[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered. This file (834a) and 422c appear to contain the same or a closely parallel recording of the same Easter sermon, likely April 19, 1987.]
A few weeks ago, four young people drove a car into a garage. Two girls were 16 and 17 years old; two boys were 18 and 19. One of the boys owned the car. They drove into an abandoned garage, closed the door, but did not switch off the engine. They opened the car windows and sat inside. The carbon monoxide level in the garage kept rising, and one hour later they were all dead.
This group suicide caught the attention of people across the United States. There are four things about this suicide that causes us to think. First, suicide is something we find very hard to handle mentally — most people are afraid to die. But the remarkable thing is that suicide is a deliberate choice to die. These young people chatted and talked until they were all dead. There was no terror, no fear.
The second thing unique about this event is that normally, suicide is committed by one person. But four young people, really of their own choice, agreed — as it were in a pledge — to die together. The third thing is that they were not poor. They were not dying of cancer or facing some unbearable pain. One of them even owned the car, which many young people only dream of. They had money, they had boyfriends and girlfriends — they had what many young people desire. And yet they died. It seems that for them, the only meaning they could find in life was to be found in death.
The fourth thing we have to notice is this: if you think suicide among healthy, normal young people is rare, you have not looked at the statistics. I will tell you the statistics for the United States in 1985 — for young people between the ages of 15 and 23. The number is 26,400 in one year alone. We have over 260 people in this hall — that means in 1985 alone, one hundred times the number of people in this hall, young people, died by their own hands. If we add all the people who successfully committed suicide in 1985 in the United States — of all ages — we are talking about 53,000 people who died by their own hands. And the suicide rate has tripled — gone up 300% — in the last 30 years in the United States.
A few days ago I was in a library and a book caught my eye. The title was Attempted Suicide. I thought it was a novel, but when I picked it up I saw it was published by Oxford University Press and written by the psychiatric staff of the Department of Psychiatry in Oxford University. It was published in 1982. The book mentions that in the United Kingdom there are 100,000 people who attempt suicide every year. The highest reason for emergency hospital admission in the United Kingdom today for women is attempted suicide.
Can we grasp the situation? We have mentioned only two countries, and we are talking about tens of thousands of cases. It is quite obvious: people deliberately don't want to live anymore. They have lost the will to live. But why? Because they have nothing to live for. The things that interest you don't interest them. Give them money — they don't want money. Give them a boyfriend or a girlfriend — they already had that. What do we really want? Truth. Without truth, there is nothing to live for.
A famous singer once sang a very sad song — and I believe in the end she committed suicide as well. The song was entitled "Is That All There Is?" I remember that song coming over and over again on the radio. Is that all there is? Is that all there is in life? The things that interest you don't interest a lot of people. Give us truth — or we die.
I must say that my heart is touched by these young people. It is my view that these people who committed suicide, far from being the worst sinners in the world, are some of the finest young people there are. Why do I say that? Because precisely these young people were not interested in the transient garbage of this world. Have you noticed when pop stars come out, the girls are fainting and the boys are screaming? You look at this guy who hasn't combed his hair for ten days and wonder why they are so crazy about him. But they have to find something to live for. They can't find truth, so even a pop idol will do for a while. But those who could see through all this garbage and found nothing left to live for — these are some of the finest young people who took their life.
The church has failed to proclaim the truth to them. I tell you, on judgment day we will answer for it. And I say to you, if you are parents: you better find something to live for yourself — otherwise your sons and daughters also don't find anything to live for. The next suicide could be your son or your daughter. Those parents also thought it could never happen to them. Can you imagine the shock of discovering that the one who committed suicide was your son, your daughter?
I spend all this time to impress on you the fact that when we talk about truth, we are talking about life and death. The Lord Jesus said: I am the way, the truth and the life. You see how truth and life cannot be separated. Jesus said I am the truth. But we can all say this kind of thing. How do we know he is the truth? Is there some way to establish this?
I want to tell you there are many ways to establish the truth about Jesus, but I'm going to concentrate on one because it is Easter day today. In the Old Testament, principles were laid down so the people could tell who is speaking the truth and who is not. I read from Deuteronomy chapter 18. In this passage, Moses says that one day there is going to come a prophet like himself — the prophet that Israel is looking for, the savior that is to come. There was no prophet greater than Moses in the history of Israel. But God said to Israel: in the last days, I will raise up a prophet like Moses. How are we going to know that he is the savior, the king of Israel?
Verse 21: how may we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? Verse 22: when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken. In other words, if the prophet says something will happen and it doesn't happen, he told a lie. It is not true. Now let us apply this principle to Jesus.
Some of you may be skeptical of what we are talking about. Christians are living in the clouds. The Lord Jesus says you will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven. He's going to come in an aeroplane? A helicopter? Some kind of spacecraft? What is all this about? Have you seen anybody riding in the clouds? And we are also talking about resurrection. The Sadducees were grinning when Jesus said: after three days he will rise from the dead. Oh yes, so tell us more about this fairy tale. Have you seen anybody rise from the dead? These Christians are talking about fairy tales all day long. The truth is stranger than fiction — that's a well-known saying. Jesus said: I am the truth. I am the resurrection and the life. Those are big words, my friend. And now I'll try to prove it.
He certainly doesn't expect us to believe the truth without evidence. How can you talk about truth without evidence? So Jesus said: I am going to give you the evidence. Let's read Matthew chapter 12. Notice this is what he says to his enemies. The Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus and asked for a sign — give us some evidence. And the Lord says in verse 40: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
You know what happened to Jonah. Jonah was swallowed up by the great fish, and three days later he emerged again alive. Jesus is saying: I am going to be in the grave, in the earth, for three days and three nights, and after that I will rise again. And in case they didn't understand, he repeats it one more time a little while later — in Matthew 16:4, to the same enemies, including the Sadducees who don't believe in the resurrection. To the very people who don't believe in the resurrection, he says: I am going to give you the sign of the prophet Jonah. Every Jew understood perfectly what that meant. In three days, he says, I will rise again.
Now, what if he had said: I am going to rise again one of these days — I don't know when? You don't know when to check. A year goes by, ten years go by, the grave is still there. But Jesus said: you don't have to wait for five years, not three years, not three months, not three weeks — three days. You watch my tomb. And that is exactly what they did. The Pharisees are not stupid. They remembered what was written in Deuteronomy. They knew how to test a prophet.
# Is That All There Is? — Truth, Resurrection, and the Challenge to Remain True — Easter Sermon (Part B)
[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered. This is the continuation of the Easter sermon begun in 834a.]
Now the Lord Jesus' reply is very significant for our message today. An evil and adulterous generation looks for evidence — and there is nothing wrong with looking for evidence. But what the Lord Jesus is saying is: you must have the right attitude to evaluate the evidence. That is why this leads to the second part of my question. The first question was: is he true? The second question is: am I true? If I am not true, I won't even be able to see the truth when it is put in front of me. Falsehood blinds your eyes.
So the Lord Jesus is saying: there is nothing wrong with asking for a sign. But with what attitude are you looking for the evidence? If you come to the Lord with the wrong attitude, he can put the evidence in front of you and you would be as blind as a bat. I have often said, God is much more willing to accept the challenge of truth than we are willing to accept that challenge. He says: here, I am going to tell you what the sign is. I am going to give you a sign right in front of your eyes to look at.
Verse 40: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jesus said: I am going to be in the grave for three days and three nights, and after that I will rise again. In case they didn't understand, he repeats this one more time in Matthew 16:4, again to his enemies — this time including the Sadducees who don't believe in the resurrection. To the very people who don't believe in the resurrection, he says: I am going to give you the sign of the prophet Jonah. In three days, I will rise again.
Supposing he had said: I am going to rise again one of these days, I don't know when. You could have stood watching the grave for one year, ten years, one hundred years and still not been sure. But Jesus said: you don't have to wait five years, not three years, not three months, not three weeks — three days. You watch my tomb. And that is exactly what they did. The Pharisees are not stupid. They remembered what was written in Deuteronomy. They knew how to test a prophet.
If the Lord Jesus had told this only to his disciples — I will rise after three days, but don't tell those people — the world would have had no way to check whether it is true. But he told his enemies. Remember, you have only three days to wait. After I die, in three days you will see whether I speak the truth or not. That is a fair test. And notice: it was the enemies of Jesus who guarded the tomb. If the disciples had guarded it, there might be something fishy about it. But it was the Romans and the Jews, the enemies of Jesus, who sealed the tomb and set the guard. And they only had to wait three days.
You know what happened after the Lord Jesus was crucified. His enemies came to Pilate in Matthew 27 verses 62 to 63. They said: Sir, we remember how that imposter said, while he was still alive, that after three days he would rise again. Therefore order the tomb to be made secure. Notice: they had already decided he was a liar before they had even seen the evidence. They didn't want to look at the evidence. So they sealed the tomb and put a guard around it. If you understand the words in Deuteronomy, even if Jesus rose on the fourth day he would be a liar — he had been so specific. He said: in three days I will rise again.
Was Jesus true? Can you find a better way to prove it? Can you imagine a more convincing test? It was the Romans and the Jews, the enemies of Jesus, who guarded the tomb. And they only had to wait three days. Now, do you know where the disciples preached that Jesus had risen from the dead? Was it about fifty years later when everybody had forgotten the incident? No — it was only a few days later, in the very place where Jesus had been crucified. About fifty days after the crucifixion, Peter was speaking to the same people who had watched Jesus crucified, and the same Roman governor was still in charge. He was saying to those very people: you crucified him, he has risen.
To deal with this situation would have been very, very easy for the authorities. All they had to do was produce the body of Jesus. Here, look — he's dead, there he is. You say he's risen? He is alive? But they could not produce the body. And Peter was not talking about rising as a ghost — he was talking about physical resurrection. If the body were still there, the proclamation would have been destroyed immediately. I have produced only one evidence out of many. That is not even the most important evidence. The most important evidence of why I believe in Jesus is that I have experienced him — and keep on experiencing him all the time. But I don't want to put my experience as the evidence for you. I have been talking about facts. But have you got the eyes to see the facts?
The question depends on whether you are true. The problem is not whether God is true. If you want to know the truth, you have to become true. This is what the Bible means by repentance — to turn away from falsehood to the truth. When you turn on the radio, there are lots of messages coming through. But you cannot hear a particular station unless you are tuned to it. You cannot hear the truth unless your heart is tuned to God. And how can a sinner become tuned to God? By turning away from falsehood. Our falsehood in the moral sphere is sin. If you don't like to hear about sin, you don't want to hear about the truth either. But if you want to have the truth, you must tune in to the truth.
Repentance — to turn from falsehood — is the first step to becoming true. But it is only the first step. There is a long way to go. That takes me quickly to my last question, and I have to skip a lot because time is gone. Even if you have made a start to become true — through repentance of sin — can you keep on this way? Many people make a start, but they cannot continue. That is why I want to speak to those who are being baptized today.
Today you are turning to the truth. It is only a beginning, and there is a long way to go. I told you yesterday that the truth will be challenged by falsehood every step of the way. Every step you take after this baptism is going to be challenged by the world. The moment you go home, you face the challenge from your family and relatives. You go to your job, and in the place of work you will be challenged again. Everybody steals something — they don't call it stealing, it is part of the way of life. Everybody tells lies, so it is the way it is. And so you wanted to turn away from falsehood, but falsehood is pushing you back.
As the Lord Jesus says, he who endures to the end shall be saved. It is going to get harder and harder to stand for the truth. I ask you again: are you true? You cannot be true as long as you live in sin. But even if you are true, don't congratulate yourself yet — can you remain true?
I was listening to the BBC broadcast on the very same morning of this camp, the 16th of April, at two o'clock in the morning. One news item said: the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was appealing for funds. The news item said that in the United Kingdom, every week, three to four children die by the hand of their own parents. Not three or four a year — three to four a week. These children are not just beaten and bruised; they are killed by their parents. And we read of a case in Hong Kong of a child kicked to death in the stomach by the mother, the internal organs ruptured. These are not rare cases anymore. As you watch the statistics, it is getting worse and worse.
Homosexuality was once regarded with disgust. Today it is legalized in many parts of the world. Under today's law, in many countries, you cannot reject a job applicant because he or she is a homosexual. What is even more astonishing: that applies even to many churches. If a pastor in the United States applies to a church and tells the church he is a homosexual, the church cannot reject him by law. Sin becomes legalized. And then there is abortion — we are talking not about five or ten thousand, but about hundreds of thousands of infants being slaughtered. And that is legal.
Brother Daniel stood up in Hungary for a fellow pastor — he stood for the truth, and he was kicked out. May I tell you who kicked him out? The church kicked him out. Rottenness has crept into the church. The Lord Jesus said: wickedness will multiply and increase more and more, and the result is that the love of many who once loved the truth will grow cold. They will give up. That was my third question: can I remain true?
In this church, nobody has tried to persuade you to get baptized through any falsehood or pretense. We read in Revelation 2:10: be faithful unto death, and you will have the crown of life. But not before you are faithful unto death. To make a good start is good. But it is not enough. And I say to those of you who are being baptized today: it is not too late to withdraw. Just tell the leaders of the church: I am not ready to be baptized. I have listened to the message. I am not ready to be faithful unto death — I withdraw. Nobody will give you any hard time to withdraw. Nobody will scold you. Because it is not enough to be true. You must be true to the end.