Why do people still believe in Jesus? // Easter 2025 | Ps Jamie Corcoran

Are you, are you coming to the tree?

They strung up a man, they say who murdered three.

Strange things have happened here, no stranger would it be.

If we met at midnight in the hanging tree Are you, are you coming to the tree Where a dead man called out for his love to flee Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be If we met at midnight in the hanging tree

Night in the hanging tree

Well, everyone, to Chuck Sullis.

Come on, our Dublin congregation.

Come on, let me hear you.

And of course, family, let me hear you too.

And happy Easter.

To all of you today, whatever location you're watching in, it is so good that you're here with us.

My name is Jamie, and I'm one of the pastors on team.

And we're super thrilled that we get today to celebrate what is actually the most important event

in the Christian calendar.

Many of us grew up maybe being taught or thinking that Christmas is the quintessential most important event on the Christian calendar, but actually it's Easter.

And when we think about like all the iconic global parties all over the world, whether it be St.

Patrick's Day, whether it be Mardi Gras, whether it be Carnival, whatever it is in any culture, any nation, actually the greatest celebration, the greatest global party in the world

isn't any of those things.

It's actually Easter.

Would you believe that right now, literally hundreds of millions of believers from all different types of Christian faith traditions are gathering in churches literally all over the world to celebrate Easter.

If you're someone who's here today, you're not a Jesus follower, perhaps you were invited, you're new, you're a skeptic, we're so glad you're here.

But when we think about Christianity, the Christian message,

and we think about perhaps how easy it may feel to dismiss all this stuff, let's first of all think about the global weight of what's happening.

There are hundreds of millions of people today who are saying in some way, shape or form, God has done something in their lives that's worthy of celebrating.

Now, I get it.

When it comes to Ireland in 2025, when it comes to our country, our world, it can seem a little bit confusing to think that because in our country where we see the traditional church in decline, we see so many people turning away from religion, religious systems, turning away from religious traditions.

It's like, man, what's the big deal?

why like why is christianity still being celebrated in ireland in 2025 and i guess that's the heart of the question not only for today's celebration but actually for today's message if you're here and you're when you're not a jesus follower you're new to church you're skeptical you're curious or you walked away from religion perhaps the question you're asking in your in your own mind of us is why do people still believe in jesus or more specifically because sometimes we think if they're in africa or south america

or even North America.

Yeah, people believe there.

But why would people in Ireland, 21st century Ireland, still believe in Jesus?

Or maybe you're here and you are a Jesus follower.

You are someone who trusts in God and lives out active faith daily.

Maybe today is a reminder, as we celebrate Easter, what our belief in Jesus is all about.

Now, I want to tell you, this event, the Easter celebration event, is actually an event about an event.

meaning Easter isn't really about Easter.

Easter is all about the resurrection.

Easter is an event that punctuates on our calendar and reminds us to think about the most important event.

It isn't just the most important event in Christian history, but I would argue, as of many scholars, the most important event in human history, certainly Western history.

And when it comes to Easter, when it comes to the event of the resurrection, it's important that we're reminded today that Easter and resurrection and even the Christian message isn't built on religious systems.

I mean, many of us, perhaps like me, grew up in a religious system.

I grew up, as many did or do in Ireland, being a Roman Catholic, not really believing in God or practicing my faith.

In fact, being quite disillusioned, disenfranchised.

with the church and organized religion and religious systems.

And one of the things I pushed back hard against was so many people hid behind this system and proclaimed to be a Christian or a Catholic, but lived in the exact opposite way.

What I want to say to you today, as we think about Easter, is that the Easter message is not built on

religious systems.

It actually hinges on a resurrected Savior.

When we think about the message that birthed the movement, that is the church, the message and the movement have always been and should always be centered on the event

of the resurrection.

Whenever the church, that is the movement, or ever the message is re-centered on anything else other than the resurrection of Jesus, that's where all the weird and wacky things start to come in to the church.

But I want to remind us today that what should be centered on is the fact that Jesus lived, Jesus died,

And Jesus rose again.

And if, by the way, you're a skeptic or you're not someone who's a believer, you think, well, you know what?

I don't really believe he rose to death.

Well, if you're right, then here's what I want you to know.

Then that changes everything.

Because if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then what are we doing, really?

Why are we here?

Like, we don't need more rules.

We don't need more restrictions.

We don't need to be here on a Sunday if Jesus did not rise from the dead.

But if He did, and if you'd be open-minded for a few moments to come with me on this journey, if He did, in fact,

rise from the dead and is alive then that also changes everything but changes everything in the positive why because if jesus is alive and he is lord and he is the giver of life then everything about everything changes not just for the world in a macro sense

but for you and me in a personal sense.

I know for me, that's why I'm here.

Like I said, I wasn't raised as someone who came to a church like this.

I wasn't even I wasn't a believer.

I was skeptic.

I was antagonistic.

I was very cynical of church, very suspicious of church.

And it wasn't until one time

When I was traveling, playing rugby in another country, where I, as a young teenage boy, prayed a half-hearted prayer to a God I didn't even believe existed, expecting nothing to happen, and the presence of a resurrected Jesus filled that room, rattled me, confused me, shocked me, surprised me, worried me,

But ultimately, as I opened my heart to his presence, he changed my life forever.

I know for me personally, I know for many of us in our Nav and Come On, Dublin and the Dock environments, the reason why we're here isn't because of something we were taught, but because of someone we experienced.

that Jesus heals that Jesus helps and Jesus gives hope not just historically over the generations or over the years not just in churches like this but in churches like ours right now wherever you are wherever you're going to whatever your name is know this that if Jesus did in fact rise from the dead because he loves you because he is the author of life then everything changes the good for you too now

Where do we get this story from?

Well, there's lots of accounts.

There's four gospels in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And every one of the gospels tells a story of not just Jesus' life and his death and his burial, but also his resurrection.

What's so crucial as we think about the story of resurrection is that if Jesus had just lived and been a good man, a good teacher, a good leader, if he had even become a martyr and simply given his life for the message he was proclaiming,

then you know what, in a sense, so what?

I mean, so many religions, so many religious beliefs, so much religiosity out there is based upon someone who believes something and became a martyr.

What makes Christianity different, however, is that where so many other religions have a prophet or a leader or a teacher or a guru or a guide, and they point to something else, they point away from themselves, they died because of the message, but the message wasn't based on them, the message was based on whatever.

what makes jesus so different is that actually he made himself the center of his message which again make you be thinking why is that relevant well because if you're going to start something you're going to kick off

a new belief system, well, you gotta make sure that you as the leader come out the other end as the hero.

What you don't wanna happen is for the plan to end with you being betrayed, with you being arrested, with you being crucified, and you being buried.

And for most of history, for most of the world, if that's where the Christian story ended, that would be okay.

What makes Christianity different, however, is that Jesus did not stay dead.

In fact, we're told in all four gospels

that when Jesus was buried, none of his followers expected anything to happen.

None of his followers were outside his tomb waiting for some great, grand, glorious resurrection.

His followers were so afraid, so driven by their own sense of self-preservation that when he was arrested, when he was tried, when he was crucified, they all abandoned him.

They all left him for fear that they would meet the same fate.

So what happened?

What happened in the three and a half, four days

between their unfollowing on Good Friday and their radical proclamation of a risen Christ just a few days later.

And the answer is, as we're told in the Gospels, is they encountered a resurrected Christ.

Come with me, if you will, to the Gospel of John.

We're going to look at chapter 20 and verses 1 to 18.

This is John's account of what he experienced in the morning of resurrection.

Like I said, John himself, even though he's one of the closest friends and followers of Jesus,

he, like everybody else, had unfollowed Jesus on good fire.

They all decided, we can't, you know, we loved him when he was performing miracles, we loved his teaching, we loved his example, we loved being around him, but now that it's got serious and now he's been arrested by the law and about to be tried and killed, we're going to unfollow.

And so what happened was, was after he was crucified,

a number of friends of his took his body down and he was buried in a friend's tomb.

Now in the first century, people weren't buried in modern day Ireland where you have a grave and a gravestone and they're buried in the ground.

Back then, and still to this day in many hot climates,

what would happen is a kind of a cave would be carved out of a rock or mountain.

It'd be, you know, a tomb.

The body of the deceased would be placed in there.

After a period of time when only their bones were left, their bones would be collected and stored somewhere.

And that way the family could keep using the tomb.

So Jesus' body was placed in this tomb.

The idea being that after a few months, his bones would be recovered and then they could be reburied somewhere else.

And we're told that on the morning after this,

Verse 1, we're told that early in the morning, early in the first day of the week, we're told while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and she saw the stone had been removed from the entrance.

Now again, even though most of us, when we think about graves or tombs, we picture a modern day grave like in Ireland, the location where we're recording right now, there's actually some several tombs outside and there's these concrete structures, there's a door, there's a big stone that's kind of blocking the entrance of the tomb.

And so

Whenever someone's buried, some workers will come along and move that stone so a body can be put in or a body can be taken out.

Well, when Mary arrived at the tomb, she was shocked and surprised to find that the tomb was open, which kind of made her worried because her first thought wasn't like, oh my gosh, Jesus rose from dead because nobody was expecting that.

In fact, we're told in verse 2 that when she got there, she was freaked out that maybe someone had tampered with

Maybe it was an enemy of Jesus or some religious zealot had tampered with the tomb.

So in verse 2 we're told, So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one that Jesus loved, which is John, and said, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.

And we don't know where they've put him.

This is so interesting.

I mean, if you're reading the Gospels and you're reading the miracles, you're reading, you know, Jesus' teaching and even his own prediction that he'd be betrayed, killed and rise again, you would think that Jesus' followers would have been following so passionately, so zealously, so blindly that they all would have expected a resurrection.

But here we're told, number one, that Jesus' closest followers weren't even at the tomb.

And only for Mary Magdalene coming to visit that she found that the stone was to roll away.

And even for her, her first reaction wasn't like, hallelujah, praise the Lord, Jesus is risen.

No, her first reaction was, oh no, someone has tampered with it.

Someone has sabotaged, someone has done something bad against the tomb.

They've taken Jesus' body, which is so interesting, right?

Because nobody expected nobody.

Nobody expected nobody.

People expected what you and I would expect if we went to a tomb to see the coffin is still there and the deceased person's remains are in that coffin.

And what's so interesting is Mary was going to the tomb that day to pay homage and respect to the remains of a martyr.

For all the first followers at this point, Jesus had become a martyr in some kind of cause.

What she wasn't expecting, what we shouldn't be expecting, is a resurrected Messiah.

And Messiah is the term that they would have used in their language to describe Savior.

Mary was looking for the remains of a martyr, not evidence of a resurrected Messiah.

Messiah.

The verse continues in verse 11.

It says, Because again, this point, even though, you know, she's talked to the disciples, nobody in the circle is thinking resurrection.

She's thinking the worst.

Someone's vandalized and someone stole the body of Jesus.

And as she wept, we're told she bent over and she looked into the tomb because again, it was a cave.

And what she saw in verse 12 was two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been.

One at the head and one at the foot.

In verse 13 we're told, And they said to her, Woman, why are you crying?

Which, by the way, I know in modern vernacular, that sounds very rude.

Like, woman?

Like, hey, if you're married today, if you ever hope to be married, here's some advice.

Don't call your wife woman.

That's just for free.

But in ancient culture, this is just a polite way of greeting someone you did not know.

And so they ask her,

Why are you crying?

And she says, they have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they've put him.

Which is very interesting, because it comes out in a second.

Verse 14, at this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there.

Watch this.

She's looking straight at Jesus, but she did not realize it was Jesus.

It's so interesting, sometimes in our most difficult moments in life,

Sometimes in our greatest struggles, sometimes when it feels like God is absent or God is far, God is actually standing right in front of us.

Sometimes when we feel alone, abandoned, we're wondering why certain things happen a certain way and where is hope and where is help and where is God?

Actually, we don't realize that Jesus is there with us.

See, in her moment, she was fearing the worst.

And even though she was looking straight at Jesus, the key word she didn't realize.

I wonder how many times, friends, God has worked in your life and my life and our lives, but we haven't realized it was him.

We might call it luck.

We might call it good fortune.

We might call it, you know, whatever, Murphy's Law.

We may insert coincidence.

We call it all these things, but actually it's the hand of God, God's mercy working with us

and through us in our lives.

I know for me, that when I first put my faith in Jesus, I was a teenager.

But afterwards, as I started thinking about my life, I realized there was all these moments before that moment where actually God was there, present, trying to get through to me.

I just didn't realize it was Him.

Perhaps today for you, this is your realization moment.

Today is the moment you realize who God really is and what God really has done for you.

In verse 15, the story continues.

He asked her, woman, again, why are you crying?

Who is it you're looking for?

Thinking he was the gardener, which is very funny.

She said, sir, if you had, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him and I'll get him.

Which is very interesting.

The reason why Mary perhaps thought Jesus was the gardener is because the tomb, like our theme for this week's Easter, for this week's, this year's cost, was all about, it was in a garden.

And the garden is a very beautiful metaphor.

Because in nature and gardens, we have this picture of death and rebirth and life.

And as we're now well into spring, trees are budding and flowers are growing.

And it reminds us, after every winter, there's a spring and summer.

And so in the context of this garden,

Not only is Jesus risen as he fulfilled the metaphor of nature, but actually she mistakes him for the gardener.

And I love this because every woman has this wonderful matriarchal mama spirit.

So she turns into full mama mode and says, hey, if you've taken his body away, like tell me where he is and I'll go get him.

I'll go fetch him.

I'll fix it.

I'll make it work.

Just tell me where he is.

and I'll go sorted.

But of course, the irony is that because of her grief, I don't know if it was because her eyes were so full of tears, I don't know if it was because she just could not comprehend that Jesus was in fact alive, because again, when you watch someone die, and maybe like me, you've been at the bedside of family or friends, and you've held the hands of people who've died, their last breaths, their struggle, cancer, whatever it is, when you witness someone die and you know they're dead, not only is it incredibly heartbreaking,

Not only does it cut you right to the spirit and core of your being, but the possibility that they could live again seems just so bizarre, so unbelievable.

We don't know the exact reasons for why Mary didn't recognize Jesus, but we're told she didn't.

And again, think about her grief.

Not only has she lost

Jesus, not only have all these disciples lost Jesus, who was their friend, who was their leader, their teacher, he was the captain of the gang, not only had they all lost him, but now because his body was lost, it was like losing him twice.

It was like Mary and the first disciples had gone through all the heartache and all the turmoil of the last few days, you know, crucifixion and beating and

flogging and all these things.

And now they're going through it again because they can't find his body.

And yet Jesus is right there in her grief with her.

He isn't absent.

He isn't far away.

It isn't the angels speaking.

Standing right there in this garden with her is Jesus present in her grief.

Now, why?

Because there's three reasons why this is important.

Number one,

When it comes to our grief, when it comes to our suffering, I want you to see that number one, Jesus understands your suffering.

The reason why Jesus understands your suffering is because he has suffered.

In fact, we're told elsewhere in the New Testament that the reason why Jesus came in the flesh, the reason why he even came in a human body was that he could

experienced the full spectrum of human emotion and human pain he lost friends he was betrayed he was beaten he was killed he even knew death and so jesus is not a god who can who can look look look down from above and say oh poor you put together jesus is someone jesus is a is god

who understands our suffering and number two he enters into our pain he isn't aloof or outside of it he understands what it is to suffer understands what it is to be heartbroken number three in giving his life on the cross he carried he took on himself the burden of our brokenness the burden of our heartbreak the burden of our sickness and the burden of our suffering and because

suffering, sickness, death, couldn't hold him down because he rose again, then that gives us hope, that provides us help, and that offers to every one of us today healing.

Whether it be emotional healing right now, or physical healing in our body, or eternal healing with him one day eternally, there is the promise of healing because he is risen.

Now, the next verse in verse 16, something wonderful happens.

Jesus said to her, Mary, watch this, this is amazing.

So up to this point, they've had several verbal exchanges, but Mary has not yet realized who it is.

But when Jesus spoke her name, when Jesus said, Mary, she turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher.

Aramaic was the language that was spoke at a time in first century Israel.

It's so interesting.

It was only when Jesus spoke her name that all of a sudden his identity became real in her heart.

It was only when she heard God speak her name that she realized it was in fact the voice of God speaking to her.

And I believe today for every one of us, I believe that God is speaking your name.

I believe if you're in one of our environments, if you're here in Navan, here in Dublin or here in the Dock, that God is speaking to you.

He's calling your name.

Why?

Because he loves you.

Because He knows you and because He wants you to be in communion, to be in relationship with Him.

He created you on purpose and for purpose.

Even though we try to find purpose in all these other places and all these other things, ultimately the only way we can ever be fulfilled completely is when we're aligned in relationship to our Father in heaven.

And today I want to tell you that if your heart is open,

And if you're attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, God is calling your name.

And what he's saying to us in part through the resurrection is there is hope and there is life and there is purpose, there's a future.

But also what he's saying is, no matter what you're going through right now, no matter how difficult your season, how brokenhearted, how lost or how much you're grieving, I am with you and I can lead you not just out of it, but I can lead you through it because I am the God who suffered on your behalf.

In verse 17, we're told, Jesus said, do not hold on to me.

So you can imagine, she's obviously shocked.

She probably threw her arms around him.

He says, do not hold on to me too tightly because I have not yet ascended to the Father.

Go instead to my brothers, that's the disciples, and tell them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

And the reason for this is because, as we're going to see in a few moments as I close, Jesus was going to prepare a place for us with the Father.

In the end of verse 18, it says this.

It says, so Mary Magdalene,

went to the disciples with the news i have seen the lord i have seen the lord and she told them that he had said these things to her and here we see as we bring the message to a close here we see the point of the point the event of the events you know mary magdalene did not become a jesus follower because of something she was taught

The teaching wasn't enough.

When the Roper hit the road and Jesus was arrested and crucified, the teaching wasn't enough to keep these followers following.

It wasn't until after his death that they witnessed and experienced a resurrected Jesus, or to use her words, I have seen the Lord.

that everything changed.

The event changed everything and the event still changes everything.

Like I said, I'm not here as one talking to you because I was raised or taught or my parents brought me up in this tradition.

No, no, no.

I am here because I experienced a resurrected Jesus in my own life in modern day Ireland.

That event for me personally changed my life and continues daily to change my life.

And I, just like the first followers and many followers in our environments today and all over the world, are followers not because of something we were taught,

because of someone we've seen.

And again, think about all these first followers.

I mean, they went from not even, I mean, Peter famously denied even knowing Jesus the night he was arrested to only a few years later, being willing to give his life.

In fact, all of the first followers of Jesus ultimately died for their faith.

Why?

What changed in them that they went from being cowards, denying even knowing Him, to courageously standing up in public squares proclaiming the risen Christ?

And the answer is not something they were taught, but something they saw.

Not something that was explained to them, but someone they experienced.

And again,

I'm doing my best today to try to explain to you the origin story of Christianity and the fulcrum point on which this whole thing hinges, which isn't religious systems, but a resurrected Savior.

But no matter how much I explain, unless you're open to experience

the power of a resurrected Christ for yourself, you'll never fully understand what Easter, what Christianity, what Jesus is all about.

But if you're open for the first time or for the first time in a long time to allow the power of a resurrected Christ into your heart, then everything about everything changes.

It was C.S.

Lewis, the famous author, Irish author and scholar who said this, I believe in Christianity

as I believe that the sun has risen.

That's S-U-N.

Not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.

Why did C.S.

Lewis become a Jesus follower?

Because he says, when you see the world through God's, when you experience God's love for yourself, not only are you changed, but how you see the world is changed.

And ultimately, the most important question of Easter and the most important question of life is simply this.

So who is Jesus?

Is Jesus simply a religious martyr who died and, you know, had a message like every other religious martyr?

Or is he more?

And the answer is, Jesus said in John's Gospel, chapter 14, verse 6, he said, I'm not just a religious martyr or teacher or a great figure in history.

He said, I am the way.

I am the truth and I am the life and nobody could come to the Father except through me.

God sent his son into the world because he loves the world.

And the only way we can experience relationship

communion, restoration, reconciliation, and redemption with our Father in heaven is through the Son, Jesus Christ.

So my question to you is, we start off with the question, why do people still believe in Jesus?

My question to you is, is why do you still not believe in Jesus?

Like, I mean, we're so open to everything else.

I mean, many of us would sooner believe in aliens than Jesus.

We grow up believing in Santa Claus, come on, and Easter bunnies.

Why would you not open your heart?

Why would you not allow for God the opportunity?

I'm not saying you're going to lose your mind or we're going to carry you away to some dark room and teach you hoodoo voodoo.

I'm just saying that right now in this moment, if Jesus is risen, if he's real and if he's present, why would you not open your heart to him?

Imagine what he could do with your life.

Imagine what he could do with your brokenness and your sinfulness and your losses.

If only you would give him a chance.

And as we close the message, if you are a Jesus follower, I want to encourage you.

We should not be ashamed of our faith.

We should not shy back from what we believe.

We're not in the back foot.

The fastest growing faith group in the world is Christianity.

And right now you are part of one of hundreds of millions of people all over the world who are celebrating their faith in Jesus, that they too have experienced the love of a resurrected Savior.

We shouldn't be ashamed.

We shouldn't be shy.

We shouldn't hold back because He is the only hope for humanity.

And today we celebrate him, not just a religious leader who lived and died another martyr, but a resurrected Savior, the hope of the world.

So as I close, I want to invite us all, all three locations, let's pray.

In fact, why don't we stand?

Come on now, stand with me, please.

And of course, let's all stand to our feet.

I want to pray.

And if you're a Jesus follower, I want to pray today for you that we would just have this celebration in our heart.

You know what?

Jesus is risen.

This is cause for celebration.

Easter isn't some solemn, sad event.

It's a celebration.

It's the greatest party in the world.

And we should be thankful.

We should be hopeful.

We should be

filled with confidence because he is risen.

And if you're here, you're not a Jesus follower, you're new, skeptic, searching, asking questions, I want to pray for you that why not today give God a chance.

Why not open your heart to him and see what he can do if you begin to trust him even a little bit with your life, even a little bit with your hope, even a little bit with your faith.

I believe that because Jesus is risen, everything about everything changes.

That means everything changes for you and me personally, everything changes.

for our world.

So let's pray together.

Amen.

So Father, I thank you today because Lord, we don't just pray empty prayers to empty ceilings in the hope that nothing happens, but we believe you are risen.

You are risen, Lord.

You gave your life on the cross for our brokenness, for our sinfulness, because you carried on yourself the burden of our suffering as humanity.

And yet death and hell and the grave could not hold you down, for you rose by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And today, God, as your church, we celebrate your resurrection.

We declare there's hope, help, and healing for the world because you are risen.

And we're thankful that we're part of your global family, a part of this global movement.

And we pray, use our lives to serve our communities, to make a difference in our world, to show the world that you are alive.

And for those friends, God, right now who are gathered, who have not yet experienced this for themselves, I pray as we get ready to go into our response song.

As our band leads us in this moment, Lord, would you speak to our hearts?

Would you call our name?

And as these people open their hearts to you for the first time, would you fill their hearts?

Would you flood their hearts with your love and grace and mercy and redemption?

Would you heal brokenness, Father?

Would you knit together broken hearts, God?

Would you bring clarity and peace into every single person's heart?

Would they experience for themselves, God, what has just been explained?

That Jesus is risen, the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

For the glory of your name we pray.

We say, Thank you so much, Jesus.

We love you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.