Session 5 — Is the Resurrection of Jesus Real?
One of the most exciting—yet challenging—topics in all of apologetics is the resurrection of Jesus. We can study historical evidence and sift through manuscripts, but sooner or later we’re confronted with a very personal question: Did Jesus of Nazareth really rise from the dead? If He didn’t, Christianity falls apart. But if He did, then everything He said about Himself, about God’s kingdom, and about our salvation holds inescapable power. As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ is not raised, our faith is futile; we’re still in our sins. But he also insists that Jesus has been raised, and that this is the central pillar upon which our hope rests.
Today, I want to walk through why this matters and why we can be confident that the resurrection is not mere legend or wishful thinking. We’ll see that the earliest believers recognized the resurrection as vital proof of God’s redemptive plan. We’ll consider some key lines of historical evidence that highlight the empty tomb and the disciples’ transformation. Finally, we’ll look at alternative explanations—like hallucination, body theft, or a mistaken identity—and see why they don’t make sense when compared to the robust nature of the gospel accounts. My prayer is that by the end, you’ll stand in deeper awe of the risen Christ and feel equipped to share this hope with others.
The Significance of the Resurrection
A Core Element of the Gospel
In Acts 17:31, Paul preaches at Mars Hill in Athens and proclaims that God will judge the world through a specific man—Jesus—whom He raised from the dead. Right there, Paul underlines the crucial role of the resurrection in demonstrating God’s power, authority, and future plan for humanity. This isn’t just spiritual symbolism; Paul calls it our assurance that God’s word to us is true. If Christ had stayed in the tomb, we would have no proof that His death achieved our forgiveness, or that we could ever rise ourselves.
Likewise, 1 Corinthians 15 is sometimes called “the Resurrection Chapter” because it spells out how pivotal the resurrection is. Paul says in verse 14, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.” No matter how morally uplifting you find Christianity, if Jesus didn’t conquer death, the entire structure collapses. But if He rose, it revolutionizes everything—our view of sin, our understanding of life’s purpose, our hope for eternity.
A Historical Claim with Theological Implications
It’s important to see that the resurrection is not just a religious idea. It’s also a historical claim—something that either happened or didn’t happen in real time, in a real place. Many other religions revolve around mystical teachings or philosophical ideals. But Christianity hinges on a definitive event: the bodily resurrection of a first-century Jewish rabbi named Jesus. The New Testament authors didn’t treat the resurrection as a metaphor or allegory. They staked their lives on it as a literal, bodily fact. And that means we can—and should—investigate it historically. If it’s true, then that truth demands a response from us.
Historical Evidence for the Resurrection
Early Preaching and Written Accounts
Some modern skeptics say the New Testament was written centuries after Jesus, and that accounts of His resurrection might have been legendary accretions. But as we saw in our earlier sessions, the Gospels and letters of Paul were penned in the first century, within the lifetime of witnesses. Paul explicitly references Jesus’s resurrection in documents like 1 Corinthians, written around A.D. 55. That’s only two decades after Jesus’s crucifixion—hardly enough time for legends to overwrite what actually happened, especially when hostile witnesses and living disciples could confirm or deny these events.
Moreover, Acts 17 shows Paul announcing this message publicly in Athens, and in Acts 2 we see him preaching in Jerusalem just 50 days after the crucifixion. Preaching Christ’s resurrection in the very city where He was executed would have been suicidal if the facts were obviously false. Both Roman and Jewish leaders wanted to quash the newborn Jesus movement. All it would have taken to dismantle Christianity was a body in a tomb. That tomb, however, was empty.
The Empty Tomb
History, both religious and secular, bears witness to the claim that Jesus’s tomb was found empty soon after His burial. If the authorities—who were no fans of the Christians—had the body, they could have produced it to silence the apostles. Yet we find nothing like that in any Jewish or Roman records. Instead, we see heated debates about how the tomb became empty, not whether it was empty.
Transformations of Key Individuals
In the Gospels, the disciples don’t look like fearless champions. During Jesus’s arrest and crucifixion, they scatter. Peter denies Jesus to a servant girl. They lock themselves in a room, trembling that the same death sentence might fall on them. Yet, not long afterward, these same men stride into the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming that Jesus is alive. They risk beatings, imprisonment, and stoning—and eventually most of them face martyrdom. What flipped their attitude from cowering fear to bold proclamation? They believed they had seen the risen Christ.
And it wasn’t just the original disciples:
James, the half-brother of Jesus, was initially a skeptic. He was part of the family that found Jesus’s claims hard to swallow (John 7:5). But after meeting the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:7), James emerges in the Book of Acts as a pillar in the Jerusalem church, eventually giving his life for the faith he once doubted.
Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) violently persecuted Christians, deeming them heretics. But after encountering the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, his entire worldview flipped. He became the most tireless missionary for the gospel, enduring beatings and shipwrecks to spread the message of Christ crucified and risen. That kind of turnaround is hard to explain without a genuine personal encounter at its root.
Early Creeds and Worship
From the earliest days, Christians formed confessions or “creeds” that explicitly declare the death and resurrection of Jesus. Scholars point out that 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 preserves such a creed from the 30s or 40s A.D., only a few years after the cross. Ancient worship also shifted from the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday, because that was the day Jesus rose from the dead. Changing a deeply ingrained practice like the Sabbath would be monumental for Jewish believers—but they did it. The best explanation is that something epoch-changing happened that first Sunday morning.
The Disciples’ Transformation
From Fear to Boldness
One of the clearest signs of the resurrection’s reality is the radical transformation of the disciples. Before Easter morning, they’re in hiding. They’re not expecting any resurrection. But after encountering the risen Christ, these men flood the streets with joy and conviction, testifying that “This Jesus God has raised up” (Acts 2:32). Thousands come to faith in the opening chapters of Acts, right in Jerusalem.
This turnaround makes little sense if the disciples stole Jesus’s body or concocted a lie. People don’t willingly die for something they know to be false. You might say religious zealots can die for a lie if they believe it to be true. But here the originators of the claim would have known if it were a hoax. Yet they went willingly to death, confident that they had witnessed the bodily resurrection of their Lord.
Paul’s Zeal and James’s Faith
Consider also Paul. He’s not just risking his reputation; he’s throwing away his entire standing as a Pharisee, as a well-respected Jewish teacher. He endures severe hardships to preach that Christ is risen. Or look at James, who calls himself “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (James 1:1). That’s a massive leap if you’ve grown up your entire life with Jesus as your big brother. Family members are typically the hardest to convince!
Both men not only believed in the resurrection but also spent their lives preaching it until execution. Such transformations corroborate that they encountered a genuine, living Jesus.
Alternative Explanations and Their Weaknesses
Over the centuries, critics have proposed various theories to avoid admitting a literal resurrection:
“The Disciples Stole the Body.”
But how would a ragtag group of fishermen and tax collectors overpower a Roman guard unit?
Why would they then unwrap Jesus’s body and leave the grave clothes behind?
And what would they gain by this deception, other than persecution and death?
“Jesus Didn’t Really Die; He Only Seemed Dead.”
This is the so-called “Swoon Theory.” But Roman crucifixions were brutal, professional executions.
Even if Jesus somehow survived, how could a half-dead man, badly beaten and crucified, roll away a heavy stone and inspire worship as the triumphant risen Lord?
“The Appearances Were Hallucinations.”
Hallucinations are subjective, private experiences, whereas the New Testament accounts describe group sightings—sometimes more than 500 people at once (1 Corinthians 15:6).
Such group “visions” also wouldn’t explain the empty tomb.
“They Went to the Wrong Tomb.”
If so, the Jewish or Roman authorities would quickly have pointed out the correct tomb, put the body on display, and ended the Christian movement overnight.
Each alternative theory strains credulity when matched with the historical data of bold apostolic preaching, the empty tomb, and the countless eyewitness reports of Jesus alive. Instead, the simplest and most compelling explanation is that Jesus truly rose from the dead.
Why It Matters for Us Today
Assurance of God’s Victory
Acts 17:31 calls the resurrection “assurance” that God will judge the world in righteousness. The risen Christ is proof that sin and death do not have the final word. For believers, this means our faith isn’t blind guesswork. We anchor our hope in a historical event that testifies to God’s power over every enemy, including sin.
The Heart of the Gospel
Paul makes the resurrection foundational in his preaching. Without it, the cross is just a tragic end to a well-intentioned prophet. With it, the cross becomes victory—Jesus’s sacrifice has divine approval, and He now reigns in resurrection life. That is the good news we share: not merely that someone taught nice morals 2,000 years ago, but that God Himself entered history, died for our sin, rose again, and invites us into His kingdom.
Fuel for Bold Living
The end of 1 Corinthians 15 urges us to be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Why? Because we know our labor is not in vain. The resurrection isn’t a past relic; it’s a present reality that empowers us to face trials and even death itself without fear. Christ has broken death’s grip; thus, we can pour ourselves out in love and mission, confident that He holds our future.
Reflection
As we consider the evidence, it’s clear that the resurrection of Jesus isn’t some pious myth handed down through ignorance. It’s a claim deeply embedded in the earliest Christian testimony, supported by a mountain of historical clues: an empty tomb in hostile territory, written accounts from eyewitnesses within a generation of the events, sudden and drastic transformations among Jesus’s followers, and the growth of a faith that put the cross and resurrection at its center.
No wonder Paul and the apostles staked everything on it! They believed they had met the One who had conquered the grave. This wasn’t a casual footnote; it was the heart of their message—so integral that, as Paul says, without the resurrection, our faith is pointless.
Yet praise God: He did raise Jesus from the dead. That reality breathes hope into every other aspect of our Christian life. When you face doubts or find yourself in conversation with a skeptic, remember that the earliest believers were convinced by firsthand encounters and credible facts. This conviction sent them preaching a risen Christ in the very city that crucified Him—proving that fear can become courage when you know the tomb is empty.
And it’s not just an intellectual conclusion. The resurrection meets us in our deepest longings. It says that death’s tyranny is shattered. It says that sin’s penalty has been paid. It says that life with God can begin now and extend into eternity. Whether you’re wrestling with grief, despair, or the unknowns of tomorrow, the resurrection brings an unwavering assurance: Jesus really is alive, and He holds the keys to our future as well.
So let the truth of the resurrection fill you with unshakable joy and purpose. May it embolden your witness, guiding you to speak of Christ with compassion and conviction. May it stir you to love sacrificially, serve selflessly, and live each moment in gratitude. And may it steady your heart on days when sorrow feels strong, because you know—even then—that the final word belongs to the Risen One. His victory is yours, and His resurrected life is your hope now and forever.
