The Best News Ever Heard Series

Introduction

What is the best news you have ever heard?

If you are a young child, the best news you have ever heard may be that your family is going on a vacation to Disney World.

If you are a high school senior, the best news you have ever heard may be that you got accepted to the college of your choice.

If you are a college senior, the best news you have ever heard may be that you just landed your dream job after graduation.

If you are a young couple, the best news you have ever heard may be that you are going to have a baby.

If you are an older person, the best news you have ever heard may be that your test results came back showing that you don’t have cancer.

All of us can think of a time when we heard what we believed to be the best news we ever heard.

Yet, no news compares with the incredible news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the best news ever heard.

Why? Why is the resurrection of Jesus Christ the best news ever heard?

Lesson

Today, I want you to give you three reasons why the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best news ever heard.

I. It Is True

First, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best news ever heard because it is true.

It often happens that some events that sound like great news at the time turn out to be superseded by other greater events. Or sometimes the news about the event turns out to be wrong. The week your family wants to visit Disney World is the week that a category 5 hurricane shuts down the place. The college you want to attend is unaffordable and you don’t qualify for scholarships. You end up having a miscarriage. And so on.

But the news about the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not like that. The news about the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best news ever because it is true. And there is evidence to support the claim that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is true.

A. The Evidence of the Historical Narratives Themselves

The first evidence to support the claim that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is true is the evidence of the historical narratives themselves.

The historical narratives stand up to the most rigorous scholarly scrutiny. To begin with, there are four independent accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Some people allege that the four accounts were made up by authors who collaborated together and came up with similar accounts. However, had they done so, then one would not have the apparent discrepancies in the various accounts. For example, the four accounts differ on the number of angels at the tomb of Jesus, the number of women who went to the garden, the time of their arrival, and so on. These differences can be harmonized, but the point is that these apparent discrepancies would have been eliminated had the authors collaborated together to concoct a story.

On the other hand, it is also clear that the authors did not make up their accounts separately either. If you are familiar with the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, you know that they are largely in agreement with each other. For example, the setting is the same, the characters are the same, the sequence of events is similar, and so on.

So, if the accounts were not made up by collaboration and if they were not made up separately, the only remaining possibility is that they were not made up at all. That is, they are simply four true and independent accounts by those who were presenting historical facts in their writing.

B. The Evidence of the Nearly Empty Tomb

The second evidence to support the claim that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is true is the evidence of the nearly empty tomb.

We often talk about “the empty tomb” of Jesus. The fact is that when the disciples went to the tomb on that first Sunday morning the tomb was not empty. Oh, to be sure, the body of Jesus was gone. But his grave clothes were still there. The Bible is clear that they were undisturbed, as if the body of Jesus passed through them (John 20:6-8). So, what happened to the body of Jesus?

Some say that Joseph of Arimathea or the Roman or Jewish authorities moved the body of Jesus. But there was no reason for them to do so. Furthermore, once the disciples started preaching that Jesus was alive, they could simply have produced the body to demonstrate that he was in fact still dead.

Others say that the disciples moved the body of Jesus. It would have been extremely difficult for a band of fishermen, tax collectors, and civilians to get past the Roman soldiers posted to guard the tomb of Jesus. Furthermore, the disciples would hardly have been willing to die (as most of them did) for believing a lie.