Looking for the Living?

Looking for life in dead places?

Luke 24:1–5 NKJV

Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?

It is one of the most profound verses in the Scripture that should haunt every person born, why are you looking for life in dead places!

Dreams shattered! Hope was lost! The future seamed dark and futile!

It sounds like a page out of the current situation of mankind

There is an endless pursuit to find “life” in a land filled with death

Romans 3:23 NKJV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A place filled with life now brought forth death

Read Genesis and you see nothing but verses teaming with life!

Tress, flowers, fish, animals, flowers all created for the enjoyment of man

But Adam exchanged that for the same old lie of Satan that what you have isn’t enough

This endless pursuit is maddening, like chasing the preverbal carrot on a stick

That’s the ploy of the enemy, make you think that true fulfillment can be achieved by things that actually produce emptiness!

Now the Bible makes an interesting statement about His mission:

John 1:4–5 NKJV

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

It is the most truthful statement about the dead condition of mankind. Those of us in Christ have been give new life, real life but those who have not see it as a death sentence to their deceptive lifestyle!

The word Katalambano here takes the meaning overtaking

The prep Kata means to cease or overtake

The root word means from top to bottom; the whole picture in a sense

It is in the Aorist active indicative meaning that the darkness is continually trying to over power the light but it cannot!

WE WIN!

As we stated before manis always trying to reform God in his image and that is why the world system will never succeed

Even we now having been born again can only comprehended a bit about what the resurrection of Christ attained for us. The Apostle Paul put it this way

Philippians 3:12–13 NKJV

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

We were all living in the land of the dead before we became alive through the born again experience!

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

So why does man continually look to the dead places to find life?

Because man was created eternal and to be eternally fulfilled, there is something eternal inside of us that is driving man to be fulfilled!

Satan appeals to the flesh as a means of quieting the voice but keeps getting louder!

Romans 1:21–23 NKJV

because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

The temporal can never meet the needs of the eternal!

Jesus gave us a key to the soloution when he said:

John 5:24–25 NKJV

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

John 5:39–40 NKJV

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

Jesus after feeding the multitudes made the following statement:

John 6:27 NKJV

Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”

He talks about “food which endures to everlasting life”

He wasn’t speaking about an eternal plate of shwarma that would be perpetually filed but of something more!

In verse 30 they challenge Him

John 6:30–32 NKJV

Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

There was something more important than the manna which sustained them in the desert

John 6:35–36 NKJV

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.

Notice that the manna being temporal could not be kept but the work of Christ is eternal and feed the should feed the soul eternally

John 6:33 NKJV

For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Now they were talking about physical food but Jesus is talking about Spiritual food!

He is to the spirit thats which manna was to the body, it nourishes and supports Spiritual life

Those in the desert it ate and died but those who eat of it now shall live!

Leviticus 21:21-22 we read that the sacrifices were called the “bread of God”

Just as the priest was instructed to feast upon the sacrifice, we are now told to feast upon His sacrifice for He now is the bread of life!

John 6:48 NKJV

I am the bread of life.

And i speaking of the sacrifice

John 6:51 NKJV

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

You see manna only supported life but Christ now sustains and perpetuates it

In the wilderness Jesus told Satan

Matthew 4:4 NKJV

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

And so on that wonderful morning, the angels asked them why are you looking for the living among the dead…He is not here!

Let me tell you today that you can continue to look for life in all the dead places but you will only find it in the land of the living! In Christ