Is The Resurrection True?

Introduction

Turn, if you will, to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. Christianity rests upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In Acts chapter 17, Paul went to the city of Athens, and at the end of that chapter, he has the opportunity to stand on Mars Hill, the Areopagus, before this group of philosophers and idolaters, these people who were interested in learning some new thing always, and they wanted to know about this strange new religion that Paul was talking about. And it, you know, I wonder what I would say in that situation. What would you say in that situation if you had one opportunity to try to convince people that really Christianity is the only way? What would be your main argument? Well, Paul, after he tells them really that there’s only one God that created everything, and you really can’t make an idol to worship that God.

What’s the assurance that God has given that Jesus will judge all mankind? That Jesus really is the Lord? What’s the evidence that God has given to all mankind to be convinced of that fact? That Jesus is Lord. It is Christ raised from the dead. That is crucial. Christianity really does stand or fall on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this is a matter of first importance. In 1 Corinthians 15, if you want to turn over there to 1 Corinthians 15, the Christians in Corinth were being told that there is no resurrection of the body. And Paul was arguing to them listen, if there’s no resurrection of your body, then rest assured that that means that Jesus never raised from the dead either. If there’s no such thing as the resurrection, even Jesus isn’t raised.

But look at what he says at the near the beginning of the chapter, beginning of verse 3, where he says, For I delivered to you as a first importance. Okay. Now this is a matter of first importance. What I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Now just pause there. Now, you might say, well, we don’t really need to add to that. I mean, that’s really the core of the gospel. Jesus died, he was buried, he was resurrected. But Paul goes on and gives us more of these matters of first importance. And beginning in verse 5, he says, and that he appeared to Cephas, that’s Peter.

Then to the twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Now, why did he say that? It seems to me that his point was, you know, some of these eyewitnesses of those five hundred brethren, or more than five hundred brethren, are still alive. They’re still available to speak to and to hear their testimony of what they witnessed with their eyes. That’s pretty powerful if you ask me. Then he continues by saying, and he uh then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. You see, what is of first importance is not just that Jesus died and was buried and raised on the third day, but also that there’s evidence that that’s the case.

That Jesus appeared to many witnesses. And we have the record of what those witnesses saw. We have it right here in our Bible. I think that’s very powerful. Now, if Christianity, I mean, if the resurrection is not true, then Christianity crumbles, as I mentioned earlier. Now, in verse 17 of this chapter, Paul says, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. I mean, really, if Christ did not rise from the dead, then we’re wasting our time. We’re going to a lot of trouble. You wouldn’t even need to be here this morning. You could be playing golf or sleeping or doing any number of things that you might wish to be doing. And all the trouble you go to to serve Christ and to make sacrifices for him and to do away with sin, well, that’s not getting you anywhere if Christ hasn’t risen from the dead.

We are without hope utterly. So do you see how crucial this matter of the resurrection of Jesus Christ really and truly is? So what we’re going to do in this lesson is, well, I’m getting ahead of myself just a little. I’m going to make a couple more points first. Jesus made some very extraordinary claims. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Well, wait a minute, Jesus, you mean to tell me that there is no one else that we can get to the Father through. Not Muhammad, not Joseph Smith, not anybody else, but you’re the only one. And there’s no other religion, not Buddhism or Hinduism or Islam or any other religion, but only through you can we be saved.

Yes, that’s exactly what Jesus was saying.

He also said to the apostles in Matthew 28 and verse 18, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Wait a minute. All authority? No authority is left over to be given to anyone else. But all authority has been given to Jesus. Now there might be some men who think they have all authority here on earth, and of course they don’t, but Jesus said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Now that is either, that is either the most arrogant claim of exclusivism that has ever been made. Or it’s the truth. And if it’s the truth, then we would expect for that claim to be backed up. As we say, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And Jesus knew that evidence would be required.

Yes, this is a matter of faith, but he knew that he must show by his works that he is who he claimed to be. He said in John 10 37 and 38, if I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works. That you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him. And what is the greatest work or miracle that really Jesus ever performed? The resurrection. And I think that that is the key miracle that all of Christianity is based upon. And so what we’re going to do in this lesson is we’re going to really ask the question is the resurrection of Christ really true?

Did he really rise from the dead? And we’re going to do this by looking at the alternatives. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then what did happen? How do you explain all of these witnesses who claimed to have seen the resurrected Christ and who were willing to suffer and die? How do you explain Christianity? How did it not just die out? So we’re going to look at the other possibilities that people might argue, other theories of what happened if in fact Jesus was not raised. And so we will argue really from a negative standpoint to make the point that Jesus did rise from the dead. So first we’re going to look at occupied tomb theories. Then we’re going to look at empty tomb theories.

1. The Legend Theory

The first of these occupied tomb theories is the legend theory. Okay? Now legends arise around historical figures quite often. You know, Nero, the Roman Emperor, fiddling while Rome burnt. That’s a myth. Fiddles weren’t even invented at that time. Or George Washington, there are myths around George Washington, uh, like the cherry tree incident and and so forth, that were made up after his death. And so maybe that’s what happened with the resurrection here. Uh really, Jesus’ body was still in the tomb, and years later, you know, the disciples of Jesus just sort of made all these stories up that Christ appeared to people and and they wrote these things down and they were just sort of tacked on and added to the life of uh of Christ, the story of Christ.

Maybe that’s what happened. But the problem with that is the resurrection of Jesus was preached from the very beginning. It wasn’t something that was thought of years later. The day of Pentecost, Peter preached the resurrected Christ and the other apostles as well. Pentecost was only fifty days after Passover and Jesus died at the time of the Passover. Or you could even think of 1 Corinthians 15, we were looking at a moment ago, where Paul was talking about the resurrection of Christ and these matters that were handed down to him. That was only about two decades after the time of Christ, much too early for all these legends and myths to have to have arisen. Now there are some who will even say, like John Dominic Crosson of the Jesus seminar, that uh, well, Jesus probably wasn’t even buried in a tomb.

2. The Wrong Tomb Theory

I mean, that would have been very unlikely because crucified victims were usually not buried at all. They were just thrown out into a pit and devoured by wild animals, and that’s probably what happened to Jesus. You know the problem with that? There’s not a shred of evidence at all that that that would be the case. So this one doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, the legend theory. Well, maybe, okay, maybe it wasn’t a legend uh of these matters of Jesus’ resurrection, but maybe it was a case of the disciples coming to a tomb that they thought was Jesus’ tomb. Uh they just didn’t know which one was the right one. And so they maybe went to the wrong tomb and they found this tomb that was that was empty and it just happened to be open, and you know, nobody had ever been laid in it, and you know, for some reason the burial garments were neatly folded over there in the corner, but we won’t mention that.

And so they just thought, wow, look at this. Jesus is risen from the dead, and then began to preach that. Well, the problem with that is are we to believe that nobody knew which tomb was the right tomb? Even Joseph of Arimathea, whose tomb it was in which Jesus was born, you know, wouldn’t have Joseph just spoken have spoken up and been honest enough to say, now listen, you know, I risk I wish Christ had risen from the dead too. I hate to burst your bubble, but my tomb’s over here, and Jesus’ body is still there. Are we to believe that even the Jewish opponents wouldn’t have known which tomb it was that Jesus was buried in? Besides, aren’t they the ones that put the guard that went to Pilate and had the Roman guard placed there?

3. Mistaken Identity and Hallucination Theories

Surely they would have known. So this one doesn’t seem to make much sense either. Well, maybe it wasn’t a case of coming to the wrong tomb, but maybe it was a case of mistaken identity once the witnesses alleged that they had seen Christ. You see, the wrong tomb theory doesn’t solve the problem of really these witnesses and what they alleged. So how do we deal with how do we deal with that, even if the wrong tomb theory is true? You know, people mistake people’s identity all the time. I can I can remember a potluck where I thought a young lady was my wife. And I just, you know, kind of saw out of the corner of my eye and went right up to her, and I just about put my arm around her before I realized that that’s not my wife.

We do that sort of thing all the time. So maybe, you know, the people that claim to have seen Jesus, they thought they had seen Jesus when they just saw some individual off in the distance or caught caught a glimpse of someone that looked kind of like Jesus, and that’s how this arose. Well, you know the problem with that? The witnesses don’t speak of just catching a glimpse of Jesus. They speak of being in Jesus’ immediate presence. What the eyewitnesses say is that they were eating with Jesus and speaking and talking with Jesus and touching Jesus, and he was even breathing on them at one point. And so the mistaken identity theory doesn’t seem to make much sense either. Well, maybe it wasn’t a case of mistaken identity, but maybe it was a case of hallucination.

You know, people do hallucinate when they’re in a severely distraught state of mind, or maybe on uh severely strong medication or drugs. I can remember a homeless man telling me one time that he was just talking to Jesus under that bridge over there. Well, certainly people do see things that they think are true and that really aren’t even there. It’s just a hallucination. Maybe that’s what happened with the disciples of Jesus. Well, are we to believe that multiple individuals saw over and over the same hallucination? And even groups of individuals, the apostles all together, you know, or 500, over 500 brethren at once, all saw the same hallucination? Does that one seem to make sense? None of these theories, these occupied tomb theories seem to make much sense to me.

How about how about you? I mean, they all have their individual problems, but they all share two common problems. And the first of these is the enemies never produced the body of Jesus. I mean, if Jesus’ body was still in the tomb, then why didn’t the Jewish opponents just go get the body and say, hey, listen, Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. Here’s our proof. This is his body. And by the way, if that had happened, I don’t see how Christianity would have survived at all. We wouldn’t be here. It would have all been squelched right from the start. The second problem that all of these occupied tomb theories have is the Jews that were alive at the time of Jesus, the Jews who were alive at the time of Jesus’ death, the ones who, you know, they knew what was going on around them.

4. The Stolen Body Theory

It was right there in Jerusalem. These who were the most motivated to do away with all of this matter of Christianity and the resurrection. They did not advocate any of the theories that I just told you about. And I think that that’s a powerful line of reasoning. Instead, they simply made up ways to explain how Jesus’ tomb was empty. Why? Because it was a known fact that could not be denied that yes, Jesus’ tomb was empty. And so now let’s turn our attention to some empty tomb theories. And the first of these is that the disciples stole the body. Now, we can read about this one in the Bible. If you want to turn to Matthew 27, Matthew chapter 27. After Jesus died on the cross, then beginning in verse 62, it says, On the next day which followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember while he was still alive how that deceiver said, After three days I will rise.

Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say to the people, He is risen from the dead. So the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, You have a guard, go your way. Make it as secure as you know how.

And make themselves out to be. You just tell everybody we totally failed at our job, and we all fell asleep, and the disciples came and stole the body. Well, that’s exactly what they were told to say. And verse 14, and if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure. So they took the money and did as they were instructed, and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. Now that’s just an interesting objective statement that what the Jews were saying when Matthew wrote his gospel is the disciples stole the body. In fact, when you move into the second century, we have the dialogue with Trifo that Justin Martyr wrote. Justin Martyr was a Christian apologist. And he wrote about this supposed conversation that he had with this unbelieving Jew by the name of Tripho.

And in that account, Justin Martyr writes about the Jews’ rebuttal to the resurrection of Jesus, which in the second century was still the disciples stole the body. Justin Martyr died in about 165 A.D. So this is the main one we need to be concerned with is this theory here. Well, let’s think about it for a minute. Could the disciples really have stolen the body of Jesus? First of all, how would they have gotten past the guards? Well, maybe the guards were asleep. Really? When their life was on the line? Okay, well, let’s just let’s just, for argument’s sake, grant that. And let’s just say that the, did I say the disciples? I meant to say the soldiers if I did. The soldiers fell asleep. That all of them, every last one of them, I don’t know how many they were, they all fell asleep, so soundly asleep that the disciples could come in the middle of the night and look around the corner there and oh, look, the soldiers.

They’re asleep. Yes. We can do this. Okay. Let’s be very quiet. And they tiptoe around the sleeping soldiers. And they come to the tomb, and somehow they break the seal without making a noise. And then they move this one and a half ton stone without making a peep. And they get in there and they get the body of Jesus, and for some reason they take all of his clothes off and set them over here neatly, and they take this naked corpse out and tiptoe around the soldiers again. And then they get out and they put the body of Jesus somewhere, and the next day they begin telling everyone, Jesus raised from the dead. Does that sound plausible? Well, let’s just grant, for argument’s sake, that somehow, somehow, the disciples were able to steal the body.

I mean, skeptics, modern skeptics, will argue, well, you know, we can’t really trust that there actually were Roman guards. I mean, Matthew’s account is the only one that records the matter about the guards and everything, the soldiers guarding the tomb. And so, you know, we need multiple attestation. We we need more than one account. That’s what we need in order to see that that’s historically true. Alright, so for whatever reason, let’s just grant for argument’s sake, that they steal the body. Are we to believe that this was all a hoax? That the disciples’ motive was to dupe everyone into believing this hoax that Christ raised from the dead. I mean, if this was a conspiracy, it was a conspiracy to end all conspiracies. And think of how many people were involved in this conspiracy.

And where did this hoax get them? Well, it got them a lot of suffering. Persecution, torture, death in many cases. All of the apostles except one, history records, were all became martyrs. Well, people will say, well, people die for things that aren’t true all the time. Okay, that’s true. Think about the Muslim extremists, these Muslim terrorists. We’re always hearing of another bombing just recently, the one in Brussels, Belgium. And so, yeah, they blow themselves up and blow other people up in the process, and they’re dying for something that is not true, but do you see the difference? They believe it’s true. They firmly believe as soon as they blow themselves up, they’re going straight to paradise with their 72 virgins or whatever it is. But if the disciples stole the body to tell a big hoax, then that means that they were willing to suffer for something that they knew was a lie.

5. The Swoon Theory

You see the difference? Do people suffer and die for things that they know are not true? So this one doesn’t seem to make much sense. The disciples stole the body. Maybe somebody else stole the body. Like the Jewish authorities. Okay, well, the first question I would ask is why would they do that? I mean, wouldn’t stealing the body just make it appear that Jesus had resurrected from the dead, the very thing they wanted to avoid? And, okay, if they did steal the body, then why didn’t they ever just produce the body and say Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead? See? So this one doesn’t seem to make much sense. Well, let’s consider one final theory, and this is the swoon theory. Swoon means faint. So maybe Jesus didn’t die at all.

He appeared to have died. People thought that he died, but he survived the whole thing. And afterwards, when people saw that he was still alive, they just thought he had risen from the dead. So let’s kind of consider that for a minute. So you mean to tell me that the Roman executioners, they all messed up? I mean, these men were professional murderers. And they tried to kill Jesus. They scourged him, then they put him on a cross for six hours, and then they put a spear at his side just to make sure he was dead. But they just they blew this one. Somehow Jesus survived all of that. Well, let’s just grant, for argument’s sake, okay, somehow Jesus survived that. You mean to tell me that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, in preparing Jesus for burial, somehow couldn’t tell that Jesus was still alive and breathing?

Well, again, for argument’s sake, let’s just grant that one. Let’s say that somehow Jesus survives all of that. He gets put into this dark tomb until the third day without food, water, or medical treatment. And somehow he not only survives, but he actually improves. To the point that he can get up and, again, for some reason take off all of his clothes and somehow somehow move this uh big rock that weighs a ton and a half, and then get out, and how does he deal with the soldiers? You know, did he beat them all up? And then are we to believe that if somehow Jesus survived all that and was still alive after that third day and got out of the tomb, that when the disciples saw this man that must not have even looked like Jesus after all that he had been through and was almost dead and probably not even able to walk, just crawling on the ground, that their first thought would be, it’s the Lord of life.

Conclusion

Does any of that sound reasonable to you? None of this sounds reasonable to me. And so what we need to do is ask ourselves, am I willing to believe any of these proposed theories? The legend theory, the wrong tomb theory, the mistaken identity theory, the hallucination theory, the stolen body theory, the swoon theory. Or am I willing to believe that Jesus Christ on the third day raised from the dead with power? That the angel rolled the stone out of the way, and that Jesus appeared to many witnesses. And then we have a record of what those witnesses saw and of their interaction with Jesus, their eyewitness testimony is recorded for us in the pages of the New Testament. Which one sounds more reasonable? This is an either or proposition.

There is no middle ground. We have to make a decision. What are we going to believe? And if we’re not willing to believe that Jesus raised from the dead, then we need to be intellectually honest enough to choose which one of these other theories that we’re willing to bank on, that we’re willing to believe and to defend. You see, if Jesus Christ is the resurrected Lord, then you know what else that also means? It means that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but through Him. It means that all authority has been given to Jesus in heaven and on earth. And if that’s the case, if he’s the only way to God, if he has all authority, then we must bow the knee before him and submit fully to the Lord of life, the resurrected Lord Jesus the Christ.

Would you bow your head with me in a word of prayer? Our Father, our God, we praise your name. We thank you for your Son, and we believe in him through faith. But Father, we realize that this is not a blind faith. And though you have given us evidence, we realize that we still must have faith and this is not simply a matter of what is historically recorded, but we’re so thankful that it is recorded for us, and that we do have the account of these eyewitnesses, and that it makes sense that yes, indeed, Jesus did rise from the dead, and that matches really what happened historically as well. And Father, we are filled with faith this morning as we humbly and willingly bow the knee and confess with the tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord to your glory.

It is through your Son that we pray. Amen. We’ll now be dismissed for our Bible class.