He
is alive!
Ten days ago there was an important announcement at a news conference
conducted by the National Geographic Society.
They had finished restoring and translating the Gospel of Judas.
Terry Garcia, an executive vice president of National Geographic,
asserted that the codex is considered by scholars and scientists to be the most
significant ancient, non-biblical text to be found since the 1940s.
They unveiled the manuscript at the news conference and then ran a
television special entitled The Gospel of Judas last Sunday on the
National Geographic Channel.
What is the “gospel” of Judas? I
quote from the lead section: “The
secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas
Iscariot during a week, three days before he celebrated Passover.”
And what secret truth do we learn? That
Judas was a good guy – in fact he was probably the “beloved disciple,” the
one Jesus favored the most. He was
the only one who knew Jesus' true identity as the Son of God. The 24 pages of text give the details of private instruction
that Jesus supposedly gave to Judas – information that was not given to the
other disciples. The private
discussions include Jesus talking about different Gnostic deities and angels and
instructing Judas to betray Him so that He could get free from His body and
return to the divine. The gospel
ends with Judas agreeing to Christ’s request and going to the high priests to
betray Him.
Of course, the release of this Gnostic text has made headline news.
The Washington Post declared: "Ancient 'Gospel of Judas' Translation
Sheds New Light on Disciple."
Actually the manuscript has been sitting around for at least 30 years,
but no one has been willing to pay the $3 million asking price until a
Foundation in Switzerland purchased it in 2000.
For 16 years, the document was molding in a safety deposit box in a
Hicksville, N.Y., bank. In 2004
National Geographic agreed to help restore the document.
So now, finally, we have brand new information on the relationship of
Judas and Jesus. Actually this could be the text that Irenaeus of Lyons
referred to in 180 AD, in his document, Against Heresies. He talks about
a group of gnostics and says, “They declare that Judas the traitor was
thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as
no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both
earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious
history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.”
What this “gospel” gives us is nothing about the relation of Jesus
and Judas or the goodness of Judas, but simply more insight into gnosticism,
that doctrine that spawned the Da Vinci Code and Holy Blood, Holy
Grail and holds to secret knowledge that no one else has.
It informs us in how the gnostics were trying to re-shape Christianity in
the second and third centuries. For
example, they were attacking the other gospel writers.
The gospel of Judas is suggesting that you can’t trust Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John, because they didn’t have the secret information that Judas was
given.
The issue becomes very similar to that raised by the Da Vinci Code:
is your Bible trustworthy? Is the
picture you have been given of Christ accurate? Or is He a more sinister,
gnostic-informed wheeler-dealer? The
Gospel of Judas denies that Jesus Christ was God in a human body, denies the
significance of the cross and the reality of the resurrection.
With the latest information now from this new “gospel,” I ask, “did
Christ really rise from that tomb 1975 years ago today, or are we kidding
ourselves?” Have we been
following gospel writers who have misled us, and ignored the important
“gospels” that the church banned back in the 4th century because
they didn’t fit it’s doctrine? How
do we know Christ arose from the dead? Let me mention four parts of the evidence today: (1) Jesus
actually died; (2) Jesus was buried in a well known location; (3) His body
disappeared from that location; and (4) there was the birth of a brand new
faith.
I.
Jesus died.
How do we know that Christ actually died?
This is a very important question because there are people who believe
that He didn’t really die. Some
say that He was knocked unconscious and when He was placed into the tomb the
coolness of the tomb woke Him up and enabled Him to regain strength and come
out. There are some Muslims who
think that Jesus got away and ran to India.
Others think that Jesus went to Egypt.
Others say that there were people who bribed Pilate to get Jesus off the
cross before He died. So how do we
know that He actually died?
His death was under the supervision of “professionals” – the best
executioners in the world, Roman Soldiers.
They were specialists not only in putting people to death, but in making
death as painful as possible.
Roman soldiers hung Him on a cross. What
was the purpose of a cross? Why did
they have crosses? There was only
one purpose – to kill a person. They
saved a cross for the execution of the worst criminals.
Roman soldiers were experts at killing people on a cross.
Even though they weren’t doctors, they knew when someone was dead –
that was their job, to make sure the individual died.
If the prisoner on the cross didn’t die, and somehow escaped, the
soldiers would pay for their error by their own death.
So they quickly became experts. And
they wouldn’t allow anyone down from a cross until they knew he was dead.
Here’s the way John writes the account: 31 Therefore, because it was
the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on
the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their
legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32 Then the
soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified
with Him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they
did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a
spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has
testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth,
so that you may believe. 36 For these things were done that the Scripture should
be fulfilled, "Not one of His bones shall be broken."
When the Roman soldier came to Christ, he realized that Christ had
already died, and he pierced His side with a spear, which brought out blood and
water, showing that Christ died of heart failure.
So did Jesus die on that cross? Someone
says to you, “oh, He just fainted.” Do
you see why you can’t say that? Not
with Roman soldiers in charge. They
knew what they were doing, and they knew that He was dead.
II.
Jesus was buried.
What’s so important about the fact that He was buried?
Some say, “He simply was buried in a tomb which people forgot about and
we have never been able to find the tomb.”
And when His disciples started preaching that He had been raised from the
dead, people didn’t know where to look. Or
people didn’t realize where He was buried and went to the wrong tomb.
So Mary visited a tomb on Easter morning and met the gardener, who was
out early that day and said, “oh no, he’s not here, he must be somewhere
else. Try another tomb.”
Do we know that He WAS buried? Do
we know WHERE?
A. Joseph of Arimathea.
John 19:38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus,
but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the
body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the
body of Jesus. 39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came,
bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took
the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the
custom of the Jews is to bury. 41 Now in the place where He was crucified there
was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42
So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for the
tomb was nearby.
What’s so important about Joseph burying Jesus?
Well, he was a big-name government leader.
In those days there were 70 men who ruled over all of Israel.
And Joseph was one of them. It
would almost be like Dick Cheney, taking the body down from the cross and
placing it in his new tomb. Joseph
had just finished building the tomb, and almost everyone knew Joseph, and would
know where his tomb was.
Joseph assures us that Jesus was buried in a well known place.
B. The Roman soldiers.
What’s so important about them? They
were official guards assigned to the tomb to make sure His body wasn’t
stolen! That was their charge – to protect the body from
disciple body-snatching. Here’s
the account in Matthew 27:62-66: On the next day, which followed the Day of
Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, 63
saying, "Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver
said, 'After three days I will rise.' 64 "Therefore command that the tomb
be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal
Him away, and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead.' So the
last deception will be worse than the first." 65 Pilate said to them,
"You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know
how." 66 So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and
setting the guard.
What did they mean by “setting the guard?”
A Roman guard was not just a couple of Romans lounging around the tomb
with wooden spears wearing mini skirts. A
Roman guard unit was a 4 to 16 man security force.
Normally what they did was this: four men were placed immediately in
front of what they were to protect. The
other 12 were asleep in a semi-circle in front of them with their heads pointing
in. To steal what these guards were
protecting, thieves would first have to walk over those who were asleep.
Every four hours the guard was rotated with another 4 being awakened and
the old 4 going to sleep. They
could rotate this way around the clock (McDowell, 56).
The first and continually repeated theory as to why the tomb became
vacant is the “body-snatching” theory.
This theory was propounded by the Roman guards at the insistence of their
leaders. It says simply, “the disciples stole the body at night while we were
sleeping and then hatched the story that He arose from the dead” (Matt.
28:11-15).
How do we evaluate this Roman guard theory?
Two suggestions that come from their behavior:
1. If the guards were asleep
so that the disciples could come and steal the body then the guards should have
all been executed. There should have been no guards to tell the story.
Why were they telling the story?
2. If they were asleep how
did they know that the disciples had come and stolen the body?
They would not know anything about who came or what happened to the body.
Thus their story is ridiculous. Who
would believe that story? Very few.
But at the same time their other story is very believable – that they
were assigned to make sure that His body was not stolen and it disappeared on
their watch. When they said, “the
disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep” (Matt 28:13),
they acknowledged an important fact – something happened to the body in that
grave. The guards knew and admitted
that they had the body of a dead man in a sealed tomb, and something happened
to that body. They announce
that the grave became vacant on their watch!
III.
Jesus arose from the grave.
Whether or not Jesus arose from the dead is very important. If He
didn’t arise from the dead, then we don’t know whether any of the other
things He said are true. Can He forgive our sins?
Not if He didn’t arise from the dead.
How do we know that He rose from the dead?
There is an empty tomb – and there is no logical explanation for
its emptiness, other than the resurrection. But what about the “disciple-body-snatching” story?
The Roman soldiers admit that the body disappeared on their watch.
Maybe the disciples actually got in and kidnaped the body?
The interesting thing is that the disciples didn’t believe there could
be a resurrection. They were as
surprised as anyone else when they heard the news.
To suggest that they would want to steal the body and make it look like a
resurrection doesn’t fit the facts. They
didn’t believe He was coming back to life even though He had clearly announced
His resurrection to them at least three times.
The women were the first people to come and tell the disciples that
Jesus’ body was not in the tomb. They
couldn’t believe the report of the women.
Peter and John went running to the tomb to see for themselves. And even though they went and told other disciples that the
body was not in the tomb, no one seemed convinced that a resurrection had taken
place.
We get a picture of the disciples’ mentality from an event that took
place Easter Sunday afternoon. Two
disciples were walking to a town named Emmaus.
It was about three or four in the afternoon when a stranger joined them.
When He asked them what they are talking about, they replied,
“haven’t you heard of the things going on in Jerusalem these days?”
Jesus said, “what things?” And
they said, “the things about Jesus the Nazarene Who was condemned to death by
the chief priests and rulers and crucified.
We were hoping that He was going to redeem Israel.
But He has been dead now for three days.
And some of our women have surprised us because they went to the tomb
this morning and they couldn’t find His body.
And they saw a vision of angels who told them that He was alive. And several of our disciple friends went to the tomb and
found it empty, but they didn’t see Him.”
Do you see what they are saying? They
are saying, “His body is not in the tomb, but we are still sad!”
In other words, “we can’t understand why the body is not there.
Where would it have gone?” Why
would they respond to the news of the missing body with sadness?
Because they didn’t believe in the resurrection.
They had absolutely no faith in His prophecy that He would rise from the
dead. What changed their minds?
They invited Jesus to stop at their house for dinner.
And then they asked Him to pray for the food.
When He started praying God opened their eyes and ears and they said,
“wait a minute, we know who you are; You are Jesus!” And He instantly disappeared!
What did they do? All of a
sudden they were different men. They
ran back the seven miles to Jerusalem, pounded on the door behind which the
disciples had locked themselves, and announced that they had actually SEEN
Jesus! And as they told them the
story, all of a sudden, Jesus appeared in their midst.
They were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a ghost,
but He said, “don’t fear, don’t worry, it is Me.
Look at My hands and My feet, pinch me and see that it is really Me.”
Then it says, “they could not believe it, they were so excited” (Luke
24:41). It took the actual presence of Jesus to convince these guys.
How do we know Christ rose from the dead?
Because of the change that took place in His skeptical disciples.
These men were in no way ready to believe in a resurrection.
Even hearing about an empty tomb did not prompt them to believe that He
had been raised from the dead. It
was His physical presence that was too hard to discount and they became
believers.
Add to these disciples, the people of Jerusalem.
They were the ones listening to Peter’s message on day 50 that Jesus
had risen from the dead. They would
be able to find out whether there was a body somewhere.
Jesus died in Jerusalem. He
was buried in Jerusalem. If
Jesus’ body was still in a grave in Jerusalem, you would think that the
disciples would want to go to another town and preach.
If they went to Bethlehem, maybe the people there wouldn’t know where
the body was and they could persuade some people that Jesus had arisen. But the disciples began preaching the resurrection of Jesus
IN JERUSALEM where He had been crucified and buried.
Think of how easy it would have been for these people to interrupt
Peter’s sermon, take a field trip to exhibit “A,” the tomb, and show
everyone the body. Why didn’t the
Jewish leaders do that? They would
have loved to do that. But
they couldn’t. There was no body.
I find it fascinating that NO ONE in Jerusalem even appears to be looking
for Christ’s body. No one seems
to question whether it was lying hidden somewhere.
EVERYONE accepted the disappearance of Christ's body as a FACT!
They knew it was gone; they could easily visit the tomb which was empty.
The silence over the disciples’ claim that Christ had been raised from
the dead was amazing.
Now think about some of the theories that have come up – the disciples
stole the body. Joseph of Arimathea secretly removed the body to a more
suitable place. The Roman
authorities removed the body. The
Jewish authorities removed the body to prevent the possible veneration of the
tomb. The women went to the wrong
grave. The grave was never visited
at all and the story about the resurrection was a made up years later, and was
believed because the location of the tomb had been forgotten (Strobel, 221).
What’s wrong with all these theories is that they assume that a body
was still available. There would be no way for the disciples to preach “He is
risen” if the body was still there. If
anyone had suspected that the body was hidden somewhere, I am sure that the
Roman government and/or the Jewish authorities could have invaded every house
and tomb to find it. But when
disciples said, “Jesus rose from the dead,” no one disagreed.
IV.
There was the birth of a brand new faith
Where in the world did Christianity come from?
You either have to say that it was based on actual fact, or you have to
believe in some awfully cunning disciples.
"Cunning disciples" does not fit the picture we have seen in
the gospels.
But let’s suppose that these guys were a lot smarter than they looked.
Let’s suppose that they actually stole the body, got it away in spite
of the Roman guards by silently rolling away the two ton rock, and carted the
body to someone’s house. Then
what? They would now have to
pretend that He is alive, they would now have to create a new religion based on
the story line that God came to earth and died and rose again, and start
preaching it everywhere, with every disciple in agreement as to the story line,
and everyone willing to face torture and death for their made up religion.
As far as we can tell, not one of the apostles broke ranks and said,
“hey, don’t torture me, this story isn’t true and I’m not giving up my
life for a lie.” Every apostle
died as a martyr for the claim that Jesus arose from the dead.
And perhaps the most spectacular miracle of all, in this scenario, is
that the disciples would have invented all this in 50 days.
All the while they are depressed, discouraged, and dis-believing.
Do you see the problem? The
excuse takes more faith than the truth.
The fact is that all of a sudden, within 50 days, a new message was
preached, that traveled around the world, based on the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ. The disciples, who had all
of their lives worshiped God on the Sabbath, Saturday, now began worshiping on
Sunday. All their lives they had
brought sacrifices of animals, birds, and bread to the Lord.
Now they stop bringing any sacrifices, and started talking about a
once-for-all final sacrifice. They
began preaching, “He is alive, and your sins are forgiven.”
And we are to believe that they invented all this in 50 days?
One of the large contrasts between religion and the Bible is the emphasis
on Jesus’ actions. Religion
normally places a great emphasis on teachers. Confucious
was a great teacher, Mohammad was, Gautama the Buddha.
In contrast, Christianity places a huge emphasis on Christ’s actions.
According to Josh McDowell, most religions have great difficulty with
this – specifically with Christ's death and resurrection.
Hindus, for example, think that truth is truth no matter who speaks it.
Leslie Newbigin records the astonishment of a Rama-Krishna Mission
teacher, who thought it "seemed axiomatic that such vital matters of
religious truth could not be allowed to depend upon the accidents of history [a
man's death and resurrection]. If
the truths which Jesus exemplified and taught are true, then they are true
always and everywhere, whether a person called Jesus ever lived or not"
(quoted from McDowell, The Resurrection Factor, 15)
Think about that statement. “If
the truths which Jesus exemplified and taught are true, then they are true
always and everywhere, whether a person called Jesus ever lived or not.”
That statement shows the radical difference between Christianity and the
world’s religions. That statement
points out the significance of Easter.
Christianity is not based primarily on what Christ taught.
What He taught is extremely important.
But the first sermon that the first apostle ever preached after the
resurrection of Christ said nothing about what Christ taught.
What did it emphasize? The
point of Peter’s message begins in Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, hear these
words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and
signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know –
23 "Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24
"whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not
possible that He should be held by it.” Then
in verse 32 he says, "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all
witnesses.”
What was his message about? It
was an Easter message; “HE IS ALIVE!” Peter repeated the same statement in
his second message in Acts 3:15-16 and again during his third message in 4:10,
and again in 5:28-32.
Notice that Peter didn't say, “let me introduce you to the teachings of
Jesus; I want you to observe how good His doctrine was; He taught us to love one
another; He taught us how to love God and be good, and that has made a
difference.” No.
Peter talked about what He DID. Everything
was based on an event; Christ’s death on a cross as the sacrifice for our sins
is the foundation of Christianity. Sin
had to be paid for, otherwise there was no eternal hope for anyone. Christ’s resurrection stands as the evidence that His death
paid the price for our sins – the Father raised Him, and HE IS ALIVE!
Christianity is based on what Christ did!
WHY? Because what He did was the ultimate verification of what He
taught and who He claimed to be. That’s
why Gerald O-Collins says, “In a profound sense, Christianity without the
resurrection is not simply Christianity without its final chapter.
It is not Christianity at all” (Strobel, 206).
If He is alive, then all those other things He said are true – things
like that He is the only way to the Father (the way, truth, and life), that He
is the provider of life (the bread of life), that He is life’s guide (the
light of the world), that He is the way one enters life (the door of life), that
He is the One who wants to keep and protect us (the Good Shepherd).
All of these statements rise or fall together.
If Christ was incorrect on one issue, that’s enough evidence to
question every issue. And His most
impossible claim was that He was going to rise again.
Do you see why Easter is so important?
And so exciting? This is the
day that brought it all together, that made it all clear, that verified all the
things that God was claiming.
The resurrection is the supreme vindication of Christ’s identity and
teaching. Is He God?
Not if He is still dead. Did
He speak truth? Not if He promised
He would rise from the dead and didn’t.
It all comes down to the question: "IS
CHRIST ALIVE OR IS HE DEAD?" Sometimes
we make things more complicated than they really are, but this matter isn't
complicated at all. If Jesus Christ
is alive, you'd be foolish not to turn to Him and ask Him to be your Savior.
And if He's dead, you'd be foolish to believe on Him.
There's no in-between. It's
all or nothing (from David Feddes, 4).
The truth of the matter is that Jesus Christ is alive today, very
much alive. And He is able to change your life; He is able to give you
new life; He is able to forgive your sins and make you a new creation in Him.
That’s the good news; that’s the gospel.
That’s God’s message to you on this Easter morning.
Have you ever experienced this forgiveness?
Not, have you ever intended to do good?
Have you ever turned over a new leaf and told God you would go to church
more often, and give more money to orphans.
But have you ever received the gift Christ purchased for you through His
death and resurrection? He made
peace for you with the Father, because He paid for every one of your sins.
What a great thing it would be if this was the day when you came to meet
the living Christ as your Savior. You
can, because He has made it all possible. That’s
the reason why He had to die on the cross, to be your Savior from sin. That’s the reason why He had to be resurrected from
Joseph’s tomb, to be your Savior from sin.
And the evidence says that He is alive!
04/16/06,
BBC am