If you can turn your Bibles with me to Matthew 28 verses 1 through 10 Matthew 28 verses 1 through 10 and then we'll jump into the message today 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 and 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 His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow and for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men But the angel said to the woman do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified He is not here for he has risen as he said come see the place where he lay Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold he's gone before you to Galilee there You will see him see I have told you so they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples and Behold Jesus met them and said greetings and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him Then Jesus said to them do not be afraid go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me Let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you for your blessing of allowing us to come and worship this morning 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 We pray Lord God that the power of the resurrection the power of the resurrected life would deeply affect us 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 So we ask for your grace and your Holy Spirit to guide us in Jesus name.

We pray. Amen Let me start out this morning by asking you a simple question Are you happy? Yeah, you don't have to say anything just kind of ask yourself are you happy You know, I probably don't have to ask you that you probably ask yourself that pretty often You probably ask yourself.

Are you happy in this relationship? Are you happy at work? Are you happy at the present circumstance that you're in? 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 We want to be happy.

So if we're not happy, we will change our circumstance Sometimes we will change relationships and we'll change jobs based upon how we answer that question I'm not happy here. So something needs to change You know and I know I kind of tend to pick on Disneyland because we're close to Disneyland 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 But I know some of you guys, you know, you love Disneyland.

So you guys have year-round passes and you know, I They sell themselves at least in marketing saying it is the what place on earth You know it come on Happiest place that's how they sell it. They sell why is this place the happiest place on earth? And I think what is the attraction right?

I think it gives people a temporary break from reality You know, you're tired at work Maybe you're having some struggles financial whatever it may be when you go to Disneyland is temporarily You're taken out of your life and then you go to fantasy land you go to children land You go to Batman land, whatever this they have, right?

and then it Temporarily takes you out of real life and then places in a place where you just forget about all of that And when you feel happy because they're spending million billions of dollars 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 You know say oh my gosh, you went up used to be I remember when it was the cheapest like 35 bucks I hear it's 150 bucks to get in, you know, I say oh my gosh.

I can't believe they raised it You know, but we'll go right We'll go we'll shell out the money because that temporary escape is worth it But here's the next question Now when we think about our happiness How do you feel about your relationship with God Does that cause a sense of joy or do we see Church and your walk with God the way we sometimes we look at work No We go to Disneyland and we do all this other stuff and travel and look at things and eat and experience different things But church is just something you do because that's what you're supposed to go Right.

This is what Christians do So it is not as your relationship with Christ isn't a source of joy instead. It's just you're supposed to do I mean Jesus died for me. So how can I not worship him? But is it really a source of joy? Is that where you run to to seek happiness?

You know if we're not careful we can easily think that Christianity is of all about the cross and death 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 right and Understandably even the symbol that represents Christianity is the symbol of death the cross And so the mistake that we can make is to think that everything is about his death and his suffering Not realizing the scripture makes it very clear that the point of Christianity is about life And the reason why Christ came is so that we may have life He says in John chapter 10 10 I have come that they may have life and to have it to the full that you may have this life abundantly Again in Romans 6 3 as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and why this is so central 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?

We're baptized into his death We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. We too might walk in the newness of life Did you catch that? He said the whole point of the cross the whole point of union with Christ in his death is in order That we may be also raised in glory to a new life So the whole point of Friday was Sunday Let me say that again.

The whole point of Friday was Sunday So if our Christian faith never brings us to Sunday and all we meditate and think about is about the suffering and the cross Then you miss the whole point of what the cross was about The whole point of the cross was to open the door that we may have this new life and Just as pastor Mark shared and just as the scripture teaches us Resurrection life is at the core at the center of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ 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 How do we understand this life that the Bible teaches?

In English, we use the word life to talk about life of the plant life of the animal You know or I feel alive we use one word to describe all of it What Greek is a lot more a lot more accurate than that the Greek actually has several words that describe the word life and and it's really important for us to understand the distinction because If you don't understand the distinction between these two particular words that I'm about to go through this morning You're gonna miss the whole point of Christianity.

You can live your whole life quoting the same verses saying the same things But completely missing the point just like you know, just because somebody says I believe in Jesus It really depends who's saying that right if you're hearing that from the jovial witness says you hear that from the Mormons I mean you could say the name Jesus or even the Muslims their idea of Jesus is completely different So when the Bible talks about this word life that I have come to give life and give this life Abundantly if we don't accurately understand what he means by life You're gonna miss the whole point of what salvation is about Again there are more than two words But these two words pretty much summarize all the words that are used in the Bible of what life is The first word you probably heard it before is the word bios where we get the word biology It's talking about the quantity of life to put it simply.

It's talking about the general physical life This word bios if all we have is bios Sometimes we will call somebody and say, you know, maybe they're in a vegetative state or recently, you know The zombie movies are very popular, you know zombies are Creatures or things that have no soul the basically They're not really living.

They're just instinctively. They smell you they see you they just go at it, whatever it is, right? So if all it is is on me It's just this physical life and there's nothing more 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 There's a whole book in the Bible that's dedicated in in a man who pursued bios like life in in the context of of just this flesh I Think you guys know what I'm talking about the book of Ecclesiastes The whole book of Ecclesiastes is a man named Solomon who was the king of Israel known to be the wisest man on earth During his period of reign Israel probably was the richest so he had money as a king.

He's not like the president of the United States I mean, he's a king. I mean he could he had riches beyond That he could spend He had power because again he was the king, you know, most of us even if you win the lottery We are limited by opportunity.

We're limited by politics We're limited even by our own wisdom. We may invest something foolish and then lose it in five six years This is a man who had all the wisdom all the power all the opportunity All the money and he committed himself to pursue life and This is what he says Ecclesiastes 1 2 2 4 Vanity vanity says the preacher he's referring to himself Vanity of vanities all is vanity and again in other translations.

It means empty or vain useless At the end of it. He says all is vanity What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the Sun a generation goes and a generation comes But the earth remains forever and that was that's basically the theme of the whole book of Ecclesiastes Here's a man who had every opportunity to pursue every pleasure on earth and his end conclusion is he found emptiness Ecclesiastes 2 1 through 11.

I said in my heart come now. I will test you with pleasure Enjoy yourself. In other words, he's saying like he didn't just decide to you know When when temptation came he determined to pursue every pleasure But behold this also was vanity. I said to set of laughter. It is mad, right?

In other words, he pursued laughter you know a while back we did a We did a dating seminar and we played this family feud game and we asked the sisters. What's your top? You know quality that you're looking for in your mate and the typical stuff came out, you know godly You know Dependable and all this, you know Christian answers that came out but was surprising to me What was on the top of that list?

A lot of you guys were there wasn't the top of that list I Said the top number one answer that came out which is kind of surprising to me Was that they wanted a guy with a sense of humor and I couldn't understand why you know, I myself too 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 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 Maybe it'd be a very hard relationship, right? So I get it, you know, but part of the thing about laughter is that You know again when is it temporary escape? It kind of makes everything feel a little bit better And he said he pursued laughter he says and it only made him mad Pleasure he pursued pleasure and he says at the end of it what uses it I Search with my heart how to cheer my body with wine Right.

I mean it's one thing to drink a little wine with food and you know, I get little taste here and there But he said he pursued wine. He tried to drown His sorrows and temporary escape, you know Some people go to Disneyland and some people to travel some people eat some people pour themselves into alcohol He said I pursued it.

So imagine I mean, this is the king he could get the finest wine and if he Abuses himself who's gonna say anything to the king? There was no limitation for him. He said I searched my heart to cheer my body with wine My heart still guiding me with wisdom in other words He didn't get carried away so that his life was ruined even in pursuit of of wine 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 The children of man and to do under heaven during the few days of their life In other words anything that I can possibly think of I went after Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them 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 My toil then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expanded Expanding in doing it and behold All was vanity and striving after wind and there was nothing to be gained under the Sun Now this is probably nothing new to you.

You know, you may read that and say, you know what? That's that's him That's his experience but how many times have you seen a movie star a someone in power of influence a CEO a sports star who Everybody else is looking up to and say, you know and I'm working hard so that one day I could be there and then you see them take their life and And say they're going through a depression like how can you be going through depression because we think the world thinks that that's where life is and It perplexes the world when they see something like that because wait a second If that's what we're pursuing and I'm looking at that guy who's there and he says it's not there You would think that people would say oh, maybe that's not it.

He says I want to find this out for myself Paul says if the resurrection didn't happen and there is a new life and all it is is bios Why not just live this life to enjoy it? So what if at the end is vanity all it is is vanity.

So what if this is it? But the answer to that is clear it is this is not it If you go to Disneyland and you pay a certain amount now, it's like 150 bucks, right? There's a limit to that So whether they close at 10 or 11 o'clock You're gonna milk every single bit of that place because you know, the closing time is coming So you maybe you got there at 10 o'clock and you have 10 12 13 hours and the whole park is big enough Where you can spend every single minute doing something different and still not exhausted, you know, the end is coming So what do we do?

We try to get as much in as possible Right and get in as many many, you know rides as you can go see as many shows eat as many churros You know visit as many parks I mean you you try to milk every ounce of energy that that you have for that purpose Well, that's what Paul says if we know the end is coming and this is it Drink have fun be merry if this is it So what if it's vanity?

But at the end of all of it we find that it is not it 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 The word that is almost used exclusively in the New Testament Defining life is the word Zoe The Greek lexicon.

Let me just read it straight out from the Greek lexicon the definition of this word It means to be alive The state of one who is possessed by vitality life of the absolute fullness of life both essential and ethical life real and genuine a life active and vigorous Cs Lewis in the book mere Christianity describes the distinction between bios and Zoe like this Bios is sort which come to us through nature and which like everything else in nature is always tending to run down and decay So that it can only be kept up by incessant subsidies from the nature in the form of air water food, etc In other words because bios is it cannot be maintained by itself It is it needs always something external to keep it alive that other external stuff like food Water, etc.

The spiritual life which is in God from all eternity and which made the whole natural universe is Zoe Bios has to be sure a certain shadow or symbolic resemblance to Zoe but only the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place a statue and a man a 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 Carvestone to being a real man and that is precisely what Christianity is about Let me just kind of briefly summarize what he is saying He's saying the distinction between bios and Zoe is a distinction between living and existing See bios is the chronological life quantity of life and if we don't understand the word Life in his correct context.

We just think that Jesus came to give eternal life eternal bios that we're just gonna exist If your life is miserable here, why would you want this for eternity? So when we offer salvation as eternal life There's a lot of people with that that promise is not attractive. I Want this for eternity?

I don't want this. I want at some point I want this misery to end if that's what salvation is to exist forever But that is not the teaching of the Bible When the scripture talks about life it is exclusively referring to Zoe to make us alive in Christ So let me read some of these verses.

I'm not gonna give you the actual verses to save time 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 But it's their version of Jesus 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 That he came to bring us life make us alive right crown of Zoe crown of of life tree of Zoe the book of Zoe the water of Zoe the life and Zoe and godliness the Zoe of God Eternal Zoe Over and over again when the Bible talks about life.

He's talking about making us alive Not simply existing see ever since the fall of man 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 We look for the weekend because we feel drudgery Monday through Friday and then we want to feel alive from Friday to Sunday So we fill our schedule with things that make us feel alive to recuperate Some of us play golf Some of us go to amusement parks Some of us exercise whatever it may be We filled those days when we have the freedom and the money to do it so that we can feel alive But at the end of the day, it is only temporary and the park eventually closes Exclusively When the Bible describes God and life it is only in the context of Zoe which makes sense Because God doesn't have physical form He is eternal one way or the other So in every instance the Bible talks about God and life it is in reference to Zoe Now since Zoe is unique to God We can't inherit Zoe You're not gonna you can't inherit Zoe because Zoe is uniquely God So we can reproduce bios like somebody who has flesh is another flesh and they have another Child and another bios is reproduced but Zoe is not something that we can go and reproduce Augustine is famous for one of his prayers that he says in describing this Zoe in God and he says Oh God You have created us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you This is not just a prayer of a Christian.

This is a prayer of every human being 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? Whether they're able to articulate this prayer or not Every human being that has been created That has been separated from the Zoe Net will never find this rest this restlessness That is causing us to go to places do things experience things so that we may experience this Zoe As superficially as temporary as it may be this restlessness In fact, you remember when God created Adam and Eve at the center of the Garden of Eden remember what he put?

tree of life Tree of life and that tree of life basically symbolized that Adam and Eve was made in the image of God and his always was put into him and Remember when the fall came God chases him out of gardener meeting and they restricted them to the Garden of Eden Where at the center was a tree of life The scripture says that Jesus came to restore life that was lost you know when somebody Passes and we want to see if somebody's act, you know has moved from move from this physical life to the next You know, one of the ways that we figure that out is their breath You know, I remember when my father was on his deathbed You know, we were all together.

It was I think it was there - after after Thanksgiving So our family was together and we knew that my father was going to pass sometime that night And so me and my brothers we were watching Lakers basketball, you know on the side My dad was was sitting on his bed and you know, we sent the children home already, you know And we knew something was gonna happen that night and in the context of of just spending that night We knew that he was going to pass I was kind of watching basketball with one eye and watching my dad in the other eye and I could tell slowly That he was slipping the way that I could tell was his breathing just got slower and slower and slower and at one point And it was just in the context of us, you know Just three brothers just watching Lakers and in the middle of that I tapped my brothers and I said hey dad passed and We all looked and says his chest out moving.

There's no more breath in him 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 But how do we know that that blood is providing life? It's through the breath of man That that's how we determine see the word Zoe to be alive is closely related to the word Aos and Amy which means to breathe or to or to have the breath of life The words are are intimately related this Zoe and breath So in the scriptures in second Timothy 316, he says that all scripture in NIV It says inspired but the literal word there is God breathed So I think the NASB it says all scripture is God breathed And it is powerful or teaching reproof or correction training and righteousness So what he means by that is that his very life has been invested in his words That Zoe is in the context of his word 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 God What is the significance of all of this?

scripture says in Genesis 2 7 After he created all of creation he comes to man and creates man and he says then the Lord God formed a man out of dust from the ground and Breathe into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature Now he didn't form it and then just let it go.

He said that's a distinction between all other creation and mankind He put his very breath his very life into Adam and Eve That was a distinction between at man and all other creation all other animals so our life Was to be a reflection of his life But the scripture says that if you disobey if you disconnect yourself from my commandments You shall surely die now.

He didn't physically bios die But his Zoe he was separated In Ephesians 418 it says they are darkened in understanding alienated from the life of God from the Zoe of God Because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God see the glory of God Basically is talking about the essence of who he is.

It is his life and so when the Bible says we've fallen short of that glory, it means that we have fallen short of that Zoe and Ever since the fall we've been trying to replace that with something else to make us feel alive And at the end of the day, all it does is produce vanity Madness uselessness and every generation that has passed before us gives us the same testimony Fathers tell this to their children their children will tell them to their children because the people who have gone before us and Experienced it tell us the same thing If you go down this path, there is no life.

You don't have to be a Christian You don't have to be a Christian to hear this testimony Non-christians and Christian is alike will tell you the same thing. Why do you think at the end of their life? 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 I amassed this great fortune. I became rich and famous and they'll tell their children. That's not where life is now They don't know where life is, but they know where it is not It is not there see It says we have become darkened in our understanding and in our pursuit of Zoe We have become corrupt We have denied our Creator It's interesting, you know 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 How can you believe God this is created by man?

And you know, I had a conversation not too long ago about with somebody and they said, you know I don't believe in God, but I believe in aliens, right? You know God was created by man, but aliens, you know, look at the size of this universe Can you possibly think that we're the only being you know looking at the size of this galley?

There's got to be something out there, right? You don't believe in God But you believe in aliens, right? Is that that makes sense to you? The fact that you know, we talked about the resurrection That Jews and Gentiles who hated each other for hundreds and hundreds of years Despised each other all of a sudden say they saw the resurrection of Christ.

They start calling each other brothers and sisters right Instantaneously you had slave owners and slaves all of a sudden in the same church serving one another You had tax collectors and then who were teaching and then you had the Pharisees who despised them Sitting under their teaching and when did this happen all of a sudden how many people everywhere thousands of them?

And you look at that and say that's all man created That's no different than saying, you know 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 You know, whatever financial problems. I'm gonna solve it like how long three days 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? Yes, we can No, you cannot we know that for sure. We've seen politicians that have come and gone That's no different to say so. Oh it happened and we believe it That is you refuse to accept that but it's not too hard for you to accept aliens 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 Peter I can't believe that you believe this stuff You know And he said because all this prejudice to all the things that he learned when he was a child Growing up and he he said to me, you know, you don't seem you seem like an intelligent guy You know able to have intelligent conversation and he said I don't understand why you believe this and we became good friends That was in the beginning of our friendship and then after a while we became comfortable enough 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 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 What do you mean? So he's kind of thought about it. So I mean that There's something that's kind of driving my life to something greater. So I said, okay, let me stop right there Let me ask you so you're saying there's something more powerful than you And I'm assuming that power has to be more intelligent than you That's guiding you to something greater than you.

Is that what you're saying? and he said Yeah, I guess I guess that's what destiny means So I asked him. Okay, so you believe in something more powerful you believe in something more intelligent, right? and and more purposeful than what you can imagine and You refuse to acknowledge that as God So the world will see that there's something obviously more powerful driving this universe and what do they call it?

mother nature So if they can't explain some powerful force that driving is somewhere They say Oh mother nature did that when they look at the ecology in the universe and all this stuff They just call it mother nature. Well, what do you mean by mother nature something powerful? Something intelligent something purposeful.

So whether you call it mother nature or Evolution, whatever you want to call it. The scripture says that mankind refuses Refuses to acknowledge God as creator and rather to worship the creation Even in the context of them obviously acknowledging there's something there They refuse to acknowledge that as God the scripture says Mankind has become corrupt And in our corruption our understanding has become darkened and this is the state of mankind And we're trying to restore that Zoe outside of God, which is impossible How many of you guys heard of that what happened this week with Microsoft?

They created a artificial intelligence and then connected it to the Twitter account. Yeah You guys don't have Facebook. All right Some of you guys read it. So Microsoft created this robot an artificial AI and Connected it to Twitter so that it could interact with the Twitter world 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 The world through Twitter so they opened up an account and they say and they was big news like this artificial intelligence we're going to the next level and they open up the count and one day they had to shut it down and Here's the article that basically will tell you what happened My school Microsoft shuts down Twitter AI bot after it became a flaming racist Hitler loving maniac That's the title Explaining what happened they have to shut it down because he said it became a flaming racist Hitler loving maniac Basically it absorbed what we was cool was coming through Twitter and it became what it became they couldn't accept 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 We have to filter make sure that it's not doing this So basically whether they want to admit or not, this is the world that we live in Right. This this was creation of mankind and it reflect man mankind in one day It didn't take years in one day a flaming racist Hitler loving maniac was created in one day The scripture says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God the once that Zoe was taken away and was was lost We've been trying so hard to replace that with everything And at the end of the day we die every mankind who pursues life in that way Saying the same thing The Solomon said vanity vanity all is vanity It's the only one who has this Zoe in and of themselves is God John 5 26 Jesus says for as the father has life in himself.

So he has granted the son also to have life in himself You know what Jesus was saying? Only God only God my father has life in himself But he has also granted that to me clearly Jesus was saying I am God and That's exactly what the what the Jews heard and because of that He said we're trying to stone you not because of your good deeds, but because you mere man claim to be God That's exactly what he was claiming.

I have life within myself When Moses I was at the burning bush if they asked me Pharaoh asked me who sent me What should I tell them and he said tell them I am has sent you The only being where life is contained by himself Where Zoe is not a result of hard work Where Zoe was something outside of it The only being where Zoe exists by himself is God and that's why he says I am And Jesus himself says John 14 6 I am the way I am the truth and I am the Zoe See this Jesus who came this Zoe that mankind has been looking for longing for even praying for Came in the physical manifestation of Jesus Christ in first John 1 2 says the life the Zoe was made manifest And we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you that eternal Zoe Which was with the father and was made manifest to us What was lost at the fall was manifested in Christ to bring us back to the author of this Zoe That's what Christianity ultimately is all about It's not simply about the suffering.

It's not simply that we can go to heaven and exist forever that this life That we can't find in anything else can only be found in Jesus and The purpose of the resurrection is that he died in order that we may have this resurrected life life It's about life Again in John 5 24 says I tell you the truth whoever hears my word and believes him Who sent me has eternal Zoe and will not be condemned.

He has crossed over from death to life sometimes even as Christians We think you know what? I believe in Jesus. So now I'm gonna go to heaven and Then we spend the rest of our life looking for Zoe somewhere else So you missed the whole point of salvation when you do that You missed the whole point of why Jesus came if you think that somehow Jesus's life and death is simply about being in heaven for eternity 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 Zoe as a ransom for many The only person that can give us Zoe is the one who has the Zoe which was Jesus He lived a sinless and perfect life became a sacrifice for us who became sin and gave us his life That you and I may also have that life In Romans 8 11, it says if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you You know right before Jesus was resurrected He raised Lazarus from the dead But why do we celebrate Jesus's resurrection and not Lazarus's?

In fact, if you comb through scripture, you will find half a dozen people who died and was brought back to life If you read medical history, maybe you know if you comb through history There are several maybe dozens of people who claim that they were Legally declared dead and came back to life even sometimes in the funeral home What made Jesus's resurrection so unique and different that a billion people around the world?

Are worshipping him To his resurrection wasn't simply about him He his resurrection wasn't simply about a resuscitation of vials His resurrection was about restoring Zoe Not just to himself but to mankind that's why the Bible says Jesus Christ is the first fruit Among those who are dead to be resurrected Meaning that you and I are next That when he comes in his glory, we will also be glorified him with him in life and Maybe some of you guys have come into this room and maybe even some of you Christians Have come into this room asking that question.

Is this it? You know in college you have all the hopes of you know Go getting a job getting married having kids and you know And you're kind of up there now and and now you're looking at your life thinking. Is this it? Is this it And the answer to that is absolutely no, this is not it Not because there's something coming down the road not because there's better future or circumstance or better person somewhere down the road But our very hopes of what it has been hinging on was wrong to begin with And there's a reason why the scripture says to fix your eyes upon Jesus The author and the perfecter of this Zoe see Jesus and his death and resurrection is not simply about us our justification That we've been justified and now we're gonna be in heaven forever.

It is also about our sanctification It also about a continual restoration and finding life in Jesus continually If salvation if life that he offers is something that begins when we go to heaven you missed the whole point the whole point of salvation is to restore that Zoe today and Eternity is just an on continuation of what God started today You know years ago I was a ESL teacher and I was able to teach different levels and then my favorite class was level 5 And when I was teaching level 5, I would say about 70 80 percent were Mexican Americans and hard-working guys You know work physical labor all day and then they would be at the school from 5 30 to 9 o'clock at night every single day Monday through Thursday and I really grew fond of them and I taught that cost maybe about a year a year and a half But I remember like Christmas season would come around and almost half the class would disappear for a whole month You know, so I was really discouraged thinking like, okay, you know, they hate my class and then around January They would come back all of them all at once So in my mind is like are you guys all related?

Like how did you all disappear and all show up at the same time? And then I was having a conversation and one of the guys told me he said, you know This is part of our culture in Mexico. We don't celebrate Christmas one day We celebrate it for a whole month So especially in the area that we came from so all of our families who spread out all over 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 It's really good and he was apologizing that it couldn't come there.

But you know, this is this highlight of our year I take all my kids all the grandkids. We all go there spend the whole, you know whole month together I said wow, that's awesome. And he said wow, you must miss that. He said yeah, I really miss it You know because it's hard here because here we're working all the time 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? Just like any immigrant would be So I asked him, you know, do you ever think about going back and he said yeah all the time I Mean so easy for you. I mean you can just go you you have a legal status here 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? And he says because if I go back I won't have this So what is it this? Well, I make a lot more money here than over there. There's no job opportunity So even though I'm happier there, I won't have the apartment I won't have the car, you know the luxuries and the clothes and the things that they have So in my mind is like well you you told me you're happier over there with lesser stuff But you said you can't go back.

Yeah, I know I know you know I know what that sounds like to you and I think about that all the time, but he said I can't go back Hey, and I remember thinking And what a trap What a trap 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 That's a lie of the devil That the Zoe does not exist here That the whole point of Christian life is to restore that Zoe Maybe again some of you guys are sitting here again even as Christians But what you are dissatisfied by the hole in your life or your heart that you're trying to fill with something someplace someone Then no matter how hard you run no matter how far you look at it's not there He said he had come to give Zoe and give this life abundantly God doesn't want you to be unhappy But what we are pursuing ultimately that we think is gonna bring happiness is only going to bring judgment and destruction and that's why he says come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you that rest That's Sabbath that peace that you are looking for is not found in a person It's not found in your husband.

It's not found in your wife. It's not found in your kids It's not found in a community. It's not found in money or vacation or things It's in Christ and Christ alone And that's why when we when God opens our eyes to see this life in Christ That we come to him not simply because we don't want to go to hell because that's where I find life Let me conclude with a song that popped into my head when I was finishing, you know wrapping up the sermon Let me know if you know this song I was looking for love in all the wrong places Okay Everybody a little bit older, you know only in some of you 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 It's not about God But I think the heart of what what the song says kind of captures the heart of the world in some sense Well, I spent a lifetime looking for you Single bars and good time lovers were never true playing a fool's game hoping to win and Telling those sweet lies and losing again.

I 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 of hoping to find a friend and a lover I'll bless a day that I discover another heart looking for love and I was alone then no loved in sight and I did everything I could to get me through the night Don't know where it started or where it might end.

I turned to a stranger just like a friend. I 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 Of hoping to find a friend and a lover. I'll bless a day that I discover another heart looking for love Now what he says in love Whether you want to use the word love or peace or happiness The heart of the message is the same Looking for life in all the wrong places in all the wrong faces Changing minds changing circumstance changing decisions thinking somehow it's down the street when all along It's in Christ and Christ alone.

See that's what Christianity is about Christianity isn't simply about death and suffering It's that through his death and through his suffering that you and I may have life and have this life abundantly. I Pray that you and I would recognize this that he would be the one we run to when we are lonely That he's the one that we run to when we're anxious That he's the one that we go to when we feel empty That he's the one that we go to When we need life Would you close your eyes with me?

As we can ask the praise team to come up Let's thank Jesus collectively for what this day represents That because he died You and I may have life if you are here this morning because a friend invited you here 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 Your heart and not realizing that it may be because you've been separated from the author of life And the Bible says that the only way that that can be restored is if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord Believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead And he says you can't will be saved If he asked for forgiveness he is faithful and just to forgive you of all your unrighteousness He's eager to forgive us and to restore that He gave his life that we may have his life So I want to encourage you this morning as you're sitting there to ask yourself Can this be true?

And if it is Will God accept me He will accept you he's eagerly waiting So I ask you to take time to come before the Lord and pray just an honest prayer You don't have to have a religious prayer. Just honestly God. I Want your salvation forgive me of my sins I've been searching and running and going and I all I find is emptiness.

I Want to have this life that you sacrifice for me Would you take some time to pray and again? We encourage you to come look for us Whether it's today or any any other day if our email is on the program You can just email us and we'll be more than willing to sit down and answer any kind of questions that you have And again for the rest of us, let's take some time to pray And to really seek the Lord and to thank him with all our heart for what he has done.

Let's pray (soft music) Thank you for watching!