Christians worldwide celebrated the resurrection of Christ yesterday.

Of course, this is not unusual. We do the same each first day of the week.

As we think about the resurrection week by week, I see three essential and strong facts about the resurrection of Christ. This, of course, matters because the resurrection of Christ is the essential element of our faith. We do not have rules that hold us together. We have our Lord who was raised front the dead. As Paul stated, if Christ has not been raised, then our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:16-19).

These are three strong facts about the resurrection.

First, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are attested in extra-biblical sources. Both Roman and Jewish historians mentioned Christ having been crucified during the governance of Pontius Pilate. Josephus, the famous Jewish historian noted that Christ appeared to His followers the third day after His death and another Roman historian noted that these followers worship Christ as if He were a god.

With this in mind, the idea that we don’t even know that Jesus Christ really lived seems to be a ridiculous argument.

Second, the greatest truth of the resurrection (other than eye witness accounts) is the change in the disciples after the resurrection. After the resurrection, this group who was slow to understand and afraid of the Jewish authorities went boldly to proclaim the truth of Christ.

It’s hard to imagine any reason for their boldness and the unprecedented growth of the church other than the power of the resurrection in their lives.

Third, the testimony of the women is astounding. In that day, no one in their right mind would try to influence anyone else by the testimony of women. As denigrating to women as it seems, that was the culture and outlook of the Roman world. They would not have made up such a story.

All of this points to the truth and power of the resurrection of Christ.

With the power of the Gospel and the hope in our resurrected Lord, let us go forth to make Him known to our world.