¹Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.  ²Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. ³His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. ⁴The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint. 

      ⁵Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. ⁷And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.” 

     ⁸The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. ⁹And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

 You’ve been inundated with images and sounds this morning, not at all unlike an average day in each of our lives.  Research says the average American is exposed to more than 16,000 media messages each and every day of our lives—from billboards, to radio, to tv, to the internet, to text messages, to the old-fashioned newspaper.  The messages compete for our attention and our allegiance.  The really good ones stay with us throughout the day, and eventually throughout our lives.  When I say the “really good ones,” I don’t necessarily mean the messages with really good content.  I mean the ones that engage our minds, our hearts, even our souls.  Advertisers, educational institutions, governmental agencies and, yes, GOD, are all “competing” for our attention and ultimately for our lives.  As you sit here on this Easter day, my goal is to anchor a message in your mind and heart that will stay with you from this day forward.  It may already be there.  I pray it is.  Here’s the message:  Jesus offers the only life that is TRULY life! I know there are some things money can’t buy, and for everything else there’s _______________ (MasterCard.)  This morning, I offer you the most important thing---NO, the most important ONE money can’t buy:  Jesus. 

     You say, “Been there, done that.”  I know all about Jesus, and what He offers.  Good.  The drama we just saw sums up what Jesus offers as well as any five minute media message ever could.  Jesus put it this way in His own words:  The thief (that is Satan) comes to kill, steal and destroy.  I have come that you may have life in all its abundance.  (John 10:10) Brief, direct, to the point.  One of the recurring themes in the media messages we receive – knowingly or unknowingly – each day is this:  You need to get a life!  If that life centers around work then FedEx delivers; See what Brown can do for you; just push the Easy Button.  If it centers around play, well then there’s a virtually limitless list of choices isn’t there?  Whether it’s beer, or a cruise, or nights on the town, or sporting events, or movies, there’s a satellite or cable channel that covers it, promotes it, or offers a reality show we can watch to “experience it.”  At the end of the day, though, is watching someone else experience LIFE really life?

     We have to admit what Jesus offers will never be as flashy, as well-choreographed, as media friendly as a SuperBowl commercial, but consider this:  Jesus experienced death and overcame it!  That’s what Easter’s all about.  All the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, or HBO, or Madison Avenue cannot compete with the OUTCOME of that one, solitary life we have seen and heard so much about this morning.  Who ARE you following, today?  Is it Jesus?   I don’t mean do you read your Bible, or do you pray when you wake up, or do you attend worship on a regular basis.  Those are all great activities.  What I mean is as you go about each day of your life, is Jesus in charge?  Do you make your daily decisions based on Him?  When you see a media message, do you filter it through the “lens” of Jesus?  We’ve gone to great lengths to show you Jesus in various ways this morning, to review His life, His death, and remember His resurrection.  We haven’t done it so you’ll go away saying, “Wow!  That was a great show.”  We’ve done it so you’ll know that Jesus offers the only life that is TRULY life! 

     All the advertisements in the world have a common goal:  to anchor themselves in our minds long enough that we will remember their products, and buy them.  Every advertisement appeals to one of several senses or sensibilities in us.  There’s the appeal to science at the one extreme and sex or pleasure at the other.  We’ve all seen the “bandwagon” approach that challenges us to consider why we haven’t bought the latest, greatest widget, because everyone else already has.  Have you ever stopped to consider the absurdity of that one?  If everyone in the world but me or you has the product already, why spend all that money to make one more sale?  If we stop to consider the motivations to which advertisers appeal in our lives, we’ll realize they aren’t appealing to the life within us that is truly life.  They appeal to the temporary, to the selfish, to the need we all have to be significant or better than we are.  But their appeals are often lies.  Not that Gatorade doesn’t quench our thirst, or that Cover Girl doesn’t hide our blemishes, but the real thirst each of us has for meaning and significance can’t be quenched by a bottled drink, and the blemishes that life and the way we live it brings to our souls can’t be hidden by make up. 

    The simple message of Jesus Christ is:  I have come that you may have LIFE in all its abundance.  Did you see all the ways the world, and the one who is behind the world’s desires—Satan—tempted the young woman to “live” her life?  Do you think the advertisers we see on television, or the internet, or hear on the radio, really have any other reasons than those for selling their products?  Do you really believe that Miller, and Budweiser and Coors, and all the rest want us to drink responsibly?  The message they offer is—life can’t be lived without mind altering substances.  Of course, that wouldn’t sell much beer would it?  Friends, I’m not saying that we should never watch television—although studies have demonstrated that those who don’t do better in school and interact more effectively with others.  I’m not saying that we shouldn’t buy the products we see advertised on television—although most of them when used in excess lead to a downward spiral in life or rampant materialism that takes us away from Jesus and the life that is truly life.

    I know this isn’t a typical Easter message, where we visit the empty tomb of Jesus and reflect on the reality of that resurrection for all of us for twenty or thirty minutes.  That’s because most of us in this room have heard messages like that all our lives, and both we and those who haven’t heard them need to hear, and see, and consider the truth that traditional Easter messages bring:  Jesus offers the only life that is TRULY life.  When you and I face the world’s tests and temptations we need to know that Jesus is the one who pulls and tugs and draws us to Himself, who will stand between us and the world’s worst so that we may live life abundantly.  Far too few of us, even we who call ourselves followers of Jesus, experience the abundant life Jesus died and rose from the dead to purchase for us.  That first Easter morning was filled with earthquakes, angels, frozen soldiers and revitalized followers of Jesus, but Most of all it was filled with a Jesus who had been dead, but is ALIVE!  Friends, nothing in this life or the next is more important than that reality.  If Jesus rose from the dead, then our lives have meaning and purpose. If He didn’t then we may as well go home and watch Survivor, or beer commercials, or surf the internet for the latest life-prolonging herb, because that’s all we have.

     Which of today’s images will you remember?  The man reading his bible in the midst of all the “busyness” of life?  The word who became flesh and lived among us?  A statement from that One Solitary Life?  A bloody Jesus bearing the cross that you and I deserved, so that we may have life now and forever?  Jesus pushing back the forces of the world, so that one of His beloved children could experience the life that is TRULY life?  My prayer is that as you reflect on this morning throughout this week—and I pray that you WILL reflect on this morning throughout this week—that you will put yourself in the place of that one for whom Jesus held back all the forces that would kill, steal, or destroy, because You are! You are that one, so am I.  Jesus came to die for the world, but He also came to die for each one of us—personally.  That is the GOOD NEWS!  That is the one message that all the world’s messages have never been able to drown out, and they never will.  The last statement we saw and heard from John 1 is this:  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.  Never.  Never.  The light of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus, these events bring meaning and purpose to life.  As we go out today, into a world that WILL bombard us with media messages from sun up to sun down and beyond—7 days a week, 365 days a year—366 days this year--remember the only message that can bring meaning to it all—the only message that gives LIFE to this LIFE and promises LIFE with God for all eternity:  Jesus offers the only life that is TRULY life.  Here’s today’s challenge.  For those of you who are new to New Life today, at the close of every message we offer a challenge.  That’s because we believe that God wants our lives to be transformed by His presence in them.  We don’t gather to sing praises, listen to God’s word and share media messages that when we leave we forget.  We gather to sing praises to our God, who desires to hear them, and then we listen to God’s word, reflect on it, and commit ourselves to living it in the coming week in the power of the Holy Spirit.  That’s our only hope of being transformed by God instead of being molded and shaped by the world.  So, here’s the challenge:  TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will live the life that is truly life in the power of Jesus.  Would you say that with me?  TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will live the life that is truly life in the power of Jesus.   As we do that EASTER will become a daily reality instead of an annual remembrance.  The resurrection power that brought Jesus out of the tomb, will give us victory over sin and death in our lives.  When we fall, when the world pushes us down, we will call on Jesus and He will pick us up.  When the world lies to us, when it offers us illusions and substitutes for life, when it seeks to kill, steal and destroy us, we will remember that life is truly life only when lived in Jesus’ power. 

     Please stand with me.  Next Sunday, we start a series of nine messages titled the Fruit of the Spirit.  Those messages will focus on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—the character traits of Jesus.  As His followers, we can live those character traits. They are part of the life that is truly life.  I encourage you to be here for each message.  After all, if we’re going to get a life, to live the life of Jesus, we need to know what that life looks like.  Thankfully, God’s word shows us.  Thankfully, His Spirit empowers us to live that life.  I hope you have enjoyed this morning’s service.  I hope you have been challenged by its message.  Most of all I hope and pray that you will experience the life that is truly life day-by-day in Jesus’ power.   Let’s pray…….  Amen.