Easter at MVC / 4.17.22

Evidences of the Resurrection

April 17, 2022

A. Easter Sunday! This is Super Bowl Sunday for the Christian and causes

Christianity and Jesus Christ in particular stand out from all other religions in the

world!

1. Did you know there are 4200 religions in the world but only one empty tomb?

2. Of those 4200 religions   of the world’s population practices one of the five

major religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

3. Main person/being and or prophet

a) Buddhism - Siddhartha Gautama who is known as Buddha,

b) Hinduism - Brahman,

c) Judaism – many put Moses at top,

d) Islam – Muhammad ,

e) Christianity – Jesus Christ

B. Out of all the religions of the world April 17, 2022

C. And all the religious leaders in the world, only one has a leader who died and rose

again from the grave. No other religion or religious leader claims that.

1. So the resurrection of Jesus Christ makes Christianity and Jesus Himself stand

out from all other world religions and religious leaders.

D. Christianity stands or falls on the validity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1. John Stott says, “Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion.

The concept of resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove it, Christianity is

destroyed!”

1. The Bible itself says this in the strongest of ways! – Listen 1 Corinthians

15:14,17-19

B. Thomas Arnold (professor of modern history at Oxford) said, “No one fact in the

history of mankind is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort [than the

fact that] Christ died and rose from the dead!”

1. Listen to what this Cold Case detective and former atheist, J. Warner Wallace

said:

2. Many people who have been totally hostile against Christianity and have set

out to disprove the claims of Jesus were converted in the process. To do so

they almost always focus upon disproving the resurrection of Jesus Christ

3. One, a lawyer Josh McDowell and the other a journalist Lee Strobel were

converted to Christianity and faith in Jesus through the indisputable evidence

of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

4. They both wrote books about their experience:

a) McDowell

b) Strobel

C. If you want to look into this more for yourself, you can follow up by looking at the

tract that we handed out to you when you came in this morning “Looking for the

Truth about Easter.” We also have a limited amount of copies available at the

Welcome Center of the two books I just mentioned.

● This morning I want to share with you, just three evidences that helped persuade

people like this. Let’s start with the

II. Historical records

A. We need to remember that the Gospels, the place where the resurrection is

recorded, are not just stories but actual historical events.

B. I do not know of any book that has been more closely examined by critics, both

those who are friends and foes, both believers and non-believers, than the Bible to

see if its records are accurate.

1. The outcome of those who study it closely is that the Bible is the most reliable

writings of antiquity!

2. Listen to what Luke said about his gospel read Luke 1:3-4

3. Sir William Ramsay, a Nobel Prize recipient, spent fifteen years seeking to

undermine Luke’s credentials as a historian and to refute the reliability of the

New Testament.

a) He finally concluded “Luke is a historian of the first rank … this author

should be placed along with the very greatest of historians!”

C. Even authors outside the Scriptures who were non-believers in Jesus Christ have

referred to His resurrection. One of those was a man named Josephus who was a

first century Roman-Jewish historian. He said this:

1. 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…He was [the] Christ; and when

Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst 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….

● The second evidence to the resurrection of Jesus were the

III. Eyewitnesses in Jerusalem

A. The resurrection was preached in the same town, Jerusalem, where the

resurrection took place and where the tomb was located.

1. Anyone could have gone to the tomb, that was in a very well known place, by

a very simple afternoon walk to disprove there claims, yet none did.

2. At the time of Jesus, a high stone wall surrounded the entire city, about four

miles long, it protected an area of about a square mile, where about 25,000

people lived.

B. Listen to what Paul said about eyewitnesses: 1 Corinthians 15:4-8

1. Mentioning the twelve is key because all but one of them suffered a martyr’s

death (1 – Exiled and imprisoned on an island just west of Turkey for the rest

of his life) for their testimony and preaching about the resurrected Jesus.

a. People will only die for what they believe to be true, not for what they

know to be false or a lie!

b. Quote from Chuck Colson – see attachment

2. Five Hundred- to say that most of them are alive until now. In a sense, he

was saying, “If you do not believe me you can ask them!” 1

Corinthians15:6-8

3. To mention James, his half-brother is key because His family did not believe

in Jesus’ claims during His life and according to Mark 3:21 actually thought

Jesus had lost His mind. So he would have seen the resurrected Jesus as a

non-believer but came to faith after seeing Him

4. Paul mentioning himself is key because he was a bitter enemy to Jesus and

His resurrection as he went around persecuting those who claimed this, yet

this hostile witness of the resurrection was totally transformed by the

resurrected Jesus

● The final piece of evidence was provided by the apostles as well – their …

IV. Transformed lives

A. You need to remember that these apostles who powerfully proclaimed the

resurrection of Jesus and who died for their claims about Jesus were the same ones

who just days before Jesus’ death denied Him, deserted Him out of fear for their

own lives and were discouraged over the loss of their leader!

B. What changed them so drastically? It could only be the fact that they encountered

the resurrected Jesus who showed them that even death could not stop them and

the reception of His very Spirit into their lives turned them upside down!

● People down through history who have believed the claims of the resurrected Jesus

have been transformed. I want you today to hear the story of one of them:

V. Gary Olson