Preaching the Resurrection

Preach Resurrection as the Power of Temporal and Eternal Significance

We preach resurrection as power. Resurrection preaching is significant for the here and now and the there and then. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is essential for the here and now. That is, the gospel we preach enables and empowers people to live without fear and a sense of fatalism. If God has conquered sin and death in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then what or whom should we fear?

It is this great confidence in the gospel that empowers people in the oppressed church in China to live with courage; it is the power of a resurrected life that elicits boldness in the face of incredible odds; it is the power of the resurrection that enables people to face cancer with courage because death has been defeated, family troubles with tenacity because we have an enabling relationship with God and, life crises with patience.

Maybe the people in our churches are so cowardly when it comes to real Christian living because they haven't yet grasped the awesome truth that there is nothing to fear. In other words, our significance is not measured on Main Street or by Wall Street, but by the God who rules all streets through the life-giving, death-conquering power of Jesus Christ.

Such meaning was how a 22-year-old Wheaton college student by the name of Jim Elliott was inspired to pen such majestic words as, "He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose"; or what enabled Elliott to write, "Let me not be a mile post on a single road, but make me a fork that men must turn one way or another in facing Christ in me." It is what empowered Elliott's death to confirm with Paul and thousands of saints who have believed throughout the centuries: To live is Christ, and to die is gain!

How do you preach the resurrection of Jesus Christ? We must say it plain in spiritual power with passion for the sake of sinners and the nations yet to know the meaning of life. Preaching is and must continue to be the description of the invasion event of an absolute miracle that defines who and what we are in the here and now and the there and then.