When Jesus died and was buried, not a single human being believed He would ever rise again.

     When He was arrested, the disciples abandoned Him and fled. Disappointed, they returned to their homes and their fishing nets.

The Disciples’ Disappointment

     Jesus had predicted His sufferings, death, and resurrection. But the disciples had never understood these sayings; they forgot them. The women came to the tomb on the first day of the week, not to see it empty, but to embalm His body. Mary ran to tell the disciples, not that He was risen, but that the body had been taken away and laid somewhere else. When the disciples met together, they mourned and wept. They were utterly disappointed and dispirited.

The Disciples’ Testimonies of the Risen Christ

     How is it that in a few days these men were full of confidence and joy in their faith in Jesus? The disciples said the reason was that Jesus had risen, and that they had seen Him. They tell us about their visits to the empty tomb, and how He appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the other women, to Peter, to the two on the way to Emmaus, to ten of them at once, to eleven of them at once, to James, to the five hundred, and so forth.

     Are these stories credible? They might not be, if they stood alone. But their reports of the resurrection of Christ were accompanied by the indisputable growth of Christianity. And how can Christianity be accepted if it were not for Jesus’ resurrection?

Proof of the Risen Christ

     The disciples’ lives were changed because they had seen the risen Christ. But their testimony is not the only proof that He rose. The incontestable proof is the change itself—the fact that they had suddenly become courageous, hopeful, believing, wise, and equipped with resources sufficient for the task before them.

     The Resurrection is capable of such a proof; for if Christ had not risen, our faith is vain; but since He is risen, His miraculous life becomes credible, for this was the greatest of all miracles. He “through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).

Your Decision to Trust in the Risen Christ

     The Easter season – when once again we celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead – is a fitting time in which to place your trust in Him who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26).

Will you pray to God something like this?

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. I believe that Jesus died for my sins and that He rose from the dead. I now trust in Him to forgive my sins and to give me everlasting life.  Amen.