The Power of Resurrection

Philippians 3:1-11

 

            There are numerous events that have shaped society and the world we live in.  Wars have been fought and won throughout all of human history.  Nations have risen and then fallen; the impact and culture of some lasting long beyond their own existence.  But of the thousands of events that have impacted the race of man one stands out above all others.  Whether you are the most devout atheist, or have walked with God for your entire life, there is one man, and one event in His life that has somehow affected you.  The laws of our society, and the ways that we relate to one another, our sense of morality and human decency are based on His teachings and life.  Every person who lives in this country today has in some way been affected by Jesus Christ.  But it is more than His teachings that have affected those who know Him today.  For His followers, the focal point of His life and ministry, the culmination of His work took place on top of a hill called “Golgotha” as He was crucified on a Roman cross between two criminals.  The sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the events surrounding that crucifixion have the power to give us more than a civil society and a good sense of law.  Those events – even 2,000 years later – can be life changing for you and I as they were for the Apostle Paul.

            Look at the life Paul had lived.  He did not need the work of Christ at Calvary that day to live a comfortable life of ease in this world.  He was a devout Jew.  He had followed the law for his entire life and zealously defended the Jewish religion and law – persecuting the church as every good Jew would have.  Paul was well respected and had the potential to live a life of relative ease.  But when confronted with a choice between these things and the life that God called him to live through Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul not only gave these things up willingly, but COUNTED THEM LOSS.  His lineage, education, social status and every worldly achievement were put off by this great man of God because even the greatest things the world has to offer pale in comparison to the power of God working in the human life through Jesus Christ.  In fact, Paul believed that these things would KEEP HIM FROM GOD if he had not been willing to put them off and seek a greater power than he could have gained through the political religious system of the Jews.

            That may sound extreme to us, but that’s because so few of us really understand what Paul was suggesting here.  He was not teaching a half-hearted Christianity.  Paul was promoting and instructing the Philippian Christians to live a life that required them to sell themselves out to God.  He was not interested in getting them free admission to heaven through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.  The Apostle Paul wanted them to live in the SAME POWER that resurrected Christ on this earth! 

            It was not simply the death of Jesus that makes a difference in our lives, it is the fact that He overcame that death, and stepped out of the grave victorious over the very things that man had tried in vain to overcome for all of his history: sin and death.  Paul had so much faith in this power of resurrection that He told us in verse 11 he wanted to take part in it “BY ANY MEANS.”  Can you imagine such a thing?  Something so powerful that one of the most prominent, powerful men in that society would stop at nothing to experience it.  This is what the cross was all about.  It’s what the entire life of Christ was about – the power of God BRINGING NEW LIFE! 

Consider the profound affects the power of resurrection had on Paul’s life, and can have in our lives today:

 

Resurrection Overcomes the Deficiency of Human Achievement

 

            In ancient times, Israel built some of the greatest structures that man has ever seen.  They built a tabernacle in the wilderness with the wealth that they brought with them out of Egypt.  This was no simple tent, it was the greatest temporary structure the world has ever seen.  The contents were lined with gold, and the structure itself was made with the most desirable material of its time.  It was impressive to say the least, especially for a structure built by a band of nomads. 

            After having settled the land God gave them in Canaan they built the temple in Jerusalem.  They took that tabernacle that had been built in the wilderness and escalated the craftsmanship infinitely.  Everything about it was made to honor a God that transcends all that man has to offer. 

            As impressive as the accomplishments of Israel were, they were nothing without the presence of God.  The greatest thing about these achievements was not the craftsmanship or the architecture.  It was the presence that inhabited these buildings.  It was the fire that filled the Holy of Holies and the voice of God that thundered from that place.  Without that presence those things were simply buildings.  They had earthly value, but where are those structures today?  The tabernacle faded into obscurity thousands of years ago, and even the temple in Jerusalem is nothing more than ruins on top of the temple mount today. 

            There is really nothing that man can achieve that will outlast God’s work.  That’s why the book of Ecclesiastes says, There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after (1:11).  And, For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten (2:16).  Even the most impressive works of man are temporary.  The pyramids in Egypt have stood for thousands of years, but, given enough time, the elements and weather will even wear them away.  Those buildings of the Old Testament have faded into obscurity, but God’s work still goes on in the world today.  It goes on through His people as His power works in their lives to influence the world. 

            From the time of His crucifixion and resurrection there has never been a time when Jesus Christ – and His followers - did not influence the world in some way.  The power that resurrected Him from the dead has worked in the hearts of man and been passed from one generation to the next.  People have experienced His love through those who know Him and walk with Him and it has transformed lives.  It has provided the only lasting legacy that we can ever leave in this world.  Our education and knowledge will someday pass away.  Our wealth and property and the small kingdoms we try to build ourselves on this earth will someday pass away into the forgotten annals of history, but the love of Jesus Christ, and the power of His resurrection will continue to work.  It will work through our lives – if we will submit to the power of God – and influence countless lives through the years to come.  At the end of human history we will see the results that the same power that resurrected Christ has had in our lives to shine the light of God into a darkened world. 

There is no human achievement that will outlast the resurrecting power of God.  There is no life that is too dismal, no sin too great, and no person too far from God to experience this power if they will surrender to God’s Spirit.  But the work of God does not stop at our achievements or with the legacy we will leave.

 

Resurrection Overcomes the Futility of Trying to Earn Righteousness

 

            Everyone seems to have some sense of morality or ethics.  We all feel some accountability to God somehow.  That’s why we feel guilty about some of the things we do and the ways that we have lived.  We can spend a lifetime trying to overcome that guilt and shame, but no matter how good we are, or how much we help others it just never seems to go away.  It seems like there is nothing we can do about it.  We are doomed to struggle through a life of disappointment because we just cannot get away from sin.  But the power of resurrection will deliver us from this guilt that nothing else will take away.  It will take us from that life of wandering through a spiritual wilderness looking for direction to an adventure where God’s Spirit guides us through everything that we will face and leads us away from the snares and traps that the devil has laid before us.

            We so often wander with one another and use those around us to help us feel better about our failure to live a righteous life.  As long as the people around us are worse (or what we perceive as worse) than we are everything will be alright.  We measure ourselves against one another and figure that God has bigger problems to deal with than me, so I don’t have anything to fear.  This is why it offends us when someone close to us starts to get committed to God.  Someone who is a nominal “Christian” gets upset when their children or their spouse gets committed to God because it threatens our subjective sense of ethics and morality.  When someone around us lives a better life then God has one less problem to worry about and we move up on His list.  It’s scary.

            In reality, we are only deceiving ourselves with all this.  We can never live a righteous life under our own power.  We can’t earn favor with God because we can’t make up for the things we have done.  All we can do is hope to be obedient.  But Jesus overcame all of this through His resurrection.  He rose, not to take on our burden of sin like He had done at Calvary, but to live a new life, free from the penalty that we had laid on Him.  Jesus did not only die for sin, but He OVERCAME IT and delivered us from the world of sin to a RESURRECTED LIFE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS!  The kind of life that places us securely in the presence of God as we journey through this life.  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4). 

 

Resurrection Give Us Confidence In the Victory of Jesus

 

            For too long we have promoted the mistaken idea that Jesus died to take away our guilt from sin.  This is true, but it is only part of the story.  We look at Jesus as having simply appeased God, but not really having won a significant victory.  We give the impression that people can live however they would like to live as long as they acknowledge what Jesus did for them. 

            Jesus did not come to deliver “cheap grace” to man.  On the day that He walked out of the tomb outside of Jerusalem sin was defeated.  He had taken on our iniquity and our lawless works, He had received the sentence and penalty that had been reserved for us, and Jesus Christ walked out of the tomb victorious.  Sin no longer had dominion because its power had been overcome.  Jesus died so those sins would be forgiven, and those who were forgiven then became suitable dwelling places for God’s Holy Spirit.  For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s [Jesus] obedience the many will be made righteous (Rom. 5:4).

            Jesus became our “Sacrificial Lamb” at Calvary, but three days later He did something that man had been unable to do since he was cast out of the garden of God in Eden.  Jesus Christ overcame the one thing man seems to fear most – the penalty of sin – death.  That’s why people have such a hard time with the work of Christ.  That’s why we deny His sacrifice on the cross and even His resurrection.  It offends our sense of pride and our self-image.  It brings us face to face with the reality that we stand before God as those who need mercy because there is NOTHING WE CAN DO to overcome sin.  We cannot save our lives.

            BUT JESUS CAN!  The lives that we had lived were not fitting for the presence of God.  We could not walk with Him, we could not experience His presence.  All we could do was try to fill the void with things of the world.  But Jesus was resurrected to lead us into a greater life; something greater than even the most successful have been able to create for themselves.  Jesus raised us to a new life, something different, something free from sin and shame.  He brought us from the spiritual death of separation from God to an experience of His presence and a relationship with Him.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for righteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and you members to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:13).

            When the resurrection power of Jesus Christ becomes a part of our lives, we can say with the Apostle Paul that all those things we trusted in before are “counted loss.”  We can leave behind all the things that have distracted us and consumed so much of our existence.  We can turn our attention to God and the relationship that He wants to have with us.  We are confronted with the idea that God wants to walk with us, to lead us, to guide us, and to care for us.  God wants to create a life for us the likes of which we could have never imagined.  God wants to resurrect our wandering souls to the most vital, fulfilling relationship we have ever known; a relationship that begins here and culminates in eternal life.

            But it took a cross to bring the power of resurrection.  Jesus took on our sin, and died to that sin so that He could be resurrected to a new life.  Not a life that was destined to die for sin, but a life of victory over it.  That’s the life He has called us to today; a life that overcomes all the trials, and the hardships, the difficulties and the obstacles of this world.  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from is (Rom. 6:6, 7).

            We stand in need today of more than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at Calvary – though we cannot get by without it.  He was put to death by the sins and guilt that have brought spiritual death upon us.  We need His blood to atone for the sins we have committed, but we need more than that.  We need the power of God that brought resurrection; the power that kept Him from being contained by the grave; the power that could not be held captive by death; the power that is not subject or prisoner to sin; the power of God that raises us above the sins of the world and the guilt and the shame and the lonely life apart from God.  What we celebrate today is the power that resurrects us to new life!

            We celebrate it and talk about it, but have we really experienced the power of resurrection?