Evidence for Resurrection of Jesus – Week 1
Prepared and Presented by Matt Arnett, Youth Pastor
Apologetic Spotlight Week 1 – Women First to the Tomb
As Christians, Jesus is the center of our faith. We believe that He lived, died, and rose again. Out of those three things, the most difficult to understand would be his resurrection. The resurrection is vital. C.S. Lewis, a famous author and apologist once said that either Jesus is a liar, he’s a lunatic (mentally unstable), or He is Lord. One way to establish that He is Lord is through the resurrection. In fact, the resurrection so important that Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”
So, if we have so much weight balancing on the fact the Jesus rose from the dead, shouldn’t there be some evidence to support such an extreme claim? I mean, I personally have never seen anyone rise from the dead by their own accord, have you?
What can we examine in the scriptures that help us believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead then? There are actually quite a few things, but there is one that I want to focus on tonight.
Someone might state that the story is made up because the disciples wanted to gain popularity. There are two reasons why this most likely is not true.
Emily, if you had a close friend die, then you went to go visit their grave and they came and greeted you, showing that they are in fact no longer dead, would you go and tell someone about it? How would you feel if when you told other people about it, they didn’t believe you on the sole fact that you were a woman? This thankfully did not happen with the women who saw Jesus, but it would be extremely unlikely that if the disciples were trying to gain popularity, they would have said that the women were the first to the tomb.
- Now ladies I want to make sure you know this is not my personal opinion. This is just a fact regarding the time of Jesus. The reason that it is significant that women were first to the tomb, was women’s testimony meant nothing in the 1st In fact, Josephus who is a 1st century Jewish historian tells us that women’s testimonies were so worthless during this time that they were not allowed to testify in court most of the time. And when they did, there had to be more than one woman testifying and giving the same account of what happened in order for it to be counted as a valid statement. So, if the disciples were looking to get famous, they surely would have said THEY reached the tomb first, rather than the women.
- We see in John chapter 20 that, “… on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
- Scripture tells us that the women were the first to the tomb. The disciples, more than likely, were not doing this for fame because their stories simply would not be credible.