Is There Evidence That Jesus Christ Is Alive After Death? An Examination Of The Facts

If Jesus is dead then I’m a fraud. If Jesus is dead right now, then we’re all a joke. The atheists would be right. The world would be right. All the good in the world wouldn’t really be good, all the bad wouldn’t really be bad, all our work would be for nothing, and our lives would be truly meaningless, if Jesus were really still dead.

But Jesus Christ is alive. Jesus predicted, two thousand years ago, that he would be betrayed, and killed, but that three days later he would rise from the dead. And then it happened. And the world was shocked. The chief priests were horrified, the romans were stupefied, and no one knew what to do next. They tried to deny it, millions today still try to deny it, but it remains true, a historical fact, that Jesus of Nazareth was seen by multiple witnesses alive, after being crucified. And these post-death appearances of Jesus affected his followers in such a radical way that they spread the gospel across the face of the Earth, the gospel that Jesus had died to pay off the sins of any who would follow Him, and that he has risen from the grave, to be the first of many who would rise from their graves, and live forever.

You’ll have to decide in your heart: Do you believe in miracles?

For me, it’s obvious that Jesus Christ is alive right now. Because he changed my life forever. He set me free from sins and addictions. He changed my family. My grandpa. My mom. He’s still changing lives everyday in this very city, and across the face of the Earth. Not only that, we have good reason to believe that Jesus is alive, evidence from history, archaeology, science, and ancient manuscripts. Overall, I believe, and yes, I know, Jesus Christ is alive. He rose from the dead. Because it’s clear as day, to see this truth.

Jesus predicted it would happen. Jesus was very strategic about what he said to his disciples. But he did say several times, the son of man must be betrayed, and killed, but then be raised from the dead three days later. It seemed like it didn’t quite click for the disciples what he was talking about. Maybe it kind of went in one ear and out the other.

But Jesus kept hinting to them. You think of when he raised Lazarus from the dead. He told Lazarus’ sisters, "I am the resurrection and the life, if you believe in me, though you die, you will live."

Again I don’t know if they truly understood what he was saying.

So we think to the crucifixion which we recognize on Good Friday. Jesus went through his all night ordeal and into the morning, being judged and condemned by the chief priests and the roman authorities. They had him charged with crimes, accused him and then found guilty and sentenced him to death, though he had done nothing wrong. He was scourged with whips, mocked, ridiculed, slapped, and a crown of thorns was forced onto his head. At 9 AM he was nailed to a wooden cross, and it was raised up and dropped into a hole in the ground.

There he suffered from 9am to noon. Then from noon until 3pm a total solar eclipse took place. And at 3pm Jesus died.

The disciples went into hiding. They didn’t understand what was happening and why it had happened the way it did.

They were struggling with unbelief, and fear. And we do the same thing don’t we? We give up sometimes just a bit too easily. Jesus died and his disciples thought it was over. But then something happened three days later, just as Jesus had predicted: Jesus was found to be alive.

There are numerous reports of post-death appearances of Jesus. People are seeing him alive. Not as a ghost. Not as a spirit. But physically alive.

There is this strange report of the stone being rolled way from his grave. The body is missing. The Romans aren’t sure what happened. The Jews aren’t sure what happened.

And you have several different accounts of Jesus appearing alive to people, Peter, Mary, all the eleven disciples, even a crowd of 500 people.

And here we find the very crucial key question of Christianity: Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

We can look at the pictures and the paintings and think how beautiful they are. We can read the accounts in Matthew or Luke and be inspired. But if we could go in a time machine and land our time machine outside the tomb on that morning, would we really see that Jesus Christ rose from the dead?

That’s the key to everything friends. If Jesus is dead right now, then we’re all wasting our time here. But, if Jesus is really alive right now, then every word of the Bible is true, and every single person on planet Earth needs to know about Jesus and get Jesus as their savior and Lord.