Living Life to the Max

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20110424 Sermon.mp3

Living Life to the Max

¹ 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. ² But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. ³ Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. ⁵ 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? ⁶ "He is not here, but is risen! Luke 24:1-6 (NKJV)

Verse 5: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?"

People everywhere are looking for something that's alive. We all want life—we all want a life lived to the full. To our maximum potential. All over the world people are on a quest to find real life.

• Some do it by squeezing pleasure out of each moment: chasing after fun, excitement, extreme sports...drinking Mountain Dew.
• Some try to experience the best this world has to offer—fine wine, gourmet cooking, luxury and comfort, what is known as "the good life."
• Many yearn for fulfillment, meaning, and significance—and try to find it in their humanitarian projects or perhaps their creativity energies (great musical performance, best-selling novel, etc.).

People are looking for life, but they're looking in the wrong places. They're looking for life in what this world has to offer: fame and fortune, politics, education, financial success, and so on.

But anyone who climbs to the top of these areas will find frustration at the top. The writer of Ecclesiastes in the OT is typical. He became frustrated by the ultimate futility of all his successful endeavors. Nothing seemed to satisfy the itch in his soul, the God-shaped vacuum in his heart. He said:

¹ I said to myself, "Come now, let's give pleasure a try. Let's look for the ‘good things' in life." But I found that this, too, was meaningless... ⁴ I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. ⁵ I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. ⁶ I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. ⁷ ...I also owned great herds and flocks... ⁸ I collected great sums of silver and gold... I had everything a man could desire! ...¹¹ But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. (Eccl 2:1-11, NLT)

So the question we began with today is a question for each of us: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?"

• It's not just for a few discouraged, grieving women going to the tomb...
• It's not just for some frightened disciples hiding out from those who had killed their Teacher...
• It's not just for those first-century followers of Jesus whose hopes and dreams were dashed...

The question is for us: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" Why do you search for life in the dead worthless ways of the world?

• The question is for us: Why search for life—real life—in the decrepit, broken-down institutions and philosophies of man?
• Why search for life in the pleasures and thrills of worldly pursuits?
• Why search for life in dead, religious ritual—form without power, religion without relationship, tradition without the Spirit?

The message of the Resurrection is a message of LIFE!

Eternal life, yes! Hope for immortality, absolutely! But eternal life isn't just something we wait to receive after we die.

• Eternal life begins now! When we believe, when we place our trust in Jesus—that's when eternal life begins.
• Eternal life is not only about the length—forever. It's not merely about the quantity; it's also about the quality.

Jesus wants you to get more out of life! He wants you to live fully alive!

How many people live beneath what God wants them to experience? They muddle along at a mediocre pace, performing substandard work, falling short of the glory of God.

• Saint Irenaeus said, "The glory of God is man fully alive!"
• Henry David Thoreau said: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with their song still in them."
• In other words, they may be breathing and taking up space, but they're just empty shells of what God intended them to be. They're not living fully alive.
• Benjamin Franklin said: "Many men die at 25 and aren't buried till they're 75."

Here's the thing: when we talk about the Resurrection, we're not just talking about life everlasting, forever and ever throughout all eternity—though it includes that.

The Resurrection means something now! The Resurrection means power to live fully now!

Jesus said: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10, NIV); "...I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (NASB)

Abundant life means a life lived to the full right now.

• In the midst of a broken-down world,
• In the midst of difficulty and trial,
• In the midst of pain and suffering,

...we can live a full life! An abundant life! An overcoming, victorious life! A resurrection life!

People want to find life apart from brokenness, life that's free from difficulty and trial, life without pain or suffering—but escaping all these is no guarantee of life!

People look for life in material things, but Paul had advice to people who had acquired a lot of things on how they could find real life. He said:

¹⁷ Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸ Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. ¹⁹ In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Tim 6:17-19, NIV) ...that which is life indeed (NASB).

Eternal life begins now! But if you want to find life, you have to look in the right place. Where is that? In a relationship with God through Jesus Christ!

Jesus said: "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3, NASB)

Eternal life comes by knowing God through Jesus Christ. It's not religion but a relationship. And out of that relationship comes LIFE! His life, flowing into ours, produces abundant life, full life, meaningful life.

Like branches on a tree—branches draw life from the tree trunk, from the roots. But branches left on their own—cut off from the tree—will wither and die.

To have a relationship with Jesus means to have a connection to Jesus.

Jesus said: "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5, NASB)

Without that connection, without that relationship, what can you do? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!

Which raises another question: If you're not connected to Jesus, what are you connected to? If you're connected to any other, you have to ask: "Why do I seek the living among the dead? Why do I seek life in dead places?"

The apostle Paul knew what it was to seek for life in empty religion, in the wrong places, in dead places. But after he met Jesus, he said:

³ ...We do not put any trust in external ceremonies. ⁴ I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way. ⁵ I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee, ⁶ and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault. ⁷ But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake. ⁸ Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be completely united with him... (Phil 3:3-9, TEV)

Paul stopped looking for life in the dead religious traditions and empty rituals of his past. Instead he discovered life based on faith in Jesus Christ—and that discovery made him long even more for a deeper and fuller experience with Christ. He said he had a new longing...

¹⁰ All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, ¹¹ in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life. (Phil 3:10-11, TEV)

Paul yearned to know Christ more and more. Paul yearned to know the power of Christ's resurrection. Power that could be lived out in his daily experience.

Because Paul was made alive in Christ, his desires were for more of Christ. He said:

¹² I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. ¹³ Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. ¹⁴ So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above. (Phil 3:12-14, TEV)

To live life to the full...

1.     Forget what is behind (v 13). That means to let go of the past. To leave the past behind. To turn away from sin.
What did Paul have to forget? Empty religious effort, yes. But he also carried the guilt of his fanaticism. He tried to persecute the church. Stephen was martyred by Paul's complicity. For his part, Paul said that he was the worst of sinners (1 Tim 1:15-16).
We need to let go of the past. To let go of the sin and the guilt. To let go of the things that hold us back from real, abundant life.
Africans trap the monkey by putting some delicious grain inside a gourd and staking it to the ground. The hole in the gourd is large enough for the monkey to reach his hand inside, but when he grasps the grain, his fist becomes too large to pull out of the hole. Once he has his grip on that grain, he won't let go, no matter what. Even when the men come to club him to death, he holds on to his prize. He could escape and live—if only he would let go of his treasure.

2.     Reach for what's ahead (v 13). Press forward, lean into the finish line, strain toward what's ahead. Give it everything you've got!
Paul wasn't satisfied to coast through life. Wasn't content to rest on what he had experienced. Life itself urged him on, challenged him to take a risk. Faith stretched him.
Life lived to the full requires that we stretch out and take a risk! If your faith is too safe or too comfortable, then it's probably not a very robust faith. It's probably weak and anemic.
Ken Davis tells about his little granddaughter, standing on the steps, looking nervous. "What's the matter, honey?" he asked her. "I want to jump," she said. "Well then," he said, "you jump, and I'll catch you." It took her a while to muster up her courage. Several times she stepped back...then stepped up to the edge. Finally, nervously, she leaned forward slowly...just enough, until gravity took over. She had gone too far. There was no turning back. And she fell into her grandpa's arms. And the first thing she said was, "Let's do it again!"
You see, living by faith doesn't mean that you won't have some lingering doubt. Courage doesn't mean that you have no fear. Courage is choosing to act even in the face of fear. Faith is daring to lean forward in spite of doubt.
And resurrection life, abundant life, means leaning forward, pressing on, reaching for what's ahead. Resurrection life means living life to the full.

3.     Run straight toward the goal (v 14). Keeping your eye on the prize. Not distracted by other things on earth, seeking the living among the dead—but seeking Jesus, God's call to the life above!

¹⁰ I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. ¹¹ If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it. ¹² I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. ¹³ Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, ¹⁴ where God is beckoning us onward— to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. (Phil 3:10-14, MSG)