A Wedding Party Encounters Jesus - Tim Keller - This is Jesus

using Oxford's how are y'all doing what else whether more chairs orange audience interaction that's what this is Jesus needs well goodness this is Jesus and welcome to the Town Hall tonight's the night of 11 talks 11 events that are happening in the Town Hall this week and those sort of you have been here for many of them well done excellent stamina the sort of you know it's the first time tonight and just made a picture of what's going to happen we're delighted to be joined by dr. Tim Keller all of our evening talks this week Tim's from New York he's based there and he speaks the world over about the Christian faith it's an absolute privilege as I say to have to be in this evening he's gonna talk about half an hour I can reach the perchance me to text questions into the number this on the screen behind when he comes up and then I have about 20 minutes answering those questions and then dr. Tim Keller or they can have an epilogue and what I'll wrap the whole evening up by about that 15 if you need to get away to be somewhere else so that any further ado let's have less notice two more Tim come up on the stage like Kerry I'm back that was an ancient American cinematic cultural reference designed to go over your head thing oh yeah what we've been doing each night this week is we're looking at a set of big questions that everybody has to have working answers or in order to live sort of questions like what are we human beings and what's wrong with us and what if anything could improve us and what what would put us right Luke Feli who's done a book called a brief history of thought it's got an English translation so I'm able to read it now and he mentions the fact that most of us have these working ideas you might say a sort of a working philosophy of life but he says we have a tendency to be optimistic about how original we are he says basically there's been four or five or maybe six systems of thought in history from which almost all of our basic ideas how to live come Christianity is one of them and therefore if we're going to live a thoughtful life we need to know something about Christians Christianity's answers to those questions that's what we're doing and we're looking at some of this every night many people say well I live in Britain or some other part of the West so I know all about Christianity we we don't know as much as we think and that's one of the things I'm trying to show you and these evenings we're looking at the Gospel of John it's a New Testament book a book in the New Testament it's actually it's there on your on your se and each night we're looking at something some individual or individuals that Jesus has an encounter with and we're answering those questions tonight we're looking at what will put us right what did Jesus come to do see the answer to who we are what is wrong with us who can put its right and what has he done to put us right we're going for the Christian answers to the big philosophical questions we now come tonight to ask the question what has Jesus come visit and how will that go is right now I'd like to read you an incident it's on page 7 and start to the top it's only about 11 verses long the little super scripts the little numbers between the sentences are verse verse marks versification it's a way of measuring where we are in the text it's about a wedding feast the wedding feast was a very very big deal in ancient times it was the biggest event of your life your wedding but there's a great disaster here socially they run out of wine in the middle of the feast the feast always requested for number of days and that's what this incident is about so at the top of page 7 I read this on the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee Jesus mother was there and Jesus said his disciples had also been invited to the wedding when the wine is gone Jesus mother said to him they have no more wine woman why do you involve me jesus replied my hour has not yet come his mother said to the servants do whatever he tells you nearby stood six stone water jars the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing each holding from 80 to 120 liters jesus said to the servants fill the jars with water so they filled them to the brim then he told them now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet they did so and the master of the banquet tasted the wine the water that had been turned into wine he did not realize where did it come from though the servants who had drawn the water knew then he called the bridegroom aside and said everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink but you had say the best till now what Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him now the key to understanding this event is at the very end verse 11 where this is not just called a miracle but of course it was it's called a sign a sign a symbol a signified a sign of the signifier is something else if your this is the beginning of Jesus career the beginning of his public ministry and when you are let's just say you're a candidate for office or a business person and you're launching a brand or you're launching a campaign hoping that you'll be elected the very first presentation it is going to be carefully controlled so that every single thing you say everything about the environment everything is getting across what you're about you want everything to be conveying the message or what you're all about look at this nobody's dying nobody's demon-possessed nobody's that sick nobody's starving and yet this is Jesus first miracle why would Jesus decide that the quintessential signifier of what he's all about would be to keep a party going to bring a great wine by the way notice great wine to keep the party going why in the world leader Reynolds of price who was a very prominent professor of English at Duke University for many years wrote a book in which he analyzed three of the Gospels literally he he looked at well he actually looked at mark John and he wrote his own versions a very interesting book it's called three Gospels but when he was and just has a an expert in literature reading through the Gospel of John he said something remarkable about this basically he says this is not fiction and he says if you were inventing a biography of Jesus Christ who would invent for his inaugural sign of Jesus career a miraculous solution to a mere social embarrassment or put it this way Jesus Christ uses all of us almighty power to wipe off the faces of to befuddle teenagers because the bridegroom and the bride would have been teenagers why in the world would this be the inaugural sign who would have thought it up and the relative price makes the case to sign it being an eyewitness account that this really happened who wouldn't make something like this up now I'm going to show you in a second that price is actually exaggerating a little bit this was more than a social embarrassment but do you see the question we need to understand all of this passage as a symbol of what Jesus was about what did he come to bring why did he have to bring it and how does he bring it what did he come to bring why did he come to bring it and how does he forgive first what did he come to bring the master of the banquet scene verse 8 and 9 master the banquet it's a hard word to translate it's a single greek word we would translate it master ceremonies and see presider he was really a person who it was his job to make the party great and when Jesus turns water into wine and saves the day you know what Jesus is saying let's get right to the point here Jesus is saying I'm the true mats the banquet I am Lord of the feast I come to bring festival joy yes I'm going to do I'm going to suffer yes there's gonna be self-denial against is going to be there's going to be a sacrifice and my followers will have self-denial and suffering etc but those are means to an end this is the end I come to bring festival joy that's why this is my first sign let's not forget that Jesus assigned in Ho's Dionysian kinds of myths and legends about them the forest running with and flowing with wine and dancing a music kids stuff compared to what I'm going to do that's what he's signing now why does the Bible is so often use sensory language Psalm 34 says taste and see that the Lord is good well don't they already know that the Lord is good I mean you know the psalmist is writing to believers is realized certainly they know the Lord is good he doesn't ease us of course I know that you know the words but I want you to taste it what's that mean I want you to experience them some of you know some of you don't know that I'm a Presbyterian minister for a Presbyterian minister it'd be up here saying that Jesus Christ comes to bring joy joy not only the future all of a joy but actually experience of joy the park fulfillment right now it's weird for me to be saying that but the Bible forces me to do do you know what the Bible says about the last day what's going to happen at the end of time I think Jesus is he's thinking about this isaiah 25 the other time in that day the lord of hosts will make for his people a feast of the finest meats and well refined and on this mountain he will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and your reproach and shame will be taken away forever for the Lord God had spoken in tokens Lord of the Rings when Samwise Gamgee wakes up having been rescued from the fires of Mount Doom and he wakes up he sees gambling still alive and he realizes what's happening and he says Gandalf I thought you were dead but then I thought I was dead he's everything sad going to come untrue sweet huh but Jesus the Bible the New Testament says but that's ultimately what he's going to do he's going to bring us to a place where every tear is wiped away whether the new heavens and new earth that this work we're not just we're not just being taken out of this world into heaven but heaven is going to come down at the end of time to renew this world that everything sad is going to come untrue that's what ultimately is here to do that's what he came to do you know in the brothers karamazov at one place where they're talking about suffering there's this absolutely remarkable passage and I think it's I even care about something saying this but it really matter because it's so astonishing and it's talking about well is there anything that's going to ever make suffering make sense of suffering and here's what Hillary says I believe like a child that suffering will be hailed and made up for that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small euclidean mind of man that in the world's finality at the moment of eternal harmony something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice her all hearts for the comforting of all resentments of the atonement of all the crimes of humanity of all the blood that they shed that will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened that's those yes--he's Christianity coming through but he says I believe at the end there is going to be something so astonishing so the joy will be so incredible the the fulfillment we summon amazing that all the suffering of history will look like a couple of bad nights or on the other hand if you want you could actually think about joy now it's intermittent it's nothing like the joy in the future but there was a Baptist preacher in London in the middle of the 19th century and Charles Spurgeon Baptists are a little more likely to talk like this the Presbyterians but not a whole lot and yet because this is what he experienced at one place he said some of us know what it is like to be too happy to live the love of God has been so overpoweringly been experienced by us talking about self on some occasions that we almost had to ask God to stop with the light for we could endure it or if God had not failed his love and glory a bit more we would have died for joy I don't wanna give anybody the impression that that's a normal experience of a Christian and prayer but the fact of the matter is it's possible in fact of the matter is some degree it's inevitable Jesus Christ says I am Lord of the feast in the end I come to bring joy that's the reason why my calling heart my first miracle is to set everyone laughing secondly that's what he came the brave why did he have to bring it now when Jesus starts to do his miracle he very deliberately chooses vessels in which he's going to do his miracle he's going to rescue these young teenagers from their problem and how does he do Whitney dusty by filling up jars used by the Jews for ceremonial washing now we'll get back to this but here's what you have to keep in mind Judaism of the Old Testament had this great set of Rights and regulations and those rights and regulations all got across the idea that God is holy and that we are flawed there's something wrong with us spiritually and therefore we need to be purified we need to be cleansed are sending to be atoned for so there's the purification rites there were the clean laws above all there were the sacrifices blood sacrifices and we'll get back to all that in a minute but the whole idea was the Old Testament always said because God is holy and righteous and because we are flawed we cannot just walk right in something has to be done about what's wrong with us and by the way in this case we've got to keep this in mind these teenagers if here's Reynolds crisis were probably wrong when he says this is a mere social aberrant embarrassment we're forgetting we in the West do not live in a shame our culture some of you it was like I've spoken to some of you after these meetings here tonight some of you have grown up midstream in honor cultures not less than coaches you know how deep the shame can be if you let your family down if you brought embarrassment to your family it's not something Lea and individualistic West understand very well but these these young people actually had a very serious problem a very serious problem and they had shame they had guilt our lease was coming and Jesus Christ rescues them from that redeems them from that by showing us that he is going to cleanse them you see he's replacing the old idea that we have to use water we have to eat certain things we have to sacrifice animals he's actually hinting that he's coming to do what all of those regulations used to signify now what we are at and I finally go take another minutes on this too two nights ago we talked about this whole idea of sin I know that the term sin grace on us but we can't understand the joy Jesus is kind of brain unless we understand sin unless you understand that there is actually according to the Bible we're staying we need to be purified we've got guilt and shame that we need to be we need to be rescued now I know people just really really squirm when I talk about this so let me be pretty direct you actually do know I believe all of you take my life my hands here that something is really well why are you working so hard why are you working so hard why is it so important to look good why do you worry so much about how you look why do you not only physically but why did why do you why is it so important to you know to achieve you know I believe there's something wrong and you're trying to purify yourself you're trying to cover up you're trying to deal with it you're trying to prove yourself you know the first and I I think I'm safe to say you probably seen them remember the first rocky film the only good one where he's in bed with Adrienne and she's you know talking to him and suddenly says you know I don't really even want to win the fight I just want to go the distance and she says why she says if I just go the distance he says then I'll know I'm not alone now that's a Philadelphia American phrase but I would love for you to at least ponder this that one of the reasons why you're so excited that you got into Oxford and one of the reasons why you really have all these dreams that you're working so hard to look good and to do well in she is because you're trying to prove to yourself and everybody else that you're not wrong remember Harold Abraham's what was driving him to be known in Chariots of Fire is depicted what was driving him to be this the Sprinter to do back then the 100-yard dash okay and at one point he says when the gun goes off I've got 10 seconds to justify my existence and he's just being candid about something that a lot of us don't want to be candid about we don't just want to do well we don't want to just make a contribution to society well just make our market deep down inside think there's something wrong and we've got to prove it we're right we fear that we're a bum we fear that we're staying we feel there's something wrong and we've got to prove to other people that we're okay another way to put it if you want to get biblical and go back to Genesis 3 where it talks about Adam and Eve the human race is turning away from God and immediately feeling naked and feeling they had to cover up and they couldn't let people on the outside see what they were like so they put themselves to put fig leaves on themselves consider the possibility that your Oxford education is a fig leaf a big fig leaf how much they consider the fact that afterwards it won't be enough it will never be enough please think about that one more thing about this before going on which to where we have to go Jesus Christ came to bring joy he had to come to bring it because deep inside we don't have that we know there's something wrong with us we know we need to be purified we know we need to be washed even those of us who actually don't need to hold the idea of sin - let me distance I want you to consider there's more depths of self-centeredness and sent in you then you want to believe I'm concerned for almost that was any other person I said I'm concerned there's stuff in you that you would like to deny theologically philosophically you're a humanist you don't believe that human beings are innately evil or anything like that I'm very concerned there's stuff in your heart that will bite you it will spring out in the future and you'll say I didn't know I was capable of that but you are years ago 1961 Adolf Eichmann was one of the but not seeing architects of the Holocaust who got away after world - and went to South America was caught and he was arrested he was taken back to Israel for a trial 1961 and he was tried about guilty and executed but there was a very interesting incident that happened what they had to do of course as you may know is they had to find witnesses people who saw him do it who were in the death camps and saw what happened the death camps they had to come in and be witnesses material witnesses one of them was a man named you healed Anor and when he came in and testified he walked into the room did you think the courtroom he saw - in the glass booth and he immediately broke down fell on the ground sobbing crying out it was pandemonium you know that was hammering to get order it's very very dramatic sometime later he'll dinner was being interviewed by Mike Wallace on 60 minutes which is a TV magazine show in America and Mike Wallace asked that you heal the door he showed the tape but it's of itself following falling down and said why did it happen what was upsetting you at the time and then he asked me these questions where you overcome with hatred is that what it was was it post-traumatic stress syndrome syndrome and the Nohr said oh no no and then he said something that absolutely shocked shocked Mike Wallace and should shock almost all secular Western people he said no no when I walked in and saw him I suddenly realized he was no demon or Superman he was an ordinary human being exactly like me and I suddenly became terrified about myself I saw the I'm capable of the very same things look you can either say the nonsens were so humans not like us we could never do anything like that of course don't you remember that's how we came not see by thinking certain people were subhumans or you can say I'm the same there must be stuff down there in me if I'm capable of that and I am there must be stuff down at me I don't want to see and there is maybe cleanse from it may be purified from 0.3 how did he come to do it now now we get a demerit apart of the passage did you not know this you probably noticed what looked like an emotional non sequitur and you probably didn't notice an additional how do I say logical non sequitur Mary comes up to Jesus and said it's been a disaster they're out of wine verse 4 woman why do you involve me that's pretty cold did you notice it sometimes you wonder a bit about the translation maybe that's just the way the translation I've got now the translators will tell you this is an unusually cold way for Jesus to be addressing his mother especially in that kind of society that family oriented society something's bothering them something that he's depressed he's under pressure he's stressed and then he says my hour has not yet come now if you would read the whole book of John and I would love it if you did and you're very very careful reading you will find out that every place Jesus speaks about his hour he's talking about his death the hour of his death John chapter 7 John chapter eight John chapter thirteen on and on it talks about my owl in my house we'll get there it's the outer step now do you see the non-sequitur she comes up and says what a disaster they find out of wine and Jesus says woman why are you telling me this I'm not ready to die it's possible by the way that an area new maybe not exactly who Jesus was but that he wasn't normal because if they noticed he she goes to the Serpent's and says whatever he does tell you do it you know he does she doesn't get upset with me he doesn't go nuts I had no idea what's going on her mind but I do know this he is saying oh really you want me to do something about their shame you want me to bring joy to see this is a sign it's all symbol and therefore I believe Jane well I know pretty much if you study this text Jesus is looking past his mom and he's looking past and bridegroom and the bride he's looking past the wedding party he's looking something else he's saying I have come to deal with their shame I have come to bring joy but I'm gonna have to die into it and I actually think there's something else happening in his mind and by the way I do believe that John means us to think about this just maybe just maybe he's even thinking of something else in the Old Testament the point is this is a wedding feast the first miracle the first sign is a wedding feast in the Old Testament God that picks himself as the bride who loved his people which shows that God in the Bible doesn't just want a relationship with us as kings to subjects he wants a love relationship to us to you as profound as the love relationship between a husband and a wife so he calls himself the bridegroom in the Old Testament Jesus comes along and in this gospel and anut the other Gospels he says things like this at one point his disciples are being criticized for not fasting and he says why should the Friends of the bridegroom fast when the bridegroom is still with them and I won't get into what he's talking about there but here's the point he calls himself the bridegroom fully knowing who that is according to the Bible and John the Gospel writer understands this thing because if you get to the end of the New Testament to the book of Revelation written by the gospel but by John he depicts the end of all things the same way actually as Isaiah 25 he depicts the end of all things has what this is what it says at the end then I saw the holy city Jerusalem come out of heaven prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband and I heard a voice saying blessed are those invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb in other words at the end of time there's going to be a feast but it's not just going to be a general face it's gonna be a wedding feast because all the things that Jesus Christ his trucks ought to accomplish all the things he's he came to accomplish will be accomplished and therefore may be what John wants us to think about is this Cathy actually my wife Cathy brought this up years ago is that maybe the reason why Jesus is sort of grumpy with his mother he's he's thinking of something else and I told you what a pretty sure he's thinking about but here's another possibility what does single people think about that weddings why sometimes single people sit at wedding receptions for this kind of funny far away they're thinking about what their wedding day might be like and maybe Jesus is thinking just maybe saying mother for my people to follow my arms and for us to drink of the rivers of God's delight I'm gonna have to die for my people to drink the cup of joy and festival blessing I'm gonna have to drink the cup of justice and a punishment of death do you see Jesus is always thinking about his death many people say who cares about doctrine don't worry about the church in fact much of Christianity I reject but I like Jesus I think if people just imitated the life of Jesus different that's the important thing look at how most people look at how it gives to people he cares to the poor he feeds people if you just forget about everything else was imitate his life that's what you should do I've heard many people say that maybe that that is absolutely wrong because even because Jesus did not come primarily to live he came primarily to die we saw last night everything when he's raising Lazarus he's thinking about his on death when he said a wedding feast he's thinking about some death mark chapter 80 I'm gonna have to die the disciples don't understand what it means mark chapter 9 by the way everybody I'm going to die they don't understand mark 10 by the way guys I'm going to die the disciples were focused on his life they felt like here's a messiah he's gonna get on a horse he's gonna throw off the boot of the Roman oppressors great as long as they were focused only on his life and thinking I'm just gonna follow him in his life I'm gonna be like Jesus go read the Gospels you'll see the Apostles were fools they were always acting in foolish ways they're always clueless it was until he died and after his death and his resurrection which we'll talk about tomorrow night that changed them completely why here's the thing you need to see if Jesus came primarily to live he's an example and then I guess he was supposed to find God by trying to be like Jesus but if Jesus came primarily to die he doesn't come as an example he comes primarily as a Savior he became as an example he would be like every other founder of every other major religion they all came to show you how to live and to say that's the way to salvation that's the way to God the Jesus Christ comes and says no I'm God come to find you I don't come to show you how to save yourself I come to save you and do what you should be doing I come to live the life you should have lived yes but then died the death he should die in your place so see the centrality was best with the death but then lastly but most importantly the modality of his death by choosing the ceremonial jars Jesus was signifying something he will say much more directly later on and the book of Hebrews will say at the very very it's in the in the New Testament very greatly and that is he came to replace all the things that the Old Testament sacrificial system the Tabernacle in the temple the veil Holy of Holies the blood sacrifices at the heart of the old system of religion was a blood sacrifice why because I'm a sinner and I have to it needs to be punished but something that tones for my sin something dies in my place and of course over the years there were all these animals being slaughtered and yet when John the Baptist saw Jesus the first time revelation from God he looks at it and says behold the lamb of God that taketh away and you know what he's saying he says all the other limbs all the other animals all the other things that they were just symbols of that here's the one that's going to do it and Jesus Christ therefore has come to die in our place to take our punishment right away people say that's awful here we are back to the primitive bloodthirsty gods of old look at the the Iliad Agamemnon trying to get Detroit he can't get there so he sacrifices his daughter to the gods and the guy said oh okay that thatis wages our wrath against you Agamemnon now I'll give you fair widows and then they hear about this idea of Jesus Christ coming and dying the wrath of God oh my goodness here we have this primitive religion again why do you Christian you die out with all the rest how awful except the gospel is not talking about that it's not talking about God asking one of us to sacrifice one of our children if Jesus Christ is who he said he is and we talked about this last night if he's God come in the flesh and what we have is God actually coming to earth and paying the price himself and if you think that it's just so illogical let me tell you let me appeal first your brain then to your emotions and then I'll stop first your brain if someone knocks over your life in your land and let's just say it's a 50 pound lamp that cost 50 pounds replays they knock it over they break it and they say oh I'm so so sorry let me repay you let me replace it now you have two things you can do you can say yes thank you you can make them pay or you can say oh no no no you can forgive them but when you forgive them you know what that means either you have to replace the lamp or you have to go without in other words either that person pays or you pay but the debt doesn't go off into the air somebody always pays at that you say well that's of course that's monetary and that's physical well think about this if someone hurts your reputation really really long as you what are you going to do one of the ways you can do it by the way is go around all the people that that person has slandered you and actually ruin that person prepetition do you know what he did you know what she did other words you could make them pay or you can forgive them and if you forgive them you absorb that debt you lose that face with certain people but you don't pay them back you don't harm the back don't you see you cannot forgive without suffering you cannot forgive a debt without taking it on yourself God can't just look down at us and say oh look at you ruining each other's lives look at you destroying the create my creation let me this coin each other look at the self-centeredness your heart I forgive you though I want you to see that God we're made the image of God the Bible says which means that which means if we had trouble forgiving it's because we were like him that he can't just say no it's not because he doesn't want to love you my goodness by coming to earth before in Jesus Christ Jeep God is so holy he had to come because that's the way but he's so loving he was glad to come and die he saw all that he had to he's so loving him he was glad to now let me talk to you about here might your emotions is there anything offensive about the idea of substitutionary sacrifice no I don't think so there is no more moving narrative there is no more if there's no narrative brings more joy than to know that someone has had sacrificed for you you know Sydney Carton cable to cities it's Charles Darnay love the same girl but the girl marries Charles that's first part of the book but at the end of the book Charles Darnay because it's happening by the way of course as you know in 18th century France Charles Darnay is arrested he's put in the Bastille I think that the festivities in the dungeon he's a and he's going to be executed tomorrow he's got a wife he's got a child he's gonna be executed tomorrow Sydney Carton steals into the prison he looks a lot like Charles today so he steals into the prison knocks Charles Darnay out has his friends take Charles Darnay out to safety puts on Darnay his clothes and stays there to die in his place at the very very end of the book there's a little seamstress who walks up and she's also a prisoner and she's going to die too she walks up to what she thinks is Charles Darnay he starts talking to him till she realizes it's not Charles Darnay guys get really good and she says are you dying for him and he says yes and for his wife and child and then she says something as a paraphrase but then she basically says that she says sir I'm so frightened I don't think I can face my own death but of a brave heroic man like he would hold my hand maybe I may face it and he says all right she was moved she was transformed by the substitutionary sacrifice of that man it wasn't even for her how would you be transformed if you came to believe that Jesus Christ did it for you that's what he come came to bring that's why he had to come to bring it and that's how he brought it through his substitutionary sacrifice to bring you and did not just create from kill but eventually the fall into his arms at the end of time be his spouse love you and perfect you will say a little bit more afterwards but that's all for right now what we're going to do at this point is back up and tell you introduce someone to give your testimony Hector is typing text questions up here and will answer questions because said everyday we're giving in the space city a special time just to give you time to the text the question in his head we're giving a student a chance to just show a little bit their story about how they've encountered Jesus just so you see that this isn't just out there was an abstract but it's really affecting people in the hearing now I was worried second year in Ennis at st. his college background about me I I was probably one of the most skeptical about this kind of stuff I grew up with a secular family of a mystic background I didn't really know anything about Jesus or the Bible the center of my life is pretty much worth sport watching sport friends nothing really is essential but what my friends Invicta convinced me to go to church without and eventually after that I started going to a church that my friend for appointed me to in reading and one of the things that just shocked me most was just how welcoming and how unbelievably happy and peaceful all these people at church were and it was just it was really bizarre there was something different about couldn't really know what it was and one time when I was there I was still just as skeptical as I was and the magnin has taken making a talk he just said that if you try and look for God he will open themselves to you I just I kind of with an opening heart just went for it locked everything out and just prayed and I felt something there but I didn't really want to believe it I mean I've always been a rational thinker really science and logic II like not abstract and I initially just thought the Bible was just a bunch of myths exaggerated stories but then I actually went away looks at facts and it made sense to me and once I got out of the way I really started to read about Jesus's life and I kept praying and asking God questions these things that was in my way was I didn't think I'd ever be good enough for God but he kept answering my questions that used her a random passage I read a talk that I went to or friends even just talking to them to me through like he was talking to me through my friends and I just felt he was so focused of my life no really did touch me and then at a talk last year it was actually hit I realized that I would never be perfect and no one would be I realized thanks to Jesus the one man who did live a perfect life that I could be forgiven for everything that I do wrong and will do wrong because I know I will mess up and I knew that despite all my imperfections God will love me and God does love me and Jesus does love me so I decided to get baptized as they had last year and since then my friends around me there first gave me a bit of sticks they're going to be pouring and whatnot well I started to put everything in perspective around me I'm still the same guy I have the same personality enjoy the same things still go out still watch sport but at the same time like my essays not the be-all and end-all of my week arsenal finishing for when not finishing for the one who put me into the pressure like just I wouldn't even done anything like this because I'd be so scared like messed up and make a fool of myself but just having got there in Jesus there is my anchor and just having that security is incredible in knowing what he did to me and knowing that despite everything that's wrong about me I will be loved by Jesus and this is just such an amazing feeling and I just hope that I mean this time last year and you're skeptical skeptical about any of this I was exactly like new last year just don't dismiss it and give it a try I'm sorry we really appreciate about let's get the best question up we go straight through okay if you were more than around you wouldn't be a Christian some faith just based on geography that was that's kind of cheeky no it is and actually if for example and it's a person asking this question is say oh I'm I'm a secular secular agnostic it's also very possible that if you were born in Iran you wouldn't be a secular announcement does that mean that your beliefs are invalid you see the the assumption is if your geography or your social location affects your beliefs therefore they're really not true but your social your your location affects your movies especially if you live in Oxford you're listen if you live in Oxford and you're very skeptical you're just going with the flow people in Iran are are Muslim they're going with the flow is does that mean that you are narrow-minded maybe maybe but not really here's why Peter Berger in his book a rumor of angels Peter Berger is a sociologist religion he's Austrian American leaders and he developed an idea of course it is some of you will certainly know more about than me which is the sociology of knowledge and sociology of knowledge says that basically your friends your your peers your cultural and social location largely determines what beliefs seem plausible to you and impossible so to a great degree things that seem impossible or improv are plausible or rational or irrational are affected by your ear culturally conditions the people around you he says the problem with that to you is if you say oh yes and all beliefs are culturally conditioned they're all relative and nobody's really objective he says the problem is that the idea of sociology of knowledge will also be culturally conditioned the belief that all knowledge is helps the condition is itself as culturally conditioned has no right to say home everybody's police are culturally conditioned except this in which case you get back to this it's a chapter called relativizing the relative isil's in the end you can't say all belief is culturally conditioned or else what you just said would be invalid and we might as well stop talking to each other just walk by each other you know listen to your iPods that's it but he says in the end even though we have to admit that we are largely conditioned by our culture we still have to struggle to decide which video is right which view is true where's the evidence so in the end the answer is no I'm an atheist I want to believe but your status what's your advice I wish to go in there is that okay well the next question be I'm a Christian I don't want to believe how do I get out because I'm a pastor and I live in the middle of Manhattan I've heard everything and I have heard that I actually have heard people say I'm a Christian and my problem is I'm so convinced it's right and yet I really would love to walk away from it don't think that that isn't it possibility a lot of people think it must be so incredibly hard to believe in Christianity it must be so actually it's not a more incredibly hard than I think much of anything else it depends if you're in a place like Oxford where it's obviously you know not socially cool to be a Christian but this is like I said in Iran is another play there and there are a few places now in the world where you know you're raised in the faith that you just so sure about it but in this case I've never mind that I just sorry about that tension if you want to believe in other words if you say I actually am skeptical I'm interested in believe me how do I do it there's there's everybody believes or disbelieves for three basic categories of factors through the rational the personal and the social the rational is you're not going to believe something unless it makes sense unless you can answer a lot of the questions if you an atheist and I want to believe but you're probably saying thinking there are some parts of Christianity and adjustment not say incredible you're gonna have to work through there you have to I don't believe you can prove anything demonstrable e then you see the matrix you can't prove that you're not a butterfly dreaming your girl I mean and yet you can so there's a lot of evidence and the evidence gets you to the place where you say this is probably true so there's the rip the rationale then there's the personal which is to say you have to in some ways commit you get to the place in illustration I often uses is if I was trying to hire somebody for a job I would love to hire the person I mean I'd love to not hire the person unless I was sure that that's the right candidate but basically with my reason I can only get to the place where I think that that's probably the best candidate I have and I have to hire somebody so I hired her let's say for the job and two years later after I committed given her the job two years later I know that she's the right person so I have a reason to the area of probability but then I had to commit into certainty so the rationale is part of it you can't just say I wouldn't be a Christian even though it doesn't make sense to me it doesn't work you got to come with your whole person which includes your brain but on the other hand of think that you can think your way all the way that you can get to the place where you're absolutely 100% rationally sure before you make any commitment that's impossible too so there's the rational there's the personal and there's the social which is to say Peter Berger is right Christianity won't make sense unless there's some other people around you that you have some admiration for for their thoughtfulness and for their character that are a little further along than you perhaps that person at your side tonight and that person that you process it with and I believe people believe whatever they believe or disbelieve what they believe for those three factors I mentioned that last night forgive me for mentioning again I've got a book called the reason for god that was built for the rational and if you want to work on that there back here I've been told that they that if you come in put it this way if you walk up to the book table and say without they'll give it to you free if you come the other hand if you walk up and you say I am absolutely sure about absolutely everything that the Christian faith teachers they will say that's three pounds fifty given the human interpretation of the Bible is fallible see Crusades with Windows applications of slavery etcetera which mainstream Christians at the time for which mainstream since my focus goes well in more punctuation ELISA Baker what if your entire interpretation today is wrong right by way longer the question is short of the answer just about you know actually this is the reason why iím a Protestant and I'm a Christian who therefore believes the Bible is the supreme authority nevertheless this the answer this question is tradition is a help and by tradition meaning church history looking at it takes years and years for the church to work through some of the issues they're a good example by the way the early church understood slavery to be a bad thing you can see it in the New Testament of my time the the church in the West at least of America even over here in Britain most of people in the church by the latter part of 19th century understood slavery does not fit at least African chattel slavery does not fit with the Bible at all and yet frankly southern Presbyterian Baptist in particular had a huge blind spot and they made they made a enormous mistake that now they look back on they say how did that happen part it was location blindness but the overall church through the ages I think actually comes more and more to understand some of those mistakes that we leave them behind actually the one other thing I say it's very important some of you do know right that thirty years ago some people said Christianity is a Western religion you now know surely that I don't know there's what to two million people going to church Anglican churches in the UK but there's 18 million people going to the Anglican churches of Nigeria and eight million and and Uganda and that sort of thing right now a very vibrant kind of Christianity what we call supernatural Christianity believing the Bible believing you need to be born again and so on is spreading all through the world and what's great about that is white people white Christians have blind spots Chinese Christians have blind spots you can see it I remember for example I taught at a school in which it's almost people Anglo Americans and Koreans they're all Christians but when we would do our case studies that would talk about things that were happening in our lives the Koreans can see how American Christians are so individualistic that they were just ignoring parts of the Bible that didn't fit with their American filter and just a definitive American over they were just filtering it out but we could see as Americans certain places where the Koreans were bringing their Confucianism in and their past and then not seeing certain things the Bible said together we begin to help each other I believe because the church is now the most universal religion every other religion Hinduism is based basically demographically in India Buddhism is basically in Japan sir in Asia Islam is still basically in the Middle East but Christianity is now just absolutely practically Universal but increasingly we're going to help each other with the cultural blinders that in the past made us blind that things we were doing that didn't fit in with the scripture so it's a great question and we do and Christians have to be very humble in response when anybody talks about our history ups that we have gotten it wrong many times but I actually think there is more hope in the future because we're becoming more more more of a multinational universal human religion great let's take a little more more all that much time eliminates well you take it now here we go if God is see by Christians is all-powerful and loving to his creation why is it that some Christians believe in the concept of Hell well well Christian is believed that what I said tonight is the presence of God is what we were built for and therefore the Beck when the barriers are taken down between us and God that are there now we come into our own we come into joy we come into fulfillment we were built for fellowship with God right now we're far away from God it's almost like well I don't have a good illustration right off the bat to go away from God to move away from God is not having as hell by definition if you are created for the presence of God and you say I don't want to be with God and God just gives you what you ask for as a punishment and yet a very just punishment if you just say yeah I don't want to be with God and God gives you what you ask for as a punishment but it just because you ask for it it would be hell I nobody quite knows what heaven is like we have metaphors for it nobody quite knows what hell's like we have known but an Oxford Christian here CS Lewis years ago said either in this life you say to God thy will be done or at the end God will say to you by what we do and we don't we honestly in some ways the Bible does not give us a great deal of detail about heaven and hell and therefore hi certainly and certainly no Christian wants to with any kind of joy talk about the details of hell and there's not that much in the Bible but the idea is this if we live forever if we do have a mortal Souls and of course I think we talked about that but if the Bible is right that we actually have souls that last forever then that means that our choices in the end take us toward God fellowship with God is what you get or away from God and alienation of God is what you get then you are either going to be in bliss or at the opposite so it's again it's really not something that we would say yeah the other thing of course is free will and that is to say that God does love us and he's going to enormous lengths by doing what he did in Jesus Christ but in the end we say what is sin if I blood sacrifice I don't you need to keep two things in my life blood represents death the Bible actually mentions that so somebody somebody once said what if G actually somebody actually asked me this and said why did you have to die if it was the blood why didn't they just you know give a lot of blood somebody actually asked for that once and I was I respect it I didn't say what's the matter with you I said I understand because the Bible is a metaphor it is very metaphorical but you're safe on the blood of Christ no you're actually saved by the debt because the wages of sin is death the punishment that we deserve to be cut off from God which is both physical and eternal death and therefore blood didn't mean literal word it just means death why does it require sacrifice I didn't speak much to it but there's a place in the reason for godhood which you now know how to get a discount on or I try to say all love is a substitutionary sacrifice it just give you parents in for a second if when a child is born into your first child there goes your independence for about 25 years there goes your lack of ability and just do what you want to do you're basically in other words you're your life your freedom is going independence is gone it's an enormous amount of work to raise a child now some parents don't pay the price they say oh I don't want to stuff I have my freedom I want to do my thing and here it's here's the point it's either them or you you can hold on to your freedom and that child will grow up so needy and so messed up that that child will be a slave or you can say goodbye to your freedom and really dedicate yourself to be a good parent and time with the job then the child will grow up free become a become a real adult that can live a self-sufficient life and I want you to know to give me to go to see a friend who's really hurting you go and you listen and it drains you and yet that person feels supported somebody cared if you just stay away saying oh I don't want to go see her because it always rains me other words it's either her or you if you stay full she'll stay empty if you're willing to be drained if those are up all over the substitutionary sacrifice and so the idea that for God to save us he shouldn't had a sacrifice or come in our place it's not how the world works so it's not blood it's dead and the sacrifice is something that we all have to know we all know that intuitively and it's not a surprise that guy said a sacrifice had to be done if I was going to be reconciling you now thanks to them and those questions that he'll announce is we've got a whole hour dedicated tomorrow lunchtime if you want to come along the texting new questions Tim's going to be doing that Isfahan sincere with the free lunch so do you make the most of that I don't how about to send now you gonna give an epilogue then I'll throw it back together right you may know me briefly I here's two things to take to practical things to take away three kinds of things the first thing is this Jesus Christ sat in the midst of all that joy sipping the coming sorrow so that you and I if we believe in him can sit in the midst of the stars of this world sipping they come in joy you can either sit in all that you can go to parties and yet still fill that emptiness in yourself you can sit in the midst of joy sipping the coming star of war you can believe in Jesus Christ and know the joy is coming and then you can sit in the middle of the sorrows even the bad things and it's like sipping the coming joy number two for Jesus described himself as a bride and us as his bride you know what that means I don't know how many of you have been through this but nothing like a minister at least in America we get to stand here and the groom comes out it stands there and then the bride comes down the center aisle now ordinarily the custom is that the groom hasn't seen the bride all gussied up and all her makeup in her jewels at our wedding gown and I want you to know that when the woman comes around the corner and starts coming down regardless of what she actually looks like in that wedding year she is gorgeous she is gorgeous the most beautiful she's ever looked and the groom sees it and he practically you have to hold him back because he wants to go down in there how dare Jesus Christ used this kind of metaphor for us is he saying that once he cleanses us from our sin that we look like that to him yeah now I would like you know and in a minute Tom will come back up and tell you how to use the little card that's on your seat but the middle car metal part of the card has but there's three boxes in the middle boxes commitment I'm going to tell you one thing it's going to take about one minute I'm going to pray a prayer because some of you might be at the place most of you're not probably but some of you might be at the place where you are ready the friend who said I'm an atheist I like to believe I say there's a lot of things you have to do but what if you're ready but now and it would be good for you to pass enclosure and to bring it home notice the text number one you have to admit you're needy if Mary hadn't come and said hey we've got a problem here nothing would have happened you got to admit your need number two you need to take credit for what Jesus has done that's the essence of what it means to become a Christian you say what yeah the bridegroom gets called in this is what great wine oh Jesus did that but he's getting the credit that's what it means to be a Christian Jesus lived this perfect life died his death when you believe in him God accepts you not because of anything you've done but because everything Jesus Christ has done is transferred to you he sees you in Christ there's a lot of places that I will talk about that can't go into it but essentially narratively that's what you have to admit your need believe that Jesus Christ did that substitutionary sacrifice for you and at that moment you get credit for everything business is done at number three do everything in tension that's what Mary said eh admit B believe C commit admit your need believe in what he did for you and commit and say now Lord I'm gonna do whatever you tell me I'm gonna pray a prayer kind of the first person prayer if anybody wants to pray that prayer with me then afterwards you can check the box and say I've made a commitment let's do that now our Father we have a need we admit our sin we met we think we have done wrong things we admit our need for you and we also see that we cannot save ourselves or pull off what we need by ourselves we believe that Jesus Christ came gave his life for us as a sacrifice for us and in that place and now we commit ourselves to you say show us what you how you want to sum it up we will mount it for you thank you you were bored of the feast with parade

Channel: OICCU

Views: 16,255

Rating: 4.7377048 out of 5

Keywords: OICCU, Jesus, This is Jesus, Oxford University, wedding, party, Cana, Tim Keller, Gospel of John

Id: OP90ECUensQ

Length: 66min 11sec (3971 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 11 2012