Easter (Chantilly)

The Resurrection of Jesus Answers Doubts about God

1 Corinthians 15:14 CSB – if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith.

Evidence for Jesus Resurrection

[The resurrection] can be confirmed by direct evidence: the testimony of eyewitnesses.

The worshipers of Mithras, Osiris, Attis and others placed their trust in ancient mythologies based on folklores rather than verifiable, recorded history.

Those who observed the resurrection of Jesus, on the other hand, testified about Jesus based on their own firsthand observations.

More than 100 of His followers gathered following His ascension. On another occasion, He appeared to more than 500 at one time, most of whom were still available to the readers of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:6).

The evidential nature of Christianity provided it with a unique advantage. The resurrection, locked in the timeline of history and documented by eyewitnesses, distinguished Christianity from every first-century religious claim in the Roman Empire, and continues to do so today.

My experience documenting the “chain of custody” for any piece of evidence in a criminal trial helped me to trace the claims of the New Testament authors over the centuries. The students of the Apostle John, for example (Ignatius, Papias and Polycarp), reiterate John’s claims without any modification. Ignatius and Polycarp then repeated the Gospel claims faithfully to their student, Irenaeus, without altering them. As I examined the ancient letters of these Church Fathers, I discovered that the truth about Jesus could be reconstructed from their letters to one another and to local congregations. The facts about Jesus were never altered along the way.

My experience investigating homicides taught me that there are only three reasons why anyone commits a murder (these are the three reasons people lie): financial greed, sexual desire and the pursuit of power. As I examined the lives of the Gospel authors, I found that none of them had anything to gain in any of these areas.

The Gospel authors passed the four-part test I typically applied to eyewitnesses in my criminal cases. Their written accounts reliably and accurately described the resurrection of Jesus without ulterior motive. When I realized this was the case, everything changed for me.

The Resurrection of Jesus Answers The Problem of Guilt

What is guilt?

Proverbs 30:20 CSB – 

This is the way of an adulteress:
she eats and wipes her mouth
and says, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Psalm 51:3-4 CSB – 

For I am conscious of my rebellion,
and my sin is always before me.

Against you—you alone—I have sinned
and done this evil in your sight.
So you are right when you pass sentence;
you are blameless when you judge.

Romans 3:10 CSB – There is no one righteous, not even one.

Romans 6:26 CSB – “The wages of sin is death….”

Romans 3:23,24,26 CSB – 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.

26, God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

Isaiah 53:5-6 CSB –

But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds.
⁶ We all went astray like sheep;
we all have turned to our own way;
and the Lord has punished him
for the iniquity of us all.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 CSB – 

Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, ¹⁰ no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. ¹¹ And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Psalm 103:12 CSB – As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed
our transgressions from us.

Jesus Resurrection Answers the Problem of Loneliness

Matthew 28:18-20 CSB – Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Proverbs 18:24 CSB – there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.

Jesus Resurrection Answers Our Need for Hope

Matthew 19:23 CSB – Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 CSB –

For I passed on to you as most important  (nothing more important)

what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

1 Corinthians 15:17, 20-22; 54-57 CSB –

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins….

²⁰ But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead…. ²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. ²² For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

Death has been swallowed up in victory.
⁵⁵ Where, death, is your victory?
Where, death, is your sting?

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victorythrough our Lord Jesus Christ!