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Orchard Hill Church Strip District Pastor Josiah Leuenberger concludes the Reasonable Faith series teaching from Acts 17. Josiah provides many instances for sound evidence for the resurrection of Christ following Christ's death on the cross.

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Well, good morning. It is good to worship God together this Palm Sunday. My name is Josiah. I serve as our campus leader at Orchard Hill Strip District. Great to meet you if you're new here to Orchard Hill. I used to serve here at our Wexford campus and in January, I made that transition down to the Strip District. Shout out to my people down in the Strip, greetings to folks in Butler as well, those joining in online. A number of people have asked me, "How's ministry going down in the Strip District?" And I want you to know things are going great. I've been to Primanti's, I've been to La Prima, been to Allegheny Coffee, hitting all of those hot spots. Things are going great. And ministry is going well too. I'm so grateful to be able to build some strong relationships. We've just seen some great momentum at the Strip District with folks coming back from COVID, people who are new to the city joining in worship and connecting in community in meaningful ways. I'm so grateful for that. 

And I want you to know I've really seen the value of our multi-site ministry model as well over these past few months. What's really cool is seeing people find and follow Jesus. That's our mission in the Strip District. It might look a little bit different. It might take place in some unique ways, according to that context, same as in Butler County, but it's the same church. We're all together. And I know if you walked into our building in the Strip District, you'd feel like man, I am at home, if you call Orchard Hill your church home. I'm so grateful for your partnership in ministry, your support in your prayers. And I'm excited about all that God has in store for our different campuses of Orchard Hill. 

Well, this weekend, we are wrapping up our Reasonable Faith series. If you've been here over the past several weeks, we've been in Acts chapter 17. And this is an apologetic series looking at some different topics, a reasonable defense of the faith, thinking about how we can provide that sort of coverage as believers, those of us who are followers of Jesus, and explaining what our faith means to us, to those in our world who don't believe. And so today we're wrapping it up, looking at the topic of the resurrection. And when Kurt gave me this one, I was like, yes, this is a guaranteed win. You've got to really try hard to screw up a message on the resurrection. And so, I am excited for today's word, why don't we pray together, and we'll get into it. 

Father, thank you for this opportunity we have to be in your house and look around the room and see others who are seeking truth, who are maybe exploring for the first time what a life of faith in Jesus is all about, and then others of us thinking about how we can really be equipped to serve you. As we look to your word for knowledge of who you are, as we seek equipment, God, for conversations with people we love deeply who may not know you. We pray that this morning you would speak to our minds, that you would educate us from your word. We pray also that you would speak to our hearts, that you would transform us by your spirit present in this place. We ask this together; this is our expectation in Jesus' name. Amen. 

Well, this topic of the resurrection, I would assert is perhaps the most essential of all Christian doctrine. Think about it. What is more essential to the Christian faith than the resurrection of Jesus Christ? You see, the central story of our faith is that into the darkness, a light has come. God sent his own son, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. And he lived on this earth. He walked the same ground as you and I. He was a teacher about who God is and how we can best live in this world. He was an example of God with skin on. Of how God himself would interact if he were in this space, but so much more than a teacher, an example. Jesus Christ, he came to restore our relationship with God by laying down his life on the cross, to pay as our substitute, to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind, that we might be restored to God if we would look to him and believe in what he has accomplished on the cross. 

But perhaps the greatest part of that story is that death could not hold him down. On the third day, Jesus rose again from the dead. He walked out of that tomb, victorious over sin and death. That any one of us who would put our hope in him can share in his resurrection life now and forever from that moment, we first believe. This is the good news of the resurrection, the gospel, the good news. As far as I know, that is the only story globally, universally, and timelessly known as the good news. Now, imagine if Chick-fil-A gave free sandwiches for life or something like that, we could give the title the good news a run for its money, but I don't anticipate that happening anytime soon. This is the good news. 

What would Christianity be without the resurrection? The apostle Paul, he actually answers that question in First Corinthians chapter 15. He says, "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." That's a pretty profound statement about why the resurrection matters. "If Christ hasn't been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." We'd be spinning our wheels spiritually, he says. Essentially, without the resurrection in the Christian tradition, we would be a sect of Judaism. We'd have the teachings of the Old Testament and we'd have this conception that possibly this Messiah, the sent one from God to accomplish the salvation of his people, he might've come in this person, Jesus Christ. And he talked about how he laid down his life to pay an atoning sacrifice, a sacrifice for our sins, that we could be restored to God and he did die that death on a cross. That was pretty much all she wrote. Hopefully, it worked. That's where we'd be. 

That's where we'd be without the resurrection. Thankfully, there is more to the story. Can you see? This is the most foundational belief of the Christian faith. And I know for many of us here who are followers of Jesus, this story, it means everything to us in our lives. But I want us to take a step back for just a moment as we dig into today's teaching and simply recognize that this claim of resurrection from the dead, this is a huge claim. This is not the way things in our world normally work. I don't know about you, but I've never met anyone who was dead and came back to life. This is not the natural order of our physical world. 

How do you think people view the resurrection in our culture today? Here's an interesting statistic. A 2020 state of theology study from Lifeway Research, it polled 3,000 Americans and it revealed that 66% of Americans believe that the biblical accounts of Jesus' physical resurrection are completely accurate. Can you believe that? 66%, two thirds of Americans believe the biblical account of the resurrection is completely accurate. That's pretty optimistic. But here's another statistic from that same study, while 66% of Americans believe the account of the resurrection, 52% say Jesus was a great teacher but he was not God, which is very interesting to me. I don't know about you. I've had some great teachers in my day, but none of them died and came back to life. It seems beyond most great teachers. And so, I'm going to hold off on getting too excited about the state of our spiritual beliefs as a nation for the time being. 

All that to say, there's a lot at stake in our view of the resurrection. If you're here this weekend exploring truth about who God is and what it might mean for you to be someone who's a follower of Jesus yourself, I think that today's message is really going to have a lot for you to consider. And if you're someone who is a follower of Jesus, I hope today you'll find this teaching meaningful and equipping because the resurrection can be an area of belief in our faith that we absolutely beeline towards when someone asks us to give an account for why we believe in Jesus Christ. 

And so today I want to look at three different categories of evidence that I believe gives strong reason for the credibility of Jesus Christ's resurrection as presented in the scriptures. And the first area of evidence is the post resurrection appearances of Jesus in the gospels. These appearances of Jesus after he's died on the cross and now comes back to life. And you may remember the first resurrection appearance of Jesus recorded in the gospels is to two women. It's on Sunday, the morning of his coming back to life, Jesus, he appears outside of his tomb to Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and John that the text affectionately nicknames the other Mary. You see Mary mother of Jesus was taken, Mary Magdalene was taken so James and John's mom, she gets the other Mary. What a wonderful nickname for all of history to remember her by. 

And so, when Mary and the other Mary, they visit Jesus' tomb on the day of his resurrection, they find it empty and they're troubled. An angel appears to them and says, "Don't be afraid." Don't be afraid, remember another story that begins with those words with an angel appearing? Do not be afraid. The story of Jesus' birth tells them, "Don't be afraid. Jesus has risen from the dead and you'll soon see him again." And so, after this conversation with the angel in Matthew chapter 28, verses 8 through 10, the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." 

And so, when we look at this story, I think there is a detail that is so blaringly obvious that we could easily read past it. And that detail is that Jesus is clearly and bodily form here. He is physically appearing to these women in the flesh. And we see this in the other stories of Jesus' appearances following his resurrection. His presence is always recorded as a presence appearing in bodily form. It's not as some cloud in the sky that's in the shape of a man and they hear this voice. It's not in this beam of light that's shining in their eyes as they're just wishing Jesus were there. No, he comes to them physically, flesh and blood. They hear his voice. They touch his body. And so, these women, when they see Jesus, they're overcome with emotion, they run to him. What do they do? They get down and they literally put their hands around his ankles. Jesus, you are really here with us. This is physical evidence of his resurrection. He's really there with them. 

And while we're talking about this story, I want to share something that Bible scholars also point out as a point of evidence in the credibility of the resurrection, is the fact that these two women were the first witnesses to Jesus being alive. This was actually very counterintuitive evidence because in first century Palestine, to provide credible evidence, first of all, it was necessary to have two witnesses. And then second, in that culture, it was necessary for those witnesses to be men. And so, scholars point out, this is evidence in a counterintuitive way for the resurrection, because if Jesus followers were seeking to concoct a scheme that presented him as alive, this would not have been the way to do it in their culture. In their culture, as soon as they said, "Yeah, these two women, they saw him there at the tomb, it was empty and then they touched Jesus' ankles. They really were there with him." People would say, "Are you kidding me? Find some credible witnesses." 

And so, this isn't how it would have been done. But if you think about Jesus, if you think about his values, the things that he portrays in the gospels, the way he values people, for him to appear to these women first, this is just like him because God loves to choose the things that this world discounts or thinks lesser of to make his glory and his greatness known. This is just like Jesus. 

Let's look at another story. This one's from John's gospel. We're in John chapter 20, picking up in verse 19. Another post-resurrection appearance. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked in fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed his hands and his side, the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. And so, what does Jesus do here? This is his apologetic strategy. He says, "You don't believe it's me? Go ahead, touch my hands, touch my side." This is physical apologetics. 

And as we continue in the story, we see the disciple Thomas, he was missing out when this took place and so he came back around. Now, Thomas picking up in verse 24, one of the 12 was not with the disciples when he came so the other disciples told him, "We've seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." And so, what happens a week later, his disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Jesus is willing to accommodate his doubt and he meets it with physical evidence, proving that he was really there with them. He'd really come back to life in bodily form. 

And so, this kind of display, it's significant on a variety of levels. One, objection to Jesus' resurrection is what is known as swoon theory. You thought the word swoon could only be used in reference to teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert but think again. Swoon theory, this is the idea that Jesus didn't really die on the cross, he only appeared to be dead. And then he later came back, he walked out of that grave after recovering from this near-death experience, and then pretended that he had really passed away and then risen from the grave. But let's consider the timeline of the gospel accounts. If Jesus lived through the cross, that would have been Friday night that this took place. That would have been Friday night. If Jesus would have lived through this, he at least would have been pretty beat up from the experience. Jesus had his ankles crossed one over another and then a metal stake driven through them into what was essentially a railroad tie, same with his hands. This was Friday night. 

And then we start reading these accounts of Jesus' resurrection. I don't know how you walk for miles with some of your followers on Sunday after having that kind of Friday night. I certainly don't believe that you'd be inviting your friends to say, "Hey, why don't you touch my open wounds?" This doesn't seem to line up with the timeline of what we see in the gospel stories. I'm no doctor, but I don't know that you recover from that kind of experience with nothing but a swoon. 

Another common objection to the resurrection is that this whole story developed out of wishful thinking on the behalf of Jesus' disciples. And this idea is that they were so overwhelmed with grief when Jesus passed away that they began to fabricate stories to themselves. They had dreams and visions that Jesus was really still there with them because they missed him so much. And maybe Jesus, he somehow overcame death and they imagined him to be there. It was wishful thinking on the behalf of Jesus' disciples to believe in this resurrection story as a way of dealing with their pain. But again, think about these stories that we see from Jesus’ post resurrection. These are so much more than visions. They're so much more than dreams. Jesus he's appearing physically, and he backs it up with evidence. Look at my hands, look at my side. Don't believe me? Go ahead, touch and believe. Put your hands here. He erased any doubts in their minds as to what had taken place. 

And what effect did this have on his followers? It compelled them to take this good news to the world. And that leads us to our second category of evidence, which is the witness of the early church. The witness of the earliest followers of Jesus has been a focal point in any discussion on the credibility of the Christian faith since the very beginning of the church. And we don't have the complete words that the apostle Paul spoke in Acts chapter 17, our focus passage for this series, but we do see in verse 32, that discussion on the resurrection was certainly a part of that conversation when Paul was providing a defense of his faith before the Areopagus. Verse 32, when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." 

You see, their interest was piqued. And the first account of the early church witnessing to the resurrection actually comes from the disciple Peter on the day of Pentecost. And this is a story that takes place in Acts chapter 2. At this moment, it's a few weeks after Jesus' crucifixion and his disciples are gathered there back in Jerusalem where the crucifixion took place. It's the Jewish festival of Weeks. Festival of Weeks, people are gathered from all over that region to celebrate. And what happens is on that day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is poured out on these followers of Jesus in a dramatic way that they would proclaim the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins in languages that these men didn't even know. They're proclaiming the gospel in languages that they didn't even know to make God's glory known to people who had gathered there from all over the region. 

And when this happens, people looking on, they don't know how to take it. Some of them say, "Are these guys drunk?" And Peter's response, I love what he says, "No, they're not drunk. It's only 10:00 am. It's only 10:00 am, how could they be drunk?" Which is evidence that the idea of college football tailgating, not yet being a reality, it wasn't even on the minds of people in first century Palestine. 

What does Peter do? He works them through this explanation of the scriptures, talking about how they all anticipate Jesus Christ's coming and what he'd one day accomplish. Look at Acts chapter 2, verses 22 to 24. "Fellow Israelites," Peter says, "Listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge and you with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him." 

And so, this is a bold message on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that Peter proclaims. And to such an effect that the text tells us that 3,000 people became believers. 3,000 people began following Jesus Christ on that day. 3,000. And I think that's another point of evidence for us of the validity of the resurrection because think about Peter himself. Just weeks ago, this man denied Jesus. He denied even knowing him, let alone being a disciple three times. Here he is a few weeks down the road, back in Jerusalem, that city where Jesus was crucified and now not only is he saying, "Oh, I did know him." He's up here in front of thousands of people proclaiming Jesus Christ's resurrection at the threat of his own life, which Peter would ultimately pay such a price. 

Think about it. How could such a shift like that take place in such a short period of time? How can Peter make such an abrupt shift? Only if he was truly convinced. You see Peter believed that Jesus Christ had died on the cross and overcome death. He'd truly been resurrected. And what did that do? It compelled him to take that good news to the world, whatever the cost. It was worth it to share. 

As we progress through the New Testament, we also have the witness of the apostle Paul. This persecutor of the church turned church planter. Paul attests to the resurrection in his first letter to the Corinthians. He writes this, "Brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. For what I received I passed on to you as a first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he then appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. And then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles and last of all he appeared to me as to one abnormally born." 

And so, Paul's case for the resurrection. He says, "Hey, I've seen him myself," Paul, "I've seen him. Peter has seen him. James has seen him, the rest of the disciples. And if you don't believe us, there are about 500 others who saw him and most of them are still alive so you can go ask them yourselves." That's Paul's statement on the validity of the resurrection. And so, the witness of the early church. Certainly, there are more examples, but those are two significant ones. And this really counters the oldest objection to Jesus' resurrection. And this is one that actually circulated immediately following Jesus' death. You can find it in Matthew chapter 28, verses 12 through 15, if you're interested. And what happened was after Jesus' body was gone from that empty tomb on the day of his resurrection, the guards, and the Roman officials responsible for keeping watch over the tomb, they concocted a lie to cover themselves that Jesus' disciples, his followers, had stolen his body. This is the stolen body theory. 

But let's consider this objection in light of the witness of the early church. If Jesus' disciples had simply stolen his body, wouldn't they stop proclaiming his resurrection when their lives came under threat? What would they have to gain? It just wouldn't make any sense. Some of Jesus' followers, they did not only receive the threat of losing their lives, but they paid that ultimate cost for proclaiming the resurrection. Peter and Paul, both martyred for their faith. Same with Stephen. Why would they take forwarding this message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ so seriously? Why would they take it so far unless they were absolutely convinced? 

And now just one final category of evidence for why it's reasonable to put our hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the testimony of non-Christian scholars to Jesus' life and events related to the resurrection. And what is true of historical scholarship from Jesus' day is that, well, no non-Christian scholars record the resurrection itself as a historical event. Several do report on Jesus' life as a historical reality. And they even share details around his crucifixion and resurrection themselves. 

And perhaps one of the most notable historians is a man named Flavius Josephus. You may have heard of him before. He was a Jewish Roman historian who was born four years after Jesus' crucifixion. He's regarded as one of the most comprehensive sources of Jewish history from that day. And in his writing, Josephus, he attests not only to Jesus Christ life as a historical figure, but as someone who performed many surprising feats and was ultimately crucified. And he even shares how Jesus had many followers who attested to his resurrection. This is even 60 years after he'd passed away. 

Here's a direct quote from his writing Antiquities. "At this time, there was a wise man called Jesus and his conduct was good and he was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders and the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day." 

Here's another scholar saying Jesus was a historical person. He really existed. His followers, they report on his death and resurrection, they're seeking to be people who know him and believe in him to this day. And another historian who reports on Jesus' life, he's a Greek historian, his name is Phlegon. And listen to this. Think about these events, if you've heard any of these before Phlegon reported in the second century, a report shared from generations before him of a day when the sun was darkened, and an earthquake occurred at the same exact time. 

And he lists that these events took place 19 years into the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor at the time of Jesus' death. Can you think of a day when an earthquake occurred, and the sun was darkened simultaneously? This lines up, not just those events, but the timing perfectly of the events recorded in Matthew's gospel in chapter 27. Of the moment when Jesus was crucified on the cross. And so again, while not a direct affirmation of the resurrection itself, this man Phlegon, he does record significant events around Jesus' life and resurrection taking place in history. 

And so there it is the testimony of scholars from Jesus' day, in close proximity to his life, from around who he was and some of those events close to his death and resurrection. And so, I want to ask you, what do you make of all of this? I hope that we can agree, this really is a huge truth claim that Jesus, he died on the cross and came back to life. It's a huge claim, but I hope you've seen as we've looked at this teaching, that as out of this world as this story may be, it's absolutely reasonable to believe it. The evidence is there. It's there in the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ. It's there in the testimony of the early church, the witness of the early church, these men who gave their lives at all costs to forward this good news. And it's backed up by historical scholarship. The evidence is there. 

And so, I want to ask you, what do you make of this evidence? The simple fact of the matter is, as much as belief in the resurrection is reasonable, it's absolutely reasonable, as much as it is, there is not one research study that will ever be able to prove it. There will never be a video on YouTube of Jesus Christ walking out of that grave. There's only one way to take it and that is on faith. And that is exactly how God wants it. Because at the end of the day, the resurrection, what God wants for us is more than just a signed statement that says, "Yes, I believe that it is reasonable. It is logically rational to believe that this event could have possibly taken place in history." God wants more for us than that kind of superficial commitment. 

Jesus Christ, he gave up his life on the cross and he rose again from the dead so that you and I would come to experience his resurrection power in our own lives personally and commit ourselves to being people who would trust him and follow him through life. And let me tell you, far and away, the most compelling evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the change it brings to people like you and I when we put our hope in him and what he has accomplished on our behalf. When we look at the evidence and we say, "God, I choose to trust you, not because I have it all figured out but because I need you. I'm a terrible God over my own life and I believe it's true. I believe that you love me enough that you sent your own son, Jesus Christ into our space, not just to teach, but to accomplish the restoration of me to you. Our relationship, God, you've repaired that through what you've accomplished on the cross. And Jesus Christ has overcome sin and death on my behalf." 

That is what God desires from you and I, that we would put our hope in the resurrection personally. Let's go back to Paul's words in First Corinthians chapter 15. I love what this means for you and me, what he says, he says, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you're still in your sins. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." 

And so, what he's telling us is Jesus Christ, he's broken that cycle of sin and death. He is the first fruits and any one of us who put our hope in him will follow after him and that whole new cycle. We will experience the resurrection life of Jesus Christ in our own lives. And he's not just talking about when we die. In the book of Ephesians Paul writes about how the same power that raised Christ from the grave lives inside of each and every one of us who put our hope in him. And let me tell you, I have seen that to be true in my own life. And I have seen that to be true in so many of your stories. We have a hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the here and now, in wounded relationships. 

Restoration is always possible because God has already restored our greatest relationship, our relationship to him. If he can restore us to God, man, what can't he do in our own human relationships? In our struggles with sin and difficult circumstances, challenges we can't seem to overcome, we always have a hope. We always have a hope to change. The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the grave, it lives within us by the Holy Spirit. And in those moments, when we feel as if our anxieties and fears are finally going to get the best of us, even in those moments when our worst-case scenarios come true, we are never without hope because we have a God who's able to bring life from death. He's able to bring life from death. What can't he do in our lives? We are guaranteed a good future through Jesus Christ because sin and death will not have the final say. 

The resurrection gets the last word because Jesus Christ is the first fruits. Any one of us who trusts him will follow after him into resurrection life. And if you're someone who is here this weekend and you've been exploring truth and you want to talk about what it would mean to follow Jesus in your own life, I know any member of our ministry team would love to speak with you. We'd love to speak with you. I can't wait to celebrate this truth together next weekend on Easter Sunday. 

And so now to close our time out, I want to invite you to join me and reading aloud, the Apostles' Creed. Closing in a different way here in Wexford, all of our campuses online as well. And this is a summary of Christian belief from the early church that followers of Jesus have read together and worship for thousands of years. I want to invite you to stand. You can stand now wherever you are. And I want you to read these words together with me as our closing prayer. And let's not read these words like we're reciting the Pledge of Allegiance on the 180th day of school. Let's read these words as a declaration from our hearts of the God who we trust, whatever we may face in life and in death. Would you join me? 

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. 

That is good news. Go in peace.