When your unbelieving friends find out that you are a Christian, what do you think their first thoughts would be in regard to what you believe in? Would it be your views on abortion or marriage? Does your political persuasion take centre stage in your conversations with them? Would they initially think of your counter-cultural views on Darwinism or the Big Bang Theory? What beliefs do you express as a priority in your Christian profession?
If we were to go back two thousand years and ask the unbelieving friends of the early church what they thought the Christians believed in, they would answer quite simply and say, ‘They believe that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.’
Demonstration
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact that the gospel writers made great efforts to demonstrate. In Matthew chapter 28 we are told that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary met with the resurrected Jesus who comforted them and commissioned them, as he did the eleven disciples in Galilee at the end of the chapter.
In Luke chapter 24 we read an account of the risen Jesus eating and appearing to many witnesses. On the road to Emmaus, the resurrected Jesus opened the Scriptures to reveal to the disciples that he had victory over the grave.
At the end of John’s Gospel, we read of the risen Christ seeking out the disciples. It was Thomas who saw the scars of the cross (John 20:27). The risen Jesus restored Peter and commissioned the disciples to testify to the resurrection. Jesus then ascended to heaven in Acts chapter 1.
Declaration
Throughout the book of Acts, we see the resurrection of Jesus at the centre of the gospel proclamation, regardless of context and audience demographic. The resurrection was the central message of the early church. In Peter’s sermon at Pentecost he declared, ‘God has raised this Jesus; we are all witnesses of this’ (Acts 2:32). When preaching in Solomon’s Colonnade Peter accused his hearers of killing the source of life, the God of their ancestors, ‘whom God raised from the dead; we are all witnesses of this’ (Acts 3:15). Peter and John were arrested in Acts chapter 4 because they were ‘proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead’ (Acts 4:2). They were taken away to be questioned regarding the healing of a disabled man and Peter rebukes the court stating that ‘this man who is standing before you healthy, is doing so by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom God raised from the dead’ (Acts 4:10). The same message was preached in Acts chapter 5 when Peter was again on trial before the Sanhedrin: ‘The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus’ (Acts 5:30). When in the home of a gentile Roman Centurion, Peter spoke the same central message: ‘We ourselves are witnesses…God raised up this man on the third day and caused him to be seen’ (Acts 10:39-40). For Peter, the resurrection was the ultimate proof of Jesus’ Lordship and explained the necessity of his suffering.
Saul of Tarsus met with the resurrected Christ in Acts chapter 9 on the road to Damascus and when in Antioch preached that ‘God raised him [Jesus] from the dead and he appeared for many days to those who are now witnesses’ (Acts 13:30-31). In Thessalonica, Paul spent three Sabbaths in the synagogue, reasoning from the Scriptures that the Messiah rose from the dead (Acts 17:3). This caused a riot and presented Paul with an invitation to speak to the intellectual elite, an audience of philosophers in the Areopagus. He declares the same message of ‘the good news about Jesus and the resurrection’ (Acts 17:18). Paul was brought to trial before Felix on a charge ‘concerning the resurrection of the dead’ (Acts 24:21) and the same charge was made against Paul in the court of Agrippa. Paul argues, ‘Why do any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?’ (Acts 26:8).
The message the early church had at its centre was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It would have been clear to the unbelieving friends of Peter, Paul or any of the disciples, that they believed that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead.
Transformation
The resurrected Jesus reconciled Peter and transformed Paul. The resurrected Jesus was at the centre of their preaching and it is through the same word preached today that the same resurrected Jesus is revealed to us bringing forgiveness and eternal life.
Jesus is risen indeed. He is the first fruit of a new creation that will come on the last day, where both ‘the righteous and the unrighteous’ will be resurrected and judged (Acts 24:15). This is a message of ‘most importance’ for Paul and a reality that is essential to the gospel presentation (1 Cor. 15:3-6). ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins’ (1 Cor. 15:17). A message that I fear can often be lost as we attempt to apply the gospel to different aspects of the modern age.
The resurrection applied
The application of the gospel is far-reaching and should pervade every aspect of human existence. It is important for us to make a defence of our faith when met with cultural resistance (1 Pet. 3:15) but if our message is not built on the risen Christ, what power can it have? The apostles did not preach politics, they did not preach culture. The point of contention that challenged any unbelievers around them was the resurrection of Christ. Whether they were in a synagogue, the courts, in the home of a Roman gentile or in a lecture theatre filled with philosophers, the early church declared that Christ had risen.
Everyone knew what the disciples believed and this message of the risen Jesus was applied in their newness of life. The early church proclaimed that Jesus had beaten death and they backed this message with their lives (Phil. 1:21). The unbelieving friends of the apostles knew what they were all about. Could our unbelieving friends say the same about us? Have we lost the wonder of the resurrection in our witness? Have we reduced the proclamation of the risen Lord to our own apologetic hobby horses?
Ask yourself what your unbelieving friends would say that you believe in as a Christian. Would they first say creationism, pro-life, traditional views on marriage? Or would they say that you believe that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead?
Paul writes to the church in Rome: ‘The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is in you’ (Rom. 8:11). Let us then be bold in our proclamation of the good news about Jesus and the resurrection and apply this reality in the newness of our lives. Do not let the glorious message of our risen Lord be overshadowed (Acts 17:18).