Easter Sunday 2026
Description
In this Easter message from John 18, Dr. Kurt Bjorklund makes the case that Jesus is not merely a historical figure but a substitute for human failure and the leader of a kingdom that changes everything — inviting you to stop avoiding the question of who Jesus is and start living for something greater.
Message Summary
Is Jesus Worth Your Consideration This Easter?
Every year around Easter, the question surfaces again: Who was Jesus, really? News articles debate archaeological findings. Scholars argue over history and meaning. And most of us quietly wonder whether any of it matters for our everyday lives.
In an Easter message drawn from John 18, Kurt made the case that Jesus is not a figure you can indefinitely avoid — and that the evidence for who he is, and what he offers, is more compelling than many people realize. The sermon centered on three claims: Jesus is historical, Jesus is a substitute, and Jesus is a revolutionary.
Jesus Is Historical
Kurt opened with a straightforward challenge: before dismissing Jesus, intellectual honesty requires actually investigating the evidence.
The Gospels, he argued, are not the kind of documents you'd expect if someone were simply inventing a religion. They were written within a single generation of the events — close enough in time that eyewitnesses could have refuted inaccurate accounts. They are filled with specific names and places that function almost like footnotes, verifiable details that legends simply don't bother with. And perhaps most telling, the accounts are deeply unflattering to the disciples themselves. If you were fabricating a story to gain followers, you wouldn't write that your heroes missed the resurrection entirely — that only two women showed up at the tomb, bringing spices to deal with the smell of a dead body.
The empty tomb is a matter of historical record. The question of why it was empty is where faith enters — but Kurt pointed out that the most straightforward explanation remains the one the disciples died defending: Jesus rose from the dead.
As he noted, people of the first century were no more inclined to believe in resurrections than we are. This wasn't a credulous age. Dead people didn't come back to life then, either. Which is precisely why the resurrection, if true, changes everything.
Jesus Is a Substitute
The second point emerged from the exchange in John 18 between Pilate and the crowd. Pilate, looking for a way out of a difficult decision, offered to release one prisoner — Jesus or Barabbas. The crowd chose Barabbas, a man who had taken part in a violent uprising. The innocent one was condemned so the guilty one could go free.
Kurt called this a picture of the entire Easter message.
"Jesus goes to the cross so that he, the innocent, can take the place of those who are guilty. And he is the substitute."
The Apostle Paul put it plainly: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). The result, according to Romans 8:1, is that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
The sticking point for many people, Kurt acknowledged, is that this feels too easy. We want to contribute something — to earn it, to add our own effort to the equation. But as he quoted from one author:
"What if Jesus kept up our end of the bargain for us? Those who are broken and bold enough to ask questions find themselves seated at the table with smiling sinners, too drunk on grace to remember the rules — and yet they all seem to know them by heart."
The gospel isn't something we achieve. It's something we receive.
Jesus Is a Revolutionary
The third point may be the most unexpected. In John 18:36–37, Jesus tells Pilate: "My kingdom is not of this world... the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth."
Kurt drew on Augustine's ancient concept of two cities — the City of God and the City of Mankind — to argue that followers of Jesus are called to live as citizens of a coming kingdom while still inhabiting the present one. Theologians call this the "already and not yet": the kingdom has begun, but it isn't yet fully realized.
And here's where it gets personal. Kurt suggested that every time you've ached for the world to be different — every time injustice has made you angry, or loneliness has made you long for real community, or suffering has made you cry out this isn't how it should be — you've been feeling the pull of the revolutionary kingdom of Jesus.
He quoted an unnamed author who catalogued the outsized impact Christians have had on science, healthcare, the arts, higher education, and justice movements throughout history — from Copernicus and Newton to William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King Jr. — all driven by their conviction that the kingdom of God demands the flourishing of the world.
"The identifying mark of the City of God is when the citizens of the heavenly city become the very best citizens of the earthly one. To be on the side of Jesus Christ is to be on the side of the world and its flourishing."
Every act of honesty, generosity, and kindness — every small group that pushes back against loneliness, every person who finds freedom from addiction through faith — is a signpost of this revolution already underway.
The problem, Kurt noted, is that most of us would rather run our own kingdom than submit to this one. Ernest Becker, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Denial of Death, observed that when people have nothing greater to live for, they look for meaning in romance or achievement — and it's never enough. The invitation of Easter is to stop building a kingdom around yourself and join one that is actually going somewhere.
Two Questions Worth Sitting With
Where are you in your investigation? Kurt argued that intellectual honesty requires at least genuinely engaging with the historical claims about Jesus — not dismissing them by default. Have you actually examined the evidence, or have you simply been avoiding the question?
Which kingdom are you building? If the revolutionary kingdom of Jesus calls his followers to be instruments of truth, kindness, and justice in the world — what would it look like, practically, for you to take one step in that direction this week?
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Blaise Pascal (philosopher)
"One of the reasons we don't believe this is because down deep, we don't like what it says about us — that we need a savior, ultimately." (Paraphrased/quoted via Mark Lilla's book, Ignorance and Bliss [2024])
Ernest Becker (author, The Denial of Death [1974])
Paraphrased: "When we live with no grander purpose than just our current life, our life feels pointless and meaningless... what we've done as a society is we've looked for solutions where none exist... we've looked for the solution among the romantic partner and the creative solution."
St. Augustine (early church theologian)
Paraphrased: "The City of God is where the people of God begin to live by the values of God, but they live inside this other city still... as Christians begin to live more fully in step with the revolutionary kingdom of God, they then impact the city — or the kingdom — of humanity more and more fully over time."
Unnamed Source
"The identifying mark of the City of God is when the citizens of the heavenly city become the very best citizens of the earthly one. To be on the side of Jesus Christ is to be on the side of the world and its flourishing."
Unnamed Source
"We want so desperately to mix in some of our rule-keeping or our performance. We'd give anything to add something of our own label, but it never turns out as we hoped... what if Jesus kept up our end of the bargain for us? Those who are broken and bold enough to ask questions find themselves seated at the table with smiling sinners, too drunk on grace to remember the rules, and yet they all seem to know them by heart... The bar is always open and the drinks are all paid for — and thank the bartender. Raise your glass and drink straight the gospel."
Unnamed Source
"History is peppered with these kinds of lives. For example, Christians have shown groundbreaking leadership in science — think Pascal, Copernicus, Newton, Galileo, Francis Collins. They've shown leadership in health care — think of all the hospitals named after a saint. They've shown it in arts and literature — think Rembrandt, Bach, Dorothy Sayers, Dostoevsky, T.S. Eliot, Johnny Cash, Bono. They've shown it in the academy — think of all the Ivy League universities that were founded by Christians. All but one were founded with the idea of Christian education. Think of mercy and justice — think of the names William Wilberforce, Hannah More, Dorothy Day, George Müller, Martin Luther King Jr., who were all informed by their Christian faith to make a difference in the world in which we live."
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Welcome and Opening Prayer
Happy Easter. Welcome. It's great to be together. A special welcome to those of you in the lobby and in the chapel. Thanks for your flexibility.
And also, a special welcome for the first time — for a public gathering — for those in our Mars Gibsonia new campus meeting at the Keene Theater, and for those in Beaver Valley for the first time for a public gathering in our new facility there as well. Special welcome.
Let's pray together. God, as we are here together today, I ask that you would speak to us — to each of us — wherever we're coming from, whatever our perceptions are. I ask that my words would reflect your word in content and in tone and in emphasis. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Introduction
Every year around this time, it seems like there are news articles, exposés, and stories about finding the "real Jesus." What I mean by that is, last year there was an article that came out talking about archaeology where they had found an archaeological garden at the spot where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is — which is the church in Jerusalem where allegedly Jesus had been buried. And so that's where the tomb was. And they found evidence of the garden, saying that this accounts for or gives credence to the account of John's Gospel, where we see that there was a garden there.
Now, there are many who feel that Jesus was buried somewhere else, and so maybe that's not as conclusive as some think that it is. But the point of the article was to say, "You can believe this because there's historical data." And then on the other side, there was a story in the Scottish Journal of Theology saying that just because there's some objective reality and subjective kind of thought, those two things don't have to always be merged. You can say, whatever the objective reality is, your subjective reality can be different — can be better.
And the reason I think these stories are out there every year around this time is because when we come to the events that are commemorated this week — the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ — it forces us in some ways to say, "Do I believe that Jesus is this historical figure who was God, who came to die for the sins of humanity, who rose to life, and who lives and who will one day return?" Or is this thing not that?
And so we're kind of put in this place. I was thinking about this the other day. I was driving — and if I was from the West Coast, I would say "on the 79," but since I live here, I'll just say "79." And I was driving, and in front of me there was a car, and in front of that car was a pickup truck. And I didn't see it at the time, but the pickup truck had a tonneau cover on the back, which is one of those covers that goes over the back end of the bed. And at one point, the tonneau cover blew off of this truck, and it blew so that it landed on the car in front of me. Now, this is happening in split-second kind of time. And so I have this moment where I have to decide — am I going left, am I going right, am I trying to hit my brakes? What am I going to do to respond to this moment? And I assume I was going about 55, and so I had to kind of swerve. And then the tonneau cover blew off the car and came right at me, and it shattered kind of as it came off. And I had just swerved just enough that I missed it. I avoided the whole thing, and I'm fine — thank you.
Now, here's my point. Yeah, thank you very much. My point is that in that moment, I could not avoid dealing with this event. And many of us might think, "Well, I can avoid dealing with Jesus — I'll just not think about it for another year." But sooner or later, you have to deal with who Jesus is.
And so today I would like to just take a few moments and look with you at a passage in John 18. It's not a typical resurrection passage — it happened just a little before this. But in this, we see some aspects of who Jesus is. And for many people, maybe you're here today and you say, "Look, I get this. I believe that Jesus is God, that he's a historical figure, that he's the Savior." And for some, you may say, "Well, I'm not so sure." Or maybe you don't see the relevance — you say, "If he's historical, what does it have to do with me?" Or maybe it's not very compelling. But I think in this passage we see a compelling picture of Jesus that is worthy of consideration.
Jesus Is Historical
So here's the first aspect of Jesus, and I'm just going to simply say that Jesus is historical. And what I mean by this is that a man named Jesus really lived, he really died, and the tomb was empty.
Now, you can debate whether he rose from the dead, but the rest of that is history in a way that is unmistakable. Now, you may say, "Well, okay, we get this from the Gospels, right? The Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Aren't those written by people who were followers of Jesus? Therefore, isn't it tainted because they had an interest in propagating this story?"
And in some ways, that might be true. We read in verse 33 here, where it says, "Pilate then went inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked, 'Are you the king of the Jews?'" I mean, this was set historically. And to say, "Well, the Gospels were written by those who already believe, therefore it's irrelevant," misses something that's important.
In fact, I heard the other day that with a new mission to the moon — I don't know if you saw this — but supposedly of people under the age of 30, 25% don't believe that we actually went to the moon in a previous generation. Now, I'm not here to debate that, but my point is, as you get farther away from something, fewer and fewer people say, "Oh, that's true." And here's the reality of the Gospels: they were written too soon after the events — within one generation — to be myth, to be legend. And what that means is there were people around who could counteract the accounts if they weren't given in a way that was accurate.
Not only that, these are too detailed to be myth or legend. The way myths and legends are written, they're written so that you kind of hear them and they don't have a lot of details. But in the Gospel accounts, they're peppered with names and people that you could actually go — they're like footnotes that you could go and talk to. So when it talks about Mary of Magdalene — Mary Magdalene — what that means is that Mary, who lived in the town of Magdala, is somebody you could go check with and say, "Oh, this is the account." And there was great specificity.
But not only that, these accounts are too counterproductive to be myth or legend. And here's what I mean: if you were writing history and trying to make yourself look good — which you would naturally do — you wouldn't present yourself the way the disciples presented themselves. Jesus repeatedly said, "I'm going to suffer and die, and in three days I'll be raised to life." And do you know where the disciples were on the day that Jesus had said he would come back to life? Only two women went to the grave. And do you know why they went to the grave? They brought spices. And why did they bring spices? To deal with the stench of a dead body. They didn't gather together saying, "Jesus is coming back." They instead went through a process of simply saying, "This is not going to happen."
And I mentioned that history says the grave was empty. And you may say, "Well, that doesn't prove that Jesus rose from the dead — you could say the disciples stole the body, they lied about it, they made up the story." But most of these disciples went to their deaths holding to the idea that Jesus was alive. And you know what happens when truth costs you more than a lie? You abandon the lie. You might say, "Well, maybe they got the wrong tomb." But there was a whole guard set up there — I mean, that's just not likely in any kind of way of thinking about it.
And so what is more likely is that Jesus really did die, really went to the grave, and really rose from the dead. And the history that talks about it is accurate. And sometimes the reason that it's hard to believe this in our day and age is some of us say, "Well, you know, we're people of science today. We don't believe stuff — those were primitive people who believed this kind of stuff." But the reality is the people of that day didn't believe this kind of stuff any more than we do.
I heard a story some time ago about two women who were neighbors who were always kind of beefing with one another. One owned a German shepherd, the other had a rabbit. And one of the reasons that they had a little beef is because the German shepherd was always trying to get the rabbit. And so they'd say, "Don't let your dog come over here," and "Don't let your rabbit out" — that kind of back and forth. Well, one day, the woman who owned the German shepherd went outside and she saw her German shepherd with a rabbit in its mouth, and it was dead, and it was the neighbor's rabbit. And she was horrified because she thought, "This is going to really destroy our relationship." And so she said, "Okay, here's what I'm going to do — I don't want her to pin this on my German shepherd. So I'm going to take this rabbit inside, I'm going to clean it up." So she brought the rabbit in, she washed it, she blow-dried its hair, and she snuck back over and put it in the rabbit's cage. She thought, "Okay, the rabbit's dead, but she's going to think the rabbit had a heart attack — not blame my dog." Well, a few hours later, she hears this screaming, and she runs outside and she's like, "What happened?" She's like, "My bunny — it's come back from the dead! We buried it two weeks ago."
Now, my point is this: rabbits don't come back from the dead. And for the first century, dead rabbis didn't come back from the dead either. This is something that is amazing to behold.
Mark Lillo wrote a book recently called Ignorance and Bliss, and in it he talks about how sometimes the reason we don't believe something is we don't want to believe it, because we don't want the implications. You see, sometimes the reason that people don't want to believe in Jesus is because if Jesus is real — if Jesus lived and died — then it means that our worldview needs to come into alignment with the worldview that we get in the Bible. And if Jesus is really the king of the universe, it means what he says about us is true.
In fact, in Mark Lillo's book, he quotes Blaise Pascal at one point — Blaise Pascal is a famous philosopher of a previous era. He said, "One of the reasons we don't believe this is because, down deep, we don't like what it says about us — that we need a savior, ultimately."
And so Jesus is historical. And if you question that, intellectual honesty demands that you at least investigate it.
Jesus Is a Substitute
Here's a second aspect of Jesus, and that is — I'm just going to say — Jesus is a substitute.
And I say this because of this little section here where Pilate says, "Look, you have a custom to release somebody — do you want me to release the King of the Jews to you?" For Pilate, this was his attempt to say, "I don't want to deal with this decision that's in front of me. I want to put it off. I want to find a way to absolve myself of having to deal with Jesus." And the crowd says, "No, give us Barabbas," who was somebody who had been part of an insurrection — meaning he was notorious, he was probably hated in many ways.
And what we see in verse 38 — it says, "What is truth?" This is Pilate now retorting again to Jesus. And with this, he went out to the Jews gathered there and said, "I find no basis for this charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release the King of the Jews?" They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas." Now, Barabbas had taken part in the uprising.
And what happens here, very simply, is that Jesus is substituted for the one who was guilty. The one who wasn't guilty took his place so that the one who was guilty could go free. In a way, it's a picture of what the message of Easter — Good Friday — is all about. Jesus goes to the cross so that he, the innocent, can take the place of those who are guilty. And he is the substitute.
Now, you may say, "Well, okay, I kind of lose it here. Maybe I can give Jesus being historical and the empty tomb and some of that — but do I really need a savior? I'm pretty good. I'm going to earn my own way." But the Scriptures are unmistakable on this. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Do you know the "all" includes me and it includes you? Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death, but that the free gift of God is eternal life. And then Romans 8:1 says, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," meaning that the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ has been completed through what he did in the events that are historical and that we think about here today.
And so Jesus is a substitute. One author, in writing about this — and this is maybe a lengthier quote than I normally do, but I put it on the screen so you can read it; it's a little wordy, but I think it's worth it — talks about why this is troubling in some ways to us. We want so desperately to mix in some of our rule-keeping or our performance. We'd give anything to add something of our own label, but it never turns out as we hoped. We start to feel like we can't keep up our end of the bargain. We feel as though we've failed.
But what if we don't need our own label? What if Jesus kept up our end of the bargain for us? Those who are broken and bold enough to ask questions find themselves seated at the table with smiling sinners, too drunk on grace to remember the rules — and yet they all seem to know them by heart. We're served glass upon glass, and something happens. The gospel becomes the power of God and the wisdom of God. The power of God, because we taste something strong enough to save us. And the wisdom of God, because we taste something good enough to change us. The bar is always open and the drinks are all paid for — and thank the bartender. Raise your glass and drink straight the gospel.
You see, sometimes we don't want to believe in what Jesus is about because we want to think we've done something to earn it. It seems almost too easy. But Jesus is the substitute. And this is something we can believe and embrace, and it changes everything.
Jesus Is a Revolutionary
There's one more aspect here of Jesus. Not only is he historical and is he the substitute, but I'm going to say that Jesus is a revolutionary.
And we see this in this king imagery, where he says, "Are you the King of the Jews?" and they go back and forth on this whole imagery. And then in verses 36 and 37, we see this: "Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.' 'You are a king then!' said Pilate. Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.'" And that's when Pilate delivers kind of his scoffing line where he says, "What is truth?"
Jesus said, "My kingdom is from another place." Theologians have long talked about the kingdom of God as being an "already and a not yet." It's already here — it's here in part. But it will come in fullness in the future. But "not yet" — we haven't fully realized it as it could be.
And you may be here and say, "Well, okay, what does this really have to do with me?" Whether you're a longtime Christian or you're just considering the claims of Jesus — anytime you've longed for things to be different, what you're doing is you're longing for the revolutionary kingdom of Jesus Christ. Think about the war that we're seeing right now. The threats are on both sides to blow up desalination plants. Do you know what that means? That means that if this happens, millions of people won't have clean drinking water, which will be devastating. And if you've ever thought about that and said, "Can't this be different? Can we find a better way to solve some of these problems?" — you've longed for the revolutionary kingdom of Jesus Christ. If you've experienced injustice and you've just thought, "Can't this world be different? Shouldn't this world be different?" — if you've seen a lack of love and said, "Shouldn't this world be different than it is?" — you've longed for the revolutionary kingdom of Jesus Christ.
St. Augustine wrote about this in the early church. He talked about the City of God and the City of Mankind. And he said, "The City of God is where the people of God begin to live by the values of God, but they live inside this other city still." And his idea was to say, as Christians begin to live more fully in step with the revolutionary kingdom of God, they then impact the city — or the kingdom — of humanity more and more fully over time.
But some of us may say, "Well, that isn't really what I see in terms of Christians and the revolution of Jesus Christ." One author, in writing about this, talked about how Christians have done more for this world in the name of Christ than any other group. Here's what he said:
History is peppered with these kinds of lives. For example, Christians have shown groundbreaking leadership in science — think Pascal, Copernicus, Newton, Galileo, Francis Collins. They've shown leadership in health care — think of all the hospitals named after a saint. They've shown it in arts and literature — think Rembrandt, Bach, Dorothy Sayers, Dostoevsky, T.S. Eliot, Johnny Cash, Bono. They've shown it in the academy — think of all the Ivy League universities that were founded by Christians. All but one were founded with the idea of Christian education. Think of mercy and justice — think of the names William Wilberforce, Hannah More, Dorothy Day, George Müller, Martin Luther King Jr., who were all informed by their Christian faith to make a difference in the world in which we live.
And then he says: "The identifying mark of the City of God" — hearkening back to this idea of Augustine's City of God — "is when the citizens of the heavenly city become the very best citizens of the earthly one. To be on the side of Jesus Christ is to be on the side of the world and its flourishing."
You see, the kingdom — the revolution of Jesus — is something he invites his followers into, to say, "I want you to be part of the already and the not yet, in this alternate city." And here's what this means: every time that you gather in a small group and push back on loneliness and push on accountability with one another, you are living out the revolutionary kingdom of God. Every time you choose honesty in your place of work instead of deception, even if it costs you money, you're pushing the revolutionary kingdom of God forward. Every time you're an instrument of kindness and generosity in this world, you're bringing about part of the revolutionary kingdom of God. And every time people gather — whether it be in beautiful auditoriums and storefronts and places in remote parts of the world that seemingly have no resources — and lift up the name of Jesus Christ, they are bringing about the revolutionary kingdom of God, because it pushes back on darkness.
I was talking to somebody this last week. The guy knew what I did — he doesn't live here locally, but he knew what I did. And he said to me twice in the conversation, "Yeah, God's been good to me. God is good." And so I kind of picked up on it and said, "So tell me — how has God been good to you?" And he said, "Five years ago, he brought me through and out of addiction. I was making a mess of my life and my family, and I wasn't able to find any way through it until Jesus Christ became Lord of my life." And every time we push back on addiction and destructive behaviors, we're bringing about the revolutionary kingdom of God to our alternate city.
But here's the problem: down deep, most of us want to be kings of our own kingdom rather than submitting to the kingship of Jesus Christ. I was thinking about this. I have a niece who lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband — she works there, and they have two little children, which makes them grand-nieces to me, I don't know. And they came and visited here a while back. And while they were here, their kids went to Kidsburg, our great kids' ministry. And the week that they went to Kidsburg, the teaching was on Saul becoming king in Israel. Saul became the first king, and they were warned that if they got an earthly king, the king would demand too much. And yet the people wanted a king. And so they had shouted, "We want a king! We want a king!" And to teach the kids the lesson in a way that would stick, they had the kids chant, "We want a king! We want a king!" And so they were like, "Okay, this is great."
My niece's child — not my grandniece, whatever you call her — she thought this was great. So she came home, she was like, "We want a king! We want a king!" Well, they go back to where they live — Washington, D.C. — and she's still enamored with this phrase, "We want a king." And they were on public transportation evidently one day, and there had been a "No Kings" rally. And she heard the people talking about it, and she decided it was time to chant, "We want a king! We want a king!"
Now, it's a goofy story. But the truth is, we want to be our own kings. And it's part of why submitting to the revolutionary kingship of Jesus Christ — the subversive work of Jesus Christ in our culture and in our world — is difficult for us.
More classically, Ernest Becker wrote about this in his book The Denial of Death — a 1974 Pulitzer Prize winner, over 50 years ago. He wrote it before he came to faith in Christ. And as he wrote it, he was talking about our denial of death and how, when we live with no grander purpose than just our current life, our life feels pointless and meaningless. And his solution — what he said at the time — is what we've done as a society. Again, 50 years ago now, he said we've looked for solutions where none exist. And he said, "What we've done is we've looked for the solution among the romantic partner and the creative solution."
And if you think about it, it's still true today. With nothing greater to live for, what many people do is they simply go through life saying, "If I can just find the person." This is why sometimes when people are first coming into the age of awareness, when a breakup happens, it feels devastating — because everything in them says, "This is what I need to have a happy life." If a marriage is unhappy, it isn't just unhappy — it becomes unbearable. When we lose a spouse, it becomes devastating, because everything in our life has been, "I need that person." Or it's the creative solution — and for Ernest Becker, that was simply what we do. We go through this world saying, "If I can just find a thing that makes me worthy," and it's always not enough.
And the way you see this today is: how do we introduce ourselves to people? Usually, what's the question? "What's your name?" and "What do you do?" — because we categorize that as being the most important thing.
We just saw an illustration of this recently. If you saw the news, Tiger Woods was just arrested for DUI once again. Clearly it's been a challenge in his life, and I don't know enough to have strong opinions about this — maybe it's because of the back pain and the need for medications and some other things, although it seems like it's a bigger issue. If you don't know who Tiger Woods is, he's a well-known golfer. He was probably the best golfer in the world — he was indisputably the best golfer in the world for a long time. And he's had some injuries, he's had multiple DUIs. He has lots of money, huge houses, lots of acclaim. He's had multiple well-known romantic partners in his life. And yet what happens is, every now and then, he gets to a point where he says, "Whatever I'm experiencing here, it's not enough," and he deadens the pain until he ends up rolling a car in a DUI.
You may say, "Well, look, I don't do that" — and hopefully not. But the point of it is, you can have all the romance, all the creativity and success that this world has to offer. But unless you align your life for something more, it will always feel like it's too little.
And Jesus Christ came to bring a revolution, a kingdom — and he invites you to join that kingdom.
Closing and Call to Response
You see, the Jesus that we celebrate here today is the Jesus of history. The Jesus that we celebrate here today is the Jesus who is God, who became human and lived a sinless life, went to the cross to die for the sins of humanity. The Jesus that we celebrate here today is raised to new life, where he sits now at the right hand of the Father making intercession for his people. The Jesus that we celebrate here today is the Jesus who will one day return and bring his kingdom in such a way that everything that is wrong and disheartening about our current world will be renewed. The Jesus that we celebrate here today is a substitute for anyone who believes. The Jesus that we celebrate here today is a Jesus who has initiated an alternate, revolutionary kingdom — where everything about those who follow him begins a new pattern that's subversive to our culture, where kindness and justice reign and where people work for the good of others.
And the question today is: which way will you go? Like when that cover flipped up in front of me on the highway — will you say, "I'm going to try to avoid dealing with it"? Or will you go one way or against it?
And the way you do that today is by simply saying, "I'm willing to investigate who this Jesus is." We have a new series starting next weekend on the experience of grace — how do you live in the reality of this, what difference does it make?
Or you say, "I do believe that Jesus is the substitute," and today you can acknowledge that you haven't always been part of the revolutionary work of Jesus. The Bible calls that sin — where you've been part of the injustice of the world, part of the lack of love — and therefore you need a substitute. You need a savior.
Or maybe you've believed in the historicity of Jesus and in his substitutionary death, but today you've lived more for your own kingdom than for his. And maybe this is just an invitation in a fresh way to say, "I'm going to join the kingdom — the revolution of Jesus Christ — as my priority in life." And that is how you'll respond to the King of Kings and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God, help us today to not just hear this and try to push it off for another day, but instead to respond with faith and join your revolution. And we pray it in the name of Jesus Christ.
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This transcript was generated by automated transcription software and subsequently formatted and lightly edited by AI (Claude, by Anthropic) for readability. Edits were limited to punctuation, minor grammatical corrections, paragraph breaks, and the addition of section headings. The content and wording reflect the original spoken sermon as closely as possible. Readers are encouraged to consult official recordings for complete accuracy.
