Infallible Proofs

The Easter weekend is upon us. For the Christian, Easter is the time in which believers in Jesus Christ celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. We sing the chorus, “Up from the grave He arose! With a mighty triumph o’er His foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose!” Well, then, let me ask you a question? If He arose from the grave, wouldn’t that mean that He first had to die? Of course it would! Yet, there are people today who believe that He never arose from the grave, nor do they believe that He ever died. However, there are infallible proofs from the Bible that Jesus did both! He died, and He died for our sins, and He arose, He arose to give us the assurance that we too will arise from our grave to live with Him in His Kingdom.

Let me start with the first, and these are just theories that are used to “prove” their points. The first theory is that He didn’t die, He just fainted from his being beaten and losing so much blood. This is ridiculous from the start. First of all, Roman soldiers, who nailed Him to the cross, knew just how to beat a man within an inch of his death. They were experts in this field. The Gospels tell us that Roman soldiers took Jesus, they put a scarlet robe upon Him and mocked him, falling down on their knees and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews”, then they beat him about his face and head, hitting him with their fists, and their hands, and even with a cane. Then some of them pulled out his beard with their hands and spat upon him. And upon His head they took a crown of thorns, sharp thorns, and pushed that crown into his scalp so that the blood ran freely. And if that wasn’t enough, they whipped him with a “cat of nine tails”. This was no ordinary whip, but tied to the ends of each strand of that whip were shards of pottery, glass, and bits of bones and metal that literally ripped into his chest and back and sides as they quickly pulled the whip away from his body, tearing his flesh to shreds, an act that would cause any man to fall to his knees in pain. There was no pretty picture here. He was such a bloody mess that no one could recognize him. Isaiah wrote of Him in Isaiah 53:2, “He had no form or splendor that we should look upon Him, no appearance that we should desire Him.” Let all of this sink into your conscience for a few minutes. It’s no wonder that they grabbed a man from the crowd to carry the cross for Jesus, He was too weak to bear the weight of it! Then to top it all off, they didn’t just tie Him to the cross, they nailed Him to that cross! His feet and His hands were nailed to that wooden cross for your sins and mine! Such love, such compassion, such forgiveness could not have been done by anyone other than the Son of God! We owe Him so much, you and I.

And when they were assured that He had died, two secret believers, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, came to Pilate, the Roman governor, and asked for His body so they could bury Him in a borrowed tomb. You see, He wasn’t going to use it for very long. Three days later He arose from that tomb and lives today to welcome us into His Kingdom of Heaven! Let me give you some infallible proofs of His resurrection. I encourage you to read the Scripture references that accompany each one.

There are twelve instances in the Bible, let me tell you of six. First, He appeared to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had once cast seven demons, John 20:11-18. He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24:13-31. He appeared to the Twelve Apostles in the upper room, John 20:2429. He appeared to over 500 believers right before His ascension into heaven, 1 Corinthians 15:6. He appeared to Stephen at the point of his death, simply because he had been preaching about Jesus, Acts 7:5556. And last of all, He appeared to the Apostle Paul in Acts 9:3-6, as Paul was on his way to persecute believers and throw them into jail. And because of His resurrection, every believer today knows for certain that Jesus is alive!

Read the last few chapters of each Gospel, and there find the infallible proofs of Jesus’ death and His resurrection. And why did He do this? Because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. Have you met Him as your Savior?