Why Should I Believe in the Resurrection?

What  “Why Can I trust the Resurrection”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, April 20, 2014 (Easter)

Text: I Cor. 1:18-20 // Series: Why, God: Good Questions about Bad Things

Good morning.  My name is Brad Sumner I am part of the teaching and leadership team here at Jericho Ridge. 

Have you ever tried to tell your kids or your friends something from your growing up years and they simply will not believe you?  This winter I was chatting with our son, Jared, and he was commenting on how we got SO MUCH SNOW here in Langley this winter.  Which, while true, is nowhere near what they got in the rest of the country!  So I was telling him that when I was growing up in Northeastern BC, we could get 4-6 feet of snow in a winter.  I even showed him a picture so I could make my point.  And he didn’t even bat an eye as he said to me “yeah, nice work in Photoshop adding that snow in, dad.  Nowhere on the planet gets that much snow!”  (Yeah, cause you’ve visited everyone on the planet, right?)  What do you do when someone doesn’t believe you?  I mean, I even showed the kid photos and I told him my personal experiences.  But he remains a skeptic.

Another conversation got helpfully wrapped up this past summer when we were in London.  My daughter had asked me how they wrote stuff down in the olden days, by which she meant ancient Egypt. I had explained to her that since 4,000 years BC people have been taking the pulp of wetland reeds and pressing and dried them into thin paper-like scrolls known as papyrus.  To which she replied “yeah right – you can’t make paper out of plants, dad.”  But when we were in the British Museum pushing through all the crowds to see the sphinx and mummies and all the stuff from centuries and centuries in the past, she spied a display case.  And in it was a Papyrus Calendar fragment from Ancient Egypt (circa 1250 BC) and after she stared at it for a bit, she said “OK. I believe you.  They did write stuff down in the olden days.”    

The reason I tell these stories is to bring up an intriguing question: how do you go about figuring out if stuff that happened in the past is really true?  What proof might you need in order to be convinced that something actually happened?

This past month here at Jericho Ridge, we have been exploring a group of questions under the heading “WHY, God?” and this morning we are going to ask “Why should I believe in the resurrection?  I mean, how can I possibly trust in a story that a person who lived 2,000 years ago, was killed on a Roman cross and was buried, and reportedly came back to life again three days later?  And even if it is true, why does it matter?” 

Christians claim Jesus bodily resurrection as the central tenant of the faith.  Paul, one of the most prominent leaders in the early Christian movement  says in I Corinthians 15:14 “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless.”  If you want to call yourself a Christian, you are committing yourself intellectually, spiritually and logically to believe in bodily resurrection.  Because Paul goes on to say, if it didn’t happen to Jesus, it’s not going to happen to you or me.  It is all a hoax.  An elaborate ruse.

So establishing the validity of the resurrection is pivotal.  But back to our earlier stories: “how do you go about demonstrating the validity of an event that happened so long ago?  Where could you go for evidence to validate or to disprove an historical event or person?”      

I am going to suggest to you today that history is the same whether you do a “secular” or religious example (whether it is Jesus, Pharaoh, or winter snowfall in the northeastern BC).  When looking into past events you need two primary things:

#1 – Early data – the closer you can get to the source, the better.  This is a critiquethat sometimes gets leveled against the four gospel accounts, all of which contain the resurrection narrative.  That they were written down years later and so some critics dismiss them as non-early data.  We’ll deal with that objection later. The second thing you need / want is

#2 – Eye witness data – people who saw the event or the person first-hand and who are thus reliable witnesses.

This of course gets harder and harder the further you go back.  So you have to establish a method for reliability.  Two months ago, Pastor Keith attended a lunch seminar with noted historian, philosopher and professor Dr. Gary Habermas.  He is a prolific author and his area of scholarly specialty, oddly enough, is doubt.  He has written extensively about all kinds of things but he is noted by both Christian and atheistic historians for his handling of critical scholarship on the bodily resurrection of Jesus.  The historical methodology that he shared was so helpful, I want to share it with you here today because I think it might help not only those of you who are wrestling and struggling to believe that this could be true.  But I believe it will also prove helpful to those who struggle with how to share the good news of the resurrection of Jesus with others around you. 

So here’s the challenge that Habermas laid out: The usual method that people of faith go to in order to establish the historical validity of the resurrection is the reliability approach.  The image here is one of an Umbrella: if my top premise is true, then everything else underneath it is also true.  So most Christians’ arguments for the resurrection go something like this: “The New Testament says it is true, therefore since the New Testament is true, the resurrection is true.”  You see how this is a top-down kind of approach.  If the Bible is true, everything under the umbrella is true.  IF you are careful, the argument works.  But people have to agree with you on a whole bunch of premises in order for this to come together. 

Listen to how I Cor. 1:20-23 describes the objections to the gospel of two main groups of people [read].  I think this accurately describes the challenge in our day and time.  Some people, like the Jews of Paul’s day, are looking for strictly supernatural evidence.  Don’t bother them with facts or history… it just has to be an inspirational metanarrative that calls the best out of us and thus transforms our world.  On the other hand, you have some people like the Greeks of Paul’s day, who are looking for everything to fit into a tidy, manageable petri dish so they can analyze the life out of the whole thing.  But the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus defies those kinds of trite categorizations.  And so when you say “the resurrection is true because the Bible says it is true” you miss both groups and many, many people in our culture today because they don’t share your presuppositional assumptions.  It all sounds like foolish talk and a foreign language to them.    

This is where it becomes helpful to approach the resurrection from a different angle.  To work within the framework of shared historical wisdom and to adequately provide an answer to those who are seeking to determine the validity of the resurrection as a sign.  This approach is called the Minimal Facts approach.  A good analogy for this as opposed to the umbrella is building a wall of bricks one brick at a time.  The premise here is the you only use a fact in your argument in favor of the resurrection IF it is multiply evidenced from numerous angles by numerous historical critical scholars.  This means peer reviewed scholars who actively study in this area.  Not every 18 year old with a blog.  And the fun thing about this approach is that it doesn’t matter where the writer stands – they can be agnostic or liberal…  The question “is this an area that they study extensively. Have they handled the source material, done their homework?

So what does the source material say?  Well, there are approximately 3,500 scholarly sources published from 1975 till today on the topic of the resurrection.  In the New Testament, the resurrection is discussed most prominently in I Cor 15 and so many of the essays and dissertations and books focus here.  And of those, critics intriguingly unanimously agree that I Corinthians as a book is authentic to the first century is written by Paul, who’s historical identity and credentials are independently verifiable.  Tucked away in I Cor 15:3-6, is a timeline that is significant  [read]. 

So how does this text help us? What bricks might it give us to build a case for the resurrection? Well, scholars and historians whether they agree or disagee with Paul’s theology, agree that he is our best source for understanding earliest Christian thinking.  And Paul is clear here in I Cor 15 that the gospel includes deity, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

And Paul says “I believe this to be true” because it was passed on to me.  One criticism that is often leveled of the Gospel accounts is that they are written too late to be of use on the counts we named before: early date and eye witness data.  But here Paul says “I received this info about the resurrection” and I passed it along to you.  So where and from whom?

So what bricks could we build with?  Well, historians agree that Paul came to the city of Corinth in 51 or 52 AD and he writes the book of I Corinthians  at the very latest by 55 AD.  And he includes this description in I Cor. 1 and now in chapter 15 about how he received this material about the resurrection.  In order to connect some dots, we have to go to another one of Paul’s writings.

In one of his other books, Galatians1:18-20, Paul talks about his conversion and he says after I came to be convinced of the truth of the gospel – the deity, life, death and resurrection of Jesus – I went to Jerusalem and spent 15 days with Peter and James.  Where do you get closer in the NT than right here to eye witness accounts?  Paul writes in Gal 1:18-20 “I am writing history.  I checked out the nature of these reports FIRST hand”.  Then in Gal 2, Paul says “14 years later, I went back up to Jerusalem to see if we were all on the same page.  And yup, we were.  Paul’s argument is this: The four most influential leaders in the early Christian movement: Paul, Peter, James and John – all share the same perspective, all share the same eyewitness experiences, the same information.  And they preach it publically and declare it right in the geographical location where the events took place.  If it were untrue, they should expect public and loud push-back from people.  They get this on the theological side, but not on the historical side…  Jesus was seen by over 500 people following his resurrection and Paul is essentially saying “some of them are still here – go ahead.  Ask them.  Ask around – you will find that this is not a fable or inspirational tale – it really happened.”    

Paul says “we had a meeting – I heard it from eye witnesses and I wrote it all down.  Check out my sources.  Go & ask around.  You will find this to be true.”  So when does this meeting happen? Scholars agree that this is 5 years out from the cross and resurrection!  Paul’s own conversion on the road to Damascus is around 2 years after the resurrection, then Paul goes to Arabia for 3 years but he comes to Jerusalem at the very latest in 35 AD!  Bart Erdman, one of the most vocal critics and skeptics says that “we have several NT sources that go back to the 30’s AD.  And that our early sources go back 1 to 2 years from the resurrection.”  It is fascinating to me that critics agree on the accuracy of what Paul is saying here in I Cor. 15!  They don’t dispute the facts.  Paul’s details on the resurrection come quickly and accurately to him within a few years of the event itself.  Those who are still arguing about how late the gospel accounts of the resurrection are missing where the current scholarship is at.  Paul’s assertion that he had this info from eyewitnesses less than 5 years from the resurrection is powerful.  

Let’s put this into perspective for a moment and deal with another figure from slightly earlier in history…  How many of you have heard of Alexander the Great?  Are you familiar with his story?  His accomplishments?  OK.  So he died in 330 BC.  What do you think is the earliest recorded piece of info we have on him?  Guess. The earliest biography of his life is written around 350 years after his death. And the best two, by Adrian and Plutarch, they are written around 425-250 years after his death!     

The fact that we have such succinct records 5 years out from an event from 2,000 years prior is amazing and should give us the greatest of confidence.  But it is not so much the facts or bricks that are in dispute - It’s what you DO with these facts that becomes important.

For Christians, the veracity of the resurrection of Jesus points to one over-riding element: HOPE.  This is what Paul goes on to say in  I Cor 15 – that the resurrection is important because it is a sign of God’s power at work.     

We’ve been asking WHY, God?  What kind of a world is this?  When bad things happen to us, we ask God “why is this happening to me?  What kind of a world is this that you would allow this to happen to me?”  The answer to that question is rooted in the resurrection, and it’s what makes the resurrection the central tenant of the Christian faith. 

What kind of a world is this?  It’s the kind of world where God the Father watched His only Son die.  But it is also a world where God raised Jesus from the dead.  A kind of world where if Jesus is raised from the dead, then you and I have the possibility of mourning as those who have hope.  We can face our own trials and tribulations with a sense not of glib optimism but genuine hope because we know that the Scriptures say “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also

You may still have doubts – but I would challenge you to explore

What is the true nature of my doubt(s)?

Are my objections Factual? Emotional? Volitional? 

Today is you day, friend to lay your doubts and fears aside and to cross the line of faith.  To say yes to God.  You can do that by praying and saying to God (talk with the person you came with or one of our prayer team – we would love to explore and celebrate this new beginning with you!)

You may be in a place of doubt.  But you might already know enough about God to trust Him in the things you don’t know. 

There’s another category of person here today.  You may be a person who has long believed the resurrection.  But you may have worked to communicate to others under umbrella premises that may not be helpful.

How do I think or talk about the resurrection?

Do I assume that people share my premises?

 Why not take some notes or go on Habermas’ site – most of his books are free and are excellent reads.  Why not pass them along to a friend today? 

What strikes me personally is how I can come up to the most amazing and life-transforming event and go. Interesting.  And walk away.  I want to be gripped again not only by the truth of the resurrection but allow the POWER of the gospel that Paul talks about to grip my heart this morning.

What areas of my life need resurrection hope?

“But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (I Cor. 15:57)

Our prayer team would love to pray with and for you.  One of the ways this can be facilitated is in worship in song.  The team is going to come.  Out practice here at JRCC is to create a space where God can speak to you and where you can act on what He is saying.  Perhaps a word of encouragement.  Perhaps a challenge to repent.  Perhaps you and your family are facing significant challenges… take some time this morning to receive resurrection hope and to build your life on solid ground.