Exploring the Evidence for Christ

Last week we started our-week series called The Case for Christ. This series was inspired by the movie of the same name. It’s a great film that chronicles the spiritual journey of Lee Strobel, the award-winning journalist who went from being an ardent atheist dead set on disproving Christianity to becoming a confident follower of Christ.

Last week we started a four-week series called The Case for Christ, and we encouraged all of you to be sure to see The Case for Christ movie, which helped inspire these messages. It’s a great film that chronicles the spiritual journey of Lee Strobel, the award-winning journalist who went from being an ardent atheist dead set on disproving Christianity to becoming a confident follower of Christ.

Lee Strobel today is a speaker, pastor, and the best-selling author of many books, including The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, The Case for a Creator, and more. But what you might not know is that a few years ago Strobel had his own TV show called Faith Under Fire.

Hosting that program led him into all kinds of interesting spiritual conversations, including—get this!—an interview with the publisher of Playboy magazine, Hugh Hefner.

So here’s the story: Strobel sat with Hefner in the living room of Hefner’s opulent Los Angeles mansion and asked him very direct questions about his spiritual beliefs. Hefner expressed a minimal belief in God, referring to him as “the beginning of it all” and the “great unknown,” but he said he did not believe in the God of Christianity.

Interestingly, when Strobel brought up the resurrection of Jesus, Hefner instantly saw the supreme relevance of it. “If one had any real evidence that, indeed, Jesus did return from the dead, then that is the beginning of a dropping of a series of dominoes that takes us to all kinds of wonderful things,” he said. “It assures an afterlife and all kinds of things that we would all hope are true.”

But Hefner was a doubter. His rational side couldn’t accept it. He said, “I don’t think that Jesus is any more the Son of God than we are.” And despite the importance of the resurrection, he admitted he had never investigated the historical evidence for it.[1]

Well, Hefner was right about one thing: If the resurrection is true, it changes everything.

It confirms Jesus’ identity as the unique Son of God and opens the door to eternal life for anyone who will truly follow him.

On the other hand, if Jesus’ resurrection is a legend or a lie, then Jesus is, at best, just another unfortunate crucifixion victim in a long line of failed revolutionaries and false messiahs.

That’s why, The Case for Christ was a good movie, Strobel honed in with such a laser focus on the question of whether or not Jesus rose from the dead.

He recognized that this issue is, as some have called it, the lynch-pin of Christianity.

If the evidence for the resurrection stands, then the Christian faith stands; but if the evidence falls, then so does Christianity—which is the outcome Strobel was hoping for.

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The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Our Options

Challenge the world view of modern man. If it is affirmed that there is a God and immortality,

The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus.

Challenges the world view of modern man.

The Resurrection - affirms that there is a God and in Him Through Jesus is offered eternal life / immortality.

TRANSITION

The apostle Paul, by the way, acknowledged the pivotal nature of Jesus’ resurrection in the Bible.

He said in , “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”(v18) In fact, he went on to explain that if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then we, as Jesus’ followers, are hopelessly lost and, as Paul put it in verse 19, “of all people most to be pitied.”

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” In fact, he went on to explain that if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then we, as Jesus’ followers, are hopelessly lost and, as Paul put it in verse 19, “of all people most to be pitied.”

So the Resurrection is a really big deal!

But, as Lee Strobel asked in the movie, and as

Hefner later asked Strobel, is there any real evidence that Jesus rose from the dead?

That’s the question we’re going to explore today.

Much of the information we’ll talk about today comes from Strobel’s hours of research, reading, talking to experts, and searching Scripture. There are incredibly intelligent people who commit their whole lives to studying and understanding these issues. The historical sources are many and the arguments can get complex, so we obviously can’t cover everything in our short time together.

But—good news—we can boil down the issue of Jesus’ resurrection to three simple questions:

First, was Jesus alive at Point A?

Second, was Jesus dead at Point B?

And third, was Jesus alive again at Point C?

If the answer to these three questions is yes, then Jesus did rise from the dead, He is the Son of God, and Christianity is true!

So let’s dive into the evidence for these three claims.

* Point A - Was Jesus Alive at Point A?

Slide - Virtually every scholar, secular and Christian, agrees Jesus actually lived in the first century.

The Conspiracy Theory

Even so, the Internet is alive with the claim that Jesus never lived at all.

More than that, there are claims that Christianity is a copycat religion that stole its beliefs from earlier mythology.

More than that, there are claims that Christianity is a copycat religion that stole its beliefs from earlier mythology. In other words, people say the resurrection of Jesus never happened—it’s merely a story Christians plagiarized from ancient myths.

In other words, people say the resurrection of Jesus never happened—it’s merely a story Christians plagiarized from ancient myths.

This idea was popularized by The Da Vinci Code, which said, “Nothing in Christianity is original.” But even that idea wasn’t original—it was recycled from writings by skeptics in the nineteenth century, who influenced Vladimir Lenin, and consequently became dogma in the former Soviet Union.

Slide Historian Paul Maier is even more blunt: “The total evidence is so overpowering, so absolute that only the shallowest of intellects would dare to deny Jesus’ existence.”

Friends, there’s no question about the first question in our investigation:

Jesus was alive at Point A. And so we move on to the second point.

Sound familiar? On the surface, this seems like strong evidence that Christianity stole its beliefs about Jesus from this earlier mystery religion. But listen to what happens when each point of this so-called “evidence” is examined by the eminent historian Dr. Edwin Yamauchi:

II POINT B - Jesus Was Dead at Point B

For the resurrection to be true, Jesus had to really die. The Bible and history tell us he was executed by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate.

• Mithras was born of a virgin in a cave? No, he wasn’t! When you go back to the original myth, Mithras emerged fully-grown out of a rock. There was no virgin or cave. Besides, nowhere does the Bible say Jesus was born in a cave.

The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus The Apparent Death Theory

1. The theory failed to take seriously the extent of Jesus’ physical injury. In order to demonstrate this, let us review the events leading up to Jesus’ death and burial.

• Mithras was born on December 25? While that’s the date we celebrate Jesus’ birth, the Bible doesn’t tell us the date Jesus was born. Some think it was in the spring; others think it was in January. It wasn’t until centuries after Jesus lived that Christians chose December 25 as the date to celebrate his birth, as a way to influence the pagan holidays around the winter solstice. But the bottom line is that we don’t know the actual date Jesus was born.

• Mithras was a traveling teacher with twelve disciples? No, he wasn’t! He was supposedly a god, not a teacher, and the Iranian Mithras had one follower while the Roman Mithras had two—but never twelve.

SLIDE Leaving the upper room

SLIDE Stairs - the Valley of Jehoshaphat

SLIDE the mount of Olives

SLIDE Returning arrested by Roman guards

• Mithras sacrificed himself for world peace? No, he didn’t! He was known for killing a bull. He didn’t sacrifice himself for anyone or anything.

The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus The Apparent Death Theory

SLIDE Returning arrested by Roman guards

The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus The Apparent Death Theory

Jesus was arrested on a Thursday night and tried illegally by a night session of the Jewish court. During the trial, they spit on Him; they blindfolded Him and hit Him in the face with their fists. They turned Him over to the guards, who beat Him further. Up all night without sleep, Jesus was taken Friday morning to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who in turn sent Him off to the Jewish king, Herod, who after interrogation sent Him back to Pilate. Condemned before a crowd screaming for His blood, Jesus was given to the Roman guards, who whipped Him. They made a crown of thorns and shoved it down onto His head and beat Him with a stick.

• Mithras was buried in a tomb and resurrected after three days? No, he wasn’t! There’s no record of any belief about his death, so there’s no story about a resurrection.

The Conspiracy Theory - Continues

The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus The Apparent Death Theory

The Shroud of Turin, whether it is the authentic burial cloth of Jesus or not, illustrates graphically the extent of Jesus’ physical suffering. The image of the man on the cloth is covered front and back with wounds from head to foot, where the flagrum, a multi-thonged Roman whip tipped with metal or bone, had torn apart his flesh, furnishing us a grisly picture of what Jesus must have looked like when He was laid on the cross.

So look at what happened—when we examine these claims in depth, the parallels with Christianity simply evaporate.[2]

The Conspiracy Theory - Continues

But some deny the death of Christ, including most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims who cite a verse in the Qur’an [Surah 4:157-158].

Here’s the truth, as summarized by senior Swedish scholar T. N. D. Mettinger: “The nearly universal consensus of scholars around the world is that there are no examples of any mythological gods dying and rising from the dead that came before Jesus. These resurrection myths came after Christianity, so Christianity could not have done the borrowing.” Mettinger added, “There is, as far as I am aware, no prima facie evidence that the death and resurrection of Jesus is a mythological construct.”[3]

And what about those who try to deny that Jesus ever lived? Well, even Bart Ehrman, the agnostic New Testament scholar who’s no friend of Christianity, wrote a book attacking that idea. He said, “The claim that Jesus was simply made up falters on every ground.”[4]

So who is correct? Once again, we turn to historical evidence for the answer.

Friends, there’s no question about the first question in our investigation: Jesus was alive at Point A. And so we move on to the second point.

Jesus Was Dead at Point B

For the resurrection to be true, Jesus had to really die. The Bible and history tell us he was executed by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate.

But some deny the death of Christ, including most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims who cite a verse in the Qur’an [Surah 4:157-158]. So who is correct? Once again, we turn to historical evidence for the answer.

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It’s been said that we’re lucky in the study of ancient history if we have one or two solid sources to confirm a fact.

In the case of the execution of Jesus, however, we not only have reports in all four biographies of Jesus in the New Testament—the Gospels—each written within the lifetimes of his contemporaries, but we also have five ancient sources outside the Bible: Josephus, Tacitus (Roman Emp), Lucian, Mara Bar-Sera-pion, and the Talmud.[6]

Besides, the cruel, degrading, and humiliating killing of their leader on a cross would not have been something that Jesus’ followers would have invented if it were not true.

The Muslim teaching that Jesus didn’t die on the cross comes from Muhammad’s claim, six hundred years after Jesus lived, that an angel in a cave told him it wasn’t true. No historical evidence was offered, and the eyewitness accounts were ignored.

Set aside religion—just purely from a historical standpoint, where does the evidence point? Clearly to the crucifixion of Jesus.

And as for the question of whether Jesus could have lived through his suffering on the cross, the evidence shows there’s no way Jesus survived the efficient brutality of Roman execution. Jesus was tied to a post and beaten dozens of times with whips that had jagged bones and balls of lead woven into them.

SLIDE Dr. Alexander Metherell said a witness described Roman floggings like this: “The sufferer’s veins were laid bare, and the very muscles and tendons and bowels of the victim were open to exposure.”

SKIP

Then a soldier plunged a spear between Jesus’ ribs, puncturing his lungs and heart, and the expert Roman executioners confirmed that he was dead.

PLAY CLIP

In The Case for Christ movie, Lee Strobel pursues Dr. Alexander Metherell in order to investigate this very subject. Let’s watch this clip from the movie as Strobel explores the evidence for the crucifixion.

[Play Video 2: Exploring the Evidence for Christ]

Did you hear what Strobel read from the Journal of the American Medical Association in this scene? It is convincing information. The article said, “Clearly the weight of the historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted. . . . Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge.”[7]

SLIDE It’s not just Christian scholars who believe this. Agnostic New Testament scholar James Tabor said, “I think we need have no doubt that given Jesus’ execution by Roman crucifixion, he was truly dead.”[8]

SLIDE Even the atheist New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann said, “Jesus’ death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.”[9]

SLIDE

The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus The Apparent Death Theory

III Jesus Was Dead at Point B? Yes He was dead.

So we have powerful and persuasive evidence that Jesus Was Alive at Point A and Dead at Point B. Now for the most astounding claim:

*Jesus Was Alive Again at Point C

There are two strands of evidence that establish that Jesus came back to life: that his tomb was empty, and that he appeared to people.

Jesus’ body was laid in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish council.

The tomb was sealed, and Matthew says it was guarded—yet it was discovered empty on that first Easter morning.

So how do we know the tomb was empty?

SLIDE

First, there’s the Jerusalem Factor. Scholar William Lane Craig pointed out that the site of Jesus’ tomb was known to Christians and non-Christians alike.

If the claim was false, if the tomb was not empty, it would have been highly unlikely for a movement founded on Jesus’ resurrection to explode or even exist in the same city where Jesus had been publicly executed.[10]

The critics of Christianity could have simply opened his tomb and shown that Jesus’ decaying body was still there – in the same place where they had laid him to rest days earlier. This would have effectively ended the Christian faith.

Second, there’s the Criterion of Embarrassment. Who discovered the empty tomb? Women.

But in first-century Jewish and Roman culture, the testimony of women was not considered reliable. They were generally not even allowed to testify in a court of law.

Now, don’t shoot the messenger—I’m just telling you about the culture of that day! In fact, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, who worked for the Romans, wrote this: “But let not the testimony of women be admitted.”

Josephus: 15. But let not a single witness be credited, but three, or two at the least, and those such whose testimony is confirmed by their good lives. But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex.

So here’s the point: If the Gospel writers were going to make up the story about the empty tomb out of thin air, they never would have said women discovered it empty.

Culturally, this was embarrassing and hurt their cause. They would have said a man—Peter or John, for instance—discovered the tomb empty. Yet they reported that it was women who found the tomb vacant. Why? Apparently because that’s what happened, and they were committed to reporting the truth, even if it was embarrassing and hurt their cause.

Third, there’s Enemy Attestation.

In other words, even the enemies of Jesus admitted the tomb was empty.

SLIDE

PHOTOS - EMPTY TOMB

What were skeptics saying in Jesus’ day? They were saying the disciples stole Jesus’ body.

The real question is: How did the tomb get empty?

What were skeptics saying in Jesus’ day? They were saying the disciples stole Jesus’ body. This was reported by Matthew, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian. But why would they say someone stole the body if it was still in the tomb? They’re implicitly admitting the tomb was empty, but they’re trying to explain how it got empty. It’s as if you’re a teacher and a student says the dog ate his homework. He’s implicitly admitting he doesn’t have his homework, but he’s saying the dog ate it. It’s the same thing! This is just a cover story. Even the enemies of Jesus admitted the tomb was vacant.

The real question is: How did the tomb get empty? The Romans weren’t about to steal the body; they wanted Jesus dead. The Jewish leaders weren’t about to steal his body; they wanted Jesus to stay dead. The disciples didn’t have the motive, means, or opportunity to steal the body. Besides, we have seven ancient sources affirming that the disciples lived lives of deprivation and suffering as a result of their proclamation that Jesus had risen. Why would they have done that if they knew it was all a lie?

The Romans weren’t about to steal the body; they wanted Jesus dead.

The Jewish leaders weren’t about to steal his body; they wanted Jesus to stay dead.

The disciples didn’t have the motive, means, or opportunity to steal the body.

Besides, we have seven ancient sources affirming that the disciples lived lives of deprivation and suffering as a result of their proclamation that Jesus had risen.

Why would they have done that if they knew it was all a lie?

Of course, the empty tomb alone isn’t enough to establish that Jesus was alive again.

Thankfully, we also have the numerous appearances of the risen Jesus to a variety of people in a variety of settings. And get this: We have nine ancient sources confirming that the disciples were convinced Jesus had risen and that he appeared to them. Here are the nine sources, as reported by resurrection scholar Michael Licona in Lee Strobel’s book In Defense of Jesus[11]:

[Depending on your time, you may want to bullet-point the following information about the nine sources.]

SLIDE

1. The Creed: In , the apostle Paul reported an early creed of the church: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [Peter] and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.”

What’s important is the timeline that resurrection scholar Gary Habermas has developed:

Jesus was crucified in AD 30 or 33. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in about AD 54 or 55, or within twenty-five years of Jesus’ execution. Paul used the past tense, which suggests he had given the church in Corinth the creed earlier. This dates the creed even earlier, which gives even more credibility.

But we can go even earlier still—even closer in time to the actual resurrection. Paul used to be Saul of Tarsus, a hater and persecutor of Christians. One to three years after Jesus’ death, he was on the road to Damascus when he encountered the risen Christ and became the apostle Paul.

But other scholars believe he received it three years later, when he went to Jerusalem and met for fifteen days with two people specifically named in the creed as eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus:

Immediately, he went into Damascus and met with some apostles. Many scholars believe this is when he was given this creed that he eventually gave the church in Corinth.

Peter and James. Paul described this meeting in SLIDE , using the Greek word historeo, which suggests this was a personal inquiry or investigation. Many scholars believe this is when Peter and James gave him the creed.

Either way, this means Paul was given the creed one to six years after the crucifixion—but most probably between AD 34 and 36 AD! By then, it was already in creedal form, and therefore the beliefs that make up the creed go back even further! Historian James D. G. Dunn concluded, “This tradition, we can be entirely confident, was formulated as tradition within months of Jesus’ death.”[12]

So there’s no big time gap between the death of Jesus and the subsequent development of a legend that he rose from the dead.

This is like a news flash that goes right back to the scene! This is historical gold. The creed’s historical credentials are so impressive that even one of the few Jewish New Testament scholars, Pinchas Lapide (Pinchas Lapide was a Jewish theologian and Israeli historian), is quoted in The Case for Christ, saying that it “may be considered as a statement of eyewitnesses.”[13]

2. Paul: Our second ancient source is Paul’s testimony about the disciples. Paul came to know some of the apostles personally, including Peter, James, and John.

SLIDE Paul said in , regarding resurrection, that “whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.” So Paul was confirming the belief of the disciples that they encountered the resurrected Jesus, too.

3. Sermon Summaries in Acts: Even skeptical scholars will admit that the book of Acts contains summaries of the sermons of the early church. And what were they focused on? The resurrection.

SLIDE Peter himself said in : “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.”

Three thousand people agreed—and the church was born.

4, 5, 6, and 7. The Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John confirm that the disciples encountered the risen Jesus.

Craig Evans said, “There’s every reason to conclude that the Gospels have fairly and accurately reported the essential elements of Jesus’ teachings, life, death, and resurrection. READ They’re early enough, they’re rooted into the right streams that go back to Jesus and the original people, there’s continuity, there’s proximity, there’s verification of certain distinct points with archaeology and other documents, and then there’s the inner logic.”[14]

SKIP

8. Clement: We have the testimony of some early church fathers who knew the apostles personally and heard what they taught about the resurrection. Clement, who was ordained by Peter, wrote a letter to the Corinthians in the first century, saying: “[The apostles had] complete certainty caused by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[15]

9. Polycarp: He was appointed by John as bishop of Smyrna. He wrote a letter to the Philippians in which he mentioned the resurrection no fewer than five times. Referring to Paul and the other apostles, he said: “For they did not love the present age, but him who died for our benefit and for our sake was raised by God.”[16]

So here we have nine ancient sources that reflect multiple early testimonies to the disciples’ conviction that they had encountered the resurrected Jesus.

The evidence is powerful and persuasive—and, I might add, almost overwhelming. But think about that: We have overwhelming evidence to back up our faith!

Let me sum up what we’ve learned:

Jesus Was Alive at Point A.

Jesus Was Dead at Point B.

Jesus Was Alive Again at Point C.

Jesus really did rise from the dead, and this proves that he was who he claimed to be—the unique Son of God.

It means his teachings have authority for our lives today. And it means he has opened heaven to everyone who will receive the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life he purchased for us on the cross.

Why? Why did he do it?

And the answer given was love. The God of the universe loves you and me with such intensity and power that he willingly entered our world and endured torture and death in order to redeem us.

I hope you’ve encountered that love and forgiveness with God. If not, please talk with me or the friend or family member you’re here with this morning. And together let’s keep exploring the evidence for Christ and allow its truths to penetrate our hearts and strengthen our faith each and every day.

Believe Receive Become

[Note: Encourage everyone to join one of your small groups or classes where they will discuss these issues more deeply over the next few weeks, based on The Case for Christ study guide. Also, urge them to come back next week, when you’ll be discussing how we should respond to the truths you’ve explored today, in a message called, “Embracing the Truth of Christ.”]

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