Paul is beginning to go through the facts as they stood; and I like the phrase that he uses here, as he’s talking about the five hundred who saw Him at one moment.  “…Of whom the greater part remain unto this present time…After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.  And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:6-8).  Irrefutable, if you approach it without prejudice.  The story is as old as the event itself.  They had the story that the disciples came and stole the body.  The Bible gives us a little insight into that and says the guards were paid off.  We know by just a casual reading in the book of Philippians that when the jail was shaken there and the doors were opened by God, the earthquake having taken place, the same as the angelic appearance with Peter in prison, and the gates were opened, and he walked out of that prison; the guards knew that the consequence of losing a prisoner in the Roman era was death.  Yet these, having been conspiring, paid off, to be told that they had come in.  I wonder if it was maybe one of those that came in and intimidated the guards—maybe Mary Magdalene?  Maybe she had just been down in the gym, pumping a little bit, and came in and threatened the guards.

Logic tells us, and people still argue today, that this “myth” was made up by the disciples.  Most people that will invent a story for their own personal gain, knowing that it’s a lie, won’t take it to the point where they’re willing to stand in an arena and have their children ripped out of their arms by wild beasts, boiled in hot oil, sawn asunder, for what they know to be a lie.  He is risen; praise God.  These eyewitnesses saw it.  Some of us would make the mistake to say, “If I could have only seen that with my own eyes, it would so help my belief.”  We have a more sure Word; praise God.  Amen?  This Word, in reference to those five hundred witnesses at one time; this Word on which they placed their very lives, the logos, the living Word.  There’s no question about the Resurrection.  We could go on and read even through the rest of the chapter here, and just some great truths that are spoken throughout the Scriptures, throughout the epistles, the assurance of our salvation.

First Thessalonians tells us over in the fourth chapter, verse 14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”  Hallelujah.  As he assures those in Thessalonica of the great promise that we have in that resurrection power, we’re told so simply, and we’ve used it in our own lives and shared it with others, over in Romans, Chapter 10, verse 9, “If we would confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and would believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we would be saved.”  Hallelujah.  Let’s remember this word “saved.”  The root sōzō, soteria, means “wholeness.”  Thank God, we not only have that hope of eternal life, but, beloved, the promise of Jesus was that in this resurrection, we not only have life, we have it more abundantly.  We not only have eternal life; we have abundant life.  The Resurrection is for us today, to have an abundant life.  A life of health, a life of peace of mind, when people are losing their minds today.  We have that assurance of the wholeness of mind.  Do you look around some today, and without the promise of the Word of God, wouldn’t we be tempted to think, “Am I losing my mind?”  We are the minority.  We are that byword in society today.  We are the people that they mock, the simpletons.  We might be intellectually acute, but weak of mind, in that we need a crutch, we need a religion.  We don’t understand the sufficiency of man, and the need to “draw out our full potential.”  If we would only “draw on our full potential.”  Many of us are drawing on our full potential; it’s called total depravity.