The Resurrection of Jesus Travis Dickinson www.travisdickinson.com

The Resurrection 1 Cor. 15:12-19 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. The gospel hinges on the Christ’s resurrection.

The Resurrection Why think Jesus rose from the dead? The earliness of the Resurrection claim. Jesus’s body is buried in a tomb that is found empty. The eyewitnesses believed Jesus rose from the dead. It solves our human predicament.

1. Earliness The resurrection claim arises immediately. 1 Cor. 15: 3-7 dates to within 2-5 years of the events it describes.

2. Empty Tomb If there’s a body, the whole movement goes away. The details are unlikely inventions: Joseph of Arimathea Women witnesses The Jewish cover-up

2. Empty Tomb The accounts of the empty tomb are different.

2. Empty Tomb “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave” (Matt. 28:1). “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome…came to the tomb when the sun had risen” (Mark 16:1–2). “Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them” (Luke 24:10). “Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb” (John 20:1). Steve begins to find plausible the idea that there these passages contradict. He does not believe that they contradict. But he does believe that if they contradict, then his belief that Scripture is without error is defeated.

2. Empty Tomb “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” (Matthew). “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome” (Mark). “Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women” (Luke). “Mary Magdalene” (John). Their differences suggest these are independent accounts. Steve begins to find plausible the idea that there these passages contradict. He does not believe that they contradict. But he does believe that if they contradict, then his belief that Scripture is without error is defeated.

3. Eyewitness Belief The disciples had all the reason in the world to deny the resurrection. Their messiah had been shamefully executed. A resurrected Jesus didn’t fit any expectation (including the disciples’).

3. Eyewitness Belief And yet they believe. They almost all go to their deaths for this claim. An eyewitness doesn’t die a brutal death for what they know is a lie.

3. Eyewitness Belief This is believed by a variety of people. Peter and the other apostles (followers) James (skeptic) Paul (enemy)

4. The Solution There is something deeply wrong with us. Why would God create a world he knew would go wrong?

4. The Solution God must have a solution: The gospel is the only plausible solution on offer in the history of the world.

The Resurrection For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift (Eph. 2:8) It is the resurrection that secures this gift!