Time is running out!
We are getting older. The truth is that you and I are older than we have ever been and younger than we'll ever be again.
- A 30-year old has only 2300 weeks left to live.
- A 40-year-old has 1800 weeks left on earth.
- A 50-year old is down to 1300 weeks.
- A 60-year old has only 790 weeks.
Another way to look at time is: the average life lasts only 683,280 hours or 2.4 billion seconds. You and I are speeding toward death at the rate of 60 minutes per hour and 60 seconds per minute.
In a short time, we will be gone.
When Job went through his great trial and his body was covered with painful boils, he asked life's greatest question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" (Job 14:14).
Thanks to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the answer is an emphatic "Yes!"
The Apostle Paul realized the seriousness of death and the need for resurrection life when he said, "If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave..If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished! And if all have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world" (1 Corinthians 15:14-19 NLT).
Our Christian faith rests firmly on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If there is no resurrection---we die like dogs and turn to dust. There is no hope beyond the grave. However, if Jesus truly arose from the tomb---hope is alive and we know we will live again!
There is great evidence to prove that Jesus is alive (see my message below entitled "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ"). The best proof is our own personal relationship with our Savior. An old Easter song, He Lives, says, "You ask me how I know He lives---He lives within my heart."
We have inside information that Christ is alive. Paul, the Apostle, said, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20 KJV).
Several years ago I became curious about the odds of a dead man rising again. At that time, Jimmy the Greek, was a popular odds maker, famous for setting odds on sporting events.
I called Jimmy at the ABC television network and asked him, "Give me odds that a man dead for three days could rise again."
Hearing my question, he broke out laughing and said, "Mr. Lundstrom, I've been asked to give odds on football, basketball, boxing matches, horse races and nearly every type of athletic contest. But this is the first time I've ever been asked to give odds on the resurrection.
"I am not an unbeliever. So here's what I suggest. Count all of the billions of people who have ever lived and I will give you odds of that many billion to one that it would happen again."
- Thank God Jesus arose from the grave.
- Hallelujah! He's a sure bet!
The empty tomb reveals we will live again. Job had faith in God and declared:
"For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand in the last days upon the earth: and though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God" (Job 19: 25 & 26 KJV).
The New Living Translation renders it this way:
"But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!"
Yes! You and I and all those who trust in Jesus Christ as our Redeemer will live again. We will have brand new resurrection bodies free from pain, energized and renewed with youth.
The Prophet Daniel declared: "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament (the heavens) and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Daniel 12:2 & 3).
Let's do what Daniel said and help turn many lost people to righteousness. Proverbs 11:30 says, "He that winneth souls is wise."
Together we can win many to Christ. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we shall all live again. Let's do all we can to make sure the lost are saved and live again in heaven.