
The Power of the Resurrection
Scripture Reference 1 Corinthians 2 : 4-5
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
1 Kings 17: 19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” 22 The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
Life Lesson: The power of the resurrection is not only central to the Christian faith, it clearly demonstrates to an unbelieving world that faith in Christ is the Truth!
All religions make claims and boasts about God, creation, the human condition and exactly what constitutes the solution to our dilemma; however, only the Christian faith provides explicit proof to these major questions that are intrinsically tied to the fact of the Resurrection!
How can we know that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life? He proved the veracity of His claims when He rose from the grave! Yes, other religions do make claims and they seem provocative, even believable to many who have yet to know the Christ, however what separates Christ and Christianity from every other religion is the Resurrection!
Paul wrote regarding the Christina faith, 1 Cor. 15: 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” How could Paul say that Christ has indeed been raised? He could say it because he experienced the risen Christ on the Damascus road, Acts 9. Some would ask for proof. How else do you explain the sudden, inexplicable transformation of a brilliant man bent on imprisoning Christians and eradicating what he deemed to be nothing less than a heretical belief system from the face of the earth to a major proponent of that faith? Paul’s experience with the risen Christ convinced him that faith in Christ is the one true faith!