Notes for Who is Jesus?
Three Proofs of the Resurrection of Jesus
Luke 5:32 Jesus: “I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders —an invitation to a changed life.”
Luke 24:11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
The resurrection of Jesus was the cornerstone of the preaching of the first century church.
Luke 24:36-48 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.
He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
“At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. His conduct was good and (he) was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die.”
“On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged…because he practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy…he was hanged on the eve of the Passover.” Sanhedrin 43a
The Annals of Tacitus, written in AD 115 by Publius Cornelius Tacitus who was considered the greatest ancient historian, mentions the death of Jesus.
“Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.”
Matthew 27:45-46, 50-54 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice… "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? … And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit…At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.
Darkness and earthquakes were recorded on the same day that Jesus dies by Phlegon, the Greek historian who chronicled Olympic games.
“...in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad there was an eclipse of the sun which was so remarkable that nothing comparable had ever been seen before. At the sixth hour of the day [noon], the darkness was such that one could see the stars and the earth moved in Bithynia, toppling many buildings in the city of Nicaea."
(Fragmenta Historicum Graecorum, Didot. Paris 1849, vol. iii, Phlegon, Bk 13, ch. 14)
Jesus body disappeared while being watched by 16 Roman special forces troops.
The 2 ton boulder was rolled up a slope away from the tomb.
“There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.”
I Corinthians 15:3-8 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
Just a few years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, people were believing in His death and resurrection and pointing to over 500 people who were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus.
Just a few years after the resurrection of Jesus, there was a community of Christians that believed in resurrection of Jesus and in the power of someone named Jesus to see the believer safely through death and beyond.
The Bible has 8,352 verses out of its total 31,124 that are predictive (27%)
The prophecies concerning Jesus is the most frequently prophesied subject in the entire Bible-127 detailed predictions involving 3,348 verses deal with Jesus.
Isaiah 53:3-6 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
The truth is that when we turned our back on God, something inside us died-our spirit man, the real us.
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?
John 1:12 says Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-
When you invite Jesus into your life, His Spirit comes into you and we call it the great exchange because all the emptiness in us leaves and is replaced with His presence.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Ephesians 1:14 Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession.
