He also appeared twelve different times to well over five hundred witnesses after He rose from the dead. He appeared to Mary Magdalene (john 20:14), the women returning from the tomb (matthew 28:9-10), Peter (luke 24:34), the Emmaus disciples (luke 24:13-33), the apostles (john 20:26-29), James (1 corinthians 15:7), and to the group of 500 believers on a Galilean mountain (1 corinthians 15:6) just to name a few.
What Does It All Mean?
The resurrection is a historical fact, verifiable in the same manner and by the same means that we verify any other historical fact. There's as much substantiated evidence and history and confirmation that Jesus is all He said He was, did all He said He did, and rose from the dead, as there is of any man who was president a hundred years ago.
The implications of this history are threefold.
One, it validates Jesus' claim; "I am the way, the truth and the life" (john 14:6).
Second, it gives absolute hope for the future in that we have freedom here on earth (romans 6:7-8).
Third, Jesus died, He rose again, He is at the right hand of the Father and He has prepared a place for every single person who would look at the evidence and, by faith, receive the gift of eternal life (john 3:16).
john 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world," that means you, "that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."
God is not down on people. He didn't send Jesus to point out what a sinner everybody is and just leave it at that.
He sent Jesus to forgive.
Recommended Reading:
The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel
The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell
Jesus Among Other Gods, Ravi Zacharias
Letters From a Skeptic, Gregory A. Boyd
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
More Than a Carpenter, Josh McDowell
The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
Excerpted from Why I Believe, a booklet by Chip Ingram; based on the series Why I Believe.
Used with permission. Copyright by Chip Ingram. All rights reserved.
About the author: Chip Ingram is President of Walk Thru the Bible in Atlanta, GA, and Teaching Pastor of Living on the Edge, a national radio ministry.
