Revelation of the Resurrection
(week 12/05)
Olubi Johnson
As we celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in this Easter week, it would be beneficial to have a fresh understanding of the revelation of His resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ is what distinguishes Christianity from all other religions.
The resurrection is what gives reality to life after death and it is the very foundation of our faith.
1 Corinthians 15:16-19 NIV: And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
In fact, we are born-again by faith in the resurrection:
1 Peter 1:3 NIV: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
The power demonstrated in the early church and down through the centuries in the name of the risen Lord is ample evidence of the reality of the resurrection.
Acts 4:33 NKJV: And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.
In addition to this, the testimony of the scriptures and the supernatural change of the nature of men that profess genuine, living faith in the resurrection of Jesus are immutable and undeniable facts that the resurrection of Christ is a present living reality.
However even though this is so, it is vital for us to have a personal, continually increasing revelation of the resurrection:
Ephesians 1.17-20 NIV: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better —that you may know…His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead…
This continuous, ever brightening, personal revelation of the resurrection motivates us to a life of purity as it causes our hope in Christ to be not only for the temporal blessings of this life, but more of the rewards of eternity and the life to come.
1 Corinthians 15.19 NKJV: If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
1 John 3:2-3 NKJV: Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
The low level of purity, both in motive and actions in the church today is a result of a lack of a continuous increasing revelation of the resurrection of Christ and how it benefits us now and in eternity.
Furthermore, the brighter or clearer your personal revelation of the resurrection is, the less you feel the sting of death when a loved one or someone close to you dies physically and the less fear you will have of physical death.
As we celebrate this Easter let us purpose to increase our personal revelation of the resurrection, so as to bear witness of the reality and power thereof both in miracles and godly conduct and so live above the fear and sting of death (1 Cor. 15.55, Heb. 2.14,15), by:
1. A daily decision to and practice of walking in divine love so that our praying in tongues, wisdom and power will not be in vain:
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NKJV: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
2. Daily prayer in the understanding for the spirit of wisdom and revelation concerning the resurrection, like Paul did for the Ephesians as quoted above.
3. Daily prayer in tongues so the Holy Spirit can teach us more and more of how to appropriate the power of the resurrection in our lives both for godly conduct and great outward miracles that men cannot deny:
1 Corinthians 2:12-13 NKJV: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Acts 4:13-16 NKJV: Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. 14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? For,indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
