{"id":18338,"date":"2016-03-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-27T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/christs-resurrection-fact-or-fiction\/"},"modified":"2016-03-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-27T05:00:00","slug":"christs-resurrection-fact-or-fiction","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/christs-resurrection-fact-or-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Christ’s Resurrection: Fact or Fiction?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[91],"series_event":[439],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18338","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-corinthians","series_event-easter-sermons","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Christ's Resurrection: Fact or Fiction?","sermon_date":"20160327","sermon_month":"3","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":3494,"sermon_slides":3493,"sermon_mp3":3496,"sermon_id":"327161027203","series_or_event":439,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":91,"chapter_and_verse":"15:14","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nResurrection of Jesus Christ: Fact or Fiction?\u2014Hoax or Historical Reality?\n\n1 Corinthians\u00a0 15:14\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Easter Sermon\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(3-27-16)\n\nIf we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, taking a look at verse 14 of chapter 15, bringing a special message today since today is Resurrection Sunday.\u00a0 The title of our message is as follows: Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Fact or Fiction, Hopes or Historical Reality.\n\nOf course most people, even (as I\u2019ll be showing you today) unsaved people, unbelievers, know that the resurrection of Jesus Christ which we celebrate today, is\u00a0 pivotal to Christianity.\u00a0 Part of the reason for that is Jesus Himself said He would rise from the dead.\u00a0 Over in Matthew 16:21 the words of Christ are recorded for us.\u00a0 It says, \u201cFrom 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 be raised up on the third day.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that Jesus staked His claim to deity based upon His bodily resurrection from the dead.\u00a0 And of course if Jesus never rose from the dead then He\u2019s nothing more than another crazy person, having no real authority to back up His claim to be fully God.\u00a0\u00a0 So Christianity itself rises or falls according to the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s why in the verse I had you turn to the Apostle Paul says, \u201cand if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 15:14] I mean, there\u2019s a lot better things we could be doing with our time this morning than sitting around worshipping somebody that never actually rose from the dead.\n\nSo one of the great issues that all Christians need to, I believe, come to an awareness of, or one of the great questions is this: did the resurrection of Jesus Christ actually happen.\u00a0 And how do we know that it happened in time and history.\u00a0 What I hope to convince you of today is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s just as much a historical fact as any other event of history, such as the winter in Valley Forge, the Gettysburg Address, the Battle of Waterloo, we all mentally sign off that those things were actual historical events in history.\u00a0 In the same way, the resurrection of Jesus Christ deserves that same place in history as an objective historical reality.\n\nAs I have looked into this I am more convinced than ever that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact.\u00a0 And what I\u2019d like to share with you today, and this is the content of our sermon, is seven reasons why the resurrection of Jesus Christ actually took place.\n\nSo here we go, reason number 1, and you might want to over to 1 Corinthians 15:6.\u00a0 The first reason is that there were, according to the writings of the Apostle Paul, five hundred eyewitnesses who Paul says check out their stories and see if they be true.\u00a0 Notice 1 Corinthians 15:6, notice what Paul writes there: \u201cAfter that,\u201d this is His resurrection chapter, \u201cAfter that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time,\u201d now notice this next clause, \u201cmost of whom remain until now, but\u201d a few he says, \u201csome have\u201d died, or he uses the euphemism, \u201cfallen asleep.\u201d\n\nThat is an amazing statement that he just made there in 1 Corinthians 15:6.\u00a0 What he\u2019s saying is you don\u2019t take word for it, you Corinthians, the ones that I am writing to, check it out for yourself; there are almost 500 people walking around today that will testify that what I have said is true.\u00a0 Jesus truly did rise from the dead; in fact Jesus appeared to around 500 people.\u00a0 Now let\u2019s think about this for a minute.\u00a0 What if what Paul had said was not accurate?\u00a0 Christianity would have been discredited right out of the gate.\u00a0 The book of 1 Corinthians would have never been passed down from one generation to the next as something to be revered and respected.\n\nIt would be like this: let\u2019s say somebody writes a book today and says John F. Kennedy, Jr. died of a heart attack.\u00a0 Now there were many people, and maybe some in this room, that saw Kennedy shot.\u00a0 One of my friends, Dr. Mal Couch who has gone to be with the Lord, was actually there filming the entire parade in Dallas when John F. Kennedy was shot and of course we have films of the Kennedy assassination.\u00a0 But what if somebody wrote a book and said well, he really was never shot, he just died of natural cause, a heart attack.\u00a0 We can imagine how quickly the living eyewitnesses to that event would discredit that book.\u00a0 That book would have never gotten off the ground; that book would never have made it into the private reading of men and women.\u00a0 It would have been discredited right away.\n\nAnd that is the same thing that Paul is doing here in 1 Corinthians 15:6; he makes this very, very bold statement; he says don\u2019t take my word for it, check it out.\u00a0 Christianity would have been dealt a very early blow; 1 Corinthians would have never made it into the biblical canon.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s ministry would have never gone anywhere if there were not these witnesses alive that could corroborate what Paul said.\u00a0 This is an astoundingly bold claim that he is making.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the first reason I believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead.\n\nLet me give you a second reason, number 2; the second reason I believe that the resurrection is an object of historical fact, number 2, is the enemies of Christianity never produced Christ\u2019s deceased body.\u00a0 Now what you have to understand is going back to the ancient world Christianity, just like it has today, had enemies.\u00a0 The Romans hated Christianity because it was causing insurrections and problems in Rome.\u00a0 The unbelieving Jews hated Christianity.\u00a0 And how simple things could have been if the enemies of Christianity had simply gone to the tomb, produced the body and discredited Christianity right out of the gate.\u00a0 But you see, there is nowhere in history where such a thing was ever done.\u00a0 Why was it never done?\u00a0 Because the tomb was empty.\n\nLet me show you what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 Notice the book of Acts, chapter 25 and verse 19.\u00a0 Paul there is in Caesarea and he is involved in a variety of trials, he\u2019s being tried before various Roman kings, and in verse 19 Paul keeps talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 It says, \u201c\u2026 Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive.\u201d\u00a0 And then when you go over to Acts 26:26 Paul says makes the statement, he says, \u201c\u2026 I am persuaded that none of these things escape your notice;\u201d\u00a0 you kings trying me, \u201cfor this has not been done in a corner.\u201d\u00a0 [Acts 26:26 \u201cFor the king knows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner.\u201d]\n\nHe\u2019s saying I\u2019m not giving you something wild and fanciful, these things were not \u201cdone in a corner.\u201d\u00a0 All of these things that I am talking about could easily be corroborated.\u00a0 And when Paul\u2019s enemies showed up and sought to discredit him what did they do.\u00a0 Notice Acts 25:7, it says: \u201cAfter Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him,\u201d watch this, \u201cbringing many and serious charges against him which they could not prove.\u201d\u00a0 What were they stuck with?\u00a0 They were stuck with a bunch of silly ad hominem attacks, trying to throw Jell-O at the wall and hoping something will stick when it would have been so easy for these unbelieving Jews to discredit Paul, simply to produce the body.\u00a0 Yet they never produced the body!\u00a0 How easy it would have been for his enemies to produce the body of Christ that Paul was testifying to.\n\nJosh McDowell, in his very excellent book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict<\/em>, writes this:\u00a0 \u201cThe Church was founded on the resurrection and disproving it would have destroyed the whole Christian movement.\u00a0 However, instead of such disproof throughout the first century, Christians instead were threatened, beaten, flogged, and killed because of their faith.\u00a0 It would have been much simpler to have silenced them by producing Jesus\u2019 body, but this was never done.\u00a0\u00a0 The Romans and the Jews could not produce Christ\u2019s body and explain where it went.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t they recover the corpse, put it on a cart, wheel it throughout the streets of Jerusalem?\u00a0 Such an action would have destroyed Christianity, not in the cradle but in the womb.\u00a0 The Sanhedrin\u201d the Jewish governing body, \u201cThe Sanhedrin could have gone to the right tomb, introduced the body of Jesus Christ, if in fact Jesus had not risen from the dead.\u00a0 This would have silenced the disciples forever.\u201d\n\nInstead of doing that what does the first century reveal in terms of history?\u00a0 We\u2019ve got to shut these Christians up, we\u2019ve got to intimidate them into silence, we\u2019ve got to persecute them into silence, we have to abuse them and mistreat them and flog them.\u00a0 Some, like Stephen, we have to stone to death.\u00a0 And all of that would have been an exercise in redundancy, it would have been irrelevant if someone had just gone into the tomb and reproduced the body of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 They would say He never did rise from the dead, here\u2019s His body.\u00a0 But it remains a fact that no one ever did that, even though it would be very simple to do so. And so that really is my second reason why I believe that Jesus rose from the dead: Christianity\u2019s enemies never produced the body.\n\nLet me take you to reason number 3, the third reason why I believe resurrection of Jesus Christ, upon which Christianity rises or falls, was an actual historical happenstance.\u00a0 And that has to do, number 3, with the Dramatic, with a capital D, Dramatic change in the disciples, Christ\u2019s disciples.\u00a0 John Stott, the scholar, writes this:\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence for the resurrection.\u201d\n\nAnother scholar, Anderson, writes these words: \u201cThink of the character of the eyewitnesses, men and women who gave the world the highest ethical teaching it has ever known, and who, even on the testimony of their enemies, lived it out in their lives.\u00a0 Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards, cowering in an Upper Room one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence, and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication that they were trying to foist upon the world.\u00a0 That simply would not make sense.\u201d\n\nOne of the things that we see in the Scripture and in other historical sources is the change that happened to Christ\u2019s disciples following the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.\u00a0 You see, we all read the story in the Gospels, these people were cowards and you read the book of Acts and they seem like completely different people.\u00a0 In fact, they are so transformed that the book of Acts, chapter 17 and verse 6 says this of these disciples.\u00a0 \u201cThese men who have upset the world,\u201d some versions translate that, \u201cthey have turned the world upside down.\u201d\u00a0 And what I want you to understand is every single one of Christ\u2019s disciples, with the exception of John, went to a martyr\u2019s death.\u00a0 Every single one of them!\u00a0 The only one that didn\u2019t would be John and they tried to boil John to death and the son of a gun wouldn\u2019t die, and so they stuck him out on the island of Patmos, which was actually the design of God because on that island John would receive the final book of the New Testament that we call the book of Revelation.\n\nOther than John, every single one of these people, whether you\u2019re talking about Peter, Matthew, Philip, Thomas, whoever, they went to a martyr\u2019s death proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 What changed in these people?\u00a0 How do you explain the Apostle Peter, who in the Gospels is afraid of his own shadow into a man who is actually crucified upside down.\u00a0 Peter, who denied the Lord three times to a real intimidating servant girl;\u00a0 Peter, who when accused of being with Christ began to openly swear and openly curse.\u00a0 How do we explain that man in light of what we read in Acts 1, chapters 1-10, Peter almost a one-man fighting force who turned the world upside down.\u00a0 And who himself, according to extra biblical tradition was crucified upside down because he did not want to die in the exact manner that Christ died in.\n\nHow do we explain the transition in Peter without the resurrection?\u00a0 This is why, when you study Peter\u2019s sermons what you\u2019ll discover is the resurrection of Christ is integral to his thinking. Notice Acts 2:29-32, Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost: \u201cBrethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. [30] \u201cAnd so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one<\/em> OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE\u00a0 [31] he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. [31] This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.\u201d\n\nOver in Acts 4:10 Peter continues to talk about the resurrection, it says: \u201clet it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead-- by this name this man stands here before you in good health.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0It is the resurrected Christ that healed the crippled man, Peter says in Acts 4.\u00a0 It is the resurrected Christ, Peter says in Acts 2, that has sent forth the Holy Spirit at the dawn of the age of the church.\u00a0 What a different person He is.\n\nOr take for example, one of the brothers of Christ, his half-brother, a man named James.\u00a0 According to John 7:5 not even Christ\u2019s brothers, including James, believed that Jesus was the Messiah.\u00a0 Now I\u2019ve got to cut him a little slack there, if my brother claimed to be the Messiah I don\u2019t think I\u2019d believe him right away either.\u00a0 John 7:5 says, \u201cFor not even His brothers were believing in Him.\u201d\n\nCompare that to the James that we know in the New Testament, the man who wrote the epistle of James, the man who became the pastor of the Jerusalem church, the man who would not renounce Christ\u2019s name and according to extra biblical tradition was thrown off of the Jerusalem wall and went to a martyr\u2019s death.\u00a0 How do you explain the transition in this man, James, the half-brother of Christ?\u00a0 The answer is 1 Corinthians 15:7, which says, \u201cthen He\u201d that\u2019s Jesus in His resurrected state, \u201cappeared to James, then to all the apostles.\u201d\n\nHow do you explain the difference in Thomas?\u00a0 We all know Thomas as \u201cDoubting Thomas.\u201d\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 And we know that from John 20:24-25, which says, \u201cBut Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.\u00a0 [25] So the other disciples were saying to him, \u2018We have seen the Lord!\u2019 But he said to them, \u2018Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Doubting Thomas.\u00a0 But what happened to Thomas?\u00a0 Thomas became one of the greatest missionaries the Christian church has ever seen.\u00a0 Thomas is the one that took the Gospel of Jesus Christ all the way to India where he was martyred in that place as a spear was thrust into him.\n\nHow do we explain the difference in Thomas?\u00a0 The answer is the resurrection.\u00a0 The answer is in John 20:26 and following, which says, \u201cAfter eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, \u2018Peace be<\/em> with you.\u2019 [27] Then He said to Thomas, \u2018Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 And then Thomas in John 20:28 \u201canswered and said to Him, \u2018My Lord and my God!\u2019\u201d That\u2019s what changed Thomas.\u00a0 That\u2019s what changed Peter.\u00a0 That\u2019s what changed James.\u00a0 That\u2019s what changed all of these eleven.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible to explain it unless there was a bodily resurrection of Jesus from the grave.\n\nLet me take you to a fourth reason why I believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was an actual historical happenstance.\u00a0 Number 4, the survival, existence, and ordinances of the Christian church.\u00a0 The Christian church itself with its existence; the Christian church itself with its practices makes virtually no sense unless there was a historical resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Acts 2:40, Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost, to all Jews, by the way, you don\u2019t have a Gentile converted in the church age until Cornelius, Acts 10.\u00a0 Acts 2:40, Peter speaking to his fellow Jews, says, \u201c\u2026 \"Be saved from this perverse generation!\u201d\n\nIt is the nation of Israel that did the wrong thing, Peter is saying on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0 I want you to come out from this perverse generation and understand and identify with the message of the church that Jesus has been raised.\u00a0 And what begins from that sermon are three thousand converts which were heavily persecuted.\u00a0 And think of that breakaway from Judaism that these first Jews went through.\u00a0 Think of all of the abuse that they went through.\u00a0 Think of the rejection from even their own family members.\u00a0 Even today if an Orthodox Jew comes into the light of the gospel and believes the gospel that typically means a separation from their community, a separation from their family.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the early church is experiencing here.\u00a0 And what gave them the gusto or the gumption to make the break?\u00a0 The answer is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Peter, going back to Acts 2:29-32 makes reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd what does this early church start doing? \u00a0They don\u2019t\u00a0 meet on Saturday, they start meeting on Sunday.\u00a0 They don\u2019t meet on the last day of the week, they start meeting on the first day of the week.\u00a0 Keep in mind these people were all Jewish.\u00a0 Going back to Genesis 2:2-3 it is the seventh day that is the sabbath.\u00a0 Genesis 2 says this, [2] \u201cBy the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. [3] Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.\u201d\n\nAnd so in Judaism it is the seventh day or Saturday or the last day in the week which is the day of worship.\u00a0 And that became captured in the law of Moses, going all the way back 1500 years before the time of Christ, to Exodus 20:8-11.\u00a0 God said, through Moses, \u201cRemember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] Six days you shall labor and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it<\/em> you shall not do any work, [you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.\u2019]\u201d\u00a0 Verse 11 goes on and it says that God commanded that they rest on the Sabbath, \u201ctherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.\u00a0 [Exodus 2:11, \u201cFor in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.\u201d]\n\nYou have to understand that these Jews, going back one thousand five hundred years understood that the day of worship is Saturday, day seven in the week.\u00a0 And yet what did this infant church start to do?\u00a0 They made a break with tradition and they started to worship, not on the last day of the week but the first day of the week\u2014Sunday.\u00a0 Acts 20:7 says of this early church, \u201cOn the first day of the week, when we were gathered together \u2026\u201d\n\nPaul, giving commands to the early church in 1 Corinthians 16:2 says, \u201cOn the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 And here we are 2,000 years later meeting on the first day of the week.\u00a0 Why the change?\u00a0 The answer is very simple: because that\u2019s the day Jesus resurrected from the dead.\u00a0 John 20:1, describing the resurrection of Jesus Christ says this, \u201cNow on the first day of the week\u2026\u201d when the women came to the tomb.\u00a0 [John 20:1 \u201cNow on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.\u201d]\u00a0 John 20:19 says, \u201cSo when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week,\u201d that\u2019s when Jesus appeared to them and said, \u201cPeace be with you.\u201d\n\nJohn 20:26 indicates that this little band of disciples started meeting on Sunday.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAfter eight days His disciples were again inside\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s a shift in their thinking here; no longer is Saturday the day of meeting, Sunday is the day of meeting.\u00a0 And may I just say to you, that would have never happened had Jesus not resurrected from the dead on Sunday.\n\nGreen, a scholar, puts it this way:\u00a0 \u201cThe Christians met for worship on the first day of the Jewish week in acknowledgement of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 These Christians actually succeeded in moving to Sunday this age-old and theologically backed day of rest and worship.\u00a0 Yet remember, they were Jews themselves!\u201d\u00a0 Exclamation point.\u00a0 Keeping in mind what they thought would happen if they were wrong we must recognize that\u00a0 this was probably one of the biggest decisions any religious body of men ever made.\n\nHow are we to explain this change from Saturday to Sunday worship without the resurrection?\u00a0 The Christian church does not just meet on Sunday, the Christian church is also known for its ordinances.\u00a0 We have two that we practice in this church; one is called communion; the second one is called water baptism.\u00a0 Take a look if you could at Romans 6:3-5, what do those ordinances mean:\n\nLet\u2019s take water baptism first.\u00a0 Water baptism symbolizes the believer\u2019s spiritual baptism into Christ.\u00a0 Romans 6:3-5 says this, \u201cOr do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? [4] Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have become united with Him<\/em> in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness<\/em> of His resurrection.\u201d\n\nYou see, when a person trusts Christ they are baptized or identified into Jesus Christ.\u00a0 His death becomes their death; His burial becomes their burial; His resurrection becomes their resurrection; His ascension becomes their ascension.\u00a0 That is our new identity in Christ.\u00a0 And what symbolizes that is going under the water and coming up out of the water.\u00a0 We have been raised to newness of life and without the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ that whole concept of our identity into Christ makes no sense.\u00a0 Not to mention the ritual of water baptism that came from this.\u00a0 Why go into the water and come out? \u00a0Because Jesus went into the grave and came out of the grave and we are identified into that transaction because of our faith in Christ.\n\nOr take for example, communion; we\u2019re going to be taking communion at this church next week.\u00a0 Luke 22:19, Jesus says, \u201cdo this is remembrance of Me.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 22:19, \u201cAnd when He had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, \u2018This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.\u201d]\u00a0 And you know the drill by now, the bread would represent His body which was sacrificed for us.\u00a0 The cup would represent His blood which was spilled on our behalf. The communion elements themselves speak of Christ\u2019s death.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet what is the early church doing?\n\nNotice Acts 2:46, notice their frame of mind as they\u2019re participating in communion.\u00a0 It says, \u201cDay by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together\u201d this is describing communion that they were partaking of, notice this next clause, \u201cwith gladness and sincerity of heart.\u201d\u00a0 But wait a minute, if these symbols represent Christ\u2019s death what are they glad about?\u00a0 I mean, if this all reminds them of the death of Christ what is there to be joyous about?\u00a0 What is there to be worshipful about?\u00a0 Well, they did it with gladness because they understood that death itself did not hold Jesus in that tomb.\n\nIn fact, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:26, when he\u2019s describing communion says this:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFor as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.\u201d\u00a0 Now here Paul is not just talking about the death of Christ, he is talking about the return of Christ.\u00a0 The communion elements themselves speak of the return of Christ.\u00a0 But how can Jesus come back if He died?\u00a0 The answer, of course, is He rose from the dead.\n\nWhat I\u2019m hopefully trying to communicate is the Christian church itself, when it meets, its ordinances, its survival and it\u2019s very existence could never have happened unless those early Christians believed in their hearts of hearts that Jesus rose from the dead.\n\nA fifth reason why I believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an actual historical event, number 5, is secular history, let me pause for a minute; what do I mean by secular history?\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about Christian authors, I\u2019m not talking about early patristic writers, I\u2019m not talking about books of the Bible.\u00a0 I am talking here about secular history, history written from the vantage point of people who had no Christian bias whatsoever.\u00a0 In fact, if they had any bias at all it wasn\u2019t a pro-bias, it was an anti-bias against Christianity.\u00a0 Secular historians themselves attest to the resurrection of Jesus.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just in our Bible, it is in the annuls of secular history.\u00a0 One such citation from Josephus, who was Josephus?\u00a0 Josephus was a Jewish historian who lived a little after the time of Christ, who went to write history for Rome.\u00a0 Notice what Josephus says here:\n\n\u201cNow 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;\u201d look at this next line, I have it underlined, \u201cfor he appeared to them alive again the third day<\/u>; 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.\u201d [Josephus, Antiquities<\/em>, 18.3.3]\n\nIsn\u2019t it interesting to read about things we study in the Bible from a secular historian?\u00a0 Look at all the details that he covers here.\u00a0 And one of the things that he brings up is the fact that Jesus \u201cappeared to them alive again the third day.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re not dealing with somebody in his writings here, Josephus, who was sympathetic to Christianity in the least.\u00a0 In fact, as a Jewish historian he was trying to please the Romans in his writings.\u00a0 One of the things that did not please the Romans is the bodily resurrection of Jesus.\n\nSo here is Josephus trying to please the Romans and yet in the process he makes a statement about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I doubt very highly that Josephus would have ever included that statement if there wasn\u2019t some kind of truth to it.\u00a0 He says I\u2019ve got to talk about it, even though my overlords won\u2019t be happy, because it\u2019s true.\u00a0 It happened, in other words.\u00a0 He would not have included it had it not been true.\n\nNumber 6, a sixth reason why I believe that the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead is an actual objective historical fact.\u00a0 Number 6, no credible theory has ever been produced to explain away the objective evidence of the empty tomb.\u00a0 We have made reference to the fact that it would have been easy for the enemies of Christianity to reproduce the body.\u00a0 Why did they not reproduce the body?\u00a0 Because He rose from the dead and the tomb was empty.\n\nNow if you don\u2019t believe that Jesus rose from the dead then you have to come up with some kind of theory to explain away the empty tomb.\u00a0 And these folks have had 2,000 years to work on this.\u00a0 They\u2019ve going through about 2,000 years of brainstorming to come up with some plausible explanation for the empty tomb.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to show you their theories in just a minute but now I simply want to make the point that it takes more faith to believe their theories than it does simply to believe that the tomb was empty because of Christ\u2019s resurrection.\n\nHanson, a scholar says this:\u00a0 \u201cThe simple faith of the Christian who believes in the resurrection is nothing compared to the credulity of the skeptic who will accept the wildest and most improbable romances rather than admit the plain witness of historical certainties.\u00a0The difficulties of belief may be great; the absurdities of unbelief are greater.\u201d [George Hanson, (The Resurrection and the Life<\/em>).]\n\nAs we used to say in my basketball days, all right, bring it, bring it on!\u00a0 Give me your theories, you\u2019ve had 2,000 years to work on it,\u00a0 you won\u2019t believe what I think, that the tomb was empty because Jesus rose, you tell me why the tomb was empty.\u00a0 So here we go, four theories.\u00a0 Number 1, the swoon theory.\u00a0 Number 2, the theft theory.\u00a0 Number 3, the hallucination theory.\u00a0 And number 4, the wrong tomb theory.\u00a0 So here we go, let\u2019s look at these.\u00a0 I\u2019m not trying to make fun of people, I\u2019m not trying to mock people, I\u2019m trying to expose the darkness of unbelief; the almost insanity that the unbelieving mind will gravitate towards when a person refuses, by way of volition, to trust in Christ.\n\nBut we have the swoon theory.\u00a0 What does that one say?\u00a0 That one says that Jesus never really died.\u00a0 It looked like He died but He never died.\u00a0 They put Him in the tomb, He was still alive, and it was a cool sepulcher, temperature wise; in the cool air He revived.\u00a0 They make reference to the fact that there were spices connected to His grave clothes, you\u2019ll see that in John 19:40.\u00a0 [John 19:40, \u201cSo they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.\u201d]\u00a0 And these spices, also, in addition to the cool air had the effect of reviving Him so He revived and he snuck out of the tomb in the middle of the night.\u00a0 That\u2019s their theory.\n\nLet\u2019s look at this a little bit more carefully.\u00a0 Notice John 19:34, \u201cBut one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.\u201d\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not a medical doctor, although I\u2019ve read medical journals on this.\u00a0 When there is a split between blood and water it\u2019s indicative of a ruptured heart, indicating that Jesus clearly was dead.\u00a0 Look at John 19:32-33, \u00a0\u201cSo the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and the other who was crucified with Him [33] \u00a0but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.\u201d\u00a0 The soldiers thought Jesus was dead.\u00a0 [34, \u201cBut one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.\u201d]\n\nNicodemus, John 19:39-40, \u201cNicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes \u2026. [40] \u00a0they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings.\u201d\u00a0 Nicodemus thought Jesus was dead.\u00a0 Jesus, of course, was buried in the tomb of Joseph or Arimathea, a wealthy man.\u00a0 His role in the burial of Christ is described in John 19:38, [\u201cAfter these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one<\/em> for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body.\u201d]\u00a0 Joseph of Arimathea thought Jesus was dead.\u00a0 The soldiers thought he was dead, Joseph of Arimathea thought he was dead, Nicodemus thought Jesus was dead.\n\nThis idea that you can survive the ordeal of the crucifixion to me is laughable.\u00a0 One scholar puts it this way:\u00a0 Thorburn, he says: \u201cThe agony in the Garden, the arrest at midnight, the brutal treatment in the hall of the High Priest\u2019s palace and at the Praetorium of Pilate, the exhausting journey backwards and forwards between Pilate and Herod, the terrible Roman scourging,\u201d he was beaten 39 lashes which is one lash away from death, \u201con the journey to Calvary during which he fell exhausted by the strain upon His powers, the agonizing torture of the crucifixion, and the thirst and feverishness which followed.\u201d\u00a0 Could a human being survive that?\u00a0 I think the answer r is no.\n\nEven if Jesus survived how did he wriggle out of the grave clothes in that weakened condition.\u00a0 Luke 23:53 talks about how He was wrapped in grave clothes.\u00a0 [Luke 23:53, \u201cAnd he\u201d Joseph of Arimathea, \u201ctook it down and wrapped Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.\u201d]\u00a0 John 19:40 says He was bound in linen wrappings.\u00a0 And in fact John 19:39-40 says what was attached to those grave clothes were\u00a0 a hundred pounds of spices.\u00a0 [John 19:39, \u201cNicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight.\u00a0 [40] So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 How does a man in a weakened condition, having supposedly survived the ordeal of the crucifixion, wriggle out of the grave clothes, let alone the stone?\n\nMatthew 27:60 says, says that the stone placed over Christ\u2019s tomb was\u201d a large stone.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 27:60, \u201cand laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.\u201d]\u00a0 In fact, according to Matthew 28 an angel moved that stone.\u00a0 [Matthew 28:2, \u201cAnd behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. [3] And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.\u00a0 [4] The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.\u00a0 [5] The angel said to the women, \u2018Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.\u00a0 [6] He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.\u00a0 Come, see the place where he was lying.\u201d]\u00a0 How could a man who has survived the ordeal of the cross move a stone like that.\u00a0 How could He have gotten by the station soldier?\n\nMatthew 26:62-65 talks about how the Jews were afraid someone might steal the body so they posted a guard. \u00a0[62, \u201cThe high priest stood up and said to Him, \u2018Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?\u2019 [63] But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, \u2018I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.\u2019 \u00a0[64] Jesus said to him, \u201cYou have said it yourself;<\/em> nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd by the way, when you get into the history of this what you\u2019ll discover is that if you fell down on your job as a guard your life was in jeopardy, you were summarily executed.\u00a0\u00a0 Are we to believe that Jesus, in this weakened state, got by that guard?\u00a0\u00a0 And there\u2019s even more problems; didn\u2019t He appear to the disciples on the road to Emmaus?\u00a0 How long of a distance is it between Jerusalem and the road to Emmaus?\u00a0 Luke 24:13 says seven miles.\u00a0 [Luke 24:13, \u201cAnd behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.\u201d]\n\nSo we\u2019re to believe that a man who survived the ordeal of the crucifixion somehow survived a seven mile journey and in His weakened condition was able to convince these disciples that He is the conqueror of the grave, and become so convincing that they were willing to be martyred for the cause.\u00a0 Start looking at the details and this is no theory at all; this is fantasy, imagination.\u00a0 And yet I could quote the church fathers and the scholars and the people that actually believed this.\n\nWell, let\u2019s take you to another theory, the theft theory, and what they say here is the tomb was empty because someone stole the body.\u00a0 Well, who stole it?\u00a0 Rome stole it, one option.\u00a0 The Jews stole it, another option.\u00a0 The disciples stole it, another option.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at Rome first.\u00a0 Would Rome steal the body?\u00a0 No, because what Rome wanted as they were ruling over the land of Israel during that time is they wanted peace.\u00a0 And making it appear as if Jesus had risen from the dead would have just agitated the existing factions which already existed between the Christians and the Jews.\u00a0 Josh McDowell puts it this way: \u201cIt would have been to the Governor\u2019s advantage to keep the body in the grave.\u00a0 Pilate\u2019s interest was to keep things peaceful.\u00a0 Moving the body would have caused unwanted agitation to arise from the Jews and the Christians.\u201d\n\nWell, maybe the Jews stole the body?\u00a0 No, they couldn\u2019t have stolen the body because that\u2019s what they were worried about; that\u2019s why they, according to Matthew 27:62-65 asked for a guard to be\u00a0 stationed at Christ\u2019s grave so no one could steal the body and fake the resurrection.\u00a0 [Matthew 27:62-65, \u201c\u00a0Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, [63] and said, \u2018Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, \u2018After three days I am to<\/em> rise again.\u2019 [64] \u201cTherefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, \u2018He has risen from the dead,\u2019 and the last deception will be worse than the first.\u201d [65] Pilate said to them, \u2018You have a guard; go, make it as<\/em> secure as you know how.\u2019\u00a0 [66] And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.\u201d]\n\nSo if that doesn\u2019t work, number 3 is the disciples stole the body; the disciples stole the body to fake the resurrection.\u00a0 How could that be when the disciples themselves didn\u2019t even believe in the resurrection.\u00a0 In fact, they were the biggest doubters of all.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Jesus, in Luke 24:25, when He rose from the dead said, \u00a0\u201c\u2018O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!\u201d\u00a0 How do these disciples go from cowards to people of such courage that they are willing to break the Roman seal, which was placed over Christ\u2019 tomb and if you broke it you fell under penalty of Roman law, Matthew 27:66.\u00a0 [Matthew 27:66, \u201cAnd they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.\u201d]\n\nHow could they have become such people of courage that they moved a large stone in the middle of the night, Matthew 27:60, and got by the guard who supposedly fell asleep on the job, even though his life depended upon him performing his functions under Rome.\u00a0 [Matthew 27:60, \u201cand laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.\u201d]\n\nAnd one of the things that\u2019s very interesting, take a look at John 20:6-7, it\u2019s a description of the grave clothes in the empty tomb. [6, \u201cAnd so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there,<\/em>] Notice verse 7, it says, \u201cand the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but\u201d watch this, \u201crolled up in a place by itself.\u201d\u00a0 I mean, Jesus, when He rose from the dead took those grave clothes and put them\u2026 He obviously had some good laundry habits, rolled them up, put them away nicely and neatly.\u00a0 Is that what you do when you steal a body in the middle of the night?\u00a0 Do you take the linens and put them together nicely and neatly, all while you\u2019re afraid a Roman guard is going to catch you?\u00a0 NO, you\u2019re in a hurry; the linen wrappings would be in a mess.\n\nAnd beyond that, if the disciples stole the body what we also have to believe is that these disciples were willing to experience martyrdom for a lie.\u00a0 Why would you go to your grave teaching and defending the resurrection of Jesus Christ when you know in the back of your head that you staged the whole thing?\u00a0 Remember all of these disciples, with the exception of one, suffered martyr\u2019s death.\u00a0 And would these disciples be willing to let others die for a life; many Christians were killed.\n\nAnd beyond that, the last time I checked these disciples were all devout Jews and one of the Ten Commandments is what?\u00a0 \u201cThou shalt not lie nor bear false witness.\u201d\u00a0 See, this idea with these death theories is the Jews stole the body, the Romans stole the body, no motive.\u00a0 The disciples stole the body, no power; they simply could not have conjured up the courage that it would take to commit such a theft.\n\nThat takes us to theory number 3, this is my personal favorite.\u00a0 The hallucination theory.\u00a0 Now NBC, ABC, CBS, Jennings, Rather, the rest of them run these Easter specials.\u00a0 And this is what they always slip in, these types of theories.\u00a0 So what I\u2019m trying to do with you this morning is to equip you so you can answer these theories to your children and your grandchildren who ask you for an answer to these things.\n\nThe hallucination theory simply goes like this: the disciples really wanted Jesus to rise from the dead; in fact, they wanted it so bad it became a hallucination.\u00a0 It was a resurrection, therefore, independent of reality.\u00a0 But does the biblical record have any consistency with what we know of hallucinations?\u00a0 No it does not.\u00a0 People that have hallucinations are typically in a state of expectancy; they hallucinate about something that they desperately want to happen, a relative to come back from the dead, something like that.\u00a0 As I mentioned before these disciples didn\u2019t even believe that Jesus would rise from the dead.\n\nThese disciples were not in a condition of expectation at all.\u00a0 In fact, in three post resurrection appearances as recorded in the Scripture these disciples didn\u2019t even recognize Jesus, they thought\n\nHe was the gardener, John 20:15.\u00a0 [John 20:15, \u201cJesus said to her, \u2018Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?\u2019 Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, \u2018Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.\u201d\u2019]\n\nThey thought He was a ghost.\u00a0 John 21:4\u00a0 says they just went back fishing.\u00a0 [John 21:3-4, \u201cSimon Peter said to them, \u2018I am going fishing.\u2019\u00a0 They said to him, \u2018We will also come with you.\u2019 They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.\u00a0 [4] But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.\u201d]\u00a0 Does that sound like a state of mental expectation?\u00a0 In fact, when Jesus spoke to them from the shore as they were fishing they did not recognize Him.\u00a0\u00a0 And typically when a hallucination takes place a person is in a nostalgic environment reminiscing about something.\u00a0 Does this sound like the circumstances where the disciples saw the resurrected Christ.\n\nJosh McDowell says, \u201cConsider the wide variety of times and places, the early morning and the appearance to the women at the tomb, the appearance on the road to Emmaus one afternoon, a couple of private interviews in broad daylight, by the lake early one morning.\u201d\u00a0 1 Corinthians 15:6 talks about a Galilean mountain where 500 people saw the resurrected Christ.\u00a0 [\u201cAfter that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;\u201d]\u00a0 Josh McDowell says, \u201cIndeed, there is almost a steady variety in the times and places of Christ\u2019s appearances, a variance that defies the hypothesis that these things that they saw were mere visions.\u201d\n\nBeyond that, a hallucination has a tendency to be very individualistic and subjective.\u00a0 Christ made eleven post resurrection appearances, either to individual people or to groups and are we to believe that they all saw the same vision?\u00a0 They all saw the same Jesus?\u00a0 All five hundred, spoken of in\n\n1 Corinthians 15 saw the same Jesus.\u00a0 Beyond that, hallucinations have a tendency to be audio and visual, not tactile, or touching.\u00a0 Was it not Thomas who actually touched the actual body of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 By the way, when someone claims that they have hallucinations that is an attribute of them that doesn\u2019t just stop; they typically will have hallucinations at different times throughout the course of their lives.\u00a0 All of these appearances stopped after forty days; all the so-called hallucinations stopped after the resurrection.\n\nWell, the fourth theory that you\u2019ll run into is that the women, and let\u2019s blame it all on the women, right?\u00a0 The women went to the wrong tomb.\u00a0 And this theory essentially says that Jerusalem was full of rock tombs and so that when the women went to the tomb very early Sunday morning they went to the wrong tomb.\u00a0 And proponents of this theory like to argue that it was very dark out so it\u2019s entirely possible that they went to the wrong tomb.\u00a0 But how early in the morning was it?\u00a0 John 20:15, the women mistake Jesus for the gardener.\u00a0 Don\u2019t gardeners do their work, not when it\u2019s pitch black.\u00a0 [John 20:15, \u201cJesus said to her, \u2018Woman, why are you weeping?\u00a0 Whom are you seeking?\u00a0 Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, \u2018Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.\u2019\u201d]\n\nBeyond that the women had carefully noted the day before, on Friday that is, where Jesus had been buried.\u00a0 Mark 15:47 says this of the women, \u201clooking on to see where He was laid.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Luke 23:55 says, they \u201csaw the tomb and how His body was laid.\u201d\u00a0 Would they have forgotten so quickly where their Messiah, their Savior, had been buried?\n\nBeyond this, these women came to the tomb early in the morning conscious and purposeful.\u00a0 Why did they come?\u00a0 They brought spices so that they might come to Him and anoint Him.\u00a0 They went in with a purpose.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t sound like they were half awake.\n\nNow perhaps the women went to the wrong tomb.\u00a0 The women told the disciples the tomb was empty.\u00a0 Who else came into that tomb?\u00a0 Peter and John.\u00a0 Did they go to the wrong tomb also?\u00a0 John 20:2-8.\u00a0 [John 20:2-8, \u201cSo she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, \u2018They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.\u2019 So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. [4] The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; [5] and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there;<\/em> but he did not go in. [6] And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there,<\/em> [7] and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. [8] So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed.\u201d]\n\nNow who owned the tomb?\u00a0 Joseph of Arimathea, Matthew 27:59-60 says this.\u00a0 [Matthew 27:59, \u201cAnd Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, [60] and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t Joseph of Arimathea, if everybody had gone to the wrong tomb, straighten everyone out?\u00a0\u00a0 One of the things that sort of humorous about this theory is Matthew 28:5-6 mentions an angel in the tomb.\u00a0 [Matthew 26:5-8, \u201cThe angel said to the women, \u2018Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. [6] \u2018He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.\u201d]\u00a0 Did the angel go to the wrong tomb also?\u00a0 What I\u2019m simply walking you through is if you do not want to mentally accept the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead these are your options, which to my mind are no options at all.\n\nThere is a seventh reason, a final reason why I believe that Jesus bodily rose from the dead.\u00a0 Number 7, some of the brightest minds have investigated this subject and the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and although they started out as skeptics they transitioned into believers.\n\nLet me share a couple of these people with you; one of them was named John Locke.\u00a0 John Locke was one of the writers of that our Founding Fathers quoted from quite frequently when they put together our founding documents, like The United States Constitution.\u00a0 John Locke wrote a book entitled The Reasonableness of Christianity<\/em>.\u00a0 Christianity is reasonable, it\u2019s intellectually appealing is the point of his book and he deals with some of the evidence that I\u2019ve been talking about here, related to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nLet me introduce you to another gentleman by the name of Simon Greenleaf; who exactly was Simon Greenleaf?\u00a0 He lived from 1783 to 1853; he was the royal professor of law at Harvard University, and he succeeded Justice Joseph Story as the Dane Professor of Law in the same university upon Story\u2019s death in 1846.\u00a0 Greenleaf produced a famous work entitled A Treatise on the Law of Evidence<\/em> that is still considered the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.\u00a0 In 1846 while still a professor at Harvard Greenleaf wrote a volume entitled (quote) \u201cAn Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists By the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice<\/em>,\u201d close quote.\u00a0 In this classic work the author examines the value of the testimony of the apostles to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd in fact, if I have the story straight, Greenleaf was goaded by his students into taking the legal rules of evidence and using them to disprove the resurrection.\u00a0 Greenleaf took the challenge and what he discovered was that the case for the resurrection was, in fact, more likely, more probable, more sure than anything he had ever argued in a court of law.\u00a0 And he moved from skeptic to believer on the basis of the evidence.\n\nMore modernly, take a man named Frank Morrison given the same challenge, an attorney who wrote a book called Who Moved the Stone<\/em>.\u00a0 He came to Christ on the basis of the evidence for the resurrection.\u00a0 More modern examples you might recognize the name, John Warwick Montgomery who became the founder of the Simon Greenleaf School of Law.\u00a0 He has written, as an attorney, multiple books, multiple journal articles seeking to demonstrate the objective reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nYou might recognize the name Josh McDowell.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a beginner but you want to go deeper into this subject I recommend his book entitled Evidence that Demands a Verdict<\/em>.\u00a0 Another man who moved from skeptic to believer simply by looking at the evidence for the resurrection.\n\nYou might also recognize the name Lee Strobel, a more modern writer who started off as a journalist doubting the reality of Christ and His resurrection and started looking into the evidence and became convinced; moved from skeptic to believer.\u00a0 He\u2019s written many books, The Case for Christ, The Case for Creation<\/em>, and others.\u00a0 See, we are not the only ones who have thought about this. Minds that are far brighter than our own have looked into this.\n\nAnd using objectivity and honesty with the evidence have concluded that there can be no other reality or conclusion than the fact that Jesus bodily rose from the dead.\u00a0 Why do I believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ deserves the same historical place as Gettysburg, Valley Forge, Waterloo, or any other book of history.\u00a0 I believe that because Paul said check out the eyewitnesses, 500 of them, 1 Corinthians 15:6. [1 Corinthians 15:6, \u201cAfter that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;\u201d] Christianity\u2019s enemies never came up with any plausible explanation as to what happened to the body.\u00a0 They never even produced the body.\n\nLook at number 3, the dramatic change in the apostles.\n\nLook, number 4, at the existence of the church and its ordinances.\n\nNumber 5, look at the angle of secular history.\n\nNumber 6, look at the fact that the unbeliever is reduced to foolishness when they come up with their explanation.\n\nAnd then number 7, look at the giants that have studied this and come to the conclusion that Jesus rose from the dead.\n\nWhat\u2019s the bottom line?\u00a0 Confucius \u00a0tomb occupied.\u00a0 Buddha\u2019s tomb occupied.\u00a0 Mohammed\u2019s tomb occupied.\n\nThe verdict of history is Jesus Tomb---EMPTY!\n\nWell, what does it mean for us.\u00a0 Paul, on Mars Hill, in Acts 17:30-31 gave a tremendous sermon and this is how he closed it.\u00a0 Speaking before unbelievers, he says: \u201cTherefore, 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.\u201d\n\nPaul says Jesus Christ rose from the dead and guess what?\u00a0 He\u2019s coming back.\u00a0 He is coming back this time, not for the salvation of souls; He is coming back for judgment.\u00a0 He is coming back to deal with all who have maligned His name by rejecting Him.\u00a0 You see, the resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that Jesus is a lot more than a pop psychologist; He\u2019s a lot more than a standup comic.\u00a0 He\u2019s a lot more than a motivational speaker.\u00a0 He\u2019s a lot more than somebody who simply gives you tips to have your best life now.\u00a0 He is the God of the universe.\u00a0 He is the One who spoke and the heavens and earth leapt into existence.\u00a0 He is the One that died on a cross for the sins of His creation, when His creation rejected Him.\u00a0 He is the One that rose from the dead. \u00a0He is the One that is coming back.\u00a0 That\u2019s what it means to us.\n\nAnd the answer is: are you right with Jesus Christ?\u00a0 Am I right with Jesus Christ?\u00a0 I mean, if everything that we have said is accurate and true we ought to be treating this man, Jesus Christ, with the utmost deference and the utmost respect.\u00a0 And you enter into a relationship with Him by accepting His gospel.\u00a0 It\u2019s not my gospel.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the church\u2019s gospel.\u00a0 It\u2019s not some denominations gospel.\u00a0 It is not the theologian\u2019s gospel.\u00a0 It is His gospel; His gospel is simply this, that He died on a cross for you.\u00a0 When He died on that cross He had you in mind.\u00a0 He has done everything that can be done to solve the problem that we all have with God, and that\u2019s our sin.\u00a0 The sin of man and woman puts us on a collision course with the God of the universe.\n\nAnd yet Jesus Christ, by entering history, dying on a cross, paying the penalty for our sin has resolved that problem.\u00a0 And He leaves humanity with a very simple offer.\u00a0 The offer is simply this, to receive what He has done for you, not on the basis of works, not on the basis of sincerity, not on the basis of religiosity, but totally on the basis of grace.\u00a0 Grace means unmerited favor.\u00a0 It\u2019s the equivalent of receiving something from God which is a gift.\u00a0 The only way you can receive a gift from God is by faith, for the Bible says, \u201cWithout faith it is impossible to please God.\u201d\u00a0 You cannot enter into a relationship with God through any other avenue other than the avenue of faith.\n\nAnd the gospel is what He did and His authentication of it through His bodily resurrection from the dead is a free gift.\u00a0 And at some point a person has to come to the realization that they are no longer trusting in themselves for their salvation but they\u2019re trusting exclusively in the promises of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 You can trust exclusively in the promises of Jesus Christ right now as I\u2019m speaking.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a matter of walking an aisle, joining a church, raising a hand, giving money, trying harder.\n\nIt\u2019s a moment of privacy between you and the Lord as the Spirit of God places people under conviction.\u00a0 And we respond in a moment of privacy to what Jesus has done; we place our trust, not in ourselves but in the promises of Jesus Christ, who claims He\u2019s done everything to procure our salvation.\u00a0 It\u2019s something you can do right now as I\u2019m talking.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you have done or are doing then on the authority of the Word of God your whole destiny has changed.\u00a0\u00a0 You are now made right with the God who created you, redeemed you, and loved you enough to die for you.\u00a0 Why would you, particularly on Resurrection Sunday let an opportunity like this pass?\u00a0 Our exhortation, the strongest we know how to articulate it is to trust, or believe in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you want more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 Jesus said to her, \u201cI am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even if he dies.\u201d\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful, forgive us in our commercial mindset to just sort of treat this as sort of another casual holiday, a time for feasting and family and lose sight of what it actually means.\u00a0 Thank You for this event that happened in history 2000 years ago, the historical reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I pray Father again, if anybody is here that has not trusted in Christ that they would trust in Christ now, for the Bible says today is the day of salvation. We\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name.\u00a0 And God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t