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THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

John: Believing On The Christ, The Son Of God, For Eternal Life

Part XLIV: Harmonizing The Bible's Accounts Of Christ's Resurrection

I. Introduction

A. When we read in John 20:1-2 that Mary Magdalene came to Jesus' tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone rolled away only to run to tell John and Peter that someone had removed the body, we note this account seems to differ with the other Gospel accounts. In fact, each Gospel seems to offer a different account.

B. Since belief in Christ's resurrection is an essential belief in the Christian faith (1 Corinthians 15:14-19), we need to harmonize the Bible's various accounts regarding that event, so we address that in this lesson:

II. Harmonizing The Bible's Accounts Of Christ's Resurrection. (I am heavily indebted to The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, p. 91 for this information.)

A. Sunday Morning

1. An angel rolled back the tomb door stone before sunrise, Matthew 28:2-4; John 20:1.

2. The Roman guards initially fainted out of fear at his appearance, but they later revived and left the tomb to report to the Jerusalem religious leaders what had occurred, Matthew 28:4, 11.

3. After the soldiers left, approximately six women supporters of Jesus came to the tomb and saw the stone rolled away (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1-4; Lk. 23:49, 55 with Matt. 13:56 and Lk. 24:1-3; John 20:1).

4. One of them, Mary Magdalene, immediately assuming from the stone's removal that some parties had removed Jesus' body, became very upset over the idea, and without looking into the tomb, ran to inform Peter and John that some parties had taken away the Lord's body to an unknown location, John 20:1-2.

5. While the other women still stood at the tomb, they saw 2 angels, one of them in the tomb, and he told them of Jesus' resurrection, Matt. 28:5-7; Mk. 16:5-7; Lk. 24:4-8; The Wycliffe Bib. Com., 1971, p. 1068.

6. After these women left, Peter and John who had been running to the tomb based on Mary Magdalene's report, arrived and viewed the tomb and its grave clothes contents before leaving, Jn. 20:3-10; Lk. 24:12.

7. Mary Magdalene who had followed them returning to the tomb lingered behind as the 2 men left without explaining anything to her, and 2 angels and then Jesus appeared to her, John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9-11.

8. Jesus then appeared to the other women who had been heading away from the tomb, Matthew 28:8-10.

9. While all of these events were occurring, the guards reached the religious leaders in the city and told them what had happened, and the officials paid them to claim that the disciples stole the body, Matt. 28:11-15.

10. Jesus then appeared to Peter, 1 Corinthians 15:5.

B. Sunday Afternoon - Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24:13-32; Mark 16:12-13.

C. Sunday Evening

1. The two disciples from Emmaus rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the other (10) disciples that they had seen the risen Lord Who had disclosed Himself to them in the breaking of the bread, Luke 24:33-35.

2. While they were reporting this, Jesus Himself appeared to the group there, Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-25.

D. The Following Sunday - Jesus appeared to the 11 disciples, this time including Thomas, John 20:26-28.

E. The Following 32 Days

1. Jesus appeared before seven of His disciples at the Sea of Galilee and performed the miracle of the huge catch of fishes, John 21:1-14.

2. Jesus appeared to 500 disciples at one time, including the 11 close disciples (minus Judas Iscariot), at a mountain in Galilee, Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-18; 1 Corinthians 15:6.

3. Jesus appeared to His half brother James, 1 Corinthians 15:7.

4. Jesus appeared to the 11 disciples once again in Jerusalem, Luke 24:44-49; Acts 1:3-8.

5. Jesus with the 11 walked out from the city of Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives where He ascended to heaven in a cloud in full view of His 11 disciples, Acts 1:9-10; Mark 16:19-20; Luke 24:50-53.

Lesson: The events of Christ's resurrection as recorded in the New Testament not only harmonize, but they display the psychological reality of the event as ordinary people, reacting in shock to Jesus' recent crucifixion and the news of His resurrection, moved about from one location to another in understandably uncoordinated ways! The New Testament record, viewed as a whole, provides a very credible account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Application: May we believe the New Testament record's COMPREHENSIVE REPORTS of Jesus' resurrection as being CREDIBLE that we might appreciate the DETAILS of those reports upon closer examination.