by Campbell Campbell-Jack, TCW
TWO thousand years ago a working-class Jew in Israel was executed by the Roman authorities at the instigation of Jewish religious leaders. He was buried, yet rose again, and history pivoted. The lives of billions were renewed; as a result old nations fell and new arose, cultures and science developed, all was changed utterly.
Yet everything centres on this question: ‘Did Jesus rise from the dead on the first Easter Day?’
He Lived Only the most obscurantist atheist would deny the abundant evidence that Jesus of Nazareth lived in Israel in the first century AD and was executed. Even Richard Dawkins grudgingly agrees that the idea Jesus never existed is ‘not widely supported’. Atheist Professor Bart D Ehrman, a respected historian and author, goes further when he writes that Jesus ‘certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees, based on certain and clear evidence’.
Who was Jesus? Perhaps, as many claim, He was merely a good man who wandered ancient Israel preaching, teaching and doing good works. Maybe the Muslims are correct when they assert he was only a prophet. Christians believe His claim to be God in the flesh, and that He experienced real life as one of us knowing our problems and temptations. He died paying the price for our sin, and after His burial He rose again and still lives.
The life and teaching of the early church revolved around His resurrection. The resurrection is referred to more than 100 times in the New Testament and mentioned in nearly every book. There are 13 sermons recorded in the Book of Acts: all are brief and straightforward and all centre on the fact that Jesus is alive and can change lives. Every recorded sermon was an Easter sermon.