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Today on the Evangelists Podcast, we hear an evangelistic talk from Maidenhead given by Glenn Scrivener.

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The Evangelists Podcast. Encouragement to speak life to a needy world. With Glenn Scrivener and Andy Brinkley.

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Welcome back to the Evangelists Podcast, where we encourage you in your Christian witness and bringing you interviews and stuff helpful for evangelism. I'm Andy Brinkley, Media Producer for Speak Life, and in a moment we're going to hear from our resident evangelist and boss of Speak Life, Glenn Scrivener. Glenn has been uh touring the country for the last three weeks or so, uh, but we thought we would let you listen into a talk that he did. You can be the uh the mystery visitor, the fly on the wall, if you like, uh, to what uh Glenn often does around the country. If you'd like to keep up a little bit more with what uh Glenn does, his calendar and general ministry updates, then do visit our website and sign up via email. Uh we'd love to keep you informed of of what goes on. We also produce a small booklet each quarter that includes some of the amazing things that God is doing around the world. Um, stories from Pakistan, China, uh Russia. Uh you can find it by going to our website speaklife.org.uk slash sldd. That stands for speaklife daily. speaklife.org.uk slash sled. Okay, without further ado, here's Glenn speaking in Maidenhead the other week.

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Brilliant. Well, you don't even need to download an app. You've got John's Gospel there on your tables. Do you want to pick up John's Gospel? Um, this is part of the Bible. This is one of the four biographies of Jesus in the Bible, written by one of Jesus' closest companions. He is the beloved disciple of Jesus called John. And he's written this biography so that you can get to know Jesus. He even says that. He even tells you why he's written this. He says, These things are written so that you may believe. Well, that's good, because wouldn't it be cool to know this Jesus that James has been talking about? In a second, I'm going to draw your attention to uh a couple of sentences from the beginning and a couple of sentences from the end of this book in order to introduce Jesus to you. But as I begin, I just want to ask you a question. Uh what do you think life is? Is life a tragedy or is it a comedy? What do you think? We've been thinking about comedy all night tonight. Is life a comedy or is it a tragedy? Now, as I ask whether life is a comedy, I'm not asking you the question, is life a barrel of laughs? We all know that life is not a barrel of laughs. There is much sadness, much darkness, much pain in life. But I'm asking something uh a little bit more particular. You see, there's a classical definition of tragedy and comedy, and you can go back to the Middle Ages and you can ask people like Dante and Shakespeare, and you can say, what is a tragedy, Dante? And uh Dante, the old Italian poet who wrote Dante's Inferno and things like that, he had a great phrase. He said, A tragedy is a story that begins in joy and it ends in pain. On the other hand, a comedy is a story that begins in pain but ends in joy. It's actually all about the ending. So a Shakespeare play like Hamlet is full of gags, and there's a lot of funny moments in Hamlet, but in the final scene, the death count is astronomical. Everyone's just piled up on the stage and the blood flows. So that would be a tragedy then, right? Whereas if you're watching a Shakespeare play and there's a wedding, in fact, eleven of his plays end with weddings. Well, then you know it's a comedy because it's got that happily ever after. You can think of it like a frowny face and a smiley face, okay? A frowny face is a tragedy because it goes up and then down. A comedy is a smiley face. You go down, but then you finish on a high. So what is life? Is life a tragedy or is it a comedy? And I want to say to you that actually the world will tell you life is a tragedy. And the more you think about the story the world tells about life, the more you see how tragic it is. So we tend to think that you're born into this world and you want to climb and you want to grab and scratch and take and get on top. And then you get to the top of your career, the top of your profession, you get all the experiences and you get the achievements that you want to get, and then you're over the hill, and then you tumble down into the grave, right? Isn't that life? Life is about getting up there, getting on top. It's a dog eat dog world until you're kingpin, and then you get toppled, and then you die, and that's that. Classic tragedy. That's that's what the world tells you life is. The world will tell you life is a tragedy. They will sugarcoat that story, though. They will make it look so glossy, so shiny, and yet it is utterly, utterly tragic. Jamie on uh Wednesday said to us that the the world's view of humanity. Take God out of the equation, what does the world view humanity as? We are wet robots. Moist robots. That's all we are. We're just biological survival machines, aren't we? We are biological survival machines clinging to an insignificant rock that's hurtling through a meaningless universe towards eternal extinction. That's that's life, right? That's life. But I've got three more likes on Facebook, so that's good. And, you know, Starbucks are doing a new spiced latte. It's really, really good. And we're renovating the kitchen, so that's something to look forward to. And we are a biological survival machine clinging to an insignificant rock hurtling from a meaningless universe towards eternal extinction. The story that the world tells is utterly tragic. And you can tell it's tragic by the cult of youth that we have. We don't want to get to the end of the story. We are petrified of the end of the story. Nobody dies in public anymore. We shove people off into the nursing homes and then into the hospices, and people die out of sight, out of mind. It's all about the youth. It's a cult of youth, isn't it? And our magazines are just emblazoned with all these uh pictures of 17-year-old models that look like 12-year-old girls telling you how to fight the seven signs of aging. That's the cult of youth that we have, and we cling on to our youth. We cling on to our youth. And then at the other end of life, we have no respect for the elderly, no respect for their age or wisdom or experience. The only time you ever read about the elderly, the only time in your news feed on Facebook, the only time you read stories or watch stories about the elderly is when they act like young people. And so in your Facebook feed, you'll you'll see the story of the 70-year-old who's running the marathon, and you think, aren't old people great when they act like 20-year-olds, right? Only when they act like 20-year-olds. The 70-year-old who runs the marathon, or the 80-year-old who's a breakdancer, or the 90-year-olds who are doing speed dating, oh, aren't they great when they act like 20-year-old idiots, right? It's the only respect we have for the age. Why is that? Because we've got a cult of youth. Because we're telling the tragic story. Life is about climbing up, getting on top of your game, and then you tumble down into the grave, and that's that utterly, utterly tragic. And then you go to the religions of the world, and you say, well, okay, if the atheism thing is a tragic story, maybe maybe the religions of the world are telling a more comic story with a happily ever after. And actually, I've got to tell you, there are some adventure stories that are out there in the religions of the world, but they end badly too. So the karmic religions talk about incarnation and reincarnation and reincarnation until what is what is the great goal in Buddhism, for instance? You want to say, stop the cycle of birth and rebirth. I want to get off. I want nirvana. You know what nirvana is? Nirvana is non-being. Nirvana is literally it's the word for being blown out, like a like a candle being blown out. And the great goal is to be dissolved into the ocean of being like a drop of water in the sea. That's that's the great goal. And there is no hope for these bodies and this world in the karmic religions. And you go across to Islam and you say, is there any hope for these bodies and this world and in Islam? Well, you you never know if you're gonna make it. But even if you did, even if you made it as a good Muslim, there's no hope for these bodies in this world. Paradise is an otherworldly thing. And these bodies and this world go to hell. Is there any hope? Is there a happily ever after out there for these bodies and this world? There's only one book that's telling the comedy story. Only one book. There's only one guy who's come to planet Earth and is offering the happily ever after. I promise you, there's only one. Every other story ends in tragedy. Every other story. No matter how they sugarcoat it, no matter how they photoshop it, no matter how covered it is in chintzy bling, this is the only book that tells you the comedy story. Because this tells you the story of the smiley face, or if you like, tells you the story of coming down into the valley and then finishing back on a high. This is the story that tells you that kind of shape of reality. On page one, it it introduces us to this good beginning as we begin on top. If you have a look at page one, here is how John introduces Jesus to you. The way John introduces Jesus is to begin on top of the world. The word became flesh is the heading. In the beginning was the word, word with a capital W. It's a title for Jesus. And the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. We begin on high. We begin before the universe began, before there were people or planets or protons. What was there? According to the Bible, there was light and life and love. That's what there was. Before the world began, there was a family of love. There was a father always loving his son in the joy of the Holy Spirit. There was God with his word and his breath. The Father with his son and his spirits. You know, love is something God never had to create because God is love. A fountain of life and light and love. The Father loving his son in the joy of the Holy Spirit. And then through the Son, it's as though God was saying, you know, this thing is too good to keep to ourselves. Let's let's share. Let's spread. And so through the Son and by the Spirit, a world is made so that we can share in light and life and love. This is where we've come from. This is what we are intended for. To share in the very light and life and love of God. But then by the time you get to verse 5, you'll notice there's darkness there. And you think, well, where's the darkness come from? I thought God was light. Well, yeah, he is. But what happens when you turn away from light? You get darkness. What happens when you turn away from life? You get death. What happens when you turn away from love? You get disconnection. And this is the fall that the Bible speaks about. We live in a world of darkness and death and disconnection. And the world is very, very frustrating. And there is a lot of darkness out there in that moral sense, in that evil sense. But actually, we've got to be honest as well. We've got to look within our hearts and realize there's a lot of darkness in here as well. There really is. This week I was talking to uh a guy, it looks like his marriage is is over with uh his his wife, she's still his wife at the moment, but as he was telling me the things that he had said and done to his wife, and then the things that she said and did back to him, and then the way that he replied, and then the retaliation that she made, and then the tantrum that he threw, and then the violence that she brought to bear, you know. I just sat there listening and thinking, you know what, I'd I'd I'd just been praying about Syria, and I'd just been praying about, you know, how on earth is anyone gonna set Syria to rights? And I was just having the same feelings, thinking about this guy and his marriage, and thinking, is there any hope for this marriage? And in some ways I thought there's all there's almost more hope for Syria than there is for this marriage. But the funny thing was, as he told me everything that he'd said and done to his wife, I understood every single thing that he'd said and done. I related to every single thing he said and done. I thought, this this guy, he's not a different species from me. All that stuff that poured out of him, that's in my heart. And it bubbles out into our marriage at times as well. And all the things that she'd done to him, gosh, that's in my heart too. I completely understood. And I started to think, you know, the the evil that's going on in that marriage, it's it's kind of a microcosm of the evil that's going on in Syria. You know, there's a chemical weapons attack verbally going on in that marriage. And then there are retaliatory strikes going on. And there's just hell unleashed. And at every point I'm thinking to myself, I know that hell. That's that's in me. You know, I I I often say to my wife loving and kind and generous things, and almost in the same breath, I can then say something really cruel and cutting and harsh and death dealing. You know, and in those moments I can I can say to my wife, I'm so sorry, honey, I don't know what came over me. And of course, nothing came over me. It all came out of me. It all came out of somewhere very deep, somewhere very dark, somewhere very deathly, somewhere very disconnected, somewhere hellish. You know, it's a hell of a life to live apart from God. And we all know what it's like. We all know what it's like. So what's gonna what's God gonna do? Because all of us are runaways from the love of God. And you you know that you're a runaway from the love of God. You know that, because if I ask you this question, just silently answer it in your heart. If I ask you this question, what's your response? Who's got the right to tell you what to do? Who's got the right to tell you how you should spend your time, how you should spend your money, who you should spend your time with, who's got the right to tell you anything? In our hearts, we're all saying nobody, right?

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No one.

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It's our little declaration of independence, right? Our little runaway from the light and life and love of God. And it's hell. It's a hell of a life to live disconnected from God. And we feel it in it's almost like the preview for the feature film. Right now we're feeling it in this preview sense. But the Bible says we will all live forever. So where are we gonna live? Continued in disconnection? That's a hell of a life. You don't want that. Or could we get reconnected? Could we get reconnected to the light and life and love of God? Well, that's what this book is all about. This book is about the Son of God coming down into this pit of our own making and saying to us, you know what, you're in a pit, but your plight will be my plight, your darkness will be my darkness, your debts will be my debts, your pain will be my pain, your suffering will be my suffering, your hell will be my hell. Because that's what love does. Love bears the cost of being near to the beloved, and so there comes Jesus down into our pit. And what's he doing on Good Friday? What's he doing? As the sky turns black, what's he doing? He's taking our darkness, he's taking our death, he's taking our disconnection, he's taking our hell, he's taking our tragedy and dying that tragic death. Three days later, what then happens? Well, let's turn to the end of John's Gospel. Let's see what happens three days later. Page 50. And let's go halfway down page 50. John chapter 20, and uh little number 11 refers to verse 11. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. Mary has been following Jesus. Mary loves Jesus, Jesus has saved her, he's transformed her. Mary has thought, you know, Jesus, he's the savior, he's the liberator, he's the rescuer. He's come down into the pit to make everything okay. And then she was there at the cross on Good Friday, and her savior, her liberator, her rescuer has died. So what does she feel now? Oh dear. Can you imagine her situation? Can you imagine? Imagine you're in quicksand and you're sinking down, down, down, down, down, down. And you say, Help! And someone runs to the rescue and they say, I'm here to rescue you, and they jump into the quicksand and they sink like a stone in front of you. What do you think then? Well, that's a double tragedy, isn't it? I mean, they're dead, that's sad, but you're next. If your rescuer has died, what hope is there? That's what she's feeling on Easter Sunday. Verse 11. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, Woman, why are you crying? They've taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they've put him. At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you're looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've put him, and I will get him. Jesus said to her, Mary. And the lights go on. Beautiful moment. Suddenly she realizes the one who had saved her, the one who had rescued her, the one who understood her, the one who had seen all her darkness and loved her nonetheless, the one who actually got her. Messed up though she was, he really got her. She had thought that he was dead and gone forever, and all of a sudden, in one word, she realizes he's back. And he's back for good. Mary, he says. When she hears her name, she knows that everything has changed. Tragedy has turned to comedy, hell has turned to heaven. Because Jesus is alive again. Jesus is like the needle that goes through the black shroud of death and out the other side. And on Easter Sunday, she sees how he has gone through death and out the other side. And you know what? If you know Jesus, if you trust Jesus, then you get connected to him, and you become like the thread that gets pulled through the same way. And you can have that same future, that same happily ever after. Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabbani, which means teacher. Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I've not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. It's beautiful. She clings on to him physically, and Jesus says, Look, you don't need to cling on to me physically. It's okay. You can have a spiritual connection to me now. In fact, the whole world can have a spiritual connection to Jesus now. And if we are connected to him, you know what happens? Suddenly we get his father as our father. Don't you love that in verse 17? I'm going to my father, and you can call him father now. I'm going to my God. You call him God now. You're welcome in the family. It's beautiful, isn't it? The Son comes from that family, joins us in our dysfunctional family, and says, Get connected to me. And then when we're connected to Jesus, we get his Father as our Father. And we get his spirit as our spirit. And we get his Happily ever after, as our happily ever after. It's for free and it's forever. So I've just got one question for you as I close. Do you want this? Do you want him? Do you want Jesus? He's gone to hell and back for you. He's plunged down into the pit for you. He's taken your tragedy. He's taken your hell to give you his comedy, to give you his heaven, to give you his father, to give you his spirit, to give you himself, to give you his future, to give you everything. Do you want him? Do you want to be connected to him? Well, it's very simple, actually. It's about going from the tragedy story to the comedy story. Jesus says to us all, stop living the tragedy. Stop living as though you are meant to climb and scratch and grab and take and get on top of things and then tumble down into the grave. Stop doing that. It's a tragic life. Try and get everything for you now because you're dead forever. Stop living that life. Stop it. That's tragedy. Start living the comedy. The comedy that with Jesus now meeting you in the pits, you don't have to climb and grab and scratch and take. You can know who you are. And in your professional life, people might say no to you, like they've said no to James in his professional life. That's okay. You've got Jesus, and he's met you in the pits, and you've got a happily ever after. That's okay. So you can keep sacrificing. You can see keep giving of yourself to others. And you can entrust your life and entrust your future to Jesus. Stop living the tragedy. Start living the comedy. But start living it with Jesus. Do you want Him? Do you want this Jesus? I'm just going to offer a prayer now for anyone who wants to stop living the tragedy and start living the comedy, who wants to know Jesus in the middle of their pit and who wants to know his happily ever after. Should we all just bow our heads now? And I'm just going to offer a prayer that you can pray if you just want to say to Jesus, I want to get connected to you. I want you in my life. I want to stop grabbing and taking and stealing and getting ahead of others. I want to start living this life of self-giving with Jesus. I want Him to be my Lord. Let me pray a prayer and you can echo it in your heart if it's true for you. Lord Jesus. Thank you for coming. Thank you for entering into our world. Thank you for coming into our pit. I'm sorry for my own selfishness. I'm sorry for the hell that is in my heart at times. Thank you that you died for me. I thank you that you rose again. Please be with me in my life. As my Lord, as my leader, as my savior. Help me to live the comedy. This life of self-giving love now. And hope for an eternal future. Walk with me now and always. Amen. Well, for some people, that will be a fresh step that you've taken, a fresh step of faith in trusting in Jesus. And if that's the case, we'd love to hear from you. Please do tell someone that you've come with, that you've wanted to start this journey with Jesus. Because a journey with Jesus is not a solo thing. It's something that you do together with others, and we'd love to help you in that journey. One thing that you can do that will help you take that journey is to sign up to our Life Explored course. And it's just a way of understanding more of the story.

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That was Glenn Scrivener talking in Maidenhead recently. If you'd like to hear more episodes like this, do subscribe to the Evangelist Podcast if you're not already. You can do so at speaklife.org.uk slash tep. And also, if you'd like to give us a rating and review on iTunes or Stitcher, that would be really helpful if you could do that again at the website. Thanks very much for listening until next time.