Doug Sutherland
"...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless", I Corinthians 15:17a.
The lynchpin of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. For two millennia the skeptic has tried to explain the event away and yet every explanation, other than that it happened, requires one to deny common sense and the evidence.
Peter, in his explaining the events of Pentecost, showed how what preceded them was the foretold resurrection of the Messiah in Psalm 16:8-11. Without Jesus' victory over death there could be no pouring forth of the Spirit, Acts 2:33.
The acceptance of the truth of His resurrection energized Jesus' followers to be willing to cheerfully go to their own death, as we will see as we continue in Acts, because they knew that they too would be resurrected when Jesus returned to earth in His 2nd advent.
What a blessed hope (Gk.elpis) to know that we also will participate in that final resurrection and receive an immortal body to replace the one that now houses our soul.