Would you turn with me to some Scriptures?
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life:
he that believeth on Me, though he die, yet shall he live;
and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed,
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.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Beloved Lord, it is a wonderful thing to be found in Your presence.
We want to bow before You once again in worship and prayer. What a wonderful thing it is, Lord, that You died for us. We who have been saved by Your grace bow before You this evening in adoration.
And Lord, as we come to speak about the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, we ask: will You swallow up the whole of this time in that resurrection life and power?
We thank You for the anointing which You have specifically provided for us this evening. Into that anointing, grace, and power, we stand by faith—for the speaking of Your Word, for the translating of Your Word, and for the hearing of Your Word.
Lord, be the beginning and the end of this time. Be everything we need in it. And we shall be careful to give You the praise and the glory for answering this our prayer. We ask it in the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
My responsibility in these times is knowing Christ in His resurrection.
God has given us eternal life through the death of our Lord Jesus. That eternal life of God is ours in practical experience through His resurrection.
I do not want to go over what I said yesterday evening again, only to say this: we were justified through the shedding of His blood. We were reconciled to God through the death of our Lord Jesus, but we are saved by the life of the Lord Jesus.
That resurrection of His is the beginning of everything that God does in the believer’s life and in the life of the church. That is really the first thing I want to underline this evening: with God, all His work in the believer begins with resurrection.
Let me put it another way. God has put beyond human possibility everything that is of Himself. Everything He does is on the other side of the grave.
Man can get a man to the moon. He can go around in a kind of moon buggy. He can explore space. He is probing Mars, and they are even thinking of going beyond that.
But he cannot raise a dead man. That is impossible. Once death comes, it is the end.
All human ingenuity, all human creativeness, all human power, and all human intellect are rendered incapable by death.
And God begins everything on the other side of death. I wonder if you get this.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” If you are going to know Him, if you are going to grow in Him, if you are going to come to maturity, if you are going to be anointed for service, then it begins with resurrection.
Let me put it another way. This is described in the Word of God as the beginning. It is the new man. It is the new creation.
Let me take you through a few Scriptures. First of all, Revelation 1:8:
I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.
Then look at Revelation 21:5-6:
And He that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He saith, Write: for these words are faithful and true.
And He said unto me, They are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Listen carefully, because the Lord is saying, “I make all things new.”
We who are born of God are already in the new. We have yet to see everything made new, but we have a new birth. We are in the new man, and we are in the new creation. It is a new life that is ours.
It is the beginning of something—but not only the beginning. It is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. It is the Lord Jesus.
Now, will you note, “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”
In Revelation 22:13, we read:
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
What I am trying to say is very simple, although it sounds very difficult. The Lord Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He is the first and the last, and everything in between; the beginning and the end, and the whole development from the beginning to the end.
He is the alphabet of God. Everything God says is in terms of the Lord Jesus. It is the truth as it is in Jesus. He is the Word, the very heart and mind of God expressed.
And it all begins with resurrection. We are saved by His life. We are born again through the resurrection of Jesus. It is wonderful—what man could not do, the Spirit of God does in and through the Lord Jesus.
Let me take you to another Scripture: Revelation 1:5.
Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Then turn to Colossians 1:18:
And He is the head of the body, the church: Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.
The beginning, the firstborn from the dead.
It is interesting to me that this matter comes again and again in the book of Revelation. As if, in the summing up of everything, God says, “This is absolutely vital.”
Revelation 3:14 says:
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
It is the same idea again.
Let me take you to the old covenant. Psalm 36:9:
For with Thee is the fountain of life:
In Thy light shall we see light.
With Thee is the fountain of life—the spring, the beginning. The origin of life is with Thee. In Thy light shall we see light.
Not Maoism, not Marxism, not humanism, not Darwinism, not all the human philosophy that is filling the world. In Thy light shall we see light.
The enemy’s great strategy is to give us another origin, to give us light from that angel of light—Satan himself. These are doctrines of demons.
Let me give you another Psalm—Psalm 87. This is a wonderful little Psalm, all about Zion and all about those who are born of God. They may have had their first birth in Babylon, or Philistia, or wherever else, but their new birth is registered in Zion.
In that Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all, this is how it ends:
All my fountains are in Thee.
All my springs are in Thee. You are the beginning: the beginning of power, the beginning of life, the beginning of growth.
I wonder whether this simple little truth has ever dawned upon you. When God saved you, it was through the finished work of the Lord Jesus. But the practical outworking of that salvation is to do with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Let me put it another way. God has given us everything in Christ—everything. It is all given us in Christ and with Christ. It is all in His resurrection life and power.
Your salvation to the uttermost, your sanctification—everything is in Christ.
We are so frightened of the word sanctification. It seems so heavy, so tight, so dark—something to do with dressing in black and looking very strait-laced, very much in a straitjacket. “Oh, do not talk to me about sanctification, please.”
We feel it is so heavy, so joyless, so unnatural, so abnormal. But sanctification is the Lord Jesus. It is so simple.
A person who is sanctified has joy. A person who is sanctified has peace. A person who is sanctified is full of life. A person who is sanctified has laughter. A person who is sanctified has colour in their life.
A person who is sanctified is simply walking in Christ. God has changed us from a sinner into a saint, and it is all in the Lord Jesus.
In other words, speaking of being a Christian, it is absolutely normal to be sanctified and absolutely abnormal not to be sanctified. It is as simple as that. It is in Christ.
Growth—where is it? It is in Christ. Grow up into Him as Head. It is the most normal thing to grow in the Lord. When we do not grow, that is abnormal.
We grow to maturity, to the place where we can bear responsibility, where we can be prayer warriors, and where we can help in the work of the Lord. It is all given to us in the Lord Jesus.
And overcoming is yours in Christ.
Here we have a twofold union. If you are a child of God, by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the work of the Spirit of God, you are in Christ.
If you are a Christian, you are, by God’s positioning, in Christ—not merely in eternity, though it will be true in eternity, but now, in this fallen world, in this society which is on the brink of the appearing of the Antichrist. God has placed you, positioned you, in Christ.
I do not care how poor material you are, how stupid you are, how hopeless you are, or what impossible circumstances you have. God has put you in Christ, and in Christ He has given you everything.
He placed you in Christ. He does not wait until you are a special saint cut out of a stained-glass window. He starts with the most impossible material.
Do not ask me why God loves you. I only know He loves me, and that has to be some explanation as to why He loves you.
If I had been the Lord, I would have done away with the whole lot from the beginning. Think of the trouble we are: always questioning, always murmuring, always critical.
We read the Bible and say, “Not for me. I am a very special case, very difficult. I am an impossible case.” Why does the Lord persevere with us? He has placed you in Christ.
There is resurrection. There is power. There is life. There are all the possibilities and capabilities of growth. He has placed you in Christ, and in Christ He has given us everything.
But here is the second thing: He has placed Christ in you.
Now, can you believe that? In that poor material that is you—and is me—Christ lives.
If Christ is not in you, then you are not saved. If you are a child of God, if you are born of God, if you are saved by His grace, you are this moment in Christ, and Christ is in you.
Paul put it very beautifully. He said, “When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me.”
Have you ever asked the Lord to open your eyes, instead of moaning all the time? “Oh yes, I am no good. I am poor material. I am so insignificant.”
Of course, we all say that until someone else says, “You are so insignificant.” Then we become very angry. We say, “How dare so-and-so say such a thing about me? I am at least as good as that one!”
Now listen, dear child of God. God has placed you in Christ and placed Christ in you.
If you are in Christ, you are in all the fullness of God. You are in all the power of His resurrection. You are in all the potentialities of His life.
You are in that place of power where sinners are turned into saints, where the ugly are changed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus, and where wolves become lambs.
Dear child of God, listen to me. Everything is in the Lord Jesus. Service is in Him. Ministry is in Him. The church is in Him. God has placed everything in Christ, and then He has placed Christ in you.
I must not say too much about this, because Father Stephen, I imagine, will say all about it.
I have been crucified with Christ;
nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
Did you hear? Live—life—Christ lives in me.
What is the problem? You do not know how to die. You just want to live. That is the problem.
People come to me everywhere. I remember in Sweden years ago, young people coming to me and saying, “Father, how can we live the Christian life?”
Everywhere I went, they asked, “How can we live the Christian life?” It seems impossible.
And I said to them everywhere, “Your problem is not how to live the Christian life. It is how to die. For once you learn how to die, the life takes care of itself.”
It is a fountain. It is a spring. It is part of the beginning of the new creation. It is the resurrection life and power of the Lord Jesus.
Christ in me—the fruitful life, the overflowing life, the overcoming life. Wonderful.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said that winning others to Christ is in the overflow in a Christian’s life. Where there is no overflow, there is no winning of others.
Those of you who came to know the Lord Jesus through watching another life—was it not that there was something about that life that was different? There was a peace. There was a joy. There was a power. The overflow.
That is why I read that passage in John’s Gospel, chapter 15. You remember what the Lord Jesus said:
Abide in Me, and I in you.
Are you trying to fight your way into Christ, struggling and striving to get into Christ? You do not have to. You are already there if you are saved, if you are born again, if you are a child of God.
You are to abide in Him. You remain where God has placed you. It is so simple. Has God saved you? You are in Christ.
Here comes the word: “Abide in Me. Remain in Me. Dwell in Me, and I in you.”
Then listen to this:
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.
He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing.
Did you hear that? “Apart from Me, ye can do nothing.”
You can go to theological seminary. You can get titles before your name and degree letters after your name. But if you are not abiding in Christ, and Christ in you, it amounts to nothing.
“But I am studying the Bible.” Nothing. “But I have a title in front of my name.” Nothing. “But I have letters after my name.” Nothing. “I am on a church register.” Nothing.
If you are not abiding in Him and He in you, it amounts to nothing. “I have been baptized.” Nothing. “I take the Lord’s table.” Nothing.
Your life is wood, hay, and stubble. It is made of straw.
I have often said it, and I will say it again. I was always amazed when I went to Manila and was taken to Imelda Marcos’s Coconut Palace. Everything in it was coconut—carpets, shades on the lamps, everything. I could not believe it.
It was a VIP guest house. Some people build little shacks, and it is obvious that it is a shack. It only needs a little wind and the whole thing collapses. That is what some Christian lives are made of: superficiality.
But some Christian lives are like coconut palaces. You could actually put up very important people there. It really is beautiful. In fact, it is something to marvel at. But it is not gold, or silver, or precious stones. Nothing.
You say, “That is a dreadful thing to say. You mean that all my church attendance and all my singing amounts to nothing?” Yes. Apart from Him, it amounts to nothing.
It is a hard word. It is a necessary word.
We can know all these wonderful truths and not know Him. We can actually express in words some of the things I have said. Most of us should be able to, if you understand my colloquialism, “mug up” this kind of truth.
We can talk. We can put it into words. Very good. But we know about the truth; we do not know the truth. We know about Christ; we do not necessarily know Him. That is the difference.
I hope that what I have said has some meaning: Christ in you, and you in Christ. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is once the Lord has got hold of us.
Let me just illustrate a little, to try to make it simpler. Christ in you is all the power of God in you.
If only your eyes were opened! There is no problem He cannot solve. There is no obstacle He cannot cause you to overcome. There is no advance He cannot make in your life. He is power.
Is it any wonder Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they might know the exceeding greatness of His power?
Let me give a little illustration. I am not a scientist, and I am not even slightly scientifically minded. But every time I see one of those rockets going off from Cape Kennedy, I cannot believe it. They are going to cover millions of miles.
Yet in the simplest child of God there is far superior power.
Years ago, I remember when I first sat in a jumbo jet. I had never been in such a plane. The planes I had been in before—we could have got about ten of them into the jumbo.
I remember looking all the way down the aisle, right away to the end of the aircraft, and it was as big as this hall. I could not believe it. Then there was an upstairs. I had never been in a plane with an upstairs.
Then I looked out of the window. It was higher than my bedroom on the upper floor of my home. Then I thought to myself, “Do I really believe this plane is going to take off? I wonder what it weighs.”
I began to look at the people coming in, one after the other. They strapped one lady into three seats. That is absolutely true. They brought out one of those long extended seat belts.
I thought, “Every seat in this plane is full, and if they have all got as much luggage as I have, will it ever take off?”
When they started up the engines, I thought, “Oh, it is not as noisy as the little planes I have been used to.” And it never stopped at the end of the runway. Those old planes, you older ones will remember, always stopped at the end of it, then went down the runway, and then finally took off.
But this just turned straight into the runway. I thought, “It cannot take off. It is going too slowly.” It went down so gently, and suddenly I looked out of the window and saw the ground disappearing.
Now, you can see how scientific I am! But Romans 8:2 says:
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
Superior power took over from inferior power.
You never overcome something by suppressing it. Take smoking: the more you try to stop smoking, the more you smoke—or any other addiction. You need superior power.
When you are filled with the Spirit, when the Lord Jesus manifests His power in you, you are freed from the law of sin and death. It is amazing.
Another illustration I often use—some of you will have heard it before. Especially in California, you go into the mountains and see a huge tree. Very often, at its base, you will see a great boulder, a great rock, split.
I used to think to myself, “What happened here?” I will tell you. There was once a great rock, and it had a little crevice in it. A tiny seed, the size of my small fingernail, fell into the crevice.
If the seed could understand me, I would have said to it, “You stupid little thing! What have you fallen into this crevice for? You should have fallen over there where there is nicer soil.”
But the little seed would say to me, if it could speak, “I have life in me, and I trust the power of that life.”
When that seed germinates, little roots go down—so weak, so tender. You would say, “You are going to try and overcome that rock? All I need to do is put my foot on you and that is the end of you.”
But that little seed says, “I am trusting the life in me.” Weak, tender little roots go down, and the shoot goes up. Two leaves appear, and then two more.
Then I say, “Do not think you are going to overcome this rock. This rock will kill you.” But the little seed says, “I have a life in me, and I trust the power in that life.”
Do you know what happens? It grows and grows and grows, and suddenly the rock is split, and a huge tree stands there.
Many people say to me that they have problems like that boulder. “Why did God do this to me?” Because God is educating you. He is training you. He is bringing you to trust in Him—not what you see, not what you hear, not what you feel: trusting Him.
If you believe that Jesus Christ is in you, alive and powerful, that boulder will be split in two, and you will grow into the tree that you are meant to be. The power of life.
There is fruit in that life. Fruit does not just come because of the bees, the butterflies, or the bugs. They cannot do anything if there is no life. But where there is life, they can pollinate.
An apple tree always has apples, and a mango tree always has mangoes. Why? There is apple life, mango life, and apricot life. The fruit is in the life. All the other things can only bring out what is already in the life.
It is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, and all the other things that are so wonderful.
Fruit is also Christlikeness. You have a life in you which can only be Christlike. You obey the law of that life, and you will bear much fruit.
It is an amazing thing that you can only produce something when there is life. Where there is life, you train it, you prune it, you discipline it.
Even reproduction is amazing. You cannot reproduce if there is no life. What a sad thing it is when Christians have never led another person to the Lord.
You just think of us here today. If every one of us led one person to the Lord, think of it.
Where there is no fruit, people are not attracted. They simply think we are religious: so-and-so goes to the temple; so-and-so goes to the synagogue.
But when people see fruit, when they see love, joy, peace, longsuffering, self-control, and something of the Lord Jesus—when they see people prepared to lay down their lives—then in their heart comes a hunger.
I must finish, but I would love to go on talking and talking, because there is a homing instinct in this life.
I have noticed that especially with young men when they come to the Lord. They are never sure whether they will be able to keep it up. “I am not sure that I will keep it up.”
You do not have to. If you will only trust the life that is yours in the Lord Jesus—there is a homing instinct.
I find it amazing. Every year I wait to see the swallows come. They come all the way from South Africa, thousands of miles, and spend just about two or three weeks in Jerusalem. Then they are on their way to Moscow, and eventually they go back to Britain.
At one point, we had to take down a whole wall in Halford House, where we met. I used to wait every year for the swallows—second or third week of May. The moment they arrived, they would dive backwards and forwards with their cries.
For hundreds of years, they had nested on a particular wall. But that year there was no wall. It was the most amazing sight: these birds were hovering where they felt there had to be a wall, but there was no wall.
It was almost as if I said to them, “Did you go to university to find out the way you should come from South Africa to Britain? How do you know the way?” These were babies that had flown all the way.
Something in them. Something in them. “This is the way.” They would not rest until they arrived home.
If the Lord Jesus is in you, the Spirit of God will give no rest until He has got you home.
Paul says, “He that began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Finally, let me say something about overcoming. This life of our Lord Jesus, this resurrection life, is inherently an overcoming life.
It overcame all the powers of darkness, and even Satan himself. When the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, it was the exceeding greatness of power. Overcoming is inherent within the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus.
How interesting it is that when the Lord speaks to those seven churches, to each one He says, “To him that overcometh.” “He that overcometh.”
It is a personal matter: to him or her that overcomes, within the context of the church.
There may be a Jezebel. There may be a name that they live, but they are dead. There may be lukewarmness. They may have left their first love. There may be Nicolaitanism—that is, clericalism.
But the Lord says, “He that overcometh.” There may be personal problems, work problems, or relationship problems in the church. To him that overcomes.
Is the Lord taunting us? What does He mean? There is overcoming life.
Listen again:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Overcoming is linked to a hearing ear. We all have problems and difficulties, sometimes with one another. It is a tremendous thing to hear what the Spirit is saying, and in the midst of all the problems and difficulties, to overcome.
But there is one last overcoming—final overcoming.
There will come a day when this poor old body will burst into a new life.
You younger ones do not need to bother about this, but those of us getting older—it is a wonderful thing to see. In the twinkling of an eye: no doctors, no specialists, no cosmetics, no long therapy. In a single moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall all be changed.
What an amazing thing: a redeemed body. I cannot wait for it myself. What kind of body will it be? It will be so much more suitable for serving the Lord.
Beloved brothers and sisters:
This corruptible must put on incorruption,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
It is amazing to me. In the twinkling of an eye, when God spoke the word originally, in a moment of time He brought into being what did not exist. With a word, so it will be when that trumpet of the Lord sounds. In a moment of time, we shall all be changed.
This is to know the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It will be the final act of knowing Him in His resurrection.
I do not know which is the most wonderful thing to experience in this matter. Is it better to die and for one’s flesh to go to dust—dust to dust and ashes to ashes, as we say? Or is it better to be changed? Which is the greater miracle: to be alive at the coming of the Lord and, in a single moment of time, to know this body changed?
We have been justified in our spirit. We have been saved in our soul. And we finally receive the redemption of our body. Nothing is left to the devil: spirit, soul, and body preserved entire unto the coming of the Lord.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon once preached a marvellous sermon on “Not a Hoof or Horn Shall Be Left in Egypt.” So great is this salvation that not a single part of your being will be left. It will all be saved.
Paul says:
We who are alive and remain shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.
For the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up.
Hallelujah. How amazing. Resurrection—the final act.
Whose bodies have long since disappeared? Where is Paul’s body? Where are the bodies of Polycarp, Priscilla, Martin Luther, Augustine, Calvin, Wesley, and George Fox? What happened to their bodies?
In some cases, not even a trace remains. But it is all going to be brought back in a creative act of God.
When we receive a body like His—no more aches, no more pains, no more headaches. What a wonderful thing.
Of course, that is the smallest thing. The greatest thing is to be justified in your spirit and for God to have done a work in your soul, making you and changing you into the likeness of the Lord Jesus.
Do not despise that body. There is going to be a casing for the spirit and the soul. We are not angels. God never created us angels. He created us human beings: spirit, soul, and body.
And the final act of knowing Christ in His resurrection is when we shall all be changed. Praise the Lord.
Beloved Lord, we want to thank You for that resurrection life and power of Yours.
We want to thank You that whoever we are, whatever we are, whatever our problems and difficulties, You have given us that life of Yours. And in that life is power.
And Lord, our prayer is this night: open our eyes to the exceeding greatness of that power which is to us-ward. Reveal Your Son in a body of earth. Open the eyes of our heart. Touch us, Lord, so that in Your light we see light.
And we can say, “All our fountains are in Thee.” We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.