Many Infallible Proofs • Acts 1:1-3 • Easter

59:03 Teaching begins

Notes

Evidently, for Joe Rogan, it’s a contradiction to be super-smart and believe unbelievable stuff.

I watched a short clip of Candace Owens talking to Joe Rogan. She mentioned a super-smart friend of hers who’s an evangelical Christian, and Joe said, “He’s super-smart, and he’s an evangelical Christian? He believes that a person died and three years, or days later, became alive again? Walked on water, all that stuff?”

People don’t reject Jesus because the resurrection is unbelieveable. They disbelieve because they don’t know and they don’t want to know. There are infallible proofs for the resurrection of Jesus. We’ll look at them today.

I’m reading in Acts chapter one, verses 1-3.

1. Luke says first that after suffering death Jesus presented Himself alive. Before you look at infallible proofs of resurrection, look at infallible proofs that Jesus was dead.

A. The centurion confirmed it with his spear thrust.

1. In the Gospel of John ch.19, the Jews didn’t want to leave the bodies on their crosses through the Sabbath. The other two criminals were still alive so they broke their legs. Then they wouldn’t be able to breath and they died of asphyxiation.

2. But Jesus was already dead, and the centurion proved it with jamming his spear into Jesus’ side. There was no reaction from the body.

B. Joseph of Arimathea confirmed Jesus was dead when he asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Pilate first confirmed that Jesus was dead with the centurion. Joseph and Nicodemus wrapped the body in myrrh, aloes, spices, and a linen burial cloth. That was a dead body that they put into the new tomb.

C. The Jewish leaders confirmed that they believed Jesus was dead when they requested Pilate put a guard on the tomb for three days. They expected the disciples to steal the body and claim that Jesus had risen from the dead.

D. The women proved that Jesus was dead by buying linen and spices to embalm the body of Jesus themselves. They thought it had been a quick burial and nothing had been done to honour Jesus. They didn’t know Joseph and Nicodemus had already done that.

E. His death is confirmed by the military, the government, by people who handled the dead body and buried it, and the tomb guarded against any attempt to disturb it.

F. It’s after Jesus died and was confirmed as being dead, that Jesus presented Himself alive. It is a real resurrection from the dead.

2. The second part of what Luke says is that Jesus presented Himself alive by many infallible proofs.

A. This is the only use of this word for “infallible” in the New Testament. It’s a strong word. It means a fixed sign, certain or sure token, unmistakeable proof. Not liable to mislead, deceive, or disappoint: certain, dependable, reliable, indisputable.

B. One proof of the resurrection is that Jesus’ followers believed it impossible to rise from the dead.

1. None of them remembered what Jesus taught them multiple times, that He would be crucified and in three days He would rise from the dead. Jesus’ enemies did remember, that’s why they asked for the guard for the tomb. But the disciples saw Jesus die, and for them, that was it. Death was as final for them then as it is for us now.

2. When Mary Magdalene and the other women came to the eleven apostles saying Jesus was alive they didn’t believe it. When the apostles did see Jesus alive they told Thomas who hadn’t been there. Thomas didn’t believe it.

3. Rising from the dead was just as impossible for them then as it is now. They could not have made up the resurrection. That’s one proof.

C. The next infallible proof is that people’s lives were changed from not believing in Jesus’ resurrection to believing it.

1. Jesus’ disciples were emotionally devastated. Cleopas spoke for them all when he said, “The chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.” No one was optimistic or hopeful.

2. This demoralisation was radically transformed into joy. Mary was devastated, blubbering because somebody took the body of Jesus. Now she is wild with joy, telling the apostles He’s alive! For a week they tell Thomas, he’s saying, “Why are you guys so happy about something we both know can’t happen? What’s gotten into you?!” Then he sees Jesus and says, “My Lord and my God!”

3. The joy is permanent. The fact of Jesus’ resurrection doesn’t change when opposed with threats, difficulties, imprisonment, mob beatings, or death. There are setbacks, discouragements, things happen hard to understand. But nobody gives up and says it’s all too much, I quit. Jesus is alive from the dead. I can keep going until I die and go to be with Him. Jesus’ resurrection is their resurrection. They now believe in resurrection and do not change ever again.

D. Another infallible proof of the resurrection is that Jesus humbled and rebuked His disciples for not believing Him.

1. In Luke 24 when Cleopas says, “Why are we sad? They killed Jesus!” Jesus responds to Cleopas: “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

2. Mark 16:14 He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. He said to the apostles, “You didn’t believe Me, you didn’t believe the women!”

3. He says to Thomas, “Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.”

4. He asks Peter three times, “Peter, do you love Me?” He humbled Peter right into the dust. “I said you would deny Me three times. You didn’t believe Me.”

5. If you were a disciple of Jesus and telling a lie, that Jesus is alive from the dead, it would be a strange lie, because none of the disciples looks good. Liars always make themselves better than they really are, because if they don’t look good no one will believe them. To be a liar and humble makes no sense. A true witness will tell the truth. All the disciples testify, “We did not believe Him. He humbled us for our unbelief after He rose from the dead.”

E. Another radical proof of the resurrection of Jesus is that He restored His disciples who failed Him.

1. Thomas denied the resurrection for a week. When Jesus appears to Thomas, He humbles him. He is gentle and merciful. He doesn’t yell at him. I would have fired Thomas, and so would you. Jesus didn’t.

2. Jesus restored Peter. That’s mercy from God. No human being thought that incident up. The devil didn’t think that up.

3. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He died to take away all sin, and He did it. He said, “It is finished—paid in full!” Having achieved this goal and risen from the dead, He doesn’t want to lose anyone, or fire anyone. He wants to save His people to the uttermost. Mercy is godlike! And the resurrection shows that Jesus is God!

F. An interesting infallible proof is Luke 24:38-43. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them.

1. Hallucinations happen inside your head and they can’t be shared with other people. They come from disease or hallucinogenic drugs. It looks like the universe is melting, it’s not. It’s all in your head.

2. Jesus appeared to groups of people who could not share the hallucination. The eleven apostles, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul mentions one meeting with all the apostles, and another meeting with over 500 people at one time seeing and hearing Jesus. Some of them Paul knew had died, but most of them still lived. You could go to them and ask them, what was it like? That answer would tally with another person who was there.

3. Jesus knew that Hallucinations can’t eat. Spirits don’t eat, either. Somebody would say, well, it was a spiritual resurrection but not bodily resurrection. Jesus’ disciples weren’t crafty and devious enough to make up that detail. Jesus was raised solid. Now, He enters rooms that are locked for fear of being discovered by Jews. How does He do that? But He was solid.

3. Luke alone gives the detail that Jesus showed Himself for forty days after the resurrection and then the appearances stopped. That’s one of the infallible proofs.

A. Jesus appeared to individuals like Mary, Peter, James, and also to groups of people who couldn’t share hallucinations.

B. These bodily appearances culminate in Jesus’ bodily ascension into heaven. The disciples watch Jesus rise into heaven.

C. Jesus’ appearances stop at that point. From now on Jesus appears in dreams or visions, but not physically.

D. If the appearances of Jesus were hallucinations from unstable or diseased minds you would expect them to continue indefinitely. It might have become a desirable thing, to “see” Jesus. Do you “see” Jesus? Yeah, I think I do! Great, another weirdo.

E. But that’s not what happened historically. Forty days after the resurrection the bodily appearances stop.

F. That’s because Jesus left the earth bodily, and He will return to earth from heaven, bodily. Not “spiritually”or “invisibly”. Acts 1:11 the angels say that Jesus will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into Heaven. He will come to save His people, the Jews, destroy His enemies, and rule and reign on the earth. He left bodily. He’s coming again in the same way.

4.  The crucifixion of Jesus wasn’t the end, as His disciples thought. His rising from the dead is also not the end of the story, it’s really the beginning.

A. Luke says during this forty day period Jesus spoke of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

B. Before His death Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God, and after His resurrection His disciples asked, are You now going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Acts 1:7-8 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

C. Jesus is establishing His kingdom right now.

1. He has established eternal redemption by His death. Everyone in His kingdom is redeemed from their futile way of life inherited from the fathers.

2. Now Jesus rules as Saviour and Lord in those who receive Him. They are born of His Spirit, they are in the world but not of the world, just like Jesus during His time on earth.

3. Just as the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends His redeemed people into the world to make disciples of all the nations.

4. They obey Jesus because the resurrection declares with power that Jesus is the Son of God. He is the Lord.

D. As great as the resurrection is, it’s not the end of the story, it’s really the beginning. It’s the starting point for the kingdom of God. Now it gets interesting because this is a people that belongs to Jesus and cannot be destroyed. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church, just like God’s people, the Jews, cannot be destroyed.

5. So what?

A. The infallible proofs of the resurrection of Jesus are the character of the people who witnessed it, the humbling of those people, and their restoration. It couldn’t be a hallucination. These men do not have the artifice or goals of scammers, trying to look good while they get you to give money.

B. So why do people find it unbelievable?

1. Funny thing is, people believe all kinds of unbelievable things. They believe Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, gender fluidity, and Hamas tells the truth.

2. It’s not because the resurrection is unbelievable. People don’t believe because they are dead in their sins and transgressions. They love the darkness because their deeds are evil. They hate the light because it exposes them. They don’t know God.

C. This is a spiritual conflict, not intellectual. We oppose unbelief in a spiritual way.

1. Faith comes from hearing, hearing by the word of God. It doesn’t matter that it’s “not believable”. Nobody believes Scripture, it seems, but then, somehow, they become believers. The word of God convicts people of the truth. So we tell people what the Bible says.

2. The Holy Spirit also convicts men of the truth. John 16:8-11 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. He is with us to help us.

3. Pray. That’s what the apostles did. They said, we will give ourselves to prayer and the word of God. We  give out what the Bible says, and pray for the Holy Spirit to do His work.

D. The wrong thing to do is lose confidence in Jesus because you’re scared of what people think. Jesus was amazed at unbelief but He didn’t let what people thought get to Him. He knows who He is.

E. You, keep listening to the word and to the Holy Spirit.These infallible proofs will not fail you.

Let’s pray.