Did the Resurrection Really Happen, Part II

Seeing is believing, although the popularity of social media filters should lead us to question much of what we see!

We live in an age of creeping doubt - people are simply less inclined to believe in anything they can't put their hands on.

Jesus had a friend like this. His name was Thomas. Thomas was not with the disciples when Jesus appeared to them following his resurrection, so he was having trouble believing.

John 20:24-25, NLT

"One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

Thomas had to put his hands on it to believe it. Maybe you feel this way, too.

Notice how Jesus responded to Thomas' doubts - he didn't punish Thomas; he met Thomas in his doubt. This is how Jesus meets us. He doesn't punish us, but he reveals himself to us.

John 20:26-28, NLT

"Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” "My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed."

Can you imagine sitting and talking with Thomas after this? It would be powerful to hear the stories of people who saw Jesus die on the cross, and then later saw him alive.

Scriptural accounts of the resurrection tell us that about 516 people saw Jesus alive following his death. This group includes four women named in scripture, all eleven of the remaining disciples, a group of about five hundred people at one time, and finally Jesus appeared to his own brother, James.

Here is some resurrection math – if these 516 people transported to our church and spoke for 15 minutes each about their experience of seeing the resurrected Jesus, we’d be listening to their amazing accounts for about 129 hours.

That would be a lot of eyewitness testimony.

Why is it important that we seek the truth about Jesus? The cross and the resurrection are central to our faith, that's why. Paul understood this.

1 Corinthians 15:1-9, NLT

“Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you-unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than five hundred of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God's church.”

Paul gives the believers in Corinth a Who's Who of the people who saw Jesus alive and who were, at that time, still alive themselves. This is crucial evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.

To claim that Jesus rose from the dead opposed the story the ruling powers told. To stick to this story could lead to persecution, prison, and even death.

No one would stick with a lie in the face of this extreme opposition. But for earth-shattering truth, someone may well be willing to die.

Paul gives an account of 516 people who saw the resurrected Jesus and who weren't afraid to talk about it.

How can we believe that the resurrection happened?

There are 516 people on record saying they saw him. But there are also non-biblical, historical writings.

Josephus, a first century Jewish historian who did not follow Jesus, wrote, "Now, 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; (64) and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, 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." (The Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, from The Works of Josephus, translated by William Whiston, Hendrickson Publishers, 1987.)

When Rome burned in A.D. 64, the emperor Nero blamed the Christians. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote, "Nero fastened the guilt ... on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of ... Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome ..." (Tacitus, Annals 15.44, cited in Strobel, The Case for Christ, 82.) This is referencing the death and resurrection.

Tacitus connects the Christians to Jesus Christ and connects Jesus Christ to the same places and the same rulers as the gospel accounts.

Evidence outside of scripture that supports the accuracy of scripture is evidence for faith and trust in the veracity of the crucifixion and resurrection.

This means there is a logic and a reason for what we believe about Jesus.

And this is of eternal importance.

John 11:25-26, NLT

“Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

Do you believe this?