Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

John Scott Harrison was the only man in the history of our nation who was the son of one president and the father of another.

A man of such distinction you would think would be treated with great respect in his death, but the fact was, nobody was safe in 1878 when he died.

Body snatching was at a peak.

The demand for bodies in medical schools was so great that men became experts in grave robbing.

John and Ben were his two sons, and they were determined that their father's body would be secure.

They had his grave sealed with brick and cement, and then had large stones placed on top of it.

They hired a watchman to check the grave every hour.

In spite of all these precautions the body of John Harrison ended up in the Ohio medical college.

The shock of this lead the Ohio General Assembly, in 1881, to pass a law permitting medical schools to use unclaimed bodies.

This put an end to grave robbing.

I share this bit of history in order to point out that men have always had the power to break into the tomb.

The ancient Egyptians took elaborate precautions to protect the wealth they buried with their Pharaohs in the pyramids.

But to the great disappointment of archeologists, thieves found a way in and removed the treasures centuries before they found the way in.

All through history man has developed the skill to get him into graves and tombs, and to take what the dead had to offer.

What man lacked was the power to break out of the tomb.

Getting in was not necessarily easy, but getting out was impossible.

That is why Easter is the special day that it is, for Easter is the day we celebrate the discovery of the power to break out of the grip of the grave.

Many a tomb has been broken into, but the tomb of Jesus is unique in that it was a tomb broken out of.

It was truly an inside job.

Helen Frazee-Bower put this truth so beautifully in poetry.

One helped Him bare His cross up Calvary,

And there were those who placed Him in the tomb.

But when He burst death's bonds and came forth free

No human hands were in that narrow room.

No one but God could reach beyond the rim

Of death's confines and touch the dark unknown:

Though there were those who longed to do for Him,

When Jesus rose He did it all alone.

No one but God? Then truly He was God!

And is an will be evermore.

And those

Who trust His grace sleep not beneath the sod:

They are not dead.

Because the Savior rose,

These too shall rise.

The tomb is open wide-

The stone was rolled away by One inside.

This makes Easter a day in which there was a display of unprecedented power.

Others had been raised from the dead before, but by someone else outside the tomb.

Jesus was the first and only person to rise by His own power.

Jesus said in John 10:17-18, "The reason the Father loves me is that I lay down my life-only to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again."

No one ever before or since has had that kind of authority.

That is why, if you want to know the power of the resurrection, you must know Jesus, for He is the only source of such power.

Paul was a man of authority.

He had great credentials, and was a man of power in the Jewish community.

He had the power of prestige, which comes with a great heritage, good education, and belonging to the right circles.

Paul had the power to push people around and persecute them if they did not conform to the values of his heritage.

He was a powerful man for he was not only a leader in Judaism, but he was also a Roman citizen.

But this powerful man tells the Philippians that he did not know what power was until he met Christ.

In comparison, all of his other powers became mere rubbish, and the loss of them was nothing compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.

It is in this context that Paul makes the statement in verse 10, "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection."

We want to focus on the three characteristics of this power that are evident in this passage.

I.

A PASSIONATE POWER.

It is an emotionally compelling power.

Passionate means fervent, enthusiastic, and zealous.

It is an intense power that motivates and dominates.

Paul is not expressing a craving for information.

He knows about Jesus, and even unbelievers can know about Jesus.

He longs to know the person and the power of Christ experientially.

It is a passionate desire for relationship.

Paul knows there is power in who you know, and the power of knowing Christ is the greatest power of all.

Paul would not deny the importance of "know thyself," but his passion was to know the Savior.

We know that power corrupts and that Christians do not escape the corruption that comes with power.

That is why there is a mixed feeling about Paul's passion for power, and his clear ambition to rise to higher levels of power.

It can be scary when a man longs for power.

Jesus warned of the danger of power.

He was tempted Himself to use the power of politics, showmanship, or compromise with Satan to achieve His goals.

Jesus rejected all abuse of power.

He rejected force and violence, and said that we are to put up our sword, and be careful not to pull up the wheat with the tares.

All forms of coercive power which do not respect the freedom of the will are inconsistent with godly power.

There is great danger in a passion for power.

It costs Judas his life and his place in history among the twelve.

But we need not fear Paul's passion for power, for he longs for the power of the resurrection, and this is a power distinctly different from all other powers.

Resurrection power is the power to help, to hope, and to heal.

Had Jesus risen from the dead and gone back to Jerusalem to wreak vengeance on the Pharisees and rulers of Israel, we could be fearful of the power of the resurrection.

But Jesus came out of the tomb with a spirit of love and not of revenge.

His concern was that the whole world benefit from what He had done on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

He wanted His sheep fed, cared for, trained, and then empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into all the world to preach the Good News of His salvation.

The measure of a man is what he does with power, and Jesus was the most powerful person in the universe after His resurrection.

We do not see Jesus spending a second in trying to get even for the hatred, rejection, and suffering He had to endure.

He now had the power to go and nail Herod, Pilate, and all the Jewish leaders to crosses, but that was over and past, and what mattered to Jesus was the future.

The future was to be one filled with the power to bring life out of death, and light where darkness once reigned.

The future was to be filled with help, hope, and healing.

There is no need to fear a passion for resurrection power, for it will never be a power that crushes or destroys.

It will always be a power to lift and love the fallen and feeble.

Resurrection power is one kind of power we can afford to crave with passionate ambition.

In a world where lives are continually blinded and blighted and blasted by the power of evil it is a sin not to have a passion for power to make a difference, and the only power that can make a lasting difference is the power of the resurrection.

This power made the greatest difference in history of any event.

The Supreme Court of heaven on the third day reversed the decision of the lower court that sentenced Jesus to die.

Never has a death sentence been reversed after it was already executed so that the condemned was restored to life.

This was the most unique event in history, and the power of it was awesome, and it changes everything.

Paul had a passion for this power because the power of the resurrection is the power to reverse all of the effects of sin and evil.

In the power of the resurrection fear can be changed to faith; hate can be changed to love, and despair can be changed to joy.

Paul's passion for resurrection power is a passion for life.

There is good reason why the rabbit is a symbol of Easter.

Rabbits have a passion for life.