As the top angel in heaven Satan thought he should be God. Satan convinced a third of the angels in heaven to join his rebellion and there was war in heaven. When Lucifer and his fallen angels lost the war they were kicked out of heaven and thrown to earth. Satan hates God’s guts and the feeling is mutual. Satan can’t touch God so he strikes at God indirectly by trying to destroy us, God’s beloved children. In the beginning everything was perfect. The earth was pristine. Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden and they had all they wanted and needed. They were both immortal and they fellowshipped with God every day. God gave the earth to Adam but when Satan caused Adam to sin against God sin entered the world and Satan became the god of this world. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden because sin cannot remain where God is. Because of their sin Adam and Eve became mortal beings with bodies that would decay and die. Both would endure hardships all their lives. The earth itself also suffers because sin is in the world. The sin nature of Adam and Eve has passed down to all men who came after and therefore we all have bodies that decay and die. Satan caused it all. Satan took the earth from Adam and corrupted man. Satan thought he had won.
Satan was aware God had a plan to redeem mankind and wrest control of the earth from him. Satan also knew God’s salvation plan for man would be effected through Christ, the Son of God, who would go to earth and die as a sacrifice for the sins of all men. Satan wasn’t just going to sit back and let it happen. Satan tried everything to stop Jesus. Satan knew Jesus would be born of a human mother so he set about trying to corrupt the DNA of all men by having fallen angels sleep with women. God countered that by causing a flood to wipe out all men except Noah and his family whose bloodline was pure. God simply started over. Satan was foiled. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem Satan tried to kill the child by stirring up Herod to murder all the children in Judea two years old and younger. An angel warned Joseph to take the Christ child to Egypt to avoid the slaughter. Satan failed.
All during his ministry Jesus was pursued by Satan who constantly inflamed the passions of the crowds so that they would kill Jesus. Time after time Jesus escaped because his time had not yet come. Satan finally thought he had won when he convinced the Jewish and Roman authorities to crucify Jesus. What Satan meant for evil God turned to good by making the death of Jesus an atonement for the sins of all men. When Jesus was buried in his tomb God stationed two angels in there to protect Jesus’ body, one at his feet and one at his head. They never took their eyes off Jesus’ body. Their job was to make sure Satan and his demons didn’t disturb Jesus’ body while he was three days in the earth, at which time the Spirit of Jesus returned to his body for the resurrection. The doctrine of the death and resurrection of Christ is what Satan hated the most because it effectively ended his control over man and the fear of death. Because Jesus rose from the dead, it assured all believers that they will also be resurrected in like manner and will not taste spiritual death. All believers will be with Jesus in heaven forever. The essence of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and without it our faith is null and void.
1 Corinthians 15:54-55 – So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
Psalm 16:10 – (King David speaking) – For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
Luke 9:22 – (Jesus speaking) – The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
Isaiah 53:9-12 – Ant they made His grave with the wicked- but the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied, by His knowledge My righteous servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
In the above verses King David, the prophet Isaiah, and Jesus himself predicted his resurrection. In fact, Jesus predicted his resurrection many times. When Satan failed to prevent Jesus’ resurrection he switched his tactics to trying to convince man it never happened. A few of the theories sponsored by Satan include the resurrection was simply made up, Jesus didn’t die on the cross, he merely swooned and was later revived in the tomb, the resurrection of Jesus was in spirit only, Jesus is only resurrected in the hearts of believers and finally, that everyone was suffering from some sort of mass delusion similar to being high on drugs. This is the best Satan could come up with.
On the other hand, the proof of the resurrection is solid. The tomb of Jesus was empty and we have numerous eyewitness testimonies. It was common knowledge to everyone at the time and was accepted as fact. The Jewish and Roman authorities never denied the resurrection of Jesus because they couldn’t. The body was gone and the tomb had been sealed and was guarded by a detachment of Roman troops. To me, I see the greatest proof of the resurrection in the tremendous change in the lives of the disciples. Because the disciples saw, spoke with and touched the risen Jesus they knew the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. They finally got it. Jesus was God in the flesh.
From that point on the disciples went from being timid disciples of Jesus to becoming roaring lions of the faith who went throughout the world confidently preaching the gospel of Christ to the point where all were martyred except for John. Don’t you think we’d react the same way if we were in their shoes? I think I would. The disciples never would have reacted the way they did without knowing the truth of God and every last one of them knew the same truth and reacted the same way. No power on earth could contain their zeal for the Lord. Nothing else but the truth would have made the disciples lay down their life. Nobody willingly gives up their life for something they know to be a lie. Finally, the proof of the resurrection is in the existence of the church itself, because within fifty years of Jesus’ death the church had grown exponentially and spread to most of the known world. Any religion simply can’t develop that quickly without some sort of supernatural help. For Christianity, God is our sponsor. Jesus is Christianity. Christianity is Jesus. Christianity means, “Christ’s men.”