"Preacher, how did people know Jesus rose from the dead?"

I'm going to try to answer a question each day on the blog.  I might hit two a day sometimes.  We received 54 questions, so that should keep us busy for a while.  I thought it appropriate to answer this one in this post-Easter week:

How did people know Jesus rose from the dead?

The short answer is:  they saw Him.  Before ascending into heaven, Jesus walked the area for 40 days.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:6, "and then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once -- most of them are still alive to this day, though some have died."  This was after he appeared to the women disciples and the twelve disciples.  Jesus came to see them.  They talked to Him and placed their fingers in his nail scared hand.

Much of my message on Easter was about this understanding.  Many of those that saw recorded it.  Some wrote accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (Gospels).  Some wrote letters to churches or communities of faith (letters/epistles).  In fact, of eight of the New Testament writers, only Luke stated that he was not an eye-witness to the resurrection.  He wrote of the life of Jesus through the accounts of those eye-witnesses that he was very close to, and he was intimately involved in the early Church movement right after the resurrection of Jesus.

So, we have their accounts.  They saw him.  Their claims to have seen Jesus resurrected caused them to be killed by political and religious authorities.  It was blasphemy.  All but John were killed for their faith.  They tried to kill John, but he survived their efforts.  Not one 'squealed.'  Not one said it was a hoax.  Of course, the 12 disciples weren't the only ones that were killed.  Hundreds of Christians were killed under the Roman Emperors, and they all went to their death holding on to their claim that Jesus was alive. 

It's a step of faith for us to believe what people wrote 2,000 years ago.  However, it's also a step of faith to say that those people died for their beliefs in order to pull off a hoax.  That seems unlikely to me.  I believe they died for their beliefs because they had seen something never recorded in history, something that changed eternity.  I believe because I've felt the power and presence of the risen Lord in my own life.