Do you know why people hate you? Paul knew why people hated him. At least half of the leading rabbis of his day—the Sadducees, who were half of the Sanhedrin—hated him because of his message, a message about the Resurrection of the Dead.
When the Sadducees heard Paul speak about the Resurrection, it bothered them. The Sadducees were the "liberals" of Paul's day, rivals of the "conservative" Pharisees and they did not believe in supernatural phenomena. Much like the atheists today who support the lie of evolution and the Big Bang theory, the Sadducees refuted miracles, denied the existence of angels, and taught that there was no Resurrection.
[Paul]… shouted out in the Sanhedrin… ‘I am being judged concerning the Hope and the Resurrection of the Dead!’ (Acts 23:6; LEB)
Let’s zoom in now and focus on Paul’s use of the words the Hope. Some translations render the verse as the hope of the Resurrection of the Dead, but the original Greek has a conjunction—the word and. We cannot leave the and out. With it, we get the most accurate translation, which says ‘the Hope and the Resurrection of the Dead.’ So, what Paul is saying is that we have to believe in two different Truths--two different phenomena: the Hope and the Resurrection.
The Hope to which Paul refers is the Kingdom of God. The Resurrection of the Dead will take place immediately before the Kingdom starts. If we will someday enter the Kingdom, we need to be resurrected first, so these two go hand-in-hand. The Resurrection is the doorway to the Kingdom—the path to the Kingdom.
To distinguish between the Hope and the Resurrection, think of the difference between your commute to work and the office where you work. The Resurrection is the commute. The Kingdom is the office.
Or, think of what you must do to take an island vacation. You start your vacation when your flight lands, not before it. Your time at the airport and on the plane does not count as the vacation itself. Likewise, the Resurrection is not the final goal for a Christian--it’s the means to an end. We must complete the Resurrection in order to enter the Kingdom. Only then will the Hope fulfilled.
The big question is why was Paul judged for these two realities? Why was he on trial for the Hope and the Resurrection? He was judged for the same reason that people who hold to the philosophy of naturalism (that nothing exists outside of the natural world) judge Christians today. These people, who profess to follow “science” do not believe in the coming World. They only believe in this World. They deny the existence of the Kingdom of God. They jeer at it.
These same people, rejecting the Resurrection, reject us. We are the object of their scorn and derision. They wish to silence us. With frequency they attack our message, often by denying us the right to free speech.
Two verses later, in Acts 23:8, it says ‘The Sadducees say that there is no Resurrection.’ Being teachers of the Bible, you would expect rabbis to teach the Resurrection, but the benefits religious leadership afforded them in this World were so great that they could afford to ignore the parts of the Bible that spoke of the Resurrection.
How many Christian pastors today likewise avoid the parts of the Bible that speak of the Resurrection and the Kingdom? The answer: As many as live for the World and love their salaries more than love the sheep. In other words, those who can afford it will oppose the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead, just like the Sadducees of Paul's day.
In most cases, the salary these pastors get from their congregation suffices as a bribe for them not to talk about the Hope or the Resurrection. Observe how their own congregations keep these men silent! They pay their preachers not to talk about these things: the Hope and the Resurrection of the Dead. Their salaries keep them quiet.
People will continue to lift up this kind of men in Christian congregations. Afterall, nobody wants to have to live according to the Hope these days. It demands too much commitment. It reveals too much of God's grace. If today's churchgoers have to put their hope in the Kingdom, they'll have to stop focusing so much on money. Sermons about prosperity and financial gain will cease. Then, what will their greedy pastors do?
The love of the World is what leads most to turn away from the Hope. But, then there's also the fear factor. People don't want to be hated by their friends and family. They don't want other "Christians" to reject them. They don't want to be 'judged concerning the Hope and the Resurrection of the Dead.' That's the big takeaway from this passage. That's why Paul cried out:
‘I am being judged concerning the Hope and the Resurrection of the Dead!’ (Acts 23:6; LEB)
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."Jonh15:18-19😇
Great one