Doctrines of Proof for Resurrection Part 2

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Sunday,
April 4, 2010

Doctrines of Proof for Resurrection Part 2

The Doctrine of Resurrection.

The Doctrine of the Proofs of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Faith is believing
in something or someone
on the basis of evidence.

Point 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ predicted the Resurrection ahead of time.

Luk 9:22 saying, " The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day."

Point 2. He really died, and was buried in a known, accessible tomb.

This is evidence of massive clotting of the blood in the main arteries, and is exceptionally strong medical proof of death.

Our Lord’s death was very public. There were many eyewitnesses of His death. There were many people who wanted Him dead.

Mat 27:57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.

None of the soldiers who executed Him had any doubt that he was dead.

None of the people who took His body down off the cross, embalmed the body, wrapped it, and placed in the tomb, had the slightest suspicion that He was still alive.

Matthew tells us that it was Joseph of Arimathea’s own tomb (Mat 27:59-60).

It had been hewn out in the rock
(Mar 15:46), and no one had ever been buried there before (Luk 23:53).

It was located in the garden on the spot He was crucified (Joh 19:41).

Women who had followed Jesus knew exactly where the tomb was, because they visited the tomb again early on the first day of the week. (Mat 28:1, Mar 16:2; Luk 24:1).

We know more about the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ than we know of the burial of any other single character in ancient history.

The body was wound tightly in strips of cloth, and covered with spices.

The stone that covered the opening to Jesus’ tomb was enormous.
It required several men to remove it.

Mat 27:66 And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.

The seal consisted of a cord that stretched across the stone, and was fastened at either end to the rock by sealing clay.

So He was dead.

He was therefore buried.

The priests needed permission from Pilate to deploy the guard.

When they failed, the soldiers needed to be protected from Pilate.

The Jewish temple guard would not have had jurisdiction outside the temple area.

The guard ensured that neither the friends nor the enemies of Christ could disturb the tomb, at least not without a fight.

If they would not fight for Him while He was alive, why would they fight for Him now that He was dead?

The disciples knew He was dead, and they did not expect Him to rise from the dead.

2Co 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.

Point 3. The Empty Tomb and the Grave Clothes.

The empty tomb
is a dramatic witness to the
bodily Resurrection of Christ.

This account bears all of the markings of an eyewitness account: the personal touches, careful observation, and specific details.

These are the wrappings that Joseph and Nicodemus had applied to His body three days earlier.

He saw
the face-cloth which had been on the Lord’s head.

ἐντυλίσσω entulisso =
to entwine, i.e. wind up in

The head cloth was lying as it had been "rolled" round His head, an evidence, to those who looked into the tomb, of the fact of His resurrection without any disturbance of the wrappings either by friend or foe or when the change took place.

Jesus’ resurrected body simply passed through His grave clothes.

The condition of the grave clothes also indicates that the body had not been stolen by thieves or taken by the disciples.

It would have taken considerable time to have removed the linens and placed them neatly in the tomb.

They would have wanted to hide the body again as soon as possible while giving the body of their Lord full honor.

The guard who was stationed at the tomb that morning also reluctantly reported that it was empty.

If the enemies of Christ had taken the body, it would have been in their interest to have produced it to discredit the accounts that the apostles were giving.

Everyone, friend and enemy, knew that it was empty, and what that empty tomb proved.

What city, on the day of Pentecost, would have been (1) the most hostile to the Gospel message; and (2) the most able to disprove the facts of the Resurrection?

The apostles from the very outset made many believers out of Jews in Jerusalem, hostile as it was, by proclaiming the bodily resurrection of Christ - and they did it just a short stroll away from the tomb.

 


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