Reading: Acts 5
Looking at the implications of the resurrection from my message on Easter Sunday. (2 of 4)
It was not just Peter who preached that Jesus was the Son of God – both a physical man AND a life-giving spirit. It was the witness of all 11 of Jesus’ of disciples and the entire early church (and the church through the ages) that Jesus rose from the dead.
Strangely, as this fledging group of believers testified to the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead and the implications of that fact for their lives and the lives of their listeners, the religious and governmental authorities who persecuted them so intensely were never able to produce Jesus’ body despite the fact that any evidence against Jesus’ resurrection would have immediately destroyed the testimony of the early church and halted the progress of Christianity.
The empty tomb that the women and Peter & John claimed to have seen remained empty. The body of Jesus was never found. In fact, there has not been a single shred of evidence since Jesus rose to suggest that he has not risen. Justin Martyr writing an open letter to Caesar just 100+ years after Jesus died boldly set forth the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. No critical response to that letter from that era has ever been found despite the letter’s wide spread influence in the Roman Empire at that time. The historical evidence against the resurrection is non-existent. Instead, there are a series of hypothesizes that seek to explain why Jesus’ body was not in the tomb – none that have ever been satisfactorily explained or found to be true.
Thus, many have concluded that Jesus was not only the Son of God, but he rose from the dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment