Prior to His death, Jesus prophesied that He
would “suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and
teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise
again” (Mark 8:31).
In the previous article, we saw that Jesus
fulfilled the first part of this prophecy by dying as “the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). But, did He fulfill the second
part of the prophecy? Did He rise from death? Is there any evidence that the
resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact?
The resurrection of Jesus is extremely
important –so important that Paul said to the Corinthians, “If Christ has not
been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians
15:17). The resurrection of Christ is proof that God accepted the sacrifice of
Jesus as payment for our sins and that justice and mercy have mingled. The
resurrection took away the sting of death and assured us that we too will be
raised from death, never to die again.
A Law Professor’s
Testimony
Dr. Simon Greenleaf, noted law professor at
Harvard University, believed that the resurrection of Jesus was a hoax. So he
decided to expose the resurrection as a myth. After extensive research, he
reversed his thinking. In his book, An
Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence
Administered in the Courts of Justice, Dr. Greenleaf concluded that “it was
impossible that the apostles could have persisted in affirming the truths they
had narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead” (page 29).
What changed Dr. Greenleaf’s mind? What
evidence did he find that he could not ignore? Why did this skeptic become a
believer and give his life to Christ?
In this article, we will examine some of the
evidence he found.
The Dramatic
Transformation of the Apostles
When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of
Gethsemane, the apostles ran away. “Everyone deserted him and fled” (Mark
14:50). Peter had just promised Jesus, “Even if I have to die with you, I will
never disown you” (Mark 14:31). But that night, Peter denied Him three times
(Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:56-62).
The next morning, Jesus was crucified. He died
in shame, humiliation, and disgrace. The apostles were stunned. Their hopes
were dashed. They had left everything and followed Jesus. They had seen Him
heal the sick, cast out demons, walk on water, still a storm, and raise the
dead. They had given three years of their lives to Him thinking that He was the
Messiah. Now, He was dead, and they were dejected, disheartened, and defeated.
The apostles hid behind locked doors fearing for their lives (John 20:19).
Now, fast-forward fifty days. Something has
happened to these frightened, dejected men. They are standing in the temple
courts preaching with boldness and power.
Peter stands up with the other apostles and
proclaims, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man
accredited by God to you by miracles and signs which God did through him, as
you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you . . . and you, with the
help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God
raised him from the dead” (Acts 2:22-24). “God has raised this Jesus to life,
and we are all witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:32). What transformed a group of
frightened men into bold advocates of Jesus? What changed these cowards into
fearless activists? Listen.
The Jewish high court arrested Peter and John
and commanded them not to speak about Jesus again. Peter and John replied,
“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather
than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts
4:19-20).
The apostles continued preaching, and they were
arrested again. The high priest said to them, “We gave you strict orders not to
teach in this name, yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are
determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood” (Acts 5:28).
The apostles replied, “We must obey God rather
than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead–whom you had killed
by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and
Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are
witnesses of these things” (Acts 5:29-32).
What had the apostles seen that transformed
them from lambs to lions? They had seen the resurrected Jesus. Jesus had
appeared to them after He arose from death.
Jesus’
Post-Resurrection Appearances
Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene (John
20:15-18; Mark 16:9-11), to other women including Mary, the mother of James,
Joanna, and Salome (Matthew 28:1, 9-10; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10). He had appeared
to Peter privately (1 Corinthians 15:5), to two disciples on the road to Emmaus
(Luke 24:13-33), to ten apostles on the day of the resurrection (John 20:19-25),
to eleven apostles, including Thomas the following Sunday (John 20:26-29; Mark
16:14), to seven apostles by the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-2), to 500 followers
at once (1 Corinthians 15:8), to His half-brother James who had been an
unbeliever (1 Corinthians 15:7; John 7:5), to eleven apostles on a mountain in
Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20), to the apostles in Jerusalem (Luke 24:36-49), and
to the apostles on the Mount of Olives at the time of his ascension (Acts
1:3-11).
Later, Jesus appeared to Stephen in a vision
(Acts 7:55-56), to Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-8; 18:9), and to John
on the Island of Patmos (Revelation 1:12-20; 22:20). All of these people were
eye-witnesses of the risen Christ.
Persecution and
Martyrdom
Many of these eye-witnesses endured
persecution, torture, suffering, and death rather than renounce their
testimony. This virtually rules out deception on their part. They could have
avoided persecution and saved their lives by simply renouncing their claims.
But, there is no record of any first-generation eye-witness denying the
resurrection in order to avoid persecution. They all chose to suffer and die
rather than renounce their eyewitness testimony. All of the apostles, except
John, suffered horrific deaths as martyrs.
The apostles’ martyrdom was quite different
from what is happening today. The hijackers who flew airplanes into the twin
towers on September 11, 2001 were sincere. They were willing to die for their
faith. However, they did not know, and they could not know, if their beliefs
were true. They simply trusted the teachings that had been passed down to them
through the centuries.
In contrast, the apostles knew whether or not
Jesus had been raised from death. Either they saw the living Jesus after His
resurrection, or they were lying. Why would they cling to a lie in the face of
social rejection, mockery, persecution, imprisonment, torture, and death?
People in their right minds do not die for a lie when they know it to be a lie.
You can search the annals of history, and you will not find a group of eleven
men who died for a lie, knowing it was a lie. The apostles chose to be
tortured, and killed rather than change their testimony about the resurrection
of Jesus.
The Conversion of Saul
of Tarsus
The men who stoned Stephen to death laid their
clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul (Acts 7:58). At that time, “Saul
began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and
women and put them in prison” (Acts 8:3).
Saul breathed out murderous threats against the
Lord’s disciples (Acts 9:1). He went to Damascus intending to arrest Christians
and bring them back to Jerusalem as prisoners (Acts 9:2).
As Saul approached Damascus, Jesus appeared to
him in a blinding light (Acts 9:3-6). This encounter with the resurrected
Christ changed Saul’s life. Saul, the skeptic, became a staunch believer in the
risen Lord.
In Damascus, Saul fasted and prayed for three
days. Finally, the Lord sent Ananias to him with a message from heaven. Ananias
said to him, “The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see
the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to
all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get
up and be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16).
Saul was baptized by Ananias (Acts 9:18), and
immediately, he entered the synagogues in Damascus and began preaching that
Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 9:20).
Saul, the violent persecutor became the great
apostle Paul who wrote half of the New Testament. Saul the killer became the
world’s greatest missionary. As a result of his unswerving belief in the
resurrection of Jesus, Paul was beaten with rods, whipped, stoned, imprisoned,
and finally beheaded. Even at the point of death, he never denied the
resurrection of Jesus.
What caused this violent persecutor to do an
about face? Why did he leave a promising career as a Jewish rabbi to become a
hated, rejected, abused preacher of the gospel of Christ? The answer is, he had
seen the risen Savior and had heard his voice. The conversion of Saul is strong
evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Conversion of
James
Prior to the resurrection, James, the
half-brother of Jesus, did not believe Jesus was the Messiah (John 7:5).
Following His resurrection, Jesus appeared to James (1 Corinthians 15:7), and
James became a believer, a leader in the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:12-14), and
the author of the epistle of James in the New Testament.
What caused James to change his mind and to
become a devout follower of Christ? He had seen the risen Lord.
The Empty Tomb
After Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea received
permission from Pilate to remove Jesus’ body from the cross and bury it in a
tomb. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw
where the corpse was laid. Then, they went home to prepare spices and ointments
for Jesus’ body (Luke 23:55-56).
Early Sunday morning, the women took the spices
they had prepared and went to the tomb. “They found the stone rolled away from
the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus”
(Luke 24:1-3). Suddenly, two angels stood beside them and said, “Why do you
look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how
he told you while he was still with you in Galilee: The Son of Man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day be
raised again” (Luke 24:5-8).
Jesus had been publicly crucified and buried.
Now, the tomb was empty. If the tomb had not been empty, nobody in Jerusalem
would have believed that Jesus had been raised from death. The Jewish high
court and the Roman soldiers would have produced the body to prove that the
resurrection story was a hoax. But they did not. Instead, they tried to explain
the empty tomb by accusing Jesus’ followers of stealing the body. That was a
lame cover-up. How could the apostles have broken the Roman seal, rolled away
the stone, and stolen the body while armed soldiers were standing guard?
Some people think that Jesus did not really die
–that He only faked His death and later escaped from the tomb. That, too, is
absurd. Jesus was whipped thirty-nine times with a Roman scourge. The scourge
had nine tails, each of which had imbedded bits of metal, glass, or bone that
cut through the skin and into the flesh. So much blood flowed from the wounds
that many people died from the flogging. After being whipped, Jesus was forced
to carry His own cross until He collapsed. Large nails were driven through His
hands and feet as He was crucified. After six hours, soldiers were asked to
break Jesus’ legs to hasten His death, but they discovered He was already dead.
One of the soldiers thrust a spear into Jesus’ side, into His heart, releasing
blood and plasma. It is foolish to think that Jesus revived in the tomb without
medical attention, rolled away the stone weighing several tons, and appeared to
His followers hale and hearty. Who could believe such a story?
Women Witnesses
All four gospels indicate that women were the
first eye-witnesses of the risen Lord. This fact indicates that the gospels
were not fabricated. In Jewish and Roman cultures, women were not highly
regarded. Their testimony was not admissible in a court of law. If someone had
manufactured the resurrection story as critics claim, He would not have made
women the primary witnesses.
The fact that women were the first to discover
the empty tomb can only indicate one thing. They were, in fact, the first to
see the risen Savior.
Conclusion
Prior to His ascension, Jesus met with His
apostles in Jerusalem and said to them, “This is what is written: The Christ
will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and
forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:46-48).
Jesus had died and had been raised from death.
Now, He was sending the apostles into all the world to preach that good news to
men and women everywhere. Those who believed, repented, and were baptized were
forgiven and saved (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38).
Jesus is coming again. His resurrection paved
the way for our resurrection and our ascension into heaven.
