The questioner has two problems in mind:

   -The New Testament story is unreliable.

   -Miracles are hard to accept in a scientific age.

 The first problem can be answered from Section 5. The second demands a scientific study of the facts without any assumptions as to whether miracles do or do not happen.

 INITIAL CHALLENGE

 "I am interested that you should say that because it shows you have been thinking about these things.  What makes you come to that conclusion? Have you ever Investigated the evidence?”

THE BIBLICAL BASIS

 What happened?  Four facts:

-The prophecy of Jesus.  Jesus said in advance that He would rise again three days after his death, Luke 18: 31-33.  But the disciples did not believe Him at all.

-The empty tomb.  The tomb was empty.  Matt. 28: 6, even though heavily guarded, Matt. 27: 62-66.  Anyone in Jerusalem could visit it in order to see for himself

-The appearances of Jesus.  Jesus appeared to his disciples in a variety of situations, e.g. in the upper room, on the road to Emmaus.

-The changed disciples.  The disciples were turned within four weeks from beaten men into world revolutionaries described as "those who have turned the world upside down".  Acts 17: 6. A great effect demands a great cause.

 Who took the body?  Four wrong explanations:

-The Romans?  They wanted to close the whole affair.  Pontius Pilate washed his hands of all responsibility.

-The Jews?  They put a guard on the tomb.  Later they must have moved heaven and earth to find the body of Jesus and suppress this Christian story of resurrection.

-The Disciples?  "They invented the whole thing."  But soon they suffered terribly for their "fiction".  Men give up their deceptions when they become unprofitable.

-The Disciples?  "They were fooled by hallucinations." Psychologists tell us that hallucinations depend upon a spirit of positive expectancy; but on the contrary the disciples were convinced that everything was finished.  They were just not thinking wishfully.  In addition, Jesus' appearances were very solid (not "ghost-like") and came in a wide variety of circumstances.

 The only adequate explanation:

-The only explanation to fit the facts is that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and that He is truly alive.

 ILLUSTRATION

Many men have set out to prove that the Resurrection never happened.  One was a journalist, Frank Morrison, who wrote the well-known book "WHO MOVED THE STONE?" His first chapter is entitled.  "The Book that Would Not be Written".  In it he says that he set out to write a book to prove that Jesus never rose again and that the facts compelled him to reverse his convictions, and he wrote his book to prove that Jesus did rise from the dead.

 TURNING THE TABLES

 "If Jesus really rose again, then all He said is true.  He can change your life.  He is God's answer to your need and there is nothing more important than your relationship to Him.  Let us look at the Third Law which deals with this."