The Power Of His Resurrection Series

(Scripture read from Philippians 3:7-11.) Good morning. Happy Easter! He is risen! Amen. Glory. How many of you happened to attend the Easter egg hunt that was here yesterday? It was a great event. I think we had about 70 kids from the community here. It was put on by the Children’s Ministry. As a side note, if you happen to find one of these plastic eggs in the pew that is because the Easter egg hunt was held here in the sanctuary. You can keep the egg, but please send the chocolate forward!

You just heard two resurrection stories. One you are probably familiar with and another story that you might not be too familiar with. One story points to the actual events of the resurrection. The other story really points to a person named Paul who not only saw the resurrection as an event to remember but really as a reality to embrace. The Easter story is quite familiar to all of you, but just in case you missed it the facts are pretty basic. We know that the resurrection really began on Good Friday with the crucifixion. Following the crucifixion, the body of Christ was taken down and placed in a tomb that was owned by this guy named Joseph of Arimathea. As the story goes, there were some women that went out to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus with spices. When they went out there, they discovered that the stone that had covered the entrance to the tomb had rolled away. Out of curiosity, or possibly even out of fear, they went into the tomb and saw that indeed the body of Jesus Christ was gone. As they stood there wondering what was going on, the passage says that suddenly two men appeared and stood by them and they were said to be wearing clothes that glimmered like lightning. Of course the women were quite frightened. They actually fell down on their faces. One of the angels asked them a good question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” They went on to say “He is not here; he has risen!” At that point, they reminded them that while Jesus was indeed alive and walking around, he had told all the disciples that he would be arrested by sinful men and that he would be crucified, but after three days he would rise from the grave. Apparently, the women run back to tell the rest of the disciples who thought that they were crazy. They thought it was nonsense. Except for Peter who made a beeline to the tomb and went inside and all he saw were the strips of linen that were used for his burial laying there. As today’s story closed, he too was standing there quite bewildered.

As you know, that story is told in all four gospels with a little bit of variation on each story, but they all end with the same ending. He is not here. He is risen. I would suspect that a lot of people here believe that story and believe it as much as they believe other significant events in history. Maybe there are people here that are old enough to actually remember the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the assignation of JFK or, obviously, 9/11. Those were all significant events that we can all recall. But the resurrection is something different. Christians are not called to simply to remember the resurrection. They are called to see it as one of the most, if not the most, significant event in all of history. Consequently, they shouldn’t just see it as an event on a calendar but again a reality to embrace and to be part of their lives much like it was to the very first Christians.

That is what brings us to the second story of resurrection that comes out of the book of Philippians. A story about a man named Paul. I imagine that most of you know Jesus and most of you have probably also heard of Paul because he was probably one of the most popular characters in the Bible next to Jesus. But it wasn’t always that way. People didn’t always see Paul as someone in a very positive light. Paul, as we know, was a Jewish man. He was a teacher of the law. He was very strict in the law. He was very good at it. When this thing called Christianity began to take momentum following the resurrection that made him a little nervous because it began to become a threat to his entire worldview and his entire identity. So Paul did everything he could within his power to try and shut this new religion down. The first place that we encounter Paul is in the book of Acts about chapter 7. He is standing there actually holding the cloaks of the people who are actually executing the first martyr, Stephen, by stoning him to death. Then we see him a couple chapters later and he is probably a little bit older in chapter 9 where he is gathering up letters that he can bring to the city of Damascus that will give him authority to persecute the Christians in that city. As the story goes on, he is going to the city of Damascus and suddenly, out of the blue, a bright light appears and a voice who many suspect was Jesus, says to him “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Actually, at that time, he was called Saul, so Jesus is saying “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” From that moment on, after that experience with the risen Christ, Paul became a changed man. Completely turned around. Became someone who was once the biggest persecutor of Christians to becoming someone who was one of the biggest defenders of Christ and Christianity. So much so that he began a mission to plant churches all throughout the Mediterranean, including the church in Philippi.