Josh McDowell was an American university student to whom a Christian once said, “Check Jesus out”. This he did and spent seven hundred hours in his research and came to the conclusion that the Lord Jesus was Who He said He was, and that His death and resurrection was true and so Josh trusted in Christ as His personal Saviour. This is a short message to do what Josh McDowell probably did in one to two hundred hours.
The death of the Lord Jesus was well known because there were crowds there (Luke chapter {c}23 verse {v}27) and some of His enemies and the soldiers taunted Him (Luke c23v35-37). The Lord Jesus died on the cross, and His death had to be confirmed to the Roman governor, which was done by the Roman army centurion, before His body was released to Joseph of Arimathaea for burial (Mark c15v44-45). After Jesus Christ was buried his enemies made an uneasy statement “Now the next day, … the chief priests and Pharisees (a religious group) came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, “After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: …” (Matthew c27v62-64). So they had the tomb sealed, with either the Roman or religious authorities’ seal, and set a Roman guard of unknown size (Matthew c26v66). Some think that the guard could have been sixteen soldiers because sixteen soldiers guarded the apostle Peter when he was in prison (Acts c12v3-4) and others think that it could have been a number more suitable to meet any potential thieves. It has been said that the numbers could have been between thirty and fifty people. Anyway they were considered enough to easily out manoeuvre the eleven, and then scared, disciples with their training, experience and weaponry.
However after the Lord’s resurrection Matthew c28v11-15 says that “some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done” who bribed them to say while they slept the disciples took him away. This raises various questions. Why were the soldiers sleeping when they should have been on guard? How could the disciples have rolled away the stone without wakening them? How could all the soldiers have fallen asleep at the same time? If they were asleep how did they know that the disciples stole the body? If the story was true why did the soldiers have to be bribed to tell it? If the disciples had stolen the body why did they taken the time to remove the grave clothes and fold the napkin? (Luke c24v12, John c20v6, 7).
While these lies were being perpetrated, the Lord Jesus was progressing God’s work by revealing Himself to individuals, like Mary Magdalene (John c20v16), and Peter (Luke c24v34) and James (1 Corinthians c15v7) and to some groups including one that had over five hundred people at once (1 Corinthians c15v6). Some say that those were hallucinating but medicine shows that you do not get over five hundred people all hallucinating about the same person, in the same place and at the same time. Neither would you get the “hallucinations” all stopping at the same time for all of those same people. Also some saw Christ eat (Luke c24v42-43) and also eat food that He had cooked (John c21v9, 12-13). So the Lord Jesus Himself confirmed the genuineness of His resurrection.
But more than that. If the resurrection had not happened why, when the resurrection was boldly preached by the disciples (e.g. Acts c2v23-24 and c3v14-15), did not the authorities produce the body of the Lord Jesus which would have immediately silenced the preachers? However not only did the authorities not produce the body, but they tried to unjustly stop these bold preachers by imprisoning and beating them (Acts c5v12-41). So those actions showed that the authorities knew that the resurrection had happened and had no evidence to counter it.
Also we know that lies do not change people for the better. They might change people for the worse but not for the better. So why did a man called Paul, if he had believed in a lie, change from being a Christian persecutor and contributor to their deaths, to being a Christian preacher and helper (1Timothy c1v13)? Someone we knew, when he was twenty eight years old, was in a public house on a Saturday morning. While there he became conscious of his sins and that he had to face God for them. So he left the pub and wandered the streets of Newcastle thinking about his life until midnight when he went to see one of his brothers who had become a Christian. They talked until about 2 to 3 am. The next day this person went to the church that his brother attended and heard the great Gospel message of how the Lord Jesus Christ stilled the storm on the lake of Galilee. He saw that Christ could still the storm of sin in his life and trusted in the Lord Jesus as His Saviour. The following Sunday his wife said to him, “You are babysitting and I am going to the church that you went to last Sunday.” She too heard of God’s saving power through Christ and also trusted in Christ to be her Saviour. While my friend was telling others of Christ’s ability to save people, a man said to him, “You’re dreaming man. You’re dreaming.” A girl went across to that man and said, “If he is dreaming, don’t wake him up because he’s my dad!” This girl knew the destructive influence of alcoholic drink in the home and the constructive influence of Christ after her parents had trust in Him, and she knew what she wanted.
Also why is it that millions, and possibly billions, have since the Lord Jesus had their lives changed for the better after believing in Him as their Saviour?
The resurrection of Christ shows that He is not like every other person who is beaten by the power of death. According to Romans c1v4 His proven resurrection declares Him “to be the Son of God with power, … by the resurrection from the dead.” The Lord Jesus death is for you and to bless you in the life that now is and the life that is to come after death. You can know God’s forgiveness, salvation and peace by trusting that, without any contribution from yourself, Christ’s death was for all your sins. Also that with Christ’s resurrection you can avoid God’s righteous judgement against your sin in hell and have His everlasting blessing in heaven.