THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION
THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION
Philippians 3:8-12; Mark 16:1-7; Luke 24:1-8
When the apostle says, “...to know him, and the power of his resurrection ...” (verse 10), it is not simply a matter of the resurrection. All who are nominal Christians today recognise the resurrection of Christ as a fact. There is reference to it in the creeds of all orthodox denominations but the apostle is not speaking in this way when he says, “...to know him, and the power of his resurrection” — it is the present power of His resurrection. He wishes to know this power and to know it at present.
There are foolish people who say that there is no resurrection. The apostle asks, “...how say some among you that there is not a resurrection of those that are dead?” (1 Corinthians 15: 12). Is it beyond belief that God should raise the dead? I should like all such to tell me why they do not believe it. I know that most will say to me, ‘I believe only what I see and what I understand’. Do you reason in this way? Do you believe only what you understand or what you see? Tell me then what you know of the ways of the ant, how God has given it such wisdom, how it knows to go out in summer and gather all it needs for the winter. Do you understand that? You certainly don’t. You say, ‘I can see the ant, observe it, note its mode of operation and I accept what I see, although I do not understand it’. Well, why do you say that you do not believe what you do not understand?
You say that you do not believe what you do not see? Do you see the atmosphere? How is it that it exists; where does it come from; who made it; what is it composed of? Do you see it? No, you don’t see it. Does that mean that there is no atmosphere? No one would deny its existence. Although you cannot see it, you believe, nevertheless, that it exists.
How can you, therefore, not accept what you cannot see or what you cannot understand? We cannot see the greatest forces of nature, the greatest principles of life. Have you ever seen the life principle itself? Look into a grain of wheat; do you find it there? You find nothing. Examine an egg; it is invisible. Does it, then, not exist? It would be irrational to speak like that. Who has seen the wind? Everyone feels its force but no one sees it. So it is with all the greatest things in the world; they are invisible.
No one saw Christ arise from the dead; He arose, nonetheless. It may be that you do not understand the power of resurrection but it exists. What effect does it have? It makes people capable of living in another world. Someone may say that it took place two thousand years ago and belongs to the past. I wonder what each of you thinks of that, dear friends. Think of the power of God in creation — “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1: 1) and brought them to completion. “And the heavens and the earth and all their host were finished” (Genesis 2: 1). Does this power continually exist or is it only a fact of history? Does the creative power which existed then exist today? Are not the eternal power and divinity of God still evident in creation? Does the fact that the creation was finished mean that power to create no longer exists? If this is so, how is it that sun rises in the morning and sets at night, that the earth turns on its axis, that the grass grows, that the birds fly? Where do the peacock’s feathers come from? The power of creation is still there. The creation itself is finished but creative power is still active. Were it not thus, nothing would exist. This power is called “eternal power” in contrast to the power of man. What a difference! Look at what man’s power can do. He constructs a building, then you come to see it a few thousand years later and it is nothing but a ruin. Is that power? When God builds something, it does not fall into ruin. No, in the universe, the sun still shines, the moon continues to give its light, the stars sparkle with the same brightness as at their creation; the “cords of Orion” (Job 38: 31) have not been loosed. God calls the man who shuts his eyes to all this a fool — “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14: 1).
Now, I want to speak about “the power of his resurrection”, about the power which is active in His resurrection, not about the power which operated in the past, as a fact of history, but about the power which operates now. History is only in books; there is no active power in history. The resurrection of Christ is not simply a historical fact. It is an active power, which operates today on the earth. Paul says, ‘I want to know this power and I am ready to lose everything else to know it’. After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus spent forty days on the earth; He was “seen” by his disciples “during forty days” (Acts 1: 3). Is not that a proof? For forty days He assembled with the disciples, who saw Him as a Man beyond death. They felt the power of His resurrection while He assembled with them and spoke to them. It was clear to them that nothing could limit His power, not even doors closed through fear of the Jews. He was able to place Himself in the midst of His disciples, to manifest Himself to them and to disappear from them during these forty days. The world cannot provide such indisputable proofs as these. The modern doctrines of the religious world cannot prove their arguments in such a way.
I wish to speak to you about this power. In the Scriptures it is called “the surpassing greatness of his power” (Ephesians 1: 19), which “he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”. It is greater than the power of creation; it is surpassingly great; it surpasses everything. The sun, the moon and the stars express the eternal power of God but not the surpassing greatness, which is seen in the resurrection of Christ. The apostle says that this power “works in us” (Ephesians 3: 20). What did this power do in respect of Jesus? It brought Him out of the tomb and put Him into another world. It did not put Him into heaven immediately but into a resurrection world down here for forty days. Now, the apostle says, ‘I want to know this power’. Do you know something of it? It is a power which, in a similar way, is available to you to elevate you from what obtains at present and down here into another world, outside this scene of death which surrounds us. Scripture speaks of those who, while living, are dead — the man who does not know Christ is dead while living. This resurrection power, however, can make us live in another world now. All this is implied in the resurrection of Jesus. This is what it did for Paul.
Before considering what we have read in Mark and Luke, I should like to ask a question — if Christ is raised from among the dead, why did He go into death; why did He die? I wonder what the answer of each heart here might be to this question. Why did He, who must be raised from among the dead, have to pass through death? Why was He hung on the tree? Why was He crucified? Why did He lay down His life? Why was He buried?
In order to answer questions such as these, other questions have to be considered and I ask you ‘Why do you have to die?’ Some would say that it is our debt to nature. That is not true. If men die, the Scriptures give the reason for it — death is the wages of sin, as it says, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6: 23). God is always righteous; He sees to it that each receives his wages. So when will you be paid? When will you receive your wages? Perhaps your payment day will be tomorrow. You do not know how long you will still have to wait. When your day comes, you will receive your wages. That is why men die — they have deserved it. Why did Jesus die? He did not merit these wages, He says, “Which of you convinces me of sin?” (John 8: 46). Who can convince Jesus of sin? The truth is that He never sinned and that He did not deserve the wages of sin.
So why did He die? It is what you deserved. You deserved to be hanged, to be eternally under God’s curse, because that is what it means to be hanged — “Cursed is everyone hanged upon a tree” (Galatians 3: 13). That is what you deserved — death. The sentence pronounced at the beginning was, “for in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt certainly die” (Genesis 2: 17). And that is not all. You also deserve to be buried, because you dishonour the earth. You are unworthy to be seen here. It is what God said to man at the beginning. “For dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3: 19).
Why did the Lord Jesus accept all that when He was hanged on the tree, when He was under God’s curse, when He laid down His life and was buried? Do you have an answer to this question? Paul tells us that it is for us “...that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried” (1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4). It was for us that He was made a curse by God. Does He not, then, have a place in your heart? Is He not great enough to fill your heart? The Lord had said, “...and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me” (John 12: 32). He said that to indicate the death by which He would die, the death of the cross. In taking this place, “up out of the earth”, He desired to attract every human heart to Him. Are you ignoring this? Can you ignore a crucified Saviour? If you reject Him, you will have to take what you deserve. What would you do if the moment were to come when you find yourself under curse, when you die and, after having been buried, you appear before God in judgment? These are your wages. It says of Christ, “But now once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for the putting away of sin by his sacrifice” (Hebrews 9: 26).
Returning to the subject of “the power of his resurrection”, the power by which He left the tomb is that which operates at present in the soul of the believer and which will operate in you, if you believe in Jesus. A Christian is a man who lives in the joy of another world. You may notice that he does not seek sport, the cinema, novels, newspapers or money. He seems to be dead to all that. He is indeed dead to this world but he lives in another world. What has happened to him? “The power of his resurrection”
has raised this man out of the world of death and has put him into another world. I do not mean into heaven but into another world, down here on the earth. He is still here but he lives in another world. It is a wonderful world, which will last for ever. God spoke of it, saying, “...yea, the world is established, it shall not be moved” (Psalm 93: 1). You can do nothing against a man who is in the power of resurrection; he is beyond your reach. Do you think that Pilate would have been able to do anything against Jesus during the forty days? He was able to disappear from before their eyes. Indeed, although He was here, men of the world never saw Him. He was seen by above five hundred brethren at once but the world never saw Him. That is the position of the Christian. Don’t you feel the appeal of leaving this world in order to enter God’s world?
Let us look now at what the power of His resurrection can do for you. It is with this end in view that I have read the passages in Mark and Luke. You come to the sepulchre of Jesus; the stone is rolled away. You say, ‘That was to allow Jesus to come out’. Not at all; it is to allow you to look into the sepulchre. He came out without the stone having been rolled away.
In Mark’s gospel, in the sepulchre there is “...a young man sitting on the right, clothed in a white robe...” (Mark 16: 5). He addresses the women and says to them, “He is risen, he is not here... But go, tell his disciples and Peter, he goes before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him, as he said to you” (Mark 16: 6, 7). Who is this young man? May God work so that it might be you! On this same earth where Christ had been crucified and buried, there is a young man in all the energy of youth. He is clothed in white, in purity. Only a young man or a young woman in the joy of resurrection is marked by purity. They take the place, in the power of resurrection, which Jesus had taken. This young man is sitting actually in the tomb, he is not afraid. What allows him to sit there? “The power of his resurrection.” He understands the resurrection and knows its present power in such a way that he can be seated in the same place as where Christ had been buried. He was sitting on the right, which is the side of power. This young man is marked by purity, by peace and by power. How can he be thus in the tomb? By “the power of his resurrection.” This young man’s secret is that he is in contact with Jesus. He says, ‘He is not here;
He will never again be in the tomb but I know where He is. I am in contact with Him, a living Man beyond death; I know Him; I love Him.’ This young man knows a power, which is far superior to all the powers of this world — “the power of his resurrection.” It keeps a man youthful; anyone who knows it will never grow old. As to his body, naturally, he will age but never as to his spirit. He will always be pure, for he has washed his robe. He is always tranquil, always at peace. He knows where to find power — at the right hand. He knows where Jesus is; do you? You say, ‘He is in heaven.’ That is true, He is in heaven, but it is not the whole truth. He is in Galilee. The young man says, “...he goes before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him...” (Mark 16: 7). If you do not go to Galilee, you will never see Jesus. That is where He is now, in this world’s reproach. The word Galilee means the reproach of the world. The world does not want men like this; they are called Galileans. Every true Christian is a Galilean, reproached and rejected in the world. But Jesus is there, in Galilee, and the young man says to the women, “...there shall ye see him...” That is the test. If you could find Jesus in the world, there would be no test,
but you will never find Him there. He is held in contempt and if you wish to find Him, you will have to accept reproach. This is our present position — we “go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Hebrews 13: 13). This world is going to disappear soon and God’s world will be manifested. Christ will no longer be scorned; He will be seated on His throne of glory, having with Him in His glory all those who have gone into Galilee to find Him. Will you be there? The power of His resurrection leads men to Galilee, where they will be scorned by the world but where they will find Jesus.
I shall add a few words on what we have read in Luke. It is the same place as in Mark, the sepulchre. When the women entered, they noticed that Jesus was not there but it says, “...two men suddenly stood by them in shining raiment” (Luke 24: 4). It is no longer one young man but two men who stood by the women, which suggests fellowship in the very presence of death. Several people are there, together in the light of another world. This is what results after you have believed in Jesus, that you are transferred from darkness into His wonderful light. You enter into fellowship with the people of God in that world. What marks these two men is that they have shining garments. It is no longer a white robe. These two men have shining clothes, clothing which is radiant with heavenly colours. The clothes of these men are in accord with those of Jesus. They are reminiscent of the vest of many colours, which Jacob made for Joseph. Joseph is a type of Christ passing through this world, clothed in this wonderful vest but hated by his brethren. His vest was taken off and stained with blood; it carried the mark of death. The beauties of this vest, however, re-appear not only on Joseph but on these two men. They are there in “shining raiment”. How did they come to be dressed in this way? by “the power of his resurrection.” This excellent power clothed them in garments, which were entirely different. They left their soiled garments in Jesus’ tomb, as God says, “Take away the filthy garments from off him” (Zechariah 3: 4). They are now clothed in the character of Christ. It is one of the most striking spectacles in the world. It has been my joy to see more than two persons in this country clothed in shining raiment, reflecting some of the features of Christ’s exceptional beauty. Clothing refers to the way in which you appear in public. I cannot read your heart or your mind but I can see your garments. Here are two men in the shining raiment of the light of the glory of heaven. They received these clothes as a result of “the power of his resurrection”.
This was the apostle’s great desire. He renounced everything of this world; he said, “but what things were gain to me these I counted, on account of Christ, loss. But surely I count also all things to be loss... that I may gain Christ... to know him, and the power of his resurrection... if any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.” This was the apostle’s desire. He says, ‘I have not yet reached this but it is what I want to achieve; I want to reach the resurrection from among the dead now; I want to live now in the power of His resurrection; this is my great goal; this is the only thing which I have before me.’ Many of us pursue five or six different goals. Our great goal may be our business, perhaps our pleasures or something else and there may be only very little desire for Christ. To the extent that this may be so,
we shall never reach resurrection down here; we shall know little or nothing of His power. Paul says, “but one thing”, one single thing, with the object of reaching resurrection now and here below. The power of the resurrection of Christ can realise this for us now; it does so for thousands of persons. The power of His resurrection is as active today as His creatorial power. Is the excellent greatness of God’s power exhausted? His creatorial power is undiminished and His power in resurrection is greater than the power revealed in creation; it will never be exhausted. I commend this power to you. It is great enough to raise your soul, your heart and your mind into God’s world.