In last week’s blog post, I began to look at some motivating factors for missions. The first two items are to be converted and to be convinced that Jesus rose from the dead. Besides the fact that would-be thieves would have to get past Roman guards in order to get to the tomb, there are several other things that validate the resurrection of Jesus. In his Study Bible, Dr. David Jeremiah notes the following:

• The seal – Matthew 27: 66 – the seal could be placed on the stone only in the presence of the Roman guards who were in charge. After the guards inspected the tomb and rolled the stone in place, a cord was stretched across the rock. This was fastened at either end with sealing clay. Then the clay packs were stamped with the official signet of the Roman governor. On Resurrection morning, the seal was broken because the stone had been removed from the opening of the tomb.
• The stone – Mark 16:4 reads “But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away – for it was very large.” It has been described as “a stone which twenty men could not roll away.” It may have weighed 1.5 to 2 tons. John wrote: “… the stone had been taken away from the tomb” John 20:1. Who moved the stone? Matthew tells us: “…an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it” Matthew 28:2.

• The sepulcher – Word of the Resurrection could not have been sustained for a single day if the empty tomb was not an established fact.

• The shroud – the grave clothes were still in the tomb – John 20:3-8.

• The scars – In John 20:20, when Jesus showed the disciples His hands and His side, they knew this was their Lord. Thomas wasn’t with them when Jesus came (v. 24), so he said to the disciples that he wouldn’t believe unless he saw Jesus’ scars for himself. Eight days later, after seeing the risen Christ, Thomas was convinced that Jesus rose from the dead. Thomas was transformed and went all the way to India to proclaim the Good News.
• The sightings of Jesus are recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. One writer has noted that if you brought all of these witnesses into a courtroom and gave them each six minutes to testify, you would have over 50 hours of testimony to the reality of the risen Christ. Dr. Frank Morrison wrote a book entitled “Who Moved the Stone?” after investigating the case for the resurrection. The first chapter is called “The Book that Refused to Be Written.”

The third factor in motivating us for missions is that we must be confident that the Bible is the Word of God. Ever since the first two people in history, Adam and Eve, walked in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 2 and 3), God’s Word has been under attack. The devil twisted what God said to Adam and lied to Eve, who chose to disregard God’s Word and disobey God. Dr. Jeremiah writes: “If the Bible is inspired by God (and it is), and if it is impossible for God to lie (and it is), then it follows that the Bible is inerrant – in other words, the original manuscripts contained no errors. Scholars agree that, thanks to the abundance of ancient manuscripts that have been discovered, we can determine the reading of the original text with virtual certainty. And where there is a question about how the original text should read, those questions never arise in passages dealing with indispensable elements of the faith.” This month, children, teens and adults are returning to school. I remember seeing the letters of the alphabet written in upper and lower case above the blackboards in Morison School (my elementary school). Did you know that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are identified in  Psalm 119? It is filled with declarations of the truth of the Word of God, including verse 160: “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.” Just before going to the cross, the Lord Jesus prayed for His disciples and said to God the Father: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” John 17:17. May we determine to study His Word and share it with others.

Steve