Resurrection, he said!
Application
- As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must deal respectfully regarding the various aspects of the Law and deal with all people respectfully as someone God loves.
- As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, perceiving the context may spare us hours of “shotgun pellets” and allow us to get to the heart of the matter with this person.
- Conclusion: Within the “art and science” of witnessing, we must permit the concise Gospel nugget recorded in Scripture to guide our thought-process: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”
(1Cor. 15:3-4 NASB).
Not one of us surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ apart from recognizing these critical spiritual truths:
1) I am a sinner;
2) As a sinner, I cannot save myself;
3) As a sinner, I need a Savior;
4) God the Father planned and initiated His Plan of Salvation, in which the Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood on a Roman cross to pay my sin-debt, two men buried His physically lifeless corpse in a grave, and He raised Himself from the dead on the third day!
Bible Text
Acts 22:30-23:11 (NASB) (pew Bible, NT pages 112-113)
-Acts 22:30-23:11
(22:30) But on the next day, wishing to know for certain why he had been accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Council to assemble, and brought Paul down and set him before them. (23:1) Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.” (2) The high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth. (3) Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to try me according to the Law, and in violation of the Law order me to be struck?” (4) But the bystanders said, “Do you revile God’s high priest?” (5) And Paul said, “I was not aware, brethren, that he was high priest; for it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT SPEAK EVIL OF A RULER OF YOUR PEOPLE.’”
(6) But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!” (7) As he said this, there occurred a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (8) For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. (9) And there occurred a great uproar; and some of the scribes of the Pharisaic party stood up and began to argue heatedly, saying, “We find nothing wrong with this man; suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” (10) And as a great dissension was developing, the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them and ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force, and bring him into the barracks. (11) But on the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, “Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.”