Experiencing Resurrection: Did Jesus Actually Rise from the Dead?
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What is Resurrection?
What is Resurrection?
In the Bible you find two understandings of resurrection:
The first one is a spiritual resurrection that we experience at salvation.
This is what Paul talks about in :
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Romans 6:5-8
Romans 6:5-
9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans
This is what Jesus meant when he told Nicodemus in that he had to be reborn.
When we experience salvation, what we used to be - a polluted and stained sinner that harbored the pit of evil in our soul - dies like Jesus died on the cross. And then we are resurrected spiritually - reborn - in Christ like Jesus did when he walked out of the grave.
This is the spiritual resurrection that Christians experience at salvation.
But there is also a literal physical resurrection that we will also experience in Christ.
All four of the Gospels report that after Jesus died, Mary went to the tomb and found it empty and the resurrected Jesus appeared to her there in the garden.
So, Christianity believes that Jesus - the Son of God - was resurrected.
But we also believe that those who believe in Jesus’s resurrection will also be resurrected on the day of Jesus’s return to earth.
Listen to what Paul said to the Thessalonians:
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4:14-
1 Thessalonians 4:14-
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:17-18
Our resurrection is inseparably connected to Jesus’s resurrection.
How do I know Jesus Actually Resurrected from the Dead?
How do I know Jesus Actually Resurrected from the Dead?
Jesus’s resurrection is central and essential to the Christian faith.
If Jesus did not actually rise from the dead, our religion is a sham.
This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 15:
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
1 Corinthians 15:12-
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
1 Corinthians 15:16-
But Jesus did actually rise from the dead, and I want to give you several reasons as to why and how we can know that it is true.
1. His tomb was empty
1. His tomb was empty
2. His Body was never found
2. His Body was never found
The Jews had a huge vested interest in finding Jesus’s dead body and proving Christianity was fake. But they never do.
But they never do.
All they had to do to prove Jesus was a liar was to produce his dead body, but they never do.
In fact, we don’t find a single instance in ancient Jewish literature where the Jews even deny the resurrection
3. He appeared to people after he died
3. He appeared to people after he died
Some in the church of Corinth were a bit skeptical about the resurrection. Listen to what Paul tells them:
1 Corinthians 15:3-
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
1 Corinthians 15:3-
6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
1 Corinthians 15:6-8
4. Those people went to their death proclaiming the resurrection
4. Those people went to their death proclaiming the resurrection
Many skeptics of Jesus’s resurrection argue that the apostles lied. They didn’t really see Jesus alive after his death and their whole ministry after his death was a sham.
But follow me here: The apostles would not have given their lives for something they knew was a lie.
People lie all of the time for a whole bunch of reasons.
And some of the best lies are really big ones
But when the consequence of a lie drastically outweigh the benefits of lying, it becomes illogical and unreasonable to lie.
For example, when I was a little boy in elementary school, I remember doing something moderately bad like taking someone’s pencil or writing on a picture someone had drawn. When the teacher asked me if I was the one who had done this action, I lied and said no because I didn’t want to get in trouble and pull a card. But then the teacher told me that if I told the truth I wouldn’t get in trouble I would just have to give the pencil back or help fix the picture. But if I lied about it, she would take me to the principal’s office and I would get a paddling. Needless to say, I told the truth because the consequence of lying far outweighed its benefit. It is the same with the apostles.
Every single one of them went to their death proclaiming Jesus’s resurrection.
In one way or another, they were all given a choice: stop proclaiming the resurrection and live or keep proclaiming the resurrection and die.
If the apostles would have been lying about Jesus’s resurrection, they would not have died for it because the consequences of the lie would have outweighed its benefit.
But they did die for what they proclaimed to be true, meaning that they found what they were proclaiming to be more valuable than life itself.
If the resurrection would have been a lie, it could not have offered an amount of value and joy to the disciples that would make them give their lives for. But a real resurrection could.
What will Happen to you after you die?
What will Happen to you after you die?
It is important that we realize that if you believe this stuff - if you actually believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead - it doesn’t just change your life, it becomes your life.
If you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, your life is transformed and everything you do revolves around that final resurrection that will take place at Jesus’s return.
This is why Paul said to the Philippians:
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
Philippians 3:8-
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:10-11
Think about this for a moment:
Paul was one of the most intelligent men of his time period and before his conversion he hated Christianity with a fiery passion.
But when Paul saw Jesus on the road to damascus, Paul believed in the resurrection of Jesus and became a convert to the religion he formerly hated with every fiber in his being.
If the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a lie, it dooped one of the smartest men in the ancient world who had the greatest possible interest in not believing in it.
When Paul realized that what he had been persecuting was actually the truth, his whole life transformed and it became his life mission to spread the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When the reality of Jesus’s resurrection hits you, you have no choice but to give your whole life to it.
Its like trying to not know how to ride a bike. Before you learn, you struggle and fall, and you wonder how anyone in the world could actually know how to ride a bike. But once you finally learn how to ride a bike, you can’t make yourself forget how to ride it. You can’t go back. The same is true of Jesus’s resurrection.
Jesus’s resurrection has radically changed and consumed the lives of everyone in history who has realized that it actually happened.
Jesus’s resurrection doesn’t give us the option of learning about it and moving own with our lives.
Too many people act like they believe in the resurrection when it does nothing to their soul.
When we experience the resurrection, we can never ever go back, because nothing in us wants to.
This transforming and consuming realization is what led all of the disciples - all of the apostles - each to die a gruesome death for what they knew to be true.
The same must be true of us.
When the stone rolled away from Jesus’s tomb, it insured that those of us who believed in it would never ever be the same.
Too many people act like they believe in the resurre
If you believe in the resurrection, there’s nothing in this world you desire more than to call Jesus Christ master, to give him your life, and let him do whatever in the world he wants to do with it.
Those people will be raised up and resurrected on the last day.
Will you be one of them?
Eight times in Jesus tells the crowd that anyone who believes in him will be raised up on the last day?
Do you really believe Jesus rose from the dead?
Have you truly experienced the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Im not asking if you have some intellectual knowledge that Jesus may have came back to life.
Im asking if your soul has been awakened to the fact that Jesus, after dying for your sins, defeated death and walked out of his tomb.
Im asking you if you have had a damascus road experience of believing that Jesus really did resurrect and it radically changed your life.
Ask God to take the blindfold off of your heart and reveal himself to you.
Ask him to show the truth of his resurrection to you and radically transform and consume your life