The Life Changing Power of Christ’s ResurrectionActs 26:1-24; Philippians 3:1-12

April 20, 2014Bob Bonner

Of the two major Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter, typically the most popular among the populace is Christmas. In this country at Christmas, the natural selfish desires of children are overfed with gifts, leaving them with fond memories of the holiday as they turn into adults. Similarly, parents are also excited to be heroes for a day, as they get to see their children’s response to their gifts, short-lived as they may be. Hence, Christmas has become for many adults and children the best holiday of the year. Sadly, it has been easy for most people to be so caught up in the receiving and giving of gifts that they lose sight of God’s incredible gift sent to us, the birth of our Savior.

But if there were no Easter, if there were no empty tomb, if there were no resurrection of Jesus Christ, we would have no Christian holidays. We would have no foundation upon which to build our faith. All of Christianity stands or falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ’s power to raise Himself up from the dead proved that He is God. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus proved He was able to pay the ultimate price necessary for our rebellion against God. He paid the price for our sin, for our ignoring of God, so that if we put our confidence in Christ’s finished work on the cross and His resurrection, we can enjoy forgiveness from sin, freedom from the shame of our past, and the hope of a new beginning. As well, we receive God’s full acceptance, approval, love, and the guarantee of spending eternal life with Him. But for today, while we are alive here on earth, one of the greatest effects of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to see the very power behind His resurrection at work in rescuing, healing, and transforming broken people.

This morning, I want us to look at one of the most powerful evidences of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that is the radical transformation of a life, changed by the very same power that resurrected Jesus Christ. We are going to review the life and testimony of the Apostle Paul, who had been arrested and was being tried for sedition against the state of Rome. He had been invited by the most powerful Roman magistrates in Israel to explain himself and his actions. The two Roman officials were the newly appointed governor of Israel, Festus, and the powerful, half Jew and Roman king of northern Israel, King Herod Agrippa II.

As you turn in your Bibles to Acts 25:9-11, allow me to set the stage: the Apostle Paul was being held under house arrest in the governor’s palace in Caesarea, Israel.

Contrary to what some people think, Paul was not always in chains during his two year imprisonment in this palace; he was given freedom to walk within the palace, but not to leave.

In our passage, Paul was standing before Festus, who had taken over the governorship of Israel just three months before. The previous governor, Felix, had just been fired by Caesar for many reasons, one of which was for not keeping the peace in Israel. To be specific, he could not keep the Jews quiet, nor could he convince them to stop their rebellious actions. Festus liked his new job and wanted to keep it, so he wanted to do whatever he could to appease the Jews and win their support. One way to do that was to turn the Apostle Paul over to the Jews to kill or do with as they wished. But this required reasonable cause.

However, after Festus heard the facts concerning Paul, he knew there was no case against him. As a result, in Festus’ court room, we read this exchange between Festus and Paul, in Acts 25:9-11:

But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, “Are

you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me on these

charges?”

But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to

be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know.

If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of

death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which

these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to

Caesar.”

Suddenly, Festus found himself on the horns of a dilemma. Festus, without the ability to decide the case or to prove Paul wrong, had to accept Paul’s request as a Roman citizen to have Caesar decide his case. That was okay with Festus for the moment, because it sort of got him off the hook with the Jews. But before he could send Paul to Caesar, he had to write an accompanying letter that would be sent

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along with Paul to Rome that explained why he did not release him on the basis of the evidence. This left Festus with the dilemma of being able to do that without looking incompetent to rule.

Just about that time, King Herod Agrippa happened to come to town to congratulate Festus on his new assignment. Festus quickly took King Agrippa into his confidence about the problem he was having with this Jew, Paul, and asked him for advice. King Agrippa, happy to help and having heard some things about him, wanted to meet this Paul. So he agreed to interview him. That brings us to Acts 26:1, where we read:

1Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.”

Then Paul stretched out his hand and proceeded to make his defense:

“2In regard to all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I

consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my

defense before you today; 3especially because you are an expert in all

customs and questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to

me patiently. 4So then, all Jews know my manner of life from my youth

up, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at

Jerusalem; 5since they have known about me for a long time, if they are

willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect

of our religion.”

In other words, all of the Jews who were present that day knew these things to be absolutely true about Paul. None was a more righteous Jew than Paul. And on top of that, he had hated Christians with a passion. In addition, historically, no Jewish Pharisee could go outside of Jerusalem to another city to persecute Christians unless he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the very Jewish counsel who had had Christ put to death. In other words, more than likely, before he became a Christian, Paul was not only persecuting Christians, but he was also one of those responsible for Christ being wrongly judged and crucified.

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Let’s keep reading about Paul’s defense before Agrippa. “6And now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; 7the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews.”

What is this “hope” to which Paul refers? It is the Jewish belief that God could and would resurrect the dead. So then, Paul asked the obvious question that if the Jews were accusing him for teaching about the resurrection, then, 8“Why is it considered incredible among you people (Imagine Paul sweeping his arm around the room to all who were gathered there: fellow Jews, Roman soldiers, Governor and King alike with their entourages.) if God does raise the dead?” In other words, before he met Christ, he and the rest of his Pharisee buddies all believed in the resurrection of the dead. But, as he will continue, he did not believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, as the first Christians had declared. And because he did not, in order to keep the Jewish faith intact, he had to stop these Christians from preaching the resurrection of Christ and, if necessary, kill them to do so.

Paul further explains: 9 So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the

name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not

only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received

authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to

death I cast my vote against them. 11And as I punished them often in all

the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously

enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.

Now, for King Agrippa and Festus, Paul’s testimony is going to take an unexpected, twisted turn. He tells them:

12While so engaged, as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority

and commission of the chief priests, 13at midday, O King, I saw on the

way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me

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and those who were journeying with me. 14And when we had all fallen to

the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, “Saul,

Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the

goads.”

15And I said, “Who are You, Lord?”

And the Lord said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16But get up

and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to

appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you

have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17rescuing

you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending

you, 18to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and

from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of

sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in

Me.”

Wow! Paul had a personal encounter with the resurrected Jesus Christ in a rather dramatic way. In the other accounts of this event, we learn that all of this happened under other eyewitnesses. This did not happen to Paul someplace out of the way, where Paul was by himself. It was in broad daylight, out in the open on a public road, and with many witnesses.

He continued at this point to explain what he had been doing ever since his Jesus encounter.

19So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,

20but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at

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Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the

Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds

appropriate to repentance.

Now, Paul explains how it is that he is under house arrest, and the Jews are trying to kill him. He states:

21For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me

to death. 22So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day

testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets

and Moses said was going to take place; 23that the Christ was to suffer,

and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the

first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.

24While Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice,

“Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you

mad.”

Isn’t that typical? Bright intelligent people, as well as some not so bright, have such a hard time with the miraculous, simply because it can’t stand up to the scientific method. If something can’t be proven by the scientific method or personally witnessed, it could not happen. And if you say it does, you are condemned as a lunatic or an easy sell for foolishness.

We will stop there for now and leave the rest of the story for when we return to our study of Acts. But what I want us to notice is that this is one record of the Apostle’s personal testimony of his life before he met Christ and after he met Christ. There is one thing that the scientific method cannot disprove and that is the transformed life of someone who has met Jesus. The change in Paul’s life is miraculous. And what was it that began the transforming work of Christ in Paul’s life? Seeing the resurrected Christ. If there is no resurrection of Christ, there is no Christianity.

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Now, let’s return to another passage, Philippians 3. Five years ago, when I taught through that book, I spent several hours of teaching the first twelve verses of the chapter and barely touched the surface of what is there or the implications for our lives today. But now we are simply going to visit some highlights of these verses to see how it is that the resurrection of Christ impacted the rest of Paul’s life until he went to be with Jesus.

Paul wrote these words to the Christians in Philippi because he was concerned that some religious Jews, who claimed to be Christians, might come to town and tell the Philippians that it was all well and good to put their trust in Jesus for salvation and forgiveness of sins, but they must also become Jews and practice the Law in order to be saved. In other words, they were teaching another gospel: trust in Jesus plus your abilities to do things to be saved and become all you can be. Today, there are many sincere, good, and loving people who are Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and even some Baptists who do not realize that they are teaching another way to get saved and to experience the power of Christ to transform their life. They put people under the burden of performing to the best of their ability so as to either earn or maintain God’s favor and forgiveness. So, Paul wanted to nip this false teaching in the bud before it got a foothold in Philippi. He is reminding the Philippians, through his own personal testimony, to hold true to the truth of the Gospel, which is based in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection.

Follow along as I read and make a few anecdotal remarks: 1Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. [By this he means to rejoice in

what the Lord Jesus Christ has already accomplished on our behalf. In a

moment, he is going to contrast this with putting confidence in one’s flesh or

human abilities.] To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and

it is a safeguard for you. 2Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers,

beware of the false circumcision [These words are a reference to the false

teachers who wanted these Christians to put their faith somewhat in Christ

and somewhat in their own abilities to earn or maintain God’s approval or

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acceptance by becoming practitioners of the Jewish Law.]; 3for we are the

true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ

Jesus [We glory in what Christ has done for us so that we don’t and can’t

rely on our own abilities to receive God’s approval and blessings.] and put

no confidence in the flesh [in our human abilities or religious traditions or

good works to receive God’s approval or to see lasting change in our lives],

4although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else

has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more [Then he recites all

the standards, or good merit badges he had earned as a Jew in his earlier

days.]: 5circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of

Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a

persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law,

found blameless. [In other words, all would agree that by human and

religious measures of being a good guy, he should earn salvation, for he had

done it all. But then he says,] 7But [having lived a blameless life] whatever

things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss [worthless or

of no importance] for the sake of Christ. [In other words, in light of what

Jesus Christ accomplished, those things did not matter to a hill of beans!]

8More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing

value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [All of my good works and

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religious efforts mean nothing in comparison to knowing the person of Jesus

in an intimate way.], for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and

count them [all of his losses, his persecutions] but rubbish so that I may

gain Christ [Everything he had suffered and lost was worth it because in the

process, he had come to know Jesus even better.], 9and may be found in

Him [a reference to his eternal security based upon Christ’s work, not his

own efforts], not having a righteousness of my own derived from the

Law, but that which is through faith in Christ [meaning Christ’s death and

resurrection], the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of

faith.

Do you see how over and over he is pounding home the truth that neither he nor anyone else can get to heaven, be saved, or earn salvation by being a good person, a religious person, or by doing good to others. The only basis and hope Paul had of spending eternity with God and of having been forgiven for his sin was to have put his entire trust and confidence in what Jesus had done for him when he trusted in Christ.

Paul continues to explain why this trusting in Christ’s finished work and not in himself was so important. And this is where I want us to finish our study this morning, looking at these three verses, 10-12. Here, Paul tells us his four goals for the rest of his life, which can only be accomplished by putting his confidence not in himself, but in Christ, His death and resurrection.

10That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the

fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11in order

that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have

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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.

First, He says his goal is “that I may know Him.” This is a continuation of Paul’s thought from verse 8, where he tells us that all he wanted was a fuller and deeperexperiential appreciation of his Savior. This knowledge of Christ is different from the knowledge we gain through objective academic study (the Greek word “oida”), though information is part of our growing personal knowledge of Christ. This experiential knowledge is like the knowledge expressed in Genesis 4:1, in which we are told that Adam intimately knew his wife Eve.

What would prevent a person from growing intimately closer and sensing Christ’s love more? Paul has answered that early on--“confidence in the flesh,” or the prideful trusting of your own self to be more appealing or acceptable to Jesus by your own efforts. This is the type of confidence that cries out, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.” Confidence in the flesh is having more confidence in self-help books than in the transforming power of the resurrected Christ to change your life. This pride in self and what you can do apart from Christ working through you will keep you from intimately knowing Christ. And not only that, pride will keep Christ from transforming your life into more godliness. This leads right into what Paul says is the second goal of his life, “That I may know the power of His resurrection.”

Paul’s second goal is that he wanted to know or experience the power of His resurrection. Paul did not mean that he wanted to experience a physical resurrection supernaturally, as Jesus Christ had done. He knew that if he died, hewould experience such a resurrection. Rather, the theme of verses 9-10 deals with sanctification, personal growth, and becoming more Christ like. By drawing closer to Christ, our personal habits, hurts, hang ups, thoughts, attitudes, and spiritually dead and unrighteous behaviors would, by Christ’s resurrection power, be transformed into newness of life today.

Paul had no interest in religion for religion’s sake. He wanted to know Christ and become like Christ. He no longer wanted to live like others who did not know Christ and were not like Christ. He wanted there to be such a supernatural resurrection-powered transformation of his life that it was noticeably different from

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his old life. In addition, he wanted his life to reflect the life of the One who lived in him.

Paul’s third goal, “to know the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,” is stated in verse 10. By this, Paul did not mean that he wanted to suffer in the service of his Lord, so that he could add to the merit of Christ’s sufferings. Such an idea is completely foreign to biblical teaching (Hebrews 10:14). Rather, he saw suffering for the sake of Christ as only fair, since the Savior had suffered so much for him. The Christian who suffers because of his or her faithful testimony for Christ can personally relate to Jesus’ feelings when He suffered for faithfully obeying His Father. There is a “fellowship” in that kind of suffering (Romans 6:8; Galatians 2:19-20). A believer who never suffers for the Lord’s sake cannot know or enjoy that fellowship with those who have genuinely suffered for the Gospel.

Paul adds to the end of this goal the phrase, “Being conformed to His death,” which further explains the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Paul is saying that he wanted to so dedicate himself to doing God’s will, that if it resulted in sharing in the fellowship of Jesus’ suffering to the point of death, he was willing, because it would enable him along the way to more intimately know Christ.

But “death” here does not simply refer to physical death. It can refer to small deaths that may lead up to physical death. A small death may mean to be willing to give over to Christ your dreams or desires or expectations of how you thought life would be when you got married, had children, retired, or got that dream job. Being conformed to Christ’s death could refer to yielding your agenda and timing for events in your own life to the Lord.

For sure, what this was not saying is that Paul had a morbid, unhealthy fascination with suffering and death for its own sake. He so loved the Jesus Christ that he wished to share all aspects of His life, to know Him as intimately as he could, even if it required the yielding of his dreams, expectations, desires, agendas, and possibly even life, which it eventually did in Paul’s case.

Paul mentions his fourth goal, “In order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead,” in verse 11. Admittedly, this is a challenging verse for the Greek scholars to translate (as can be witnessed by some of the margin notes in your Bibles) as well as to interpret and apply to our lives. All of the translators recognize that this verse does not contain a purpose clause, as the NASB translation “in order that” implies. A better translation would be what the NASB has in its

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margin, “If somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” The NIV has it, “And so, somehow attain to the resurrection from the dead.” The bottom line is that the scholars agree that this verse does not express a purpose to get resurrected or an uncertainty about one day being resurrected, but rather the sense of hopeful expectation about a specific resurrection.

The key to unlocking what is the intended meaning of this verse is the word for “resurrection.” It is not the normal Greek word used for resurrection in the New Testament. This word is only used this one time in the Bible. It is the word “out-resurrection,” describing a separation from something, the taking out of something from a group of somethings. Furthermore, because of the context of verses 10-12, whatever this separation from something refers to, it has to concern something Paul is presently striving after. What he is striving for definitely has a future goal as well, as verse 14 points to, but we don’t have time to go into it here. For now, this present thing he is striving after will come as a result of his and our drawing closer to Christ now. By the time he reaches heaven, he will have attained it. What is he striving for now?

In verse 12 Paul mentions, “Not that I have already obtained or have already become perfect.” He is striving to become “perfect.” What does that mean? Is Paul a flaming perfectionist? No. Not at all. This term “perfect” is used throughout the New Testament in two ways: first, to refer to the completion or finishing of a task, and second to speak of growing up to be spiritually mature. In James 1:4, James uses this word two times, once as a verb and the second as a noun. And he uses them in two different meanings. James writes, “Perseverance must finish its work [verb form of “perfect”] so that you may be mature [noun form of “perfect”] and complete [entirely put together], not lacking anything.” (NIV)

When you put verses 11 and 12 together, Paul is saying, “I want my life to become so Christ-like, that when people see His transforming work in my life, they will separate me or ‘out-resurrect’ me from the spiritually dead around me. I want my life to be so positively transformed that people like King Agrippa will notice the difference, so want what I have, and put their trust in Christ as well.”

How many of us have spiritual dead spots in our lives that need Jesus Christ’s resurrection power to bring us back to life so that joy, expectation, and purpose fill our hearts? How many spiritually dead habits, hurts, and hang-ups do we have that we want to see changed? Paul’s point is that he has no confidence in the flesh--his human ability to make any lasting changes in his life. He has tried religion; he has

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practiced self-discipline according to the Jewish traditions; but there was not lasting change to his heart or personality. But when he draws close to Jesus, Jesus puts his resurrection power to work and transforms Paul’s heart, resurrecting those dead zones into new life.

As Paul stood before Agrippa, giving his testimony to the life-changing resurrection power of the resurrected savior, Agrippa didn’t know whether to spit or untie his sandals. He could not deny the change in this former Jewish member of the Sanhedrin who had been arrogant, obnoxious, and hateful of all followers of Jesus. What he saw before him was a changed man, a humble servant who was pleading for everyone in the room to believe that Jesus did rise from the dead, proving His deity and His ability to forgive sins. But not only that, Jesus could transform their lives. Furthermore, the event that brought about this life changing conversion for Paul was that he witnessed the resurrected Christ.

A question that some of you in this room struggle with today is the same question that some of those in Festus and Agrippa’s hearing struggled with: Did Jesus really rise from the dead? All of the historic evidence they could find said, “Yes, Jesus rose from the dead.” The most conclusive evidence for Christ’s resurrection for that audience was not the empty tomb, but the radically changed life of the Apostle Paul.

How’s your life going? Do you see the need for the change and transformation that Paul experienced? Do you want to know such forgiveness and life-giving transforming power? Do you want to intimately know Jesus, so that with His resurrection power He can bring your life and its dead spots to life?

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