Infallible Proof

Have you ever been eyeballed by someone? Let me restate the question: Do you have a mother? If so, then you know what it is to have someone stare at you. That is what the disciples did with Jesus after the resurrection.

Acts 1:3 tells us that Jesus “presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by [the apostles] during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” The word Luke used here for seen could be “eyeballed.”

Here was Jesus, who had been crucified and put to death. They heard the blows of the hammers. They saw the spikes go into His hands and feet. They saw the blood and water spill from His side. They saw His traumatized, beaten body taken from the cross, and they knew He never would live again, much less walk and talk with them. But then, sure enough, here was Jesus. Alive. And He wasn’t appearing once or twice; He was popping up everywhere. In fact, He was seen by five hundred people on a single occasion. That is no mass hallucination; that is evidence.

Also, the word Luke used for proofs includes the idea of being convincing. Luke was saying, “I have the proof. We saw Him. We knew it was true. We couldn’t deny it was true.”

If this had been a hoax the disciples dreamed up, certainly one of them would have broken ranks and said, “You know, we made this whole thing up.” Yet every apostle except John died the death of a martyr. Not one of them broke ranks because they couldn’t deny what they knew was true.

Jesus was alive. They had seen Him. It transformed their lives, and they had to go out and share this message with others.