His Resurrection and Ours

From John 11, 25, part of 26. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

And he who lives and believes in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Two thousand years, the world has kept scratching its head, trying to figure out how come this Jesus of Nazareth continues to have such an impact. Every time it appears as if finally his influence is burning out and beginning to sink to the bottom with all the other dead heroes of the past, it flares up again.

Even now something is going on and we're too close to it in a way to really appreciate how marvelous it is. Something is going on, stirring, something new across the whole earth, on every continent, in jail cells and open fields and slums and skid rows and rich hotels, in churches that have been dead for years and years and years, among the children of Israel. Men and women and young people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ and they are learning how to forsake everything and follow him.

How come this thing doesn't die out? How come the influence of this man who lived twenty centuries ago continues like this? What the world, of course, refuses to believe is that the light, the zeal, this fire that grabs hold of human hearts and transforms them is because Jesus not only rose from the dead twenty centuries ago, never to die again, but in fact remains alive for us too. And that this resurrection is tied up in a marvelous way with his death, which was an atoning death. Another thing that the world does not understand for instance, the life that is now perhaps beneath the surface for some but is indeed now stirring in this assembly and will doubtless call some men and women in this gathering right now out of years of bondage, out of their graves, into the life of God today.

That this life, which is going to do this and is in the process of doing it, is the same life that lifted this dead corpse out of the grave, transfigured that body, burned out of those eyes, shone forth from that resurrection voice and now gives life to us. So the body of Christ on earth, the genuine church, continues to come forth fresh and new all the time, even as the structures of fleshly Christendom keep falling away and sinking into corruption and death. Because Jesus is alive and everything he touches now comes to life.

And the proof that Jesus is alive right now is that there are scores and perhaps we could even be more accurate by saying perhaps hundreds in this assembly right now who have in fact been raised from the death of their former lives and have experienced this resurrection and are living a life now that they never dreamed they would have a few years back. And if this seems far-fetched to one or two or five or ten or fifty cynics among us, what if this same Jesus grabbed hold of your heart today and raised you out of the death that you have experienced all your life and made you into a new creature this day? Would that be enough? Now the ingredients of this resurrection life that's meant to be the portion of every one of us are contained very simply in a statement of Paul when he's talking about himself in Philippians 3. I just want to read a verse or two. When Paul says that I may know him in the power of his resurrection the fellowship of his sufferings being made like him in his death that if possible I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.

This statement of Paul has at its beginning and at its ending resurrection. And in the middle, the cross. And the cross of Jesus is the pivot around which spins the resurrection life of Jesus.

In the center of this whirling life is a death struggle in which every kind of evil every conceivable form of Satan's power unleashes itself against the Son of God the Lamb of God. And the evil that we're talking about is not something theoretical but something which each of us knows. You know, the ugly thoughts and the wild vanities and the deceit that we find in our own hearts and know to exist in the hearts of the whole human race aim themselves at this man Jesus to destroy him and it really looked as if they had destroyed him.

And really we have no conception of the pain he experienced as he received into his body all the evil of all time and took that down into the grave with himself. When this man Jesus hanging from the cross cries out, it is finished bows his head gives over his spirit to the Father and dies. Nobody this side of heaven or hell has any idea what that meant when he said, it is finished.

Until this same man on the third day alive from the dead not as some ghost but as the firstborn of a new creation stands in front of Mary Magdalene and calls her by name. Stands in the midst of the apostles rebukes them for their unbelief breathes life upon them opens the scriptures to them and makes them to know that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things in order to enter into his glory. And so the cross which is the doorway to life for every single one of us who is willing who believes who opens his heart the cross makes sense only when we begin to see it in the light of the resurrection his resurrection and ours.

When you meet Jesus alive from the dead you begin to realize that the goal of this life the goal of every one of our lives is a resurrection. The hour is coming when all that are in the graves will hear his voice and will come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. And it is to be a resurrection of life for all who believe who live in the mercy of God.

We are moving toward a time when this corruptible body will be laid aside for an incorruptible. This mortal will be swallowed up in immortality. These confused shadowy minds will be swallowed up in clarity such as we've never known.

And everything around us and within us and beneath us will be blazing magnificent wonderful life. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night within his temple. And he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence.

They shall hunger no more neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. That's what I want to live for.

Why should I waste my thought and my energy my strength on things which contribute nothing to that resurrection have no bearing on it and offer no hope beyond themselves. Why should I waste myself on things which do nothing but distract me confuse my mind and lead me off the track. God help me and help us all to keep our eyes on the goal.

When you meet Jesus Christ alive from the dead you begin to realize too that the way to that goal is also a resurrection. That it is possible to live every day of our lives now in the life of his resurrection and that anything less than that isn't life. How can we call that rat race we've been in life? Or those idols that we've been wasting ourselves on those things which have disappointed us and deceived us again and again.

How can we call that life? So the sooner we take those things which we know to be deceptive and false and bring them down into the grave with Jesus and bury them there and come forth out of that grave with him to a new life the better it will be. I am crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The only thing required in order that we might live a resurrection like now is that we believe in him.

You don't have to go to 50 seminars all you have to do is open your heart. Really. The life I live in the flesh now I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

He that believes on me though he were dead yet shall he live and he who lives and believes in me shall never die and so by faith we now begin to break through the bondage the shackles of the fear and the depression and the paranoid thoughts and the vanity and death and all those other things that have destroyed us in the past we break out of that and live. This is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son. He who has the son she who has the son has life and she he who has not the son has not life.

And we take hold of that life by faith. It's not ours. You look at this life which is going on in you now and you can't believe it.

Is that me? No, it isn't you. It's Jesus. And the difference between this life you now experience and the life you've known in the past is the difference between day and night.

And if there are those in our midst who have not tasted that or who once tasted it and since have lost it or seem to have lost it or whatever your doctrine is you can have it. Jesus died in order that you might experience just that. All you have to do is open your heart and come and get it.

If any man thirsts let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. Come to me all you who are labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and lowly of heart. You're going to find rest for your soul. You'll be out of the rat race.

Come. All you have to do the life of the risen Lord is yours today if you open your heart and draw near to him. Take hold of him with your heart.

That's what it means to believe. Not just with your little brains which are too puny to take hold of this but with your heart your will. Lord I don't understand.

I believe. Help my unbelief but reach out and get him and he'll get you and flood you with peace such as you've never known. Once we've met Jesus in the power of the resurrection we know not only that the goal is a resurrection or the way to the goal is a resurrection but the work that we perform on our way to the goal is also a resurrection.

So when they had come together they asked him Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the father has fixed by his own authority but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And what does it mean to be his witnesses? It means that we have a testimony on our very lips which in itself has the power to raise the dead. The only reason we're still here that we're not already taken off into the world beyond to enjoy the glory that's there is because we are kept here in order to be his witnesses to proclaim this gospel knowing that as we do people will come from darkness to light and from the death binding power of Satan to God.

That's what we're here for and right now we're gathered into this place together in the name of the Lord in order that Jesus himself might breathe afresh his spirit upon us and send us forth afresh to proclaim that gospel. There are no doubt people in this group right now who have never, who are believers who have never experienced the joy of seeing a heart melt under the warmth of the gospel of Jesus from your lips. Seeing that heart turn and yield and receive life.

But you will. There are those among us who from this day forth will experience just that. You will have the privilege of inviting people to come to the side the crucified, wounded side of the now risen Jesus and you will see them come out of their graves and experience life such as they've never known.

You will see that. And what's the requirement that we might have a tongue of the learned to speak a word of season to him or her who is weary? To raise these dead out of their graves? The only thing required is that we believe. You don't have to go to seminary for that.

You don't learn that in seminary or Bible college or seminars or anything else. He who believes in me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do because I go to the Father. So the goal is a resurrection for all who believe and the way to the goal.

Every single day along that road we can have a resurrection life if we will but believe. And all along the road we will have the privilege of breaking the chains of the enemy causing those bars of iron to yield and those gates of brass to split apart and we set the captives free by the power of the living word of Jesus if we will but believe. I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live and he who lives and believes on me shall never die. Not to miss an opportunity. Not to manipulate one soul or violate one will but as we go to prayer if there are people who know that today is the day do something about it.

Do something about it sitting in your pew or your chair or let somebody pray with you up here at the altar rail but now is the time. Don't wait till next Easter. Do it now, friend.

And the Lord will hear your cry and he will flood you with the very light of his resurrection. Let's pray. Lord God you know that we all need your life afresh this day.

Every one of us needs it. Everyone without exception. We're praying especially Lord that should there be any among us who for the first time now is ready to come into the kingdom that you would take away from them all self-consciousness and all fear of man and help them to just yield to your spirit's drawing power right now.

We also pray Lord for any among us who have been wandering and stumbling and having a terrible time. Just thank you that you brought them here today and we pray that you give to them such strong encouragement such hope that they can't possibly resist the wooing of your grace. Lord speak to all our hearts now and help us to respond and just throw that door wide open and get off our high horse and come down off our pedestal and bow before you and receive your life.

Help us Lord. My God. Hold us in that light throughout this day Lord and give us wisdom to act and not hold back as you direct us and guide us.

And we thank you and praise you. Amen.