THE EMPTY TOMB: REASONS TO BELIEVE

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ----Luke 24:1-3

T HE RESURRECTION of Jesus Christ from a rock sepulchre galvanised the faith of early Christians. The empty tomb and the post-resurrection appearances of the risen Lord were the crowing proof that the master they loved and served was not just another moral teacher

Christ was, as he claimed to be, God in the flesh. This conviction energized the early Church. 'We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard,' the apostles Peter and John testified to the religious authorities, who could not quench the faith of those early believers (Acts 4:20).

We who read the accounts almost 2,000 years later need to remember that Christ's resurrection was not, as the apostle Paul boldly declared 'done in a corner' (Acts 26:26). Just the opposite. The disciples testified in the laboratory of public scrutiny and debate. People in their audiences could refute them at every point, if they were not telling the truth.

To first-century Christians, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the pivotal event in history. Their dramatic encounters with Jesus after his resurrection from the rock tomb were vivid and unforgettable. 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at our hands have touched ----- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

'The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the father and has appeared to us' (1 John 1:1-2). John, an apostle and disciple of Jesus Christ, wrote as an eyewitness to Jesus Christ's resurrection from the Dead (John 20:24-25, 30-31).

Luke, an educated man who wrote a detailed study of the life and times of Jesus, in as almost matter-of-fact was authenticated the report that wet from tiny Judea into the world beyond. 'Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account.... so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught' (Luke 1:3-4).

Paul distilled the essence of the new faith he helped spread across the Roman Empire:

'For what I received I passed on to you as first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures' (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Full Public Scrutiny

The apostles faced the test of informed public opinion, a jury of their contemporaries. Some in their audiences already had Jesus' blood on their hands. The execution of one or two more Galilean fishermen wouldn't make much difference to them.

Yet the disciples radiated unconquerable confidence. Their words pulsated with moral fervour and authority. The good news of the resurrection was big news on the streets of Jerusalem. It was hard-hitting. It was effective. It changed lives. 'Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know,' Peter trumpeted (Acts 2:22). 'God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ' (verse 36).

This bold preaching threw the religious hierarchy completely on the defensive. 'You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood,' they have lamely protested (Acts 5:28). Yet remember, if the disciples had been perpetrating fraud or deceit, their testimony could have been easily overthrown. It wasn't. The willingness to risk all for the truth of the resurrection was convincing testimony from fallible human beings ---- men who had earlier deserted Christ and fled (Matthew 26:56).

That willingness, and the powerful miracles being done in Christ's name, made the gospel compelling.
It rocked Jerusalem.

No wonder Christ's newly regenerated disciples were 'highly regarded by the people' (Acts 5:13).

We should also remember: Other popular movements had come and gone in first-century Judea. Sensational leaders had arisen before Jesus of Nazareth, people the world at large has forgotten (verses 35-39). One of them, Judas, was also a Galilean, who lived not far from where Jesus grew up.

Around 6AD, Judas gathered a following and set himself against the Roman power. His movement failed and he was killed. But no one in the first century claimed this Judas of Galilee was raised from the dead or that he and his followers had many prolonged talks after the resurrection.

Still less did anyone risk life and limb for the Judas movement years afterwards. Yet ordinary human beings risked their all for Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

God in History

The respected British author and theologian, F.F. Bruce, noted: 'The Christian gospel is not primarily a code of ethics or metaphysical system; it is first and foremost good news, and such it was proclaimed by its earliest preachers.... This good news is intimately bound up with the historical order, for it tells how for the world's redemption God entered into history, the eternal came into time, the kingdom of heaven invaded the realm of earth, in the great events of the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Christ' 1.

The disciples were convicted by the empty tomb. They believed in the power of the resurrection. Their testimony was believable because they believed.

What about us? Do we believe?

We should. The same Jesus Christ who walked the dusty trails of Galilee is still alive today, alive and glorified. Jesus intervenes for those of us who turn to him in faith and belief, just as he did for Peter, Andrew, James and John. The tomb could not hold him and the evil powers of this world ---- natural and supernatural ---- could not stamp out the truth of his resurrection.

Necessary Belief

To experience this transforming power ourselves, to 'know Christ and the power of his resurrection' (Philippians 3:10), we will also have to believe in the empty tomb and in the power of the resurrection.

Belief and the work of the Holy Spirit will lead us to repent. Repentance is towards God, an inner act of contrition for being sinful, broken human beings. We are all sinners; we have all broken God's great moral and spiritual law. God provides for our need for forgiveness and helps us deal with our guilt through the atoning death of Christ.

Following repentance, believers in Christ demonstrate their faith in God through the ceremony of baptism. The New Testament teaches that water baptism is an outward symbol of an inward act (Acts 10:45-48). We are not asked to make a commitment to Christ without evidence. The empty tomb stands as stark evidence that out Lord and Saviour is risen from the dead.

Peter, preeminent preacher of the empty tomb, said it best: 'Repent, then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you' (Acts 3:19-20).
The decision is yours.
Will you believe?

Footnote:
¹The New Testament Documents: Are they reliable?, pages 7-8.

FAITH WITH UNDERSTANDING Christians accept the resurrection accounts on faith, but it is a faith sealed by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. And faith is not blind, unintelligent trust. Theology has been defined as 'faith seeking understanding'. Christians worship God with their minds as well as their hearts. The four Gospels record an event hard to explain in the face of the most obvious evidence ---- the existence of the Christian Church. Something unprecedented happened in Jerusalem in the first century. This forces the question: What kind of history do we we see in the Bible? Arthur Glasser calls the Bible 'interpreted history'. He said: 'Its great truths [come] enfleshed in historical events, human experience, and prophetic exposition'1. Hugh Anderson sheds more light: 'We expect the historian to-day to be as scientifically accurate as possible in his reporting facts. By contrast the historians of Israel viewed history as the sphere of God's activity. Their purpose in telling the story of Israel was to confront men with the sovereign authority of a high and holy God, calling upon them to surrender their lives to Him,2. The Gospel writers were concerned with spiritual meaning and eternal life. They give us history plus interpretation. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were preachers before they were historians. Yet the resurrection accounts provide a compelling example of faith meeting understanding. They make sense once the holy spirit enables us to believe. For example: First, there is the almost embarrassing honesty of the resurrection accounts. The doubts of Thomas, Peter and the other apostles are candidly set forth (Mark 16:9-14). The New Testament is hard on its heroes. Who in the early Church could have written such things about prominent Church leaders still alive unless those things were really true? The transformed lives of the apostles are exactly what we would expect if Christ was resurrected (Acts 4:13). Who among the disciples could invent such a story as that of Jesus of Nazareth? Could men who were often chided for their slowness to believe and their lack of spiritual imagination (Matthew 16:5-12) have invented such challenging phrases as: 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me' (John 14:6)? British Bible scholar C.H. Dodd recorded that as a young man he fretted about the time interval between the events mentioned in the Gospels and when those events were written several decades later. He later changed his mind: 'When Mark was writing there must have been many people about who were in their prime under Pontius Pilate, and they must have remembered the stirring and tragic events of that time.... If anyone had tried to put over and entirely imaginary or fictitious account of them, there would have been middle-aged or elderly people would have said... "You are wasting your breath: I remember it as if it were yesterday"' 3. It is still hard to account for the Christian faith's sweep across the Roman Empire without spectacular primary cause. The resurrection was that catalyst. 'One of the compelling proofs of the resurrection is that the crucifixion left the disciples in despair and that, hopeless, they were transformed by their experience of the risen Jesus.... Even more important was the conviction nourished in Christians that by the resurrection Jesus had been vindicated and had been shown to be the Son of God with power' 4. That power, that life, proved invincible. It still is. Footnotes: 1 Kingdom and Mission, pages 16,18. 2 Historians of Israel, Vol. 2, pages 26, 28. 3 Tradition: Old and New, page 41. 4 Keneth Latourette, A History of Christianity, Vol. 1, pages 58-59.