10/16/2015 The Surpassing Greatness Of His Power Part 3

As born again believers, we have been raised up together with Christ. We have partaken of His resurrection and of His ascension. Paul says in Ephesians 2:4 - 6, "But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ (by grace you are saved)  6 And has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

So God's greatest and mightiest work in history was not when He created the universe with all its subsequent glories. The greatest manifestation of His awesome power and authority was when He looked into the pit and saw His Son dead...not for anything that He had done, but taking our place...and breathed the breath of eternal life into Him raising Him from the dead and elevating Him to be Lord over all rule and authority. That was the time when God flexed His mighty muscles and demonstrated to the whole universe His glory, His majesty and His power and Dominion.

That release of power accomplished exceedingly, abundantly above what we can ask or think for the human race...especially for those who willingly put their trust in His Son, Jesus. Let's just think for a moment of the grandeur, the splendor, the fullness of our Lord's resurrection, ascension and seating at the right hand of the Father: When I was a lad of six, my father announced one evening that he had purchased a small farm twenty-two miles from where we then lived and two miles south of a small community called "Harrells." It was late November of 1943. We were, as a country, two years into World War II.

We moved onto the farm about three weeks before my seventh birthday. The house was in fair shape, but the farm was rather run-down needing a lot of work and attention.

Dad went up to Melvin's General Store and bought two large mules named Kate and Beck, a bottom plow, some tackle, a few other vital tools and a variety of lesser equipment and supplies. He would arise two hours before sunup and go into the field turning the dirt in preparation for planting. When I'd get home from school, I'd take him a jar of water and begin to attend to my various chores around the farm. One day when I took him the water, I noticed several stakes about 18 inches tall sticking out of the ground at various places in the freshly plowed field. I soon learned that they were marking places where he'd encountered underground stumps or large roots.

A week later upon returning from school I was shocked to discover large holes and debris from splintered stumps and roots scattered over the field. I remember the first time that I witnessed the explosion of two sticks of dynamite and saw the resultant dirt and debris sail forty or fifty feet into the air and spread outwards over a 75 to 80 foot arc around the explosion area.

On Saturday, I went into the field with him and watched the process closely. Soon I was fetching dynamite, a roll of fuse or a box of caps as needed. I was helping my dad do something worthwhile and useful. He could look as a stump and tell just how much dynamite it would take to dislodge it and where it needed to be placed.  I soon learned the process, but wasn't allowed to execute the action until several years later.

After the explosion and the dirt and debris settled, there would be a haze of acrid smelling smoke rising from the hole in the ground. It only took a short time to learn that a couple of whiffs of that up close and you'd experience a splitting headache.

The death of Jesus can be likened to the fuse bringing the spark to the cap and the dynamite followed by the explosive force that removed the stumps and the roots. The dynamite, fuse and caps were sacrificed in order to obtain the desired results. Jesus was sacrificed to bring and explosion, a release of power able to blow the stump and the roots of sin out of the world of humankind. A result that was much greater than many sticks of dynamite, greater than an atomic explosion even greater than a supernova. It was the greatest release of beneficent power that the whole of the universe in the whole of history has ever witnessed.

The sadly amazing thing about this truth is just how little of its grandeur and its importance we have grasped. We have been so focused on the death of Jesus and the Cross that we have failed to appreciate the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. The root and the power of sin have been broken and we are forgiven by the Cross, but the victorious life that most Christians are endeavoring to find must be seen to be the result of the RESURRECTION of Jesus. It is not just identifying with Him on the Cross, but identifying with Him in a special way in His resurrection.