(March 25, 2024) Dr Jim McClure shares Easter truths…

There is a major difference between fantasy and reality.  Fantasy is based on fiction while reality is based on truth! One of our major problems today is that fiction and deception has replaced reality in many areas and truth is being discarded in favour of falsehood.

This is not new. Throughout history evil has sought to overcome good as moral social values have been reversed and lies have replaced truth.  About 2700 years ago the prophet Isaiah’s description of his own nation at that time strongly resembles much of what is happening in our world today – ‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.   Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight’ (Isaiah 5:20-21).

Once deception replaces reality and lies replace truth, we end up where we are today where, for example, the simple biological truth regarding the different genders of men and women is turned on its head. The reason I mention this is because Christianity is progressively coming under attack today and its message is being is being regularly ridiculed.

The Christian message is dependant of this foundational fact – Jesus rose from the dead! That affirmation is the cornerstone of the Christian religion. This is indeed what Paul asserted in 1Corinthians 15:14 when he wrote,  ‘If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.’

The Easter message of Christ’s resurrection is increasingly being reviled and dismissed as a fantasy.  We are being told that no reasonable person can still believe the nonsense that someone who was killed and placed in a tomb 2000 years ago not only actually came alive again three days later but also is still alive today! ‘What a joke! How stupid you would have to be to believe such a thing,’ we are told.  Well, let’s explore that allegation today.

1. Denial of the Resurrection
Easter Sunday either celebrates the most dramatic incident ever to have occurred in history or it is a celebration of the most deceptive fiction that has ever been propagated in the world. While millions of people worldwide celebrate the most wonderful miracle of all, many others will be denouncing and denying the resurrection of Jesus as a colossal falsehood.

To state it simply – the report that Jesus rose from the dead is either fact or fiction!  Jesus was either the Son of God or a liar; He was either the Saviour or a deceiver. 

Rejection of the account of the resurrection of Jesus is not just a recent thing.  For two thousand years its reality has been denied. Looking at this objectively you would say that a report stating that someone who had been executed on a cross and had come alive again in three days later sounds fictitious.

So let’s consider some reasons why belief in the resurrection was and is rejected.

(i) Denial began on the day it took place
Matthew 28 tells that Jewish religious leaders, who had been vigorously opposed to Jesus during His ministry and had been largely complicit in His arrest and crucifixion, didn’t believe the  reports that Jesus was alive.  Their response to that news was to bribe the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb with a large sum of money, telling them to spread the rumour that Jesus’ disciples had come after dark while they were sleeping and stole his body.

That storyline is ridiculous at many levels, not least the question of how they knew what had happened if they had been asleep? 

• In Mark 16, we read that Mary Magdalene went to some of Jesus’ bereaved followers and told them that He was alive, and they didn’t believe her.
• Luke 24 tells that when Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James told the disciples that Jesus was alive, they did not believe them because they thought it was nonsense. 
• In John 20, we learn that, after the disciples who had seen and spoken with Jesus, told Thomas that Jesus was alive, he responded by stating categorically, ‘Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
• Acts 17 tells that when Paul was preaching to the Greeks and told them that Jesus had risen from the dead, some of them sneered at him – although some others wanted to hear more.
• And in 1Corinthians 15, Paul specifically addressed the fact of Jesus’ resurrection because some people in the church in Corinth were denying it.

So the rejection of the fact of the resurrection of Jesus began on the very day He rose from the grave.

(ii) Denial continues to this day
Denial of the ‘Good News’ that Jesus triumphed over death has continued throughout the centuries unto today.

Atheists and agnostics will confidently object to that affirmation and claim that it is only a fable because scientific evidence clearly shows that dead people cannot come alive again.

Apart from those who are convinced that the resurrection is a fable, and therefore flatly reject the 2000 years-old assertion that Jesus arose and is alive today, the followers of all other religions also reject the truth of Jesus’ bodily resurrection.  Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism reject it. Christianity is the only religion that makes that claim! And that claim began on the third day after Jesus was killed.

There is a tendency today to try to lump all religions together as if they are all various expressions of the same fundamental concepts.  Nothing could be further from the truth despite the affirmation of King Charles at his coronation that he would be the defender of ‘faiths’, Jesus Himself declared, ‘I (ego eime meaning ‘I myself’) am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6).

There is only one Saviour of the world. His name is Jesus and He clearly and undeniably revealed His credentials when He stepped out of the tomb on the first Easter Day!

2. Evidence of the Resurrection
Is there any evidence to support the claim that the resurrection of Jesus actually took place?  Clearly something momentous happened that day, completely changing the course of world history. That ‘something’ is recorded for us in the New Testament.

(i) Testimony of the first Christians
Jesus’ resurrection did not take place secretively. On the contrary, evidence of the fact was made absolutely clear to many people – none of whom initially expected it!

• On that first Easter Sunday morning Mary Magdalene and a few other women went to Jesus’ tomb to anoint His dead body to discover He wasn’t there.
• Later that day Jesus met two mourning disciples on the Emmaus road who were later so excited when they recognised Him that they returned to Jerusalem, about 11 kms away, to tell the disciples.
• When Jesus appeared to the disciples, Thomas was absent. Later he said that he needed proof of what those disciples claimed and eight days later he got it! Jesus suddenly appeared and said to him, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe’ (John 20:27).  Thomas later went to India where he preached the gospel and eventually died as a martyr.
• For a further 40 days after his resurrection Jesus often appeared to His disciples.
• He also seen by more than five hundred of his followers at the same time (1Corinthians 15:6). 
• Jesus appeared one last time to the apostles just before He ascended to heaven.
• Then, on the Damascus Road, Paul the persecutor of Christians, personally met the risen and ascended Jesus. He wrote, ‘… last of all He appeared to me also’ (1Corinthians 15:8). 

The resurrection was accompanied by the visible evidence needed to substantiate the claim.  This was not just a religious aspiration or a philosophical proposition or a psychological phenomenon but a fact of historic reality! It really did happen!

(ii) Birth of the church
50 days after Jesus’ resurrection the church was born. Jesus had earlier told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the next step.  And that arrived on the day of Pentecost when the city was crowded by Jews from around the world who had travelled there to celebrate the Feast of Weeks. 

A number of Christians, including the apostles, were gathered in a room when the Holy Spirit fell on all of them! Peter immediately went out into the street and addressed the crowds telling them about Jesus and preaching about the resurrection. He declared, ‘God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him’ (Acts 2:23-24). 

That day 3000 people (Acts 2:41) from various nations and languages responded to the gospel, were saved and baptised.  And the church was born!  Soon that 3000 increased to around 5000 (Acts 4:4). 

If the resurrection of Jesus hadn’t taken place, the church would never have existed! Historically, Sunday has always been the day when  Christians have met for worship and this practice began on the day of Pentecost. 

3. Significance of the Resurrection
When I was at theological college many years ago during a lecture one of my professors asked me, ‘Jim, although it is claimed that Jesus’ resurrection makes the point of good triumphing over evil, if He had not literally risen from the dead, how would that affect your faith?’

I thought about that for a few moments and then replied, ‘I find that question hard to process because I am absolutely convinced that Jesus literally arose from the dead. If I didn’t believe that, everything would be meaningless.’

At a ministers’ fraternal I attended some years later we were discussing the resurrection of Jesus and a retired minister commented, ‘I don’t really know what happened that day. I can’t really see how Jesus, who had been crucified and then buried in a tomb, could have come to life again and physically leave that tomb. Perhaps His essence left the tomb while His body remained. You could say it was a spiritual resurrection and not a physical one.’ 

Sadly this belief is held by many pastors in all denominations today, although few would publicly admit to it!

So, the question is, ‘How important is the resurrection? In 1Corinthians 15:13-20, Paul emphatically answered that question that people were asking also in his day. To Paul this was not a negotiable concept but a fundamental fact in the Christian faith. In these verses he made two essential points about the resurrection.

(i) Consequential results (v13-19) 
Paul said that if Jesus had not been raised from the dead some things were inevitable –

• There is no living Saviour.
• Your faith is useless.
• The Christian message is a falsehood, a string of lies.
• Once you are dead you are dead for ever.
• You are living in a delusion and you have never been forgiven for your sins.
• If you’ve trusted Jesus for salvation, you’ve been deceived – there is no life after death.
• Christians  are more to be pitied than anyone else in the world for believing such a hoax.

Well, Paul stated the consequences very directly and unmistakably.  He didn’t hold back his punches!  But he had one more thing to say that wholly demolishes  that list of consequences…

(ii) Categorical affirmation (v20)
Paul  concluded with this statement – ‘But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.’ ‘That,’ Paul was saying, ‘is the reality!’ Our faith is not based on opinions, philosophies or speculations but on facts, the greatest of all being that Jesus literally and physically arose from the tomb.  The tomb was vacated!

The whole of the Christian message rests on this foundation because, apart from Jesus’ resurrection, the Christian faith is empty, meaningless and promising what it cannot deliver.  But Jesus did conquer death and because of that our sins are forgiven, eternal life is our assurance and our hope is secure.

Paul concluded his affirmation on the wonderful reality of the resurrection with a shout of triumph, ‘“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”… thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15:55,57). 

4. Result of the Resurrection
The gospel message spread rapidly following Peter’s preaching at Pentecost. 

First to respond to it were Jews, then Gentiles. People enthusiastically and committedly received the spreading good news that through Jesus our sins are forgiven and we receive His gift of eternal life!

The gospel met them at their deepest need, offering forgiveness for the present and hope for the future. The resurrection message of Jesus was central to the good news because it did three things –
(i) Verified Jesus’ claim of defeating death 
Jesus made that claim on many occasions. For example Luke 24:7, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’

That was indeed a bold claim to make and would have seemed impossible to substantiate, but Jesus did!  When His body was placed in the tomb, it indicated that that was the end of His mission. But it was only the beginning because death could not hold Him nor the tomb confine Him.  As that favourite hymn goes:
‘Up from the grave He arose
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.’

(ii) Vindicated Jesus’ redemptive ministry
Jesus’ death on the cross would have been worthless if He hadn’t risen again! His ministry, rejection and indescribable suffering on the cross would have been meaningless if He had not risen. Paul unwaveringly and clearly declared ‘Because of our sins He was given over to die, and He was raised to life in order to put us right with God’ (Romans 4:25GNT).

(iii) Vanquished fear of death for the believer
Jesus made this promise to all who trust in Him, ‘I give them eternal life, and they shall never die’ (John 10:28).  If He had stayed in the tomb, we would be without hope.   

Because of His glorious resurrection we may embrace the assurance that Jesus has overcome death.  The empty tomb signified that our last enemy was defeated – ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ 

And so we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with great joy because God has provided for us a glorious eternity and He invites all to enter.

Do you believe?
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Dr Jim McClure, author of several books and Bible studies, offers them free in electronic version in EPUB, Kindle and PDF formats. Looking for Answers in a Confusing World is always recommended. Questions seeking enlightenment on biblical perspectives are welcomed. Link: jbmcclure@gmail.com
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