Yes, there’s more evidence. Paul will now say simply this: Look at me!
“For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 9-11)
The grace of God transformed Paul. It doesn’t matter where the people heard the message of the Resurrection, it was the same results, changed lives.
We know Paul had a previous name, Saul. We also know he had a previous life. “If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.” (Philippians 3 v 4-6)
Saul was the leading Pharisee who killed Christians. He was a murderer.
You only have to read the account of Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts 7 to see Saul’s involvement, He approved of it and his door to door ministry was to drag Christians away from their homes and if they weren’t killed he would throw them in prison.
How did Saul end up being the writer of the majority of the New Testament? How did he become the major gospel-carrier to the Gentile world? How was he so willing to lay his life down for the Gospel? It wasn’t a name change that did it. It was because he encountered the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus. He turned around. He became willing to suffer as a Christian. He was willing to be flogged, stoned, go through bouts of hunger, poverty and even be killed himself. Why? Because he had met the risen Jesus!
What convinced Andrew to be crucified in Greece? Or Bartholomew crucified upside down in Georgia? Or James son of Alphaeus stoned to death in Jerusalem? Or James son of Zebedee killed by beheading? Or Peter crucified upside down in Rome? Or Philip crucified upside down in Hierapolis? Or Thomas speared to death in India? (According to legends) They had met the risen Jesus.
But following on from these thoughts there is another. What convinced James, the half-brother of Jesus, who had not been a follower then proclaim that his brother was the Son of God? Only the risen Jesus and so much so that James will die for his faith.
Finally, we have seen the conversion of Paul, the experience of the apostles, James the half-brother of Jesus, all encountering the risen Jesus, they become the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. But there’s one other person we musn’t forget.
You!
You are the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. What God has done in your life. The testimony He has given you. Look at you!
Missions Paul 