“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

3John 1:2, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

There are 12 Things God wants you to be that the devil does not want you to know. We shall be looking at each of them in the coming weeks.

1. God wants you free. He wants you delivered from sin, Satan and curses. 2. God wants you well 3. God wants you wealthy 4. God wants you fruitful … We start off with the foundation: freedom. God wants you free. He wants you delivered from sin, Satan and curses. Isaiah 14:3,5, “And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, …[5] The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.”

He sent his Son to the cross for man’s redemption. That job was completed and you can be free today if you choose to. The devil does not want you to know that. GOD WANTS YOU TO BE FREE TO FLY HIGH!

When I was young, I was fascinated by birds. Their ability to fly and soar high intrigued me. You could capture other animals more easily but not birds. Whenever they felt threatened, they simply flapped their wings and took off into the air. They were free and they could fly. They were birds and they were created to fly.

So, I was equally fascinated by bird cages. I bought one with a bird in it.

In these days when Christians re-live the greatest event that took place in human history the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - it is important to continue to reflect on the place of Easter in the Christian life. The Christian faith teaches that the resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of Christianity. If Christ had not died and risen to life, there would have been no Christianity. If you take the resurrection away from Christianity, the whole edifice collapses. Arthur Michael Ramsey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, puts it bluntly when he wrote: “No resurrection, no Christianity.” St. Paul himself testifies to what faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ means when he says: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty and our belief comes to nothing” (1 Cor. 15:14).

One of the great moments of the Easter narrative in the Gospels is the visit of Mary of Magdala and the other Mary to the tomb where Jesus was buried very early on the first Easter morning. The Evangelist Luke recounts that, “On the Sabbath the women rested according to the commandment, but the first day of the week, at dawn, they went to the tomb with the perfumes and ointments they had prepared. Seeing the stone rolled away from the opening of the tomb, they entered and were puzzled to find that the body of the Lord Jesus was not there. Two men in dazzling garments appeared beside them. In fright the women bowed to the ground. But the I owned the bird, I fed it and limited it inside the cage. It could not fly like others. It was not free to express its full potentials because it was caged.

As a pastor, I have heard the sad tales of people who have been struggling through life unaware they are caged by the enemy. They have potentials they cannot express. They know they are born to fly high but they are unable to fly. They have dreams but they cannot realize them.

There are two categories of slaves: voluntary slaves- people who sold themselves and forced slaves- those who are taken captive by force.

There are 5 basic forms of captivity:

1. Emotional Captivity. Disillusionment, discouragement and regret are often used by the devil to deprive people of their freedom. Feeling hopeless is an emotional prison in which many people are locked away by the enemy. If the devil can convince you that there is nothing you or anyone can do to help your situation, he can keep you bound for ever. To be bound to your hurt is to forfeit your future and your freedom. Until you are free of regrets, you cannot make progress.

2. Mental captivity. The enemy’s most effective chain is wrong belief. The greatest cause of bondage is believing a lie. The greatest source of freedom is knowing the truth. It is very difficult to deliver a man who is in error and does not know it. Where your mind goes your life follows. If you don’t want it to happen in your life, get it out of your mind! Satan also enslaves through ignorance. My men said, “Why look for the living among the dead? You won’t find him here. He is risen” (Lk 24:1-6).

“Why look for the living among the dead?” That is a great question. We do not normally look for the dead among the living. We look for the dead among the dead and the living among the living. When we go to the cemetery, what else do we go to see other than to look for the dead? So what is the basis of the angelic question: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” After Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea, a faithful disciple of Jesus, asked permission from Pilate to remove the body of Jesus from the Cross. Pilate gave him permission and he went and buried the body of Jesus in his own tomb. The women who attended to Jesus followed Joseph to see the tomb where the dead body of Jesus was laid. Upon returning home, they prepared perfumes and ointments. We recall that the death of Jesus occurred on the Preparation Day for the Jewish Sabbath and there hadn’t been sufficient time to prepare his body properly for burial. Since the time for the Sabbath preparation was already near they hurriedly laid him in the tomb and went home to prepare for the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, the women rested in obedience to the commandment, but very early on Sunday morning they made their way to the tomb. They were courageous women who braced the darkness of the dusk. They would have been restless all through the weekend, waiting for the Sabbath to be over so that they can go to the tomb. For them there was something of greater value than sleeping on that Easter morning. people perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4: 6). There are no easier preys for the devil than ignorant believers. Many people are cheated and exploited because they are ignorant of God’s love, power, faithfulness, principles, provisions, grace, mercy etc. They are also ignorant of their authority in Christ and their rights as sons. To be bound by ignorance is the worse form of captivity.

3. Physical captivity. Physical ailments limit energy and resources necessary for the pursuit and attainment of destiny. They have the capacity to cut life short.

4. Financial captivity. Poverty confines a man to a small space in life. To be broke is to be at the mercy of everyone: landlords, transporters, food vendors, etc.

5. Spiritual captivity. Satan enslaves through sin. Bondage to bad habits can destroy a person. The Bible talks about “sins that do easily beset us.” Hebrews 12:1. Whatever enslaves a man dominates him. Note that slaves have no rights. Sin is the reason many labour in vain. You are a slave to whatever you choose to obey.

Why freedom?

1. Until you are free, you cannot fly. Joseph could not be promoted until he was released from prison.

2. Until you are free, you cannot reign. Nelson Mandela could not become president until he was out of prison.

3. Until you are free, you can have nothing. Until you are free, your hands cannot be filled. Until you are free, you can barely feed. Until you are free, you have no rights. The children of Israel And so they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. Their aim was to go and embalm the corpse of Jesus in order to carry out a definitive and final burial. But on reaching the tomb, they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. When they entered, they did not find the body of Jesus.

For these women, anointing or embalmment is an attempt to hold death at bay, to preserve the corpse from decomposition. However, it was a wasted effort, because embalmment can only maintain a dead person in death; it cannot restore the dead person to life. And so on this first Easter morning the women now see that their concern for the dead body of Jesus and its preservation from decay was only a human endeavour. They realized that Jesus was not to be held captive by death, but that he is truly alive. They see that God has preserved the body of Jesus from decomposition in a definitive way, in a way that only God can accomplish. He died. He was not embalmed, but he did not decay. He broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave. In this episode we can see how inattentive the disciples of Jesus were to the many lessons he taught them about his passion, death and resurrection. Three times in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus predicted his passion, death and resurrection. Yet the disciples did not clearly understand him (Mt. 16:21-23; 17:22-23; 20:17-21). In John 2:19, when the Jews challenged Jesus to give a miraculous sign to prove why he had to drive away those selling worked for their Egyptian masters without pay. They owned nothing. Their labour was for another. Until you are free, your rights are theoretical. Israel had no rights until they were delivered from Egyptian slavery. They had no possessions until they were set free. Obadiah 1:17, How to be free A bird cannot come out of the cage unless someone lets it out. One day, one of my siblings wanted to play with my bird in my absence and left the cage door open. The bird hopped to the entrance and flew out of the cage into the air and out of our reach. It was gone; it was free!

There is only one word for freedom: JESUS! He came to open the cage so that captives can be set free. He came to set the captives free. He came to deliver the oppressed. He is mightier than Moses. He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5. See also Luke 4:18.

Jesus purchased for us a very perfect redemption (Ephesians 1:7). The Greek word translated redemption is the word apolutrosis which means ransom in full. The death of Jesus covered every angle.

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

Jesus does not set you free and goes away; He hangs around to make you. Making is a process. It requires patience.

Each time we talk of deliverance the only thing that comes to most in the Temple, he said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Evangelist John added that Jesus was referring to the temple of his body. Even the enemies of Jesus knew about this promise. That was why soldiers were stationed at the entrance to the tomb of Jesus to guard it (cf. Mt. 27:63-64).

The enemies of Jesus knew very well that Jesus made the prediction that the grave would not hold him in death. How come these women, and the other disciples of Jesus found it difficult to understand? As we have seen, Jesus told his followers again and again what would happen to him when they got to Jerusalem. He would suffer at the hands of sinful men, he would be crucified and on the third day be raised again. So, the arrest of Jesus should not have been a surprise to his disciples. His crucifixion and death should not have been a surprise. And even his resurrection should not have been a surprise. Jesus told them all these things in advance. But somehow the meaning of these things escaped them. It was only after these things had happened that they remembered his words and put it all together. That was why the angels said to the women, “Remember what he told you in Galilee, that the Son of Man had to be given into the hands of sinners, be crucified, and rise on the third day” (Lk. 24:5-7). It was at this point that the women recalled the words of Jesus.

It is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are who we are. The resurrection of Jesus Christ offers so much hope to the world. We live in a world filled with bitterness and doubt, people’s mind is demons. But a person can be free of demons and still not be completely free. The aim of being free is to enhance the quality of life.

Complete liberty must therefore include…

• Mental and psychological wellbeing. • Financial well being • Physical well being • Social well being The very place where the devil plans to humiliate you is the place where God will honour you. God elevated Joseph in the very land of Egypt where he suffered as a slave and prisoner. God will honour you in this very land.

I decree your freedom now, in the mighty name of Jesus!!

I see the chains breaking off of your life! I see you coming out of that predicament.

He came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. He came to lift us out of poverty and shame.

Are you willing to be set free from your sins? Are you willing to taste the life of the kingdom of God? Are you willing to come out of the cage of the devil and fly? Turn to Jesus today. Join us every Sunday we minister to people in detail. Have a blessed week.

Bishop Dr. Charles Olowojoba is the General Overseer of Dayspring Bible Church Worldwide with HQ in Abuja, Nigeria & President, Dayspring Christian Ministries Int’l. Website: www.dayspringcmi.org e-mail: dayspringcm2000@yahoo.com

Help line: 08035150515 but the empty tomb speaks of belief. We are surrounded by people filled with depression and desperation, but the empty tomb promises deliverance. To people filled with fear, the empty tomb speaks of the fearlessness of faith. To those bound by their sins, the empty tomb offers them a Saviour and Redeemer. And it turns people worried about punishment into people focused on praise. No other religion in the world offers this kind of hope. No matter what world religion you might think about, their founders are all lying in the tomb, gathering dust. But if you stop by the tomb where Jesus was buried, the body is not there. He is risen! Filled with the Holy Spirit, David had this spiritual intuition when he said: “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor let the body of your Holy One experience decay” (Ps. 16:10).

Like the women who went to the tomb, we too often search for the living among the dead. In our daily journey, we often need to hear that angelic admonition: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” How often do we look for life among dead things, things that cannot give life, things that are here today and gone tomorrow! We need the gentle words of the angel when we close ourselves within many forms of selfishness and self-complacency; when we allow ourselves to be seduced by the fascination of earthly powers and the things of this world, forgetting God and our neighbour; when we place our trust in worldly vanities. Then the word of God tells us: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Why are you looking where you cannot find life?