Acts 1:1-3 – Appearances
In 1963 the body of 14-yr-old Addie Mae Collins, one of 4 black girls tragically murdered in a church bombing by white racists, was buried in Birmingham, AL. For years family members kept returning to the grave to pray and leave flowers. In 1998 they made the decision to exhume the grave and move the little girl’s body to another cemetery.
When workers were sent to dig up the body, though, they found that the grave was empty. Understandably, family members were terribly upset. The records for the cemetery weren’t kept up well, and that slowed down progress on the case. The best explanation was that the tombstone had been erected in the wrong place.
Yet, in the middle of figuring this out, one explanation was never proposed: nobody suggested that young Addie Mae had been resurrected to walk earth again. Why? Just because there is an empty grave does not mean there has been a resurrection.
Today we continue to look at good evidence to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. We looked at the letter F – Fatal Torment – He really did die. Last week we looked at the letter E – The Empty Tomb. His body was nowhere to be found. And today we look at the letter A – Appearances of Christ. Jesus appeared after His death, which gives weight to the fact of the resurrection. Let’s read Acts 1:1-3.
This passage, written by a medical doctor named Luke, is the introduction to the continuing story of Jesus’ life and legacy. This scientist is quite aware of the medical impossibility of dead people rising again. But yet he affirms that there are “many convincing proofs” that Jesus really was raised from the dead. So what is impossible with science or medicine is possible with God.
Yet the modern rational mind is skeptical of all things supernatural. So modern people have come up with logical explanations for the appearances of Christ. Even if He existed and died, and the tomb was empty, surely there must be some logical explanation for His post-resurrection appearances. Here are some of modern thoughts.
1) It was all hallucinations. People only imagined seeing Jesus. This idea is loaded with flaws. A) Hallucinations are individual occurrences. More than one person cannot see the same thing. Yet many people reported seeing Jesus. B) Hallucinations need a fertile mind, a believing mind, an expectant mind. Yet it’s clear the disciples did not count on seeing Jesus again. Their minds were certainly not fertile, believing and expectant. C) Hallucinations are comparably rare. Chances are, you don’t know anybody who has had hallucinations not caused by drugs or bodily depravation, like starving or lack of sleep. D) Hallucinations do not contain new ideas or thoughts. They are just projections of the mind. Therefore, as Jews, the disciples would have imagined Jesus in heaven or taken up like Elijah in a chariot or something. They would have imagined Jesus still walking around. E) All this still doesn’t explain the empty tomb – the fact that Jesus’ body couldn’t be found. No, hallucinations do not explain the appearances of Christ.
Well, what about hypnosis? The disciples were in some altered state of consciousness, losing touch with reality? That the disciples just saw what they wanted to see? Well, again I point out, the disciples may have wanted to see Jesus alive again but they weren’t counting on it. They weren’t holding out hope for the possibility. That in itself makes them unlikely candidates for hypnosis.
As well, the research that Luke claims he did in writing Jesus’ life shows he is committed to the truth. He didn’t care about images or performances or legends. He wanted the truth. And the disciples went on in their lives and in their writings to tell us to study – to use the brain. To love God with our minds. To examine the scriptures. To test everything. These are not likely words from victims of hypnosis.
Even further, someone has suggested what is called “groupthink” or hypersuggestibility. That is, everyone talked each other into thinking Jesus was alive again. After all, as one atheist named Michael Martin observed, “A person full of religious zeal may see what he or she wants to see, not what is really there.” Well, that certainly cuts both ways: Christians believe because they want to, but atheists don’t believe because they don’t want to.
There are several reasons why the disciples couldn’t have talked each other into believing in Christ’s resurrection. A) There was too much at stake. You would think that later on in their lives, they would have looked back and changed their minds? Recanted and quietly fell away? But they didn’t. Even to their deathbeds, they were convinced they had seen Jesus. B) What about James, Jesus’ brother? He wasn’t a follower until after the resurrection. Or Paul, who was a persecutor of Christians? Did either of them get talked into seeing something? C) The creed in 1 Corinthians 15, which we will look at in a second, talks about seeing Jesus. Groupthink doesn’t explain that very well. D) And there is still the empty tomb, which would have proven everyone wrong if there had been a body. No, there is no evidence to believe they all convinced each other of the resurrection.
Now that we have considered what skeptics would say, let’s look at why we can believe what we do. Turn with me to 1 Cor.15:3-8. Paul says “what I received I passed on to you” – that is, I’ve already told you this. Why would he have already told them this? Because there is evidence this was a creed – that is, a statement of belief circulated among Christians. What Paul says there is among the 1st things we have, written about Jesus. But how trustworthy is it? Can we believe it? 1 Corinthians was written between 55 and 57AD, but Paul had visited them in 51AD, within 20 years of the events described. This is very early material, uncorrupted by legends and myths. The very 1st Christians were reciting this and believing it. That carried weight.
And if the 1st Christians were reciting it, it can be considered eyewitness material. And eyewitness material is extremely helpful. A detective can put together a murder without eyewitnesses with just the evidence, but eyewitnesses bring it all together better. And this creed specifically mentions who saw it: Peter, or Cephas, his Aramiac name further proof that the creed is early. The 12 are mentioned. James, Jesus’ brother, is mentioned. And Paul is mentioned. As well, 500 people are mentioned. This likely happened on a Galilean hillside. Even if no other writer in the NT mentions it, it appears that it is mentioned so that if someone had doubts, they could simply check with any of the people mentioned. Within 20 years, most were still alive. The creed simply says, check it out for yourself! Paul could never have written this if there were no eyewitnesses.
Another evidence is that the gospel writers all claim this happened. From different writers, to different audiences, at different time periods in the 1st century – all claim Jesus’ resurrection. Granted, sometimes the details may be difficult to piece together, but the central claim of each is exactly the same: Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. The fact that so many people write the same thing about the same event carries a lot of weight in helping us believe that Jesus was seen after His resurrection.
In fact, let’s put these together. 1) We can believe that the creed in 1 Cor.15 was orally transmitted before it was ever written down, within 20 years of the events it tells about. In fact, some scholars suggest it was composed between 2 to 8 years after the resurrection, free from any kind of mythical content. The point is, we can believe it’s early. 2) The creed mentions who all saw Jesus, some by name. That is, anyone could have asked the eyewitnesses about Jesus. The early believers believed, not just because they wanted to, but because it made sense – there were no other explanations.
So if you compiled all the witnesses into one room, and heard all their testimonies of seeing Jesus, given just 15 minutes apiece, you would start on Monday breakfast and finish Friday at dinner. 129 hours worth of testimony of people who had seen Jesus. This is the stuff of which faith is formed. This is not blind faith or wishful thinking. This is convincing proof, as Luke said in our introductory scripture, that Jesus died, was buried, but rose again.
Folks, people don’t believe because they don’t want to. They don’t want to admit this happened because they don’t want to have to do anything about it. They don’t want to look superstitious so they figure that the resurrection is all myth. They don’t want to sound un-scientific, so they figure that evolution accounts for it all. And they don’t want to change their lifestyles, so they don’t think about how much this makes sense. If they are forced to believe that the resurrection happened, they are forced to answer to God. And people don’t want to.
So what about us, here today, presented with the facts? Romans 1 says that all men are without excuse. Well, what does that say for us? Jesus said in Luke 12: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” We who have sat under the Bible’s teachings, who have heard Jesus’ words, some for years and years, who have been presented with truths, who have seen that the resurrection really happened, we are expected to do something with it all. We are expected to live with resurrection power. We are expected by God to live with His presence in our lives. That’s what the resurrection means. We are to live new lives.
But many of us live as zombies. We are up and around, but we are not really alive either. We still smell and look like death. We live for ourselves. We don’t live triumphantly. We worry and fuss and fret and doubt and complain and grumble and gripe and lust and cheat and steal and lie and hold bitterness and covet, as if the resurrection really didn’t happen, as if Jesus didn’t rise, as if Jesus were still dead, as if we were still dead, as if we can’t change, as if this were all some myth or legend of the past. Folks, how can this be?
Today I ask you, are you living as if Christ were alive? Are you walking with Him? Are you trusting Him? Are you really alive today?
