The Vision Of The Resurrected Life

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GOG - 19 - 255 - 2019: The Vision Of The Resurrected Life

Vision Of The Resurrected Life The

Pastor Charles Omofomah 1 “Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” 6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.

7 But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.”

8 When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

9 Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.”

Matthew 17:1-9

The word vision refers to a trance, a picture of some sought. It is when God shows you something supernatural either when you are awake or asleep. In verse 9 of our text, we see Jesus saying to the three disciples with Him, not to tell anyone about the vision they just saw until He rises from the dead. In Matthew 16:21, Jesus had told His disciples that He was going to be mistreated and crucified. The Bible says that Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”(Matthew 16:22) Jesus replied to Him by saying, "Get behind Me, satan! You are an offence to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men" (Matthew 16:22), Jesus continued to talk to His disciples by saying to them, if you must keep your life, you must be ready to give it up first, but if you want to keep it, then you will lose it. Then in Matthew 16:28, He said to them, that some of them were not going to taste death until they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom. Then chapter 17 begins with the expression “After six days…” You don’t begin a sentence with “after six days.” It’s either after six days to an experience, or to something that Jesus Christ had said.

Remember that the last statement that Jesus made to His disciples in chapter 16 verse 28, was that, some of them will not taste death before seeing the kingdom of God. After that statement, six days later, He took Peter, James and John to the mountain and He was transfigured before them and they saw the kingdom. So, the experience He was talking about when He said that some of them will not taste death before they see the kingdom is the experience of the Transfiguration. That means if He says to them, that they won’t die before they see the kingdom or that they will see the kingdom before they die, and He took them (Peter, James and John) to the mountain to witness His transfiguration, it means He showed them the kingdom life before they died. In this article, I am going to show you what it means to live a resurrected life.

The Resurrected Life Is The Kingdom Life In verse 9, Jesus told them to tell no one about the vision yet, until He rises from the dead. Jesus links kingdom life to being risen from the dead. Let me put it in the positive, He says that the disciples could only talk about the vision on the mount of transfiguration after the Son of man rises from the dead. The key words there are “Until the Son of man rises.” The vision was about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that is the kingdom He was talking about. This means that the kingdom life equals resurrected life. The first thing He said was, “Some of you will not taste death,” and we know Peter, James and John are dead now. So what did He refer to? He referred to the experience they were about to have six days after that declaration. So among the disciples, there were those who didn’t see death until they saw the kingdom life, which means, resurrection life equals kingdom life.

Therefore, having seen that kingdom life and resurrected life are one and the same thing, the question is, what is resurrected life? What is the vision of the resurrected life all about? If you are living the resurrected life then you are living the kingdom life. There are three powerful

things, which the resurrected life is all about. The Bible says Jesus took Peter, James and John. Jesus took them, He was transfigured and the Bible also says that Elijah and Moses appeared and they talked with Jesus. When Elijah and Moses disappeared and the disciples got up they saw only Jesus. He is the one in the centre of the resurrected life. He’s the one that rose from the dead.

Easter is not about anybody, but about Jesus Christ and if it’s about Jesus Christ, then it is about the believer. Jesus is the head, believers are the body. Some people celebrate Easter like any other festival. The centre of the resurrected life is not the celebrations and merriments that follow the Easter season. The celebrations are okay, but they are not the centre of resurrection life. Jesus is the one who is at the centre of the resurrection and the Bible says that He lives forever and if He lives then I live, if He lives then you live. He’s not just one of the prophets like some are trying to make out, no. That’s why Moses and Elijah came during the transfiguration.

Moses represented the law and Elijah represented the prophets. What God was saying to the people was that the law and the prophets, focus on Jesus. He says, come and have life, it means that He is the source of life.

Some people go to church because they are afraid. They don’t want to have an accident and die. They don’t want to die an untimely death. Another goes to church because He or she thinks coming to church can bribe God and many other reasons people have for going to church. If you focus on Jesus, He will give you the very best. Jesus should be the centre of your life and the centre of your being.

The Resurrected Life Is A Life Of Change The Bible says that when Jesus took them, He was transfigured. The Greek word is metamorphoo which means to change. He was changed. The resurrected life is all about change. His clothes became so glittery and white exuding radiance and glory. Resurrection life changed Him. It

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GOG - 19 - 255 - 2019: The Vision Of The Resurrection Life

changed His countenance and everything about Him. If you experience resurrected life your life will change. Someone may say, “I don’t know how to leave fornication, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”Make contact and remain in contact with resurrected life. It will transfigure you, it will change and transform you. If it has not transformed you, then you didn’t come in contact with resurrected life. The things I used to do, I do them no more because I came in contact with resurrected life. It will change you from the pit of hell to the mountain of salvation, it will change you from poverty to wealth, it changed me from the state of “dunghill” to the throne of glory, that is what it did.

Years ago I could not afford a mat, my parents could not just afford a mat for us.

We had to sleep on cartons and we were living in the Northern part of Nigeria at that time. You can imagine how hot it usually is in the North. When we slept and woke up, patches of those cartons would stick to our bodies because we would have sweated on the cartons, but all of that has changed. The Bible says, “But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). Your best days are yet to come but they will surely come. Maybe things may look so rough now and you’re like, “How can I face tomorrow? How can I face the future?” Don’t worry about the future. The future will wait because you are coming in grand style. It’s getting better, it won’t be long from now, you won’t be the same person, physically, financially and materially, because you have come in contact with resurrection life. Jesus knows how to lift people from the gutter of sin, that’s why He rose from the dead. He knows how to raise people from the gutter of shattered dreams, He’ll give you new dreams and new hopes again.

When you look back and see where God has brought you from, you will realise it’s the power of resurrection that has changed you.

While you were in the world, you said you couldn’t do without sex, you know how many abortions you’ve committed, but that’s all different now, why? It was because when you come in contact with resurrection life, it will transfigure you.

The Resurrected Life Is A Life Of Glory 5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Hear Him!" 6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.

Matthew 17:5-6

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Our text says that while He was still speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and out of the bright cloud, a voice came that said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him.” The cloud is always a symbolism of the glory of God, and the voice that came, signifies the presence of God, so you can interchange the presence with the glory of God. In the old testament, when God talked about the cloud, He referred to the glory of God, most of the time. Today, how does that glory manifest? In John 2:11, the Bible says, there was no wine at the feast, they consulted with Jesus and He gave them certain instructions, then He turned water into wine and the Bible says that Jesus showed forth His works or His glory. When the glory of God manifests, something tangible h a p p e n s . Th e g l o r y o f G o d ca u s e s something tangible to happen in your life because resurrection life is associated with the glory of God. The glory of God is revealed in making provision for you, and it comes through the resurrected life. As you embrace in its totality the resurrected life, all

the lack and inadequacies in your life will disappear.

When Jesus was told that Lazarus was dead, He said not to worry that this is done that the glory of God may be made manifest.

When they got to the tomb Jesus asked them to take away the stone and Martha replied to Jesus by saying that he would be smelling by that time. Jesus asked her, “Did I not say to you if you believe, you will see the glory of God” (John 11:40)? The glory was bringing Lazarus back from the dead. That was the glory, there was no cloud that overshadowed them but the problem at that time was that a man was locked in the pit of hell; in the pit of the grave and Jesus said, I told you if you believe you will see the glory of God. What’s the glory of God? The glory of God is that impossible situations are turned around. Declare that every dead situation in your life comes back to life by resurrection power in the name of Jesus Christ! When we talk about the glory of God in church, people look out for a wind to blow and the clouds to gather. The glory is that you could not eat three square meals,

you couldn’t eat two square meals before, the glory of God is that now you’re not only eating three square meals, but you’re also distributing to people, that’s the glory of God. Jesus was talking to the people, He said look, you bother about little things and all that, but look at the birds of the air and the grass in the field; look at the lilies, look at them, just look at them, He says Solomon in all his glory - referring to Solomon’s wealth. Wealth there was described as glory.

Before now people thought that it’s poverty that was glorious, there is no glory in poverty. The Bible says that Solomon in all his glory, or all his wealth was not arrayed like one of the lilies. This tells me that glory means that your experiences in life will be compared to your cup being full and running over. The glory is that God will not only prosper you, but He will also cause you to flourish. The Bible says, “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” (Romans 8:11). “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” (Romans 6:4). In Romans 6:4, the Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead is described as the glory of the Father and that Spirit otherwise known as the glory of the Father will give life to your mortal body.

In 1989, I was preaching in the Federal University of Technology, Yola, on the glory of God. The first d a y, t h e re w a s a b o y w h o apparently had been a Christian, but had become one of the rascals in the university. As I was preaching, he was talking and causing all kinds of distractions.

Yo u k n o w a p r e a c h e r u n d e r s u c h circumstance would feel like cursing such person, but God didn’t allow me to do that.

The next day, I continued my message on the glory of God and as I ministered, something came over me, and the moment it came over me, God said to take a bottle of anointing oil, and anoint that boy on the head and he will be filled with the Holy Ghost. Immediately, I said no! that is that rascal, He said to go ahead and do it. I just did as the Lord had asked me to do, and the whole place went wild and healings began to take place. All kinds of miracles began to take place. That is the glory of God. Jesus is the centre of resurrection life and He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

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