The Acts of the Apostles 4:1-12 [NLTse]
While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. 2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. 3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. 4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.
5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the Man you crucified but Whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the One referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,
‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’
12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under Heaven by which we must be saved.”
Sermon
Have you ever wondered how something like this [a seed] ever turns into something like this [a plant]? And yet it happens every day, all around us, doesn’t it? Seeds turn into plants. Acorns turn into oak trees. Walnuts turn into walnut trees… And so it is with people.
In our reading from Acts today Peter and John are arrested by the Sanhedrin, the same ruling council that plotted to have Jesus crucified. And Luke (who is also the author of Acts), makes clear “these leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead.” (v. 2) So, it wasn’t because they were followers of Jesus that they were arrested. And it wasn’t because they’d healed somebody, or because the ruling council was jealous. (That comes later.) No. The Sanhedrin arrested Peter and John because Peter and John were teaching that there would be a resurrection of the dead: That everyone who died would be raised to life again; that Jesus being raised was proof of it.
What does it mean that there will be a resurrection of the dead? It means that when Jesus Christ redeemed us that He did not just redeem our or souls so that we might live for eternity as a disembodied spirit in some immaterial heaven. No. That there will be a resurrection of the dead means that Jesus redeemed us as whole persons, and this includes the redemption of our bodies. It means that Christ’s work of redemption will not be complete until our bodies are entirely free from the effects of the Fall and brought to the state of perfection for which God created them which will only occur when Christ returns and raises our bodies from the dead. But as for now, the apostle Paul writes in Romans 8 that we wait for “the redemption of our bodies,” and then adds, “for in this hope we were saved” (vv. 23-24).
The resurrection of the dead is also called the “glorification of the saints”, because on that day our bodies – reunited with our souls – will fully share God’s glory, and the bodies of all believers will be changed into perfect, eternal, resurrection-bodies like Jesus’ Own perfect, eternal, resurrection-body. For those who have died by that time, the remains of their bodies will be taken by God and transformed into resurrection-bodies. For those who remain alive at that time, God will transform their living bodies into imperishable, resurrection-bodies. It will be a great day because on that day the last enemy, death, will be destroyed! When our bodies are raised from the dead we will experience complete victory over the death that came as a result of the fall of Adam and Eve. Then our redemption will be complete.
These perfect, eternal, imperishable, resurrection-bodies that are God’s gift to His children never grow old or weak and will never die again. These new bodies will not be subject to any kind of sickness or disease, but will be completely strong and healthy forever, having the characteristics of youthful but mature manhood or womanhood. Our resurrection bodies will show the fulfillment of God’s perfect wisdom in creating us as human beings who are the highlight of His creation and the appropriate bearers of His likeness and image. In these resurrection bodies we will clearly see humanity as God intended humanity to be!
For those who would argue that the resurrection of the dead is merely a Christian, New Testament teaching, Job says: “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see Him with my own eyes.” (Job 19:25-27). The prophet Isaiah writes, But those who die in the Lord will live; their bodies will rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy!” (Isaiah 26:19) Likewise, Daniel has a very explicit prophecy saying that “many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace.” (Daniel 12:2).
Some enemies of the resurrection will quote 1 Corinthians 15:44 where the apostle Paul writes that the bodies of believers “are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies.” Except that when Paul uses the word “spiritual” (in Greek, pneumatikos) he never means it to mean “nonphysical”. When Paul speaks about “spiritual” things he speaking of things being “consistent with the character and activity of the Holy Spirit”. So when Paul writes about our bodies being pneumatikos he is not speaking of non-corporeal bodies, but is saying that our physical body will be raised to the degree of perfection for which God originally intended them.
Of course, the Lord Jesus is our model in all things. Just so, our resurrection-bodies will be just like His resurrection-body that is witnessed to in the Scriptures: He was able to be touched; He was able to eat and cook breakfast; His voice was audibly heard; and yet He could appear and disappear at will; He could make His body defy gravity in order to, well, basically fly (as we might call it when He was lifted up and up and up and through the clouds into Heaven); and He was not always readily recognizable in every situation.
That the Lord was not always recognizable to His followers after He was raised from the dead has always been a bit confusing to me, and yet the reality of such a resurrected body addresses such confusion. That is, although the Lord Jesus was only in His early thirties at the time of His earthly ministry, during those few years the Lord had no doubt aged considerably being “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”, as Isaiah says He was (53:3). But after His resurrection, the Lord would have been restored to full and perfect strength and youthfulness of appearance. So, just as we sometimes do not immediately recognize a friend who has aged considerably since the last time we saw him or her, so the disciples may have had initial difficulty in recognizing the Lord Jesus because the opposite of aging had occurred! The Lord Jesus likely would have looked younger than He had only days before!
Maybe today you are thinking about a parent or a grandparent, or maybe you are thinking about a child or a grandchild, or maybe even a special neighbor or friend who has died and gone to be with Christ. Take a minute and think about what they might look like on the day of resurrection? … What will it be like meeting that person and becoming acquainted again? … How might your relationship be different from what it was in this life? …