Resurrection in Acts

It may be argued that the resurrection of Christ is the single most important truth ever preached. It is the lynchpin of the Christian faith.

The Holy Lamb of God came into the world, lived a perfect life, showed us the Father and died for our sins on the cross, but if God did not raise Jesus from the dead, we have no compelling evidence of any of these things and no reason to get excited about them. Paul trumpets the critical importance of resurrection in his letters to the Romans (“He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies”) and the Corinthians (“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins”).

But we don’t have to wait for the doctrinal teaching of the epistles to understand the unique significance of Christ’s resurrection. It’s right there in the historical books of the New Testament as the central fact of apostolic doctrine, the truth that changed the world.

Here are five places in the book of Acts that we can’t possibly miss it.

1/ The Reason for Appointing a Twelfth Apostle (Acts 1:22)

After the Lord Jesus ascends to heaven in the first few verses of Acts, the very next event to take place is the choosing of a replacement for Judas. Peter puts forward an argument based on the words of David in Psalm 109, “Let another take his office”, and Matthias is chosen. But Peter’s reasoning is interesting. He says, “One of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us … must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” This is what a share in the ministry meant to Peter: not a testimony to the words of Christ or the works of Christ or even the death of Christ, but his resurrection. The resurrection was what validated everything else the Lord Jesus did and proved its eternal worth beyond a shadow of a doubt.

2/ The Pivotal Fact of the Pentecostal Message (Acts 2:31)

Three thousand people believed and were baptized in a single day at Pentecost, and the resurrection was the reason. Once again, Peter is quoting David from the Psalms, applying them to Jesus of Nazareth. He says, “You will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.” Concerning David, he says, “Being therefore a prophet, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.” Jewish law holds that the testimony of two men is valid. Here were twelve saying, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.” The reason so many were cut to the heart, repented and believed was that God raised him from the dead. Resurrection was the central theme of the apostles’ gospel.

3/ The Reason Christianity and Judaism Disagree (Acts 4:2)

The apostles greatly annoyed the Jewish religious leadership, particularly the Sadducees. The reason? “They were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection of Christ absolutely annihilated the primary distinctive of the most powerful, wealthy and influential group of Jews, which was the elimination of the supernatural from their religion. That was politically intolerable, and it was the reason for the intensity of their opposition. Resurrection is just as politically intolerable today, when the spirit of the age is determined to make everything about the here and now, and blind the world to the possibility of eternity. So then, long before Paul wrote about the resurrection of Christians, the Jewish leadership had grasped the obvious ramifications of the resurrection of Christ, that he would be “the firstborn among many brethren”. His resurrection makes ours inevitable, and that hope trivializes everything that matters to the Powers That Be.

4/ The Reason for the Explosive Growth of the Early Church (Acts 4:33)

“With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” The power of the message was their testimony concerning the resurrection. It was not just the subject of the Pentecostal sermon, but the resurrection became the central distinguishing feature of life for the early church. Their generosity with one another was a direct product of the confidence that they could freely invest in the next world and not worry about the present one, so they sold their property and distributed it as any had need because it suddenly meant very little to them. Their hopes were with Christ in heaven, not on the things of the world.

5/ The Evidence God will Judge the World (Acts 17:32)

So far in Acts, Luke has been concerned with relating the apostles’ testimony to the Jews about resurrection. But when Paul took the gospel to the Gentiles in Athens, he did exactly the same thing: he made it all about the resurrection. Paul preached a very different message at the Areopagus than Peter did at Pentecost. He didn’t blame the Gentiles for putting Christ to death. He started instead with the Gentiles as the offspring of God, but he moved very quickly from there to God judging the world through Christ. The evidence of the inevitability of universal judgment was this: “Of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” That is Paul’s punchline, if you like, and that was the takeaway at the Areopagus: “When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ ” Resurrection was the heart of the message, and what provoked Gentile interest in the gospel.

Resurrection and Life

The resurrection of Jesus sits right at the door to eternal life. If we refuse to believe it, salvation is impossible. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” No matter how wonderful a man he was, and no matter how wonderful a message he preached, a dead Lord cannot save.

Only the Resurrection and the Life can. Up from the grave he arose.