Why Do You Seek The Living Among The Dead?

For the Christian, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important thing to celebrate.

Christianity is the only “religion” that suffers abuse because of its holidays. Imagine if we would start making fun of the pagan holidays? Or what about other religion's holidays? What about the Muslim religion?

I like to make fun of the atheist’s holiday but they only have one. April 1. A fool does a good job in making a fool out of himself. Enough said.

I think Solomon hit upon it in one of his Proverbs.

“As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly” (Proverbs 26:11).

The fact that Christianity is under attack in our culture is rather significant. This war and Christianity will not lessen in the years to come.

Doesn’t it seem strange that when our country is going through such turmoil and facing such disaster that we would turn back to our roots to that which made us great in the first place?

However, many are rewriting the history of America in order to exclude the “Christian element.”

An atheist once said, “If Christians started acting like Christians I might become a Christian myself.” Many have their own definition of Christianity. Christianity that which is convenient, that embraces the culture that caters to the flesh. During a religious holiday, everybody is a Christian.

The question that the Angels asked is very important.

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

To understand this I need to bring in a verse from the gospel of John.

“For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead” (John 20:9).

If you go through the Gospels, you will discover that on many occasions Jesus told His disciples that He would die but on the third day He would rise again. They had this information. Yet, when it happened, they did not know what happened.

It is not enough to have information. It is not enough just to read the Bible, rather the Holy Spirit needs to open up our hearts and our understanding concerning spiritual truth.

Every false cult and heresy in the world is based upon some Scripture.

In order for someone to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ there has to be a work of the Holy Spirit within that person working on the Scriptures and opening up the understanding as only He can.

When we do things that marginalize the work of the Holy Spirit, we hinder people from coming to the knowledge of the truth.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the defining factor of the Christian life bringing us into full harmony with God.

To understand the resurrection of Christ is to understand what Christianity is all about. This I say is the Holy Spirit factor in our life. (Illumination).

The question the Angel poses brings to the surface the reality of the time.

The disciples and people who knew Jesus assumed that they understood what just happened. After all, they saw Jesus die on the cross. Many witnessed him being put away in the tomb. They assumed that what they saw was what they saw.

When they went to the tomb, their assumption was they would find the dead body of Jesus. Imagine their surprise when the body was gone. Some tried to understand it and explain it by saying that somebody stole his body.

Many people miss Jesus by looking for him in all the wrong directions.

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

People seek the living among the dead because they assume they understand what is going on. They are interpreting the facts from their point of view. Many have what I call the Thomas-factor. Remember what Jesus said to Thomas?

“Thomas, because thou has seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Like Thomas, when we insist on rationalizing truth we face the dilemma of misunderstanding truth. If I misunderstand truth, I am not going to be able to apply it to my life correctly.

What we really have to decide on from our own perspective is, are we going to follow a dead religion or a live Christianity?

Only the Holy Spirit can reveal to us the difference.

How many people on Easter Sunday are seeking the living among the dead?

I want to lay out the resurrection of Jesus Christ in two categories.

First, I want to show you the pre-resurrection aspect of Christ and Christianity.

Second, I want to show you the post-resurrection aspect of Christ and Christianity.

All of us today, if we call ourselves Christians, are living our lives under one or the other. What I want to do today is to challenge you to bring your life completely under the domain of the post-resurrected Christ. He is alive!