Resurrection Day 2025 - Resurrection Power for Life

Resurrection Day 2025

Death and Resurrection

Selected Scriptures

 We are celebrating the most significant of all the celebrations of Christianity today. We celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord because of all that is bound up in that magnificent event. So much salvation’s significance is tied to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The reason Paul wrote 58 verses in 1 Cor. 15 to explain the resurrection is because there was so much to understand about what the Resurrection of Christ meant regarding our salvation. The event most celebrated is the birth of Jesus Christ. There is no salvation in His birth. We remember often the death of Christ. We do this as we partake of the elements of the Lord’s Table. While it is important to understand the significance of the death of Christ, if He died and remained dead, we are still in our sins. His death was meaningless without the Resurrection.

 This is why the New Testament gives so much space to presenting the accounts of the Resurrection. It is included in all four gospels. The book of Acts is the record of the Apostles’ proclamation of the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The letters to the churches explain the meaning and relevance and purpose of the death of Christ and His Resurrection. The New Testament is full of passages we could go to and learn something of the importance and implications of the Resurrection today.

 I don’t need to spend any time among this group trying to convince you of the historical truthfulness of the Resurrection. You know it happened because you believe the Bible to be the word of God and the word of God tells us that it happened. I listened to John MacArthur’s podcasts this week and his messages were directed not at proving the Resurrection, but at what the Resurrection proved. He detailed how it proved the truthfulness of the word of God. Jesus predicted His resurrection and it happened. The word of God can be trusted. It proved the deity of the Son of God. He had power over death. Only God has the power over death. The Resurrection proves His deity. His Resurrection proves that our justification was accomplished. God raised Jesus from the dead to show that He was satisfied with the sacrifice of His Son as full and sufficient payment for the penalty owed because of our sin. His Resurrection took Him to the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us. There were several more things that the Resurrection proves.

 Today I want to look at the relevance of the Resurrection to our lives and the way we live as followers of Christ. The Resurrection provides the promise and provision of resurrection power for life in this world, here and now. All the benefits of the Resurrection are not just for sometime in the future. I know that I can say with Job that after I am dead I will see God in my flesh. Job believed in the Resurrection. I accept all that Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15. Because Christ was raised from the dead, just like the Scriptures tell us He did, we have hope far beyond what we have in this life only. Jesus rose as the first fruits of those who are asleep. His resurrection is the proof that all His enemies have been put under His feet. Just as His body was sown an earthly body and raised a heavenly body, so will we be in our future, resurrected bodies. I believe, and I appreciate, and I rejoice in all that the resurrection guarantees concerning the future.

 But the Scriptures tell us that there is not just future implications of the resurrection, but present and powerful implications for my life, and your life, in the here and now. The Resurrection has tremendous implications for the future. But I want to show you the implications for us now. The Resurrection can and should impact the way we live as followers of Christ. The New Testament tells us that there is the provision of resurrection power, not just to raise us from the dead, but to enable us to live for God’s glory in this life. But like so many other things provided, many Christians don’t live in the reality of this provision because they don’t understand what is required to experience this power.

 So what I want to show you today is the provision of resurrection power, the prerequisite to experience this power, and finally, a person who did, in fact, walk in the resurrection power of Christ in his life as a follower of Christ…

 Let’s begin with the provision of resurrection power in the life of a Christian. Let’s look at Ephesians 1:15-21. In the verses we just read, Paul is praying for the Ephesians to understand all that God has done in the great work of salvation. The first part of the chapter begins with the proclamation that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Paul is praying that believers would understand these blessings and learn to walk in the reality of those blessings.

Paul prays that the eyes of the heart of believers would be enlightened to know “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. This power is in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about when He raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. This is a prayer of Paul for the Ephesian believers that they would understand the greatness of the power of God to bring to pass all that He has promised and provided in the great work of salvation. Paul is not praying for this power to be given. He knows God has made the power available. He is praying that they would know the power that is being provided to us who believe. 

 Paul wants us to know this power because it is no insignificant thing. Paul later writes in Ephesians, in 3:20 of the power of God working in us that is able to do far more exceedingly beyond all that we ask or think. The power of God is available and working in the lives of God’s true children. It is the power God put on display when He raised Jesus from the dead.

 In Colossians 1:29 Paul describes his determination in the work of ministry and he says, “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” God’s power is available to us. It is power that works mightily. It is power that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think. It is power that is according to the strength of God’s might which He brought about when He raised Christ from the dead. I am sure that we all could benefit from a little resurrection power as we deal with the struggles, challenges, difficulties, and disappointments that are inevitable realities in this life. We could use this power in our struggle against sin, the flesh, and the devil. We need this power if we are to live the kind of life that glorifies our Resurrected Lord.

 The obvious question, then, for each of us to ask ourselves this morning is, “Am I walking in the fullness of the power God is making available to me?” If so, praise the Lord. If not, then why not? If not, it isn’t because God is holding out on us. It isn’t because God only makes this power available to a few. Paul was not praying that the eyes of the hearts of the pastor would be enlightened to know these things. 

 So then, what does it take for us to know this power? By the way, Paul’s prayer was that the Ephesians would not just know about this power. His prayer was that they would know this power by experience, that they would fully understand the power of the resurrection because they had come to experience it as a reality in their lives. So what must happen if we are to know the surpassing greatness of His power that raised Christ from the dead?

 This brings us to the prerequisite. This power is provided, but there is a prerequisite. There is something that must happen before resurrection power can be experienced. What is the prerequisite? It is the same for us as it was for Jesus. What did Jesus have to do before He could experience resurrection power? He had to die. There is no resurrection power apart from death. There isn’t a need for resurrection power if there is no death. But when death happens, there is the opportunity for the resurrection power of God to be known.

 Let me show you a passage where Jesus taught this very principle. Turn to John 12. We are going to look at verses 20-26 but we need to set the context. This event happens just after the triumphal entry of Jesus. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover. He knows He will be the Passover’s sacrificial Lamb. He has an appointment with the Cross. He is on His way to the Cross. He has told His disciples that this was going to happen, but they don’t get it. He is the only One who understands what is about to happen.

Jesus is being escorted by a large crowd of very curious and excited people. Back in John 11 there is the account of the resurrection of Lazarus. This event caused quite a stir. The people were flocking to see a man who was raised from the dead after being in the grave for four days. And they had great hopes regarding the Man who could raise someone from the dead after being in the grave for four days.

 Messianic expectations were at a fever pitch. Everyone had the same question. Is Jesus the Messiah? Is He the long-expected One? Is He about to go into Jerusalem and establish His throne, and overthrow the Roman invaders, and raise up Israel once again as a great military and religious power? So the masses of people were flocking to Him. Look at verses 17-19.

 Let’s see what we find in verses 20-26. “Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast…” These were probably some converts to Judaism. Some speculate that they may have been opportunistic businessmen who went where there were a lot of people for financial opportunities. These Greeks want to see Jesus. Verse 21 tells us they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee. They likely came to Philip because Philip is a Greek name. They may have felt they had more in common with Philip than the others. They ask him saying, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”

 These men were probably just as excited as everyone else about the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah. If they were converts to the Jewish faith, they were living with the expectation of the Messiah. They knew Messiah would rule over His kingdom. They were excited about the possibility of getting in on the ground floor. They wanted to meet the Man who might represent a tremendous opportunity. So, verse 22 tells us that Philip came and told Andrew and he told Jesus.

 Jesus did not disappoint. He didn’t agree to meet the Greeks, but He spoke directly to what He knew was in their hearts. His first words would have evoked at great “Amen” and “Hallelujah!” Jesus said what they wanted to hear. “Verse 23 says, “And Jesus answered them saying, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’” By using the title “Son of Man” Jesus was going all the way back to the prophecies of Daniel where many of the Jewish Messianic expectations came from. To hear Jesus proclaim that the hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified would have fueled the fires of hope that great things were about to happen. These Greeks had gotten there at just the right time.

 These Greeks were just like a lot of people involved in religion and even the church today. Their focus is not on what might be required to glorify God. Their focus is on what God might do to set them up for success. Most “seekers,” and seekers are those to whom the church caters, for the most part, are seeking opportunity. They are looking for the missing element that will make their lives complete. They want to be happy. They want success in life. They are hoping that God will lift them up and bless their lives with happiness and success. This is exactly what these Greeks were hoping to find when they met Jesus.

 I am sure that the next words they expected to hear were, “On to Jerusalem. Let’s take the throne. Let’s raise an army. Let’s overthrow the Romans! Let’s restore the glory of Israel! I am the Messiah!” But rather than making this highly anticipated announcement, Jesus turns to the agricultural world and gives a parable that serves to illustrate a profoundly important truth. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

 With this parable Jesus clarifies what the glory of the Son of Man is going to look like. It isn’t going to look anything like they expected. He was going, as He repeatedly told them, to die. He was going to be buried, and He was going to come to life again and the glory was going to be in the fruit that would be produced from that single grain of wheat that fell into the ground.

 How much fruit is there in a single grain of wheat? I don’t know. Only God knows. One grain of wheat falls into the ground and it sprouts up and grows a head with maybe 20-30 grains. If each of those 20-30 falls into the ground they will produce heads with 20-30 more each. How much fruit is there in a single grain of wheat? Who knows? But the reality is that the glorification of Christ, in His first advent, didn’t involve a crown and a kingdom, like everyone expected. It involved a cross and a grave. Jesus teaches here an important reality. Death had to precede the resurrection. Death is the prerequisite to resurrection power.

 Then Jesus follows the illustration of the parable with the insight for the people. Jesus went on to say in verse 25, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.” He said it another way in Luke 9:23-25. “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?’”

 I have said this many times over the years of preaching the word of God. To take up one’s cross and follow Jesus is to die. Anyone carrying a cross was on his way to death. If we want to experience the resurrection power of Jesus Christ and know the benefits of that power in this life, we must be willing to die. Death is the prerequisite to resurrection power.

 Jesus confirmed this in our text in John 12. Verse 26 says, “If anyone serves Me…” These Greeks were seeking to become servants of the Messiah in His glorious earthly kingdom. They wanted in on the ground floor. They wanted their best life now! Jesus said, “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me…” Where was Jesus going? He was going to the Cross. Jesus said, “where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”

 We could spend a lot of time here talking about what it means to die to self, to take up our Cross and follow Jesus, to serve Him by following Him where He went. We have the benefit of knowing where Jesus went. He went to the Cross. He died. He knew that the path to glory would take Him to the Cross where He would die. Death is the unavoidable prerequisite to resurrection power.

 We don’t know the power of the resurrection that Paul prayed we would know in Ephesians 1 because we are not willing to die. We are not willing to follow Jesus. We are not willing to take up our cross and follow Him. We are too busy trying to figure out how to do things in the power of our own strength. We are too self-reliant, self-sufficient, and we have too much of our own strength. We have not come to the place where we are willing to give up on what we can do and die, so that we can know the power of the resurrection in this life.

 We have seen the provision. We have seen the prerequisite. Now I want to show you the person who experienced this firsthand in his life. We know him well. We study his writings most Sundays. His name is Paul. He describes in Philippians 3 his experience of death and his desire for resurrection power. Turn there with me and let’s begin reading in verse 3. Read through verse 8. In verse 9-11 we find his declaration of purpose. Here is what he lived for. This is what he wanted more than anything this world had to offer. He wanted the righteousness that could only come from God. This is the righteousness of Christ Himself that is imputed and given as a gift from God on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ.

 But Paul did not just want to be justified. He didn’t just want to be saved so he could coast into heaven. He wanted to live for the glory of Christ. He wanted to know Him. He didn’t just want to know enough about Jesus so he could believe in Him and be saved. He wanted to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that he might attain to the resurrection from the dead.

 Paul was willing to follow Jesus where Jesus went. Paul was willing to become the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and die so that he might bear much fruit. He went where Jesus went. Because he hated his life in this world he kept his life to life eternal. Because he was willing to serve Christ he followed Christ to the grave and as a result he walked through death to experience the resurrection power of Christ. He will attain to the resurrection from the dead when the final resurrection occurs, but he also lived in resurrection power. Because of this he had an unbelievable impact on the kingdom of God.

 You see, Jesus fell in to the ground and died and bore fruit. Paul was simply part of that fruit. Paul followed Christ into the ground and bore fruit. Many of us are part of that fruit. How fruitful are we? If we are not as fruitful as we should be, is it because we aren’t willing to fall into the ground and die. Death is the prerequisite to resurrection power.

 When you drive down the highway you frequently see little roadside markers that have been placed there by family members of those who have died in an accident at that location. The Apostle Paul could very well have placed one of those markers on the road between Jerusalem and Damascus. It was there that the Pharisee Saul died. The Pharisee Saul had all kinds of confidence in himself, his circumcision, his nationalism, his tribal association, his zeal as a Pharisee and a persecutor of the church. When Saul the Pharisee died Paul the Apostle was raised to walk in the power of Christ’s resurrection. He knew the resurrection power because he also knew the fellowship of His suffering and was conformed to His death. Death is the prerequisite to resurrection power.

 Paul goes on to tell us in Philippians 3 that he had not become perfect in that for which he sought to obtain. Because there was still room to grow, he pressed on in order that he would lay hold of that for which Christ had laid hold of him. 

 The passage in John that we looked at closes with some very important words from Jesus. Verse 26 says, “If anyone serves Me, He must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” If we are to serve Christ we must follow Christ. We must follow Him. He was a grain that fell into the earth and died. Because it died, it was resurrected. Because it was resurrected, it bore much fruit.

 Jesus promised “if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” The honor we receive from the Father comes from the power He gives to live this life for the glory of our Resurrected Lord.

 The empty tomb is proof that we don’t need to be afraid to die. We don’t need to be afraid of physical death because of the promise and provision of the resurrection. The resurrection also proves that we don’t need to be afraid to die to self, to die to our own plans for life, to die to our own ambitions and goals and dreams and desires. We must be willing to lay down our lives, taking up our cross, and follow Jesus.

 We are going to close today with the Lord’s Table. This is a reminder of the death of Christ on the Cross. We must be afraid to follow Him in death. Death is the unavoidable prerequisite to resurrection power.