A Christians, we make much of the cross, as well we should. For apart from the cross, and the sacrifice of Christ for our sakes, we would be eternally condemned to pay the penalty for our sin, and would have no hope of salvation whatsoever. However, apart from the resurrection of Jesus, the cross would be meaningless, because the provision for our salvation would be incomplete without it.
In their book, “Growing As A Christian 101,” Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz identify four things that would not exist if Jesus were not raised from the dead. Without the resurrection, there would be . . .
A. No Messiah.
The true Messiah must fulfill every single prophecy, including the prophecies that He would die for the sins of the world AND that God would raise Him from the dead.
“Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.” - Psalm 16:9-10 (NIV)
If Jesus did not come back to life, then He wasn’t the Messiah. And if Jesus wasn’t the Messiah, then we are still waiting for salvation.
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” - 1 Corinthians 15:17 (NIV)
B. No eternal life.
Jesus didn’t just say that He would be resurrected. He also said that He would provide a resurrection for us.
“Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.’” - John 11:25-26 (NIV)
If Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, then He was a liar, and we have no hope for eternal life.
C. No heaven.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” - John 14:1-3 (KJV)
Jesus made it clear that He is our connection to heaven. Not only is He designing and building a place in heaven for all who believe in Him, He has promised to personally take us there to be with Him, eternally.
But as wonderful and amazing as heaven sounds, it doesn’t mean a thing if Jesus is still dead. Besides, if we can’t trust Jesus’ word about His resurrection, how can we trust His word about heaven?
D. No hope.
Without Christ’s resurrection, we have a worthless faith. We can
appreciate the teachings of Jesus and follow His example; but what’s the point if we don’t have hope of life with Jesus beyond this one?
If we are putting our faith in a dead guy, we are exactly what Ted Turner once called Christians, “a bunch of losers,” or as Paul put it:
“If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.” - 1 Corinthians 15:19 (NLT)
“If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.” - 1 Corinthians 15:19-20 (The Message)
(Show Video—”The tomb”)
Today be are beginning a series of messages on the subject of the
resurrection of Jesus, in which we will consider why and how the
resurrection of Christ should matter to each of us. As we have already seen, whether or not the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a fact is eternally important. So today, I want us to focus on the proof of the resurrection.
I want you to be able to leave here today without having a shadow of a doubt that the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened just as the Bible said. With that in mind, let’s look to our passage for today.
(READ TEXT)
The Apostle Paul mentions three proofs of the resurrection of Christ:
1. The proof of the empty tomb – vs. 3-5
Paul asserts the fact that the resurrection is proven simply by tomb which Peter and the rest of the disciples saw to be empty.
Now, ever since the resurrection, people who oppose Christianity have disputed the fact of the empty tomb by trying to explain it away.
Their reasoning is that if they can come up with another explanation for the empty tomb other than the Christ’s resurrection, then they can discredit Christianity. Well, folks have had around 2,000 years now to come up with alternative explanations for the empty tomb. Let’s consider the three most popular alternate explanations.
A. The disciples were mistaken.
Some say Jesus fainted on the cross, but that His disciples mistakenly thought He had died. So, He was buried alive. Then on the third day, the coolness of the tomb revived Him and He then walked out of the tomb on His own power.
Of course, if you believe that, you believe that Jesus, in His weakened condition, extricated Himself from 75 pounds of gummy spices within tightly wound grave clothes without disturbing them (John 20:5-7), knocked down a 1,500 pound rock, and overpowered a 16 member Roman guard - all without benefit of food or water for three days.
B. The disciples stole the body.
This theory was proposed by the same religious leaders who had orchestrated the crucifixion (Matthew 28:11-15). But it is unlikely the guards wouldn’t notice the disciples rolling the stone away from the tomb entrance. Second, even if they did get by with it, why die for a lie?
John died of extreme old age; but Andrew was crucified; James was beaten to death with a club; Bartholomew was skinned alive; James, the elder son of Zebedee, was beheaded; Thomas was run through with a lance; Philip was hung; Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows; Simon was crucified; and Peter was crucified upside down during the persecution of Nero.
As Christian author Paul Little explains, “Each of the disciples faced the test of torture and martyrdom for his statements and beliefs. People will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie.”
C. The disciples were hallucinating.
The idea is that they so wanted to believe that Jesus was alive they saw something (or someone) that wasn’t really there. The problem is, first of all, the disciples weren’t expecting Jesus to rise from the dead. In fact, when the first reports came to them, they initially didn’t believe them.
Secondly, there is no such thing as the same hallucination occurring to hundreds of people in different locations over a period of several days. If anything, such a consistent report from many people is a proof for the resurrection, as Paul makes clear in our passage as he points to . . .
2. The proof of eyewitnesses – vs. 6-7
The Bible records ten different appearances of Jesus to others from the time He rose from the dead until His ascension into heaven 40 days later. Once Jesus convinced His followers through His appearances that He wasn’t a ghost, that He was really alive, and that He was going to heaven to prepare a place for them, they went from being frightened to being fearless. Which brings Paul to the third proof for the resurrection that he mentions . . .
3. The proof of transformed lives – v. 8
Paul speaks of his own transformed life as an example of the
transformed lives of others who have put their faith in Christ, as yet another proof of the fact that Jesus is alive.
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” - 1 Timothy 1:15-17 (NIV)
J.N.D. Anderson, former director of the Institute of Advanced
Legal Studies at the University of London, said that the
resurrection of Christ is “either the supreme fact in history or it is a gigantic hoax . . .” and if it is true, then “to fail to adjust one’s life to its implications means irreparable loss.”
Dr. Edwin Yamauchi, eminent scholar and archeologist, said that “the historical evidence has reinforced my commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God who loves us and died for us and was raised from the dead. It’s that simple.”
Conclusion: Paul tells us that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Jesus came to die in our place so that the full payment for sin might be paid. As evidence that the penalty for sin (death) had been fully paid, He was raised from the dead. And now, through faith in Him and acceptance of His sacrifice for our sins, we can be saved.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
- Romans 10:9 (NLT)
