A look at the story of Easter from the Testimony of the Apostles and other early believers.

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Introduction – New and Improved (?)

Upon delivering my Easter message, which you can listen to in its entirety, a member told me they were a little lost in my message and parts of it didn’t connect with where I had hoped we would go. I’ll be honest, I’m not the greatest at revising and editing my sermons. Had I done that or had someone else listen to it before Sunday, confusion might have been avoided. It’s my hope with this blog post to make a condensed and focused version of what I wanted to communicate in that Easter Sunday Message.

Two kinds of people – regarding the gospel

First of all, the world can be broken down into two types of people: 1) Those who are believers in Christ, 2) and those who are not. (I’m a hopeful person and usually refer to this last group as “not-yet-Christians.”) For those who are not yet Christians, my hope is that they would read this blog or listen to this message and consider a relationship with Jesus. For those who are believers, my hope is that they would Go Deeper.

When believers go deeper, they inevitably get into sharing the gospel, which then helps lead those who are not in Christ, closer to Christ.

But a Christian can lose their pizzaz. They can begin thinking of the stories in the bible as just stories. Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, Moses and the 10 commandments, Jonah and the big fish… If their not careful, the amazing work that Jesus did on the cross and rose again, can feel just like folklore and nothing more.

But the apostles, who led the way for the early church, truly owned their faith. They experienced something, not just read about it somewhere. The disciple first showed their ownership of their faith in Christ by speaking about the death and Resurrection of their Lord Jesus.

Peter

Read: Acts 2:22-24 Summary of what he says here: 

Jesus Christ was handed over to the authorities, sentenced to death, nailing him to the cross, God raised Him, Death couldn’t keep him down.

Peter preaches a REALLY long sermon, encompassing all of Jewish history and he concludes with this:

Peter finishes his mega-sermon with this: (Acts 2:36-38)

 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 3:12-15

In a completely different setting, Peter and John heal a man in Jesus’ name. This got people upset. What I wondered was would Peter just “phone it in” and repeat word for word what he said earlier? The answer is no.

12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

There are CORE elements that follow through each of these instances, but they are not word-for-word identical!

Later, Peter and John defend themselves concerning this healing.

Summary: Acts 4:9-10

This was done in the power of the Messiah, Jesus from Nazareth. You remember… You put him to death, but he didn’t stay that way? It’s in HIS NAME this man is healed.

One of these passages with the least amount of details shows us the core of what we celebrate at Easter. It’s found in Acts 4:33. There, the believers are doing well, caring for each others needs and verse 33 reads:

“With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all.”

It was essential to testify to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Paul’s testimony

Much like superhero stories we read or watch in movies rehash the origin story, it’s very hard to just jump into talking about Paul without knowing his past. He was an enemy of Christians and wanted to destroy them. Jesus got a hold of him when he was traveling to arrest Christians in Damascus, he was stuck blind and the voice of Jesus spoke to him about this persecution, He told him to go to Damascus to find out his next steps. Paul (then referred to by his Hebrew name: Saul) was helpless until a Christian came, prayed for him and he could see again. After this life changing experience with Jesus, he became a follower of Christ. Since Paul knew the scriptures so WELL, including things about the Messiah, it wasn’t difficult for him to now understand that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies. He began teaching people about how Jesus was truly the Messiah.

Christians were afraid of him and non-christian Jews were confused by him. 

On one occasion, Paul was in Antioch and he began to speak, very similarly to Peter’s sermon at Pentecost and Stephen’s sermon that got him killed. He started with Jewish history and traced it all the way forward to Jesus. Paul, who wasn’t a believer of Christ during the time of the crucifixion said this. (Acts 13:28-31)

26 “Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. 28 Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.

32 “We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus.

There is SO much more in that passage, so I suggest you read it on your own. 

Think about this if you will… What’s missing from these passages I’ve shared? Luke wrote these accounts down. It would have been SO simple to just do what you and I might do when typing something up on a computer: COPY & PASTE.

That’s not what Luke did. He made an orderly account of the early church. The early church was made up of people who had learned the scriptures, probably memorized the Hebrew bible in most cases, but also experienced something.

They were there when Jesus was taken away, they might have watched as he was whipped and beaten, they saw him carry the cross to Calvary, some watched him suffer on the cross, a couple followers worked to bury His body and on the first day of the week…He rose from the dead!

They witnessed him after the resurrection and were also FIlled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. His Holy Spirit.  

They knew the Word in their heads and hearts. They Experienced THE WORD in their life.
They truly OWNED their faith. It wasn’t an assortment of readings and pledges. It was true deep down in their heart. And they lived it out so you and I can even know Jesus today.

Conclusion

For a not-yet–believer: 

• Recognize your guilt. Your sin put him on the cross.
• Recognize what Jesus did on the cross – died as a sacrifice for your sin. Took your sin upon himself.
• God glorified Jesus – make him your Lord and Savior. 

Some people say, “I’d like to ask Jesus into my heart and life…I just don’t know how…”

That’s usually where form prayers help us in our shortcomings. 

The Salvation Poem is a little prayer, many times recorded as a song and shared all over the world in many different languages. It tells the story and the essentials of starting faith in Jesus, but our hearts have to follow the words we say or sing. Here it is:

Jesus you died upon a cross and rose again to save the lost

Forgive me now of all my sin

Come be my savior, lord and friend.

Change my life and make it new

And help me Lord to live for you.

For believers

• It’s ok to memorize creeds, various prayers that can lead someone to salvation – I’m a fan and I believe Christian History shows were better because we have these tools to help up in our faith…but
• BUT are you OWNING IT? Are you Internalizing these biblical truths?
  • Peter, Paul and the other Apostles knew in their hearts and heads what Christ did and relayed that clearly in each situation we see in the bible. 
  • What they DIDN’T do is regurgitate a specific, sanitized set of words and require all other Christians to only say these things.
• They experienced the Truth. They shared the core message in different ways based on who they were talking to, why they started talking to them and what was the setting.
• Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 11 “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” We can follow their lead.

The story of Jesus’ death, burial and Resurrection is not just a story. It’s not just a bunch of beliefs that 1st century ragtag Jews put together to form a new religion. Faith in Christ is not something you have or do to get better grades in school and not get a ticket when you’re pulled over by the police. 

It’s something to learn about, take root in good soil…Soil that’s open to God’s plan for our lives. Something that each day, we can explore and go deeper…not being satisfied with staying where we are. 

Not-yet believer:  are you open?

Believer: Are you owning it?
No matter what’s going on, we can go deeper in our Faith in Jesus Christ.