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Resurrection
(4th
in a Series on the Death, Burial, Resurrection, &
Ascension of Jesus)
The
picture of redemption can be seen throughout the Bible.
The Old Testament is the story of a family that grew
into the nation of Israel. Out of that family came a
Son-Jesus, the redeemer of every nation. Everything in
the Old Testament points toward Jesus and His work of
redemption for us. The subject of redemption can be
broken down into four parts: the Death, Burial,
Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus. In the past few
weeks, we have covered the Death and Burial of Jesus.
Now I would like for us to look deeper into the
Resurrection.
The death
and burial of Jesus is about Jesus as our Savior;
the resurrection is about Jesus as our Lord. In
Acts 2:36, Peter calls Him both Lord and
Christ. He is Christ our savior, but He is also our
Lord, the authority of our lives. We have a
responsibility to submit to Him as our Lord and King.
When we submit to the King, that is when we get the
benefits of the kingdom. If we only see Jesus as our
Savior and never our Lord, then we do not get the full
benefits of His resurrection. To see Jesus as our Lord
puts a new power in our lives. He did not leave us here
on earth to fend for ourselves; he has given us power
for living.
All of the
things that Jesus did in his plan of redemption, he did
on our behalf. The Bible even says that now we are
raised together with Him and are seated with Him in
heavenly places. (Ephesians 2:6) God puts us
into union with Himself. The same life that is in
heaven today, we have because of redemption. When God
raised Jesus from the dead, it was a doorway for Him to
release to us the same resurrection power. In our
everyday lives, we need resurrection power. What is
resurrection power? Simply this: if something is dead,
it needs resurrection power to live. That is what Jesus
meant when he said in John 10:10: “I am come that
they might have life, and that they may have it more
abundantly.” That abundant life is really the
resurrection power of God. Jesus puts us in the same
category as Himself as it concerns walking in His
resurrection power: “Therefore as we are buried with
him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life.”
(Romans 6:4)
Many times
people want to put resurrection power in the past or in
the future, but resurrection power is for today.
Religion always wants to put things so far in the past
or so far in the future that they are no good for us
today, but Jesus did not do that. An example can be
found in John 11, when Jesus went to raise
his friend Lazarus from the dead:
“Then Martha, as soon
as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him:
but Mary sat still in the house.
Then said Martha unto
Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not
died.
But I know, that even
now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it
thee.
Jesus saith unto her,
Thy brother shall rise again.
Martha saith unto him,
I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at
the last day.
Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection, and the life: he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live:”
John 11:20-25
Jesus told
Martha that her brother would rise again, and Martha
immediately thought that he was talking about the
resurrection at the last day. But that was not the
resurrection that Jesus was talking about. He was
talking about a present-day resurrection. He did not
put the power of God in the future somewhere. He said,
“I am the resurrection, and the life.” (John 11:25)
Resurrection power is not just confined to the past or
the future. It is here for us now. The past event of
Jesus’ resurrection has a present impact on our lives.
“[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him
[that I may progressively become more deeply and
intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and
recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person
more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in
that same way come to know the power outflowing from His
resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and
that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually
transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His
death, [in the hope]
That if
possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral]
resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead
[even while in the body].
Philippians 3:10-11, AMP
In this
scripture, the Apostle Paul tells us his life’s focus.
His determined purpose was to know Jesus and the power
of His resurrection. His purpose was not to grow his
ministry or to just live better. His purpose was to
know Him. So many times we get our focus off of where
it should be. We want new church programs, but if our
purpose was just to know Him, there would be no need for
new programs. We try to do all the extracurricular
things, but if we would just purpose to know Him, many
of those things would not even be necessary.
In
Philippians 3:11, the resurrection that Paul speaks of
is not the resurrection that he would experience after
his physical death. He is speaking of the resurrection
that can take place in us even as we are alive. We can
have the resurrection power of Jesus everyday of our
lives, but to have this power working in our lives, our
determined purpose must be to know Him.
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