Did the Resurrection Really Happen, and Why It Matters, Part IV

Have you seen Tilly Norwood's latest music video?

Tilly debuted in July 2025 in a short comedy clip, and since then she has set the world on fire.

It isn't her talent that has people talking - it is her identity. Tilly is a fully Artificial Intelligence generated avatar (woman? celebrity?).

Tilly Norwood, AI character created in 2025

It is really kind of creepy to think about how AI can be used to create such deep fakes that we may not be able to tell an AI avatar from a flesh and blood human.

What does any of this have to do with the resurrection, you ask? Pull up a chair, open your bible, and let's dig into this question.

Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at various pieces of evidence for an actual, historical resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have considered the sheer number of eyewitnesses willing to die for their claims that they saw a risen Jesus, writings outside of the bible that point to a historical Jesus and his death and resurrection, a huge coverup by the Roman military and religious leaders, and even the Shroud of Turin and what it tells us. (Read the blog posts, Did the Resurrection Really Happen, Parts I, II, and III, to track the evidence.)

Today we turn to the question of why the resurrection matters.

We live in a world of AI generated images, Microsoft Copilot generated emails, and Gemini sourced information - not to mention media spin, Hollywood liberties ("based on a true story"), and political rhetoric. It can be difficult to plumb the line between truth and lies, authentic and spin.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ brings us back to the necessity for and the existence of absolute truth. By the way, Copilot defines absolute truth as "a fact or reality that remains true at all times and in all places, independent of personal beliefs, opinions, or circumstances." 🫢

Why does the resurrection matter? Number one on our list is death.

It is a scientific fact that we are born and that we die - this is absolute truth.

If birth is the beginning, it is easy to see how people can think of death as the end. Except, is it?

I've watched my fair share of documentaries that try to answer what happens to us after we die. There is no shortage of interesting and even bizarre hypothesizes, but nothing that has been proven.

If we can trust scripture to be true in the face of evidence that we have already investigated, then let's trust scripture to help us answer why the resurrection matters. It matters because of death, what we believe about death, and how we live because of this belief.

Let's see what Jesus says. Afterall, non-Jesus-believing historians certainly believed that he existed, was crucified, and resurrected, so it seems wise that we hear him out.

John 11:17-26,33-34,38-44, NLT

"When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise again." "Yes," Martha said, "he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day." 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?" When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. "Where have you put him?" he asked them. They told him, "Lord, come and see."

"Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. "Roll the stone aside," Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, "Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible." Jesus responded, "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?" So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me." Then Jesus shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and let him go!"

Jesus said there is life after death for those who believes in him, and he demonstrated this to be true by resurrecting Lazarus, who had been in the grave four days.

For the family given the life of their once-dead brother back, this was a game changer. Their grief turned to relief, their mourning to joy, and instead of carrying out Jewish mourning customs they began celebrating.

The resurrection mattered to them.

It matters to us in the same way. What death seems to rob from us here in this life will be restored to us in eternity, in complete restoration and wholeness.

Paul gives us a roadmap for answering why the resurrection matters.

1 Corinthians 15:54-57, NLT

"Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? " For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. [57] But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ."

2 Corinthians 5:1,4,6-8, NLT

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands ... While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life ... So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord."

According to Jesus and to the apostle Paul, death is not the end. This is why the resurrection matters, because a day is coming for each one of us when what we believe in life will determine our eternal life.

John 3:3,5,16-18, NLT

"Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God." ... Jesus replied, "I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit ... "For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. "There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son."

Jesus himself says that unless we believe in Jesus and are born by his Spirit, we cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus says we need to be saved - and this is what he came to do. We cannot save ourselves; only Jesus can save us.

If we choose to reject Jesus, we will not see the kingdom of God and we will be judged.

And this is just part of what Jesus says about eternal life, sin, and the afterlife.

1 Corinthians 15:1-9,12-14,20,35-36,42-44, 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 500 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."

"But tell me this-since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless."

"But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died."

"But someone may ask, "How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?" What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn't grow into a plant unless it dies first."

"It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies."

The resurrection matters because truth matters, and because you and I matter. The resurrection matters because the kingdom of God is real and we have the open invitation to believe in Jesus and to trust in him for our salvation. The resurrection matters because it is through Jesus that we have victory over sin and death, and we are restored to God and to His kingdom.

Tilly Norwood is not real. Much of what we find on social media, in Hollywood, and within the political arena is not real. And yet, we often allow the relative truth we find in this world to rob us from the absolute truth of Jesus, His kingdom, and what the resurrection means.

What does the resurrection mean for you? Have you answered this question yet?

Did you know that the early Church often used Easter (the day they commemorated the resurrection of Jesus) as the day to formally join with Jesus through baptism? Have you formally joined with Jesus and his kingdom? Have you been baptized?

Easter Sunday is a wonderful time to declare, "I do believe the resurrection really happened and it matters to me!" Easter Sunday is a wonderful time to declare this through baptism.

Reach out. We'd love to talk with you.