THE TESTIMONY
Have you ever been to court? Have you ever been on trial?
Have you ever been on trial for your faith?
It was
1940-something when my father received a brown letter telling him that he was
required to enlist in the army. The war was raging in Europe and young men were
being called up to fight the Germans.
As you
can imagine, my dad was a Mennonite and did not want to fight. In order to
register as a conscientious objector, dad had to appear in court before a judge
and state his case. The justice on the bench for Manitoba was a no-nonsense
kind of guy who did not like shirkers.
J.E.
Adamson took an aggressive approach to handling objectors.[i]
Dad said Adamson stared him down and said something like, “Are you a coward?
Don’t you love your country? If the enemy invades are you just going to run and
hide in the woods?”
Dad, and
other young Mennonite men like him, had no representation and stood alone accused
of being unpatriotic. My father was not a theologian or a pastor and not one
for explaining his faith in grand terms. So he simply stated what he believed,
“I believe that Jesus Christ commanded us to love our enemies, so I cannot go
to war and kill.”
Each one
of us stands trial every day. Whether you know it or not your faith is being
examined by what you do and what you say. Friends and co-workers are looking
for authenticity in your walk of faith and they need to see Jesus in you. What
is your response?
In a
similar way, Paul stood trial for his faith in Jesus and his gospel of the
risen Christ. He was falsely accused of not loving his country and his people.
His response ought to be our response as we testify to our faith in Jesus. I
want to share this truth with you today: The
heart of the Christian testimony is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Let me
explain why from Acts 26:1-23.
The Context
We will not look at every detail of Paul’s trial in
chapters 24-26, but I do want to give you the context of this event.
Following
the ruckus in the temple and Paul’s subsequent arrest, Paul faces three
different trials in 24-26.
First he
faces the Roman governor, Felix. Hoping for a bribe, Felix keeps Paul in prison
for two years.
Festus
takes over from Felix and hears the case against Paul again. But he does not
understand the issue. Paul appeals to Caesar and Festus can’t refuse him. But
he doesn’t know how to write up the charge. So Festus calls on the Jewish
puppet king, Agrippa II (great-grandson of Herod the Great).
Paul’s
third trial is before Agrippa and his sister-lover Bernice (yes, it’s weird).
The
original charges by the Jewish authority three years past seem to have faded
but are still on the table. Paul is accused of
1) Stirring up riots throughout the world (The Jews
called Paul a “pest” as in pestilence; like a disease that rots the body).
2) Being a ringleader of a sect (illegal religion).
3) Profaning the temple (bringing a Gentile into the
sacred area).
We could
look in great detail at how Paul responds to these charges, but I would rather
focus on one detail. Each time Paul’s case is heard, one element concludes his
defense like the final word on the whole matter: the resurrection. This is what
struck me as I studied this passage.
This is
more than a personal defense. Paul defends the gospel and the ministry with the
resurrection. He is not trying to prove his innocence so much as he is trying
to explain the reasons for the Jewish opposition to his ministry.
In fact,
the book of Acts, the resurrection emerges as the key to most sermons and
testimonies in Acts as the main reason for faith in Jesus.
1. The resurrection is where people stumble
As Paul addresses Agrippa and explains his position, he
takes pains to show how the gospel of Jesus does not oppose Jewish faith, but
actually grows out of it. Paul did not abandon the promises made to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, but sees them fulfilled in Jesus. As Paul said, “And now I stand here on trial because of my
hope in the promise made by God to our fathers…” (6).
This is
the same God who created the world with the breath of his mouth. This is the
same God who delivered the Israelites out of Egypt in a series of miracles.
Then, Paul asks, “Why is it thought
incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” (8)
And yet,
that is where many people stumble. God can do amazing things in your life, but
can he raise the dead?
Think
back to Paul’s speech on the Areopagus (17:22ff). He notices the altar to the
“Unknown God” and proceeds to tell them about God. Interesting, they think.
Then he concludes with a challenge (read 17:30-31). When they heard this
teaching on the resurrection, they mocked him.
Just
last week we heard how Paul was before the Sanhedrin, and Paul, being the scamp
that he was, declared that “It is with
respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial”
(23:6). This caused a great division in the council so that the attention was
taken off of Paul.
Here in
our present chapter, Paul tells how the Christ must suffer and that, by being
the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to all people (26:23).
To this, Festus cannot contain himself and says, “Paul, you’re out of your
mind. You’re nuts. Give me a break. No one survives Roman crucifixion,” (my
version).
The resurrection
of the dead troubles people – they can’t handle the idea.
I have
stood at many gravesides to conduct committals. Often I will have the mourners
look around at the cemetery and consider it as a crop that will one day spring
up. I will point to the body of the deceased and say, “God’s not done with this
body. At the voice of Jesus, the earth will give up the dead and they will rise
to life and have a transformed body.”
Do you
know what kind of looks I get? Incredulous! And this from Christians. They look
at me like, “Hey, we’re grieving here. This is sad. Don’t tell me this old,
broken body with its diseases is going to rise. Tell me Grandma’s in heaven.” Resurrection
makes for a nice theology, but we miss the reality, and we stumble over it and
can’t really grasp it.
But
Jesus is the first-born of the dead. He conquered sin on the cross and
conquered death by being raised from the dead. That should be our great hope.
2. The resurrection is foundational to the witness of the
church
For the past several months we have studied the book of
Acts in our morning worship. What is the main thrust of Acts? We might say that
the overall theme is that the Holy Spirit empowers the church to witness. And
you would be right. But witness about what?
As much
as the Holy Spirit plays a major part in the story of Acts and the early
Church, that part is primarily to hold up the resurrection of Jesus Christ as
the central message of the gospel. The first significant words in Acts come
from the resurrected Christ to wait for the Holy Spirit (1:5).
Then we
hear Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. And his argument centers on the prophetic
proofs for the resurrection of Jesus and why these once-shy apostles are now
preaching in the streets. He says, “This
Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses” (2:32), and in this
resurrection receives validation and vindication as the Son of God. “Let all the house of Israel know for
certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you
crucified” (2:36). How do the people respond to the message of
resurrection? They are cut to the heart! And then they repent and believe. The resurrection of Jesus is cause for
belief.
When
Peter and John heal a lame man, they are taken into custody to explain this
healing and why they are teaching the resurrection of Jesus (4:2). Their answer
to the Sanhedrin shakes the establishment. “…let
it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead –
by this man is standing before you well” (4:10). The resurrection of Jesus is the power behind the healing of the sick
and the lame.
Later
on, Peter has the opportunity to cross the Jewish-Gentile boundary and preach
to Cornelius. Again, Peter said that the Jews put Jesus to death by hanging him
on a tree, but that God raised him on the third day. Peter concludes by saying,
“To him all the prophets bear witness
that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his
name” (10:43). The resurrection of
Jesus, then, is the basis for belief AND the forgiveness of sins.
The
Church in Acts persistently declares that everything they do and say is rooted
in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why do we as Christians insist that Jesus
is the only way? Because that is what Jesus says about himself. We believe him.
And we believe him because he has demonstrated that he knows life better than
anyone else who ever lived. The supreme demonstration of that fact is that he
rose from the dead.
3. The resurrection was the hinge of Paul’s defense
Before Agrippa, Paul relates, for the third time in the
book of Acts, his conversion experience. This time he adds an odd quote from
Jesus, “It is hard for you to kick
against the goads” (26:14c).
You men
from Steve’s Livestock know what a goad is; a goad is like a cattle prod. It is
a sharp pointy stick that a shepherd might use to get the sheep going. A goad
is also a sharp point on a chariot so that when a horse kicks its legs too far
back it gets a reminder not to back-kick so far.
When
Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, he meets the risen Lord. Jesus tells
him to stop kicking the goads; stop resisting what you now see is true.
Paul
described his life to Agrippa before meeting the risen Lord. He was a man who
was convinced he knew the truth. He was zealous for Jewish culture, tradition,
and practice. Paul was so convinced that he was right about his worldview and
his paradigm for living that he persecuted the Christians, throwing them in
jail, voting for their deaths. Paul was a religious man; a privileged and
educated man; a man in whom few could find fault (Philippians 3:4-6).
Then
Paul met the risen Christ and it radically changed his life and his worldview.
He got crushed. Paul wasn’t just persecuting some weird cult members; Jesus
told him “you are persecuting me.” Note: what happens to the church happens to
Jesus. But it wasn’t a rebuke Paul received, it was a calling. The resurrected
Jesus raised Paul from the deadness of his legalism and religiosity. (read
26:16-18)
From
that point on – I don’t think I exaggerate in saying this – Paul was obsessed
(in the positive sense) with the resurrection of Christ. It was the hinge of
his testimony. Everything rested on the historical fact of Christ being raised
from the dead. He considered all of his gains, his birth rights (as a Mennonite),
his education, his righteousness and all else as loss compared to knowing
Christ Jesus as Lord (Phil. 3:7-8). Why would he risk everything now and throw
away his reputation as a learned teacher of the Law? “…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share
in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I
may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:10-11).
Oh that
we all would be so obsessed…
My dad was not an articulate man when it came to
theology. I have told you that already. He could gab with the best of them, but
he never learned to express his faith in deep terms.
So when
J.E. Adamson confronted him about his conscientious objection, well…let me put
words in Adamson’s mouth. “You mean to tell me that you are refusing to join
the army because you say that God raised Jesus from the dead, and now you are
ordering your whole life around this one event 2000 years ago? Is that what you
are saying Abe?”
Dad
said, “Yes.”
I
believe that was my dad’s one defining moment of faith. That day he stood
larger than he ever stood before. His “yes” declared before the judge that he
believed in the resurrection of Christ and that changed everything for him.
And I
want you to know this morning that you are a testimony of the risen Christ if
you believe He is the Son of God. If you call yourself a Christian, your
co-workers can automatically assume that you believe in the resurrection.
This
church building stands as a silent, immovable testimony to the fact that the
people who gather here every week believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
But the
problem with Christianity today is that the things we believe in principle, we
refuse to believe in practice. Just like the people at the graves of their
loved ones. Yes, we grieve, but not without hope. We put more stock in the idea
of “going to heaven” than we do in the resurrection of the dead. And in so
doing we allow death to defeat us. Why? Because we surrender this world to sin
and Satan and bank everything on “going to heaven.” As a result, we leave
justice for the End Times, we allow the world to go to pot, because at least
we’ve got heaven.
The
resurrection of Jesus transforms our beliefs. I will order my thinking,
speaking, and behavior on the basis of the resurrection so that I am not the
same. The Holy Spirit takes the introvert and makes her a lioness for the
gospel because of the hope of the resurrection. The Holy Spirit gives new
courage to the weak and the scared to stand up and simply say “yes” when asked
“Do you really believe the resurrection?”
The
gospel we declare begins with the resurrection. What about the crucifixion? The
death of Jesus is important but it does not make a person stumble like the
resurrection does in principle and in practice.
How core
is the resurrection to our gospel? Allow
me to summarize Paul’s argument from 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
If there is no resurrection – Christ has not been raised.
If there is no resurrection – our preaching is in
vain/your faith is in vain.
If there is no resurrection – we are misrepresenting God
in saying that he raised Jesus from the dead.
If there is no resurrection – the dead are not raised.
If there is no resurrection – your faith is futile and
you are still in your sins.
If there is no resurrection – those who have died are
lost forever.
If there is no resurrection – we can only hope for this
life; woe is us.
BUT, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first of
those to be raised from the dead. Hallelujah.
AMEN
