Let's bow together in prayer.
May the words of my mouth and the
meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy
sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer,
for Jesus Christ's sake.
Amen.
I want to draw your attention to a
verse in our reading in Philippians chapter 3
and verse 10.
That I may know him and the power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his
sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if
by any means I might attain unto the
resurrection of the dead.
That I may know him and the power
of his resurrection, if by any means I
might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
My dear friends, I want to share with
you a message which is entitled, The Power
of the Resurrection.
It's a very easy thing on an Easter
Sunday morning like this, merely to recall the
historic facts of that great event that took
place some two thousand years ago and to
rejoice objectively in the knowledge that this Jesus
Christ who came from heaven's glory, who was
crucified on a Roman gibbet, was buried in
the grave, did in fact rise from the
dead.
There is no thoughtful or informed person in
the world today who can doubt or dispute
that fact.
Men and women may try to explain it
away, philosophers may seek to rationalize it, scientists
may seek to objectively analyze this phenomenon, but
it is a proven fact beyond all dispute
that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Not only on the basis of the internal
evidence of the word of God, but from
historic facts that are outside of the book
altogether, the writings of the younger plinic and
Tacitus the historian, all stand for this historic
fact that Jesus Christ did in fact rise
from the dead.
Or to quote a contemporary writer, it is
the greatest proven fact of history.
But my concern this morning is this, the
fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead
isn't having much of an impact upon the
people who are going to course down through
Fifth Avenue today to show off their good
clothes and fine bonnets and the rest.
The fact that he rose from the dead
isn't having very much effect upon international affairs
at this very moment.
The fact that he rose from the dead,
to be more personal, may not be having
the impact upon your life as it should
have.
And so I'm concerned this morning not so
much with the doctrine of the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ as with the dynamic
of the resurrection.
Not so much with the historical facts of
his rising, but the experimental power of his
rising in your life and in mine.
And my friend, unless the language of your
heart and the longing of your soul this
morning is that I might know him and
the power of his resurrection, if by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection of
the dead, then my friend, your search after
a resurrection message this morning is all in
vain.
It's purely a matter of mechanics of coming
to church on this great Sunday of the
year.
And so I want to draw your attention
to three very important facts which are implicit
in our text and those facts which become
false as they're claimed by faith and personal
appropriation.
The power of the resurrection.
First of all, the source of that resurrection
life and power.
The source of it.
That I might know him, says Paul.
Him, a person.
And the power of his resurrection.
You cannot divorce the power of the resurrection
from a resurrected Christ.
In fact, to be more specific, the resurrection
life and power of Jesus Christ are centered
in a risen Savior.
In a risen Savior.
Paul, in Romans 1 and 4, says, Jesus
Christ, who was declared to be the Son
of God with power, by the Spirit of
holiness, through or by the resurrection of the
dead.
In his letter to the Ephesians, the same
great apostle Paul tells us that this power
and might of God which raised up Jesus
Christ from the dead sets him far above
principality and power and dominion and every name
that is named, not only in this world
but that which is to come, and has
put all things under his feet.
It's in Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, that
all this power is centered.
A power which is beyond all distinctions of
human power, beyond principality and power and dominion
and every name that is named.
Name any humanistic power, his excels it.
Name any satanic power, his excels it.
Name any angelic power, and his power excels
it.
He's above all distinctions of power.
Not only distinctions of power, but every description
of power, every name that is named.
Go right down through history and name every
great leader who ever lived.
Name the great empires and civilizations that have
crumbled to dust.
And when you have named every power that
has ever emerged and swayed the scepter of
universal empire, his excels it.
And not only the distinctions and descriptions of
power, but he is set above every dispensation
of power.
Kingdoms may come, kingdoms may go.
Powers may wax, powers may wane.
But not only in this world but that
which is to come, his power is above
every name that is named, not only in
this world but that which is to come.
And as he stands on resurrection ground and
declares to his disciples, all authority is given
unto me in heaven and in earth, all
power is given unto me in heaven and
in earth, he is in fact stating this,
that there is no conceivable power in any
realm, heaven, earth, and in hell, over which
he has not conquered by his resurrection.
So that when Paul says that I may
know him and the power of his resurrection,
he is rising to a concept that leaves
us reeling here this morning.
I knelt upon my study floor and prayed
through this text in the early hours of
this morning.
I cried afresh in my soul, O God,
teach me even if it's just an end
of that mighty power which is centered in
the risen Savior.
But the source of this power is not
only centered in the risen Savior, it's communicated
by a releasing spirit.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that
when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he
became a quickening spirit.
That same mighty communication of life is described
for us in Romans chapter 8, where Paul
says the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has made us free from the law of
sin and death.
The question I want to ask you, my
dear friends, in this packed church this morning
is this.
Has that risen power, that resurrection power of
Jesus Christ, which freed from sin and death,
has that been communicated to you?
When on that first resurrection Sunday Jesus breathed
on his disciples and said, Receive ye the
gift of the Holy Ghost, receive ye the
Holy Ghost, he was in fact communicating his
resurrection life in preparation for that utter and
complete fullness and effusion of the Spirit on
the day of Pentecost.
He became not only the center of resurrection
life, he became the center of ascension life.
And our Savior not only rose from the
dead, my friends, he ascended.
And from that place, at the center of
the universe, he has poured forth his resurrection
life in the Holy Ghost.
And nobody can talk about knowing the power
of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ unless
he can say, I have been endued with
power from on high.
I know the mighty power of the Spirit
upon my life, and I am impelled and
compelled to become a witness to this risen
Christ.
The source of this resurrection life and power,
centered in a risen Savior, communicated in a
releasing Spirit.
And where the Spirit of the Lord is
in this sense, there is liberty, there is
release.
Release from sin, release from death.
Can you claim that as your experience this
morning?
Oh, that I may know him, cried the
apostle, that I may know him and the
power of his resurrection.
Well, the test as to whether or not
you do know that power will become very
apparent as we move to our next point.
For not only do we find here the
source of this resurrection life and power, centered
in a risen Savior, communicated by the releasing
Spirit, but we find here what I am
calling quite deliberately the standard of this resurrection
life and power.
The standard of this resurrection life and power.
Paul says that I may know him and
the power of his resurrection if by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection of
the dead.
This word, resurrection of the dead, in the
eleventh verse, is a very peculiar and singular
word not found anywhere else in the New
Testament.
I am persuaded and convinced and have been
for many years that this has nothing to
do with a coming resurrection.
Literally, it's the out-resurrection.
It's an experience of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ which can be known here and now.
It's a quality of life.
It's a standard of life which even excels
the life that Jesus Christ lived when here
upon earth.
That's why Paul says in that amazing passage,
although we have known Jesus Christ after the
flesh, henceforth know me him no more.
For if any man be in Christ, this
resurrected Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new.
The standard of life you are now going
to live by being linked with the resurrected
Christ is something totally above and beyond even
the life he lived here upon earth.
Although we have known Jesus Christ after the
flesh, henceforth we know him no more after
the flesh.
For if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creation.
Old things have passed away.
All things have become new.
Liberal theology would have us relegated to a
Christ who walked the dusty streets of Palestine
to view him objectively and sentimentalize the total
person of Christ by saying, see the way
he touched the heads of little children.
Look at the way he raised people to
death and broke bread.
That's the Christ we want.
And so they carnalize Christ, and they bring
him down to a human level and say,
this is the kind of Christ we want
to copy.
Pope, there's that purity.
Henceforth we know no more Christ after the
flesh.
We know him as a risen Christ, and
this demands a certain standard of living.
It's called the out-resurrection, the out-resurrection.
And here are the three salient, salient characteristics
of the life of a risen Christian linked
with a risen Savior.
Here they are.
Number one, a life of separation.
A life of separation.
Romans 1 and 4, once again.
Jesus Christ declared, horizoned, marked out, made distinctive
as the Son of God with power through
the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from
the dead.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ proved
that Jesus Christ was absolutely holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ proved
that sin could not hold him, nor indeed
could death hold him.
That's the meaning of that remarkable passage quoted
from Psalm 16.
His body couldn't see corruption.
It wasn't possible that death should hold him
down.
Why?
Because he was holy, he was spotless, he
was harmless.
And the fact that Jesus Christ is alive
today proved that he lived a life of
utter separation to God.
And his resurrection was a sign that he
was a separated man, a Nazarite indeed unto
God, declared to be the Son of God
with power through the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead.
And beloved here this morning, I want to
say this, and I want to say it
right from my heart.
No man can claim to know any link
with this resurrected Christ, this risen Lord, unless
they know the life of total separation.
A complete abandonment to God and a complete,
a complete separation from sin.
This is a life of holiness.
That's why people don't want to think of
Christ as a risen Lord.
He's too unearthly, he's too unreal, he's too
intangible.
A cause to a life of total separation.
Is that a word to many of us
here who've been hard-knobbing with sin, who
are worldly and carnal, and who try to
explain away evil in every area of life,
instead of living the separated life that God
calls all men to live, by union with
Jesus Christ, alive from the dead?
My friend, we're living in an hour when
this message is unpopular, when this message of
a life of holiness is unwanted.
We're living in an hour when men prefer
the philosophy of double standards in their moral
life, in their husband-wife relationships, and in
relationships outside of husband and wife.
We're living in an hour when immorality rages
within the Church of Jesus Christ.
I want to ask how many in this
audience this morning are going to say, I'm
going to know Jesus Christ as a risen
Savior, who demands absolute separation from sin.
But there's another characteristic, which is the positive
side of it, and it's this, not only
separation, a life of total separation, but a
life of total dedication.
When the Savior said in those words of
John chapter 10, My Father, My Father, set
me to do a task, and I laid
down my life, that I may take it
again.
This commandment have I received of My Father.
However, I want to point out, and point
out very significantly, that the dedication of Jesus
Christ wasn't complete until He rose from the
dead.
If Christ never rose from the dead, then
it would have proved that He had sinned
in His own life, and God couldn't raise
Him from the dead.
He had to pay the penalty for it.
But God raised Him from the dead to
demonstrate that His life was holy, that there
was no corruption in Him, that death couldn't
hold Him, having paid the penalty for other
people's sins.
He rose from the dead.
And the very fact that He rose from
the dead meant a completed and utter dedication
to His Father.
Listen to the words again.
They're tremendously significant.
No man taketh my life from me.
I lay it down of myself.
And I lay it down that I might
take it again.
This commandment have I received of My Father.
So that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ speaks not only a life of total
separation, it speaks of a life of total
dedication.
And the whole argument of the Apostle Paul
in Romans chapter 6 is right down this
line.
You remember he says, Yield yourself unto God
as those that are alive from the dead.
What death?
A death to self, a death to sin.
Paul has already spoken of identification with Christ
in death.
Christ not only died for me, but I
died with Christ.
And as I take my place as identified
with Christ at Calvary so that the old
life is finished with and the new life
emerges, that life, that living resurrection life is
to be yielded unto God as instruments unto
righteousness and unto holiness.
Somebody's saying, Perhaps that's why my consecration acts
and vows never seem to work out.
My friend, that's right.
That's right.
We go to all manner of conferences and
all manner of conventions and we stand up
and say, Here I am, Lord, I'm dedicated
to Thee.
I'm consecrated to Thee.
But you don't know it.
You don't know it.
God doesn't accept it.
God accepts no dedication, no act of dedication,
which is anything less than this resurrection life
of Christ in us.
That's the whole meaning of Romans chapter 12.
I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that you present your bodies, What?
A living sacrifice?
A holy sacrifice?
An acceptable sacrifice?
This is your reasonable service, not your corrupt
lives, self-centered, living carnal lives, not the
lives that are actually out of the will
of God, but lives that know identification with
Christ in death and have burnt the bridges
behind and have completely paid the last account,
so far as the old life is concerned,
and now are alive unto God.
This is the presentation that God accepts in
an act of dedication.
But the word of God goes a little
further.
Not only is the first characteristic the life
of separation, the second a life of dedication,
but the third is a life of liberation.
Jesus said these amazing words during his earthly
sojourn.
He said, I have a baptism to be
baptized with, and I'm straightened, I'm narrowed down,
I'm hampered in until it be accomplished.
What was that baptism?
That baptism was his death at Calvary.
And he says, I have a baptism to
be baptized with, and until that is accomplished,
I'm not liberated.
But when I'm accomplished, there'll be no more
limitation on me.
I'll be no longer hampered.
I'll be no longer straightened.
I have a baptism to be baptized with,
and I'm straightened until it be accomplished.
When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, all
his life was released throughout the whole universe.
That life which was held in one single
body, a human body, restricted to any given
area as he walked the dusty streets of
Palestine, was now released, and by the Holy
Spirit became available to millions and millions of
people at the very same time.
That's why Jesus said to his disciples before
he went to heaven, Whosoever believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do,
and greater works than these shall he do,
greater works than these shall he do.
Will you think through the works of our
Savior throughout those three and a half years?
Greater works than these shall he do, because
I go to my Father, which is in
heaven.
And I'm persuaded, my beloved friends here this
morning, I'm persuaded that if only you and
I knew something more of the resurrection life
of Jesus Christ, there'd be such a liberation
in our ministries, such a liberation in our
living, such a liberation in our witness, as
would astound the world, as indeed the early
disciples shook their contemporary world.
Imagine what happened in the period of some
thirty years after Jesus Christ rose from the
dead.
When that liberated life of Christ was released
to them, they evangelized a whole of a
known world.
It's never been done since, it's never been
done since, and proportionately it was one of
the greatest miracles time has ever witnessed.
And I believe if there were a half
a dozen people, only a half a dozen
people, in this place this morning, who are
prepared to say, Lord, I'm going to know
you no longer merely as a historic figure
who walked Palestine.
I'm going to know you as the risen
Christ, who having risen from the dead, has
demonstrated omnipotent power.
By the communication of the Holy Spirit, I
am available to you.
And I want to know this, I want
to know this resurrection power.
We move out of this place living lives
of separation, lives of dedication, lives of liberation,
which would rock the city of New York.
This is the whole meaning of our Savior's
passion.
In order that through his body here upon
earth he might release that life in a
way he could never release it when he
walked through Jerusalem, and through Galilee, and through
Nazareth.
It's a life which has now been liberated
by his resurrection.
That's the standard then of this resurrection life
in power.
Separation.
Dedication.
Liberation.
But there's something more.
Paul says to us here, and in this
very context, not only does he direct our
thoughts to the force of this resurrection life
in power, and to the standard of this
resurrection life in power, and sets it out
in the way we have described, but he
also gives us the strength of this resurrection
life in power.
And he points it right out here.
He says, Not as though I had already
attained, either or already perfect, but I follow
after, if I may apprehend that for which
also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and pressing on to
those things which are before, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.
And he links all that with this phrase,
If by any means I might attain unto
that out resurrection.
What is the strength?
What is the strength of this resurrection power?
Here it is.
Strength, first of all, to fulfill life's purpose.
Strength to fulfill life's purpose, but I follow
after, if that I may apprehend that for
which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Paul is thinking of the day when Christ
broke into his light on that Damascus road,
when he was split into the dust under
the light of that meridian sun, and he
saw beyond the sun a greater light, and
that light was none other than the light
of the world Jesus Christ, and he heard
the words from heaven saying, For, for, why
persecutest thou me?
Why persecutest thou me?
My friends, in the original language, the word
Jesus used that day, why persecutest thou me,
is the very word Paul uses here.
I follow after.
Same word.
I persecute.
I pursue.
I throw everything into that for which Christ
is now laid hold of me.
What was he doing before when he persecuted?
He was hailing men and women to prison.
He was causing them to blaspheme.
He was doing havoc in the church of
God, and as one historian puts it, he
did pants like an animal for the blood
of the church.
Now Paul says God has taken hold of
all this, and by the strength of his
resurrection, he has put it into another kind
of persecution, another kind of pursuit, another kind
of following, following after that for which Christ
has apprehended me.
God had laid hold of him.
God had a purpose for his life, and
now all his energies are strengthened by the
resurrected Christ to pursue that purpose for which
Christ had apprehended him.
My friend, did you know this, that God
has a plan for your life?
Did you know this, that God has a
purpose for your life?
Ultimately it is that you might be conformed
to the image of his Son, that you
might be Jesus again, identified with him in
character and conduct, not only down here, but
by and by when you get to glory,
that the whole purpose of the passion of
Christ, his death and resurrection, is that he
might bring many sons to glory and that
he might make people look just like Jesus.
Now it's only through the strength of the
resurrection that we can follow after and pursue
that full purpose of life.
Secondly, Paul says, I know this strength of
the resurrection, not only to fulfill life's purpose,
but to forsake life's preoccupation.
Reverend, I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind.
Telling you, my friends, one of the greatest
problems in Christian living is to live in
the past, to remember our failures and successes,
and fail to go beyond them.
Paul says, if you know the strength, if
you know the strength of resurrection, you'll be
able to forsake and forget the things which
are behind.
Sir Winston Churchill, who was honored so remarkably
a few days ago, said when he was
over here during the war, or just after
the war, an amazing statement.
He said, if the present quarrels with the
past, there can be no future.
If the present quarrels with the past, there
can be no future.
If we keep on quarreling with the past
and stay with it, we ruin our future.
There is a strength that God gives us
to be able to say, why?
What is behind is behind.
Failure?
God forgive me.
Success?
God be praised.
But I'm not holding back, and I'm not
looking back.
I'm forsaking the things which are behind, and
I'm moving forward.
Why don't we move forward as a Christian
church?
Why don't we enter the new areas that
God is calling us to open up?
Why aren't we exploring great distance of new
experience in the Holy Ghost and evangelism and
missionary enterprise?
Why?
We haven't the strength to forget the things
which are behind.
But in the last place, not only strength
to fulfill the purpose of life, and strength
to forsake the preoccupations of life, but I
say finally, strength to foresee the promotion of
life.
I press toward the mark for the prize,
for the prize, for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ.
My dear friends, I have never been more
convinced in all my life of the imminence
of the Lord's return as I am in
these days.
I believe Jesus Christ is coming back again,
and we're all going to be ushered into
His presence.
We're going to stand before that judgment seat
of Christ.
Paul foresees that day.
He says, I press toward the mark.
He uses the same word.
I persecute.
I pursue.
I follow through toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in
Christ.
In this very last letter he says, I
have fought a good fight.
I have kept the faith.
I have finished my course.
Henceforth there is laid up for me the
crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day, and
not unto me only, but unto them also
that love is appearing.
He can see the crowning day.
He can see the very crown of righteousness.
He can see that symbol that spells faithful
service and the pleasure of his Lord and
the reward at the Savior's hand.
He can see that eternal kingdom, and he
can see his place of responsibility given him
at that day.
And with confidence he says, Henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give
me at that day.
I wonder what would happen if I asked
this morning for everybody who has that confidence
to stand up on their feet and say,
If Jesus came this moment, if I was
struck down and had to go to death,
through death, to my Savior, I have absolute
confidence without any shadow of a doubt that
that crown is awaiting me.
I wonder how many of you could say
that.
Have you the strength to foresee life's promotion?
Have you the strength to forsake life's preoccupation?
Have you the strength to pursue and fulfill
life's great purpose?
If you haven't, then will your prayer this
morning be that I may know him and
the power of his resurrection.
We've seen the force, the standard, and the
strength.
Do you know this dynamic of his resurrection
in your life?
That's the purpose of our service this Easter
morning.
God give you the strength to enter into
it by faith through the communication of the
Holy Spirit and the mighty, mighty link with
this risen Savior.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, oh, write this word upon my
heart and our hearts and grant that not
one of us shall leave this place this
morning until we can honestly say, I am
linked, I am linked by faith indissolubly with
the Christ of resurrection, the Christ of triumph.
That our lives may display all these glorious
characteristics of a resurrected and exalted Lord.
Write this word then upon our hearts and
make it a word of victory for every
one of us.
For Jesus Christ's sake.
Amen.
You have just heard a pre-Easter message
brought to us by the Reverend Stephen F.
Oldford, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church of New
York City.