Today, all over the country, in fact, all over the world, religious people are attempting to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. There are all kinds of religious rituals and ceremonies being conducted by millions and millions of people in celebration of Easter. But the question I would raise today, is what is the significance of the resurrection for us today, besides the obvious historical nature of it? What is the effect of this day of remembrance? I’m afraid that the resurrection represents just a holiday to most people, a holiday that has no power beyond simply remembering an event that happened 2000 years ago in the life of Christ. To merely recount the familiar historical story of the empty tomb is to miss the significance of the power of the resurrection. It is to miss the present day application of the power of the resurrection. And if we are not careful to consider the present significance of the resurrection rather than just revisit the account of Jesus’ resurrection then we are in danger of possibly missing the whole point of the resurrection. To simply retell the same story year after year, Easter service after Easter service, without applying the truth of it, the purpose of it, is to only add condemnation to ourselves for hearing the truth, but in effect rejecting the purpose of the resurrection, which is to give new resurrection life to those who believe in Christ.
In other words, the power of the resurrection is not just limited to the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. The power of the resurrection is the promise of new life for all that believe in Christ and die to their sins. Jesus promised us abundant life. Eternal life. The resurrection is the power over the fear of death. It provides the certainty that the sting of death is taken away. It provides the certain hope that because He lives, we will live. That because He was raised from the dead, we will be raised from the dead. But the resurrection is not just hope for after we die, but it also produces hope for new life now. As we die to sin, we are raised to new life. Rom. 8:11 “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” And in “Rom. 6:4 we read, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
Now that is the message that Peter and John were preaching in chapter 3. They were proclaiming the startling news that Jesus Christ, whom the Jews had put to death just a few weeks earlier, was actually alive, and the power through His name was available to all who believed to save them from their sins. It was the power of that resurrected Savior that was present at that time to bring about the healing of the lame man who sat in his suffering at the gate Beautiful for 40 years. This is the message of Peter and John. Look at vs. 2, “they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” That was their message. That the Jews had put Jesus to death, but God had raised Him from the dead. He was alive, and in His power this man was made well. And that same miracle power was available for new life for everyone that repented and believed in Him. And it was available for all who believed in a risen, living, saving Christ who was seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father.
Now that message should have been welcome news to the world, especially to the Jews. And it was good news to some. That is what the word “gospel” means, the good news. On the day of Pentecost 3000 repented and were saved by faith in Christ, by believing that He was risen and living and seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. But not everyone believed. And as we begin this chapter, we see the first stirrings of animosity towards the new church by the established religious leaders of the day, the priests, and the Sadducees; the religious ruling party of the Jews.
So in this chapter we are going to look at five proofs of the resurrection. Five ways in which the power of the resurrection is illustrated. First, we see that the power of the resurrection provoked animosity towards the church. Jesus said don’t be surprised if they hate you, because they hated Me first. So that is the first point presented in this chapter; the power of the resurrection provokes animosity. It is amazing that the gospel is frowned upon by modern society, isn’t it? It’s amazing that something that delivers people from death, delivers people from addictions, from strife, from sin, that teaches it’s converts to do good instead of evil, is considered by many people in our society today to be something to be suppressed and shut down. And the first church experienced this to an even greater degree than we see happening today, though we are fast approaching the time when Christians will be considered public enemy number one. Already in many other parts of the world, Christians are losing their lives because of their faith in Christ. And we see this reported almost every day in the news.
Peter and John were arrested by the temple guard, directly after healing this lame man. A crowd had gathered when they witnessed this man that was once lame now jump and leap around the temple praising God for being healed. And Peter used that opportunity to tell the multitude that it was not due to some power that he or John had that made him well, but it was the power of the resurrected, living Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who had made him well.
And as they were speaking, the temple officials arrested them and put them in jail. I sometimes wonder how long I will have the freedom to preach the gospel from the beach as we have done for 8 years now. The cultural climate towards the gospel is getting more and more antagonistic all the time. One day, I fully expect the town officials to come out there and shut me down, perhaps even put me in jail. Though I hope it won’t come to that. More than likely they will tell me I have to cease and desist and threaten to fine me if I do not stop.
The world doesn’t care if you worship a dead prophet. The world doesn’t care if you worship a good man, a good teacher. But the world hates a person who proclaims Jesus was raised from the dead, because that speaks of a living God, a powerful God, a God that reigns and demands out obeisance. And man doesn’t want to be ruled, but to maintain the right of self determination over his destiny, over his will, and rebels at bowing his knee. So therefore there is animosity towards the power of the resurrection. Ironically though, the church is refined and strengthened by persecution. We grow more under duress than we do in times of ease. Pruning, whether in the church body or in our individual lives, produces more fruit, not less.
Secondly, the power of the resurrection produces boldness. The power of the resurrection emboldened Peter and John to preach the gospel, to confront the Sanhedrin and condemn them, even though just a few weeks before Peter had denied and abandoned Christ at His trial. How did it embolden them? It wasn’t because they had found some sort of comfort in performing elaborate rituals signifying the resurrection. It wasn’t because they had established a holiday commemorating the resurrection. It was because of the confidence of having seen Christ’s once crucified, dead body raised up in newness of life, in a glorified body that was not subject to death, and they had seen the same body of Christ ascend into heaven. That reality had changed their lives. It had changed their perception of what harm could come to them. Whereas once they had run away at the thought of persecution, now they had boldness to proclaim Christ because they knew that same resurrection power of Christ was in them.
Ironically, it was the same court, the same high priests that had tried Jesus and condemned Him to death that was now the very court that they stood in front of. The same court that caused Peter to deny Jesus three times in order to avoid being caught up in His crucifixion, the same court that John had ran from, was now the very same court they found themselves examined in. But now they are filled with boldness where they once were filled with fear. They knew that as Christ had overcome suffering and death, so that same promise was for them as well. They need not fear what man can do. As Jesus said in Luke 12:4-5 "I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”
So even as the resurrection gave boldness to the apostles, so those of us that have faith in the risen Savior can also claim that same boldness, knowing that we need not fear those that can kill the body, because God has given us eternal life.
Thirdly, the power of the resurrection provides the filling of the Holy Spirit. Peter and John were now bold where once they were timid, because now they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit because of the resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven, that He might send to us the Comforter, the Helper, which is the Spirit of God indwelling human flesh. Jesus said in John 16:7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”
And that is exactly what we see happening here. Peter and John are filled with the Holy Spirit as the text says in vs. 8, so that they are able to answer the high priests and the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish equivalent of the Supreme Court. This is the direct fulfillment of the promise Jesus made to His apostles in Luke 12:11-12 "When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
This begs the question, by the way, “what is the filling of the Holy Spirit?” The answer to that question is demonstrated right here in this passage. It is the power to proclaim the gospel, it is the word of God which is given to you to minister the gospel, it is the boldness to act as God directs you to act, it is the power to do what God wants you to do. That is what it means to be filled. It is illustrated by the wind which fills the sails of a ship, empowering it to move under the direction of the captain.
Please understand something. The Holy Spirit is a person. He is the Spirit of Christ. He dwells in the hearts of those who have been saved. At salvation, you receive all of Him. He cannot be divided, He is a person. He indwells the saints with His presence. So there is no way to get more of the Holy Spirit. So how are we then filled with the Holy Spirit? There is only one way, and that is for there to be less of the flesh. The flesh is in competition with the Spirit. So we put to death the flesh to be filled with the Spirit. You abandon all trust in yourself. You humble yourself, let go of the steering wheel, and call upon God to direct you and help you. It’s about letting go of your wisdom, of your desires, of your passions, of your ambitions, and leaning full on the wisdom and guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit to sustain you and empower you. The Spirit will give you the power to do what God commands you to do. That is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit takes this examination, this trial, and considers it an opportunity to preach the gospel to the very tribunal that put to death His Savior just weeks before. And He presents the gospel without equivocation. In answer to their question of in what power or name have they done this miracle of healing the lame man, Peter answers them in such a way as to delegitimize their interrogation by reminding them that what they had done was a benefit to a sick man. The Council might not have liked the message, but they could not deny the good result of the miracle. A lame man had been made well. Now that was a statement of genius. Peter’s asking, are we on trial for making a sick man well? In other words, is it a crime to do good? Peter is establishing that they have no guilt in this matter. They have done good to a sick man, which is what the law required, by the way.
So then Peter, in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, turns the tables on the Council. Though we are on trial for doing good to a sick man, you on the other hand, put on trial a good man and committed a terrible crime. He said, you crucified Jesus Christ the Nazarene an innocent man. Pilate said three times during the trial of Jesus that he found no fault in this man. The charges they brought against Jesus had been trumped up. But this righteous man, this good man, they had crucified because they did not want Him to rule over them. They were the rulers of the religion of the Jews and they were willing to commit murder in order to preserve their power. All the family of the high priest were there that day. All of the governing council known as the Sanhedrin was there at this trial just as they had been at Jesus’ trial. And Peter accuses them of murdering an innocent man. But Peter proclaims Him even more than a man, he declares Him the Messiah, the Christ. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. So when Peter calls Him Jesus Christ of Nazareth, he is nailing down the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, and that it was confirmed by God through the resurrection. See, that is another proof of the resurrection, that God would not allow His Holy One to see decay in the grave, because He was holy. He was righteous, and He had no guilt.
The Council though Peter rightly condemns as guilty. This is a pattern of Peter and the Apostle’s preaching. They preach guilt first, then grace. And the unbelievable thing is that Peter offers grace to these guilty murderers of Christ. I think if I were Peter that day I would have seen if the power of the Holy Spirit was present for me to call down fire from heaven. But as Peter would eventually write in his second epistle, chapter 3:9 “The Lord…. is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” Even towards these hard hearted, self righteous murderers of the Son of God Himself, there is the opportunity for repentance. God offers grace even to the most vile sinner, even to these murderers of Christ.
And that leads us to the fourth power of the resurrection, which is it provides salvation. Peter says in vs. 12, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved.” Salvation is only possible by faith in the living Christ whom God raised from the dead, as a testament to the efficacy of His atonement. Only Jesus satisfied God’s requirement. Listen, the offer of salvation is as wide as whosoever will may come. (Rev. 22:17) But also the offer of salvation is so narrow that entrance is only by one name. Only by Jesus Christ is salvation possible.
That is what Jesus died on the cross for, to save sinners. To seek and to save those that are lost. The problem was that the Council and the High Priest did not consider themselves sinners. They considered themselves as belonging to the kingdom of God by right of their birth. They considered themselves as righteous by virtue of their good deeds, by keeping the law. They considered themselves worthy of the kingdom by their positions as priests. And as such they were truly lost, because they failed to see the need of their salvation.
I wonder how many here today are outside of the kingdom of heaven because they have never confessed that they were sinners, that they were lost? The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the kingdom of God. That there is none righteous, no not one. That all of our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. Coming to church can’t save you. Being born into a so called Christian home cannot save you. Being sprinkled or baptized will not save you. Trying to turn over a new leaf will not save you. There is only one way that you can be saved. And that is realizing you are a sinner, repenting of it, and trusting in the salvation offered through Jesus Christ, the Holy and Righteous Son of God who gave His life as a substitute on the cross for our sins. There is salvation in nothing else, in no one else.
And listen, don’t miss that emphasis there in Peter’s statement. “By which you must be saved…” You must be saved. Or you will die in your sins and face eternal death. The wages of sin is death. You cannot escape hell but by one means, that is through Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, there is a great illustration of salvation that is presented in the plague of poisonous vipers that came upon the children of Israel who had rebelled against God so they were bitten and about to die. And God instructed Moses to raise a brass serpent upon a pole and said that if any would look upon that serpent they would be saved from death. All of the people that were bitten were under the penalty of death, they were in the process of dying. But for those that looked up at the serpent on the pole, God forgave them and healed them so that they lived.
That’s a picture of salvation. Jesus was lifted up on a pole, a cross, and everyone that has been bitten with the sting of death need only to look upon that cross and be saved. We all are under the condemnation of death, because we all are sinners. But Jesus has died for us, so that we might be made alive in Him, if we will just turn from our sins and have faith in Christ.
Those hard hearted high priests and council members as far as we know never accepted Jesus as the cornerstone of their salvation. They rejected Him. And so we can only imagine that the prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled to them, for rejecting the Son of God. Jesus had prophesied in Matt. 21:42-44 "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES' Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust."
But there was one man there that day who was changed by the power of the resurrection. And that was the lame man. He was leaping, jumping, praising God for the miracle He had done in his life. And this man illustrates the final power of the resurrection, that the resurrection produces transformation. Because Jesus is alive, we can have life and have it more abundantly. That was the point of this lame man’s healing, to illustrate the living power of Christ to transform the lame to one that could walk. To give life to the dead. To transfer righteousness to those that were sinners. That lame man welcomed the news that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, that we might have life in His name. That we that were sick unto death might be made well.
The Sanhedrin did not want to recognize that they were sick. That they were dying in their sins just as surely as their forefathers had died from the snake bites in the wilderness. But this poor lame man knew well his dreadful condition, which he had from his mother’s womb. We too are sick from our mother’s womb. David said in Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.” But as the power of the risen Christ was able to make the lame man whole, to transform him from lame to walking, from dead in his sins, to new life in Christ, so that same resurrection power is available for anyone today, that recognizes that they are lame, unable to walk in righteousness. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And then transformed, we are able to be a testimony to others. This man that was lame and made whole was the catalyst that caused 5000 men to be saved at the preaching of Peter which followed his healing. A whole multitude saw the transformation of this lame man and gave God the glory, and turned to Him by faith in Christ. Folks, that is the power of a transformed life. I don’t want to take anything away from witnessing in foreign mission fields or outreaches, there is a place for that. But I would submit to you that there is no testimony like the testimony that you can have to your own neighbors, your own family, those that see you every day on the street or at work. That was the nature of this man’s effectiveness. He had been begging by that gate for 40 years. Thousands of people had seen him sitting there day after day with misshapen, shriveled legs, having to be carried to the gate and picked up in the evenings. He was an object of pity, perhaps even loathing by some. And now by the power of Christ he was well, he was leaping, running, walking, praising God.
Listen, the power of the resurrection is not just about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus at Easter, the power of the resurrection is lived out as a testimony every day by those that have been saved. I would ask you today, have you been saved? Has your life been transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ to give you new life? Have you died to your sins, to be raised in the newness of life in Christ? Is that your testimony? Can your neighbors, your family, your coworkers attest to the miracle of your transformation? Does that witness cause others to want what you have? If not, then I would suggest you consider your salvation. As Paul said in 2Cor. 13:5 “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?”
I trust that you do not fail the test. I hope that no one leaves here today rejecting the Savior who gave His life so that you might know the power of His resurrection. So that you might have life and have it more abundantly. So that you might walk in newness of life. So that you might have the power over sin. So that you might be made well. So that we might be bold to proclaim the gospel. So that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit. So that we might overcome adversity. So that we might live transformed lives in our homes and communities in order to spread the good news of the gospel.
Last week I spoke of the Great Awakening which transformed thousands of lives across this country when America was in it’s infancy, around the mid 1700’s. And a man came up to me after the service last week and told me of a poem that was written by one of the men who was touched by that great revival - a contemporary of the great preacher George Whitfield. This man named Lawrence Trimble wrote a poem called Awaken which describes the power of a transformed life.
One man awake,
Awakens another.
The second awakens
His next-door brother.
The three awake can rouse a town
By turning
The whole place
Upside down.
The many awake
Can make such a fuss
It finally awakens
The rest of us.
One man up,
With dawn in his eyes,
Surely then
Multiplies.
Because of the power of the resurrection, Peter and John were accused of turning the world upside down. Let us go and do the same.
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