Convincing Proofs of the resurrection
John 20:1-8 ~ Terry Phillips
January 6, 2018
I’m going to ask you, if you would turn with me to John's Gospel. And this morning we’re going to begin in the 20th chapter. We’re getting close to the end of John's Gospel, it's been a little while-- precious portion of God's word. I just want to read the first eight verses this morning as we begin. “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb, and so she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they laid Him. Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and they were going to the tomb. And the two were running together and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first and stooping and looking in he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Simon Peter therefore also came, following him, and entered the tomb and he beheld the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So, the other disciple, who had first come to the tomb entered then also and he saw and believed.”
We come now to the account of our Lord's resurrection. The Lord’s resurrection is inextricably bound to His crucifixion. The glory of the cross-- as we've seen it and lingered over it for some time here recently-- the glory of the cross is exceptional. Jesus was looking forward to that glory, as we saw in the beginning of His prayer to the Father in chapter 17. But the glory of the cross is exceptional only as it is followed by the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead. I remind you that Jesus tied the two of them together—tightly. There in John chapter 10, you recall when Jesus is speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd. He says-- beginning in verse 17, he says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My Own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
The cross and the resurrection are both necessary in accomplishing the Father's will. Apart from the bodily resurrection of Jesus-- the greatest significance of the cross is completely undermined. The spirit of God testifies quite emphatically to the staggering importance of the resurrection. Even in the passage that was just read a few moments before through the apostle Paul towards the end of his first epistle to the saints at Corinth. I want to remind you of just a few of those verses that were read just a few moments ago, beginning with verse 13 of first Corinthians 15; “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain.”-- Notice the implications if there is no resurrection-- “Our preaching is vain. Your faith also is vain.”– It’s useless. “Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses of God because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if in fact 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 worthless.” -- He repeats this, it's an emphatic declaration here -- and he goes on and says, “you are still in your sins.”If Christ is not raised, our faith is worthless-- you're still in your sins, “than those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished”, -- hopelessness and death – “if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to the pitied.”
Paul begins his epistle to the saints at Rome declaring the absolute necessity of the bodily resurrection of Christ for the establishing of Christ's deity and for the credibility of the gospel. The epistle to the saints at Rome begins this way: “Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning His Son who was born of a descendent of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power”--how –“by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His names sake.”It is therefore of the greatest importance that God has provided irrefutable proof of the bodily resurrection of His Christ. You recall at the beginning of the Acts of the apostles we read these words in the third verse: “To these He also presented Himself alive”, -- and this is referring to His disciples, His apostles. Those He had chosen in verse two. – “after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.”Many convincing proofs.
There have continued to be, there is now, there was from the very outset, from the very beginning-- there have been and continue to be relentless attacks on the biblical claims concerning this all-important matter of the resurrection of Christ. You and I, it seems to me, need to be very much familiar with the convincing proofs that God has so graciously provided us. Sometimes we just sort of read through these things and we take it for granted. We need to be familiar. How is it that God presented—what convincing proofs did He provide for us? As important as this is there surely needs to be some proof. So, this morning I'd like to just take some time before we dig too deeply into John chapter 20—We’re going to be looking a little bit at the first part of the chapter, but before that I want to really look-- take a little bit broader perspective regarding this matter of the resurrection of Christ.
There are seven things that I want to bring to your attention this morning. The first of those should be fairly obvious and that is the empty tomb. What are some of these convincing proofs of the resurrection of Christ? The empty tomb is a good place to begin, isn’t it? There are a number of the Lord's closest followers, who personally witnessed the empty tomb. They entered the tomb, the stone was rolled away, they came into the tomb and they saw firsthand that Jesus's body was no longer there. There are several important things regarding this-- First of all, the foremost thing to be keeping in mind as we think about the empty tomb in regards to the Lord's followers is this – they were not expecting it. In every one of the passages – And we’re going to be looking at several different accounts – as they approach the tomb of the Lord, they expect to find His body there. That's their expectation. They went there with several spices, they were prepared to find His body. They weren't expecting it and there were extraordinary details alongside of that empty tomb, not the least of which of course, was the presence of angels. Also, you think of, even in the passage we just read. Here's the Lord's, the cloths in which He was buried, laying there, but He's not in them. Remarkable evidence, the empty tomb. Now, one of the things that I find fascinating and I don't know if we-- how much you’ve thought about this, but the evidence of the empty tomb is absolutely certified inadvertently if you will, by the Jewish leaders, the enemies of Christ. They, by paying that sum of money and bribing the guards who were on duty, they were acknowledging once and forever, that that tomb was empty. Because they asked them to spread a message. They said tell this story-- and the story involved an empty tomb.
That leads me to a second-- A second convincing proof, not just the empty tune, but the response of the Jewish authorities. It's interesting if you stop and you read through the account in some respects, the Jewish leaders seemed more expectant of an empty tomb than the Lord’s followers. Remember how they were saying that He had said—and this was their complaint to the Roman authorities-- we need to make this tomb secure because that deceiver said He was going to rise from the dead, they actually almost were more anticipating an empty tomb than His followers. Obviously not from the right perspective. It's interesting to note that they made no effort whatsoever to find Lord's body. To me this is fascinating. It’s especially telling. They-- these guards come, and they come with a story of what is happened. What has taken place. Maybe it would be good if we turn back to the passage, there in Matthew's gospel. The last chapter, near to the end of that chapter. Matthew 28, verse 11, we read these words: “Now when they were on their way”– referring to the women-- this group of women, who had come to the grave and were coming back – “Behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests, all that happened.”Well, we know all that happened, as it’s described for us earlier on in the 28th chapter, which was read earlier this morning. There was a severe earthquake, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, his garment was white as snow. The guard shook for fear of him and became like dead men. This is what they recounted to the Jewish authorities. They reported to the chief priests all that had happened.“And when they had assembled with the elders and counsel together. They gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, “you are to say, His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep. If this should come to the governor's ears, we will win them over and keep you out of trouble.” They took the money and they did as they had been instructed, and the story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day.”
is it not interesting that they don't dispute the fact that the tomb is empty? And even more interesting that they don't immediately try to find the body of Jesus. Nothing, nothing would have vindicated their hatred of the Lord, to the extent that finding His body would have, they would've been able to present His dead body and say, we told you so. Christianity would have ended before it even began. But they don't do that. They simply want to try and fabricate a story because the tomb is empty. And the account these guards give to them make it clear something has happened that’s beyond their understanding. Don't forget that it wasn't long before this point in time when Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. A man who had been dead for four days and He had done it in the full light of day and in public view. Many, many people had witnessed it. And you recall that point in time, the Jewish leaders were beside themselves—what do we do about this? There's nothing we can say, it's happened. They even went so far as to contemplate killing Lazarus-- to me this is significant. The fact that these men didn't even look for His body.
We come to a third convincing proof of the Lord's resurrection. This is probably the most important, and that is-- the appearances of Christ after He rose from the grave. There are at least 10 separate physical appearances of the risen Christ, that are recorded for us in the New Testament. 11 if you count the instance, the Lord appearing-- the risen Lord, appearing to Paul, Saul at that time. There may be some discrepancy as to whether some of the descriptions-- One of the descriptions regarding the disciples, actually a couple descriptions refer to one and the same time or two different times, but at least 10 separate instances. These are physical appearances and I've used that word bodily resurrection, because we need to be very careful. One of things that I learned many years ago was that, there are many people in our society today-- many people in so-called churches today who will tell you they believe in the resurrection of Christ. But when you question them very far about it, you find out that that's not really what they mean. They don't mean the bodily resurrection of Christ. They mean that His spirit lives on. The resurrection is like a symbol of new beginnings. Have you heard people talk like this? Many times, I've heard this—it’s the spirit of Christ, they will say, it's that resilience of the human spirit that's exemplified in the resurrection, or in this concept of Him not really going away, but His spirit’s still with us. That's notwhat happened. This is a physical resurrection. It's a bodily resurrection. It has to be. That's why I use that term, think it's important.
Now these appearances of the Lord are not visions. They're not ghostlike appearances, like many times we have, where we have people who say they've seen aliens, they've seen Bigfoot they've seen-- you name it. Some of my grandkids can tell you of other various monsters that have been located or seen or just caught-- you know someone has caught a glimpse of them. That's not the kind of thing we’re talking about here. We think of the appearances of Christ we’re not talking about something that happened quickly and it was sort of a wispy thing, and it was like-- I wonder…maybe that was Him! That's not what we’re talking about, when we are talking about these appearances. This is interesting-- these appearances cover a period of 40 days, as we just read in the acts of the apostles, but they also include a wide range of settings. You ever stop to think about this in the appearances of the risen Christ? He appeared indoors. He appeared outdoors. He appeared to many people-- in some cases He appeared to one person. He appeared during the daytime. He appeared in the nighttime. He appeared on a mountain in a garden, by the sea of Tiberius, on a road, in a closed room. For a very brief time for an extended period of time and always unexpectedly. When people are hoping to catch a glimpse of something that they think exists or they believe or they really hope they can see and exists—they’re waiting, they’re looking or straining to see, what they’re hoping to see. These people were caught off guard. The Lord appears suddenly. That's the record that we have. These are sudden appearances. All of these facts about His appearance is extremely important, it seems to me.
Now there is what can appear to be a discrepancy in the record of the gospel accounts regarding especially the first hours of that first day of the week when the Lord was raised, and I want to go through that. I think it's that important. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on it, but I do want to go through it in a chronological order. Too often we look at these things and we say, well, God said it in His word, I believe it and that settles it-- and we should—but that doesn't mean we aren’t to examine what God actually says and what He’s actually revealed. And it’s a most interesting thing to me that we have recorded for us-- the accounts of these appearances are not just by one person or through one or two witnesses. These accounts are varied and they come from different angles. People who witnessed this and experienced it from very different perspectives. Some of those who recorded it, emphasize different things more than others, so I want to just go through this very quickly if I can this morning.
The first thing we know from the record that is given to us-- that early in the morning of the first day of the week a group of women set out to visit the Lords tomb. I want to remind you of several of the passages that make this clear. First of all, Matthews gospel chapter 28 verse one: “Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.”That's Matthew 28:1. Mark-- in Mark's gospel, the 16th chapter, we have this record, beginning with verse one again: “And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalena and Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices that they might come and anoint Him and very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen” Now, let’s look at Luke's record, Luke's gospel, beginning with chapter 23 and verse 55: “Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed after and saw the tomb and how His body was laid and they returned and prepared spices and perfumes and on the Sabbath, they rested. According to the commandment, but on the first day of the week at early dawn they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.”So early in the morning we’re told that a group of women go—we’re not told, it doesn't seem to me that we’re told the name of every one of them. Various accounts emphasize various women, but especially Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, Salome, these women's names are given specifically. So, they head to the tomb early in the morning at dawn. It seems to me, that Mary Magdalene must've gone ahead of the others. You come to the passage that we just read in John's Gospel in the 20th chapter, we read this: “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.”It seems to me, that obviously Mary Magdalene arrived first somewhat ahead of the group that she had broken away from, she sees the stone has been removed, and immediately it says she took off, she ran to tell Peter and John what she'd seen. Now it seems very obvious too, if you look at the record in John chapter 20. She says to them, “they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”Her thinking is not that He is risen from the dead. Her thinking is somebody stole the Lord's body and she's very upset by that. In the meantime, as Mary Magdalene has gone to tell Peter and John, this group of women arrives at the tomb and this is the record that we have then in chapter 28 of Matthew's gospel, where the angel-- they come…I’ve read through the first several verses…there were several verses at the beginning of the chapter describing the earthquake and the angels. Verse five says, “the angel answered and said to the women. Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He is risen, just as He said, come see the place where He was lying and go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him, behold, I have told you.”So, the angel confirms to this group of women that His body hasn't been stolen, He's risen from the dead, and they're told to go quickly and to tell His disciples. After this group of women leave the tomb, it seems obvious to me that Peter and John arrive. They’re running, John runs faster than Peter and he gets there. And of course, John hesitates before going into the tomb, Peter the impulsive one charges right in--in the passage we saw there in John, John 20. He sees the grave clothes. He sees the cloth that had been placed over the Lord's face, rolled up by itself off to the side and then of course John enters as well. We read of this in the account we just read in John chapter 20, and it seems to me that after Peter and John leave the tomb, Mary Magdalene returns. Mary had come originally at the beginning of John chapter 20 and left right away. The group of women come, then John and Peter, and now we see Mary coming back, verse 11 of John, chapter 20, “But Mary was standing outside”-- Now this is after we are told that…verse 10, “the disciples went away again to their homes.”Peter and John have seen what they've seen, we’re told John believed. We’re not told what Peter's response is-- and they leave. Now we’re told that Mary is seen to be standing outside the tomb and this is when Jesus makes His first appearance. His first appearance is to Mary Magdalene. I won’t take the time -- you can read in Mark chapter 16 verse nine confirms that she's the first one, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, the woman that Jesus had cast a number of demons out of and we read of that occurrence, in John chapter 20. I won’t take the time to read through that will be studying that at a later time.
In the meantime, as the other -- this group of women are on their way to alert the disciples, we’re told of the second appearance of the Lord in Matthew's gospel chapter 28. They've been told to go quickly and it says, “they departed”,-- verse eight— “quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to report it to the disciples, and behold, Jesus met them and greeted them and they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and take word to my brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they shall see Me.”So, we have a second appearance of the Lord to this group of women who are on their way to report the Lord's resurrection to His disciples and then we are told in Mark—or in Luke's gospel, we are told in chapter 24 verse 34, that the Lord—and this is by the men on the road to Emmaus. “They say the Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” This had to have occurred sometime after He had appeared to the group of women but before He appeared to these two men on the road to Emmaus, chronologically. And then of course he appears, and by the way, we don't know anything about this meeting of the Lord with Peter. It just says, He appeared to Simon. Contemplating Peter's last glance at the Lord after having betrayed the Lord, what a meeting that must've been—as Jesus appearing to Peter by Himself and confirmed His love for him. I can't imagine what that must've been like.
But, then the Lord appears we’re given a record in Luke's gospel chapter 24 verse 13: “behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus. The name of one of them was Cleopas”-- and they walk with the Lord. The Lord doesn't allow them to recognize Him until later when they arrive and they begin to eat together. Their eyes are opened and they realize this is the risen Christ. They’d been walking and talking with Him. He’s not a ghost, He’s not a vision. This is been quite a long period time. If you read through the account there in Luke's gospel -- Jesus had been teaching them, and actually rebuking them, reproving them for their failure to believe in all that the Scriptures had taught concerning God's Christ. And then we’re told, later on in that same day -- those two men -- they arose, verse 33 says, “that very hour, returned to Jerusalem found gathered together”-- and I’m in Luke by the way, Luke 24:33—“They rose that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, found gathered together the 11 and those who are with them, saying, the Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon and they begin to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread; and while they were telling these things He Himself stood in their midst.”They were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit at first, they were astonished. They couldn't believe it.
So, on the first day of the week. There are five appearances of Christ; to Mary Magdalene, to the group of women she had been with, to Peter, to the two men on the road to Emmaus and then later in the day in the evening to the disciples who were gathered together. Where these men have been traveling was about 7 miles from Jerusalem. So, they hightailed it back to Jerusalem. It was definitely doable even on foot. So, the first day -- five appearances. Then, we’re told in John's Gospel -- and by the way -- in John chapter 20 we read of the same appearance to the disciples at the end of that day. Verse 19 makes it clear, John 20 – “When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you.”We’re told that Thomas though was not with them, then skipping down verse 24, the other disciples relay to him the fact that they had seen the risen Christ and he says I don't believe it. And then, we’re told in verse 26, that 8 days later the disciples were inside and Thomas was with them this time and Jesus appeared to them again. So, we have five times on the first day, eight days later, Jesus appears to His disciples, then over the next several weeks, Jesus appears John chapter 21-- to some of His disciples the sea of Tiberius when they’re fishing. He appears to them at the designated mountain in Galilee. Matthew chapter 28, the very last two verses of the chapter, verse 16, tell us of this. He appeared to James, as Caleb read from first Corinthians 15 this morning. We don't know when, in relation to the 40 days, but Paul makes it clear He appeared to James. We also know that He appeared to a group of people, as was read this morning, and in that passage again in first Corinthians 15. He appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain alive at the point in time in which this was written. Some people would say that that group of people is the same group that’s described on the mountain in Matthew chapter 28. I don't know. It doesn't seem to me that there's any way for us to know that. It could have very well beed that was a larger group of people that was gathered there on that mountain.
So, we have all of these appearances of Christ and then of course the final appearance just prior to and including His ascension. And then of course as of one born later on-- He appears to Saul on the road to … or on the road -- slips my mind where he was on the road to right now…anyway. This was the final appearance that we have of the risen Christ, which of course wasn't during that period of 40 days. …It was on the road to Damascus wasn’t it? Sorry about that…that could've been a senior moment… So, we have these 10, no less than 10 appearances and again and it might be a little bit more depending on how we understand when this group of 500 were gathered together. That's the third convincing proof. That’s a lot of proof, by the way. That's a lot of appearances, that's not just a few people-- or a few disciples who were just obsessed with Jesus and could not accept the fact that He died and squeezed out of their minds, their fertile imaginations-- some sort of glimpse, fleeting glimpse of Him -- that's not what we have. We have a record of people who saw Him physically present. They were so startled that at one point in time we’re told they thought they were seeing a spirit, they couldn't believe it.
We come to a fourth convincing proof and that is the witness of these first-hand accounts. These witnesses themselves, I should say. I want to look at the people themselves for moment. First thing to notice about these witnesses and they are referred to as witnesses and you think… if you're familiar with the acts of the apostles, you know that there's a very important emphasis on this and in fact – because of Judas's… because of his betraying the Lord and leaving their number, obviously the other person -- Matthias who was chosen to take his place was one who had to be a witness of His death of His resurrection and even had been with Him throughout His public ministry.
First thing to notice about these witnesses is that they were notexpecting to see the risen Christ. One of the passages makes this especially emphasize it – I’m not going to take the time go back to again -- but we’re told that as the women are telling the disciples this -- It says, “they would not believe it” they were not in a mood to believe it. They were not ready to accept it. They were not anticipating the bodily resurrection of their Lord. That's extremely important in establishing their credibility. They weren’t just longing, and hoping that this would be true. They didn't expect it, it took them by surprise.
Secondly, all of these disciples were in an extraordinarily unique position to know whether or not this was a factor or not, whether this was true or not. They had spent hours and hours and hours of time with Jesus. They knew Jesus. They knew Him well and if it was Jesus who raised from the dead, believe me, these men would've known. Just the same way you would know if a loved one of your loved ones had died and came back from the dead, you know if it was them. These men knew firsthand. They were in a position to know with certainty whether or not Jesus had died had risen from the dead, and by the way, if Jesus had not ever really died -- which some have tried to propose -- they still would've been in a position to have known that as well and His-- all of a sudden appearing alive would have meant nothing. So, consider that.
Thirdly of these first-hand witnesses. There is a seamless consistency to their testimony. A seamless consistency and that consistency began from the very first day of His resurrection throughout their entire lives. They never wavered from it, they didn't change their story. Think of how often people tweak and change their stories over time. Their story didn't change ever. Not only that, more importantly, their story didn't change and their witness was never hidden or kept from being proclaimed even under the threat of death and horrible deaths. Almost every one of these men with the exception of the apostle John gave up their lives for the Lord. The interesting thing is they didn't all die at once. They gave up their lives one at a time and every one of them in isolation. if you will. They didn't do it together is my point. Imagine this-- can you fathom a group of men insane enough to concoct the story, fabricate this legend if you will -- which many people have said, well this just became legend overtime -- to fabricate this legend, hold to the story with no inconsistencies and give up their lives, be filleted alive, be hung upside down, be beheaded. And not a group of them together worked up in a fever pitch of emotion saying, “yeah, we’ll just do it. Let's just die for this.” No, this happened over long periods of time. These men one by one, they bore witness to the truth of this, they were convinced of it as much as anyone could be convinced of anything. And Jesus, God Almighty had appointed that it would be that way. When you look at the beginning of the acts of the apostles and they’re questioning who's going to be the one who joins their number. Do you supposed if those men knew what that would mean they would have been willing to put their name into consideration? What -- What a testimony -- for me personally, this is one of the greatest testimonies of all. In terms of the deity, the veracity or the deity of Christ, the credibility of the gospel, the reality of the resurrection and the veracity of Scripture. These men stand like a bulwark against unbelief. You can't look at this as an agnostic. You can't look at this as an atheist, you can't look at this because you can't-- you have to write this away somehow. What do you do with these men. It's been an interesting thing to me-- when I was younger, my father gave me a number of books that, you could see especially towards the early 1900s there were men who recognize this fact. If we’re going to undermine the infallibility, this concept of the infallibility of God's word, we have to get rid of these men's testimony. We got to get rid of the resurrection, and eventually they zeroed in on Paul more than anyone else. Obviously, they weren’t able to refute it. That's how important, how critical their witness is.
One other thing I ask you to consider regarding these first-hand witnesses and that is-- their unbridled zeal for the Lord. They love the Lord, they gave their whole lives to proclaiming the truth, to proclaiming a crucified and risen Lord. Didn't matter what came, that's all that mattered.
There's a fifth proof that I give separately because I do think it's worthy of being separated and that is-- the testimony of the apostle Paul as I mentioned earlier. Paul’s testimony is especially remarkable. Paul was an exceedingly intellectual man, you can't not --you can't possibly miss this fact from reading his letters. Not only was he an intellectual, he was logical. Paul was not the kind of man who would fall for deceptions easily. Wild stories, fables, visions, dreams, the testimony of Paul is so unlikely. It is so unexpected. Here he is on his way to Damascus killing Christians, so profound a change in this man, so bold, so zealous, so unflagging, unwavering, to the end. He's the one who writes the words that we read --that were read there in 1 Corinthians 15. These are words of a man who was convinced way beyond a shadow of a doubt.
A sixth proof - and that is the effectiveness of the witness. Here we have these first-hand witnesses and we look at their lives and it's a staggering, staggeringwitness and testimony. How do you refute - how you undermine these men, yeah, I could maybe explain one or two of them just being completely insane - just wouldn't let it go, but there's no way to explain that testimony. Now here's another fact and that is the effectiveness of their witness. Have you ever thought about this? The response of thousands upon thousands of precious souls to their witness and the positive response to their witness at great peril to their own lives. Think about that. That's how credible their witness was. The people who believed them were doing so at great risk. You remember the passenger here in John 20 - These men, after the Lords crucifixion, they’re gathered together in this upper room and the door is shut – Why? – for fear of the Jews. They had reason to be afraid. The Jewish leaders as -- of course, they’re hopes to get rid of any, any even reference to Christ by killing Him, backfired. It wasn't long before His name was being spread further and farther than ever before, and they did everything they could to stop it, but the response of thousands of precious souls to that witness -- their response provided an unstoppable surge and unabated spread of world-wide gospel influence, it just spread like wildfire. The effectiveness of the witness -- utterly lastingly convincing.
One last proof that I would make mention of this morning -- and that is what I would call the power of the gospel. The power of the gospel. Apart – as I said earlier – and as Paul works out the details… works it out logically there in first Corinthians 15. If Christ didn't rise from the dead, then we’re in a bad situation. Our preaching is a waste of time. Faith is useless, no hope beyond this life. But there's another issue that Paul brought up there and that is, we’re still in our sins. If He only died and didn't rise – bodily, physically from the grave, if He didn't conquer death, then you and I are still in our sins. And yet the gospel message is proclaimed, and has been proclaimed to millions and millions and millions of souls who have recognized this simple fact, that there’s forgiveness and deliverance from sin through Christ, our crucified and risen Savior. The certainty of forgiveness is there with its most practical implications. Is there anything quite as wonderful as to witness the soul who comes to saving faith in Christ, and for the first time their guilt is gone. That weight of sin is lifted –I’m free. Now we may not realize that moment in time and some of us may realize more than others -- but we’re free. And even if it takes us a little while to work that out, and it does take quite a while for all of us to work it out all the way -- this is a reality that cannot exist apart from the resurrection. The credibility of the cross. If there's no credibility to the cross, by means of the resurrection then the gospel has no power – there’s no legitimacy, faith is vain.
But there's another thing that goes along with this that I want to especially look at in closing this morning, and that is -- A legitimate and an overcoming understanding of death. That's another aspect of the power of the gospel. Death is a terrible thing in this world, is it not? It looms large over life in this world. We’re told of those who are sitting in the fear in the shadow of what? – death. When the light comes, of Christ comes, it comes to those who are sitting in the shadow of death. Death casts a horrible shadow, does it not? Everywhere we look in this world death casts it’s shadow. We talk about somebody we've known who’s died. We don't know them, we can't see them and talk to them anymore. because why? -- they died. We recognize the longer we live that that limitation is coming. It maybe tomorrow, it may be a few years, but we’re going to die. We walk through a cemetery -- like we did yesterday, we were doing some hiking -- death reigns. It reigns supreme. Cemeteries only hold a mere tiny, tiny fraction of the dead that have gone before us in this world. It’s that reminder, its reign is undeniable. It is the bitterest of agonies. If it weren't for death, can you imagine how different this life would be? But there's death. There's no getting around it, people have done anything and everything they can to blunt this bitter agony. Some people pretend that death is just a natural part of life. They can try to convince themselves hard as they can. That's just… it's not a big deal. There's people who have tried to freeze their bodies and who have frozen their bodies in hopes that sometime in the future, we’ll somehow figure out a way to conquer death. Death subjugates us to a hopeless dread. Hebrews 2:15. …Bound in slavery, bound to the fear death. It is --as was also read earlier this morning-- it is the final enemy, you don’t get a worse enemy than that, do you? Death.
The resurrection of our Lord casts death in a very different light. For those who’ve turned to Jesus alone for forgiveness and deliverance of sin, death looks very different. Doesn't it? What a special, specialjoy it is to realize this. Death no longer has the final word, because Jesus conquered death, because He rose from the grave -- death does not have the final word. I remind you of several of the statements that our Lord made in anticipation of His conquering death. What did He say, in John chapter 5 verse 24? “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has”--past tense, even now, when we put our trust in Him, we have – “passed out of death into life.”What are the Lord‘s marvelous words of encouragement there in the 11th chapter of John's Gospel? Just prior to His raising Lazarus from the dead -- His words of encouragement to Martha. “I Am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies.”That puts a whole different perspective on death, doesn't it? “He who believes in Me will live, even if he dies.” “I am the resurrection and the life.”If Jesus didn't raise… was not raised from the dead, these words are meaningless, they’re nonsense, they’re an absolute deception. But if He did rise -- and all of this evidence confirms it – then these words provide the greatest hope imaginable for sinners like you and I. Death no longer has power over us, why? --because it has no power over Him. What does Paul say there, over in Romans chapter 6, verse nine— “Knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead is never to die again, -- why? How can that be? --death no longer is master over Him.”There's a victory, there's a victory in Christ resurrection it’s not just a personal victory for Him, it's a victory that He achieved for us as well. Victory over death. Little later on in Romans chapter 8, verse two— “for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”We've been set free. Set free by a risen Christ. Death is a conquered foe and that's how you and I see it, it is I trust, if we’re in Christ—that’s how we see death—it’s a conquered foe, that is if we’re seeing it as we should.
Verse 10 of second Timothy one— “but now has been revealed by the appearing– he’s speaking of our salvation that have been predetermined by God from all eternity -- Now it has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus who-- did what? -- abolished death.”That's a strong statement, He abolished. He didn't just win a skirmish. He didn't just eke out a victory in one battle, He abolished death. Reading on a little further in the passage in first Corinthians 15, we read words there that have provided comfort to untold thousands and thousands of precious souls in Christ as they face death, as they face the separation -- only temporarily -- of a loved one in Christ. “When this perishable-- verse 54 of 1 Corinthians 15 -- when this perishable will it put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Death is swallowed up in victory. O, death where is your victory? O, death where is your sting?”Here he's taunting death. This thing that has reigned over all of mankind since the fall in the garden, the most horrible, horriblereign imaginable – the reign of death. Where’s you sting, death? Where’s your victory? Where is it now, In the face of the risen Christ? “The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”.His victory is our victory. He gives us the victory through Himself, through His own victory. The agony of death is forever gone.
I remind you of what Peter says in that message, that first message the Acts of the apostles, on the day of Pentecost. And when he speaks of the resurrection, chapter 2 of acts and the 24th verse he says this – "And God raised Him up again-- verse before that he talks about the fact that they had nailed Him to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Verse 24 – “And God raised Him up again-- notice the next words -- putting an end to the agony of death.”It’s over, an end. In raising Christ, the agony of death is done. It’s over. it's gone forever.
So, this morning as we contemplate this encouragement, the wonder of this truth, how ought we to respond? Well, I’ll go back to just a couple, there are so many things we could say, I’ll go back to first Corinthians 15 once again. If our victory has been granted to us… if our victory over death has been granted to us in Christ, what does Paul say in response to that? Verse 58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”We can be abounding, absolutely abounding in a joyful serving of the Lord, steadfast, immovable, we’re not swayed by all the difficulties and even the threats that may come upon our lives, we can be steadfast, immovable, abounding in work, the Lords work. Romans chapter 15, verse 13 comes to my mind, came to my mind also, as I was contemplating this. Romans 15:13 – “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”We can abound in hope because of what Christ has accomplished, because He rose from the dead. We can’t have a greater hope than that. what a wonderful thing. Let’s bow together in prayer.
We come now to the account of our Lord's resurrection. The Lord’s resurrection is inextricably bound to His crucifixion. The glory of the cross-- as we've seen it and lingered over it for some time here recently-- the glory of the cross is exceptional. Jesus was looking forward to that glory, as we saw in the beginning of His prayer to the Father in chapter 17. But the glory of the cross is exceptional only as it is followed by the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead. I remind you that Jesus tied the two of them together—tightly. There in John chapter 10, you recall when Jesus is speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd. He says-- beginning in verse 17, he says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My Own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
The cross and the resurrection are both necessary in accomplishing the Father's will. Apart from the bodily resurrection of Jesus-- the greatest significance of the cross is completely undermined. The spirit of God testifies quite emphatically to the staggering importance of the resurrection. Even in the passage that was just read a few moments before through the apostle Paul towards the end of his first epistle to the saints at Corinth. I want to remind you of just a few of those verses that were read just a few moments ago, beginning with verse 13 of first Corinthians 15; “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain.”-- Notice the implications if there is no resurrection-- “Our preaching is vain. Your faith also is vain.”– It’s useless. “Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses of God because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if in fact 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 worthless.” -- He repeats this, it's an emphatic declaration here -- and he goes on and says, “you are still in your sins.”If Christ is not raised, our faith is worthless-- you're still in your sins, “than those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished”, -- hopelessness and death – “if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to the pitied.”
Paul begins his epistle to the saints at Rome declaring the absolute necessity of the bodily resurrection of Christ for the establishing of Christ's deity and for the credibility of the gospel. The epistle to the saints at Rome begins this way: “Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning His Son who was born of a descendent of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power”--how –“by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His names sake.”It is therefore of the greatest importance that God has provided irrefutable proof of the bodily resurrection of His Christ. You recall at the beginning of the Acts of the apostles we read these words in the third verse: “To these He also presented Himself alive”, -- and this is referring to His disciples, His apostles. Those He had chosen in verse two. – “after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.”Many convincing proofs.
There have continued to be, there is now, there was from the very outset, from the very beginning-- there have been and continue to be relentless attacks on the biblical claims concerning this all-important matter of the resurrection of Christ. You and I, it seems to me, need to be very much familiar with the convincing proofs that God has so graciously provided us. Sometimes we just sort of read through these things and we take it for granted. We need to be familiar. How is it that God presented—what convincing proofs did He provide for us? As important as this is there surely needs to be some proof. So, this morning I'd like to just take some time before we dig too deeply into John chapter 20—We’re going to be looking a little bit at the first part of the chapter, but before that I want to really look-- take a little bit broader perspective regarding this matter of the resurrection of Christ.
There are seven things that I want to bring to your attention this morning. The first of those should be fairly obvious and that is the empty tomb. What are some of these convincing proofs of the resurrection of Christ? The empty tomb is a good place to begin, isn’t it? There are a number of the Lord's closest followers, who personally witnessed the empty tomb. They entered the tomb, the stone was rolled away, they came into the tomb and they saw firsthand that Jesus's body was no longer there. There are several important things regarding this-- First of all, the foremost thing to be keeping in mind as we think about the empty tomb in regards to the Lord's followers is this – they were not expecting it. In every one of the passages – And we’re going to be looking at several different accounts – as they approach the tomb of the Lord, they expect to find His body there. That's their expectation. They went there with several spices, they were prepared to find His body. They weren't expecting it and there were extraordinary details alongside of that empty tomb, not the least of which of course, was the presence of angels. Also, you think of, even in the passage we just read. Here's the Lord's, the cloths in which He was buried, laying there, but He's not in them. Remarkable evidence, the empty tomb. Now, one of the things that I find fascinating and I don't know if we-- how much you’ve thought about this, but the evidence of the empty tomb is absolutely certified inadvertently if you will, by the Jewish leaders, the enemies of Christ. They, by paying that sum of money and bribing the guards who were on duty, they were acknowledging once and forever, that that tomb was empty. Because they asked them to spread a message. They said tell this story-- and the story involved an empty tomb.
That leads me to a second-- A second convincing proof, not just the empty tune, but the response of the Jewish authorities. It's interesting if you stop and you read through the account in some respects, the Jewish leaders seemed more expectant of an empty tomb than the Lord’s followers. Remember how they were saying that He had said—and this was their complaint to the Roman authorities-- we need to make this tomb secure because that deceiver said He was going to rise from the dead, they actually almost were more anticipating an empty tomb than His followers. Obviously not from the right perspective. It's interesting to note that they made no effort whatsoever to find Lord's body. To me this is fascinating. It’s especially telling. They-- these guards come, and they come with a story of what is happened. What has taken place. Maybe it would be good if we turn back to the passage, there in Matthew's gospel. The last chapter, near to the end of that chapter. Matthew 28, verse 11, we read these words: “Now when they were on their way”– referring to the women-- this group of women, who had come to the grave and were coming back – “Behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests, all that happened.”Well, we know all that happened, as it’s described for us earlier on in the 28th chapter, which was read earlier this morning. There was a severe earthquake, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, his garment was white as snow. The guard shook for fear of him and became like dead men. This is what they recounted to the Jewish authorities. They reported to the chief priests all that had happened.“And when they had assembled with the elders and counsel together. They gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, “you are to say, His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep. If this should come to the governor's ears, we will win them over and keep you out of trouble.” They took the money and they did as they had been instructed, and the story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day.”
is it not interesting that they don't dispute the fact that the tomb is empty? And even more interesting that they don't immediately try to find the body of Jesus. Nothing, nothing would have vindicated their hatred of the Lord, to the extent that finding His body would have, they would've been able to present His dead body and say, we told you so. Christianity would have ended before it even began. But they don't do that. They simply want to try and fabricate a story because the tomb is empty. And the account these guards give to them make it clear something has happened that’s beyond their understanding. Don't forget that it wasn't long before this point in time when Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. A man who had been dead for four days and He had done it in the full light of day and in public view. Many, many people had witnessed it. And you recall that point in time, the Jewish leaders were beside themselves—what do we do about this? There's nothing we can say, it's happened. They even went so far as to contemplate killing Lazarus-- to me this is significant. The fact that these men didn't even look for His body.
We come to a third convincing proof of the Lord's resurrection. This is probably the most important, and that is-- the appearances of Christ after He rose from the grave. There are at least 10 separate physical appearances of the risen Christ, that are recorded for us in the New Testament. 11 if you count the instance, the Lord appearing-- the risen Lord, appearing to Paul, Saul at that time. There may be some discrepancy as to whether some of the descriptions-- One of the descriptions regarding the disciples, actually a couple descriptions refer to one and the same time or two different times, but at least 10 separate instances. These are physical appearances and I've used that word bodily resurrection, because we need to be very careful. One of things that I learned many years ago was that, there are many people in our society today-- many people in so-called churches today who will tell you they believe in the resurrection of Christ. But when you question them very far about it, you find out that that's not really what they mean. They don't mean the bodily resurrection of Christ. They mean that His spirit lives on. The resurrection is like a symbol of new beginnings. Have you heard people talk like this? Many times, I've heard this—it’s the spirit of Christ, they will say, it's that resilience of the human spirit that's exemplified in the resurrection, or in this concept of Him not really going away, but His spirit’s still with us. That's notwhat happened. This is a physical resurrection. It's a bodily resurrection. It has to be. That's why I use that term, think it's important.
Now these appearances of the Lord are not visions. They're not ghostlike appearances, like many times we have, where we have people who say they've seen aliens, they've seen Bigfoot they've seen-- you name it. Some of my grandkids can tell you of other various monsters that have been located or seen or just caught-- you know someone has caught a glimpse of them. That's not the kind of thing we’re talking about here. We think of the appearances of Christ we’re not talking about something that happened quickly and it was sort of a wispy thing, and it was like-- I wonder…maybe that was Him! That's not what we’re talking about, when we are talking about these appearances. This is interesting-- these appearances cover a period of 40 days, as we just read in the acts of the apostles, but they also include a wide range of settings. You ever stop to think about this in the appearances of the risen Christ? He appeared indoors. He appeared outdoors. He appeared to many people-- in some cases He appeared to one person. He appeared during the daytime. He appeared in the nighttime. He appeared on a mountain in a garden, by the sea of Tiberius, on a road, in a closed room. For a very brief time for an extended period of time and always unexpectedly. When people are hoping to catch a glimpse of something that they think exists or they believe or they really hope they can see and exists—they’re waiting, they’re looking or straining to see, what they’re hoping to see. These people were caught off guard. The Lord appears suddenly. That's the record that we have. These are sudden appearances. All of these facts about His appearance is extremely important, it seems to me.
Now there is what can appear to be a discrepancy in the record of the gospel accounts regarding especially the first hours of that first day of the week when the Lord was raised, and I want to go through that. I think it's that important. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on it, but I do want to go through it in a chronological order. Too often we look at these things and we say, well, God said it in His word, I believe it and that settles it-- and we should—but that doesn't mean we aren’t to examine what God actually says and what He’s actually revealed. And it’s a most interesting thing to me that we have recorded for us-- the accounts of these appearances are not just by one person or through one or two witnesses. These accounts are varied and they come from different angles. People who witnessed this and experienced it from very different perspectives. Some of those who recorded it, emphasize different things more than others, so I want to just go through this very quickly if I can this morning.
The first thing we know from the record that is given to us-- that early in the morning of the first day of the week a group of women set out to visit the Lords tomb. I want to remind you of several of the passages that make this clear. First of all, Matthews gospel chapter 28 verse one: “Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.”That's Matthew 28:1. Mark-- in Mark's gospel, the 16th chapter, we have this record, beginning with verse one again: “And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalena and Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices that they might come and anoint Him and very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen” Now, let’s look at Luke's record, Luke's gospel, beginning with chapter 23 and verse 55: “Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed after and saw the tomb and how His body was laid and they returned and prepared spices and perfumes and on the Sabbath, they rested. According to the commandment, but on the first day of the week at early dawn they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.”So early in the morning we’re told that a group of women go—we’re not told, it doesn't seem to me that we’re told the name of every one of them. Various accounts emphasize various women, but especially Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, Salome, these women's names are given specifically. So, they head to the tomb early in the morning at dawn. It seems to me, that Mary Magdalene must've gone ahead of the others. You come to the passage that we just read in John's Gospel in the 20th chapter, we read this: “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.”It seems to me, that obviously Mary Magdalene arrived first somewhat ahead of the group that she had broken away from, she sees the stone has been removed, and immediately it says she took off, she ran to tell Peter and John what she'd seen. Now it seems very obvious too, if you look at the record in John chapter 20. She says to them, “they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”Her thinking is not that He is risen from the dead. Her thinking is somebody stole the Lord's body and she's very upset by that. In the meantime, as Mary Magdalene has gone to tell Peter and John, this group of women arrives at the tomb and this is the record that we have then in chapter 28 of Matthew's gospel, where the angel-- they come…I’ve read through the first several verses…there were several verses at the beginning of the chapter describing the earthquake and the angels. Verse five says, “the angel answered and said to the women. Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He is risen, just as He said, come see the place where He was lying and go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him, behold, I have told you.”So, the angel confirms to this group of women that His body hasn't been stolen, He's risen from the dead, and they're told to go quickly and to tell His disciples. After this group of women leave the tomb, it seems obvious to me that Peter and John arrive. They’re running, John runs faster than Peter and he gets there. And of course, John hesitates before going into the tomb, Peter the impulsive one charges right in--in the passage we saw there in John, John 20. He sees the grave clothes. He sees the cloth that had been placed over the Lord's face, rolled up by itself off to the side and then of course John enters as well. We read of this in the account we just read in John chapter 20, and it seems to me that after Peter and John leave the tomb, Mary Magdalene returns. Mary had come originally at the beginning of John chapter 20 and left right away. The group of women come, then John and Peter, and now we see Mary coming back, verse 11 of John, chapter 20, “But Mary was standing outside”-- Now this is after we are told that…verse 10, “the disciples went away again to their homes.”Peter and John have seen what they've seen, we’re told John believed. We’re not told what Peter's response is-- and they leave. Now we’re told that Mary is seen to be standing outside the tomb and this is when Jesus makes His first appearance. His first appearance is to Mary Magdalene. I won’t take the time -- you can read in Mark chapter 16 verse nine confirms that she's the first one, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, the woman that Jesus had cast a number of demons out of and we read of that occurrence, in John chapter 20. I won’t take the time to read through that will be studying that at a later time.
In the meantime, as the other -- this group of women are on their way to alert the disciples, we’re told of the second appearance of the Lord in Matthew's gospel chapter 28. They've been told to go quickly and it says, “they departed”,-- verse eight— “quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to report it to the disciples, and behold, Jesus met them and greeted them and they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and take word to my brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they shall see Me.”So, we have a second appearance of the Lord to this group of women who are on their way to report the Lord's resurrection to His disciples and then we are told in Mark—or in Luke's gospel, we are told in chapter 24 verse 34, that the Lord—and this is by the men on the road to Emmaus. “They say the Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” This had to have occurred sometime after He had appeared to the group of women but before He appeared to these two men on the road to Emmaus, chronologically. And then of course he appears, and by the way, we don't know anything about this meeting of the Lord with Peter. It just says, He appeared to Simon. Contemplating Peter's last glance at the Lord after having betrayed the Lord, what a meeting that must've been—as Jesus appearing to Peter by Himself and confirmed His love for him. I can't imagine what that must've been like.
But, then the Lord appears we’re given a record in Luke's gospel chapter 24 verse 13: “behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus. The name of one of them was Cleopas”-- and they walk with the Lord. The Lord doesn't allow them to recognize Him until later when they arrive and they begin to eat together. Their eyes are opened and they realize this is the risen Christ. They’d been walking and talking with Him. He’s not a ghost, He’s not a vision. This is been quite a long period time. If you read through the account there in Luke's gospel -- Jesus had been teaching them, and actually rebuking them, reproving them for their failure to believe in all that the Scriptures had taught concerning God's Christ. And then we’re told, later on in that same day -- those two men -- they arose, verse 33 says, “that very hour, returned to Jerusalem found gathered together”-- and I’m in Luke by the way, Luke 24:33—“They rose that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, found gathered together the 11 and those who are with them, saying, the Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon and they begin to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread; and while they were telling these things He Himself stood in their midst.”They were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit at first, they were astonished. They couldn't believe it.
So, on the first day of the week. There are five appearances of Christ; to Mary Magdalene, to the group of women she had been with, to Peter, to the two men on the road to Emmaus and then later in the day in the evening to the disciples who were gathered together. Where these men have been traveling was about 7 miles from Jerusalem. So, they hightailed it back to Jerusalem. It was definitely doable even on foot. So, the first day -- five appearances. Then, we’re told in John's Gospel -- and by the way -- in John chapter 20 we read of the same appearance to the disciples at the end of that day. Verse 19 makes it clear, John 20 – “When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you.”We’re told that Thomas though was not with them, then skipping down verse 24, the other disciples relay to him the fact that they had seen the risen Christ and he says I don't believe it. And then, we’re told in verse 26, that 8 days later the disciples were inside and Thomas was with them this time and Jesus appeared to them again. So, we have five times on the first day, eight days later, Jesus appears to His disciples, then over the next several weeks, Jesus appears John chapter 21-- to some of His disciples the sea of Tiberius when they’re fishing. He appears to them at the designated mountain in Galilee. Matthew chapter 28, the very last two verses of the chapter, verse 16, tell us of this. He appeared to James, as Caleb read from first Corinthians 15 this morning. We don't know when, in relation to the 40 days, but Paul makes it clear He appeared to James. We also know that He appeared to a group of people, as was read this morning, and in that passage again in first Corinthians 15. He appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain alive at the point in time in which this was written. Some people would say that that group of people is the same group that’s described on the mountain in Matthew chapter 28. I don't know. It doesn't seem to me that there's any way for us to know that. It could have very well beed that was a larger group of people that was gathered there on that mountain.
So, we have all of these appearances of Christ and then of course the final appearance just prior to and including His ascension. And then of course as of one born later on-- He appears to Saul on the road to … or on the road -- slips my mind where he was on the road to right now…anyway. This was the final appearance that we have of the risen Christ, which of course wasn't during that period of 40 days. …It was on the road to Damascus wasn’t it? Sorry about that…that could've been a senior moment… So, we have these 10, no less than 10 appearances and again and it might be a little bit more depending on how we understand when this group of 500 were gathered together. That's the third convincing proof. That’s a lot of proof, by the way. That's a lot of appearances, that's not just a few people-- or a few disciples who were just obsessed with Jesus and could not accept the fact that He died and squeezed out of their minds, their fertile imaginations-- some sort of glimpse, fleeting glimpse of Him -- that's not what we have. We have a record of people who saw Him physically present. They were so startled that at one point in time we’re told they thought they were seeing a spirit, they couldn't believe it.
We come to a fourth convincing proof and that is the witness of these first-hand accounts. These witnesses themselves, I should say. I want to look at the people themselves for moment. First thing to notice about these witnesses and they are referred to as witnesses and you think… if you're familiar with the acts of the apostles, you know that there's a very important emphasis on this and in fact – because of Judas's… because of his betraying the Lord and leaving their number, obviously the other person -- Matthias who was chosen to take his place was one who had to be a witness of His death of His resurrection and even had been with Him throughout His public ministry.
First thing to notice about these witnesses is that they were notexpecting to see the risen Christ. One of the passages makes this especially emphasize it – I’m not going to take the time go back to again -- but we’re told that as the women are telling the disciples this -- It says, “they would not believe it” they were not in a mood to believe it. They were not ready to accept it. They were not anticipating the bodily resurrection of their Lord. That's extremely important in establishing their credibility. They weren’t just longing, and hoping that this would be true. They didn't expect it, it took them by surprise.
Secondly, all of these disciples were in an extraordinarily unique position to know whether or not this was a factor or not, whether this was true or not. They had spent hours and hours and hours of time with Jesus. They knew Jesus. They knew Him well and if it was Jesus who raised from the dead, believe me, these men would've known. Just the same way you would know if a loved one of your loved ones had died and came back from the dead, you know if it was them. These men knew firsthand. They were in a position to know with certainty whether or not Jesus had died had risen from the dead, and by the way, if Jesus had not ever really died -- which some have tried to propose -- they still would've been in a position to have known that as well and His-- all of a sudden appearing alive would have meant nothing. So, consider that.
Thirdly of these first-hand witnesses. There is a seamless consistency to their testimony. A seamless consistency and that consistency began from the very first day of His resurrection throughout their entire lives. They never wavered from it, they didn't change their story. Think of how often people tweak and change their stories over time. Their story didn't change ever. Not only that, more importantly, their story didn't change and their witness was never hidden or kept from being proclaimed even under the threat of death and horrible deaths. Almost every one of these men with the exception of the apostle John gave up their lives for the Lord. The interesting thing is they didn't all die at once. They gave up their lives one at a time and every one of them in isolation. if you will. They didn't do it together is my point. Imagine this-- can you fathom a group of men insane enough to concoct the story, fabricate this legend if you will -- which many people have said, well this just became legend overtime -- to fabricate this legend, hold to the story with no inconsistencies and give up their lives, be filleted alive, be hung upside down, be beheaded. And not a group of them together worked up in a fever pitch of emotion saying, “yeah, we’ll just do it. Let's just die for this.” No, this happened over long periods of time. These men one by one, they bore witness to the truth of this, they were convinced of it as much as anyone could be convinced of anything. And Jesus, God Almighty had appointed that it would be that way. When you look at the beginning of the acts of the apostles and they’re questioning who's going to be the one who joins their number. Do you supposed if those men knew what that would mean they would have been willing to put their name into consideration? What -- What a testimony -- for me personally, this is one of the greatest testimonies of all. In terms of the deity, the veracity or the deity of Christ, the credibility of the gospel, the reality of the resurrection and the veracity of Scripture. These men stand like a bulwark against unbelief. You can't look at this as an agnostic. You can't look at this as an atheist, you can't look at this because you can't-- you have to write this away somehow. What do you do with these men. It's been an interesting thing to me-- when I was younger, my father gave me a number of books that, you could see especially towards the early 1900s there were men who recognize this fact. If we’re going to undermine the infallibility, this concept of the infallibility of God's word, we have to get rid of these men's testimony. We got to get rid of the resurrection, and eventually they zeroed in on Paul more than anyone else. Obviously, they weren’t able to refute it. That's how important, how critical their witness is.
One other thing I ask you to consider regarding these first-hand witnesses and that is-- their unbridled zeal for the Lord. They love the Lord, they gave their whole lives to proclaiming the truth, to proclaiming a crucified and risen Lord. Didn't matter what came, that's all that mattered.
There's a fifth proof that I give separately because I do think it's worthy of being separated and that is-- the testimony of the apostle Paul as I mentioned earlier. Paul’s testimony is especially remarkable. Paul was an exceedingly intellectual man, you can't not --you can't possibly miss this fact from reading his letters. Not only was he an intellectual, he was logical. Paul was not the kind of man who would fall for deceptions easily. Wild stories, fables, visions, dreams, the testimony of Paul is so unlikely. It is so unexpected. Here he is on his way to Damascus killing Christians, so profound a change in this man, so bold, so zealous, so unflagging, unwavering, to the end. He's the one who writes the words that we read --that were read there in 1 Corinthians 15. These are words of a man who was convinced way beyond a shadow of a doubt.
A sixth proof - and that is the effectiveness of the witness. Here we have these first-hand witnesses and we look at their lives and it's a staggering, staggeringwitness and testimony. How do you refute - how you undermine these men, yeah, I could maybe explain one or two of them just being completely insane - just wouldn't let it go, but there's no way to explain that testimony. Now here's another fact and that is the effectiveness of their witness. Have you ever thought about this? The response of thousands upon thousands of precious souls to their witness and the positive response to their witness at great peril to their own lives. Think about that. That's how credible their witness was. The people who believed them were doing so at great risk. You remember the passenger here in John 20 - These men, after the Lords crucifixion, they’re gathered together in this upper room and the door is shut – Why? – for fear of the Jews. They had reason to be afraid. The Jewish leaders as -- of course, they’re hopes to get rid of any, any even reference to Christ by killing Him, backfired. It wasn't long before His name was being spread further and farther than ever before, and they did everything they could to stop it, but the response of thousands of precious souls to that witness -- their response provided an unstoppable surge and unabated spread of world-wide gospel influence, it just spread like wildfire. The effectiveness of the witness -- utterly lastingly convincing.
One last proof that I would make mention of this morning -- and that is what I would call the power of the gospel. The power of the gospel. Apart – as I said earlier – and as Paul works out the details… works it out logically there in first Corinthians 15. If Christ didn't rise from the dead, then we’re in a bad situation. Our preaching is a waste of time. Faith is useless, no hope beyond this life. But there's another issue that Paul brought up there and that is, we’re still in our sins. If He only died and didn't rise – bodily, physically from the grave, if He didn't conquer death, then you and I are still in our sins. And yet the gospel message is proclaimed, and has been proclaimed to millions and millions and millions of souls who have recognized this simple fact, that there’s forgiveness and deliverance from sin through Christ, our crucified and risen Savior. The certainty of forgiveness is there with its most practical implications. Is there anything quite as wonderful as to witness the soul who comes to saving faith in Christ, and for the first time their guilt is gone. That weight of sin is lifted –I’m free. Now we may not realize that moment in time and some of us may realize more than others -- but we’re free. And even if it takes us a little while to work that out, and it does take quite a while for all of us to work it out all the way -- this is a reality that cannot exist apart from the resurrection. The credibility of the cross. If there's no credibility to the cross, by means of the resurrection then the gospel has no power – there’s no legitimacy, faith is vain.
But there's another thing that goes along with this that I want to especially look at in closing this morning, and that is -- A legitimate and an overcoming understanding of death. That's another aspect of the power of the gospel. Death is a terrible thing in this world, is it not? It looms large over life in this world. We’re told of those who are sitting in the fear in the shadow of what? – death. When the light comes, of Christ comes, it comes to those who are sitting in the shadow of death. Death casts a horrible shadow, does it not? Everywhere we look in this world death casts it’s shadow. We talk about somebody we've known who’s died. We don't know them, we can't see them and talk to them anymore. because why? -- they died. We recognize the longer we live that that limitation is coming. It maybe tomorrow, it may be a few years, but we’re going to die. We walk through a cemetery -- like we did yesterday, we were doing some hiking -- death reigns. It reigns supreme. Cemeteries only hold a mere tiny, tiny fraction of the dead that have gone before us in this world. It’s that reminder, its reign is undeniable. It is the bitterest of agonies. If it weren't for death, can you imagine how different this life would be? But there's death. There's no getting around it, people have done anything and everything they can to blunt this bitter agony. Some people pretend that death is just a natural part of life. They can try to convince themselves hard as they can. That's just… it's not a big deal. There's people who have tried to freeze their bodies and who have frozen their bodies in hopes that sometime in the future, we’ll somehow figure out a way to conquer death. Death subjugates us to a hopeless dread. Hebrews 2:15. …Bound in slavery, bound to the fear death. It is --as was also read earlier this morning-- it is the final enemy, you don’t get a worse enemy than that, do you? Death.
The resurrection of our Lord casts death in a very different light. For those who’ve turned to Jesus alone for forgiveness and deliverance of sin, death looks very different. Doesn't it? What a special, specialjoy it is to realize this. Death no longer has the final word, because Jesus conquered death, because He rose from the grave -- death does not have the final word. I remind you of several of the statements that our Lord made in anticipation of His conquering death. What did He say, in John chapter 5 verse 24? “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has”--past tense, even now, when we put our trust in Him, we have – “passed out of death into life.”What are the Lord‘s marvelous words of encouragement there in the 11th chapter of John's Gospel? Just prior to His raising Lazarus from the dead -- His words of encouragement to Martha. “I Am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies.”That puts a whole different perspective on death, doesn't it? “He who believes in Me will live, even if he dies.” “I am the resurrection and the life.”If Jesus didn't raise… was not raised from the dead, these words are meaningless, they’re nonsense, they’re an absolute deception. But if He did rise -- and all of this evidence confirms it – then these words provide the greatest hope imaginable for sinners like you and I. Death no longer has power over us, why? --because it has no power over Him. What does Paul say there, over in Romans chapter 6, verse nine— “Knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead is never to die again, -- why? How can that be? --death no longer is master over Him.”There's a victory, there's a victory in Christ resurrection it’s not just a personal victory for Him, it's a victory that He achieved for us as well. Victory over death. Little later on in Romans chapter 8, verse two— “for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”We've been set free. Set free by a risen Christ. Death is a conquered foe and that's how you and I see it, it is I trust, if we’re in Christ—that’s how we see death—it’s a conquered foe, that is if we’re seeing it as we should.
Verse 10 of second Timothy one— “but now has been revealed by the appearing– he’s speaking of our salvation that have been predetermined by God from all eternity -- Now it has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus who-- did what? -- abolished death.”That's a strong statement, He abolished. He didn't just win a skirmish. He didn't just eke out a victory in one battle, He abolished death. Reading on a little further in the passage in first Corinthians 15, we read words there that have provided comfort to untold thousands and thousands of precious souls in Christ as they face death, as they face the separation -- only temporarily -- of a loved one in Christ. “When this perishable-- verse 54 of 1 Corinthians 15 -- when this perishable will it put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Death is swallowed up in victory. O, death where is your victory? O, death where is your sting?”Here he's taunting death. This thing that has reigned over all of mankind since the fall in the garden, the most horrible, horriblereign imaginable – the reign of death. Where’s you sting, death? Where’s your victory? Where is it now, In the face of the risen Christ? “The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”.His victory is our victory. He gives us the victory through Himself, through His own victory. The agony of death is forever gone.
I remind you of what Peter says in that message, that first message the Acts of the apostles, on the day of Pentecost. And when he speaks of the resurrection, chapter 2 of acts and the 24th verse he says this – "And God raised Him up again-- verse before that he talks about the fact that they had nailed Him to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Verse 24 – “And God raised Him up again-- notice the next words -- putting an end to the agony of death.”It’s over, an end. In raising Christ, the agony of death is done. It’s over. it's gone forever.
So, this morning as we contemplate this encouragement, the wonder of this truth, how ought we to respond? Well, I’ll go back to just a couple, there are so many things we could say, I’ll go back to first Corinthians 15 once again. If our victory has been granted to us… if our victory over death has been granted to us in Christ, what does Paul say in response to that? Verse 58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”We can be abounding, absolutely abounding in a joyful serving of the Lord, steadfast, immovable, we’re not swayed by all the difficulties and even the threats that may come upon our lives, we can be steadfast, immovable, abounding in work, the Lords work. Romans chapter 15, verse 13 comes to my mind, came to my mind also, as I was contemplating this. Romans 15:13 – “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”We can abound in hope because of what Christ has accomplished, because He rose from the dead. We can’t have a greater hope than that. what a wonderful thing. Let’s bow together in prayer.
