Service of Commemoration

(John 20.1-9)

The Funeral Service begins with some well known words of Jesus:

Jesus said, I am the resurrection, and I am the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever believes in me shall never die.

Christians believe that there is life after death because Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

When I visit people who have been bereaved, some have had the courage to say to me "O, I wish I had a stronger faith". They can see how faith in God can bring great comfort during times of need, ...but they can't quite manage to have such faith.

Sometimes people want to believe in life after death, ...but they are filled with doubts. "Perhaps it's just a fairy story to make people feel better", they might think to themselves. "...Or perhaps the idea is based on a huge hoax".

Well Christians believe that Jesus does indeed offer us the gift of eternal life. ...And this evening I briefly want to look at the reasons why we believe this.

You see the whole Christian faith rests upon two key events, ...the death, ...and the resurrection, ...of Jesus.

Now as far as I am aware, no serious historian would deny that Jesus lived and died. The evidence, both from the Bible, and from other writings at that time, is enormous.

However, what some historians DO dispute is the resurrection, ...the claim that Jesus rose from the dead.

But there is nothing new about this. Right from the very beginning, the opponents of Christianity have denied that Jesus rose from the dead, ...because they knew that was a key foundation of the whole Christian faith.

Disprove the resurrection and you've disproved the entire Christian faith. Or as St. Paul put it,

"...if Christ has not been raised [from the dead], then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins. It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost ...[and] we deserve more pity than anyone else in the world.

But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised." (1Co. 15.17-20)

Fortunately, no-one has been able to disprove the resurrection, ...because the evidence supporting the resurrection is so strong.

Lord Darling, a former Lord Chief Justice of England, spoke about the resurrection in these words:

"In its favour ...there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring a verdict that the Resurrection story is true." (Why Jesus? p10)

But what exactly is the evidence that Lord Darling was referring to?

(The following id a summary of Questions of Life, p36-40)

Well first, there is the evidence of the absent body from the tomb.

At the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb, ...and they laid Jesus' body there. But as we heard in our Bible reading, the disciples went to the tomb on Easter morning and the body had gone!

Now many theories have been put forward to explain the missing body, but none of them are very convincing.

Some have suggested that Jesus did not really die on the cross, he simply fainted, ...and then later recovered when he was placed in the tomb.

But the soldiers were obviously convinced that he was dead, or they would not have taken his body down. It was their job to know such things. Furthermore, when they discovered that Jesus was already dead, one of soldiers thrust a spear into his side just to be absolutely sure.

Others have suggested that the disciples stole the body and began a rumour that Jesus had risen from the dead. Leaving aside the fact that the tomb was guarded, this theory is psychologically improbable. When you consider how much they had to suffer for what they believed, (floggings, torture, and even death), ...it seams inconceivable that they would have endured all that for something they knew to be a lie.

So others have suggested that the authorities stole the body. But this seams the most improbable theory of all. If the authorities had stolen the body, why did they not produce it when they were trying to quash the rumour that Jesus had risen from the dead?

None of these theories are very convincing, which is why 'the absent body' provides strong evidence in favour of the resurrection.

Second, there is the evidence of Jesus appearances to the disciples.

Many of Jesus' followers claimed to have seen him after he had been crucified. Some have argued that these sightings were hallucinations, ...but hallucinations normally occur in highly strung and very nervous people, or in people who are sick or on drugs. The disciples do not fit any of these categories, ...they were ordinary fishermen, tax collectors, and sceptics like Thomas.

Jesus appeared to his twelve disciples on several different occasions, ...and St. Paul writes to some Christians in Greece:

"Then he appeared to more that 500 of his followers at once, ...most of whom are still alive..." (1Co. 15.6)

...the clear implication being that they could go and check out what he was saying from living eye witnesses.

Third, there is the evidence of it's impact upon the world.

The effect of Jesus rising from the dead turned the world upside down. As someone has said,

"[The] Church... beginning from a handful of uneducated fisherman and tax gatherers, swept across the whole known world within the next 300 years.

It is a perfectly amazing story of peaceful revolution that has no parallel in the history of the world.

It came about because Christians were able to say to inquirers: 'Jesus did not only die for you. He is alive! You can meet him and discover for yourself the reality of what we are talking about!'

They did, and joined the church ...and the church, born from that Easter grave, spread everywhere."

(Michael Green)

And that brings us to the fourth piece of evidence, that of Christian experience today.

Countless millions of people down the ages have experienced the risen Christ. Millions of Christians today, all over the world, are experiencing a relationship which Jesus Christ which convinces them that he is really alive.

So there are at least four good reasons why Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead. There's:

- the evidence of the absent body from the tomb;

- the evidence of Jesus appearances to the disciples;

- the evidence of it's impact upon the world; and,

- the evidence of Christian experience today.

And our confidence that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, enables Christians to have confidence in the truth of what he said ...which is where we began...

Jesus said, I am the resurrection, and I am the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever believes in me shall never die.

Amen.