As Christians across the world celebrate the most pivotal week in all of history, we want to share with you eight reasons why John Piper is confident about the resurrection of Jesus, and why you can be too. Reflect on his insights and enjoy celebrating this Easter.

2. The tomb was empty on Easter.

The earliest documents claim this: “When they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus” (Luke 24:3). And the enemies of Jesus confirmed it by claiming that the disciples had stolen the body (Matthew 28:13). The dead body of Jesus could not be found. There are four possible ways to account for this.

2.1 His foes stole the body. If they did (and they never claimed to have done so), they surely would have produced the body to stop the successful spread of the Christian faith in the very city where the crucifixion occurred. But they could not produce it.

2.2 His friends stole the body. This was an early rumour (Matthew 28:11-15). Is it probable? Could they have overcome the guards at the tomb? More important, would they have begun to preach with such authority that Jesus was raised, knowing that he was not? Would they have risked their lives and accepted beatings for something they knew was a fraud?

2.3 Jesus was not dead, but only unconscious when they laid him in the tomb. He awoke, removed the stone, overcame the soldiers, and vanished from history after a few meetings with his disciples in which he convinced them he was risen from the dead. Even the foes of Jesus did not try this line. He was obviously dead. The Romans saw to that. The stone could not be moved by one man from within who had just been stabbed in the side by a spear and spent six hours nailed to a cross.

As Christians across the world celebrate the most pivotal week in all of history, we want to share with you eight reasons why John Piper is confident about the resurrection of Jesus, and why you can be too. Reflect on his insights, two a day for the next four days, and enjoy celebrating this Easter.

1. Jesus himself testified to his coming resurrection from the dead.

Jesus spoke openly about what would happen to him: crucifixion and then resurrection from the dead. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31; see also Matthew 17:22; Luke 9:22). Those who consider the resurrection of Christ unbelievable will probably say that Jesus was deluded or (more likely) that the early church put these statements in his mouth to make him teach the falsehood that they themselves conceived. But those who read the Gospels and come to the considered conviction that the one who speaks so compellingly through these witnesses is not the figment of foolish imagination will be unsatisfied with this effort to explain away Jesus’ own testimony to his resurrection from the dead.

Need a good book to read? Check out our review of Incomparable: Exploring the Character of God by Andrew Wilson.

And if you like it, there's more where that came from! Andrew will be one of the speakers at Mobilise 2009. So book in now, take a look at the seminar options, and check out his talks from Mobilise 2008.

The moment you've all been waiting for... Mobilise seminar registration is now open. Click here to check out the options available and register today.

When is a person? This week why not stretch your brain a little by listening to Roger Smith's seminar from Mobilise 2009, Life and Death - The Microscope and the Stethoscope. In this seminar, Roger addresses a whole host of controversial issues such as abortion, reproductive technology, cloning, embryo research and euthanasia.

Do you have a passion for mission? Are you interested in taking part in a trip this summer? Then you will be thrilled to know that we have extended the deadline for the Mobilise Worldwide mission team to Malmö, Sweden!

The application deadline is now 1 May 2009. We need a number of team members and leaders to join the group, so if you want to be part of a brand new, exciting mission team, then check out the worldwide page today and find out how you can get involved.

Spread the word! It’s always easier to go on a trip like this with people you know, so why not talk to people in your church and encourage a group to go together?

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to be one of the first to go!

This week has seen a number of updates in the world of Mobilise. So in case you missed them, here’s a quick rundown:

On monday we posted the story of a former Student Worker, now working in Zimbabwe as part of a Newfrontiers initiative, God’s Way International.

Wednesday’s recommended talk of the week was Living for Eternity by PJ Smyth from the 2008 event. Check it out!

Thursday saw a new banner, and a sneak peak of the seminar speakers booked for Mobilise 2009. Can you identify them from the miniscule fragments of their pixelated faces? Why not head over to the Facebook discussion page and speculate as to who they might be… Closest to naming all fourteen before the booking system goes live wins an enormous amount of respect! And who wouldn't want that?

Matthew Hosier from Gateway Church Poole posted ten questions on leadership with our very own Tom Shaw on his leadership blog.

And Mobilise has entered the wonderful world of Twitter! Why not follow us to keep up to date with the latest information, as soon as it happens…

In the run up to Mobilise 2009 we want to whet your appetite through a drip-feeding of recommended talks from last year’s event. This week, why not check out PJ Smyth’s main session talk on Living for Eternity in which he urges us to have an eternal perspective, to be patient and to be full of faith!

Mobilise 2009 is fast approaching. Book in today…

In 2001 David took a gap year and travelled to Zimbabwe where he got involved with an initiative called Farming God’s Way. Seven years later, having completed a degree and served as a Student Worker at Jubilee Church, Derby, he returned to Harare and is now serving on the team for God’s Way International.

Click here to read his story.

If you were to compile a list of the 10 ideas that are changing the world right now what would you include? Would you identify ‘Biobanks’ or ‘Recycling the Suburbs’ or would your suggestions be more down the line of technological advances such as John West's 'No Drain Tuna'?

One thing I imagine would not make your list is ‘The New Calvinism’ and yet, according to a recent Time Magazine article it ranks at a whopping number three...

Read on...