Good Friday / Evidence for The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Hello, today is Good Friday, as you probably know, and maybe you've wondered, why is it called

Good Friday? If this is the day that Jesus was crucified, why do

Christians call it Good? And the reason is because it is the day when

Jesus died to accomplish our salvation. This was prophesied about in Psalm 118, verses 22 -24.

It says, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the

Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the

Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. So I would argue there is a biblical reason why it's called

Good Friday. It's marvelous in our eyes, and in this day, the day that Jesus was crucified,

God's people rejoice in that. So what was the worst thing human beings ever did, actually was used for the greatest good by God.

Now, I just want to talk about a couple of the arguments for the resurrection as far as the proof, or the evidence of the resurrection.

Obviously, a person is not going to come to believe this through arguments, it has to be the work of God, the

Holy Spirit, to change their heart. But I think there are some evidences, some reasons to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

There's the argument of the empty tomb, obviously. The Bible talks about how there was over 500 eyewitnesses.

Women were some of the first, or the first eyewitness was Mary Magdalene. And if you were, the argument goes, if you were just concocting a story, you wouldn't have a woman be the first person because women were not seen as credible witnesses in the ancient world.

So there's things like that. I think the most powerful argument for the resurrection is the apostles and the massive change that went on.

Before Jesus died and rose from the dead, the apostles were saying and doing the wrong thing often.

They weren't exactly the most spiritual men. They were clearly flawed.

And when Jesus is arrested, they run and hide, except for John. And you just see the apostles behaving one way before the cross, and then after the cross and after the resurrection, they turn into bold witnesses for the

Lord, totally transformed. And they all, save John, end up giving up their lives for the cause of Christ.

The only explanation for that, that total transformation, is that they saw

Jesus risen from the dead. You think about it, people will die for a lie.

There are people who are fighting a political cause and looking at them. Some of them are zealous and I think they would die for it, but they've been fed a bunch of lies.

I think Islamic martyrs die for a lie.

Now they believe it's true, but it's a lie. Here's the thing, no one is going to die for what they know is a lie.

People will die for what they believe in, people will die for a lie that they think is true, but nobody will die for what they know to be totally bogus.

So the apostles, more than anyone else, they would know whether or not Jesus rose from the dead.

So the fact that they were totally transformed and were willing to die for the cause, that proves, to me, that proves that they saw the risen

Lord. So happy Good Friday, until next time, may the Lord be with you, have a great day.