Preached @ Metro Easter Sunday 2006 by Pastor Jeff Williams

Easter Sunday, the day the church remembers and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Paul the Apostle in Philippians 3:10 prayed a pray, "that I might know Christ and the power of His resurrection..." 

Before the 2nd World War, a little community in Texas, USA, suffered a horrible tragedy, a school fire in which 263 children were killed. After the war, the school was rebuilt with the most advanced fire spirinkler system available. Seven short years later the school had another wing added because of increased enrolments. During the building, it was discovered that the fire system had never been connected up.

This story is similar to many Christians lives, in that we are never really hooked up to the power that is available to us.

The crucifixion speaks of the love of God. While the resurrection speaks of the power of God. Many of us know Jesus who died for us, and that our sins have been forgiven, but do we know the power of Jesus at work in our lives?

What does the resurrection power of Jesus mean for us?

1. It lifts us out of our sin, we have been forgiven and made clean.

2. We are now united with Christ. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places.

3. It provides the remedy for our struggle in life. Paul said in Romans 7:24-25 that he had tried eveything, and who could set him free from this struggle. The answer was and still is, Jesus Christ.

4. Victory over the kingdom of darkness.- Colossians 2:15

5. The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit - John 14 

6. The furture glory - heaven - John 14:2, Revelations 21:4

A.W. Tozer once wrote

"So, it becomes the devil's business to keep the Christian's spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprissioned in our own grave clothes. He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage ... we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead".

In the story of the Matrix we see how Neo is unplugged from the MAtrix(symbolises that we are have been set free from the bondage of sin). But is some ways he is still Thomas Anderson. At the end of the movie we see Neo engaged in a battle scene with some agents. As he begins to fight, Trinity says, "what is he doing", morrpheus responds, "he's beginning to believe".

Let's askl oursleves the question do we really see and believe what Jesus has done for us and placed within us. His resurrection power!! 

Let's do what the apostle Paul said in Romans 6:3-4 "walk in Him and in this risen life".