phenomenal cause. The question persists: What else could have caused the commitment, perseverance, and rapid expansion of the early church to the present two billion people on earth who worship Jesus today other than His resurrection from death? There have been many disagreements among Christians on secondary matters of their faith throughout the history of the church. But on the primary issues related to Jesus, such as His bodily resurrection from death, there has always been consistent agreement. *The resurrection of Jesus is more than just yet another amazing historical fact. It has unprecedented, practical implications for our life both in this world and beyond our grave.

20 Proofs

of

Jesus' Resurrection

The resurrection of Jesus is the most known and celebrated miracle in the history of the world. Jesus' resurrection is an Historical Fact…that is why we have gathered today…to celebrate this fact. Proof #1 Prophesies Fulfilled Roughly 700 years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be born into humble circumstances to live a simple life, die a brutal death, and then rise to take away our sin (Isaiah 53:8-12). There are also over 80 additional prophecies that Christ fulfilled. The probability for Him to even have fulfilled one prophecy is like 1 to the 17th power, much less over 80 of them perfectly! Proof #2 Jesus' Promise Jesus often promised that He would die and rise 3 days later. Matthew 12:38-40; Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34 & John 2:18-22 are just a few examples. Proof #3 Professionally Executed After a sleepless night of trials and beatings, Jesus' scourging was so horrendous that many men would have died from it before ever making it to their crucifixion. Jesus was crucified and a professional executioner declared Him to be dead. A spear was then thrust into His side, puncturing His heart sack (Jn. 19:34-35). His body was wrapped in roughly 100 pounds of linens and spices; if He were able to somehow survive the beatings, floggings, crucifixion, and a speared heart, the embalming process would have killed him by asphyxiation. Even if Jesus somehow survived all of this, which would in and of itself be a miracle, He could not have endured 3 days without food, water or medical attention in a cold tomb carved out of rock. Proof #4 A Rich Man's Tomb Some 700 years before Jesus was even born, God through Isaiah promised that Jesus would be buried in a rich man's tomb (Isaiah 53:9). Jesus was a very poor man on earth who could not have afforded an expensive burial plot. But following Jesus' death, a wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea, gifted his expensive tomb for the burial of Jesus. This tomb was not obscure, it was in

a prominent place, easy to find. Everyone would know which tomb in which Jesus had been placed…it would have been very easy to find. Proof #5 Public Appearances Following His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples who were certain that the tomb was empty, but uncertain if He had truly risen from death physically. Luke 24:36-43 records that Jesus was emphatic about His bodily resurrection and went out of His way to prove it. Proof #6 Quickly Pronounced in Scripture In 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, the apostle Paul states, "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." This statement is widely accepted as the earliest church creed, which began circulating as early as AD 30-36, shortly following Jesus' resurrection. Proof #7 Tomb Secured & Sealed Jesus' tomb was as secure as a maximum-security prison! With Roman guards stationed at the tomb and the seal of Rome, no one dared mess with the stone, the guards or the seal! The Bible states, The next day…the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first." "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. (Matthew 27:64-66 NIV) The seal could only be set on the stone in the presence of the Roman guard. The seal itself was 2 pieces of rawhide (leather), stretched diagonally to 4 separate clay packs. Once these leather cords were stretched across the tomb, the signet ring of the emperor of Rome was pressed into the center like a stamp, sealing the tomb

by the authority & power of Rome. (A. T. Robertson in Word Pictures in the New Testament (New York: R.R. Smith, Inc., 1931) The Roman soldiers that stood guard at the tomb numbered anywhere from 4 to 20 as a guard unit. They slept in shifts, every 3 hours they would change shifts. In groups of 12…8 men slept while 4 men stayed awake. In groups of 16…10 men slept while 6 stayed on guard. Roman guards were armed with 6 foot Pikes (long sticks w/spear heads on the end surrounded by smaller spear heads), they were also armed with 3 foot thrusting swords, daggers, and for protection, a wooden or wicker shield covered with leather and metal work. If any soldier standing guard fell asleep, the entire 12 or 16 man team was executed. They were stripped of their clothes and burned in a fire started with their garments! Yet, knowing the consequences, the seal was broken, the guards became as dead men and Jesus was raised to life! Matthew describes what happened that night while the guard was on duty, "... a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven…and his appearance was like lightning, and his garment as white as snow; and the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men" (Matthew 28:2-4, NASB). God demonstrated His power & His authority over the worlds best! By breaking the seal & overthrowing the power of Rome, God teaches us that He is the ultimate power & ultimate authority. There is no power that can compare to His & there is no authority that is higher than His! The Fact was that nothing was able to stop Jesus Christ from rising from the dead! Proof #8 Jesus' body was raised to life as well as his spirit. His whole person was raised to life & adapted to eternity by the power of God. Jesus' followers did not go off to Athens or Rome to preach that Christ was raised from the dead. Rather, they went right back to the city of Jerusalem, where, if what they were teaching was false it would have been evident.

Paul Althaus states that the resurrection "could have not been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned." Both Jewish and Roman sources and traditions admit an empty tomb. Those resources range from Josephus to a compilation of fifth-century Jewish writings called the "Toledoth Jeshu." Dr. Paul Maier calls this "positive evidence from a hostile source, which is the strongest kind of historical evidence. In essence, this means that if a source admits a fact which is decidedly not in its favor, then that fact is genuine." Gamaliel, who was a member of the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin, put forth the suggestion that the rise of the Christian movement was God's doing; he could not have done that if the tomb were still occupied, or if the Sanhedrin knew the whereabouts of Christ's body. It’s interesting to note that all the contemporary witnesses agree on this fact. The disciples, the Jews, and the Romans all knew that the tomb was empty. It’s true that each group viewed that fact differently but no one disputed the basic assertion that on Easter Sunday morning Jesus was no longer in the tomb. No one has ever found the body of Jesus and no one ever will. The skeptics simply can’t answer the question, “What happened to his body?” It is the ultimate unanswered question. Where is the body of Jesus? The Jews never produced his body. If anyone—anyone at all—had produced the dead body of Jesus, the entire Christian movement would have gone the way of so many other short-lived religions across the centuries. The authorities hated Christianity and did everything in their power to stop it from spreading. They arrested the apostles, threatened them and eventually killed some of them. None of that

would have been necessary if they could have produced the body. The obvious reason why they did not is that they could not. The tomb was empty. The body was gone. Proof #9 The Stone Thrown On that Sunday morning the first thing that impressed the people who approached the tomb was the unusual position of the at least two ton stone that had been lodged in front of the doorway. All the Gospel writers mention it. Those who observed the stone after the resurrection describe its position as having been rolled up a slope away not just from the entrance of the tomb, but away from the tomb itself. It was in such a position that it looked as if it had been picked up and carried away. Josh McDowell goes into this at some length. He states that the stone itself was three to six feet in diameter and weighed two to five tons. It took several strong men to roll it into place. Matthew says the stone was rolled away, he uses the word "kulio," which means to roll. Mark used the same root word with the preposition "ana," which means up or upward. It can only mean that the stone was rolled up an incline or slope. There had to have been a slope there at the tomb. Luke, considered one of the most accurate historians, uses "kulio" with the preposition "appo" which means away from in the sense of distance or separation. He states that the stone was moved away not from just the entrance of the tomb, but from the tomb itself. John used the word "airo,"…which means to pick up something and carry it away…the angel picked up the stone and moved it up and away or maybe the angel picked up the stone and threw it up and away! Now, I ask you, if the disciples had wanted to come in, tiptoe around the sleeping guards, and then roll the stone over and steal

Jesus' body, how could they have done that without the guards' awareness? The stone was at least 2 tons! Let's take another look at what Matthew wrote, "There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men." Who rolled the stone away? The disciples? The Roman guards would have stopped them. The Jews? Same thing. The Romans? Not likely. They had no motivation. And who would risk death to do such a thing? Who rolled the stone away? God did, because he’s the one who raised Jesus from the dead. Proof #10 Post Resurrection Appearances After His resurrection, Jesus was seen by hundreds of people over a 40 day period of time! What we must understand is that, when studying an event in history, it is important to know whether enough people who were participants or eyewitnesses to the event were alive when the facts about the event were published. To know this is obviously helpful in finding out the accuracy of what had been reported. If the number of eyewitnesses is substantial, the event can be regarded as fairly well established. For instance, if we all witness a murder, and a later police report turns out to be a fabrication of lies, we as eyewitnesses can refute it. Paul reminds his readers that the majority of the people whom the risen Christ appeared to were still alive and were willing to be questioned as eyewitnesses! According to the various accounts he appeared to Mary Magdalene first of all, then to the other women who were returning from the tomb, afterward to Peter, to the Emmaus disciples, to the ten gathered in the upper room, then (a week later) to the eleven disciples including Thomas, to James, to five hundred brethren at once (1 Cor. 15:6, perhaps on a mountainside in Galilee), to a band of disciples who had been fishing on the lake of Galilee, to those who witnessed the ascension from the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, and last of all to Paul,

who claimed to have seen Christ in his vision on the road to Damascus. During the days following the resurrection, all these persons moved from despair to firm conviction and joy. Nothing accounts for that but the fact that they had indeed seen Jesus. When Jesus appeared to Thomas a week after the resurrection he offered the ultimate proof. Spreading forth his hands, he said, “Touch my wounds. See for yourself.” When Thomas saw the wounds, he knew at last that it must be true. He ate with the disciples Luke 24:42, 43 tells us that Jesus ate broiled fish in the presence of the disciples. A ghost doesn’t eat fish. Neither does a dead man. He stayed with them for 40 days Forty days is a long time. If Jesus had only appeared once or twice, we might be tempted to discount it as a hopeful vision. But Jesus “showed himself alive” according to Acts 1:1-3 by “many infallible proofs.” He stayed long enough to convince all his followers that he had indeed come back from the dead. Let's take the more than 500 witnesses who saw Jesus alive after His death and burial, and place them in a courtroom. Do you realize that if each of those 500 people were to testify for only six minutes, including cross-examination, you would have an amazing 50 hours of firsthand testimony? Add to this the testimony of many other eyewitnesses and you would well have the largest and most lopsided trial in history. Christians believe that Jesus was bodily resurrected in time and space by the supernatural power of God…which leads us to one of the most amazing proofs of all! Proof #11 Jesus' Grave Clothes Jesus grave clothes were left fully in tact, and the cloth covering his face was neatly rolled up and set off by itself! How does someone's dead body wrapped in grave clothes like a mummy, get out of the grave clothes without one tiny tear in the grave clothes? The grave clothes were still in tact in the shape of Jesus' body!

John, a disciple of Jesus, looked over to the place where the body of Jesus had lain, and there were the grave clothes, in the form of the body, slightly caved in and empty--like an empty caterpillar's cocoon. That's enough to make a believer out of anybody. John never did get over it. The first thing that stuck in the minds of the disciples was not the empty tomb, but rather the empty grave clothes--undisturbed in form and position. Every society has its distinct modes of burial, and that was true in ancient cultures as today. In Egypt bodies were embalmed. In Italy and Greece they were often cremated. In Palestine they were wrapped in linen bands that enclosed dry spices and were placed face up without a coffin in tombs generally cut from the rock in the Judean and Galilean hills. Many such tombs still exist and can be seen by any visitor to Palestine. Henry Latham, in his book, "The Risen Master," concludes that a separate covering for the head and the body were used as a method of burial during the time of Christ. Luke tells us that when Jesus was approaching the village of Nain earlier in his ministry, he met a funeral procession leaving the city. The only son of a widow had died. Luke says that when Jesus raised him from death two things happened. First, the young man sat up. And second, he at once began to speak. Therefore, the grave clothes did not cover his face. Separate coverings for the head and body were also used in the burial of Lazarus (Jn. 11:44). It must have been in a similar manner that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried Jesus Christ. The body of Jesus was removed from the cross before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, was washed, and then was wrapped in linen bands. One hundred pounds of dry spices were carefully inserted into the folds of the linen. One of them, aloe, was a powdered wood like fine sawdust with an aromatic fragrance; another, myrrh, was a fragrant gum that would be carefully mixed with the powder.

Jesus' body was thus encased. His head, neck and upper shoulders were left slightly bare. A linen cloth was wrapped about the upper part of his head like a turban. The body was then placed within the tomb where it lay until sometime on Saturday night or Sunday morning. What would we have seen had we been there at the moment at which Jesus was raised from the dead? Would we have seen him stir, open his eyes, sit up, and begin to struggle out of the bandages? Let's remember that it would have been difficult to escape from the bandages. Is that what we would have seen? Not at all. That would have been a resuscitation, not a resurrection. It would have been the same as if he had recovered from fainting. Jesus would have been raised in a natural fleshly body rather than an eternal spiritual body, and that was not what happened. If we had been present in the tomb at the moment of the resurrection, we would have noticed that all at once the body of Jesus seemed to disappear. John Stott says that the body was" 'vaporized,' being transmuted into something new and different and wonderful." Henry Latham says that the body had been "exhaled," passing "into a phase of being like that of Moses and Elias on the Mount of transfiguration." We would have seen only that it was gone. What would have happened then? The linen cloths would have collapsed once the body was removed, because of the weight of the spices, and would have been lying undisturbed where the body of Jesus had been. The clothe which surrounded the head, without the weight of spices, might well have retained its concave shape and have lain by itself separated from the other cloths by the space where the neck and shoulders of the Lord had been. Evidently the spices and resins had hardened into the shape of Jesus’ body, leaving the appearance of a cocoon after the butterfly has escaped. How do you explain that fact? Grave robbers would have taken the body without unwrapping it or they would have

unwrapped it and thrown the winding sheets to the side. No one steals a body and then rewraps the grave-clothes. I believe that when Jesus rose from the dead he literally passed right through the grave-clothes leaving behind the linen wrappings just as John and Peter found them. That is exactly what John and Peter saw when they entered the tomb, and the eyewitness account reveals it perfectly. John was the first at the tomb, and as he went inside in the murky light of early dawn he saw the grave clothes lying there. Something about them attracted his attention. First, it was significant that they were lying there at all. John places the word for "lying" at an emphatic position in the Greek sentence. We might translate it, "He saw, lying there, the grave clothes" (Jn 20:5). Further, the cloths were undisturbed. The word that John uses (keimena) is used in the Greek language of things that have been carefully placed in order. Certainly John noticed that there had been no disturbance at the tomb. At that point Peter arrived and went into the tomb. Undoubtedly Peter saw what John saw, but in addition he was struck by something else. The cloth that had been around the head was not with the other cloths. It was lying in a place by itself (Jn. 20:7). And what was more striking, it had retained a circular shape. John says that it was "wrapped together" (KJV). We might say that it was "twirled about itself." And there was a space between it and the cloths that had enveloped the body. The Bible says, "Then Simon Peter came, following him and went into the tomb he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on his head not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself." Finally John too entered the tomb and saw what Peter saw. When he did, he believed. What did John believe? He might have explained it to Peter like this "Don't you see, Peter, that no one has moved the body or

disturbed the grave clothes? They are lying exactly as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea left them the eve of the Sabbath. Yet the body is gone. It has not been stolen. It has not been moved. Clearly it must have passed through the clothes, leaving them as we see them now. Jesus must be risen." They believed! Proof #12 Jesus' Family Worshiped Him as God. James, Jesus' half-brother, was originally opposed to the claims of His brother (John 7:5). But a transformation occurred in James after he saw Hi brother resurrected from death (1 Corinthians 15:7). James went on to pastor the church in Jerusalem and authored the New Testament epistle bearing his name (James 1:1). Jesus' mother Mary was part of the early church that prayed to and worshiped her son as God (Acts 1:14), as was Jesus' other brother, Jude, who also wrote a book of the New Testament (Acts 1:14; Jude 1). Proof #13 Jesus' resurrection confirmed by His enemies. Paul was a devout Jewish Pharisee (Philippians 3:4-6) who routinely persecuted and killed Christians (Acts 7:54-60). After an encounter with the risen Christ (Acts 9), Paul was converted and became the most dynamic defender and expander of the church. Proof #14 Transformed Disciples Prior to the resurrection, the disciples were timid and fearful, even hiding when Jesus appeared to them (John 20:19). But following the resurrection, they were all transformed into bold witnesses to what they had seen and heard, even to the point of dying for their convictions. Proof #15 The Disciples' Loyalty Our culture is filled with various people who are proclaimed to be, in varying degrees, a messiah. Such messiahs are surrounded by passionate followers that make sacrifices to support their messiah. Yet once this messiah fails, their support base dwindles and people either give up hope or go searching for another messiah in which to trust.

Curiously, the disciples of Jesus did neither. They did not give up hope that there was truly a real Messiah. Nor did they walk away from their commitment to Jesus in search of another messiah after His death—because He had risen. Proof #16 The Disciple's Character To claim that the disciples preached obvious lies and deluded people into dying for the world's greatest farce, one would first have to find credible evidence to challenge the character of the disciples. Also, these men were devout Jews who knew that if they worshipped a false god, and also encouraged others to do the same, they would be sentenced by God to the fires of eternal hell for violating the first two commandments. Proof #17 Worship Changed Two of the Ten Commandments are that only the one true God is to be worshiped and that part of His worship includes honoring the Saturday Sabbath. Yet, following Jesus' resurrection, He was worshiped on Sunday because that was the day of His resurrection (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2). Proof #18 Theological Changes Baptism shows that Christians will be buried and raised, cleansed from sin by Jesus. Communion remembers the body of Jesus which died on the cross for our sins and rose from the grave for our salvation. Proof #19 The Tomb was Not Enshrined. It was common in Jesus' day for the tombs of holy men to be enshrined. In Palestine at that time, the tombs of at least fifty prophets or other religious figures were enshrined as places of worship and veneration. Yet there was absolutely no trace of any veneration at Jesus' tomb because Jesus was not buried, but instead resurrected. Proof #20 Growth of the Church. There must be an explanation for the rapid growth and extraordinary level of commitment of the early church. Every affect has a cause, and such a world-changing effect necessitates a