Bentley Baptist Church Sermons
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Bentley Baptist Church Sermons
Is Jesus' Resurrection Historical?
Acts 1.3 | Ps. Alex Huggett | 23.6.24
Part of a series on the book of Acts
Visit Church Connect page for a link to the video referenced in this message.
Can the resurrection of Jesus be considered the cornerstone of Christian faith, or is it merely a metaphorical tale? Join us as we revisit Acts, chapter 1, and examine the monumental significance of Jesus' resurrection. By exploring the writings of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, we delve into why this event is foundational to Christianity. We'll discuss how the resurrection validated Jesus' teachings and his claim to be the Son of God. Additionally, we scrutinize the Bible's role as a historical document, assessing its multiple accounts of Jesus' life and addressing the skepticism of non-believers.
Witness the transformative power of Jesus' resurrection through the acts of the apostles and the early Christian community. Once filled with the Holy Spirit, these early followers performed miracles, drove out demons, and exhibited a profound love that drew many to the faith. Today, the risen Jesus continues to work through the Holy Spirit, bringing transformation and unity among believers. We will discuss how the evidence of Jesus' resurrection is seen in the lives of those who follow Him, offering hope to a world in need. Concluding with a heartfelt prayer, we seek God’s guidance to be effective witnesses of His transformative power.
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I'm going to be reading from Acts, chapter 1 again just one more week as we look at the introduction to Acts. Acts, chapter 1, verse 1,. I wrote the first narrative, theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen After he had suffered. He also presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. For many people, religion and spirituality is about believing in something that gives you meaning and helps you subjectively but isn't actually true. It's not real, it's not based on anything that really happened. It's just belief. There's no difference to them whether you believe in the Norse gods or that aliens built the pyramids which are things apparently and believing in Jesus and his resurrection. It's all made up nonsense in their minds. But the thing is, for Christians, the resurrection is the foundational belief of our faith, of Christianity, and we claim it really happened in history, although even some Christians believe it's not literal, that they see it as a powerful metaphor that we can be raised by faith somehow, or that Jesus rose spiritually but not physically. So does it even matter whether he rose bodily or not? Well, the idea that Jesus only rose metaphorically or spiritually, but not physically and bodily, that his body is still in a grave somewhere, would have come as a surprise to the early church. A grave somewhere would have come as a surprise to the early church. In fact, the historical factualness that had actually happened of the resurrection is so important that the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, this is from verse 14, if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation, so his message that Paul and the other apostles were preaching our proclamation, is in vain, and so is your faith. Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses about God. So he's again talking about himself and the apostles because we have testified wrongly about God that he raised up Christ. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone. That's strong words.
Speaker 1:Well, why is this resurrection of Jesus so important? Well, it's vital to Christianity because by it God vindicated Jesus' life and teaching. If Jesus hadn't risen, he's just another wise teacher, or maybe a prophet, up there with Confucius or Socrates or someone like that, but he's more. In raising him, god proved his claim to be the Messiah, the Son of God. And so, because Jesus is risen, we have hope. And, crucially, because Jesus is risen, not all religions are the same. It actually matters whether you believe in Jesus or the Norse gods or whatever other religion you want to choose. Christianity is true and Jesus' claim to be the only way to the Father is also true. How do we know? Because God said, yes, that's correct, when he raised Jesus from the dead. And this is such an important thing, this resurrection of Jesus, that Luke puts it in the opening paragraph of his book about the work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles, this book of Acts, and he emphasizes that Jesus proved he was alive to his disciples in many different ways. Well, that's great for them. They had Jesus in front of them proving it, but for us, it's only words on a page.
Speaker 1:So how can we be sure that Jesus is risen today? Well, I want to suggest two ways. There's probably more, but this is all we've got time for today and now. The first is actually very simply because the Bible tells us. So. First is actually very simply because the Bible tells us so. Now, if you go and say that to your friends, you're probably going to get an eye roll, right. You know as well as me that if I just walk up to someone and say, well, jesus is risen, because the Bible says they're going to go, no, okay. But I don't mean this in a simplistic Sunday school way and I don't mean it in a fundamentalist. Jesus said it, I believe it. That settles it bumper sticker sort of way.
Speaker 1:Now, as Christians where I hope we believe that the Bible is inspired by God, it is authoritative, it is God's word. The Bible is really the founding document for us as Christians. It's a bit like the Constitution. The Constitution of Australia is our foundational national document and all at least other federal laws have to come under that standard. If government tries to pass a law that is not in line with the Constitution, it's struck down. Well, it's the same way with the Bible and what we believe as Christians. It's the standard by which all our other beliefs are measured.
Speaker 1:But even if you don't believe that of the Bible, you just believe it's an old book that's not necessarily relevant today, you still have to deal with it as an artifact of history. It is there, it makes certain claims, and it does so in a way that kind of demands the attention of a thoughtful person, that demands explanation, that's making claims about something that happened in history. What do we do with this? Now, when we consider the nature of the Bible, particularly as a historical document that may or may not be particularly significant religiously or spiritually, it's important to remember that the Bible is not a single document written by one person. It's a collection of ancient documents written by many, many different authors and in particular, four of these are about the life of Jesus. We'd say the rest of the Bible's about Jesus as well, but that's for another time. Now, in terms of ancient documents and ancient biography, this is really extraordinary.
Speaker 1:Four different writers, who we identify as Matthew, mark, luke and John, thought it was worth writing about this one man, jesus Christ. Keep in mind Jesus lived in an obscure backwater of the Roman Empire. Israel is Christians and Israel has a lot of attention today, and for us it's sort of important. We're immersed in that story if you've been around Christianity for long. But politically it was nothing, it was nowhere back in the day and Jesus never really achieved anything significant.
Speaker 1:By human stance. I mean, he had a following for a while, but he died an ignominious death. You know, jesus claimed to be the Messiah, but he wasn't the first person to make that claim, and he wasn't the first person to make that claim, and he wasn't the last person to make that claim. He wasn't the first or last person to die for that claim, but Jesus is the only one with more than a passing reference in other documents. He's the only one who had a biography written about him, let alone four biographies and a whole bunch of other letters that are centered around his life. And so it begs the question what is so special about this Jesus if he didn't rise again? Why this whole thing, these documents, this religion about him? Well, I can't put it any better than if we can get that video up, angelina.
Speaker 1:Then the video from a ministry called Reasonable Faith. You might have heard me talk about Dr William Lane Craig. He's not the one speaking on the video we're about to hear, but this is a great presentation of some of the evidence for the resurrection. Okay, so that's just a little bit of an introduction to the topic. If you want to explore it a bit more, there's some other videos by Reasonable Faith and some others. I've put in Church Connect. Scan the QR code under our resources page. You'll see a few more videos as well if you'd like to dig into that, including.
Speaker 1:He raised some objections, alluded to some objections there and there's links to a video that deals with them as well, and my point this morning is that we can have confidence in this from a historical point of view. Of course, we're still making a supernatural claim. It's clearly not a given that people will be convinced by this, but we have ancient texts that, even if you don't believe they're supernatural, still demand an answer, as it says here. How do you explain it? How do you explain these phenomena that the Bible describes? Who is this Jesus? What really happened, you know? I think there's an even more powerful way that we can have confidence in the fact of the resurrection, though, and one that might even convince our friends and family, and that's one of the major themes of Acts the witness of the Holy Spirit within us.
Speaker 1:The very first disciples were witnesses of Jesus. They had seen Jesus face to face after he rose, but as they fanned out across the world, it wasn't always this message that got people's attention, not to start with for those who became Jesus followers. Of course it was critical, but what got people's attention at first and gave them an audience was very often the power of God at work in the early Christians, both the apostles and everyday Christians. On the day of Pentecost which we'll look at in a week or two, the disciples were probably next week. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Everyone started listening to their message when they heard the gospel being spoken in their own language, supernaturally, and thousands of people were saved, filled with the Holy Spirit. This new church was united in heart and mind, and this just blows my mind. This is what the Holy Spirit's doing. He's uniting people together so they love one another, and Acts says people were added to their number daily. I mean, that doesn't even sound that hard, does it? Although maybe loving other people is the hardest part. I don't know. But that's what God was doing changing lives.
Speaker 1:When Peter and John healed a lame man in the temple in chapter 3, everyone wanted to know what was happening, what's going on. And then, when the authorities arrested Peter and John for preaching to that crowd, they observed the Holy Spirit, boldness and clarity with which the apostles spoke, even though they were untrained fishermen. They hadn't had a formal education in this sort of thing. Luke says in chapter 4, verse 13,. They were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus when the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius' household in chapter 10. Peter knew that the gospel was for both Gentiles and Jews because of what the Holy Spirit was doing.
Speaker 1:Time and again the apostles performed miracles and drove out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit and people turned to the Lord. The apostles had seen the risen Jesus, but it wasn't until they were filled with the spirit of the risen Jesus that things really began to happen. Some of those things were very simple, just the practical love that the disciples had for one another. Some of them were spectacular. The power with which the apostles worked miracles or proclaimed the gospel, the witness of transformed lives that we see throughout there these all became solid proofs to those whose hearts were open that Jesus really is risen, that there is something to the message of these Christians.
Speaker 1:Here is something different, because it is more than just a message. It is more than just a religion and something to follow. Although Jesus is someone to follow, it is transformational. There is power here and the presence of the risen Jesus in their midst through the Holy Spirit was something the spiritually hungry could not resist. The great thing for us, friends, is that the very same Jesus who the apostles witnessed is here today, and we can be witnesses of him as well here today, and we can be witnesses of him as well If we let him. He still does the same things in his church today as he did back then.
Speaker 1:We hear of miracles, but you know, maybe you haven't seen a miracle, but he transforms lives. I've seen him do that. He brings people together, people who normally wouldn't come together, and shows a supernatural love. I love that you can defend the truth of the gospel and Jesus' resurrection with the Bible, even if you don't believe. It's a supernatural book. That's how powerful the book is. But I don't think that really has a patch on the power of the evidence for the resurrection in your life, in our lives together, when Jesus works in us through his spirit.
Speaker 1:Because Jesus is risen, everything changes. Because Jesus is risen, we have a message of hope. Because Jesus is risen, we have a message of hope that we must share. Because doesn't our world need hope today? Hope used to be built on prosperity or owning a home or world peace, and all of that is crumbling home or world peace, and all of that is crumbling. But we have an eternal hope that we must share and, because Jesus is risen, we can share it with confidence.
Speaker 1:Friends, that's the story of Acts that we're going to be exploring, and I hope it will be our story as well that we won't just engage with this book as something that happened a long time ago, but as something that we won't just engage with this book as something that happened a long time ago, but as something that we're invited to be part of, as a continuing story. Let's pray, father, we thank you that it's not just words on a page, that it's not just something that happened a long time ago, but that we can be part of this reality, that we can be witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus through the presence of your spirit in us. And, father, we just pray that you will do that among us, that you will make us powerful witnesses. It's nothing we can actually do, god, it's all about you at work in us, and that kind of makes it easy. Help us just to open ourselves to you, to do that In Jesus' name, amen.