No One Dies
We just change outfits.
We existed before we started wearing these “earth suits.” Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you…” Jeremiah 1:5a. My all-knowing, timeless God knew me before I breathed my first breath. He knows right now when I’ll exit this life and get my new body in a new place.
And he let’s me decide for myself where I’ll go next. I almost missed it.
You see, I got caught up in life and let myself act like this is all there is. I slipped into short-term thinking. Into “I want what I want and I want it NOW.” I lost sight of the fact that this isn’t all there is. That I’m going to keep living after I breathe my last breath. And where I end up is awfully important.
Yesterday was Easter and spiritual Christians all over the world took note of a spiritual day on the spiritual calendar. What I have to say here isn’t intended to take anything away from the overarching importance of the cross and what Jesus did. But I’m afraid many (if not most) of the folks on this green earth miss something very practical about this event.
Here it is…A man died and came back to life.
A brutal execution, watched by hundreds of people, followed by the public removal of his dead body. That man came back to life in recognizable human form and lived again. People talked with him, touched him, ate with him. Over 500 people saw him. No other ‘religious’ figure ever did that. Mohammad, Buddha… they died and they were dead and they’ve been dead ever since.
People who had seen Jesus dead and buried went around telling people that he’d come back to life…they’d seen him. Many were killed just for saying that. Not for teaching what he taught. They were killed because they wouldn’t back down from their eyewitness accounts of a dead man come back to life.
This deal is troubling for psychologists. When someone goes missing or gets lost, there’s hope they’ll be found. People will sometimes hallucinate, ‘seeing’ people they hope are alive. It’s much more rare for a human mind to hallucinate that someone’s alive when the owner of that mind saw the person dead. It’s a far-fetched idea that several (or several hundred) people would think they saw this dead man alive…unless they did.
Jesus coming back to life is an extremely important and personal point. If he was human (that’s well documented) and he died (also well documented) and he then lived again (equally well documented). That means I, as a well-documented human being, am going to die and live again. Somewhere.
As the stock market slid from 14,000 to 6,000 a few years ago, I had two friends who didn’t lose a dime. I hate them both. They guessed the market was going down and it did. They acted. They won. The rest of us lost.
When it comes to life, no guessing is required. We know we’re going down. Why would we not do whatever it takes to be ready?
If I know I’m going to exit this life and I have pretty good evidence this man, Jesus, exited and then came back to life, it makes sense that doing what he said might be the key to ending up in the right place when this one’s over.
And what he said to do is so simple. “Whoever believes in me will have eternal life” (John 3:16b).
If he lived, you will too. But where?
Question: Is there someone you know who has never said what they really believe about Jesus? Do you care enough to forward this post to them and have a conversation about it? Click Here to tell us what is holding you back.
Breathe New Life Into Your Discipleship
Small group mentoring can help you engage your people, build your core group of leaders, and transform your church. Our free resources equip you with all the tools you need to launch a sustainable mentoring program.