The Holy Trinity is always on the same page so Jesus knew exactly what He needed to accomplish on earth and He also knew the date of His coming crucifixion. That’s why in the Bible Jesus frequently said “My time has not yet come.” The triumph of Christianity is not that Jesus died but that He arose from the dead on the third day. By His resurrection Jesus guaranteed our own resurrection, defeated death and proved to all that He was God.
The life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is verified in Roman and Jewish historical records plus there were over 500 people who saw the resurrected Jesus including all of the disciples. Even with all this proof the one thing that convinces me of the truth of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus more than anything else is the transformation of the lives of the disciples from a handful of cowardly, fearful men, running for their lives into roaring lions of the faith.
The disciples saw Jesus die and when they saw the resurrected Jesus in His glorified body they finally understood all they had been taught and they knew for certain that Jesus was God. With the help of the Holy Spirit these Apostles spread the gospel around the world and all but one were martyred for their preaching. That is true conviction.
The only thing that could have effected such a dramatic change in the disciples was their eyewitness to the greatest event in the history of mankind, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. I know if I were in their shoes it’d have the same effect on me. The bodily resurrection of Jesus in a glorified body proved to the disciples, and to me, that those who believe in Christ will also be resurrected one day and receive a glorified body like the one Jesus has.
Acts 2:32 – God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
Luke 24:39 – Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch Me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones; as you see I have.
John 20:27 – Then He said to Thomas. “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.