Knowing the Risen One

The sermon opens by observing that every Easter season, major newspapers revisit the question of Jesus' resurrection. The pastor notes this is nothing new — for over 2,000 years people have continually examined this event. What is crucial, he argues, is understanding the resurrection on two levels: as a credible historical fact, and as a life-transforming power that believers can personally experience.

To defend the resurrection as historical fact, the pastor presents three main arguments. First, the testimony of women — in first-century Jewish and Roman society, women had no legal standing as witnesses, yet Scripture records that Jesus appeared first to women, including Mary Magdalene who had previously been demon-possessed; no one fabricating the story would choose women as the primary witnesses. Second, the living eyewitnesses — Peter preached about the resurrection just weeks after the event before crowds in Jerusalem, and Paul recorded that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people, many of whom were still alive when he wrote (1 Corinthians 15:5–8). Third, the radical transformation of the apostles — from cowardly men who fled and denied, they became boldly courageous, willing to die for the gospel.

The pastor clarifies that when Scripture says Jesus rose from the dead, it does not mean this in a metaphorical sense, as one might say a historical figure 'lives on' in cultural memory. Jesus genuinely rose bodily and now sits at the right hand of God. It is precisely because He truly rose that the Holy Spirit can indwell believers and transform them from within — something that religious or philosophical leaders such as Buddha, Confucius, or Aristotle cannot do, because they died and remain dead.

The application section centers on Paul's testimony in Philippians 3:8–11. Paul counted everything he had once boasted in — lineage, education, religious standing — as rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection. The pastor uses the analogy of eyeglasses to illustrate: the Holy Spirit functions as spiritual lenses through which the believer sees all of life through the perspective of the Risen One, making it possible to discern the true value of everything.

The sermon closes by contrasting two kinds of people: those who have religion but not the renewing power of the resurrection — attending church and performing religious duties while the Holy Spirit has no place in their daily decisions and emotions; and those truly transformed by the resurrection — people who allow the Holy Spirit to be Lord of the house, who commune with God in every circumstance of joy or sorrow, and who find contentment even in material lack as long as Christ remains near. The congregation is invited to examine themselves: Where does Christ stand in your life, and are you genuinely experiencing the power of the resurrection in everyday reality?