The Resurrection

What are the arguments against it?

Intro:Scene from Monty Python and The Holy Grail “Bring out your dead” scene. (Be sure to edit scene)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEmfsmasjVA

The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation for all of Christianity. As Paul says 1 Cor. 15: 12-19

1 Corinthians 15:12–19 NRSV

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

opponents sight that the resurrection did not occur because it would have been a miracle and offensive to reason.

The disciples made up the story to justify there following Jesus for three years.

The Bible is unreliable and bias in its accounts of Christian history.

The Bible is greatly exaggerated and embellished.

Truth is stranger than fiction

Justice Antonin Scalia declared, “It is not irrational to accept the testimony of eyewitnesses who had nothing to gain. . . . The [worldly] wise do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. So everything from Easter morning to the Ascension had to be made up by the groveling enthusiasts as part of their plan to get themselves martyred.”12

How do we find the truth? An investigatory approach.

Multiple independent sources that support the historical claim.

Attestation by opposing side

Embarrassing stories that support claims.

Eye witness testimony

Early accounts

Minimum Facts Approach’ Gary Habermas

Understand that we are not addressing the reliability of the Bible but only focusing on the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.

“Micheal Licona “We are not told in the Bible that one must believe in its inspiration or inerrancy in order to have eternal life. We are told that belief in Jesus’ resurrection is essential in order to have eternal life.”

Therefore, when speaking with unbelievers and a bias against the Bible we need to keep to the subject and not stray into the weeds. We have enough evidence to support.

Agreed upon facts and sources

1. Jesus died by Roman crucifixion.

2. He was buried, most likely in a private tomb.

3. Soon afterwards the disciples were discouraged, bereaved, and despondent, having lost hope.

4. Jesus’ tomb was found empty very soon after his interment.

5. The disciples had experiences that they believed were actual appearances of the risen Jesus.

6. Due to these experiences, the disciples’ lives were thoroughly transformed. They were even willing to die for their belief.

7. The proclamation of the Resurrection took place very early, from the beginning of church history.

8. The disciples’ public testimony and preaching of the Resurrection took place in the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus had been crucified and buried shortly before.

9. The gospel message centered on the preaching of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

10. Sunday was the primary day for gathering and worshiping.

11. James, the brother of Jesus and a skeptic before this time, was converted when he believed he also saw the risen Jesus.

12. Just a few years later, Saul of Tarsus (Paul) became a Christian believer, due to an experience that he also believed was an appearance of the risen Jesus.3 The acceptance of these facts makes sense in light of what we’ve seen so far. The evidence shows:

Early sources accepted by critics

4 Gospels

7 Epistles of Paul, that are the undisputed letters. Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Philippians, and Philemon,.

1 Clement, early writings of Irenaeus and Tertullian

Clement and Polycarp were first century bishops of the church and are connected with learning directly from the apostles.

These sources are within the first 100 years of the event. The Gospels come around about 60-70 AD. The Epistle of Paul to Galatian church is roughly

140 historical events offered up by New Testament authors that have confirmed by historians. (Lk 3

Writings lack embellishment and exaggeration and contain embarrassing stories by the main characters.

Jesus’ brother James thought that Jesus was crazy. Then became a devoted follower, why?

The disciples didn’t understand Jesus’ teachings.

Women were the ones that discovered that the tomb was empty.

Jewish followers abandoned cultic practices of sacrifice and Passover to adopt new understanding and practice.

Disciples faced torture and death and didn’t save their own skin to deny the testimony.

300 verses in the NT that teach the bodily resurrection. Center of a Christian world view is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jn 14:29- because I live, you also will live. 7 proofs of the resurrection:

“1. The resurrection of Jesus is the only way that we can make sense of suffering in the world. 1 Thess. 4- we do not grieve without hope but with hope. Rom 8:18, Eph. 2:7

2. Jesus predicted it "on the third day: Hosea 6:2 Jewish burial customs did not allow for a misplaced corpse. They knew where Jesus was.

3. Jesus adumbrates resurrection in his ministry. The widow's son, Jairus' daughter and Lazarus.

4. No one anticipated Jesus' resurrection. Essenes believed in conquest Messiah, but Jesus was not that mold. Out of the box. Disciples didn't get Jesus' mission. They did not believe he should die.

5. Written and archeological sources support resurrection evidence. First 100 yrs of Jesus' life, there are 11 writers. There are only 2 sources for Alexander the Great 200 years after his death. Even criminals were properly buried.

6. It is the only convincing explanation for those who did not follow Jesus during his ministry. Aka Saul of Tarsus. James, the brother of Jesus. Faced death and did not waver. 7. Society is transformed everywhere. Christianity is embraced.” --Jeremiah Johnston

The New Revised Standard Version Paul’s Vindication of His Apostleship

18 Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days;

The Lexham Analytical Lexicon to the Greek New Testament ἱστορέω

ἱστορέω (historeō), visit; become acquainted with

What does this mean for the Gospel?

We have outside and inside evidence that supports the truthfulness that not only did Jesus die by crucifixion but the fallout from the event of his death and claims by Roman and Jewish religious authorities that the body missing needed an explanation. If the disciples were lying why didn’t the Romans or the Jews remove the body of Jesus and parade it through the city streets and that would have put an end to Christianity.

Because the resurrection is true we can believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that his words are reliable, therefore God is real and there is authoritative truth outside of humankind.

We cannot in trying to “relate” to Jesus through humanizing Him lose the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, he is both divine and human. He performed great miracles, and teaching, and he indeed rose from the dead.

“Christianity did not begin with a book, it began with an event; Christian writers didn’t create the resurrection but the resurrection created the New Testament writers”- Frank Turek

Someone has died for you. Jn 3:16

John 3:16 NRSV

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

We place our identity in the one who died for us not in our politics, jobs, hobbies, human relationships, gender. We receive who we are from Christ and walk in His inheritance. Eph. 1: 9-15 “he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory. I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason”