Resurrection Power

ACCORDING to the Gospel records the Lord Jesus Christ went to Bethany eight times. By doing so he revealed the threefold secret of a triumphant life, a living Church and a happy home. The first visit of the Lord Jesus Christ to Bethany is described in Luke 10:38-42. The second visit was at the invitation of Martha and Mary. The first time He went of His own choice. But in John 11:3 the sisters sent for Him to come home, because there was a special need at that time. Their brother was very sick. They did not know then what a great blessing the Lord Jesus Christ had in store for them by not coming immediately.

In the beginning of our Christian life, we go to the Lord only when we are sick or in any need. We pray only for our personal needs or problems. In John 11 we find the Lord purposely went late to Bethany. Even though the sisters had sent for Him, He did not go immediately (v.4) because He had in His mind to give a greater blessing than they had asked for. They wanted Him to come and heal their brother who was very sick. This is how we too pray in the beginning. We think only of our personal need. At that time the need of the family was very great and urgent. We find however, that when the Lord delays in answering prayer, it means that He wants to give us a greater blessing. The Lord purposely delays going so that He might show the family and the people His true glory and give them a personal experience of the power of resurrection.

We can see from God's Word that the power of resurrection is the highest power in the world (Phil.3:10). To know resurrection power was the longing of Paul the Apostle in his old age. He had seen, not one, but many miracles, through the Lord Jesus Christ. He was caught up to the third heaven and saw there many mysteries. At the beginning of his conversion, he had heard the voice of Christ. And again in Acts 18.9, the Lord appeared to him. He had seen the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord had spoken to him clearly: "I am with thee, Fear not". Similarly he was caught up to the third heaven. Paul did not ask for another chance to go to the third heaven though that had been a great experience. Also he could have said to the Lord: "Appear to me again". But Paul was not longing for miracles, visions or the third heaven. He was longing for two things, viz., "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection". Even though God had spoken to him so clearly and so many times yet he knew that he had to know Him more intimately and have an inward intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ went to Bethany for the same purpose—so that Martha, Mary and Lazarus might know Him more intimately, and so that they might have a personal experience of the power of resurrection. In the beginning no doubt they had some knowledge of Him because they had received Him into their home, and had spoken to Him personally. They knew Him more intimately in that sense, but did not know who He was. In John 11:22 Martha said: "Whatever you ask God He will give it to you". In verse 24 again she says "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection". When Jesus said that Lazarus would rise again on that very day, she could not believe it, though she believed he would rise at the last day. Even though the Lord Jesus was about to raise Lazarus, Martha came in His way and said: "Lord by this time he stinketh; for he hath been dead for four days." The Lord had already told them to roll away the stone, and it should have been easy to believe that Lazarus would come out of the grave; otherwise why had He asked the people to take away the stone? But their faith was merely a mist.

Many say: "I have faith!" but when a real test comes they have no faith. Some talk about faith and some sing about faith, but when the test comes their faith fails. Their minds are full of doubts and fears. So what they do is not in real and living faith. The Lord used a painful experience to reveal to Martha and Mary the power of resurrection. The Lord took Paul through many painful trials (2 Cor.12:7-10). Nobody knows even today what his thorn in the flesh was, but we believe it was something very painful. That is why he besought the Lord thrice to take it away from him. He was not a man to grumble. He never complained to the Lord, nor did he murmur against the trials he went through. A list of the trials which Paul went through is given in 2 Corinthians 11:24 to 28. With all these sufferings he never once complained. He knew how to go through the most painful sufferings. Never once did he say, "Oh Lord don't take me through these sufferings anymore." Then came this thorn in the flesh. It was so painful that he prayed thrice for the Lord to take it away. He said "I cannot bear it any longer. This is too painful for me." The Lord said, "My grace is sufficient for thee". The thorn was for a purpose. First of all to keep him humble, lest he should exalt himself above measure, and secondly to prove the power of resurrection to him. That is why he said in 2 Corinthians 12:10 that, not only was he glad to suffer infirmities, but he even took pleasure in sufferings, reproaches, distresses and trials, thus enjoying the power of resurrection. In Philippians 4:11-13 he said: "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me". That testimony was given only after he had passed through all situations. Though he was hungry he rejoiced. God kept him hungry even though He had performed many miracles through him. There were times when he had to do without food for some days, and had other needs as well, yet he felt strong in all his trials. God permits in our lives many painful situations and circumstances that we may have an opportunity to prove His faithfulness, and so that the power of resurrection will come more and more into us.

For this very same purpose God made Abraham to wait till he had become old and his wife had passed the age for child-bearing. Unless God had put new life into those two bodies they could not have had a son. You can imagine the agony which they had to go through for twenty-five years after they left Haran. Abraham was a righteous man, but he had no son. (Gen.12:2; 15:2) He had waited for a son for a long time, and at last decided to make his will to the steward of his house. For many years he had been through agony and trials, and doubtless many mocked at him saying, "You said God would make of you a great nation! Why did He not give you a son? If he had wanted to, He could have given you a son long ago". Thus people may have mocked and ridiculed, and God was silent till Abraham knew full well the power of resurrection (Rom.4:18-25). But that faith was given to him only after he had waited for 24 years. Then he began to see that God had poured into him and his wife the power of resurrection though they had passed the age of childbearing. Unless God had put new life into those bodies, that miracle would have not been possible. All the mockings of the past years had given Abraham faith. In the beginning he had some faith when God appeared to him. Straightway he had left his home and followed the Lord. But the Lord was not satisfied. He wanted the faith that would claim the power of resurrection.

Now we generally think of faith in terms of healing, jobs, children, land, buildings, promotion and victory in battles. But God is not satisfied with that. He wants the faith for the power of resurrection. It is only with the resurrection power that one can overcome all limitations, and trials and temptations. It is only with resurrection power we have an intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus. We may say He is our Saviour, and wonderful and all powerful God, but do we know Him intimately? When we know Him intimately we can speak to Him as friend to friend. It is only with those whom we know intimately, that we can share our thoughts without any reservation. We get more joy by sharing our thoughts and burdens and thus we become more intimate. Such an intimate knowledge of God comes by resurrection power. That is why Paul has no longing for visions, or dreams or signs; nor does he desire to be caught up to the third heaven. He is longing to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.

The Lord Jesus Christ came to Bethany in John 11 to let the family see for themselves how the power of resurrection might come into them; also He lets them see how that power through faith was able to raise Lazarus from death. We see how poor their faith was in John 11:21,22 and 27. Even though Martha had all the faith to say: "Yea, Lord I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God which should come into the world", yet when the test came she had no faith. When the Lord asked them to roll the stone away, she hindered Him. Our faith is mostly head faith. When Mary rose up hastily and came where Jesus was as in verse 32, she said: "Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died", as if healing depended upon His going to the house. With all their devotion and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ, their faith was small. With ourselves also, though we read the Bible every day, yet then the test comes we have no faith and no victory over temptation. We depend upon ourselves and for other needs we go to men for help. But when men fail us, then we call upon the Lord Jesus. That shows we have no living faith. Such was the condition of Martha and Mary. They respected Him and honoured Him and believed that He was the Living Christ, but they had no living faith. It is the same with us. Do we know how to receive the power of resurrection into our hearts and lives?

Further we see in John 11:41-44 and especially in verse 39, how Martha said, "By this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days", when Jesus had said, "Roll away the stone". She showed by this that her old nature was lacking in faith. We too begin to see many failures and shortcomings and how corrupt our nature is. In the beginning when we hear sermons we see our hearts as deceitful and wicked and that we are great sinners. We say in prayer every day: "Lord, I am a terrible sinner", but we do not see our inward corruption. We depend upon our old nature for many things. Even though we confess in prayer that we are terrible sinners, and say: "Have mercy upon me, O Lord!" yet in all our activities we apply to the same old nature for victory and help. The Lord tells us that our old nature is very corrupt, stinking and defiled, and that we have to take the help of the new nature for everything (Rom.6:5,6). We must believe that the Lord put our old nature on the cross when He died (Rom. 6:6). When Lazarus died, in order to show us that He had put our old nature on the cross, He raised him up again. We do not want to depend upon our old nature any more. For all our activities, plans and needs we want the new nature. When you begin to pray every morning by faith say: "Lord Jesus, You are my life, You are my strength and my wisdom. I am not depending upon my old nature for my strength or wisdom or for anything. Now Lord, give me more life and strength for the whole day. I am not depending on my will power for victory. I am so weak. Give me the power of Thy resurrection for all my needs".

Such a faith will not come easily till we have had many failures. After we have failed many times we will say: "O Lord, I confess I am no good". In the beginning we say, "Why pray so often?" If we pray for ten minutes in the morning it is more than enough, so we do not exercise our faith and we remain weak. Consciously or unconsciously we depend upon our own strength, our wisdom and our knowledge. Paul said, "I die daily ".(! Cor.l5:31). As human beings we all remain weak in spite of our Bible knowledge, cleverness and past blessings. With our old nature we think we can conquer temptation. The devil brings something into our path every day, by thought, word or deed, and the Lord puts into ur life some disappointment, some painful situation, some trial or difficulty to teach us how to depend upon Him constantly. "Without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). For all things you can depend upon Him. Generally we go to the Lord for big matters and not for small matters. That attitude rings us into many failures. We have to recognize the power of resurrection for small matters too, for every burden, for every ministry, and for every need.

In the case of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He left behind His grave clothes. The stone was rolled away and the body came out of the grave. He Himself came out. But in the case of Lazarus (John 11:44), he came out wrapped about with the grave clothes. This was for a purpose. If God wanted He could have brought him out without the grave clothes. But Jesus said: "Loose him and let him go" Others had to come to help him.

We too all need fellowship. We cannot do without fellowship. Many believers remain weak spiritually because of lack of fellowship. They happen to have had some experience with the Lord, but they do not want to have fellowship with the believers. They stay at home and read some books, and say: "Why go there and waste time". Hence they despise fellowship. For full growth we must have fellowship, just as Lazarus needed the help of other disciples to free him from the grave clothes.

We find prayer, worship, and testimony go together. When we pray alone we cannot pray for every matter, even though we might pray the whole day. When we pray together we get liberty to pray for many matters, and we get great joy in doing so. It is even so with the Word of God. When we are at home, we cannot get much from the Word of God, but when we go for Bible Studies and meetings we get much more. Even with regard to service, when we come together we have liberty to give the Word. We all need the fellowship of believers and God's servants in order to enjoy more fully the power of the resurrection for all our needs, trials and temptations. Christ said to the disciples: "Loose him and let him go". Thus Lazarus became free. New power came into him and automatically power came into Martha and Mary. So Martha, Mary and Lazarus became a happy family, and because of the change of heart, there was no strife in the family.

Once we receive the power of resurrection, we are in a better position to enjoy God's plan which is revealed in John 12.