A Sermon for Epiphany Sunday on John 1:1-18

Several years ago, I had a powerful experience of grace. The Holy Spirit came into my life in a new way and brought a greater amount of forgiveness and freedom into my heart than I ever thought was possible. It was like light entered into the dark places of my heart. New life was breathed into me. God’s forgiveness and love were not ideas, but palpable realities. John 1 ceased to be nice, poetic words and began to be God’s honest truth.

Immediately, I wanted others to know what I had experienced. I eventually found Alpha, which was, and still is, in my humble opinion the best introduction to the Christian faith in the history of the church. Alpha became my primary way to help people experience what I had experienced.

As I began to invite people, I noticed something about myself and the invitations I would make. I would look at some people and say, “That’s an Alpha type of person.” But I’d look at other people and say, “I just don’t know if that’s an Alpha type of person.”

I soon had to admit to myself that what I really meant was “I don’t just don’t know if that’s a Jesus type of person.” In other words, I’m just not sure that Jesus is for that person.

I wonder if you have anyone in your life that you think about and say, “they’re just not the ‘Jesus’ type of person.” Maybe they even come to church. They’re too rough. Too intellectual. Too poor. They’re not a touchy-feely type of person. Too damaged. Too needy. Too whatever. Maybe you’re not even sure if you’re the ‘Jesus’ type of person. 

The question that I’d like for us to ask ourselves today is this: Who is Jesus Christ for? 

This is Epiphany Sunday, and Epiphany is the day that we celebrate the revealing of Christ to the Gentiles. Gentiles, in case you didn’t know, are just people who aren’t Jews. Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. Jesus was for Israel. On Epiphany, we typically celebrate the coming of the Magi or wise men, because the Magi foreshadow that Jesus is not only for Israel, but that Jesus is also for the Gentiles. In the Magi, Gentiles who were physically away are brought near by Christ. What was true in a physical way with the Magi is true of so many more Gentiles in a spiritual way. In his letter to the Gentile Christians from the city of Ephesus, Paul says, “remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you [Gentiles] who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Jesus isn’t just for Jews. Jesus is for Gentiles, too. Jesus isn’t just for people who think they should be near to God. Jesus is for everyone, no matter how far off they are.

The Gospel of John tells the same story, but in a different way. It’s an echo to the first verses of the whole bible. The book of Genesis. In Genesis 1:3 it says, “And God said, “let there be light,” and there was light.”

John is saying, look at the power of the word of God. The word of God, which was spoken at the creation of the world, is all-powerful. This word of God, brought everything into being. And John says this in chapter 1:14: “The word became flesh dwelled among us.” Jesus is the word of God become flesh. And that Word of God brings light.

So back to our question. Who is Jesus for?

John says, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” 

Who does the light enlighten? Everyone. This Word, this Life, this Light,– it is for everyone. The tiniest bit of light shatters darkness. You have never met a person unaffected by the light of Christ. In the words of bible scholar Marianne Meye Thompson, “Shining in the darkness and shedding light on all, this light makes it possible for all to see, while simultaneously exposing or convicting those who do not come to the light.”

This is what Methodists call “prevenient grace.” Even before

Last Sunday, we focused on the person of Joseph. An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him, “Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” We talked about how Joseph could have felt slighted by God, but instead he chooses to be obedient to his calling– which really was a calling to play second-fiddle to Mary and Jesus by being in a supportive role.

Today, following our celebration of the birth of Jesus, Joseph is making an encore appearance. So are the angels and the dreams. Three times in this passage, Joseph receives direct guidance from God. Each time, God speaks to Joseph in a dream, apparently through an angel. First it’s, “Take the family to Egypt.” Next it’s, “All clear, take the child to back to Israel.” Finally, it’s a warning not to go back to Judea, because of the ruler there. 

Have you ever wished that an angel would visit you and deliver direct instructions from God? I sure have! 

We don’t all need guidance on how to protect the baby Jesus like Joseph did, but there are lots of times when we would like guidance on things that really do matter to us. “What’s God’s plan for me?” What type of work should I be doing? Questions about relationships. What is my purpose? God has a purpose for you whether you’re 3 or 103. Getting God’s guidance toward that purpose would be helpful, right? And God’s guidance isn’t just for big things, but it’s for small things as well. 

I think we’d all agree that an angelic visitation would be an event that we would put in the category of an extraordinary way– an outside of the ordinary way– that God guides us. It’s certainly not unheard of for it to happen, but God never promises us visits from angels. We shouldn’t count on an angel.

Thankfully there are other ways that God will guide us. I’ve got 5 main ways that God guides us that I’d like to share today, and they each start with an S.

Scripture

The first is Scripture. The Psalmist says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” I’ve found that Scripture is the most frequent way that God communicates with me. The bible isn’t always a simple book to read, but stick with it and you’ll wrap your head around it. It’s rather like a crossword puzzle. When I’m doing a crossword puzzle, if I don’t know the answer to one clue, I skip it and try to fill in the blocks around it. Bit by bit, the puzzle comes together, and the difficult to solve parts of the puzzle begin to become clearer. In the same way, don’t quit when you get to a part of the bible you don’t understand. Use the clearer parts to interpret the unclear parts, and soon you’ll have a fuller picture.

In the bible we learn of God’s love for us. We learn of God’s mercy and grace. We learn about the calling that God has for each of us. Even when the Bible doesn’t have specific guidance for our specific situation, scripture reaffirms God’s truths over our lives in each specific situation that we’re in. And often that will keep us from making decisions based on bad motives like fear or selfishness.

Lots of the time, though, knowing that you have the words of Jesus, the apostles, prophets, patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith helps a lot. It simplifies things when you’re seeking God’s guidance. Imagine you wake up one morning and you find yourself wondering, “Hmm, I wonder if I should pay my taxes, I think I’ll pray about that.” Actually, you don’t have to pray about the answer to that. Paul says that we are to pay our taxes. That’s the type of thing that you learn from reading your Bible.

So again, God guides us by Scripture.

Spirit

The second way that I see that God guides us is by the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 says, “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” The Holy Spirit led the Israelites through the wilderness as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. The Holy Spirit continues to lead Christians as we journey through life, albeit without the pillars of c

A sermon on Matthew 1:18-25 by Pastor David Jacobson.

We’re in the season of gift giving. Today I’d like to give you a gift. This is one of those gifts that doesn’t cost me anything, but I think many of you will really like it.

Before I give you the gift, a little background. Some of you may remember that at the beginning of October, I plugged a prayer gathering taking place at Grace Community Church. Our church was well represented at that event, with about 30 of us attendance. The primary speaker and prayer leader at that event was Pete Greig, who founded the 24/7 prayer movement. 24/7 has groups of people in churches and college campuses around the world doing a week of non-stop prayer in 1 hour shifts. The organization has developed an app, and that app is my gift to you. Hey, you knew it wasn’t going to cost me anything, so hopefully you’re not too disappointed. 

So you smart phone users, get your phone out. The app is called Lectio 365. It’s by 24/7 prayer.

So, here’s the slightly awkward part about my gift to you. One of the last times I taught on prayer, I recommended leaving your phone in another room while you pray in the morning. And here I am saying, “use your phone to pray.” What gives?

Well, I’ve talked to many people who have told me that this app has helped them to pray better. And that’s what’s important, because prayer is the most important activity in our lives. 

“Come on, Pastor David, prayers good and all, but really? The most important activity in our lives?” Yep. Here’s why I can say that: You were created for a relationship with God. Two essential aspects of any relationship are spending time together and communication. Prayer is how you spend time with God. Prayer is how you communicate with God. With that outlook it’s worth doing everything you can to pray more frequently and more deeply.

Monday through Saturday, the app leads you through the prayer acronym P.R.A.Y. Sunday prayer is a bit different. 

P is for Pause. You pause “to be still; to breath slowly; to re-center [your] scattered senses upon the presence of God.”

R is for Rejoice and Reflect. Using a few verses of a Psalm, you’re led to give thanks and praise to God. You then read a few verses of another scripture reading and take a few moments to reflect on them.

A is for Ask. Although this is the time when we ask God for things, we also use it to let what we read from the bible ask questions of us.

Finally, Y is for Yield. We read the scripture again and yield ourselves to God’s will in it. 

The best part of this app is that you can hit the play button the writer reads to you. It feels like you’ve joined a prayer gathering lead by a leading teacher on prayer. Even if you never hit the pause button like you’d supposed to, you’ll still pray for somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes, which is a great start. I really think that this could be a game changer for a lot of us, helping us to get into a habit of praying daily, and not rushing right into our laundry list of concerns we bring to God.

So, that’s my gift to you– at least to you smart phone users. Merry Christmas. I hope you like it. If you don’t use a smart phone, well, this is a pretty good reason to get one. Still, the P.R.A.Y. acronym is a great tool to use to enter into prayer. 

Why do I bring all this up? Well, I really do want us as a congregation to grow in prayer together. But the primary reason I bring it up today is that this past week’s material had 3 days of meditating on our Gospel reading for today. The insights from those reflections have been bouncing around my head all week.

The devotion this week was specifically focused on the biblical character of Joseph. “We don’t know much about Joseph. He’s only mentioned a handful of times in the Gospels. We do know that he was a working man — a carpenter. In many ways, he was called to play second fiddle to his wife and his stepson.”

Joseph was called to a particular type of humility.

Pastor David Jacobson

A sermon on Matthew 11:2-11

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A Sermon on Matthew 3:1-12

We’re getting closer to Christmas and folks are starting to get more into the Christmas spirit. I’ve started getting Christmas cards from friends who live in other states. The Christmas parties are starting, too, which brings a great time to reconnect with old friends and make some new ones. 

Have you ever noticed at parties that, most of the time, one person will emerge to be the one who really stirs up interesting conversation. Maybe they’ve been up to something fascinating, or maybe they’re just a bubbly, charismatic type of personality. But usually there is someone who, from the moment they walk in the door, the conversation energizes. You know– there is someone who is the “life of the party!” Typically, you’re glad when that person comes and you’re sad when they leave, because everyone had a great time while they were there. 

John the Baptist… is not that person. Certainly, John the Baptist is the guy who ruins your Christmas party, right? He probably hasn’t bathed for weeks. He’s made his own clothes, and not well. He always immediately launches into conversations about religion, not exactly coming across as “tolerant” as he talks about repenting, fleeing the wrath to come, axes, and unquenchable fire, nevermind calling people a “brood of vipers!” He would undoubtedly trigger memories of encounters with the worst of street preachers, and folks whose cars sport a bumper sticker which says, “turn or burn.” 

As we read about John the Baptist this morning, it feels a little bit like reading the Grinch who Stole Christmas. Here we are, having a good old time singing about “Come thou Long expected Jesus” and “Emmanuel,” and John walks in, and you want to cue that record scratch sound effect.

The funny thing though, is that, if you think about it, John is actually on a mission to get people into the Christmas spirit– maybe not in the way we usually think about it, but he’s getting people to prepare for the coming of the Lord Jesus. 

To me, perhaps the most surprising thing is that, for all of his rough packaging, people don’t seem to be the least bit deterred from coming to him to be baptized. His reputation for being a party pooper precedes him, and yet when he throws a repentance party, everyone comes. Matthew chapter 3 says, “People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.”

John must have touched a nerve of the Jewish world at the time. John comes dressed like the prophet Elijah, and to some degree he acts like the prophet Elijah, who lived some 800 years earlier, willing to go toe-to-toe with the predominant religious system of the time. 

But even beyond the Elijah vibe, people would have understood the significance of John being at the Jordan River. The Jordan was the place where the exodus from Egypt ended, following 40 years of wilderness wandering. God had delivered his people from slavery to the Egyptians. Crossing the Jordan, they made their final exit from slavery and entered into the land God had promised to give to Abraham’s descendants: “the promised land.” 

As John baptizes people, he brings them through the water of the Jordan, symbolizing that God is re-doing the exodus story. John is announcing the beginning of a new exodus, the beginning of the end of their slavery, not to Egypt this time, but actually to sin itself. 

John says, “I baptize you with water for repentance.” In other words, “I baptize you as a sign that you’ve changed and that you’re committed to change… that you’re turning from all the bad stuff in your life.” 

You know, we’re all a little bit like sponges, absorbing the liquid we’re in, if you understand what I mean. Before we change our lives and come to Christ, we’re, well, kinda like dirty sponges. We’ve absorbed lots of bad stuff going through life. We’ve made decisions that hurt others. We’ve turned our backs on God. We co

It’s wonderful to walk into church this morning and see the halls and sanctuary decked out, getting ready for Christmas. I was actually surprised to see it this morning, and so I’m so thankful for those that did it. Today, however, is the first Sunday of Advent, which is more than the season leading up to Christmas. The lectionary readings will remind us of this over the next few weeks. 

The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word for “coming.” Advent is a season about Christ’s coming. And every Advent, it’s good to think of at least three ways that Christ comes to us.

First, Christ comes as a baby– God is incarnated Jesus of Nazareth, a human being. This is the coming that we’re generally used to thinking about during Advent.Secondly, Christ comes into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. In the words of John 1:12, “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” When we receive Christ and believe in him, the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and convinces us that we are children of God.Thirdly, Jesus will come again. In the words of the Apostles Creed, “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” This second coming of Jesus is what the scripture teaches and it’s what the church has taught since the beginning. Jesus will return.

The central point of the Advent season is this: Get ready! 

And this is the point of the reading from Matthew today. It’s a new church year today, so we leave the Gospel of Luke and begin to use the Gospel of Matthew until this time next year. 

Jesus says, in Matthew’s Gospel, that only the Father knows when the Son will come again. Jesus chooses to limit his knowledge so that, as the reflection in the bulletin says, “every generation might live in the expectation of Christ’s return.”

Jesus gives warnings about that time. He says it’ll be like the days of Noah, when everyone was going on their merry way, and then the flood came and took them away. In the same way, he says, two will be in the field, one will be taken away, but one will be left. Two will be working, and one will be taken, but one will be left.

The point of these passages is not to scare us. Rather, the key point is in verse 42: “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

Keep Awake. Keep Watch. Don’t fall asleep. Remain vigilant.

It’s not for us to know when Jesus will come back. The point is that we’ll want to be ready when he does. We want to be like children greeting their parent who’s just gotten home by saying, “I’m glad you’re here. Let me show you what we’ve been doing!” not by hiding the mess we’ve made.

What will I have been doing when Jesus returns? What will we as a church have been doing when Jesus returns?

Speaking to his closest disciples, Jesus says, “Keep awake.” He believes them to be awake already, and they just need to stay awake. The currently reality of the Christian church, however, is that we’re not spiritual awake– at least not all the time. And so before we can stay awake, we need to wake up.

John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement, ended up providing leadership over a great awakening that happened in Great Britain and Ireland in the 1700s. Last week I shared a bit about him. His experience of awakening is helpful for us to consider as we try to figure out what it looks like for Christians (first) to wake up and (secondly) to keep awake. 

(I remember hearing stories about John Wesley growing up as a Methodist and thinking to myself, “why not just talk about Jesus?” It was a fair question. So my answer to childhood me is that he is simply a remarkable example of how someone can live out the way of Jesus faithfully over a long period of time. And since most people here consider themselves Methodists, it’s helpful to know where we come from.)

Last week I shared how John had been in a storm at sea, and he thought he might die. He realized that he wasn’t as ready as he thought

Imagine a king or a queen. Seriously, picture a king or a queen in your mind. What do they look like? How are they dressed? What are they doing? 

My mind always goes to Queen Elizabeth whose coronation happened on June 2, 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. I discovered some facts about that day that helped me understand what that day was like.

Elizabeth was “driven from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey in [a] Gold State Coach – pulled by eight grey gelding horses”Her dress for the day was made of white satin embroidered with gold and silver threadOn her way to the Coronation, she wore a diadem, a small crown, featuring 1,333 diamonds and 169 pearls.Once at Westminster Abbey the queen was given two gold cloth robes to wearShe was then presented with golden spurs, a jewelled sword, large golden bracelets, a coronation ring, and a sceptre.Then a crown is placed on her head, weighing 4 pounds and 12 ounces and made of solid gold.After the coronation ceremony, the queen exchanged that heavy crown for a crown weighing just over two pounds, but still having 2868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and 269 pearls. Then, once the queen is fully installed, all of the rulers come and pledge to be faithful and true.

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. The queen was honored greatly In as many ways as possible, the Queen was shown to be set apart from others. She is different, to be honored above all others.

The story of Jesus’ crucifixion couldn’t be more different. 

Rather than the opulent Westminster Abbey, Jesus comes to a place called “the Skull”Rather than being carried in a gold stage coach, he carries his own execution device. Where as the Queen was lifted up in honor, Jesus was lifted up to hang on a crossRather than be given royal clothes to wear, Jesus is stripped of his clothes so that soldiers can gamble for them.Rather than receive pledges of faithfulness from rulers, Jesus is mocked by them. The soldiers mock Jesus by giving him vinegar to drink rather than the fine wine befitting a king. He’s even mocked by a criminal on the cross. Everyone, from the greatest to the least, mocks Jesus. (except for one man. More on him in a moment). 

Of course, the whole scene is a mockery of a coronation, in a sense, with the charge “The King of the Jews” written above him for all to see.

Crucifixion was more than a tortuous way of killing someone. It was designed to cause the most shame possible. People were crucified naked, which was a special shame for Jewish people. Someone hanging on a cross couldn’t even shoo flies from their wounds. They couldn’t protect themselves in any way from the heat, the cold, the wind, and the rain. Add to that that they could not restrain their bodily waste while they hung and died, if not from blood loss and dehydration, then from asphyxiation. 

And yet, amid all of that mockery and shame, there is something else going on. Even though the sign “King of the Jews” was written both in mockery and as a criminal charge, it was in fact, true. As Jesus hangs on the cross he is the king of the Jews. He is the Messiah promised by the prophets, the royal figure who would come and bring salvation to Israel. And this very moment, the moment of his suffering and death, is the time when he is revealed as the coming king. In a sense, this is Jesus’ coronation. In the other gospels, we even learn that Jesus wore a crown of thorns.

If this is a coronation, then it is clearly a very different type of coronation. If this is a king, then clearly this is a very different type of king. 

So what can we say about this king? What type of King is Jesus?

Jesus is a king who suffers

First, and perhaps most obviously Jesus is a king who suffers.

The Jewish people had been living with a variety of expectations for what the Messiah would do when he came. The Messiah was to be a royal figure, in the line of King David, who would bring victory over Israel’s enemies. As far as I know

Today I’d like to speak to you about “Sticky Faith.” It’s been said, “Observe the postage stamp; its usefulness depends on the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.” That’s the type of faith that we want. We want a faith that doesn’t fall away when the going gets tough.

Jesus speaks to his disciples in Luke 21, and he warns them that the going will get tough. The Temple will get destroyed, and they will be persecuted for their faith. But he says “Stand firm, and you will win your life.” 

I’m going to share 3 principles that I think will help us to pursue “sticky faith.” 

Background: The Coming Destruction of the Temple

This passage starts out with something that would have been unimaginable to the first disciples. Jesus says that the Temple would soon be in ruins. 

[It’s important to remember when we say “the Temple” we’re not talking about some little gathering place for a few Jewish people to worship. It was not a synagogue. The Temple in Jerusalem was one of the great buildings of the ancient world. It was decked out by Herod the Great in hopes that the people he was ruling for Rome would approve of him.

The Temple was the place that the Old Testament-mandated sacrifices were fulfilled. It was the center of Israel’s worship. It was supposed to be the place where heaven and earth met.]

And so Jesus and his disciples are looking at the beautiful Temple, and Jesus says, “you can’t count on it being here much longer.” In fact, the Temple would be destroyed in 70 A.D., fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy. 

This leads me to the first principle of sticky faith:

Principle 1: Get stuck to the right thing

I think of something like honey or maple syrup. It’s fine if it’s stuck to the chicken nugget or the pancake or whatever it’s supposed to be stuck to. But if it gets on your hand, or on the handle of a utensil, you’re not going to be happy. 

In the same way, sticky faith needs to be stuck to the right thing. Jesus tells his first disciples, “Don’t stick your faith to this Temple.”

In John’s Gospel, Jesus is asked for a sign to prove his authority to overturn the moneychangers tables in the Temple. His reply: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

They replied to him, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 

Then comes John’s editorial comment: But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

One of the scandalous claims of Jesus’ ministry was that he himself was to be the new center of Israel’s worship of God. Jesus himself would become the Temple. No longer would people meet God in the Jerusalem Temple. From now on they would meet God in and through the person of Jesus. In place of the Old Testament sacrificial system, Jesus’ own sacrifice on the cross would atone for the sins of the world. 

Like Jesus’ first disciples, we need to get stuck to the right thing. All Christians need to be stuck to Jesus.

Sometimes people’s faith ends up getting stuck to buildings like to Temple or to a church.What would happen to your life of faith if this building crumbled? If you’re stuck to Jesus, despite your sadness, your faith would continue on. 

What about our denomination? If it crumbled, would your faith crumble? If it would, you are probably stuck to the wrong thing. A denomination is a tool that helps people stick to Jesus and live out his mission. But we need to be stuck to Jesus himself.

What about your pastor or some public Christian figure. If that person’s life fell apart, would your faith endure? (For the record, by the grace of God, my life is most certainly not falling apart). People will fail. Buildings and Institutions will fail. But Jesus Christ will never fail. We must be stuck to him. 

Principle 2 (of Sticky Faith): Don’t let yourself get ripped off

I thought of two other sticky things. Post-it notes and super glue. 

Some people’s faith is like a post-it note. It’s stuck to whateve

Have you ever had your beliefs mocked? If you’ve been a Christian for more than a day or two, I’m guessing you have. 

Today I’d like to talk to you about “Defending the Faith.” 1 Peter 3:15 says, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.”

In the story from Luke 20, Jesus has his beliefs mocked and needs to defend himself. He is confronted by the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection. To demonstrate to Jesus and to others how absurd the idea of the resurrection was, they came up with a “gotcha” question.

“There was a woman who’d been married 7 times. Tell us, Jesus, if the dead are raised, whose wife would she be if they were all together?” I’m going to just breeze over the over patriarchal nature of their story, because we’ve got somewhere else to go today. 

Jesus mounts a defense for the resurrection first by appealing to the Torah, just as the Sadducees did. These days, if someone calls us to defend our faith, it’s usually a religious skeptic. With a skeptic, arguing from the authority of Scripture is rarely going to be a useful tactic.

Are there still ways to defend our faith? Yes, and this is what the field of Christian apologetics is all about. Apologetics comes from the greek word “Apologia” which is the word used in 1 Peter 3:15, translated “give a defense.”

I want to springboard today from this particular scripture to sketch out of a modern defense, not of the resurrection generally, but of the resurrection of Jesus in particular. If Jesus was raised from the dead, it changes everything. I want you to know that belief in the resurrection of Jesus isn’t a blind leap of faith, but a small step, based on good evidence. 

This is a huge topic with tons more to say that I have time for today. I’m really condensing two hour-long lectures into 20 minutes. So if you hear something and you think “I don’t know about that…,” or “but you haven’t given evidence that God exists,” I urge you to dig in more. I recommend the book On Guard by Christian apologist William Lane Craig. The Reason for God, by Tim Keller, is also a helpful starting point.

What I’d like to do is to present three historical pieces of evidence. The remarkable thing about these pieces of evidence is that they are generally agreed upon by credentialed New Testament scholars and first century historians of all theological persuasions, from conservative to skeptic. After that, I’ll outline some hypotheses/theories that try to make sense of these.

The first piece of evidence is the Empty Tomb: on the Sunday following Jesus’ crucifixion, his tomb was found empty, likely by women. The second piece of evidence is that there were some form of appearances of Jesus to his followers after his death. (Obviously the nature of those appearances will be disputed by skeptics.) The third piece of evidence is fact of the origin of the Christian faith itself. 

In the words of William Lane Craig, “if no plausible, natural explanation can account for [these] as well as the resurrection hypothesis, then we’re justified in inferring Jesus’ resurrection as the best explanation of the facts.”

So let’s talk about the evidence. 

The Empty Tomb

The claim is that Jesus’ tomb was discovered empty by a group of his women followers on the Sunday following his crucifixion. 

The historical reliability of the story of Jesus’ burial

The first piece of evidence for the Empty Tomb is in fact the historical reliability of the story of Jesus’ burial. Now, why does that support the empty tomb? It means that both Jews and Christians knew the location of Jesus’ tomb. When people started claiming Jesus was raised from the dead, the Jewish leaders would have pointed to Jesus’ tomb, or may even exhumed the body, to show that he hadn’t. 

As Craig says, “critics who deny the empty tomb feel compelled to argue against the burial. Unfortunately for them, Jesus’ burial in the tomb is

Pastor David Jacobson

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