Its Place In Apostolic Preaching

by J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead | Category: The Resurrection Of Christ | Jul 1968

It is quite evident that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus featured much more prominently in the preaching of the apostles, and in the early years of the dispensation generally, than it does in our preaching today. This was doubtless due to the fact that the apostles were eye-witnesses of the miracle. It had transformed them. It had opened, as it were, the locked doors of the upper room in Jerusalem, and in the power of the newly given Spirit they had issued forth, we might almost say, "conquering, and to conquer". With the eleven came Matthias, the freshly chosen twelfth man, described by Peter as "a witness with us of His resurrection". This was the imperative feature of apostolic testimony, with what powerful and, indeed, infectious results we know.

To the early nucleus, in the language of the types, Benoni was now Benjamin. The Man of Calvary, crucified through weakness, was personally known to them to be living by the power of God, with the eternal glory, honour, and dominion. When, therefore, Paul, as one born out of due time, joined himself lifelong to the movement, his testimony was in perfect harmony with that of the pioneers of the Faith-"Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?" Jesus, as delivered up for their offences; our Lord, as raised again for their justification. Thus no one could condemn, since the living Lord was interceding. And from His love nothing could separate; no amount of "tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword". So, taking their place in the agelong line of faithful witnesses to the things they had seen, heard, and most assuredly believed, they were joyfully prepared for His sake to be "killed all the day long ... accounted as sheep for the slaughter": killed, but more than conquerors. No wonder they were complete enigmas to their worldly contemporaries!

Interspersed throughout the book of Acts there are brief accounts of addresses given by the apostles and some powerful appeals by Paul. Acts 4.33 provides an excellent summary, "And with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus". They were fearless, irresistible heralds making proclamation on behalf of their absent King, as, for example, in Acts 2.36, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified"; and again, in 4.8-12, "Ye rulers of the people, and elders ... be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead ... is there salvation. "Know assuredly" was the clarion, clear-cut call. There were no doubts or uncertainties about these preachers. They believed their beliefs. They had eaten and drunk with Him after His resurrection. They had seen the wound-prints, those engravings of which the prophet had spoken. Henceforth He was their absolute, living Lord and Master. And not only so, but He was also living in them. Therefore their determination, in a boldness which made even their adversaries to marvel, was that not only would He be preached by them but also that He would be revealed in them (Galatians 1.16), magnified (Philippians 1.20).

They were veritable balls of fire, these men, convinced about the brevity of time and the profound reality of eternity. Had they not heard from their Lord's own lips about eternal punishment and eternal life? Their battle-cry-"We cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard" (Acts 4.20). Their key words, "slew", "raised up", "witnesses". In due course one of the early band went from their midst the hard but glorious way. In his closing moments he saw clearly "the glory of God, and Jesus", and gave the martyr's testimony, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man". Stephen died, stoned, but his power in testimony flowed on unabated in his fellows. Little wonder it is written, "So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed." Great days, these!

To these men the resurrection of the Lord Jesus became a living, lively hope. They proclaimed "in Jesus the resurrection of the dead". His resurrection was the guarantee of their own-to eternal glory. Not only was He Lord of the living and the present, but to them He was also Lord of all, and of all time and eternity. Therefore they announced, "whom the heaven must receive until They saw clearly the coming day when He would restore all things. He would fill all the future with His glory. Bound up with this was the fact that He was also the God appointed Judge of the living and the dead. So they suitably warned the people with long and tender pleadings.

In every sense, their aim was to "know Him, and the power of His resurrection". With this went the fellowship of His sufferings and conformity to His death. That they would gladly accept. And beloved Paul doubtless spoke the feelings of them all when he said, "if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead", not the resurrection at the Rapture, for in that all believers would share, but a triumphant experience of out-resurrection here and now, a "present life of identification with Christ in resurrection" (Vine).

These then were the men whom the Lord used in building up the Church the Body, and in establishing the churches of God, in visible, corporate testimony, before the eyes of the nations. Singleminded men, their persuasions were to them deep convictions. They had no doubts nagging away at the back of their minds as to the reality of their Lord's own life in glory and His glorious dominance over theirs. Nor did they question for a moment the high calling of the spiritual movement which they helped forward on its outward thrust. They knew only too well, as skilled combatants, that doubts would only weaken the part they had to play, in serving for their own generation the counsel of God. Little wonder, then, words of the poet reach us today

"Rise up, ye men of God, be done with lesser things", or, as the Spirit says, "Imitate their faith". There is a saying, "Believe your beliefs and doubt your doubts". There is a contrary tendency among some today to begin to believe their doubts and to doubt their beliefs. That will weaken the strongest. There are things, Luke says, "most surely believed among us" (Luke 1.1, A.V.). They relate to the Faith, once for all delivered to the saints. It is one thing to look at these things with an inquiring mind so as to understand more perfectly the things we believe, but it is quite another and wrong to be for ever questioning, in the spirit of doubt and unbelief, to the undermining of our own faith and that of others. It looks as though the imminence of His coming means that we shall not have long to hold the precious truths committed to us. Till then, the Spirit says to the churches, "Look to yourselves that ye lose not the things which we have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward" (2 John 8).

J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead | Jul 1968
The Resurrection Of Christ