Although there could be more that can be said on this most important subject, I present this for your consideration. In my dealings with individuals, I have found that this subject has been denied by some within the realm of "christiandom". The bodily resurrection is most important in the realm of salvation. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15, without it our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins.
Introduction
1) The bodily resurrection of Christ is the crowning proof that Jesus was indeed who
He claimed to be.
2) The resurrection is of such importance that the NT insists that no one can be saved
without it.
3) In this study, we will be looking at 2 types of evidence for the resurrection
A) The Direct Evidence
B) The Indirect Evidence
4) With this approach, we can establish that the resurrection did in fact happen as the
scriptures indicate.
I) Direct Evidence
1) Direct evidence is simply the evidence that is given by the witnesses themselves
2) It is direct because they saw the event
3) Examples of
A) The revelation of God
1) The Bible is direct evidence for the existence of God in that it is God’s
witness of Himself.
2) God relates to us from the pages of scripture that He did create
everything that exists, how He interacted with mankind in the past,
B) Those who witnesses the Civil War give direct evidence that it did in fact
happen
3) The Appearances
A) Mary Magdalene (John 20:10-18)
1) Appeared to a woman first
a) Remember that this was a male dominated society
b) A woman’s testimony was not accepted in court
c) This is significant in the fact that had this been a hoax, the
writer would probably had given this honor to Peter.
2) She saw Jesus
a) The word saw means to see with the naked eye
b) This same word is used in Mark 3:11; 5:15; Acts 3:16
c) It is also used to seeing Jesus in his preresurrection body
(Matt. 27:55; John 6:19)
d) She literally saw Jesus
3) She heard Jesus
A) John 20:13-16
b) She heard the voice of Jesus
c) We need to understand here that hearing in and of itself is not
enough. In John 12:28 we find that God speaks, yet God is
immaterial in nature but they heard His voice
d) But hearing and seeing combined is supportive evidence for the
claim
4) In this first testimony we find that Jesus was both seen and heard by
Mary.
5) We also find that Mary went and told the others what she had seen
(John 20:18)
B) The other women (Matt. 28:1-10)
1) Not only did Mary see the risen Lord the other women also saw Him
2) In verse 9 we see that these women saw Jesus just as did Mary
3) Not only did they see Him, they also clasped His feet and worshiped
Him.
a) They physically touched Him
b) He could not have been a ghost (Luke 24:39)
4) They also heard Him speak
a) He commanded them to go and tell the disciples
b) Had to hear words in order to carry out
5) They inspected the empty tomb (verse 6)
6) Combined with the testimony of Mary, The risen Lord was seen, heard
touched, and the tomb was inspected
C) Peter (I Cor. 15:5; John 20:3-9)
1) The letter to the Corinthians declares that Jesus was seen of him
2) Peter spoke with the Lord when Jesus asked him to feed His sheep
(John 21:15-17)
3) Peter saw the empty tomb and the grave clothes just before His
appearance (John 20:6&7)
4) Peter saw and heard the Lord and also observed the empty tomb
D) Emmaus Road (Luke 24:13-35)
1) Verses 17, 19, 25&26 indicate that they seen and heard Him
a) Verse 27 indicates that this conversation went on for a
good length of time
b) Not only with them but we also see this in Act 1:3
2) They also ate with Him (verse 30)
a) The fact that the Lord sat and ate with them is compelling
b) This further indicates that Jesus was bodily resurrected
c) Also Acts 10:41; Luke 24:43;
E) Many eyewitnesses (I Cor. 15:1-11)
1) States those that seen the risen Lord
a) Peter
b) Of the eleven Matt. 28:17
c) Of 500 brethren at once
1) Written in about 55 or 56 AD
2) This was only about 22 or 23 years after His resurrection
3) Most were still alive and Paul seems to be challenging
the brethren to research his claims
d) Of James
e) All the apostles at the ascension Acts 1:6-12
f) Finally of Saul
4)Testing Credibility
A) There are 4 questions that can be asked to help determine the credibility of
eyewitness accounts.
B) There are as follows
1) Do the witnesses contradict each other?
2) Are there a sufficient number of witnesses?
3) Were they truthful?
4) Are they non-prejudicial?
C) Question #1
1) Accounts do not contradict each other
2) Each writer tells a crucial and overlapping part of the whole story
3) Minor discrepancies are to be expected (one or two angels)
D) Question #2
1) There were over 500
2) Most of which were still alive,as indicated earlier, and could be
examined
E) Question #3
1) The scriptures are inspired, also they have a ring of authenticity
2) This will become more clear when we examine the Indirect evidence
F) Question #4
1) Christ not only appeared to believers, but also to unbelievers
a) Luke 24:11; apostles
b) Luke 24:45; After the appearance
c) John 20:25; Thomas
d) Acts 9; Saul
2) Any claim to this is groundless
a) If bias disqualified testimony then no testimony could be given
to anything
b) Doctors have biases, yet we trust and believe their testimonies
in relation to our health.
G) When these criteria are applied to the witnesses of the resurrection, they all
pass the test and therefore their testimonies can be taken as truth.
II) Indirect evidence
1) This has to do with the following
A) The immediate transformation of the apostles
B) The reaction of those who rejected Jesus
C) The existence and growth of the early church
D) The martyrdom of the brethren
2) Transformation
A) Before
1) Matt. 26:56; fled
2) John 20:19; fearful
3) John 20:15; Luke 24:11; they doughted
B) After
1) Acts 2; Bold
2) Acts 4&5; Preached (Acts 4:20)
3) Acts 5:40; beaten for what they said
C) Why the change?
1) Something happened
2) Infer seeing the risen Lord
3) Reaction of those who rejected Jesus
A) Reaction of the Jewish authorities
B) Never organized a search
C) Never produced a body
D) Matt. 28:11-15; bribed the soldiers
E) Acts 7:54-60; fought instead of refuting with evidence to the contrary
(Acts 5:17&18)
4) Existence of early church
A) There are good reasons why this should not have happened
1) Deut. 6:4; Jews believed in only one God
2) Matt. 26:63-65; this was the reason for the crucifiction
3) There was insufficient time to establish themselves before persecution
came.
4) If it was a lie, they had every opportunity to stop it
5) Acts 5:33-39
5) Martyrdom
A) Acts 7:59&60; Stephen
B) Acts 12:1&2; James
C) Go over list
D) Why would they die for a lie?
E) All scholars are in agreement that something big happen to these men
F) By far this is the most powerful piece of evidence.
IV) Conclusion
1) What is the best explanation that can account for the direct and indirect evidence?
2) It is best explained by the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead
A) It has great explanatory scope
1) The empty tomb
2) The post mortem appearances
3) the early church
4) Martyrdom
B) Great explanatory power
1) Why the body was gone
2) Why He was seen repeatedly
3) The transformation of the apostles
3) It is the only logical conclusion that can account for all the evidence
No comments:
Post a Comment