Sermon Notes

Did King Jesus really rise from death?

1. What happens after we die?
2. Jesus said He was God, would die, & return in 3 days.

Rasmussen 68% yes, 13% no

What is resurrection?

• Step 1: Living in your body with your soul.
• Step 2: Die with your body going into the ground and your soul going before the Lord for judgment.
• Step 3: Return to life with your body and soul reunited to never die again.

Idea not borrowed from pagans:

1. Greek dualism
2. No possibility – no appearance in paganism until 2^nd century

What is resurrection?

• Step 1: Living in your body with your soul.
• Step 2: Die with your body going into the ground and your soul going before the Lord for judgment.
• Step 3: Return to life with your body and soul reunited to never die again.

WHAT IS THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE FOR JESUS’ RESURRECTION?

10 pts = cumulative evidence in law 

1.    Jesus’ resurrection was prophesied in advance. 700 BC [Isa. 53:8-12]

2.    Jesus predicted His resurrection. Numerous occasions [Matt. 12:38–40; Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34; John 2:18–22]

3.    Jesus died. Beating – scourging – crucifixion, spear, buried 100lbs, tomb.

No water, food, medical attention, heart, moved stone, overcame guards, walked

4.    Jesus was buried in a tomb that was easy to find. 700 BC assigned a grave “with a rich man in his death.”[Isa. 53:9] Joseph of Arimathea [Matt. 27:57-60] Joseph, soldiers, gov’t, women knew

5.    Jesus appeared physically, not just spiritually, alive 3 days after His death. His disciples clung to his feet [Matt. 28:9], Mary clung to him [John 20:17], and Thomas the doubter put his hand into the open spear hole in Jesus’ side [John 20:20-28].

Luke 24:36-43 “As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you!’ But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.”

-40 days [FOOTNOTE: Acts 1:3] crowds 500 [1 Cor. 15:6].

6.    Jesus’ resurrected body was the same as His pre-resurrection body. His disciples [Luke 24:31; cf. John 21:7,12] and Mary Magdalene recognized Him by the sound of His voice [FOOTNOTE: John 20:16] Same body but transformed.

7.    Jesus’ resurrection was recorded as Scripture shortly after it occurred. Written when eyewitnesses alive. Academic dean, “This is the sort of data that historians of antiquity drool over.”

8.    Jesus’ resurrection was celebrated in the earliest church creeds. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” AD 30-36

9.    Jesus’ resurrection convinced His family to worship him as God. James disbelief to belief [John 7:5, 1 Cor. 15:7, James 1:1] Mary [Acts 1:14]. Jude [Acts 1:14; Jude 1].

10. Jesus’ resurrection was confirmed by his most bitter enemies. Paul

WHAT IS THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE FOR JESUS’ RESURRECTION?

1.    Jesus’ disciples were transformed. Timid & hiding [John 20:19] then fearless.

Simon Greenleaf, professor of law at Harvard University and a world renowned scholar on the rules of legal evidence, said that it was “impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.”

2.    Jesus’ disciples remained loyal to Him as their victorious Messiah.

Kenneth Scott Latourette “It was the conviction of the resurrection of Jesus which lifted his followers out of the despair into which his death had cast them and which led to the perpetuation of the movement begun by him. But for their profound belief that the crucified had risen from the dead and that they had seen him and talked with him, the death of Jesus and even Jesus himself would probably have been all but forgotten.”

3.    The disciples had exemplary character.

4.    Worship changed. Sat to Sun [Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1-2]. “the Lord’s Day.” [Rev. 1:10]

-Object Worship – Jesus

According to even non-Christian historians, multitudes began worshiping Jesus as the one true God after His resurrection. Lucian of Samosata was a non-Christian Assyrian-Roman satirist who, around AD 170, wrote in mockery of Christians:

“The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day – the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account…You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains their contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.”

-Law fulfilled

-Sacraments baptism & communion

5.    Women discovered the empty tomb (e.g. Joanna, Mary Magdalene, May Jesus’ mother, Mary mother of James and Joseph, Mary wife of Clopas, and Salome). [Mark 15:40, 47; 16:1]

6.    The entirety of early church preaching centered on the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection. No defense. Acts 12/28, every sermon proclaims resurrection.

7.    Jesus’ tomb was not enshrined.

Philosopher William Lane Craig “It was customary in Judaism for the tomb of a prophet or holy man to be preserved or venerated as a shrine. This was so because the bones of the prophet lay in the tomb and imparted to the site its religious values. If the remains were not there, then the grave would lose its significance as a shrine.”

-4 major religions based upon founder rather than system of ideas, only XNty

Abraham                    Buddha                      Mohammed

-Edwin Yamauchi – at least 50 prophets or other religious figures enshrined as places of worship & veneration in Palestine around the same time as Jesus’ death. 0 Jesus

8.    Christianity exploded on the earth and a few billion people today claim to be Christians.

C.F.D. Moule who held the oldest chair at Cambridge University for 25 years says, “The birth and rapid rise of the Christian Church…remain an unsolved enigma for any historian who refuses to take seriously the only explanation offered by the Church itself.”

WHAT IS THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR JESUS’ RESURRECTION?

Josephus (AD 37–100)

Jewish historian born just a few yrs after Jesus. “Testimonium Flavianum,”

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

Suetonius (AD 70–160)

Roman historian and annalist of the Imperial House. In his biography of Nero (Nero ruled AD 54–68), Suetonius mentions the persecution of Christians by indirectly referring to the resurrection: “Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition [the resurrection].”

Pliny the Younger (AD 61 or 62–113)

Wrote letter to the emperor Trajan around AD 111 describing early Christian worship gatherings that met early on Sunday mornings in memory of Jesus’ resurrection day:

“I have never been present at an examination of Christians. Consequently, I do not know the nature of the extent of the punishments usually meted out to them, nor the grounds for starting an investigation and how far it should be pressed… They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day [Sunday in remembrance of Jesus’ resurrection] to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god.”

John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Do you believe this?