On this edition of the Evangelist Podcast, we're thinking about speaking good news at Easter. The Evangelist Podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you with Andy Brinkley and Glenn Scribble.
SPEAKER_02Here we go, golf claps, golf claps all around. Anyone left?
SPEAKER_03Oh, I really must uh stop that. Put that away.
SPEAKER_02You really must stop that.
SPEAKER_03So uh this is step for Andy. This the second um one on looking at uh evangelistic outreach. Yep. At Easter. We looked at the uh the cannonball and you were sort of explaining a bit about the the latest cannonball video that came out just before Easter.
SPEAKER_02Cannonball shut using love as ammunition on a mission of collision causing catastrophic deficiency to our car in coalition with morticians.
SPEAKER_03Who needs Governor B? We do. We definitely do. Um so this time we thought that we'd look uh a little bit about uh speaking evangelistically at Easter and things like that. And uh uh so you've got a long list of scriptures to preach for those taking notes.
SPEAKER_02I have 17 points. Um Well, where we left off with the last episode, we were thinking about um you know the cannibal video, which if you haven't seen it, for goodness sakes, just stop what you're doing, go and watch the video. But you've got um the whole human race is born sinking into quicksand. They're crying out for help because they want a rescue rope, they don't get a rescue rope. Out of heaven is shot a cannibal, there was Jesus, and he dashes down uh while we're trying to clamber up the sides of the pit. He actually goes down into the deepest part of the pit and explodes it on the cross and bursts through onto the other side of death in the resurrection, and he says, Come follow me. So if that's what the gospel is, I I think one huge thing about about outreach and and preaching the gospel at Easter, as well as as at other times, is we really need to begin with the born sinking into quicksand thing. Um which we in the West just want to resist at every stage because we've never had it so good, because we're living longer than ever, because our health is is great, we can live healthier for longer. Um, you know, and and what we're really doing in life is we're really clambering up the side of the pit, and we've got to a you know a relatively sunny spot on a pit that will have us in the end. But it just leads to loads of people just kidding themselves that that this'll last forever. Um and I and I do think that actually preaching our mortality is a huge need uh in evangelism and just waking people up. And so, yeah, I've got these sort of scriptures um, you know, the ways in which the Bible talks about the brevity of our lives, you know, and um so let's for instance 1 Chronicles 29 talks about how we are um we are aliens and strangers, we're aliens or sojourners um and tenants before you, O Lord. So, you know, it's it's like we're at a B and B and you know we're we're only here for a night or two, and then we're gone. You know, that that's what life's like. It's it's like a night or two at a at a bed and breakfast, and then we're gone. Or, you know, our days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, which is Job chapter seven, you know, just this idea of the shuttle going back and forth and and and just you know, one run along of the of the weaver's shuttle, and our lives come to an end without hope, says Job. Or uh all the time in the Bible, um shadow language comes up. So in Job chapter eight, uh our days on earth are like a shadow. Like a breath. Like a or a breath as well. Like a sleep. Or like sleep. Yeah. Psalm ninety. Like a bad dream that you wake up from and then you you don't even remember it, and and that's that's all that life is. Um like a vapor, James chapter four, you know, you um your life is a mist. You know, we even sort of put that line into into cannibal, you know. Um like what is it? Born of Sings of Quicksand, the sick land, a a swift span thirty thousand days. Which like thirty thousand days is would be like ninety years old when you die. So still, thirty thousand days, no delays in a haze dismissed, like morning mist. That's all that life is, like vapor. Um I love uh David in 1 Samuel 20, he says there is hardly a step between me and death. Hardly a step between me and death. And it's just, you know, you just you know, one wrong one wrong step. And you come tumbling off this tightrope that you're on. One one step away from death. Uh like grass, again, uh Isaiah 40. Um All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. Which again, you know, you you you go to Scotland and you see the heather across the hills, and you think that's beautiful. Oh, isn't that glorious? And but it's gone. It's like it's like grass. That's what our lives are like. They they look amazing and uh beautiful and look flourishing and verdant for a little while, and then they're gone. We haven't got long then on the earth. Like Psalm 90 is is reminding us, like as as you mentioned, Psalm 90, reminding us back of of Genesis um and the Garden of Eden, you know, dust you are, to dust you will return. And Psalm 90 says, You turn people back to dust, saying, Return to dust, you mortals. Um, verse 5 of Psalm 90, you sweep people away in the sleep of death. Um And then verse twelve says, Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Your days are numbered. When somebody says that to you, don't take that as uh a condemnatory thing. Take it as they're trying to teach you wisdom, your days are numbered. Okay. Well teach us, Lord, to number our days, and we just don't. We absolutely don't. And you know, I uh read a statistic um last week or the week before that um some phenomenal amount of of money, um something like eighty per cent of all uh uh US spending on healthcare um gets spent on the last three months of life. Like eighty per cent because we're just we're just trying to cling on. Absolutely doing everything we possibly can to postpone the inevitable. And that's that and what we think of as uh as grasping after life is really we're just postponing the the inevitable. Um people are just not ready to face their death, to face their mortality. Um but if we're gonna preach Easter, then we've gotta. We we've gotta begin there that this is our state for goodness sakes.
SPEAKER_03So how would you sort of uh do it then? If you're in a uh an Easter service and you're preaching, how would you sort of bring around I mean would you would you go quick quickly skirt over these things just to talk about the brevity of life and then and then what would you do after that? What how would you Yeah?
SPEAKER_02So I think using those biblical illustrations and imagery um is really, really useful. Um and and then trying to get people to get real. Um you have a certain number of heartbeats left. And when that number's up, your number's up.
SPEAKER_03And that's it. And then what what what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_02And then what are you gonna do? Uh and and I guess um I uh it's interesting. It's interesting. Um I've got an old sermon from Hebrews 2, which I'm actually bringing out for Easter.
SPEAKER_03Um and Oh, is this your um your your sermon freezer that you've got to do?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. Storing out a little frosty. But um which is interesting. The last last time I preached Hebrews 2 was at Christmas. Um but actually we should hold together the crib and the cross. Um they're meant to belong together. The same Jesus who took flesh actually takes that flesh down to the hellish death that it deserves on the cross, taking on not only our flesh but our our sin on the cross. But that whole trajectory of him taking flesh means he's on the way to the cross and then blasts through death out the other side. And that's that's kind of what Um that's kind of why Christmas and Easter belong together. But it's really interesting. At at uh at Christmas time, everyone says, Don't forget to pr preach the cross at Christmas, you know, because he didn't just stay in the crib, he went to the cross. You gotta hold Christmas and Easter together. They're always saying that at Christmas. They don't say it at Easter though. A few months later, nobody's saying, Don't forget to preach Christmas at Easter. Don't forget to preach, you know, that Jesus entered into our life and our humanity and our predicament and took it onto himself in his own being. We don't tend to do that so much because I tend we tend to preach a cross that's simply a transaction, where God zaps a certain amount of sin on the cross, so that he can zap a certain amount of blessing to you in a quite impersonal way. Um that's a obviously a caricature. But I think we need to hold together Christmas and Easter, and Hebrews 2 does a brilliant job of that. Hebrews 2 verse 14. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Now such those two verses are just so rich. What does it say about how God rescues us? It's it again, it's not that he just says sends down the rescue rope to those who are perishing. It's because we're flesh and blood, and you know where flesh and blood ends up in the grave. Jesus, the Son of God, shared to in our humanity. So that interestingly, by his death he might destroy the power of him who holds the power of death. So it's interesting that the the his death itself is this explosive force that kills death. By his death he kills death. Um Because I th I think in the Bible they ha uh the Bible writers hold together the cross and the resurrection perhaps a little more than we do. Um we tend to think, okay, there was the there was that transaction at the cross where sin is paid for, and then three days later there was the resurrection thing where death is killed and life is one and you know Christ is conquered. Um but in the in the Bible it's held together far more, so that you know Romans 4 can say that the resurrection is what justifies us, and here Hebrews 2 can say um it's his death that kills death. So just just interesting again that we we preach a Jesus who takes onto himself our perishing condition on the cross he takes together our spiritual perishing as well, in order to destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and liberate us, free us, who all our lives are held in slavery by our fear of death. Now that's very interesting that according to verse fifteen of Hebrews 2, we're all in slavery to our fear of death. Stop someone on the streets and say, Are you afraid of dying right now? And they'll say, No, no, but I'm afraid that I won't make my mortgage repayments. I'm afraid that this doctor's appointment that I've got on Tuesday is not gonna go well. I'm afraid that my children are, you know, hanging around with the wrong people. I'm but you you trace those fears back. Um ultimately it's a fear that this whole thing is coming to an end. And I've I've been trying to keep the show on the road. I've been trying to clamber up the walls of the pit. Um and I might be, you know, the near horizon of my fears are I want the job and I want the relationship and I want the family to go well. The far horizon of every fear is everything's sliding down into that pit. Everything's sliding down into that, you know, hell. And everyone's got that fear of death. And I so I I think it's so important to show people their mortality, to show the ways in which their fear of death is holding them in slavery, and then to show them the Lord Jesus who shares in our humanity, and his death that destroys death.
SPEAKER_03Um So that's those are some of the things. Yeah. Okay, so how would you um take it from there? Would you call for a response and encourage people to come forward or I do that I do that summarise or how would you end your how do you end that sort of summary?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I mean on the practical thing of call to response, I do that differently depending on the the context and what what the church is used to if I'm preaching in a church or um so I don't always do it the same way. I'm committed to actually th thinking fa if faith comes by hearing, then the way that a person receives Christ is far more as they hear the word proclaimed than ten minutes after the service coming forwards in this act of response. So I wanna I wanna tie together the act of hearing and the assurance that Christ is yours. I want to tie those two things together. So that in my preaching I'll sort of say, there you are perishing. There you are, your whole life is enslaved to your fear of death. Everything you do, you're chasing after this myth that you can postpone the inevitable. Um your whole life is running, uh you know, is being run by this slavery. Um here's Jesus, and he's he's the cannonball shot from heaven and he's blasting past you down the other way. But look at him, doesn't he? He seems to know what he's doing, doesn't he? And he seems to know what a good death looks like, and he seems to know that there's there's hope on the other side of death. Will you be one with him? Will you receive him? Will you go his way? Um and you know, maybe even now you can call out to Jesus in your perishing state and say, Jesus, I see that you took my burdens onto yourself. Um Will you take me onto yourself? Will you, you know, will you be with me and and me with you from now on? And will you will you help me to die well so that I might rise with you? You know. Those those sorts of things. That's that's what we're doing when we're when we're preaching Easter.
SPEAKER_03Can you think of sort of any people that uh you know who've come up to you afterwards and uh said that that's happened to them?
SPEAKER_02Certainly uh it certainly in terms of um yeah, I want in on Jesus and yes, um yeah, certainly people have have have done that. I'm trying to think of people who specifically in response to me saying, You're dying, aren't you? I mean I mean I've I I've seen a number of people trust Christ with days to live. Um and that's that's been really uh amazing. But it it it kind of takes that in this culture where we sort of we keep death out of sight and out of mind for for so long. It it kind of takes until we're almost drugged up to the eyeballs. Um and you know, we're in the hospice before we actually consider that we're mortal. You know, that that's that's the state where we're at. But yeah, I've I've known a I've known a number of people who have um yeah, prayed with me to receive Jesus and and you know, we prayed the twenty-third Psalm together. I'm I'm thinking of one guy um who had a particular particularly horrible degener degenerative uh lung condition, but had never had anything to do with Christianity until aged fifty something. Um he sort of got this and he yeah, he had he thought he had weeks to live. He actually died a few days later. Um But it yeah, it takes that kind of that kind of face to face with our own perishing. And and the other thing I'll say is is we're not just preaching that you're dying, therefore you need resurrection. We're preaching you're sinful, therefore you need justification, forgiveness. Um But those two things go together. We are physically perishing, but we're also spiritually perishing. So as you as you're trying to convict people that they are um dying, you want to say that there's there's moral death too, isn't there? There's spiritual death to you that Jesus has come to solve. So you need to be able to to to do that. But it again it's very interesting. Uh you know, doing 3-2-1, um you talk about Adam quite a bit. So this gospel presentation that, you know, takes you through the story of God, the world, and you um I mention Adam quite a bit in evangelism, and people don't want to believe that they are born dying, and they don't want to believe that they're born sinful. Um but that I th I find that very interesting in the West, where we we think that we're gonna live forever, because like because we've never had it so good. We also find it difficult to think that we're born spiritually dying. And I think those two things are linked. I think I think we kid ourselves that we've got life under control, life in our own possession, but we also kid ourselves that we've got goodness under control and and we're born, you know, we're born immortal, and we're born good. And the Bible is just saying come on, face facts, face reality. You're born sinking, both spiritually and physically. Let's face facts in this. Um And so and I I guess we can l we can sort of uh conclude with this little plea for a shape to our preaching. I think we need to have a certain shape in our gospel presentations that goes down and then up. Um you'll notice it, you know, if if you're looking out for it in in our videos, you'll notice that every one of our ten videos has that shape. Yeah. All of them, like, ooh, it's a little bit dark and it's a little bit Jesus at the end. Um I think the Bible has that shape. I think Jesus Himself has that shape. Cross and resurrection. I think the whole world has that shape. Um there's been a fall, but we're gonna rise up higher than than than we ever were before. Everything has this shape. Um older preachers used to call it the law gospel kind of dynamic. You show people how far short of, you know, God's goodness and glory we fall, and then you show them Jesus who offers it to them for free. But I think however you do it and whatever names you give to it, um, we need to preach this kind of shape. And all the more at Easter, because Easter forces you into that shape, doesn't it? We've had you know, we've had Lent, we go into Mordy Thursday, then down into Good Friday, and then Easter Sunday. Um So I would I would urge you, not just at Easter, but at all times, to have that same that same shape. Bury people bury people's faces in the truth. You're born sinking into quicksand. That's a moral truth, spiritual truth, physical truth, you're in denial about all of that. But it should be the most obvious fact of your life. Of course you are, of course you are. But here is Jesus offered to you when you can't do it for yourself. And that and there's the good news. But that's yeah, that's how I think you preach at Easter.
SPEAKER_03Excellent. Um would you sort of have some um Easter sermons on your website we could link to?
SPEAKER_02That's a good idea. Yeah, let's put that. And and um we can also link to some very helpful talks on death. Um the ways the Bible thinks about it, and the ways that in modern society we've completely blinkered ourselves to our mortality. Um so I'll I'll put some links to um a couple of sermons like that and then a couple of uh Easter sermons. That'd be good.
SPEAKER_03Excellent. Okay, well, we better leave it for now and uh we'll come back next time with uh something fresh.
SPEAKER_02After Easter. After Easter. Exactly. Goodbye.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so the web address for this weap uh for this webisode is revivalmedia.org slash TEP90. If you could leave us a rating and review, we would be very grateful if you could do that for us. Just go to revivalmedia.org slash iTunes or slash stitcher, and uh if you give us a rating and review, it helps us to get boosted up and uh seen by more people. That will help us very much. Thank you very much. Very good. Okay, so uh we'll see you next time. See ya good Easter. Have a happy Easter. Bye.