Sermons

Is proof of Christ’s resurrection important?

• Yes, otherwise there is no reason to believe anything else about God is real or true.
• And nothing God says can or should be brought to bear on our lives.

It is usually never good to preach someone else’s sermon except when it is inspired.

Peter believed the resurrection was true and he preached it as truth. From his sermon at Pentecost, he argues for seven proofs for the resurrection.

I want to open up Peter’s sermon at Pentecost from Acts 2.  Peter addresses the multitudes who are there for Pentecost. 

Pentecost means “fiftieth” which speaks to the Feast of Weeks (Ex. 34:22,23) or Harvest (Lev. 23:16), celebrated 50 days after Passover in May/June (Lev. 23:15-22).  One of the three annual feasts where the nation made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Ex. 23:14-19).  Jews gave offerings called first-fruits (Lev. 23:20). 

Remember, persecuted Jews had been dispersed via persecution during the time known as the diaspora.    

The Holy Spirit descending on this day, symbolized as the first-fruits of their inheritance, like a down payment.  Believers gathered to form the church as the first-fruits of this full harvest of all believers who would come after. 

Chapter 2 locates the 120 disciples to include the 11 Apostles along with the newest, Matthias, who were gathered in one place.  They were all gathered in the upper room. 

Here Peter offers a series of proofs that solidify without a doubt that Jesus rose from death.

From Acts 2, in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit descended on the early disciples and they all began to speak in “tongues” – known languages. 

• The Spirit supernaturally manifest as “fire” was probably not literal fire (not unlike the “dove”) came with the “sound like a mighty rushing wind.”
• Both elements representing the power and unique presence of God.

The Holy Spirit drew the multitudes around the Apostles, and this crowd found they could understand the variety of languages communicating the Gospel – each people group which from “every nation under heaven” (see Acts 2:5).

Peter seeing, had everyone’s attention, stepped up to the plate and began to preach a sermon and the topic he chose was Christ’s resurrection. 

Peter began his sermon by first commanding everyone’s attention:

^ESV  Acts 2:14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 

• He quotes Joel 2:28-32 to explain why the Holy Spirit had just come in such a demonstrative manner.
• “What was really going on here?”
• God was beginning his last days program the New Testament church.
• Now having set the stage, Peter takes aim on winning this crowd, made up of thousands, to Christ, so they can come into God’s kingdom and join up with this new group called the church.

Peter was preaching for their repentance – for them to see their sin, turn away from it, and turn to Christ. 

• The modern-day church has created three categories to characterize where people (who call themselves Christians) believe they are spiritually.
• Two categories are legitimate and one very much is not.
• You have those “saved” and “unsaved” and the newer category called the “carnal Christian.”
• This category allows unrepentant people to feel safe with God and church, while harboring secret sin.
• Cruising in and out of church with unrepentant sin patterns.
• Recent titles for this are: “homosexual Christians” or “millennial Christians” or “liberal Christians.”
  • I am not saying someone who names Christ cannot be tempted toward homosexuality.
  • A follower of Christ will have the desire and power from the Holy Spirit to defeat, fight, and to mortify (kill) this sin and they will do that very thing. 

• This is exactly Paul’s point from Romans 6 where he says sin no longer has dominion or power over a true Christian.

Attaching any title to Christian, in effect cancels its meaning. 

• A seemingly harmless cultural title like “millennial” as a type of Christian invariably excuses sins like laziness, detachment, or being unaccountable to a local church at all.  
• Which are all real sins – which lead to self-destructive sins.

I could go on, but back to Peter’s sermon. 

• I want you to see (especially on Easter) that the resurrection is unequivocally provable.
• Because believing Christ’s resurrection is real and true is the pivot point for whether or not you take anything God’s Word says as serious or meaningful. 

Seven proofs that Christ’s resurrection is true

1. Jesus’ resurrection was planned and foreknown by God.

^ESV  Acts 2:22-24 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know–  ²³ this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. (Act 2:22-24 ESV)    

[Note] Peter is connecting Jesus to this crowd of Jews. 

• Jews from everywhere who were familiar with Jesus’ history.
• Born in Bethlehem but raised in boyhood in Nazareth.
• His early ministry transitioned from there along the sea of Galilee where he performed “wonders and signs” meaning miraculous healings of crowds vindicated the kingdom was here.
• Saying, “…God did [miracles] through him in your midst” points to the full humanity of Jesus, in complete submission of his Father and the Spirit.
• Peter’s appeal is to the Jew to say, “I know this Jesus, a Jew, like me, who did amazing things.”

Secondly, the Jews knew God’s Word and would connect the events of Jesus’ death to what Scripture predicted. 

^ESV  Psalm 22:1-18 To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?² O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.³ Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.⁴ In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.⁵ To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.⁶ But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.⁷ All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;⁸ “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”⁹ Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.¹⁰ On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.¹¹ Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.¹² Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me;¹³ they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;¹⁵ my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.¹⁶ For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet–¹⁷ I can count all my bones– they stare and gloat over me;¹⁸ they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. 

 ^ESV  Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 

^ESV  Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

Peter weaves together the sovereignty of God together with the responsibility of man. 

• Foreknowledge is never a crystal ball of possibilities controlled by fate.
• God is higher than potentials.
• When Romans 8 says, God foreknew you, it means God knew you as your Creator.
• God’s mind and plan transcend time, past, present, and future (Rev. 13:8 “Lamb slain before the foundation of the world”).
• Ephesians 2 says as much; we are seated at God’s right hand “already!”

 This man, Jesus, acting right according to plan but Peter does not stop there but says, “you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (v. 23). 

• “Killed” translated “murdered” in Matthew 2:16 of Herod “slaughtering” the babies, two and under in Bethlehem.
• The Jews incited Jesus’ death and the “lawless” Romans carried it out! 

2. Jesus being God makes it impossible for death to keep him dead.

^ESV  Acts 2:24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

“Who raised Jesus from the dead?”  

• The short answer is God did.
• God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1:17 calls God, “the Father of glory.”

^ESV  Ephesians 1:20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places

^ESV  Romans 8:11 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.

^ESV  John 10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (Joh 10:18 ESV)

Understanding Jesus is God, engages a matter of logic. 

If God raised Jesus and we suppose Jesus is God, then Jesus who is God could not stay dead.

In logic, the law of non-contradiction (LNC) (also known as the law of contradiction, principle of non-contradiction (PNC), or the principle of contradiction) states that contradictory propositions cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time, e. g. the two propositions “A is B” and “A is not B” are mutually exclusive. 

Peter’s language “not possible” [duvaton] not powerful “to be held” or “to be restrained” by “death” (v. 24). 

• If this is true, then, “Is God Jesus?”
• “Is Jesus God?” Yes and Yes. 
• Then, “Can God die?”  
• Then, “How can Jesus who is God, die?”

The answer is found in what has been called, the hypostatic union. 

• Jesus is both fully God and fully man simultaneously. 

• When Jesus was conceived and born, he the eternal Son, fully God, added full humanity without the loss of any of his full deity. 

• Both Jesus’ full deity and full humanity were necessary for your salvation.

When Christ, cried out on the Cross, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” there was a separation of fellowship within the Trinity, specifically between Father and Son. 

• Jesus in no way ceased to be God.

When Jesus died, he said:

^ESV  Luke 23:46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.  

• Jesus is physically dead and yet now is not separated from his Father. 

• Being fully man makes Jesus’ death a complete and real sacrifice making for a complete and real atonement for our sin.
  • His death was not symbolic but literal. 

• Being fully God makes Jesus’ atonement eternal. 

• Sinning against an eternal God requires an eternal payment. 

• Your sin is paid for in one of two ways. 

• By suffering forever in Hell or by Jesus eternal payment at the Cross. 

 3. David, 1000 years before, predicted Jesus would rise from the dead.

^ESV  Acts 2:25-29 For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;²⁶ therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope.²⁷ For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.²⁸ You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’²⁹ “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.  

David’s psalms should read as personal heart cries which are also prophetic.  

• Sometimes, like here the Lord was literally speaking through David’s words about himself.
• This is incredibly intimate and personal. 

Peter quotes David from Psalm 16 and David testifies, “I saw the Lord always before, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken…” (v. 25). 

• This speaks to David’s illumined vision to know that whether in battle or fleeing enemies, his Lord was with him.
• David knew the Lord, and at some level knew the Son (cf. Ps. 110). 

^ESV  Psalm 110:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

This should not surprise us, though it does.  

• David, a man after God’s own heart, knew his Lord.
  • This same Lord took over David’s mouth speaking from his own experience knew that he would rise from death!
  • We have the mind of Christ as he went to the Cross!
  • Jesus spoke in hope, knowing his Father “would not abandon [his] soul to Hades” – a term for Hell but here means “death.” 

• Jesus as the Father’s“Holy One” would not “see corruption” (v. 27).
• A man of sorrows who likewise said, “…my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope” (v. 26). 

^ESV  Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  

• God “made known to [him] the paths of life” – he knew what was beyond death on the Cross!
• Anticipating “full gladness with [God’s] presence!”
• Blessed assurance supersedes our fear of death! 

Finally, Peter contrasts David with Jesus.  

• Peter says, “with confidence” or “boldness” that as great as David was as the Jew’s patriarch; “he died and was buried, and his tomb is with us today” (v. 29). 

• David, like Jesus, died and was buried but was not raised!  

4. God promised Jesus would assume David’s throne, meaning Jesus could not stay dead.

^ESV  Acts 2:30-31 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, ³¹ he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

• Again, David was “a prophet” so what he was saying was not only Christ’s words but Christ’s promise. 

• David knew God’s promise was rock solid. 

• David was part of God’s program, meaning, “one of his descendants would be set on his throne.” 

• David literally “foresaw” this “oath” – connected the dots – validating that he was speaking directly to Christ’s “resurrection” (v. 31).    

5. The early church was made up of eye-witnesses who testified, Jesus rose from death.

^ESV  Acts 2:32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.  

“Who were these witnesses?” 

• After Jesus was raised, we know Scripture records that Jesus showed himself for 40 days.

^ESV  Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.  

• Witness [martyria] speaks to being an “eye-witness” who literally saw Christ.
  • Public testimony could mean being martyred.
  • The 120 are included here but that is not all.

Witnesses were:

• Mary Magdalene at the tomb.
• The women on the road.
• The two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
• Peter.
• First to the 10 of the 11 disciples (Thomas was absent).
• Then to the 11 disciples (Thomas present 8 days later).
• Then 7 disciples by the shore at the sea of Galilee.
• Then to 500 disciples on the mountainside near Galilee.
• Then James.
• Then the Apostles when Jesus ascended into heaven.
• Finally, Paul.

The 11 Apostles, minus Judas saw, touched, and ate with Jesus. 

Matthias was added with the requisite eye-witness account of the risen Christ. 

^ESV  Acts 1:22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us–one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 

^ESV  1 Corinthians 15:1-9 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain.³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 

Verse 6 speaks to Jesus’ great commission from Matthew 28:18-20.  

• Some “have fallen asleep” meaning has died.
• I love the fact that “James” is named.
• One of the half-brothers of Jesus who doubted Jesus before but now believes.
• A complete redemption story.  

6. The Holy Spirit bears witness that Jesus was raised.

^ESV  Acts 2:33-36 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. ³⁴ For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand,³⁵ until I make your enemies your footstool.’³⁶ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 

I want to be quick to point out that this proof (though not my final proof) is superlative proof. 

 This I the witness of the Holy Spirit. 

• Jesus rose from death and then ascended to The Father’s right hand. 

• Peter makes the case that “David did not ascend into the heavens” to testify to Christ’s ascension!
  • How did David see “The Lord” at God’s “right hand?”
  • David did not go up, but the Holy Spirit had come down! 

• Even for David, the Spirit bore witness in his heart that the Messiah was real; that this was the true King of David’s throne.
  • “How do we know Jesus rose from death?”
  • We have received this same promised Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit makes you “seeing and hearing” (v. 33).
  • As we hear and read about Jesus being raised, the Holy Spirit tells us in our hearts that this is emphatically and unmistakably true! 

• The illumination of the Holy Spirit operating in someone’s heart.
  • Is irrefutably
  • This witness is the New Testament Christian’s Damascus Road!
  • You see Christ “through the eyes of faith!”
  • The “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ!” 

• You are the “two on the road to Emmaus whose hearts burn within, over Christ’s words concerning himself!” 

• Regeneration to Illumination. 

• The single difference makes all proofs of Christ, every promise from God’s Word, believable. 

• Life-changing. Life-directing.  Future-determining.  Jesus died, Jesus rose.  You will die, You will rise.  100 percent!  

7. People, again and again, repent and are baptized by hearing Jesus was raised! 

^ESV  Acts 2:37-41 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”³⁸ And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”⁴⁰ And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”⁴¹ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 

Remember, Peter’s motive for preaching the proofs of the resurrection is to drive toward repentance.  

• When these proofs confront rebellious hearts, they are “cut” to the heart (v. 37). 

• As I said at the top, Christianity is binary.
  • You are all the way a Christian or not a Christian at all.
  • Repentance is necessary for salvation. 

• Repentance begs, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 

• Repentance is not penance. 

• This kind of doing is not earning grace but begging for grace. 

• This is not getting yourself grace but reacting to grace. 

• Actions, here are not works for grace but actions that are proofs of grace! 

• Peter knows a man, woman, boy or girl who struck by grace will do what he commands! 

• So, Peter says, do these things! This is what repentance looks like.  

Repentance is Proof.  What is real repentance? 

1. Public – “be baptized”
2. Not optional – “every one of you”
3. Exclusive – “in the name of Jesus Christ”
4. Given – “and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”
5. Offered to everyone – “for all who are far off” 

Those “who received his word were baptized” (v. 41) meaning repentance was the goal.  Repentance was the path.  How many “were added that day?”  “about three thousand” (v. 41).