Resurrection

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

RESURRECTION

Acts 24:17-21

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.'"

NIV

Page two, the rest of the story. This is the rest of the defense of Paul as he stands before Governor Felix. Paul makes it clear the whole reason the Jews are trying to bring charges against him is that he spoke boldly about the resurrection of the dead. We are not sure why the Pharisees would be upset about the resurrection for it is part of their beliefs, however, we do understand why the Sadducees would be all stirred up. Nevertheless, the whole of the Sanhedrin did not like the fact that this whole idea of Jesus being the Messiah and that Jesus has the power to bestow eternal life and in fact, was resurrected from the dead. Could not any of them be present or close enough to see Jesus ascend into the heavens? We who live today within the community of faith believe in the resurrection, although we do not speak that much about it. Even when we attend the viewing of a beloved parent, we hear words such as, “She or he is now in heaven with their spouse” or “Well, she or he, is finally in the arms of Jesus”. What we seldom hear is about someday they will be resurrected. We think there is somewhat of a difficulty in believing that person’s body will rot in the grave until Jesus brings life back into those bones and resurrects them from the grave. Of course, Paul did say that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The life within this body of ours is not about the blood that courses through our veins or that beating heart within. The life we have is in our breath for God formed us out of the clay, or mud, with his own hands, at least that is how we see it, and then he knelt down and breathed his very breath into us and we became a living being. Once our breath has left this body, we have left it behind and are whisked away into the presence of Jesus, but that is not a resurrection of the dead. What might make it difficult to talk about the resurrection is that there has been believer throughout time that has been burned or tortured by dismemberment, and even today some believers are cremated. How could God put life back into a cremated or dismembered body? We always have to be cognizant of the fact that he is God, and it was God who formed us and breathed life into us. This resurrection is absolutely impossible with man, but nothing is impossible with God. That would even include restoring all the ashes thrown or scattered to the winds, or over the water, and bringing them all back into their former form so as to bring life back to them, and resurrect that person’s physical form, however in a glorified state. God can do anything, and we simply must believe his word, all of his word, not just the words we agree with, but all the word of God, which includes the resurrection of the dead. We will have a life, a different life, an eternal life, in a newly resurrected gloried body.