Resurrection is Good News

Reading through early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, I havebeen struck that the apostles tended to preach the “resurrection of Jesus” rather than his crucifixion. Their good news was that Jesus had been raised.

God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him (Acts 2:24).

God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it (Acts 2:38).

God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this (Acts 3:15).

Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead (Acts 4:10).

God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Saviour to give… forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:35).

This emphasis is quite different from modern evangelistic preaching, which tends to focus on the cross.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this difference.

• His resurrection confirmed that Jesus really is the Messiah/Christ. He is the only genuine deliverer.

• The resurrection confirmed the defeat of the spiritual powers of evil. When they organised the death of Jesus on the cross, they assumed that they had foiled God’s plans by destroying his son. The resurrection totally surprised them. When Jesus came back to life, their evil plans were defeated. Their power over humans was totally destroyed.

• Paul explained in his letter to the Romans that Jesus,

  “raised to life for our justification/being put right” (Rom 4:25).

  The cross and the resurrection achieve our salvation and restoration. The cross alone was not sufficient.

The resurrection of Jesus was the heart of the good news for the first gospel preachers.

I wonder if there is more emphasis on the cross and less on the resurrection, because modern evangelists are less confident in the truth of the resurrection?