Billy Graham tells of a conversation with Konrad Adenauer, when he was the Chancellor of West Germany. While Dr. Graham was preaching in Germany, Dr. Adenauer invited him to his office. Coffee was served, but before Billy had taken the first sip, he was asked: “Young man, do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?”

“I most certainly do,” he replied.

“So do I,” said Dr. Adenauer. “If Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, there is not one glimmer of hope for the human race. When I leave office, I’m going to spend the rest of my life studying and writing about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the most important event in human history.”

But is there a good reason to believe in the resurrection? Is it an historical event or was it simply a legend invented by the early Christians?

Three important points emerge from the New Testament accounts of the resur­rection: first, the tomb was empty; second, Christ appeared afterwards to his follow­ers; third, the disciples were transformed. Let us consider these points in turn.

The tomb was empty: Some claim that the empty tomb can be explained naturally. The body of Jesus may have been removed by human hands, or he may have swooned on the cross and revived in the tomb, or the women visited the wrong grave and finding it empty concluded that he had risen. These theories cannot be taken seriously.

Jesus appeared to his followers: These appearances are reported in the gospels, Acts 1:1-9 and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. The first five occurred on the day of the resurrection, and the others over a period of 40 days.

The witness of 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 is of particular significance because it not only predates the gospels and Acts but 1 Corinthians itself. This epistle was written by Paul about AD 54, but the resurrection passage it enshrines was composed much earlier. It may have been part of a creed taught to new converts, and came into exis­tence in the early years of the church, long before the first New Testament book was written. It is the earliest evidence of the res­urrection.

In Deuteronomy 19:15 it is stated that “a matter must be established by the testi­mony of two or three witnesses”. But according to this early document, Jesus was seen by “more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time” (1 Cor. 15:6). When Paul wrote these words most of these “brothers” were still living, and could be questioned. The united testimony of such a large number of eye-witnesses is compelling evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.

The disciples were transformed: After Jesus was arrested Peter denied him, and, apart from John, the others deserted him. None of them witnessed the burial, and when they assembled in Jerusalem, they met behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. Even when they heard that the tomb was empty, they refused to believe that Jesus had risen.

Yet, a few days later they were con­vinced that Jesus was alive, and joyfully proclaimed his victory over death.

What did the disciples gain when they gained this message? Popularity? Fame? Financial reward? No, instead, they experi­enced opposition, persecution, even death. Why, then, the radical change in their out­look? There is only one satisfactory expla­nation: they had actually seen, heard and in some cases touched the risen Christ.

The disciples were painfully aware of the fact of their Master’s death. Only another fact could make them believe that he was alive. That fact was his resurrection.

The evidence for the resurrection does not finish there.

The existence of the church: When Jesus was arrested, most of the disciples fled in terror. If he had not risen they probably would have regarded him as a great prophet, and a martyr for the truth that he proclaimed, but certainly not as the Messiah. In their despondency, his follow­ers would have returned to their homes and gone back to their former occupations. And there would have been no church!

But something unexpected occurred. The scattered group of disciples came together, not in the spirit of dejection, but with unquenchable joy because they knew he was alive. In the very city where he had been crucified and buried a few weeks ear­lier, they now declared that he had risen from the dead. Not even strong persecu­tion could dampen their enthusiasm or silence their preaching, and in one genera­tion the movement had spread rapidly.

The church was founded on the empty tomb. But if that tomb had contained the decaying remains of Jesus Christ, the church would not have come into exis­tence.

The appearance of the New Testament: If Jesus had not risen, it is possible that one of the disciples would have written his biography and preserved some of his say­ings. However, we can be certain that the outcome would have been very different from the account of Jesus in the New Testament.

If there had been no resurrection, memo­ries of Jesus, which had been stored in the minds of the disciples, would have gradu­ally faded, and he would have been virtually unknown to later generations. The fact that the authors of the books of the New Testament wrote about him with such sus­tained enthusiasm, and referred so fre­quently to his resurrection, is convincing evidence that he rose from the dead.

James Denney’s conclusion is decisive:

The existence of the Christian Church, the existence of the New Testament: these incomparable phenomena in human history are left without adequate or convinc­ing explanation if the resurrection of Jesus be denied.

Sunday worship: For centuries Jews observed the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week as their day of rest and worship. But the early Christians began to meet on the first day of the week for their distinc­tive worship, and the process continued to such an extent that, eventually, in Christian circles, Sunday completely superseded Saturday.

There are indications of this practice in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 16:2 Paul gave the following instructions to the church regarding the collection for the poor of Jerusalem: “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”

Also, we are told in Acts 20:7 that Paul, his companions and their fellow Christians at Troas met together for the breaking of bread “on the first day of the week”. Christians did not speak of their day of worship as “the Sabbath” but “the Lord’s day” (Rev. 1:10).

Since Jews were tenaciously, even fanatically, attached to the Sabbath, and since the early church consisted almost entirely of Jews, only an event of extraordinary signif­icance would have disposed them to change the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. This event had occurred. Jesus Christ had risen on the first day of the week, and each Sunday was a joyful cele­bration of his victory over death.

The conversion of detractors: When people who are strongly opposed to certain opinions suddenly embrace them with enthusiasm we may infer that they have received new and convincing information which has drastically altered their views. In the New Testament we read of a number of men who “at first” were opposed to Jesus Christ, but later acknowledged him as their Messiah.

James, the brother of Jesus, and other members of his family originally were unsympathetic toward his activities. On one occasion, when Jesus was addressing a large crowd, they remarked “he is out of his mind” (Mk. 3:21), and John reported that his own brothers did not believe in him (7:5). But James later acknowledged Jesus as his Lord (James 1:1). He became a “pil­lar” of the church at Jerusalem (Gal. 2:9) and eventually its leader.

Why was this man, so critical of Jesus during his ministry, later found in the inner circle of the Christians? According to 1 Corinthians 15:7, Jesus appeared to James after his resurrection, and this revelation so changed his outlook that he became the willing slave of his brother.

If James had been unsympathetic towards the activities of his brother, Paul was actively hostile to his cause and bitterly persecuted the church. But Paul was arrested by the risen Christ, who appeared to him near Damascus. He then realised that the one whom he regarded as an impostor was the long awaited Messiah, and he committed himself totally to his ser­vice.

It would have been quite incredible for Paul to have acknowledged the lordship of Christ, and to have identified himself with the despised and persecuted Christians unless he was completely convinced that Jesus was alive. He had spoken with num­bers who had seen the risen Christ (1 Cor. 15:3-7) and had observed the power of his resurrection operating in their lives.

A considerable number of the early con­verts to the Christian faith were priests in Jerusalem (Acts 6-7). They were members of a party fiercely opposed to Jesus Christ, and certainly not likely to believe in his res­urrection. It is incredible that these priests would have accepted Jesus as their Messiah, unless they were fully persuaded that the evidence for his resurrection was valid.

The belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ: When Peter confessed at Caesarea Philippi “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt. 16:16) he also spoke for the disciples. But their hopes and dreams were shattered when Jesus was crucified.

The disciples reasoned that if Jesus had been the Messiah, surely God would have intervened and delivered him from an agonizing and shameful death. But there had been no intervention, so, reluctantly, they had accepted that Jesus was no different from other so-called messi­ahs of that period. They had made spec­tacular promises and gathered a group of people around them, but they had been killed and their followers were scattered (Acts 5:34-37).

But in the New Testament, Jesus Christ, far from being regarded as a failure, is wor­shipped and adored as a divine Person. The early creed “Jesus is Lord”, which appears in the epistles (Rom. 10:9, 1 Cor. 12:3, Phil. 2:11) draws attention to his divinity. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, “Lord” was chosen to translate the divine name “Jehovah”. Lord therefore meant much more than the exaltation of Jesus above the status of men: it combined his name with that of God.

Why was this so? Why was Jesus who died the death of a criminal later wor­shipped as divine? Why did Jews, strict monotheists, conjoin his name with that of God? The answer is given in Romans 1:4: “Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” This was the unique event that caused his disciples to worship him as their Lord and God.

The empty tomb, the frequent appear­ances of the risen Christ, and the transfor­mation of the lives of his disciples, all wit­ness to the certainty of the resurrection.

Moreover, without the resurrection, the emergence and continuance of the church, the production of the New Testament, Sunday worship, the conversion of detrac­tors, and the belief that Jesus is divine are all utterly inexplicable.

From the total evidence we are able to argue cogently that, on the third day after his crucifixion, Jesus Christ rose from the grave.