Resurrection Of Jesus: Three Dimensions Of Death by Pastor Poju Oyemade: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Easter: Victory Over Death

This is Easter morning and we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the most important Christian celebration. It is much more important than the birth of Jesus — because this is the fulfillment of His birth. This is what the Christian faith is all about. Resurrection is a celebration of victory over death.

Now, death is in different dimensions. This morning, we want to look at three dimensions of death where we have obtained victory, and what that victory looks like, and our application — appropriating: setting aside for your own personal, practical, daily use — the truth contained in God's word.

The External Death: The Glorified Body

1 Corinthians 15:25-27: For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Then verse 55 of the same chapter: When the corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where is, oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is your victory?

This speaks particularly to an external form of death — talking about our bodies here taking on the glorified state. That will be the final victory when this mortal body puts on immortality.

The new man lives on the inside of you. And this body doesn't belong to him. He has his own body. But pending the redemption of that body, the new man — born of the incorruptible seed of God's word — expresses that life within the limitations of the body.

The Internal Death: The Carnal Mind

There is also an internal death we deal with now, which is the carnal mind. That is a born-again Christian's greatest battle — a battle within himself.

A person who has mastery over his own spirit is more powerful than a person who rules a city. The biggest warfare is within. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5: The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds — casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Romans 8:6: To be carnally minded is death. To be spiritually minded is life and peace.

When the carnal mind has been dealt with, all things are literally possible to that individual. There is no secret on this earth that person cannot range out of the Holy Spirit. It is a limitless mind. It is a mind that finds solution to any and everything — bringing about the genius of God on this earth. It cannot be contained by past experiences or the limitations of the environment.

The Third Dimension: Translation

Hebrews 11:5: By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.

Enoch never experienced what we call physical death. He walked with God and was translated. And I believe this is God's plan for every born-again Christian — not that your family just won't see you, that you suddenly disappear. I am referring to the fact that the exit from this earth is something that a person in discussion with God — not because of the deterioration in the condition of their body, but because their assignment has finished on this earth, and therefore God says it is time to go home.

E.W. Kenyon, F.F. Bosworth — these men called their families together and told them the day they were going to go home to be with the Lord. One was on a rocking chair, talking and talking, and then he went. It wasn't a condition in the body. Paul said: I have finished my work. Not something that was sudden, a destruction of the body — it was actually translation.

Deuteronomy 34:4-7: The Lord said unto Moses, this is the land. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eyes were not dim, nor his natural force abated. There was no deterioration in the physical condition of Moses. If Moses at 120 you had told him to run 100 metres, you would have thought he was a 35-year-old man.

Can you imagine that kind of immortality being made manifest in the bodies of all Christians on this earth? A group of people on this earth in sizable number where there is no deterioration in their physical condition as they grow older — you can see them run. That is a powerful witness of the resurrection power of Jesus.

If we can think it, then it must mean it is part of what God has made available in His word. The life of God in a believer is meant to overcome physical deterioration — and the resurrection of Jesus is the proof and the power behind it.