Who You Believe: Who Is Alive ? (Session 5) Series

Who is Alive?

Jesus Christ who rose from the grave is alive!

Jesus was born; Jesus ascended to Heaven; in between Jesus teaches, heals, suffers, dies and comes back to life. The life of Jesus is a story of triumph that confirms and validates His identity as God incarnate.

There are five recorded occasions when Jesus specifically stated He was going to die:

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Matthew 16:21

When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief. Matthew 17:22-23.

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. Mark 8:31.

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.” Mark 10:32-34.

And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Luke 9:22.

Jesus described in detail His crucifixion and was explicit in stating that He would rise from the dead three days later. His disciples reaction to Him sharing His destiny with them was mixed. Often the statements Jesus made mystified the disciples, sometimes they even protested about His words.

With the benefit of hindsight we can look back at what Jesus said and see that He was 100 percent accurate in His description of what would happen. Jesus was crucified. Jesus was laid in the tomb. Jesus was resurrected. The accuracy of the fulfilment of prophecy is part of the strong evidence of who Jesus was and is.

Why is the resurrection important?

The resurrection is on the list of reasons for recognising the deity of Christ. It is an event that validates His identity, His miracles, His power over nature, His hand in creating the world and us.

His resurrection confirms His compassion for each of us.

An illegal arrest!

All of the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – record this incredible event. Jesus was with His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane praying. The Chief Priests (the ones who taught the law to the people) sent Roman soldiers and some of the Hebrew elders to capture Jesus. After a series of illegal night trials, in the morning soldiers took Jesus outside the city of Jerusalem to the hill of Golgotha to be crucified.

Calvary or Golgotha (ˈgoɫ.gə.θɘ) are the English language/Western Christian names given to the site, outside of ancient Jerusalem’s early 1st century walls, ascribed to the crucifixion of Jesus. The name Golgotha is the Greek transcription given by the New Testament, of an Aramaic name, which has traditionally been presumed to be Gûlgaltâ; the Bible refers to it as place of [the] skull - Κρανίου Τόπος (Kraniou Topos) in Greek, and Calvariae Locus in Latin, from which we get Calvary.

The location itself is mentioned in all four canonical Gospels:

Mark - And they brought him to the place called Gol’gotha (which means the place of a skull)

Matthew - And when they came to a place called Gol’gotha (which means the place of a skull)

Luke - And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left

John - So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol’gotha

His hands and feet were nailed to a wooden cross and He died from asphyxiation. Jesus died before sunset on Friday afternoon and two of His disciples took His body to a newly carved tomb.