The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

I. The ultimate proof that Jesus is the Christ is His resurrection from the dead. ROM 1:3-4. A. All of Jesus’ other signs hinge on the ultimate sign of His resurrection. MAT 12:38-40. B. Without the resurrection, Jesus Christ and His miracles become a lie. 1CO 15:12-18. 1. Christ abides forever. JOH 12:32-34 c/w PSA 89:4; 110:4. 2. Therefore, Jesus cannot be the Christ if He is still dead.

II. There is an abundance of evidence to support faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. ACT 1:3. A. The possibility of resurrection must be granted from the evidence of God’s power in the creation. JER 32:17. 1. If God could create a living man from the dust, He can certainly raise that dust to life again. 2. If God could generate life from dust, He could certainly regenerate the uncorrupted body of Jesus Christ that never decayed toward dust after death. ACT 13:34-37. 3. Even evolutionists will grant that life came from non-living matter. Hence, they accept life from the dead. 4. (ACT 26:8) Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? B. There were numerous eyewitnesses to the risen Lord. 1CO 15:5-8. C. The historicity of other facts mentioned by the gospel writers such as the Jewish situation, the Roman rule, and geography stand unquestioned. D. Attempts to deny the resurrection break down. 1. Some say that Jesus did not actually die, He merely swooned. a. There were witnesses to His death. JOH 19:33-35; MAR 15:44-45. b. How did the weakened Jesus survive three days and three nights in a stone sepulchre bound in one hundred pounds of spices? JOH 19:39-40. c. How did the weakened Jesus roll away the stone over the door and get past the Roman guard? MAT 27:64-66. 2. Some say His disciples stole His body. MAT 28:13. a. The disciples neither understood nor believed the resurrection before it was proved to them. MAR 9:31-32; LUK 24:10-11. b. How did they get past the Roman guard to steal the body? c. Would all of the disciples so uniformly suffer what they did for something they knew was a tale of their own devising? 3. Some say that His enemies stole the body. a. His enemies had a vested interest in His body remaining in the tomb. b. Why didn’t they produce the body to discredit the apostles’ testimonies? c. Attempts to silence the resurrection were made by force, not proof! 4. Some say that a beast devoured His body. a. How did the beast get past the guard and the stone? b. A beast would have left traces of the body which would have been advanced by enemies to disprove the resurrection. c. Beasts don’t normally separate and wrap burial clothes. JOH 20:7-8. 5. Some say that the disciples were hallucinating a risen Jesus. a. It would have to have been mass hallucination. 1CO 15:5-6. b. Hallucinations are generally experienced by one who has a firm belief and high level of desire and expectation of something. The disciples neither understood nor believed in the resurrection until after it was proved to them. MAR 9:31-32; LUK 24:10-11. c. Hallucinations, etc., are generally only experienced by one sense (sight, hearing, etc.) but the disciples met, saw, heard, conversed with and touched the risen Savior. 1JO 1:1.

III. The probability of the resurrection is evident from its consistency with other facts. A. The coming of Christ is connected with the destruction of Jerusalem. DAN 9:25-26. 1. Jesus Christ corroborated Daniel's prophecy in the Olivet Discourse. MAT 24:15-16. 2. Jerusalem was destroyed within a generation of His ministry exactly as He had said. MAT 24:34. B. Jesus Christ received the kind of treatment prophesied of the Christ in the O.T. PSA 2:1-3; ISA 53:3 c/w ACT 4:25-28; 13:27. 1. This proves He is the Christ. 2. Since He is indeed the Christ, He is risen from the dead, since “...Christ abideth for ever...” (JOH 12:34). REV 1:18.

IV. The impact of the resurrection attests to its reality. A. The apostles underwent a transformation after they had seen the risen Lord. 1. They went from fear and unbelief to courage and faith that Jesus was the Christ and that death had been defeated. 2. They accepted persecution unto death for what they proclaimed about the resurrected Christ. Deceivers and hypocrites make for unlikely martyrs. B. The chief enemy of the Christians became the chief apostle of Christianity after seeing the resurrected Christ. ACT 26:22-23. C. Time is divided at Jesus Christ. Would time be divided by the impact of a deluded fanatic? D. The change in world politics attests to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1. The fragmenting of the nations attests to the ascension ministry of Christ. PSA 2:8-9. 2. The gospel of the resurrection liberated men's hearts so that the fear of death no longer could be used as a threat to demand submission. HEB 2:14-15. 3. Emperor Julian's dying words are conjectured to have been, “Vicisti Galilaee” (Thou hast conquered, O Galilean). 4. The setback to Gentile superstition attests to the power of the resurrection. ACT 17:29-31. 5. The perpetual existence of the Christian faith attests to the historicity of the risen Christ. MAT16:18.

V. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead gives believers a living hope that transcends the ephemeral futility of this world. 1CO 15:20-23 c/w 1PE 1:3-4.