What’s the hope of Easter?

1 Corinthians 15:12-21 (NIV)

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

The cover story of the April 8, 1996 issue of Newsweek magazine was written by Kenneth Woodward entitled “Rethinking The Resurrection: A New Debate About The Risen Christ.” Early in the article, Woodward expresses his understanding of the importance of the resurrection to Christianity–”By any measure, the resurrection of Jesus is the most radical of Christian doctrines.” To strengthen his point, he quotes the  German Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch.

“It wasn’t the morality of the Sermon on the Mount which enabled Christianity to conquer Roman Paganism, but the belief that Jesus had been raised from the dead. In an age when Roman senators vied to see who could get the most blood of a steer on their togas–thinking that would prevent death Christianity was in competition for eternal life, not morality.”

Not even the critics of Christianity deny the existence of Jesus. What they do challenge is its claims that Jesus was raised from the dead.

Q. 1  WAS JESUS REALLY DEAD?  Here are some thoughts:

First, crucifixion is not something people just walked away from. Death by crucifixion was essentially death by asphyxiation. We must remember that prior to His crucifixion, Jesus had been severely beaten in Pilate’s Hall.

Second, the scriptural record tells us that when the soldiers came to break his ankles, He was already dead.

John 19:32 (NASB) The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other man who was crucified with Him; 33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs;

Third, When he was stabbled in the chest with a spear, blood and water came out. The chief explanation is that the blood came from the right side of the heart and the water came from the pericardium. In other words, if Jesus was still alive, the spear would would have killed him. An ancient Roman author indicates that it was typical curcifixion procedure to pierce the victim with a spear to make sure the person was dead. (Quintillian Declamationes maiores 6,9.)

Fourth, if Jesus was still alive after the experience of crucifixion and revived while in the tomb, there are some extrordinary events that need to be explained. After the trauma of crucifixion and being in the tomb without food and water for three days, a revived Jesus moved a huge grave stone (Matthew 27:60), fought off and disarmed at least one guard (Matthew 27:65-66), walked some distance to where the disciples were, evidenced no signs of his ordeal to those He met and walked with them on the road to Emmaus. This would be an extraordinary feat for someone who had undergone the ordeal of flogging, dehydration and crucifixion. When He made his first appearance to His disciples, He would have had great difficulty making them believe He had been resurrected. What shape would He have been in? He would be bleeding from his wounds, he’d be pale from the loss of blood, swollen from the beatings and very weak. In this condition he would say to His disciples, “Howdy Fellah’s, I’m the crucified and raised Lord of life.” Peter may have been an unlearned fisherman, but he wasn’t stupid. I can’t believe that the disciples looking at Jesus, bleeding, pale and crippled form would say, “Oh boy, I can’t wait until I get a Resurrection body just like His!”

Fifth, if the Shroud of Turin is Jesus’ burial cloth, then it proves more strong evidence for Jesus’ death. The man buried in the shroud exhibits postmortem blood flow and he’s in a state of rigor mortis. If the man is Jesus, then we have another proof that He was dead.

Q.2 THE RESURRECTION ITSELF

How do we know that Jesus was literally and bodily raised from the dead?

A German New Testament scholar Gerd Ludemann, suggests that the Resurrection is “an empty formula” that must be rejected by anyone holding a “scientific world view.” because Jesus’ body “rotted away” in the tomb.  Dominic Crossman believes that Jesus’ body “had already been devoured by wild dogs, typical of crucified Roman criminals.”  In the book “Did Jesus Rise From The Dead: The Resurrection Debate”,  Gary Habermas and Antony Flew deal with objections to the resurrection of Jesus. On page 22, Gary Habermas lists ten key evidences for Jesus’ Resurrection.

(1) the disciples’ eyewitness experiences, which they believed to be literal appearances of the risen Jesus…(2) the early proclamation of the Resurrection by these eyewitnesses, (3) their transformation into bold witnesses who were willing to die for their convictions, (4) the empty tomb, and (5) the fact that the Resurrection of Jesus was the centre of the apostolic message, all of which require adequate explanations. It is also found that the disciples proclaimed this message in Jerusalem itself where, in repeated confrontations with the authorities, (6) the Jewish leaders could not disprove their message even though they had both the power and the motivation to do so.
Additionally, (7) the very existence of the church, founded by monotheistic, law-abiding former Jews who (8) worshipped on Sundays  demand historical causes as well.
Two additionally strong facts arguing for the historicity of the Resurrection are the two skeptics, (9) James and (10) Paul, who became Christians after having experiences that they believed were appearances of the risen Jesus.

ANSWERING OBJECTIONS

The Disciples Stole The Body

Some have suggested that the disciples stole the body of Jesus and fabricated the resurrection story. The first problem with this theory is, there is not a shred of evidence to support it. Later, when threatened with death, the disciples could have saved themselves by coming forward with the truth. All they would have needed to do was state that Jesus’ body was stolen, show the authorities where they had put it and their life would have been spared. Under the threat of death, not one disciple changed his story concerning the resurrection of Jesus. Why would they be willing to die for a lie? The disciples died declaring what they knew to be true–Jesus Christ is alive.

Roman Authorities Removed The Body

Others have suggested that the Roman authorities removed the body of Jesus from the tomb. If this is so, then why didn’t they produce it to silence the apostle’s claim that Jesus was alive. There is only one reason why the Roman and Jewish authorities failed to do so; they had no body to produce!

Note that the tomb was not empty. That’s right, it wasn’t totally empty.  In John 20:6  we read: Simon Peter also came and found strips of linen lying there. John Blanchard offers the following thoughts concerning this phrase.

The word ‘lying’ seems straightforward, but there is more to the original Greek word than meets the eye, because it is commonly used of something done in an orderly way. This means that the linen winding-cloth was not carelessly discarded. But there was something else. The head-cloth was ‘folded up by itself, separate from the linen’. One scholar says that ‘folded up by itself’ means something like ‘twirled about itself’, and another that it ‘aptly describes the rounded shape which the empty napkin still preserved’.  ”The linen windingsheets would have collapsed under the weight of the spices, while the head-cloth might well have more of less kept its shape, like ‘a crumpled turban with no head inside it’.  This suggests that the body of the entombed one had passed through the burial cloth without disturbing it. Scripture tells us that when John realized the significance of those collapsed graveclothes, he “believed.” What convinced him was not merely the absence of the body, but the way in which the grave-clothes were lying.

The So-called Eye Wittnesses Were Hallucinating

The most powerful piece of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is the Bible’s record of His appearances. There are six independent, written testimonies to this – by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul and Peter, three of whom are eye-witnesses – and they record eleven separate appearances over a period of forty days.

1. His Appearence To Mary Magdalene
Mark 16:9  Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.

2. His Appearence To A Group Of Women Between The Tomb And The City
Matt 28:9  And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.

3. His Appearence To Two Disciples On Their Way To Emmaus
Luke 24:15  And it came about that while they were conversing and discussing, Jesus Himself approached, and [began] traveling with them.

4. His Appearance To Simon
Luke 24:34  saying, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon.”

5. His Appearance To A Group Of Disciples
Luke 24:36  And while they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst.

6. His Appearance A Week Later To Disciples Behind Closed Doors
John 20:26  And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, “Peace [be] with you.”

7. His Appearance By The Sea Of Tiberias
John 21:1  After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and He manifested [Himself] in this way.

8. His Appearance To More Than Five Hundred At The Same Time
1Cor 15:6  After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;

9. His Appearance To James
1Cor 15:7  then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;

10. His Appearance To The Eleven On A Mountain in Galilee
Matt 28:18  And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

11. His Appearance In The Vicinity Of Bethany
Luke 24:50-51  And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 And it came about that while He was blessing them, He parted from them.

12. His Appearance To Paul
1Cor 15:8  and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

The final objection surrounds these post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. According to Woodward, Ludemann offers a physcological explanation for these sightings. The Risen Christ that appeared to the Apostle Peter, according to Ludemann…was a subjective “vision” produced by Peter’s overwhelming grief and “guilt” for having denied Jesus when he was arrested. For the Apostle Paul, who had previously persecuted Christians, his vision of the Risen Jesus was the resolution of an unconscious “Christ complex.” And what the New Testament describes as Jesus’ appearance to “more than 500″ followers was a “mass ecstasy.” In short, modern psychology reduces the Risen Christ to a series of interpsychic experiences that produced in the disciples a renewed sense of missionary zeal and spiritual self-confidence.

We could understand how a guilt ridden Peter, overwhelmed by grief might have experienced a subjective “vision.” It is, however, virtually impossible  to believe that “more than 500″ followers were simultaneously caught up in “mass ecstasy.” It is unthinkable that 500 people would have the same hallucination at once.There is no evidence for such theories. The only satisfiable explanation is that they were not hullucinating but actually saw the resurrected Christ.

The nineteenth century German writer Kark Theodore Keim suggested that what the disciples saw was some kind of spirit or ghost. This cannot be collaborated by Scripture. Jesus’ post-resurrection actions and comments dismiss this idea.

The Women clasped His Physical Body
Matt 28:9  And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.

His Physical Abilities
Luke 24:30  And it came about that when He had reclined [at the table] with them, He took the bread and blessed [it,] and breaking [it,] He [began] giving [it] to them.

He clearly stated that He was not a Spirit
Luke 24:36 (NASB) And while they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst. 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. 38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 [And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.] 41 And while they still could not believe [it] for joy and were marveling, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; 43 and He took it and ate [it] before them.

While belief in theResurrection is a matter of faith, it is faith based upon powerfully persuasive evidence. In view of the facts, the only sensible conclusion to this matter is that Jesus was raised from the dead and that He is alive at this very moment.

THE EFFECT OF THIS TRUTH ON THE EARLY CHURCH

The truth of the resurrection effected the early church in at least two ways. First, it became the centre of their message. Motivated and impassioned by the reality of the resurrection, they went everywhere proclaiming the crucified, resurrected, ascended Christ. Second, they lived with hope.

1 Thess 4:10 reads: ‘for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you; 12 so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope.’

According to Paul, the early church was…

13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:13

The Believers at Thessalonica had…

turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, [that is] Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. 1Thess 1:9

THE BASIS OF OUR HOPE

Paul writes in 1 Cor 15:

‘ If there is no resurrection, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!”³³ Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.” ³⁴ Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all.³⁵ But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” ³⁶What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. ³⁷ And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. ³⁸ Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. ³⁹ Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

⁴⁰ There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. ⁴¹The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory. ⁴² 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. ⁴³ 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. ⁴⁴They 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. ⁴⁵ The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. ⁴⁶ What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. ⁴⁷ Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. ⁴⁸ Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the Heavenly Man. ⁴⁹ Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the Heavenly Man.

⁵⁰ What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. ⁵¹ But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! ⁵² It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. ⁵³ For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. ⁵⁴ 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. ^{55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 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. 58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.}

So… what is the hope of Easter? It’s that Death has been defeated because Jesus is a live! And because of that fact, I can come alive too!

My life was changed forever when I accepted the truth of the Resurrection and bowed the knee to the Resurrected Lord.

What about yours??

Prayer:

Jesus, in the light of the great truths about the Resurrection, I declare that You are the ever living Son of God. Because You live, I live in the hope of Your soon return. By Your life I have victory over death, hell and the grave. You are my Lord and my soon coming King! Hallelujah, Jesus! AMEN