Significance of the Resurrection, Phil, 3:10

In our study, in our Sunday School study, we've been going through major Bible themes. And a few weeks ago, we went through a study on the Resurrections. And we only have one hour, in fact, 50 minutes, to cover the entire subject of the Resurrections. And so we looked at the Resurrections. In terms of looking at the different theological views on resurrections, the amillennial view, the postmillennial view, the premillennial view, we looked at all of the different resurrections as a function of time. But we did not look at the significance of the resurrection. What is the significance of the resurrection?

You know what I mean. So we looked at the fact of the resurrection, but not at its significance. So that's our goal this morning. And just in case I can't get done in time, I thought I would give you the answer right up front. So or one of the answers right up front.

So what's the significance of the resurrection. But there's one passage of scripture that really I think highlights the significance of the resurrection in Philippians 310 says that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of the sufferings being made conformable to his death. This passage of scripture is an encapsulated totality of the Christian life.

This is a six month to seven month passage, very much like Galatians 2.20.

We spent six months on Galatians 2.20.

I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me." In fact, we spent so much time on it, Winnie put it to music. But this is another passage like that. It is pregnant. But we're just going to cover just one aspect of it this morning. That I may know him. the power of his resurrection. Our focus is going to be on the power of his resurrection. And so the significance of Christ's resurrection, we're told right up front here that there's power. There's power in his resurrection.

And it says that I might know him, not only him, there's three things that we might know. not let me just say this. The construction here in the Greek. This is a purpose statement purpose clause with a result and the purpose is stated in the first part that I may know and there's three things that Paul desires to know his purpose purpose in Paul's life. is a desire to know. To know three things.

Him, to know Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the third, the fellowship of the sufferings. With the result being made conformable unto his death. That is the result of knowing those three purposes. being conformed to his death. And Paul is talking about this moment by moment death that in his condition, our position as believers in Jesus Christ is that we have died. We have died unto sin because Christ has died unto sin. were identified with Christ in his death. Christ died unto sin, unto that sin nature, unto the self-life. Christ has died unto that. And Paul, through the purpose, the result then of the purpose of knowing him, the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, the result would be. would be being made conformable unto the death unto the death that we that we share with our Lord Jesus Christ.

So how does that how does that process occur? How does it? How do we how we make conformable unto his death? by knowing, by knowing. And the word there for know, all of you who are in the Greek class, we've had this verb which is to know experientially, to actually experience it.

And it's an intimate knowledge. So Paul is talking about an intimate knowledge of Christ, an intimate knowledge of the power of Christ's resurrection, and an intimate knowledge of Christ's suffering. The question is, in terms of knowing, we can know factually. We can know factually things about Christ. We can know factually things about the power of his resurrection and factually the fellowship of the sufferings.

But that's not what this know is here. This know is just not the factual knowledge of it. But it is taken that factual knowledge, believing on it, trusting in it, resting in it, so it becomes experiential. So it's taken the objective truth and making it subjective in your life and in my life.

So when we talk about resurrection now and the power of this resurrection, What we need to do is understand what does resurrection mean. So that's the first thing we're going to do is take a look at what resurrection means. There's two words, or there's a compound word in the Greek, anastasis, for the word resurrection. And the first part of the word And I'm going to see if this thing works here. Ah. Ana means means means up. And the second part of the word comes from histamine means to cause the stand.

And so resurrection simply means causing to stand up and implied and understood is from the dead so that resurrection is a raising of the physical body from physical death. Now, it's also used in a spiritual sense with respect to our identification with Christ, which I just talked about. We're not going to be looking at that aspect of it this morning. We're just going to be looking at the physical aspect of resurrection. The question now is, all right, so if this is what resurrection is and what it means, a physical raising of the body from the dead, what kinds of resurrections have there been? So that if we take a look at some of the resurrections in the past here, if we get down here to take a look at this, that both in the Old Testament, New Testament, you see people being raised physically from the dead.

Back in First Kings, we read about Elijah. He's in the home of this widow. The widow's son dies, and she comes to Elijah, and Elijah lays on top of him, restores him back to life, and he's resurrected from the dead. And then this Shunanites, Mites' son, by Elisha, was raised from the dead. And then we come into where the Lord Jesus Christ raised the ruler of the synagogue, his daughter. There was a widow, and she had a son, and he died.

Christ raised him. And then we're all familiar with the resurrection Lazarus or the raising of the dead of Lazarus and in Christ went to the tomb after about four days and said Lazarus come forth and Lazarus came forth and he was bound in his grave clothes and he came forth. Immediately after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ it says that there were many that came out of the tombs, a multitude that came out of the tombs. They were resurrected from the dead. Peter raised Dorcas. Paul was teaching one night till midnight, and there was a young man sitting in the window. And hopefully you don't fall asleep, but he fell asleep. And he fell asleep and he fell out the window and he died.

And Paul resurrected him from the dead. So the question is, what was the nature of these resurrected bodies? And was the nature of Christ's resurrected body any different than the nature of these resurrected bodies? So let's take a look at the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And Doug read through this passage in 1 Corinthians 15. And I'm going to take a portion of it, starting at verse 41. And here's the wonderful news. I believe that this is speaking, certainly this is speaking of us. It is speaking of us. I think it's also speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was sown in corruption, raised in corruption.

And now there are people that would argue with this because they would say that, wait a minute, Scripture says even back in the Old Testament that the Holy One won't see corruption. But what's interesting is that there's two different words for corruption and that is true. Christ did not see this corruption or the excuse me he did not see the corruption that was talked about in the Old Testament and that corruption there was an intensified corruption. This corruption here is decay and ruin.

Now if Christ took the sins, your sins and my sins upon him, that he died and if he died unto your sin nature and my sin nature and he became sin for us who knew no sin, he took sin on him. And if he did, Then the penalty is that he and and so that he was sown in corruption.

But he didn't see corruption in terms of he didn't say he didn't see. He said decay and ruin experience that. But the intensified form is where decay and ruin goes to disintegration. that the body would become disintegrated and go back to dust. He did not see that. So anyhow, both Christ and ourselves are going to be sown in incorruption, decay, ruin.

And I put a note here, especially after the separation of the human spirit. Now, I want you to think about it. Like, for example, when Lazarus died and Mary and Martha were very concerned and very upset at the Lord Jesus Christ because he didn't come. And he came, what, four days later or so. And Mary and Martha said, well, his body stinketh, right?

And they knew that it was going into this exponential decay where it would go into disintegration. And once the human spirit leaves the body, that's what happens. There's this exponential decay of the body. So that's how the body is sown, in corruption.

It's raised in incorruption, never ever to be subject to corruption again. Another thing that's interesting is that scientists tell us that the cells in our body, every seven years, get replenished and changed. Every cell. Now, when I look in the mirror over the years, I don't see those cells being replaced. I don't look like the guy I did 20 years ago. And so even though they're being replaced, there is a decay. There is that decay. It's sown in dishonor. And dishonor, as indicated there, means just shame, vile, that is to God.

And understood, it's as the body is energized by the sin nature, because our bodies are neutral. Our bodies are not sinful. It's the fact that how they're energized, that they're being energized by the sin nature, then they carry out sin. If they're being energized by the Holy Spirit, then they're to the honor and glory of God. So we're to present our bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, set apart to God. So our bodies are not sinful in themselves.

So it's sown in dishonor, and it's raised in glory. I love that. raised in glory and think about this and just before our Lord went to the cross he was praying to the father and his prayer to the father in John chapter 17 was for you and was for me and I would if if you haven't read John 17 You have to go home today and read John 17 to see and understand the heart of the Lord for you and for me. In that prayer, he says in verse 22, he says, Father, the glory that you have given me, I have given them. He's talking about those who would believe on him. That's all of us sitting here today. who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The very glory that Jesus Christ is the man was he has given to us. And so when it talks about raised in glory, it's talking about now the fullness of that glory that we have positionally. We don't have it conditionally. We have it positionally, but we don't have it conditionally. We will have it, conditionally, forever, when our body is raised in glory.

It's sown in weakness. It's without strength. It's impotent. It doesn't have the capacity. It doesn't have the strength to do anything. You may think it does, but it doesn't, not in terms of God would. So it's raised in weakness. but, excuse me, it's sown in weakness but it's raised in power.

And power, the dunamis there, is this inherent power. It's this word where we get our word dynamo from, this inherent power. It's sown a natural body, a sukikas body, which is one that's suited out for the soul, but it's raised a spiritual body, a madikas body, a body that is suited for the spirit. Now, I want you to observe here, in terms of what we're looking at, that there's a tremendous transformation as from the body that is sown to the body that is raised.

Do you have, do I have any conception of the power that it takes to do that transformation? It is a transforming power that you can't understand, that I can't understand, but we have it. And I'll talk about that in a minute. Paul's desire. was to know that transforming power, to have intimacy with that transforming power. And he wanted that to know intimately that transforming power in his walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the thing is this, that both you and I have that transforming power indwelling us right now as we sit here today. And you may say, I do? I'm going through some trials and I'm going through some circumstances in life that I don't have the power to handle. And that's right. You don't. In and of yourself, you don't.

But God has the power. And the Holy Spirit indwells you And he has that power. He has this transforming power. And this is the very power that transforms you, that as you behold Christ, as 2 Corinthians says, in the mirror, and the mirror is the Word of God, as you behold Christ, in the Word of God, that you are changed. You are transformed. moment by moment into the very image of the Lord Jesus Christ from glory to glory, from one stage of glory to another stage of glory. You are being transformed by this power as you behold Christ, as you walk and abide in him.

Now, I asked a question before about the nature of Christ's resurrected body and the nature of the bodies that we looked at that were raised from the dead previously. Are they the same? So is there a distinction between between these resurrections. First of all, let me just do this. Let's take a look at Christ's resurrected body.

Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption, your body will be the same. Sown in dishonor, raised in glory, weakness. Sown in weakness, raised in power. Sown in natural body, raised in spiritual body. That is, if you will, I'll call it the true resurrection. In Hebrews, it's called the better resurrection. And you're going to experience, and I'm going to experience that very same resurrection. If the Lord tarries, if the Lord should come back tomorrow, we're going to be transformed. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. But we're going to have this kind of body, an incorruptible, glorified, dunamis, spiritual body. So how about these guys here that we've looked at?

They were sown in corruption. They were raised the same way in corruption. They were sown in dishonor. And they were raised the same way, in dishonor. They were sown in weakness. They were raised the same way, in weakness. They were sown a natural body. Their body that was raised was the same body, just a natural body. There was no transformation in their body.

Now there are some that would argue with me as I say this, they would argue that These people that came out of the tombs immediately after Christ's resurrection, that they had a glorified body. If they did, that's an eternal body, never to die, never to be corrupted again.

My question is, where are these guys? They should be around, right? They should be here. But they're not. And then the answer would be for those people who believe that. Well that when the Lord when the Lord ascended into heaven. So did these people. Scripture does not say that tell us that at all. OK. So.

So when we get back up here and we talk about a spiritual body. The question is, what is a spiritual body? Did you ever think of what a spiritual body is? And how does it differ from a natural body? What kind of power is involved in terms of taking this natural body and transforming it into a spiritual body.

I want to take a look at that, so I want you to turn to John chapter 20. It says this, the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher and saw the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said unto them, they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came to the sepulcher. Now I want to take a look at the remaining few verses in some detail. And so here's what happens. It says in verse four.

So they ran both together, and the other disciple, talking about John, did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulchre. Now, we know categorically from this passage of scripture that John had an exercise program, and he probably twice or three times a week ran around Jerusalem. Because in running to the tomb, I mean, he outran, no, he outran Peter. And it says this, and he John, talking about John, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. So, but I want you to notice something, as we go through this passage of scripture, is that John looked, and saw, and the word here is blepo.

I was having dinner with a guy this week, and he's a Greek teacher. He's a PhD in engineering, but he's a Greek teacher also. And so I'm talking to him about Greek, and I'm talking to him about blepo, and he looks at me He doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about.

And. And so I said. Pronunciation. Right. You don't have a clue what word I just said. He says I don't have a clue. So I took out a pad of paper and wrote in Greek lepo. He says oh lepo. And so there is no two words that we ever talked about in terms of Greek that that The pronunciation in modern Greek today is not like the Erasmus pronunciation which we're learning.

At any rate, John looked and he saw Plato, the linen clothes, lying there. And then came Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre. And he also saw. And he saw the linen clothes lie. And the word there for saw is theoreo. And then, and what he also saw, not only the linen clothes, but he saw the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in that other disciple, who was John, which came first in the sepulchre, and he saw. And there's the third Greek word, harao. And when he saw Haraod, he believed. So now, what is the difference between all of these things? And why did John, when he saw Haraod, why did he believe? And what did he believe?

As we look at these three Greek words, The first one is just to see casually, to take a glance. The second one is to gaze at and scrutinize in terms of what you're visually seeing. And the third one is to see and then as you visually see, you discern something. You discern something and then you grasp what the significance is.

So if I can give you an example, it's very much like a person going out at night. out in the country where you can see the stars, you can't see the stars in the city. You go out in the country, if you want to see stars, come up to my place. I mean, wow. The longer you sit out there, it's so dark that as your pupils dilate, you see more and more and more of the heavens.

And so you can go out and you can see Blepo, just a casual glance at the stars. But then you can go out and you can stare, you can gaze, you can... those stars, and you can start picking out, well there's the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper and there's this constellation and that constellation, that's Pharaoh. And then, as you're looking at these stars, you can Harao. you can see and discern something, and you can grasp the significance of what you're seeing.

And when you grasp what you're seeing, You come to Psalm 119, the heavens, what? Declare the glory of God, right? You grasp the significance of, you grasp the fact that there is a God. that there is a deity, that he has eternal power. You grasp that significance.

So that's what happened with John. He grasped the significance of what he saw. Now, what did he see? He saw the same thing Peter saw, right? the grave clothes lying there. But when Peter saw, he was scrutinizing and looking at everything, picking out the constellations in the Big Dipper and Little Dipper, he was looking at the fact that there's the napkin and it was was not lying where the linen clothes were, it was folded, it was put in another place. So he was looking at all those details. But in looking at all those details, he didn't grasp the significance. John looked at those details and he grasped the significance. So what are the three possibilities of those grave clothes in terms of what he's looking at? Because he's looking at the grave clothes And he saw and believed. What did he see? Well, I think there's three possibilities.

Number one, the first possibility is that the grave clothes were there and somebody unwound them and they were just in a big pile. Because the way they buried people those days is they took linen cloth and they wrapped it, linen strips, and they wrapped them and they wrapped their body. And so when Lazarus came out of the tomb, he came out this way. And then what did they say? Cut him loose. He had to be cut loose.

So the possibility is, the second possibility is that all those grave clothes were cut and they were there. The third possibility is that those grave clothes were there in the exact manner in which they were wound and they were untouched. Which do you think it is? Number three. I don't think it'd be one and two. You know why?

Because as you read scripture, it says that the Pharisees made the Romans put guards in front of that tomb. And they had the Praetorian guard and Verne has been talking about the Praetorian guard and they were good. and they were protecting that tomb so nobody could steal that body, nobody could roll the stone away, no one could enter into that tomb. But the stone was rolled away and no man did it.

We know the Lord did it, the angel did it, and so what John saw was the was the linen clothes lying there and then he perceived something and he grasped the significance of that he grasped the fact that Christ was alive and he had a resurrected body that was not bound by the physical laws our body are bound by that he had a glorified body that this body passed right through the grave clothes. He grasped that significance and he saw and he understood, he grasped the significance of the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He grasped the fact that was an infinite power.

Bell is wrong. I told you I wouldn't get through. Let's go back. Because this very same power, as we said before, you have been dwelling in you, I have been dwelling in me. And this is the power that Paul desired to know, to know in his life. So the significance of of Christ's resurrection is that it involved power, a tremendous power, an infinite power to go from a natural body to a spiritual body. So there is power in Christ's resurrection. It's a transforming power. It can transform us. It does transform us. It's an infinite power.

It's the very power that's required for you and me to live the Christian life. The Christian life is an impossible life. The Christian life is laid out in scripture and it's an impossibility that you in your own strength can live that life or I can live that life. You can't. You can't imitate it. You can't because you can't do it. And Paul tried to do it in Romans 7. When he tried to do it, he came to the conclusion, a wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin? So we can't possibly live the life, but he can. And Jesus Christ lives that very life through us with his resurrection power.

How do we get that power? You're going through trials, you're going through circumstances in life, so how do you access that power? How do you do it? There's only one way. And the one way is that the Lord told us, as we have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, So walk ye in him. How did we receive him? We received him by faith through his grace and we're to walk the same way by faith in his grace. And when we walk by faith in his grace, abide in him, that resurrected power is going to be operative in our life.

Amen? Amen. Let's close in a word of prayer. Our Father and our God, we are so thankful. We are thankful, Father, for your matchless and marvelous grace. And we are thankful, Father, for your reminder to us that in and of ourselves that we don't have any sufficiency, none whatsoever, and that we cannot live the Christian life. But Father, we are thankful for also revealing to us that you are the God of grace. And in your grace, you provide all sufficiency in all things that we may live to your honor and to your glory. And we give you thanks in Christ's name. Amen.