THE SPIRIT THAT RAISED CHRIST FROM THE DEAD

 
THE SPIRIT THAT RAISED CHRIST FROM THE DEAD 

On the day of the Resurrection of Jesus some of the Apostles heard the startling report of the women who had visited the tomb where the dead body of Jesus had laid and found it empty, so John and Peter ran there to see for themselves. John arrived first and let Peter go in before him. ‘Then John who had reached the tomb first also went in (after Peter jumped the queue), and he saw and believed— for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home. (John 20:8). (Why?)

That account reveals the confusion and perplexity that the disciples of Jesus still carried in their minds and hearts even after following Jesus for three and a half years and witnessing his miracles and hearing his words of wisdom and receiving his direct instruction. They had also scattered and abandoned Jesus when he was arrested after the Last Supper, and they were devastated by his death on the cross. All their dreams of sharing his Kingdom authority when he would finally establish his Kingdom and rule over Israel and even the Roman Empire were shattered. The Bible says ‘they had kept on asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” (Acts 1:6). Their inadequate human spirits were not capable of fully understanding what Jesus had been saying throughout all that time of discipleship.

So only a day after seeing the empty tomb Peter and John and most of the Apostles were hiding in a room still afraid and not knowing what to expect next. Then they saw Jesus walk through a closed door into the room where he showed them his risen body, still bearing the scars of his crucifixion. The Bible says During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

On that first occasion when Jesus appeared to them, he breathed his Spirit upon them and they were awakened to the inner peace of the Holy Spirit of the resurrected Jesus and they received his peace. (John 20:19). But they would not live in the overcoming power of his resurrection until he had ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit of power upon them on the day of Pentecost. The Bible says ‘Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with power.” (Acts 1:4)

If the disciples who knew Jesus and saw him live and then die and then saw his resurrected body walk into a room still had a problem believing that he had risen, then what chance does anyone who hasn’t seen Jesus in this life here, now, have of believing in the Resurrection?  That is what we are discussing today – (not just historical evidence) John and Peter both write about that later, about believing and not seeing. (John 20, 1Peter 1:8)
And it was only when the disciples embraced the life of the indwelling Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and lived in its overcoming power that they became true witnesses to his resurrection. That is because the indwelling Holy Spirit witnessed to them that their human spirit had been joined to the ‘together with God’ Spirit of the risen Jesus. 

The same goes for us when we believe that the Holy Spirit has been sent to dwell within us. That becomes the reality of a new eternal existence here on earth of being ‘together with God’ in our life. That is true faith, and that faith sets us free from the dismal fate of having to depend upon our own insufficient human spirit to truly know what we are meant to know, to be who we are meant to be and to do what God really wants us to do. That is God’s desire and design for us.

Our own human spirit, just like the human spirit of the disciples of Jesus, and every other human being ever created is subject to a confusing sense of self-conscious separation from the awesomeness of an Almighty God. That started back with Adam and Eve who also had an inadequate human spirit like ours, breathed into Adam when he was created, but they did not have the availability of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were beguiled by the serpent to disobey God and eat of the tree they were forbidden to eat from. He told them they would be like God if they did and they could go it alone like he had. He knew that this would trigger a wrong desire in their hearts because he lived out of that covetous desire himself. Going it alone led to disaster, and at that moment they let a mindset of ‘separation from God’ enter the spiritual DNA of humanity - and God saw that coming.

And that lie of darkness is still at work in the human spirit of all of us doing its work of separating the human mind and heart from the life of God and enticing people to live an independent self-sufficient life to have everything they want for their life. (Ephesians 2:1-2). That lie brings all kinds of disappointment and failure to our determined self-centred efforts and we can only overcome that lie of darkness by receiving the Holy Spirit that has been sent to dwell within us. We are designed by God to live in that reality of life together with God, and we need to choose that, because we are also enticed by darkness to live our own go it alone reality.

Jesus lived his life on earth in a limited human spirit just like ours and he lived in a close and perfect togetherness with his Father because he was born from above into the earth through the Holy Spirit. 
Jesus chose to live in the perfect loving harmony of that relationship with his Father and the Holy Spirit and not to live out of his human go it alone self - and so he was able to overcome all the trials and temptations. He lived a perfect together with God life and surrendered it on the cross for us and then sent humanity his risen Spirit life so that we could also be born from above. He overcame the energy of humanity’s go it alone spirit and disempowered it from putting a distance between us and him and being driven to only please self and not God.

The Apostle Paul, when he was called Saul before his conversion had tried to be the best of the best in his obedience to the Law and the Commandments, and he tells us that he had once prided himself on being a Pharisee of the Pharisees.  But it never really worked because of the dismal mindset of separation from God that he inherited from Adam just like us. As Saul the Pharisee he was made in the image of God, with a cultivated Jewish conscience but he never felt together with God. He plaintively says ‘For while I was living in the flesh (That is, the human spirit going it alone its own way), my sinful desires, confronted by rules and regulations, won the battle against my good intentions, and that distanced me further from God. (Romans 7:5).

The human spirit of Saul made in the image of God had one part that aspired to lofty righteous ideals and would have been willing to die for them. But there was another hidden part of him that resentfully delighted in killing Stephen the martyr, who lived through the power of the Holy Spirit, doing miracles and preaching powerfully in the name of Jesus. The human spirit is capable of very noble and caring deeds but it has the limitation of having to go it alone, so it is also capable of harmful wickedness and malice.

In Romans chapter Seven Paul tells us that he did not understand his own inner motivations. He said he didn’t always do what he aspired to do but did what he hated to do. He said that there were other impulsive wrong desires that dwelt within him, always there and always motivating him to resistantly follow his separated going it alone self. He throws up his hands and says ‘Hopeless man that I am! Who will deliver me from being embodied in this deathly separation? (Romans 7:24)

Paul then gives thanks for the power of the resurrected life of Jesus that he received when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and was converted and was baptised in the Holy Spirit. He explains that now his ‘together with God’ mind, his true-self mind, knows how to hear and obey God and knows what God wants for him. He also bluntly tells us that in his humanity he is still tempted to operate in wrong desires and feel separate from God. That’s us too.

Probably one of the hardest things to understand for a person who desires to know and love God and is living by faith in the life of the Spirit is that knowing that they are ‘not good enough’ in their mere humanity makes them feel that God must have to distance himself from them. God says NO to that kind of condemnation. Our human failures might make us feel distanced from God – but they don’t make God feel distanced from us (Isaiah 59:1). Jesus has given his life for us so that we can be closer to God than any two people on earth can ever be. That was the whole point of the cross and forgiveness and mercy and Resurrection and receiving the Holy Spirit. God wants the togetherness more than we do. 

Paul says in Philippians Chapter two that He wanted to know Jesus and the power of Resurrection. That is what allows us to live above the weakness of our own human nature. He encourages us and says Look, as long as you’re welcoming his abiding presence within you you’ve chosen to belong to him and live in that power of his Spirit. When you know he’s close you can draw close and let him lift you into a better place of faith.