RESURRECTION PROCLAIMED – Acts 2:14-36 – 4-20-25

Of all the significant moments in redemption history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ may well be the event with the greatest disparity between its central importance to the Christian faith and its appreciation in modern times.  What we tend to take for granted, our forebears recognized as the birthday of the Christian church. The resurrection before-and-after pictures are among the most dramatic in all of scripture.  When the day of Pentecost arrives and with it, the baptism of the Holy Spirit empowering the first Christian missionaries, Peter announces the resurrection of Jesus to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem proclaiming: “This Jesus God raised up and of that WE ALL ARE WITNESSES.” (Acts 2:32).   When Jesus rose from the dead, so did gospel clarity, confidence, and power in the confession, conviction, & ministry of the early disciples of Jesus. To this day, over two millennia later, we gather every every week on the first day to worship our Savior who left behind an empty tomb on the very first Lord’s Day over two thousand years ago.  Peter’s message upon Pentecost is a case in point illustrating the profound effect this miracle had on him even as he proclaims its implications for the history of all mankind in his first great sermon.