Here are three more pieces of evidence that support Christ’s physical resurrection from the dead: 1) The Christian sacraments. The Christian sacraments point to the death and suffering of Christ and also to His resurrection and power. These can be traced back in uninterrupted sequence to the exact time of the death of Jesus Christ. 2) Christian art. In the catacombs of Rome, from the period of the persecutions, we discover, etched into the walls, depictions of the resurrection of Christ as an element of the earliest Christian beliefs. 3) The Christian church. Consider the undeniable fact of the Christian church. Many people don’t realise the link between the church and the resurrection, but scholars do. The Christian church is the biggest institution that exists or has ever existed in the world’s history. It is five times larger than the Roman Empire at its greatest scope. In fact, more than two billion people today acknowledge their worship of Jesus Christ as the alive and risen Son of God. How did such an institution come into and stay in existence? Someone joked, ‘The Grand Canyon wasn’t formed by a person dragging a stick.’ Neither was an institution the magnitude of the Christian church created by a few dreamers in days gone by. Historians recognise that the Christian church can be tracked all the way back to the city of Jerusalem in AD 30, the time of the death and resurrection of Christ. So, in truth we can say, ‘Christ is risen indeed!’
Sunday 31 March
‘This story has been widely circulated.’ Matthew 28:15 NIV
Evidences of Christ’s resurrection (3)
Here are two more proofs of Christ’s resurrection: 1) You would be hard-pressed to find a time in recorded history where someone willingly gave up their life for what they knew to be a lie. Author Paul E. Little said, ‘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.’ The fact that those early disciples were willing to endure such suffering makes the foundations of Christianity unshakable. 2) Christ’s enemies went to incredible lengths to disprove the resurrection. ‘When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy [bribe] him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed’ (vv. 12-15 NIV). Think: there has never been a witness in history allowed to testify to what transpired while he or she was asleep. And for a Roman soldier to fall asleep on duty meant a certain death penalty. If Jesus had still been in the tomb, or if they had taken his body and placed it somewhere else, why did the Jewish leaders not say so? No, they were paralysed and powerless to do anything about it. Their only option – the one they took – was to initiate great persecution against all Christians. But it failed then, and it fails now because Jesus is alive!
