It seems like the world is upside down!
Once again this week, we awoke to news of terrorist attacks in Brussels. HD video from cell phones and security cameras look so much like TV and movies, that the line between reality and fiction is increasingly blurred.
In post-Christian America, children being brainwashed to accept homosexuality, transgender and multigender lifestyles.
This is the first American generation who will see a lower standard of living than their parents. What’s right is wrong, what’s wrong is right.
Conflict, tension is prevalent everywhere. Racial tensions make it seem like we are living in the 1960s and 70s all over again.
Even Batman and Superman can’t get along in Hollywood’s newest action movie.Neither can Iron man and Captain America!
Why does our world seem to be increasingly hopeless?
We have forgotten God!
This theological answer is explained in Ephesians 2.
“remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12, ESV)
There is NO HOPE
There is NO POWER
Sadly, the same is true for many Christians
Today is RESURRECTION SUNDAY
I want to call you to renew your commitment to Christ and
BEGIN a FRESH START in your walk with God.
Many of us are living with
NO HOPE
NO POWER
Like US sailor, Roy Robertson
Stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1941. He said:
“My ship, the West Virginia, docked at Pearl Harbor on the evening of December 6, 1941. A couple of the fellows and I left the ship that night and attended a Bible study. About fifteen sailors sat in a circle on the floor. The leader asked us to each recite our favorite Scripture verse. In turn each sailor shared a verse and briefly commented on it.
I sat there in terror. I couldn’t recall a single verse. I grew up in a Christian home, went to church three times a week, but I sat there terrified. Finally, I remembered one verse – John 3:16. I silently rehearsed it in my mind. The spotlight of attention grew closer as each sailor took his turn. It was up to the fellow next to me. He recited John 3:16. He took my verse! As he commented on it I sat there in stunned humiliation. In a few moments everyone would know that I could not recall from memory even a single verse. Later that night I went to bed thinking, ‘Robertson, you’re a fake.’
At 7:55 the next morning I was awakened by the ship alarm ordering us to battle stations. 360 planes of the Japanese Imperial Fleet were attacking our ship and the other military installations. My crew and I raced to our machine gun emplacement, but all we had was practice ammunition. So for the first fifteen minutes of the two-hour battle, we only fired blanks hoping to scare the Japanese airplanes.
As I stood there firing fake ammunition I thought, ‘Robertson, this is how your whole life has been – firing blanks for Christ.’ I made up my mind as Japanese bullets slammed into our ship, “If I escape with my life, I will get serious about growing in my Christian life and following Jesus.”
Roy Robertson did get serious. Before the war was over, he would become a naval aviator, flying fighters off the deck of the USS Langly.
IN 1947, he became the first missionary of “The Navigators.”
Equipping disciples and starting churches in Singapore.
His life was remembered by the Navigators, and his remembrance page is still on the Navigator’s website.
How many of us are like Robertson?
Perhaps we have just begun in the Christian life.
Or perhaps we have been hounded by hopelessness and defeat.
Jesus died so that you could be forgiven of your sins.
But Jesus Arose so that you could have GOD’S POWER working in your life!
Philippians 3:8–11
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
Christ’s Resurrection Gives Me Power to Overcome Hardship
Paul endured four specific types of hardships
Prison
Philippians 1:7, ESV “you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.”
Philippians 1:14, ESV “And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”
People
Philippians 3:2, ESV “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”
Philippians 3:18, ESV “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.”
Pain
2 Corinthians 12:7, ESV “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”
Persecution
“Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” (2 Corinthians 11:23–28, ESV)
Christ’s Resurrection Enables me to Serve God
Romans 8:11 “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
Christ’s Resurrection Gives me Power to Live in Victory NOW
The Greek word DUNAMIS in this verse means “supernatural power” (Louw and Nida Lexicon)
Romans 7:4 “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”
We have the very Same Power
This same word, dunamis is used in the NT to describe the Power of Jesus. Acts 10:38 “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
This same word, dunamis is used in the NT Power of Disciples. Acts 3:12 “And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?”
This same word, dunamis is used in the NT to describe the Power Promised to the Church. 1 Cor 5:3–5 “For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
It is also used to describe the Power Promised at Pentecost. Luke 24:49 “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
And dunamis is used to describe the Power Promised to Every Believer. Romans 6:4 “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
How Do We Receive this Power? To KNOW CHRIST
Philippians 3:10 “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,”
KNOW is the Greek word ginowsko. It means knowledge by experience.
This kind of knowledge is more than superficial knowledge. The following illustration might help to explain this type of knowledge.
In today’s world of Smart Phones, tablets and instant Internet access, there are many things that we can “know.” If someone asks the questions, “how long is the Verrazano Bridge,” a nimble person with a 4 G connection and an Iphone can ask Siri, “How long is the Verrazano Bridge,” and they will get an almost instantaneous response (13,700 feet). But if we had sitting here an 85 year old retired construction worker that spent 2 years of his life building the Verrazano bridge in his 20s we would get the right information, but we would also get it with great passion.
That’s what it means to “know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” It involves much more than repeating facts concerning Christ or the Bible. Knowing Christ is an intimate relationship with Him that changes your life.
Christian –
It’s time we stopped being defeated!
It’s time we accessed the power of Christ’s Resurrection to have VICTORY NOW
It’s time we rise again from our dead works to serve a risen Christ
It’s time we became serious about our relationship with Christ and begin to KNOW HIM
HOW?
By spending time in his Word
By attending church regularly, and not just when there is nothing more urgent
By joining a small group Bible study
The World is FALLING APART
“If Your Bible isn’t falling apart, it’s a good sign that you are!”
Return next week. I begin a new series on Daniel as an example of Faith in a changing World
Easter is a time for RENEWAL
Resurrection is a reminder of LIFE
It’s time to stop being DEFEATED and HOPELESS
