The Resurrection Of Jesus And The Changed Lives Of The Disciples

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The Resurrection of Jesus & the Changed Lives of the Disciples

Introduction: What is the primary reason you became a Christian? If you are not a Christian, what is the primary reason you have not become a Christian? The answer to each of these questions should be the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus should be the reason you became a Christian. And if you are not a Christian, believing that Jesus did not raise from the dead should be the reason you are not a Christian. If you are unsure of Jesus’ resurrection, your pursuit should be to evaluate the evidence. Eternal life and eternal separation from God is at stake.

1 Cor. 15:14-15, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised…if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” 

1. Evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection
   1. Jesus foretold his resurrection repeatedly: “From that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and raised again the third day.” (Matt. 16:21). 
      1. First point: either Jesus was a liar, out of touch with reality, or he raised from the dead.
      2. Jesus even made an appointment with his disciples to meet them in Galilee following his resurrection (Matt. 26:32).
   2. Jesus died. It has been said, “If he were alive on the third day, he did not die. If he died, he was not alive on the third day.” Some have argued that he merely fainted, was mistook for dead, and the cool of the tomb revived him.
      1. Pilate refused to release the body of Jesus until he was sure he was dead (Mark 15:44-45).
      2. Four experienced executioners were certain he was dead:
         1. They did not break his legs (Jn. 19:31-34)
         2. They put a sword through his side (if he were still alive, strong spouts of blood would come with every heartbeat).
      3. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were convinced he was dead, otherwise they would not have wrapped him. (Jn. 19:38-40)
      4. The apostle John was convinced he was dead (Jn. 19:34-35), and testified to such.
      5. The Jews believed he was dead because they asked that his body would be guarded against theft (Matt. 27:62-63).
      6. Are we to believe that after being wrapped tightly in grave clothes, Jesus revived, loosed himself, moved a large stone that three women could not move from the outside, then walk a number of miles with two on the road without any evidence of his trauma? 
   3. The Stone & the Seal
      1. The stone covering the tomb was traditionally a large heavy disc of rock which could roll along a groove slightly depress at the center. In the case of Jesus’ tomb, the stone is described as very great (Matt. 27:60)
      2. Matt. 27:65-66 Pilate granted the Jews a seal for the stone. The method of sealing was by stretching a cord across the stone and sealing it at each end with the stamp of Roman authority in clay. The stone could not be moved without evidence of tampering, resulting in the death penalty by the Romans.
      3. The tomb would have been made doubly sure with a well-trained Roman guard of four soldiers.
   4. The third day scene
      1. Matthew 28:1-15 Angels rolled the stone back as the soldiers watched. Unbelieving soldiers were forced to become the eyewitnesses to resurrection of Jesus. They had no choice but to go to the chief priests and tell them what happened, and especially tell them, the tomb was empty. The only way they would recant what they saw was by a large bribe and assurance the governor would not put them to death.
      2. For 40 days following, Jesus appeared repeatedly to the apostles and other disciples teaching them concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 1:1-3).
2. Testimony of the Resurrection
   1. Have you considered the challenge of convincing your brother that you are God? The change in the lives of the brothers of Jesus is nothing short of amazing. We need to consider that the four brothers of Jesus did not just doubt him; they were direct and bold in their denial of his claims (John 7:1-4).
   2. These brothers had observed Jesus as a quiet carpenter up to the age of 30. Then suddenly he was making obvious claims of being the messiah and the Son of God. This is not like making a decision to accept your brother as a rabbi. For the brothers to disbelieve that he was God, required them to take the alternative belief that he was insane (Mark 3:21)! Therefore for these men to change and believe would take irrefutable evidence. They must be convinced He is not insane.
      1. Please remember, that performing a miracle would not, and did not, convince them. Many saw miracles and were not convinced (John 6; John 11-12)
      2. Consider also the embarrassment that His unbelieving brothers would have suffered by His crucifixion. Crucifixion made one an outcast before the Roman world and a curse in the Jewish community. Yet the brothers of Jesus willingly accepted this reputation because they were convinced of His resurrection.
      3. So when James writes, “I James, a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Jas. 1:1), we must conclude that there is only one thing that could change him: Paul used these words to explain, “… then He appeared to James” (1 Cor. 15:7).
   3. The Reaction of the Murderers of Jesus:
      1. How likely were the people in Acts 2 and Acts 4 to have believed that Jesus rose from the dead? Thousands of Jews who less that two months before angrily cried out crucify him, repented when they heard the evidence for the resurrection.
      2. It is interesting that they didn’t accept the rumor about the body being stolen, nor was that even an issue. They had seen the miracles of Jesus and heard the eyewitness testimony of 12 men who themselves performed a notable miracle in their presence.
      3. McDowell states, “Is it reasonable that there were thousands upon thousands who accepted the risen Savior if there had not been sufficient evidence for the resurrection? Could all those converts have been made if Jesus had not been raised from the dead?”
      4. Consider the reaction of the Sanhedrin council, the same men who conspired to kill Jesus and Lazarus following the resurrection of Lazarus. These are the men who paid the Roman guards to say they were sleeping while the disciples stole the body. And yet, a few months later when Peter and John were arrested for preaching the resurrection, the council said nothing about the stolen body, neither did they call the guards as witnesses, nor did they accuse or expose the apostles as thieves. If the resurrection was a fraud, the men who had the greatest to lose certainly did a lousy job of exposing the deceit!
   4. The mental state of the Apostles
      1. The apostles certainly were not looking for his resurrection. John 11:16 tells us that as they journeyed toward Jerusalem, Thomas said, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’” 
      2. As soon as Jesus was arrested, Mark 14:50 records, “And they all left Him and fled.” Peter then denied the Lord three times.
      3. Following his death but prior to his resurrection appearance to the eleven, John 20:19 records, “The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst.” 
      4. Referring to the same event, Luke quotes Jesus as saying, “It is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 
      5. The apostles simply were not in the frame of mind of anxiously waiting for any sign that he had raised!
      6. John 20:25-29 Thomas: “Unless I see in 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.” He was not with the ten in the first appearance of Jesus. He held to his unbelief for eleven days until Jesus came and challenged him to see his wounds for himself. Thomas then proclaimed, “My Lord and My God.” Thomas had been vehement in his unbelief, demanding absolute proof. He becomes a perfect witness for us and for any skeptic.
   5. Contrast the above with the apostles following their encounters with Jesus following the resurrection:
      1. Whether before thousands of Jews or the Sanhedrin Council, the apostles repeatedly and boldly charged the people and the Jewish leaders with the murder of Jesus, but affirmed his resurrection was a vindication of his claims.
      2. The Council itself testified to their changed lives: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
      3. Even after the death of Stephen and Saul’s persecution, which caused Christians to scatter, the apostles stayed in Jerusalem unfazed by the threats.
      4. We may not fully appreciate the 1st century challenge of the resurrection claim. This is not like saying, “I think Jesus is a wonderful fellow.” Whether one believed or disbelieved, the charge cut like a knife and stirred strong responses. To believe in the resurrection of Jesus, was to call the Jewish leaders murders. But the apostles never flinched and never doubted what they saw even to the point of death.
   6. The testimony of Saul of Tarsus:
      1. To those who ask why Jesus did not show himself to the Jewish leaders, Saul of Tarsus is the answer. This man was not only well respected among the Council members; he was the most violent unbeliever of them all. Jesus chose men from both ends of the Jewish spectrum who in either case would have been least likely to believe and hold to their testimony under severe circumstances.
      2. After all, this same Council had seen the resurrection of Lazarus, and their solution was the kill Lazarus and Jesus. They admitted to the healing of the man lame from birth, but threatened the apostles anyway. They were given a chance and rejected it.
      3. Saul is unique because of his education, his zeal for Judaism, and because he was the premier persecutor who chose to be the premier persecuted. By any gauge, we cannot say of Paul that he would have been given to delusion.
      4. So did Saul only experience a visionary appearance of Jesus in his own consciousness? Consider:
         1. First, would Saul, an expert in his knowledge of the scriptures, have concluded a resurrection based on a visionary experience? He would have known of many visionary experiences in the OT and none of those were considered resurrections.
         2. Next, when Paul presents evidence for the resurrection in 1 Cor. 15:5-9, he uses the word “appeared” four times in the sense of a bodily resurrection. He appeared to Peter, to James, to the 500, and last of all, to Paul. Paul refers to each appearance as the same, a bodily resurrection.
         3. Further, why would Paul use the Damascus event as a means of convincing the most skeptical unbelievers? 
3. How Convinced Are You of the Resurrection of Jesus?
   1. Now how convinced are we of the resurrection of Jesus? Are we, as the early disciples, sure enough to cause us to lose everything in order to proclaim it to a lost world? Consider, in Acts 8:3-4, Luke records that the men and women who were scattered at the persecution of Saul went everywhere preaching the word. 
   2. So I ask you, if we were subjected to a similar persecution, would we go everywhere preaching the word, or would we go everywhere trying to find a place to meet? If spreading the word is not part of our lives when there is no persecution, why would it be if we were under duress?
   3. If Jesus raised, he is Lord. Will you ignore the evidence?

Berry Kercheville