What is your favorite Easter memory?
Matthew 28:1-10 CSB – After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.
5 The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you.”
8 So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples the news. 9 Just then[a] Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”
Romans 5:8 CSB – But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The Resurrection Shows Us the Depths of God’s Love!
Ephesians 3:17-19 CBS – pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, 19 and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
The Resurrection Proves That Our Sins are Forgiven
“All In” – The Theology
- Ephesians 1:7 CSB – In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
- Romans 4:25 CSB – He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
- Romans 3:22-24 CSB – The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:22 CSB – For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:13-14, 17, 19 CSB –
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
19 If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.
All In – The Reasonable Evidence
- With dates established by radiometric analysis, prophecies from centuries before Jesus’ birth predict his life, death, and resurrection.
Peter Stoner calculation: 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (10 to the 17th power)
- Jesus was a real person in history who died
2 Peter 1:16 CSB – For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
1 John 1:1, 3 CSB – What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you,
Luke 1:1-4 CSB – Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. 3 It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.
I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this.
Of this [Bible] text there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage….. Or else, some unknown writer in the second century, without known predecessors or successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern, novelistic, realistic narrative….
The reader who does not see this has simply not learned to read. – CS Lewis
- Accounts of the Resurrection include inconvenient and unflattering details, that make most sense as attempts to reliably record what had happened, free from embellishment.
“The character of their narratives is like that of all other true witnesses, containing …substantial truth, under circumstantial variety.
And…
There is enough of discrepancy to show that there could have been no previous concert among them; and at the same time such substantial agreement as to show that they all were independent narrators of the same great transaction, as the events actually occurred.” – Simon Greenleaf, principal founder of Harvard Law School
- When Jesus died, His followers scattered in fear
- Without the physical Resurrection, two thousand years of history are left begging for explanation
Dr. Swamidass, It is…like a movie missing the key scene.”
No other event in all recorded history has reached so far across national, ethnic, religious, linguistic, cultural, political, and geographic borders. The message spread with unreasonable success across the world.
During just the first few centuries, it spread without political or military power, prevailing against the ruthless efforts of dedicated, organized and violent opposition. How did a small band of disempowered Jews in an occupied and insignificant territory of ancient Rome accomplish this unequaled act? What happened so many years ago that reframed all human history?”
- What do you do with the fact that the Resurrection changes lives of all people, from all education levels, all socioeconomic conditions?
Dr. Swamidass concludes:
The question of the Resurrection is more like an opportunity to fall in love than a scientific inquiry. There is evidence, but the Resurrection cannot be studied dispassionately. If Jesus really rose from the dead, it reorders everything. Just like falling in love, it changes our view of the world.
The final verdict, for me, is that the Resurrection makes sense through the lens of history. I find the Creator of all that science studies comes to us in this way.
The evidence is compelling, but not definitive.
Faith in Jesus is reasonable and is certainly not without evidence.
Jesus’ Resurrection Means Victory is Certain
Proverbs 13:12 CSB – Hope delayed makes the heart sick
Romans 8:11 CSB – And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.
1 Corinthians 15:26-27 CSB – The last enemy to be abolished is death. 27 For God has put everything under his feet.
