5 Reasons Jesus Rose from the Dead

In this article, I will share five reasons I believe Jesus' resurrection actually took place. 

You can remember these five reasons with the acronym:

R.I.S.E.N.

The first reason I believe Jesus' resurrection is a fact of history is… 

1. The RISE of Christianity in Jerusalem

It is an accepted historical fact that the Christian faith (a religion built upon the preaching of its leader's resurrection) originated in approximately A.D. 32, right in the very city of Jerusalem, where Jesus had been publicly crucified and buried. Historical sources outside the Bible have verified this. Now, this in itself is a good piece of evidence that the resurrection actually occurred. Why?

A message calling people to repent and put their faith in a risen man could never have gained any substantial following amongst the Jews if the tomb had not actually been empty and had the Jewish people not seen Jesus alive after His crucifixion.

'The message of a risen man could not have been maintained a moment in Jerusalem if the grave was still occupied,' Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, 232.

Remember that Jesus' disciples did not run off to Athens or Rome to preach that Christ rose from the dead, where the facts could not be verified. They returned to Jerusalem, where they would have been quickly exposed and disproved—if what they were teaching was false. The critics could have exposed the disciples as liars, and Christianity would never have got off the ground. The local authorities could have said, “Hey! Here is the grave and the body!” and squashed the whole movement.

But that never happened! Not only did Christianity originate in Jerusalem, but it also thrived there!

Luke, whose writings have been confirmed by numerous extrabiblical writings and archaeological discoveries, tells us that 3,000 people believed the first post-resurrection sermon preached a few minutes’ walk from the tomb, Acts 2:41. Later in the same chapter in Acts 2, Luke says that the church was growing daily, Acts 2:47. By Acts 4:4, Luke declares there were 5,000 believers comprising the early Christian church in Jerusalem. By Acts 6:7, Luke just says the number of disciples “continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem". He was apparently losing count!

Not only did Christianity originate and flourish in Jerusalem, but it also triumphed over several competing ideologies and eventually overwhelmed the entire Roman Empire.

By the early fourth century, when the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, historians say there were around thirty million Christians, Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity, 156; Dinesh D’Souza, What’s So Great About Christianity, 297.

Here's a question for you. Is it reasonable to suppose that thousands of people within those early days following Jesus' death were actually deceived into believing a man rose from the dead? I don’t think so.

The best explanation for the immediate rise of the early church, right amid a community that had not only been hostile to Jesus but that demanded His crucifixion, is the resurrection. People had seen Jesus! Acts 1:3 says that Jesus “presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” 

The resurrection catapulted New Testament Christianity into existence. So, the first reason I believe in Christ’s resurrection is the rise of Christianity in Jerusalem. 

2. The INCREDIBLE Persecution and Deaths Endured by the Disciples

When Jesus was arrested and led away to be crucified, the Gospels tell us that His disciples…

• fled in fear (Matthew 26:56)
• went into hiding (John 20:19)
• lost hope (Luke 24:21) 

A short time later, we read that something amazing happened. These same fearful men went through a dramatic transformation. Within a few weeks of Jesus' crucifixion, these same men were standing face to face with the people who had crucified their leader, preaching that Jesus was alive, telling people that they needed to turn from their wicked ways and know that Jesus was both Messiah and Lord, Acts 2:36-38. 

To prevent this belief from spreading, the same authorities who had Jesus crucified…   

     

• threatened the disciples
• flogged them
• beat them
• imprisoned them
• and forbade them to speak the name of Jesus see  Acts 4:16-18, 5:28.

So, what did the disciples do? They returned and said to the Jewish leaders, “We must obey God rather than men, Acts 5:29.”

After saying, “We must obey God rather than men,” they went on “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ, Acts 5:41-42.”

But their boldness had a cost.

Flavius Josephus, Eusebius, Tertullian, and other independent extrabiblical sources record for us that many of Jesus’ earliest followers, including the apostles, suffered intense persecution and even death for their ongoing belief and preaching that Jesus was Lord and had risen from the dead. These extrabiblical sources tell us that...

• Matthew was slain with a sword in a city in Ethiopia
• Mark died in Alexandria, in Northern Egypt, after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city. 
• Luke was hung upon an olive tree in the land of Greece
• John was tortured and banished to the Isle of Patmos, Revelation 1:9
• James, the brother of John, was beheaded in Jerusalem, Acts 12:2
• James the Less, as he’s called in Mark 15:40, was thrown from a pinnacle of the temple
• Philip was hung up against a pillar at Heiropolis in the province of Phrygia 
• Bartholomew was flayed alive
• Andrew was bound to a cross and left to die
• Jude was shot to death with arrows
• Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace Judas, was first stoned and then beheaded
• Barnabas was stoned to death by the Jews at Salonica
• Paul, after a variety of tortures and imprisonments, was finally beheaded in Rome 
• Thomas was run through the body with a spear in east India
• Peter was crucified upside down in Rome

All of this is very sobering, isn't it?

Here's a question for you. Were these men lying?

I find it very difficult to believe these men “made up a story” about Jesus and then spent years enduring persecution, imprisonments, and such, only to die these kinds of painful deaths. Nobody lies to get themselves into these kinds of predicaments! People lie to get out of these kinds of things!

Well, the fact that these men laid down their lives, unwilling to recant or admit falsehood in the face of beatings, stonings, and torture, is another reason I believe the resurrection actually took place.

Remembrance Sunday

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

Today is Remembrance Sunday and throughout the UK the now familiar ceremony of the two minutes silence is being observed just as it is every year. 

This year perhaps it has been a little less well attended due to circumstances, but there is still the call to remember as people wear poppies in support of those who have served in armed conflict.

As we reflect upon past conflicts it is true to say that such conflicts often bring out the best and the worst in people. There are many tales which tell of terrible atrocities and others which speak of great heroism. One such heroic tale that has emerged from the Second Word War is that of two young men called Bob and Jack. 

The First Day of the Week - Sunday

Today is the day of the week when early followers of Jesus met together. People know this day as Sunday but in the New Testament is became known as the Lord's Day, Revelation 1:10. 

This special day is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is said in the Gospels to have been witnessed alive from the dead early on the first day of the week.

According to some sources, Christians held corporate worship on Sunday in the 1st century.^[1] The earliest Biblical example of Christians meeting together on a Sunday for the purpose of "breaking bread" and preaching is cited in the New Testament book The Acts of the Apostles chapter 20 and verse 7 (Acts 20:7). 2nd-century writers such as Justin Martyr attest to the widespread practice of Sunday worship (First Apology, chapter 67), and by 361 AD it had become a mandated weekly occurrence. 

I am looking forward to today. It will be my privilege to remember and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. I am in Coleford, England, UK for the week speaking at a Holiday Bible Club. It will be a thrill to tell children about the love of God and explain that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ was to provide salvation and blessing that has an eternal effect  

All in all this is an excellent day. How was your day?

1. ^ Roger T. Beckwith (2001). Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian: Biblical, Intertestamental and Patristic Studies. BRILL. pp. 47–. ISBN 0-391-04123-1.

What's so special about Sunday's?

Today is the day of the week when early followers of Jesus met together. People know this day as Sunday but in the New Testament is became known as the Lord's Day, Revelation 1:10. 

This special day is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is said in the Gospels to have been witnessed alive from the dead early on the first day of the week.

According to some sources, Christians held corporate worship on Sunday in the 1st century.^[1] The earliest Biblical example of Christians meeting together on a Sunday for the purpose of "breaking bread" and preaching is cited in the New Testament book The Acts of the Apostles chapter 20 and verse 7 (Acts 20:7). 2nd-century writers such as Justin Martyr attest to the widespread practice of Sunday worship (First Apology, chapter 67), and by 361 AD it had become a mandated weekly occurrence. 

I am looking forward to today. It will be my privilege to remember and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. I am in Coleford, England, UK for the week speaking at a Holiday Bible Club. It will be a thrill to tell children about the love of God and explain that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ was to provide salvation and blessing that has an eternal effect  

All in all this is an excellent day. How was your day?

1. ^ Roger T. Beckwith (2001). Calendar and Chronology, Jewish and Christian: Biblical, Intertestamental and Patristic Studies. BRILL. pp. 47–. ISBN 0-391-04123-1.

Keep Sunday Special

What a day! Sunday is so special! In biblical terms it's the first day of the week. But in my mind it's not just first in the fact it starts the week but it's first in that it is the best day of the week. 

How did I come to that conclusion?

Well it's because it is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. All the gospels record that Jesus rose on the Sunday following his crucifixion. His sacrifice dealt entirely with sin and Romans 4:25 states that Jesus 'was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification'. The point being made in this verse is that the Lord Jesus took full responsibility for our sins. He bore the curse that our sin had created being made 'a curse for us' and then on the third day he was raised from the dead. The term raised for our justification means that Jesus' resurrection is the final proof that Jesus cancelled the debt of sin on the cross. As a result God offers salvation to all who acknowledge their sin and rest on Christ for salvation. 

The second reason is that Sunday is the day the early church met to 'break bread' and remember Jesus Christ. They didn't meet to mourn his passing but to celebrate his life, death, burial & resurrection. As Christians we worship the Son of God. To quote the words of a hymn - 'we sing the praise of him who died, of him who died upon the cross'.  Christians meet, across the world, on the first day of the week to remember HIM. 

That is what makes this day so special.