Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
April 3, 1983
Why I Believe in the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:1-8,13-19, NIV
Since the beginning of time men and women have responded to the death of loved ones with a cry like that of Job 14:14:
"If a man dies, will he live again?"
Human philosophy and pagan religions have been able to answer with no more than a question mark, a wish or a vague hope. The great genius of Greek philosophy, Plato, was asked, Shall we live again?" His response - "I hope so but no man may know." The tombs of Mohammed, and Buddha and Confucius are occupied but the tomb of Christ is empty to this day.
Both friends and enemies of the Christians faith have recognized that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation stone of the faith. As the Apostle Paul wrote to those in Corinth, who in general denied the resurrection of the dead:
"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."
Paul rested his whole case on the bodily resurrection of Christ. If he did rise, it is the most sensational and meaningful event in all of history. On the other hand, if Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity is an interesting museum piece - nothing more. It has not objective reality or validity. Though it is a nice wishful thought, it certainly isn't worth getting steamed up about. The martyrs who went singing to the lions and modern missionaries who have given their lives in Ecuador and the Congo while taking this message to others, have been poor deluded fools.
The attack on Christianity by its enemies has most often concentrated on the resurrection because it has been correctly seen that this event is the crux of the matter. A remarkable attack was the one contemplated in the 1930's by a young British lawyer. He was convinced that the Resurrection was a mere fairytale. Sensing that is was the foundation stone of the Christian faith, he decided to do the world a favor by once and for all exposing it as a fraud and superstition. As a lawyer, he began to rigidly sift the evidence and admitted nothing as evidence which did not meet the stiff criteria for admission into a law court today. However, while Frank Morison was doing his research a remarkable thing happened. The case was not nearly as easy as he had supposed. He found that the evidence for the Resurrection was so overwhelming he was forced to accept it and became a believer. The book he did write, entitled "Who Move the Stone?", sets forth the evidence for the resurrection of Christ and its first chapter is called, "The Book That Refused to Be Written." What are some of the pieces of data to be considered in answering the question, "Did Christ rise from the dead?"
First, there is the fact of the Christian church. It is worldwide in scope and its history can be traced back to Palestine around A.D. 30. Did it just happen or was there a cause for it? These people who were first called Christians at Antioch turned the world of their time upside down. They constantly referred to the Resurrection as the basis of their teaching, preaching, living and - significantly - dying.
Second, there is the fact of the Christian day of worship, Sunday. Its history can also be traced back to A.D. 30. Something cataclysmic must have happened to change the day of worship from the Jewish Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, to Sunday, the first day. Christians said the shift came because of their desire to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This shift is all the more remarkable when we remember that the first Christians were Jews.
Finally, there is the Bible. The Old Testament predicts the resurrection of the Messiah. The New Testament records the fulfillment of these prophecies. Its pages contain six independent testimonies to the fact of the Resurrection. Three of them are by eyewitnesses - John, Peter and Matthew. Paul, writing to the churches at an early date, referred to the Resurrection in such a way that it is obvious that to him and to his readers the event was well known and accepted without question. Are these men who helped transform the moral structure of society pathological liars or deluded madmen? These alternatives are harder to believe than the fact of the Resurrection and there is no evidence to support them.
Two facts must be explained by the believer and the unbeliever alike. They are the empty tomb and the alleged appearances of Jesus Christ. How can we account for the Empty Tomb? Several theories have tried to overturn this fact. The earliest theory was that the disciples stole the body. In Matthew 28:11-15, the Roman soldiers who had guarded the tomb came back and told the Jewish leaders the tomb was empty. The Jews gave them large sums of money and said in verse 13:
"You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.'"
In the entire history of legal proceedings there has never, under any circumstances, been a witness who has been allowed to testify about something that happened while he was asleep. Furthermore, for a Roman soldier to fall asleep on guard duty meant inevitably the death sentence. And this was rigorously applied.
There is another reason I do not believe the disciples stole the body. It would mean that they were the perpetrators of a deliberate lie which was responsible for the deception and ultimate death of thousands of people. Not only this, but each disciple himself faced the test of torture and execution for his statements and beliefs. Paul Little, a noted Christian scholar, writes:
"Men will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie. If a man ever tells the truth, it is on his deathbed."
A second theory is that the Roman or Jewish authorities moved the body. But why? Having put guards at the tomb, what would be their reason for moving the body? According to the book of Acts, as the apostles preached boldly about the Resurrection in Jerusalem, the Jewish leaders seethed with rage and did everything possible to prevent the spread of this message and to suppress it. But there was a very simple solution to the Jewish leader's problem. If they had Christ's body, they could have paraded it through the streets of Jerusalem. In one fell swoop they would have successfully smothered Christianity in its cradle. That they did not do; this bears eloquent testimony to the fact that they did not have the body.
Another popular theory is that the women, distraught and overcome by grief lost their way in the dimness of the morning and went to the wrong tomb. In their distress the imagined Christ had risen because the tomb was empty. This theory, however, has the same weakness as the last one. If the women went to the wrong tomb, why didn't the high priests and other enemies of the faith go to the right tomb and produce the body?
The swoon theory has also been advanced to explain the empty tomb. In this view, Christ did not actually die. He was mistakenly reported to be dead but had swooned from exhaustion, pain and loss of blood. When he was laid in the coolness of the tomb, he revived. He came out of the tomb and appeared to his disciples, who mistakenly thought he had risen from the dead. This is a theory of modern construction and first appeared at the end of the 18th century. All the earliest records, even those by enemies, are emphatic about Jesus' death. But let us assume for a moment that Christ was buried alive and swooned. Suppose he survived in the tomb three days without food or water. Suppose he did free himself from the grave clothes, without in any way disturbing them, and then go to the huge stone which sealed the tomb. He would have had to move it with hands that had been pierced by spikes. He would then have to overcome the armed Roman guards and walk fourteen miles to the town of Emmaus and back. That was to loosen up his feet after the spikes had pierced them, to get in shape for his walk all the way to Galilee where he climbed a mountain. Such a belief is more fantastic than the simple fact of the Resurrection itself.
The second piece of data that every person, whether believer or unbeliever, must explain is the recorded appearances of Christ after he rose. These occurred from the morning of his resurrection to his ascension into heaven forty days later. Ten distinct appearances are recorded. They show great variety as to time, place and people. There were two appearances to individuals, Peter and James. There were appearances to the disciples as a group and one was to five hundred assembled believers. Jesus appeared in at least four different places and each appearance was characterized by different acts and words by him.
The major theory advanced to explain away the appearances is that they were hallucinations. At first, this sounds like a plausible explanation. It is plausible until we begin to realize that modern medicine has observed that certain laws apply to hallucinations. Hallucinations generally occur in people who tend to be vividly imaginative and of a nervous makeup. But the appearances of Christ were to all sorts of people. Hallucinations are extremely subjective and individual. For this reason, no two people have the same experience. But in the case of the Resurrection, Christ appeared not just to individuals but to groups, including one of more than five hundred people. Paul said that more than half of them were still alive and could tell about these events.
But perhaps the most conclusive indication of the fallacy of the hallucination theory is a fact that is often overlooked. In order to have an experience like this, one must so intensely want to believe that he imagines something that doesn't really exist. You might think that this is what happened to the disciples concerning the Resurrection. The fact is that the opposite took place - they were persuaded against their wills that Jesus had risen from the dead. Mary came to the tomb Easter morning with spices in her hands. Why? To anoint the dead body of the Lord she loved. She did not expect him to be raised from the dead; in fact, when she saw Jesus she thought he was the gardener.
When Jesus appeared to the other disciples they were frightened and thought they were seeing as ghost. He had to tell them:
"Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." (Luke 24:39)
Thomas the doubter didn't believe until he put his fingers in Jesus' wounds. To hold to the hallucination theory in explaining the appearances is to completely ignore the evidence.
What was it that changed a band of frightened, cowardly disciples into men of courage and conviction? What was it that changed Peter from one who, the night before the Crucifixion, was so afraid for his own skin he denied three times he even knew Jesus, to one who became the roaring lion of the faith? Some fifty days later Peter preached a sermon in the dangerous city of Jerusalem, risking his life to say he had seen Jesus risen from the dead. Only the bodily resurrection of Christ could have produced this change.
Finally, there is the evidence for the Resurrection which is contemporary and personal. If Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he is alive today ready to invade and change those who invite him into their lives. Thousands now living bear uniform testimony that their lives have been revolutionized by Jesus Christ. Are you one of them? If you are not, the invitation of Jesus still stands -
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20)
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This sermon undoubtedly borrowed heavily from another source but it can no longer be identified.
Typed on February 20, 2006, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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