Judges Introduction:

Did Jesus REALLY – physically, bodily, RISE from the dead on the first Easter?   This question is of vital importance and everyone needs a clear answer to it.  So, today, we’re going to have a trial of sorts.  Not a criminal trial to determine whether or not someone is guilty of a crime . . . . but, a trial to determine whether the resurrection of Jesus Christ is fact or fiction.  

To accomplish this trial – I will serve as judge.  There will be the Prosecution who will argue against the resurrection, and the Defense will argue in support of it.  They have both agreed to present the following EVIDENCE that I will read, and they will both, in turn, comment upon it. 

The Defense requested to have some Old Testament passages admitted as evidence, on the grounds that it establishes the identity of this “Jesus of Nazareth”.   The Prosecution does not object, but had requested that the passages be limited to just a few quotations, so that we have time to get to our central question today. 

OPENING ARGUMENTS:

Prosecution

My job is an easy one today!  This whole thing really boils down to one simple FACT: dead people don’t come back to life.  It was established here in this courtroom on Good Friday that Jesus most certainly DIED on that day – the spear through his heart and lungs confirmed it.

Ask any doctor if a brutalized dead body with a hole in the heart and lungs could “magically” come back to life 3 days later!!!  You will get your answer – it’s not possible. 

What we have here is clearly a LEGEND – it’s a story that grew up over time and evolved into the Christian faith. To believe in the resurrection of Jesus is to believe in “fairly tales” and mythology. If being a Christian gives you some measure of hope and peace, then great – but don’t suppose that Jesus actually physically rose from the dead. 

Defense

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury – I simply ask you to keep an open mind, look at the facts, and scrutinize the evidence presented here today. 

1.  Old Testament Evidence:

Judge: The Defense chose some passages that were deemed admissible because they were written many centuries before the time of Jesus. 

Psalm 22:1,7-8,14-18

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from the words of my groaning?

7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

8 “He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him.

Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” 

14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

you lay me in the dust of death.

16 Dogs have surrounded me;

a band of evil men has encircled me,

they have pierced my hands and my feet.

17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.

18 They divide my garments among them

and cast lots for my clothing.

Isaiah 53:3-6

3 He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

Psalm 16:9-11

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest secure,

10 because you will not abandon me to the grave,

nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

11 You have made known to me the path of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand. 

Prosecution:

Christians search the Jewish Hebrew Scriptures for things that could apply to Jesus – it’s merely coincidence.  You could find all sorts of scholars that would tell you confidently: these passages could have been written about anybody, maybe the prophet himself, maybe someone else, maybe they were just mindless ramblings. 

Defense:

Ladies and gentlemen – there are WAY to many ancient prophecies to simply ignore here.  They are very clear, very specific, and very precise.  I implore you to look into it and read them; don’t just brush them off as coincidence.  Biblical Christianity ALONE – among all the religions on earth – has prophetic evidence like this that you can point to.  There are striking details about this “Promised Messiah” throughout the OT scriptures.   The prophets spoke about precisely where and when this miraculous child would be born, what he would do, where he would live, how he would enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the amount his disciple would betray him for, what his death would look like, and that he would then rise from the dead – his body would not decay.  It’s all there in the ancient scriptures and no Christian has edited or changed them, the manuscripts themselves stand as proof of that. 

Let me read a quote for you today.  It’s from a atheist journalist named Lee Strobel.  His wife became a Christian, and he set out to disprove her faith, but became a believer himself.  The ancient prophecies about the Messiah proved to be striking evidence for him about the true identity of Jesus.  In his book “The Case for Christ” he writes: “These Old Testament prophecies created a fingerprint that only the true Messiah could fit.  This gave Israel a way to rule out imposters and validate the credentials of the authentic Messiah.  Against astronomical odds – one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion – Jesus, and only Jesus throughout history, matched this prophetic fingerprint.  This confirms Jesus’ identity to an incredible degree of certainty.” (page 262)

Someone is trying to convince you of “fairy tales” here today, but it’s not me – it’s the Prosecution.  My adversary wants you to believe that it was just a coincidence!  That would be one in a – well, a number with 156 zeroes behind it!   He also wants you to believe that life itself was “just a coincidence”!   What are the chances?  How many zeroes behind that number?  They say inorganic materials, produced from rain falling on rock for zillions of years, just happened to produce LIFE!  What are the chances?  Science can’t begin to explain HOW that happened, or prove that it did happen, let alone – how whatever it was mutated into this incredible world of diverse and complex life, all on its own.  What are the chances? 

Don’t put your faith in myth and fairytales – look at the FACTS / look at the EVIDENCE: Jesus Christ really is the Promised Messiah!  If He is, then He has the power to rise from the dead – for He is both God and Man, as the prophets had said. 

2.  Eye Witness Testimony:

Judge:  Both the Prosecution and the Defense wanted ALL the Gospel accounts presented to you as evidence today:

Matthew 28:1-6

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Mark 16:1-6

1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.

Luke 24:1-8

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” 8 Then they remembered his words.

John 20:1-18

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Prosecution:

I wanted you to hear those resurrection accounts back to back because now you see: they are STUFFED with contradictions!!   You have . . . no angels / 1 angel / 2 angles . . . . no disciples / two disciples / just Mary / then 2 Mary’s / then a bunch of women . . . . a meeting with Jesus / no meeting with Jesus . . . .

This is proof positive: you can’t take anything the Bible says as literal fact.  It’s full of contradictions. 

Defense:

I’m going to disagree with that statement.  In fact, I’ll say this: the variation in the Gospel accounts are themselves additional PROOF of the Bible’s accuracy.  Let me explain: If a detective was trying to establish whether or not a bunch of eyewitnesses were telling the truth to him, he would interview them separately. He would be looking for evidence of collusion – you see, if they got together and invented a story (rather than telling the truth about what happened) there would be one shallow plot line with very little depth to it.  When questioned about what happened, they would all say exactly the same thing.

These Gospel accounts, on the other hand, are proof that the Gospel writers did NOT sit down together, formulate a story, and try to “sell it” to people.  What you have are independent witnesses, in their own words, from their own perspectives, describing the same event. 

There are NO contradictions in these accounts.  No Gospel writer says that Jesus body was still there – stone cold dead.  But, how can they all be accurate with such variety in the details?  Well, a good detective trying to piece together an event like this from written accounts of people who were no longer alive would ask this: can their testimony be harmonized? 

I think it can be – quite easily. 

Imagine a video camera, mounted up high above the tomb where Jesus was place.  Very early in the morning, when it’s still dark, the camera shakes from an earthquake.  That wakes up Mary!  Guess where she goes?  It’s still dark but you can see her come on the scene – “eeep!  The stone is rolled back!”   She then darts back and wakes up Peter and John.  They bolt to the tomb, one goes in, then the other – “hmmm – it’s empty”.  They leave wondering what happened.  Mary is off like a shot to her friend’s house.  The other Mary (and a few other women roused by the frenzy) hurry off to the tomb. Salome has the spices assuming they are going to anoint Jesus’ body.  Someone else is wondering what they are going to do about the stone.  Mary Magdalene doesn’t say a word, she’s out in front and the rest can barely keep up with her, especially poor Salome.  They arrive, guess what – the stone is rolled back, and an angel is sitting on it!  Quite naturally, they assume he’s the one who rolled it back.  They look inside, another angel – he speaks to them, shows them that Jesus isn’t there, tells them that He’s alive.  The other angel comes in too – one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus once lay.  The women all take off in a frenzy back home, but Mary mulls around by the tomb, thinking, wondering, crying.  She bumps into a man, without looking up she assumes he’s the gardener, until she hears, “Mary.”  She’s got her arms wrapped around him and won’t let go.  Then it gets a bit awkward, “Umm, Mary – you’ve got to let go, I’ve got stuff to do here.  Go back to the disciples and tell them . . . . .

These accounts don’t contradict themselves – these people were simply telling the truth.  All the evidence and the details in their testimony points to that fact. 

3.  The Apostle Paul’s Testimony:

Judge: The Defense has requested a section of 1 Corinthians be read as evidence.  Scholars all agree that this was written by the Apostle Paul in the mid 50’s A.D. – perhaps 15-20 years after Jesus allegedly rose from the dead.  The Prosecution didn’t have a problem with it being presented to the jury. 

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Prosecution:

I’m not really sure why the Defense wanted this read as evidence.  Here’s a fact for you: The Apostle Paul was NOT THERE at the empty tomb on Easter.  He did not even believe in Jesus until some time later – perhaps a few years later.  The Apostle Paul can’t serve as a witness for the resurrection of Jesus.   

Defense:

In order to prove that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, I simply need to establish 3 facts:

1.      Jesus is the Promised Messiah and the Christ of God.  The prophecies themselves establish that fact with clarity and authority. 

2.      That He died on Good Friday.  The evidence given on that day has already proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus indeed was dead on Good Friday. 

3.      That He was seen physically alive again after Easter Sunday. 

I wanted this section from 1 Corinthians included as evidence for a couple of reasons: First of all – everyone agrees that this book was written by Paul with a very early date, not long after the resurrection.  And, we all know that Paul used to be known as SAUL – and that persecuted Christians and was present there when the first martyr Stephen was stoned to death.  When he became a believer in Jesus it was only a few years (at most) after Jesus rose from the dead.  Did you catch what Paul said was passed down to him at that time? 

“Christ died, was buried, after 3 days rose, and appeared to a whole bunch of people.”  This proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that faith in the resurrection of Jesus was NOT some legend that sprang up over hundreds of years AFTER Jesus died. 

Christians, right from the beginning, worshipped Jesus as God and preached his resurrection from the dead – all while witnesses to the fact of Jesus’ resurrection were still alive and could be questioned about it.  The legendary books about Jesus sprang up in the 2nd century and later – books like the Gnostic Gospels, and Gospels of Thomas and Judas – they were recognized as garbage by the church right away and dismissed as such.   All the books of the Bible were already written and circulating (and being copied in large number) by the end of the first century A.D. and would be used as the standard Christians used to identify books that were fraudulent and legendary in nature.

What do the books of the New Testament establish for us with a huge amount of evidence and a vast array of eye-witness accounts? 1) Jesus is the Christ, the Promised Messiah.  2) Jesus died on Good Friday; he died for us as the Lamb of God to take away our sins.  3) Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday and is still alive today.   

The evidence is rock-solid and air-tight: Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday – He really did!

CLOSING ARGUMENTS:

Prosecution

FACT: you weren’t there; you haven’t seen this Jesus alive with your own eyes.

FACT: dead people don’t come back to life, as much as you might want to believe that. 

The Prosecution rests. 

Defense

The Prosecution has FAILED to refute any of the evidence presented here today.  Judge based upon the facts, and the evidence presented! If you were to sit here today, and listen to the eye-witness accounts of people who had seen Jesus alive – WITH THEIR OWN EYES – and gave them 15 minutes each to tell their story, without breaking for meals or sleep, you would be sitting here listening to people for 129 straight hours.  Are you going to tell me all those people are lying? 

WHY?  Why would they lie about this?  What did Saul have to gain by betraying everything he worked so hard for – to become a Christian?  Did he get rich?  Did he gain power?   Nope.  Did any of the eyewitnesses who died proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord and risen from the dead GAIN anything from this?  Nope.   They lost everything – because they really believed it.  And, I hope you do too – because it’s true.  Jesus rose from the dead!

The Defense rests. 

Judges Conclusion:

In any courtroom the Judge has to remind the jury of what’s at stake when they render a verdict.  You have someone’s life in your hands here – you will be setting them free, or sending them to prison.  This trial is a bit different; this is about YOUR life. 

If you side with the Prosecution that means you believe the eye-witnesses were all lying. That also means don’t believe a person CAN rise from the dead – which means you believe this life is all you get, and all there is, and you’re on your own. 

If, on the other hand, you believe that the case for the resurrection is solid – please know what THAT means: That is saying that Jesus is God – that He is the only way to heaven and the only Saviour from sin.  His resurrection means that all your sins have indeed been forgiven.  It also means that you are confident about your own resurrection from the dead as well.  It means Jesus paid for all your sins, and won for you eternal life and salvation – and that it’s simply His GIFT to you. 

If you aren’t sure what verdict to render – that’s OK. Keep digging, keep looking, just don’t put this on the “back burner” – it’s too important.  If, on the other hand, you are ready to render a VERDICT – I’m going to ask you to do that now:

If you believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead – then STAND UP, and say so by singing the hymn: I Know that My Redeemer Lives!