Paul’s arrest, imprisonment and trials (which take up a large part of the latter stages of Acts) arise primarily because of the fact that he consistently preached about the resurrection of Jesus and how in Jesus all the prophecies of the Old Testament about God’s Messiah were fulfilled. In Acts 24:21 Paul said, ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’ Festus told King Herod Agrippa II that the disputes were ‘about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.’ (Acts 25:19) The one consistent thread to all of this is the fact that Jesus was dead and is now alive!
The death and resurrection of Jesus remain at the heart of the Christian faith (see 1 Corinthians 2:2, 1 Corinthians 15). This is why Easter is such an important time for Christians, because it is the time we remember Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross and that God’s acceptance of this sacrifice is seen through the resurrection. Death and sin could not keep a hold on the sinless Son of God; He was raised to life for our justification. (Rom 4:25)
We can understand why Festus seems rather perplexed about all this. After all, it makes no logical sense to say that a dead man named Jesus is now alive. Dead men don’t rise. They don’t come back to life. The one thing we learn from an early age is that death is the end.
Except in God’s kingdom, it isn’t. And that is the utterly revolutionary truth we need to proclaim. We serve a risen Saviour! Jesus said, ‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.’ (Rev 1:18) As we approach Easter once again, let’s be as convinced as Paul was that the dead man named Jesus is now alive, and let’s live in ways that reflect the hope and joy that this brings.
