Introduction:
A. Happy Resurrection Day to everyone! Hope you are encouraged and uplifted by today’s worship!
B. I thought we might start on the light side, with a little Easter humor.
1. What does the Easter bunny get for making baskets? 2 or 3 points, just like everyone else. (That’s a good one after March Madness. Congrats to Florida Gator fans)
2. What exercise do bunnies do to stay in shape? Hareobics.
3. Which side of the rabbit has the most fur? The outside.
C. One Easter morning, a Sunday School teacher asked her class if they knew the origins the Easter holiday.
1. One young man responded immediately, "It’s opening day for the Yankees and Giants."
a. The teacher replied, "What a wonderful answer! But I had something else in mind."
2. A young girl then stood and remarked, "That’s the day we get nice new clothes and go find the eggs from the Easter Bunny."
a. “That’s another good answer,” said the teacher. "But there’s something else just a little more important that I’m looking for."
3. A young man then jumped up and yelled, "I know, I know!! After Jesus died on the cross, some of his friends buried him in a tomb and three days later Jesus arose and opened the door of the tomb and stepped out."
a. "Yes, yes," said teacher excitedly "Go on, go on!"
4. And the youngster said, "And if he sees his shadow, we have six more weeks of winter."
D. Oh, what a challenge it is to not only teach our children, but to teach the world about what is true!
1. If you have listened to the radio, watched television, or read any newspapers and magazines over the past 20 years, especially, then you know that the world does not hold Christianity in the highest regard.
2. In fact, we Christians are often the object of ridicule and scorn by skeptics in the media, courts and politics.
3. These powerful circles of influence give the appearance that there is no reason to believe in Jesus.
E. But, my goal in today’s sermon is to give all of us sound reasons to believe in Jesus.
1. Let me begin by turning your attention to 7 words from the Bible.
2. These 7 words communicate the central reason why anyone should believe in Jesus.
3. These words were spoken by an angel to a small group of broken-hearted women.
4. The women had returned to the tomb where just a few days earlier their master, their cherished friend – Jesus- had been buried.
5. They had come to anoint his body, but when they arrived they found the stone rolled away, and when they entered the tomb they did not find the body of Jesus.
6. While they were wondering what all of this meant, in their midst of grief and confusion the angels appeared and spoke.
7. At the heart of the angels message were seven of the most powerful words that the world has ever heard – “He is not here; he has risen!” (Luke 24:6)
F. And so for 20 centuries, the world has wrestled over the truth of these seven powerful words.
1. The greatest attacks on Christianity have been against the resurrection, and for good reason.
2. Believers and non-believers alike understand that the resurrection is the cornerstone of Christianity.
3. If Jesus rose from the dead, then Christianity is true. If he did not, then it is false.
4. It is really that simple.
G. Who would you guess is the most successful defense attorney in the world?
1. F. Lee Bailey? The late Johnnie Cochran?
2. Let’s check an authoritative source on this: the Guiness Book of World Records.
3. This is what it says: "Most successful lawyer: Sir Lionel Luckhoo...(who) succeeded in getting his 245th successive murder charge acquittal on January 1, 1985."
4. That’s an absolutely astonishing feat that nobody in the world has come close to replicating - 245 murder trials in a row, either won before a jury or on appeal.
5. No wonder he’s considered the real-life Perry Mason.
6. What skills do you think he needed to rise to that unprecedented level of courtroom success?
7. Certainly he must be smart and savvy. He must have tremendous analytical skills. And he must be an expert on what constitutes reliable and persuasive evidence.
8. All of that describes Luckhoo, who was knighted twice by Queen Elizabeth and who also served as a distinguished diplomat and a justice on his country’s highest court.
H. As we investigate the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, wouldn’t it be interesting to get an opinion from an expert like Luckhoo?
1. Well, we’re in luck. During his own spiritual journey, Luckhoo turned his expertise to the question of whether the resurrection of Jesus Christ fits the test of legal evidence.
2. And here’s the conclusion he ultimately reached: "I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt."
3. Frank Morrison, another Lawyer, set about to disprove the resurrection. After looking at the evidence, he too turned from skepticism to belief. His book is called Who Moved the Stone?
I. So, here are the most successful attorney in the world and another attorney applying the test of legal evidence to the case of Jesus Christ and conclude with absolute confidence that His resurrection is reality.
1. And then Luckhoo and Morrison did the most logical things they could do: they became followers of Jesus.
2. Today you and I are going to examine some of the facts for ourselves.
3. I hope that those of you who are spiritual skeptics or seekers will do what Sir Lionel Luckhoo and Frank Morrison did -- keep an open mind and let the evidence lead you wherever it points.
J. I’m going to begin by summarizing how Jesus died, and I’m going to try not to get too graphic.
1. But it is important for us to understand how severe was the physical suffering that Jesus experienced.
2. Some people take the position that Jesus never really died on the cross. I’m told, that’s what many Muslims are taught.
3. It’s called the "swoon theory" -- that Jesus fainted on the cross or took a drug that made Him only appear to die, and then the cool air of the tomb revived Him and He emerged alive.
4. So, they contend, there was no resurrection because He hadn’t died.
5. But as I describe to you what happened to Jesus, you’ll quickly see the fallacy of that position.
K. After Jesus’ trial in which He was found guilty of blasphemy for claiming to be God, John 19:1 says: "Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged."
1. A medical expert named Dr. C. Truman Davis studied what this involved and concluded this was a brutal beating that left Jesus on the very edge of death.
2. Jesus was tied to a post and beaten at least 39 times with a whip that had jagged bones and balls of lead woven into it.
3. Again and again, the whip was brought down with full force on His bare shoulders, back and legs.
4. At first, the heavy thongs cut through His skin only. But as the blows continued, they cut deeper into the underlying tissues.
5. One witness to a Roman flogging wrote this: "The sufferer’s veins were laid bare, and the very muscles and tendons and bowels of the victim were open to exposure."
6. Undoubtedly, Jesus was in serious to critical condition even before the crucifixion began. It’s no wonder He was unable to carry His own cross.
L. Then five-to-seven-inch spikes were driven through His wrists, crushing the median nerve, which we call the funny bone.
1. Experts say this would be like squeezing your funny bone with a pair of pliers.
2. So painful was death by crucifixion that a new word was coined to describe it -- the word "excruciating," which is Latin for "out of the cross."
3. After His wrists and feet were nailed securely, He was hoisted into the air to hang.
4. Death from crucifixion is basically a slow death by suffocation.
5. In order to breath, the crucified person had to push up with his feet to relieve some of the pressure on His chest.
6. Of course, that was tremendously painful for Jesus because of his bloodied back scraping against the coarse cross and because of the spikes through His feet.
7. After a period of pushing up again and again, exhaustion sets in.
8. If the Romans wanted to hasten death, they used a mallet to shatter the victim’s shin bones so he couldn’t push up anymore, and the victim would asphyxiate.
9. And that’s what the executioners did to the criminals crucified on either side of Jesus.
10. But when they came to Jesus, they saw He was already dead.
11. To confirm that, the soldier plunged a spear between His ribs, puncturing the sac around the heart and the heart itself, and causing a clear fluid and blood to spew out, which eyewitnesses recorded.
M. Friends, nobody came down from a cross alive -- and that included Jesus.
1. An authoritative article in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Society concluded: "Clearly, the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead (even) before the wound to His side was inflicted...Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge."
2. But think about this: even if He had somehow survived the cross, even if He were somehow able to escape from the cocoon of linen wrappings soaked with 75 pounds of spices, even if He could somehow roll away the huge boulder from the mouth of His tomb - a boulder so big that one ancient account said 20 men couldn’t budge it -- even if He could somehow get past the elite Roman guards, think of the condition He would have been in when He appeared to His disciples.
3. He wouldn’t have inspired them with confidence and gotten them all excited about receiving that kind of resurrection body someday.
4. He wouldn’t have prompted them to triumphantly declare His glorious return and launch a worldwide movement.
5. They would have been horrified and sickened by His bloody and broken condition. They would have pitied Him and gotten Him a doctor.
6. So the evidence clearly refutes the "swoon theory," which, by the way, people often bring up but no reputable scholar believes.
N. Now let’s look at the affirmative evidence for the resurrection. I’m going to summarize it with the three E’s that I’m borrowing from a writer named Lee Strobel.
I. The first "E" stands for "EARLY."
A. It’s important to recognize that the account of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection date back very early.
1. For instance, a creed recited in the early church and preserved for us by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 clearly affirms that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; He was buried; he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” and then it cites specific people who Jesus appeared to.
2. This creed has been dated back to as early as two or three years after the crucifixion, and the beliefs that underlie it go back right to the cross itself.
3. This completely refutes the idea that legends about the resurrection developed in the decades after Jesus’ death.
4. In fact, when the apostle Paul mentions that Jesus appeared to 500 people at one time, He specifically states that many of them were still alive.
5. In effect, he was saying, "Hey, these people are still around -- ask them yourselves if you don’t believe me, and they’ll tell you it’s true." That’s how confident he was.
6. There were witnesses still around for people to question because the proclamation that Jesus was the risen Son of God began virtually immediately after His death; they were not made up some 20 or 50 years later.
II. The second "E" stands for the word "EMPTY" -- the empty tomb of Jesus.
A. During His trial, Jesus’ chief accuser was the Jewish high priest Caiaphas, who served in that position from 18 to 37 A.D.
1. It was Caiaphas who accused Jesus of blasphemy for claiming to be God and handed Him over to Pilate to be killed.
2. In the late 1990s, archaeologists were digging in Jerusalem, and they managed to uncover the burial grounds of Caiaphas and his family.
3. But though His accuser’s grave has been found, nobody to this day has ever uncovered the body of Jesus Himself.
B. Recently, you have no doubt heard the fanfare over the Discovery Channel special on “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.”
1. The film is directed by James Cameron (“Titanic”) and Simcha Jocobovici.
2. This media sensation stems from the 1980 (27 years ago) discovery during routine construction work in Jerusalem of a first-century family burial plot.
3. Inside the tomb were bone-boxes (called “ossuaries”) on which were inscribed the names “Mary,” “Mariamne,” “Matthew,” “Jesus son of Joseph,” “Joseph” and “Judah son of Jesus.”
4. Because these names were so common in first-century Palestine, the 1980 discovery aroused almost no scholarly interest.
5. But by mixing the ho-hum bare facts with a generous stirring of imagination, these producers and authors have cranked out a spectacular tale.
6. I wish I had more time to tell you all the details about this, but I don’t.
7. Suffice it to say, the actual facts are far less sensational.
8. These six names were all popular at the time of Jesus.
9. Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner says that of 900 period tombs uncovered around Jerusalem, 71 have included someone named “Jesus.”
10. One of every five females in first-century Palestine was named “Mary.”
11. The Discovery Channel boasts that DNA testing supports their story. But all the DNA tests prove is that this particular “Mariamne” and this particular “Jesus” were not related through their mothers. It doesn’t prove that they were married and that the “Judah” was their son.
12. Besides all this, Jesus’ family was from Nazareth at the opposite end of Palestine, and by all indications were poor and therefore unlikely to have a family tomb anywhere.
13. At the end of the day, all that really can be said about is they found a tomb with a box in it that has some names on it. Isn’t that interesting!
C. What we do know from Scripture is that Jesus’ body was laid to rest in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Jewish council, and the tomb was sealed and placed under heavy guard, and yet it was discovered empty on Easter morning by -- and this is very significant -- several women.
1. You see, the fact that the ancient documents say women discovered the tomb empty lends even more credibility to these accounts.
2. The reason is that women had low status in Jewish society at the time and didn’t even legally qualify as witnesses.
3. So if the disciples were making up this story, surely they would have claimed that men discovered the empty tomb because their testimony would have been more credible in that culture.
4. This is just one more indication that the writers were committed to accurately recording what actually happened.
D. But here’s the most powerful fact concerning Jesus’ tomb: nobody ever claimed it was anything but empty!
1. Even His opponents admitted it was vacant on that morning!
2. They tried to bribe the guards to say that the disciples stole the body while they were asleep, which is ridiculous because they didn’t have the motive or opportunity -- and, besides, how would the guards have known it was the disciples if they were sleeping?
3. But the point is, when the disciples declared the tomb was empty, Jesus opponents didn’t respond by saying, "No, it’s not."
4. Or, "You’ve got the wrong tomb -- His body is over there." Instead, they admitted it was true -- the tomb was vacant!
E. Now, the question is, how did it get empty? Think with me through a list of possible suspects.
1. The Romans wouldn’t have taken the body. They wanted Jesus dead.
2. The Jewish leaders wouldn’t have taken the body. They wanted Him to stay dead.
3. Either the Jews or the Romans would have loved to have paraded Jesus’ lifeless body down Main Street of Jerusalem because this would have instantly killed the growing Christian movement that they were expending so much energy trying to destroy.
4. But they couldn’t because they didn’t have the body.
5. And the disciples had nothing to gain and everything to lose by stealing the body.
a. Why would they want to live a life of deprivation and suffering and then be tortured to death for a lie?
b. If this had been a charade, certainly one of them would have broken ranks under torture and told the truth.
6. Friends, the unanimous testimony of history is that the tomb was empty on Easter Sunday.
7. The only explanation that fits the facts is that Jesus really did return from the dead.
III. The third "E" stands for "EYEWITNESSES."
A. Not only was Jesus’ tomb empty, but over a period of 40 days Jesus appeared alive a dozen different times to more than 500 individuals.
1. He appeared to men and women, to believers and doubters, to tough-minded people and tender-hearted people, sometimes to groups, sometimes to individuals, sometimes indoors, sometimes outdoors in broad daylight.
2. He talked with people, He ate with them, He even invited one skeptic to put his finger in the nail holes in His hands and to put his hand in the spear wound in His side in order to verify that it was Him.
B. Five hundred and fifteen people -- that’s a lot of witnesses. Stop to put that into context!
1. Think about it this way: if we were holding a trial to determine the facts concerning the resurrection, and if we were to call to the witness stand every eyewitness who personally encountered the resurrected Jesus and we cross-examined each of them for only 15 minutes, and if we went around the clock without a break, how long do you think we’d be sitting here?
2. This first-hand, eyewitness testimony would continue today through about 3 o’clock next Friday morning!
3. After listening for more than 128 straight hours, who could possibly walk away unconvinced?
4. I doubt there has ever been a trial with anywhere near as much eyewitness testimony as that!
C. Some have tried to say that these appearances were hallucinations.
1. But psychologists have said that’s not possible because hallucinations are like dreams -- they’re individual events that can’t be shared between people.
2. One expert said that 500 people sharing the same hallucination would be a bigger miracle than the resurrection itself!
D. Others have said this is an example of what psychologists call "group think" -- a kind of wishful thinking where people in a group subtly encourage one another through the power of suggestion to see an image.
1. But when you examine the evidence the circumstances were all wrong for anything like this to have occurred.
2. For instance, the disciples weren’t anticipating a resurrection.
3. When the women returned with the story that Jesus was risen, they called it nonsense.
E. Friends, the appearances of Jesus weren’t a hallucination, they weren’t wish fulfillment; they weren’t mythology or mistake.
1. They are real events of history that revolutionized the lives of whose who encountered Him.
2. I mean, look at what happened to the disciples. Before the resurrection, they were dejected and despondent because they thought their leader was gone forever.
3. They fled and hid. But history clearly shows that after the resurrection, they’re boldly proclaiming Jesus is alive.
4. Suddenly, these once-cowardly men are transformed into people filled with courage, willing to fearlessly proclaim to their death that Jesus had conquered the grave.
F. At first a person might not be very persuaded by the fact that they were willing to die for their beliefs.
1. After all, lots of people have died for the faith through history.
2. Look at the modern day Muslim terrorists who blow themselves up. They are willing to die that way, because they sincerely believe they will immediately go to be with their god in paradise.
3. Certainly, people will die for their religious beliefs if they’re convinced their beliefs are true.
4. But people will not die for their religious beliefs if they know their beliefs are false.
5. And the disciples were in the unique position in history to know first-hand -- to know for sure -- whether Jesus had really risen from the dead.
6. Do you see? If they had been lying, do you think they would have willing let themselves be tortured to death for a lie? Nobody knowingly and willingly dies for a lie.
Conclusion:
A. This investigation is more than just historical curiosity.
1. The resurrection has profound implications for you and me.
2. Let me ask you this question: Why is there such an effort to discredit Christianity?
3. Whether it’s the Davinci Code, The Tomb of Jesus, or the Gospel of Judas, why are so many people ready to accept this kind stuff, especially when it’s evidence is so weak?
4. All of this is not a search for the truth, but a hope that God doesn’t exist.
5. Because if God doesn’t exist, then He doesn’t have to be obeyed.
B. I want to end with a story made up by Alfred Hitchcock.
1. Maybe you saw the movie. It’s not a true story, but it is a story with a lesson.
2. It’s the story of a woman who murdered her husband and was sentenced to life in prison.
3. She vowed that somehow, some way, she’d escape.
4. As her prison bus approached the penitentiary, she saw an old man, covering up a grave in a small cemetery outside the prison walls.
5. Right then and there, she hatched a plot. Once inside, she befriended the old man she had seen in the cemetery.
6. He was going blind and needed cataract surgery. "I’ll give you the money for your surgery if you’ll help me escape," she said. And he agreed.
7. Here was the plan: the next time she heard the bell toll, which indicated an inmate had died, she would sneak down to the workroom where he made the casket and slide inside with the body and pull the covering closed.
8. He would wheel the casket out to the cemetery, lower it into the grave and cover it with dirt. But that night, when nobody was watching, he’d return and dig up the casket and set her free.
9. Late one night, the bell tolled. The woman sneaked down to the workroom.
10. It was dark, but she found the casket, lifted the lid, slipped inside next to the body, pulled the cover over her -- and waited.
11. Sure enough, a few hours later she felt the casket being rolled toward the grave site.
12. She smiled as the casket was lowered into the hole. She heard the clumps of dirt hitting the casket and covering her up. She had done it! She could barely contain her excitement.
13. Silence followed as she waited in the dark. Time began to drag. Hours passed, then more hours. Finally, she began to worry. She broke out in a cold sweat. Where was that old man? What was keeping him?
14. In a moment of panic, she reached into her pocket and took out some matches. As she lit one, she glanced at the corpse beside her -- and saw that it was the old man himself.
15. Her only hope lay buried right next to her!
C. The lesson for you and me is obvious. This woman had placed her hope in another human being who she sincerely thought would be able to save her -- but he went to his grave and ended up taking her with him.
1. Friends, listen to me: every single religious leader in history is in his grave right now:
2. Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, all of them -- except one, and that’s Jesus Christ.
3. His tomb is empty because He had the power of God to overcome the grave.
4. So let me ask the question: Who are you going to put your hope in to help you overcome the grave?
5. You just heard the evidence; it points compellingly toward Jesus Christ as telling the truth when He said in John 11:25: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies."
6. One thing we haven’t talked about today is the “why” of Jesus’ death.
7. You see, your wrongdoing and mine has separated us from a perfect God, and out of His love for us Jesus chose to suffer the pain of the cross as our substitute, to pay the penalty that we deserved for sin so that you could be reconciled with God.
8. If we will turn to Jesus in faith, with repentance and baptism, then God will apply Christ’s work on the cross to our lives -- we receive eternal life as a gift of grace -- then we can have confidence that we, too, will overcome the grave and spend eternity with Him in heaven.
9. Will you do what millions have done over the centuries? Will you let the evidence convince you that Jesus is the way the truth and the life?
10. That what I believe, and it has changed my life. It gives my life power, joy, and purpose.
11. Why not give your life to him today?
(Resources: Edward Fudge, “The Tomb of Jesus.” Lee Strobel, “Jesus is Alive – True or False.” Guy Williams, “Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?”)
