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Resurrection Power
Another anniversary of Easter has passed, and I am reminded that the early church made the resurrection the most talked about event in the life of Christ. Throughout the Acts of the Apostles they rarely preached on the suffering and death of our Lord, but rather shared the glorious news that He is risen (e.g. Acts 17:18). Some thirty years after the event, Paul's motivation for life was still "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection..." (Philippians 3:10 ESV). This follows on from the statement he made in verse 8, "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
Of course Paul knew Christ, for he had met the Lord on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:5) and was gloriously converted. When Paul wrote "that I may know him" he used a word meaning to have personal acquaintance or experience with. The Amplified Bible expands this word by saying "that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly". "This is Paul’s major passion, to get more knowledge of Christ by experience" (Robertson) "To know Him is more than merely to know a doctrine about Him. Believers are brought not only to redemption, but to the Redeemer Himself" (Jamieson Fausset Brown).
I've been listening to a Bible teacher on the satellite this week teaching on "Lessons from Elijah", and he correctly stated that we know virtually nothing about Elijah's background or early life. He simply pops up on the radar in I Kings 17:1 giving a prophecy to King Ahab of a drought that would come upon the kingdom and stay until Elijah said otherwise. There is one thing we do learn by implication from this verse: Elijah knew God well enough to listen to what He said and to stake his life upon it. In a ministry lasting around 20 years, Elijah had King Ahab wrapped around his little finger--he became a man of influence because He knew God, and heard and obeyed God's voice.
Can we know God and can we hear God's voice? Certainly. Paul's heartfelt cry should be the first desire of every believer... "to know him more deeply and intimately". We do this through the Word and through prayer. Get your eyes off your problems and get them on Him! "Looking unto Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith... Consider him" (Hebrews 12:2,3). And can we hear God's voice today? Certainly. Through the Word, and through guidance, and in many other ways.
Paul goes on to say in Philippians 3:10 that he wants "to know... the power of his resurrection". Christ "was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). Since we have Christ in us, then we too share the "power of his resurrection". I remember a conversation with a Christian brother in the workplace, and I made the statement that I was a son of God with power. He said that Christ was the only son of God with power, so I asked him was he a powerless son of God then? And he saw my point.
In Ephesians Paul spelled this out in detail: "That you may know... what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:18-20). You have the same power that raised Christ from the dead IN YOU--"...the power at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20). "We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us" (Colossians 2:4-7). Do you know it? Do you know how to use it?
Paul had God's power working in his life and ministry. "For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience--by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God--so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ" (Romans 15:18-19). And yet his heart cry was "to know deeply and intimately...the power of his resurrection". He wanted to know more so he could manifest it more!
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© 2005 Peter Wade. http://www.peterwade.com
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"IN CHRIST" QUOTE FOR TODAY
