back to index2016-03-27 New Life in Christ
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Matthew 28 verses 1 through 10 00:00:04.780 |
Matthew 28 verses 1 through 10 and then we'll jump into the message today 00:00:13.400 |
Now after the Sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb 00:00:24.760 |
Behold there was a great earthquake for an angel the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it 00:00:30.720 |
His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow and for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men 00:00:38.120 |
But the angel said to the woman do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified 00:00:43.880 |
He is not here for he has risen as he said come see the place where he lay 00:00:49.840 |
Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he's gone before you to Galilee there 00:00:58.440 |
so they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples and 00:01:03.560 |
Behold Jesus met them and said greetings and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him 00:01:09.240 |
Then Jesus said to them do not be afraid go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me 00:01:20.760 |
Father we thank you for your blessing of allowing us to come and worship this morning 00:01:25.820 |
We pray that you would again soften our hearts that your word would go forth and will not return until it has accomplished its purpose 00:01:32.520 |
We pray Lord God that the power of the resurrection the power of the resurrected life would deeply affect us 00:01:38.940 |
Help us to understand the gift of salvation that you've given that we may truly surrender our lives Lord God in light of what you've given 00:01:47.560 |
So we ask for your grace and your Holy Spirit to guide us in Jesus name. We pray. Amen 00:01:51.520 |
Let me start out this morning by asking you a simple question 00:01:58.720 |
Yeah, you don't have to say anything just kind of ask yourself are you happy 00:02:04.040 |
You know, I probably don't have to ask you that you probably ask yourself that pretty often 00:02:09.480 |
You probably ask yourself. Are you happy in this relationship? 00:02:14.000 |
Are you happy at work? Are you happy at the present circumstance that you're in? 00:02:18.880 |
Because that's a question that we commonly ask because all of us in some sense one or a or the other one Avenue or another 00:02:25.720 |
We want to be happy. So if we're not happy, we will change our circumstance 00:02:29.960 |
Sometimes we will change relationships and we'll change jobs based upon how we answer that question 00:02:34.920 |
I'm not happy here. So something needs to change 00:02:39.760 |
You know and I know I kind of tend to pick on Disneyland because we're close to Disneyland 00:02:43.640 |
But you know like I I'm not a huge Disneyland fan because it gets a thought of going there just kind of tires me out 00:02:49.280 |
But I know some of you guys, you know, you love Disneyland. So you guys have year-round passes and you know, I 00:02:54.560 |
They sell themselves at least in marketing saying it is the what place on earth 00:03:03.280 |
Happiest place that's how they sell it. They sell why is this place the happiest place on earth? 00:03:07.720 |
And I think what is the attraction right? I think it gives people a temporary break from reality 00:03:17.160 |
Maybe you're having some struggles financial whatever it may be when you go to Disneyland is temporarily 00:03:23.760 |
You're taken out of your life and then you go to fantasy land you go to children land 00:03:29.000 |
You go to Batman land, whatever this they have, right? 00:03:33.320 |
Temporarily takes you out of real life and then places in a place where you just forget about all of that 00:03:38.920 |
And when you feel happy because they're spending million billions of dollars 00:03:43.400 |
Even just so that you can be even if it's just temporary to make you happy and people are willing to shell out money 00:03:48.960 |
You know say oh my gosh, you went up used to be I remember when it was the cheapest like 35 bucks 00:03:53.720 |
I hear it's 150 bucks to get in, you know, I say oh my gosh. I can't believe they raised it 00:04:01.960 |
We'll go we'll shell out the money because that temporary escape is worth it 00:04:11.720 |
How do you feel about your relationship with God 00:04:20.560 |
Church and your walk with God the way we sometimes we look at work 00:04:25.960 |
We go to Disneyland and we do all this other stuff and travel and look at things and eat and experience different things 00:04:31.640 |
But church is just something you do because that's what you're supposed to go 00:04:38.520 |
So it is not as your relationship with Christ isn't a source of joy instead. It's just you're supposed to do 00:04:45.840 |
I mean Jesus died for me. So how can I not worship him? But is it really a source of joy? 00:04:57.040 |
You know if we're not careful we can easily think that Christianity is of all about the cross and death 00:05:03.320 |
Which in essence it is, you know, don't don't go out make from this quote mean saying oh he said he says not about the cross 00:05:11.440 |
Understandably even the symbol that represents Christianity is the symbol of death the cross 00:05:16.480 |
And so the mistake that we can make is to think that everything is about his death and his suffering 00:05:24.840 |
Not realizing the scripture makes it very clear that the point of Christianity is about life 00:05:30.960 |
And the reason why Christ came is so that we may have life 00:05:37.600 |
I have come that they may have life and to have it to the full that you may have this life abundantly 00:05:43.360 |
Again in Romans 6 3 as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and why this is so central 00:05:49.240 |
To everything that we you and I confess and believe do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus? 00:05:57.480 |
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order 00:06:01.360 |
That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. We too might walk in the newness of life 00:06:09.000 |
He said the whole point of the cross the whole point of union with Christ in his death is in order 00:06:15.680 |
That we may be also raised in glory to a new life 00:06:22.940 |
Let me say that again. The whole point of Friday was Sunday 00:06:28.640 |
So if our Christian faith never brings us to Sunday and all we meditate and think about is about the suffering and the cross 00:06:36.240 |
Then you miss the whole point of what the cross was about 00:06:39.160 |
The whole point of the cross was to open the door that we may have this new life 00:06:46.040 |
Just as pastor Mark shared and just as the scripture teaches us 00:06:49.040 |
Resurrection life is at the core at the center of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ 00:06:56.120 |
So this morning we want to talk about well if the whole point of Christianity is about life and this pursuit of life this new life 00:07:04.260 |
How do we understand this life that the Bible teaches? 00:07:07.960 |
In English, we use the word life to talk about life of the plant life of the animal 00:07:14.240 |
You know or I feel alive we use one word to describe all of it 00:07:17.900 |
What Greek is a lot more a lot more accurate than that 00:07:21.040 |
the Greek actually has several words that describe the word life and and it's really important for us to understand the distinction because 00:07:27.920 |
If you don't understand the distinction between these two particular words that I'm about to go through this morning 00:07:34.120 |
You're gonna miss the whole point of Christianity. You can live your whole life quoting the same verses 00:07:42.360 |
But completely missing the point just like you know, just because somebody says I believe in Jesus 00:07:47.560 |
It really depends who's saying that right if you're hearing that from the jovial witness says you hear that from the Mormons 00:07:54.040 |
I mean you could say the name Jesus or even the Muslims their idea of Jesus is completely different 00:08:00.400 |
So when the Bible talks about this word life that I have come to give life and give this life 00:08:06.360 |
Abundantly if we don't accurately understand what he means by life 00:08:10.960 |
You're gonna miss the whole point of what salvation is about 00:08:17.480 |
But these two words pretty much summarize all the words that are used in the Bible of what life is 00:08:23.160 |
The first word you probably heard it before is the word bios where we get the word biology 00:08:28.140 |
It's talking about the quantity of life to put it simply. It's talking about the general physical life 00:08:40.640 |
Sometimes we will call somebody and say, you know, maybe they're in a vegetative state or recently, you know 00:08:45.920 |
The zombie movies are very popular, you know zombies are 00:08:48.920 |
Creatures or things that have no soul the basically 00:08:53.880 |
They're not really living. They're just instinctively. They smell you they see you they just go at it, whatever it is, right? 00:09:04.040 |
It's just this physical life and there's nothing more 00:09:06.440 |
Then it's just all about instinct like the Bible describes the loss of the eyes a loss of the flesh and boastful pride of life 00:09:12.440 |
There's a whole book in the Bible that's dedicated in in a man who pursued bios 00:09:21.960 |
like life in in the context of of just this flesh I 00:09:27.520 |
Think you guys know what I'm talking about the book of Ecclesiastes 00:09:31.600 |
The whole book of Ecclesiastes is a man named Solomon who was the king of Israel known to be the wisest man on earth 00:09:41.000 |
Israel probably was the richest so he had money as a king. He's not like the president of the United States 00:09:46.560 |
I mean, he's a king. I mean he could he had riches beyond 00:09:53.040 |
He had power because again he was the king, you know, most of us even if you win the lottery 00:09:56.880 |
We are limited by opportunity. We're limited by politics 00:10:01.440 |
We're limited even by our own wisdom. We may invest something foolish and then lose it in five six years 00:10:06.680 |
This is a man who had all the wisdom all the power all the opportunity 00:10:22.400 |
Vanity vanity says the preacher he's referring to himself 00:10:26.440 |
Vanity of vanities all is vanity and again in other translations. It means empty or vain useless 00:10:36.480 |
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the Sun a generation goes and a generation comes 00:10:42.760 |
But the earth remains forever and that was that's basically the theme of the whole book of Ecclesiastes 00:10:47.840 |
Here's a man who had every opportunity to pursue every pleasure on earth and his end conclusion is he found emptiness 00:10:56.160 |
Ecclesiastes 2 1 through 11. I said in my heart come now. I will test you with pleasure 00:11:01.840 |
Enjoy yourself. In other words, he's saying like he didn't just decide to you know 00:11:08.560 |
When when temptation came he determined to pursue every pleasure 00:11:13.040 |
But behold this also was vanity. I said to set of laughter. It is mad, right? In other words, he pursued 00:11:25.560 |
We did a dating seminar and we played this family feud game and we asked the sisters. What's your top? 00:11:31.800 |
You know quality that you're looking for in your mate and the typical stuff came out, you know godly 00:11:41.320 |
Dependable and all this, you know Christian answers that came out but was surprising to me 00:11:44.800 |
What was on the top of that list? A lot of you guys were there wasn't the top of that list 00:11:51.000 |
Said the top number one answer that came out which is kind of surprising to me 00:11:59.840 |
Was that they wanted a guy with a sense of humor and I couldn't understand why you know, I myself too 00:12:07.160 |
I mean, you know part of the reason why I think Esther and I get along so well is because we laugh all the time 00:12:11.320 |
Right, I tell jokes and if she if she didn't get it and she just stared at me. It's like ha ha ha 00:12:17.440 |
Maybe it'd be a very hard relationship, right? So I get it, you know, but part of the thing about laughter is that 00:12:24.720 |
You know again when is it temporary escape? It kind of makes everything feel a little bit better 00:12:30.640 |
And he said he pursued laughter he says and it only made him mad 00:12:36.080 |
Pleasure he pursued pleasure and he says at the end of it what uses it I 00:12:41.720 |
Search with my heart how to cheer my body with wine 00:12:46.160 |
Right. I mean it's one thing to drink a little wine with food and you know, I get little taste here and there 00:12:52.000 |
But he said he pursued wine. He tried to drown 00:12:57.520 |
Some people go to Disneyland and some people to travel some people eat some people pour themselves into alcohol 00:13:04.280 |
He said I pursued it. So imagine I mean, this is the king 00:13:12.640 |
Abuses himself who's gonna say anything to the king? 00:13:16.080 |
There was no limitation for him. He said I searched my heart to cheer my body with wine 00:13:21.560 |
My heart still guiding me with wisdom in other words 00:13:24.760 |
He didn't get carried away so that his life was ruined even in pursuit of of wine 00:13:28.880 |
He said he did it within all of this within wisdom and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for 00:13:35.560 |
The children of man and to do under heaven during the few days of their life 00:13:39.440 |
In other words anything that I can possibly think of I went after 00:13:43.920 |
Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them 00:13:46.480 |
I kept my heart from no pleasure for my heart found pleasure in all of my toil and this was my reward for all of 00:13:52.960 |
My toil then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expanded 00:14:00.680 |
All was vanity and striving after wind and there was nothing to be gained under the Sun 00:14:06.920 |
Now this is probably nothing new to you. You know, you may read that and say, you know what? That's that's him 00:14:15.280 |
but how many times have you seen a movie star a 00:14:23.240 |
Everybody else is looking up to and say, you know 00:14:24.920 |
and I'm working hard so that one day I could be there and then you see them take their life and 00:14:32.240 |
like how can you be going through depression because we think the world thinks that that's where life is and 00:14:39.040 |
It perplexes the world when they see something like that because wait a second 00:14:43.280 |
If that's what we're pursuing and I'm looking at that guy who's there and he says it's not there 00:14:47.640 |
You would think that people would say oh, maybe that's not it. He says I want to find this out for myself 00:14:53.840 |
Paul says if the resurrection didn't happen and there is a new life and all it is is bios 00:15:06.320 |
So what if at the end is vanity all it is is vanity. So what if this is it? 00:15:10.680 |
But the answer to that is clear it is this is not it 00:15:15.160 |
If you go to Disneyland and you pay a certain amount now, it's like 150 bucks, right? 00:15:25.680 |
You're gonna milk every single bit of that place because you know, the closing time is coming 00:15:31.880 |
So you maybe you got there at 10 o'clock and you have 10 12 13 hours and the whole park is big enough 00:15:37.880 |
Where you can spend every single minute doing something different and still not exhausted, you know, the end is coming 00:15:44.320 |
So what do we do? We try to get as much in as possible 00:15:47.640 |
Right and get in as many many, you know rides as you can go see as many shows eat as many churros 00:15:56.480 |
I mean you you try to milk every ounce of energy that that you have for that purpose 00:16:01.880 |
Well, that's what Paul says if we know the end is coming and this is it 00:16:12.680 |
But at the end of all of it we find that it is not it 00:16:17.000 |
See the word bios is not the word that is described when Jesus says he has come to give life and give this life abundantly 00:16:24.280 |
The word that is almost used exclusively in the New Testament 00:16:32.000 |
The Greek lexicon. Let me just read it straight out from the Greek lexicon the definition of this word 00:16:41.200 |
The state of one who is possessed by vitality life of the absolute fullness of life both essential and ethical 00:16:48.520 |
life real and genuine a life active and vigorous 00:16:54.200 |
Cs Lewis in the book mere Christianity describes the distinction between bios and Zoe like this 00:17:00.560 |
Bios is sort which come to us through nature and which like everything else in nature is always tending to run down and decay 00:17:09.200 |
So that it can only be kept up by incessant subsidies from the nature in the form of air water food, etc 00:17:16.400 |
In other words because bios is it cannot be maintained by itself 00:17:21.160 |
It is it needs always something external to keep it alive that other external stuff like food 00:17:26.400 |
Water, etc. The spiritual life which is in God from all eternity and which made the whole natural universe is Zoe 00:17:33.920 |
Bios has to be sure a certain shadow or symbolic resemblance to Zoe 00:17:39.200 |
but only the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place a 00:17:46.720 |
Man who changed from having bios to having Zoe would have gone through the big a change as a statue which changed from being a 00:17:53.600 |
Carvestone to being a real man and that is precisely what Christianity is about 00:17:59.000 |
Let me just kind of briefly summarize what he is saying 00:18:02.560 |
He's saying the distinction between bios and Zoe is a distinction between 00:18:10.920 |
See bios is the chronological life quantity of life and if we don't understand the word 00:18:17.300 |
Life in his correct context. We just think that Jesus came to give eternal life eternal bios that we're just gonna exist 00:18:24.680 |
If your life is miserable here, why would you want this for eternity? 00:18:34.480 |
There's a lot of people with that that promise is not attractive. I 00:18:40.520 |
Want this for eternity? I don't want this. I want at some point 00:18:43.320 |
I want this misery to end if that's what salvation is to exist forever 00:18:52.280 |
When the scripture talks about life it is exclusively referring to Zoe to make us alive in Christ 00:18:59.880 |
So let me read some of these verses. I'm not gonna give you the actual verses to save time 00:19:06.000 |
But all these times sometimes you can read this without understanding just like you can you know, you know people say oh, I know Jesus 00:19:14.560 |
So we talk about life a lot of times we understand our version of life, but let's re-understand in the context of Zoe 00:19:36.600 |
the water of Zoe the life and Zoe and godliness the Zoe of God 00:19:45.840 |
Over and over again when the Bible talks about life. He's talking about making us alive 00:19:58.120 |
People have been trying to find this life and isn't that why we do what we do a lot of things that we do 00:20:03.600 |
We look for the weekend because we feel drudgery Monday through Friday and then we want to feel alive from Friday to Sunday 00:20:09.880 |
So we fill our schedule with things that make us feel alive 00:20:22.400 |
We filled those days when we have the freedom and the money to do it so that we can feel alive 00:20:28.340 |
But at the end of the day, it is only temporary and the park eventually closes 00:20:36.080 |
When the Bible describes God and life it is only in the context of Zoe which makes sense 00:20:48.920 |
So in every instance the Bible talks about God and life it is in reference to Zoe 00:21:02.760 |
You're not gonna you can't inherit Zoe because Zoe is uniquely God 00:21:07.240 |
So we can reproduce bios like somebody who has flesh is another flesh and they have another 00:21:13.800 |
Child and another bios is reproduced but Zoe is not something that we can go and reproduce 00:21:19.040 |
Augustine is famous for one of his prayers that he says in describing this Zoe in God and he says Oh God 00:21:29.360 |
You have created us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you 00:21:35.440 |
This is not just a prayer of a Christian. This is a prayer of every human being 00:21:42.400 |
Now we may say well, there's people who don't know Jesus. We've never heard the gospel. How can they ever say this prayer? 00:21:48.560 |
Whether they're able to articulate this prayer or not 00:21:58.640 |
Net will never find this rest this restlessness 00:22:02.440 |
That is causing us to go to places do things experience things so that we may experience this Zoe 00:22:14.160 |
In fact, you remember when God created Adam and Eve at the center of the Garden of Eden remember what he put? 00:22:23.480 |
Tree of life and that tree of life basically symbolized that Adam and Eve 00:22:29.280 |
was made in the image of God and his always was put into him and 00:22:33.600 |
Remember when the fall came God chases him out of gardener meeting and they restricted them to the Garden of Eden 00:22:42.440 |
The scripture says that Jesus came to restore life that was lost 00:22:52.000 |
Passes and we want to see if somebody's act, you know has moved from move from this physical life to the next 00:22:57.760 |
You know, one of the ways that we figure that out is their breath 00:23:01.400 |
You know, I remember when my father was on his deathbed 00:23:03.880 |
You know, we were all together. It was I think it was there - after after Thanksgiving 00:23:09.680 |
So our family was together and we knew that my father was going to pass sometime that night 00:23:13.860 |
And so me and my brothers we were watching Lakers basketball, you know on the side 00:23:18.560 |
My dad was was sitting on his bed and you know, we sent the children home already, you know 00:23:23.200 |
And we knew something was gonna happen that night and in the context of of just spending that night 00:23:30.040 |
I was kind of watching basketball with one eye and watching my dad in the other eye and I could tell slowly 00:23:34.800 |
That he was slipping the way that I could tell was his breathing just got slower and slower and slower and at one point 00:23:41.480 |
And it was just in the context of us, you know 00:23:44.040 |
Just three brothers just watching Lakers and in the middle of that I tapped my brothers and I said hey 00:23:52.400 |
We all looked and says his chest out moving. There's no more breath in him 00:23:56.960 |
That's how we determine if somebody is passed away because there's no longer any breath and I know that the scripture says life is in the blood 00:24:05.600 |
But how do we know that that blood is providing life? It's through the breath of man 00:24:11.040 |
That that's how we determine see the word Zoe to be alive is closely related to the word 00:24:18.060 |
Aos and Amy which means to breathe or to or to have the breath of life 00:24:23.720 |
The words are are intimately related this Zoe and breath 00:24:29.040 |
So in the scriptures in second Timothy 316, he says that all scripture in NIV 00:24:35.460 |
It says inspired but the literal word there is God breathed 00:24:40.080 |
So I think the NASB it says all scripture is God breathed 00:24:43.420 |
And it is powerful or teaching reproof or correction training and righteousness 00:24:47.840 |
So what he means by that is that his very life has been invested in his words 00:24:56.440 |
That's why the Bible says in John chapter 1 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and word was 00:25:12.320 |
he comes to man and creates man and he says then the Lord God formed a man out of dust from the ground and 00:25:18.240 |
Breathe into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature 00:25:23.600 |
Now he didn't form it and then just let it go. He said that's a distinction between all other creation and mankind 00:25:32.320 |
He put his very breath his very life into Adam and Eve 00:25:38.040 |
That was a distinction between at man and all other creation all other animals 00:25:48.160 |
But the scripture says that if you disobey if you disconnect yourself from my commandments 00:25:54.360 |
You shall surely die now. He didn't physically bios die 00:26:02.960 |
In Ephesians 418 it says they are darkened in understanding alienated from the life of God from the Zoe of God 00:26:08.960 |
Because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart 00:26:13.280 |
The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God see the glory of God 00:26:20.680 |
Basically is talking about the essence of who he is. It is his life 00:26:25.120 |
and so when the Bible says we've fallen short of that glory, it means that we have fallen short of that Zoe and 00:26:32.280 |
Ever since the fall we've been trying to replace that with something else to make us feel alive 00:26:37.640 |
And at the end of the day, all it does is produce vanity 00:26:42.520 |
Madness uselessness and every generation that has passed before us gives us the same testimony 00:26:52.920 |
their children will tell them to their children because the people who have gone before us and 00:27:01.120 |
If you go down this path, there is no life. You don't have to be a Christian 00:27:06.400 |
You don't have to be a Christian to hear this testimony 00:27:09.560 |
Non-christians and Christian is alike will tell you the same thing. Why do you think at the end of their life? 00:27:14.760 |
They say you know what? I spent all my time pursuing money. That's not where real life is. I spent all my time traveling 00:27:21.360 |
I amassed this great fortune. I became rich and famous and they'll tell their children. That's not where life is now 00:27:27.960 |
They don't know where life is, but they know where it is not 00:27:35.440 |
It says we have become darkened in our understanding and in our pursuit of Zoe 00:27:48.680 |
You can get in a conversation with people about the existence of God and they go back and forth and obviously the common prejudice is 00:27:54.280 |
How can you believe God this is created by man? 00:27:59.320 |
And you know, I had a conversation not too long ago about with somebody and they said, you know 00:28:03.960 |
I don't believe in God, but I believe in aliens, right? 00:28:06.560 |
You know God was created by man, but aliens, you know, look at the size of this universe 00:28:11.440 |
Can you possibly think that we're the only being you know looking at the size of this galley? 00:28:16.200 |
There's got to be something out there, right? You don't believe in God 00:28:19.720 |
But you believe in aliens, right? Is that that makes sense to you? 00:28:26.120 |
The fact that you know, we talked about the resurrection 00:28:29.440 |
That Jews and Gentiles who hated each other for hundreds and hundreds of years 00:28:34.320 |
Despised each other all of a sudden say they saw the resurrection of Christ. They start calling each other brothers and sisters 00:28:42.600 |
Instantaneously you had slave owners and slaves all of a sudden in the same church serving one another 00:28:50.880 |
You had tax collectors and then who were teaching and then you had the Pharisees who despised them 00:28:57.520 |
Sitting under their teaching and when did this happen all of a sudden how many people everywhere thousands of them? 00:29:04.640 |
And you look at that and say that's all man created 00:29:09.920 |
All these politicians who are now making all these promises if you vote for me, I'm gonna get rid of Al-Qaeda Isis ISIL 00:29:16.200 |
You know, whatever financial problems. I'm gonna solve it like how long three days 00:29:21.100 |
Give me three days. All right, give me three days and then I'm gonna go in office and everything's gonna be fixed, right? 00:29:29.500 |
No, you cannot we know that for sure. We've seen politicians that have come and gone 00:29:34.500 |
That's no different to say so. Oh it happened and we believe it 00:29:38.980 |
That is you refuse to accept that but it's not too hard for you to accept 00:29:47.660 |
Years ago I was out in China and I befriended one of the one of the leaders there and I remember him saying, you know 00:29:54.180 |
Peter I can't believe that you believe this stuff 00:29:57.100 |
And he said because all this prejudice to all the things that he learned when he was a child 00:30:01.100 |
Growing up and he he said to me, you know, you don't seem you seem like an intelligent guy 00:30:06.540 |
You know able to have intelligent conversation and he said I don't understand why you believe this and we became good friends 00:30:12.860 |
That was in the beginning of our friendship and then after a while we became comfortable enough 00:30:17.340 |
Where he was starting to open up to me and one day he told me that he felt like he was destined for something greater 00:30:23.300 |
And I thought that okay, that's an opportunity for me to share the gospel with him. So I asked him when you say destiny 00:30:30.820 |
So he's kind of thought about it. So I mean that 00:30:33.420 |
There's something that's kind of driving my life to something greater. So I said, okay, let me stop right there 00:30:39.020 |
Let me ask you so you're saying there's something more powerful than you 00:30:43.380 |
And I'm assuming that power has to be more intelligent than you 00:30:46.660 |
That's guiding you to something greater than you. Is that what you're saying? 00:30:53.380 |
Yeah, I guess I guess that's what destiny means 00:30:56.060 |
So I asked him. Okay, so you believe in something more powerful you believe in something more intelligent, right? 00:31:02.980 |
and and more purposeful than what you can imagine and 00:31:12.420 |
So the world will see that there's something obviously more powerful driving this universe and what do they call it? 00:31:22.300 |
So if they can't explain some powerful force that driving is somewhere 00:31:25.900 |
They say Oh mother nature did that when they look at the ecology in the universe and all this stuff 00:31:31.340 |
They just call it mother nature. Well, what do you mean by mother nature something powerful? 00:31:36.180 |
Something intelligent something purposeful. So whether you call it mother nature or 00:31:41.140 |
Evolution, whatever you want to call it. The scripture says that mankind refuses 00:31:46.580 |
Refuses to acknowledge God as creator and rather to worship the creation 00:31:51.680 |
Even in the context of them obviously acknowledging there's something there 00:31:57.380 |
They refuse to acknowledge that as God the scripture says 00:32:03.460 |
And in our corruption our understanding has become darkened and this is the state of mankind 00:32:08.740 |
And we're trying to restore that Zoe outside of God, which is impossible 00:32:13.740 |
How many of you guys heard of that what happened this week with Microsoft? 00:32:19.060 |
They created a artificial intelligence and then connected it to the Twitter account. Yeah 00:32:28.580 |
Some of you guys read it. So Microsoft created this robot an artificial AI and 00:32:34.140 |
Connected it to Twitter so that it could interact with the Twitter world 00:32:37.820 |
And the purpose of this was so that they said this artificial intelligence is going to become smarter and smarter the more it interacts with 00:32:44.380 |
The world through Twitter so they opened up an account and they say and they was big news like this artificial intelligence 00:32:51.020 |
we're going to the next level and they open up the count and 00:32:57.660 |
Here's the article that basically will tell you what happened 00:33:01.700 |
My school Microsoft shuts down Twitter AI bot after it became a flaming racist 00:33:15.460 |
Explaining what happened they have to shut it down because he said it became a flaming racist Hitler loving maniac 00:33:22.820 |
Basically it absorbed what we was cool was coming through Twitter and it became what it became they couldn't accept 00:33:30.220 |
So they have to shut it down. So they're trying to saying okay next time maybe we can't just give it to the world 00:33:34.780 |
We have to filter make sure that it's not doing this 00:33:38.460 |
So basically whether they want to admit or not, this is the world that we live in 00:33:42.780 |
Right. This this was creation of mankind and it reflect man mankind in one day 00:33:50.260 |
It didn't take years in one day a flaming racist 00:33:59.180 |
The scripture says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God the once that Zoe was taken away and 00:34:11.660 |
We've been trying so hard to replace that with everything 00:34:16.580 |
And at the end of the day we die every mankind who pursues life in that way 00:34:27.660 |
It's the only one who has this Zoe in and of themselves is God John 5 26 00:34:35.300 |
Jesus says for as the father has life in himself. So he has granted the son also to have life in himself 00:34:45.380 |
Only God only God my father has life in himself 00:34:55.540 |
That's exactly what the what the Jews heard and because of that 00:35:00.980 |
He said we're trying to stone you not because of your good deeds, but because you mere man claim to be God 00:35:06.860 |
That's exactly what he was claiming. I have life within myself 00:35:10.820 |
When Moses I was at the burning bush if they asked me Pharaoh asked me who sent me 00:35:15.860 |
What should I tell them and he said tell them I am has sent you 00:35:20.660 |
The only being where life is contained by himself 00:35:32.620 |
The only being where Zoe exists by himself is God and that's why he says I am 00:35:39.580 |
And Jesus himself says John 14 6 I am the way I am the truth and I am the Zoe 00:35:46.420 |
See this Jesus who came this Zoe that mankind has been looking for longing for even praying for 00:35:55.420 |
Came in the physical manifestation of Jesus Christ in first John 1 2 says the life the Zoe was made manifest 00:36:04.020 |
And we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you that eternal Zoe 00:36:09.140 |
Which was with the father and was made manifest to us 00:36:12.860 |
What was lost at the fall was manifested in Christ to bring us back to the author of this Zoe 00:36:21.100 |
That's what Christianity ultimately is all about 00:36:25.540 |
It's not simply about the suffering. It's not simply that we can go to heaven and exist forever that this life 00:36:39.700 |
The purpose of the resurrection is that he died in order that we may have this resurrected life life 00:36:49.660 |
Again in John 5 24 says I tell you the truth whoever hears my word and believes him 00:36:54.740 |
Who sent me has eternal Zoe and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death 00:37:05.660 |
We think you know what? I believe in Jesus. So now I'm gonna go to heaven and 00:37:09.620 |
Then we spend the rest of our life looking for Zoe somewhere else 00:37:13.260 |
So you missed the whole point of salvation when you do that 00:37:16.700 |
You missed the whole point of why Jesus came if you think that somehow 00:37:21.660 |
Jesus's life and death is simply about being in heaven for eternity 00:37:26.740 |
Jesus says in Mark 10 45 for even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life his 00:37:36.260 |
The only person that can give us Zoe is the one who has the Zoe which was Jesus 00:37:42.680 |
He lived a sinless and perfect life became a sacrifice for us who became sin and gave us his life 00:37:54.580 |
In Romans 8 11, it says if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you 00:37:59.740 |
He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you 00:38:12.540 |
But why do we celebrate Jesus's resurrection and not Lazarus's? 00:38:16.540 |
In fact, if you comb through scripture, you will find half a dozen people who died and was brought back to life 00:38:22.740 |
If you read medical history, maybe you know if you comb through history 00:38:28.080 |
There are several maybe dozens of people who claim that they were 00:38:31.380 |
Legally declared dead and came back to life even sometimes in the funeral home 00:38:36.020 |
What made Jesus's resurrection so unique and different that a billion people around the world? 00:38:48.020 |
He his resurrection wasn't simply about a resuscitation of vials 00:38:57.020 |
Not just to himself but to mankind that's why the Bible says Jesus Christ is the first fruit 00:39:09.060 |
That when he comes in his glory, we will also be glorified him with him in life 00:39:17.600 |
Maybe some of you guys have come into this room and maybe even some of you Christians 00:39:21.580 |
Have come into this room asking that question. Is this it? 00:39:25.620 |
You know in college you have all the hopes of you know 00:39:30.100 |
Go getting a job getting married having kids and you know 00:39:32.940 |
And you're kind of up there now and and now you're looking at your life thinking. Is this it? 00:39:42.980 |
And the answer to that is absolutely no, this is not it 00:39:46.980 |
Not because there's something coming down the road not because there's better future or circumstance or better person somewhere down the road 00:39:55.600 |
But our very hopes of what it has been hinging on was wrong to begin with 00:40:01.500 |
And there's a reason why the scripture says to fix your eyes upon Jesus 00:40:14.620 |
Jesus and his death and resurrection is not simply about us our justification 00:40:18.900 |
That we've been justified and now we're gonna be in heaven forever. It is also about our sanctification 00:40:24.180 |
It also about a continual restoration and finding life in Jesus 00:40:30.980 |
If salvation if life that he offers is something that begins when we go to heaven 00:40:35.900 |
you missed the whole point the whole point of salvation is to restore that Zoe today and 00:40:49.860 |
I was a ESL teacher and I was able to teach different levels and then my favorite class was level 5 00:40:55.300 |
And when I was teaching level 5, I would say about 70 80 percent were Mexican Americans and 00:41:04.420 |
You know work physical labor all day and then they would be at the school from 5 30 to 9 o'clock at night 00:41:12.660 |
I really grew fond of them and I taught that cost maybe about a year a year and a half 00:41:18.180 |
But I remember like Christmas season would come around and almost half the class would disappear for a whole month 00:41:24.760 |
You know, so I was really discouraged thinking like, okay, you know, they hate my class and then around January 00:41:32.420 |
So in my mind is like are you guys all related? 00:41:34.820 |
Like how did you all disappear and all show up at the same time? 00:41:38.380 |
And then I was having a conversation and one of the guys told me he said, you know 00:41:42.540 |
This is part of our culture in Mexico. We don't celebrate Christmas one day 00:41:48.380 |
So especially in the area that we came from so all of our families who spread out all over 00:41:52.780 |
Mexico and some some are in California and Texas they would all come back and spend a whole month together and he said it's awesome 00:41:59.620 |
It's really good and he was apologizing that it couldn't come there. But you know, this is this highlight of our year 00:42:05.380 |
I take all my kids all the grandkids. We all go there spend the whole, you know whole month together 00:42:09.820 |
I said wow, that's awesome. And he said wow, you must miss that. He said yeah, I really miss it 00:42:14.260 |
You know because it's hard here because here we're working all the time 00:42:17.540 |
Sometimes working 60 70 hours and then you know, because they don't know the language. They're trying to learn the language. It's much harder, right? 00:42:26.860 |
So I asked him, you know, do you ever think about going back and he said yeah all the time 00:42:32.660 |
Mean so easy for you. I mean you can just go you you have a legal status here 00:42:36.420 |
I mean, how come you don't go back if you're so much more happier there than here. Why don't you go back? 00:42:40.940 |
And he says because if I go back I won't have this 00:42:43.900 |
So what is it this? Well, I make a lot more money here than over there. There's no job opportunity 00:42:49.640 |
So even though I'm happier there, I won't have the apartment 00:42:52.820 |
I won't have the car, you know the luxuries and the clothes and the things that they have 00:42:56.700 |
So in my mind is like well you you told me you're happier over there with lesser stuff 00:43:02.100 |
But you said you can't go back. Yeah, I know I know you know 00:43:04.740 |
I know what that sounds like to you and I think about that all the time, but he said I can't go back 00:43:17.660 |
It's kind of like a carrot dangling in front of people's eyes thinking like only if I had that only half I had that and 00:43:28.300 |
That the whole point of Christian life is to restore that Zoe 00:43:32.580 |
Maybe again some of you guys are sitting here again even as Christians 00:43:36.940 |
But what you are dissatisfied by the hole in your life or your heart that you're trying to fill with something someplace someone 00:43:44.900 |
Then no matter how hard you run no matter how far you look at it's not there 00:43:51.340 |
He said he had come to give Zoe and give this life abundantly 00:43:59.620 |
But what we are pursuing ultimately that we think is gonna bring happiness is only going to bring judgment and destruction 00:44:06.500 |
and that's why he says come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and 00:44:15.740 |
That's Sabbath that peace that you are looking for is not found in a person 00:44:20.740 |
It's not found in your husband. It's not found in your wife. It's not found in your kids 00:44:25.900 |
It's not found in a community. It's not found in money or vacation or things 00:44:34.020 |
And that's why when we when God opens our eyes to see this life in Christ 00:44:40.700 |
That we come to him not simply because we don't want to go to hell because that's where I find life 00:44:48.840 |
Let me conclude with a song that popped into my head when I was finishing, you know wrapping up the sermon 00:44:56.700 |
Let me know if you know this song I was looking for love in all the wrong places 00:45:03.140 |
Everybody a little bit older, you know only in some of you 00:45:06.040 |
Looking like me like what is that? I will let me I'm not gonna sing it for you. Okay, it's not a Christian song 00:45:14.100 |
But I think the heart of what what the song says kind of captures the heart of the world in some sense 00:45:24.860 |
Single bars and good time lovers were never true 00:45:34.740 |
Was looking for love in all the wrong places looking for love in too many faces searching their eyes looking for traces of 00:45:42.660 |
What I'm dreaming of hoping to find a friend and a lover 00:45:46.180 |
I'll bless a day that I discover another heart looking for love and 00:45:50.500 |
I was alone then no loved in sight and I did everything I could to get me through the night 00:45:56.060 |
Don't know where it started or where it might end. I turned to a stranger just like a friend. I 00:46:01.780 |
Was looking for love in all the wrong places looking for love in too many faces searching their eyes looking for traces of what I'm dreaming 00:46:09.700 |
Of hoping to find a friend and a lover. I'll bless a day that I discover another heart looking for love 00:46:20.220 |
Whether you want to use the word love or peace or happiness 00:46:26.860 |
Looking for life in all the wrong places in all the wrong faces 00:46:32.780 |
Changing minds changing circumstance changing decisions thinking somehow it's down the street 00:46:41.620 |
It's in Christ and Christ alone. See that's what Christianity is about 00:46:45.780 |
Christianity isn't simply about death and suffering 00:46:50.660 |
It's that through his death and through his suffering that you and I may have life and have this life abundantly. I 00:46:57.660 |
Pray that you and I would recognize this that he would be the one we run to when we are lonely 00:47:05.620 |
That he's the one that we run to when we're anxious 00:47:09.820 |
That he's the one that we go to when we feel empty 00:47:25.180 |
Let's thank Jesus collectively for what this day represents 00:47:34.580 |
You and I may have life if you are here this morning because a friend invited you here 00:47:40.180 |
And maybe the message that you heard this morning that you can relate to maybe you've been searching you've been looking and there's an emptiness in 00:47:47.900 |
Your heart and not realizing that it may be because you've been separated from the author of life 00:47:53.300 |
And the Bible says that the only way that that can be restored is if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord 00:47:59.940 |
Believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead 00:48:05.420 |
If he asked for forgiveness he is faithful and just to forgive you of all your unrighteousness 00:48:18.220 |
So I want to encourage you this morning as you're sitting there to ask yourself 00:48:33.820 |
So I ask you to take time to come before the Lord and pray just an honest prayer 00:48:38.020 |
You don't have to have a religious prayer. Just honestly God. I 00:48:45.940 |
I've been searching and running and going and I all I find is emptiness. I 00:48:52.620 |
Want to have this life that you sacrifice for me 00:48:56.100 |
Would you take some time to pray and again? We encourage you to come look for us 00:49:01.340 |
Whether it's today or any any other day if our email is on the program 00:49:07.160 |
You can just email us and we'll be more than willing to sit down and answer any kind of questions that you have 00:49:12.220 |
And again for the rest of us, let's take some time to pray 00:49:14.700 |
And to really seek the Lord and to thank him with all our heart for what he has done. Let's pray