(Luke 24:45-49)
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
There are four facts concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Luke gives us these four facts in orderly account. First, there was a tomb and Jesus dead body was placed in that tomb by a man named Joseph, a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus and after preparing his body for burial by Jewish custom, placed his body in a new tomb. The women took note of the tomb, prepared spices and rested on the Sabbath per the commandment. (Luke 24:50-56)
Second, early in the morning, on the first day of the week, the tomb was found empty. Luke gives four witnesses by name to this fact, and said that there were others. “Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles.” (Luke 24:10) The apostle and the others with them did not believe but Peter went to the tomb and saw that it was as the women said. (Luke 24:12, 24)
Third, Jesus appeared to the disciples bodily resurrected from the dead. Jesus appeared to two men on the road to Emmaus and explained the Scriptures concerning him. They did not recognize him until he broke bread with them. Jesus appeared to Peter and he related his appearance to the other disciples. Last of all Jesus appeared to the eleven apostles and other disciples who were with them bodily resurrected from the dead. They did not believe but thought he was a Spirit. He showed them that he had flesh and bone. He ate a piece of broiled fish in their presence. (Luke 24:13-43)
Fourth, and this is the most convincing of all, the disciples believed that Jesus bodily rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. The proof, they became unwavering witnesses, proclaiming throughout the known world, beginning at Jerusalem, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, bodily resurrected from the dead, and proclaiming repentance for the forgiveness of sins in Jesus name. (Luke 24:44-49)
It is this unwavering witness of the apostles that convinced me that Jesus bodily rose from the dead. If Jesus bodily rose from the dead then he is who he believed himself to be, the Christ the Son of God. If Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, then there is forgiveness of sins in his name for all who repent and believe as Jesus promised the disciples. Therefore, I repented of my sin and put my faith in Jesus Christ and I am doing so today. “There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
