Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The truth of the resurrection of Jesus is so transforming that its enemies will do anything to suppress it. Thus, some claim that the bones of Jesus have been found in an old box. Today, our focus is on an ancient tomb in an ancient city and on the purported evidence that Jesus never rose from the dead.
Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, please summarize the six lies you've shared about Jesus, and especially this last one. Well, you know, the last one of course is, as you mentioned, the belief that the tomb of Jesus has been discovered.
And of course, in my message, I show why that is based on very faulty information. But in addition to that, this book that I've written entitled Don't Be Deceived, Six Lies About Jesus, speaks about those who believe he was not crucified, those who think that Judas actually is a hero and he did Jesus a favor. Another lie is that Jesus was only a man. Jesus had a dark secret. That's another lie. And then most importantly, the belief that Jesus is one way among many. This is a defense of Christ. And this is the last week for you to have the opportunity of receiving this as a resource. Here's what you do.
Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the book Don't Be Deceived, Six Lies About Jesus. What about the probability that you have five names? Matthew has to be excluded because he was not a member of Christ's family. What is the probability that you have five names and they turn out to be in such a configuration all in one tomb and therefore it must be the tomb of Jesus?
Well, first of all, the authors acknowledge the commonality of the names. For example, 25% of the women in Jesus Christ's time were called Mary. If you walk down the street in Jerusalem and said Mary, a quarter of the women would turn their heads. In fact, that's why in the New Testament you have at least six different Marys because it was so common. Jesus, about 10% were called Jesus.
I'm speaking roughly here. Perhaps 10% were called Joseph. These were very common names and this explains why when the tomb was found in 1980, scholars recognized these names. The BBC in England ran a short documentary on them and then quoted a leading archaeologist as saying these are common names.
They're found on ossuaries. The name of Jesus is on at least 22 different ossuaries in Israel and so really it means nothing and it gained no traction at all until the entrepreneurs came along and took a second look and now they say that the statistics are very impressive. Well, let me just comment on a couple of things. First of all, let's look at this name Mary Omni, which they say is Mary Magdalene. No one is sure that Mary Omni was another name for Mary Magdalene. Certainly not in the New Testament, but there you go. The Gospel of Philip, the Acts of Philip I should say, fourth century document. It says in the documentary that was on television as well as in the book, there Mary Magdalene is called Mary Omni.
So you kind of take it at face value and say, okay, well if they say it's true, it's true. You look at the text of Philip, fourth century document. We don't know that this is Philip of the New Testament because remember the Gnostics used apostles to gain credibility for their writings and it says that there was a woman who was the sister of Philip by the name of Mary Omni who went about preaching.
That could be any woman. There's no evidence. There's no hard link that this is Mary Magdalene. Furthermore, Mary Omni Mara.
Some people think that the last name Mara is short for Martha. There's no hard evidence that this is Mary Magdalene and this is very crucial to their whole argument because it's a name that is rarer and therefore up the ante in terms of probability. And what you find is that even if this woman were Mary Magdalene, there's no evidence.
We went through this with the Da Vinci Code. There is no evidence that she and Jesus were married or that Jesus had a son by the name of Judah. That would have been in the New Testament.
That would have been part of the history, but it's not. So these Gnostic gospels are used even though the best sources you could be listening today as an atheist, you could be listening today as a skeptic and you have to admit this, that the best sources of information regarding Jesus and his apostles are the documents of the New Testament. These documents not only have threads that lead back to the New Testament, but they are a rope that leads back to the New Testament apostles and Jesus.
It is a rope with many different strands. The best history of what happened in the early church, it can be attested in so many different ways, is found in the canonical writings, not the Gnostic gospels, which is a whole subject by itself. Do you understand how the reasoning is going here, folks? It's the same thing that we encountered when we were talking about the Da Vinci Code.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, if it lays duck eggs, then obviously it's a camel. I mean, who can argue with that? Let's look at the Jesus ossuary. It's known as the graffiti ossuary because the name of Jesus is scrawled onto it and that's why some scholars don't think it is even the name of Jesus. But even if it is, is this the way you would treat someone who claimed to be the son of God and did the miracles that Jesus did? You'd put them in a bone box that was unadorned and you'd scroll his name on in such a way that scholars wonder whether or not it is the name and there are other markings that are unaccounted for. I don't think that that's the way the bones of Jesus would have been treated by his family. So on and on it goes. Now what I'd like to do and how quickly time goes, I would like to give you five matters that are unaccounted for by this scenario that that is the grave of Jesus.
Five matters very quickly. Number one, the nature of the tomb itself. The nature of the tomb. If this is the family tomb, why Jerusalem?
He was Jesus of Nazareth and by the way, he was never called the son of Joseph by his followers because they carefully guarded the virgin birth. You can see this throughout the gospels, especially the gospel of Luke. So the question is, and then why is it such a wealthy tomb?
It's admitted that this was for people with wealth. Well, the family of Jesus was very poor. And then why are there Greek inscriptions? When the entrepreneurs got into the tomb, they noticed that there was a Greek inscription there.
What's that doing there? If this is a tomb of people who spoke Aramaic, which is a Semitic language, what's the Greek inscription doing there? And then you remember that these tombs were sometimes held for decades.
You could have a variety of people. That's why you found about more than 20 skeletons. I wish I had had the exact number.
I think it may be 30 or 40. That's why you find them within these tombs. So the whole question, the whole question of the tomb is suspect. Secondly, what about Joseph? If Joseph is the patriarch, why isn't he buried there? The bones of Joseph could have been brought from anywhere, and they could have been brought into this family tomb.
But Joseph is conspicuous by his absence. He is not there in the tomb. Third, it doesn't explain Christianity. Because what this scenario is asking us to believe is this, that the disciples and the family members of Jesus knew that his bones were rotting. They knew he did not rise from the dead. And yet they went and they preached the resurrection and were willing to die for the resurrection. And it became the cornerstone of their faith.
That is very difficult to believe. Let's take James, who was a half brother of Jesus and ended up being a leader in the church as seen in the Book of Acts. You telling me that James would know that his famous half brother did not rise from the dead. His bones were in this bone box. And yet James, as a leader in the church, was part of preaching the resurrection and giving impetus to the fledgling Christian movement of the time.
That seems to be unthinkable. And by the way, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, why didn't the Romans and the other authorities that wanted to squelch the Christian message, why didn't they simply produce the tomb and that would have put an end to Christianity? Because apart from that, there is no gospel. What you have apart from that is two people walking on the way to Emmaus after Jesus is crucified, not knowing about the resurrection and being in depression and moping because it's all over.
This was the end of a very beautiful life. And as far as they were concerned, Christianity was dead and they had followed someone who was fraudulent. No, Christianity thrived because the followers of Jesus were absolutely convinced that not only the tomb was empty, but they had not stolen the body, as this theory says, but the tomb was empty because Jesus was raised from the dead by God the Father. So that's a third, a third matter that's not accounted for.
Let me give you a fourth. You know, the Bible is just so bold in its proclamations. Here, the Apostle Paul is writing the book of First Corinthians, perhaps in 51 or 52 AD, 20 years after Jesus would have died and been raised. And this is what he says in First Corinthians, chapter 15.
He says, for I deliver to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then the 12. He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep, though some have died. What Paul is saying is, look, he appeared to 500 people at one time and most of them are living.
What's the clear implication? If you are doubting the resurrection, go talk to these people who were around when it happened and learn from them and find out their experience of the resurrected Christ. That's why it says in the book of Acts, when Peter is preaching the resurrection, he says, these things were not done in a corner. What he meant was, this isn't a privatized faith, that only a few people saw the resurrected Christ.
This was open. Now we're talking about history that others got in on. And then Paul says, he appeared to more than 500, then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he also appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. Paul says, I also saw the risen Christ. So I add my testimony to the testimony of all those who lived and who saw him raised from the dead. There's a fifth fact that is unaccounted for, and that is the triumph and the change that happened in the lives of the disciples. Now here's the scenario that you find in all of those books that deny the resurrection, that deny the historicity of the New Testament, who disregard not only the Christian history, but also secular history. Thinking of James Cameron, you know, who said, up until now, there's been no physical evidence and Jesus has been regarded as a myth. I mean, what about Tacitus? What about all the references to Jesus in secular literature?
But what you find is this. Here's the scenario that's laid out. Jesus was a remarkable man, and he said some interesting things and so forth, but obviously he didn't perform the miracles because we disbelieve in those, and he wasn't raised from the dead. Those are stories that the disciples made up. So you have the Jesus of history over here, and then you have a huge gap called the Christ of faith. These disciples were wild-eyed radicals looking for a messiah, and they took an ordinary man, deified him, made him into a god, and made him their hero, and then tagged on all these miracles that Jesus is purported to have done. That's about the scenario.
Now, there are several reasons why that collapses like a house of cards held together by ropes of mist. First of all, you find that the disciples would have never chosen Jesus to deify. The first commandment says, thou shalt have no other gods before me. They'd have never taken a man and made him into a god unless they were absolutely convinced over a period of time that that's who he was. Secondly, they wouldn't have chosen Jesus because he was so contrary to the kind of messiah that was being expected in that day. As Edersheim says, everything about Jesus was contrary to the kind of person that disciples would have chosen to deify and make into a messiah. I mean, they were expecting a messiah who would throw off the Roman yoke, and here is Jesus saying that my kingdom is not of this world.
I mean, he was so unlike anything that anyone would have ever expected. But furthermore, the disciples were hard-headed fishermen. They were not gullible. They were not the kind who hallucinated.
Take, for example, Thomas. He was absent for a Sunday evening service. That's what sometimes happens when people miss a Sunday evening service. So he was not with them when Jesus came. And here you have 11 apostles, or at least 10, I should say.
Judas not among them. This is a lawyer's dream. You've got 10 people all saying the same thing and telling the same story. So he hears. Does he say, okay, I'll take your testimony? No.
He says, except I shall see in his hand the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side. I will not believe. Wow. You talk about skepticism. And today I speak to those of you who are listening who are skeptics.
Could I tell you, I invite you to bring your doubts to Jesus and to the New Testament. Some people have not yet doubted enough and therefore perhaps they have not completely believed. Doubts can lead us to truth if we are open to the truth.
Doubts turn us away from the truth if down deep inside we don't want to know it. So Jesus accommodates himself to Thomas. He's up in the upper room with the other apostles and Jesus comes to him and Jesus knows exactly what Thomas said. And today Jesus knows your heart and he knows what you are saying in response to the word of God and in response to this message. So Jesus appears and he says, Thomas, reach hither and behold my side.
Reach hither thy hands and touch the nail prints. And Thomas, don't be faithless but believing. And Thomas said in those very immortal words, my Lord and my God, my Lord and my God. He is alive. He has been raised. I see the nail prints.
I see where the sword went. This is truth. My Lord and my God. And then Jesus said something about you and about me. He said, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Oh, blessed are those who have not seen.
And yet they have believed. Blessed are you, Mary. Blessed are you, Karen. Blessed are you, Ruth. Blessed are you, Nancy. Blessed are you, Tom. Blessed are you, Berve. Blessed are you, Earl.
Blessed are you, Michelle. Because we have not seen and yet we have believed. The evidence is compelling and it is overwhelming.
The tomb was empty. No bones about it. But for the skeptics out there, have you believed? Have you believed in the one who says that because I live, you shall live also, who invites us to participate in his victory, his triumph over death, that your whole body, soul and spirit would be preserved blameless onto his coming, a triumphant, sovereign savior able to save us from our sins. Would you join me as we pray? Our Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to you and thank you that you raised Jesus from the dead. We thank you today, Father, that graciously you've shown us the power of the resurrection. And we thank you that the day will come when we also will be raised.
Our body is sown in corruption, raised in incorruption, sown in weakness, but raised in strength. And we ask today, Father, that in this day of great confusion, you'll help all of us to testify to the risen, triumphant Christ who reigns. And now before I close this prayer, where are you in your spiritual journey? Are you willing to take it a step further, a step closer to Jesus? Are you willing to say, yes, I accept Jesus as my savior, as the one who died and rose again?
Or at least you're willing to investigate it further. Whatever God has said to you, you talk to God. Father, for those who struggle with doubt, help them to be able to say with Thomas, yes, I have some demands. And then may you meet those.
They will not be your physical appearance, but show them the truth. And may we walk in that triumph today. We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. You know, my friend, if you've been listening to Running to Win for any length of time, you know that ultimately, even though we speak about many different subjects, it always comes back to Jesus. We want to offer Jesus to a world that is looking for hope, a world that is looking for forgiveness. And I've written a book entitled Don't Be Deceived, Six Lies About Jesus. And let me tell you, the reason I wrote this book is that not all Jesus says save. The apostle Paul in the New Testament said that you have believed in another Jesus.
And that Jesus was so like the real Jesus that the people couldn't tell the difference. For a gift of any amount, we're making this resource available for you. I hope that you have a pen or pencil ready.
Furthermore, this is the last week for you to receive this book. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com, or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337.
Right now, go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And let me thank you in advance for your help, because together we're making a difference. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. As our culture deteriorates, Christians are beseeching God to send revival and to cleanse our land. Next time on Running to Win, we launch a series on what happens when God comes to church. Make plans to join us. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
