Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead? The Evidence.

If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Christianity is not just wrong, it is worthless. Paul said it himself plainly. If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. So the question is not whether the resurrection is comforting. The question is, did it happen?

2,000 years later, billions of people build their lives on the answer. And yet, if you type, "Did Jesus really rise from the dead?" into Google today, you will find just as many people insisting he didn't. Skeptics say the story is a legend. Grieving disciples had hallucinations. The gospels were written too late.

The tomb was never really empty. Tonight, we are going to walk through the evidence carefully, not slogans, evidence. And we are going to look at the strongest objections honestly before we answer them. Because if the resurrection cannot survive honest questions, it is not worth defending. And if it can, then it changes everything.

Did Jesus really rise from the dead? The evidence. Before we look at what happened, we need to see why it matters. Most religions rise or fall on teachings, on ideas, on ethics, on ceremonies. Christianity is different.

Christianity stands or falls on an event. The Apostle Paul made this crystal clear in 1 Corinthians 15:14-1 17. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. you are still in your sins.

Paul did not soften it. If Jesus stayed dead, Christians are not slightly wrong. We are completely, tragically wrong, and we should stop preaching. But if he rose, every question you have about God, about death, about your own sin, about what happens tomorrow, every one of those questions has an answer. And that answer has a name.

So this is not a small question. Let's take it seriously. The earliest piece of evidence for the resurrection is not the gospels. It is a short creed embedded in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians around AD55.

But look at what he says. For I deliver to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he was seen by Cphus, then by the 12. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. That word delivered and received is rabbitic language for handing on a fixed tradition.

The overwhelming majority of scholars, including scholars who are not Christians, believe Paul received this creed within 1 to 5 years of the crucifixion, most likely on his visit to Peter and James in Jerusalem in about AD.35. That means the claim that Jesus rose from the dead is not a legend that developed centuries later. It is the earliest thing we have and it names living eyewitnesses by name. Peter, James, over 500 people, most of whom Paul says are still alive, meaning you can go check. Legends do not name checkable witnesses.

Fact one, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by the Romans under Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem around AD30. This is confirmed inside the New Testament. It is also confirmed outside the New Testament by the Roman historian Tacitus writing around AD 116 and by the Jewish historian Josephus in the first century. Bart Aramman, one of the most well-known skeptical New Testament scholars alive, writes that the crucifixion of Jesus is one of the most certain facts of ancient history. Now, some people ask, did Jesus actually die?

Yes. In 1986, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a peer-reviewed article walking through the physiology. Their conclusion and I quote, "Modern medical interpretation of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead when taken down from the cross." Fact two, on the Sunday morning after the crucifixion, his tomb was found empty by a group of women. Two observations here. First, in the first century Jewish world, women were not considered valid legal witnesses.

If you are inventing a story to sell it to a skeptical culture, you would never put women at the empty tomb. The fact that all four gospels do, even though it was culturally awkward, is a sign the writers are reporting what happened, not what would sell. Second, Christianity was publicly preached in Jerusalem 7 weeks later in the same city to the same people. If the body were still in a known tomb, the authorities only needed to produce it. They didn't.

Matthew records that the earliest counter story was that the disciples had stolen the body, which itself concedes that the tomb was empty. Fact three, multiple people in multiple places in multiple settings claimed to see the risen Jesus alive, not just one dazed follower, Peter, James, the 12, over 500 at once. groups indoors and groups outdoors, individuals. Even Bartman again writes that it is a historical fact that some of Jesus's followers came to believe they had seen him alive shortly after his execution. Then as they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, "Peace to you." But they were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit.

And he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. But while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, "Have you any food here?" So they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb and he took it and ate in their presence.

Fact four. Two hardened non-believers became convinced by what they said were resurrection appearances. The first is James, Jesus' own brother. During Jesus ministry, John 7:5 says his own brothers did not believe in him. But Paul lists James as an eyewitness of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:7.

And after that, James becomes the leader of the Jerusalem church and eventually dies for that faith. The Jewish historian Josephus records his execution. The second is a man named Saul of Tarsus. He was not neutral. He was actively hunting Christians, tearing them from their homes, imprisoning them, watching them die.

As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." Saul becomes Paul. He becomes the most effective missionary in Christian history. And he dies for the message. Persecutors of a movement do not usually flip sides and die for a hoax they helped invent.

Now that does not by itself prove the resurrection happened. Plenty of people die for false things they think are true. But it does prove one thing beyond argument. The disciples were not lying. They actually believed they had seen the risen Jesus.

That means any natural explanation of Christianity has to explain what caused them to believe it. Five facts accepted in large part by scholars who are not Christians. Any theory of what happened has to explain all five. Let's take the strongest objection seriously. Objection one, it was a legend.

The claim is that the resurrection story grew over decades of retelling. But the 1 Corinthians 15 creed predates the gospels by decades and it already contains the resurrection, the appearances and named eyewitnesses. You cannot legend develop in a room where Peter, James, and hundreds of hostile Jerusalem witnesses are still alive to fact check you. The timeline is too short and the witness is too public for legend to be the answer. Objection two, hallucinations.

Some suggest the grieving disciples had bereiement visions. But hallucinations are individual and internal. They do not happen to groups seeing the same detailed thing. Clinical psychology treats group hallucinations of a shared detailed experience as effectively unattested. And hallucinations don't explain the empty tomb or the conversion of the skeptic James or the conversion of the persecutor Paul.

Objection three, Jesus didn't really die. The so-called swoon theory that he revived in the cool of the tomb. Medically, this is ruled out. That same Jamama article walks through the scourging, the crucifixion, and the spear wound to the side. Jesus was dead.

Even if impossibly he had been half alive, staggering out of a tomb he couldn't roll open, he would have inspired pity, not the shout, "I have seen the risen Lord of glory." Objection four, the disciples stole the body. This is actually the oldest counter explanation. Matthew records it in chapter 28, and it fails on the same evidence I just gave you. The disciples died for the claim. Frauds do not die for what they know is a lie.

Objection five. If God wanted everyone to believe, he would give overwhelming evidence. This is the honest question of the philosopher John Shelonburgg. Sometimes called divine hiddenness. And the Christian answer is this.

God has given enough evidence for the willing. He has left room for the will to respond in trust because forced belief is not what a loving God is after. Jesus said to Thomas the doubter after showing him the wounds, "Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Every one of these objections has an honest answer. None of them individually or combined explains all five facts.

The resurrection does. If Jesus really rose from the dead, three things are true. First, everything Jesus said about himself is validated. He claimed to forgive sins. He claimed to be one with the father.

He claimed to be the resurrection and the life. He said in John 11:25-26, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

If he rose, he was telling the truth. The cross was not a defeat. It was payment. Isaiah hundreds of years earlier said, "But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Your sin was laid on him.

His righteousness is offered to you. Death does not have the last word. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20, "But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." First fruits means the beginning of a harvest. Jesus's resurrection is the first fruit. If you belong to him, yours is the harvest.

If you are a Christian and someone you love asks you, "How do you know Jesus really rose?" Here's how to have the conversation. Don't argue, ask. Try a question like, "Have you ever actually looked at the evidence for it?" Or if Jesus really did rise, would that change anything for you? Or would you still walk away? If they say the second answer, honestly, it is not evidence they are missing.

Then don't hand them more data. Hand them a story. Tell them what Jesus has done in your own life. And if they do want to see the evidence, walk them through the five facts we just covered and offer to look at 1 Corinthians 15 with them together. Listen.

Ask, understand, then explain. That is how Jesus himself did it with the woman at the well, with Thomas, with the two on the road to Emmas. He met them at their questions. Take one of these steps this week. Read First Corinthians 15 in full.

Slowly read it out loud. Ask yourself honestly, if I really believed Jesus rose from the dead, what would change about how I lived tomorrow morning? If you have never surrendered your life to Christ, do it today. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It is that simple and that costly.

Text this video to one person who has asked you where you get your hope from. Then be ready to have the conversation. If you're wrestling with real doubt, don't hide it. bring it to a mature believer, to a pastor, or to Jesus himself the way Thomas did. Here is the gospel in one paragraph.

God made you. Your sin separated you from him. You could not fix that. So God became a man. Jesus lived the life you should have lived, died the death you should have died, was buried, and on the third day rose again to prove that the payment was accepted.

If you turn from your sin and put your trust in him, not in your goodness, not in your church attendance, not in your religion, but in Jesus alive, you are forgiven. You are given a new life. You become a child of God. That is the promise. It is offered to you free tonight.

Let's pray. Father, thank you that you did not leave us to guess. Thank you that in Jesus you stepped into our world, went to the cross for our sin, and rose again on the third day to prove that death had been defeated. For the person watching this who is a skeptic, I ask that you would give them an honest heart and time to consider the evidence, not our arguments, but your spirit. For the person who is a Christian but has been afraid to speak, give them courage this week.

Show them one person to have one honest conversation with. For the person watching who has never trusted Christ, Father, you are near right now. If they are ready to come to you, receive them, wash them, give them the life you bought for them on the cross. For all of us, anchor us in the fact that Christ is risen. Whatever we face this week, he is not in a tomb.

In the name of the risen Jesus, amen. If this helped you or if you know someone wrestling with this question, send it. Subscribe if you want us to keep answering the questions people are actually asking. Next in the series, Does God Exist? The Strongest Evidence.

Until then, he is risen. He is risen indeed.

Transcript from the video's captions on YouTube.