They Taught The People, And Preached In Jesus The Resurrection Of The Dead

[Mr. M]

An Early, Successful Evangelical Outreach

Acts 4:
1 Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them,
2 being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

A common Evangelical message during an outreach to the unsaved consists of a simple decision involving some form
of admission to being a sinner, accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior, and inviting Him into your heart and placing all
your trust in Him alone for Salvation.

A familiar passage from Paul makes this clear statement:
Romans 10:
9 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.
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness;
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

I have heard that anyone who is predestined for salvation and places their trust in Christ will naturally also believe in His resurrection, and therefore this is not a necessary element of the Evangelical message. This in spite of the fact that many in the early church began to entertain doubtful disputes over the issue, to which Paul addressed with this statement:

1 Corinthians 15:
12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead,
how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God
that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.
16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

With faith the key element for Salvation and imputed Righteousness, of what value
is a faith that is rendered empty and futile by a failure to accept the Resurrection
as a basis for that faith?

My contention today is that if the original apostles, evangelists and teachers taught
the Resurrection, as did Christ Himself, how can a modern attempt to "get people saved"
exclude this from their message?
The OP will now present a survey of Gospel messages preached in the book of Acts as evidence.

The replacement for the fallen Judas must as a qualification be a witness to the Resurrection.
Acts 1:
21 Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time
that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22 beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us,
one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.

Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost
Acts 2:
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles,
wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know;
23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken
by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;
24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death,
because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
25 For David says concerning Him:
I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;
Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
27 For You will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. [prophetic fulfillment]
28 You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’
29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David,
that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath
to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh,
He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,
31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ,
that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father
the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.

Peter and John before the Council
Acts 3:
14 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.

 

[Mr. M]

An Early, Successful Evangelical Outreach

Acts 4:
1 Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them,
2 being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel:
9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man,
by what means he has been made well,
10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.

32 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul;
neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own,
but they had all things in common.
33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
And great grace was upon them all.

 

[Mr. M]

The Apostles Imprisoned and Interrogated
Acts 5:
17 Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees),
and they were filled with indignation,
18 and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.
19 But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said,
20 Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.


27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council.
And the high priest asked them,
28 saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name?
And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!
29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: We ought to obey God rather than men.
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.
31 Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior,
to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
32 And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit
whom God has given to those who obey Him.

 

[Mr. M]

Peter preaching to the household of Cornelius
Acts 10:
34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.
35 But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.
36 The word which God sent to the children of Israel,
preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—
37 that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea,
and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached:
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,
who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil,
for God was with Him.
39 And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they killed by hanging on a tree.
40 Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly,
41 not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God,
even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 4
2 And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He
who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.
43 To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name,
whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.

 

[Mr. M]

Paul preaches at Antioch in Pisidia
Acts 13:
16 Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen:
17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers
in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it.
18 Now for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness.
19 And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land to them by allotment.

20 After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.
21 And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish,
a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.
22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king,
to whom also He gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse,
a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.
23 From this man’s seed, according to the promise,
God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—
24 after John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, Who do you think I am? I am not He.
But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.

26 Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God,
to you the word of this salvation has been sent.
27 For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him,
nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him.
28 And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.
29 Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down
from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.
30 But God raised Him from the dead.
31 He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem,
who are His witnesses to the people.
32 And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers.
33 God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus.
As it is also written in the second Psalm:
You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
34 And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption,
He has spoken thus:
I will give you the sure mercies of David.
35 Therefore He also says in another Psalm:
You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
36 “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God,
fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption;
37 but He whom God raised up saw no corruption.
38 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that
through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins;
39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

 

[Mr. M]

Paul preaches at Athens
Acts 17:
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him
when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers,
and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him.
And some said, What does this babbler want to say?
Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,
because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.

19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying,
May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?
20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears.
Therefore we want to know what these things mean.
21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent
their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said,
Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship,
I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven
and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything,
since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth,
and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him,
though He is not far from each one of us;
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said,
For we are also His offspring.
29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine
Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.
30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked,
but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness
by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this
to all by raising Him from the dead.

32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked,
while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.
33 So Paul departed from among them.
34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them
Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

 

[Grip Docility]

1 Corinthians 1:23-30 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.[a] 24 Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, 25 because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.