07/09/2026
THE WORK OF CHRIST 3: HIS RESURRECTION (VICTORY OVER DEATH)
As a church this year we have been focused on the topic knowing Jesus for myself.
Last week we looked at the benefits that came out of Christ’s death and atonement for sin and all the benefits we have especially the fact that we have been made at one with God - we have been reconciled to every blessing God ordained for us as His children.
Today we go a step further - after His death something happened that shook the whole of hell - Jesus rose from the dead and so today we consider the work of Christ in His resurrection and victory over death!
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are inseparable. He had to die so He can resurrect!
The cross reveals the depth of God’s love for man, but the resurrection reveals the magnitude of His power just like He did in creation!
The resurrection is not simply the happy ending to the story of Jesus. It is the proof that everything Jesus came to accomplish was completed and victorious.
We must know that the resurrection of Jesus was actually the beginning of Christianity as we know it today!
God gave man the gift of life but because of sin, man lost the life and relationship with God that he was created to enjoy.
Death entered the world because of sin.
Therefore, for man to receive Zoe life again, the power of death had to be broken.
Jesus entered death voluntarily on our behalf in order to defeat death for us.
Text
Acts 2:22-24
““Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.”
Philippians 3:7, 10
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
10.that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,”
Every man is born. Every man lives. And eventually, every man dies.
But Jesus stands alone in that He not only predicted that He would die; He also promised that He would rise again.
His death was not an accident, and His resurrection was not an afterthought. Peter says in our text - Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.
Ephesians 1:19-20 Paul prayed that the eyes of our understanding be enlightened that we may know the hope of His calling and vs 19
“and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,”
There is an exceeding greatness of the resurrection power that we need to understand as believers and when we do we will never leave ordinary average lives again.
Today we consider the work of Christ in His resurrection and the power He made available to us.
Why did He need to rise from the dead?
HIS RESURRECTION PROVED HIS VICTORY OVER SIN AND DEATH
The resurrection was proof that the work of redemption was complete.
Jesus died for our sins but He rose again to demonstrate that sin and death could not hold Him.
Romans 4:25 “who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”
If Jesus had remained in the grave, there would be no evidence that sin and death had been defeated.
Death could not hold Him!
This is the greatest difference between Jesus and every other great man who has ever lived.
Romans 14:9 “For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”
Jesus did not merely rise from the dead
He conquered death.
Revelation 1:18 “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
What is in the power of the resurrection and His victory over death for us as believers?
1. RESURRECTION POWER EMPOWERS US TO WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE
Romans 6:4 “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Resurrection power does not only promise us life after death.
It gives us a new quality of life now.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Because Jesus resurrected we do not have to remain who we used to be.
We were dead in trespasses and sins, but God made us alive with Christ.
Ephesians 2:1–6 “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”
He brought us out of our dead life to bring us in to an abundant life!
The pattern of Christ’s resurrection is symbolic of the new birth for the believer which is demonstrated in water baptism. We died, were buried and rose up brand new in Him!
Humiliation is not always the end of the story.
Rejection is not always the end of the story.
Failure is not always the end of the story.
God can turn shame into glory.
The resurrection declares that God has the power to reverse the story and He will reveres every story of reproach in our lives in Jesus name!
2. RESURRECTION POWER ENABLES US TO WALK IN THE SUPERNATURAL
1 Corinthians 15:44 “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
We must understand that we are no longer merely natural beings.
We are connected to the risen Christ.
Ephesians 2:6 “and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”
This should change our mindset.
We must stop seeing ourselves only from an earthly perspective.
We are new creations in Christ
We are seated with Him in a position of spiritual authority
Romans 5:17 “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)”
It does not say we shall reign in heaven.
It says we reign in life. Which life? This life!
This does not mean that believers will never face challenges. It means that challenges do not have the final authority over us.
We are more than conquerors through Christ.
(. )
The resurrection calls us to live with an awareness that our lives are connected to a higher realm, though we are in this world we are not of this world! We live above the systems of this world!
3. RESURRECTION POWER QUICKENS OUR MORTAL BODIES
Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
10-11 MESSAGE
It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!”
The Holy Spirit is not merely present to help us when we go to heaven.
He is present in us now.
Resurrection life brings divine strength, vitality and sustaining grace.
We should therefore reject a mentality of hopelessness, defeat and constant expectation of weakness.
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
(. )
Revelation 5:12 declares loudly that the Lamb is worthy to receive:
Power.
Riches.
Wisdom.
Strength.
Honour.
Glory.
Blessing.
The resurrection teaches us that our lives are connected to the unlimited resources of God.
It is an invitation to walk in God’s provision, wisdom, stewardship and purpose.
Death is no longer our master.
Jesus has conquered death for us
Therefore, resurrection power reminds us:
God can create what does not yet exist.
God can restore what appears lost.
God can revive what appears dead.
God can raise what others have written off.
If God could raise Jesus from the grave, then no situation is beyond His power.
WHAT SHOULD BE OUR RESPONSE TO THE RESURRECTION?
1. WE RECEIVE THE LOVE OF GOD WITH APPRECIATION
1 Corinthians 15:57
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 1:3–6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
We must never become casual about what Jesus did.
The cross and resurrection were costly.
We must receive His love with gratitude.
1. WE REFLECT GOD’S LOVE TO OTHERS
1 John 4:20-21 “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
If Christ gave His life for us, we must learn to give ourselves in love and service to others.
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Philippians 1:21
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
The resurrection removes the fear of losing our lives and releases us for God’s purpose in loving others.
3. RECONNECT THE WORLD TO THE SAVIOUR
2 Corinthians 5:18-20
“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
We have experienced resurrection life.
Now we must help others find the One who gives life.
We are not called merely to celebrate that Jesus rose.
We are called to announce to the world:
Jesus is alive!
Prayer/altar call
Jesus died, but death could not hold Him.
The grave received Him, but the grave could not retain Him.
Hell opposed Him, but hell could not defeat Him.
On the third day, Jesus rose again in victory.
And because He lives:
Sin does not have the final word.
Death does not have the final word.
The grave does not have the final word.
Failure does not have the final word.
Shame does not have the final word.
Jesus has the final word.
He is the resurrection and the life.
FWC-Abuja
