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You know how the story ends, even if you don’t believe it you know how the Jesus story ends.  There’s no surprise ending or artistic license to be taken, he’s alive.  That’s what makes Jesus – Jesus.  Nobody left the Passion and said, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.”

Something has happened – we’ve become too familiar with the Easter story and so miss the point.  We think it’s a great story on how to die really well which doesn’t interest us because we’re not thinking about death.  Living has preoccupied us.  We’ve been too busy following the path to significance, or someone, or peace, or sometimes truth if we have that luxury. We are too caught up in the living and it seems that a man who is known for his death and resurrection probably doesn’t have a lot to say.

1.       Our search for peace.

• We try to follow the arrow for security and see it’s an endless maze.  Inner peace is best defined as your soul being at rest.  Are you ever just wore out after a day of conflict?
• If we can’t find real peace then we sedate ourselves through a myriad of activities such as TV, Facebook, SecondLife, some sort of virtual reality where we don’t have problems or everyone else’s problems wrap up in 30 minutes.

2.       Our search for someone.

• Belonging is a basic human need, this is why there are so many dating services on the internet.  The arrow is constantly pointing at someone else who will make us happy.
• It’s not just romance.  Having moved several times I understand the difficulty of belonging.  Especially for men, it seems like the last time most of us made a new good friend was high school or college.
• We want to belong but we don’t want to be vulnerable.  We want a sure investment for our emotions.

3.       Our search for significance.

• We all want to matter and make a difference.  I think this is why we have so many opportunities to live out what we think will matter.
• We invest our lives in a job or parents enable their children to pursue every option they never had.
• What we don’t realize is that in chasing these pursuits of significance we move away from the someone and the peace we have sought.

4.       Our search for truth.

• This truth often takes a back seat to the seeming more pressing searches.
• This is maybe the most important for it informs everything else.  What we believe to be true guides us in our quest for peace, security and belonging.  After all we can’t have peace with nagging doubt, we can’t be secure in something that isn’t real and we can’t belong to someone on any meaningful level without sincerity.
• We want to know what we know is a sure thing – a real deal.  So we search.

5. Jesus is our way to truth.  (John 14:5-11)

• I must admit, there are some places where we’ve come awfully close.
  • Genesis tells us that we are created in God’s image and Romans tells us that God has put into our consciences truth.  So, when we get a bunch of people together seeking truth and true beauty good things happen.
  • We call these collective efforts of quests for truth and beauty religions.  The world is full of them.  The problem with all of them as you saw in the video is that the labor is entirely up to us.  If we want out of the hole, if we want true direction then we must figure it out and we must do it alone.
  • The problem is that in our human understanding we can’t fully understand the problem.
• I’ve said this before but one step away from eternity, is an eternal step and it creates and unbridgeable gulf between us and God.
  • It requires God to take our place and bridge that gulf.  In other words it requires someone coming into the hole with us.  Only Jesus Christ has done that.
  • Before I’ll defend Christianity, I’ll defend Christ.  Because everything in my life revolves around him.  The rest is our best attempt to please him.
• The way of truth is not over there somewhere, but here pointing up to Christ.

6. Jesus is our way to significance. (John 14:12-14)

• Easter is a day of power.  It is the day that set the 11 cowering disciples running into harm’s way for the sake of spreading the gospel.
• This power enables us to do greater works than Christ.  What does that mean?  It means that if the church truly takes on the mission of Christ, with the Spirit of Christ then the hundreds of us here are able to do more than the one person of Jesus!
• We see that the way to significance doesn’t take us away from truth but in the same direction as it also is found in Christ.

7. Jesus is our way with someone. (John 14:2-3)

• He is someone to love us unconditionally.  The church becomes a family to call our own.
• Relationships that never end – despite death or distance.
• The way of significance that used to take us away from someone, now is in line with it as they both lead us to Christ.

8. Jesus is our way of peace . (John 14:1)

• Jesus recognizes our need for peace and security and says, “I’m coming back to give you this security.  Oh, and by the way you’re not good enough, thankfully I am.”
• We see that peace is found in Christ and we’re at peace because we don’t have to run in seven directions to find satisfaction in life.
• And when you live a life that death can not stop, you find yourself at complete peace.

All that we looked for is in Christ, answered by his teaching and satisfied in his person.  When we live a life like this that’s when death can’t stand in the way.  Because we know how the story ends we almost miss the point, the resurrection isn’t the end it’s the climax.  Jesus resurrection says this to us, “When you live a life like me, then death is no obstacle.”  The resurrection is not a story about dying well, it’s a story on how to live.  The life the resurrection calls us to is the life that death can not hold down.-
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