So let me encourage you, go on your weekend.
We've just come back from Quinta had a brilliant three days
there. Food was great.
The main thing is the fellowship.
You just get to know each other so differently as a result of
being together for three days. I was sure one of my friends was
born again just because of the way he, he'd kind of been
holding back for a long time and I just saw a bit of a
breakthrough for him. So we baptised him on Easter
Sunday last week and it was brilliant hearing his testimony.
And yeah, so get on the weekend away.
It'll do you good, it'll move you forward.
But most of all, it's astonishing getting to know each
other a little bit better. You can get to know each other
on Sundays. You can get to know each other
midweek, but I think it's like 10 Sundays and 10 midweeks when
you have a weekend together. So I would highly encourage you
do go along. I want, I like that song, by the
way. We make it too complicated.
I think we can make Christianity too complicated.
We can also make it too simplistic.
So I want to kind of look at both.
And it's quite hard. If you were chained to Roman
gods, which we've heard this morning, and you know that the
apostle Peter has already been murdered by Nero, we think
that's already happened. Peter died 1st.
And Paul in his letter says if I die, I'll be with them.
It's good for Paul, it's good for me if I die.
That's quite hard for us to think that way.
But this is a resurrection mindset.
So I want to look at a resurrection mindset today.
But Paul also says if I live well, that's good for the church
because I'll keep serving. But let me just remind you what
he says. If I die, it's good for me.
I'll be with the Lord. I'll see him face to face.
So I think it is easy in the Christian life to make it so
simple that, for example, some Christians say there is no
healing. We won't pray for healing.
We'll call ourselves cessation it it is all ceased.
It's not biblical. I have held that view for eight
years. But that's quite simple.
You're never disappointed because all you say is must be
the Lord's will. Your will be done.
And you don't really cry out to God for healing at all.
God still heals people because he's the healer.
But and I remember praying and praying for my little cousin who
was very sick when I I just got saved.
But then I gradually stopped praying like that because I was
taught it's all ceased. So that's one position 1
extreme, don't pray for healing. It's all ceased.
The other extreme is always pray for healing.
It's automatic and you know it's automatic because it's the
Lord's will to heal you always. That's the other extreme.
Paul doesn't say that. He doesn't say it's always the
Lord's will to deliver us from Nero.
He doesn't say that. He says, look, the Christian
life is actually sometimes quite complicated.
I don't know if I'm going to live or die, both the options.
I'm with the Lord, He's, he's my saviour.
I will keep following him. So I want to look at a
resurrection mindset where we think a bit differently.
Last week we always emphasise the fact Jesus has risen.
So we preach, we've been preaching through the Book of
Revelation. And when you look at Revelation,
it's quite different. The gospels are all about this
amazing man who was quite weak and normal in like us in so many
ways. And yet he he's, he's murdered.
But then he rises again. But the the rising again bit is
right at the end and we usually to use that last little bit
right at the end to talk about his risen.
But I don't think reading the gospels gives you a Revelation
mindset because you don't really see him risen for very long.
It's just the end of each gospel says he's alive.
Then you have to read Acts and see what happens to the
Christians now that they realise he's alive.
They're living with a resurrection mindset.
So in Philippians chapter 3 it says this verse 8.
I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom, for whose sake I have
lost all things. I want you to I I want to know
Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and
participation in his sufferings, becoming like Him in his death,
and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I've already obtained all this or have already arrived
at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which
Christ took hold of me. So he says, I want to know
Christ. You don't.
You read that and think, Well, surely if anybody knew Christ,
it's this man. He met him on the road to
Damascus. He saw amazing churches planted
in Ephesus, in Philippi. Wherever he went, he started in
the synagogue, took a few of the Jews who became believers in
Jesus and started a church with the mainly the Gentiles.
This remarkable man definitely knew Jesus.
But he says this, this is what I want to have as my mindset.
I want to have my mind set on Jesus, knowing him, living for
him, dying for him. And he says to do that, I have
to almost take all my accomplishments and push them
aside. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews.
I'm a Pharisee. I'm a teacher of the law.
But he says I push all those accomplishments aside.
I was zealous for the law. I persecuted Christians.
But he says, I push all that aside.
My Judaism, I'm nothing. Who am I?
I'm the least. I'm the chief of sinners, he
says at one point. And I think part of Paul's
brilliance at being able to have the right mindset is he's always
thinking, Why did you even include me, God, when I
persecuted the church, I was there.
When Stephen, the first martyr, was put to death.
Why do you even include me? King David had a similar
mindset. Who am I?
What is my house? We do not deserve to know Jesus.
We do not deserve to have his death in our place, His blood
over our lives washing us clean. We don't deserve that.
So first of all, rather than think, well, I've accomplished a
lot, I'm really quite brilliant. You, you need me, Lord Jesus,
which is actually how I thought when I first became a Christian.
You can be a Christian and be totally arrogant.
Paul has come to a place in his mind where he thinks I don't
deserve anything. Everything I get is a blessing
from you. So you first of all, I've got to
think, I haven't worked my way into heaven by my genius or my
goodness or my works or by my keeping the law.
It's all by his grace. And so I consider everything
else lost. So you probably have
accomplished some things in your life and I think you thank God
for that. But you don't say to God, and
because I've accomplished this, you owe me.
He will reward us so overwhelmingly, but he doesn't
owe us anything. So I like the whole start of
Paul wanting to know Christ. He realises he's got to first of
all, think, who am I? What's my house to even come to
you? But then he says this yes, to
know the power of his resurrection.
And when you hear the power word, you tend to think
miracles, healings. And that's definitely included
in the New Testament. But here's the thing.
We live in an age where the king has arrived and he says the
kingdom's at hand. And so some people say, take,
you can take handfuls of the Kingdom of heaven and pray for
the sick because the king is at hand, the kingdoms at hand.
We can look for God to break in. That is true, but not yet has
the king returned. So we live in between the
Kingdom coming, but it hasn't come in all its fullness.
We're waiting for the fullness. When he returns, there's no more
death. He holds the power of death.
And Hades, he says in Revelation, he says I was dead.
I am now alive and I hold the power.
I hold the keys of death and Hades, so we're in between these
two. The arrival of Jesus, the
kingdom's here, the Kingdom coming in all its fullness
hasn't happened yet. When the Kingdom comes in all
its fullness, no more death, no more sickness, no more Satan,
new heaven, new earth, new resurrection body.
Only one person has a resurrection body.
That's Jesus, no one else. You might say what about
Lazarus? He rose from the dead.
He didn't have a resurrection body.
If he had a resurrection body, he'd be he'd be a main speaker
all around the world. We don't want to hear Lazarus
story. It's an amazing story, but he
didn't have a resurrection body, only Jesus did.
So when Paul says yes to no, the power of his resurrection.
Paul has seen many mighty miracles.
People used to take handkerchiefs from Paul and
touch the sick with them and they'd get healed.
That's how extraordinary the anointing was on Paul's life at
certain times in his life. But then there were other times
in his life when he says I left Timothy sick.
Oh, sorry, Trotham is sick. Timothy, take some wine for your
stomach's sake. He had frequent stomach trouble.
Paul had eye trouble. See with what big letters I
write, you would pluck out your very eyes for me if you could.
Apophoriditis nearly died, but God had mercy.
So there's 4 examples in the New Testament of not seeing healing
despite the fact there was Paul around, Peter around, and they
knew something of this resurrection and the power.
But Paul says I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power
of his resurrection. What's Paul talking about?
I believe he's talking about what happens to every Christian.
Every Christian has to be They were dead in their trespassers
and sins. Then they were made alive.
Something changes so dramatically that you you think,
wow, I lived for Graham. I love Graham.
Graham's awesome. And then suddenly, which all was
true in a long past age, but then suddenly you you realise
something so dramatic has happened that you think I love
Jesus, I want Jesus, I want to live for Jesus, I want to tell
my family about Jesus. Something happens and that is
the power of the resurrection. The resurrected Jesus has called
you, has made you alive, or some people say you're now born
again. That's what he's talking about
here. He's talking about I want to
know the power of the resurrection life, Jesus living
in me right now in prison, chained to Roman gods and I'm
still trying to share the Gospel with them.
And because of my because of my imprisonment, the whole Roman
God have heard about Jesus. He tells us in house arrest in
Rome. So yes, to know the power of his
resurrection when Jesus puts his life in you.
This born again regeneration life in you, it stays with you,
it changes you forever. It's like a surgeon taking out
your old heart, that loved one thing, and he puts in a
completely new heart. It doesn't stop changing you.
You're continually wanting something of him.
I'll just give you a couple of examples of how I've been a
Christian now 46 years. And I thought when I first
became a Christian, how can it be more dramatic than this?
It's, it was such a change. But about 3 weeks ago, I just
burst into tears and it was so dramatic that I thought, wow,
you have so your life is so in me that I love you.
I love being like you. I, I love seeing parts of.
But I'll tell you what I was reading.
I, I don't know if you saw Vinicius Junior score a goal
against Benfica. It was a few weeks ago.
And then you suddenly see Vinicius Junior have another
player from Benfiki came up to him, covered his mouth, said
something and then you see Vinicius running to the referee
and I'm thinking it's got to be racism.
It's got to be something racist that he has just said, the other
footballer has just said but we're not told.
But I keep looking on Google and trying to find what did the
Benfica player say with his cowardly shirt over his face.
So you because obviously people can lip read and with cameras
now there's a we know what he said, he said anyway, I'm
reading and apparently Mbappe was on the team said I heard it
too. And the Spanish word was mono
and I just burst into tears. Means monkey.
It was a now. And I guess that they can't
prove because the guy I'm sure lied and said no, I never said
that. Vinicius Junior had just scored
one of the best goals you're ever going to see.
There was no reason for him to stop.
He was he was celebrating his goal.
I'm sure it was racism, but this is the amazing thing.
When Jesus comes into your life, even something like racism.
I, I read it and I just start crying.
I think, wow, wow, you've made me like you.
He loves the Good Samaritan. Jesus is not racist.
Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman.
They're all surprised. What are you doing?
It's a woman and a Samaritan. Doubly bad.
He's like, calm down guys, we need to more and more say,
Jesus, I want your life in me. And the other thing that I just
almost every Friday I drive home from an asylum centre in
Liverpool and I cry, Can I just think, wow, I love people from
every nation, whether they're Muslims or not Muslims.
I love just saying Chai Carver, would you like a coffee?
Would you like tea? Would you like some cake?
Welcome to Liverpool. And I think I, I would not be
like this if Jesus hadn't taken hold of me.
And I think also I am so grateful to the American
Christians who were kind to me when I was a foreigner in
another country that it just makes me think I want to be like
that. I saw Jesus in these American
Christians. Now that I'm not saying you need
to go to asylum centres or you need, but what I am saying is
you need to say, Lord, I want your life to change me from the
inside out. And Paul said, I want to know
the power of his resurrection. A resurrection mindset so that
even if you're chained and under a death sentence, he was on
death row. He was waiting for Nero to say,
you've appealed to Caesar. I give you the thumbs up, or for
for Caesar to say no death. And we're pretty sure that Paul
was put to death, was beheaded. Peter had already been
crucified. Excuse me.
So Paul says, I want to know Christ and the power of his
resurrection, which he's relying on Jesus, working in him.
But here's the thing he says and participation in his sufferings.
See, when you talk about the power of the resurrection, you
tend to think of amazing things. The the Dead Rising is what it's
obviously talking about Jesus rising.
When Jesus rises and we see him in all his glory in the Book of
Revelation, it says he's holding the seven stars.
And then he says I am the alpha and and the Omega, the beginning
and the end. So when Jesus is speaking in
Revelation, he's repeating what God has just said.
At the beginning, I'm the alpha and the Omega.
I'm holding the seven stars. But then John sees this amazing
picture of the risen Jesus, and he falls at his feet as if dead.
And Jesus says, don't be afraid. A resurrection mindset says, I
may be chained. I may be awaiting Nero.
I'm in the Lord's hands. I am not afraid.
I trust him. He's the Lord of Lords, not
Caesar. And that's what the the
Christians would do. They would not openly always
speak and say I'm a Christian, Jesus is Lord.
But they always thank you. That's for my irritating cough,
is it? Thank you.
I will irritate you no longer. So the Christians wouldn't
always speak openly, but they wanted to tell each other if
they were Christians. And so Christians would do in
the sand a picture of a fish. So you sometimes stay on the
back of cars. I won't have one on my car
because I keep getting speeding tickets.
But some Christians who are more godly have a fish on the back of
their car to say I belong to Jesus.
So I I love this about Paul that he says I want to know the power
of Jesus resurrection in me, new life in me.
But also, I want to know the fellowship of his suffering or
participation in his suffering. You see, the Christian life is
often amazing. Stories of, wow, Jesus is
changing me from the inside out, and I'm really going through
some tough times right now because the King hasn't returned
yet. It's quite tough right now.
Now, some Christians feel like they have to pretend to be OK
Don't pretend. Just be you.
Be real, but with the resurrection mindset, if you
can. I'm still trusting Jesus.
Paul doesn't say they're not real chains.
They're not real guards. It's not a real prison.
He says I'm really in prison. They're letting me write.
So I'm I'm writing this letter to you.
And he tells us the reality. I might live, I might die.
I've considered both. I'm trusting him.
I'm not afraid. If I die, I'm with the Lord.
If I live, I'll serve the church as such a mindset that I, I
haven't got it. It's so different.
He really knows Jesus and his only desire now is to keep
knowing Jesus. I want to know Christ, power of
his resurrection, the participation in his sufferings.
So I want you to, as a Christian, look at suffering
like racism and weep. Weep with those who weep.
I don't mean make up weeping. I I wasn't expecting to burst
into tears. But I've been looking for weeks
to find out what had he said to Vinicius Junior.
And I hated it when I found out what it was reported.
I hated it. But that was the hatred of Jesus
to racism in me. I'm sure I wouldn't have been
like that if I wasn't a Christian.
I didn't love other nations. I love me.
That was it. I was all about me.
Now Paul says be all about him. Want to know him, get to know
him. But it will include both power
working in you and fellowshipping with him when you
suffer. What he's saying is you're not
alone. You're not alone in your
suffering. Your suffering is so precious to
Jesus that he he actually carries you sometimes, but he's
always with you, always with you.
He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you.
And he says do not be afraid. There's only one way not to be
afraid. And, and I, I believe every
Christian is afraid. I don't think I've met a
Christian who isn't afraid. I'm afraid.
I'm a little bit afraid about getting older, a little bit.
But it's getting worse as I get older.
I don't like it. It's hard.
I think. If I was chained to guards and
in a Roman prison and waiting Nero, I think I'd be quite
afraid. Do not fear.
I hold the keys of life. I hold the keys of death.
I hold the keys of Hades. I'm in control of the stars.
I've got them in my hands. Do not be afraid.
The resurrected Jesus is all powerful, all conquering
already. The victor we're not waiting to
see. Is he going to win?
Isn't he going to win? He's won.
He is the victor. If you know him, you're joined
to the victor, you've won. Do not be afraid.
Whatever's happening, Lord, I am afraid.
Help me. Keep asking him.
Help me. Have I told you about my fear of
rattlesnakes? Have I told that story?
You sure? So I grew up here in England
where there's almost no I had seen one grass snake about that
long in Horsham growing up, and I wasn't very close to it.
But all the boys are running. There's a snake.
We hardly saw a snake. So I saw one snake in 20 years
growing up. Then I moved to Florida and
there are snakes everywhere. Some of them, the Florida
people, the Floridians, they call them good snakes, bad
snakes. The good snakes kill the bad
snakes, like the black racer. This thing moves so fast, but
it's a good snake. Like whoa and it goes by you so
fast. Really a quick moving snake.
But they're like, don't kill it. We love those snakes.
They kill rattlesnakes. OK, fine.
Thank you. So I got used to those, you
know, I don't mean they were always right by me.
They weren't. But I have had them right by me.
I never quite got used to rattlesnakes and and the first
job when I had a green card in America was hoeing roses.
So I was meant to get the weeds from these roses.
Here's the problem. About twice a day so I'd be in
the hot sun for 8 hours, which I loved.
I'd be I'd just become a Christian so I'd be kind of
praying to God. I loved it being paid to get a
suntan. It was just except every now and
again I would hear this noise and I would honestly be
petrified. I'd be like I had a six foot
hose or at least I was 6 foot away from whatever.
I never saw a rattlesnake because the grass was so high
around these roses. But I would hear this and I
would feel this amazing panic just well up in me.
And then someone showed me Isaiah 41.
Do not fear, for I am with you in the new American standard,
which was my first Bible. Do not anxiously look about you.
I'm like, whoa. When the panic had gone, I'd be
looking is there, is there? And I'd start hoeing again and
I'd be OK. But that panic, about twice a
day I'd get a panic, almost a panic attack.
And every day I'd start quoting this verse.
Do not fear. I am with you, Lord.
I will not fear 'cause you're with me.
I just kept praying it the same prayer over and over.
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
And so I'm praying this everyday and about 10 days in, I hear and
I think, wow, I've got such peace, such peace.
The Prince of Peace wants us to be full of peace.
Sometimes we have to wrestle together.
And it may have just been the lizard.
By the way, I never saw the lizard or the rattlesnake.
I have had another story, a rattlesnake fall on my hand when
I opened a mobile home door that I lived in there.
It is hanging over the door handle, but it was hibernating.
It was sleepy, it was groggy, but I didn't know that.
So I've had some snake stories. I'm sure some of you've got
snake stories. But I now can walk in a Florida
field and think, oh, there's a rattlesnake.
I'll just, I don't get close to it.
I'm not quite so worried about the the race of snake.
They're good snakes, but I don't have that panic attack anymore
because he's the one who says do not fear.
I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you.
He wants us to trust Him. That's a resurrection mindset.
If you've got fear today and every Christian has fear, come
to him today. Lord, I struggle in this area or
that area. I need you to help me
breakthrough I I don't want you to think we can't pray for the
sick today. Although I don't believe this
passage is talking about praying for the sick, I do believe he's
saying this is an internal resurrection.
You're alive with Christ and his life is in you, but that doesn't
mean he's not here. He's the healer.
So I'll just give you one example of, of healing.
So we, my wife and I, Charlotte and I have been praying everyday
for several people who are quite sick with, with various things.
And, and then one of those people went to be with the Lord.
We get a text saying my beautiful dad has gone to be
with the Lord and something in me went, I'm not praying
anymore. Is that a resurrection mindset?
No, that's a baby mindset. I have a baby mindset a lot of
the time now I'm not praying anymore.
God, you did not. Obviously my baby mindset's
American. I went into an American accent.
I apologised to all Americans. So I there's something in me
when I get disappointed that says, right, that's it, I'm not
praying. But now I'm praying again every
day for various sicknesses. We had a guy in in Manchester
who had been long term sick and had taken sickness benefit and
was unemployed and he kept coming forward at various
meetings about 3 * a year. So not that often, but he'd been
sick a long time with us in our years in Manchester.
And every now and again he'd really want prayer again.
So if you really want prayer again, get prayer today.
But this lovely man will come forward.
And, and I do believe the church is meant to weep with those who
weep and be thinking, actually, we haven't seen healing.
Be real about it, be honest about it.
And also rejoice with those who rejoice.
Don't just do the rejoicing. It's easy to rejoice when you
see something wonderful. I don't think we should only
rejoice. Jesus says weep with those who
weep. So we were kind of weeping with
Ken that he hadn't been healed, He had ulcerative colitis.
He was so tired and especially in the morning.
But he'd come forward and say, you don't mind praying for me
again, do you? I'm like, no, I love praying for
you. Please keep coming whenever you
want prayer. So he came forward 1/3 time,
prayed, nothing happened. And we we about three more
months goes by. So this is about the fourth time
he comes forward. And now I've known him two
years. I really want prayer for
healing. Pray for him.
Nothing happened, or so I thought.
He goes home. The next morning he wakes up and
said to himself, I feel different.
I've got energy. Didn't want to tell me because
he'd got his hopes up before. I'll just make sure I'm actually
healed. That's OK.
You're allowed to do that. You don't have to thank God for
healing if it hasn't actually happened.
But I pretend I'm healed. Lord, you'll have to heal me
then. We don't.
It's not, it's not a magic thing.
So just be honest about where you are.
Anyway, so few days go by. He feels good.
Every morning, He's got energy. Every day he goes back to the
doctors, which all takes quite a few weeks.
He starts to tell me at this stage I think I might be healed.
He goes back to the doctors. They give him a complete clean
bill of health. So you have not got ulcerative
colitis anymore. So he writes to the people who
are sending him sickness benefit and says I'm completely healed.
They stop his benefit and then he panics and gets afraid.
He's like, what do I do now? And he got, he actually went
back and started teaching again. He was a teacher and sadly this
is what happens. Sadly, in one sense his job that
he got offered was in Wales. So he moved from Manchester to
Wales. But God does things like that.
People do not belong to the leaders of the church, they
belong to Jesus who is the resurrection and the life.
And he sometimes says, Ken, I am going to heal you.
But now I've got a new mission for you in North Wales.
Praise God, don't be afraid. Have a resurrection mindset that
you're looking to him. I'm going to pray and I would
love today to pray for anyone. I would love to pray for you
even if you haven't been healed, if you want prayer.
But I think it's OK to testify to each other.
Don't think I've been healed yet.
Just be very honest. Abraham faced the fact that his
body was as good as dead. He didn't pretend.
Think I'm OK think I can conceive.
I, I, I think I will be able to have a child.
No, he faced the fact he was as good as dead.
But he's the resurrection and the life.
He holds the keys. Let's look to the one who holds
the keys. We're in his hands.
If you don't know him today, I would say, why not give your
life to the one who holds the keys?
It's not Trump, by the way, it's Jesus holds the keys.
So I pray, Father, we thank you for sending your one and only
Son. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying
in our place, for rising from the dead.
Thank you, you're alive. Thank you, you hold the keys to
death and Hades, and we're looking for you to come back
soon. But Lord, until that day, help
us not to be afraid. Help us to live for you, get to
know you better and even Lord to look for you in our sufferings
and how you're participating with us in Jesus name, Amen.