Resurrection Sunday -- April 8, 2012
In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " Then they remembered his words. -- Luke 24: 5-8 (NIV)
Today is Resurrection Sunday. Let us not demean the most important day of our beliefs. This is the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, thus conquering the grave for all who would believe on Him. One of the most powerful verses to me in the Bible is when the women here are asked -- why do you look for the living among the dead?
This is what we do too. First we do it before we are saved. God is not terribly difficult to find beloved. All He requires is that we seek Him and He will be there. He will answer. Those who are saved know to what I speak. The instant we asked Jesus Christ into our hearts everything changed in our life. Here is today's great theology -- God is not hiding! Yet before we are saved we are constantly looking for God in all the wrong places. We are seeking to fill that Jesus shaped hole in our hearts with everything the world has to offer. We seek to fill it with drugs and alcohol, lust and pleasure, riches and fame. How many superstars keep dying empty painful lives? The essential truth here is that we keep looking for the living God among the dead things of this world. The world cannot offer the one thing that will satisfy our hearts - Jesus. The world mocks Jesus and the things of God.
Then we come to Christ and the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell within us. But our walk is not always an easy one and while God is never difficult to find, we can still stop seeking Him. Even the born again believer is not exempt from the trials and tribulations of this world, in fact Jesus warned us that we would have them in this world. But as always, God doesn't leave us in that despair -- Jesus told us to take heart because He has overcome this world. That means through Him, through His Spirit, we too can overcome this world. But only through Him. Instead when we are faced with trouble we can tend to seek the solutions of the world instead of seeking the Lord. We can seek help from counselors and friends before seeking God in prayer. We can turn to medication and the empty solutions of this world before consulting the Great Physician. The essential truth here is that we still can keep looking for the living among the dead.
The answers you seek today regardless of salvation are found only in God. The things that we seek to bring life into our existence are not found among the dead things this world has to offer. These truths are not secret. He told us he would be betrayed into the hands of sinners and He was. He told us that He would be crucified and He was. He told us that He would be raised from the dead and He has! He is risen!!! I implore you today to remember His Words.
Rev. Anthony - Happy Resurrection Sunday!
