by Don Hooton
Followers of Jesus Christ can have absolute confidence that the resurrection of our Savior is fact. Yet much of the world around us rejects the idea of a resurrection.
The only sign that Christ gave to His generation to authenticate His claim to being Messiah was by His resurrection. He said it: ‘Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (c.f. Matthew 16:4, 12:39).
But how did this sign prove it to them?
“Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. When he stooped to look in, he saw only the linen cloths.[b] So he went away, amazed at what had happened.“ (Luke 24:12).
In the days of the apostle Paul, some people proclaimed that there is no resurrection (1Corinthians 15:12). A powerful, Jewish group of religious leaders in his day, the Sadducees, also denied it. Yet, as Paul points out, if this were true, then not only would we have no Savior, we would still be in our sins, and we would have no hope (15:17-18)! When he wrote the church in Corinth, Paul emphasized that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an essential element of the gospel (15:1-4). His death and resurrection are vital to the redemption of all mankind—first for those from Abel to Jesus Christ’s first coming (the patriarchs and prophets) and for believers, and then for the rest of humanity in the age to come. If Christ’s resurrection has been fabricated, preachers of the gospel of Jesus, along with the apostles, are liars (15:15); and there is no real hope for the future. Men and women can continue on with their lives, choosing whatever way seems right.
To counter those who denied the resurrection of Jesus, Paul called upon two forms of witness. First, he presents fulfilled prophecy: the fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (verses 3-4). The details of the prophecies would have been impossible for Jesus’ disciples to fulfill on their own! Second, Paul presents witnesses by names of those people who saw and spent time with the resurrected Jesus (verses 5-8).
There is a long list of people who were his witnesses. These individuals included Peter, who had denied Christ when accused of being one of His followers (Luke 22:61-62); the Twelve, who had all deserted Jesus when He was taken by the guards (Matthew 26:56-57); 500 brethren, many still alive at the time Paul was writing (1 Corinthians 15:6); James the half-brother of Jesus, who had earlier been a skeptic of His messiahship (John 7:3-5); and finally by Paul, whose place in the story as persecutor to proclaimer is significant. He was a zealous Pharisee, well known for his loyalty as a Pharisee and his prosecution of those who would follow Jesus of Nazareth. Prior to his conversion, he was definitely not someone you would expect to support the existence of the resurrected Christ (Acts 8:2-4; 9:1-7)!
Another witness is Luke “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14) who traveled with Paul on several of his journeys. Although he never claims to have seen the risen Lord, he recorded the actions and events in fine detail and in logical order (Luke 1:1-3) from those who had. Sometimes on a journey he was the lone human support for Paul (2 Timothy 4:11). Luke records that Jesus proved He was alive “by many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3). In his Gospel account and the first chapter of Acts, Luke recorded what Jesus did and taught right up to the time of His ascension to heaven (Acts 1:2).
Yet, even in the preaching of those who were witnesses, they anchored their claims in those prophecies that were fulfilled in what transpired so long ago on that first Sunday after the crucifixion of Jesus. Paul knew that the Holy Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament today, was God’s words to Israel. If Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection had been prophesied and fulfilled what God had foretold of Israel’s Messiah, that would have set the seal of approval on Jesus Christ. It would also prove God’s existence and trustworthiness.
Here are some of the quotations in the New Testament and the scriptures they fulfilled. Consider the indiscernible probability that all of these seventeen prophecies could have been fulfilled by chance, or even by Christ’s followers if they were trying to orchestrate these events themselves.
- Matthew 21:5 (John 12:15): “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey’” (Zechariah 9:9).
- Matthew 21:9 (Mark 11:9; Luke 13:35; 19:38; John 12:13): “Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!” Hosanna in the highest!’” (Psalm 118:26).
- Matthew 26:31 (Mark 14:27): “Then Jesus said to them, ‘All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: “I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered”’” (Zechariah 13:7).
- John 13:18: “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me’” (Psalm 41:9).
- Matthew 27:9-10: “Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me’” (Jeremiah 32:6-9; Zechariah 11:12-13).
- Matthew 27:26 (John 19:1): “Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified” (Isaiah 53:5).
- Acts 8:32-33: “The place in the Scripture which he read was this: ‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth’” (Isaiah 53:7-8).
- Matthew 27:35 (John 19:24): “Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: ‘They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots’” (Psalm 22:18).
- Mark 15:28 (Luke 22:37): “So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors’” (Isaiah 53:12).
- Matthew 27:46 (Mark 15:34): “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Psalm 22:1).
- Luke 23:46: “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, “into Your hands I commit My spirit.”’ Having said this, He breathed His last” (Psalm 31:5).
- John 19:33-37: “But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, ‘Not one of His bones shall be broken.’ And again another Scripture says, ‘They shall look on Him whom they pierced’” (Psalm 34:20; Exodus 12:46; Zechariah 12:10).
- Matthew 27:57, 59-60: “Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. … When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed” (Isaiah 53:9).
- Acts 13:35 (Acts 2:25-28): “Therefore He also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption’” (Psalm 16:8-10).
- Matthew 12:40: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Jonah 1:17). (See more about this in the article “Sign of Jonah: Did Jesus Die on Good Friday? Was He Resurrected Easter Sunday?”)
- Hebrews 10:12-14: “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Psalm 110:1; Daniel 9:26-27).
- Galatians 4:4: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Daniel 9:26-27).
But there are other prophetic statements that point us to the Messiah – and the fulfillment that can be attested in Jesus.
The famous 70 weeks about which Daniel prophesied (Daniel 9:24-27) also pinpointed when the fullness of time would come and the Messiah would be made known, counting from the order to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. It also tells us He would be “cut off,” His life ended, for the sins of all mankind. Jesus’ death ended the need for His followers to offer animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin, as His life paid the penalty for all of us (Hebrews 10:4-14).
Further, Psalm 110:1 states that the resurrected Jesus would sit at the Father’s right hand, awaiting the time to return and finally put all enemies under His feet. Then there will be no hiding from or denial of the resurrected Savior and Messiah. It was the centerpiece Scripture of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2) from which he concluded, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (2:36).
With all the eyewitnesses of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His resurrection could not be denied, then or today. The testimony stands. Will you believe?