Knowing Him in the Power of His Resurrection

I'd like to begin by reading a few verses from 1 Corinthians 15, starting at verse 3. Paul is speaking. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, then He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, however, some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared.

If you say that you believe Jesus rose from the dead, it can mean basically one of two things. It can mean that this is what you were taught, and that you accept it along with all other things that can't be proven. Or, if you say you believe Jesus rose from the dead, it also can mean that at some point you encountered Him, met Him in the power of His resurrection in some unmistakable way, and that you now know Him in the power of His resurrection and are in the process of getting to know Him even better.

Now the Jews and Greeks and Africans and Romans who within a brief time span of seventy years from the time Jesus was crucified shook the earth, shook the civilized world, believed that Jesus rose from the dead. Not because somebody told them that that's part of the package you have to accept when you become a Christian, but because they met Him alive from the dead. Jesus visited their assemblies.

Jesus spoke to them. Jesus poured out His resurrection Spirit upon them. He opened their blind eyes.

He opened their deaf ears. In some clear way, Jesus raised those people from the dead. Now the blessings which have been flowing in this congregation, particularly in the last seventeen years, starting on Palm Sunday of 1970 when the Spirit was poured out upon us in a wonderful way, and this thing's been going on ever since, the blessings that we have seen are but a scratch on the surface of the possibilities.

The changes we've experienced in our own lives and have been able in some cases to impart to others are only the beginning of what God has in mind for this body and doubtless for others as well, many others. But this anointing of life, which clearly the Lord is promising to us and offering to us, hinges on our knowing Jesus in the power of His resurrection. Not as a second-hand doctrine somebody taught us, but as a direct encounter.

Not as a mountaintop experience you had at some point in your past and you remember once in a while, but as a day-in and day-out ongoing walk with Jesus. A communion with the firstborn of the dead that continues all the time in your daily life. When this body knows Jesus in the power of His resurrection in that way, we will not only be alive from the dead ourselves, we will raise others from the dead.

The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear shall live. Philippians chapter 3 verse 7, Paul again is speaking, But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as garbage in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, a righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him, Jesus. In the power of His resurrection, in the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that if possible I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Now we can't know Jesus in the fellowship of His sufferings, we can't become like Him in His death until we first know Him in the power of His resurrection.

We need to know Him and walk with Him and talk with Him and serve with Him in the power of His resurrected life. That's our essential need. Now, the apostolic believers were given a privilege and a responsibility which are not ours.

They saw Jesus alive from the dead with the natural eye. Mary Magdalene saw Him first and was never the same again. The disciples saw Him.

Peter still covered with shame for his behavior the night of Jesus' arrest, sees Jesus alive from the dead and received comfort. Their privilege was that they saw Him with the natural eye alive from the dead. Their responsibility was to tell us what they saw.

The New Testament is their witness to us of what they saw. Yet, even for the apostolic believers, even for them, the encounter with the risen Lord that set them on fire and raised them from the dead and changed their lives did not come to them until they were on level ground with us. That is, until Jesus was no longer visible to this eye or reachable, touchable with His hand.

Fifty days after Easter, ten days after the Ascension, they are gathered together in Jerusalem and suddenly they hear the sound from heaven, like the rush of a mighty wind, fills all the house where they are sitting. They look at each other and see these flames dancing over one another's heads. And they are filled with the Spirit and begin to speak with other languages as the Spirit gives them utterance.

They are filled with resurrection light. Immediately, for the first time really, these believers now begin to speak what they know. They go out pretty soon, as they move out into the streets, and they do that right away.

We ought to do the same. Crowds gather and they begin to listen. And we hear Peter speaking on that day after he received the outpouring of the resurrection Spirit of Jesus.

And the testimony they give is to Jesus, alive from the dead, as evidence that He is indeed Lord. Reading from Acts chapter 2, verse 22, Peter now, Peter is speaking. Man of Israel, hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through Him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up, according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised Him up, having loosed the pangs of death because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this which you see and hear. Peter met Jesus in the power of His resurrection on the day of Pentecost.

Paul met Jesus in the power of His resurrection to be filled with the Spirit. And these people and all the others with them continued to pursue knowledge of Jesus in the power of His resurrection all through their lives. This was their supreme joy and it was their great need.

And exactly this is the case for us. Our supreme need and our great joy is to know Jesus, first of all, in the power of His resurrection. So how do we do it? From His side, the Lord has done everything already.

From His side, He died for our sins, washed them away in His blood, rose from the dead again, and He continues to visit believers when they make it possible. He comes to them, manifests Himself to them, speaks to them, pours out His resurrection life upon them when they open the door to Him. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.

Who is this who stands at the door and knocks? It is the risen Lord. He's standing at the door and He's speaking and He's knocking upon our hearts now. There is a call going out from Him to us right now.

All we have to do, all we have to do is open the door. It's so simple and so easy yet we make it so hard because we're afraid to open the door. I mean, this is my heart.

I'm going to hold on to it. This is my life. I ain't going to have somebody come in here and move me around and push me around.

I want to be in control. I want to give up control of my life to anybody, not even the Lord. I'm willing to watch Him from the window, I'm willing to give up control of my life and yet to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection, that's exactly what's required.

We have to give Him eyes. We have to submit to His Lordship. We have to let Him take charge.

That's exactly what the apostolic believers did. People say, how come all those wonderful things happened back then? Those apostolic believers opened the door, gave Him control in three specific ways. One, they put their lives under His cross.

Two, they stuck together in His body. And three, they fed His sheep. And as they did that, they experienced Jesus and the power of His resurrection.

He came to them, sustained them, kept them going, made them alive. Today is Easter. Fifty days from today will be Pentecost.

June 7th. Between today and Pentecost, let's concentrate on these three things as a body here. Again, so nobody gets me wrong, I'm not trying to legislate anything.

I'm not trying to play God. But I'm inviting anybody who is serious about knowing Him better and finding this thing in a real way to join us in concentrating, one, on putting our lives under His cross. Two, sticking together in His body.

And three, feeding His sheep. And as we do that, watch what happens. We will know Jesus in the power of His resurrection when we put our lives under His cross.

Going back into Philippians 3, jumping back to verse 4b, Paul is saying, If any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered the loss, notice that, the loss, the loss, the loss, of all things, and count them as garbage, refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. In Galatians 6, is it? He says, Far be it for me to glory except in the cross of Christ Jesus, my Lord, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

See, He suffered the loss of all things. He gladly let go of them. It wasn't worth it, because this is what I really want.

And not only did Paul do that, every one of the apostolic believers who had any experience of the Lord at all, did the same thing. They walked out of all the things they considered important so they could have Him. They let go of the rest.

They went down into the grave. They put it under the power of His cross so that they could be freed. Nobody can know Jesus in the power of His resurrection unless they're willing to come under the power of His cross and die to themselves.

There's no other way. It's only as we're crucified to the vanity of this world that the life of the kingdom gets hold of us and begins to move in us. And so I need to ask, is my life under the cross? Are my possessions under the cross? Are my ambitions and my obsessions under the cross? How about my resentments and my... and these complaints that have been walking around festering in my heart for years, a day under the cross? If they were, they wouldn't be there anymore.

They'd be gone. Let's begin today to take all of that and put it under the cross. Going down with our Lord into His death, die to our narrow, petty ways that we might rise with Him to newness of life in this world right now.

We will know Jesus in the power of His resurrection as we stick together in His body. Much of American Christendom is supermarket Christendom. You come in, fill your basket, check out of the cashier and you're on your way and the heck with the rest.

But it doesn't work. We all want to do it. I like my privacy very much and I'm sure we all do.

Listen to what happens here in Acts chapter 1, verse 4. While staying with them, Jesus charged them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, You heard from Me. For John indeed baptized with water, but before many days you're going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Stay in Jerusalem.

Don't just stay inside the city limits. Stay together. And they did.

When the spirit of the resurrection came, they were together in one place. They were together. They could not survive in isolation.

Not one of them could make it alone. Everyone who drifts away dies out. They were together.

They worked together. They prayed together. They served together.

They had their differences. They got angry with each other. They had to work through things like any healthy marriage.

They had to deal with each other. But they stuck together. They were committed and they held on to that no matter what.

You know, it's interesting. Sometimes you see a family that might like cats and dogs, but as soon as the crisis comes, BAM! They're right there and they work together. And that's a gorgeous thing.

And that shows you where they really are. Well, you and I are living in a continuous crisis if we can only see it. And we need to stick together in this body.

If you are in unity around me, says Jesus, whatever you ask, whatever you bind on earth, is going to be bowed in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth is going to be loosed in heaven. Where two of you agree on earth, touching anything that you'll ask, it will be done by my Father in heaven.

Because when two or three are gathered in my name, that is, in unity, there am I in the midst of them and I'm there in the power of my resurrection. He put us together in this body. We didn't pick each other out.

You didn't go down the line and say, well, I think, okay, you and you and you. We were thrown together almost the same as if we did as we came into this life. You didn't pick your mother and daddy.

You know, and sometimes as we were growing up, we wished we had. And as our kids grow up, they wish they had. He called us to function together in unity and he gives us the charge to walk together, serve together, wash feet together in his name.

And as we do, we have life. The resurrection spirit of the Lord is not contained in the individual believer. It's contained in the body.

We are his temple, the temple for the Lord of his spirit as the body. Together we take the power of the age to come, the new world, and we bear it together into this dark, crumbling, decaying world out there and bring it some hope and some healing. Reading from John chapter 17, verse 22, Jesus is praying.

He says, The glory which thou hast given me, father, I have given to them that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfectly one so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. Each of us has to ask, am I contributing, yielding to that unity or am I hindering it? Before God we have to ask that. And all of us can find places where we hinder it.

May God help us now to yield to that prayer that it may be fulfilled in us so that as a body we may experience and minister Jesus in the power of his resurrection. And finally, we will know Jesus in the power of his resurrection as we feed his sheep. It was the risen Lord who said, Simon son of John, do you love me? Peter says, oh, here we go again.

Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Feed my sheep.

Peter obeyed that command that he was restored to health and life by the resurrected Lord. First thing that happens on Pentecost when the Spirit falls is that Peter starts to feed the sheep. Feeds the multitudes with a living word, living bread.

Spends the rest of his life feeding the sheep. And it was this feeding of the sheep which put him in a position of being continuously renewed by the resurrected Jesus. Now when we talk about feeding the sheep we're not talking about random feeding of the sheep.

You know, when you're in the mood, when you have a little extra time, we're talking about organizing our entire life in response to his command to feed the sheep. Which means our daily work, the neighborhood where we live, our family, our friends, and our commitment to the body here are all to be seen as the Lord's call and that every one of these relationships somehow is to be used in feeding the sheep. You know, you don't have to start by waiting until you're in Hong Kong to do it.

You can do it right here. There are sheep to be fed right here. And then if God wants you in Hong Kong, he'll get you there.

Somehow he'll guide us there. And as we do that, feed the sheep, pray for them, talk to them, share with them, wash their feet, the power of an endless light comes to us and sustains us. The fire of the Lord burns within us like a torch.

So it took the disciples 50 days really to get to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection. They didn't know him that way until their eyes no longer could see him. They sustained that knowledge, that relationship with him by continuously opening the door to him, constantly pressing on to know him better.

Every one of us in this place can know him far better than we know now in the power of his resurrection. So let's use this Easter season right through to Pentecost, June 7th, to concentrate on putting our lives under his cross, sticking together in his body, feeding his sheep, that we may know him in the power of a life that knows no death. Perhaps there are maybe one or two people here who know that today's the day to make a new start.

And if you feel that way, if you hear the knock on the door of your heart, then during the time of silence we're going to have now, or during the hymn which will follow that, feel free to come on down to the altar rail and somebody will pray with you. You can just stay here as long as you like. You'll go on your way rejoicing and quickened and blessed and healed.

Let's take a time of silence and let the Lord just speak to our hearts now.