You know, from the standpoint of the life of Jesus it is the last insult against Him. There were insults against Him from the start of His life and certainly all through His ministry. This is the last insult, the apostasy of Israel is final. They lied even about His birth. Do you remember what they said? They said to Jesus one day, they said, “We’re not born of fornication.” That’s…that’s an old one, isn’t it? People say that today, that’s the DaVinci Code. Jesus had a relationship with Mary Magdalene and they had a child. Or it’s the old story of Mary getting pregnant by a soldier named Pantera and Jesus being an illegitimate child. That starts with the Jews at the time of Jesus who said, “At least we weren’t born of fornication,” denying the virgin birth. They denied the beginning and they denied the end. They lied about the start and they lied about the finish. The Bible makes it clear that He was born to a virgin. And all the evidence indicates that that is indeed the case.
But if He is God virgin born, then they have to accept the fact that what He says about them is true. And they won’t accept that, so they lie about His virgin birth, even though the facts are clear. They lie about His resurrection even though the facts are clear. It’s all about loving sin, it’s all about hating righteousness. It has nothing to do with the evidence. I mean, if you just look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, an empty tomb, grave clothes sitting there, an earthquake, stone moved, Roman soldiers in coma, immediately there are at least ten appearances of Jesus to Mary Magdalene, to another woman, to Peter, to two on the road, to twelve on the following Sunday evening, to the twelve again eight days later, to seven of them by the sea in Galilee, to five hundred in Galilee, then to James, to eleven of them minus Judas on the Mount of Olives from which He ascends into heaven. They knew He was alive. And that’s why, listen, they would go out and preach the resurrection and die for it. You can’t turn people into martyrs for a lie. If they had stolen His body, why would they go die? Why would they preach a risen Christ that they knew was a deception and die for that? They were unanimous in their affirmation that He was alive, unanimous in their proclamation that He was alive, unanimous in their willingness to die for that truth. Their faith was so confident and so strong, it was absolutely unwavering. They set themselves against the very authorities that had killed Jesus and they knew that they would receive the same. They boldly confronted the same leaders from whom they once had run in fear. When Jesus was taken prisoner, those apostles scattered in fear. Now they run right back to confront those same leaders with a resurrection proclamation. And it’s so extensive and so constant that the leaders say, “You have filled Jerusalem with this teaching.” And thousands of people believed, three thousand on Pentecost, thousands more and thousands more. And in a matter of weeks there must be 25 thousand believers.
By what power then do you turn cowardly, simple, poor, illiterate preachers into world changers? Not by a lie, not by a deception. They were not eloquent. They were not educated. They were not brilliant. They were not oratorical. They were not masters of argument and logic. They were not magicians. They were not charlatans and clever con men highly skilled. They were not particularly persuasive or clever. The power of their life that has changed the world up to this very day, and will continue to do it, was the reality that Jesus Christ was alive. It’s the only explanation. They believed in the resurrection and they preached it. They had every opportunity to satisfy themselves as to the truth of it. They saw Him. The ate with Him. They touched Him. They met with Him. They could examine all the evidence. They could touch His hands, and His side, and His feet, and they did. That’s why Acts begins, “Jesus appeared to them with many infallible proofs,” infallible proofs. They were absolutely convinced and they gave their lives for it. And the Holy Spirit inspired them to write the record of the New Testament which is convincing to all those who are open to it. And we would give our lives for the same fact that Jesus Christ lives. The Jews couldn’t deny the resurrection. No way. All they could do was lie.
You say, “Well, couldn’t it have been the truth that the disciples stole the body?” Look, you don’t bribe people with money to tell the truth. They were already coming with the truth. They came and told the Jewish leaders the truth. They had to buy them off and bribe them to lie. So the lie becomes the greatest proof of the truth. They knew that the only way they could explain an empty tomb was that the disciples came and stole the body. And so that’s the lie they came up with. But there’s no way those disciples scattered and cowardly and fearful and having a hard time believing and morose and despondent about losing Jesus Christ as they are obviously indicating in the trip to Emmaus when they’re moaning that He’s gone. No way they would have been transformed into powerful preachers who would die for the truth of the resurrection if in fact the resurrection didn’t really happen and they didn’t have ample evidence. It’s ludicrous to believe that the guards were asleep, all of them, and could still report exactly what happened. It’s ludicrous to believe that they would have to be paid to tell the truth. The whole explanation is self-condemned and what you’re left with is Jesus rose from the dead. And if He rose from the dead, He has power over death. If He has power over death, He has life in Himself, He’s the source of life. If He’s the source of life, He’s God who gives life. If He’s God then what He says is true and what He says is salvation is only through Him.
Simon Greenleaf, the Harvard professor of Law wrote this, “All the Christianity asks of men is that they would be consistent with themselves. That they would treat its evidences as they treat the evidence of other things. And that they would try to judge its witnesses as they deal with their fellow men when testifying to human affairs and actions in human tribunals. The result would be an undoubting conviction of their integrity, ability and truth.” Simon Greenleaf says…Just apply the same laws to the testimonies of those who saw the risen Christ that you would apply in any court case, stack up the witnesses, the eyewitnesses, in excess of 500 on numerous different occasions at least ten, all affirming the same thing, all eyewitness accounts, all having seen, heard and touched the risen Christ and just treat their witnesses with the same integrity that you would treat any other witnesses in a human court and the evidence is overwhelming.
The Lord Jesus rose from the dead. That means that He is God. But it also means this, that He had accomplished on the cross the work that God sent Him to do. God the Father sent God the Son to do a work on the cross. What was it? To bear our sin, to die in our place, to be punished on our behalf, to…to be, as it were, a sacrifice for our sins. And when near death He said, “It is finished.” He had bore our sin. He had died our death. He had taken our place, received the judgment of God on behalf of all who would ever believe. And because He did it so perfectly, and because He accomplished exactly what God wanted Him to accomplish, He arose. And when He arose, the Bible says He went into heaven and took His place at the right hand of God and is forever exalted and given a name above every name which is the name Lord. And you must confess Jesus as Lord, the one who paid for your sins, the one who rose from the dead and therefore has offered a fitting sacrifice which satisfies God. God being satisfied with Him lifts Him to heaven, seats Him on His throne where He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords forever. There is no salvation in any other than Jesus Christ. You must confess that He is indeed Lord as God has named Him Lord for what He has done.
And you must believe in His resurrection or you cannot be saved. This is God’s word to us. This is God’s plan. Salvation awaits all who confess Jesus as Lord and believe in their hearts that God has raised Him from the dead. To deny the resurrection is to deny His deity. It is to deny the sufficiency of His sacrifice. It is to make Him a liar, the apostles a liar, the scriptures a liar. To believe in the resurrection is to affirm the Bible is true, Jesus is God, He did rise, the gospel message is the truth. And it is and it alone saves. Join me in prayer.
Father, as we bring this to a conclusion tonight, we have really looked at THE most monumental of all the events in the passion of our Lord. So much focus in recent years with Hollywood getting into this has been on what happened before the cross, the beating and the whipping and the horrific physical abuse. But what really needs to be looked at with care and great depth is what happened after the cross, and that’s the resurrection. God, how we thank You that the tomb of Jesus is empty, it’s been empty all these centuries because He lives and He ever lives to make intercession for us. He lives and because He lives we can live also by faith in Him. Because He conquered sin and death and hell and rose to heavenly glory, we too in Him can conquer sin and death and hell and rise to heavenly glory and even sit with Him on His throne, the Scripture says. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in Me though he were dead yet shall he live. And whoever believes in Me lives forever.” We thank You that we find eternal life in Christ even when we leave this veil of tears, we leave this earthly existence, we enter into that eternal glory and joy and peace that awaits us in the heaven of heavens. But only if we confess Jesus as Lord and believe that You raised Him by the very power that is His from the dead. Thank You for the truth of the resurrection in which we are clearly given the proof we need that He is the one He claimed to be and by which we ourselves through faith are given that very eternal life which He displayed in His own resurrection. We thank You that in trusting Him we shall live with the very life that is divine, granted to us from Him the source of life.
What great immense truth this is and may it be sealed to every heart, especially those who at this point may not yet believe, may not have confessed Jesus as Lord. O God, how I pray they would do that even now, that they would be flooded with the conviction and the clarity of this truth of resurrection, grasp it with all their might, repent of their sin, confess Jesus as Lord, affirm they believe that He died for them and rose again. And in thus believing and acknowledging Him as Lord be delivered from death and punishment into eternal life. This is our prayer. We thank You that we who know You have experienced the glory of this deliverance and live in it moment by moment, awaiting that day when we enter into the full inheritance of what You’ve promised to us in the life to come. We bless You and thank You in Christ’s name. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
