The Resurrection of Jesus: 4 E's

Well this morning we're going to be talking about the resurrection. Anybody know what we're going to be celebrating next week?

This isn't hard. The resurrection, right, the resurrection of Jesus.

Now generally when I do this talk I open up with a story because there was a man who went on a trip with his wife to Israel and it was their 20th wedding anniversary and he extended the invitation to his mother -in -law and what he didn't realize is that his mother -in -law was going to take him up on the offer and actually come.

So she comes with the couple who's celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary and they're touring through Israel and they're going to all the incredible sites that everybody who would, you know, who is a follower of Jesus would want to see.

They went to the tomb and you know where Jesus was born, all these places in Israel.

So on the way as they're walking uphill the woman falls to the ground, grabs her chest, and dies of a heart attack, the mother -in -law.

So the husband is beside himself, they call the authorities, they bring the woman to the hospital, they pronounce her dead unfortunately.

So the doctor had to bring the unfortunate news to the husband and told him, listen, we have a law in Israel that if you die in the country of Israel you can be buried with a ceremony in Israeli soil for $150.

Otherwise you're going to have to ship your mother -in -law home between the embalming and the flight and all that.

It's going to be upwards of $18 ,000. So the doctor said, you know, which, you know, which would you prefer?

He says, well, he says, I'm gonna send her home. You know, the doctor says, well, that's $18 ,000.

So the man looked at him, he says, listen, about 2 ,000 years ago they buried a man here and he came back to life. I can't take that chance with her.

All right, so we're going to be talking about the resurrection. We had to get yous in the mood, right?

All right, the truth of Christianity hinges on the resurrection.

Without a resurrection we have no faith. This is vitally important to every

Christian. Now can anyone tell me where in the Scriptures is the clearest explanation or exposition of the resurrection?

Where would you turn to in your Bible if you wanted to read what the resurrection is and the gospel?

1 Corinthians 15. Thank you. Okay, and we're going to read this together starting at verse 3 and then

I skip a couple of verses to 13. This is Paul writing to the Corinthians.

He says, for I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the

Scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the

Twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appealed also to me.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

Skip to verse 13. But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even

Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, listen, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain or futile.

We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised

Christ, whom he did not raise, if it's true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even

Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Do you see how the resurrection of Jesus is the linchpin of Christianity?

Okay, I think that's on the sheet. If you don't have a sheet, we handed out some fill -in -the -blank sheets. Okay, this is the linchpin to Christianity, to the

Christian faith. If there is no resurrection, we are still in our sins and we need a payment for our sins.

We are above all people most to be pitied. Another verse that comes to mind is

Romans chapter 10 verse 9. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Okay, so our salvation is tied to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, such that when you confess that, that is one of the essentials of the

Christian faith, that you believe that God brought Jesus back to life, raised him from the dead. So therefore, as Christians, as case makers, ambassadors for the kingdom of God, it's really important that we understand that the resurrection actually occurred and that we can share it with confidence to others.

Okay, so that's what I want to go through today, substantiating the resurrection. So we're going to look towards internal evidence, biblical evidence, and external evidence.

Now if the resurrection is a bona fide fact and something we must believe, it should be contained and appear in the

New Testament, right? And externally, if this is a fact of history, it should be mentioned in some extra -biblical or non -biblical sources, okay?

Now as a reformed Christian, I am a presuppositionalist, but I'm going to give you some evidence today internally because we know that the

Scriptures are the Word of God, and externally, things that actually happened in history that point to the resurrection of Jesus.

As presuppositionalists, it doesn't mean we jettison evidence. Oh no, you can't use evidence. Of course we can use evidence because it ties back to the

Word of God. If that's God's Word, and it is, it's trustworthy and true, and the facts of history will line up with it.

So we're going to look at both. We're going to look at internal sources and external sources. So I'm going to use a presentation that was made popular by Lee Strobel, the four

E's of the resurrection, and I want you to memorize these. I love acronyms. It makes it easier to memorize things.

If you go to my Monday night Bible study, you know I'm always using acronyms. So the four E's are execution, empty tomb, eyewitnesses, and early testimony.

Okay, execution, empty tomb, eyewitnesses, and early testimony. Try to get those down.

It's very important. It's on the sheet in front of you. If you need extra sheets, we'll photocopy them or get some more printed. So let's look at the first one.

We're going to look at execution. Now, before a resurrection can occur, what must be true?

Before you can be raised from the dead, you must be dead first, right?

So if there was a resurrection, somewhere along the lines, Jesus had to die, right?

We're not in the deep end of the pool yet, okay? So in order to get a resurrection, Jesus must be dead first.

How can we be sure that Jesus died? Well, first, the Romans were the ones who put

Jesus up on the cross. The Romans knew how to crucify people. They were very, very good at it.

In fact, they crucified over 6 ,000 men in something called the Revolt of Slaves, led by Spartacus.

So if you have crucified 6 ,000 men prior to this, you probably know what you're doing.

Now, crucifixion probably originated with the Assyrians and the Babylonians, but it was perfected by the

Romans. They knew how to crucify someone. Crucifixion was a horrific death and one of the most embarrassing ways to die at that point in time.

The Roman soldiers were trained to kill by crucifixion, and they were very proficient at their job.

And before Jesus was even nailed and hung to the cross, he was brutally beaten, whipped, and flogged.

In fact, there's an excerpt in the Journal from the American Medical Association, and they put out a blurb by a team of three men who studied the process of scourging and how the victim would be affected medically, and this is what they say.

The usual instrument in scourging was a short whip with several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths in which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sharp bone were tied at intervals.

The man or the victim was stripped of his clothing and his hands were tied to the upright post.

The back buttocks legs were all flogged. The scourging was intended to weaken the victim to the state just short of collapse or death.

As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victims back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions with the leather thongs and sheep bones cutting into the skin and subcutaneous tissue.

Then as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles.

That happened before he was put on a cross. In fact, there's a word that was invented used to describe the pain you would experience on a cross.

Anybody want to take it what that word is? Excruciating. The prefix

X means out of. Crux means cross. The pain that Jesus experienced or anyone experienced at the crucifixion was excruciating pain.

It was a term that actually was derived because of crucifixion. The Romans now were not about to let

Jesus, the king of the Jews, live because that was the crime of sedition.

Caesar wouldn't stand for that. So that's first. Second, there are six external non -biblical sources, one of which is the

Talmud, that record the death of Jesus. So we have first the Romans know how to crucify someone.

Jesus was crucified. Then there's six external extra -biblical sources that we can point to.

Historians of the time, Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Phlegon, Mara Bartholomew, and the

Talmud all testify to the fact that Jesus was crucified. Okay, so we have the

Romans, the Roman crucifixion, and six extra -biblical sources. Then we have left -wing scholars such as John Dominic Crossan and Gerd Ludeman, who's an atheist and a scholar of the

New Testament. He studies the New Testament. He doesn't believe that Jesus really rose from the dead. But him,

Gerd Ludeman, and John Dominic Crossan say that Jesus's death is indisputable.

There is no way that Jesus didn't die. It's a bona fide historical fact that he died.

So we have agreement from Christian sources, non -Christian sources, and hostile to Christian sources that Jesus actually died.

We have an execution. A real quick aside, you might run into internet atheists that claim that Jesus didn't even exist, right?

And no pun intended, but they'd be dead wrong. All right, that was for Jerry.

All right. In fact, if you've ever heard of a guy by the name of Bart Ehrman, he proclaimed

Christ at one point in time, and he studied under Bruce Metzger, probably one of the most foremost New Testament scholars in our day.

He's an apostate from the faith. And Bart Ehrman, who's a New Testament scholar and doesn't believe that Jesus is the way of salvation, said that this is not even an issue for scholars of antiquity.

The reason for thinking Jesus existed is because he is abundantly attested to in early sources.

If you want to go where the evidence goes, I think that atheists have done themselves a disservice by jumping onto the bandwagon of mythicism, because frankly, it makes you look foolish to the outside world.

If that's what you're going to believe, you just look foolish. This is Bart Ehrman, hostile to Christianity, but understands that the death of Jesus is a bonafide fact.

He actually wrote a book called, Did Jesus Exist?, to counter the atheist claims that say he doesn't.

All right, so when an internet, you know, atheist warrior who likes to, on his keyboard, type that Jesus never existed, tell him,

Bart Ehrman and a bunch of atheists and New Testament scholars say he did. Scripture says he did. History says he did.

Jesus existed. That's a bonafide fact. You can trust that. All right, next. Oh, these are the people who said that Jesus was crucified.

You want to take a quick look at that. So we have scholars on the right and left affirming Jesus's death.

Historically, we can be certain that Jesus was put to death by crucifixion. In fact, the disciples themselves admit this in Luke 24, after Jesus's death, that, what did they say?

We had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel. Because he's dead, they think he's not the one.

So simply put, between the disciples' testimony, historical testimony, extra -biblical testimony, we can be confident historically that Jesus was crucified and died.

His death is a historical fact. So now we can focus on if there was a resurrection.

Why? Because we have bonafide evidence that there was an execution. So, next we're going to look at the empty tomb.

This is very important. The tomb that was guarded by the soldiers was found empty on the third day.

Why can we say that with such certainty? Several reasons. First, something called the Jerusalem factor.

The site of Jesus's tomb was known to believers and unbelievers where? In Jerusalem.

In fact, according to the scripture, the tomb belonged to who? Joseph of Arimathea, right?

If the tomb wasn't empty, if Jesus's body was still in the tomb, there would be no way that the movement called

Christianity could ever have erupted into existence in the very city that Jesus was found crucified and dead in, right?

All you'd have to do is say, he didn't rise from the dead. There he is. Let's go to the tomb.

The empty tomb was a big problem for the enemies of Jesus that fueled the movement forward and propelled it forward.

The empty tomb is a key fact of the resurrection in that no one, no one in the first century claimed otherwise, even among those who denied

Jesus was resurrected. Now, you had three groups of people. You had the Jews, the Romans, and the disciples.

The Jews didn't want an empty tomb, right? They wouldn't be the ones who are fabricating the story.

Oh yeah, the tomb's empty. They wanted Jesus dead. They were the ones who would cheer, and we have no king but Caesar.

Crucify him. So they wouldn't make this up. The Romans, they wanted

Jesus dead. That was a rival to Caesar, and they put two guards in front of the tomb. If Jesus, if they moved the body, that would make the

Romans look foolish, like they couldn't guard the tomb. They wanted Jesus dead, so they wouldn't make this up.

The last group of people is the disciples. Now, the disciples didn't want

Jesus dead. They wanted him to be alive. So if they stole the body and moved it away, they would be lying, and what would be the result of their lying?

Beatings, persecution, torture, exile, and death. Great benefits package. Knowing that it's a lie, that this is what you're going to get.

This is going to fuel the movement? Not even close. Not even close. So all three groups of people had no motive for lying about it or stealing the body.

Traditionally, skeptics question why the tomb was empty, not if the tomb was empty.

It's empty, right? One criteria historians use to determine if a witness is telling the truth is called the criteria of embarrassment, right?

So in the Scriptures, if somebody, one of the authors of the Scriptures, is writing something that's embarrassing or something that would hurt their own account, it's probably true.

You wouldn't write something embarrassing about your position unless it was really true, right?

So the historical document, the New Testament Scriptures, say that what? The women found the tomb empty.

Why is that a big deal? Why is it a big deal that the women found the tomb empty? It's a big deal because women were not considered to be a credible source of information.

They were not allowed to testify in any legal proceedings in Jerusalem. Now that's not true today.

You women are credible, right? But back then, a women's testimony was not considered credible.

So if you were making up the story, say, hey, let's, what are we gonna do? Oh yeah, yeah, Mary, yeah, she found

Jesus empty in the tomb. She's not a credible source. Why would you do that? Criteria of embarrassment.

You would write that because it was really true. Josephus says, let not the testimony of women be admitted.

The Talmud states, any evidence a woman gives is not valid. So if the writers of the

New Testament are making this story up, would they have said that the women found the tomb empty? Probably not.

They would have said the men found the tomb empty because the men have credible testimony.

Imagine, you'd be able to put the S on your chest. I found the tomb. It was empty. There is no

Jesus here. He rose from the dead. That's not what they wrote because it wasn't true. The women were the ones who found the tomb empty.

So based on the criteria of embarrassment, we have good reason to believe that what they wrote down actually happened.

It was true. Also, within that E for empty tomb, we also have something called enemy attestation.

If the enemies of you and your position are agreeing that the tomb is empty, guess what?

Good chance the tomb is empty, right? Your enemies are not going to give you fuel for your position to help you along.

However, the enemies to Christianity and Jesus said, yes, the tomb is empty. Here's what they didn't say.

Hey, let's go look in the tomb. Here's his body. You know why they didn't say that?

He wasn't there. It's very simple. In fact, in Matthew 28, 13, the

Jews were the ones who came up with the stories that said the disciples stole the body. Which means what?

They admit that the body wasn't there. If the body was there, they wouldn't have said, hey, the disciples stole it.

They're admitting that the tomb was empty and proposing an alternative explanation aside from the resurrection.

It's a problem that they're trying to explain away and blame the disciples. It's like when your son comes home and says, my dog ate my homework.

He's admitting he has no homework. A little difficult for the homeschooling people to do that, but I understand.

Okay. It's a very important fact about what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, that his statement is falsifiable.

In other words, you could prove Christianity false by what? Producing the body.

If you produce the body of Jesus, Paul would be proved wrong. Christianity would be found false.

The movement would have been a dead end, and we would still be in our sins. Okay. That's how crucial the resurrection is.

You know, in our legal system, we have something known as habeas corpus. Anybody know what habeas corpus means?

Say again. Produce the body. Right. Comes from the resurrection.

All you have to do is show you have the body. Resurrection is falsified. Until this day, no one has been able to produce the body.

If Christ was found dead, Christianity would be found dead. There would be no

Christianity as we know it. The disciples feared the Romans and the Pharisees.

They wouldn't concoct a resurrection story unless their motive was to receive beatings, persecution, torture, exile, and death.

All for a lie that they knew was a lie. Right. People don't swear to a lie knowing it's a lie.

People believe in a lie and swear to it, but they don't know it's a lie. The disciples, if they stole the body, would be swearing to a lie knowing it was a lie.

And even without the produced body, the people in Corinth could have checked to see if Paul's statements were true. He names a total of 514 witnesses that seen the resurrected

Christ. All you would have to do is find some of these people, question them, see if they admit seeing the resurrected

Christ. If they didn't, well then Paul's a liar. Do you see how easy it would be to prove that the resurrection was fake?

Easily falsifiable, yet no one could do it. All you would do is have to show the body, but no one could.

On top of that, the disciples didn't run away from this fact. At first they did, but when they saw the risen

Christ, it empowered them. They grew bolder to proclaim that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

You don't die willingly for a lie knowing it's a lie. The disciples were willing to die and face persecution because Jesus really did die and rise.

Another quick story. Anybody know who Walter Martin is? He's the original

Bible Answer Man. He was on a radio show with Long Chong Neville, and they were interviewing him with a

Muslim scholar. They were going back and forth, and the Muslim scholar looked at Walter Martin and said, you don't understand what you're talking about.

All you have is an empty tomb, and Walter Martin said, exactly right.

All we have is an empty tomb. With that, they went to station break. The Muslim scholar walked out and never came back.

That's a true story. Okay, so the question of history has never been, was the tomb empty?

It always has been, how did it get that way? We have an empty tomb. All right.

Third, now we have eyewitness testimony. Not only was the tomb empty, but Jesus appeared multiple times and to over 500 people after the resurrection, to the believers and skeptics alike.

There are nine sources inside the New Testament and outside of the New Testament that confirm the conviction of disciples meeting the risen

Christ. Now, the sources outside of the New Testament don't agree that Jesus rose from the dead.

They agree that he died and was buried. Okay, but they do agree that the disciples believed that they saw the resurrected

Christ. All right, so where do we find evidence within the

Scriptures? First, John 20, verses 11 through 18. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene.

Then Jesus appears to the other women, Matthew 28, 8. Then Jesus appears to Peter, Luke 24, 34.

Jesus appears to the two men on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24, 13. Then he appears to the 10 disciples,

Luke 24, 36 through 43. To all 11 disciples, eight days later when he's found on the beach and Peter's in the boat and jumps out of the boat to come and eat fish for breakfast with Jesus.

Right, that was John 20, verse 24. He appears to the seven disciples by the

Sea of Tiberias, John chapter 21. Then to 500 followers, 1

Corinthians 15, 6. He appears to James, 1 Corinthians 15, 7. And then he appears to the 11 at the

Ascension, Acts chapter 1, verses 3 through 12. So we have 10, at least 10, internal confirmations that the disciples met the risen

Christ. Second, we have the early creed. If you go back to 1 Corinthians 15,

Paul starts off saying, but what I received, I passed on to you. Okay, he received the creed from the

Christians who he met at that point in time, who testified that they believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Then this man named Saul, who was persecuting Christians, becomes a follower of Christ.

His life is radically transformed because he meets the risen Christ. Now, if you know somebody who was crucified, died, buried, and rose again, and you meet him, that should change your life, especially if it's

Jesus. Right, so Paul's testimony and conversion are evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.

Finally, fourth, the preaching of the early church. The preaching of the early church all included the resurrection of Jesus.

All right, you remember Acts chapter 2? There was 3 ,000 people there. Peter preached to them, and what happens?

They were pricked to the heart, and they end up believing. And where did that happen? Jerusalem.

It happened in the very city that Jesus was crucified, died, buried, and rose from the dead.

It would be very difficult for it to happen in that city if they found the body, if they grilled the witnesses and they lied.

Acts chapter 2, 29, Peter says, Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch

David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.

Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.

God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of this fact. In Jerusalem, he says this, their conviction grew bolder because of this.

These eyewitnesses would go on to testify of the risen Jesus even to their death.

All right? History says and tradition says that at least seven of the apostles were brutally tortured and told to recant, but they wouldn't.

Peter, historically and traditionally, said to be crucified upside down, and he requested to be crucified upside down because he said,

I do not deserve to be crucified the way my Lord was. Crucified upside down. Okay? These men were willing to die for the fact of Jesus' resurrection.

This is crucial to Christianity. Okay, so that's the E for eyewitness testimony.

We're doing pretty good on time. Okay. Finally, we have early testimony. What is testimony?

It's testifying, right? It's telling the truth about the situation as you're being questioned.

So we have very early written records that claim a resurrection. The closer the writings are to the event, the more confident we can believe that it really happened.

Now, the first thing we need to know about the New Testament, and I don't know if you know this, Paul's epistles were written before the

Gospels. Now, I know they don't appear that way in your New Testament. In fact, they appear after the

Gospels, and they're in size order. They're not in chronological order. So Paul's letters to the churches were written actually before the

Gospels. That's early testimony as what we're going to see. Again, what I told you before, 1

Corinthians 15 contains the earliest known creed for Christians, that the resurrection of Jesus was recited as a creed very shortly after it happens.

Paul said, I deliver it up to you what I also received. The words in verses 3 -5 were established as a creed prior to his writing to the

Corinthians, and he probably received that when he met with the apostles in Jerusalem. That's in Galatians 1 -2 and Acts 9.

So Paul is here just repeating the creed that he received in Jerusalem when he went back there to speak with the apostles.

He's repeating it to the Corinthians by way of letter. Now, who can tell me what a creed is?

Take a shot at it. A statement of faith, right? It's a statement of belief, right?

It's a statement of what they believe. We have the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed. It's a statement of what

Christians believe. It's a codification of what a group of people hold to be true.

And why is that important? Because the earliest creed will tell us what the early Christians really believed to be true.

So when Paul says, what I have heard, what I have received and passed on to you, Jesus died according to the scriptures, was buried, rose again according to the scriptures.

He's repeating what the early Christians had told him. Now, here's the timeline.

The crucifixion was in AD 30. Paul's conversion was a few years after that, 32 -34, historians say.

And his first meeting in Jerusalem with the apostles was around 37. Based on that, we could see that the time between the event of Christ's crucifixion and Paul's receiving the information about Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection in Jerusalem would be between five and seven years.

That's nothing. That's a very, very short period of time historically. So, especially since the apostles were alive and spoke to Paul and passed this on and confirmed it to him also.

He, Paul, had personal contact with the eyewitnesses of Christ's resurrection, and he himself saw the risen

Christ on the road to Damascus. You can look that up in Acts chapter 9 and chapter 26.

Paul's account is in perfect agreement with the other apostles' accounts. So you have one group of people, the apostles.

Paul comes on the scene later. He's persecuting Christians. He gets knocked down. He has this vision.

He goes to Cornelius' house. His conversion takes place, and the risen Christ appears to him.

He writes his letter to the Corinthians around the year 54. So that would mean from Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection to him writing it down is 24 years.

Again, historically speaking, that's a very short period of time, especially back then when they didn't have word processors, big pens, and pads to go buy at Walmart.

Ink and the paper or vellum, they would have to write on animal skins or press parchment.

It was very expensive. So the disciples didn't have a lot of money. So for them to get this, write it all out, took time.

But again, historically, this is considered a very short period of time. Remember, there were plenty of Christians around who could have disputed or corrected the writings of Paul if he was in error, right?

Even if he wrote it in 54, that's 15 years after it actually happened, the resurrection, they could have questioned the witnesses.

But nobody did. I shouldn't say nobody did. They probably did. He was found to be telling the truth.

We have no record of any corrections or challenges to his claims.

Not from the Romans. They wanted Jesus dead. Not from the Jews. They wanted him to stay dead.

And not from any other Christians. The Christians all testified to the fact that the resurrection was true. Furthermore, the gospel accounts validate

Paul because he wrote his letters before the gospels were written. This is not something that he took from the gospels and copied and said, oh, this is what happened.

He wrote that before the gospels were written. See how important that is? It's not that he's taking bits and pieces from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and incorporating them into his story.

He's writing it before they wrote those gospels. I'm going to go through a couple of quick scriptures here.

I've got to speed up a little. In Paul's epistles, Galatians 1, 1

Corinthians 2, and Philippians 2 .8, he tells us that Jesus was crucified. Galatians 1, foolish

Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your very eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Sounds credible, right? 1 Corinthians 2, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Philippians 2 .8, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This is three times Paul's attesting to the death of Jesus. Now he's going to testify to the resurrection.

Romans 6 .4, we were buried with him by baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may walk in newness of life.

2 Timothy 2 .8, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, which

I am suffering and bound with chains as a criminal, testifies to the resurrection of Jesus. Obviously, Paul considered

Jesus a real historical figure who was crucified and resurrected. He would not have written that otherwise.

Now remember, Paul started off as a Jewish rabbi and a lawyer, a man of great integrity, who ended up suffering to his death for his faith in Jesus.

He was trained as an attorney. It's not the kind of person who simply believes in tall tales.

In fact, he was persecuting the early church. Something profound had to happen to him in order for him to change his position.

Obviously, we know it's the regeneration of the Holy Spirit changing his heart, so now that he would trust in the risen

Christ. The most obvious event that fits the bill is that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again from the dead and appeared to Paul the way he said.

So we have nine sources that confirm multiple early testimonies of the resurrection, so much so that the

New Testament historian and atheist Gerd Ludeman says, it may be taken as a historical certainty that Peter and John had

Jesus appear to them as the risen Christ. That's an atheist and a New Testament scholar.

That's not a Christian commentator saying, oh, you have to believe this. That's an atheist and New Testament scholar.

So that's the E for early testimony. So I'm going to throw in an extra

E because you're a good crowd, and I want to give you a bargain. All right, we're going to add the fifth.

It's called expectation. What did the early Jews expect with regards to a coming Messiah? If the

Messiah was to come as the Jews expected he would, there would have had to be an expectation of what that would have looked like.

You wouldn't be told about the coming of the Messiah and have no understanding or expectations.

So what does the Old Testament say about the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah? And does

Jesus fulfill these things? Okay, the Hebrew scriptures, one of the best known prophecies in Hebrew scripture concerning the death of Messiah is

Psalm 22, right before Psalm 23. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 stand out.

Psalm 22 is especially amazing since it predicted numerous separate elements about Jesus's crucifixion a thousand years before Jesus was crucified.

It said that the Messiah will have his hands and his feet pierced through, Psalm 22, 16. The Messiah's bones would not be broken,

Psalm 22, 17. And men will cast lots for Messiah's clothing, Psalm 22, 18.

Right, three pieces of evidence that were written down a thousand years before Jesus was crucified.

Isaiah 53, another classic messianic prophecy known as the suffering servant, gives us details about the

Messiah. More than, now when Isaiah wrote this, this was more than 700 years before Jesus was even born.

Isaiah provides the details of Jesus's life and death. He says in Isaiah 53, 3, the

Messiah will be rejected. Jesus obviously was rejected. Isaiah 53, 5 through 9, the

Messiah will be killed as a substitutionary sacrifice for what? The sins of his people.

Isaiah 53, 7, the Messiah will remain silent in front of his accusers. Isaiah 53, 9,

Messiah will be buried with the rich. Again, Joseph of Arimathea. Isaiah 53, 12, the

Messiah will be with criminals in his death. He had the criminal on the right and the left side, the two other crosses. In addition to the death of the

Jewish Messiah, his resurrection from the dead is also foretold. Again, the clearest known of the resurrection prophecies is the one penned by King David that we read as part of Peter's sermon,

Psalm 16, 10. And this also was written a thousand years before Jesus was born.

For you will not abandon my soul to she -hole, nor will you allow your holy one to undergo decay.

That's about Jesus. Peter preaches that, uses that particular verse in Psalm 16 when he's preaching to the

Jews in Jerusalem when 3 ,000 were saved on Pentecost. He boldly asserted that God had raised

Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, from the dead. He then explained that God had performed this miracle deed in fulfillment of David's prophecy in verse 16.

He quotes David's prophecy as he goes through it. A few years later, Paul did the same thing when he spoke to the

Jewish community in Antioch. Like Peter, Paul declared that God raised Messiah from the dead in fulfillment of Psalm 16.

It's in Acts 13, 33. So every aspect of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the

Messiah, had been prophesied in the Hebrew scriptures long before those events had ever taken place.

Jesus would even say to the Jewish religious leaders of his day, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.

These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me for eternal life.

I can't give you that one right away. So we have, what's the four E's? Before you have a resurrection, you need to be dead.

Execution, E, execution. Second E, empty tomb, third

E, eyewitness testimony. Fourth E, early testimony.

I threw a couple of extra E's in there, and the fifth one is expectation. Okay, execution, empty tomb, eyewitness testimony, early testimony.

Okay, four things that point to the resurrection of Jesus. Okay, so how does Jesus fare against other religious leaders?

How did he fare, you know, with regards to Moses? What about Muhammad?

Dead. Buddha? Dead. Refugeous?

Dead. Dalai Lama? He looked good that way, right?

Alive. He's alive. Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both

Lord and Christ. He is seated on the throne, ruling and reigning right now, and I'm going to say that in another 10 minutes when we go to the pulpit.

So don't be surprised if you hear it again. Jesus is alive. We hold and trust our faith is in the hope of a risen

Savior. Jesus conquered the grave, okay? Every one of us will face death, all right?

That's why we need to be born again. We need to be born again. You need to be born of God's Spirit so that when you repent and place your faith in a

Savior, you're not placing your faith in a dead person. You're placing your faith in a person who's alive, interceding for you at the right hand of God the

Father. Very important that you understand this. Very important, not that you assent to the fact that Jesus is alive, but that you believe it.

Belief is assent with action. Are you acting your life, conducting your life in such a way that you believe that Jesus is on that throne, interceding on your behalf?

You don't need to know it. You need to believe it, okay? The resurrection is the linchpin for Christianity.

If Christ was found dead, Christianity was found dead. Christ is alive. Christianity is true, and you need to trust in him.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord God, that you have the power to conquer death and that you've done that in your

Son, Jesus. Father, I pray if there'd be any here that don't understand this, don't know this, don't believe this, don't trust in your

Son, that you would grant them faith, that you would grant them repentance, that your Spirit would move upon their minds in such a way that they would cling to you like they cling to a parachute.

Father, we thank you that you've attested to your resurrection in so many different ways, most of all by the

Holy Spirit in our hearts, according to the Scriptures. Lord, we thank you for the truth that we have in your Scriptures that never change.

May you be honored and glorified. May you bless the service and pastor as he preaches this morning. May the name of your