The Power of The Resurrection
Scriptures: Matthew 26:39; 27:46; 28:18; Ephesians 2:4-6; John 10:17-18
Introduction:
Today we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus died, was buried and on the third day, He rose from the dead – He was resurrected. To resurrect something means to bring it back from the dead or to make it useful again. We all understand that Christ rose from the dead, but on this Easter morning, I want to look at the power of the resurrection within our lives. I want to focus on the two sides of this power. There is the power we have received from Christ’s resurrection and then there is power that is displayed when other things are resurrected. These other things are what I will primarily focus on this morning.
I have never been a big reader of Greek mythology, but in those stories you will read about a bird called the phoenix. The phoenix is a mythical sacred firebird that originated in Persian mythology and later entered into Greek mythology. It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle. Near the end of its life cycle, the phoenix builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites causing both the nest and the bird burn fiercely. For the ashes a new, young phoenix is reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. The phoenix continues this process indefinitely with a young phoenix being reborn out of the ashes of the parent phoenix. Although the phoenix at its death goes through the horribleness of burning alive, it is reborn to live for another 500–1000 years.
I want you to think about the phoenix being reborn after each horrible death. The phoenix goes through one terrible moment in order to live for another 500 years. Once completing that terrible moment (burning to death) it is reborn for another life time. This is the power of the resurrection. Before Christ entered the world, the prevailing thought was that when you died, that was all you got. There was no life after death and once you were dead, that was it. However, when the disciples witnessed Christ’s resurrection they understood that there was life after death and this understanding gave them the power to withstand their enemies. This is the power of the resurrection. Before I get into the heart of this message, I want to review a few Scriptural references with you pertaining to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Keep in mind the horrible death that the phoenix goes through in order to be reborn as we review these Scriptures.
Before Jesus was arrested, He knew what was about to happen so He went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. While He was crying out to God, He made the following request in Matthew 26:39: “…..My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” He repeated His request I verse forty-two. The first thing we need to understand is that although Jesus was the Son of God, He did not want to die on the cross. He knew this was His destiny, but He asked His Father if it were possible that it could pass from Him. We often think of Jesus as God and walking proudly (even in a beaten state) to His death. This was not the case. Jesus was human just like us. He had given up his deity power to live as one of us. In this case, he was under a lot of stress as He prepared mentally for what He was about to experience.
The second point that I want you to see is found in Matthew 27:46 when Jesus was on the cross. He cried out to God and said “….My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” At this point on the cross, Jesus felt abandoned by God and alone. He had taken the weight of the sins of the world (the sins of the past, present and future) on His shoulders as He hung on the cross. He was experiencing pain and abandonment as He waited to die. This was a horrible death and for His disciples, it was the end. The last verse I want you to see comes from Matthew 28:18 after Jesus had been resurrected from the dead: “….All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Here is what we need to understand from Jesus resurrection. In order for the power to be made available for us, Jesus had to die and be resurrected. Had He died and stayed in the grave His message of love would have lasted for a few years, but it would have eventually faded away. Had He stayed in the grave, we would still be afraid of death today because when we died, that would be it. Had he stayed in the grave, we would still be hell bound and eternally separated from God. Because Jesus was resurrected, the pain that He went through was not the end, but the beginning. Now here is the most wonderful part of all: Ephesians 2:4-6 says that we have been resurrected with Him. It reads “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Isn’t that great? We have had access to the resurrection even before we were born. Before we committed our first sin, grace had already prevailed. When Christ rose from the dead, we too rose with Him. When all power was given into His hands, that same power became available to us when we accepted Him as our Savior. The penalty of death for our sins no longer held us captive. As Christ is alive, so are we and therefore even though we go through hardships and pain, joy will always come in the morning.
I. Joy Comes In The Morning
In the second half of Psalms 30:5 it states that “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” When the disciples witnessed Jesus death, I am sure there was weeping, but when Sunday morning and evening came, there was joy. Why? Because Jesus had risen from the dead and now they knew it.
I shared this verse with you because it is at this time of year when we celebrate our risen Savior that some begun to reflect on their lives. They begin to focus on the pain that they are experiencing. They begin to focus on what is happening around them and the struggles they are suffering through. Many have prayed and prayed to God for deliverance only to walk away thinking “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?” If this is you on this resurrection Sunday, I want you to know that God has not forsaken you, He is still right there with you. We will all weep from time to time, but because of the power of the resurrection, truly joy comes in the morning. It will not always be this bad; there is something better that is coming for you if you hold out and keep the faith.
II. You Are A Target
I shared with you on last week that whenever we are off balance we are easily identified by Satan as someone worthy of his attention. When I called Joe up and had him stand on one foot with his eyes closed, remember how he swaggered from side to side because his eyes could not help him to focus. If I had stood there and held out my arm and Joe took it, he would have immediately stopped swaying from side to side – my arm would have helped him to get back in balance. Jesus wants us to be in balanced by relying on Him. Satan wants us to be out of balance and rejecting the power of the resurrection. He desires that he pile so much stuff on us that we sink and drown under the onslaught of trials and tribulations that we go through. It does not have to be this way. Remember at the beginning that I gave you the definition of resurrection? When I talked about it, I spoke of bringing something back from the dead, to make something useful again. God needs us to understand that the power of Jesus’ resurrection is sometimes overshadowed in our lives by the “things” Satan resurrects in our lives. Yes I know that nothing is more powerful than the resurrection of Christ, but I need you to stay with me long enough to understand the point.
Satan’s ultimate goal is to try and influence us to turn our backs on God. If he cannot get us to do that, he tries to get our attention off God and on all of the things that are happening in our lives. To do this, he consistently seeks out our weaknesses and brings them before our face. His desire is to get our focus off God. When he finds something that works over and over again, he will resurrect it continually as long as he sees he has some traction. What happens in this instance is we have a choice. We can give power to these things being resurrected around us or we can shut it down. For many of us we tend to give those things power. How many times have we said “it seems like I continually go through the same things over and over…” If you understand that Satan is resurrecting something in your life to take your focus off God, then you will recognize it for what it is and allow it to remain dead. Here is something that I want you to see. Look at John 10:17-18. It reads “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” When Lazarus went into the grave, Jesus resurrected him. When Jesus went into the grace, who resurrected Him? This may sound strange, but Jesus own the authority to lay His life down, which He did on the cross, and to pick it back up again which He did on Easter morning. I need you to see this. Jesus raised Himself up from the grave because He already possessed the authority to do it. He did not need His disciples to do it; He did it. This is important for us to understand because you own the authority for what is resurrected in your life.
Second Corinthian 5:7 says “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” The reason we walk by faith is that our sight will fool us. Our sight will show us that when something is being resurrected in our life we must accept it. Our sight will tell us that everything is crashing down on us because I can see it happening. Our sight will tell us that yes my enemies are prevailing against me and I cannot win. When the twelve spies went into the Promise Land, ten came back walking by sight and saying that there were giants in the land and they could not go in. Two came back walking in faith and saying let’s go and take the land right now. (Numbers 13) All twelve spies saw the exact same things but ten came away seeing defeat and two came away seeing victory. What was the difference? The difference was their faith.
When Satan resurrects something negative in our life, by faith we cannot accept it. We cannot give life to it or otherwise it will take us over. I know we have times of stress and weariness; but our lives are not over. There is still hope. There is still power to be seen by the grace of God. When Jesus was on the cross I am sure Satan rejoiced when He heard Jesus cries out: “My God, My God, why have Thou forsaken Me?” Those were the words that Satan had been waiting to hear. Here was a man who worked miracles and led many away from sin and eternal death dying on a cross feeling abandoned by the one He served. Can you see the joyous look on Satan’s face? But had Satan realized the true outcome, he would have been panicked. We will lose some battles; we will be scarred; we will go through times of feeling abandoned; but we are not lost. Joy comes in the morning because of the resurrection. When Jesus rose from the dead He held all power in His hands and that included the power we need for our situations.
III. The True Power Of Christ Resurrection
I shared with you that we walk by faith and not by sight. When Jesus was being tempted by Satan, He gave us the keys to victory that would later come through His resurrection. Consider these verses from Matthew 4:3-4. “And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ But He answered and said, ‘It is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Before Jesus started His ministry, He went into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan. Satan waited until Jesus had fasted for forty days before he showed up. When Jesus was hungry, Satan tried to get Jesus to turn stones into bread. Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the moth of God. Jesus was quoting what Moses had said to the Children of Israel in Deuteronomy 8:3 when he was instructing them on the gracious of God. Moses was reminding them of how gracious God was when He brought them out of Egypt and that they should remember where their allegiance and faith should rest.
When Jesus quoted this, He was letting Satan know that even though He had an immediate need, He would rests on the word of God instead of fulfilling his physical need with an empty test of proof. But both Moses and Jesus words carry a different meaning for us. John 1:1-2 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” The Word was Jesus Christ. So if today we are in the hot seat of temptation we can tell Satan, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but on Jesus (the Word) that proceeded from God!” This is the real power of His resurrection. Because Christ rose from the dead, we can speak faith into our situations. Because He rose from the dead, we do not have to be what we were. Because He rose from the dead, we can see things without having our eyes open. Because He rose from the dead, we can speak life into our situation and not accept the death that Satan has already spoken over us. It does not matter what situation we find ourselves in today, Christ reigns supreme because He rose from the dead. All of the other prophets have a grave sight; we know where they were buried. We know where Christ was buried, but unlike all the rest; we also know where He is right now, this very hour; this very minute; this very second. He is at the right hand of God.
Conclusion
Where are you standing right now? Are you standing at the foot of the cross watching your Savior die? When the disciples stood there they lost all hope. When Mary saw her Son on that cross, she grieved as a mother would. Are you standing at the foot of the cross? We wear crosses as a reminded that Christ died on one, but that is not the main part of the story. Had he not risen from the dead, His death would not have been something recorded in the history books for thousands of years. If you are standing at the cross watching your Savior die, I ask that you put yourself in the sandals of those who actually stood there. They had lost their hope and there was a lot of emotional pain and suffering. Those who served Him grieved at His crucifixion; cried at the cross and lost their hope.
Where are you standing right now? Are you standing at the tomb? When the disciples when to the tomb early on Sunday morning and found it empty, they were confused. They did not understand that He had risen from the dead. They did not know where His body was? They wanted to hope, but it seemed impossible. If you are standing at the outside of the tomb, your situation will be confusing to you. You will be wondering where Jesus is in your situation. You will be wondering if He is alive and well and walking side by side with you. If you are standing outside the tomb you still do not have the complete answer or understand the power of the resurrection.
Where are you standing right now? Are you standing in Galilee? When the disciples went to Galilee, Jesus appeared to them. Seeing Jesus themselves caused them to shift from walking by sight to walking by faith. Even though they saw the empty tomb, they did not understand what it meant. Now seeing Jesus alive and well, they understood that He had risen from the grave and that death no longer had power over Him. They were no longer scared of their situation. They were no longer doubting. They were no longer confused. They knew with a certainty that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead and they were now partakers of the power that raised Him.
Where are you standing? Today we celebrate Easter – the day we set aside to remember the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If this is just a special “Church” day for you, then you are sorely missing the point. His resurrection is about power for our lives. The power to change us and make us complete; power to comfort us when all seem lost; and the power to raise us from a spiritual death that we were leading prior to finding and accepting Him. Where are you standing this morning? I hope you are standing in the power of the resurrection.
Have a very blessed Easter celebration. God bless.
