We're celebrating the Easter week and we celebrating that Jesus is risen! He's alive!
The last evidence for the resurrection that I want to give on this podcast is that of the explosion of Christianity after Jesus was risen from the dead. This contributes to the validity of the claim that he was risen because all of a sudden Christianity explodes. There were just a few Christians before Jesus was risen and the Romans and the Jews were fully expecting that the crucifixion of Christ would put a stop to this Jesus following thing. But it didn't. After Jesus was risen from the dead there were 120 committed followers who then waited for the Promised Holy Spirit in Jerusalem and then they were filled with the Spirit and then Christianity began to increase with exponential growth. Suddenly thousands of people started to follow the risen Christ, and Christianity spread like wildfire from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Today, Christianity is all over the world! The message of Christ is all over the world! We still have some work to do in reaching some unreached people groups but Christianity is all over the world! Christianity exploded after the exact thing that should have killed it happened. The number of converts multipled exponentially and increase daily, and continues to do so today.
The Canadian scientist G. B. Hardy said, "When I looked at religion I said, I have two questions. One, has anybody ever conquered death, and two, if they have, did they make a way for me to conquer death? I checked the tomb of Buddha, and it was occupied, and I checked the tomb of Confucius and it was occupied, and I checked the tomb of Mohammed and it was occupied, and I came to the tomb of Jesus and it was empty. And I said, There is one who conquered death. And I asked the second question, Did He make a way for me to do it? And I opened the Bible and discovered that He said, 'Because I live ye shall live also.'"
The tomb of Confucius is occupied, as is the tomb of Mohammed. All other faiths or religions have a leader or founder who died and has a tomb, except Christianity! Jesus is alive; the tomb is empty! You can argue as you will there is no point in following a loser, and that's what Confucius, Buddha and Mohammed are: losers. But Jesus is victorious! He conquered death, hell and the grave! And the mere fact that Christianity exploded when it should have died, shows us that there is validity to the claim of the risen Christ! And if Jesus is alive then we have to take note of what he said while he was alive because His resurrection proves that he is who He says He is: God! It means that everything that he said is true and thus it puts us in a position where we must respond!
If you're an unbeliever and you realize that Jesus is alive, it puts you in the position that you have to choose to accept or reject Him. And if you choose to accept him you'll be with him forever, but if you choose to reject him, you'll suffer for eternity without him. If you’re a believer in Christ already, you’ve got the choice to come to grips with some other things that Jesus said and decide whether we believe Him and His Word or don't we? The fact that Jesus is alive proves that what he said is true, and that should change the way we live!