“Lord Jesus, we are here to be witnesses of Your resurrection. We are mortal but the victorious life in us is Yours. Forgive us Lord that we have not understood nor internalised this truth into our lives. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Peter and John identified themselves as witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus. Yes, they were witnesses of the physical resurrection of Jesus but it was more than just His physical resurrection. They were now true witnesses of Jesus and His resurrection power that was throbbing through them.
Acts 3:14-16 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, (15) and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. (16) And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
It was the filling of His Holy Spirit which caused them to be powerful witnesses of His resurrection. 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.
We were weak in our flesh. The law of sin and death was at work in our flesh so we were not able to meet the righteousness of God. God had to step in to make it possible that we would fulfil His righteous expectations. This is His grace.
Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of our sinful condition and He overcame sin in the flesh. He condemned sin in the flesh. This was not possible for man since we were under the law of sin and death, in our flesh.
Jesus won the victory over sin in the flesh. The exceeding greatness of God’s power was now at work in the life of Peter and John. They were His true witnesses. How do we appropriate His victory? How does the resurrected life of Jesus operate in us?
We too are raised to be His powerful witnesses. Ephesians 1:19-20 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power (20) which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
This is how the Lord desires us to be as His church. We are to be the true witnesses of His resurrection power, through faith.
Acts 2:32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. This is the identification of His church.
This victory is by faith. Colossians 2:11-12 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, (12) buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
To experience the resurrection of Jesus, we must also die and be buried with Him, by faith. II Corinthians 4:10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
We die with Jesus, we are buried with Jesus and we rise with Jesus, all by faith. Romans 6:4-6 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. (5) For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (6) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
The resurrection power of Jesus is to operate in our mortal flesh so that it becomes evident to everyone that the victorious life that we live is not of us but it is Christ, who lives out His powerful life through us.
This is the witness of His church that we are alive in Christ. I Peter 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.