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| Photo by B Smith from the Patio |
288-1 RESURRECTION POWER
April 18, 1976
Henry F. Kulp
Ephesians 1: 19 - 22 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
What do you think about when you think about Easter. Of course, we know Easter is completely a man-made teaching. It is purely religion. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity. The word, Easter, does not appear in the Bible in the original text. It appears once in the King James Version and it does not mean the Easter that we talk about today. But we can think about it because the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ is a reality.
1/ This morning I want you, every time you think of Easter, to think of two things.
#1 Salvation from sin,
#2 Power in your Christian life.
2/ Jesus Christ did not die and rise from the dead just so that one day we may dwell in Heaven. Christianity is far more than that. He, through His death, burial and resurrection has provided for us power for every-day living. Many Christians use the excuse—I’m only just a sinner saved by grace, and what can I do about everyday life? I still have these appetites, I’m still just a normal person—I want you to recognize something. Someone who is saved is not a normal person. God has given to that believer something that the rest of the world knows nothing about, nothing that religion can ever provide for anyone.
3/ John 17: 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Here we have a truth that is true in this dispensation and also in the kingdom dispensation. He says, Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
We have a double form in our English language, and our language is very rich in words—Rich beyond most European languages. The Norman Conquest was very important in our lives. There came to the land the Normans—they made a conquest of the land, and drove the Anglo-Saxon’s into the country. Each had their own language and in generations past they fused and gave us our present speech. Sheep in the country became mutton in the town, and oxen became beef, and pigs became pork, and so the word, saint, there is very little difference between them. Holy has come to us from the German. Saint has come to us from Latin. So the word, sanctify, here can be the word, holify. For we know that if we add the suffix, ify, to a word it means to make it that—so to sanctify means to make it saintly, or to make it holy.
4/ God says, through the Word, we are to be made holy. We are to be saintly, we are to be sanctified. So God has to provide something else for us, it is not just reading the word that makes us this.
5/ Ephesians 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Here, Paul asks the question, and there are three parts to his prayer: what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward?
I believe here we have the greatest passage in the Bible, the two words, exceeding greatness, come from one Greek word in the Bible. It is HUPER-BALL-O. Huper means over, and Ballo means to throw. It is from this word that we get our English word Ball. So it means to over-throw, and that means to have a surpassing excess to something.
6/ To have too much of something.
7/ Notice the power that we, as believers, have. It is available to us in excess. In super-abundance, and it literally should read what is super-excess of His power toward us?
8/ Let us notice the word, power, it is the word, DUNAMIS from this word we get the word, dynamic, or the word, dynamite.
9/ This power is available to us, not because we deserve it, not because we earn it, not because we merit it. It is all by grace through the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
10/ This holiness that God wants in our lives, this saintliness that God wants in our life, can be a reality through the Word of God, and the dynamite power that God has given us. He has given us an excess of this power to produce saintliness in our everyday experience.
11/ Notice, WHO BELIEVE, this power is available to all who believe.
12/ It is NECESSARY to see that Paul is praying, and this is the third petition in his prayer. He is praying that they recognize the greatness of God’s power that is in them. How great is this power? Let us look at it very carefully.
13/ Verse 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
This power is exhibited in two ways in this verse.
First of all, it is resurrection power,
Second, it is power that raised Jesus Christ up to Heaven and set Him on the right hand of God the Father in Heavenly places.
14/ Creation speaks of power.
Jeremiah 10:12 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
He has made the earth by His power.
I think you recognize that God is love, He is not power, but God has power, and it took power to create the earth. Contrast the power it took to make earth with the power it took to raise Jesus Christ from the dead, and then seat Him on His right hand in Heavenly places. Here it is not just power, it is the exceeding greatness of power. It took an excess of power.
15/ Then redemption speaks of power.
I Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
For the preaching of the cross is the power of God. It is Dunamis. It is the same word we have in Ephesians 1, but when you contrast the power of redemption, with the power of God in resurrection, you see that it is excessive power that was needed and used here.
16/ To understand this exceeding, excessive power, we have to see the power it took to catch Him up into Heaven, that He might ascend into Heaven.
17/ John 3: 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
I want you to notice. No man has ascended. How could a man ascend into Heaven, He has not the power, He has not the ability. But you remember, the Scriptures says, Christ ascended into Heaven. He did something that no normal man can do.
18/ Others have been taken into Heaven. For example, Enoch in Genesis 5: 24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Genesis tells us that God took him. But we have to go into the New Testament to understand this.
Hebrews 11: 5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
God translated him. Berkeley tells us that this word should be, transferred. I want you to notice that God translated, or God transferred him.
19/ Hebrews 11: 5 Also tells us that he had this testimony that he pleased God. So far as men go, he must have been an outstanding man. For I don’t read in many places in the Bible that God was well-pleased with someone. But here is a man who pleased God, but he couldn’t ascend into Heaven. He needed God to transfer him.
20/ Elijah
II Kings 2: 11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Here we are told that Elijah was caught up in a whirlwind in to Heaven, but not by his own power. He did not ascend into Heaven. He needed God’s power, but remember, Elijah was a man of God. As a matter of fact, he was the greatest miracle worker since Moses. You remember he raised the dead. He caused fire to come down out of Heaven upon Mt Carmel. He stopped it from raining for three and one half years, and then he prayed and it rained. He had much influence with God. But still, of himself, he could not ascend into heaven. I am bringing this out with one purpose in mind, and that is Jesus Christ is God, for He had power in Himself to ascend into Heaven.
21/ Then think about Luke 16: 22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Here we have not a parable but something that really happened, and we have a beggar who was caught up into paradise, but he needed help, the angels carried him into Heaven.
22/ But Jesus Christ went up of His own power, because He said, John 14: 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
I go to the Father.
So I want you to see this marvelous power that was in Jesus Christ. It was a power that transcends the power of creation. It is power that transcends the power of redemption, and this power is given to us to live the daily Christian life.
23/ Christians are not storage batteries. How often we hear people praying, Oh, God, give me power, and you would think they were like a flash light battery. You put batteries into a flash-light and you press the button and you get light. There is nothing of the kind. This power is able to work in your life when you are in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ—walking in Him. He wants you to be sanctified, to be saintly and in the Word, and He gives the indwelling Holy Spirit and when you know the Word and you are subject to that Holy Spirit, then this power operates in your life.
24/ God does not want you to complain that you have no power to meet temptation, or that you have no power to rise above sinful habits. How often I hear believers say they just can’t get rid of a certain sin. They know they should, but they can’t do it. They are denying what God has said, and it is because they are out of fellowship with God that they have no power.
25/ Let us make a contrast as we read the Bible. We read of the power that created the Heaven and earth—the power that brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. Right at this very time as they are celebrating the Passover, we read of the power that parted the Red Sea—the power that led them triumphantly into the Land of Canaan, and the power of mighty miracles, but the greatest manifestation of the power of God that we know anything about is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the ascension of Jesus Christ into the Heavens.
26/ This power is going to work in our lives at the Rapture, when we are caught up. We are not going to go up by our own power, our own might, our own ability, but this resurrection power, this power that ascended Jesus Christ into Heaven will catch us up to be with Him in the Heavenly places.
27/ God wants us to know this power.
Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
That we may know Him and the power of his resurrection. We are to know this power in our everyday life. We can never say we don’t have enough power. We can never say we are weak in ourselves. Weak in who we are, and what we are, but the Holy Spirit that dwells within us will have this power available in our everyday experience.
28/ Did you ever ask yourself how did the Apostle Paul ever live the life he did? Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ he was a man that God used more than any other man. No one else is even close to him. Was he not a normal man? Of course he was. Did He ever sin? Of course he did? How then was he able to live as he did? He lived by this resurrected power. Let me show you what I mean.
29/ Acts 20: 24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Paul says but none of these things moved me neither count I my life dear unto myself. He is not saying that his life is not dear, for it is. But what he is saying is it is not dear unto him. It is dear unto God, but not unto him. He counts his life as being lived for the Lord Jesus Christ. How could he do this?
30/ Ephesians 3:7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
Paul carried on his wondrous ministry by this same power. The Greek word here is DUNAMUS, Dynamic power, and this power is what enabled Paul to be the minister that he was.
31/ What will keep us from experiencing this power? This power is given to all believers. It can be hindered by our worldliness, by being self-centered. But I beg you, never complain again that you have no power to meet temptation, that you have no power to rise above some sinful habit, for you have if you will walk with the Lord. This power is yours through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. Have fellowship with Him, and I want you to remember on each Easter, it not only means redemption, but it means power for daily living.
AMEN
Ref: 04/18/1976 / 288-1 RESURRECTION POWER / 04/15/2022
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