Resurrection--Real or a Hoax?

As I was watching Pastor Melissa Scott late one evening she shared some very interesting events concerning Jesus Christ's resurrection. Most of what I will be sharing came from her and I will not be directly quoting, but paraphrasing her information.

Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and other great leaders were all flawed. Jesus was the only one who claimed to be perfect. He had authority and eternity. He has always been the center of the religious universe. He was either God or a madman to make the claims that He did. Something was wrong with the world and only His death could fix it. He fulfilled scriptures perfectly.

We believe heathen historians about Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, yet people want proof about Jesus' life and resurrection. We know that Jesus lived. He was buried in a known and accessible tomb that belonged to Joseph of Arimathaea, a secret disciple of the Sanhedrin. Some of the debate concerning the resurrection makes these statements: 1. The disciples stole the body. 2. The Jewish leaders stole the body. 3. The Roman leaders stole the body. 4. He revived. 5. They looked in the wrong tomb. 6. The disciples hallucinated. 7. The resurrection was either a lie or the truth.

1. If the disciples stole the body there would have been a fresh grave where they would have had to bury him. That would have been difficult with all of the Roman guards guarding the tomb. 2. If the Jewish leaders stole the body they would have produced the body to discredit the resurrection. 3. The Roman leaders wanted nothing to do with the crucifixion of Jesus. Pontius Pilate "washed his hands" of the whole thing. 4. In Jewish law one had to be dead 3 days to be given a death certificate. Jesus had been dead 3 days. Lazarus had been dead 4 days before Jesus brought him back from the dead. 5. If it was the wrong tomb, they just needed to find the right one to find the body. If they weren't sure where the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea was they could have found Joseph and had him take them to the right tomb. 6. The disciples would have had to be distraught and overcome with grief to see Jesus everywhere, but 500 of them hallucinating? 7. If the resurrection was a lie the disciples would have had to "get their stories straight" by making sure all of them said the exact same thing. We know that the gospel writers did not put everything exactly the same in their accounts of Jesus' death and resurrection as they each wrote from their own perspective.

The truth of the gospel is truly discovered in the cataclysmic changes in the people that embraced the gospel. Mary Magdalene had 7 demons cast out of her. James and John were the Sons of Thunder. John became the "disciple of love." Peter had denied Jesus three times, but after the resurrection he preached to the whole crowd and the Lord added 3000 souls to the church that same day. Thomas, the doubting disciple, went to India and preached the gospel. Stephen was martyred because of his beliefs at the feet of Saul, the persecutor of the church.

Saul later became Paul the apostle. If Jesus had not risen how did he have an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus? He was not one of the 12 disciples walking and talking with Jesus every day. He had a complete change after his encounter with Jesus the risen Lord and later died a martyr's death as did most of the disciples.

He has changed me and hopefully you as well, making us proof of His death and resurrection.

"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" John 11:25-26

KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON

KAREN