PBS aired a series this last week on television
on its front -line program entitled From Jesus
to Christ, The First Christians. The series examined
the origins of Christianity and its development
as a world religion. The first segment was dedicated
primarily to the life and times of Jesus. Perhaps
some of you saw it. The contributing scholars
included recognized theologians from liberal
schools of religion and seminaries across the
country. Nearly all of them, I believe, are associated
with the controversial Jesus Seminar. This think
tank, I mean think tank of higher critical scholars,
pardon me, has an agenda. And the agenda is to,
they say, discover the historical Jesus behind
what they perceive to be the traditions and fabrications
of the New Testament. You see, they approach
it with a bias, and that is that the story of
Jesus as recorded in the Gospels is nothing more
than a collection of imperfect memories and fabrications
and legends. And so they are seeking, they say,
to find the historical Jesus. Sadly, they miss
Him by a mile. Now, if you want to know what
more I think of the Jesus seminar, you can see
me afterward if I'm unclear about it. But I do
want to say that I found the series interesting.
If one can wade through the bias, of the writers.
It's worth watching from the historical and cultural
and even the photographic perspectives. I was
troubled though by what they did in the series
in establishing what seems to be an antinomy,
a contradiction between fact and faith. In other
words, they claim that the facts as they have
discovered them are over here. And that faith
is over here on this side. That somehow the two
are in contradiction and when the facts are known
we have to then believe. The facts they say are
established from archaeology and from history
and anthropology. What we believe, faith, is
what we wish were true. even though the facts
don't substantiate them. The faith, they say,
is what we desire to be true, and in fact they
applied that to the resurrection. They admit
that there is historical evidence that Jesus
died by crucifixion, but they say there is no
evidence of the resurrection. And so they propose
that the followers of Jesus created the idea
of the resurrection in order to make sense of
what had happened to Jesus and to them. In other
words, they wished that it were true, and so
for them it was true. That is not a biblical
definition of faith, my friend. Genuine faith,
the kind of faith that God calls for and honors,
does not rest merely upon our wishes. or our
desires. It rests upon evidence. It rests upon
proof or testimony. God never expects our faith
to contradict facts, although He does call upon
our faith to sometimes supersede facts. That
is, we may not have the facts and therefore we're
called upon to believe the truth of His testimony.
The real question posed by these apostate scholars
is this. Is the historical evidence that we have
in the Bible reliable or not? These kinds of
scholars have no problem accepting the word of
Josephus and other ancient historians. They do
not question the writings of those people and
yet they refuse to give the Bible the same courtesy
or the same credence. And yet, the Bible has
never been proven to be an error. Time and time
again, doubts about its accuracy, its historicity,
have been overwhelmed by the archaeologist's
spade or the historian's eye. And so I want to
think about the resurrection this morning and
simply take the historical evidence that we have.
Believing the Bible to be true, not approaching
it with a bias that somehow it couldn't be true,
but accepting the Bible for exactly what it says
as a historical document. What do we know about
the resurrection? Well, here are the facts, some
of them. We know first that Jesus expected to
be raised from His grave. It was not a creation
of His followers. He Himself predicted He would
rise from the grave. In Luke 9, 22, He said,
The Son of Man must suffer many things and be
rejected by the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the
third day. Later again in the Gospel of Luke,
chapter 18. verses 31 through 33 he warns the
12 behold we are going up to Jerusalem and all
things which are written through the prophets
about the Son of Man will be accomplished for
he will be delivered up to the Gentiles and will
be mocked and mistreated and spit upon and after
they have scourged him they will kill him and
the third day he will rise again So, what do
we know from the historical record? It is this,
that Jesus expected to be raised from His grave
on the third day. My conclusion is this, if the
resurrection had not occurred, every other thing
that Jesus said would have been invalidated.
Everything. We know that Jesus expected to be
raised. From the historical evidence, we know
that his tomb was empty on the third day. Again,
Luke, the master historian, by the way, every
bit the historian that Josephus was, only more
accurate. Luke in the 24th chapter of his gospel
writes about the three women who were the first
witnesses of the resurrection. On the first day
of the week, at early dawn, they came to the
tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared,
and they found the stone rolled away from the
tomb. And when they entered, they did not find
the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened that
while they were perplexed about this, behold,
two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling
apparel. And as the women were terrified and
bowed their faces to the ground, the men said
to them, Why do you seek the living one among
the dead? He is not here, but he has risen. Remember
how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee,
saying, the Son of Man must be delivered into
the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and
the third day rise again. John recounts the eyewitnesses
of the two disciples who first arrived at the
tomb. He says Peter therefore went forth and
the other disciple as John himself and they were
going to the tomb and the two of them were running
together and the other disciple ran ahead faster
than Peter and came to the tomb first and Stooping
and looking in he saw the linen wrappings lying
there, but he did not go in Simon Peter therefore
also came following him and entered the tomb
and he beheld the linen wrappings lying there
and the face cloth which had been on his head
not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled
up in a place by itself. So the other disciple
who had first come to the tomb entered then also,
and he saw and believed. We know from the historical
record that the tomb in which Jesus was placed
after his crucifixion was empty on the morning
of the third day. If the tomb had not been empty,
Jesus' followers would have faced ridicule and
been quickly dismissed. But they were not because
the tomb was, in fact, empty. We also know this
from the historical evidence that His enemies
did not take His body. In fact, they put a guard
in front of the grave to ensure that it would
stay there. The Gospel of Matthew tells us about
this. On the next day, which is the one after
the preparation, it says, the chief priests and
the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate and
said, sir, we remember that when he was still
alive, that deceiver said, after three days,
I am to rise again. You see, even his enemies
knew that he expected to rise the third day.
Somehow these scholars to millennia later haven't
figured that out. Therefore, they said, give
orders for the grave to be made secure until
the third day, lest the disciples come and steal
him away, and say to the people he has risen
from the dead. And the last deception be worse
than the first. Pilate said to them, you have
a guard. Go, make it as secure as you know how.
And they went and made the grave secure, and
along with the guard, they set a seal on the
stone, a Roman seal, so that if anyone broke
it, he would be punished by death by Rome. You
see, they were determined to keep his body in
the grave. The last thing in the world they wanted
to do was to take his body out of the grave.
But they failed in their efforts. He rose from
the grave, and later his enemies schemed to cover
up what they could not explain. Matthew goes
on to say, Some of the guard came into the city
and reported to the chief priests all that had
happened. And when they had assembled with the
elders and counsel together, they gave a large
sum of money to the soldiers. They bribed them
and said, You are to say his disciples came by
night and stole him away while we were asleep.
And if this should come to the governor's ears,
we will win him over and keep you out of trouble."
And they took the money and did as they had been
instructed. And this story, says Matthew, was
widely spread among the Jews and is to this day.
And so, what are the facts? The historical evidence
is that his enemies did not have, nor could they
produce, his body. If, in fact, they had stolen
his body, they could have produced it, and that
would have been the end of Christianity. The
Jesus Seminar scholars ignore the dilemma of
the empty tomb, but it brings me to the fourth
fact that we know from the historical evidence,
and that is that his followers were transformed.
We know this. The historical record says so.
They were not in the mood to create some resurrection
myth. They were dispirited and depressed and
fearful for their lives. For they were associated
now with this man who had been crucified. And
yet they were changed from a fearful, dispirited
band of adherents to a joyful, triumphant body
of apostles. who fearlessly proclaimed a resurrected
Lord. Why? What changed them? It is that they
saw Him, individually and in groups. Groups large
and groups small. They ate with Him. They touched
Him. They talked with Him. The empirical evidence
for the resurrection could not be greater in
the historical record. Here is proof that Jesus
bodily rose from the grave. He said to them after
his resurrection, see my hands and my feet that
it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit
does not have flesh and bones, as you see that
I have. And while they could not believe it for
joy and for marveling, he said to them, Have
you anything here to eat? And they gave him a
piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate
it before them." And again, Luke the historian
summarizes all of the accounts of his resurrection.
and says in the book of Acts, the first chapter
and the third verse, To these, his followers,
he also presented himself alive after his suffering
by many convincing proofs, appearing to them
over a period of forty days. My friend, there
is no other explanation for the transformation
in the disciples. The powerful change in their
disposition can only be explained in terms of
the fact that they were convinced that Jesus
truly had been raised from the dead. Now these
are historical facts that are drawn from an ancient
document that has withstood every attempt by
skeptics and critics through the ages to undermine
its accuracy. in every respect, the Bible. And
today we stand upon the historical record of
Jesus Christ, His birth, His life, His death,
and His resurrection from the dead. We know these
facts. Therefore, we believe. You see, there
is no battle between faith and facts. God expects
our faith to be grounded and built upon the facts
that we have. We know these facts. Therefore,
we believe that Jesus is the Savior or the Judge
of every person. That's how the Bible portrays
Him. He is either your Savior today or He is
your Judge today. And one day you will stand
before Him and He will fulfill that role in your
life, saving you or judging you. And we believe
furthermore that all who trust Him are saved
and all who reject Him are condemned. That is
the message of the Bible. That is the message
of our faith. We believe, because of the historical
facts that we have at hand, that all who trust
in Him, believing that His death on the cross
was for their sins, that He died as their substitute,
taking God's punishment, condemnation upon Himself,
that all who believe in Him will be forgiven
of sins and will receive eternal life. But we
also believe that all who neglect or reject that
message continue on under the condemnation of
God. On this Easter Sunday the message I hope
is very clear to you that Jesus Christ is alive
and that truth has implications that reach to
the heart of every one of us. And if today you
are trusting Him as your Savior, if you have
received Him by faith into your life to forgive
you and to be the Lord of your life, If that
is a reality to you, then rejoice. And on this
Easter day, give yourself anew to Him. For this
One is worthy of our worship. He is worthy of
our service. He is worthy of our sacrifice. But
if you have not trusted in Him yet, if your life
has not yet been transformed, by placing your
faith in these facts. We invite you to do that
today and to receive Him this morning into your
heart, into your life, to change you now and
to change your destiny forever. Let's pray together.
Abraham Kuipers, a theologian, has written, In
the valley of the shadow of death, The great
highway divides itself. One road leads upward
to eternal life, and the other downward to eternal
death. And Jesus Christ makes all the difference.
Father, I pray this morning that there may be
some friend who is here who will trust in the
Savior. Believing that Christ died for his sins.
And in that faith, find forgiveness and eternal
life. And in that act of faith, have his road
changed so that he's no longer walking toward
death, but walking toward life. May Jesus make
a difference in that life today. And Father,
may all of us who know You, who profess with
our hearts deep abiding faith, may we go out
of here determined to live anew, to give ourselves
afresh to the Living Christ. yielding to the
powerful Spirit of God who lives within us, experiencing
every day the power of the resurrection of Jesus
as we walk through this world. We thank you for
the difference that Jesus makes, and we thank
you for the truth, for the historical facts that
you have given to us upon which our faith rests
secure. Would you stand together with me and
our heads are bowed? As we think about our lives
ahead, let's just sing this chorus. Because He
lives, I can face tomorrow. I can face tomorrow
Because he lives All fear is gone Because I know
And life is worth a living just because He lives.
And all God's people said, Amen. God bless you
and a blessed Easter to you. We're dismissed.