I invite you to take your Bible and open to Philippians chapter 3 today. Our text comes from Philippians 3 verses 8 through 14. Philippians 3, 8 through 14. So back in the day, this is toward the end of the 1700s on into the 1800s there was a gentleman named Simon Greenleaf. He was a Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University and he was one of the more celebrated legal minds in American history and he was a skeptic. He was a denier of Christianity. This gentleman had written a treatise. In fact, it's still considered one of the greatest single authorities on evidence. And he wrote a treatise called the Treatise on the Law of Evidence. And he decided to take the resurrection of Jesus and put it to the test. His aim was to find that there wasn't enough evidence for the resurrection, but he diligently examined the evidence, the written documents, the historical documents for the resurrection of Jesus, and he judged it to be an established fact of history. And this Simon Greenleaf, this celebrated legal mind, this expert in the evidence necessary to use in cases of law, concluded that nothing but the resurrection itself can explain the dramatic change in the followers of Jesus and their willingness to suffer and die for Jesus. And this morning, we're going to look at a writing from one of those disciples of Jesus, Philippians 3. And we're going to read this writing of Paul, who was converted on the road to Damascus. And we remember the name of the road, but we forget sometimes what he was doing. This Paul was so anti-Christian that he was obtaining paperwork to capture Christians and put them in jail. He was a persecutor of the church, this Paul. And we have Lots of documentation, especially from Luke in the book of Acts, that Paul was... Luke describes him as a ravenous predator, trying to round these Christians up and trying to throw them in jail and get them out of the way. Well, Paul was converted on that Damascus Road, converted to Christianity when Jesus appeared to him. We're going to read his writing today as we look at the resurrection, resurrection power applied, resurrection power applied. So 2000 years ago, Jesus rose from the dead. What does that have to do with you today? Is it something we just, you know, just like a memory? Or is there a reality of the resurrection that lives on today? So, chapter 3, and we'll begin reading over here at verse 7 and on down through verse 14. I'm so excited to be able to stand before you today and give you five practical applications of resurrection power, the resurrection power of Jesus, and how that resurrection power of Jesus makes all the difference in our lives, beginning with verse seven. But whatever things were gained to me, those things I've counted as lost for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, the word of the Lord. Father in heaven, help us during this time as the spiritual work The preaching of your word and the hearing of that word, the studying of your word is a spiritual work. And we want to glorify you. We want to understand the text. We want to understand this resurrection power. And so at this time and we ask your blessing on the kids classes that are taking place. We ask your blessing in this room as well on every on every life. We pray in Jesus name. Amen and amen. So I think the best way to get into this is we're all sensitive to power. It takes power or energy for our lives to carry on. Most of us got here driving an automobile. That automobile is powered. We heat and cool our homes. We cook our food. It takes energy. It takes power. We may not think about that in real time, but there has to be power. There has to be energy in this physical realm and for this physical life that we live. In the same way, for the spiritual, the spiritual life, knowing God, there has to be power. There must be power. And it must be an energy or a power beyond what we can give. It's gotta be more than man. It can't be just our own blood, sweat, and tears. And what I want to get across is the good news, that there is such a power. That there is such a thing as the resurrection power of Jesus, and that that power, I wanna say it this way, is real. It's real. And we should think about that more often probably than we do and we should understand what that power is for. What does Christ wanna do with this power, this resurrection power that he holds for us? So I've got five things, we're gonna zip right through them, okay? You gonna help me out with this? I'm sure you will. So number one, the resurrection power of God is the power to impart life. It's the power of God to impart spiritual life to us. You say, well, where do you get that? We want it all backed up by the Bible, right? We sure do. Well, there's many references to this spiritual power. You remember and recall with me when Jesus had that conversation with Nicodemus back in John 3. And Jesus told this very astute theologian, this teacher of the Jews, Nicodemus, he told him, he said, unless you're born again, you'll never see the kingdom of God. And later on he just says flat out, you must be born again. You must be born again. And Nicodemus is confused by all this because Nicodemus is working on a horizontal plane, a very human, a very physical, a very natural plane of things. And Jesus is talking spiritual truth. So even Paul over in Ephesians chapter two, he puts it very plainly when he says in verse one, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. He's talking about everyone. We all stand guilty before God. because of our sin, because of our waywardness, our rebellion, our proclivity to break God's law. And we are held accountable for that unless we see the light, unless we see the light of Jesus and that he paid for our sin. We will have to give an account for our rebellion. But over in Ephesians, that's what he says. He says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. And then he goes on to describe for the people there what God had done for them. Down there in verse five, he says, even when we were dead in our transgressions, so that's not, it's not like we caught a cold, It's not like we got a little blister on our finger and we need some heavenly band-aid. No, we're dead. We're spiritually dead. In fact, the figure that Paul uses here could be like a zombie. We're like walking around, moving around, but we're just, we're void of spiritual life. There's no spiritual life in us. You're dead in your trespasses and sins. And then verse 4, let's read that first. He says, but God. So we stay in that state of death until God does something. And thankfully he has done something. Paul says, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were, there it is, dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So I want to let you know, let you know this morning that Christ's resurrection power makes us alive in Him. He gives us spiritual life. He raises us from spiritual death to spiritual life. We're no longer dead in our trespasses and sins when we receive Christ. When we're born again and believing Christ, we're now made alive. And that is the difference between one who is a Christian, a true Christian, a follower of Christ, and one who has not accepted Christ. One who has not received him. One who has not trusted Christ. That is the difference. The difference is spiritual life. It is the difference between life and death. Number two. I want you to know this morning that the power of the resurrection is a power that justifies. It's a power that justifies. makes us right before Almighty God. The verse is this, Romans chapter 4 and verse 25, and it's very simple. He was delivered over for our transgression, meaning He was in the hands of the ones who crucified Him, the ones who unjustly condemned Christ, He was delivered over for our transgression. Here we go. But he was raised for our justification. So what does that mean? Well, he was raised, he was raised from the dead that you and I might be right with God. That's the point that we would receive spiritual life. Point number one. Number two, we would be made right with God. That we would be acquitted of our sin. That we would not have to face the penalty for our sin. Eternity in hell. Eternity separated from God. but because Christ has suffered and died. He has paid the penalty. He has suffered the consequence that you and I deserve. So we trust him with that work that he accomplished on the cross, a finished work, by the way, whereby he was delivered over for our sin, for our transgression, yet he was raised for our justification so that we would be right with him. The only way to be right with God is to trust Him, to believe Him, to understand that Christ suffered and died for you in your place, that you and I might have this special privilege of being adopted into the family of God and that we would be able to look toward heaven. So the first two points, as you well understand, have to do with salvation. That we're born again, we receive the life of God. And number two, that we're justified before God. How does that happen except for the resurrection power of Jesus? Thirdly, and I'm gonna, I'm going to look at my third point here. Yeah. Resurrection power. See, we don't stop at salvation, do we, folks? We don't stop there. We want to grow from there. You start there, amen? You have to start at salvation. But you grow from there. So, thirdly, resurrection power enables the believer to live the crucified life. Well, listen folks, we may as well say it now, without his resurrection power, none of this is possible. None of it. I mean, just to suggest to somebody that they live a Christian life in their own strength, in their own power, I mean, that'd be like just saying, well, you know, there's Mount Everest, go climb it. What's your problem? No, you don't just go climb Mount Everest. You don't live the Christian life in your own power. There is a power available, and that is the resurrection power of our Lord, and I'm going to prove it to you from the scriptures. I know that, you know, back in the day, it may have been popular just to think, well, this is for, I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna say this sinner's prayer so I can get to heaven. But I think what a lot of people, even confessing Christians, have forgotten is what we sang a while ago. He is Lord. He is Lord. I mean, we've been bought with a price. Well, how much gold? How much money? No, none of that. Something far more valuable than gold or money, the blood of Jesus. I'll just remind you, He is Lord. And as such, we need to live before Him, submitted to His will. But it's easy, isn't it? Just to do our own thing. And never think to consult the Lord on how I should spend my time, how I should invest my energy and my resources toward glorifying Him and being involved in His kingdom. Oh yeah, you want proof. I know that. Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. What's Paul say? He said, well, Brother Bill, you're giving us all this stuff that the Apostle Paul wrote. He's the Apostle Paul. Listen, what we read in Paul's writings, he is saying this is the way to live the Christian life. It's not one way for him. and some secondary way for everybody else. So here's what Paul says. He said this. So we're talking about living the crucified life. Catch the language. Paul says, first of all, I am crucified with Christ. Okay, well, I mean if you really think about it for a minute, There were two thieves, one on each side of the crucified Jesus. Paul's not in that scene, so Paul has to mean something else. No, spiritually. I think Paul's saying when Christ died, I died. I died to my ambitions. In fact, if you read all of chapter three in Philippians, that's what he's talking about. Paul says, you know, I was excelling, I was religious, I had the pedigree, I had the resume, I had everything going for me. I had to be right in there with God. And Paul says, I'll count it all rubbish. And that word is not rubbish. It's a vulgarity. Paul is saying, whatever I thought was an advantage to me, was not an advantage toward knowing Christ. And through that passage in Philippians, he's saying, I want to know Christ. There is no higher goal, there's no greater ambition than to know Jesus Christ. And to be growing in that knowledge. So he says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, it's not I who live. Here it is. But Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself for me. You say, well, that sounds real complicated. It really isn't. Because he tells us how he lives. He doesn't give us a bunch of rules. He doesn't say, well, you've got about 40 religious hoops you need to jump through in order to find out how you are living the crucified life. He says, I live by faith. That means every moment, every hour, every day, I'm trusting Christ to lead the way. I'm trusting Him. I find so many want to make this Christian life complicated. It's really not. It really boils down to, do you have divine life in you? Are you right with God? And are you trusting Him day to day? Do you put your ambitions to the side and you look to the Lord and say, Lord, I want to serve you today, you guide my steps, you help me in this life, and I will submit to you the best I know how, and I'm gonna trust you, I'm gonna trust you to the day I die. Number four. Oh, I love this one. Resurrection power enables the believer to persevere. It's a power that causes us to persevere. I mean, and this is, I think this is a good way to say it. You know, a believer with some grit A believer with some grit, someone who might get knocked down, you might get bad news, and you know what? You're not going to blame it all on God. You're just going to trust Him and know that if you receive bad news, it came through His hand first, and you're going to keep trusting, and you're going to trust till your dying day. You're gonna trust God till you're dying day. It's a habit. It's a repetition of trust. Trust Him now. Trust Him when you're young. Trust Him when you're old. Trust Him no matter what. You trust Jesus. It's not complicated, but it is, listen, resurrection is power and it's necessary for you and I to persevere. Resurrection power is a persevering power. We keep on keeping on. No matter what. No matter what the circumstances. And you know what? We're not promised everything's going to line up just right all the time. There are going to be difficulties in this life. There's going to be trouble. There's gonna be bad news. There's gonna be hard days. And we're all, I mean, like we need to say it, we're all getting old, older. And somebody said, well, you're as young as you feel. Well, that's not too good a news either. Listen, I want you to think about it. God's given us a power and it's a resurrection power of Jesus that causes us to persevere. I like what the old saints said. They said, we believe in the perseverance of the faith of the saints. That a faith that God has given us through Jesus Christ will never die. It will carry us through. And that resurrection power of Jesus is there to carry you through. I mean, have you ever You ever thought about circumstances and how they align in our lives? And you ever been through something and you look back and you go, wow, I don't even know how I got here. I don't even know why I'm still here. It's like we were carried. It's like there was something propelling us through those dark days. Well, that's God. That's persevering power. I don't know about you, but I get excited about this resurrection power of God and the fact that it is available in our lives. In fact, it resides in us. It's all via the Holy Spirit. Number five, resurrection power is effective to the raising of our dead bodies from the grave to glorified bodies in heaven. So first, well, we can look at our passage here in Philippians. Paul talks about it. In fact, we'll, let's dig in here a little bit. So it's verses 11 through 14. There it is. Paul mentions it right there in verse 11, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. So Jesus rose from the dead physically, bodily, and the promise is to all who know him, all who have the divine life, all who are rightly related to God, have been justified by the Lord, that we will one day attain the resurrection from the dead. We have that promise. There's gonna be a great getting up morning in the future. And our bodies are going to take on some glorified form and we're going to be welcomed into the presence of Jesus with our glorified existence. And John writes about it over here in 1 John. I like the way John puts it. John's always reminding us of the love of the Father. And John wants you to see it because he starts his sentence out with C. See it, see this, understand this, know this, live by this. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. Isn't that good news? Last word hadn't been said over your life. We know, we know this, that when He appears, and He will appear, we will be like Him. Because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. John himself was looking forward to the resurrection of the dead. He's trying to encourage others who have died, who are looking toward death, that one day they will rise in a glorified existence and live with Jesus and be in heaven with all the saints from all time. Paul gives testimony to the same event, that there will be a bodily resurrection from the dead for all who know Jesus. And he goes on in verse 12 there in chapter 3 of Philippians, not that I've already obtained it or have already become perfect. So Paul's still growing himself. He's growing in the Lord. He's obtaining more knowledge of the Lord and learning the Lord's ways. He says, but I press on. so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Now that is a fancy way of saying that one day, and it was on the Damascus Road, the Lord just reached down, as it were, and just stopped Paul in his tracks and laid hold of him. And so what Paul is saying to us is that when you're laid hold of by God, the best thing you can do is lay hold of the Lord. He lays hold of you, and you lay hold of Him. And you follow Him, and you love Him. Because your whole eternal existence rests on Him. If you're here this morning and you don't know him, but during the preaching you've got some more understanding of Jesus and who he is, that he's our Savior and Lord and all that's available to us in order to live the Christian life and maybe you have questions or maybe you want to talk about it. We're going to be around after the service and we'd love to talk about salvation. And if you're already a believer and you have questions, you have thoughts, you wanna converse about spiritual things, we'll be around after the service to talk about it. We love to talk about spiritual things and we love to entertain questions. We may not know the answers to those questions, but we'll certainly do our best to talk through some of those issues. But if you're struggling, We would love to talk with you and encourage you. In fact, all of this is for our encouragement in the Lord. To know that, listen, we're not dependent on our own strength and our own wisdom to be successful at the Christian life. We're leaning on Jesus. We're leaning on resurrection power in these difficult days in which we live. That's what we're doing. We're not dependent on ourselves, on our strength, on our thoughts. We're dependent on the Lord. And we need to depend more on him. so, um, we wanna, if there's anyone here that needs prayer today, you got, you got concerns, you got, uh, ache in heart, we wanna pray with you, so they'll, yeah, we'll be here, and we'll be lingering after the service, but I just want to wish you a happy resurrection day, and I trust that you will walk in the resurrection power of the Lord, and that you will sense the Lord's presence in your life and you will know that He's gonna be with you in this life and according to His promise He will never leave us, He will never forsake us and He'll lead us right in to our eternal abode one day where we'll be with Him forever and ever and we're looking for that day as well so God bless you today and let's stand and we'll pray and get going Father in heaven, you've seen everything that's taken place today. Not only the things that were said, spoken, deeds done, but you know our thoughts. You know what we're thinking. You know what's on our heart. Lord, I pray again that you would do the spiritual work, that you will impress upon us this wonderful power of the resurrection of Jesus. and Lord that we would lean into you. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.