Jesus Is Real

When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” (Luke 11:29-36)

Not all searches are created equally. Searching for the meaning of life is very different than searching for a good bank or even the more important searching for a lifelong mate. Whether it is two young Mormons who knock on your door or you decide to read the Qur’an for yourself, searching for the real answers in life is very different than most of our life’s pursuits. If you were interested in searching for a new car, you’d have websites specifically designed to walk you through the various colors, models, and features of a wide diversity of automobiles. If you were interested in purchasing a new home, you’d contact a real estate agent. Yet, in your search for life’s real meaning, where does one turn? And how do you know if the person giving you the answers to your questions can be trusted?

At one point or another in life, most of us will ask the big questions: “Why am I here?, “What is worth dying for?”, “What’s wrong with the world?”, and “Can anything make the world right again?” As a pastor and student of the Bible, I’ve appreciated the arguments and questions skeptics bring. They often sharpen and fine-tune our understanding and communication of God’s thoughts (the Bible). Frankly, I’m bothered by believers who dismiss these questions glibly and without deliberate thought.

If you’re not a believer in Christ and the Bible, I want you to know you’re welcome here. I remember the questions I’ve asked in conversations and classrooms through the years. Yet for a few, asking the big questions of life is an exercise of futility. Some insist that we don’t need any such answers and we really should admit that life is just meaningless and leave it at that. While you are alive, they say, just try to enjoy yourself as much as you can, and when you are dead, you won’t be around to worry about it. For many young people, they don’t bother even trying to find the meaning of life Still, the search for real meaning is important. People have been searching for the real meaning in life for a long time.

Years ago, the great tennis champion Boris Becker expressed his emptiness some years after becoming the youngest Wimbledon champion at the tender age of seventeen. Becker said, “I had won Wimbledon twice, once as the youngest player. I was rich. . . . I had all the material possessions I needed. . . . It is the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. But I had no inner peace.”

Sophia Loren appeared on the cover of the famous Life magazine some seven times in the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. In an interview, the famous movie star and academy award winner said she had had everything— awards, marriage— but that “in my life, there is an emptiness that is impossible to fulfill.”

I want to ask you, “What will make you happy?”

Today, I want you to see Jesus’ interaction with seekers. For what you’ll see is something you won’t find in the magazines at the checkout stand or in the chatter of the local coffee house. Jesus identifies something unique and altogether different in your search to quench the inner emptiness of your soul. He identifies the real barriers to life’s meaning and more importantly, having faith.