After three years of public ministry, the small but growing movement led by Jesus of Nazareth came to a screeching halt. Just a week earlier, he had been heralded by crowds, with palm leaves laid at his feet as he was paraded through the streets of Jerusalem riding the colt of a donkey. The crowd shouted, “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Now, this same man, Jesus of Nazareth, lay dead in a rich man’s tomb. Evil men had falsely accused him, whipping the same crowds into a frenzy that demanded his execution by Roman officials. Little did they know, while it was the wickedness of men that delivered him to the cross, all of this was done in accordance with the people’s own sacred texts. To those closest to him, the promise of the coming kingdom of God had died with him. But then Sunday came.
What those same grieving followers experienced on that Sunday and over the next 40 days would set their hearts ablaze and completely revolutionize the world as they knew it. The physician Luke, who records for his friend Theophilus his carefully researched gospel account, tells us about that morning. On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. As they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened.
After this, two disciples, one named Cleopas and the other whose name is unknown to us, encountered the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus. The two men immediately went to find the eleven in Jerusalem to report how they had encountered the living Christ. Luke continues: As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 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. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
In this, our very first episode of the Men of the King podcast, we speak with Chad McMath about the evidence surrounding the resurrection of Christ and the implications for us as believers and followers of Christ. Chad is a Senior Pastor and Elder at our church here in Salol, Emanuel Baptist Church, and did his doctoral thesis at Oklahoma Baptist University on the resurrection of Jesus. Welcome to the Men of the King podcast. I’m your host, Daryn Crawford.
Daryn: All right, we are here with my pastor, Pastor Chad McMath. He’s going to be talking about the evidences and implications of the Resurrection. We kind of live in a materialistic society where people believe everything we see in the material world is all there is. So, when you talk about something like the Resurrection, it’s not ordinary. Skeptics might say, “Well, this happened almost 2,000 years ago. How do we know? How can we be assured of the Resurrection?” We don’t want to just follow this in blind faith, although there is something to the supernatural revelation of the scriptures and the Holy Spirit in Christ. But what are some of the logical evidences of the Resurrection that we can look back to and have assurance that this was a historical event that actually happened?
Pastor Chad: First of all, there’s a big worldview issue. If you believe in God, then it’s possible that someone can rise from the dead. But if you don’t believe in God or the supernatural, then you’re going to have a much harder time being convinced that Jesus was raised from the dead. A broader apologetic would begin with giving reasons to believe in God and the supernatural, but we can’t do that today. Just when it comes to the question of how can we know that Jesus rose from the dead, as a pastor, I’m primarily speaking to Christians. There is a sense in which someone can know that Jesus rose from the dead without being an apologist or historian. You can have a kind of spiritual certainty that Jesus has changed your life, the Holy Spirit has revealed these things to you. Even in the case of someone who doesn’t know all the historical arguments, there is evidence within the scripture. They read it and are convinced by what they see.
But you can go a step further and do some historical investigation to come to a greater intellectual certainty. I think that’s a huge faith builder for Christians. It helps you to move from not just knowing but showing that Jesus rose from the dead. That can help any believer share with a skeptic that there is in fact hard evidence. And you’re not the only one who’s done this. There have been people throughout the ages who sought out to disprove Christianity and went to this key moment. C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel—numerous guys have tried to disprove it.
The historical defense of the Resurrection involves looking at the scriptures. Some might say you can’t use the Bible because we’re trying to see if the Bible is true, but the best historical documents we have related to the Resurrection are in the New Testament. It would be ridiculous not to use the New Testament. What you can do when you’re doing a historical investigation is look at them as historical documents. You and I believe that the New Testament is the inspired, infallible Word of God, but when we’re doing apologetics, we’re giving reasons why. We can look at the Bible just as a historical document. Plenty of scholars, biblical scholars, and historians who are not Christians affirm basic facts that, when pieced together, give a really strong defense of the Resurrection.
I’ll give you some of those examples. You’ve probably heard people say the Resurrection is just a legend that developed over time. That’s one skeptical response people give, but that doesn’t stand under scrutiny. For example, in 1 Corinthians 15, we see an early Christian creed with certain markers that make it clear. Scholars of all stripes agree that this dates way back. First Corinthians was written around the year 50, about 20 years after Jesus’s time. Some internet atheists say the Gospels weren’t written until 50, 70, 80, or 90 AD, which is at least 40-50 years after the supposed Resurrection, claiming it developed over time. But 1 Corinthians already backs us up to the year 50, just 20 years after Jesus’s time.
Daryn: This is a paper version of the Bible, right?
Pastor Chad: Yes, I’m kind of a snob about that. I prefer a paper Bible.
Daryn: I’m more of an iPad Bible person. The battery never dies on the paper one, though.
Pastor Chad: Here’s how 1 Corinthians 15 begins: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
There’s some debate on when this creed ends, but everybody agrees this is a creed that Paul received much earlier than his writing of 1 Corinthians. He says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.” This is a formulaic thing. Non-believing scholars will acknowledge that if we look at Paul’s other letters, for example, in Galatians, he talks about how three years after his conversion, he went to Jerusalem and talked with Cephas and James. There are lots of clues that point us back to that time. There’s broad consensus that this creed dates all the way back to just within a few years of Jesus’s crucifixion and Resurrection.
A lot of times people talk about the Bible being like a telephone game, but it isn’t. The oral tradition within this culture was much stronger than ours. Everything for us is written down. These oral traditions and creeds were carefully recited because it was part of the Jewish culture of the Old Testament and going into the new.
If you study this creed, you can see there’s a cadence to it, parallelism that makes it easy to remember and recite. There are even clues that this was originally in Aramaic. This creed was clearly passed along by the apostles and is now preserved for us in 1 Corinthians. This gives us an account of Jesus’s resurrection and these appearances right on top of the event. This isn’t 40, 50, 60 years later; this is within a couple of years.
We see the appearances here, and when we look throughout the New Testament, it’s clear the apostles claimed to have seen the risen Jesus. Not only did they claim it, but they sincerely believed it, and they were willing to die for it. That’s one of the key evidences. I’m drawing on what’s called the minimal facts approach, which Gary Habermas and Michael Licona have worked on. They take these minimal facts that pretty much all scholars agree upon, scholars of every stripe—atheist, Christian, and everything in between. They build a case from that.
One of these minimal facts is that the disciples sincerely believed Jesus appeared to them. People will say, “Oh, maybe it was a hallucination, or maybe Jesus didn’t really die.” There’s even the Swoon Theory or the twin brother theory. But when you analyze these, especially considering the empty tomb, they just don’t hold up. Some might say it’s easier to believe Jesus didn’t really die than to believe in a resurrection, but that comes back to worldview. If you don’t believe in God and the supernatural, then anything is more possible than the Resurrection.
You also have to consider the context. If this guy Ted from off the street died and people said they saw him come back to life, would you believe it? Ted didn’t have a ministry of miracles, didn’t claim to be the Messiah, and didn’t fulfill 300 Old Testament prophecies. Here in 1 Corinthians 15, we see names listed, and Paul says there were 500 people Jesus appeared to at one time. Paul is writing this to his contemporaries, a couple of decades later, but it would be like me saying, “Hey, 20 years ago a UFO landed in Salem. If you don’t believe me, there are 500 others, and most of them are still alive—you can go ask them.” That would be a really stupid thing for me to do because people could check.
Daryn: Siri’s chiming in here. She’s not sure about that.
Pastor Chad: At the very least, it was a bold thing for Paul to say. It shows there’s credence to it. One thing that has stood out to me recently is the number of days Jesus hung around after the Resurrection—40 days. That’s over a month, a long time. He wasn’t a one-and-done thing.
As far as hallucinations go, you don’t have group hallucinations. There are some who have claimed that, but that’s a whole other thing we could get into. It just doesn’t make sense because a hallucination is something you have in your own mind. The brilliance of the appearances is significant.
Daryn: I was thinking about this the other day—Paul may not have been a full contemporary of Christ, but he was around. He was a Pharisee, and in the Gospels, the Pharisees were the enemies. Here you have an enemy converted, becoming one of your main guys, and he dies for it. That’s significant.
Pastor Chad: That’s one of the minimal facts as well, not only Paul but also James. These were two very unlikely people. James was the brother of Jesus, and we read in John’s Gospel that Jesus’s own brothers didn’t believe in him. James is listed among them. As a kid, I remember reading that and thinking, “Oh, that’s kind of embarrassing.” It could make a person question if Jesus was really doing all these miracles. But here’s the point: this is called the criterion of embarrassment.
The fact that it’s embarrassing lends to its credibility. Why would they put this embarrassing thing that Jesus’s brothers didn’t believe in him? James was one of those, and then suddenly, in Acts 15, we see in the Jerusalem Council that James is a leader of the Jerusalem church. He writes the book of James. What in the world happened? We’re told right here in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus appeared to James, and the Resurrection made all the difference.
With James and Cephas (Peter) and all these others listed, this was within that 40-day period. For Paul, he says, “As one untimely born, he also appeared to me,” because that was later on the road to Damascus. It was a different kind of experience that Paul had, but still, it was an experience that turned him around from someone who was persecuting Christians, very high in Jewish life, and he traded it all for persecution and all the difficulties he faced as a Christian.
Paul was still close to Jesus. First Corinthians dates to around 50, and you consider that Jesus dies around 30, 35. So, 20 years later, First Corinthians is written. Paul’s conversion is put around 35. He visits Cephas and James three years later, so it might be that the three years later is around 35. In the mid-30s was his conversion, and then he would have gone and visited with Cephas and James and probably received this creed.
You’ve got those unlikely conversions. You have this group of people who sincerely believe the risen Jesus appeared to them. The empty tomb, when paired with their belief that Jesus rose from the dead, is powerful. People can try to explain it with hallucinations, a twin brother, the Swoon Theory, or whatever, but those have their difficulties apart from the empty tomb. Especially when you bring the empty tomb in, that combination is very powerful. There are really good reasons to affirm the empty tomb.
We have the criterion of embarrassment. The people who discovered the empty tomb were women. Women were not credible at that time; it would take two women to have the credibility of one man in a court of law. If you’re making up the story, why would you have women finding the empty tomb? That lends to the credibility. From a historical approach, setting aside our conviction that scripture is God’s word, there’s good reason to believe the women did, in fact, find the tomb empty.
There’s what’s called the Jerusalem Factor. Christianity rose in Jerusalem. At Pentecost, 3,000 came to faith, and the Jerusalem Council later—Jerusalem was the headquarters of Christianity. It all came off the ground there in Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified and where they claimed he had been raised from the dead. If the tomb was not empty, people could have said, “Hey, look, there’s his rotting corpse. Let’s roll away the stone and show it.” But it did get off the ground.
Finally, there is enemy attestation. In Matthew, for example, there was this claim that the disciples stole the body. If you look even outside of the New Testament, some of the early Christian apologists are defending that Jesus’s body was not stolen. We see this claim coming up with Matthew and these early apologists again and again. They’re saying, “Hey, no, this isn’t what happened,” because that’s the claim unbelievers or skeptics were making—that the body was stolen, which means there must have been an empty tomb because they’re trying to explain the empty tomb. But the body being stolen doesn’t make sense if they’re willing to die for the belief that Jesus rose from the dead. When you piece it all together, it becomes powerful.
Daryn: You would have thought the Romans, who were against this, or the religious leaders, would have really tried to produce a body if that was the case. They would have pulled out all stops to find this body because they didn’t want this spreading.
Pastor Chad: There are some who claim there wasn’t a tomb at all. They say maybe Jesus was buried in a mass grave. But Joseph of Arimathea is really good evidence that Jesus was, in fact, buried in a tomb. If you’re making something up, why would you say Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, who was a member of the Sanhedrin, a well-known person? Contemporaries from that time could have checked to see if Joseph of Arimathea was really on the Sanhedrin and if he really lent this tomb for Jesus to be buried in. If that was made up, it was a bold or foolish thing to make up. The vast majority of scholars, Christian, non-Christian, or otherwise, agree that Joseph of Arimathea was the person who lent the tomb to Jesus.
Those are kind of the main defenses. There’s a list of 12 known facts that Gary Habermas and Michael Licona have come up with, which includes things like early Christians who were Jews suddenly changing their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. That’s historically demonstrable and huge. Jews who had worshiped on Saturdays for millennia suddenly started worshiping on Sunday. That lends to their belief that Jesus, in fact, rose from the dead and that this was central to Christianity from the very beginning. It wasn’t a legend that developed over time; it was central from the beginning. That alone doesn’t prove Jesus rose from the dead, but it’s a huge piece of the puzzle when you fit it together with everything else.
Daryn: What makes you an apostle is, like John said, we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. We saw, we touched the Word of Life. Outside of the scripture being the inspired word of God, it’s important for people to know it’s not like the Book of Mormon or the Quran. These men didn’t know they were writing scripture. They were just writing down accounts. Isn’t that kind of how God works? If someone sits down to write scripture, they’re going to put a lot of their own stuff in there. These men were just writing down accounts. Luke, for instance, was writing down an account for Theophilus. He wrote it for an audience of one, but it’s become an audience of millions. The fact that these men didn’t understand they were penning scripture, but the church throughout the ages recognized these documents as the Word of God.
Pastor Chad: Paul does refer to Peter’s letters as scripture, so there is early recognition. They were writing to the Church of Corinth or to Theophilus. There was a historical context. Paul did exercise some authority in his pen. There’s an earthiness to it that helps to see Christianity is rooted in history, rooted in actual events, not just pie in the sky.
Daryn: We’ve talked about some of the evidences, which are very important. We have the spiritual aspect, the revelatory knowledge where the Holy Spirit convinces us and opens our eyes to the scripture. We recognize this is the Word of God we’re reading. But having that historical context is important as well. What are the implications of the Resurrection in light of the historical context and who Christ said he was?
Pastor Chad: First of all, there’s the implication that Christ is who he said he was, that it’s true. When I did a big study on this and wrote a big paper, it was one of the most spiritually encouraging things for me. This intellectual certainty bolsters our faith. It helps us live as if it’s true because we really believe it’s true and gives us more confidence to share that with others. Your personal holiness, evangelism, and so many other things are affected by having that confidence. There’s so much more than what I said. We’re sticking to what we see in the scriptures, but there are lots of extra-biblical sources and different references to Jesus that are part of the whole case.
One thing I’ve become super passionate about is the promise of our future resurrection. That’s what 1 Corinthians 15 is really all about. It begins with that creed, but in verse 12, it says, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” The idea of the resurrection of the dead at the end of time goes back to the Old Testament, but it wasn’t as clear. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection; the Pharisees did. There are hints in the Old Testament, but it becomes much clearer in the New Testament. N.T. Wright makes the defense that the focus on the future resurrection of the dead goes back to Jesus’s resurrection. There’s increased clarity in the New Testament about the resurrection of the dead. Christ is called the firstfruits of the Resurrection.
In 1 Corinthians 15, there are people in Corinth denying this future resurrection. Paul says in verse 13, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.” He goes on to say it’s both or nothing. Many Christians today haven’t been biblically taught or haven’t studied it out themselves and don’t know about the resurrection of the dead. It wasn’t talked about much in my church when I was a kid. I had this idea that I’d die and my soul would float off to heaven, and that was it.
Daryn: I always heard about heaven. I had a kid once tell me he didn’t want to go to heaven and play a harp on a cloud. I told him I don’t either; that sounds boring. That’s not the end of the matter.
Pastor Chad: The Bible clearly teaches that when a believer dies, their soul goes to be with the Lord, but there’s so much more about the resurrection of the dead. It blows my mind that people think the permanent state is being disembodied in some ethereal realm. Paul says in Philippians he’s striving, pressing on in faith, that by any means possible, he may attain the resurrection of the dead. Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 5, Jesus talks about it in John 5. It’s crystal clear that there’s a resurrection of the dead, that the dead in Christ will rise when Jesus returns. It’s crystal clear, yet many Christians don’t know about it or emphasize it. It’s such a shame because it’s far more glorious to be raised from the dead, to be on a new Earth forever with Christ, as opposed to being disembodied in some heavenly state.
Daryn: Over time, it seems the focus in church was more about navigating this life—how to have a better marriage, do better at work—and it was very focused on this life. Before that, my parents’ generation focused on heaven, seeing dead relatives. The early apostles had their eyes on the resurrection.
Pastor Chad: There are two extremes: one focusing on the here and now, and the other on escaping this life. The resurrection of the dead, the new Earth, helps us see the relevance of both. At the very end of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” What you do now in the present matters because this Earth, this body, will be restored. The Gnostics believed the spiritual was good, the physical was bad, and wanted to escape to a heavenly realm. Paul says, “No, your labor is not in vain.” We can live in such a way not trying to escape. I often criticize the song “I’ll Fly Away.” It almost has an escapism feel. Paul talks about how the body is a prison we long to escape, but not to escape from our bodies, but for redemption. Paul gets at this in 1 Corinthians 5, longing to escape this tent of his body, not to be unclothed but to be clothed with a heavenly home, which is the resurrected body.
People want to be relieved, especially as they get older, but it’s better to be restored, to have this Earth renewed. That’s really at the center of the gospel. People are either oblivious to it or don’t emphasize it. With the resurrection of the dead, one reason it’s not emphasized is that it sounds weird. It’s one thing to say, especially to an unbeliever, “So-and-so is in heaven now.” It’s a nice sentiment. But to say, “This body here is going to be raised from the dead,” that’s bold. If we believe Jesus was raised from the dead and is the firstfruits of the Resurrection, then we must believe this body is going to be raised. If it decays, God made Adam from the dust; He can restore us from the dust. There will be continuity between this present body and the one to come. When Jesus was raised from the dead, the tomb was empty. His resurrected body was different in many ways, but it was a restored, renewed, glorified body.
Daryn: You go back to the creation narrative. God creates Adam and Eve, looks on all He created, and it’s good. God’s original plan for mankind was to dwell in a body, not to be a floating soul. That’s important for us to understand.
Pastor Chad: I picked up the term “evangelical Gnosticism.” Gnosticism in 1 Corinthians 15 and other places doesn’t seem to die. Even today, there’s this idea of escaping the shell of the body. But when confronted with dwelling in a resurrected body on a new Earth forever, people intuitively know that’s better. The New Testament couldn’t be clearer. It talks far more about the resurrection of the dead than any intermediate state. The intermediate state is between when I die and when Jesus returns. My soul is in heaven, and it’s great, but it’s so much better when Christ returns, the dead are raised, and all things are restored.
It’s a beautiful thing. People get hung up on things like Revelation, where it says the souls of the martyred saints are under the throne, crying out for vengeance. Jesus said in the Resurrection they’re going to be like the angels of God, not given in marriage. But who’s to say angels don’t have bodies?
Listen to Jesus in John 5: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” The Bible teaches that all people will be raised. 1 Corinthians 15 focuses exclusively on believers being raised, but even non-believers will be raised to judgment, and their eternal state will be physical. That’s a very sobering thing. Jesus says they will come out of their tombs. If Jesus is the firstfruits of the Resurrection, we must believe in a physical resurrection of Jesus, which means ours will be physical as well.
When you look at Revelation, you see the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, people dwelling with the Lamb. That’s the point of the Incarnation—God dwelling with man in a physical sense. Those believers in heaven at the time of Christ’s return, their souls or spirits will be reunited with a renewed, glorified, physical body.
Daryn: Yes, that’s very good. All right, well, thank you for doing this. Do you have any last thoughts?
Pastor Chad: No, I think that about covers it. The truth and implications of the Resurrection really do tie together. I just think it’s incredible. I’m always excited.
Daryn: Absolutely. Thank you for coming today and sitting with us. This has been a production of Men of the King. We’d like to thank all our listeners. Please like and subscribe to our podcast and check us out at menoftheking.com. Until next time, men, go serve your King.
