THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on April 9, 2023 under 2023 |
Bethany Bible Church Resurrection Sunday Sermon Message; April 9, 2023 from Philippians 3:7-11
Theme: A genuine encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus should utterly transform us.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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This morning, I’d like to read a passage to you about the resurrection of Jesus. But it’s not a passage that tells us about the event of the resurrection. Rather, it’s a passage that tells us something about how that event should transform us.
It’s found in Philippians 3:7-11. In it, the apostle Paul wrote about himself—something about the tremendous transformation that had occurred in his own life—and said;
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:7-11).
These are very personal words. They are, I think, among the most personal words that the apostle Paul ever wrote. He really bears his soul to us in them; and explains to us how the event that we celebrate today—the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the tomb—had become a very personal matter to him.
For him, it wasn’t merely a doctrine to be believed. He had a literal encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus; and that encounter had utterly and completely transformed him.
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Now; before that encounter, this man Paul was known as Saul of Tarsus. He had been a strict Pharisee—a man completely devoted to the laws and ceremonies and sacrifices of the Jewish religion. He was committed to them – heart and soul.
And what’s more, he was a hard-hearted and fierce man who hated the Christian faith. He saw it as an apostasy—a departure from the Jewish religion. He hated it so much that he obtained permission from the Jewish rulers and religious authorities to go from city to city, find any Jewish people who had believed that Jesus had risen from the dead and who had trusted Him as their Savior, arrest them, and bring them bound to Jerusalem to stand trial … and, if possible, to be executed. He terrorized the early church in his zealous hatred of the Christian faith.
But one day, all of that changed. He had an unexpected encounter with none other than the resurrected Lord Jesus whose followers he hated. Acts 9:1-9 tells us;
Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 9:1-5).
Think carefully about what the Lord Jesus said. ‘Goads’ were pointed sticks that were fixed onto a plow. A farmer would use them to prevent an ox from kicking backward and breaking the plow while being driven. If the ox kicked, it would hurt. And that’s what Saul was doing. He was ‘kicking against the goads’. Saul was an intelligent man. He knew what those Christians were claiming about Jesus—that He was the Son of God who had become flesh and was born into the human family; that He lived a life of perfect obedience to God and that God had testified of Him through miracles; that He was crucified and died for the sins of humanity; and that God had raised Him from the dead as proof that He had accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Saul knew all of this because it was promised in the Scriptures that he had studied. But he was—at heart—a rebellious man who was kicking against the testimony that God was bearing upon his heart about Jesus … and he was only hurting himself and others in the process.
Well; it was time for the kicking to stop.
So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank (vv. 6-9).
The resurrected Lord Jesus had met Saul along the way, forgave him, and called him into His service. And this encounter utterly transformed him. He was never the same man again. He was changed from ‘Saul the Persecutor’ into ‘Paul the Apostle’. He ceased being an antagonist against the message of the gospel, and instead became its greatest preacher, teacher, and missionary. His story is told to us in the Book of Acts; and God used him to write thirteen letters that we have in the New Testament. He labored fervently—for the rest of his life—to tell others about Jesus. And he eventually even laid his life down for the cause of his Lord and Savior.
Paul had personally encountered the resurrected Lord Jesus. There’s just no other way to explain the amazing transformation of his life than that. And there’s no other way to explain the passion with which he lived for Jesus from then on. And in this morning’s passage, he opens his heart up to us and lets us know specifically how that encounter changed him.
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Now; what about us? Today, we gather to celebrate the most remarkable news the world has ever heard. Jesus Christ—who was crucified for our sins—was raised from the dead, after three days in the tomb, in the very same body that had been crucified. As Paul put it in Romans 4:25, Jesus was “delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” Jesus’ resurrection is the most important event in all of human history. And through the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit, He is at work in the world today.
And how has an encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus transformed you?
I don’t mean, of course, that you or I could have the same sort of encounter with Jesus that Paul had on the road to Damascus. That encounter was unique; and it resulted in Paul being called into Jesus’ service in a unique way. And I don’t mean that you or I could have the same sort of encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus that the other apostles had. He met them in the upper room after He was raised; and He allowed them to see Him, and to speak with Him, and to touch Him, and even to eat with Him … and all so that they could testify to us, as reliable eyewitnesses, that He truly was bodily raised from the dead. Their encounter with Him was unique too. We couldn’t encounter Him today in exactly the same way that they did.
But what I mean is this: Has God—as it were—confronted you, along the road of life, with the absolute truth and reality of it? Has He stopped you in your tracks and called you to place your full faith and trust in Him? If you have been kicking against the testimony about Him, has His Holy Spirit met you and told you that it’s hard to kick against it?—and that it’s time to stop? Have you finally yielded to Jesus, and trusted His sacrifice for your sins, and found that He has truly washed all your guilt away? Have you come to terms with the fact that Jesus is alive and able to work in your life? Have you invited Him to take your struggles and sinful habits and destructive addictions from you, and found that He has done so—and is continuing to do so? Have you prayed and sought His leading and direction in your life, and have you trusted and obeyed His commandments in the Scriptures, and found that He faithfully leads you and empowers you and helps you? Have you experienced the joy of His fellowship and experienced the satisfaction of His love? Have you been thrilled to hear the testimony of how He has transformed the lives of others? Have you discovered, by personal experience, that Jesus truly has been raised from the dead and is alive and at work in the world today?
And if so, how then has that encounter transformed your life?
Maybe you had placed your trust in Jesus many years ago … but have wandered away and ignored Him. Maybe you’ve never trusted Him at all; and have been ‘kicking against the goads’. Or maybe you’ve trusted in Him, and have been walking for a long time with Him in life, and can testify to the many ways that He has transformed you. But wherever you may be in your relationship with the resurrected Lord Jesus today, I invite you to look at these words from the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:7-11 … and see how the encounter had transformed him.
A genuine encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus should utterly transform us. And in this passage, Paul’s example shows us how.
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Now; look first with me at verse 7. Paul wrote; “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.” What were those things? They were the things that he used to trust in and count on to make himself righteous in the sight of God—before he encountered the risen Christ. You’ll find them listed in verses 4-6. He wrote about other people who trust in their own human efforts to make themselves righteous before God—things based on human, fleshly efforts; and he said,
though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless (vv. 4-6).
What a list! Few people were more devoted to earning favor with God than Saul of Tarsus. Few had worked harder. Few could boast of more ‘good works’ according to the flesh. Few were more ‘zealous’ than he. And those were the kinds of things he trusted in … before he met the resurrected Lord Jesus. But afterward, he said, “what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.” Those good deeds—those efforts of the flesh—his trust in the rituals and ceremonies and efforts to make himself righteous before God—all went by the wayside. The only thing that mattered to him now was Jesus Christ—who died for his sins and was raised because of his justification.
And this teaches us that, if we’ve had a genuine encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus, it will transform us in that we will …
1. EXCHANGE ‘RELIGION’ FOR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM.
It’s not that the forms and patterns of ‘religion’ are necessarily bad. Not even everything that Paul trusted in were bad things … in and of themselves. ‘Persecuting the church’ was pretty bad, of course. But being true to his Jewish heritage wasn’t bad, and being faithful to the commandments of God wasn’t bad either. It’s just that Paul had encountered the risen Savior Jesus Christ; and now, those things were no longer the means by which he tried to earn God’s favor. In fact, if they got in the way of a relationship with the risen Lord, he’d count them ‘loss’ … and consider them ‘dead weight’ that should be cast overboard.
If you’ve had a genuine encounter in your life with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, you’re thrilled to find that He’s alive and desires to have a personal relationship of love with you. And when that happens, you no longer want those other things. The ceremonies and performances and rituals of religion no longer matter … and, in fact, you’ll gladly give them all up if they get in the way. More than anything else, you crave ‘relationship’ with your Lord and Savior Jesus—a relationship by which you are made righteous in God’s sight. And that relationship doesn’t come through the rituals and ceremonies rules and regulations of religion. It comes freely—as an act of His grace—through faith in Him.
So then; that’s one way an encounter with the resurrected Lord will transform you. You’ll gladly exchange the rituals of religion for relationship with Jesus.
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But it’s not just ‘religion’ that you’ll exchange for Jesus. Look at what Paul went on to say in verse 8; “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” Here, Paul takes it to the highest level. After having encountered the resurrected Lord Jesus, he considered that the excellency of ‘knowing’ Jesus ‘his Lord’—that is, ‘knowing’ Him in the sense of being in a deep, abiding, personal relationship of love with Him—was greater than anything else in life. He counted “all things loss” for the joy of knowing Jesus.
Take a look at what he wrote in Chapter 1. He was sitting in a prison cell at the time that he wrote these words; and that was because he loved Jesus so much that he was willing to suffer the loss of all things—even his freedom—and yes, even his life—in order to proclaim Jesus’ love to others. He didn’t really know for certain whether he would be released to live his life, or be held in confinement until he was executed. And so, he wrote to his fellow believers in Philippi and told them;
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you (1:21-24).
A man who says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”, is someone who has placed his relationship with Jesus above everything. This teaches us that, if we’ve had a real encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus, it will change our lives in that we will—like Paul …
2. COUNT ALL THINGS ‘LOSS’ COMPARED TO HAVING HIM.
You know; Paul spoke in some pretty strong terms in verse 8. He said, “I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”. That’s actually a pretty ‘polite’ and ‘prettied-up’ translation of what he really said. When he said “rubbish”, he didn’t just mean what’s in the trash can. Think of the most disgusting ‘throw-away’ item you can dare to think of; and that’s what he meant. That’s how he considered all other things in life when measured against the excellence of having Jesus Christ. Nothing else mattered in comparison.
If you’ve truly encountered the resurrected Lord Jesus, you won’t hang on to any of the things of this world that might keep you from enjoying a full relationship with Jesus. You’d gladly throw them all away; because you’d experienced His love and grace, and know that to have Jesus Christ is to have eternal life.
That’s how such an encounter had transformed Paul.
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Another way that Paul was transformed is shown to us in verse 9. He wrote that he counted all things ‘loss’ for the excellence of knowing Jesus, “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith …” When he encountered the resurrected Lord Jesus that day on the road to Damascus, Paul knew that he had encountered the Son of God in human flesh, who had died on the cross for sinners. Paul knew that he had encountered the ‘Lamb of God’ upon whom God the Father—the righteous Judge of all sin—had placed the guilt of all humanity so that He could pay the debt of our sin in our place. Paul—the learned Pharisee—knew the Scriptures. He was well aware of what Isaiah 53 says about Jesus; that …
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).
And now, Paul no longer trusted in his own works of righteousness to save himself. He no longer depended on his strict obedience to the letter of the law to make himself acceptable in the sight of a holy God. He now trusted only in the righteousness which is a gift of God by faith in Jesus. What a dramatic change this was!
And this teaches us also that, if we’ve truly encountered the resurrected Lord Jesus, we also will be transformed in that we will no longer rest in our own ‘righteousness’ to save us. We’ll say ‘good-bye and good riddance’ to our own efforts to earn God’s favor. Instead, we’ll …
3. REST IN HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ALONE FOR SALVATION.
What a wonderful freedom this is! It’s not that we say ‘good-bye and good riddance’ to good works, of course. In fact, the more we rest on Jesus’ righteousness to save us, the more we will want to live like the righteous people He has made us to be. But we won’t trust in our own righteousness anymore. We’ll only trust in Jesus’ righteousness—and that God has already declared us righteous in His sight through faith in Him. We won’t try to be righteous people in order to be saved. Instead, we’ll live righteous lives because we have been made righteous by faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for us—who now lives for us.
That’s what happened to Paul. That’s how an encounter with the risen Savior changed him.
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Another way that Paul was transformed is told to us in verse 10. He wrote about how he was willing to give up everything in order to gain Christ; “ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death …” When Paul spoke of “knowing” Jesus, he was talking about much more than mere ‘head knowledge’—that is, mere ‘information’ about Jesus. He was talking about “knowing” Jesus in the sense of having a deep, relational knowledge—a deeply personal union of love.
But more; he speaks of knowing Jesus’ work for him. He wanted to know “the power of His resurrection”. Jesus is alive; and that means that he wanted to know—in an experiential way—the victorious life of Jesus ongoingly at work in Him. He served a risen Savior; and he wanted to have the risen Savior’s power on display in him. He also wanted to know “the fellowship of His sufferings”. Jesus had said that if the world hated Him, the world would also hate us if we’re connected to Him. But Paul wanted to suffer for and with Jesus—if it meant that He would also experience Jesus’ resurrected life at work in him. He even wanted to be “conformed to His death”. Jesus had said that if anyone wanted to be His disciple, they must take up their cross—the instrument of death to ‘self’—and follow Him.
Now; that’s an amazing transformation! And yet, it came about because Paul had encountered the resurrected Jesus personally. And if we encounter His resurrection, then—like Paul—we’ll also be transformed in that we will …
4. LONG TO KNOW HIM AND HIS WORK MORE DEEPLY.
We won’t be satisfied with a superficial, merely ‘intellectual’ knowledge of Jesus. We’ll want to enter into all that He is, and all that He has done for us. We will long for the fullest, deepest relation with Him that we can have. We’ll embrace all that He is. We’ll embrace all that He has done for us. We’ll even embrace whatever we must suffer at the hands of others in order to follow Him.
That’s how Paul was transformed.
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And there’s one more thing. In verse 11, Paul said that he wanted to know Jesus more deeply—and even be conformed to His death—“if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Paul used a very interesting word in saying this. He didn’t use the normal word for ‘resurrection’; but used a phrase that—translated literally—meant “out-resurrected out of the dead”. He expected to lay down his life for Jesus … and he, in fact, did so. But he knew that, when his body died and was laid in the ground, his spirit would depart and be with Jesus. He knew that Jesus didn’t just die to pay for our sins, but that Jesus was also raised so that we would one day be raised by Him. And so, Paul lived, with all his being, for that coming ‘resurrection day’.
Look at what Paul wrote just a few verses ahead—in Philippians 3:12-14. He said;
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (vv. 12-14).
That was a tremendous transformation! Paul—the formerly proud Pharisee—now no longer lived for his time on this earth. Instead, he counted himself to have died with Jesus; and now lived for his own future resurrection. And this teaches us that—if we’ve encountered the resurrected Lord Jesus as we should—we will go on to …
5. LIVE FOR OUR OWN RESURRECTION WITH HIM (v. 11).
We will believe what Jesus Himself once said in John 14:19; “Because I live, you will live also.” And because we believe in His promise, we will live every day with the glorious hope and prospect of being raised unto glory with Him.
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So; the apostle Paul’s own testimony shows us the ways that an encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus should transform us. Look how it transformed him. He exchanged religion for relationship with Jesus, counted all things loss in comparison to Him, rested in His righteousness alone, longed to know Him and His work for us more and more, and lived—from then on—for his own resurrection through faith in Him.
This is all possible for us—and this same transformation now can occur in us—because Jesus is alive! And as someone who has also personally encountered the reality of His resurrection myself—and who has experienced a transformed life as a result—I invite you today to take up the offer of the risen Lord Jesus:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Please experience the power of His resurrection for yourself.
AE
