We just observed another Easter in memory of the resurrection of Jesus. Paul told us that the resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate proof of Christianity. 1 Corinthians 15:¹⁴ … if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain. ¹⁵ Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised; ¹⁷ and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (NASB) Jesus had said that the last and final proof or sign of eternal life through Jesus would be the resurrection of Jesus. Matthew 12:³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” ³⁹ But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign; and so no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet; ⁴⁰ for just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” (NASB)  Paul told the heathen idol worshippers in Athens: Acts 17:³¹ … He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.” In other words, the greatest sign to confirm Jesus as God’s Son and the Savior of the world was his resurrection from the dead. If you can’t believe that really happened, then none of the miracles Jesus did will convince you.

But how do we really know that Jesus was raised from the dead after 3 days in the tomb? Well how do we know than any event really happened in the past? We rely on “credible eyewitness testimony”. How do we know that we actually walked on the moon? Many do not believe that we did. You can understand their skepticism b/c of all the government lies in the past and conspiracy theories that probably are true a lot of the time. So we examine all the evidence, the hundreds of NASA employees who took part in that moon landing. We watch the footage on TV. Yes, the footage could be fake, but it appears to be true. We hear the eyewitness testimony of the 2 men who walked on the moon. We come to the conclusion that we did indeed walk on the moon.

So we examine the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. Are there a sufficient number of eyewitnesses? The Law required at least 2 or 3 witnesses to confirm an event, but the resurrection of Jesus has many more than that. Paul says that there was a sufficient number. 1 Corinthians 15:³ For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; ⁷ then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; ⁸ and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” That is a more than sufficient number of eyewitnesses of the resurrection. Paul even says that most of the 500 that He appeared to were still alive at the time of writing 1 Corinthians. People living at the time that Paul wrote that could actually go talk to those people to decide if they really saw the resurrected Jesus. Some say that those who saw the resurrected Jesus were hallucinating, but 500 people don’t get the same hallucination.

But are those eyewitnesses “credible’, i.e. believable? In a court case, the credibility of the eyewitnesses will be checked out and challenged. What about the eyewitnesses of the resurrection? Were they credible? To determine that, we examine their motives for making up a lie about a resurrection of Jesus if it really didn’t happen. Did the apostles who were the main eyewitnesses of the resurrection gain power or money by lying about seeing Jesus raised? No, they suffered for the rest of their lives b/c they preached the resurrection. They all died martyr’s deaths b/c of their testimony, including John the apostle whom the church father Papias said died at the hands of the Jews just as Jesus predicted would happen to the brothers James and John. No one would die for a lie if they knew it was a lie. Muslim terrorists who kill themselves when they kill others die for a lie, but they believe the lie to be true. Not so with the apostles. Surely one of them would have recanted their testimony of the resurrection if they had just made up the resurrection story, but none did.

What’s even more impressive is the testimony of Paul and James the Lord’s brother. Saul, who later was named Paul, was killing Christians, thinking he was doing God a service. He was rising in power and prestige among the Jewish authorities. What could have changed him to become a believer in Jesus? He saw the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus, and that convinced him that Jesus really was the Son of God. He gained no power or money from converting to Christianity. Instead he lost all power and money. He suffered greatly for the rest of his lie to testify of the resurrected Jesus. He gives his testimony twice, in Acts 22 and 26, as proof that Jesus was raised from the dead. He boldly told King Agrippa: Acts 26:²² So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place, ²³ as to whether the Christ was to suffer, and whether, as first from the resurrection of the dead, He would proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.” Then there was James the Lord’s brother who did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God before he saw the resurrected Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:7). So the eyewitnesses of the resurrection were not just 12 apostles who had been with Jesus for 3 years and who might have been part of some conspiracy to make up the story of a resurrection of Jesus. Even Paul and James, who did not want to believe in Jesus, came to believe in Him b/c they actually saw Jesus raised from the dead.

Some say that the disciples stole the body of Jesus from the tomb and then made up a lie that he had been raised? What would they gain from that? Also there were at least 4 Roman guards at the tomb who would be killed if they allowed anyone to steal Jesus’ body. The Jews made up a story that the guards fell asleep and that the disciples stole the body of Jesus. It is obvious that the apostles were too terrified to risk their lives by stealing the body. They went into hiding after Jesus was arrested. It is unbelievable that they would be able to tiptoe past sleeping guards, roll the huge stone away from the tomb, steal the body from the tomb, and tiptoe past the sleeping guards as they carried the body away without waking the guards. Even if they did that, why did the Roman and Jewish authorities not simply go arrest them and find out where they put the stolen body of Jesus? The fact that the enemies of Jesus made up the story about the disciples stealing the body proves that the tomb was indeed empty. That’s a major point. Even the enemies admit that the tomb was empty. So now we must examine their explanation of the empty tomb, and when we do, their story makes no sense.

What about the “swoon theory”? Some say that Jesus “swooned” or faked death in some way. Maybe he was drugged to a very low heart rate, even appearing to be dead. But what about the Romans who crucified him who did not break his legs to hasten his death? They were professional crucifiers who knew when a victim was dead. Plus one put a spear into Jesus side and brought out blood and water. Could Jesus have survived that, along with the scourging, and come out of the tomb after 3 days without any medical help if he was not really dead at all?

Then there’s The Passover Plot, a best selling book by Schonfield, published in 1965. ‘Schonfield’s central idea is that Jesus was a mortal man of intense faith who, reading the many signs and prophecies in existence in old Jewish scripture, decided that he was the Messiah. He then went out of his way to confirm this through enacting the other prophecies that had been made about the Anointed One, the King of the Jews, the Son of David, and the Son of Man, as his many names alternately translate as. Schonfield even posits a theory about Jesus faking his death – timing his crucifixion so that it would last only a short time due to the Sabbath, being administered a narcotic through a sponge dipped in vinegar wine – only for it to be ruined by the famous stab in the side he received from a Roman soldier.” The theory here is that the tinyband of Secret Jesus Conspirators had visited the tomb on Saturday night to help restore Jesus but found him too mortally wounded (from the unexpected Roman spear thrust in his side); so they then got his final instructions before he ‘died’ (a ‘second’ time”). Then they reburied him nearby (in the vegetable garden?) in an unmarked grave (like Moses). Supposedly it was someone else who was seen on Easter Sunday at the tomb, giving rise to the speculation that Jesus had been raised. (by scottmanleyhadley) I was in the 10th grade when this book came out and our preachers were condemning it as blasphemy, which it was. The post resurrection appearances of Jesus is the proof that the book’s premise is false.

One further proof of the resurrection: where did they first start preaching and witnessing to the resurrection? It was in Jerusalem where the resurrection supposedly occurred. You might hear someone say there was a resurrection of a dead person somewhere far off in Africa, but with no verification of that. But this is like a few of us saying that we saw someone raised from the dead 50 days ago just a few miles away from here in a cemetery. People would be able to easily check the veracity of that claim. Just 50 days after the resurrection the apostles are saying they saw Jesus raised from the dead just a short distance away, and thousands accepted that as a true testimony in Acts 2. The enemies said nothing to contradict Peter’s claim in his sermon in Acts 2 that Jesus had been raised from the dead 50 days before that.

Can we be 100% sure that Jesus was raised from the dead? I guess not in one sense. Just like we can’t be 100% sure that we landed on the moon. But it appears that there is more than enough evidence that Jesus was raised from the dead and that our faith is not in vain. More importantly, we can be sure that we receive an eternal immortal body that will live on eternally after we die physically. Jesus said, “he that believes in me will live even if he dies” (John 11:25). The same power that raised Jesus from the dead raises us from the dead spiritually when we become Christians. After our baptism, we receive an immortal spiritual body that will live on after we die.

As i approach the latter years of life, it helps me to review the evidence and proof for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. I hope it helps you.