Acts 25: Resurrection Still Matters Part 2

Snow pushes us online as we open Acts 25 and settle on a single line that changes everything: Jesus was dead, and Paul says he is alive. We trace why the resurrection is the hinge of Christian faith and how that hope reshapes fear, mission, and everyday choices.

• Festus and Agrippa’s roles in Paul’s trial 
• Verse 19 as the crux of the story 
• Why Christianity collapses without the resurrection 
• Modern attempts to tame or deny the empty tomb 
• Hope that outlives death and fuels courage 
• Freedom from materialism through eternal perspective 
• Contrast with Epicurean and Stoic focus on the present 
• Key scriptures that ground resurrection hope 
• Labor in the Lord is not in vain

Transcript

Turning To Acts 25

Festus, Agrippa, And Paul’s Appeal

The Crux: Jesus Alive

Why Resurrection Forces A Verdict

Christianity Without Resurrection

Modern Doubts And Toothless Faith

Hope That Outlives Death

Boldness For Mission And Witness

Freedom From Materialism

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Well, good morning. Hello, church family. Unfortunately, not at church together once again at my kitchen table. Listen, I love the snow. I really love the snow a whole lot, but I've never had to cancel church, I don't think, because of the snow. So now snow's got one strike against it. Uh, I do hope you all enjoy the winter weather. Hope you stay safe and and warm. We're gonna jump back into Acts chapter 25 today. Uh, I do not enjoy doing online stuff. I do not enjoy just uh essentially talking to a camera. It's not very fun, it's not very conversational, but we do have to focus on one verse today. We started on some of the material last week in Acts chapter 25, but we're gonna focus on verse 19 and the resurrection today. I just want to uh expand a little more on what we started last week. Before we do read verse 19, I do want to quickly summarize the verses that surround it. Uh, we did this last week in more detail, but just a quick paragraph on what's been going on. And what we have is this recounting of events given to this one king, Agrippa, by Festus, the Roman official. And Festus has inherited the problem of Paul, and he had personally found him free of guilt, but because of political pressure, he couldn't just let him go. And because of that political pressure and the danger that Paul would not receive a fair trial, Paul had decided to appeal to Caesar himself to hear his trial. Uh, who he wanted to go see the Roman Emperor Nero. But Festus doesn't know how to detail or to categorize the charges that are being brought against Paul. He doesn't quite understand. He he understands slightly, but not all the way. And so what he needs is some help from someone who is more familiar with the Jewish people and the Jewish faith. That is King Agrippa. And uh he's uh he is a Jew, he's the sanctioned king of the Jews. And the hope is that Agrippa might be able to add clarity to how Festus might send Paul off with the correct information and details for Caesar. And in the midst of sort of, I guess, if you're not like me, uh, some of this can be slightly boring, a little bit of a slog of the story that is in the book of Acts. We have verse 19, which is a little glimpse of the crux of Christianity that is the resurrection. Verse 19. Rather, they had a s rather they had certain points of dispute with him, that's the Jews with Paul, about their own religion, and about a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. We have this narrative story, background info, and then in the midst of this, we've got this little theological detail: a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. For the Jewish people in particular, as both Festus and Agrippa will realize and point out in various ways, the resurrection is a real issue. If the resurrection were true, then all the Jewish people, based on the teachings and the prophecies of the Old Testament, would be forced to admit that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah that they had been waiting for, but they had killed and rejected. It was for many uh Jewish people an untenable situation, which is why there's such opposition to Christians in Paul in Jerusalem and in other synagogues around the Mediterranean. It would have been world-shattering for the people, the Jewish people. It would have changed everything for them. Of course, we know and believe that listen, the world needed a little shattering. We need a little shattering sometimes, because out of that shattering can often come, I guess, just a desire for savior and an openness to God that we didn't have before the shattering. But if the Jewish authorities had been less selective in their remembrance of certain scriptures, they would have known that the Messiah would have been rejected by his own people as it was prophesied about. Now, not all the Jewish people were so hard-headed, right? Many did believe. All the disciples were Christian. Uh uh all the first Christians were Jewish people. Many of the first Christians throughout the Mediterranean, of course, were increasingly more Gentile people, but some of the first ones in the cities that people went to were Jewish people found at synagogues or worshiping down by the river with other Jewish people. And so, right, it was a stumbling block for many people, but especially the Jews, this Jesus and this resurrection. It was the resurrection that ultimately, though, was the turning point and focal point of what is Christianity. Without the resurrection, the cross doesn't matter. Jesus is just some guy dying on a cross. The teachings of Jesus don't really matter more any more so than any other teachings of any other teacher or prophet. And it matters without the resurrection. The miracles, the many miracles, the amazing miracles wouldn't matter without the resurrection. It just wouldn't. And I mentioned last week that there are some in the church world and out of the church world who who today, just like 2,000 years ago, if you wish to cast uh cast doubt and negativity directed at the resurrection, which if you claim to be a Christian, it's just a strange thing to do because without the resurrection, you're not really a Christian. I mentioned Marcus Borg uh last week. He's a theologian, claims to be a Christian theologian, popular guy, lots of followers. And he has spent large portions of his career trying to minimize the reality and the divinity of the resurrection. And there are other leaders, unfortunately, in in churches, in seminaries, at colleges, Christian colleges, even at that, who attempt to do the same. And in their attempts to maybe make the resurrection more approachable, more rational for modern skeptical audience, they turn Christianity into another toothless world religion. We don't need another toothless world religion. We have plenty of toothless world religions. What we need is something with some bite to it. And the resurrection gives Christianity some bite. And it's not uh a late developing thing. It is apparent from the very beginning of Christianity that the resurrection matters. Even outside the church, outside the church world and outside of Christians, the world is full of people who just have a hate and doubt uh for the resurrection. Right? Just go on Reddit, type in some stuff about the resurrection on the internet. You'll see some stuff come up, probably from Reddit, and you will read uh secular assessments of the resurrection, and half of it's based on poor historical understanding or just outright lies that have no base to them or no truth to them. But from the very beginning, from the very beginning, this was a problem. But also from the very beginning, it was the very resurrection of Jesus that proved his divine nature, that he was God, his perfect righteousness, that he was blameless, the spotless lamb. And it was the launch of something new, not just for Christians, but for the whole world. There's no way around it. The resurrection matters. So we talked about this some last week. Why does it matter? Does it still matter for us right now? Uh how does that work out in our daily lives? How does it impact how we do things? If the if the cross is is is a symbol of how we choose to represent ourselves, how can we make sure the resurrection has its place and its role in our life? Many of these questions uh could be entire sermons, many of them are could be entire essays, small books. We don't have that. I'm not gonna do that. Uh, I touched on one of the answers to one of these questions last week, and one of the greatest results of the resurrection in practice is a hope, a real hope, that transcends the fear of death. We will all face death one way or another, sometimes in multiple ways, whether it be uh someone we love or know going through death, or us ourselves sitting on our deathbed one day, we have to face it. And because of the resurrection, there's hope. And that changes literally everything. Everything. The hope that we get from the resurrection that impacts our view on death and how we handle death, that same hope should trickle down into everything that we do and everything that we experience as Christians. I think back to church history and I think back to Paul himself and his journeys, his dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean. And of course, it was the Holy Spirit that enabled him, that led him, that gave him a boldness to do this, but a part of that hope and boldness found, I guess, the seed, the base of that boldness had to come from the theological knowledge that there's something beyond right now, a resurrection hope. I think of all the other missionaries that have existed over the millennia, that Christianity has existed now. And as they walk to unknown places, unknown people and regions, brand new uh uh uh religions and moralities and ethics and people groups, and how a terrifying prospect that might be. And no, and this is unknown, not knowing what they are waiting for. And again, of course, the Holy Spirit is leading them and giving them some sort of courage, but I have to believe that part of what gives them the boldness and courage they need is the hope of the resurrection planted firmly in their mind and in their heart. That has to be part of it. We are in a world that desperately needs that same sort of boldness that many of the Christian missionaries have had over the centuries. And yet sometimes the church struggles. Sometimes we struggle, I struggle. So maybe what we need sometimes is a refresher course on the resurrection hope so that it melts away our inhibitions, it melts away the pressure from social, uh, social uh, I guess, negativity, so that we can stand and do and say the right thing at the right time. The resurrection, uh the hope of something on the other side can also help us fight the tendency for us to fall into materialism. We care about stuff. We do. And stuff is not bad, but we can make it more important than it is, and it can become an idol. And people have always done this. This is not a modern issue, this is not uh a capitalism issue, this is a human issue. Why else would Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount have to spend time talking about not worrying about stuff, the clothes you wear, where you'll live, the food you'll eat? Why does he have to compare us to the birds of the air and the flowers of the field? Why why would he have to warn his first century audience about caring about uh stacking up or saving treasures that can be burned away, rusted away, stolen, or or just destroyed, and then encourage his disciples to lay up treasures outside of the right now, right? He says, lay them up in in heaven, which is outside of right now. It's pointing to something beyond. The reality of the resurrection at work in your life provides you hope, but also perspective that there is more. There's something on the other side. And so if there's something on the other side, stuff doesn't have to be that important because there's something else. By the way, the Jews certainly have issues with the teaching of the resurrection, but it's not like the rest of the world was ready to accept it either. The very popular Greek philosophies, Epicureanism and Stoicism. These two philosophies, along with, of course, the Pantheon gods, were some of the most influential systems in the Mediterranean world and beyond, because the Greeks had conquered a lot of the known world and spread their philosophies and their religions outside of that. And of course, the Romans have picked up much of the Roman philosophies. And so this is, I don't know, it's it's foundational to a lot of people's lives, these two things. And both those systems I just mentioned, uh, with very important distinctions from one another, but both of them focus on the right now of life. Okay? They focus strictly on what you will experience right now. And because of that, these old thought patterns, which still exist today, by the way, they didn't go away, they still exist. We call them different things sometimes, but it's the same thoughts. Because of them, um, it it makes us fixate on the right now. And the reality is without a hope for something beyond right now, i.e., resurrection, logically, logically speaking, these two ways of doing life, Epicureanism and Stoicism, are actually relatively reasonable and logical if you don't believe in something else. It's a logical conclusion to focus on right now. And so if you don't have hope for a future or something else, or enjoyment can become a God. Uh stuff can become a God. Power, the desire for power becomes a God. Uh living with the right morals and being a good example can even become a God, which this is a dangerous, interesting one, because a robust morality, of course, is good. It's orderly, it's nice. God created orders, He wants us to be moral and ethical. But by itself, it can't be God. But we can do that if we don't have a hope for the future and don't think that we need saving and salvation. But all kinds of things can become God because there is no eye or focus on the future. The resurrection forces people to consider more than the right now, and not only consider, but to have hope in the next part of existence. I've got several scriptures I'm gonna read. And I'm going to read them without much commentary because they stand on their own. They're simple enough to understand, but they're all based on the resurrection. And each one of them I probably should break down and preach on by itself, but we're not gonna do that. But I want to offer these scriptures to us today about the resurrection, starting in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We'll start with verse 13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, the resurrection, am I right? Even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Powerful verse revealing the hope of the resurrection early in Christianity. A couple of verses later in verses 17 and 18 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. Because Jesus didn't stay in the grave, it changes our future hope. We can be with the Lord as always it says. Always be with the Lord. And that should encourage us. It should carry us through some stuff, should be motivational to us. And if it's not motivational or encouraging to you that you can be with the Lord always now because of the resurrection, then maybe what we need is a slight adjustment or bump in our perspective in this world that what's next is superior to what is now, even though right now is a blessing and can be beautiful in its own way. Paul says a lot of amazing things in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 15, start with verse 12. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? And side note here, you can see even early on in church history, there are people who are already doubting and casting doubt on the resurrection, even inside the church. Paul addresses this. Verse 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misre uh representing God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins, right? Cross doesn't matter without resurrection. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. The hope that sustains us, in other words, is dead. Verse 19. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are all people most to be pitied. What can I really add to that? Nothing really, but hopefully we understand the power of the resurrection. We understand why the Jews fought so hard against this point. Because if it's true, then everything changes. This is why the enemy finds people to cast doubt on this, because if people just find a monochrom of faith in the hope of the resurrection, everything changes. Almost finished. 1 Corinthians 15, 53 through thir uh through 58, one of my favorite chunks of scripture. For this perishable for this perishable body must put on the imperishable. This mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then it shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. The resurrection means the sleepless nights praying for your kids, they're not in vain. You're not wasting your time caring about that, praying for them. The discipleship efforts that you have with your children, it won't be wasted. It's not just burning time. It means the lessons that Denise pours into our kids, even though it's just one hour a week, it's not in vain. It matters. It means that that give our giving, uh large and small, is not in vain. Our giving matters. It means that the hard, righteous choices that we make that no one else sees, that they matter, it's not in vain. It means our kindness that seems so overlooked, that's not appreciated, it's not in vain. It means the rejection that we face on a regular basis because of our faith is not in vain. Our work, seen and unseen, large and small, that we do for the church and for God is not in vain because there is a tomorrow in Christ Jesus. We call it the resurrection. It gives you hope. And it matters. In all honesty, a sermon like this deserves more time, deserves more days. But I just had to fixate on verse 19. The resurrection matters. It does. Get it inside of your DNA, get it inside of who you are, and let it radically transform how you approach the world, how you approach opportunity, how you approach problems, how you approach stuff, how you approach your relationships. The resurrection should never take a back seat or be forgotten in the church or in your life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you. We love you so much. Thank you for your resurrection. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for your teachings. Thank you for the miracles, for your presence, for showing up. But Lord, thank you for the resurrection, which changed absolutely everything. And I simply pray this morning for anyone who hears this. That resurrection hope would get inside of them, inside of me, get inside of this church, and do something great with it. In Jesus' mighty name, we pray. And we all said, Amen.