The Crux of the Christian Testimony: The Resurrection

THE CRUX OF THE CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY:

 THE RESURRECTION

 

A testimony is a verbal or written statement of something you have witnessed and which you declare to be true. You may be asked to give testimony in court if you have witnessed a crime or observed some injustice. In matters of faith, a testimony is a personal declaration of your faith, what you believe to be true and influences how you live after having believed. 

            Testimonies given at baptism relate experiences of coming to know Jesus. Many of our young people talk about how camp impacted them. Others share how a crisis brought them to Jesus. This morning, I want to spend some time looking at Paul’s testimony in Acts to consider this statement:

The heart of the Christian testimony is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Acts 26:1-23

 

Paul had been in Jerusalem when his enemies tried to make life difficult for him (Acts 21-23). They accused him of being unpatriotic by bringing a Gentile into the temple courts. An unruly mob developed out of this uproar and Paul was whisked away by Roman officers. Following the trouble at the temple and Paul’s arrest, he faced three different trials in Acts 24-26.

            First, he faced the Roman governor of Judaea, Felix. Hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, Felix kept Paul in prison for two years.

            Festus succeeded Felix and once again Paul must relate his case and the reason for his arrest. Festus didn’t get it and would have let Paul go. Except that Paul makes appeal to appear before Caesar and Festus cannot refuse him this request. But he doesn’t know how to write up the charge. So, Festus calls on the Jewish puppet king, Agrippa II (great-grandson of Herod the Great)

            Paul’s third trial then is before Agrippa II and his sister-lover, Bernice (yes, it’s as weird as it sounds). 

            The original charges brought by the Jewish authorities three years prior may have faded in the public mind, but Paul and these trials keep them alive. Paul is accused of:

1.     Stirring up riots throughout the world (The Jews called Paul a “pest,” i.e. pestilence; a disease that rots the body).

2.     Being a ringleader of sect (an illegal religion).

3.     Profaning the temple (bringing a Gentile into the sacred area of the temple courts).

Each time Paul’s case is heard, each time he is on trial, one element concludes his defense, sort of like a final word on the matter: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This theme runs through the book of Acts.

In this way, Paul was not defending himself. he was defending the gospel and his ministry. His supreme defense for actions was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He does not try to prove his innocence so much as he tries to explain the reasons for the Jewish opposition to Jesus. 

In fact, in the book of Acts, the resurrection emerges as the key to most sermons and testimonies as the main reason for faith in Jesus. 

 

1. The Resurrection is where People Stumble

 

As Paul addresses Agrippa and explains his position, he takes pains to show how the gospel of Jesus does not oppose Jewish faith but actually grows out of it. Paul did not abandon the promises the Lord made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but sees them fulfilled in Jesus. As Paul said, “And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by our God to our fathers…” (6).  

            This is the same God who created the world with the breath of his mouth. This is the same God who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt in a series of miracles (parting the Red Sea; manna in the wilderness). On this basis, Paul asks, “Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” (8).

            And yet, that is where many people stumble when it comes to the story of Jesus. God does amazing things in your life, but can he raise the dead?

            Remember the speech Paul gave on the Areopagus (17:22ff). Paul notices the altar to the unknown god and proceeds to tell them about the god they don’t know. Interesting, they think. They’re intrigued. But then Paul concludes with this statement (read 17:30-31). When they heard him talk about the resurrection, they mocked him.

            The resurrection caused a stir throughout the story of Acts. Once when Paul was before the Sanhedrin getting nowhere with the Pharisees and Sadducees, he “poked the bear” by saying, “It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial,” (23:6). The two factions disagreed over the resurrection and began to fight each other taking the focus off Paul.

            Here in chapter 26, Paul tells how the Christ must suffer and, being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to all people (23). Hearing this, Festus erupts and says, “Paul, you’re out of your mind. You’re crazy. Give me a break. No one survives Roman execution.” 

            The resurrection of the dead troubles people - they can’t handle the idea = so the resurrection of Jesus really troubles people; they stumble on this one point of our faith. 

            I have stood at gravesides to conduct burials and at times I will have the mourners look around at the cemetery and have them try to envision it as a sown field that will one day produce a crop. I will point to the body of the deceased and say, “God’s not done with this body. When the voice of Christ calls out, the dead will rise to life with new bodies.” 

            Do you know what kind of looks I get? Incredulous! And this from Christians. They look at me like, “Hey, we’re grieving here. This is sad. Don’t tell me this old, broken body with its diseases is going to rise. Tell me Grandma is in heaven.” Resurrection makes for a nice theology, but we miss the reality, we stumble over it, we can’t grasp it.

            But Jesus is the first-born of the dead. He rose from the dead, conquered sin, and we will too. That should be our great hope.

 

2. The resurrection is foundational to the witness of the church

 

What is the main thrust of the book of Acts? If we said the Holy Spirit and his work through the church, we would be correct. He empowers the witness of the church. But to what do we bear witness?

            As much as the Holy Spirit plays a major part in the story of Acts and the Early Church, that part is primarily to hold up the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the central message of the gospel. The first significant words in Acts come from the resurrected Christ to wait for the Holy Spirit (1:5).

            Then we hear Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. And his argument centers on the prophetic proofs for the resurrection of Jesus and why these once-shy apostles are now preaching in the streets. He says, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses,” (2:32), and in this resurrection, Jesus receives validation and vindication as the Son of God. “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified, “(2:36). How do the people respond to the message of resurrection? They are cut to the heart! And then they repent and believe. The resurrection of Jesus is cause for belief.

            When Peter and John heal a lame man, they are taken into custody to explain this healing and why they are teaching the resurrection of Jesus (4:2). Their answer to the Sanhedrin shakes the establishment. “…let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead – by him this man is standing before you well, “(4:10). The resurrection of Jesus is the power behind the healing of the sick and the lame.

            Later, Peter has the opportunity to cross the Jewish-Gentile boundary and preach to Cornelius. Again, Peter said that the Jews put Jesus to death by hanging him on a tree, but that God raised him on the third day. Peter concludes saying, “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name,” (10:43). The resurrection of Jesus is the basis for belief and the forgiveness of sins.

            The Church in Acts persistently declares that everything we do and say is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why do we as Christians insist that Jesus is the only way? Because that is what Jesus says about himself. We believe him. And we believe him because he has demonstrated that he knows life better than anyone else who ever lived. The supreme demonstration of that fact is that he rose from the dead.

 

3. The resurrection was the hinge of Paul’s defense

 

Before Agrippa, Paul relates for the third time in the book of Acts his conversion experience. This time he adds an odd quote from Jesus, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads, (26:14c).

            If you know what a goad is, you know that it is like a cattle prod, a sharp, pointy stick that a shepherd might use to poke the sheep and make them move. A goad is also a sharp point on a chariot that a horse kicks to keep its legs from hitting the chariot. 

            When Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, he meets the risen Lord. Jesus tells him to stop kicking against the goads; stop resisting what you know to be true.

            Paul described his life to Agrippa before meeting the risen Lord. He was a man who was convinced he knew the truth. He was zealous for Jewish culture, tradition, and faith. Paul was so convinced he was right about his worldview and his model for living that he persecuted the Christians whom he judged to be wrong, throwing them in jail, voting for their deaths. Paul was a religious man, a privileged, educated man; a man in whom few could find fault (Phil. 3:4-6).

            But then Paul met the risen Christ, and it rocked his world. He got crushed. Paul wasn’t persecuting some weird cult members; Jesus told him, “You’re persecuting me.” But it wasn’t a rebuke Paul received; it was a calling. The resurrected Jesus raised Paul from the dead legalism and religiosity of Judaism. (Read 26:16-18)

            From this point on, Paul became obsessed with the resurrection of Christ. It was the hinge of his testimony. For Paul, everything rested on the historicity of Christ rising from the dead. He even considered all his achievements, his birth rights, his education, his perfect obedience to the law as loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus as Lord (Phil. 3:7-8). Why would he risk everything and throw away his reputation as a teacher of the Law? “…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain to the resurrection from the dead,” (Phil. 3:10-11).

 

            And I want you to know this morning that you are a testimony of the risen Christ. You have put your faith in Jesus and that also means you believe in the resurrection. 

            Our challenge today is to live like the resurrection of Jesus matters. The resurrection of Jesus is the climax of the gospel story, it is the heart of our redemption. Without it, Jesus is only a dead martyr whose teaching is misunderstood. With it, you and I must stand in awe of the exalted Messiah, the Son of the living God, who gave his life as a ransom for many, and who now reigns at God’s right hand, and who will one day return to fix this broken world. 

            The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. It reorients our thinking, speaking, our behavior – my whole life – because of the resurrection, I’m not the same. The Holy Spirit takes the introvert and makes her a lioness for the gospel because of the hope of the resurrection. The Holy Spirit gives courage to the timid to stand up and say “yes” when asked “Do you really believe in the resurrection of Jesus?” 

            Yes, I believe!

 

Benediction:

            How important is the resurrection to our gospel? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

If there is no resurrection – Christ has not been raised.

If there is no resurrection – our preaching is in vain and so is your faith.

If there is no resurrection – we misrepresent God by saying Jesus was raised from the dead.

If there is no resurrection – the dead are not raised.

If there is no resurrection – your faith is useless, and you are still in your sins

If there is no resurrection – those who have died are lost forever.

If there is no resurrection – we can only hope that this life will be good enough – woe is us.

 

BUT Christ has been raised from the dead, the first of those whom God will raise from death to life. Hallelujah!!!

 

 

                                                            AMEN