Jesus Is Alive? True Of False

John 20:1-18

Jesus is Alive – True of False?

Introduction

A. How many people here believe everything you hear?

B. I hope no one raised their hands

C. I hope that when someone tells you something, you check the facts behind it to see if the person is correct

D. Let me give you an example. Last week we were discussing Pilate, the guy that ordered Jesus to be crucified, I said he was an elected official. Jon Grubbs after the service ask me if I was sure of the fact he was elected

E. As soon as I said it last week, I realized I was wrong for Pilate was an appointed official rather then an elected official, but I did not correct myself.

F. See Jon took the information reviewed the facts and did not just accept everything that I said at face value

G. Sure enough he was right

H. The pass couple of weeks we have been taking a logical and historical examination of the claims that the Movie, “The Passion of Christ” makes

I. We have been examining the fact around the events, and today we are going to look at the events centered around the resurrection of Jesus

J. There are some things that everyone agrees on

K. No one argues that Jesus of Nazareth was beaten and then hung of the cross

L. No one argues the fact that Jesus was then taken off the cross and put in the grave

M. No one argues the fact that Jesus’ body was no longer in the grave

N. The conflict occurs when we try and explain were the body went

O. Christianity claims that he rose from the dead

P. Is that true? Is Jesus Alive?

Q. Today we are going to evaluate some of the leading theories about what happen to Jesus’ body and see if they hold up under logical and scientific evidence

R. We are going to look at some possible explanations, Specifically:

a. Swoon theory

b. The Theft Theory

c. The Hallucination Theory

d. The Wrong Tomb Theory

I. Swoon Theory

A. The View

1. People who believe in the swoon theory believe that Christ never died

2. Instead, he went into a swoon. Basically a swoon is about the same as a comma

3. When Jesus was on the cross he did not die but rather, just swooned.

4. So when the took Jesus down from the cross and placed him in the cool tomb, the cool air revived him

5. Along with the air were the embalming spices that were used actually have “reviving effect”

6. He then was well enough to unwrap his bandages and then sneak out of the tomb

B. The Evidence

1. Let us examine the evidence:

2. The Romans executed a lot of people crucifixion style, based on records we know there were a lot more crucifixions then we have for the electric chair.

3. They knew death, they could easily tell when someone was dead

4. John 19:33-35 (Read)

5. These were expert witness saying “He is dead,” by the way when they stuck Jesus in the side with the spear he did not flinch

6. Then they took him down off the cross removed the nails from his hands and feet

7. Wrapped him burial clothes packed with spices and put him in the grave

8. It is in that dark cave, were he would have to become revitalized, without medical aid

9. Then wiggle out of the tightly bond wrappings that had about 75 lbs of spices in them holding them together, in such a way to preserve the shape of the wrappings

10. Get enough strength to hoist the stone, that by all accounts three women could not lift, without waking the soldiers guarding the tomb (assuming they were sleeping, which we know that if they were caught sleeping, it would mean the punishment of death for sleeping on the job) or breaking the seal that the Romans had put on it

11. Then went to the Village Emmaus about 7 miles away after recovering from the pain and suffering and not to mention 2 big holes in his feet that would have caused great discomfort.

12. When you are working out or when you are moving something heavy one of the phrases we often say is “I am going to feel this tomorrow:” Why do we say that? Because when we wake up in the morning we are going to feel it, it will be sore, it will cause discomfort

13. Now think about Jesus, he did not get any sleep between Thursday night and Friday night, probably had been up for about 40 hrs or so, then he was beat, kicked, bruised, had a crown of thrones on his head, hung of the cross, oh by the way poked in the side with a spear, “would he feel this in the morning?”