Did The Resurrection Really Happen?
When my kids were little we had a new puppy, it was about a year old. It had a really bad habit of running out the front door. One day my mom was going out the door with her walker and the dog saw this as another great opportunity to play “chase me around the neighborhood.” We were getting ready to go somewhere so most of us were already outside when the dog ran past us on the driveway—ran directly into the street and was immediately hit by a car. It happened so fast, I don’t know if the driver of the car even noticed, they just kept going.
The pup was laying still in the street. Everyone starts yelling. Von starts crying—she and my dad run to the dog and pick it up. He says, “I don’t think he’s breathing.” We get in the car and start heading to the vet. That’s a bad day.
About halfway to the clinic, the dog pops his head up like, “where we going? This is very exciting!”
We get to the clinic and take him in to get checked out. We tell the vet what happened, Von is still visibly shaken up with tears in her eyes. The dog is having a great time.
The vet doesn’t believe us. “This dog was not hit by a car.”
“But he was. We all saw it happen. He was completely unconscious, laying in the road, didn’t come to for several minutes.”
He refused to believe us. Said the dog was fine—there’s no evidence this dog was hit by a car. We stopped arguing with him and went back home. In case you’re interested, yes this is the same stupid dog Angel rescued from the lake over Spring break. Dog has more lives than a cat.
My theory is he ran under the car and hit his head on the undercarriage and was knocked out. But the vet refused to believe even that could have happened.
Maybe some of us are feeling a little like that ourselves this morning.
We’re all here on Easter to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Celebrate that a man came back from the dead 2,000 years ago.
Is there any part of you that’s a bit skeptical?
Why should we believe some guy came back from the dead? It was so long ago.
What would happen if we applied the same standard to the resurrection of Jesus that we apply to other historical stories? Folklore. Myth. How do you think it would hold up? Do you think we’d find any real evidence? Or do you think it’s all just going to come down to faith? That we can’t really be sure about it?
We can find plenty of people who say it didn’t really happen—couldn’t have happened. But there are a lot of historical facts that have to be dealt with if we’re going to deny the resurrection of Jesus is true.
Starting with Jesus Himself. Even skeptical unbelieving historians don’t deny that a man named Jesus, who came from Nazareth, who claimed to be the Messiah, was killed by the Jewish religious leaders on a Roman cross under the authority of Pontius Pilate. Agnostic atheist scholar Dr Bart Ehrman wrote a book called “Did Jesus Exist” and his answer from a secular historical perspective is, “undeniably yes.” The abundance of historical documents provides solid evidence that Jesus was a real person who lived in the first century in the region of Palestine and was crucified by the Roman authorities.
So Jesus really existed—and was executed on a cross. But did He really come back from the dead? What evidence could we possibly have for that? Because if there is actual historical evidence, then our skeptical little hearts are going to have to deal with it.
EMPTY Tomb Well, the first historical fact we have to deal with is the tomb where they buried Jesus was discovered to be empty.
How do we know? Well, if an event is recorded by two or more unconnected sources, historical confidence is increased by every occurrence. That’s how history works. And we have at least six independent sources telling us His tomb was found empty.
Luke 24:1–12 — they went in and did not find the body of Jesus
John 20:1–8 — they saw the grave clothes but not the body
1 Cor. 15:3–5 — He died and was buried and was raised
Mark 16:1–8 — the stone was rolled away, he is not here, he is risen
Matt. 28:1–10 — an angel rolled away the stone, he has risen from the dead
Acts 2:29–32 — God raised Jesus from the dead and we’re all witnesses
And you might be thinking, “those aren’t independent sources, those are all in the Bible.”
Ah, but see the Bible isn’t a single book. It’s a library of books. A collection of documents written by eyewitnesses, written while other eyewitnesses were still around to verify or deny the claims it was making. Those are six independent documents, were written by different people in different places at different times for different reasons. Some of them were written within a few years of the crucifixion. They were widespread, everyone knew about them, and we don’t have any record of anyone standing up and saying, “No way man, I was there, that never happened!”
Angry Jewish Leaders The Jewish and Roman authorities also responded to the news of the empty tomb by starting rumors that Jesus’ followers had stolen the body. So first, that shows they admitted it was empty. Second, how are we supposed to believe that a tomb guarded by Roman soldiers could be robbed by some guys who ran away and hid at the first sign of trouble? It’s not likely.
So the tomb was empty. We have to deal with that historical fact. By the way, the stone wasn’t rolled away to let Jesus out—it was rolled away so His followers could see the tomb was empty.
But so what? That doesn’t necessarily mean He came back from the dead. Well, we also have to deal with the historical record that hundreds of people claimed to see Jesus after the crucifixion—after He was buried.
In one of the earliest documents in the New Testament, a letter to the church in Corinth, The Apostle Paul lists a bunch of people he knew who claimed to see the resurrected Jesus. In chapter 15 it says…
He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Finally, he appeared also to me. (1 Cor. 15:5–8)
Appearances that are also mentioned in other independent documents—both in books of the Bible and secular sources. So, there’s no getting around the fact that a bunch of people believed they saw the resurrected Jesus.
But why on earth should we believe them? They might have made it up, they have been tricked, they might have been delusional.
Well, let’s look at some of the people on that list.
The disciples. When Jesus was arrested, they all ran away. They denied Him. They hid.
After the crucifixion they were devastated, demoralized, they lost all hope, and they were in fear for their lives. They didn’t expect this to happen. Their confidence in Jesus as the Messiah was completely destroyed by His death.
They were Jews. They had no concept of a Messiah who would be killed by His enemies. The Messiah was supposed to be a victorious king, going to save them from their oppressors and reestablish the kingdom of Israel.
And they had no concept of a Messiah who would die and then come back to life.
They also believed anyone who was executed on a cross was literally cursed by God. The crucifixion meant they were wrong about Jesus. They thought it was God judging Him publicly and proving that everything He said about Himself was a lie.
They had no motive to invent a story about Jesus coming back from the dead.
Something had to change their mind. Belief in the resurrection happened suddenly and unexpectedly in the Christian community. What changed? Why would they be so completely convinced of His resurrection that they’d stop being afraid of death? When they were threatened, “deny Jesus or be killed” not one of them backed down. Not one.
And I’m not just talking about His disciples and followers. There were unbelievers who saw the risen Jesus, too. Although they didn’t stay unbelievers very long.
During Jesus’ ministry, His natural brothers and sisters showed up a few times to have an intervention. “Jesus you got to stop all this Messiah stuff. It’s crazy. You’re going to get yourself killed along with all your friends!” The brothers and sisters He grew up with did not believe the things He said about Himself.
But can you really blame them? If your brother started going around saying He was the Son of God with the divine power to save sinners, would you drop everything and join their cult? I don’t think so. My brother loves me and thinks the world of me but I’m pretty sure he draws the line at worshiping me. He knows me too well to confuse me with God.
But after the resurrection. After Jesus shows up and has a little family reunion with them. They changed their tune. His brother James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He and his brother Jude wrote a couple books about Jesus that are in the New Testament. And they both died for their faith. That’s quite a change of perspective. I’m inclined to believe someone who changes their mind and puts it all on the line like that.
And the guy who wrote that list of people in 1st Corinthians—Paul includes himself last, says he saw the resurrected Jesus, too. And if you know anything about Paul, you know he was a very reluctant convert to Christianity. Before he met Jesus, he was a successful high-ranking Jewish leader who made it his personal mission to go around killing Christians and tearing down churches. One day resurrected Jesus shows up, throws Paul on the ground, blinds him, and tells him to knock it off! It’s like the manliest conversion in the Bible. Tells him to throw away his career, his status, and follow Him—and he does.
Spends the rest of his life telling people about Jesus, planting churches, taking the Gospel to unbelievers—writing books of the Bible. Even the head disciple, Peter, deferred to Paul as the authority on the teachings of Jesus. When Paul shows up in Jerusalem and sits down with Peter, they compared notes, and the teachings that Paul claimed to get directly from the resurrected Jesus were in perfect alignment with all the things Jesus had taught Peter and the other disciples. Which is a miracle hardly anyone ever talks about—Christians agreeing on doctrines and theology—when does that ever happen?
So a guy who ran away scared and denied knowing Jesus, and a guy who murdered Christians and wanted to shut the whole thing down—something changed their minds. Peter and Paul were both killed by the Romans for talking about the resurrection of Jesus.
They had to really believe it. They didn’t have any other motive to put their lives on the line like that.
People act like the resurrection was an elaborate hoax. Do you really believe all those separate people just happened to come up with the same big idea to lie about Jesus coming back from the dead? No cell phones, no internet. They just spontaneously all decided to pretend Jesus came back from the dead—for some reason. Why would they do that? What was in it for them? Most of them were brutally murdered for believing in the resurrection. People don’t willingly die for something they know isn’t true.
There’s no way to explain any of this other than the fact that they truly believed Jesus rose from the dead.
But just because they truly believed it, that doesn’t make it true, right? People sincerely believe all kinds of things—people can be sincerely wrong.
Because maybe they were tricked. Maybe Jesus didn’t really die. Maybe somehow He survived the flogging, the cross, escaped from the tomb—and then just convinced people He rose from the dead.
But that doesn’t work either. It’s medically impossible. The Roman executioners did their job all day every day. They were professionals. They were good at it. They knew how to make sure people were dead before they took them down from a cross. Also, the way Jesus was tortured to the point of death before He was even crucified—there’s no way he could have survived those injuries.
It’s a pretty big stretch of the imagination: Jesus is beat up enough that they think He’s dead, His unconscious body is sealed in the tomb. Guarded by Roman soldiers. Somehow he wakes up, finds the strength to roll the stone away all by Himself from the inside, and crawls out of the tomb in desperate need of medical attention looking like He was hit by a train—sneaks past the guards (who ran away in fear for some reason) and then this severely injured, bloody, ripped up man convinces His disciples that He was gloriously raised from the dead. Just before they take Him to the E.R.
It’s not defensible. Nobody would be talking about a resurrection.
It also doesn’t hold up to scrutiny if we say they were all just hallucinating. That they imagined it. Saw a vision. That they were crazy.
Because we’re not just talking about one person here. This is hundreds of people who claimed to see Him. And were willing to stake their life on it. It didn’t just happen once, it happened many times. Not just in one place but in a bunch of different places. Not just to individuals either but to groups of people. Not just to believers but also to unbelievers.
There are no textbook cases in psychology that can account for all of these factors.
And even if they did hallucinate or have some kind of a vision that wouldn’t explain why they believed He came back from the dead. If Jesus showed up in a vision that would have just proved to them that He was dead, or a ghost—that He was with God in heaven. Not raised from the dead—not a resurrected man back from the grave in a flesh and blood body that they could touch, who ate with them, and drank with them.
Also, that theory doesn’t even attempt to explain the empty tomb.
All the naturalistic theories fail to explain the historical facts. All of them.
There’s only one explanation that checks all the boxes. And it’s the one given by the original eyewitnesses:
God raised Jesus from the dead.
Checks all the boxes. Makes sense of the empty tomb, the many appearances of Jesus to all those people, how a group of demoralized frightened disciples suddenly transform into the bravest people the world has ever known—with a radical, unmovable, unshakable belief that death was no longer a threat to them.
But hold on. That little skeptic in our heart. He’s probably got a bit of a problem with this. Because to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead means it was a miracle.
How can that be possible? Are miracles possible?
Well, if God exists then of course they are.
We’re in church, can you admit it’s at least possible that God exists?
And if He exists then isn’t it at least possible that miracles could happen?
I mean, if it was a miracle, it’s going to be pretty hard to prove it. That’s kind of built right into the idea of a miracle—they don’t happen very often and if they do, they’re really hard to prove.
But if God exists, then He’s the one who does miracles, so…
Can you at least go this far with me: It’s at the very least possible that the most likely explanation for the empty tomb and belief in the resurrection of Jesus—the only explanation that checks all the boxes—is that it’s true.
And if Jesus is truly raised from the dead, then everything He said—all those things that got Him killed in the first place—all those things He said about Himself—they’re all true, too.
What was it that Jesus said about Himself that made people so upset?
He said He was the divine Son of God and the Messiah, said He had come to fulfill the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures—this is what got Him killed—the religious leaders thought it was blasphemy. He challenged their authority and they saw this humble nobody from a tiny town in northern Israel as a threat to the stability of their entire culture. The Romans even saw Him as a threat.
Jesus said He came to save people from their sin and give them salvation—that He was the only way to God. Pretty big words from a little rabbi from Nazareth.
He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) He said your only path to salvation and eternal life are in Him. He’s your only hope.
He said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) He said God loves you, sent His Son into the world to die for you, and if you believe in Him you won’t die—not permanently, you’ll be resurrected just like He was and you’ll live forever.
Those are the Gospel truths. Those are things Jesus said God did for you through Him that you couldn’t ever have done for yourself. But that’s all afterlife stuff, He also said some revolutionary things about how you should live your life in the here and now.
Like He said, "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:39) You’re not only supposed to treat people with kindness and compassion but you’re supposed to treat them the way you want them to treat you. "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31), even your enemies.
He said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." (Matthew 5:9) You’re not supposed to go around fighting with everyone, arguing with everyone, being so sensitive and angry about everything. He wants you to make peace wherever and whenever you can as much as it depends on you.
He said,
"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." (Matthew 6:34).
He said to forgive other people just like God forgives you.
"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." (Matthew 6:12)
He spoke about all kinds of things. Wisdom for every area of your life—marriage, kids, work, friendship, church—there’s no area of life where Jesus doesn’t have direction and wisdom for you.
He will return. And He also claimed that He’d return someday to judge the living and the dead—that anyone who believes in Him will be pardoned.
Those are some of the things Jesus said about Himself and about how to live that got Him killed—some of the things He said to His followers that shook their world—things that should shake up ours.
Again, we have plenty of historical evidence that He actually said these things—and was killed for saying them. Then hundreds of people were absolutely convinced He came back from the dead, they saw Him themselves, and it proved everything He said was true.
I hope I’ve made the case that it’s at least highly probable that the resurrection really happened. That God raised Jesus from the dead.
So, what do you think about all that? What is your skeptical heart going to do with this information?
Salvation is a gift. Wisdom is a gift. Faith is a gift. And the only thing that will condemn a person is unbelief. So do you believe?
The most famous verse in the Bible is probably John 3:16,
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in Him would live forever.”
In the very next verse Jesus says this,
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:18-19)
I guess it comes down to faith after all. But it’s not faith without evidence.
According to the vet, our dog wasn’t hit by a car. Even though we all saw it happen. Even though the dog was unconscious. I’m not saying it was a miracle, I’m just saying I believe it happened, even though according to the natural laws of veterinary medicine and the way of observable evidence—the vet didn’t think so. It was hard for him to believe our story.
Maybe the resurrection is hard for you to believe. Maybe you have some lingering doubts. If so, I’m glad you were here this morning. Thanks for listening.
I hope I’ve given you a little more confidence in what Jesus said about Himself, a little more confidence that what we’re celebrating here today is more than just a wish, more than a nice thought—That it’s very likely the resurrection actually happened. That it’s more logical and consistent with the historical evidence to believe the eyewitness accounts than to just look back with doubt and skepticism on what we believe is the single most important event in the history of the world.
If Jesus Christ rose from the dead then nothing else matters.
If He didn’t, then nothing matters.
If Jesus rose from the dead then you can believe all the promises He made, everything He said about what the resurrection means for you. You’ve got all the hope in the world. If Christ is risen then you will also rise.
If He didn’t, then you won’t, and it’s all hopeless.
From all the things Jesus said about Himself, to His death, to the empty tomb, to the testimony of the hundreds of people who say they saw Him.
What do you think about all of that?
What do you say about the resurrection?
How about this? He is risen indeed!
He is risen! He is risen indeed! AMEN