The Supreme Fact Series

Easter talk, No.1

Let’s suppose some components arrive in a factory. They’re inspected. They pass the inspection and they continue into the factory. There was a fact: the components passed the inspection. The fact led to a decision: the components are received.

We may not work in business or manufacturing, but we intuitively follow the same process. Here’s an example. On Friday morning, a man called Edgar was expecting to fly from Heathrow to Paris to see his goddaughter. Then he heard on the news that Heathrow had closed due to a power failure. Edgar didn’t want to cancel his trip. He acted quickly. He expected that Eurostar would be very busy. But he could get his car onto a ferry. So, he did that. Edgar grasped a fact, he understood the significance of the fact and he made a decision based on that fact.

Facts are important. If the facts we have are wrong, the decision is likely to be wrong.

I became a Christian when I was about ten. When I was about 12, I went to a boarding school. I hadn’t hidden the fact that I was a Christian. After a while, I found it was really hard to be a Christian. Being a Christian made me different. I didn’t want to be a Christian. But I remember thinking to myself: if it’s true, I can’t quit. I need to know if it’s true. At the age of 14 or 15, I started to investigate. I found facts. I understood the significance of the facts. I made a decision. I would continue as a Christian.

Our faith as Christians is founded on facts. We become Christians on the basis of facts and we continue as Christians on the basis of facts. We need to be confident that our facts are true, and we need to understand the significance of those facts.

For Christians, there is one fact that towers above all other facts in its importance. It is that God raised Jesus from the dead.

I said that when I was at school, I decided to investigate. One thing I did was to read a booklet titled ‘The Evidence for the Resurrection.’ The author, Sir Norman Anderson, started as follows: ‘Easter is not primarily a comfort, but a challenge. Its message is either THE SUPREME FACT IN HISTORY or else a gigantic hoax.’ As far as Sir Norman Anderson was concerned, Easter – in other words, Jesus’ resurrection – isn’t simply the most important fact FOR CHRISTIANS. It’s THE SUPREME FACT IN HISTORY.

We might be surprised at this. We might think, ‘Is Jesus’ resurrection more important than his crucifixion?!’ That’s a bit like asking if water is more important than oxygen. We need them both. Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection are also both vital. But Jesus himself pointed to his resurrection as THE vital sign.

There was an occasion when some scribes and Pharisees told Jesus, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.’ Jesus replied: ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign. Yet no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah, because just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights, SO THE SON OF MAN WILL BE IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH FOR THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS’ [Matthew 12:38-42].

Jesus was clearly talking about his resurrection. He knew that he would die, but he also knew that after three days, God would raise him back to life. That would be the sign.

Sir Norman Anderson believed that Easter is the supreme fact in history.

Jesus said that no sign would be given to his generation except this sign – that is, his resurrection. If there would be no sign except this sign, then this is the only sign. And if it’s the only sign it is of course the most important sign. There are no competitors.

It doesn’t matter much if we call Jesus’ resurrection the supreme fact in history or the most important sign. Jesus’ resurrection is the fact, above any other fact, that establishes the truth of the Christian faith.

If we’re thinking of BECOMING a Christian but we aren’t sure, Jesus’ resurrection is the place to come to.

In the 1970s, Lee Strobel was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune. He was married to Leslie, and at some point, Leslie became a Christian. Lee was an atheist, and he wasn’t happy that Leslie had become a Christian. He decided to use his skills as a journalist to disprove Christianity. A Christian colleague told him that the resurrection of Christ is a key linchpin. If he could disprove Jesus’ resurrection, then the whole Christian faith would crumble. Lee set to work – but his research brought him to a very different conclusion. He later wrote, ‘It was the evidence from science and history that prompted me to abandon my atheism and become a Christian.’