1. Every word of God is tested… Proverbs 30:5

2.  Last week we consider evidence that Jesus really died, and didn’t just swoon. We saw his disciples definitely knew where the tomb was.  If Jesus died, what happened to His body?  Tonight we’ll look at the only possibilities and check them against the truth of the Bible and eyewitnesses.

3.  The disciples stole the body of Jesus and hid it away to pull off a grand deception.  Why?  Says who?  How?  When?

4.  Anticipating theft of the body, the Jews and Romans teamed up to prevent such a possibility.  Matthew 27:62-66  Chief priests and Pharisees went to Pilate  “Give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away….”  Pilate: “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” They posted a guard and sealed the stone.

5.  Roman guard – of the Praetorium, well trained professional soldiers.  Temple guard – Jews, highly motivated to prevent any deception on the part of the disciples of Jesus.  Either way, they are well motivated to prevent any theft of the body.

6. Pilate’s motivation would be to prevent further trouble on this account. Failure on the part of the guards would result in their death. Matt. 28:11 – “…some of the guard…reported to the chief priests….” Why go to the priests?

7. Matthew 28:12 – “And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.” If Jews, why would Pilate care? If Jews, why would they bother Pilate? They would have posted guard anyway.

8. Fact: guards were there and tomb was sealed. Fact: Tomb was sealed by an extremely large stone. Fact: To steal the body would require the disciples to move the stone. Fact: The guards never said they did, but reported the angel and earthquake and were told to lie. (Matt. 28:11)

9. The disciples wouldn’t have stolen the body, because they didn’t understand or anticipate the resurrection anyway. John 20:8-9 – “So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.”

10. The disciples: Matthew 26:31-32 – “…you will all fall away because of Me this night…but after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” The Jews: John 2:18-21 – “…what sign do You show us as your authority…? Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’”

11. Matthew only one to tell us of the guard and sealing of the tomb. Clear that the sealing was on the Sabbath day, after the day of preparation. So, the disciples could have stolen the body between its burial Friday evening and the sealing on Saturday morning. Right?

12. Why did the Jews never make this claim? It would have been way more believable than the sleeping guard sorry excuse for a lie. They HAD to make the sleeping guard story because they KNEW the body was there when they sealed the tomb.

13. No serious critic can possibly believe that the disciples stole the body. It is historically so improbable as to be absurd. So….what happened to the body?

14. The Jews stole the body. Hahahahahahahaha! Okay, so if they did: They would have produced the body as soon as the disciples began to claim Jesus rose from the dead and crushed Christianity immediately. They never claimed to have taken the body.

15. God raised Jesus from the dead! It is what Jesus said would happen. It is what all four gospel writers said happened. It is what the disciples learned happened. It is what Paul says happened. It is what happened.