House of Hope Online

March 31, 2024

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Happy Easter to You!  Today is a day that is so important to our faith, a day to glorify God for the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead.  Resurrection Sunday is a day that leads to our eternal salvation because we must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead to be saved.

Romans 10:

 8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” –that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,

 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;

 10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

 11 For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

Verse 9 says we must “…believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead…”  Get that – God raised Him.  Jesus did not simply wake up from the dead.  He was raised by resurrection power from the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Life.  Resurrection power is mighty power.  It is unsurpassed power from the heavenly realm.  It is powerful enough to cause an earthquake to roll away the stone.  It is a radical life-changing power.

But resurrection power is not one and done power.  The resurrection of Jesus is eternal power, and it is repeatable power.  In fact, the Apostle Paul teaches that the Spirit who raised Jesus dwells in us.

Romans 8:

 11 But 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 indwells you.

The resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us.  There is miracle power in us.  In our conversion process, we were resurrected from the dead in that we walked in sin, which is death, but then Jesus came into our heart, forgave our sin, and made us alive in Him.  When you carry sin, you have a spirit of death that hangs over you, but when you are washed by His blood, you are raised up and made alive once again, and your spirit comes alive.  That is a resurrection of you!  Hallelujah!

Ephesians 2:

 1 ¶ And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,

 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

 4 ¶ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places], in Christ Jesus,

 7 in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God;

 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

Note verses 5 and 6:  we were dead in our sins, but He made us alive and raised us up with Jesus by grace.  That is a resurrection of you!!!  We have been resurrected by grace, a gift of God.  Just as Jesus was raised by God, so were we resurrected by God from the death of sin.  It is not a result of our works of righteousness, so that no one should boast.  Our resurrection comes through Jesus, which He made clear to Martha right before He resurrected Lazarus.

John 11:

 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies,

 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

 27 She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, [even] He who comes into the world.”

Claim your resurrection from death by telling Jesus you believe it.  Confess with your mouth that He is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. 

Closing: The Resurrection Yet to Come

In closing, I invite you to think about what your life would be like without Jesus.  The life that is in your spirit today would be gone.  Our lives would again be subject to the laws of sin and death.  The resurrection power would be gone.  Our lives would lack the life that God placed in our spirit when He washed us clean of our sin and the death associated with it.

In addition, and more importantly, we would forfeit our right to the resurrection that is to come when our Lord comes to rapture us and spare us from the wrath of God to be poured out during the tribulation.  The Apostle Paul teaches us to listen for the trumpet call, when we will again be changed by resurrection.

1^st Corinthians 15:

 51 ¶ Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.

 55 “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?”

 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;

 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 58 ¶ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not [in] vain in the Lord. (NASB)

1^st Thessalonians 4:

 13 ¶ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope.

 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.

 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of [the] archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. (NASB)

Comfort one another with these words – that Jesus’ resurrection power is in us and will be in us when the trumpet sounds.  Whether we are alive or asleep in Christ on that day, we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye.  We will receive our reconstituted bodies that are free of sickness, disease, and pain.  Our bodies will be ready to last for an eternity.

God’s resurrection power is not one and done.  It is repeatable for those of us who walk in the Spirit of Christ, during our time on this present earth, and especially when Jesus comes again to establish His rule and reign forever.

Let us pray and praise the Lord!

Father God, we hereby reaffirm our faith that Jesus is Lord, and that You raised Him from the dead.  We praise You for resurrection power and we worship You for so loving us and bringing about this current result, the saving of many souls.  Thank You for the truth that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us and has power to work in our lives.  Draw us near to You today and every day, as we await that great day when Jesus comes again.  Amen.