The Evidence

Read Acts 13-15
 
Acts 13:29-31 “When they had done all that the prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead! 31 And over a period of many days he appeared to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel.”
 
DO you want evidence Jesus of Nazareth lived, was crucified, dead and buried? Do you need to know he rose again? Then read these Scriptures and believe it.
   Think about this. Paul, the preacher, and Barnabas, his helper, lived the same time as Jesus. They were about his age. Paul, as a Pharisee, would have talked with other Pharisees about Jesus. Barnabas, too, would have heard of Jesus’ miracles and the account of his resurrection. They knew from personal experience about Jesus’ life and death.
   Then Paul personally met the Living Lord. The “resurrection rumors” became resurrection truth for Paul just as it was for the other apostles. Paul’s and the apostles’ fervent preaching of Jesus crucified and resurrected was spoken in the power of absolute knowledge in their mind, heart and soul. Jesus is risen from the dead!
   As Acts records the unstoppable passion of these first preachers, it also tells of vicious assaults against the preaching. Evil minds cannot tolerate the truth. It happened then and happens now. There is no such thing as saying, “This is the worst it has ever been!” because gospel preaching has always encountered lies, rumors, jealousy, evil, brutality and death.
   A gospel preacher has said, “If the church is not at war, it is not the church.” Speaking the truth, we are at war with evil. That’s what Jesus did. That’s what the apostles did. They became martyrs of the war. And that has been the church’s story through the ages.
          Did you know you are called to be a martyr? When we see or hear “martyr” we think of someone who has been persecuted and/or has died for Jesus. But the word actually means “witness”. In that sense we are all martyrs for Jesus if we witness his gospel to the world! This is a holy calling from your holy God. How will you answer? Are you willing to be at war with evil to proclaim Jesus’ victory?