"Evidence for the Resurrection" Sermon Transcript for April 15, 2001By Reverend Mike Beck
Scripture Reading: I Corinthians 15:1-8 & 14-22
At the very center of our Christian faith stands the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the Apostle Paul stated it very well in this verse from I Corinthians 15 when he said, "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." This fact is affirmed in the very earliest creed, the Nicene Creed, where we find these words: "For our sake Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures".
In a class that I taught a few years ago, I asked this question. "What are those core beliefs that absolutely can not be compromised in any way and continue to be referred to as Orthodox Christians? For there are numerous issues of faith in which we as Christians hold differing viewpoints. One of those core beliefs that was identified is the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. There will be pastors from these sacred desks today that will preach about the resurrection but only in a symbolic or a philosophical way. They will talk about the power of the idea of this resurrection. But one of the things that I like to do on the Saturday before Easter is often to walk through the cemetery. And I’ll see a grave that on those tombstones persons who I know. Friends, the idea of the power of resurrection won’t cut it. Either Christ bodily rose from the grave or our preaching and our faith are useless.
I love this quote from Paul Powell’s book, "When the Hurt Won’t Go Away". He says, "In the resurrection of Jesus, death has been translated from an ending into a beginning; from a period into a comma; from a conclusion into an introduction; from a final destination into a rest stop along the way." For those of you that have lost loved ones even this past year, I hope there’s great hope in these words.
We come together today on Easter Sunday morning to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. And yet, if we are really honest, our true feelings are often like the man who came to Jesus to ask for his son’s healing. And Jesus said, "Do you believe that I can heal him?" To which the man replied, "Lord, I believe, but help thou my unbelief!" For in several places in the Biblical accounts of the resurrection, we see that even the disciples confronted with the Risen Lord still were reluctant to believe. Despite all that Jesus had tried to do to prepare them for the events of Friday through Sunday, it was almost impossible for them to comprehend it. It seemed too good to be true.
Now, hear me carefully on this. Persons come to God through faith, not their scientific evidence. Hebrews 11:6 is a very important verse of Scripture. That verse tells us, "Without faith it is impossible to please God. We must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him." But having acknowledged that, that does not mean that there is no evidence for what we believe. Faith is not a blind leap into the dark; Or as another person put it, believing in something that we know can’t be true.
And so what I would like to do with this Easter Sunday message is to share with you some of the evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Natural World: There is evidence, first of all, to be found in the natural world around us. If you think back to how dead everything looked just a month ago in comparison to today. If you walked outside yesterday and were quiet, you could almost hear the grass growing, the flowers pushing up through the ground. That’s why we decorate the front of our sanctuary with flowers on Easter. They’re a visible reminder of new life where no life had existed before.
Our Inner Longings: Simple logic adds weight to the argument for the resurrection. Hear these quotes from Paul Powell’s book, "It takes a whole lifetime to build the character of a noble person. It does not make sense that God would snuff out like the flame of a dime-store candle the existence of a soul thus perfected." And Powell goes on to say, "It seems to me that the very character of God is at stake in this whole issue. God has placed in us a strong longing for immortality. It is a strange, restless feeling that we are never quite at home on earth. Has God put that in our hearts just to mock us? Would a good God allow people to cherish such longings just to shatter them in jest?" To which Powell says, "I think not."
The Lord’s Day: There is evidence for the resurrection to be found in the Lord’s Day itself. Most early Christians were Jewish. And for hundreds of years, they had gathered for worship on the Sabbath, which the last I checked is Saturday not Sunday. Yet, very soon, we find a group of early Christians who were mostly Jews changing the long-held day of worship from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week. When we ask, "Why?", we have no further to look than an empty tomb.
Existence of the Church: The existence of the church gives us evidence for the resurrection. For the Christian church is perhaps the largest institution that has ever existed on the face of the earth. Around 1.5 billion persons today profess faith in Jesus Christ. Have you ever asked how such an institution came into being? A man once said, "The Grand Canyon wasn’t formed by an Indian dragging a stick!" And neither was an institution the size of the Christian church brought to pass by the daydreams and wishful thinking of idle men in days gone by. You know just exactly where to trace the Christian church back to. To the city of Jerusalem, to the year A.D., approximately 30, to the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Old Testament Prophecies: The Old Testament prophecies bear witness to the evidence for resurrection. If you remember at the baptism of Jesus, John the Baptist was standing there with His disciples, and as Jesus was walking away he pointed to Jesus and said, "Boys, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Hundreds of years before John the Baptist ushered those words, the prophet Isaiah had written these words. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely He has took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; and yet we consider Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; and the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. And by His wounds, we are healed." Those words and numerous others from the Old Testament prophecies were written hundreds of years before Christ came. Were they merely fluke accidents in Jewish history? I think not.
Honesty of Scripture: One of the things that, to me, verifies the authenticity of Scripture is its honesty. Think with me about this. If the story of the life and death and resurrection of Christ were just a collection of fabricated stories, then why do they contain such honesty? Why would you include there in that holy night we call the Last Supper, why would you include in the text the fact that the disciples got into an argument about who was going to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God? Why would you bother to include the denial of Peter or the doubting of Thomas? Friends, if you’re putting together fabricated stories, why include things like that? The very honesty of Scripture, to me, bears witness for the resurrection.
The Guards at the Tomb; And then there were the guards at the tomb. Jesus spoke openly on several occasions about His impending death and resurrection. And the Jewish religious leaders had heard Him say those things. And can you imagine how Pilate must have been scratching his head when Jesus is dead and the Jewish leaders come back to him again and say, "Oh, by the way, could you put guards outside the Tomb?" Would Pilate oblige their wishes? But if you read of Roman writers of that day, they speak of the strictness of discipline of Roman soldiers, their faultless attention to duty and detail for fear of punishment, which in many cases was death for any neglect of duty. Friends, there were guards at the tomb and yet they couldn’t hold Him.
Show Me The Body!: I was trying to think about what to call this next point. I decided to do a play off the words of the movie, Jerry McGuire, of a few years ago. Where he’s always being told, "Show me the money"; I entitled this point, "Show me the Body!" For Matthew in his gospel tells us that the guards and religious leaders circulated this story. Matthew 28 tells us about it. "And while the women were on their way, some of the guards went in to the city and reported to the chief priests what had happened. And when the chief priests had met with the elders they devised a plan; they gave the soldiers a large sum of money telling them, "You are to say that His disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep." And if this report gets to the Governor we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated to this day."
And I ask you this, friends, "What did the Disciples have to gain by stealing the body?" For you remember they had fled scared for their very lives! And yet within just a few weeks Peter and the other Disciples are boldly standing on the steps of Jerusalem proclaiming the message of the risen Christ! Friends, if all of this was a hoax, all the opposition had to do was produce the body! Argument settled! And from my perspective, it takes a whole lot more of a leap of faith to believe that these eleven remaining Disciples pulled off a hoax on the rest of the world that has lasted throughout history. It takes a lot more faith to believe that than it does for me to believe the resurrection.
In the film, "Jesus of Nazareth", which Dan and I use in our Confirmation class, the religious leaders are interrogating Jesus. And Nicodemus is almost a believer himself now and he says to the other religious leaders, he says, "We’ve seen plenty of false prophets come and go...But if Jesus is who He says that He is, then nothing we can do will be able to stop Him".
Transformation of the Disciples: Two more, and to me they are the greatest evidence for resurrection. The transformation of the disciples. How do you explain that? Here is Peter, who late Thursday night, denies His Lord when confronted by a servant girl. And in Matthew 26 it says, "Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled". In John 20 is says, "The disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews!" How do you explain what happened to those eleven men who were so afraid except they saw a corpse come back to life! And they began to share this message of Jesus like a broken record. They preached Jesus and the resurrection, Jesus and the resurrection. And tradition has it that all of those eleven remaining Disciples, with the exception of John, would die a martyr’s death. Would you die that kind of death for a man you knew was a hoax?
Changed Lives!: Then, finally, the evidence of changed lives! For perhaps the most powerful evidence of the resurrection, lives in the millions of lives that have been touched and transformed by the power of the risen Christ. And here at Grace, in recent weeks, through the testimonies of persons who’ve been involved in the Alpha course, we have seen evidence of that transforming power. I was so touched Friday night after the service for Cindy Fortier who was one of those who had shared how resistant she had been to faith. She was one of the readers on Good Friday. And at the door at the end she said, "Reverend Mike, my first Good Friday!". The best evidence is in the words of the hymn we’re going to sing. "I serve a risen Savior. He’s in the world today. I know that He is living; whatever men may say. I see His hand of mercy. I hear His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him; He’s always near. He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me, Along life’s narrow way. He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!"
Let’s stand and sing it triumphantly together, Hymn #310.
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