The Savior Is Risen
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· 5 viewsThe resurrection of Jesus Christ is the defining truth by which all the world shall be judged.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction- Acts 17:22-34
Today we gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ an event that took place almost 2000 years ago.
There are few events throughout history which hold such significance after so much time has passed.
Why do we still celebrate the resurrection of Jesus today? It is because His resurrection is the defining moment of human history.
The resurrection of Jesus is the proof that He is the son of God and the savior of the world.
Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Jesus was delivered unto death for our sins and was raised again in order that we might through Him be made right with God.
Several years after the resurrection had taken place, Paul found himself in Athens before a crowd of people who considered themselves to be the at the height of religious, spiritual, intellectual, and philosophical understanding.
In the brief time that he spent there, Paul was moved because of their ignorance of the true and living God and was determined to preach unto them Jesus.
In Athens Paul found an altar with the inscription “To The Unknown God” and he used this as a point of reference to tell them of Jesus.
Paul spoke of a call to repentance, of a day of coming judgment, and then he presented the most crucial point of all, the resurrection of Jesus as the proof of His identity as Lord, Savior, and Judge.
It was when Paul spoke of the resurrection that there was a strong response from the people. This is still true today, so long as Jesus is presented as one of many options or as only a good teacher or a prophet there is little response, but today I am here to tell you that He is Lord, Savior, and one day He will stand as the judge of all men and the fact that God raised Him from the dead stands as confirmation of His identity.
The primary question today that every man, woman, and child must answer is how will you respond to this claim?
Let us first see...
The Call to Repentance (Vs. 30)
The Call to Repentance (Vs. 30)
Though the Athenians took pride in their intellectual prowess Paul spoke to them of their ignorance concerning the true and living God.
They had spent their lives worshipping false deities that were no gods at all.
And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
Though they worshipped many gods they were as of yet still searching and seeking for some new thing.
Their ignorance God looked beyond and now the command to them was that they must repent. The truth had now been revealed to them and they must respond
Basically here Paul is calling on them to turn to the true and living God and to acknowledge Him as God alone.
Notice that the call is not however limited to only the people of Athens but is much broader.
God’s directs “all men every where” to repent. This is still what God desires of men today, that they would repent turning to Him and turning away from their false idols and sin.
But why does God command men to repent?
It is because there is a...
Coming Day of Judgement (Vs. 31)
Coming Day of Judgement (Vs. 31)
Paul speaks of a day that God has appointed when the world shall be judged.
He will judge righteously and perfect justice will prevail in that day.
You may be surprised to learn who will stand as judge in that day. It is Jesus Christ Himself who will be the judge.
For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
He will not only stand as the judge but also as the standard by which men shall ultimately be judged either believing on or rejecting Him.
Some may ask “How do we know you are telling the truth?” The resurrection of Jesus stands as God’s affirmation that Jesus is not only Lord and savior, but also that He will be judge.
When God raised Jesus from the dead it was meant to prove that He is indeed the Son of God and the savior of the world and that all that He had said is true.
Without the resurrection Jesus is just another man who made outlandish claims about himself which were never verified, but the resurrection was God’s way of affirming all that Jesus said and did.
Until this point in Paul’s message there had been no significant response, but notice as soon as he references the resurrection there is an immediate and varied response from his hearers.
The Response to the Resurrection (Vs. 32-34)
The Response to the Resurrection (Vs. 32-34)
Acts 17:18 (KJV 1900)
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
Paul at first preached Jesus and the resurrection in the marketplace and it was there that his claims about Jesus captured the attention of the leaders of the city.
The people of Athens were willing to give Paul a hearing until he began to speak of a bodily resurrection and it was at this, the most crucial point of Christian doctrine, that the people were provoked to respond.
When the claim was put forward that God had raised Jesus from the dead as a testimony to His fitness to judge all mankind, the Athenians had heard enough.
The resurrection of Jesus is still a divisive topic today especially when taken as the proof of Jesus identity as the Son of God and the savior of the world.
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
The truth is if Jesus did rise from the dead then He is who He claimed to be and He will one day stand in judgment over all the world.
What you and I must do is repent and believe on Him if we hope to avoid condemnation in this day of judgment.
For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Yet when Paul declared this truth there was a varied response.
Some mocked- certainly these would have insisted that resurrection was an impossibility and to believe such a thing would be entirely contrary to reason and logic.
There were others who did not immediately reject the claim outright, but who were also not willing to believe it.
These simply delayed their response to some later time when they expected that they might hear the message again.
Yet notice in the following verse that Paul departed from among them and there is no record in scripture of Paul ever returning to deliver the message a second time.
The truth is that both these groups rejected the message one maybe in stronger terms than the other but these all refused to believe that Jesus arose from the dead.
Besides these there were some who had a different response to Paul’s claims concerning Jesus’s resurrection.
The scripture declares that certain men believed. These were the ones who heeded the warning and turned to Christ in faith believing that He did indeed rise from the dead.
One of those who believed was actually even a member of the judicial body that was to judge Paul’s message.
In Matthew 27 we have a detailed account of Jesus crucifixion and death but today I want to call your attention to Matthew 28:1-6
Do you believe that what we read here is true?
In this auditorium today there will likely be a similar response to that of those who heard Paul there on Mars’ Hill so many years ago. Some will mock denying the resurrection altogether, others will wait for another opportunity to hear the message but be aware that the opportunity may never come, and some will believe and will turn to Jesus in faith trusting in Him as savior believing that He is exactly who He says He is.
If you believe that God did indeed raise Jesus from the dead, will you turn to Jesus today and by faith trust in Him to save you from your sins and give you eternal life?
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.