The Good News of the Resurrection: The Power of Eyewitnesses
The Church of Corinth; Struggling to be in the world but not of the world • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 49:19
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What was the resurrection of Jesus like? Do you wonder what happened inside that tomb when he was raised? Did his skin start to glow with power from within? How did the wrappings come off only to be folded in their place? Was there a sound associated to resurrection of Jesus?
There are no human eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. None. Zero. This may come as a shock to you to hear these words but they are true.
What we know of the resurrection, we learn from biblical writers of the gospels, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Not one of the them gives us an internal look at what occured when Jesus rose from the dead inside that tomb.
We wish there was some CCTV footage hidden inside the tomb, picked up by a security camera set up by the Romans or the High Priest of the Pharisees, but no technology existed. Even the Romans guards who were the closest to the action inside that stone coffin had no first hand knowledge of what had happened in there with Jesus. All they were willing to report is what a good bribe paid for.
The truth about the resurrection is the aftereffect of the tragic Friday night action. What leads us to believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ is what occured after the body of the Lord of Glory was beaten, bloodied, and killed on a Roman Crucifix, then placed in the burial tomb and left alone. What happened on that Sunday morning stood as enough evidence for a wave of church history to begin and continue until the world comes to an end. The evidence was the appearing of Jesus, in a new bodily form, after his death and his burial. It is his appearing to many witnesses, up to 500 at one time, that fanned the flame of the growth of Christianity that still continues today.
Today, we will look at the power and importance of the eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ and how that impacts the church moving forward in carrying out the message of good news.
Review:
1. Effects of the Good News 1-2
2. Evidence of the Good News
A. Elements of the good news(death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ) 3-4
B. Evidence of good news- God’s Word (“According to the Scriptures”
C. Evidence of the good news (Eyewitnesses to the Resurrected Jesus 5-11)
1. The Importance of Eyewitnesses
1. The Importance of Eyewitnesses
Importance of eyewitnesses in a court of law. They bring a testimony and value to any defense or accusation against a defendant. They are a key piece of any investigation for justice in a court of law. Once eyewitnesses are found to produce solid evidence and they are deemed credible witnesses, then eyewitness testimony is a solid proof for certain arguments. If you were a fan of Perry Mason or L A Law, or any courtroom dramas like that, the last minute eyewitness testimony was always the cliffhanger the viewer longed for.
The Jews made it a practice of confirming evidence in a judicial matter on the basis of two or more eyewitnesses. If there was only one witness, the matter was questionable, but when two or more witness could attest to the same matter in solidarity, than that was acceptable evidence for or against a matter of justice.
For example:
1 “You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God. 2 “If there is found in your midst, in any of your towns, which the Lord your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded, 4 and if it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil deed to your gates, that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them to death. 6 “On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7 “The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
In judicial matters where a person was sentenced and put to death regarding idol or false worship, the case stood upon the valid witnesses who could testify as observing the same offense in that person or persons. Their testimony was the nail in the coffin for the accused and therefore a life or death testimony.
14 “You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess. 15 “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.
Now consider that practice and how it continued in the NT when it came to the organized body of believers in the church moving in judgment on a particular person who was caught in sin. While death is not the end of the conflict, the church uses this same logical practice of two or more witnesses as an example of credible evidence against a person.
15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.
In all these areas, we can learn that God gave his people a responsibility to be honest and forthright about the violation against God and his word that they observed. Very generally speaking, God was calling his people to be truthful in all their dealings and to make known that truth. This of course means that when proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, they were eager to give honest account of what they saw and those observations build a logical and historical record of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
2. The Importance of Eyewitnesses to the Risen Christ
2. The Importance of Eyewitnesses to the Risen Christ
So what are the questions that need to be answered for a person to be convinced logically that Jesus rose from the dead?
Author, professor, and historian Gary Habermas is a key voice in the apologetic of the resurrection of jesus. He answers that question for us,
“here’s how I look at the evidence for the resurrection: First, did Jesus die on the cross? And second, did he appear later to people? If you can establish those two things, you’ve made your case, because dead people don’t normally do that.” 1
Eyewitnesses of his death
Now I want to spend just a few minutes reminding us of the public eyewitnesses of the death and burial of Jesus . If we are see the value of mulitple eyewitnesses on any particular event, then we first must consider who saw his death and his burial. For there to be a resurrection, one must first die and be buried.
The death of the Lord Jesus was a public execution and therefore it was seen by his greatest of enemies, those practitioners of his torture, and his family and friends.
Romans Soldiers saw him die
32 So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; 33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
39 When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Religious enemies saw him die
35 And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine,
Relatives and friends saw him
49 And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, seeing these things.
Empty tomb Eyewitnesses
In addition to his death and its irrefutable public display, the other notable evidence is the eyewitnesses of the empty tomb. Although none of the eye witnesses actually saw the stone be rolled away, the evidence to which the empty tomb points lends credibility to the case that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb.
The Different Disciples at the Empty Tomb
The women at the empty tomb on that Sunday morning were the first to discover the stone rolled away and the body missing. The women thought the body of Jesus was missing and taken away by the officials. Their reaction was to go get the disciples which led to Peter and John rushing to the burial site. Peter and John arrive, enter the empty tomb and see the linens that Jesus was wrapped in folded neatly on the stone.
For these disciples to see the linen clothes lying there alone without a body within them speaks against a conspiracy that Jesus may have resurrected spiritually but not bodily. But a bodily resurrection is essential to the Christian tenets of resurrection because of what they communicated about the death of Christ and his resurrection as the first fruits of his new kingdom. As Jesus was the first to raise victoriously from death with a new glorified body, so all those who put their faith in Christ will too raise to new spiritual and physical life.
Seeing the missing body from the linens was John documenting a bodily resurrection of Jesus, one that did not undergo decay, as the Psalm 16:10 predicted.
Later the women entered the tomb and were visited by angels proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus and then Jesus appeared to the women while inside the tomb. His resurrected form made him unfamiliar to them but she clung to Jesus in his new glorified bodily state.
The Soldiers at the Tomb
Those assigned to guard the tomb were most likely Roman guards that were assigned to the Jewish High Priest for their service. The deception of the religious leaders throughout the pages of the gospels reeks of their plots to discredit and put an end to the movement of Christ and his followers.
When Jesus was crucified, these manipulators go to Pilate and ask for guards at the tombs because of the potential that the disciples would come steal Jesus’ body away to fuel the fire of the movement of Jesus. Pilate reminded them that Roman guards had already been assigned to them and so they were put in place to stand guard.
Those guards in their places encounter something much more than just an empty tomb on that Sunday morning. As they are guarding the tomb, probably extremely exhausted from the overnight watch, witnessed an angel appear at the tomb and roll away the stone. This does not free Jesus in his resurrected state, for no stone nor walls could keep him contained. Instead, the rolling of the stone was a way for Jesus’ to witness this great event. This cosmic event, accompanied with an earthquake was enough paralyze these guards with fear.
After the angel visits with the women about the news of the resurrected Christ, the guards go into the city and report to the Jewish leaders all that happened. It was then that these deceivers pay off the guards with bribe money in order to spread the lies that the guards stole the body of Christ. The very reality of such a story of the stolen body of Christ has been disputed.
In order to dispute the stolen body of Jesus conspiracy, one could point to two simple facts:
If the disciples stole the body, they would have never communicated the story of resurrection with women as the ones to find Jesus resurrected first. Culturally that would have created a greater challenge to the story if it were not true.
If the disciples stole the body, then how did they do so with the guards present. To subvert the guards and steal the body seems unlikely. Even the believability of the fabricated story of the religious leaders isn’t believable. No guard, who could have faced great punishment for sleeping on duty, would have allowed this theft to occur.
Instead, the fabricated story of the stolen body actually helps confirm that Jesus’ tomb was empty and a great supernatural miracle occured.
Finally, we get to the appearances of Jesus, which Paul makes the case for in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul has already made the case from the OT that the death and resurrection of Christ was foretold by the prophets as God’s great plan of redemption. Now he will point to the hundreds of eye witnesses who saw the risen Christ.
Peter and the other disciples (v 5)
First to be mentioned is of course, Peter. At this time of Paul’s writing, Peter was known as the leader of the early church movement and one of the pillars of the church’s beginning. But it was also Peter and John who were the first of the eleven disciples to rush to the empty tomb. We actually do not have the recorded event when Jesus appears to Peter individually. We simply have this statement here by Paul and we have the statement recorded in Luke 24:34
34 saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.”
Luke records the story of Jesus appearing to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and these disciples knew of Jesus’ appearing to Peter only. His name in Aramaic was Cephas.
This list of appearances by Paul seems chronological for in Luke 24:33-39 we read:
33 And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, 34 saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. 36 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. 38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
Paul seems to be recalling this event when he appeared to the disciples who he calls the “twelve” officially, but at this point it was only ten for Thomas was not present and Judas was now dead. But this appearing is before the disciples as he calls them to instill in them confidence of the power of resurrection that occured as the living Christ stood before them.
500 Witnesses at once
The next statement by Paul is somewhat baffling because it was not recorded but at some point, Jesus appeared to a group of 500 disciples in one gathering. Such an event was not recorded in the gospels and yet Paul felt that its historical value was important enough to include here. Whenever this even was during the 40 days of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances, it gives solid evidence about the resurrection.
Since 500 people at one time saw the resurrected Christ, then any attempt to refute the resurrection appearances under the label of a group hallucination falls apart. And yet this has hallucination theory has been such a way critics try and refute the resurrection appearances.
Apologist Craig Groothuis helps us think logically about this theory. He writes,
Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Hallucinated or Resurrected?)
It is extremely difficult to defend the idea that such a diversity of persons, at different times and places, were all subject to the same hallucination of a physically risen Jesus, especially since they perceived Christ through multiple modes of perception: sight, hearing and touch. Hallucinations are not a group phenomenon but individual aberrations 2
Paul also affirms to the Corinthians that at the time of him writing these words to them, some of these eyewitnesses were still alive. The existence of these eyewitnesses were just another solid foundation of the church. Although these 500 were not considered apostles, they were noted in the church as seeing the risen Christ. This gave them a solid and bold testimony of the work of God in Christ.
James, the brother of Jesus
Paul’s next record is a fascinating entry into this historical record. James the brother of Jesus was a skeptic of the Lord during his earthly ministry.
In John 7:2-4
2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. 3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. 4 “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”
This instruction from his brothers, including James, is eerily similar to what Satan said to Jesus during his temptation in the wilderness. It seems to show their lack of belief in him as the true Messiah.
But in Acts 1:13-14, after the ascension of Jesus, we read from Luke that all the apostles were gathered in the Upper Room, “continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.”
At sometime in Jesus 40 days of appearing, he appeared to James, his brother so that now he believed in Christ and became a great leader in the church in Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost.
Paul mentions again appearing to the disciples, but this time he calls them apostles. This change in labels is intended to reference his appearing and Great Commission to them as he sends them out to be witnesses of his great gospel to the world.
Paul (8-11)
Paul concludes his list with himself, describing himself in humble terms. He states he was one untimely born meaning that he was not one who walked with Christ in his earthly ministry, but instead he opposed Christianity in its earliest forms. We know it was in Acts 9 that the Lord appear to Paul as he was traveling to and from with persecuting aspirations. Paul’s encounter with Jesus as the risen Christ was one that led Saul who became Paul to believe in Christ and would confirm his ordained apostleship in the church.
All of these historical appearances are Paul’s way of giving the Corinthians and all the church proof, just as the gospel writers did, that Jesus truly did rise bodily from teh grave and therefore usher in hope that his work of redemption was accomplished and his second coming would bring final action in his new kingdom of earth and heaven.
3. The Importance of Witnesses of the Risen Christ today (10-11)
3. The Importance of Witnesses of the Risen Christ today (10-11)
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
In verses 10-11, Paul gives a great summary for his work in gospel ministry and it should also help us see how the Lord calls us to be “witnesses today.” We cannot be eyewitnesses because our eyes have not yet gazed on the beauty of the Risen Christ, like those previously mentioned.
But in Acts, the command is still to be witnesses for Christ so that others can believe. Paul’s words remind us that our testimony in Christ, is one of GRACE.
His Grace for Us
Paul mentions three times the grace of God to save and use him. We were like Paul in the sense that were rebels of God and our actions were actions counterproductive to the word of God before Christ saved us. But his resurrection power is the same that radically takes someone like you and me and changes us. That change is observable change and so, while we cannot see the Risen Christ bodily, we can see the risen Christ spiritually in his transformative work in us. In other words, we see his grace in us just as Paul saw the grace of God in his life.
Turn to Eph 3:1-8
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, 7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. 8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
His Gospel for the World
Let me them call us to consider the fact that we are also witnesses of his power in the resurrection, for we have been changed by it. Thus we are called as Paul states in Eph and 1 Cor to preach and teach the glorious riches of Christ to those around us, proclaiming the good news to the world so that they too might believe. As witnesses of his work throughout history and in our lives, we are compelled to go and share this life transforming work with the world.
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
The church will proclaim this good news day by day, warning unbelievers to forsake sin and turn in faith to Jesus Christ as the only sure hope of salvation for their souls.
FootNotes:
1. Strobel, Lee. The Case for Easter: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Resurrection (pp. 63-64). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
2. Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith