The Resurrection: Fact or Fiction? John 20

I know there are many lovers of history in this room. And personally, I have always loved history. When I was in elementary school, a teacher noticed my interest and predicted that one day, I would be a history teacher.

In fact, when I was in high school, this same teacher now retired. He was a substitute for one of my classes. And he remembered what he said to me way back in elementary school. And he said to me again, Seth, you're going to be a history teacher.

Now, when I was in college, I was on a business route. And specifically, I wanted to work in sports. But I still loved history enough to be a history minor. Now, let's fast forward to now. Obviously, I'm not a history teacher, right?

I'm a pastor. So was this teacher wrong? I don't think he was. A pastor cannot be a good pastor unless he loves history. What a biblical pastor does is proclaim the story of life by proclaiming the Bible.

The Bible tells us world history. And this is the story that all of us find ourselves in. When we look at the most important events in the history of the world, the Bible tells us those events. It tells us the creation of the universe, the fall of humanity, the global flood, the beginning of the nation of Israel, the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptians through the power of God.

And once you get deeper into the Old Testament, you get into the monarchy, where you have David and Solomon. Then Israel forsakes God, plunges themselves into sin, and God judges them. And he judges them by first sending the Assyrians to judge the northern kingdom of Israel.

And then about 100 years later, he judges the southern kingdom of Israel through the Babylonians. And they're taken into exile. And not only was Jerusalem destroyed when this invasion happened, but so was the holy temple.

But then later on, God graciously sent back his people to the holy land to rebuild the city and to rebuild that temple. This is Old Testament history in a nutshell. But then we get to the New Testament era, the first century AD, where the most fascinating part of world history happens.

The Incarnation and Rescue Mission of Christ

The same one who created this universe and is the author of all history enters the story. Think about that. The writer of the story of life becomes a character in the story. Now, it is, of course, true that God was a character in the Old Testament as he worked in every event.

But what happened in the first century is unique. God Almighty, the creator of all things, becomes a human. He becomes one of us. He breathed the same air we breathe. He drank the same water. He ate the same food.

God, in the second person of the Trinity, took on a new nature. He is fully God, and he is fully man. He comes to this earth on a mission, on a rescue mission. 1 Timothy 1 .15 tells us Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

2 ,000 years ago, while the God-man Jesus was in his 30s, the story of human history reaches its peak. The great enemy of God, Satan, tried to ruin Jesus, but he failed. When he tempted the first human thousands of years before, he succeeded when Adam fell into sin.

But the most evil of all creatures would not succeed with this man. He tried to tempt Jesus, but he failed. After tempting him, Matthew 4 .11 records that Satan walked away in defeat. But do you think Satan was done at this point?

He wasn't done. He knew that God's plan was that this man before him, Jesus, would reign forever. This was predicted in the Old Testament, and Satan knows the Bible. Do you realize that Satan knows the Bible better than we do?

He's been reading it for thousands of years. He knows the Bible. He knew that Jesus would reign forever. But what Satan did not know is that Jesus needed to be sacrificed to bear the sins of the ones who would be God's children.

Satan probably believed that it was enough for people to believe in God, with no permanent, once-for-all sacrifice necessary. I say this because who was the primary one behind the crucifixion of Jesus?

The answer is Satan. John 13 .2 records that the devil put it in the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. Satan thought he could still win, and so he thought that by getting Jesus off the scene, he would be victorious.

And when we sit back and we say, well, this is irrational. Well, it is. But when you're that prideful, you believe irrational things. He failed in the temptation, but he believed he would not fail here.

But what Satan didn't realize is that this crucifixion he planned through the Jews and through Judas would be his undoing. By delivering Jesus up to be crucified, he was committing suicide. When Jesus went to the cross, he bore the holy wrath of God, and God's wrath was satisfied.

The only way any human can be saved at any point in history and be brought into fellowship with God is through the death of Christ. Through the crucifixion, Satan was defeated. Hebrews 2 .14 says that through his death, he destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.

So through the crucifixion, Christ is victorious. But the authors of scripture can only say that the crucifixion was Satan's undoing, because they knew what happened two days later. In this intro, I've explained many important historical events described in scripture.

And all these events needed to happen for the Bible to be any help to anyone, including what happened 2 ,000 years ago at Golgotha and the tomb not far away. If what we are remembering today is not history, then we're wasting our time.

And there's no meaning and hope in life. Any other effort at meaning and hope is false meaning and hope. So as you can see, there is a ton riding on the historicity of the Bible, and specifically the bodily resurrection of Christ, where our focus is today.

We are going to look at the historicity of the resurrection through the accounts of the closest eyewitnesses. We're going to do that today. So at this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to John chapter 20.

Of course, we've been to Matthew. Today, we're going to go to another gospel, the Gospel of John. If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on page 1077 and 1078. This sermon is titled, The Resurrection, Fact or Fiction?

And here's our big idea. Jesus' bodily resurrection is the best explanation for the events occurring on Easter Sunday. That's what I'm arguing. That's what we believe. Jesus' bodily resurrection is the best explanation for the events occurring on Easter Sunday.

And we're going to see four reasons why in this text. What we're going to see today should be an encouragement to us as we see the legitimacy of this. This is not a fairy tale. That's what we're going to see.

This is history. We'll see four reasons why. And the first reason why is this. Grave robbers did not take the body. Let's begin by looking at the first 10 verses of John 20. Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.

Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb.

He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed.

For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. For 2 ,000 years, people have speculated as to what happened to the body of Jesus.

Now, as Bible-believing Christians, I know which many of us are in this room. We think, well, I've never speculated. I've always just believed. But the world has speculated about this. And one popular view is that grave robbers came and took the body.

In order to determine if this is true, you need to look at the evidence. Just like anything else. And many have speculated that random grave robbers came and took the body. But an even more popular view is that the disciples themselves, the ones who spent so much time with Jesus, his loyal followers, that they were the ones who stole the body.

What's interesting is that the Bible addresses this. Addresses this question. Now, this view that grave robbers stole the body originated with some of the chief villains of the New Testament, the Jewish leaders.

We've seen these villains over and over again in our sermon series through Matthew. And these are the ones who delivered Jesus up to be crucified. And we learn this from Matthew 28, verses 11 through 15.

In that passage, the Jewish leaders, when the soldiers come to them and say what happened, that an angel appeared, the stone rolled away, and his body is gone, what they told the Romans is that just tell everyone that the disciples stole the body.

So the Jewish leaders lied, and this became a myth that spread among the Jews. And many Jews and non-Jews still believe it today. It's hard to fathom how hard were the hearts of the Jewish leaders. They were eyewitnesses to Jesus' miracles.

They saw him do things that no one else can do. At this moment, deep down, they probably realized that he was resurrected from the dead, but they just hated him so much that they didn't want to believe it.

And so they wrote this false narrative. They fabricated this story. So let's look at the evidence about how we know the body was not stolen. I'm gonna zero in on verses two through five to start here.

So she, Mary Magdalene, ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.

So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. So as we see here, verse five says that the linen cloths were lying there.

If a grave robber were stealing the body, do you think they would take the time to take off his clothes? Okay, that's one clue. A grave robber would take the body as is, with clothes on. When thieves steal, they do it quickly.

This is the first piece of evidence. But here's the second one in verses six and seven. Those verses say that Simon Peter came, following him and went to the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.

So isn't that interesting? Jesus had a face cloth on his head when he was buried. And did you notice that detail in verse seven? The face cloth was folded. Interesting. Do grave robbers fold a face cloth before they leave?

Of course not. A grave robber's not going to fold a face cloth as they steal the body. The apostle John, who wrote this, by the way, he's writing for skeptics. He wants people to believe that this is history.

This is why he deliberately includes this detail here. He's saying Jesus is the one who took off his clothing. He's the one who folded his face cloth, and then he walked out of the tomb. Now John, who was running to the tomb with Peter, was persuaded by what he saw, as verse eight says.

Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed. Peter may also have believed at this point by what Mark read in Luke chapter 24, verse 12. What Mark read there was that Peter marveled at what he saw.

That indicates that, wait, maybe all that talk about me rising from the dead, I didn't just make up. They believed, even though at this point they were a bit confused about how a resurrected Messiah fit into their Old Testament idea about who the Messiah was gonna be.

Verse nine says this. They did not understand the Scripture. And Scripture here is the Old Testament. They did not understand what the Old Testament was saying about who the Messiah was going to be and what he was going to do.

And what verse nine says is that he must rise from the dead. Remember, I've explained already in our sermon series through Matthew that the Jews largely had a very wrong understanding about who the Messiah was going to be and what he was going to do when he came onto the earth.

They thought he was gonna come and deliver Israel from their enemies, and Israel would be the superpower of the world as the Messiah reigned. They did not understand the suffering of the Messiah. During Jesus' ministry, the disciples were always perplexed when Jesus told them that he was gonna die and then on the third day rise from the dead.

You notice that? They were always perplexed because they had a wrong understanding just like all the other Jews did. They failed to understand that the death and resurrection of the Messiah, even though the Old Testament predicted that this would happen.

They loved the passages about the Messiah reigning, but the suffering passages, they're thinking that can't be him. Isaiah 53 is the most vivid picture of the suffering Messiah, and they didn't see it.

And Psalm 16 talks about the resurrection of the Messiah. That his body would not reap corruption, but would live on forever. So as we see in these verses, Jesus' bodily resurrection is the best explanation for the events occurring on Easter Sunday, and the first reason why is that clearly, grave robbers did not take the body, and that's what the disciples are seeing here as they stoop in and look into the tomb.

Women as the First Eyewitnesses

Now, the second reason why these verses tell us that the bodily resurrection of Christ is the best explanation for what happened on that day is this, women played a prominent role in the events of that morning.

Women played a prominent role in the events of that morning. We're gonna see in the following verses that Mary Magdalene and several other women played a huge role in what took place on this day. So verses 11 through 18.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God.

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. So what we see here is that the narrator John, the apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, he states that Jesus was standing near her, but Mary did not know immediately that it was him.

This suggests that while he was still him, Jesus did look different than before his resurrection. Jesus had an earthly body, like our earthly body. But after his resurrection, he had a glorified body.

And so he looked a little bit different here, because when she saw him, she thought he was the gardener. What we see in verse 15 is that Jesus talks to Mary. And Mary thinks that he's a gardener and he's taken the body somewhere.

But the moment Mary knew it was Jesus was the moment when Jesus said her name. In verse 16, let's look at that again. Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to him in Aramaic, which means my teacher.

Isn't it amazing how we can recognize each other's voices? As some of you know, Mark recorded a CD this past summer. It's a great, wonderful CD. In fact, there's copies in the back if you want to grab one.

And Brianna and Laurie sing along with him in a couple of songs. And there's one song on there that's worse than the others, the song that I sing. The instant my voice comes on that CD, Isaiah, my son, just lights up.

And it's the only song on the CD that he wants played, even though it's the worst song. He's like, play it again, because he's like, that's daddy's voice. He recognizes my voice. And it's interesting that if you think about, of course, we know that Abby's having a baby not too long down the road.

Like, Kyle, the baby knows your voice already. Isn't that fascinating? And we know each other's voices. You call on the phone, I don't even need to say it to you. This is Pastor Seth. You know what my voice sounds like.

But I usually say it anyways. So once Mary recognizes that this is Jesus, he tells her in verses 17 and 18 to tell the disciples that he will be ascending to the Father. So she knows it's him. This is Jesus.

It's his voice. It's not someone else. And Jesus tells them here, tells Mary, that he will only be with them a short time before he goes to heaven, the place where he is now. Jesus right now is sitting at the right hand of the Father, but here he's still on the earth.

He's talking to Mary and he's gonna appear to many people during his time on the earth, during his 40 days on the earth after his resurrection. But there's a very important point that we need to notice here.

Mary is the first person that Jesus appears to. And the other two women that Jesus appeared to were the other women described in Matthew 28, verse 9. In Mark 16, tells us their names. They are Mary, the mother of James.

James was one of the 12 disciples and Salome, who was the mother of the disciples, John and James. So there's three women here, Mary Magdalene, Salome and Mary, the mother of James. The fact that women were the first eyewitnesses is important because the testimony of women at this point in history was not considered trustworthy.

Now that's not okay, but I'm telling you what the culture said. Women were the ones here though, who found the tomb empty to begin with and now they're the first ones to see him alive. Now, why do I bring this up as we talk about the historicity of this account?

If the disciples were trying to fabricate a story that Jesus rose from the dead, they would not have made up that women were the first ones to see him because the testimony would not have been reliable.

They probably would have wrote that a prominent member of society who was dead and couldn't verify it was the one who witnessed the resurrection, but the women were the first ones to see him alive. Once again, we see the evidence suggests a story is not being fabricated.

Women playing an important role is what really happened and what John is doing here is he's just presenting the history. That's what a historian does. They present the facts as is. That's what he's doing.

So Jesus' bodily resurrection is the best explanation for the events occurring on Easter Sunday and the second reason why is that women played a prominent role. They were the first ones to see him. And the second reason why Jesus' bodily, or the third reason why Jesus' bodily resurrection is the best explanation for the events occurring on Easter Sunday is this.

The Eyewitnesses Were Not Mistaken

The eyewitnesses were not mistaken. I once heard a Christian apologist, an apologist is someone who defends the Christian faith. I once heard him argue effectively for the legitimacy of the bodily resurrection of Christ.

And this apologist once debated a man who agreed with him, a skeptic, an opponent. He agreed with this Christian apologist that the disciples really thought they saw Jesus. But what this man said was that they saw a twin brother of Jesus.

Okay, so they couldn't deny that they really saw someone who looked like Jesus, but they wouldn't say, of course the resurrections don't happen, it can't actually be Jesus, so he must have had a twin brother that no one ever knew about.

You look at the extremes that people go to to try to explain this away. But in verses 19 through 23, we are going to see that the same person who was crucified was the same one who appeared to them. So let's read verses 19 through 23.

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness for many, it is withheld. So as we see here, the disciples at this point in the story, they were hiding. They were afraid.

The one they followed for three years was crucified and they're thinking, what's going to happen to us? They're hiding. What are the Jews going to do to us? What are the Romans going to do to us? Peter and John would have been absent because Luke 24, 12 says that they left after the women told the disciples the tomb was empty, but the rest of the disciples would have been present.

This is likely the fifth appearance that Jesus made. He appeared first to Mary, then the other women, then the two men on the road to Emmaus, which Luke records. Then he appeared to Peter, then right here to these disciples.

So as the disciples are sitting there, the rumors that he is alive prove true. I say that because Jesus appears to them suddenly. Can you imagine that? Whoa. Now you will notice that the doors were locked.

What we see here is a miracle. Obviously the resurrection is a miracle and the fact that he could just suddenly appear is a miracle. As I already mentioned, Jesus has a glorified body, a body that can do miraculous things.

It tells us about the body that one day all who trust in him, all of his disciples will have. Can you imagine that? He could just appear in places. So in verse 20, Jesus shows them his hands and his side.

This is an obvious reference to the wounds that he suffered from his crucifixion. It was at that point that they knew it was him. The second half of verse 20, what they say is that the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

They knew it was him immediately when they saw him. The same man who went to the cross and died is the same man who stood before them. When the apostle John had a vision of heaven in the book of Revelation, in Revelation 5 -6, he said that he saw a lamb as though it had been slain.

So he saw Jesus in heaven and he saw Jesus like he is here. Wounds in his hands, wounds in his side. So why is this? Isn't the glorified body supposed to be flawless? No marks, no wounds? This is an interesting question to ask.

Why is this? I think the answer is clear. Because we will always be reminded of what Jesus has done on our behalf. And every time we see Jesus and we see those wounds, we will be reminded of what he did.

Because we won't have wounds. We'll have a perfect body. So we can conclude that the disciples did not see a lookalike, or as one scholar has said, a twin brother. They saw a crucified man who was now risen.

So Jesus' bodily resurrection is the best explanation for the events occurring on Easter Sunday. And the third reason why is that the eyewitnesses were not mistaken. The same man they saw was the same man who was crucified.

Thomas and the Call to Believe Without Seeing

And here's our fourth and final reason that Jesus' bodily resurrection is the best explanation for the events occurring on Easter Sunday. And that is the greatest doubters were persuaded. The greatest doubters were persuaded.

As we have seen thus far, as different people saw Jesus, they believed one by one that it was really Him. But there was one disciple who had yet to see Jesus. And you can guess who it is. Thomas. The well-known saying, Doubting Thomas, comes from this account in John's Gospel.

Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared, so let's see how Jesus appeared to him. Verses 24 and 25. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see His hands, the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.

So it's interesting here, Thomas did not believe their word. I mean, he sees them. He can tell they're not making this up. They're not playing some joke on him. We have seen Him. And Thomas doesn't believe them.

He would only believe if he could see Jesus with his own eyes and feel Him. And Jesus is gracious to him. He would get his chance. Verses 26 -29. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them.

Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then He said to Thomas, and we see the supernatural nature of Jesus here, Put your finger here and see My hands, and put out your hand, and place it in My side.

Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered Him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. As Jesus appears to him, He tells him to put His hands in his wounds.

After feeling Jesus, he finally believes. It took a lot for Thomas to believe what he eventually did after seeing Him. And it's important to note what Thomas says in verse 28. He says, My Lord and my God.

He calls Jesus God here. One of the several places in the New Testament that describes Jesus' deity. This is no mere man. He is God. Furthermore, in verse 29, Jesus says something that we need to hear this morning because He's talking about us.

Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. This is all of us. None of us here today have seen Jesus with our eyes. None of us were there 2 ,000 years ago.

We are depending on the testimony of eyewitnesses. And an eyewitness testimony only is good if it's reliable. Obviously, you hear people say whatever they want. But is the testimony reliable? And what we've seen today is that it is indeed reliable.

And what Jesus says is that we are very blessed if we believe their testimony. All of us have a propensity to doubt because seeing something supernatural like what happened on Easter Sunday is not common.

You probably have never seen someone suddenly appear in your room. Many people go through their life without seeing a supernatural event with one's own eyes. It is true that we see miracles like lives transformed and prayers answered.

The new birth is a miracle. But we probably have never seen the lame suddenly walk or the blind suddenly see. There's a different kind of miracle that happened in the first century. And even at times in the Old Testament.

And these are visible miracles where someone who doesn't have a hand suddenly has a hand. Where Jesus walks on water. Where a dead person who's been dead for several days just suddenly comes to life. And the reason these miracles were there was to show that a great work of God was being done on the earth.

God was in the flesh. And God wanted everyone to know that. And so, that's why those visible miracles were there. But we do see God working, right? Through people being saved. Through prayers answered.

So on and so forth. And we must realize that that was a unique time in history, but God is still working every day. And we must believe the testimony of these eyewitnesses. That it's trustworthy. And these miracles did happen.

And if you think about it, the creation of the universe is a miracle. How do you explain all of this other than the fact that it was a miracle? What the Bible says is that everything that you see was created out of nothing.

In an instant, God spoke all of this into existence. So we came from the supernatural. We came from God. He created it. And that is the only explanation that makes any sense to explain reality. Secular science's effort to explain reality, frankly, is embarrassing.

It's not scientific. Not even close. It's propaganda. And by the way, we see a lot of propaganda in the world today. That's what they always do. That's what the world does. That's what Satan does. And the whole world lies in the hands of the evil ones.

So if you wonder, why is there so much propaganda? Why is there so much falsehood? That's why. The truth comes from God. Lies come from Satan. That's all he does is lie. So when we realize that the very existence of all that we see came about through a supernatural event, creation, it is not hard to believe that God is able to do a miracle within it, like the resurrection.

You hear it said that people don't rise from the dead. For the most part, that's true. But 2 ,000 years ago, that's precisely what happened. It is the only conclusion that makes any sense given the evidence.

And with all this in mind, our doubt should be taken away. Think about these eyewitnesses, particularly John and all the other disciples. Think about the trajectory of their life from this point. If you see the risen Lord, you're going to believe everything he says.

It's going to change the way you live. And that's exactly what happened. All of the disciples live the rest of their lives passionately following Christ. They devoted 100 of their life to spreading the news that Jesus was crucified and risen.

And what church history records is that all of them not only lived for Christ, but they died for Him. They suffered brutal martyrdoms. The lone exception was John, the one who wrote this. And John didn't have it good either.

He was exiled to Patmos, an island in the Mediterranean. And Paul, the Apostle Paul, was one of the greatest persecutors of the early church. He saw the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus. And he too suffered greatly and was executed in Rome after following Jesus for 30 years.

People do not risk their life for a lie. No one does. They believe they saw Jesus and gave it all for Him. And that is a clear application for us. If this is true, and it is, are we giving 100 Are we living like the disciples?

Are we living every day for Him? Are we ready to die for Him? I once had a friend, and he said to me, he's like, I would die for Jesus. And at that point, he wasn't really walking closely with the Lord.

I said, will you live for Him? You're only going to die for Him if you first live for Him. The same Jesus who rose from the dead is the same One who lives in every true believer. And I see the faith in so many of you.

He lives in you. 1933, hymnist Alfred Ackley, he wrote a hymn titled, He Lives. And in the chorus, he writes, you ask me how I know He lives. He lives within my heart. He lives in me. That's how I know.

Let's just throw out all the evidence. Evidence is good, but that's the most persuasive thing of all. He's changed my life. I know Him personally. And anyone who believes in Christ, He has changed. You are a new creation in Christ.

That's what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 .17. If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come. So as we think about what happened 2 ,000 years ago, no, you weren't there.

You weren't even close to being born at that point. But you believe the eyewitness testimony. And the most convincing way you know He has risen is you know Him and you love Him. I love what Peter says in 1 Peter 1.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory concerning the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

We know Him. He's changed us. So if someone ever asks you, how do I know that He lives? Before you even go to the evidence, just say, because He lives in my heart. Just like the hymn is said. Thomas looked at the resurrected Christ and his doubt was taken away.

And when you look at the mountain of evidence that He was raised, what we've seen today and the testimony of a transformed life, your doubt should also be taken away. So this passage of Scripture from John 20 is making the argument that the best explanation for the events on Easter Sunday is that Jesus really was raised bodily from the dead.

Do you realize that there's churches today who are saying that this is talking about a spiritual resurrection? Because physical resurrections can't happen. That's blasphemy. If you ever hear that, that's a false teacher.