4/24/24

Someone I’ve known forever bought a home in a brand new housing development near Spring Hill, TN. The new house was beautiful . . . the neighborhood was beautiful .  . . the sleepy little town had recently exploded with all sorts of shops and restaurants . . . he and his wife should have been very happy.

But their HOA was impossible! 

The rules kept changing and my friend, who had recently been baptized, was getting more and more frustrated. After one final covenant alteration and the subsequent altercation, he told the HOA president, “Now I know for sure I’m a Christian, because before I was baptized, I would have put my fist through your face!”

Knowing him like I’ve known him for as long as I’ve known him, I promise you that is powerful evidence for the resurrection! 

In fact, I think the greatest proof of the Resurrection is changed lives!

I’ve already written about the disciples, those original eyewitnesses who went from cowering behind locked doors to boldly proclaiming the message of the resurrection and who, with the exception of John, gave up their lives because of it.  But, you might argue, cowardly or not, these were followers of Jesus all along. They may have been deceived somehow to follow Jesus to the death.

Then what about someone who was the opposite of the original 12? Someone who was by no means a coward and who made his reputation by persecuting the early believers? 

Paul began his life as Saul, a “Pharisee of the Pharisees” (in other words, of all the Pharisees in the world, he was the Pharisee-iast) and was infamous for not only imprisoning Christians but also approved of the murder of Stephen, the first martyr. But then, in Acts 9, Saul the persecuting Pharisee was transformed into Paul the preaching Apostle when he encountered the risen Jesus.

About two decades after the resurrection, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth (around 54 AD), saying:

“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (I Corinthians 15:1-9). 

Essentially Paul was saying to the Corinthians, “If you don’t believe me, then go ask these guys. They’re still around.” 

And the early believers were a noisy bunch. Years later, Paul standing before the Roman governor, Festus, and King Agrippa, said, “Indeed the king knows about these things, and to him I speak freely; for I am certain that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this was not done in a corner.”

No, the early believers, despite opposition by everyone in power over them, did not keep quiet about the resurrection. In 300 years, followers of the risen Christ increased from one (Mary Magdalene) to over 6 million - and this was before Christianity was legal anywhere in the world! 

How were they able to increase like that? Not because of fancy church buildings or music programs or anything else that people often shop around for today in churches. They grew because they saw there was something different about the believers, and that difference was the result of the resurrection. 

One of my favorite parts of Easter is singing He Lives! The last line of the refrain says it all: “You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart!”

That really is the ultimate evidence. When that testimony is multiplied in the hearts of multitudes of other believers, and you see the evidence in changed lives, to quote one of the skeptics, “at the least you have to admit something happened.” 

Which is the understatement of the century, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

If Jesus had not been resurrected, I’d hate to think what the world would be like now. Last week I wrote about many of the innovations we take for granted today that came about because people believed in the resurrection, but that list was by no means complete!  There were many others, small and large: universities, orphanages, eyeglasses, mechanical clocks . . . even many great scientific discoveries were made as a quest to find signs of God in our universe  – none of these things would have existed had the followers of Jesus not seen a need and met it. 

If Jesus hadn’t been resurrected, would his teachings even be remembered today? Who would have written them down? His followers were uneducated fishermen, terrified of losing their own heads. The religious leaders of the day condemned him and the representative of Rome crucified him. Like all of the other false Messiahs of his day, his teachings would be tossed into the dustbin of history.

But they weren’t.  

No, because of the resurrection of Jesus, the world was forever changed. WE were changed forever. “You ask me how I know he lives?” 

Just look around!