Acts 24:10-21
10 When the Governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied, “I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this nation; so I gladly make my defense. 11 You can easily verify that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship. 12 My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. 13 And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me. 14 However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets, 15 and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. 16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.
17 “After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings. 18 I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this. There was no crowd with me, nor was I involved in any disturbance. 19 But there are some Jews from the province of Asia, who ought to be here before you and bring charges if they have anything against me. 20 Or these who are here should state what crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin— 21 unless it was this one thing I shouted as I stood in their presence: ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’”
The Resurrection Gives You Reason for Hope
What does hope look like? I see it every day in my dog’s eyes whenever I go anywhere near the front door. The eyes bulge. The muscles tense. She’s ready to go. So hopeful that this will be the time that I take her outside.
You’re not a dog, but physiologically I don’t know that our reactions to hope are much different. Our bodies mirror our emotions. Our hearts start to flutter. Maybe there’s an extra spring in your step, a glint in your eye. Your attitude changes so that you’re more patient or kind or joyful. Hope changes you.
Hope will let you spend all day walking 12 kilometers to Emmaus, sit down for dinner, find out good news and then run the 12 kilometers back to Jerusalem so that you could tell that good news to your friends.
Hope will let you stand on trial for your life and not be afraid. Even with false witnesses lying about you and the jury stacked against you, hope allows you to be happy as you give your defense.
Hope has a way of taking a bad situation and making it feel like nothing, because you know something that no one else does. You have this secret that changes everything.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall while Paul was on trial. Earlier in Acts 24 we find out why he was there. A man named Tertullus made an embarrassingly flattering case to the Roman governor Felix claiming that Paul was the leader of a rebellion and should be punished. And he wasn’t the only one to speak. The other Jews who were there joined in the accusation too. (By the way, the penalty for rebellion is death, so this is kind of a big deal.) But Paul calmly stands up and confidently says to Felix, “I gladly make my defense.”
Paul knew something that no one else did – or, at least, that no one else was willing to admit. After presenting his iron-clad case for innocence, Paul says, “I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.” The reason Paul could be so calm is because he believed in the resurrection of the dead.
Imagine what life would be like if you didn’t believe in the resurrection, i.e. if this life were all there was. How unlucky would you be to live through a global pandemic? If this life is all there is, is this how you’d like to spend it – confined, cramped, cabin fever, constant fear that this quarantine might not be enough to keep you and your loved ones alive while so many others worldwide are dying?
Or, is the cure worse than the disease? Will we ever recover from the quarantine? What does that mean for the rest of my life post-COVID? Am I just going to be trying to make up for or catch up to my former life trajectory?
I turned 33 a week ago. That’s how old Alexander the Great was when he conquered the known world. What have I been doing with my life? If there is no resurrection, then every minute of my life is another grain of sand pouring out of an hourglass that’s getting emptier and emptier and I only have a limited amount of time left to make a name for myself or make the most out of life.
That’s a really sad and depressing way to live. If we only have hope in what might possibly happen in this life, not only are we buckling ourselves into an emotional rollercoaster and subjecting our emotional health to the whim of every piece of breaking news, but as Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, “we are of all people most to be pitied.”
You can’t control what happens in this life. There are no guarantees for you to put your hope in. Even those things that we’ve treated as automatic in the past have been put on hold now, e.g. high school graduation ceremonies; haircuts; hiking; hoedowns that haven’t been canceled in 100 years!
If our only reason for hope is the prospect of a promotion, what happens when your company goes under because of a global pandemic? If you’re just working hard now so that you can retire in 20 years, what happens when your savings get wiped out or health gets snatched from you prematurely? If your hopes are even simpler than that and all you need to be happy is time with friends or a springtime BBQ, what do you do when the government instructs you to be socially distant?
“You overcome! You get creative! It’s a testament to the indomitable human spirit when we persevere and adapt!”
That’s what the world would have you believe.
While there is truth to that - it is good to be creative - there is a limit to human ingenuity, and, more importantly, there’s a better answer. God gives you a hook to hang your hat on – a guarantee to give you hope. It’s the resurrection of the dead, i.e. the promise of life after death. This life is not all we have to look forward to. We can place our hope in the promised future that is ours in Christ Jesus.
Just three weeks ago we celebrated his resurrection from the dead. Like Paul, he had been put on trial, falsely accused, and threatened with death. But unlike Paul, Jesus didn’t speak a word in his defense. It wasn’t because he wasn’t innocent; he could have proven that easily. Jesus didn’t speak up because it wasn’t his life he was trying to save; it was yours.
That’s why Jesus went to the cross, because this life isn’t all there is. The first time Paul speaks of resurrection here, he doesn’t call it the resurrection of the dead; he calls it the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. In other words, what we do in this life matters. You can’t escape sin just by dying. It clings to you even in the afterlife.
Or, at least, it would, had it not been for Jesus’ death and resurrection. When Jesus died, he paid for your sin. He forgave you for all the wrongs that you have done. He cancelled all your debts; he removed all your guilt. He took them all on himself and died with them as if they were his own, claiming them so that they couldn’t cling to you.
So, when Jesus rose from the dead three days later unencumbered by your sin anymore, he gave you a promise, that because he lives you too will live. In the resurrection, you will be considered righteous – not because you have always done everything right, but because he did; not because you made the most of every moment, but because Jesus redeemed every minute of your life – good, bad or ugly – and washed it clean in his own blood. As your substitute, when he took your place on the cross, he gifted you his perfect righteousness.
So that Paul – and everyone who believes in Jesus – can speak of the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked confident that in God’s eyes we are considered righteous because of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Jesus is the way that we are considered righteous. Jesus is the way that we will be on the right side of the resurrection. Our hope for salvation and eternal life in heaven has nothing to do with what we do here on earth. It has everything to do with Jesus, and as a result your hope is guaranteed. It doesn’t depend on you. It’s already been taken care of by Jesus. Hang your hat on the resurrection to heaven. That is your hope as Christians.
And as I said before, hope changes you.
Because I know that there is a resurrection from the dead – and that because of Jesus, I’m on the right side of that resurrection – I don’t have to worry that I’m 33 and haven’t conquered the world yet. I am not defined by my occupation, nor is my life the sum of all my accomplishments. The life that God has given me here and now is for coming to know Jesus and for causing him to be known. My life now is freed to live in thankfulness and praise for the eternal life that is mine forever in heaven. Because of the resurrection, I can flip burgers and clean toilets and bag groceries for forty years and not feel ashamed for a second, because from the lowliest task to the greatest achievement, everything I do in this life only serves to prepare me for the life that is to come – the life that is guaranteed me by Jesus.
Because I know that there is a resurrection from the dead – and that because of Jesus, I’m on the right side of that resurrection – I don’t have to try to milk every moment of my life for fear that I might miss out. I have heaven to look forward to. That’s what I put my hope in.
Because I know that there is a resurrection from the dead – and that because of Jesus, I’m on the right side of that resurrection – I don’t have to fear, e.g. global pandemics, economic recessions, cancer, fire, even my own sinful weakness. God promises me and you and everyone who believes in Jesus eternal life where all the problems of this world are ancient history, and we get to look forward to living with our God for a life without end.
The resurrection gives you hope. Hope changes you. How is that hope going to change your life today? Pray on that, and let me know.
Amen.