Here are some reasons why we can be sure the resurrection happened in preparation for the day:

• Christ was buried in a tomb of solid rock so that no one could say he got dug out and carried away.
• It was a tomb in which no one had ever been put so that we could be sure, the only person coming out of there was the body of none other than Jesus Christ himself.
• The tomb was sealed with a massive rock; and guarded by a bunch of Roman soldiers.
• The idea of Jesus’ disciples coming at night and stealing his body—impossible. They’d just ran away when he got arrested, they took ages to even be convinced of his resurrection! And suppose the disciples did come and tried to steal Jesus’ body while the soldiers slept, the soldiers would have had to be in some kind of deep coma to not be awoken by a gigantic rock being rolled away—they would’ve woken up at such a stir.
• And then there’s all the appearances of Jesus after he rose from the dead to his disciples. When they were all together; to the two on the road to Emmaus; when the disciples were fishing; when he showed them his pierced hands and pierced feet; when he appeared to 500 of them at one time—these appearances put the resurrection in a category of its own as something you cannot argue with in any way.

One objection people give is to say, “The parts of the Bible that talk about the resurrection are written by the disciples, so how can we trust them?”

Well who better to write about these events than the ones who were there, the ones who actually ate and drank with Jesus after his resurrection!?

To which people say, “Well Peter and the other disciples, they weren’t educated men, they probably got the wrong end of the stick.”

Read the accounts for yourself, and I think you’ll see that even though none of them had ever gone to university, their grasp of what happened in the life of Christ is everything we need and more.

The disciples’ lack of education makes it more likely that what they wrote about Christ was true, since they weren’t trained in rhetorical tricks to try and win people round with lies, all they had were the plain facts.

And since they laid down their lives for these things they were teaching, that gives what they said more credence too.

No one lays their life down for a lie they just made up. Not to mention several men all in agreement as to what they are laying their lives down for, with no apparent advantage to themselves.

Just look at the success that the disciples had after Jesus rose from the dead and went up to heaven. Three thousand people were converted after one sermon. Twelve poor manual labourers, in a very, very short space of time were enabled to conquer the world! To beat anything or anyone that came up against their cause.

“Christ has risen” was their message. And just like the walls of Jericho falling down with the blow of a trumpet and a few shouts and a bit of marching—everything changed as a result of what Jesus had done and the message these weak apostles preached about him.

Do we need more evidence?