Jesus' Resurrection - Fact Or Fiction??

The Bible makes it clear that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is pivotal to our Christian faith (I Corinthians 15:3). The apostle Paul goes on to say that if there is no resurrection, our preaching is vain, our faith is futile, we are still in our sins. Also, those have died in Christ have perished, and if we do not have this truth, we are of all people to be pitied (I Corinthians 15:16-19) because our belief is conditional upon faith in Christ's resurrection!

Please note that our Gospel (Good News) in a nutshell according to the Bible is:
"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and He was raised (from the dead) according to the Scriptures" (I Corinthians. 15:3-4). This we must believe to be a true Christian.

The Scriptures indicate that Jesus' resurrection is attested to by many infallible proofs (Acts 1:2). What are these "infallible proofs"?

The first proof is that Jesus, our Lord,categorically predicted that He would rise again from the dead (John 2:18-22). If Jesus did not know what He was talking about in this prophecy, how can we trust everything else He said and taught?

Historical facts are based on having faith in eyewitnesses. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples frequently as well as to five hundred people at one time. They all attested to this fact - Christ is alive again from the dead. Practically all these apostles went to a violent death maintaining that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead. Incidently, when Jesus died,the eleven apostles went into hiding and cowardly cringed from the authorities and possible death. After they saw Jesus resurrected from the dead, they were unafraid any more and boldly proclaimed everywhere their faith in the resurrected Christ. Something stupendous must have happened to them. They said it was seeing Christ alive again. These same apostles including the apostle Paul,u nder inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote history's most amazing and reliable book, The New Testament. They were credible eyewitnesses to Jesus' resurrection.

Among the disciples, Thomas, the skeptic and doubter, was very hard to convince. Finally, Jesus appeared to him and told him to put his hand into the nailprints and to thrust his fist in Jesus' wounded side. At last, Thomas believed and fell at Jesus' feet exclaiming, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus went on to say to Thomas, "Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" (John 20:24-29).

The apostle Paul, who replaced Judas among the twelve, saw Jesus when he was on the way to Damascus to put Christians in jail and persecute them in other ways. That blinding of Paul on the Damascus road changed his life completely. He became a loving man instead of a hateful person. He died violently for his faith and declared to his dying breath that Jesus was alive from the dead.

Of course the most wonderful proof which we have is as the hymn writer wrote: "You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart". When a person believes and sincerely accepts Christ Jesus into him to be his friend and Saviour, and to rule him forever, Jesus comes in, changes such a person completely (II Corinthians 5:17)from the inside out. If time permitted, we could talk of many who have been changed by the power of the resurrected Christ. Some of them have been ordinary folk. Others have been the greatest minds who have ever lived (eg. Augustine, the apostle Paul, great scientists and leading people in every walk of life throughout history.

The last insight I would give you takes us to the graveside of Jesus' friend, Lazarus. There Jesus proclaimed just before He raised him from the dead:
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he dies yet shall he live. And whoever lives believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" Jesus could not have made this pronouncement if He did not have power over death, Hell and sin. What a Saviour! "Christ is risen; He is risen indeed". One church group uses this as a greeting at Easter. Maybe we should use it all the year round, so great is our hope in the Resurrected Christ.