Christian Living

The Resurrection, Part 2—From Factual Knowledge to Actual Life

by J.W. Phillips
04/18/25
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The Resurrection, Part 2—From Factual Knowledge to Actual Life

There were ten post-resurrection appearances—appearances with individuals, with small groups, and with a large crowd.

These appearances by Jesus covered land (on the road to Emmaeus), air (when ascending from Mount Olivet), and sea (when meeting with Peter at the edge of the Sea of Galilee).

All of these appearances provided persuasive testimony that the resurrection of Jesus is a fact.

Scripture informs us, though, how even after Peter saw the resurrected Jesus, this apostle was still still miserable. Why? Because he wouldn’t receive what Jesus did for him at the cross. What Jesus blotted out remained a reality to Peter.

He had not actualized, had not internalized, this part of what the resurrection assured.

It is significant that when Jesus dealt with this issue, he did not look backward, he looked forward. The sin of the past was never mentioned; Peter’s service in the future was.

Peter’s actualizing of the resurrection was now underway.

But there were more steps to take.

Not long after Peter’s conversation with Jesus on the beach, another major step would be taken to upgrade this transition from factual to actual. It happened on the day of Pentecost.

In replaying this story in our minds, we can well imagine how sky-high the enthusiasm of the disciples must have been once the resurrected Jesus appeared.

No one could have been more convinced than they! No one could have been more ready to serve!

But instead of unleashing all this conviction and compassion upon a needy world, Jesus told them not to go anywhere or to say anything: Just wait—for the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Just weeks before, these supposed shepherds of the church looked like sheep! That these would be the men who would turn the world upside down hardly seemed possible. And yet that, we now know, is exactly what later happened.

So how do we account for this amazing turn-around?

There is, after all, such a black-and-white contrast between the disciples in the gospels and the disciples after Pentecost.

Just know that when the Spirit fills, those days of being immensely disappointed in yourself and all that lack in your spiritual condition will be over!

Instead of being busy, but not fruitful; disciplined, but not joyful; committed, but not content; learning, but not living what the Bible does indeed teach, you will experience a takeover on the inside that is so complete the only possible explanation is God!

All that you had wanted but never thought you would get will rush in with so much force and feeling—at which point, your new nature, the very life of God, will begin its flow. This flow is generated by the filling of the Holy Spirit.

And when it happens, you will know it happened!

And others will know it happened!

The results are amazing!

         So much love!

         So much power!

         At long last, the very life Scripture describes you experienced!

It is instructive that not only at Pentecost but every time it occurred, the Spirit’s filling happened suddenly, not gradually.

The pattern for most people in the church today is snail-crawling gradualism. This is not the way it was in the early church.

When examining the flaws and failures of the disciples during the gospels with their awesome achievements after Pentecost, the contrast is dramatic.

You might ask yourself, which depiction of the disciples better describes you: the one in the gospels, or the one after the filling of the Holy Spirit?

Without this sudden, supernatural filling by the Holy Spirit, Peter never could have advanced in this transition from the factual to the actual. And neither can we. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit who must undertake for us.

Serving the Lord without the filling of the Holy Spirit will grind you down.

Resurrection life, when actualized, doesn’t do that.

It is the release of divine life, the very life of Jesus residing in one’s new nature Peter experienced. And it isn’t until we experience what Peter did, the new nature released by the filling of the Holy Spirit, that the resurrected life becomes further actualized.

As Peter learned, “… it demands a ‘fullness of the Spirit’ to do the hard, unpopular, thankless work that must be done to save a drowsy church and a wicked world.”¹

This second step that transitions us from the factual to the actual isn’t an option. We need it. We all need it.

 Note

1. G.D. Watson, Holiness Manual, (Salem, Ohio, Schmul Publishing Company, 2007), p.79.