More Than a Carpenter

Had another fantastic Lord's day!
In our single's bible study (every Sunday from 9:45-10:50 just before service starts at 11am), we are going through a study on Josh McDowell's Christian classic "More Than a Carpenter". We went through the 6th lesson yesterday which was on The Historical Jesus and Fulfilled Prophecy.
Our dedicated Sunday school teacher, Gleen Creech, always puts together helpful handouts that we go over in class. Here is the study in it's complete form:

MORE THAN A CARPENTER (By Josh McDowell)
LESSON 6: THE HISTORICAL JESUS AND FULFILLED PROPHECY

What will your tombstone say? What do you think the gravestone of Jesus' tomb should say?____________________________________
(Glenn read out a few real tombstone readings. One that I really liked was:
"Here lies an antheist. All dressed up and no place to go.")
Are you the kind of person who easily believes what you hear or do you demand proof?
Do you need proof to actually believe that Jesus was actually raised from the dead?

IS CHRISTIANITY HISTORICALLY VALID?
Is the resurrection issue a matter of philosophy or history?__________
(Obviously the answer is "history"!)
Relevant Facts

• Jesus of Nazareth, Jewish prophet who claimed to be the Christ prophesied in the Jewish Scriptures
• He was arrested, judged a political criminal and crucified.
• Three days after His death and burial, some women and disciples claimed that God raised Him from the dead and that He appeared to them various times before ascending to heaven.
• From this foundation, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire and has continued to exert great influence down through the centuries.

Our question: Did the resurrection actually happen?__________

JESUS' BURIAL

What details do you remember from Scripture that discuss the details about Jesus' burial? ________________________________________

THE EMPTY TOMB

The fact that the tomb was empty was a truth no one denied. Christians believe that Jesus was bodily resurrected by the supernatural power of God. One may think that it is hard to believe this could happen. However, not believing presents even greater difficulties.

• The Roman seal was broken. What was the punishment for breaking such a seal?
• The large stone was moved away from the entrance of the tomb.
• The guard unit had fled. What was the punishment for such action?

So Peter and (John) started for the tomb. Both were running, but (John) outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. (John 20:3-7)

The body of Jesus was wrapped in a linen cloth. About 100 pounds of aromotic spices, mixed together to form a gummy substance, were applied to the wrappings of cloth about the body. (John 19:39-40)

HOW DOES A SCEPTIC EXPLAIN THE EMPTY TOMB?

THE WRONG TOMB OR HALLUCINATIONS?

What does this theory claim? _________________

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. (Matthew 27:59-61)

So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. (Mark 15:46-47)

Joseph took Jesus' body down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. (Luke 23:53-55)

What made it highly unlikely the disciples and the women went to the wrong tomb? ________________________

Does it seem likely that the Jewish authorities (who had asked for the Roman guard to be stationed at the tomb to prevent the body from being stolen) would have been mistaken about the tomb's location? ___________________________

If a wrong tomb were involved, what would the Jewish authorities have done immediately? ______________________________

Another attempt at explanation claims that the appearance of Jesus after the resurrection were illusions or hallucinations.

What are the psychological principles governing the appearances of hallucinations? _____________________________

What was the mental state of the apostles? ________

So, where was the actual body? Why wasn't it produced? _______

SWOON THEORY

What was this theory? ______________

The disciples' sorrow was changed into enthusiasm and they worshipped Him.

THE BODY STOLEN?

What is this theory? ______________

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, "You are to say, "His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep." If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And their story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. (Matthew 28:11-15)

Where were the disciples just after Jesus' death? What was their mood? __________

Did the Jewish or Roman authorities move Christ's body? _______________

Why wasn't Jesus' body recovered, put on a cart, and wheeled through Jerusalem? Would this not have destroyed Christianity? ______________________

IS THERE EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION?

Summarize Thomas' experience when he saw Jesus. (John 20:24-28) ____________________________

What was Thomas' conclusion? ___________

The followers of Jesus said He had risen from the dead. They reported that He appeared to them during a period of forty days, showing Himself to them by many "convincing proofs". (some versions say "infallible proofs".) Paul, the apostle, said that Jesus appeared to more than 500 of His followers at one time, the majority of whom were still alive and could confirm what Paul wrote.

"I believe in the Resurrection, partly because a series of facts are unaccountable without it. The empty tomb was "too notorious" to be denied. (A.M. Ramsey)

"The Resurrection could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned." (Paul Althaus)

"If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable, according to the canons of historical research, to conclude that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter. And no shred of evidence has yet been discovered in literary sources, epigraphy, or archaelogy that would disprove this statement." (Paul L. Maier)

"I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead." (Professor Thomas Arnold, 14 years the headmaster of Rugby, author of a famous three-volume History of Rome and appointed to the chair of modern history at Oxford-well acquainted with the value of evidence in determining historical facts.)

"Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it." (English scholar, Brooke Foss Westcott)

"It was impossible that the apostles could have persisted in affirming the truths they had narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact." (Dr. Simon Greenleaf, one of the greatest legal minds of America who was the famous Royall Professor of Law at Harvard University. Greenleaf concluded that the resurrection of Christ was one of the best supported events in history, according to the laws of legal evidence administered in courts of justice.)

"The only rational explanation for these historical facts is that God raised Jesus in bodily form." (George Eldon Ladd)

"There exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true." (Lord Darling, former Chief Justice of England, after examining the evidence from a judicial perspective.)

As the author concludes:

"Most important of all, the individual believer can experience the power of the risen Christ in his life today. First of all, he can know that his sins are forgiven. Second, he can be assured of eternal life and his own resurrection from the grave. Third, he can be released from a meaningless and empty life and be transformed into a new creature in Jesus Christ."

What is your evaluation and decision? What do you think of the empty tomb?