The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Prairie View Christian Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 12, 2009
Special: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 1:1.
The foundation of Christianity is built upon the resurrection of Christ since the resurrection of Jesus Christ demonstrated to all that He was indeed who He claimed to be, namely, the incarnate Son of God (Rm. 1:1-4).
It also marks Jesus Christ out as the one and only re¬deem¬er of mankind and the one and only means of access to God and authenti¬cates His own claims that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that He came to give His life a ransom for many.
Romans 1:1-4, “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The Lord Jesus predicted several times that He would rise from the dead on the third day in fulfillment of the Scriptures (Matt. 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19; 26:32; 27:63f. 28:6f; Mark 14:28; Luke 9:22; Mark 8:31; 9:9, 31; 10:34; Luke 18:33; 24:7, 46) and openly declared that He was the resurrection (See John 11:25-26).
John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’”
C.S. Lewis wrote, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.” (Mere Christianity, page 41; New York: Macmillan)
The resurrection of Christ was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (See Psalm 16:10).
Psalm 16:10, “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”
It is also the greatest attested fact in all of human history and is mentioned by secular historians as well (Tacitus, Annals, XV, 44; Josephus, Antiquities, Book 18, chapter 3).
The resurrection of Christ is an historical fact of history that can be verified by eyewitnesses: (1) Disciples of Christ (Lk. 24:9-11; Acts 1:1-3; 21-22; 2:23-24; 31-32; 3:14-15; 10:39-41; 13:29-39) (2) Roman Guard Protecting the Tomb of Jesus (Mt. 27:62-66; 28:11-15) (3) Enemies of Christ (Mt. 28:11-15; Acts 2).
The resurrection of Christ can be verified by evidence: (1) The Empty Tomb (Jn. 20:2-9) (2) The Stone (Mt. 28:1-4; Mk. 16:1-4; Lk. 24:2) (3) Seal (Mt. 27:62-66). (4) The Grave Clothes (Jn. 20:2-9) (5) The Roman Guard (Mt. 27:57-60; 28:11-15; Mk. 15:42-45; Lk. 23:50-52; Jn. 19:38). (6) The Silence of the Enemies of Christ at Pentecost (Acts 2) (7) The Transformed Lives of the Disciples of Jesus (8) The Existence of the Christian Church (9) The Observance of the First Day of the Week (Sunday) as the Lord’s Day (10) Christ Appearances (500 on more than one occasion: 1 Cor. 15:1-8; Peter 1 Cor. 15:5; 2 on the way to Emmaus Lk. 24:13-15; 11 apostles Jn. 20:24-28; Paul Acts 9).
Luke alludes to this preponderance of incontrovertible evidence and eyewitnesses.
Acts 1:1-3, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 15:1-2, “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which, also you are saved, if you hold fast the word, which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-5, “For I delivered to you as 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, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”
1 Corinthians 15:6-8, “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.”
All four gospels present evidence and eyewitness accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:1-16; Mark 16:1-13; Luke 24; John 20).
John 20:1, “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.”
The displaced stone, the broken seal and the empty tomb are all evidence for the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
John 20:2-9, “So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.’ So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.”
Another piece of evidence is the grave clothes, which is the most tangible, material evidence.
John 20:3-8, “So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed.”
The first “saw” in verse five is the Greek verb blepo, which denotes a casual glance whereas the next “saw” in verse six is the verb theoreo, which indicates a careful observation of details.
The third “saw” in verse eight is the verb eidon, which means that John had come to an understanding that Jesus had risen from the dead as the result of perceiving the grave clothes.
The proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus could have not been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned.
The burden of proof rests not upon those who proclaim the resurrection as a historical fact but rather the burden of proof rests upon those who either deny that the tomb was found empty, or attempt to explain the absence of the Lord’s body by some other rationale.
Remember the enemies of Christ went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the fact that the body of Jesus would not leave the tomb on the third day.
The fact that the body of Jesus was not in the tomb despite the extreme security measures by our Lord’s enemies was indisputable evidence that He had risen.
The last thing the enemies of Christ wanted was to have His body leave that tomb and yet it did!
Neither the Romans nor the Jews could produce the body of our Lord to disclaim what the apostles were proclaiming to the world.
It was in the interests of these two groups to put an end to such talk by simply producing the body which they could not since He had in fact risen from the dead.
The problem people face concerning the resurrection is not the lack of evidence.
There are at least two reasons why people reject the resurrection:
(1) Scripture teaches us the problem is moral.
John 3:19-21, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
(2) Scripture teaches us the problem is also spiritual.
1 Corinthians 2:14, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
2 Corinthians 4:4, “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
The fact that the problem of men not believing in Christ in the face of overwhelming evidence for the resurrection of Christ does not mean we should not use the evidence available because the Holy Spirit uses such to open the eyes of men to the truth of the Gospel and to encourage and verify truth to those who have a desire to know God.