Because He Lives

Luke 24:5b,6a "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen."

This is it. This is the key…the lynchpin…the whole enchilada. This is the basis for Christianity. Without this the Christian faith and teaching is a crock. If the resurrection is true, however, then it verifies all that is written in the scriptures and our faith is solid and set apart from all other belief systems and religions in the world.

I could spend a ton of time discussing the various theories as to why the resurrection may not be true. People have used them for years. Jesus was not real. If He was, He really did not die. He was drugged. If He did die, then His followers came and stole the body. These people were just hallucinating. Frankly, all of these theories are just that. Unsubstantiated theories. They have no basis in fact. When you look at the facts surrounding the life, death and burial of Jesus, the fact that hundreds of people saw Him after His resurrection, as well as the fact that his followers were cowards who could not handle a weapon but all of a sudden became brave and were martyred because they knew the truth of the risen Christ…it is obvious that Jesus lives. And because He lives we have hope. Because He lives we have life. Because He lives we have the assurance of an eternity of life. Because He lives Christianity is set apart as truth and all of the other religions in the world are proven to be empty.

Yesterday I heard about a website. It is called endofamerica32.com. I went on the website and I will tell you, it is scary. This economist has a very credible argument about how our country is going to go down the tubes because of our financial mismanagement. Everything that we know, everything that we trust, everything that we value in this country will be altered…according to this man.

And then I read this: "Why do you seek the living among the dead. He is not here, but He is risen." This is a good question for us today too. Unfortunately, I think that I and we get sucked into looking for the living among the dead. We set our hope on that which is temporal. We rely on things that will one day burn. Instead, we have to rely on the One who is eternal. Who is living. Who wrote the scriptures that give us assurance that He is alive, He will never leave us or forsake us, He will supply all of our needs, He has a plan for us to prosper us and not harm us to give us a hope and a future, He will not leave us as orphans, He will add what we need to us. And we can rely on these promises. Why? Because some guy wrote them? Because some guy said them? Because they are in something called the Bible? No. We can rely on these promises because He lives. His life verifies each of these truths.

So, whenever things start to hit the fan, don't seek the living among the dead. "Because He lives I can face tomorrow. Because He lives all fear is gone. Because I know who holds the future. And life is worth the living just because He lives."