Category: Easter

How I Came to Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Resurrection Sunday changed history forever but people are still asking is there any proof of the resurrection?

The Historical Jesus

We know that Resurrection Sunday was part of history, but this epic event also changed history, but people still ask, “Is there any real proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ?” Could you prove it to anyone that asks you about it? You can talk to people about evidence for the resurrection, but many still won’t believe because they choose not to believe. They don’t even think about it, but it’s not a matter of physical or historical evidence that makes a person believe. It’s a matter of the heart. Jesus told His disciples, “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 16:17), and concerning what is to come, the Apostle Paul writes, “God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:9), so Jesus won’t be known by empirical evidence, because “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14). Only God can change the human heart (Prov 21:1), but He may use us as a means to do so, especially when it comes to loving others (John 13:34-35). Christians already know that their hope in Christ is not a hope-so faith, but a know-so faith. God has shown it to them.

The Innocent

The great lineage of Jesus Christ is recorded at the beginning of Luke. The names of all these men are historical facts. Even the census that Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem for was registered in the king’s census (Luke 2:1-5), and besides that, thousands upon thousands of witnesses not only knew Jesus by sight, but they acknowledged that He was the Messiah and related to King David’s lineage (Luke 1:1-10, 18:35-43). He was referred to as the Son of David (Matt 15:22, 20:30), and not once in the gospels did the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees or the Sadducees ever catch Jesus in a sin or every proved that He ever had sinned or broken the law. Pontius Pilate declared, “I find no guilt in him” (John 19:4), and tragically, many of these religious rulers knew that Jesus was from God, but for fear of losing their authority and positions, or getting put out of the synagogue, most denied Him in the end. The religious leaders all conspired to kill Him, despite the fact that He had not sinned nor broken Jewish or Roman law (Luke 20:20-26, 19:28-40, 20:20-26), and He was hated without cause (Psalm 69:4; John 15:26).

Eye Witnesses

In any court of law, eye witnesses are an invaluable source of finding the truth. In the whole of Judea and Samaria, there were several hundred eye witnesses who saw Jesus before, and more importantly, after His crucifixion, death, and resurrection (Luke 24:15-24, Act 1:3-4, 2:31-32, 9:3, 17, I Cor 15:4-8, 9:1, II Pet 1:16-21, John 3:2, 15:27, I John 1:1-3, 14). Hundreds others saw the empty tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, which Joseph had given for Jesus’ burial site and Jesus public execution was most certainly known by all, as the Roman’s had a custom of crucifying criminals near major roadways. They did this as a “warning sign” for all who entered or lived under Roman dominion, so the knowledge of Jesus’ crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection was known even into the Roman Empire, and later, beyond.

The Apostle’s Creed

The resurrection was so important to the early church because it is the essence of the gospel. Paul calls the gospel “of first importance what I also received: that 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, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:3-6). This was so important that within three to eight years after His death, Apostle’s Creed was created with the intent of protecting these eye witness’s accounts and codifying their testimonies accurately, both for present and future generations. Jude wrote “I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1: 3), so even in the church’s infancy, they were already contending for the original gospel (1 Cor 15:3-6). Paul told Timothy he must “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1st Tim 6:12), because so many were preaching another gospel and not the one Jesus delivered.

Gnosticism

Within a few years, some churches had already been infiltrated with the Gnostics who felt it was only through knowledge that one could be saved, and it was only for a select few, however the Creed announces to everyone publicly that the only way we can be saved is through Jesus Christ (John 6:44) and the free gift of eternal life (Eph 2:8-9). The Creed has grown in the last two thousand years, but its basic tenets have not changed much. If it has grown, it has only grown to resist the plethora of unsound doctrines floating around out there. It should act as a hedge against heresy and other (false) gospels. The Creed was not written from a blind-faith perspective or formulated by suppositions. It was created by eye witnesses who had seen Jesus before His death and after His resurrection. Today, He sits at the right hand of the Father directing His church as its Head. The old saying holds true; most people would live for a lie, but few would die for one. Especially one that they knew was not true.

Conclusion

I have faith in God, but I did not come to believe on my own. I was dead in my sins and needed quickening by God’s Spirt, so I came believe, but only because God wanted me to believe.   I have faith, but what is this faith I have? God defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). The Greek word used for “assurance” is hypostasis, and means “a setting, a place,” or “that which has a foundation,” and the Greek word (elegchos) used for conviction means, “a proof, that by which something is proven or a tested conviction.” Webster’s definition of faith seems perfectly fitting: Having an allegiance to duty or a person… loyalty, belief and trust in God, confidence in something or someone, so faith involves an act of the will. It is not blind faith, but faith that has assurance, is foundational, has inward and outward evidence, and has been proven by the person having such faith. For those things not seen (God), we have a foundational belief and overwhelming conviction of its truthfulness, so it’s not a hope-so faith, but a know-so faith…but that’s something only you can prove to be true. That’s my prayer for the reader. Pastor Jack

The Implications of the Resurrection for Believers and the Unsaved

What does the Resurrection mean to Christians, as well as the unsaved? Here is how the resurrection has changed millions of people’s lives, for for all time.

He Must Go

There is no sacrifice that could have satisfied the wrath of God except the life of the Holy Son of God, Jesus Christ.  His perfect, sinless life was the only way that we could be reconciled back to God.  Jesus came to give His own life as a ransom for those who would trust in Him (Mark 10:45).  Near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, He began to speak of His suffering, death, and resurrection, but the apostles were afraid to ask Him about it (Mark 9:32), even though Jesus plainly said, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise” (Mark 9:31). How clear that is, but they didn’t expect the Messiah to finally come to save Israel and then have to suffer and die, but “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matt 16:21). The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are not saved by works (Eph 2:8-9), while the Apostle Peter says we aren’t redeemed by material possessions, but only “with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet 1:19). At the time, the disciples didn’t realize that crucifying the sinless Son of God was their (and our) only hope.  Only later did they understand (Acts 2:14-47).  At least Jesus gave the disciples hope, telling them, “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).

We’ll Be Raised

Since Jesus has been raised from the dead, so shall we be.  If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, we’d die and remain in our sins, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor 15:20-21).  After Lazarus had been dead for four days, Jesus told Martha, “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” (John 11:25-26)? God has resurrection power in His Word, as “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (1 Cor 16:14). The gospel of Jesus Christ must contain all three essentials; the sinless life, suffering and death on the cross, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The Apostle Paul wrote, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that 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” (1 Cor 15:3-4). And it wasn’t just to the Apostle Peter that He appeared to, but “he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.  Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Cor 15:6-8).  Scriptures foretold His sinless life, His suffering and death on the cross, and His resurrection after the third day.  It was all in accordance to Scripture, and all in accordance to God’s sovereign redemptive plan.  Jesus was not a victim of circumstances, but as He said, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father” (John 10:18).

He’s Not Here!

One of the greatest verses in the Bible, and one which brings the greatest of news, is found in Matthew 28:6 where the angel told the women, “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” After the women had looked into the empty tomb, “they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples” (Matt 28:8). Mark records the event as the angel saying to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him” (Mark 16:6). Even Luke the Physician wrote, “He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise” (Luke 24:6-7). The Scriptures and Christ Himself declared, “that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead” (Luke 24:46), and that’s exactly what happened.

The Sinless Savior

The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), but since Jesus never sinned, the grave couldn’t hold Him.  The Scriptures say “God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24).  The Roman soldiers “came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:33-4), so Jesus was officially declared dead by the Roman soldiers.  The greatest travesty of justice that has ever occurred in human history occurred at the cross.  Not only had Pontius Pilate declared Jesus innocent, even the thief on the cross knew that Christ “has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41b), however the religious leaders thought they had put an end to Jesus and His ministry, but it had just the opposite effect. 

Conclusion

His sinless life, death, and resurrection changed human the world and it changed history, into His-story.  Many of those who were formerly the sons and daughters of disobedience were born again and became the children of God.  Maybe we don’t have to think that far back in time to remember when we “once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2), however, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:4-5). I pray you have been saved, otherwise you will die in your sins and have the wrath of God abiding on you forever. Please put your trust in Christ right now, at this very moment (if not already).

Pastor Jack, Heritage Church, Udall, KS.