Last Sunday we celebrated Easter. Therefore, it is appropriate to reflect on the resurrection of Jesus, the central event of not only the Christian faith but also of world history. While we do not have a video of Jesus emerging from the tomb, the evidence shows the best explanation of the facts is that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, the third day.
In the first post in this series, I established that the resurrection of Jesus was:
- A historical event. It was not an imagined or spiritual event. It really happened on the first Easter morning at a tomb near Jerusalem in 33 A.D.
- Jesus rose bodily from the tomb. It was a physical event.
- The resurrection of Jesus is the central truth of Christianity. If it didn’t happen Christianity is false. (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).
- Many, including those professing Christianity, deny that Jesus rose bodily from the tomb.
- It is a mistake for Christians to say, “I don’t need any evidence. I have faith! I know what I believe.” Rather, there are good reasons for believers to know the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.
- Finally, I listed 12 Known Historical Facts for the Resurrection of Jesus.
In the second part of this series, we looked at 6 facts that provide evidence for the resurrection.
- Jesus died by crucifixion.
- They buried Jesus, probably in a private tomb.
- Jesus’ death caused the disciples to despair and lose hope.
- The tomb was empty.
- The disciples had experiences they believed to be authentic appearances of the risen Christ.
- Disciples transformed from doubters afraid to identify with Jesus to bold proclaimers of his death and resurrection.
In this post, we will establish 6 more facts that give evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
Six More Facts Supporting the Resurrection of Jesus
7. This message was central to the preaching of the early church. The early gospel message centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Just two examples from Acts are enough to support this point.
Acts 2:14-47 presents Peter’s sermon to the crowd in Jerusalem on Pentecost. The resurrection of Jesus is at the center of Peter’s proclamation.
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. (Acts 2:22–24)
Soon after this, Peter and John are going to the Temple when they encounter a lame beggar. After healing the man, Peter addresses the people. Again, Peter centers his preaching on the resurrection of Jesus.
13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. (Acts 3:13–16)
Especially important is the fact that they made these proclamations in Jerusalem, which takes us to the next fact.
8. The disciples especially proclaimed it in Jerusalem, where Jesus died and buried only a short time before. Thus, it was easy to disprove the resurrection if it wasn’t true. This began soon after the resurrection. The disciples proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus early in the very city where the Romans crucified him.
The resurrection of Jesus was first proclaimed in Jerusalem not long after his public execution. If Jesus’ body was still in the tomb, the disciples wouldn’t have dared to preach the resurrection.
Habermas and Licona write:
His enemies in the Jewish leadership and Roman government would only have had to exhume the corpse and publicly display it for the hoax to be shattered. Not only are Jewish, Roman, and all other writings absent of such an account, but there is a total silence from Christianity’s critics who would have jumped at evidence of this sort. As we will see momentarily, this is not an argument from silence. (The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, p. 70).
9. Because of the preaching, the church was born and grew.
Acts 2:41 tells us that the new church added about 3,000 people because of Peter’s Pentecost sermon. From that day, the church continued to grow. What caused the historical birth and growth of the Christian church?
According to the New Testament, the Christian faith was born directly because of the resurrection of Jesus.
This is the message Paul preached on his missionary journeys. It is the same messaged proclaimed through the centuries.
10. Sunday became the primary day of worship. This is especially powerful, considering the early believers were all Jewish.
The Jews worshiped on the Sabbath, which is the seventh day of the week (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday). However, the early Christian church changed the day of their worship from the seventh day of the week to the first (Sunday: “the Lord’s Day,” Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2).
For the early Christian church, Sunday commemorated the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. His being raised transformed worship and distinguished the Christian faith from traditional Judaism. Apart from the resurrection, no reason existed for early followers of Jesus to view Sunday as having any special significance.
11. James, formerly a skeptic, converted to faith when he also met the risen Jesus.
The Gospels tell us that Jesus’ brothers, including James, were unbelievers during his earthly ministry (Mark 3:21, 31; 6:3-4; John 7:5).
Additionally, 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 lists the appearance of the risen Jesus to James.
Subsequently, James, once an unbeliever, is identified as a leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:12-21: Galatians 1:19).
Finally, James not only became a Christian, his belief in the resurrection of Jesus was so strong he died as a martyr because of his faith.
What changed James from a skeptic to a believer willing to die for his faith? The evidence strongly shows that he changed because of the resurrection of Jesus.
12. A few years later, Paul, likewise, converted by what he believed to be an appearance of the resurrected Jesus.
Paul was more than a skeptic. He so vehemently hated Christianity that he pursued and persecuted them. Yet, something happened that transformed him into an effective proclaimer of the faith and the author of much of what is now known as the New Testament. And a man who will die for his faith.
What brought about this change in Paul?
Why did one who persecuted Christians suddenly become one? Both Paul himself and Luke report that it was because he believed firmly that he had experienced an encounter with the risen Jesus.8 Paul’s conversion is so interesting because he was an enemy of the church when he claimed to have seen the risen Jesus.
Thus, Jesus’ resurrection is testified to by friends and also by a foe. His belief that he had witnessed the risen Christ was so strong that he, like the original disciples, was willing to suffer continuously for the sake of the gospel, even to the point of martyrdom.
This point is well documented, reported by Paul himself, as well as Luke, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Tertullian, Dionysius of Corinth, and Origen.12 Therefore, we have early, multiple, and firsthand testimony that Paul converted from being a staunch opponent of Christianity to one of its greatest proponents. (The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, p. 65).
What Can We Conclude from These 12 Facts About the Resurrection of Jesus?
Taking all these facts together, how do we best explain them? What ties them together? What is the most reasonable explanation?
The only credible answer is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
However, despite the overwhelming evidence for the resurrection, there are those who seek to find alternative explanations for the empty tomb. We will consider some of the most popular denials of the resurrection of Jesus in the next post in this series.
Resources Consulted
Internet Resources
Five Strands of Evidence for Jesus Christ’s Resurrection
Reasonable Faith at https://www.reasonablefaith.org/
History, Philosophy, and Christian Apologetics: Specializing in Resurrection-of-Jesus Research at https://garyhabermas.com/
Books
Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, revised edition Wheaton, IL: 1994), by William Lane Craig
On Guard, (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2010), by William Lane Craig
The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2004), by Gary Habermas and Michael Licona.
