March 2005 Newsletter

THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION

Phil.3:10-11 “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul lists four things that he desperately wants to know, believes he needs to know, to attain to, to arrive at, the resurrection from the dead. Previously Paul has categorically said that he counts “all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord”; that he had already “suffered the loss of all things”, no longer valuing those things which were once his security and identity – the things listed in v.5-6.

THE FOURFOLD REVELATION REQUIRED TO WALK IN RESURRECTION POWER

1) “To know Him”

The four things Paul now strives and yearns to know are 1) “to know Him”, Jesus Christ. One could easily say, ‘surely Paul already knew Him better than most’; Paul was quite mature by now, in prison after a successful and fruitful ministry, and yet he desperately wanted to know Him more deeply and intimately.

2) “The power of His resurrection”

This leads to 2) knowing “the power of His resurrection”. The defining fact about Jesus Christ and the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, literally – He rose from the grave after three days. “If Christ is not risen then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” 1Cor.15:14. In Eph.1:19, Paul is praying for us to know “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.” He goes on to say, it is the same “mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies” v.20.

Wisdom, revelation and understanding to make known the power of His resurrection

To know this power, we need “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” v17, and we need “the eyes of our understanding enlightened” v18. In other words such knowledge and experience of the risen Christ in His eternal power and glory can only be known by revelation: the Lord revealing Himself to the God-seeking, sanctified and prepared heart. How can we come to the place where God can give us such personal and life changing revelation? Eph.5:26 gives us some insight “Christ Himself is sanctifying and cleansing the church by the washing of the water by the word”, and in 1 Thess.5:23, it is the God of peace who will “sanctify you entirely”, while in 1 Pet.5:10, it is the God of all grace who will “perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you”. No wonder both Paul and Peter begin their epistles with such greetings, “grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”; Peter actually says “be multiplied to you” 1 Pet.1:2.

Thank you Jesus, for your unlimited supply of grace and peace to bring us to maturity,

to the experience and knowledge of Your mighty resurrection power.

3) “The fellowship of His sufferings”

However, this striving to know Christ in His resurrection power can only be attained by 3) “the fellowship of His sufferings”. Early in his ministry as an apostle in Acts 14:21, Paul had exhorted the new believers saying “we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” How different is this to the ‘easy believism’ of ‘getting saved to go to heaven’; to the ‘prosperity doctrine’; to the ‘escape via rapture’ mentality of the 20^th century. The sufferings of Christ are presented as a ticket to our immediate and eternal future with Him in salvation. While this is true, rarely have we told those we are leading to Christ, ‘welcome to the crucified life’. The call of Jesus into salvation is the call to suffer, to lay your life down for Him and for others, even unto death. It is Paul who said in Col.1:24 “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.” It was Jesus who said, “in the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” Jn.16:33. How did Jesus overcome the tribulation and the suffering of life in this world – through the cross, and then through the resurrection!!

4) “Conformed to His death”

The 4^th) component that Paul prescribes as he seeks to attain to the resurrection from the dead is to be “conformed to His death”. Rom.8:29 says we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” This includes death, not primarily or necessarily physical death, but death to the ego: the ‘I want’, ‘I desire’, ‘I think’; death to the strongholds and mindsets and prison houses that many of us are locked into because of pride and resistance in our souls to the Christ-life within.

A FOUNDATIONAL DOCTRINE

The doctrine of “the resurrection of the dead” is the fifth foundation listed in Hebrews 6:1-2. There are six foundations that must be properly laid before the church can go on to perfection. God will not give the ‘permit’ to go on to perfection before the foundations are set in place. The church has some working knowledge of the first four foundations: repentance from dead works and faith toward God – the first two foundations are linked together and in reality equal the born again experience, the full coming to God of a new convert, i.e., being saved; the doctrine of baptisms and the laying on of hands are also linked together – the apostle Peter said in Acts 2:38 “…be baptised … and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. In Acts 8:12-17 those who believed Philip were baptised and then through the laying on of hands of the apostles they received the Holy Spirit. Likewise in Acts 19:4-6 the disciples of John received Christian baptism and then Paul laid his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Revelation and experience of the doctrine

However when we come to the fifth and sixth foundations there generally is a lack of reality in the church concerning the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement. While we all can know some things about these doctrines, it is the revelation and spiritual experience of these doctrines in practice that is lacking. God is restoring the reality of these foundational doctrines to the church today.

ETERNAL LIFE IS RESURRECTION LIFE

Our first experience of being born again, our experience of water baptism and our experience of receiving the empowering of the Holy Spirit, are all manifestations of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. The eternal life we receive when we are born again is the life Jesus was able to release through the power of His resurrection. In Jn.20:22 Jesus came up to His disciples in His resurrected body, “He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” Because Jesus had been to the cross and dealt with the sin of man, He now was able to give the Spirit to those who believed in Him. For the first time since the fall of Adam, human beings were able to receive the Spirit of God into their lives. Jn.3:16 says that when we believe in Jesus we receive eternal life. This eternal life is specifically sharing in the resurrection life that Jesus releases by having become a man, dying vicariously [as atonement for our sin] and overcoming human death – the result of sin – by rising again.

In Jn.11:25-26 Jesus declared “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” While in the context Jesus was helping Martha believe that her brother could be raised from physical death, He was looking forward and teaching us that the day was coming when eternal life would be given to those who believed in Him to be “the resurrection and the life”.

BAPTISED INTO THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

It is in Christian baptism by immersion in water that a new believer in Jesus Christ comes more fully into the power of His resurrection. Christian baptism is powerful and real because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and baptism is our identification with Christ firstly in His death, then in His burial, rising in newness of life in Him (Rom.6:3-4). It is through baptism that we “have been united together in the likeness of His death” and “certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection” v5. The apostle Peter also clearly teaches us that “baptism now saves us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” 1 Pet.3:21.

THE MESSAGE OF THE RESURRECTION BRINGS LIFE AND OPPOSITION

The message of the first apostles in the book of Acts that brought forth much fruit, but also caused much opposition to rise against them, was the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that declared Jesus “to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness” Rom.1:4. It was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that released eternal life to those who believed in Him. It was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and His ascension into heaven that released the Holy Spirit to come and fill the believers with resurrection power.

At this time God is restoring the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith to His church so that we will walk in the power of His resurrection and so that true judgement will be restored to the church in these last days.

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24/7 PRAYER

Since we spoke of this initiative in the last newsletter there have been

responses of commitment from within Australia and overseas.

To date from Tuesday to Saturday are beginning to be fully covered 24/7.

There is an apostolic company in Myanmar who have members rostered for 24hrs on Saturday, a company in Nairobi covering Tuesdays and two other companies in Kenya gearing up to cover Wednesdays and Fridays. As well a fellowship in Gladstone is covering 12 hours on Tuesdays. A brother in the Philippines has committed 5.30–6am every day, supporting the global prayer network. We are keen to have Sundays and Mondays covered as well as having all other times duplicated and finally multiplied with scores of saints around the world keeping watch at an appointed time.

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