The Apostles' Great Witness

It is good to be with you this morning, pray that we are prepared as we come in worship to worship I'll ask you if you would take your Bibles and we will be looking in the fourth chapter of the book of Acts this morning So if you want to turn there Acts the fourth chapter we come now to that day in which we remember the resurrection.

I Told brother Mike yesterday that I would love to hear him preach his message again from Friday night just to prepare me To speak this morning It's it's something that we need to keep in mind That we are not to just separate one day from another day and from one event to another event but that the whole The whole of history the whole of God's purposes are to be found In in in the prophecy in the in the in the history and the narratives in the coming and in the death the burial and the Resurrection the Ascension and then ultimately the coming again We ought not to just say this is this day in that day Although we use those days to help us to remember.

So again, I so much enjoyed the message Friday night as it relates to that Horrible day and yet that glorious day of Good Friday.

So Gonna ask you this morning to look in the book of Acts Our text if you will will be verse 33.

So let me read that to you Then we'll ask God's blessing on it And I might ask us also to read a couple of the scriptures within this chapter But in Acts chapter 4 in verse 33, it says and with great power The Apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and Great grace was upon them all Father I ask you now to bless us to come and do it.

Only you could do That is to take your word and to make it real in our lives well God, what a What a great request we asked before you but yet you're a great God and so we ask you to do again what Only you have always done and that is to take your word and to make it real in our lives to transform us into the image of your son and may May the words of our mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in our sight for you are truly Our God and our Redeemer.

Amen So as you think about this this morning We gather this day and I pray that we have come here with a very specific Purpose in mind not to exclude what I just said about Having to consider life in its totality, but that we did come here this morning with a united purpose And it's a very particular purpose, isn't it? We don't usually gather at 730 in the morning But we trust that we came here with a very specific purpose in mind and I wanted to remind you and I thought of it this morning how what we are partaking in this morning is the very same purpose that the churches of Christ have sought to follow since the beginning of the church That this is not some some invention of the the 21st century But that this purpose for which I hope to show us this morning is the same Purposes for which the churches of Christ have gathered since that day of Pentecost and not only that I thought also how If you were to think about it right now In one time zone or another in one way shape or form.

There are so many people in our land There are so many people in other lands that have gathered together this morning very early for the same purpose And not everyone wears dockers and sketches and drives SUVs There are those who are dressed in all kinds of different Clothing there are those who speak very different languages There are those who have a very different culture as you and I I thought about The the people of the Dow tribe this morning as as I thought that probably having a sunrise service It's probably a sunrise service that might not look much like ours and yet their purpose should be the same as our purpose And that purpose is that we have come this morning to proclaim the resurrection And I stressed it that way because I want us to understand something that we did not gather this morning to defend the resurrection We didn't even come this morning to explain the resurrection we gathered this morning as the Apostles did in that day as churches are do have done since the beginning of the the history of the church as Men and women are gathering all over this this world today.

We came to proclaim it The gospel and the resurrection of Christ does not need to be defended It needs to be proclaimed and as you look at this this scripture that we read it says them a great power the Apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and That is why I have chosen this text and and asked us to think about it as it is laid out before us But by Luke the the inspired writer of the book of Acts but I wanted to give us a little bit of a context of how we got to this verse because I think that's Important for us to see and if you want to read What takes place at Pentecost not long after that Peter and John begin to to proclaim And give witness to the resurrection of Christ and they meet upon a man who has been lame in his feet since since birth and and if you remember he he asked them for alms or for For something and and Peter says that silver and gold I don't have but what I do have I'll give you in the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk and he gets up and he walks and he leaps for joy And they go into the temple and lo and behold The Pharisees the Sadducees the rulers the the religious people they're very upset They are upset that that Peter and John not only have Performed a miracle, but they've done it in the name of Jesus And if you read through chapter 3, you'll see that they begin to counsel together and say what we're gonna do We've got to stop this if we don't stop this this is going to spread and we're gonna lose control of our control and So they bring Peter and John in and they threaten them and they tell them that they can't speak in the name of Jesus anymore Well Peter and John tell them that They can judge for themselves.

But as far as they're concerned they are going to speak About Jesus all the more and so again the Sadducees and the rulers and the those that have the authority.

They threaten them again, and they basically Tell them to leave and as the Apostles go back and speak with the disciples They begin to pray and they begin to pray and ask God that God would look upon them and that God would give them power And God would give them grace that they might not only Proclaim Christ, but proclaim it with power Proclaim the the resurrection of Christ with power and that's why We come to where we come to and I'll just ask you to read with me from verse 29 into that scripture that I spoke to you this morning as it says This is what they prayed verse 29 of chapter 3 of chapter 4.

It says now Lord look on their threats and Grabbed that your servants With all boldness that they may speak your word By stretching out your hand to heal and the signs and the wonders may be done Through the name of your holy servant Jesus and when they had prayed the place where they were assembled together Was shaken they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word of God with boldness Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul and neither did anyone say that any of the things he had he possessed was his own but they had all things in common and with great power the Apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and Great grace was upon them all.

So this is a a This is a movement that's taking place in the early church and again, I I pray that we have come here this morning For that very same purpose That we have come to proclaim the the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and was interesting if you read through the book of Acts And I think it's important for us to understand if you read through the book of Acts the resurrection of Christ Is the central theme of the book of Acts if you were to to look at the the the interactions whether it be of Peter and the other apostles as they go out and they speak to people about the things of God or whether it's the the interactions of the Jews against Peter and John and the rest of the Apostles about this Jesus that The resurrection is the thing that is always in the center of it all I went and I looked and I looked up how many times the word resurrection is mentioned in the book of Acts and specifically that term Resurrection is mentioned 13 times through the book of Acts And then I said, well, I'm sure there's more than that and so I began to read through the book of Acts and to see how many times that The this raising of the dead of the Son of God is is front and center and I found another 15 Times and they're not just isolated events friends They are within the the fabric of the movement of the whole church Whether again, whether it be as they are arguing or whether they as they are discipling The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is always that which holds all things together And you and I need to understand that because I think at times We the churches of Christ and I'll say it in that way the jet in general terms the churches of Christ That we get so caught up in the things that we do and and the ways in which we do it that sometimes We move away from the very thing that God used to establish his church and that was the proclamation the declaration that Jesus rose from the dead that is the most central event I thought after brother Mike's message on Friday night and that I was preparing to to Present the resurrection this morning.

I began to wonder I wonder what Saturday must have been like I wonder what it must have been in that day Well, I'm sure there must have been sadness Sadness on the part of the disciples because in their thought and yet not knowing Fully understanding the resurrection there must have been Sadness on their part and then I thought well, you know what there probably was Gladness and that would have been on the part of the Jews and those who crucified Christ because they must have thought we finally got rid of this Jesus we have finally stopped this this if you will is movement towards Gravitating around this man and now we come to early on the first day of the week and We know the story and I don't want to go back through that narrative specifically but as the disciples began to go and to anoint the body as They thought was still in the tomb and they arrived at the tomb and the tomb was rolled back And the tomb was empty That a glorious truth There is there is nothing more glorious my friends then than an empty tomb Because here's the reality of this If There is no resurrection And there are many who do not believe in the resurrection but if there is no resurrection if if all of this is is Something to be discarded if there is no resurrection to witness of Then you and I really have no hope I Think about it If there is if there is no resurrection to witness of then there is no true hope to speak of this day or any other day If there is no hope to speak of then you and I are to be most pitied Because we believe in the resurrection If there is no resurrection, then we are I say it.

I hope you understand.

We are a bunch of fools Why would we pray? Why should we serve? Why should we suffer? Why should we minister? Why should we do any of those things if in truth the one whom we worship is still in the grave? If there is no resurrection my friends, then you and I would be much better served to eat Drink and be married But tomorrow we die If Christ did not arise from the dead if Christ did not do what he said he would do then you and I We ought to switch gears We ought to seek to get all we can out of this life We ought to seek to be the one who dies with the most toys Because we believe in the resurrection and the Apostles believed in the resurrection If you look at that Text in verse 33 and with great power the Apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus If you looked at it in the original language where it says that they gave witness It's kind of hard to translate what the English word that's used when it says gave In other words, it wasn't as if the the Apostles thought well, you know what this is This is a good idea.

Let's talk about the resurrection it wasn't as if they Said you know that might be a way to start a conversation to get to get the conversation moving That's not what that word means when it says that they gave Witness to the resurrection what the word really means is that they were obligated to do it They were they had a sacred if you will oath They welled up with inside them.

They could not but do anything else but preach the resurrection It's not as if you and I are here today because we just had nothing else to do at 730 this morning As I'm sure many of us that are here had to readjust our little timetable, right? You know in our so fixed lives We had to get up a little bit early and we had to do this a little bit sooner and and this thing in the other thing But I hope that you're here because we're obligated to be here Not obligated just to conduct a service.

We are obligated to witness and if we could do it outside We would do it outside, but we are obligated to witness that Christ rose from the dead We have a debt Not a debt that that will gain us anything but a debt because of what we've gained We have a debt we are obligated and if you will duty-bound to speak of the resurrection of the Son of God And so we gather today.

I pray as the people of God and we want to bear witness to the fact that this one whom we will consider in a second that this one rose from the dead and That he is Who he proclaimed himself to be and if you read through the book of Acts What's interesting is that that is the way he came about as far as speaking about proclaiming the resurrection of the dead And I'll show you one example because I think it it makes the point very well how the Apostles Were forced from within their souls to speak of This great resurrection.

Let me show you one example And I think it'll it'll help serve that point if you wouldn't you're in the book of Acts go to Acts chapter 17 just for a moment Acts chapter 17 and As you're turning there This is when Paul is in Athens Paul has been to Thessalonica and then he moves on to Berea because the men of Thessalonica They they rejected the truth of the gospel and so he goes on to Berea and and they have a more willing heart in that they search the scriptures of the things that Paul said to see whether they whether they Was so or not and then Paul sends Silas and Timothy away and Paul moves on to Athens and As Paul is waiting for the Apostles, I mean for Timothy and Silas to return It says that Paul's Stirred as he considers what's taking place and I will show you that to you in verse 17 in Verse 16 of chapter 17.

It says this Now our Paul waited for them and Athens that being Silas and Timothy his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given to idols Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there then certain Epicureans and Stoic philosophers and counted him and some said what is this? Babylon want to say and others said he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection and They took him and they brought him to Eric Apis Saying may we know what this new doctrine is of what you speak for you are bringing some strange things to our ears Therefore we want to know what these things mean For all Athenians and foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new things and Paul stood in the midst of Aragapagos and said men of Athens I perceive that in all things you are very religious Rather than I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship I even found an author with the inscription to the unknown God therefore The one whom you worship without knowing him I proclaim to you God who made the world and everything in it since he is Lord of heaven and earth Does not dwell in temples made with hands nor as he worshiped with men's hands as though he needs anything since he gives to all life breath and all things And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the earth and has determined That pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation So that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might Find that they might grope for him and find him though He is not from each one of us.

And so as you see as Paul is there in Athens and as he sees the foolishness and The idol worship and the false god worship and all the things that are taking place in this great city He stirred within and as he stirred within he's provoked to give witness to what the resurrection of Christ Brothers and sisters we are obligated to tell people about the resurrection We are our duty bound to do it We we are it ought to be something that we cannot keep quiet Especially as we live in the day in which we live And I've got to say it because it'll it's gonna come out of me.

Anyway at some point.

I so did test then I Not against everything that people do but it's so rubs against me that this morning more people worry about Easter eggs and Marshmallow rabbits than they are the resurrection of Jesus You might say well, I'm being too narrow You say whatever you want because guess what the Easter egg is not going to save me and And and and the and the the peeps and the chocolate marshmallows aren't going to do it, but the risen Savior will this one The one who we speak about the one who rose from the dead This is the one who came in the form of God and he failed his glory And he took on upon himself the the likeness of flesh.

This is the one who rose from the dead This one who was born of a woman Was born under the law this one who who came as a Sacrificial lamb to pay for the sins of his people this one This is the one that we bear witness of this morning this one who went about and for three years did nothing but good Who who had compassion on the lost who who healed the the lame who opened the eyes of the blind? Who once stopped the ears of the deaf who raised the dead who never harmed anyone? He didn't even bruise a reed as he walked through the fields.

That's the one that we bear witness to this morning To the one as we heard on Friday who was taken by wicked Cruel hands and Mocked and beaten and spit upon and led to a hill to be crucified on a wooden cross Between two thieves and to be buried in a in a tomb that was borrowed this one who was holy and and and sinless and without blemish and We proclaim this morning that that one Rose on the first day of the week early in the morning We bear witness to the fact that the grave could not hold him.

It could not all them friends this one who declared himself as the one who lives and was dead and Is alive forevermore We follow the Apostles this day and we give witness to the fact that Jesus not only arose from the dead But that Jesus is the Lord of Glory We give witness to that great truth that this same Jesus This Jesus will one day come back and Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and Every eye will see And we lay will bow all will bow at his pierced feet Be no conversations There will be no one in that day who will be able to say well, you know, I really I guess I just didn't really understand The resurrection, you know, by the way besides the resurrection.

Let's talk about how I live my life and it'll be nothing Silence We give witness to that one this morning, don't we? and not only I thought about how we give witness to the fact that that it was a It was a Trinitarian resurrection Christ was raised from the dead by the power of the Father and yet Jesus was raised from the dead by his own power He said I have power to lay my life down and I have power to take it again and yet again We read that the spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead Listen, my friends.

We're not witnessing an act of man We're witnessing and and Proclaiming an act of Almighty God Would to God That men and women this morning Would realize that the resurrection is not just some some Conspiracy theory brought by by a couple of people who who were trying to gain something from it this resurrection of this Jesus of Nazareth was wrought by the power of the God who made you and the God who made me of the God who gives you breath and the God who gives me breath and And that there is no doubt No doubt to be had about this Jesus.

This resurrection is not a fable Is it no, it's not it's not a myth.

It's not a bedtime story It's not a day just to find eggs and and and have chocolate and Maybe wear a special dress or go out to dinner or to do any of those things and I'm not excluding those Although the eggs and the rabbits This is a day in which we bear witness as I say to those who bow the knee to Christ all over the world They've done it for millennium.

And if Christ tarries for another millennium, we'll do it till then Because you see it's within us by the Spirit of God and therefore it must come out of us It is real.

Is it not my friends? Christ is risen Christ is risen indeed Absolutely, there's another reality that I ask us to consider with this Proclamation of the resurrection of Christ and you could see it begin I hope you're beginning to understand how the Apostles with great power gave witness to the resurrection.

I Can't imagine them sitting there Christ is risen Christ is risen.

The Lord of Glory is risen The God man is risen and this other reality to consider is that in Light of that truth we who trust in the resurrection of the Son of God Listen, my friends one day someday.

We will be gathered Isn't that great I Mean I I'm getting close to retiring now And I'm excited and then and all those things but my friends there's a day coming Which will supersede it all It's when we're gathered at His side when we sit at the table when we see him for who he is Not some God of man's imagination but the Lord of Glory And we shall evermore be with him.

Yeah great That doesn't make you smile within You got an issue I'm not trying to offend you.

Well, maybe I am trying to offend you If the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of your eternal soul Doesn't cause you to to well up We shall see him as he is and we shall long enjoy the wonder of God who we shall see face-to-face There's another truth to this that I need to ask us to consider And that is as the Apostles gave with great power witness to the resurrection of Jesus we also this day as we Give witness to the resurrection we declare We declare that anyone and everyone who denies that resurrection both by word but more importantly by life that They have no hope and any hope that they have is a false.

Hope any and it's It's a house built on sand as Jesus said Regardless of what they may think regardless of what the government says regardless of what Google says regardless of what anyone says Christ arose and knows that do not trust in him in that resurrection will be cast away then unless you and I by repentance and faith in this one Trust him We shall perish unless you repent You will also perish And you know what friends? it's not just that we Witness to the resurrection and say Jesus is my Savior Because he that's that's great.

Isn't it? That's glorious.

But Jesus the risen Savior is both Lord and Savior You you can't not take him as Savior without being Under him as Lord That's not who rose from the dead It wasn't just the Savior that rose from that.

It was the Lord and Savior And if you do not Anyone does not trust in that Then they shall be cast into the lake of fire that God has said He has prepared for the devil and for those angels that obeyed not the truth and That any and all who follow that will find themselves under eternal Condemnation not a period of condemnation Not a thousand years.

Oh how I despise the doctrine of purgatory What a damnable doctrine Either you are a child of God or you are not Either you will be with him for all eternity and and bask in his wonder Or you will be Separated from him for all eternity and it'll be woe unto you.

The tears shall never cease The sorrow will never end As God pours out his wrath without mixture or measure My friends the resurrection bears witness to the fact that it's a fearful thing To fall into the hands of the living God This is not this is not playtime And yet how many people this morning Considered today is nothing but playtime.

Only God would would be merciful Only God would would shed his grace.

I thought about Stephen remember Stephen the martyr you remember when when he spoke of the resurrection and when he soon as he mentioned Jesus they went crazy and They said they stoned him to death.

You remember what Stephen said? He said I see Jesus high and lifted up.

I See him Lord.

Jesus received my spirit and you and I because we bear witness because we are the recipients of the resurrection We shall see him face to face and those and those who do not Repent and believe Although they shall see him it shall be the most horrible thing That they ever saw What shall the prophet a man? If he gains the whole world And loses his own soul What shall he give in exchange for his soul That's that's not just the pithy saying friends.

That's just not that's not just a catchy Slogan, it's the truth And what to God that we believed it What to God that the resurrection of Christ would move us? I know I have to stop but I wanted to ask you just just very quickly.

Look at the second half of verse 33 In chapter 4 what he says after they gave witness of the resurrection Look what it says.

It says that Great grace was upon them all And then it says Nor was anyone among them nor was there anyone among them who lacked? Listen as a close the resurrection of Jesus Christ must Move us it must do something in us and to us it must transform our lives It must change us It changed him does the resurrection move us this morning friends Does it move your life? Was it just another Sunday once a year that we celebrate? Great grace was upon them all it so moved them that that they lost sight of their own individuality Would to God that we'd live like that What to God that we didn't just live for self What to God that the resurrection and friends don't ever forget the resurrection wasn't just for you or for me.

It was for us It was for every one of the sheep of all that the father has given me I shall lose none And I will raise them up on the last day.

You better get used to me You're gonna see me for all eternity somewhere Maybe you're on the other side of the mountain.

I don't know how that all works out, but I'll be around And I pray you will too in a great day And the great that the tomb is empty In a great that Jesus is alive In a great that he's the Lord of glory.

Isn't it great that we are his and he is ours May God bless us May God cause us to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Son of God who so loved us What that he gave himself for us? Let's pray our father in God.

Thank you for Jesus Thank you for an empty grave Thank you for risen Lord and Savior.

Thank you for the one who sits upon his throne and all judgment has been Put under his feet.

Thank you that we have assurance that this same Jesus whom We see in the scriptures buried in the tomb will one day return again But all his holy angels and he will gather from the four corners of the earth His elect and he shall bring us to his himself as the shepherd brings the sheep You know God we will worship you for all eternity What a day it will be until then Lord may we be Content to press on in this most holy faith in Christ's name.