The challenge is to remember the power of his Finished Work in our in our unfinished condition.
#285 Resurrection Legacy
“It is finished!” John 19:30, Matthew 27:50, Mark 15:37
The earth shuddered and twisted in rage, rending the rocks and tearing the thick veil of the temple in two. Matthew 27:50-51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45
At the moment when Christ died, nothing could have seemed more abjectly weak, more pitifully hopeless, more absolutely doomed to scorn, and extinction, and despair, than the Church which he had founded. It numbered but a handful of weak followers, of which the boldest had denied his Lord with blasphemy, and the most devoted had forsaken him and fled. They were poor, they were ignorant, they were hopeless…
What was it that thus caused strength to be made perfect out of abject weakness? There is one, and only one possible answer—the resurrection from the dead. All this vast revolution was due to the power of Christ’s resurrection. The Life of Christ by Frederic Ferrar, p. 656
In the early morning darkness two Roman guards stood at their post with sleepy eyes. They had been placed there by Pilate at the request of the Pharisees. “Give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead…” the officials had demanded of Pilate. The guards were instructed to make the tomb as secure as they knew how. They put a seal on the stone and stood guard throughout the night. Matthew 27:62-66
Suddenly the earth began to move and shake. There appeared a brightness akin to lightning. A being with clothes as white as snow rolled back the stone and sat on it. The guards trembled in terror and fell to the ground unconscious.
Mary Magdalene ran as fast as she was able to find Peter and John. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” John 20:1-2
“They” didn’t put him anywhere. We also can become confused and disturbed when we do not connect seemingly strange and unexpected outcomes to their true Source. It was the tremendous power of God that raised Christ from the dead.
That same resurrection power is at work in us as disciples of Christ.
O may we realize and claim this tremendous power in our lives.
“I thank God continually for you and I never give up praying for you; and this is my prayer. That God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and the all-glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and the insight to know more of him: that you may receive that inner illumination of the spirit which will make you realize how great is the hope to which he is calling you—the magnificence and splendor of the inheritance promised to Christians—and how tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God. That power is the same divine energy which was demonstrated in Christ when He raised him from the dead and gave him the place of supreme honour in Heaven—a place that is infinitely superior to any conceivable command, authority, power or control, and which carries with it a name far beyond any name that could ever be used in this world or the world to come.” Ephesians 1:16-21 Phillips
#285 Resurrection Legacy
“It is finished!” John 19:30, Matthew 27:50, Mark 15:37
The earth shuddered and twisted in rage, rending the rocks and tearing the thick veil of the temple in two. Matthew 27:50-51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45
At the moment when Christ died, nothing could have seemed more abjectly weak, more pitifully hopeless, more absolutely doomed to scorn, and extinction, and despair, than the Church which he had founded. It numbered but a handful of weak followers, of which the boldest had denied his Lord with blasphemy, and the most devoted had forsaken him and fled. They were poor, they were ignorant, they were hopeless…
What was it that thus caused strength to be made perfect out of abject weakness? There is one, and only one possible answer—the resurrection from the dead. All this vast revolution was due to the power of Christ’s resurrection. The Life of Christ by Frederic Ferrar, p. 656
In the early morning darkness two Roman guards stood at their post with sleepy eyes. They had been placed there by Pilate at the request of the Pharisees. “Give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead…” the officials had demanded of Pilate. The guards were instructed to make the tomb as secure as they knew how. They put a seal on the stone and stood guard throughout the night. Matthew 27:62-66
Suddenly the earth began to move and shake. There appeared a brightness akin to lightning. A being with clothes as white as snow rolled back the stone and sat on it. The guards trembled in terror and fell to the ground unconscious.
Mary Magdalene ran as fast as she was able to find Peter and John. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” John 20:1-2
“They” didn’t put him anywhere. We also can become confused and disturbed when we do not connect seemingly strange and unexpected outcomes to their true Source. It was the tremendous power of God that raised Christ from the dead.
That same resurrection power is at work in us as disciples of Christ.
O may we realize and claim this tremendous power in our lives.
“I thank God continually for you and I never give up praying for you; and this is my prayer. That God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and the all-glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and the insight to know more of him: that you may receive that inner illumination of the spirit which will make you realize how great is the hope to which he is calling you—the magnificence and splendor of the inheritance promised to Christians—and how tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God. That power is the same divine energy which was demonstrated in Christ when He raised him from the dead and gave him the place of supreme honour in Heaven—a place that is infinitely superior to any conceivable command, authority, power or control, and which carries with it a name far beyond any name that could ever be used in this world or the world to come.” Ephesians 1:16-21 Phillips
