The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest miracle of all history. But if Jesus had not walked out of His tomb on the third day, the resurrection story would be the greatest lie of all time.
Jesus’ visit with His disciples to Caesarea Philippi was a red-letter event in the Lord’s ministry. There, up in the Golan Heights of northern Israel, Jesus gave the prophecy of the birth of the church (Matthew 16:18). Immediately following this great proclamation, Jesus began to prepare His disciples in another prophecy for His death and resurrection. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31; Matthew 17:22; Luke 9:22).
A few short months later, the Lord was arrested and tried for His life in the court of Caiaphas, Israel’s high priest. Jesus was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death by crucifixion, just as He had prophesied. But on the third day He walked out of His tomb. It lives even to this day, 2,000 years later, as the greatest miracle of all time.
Some say this Gospel story is simply unbelievable, alleging the resurrection of Jesus is a lie. Others say the Early Church apostles put statements in Jesus’ mouth -– things He never said. But anyone who studies the Gospels with an open mind will recognize Jesus spoke compellingly to His followers. What Jesus said, and the apostles taught, is not a figment springing from the minds of deluded people.
It just is not possible to wave away the authority of Jesus’ testimony to His resurrection. The Lord’s disciples witnessed to it for the remainder of their lives, and paid for their testimonies with their own blood.
The religious establishment in Israel, when the Roman soldiers reported Jesus was missing from His tomb, did not go searching for Jesus to check out the news face to face. Their hearts were committed to protecting themselves and the self-righteous value system by which they lived (Matthew 28:11-15; Luke 19:31). Instead, the Sanhedrin leaders violated their own Law and bribed the soldiers to change their testimony (Matthew 28:11-15).
It should never be forgotten that religion will lie and even kill to cover its tracks when its self-interests are at stake. With these first century Jewish leaders, this was true even though the ninth commandment of Moses’ Law they so zealously defended was explicit: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Consider the deception they crafted to explain-away the resurrection.
“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 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 among the Jews to this very day” (Matthew 28:12-15, NIV).
Can anyone in his right mind believe the resurrection of Jesus was a lie? The testimony of Thomas makes the point. Jesus said to him, when they met about a week after Jesus’ resurrection, “Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27). The conclusion is clear. Faith is a choice and so is doubt. Each is made in the face of the abundant evidence to Jesus’ resurrection, and reveals a person’s agenda in his heart. Consider.
The Roman guards risked execution if they slept while on duty. Are we to believe, if the disciples stole Jesus’ body away, those soldiers slept so soundly they did not hear the sounds made by rolling away the stone that sealed the tomb? Now that’s a stretch.
The truth is they were awake when the angel appeared and scared them out of their senses, so that they fell over like they were dead men. The angel then sat on the stone, demonstrating the powerlessness of the Jewish religious system or the Roman army to do anything about it.
Here’s another stretch: the disciples had a few hours earlier witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, along with a thief on each side of Jesus. If caught trying to steal Jesus’ body, the disciples too could expect to be crucified themselves. Talk about being full of fear –- the last thing they wanted to do was try to pull off a theft. What the disciples really wanted was to go in hiding!
Jesus’ disciples would have been no match for those soldiers. They would have been fools to risk their lives and try to overcome those battle-hardened men. But if they had been successful, is it not highly likely there would have been a fight to the death. Most likely at least one disciple would have been killed, and if a Roman soldier had been killed, each of the disciples would have been charged with murder. And if the disciples had been successful, and each of the soldiers were either killed or fled, then the disciples would have needed to whisk Jesus’ body away for another secret burial. But the disciples never disclosed another burial site, and over the next thirty plus years, to a man, they never changed their story that God raised Jesus from the dead. Instead, they literally staked their lives on their testimony.
The testimony of the Gospel writers is far more plausible than such a “theft” narrative.
The soldiers went to Caiaphas -– they surely would not have wanted to report to Pilate. The Jewish leaders bribed them with “a large sum of money to lie,” and told them what to say: “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we slept” (Matthew 28:12-13, NIV).
It would also have been necessary for the disciples to create a series of new lies about the resurrection sightings. They also had to coordinate their stories so carefully, and in such detail, that the disciples kept preaching the lie over the next thirty plus years without the story changing, and be willing to be beaten and stoned for preaching what they knew was a falsehood. But if it was a lie, is it not reasonable that at least one of them would have broken rank and confessed to the falsehood?
If the disciples had indeed stolen Jesus’ body away, is it not also reasonable Pilate and the Jewish leaders would have put out all-points-bulletins for each of the disciples’ arrests? But Acts of the Apostles shows the disciples living fearlessly in Jerusalem and preaching boldly Jesus’ resurrection.
If the resurrection of Jesus is a lie, then the Great Commission is a lie.
If the resurrection of Jesus is a lie, then the ascension of Jesus is a lie.
The disciples went to the Upper Room and prayed together for ten days, along with Jesus’ mother and about 110 others. But if Jesus was not raised from the dead, not one of the disciples, smitten with a guilty conscience, stood up and announced to these earnestly praying people, I’m sorry folks, but it’s all a lie!
Then the Day of Pentecost came on the fiftieth day after Jesus’ resurrection and is remembered as the birthday of the church. But if Jesus was not raised, then the advent of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church was another cruel hoax. This means if Peter did stand up and preach that highly inspired sermon to the gathered crowd, he was lying and knew he was fabricating.
The following statement made by Peter would be blasphemy if Jesus did not rise from the dead: “Be assured of this,” Peter proclaimed, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Messiah].”
Peter went on to urge them to “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are afar off – for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:36-41, NIV). Would a liar be able to do that kind of inspired, confrontational preaching?
A harvest of 3,000 people confessed Jesus as the Son of God that day. But if Jesus was not raised from the dead, Peter, the blasphemer and liar, had the bold “brass” to heap a malicious lie on 3,000 people.
It is far more reasonable to believe the Biblical story of the resurrection, than it is to believe the host of lies and cover-up required to perpetuate such a false narrative.
Luke the physician wrote in his introduction to the book of Acts that the proofs of Jesus’ resurrection were “infallible.”
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which He was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen: To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:1-3, KJV).
The Apostle Paul wrote some twenty-five years later: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3, NIV; see 1 Peter 3:18). Paul also emphatically added, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, ESV; John 20:31). Yes, the resurrection of Jesus was a historical fact to Paul.
The Apostle Peter in the last years of his life, about twenty-five years later, was still preaching the Gospel of Jesus’ bodily resurrection, and explicitly denied making up the story: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty (1 Peter 1:16-18, NIV). Peter also wrote, “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18-19, NIV).
Robert Lowry (1826-1899) captured the story of Jesus’ resurrection, history’s greatest miracle, in his classic hymn (1874):
Lo, in the grave He lay,
Jesus my Savior.
He tore the bars away,
Jesus my Lord.
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.
He arose the Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!
Jesus’ visit with His disciples to Caesarea Philippi was a red-letter event in the Lord’s ministry. There, up in the Golan Heights of northern Israel, Jesus gave the prophecy of the birth of the church (Matthew 16:18). Immediately following this great proclamation, Jesus began to prepare His disciples in another prophecy for His death and resurrection. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31; Matthew 17:22; Luke 9:22).
A few short months later, the Lord was arrested and tried for His life in the court of Caiaphas, Israel’s high priest. Jesus was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death by crucifixion, just as He had prophesied. But on the third day He walked out of His tomb. It lives even to this day, 2,000 years later, as the greatest miracle of all time.
Some say this Gospel story is simply unbelievable, alleging the resurrection of Jesus is a lie. Others say the Early Church apostles put statements in Jesus’ mouth -– things He never said. But anyone who studies the Gospels with an open mind will recognize Jesus spoke compellingly to His followers. What Jesus said, and the apostles taught, is not a figment springing from the minds of deluded people.
It just is not possible to wave away the authority of Jesus’ testimony to His resurrection. The Lord’s disciples witnessed to it for the remainder of their lives, and paid for their testimonies with their own blood.
The religious establishment in Israel, when the Roman soldiers reported Jesus was missing from His tomb, did not go searching for Jesus to check out the news face to face. Their hearts were committed to protecting themselves and the self-righteous value system by which they lived (Matthew 28:11-15; Luke 19:31). Instead, the Sanhedrin leaders violated their own Law and bribed the soldiers to change their testimony (Matthew 28:11-15).
It should never be forgotten that religion will lie and even kill to cover its tracks when its self-interests are at stake. With these first century Jewish leaders, this was true even though the ninth commandment of Moses’ Law they so zealously defended was explicit: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Consider the deception they crafted to explain-away the resurrection.
“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 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 among the Jews to this very day” (Matthew 28:12-15, NIV).
Can anyone in his right mind believe the resurrection of Jesus was a lie? The testimony of Thomas makes the point. Jesus said to him, when they met about a week after Jesus’ resurrection, “Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27). The conclusion is clear. Faith is a choice and so is doubt. Each is made in the face of the abundant evidence to Jesus’ resurrection, and reveals a person’s agenda in his heart. Consider.
The Roman guards risked execution if they slept while on duty. Are we to believe, if the disciples stole Jesus’ body away, those soldiers slept so soundly they did not hear the sounds made by rolling away the stone that sealed the tomb? Now that’s a stretch.
The truth is they were awake when the angel appeared and scared them out of their senses, so that they fell over like they were dead men. The angel then sat on the stone, demonstrating the powerlessness of the Jewish religious system or the Roman army to do anything about it.
Here’s another stretch: the disciples had a few hours earlier witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, along with a thief on each side of Jesus. If caught trying to steal Jesus’ body, the disciples too could expect to be crucified themselves. Talk about being full of fear –- the last thing they wanted to do was try to pull off a theft. What the disciples really wanted was to go in hiding!
Jesus’ disciples would have been no match for those soldiers. They would have been fools to risk their lives and try to overcome those battle-hardened men. But if they had been successful, is it not highly likely there would have been a fight to the death. Most likely at least one disciple would have been killed, and if a Roman soldier had been killed, each of the disciples would have been charged with murder. And if the disciples had been successful, and each of the soldiers were either killed or fled, then the disciples would have needed to whisk Jesus’ body away for another secret burial. But the disciples never disclosed another burial site, and over the next thirty plus years, to a man, they never changed their story that God raised Jesus from the dead. Instead, they literally staked their lives on their testimony.
The testimony of the Gospel writers is far more plausible than such a “theft” narrative.
The soldiers went to Caiaphas -– they surely would not have wanted to report to Pilate. The Jewish leaders bribed them with “a large sum of money to lie,” and told them what to say: “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we slept” (Matthew 28:12-13, NIV).
It would also have been necessary for the disciples to create a series of new lies about the resurrection sightings. They also had to coordinate their stories so carefully, and in such detail, that the disciples kept preaching the lie over the next thirty plus years without the story changing, and be willing to be beaten and stoned for preaching what they knew was a falsehood. But if it was a lie, is it not reasonable that at least one of them would have broken rank and confessed to the falsehood?
If the disciples had indeed stolen Jesus’ body away, is it not also reasonable Pilate and the Jewish leaders would have put out all-points-bulletins for each of the disciples’ arrests? But Acts of the Apostles shows the disciples living fearlessly in Jerusalem and preaching boldly Jesus’ resurrection.
If the resurrection of Jesus is a lie, then the Great Commission is a lie.
If the resurrection of Jesus is a lie, then the ascension of Jesus is a lie.
The disciples went to the Upper Room and prayed together for ten days, along with Jesus’ mother and about 110 others. But if Jesus was not raised from the dead, not one of the disciples, smitten with a guilty conscience, stood up and announced to these earnestly praying people, I’m sorry folks, but it’s all a lie!
Then the Day of Pentecost came on the fiftieth day after Jesus’ resurrection and is remembered as the birthday of the church. But if Jesus was not raised, then the advent of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church was another cruel hoax. This means if Peter did stand up and preach that highly inspired sermon to the gathered crowd, he was lying and knew he was fabricating.
The following statement made by Peter would be blasphemy if Jesus did not rise from the dead: “Be assured of this,” Peter proclaimed, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Messiah].”
Peter went on to urge them to “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are afar off – for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:36-41, NIV). Would a liar be able to do that kind of inspired, confrontational preaching?
A harvest of 3,000 people confessed Jesus as the Son of God that day. But if Jesus was not raised from the dead, Peter, the blasphemer and liar, had the bold “brass” to heap a malicious lie on 3,000 people.
It is far more reasonable to believe the Biblical story of the resurrection, than it is to believe the host of lies and cover-up required to perpetuate such a false narrative.
Luke the physician wrote in his introduction to the book of Acts that the proofs of Jesus’ resurrection were “infallible.”
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which He was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen: To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:1-3, KJV).
The Apostle Paul wrote some twenty-five years later: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3, NIV; see 1 Peter 3:18). Paul also emphatically added, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, ESV; John 20:31). Yes, the resurrection of Jesus was a historical fact to Paul.
The Apostle Peter in the last years of his life, about twenty-five years later, was still preaching the Gospel of Jesus’ bodily resurrection, and explicitly denied making up the story: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty (1 Peter 1:16-18, NIV). Peter also wrote, “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18-19, NIV).
Robert Lowry (1826-1899) captured the story of Jesus’ resurrection, history’s greatest miracle, in his classic hymn (1874):
Lo, in the grave He lay,
Jesus my Savior.
He tore the bars away,
Jesus my Lord.
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.
He arose the Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!