The Apostles Spread The Word
Appealing to the apostleship as proof for the Resurrection and ultimately Creation.
The One fact that would show Jesus is who He said He was and give ultimate reliability and credibility to the Christian religion is in the Resurrection. To give ample evidence that Jesus did raise from the dead would give absolution to all doubts. Here is one such piece of evidence; one in several.
The Apostles and their power of the biblical testimony is in their number, in their unity of agreement, and in their way of life. It is also proof that the Christian Bible (KJV, NRV, NIV) is the Holy Word of God. The Word of God does not come from some Christian on a street corner or from door-to-door solicitors. It comes from the word of the apostles.(John 17:20) This is our reason for believing in Him.
Luke and John were not apostles, but their accounts of what happened are accepted as historically accurate because they corroborate and correlate each other. There is archeological proof of the times, events, people, and places in documents written by those who were against the church, and by those who were indifferent, and by those who were for the church.
The Gospels of Luke and John written in the first century AD places them in circulation at a time when the events of the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension were still vivid in the minds of the people. The populace could have denied the written content of what was recorded, but they didn't. Instead they preserved these inspired writings that establishes the purpose set out for the apostles.
In their preaching following Pentecost, the Apostle's appealed to: 1. fulfilled prophecy; (Acts 2:22-32) David, said 'Messiah would rise from the dead.' We know that David was not referring to himself because he had his tomb made ready for his burial upon his death. He knew he was not the one who would rise. 2. the miracles; they pointed out that without the miracle the events following would not have occurred. In the same token, the miracles would not have taken place had the events up to the miracle not occurred. These two facts coupled with their ability to perform miracles gave power and belief to the Word they were preaching. and 3. they appealed to their own experience with Jesus' resurrection from the dead. They were spreading the Gospel and teaching what they had seen for three and a half years before and then another forty days after His death. In the face of persecution and under the threat of death, they did not falter (Acts 5).
It should be noted here that had the disciples been with Jesus before the Crucifixion, but not after His Resurrection, there message would not have had any power of truth behind it. Had they not been with Him before the Crucifixion, but only with Him after His Resurrection, they would not have been able to say it was the same Jesus after as before.
Peter convinced a gentile (Acts 10) by declaring his eye-witness experience. It was the apostolic witness that gave credibility to Jesus' Deity. They had the truth. They had the proof. They did not fear death knowing they were going to die anyway. They understood the meaning of the resurrection and knew they would get eternal life by believing in Jesus. This was their message: To proclaim eternal life through the proof of the resurrection.
How can we be sure that what took place nearly two thousand years ago was real? Where is the proof?
Luke writes, "...so that you might know..." and "with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 4:33).
Peter confirms Luke's observations and also identifies the witnesses to be the apostles who "were chosen before of God", and who "ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead". He is telling us that not all the people who knew Jesus and saw the miracles could witness for Him. Just those few men who could confirm the risen Christ was the same Christ they were with before the crucifixion could be witnesses. That is, the apostleship is with those twelve from Galilee in that their experience surrounding the resurrection involved more personal contact with Jesus both before and after the crucifixion than it did with anyone else.
They were with Him from the beginning of His ministry immediately following the baptism by John. They observed Christ while He spoke to the multitudes and through miracles healed the sick and brought back to life the dead. They were with Him for a period of three and a half years prior to the crucifixion. Then they all saw Jesus alive after the crucifixion (Acts 2:32; 3:15; 5:29-32; 10:39-41; 13:30-32; 1John 1:1-4). They were with Him for another forty days. They had the opportunity to observe Him closely, and to examine the scars of His crucifixion. They were able to satisfy themselves that this was the same Jesus of Nazareth they had ate, drank, and walked with for over three years prior to His Crucifixion.
What better proof that Jesus is who He said He was.
Paul appeals to the eye-witness accounts of the twelve apostles as a proof to Jesus' Deity (Acts 13). Paul never claims to be an eye-witness of the Resurrection. He speaks about it from his experience in Damascas. We all know who Paul is and was.
It was the sole purpose of the apostles to confirm the deity of Christ to the world. They were to lead others to salvation by way of their own experience.
This is why I strongly advocate that we cannot offer our changed life as proof of His deity. We may be able to say events that were devastating eventually led us to our Lord and changed our lives completely, but we cannot use these examples from our own experience to convince anyone that Jesus is who He said He was.
Only His Resurrection can prove His deity and that testimony was confined to the apostles (John 15:27).
Merely saying Jesus was the Son of God had back then, as it does now, no conviction. Their testimony had to have the power of proof (Matthew 18:16) to be convincing.
John relates how Thomas was stubborn. Even after the others had told him of Jesus' return, he insisted he would only believe if he could place his fingers in the nail holes and put his hand in Jesus' side (John 20:25). John continues to tell us how Thomas did exactly that and then confessed that Jesus was both his Lord and his God (John 20:27-28). For a Jew to utter such a statement was considered blasphemy and meant death. It had to be true. Jesus answered "Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (v. 29)(KJV). It is this testimony that gives us belief in Jesus whom we have not seen. A belief based on reliable testimony. Testimony that from the beginning had to have enough proof to produce belief.
This testimonial as recorded in Acts was sufficient to convince hundreds of thousands who had never seen the Lord. The Christians of 50 AD that Peter spoke to and Tacitus spoke of saw and believed. This was how Peter, with great conviction, could encourage persecuted Christians to endure the tortures that would test their faith in Christ.(1Peter 1:6-8). The Christians of 112 AD whom Secundus spoke of did not see and still believed. So great was the power of the apostolic word and so great was their love for Jesus that all who heard them speak believed.
Their faith was founded on the testimony of the apostles whose honesty and integrity as far as they were concerned was irrefutable (2Peter 1:16). A declaration for Christ so "great" that they believed on Him and loved Him though they had never seen Him!
Look beyond the authors written words in the New Testament and travel back into the history of the country. We see many cultures in disarray because of Roman occupation. We read of a Caesar who firmly declares that he is divine and demands his subjects bow before him and call him Lord. Everyone was loyal to Rome, including the Christians. The Christians, however, would not bow down to Caesar and call him Lord. This is where the persecutions began.
What was it these apostles had that would establish a belief that would endure past their deaths and continue to make hundreds of thousands of people believers?
1. there were twelve of them. Twelve men who under the threat of death would not say they didn't see what they did see. One reliable person is usually sufficient as a character witness. Here we have twelve witnesses whose creditability is confirmed by their number. And since the importance of having a number of eye witnesses, as we all know, is in the repetition of the account, we have the best and the most reliable evidence that Jesus raised Himself from the dead.
2. their unity; they were in total agreement. Unity of agreement among the total number of witnesses lends great credence to a claim. The apostles, in spite of opposition; in spite of imprisonment; in spite of persecution, remained faithful and continued without straying from their purpose. And since their conclusions were unanimous that this resurrected Jesus was the same Jesus who was crucified, we, again, have the best and the most reliable evidence that Jesus raised Himself from the dead.
3. It was in the way they lived their lives in the face of severe hardship and persecution. They maintained high moral standards. They remained steadfast in what they were preaching. They knew they had the truth and the proof to sustain it. They understood that the implications of the resurrection meant redemption for those who believed. They were not afraid of death. Eternal life was made known to them. They bear witness for His deity through His resurrection from the dead. Again, we have the best and the most reliable evidence that Jesus raised Himself from the dead.
Let us use some deductive reasoning. We all know it is against human nature to live a life, such as the apostles lived, maintained on a lie. Inasmuch as one will not die for a lie, we have the best and the most reliable evidence that Jesus raised Himself from the dead. This is the real force of Luke's statement that "with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection" (Acts 4:33).
Let us go further. The fact that there were twelve of them and all were in agreement is significant. If twelve witnesses would not be received as confirmation, would twelve hundred do any more? That they lived under cruel and grueling hardship due to their testimony is also significant. Would they live this way, had they any ulterior motives? They didn't do it for the money or for a better reputation. They faced persecution, imprisonment, martyrdom, discrimination; they were laughed at and ridiculed.(Fox's Book of Martyrs, edited by William Byron Forbush,Dd) They maintained that they had seen Him alive!
What the apostles testified actually happened. Jesus was raised from the dead. They saw Him. Their motives are not challenged. No other possible alternatives can be offered. They were not living a lie. They spoke of what they knew. They were the witnesses of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Always keep this fact in mind: If these twelve men had not been with Him before the crucifixion, their being with Him afterwards would not have held as strong an argument. If they had been with Him before, but not with Him afterwards, they would not have had any testimony that he was raised. They had to be with Him before; they had to see Him dead; they had to be with Him afterwards in order to prove that the One they were with was resurrected after He died.
Luke wrote (Acts 4:33) that the convincing power of the apostolic witness was so great that it resulted in the origination of great faith among all those who heard.
The statements written within the pages of the Holy Bible are factual and should not be dismissed as fabrications just because the message they send and the moral conduct the apostle's preach cannot be made to fit in with current trends.
The Christian faith is solidly grounded in truth and reliable history.
No amount of rewording or changing the meaning of the words as written in the scriptures can take away from the life experience and eye-witness account of the apostles.
Is this proof for the Resurrection? Is this proof then that Jesus is the Son of God? Knowing that Jesus is the Son of God, do we not now have the reliability and accuracy of the Holy Bible? Is both the OT and the NT equally reliable? Yes, Jesus endorsed the OT and referred back to it many times. Now, Jesus is who He said He was. For Him to be the Son of God, there has to be a God. Therefore when the Scriptures talk of Creation, we can believe literally that our earth and all its inhabitants were created by God.
This page is lovingly dedicated to my LORD.
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