More Than a Carpenter (11 page)

7. Thomas was killed by a spear.

8. Matthew was killed by the sword.

9. James, son of Alphaeus, was crucified.

10. Thaddaeus was killed by arrows.

11. Simon, the zealot, was crucified.

The perspective I often hear is, “Well, these men died for a lie. Many people have done that. So what does it prove?”

What Do You Think?

Is there anything or anyone that you would die for? Why do you feel that way?

Yes, many people have died for a lie, but they did so believing it was the truth. What was the case with the disciples? If the Resurrection had not happened, obviously the disciples would have known it. I can find no way that these particular men could have been deceived. Therefore they not only would have died for a lie—here’s the catch—but they would have known it was a lie. It would be hard to find a group of men anywhere in history who would die for a lie if they knew it was a lie.

Let’s look at several factors that will help us understand the factual truth of what they believed.

1. They Were Eyewitnesses

In his 2006 scholarly book
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,
New Testament professor Richard Bauckham demonstrates that the four Gospels provide reliable testimony that can be traced back to the eyewitnesses themselves.
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The apostles wrote and other disciples spoke as actual eyewitnesses to the events they described. Peter said: “We were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes” (2 Peter 1:16). The apostles certainly knew the difference between myth or legend and reality.

In his first letter, John emphasized the eyewitness aspect of their knowledge, explaining how he and the other apostles got their information about what Jesus “did” and “said”: “We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1-3). John began the last portion of his Gospel by saying that “The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book” (John 20:30).

Luke said, “Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you” (Luke 1:1-3).

What Do You Think?

Have you ever been an eyewitness to something and later were asked to tell what you saw? Did people believe you? What makes someone a credible eyewitness?

Then in the book of Acts, Luke described the forty-day period after the Resurrection, when the followers of Jesus closely observed him: “In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:1-3).

The central theme of the following eyewitness testimonies is the resurrection of Jesus. The apostles were witnesses to his resurrected life.

2. They Had to Be Convinced

The apostles thought that when Jesus died, it was all over. When he was arrested, they went and hid (see Mark 14:50). When they were told the tomb was empty, they did not at first believe it (see Luke 24:11). Only after ample and convincing evidence did they believe. Then we have Thomas, who said he wouldn’t believe that Christ was raised from the dead until he had put his finger into Christ’s wounds. Thomas later died a martyr’s death for Christ. Was he deceived? He bet his life that he was not.

Then there was Peter. He denied his Lord several times during Christ’s trial and finally deserted him. But something turned this coward around. A short time after Christ’s crucifixion and burial, Peter showed up in Jerusalem preaching boldly, under the threat of death, that Jesus was the Christ and had been resurrected. Finally, Peter was crucified (upside down, according to tradition). What could have turned this terrified deserter into such a bold lion for Jesus? Why was Peter suddenly willing to die for him? Was the apostle deceived? Hardly. The only explanation that satisfies me is what we read in 1 Corinthians 15:5, that after Christ’s resurrection, “he was seen by Peter.” Peter witnessed his Lord’s resurrection, and he believed—to the extent that he was willing to die for his belief.

The classic example of a man convinced against his will was James, the brother of Jesus. (Although James wasn’t one of the original Twelve [see Matthew 10:2-4], he was later recognized as an apostle [see Galatians 1:19], as were Paul and Barnabas [see Acts 14:14]). While Jesus was growing up and engaged in his ministry, James didn’t believe that his brother was the Son of God (see John 7:5). No doubt James participated with his brothers in mocking Jesus, possibly saying things such as: “You want people to believe in you? Why don’t you go up to Jerusalem and put on a big show with all your miracles and healings?” James must have felt humiliated that his brother was going around bringing shame and ridicule on the family name with all his wild claims: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6); “I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5); “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me” (John 10:14). What would you think if your brother went around the town saying such things?

What Do You Think?

For the most part, Jesus’ siblings were resistant to what he was doing and saying. Traditionally, family members are often the most resistant to a change in a family member. Why do you think that is?

But something happened to James. After Jesus was crucified and buried, James was preaching in Jerusalem. His message was that Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected and is alive. Eventually James became a leading figure in the Jerusalem church and wrote a book, the Epistle of James. He began it by writing, “James, a slave [servant] of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (James 1:1). Eventually James was stoned to death on orders from Ananias, the high priest.
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What could have changed James from an embarrassed scoffer to a man willing to die for his brother’s deity? Was James deceived? No. The only plausible explanation is what we read in 1 Corinthians 15:7: “Then [after Christ’s resurrection] he was seen by James.” James saw the resurrected Christ and believed.

J. P. Moreland, professor of philosophy at the Talbot School of Theology, explains the significance of the fact that James, the brother of Jesus, eventually came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah:

The gospels tell us Jesus’ family, including James, were embarrassed by what he was claiming to be. They didn’t believe in him; they confronted him. In ancient Judaism it was highly embarrassing for a rabbi’s family not to accept him. Therefore, the gospel writers would have no motive for fabricating this skepticism if it weren’t true. Later the historian Josephus tells us that James, the brother of Jesus, who was the leader of the Jerusalem church, was stoned to death because of his belief in his brother. Why did James’s life change? Paul tells us: the resurrected Jesus appeared to him. There’s no other explanation.
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If the Resurrection were a lie, the apostles would have known it. Were they perpetuating a colossal hoax? Such a possibility is inconsistent with what we know about the moral quality of their lives. They personally condemned lying and stressed honesty. They encouraged people to know the truth. Historian Edward Gibbon in his famous work
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
gives the “purer but austere morality of the first Christians” as one of the five reasons for the rapid success of Christianity.
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Michael Green, a senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University, observes that the Resurrection

was the belief that turned heartbroken followers of a crucified rabbi into the courageous witnesses and martyrs of the early church. This was the one belief that separated the followers of Jesus from the Jews and turned them into the community of the resurrection. You could imprison them, flog them, kill them, but you could not make them deny their conviction that “on the third day he rose again.”
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3. They Became Courageous

The bold conduct of the apostles immediately after they were convinced of the Resurrection makes it highly unlikely that it was all a fraud. They became courageous almost overnight. After the Resurrection, Peter, who had denied Christ, stood up even at the threat of death and proclaimed that Jesus was alive. The authorities arrested the followers of Christ and beat them, yet they were soon back on the street speaking out about Jesus (see Acts 5:40-42). Their friends noticed their buoyancy, and their enemies noticed their courage. Remember that the apostles did not confine their boldness to obscure towns. They preached in Jerusalem.

Jesus’ followers could not have faced torture and death unless they were convinced of his resurrection. The unanimity of their message and their conduct was amazing. The odds against such a large group of people agreeing on such a controversial subject are enormous, yet all these men agreed on the truth of the Resurrection. If they were deceivers, it’s hard to explain why at least one of them didn’t break down under the pressure they endured.

Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher, writes:

The allegation that the Apostles were imposters is quite absurd. Let us follow the charge to its logical conclusion. Let us picture those twelve men, meeting after the death of Christ, and entering into conspiracy to say that He has risen. That would have constituted an attack upon both the civil and the religious authorities. The heart of man is strangely given to fickleness and change; it is swayed by promises, tempted by material things. If any one of those men had yielded to temptations so alluring, or given way to the more compelling arguments of prison, torture, they would have all been lost.
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“When Jesus was crucified,” explains J. P. Moreland,

his followers were discouraged and depressed. They no longer had confidence that Jesus had been sent by God, because they believed anyone crucified was accursed by God. They also had been taught that God would not let his Messiah suffer death. So they dispersed. The Jesus movement was all but stopped in its tracks. Then, after a short period of time, we see them abandoning their occupations, regathering, and committing themselves to spreading a very specific message—that Jesus Christ was the Messiah of God who died on the cross, returned to life, and was seen alive by them. And they were willing to spend the rest of their lives proclaiming this, without any payoff from a human point of view. It’s not as though there were a mansion awaiting them on the Mediterranean. They faced a life of hardship. They often went without food, slept exposed to the elements, were ridiculed, beaten, imprisoned. And finally, most of them were executed in torturous ways. For what? For good intentions? No, because they were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had seen Jesus Christ alive from the dead. What you can’t explain is how this particular group of men came up with this particular belief without having had an experience of the resurrected Christ. There’s no other adequate explanation.
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What Do You Think?

Do you admire people who are willing to die or have died for a cause? What attracts you to them? What scares you about them? Is there anything you can learn from them?

“How have they turned, almost overnight,” asks Michael Green, “into the indomitable band of enthusiasts who braved opposition, cynicism, ridicule, hardship, prison, and death in three continents, as they preached everywhere Jesus and the resurrection?”
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One writer descriptively narrates the changes that occurred in the lives of the apostles:

On the day of the crucifixion they were filled with sadness; on the first day of the week with gladness. At the crucifixion they were hopeless; on the first day of the week their hearts glowed with certainty and hope. When the message of the resurrection first came, they were incredulous and hard to be convinced, but once they became assured they never doubted again. What could account for the astonishing change in these men in so short a time? The mere removal of the body from the grave could never have transformed their spirits and characters. Three days are not enough for a legend to spring up which would so affect them. Time is needed for a process of legendary growth. It is a psychological fact that demands a full explanation. Think of the character of the witnesses, men and women who gave the world the highest ethical teaching it has ever known, and who even on the testimony of their enemies lived it out in their lives. Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence—and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication they were trying to foist upon the world. That simply wouldn’t make sense.
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