The Resurrection…Really?
Fables that Deny the Resurrection
The “Stolen Body” Fable
The “Didn’t Really Die” Fable
The “Wrong Tomb” Fable
Facts that Support the Resurrection
The Empty Tomb
The Effects on the Lives of the Disciples
The Existence of Christianity today
Video - Follow
Slide
Who do you follow?
In this age of social media, choosing to be a friend of someone on Facebook or to follow someone on Twitter takes just the click of a button.
That is a little different than what it meant to follow someone in the time of Christ.
To follow someone was to really commit your life to learning from them and trusting them.
Have you ever thought about what it really means to trust Jesus?
To trust someone you have to believe they are trustworthy and honest and reliable.
Is Jesus trust worthy, honest, reliable?
We believe him to be, but have we ever really stopped and examined his claims and the truth of them?
For instance, today we celebrate the resurrection. Jesus said He was going to rise from the dead.
But can we really know that He did?
I mean, we weren’t there. In fact, I don’t know about you, but I have never seen a resurrection.
Maybe you have seen a resuscitation, someone coming back to life to die again, but a resurrection? Someone coming back to life and changed to never face death again?
To follow Jesus, do we really need to believe in the resurrection…Really?
Slide
I want you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 24:1-11. We are going to read the account of the resurrection from Luke and see that the Apostles, whom Jesus told beforehand, even had trouble believing that He was raised from the dead at first.
As you turn there, I want to read you a Scripture from 1 Corinthians to show just how essential a belief in the resurrection is to Christianity. This is not something we can just choose to believe or not and still be a Christian according to Scripture.
Listen to what Paul says in
1 Corinthians 15:12-14
Slide
12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
If Christ did not physically resurrect from the dead, then our faith in Christ is useless. You might as well just live life as you see fit, because if Christ did not raise from the dead, he lied to his followers, and there really is no hope in life.
The resurrection is essential to Christianity.
So, my question is, “how can we know and believe that it really happened” because this is not something that happens every day.
Let’s begin by reading the account of the resurrection in Luke 24:1-11.
Slide
Luke 24:1-11
24 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ’The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’" 8 Then they remembered his words.
9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. NIV
The resurrection, even though Jesus told them, seemed like nonsense. It was beyond their understanding because they had never seen one before, either.
If the resurrection is so essential to Christianity, how are we supposed to believe if even the Apostles at first had difficulty?
Well, they didn’t have difficulty for long, as we shall see. And through the evidence that we will look at we too will see that the resurrection of Jesus is one of the best attested events in all of history.
But even so, not everyone believes in Christ’s resurrection. In fact, there were those then that would not believe then and they made up stories to try and explain away the evidence of the resurrection.
This morning we are going to look at these stories, these
Fables that Deny the Resurrection
Slide
And see if they could possibly be true.
These Fables are not new. They have been around a long time, beginning with the actual resurrection itself.
The first fable that made the rounds is
The “Stolen Body” Fable
Slide
Matthew 28:11-15
11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, "You are to say, ’His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.
That seems like a plausible story. Why couldn’t the Disciples have stolen His body?
It is an easier explanation than having some supernatural miracle explain these events.
However, as we examine the facts and look at the steps that the Pharisees and authorities took to make sure that would not happen, this fable becomes impossible to be true.
Listen to
Matthew 27:62-66
Slide
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ’After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."
65 "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. NIV
So the Pharisees took some extensive steps to make sure that no one would steal the body.
They posted a guard.
A guard was not just a man with a weapon. A Roman Guard was a unit of 16 trained fighting men. They would be entrusted with making sure that the Roman seal was not broken. If this was an overnight detail, which this was, groups of 4 guards would take turns standing guard. This was serious business. If these guards fell asleep or failed in their mission, they could be put to death.
Break a Roman Seal = Death
Not only that, but they put a Roman Seal on the tomb.
To break a Roman Seal without authorization was punishable by death.
The less than merciful Roman guards would be happy to oblige such a request.
So you have 16 armed men guarding a tomb with a Roman seal securing the tomb so that no one could enter.
Cowardly and weak Disciples?
Now the disciples at this moment are holed up in their house, scared and confused. They have all just abandoned the Savior and watched him die from a distance as they feared for their life.
Now to say that these men mustered the courage to go and confront a Roman guard unit so they could steal the body so they could go around and spread a lie about his resurrection and continue to spread that as they faced death and were actually killed for actually spreading that information about his resurrection makes no sense.
And for an entire Roman Guard unit to say they fell asleep at their post would have meant death for them, probably by being burned alive with a fire started with their own clothes had not the Pharisees been willing to satisfy the governor.
No Roman soldier would ever do such a thing or admit to such a thing unless it was their only hope for saving their life.
No, there is no evidence to support the Fable that the Disciples stole the body.
Then we have
The “Wrong Tomb” Fable
Slide
There are those who suggested that the women went to the wrong tomb.
That is again not possible, because they saw with their own eyes where the tomb was
Matthew 27:55-61
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. NIV
On top of that, there would have been no need for the soldiers and Pharisees to come up with the story of a stolen body had the women simply gone to the wrong tomb.
The soldiers and Pharisees could have just produced the body. But they couldn’t. This Story is just another Fable.
Finally there is
The “Didn’t Really Die” Fable
Slide
There are those who have said that Jesus didn’t really die, he merely passed out and then he healed and got up and out of the tomb.
Listen, these Roman executioners knew about death. This is what they did. If they said someone was dead, he was dead.
Here is how the Apostle John records Jesus’ death.
John 19:31-34
Slide
Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
Pilate was even surprised that Jesus was dead when told so he made sure.
Mark 15:43-45
Slide
43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.
So to say Jesus wasn’t really dead is not a believable story.
Well, Scott, believing in a Resurrection after being dead 3 days is still a pretty big stretch. There may be some fables that don’t make sense, but are there any
Facts that Support the Resurrection
Slide
Gee, I am glad you asked. There are facts that support the truth that Jesus really did resurrect from the dead.
The first fact that supports the Resurrection is
The Empty Tomb
Slide
John 20:2-8
2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!"
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.
The tomb was empty. Jesus was not there.
The Disciples, we saw already couldn’t have stolen the body.
The empty tomb amidst the circumstances of it being guarded and sealed is a huge support that Jesus really did resurrect after being dead for 3 days.
The authorities did all in their power to guard the tomb and the body, but in reality, there is no power and no authority that could stop the work that God was doing to provide victory over death for you and me.
Jesus raised from the dead and the empty tomb is a symbol of that victory and the eternal life He offers all of us.
Christianity is about life and living and Jesus proved it through His resurrection.
There are other belief systems, but their leader died and is still dead
Islam – Muhammad (A.D. 570-632) buried in Medina
Jehovah’s Witness – Charles Russell (1852 – 1916) – Allegehny, PA
Mormon – Joseph Smith (1805 – 1844) Nauvoo, IL
Each of these leaders died and their body is in their tomb.
The tomb of Jesus Christ is empty because He resurrected and is alive forevermore.
The Jewish authorities could have easily ended Christianity simply by producing the dead body of Jesus.
They didn’t because they couldn’t because there wasn’t a dead body.
He is alive and that is why we can celebrate His resurrection even today!
Not only do we have an empty tomb, but there is also
The Effects on the Lives of the Disciples
Slide
These guys were running scarred up until they saw the resurrected Christ.
What could explain their transformation from cowardly and scared to boldly going forth and preaching wherever they could that Jesus was the Christ and that He rose from the dead?
The fact that they actually saw Jesus alive!
1 John 1:1-3
Slide
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard NIV
They actually saw the resurrected Christ. And these disciples don’t just claim to have seen Jesus die and rise again. They are willing to suffer and die to be able to tell others about Him.
People today suffer and die for beliefs other than Christianity. Why does this support the fact that Jesus really rose from the dead?
The difference between the Apostles and between others in other faith systems and even Christians who die today is this.
The Apostles knew 100% that what they were saying was either true or false.
They were not walking by faith, but by sight.
When Jesus Appeared to the disciples the first time, Thomas was not there. Then when Thomas was there and saw Jesus, He confessed Him as Lord.
Listen to what Jesus says to them in
John 20:29
Slide
29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." NIV
They knew when they said Jesus was alive that they were speaking truth.
They were willing to die for what they knew to be true.
Nobody will die for what they know to be a lie.
They now had the Holy Spirit and they knew that this life was not the end. There was an eternal life that Jesus promised to all who would believe and receive Him.
They knew it so death no longer scared them, because they knew that because of Jesus, there was an eternal life to be lived.
We can trust what the Apostles have told us because there changed lives are evidence that what we read in the Bible is true.
Finally, there is
The Existence of Christianity today
Slide
The very fact that Christianity exists today is evidence of the truth of the resurrection.
There are people here today who have had changed lives due to the power of the resurrected Lord in their lives. This faith has been passed down through the generations and by the word of God from the very first disciples.
If the resurrection were not true, then it would have collapsed in the first century because it was based upon the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, something that could have easily been proven false if it did not occur.
But there were too many appearances of the risen Christ not to believe in that first generation.
Paul told the Corinthians that over 500 men had seen the resurrected Christ at one time.
When the apostles were called in for preaching Jesus and his resurrection, listen to what Gamaliel had to say.
Slide
Acts 5:34-39
34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed them: "Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."
It is the very fact that those who could have proven it false believed and were able to persuade so many others who could have proven it false, that continues to lend credence to its truth today.
And further supporting this is the fact that Jesus’ resurrection power continues to transform people 2000 years later.
That nobody has been able to stop Christianity and the claims of the resurrection, or account for the life changing transformations in people these past 2000 years, despite attempts and efforts lends great weight to the fact that the resurrection is true and Jesus is God in the flesh.
Conclusion
Do you believe the resurrection? You can because it is true and there is much to support it. And you can believe in the One who resurrected.
Today as we celebrate Easter and the life that has come through Jesus Christ, you need to ask yourself, Do I believe? Have I trusted and believed in the One who did resurrect from the dead never to die again?
Each of us will face physical death. What we believe about Jesus and His resurrection from the dead makes all the difference in regards to where we will spend our eternity.
Either separated from God suffering everlasting punishment, the just penalty for our sins or, for those who have received Jesus as Savior, by believing in Him and receiving His payment for your sins, we will be with the Lord for eternity, living the eternal life that God had designed for us from the beginning.
Have you received Jesus as your Savior?
Have you crossed over from life to death?
If you haven’t, then make this Easter, this day when we celebrate new life, a day when you experience the new life of salvation through Jesus.
If you cannot remember a time when you consciously made a decision to receive Jesus as your Savior by believing in Him and confessing Him with your mouth, won’t you do that on this Easter morning.
Slide
The Bible says in Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Why don’t you take this opportunity to confess Jesus as Lord and receive the new and eternal life that comes with trusting Him? If you would like to, then pray with me now.
Pray.
Close in worship.
