Worth the Living Because He Lives | Easter 2026 | 4.5.26

Welcome to the Journey Christian Church podcast.

This week's episode is a special Easter 2026 sermon.

It's called Worth the Living Because He Lives.

Amen.

Because Jesus lives, everything has changed.

The world has never been the same since that man came up out of the grave.

We have had a really good weekend so far.

We had a Thursday night worship service, and on Saturday we had uh the Easter egg hunt, and and I was talking to Liam.

Being a preacher's kid is not easy because uh sometimes you get asked to do things that uh normal kids don't get asked to do.

Um we had Liam dress up in the Easter bunny suit on Saturday, and uh he only dropped one baby, so it wasn't bad.

Um but uh he said, you know, Dad, I've been really inspired and excited about Easter and the resurrection of Jesus, and and now today you've got me dressed up as Jesus' replacement.

What is different because he lives?

What is different because Jesus rose from the grave?

Uh sometimes as I'm living my life and and doing the routine things, the mundane things that you just have to get done, that we all have, you know, you might uh be mowing the grass or or uh changing light bulbs or or uh you know doing things far more unpleasant than those, and it's easy to think, what what is this for?

What is my purpose?

What does this have to do with the fact that the Son of God, Savior of the world, rose from the grave and now everything is different?

How is it sometimes it seems like life is still mundane, monotonous, routine?

What does Jesus intend to be different about us because he lives?

A question that all of us should be pondering what is the meaning of life?

Do you ever feel like every day is just like the day before?

You keep going through the motions and you can't really tell if you're getting anywhere.

You feel like there must be something more.

That there must be a greater adventure to experience.

There must be greater goals to achieve, more to living than just getting by.

Someone once said, you aren't really living unless you find something to die for.

Something worth dying for.

Jesus found something worth dying for, and it was you and me.

Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection changed the world.

You trace back the history of mankind up to that point, and there is a marked difference in the way that women are treated, in the way that children are treated, in the way that human life is valued.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus changed everything.

He died so that we might be close to God once again.

And he arose to take away all of our fears.

Even now, at this time, Jesus lives to give us something to look forward to, something to fight for, and something to live for.

It's amazing, you know, Jesus.

I think for me, if if I came and did everything that Jesus did, uh lived, taught, uh, died for people, rose from the grave, I would kind of be thinking, all right, my job's done.

But Jesus exists in heaven and in our hearts as our good shepherd.

And I want to study what the rever what the resurrection means to us by looking at what Jesus intends to be to us as our good shepherd.

In John chapter 10, verse 1, this is what Jesus said.

John 10:1

I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way is a thief and is a robber.

The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.

The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought them all brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him, because they know his voice.

But they will never follow a stranger.

In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.

Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

Do we?

Therefore, Jesus said again, I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.

All whoever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the gate.

Whoever enters through me will be saved.

He will come in and go out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

What has changed because Jesus lives?

I am the Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.

Pray with me, please.

Father in heaven, we uh cannot express in words our gratitude, all the songs that we sang, the video that we we saw, the reminders of what you did when you became man and dwelt among us, sending your son to live among us, to take our guilt and shame and sin upon himself, to die on the cross, rising from the grave.

Lord, we cannot, we cannot express it in words, what that means to us.

And Father, I pray that you would help us not to miss the life that you have for us now.

The adventure you have for us now, the meaning and purpose that you have for us now.

The change that you desire to see, that you intend to bring about in our lives because Jesus lives.

Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes to your spiritual truth, that through our spiritual minds, our spiritual eyes, we would see clearly what Jesus intends for us to know.

In his name we pray.

Amen.

Number one, because he lives, we are offered God's personal attention.

God, anytime, the creator of the universe will be with us as much as we want for as long as we want.

You know, if somebody's ever said to you, um, you talk too much or whatever, the Heavenly Father is going to listen.

I remember the kid, my kid's mom, um, her mom, every once in a while, because she she talked quite a bit, her mom would tell her to be quiet and not talk so much.

And she she said that she would never do that to any of her children.

And so we would be on a road trip together, and uh the kids would start talking up a storm.

And every once in a while it got to her, and she would say, Kids, why don't you just look out the window for a little bit?

And I would look at her and she would say, Shut up.

Our Heavenly Father will listen when nobody else will.

He will spend time when nobody else seems interested.

He knows us better than anyone ever has.

And it we who have always lived our entire lives, we have lived with the opportunity to have relationship with God.

Not everybody in history has had that opportunity.

In the Old Testament days, when mankind fell and their sin that entered into the earth, God's door closed shut and people could not get close to him.

It was shut, it was locked, and it was bolted.

And it was even scary to go near it.

The Israelites pleaded to not be close to the presence of God because they were so terrified.

In fact, in the Old Testament, only one man, one day out of the year, could be in the presence of God.

Presence of God, he dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the temple.

I've got a picture here, and that was where the Ark of the Covenant resided.

The Ark of the Covenant was to be symbolic of the throne of God.

And so when the Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant into the battle, they were carrying God on his throne into the battle.

That's what the image was intended to convey.

And so the Holy of Holies was closed off, and they had this curtain that was six inches thick, and it was super high, and the only person that could ever go past that curtain was a high priest once a year, and it was scary to be in the presence of God.

They tied a belt, or excuse me, a rope around his waist and a bell to his clothes, and because if the if the high priest messed up in there, God would strike him dead.

And so they would listen for that bell to keep going, and if that bell ever stopped, they figured he'd probably died in there, and so they'd pull him out by the rope.

The opportunity to be close to God did not exist.

And yet a miracle occurred when Jesus rose from the grave, when Jesus, excuse me, when Jesus died on the cross.

In Matthew chapter 27, verse 50, it says, And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

Matthew 27:50

At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

And it was to say, God's door is now open to the world.

The relationship is now available to everybody because of what Jesus has done.

And we can be as close to God as often as we want, spend as much time with him as he wants, and he knows us as a father and a friend.

Amen.

It's amazing the amount of attention the Creator of the universe gives to us.

He knows our names.

He knows the number of hairs on our heads.

He knows our past.

He knows our future.

And his love for us is beyond anything we could possibly imagine.

John chapter 10, verse 2 again says, the man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.

John 10:2

The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought them out on his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him.

He leads us because they know his voice.

Chippy never saw it coming.

Chippy was a parakeet and uh living a peaceful life until that fateful day.

His owner was cleaning the house and and had a vacuum cleaner out and and uh saw that the cage was was sullied and so put the vacuum cleaner attachment into the cage and then the phone rang and she went like that and turned back and Chippy was gone.

She tore open the vacuum cleaner as quickly as she could, and and thankfully Chippy was still alive, but he was just covered in filth and dust and debris.

So she raced Chippy down the hallway into the bathroom and put the bird under some freezing cold water and cleaned him up and then realized it was shivering.

And so she got out the hot hairdryer and just blasted the bird with the hairdryer.

Now the bird cleaned and all puffed up.

She put the bird back in the cage, and a few days later a friend asked how Chippy was doing, and and she said, You know, Chippy doesn't sing much anymore.

He just kind of sits there and stares.

This life can do this to us.

Have you ever been through something that was so hard that you just didn't really enjoy the things that you used to enjoy anymore?

The things you used to find pleasure in, you just don't find pleasure in them anymore.

The song is stolen from your heart, and uh you wonder, will I ever feel okay again?

In those times, it's so important to remember that we have a good shepherd that knows our battles, he knows what we need, and he has a path forward for us if we will learn to listen to his voice and follow his leading.

I I cannot get over the fact that I can have God's personal attention at any time because Jesus lives.

Number two, because he lives, we can have an honest and caring guide.

Um I've probably like a lot of you have been thinking about this war in Iraq in Iran a lot and watching as much news as I can on it, and um, you know, wondering what does the rest of the world really think about what's going on over there?

I stumbled across a video on YouTube that was a propaganda video set out sent out by Iran and it was shown in India, and it said, you know, every single missile and every drone that Iran has fired has expertly hit its target, and uh the world was not prepared and cannot believe the military prowess of Iran.

They had no idea um how uh uh formidable Iran was.

And I'm watching that and I'm thinking, does anybody believe this?

And then I read the comments, and almost every comment was like the world was not ready.

The world had no idea, and Iran is is showing itself to be the superpower of the world.

And then I started thinking about what we hear on our news stations, and the reality is almost all of our news is propaganda as well.

It's either left-leaning or right-leaning, but it's always this one side does everything right, and this other side does everything wrong, and it's just this constant spin, and and it can be frustrating.

How in the world can we know what the truth is in this world where we are being lied to constantly?

How can we know what the truth is?

Jesus warned us that there would be a lot of people trying to lead us who do not have our best interests at heart.

There are a lot of politicians trying to lead us, there are a lot of world leaders trying to lead us, there are religious leaders trying to lead us that don't necessarily have our best intentions at heart.

In John chapter 10, verse 7, he said this.

John 10:7

Therefore, Jesus said again, I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.

All whoever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

Be very careful who you listen to, because there are a lot of people that do not care about you.

There are a lot of people selling you something for their own interests.

For instance, there are people that will tell you that all roads lead to heaven.

Jesus said down in verse 9, I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved.

And then he speaks more exclusively in John chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life.

John 14:6

No one comes to the Father except through me.

There are not many roads that lead to heaven.

There's one.

There is one way.

There are liars that will tell you stories about what the afterlife, afterlife is like.

And finally he set the hook with this one statement.

He said, really, the only people in the afterlife who don't have peace are those who, when they were alive, they doubted mediums.

In this world, full of hidden agendas, deception, conflict conflicting stories, how do we know what's true?

Jesus said, I am the truth.

Jesus said, My sheep know my voice.

Those that are following Jesus, there is a voice that cuts through all of the noise.

And the great thing about this voice, why we can trust this voice, is because the man behind this voice loved us so much that he laid down his life for us.

Listen to him.

You want to know who has your best interest at heart, who has given themselves for you, who has taken on your sin, who has sacrificed himself, listen to the one who has done this, read his words, study his words, because his words are always true.

Obey what he says, follow the good shepherd, because we have in Jesus, because he lives, an honest and caring guide.

Number three, because he lives, we have good news of a glorious future no matter what.

Now, you know probably the old hymn, Because He Lives, it says, Because he lives, all fear is gone.

How is it that the resurrection of Jesus has the ability to take away all my fears?

How is it that all fear can be gone because he lives?

There's a lot of people, you know, that if they arose from the grave, I wouldn't think, you know, that it would do much for my fears, wouldn't take my fear away.

You know, Chuck Norris might come back from the grave, and we might even expect him to, you know, it sounds like something he would do.

But it wouldn't do anything for my fear unless he was my personal bodyguard.

Then it would help a little bit, you know.

And Billy Graham might come back from the grave and it would be a wonderful thing, but it wouldn't do anything for my fears.

Why is it that the resurrection of Jesus does something to take away all of our fears?

And the answer is because of who he claimed to be and what he promised to do.

And he staked all of it on this one event of the resurrection.

He said, if the resurrection happens, then everything else I've said is true.

I have the authority to lay down my life and take it up again.

And if that's true, then I have all authority.

If God grants me this, you can trust me on everything else.

If the resurrection is true, Jesus is the Son of God that he claims to be.

If the resurrection is true, then what Jesus says, he will be our shepherd throughout life out our lives, this is true.

He will lead us beside still waters and in green pastures.

If the resurrection is true, then he died in our place and removed all of our guilt.

And if he removed all of our guilt, then we have no reason to stand before the throne of God.

The amazing opportunity that Christians have is this God practices selective forgetfulness.

If you're in Christ, he forgets all of your sin.

And from that point on, the time you come to Christ, he only remembers what you do for him.

If the resurrection is true, then our guilt.

And our shame is already gone.

If the resurrection is true, then we have one who will shepherd us.

If the resurrection is true, one day he is going to crack the sky and he is going to come back exactly the way he came.

And if the resurrection is true, that means that right now he is preparing for us an eternal home in his father's house.

And if the resurrection is true, then one day when we see God face to face, something incredible is going to happen.

I don't know what you think about the first time you see God, what that's going to be like, but here's what the Bible describes.

When you see God face to face, first thing he's going to do is to personally wipe the tears from your eyes.

Because he lives, all fears are gone.

Preacher Bob Russell talked about a funeral that he did for a woman who she died in her 70s and she'd been married for 50 years.

And he what is the custom at funeral is the preacher usually stands at the head of the casket as everybody files by paying their last respects.

And it's kind of a sacred place to be, and sometimes it feels a little bit like eavesdropping as people come by and say their final words.

And after everybody had filed through, he was left in the room with the husband of 50 years who came up to his wife in the casket and choking back tears, he started patting her hand.

And then he said something to her that he has probably said a thousand times before.

Good night, darling.

I'll see you in the morning.

If Jesus rose from the grave, that is not some sentimental fantasy.

But it is a truth that you can live for.

Because Jesus lives, we have access to God.

Because he lives, we have an honest and caring guide.

And because he lives, we have a glorious future that sickness and death and any of the problems of life nothing can touch.

Life is worth the living.

Because he lives.