The Resurrected Lord Jesus: The Attested to and Seen King of a Whole New World
Opening Song:
Glorious Day (chorus)
Call to Worship:
Dr. Alex Loginow
Hosea 6
Historical Reading:
Pastor Bobby Owens
Nicene Creed
Song:
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Confession & Pardon:
Pastor Andrew Loginow
Song: Doxology
Song:
Christ is Risen (Come Awake)
Sermon: The Resurrected Lord Jesus: The Attested to and Seen King of a Whole New World
Pastor Brett Eckel
1 Cor 15.1-11T
In 1992 In 1992 Disney released the classic motion picture Aladdin. Aladdin provided us with a story of love and hope for a whole new world. The love story kicks off where Princess Jasmine is deeply troubled that she is being forced to marry. Even worse, it needs to be a prince instead of someone she actually loves. Aladdin after meeting Princess Jasmine and obtaining a hilarious Genie seeks to use his 3 wishes to make her fall in love with him. Part of Aladdin’s scheme includes abandoning his lowly status and posing as Prince Ali Ababwa. Princess Jasmine in meeting Prince Ali Ababwa now seems to have met her match.
Aladdin brings Princess Jasmine on a magic carpet ride where we are left with one of the most memorable Disney scenes of all-time. As the two sing their hearts out their longing gives way to a whole new world. They cast a vision of what they perceive to be a better world. A world where the old has passed away and the new will exceed expectations. In their new world love wins.
They sing words such as: A whole new world, a new fantastic point of view, no one to tell us “no” or where to go or say we’re only dreaming. A whole new world, a dazzling place I never knew but when I’m way up here it’s crystal clear that now I’m in a whole new world with you.[1]
This morning I want to put in front of you this biblical reality: since Jesus has raised from the dead the world has never been the same. As you think through that internally I want you to ask yourself what does the world you long for look like? It is my deepest conviction that the new world in which Jesus has inaugurated and will bring to completion upon his return has drastically shaped the world we live in.
You see Aladdin and Princess Jasmine longed for a whole new world because ever since Genesis 3 humans have naturally longed for the promise of restoration and peace to come. For some this whole new world looks like unleashing unbridled autonomy, for some this whole new world looks like exerting political, economic, or cultural power. Wherever you find yourself this morning I can promise you that you innately understand the longing in which Aladdin and Princess Jasmine are singing about. We buy into stories because we innately understand that we are living a story.
Church, I want to instruct you this morning that Paul wrote to the Corinthians to address divisions in the church with a call to unity. A call to be unified in the resurrected Lord. Earlier in the letter Paul reminds us that what he proclaimed to the church was Jesus crucified because if you don’t get the gospel right you don’t get any of it right.
In the next several minutes I hope to present to you the risen Lord Jesus who was attested to by the Scriptures and seen by many so that the Holy Spirit will either regenerate your dead heart or encourage you to rest in the new world of his present and coming kingdom.[2] Put another way, Jesus Christ in accordance with the Scriptures has risen from the dead, remains alive, and will never die again bringing with him a whole new world.
ATTESTED TO (v. 1-4)
As we look to our passage this morning, we see that the Scriptures attested to the resurrection of Jesus. The gospel is everything. Paul writing with the hope of unity reminds the Corinthians that the good news was preached to them, they received it, and they stand in it. Those who continue to get saved are being saved by the gospel. The gospel is everything precisely because as Paul warns if they cease to hold fast to the gospel their belief was in vain.
Here at Christ Community Church, we stake our existence here. The gospel is of first importance. We gather every week to hear the Word and to receive the sacrament as those who have heard the gospel, believed the gospel, and by God’s grace are standing in the gospel. We stand in the gospel by faith alone. This is what we talk about every week when we explain what faith is. Knowledge, ascent, and trust. The Corinthians heard and understood the gospel. They believed the content of the gospel. They walked in the gospel. Paul’s very cry for unity is because he believed they were brothers and sisters in Christ. They knew, agreed, and gave their lives to the gospel. Knowledge, ascent, and trust. Paul is calling them back to this reality.
1 Corinthians 15 is the longest discourse given on the resurrection in the Scriptures and here Paul identifies the centrality of the gospel. Indeed, Paul reminds us that the whole gospel hinges on the historical reality that Jesus died and that he was raised. Our faith is many things, but it is nothing less than a historical faith. If Jesus did not raise from the dead the Christian faith is futile. Jesus died and Jesus rose again, these two truths in accordance with God’s Word are demonstrated by the proof of his burial and the eyewitnesses that saw the risen Christ.[3] Jesus Christ was attested to, and Jesus Christ was seen.
Paul reminds the church at Corinth that among their divisions what should reorient them is the truth of the gospel. The gospel is the story that grounds them. Our lives as Christians are to be lived out among the church in unity keeping the gospel as our centerpiece. Political affiliations and elections, sports teams, career opportunities, financial stability—none of these are of first importance. None of them.
The gospel must be preached. The gospel must be received. The gospel must be lived. When doctrine is divorced from practice a counterfeit faith is what’s revealed.[4]
So, Christ Community Church, what is the gospel? What is the good news of first importance that we need to anchor our lives with? It is this: Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. If anyone comes to you preaching a different gospel, a “gospel” that does not require Jesus’s death, burial, or resurrection than I beg you to run as far away as you can. Jesus’ death was for our sins, or we are left guilty. Jesus was buried as proof of his death. Jesus’ resurrection was his victory over sin, death, and the grave. Jesus is alive now and forever more holding the keys of death and hades in his hands. This is either true or we have no hope for future life.
This good news of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection gives us hope as the chapter would later argue that in Christ we too have hope for resurrected life in his kingdom. These truths are worth staking your whole life on. One thing I have found in my time as a hospital chaplain and throughout my doctoral studies is that when real suffering strikes your faith shows out. Sometimes it anchors you. Sometimes it cripples you. Even then Jesus is big enough to carry you in your pain. When you have been pushed to your limits, when you fear death, or are left stunned at death around you hear these words church, Christians can face death like no one else can. It is not the strength of your faith but the strength of the object of your faith and that is the unwavering conquering king Jesus. Christians can live and die with the hope of the resurrection because we do not believe contrary to those around us that death is the end. Our hope is not anchored in abstract thoughts of bliss they are anchored in a whole new world that has broken into the present and will be culminated at Jesus’ return. Brothers and sisters, Jesus is alive.
Paul says in verse 3-4 that Jesus’ death and resurrection were in accordance with the Scripture. What does Paul mean when he says that Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead in accordance with the Scripture? Jesus fulfills his Messianic role as Israel’s Anointed King who died in the place of sinners. Passages such as Isaiah 52.13, Isaiah 40.1-11, Jeremiah 31.31-34, Ezekiel 36-37, Daniel 9, Hosea 6.2, as well as one commentator put it the “tradition of the righteous man who suffers” found in Psalms 10.17-18; 16.8-11; 37.32; 41.9; 42.5; 140.8 all point to ways in which Jesus’ active obedience was lived out in being Israel’s Messiah and sacrifice.[5]
In case we are hesitant to employ a Christ centered lens to all of Scripture one important thing to remember is as the NT was being shaped the early church preached the gospel from the Scriptures they had because they could not help but look at their Bibles and see the pages drenched in the majesty of Christ. Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection were attested to by the Holy Scriptures as well as by those who believed in him and trusted in his gospel having seen the resurrected Lord Jesus. Now let us look at these eyewitness accounts.
SEEN (v. 5-11)
As we look to v. 5-11 we see some of the best evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Over the past decade as I’ve studied philosophy and theology I continually come back to this passage. For some there is no greater challenge to believing in Jesus then their experiences with the church. If we are honest churches around the globe have at times wreaked havoc on peoples psyches and led to mass suffering. We do not have to look far to see the sin of abuse, racism, and bullying that has plagued the church throughout its history. On the other hand, I believe there is no greater witness to the gospel outside of Scripture than the birth and sustainability of the church.
Why is the resurrection so unique? For one, the idea of someone resurrecting in the middle of human history would not have been common belief among Jews and would have been appalling for Greeks and Romans.[6] There are few passages in the Scriptures that should prick your conscience and stir within you reflection whether you believe me or not. If you are trusting in Jesus, this reflection ought to lead you to thankfulness. Jesus has chosen to include you in his new world.
But even if you do not believe the gospel—that he was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again from the dead to return in the fullness of time—then this passage ought to make you pause. If Jesus raised from the dead and was seen by all of these people then it is imperative that you sort out for yourself who Jesus was, is, and will forever be.
Even among those who do not believe in the supernatural inspiration of the Bible there is no doubt that Scriptures are historical documents. The NT documents with the response of the early Christians and their changed lives ought to make you pause and wonder if Jesus did not raise from the dead what in the world actually did happen to explain all of that.
Those who claimed to have seen the resurrected Christ lived differently because they could not deny what they knew to be true.[7] They had seen the risen Christ. You see the gospel-longing that seeps into the depths of Scripture following the first bite of fruit to the tears of Abraham on his journey up the mountain, from the weeping of Jeremiah and the cries of David’s songs, the gospel-longing sought after a better day. God’s people were promised through the covenants that God would rescue them from the curse, from the stain of sin, suffering, and the promise that death would one day die.
When Paul tells us that Jesus was raised in accordance with the Scripture, he is showing us that Jesus is the conqueror over sin, suffering, and death. This whole chapter shows us that Paul is encouraging those in Corinth among their divisions to be unified because Jesus is alive and because Jesus is alive, they too share in his resurrection. Life is before them to live, be unified. Stop fighting, stop rebelling, remember. Remember the beauty of the gospel that saved you and nourishes you. Jesus is alive.
We have seen that Jesus has been attested to by the Scripture which leads us to those who bore witness to his resurrection.
CEPHAS
We begin our list today with Cephas or Peter. One intriguing thing about this list is that Paul’s account does not seem particularly consistent with the Gospel accounts on the surface. John Calvin addresses this in his commentary on 1 Corinthians when he notes that Jesus first appeared to women not Peter.[8] Jesus did appear to Peter (Luke 24.34). Paul is not intending to list a chronological order of witnesses but rather to display these witnesses in a strategic way. Paul is displaying that from the closest companions to the crowds, the resurrection was no secret. Paul includes Cephas/Peter first which in some ways I do believe highlights the influence that Peter held as an early church leader.
And let us make no mistake Peter was one of Jesus’ best friends. They had shared many highs peaks and undoubtedly very low valleys. I cannot help but think of Peter in key passages like when the last crow sounds and he sees Jesus only to leave weeping bitterly. I cannot help but to think of Peter seeing Jesus on the seashore and flinging himself into the sea to race to his Lord. Peter is well known for his role of constantly having something to say. Peter is said to have gone on to die for his faith and while Paul’s own interactions with Peter move from reverence to rebuke the inclusion of Peter in this list is essential. Peter was viewed as a crucial part of God’s plan in spreading the gospel in the early church and here Paul ensures us that Peter attested to the risen Christ.
Peter knew Jesus. Some have argued that the followers of Christ really did believe what they said they believed but nonetheless were deceived. They are said to have hallucinated their visions of Jesus and that he never resurrected. It is said that they were so distraught and believed what they wanted to be true. But Peter was not a bystander who could have misunderstood or hallucinated for the time frame in which Jesus walked the earth again…or could he?
THEN TO THE 12
Paul also tells us that Jesus appears to the 12 (Luke 24.36-43; John 20.19-23). The 12 disciples of Jesus stand in continuity with Peter as those whom Jesus lived his remaining years with. One crucial element as we will see in a moment is that the 12 disciples are all around. The 12 by this point were a known group representative of not only Jesus’ inner circle but those who followed him during his ministry. The term “disciples” among some scholars sees the 12 and the later term “the apostles” as overlapping groups. While some have argued that there is error here in the Scripture citing Judas’ death some argue that Matthias would have taken his place. Others argue that “the 12” are representing the group. It would be like if I told you my kids were here but really my daughter was with her grandparents. No one would think I am lying simply because one was gone, they would understand the term is representative. Either way, the point remains the same, Jesus appeared to his disciples.
MORE THAN 500 AT ONE TIME
One intriguing aspect about Paul’s argument here is the assumption that this testimony could be retrieved by those who have seen him.[9] As mentioned before those named here could have been sought out and asked. Even more challenging to the skeptic is that it is one thing to be able to convince a small group of people to get on the same page it is another to convince more than 500 people to corroborate the same story. If Jesus had not raised from the dead Paul is making an absurd claim and is an even poorer ambassador for his cause if he knew it to be false.
To be honest it seems that if he knew that Jesus had not raised but wanted to convince his followers it made more sense following early arguments such as Jesus’ body being stolen. At least in this case Paul would have a he-said-she-said argument. Paul is inviting the hearers in the church and abroad to go and hear from the witnesses of the resurrection. Here Paul even notes that some have died but most are still alive. Open invitation. Only the boldness of knowing and seeing the resurrection of Jesus does that.
The challenges this poses to a skeptic who acknowledges the New Testament as a historical document are great. Sure, we believe it is much more than this but even among people who deny truth of the Bible must reckon with this strange argument if Jesus did not raise from the dead. This event is not historically easy to account for outside of the New Testament and Christian literature, yet it continued to shape the world as the gospel went forth. Why is that? Why is it that we have records of Jesus’ death but when it comes to his resurrection we are left with his Word and his church? The assumption that Paul maintains is that if he were to not be believed then there was a cloud of eyewitnesses who could bear witness to the reality they saw.
Could Peter have been hallucinating? Maybe. Could the twelve have been hallucinating given their love and grief? Maybe. Could more than 500 people some who do not have the same vested interested in the advancement of Christianity be hallucinating? This is perhaps one of the greatest arguments Paul leaves for his church because people do not hallucinate communally in such coherent ways.[10] Nor do people hallucinate communally in coherent ways for weeks. There must be some better explanation.
JAMES
The James mentioned here in verse 7 is not John’s brother. We know this because Acts 12.2 tells us that Herod of Agrippa executed the apostle James.[11] This James is the half-brother of Jesus who would go on to be a prominent leader in the early church. Once again Paul is pointing to those who knew Jesus intimately and those who were leaders in the early church.
ALL THE APOSTLES
As mentioned before this term “apostles” is disputed among some. Calvin for example argued that the term “apostles” referred also to those assigned to preaching.[12] Whether Paul is using a redundant term to “disciples” or whether he is speaking of pastors here the general point that Paul is making is that the resurrection of Jesus was no secret among early believers. Those whom he knew and walked alongside as well as the crowds saw the risen Lord Jesus.
PAUL
Paul concludes with himself as one who had seen the risen Lord Jesus. Paul is one of the most unlikely converts to the new religion and himself stands as a defense for the new faith. Paul, an up-and-coming man in his own rite within Judaism actively worked against the advancement of the gospel is stopped dead in his tracks on the road to Damascus before meeting Jesus. Paul’s language here reminds us of his humility and gratitude. In verse 9 Paul refers to himself as the least of the apostles. Paul highlights his own persecution of the church and how it is only the grace of God that has brought him where he is today (v. 9). With Paul we can affirm that all of us are only who we are because the grace of God found us.
These witnesses are rattled off to demonstrate that tomb was empty. And history unanimously agrees that the tomb was empty. Is it not curious that no one was arguing that Jesus’ corpse was still rotting in the grave? There needed to be an excuse because Rome had no body to produce. Those following Jesus’ resurrection were faced with a whole new world where they were going to bow the knee to the new Messiah or they were going to find excuses to believe otherwise. Either way over 2,000 years ago Jesus’ tomb was empty, and the world has been flipped upside down because of it.
The church exploded because the work of the Holy Spirit began to spread across the globe impacting the lives of Christians everywhere. Alan Kreider writes, “When Christians offered the world not just theological statements but embodied virtue, when they backed up their assertions…they attracted people who felt an irresistible pull to join them.”[13] People saw this kingdom that Jesus was building, and they found it appealing. They were attracted by a world where the rich and ruling class did not control things, but a poor servant King ruled with righteousness and peace. The Holy Spirit began working in their lives to receive, believe, and stand in the gospel as Paul expressed of the church in Corinth.
We need to be reoriented to the story of God’s redemption through the person and work of Jesus Christ. When Jesus ascended to heaven, he told his disciples to go make more disciples. The early church embodied what this new world would look like as they longed for Jesus to return. From the very beginning the habits of the church saw orthodoxy (right doctrine) and orthopraxy (right practice) as being married together. When the church was born and began to grow it did so empowered by the Holy Spirit longing for the world to come where they would be with their king again.
If you are here this morning and you have serious doubts, I would ask you to come talk to me or one of the pastors here. There are arguments for the resurrection.[14] But no argument will be as compelling as the Holy Spirit working through the preached Word. My prayer is that through my words, through my imperfections, through it all you would encounter the risen Lord Jesus today.
CONCLUSION
Once the church was born this world has never been the same. Whether it is the idea of individual rights, the introduction of hospitals, systemic caring for the poor, the desire for formalized educational institutions, and on and on the list can go.[15] Christians have taken their belief in the risen Christ, their longing for the kingdom of God and lived faithfully by God’s grace to produce all these things. Empires have risen and fallen. Institutions have risen and fallen. Worldviews have risen and fallen. Jesus is still alive and seated at the right hand of his Father.
Aladdin and Princess Jasmine saw their ability to have one another as “shining, shimmering, splendid” but brothers and sisters a whole new world is here. They sang “A dazzling place I never knew but when I’m way up here it’s crystal clear that now I’m in a whole new world with you.” One day Jesus Christ will come back again and when he does, we will live with him forever in a whole new world without sin, suffering, and death. Lets pray.
[1] Sung in Disney’s Aladdin under the song title, “A Whole New World” by Lea Salonga and Brad Kane.
[2] My preferred apologetic method tends to lean towards a transcendental apologetic while I will draw upon elements from other apologetic methods. The world we live in is irreversibly so because of the resurrection of Jesus hence a whole new world in which was longed for in the introduction makes most sense if the events of the resurrection are true.
[3] NIV, The Grace and Truth Study Bible, General ed. Albert Mohler (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2021), 1594.
[4] The Worldview Study Bible, General ed. David S. Dockery and Trevin K. Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2018), 1407. Those who were said to believe in vain were not true converts. They bore no fruit. See also, The Reformation Study Bible, ed. R.C. Sproul (Orlando, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005), 1664. Later in 1 Cor. 15.14 argues that if Christ has not been raised the faith is in vain.
[5] NIV Zondervan Study Bible, ed by D.A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 2353.
[6] NIV, The Grace and Truth Study Bible, General ed. Albert Mohler (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2021), 1594, footnotes demonstrate how among Greco-Roman pagans only the soul was considered immortal, and the body was seen as something to escape from.
[7] Andrew Peterson, “I’ve Seen Too Much”
[8] John Calvin, 1 Corinthians, in vol. XX of Calvin’s Commentaries 500 Anniversary Edition: I Corinthians, II Corinthians, ed. by John Owen and trans. from original Latin, (repr., Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009), 10-11.
[9] The Worldview Study Bible, General ed. David S. Dockery and Trevin K. Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2018), 1410.
[10] The Reformation Study Bible, ed. R.C. Sproul (Orlando, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005), 1665. This argument has been made by many theologians, pastors, and apologist and has become one of the more intriguing reflections apologetically. People do not hallucinate communally in such coherent consistent ways.
[11] The Reformation Study Bible, ed. R.C. Sproul (Orlando, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005), 1665.
[12] John Calvin, 1 Corinthians, in vol. XX of Calvin’s Commentaries 500 Anniversary Edition: I Corinthians, II Corinthians, ed. by John Owen and trans. from original Latin, (repr., Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009), 10-12.
[13] Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016. 35.
[14] See appendix for a more thorough yet not exhaustive list.
[15] C. Kavin Rowe, Christianity’s Surprise: A Sure and Certain Hope, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2020. Rowe argues that Christianity surprised the world by appealing moral habitus that led to and sustained institutional changes that have irreversibly shaped the world we live in today.
Song:
Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery
Eucharist:
Dr. Alex Loginow
Benediction:
Pastor Michael Champoux
Hebrews 13.20-21
Appendix to the Sermon: Apologetic Arguments for the Resurrection of Jesus
Most of the following arguments do not intend to be a single silver bullet per se but intend to create a sense of reasonableness to the validity of the resurrection of Jesus. Only a regenerated heart can believe in the gospel and follow Christ. After studying apologetics, philosophy, and theology I am deeply convicted of that. Also, these beliefs can be maintained in the mind but never lived out or trusted in as has been seen through different apologists and theologians that have shipwrecked their faith. The following arguments have been derived from years of study and working in a pluralistic faith community as a hospital chaplain where conversations had to be sharpened and thought through critically. Therefore, I have left out citations for the following arguments because many of them are commonly argued for and can be found easily. I am not making the case that these arguments are self-derived.
1) Jesus’ resurrection would have been undesirable (Greeks and Romans) and unexpected (Jews) yet Greeks, Romans, and Jews fled their life to believe that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.
2) Jesus’ death is attested to historically inside (NT) and outside of Scripture (see Licona for historiographical approach to the resurrection). Jesus’s tomb was empty, Bart Ehrman a notable popular writer and New Testament scholar who writes critically against the resurrection admits that this is practically universally recognized. The tomb was empty.
3) With the tomb being empty alternative arguments were given. One must ask about the plausibility of those arguments. Some have argued that Jesus’ followers stole the body. Imagining the communities Jesus was drawing it seems implausible that they could pull off stealing the body of a governmental rebel who would’ve been seen as posing a threat to civility.
4) While resurrection was an unthinkable thing to expect or want in the middle of human history which makes its power and building of a whole new community based on it more difficult for scholars to figure out what happened it is intriguing that the body is never produced. The government if indeed the corpse of Jesus was still rotting in the tomb could have presented him. If the alternative was a potential rising community with allegiances to a new king, why wouldn’t they want to stop such an uprising?
5) If the body could not be produced – as we believe it could not be! – why was the argument that it was stolen offered instead of a more believable argument such as the body being left out to be eaten? This would have been more culturally reliable as happened at times. People knew Jesus had died and was taken down. He was not left up on the cross to be eaten alive. Those around knew Jesus was taken down, so they were left with a less culturally reliable argument.
6) The death of Jesus is attested to outside of the Scripture while the resurrection appearances of Jesus are kept to the Christian tradition. Some might argue this seems suspect, I’d argue its actually sensible. Jesus left his followers sending the Spirit and what happens is the church explodes. Non-Christians would not be incentivized to speak to the resurrection of Jesus and when since he ascended the powers of this world could excuse his perceived absence as ceasing to be important. Problem is Jesus was not absent and the Spirit continued regenerating hearts and the church changed the world surviving as kingdoms rose and fell all around.
7) The resurrection of Jesus has uniquely counterintuitive witnesses. When you are thinking of building a kingdom, a platform, or some campaign you assess the risk factors, liabilities, the cost of credibility, etc. Jesus is said to have victoriously come out of the tomb and his first witnesses are females. One, this is a testimony that Jesus values all people in ways the ancient world did not. Two, if you’re making up this story females are not the strongest witnesses, nor are they even considered positive witnesses for their legal standing was different than males. Three, an often-forgotten point about the use of woman as witnesses is that Paul writes his account of the resurrection which excludes the women first. If Christianity wanted to keep consistency with the tradition of the first recorded resurrection account in Paul, the Gospels would have made more sense to exclude them. Furthermore, as someone who thinks Paul is doing something altogether different than the Gospel writers, it is noteworthy that the Gospel writers make their inclusion of women as the first witnesses to Jesus after his resurrection after Paul’s account had already been circulating. The Gospel writers have no problem writing a more chronological account even if to some if appears less reliable because they believed the women were those who first witnessed the risen Jesus.
8) A second counterintuitive witness is Paul himself. Paul was portrayed as a rising name in Judaism who had a bright future. He was seen as zealous. He actively persecuted the church. What motivation did he have from leaving the more stable rising pathway in Judaism to becoming a beaten-down missionary? He believed he saw the risen Jesus.
9) There are some who argue that the disciples must have believed what they said they saw because no one gives their lives in such communally consistent ways as the followers of Christ did. As mentioned in the sermon above though, the problem is that the resurrection accounts from the historical documents of the NT state that it was not just Jesus’ closest friends who saw Jesus. If that were the case maybe one could argue that their hopes and fears were so wrapped up in the messianic vision which Jesus preached of and so they desperately wanted this to be true and therefore hallucinated his appearance. The problem with the group of the 500 or more is that studies around hallucinations have shown people do not communally hallucinate in such coherent and consistent ways. The facts are that the early church anchored their life in the reality that Jesus had resurrected from the dead. It was not that some reported they saw him by the fishing docks, and some claimed to have seen him in the pita of their shawarmas, and others claimed to see him appear for a moment. No, hundreds of people. Both those who knew Jesus well and those listed among the crowds saw Jesus and his own followers ate with him.
10) Church tradition states the disciples of Jesus died for their faith. Some historians and theologians have been skeptical of whether this is accurate or legend. While validity to that claim is for another day and less important the reality is that many Christians suffered greatly for this new faith in the resurrected Jesus. While suffering for one’s faith is not proof for the validity of the faith is in noteworthy that people are willing to suffer for something they are convictional about. The followers of Jesus were willing to suffer for the claim that Jesus was their new king and that Jesus was alive because they believed it to be true not because they felt it was a compelling story.
11) Building the church – Kreider’s book cited in this sermon is a useful resource to see ways in which the virtue of the early church actually allowed for a relatively slow patient growth of the church. Kreider calls it a “patient ferment.” The church at times was less evangelistically strategic in their missional efforts yet their habitus was appealing to people. People saw how Christians acted and wanted to know more about that. This is an argument for the resurrection in at least one way. People were genuinely changed because they believed Jesus had actually rose from the dead. They had not yet had the benefits of a world post-Constantine and yet they persevered through much suffering while maintain Christlikeness because they were new creations in Christ.
12) The birth of the church among Gentiles is itself a compelling story that needs continual reckoning with among skeptics, but the worship of Jesus among Jewish people is a particularly challenging thing. Almost overnight committed monotheists began worshipping Jesus and when the matters of orthodoxy were affirmed, they remained monotheists while being trinitarian. Having worked alongside different Rabbis and discussed the claims Jesus was making and the claims that were being made of Jesus I was notified that Jesus was being blasphemous. Those committed monotheists in Jewish communities believed Jesus to be God. Their commitment to Jesus post resurrection is only explainable to me by their belief that he indeed had risen from the dead and is still alive and reigning.
Other Recommended Readings
· Pitre, Brant. The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ, New York: Image, 2016.
· Licona, Michael. The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2010.
· Wright, N. T.. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
· Chatraw, Joshua D. Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Reflective, 2020.
· Holland, Tom. Dominion: How The Christian Revolution Remade the World. New York: Basic Books, 2019.
· Pitre, Brant. The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ, New York: Image, 2016.
· Rowe, C. Kavin, Christianity’s Surprise: A Sure and Certain Hope. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2020.
· Apologetics At The Cross: An Introduction For Christian Witness – Joshua D. Chatraw and Mark D. Allen
· Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, Second Edition – Richard Baucham