I am not asking you if you believe in the resurrection, or if you have pondered the miracle of the resurrection, or if you go to church on Easter Sunday. But are you experiencing the resurrection in your daily life?
In order to understand what I am asking, we must note that there are three resurrections relevant to the Christian life:
- There is the Resurrection of the Past. This includes the physical resurrection of Jesus from the grave 2000 years ago. It also includes our personal spiritual resurrection when we were born again, described in Ephesians 2.
- There is the Resurrection of the Future. Every human being without exception will one day be resurrected in his or her body, both the righteous and unrighteous. Note the words of Jesus in John 5:28-29, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”
- But there is a third resurrection stressed in the New Testament – The Resurrection of the Present. Now most Christians know about the resurrection of the past and future, but never think of the resurrection of the present. That is, they don’t realize or care about the fact that there is dwelling in their mortal bodies the same power which raised Jesus from the dead which God wants to release in their lives if they would only surrender all to Jesus. Illustration of Martha (John 11:23-25).
Now the best way for us to comprehend this glorious truth is to give illustrations of those who experience the power of the resurrection in their lives, so I will list five of them.
- Two followers of Jesus on the Emmaus Road. Three days after the resurrection, they started walking on the road to Emmaus, 7 miles out of Jerusalem, believing Jesus is dead. They are filled with despair and hopelessness, until the risen Lord joins them along the way and begins to expound Scriptures, proving He is risen from the dead. Then they became so excited that looking back on the experience, they said, “Did not our hearts burn within us as He walked with us along the way and expounded to us the Scripture?” (Luke 24:32) Then they rushed to Jerusalem to share the good news.
- The Early Church. The power and excitement of the early Christians are seen in the book of Acts. Why? They were experiencing the resurrection. Acts 4:33 says, “And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection, and great grace was upon them all.” The apostles were not proclaiming the resurrection as an historic event but as a transforming experience in their lives.
- The Church in South Korea. The greatest work of God since Pentecost has been transpiring in South Korea. I visited South Korea to witness the miracles and became a close friend and associate of Dr. Paul Yongi Cho, pastor of a 800,000 member church. I asked him to explain the miracle. Among other things he said, “In South Korea we call Christians, “The Resurrected Ones,” not just believers or Pentecostals, Baptists, etc because they are experiencing the power of the resurrection in their lives.” Then he took me to Prayer Mountain where I saw hundreds of them praying in a Prayer Chapel which seated 10,000.
- The Apostle Paul. The secret of Paul’s phenomenal life was that he experienced the resurrection on a daily basis the resurrection. To this he testifies on several occasions:
- 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” The apostle is simply stating that he died to sin and self at the cross and began to permit Jesus to live His resurrection life through him.
- 6:14, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
- 3:10-11, “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.” Paul prayed these words at the end of his life. He was certainly not praying that he would be resurrected physically in his body; he knew that would occur and powerfully defended the resurrection of the body of believers in 1 Cor. 15. What he means is that he is praying for a moral and spiritual resurrection that will lift him out of the defeat of his flesh into the victory of living in the power of Christ’s resurrection.
- Ephesians 1:18-19, “The eyes of your heart being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which He wrought in Jesus when He raised Him from the dead.” In this prayer Paul is writing that all believers experience in their daily lives the same power which raised Jesus from the dead, since in every born again believer “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells” (Romans 8:11).
What must a person do to experience the resurrection? He must die to sin and self. When Billy Williams was asked how he managed to live such a life, he said, “I died to self and sin and let the resurrected life of Jesus fill my life.”
Conclusion: There can never be a resurrection until there is a death. Jesus had to die before he was resurrected. So must we. The apostle Paul said, “I have been crucified – that is, I died – with Christ; nevertheless I live (the ego) yet not I (the ego) but Christ liveth in me…” Gal. 2:20. He spoke the same truth in 2 Cor. 4:11, “I bear in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus…