a Christian at the time, I beat the guy into a bloody pulp. And my grandmother's dragging me off, um, it's just a big fight. It's just a mess, cotton candy everywhere. And the reason I was, got into that fight well, one I was just dumb, but but primarily is, I had the misfortune of identifying myself with someone despised in that culture. But of course, I didn't do it on purpose. I did it not knowing anything. Christ, when He comes, He says, I am not a sinner. I am not like these people. However, I will become like them, so much, I will identify so closely with them, that I will be mistaken for them. And I will suffer in their place even though I don't deserve to. And when He does that, he does it willingly. And that's I think, why Good Friday is so hard for Christians, it should be, is because we see all at once the contrast of our evil and our sin, and his beauty in his humility, and His love for us shining through it. And yeah, I'm going way past this. So that's fine. Let me let me just close here.

The beauty of God on display is primarily in what He's willing to do for you and I, and I need to now start to apply this principle to my life and to my church's life. When it comes to identifying myself with the marginalized in Niagara Falls, and there's lots of it, if you know, Niagara Falls, a border town, lots of drugs, casinos, lots of prostitution, sex trafficking is super high on border towns. The question is, how do we get near enough to the sinner that we can help them, but be also sometimes be so close that we risk being identified with them? How close do I get to saying I may not approve of the lifestyle of people of different genders, and different things like that? I don't approve of the lifestyle, but I want to preserve their right to live peacefully and un-coerced and attacked. How near do I get to loving them, to the point where my church and other people may mistake me for one of them? Even though I'm not. Am I willing to be caught up in the goodness of God, at the point of almost being caught up and mistaken for a sinner? It's a very fine line. But this is I think, some of what's going on here. And the marvel of it. I'll close really here with these wonderful lines from it's an old Isaac Watts hymn called "At the cross".

Alas, and did my saviour bleed and did my sovereign die!
Would he devote that Sacred Head for sinners such as I?
Was it for crimes that I had done,
he groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for the cross. Lord, there's that wonderful song. We'll never know how much it costs to see our sin upon how much it costs to see our sin upon the cross. Lord, I don't want to know exactly. I don't want to know how much it cost to the extent of knowing what it felt like because if you wanted me to feel it, you would have asked me to pay it. But Lord, I do want to reflect deeply on the fact that you gave up everything, that you became poor so that we could be rich. You became, you literally took on sin so that we could be sinless in your presence. Father, let us marvel at this, let it be the motivation for all that we do, that Lord You don't ask us to obey and then save us, but you save us and then say now please go obey. But thank you for that. Thank you that the gospel always means salvation comes before work. Why do we love you for it. Help this truth to get deep into us. I pray that you would preserve not just us and everyone in this room, but this this seminary and this university Lord, that they would be a beacon, a light to your glory and your goodness for many generations to come. By we love you. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.