Dealing with Doubts - Why I Believe in the Resurrection, Part 1

There are many difficult and challenging questions about Christianity, the Bible, science and other world religions. But our faith is rooted first and foremost in one miraculous and historically verifiable event.

Either Jesus rose from the dead or he didn't. Here's the question. Is it true?

And why do you believe it? Stay with me. That's today. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of this daily program is to intentionally disciple Christians through the insightful Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. Today we're continuing our series Dealing with Doubts. And if you're wrestling with your faith or know someone who's become an outspoken skeptic about Christianity, these messages are for you. Through Chip and our guest teacher, John Dickerson, we'll uncover the answers to questions like, what happens after we die? Is Jesus real? Can we trust God's Word?

And is Christianity good? Well, I hope you're really connecting with what Chip and John have shared so far. And if so, take a minute after today's message and share it with someone.

Now, you can easily do that through the Chip Ingram app or by downloading the free MP3s at livingontheedge.org. Well, with all that, let's get going and join Chip for his talk, Why I Believe in the Resurrection. I received a note a few years ago from a name that I recognized. I pastored a church in a very small community in Texas. And this was a young man who was involved in young life, a zealous Christian. And, you know, I was the pastor. Are you ready for this?

Back in my 20s, early 30s. And I got this note and it had a gift toward the ministry and said, thanks a lot. And so I thought, wow, you know, I haven't heard from this guy in ages. So I gave him a call and I said, hey, I just called to tell you, you know, thanks so much for the gift. We really appreciate it.

And your note. And it's just so encouraging of the pastor in me to, you know, all these years later that you're still walking with the Lord. And the guy said something that kind of shocked me. He goes, well, actually I don't walk with God at all anymore. I said, what? He goes, yeah, I'm a doctor.

I work as an ER doctor. And shortly after high school, my dad, who was a, just a atheist, I mean radical atheist, he just asked me a bunch of questions and he just took my faith and threw it in the trash can and said, I'll never amount to anything. And it literally destroyed my faith. He said, but I drive back and forth to the hospital and I catch your radio program. I don't know if I should take this as a compliment or not. He goes, I don't think even have to believe in God. I think when you talk, it just encourages people. So I said, well, wow. And I had a moment, you know, one of those moments on the phone, I thought, one, I was really disappointed. And second, then I said, you know something, can I share something with you? And he said, well, sure. I said, you know, I had a moment like that as well.

His name was Dr. P and he was a very smart, intelligent person. And he asked me a bunch of questions that caused me to doubt my whole faith. And I went on a journey and I went on this journey to, to try and really, how do you solve these doubts? And can I intellectually believe, you know, the Bible is true and Jesus is the only way and these things that, I mean, he ridiculed me. And I asked him, I used his name and I said, would you be willing even after all these years to go on maybe a little journey with me? I mean, I'm not gonna preach at you.

I'm not gonna tell you, you ought to do this or ought to do that. But I went on this journey. Could we explore your doubts together and just see, are you ready?

Is it intellectually feasible to believe that Jesus is God, that he is the only way to heaven, that the Bible is true and that all the things that we shared when you were young are a reality? And then there was this pause. Yeah, I'd be willing to do that. I said, okay, well, I'll send you some stuff to read and I'll read it and we'll get on the phone, we'll talk back and forth. And we went on that journey. And I will wait to tell you a little bit about the outcome.

It was pretty exciting. And so I didn't say you ought to believe this, you need to do that. I said, let's begin asking some questions. And let's ask them, I mean, at the most basic, basic level. And I said, you'd be surprised, but atheists and Christians have one thing that they violently agree on together.

He said, what's that? I said, they both believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is central. The issue rises or falls, that either Jesus rose from the dead or he didn't. In fact, let me quote probably the best known atheist of the last century, Anthony Flew. He says, the physical, literal bodily resurrection is the best, if not the only reason for accepting that Jesus is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We both agree, he's talking about a debate that he's having with the Christian leader. We both agree that the identification in defining and distinguishing the characteristics of the true Christian, that it is scarcely possible to make it without also accepting the resurrection did literally happen. Not spiritually, not just, you know, people have some experience, but literally Jesus was fully God, fully man, but made these outrageous claims. He physically actually died. And then he physically and bodily rose from the dead, walked upon the earth for 40 days in a resurrection body.

It either happened or it didn't. Now you ready for this? This is what the Apostle Paul says. First Corinthians 15 verses 16 to 19.

Paul agrees with the atheist. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You're still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep, literally those who have died in Christ, they've died.

If we have hope in Christ in this life only, we are of all men, most to be pitied. And so what I did with my friend, as I said, how about this? Let me walk you through my journey. And the way I'd like to do it is I'd like to just share with you the seven reasons that led me to believe that the resurrection actually happened. But rather than say, these are the seven reasons, you ought to believe this, this is airtight, should, should, should. I didn't do any of that. I said to him, you know what? Let's just ask basic intellectual questions that really play out in all of our lives.

Okay? Because, you know, I live in a place where people have come from Buddhist, Hindu, Islam, all kind of backgrounds from all around the world. And so I just started with some very, very basic questions.

So let's dig in together. Question number one is, did Jesus really exist? I mean, is it a fairytale? As I shared with one guy on a plane, he came from a Hindu background and he just said, you know, we have all kinds of things where there's myths. Is Jesus a real person?

Can you even prove that? Biblical manuscripts, the quantity and the quality of them, the way that we know anything happened in antiquity, whether it's Homer and the Iliad, whether it's Shakespeare, whether it's any old writing, Plato, Aristotle, we have manuscripts and they're reliable and they've been tested. What you find is the New Testament has the greatest number and the greatest quality. I mean, we have a handful of manuscripts hundreds of years after Plato or Aristotle.

We have 25,000 either partial or full manuscripts of the New Testament. Now, being a skeptic myself and with my friend, I said, now, you know, if all we have is the Bible, it's kind of circular reasoning to say, well, the Bible says Jesus was here. So I guess that's true. But what we have is external verification. Josephus was a Jewish historian shortly after the time of Christ. Pliny and Tacitus were Roman historians. And what we have is actual documentation. In other words, you can go to times and places and archeology and writers that are not a part of the movement that say, this is what happened. They quote, this is what Jesus said, this is what his followers believed. And so first and foremost, secular scholars, believers and unbelievers have manuscripts, these non-Christian sources, and then the confirmation of archeology, whether it's an inscription with Pontius Pilate or whether it's tablets that we find about a census that happened during the time. They dug up, they didn't even know about it.

They dug up and found Bethlehem and all these different places. It is absolutely a given that this person named Jesus, now I'm not saying he's a son of God yet. I'm not saying he's a savior of the world, but there's an absolute historical consensus that he lived, that he's a real person. He's not the tooth fairy.

He's not someone that got a dream from somewhere. He's not some philosophical something. A real man named Jesus lived upon the earth. Now the second question is what was Jesus really like? I mean, what kind of person was he?

I wasn't there, you weren't there. And what we know is that friend and foe agree that he was a great man and a moral teacher. I mean, even when I talk about people from Islamic backgrounds, I mean, you read the Quran, Jesus is a prominent, he's a great prophet, a moral teacher. Even my new age friends say the Christ consciousness. Friend and foe believe that, I mean, all of history, ADBC, this man had the greatest influence, the greatest moral teacher.

I think every parent would say, I would love my children to grow up and be like Jesus. He was kind, he was loving, he helped the poor, he cared for the marginalized, he was a person of impeccable integrity. And so what we know is that the kind of life he lived, everyone agreed was amazing. And yet here's what he said. He claimed that he was actually sinless. John chapter eight, verse 46, Jesus says, which one of you can fix me of sin?

If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me? So on the one hand, he's a great moral teacher, but he makes this outrageous claim. And he says, I have never sinned. And the truth of the matter is, is that what we know is his life has had more impact, more books on ethics, history, culture than any life that's ever lived. So history is airtight, real person.

Second, his character is beyond dispute. Third, the works of Jesus went unchallenged. Because see, I think you got to ask, okay, he's a real person, he came in history, but did he really do all that stuff? I mean, all those miracles in the New Testament.

I mean, he raises a little girl from the dead, he's walking through a village and a lady, her son has died, and she's a widow and he stops her and he raises him from the dead. We have the stories of feeding 5,000 people. And in that day, they usually only counted the men.

So there's probably 15 to 20,000 people on a few loaves and a couple fish. Did those things really happen? And if so, how would you verify it? Well, let's look at the evidence. The works of Jesus actually went unchallenged. All those miracles that I just said, there were eyewitnesses that validated it. See, what's really interesting, I love this about the New Testament. This wasn't miracles that you hear about, say, in far off India, or these happened in the Amazon, and so and so told so and so who told so and so, and we're supposed to believe it. These happened over a three year period. And over a three year period, what we have is eyewitnesses. And so, you know, this little girl is raised from the dead.

Well, she has an aunt and she tells her friends, there's like 15 or 20,000 people, and all those loaves are stacked up afterwards, and they tell their friends and tell their friends. In fact, it's so validated, but what we know is, he couldn't go to a major metropolitan area. I mean, this guy is a rock star above all rock stars.

I mean, it was absolutely crazy. He was thronged. People just wanted to touch him. Friend and foe, even his enemies, they never questioned whether he actually did the miracles.

Are you ready? What did they question? The source of the miracle. They said, you do these miracles by the power of Beelzebub, or Satan is what they were saying. And so we have a historical figure who has impeccable character, who did miraculous works that go unquestioned. And so it raises the next question, is who did Jesus actually claim to be?

You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And before we get back to today's message, is there someone close to you really wrestling with their faith right now? Do you wish you could do something to help them break through the distrust or skepticism weighing them down? Well, stick around after the teaching to learn about a pair of insightful resources designed to answer and resolve doubts.

Don't miss it. For now, here again is Chip. Now here's where we get where people really start to disagree, and especially secular scholars. They'll say, you know, this whole Christianity movement, yes, there was a real Jesus. Maybe he was a great teacher.

Maybe even these miracles, they're hard to say that they didn't happen. But he never claimed to be God. He never claimed to be the Savior of the world. What his followers did hundreds of years later, they just went back and they edited these manuscripts, and they made these claims to start this great movement. And so we have to ask ourselves, did he in fact claim to be God? Did he in fact claim to be the Son of God or the Savior of the world? Well, we know from the New Testament documents, Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me. We know from Mark chapter nine that his followers said, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. If you do accept the text of the New Testament, we know that God will speak and say what? This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased.

Listen to him. But what is interesting is even his enemies declare that he claimed to be God. In John chapter 10, they are ready to kill him. And the Jews answered and said to him, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man, make yourself out to be God.

Now again, I'm pretty aware that that could be sort of circular reasoning, everything you quoted so far about these claims are in the New Testament. There was a historian named Pliny the Younger in 111 AD, and he was doing research. He stayed on top of what was happening in Rome, and so he writes a letter to the Emperor. At this point in time, there's massive persecution of Christians, and many Christians are called on the carpet, will you recant? And so Pliny does the research, and we have an actual document from him writing a letter to the Emperor, explaining about this sect, these Christians, so they were called.

And so he writes to the Emperor, and the letter goes something like this. He goes, I really don't understand this sect. We give them an opportunity to recant, and yet they refuse to worship idols.

They refuse to worship Caesar. They meet early in the morning and claim that a dead man came back to life. They claim that this dead man is God. They love one another radically, and they do strange things, greeting one another with a holy kiss. He says why they won't recant, they would rather die, because they claim that this savior is in fact God.

And so what we know is from historical documents that this claim that Jesus was God happened in the first century. Pause. I'm talking to a friend. You're talking to a friend. There's not a finger pointing. There's not a preaching.

We're on the same side with our arm around a person who has an honest heart that wants to explore truth, and so we ask very honest questions. Did Jesus exist? Yes. Was he a good man?

Absolutely. The best man who's ever lived. Well, did he actually do miracles? Verified as much as any miracle, but thousands of eyewitnesses. Well, who did he really claim to be? Friend, foe, external evidence says he actually claimed to be God. Well, we're moving our way, and as I was talking to my doctor friend, this happened over a period of months.

And we went back and forth, and you know, what about this, and what about that? And then we get to sort of the crux of the matter where it gets real specific, because you have to ask the question, did he really die? I mean, did Jesus really die?

Maybe he took, you know, I've heard people say, maybe he took some special herbs, and he got his heart rate to go way, way, way slow, and it only appeared as though he died. See, if Jesus didn't die, then he wasn't resurrected, and if he's not resurrected, atheists and the Apostle Paul would agree, nothing works. Everything rises and falls on the resurrection. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, Why I Believe in the Resurrection, from our series Dealing with Doubts.

Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. How confident are you in answering questions about God and the Bible? Do you feel a little unprepared, wishing you would have paid a little bit more attention in Sunday school? Through this insightful series, Chip and guest teacher John Dickerson will help you better understand the bedrock concepts of the Christian faith and confidently communicate those truths in an engaging way. And we want to equip you for when those meaningful conversations pop up, so check out our resources page at livingontheedge.org for all the details about books, podcasts, and articles referenced throughout this series. Our goal is to connect you with trustworthy Bible experts as you talk to those with genuine doubts or questions.

Again, visit livingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram map to browse our resources. Before I come back and talk about today's program and give you some specific application, I just want to take a moment and share a letter from a listener that really struck me that I think you'll love. Dear Chip, just finished reading the book, Why I Believe, and had to tell you what an awesome read it is.

So much research and study given to produce such an informative work. I ordered five more copies to give as gifts to my family members that have asked questions, some of which I had no answers for. Thank you for creating such an easy read and so complete with answers to some very important questions. I've been in a relationship with the Lord for 30 years now, and I'm seeing God transform our family by His love in so many ways. Many miracles have taken place revealing the transforming power of His love, forever grateful for people such as you responding to the needs of others so that the life-changing power of Christ can be easily understood by anyone. May God continue to use your ministry to reach the masses. Blessings, Jean and South Carolina.

Well first, thanks Jean. And I think the reason I'm so passionate about this Why I Believe series is because I found these answers and literally they changed my life. I did not grow up as a follower of Christ, and shortly after, you know, kind of a real strong growing spurt, I just got slammed by intellectual people about Chip. I mean, you don't really believe the Bible, do you? And Jesus being the only way, and you know, what about evolution? And I'll just be honest with you, I literally had to dig in and study and be honest to say, you know what, if there's not good answers, I'm not going to throw my brains in the trash to be a follower of Christ. But what I want you to know is that the product of that study, I didn't throw my brains in the trash. And you and your friends and your kids and your grandkids, they don't have to throw their brains in the trash either. But they need to understand why they believe, not just what they believe.

And the research is just obvious. Most Christians in America, let alone their children or grandchildren, can't articulate what they believe. And so what we've done is we've put together a book, and we've done it in a way that in a simple without being simplistic way, we can answer those questions. What we want you to know is that we're asking you to really join us and create a movement, if you will, where Christians in America would know what they believe, why they believe it, and then share it in a winsome and loving non-judgmental way with the people around it. Don't you think that'd make a difference?

It absolutely would, Chip. And that's why during this series, we've bundled two of our most popular resources on this topic to help you jumpstart this movement. Visit LivingOnTheEdge.org to get your copy of Chip's book, Why I Believe, and our friend John Dickerson's book, Jesus Skeptic. We hope that through these resources, you'll encounter Jesus, the God-man, and understand why we can fully trust and follow the teachings of the Bible. For complete details about this two-book bundle, call 888-333-6003 or go to LivingOnTheEdge.org.

Have listeners tap special offers. Well, Chip, to wrap up, you know I've got to tell you when I think about answering questions about Jesus' resurrection, I feel at a bit of a loss and maybe even a little intimidated too. Now, what would you say to those wrestling with that same fear?

Yeah, Dave. I think somehow over the years, we've sort of got the idea that we need to be this intellectual giant and be able to answer everyone's questions. And the very first thing that happens, even if it's one of your grandchildren or one of your friends, they ask you a question and you start to feel this defense rise up inside. And what I've learned over the years is maybe the very best thing to do is just to pause and ask some questions, some good logical questions. And the fact of the matter is that everyone believes something and they're just asking you as a friend and probably with just honest concerns, why do you really believe that? And so even in our time today, you know, rather than say, here's the five reasons why the resurrection must be true and this is what I believe and you must believe it, I really just paused and began to ask some pretty basic questions that I discovered most people want the answers to like, did Jesus really exist?

I mean, how do we know he was even a real person or was he just a mythical character? I remember sitting on a plane with a Google executive recently and he had no concept of history and we talked for about an hour and a half about our family and our kids and different things and found out what I believed and why. And then he just paused and sort of like opened this big door and looked at me and said, you know, I don't like really get like even when Jesus lived or like Muhammad or Christianity or Confucianism. He goes, you know, I've just kind of been in high tech all my life. And then he asked me a question. I said, well, do you believe Jesus ever existed? And he says, I don't know.

Well, I just explained to him, well, like I shared with you. Or the second question, what was he really like? I mean, the fact of the matter is we have not just from the Bible, but extra biblical resources that whatever you believe, Jesus is the most marvelous person who's ever walked the earth.

He was the kindest, the most loving. I mean, all of history is A.D., B.C. built around this most amazing human being.

You know, so pretty soon now you don't feel defensive. What we feel like is we're having a real conversation around some questions that I think are very logical. The third question we talked about is, did Jesus really do miracles? Now, that feels a bit like a stretch because, wow, you know, how can you prove that? Well, we have all kind of historical documents and what we know is the logic is really clear that in the season and the period in which he lived, the outrageous miracles that are claimed there and everything written within 20 or 25 years after it happened, I mean, everyone was alive to either authenticate it or refute it. And again, we begin to tilt our head and say, wow, if those three things are true, maybe I should really explore who did he really claim to be?

And of course, we see from not only the Bible, but extra biblical resources and historians that not just the early church hundreds of years later, but Jesus himself and the early church believe this outrageous, outrageous claim that he was in fact God and he was the savior of the world. And so what I want you to know is that as you learn to ask questions and then, yes, we need to do our research, we can talk with those we love in a way that's not defensive but with our arm around them and invite them to explore the answers together. I want you to know that God has provided all the answers we need and what he needs is a mouthpiece that's kind and loving and warm and winsome and not defensive. We hope this series is really going to help you do that.

That's absolutely right, Chip. Thanks for that reminder. As we wrap up this program, Living on the Edge depends on listeners like you to help us continue encouraging Christians to live like Christians. So would you consider becoming a monthly partner to help others benefit from this ministry? You can set up a recurring donation at livingontheedge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6003. Again, that's 888-333-6003 or visit livingontheedge.org. Have listeners tap donate. And thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. We'll be sure to join us next time as Chip continues our series, Dealing with Doubts. Until then, I'm Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.