Resurrection Power
As we approach Easter in the final two weeks of Lent, we hear the story of how Jesus raised his good friend Lazarus back from the dead – a pivotal moment in the gospel that points toward Jesus’ own Resurrection.
Resurrection is a common theme in both the old and new testaments. The patterns, symbols and harvest imagery run throughout the scriptures and show us that these were not just isolated events, but declarations that God is in the business of promoting life ..... and there’s nothing like bringing back someone from the dead to make people sit up and notice.
All the resurrections, or maybe we should call them resuscitations, had a common theme – each person was brought back to their old life – whether they wanted it or not. We can assume they all had their opportunities to tell everyone of their full death experience, but all would eventually have to settle back down into a similar existence and ultimately ‘die again’.
But the resurrection of Christ was something different – why was this?
Because Jesus was changed.
He didn’t rise from the dead back into his old body – the one that had hung on the cross, naked, bruised, torn apart, pierced, lashed and not humanly recognisable. No. He was raised and received His immortal body. The one in which he ascended into heaven with. The one in which Mary didn’t recognise at first because the last time she’d seen Him, He was in his ‘old’ body - the one that was bloodied and decaying. Burdened down with our sin.
The new immortal Jesus had gone through a transition. A rebirth if you like – into a body that was able to make the journey from here to eternity. Death had been gobbled up. Death, as the normal and very final act of humanity had been turned upside down into the beginning of a new life which offered hope and blessed assurance that His followers through faith in Him could also enjoy and experience.
The apostle Paul tells us that “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor 15:22). Adam, the first man, dragged humanity into corruption; Christ, the “last Adam”, pioneers the reversal. Just as the firstfruits belonged to God and consecrated the rest of the crop (Numbers 18:12-13), so Christ’s consecrated body secures the destiny of those united to Him (Romans 6:5).
Lazarus (John 11) and Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5), as well as the others, returned to mortal life; they were like stalks cut, restored, but destined to wilt again. Christ’s body, by contrast, is “imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:42), the inaugural specimen of the new creation. Therefore, He alone merits the title firstfruits, not merely first in time but first in kind.
What made Jesus’ life imperishable was the breath and power of God and this is what was shown to Ezekiel as he travelled in time by the Spirit towards the cross. He saw the nation of Israel resurrected from impossible circumstances.
As those dry bones lay in front of him, no human remedy could alter the scene of hopelessness, helplessness and total inability and is the picture God paints to describe the condition of Israel and indeed every unregenerate human soul.
God asks the question “ can these bones live?” But Ezekiel acknowledges that only God can answer His own question. “You know” he says.
Human logic would say no. God’s command seems absurd to human reason. “Speak to the bones, preach to what is dead”.
The task is not to organise the bones, preserve or bury them, but to declare the Word over them. The bones have no capacity to respond as they are incapable of responding. It’s God’s Word that imparts the life. Those bones needed the breath of God spoken over them.
True preaching is the proclamation of God’s Word and when accompanied by the Spirit’s power – resurrection power – it raises what was dead and unresponsive to God, to life.
God doesn’t rescue us by entertainment, psychology or political reform. Preaching is not entertainment - Nor is it motivational speaking. It is not emotional manipulation, nor is it polished rhetoric.
He speaks. His word goes forth and life comes to the dead.
The dry bones came together, the sinews, flesh and skin. Structure forms but still there is no life. The form is there but not the substance. Without the spirit of God there is no life. It’s not until the Spirit of Life enters the bones that true regeneration enters them.
This is the spiritual reality of resurrection power.
Paul writes again to the Ephesians “you were dead in your trespasses and sins”. That is the human condition apart from Christ. Unresponsive. Helpless. Salvation is resurrection from spiritual death by the sovereign grace of God. There is nothing we can do to earn it. In Romans 8 Paul goes on to say: “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Without the Spirit of life, we remain in the valley of dry bones and only God can call us out.
But take heart! The same God who spoke through Ezekiel, still speaks today. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is in you. His Gospel still has eternal power.
There are few things more awe-inspiring than standing on the beach watching the tide roll in. The water comes regardless of what's in it's path. We cannot interfere with the tide nor command the waves to stop. It moves with a deep, rhythmic power that is completely outside of our control.
The gospel is a lot like that tide.
Throughout history, governments have tried to legislate it away, critics have tried to mock it into silence, and darkness has tried to extinguish its light. But like the sunrise or the tide, the good news of Jesus Christ and His resurrection is an unstoppable force of heaven.
In the first century, if you wanted to see unstoppable power, you looked to Rome. Rome had the legions, the laws, and the swords. The early Christian movement, by comparison, looked incredibly weak. Its leader had been executed on a Roman cross. Its greatest missionaries and apostles were frequently beaten and imprisoned. To the casual observer, it looked like Rome held all the cards and Christendom was just a puff of wind.
But the Apostle Paul knew a secret. He knew that the power of Rome was superficial — it could force compliance, but it couldn’t change a heart. The gospel, however, is the power of God (Romans 1:16). It works from the inside out.
Paul wrote to his fellow believer Timothy from a cold dungeon, saying:
“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained” (2 Timothy 2:8-9, emphasis added).
Paul understood that you can lock up the messenger, but you cannot lock up the message. While Emperor Nero was busy trying to crush “superstition and conspiracy” about Jesus, the love of Christ was spreading like wildfire through the very heart of the empire. It was and still is unstoppable.
This is our great hope today. When we look at the world and feel overwhelmed by darkness or hostility toward our faith, we must remember: The gospel has survived empires before. It has outlasted every tyrant who has tried to destroy it. We carry a message that cannot be stopped because it is powered by the resurrection life of Jesus.
We can be bold — not because we are strong but because the Truth we carry is invincible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMxtcGl8YgE&t=1s