The Power Of The Resurrection Series

John Scott Harrison was the only man in the history of our nation

who was the son of one president and the father of another. A man

of such distinction you would think would be treated with great

respect in his death, but the fact was, nobody was safe in 1878 when

he died. Body snatching was at a peak. The demand for bodies in

medical schools was so great that men became experts in grave

robbing. John and Ben were his two sons, and they were

determined that their father's body would be secure.

They had his grave sealed with brick and cement, and then had

large stones placed on top of it. They hired a watchman to check

the grave every hour. In spite of all these precautions the body of

John Harrison ended up in the Ohio medical college. The shock of

this lead the Ohio General Assembly, in 1881, to pass a law

permitting medical schools to use unclaimed bodies. This put an end

to grave robbing.

I share this bit of history in order to point out that men have

always had the power to break into the tomb. The ancient

Egyptians took elaborate precautions to protect the wealth they

buried with their Pharaohs in the pyramids. But to the great

disappointment of archeologists, thieves found a way in and

removed the treasures centuries before they found the way in. All

through history man has developed the skill to get him into graves

and tombs, and to take what the dead had to offer. What man

lacked was the power to break out of the tomb. Getting in was not

necessarily easy, but getting out was impossible. That is why Easter

is the special day that it is, for Easter is the day we celebrate the

discovery of the power to break out of the grip of the grave.

Many a tomb has been broken into, but the tomb of Jesus is

unique in that it was a tomb broken out of. It was truly an inside

job. Helen Frazee-Bower put this truth so beautifully in poetry.

One helped Him bare His cross up Calvary,

And there were those who placed Him in the tomb.

But when He burst death's bonds and came forth free

No human hands were in that narrow room.

No one but God could reach beyond the rim

Of death's confines and touch the dark unknown:

Though there were those who longed to do for Him,

When Jesus rose He did it all alone.

No one but God? Then truly He was God!

And is an will be evermore. And those

Who trust His grace sleep not beneath the sod:

They are not dead. Because the Savior rose,

These too shall rise. The tomb is open wide,

The stone was rolled away by One inside.

This makes Easter a day in which there was a display of

unprecedented power. Others had been raised from the dead

before, but by someone else outside the tomb. Jesus was the first

and only person to rise by His own power. Jesus said in John

10:17-18, "The reason the Father loves me is that I lay down my

life-only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it

down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and

authority to take it up again." No one ever before or since has had

that kind of authority. That is why, if you want to know the power

of the resurrection, you must know Jesus, for He is the only source

of such power.

Paul was a man of authority. He had great credentials, and was

a man of power in the Jewish community. He had the power of

prestige, which comes with a great heritage, good education, and

belonging to the right circles. Paul had the power to push people

around and persecute them if they did not conform to the values of

his heritage. He was a powerful man for he was not only a leader in

Judaism, but he was also a Roman citizen. But this powerful man

tells the Philippians that he did not know what power was until he

met Christ. In comparison, all of his other powers became mere

rubbish, and the loss of them was nothing compared to the

surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. It is in this context that

Paul makes the statement in verse 10, "I want to know Christ and

the power of His resurrection." We want to focus on the three

characteristics of this power that are evident in this passage.

I. A PASSIONATE POWER.

It is an emotionally compelling power. Passionate means fervent,

enthusiastic, and zealous. It is an intense power that motivates and

dominates. Paul is not expressing a craving for information. He