Sunday, September 29, 2024
This series of talks exists to take you on a journey through Christian Apologetics. Each message is specifically designed to help you better understand and know your faith while giving you tools to also share your faith with others and have an ability defend your faith in moments where it’s being challenged.
Did Jesus live?
At this time (the time of pilate) there was a wise man who was called Jesus. His conduct was good and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive; accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders. —Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews.
The existence of Jesus is one of history’s most verified facts. For instance, there are 9 total verified sources that confirm Tiberius Ceasar (leader of the Roman Empire) lived. In comparison, Jesus has 43 verified sources (10 of them non-Christian - Tacitus, Celsus Jewish Talmud, etc.) confirming Jesus lived.
NON-CHRISTIAN SOURCES VERIFY:
Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar.
He lived a virtuous life.
He was a wonder worker.
He had a brother named James.
He was acclaimed to be the Messiah (Savior).
He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
He was crucified on the eve of the Jewish Passover.
Darkness and an earthquake occurred when he died.
His disciples believed he rose from the dead.
His disciples were willing to die for their belief.
Christianity spread rapidly as far as Rome.
He was worshipped as God.
Did Jesus live again?
NON-CHRISTIAN HISTORIANS VERIFY:
Jesus’ tomb WAS found empty.
Disciples had experiences they believed were appearances of the risen Jesus.
Disciples were dramatically transformed and willing to die for this belief.
Word spread of the resurrection immediately after His death.
Every record of the disciples preaching includes his death and a resurrection.
James, a skeptic was converted when he claimed to see the risen Jesus.
Top arguments against the resurrection:
- The hallucination theory.
- The witnesses went to the wrong tomb.
- The apparent death theory.
- The disciples stole the body.
The death of the disciples of Jesus…
JAMES
After claiming to see a resurrected Jesus - James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem and was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ in the face of Roman empire persecution. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller’s club.
JAMES SON OF ZEBEDEE
He was beheaded with a sword by order of King Herod Agrippa I in the year 44 AD (according to Acts 12:1-2). The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his belief of a resurrected Jesus at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution, overcome by conviction and declared his new faith in Christ to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a seconds-old Christian.
PETER
He was eventually captured and imprisoned in total darkness for his preaching of the resurrection in the A.D. 60’s and was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross. According to some historians it was because he was recorded and telling his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Christ died.
PHILLIP
He was crucified, according to Foxs’ Book of Martyrs: “He labored diligently preaching of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in Upper Asia, and suffered martyrdom for it at Heliopolis, in Phrygia. He was scourged, thrown into prison, and afterwards crucified in A.D. 54 while being stoned – it was said “to be the ultimate act of hatred.”
THADDEUS
He was crucified, according to Foxs’ Book of Martyrs for preaching the resurrection of Christ in Edessa, A.D. 72.
SIMON THE ZEALOT
According to Foxs’ Book of Martyrs: Simon “Surnamed Zelotes, preaching the Gospel which included the resurrection in every account while in Africa and in Britain, where history records that he was crucified and later sawed in half, A.D. 74.
MATTHEW
A man who once collected TAXES for Rome was killed by Rome (for preaching Jesus as His risen Savior) with a spear and beheaded with a halberd, according to Foxs’ Book of Martyrs in the city of Nadabah, A.D. 60.
BARTHOLOMEW
According to Eusebius, Christian writer who lived during the 4th Century, Bartholomew traveled all over the place preaching of the resurrection of Christ and left behind copies of the Gospel of Matthew detailing the resurrection. Bartholomew was killed in what is modern day Turkey for his preaching and was flayed to death by a whip.
ANDREW
Andrew was recorded having been martyred in Patrae, Western Greece. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “It is generally agreed that he was crucified by order of the Roman Governor, Aegeas, and that he was bound, not nailed, to the cross, in order to prolong his sufferings. His martyrdom took place during the reign of Nero, on 30 November, A.D. 60; His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: “I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.” He continued to preach of the resurrection of Jesus to his tormentors for two days until he expired.
JOHN
He faced martyrdom when he was boiled in huge basin of boiling oil three different times during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote the Book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully, but not w/out his share of scars brought about by his preaching of the resurrection of Jesus.
THOMAS
He was killed with a spear, according to Foxs’ Book of Martyrs: He, preached the Gospel of a resurrected Jesus in Parthia and India, where by “exciting the rage of the pagan priests”, he was martyred by being thrust through with a spear. Some records in history say he was empaled, dipped in tar and carried through the city in parade form to warn anyone else to follow his path.
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