Jesus: Dead or ALIVE?

​ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON IN APRIL AD33 JESUS OF NAZARETH DIED ON A ROMAN CROSS OUTSIDE JERUSALEM. HE DIED FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD. 3 DAYS LATER HIS TOMB WAS FOUND EMPTY - HE HAD RISEN FROM THE DEAD JUST AS HE HAD PREDICTED. HE ROSE BECAUSE AS THE SINLESS SON OF GOD HE HAD POWER OVER DEATH.

6 PROOFS OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST

1) Hundreds of people saw Him alive. Eyewitness accounts of Jesus’s resurrection were publicly circulated straight after the crucifixion. Paul states in the Bible that Jesus was seen after He rose by over 500 people “of whom the greater part remain unto this present.” In other words, if you want proof, Paul is saying, “Go and ask them”! 

2) Written history. The New Testament records the eye-witness testimony of John, Peter, Paul and others to Jesus’s resurrection. The reliability of the New Testament is beyond doubt based on the huge quantity of  handwritten BIble manuscripts, their great age and closeness to the events. Historical discoveries like the Dead Sea Scrolls prove the accuracy with which scripture was copied. Discounting the reliability of the New Testament means discounting nearly all secular history! 

3) A Broken Roman Seal on Jesus’s tomb. Rome sealed Jesus’s tomb with an official seal and put soldiers on guard ensuring no one stole the body and made a fake claim of resurrection. To break the seal was a capital offence. The seal was broken through resurrection. The soldiers feebly claimed they slept on duty (another capital offence!). 

4) An Empty Tomb. What evidence would you look for if someone rose from the dead? An empty tomb with the graveclothes left? Precisely! That's what the Bible says. Someone hurriedly stealing the body would have grabbed everything and run but Jesus left the graveclothes in one place and the napkin in a place by itself!

5) No dead body was ever produced. Why didn’t the Romans simply produce the dead body of Jesus and strangle the “resurrection rumour” at birth? They couldn’t; 
He really was alive. Many christians – sceptical at first – went on to die for their faith. If they had stolen the body, their deaths don’t make sense: they wouldn’t have been dying for what they thought to be true, but for what they knew to be false.

6) Millions of living christians From despair to hope…from guilt to peace…from sin to freedom – the power of a risen Saviour, Jesus christ, to transform 
anyone’s life confirms He is alive! He has the power to forgive sins because “He was delivered for our offences and was raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25)

His resurrection guarantees Eternal Life for all who repent and believe on the risen christ but it also guarantees
Eternal punishment for all who reject God’s gift of Eternal Life. If He had power to rise from the dead He has power to raise you to stand before God. 
 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 Where do you stand?