1. The Old Testament foretold the resurrection.
Such evidence is most clearly seen in some of the Messianic Psalms. Compare Psalm 2 with Acts 12:33; Psalm 16 with Acts 2:22-36. See also John 20:9.
2. Jesus Christ Himself foretold His resurrection.
In all three synoptic Gospels, our Lord declared several times that He would be crucified and then in three days would rise from the dead. For examples, see Matthew 12:38-40; Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:22-23; Matthew 20:17-19; Mark 8:31; Mark 9:30-32; Mark 10:32-34; Luke 9:22; Luke 18:31-34.
3. On the third day the tomb was empty.
Scholars agree that the tomb was empty. The women found it empty (Luke 24:3); Peter found it empty (John 20: 1-10); the angel said it was empty (Matthew 28:5-7); and even the Jewish Sanhedrin admitted it was empty, because they had bribed the guards to lie about what had happened (Matthew 28:11-13 ).
4. No answer but an actual resurrection can explain why the tomb was empty.
Space here does not allow detailed replies to the shopworn theories designed to explain away the resurrection (the swoon theory, the fraud theory, the hallucination theory), but convincing refutations abound. Our faith does not rest on myths or philosophical speculations, but on a historical event. Jesus died and rose from the dead in an actual place and at an actual time.
5. Many saw Jesus and spoke with Him after He arose.
Jesus did not just come out of the tomb and then disappear. That morning He appeared to Mary Magdalene alone (John 20:14-18), then to the two 2 Marys (Matthew 28:8-10), to Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5), to two disciples on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:13-31). He appeared that night in the upper room to ten of His disciples (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23). A week later, He appeared to eleven disciples early one morning at the Sea of Galilee (John 21: 1-23). Once He appeared to five hundred brethren (1 Corinthians 15:6).
6. Witnesses not only saw Jesus, but talked with Him and examined His wounds.
When Thomas thrust his hand in Jesus’ side, he exclaimed, ” … My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). On another occasion, Jesus said, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39). This should answer once and for all the charge of cults who argue that Jesus’ resurrection was a spiritual one and not a bodily one.
7. The ascension testified to the fact that He had risen.
Without the resurrection, of course, there could not even have been an ascension, an event clearly recorded in Acts 1:10-11. This took place forty days after He arose. Jesus had ” … shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs … ” (Acts 1 :3).
8. The Apostle Paul saw the risen Lord and preached it as central to his message.
An encounter with the risen Lord (Acts 9:3-6; 1 Corinthians 15:8) converted Paul from a fanatic persecutor of the early church to its foremost missionary. Paul preached the resurrection throughout his epistles. See such passages as Romans 6:4-11; 1 Corinthians 15; Ephesians 1:19-23; Colossians 1:18. The account of the resurrection occurs so many times, in fact, that one authority writes, “Paul, more than anyone, is the apostle of the risen Lord; he is supremely the ‘witness of the resurrection.”‘
9. Stephen and John saw the risen Lord
Stephen saw Him as the angry crowd, with Paul in the midst, was about to stone him to death (Acts 7:54-60). John saw him on the Isle of Patmos (Revelation 1: 10-18).
10. The church through the centuries in itself has been a witness to the resurrection.
Since the days of Pentecost, when Peter made the resurrection the very heart of his message, Christians have exemplified in one degree or another the victory and power of the resurrection released on that morning when Jesus Christ arose from the grave. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central event in world history; but of course, it’s much more than that. It’s also the best news in all the world.