Dr. Richard L. Strauss
April 11, 1993
Every spectacular event in human history has been followed by a variety of reactions and responses. You think of any one of them and you can probably describe the reactions to it. I think, for instance, of that first manned lunar landing. Maybe you remember it. I remember it very well. It was in July of 1969. Our family was on vacation at the time. We were visiting Mary's sister in Pennsylvania. And I remember sitting in her living room, huddled around a little black and white tv, listening and watching every part of that event, hearing that news: "The Eagle has landed."
I watched Neil Armstrong take that one small step for man and that one giant leap for mankind. It was a sensational culmination of years of concentrated effort. It was a technical and scientific conquest of gigantic proportions. It was a spectacular event.
But the reactions were mixed, as you may remember. I can remember watching interviews after it happened of different people, some who actually refused to believe that it really happened. They said the whole thing was staged in a studio somewhere and the whole world was duped. "They didn't really put a man on the moon."
There were others who simply didn't care. "So we put him out on the moon, who cares? What good will it do us? I'll reserve my judgment for another day."
And then there were people who not only believed it, but who got absolutely excited about it. You couldn't live in Huntsville, Alabama, where I lived at the time—where the Saturn V moon rocket was developed, that actually took those men out into space to put them on the moon—and not get enthusiastic and excited about what was happening. I had close friends who helped develop that rocket. I kind of felt like I was partially responsible for putting those men on the moon! You know that. I mean, I was excited about it!
See, it's true. Every spectacular event in human history has been followed by a variety of reactions.
The Message of the Resurrection
Now I think we can safely say that The One Most Spectacular Event in all of human history was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. To think that a Man could be murdered by crucifixion, His side pierced and all His blood drained, then taken down and wrapped in strips of cloth from head to toe, placed in a cave-like tomb which was sealed by a rolling stone that weighed several tons, then guarded by a contingent of Roman soldiers, and then come alive, break out of that tomb and show Himself alive to literally hundreds of people. That, friends, is spectacular! It's absolutely phenomenal. It had never happened in human history before; it has never happened in human history since.
It lies at the heart of the Christian gospel. When the apostle Paul defined the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, he says that:
"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3b-4).
In every place the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached, the message of the resurrection has likewise been proclaimed. And it is consistently met with varied reactions. Everywhere it has been preached, there have been different responses. Nowhere was that better illustrated than in the cultural and intellectual center of the ancient world. I'm talking about the city of Athens.
The apostle Paul visited Athens on his second missionary journey. The story is told to us in the book of Acts, chapter 17. I invite you to turn there right now in your Bibles, please, if you have them.
Paul's friends had whisked him out of Berea when the Jews there began to stir up trouble and opposition to Paul and his ministry. And they took him to Athens, where he was to wait for his good friends Timothy and Silas to join him there. While he waited, he walked around the city as any tourist would do. But as he walked around, he became absolutely distressed at the gross idolatry in the city of Athens, and he began to share his faith in Jesus Christ with people as he met them.
"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. 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. 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" (Acts 17:16-18).
Look at the heart of his message. At the end of verse 18: "He preached to them Jesus and the resurrection."
There it is. He couldn't help but talk about it. It's part of the gospel. Some people are critical of this. They say, "Well, where's the message of the cross? I thought the cross was the heart of the gospel." Well, it was there, you can be sure, even though it's not mentioned in the context here. It was always at the center of Paul's ministry.
On one occasion, he declared, unmistakably, "We preach Christ crucified" (1 Corinthians 1:23). On another occasion he said, "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2).
The cross was always there. It was always at the heart of his message, even though it's not mentioned in the context.
But you see, Paul never left Christ on the cross or in the tomb. He always boldly proclaimed the marvelous reality of Christ's bodily resurrection from the dead. He had to. It was an essential part of the gospel. So in Athens, as everywhere else, he preached to them, verse 18, "Jesus and the resurrection."
The Response to the Message of the Resurrection
As we might expect, the response was immediate. There in verse 18, you'll see that the philosophers who heard him called him a "babbler." That's a very interesting word that means literally a "seed picker." As if Paul was walking around like a bird picking up seeds, gathering information from various places, like a bird picks seeds.
Others twisted his message to mean that he was pushing two new gods, Jesus and the Resurrection. They didn't understand what he was saying.
"And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, 'May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.' 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" (Acts 17:19-21).
Now, the Areopagus was a place, but more importantly, it was a council that had authority in religious and philosophical matters. See, the days of Greece's military and political power had long since passed. They were now being ruled by the Romans, but the Romans allowed this council to exist and pass judgment in intellectual matters such as this one. Their judgment would determine whether Paul would be permitted to continue publicly preaching the gospel or not. So it was a very important matter, a very important event.
Those of you who are familiar with your Bibles have read this story before, and you're familiar with Paul's brilliant speech before the Areopagus. He began right where they were with a captivating way of introducing any kind of a speech. He referred to an altar that he had seen when he was walking around the city that said, "To the unknown god."
He said, "I want to tell you about this God you worship whom you don't even know." And, friend, they were listening, you can be sure.
And then he went on to describe the one true and living God who cannot be reduced to idols like those he had seen while he walked through the city of Athens.
"Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 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. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 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; 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.' 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" (Acts 17:23b-29).
And his conclusion was inevitable:
"Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 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" (Acts 17:30-31).
There it is again: the resurrection. He keeps coming back to. You see, he can't avoid it. We can expect a variety of responses to itnd, a they're not long in coming.
"And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, 'We will hear you again on this matter.' So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them" (Acts 17:32-34).
There are three reactions to the resurrection described in those verses. And interestingly enough, they are the same three reactions we see today when the message of the resurrection is proclaimed. Everybody who hears this message, everyone who has heard it, everyone who will hear it—maybe today for the first time—falls into one of these three categories. And as far as I can tell, will have one of these three responses. I don't know that there are any others.
If you listen to this message today and understand the resurrection of Jesus Christ for the first time, you're going to respond in one of these three ways.
Reaction to the Resurrection: Deny
Unfortunately, the first one is denial. Denial. See, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. They sneered, they jeered, they scoffed, they scorned, they laughed. You've got to be kidding. "You actually believe that a man was dead and buried in a tomb and literally came back to life again? Why, that's impossible. That's ridiculous. It's absurd. There's got to be some explanation for it, some reasonable and logical explanation for what appears to be a resurrection. I mean, there's no such thing as resurrection. Everybody knows that when you're dead, you're dead. That's the end of it. That's it. Kaput: you're gone."
Denial.
Of course, if you remember, that was the very first reaction to the resurrection. Denial.
You remember when the soldiers who had been stationed at the tomb reported to the chief priests that the tomb was empty and the body of Jesus was gone? They didn't believe it either. They didn't believe that He was truly alive. They denied it, just as these people did. And if you remember, they paid the soldiers to say that the disciples came at night while they were sleeping and stole the body. A strange, strange thing to do. I don't know how they could know that somebody stole the body if they were sleeping, much less know that it was the disciples who stole the body. But the point, I want you to note, is that they denied it. It was the first reaction to the resurrection: denial.
Other ridiculous attempts have been made by deniers through the centuries to explain the empty tomb. Some say the women went to the wrong tomb, for example. That's difficult to imagine. The story reveals that they watched Joseph of Arimathea actually lay the body of Jesus in the tomb the night before. They knew where that tomb was, exactly where it was. They didn't go to the wrong tomb. That's absurd.
Others say that Jesus wasn't really dead—He was just unconscious. And He revived in the cool of the tomb and somehow managed to unwrap Himself and roll that two-ton stone away and overcome that Roman guard and escape. It's amazing, isn't it? That's a greater miracle than a resurrection. I don't know why you'd ever want to explain it like that. I mean, incredible.
Still others say that it wasn't a literal bodily resurrection, it was a spiritual resurrection. I've even read this in commentaries by liberals who deny the supernatural yet claim to be Christians. I don't know how a spirit could eat as Jesus ate, or could have been touched as Thomas was invited to touch Him. No, that's not true. It was a literal bodily resurrection.
And then there are those post resurrection experiences that need to be explained, some 10 of them in all. There are 10 appearances of Jesus after the resurrection, on one occasion to 500 people at one time. Some have tried to explain it as being hallucinations. I find it difficult to imagine how 500 people could have the same hallucination at the same moment. That's ridiculous.
See, all explanations fall flat. And yet people go on denying, "Ah, it didn't happen. It's impossible." Well, you can do that if you want. I mean, that's your choice. You can deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ if you wish. But I have to say, as far as I'm concerned, you're on very thin ice.
I don't know whether the name of Dr. Simon Greenleaf means anything to you or not, but he was a great lawyer in the middle of the last century who was actually responsible for the rise of Harvard Law School to such a prestigious position among legal institutions, and whose writings are still considered to be authoritative on the subject of evidence. Dr. Greenleaf came to the conclusion, after studying the evidence that according to the laws of legal evidence used in court, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for almost any other event in history.
So you see, if you're not sure that Jesus really rose from the dead, maybe you've denied it, maybe you've laughed at it, or maybe you're just skeptical. I'd encourage you to study the evidence. Seems to me if you're an honest person, you'd be willing to do that, not just go on denying it without examining what the evidence says. And I'm of the opinion that if you're an honest person, you won't stay in the camp of the deniers or the mockers very long. Ithink you will acknowledge that He did indeed rise from the dead. Because to remain in the camp of the mockers very long, it seems to me, would make you look rather foolish in view of the evidence.
And as a matter of fact, the Bible does teach that unless you come to faith in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, you cannot be saved from eternal condemnation. Paul revealed that to the Romans when he wrote, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).
See, that's a condition for eternal salvation. So if you've never believed it before, you've been uncertain or skeptical about it up to this point, I would encourage you to consciously make a decision that you do believe it's true and put your confidence in this One, who died in your place and paid for your sin and rose again to prove it. Trust Him as your Savior. Become a believer rather than a denier.
Reaction to the Resurrection: Delay
Well, that was the first reaction that Paul got when he preached the resurrection. But there was a second, a second reaction as well. Others said there in the middle of verse 32, "We will hear you again on this matter." Delay.
The first reaction to the message of Jesus' resurrection was denial. The second was delay.
Maybe their thoughts went something like this. I don't know. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if there really were something beyond death, something magnificent to look forward to beyond the grave? Oh, that'd be great. No question about it. And wouldn't it be fantastic if there were somebody who actually died and came back to life again to prove that there's something beyond death? That would be a good thing. I'd really like to believe that. But not now. I'm kind of busy right now. I look into that sometime later. I'll examine that at a more convenient time. I'm kind of busy right now. Not today."
You know, even some of the professed followers of Christ reacted in much the same manner when they first heard the news that Jesus was alive. In Luke 24, remember? The women came to the disciples and reported that the tomb was empty and reported to them the message of the angels who had been sitting there beside the tomb. And you remember what Luke tells us the disciples' reaction was?
"And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them" (Luke 24:11).
Oh, they wanted to believe them, but for some reason they couldn't yet accept it. Delay.
And then there was Thomas.
"Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe" (John 20:25b).
Oh, they wanted to believe. You can be sure of it. They wanted to believe in the worst way. But they were afraid. "Not yet. No. I can't accept it yet."
I don't know why. Maybe they thought if they believed it, they'd make fools out of themselves. Or maybe they thought they'd get hurt again. They'd been hurt terribly. They put all their confidence in this one. And now he had been crucified. He was dead. And they were devastated, and they didn't want to be hurt again. I don't know why. "Mmaybe later. Not now. Don't try to tell me He's alive. I can't accept that right now. Some other time."
You know, I think this is probably where the great majority of modern Americans are. It isn't that they deny Christ's resurrection outright. It's just that they're probably not ready to make a decision on it quite yet. Some of them know that if Jesus did truly rise from the dead, then He is whom He claimed to be, the eternal Son of God, who came from heaven's glory to this earth to reconcile a sinful human race to a holy God. And if that's the case, then they're going to have to commit their lives to Him and yield themselves to Him and live for Him. And they're not quite ready to do that. They're too busy right now.
They're preoccupied with other things. There are just too many places they want to go and too many things they want to do and too many gadgets they want to buy and not yet. "Not right now. Maybe someday I'll look into this, but don't bug me with it right now."
There may even be some professing Christians who react like this. You see, they don't give a whole lot of attention to the resurrection. Oh, they profess to be Christians and they go to church, but they don't think a whole lot about this truth. Because if Jesus really did rise from the dead, then He is Lord of all. And if He's Lord of all and He demands my all, sometimes we're not ready to give Him our all. We've got some things we're holding back from Him. And we don't want to really do this right now. "So I don't want to think about it right now. Maybe someday I'll give some more thought to it, but right now, don't bother me with it, OK?"
Oh, how foolish that is!
Maybe you were here a little while ago when we studied in some detail the Doctrine of Rewards in the Scripture. We learned very clearly that the way we believers spend our time on this earth is going to determine the degree of our reward in heaven. That makes it very important. You see, there's no time to waste. The years are passing us by. Only God knows how much longer we have to earn those rewards. Some of us may see Him very soon, even before the day is out. It could happen.
See, this is the time. Today is the day to confront the implications of Christ's resurrection and respond appropriately with full and total surrender to His will. There's no time to waste. Don't put it off till tomorrow. We may not make it till tomorrow.
And if you have never trusted Jesus Christ as the One who died on Calvary's cross to pay for your sins, to bear the punishment you deserved, and who rose again from the grave to prove it, and to give you His life, if you've never received Him as your Savior from sin, oh, we'd encourage you to do that today. If you've never trusted Him as the One, the only One, capable of declaring you fit for heaven and giving you eternal life, trust Him.
Now.
Don't put that off.
The writer to the Hebrews asked, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3a).
You see, you don't need to openly deny it. All you need to do is delay one day too long. That's it. Just neglect it and put it off one day too long and eternity is lost. Don't delay. Don't put it off another day. Don't put off till tomorrow what needs to be done today. That's why the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, "Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2b).
Settle it today. Acknowledge your sin, your need of a Savior, and put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin. Believe that He died for you and rose again to give you new life, eternal life.
Reaction to the Resurrection: Delight
Thankfully, some of those in Athens did that. They believed. And their reaction was utter delight. Look at verse 34.
"However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them" (Acts 17:34).
You say, "OK, I see that they believe. Where's the delight?"
Well, I needed another D, all right?! [Audience laughs.] This is an alliterated outline this morning! But I have good reason for it. Now listen, don't you laugh at me. Now you listen!!
In Matthew 28, verse 8, it says when the women discovered the empty tomb on resurrection morning, "they were filled with great joy."
See, you can't really encounter and confront the truth of the resurrection and believe it and not have joy. All right? Now write down, "Delight." [Dr. Strauss laughs.] They had delight in their decision. They rejoiced in the truth of the resurrection.
Only two are mentioned by name. It was Dionysius the Areopagite. Think of it. One of the council that judged Paul on that day. And a woman, evidently a prominent woman in Athens, named Damaris. I don't know who she was, but she was obviously a prominent woman. And others with them. We don't know how many, but apparently it wasn't a very large number. At least we're not led to believe it was very large here. And in this context, we aren't told anything about a church being established in Athens.
Well, does that mean that Paul's ministry there was a failure? Not on your life. It would have been a success if only one person had believed. As a matter of fact, it would have been a success if nothing more than the seed had been planted in some human hearts. But there was more than that, much more. A group of people. How many? I don't know. But a number put their faith in Jesus Christ.
They believed the message of the resurrection as well as His death on Calvary's cross for their sins. And they receive new life, eternal life, through their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And by the way, church history tells us that there was a thriving church in Athens in generations to follow. I have no doubt in my mind that it was born this day. And these few people in verse 34 of Acts 17 were the heart and soul of that local church in Athens.
How can there be anything but sheer delight when we truly believe the reality of Christ's resurrection? I mean, because of his resurrection, we know for a certainty that He is who He claimed to be. We know He is God's Son.
Paul said, "He was declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). Because of His resurrection, we know that everything else He taught us is true. I mean, here's a Man who predicted His own death and resurrection, and it came to pass exactly as he predicted it. I would say that everything else He told us we can trust. He's an honest Man. He knows what He's talking about. We can believe Him.
Because of His resurrection, we too shall someday rise. The Bible teaches us that. Jesus Himself taught us because He lives, we shall live. Also because of His resurrection, we're going to live forever, eternally in the presence of God. Because of His resurrection, we have supernatural power to live the Christian life, to live a godly life. Because Christ is alive, He can come into our lives in the person of His Spirit and empower us and enable us to live a life that pleases God, all because of the resurrection.
Because of the resurrection, we can be assured that we have a mediator at the right hand of the Father this very moment interceding for us (Romans 8:34). I don't know how He can intercede for all of us at the same time, but He does. Think of it: He's praying for you at this very moment as a believer in Jesus Christ, all because of the resurrection.
But all this is for those who believe, truly believe, who believe that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead not only to prove it, but to give us forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Truly believe. And that means more than just accept the facts. That means more than going out this morning and saying, "Well, OK, I guess he rose from the dead. I believe it." That's not what we're talking about at all.
Faith in the Scripture is a committal committing oneself to this truth, to the One of whom the truth speaks. It's trusting Him and trusting Him alone for our eternal salvation. It's a decision that actually results in a changed life: new loves and new motives and new aims and desires. That's true faith. That's what these people did when they believed.
Have you made that decision? Will you react to the message of the resurrection as this third group did? Will you truly believe it?
Let's bow together prayerfully in God's presence, reverently before Him.
Trusting Jesus as Your Savior
Let's just close out the distractions that are around us right now and confront this all important issue. Have you made this decision? Have you consciously acknowledged your sin and the dreadfulness of it and the consequences of it, which are hell, eternity and hell. That's what the Scripture teaches.
Have you truly believed that Jesus paid for your sin at Calvary? He died for you on that cross and He rose from the dead to declare you righteous and give you eternal life. Have you put your faith and your trust in Him as your Savior from sin?
If you've never made that decision, I'd like to encourage you to do it right now. This is a matter of trust, you see. I'm not asking you to make any physical motion at all. That doesn't save you. It's trust, faith, true belief. And I would suggest you express it to God. Something like:
Lord, I'm a sinner. I understand the consequences of my sin, but I believe Jesus paid for them. He bore them at Calvary and paid the penalty that I deserved. And now, Lord Jesus, I'm trusting You as my own personal Savior from sin. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. Give me eternal life as You promised, and make me the person You want me to be.
Would you express your faith in the Lord Jesus? Something like that right now?
Closing Prayer
Father, I don't know the hearts of those gathered in this place today to worship. But You do. You see the things no one else can see. You know. You know that we are sinners. We fall short of your standard. You know who has trusted Christ for forgiveness of sin and eternal life and who has not.
Oh, God, I pray that you will bring great conviction to bear on those who have yet to make this decision. May they delay no longer, but here and now put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who died for them and rose again for their eternal salvation.
Thank You for keeping your promise and giving eternal life to those who have trusted You. And thank You for our living Savior, whom we joyfully love and serve. For it's in His name that we pray. Amen.