Sermon for Sunday, September 28, 2003

Harnessing The Power Of The Resurrection by Dr. Craig  Nelson

Philippians 3:10-10

Since becoming a believer, I have always wanted to “know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.” (Philippians 3:10) I really desired to understand the “power of His resurrection.”

As a young Christian, I became involved in a church that was way over the emotional edge and I was convinced that type of behavior was part of a normal Christian life. I thought all “true” Christians were to express themselves that way. I wanted to experience the resurrection power of the “Holy Ghost”. I thought this “power” was some supernatural force that was given to “zap” people and knock them over.

I see many today who continue to seek God’s power in the same way as a "thing" or a "force" that can be used for their own needs and wants. There is a serious problem with this thinking. The “power” of the resurrection isn’t a “thing” or some “force”—it is love!

It was love that exploded Jesus out of the tomb! It was love that sent Jesus into the world! Listen! "God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) God loved us so much that He sent the Son, Jesus, to die for us. It is His love that holds the universe together and that will remain when everything else passes away.

It’s far easier for many to understand the power of the resurrection as a kind of physical might, or an explosive force such as dynamite. Many want that kind of power in their lives because they want to defeat their problems. They want the power to blow away those things that trouble them.

When you realize that the power of the resurrection is love and not some “thing” you can use like a tool, you have the predicament of learning how to appropriate it. It’s a lot easier to destroy things than it is to love. Loving is the hardest task of all, and you can’t do it on your own. In fact, you can’t even love God on your own. You have to ask Jesus to give you the love to love Him back.

Of all the hundreds of laws in the Old Testament, Jesus narrowed them down to just two. When asked by a Pharisee "Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38)

It’s easy for us in the natural realm to understand the difference between right and wrong when it is clearly marked before us, such as a traffic sign. We drive down the street and when we see a stop sign, we stop because it says to stop! If a line is drawn in front of us that we are not supposed to cross, we don’t cross it. Those are things we can do because they are clearly defined.

When God says we are supposed to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind, we find ourselves in a real quandary because we don’t have clearly defined signs in front of us.

Jesus then gave the second law: "Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:38-40) Jesus is saying that loving your neighbor as yourself is the same as loving God with every cell of your being!

Now comes the real test: How are you supposed to love your neighbor when you can’t stand yourself? You may live in defeat, you may even hate yourself. Many go to 12-Step programs three days a week and help make psychotherapists rich by trying to deal with the garbage inside of them. Yet they don’t deal with the real problems within because they can’t handle the reality of who is to blame. Their lives stay miserable. They see themselves as useless.

You can’t love your neighbor if you don’t know how to love yourself. You can only learn to love yourself and love God with all your heart, soul, and mind by giving up and giving in to your Creator.

The Old Rugged Cross

During the early years of my Christian walk I spent much of it clinging to the Cross. The song "The Old Rugged Cross” was my favorite. The cross is where I found real life and liberty. I wasn’t afraid of its cleansing power either. If “carrying my cross daily” meant suffering, I didn’t care. It didn’t bother or concern me because I just held on to it for dear life.

Many Christians, once they are “saved,” are afraid of the personal effects of the cross and don’t even want to get near it because crucifixion represents death and dying. They know they must die to self, but they often think that in order to die to self they must perform a kind of spiritual suicide or self-humiliation because they have to put their old ways to death.

What is misunderstood is that you can’t crucify yourself. Imagine trying to physically crucify yourself! If you take a nail in one hand and a hammer in the other, you can pound a nail through your feet. If you hold a nail just right, you can pound it through one hand, but what happens to the other hand? There is no way to hammer a nail through it. It’s impossible. We need someone else to crucify us. We can’t do it on our own. Sadly, some even think that “crucify yourself daily” means to put yourself down, or mentally berate yourself to keep your thoughts pure, and focus on what is holy and righteous.

I used to verbally kick myself to sleep at night because I hated the things I did. As a young Christian I saw myself as a terrible hypocrite.

Then someone came along and said, “You can’t crucify yourself! Jesus has to do it. He is the one who puts the old man to death. The only way it can be done is to surrender fully to Him by asking Him to be your leader and forgiver.”

As a Christian you have already been put to death in Him. The crucifixion of Jesus lasted for six hours. In those six hours, Jesus paid the ultimate price to guarantee access to God the Father. It did not then, nor does it now, take a lifetime of performing good deeds or working at living a pure and righteous life.
From the cross, Jesus went into the tomb. It was within the tomb that He experienced the power of the resurrection. He opened the way for you to receive eternal life. Please understand—I’m not discussing the benefits of the cross! They last for all eternity. What often happens is that we tend to stay at, or constantly go back to, the cross for things that have already been put to death by Jesus. It’s time to press on into His newness of life so that we might truly know the power of the resurrection.

The Agony of Gethsemane

Before Jesus was resurrected He had to spend three days in the tomb. In order to be resurrected He first had to die. However, before He was crucified, He had to go through the agony and suffering of Gethsemane. It was there in the garden that Jesus, so overwhelmed by the terror of being separated with the Father for the first time in all of eternity, that He sweat blood to the “point of death.” Yet, even with the sheer terror of the unknown facing Him, He “fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matt 26:38-39 NIV)

If you truly desire to experience, and live in, the power of the resurrection, God’s infinite love, you must say to Jesus, "I can’t love You on my own. I’m asking You to give me the love I need so I can love You back."

Sharing in the “fellowship of His suffering” means coming to the place where you can honestly and completely pray, just as Jesus did, “Not my will but yours be done.” Positionally your old nature was already put to death once and for all at the moment of salvation. However, the effects of the old nature must still be put to death on a daily basis. There needs to be a daily Crucifixion of the old nature by dying to self. It requires the total giving up of your own wants, needs and desires. When you do that you will realize that there is nothing within you, apart from Jesus, that can get you to the place you need to be.

If you desire complete healing of your spirit, mind and body as well as become a vessel that can be used to bring healing to others, you can only find it through the power of the resurrection. But first you must walk the only path that takes you there, the path which runs through the Garden of Gethsemane and to the cross.