Three Strong Facts about the Resurrection

Christians worldwide celebrated the resurrection of Christ yesterday.

Of course, this is not unusual. We do the same each first day of the week.

As we think about the resurrection week by week, I see three essential and strong facts about the resurrection of Christ. This, of course, matters because the resurrection of Christ is the essential element of our faith. We do not have rules that hold us together. We have our Lord who was raised front the dead. As Paul stated, if Christ has not been raised, then our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:16-19).

These are three strong facts about the resurrection.

First, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are attested in extra-biblical sources. Both Roman and Jewish historians mentioned Christ having been crucified during the governance of Pontius Pilate. Josephus, the famous Jewish historian noted that Christ appeared to His followers the third day after His death and another Roman historian noted that these followers worship Christ as if He were a god.

With this in mind, the idea that we don’t even know that Jesus Christ really lived seems to be a ridiculous argument.

Second, the greatest truth of the resurrection (other than eye witness accounts) is the change in the disciples after the resurrection. After the resurrection, this group who was slow to understand and afraid of the Jewish authorities went boldly to proclaim the truth of Christ.

It’s hard to imagine any reason for their boldness and the unprecedented growth of the church other than the power of the resurrection in their lives.

Third, the testimony of the women is astounding. In that day, no one in their right mind would try to influence anyone else by the testimony of women. As denigrating to women as it seems, that was the culture and outlook of the Roman world. They would not have made up such a story.

All of this points to the truth and power of the resurrection of Christ.

With the power of the Gospel and the hope in our resurrected Lord, let us go forth to make Him known to our world.

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3 Responses

  1. We discussed and studied in our Bible Fellowship the significance of the Saturday after the crucifixion and what it might have been like for the disciples and those following Jesus. Most all of them running and hiding and abandoning Jesus, claiming not to be his followers. But then the radical change after His resurrection in the disciples and all they did to carry the gospel to the world in the years to come. What a change it was and what a great testimony for us today. Those who have a hard time believing need to look closely at this evidence and truth. Thanks Pastor.

  2. Thanks Dr Bailey, It is always interesting to hear the good news each and every day as it strengthens me. I have to say, I needed to read this twice to get the depth of what has taken place. It seams the words are the same year after year but I hear them differently or I just see God in a different way.

  3. Thanks for your words of wisdom. I hope you don’t mind, I copied and paste your first fact of the resurrection for some of my non-believing friends on FaceBook. I know they won’t bother to read your blog, hopefully that one paragraph will grab their attention. Thanks again for all your lessons.

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