More Proof of the Resurrection!

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The Guards’ Report

11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.
These verses give evidence to the historical truth that Jesus really rose from the dead.  Remember the guards were punishable by death if they allowed Jesus' body to be stolen from the tomb.  So they really had no motive to go and tell the priests what had happened unless it was to save their own skin.  But the chief priests and elders had lots of motives for bribing the guards to say that the disciples had stolen the body.  After all they had Jesus killed and if he were really the Messiah they would be in heap of trouble.
But what motive would the disciples have to steal the body from the tomb?  They were disillusioned, discouraged, and defeated group of men.  They had all forsaken Jesus when he needed them the most. Why would they stage a hoax that Jesus really rose from the dead by stealing the body from a heavily guarded tomb?  Why would they later die for their belief in the resurrection if they stolen the body? Why would they die for something they knew wasn't true? 
Famous preacher Charles Spurgeon has this to say about how this passage is such a great historical proof to our believe in Jesus. 
 “I suppose, brethren, that we may have persons arise, who will doubt whether there was ever such a man as Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte; and when they do, – when all reliable history is flung to the winds, – then, but not till then, may they begin to question whether Jesus Christ rose from the dead, for this historical fact is attested by more witnesses than almost any other fact that stands on record in history, whether sacred or profane.” 
Passages like this remind us there are plausible reasons rooted in historical truth to believe the Christian faith. In the end the soldiers took the money and the story circulated this story among the Jews.  But it didn't stop the apostles from preaching the gospel that Jesus was in fact alive and risen from the dead.  And the church grew despite the persecution it underwent for making its stand on the central truth of the faith Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead on the third day.   And this is the same gospel we make our stand upon today in an equally skeptical world.  


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