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ILLUS – Former atheist, now defender of the Christian faith, Josh McDowell, was once asked by a student from the University of Uruguay, “Why can’t you refute Christianity?”

1. It has been rightly said that Christianity stands or falls on whether Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead.
2. The Apostle Paul did as well when he wrote…

1 Corinthians 15:14, … if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and so is your faith.

3. But how can we be certain that Jesus Christ was truly raised from the dead since His death took place almost 2,000 years ago?
4. We are going to study the post-resurrection appearance accounts of Jesus Christ and discover life-changing answers to this question, answers which confirm Jesus is Alive.

John 20:1-18

Context
1. Ever since the first Sunday after Jesus was crucified and buried, “Conspiracy Theories” have been concocted to argue against the most important event in human history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
2. But before we can be certain that Jesus Christ was truly raised from the dead, we must answer another important question, “How do we know the Gospel accounts are reliable?”
3. Scholars have developed a standard for determining authenticity, standards similar to what detectives use to determine if a witness is credible.
a. Early Testimony – How soon after the event in question was the eyewitness testimony recorded?
o Less time equals greater credibility.
o Scholars agree that it takes at least 120 years for myths or distortions about a person or an event to develop and spread.
o After 120-years, eyewitnesses or those who knew the eyewitnesses are no longer alive and able to answer questions or refute challenges to the person or event in question.
o The Gospels were written between 15-30 years after Christ’s resurrection.
o This increases the credibility of the Gospels because not enough time had elapsed for a myth to develop.
b. Eyewitness Testimony – Eyewitness testimony is stronger than second-hand testimony. When more than one independent eyewitness testifies about an event, there is strong support that the event occurred.
c. Embarrassing Details – Details which may embarrass an eyewitness or potentially weaken one’s argument increases credibility because people typically try to make themselves “look good.”

ILLUS – Social media
d. Unsympathetic Sources – If testimony affirming an event is given by a source who does not sympathize with the person, message, or cause, then authenticity increases. Why? Typically, people are biased against their enemies, not for their enemies.

I. Eyewitnesses Confirmed Jesus is Alive

A. Jesus’ first two appearances were to women
1. John states that, “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.” (1-2)
2. Matthew 28 states that there was “a severe earthquake” because “an angel of the Lord had descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone” from Jesus’ tomb. (2)

NOTE – Why did the angel roll away the stone?
• The angel did not roll away the stone to let Jesus out.
• Jesus had already been raised from the dead.
• The angel rolled away the stone to let people enter the tomb to see it was empty because Jesus is alive.

3. Mary Magdalene and some of the other women who followed Jesus visited His tomb to prepare His body for burial. (Matthew 28:1)
4. Mark’s Gospel records that they were saying to each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:3)

5. But when they arrived, they discovered something significant had happened.
a. The soldiers had fainted, overcome by fear when the angels appeared.
b. The stone had been rolled away.
c. And the tomb was empty.


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