1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we're going to
read the first 20 verses of this chapter.
This has been said as the third in
a series of talks which I've been giving,
the first two down at Sandhills Lane, where
we're looking at some of the reasons for
what we believe as Christians.
Peter said that we should be able to
give a reason for the hope that is
within us.
Now on our first night together I was
explaining my belief that by reason alone, by
the use of the mind alone, we can
never find God.
To find God you must make that great
step into the realm of faith.
But as I was saying on Thursday evening,
I believe you can go so far down
the road of reason and then you have
to step on from reason into faith.
You never have to step out of reason
in order to become a Christian.
Christianity is entirely reasonable, but it's beyond human
reason.
And we've been looking at some of the
reasons for believing that the Bible is the
Word of God.
Last night the reasons for believing that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, and tonight
the reasons for believing that Jesus rose from
the dead.
Now I do not believe that Jesus Christ
rose from the dead merely because of these
human reasons.
I believe that Jesus rose from the dead
for two basic reasons.
The first is that this book declares that
that is so, and I have found this
book to be entirely reliable in my life.
The second reason is that I have met
the risen Jesus.
Not on the physical plane of course, but
I have met the risen Jesus on the
spiritual plane.
And once you've met with Jesus Christ, you
need no further argument for yourself for the
resurrection.
These arguments or reasons we're going to look
at tonight are to confirm our faith and
also to help us in our witness as
Christians.
1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we're going to
read the first 20 verses.
My reading will be from the New International
Version of the Bible.
Now brothers, I want to remind you of
the gospel I preach to you, which you
received and on which you have taken your
stem.
By this gospel you are saved if you
hold firmly to the word I preach to
you, otherwise you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to
you as of first importance, that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures, that
he was buried, that he was raised on
the third day according to the scriptures, and
that he appeared to Peter and then to
the twelve.
After that he appeared to more than 500
of the brothers at the same time, most
of whom are still living, though some have
fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all
the apostles, and last of all he appeared
to me also as to one abnormally born.
For I am the least of the apostles
and do not even deserve to be called
an apostle because I persecuted the church of
God.
But by the grace of God I am
what I am, and his grace to me
was not without effect.
No I worked harder than all of them,
yet not I, but the grace of God
that was with me.
Whether then it was I or they, this
is what we preach and this is what
you believe.
But if it is preached that Christ has
been raised from the dead, how can some
of you say that there is no resurrection
of the dead?
If there is no resurrection of the dead,
then not even Christ has been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, our
preaching is useless and so is your faith.
More than that, we are then found to
be false witnesses about God.
For we have testified about God that he
raised Christ from the dead, but he did
not raise him if in fact the dead
are not raised.
For if the dead are not raised, then
Christ has not been raised either.
And if Christ has not been raised, your
faith is futile, you are still in your
sins.
Then those also who have fallen asleep in
Christ are lost.
If only for this life we have hope
in Christ, we are to be pitied more
than all men.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the
dead, the first fruits of those who have
fallen asleep.
May God add his blessing to those verses
from his word.
As you can see from that passage, the
great hope of every Christian and the unique
claim of the Christian faith is that Jesus
Christ is alive today.
No other major world religion makes such a
claim for its founder.
Professor Childers wrote the following, Muhammad died on
June the 8th 632 AD at the age
of 61 at Medina, where his tomb is
annually visited by thousands of devout Muhammadans.
All the millions and millions of Jews, Buddhists
and Muhammadans agree that their founders have never
come up out of the dust of the
earth in resurrection.
So this claim that Jesus Christ is alive
today is unique to the Christian faith.
It's also absolutely fundamental to the Christian faith.
As Paul argues here in 1 Corinthians 15,
if Christ is not raised, if Jesus is
not alive today, our faith as Christians is
futile.
We have nothing to preach about and we
ourselves are still in our sins.
A central fact in the first Christian sermon
preached after the death of Christ, Peter's sermon
on the day of Pentecost was the resurrection.
He said to the gathered crowd in the
marketplace, you nailed Jesus to the cross.
You put him to death.
But God raised him up, putting an end
to the agony of death, since it was
impossible for him to be held in its
power.
Again in 1 Corinthians 15, in verses 3
to 5, where Paul sums up in a
nutshell the Christian gospel, you can see how
utterly central to that gospel the resurrection is.
Paul says, this is my gospel, this is
that which I've received from the Lord, verse
3.
This is that which is of first importance
to me.
In other words, Paul is saying, if I
could only say one thing to you people,
this is what I'd say.
I'd say Christ died for our sins.
He was buried and he was raised on
the third day and it was all in
accordance to the Scriptures.
No one can read the book of the
Acts of the Apostles, the history of the
early church, without agreeing that this was the
message, the message of the resurrection, which inspired
and empowered those early Christian preachers.
It was this profound conviction that their Messiah
had defeated death and was alive forevermore.
Dr. Wilbur Smith wrote, the resurrection is what
you might call one of the great fundamental
doctrines and convictions of the church.
It so penetrates the literature of the New
Testament that if you lifted out from this
book every passage in which there is a
reference to the resurrection, you would have a
collection of writings so mutilated that what remained
could not even be understood.
That's how central and fundamental the resurrection is
to our faith.
Now let's be quite clear before we go
any further as to what we Christians are
claiming when we say that Jesus is alive
today.
We're not just claiming, as some so-called
Christian preachers would declare, that the spirit of
Jesus lives on in his followers.
I was at a meeting on one occasion
where a man was supposed to be preaching
on the resurrection and he says, he said
on that occasion, the resurrection takes place every
day.
You can see the living Jesus in the
trees.
You can see him in all the nice
flowers around you.
You can see the living Jesus in all
the lovely people in our world.
That's not what we're claiming.
We're claiming in scientific language that the resurrection
is a time-space-dimension event in history.
It actually took place, physically happened within space,
within this universe in history, the bodily resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
Now before we consider the evidences for this
view, I want to show you what Christian
doctrines are dependent upon it.
You'll soon see that everything depends on the
resurrection.
Number one, if Jesus is alive today, then
Christianity is unique.
There are many philosophies, many religions in the
world today.
New ones are being born every day.
Many people crying out for the mind of
men and women, saying we have the truth.
This is the way through life.
This is the way to God.
Now how can we choose between these religions
and philosophies?
How do we know which is true and
which is not true?
How do we know which is unique amongst
so many?
Well, if Jesus Christ is alive today, then
we need to look no further.
If Jesus Christ is alive today, God has
put his stamp upon the Christian faith.
He has put that stamp of uniqueness, that
stamp of authenticity upon the Christian faith.
Paul says in Romans chapter 1 and verse
5, that God has declared Jesus to be
his son by the resurrection from the dead.
In other words, God has put his declaration
upon Christianity through the resurrection.
So if Jesus is alive today, that's the
first truth we can draw.
Christianity is unique.
Secondly, if Jesus Christ is alive today, and
Paul is arguing this very strongly in 1
Corinthians 15, then death, the final enemy of
every human being, is conquered.
You see the Christian faith throughout the Bible
links belief in the immortality of men with
belief in the resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus said, because I live, and he was
speaking in eternal terms, because I live eternally,
you shall live also, you shall also live
eternally.
Here in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul calls Jesus
the first fruit of those who will rise
from the dead.
When the farmer brings him the first fruit,
he knows that there is a harvest soon
to follow.
And here is the incredible claim of the
Christian.
Jesus is only the first of millions who
will be raised from the dead to life
everlasting.
Paul was so sure of this, if we'd
gone on in 1 Corinthians 15, we would
have noticed his personal assurance.
He was so sure that he could write
the following, O death, where is your sting?
O grave, where is your victory?
And as preparations were being made for his
own execution, he was able to write to
Timothy, My time has almost run out.
Very soon I will be on my way
to heaven, and in heaven a crown is
waiting for me, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give to me.
Now upon what is such confidence based?
Upon what confidence has martyr after martyr in
the history of the Christian church and still
around the world today, upon what confidence have
they gone to their execution singing songs of
joy and gladness?
They've gone on the confidence of their own
eternal resurrection based on the resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
He's the first fruits of the Christian harvest
to life everlasting.
So if Jesus is alive, Christianity is unique,
death is conquered.
Thirdly, there is power available to mankind to
live in the 20th century.
The teaching of the Bible is that this
living Jesus will enter our lives by his
spirit, his Holy Spirit.
He will bring into our lives as he
himself comes within us, his holiness and righteousness,
his love, his power, and so on.
This is why we have a message to
preach to 20th century men.
We don't just offer to mankind hope in
eternity, hope when we die.
I hope you don't preach the Christian gospel
like that.
That's not our only offer to mankind.
Our offer to men and women is new
life today, eternal life beginning now, the moment
you invite the living Christ to enter your
soul, bringing with him his resurrection power, his
righteousness, his love, and all his virtues.
Fourthly, if Jesus Christ is alive today, then
his return to this earth is certain.
Often when I take a series of meetings
at a university, I will preach one night
on the resurrection and the next night on
the second coming.
People go away after the resurrection night hardly
believing that I can believe in such things.
And as they walk through the door the
next evening, I always say, if you found
last night hard, you're going to find tonight
impossible.
Because we Christians not only believe that God
2,000 years ago gave life to his
son who had actually died, we also go
on to believe that this same God is
going to send his son in glory to
receive his church to be with himself forevermore.
This was the promise of the angel, wasn't
it?
At the time of Christ's ascension.
What beautiful words.
This same Jesus, don't you love that word
same?
This same Jesus, the Jesus who walked around
the shores of Galilee, the Jesus who gave
life to the dead, hearing to the deaf,
sight to the blind, who took the children
and sat them upon his knee, the same
Jesus who went to the cross in my
place, this same Jesus will burst through the
clouds, the trumpet will sound, the dead in
Christ will rise first.
Those of us who might be alive upon
this earth at that time will go and
meet them and will be with the Lord
forever.
This incredible belief becomes credible once you accept
that Jesus who actually died rose again and
lives forevermore.
The fifth doctrine which is sure, if Jesus
is alive today, is the doctrine of the
deity of Christ.
And we touched on this very briefly last
night.
If Jesus is alive, then there's absolutely no
question that he is exactly whom he claimed
to be, God in human flesh.
No one can give life to the dead
except God the creator himself.
I've already quoted Romans 1 verse 5, God
has declared, God has demonstrated his son by
the resurrection from amongst the dead.
Jesus is proven to be the Christ if
he is alive today.
So much you can draw from that.
If he's the Christ, then his words are
true and we do not need to doubt
them.
If he is the Christ and he died
in our place upon the cross, then his
sacrifice is sufficient to save us from our
every sin.
And there's the wonder of the resurrection to
the Christian.
The wonder of the resurrection is not only
that we have power available for life today,
but the wonder of the resurrection is that
God demonstrates his satisfaction with the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ.
He demonstrates through the resurrection that he's well
pleased with the cross and because of the
atoning work of Christ, which includes the resurrection,
we are forever free from our sins.
There's no condemnation for those of us who
are in Christ and it's the resurrection that
confirms that point.
Now all of these things depend entirely upon
the resurrection.
If Jesus is alive, then these things are
true.
If Jesus is not alive, they are all
futility.
Well then, is there any evidence apart from
the Bible to substantiate this incredible claim that
Jesus has beaten death?
The immediate reaction, quite naturally, is to dismiss
it from our minds without thought as being
impossible.
When you're talking to the people in the
street, that will be their immediate reaction.
To dismiss it from their minds, they'll say
this is utterly impossible.
And as I say, that's natural.
Because if Jesus is alive today, then something
has happened which has broken natural laws.
Natural laws which we, both through education and
through experience, have come to believe are unbreakable.
And admittedly, the argument for the resurrection ends
there, unless we are willing to believe that
God the Creator is involved in this.
If we can believe that God the Creator
is involved, then we can expect something surprising.
We can expect God overruling the natural laws
of the universe in order to fulfil His
divine purposes.
And that is the claim of the Bible.
The claim of the Bible is that God
has overruled natural laws, normally unbreakable, because He
is the One who created these laws, and
who sustains these laws, and therefore it is
quite within His power to overrule them.
This is what the Old Testament prophets declared
would happen, and this is what Jesus promised
would happen long before He reached the city
of Jerusalem.
Let me read to you from Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 20.
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He
took the twelve disciples aside, and He said
to them, look, we're going now to Jerusalem.
The Son of Man will be delivered to
the chief priests and scribes.
They will condemn Him to death.
They will deliver Him to the Gentiles, to
be mocked, scourged, and crucified.
And on the third day, He will be
raised again.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to His
disciples even before He entered the city where
He would die, telling His disciples in considerable
detail of the events which would take place
when He reached that city.
Jesus used a number of illustrations to depict
His death, His burial, and His resurrection.
One of the most famous was the illustration
of Jonah.
Jesus said just as Jonah was three days
and three nights in the belly of the
large fish, so will the Son of Man
be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth.
Here's the first thing every opponent of the
resurrection must face.
How do we speak, or how do we
explain the Old Testament prophecies of the resurrection?
How do we explain the detailed knowledge which
Jesus seemed to have of the events which
would happen in Jerusalem long before He personally
arrived in that city?
Well then, let's look at the evidence.
The evidence is seen under three headings.
The evidence of the empty tomb, the evidence
of the eyewitnesses, and the evidence of the
changed lives of the apostles and the history
of the Christian church.
Let's look first at the tomb which became
empty.
Now how do we know that it became
empty?
Well of course we have eyewitness accounts.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Virgin Mary, and
so on.
They are all, they say, witnesses to this
fact.
Someone of course might say that they were
either deluded or they were merely presenting fabrications
to us.
Much more powerful than their evidence is the
fact that if that tomb had not become
empty, and that obviously for all to see,
it's impossible that the proclamation of the resurrection
would have been accompanied by such remarkable results.
Now let Dr. Pannenberg state the case for
us.
In Jerusalem, the place of the execution and
grave of Jesus, it was proclaimed not long
after his death that he had been raised.
The situation demands that within the circle of
the first community, one had a reliable testimony
for the fact that the grave had been
found empty.
The resurrection proclamation couldn't have been maintained in
Jerusalem for a single day, not even for
a single hour, if the emptiness of the
tomb had not been established as a fact
for all concerned.
Now that's a simple argument, isn't it?
In the early days of the Christian church,
there were remarkable results through the apostles' preaching.
Three thousand souls on the day of Pentecost,
and soon two groups of people were feeling
extremely threatened by this growing sect, the Nazarenes,
the Christians.
The Jews were becoming threatened as their synagogues
began to empty.
The Roman government were becoming threatened.
What kind of group were these people?
Were they just some mystical religious group, or
would they become a political alliance?
Both groups were very concerned.
And it would have been a simple thing
to stamp out Christianity if that tomb had
not become empty.
All the Roman or Jewish leaders would need
to have done would be to take the
new converts to the tomb, roll back the
stone and say, look, there's the body of
your so-called messiah.
Now go back to your synagogues.
Go back to your homes.
It was a nice idea, he was a
good man, it was a good theory, but
there's the evidence.
He's dead.
But they were not able to do that.
Why?
As Christians, we say because Jesus rose again.
Some however, are not able to accept that.
It was the French rationalist, Macaulay who said,
if Christ is risen, then he's not dead,
or he was not dead.
And if he died, then he's not risen.
That's the view that some people take today.
There's no possibility of a resurrection.
So if Christ is risen, he wasn't dead.
And if he died, he's not risen.
The people who take such a view have
had to work out theories for the empty
tomb.
How did that tomb become empty?
Many theories have been worked out, I wish
we had time to look at them all
tonight.
Some suggest that the disciples stole the body.
Others suggest that grave robbers stole the body.
But the most famous theory is known as
the swoon theory.
And I think we should look at it
just briefly this evening.
It's by far the most popular suggestion.
And briefly the suggestion goes as follows.
Jesus did not really die when he was
hanging upon the cross.
But he went into a state of deep
unconsciousness.
And when he was placed in the tomb,
he was revived by the cool air of
the sepulcher.
Then he arose and departed.
Now how do we tackle this popular theory?
Well, there are a number of ways.
We could, for example, show the medical evidence
for the death of Jesus.
Professor Samuel Horton, the great physiologist from the
University of Dublin, has written a very interesting
article showing that John's record, that blood and
water flowed from the side of Jesus, would
have been the exact result if the left
side of a person was pierced by a
large knife comparable to a Roman spear.
But it would only be the result, and
could only be the result, if the victim
had already died.
Medical evidence.
But let's put that to one side for
a moment.
And let's accept the theory, temporally, that Jesus
was still alive when he was placed in
that tomb.
If you accept that theory, you would still
have to believe the following.
That after the rigours and pains of trial,
mockery, flogging, and crucifixion, Jesus then survived for
36 hours in a stone sepulcher with neither
warmth, food, nor medical care.
Then he rallied sufficiently to perform the superhuman
feat of shifting the boulder which secured the
mouth of his tomb.
Of course, he did all of that without
disturbing the Roman guard which Pilate had placed
there.
Then, weak, sickly, and hungry, he appears to
his disciples in such a way as to
give them the impression that he had vanquished
death.
Then he lived somewhere in hiding for 40
days, making occasional surprise appearances, and then finally
disappeared without any explanation.
You have to believe all of that if
you're unwilling to believe in the resurrection.
My only conclusion can be that you have
to be a person of greater faith than
I to accept the swoon theory.
It is by far easier for me at
least to accept the biblical revelation of the
resurrection.
Now, just before we move on, there are
two further points which we should note.
Professor Thorburn commenting on the enormous size of
the stones used on such occasions when they
closed the mouth of a tomb.
In these days, says Professor Thorburn, it usually
required several men to move such stones.
And in fact, very recently, a second-century
manuscript of the Bible has been found, one
of the very earliest manuscripts for the Gospels.
This manuscript translates Mark 16, verse 4, in
the following way.
When Jesus was laid there, Joseph put against
the tomb a stone which 20 men could
not roll away.
Now, whether that's a true manuscript or not
is open to question, but it adds further
evidence to this suggestion that the stones used
on such occasions were massive stones.
And then secondly, you have to take into
account the grave clothes of Christ.
These, in fact, were not clothes as such,
but they were a kind of bandage wrapped
round and round a corpse.
And then they were coated normally with about
100 pounds of spices.
And the position in which the grave clothes
were found, as seen by the eyewitnesses of
the empty tomb, are powerful evidence for the
fact of the resurrection.
The Apostle John says that when he went
into the tomb, the clothes were lying.
John Stott tells us that the word lying
there would be better translated collapsed.
The clothes were collapsed.
The head napkin was not with the linen
clothes, but in a place by itself.
John Stott comments, It's not hard to imagine
the sight which greeted the eyes of the
Apostles when they reached the tomb.
The stone slab on which the body was
placed, the collapsed grave clothes, the shell of
the head cloth and the gap between the
two.
No wonder John, in his account, says they
saw and they believed.
What was it that they saw?
A glance at those grave clothes proved the
reality and indicated the nature of the resurrection.
They had not been touched, folded or manipulated
by any human being.
They were just like a discarded chrysalis from
which the butterfly had emerged.
The evidence of the empty tomb.
The second line of evidence is the eyewitnesses.
How many?
Well, we're told that there were over 800
eyewitnesses.
I have a friend who's a lawyer and
he preaches in Anglican churches.
And you know the Anglicans are very dedicated
and devout.
They must be because often they have communion
services at 8 o'clock on a Sunday
morning.
I don't know how well we'd get in
our assemblies if we went for such an
hour.
But they have 8 a.m. communions even
on Easter Sunday.
One day my friend was invited to preach
at one of these Easter Sunday 8 a
.m. communion services.
And going into the pulpit, he looked at
his congregation and I must say, unlike you
tonight, they were looking exceedingly sleepy.
And he thought to himself, if I'm going
to get anywhere tonight, I've got to wake
this crowd up.
So he thought to himself, I must commence
with something startling.
And being a rather brave fellow, he reached
across to the flower arrangement.
And he took out a flower.
Now you can understand the courage.
You all know how important the flowers are
in any place of worship.
Some people think the preacher is important, but
we all know the flower arranger is the
really important person.
But he reached across and he took out
a flower.
And then to their utter astonishment, he proceeded
to eat it.
Flower, stalk and all.
Swallowed, don't any of you younger ones try
this when you get home, you must choose
the right flower.
But he did, he ate it.
Flower, stalk and all.
And he looked at his congregation and they
were no longer sleepy.
They were wide awake.
And he said to them, imagine that you
were to leave this church at the end
of this service, one by one.
Now on the other side of the road,
there's an old man.
You go across to him and you say,
Sir, our preacher ate a flower in church
this morning.
The old man said, I don't believe you.
I know your preacher, Mr. Greve, lawyer from
Manchester, doesn't go around eating flowers.
I refuse to believe you.
And then a second man went and told
him exactly the same thing.
And a third and a fourth and a
fifth and a sixth.
Then my friend looked at his congregation and
said, there's about 250 of you here this
morning.
Imagine you all went and you all told
that same man that you had seen as
eyewitnesses me eating a flower.
And he still didn't believe you.
He would either be extremely foolish or extremely
stubborn.
And then, of course, he said, 250, that's
nothing.
I'm here this morning to tell you that
over 500 people say to you, I have
seen with my own eyes Christ alive after
he was crucified.
Once again, opponents of the resurrection have had
to conclude that it does appear some people
saw the risen Christ.
So again, they have to look for theories
as to how this could be.
How could it be that some said they
saw the risen Jesus when people who die
never rise again?
How could that be?
Some are really morally dishonest enough to say
that these are just fabrications.
These disciples, these friends of Christ, they were
just telling lies.
Is that possible?
Well, think of the number of witnesses, over
500 of them.
Think of the character of these witnesses.
They're the men and the women who have
given to this world the highest ethical teaching
the world has ever known.
They're men like John the Apostle.
They're men like James the Apostle.
They're men like Peter the Apostle.
They're men like Paul the Apostle.
Great, good, and godly men who tell us,
I have seen with my own eyes.
I have touched with my own hands the
living Christ.
Professor Norman Anderson of the University of London
wrote the following.
Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a
little band of defeated cowards cowering in an
upper room one day and a few days
later transformed into a company that no persecution
could silence.
And they're attempting to attribute this dramatic change
to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication
they were trying to foist upon the world.
That simply does not make sense.
And honest unbelievers have agreed.
And so they've turned to other explanations, and
again there are many.
The favourite is the explanation of hallucinations.
Of course at first sight this does seem
to be a very convincing idea.
Many of these people were very intimately linked
with Jesus Christ.
They were his closest friends.
They were his family.
They had become deeply emotionally involved with him.
Could it not have been that taken from
them in this dramatic way they would be
prone to hallucinatory experiences?
The answer is a convincing no.
And for the following three reasons.
Generally, only particular kinds of people have hallucinations.
The highly strong, the highly imaginative, the rather
nervous person.
They are prone to hallucinations.
The appearances of Christ, it would seem, almost
deliberately were not restricted to any one kind
of person.
Jesus appeared to all kinds of people in
all kinds of circumstances.
He appeared to Mary Magdalene, who was afraid
and astonished.
A woman who may well medically have been
prone to hallucinations.
He appeared to Peter, the hard, rough fisherman.
He appeared to Thomas, full of unbelief, a
real agnostic if ever there was one.
He appeared to the disciples on the road
to Emmaus as they were distracted by the
events of the week.
He appeared to the disciples even as they
were busily involved in fishing on the Lake
of Galilee.
He appeared to that articulate, brilliant, Gamalian pupil
Saul of Tarsus, just outside of the city
of Damascus to which he was going for
the purpose of persecuting the followers of this
man.
He appeared to all kinds of people in
all kinds of circumstances.
Secondly, hallucinations always tend to recur over a
long period of time with noticeable regularity.
They either occur more frequently until a point
of crisis or they recur less frequently until
they fade away.
Professor C.S. Lewis writes the following.
All the accounts suggest that the appearances of
the risen body came to an end, some
describe an abrupt end, six weeks after the
death.
A phantom can just fade away but an
objective entity must go somewhere and something must
happen to it.
Thirdly, there was nothing in the resurrection appearances
of Jesus to even resemble a hallucination.
The risen Jesus could not only be seen,
he could be heard, he could be touched,
he could walk, he could show to people
the marks of his suffering.
He could even cook fish which people ate
and which he himself ate.
Hardly sounds like a hallucination.
Fabrications, hallucinations, in my opinion these things are
ruled out and I have heard no other
worthy explanation for this fact.
I personally must conclude that all the evidence
points to the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
But then the third line of evidence and
probably the most powerful of all is the
change in the life of the apostles and
the history of the Christian church.
John Stott says that perhaps the transformation of
the disciples is the greatest evidence of all
for the fact of the resurrection.
Have you ever thought about the Christian church?
The Christian church was founded somewhere around A
.D. 32.
Now it didn't just happen.
It had a definite cause.
It was said of the early Christians at
Antioch that they turned the world upside down.
What was the cause of this amazing influence?
What was the cause of this dramatic energy?
And I would suggest to you tonight that
the cause was the resurrection.
These people saw, these people communicated with the
risen Christ.
But what was the change which took place
in these disciples?
It was completely dramatic.
On the day of the crucifixion they were
filled with gladness, with sadness sorry.
On the first day of the week with
gladness.
At the crucifixion they were hopeless.
On the first day of the week their
hearts glowed with certainty and with hope.
When the message of the resurrection first came
to them they were incredulous, hard to be
convinced.
But once they saw the Christ they were
so assured that they never ever doubted again.
Many of them went to their deaths, the
most painful possible deaths, believing fervently in the
resurrection.
Consider the Apostle Peter.
The historical evidence is quite firm that Peter
possibly died alongside Paul just outside the city
of Rome.
And when his executioners came to him the
second century historians tell us Peter refused to
be crucified in the same way as Jesus
Christ.
And he pleaded with his executioners, I am
not worthy to die in the same way
as my Saviour.
Turn me around, crucify me upside down.
Can you imagine the pain of such a
death?
And all that man had to do was
to deny the resurrection.
The cross would have been taken down, he
would have gone free if he had denied
the resurrection.
Are you willing to believe that people would
die such dreadful deaths for something they knew
was not true?
The amazing change in the disciples is tremendous
evidence for the resurrection.
But what about the history of the Christian
Church?
From A.D. 32, the Christian Church has
been the most opposed institution upon Earth.
All around the world, we'll see tomorrow night,
it's a worldwide religion, the only truly worldwide
religion in the world.
All around the world people have opposed the
Christian Church.
Government after government has sought to stamp it
out and still today that is the case.
But no one can dampen the flame which
the resurrection of Jesus Christ ignited.
Even Emperor Napoleon realised this towards the end
of his life.
As a prisoner on the lonely island of
St Helena he wrote the following.
An extraordinary power of influencing and commanding men
has been given to Alexander, to Charlemagne and
to myself.
He wasn't a very humble man.
But with us, the presence has been necessary.
The eye, the voice, the hands.
But this Jesus Christ he has influenced and
commanded his subjects without visible bodily presence for
over 1800 years.
The history of the Christian Church is just
that.
It's the history of an invisible presence guiding,
inspiring empowering his people.
The resurrected Christ.
Not so long ago I had the privilege
of having breakfast with one of these gentlemen
who makes regular trips behind the Iron Curtain.
And I heard before meeting with him that
he'd recently been into the land of Albania.
If you know anything about Albania it's probably
the most closed or one of the most
closed countries to the Christian gospel in the
world today.
It's a communist government although its people are
Muslim.
75% of them are Muslim but it
has a communist government very much like the
country of Afghanistan of course, today.
A number of years ago now 20-30
years ago I suppose the communist regime decided
that they were going to make Albania the
communist state.
The state that every other state would look
up to the Russians, the Chinese and so
on.
So their leaders got together it's well documented
and they said how are we going to
do this?
How are we really going to create socialism
communism in this nation?
One of their first decisions was we must
stamp out Christianity.
Christianity represses the people we must be rid
of it.
So one of the most awesome persecutions of
the Christian church began and the wall was
built metaphorically around the country of Albania.
No one could get in not even the
Russians and the Chinese what went on no
one will ever really know but recently for
economic reasons they've had to open the borders
to tourists and some Christians are tremendously innovative
they're just waiting for these countries to open
up to tourists and in they go as
tourists with suitcases full of Bibles and Testaments
and the rest.
My friend managed to get into Albania and
he managed to get away from the official
courier and visit some addresses which he had
received my first question over breakfast was well
what was it like?
How is the church in Albania?
And his conclusion didn't surprise me it is
stronger today than thirty years ago I was
recently in East Germany at a brethren conference
and I was amazed to see the life
and the power of young Christians in East
Germany I went out with them onto the
streets of their city tracting every one of
them knew that if they were caught in
the act their freedom would be taken from
them immediately people all around the world are
realising that you cannot stamp out Christianity the
more you throw at it the more swiftly
and the more eagerly it grows what is
your explanation if it's not the resurrection if
it's not that behind and within and around
this world wide body is the resurrected Christ
of course the only way you can finally
be convinced that Jesus is alive is to
meet him the only way I can be
sure that you're alive the only way you
can be sure that I'm alive is a
personal meeting you can be told, you can
see photographs the only way you can finally
know is a personal meeting almost every person
in this room tonight possibly every person has
met with the risen Christ for us there
is no doubt for us we need no
argument once you've met with this Christ you
need no further words the reality is assured
we are convinced that death could not keep
its prayer with Jesus our Saviour we're convinced
that he tore the bars of death away
Jesus our Lord up from the grave he
arose with this mighty triumph o'er his
foes now let me remind you of just
what is dependent upon this if you and
I believe this tonight then we are sure
of other things we are sure that our
faith is unique not one faith amongst many
as many in the church are seeking to
say today we no longer just have the
world council of churches we have the world
council of faiths where Buddhists and Mohammedans and
Confucianists sit with Christians on committees on equal
terms what nonsense is Buddha alive today?
is Mohammed alive today?
you can go with millions of pilgrims and
you can visit his tomb not so with
Jesus or you can visit his so-called
tomb but you'll find it empty we are
not one amongst many our faith is unique
people may say we're bigoted people may say
we're not sufficiently wide and expansive in our
thinking why?
because of the resurrection our faith is unique
secondly, we are utterly convinced of the truth
of Jesus he is the son of God
the resurrection proves it his words are true
we are convinced that there is power available
for us in life today are you enjoying
that power Christian friend?
the resurrection power of Jesus Christ if you
read Ephesians chapter 1 when you get home
particularly the last paragraph you will see Paul
explaining to the Ephesians that the power available
to them for living is that very power
which God used in raising his son from
the dead why is it that we live
such beggarly weak lives?
Jesus is alive he reigns and rules within
us by his spirit of course we know,
and this is what I'll be preaching on
at 6.30 tomorrow night we know that
Jesus is coming again and we look forward
with expectation the word hope is no longer
sufficient it's changed its meaning since bible times
we don't look forward with hope we look
forward with absolute assurance in a world which
is disseminating all around us we are people
of assurance we are people of confidence because
Jesus is alive and he's returning for his
people the hymn writer put it like this
no more we doubt thee glorious prince of
life life is not without thee aid us
in our strife make us more than conquerors
through thy deathless love bring us safe through
Jordan to thy home above thine be the
glory risen, conquering son endless is the victory
thou or death hast won as we go
out of this room tonight we should go
out full of confidence and assurance we should
go out to argue for our gospel in
this world knowing that we are not asking
men to make a blind leap of faith
we are asking men to think we are
asking men to check the facts we are
asking people to be sensible we are asking
people to look at the evidence and we
are asking people to believe that God is
bigger than their understanding that God is bigger
than their imagination and when they come to
the end of their reason noticing how reasonable
it is they take that great step and
they meet the risen Christ never to doubt
again