We weren’t there. We didn’t see it. We’ve never seen anything like it. Yet we know it happened the same way a courtroom jury decides a guilty verdict in a case is beyond a reasonable doubt. In a court of law, defendants are convicted on the basis of two kinds of evidence. The best is eyewitness testimony. But even if there’s no eyewitness testimony, then circumstantial evidence can be enough.
Imagine with me for a minute, a hypothetical murder case (related to something that actually happened nearby a few years ago). Imagine a man’s body is found at the bottom of some cliffs in Glacier National Park. The question is, did he fall or was he pushed? The wife is arrested and put on trial for the murder of her husband. If there was someone who testified saying, “I was sitting on a park bench and I saw both the husband and wife walk by on the trail toward that cliff. And then about a half hour later in the parking lot I saw just the wife come back, get into a car and drive away by herself,” that would be pretty strong evidence. If someone testified saying, “I saw her push him off the cliff,” that would be decisive evidence as long as that witness was sane and did not appear to have anything to gain from saying such a thing. If there were multiple eyewitnesses saying she pushed him and their stories were all consistent, it would be absolutely decisive. But if nobody had seen the couple that day, then the wife could still be convicted on the basis of circumstantial evidence… like if she had taken out a large life insurance policy on her husband, and if the neighbors often saw another man enter their home when her husband was away at work, and if it was discovered that she’d bought plane tickets to the Bahamas for herself and this other man just before her husband died, and if she had a history of violent behavior, etc. Just one of those bits of circumstantial evidence by itself may not be decisive, but an accumulation of several bits of circumstantial evidence would make a very strong case.
God has seen to it that we have an abundance of both kinds of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn with me to I Corinthians 15 where we can find a summary of a lot of the evidence, though there’s more than even what’s referenced in this chapter.
As we look at I Corinthians 15, realize what we’re looking at. I know as we look at it in our Bibles, it looks like any other modern book. But this is an authentic 1st century letter written by the apostle Paul to believers in Jesus who lived in ancient Corinth.
The Chester Beatty Papyrus (Papyrus 46) is an ancient manuscript copy of most of Paul’s letters, including I Corinthians. The scholarly consensus is that it dates to around 200 A.D. But if we have a copy in 200 A.D. the originals must date before that.
A Christian man named Ignatius wrote to churches between 100 and 110 A.D., whose writings we have copies of, and in which he quotes a few times from I Corinthians. Well, if the letter had become popular among churches and was being quoted at the beginning of the 2nd century, the original must date in the 1st century.
And the fact that it was so popular makes it very likely it was truly written by the famous apostle Paul as it claims.
So realize we’re reading a letter written back in the time when contemporaries of Jesus were still alive!
According to the Scriptures
Let’s start at I Corinthians 15:3. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures‘.
This is a powerful bit of circumstantial evidence. The Scriptures refers to the writings the ancient Jews revered as the word of God written down by human messengers, writings that their forefathers through the ages gradually collected from those prophets and preserved. Throughout the pages of those ancient sacred writings, from beginning to end, there is a common theme of One that God would send for us of the lineage of Abraham and David. The Scriptures said this One will be king, greater than any king before, and will reign forever and be a savior and a shepherd of His people, and bring them lasting peace. Those ancient Scriptures said about the great King and Savior, among many things, that He would die for our sins and rise from the dead.
Isaiah 52:13, for instance, “Behold, My Servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” Sounds like the One God would send. He will be exalted over all others. But then the text explains how this exaltation of God’s servant will be so unexpected, because He will have been so marred, so abused more than any man. And He will have grown up in the most disadvantaged circumstances, like a tender shoot in parched ground. He will have had no stately form or majesty or appearance that would attract us to him. He will have been despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He will even, it says in the text, be cut off of the land of the living. It will be thought that He was smitten and abhorred by God. But the truth is, He will be pierced for our transgression, crushed for our iniquities, chastened for our well being, scourged for our healing, cut off of the land of the living for the transgression of those to whom the stroke was due. He will offer Himself as a guilt offering. Then He will be exalted and prosperous and justify many whose iniquities He bore, and He will share with them the spoils of His glory.
So we have this circumstantial evidence of these ancient sacred writings, saying our king and savior would die and rise.
Credible Witnesses
Then I Corinthians 15:5 says, “… He appeared to Cephas [better known to us as Peter], then to the twelve.”
It was common knowledge in that day that these closest followers of Jesus were going around stirring up the world by proclaiming they had seen Jesus alive from the dead, and that they’d even touched Him and eaten with Him and carried on conversation with Him. And they weren’t getting rich or escaping trouble by saying it. They were making a lot of powerful people mad and endangering their lives by saying it. By the time Paul wrote this letter of I Corinthians, the apostle James had already been executed for his testimony (Acts 12:2). And soon, we know from the writings of the early Christians, every one of those apostles (except for John) was killed for their testimony. That makes for the most credible witnesses – when keeping quiet about the matter would be in the witness’ best interest, yet they still endanger themselves by testifying.
Eyewitness Testimony of Hundreds
Continuing in I Corinthians 15, verse 6 says, “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.” This is a 1st century letter saying most of the group of 500 who saw Jesus risen from the dead are still alive for you to go interview yourself. This is a challenge to 1st century people. “Go track down and talk to some of the eyewitnesses, if you doubt Jesus lives.” Can you imagine being in a courtroom jury and one at a time, those 500 witnesses take the stand and give their testimony for just 5 minutes? Do you think, after listening to 2500 minutes, over 40 hours, of consistent eyewitness testimony, you’d have any doubt that Jesus rose?
Witness of Jesus’ Own Brother
I Corinthians 15:7, “then He appeared to James…” This is most likely James the brother of Jesus, whom we know was a prominent leader in the early church. A 1st century non-Christian Jewish writer Josephus actually documents how James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, was stoned to death under orders of Ananus the high priest. And it was because of his faith in his brother. Isn’t that remarkable? How many of you could persuade your brother or sister that you are the Son of God? That would be pretty hard to do, wouldn’t it?
Continuing in verse 7, “then to all the apostles,” which sounds like a larger group than the twelve mentioned in verse 5. There are others in addition to them, like Barnabas, who are called apostles in the NT (Acts 14:14).
Transformation and Testimony of Paul
Verse 8, “and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”
With Paul we have not only a credible eyewitness, but also powerful circumstantial evidence. Here’s a man who was absolutely convinced Jesus was a fraud and Christians should be put to death if they refuse to deny allegiance to Him. Paul had heard the Christian preachers in Jerusalem. He’d listen to Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7. He’d heard their arguments. He knew some of them could even do miracles in Jesus’ name. But none of it was convincing enough for him. There was nothing that could possibly persuade him to be a Christian… But then to his own great humiliation and cost, he became not just a Christian, but the hardest working servant of Jesus in the world. He went from having his picture on the front cover of Jerusalem’s Finest magazine to having his picture on the “Wanted Dead!” signs. There was undoubtedly something incredible that happened to Paul, something more incredible than the arguments and miracles of the Christian evangelists. Something as incredible as seeing the risen Jesus Himself, must have happened to Paul to account for his humiliating costly transformation.
There’s Much More
Paul’s list of eyewitnesses here even leaves out a few. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us He first appeared to some ladies. Those accounts give the ladies’ names. And then He appeared to two men on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.
There is much more circumstantial evidence.
- There is His empty tomb, which according to some of the eyewitness testimonies contained his burial wrappings and the face cloth (John 20:6-7). Who bothers to unwrap a smelly dead body before they steal it?
- There’s the fact that Jesus performed abundant supernatural deeds during His ministry. Even Josephus, a secular writer of the time, writes that Jesus was “a doer of marvelous deeds” and the Jewish Talmud accuses Jesus of practicing sorcery and receiving His power from the devil. So they attributed His supernatural power to Satan rather than God, but they could not deny Jesus did in fact perform supernatural deeds. It really looked like God was at work to commend Jesus to us.
- There’s the fact Jesus said He would rise on the third day.
- And because Jesus said that, there is the drastic measures taken by the authorities to ensure His tomb would not be empty three days after His death. They sealed the tomb and stationed a guard outside it!
When you put it all together, the accumulative evidence is absolutely decisive. Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead!
And that is not just a happy ending to a story that looked tragically over. It is not just a fantastic historical event worth celebrating once a year. The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. The resurrection of Jesus has huge significance for every day of every year of every one of our lives.
Significance
I want to share with you three significances of His resurrection.
First, from Romans 4:25 which says, “He was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”
I hear Paul saying Jesus’ suffering on the cross was God putting our punishment on Him. He was taking what we deserve, paying our debt. And then He was raised because it was enough, the debt was paid in full. Jesus did not have to stay dead, because Jesus had suffered enough to purchase our salvation. And so the resurrection of Jesus is confirmation that deliverance from our sins and friendship with God truly has been bought for us and is ours for the taking.
Here’s a second significance.
One day some of the scribes and Pharisees approached Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” It’s kind of a funny question because Jesus had been going about performing sign after sign all over the area, healing all kinds of diseases and infirmities and casting out demons. But they were stubbornly refusing to believe God had set Jesus over them and they needed to listen to Jesus. So they said, “Jesus, we need to see something more, something really spectacular to confirm you are who you claim.” Jesus answered them saying, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:38-40)
Now, I don’t want to interrupt the flow of thought here, but let me say something for those of you who are a bit puzzled (as I used to be)by Jesus’ statement that He would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth; because it’s traditionally taught that Jesus died on a Friday afternoon, and you can’t fit three days and three nights between Friday afternoon and early Sunday morning before dawn, which is when the gospels tell us He rose. It’s thought He died on Friday because we read about how they were in a hurry to unfasten His body from the cross and bury it before the Sabbath, which began at sundown that evening. But in our Bible class last Wednesday evening I shared why I’m 99% sure He died on Thursday and not Friday. One of the biggest things we’ve missed is that the Sabbath that rushed Jesus’ burial was not on a Saturday. It was Passover week and there was another Sabbath besides the normal weekly Sabbath, a special Sabbath, a high Sabbath, as John calls it (John 19:31), and it occurred on Friday. This is why in Matthew 28:1 in the Greek text, you don’t see it in our English translations, but literally in the Greek text it says, “Now after the Sabbaths (plural)… Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.” There were two Sabbaths that week, back to back, Friday and Saturday. Anyway, if you’re wondering about that and thinking, “But what about this passage or that?”, come ask me and I can refer you to some great material I’ve found on it.
Back to the main point. Jesus said, “Here’s your sign I am everything I claim, that I have all the authority I claim, I’ll be three days and three nights in the earth and then I’ll come out.”
Acts 17:30, Paul preached, “… having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” The resurrection of Jesus is God’s way of proving to us Jesus is our Lord, our King and our Judge, that it is to Jesus we will answer. It is Jesus who holds our fate in His hands. And so Paul says we need to repent. We need to change and bring our lives into harmony with the will of Jesus, because it is up to Jesus what happens to us.
Here’s a third significance of His resurrection.
It confirms Jesus’ promises that resurrection and eternal bodily life are truly in store for those who embrace Him as Lord of their lives. Jesus promised, according to John 5:28, “an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of condemnation.” The fact that resurrection, to never die again, already happened to Jesus is strong confirmation the promise is true, that the same will happen to us who follow Jesus.
Remember when the Lord appeared Mary Magdalene outside the tomb and her eyes were so clouded with tears and she was in such mental turmoil she didn’t recognize Him? She thought He was the gardener and said, “Sir, if you’ve carried Him away, please tell me where you have laid Him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She said “Rabboni!” and latched on to Him. I assume it was about a minute later when Jesus said, “Mary, you’re going to have to let Me go; I’ve not yet ascended to the Father.” Then He said, “I’ve got a message I want you to go deliver to My brothers,” meaning His disciples. “Go tell them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.” “Mary, go tell My disciples, ‘We are brothers with the same Father. We are fellow servants of the same God. And our Father and our God has raised Me from the dead and I’m going to go reign with Him for a while.” If He’s raised our brother we can expect Him to raise us too as He’s promised.
I Corinthians 15 that we were looking at, is a chapter where Paul is actually dealing with a problem in Corinth. Some of them had disconnected the resurrection of Jesus from our hope as Christians. They were saying there is no future resurrection of the dead. And one of their arguments was that the condition of our bodies after we’ve been dead awhile makes it unreasonable. Are we going to come out of the tombs walking skeletons, or less, just dust or ashes because that’s all that’s left of our bodies? Paul argues, if Christ has been raised, and you know He has because there’s all this evidence to confirm it, then we will be raised as well. I Corinthians15:20, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” And then in the second half of the chapter he says (verse 35ff), “Now, let’s talk about the body in which we will be raised. The body or pieces of it or whatever we put in the ground, is not the sort of body in which we will be raised. It’s like when you plant a seed in the ground, the seed goes into the ground and decomposes, but then something comes out of the ground and it is not a seed, it’s something different, it’s a green thing. So is the resurrection of the dead.” Paul makes this comparison between the bodies we sow in the ground and the bodies in which we will be raised. He says the bodies we have now are perishable, mortal. The bodies we will have then will be imperishable, immortal. The bodies we have now are weak. The bodies we will have are powerful. The bodies we have now are inglorious. The bodies we will have are glorious. Imagine a body with bones that don’t break, a heart that doesn’t fail, eyes that never need corrective lenses, ears that never need hearing aids. Imagine a body like that and I think we’re heading in the right direction toward the sort of bodies in which we will be raised. They will be suited for wonderful eternal life in the new earth God is bringing. So the resurrection of Jesus is a preview of coming attractions.
Conclusion
In very practical terms, the resurrection of Jesus means if you have not done so, you need to repent of your sins to obey Jesus in your life and begin your walk with Him by being baptized in His name. And it means for those of us who have been following Jesus, “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 15:58)
-James Williams