Resurrection of Jesus Christ disturbs today’s culture.

Acts 4:1-12

• Resurrection from the dead is opposition to today’s culture.
• Governing authorities are gathered against the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the “Chief Cornerstone”.

Resurrection from the dead is opposition to today’s culture.
“Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” Acts 4:1-2

“They” refers to Peter and John who spoke to the people about the resurrection of Jesus Christ after He was crucified on the Cross to atone for sin. The leaders over the Jewish people were very unsettled that Peter and John were preaching about the resurrection from the dead in the name of Jesus Christ. That’s because the Jewish leaders taught that only God has power to resurrect the dead and to teach about the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to say that He was indeed sent from God as the Christ and Savior of the world. They considered that teaching to be blasphemy, with punishment up to death.

In today’s culture, the “priests”, “captain of the temple”, and “Sadducees” are those who oppose the teaching of the resurrection from the dead through faith in Jesus Christ. The “priests” are those who disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness but avoid teaching and preaching about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They preach and teach according to the will of the “captain of the temple”. The “captain of the temple” is the one who sits in the temple of God, our body, as if it is God, to give people what to speak, do, think, and feel. This is the one “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4 The “he” in this verse is the “man of sin”. Click here for a post on the “man of sin”. The “Sadducees” include everyone who rejects belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is core to our Salvation, our born-again experience, belief in our resurrection from the dead into eternal life, belief in Heaven and Hell, and belief in the judgment to come beyond the grave. As quoted, “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen…And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” 1 Corinthians 15:12-13, 17-19

When we live for the reward of immortality of eternal life, then we go against the mortal fleshy benefits that are given through the entity that has power over physiology. Jesus Christ is more important to us than uncanny knowledge, extraordinary skills and talents, heightened intuition, amazing physical abilities and feats, physical/sensual comforts, amazing emotional responses, uncanny authority over others, etc. This includes being governed through what we are given to speak, do, think, and feel.

“And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.” Acts 4:3-4

The Jewish leaders placed Peter and John under arrest until the next day, which would have been overnight since it was already evening.

Today’s atheistic culture puts the Gospel of Jesus Christ in custody to imprison the spread of the testimony of Jesus and to prohibit the Good News of His resurrection and eternal life. Ina spiritual sense, Christianity will be held in custody until the “next day” and that “next day” is the return of our resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are already living in the evening hours. This present global government and its global culture will govern on this earth until the Fifth Plague of Revelations 16:10-11, when the power center of the beast is plunged into darkness. The Battle of Armageddon comes after that in the Sixth Plague of Revelations 16:12-16. Jesus returns when the Seventh Trumpet sounds in Revelations 11:15-19 and during the Seventh Plague of Revelations 16:17-21.

Global warming is instrumental in bringing the destruction of the power center of the beast and is the Fourth Plague of Revelations 16:8-9. The more powerful the United Nations become as the one world government the hotter and more intense the effect of global warming becomes.

The preaching and teaching of Peter and John, before they were taken into custody, had already began to be fruitful. Many believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in His resurrection from the dead and said “Yes” to Him as their Lord and Savior. Today, from the time our Lord Jesus walked on this earth, multitudes upon multitudes have come to believe God through Jesus Christ. The “cat is out of the bag” so to speak and cannot be put back in. The Good News has permeated the world, regardless of us followers of Jesus Christ being put in custody to prevent the sharing of His testimony.

Governing authorities are gathered against the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the “Chief Cornerstone”.
“And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.” Acts 4:5-6

Peter and John were imprisoned overnight by the Jewish leaders for saying Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead by the power of God, as described in the previous section. In the morning, all of the Jewish leaders, and the family of the high priest, gathered at Jerusalem. Today, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are “imprisoned” to keep the Gospel of Jesus from spreading through the community. All of the governing authorities are gathered against Christianity from a local, state, national, and global level. That’s because they serve the entity that governs through their thoughts, words, actions, and feelings and have no room in their heart for faith in Jesus Christ.

 “And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” Acts 4:7

People who govern by power and might always see themselves as being the authority that all others must follow. The leaders of the Jewish people were exactly that way as they saw their authority as being above even the laws of Judaism that they said they represented. They made their authority more important than the word of God, and above the authority of Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 23 is a whole chapter describing their corruption.

The Jewish leaders questioned Jesus directly about His authority, as quoted, “Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Matthew 21:23-27

Those who live and govern for today’s culture recognizes no other authority except the beast that gives them what to speak, do, think, and feel. When we speak of the testimony of Jesus Christ, they are quick to let us know that we have no authority to speak to them of their need to believe in God, to accept the forgiveness of Jesus Christ for unbelief, or to embrace the presence of the Holy Spirit. They are quick to say, “I know”, “I see”, or in any other ways boast, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” Revelations 13:4

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.” Acts 4:8-10

Peter healed a crippled man and enabled him to walk into the temple, for all to see, as described in the posts on Acts 3:1-12. Peter, speaking from the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, asked the Jewish leaders if he and John were being judged for doing that good deed for the helpless man. More than that, the Jewish leaders wanted to know by what authority or by what means Peter and John did that good deed. As followers of Jesus Christ, we spread the Good News for one purpose only, to enable people to walk in the Spirit and to leave the lifestyles rooted in gratifying the flesh and for materialistic gain. Are we being judged and “imprisoned” by today’s culture for doing that good deed in the name of Jesus? Yes, we are! They expect all people to be converted and to walk by beastly entity that gives people what to speak, do, think, and feel.

When the Jewish leaders wanted to know by what power and whose name Peter and John enabled the cripple man to walk, Peter plainly said that the healing was done in the name of Jesus Christ, whom they crucified but God raised from the dead. As followers of Jesus Christ, that is our testimony, that in the name of Jesus we have been born-again, made whole by the Spirit and now walk with God by our faith in Jesus. Our born-again experience is the Gospel of Jesus written on our heart. The same One who made us whole is He whom today’s culture, which is global, puts to death. Even so, God has raised Him from the dead and will resurrect us from the dead into eternal life as well.

 “This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’” Acts 4:11

Referring to the Jewish people, Jesus Christ is the Chief Cornerstone of the Old Testament Scriptures, whom they rejected. The Scriptures prophesied about the coming of Jesus and His coming is the fulfillment of those prophesies. Without the Chief Cornerstone, trying to make sense of the Old Testament is like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle with a piece missing. Better yet, it is like trying to build a Jewish culture on the promise of the coming of their Messiah, without Jesus Christ, which is futile. That house will never be built without Jesus Christ; He is their Messiah whom they rejected.

Nowadays, many do not have a clue what a chief cornerstone is when building a building, the same as not having a clue what it means for Jesus Christ to be the Chief Cornerstone of our soul. A chief cornerstone is the one building block on a corner of a building that all other blocks are aligned to. In that way, all the walls are in perfect alignment. In the same way, Jesus Christ puts our soul in perfect alignment with the will of God through the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, the temple of God [our body] becomes skewed with fleshly and materialistic pursuits and we begin to crumble spiritually. Without Christ, people become misaligned by following the entity that replaces the spirit and opposes the Holy Spirit to give people what to speak, do, think, and feel.

The global government is trying to build a global culture without the Chief Cornerstone of Jesus Christ. This is like building the Tower of Babel, as described in the post on Genesis 11:1-9.

Below is an image of a chief cornerstone. The blocks to the left and right align with that cornerstone and so does the block on top. In that way, all the walls are built together in alignment.

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

If the Jewish people could accept Jesus Christ as being the chief cornerstone of their Old Testament Scriptures, then they would be able to accept Him as the Christ and their lord and Savior. For us who are born-again in the name of Jesus and living in the presence of the Holy Spirit, we know Him as the source of Salvation. The laws of Judaism are definitely not the source of Salvation nor the giver of the Holy Spirit!

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11