Preach Jesus and the Resurrection

Dr. Alan Dunn

What is “the gospel” if not the announcement and Scriptural interpretation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ accompanied by a summons to repent and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord? For forty days between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension, He taught the apostles how to declare and interpret Him and His Messianic mission according to Scripture [Acts 1:1-3].

⁴⁴ Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

⁴⁶ and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; ⁴⁷ and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem [Luke 24:44-47].

The Church Declares Jesus’ Resurrection

All of the Gospels culminate with a record of the historical, physical death and resurrection of Jesus. All the Gospels tell us of occasions when the resurrected Jesus met with His apostles and disciples before His ascension [Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:9-11]. To these He presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God [Acts 1:3]. The resurrection of Jesus is the crux of Christianity. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain; your faith also is vain…. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins [1 Cor 15:14, 17]. If our faith is not in the crucified and risen Jesus, regardless of how many Bible verses we cite, our religion is not biblical Christianity. Christ is risen and we are called to preach Jesus and the resurrection [Acts 17:18].

When we survey what the apostles proclaimed as recorded in Acts, we learn that they consistently focused on the resurrection of Jesus as interpreted by Scripture as the basis to summons sinners to repent and receive forgiveness of sins. [I encourage you to look up the passages referenced here to experience the impact of the persistent emphasis on Jesus’ resurrection that characterized the apostolic declaration of the gospel as recorded in Acts.]

Consider Peter’s preaching. In Acts 2:32-36, on the occasion of the baptism of the Spirit at Pentecost, Peter explained the endowment of the Spirit using Scripture. He did not form a tour group to go and see the empty tomb. He preached Christ from Scripture. He then recounted Jesus’ crucifixion and His resurrection, interpreting both according to Scripture. Peter declared that the crucified and resurrected Jesus now sits upon the throne of God. Our coronated King now reigns over His kingdom of redemption, which is not of this world [John 18:36]. As Lord, only Jesus has the authority to forgive sins and to bestow the blessings of His eternal kingdom upon every repentant sinner who turns by faith to Him in response to His life-giving gospel. When a crowd gathered to see a beggar who was healed by Peter and John, Peter declared Jesus’ death and resurrection to them as the fulfillment of the promises God made to Abraham. Peter presented Jesus’ death and resurrection as the basis for calling his hearers to repent, promising them the promise of forgiveness of their sins [Acts 3:12-26]. Luke tells us that Peter and John were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead [Acts 4:2]. The temple guard took them to stand before the Sanhedrin, where Peter declared Jesus, whom you crucified, but God raised from the dead, according to Scripture, as the only name given among men whereby we must be saved [Acts 4:8-12]. Luke gives us another summary in Acts 4:33a, with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Once again, before the Sanhedrin, Peter and the apostles announced Jesus’ resurrection as the basis for the gift of repentance and the promise of forgiveness [Acts 5:30-31]. In then visited the home of a God-fearing Gentile, Cornelius. There Peter recounted the historical facts of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins [Acts 10:34-43].

Consider Paul’s preaching. When we initially meet Paul, he is not even a disciple; he is Saul, the persecutor of the church. What, or rather who changed him? The risen Jesus changed him. Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus. It was the glorious Jesus who converted and commissioned him [Acts 9:3-6]. Later, Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the church in Antioch to make disciples, baptize them, and gather them together as local churches. Apostolic churches worship the risen but present Christ, receive instruction from His Word, learn obedience to His commands, and bear witness to the world [Mat 28:18-20]. Luke gives us several precis of Paul’s preaching, which consistently focused on Jesus’ cross and His resurrection, as interpreted by Old Testament prophecy. Because Jesus died and rose again, Paul promised men forgiveness of sins and summoned them to discipleship. Take the time to read his sermon at Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13, noting verses 26-39, and in Thessalonica in Acts 17:2-3. In Athens, Paul aroused the curiosity of the academic elites because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection [Acts 17:18]. The Athenian intelligentsia invited Paul to address them, and he did. He declared God as Creator and indicted the Athenians as idolaters [Acts 17:22-34]. He concluded his message by announcing that the time had now come when God is declaring to [summoning, commanding] men that all everywhere should repent in view of the coming Day of Judgment, which will be executed by the Man that God authorized when He raised Him from the dead [see Acts 10:42]. Paul’s message appears to have been cut short when they heard of the resurrection of the dead. Some sneered, some continued to be curious and wanted to hear Paul speak again, and a few believed. We do not read that Paul planted a church in Athens. However, we do read that Paul’s message upon his arrival and departure, was a declaration of Jesus and the resurrection.

Luke also recounts Paul’s testimonies given in both Jewish and Gentile courtrooms. Before the Sanhedrin, Paul distilled his indictment: I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead [Acts 23:6]. When the Jewish authorities indicted Paul before Felix, the Roman Governor, Paul again brought the resurrection of Jesus to the fore. Although they accused him of causing a disturbance in the temple, the real issue, according to Paul, was his preaching that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked [Acts 24:15b]. He reiterated what he asserted in his previous trial: For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today [v21]. Felix, some two years later, was replaced by Festus, who attempted to have Paul retried by the Sanhedrin, but Paul appealed to Caesar. When the Jewish King Agrippa visited Festus, Festus summarized the point of contention between Paul and the Sanhedrin with these words: they simply had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a certain dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive [Acts 25:19]. Paul’s case piqued Agrippa’s interest, so he asked for an audience with Paul as well. Before this more biblically literate judge, Paul pleaded the legitimacy of his Pharisaic convictions and asked, Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead [Acts 26:8]? He then gave his “personal testimony” of having met the risen Jesus en route to Damascus, who sent him to Gentiles with a message of repentance. Paul then recounted how he was misunderstood in the temple in Jerusalem and then wrongly arrested and imprisoned. He asserted that he did nothing wrong and was stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles [Acts 26:22b-23]. Agrippa, evidently coming under conviction, protested that Paul was insane but feared that if Paul kept on talking, he would convince him to become a Christian. But having appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen, Paul had to be stand trial in Rome.

Luke shows us that the apostles preached, and therefore we too must preach, that Jesus is the One promised in the Old Testament who is the Messiah, whose death and resurrection is the redemptive event that now is the basis for the bestowal of the blessings of the New Covenant [see Jer 31:31-34].

Scripture Interprets Jesus’ Resurrection

The risen Lord made it clear in Luke 24:44-47 that it is not enough to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but we must trust in the resurrected Jesus as Scripture interprets Him. Jesus opened the apostle’s minds to understand the words of Scriptures and His words spoken during His earthly ministry. Then, by inspiration of Jesus’ Spirit, He gave these uniquely authorized apostles more words which we have in the pages of the New Testament. The entire ministry of the incarnate Son of God, His words and works, were all an in-breaking of the kingdom of God. Think of a miracle, a parable, a teaching, an event in the gospel narrative – all point to the reality of resurrection life that is characteristic of the age to come. During those forty days between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension, He taught His apostles to interpret Him according to the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms. How is it that the apostles preached the gospel of the risen Lord from the Old Testament; that our New Testament is so saturated with citations and allusions to the Old Testament? Why is that? Because the risen Jesus by His own Spirit [Acts 1:2], taught His apostles how to interpret Him and His Messianic mission as the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. All the Bible is about Jesus who is revealed in all the Bible. We understand neither the Old nor the New Testaments unless we are savingly united to the resurrected Jesus.

The New Testament announces that the risen Jesus has ascended into heaven and is enthroned as Lord, the exalted King and High Priest. A very “pregnant” text that provides us with a brief overview of Jesus’ ministry is Revelation 12:5, And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. The book of Hebrews, which is so pervasively embedded within the context of the Old Testament, succinctly asserts, Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens [Heb 8:1]. We must preach the resurrected, reigning, and about to return, biblical Jesus. Our preaching of Jesus’ resurrection must include the Bible’s interpretation of the significance and the implications of His resurrection. He now reigns over heaven and earth as the Sovereign Lord. He reigns with saving grace, building His church by His Spirit through the proclamation of His gospel. His is a redemptive kingdom, and He will reign until the end of this age when He will return, raise the dead, execute Final Judgment, and usher all men into eternity [1 Cor 15:19-26]. It is this Jesus who yet speaks from heaven through the foolishness of gospel preaching, calling all men to repent, to trust in Him, and to serve Him as Savior and Lord [Heb 12:25; 1 Cor 1:21]. Let the summary of our message be as Paul’s: he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection [Acts 17:18b]. Let us declare and interpret Jesus’ resurrection. Let us proclaim the biblical Jesus biblically, summoning all men everywhere to repent, and promising forgiveness of sins along with all the unspeakable blessings of an eternal union with the living Lord Jesus.