It Is Finished

Luke 24: 4-8 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' "Then they remembered his words.

This is Passion Week. The last week Jesus Christ walked the earth as both man and God. The culmination of the plan of Almighty God to reconcile His creation back to Him. The pinnacle of the love of God toward sinful man. Between the four Gospel accounts of this week there are many verses which stand out. Many powerful verses describing how far God would go to have communion with man again. One that always stood out for me, even going back to my Catholic upbringing, was verse five above "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" Hallelujah! We do not need to look for the living amongst the dead anymore!

Why do we look for the living amongst the dead? Let's face it beloved; that is what we used to do before we came to Christ. The word living, in this verse, is representative of God. The women here were going to the tomb expecting to find the body of Jesus. They were going there seeking a dead God but God is very much alive. How do we know that God is life itself?

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14: 6

We were made in the image of God. We were made to have fellowship and communion with God. Unfortunately, we are born into a fallen state. From the Bible we know the following is true:

• God is life (Living God) Psalm 84:2; Exodus 3:14
• God cannot commune with sin 1John 1:5; Psalm 145:17
• Man is sinful by nature Romans 3:23;
• The wages of sin is death Romans 6:23

So we are set in opposition. God is life and man, or the world, is death. We are born dead in our transgressions; dead in our sin. Yet we were made to have communion with God, to fellowship with Him. We spend our lives trying to fill the hole in our lives caused by the separation we have with God. Maybe we filled it with drugs and alcohol. Maybe we filled it with pornography or co-dependent relationships. Maybe we filled it with the psychiatric conditions the world sells us and the medication it peddles with it. Maybe we filled it with the pursuit of money or lust. We sought an altered state of consciousness or reality because there was too much pain in the one we were living in. The world does a good job of pushing this separation from God and then abandoning you when you are at your neediest. The result as my Pastor said yesterday is that your life ends up like a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle strewn all over the floor and someone has thrown the box top away; so you can't even remember what your life was supposed to look like. But God knows you from the beginning:

This is what the Lord says he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you... - Isaiah 44:2

God knows you! He has the box top with the picture of the whole you! He formed you from the beginning in your mother's womb. To what detail does God know you?

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30.

Forget the box top, God doesn't even need it! He knows how many hairs you have on your head! Nevertheless, we try to rely on the self sufficiency the world sells us. We try to put our lives back together ourselves. We try to fix it but truth be told, we simply are not very good at it because we do not know what we are supposed to look like; fully whole. The resulting pain pushes us further into the world and the remedies it offers. Not feeling well? Take a pill! But the world only treats the symptoms; not the cause. It treats the surface and ignores the root. The problem beloved, is not the addiction; that is a symptom of being separated from God. The problem is not the relationships, that is the symptom of being separated from God. The problem is not the pornography, greed, or lust; those are symptoms of being separated from God.

The problem is that we were seeking the living amongst the dead. We were seeking the living God, in the dead world. And when we couldn't find the living God, we sought something else to take our life over. Something else to be our God. Perhaps the addiction became our God. Perhaps the inappropriate relationships became our God whether you were the controller or the controlled. Perhaps the pornography or rebellious lifestyle became our God. But there is no life in these false Gods beloved. There is no life in drugs and alcohol; only death. There is no life in pornography, addictions, and relationships of man; only death. Yet this is what we sought to fill our lives before Christ. This is what we sought to fill that empty God space in our hearts. We walked into the tombs the world offered us and sought the living God amongst the dead promises the world made us.

This dynamic can continue even after salvation. God's church is designed to affect the world for Christ but too often we see the world invading the church. We can spend our personal walks in search of the deliverance God already provided for us at Calvary. The church is constantly searching for revival, indicating that a regressed state already exists. God's church was not designed to be constantly on the defensive, trying to regain territory!

Even as Christians though we can fall prey to the ways of the world. We too can seek the living amongst the dead. I have long heard Christians dismiss the very teachings of Christ because they did not think they were possible. Yes the bar is set high. When Jesus says we are to turn the other cheek, pray for our enemies, and forgive our brothers seven times seventy times He means JUST THAT. They were not figures of speech or some "pie in the sky" theology. As Christians we have a higher calling and a higher responsibility. Remember the words of our Savior:

"That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12: 47-48

We have been given so much and thus so much more will be expected of us. We are the servants that know our Master's will yet there we can go, back into the world. A little here and a little there. We do not need anything more than we already have beloved. We have Jesus. The hole in our heart has been filled. Remember the words of David, a man after the heart of God:

I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand,
       I will not be shaken. Psalm 16:8

Note that David is required to do something first in this situation; as we are. The beauty of this verse from the Psalmist is that the first part has two meanings for us as believers. First we must always set the Lord before us in front of us if you will. We must always see the Lord in front of us as we walk through this life. Visually this will remind us of the eternal life we already enjoy and keep in mind the responsibility that comes with it. Secondly however, God must always come BEFORE ME. The world sells us on the me-centric mentality. The world sells selfishness and it revels in it. Christ however was selfless. In order to be great, you must be small. It was about love and servanthood. David is also saying here that he must put God's desires and plans ahead of his own. It was no longer about David, it was about God. This is the mindset God expects from us as well. It can no longer be about us, it must be about God. God must always come before us beloved. If we do this, what is the promise from God? We will not be shaken. No matter what this world throws at us, we will not be shaken. Bad medical report? God comes first He is in control I will not be shaken. Rebellious children? God is control He comes first I will not be shaken. The world wants to try and lure me back in? God is in control He comes first I will not be shaken.

God is everywhere beloved but He resides where we put Him in our lives. If there is an area that He is not out in front of you on before you then you can guarantee to struggle in that area. You will continue to go around and around the same mountain until you put God ahead of you in front of you. The world is selling a graveyard of empty promises but as Christians we have to believe that we no longer need to look for the living amongst the dead. We need to look no further than our right hand and not be shaken. He is risen He is alive.

What is God speaking to you today? If this devotional has found you in a place where you have never given your heart to Christ then you need to believe that it is not by accident you are reading this. If you have had enough of the graveyard of broken promises the world has sold you, God is still waiting to fill that empty hole inside of you. He is still waiting to take away the guilt, the shame, the sin, and the pain. It is as simple as inviting Him into your heart today to be your Lord and Savior. It does take faith in Him as the Son of God, who was crucified for our sins, including yours. It does take the faith to believe that He conquered the grave and was resurrected on the third day.

It was on that day that the women approached the tomb but found it empty. It was on that day that the angels asked the women the same question God is asking you today, why do you seek the living amongst the dead? The living God does not reside amongst the dead. There is nothing in the world that will fill that hole you have. Only God. You were made in His image to have communion with Him. I pray that if this finds you today trying to fit the pieces of your life back together like a jigsaw puzzle that you realize God knows exactly how your life is supposed to look and He doesn't even need the box top cover! I pray that if this finds you today ready to no longer seek the living amongst the dead that you would pray to God to come into your heart and take over your life. That you would seek out a good church that teaches the whole Bible and that you would always seek to put God before you in every part of your life. Amen.

Perhaps this might find you today as a believer who might have had an area that was not quite yielded to God. God is speaking to you as well. The rich man in the Gospels who went away sad, failed to be able to turn over his finances to God. His money was ever before him, not God. Whatever mountain you may find yourself circling today, realize that until God is out in front of you in that area, you will continue to struggle in that area. Your mountain will ever be before you and it will continue to shake you. Your salvation is assured beloved but who wants to crawl into heaven? Your eternal life began the day you accepted Jesus Christ into your life. What kind of life does He want for you?

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

This does not mean a Rolls Royce in every garage. It means the abundant spiritual life. The abundant eternal life. It means that nothing the world throws at you shakes you, because God is ever before you. But how many Christians do we know that are barely hanging on? Crawling from one prayer line to the next. Free in Christ but in bondage nonetheless. It ought not to be so beloved.

Thousands of years ago, Jesus Christ walked the earth. His ministry lasted only three years yet changed the entire known world forever! THAT is what God can do. This very week He would be betrayed into the hands of sinners and sentenced to death. He would be mocked and ridiculed. He would be crucified, one of the most gruesome forms of execution ever perpetrated by man. He would be the last sacrifice needed to erase our debt of sin. He would be the vehicle God used to restore communion with His creation. Upon Him all our sins were laid. All our guilt, all our shame. And when the end was here, Jesus Christ gave us one last assurance with His dying breath:

"It is finished." John 19:30

The last words of our Savior. His last assurance to us all. It is finished. So if this finds you today as a struggling believer and you only remember one thing remember that it is finished. God took it all for you and me so that we would not have to. When the enemy tells you why you are no good you tell him, "It is finished." When the enemy tells you all the bad things about your past you tell him, "It is finished." When the world tries to lure you back into your old lifestyle of sin and compromise you remember, "It is finished." There is nothing the world or the enemy can say to you that has not already been nailed to the cross at Calvary. Our God is not in the tomb beloved. He is risen. We no longer need to seek the living amongst the dead. Hallelujah!

Happy Resurrection Sunday.

Reverend Anthony Wade April 12, 2009