"The Gospel message of God's redemption and restoration of man through Christ rests on the truth and hope of the resurrection." -Pastor Bruce
I want to challenge you today to consider your belief in the resurrection. Luke 24:1-12 says, "Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. and it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, they behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the Earth, they said to them, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.''" And then they remembered His words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened."
First, consider the obstacles and allow God to remove them. As the women were walking to the tomb, they had to have known that there was a stone in the way. The tomb that Jesus was buried in had a circular stone that sealed the cave away. It would take several strong men and a device to lift the stone in order to go back into the tomb. The few women would not be able to do it; but as we see, the stone has been removed. They stayed faithful, and God removed the obstacle for them. Now, it is important to know that the stone was not moved for Jesus, in His glorified body, can pass through walls (John 20:19). The stone was not moved for Jesus, it was moved for our belief.
Second, consider the evidence. Is Jesus dead or alive? Well, in verses 3-6, we see that the stone was rolled away, which could not be done by one man, especially from the inside of the tomb. The tomb was empty and angels asked, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!" We see that Christ is risen. If it was not Jesus rising, who would the suspects be? The Roman guards, the Jewish leaders, or the Disciples. When Roman guards are placed on duty for a corpse, if the corpse goes missing, the Roman guard who failed to watch the body will have to go through the same punishment as them. It was not the Roman guards. They would not pick a suicide so harsh. If it was the Jewish leaders, they would have brought out the body of Jesus at the Pentecostalism in order to stop thousands of people from believing in a man that was not their God. If it was the Disciples, all of them suffered an inhumane death, and at least one of them would have broken and confessed that their religion was a lie; but their lives and actions were transformed and they died for what they believed in. No one would go through such horrible pain to die for a lie.
Third, consider what Jesus said. He prophesied about His death and His resurrection many times (Luke 9:22, Luke 18:31-33) Either Jesus was telling the truth and this is what was happening, or not. The chances of it not being what Jesus said, considering everything that He said would happen was happening, would be impossible, not improbable. 1/3 of the Bible is prophecy, and 2/3 of those prophesies have been recorded to come true. The last 1/3 is the second coming of Jesus Christ, but the signs of it's coming are happening even today.
Finally, fourth, consider your response. You will respond in one of three ways when hearing about the resurrection: You will either believe and want to share the news like the women did, you will disbelieve like the disciples did, or you will investigate and confirm it on your own, like Peter did. Weigh the evidence and make your own decision.
-D
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