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HopeLives365

Mark Finley

The Great Evidence that Christ is Risen

Did Jesus Christ actually rise from the dead?

Now, if Christ did not rise, the Christian faith is merely a myth, an elusive dream, or at worst, a blatant falsehood.

Now, merely because Christ claimed to be the Messiah does not really prove anything.

Josephus tells us, the Jewish historian, that there were at least 12 messiahs at the time of Jesus or around that time.

1 of the most famous of these messiahs was a man by the name of Bar Kokhba.

Bar Kokhba lived in the early second century, about 132 AD.

He led a Jewish revolt against the Romans and was successful.

And they had a section of Palestine that really became a Jewish state in the time of the Roman Empire.

And so just because Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, did not necessarily establish the fact that he was the Messiah, because as I mentioned, there were at least 12 other messiahs beside that.

The thing that makes Jesus unique is not that he was crucified.

In 7 AD, the Romans crucified at least 3, 000 people.

So the crucifixion was really a Roman method of torture and many other people were crucified beside Jesus.

So it was not his birth that makes him the Messiah because there are many that denied the virgin birth, not the miracles that he worked because there were many that claimed they could work miracles, not the death that he died because many claimed that the Romans crucified many others.

The single thing that establishes Christ as the Messiah is the resurrection because no other so-called messianic figure could claim that he raised from the dead.

Henry Morris, scholar, stated it well when he said, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity.

If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion.

If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.

An English journalist by the name of Frank Morrison was fascinated with the life of Christ.

And as he began to study the life of Christ, he was infected, and I think that's the right word, he was infected by the teachings of a number of English skeptics.

And so Frank Morrison said, I'm going to look at the evidence to see whether or not, from an intellectual standpoint, there is legitimate proof for Christ's resurrection.

Frank Morris, this English journalist, skeptic, wrote a book called Who Moved the Stone?

And it's 1 of the most powerful books on the reality of Christ's resurrection.

He lists at least 7 powerful, undisputable arguments from an intellectual standpoint that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

First he talks about the Roman soldiers' testimony.

The Roman soldiers are standing guard over that tomb.

An angel descends from heaven and says, son, thy father calleth thee.

And they begin to run, they run through the garden gate like drunkards, They stagger as they are running.

They're shaking in fear for what they've just seen.

And As they are running, they're telling other people, we've seen the Lord, this Christ, the 1 that was crucified, is resurrected from the dead, and they're telling others.

As they do, word comes to Pilate, and Pilate demands that they come to see him.

But before they go to see Pilate, the Jewish authorities sidetrack them.

And these soldiers come before the Jewish authorities and they tell their story.

The Jewish authorities bribe them and they say, when you go to Pilate, tell him that you were sleeping.

Now that is a, that's 1 of 3 basic arguments against the resurrection by some of the scholarly community, that the soldiers were sleeping.

If you're sleeping, how do you know that he's resurrected from the dead?

And if these soldiers were sleeping, the other problem is that's a dereliction of duty, and immediately they would be put to death by the Roman authorities.

The testimony of the Roman soldiers was that Jesus and Christ did rise.

Second thing that Morrison lists is the Roman seal on the tomb.

You remember that just before Christ's death, and just after his death would be more accurate to say, when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took Christ to be buried.

That the Roman authorities were fearful, and particularly the Jewish priests were fearful that somebody might take him from the tomb, that the disciples would steal his body and say that he was resurrected.

The Jewish priests went to the Roman authorities and they said to them, seal the tomb.

Make it as difficult as possible for somebody to steal his body.

That's 1 of the greatest evidences of the resurrection.

Now to break a Roman seal again was a crime of civil disobedience and punishable with death.

So if these soldiers are sleeping, how in the world would they not have been awakened when the disciples supposedly came to break the Roman seal, which would have put the disciples in violation of Roman law and they would have been put to death.

The stone was between a ton and a half and 2 tons.

And when that stone was rolled into place, it was rolled down a very gentle grade.

So to move the stone, 1 would have had to push a 1 and a half ton stone up a very gentle grade.

Fourth evidence is the multiple witnesses.

If you have a trial, you have to have witnesses.

And when you look at the multiple witnesses of Christ's resurrection, the 2 Marys, Peter, John, the 12 disciples, the 2 disciples on the Emmaus road, 500 other followers, these multiple witnesses testify Christ is alive.

Fifthly, the commitment of the disciples.

Let's suppose the disciples made up the story for purpose of discussion.

Would you die for a myth that you made up?

It's rather insensical to say that these disciples made up a myth, but they're willing to die for that myth.

The sixth great evidence is the absence of a body.

There is a theory that says the disciples went to the wrong tomb and they saw the tomb was empty.

That's nonsensical Because all you'd have to do is the Roman authorities and the Jewish authorities is find the right tomb.

He was buried in the tomb of Jerusalem of Arimathea.

And Nicodemus, you could easily find that.

Or all you would have to do to prove that Christ wasn't resurrected, very simply, is find a body.

And all the nation of Rome could have easily done that.

The Jewish authorities could have done that.

The seventh reason is the rapid growth of Christianity.

How can you explain that a few believers that meet in the upper room, 120, rock the world with the gospel because they're absolutely compelled to preach that Christ has risen.

These 7 evidences demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt for thinking inquiring minds that Christ is alive.

Once we have demonstrated that, then you have to ask the next question.

What difference does it make that Jesus Christ is alive to men and women living in the 21st century?

Well first, Christ's resurrection is essential to our faith.

It's at the very heart of the Christian faith.

Take your Bible please and turn to 1 Corinthians 15, which will be the basis of our study this morning.

And we're looking there at verses 14, 15, 17 through 19.

First Corinthians chapter 15, we begin looking at verse 14.

The point that we are making is that Christ's resurrection is essential to Christianity.

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The Great Evidence that Christ is Risen

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