Spring has arrived and we look forward to the refreshment the new season brings as we put the last of winter behind us. Along with that comes our celebration of Easter. It's the anniversay of the day eyewitnesses reported Jesus of Nazareth came back from the dead, after being executed and buried in a tomb. Not as a ghost or a vision, but a real body they could see and touch. They reported the resurrected Jesus walked, talked and ate with them. If that is true it validates his own claim that he was God. It was that very claim that led authorities to execute him, thinking that would get rid of him. But, he overcame death which is convincing proof of his authority over all things and the truth of his saying whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
It is certainly reasonable to believe the testimony recorded by those eyewitnesses is in fact true. Those witnesses lived in a time without technology or motorized equipment, in a land occupied by a powerful foreign army. The political, religious, and military leaders had all the power, all the resources, and a strong desire to discredit and dispel the witnesses' story of resurrection. Most religions are based on a set of ideas or someone's claim they had a vision or special message. When someone makes a claim like that it is hard prove if it is true or false. Christianity is different. It is based on the event of Jesus' resurrection; perhaps hard to believe, but if false it is easy to disprove. If that small group of powerless witnesses were not telling the truth about Jesus resurrection the authorities surely would have been able to convince one of them them to expose their lie and coverup. Or, they would have used their power to find and present as counter evidence Jesus' dead body, or a badly beaten Jesus that never actually died. That evidence would have ended Christianity immediately! But they were not able to do that because He had returned to life from death. Many people saw him alive, including 500 at one time, before he asended up to heaven in the plain view of witnesses. Within days thousands were believing in his resurrection and declaring him their lord and king. They realized Jesus resurrection from the dead changes everything, and it compels us to change our own beliefs and allegiance today.
All those original witnesses were tortured and went to their death, in most cases death by execution, still declaring they had seen the resurrected Jesus. No one would do that if their story was not true. This Easter celebrate by considering that story and its implications for yourself. Please click here for more information.
It is certainly reasonable to believe the testimony recorded by those eyewitnesses is in fact true. Those witnesses lived in a time without technology or motorized equipment, in a land occupied by a powerful foreign army. The political, religious, and military leaders had all the power, all the resources, and a strong desire to discredit and dispel the witnesses' story of resurrection. Most religions are based on a set of ideas or someone's claim they had a vision or special message. When someone makes a claim like that it is hard prove if it is true or false. Christianity is different. It is based on the event of Jesus' resurrection; perhaps hard to believe, but if false it is easy to disprove. If that small group of powerless witnesses were not telling the truth about Jesus resurrection the authorities surely would have been able to convince one of them them to expose their lie and coverup. Or, they would have used their power to find and present as counter evidence Jesus' dead body, or a badly beaten Jesus that never actually died. That evidence would have ended Christianity immediately! But they were not able to do that because He had returned to life from death. Many people saw him alive, including 500 at one time, before he asended up to heaven in the plain view of witnesses. Within days thousands were believing in his resurrection and declaring him their lord and king. They realized Jesus resurrection from the dead changes everything, and it compels us to change our own beliefs and allegiance today.
All those original witnesses were tortured and went to their death, in most cases death by execution, still declaring they had seen the resurrected Jesus. No one would do that if their story was not true. This Easter celebrate by considering that story and its implications for yourself. Please click here for more information.
Celebrating the true
Easter Story
Easter Story
