"The Easter story is nothing but a myth!" Jimmy's high school teacher announced to his class a few days before Easter break. "Jesus not only didn't rise from the grave," he continued, "but there's no God in heaven who would allow his Son to be crucified in the first place!" "Sir, I believe in God," Jimmy protested. "And I believe in the resurrection!" "Jimmy, you can believe what you wish to, of course," the teacher replied. "However, the real world excludes the possibility of miraculous events such as the resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can also respect science."

"God isn't limited by science," Jimmy responded. "He created science!" Engaged by Jimmy's outspoken faith, the teacher proposed a scientific experiment. Reaching into his refrigerator, he produced a raw egg and held it up. "I'm going to drop this egg on the floor," he stated. "Gravity will pull it toward the floor with such force that the egg will most certainly break." Facing Jimmy with a look of challenge, he concluded his proposal. "Now Jimmy, I want you to pray a prayer right now and ask your God to keep this egg from breaking when it hits the floor. If he can do that, then you'll have proven your point, and I'll have to admit there's a God."

After pondering the challenge for a moment, Jimmy slowly stood to pray. "Dear Heavenly Father," he began, "I pray that when my teacher drops the egg, it will break into a hundred pieces! Also, Lord, I pray that when the egg does break, my teacher will have a heart attack and die! Amen." The class was stunned and silent. For a moment the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Jimmy and then at the egg. Without a word, he carefully put the egg back into the refrigerator. "Class dismissed," the teacher said, and sat down to clear his desk.

The teacher apparently believed in God's existence more than he thought he did. Many people, like that teacher, deny that God exists, yet they run from Him, question Him, and attack Him whenever they get the chance. Jimmy knew God wouldn't strike his teacher dead, but he also knew his teacher wouldn't bet his life on it!

It's amazing to me that there are some pretty smart people in the world who prefer to believe and teach that the universe just accidentally came about, with all of its beauty, order, and power, without a Creator! That doesn't seem logical or scientific to me. But it shows that there are TWO different viewpoints about everything. 1. HEREOF -Everything there is or that matters is here on this earth. 2. ABOVE - Everything here is only a small part of our lives, because what really matters is eternity in heaven. Those are the two major viewpoints about life, values, priorities, and everything that matters.

There is one thing that separates those two viewpoints - and that one thing is why you are all gathered here this morning - the resurrection of Jesus Christ! Easter is my favorite time of the year, not just because I love the way Easter lilies smell, but because I love how Easter has changed my life and yours for all time. We aren't celebrating the Easter bunny or any other myth, but a real event in real time, which has been better documented than any other event in history, both by eyewitnesses as well as by enemies of Christ. The resurrection happened. And that is why you and I are gathered here today…we are following the Risen Jesus who has raised our sights so that THINGS ARE LOOKING UP!

Max Lucado writes that there are many "buses" (ideas/philosophies/faiths) that promise happiness. Buses marked: PLEASURE, POSSESSIONS, POWER, PASSION. He said he saw a bus called PARTY, and got on board. It was full of people laughing and carousing. They seemed to be enjoying a nonstop party. But then he writes: "It was quite some time before I learned they had to be loud to cover up all the pain inside." Our world is full of lonely people.

If you have bought into the lousy theory that this is all there is…better grab what you can while you can because there's nothing more than this, then I think that would make somebody like you, and certainly somebody like me…a very self-centered person! If I believed that this is it, it would be like no one else mattered except me! And, like the person who misses most of life because he is looking for pennies on the ground, so also, a life that is here-focused is a wasted, self-centered life. And with that comes loneliness, greed, manipulating others, a lot of phoniness, and ultimately, hell. That's a picture of a lost person. Maybe that person puts on a happy face, but that face is covering up the hopelessness beneath.

Paul is telling us there is something different about us: "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Now what could cause us to do that? I mean, if here below is where we live, where we sleep and cook and work and go to school and watch TV and fall in love and get angry and do everything we do, what could cause us to refocus on above? Now, low-flying airplanes, fireworks, or shooting stars at night might cause my eyes to look up. But that would only last a little while. So you tell me…what has actually happened to set your heart and mine on things above? What is causing us right now to set our minds on things above? I think you know! I know you know!

The movie Saving Private Ryan is about a group of Army Rangers, led by Tom Hanks, who are given this mission: Save Private Ryan. Get him out of the war so he can come home, because his brothers have been killed in the war and he's all his parents have left. Well, some of the Rangers are killed along the way, but finally they locate the private and tell him he has to come with them so they can save him. And he tells them, "I can't leave my men now…big battle coming up!" So the Rangers join the gory battle, and at the end, when the battle was finally won, Tom Hanks is sitting on the ground. He has been shot and is dying. Private Ryan leans over to him and Hanks whispers something to him.

A certain pastor who had been an Army Ranger saw that movie and said, "Everybody was crying because Hanks was dying. I was crying because what he said was so awful." Here's what he said: "Earn this." That is, "men died for you, and I'm dying for you…now pay us back with some kind of great life." The pastor was so angry with this statement because, he said, "No ranger would ever have said that!" The motto for the Rangers for 200 years has been Sua Sponte. You Latin scholars know that means "I chose this…I volunteered for this." If Hanks were really a Ranger, that's what he would have said! In other words, "This is free. You don't pay anything for this. I give up my life for you. That's my job."

Somebody did that for you and me! There was a real live person who came looking for us, and in the process, gave up his life for us. And when you see Jesus hanging there on the cross, you don't hear Him say, "Earn this!" You never hear Jesus say "earn this." He doesn't say, "I've given up everything for you…now you need to gut it out for me." What He said was "I thirst." In other words, "I volunteered for this. I'm taking this pain to pay for your sins. You don't have to pay anything for it." I asked you earlier what has changed our hearts and minds. Why can we be looking up, not with phony optimism, but with a certain hope of going to heaven, of living forever? I think you already know the answer… because this man Jesus changed us!

That's what Paul is saying here, too. "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." We are linked to Jesus in a way that we are actually linked to his death. That means a real connection has formed between us believers and this Jesus…a connection so strong that as far as God is concerned, we died with Jesus and now have a new life, that from God's view, is all Jesus! And that new life is real. So real that it has a terrific power to change my old life. So real that I am beginning to live and think more and more like Jesus. That's the influence He is having on me! Our faith ties us so tightly to Jesus that He won't let go of us. He is influencing us right now. In fact, He is pulling us through the grave right into heaven!

Verse 4: "When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Others have given their lives for people. We thank God for heroes. But none of them has risen from the grave. Jesus has. Jesus' resurrection is a historical fact. That is what separates Christianity from any other religion or belief. He came back to life! He lives! And because He lives, we live too. Our sin is forgiven and we are on great terms with God. We will appear in glory - we have heaven to look forward to!

Paul was a little boy who lived in a small town in the Pacific Northwest some years ago. His family had just become the proud owners of one of the first telephones in the neighborhood. It was one of those wooden boxes attached to the wall with the shiny receiver hanging on the side of the box and the mouthpiece attached to the front. Young Paul listened with fascination as his mom and dad used the phone, and he discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device called a telephone lived an amazing person…

Her name was "Information Please" and there was nothing she didn't know. Information Please could supply anybody's number…and the correct time! Paul's first personal experience with "Information Please" came one day when he was home alone and he whacked his finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible and he didn't know what to do. Then he thought of the telephone. Quickly, he pulled a footstool up to the phone, climbed up, unhooked the receiver, held it to his ear and said: "Information Please" into the mouthpiece. There was a click or two and then a small clear voice spoke: "Information." "I hurt my finger," Paul wailed into the phone. "Isn't your mother home?" "Nobody's home but me," Paul cried. "Are you bleeding?" "No," Paul said, "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts." "Can you open your ice-box?" "Yes." "Then go get some ice and hold it to your finger." Paul did and it helped a lot.

After that Paul called "Information Please" for everything. She helped him with his geography and math. She taught him how to spell the word "fix." She told him what to feed his pet chipmunk. And when Paul's pet canary died, she listened to his grief tenderly and said: "Paul, remember that there are other worlds to sing in." Somehow that helped and Paul felt better. When Paul was nine, his family moved to Boston. As the years passed, he missed Information Please very much. Years later, as Paul was on his way out west for college, his plane landed in Seattle. He dialed his hometown operator and said, "Information Please." Miraculously, he heard that same small clear voice he knew so well: "Information." Paul hadn't planned this, but suddenly blurted out, "Could you please tell me how to spell the word "fix"?" There was a long pause. Then came the soft answer: "I guess your finger must be all healed by now." Paul laughed. "So it's really still you. Do you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time when I was a little boy?" "I wonder," she said, "if you know how much your calls meant to me! I never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls so much."

Paul asked her if he could call her again when he was back in the area. "Please do," she said, "just ask for Sally." Three months later, Paul was back in Seattle. This time a different voice answered. He asked for Sally. "Are you a friend?" the operator asked. "Yes, a very old friend." Paul answered. "Well, I'm sorry to have to tell you this," she said. "Sally had been working part time the last few years because she was sick. She died 5 weeks ago." Before he could hang up, the operator said: "Wait a minute. Did you say your name was Paul?" "Yes." "Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you. It says: "When Paul calls, tell him that I still say: There are other worlds to sing in. He will know what I mean." Paul thanked her and hung up and he did know what Sally meant.

There are other worlds to sing in! Isn't that a beautiful and powerful thought? That's the message of Easter. And that's why all our Easter songs ring with joy! Our Jesus has risen! So we now have another world to sing in! In Him we've gotten a glimpse of what is to come. There is no other way to heaven, because nobody has ever made the trip past death…nobody except Jesus! Rather than being lonely, we've got a Savior to whom we can go at all times, who has promised He is with us, just a prayer away. Because of our living Jesus, we are no longer taking life a day at a time…focusing on just making it. No…we're following Jesus because THINGS ARE LOOKING UP! He's changed our focus to ABOVE! We have been given eternal values which are shaping what is important to us even as we live in the here and now. We're set for the long run! Things are looking up for you and me! Because we are going home and we're going to live forever…with our living Jesus. He has given us another world to sing in! Amen.

Thanks to my Mission Counselor, John Huebner, for much of the thoughts and words of this sermon…

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