Ecclesiastes Lesson 14

Only Solution – Resurrection

We have been going through the book of Ecclesiastes, a book that’s written by King Solomon as an explanation as to where a poverty spiritual situation would lead. King Solomon had the courage to draw the conclusions that only logic could draw from the non-Christian position and also as far as a believer who is out of fellowship. Solomon was a person who had accepted Christ under the Old Testament dispensation; at the moment that he accepted Christ he was put in union with Christ, in the top circle as we call it, this representing the legal position that can never be changed once it’s in effect. Solomon was there, but he also had the same problem that you have if you’re a believer and that is staying in fellowship with God and in the center of His will for you personally each moment of your life. Solomon had gotten out of fellowship years ago and had circulated around all outside the bottom circle. He had been out of fellowship and he tried to satisfy the spiritual vacuum in his heart by philosophy, he tried to fill it up by material things he tried to fill it up by do-goodism, he tried to fill it up a number of ways, which we found in chapter 1 and part of chapter 2.

In chapter 3 and 4 we have dealt with what Solomon concluded as far as man’s position in the universe. Turn to Ecclesiastes and I’ll point some of these out because I’d like to tie Ecclesiastes to the doctrine of resurrection and show you why the resurrection is the answer to Solomon’s dilemma. In Ecclesiastes 2:24, Solomon draws the only conclusion possible, if you’re honest, the only conclusion possible from the non-Christian side. He says, and we have to correct the King James translation a little bit here, “There is no pleasure,” or “more pleasure for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul,” that’s the details of life, “enjoy good in his labor. Indeed, this I saw that it was from the hand of God. [25] For who can eat and who can abstain apart from Him?” In other words, God has set man in the universe with a certain behavior pattern, Solomon views this, this is how he’s using the word “God,” that it’s the design of the machine, it’s the design of man to act this way. So therefore the only way that he can obtain happiness is through a relative thing, of getting as much as he can now.

Verse 26, “For God gave to a man that which is good in His sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. [This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.]” Then in 3:11 you see the conclusion that he made as far as man’s purpose in the universe. He said that the universe has a purpose, he thinks, he gives some reasons why in verses 1-8, but then he concludes very pessimistically in verse 11, “God has made everything beautiful” or “set in its time,” this means it fits together, “also He has set the age,” or “eternity in their heart, yet,” it’s an adversative there, “yet no man can find out the work that God made from the beginning to the end.” And Solomon simply says that he thinks there’s a purpose in the universe, he thinks there’s a purpose out there but he doesn’t know what it is and he can’t get to it. So therefore he concludes in verses 12-13, “I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life, [13] And, also, that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, that’s the gift of God.”

Then we find out later on, he comes down and studies the problems of injustice in society, he says the injustice is there, he doesn’t know whether it’s ever going to be judged, and therefore he concludes in 4:1-3, “So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and, behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and there was but power from the hand of their oppressors, but they had no comforter! [2] Wherefore, I praised the dead who are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. [3] Yea, better is he both than they, which has not yet been, who have not yet seen the evil work that is done under the sun.” He’s saying essentially that if you look out on the injustices of the world it’s better that you never even were born than be born into the center of this misery.

Then he finished out with chapter 4 and he is explaining three theories that people have advanced in life to make up for this vacuum in their heart. He says the first theory, verses 3-6 is the theory that all we have to do is take pride in our work; the reason why you should [can’t understand word] yourself in life is to take pride in your work, take pride in your accomplishments, sort of a self-development idea, and he says that’s a bunch of bologna because he says if you look at it very carefully, in verse 4, he said it’s only envy of a man over his neighbor. He says if you look at the real reason behind this theory, what it amounts to is I want to keep up with the Joneses, and the reason why I want pride in my work is simply because I’m trying to do better than my neighbor and exalt myself over him, that’s all, that’s the only real reason.

Then the second theory that people advance to fulfill the vacuum that Solomon dealt was the social adjustment idea and this is given in 4:7-12 and he’s saying there, look, the reason why people work and the reason why you go on living anyway is because out of the social work that you do with other people you get certain benefits. And he says this man is only what he thought he was, separated from God without any chance to fill the spiritual vacuum. Then he said the only thing that benefits is verses 10-12 and that is just a physical benefit. Verse 11, “If two lie together, then they have heat,” that’s all, there’s no social psychological benefit, it’s just a sheer physical thing.

Then verses 13-16, the third theory that people try to advance to fulfill the spiritual vacuum in their heart is fame. Well if you do a good job then you’ll go down as a tremendous influence in history, you’ll go down as a tremendous influence for the force of good in history, you can be a martyr for the good. And Solomon deals this a devastating blow in verses 13-16, he quotes a proverb in 13-14 and then he concludes verse 15-16, “I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the child, the second one that shall stand up in his stead.” He’s giving an example here of a child, an example of a teen and he’s saying that this king is old and senile and it’s about time for this king to go off the throne and he’s going to be replaced by this child, this is a young leader and he’s saying that this young leader, this child, has already got mobs around him, he’s a popular leader, he’s rising to fame, he’s not yet got to the throne but he’s going to, as soon as this senile king dies he’s going to seize control, he’s going to be famous.

And he says in verse 16, “There is no end of all the people, even of all them that have been before them,” that’s both the child and the king, “they also who come after them shall not rejoice in him.” He’s saying if you look at history in a long, straight line this only represents a dot and he says what fame does this person have, there are billions of people that existed before he came along that never knew him and there will be billions of people that come after him who will never know him either. So fame is not an argument to go ahead and live just because you want something to fill that spiritual vacuum.

So now we come to 1 Corinthians 15 and we find Paul saying the same thing. He’s saying that if the Bible really isn’t true and if there’s no real spirituality, there’s only one logical alternative that you have left, only one and he gives it in chapter 15. He’s dealing with the Corinthian problem, and the Corinthians, verse 12, thought that there was no such thing as the resurrection from the dead. They were like the Baha’i cult.

So in verse 12 we have the situation develop that the Corinthians have denied the doctrine of the resurrection. The doctrine of the resurrection is a crucial one; everything hangs on it. And yet Paul says, “If Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead, how say some of you that there is no resurrection of the dead? [13] But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; [14] And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain. [15] Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God, that He raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if it so be that the dead rise not.” His point is look what you’re doing, you who deny the physical resurrection; you’re trying to hand onto the good things of Christianity and because your intellect cannot accept the resurrection of Christ you still selfishly want to hang onto the moral standards Christian offers you. And yet he says you’re being dishonest, and Paul gives you the honest way out in verses 16-17, “If the dead rise not,” it’s very obvious that Christ hasn’t been raised either, [17] And if Christ hasn’t been raised, your faith is in vain, you are yet in your sins. [18] Then they also who have fallen asleep in Christ,” those Christians who have gone on to be with the Lord, they’ve also “perished. [19] If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

That’s his answer in verse 19, if this is just a game and a façade and this is not really grounded in historical fact, then there’s no real reason to go on living anyway. And he goes down in verse 32 and he says it again, “If after the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus,” if this has just been a human program of religion that I’ve been involved with, “what advantage is it to me, if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.” That is the only two logical alternatives that we have open; only two logical alternatives.

A lot of you know that my voice isn’t too good this morning because a lot of us have gone out to the rock festival and we’ve talked to what… the only word I can describe is the human debris of this generation; we’ve talked with these people, every one of our college kids were out there, they have camped with these kids, they have eaten the dust and slept in the mud with them, they have shared Jesus Christ, they have given out free food. These kids have gone out there and lived with them, and it’s a phenomenal thing you encounter out there, something which I have found changed my views a lot because it wasn’t what I expected. There were only two or three radical students, they were not causing too much trouble, but most of these students, whether they actually acknowledged it or not, they’re living out what you see in verse 32. They were living out the logical conclusion of Paul that if the dead rise not, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. In other words, get it now, live for the present.

There are only two ways; if Christianity is true and the resurrection is true, we have one way. If that is not so, and that’s wrong, then we have only eat and drink and fulfill ourselves now, and whether it’s on dope, marijuana, or whether it’s some of the other things, whatever it is you might as well take it, what’s wrong with it, because if Christianity isn’t true that’s the only logical out you have. If there’s one idea that we bring back from this whole thing that we’ve learned it’s once again the truth that Paul is trying to get here, that Solomon is trying to get here, that these kids realize that you can’t have morality hanging in mid-air. They have overthrown, they hate the establishment, they hate the police many times. But when we talk with them it emerges very clearly, in my mind this is the clearest thing that has emerged from the whole thing, that these kids are honest enough to see that either one or the other, but you can’t stay on middle ground as a moralist. And that basically, I feel, is what separates them from, say the generation of their parents. But those kids are open; open like crazy, I have never talked to people who were more open as a group, now it doesn’t mean everybody was open, but I’ve never talked to people that were more open to the gospel of Jesus Christ than that group; far more open that most people in this city. The reason is because they’ve gone down the path, down to the end and they’ve seen there’s nothing there, and the only thing they’ve got is the kick. Many of the kids that came to the crash tent was telling me that 95% of the kids that come in there on dope come from broken homes. Many of them have been thrown out. A lot of these kids are just rejects. People say how can you rehabilitate, how can you do anything. There’s no real solution to it except the personal individual solution in Jesus Christ, as the personal lives are transformed. That’s about the only solution; you couldn’t spend enough money to solve their problems.

Here in Lubbock you have an opportunity to see the truth of what Paul is saying here; I’m simply that these are the only two logical conclusions and these kids are honest enough to see that there’s no hope, no purpose in life, then let’s get it now. Probably one of the startling things that happened was that some of the Christian kids were out there, and one of the jobs of the Christian kids was if the police are going to make an arrest to try to spot any radicals that might start a riot and pin them down with a conversation or something, do anything to distract them until the arresting officers left the scene. These kids said who cares if we get arrested, it doesn’t matter. They don’t care; one guy said the possession of marijuana you can life in prison and these kids don’t care, so they give us life, the jail is warmer than the ground.

You can pass all the legislation you want to, it’s not going to solve the problem because they don’t respect the law and they’re not going to respect anybody that enforces the law and the reason is that the respect has to come from the inside; you can’t get respect from the outside in and what they’re saying is absolutely logical. So the only way our kids could do was ask them their name and address, anything to get their minds off the riot. But it was interesting how they responded. I think this is a graphic illustration of what we’ve been trying to say here time after time.

You see the resurrection is crucial, because it gives us one alternative. Now I want to take you through some of the passages of the Word of God and connect the resurrection with the whole rest of the Bible, so you’ll see that this whole event hangs on not just a few verses, but the whole ground and base of Christianity is rooted; and if this base isn’t there, then I dare say that these kids are right, why not get arrested, why not spend the rest of your life in jail, who cares, it doesn’t make any difference.

So let’s turn back to Deuteronomy 13; in Deuteronomy 13 is given one of the two tests in the Word of God for truth. I want you to see this because I want you to see that the people in the Word of God were not naïve people, that when they became Christians put their brains in the closet and locked the door and threw away the key. The Word of God gives us logical principles for our faith and I’m going to show you two tests that every believer in the Old Testament and in Jesus’ day had to use to identify a true prophet from a false prophet. They were not the ecumenical religion people of our day who try to mix black and white together and get gray; they’re not the liberal who says I believe in this, I believe in that, and I don’t care what I believe. These people, throughout both the Old Testament and New Testament said it’s either black or it’s white, it’s one or the other and you can’t have both of them. So here are two tests that are to separate the false and the true prophet.

The first test, Deut. 13:1, “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, [2] And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them, [3] Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God tests you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” This is the first test which I would call the logical test. The point is here, and people are often mistaken on this, Christians are often mistaken on this; miracles to not authenticate Christianity by themselves. Miracles, even the resurrection does not authenticate Christianity by itself. It says here that you can have a miracle, verse 2, “and it comes to pass,” a prophecy would come to pass but that prophecy would not, by itself, authenticate. The only way it could authenticate would be if the man who gave the sign taught doctrine consistent with that of Moses.

The expression in verse 2, “let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them,” does not mean that the prophet would walk around the place and say hey, let’s go after other gods. It wouldn’t be that obvious; it’s not obvious, this is an idiomatic expression used throughout the Old Testament to summarize false doctrine and it means, and we have an example of this in Jeremiah 28, where we have the false prophet, Hananiah saying in the name of God I say this, and he was a false prophet, and the sign, Jeremiah said, is that you have told us to go after other gods. Now he didn’t verbally say, hey boys, let’s go after other gods. It wasn’t that obvious but Hananiah was a false prophet and he was saying let us go after my signs, and I’ll give my generation my own personal miracles and they will follow me. So therefore in the Bible they are careful to say don’t you follow a miracle, don’t you follow the sign. There must be verbal logical coherence from one prophet to the next, and what the Bible says is that Moses starts here, at a point in time and gives you doctrine, the first five books of the Bible, and if I am Joshua or if I am one of the judges, or if I am Isaiah and I come after Moses, whatever I do, whether I do miracles or I don’t do miracles, my teaching must verbally agree and be logically consistent with that of Moses or I am unacceptable. And so we have a test, the logical coherence given in the Old Testament and this is a test, by the way, for canonical literature. This is why the Apocryphal literature has been rejected from the canon. So this is one test, the logical test.

Then you have the other test given in Deuteronomy 18:20-22, called the empirical test or the test from experience. The second test that they were to use to spot the true Word of God from the false words of God, “But the prophet, who shall presume to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.” He’s given a legal sentence against this person in verse 20, he said look, this man is a false prophet and you’re going to have to execute justice against him, but if you’re going to have a court procedure you’ve got to have a system of verifying or falsifying the claim in court, something that will work in the court itself, a law of evidence.

So he says in verse 21, “And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken? [22] When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Now this is the empirical test, but notice something that verse 22 does not say. It doesn’t say this, if the man gives you a sign and it comes to pass then he’s okay; it doesn’t say that, it’s a negative test. If a man tells you something and it doesn’t come to pass, that’s the sign that he’s a false prophet. And so we have the empirical test given to us in the Word of God. And this means that prophecy in the Bible must verify 100% or it’s wrong. It would be unacceptable in Israel to have 90% verification. To be a prophet of God you had to be right 100% of the time, not most of the time, 100% of the time because if you are a prophet, what you are saying is that this does not originate from the [can’t understand word] but that God has revealed this thing to you from His omniscience and omniscience can never, never, never, never be even a little bit wrong; omniscience always has to be exactly right. And the empirical test is what distinguishes prophecy in the Word of God from the prophecy of the spiritists, from the prophecy of the false religions. The Word of God prophecy must always verify totally.

We had Palm Sunday last week, and remember one of the prophecies, an insignificant prophecy, packed away in the Old Testament was that He shall come to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. It sounds insignificant, except when you realize that the King of Israel could never have a horse, he was always to deliberately ride a donkey because the human King of Israel was not the true King of Israel, God Himself is the true king. And so to remind the people of that fact, God said when your true king comes He is going to come riding on a donkey to you. He’s not going to come riding on a great white horse. So what happened? The Lord Jesus Christ actually did ride that donkey into the east gate of Jerusalem. So you have prophecy exactly fulfilled.

And this is the second test; you have these two tests; the logical test, does it agree doctrinally, is there doctrinal coherence and this is what would… for example, suppose we have a prophet, A and prophet A makes a prediction in your hearing, and that prediction comes true. For example, a prophet would say to you such and such is going to happen in the year 1972. And 1972 comes and such and such really does happen; there would be 90% of the Christians who would say happy days, this is a real prophet of God, let’s follow him, because of naïve Christians who never know the tests in the Word of God, and the test says no you don’t, you first say to prophet A what do you believe on this doctrine, this doctrine, this doctrine, this doctrine and this doctrine. You give him a doctrinal checkout. And if a person fails, then he is a false prophet, regardless of how many miracles he can perform. Conversely, if you have prophet B and he makes a prediction, doesn’t do any teaching but he makes a prediction and it doesn’t come to pass, then he is a false prophet. So you have these two tests in Scripture.

Now let’s come to the ministry of Jesus Christ and see how throughout the gamut the challenge for His generation. Matthew 16:21, the Lord Jesus’ ministry, as we will see sometime when we get into the Gospels, consists of two parts; you could divide it up into other parts but just conveniently think of the biography of Jesus Christ as divided into two parts. The first part of his life comes up to a peak in which He presents Himself as the King of Israel, He says the kingdom has come, the kingdom is here, and He’s presented Himself up to the peak; the peak occurs in various places in the various Gospels. In Matthew it’s about chapter 12-13, the unpardonable sin, that’s that passage about the unpardonable sin when the nation rejected Him. From that point on in his life the Lord Jesus Christ retreated back and build his leadership and induced the disciples, and most of his work was done on a private, non-public basis from that point on. And from that point on he would brief His disciples what was going to happen now that He had been rejected as King. We are now in this second half of the life of Jesus Christ in Matthew 16.

Verse 21, “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” He “began” to say this, in other words, here He is beginning to say I’m going I’m going to die and I’m going to rise again from the dead.

Let’s look at Matthew 17:22, “And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, [23] And they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised again. And they were exceedingly sorry.” But notice Jesus is prophesying and when Jesus prophesies He’s got to do two things: is He teaching compatible with the rest of the Bible? Yes. Is His prophecy going to verify or not? If it doesn’t verify He’s a phony. And that’s what it means when you say the physical resurrection never happened, Jesus Christ is one of the biggest phonies who ever lived.

In Matthew 20:17 we have the same thing, “And Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside along the way, and said unto them,” do you see what He’s doing, He’s briefing the leadership, he’s not talking to the masses any more, He’s building the leaders for the next generation. This generation has dropped the ball, He’s saying, but I’m going to build My leaders to reach the next one. So He takes the disciples out of the way and says unto them, listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, [18] “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem: and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, [19] And shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him. And the third day He shall rise again.”

After all this, the disciples failed to believe and the only people that really believed were the women; very significant, the men didn’t catch on, the women did, two or three of them any way, but the men kept on and the Lord Jesus Christ did not succumb to the temptations many a pastor has of letting the women control the situation. He still says it’s right for the men to be the leaders and even though they’re dumb, and even though they haven’t caught on to the spiritual truth, we’ve got to keep with them. The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t make the 12^th disciple to replace Judas, He didn’t make Mary Magdalene… He could have, she was academically qualified, but because of the principle of the Word of God that the males must lead He did not.

Now we come to the Gospel of John. In John 5:25 the Lord Jesus Christ makes another startling prediction, one that has tremendous implications as far as the doctrine of the resurrection is concerned, for that which it links it with. Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. [26] For as the Father has live in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself; [27] And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. [28] Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, [29] And shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.” And what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing here is tying the resurrection into judgment and He’s saying I am not only going to rise from the dead but after I rise from the dead then I am going to judge, and someday in the future time in history that’s going to be as definite as the resurrection was, you’re going to be able to mark it on your calendar, He is going to call forth into resurrection, two kinds of resurrection, one, the resurrection of those that have believed in Christ and the resurrection of those that have rejected Him. Both will be raised and both will be raised to judgment.

Now we want to go to another passage, back in the Gospel of Luke to prove that this is not just a spiritual resurrection, it’s true that it is a spiritual resurrection but it’s more than that, it’s a physical resurrection in addition. Luke 24:36, this is a classic reference to show that this not just a spiritual thing, this is a literal, physical, material thing and that’s the resurrection the Bible talks about when it talks about resurrection, it’s not something spiritual. “And as they thus spoke, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, Peace be to you.” You can imagine the consternation, you have a group of people in the room, the door is shut, the window’s are closed, and all of a sudden somebody appears, you take a head count one minute there’s five people in the room, you turn around again and there’s six, where did the other person come from? And the Greek would indicate in verse 36 Jesus didn’t walk through the wall; the Greek here indicates that He was standing there, He evidently had been standing there all the time invisibly and He suddenly appeared to them. But to think that He was just standing there, listening to everything that was going on, and suddenly He became visible to them.

And they were terrified, verse 37, “But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.” Which would have been the normal reaction, particularly of people in our generation. They would say certainly this must be an immaterial spirit. And in verse 38, “And He said unto them, Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? [39] Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I myself; handle Me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” [40 “And when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet.”] Now is that a spirit or is that something material; you’re touching Him, and His resurrection body could appear and disappear; it had the property of matter unknown to us that would permeate other matter. This particular type of material is material and it is not a spirit. The resurrection, therefore, is physical and that’s the way the Bible always sees the word “resurrection,” in a primary form of the word.

Now there is a spiritual resurrection and we want to turn to Ephesians 1 to cover that to apply to each one of our lives personally. So what, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead; He’s authenticated Himself but where does this fit into the plan of God. It means something exciting for you and for me; it means that we have a spiritual resurrection and we also have a physical resurrection. I want to separate those two. First the spiritual resurrection, Eph. 1:19. Do you see now that the Bible has to hang together; why you can’t do what the liberal theologians try to do, trying to hang on desperately to those pieces they like and throw in the garbage can those that they don’t like. You can’t do that; if you’re going to be honest just throw the whole thing out, but don’t try to hold on to pieces and not hold on to the whole thing. You’ve got to go one way or the other, you can’t hold this thing and toss out certain things. This resurrection is so tied in that if you pull it out, everything collapses.

In Ephesians 1 Paul is going to build a whole doctrine for the power to live the Christian life from the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. So in verse 19 he prays for believers in his day, that they might know certain things, and one of these things that they are supposed to know is “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power,” the first word for “power” in verse 19 is potential power, I would like this to our word potential energy, “to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power,” the word “working” is the word which means energy manifested or I would say kinetic energy, maybe because of my own educational experience but to me this makes it real to me. Potential energy toward us, and that potential energy is measured by that energy which you can see manifested and so he’s going to give us an example of the energy that’s manifested, “according to the working of His mighty power, [20] Which,” and this continues the example, “Which he wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places.”

So he takes an example, Jesus Christ was in the grave, physically; Jesus Christ’s body was decaying physically; something happened, that body was transformed and it went not only up out of the grave, resurrection, but it kept on going into heaven. We call that the ascension. And not only that, it didn’t even stop there, it went up to be at the Father’s right hand, so that the exciting claim that Christianity can make is that at the helm of the universe this morning there sits a man, a member of the human race, Jesus Christ, and in His humanity as well as in His deity He sits there as the controller of the universe. That’s what it’s saying, and Paul says when you see that, then you see that this is a manifestation of His power, that’s an example.

But suppose the resurrection didn’t happen; then they have no example, and now if you have no example then Paul’s saying you have no power to live the Christian life. The Christian life, the power to live the life comes from the resurrection. So in verse 21, “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,” these are the personal angels, etc. that work behind the universe, He [22] “has put all things under His feet, and gave Him the head over all things to the church.” Here is the place of complete supremacy that Jesus Christ is in, complete supremacy.

I think again of the human debris that we met out there, and they say what program can we have, what government program can we have to change these lives, and you could spend a million dollars on welfare tomorrow and it wouldn’t change one life, not one. Isn’t it interesting that we fundamentalist are the ones always accused of having no social concerns; who is it that’s out there sleeping in the dirt with them? Fundamentalists. The liberals haven’t raised their hand to do a cotton-picking thing because they haven’t got anything to say the kids. These kids have gone so far that they wouldn’t [can’t understand word] with some little moralizer; they need a revolutionary message that’s only found in the Word of God. What do you give a person whose life is deteriorating; it’s only the power of God that can change their life. All you can rely on is that if they trust the Lord, they’ll become God’s children and He will lead them. That is the power that can change lives. The same thing in New York City; one of my best friends works in Harlem in New York City, and every week he tells me that people come down from the welfare department, why is it you can do these things, how is it that their lives are being changed? He’s not having a total impact because obviously it’s a one to one personal thing, and only hundreds are reached and there’s millions in the ghetto. But nevertheless the lives that are changed are really changed and these government people come down there and say we can’t figure it out. They say we have spent millions of dollars, we’ve done this thing and that thing, and nothing works.

But here’s a guy that’s willing to trust Jesus Christ, that’s willing to operate on Biblical principles and he’s changing lives and they’re permanently changed. What’s the difference; it’s because of the power of Christ, that’s the difference, and that’s the only thing that can solve the problem.

The only permanent change comes as lives are changed by Jesus Christ.

Back to the point that Paul is trying to make here, that Jesus Christ has been raised. Now application, chapter 2:1-5. Here is our spiritual resurrection, “We were dead in trespasses and sins,” and notice he’s not talking about the moral and ethical things, those are included. [2] In which in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.” He’s saying here that the trespasses and sins are defined as the acts that accompany the course of this age, literally, “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now energizes the children of disobedience.” And he is saying here in verse 2 something that every person that sweats social problems ought to listen and listen carefully. The reason for many social problems is not only individual problems with sin natures, it is also the fact that we have a satanic manipulation in society and that’s what this is saying, the spirit is a collective noun here, the spirit sums up all of the satanic attacks that Satan is directing and he says those are working and it’s in the present tense in the Greek and he’s saying Christians are working right now, right around you and those things that look so (quote) “natural” (end quote) to you are actually the result of the interplay of these spiritual beings upon the human race, manifesting themselves in discourse, wars, etc. The Bible clearly attributes many of these social problems to the manipulation of spiritual beings. Now do you see why it’s so hopeless, why you can’t change society by naturalistic humanistic revolution? It takes a spiritual thing and you can only do it with spiritual causes as you deal with Jesus Christ. He’s the one that’s in charge and He’s the one that’s going to have to solve the problem.

He says therefore in verse 4-5, that “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, [5] Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ,” that’s the spiritual resurrection. That’s the top circle, when you become a Christian God the Holy Spirit puts us in union with Jesus Christ; that is a spiritual resurrection, and right now your human spirit can have the indwelling Holy Spirit; it happens in a moment of time when you become a Christian. You may or may not be conscious of it but after you become a Christian you gradually see the change, the filled vacuum, etc.

So that’s our spiritual resurrection, but it doesn’t stop there; it goes on and God also promises us a physical resurrection too. So turn to 1 Cor. 15:51, Paul says, “Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. [52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” That means with a resurrection body, “we shall be changed. [53] For this corruptible thing,” literally, “must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. [54] So, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought the pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. [55] O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” His point is that Jesus Christ is going to work this way and it goes back to the diagram that I’ve drawn again and again, that the plan of God consists of three phases; phase one the time that you receive Jesus Christ; phase two from that point in your life until the time you die; phase three resurrection. This means that ultimately God is going to provide you with a physical body just like the body of Jesus Christ, with one exception. From what we deduce from Scripture Jesus Christ’s resurrection body is the only one that’s going to have scars [can’t understand words]. He’s going to have the signs in His hands and the signs in His feet, and the scar in His side to remember for all eternity that He bore your personal sins. With our heads bowed.