Latest revision as of 00:35, 1 November 2018

The Reality of the Resurrection Handout

Objectives

• Students will know the facts of the resurrection as described in the Bible.
• Students will understand the Biblical account of the resurrection is unique and unprecedented.
• Students will understand the significance of the open tomb being discovered by women.
• Students will understand the significance of Paul's claim that over 500 saw the risen Christ in 1 Corinthians 15.
• Students will recognize the change the resurrection made in the life of the disciples.
• Students will evaluate how the resurrection has changed their own life.

Introduction

Who Is Jesus?

• An elevator pitch is a short presentation that aims to provide some basic fact in a short amount of time. The idea is that you just got on an elevator and the governor of the state happens to be on the same elevator (yes, this actually happened to me once). You have a short ride to pitch your latest idea. What will you say?

• If you had to give an elevator speech on Jesus, what would you want to make sure to include?

• Peter actually provided an elevator speech in Acts 10:37-43. What were the main components of his speech?
  • Proclaimed by John
  • Anointed by the Holy Spirit
  • Crucified
  • Raised the third day

• Virtually nobody questions the crucifixion of Jesus. Even secular historians will grant that there was a Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. The real issue comes when we proclaim that this same Jesus was resurrected.
• How historically accurate is the resurrection?

The Resurrection

The Account

• According to Matthew 28:1-8, who discovered the empty tomb?

• Why would it have been significant for women to be the ones who discovered the empty tomb?
  • The testimony of women was not trusted at this time in history. If the disciples were trying to fabricate their own religion they would not have left it to women to discover the most significant event in their religion.

Witnesses

• Who are some people who saw the risen Christ?
  • The Disciples
  • Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
  • The Apostle Paul
  • James

• What bold claim does Paul make in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8?

• What is significant about Paul's claim that "the greater part remain to the present?"
  • If Paul was lying, these individuals could have spoken up. Scholars (even secular) place a great deal of confidence in the fact that 1 Corinthians was written by the Apostle Paul early in church history. If this was false, then surely someone would have called Paul out on this. In many legal systems, a single witness to an event can be sufficient evidence, we have a multitude of witnesses to the resurrection.

The Minimal Facts

• Gary Habermas has developed a set of six minimal facts that are accepted by both Christian and non-Christian scholars. These facts are widely attested to in history.

1. Jesus was crucified
2. Shortly after the crucifixion, the followers of Jesus had experiences that they believed were appearances by Jesus.
3. The followers of Jesus lived transformed lives after these events.
4. These facts about Jesus were taught very shortly after their occurrence.
5. James, the unbelieving brother of Jesus, became a Christian because of his experience with the resurrected Christ.
6. Saul of Tarsus, a Christian persecutor, became a Christian after having a similar experience with the resurrected Christ.

• In addition to the above facts we can also note some other evidence.

1. Early Christians stopped their involvement in the Jewish sacrificial system and the focus moved away from the OT Law (Galatians 5:1-6).
2. Early Christians were bold, to the point of death, because of the resurrected Christ (Acts 6:8-15, 7:54-60).
3. The Christian day of Worship shifted from the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday (1 Corinthians 16:2).
4. No one ever produced an actual body (Luke 24:3)!

Challenging the Resurrection

• According to Matthew 28:11-15, what was the first challenge to the reality of the resurrection?
  • The Chief priests actually bribes the soldiers to tell people that the body had been stollen.

Secular Challenges

• Secular skeptic have proposed the following explanations in an attempt to explain away the resurrection.
  • Jesus was unconscious but not dead
  • The disciples saw someone that looked like Jesus
  • Someone purposefully impersonated Jesus
  • The disciples all experienced hallucinations
  • The disciples went to the wrong tomb and found it empty
  • The claims of the resurrection are allegory and refer to the idea of Jesus's thoughts and teachings living on past His death.

• Do any of these theories actually account for the facts stated above?
  • No, we could punch holes in each of these explanations. However, notice that in particular, none of these theories account for the change the disciples actually experienced. In Luke 24:11 we see that the disciples initially thought the message of the resurrection to be "idle tales". The gospel portray the disciples as despairing over the crucifixion, not anticipating a resurrection yet in Acts 17:6 these same men are described as having "turned the world upside down." The resurrection changed the disciples in a way that is beyond explanation.

Closing

Who Cares?

• What claim does Paul make in 1 Corinthians 15:14?
  • The resurrection is of vital importance to the Christian faith, but thankfully, the resurrection is actually one of the best attested events in history.
• The resurrection changed the disciples in a way that is beyond explanation. Has the resurrection changed you?