And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17, NIV)
If you have ever experienced the frustration and disappointment of being on the cusp of a memorable round, such as establishing a new personal best, shooting your age, or breaking whatever number is your goal, only to come up a stroke or two short, then you know you missed an opportunity you may not see again for some time.
As we approach Easter, we have a golden opportunity that we cannot afford to miss. We ought to seek to engage friends and neighbors who are not yet believers, with the intention of sharing with them the lynchpin of our faith: Jesus’ resurrection. Our mission is to explain to others why it is reasonable to believe in the resurrection even though some might call it a fairy tale, a myth, or a legend.
To share this wonderful story, we need to be prepared and equipped with simple and understandable reasons why we believe in Jesus’ resurrection. There are numerous sources we can utilize to provide us with cogent and convincing reasons that logically support our reasonable belief in the resurrection. Authors and scholars like Lee Strobel (The Case for the Resurrection) and Gary Habermas (The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus) have given us the necessary tools to engage our friends in meaningful dialogue.
While we can simply say “the Bible tells me so,” that may not be enough to carry the day with a non-believer. But if we ask them to look at the resurrection as a historical fact and the Bible as a historical and ancient document, and then test it against the criteria historians use to determine whether to accept a particular incident as a historical fact, the dialogue gets easier.
Use this week’s golden opportunity to share gently and respectfully the reason for the hope we have.
Lee Strobel provides an excellent framework that is easy to use and understand for talking about the resurrection. Strobel suggests we remember 4 E’s:
– Execution. Jesus was tortured and died on a Roman cross.
– Early. The manuscripts give us early accounts of the death and resurrection, not stories contrived later.
– Empty. The tomb was empty on Sunday morning, something which his enemies scrambled to hide.
– Eyewitnesses. The Scriptures refer to at least 515 people who saw Jesus alive after his death, many of them multiple times.
We can talk about the resurrection as a historical event in the same way that historians might talk about generally accepted historical facts such as Alexander the Great’s death or the reign of Tiberius, the governor of Rome at the time of Jesus’ death.
We may not be able to prove to our friends beyond all doubt that the resurrection occurred, but by taking a set of uncontroverted facts that are accepted by scholars from all points of view, we can show that Jesus’ resurrection is the only reasonable and logical explanation that fits with all of those facts.
Peter’s words remind us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). This week, look for opportunities to invite someone to in-person or online Easter services or to Easter brunch. Use this golden opportunity to share gently and respectfully the reason for the hope we have.
“He is risen!” This is news we want to give away.
—
Mark “Ole” Olson
March 28, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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