Because Of Jesus - Easter 2026

Easter isn’t a vague spiritual mood for us, it’s a claim about history and a decision that follows. We walk through four reasons we can celebrate “because of Jesus,” starting with the cross as a real, finished transaction: redemption. Jesus doesn’t die as a helpful example alone. He dies as a substitute, absorbs what we deserve, and says, “It is finished,” meaning the debt is paid in full and mercy is now offered to sinners who could never afford it.

From there we press into the resurrection, because Christianity doesn’t survive as mere symbolism. If the cross is the payment, the resurrection is the receipt. We challenge the idea that faith can float free from a physical, empty tomb, and we explain why the Bible ties your future hope to Jesus walking out of the grave. That hope is bigger than “going to heaven” someday, it’s bodily resurrection and a renewed world where death, sorrow, and sin finally lose.

Then we look up to the ascension and what Jesus is doing right now: reigning at the Father’s right hand, holding history, and serving as our great high priest who sits because the work is done. That reality gives real rest in real anxiety. And it also gives real purpose. Jesus commissions his church to go, represent him, and speak with confidence, not in our own strength, but in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Transcript

Easter Morning And A Big Claim

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It's Easter morning. I think we're going to walk out of this building, and the rain will have passed, and we might walk out to some bright sun. I hope hope for that and pray for that. But we meet here as a church. We meet here because of Jesus. We meet together as a church, as a gathering, because of the work of Jesus, because of his life, his ministry, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension to the right hand of his father on high. We can say we are his, the fathers, because of his work through his son. This morning I want to give four answers for why we can celebrate, looking at what we can kind of claim because of Jesus' work. So this message is called because of Jesus. What can we claim as believers because of Jesus' work and his ministry?

Redemption Through The Crucifixion

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Here's the first. If you're a note taker, it's point number one. Because of Jesus' crucifixion, we have redemption. Because of Jesus' crucifixion, we have redemption. The week leading up to Easter Sunday or the Sunday Jesus resurrected 2,000 years ago has been affectionately known as Passion Week. And if you need a refresher on all the things that have happened, or happened 2,000 years ago up to this Sunday, on Palm Sunday, this past Sunday, Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem. Galileans came up to him as he was riding on the foal of a donkey. They're waving palm branches, and they said, Hosanna, welcoming the king to Jerusalem. The next day, Jesus goes into Jerusalem and cleanses the temple. You know that story where he flips over tables, tables of money changers who are profiting off of people at the expense of many being able to worship in the Gentile court. On Tuesday, Jesus continued to teach and heal in the temple. He debates enraged religious leaders who question his authority. On Wednesday, this is when Judas Iscariot conspired with the Sanhedrin to sell Jesus out for thirty pieces of silver. Then on Thursday, which is known as Monday Thursday, Jesus celebrates the Last Supper with his disciples. They have the Passover meal, the bread and the wine, and there he institutes a brand new supper for his church, memorializing his future death at that moment until he returns. He then goes with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he calls them to pray, and he goes before his father in agony about the cup he is about to drink. And then comes Good Friday. On Good Friday, Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was tried before the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate. He was condemned to death and crucified on a cross at Calvary like a criminal. And I want to talk about his crucifixion. Crucifixion was a torture that Rome had invented for the worst of criminals, conspirators, traitors. The cross was not just a method of execution. It was a method of humiliation. Rome did not just want you dead, they wanted you despised, displayed, and shamed. And yet, this is exactly where Jesus goes. Jesus was scourged. He was whipped until his back was torn apart. He was stripped naked and publicly shamed, beaten, mocked, and spit on. His beard was likely torn from his face. Isaiah said his appearance in Isaiah 52 was not like a man anymore. And then nails were driven through his hands and his feet fastening him to a cross where every breath he had to lift up his body in agony, pushing up against the nails until he could no longer breathe. But the worst pain, Jesus was bearing upon himself the wrath of God in the place of those who deserved it. Isaiah 53 tells us 600 years before Jesus fulfilled this prophecy, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Jesus was in agony upon the cross. In fact, before he died, he was in Gethsemane, as we already mentioned, and he was praying that the Father might let the cup be taken from him, that he would not have to drink it. Yet he resolved to drink it himself. And you ask, what cup was Jesus referring to? Well, the cup was the Father's wrath against sinful men, the cup of wrath. In Revelation chapter 14, 10, at the end of your Bible, this cup of wrath refers to the divine punishment of God poured out against those who worship the beast and its image, the false God. This cup of wrath signifies in Revelation a final judgment and torment, a cup filled with the wine of God's wrath, signifying unmixed, full strength judgment that awaits the wicked. And the Bible tells us that Jesus drinks that for sinners. Revelation, in essence, teaches us that either you will trust in the one who drank the cup of God's wrath for you, or you will at the last day drink it in full yourself. So Jesus upon the cross cries in pain toward his Father, and Matthew records this phrase that he uttered, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And you think, what are we to take into account and recognize what Jesus is doing there? Well, in the day of Jesus, we did not have verse numbers and chapter headings. And so the Psalms were a song book of Israel. And the the beginning of each of the song books of Israel would have just, you would have known those songs by the first phrase or two from the song. So, you know, if Israel was singing Psalm 22, they would not say, Turn in your scroll to Psalm 22. They would say something along the lines of, Hey, we're going to sing, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so Jesus upon the cross, what he's doing is he's quoting from the song book that all the people gathered around would have known, causing them to think what is actually in Psalm 22. Because when Jesus quotes Psalm 22, what he's doing is he's connecting himself to that song so that all his accusers standing by would remember the song and consider its prophetic meaning. Can I quote that prophetic psalm written more than a thousand years before crucifixion was even invented? Starting in verse 16, Psalm 22. A company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count on my bones. They stare and mock me. I know that song. Jesus is saying, Even in death, do you know who I am? When Jesus is in pain, he is revealing who he is. That is the fulfillment of prophecy and the hope for all mankind. He too says upon that cross, it is finished. Now, when Jesus cries out, it is finished, let's clarify something. Rather, he is communicating, it is done. The work is done. Every law you've broken accounted for, every debt you owe paid in full, every ounce of wrath you deserved, absorbed. So what happens upon Jesus' cross is not a tragedy. That's why we call it Good Friday. It's a transaction taking place. Jesus did not merely die as an example of love, he died as a substitute. Second Corinthians 5 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. So what Jesus is doing upon this sinner's cross is he is taking your place, substituting himself. Like in the Old Testament, where Abraham takes his son Isaac upon Mount Horeb, and on that mountain, Abraham is about to sacrifice his son, and yet there is a ram caught in a thicket, like a crown of thorns around its head, and God, through an angel, says, No, sacrifice this ram instead, so that the boy who was told to die would go home safe with his father. Jesus is that full and final lamb with a crown of thorns on his head, taking your place and taking my place. Jesus took upon himself the punishment of man's sin, taking God's wrath that we deserve for the sin we committed, so that we would not receive it. He did this so that we might instead receive forgiveness and be redeemed for a new life that we don't deserve, reconciled to his Father. The Bible calls this redemption. In short, redemption means to be bought back at a price. You were bought. This means you are not saved because you clean yourselves up, because you attend enough church services, because you pray in a certain way, because of ingesting something. You are saved because Jesus paid the ransom price for your sin against God at the high cost of his own life. Jesus redeemed you. Jesus, we might say, bought you and brought you to his Father. You didn't earn it, you couldn't afford it, but he didn't hesitate to pay it. So you are either trying to pay for your sin or you are trusting that Jesus already did. Will you take the cup of God's wrath, or will you trust the one who has already taken it for you? Will you be embraced at Jesus' second coming because of your faith in him, or will you be trampled under his feet? The difference between two different groups of people at the end of days is did you look upon the cross and request the mercy provided? Like the Old Testament. Israelites wandering in the wilderness. A wooden cross set up by Moses with a serpent on it, so that all that were feeling the sting of the bite of the serpent who looked, simply looked away from what was killing them, and to the one upon a cross, they'd be saved. Jesus is that one condemned for you that all the Old Testament was pointing toward. Evildoers encircle me. My bones not broken. My feet nailed, my hands nailed before crucifixion was even a thing. Why? For your redemption, my friends. Jesus said upon that cross. One more statement. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Let me just say, this is not defeat. This is the Son trusting the Father because the mission is now complete. Sent by his Father for this very purpose to complete the task. So when the work is all done, when the task is completed, when what must be accomplished is achieved, when all is finally finished, well then it is time to rest. As his father did in creation, when the work was done, he rested on the seventh day, establishing it as holy. And now, just as the Father at creation, the Son in salvation, when all the work is accomplished, he rests on the seventh day, the day made holy, at the end of the week, right? He rests in a tomb. Right before, of course, he says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Trusting his father, he says, I did it. It's done. They're paid for. So Jesus dies, and they put him in a borrowed tomb. But if the story ends there, the Bible would tell us that we are still in our sin. Yet three days later, he walks out of the grave that they put him in. So let's look at point

The Resurrection As Validation

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number two. Because of Jesus' resurrection, we will be resurrect. Resurrected. We will resurrect. The best news about Jesus' death comes three days later when he resurrects. Now, the resurrection, hear me closely, is not an inspiring ending to a sad story. It is like the validation of everything Jesus claimed. Romans 4.25 says he was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification, which means if the cross was the payment, the resurrection is the receipt. It's the receipt that the transaction went through. Serene Jones is, or at least was, the president of Union Theological Seminary, not to be confused with Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, Union Theological Seminary in New York. Union Theological Seminary does not look like when it was founded. Serene Jones, the president, was interviewed by the New York Times just a few Easters back. New York Times was writing a column about Easter and the resurrection of Jesus. Serene Jones proclaimed to be a Protestant minister who was the president. Well, the conversation was about many things, but most notably it was about the resurrection of Jesus. And the first question the writer asked Serene Jones, the seminary president, was whether or not she believed Jesus physically resurrected on the third day. And to this question, the leader of a Christian school whose goal is, should be to train people theologically in sound doctrine, stated, and I quote, those who claim to know whether or not it happened, that's Jesus' resurrection, are kidding themselves. She then goes on to say that the ultimate goal of the story of the resurrection is symbolic. Later in the article, the writer writes and quotes her, for Christians for whom the physical resurrection becomes a sort of obsession, that seems to me to be a pretty wobbly faith. What if tomorrow someone found the body of Jesus still in the tomb? Would that mean that Christianity was a lie? And she quotes, no. Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that the Bible says the exact opposite of that. The exact opposite. Verbatim. If Christ was not raised, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, our message is meaningless, verse 14, our faith is worthless, verse 14, our testimony is alive, verse 15, our condemnation is sure, verse 17, our hope is dead, verse 18, and therefore we are of most people to be pitied, verse 19. Christianity rises and falls upon the resurrection of Jesus. If there was no resurrection, there is no Christianity. It is the story of a Savior who came, died, and resurrected. And unless you believe you're resurrected, you don't know him. And you lose Christianity. It just becomes a moral advice book. If Christ wasn't raised, why be here? I mean, why gather? Religion just makes a lame hobby. If Christ wasn't raised, you're dead. Our faith rests on the resurrection of Jesus. Why share with you this Sunday morning that Christ did resurrect on the third day? He did walk out of the tomb they put him in. And because he resurrected, not only is that action essential to our faith in Christ, but also is essential for our future with Christ. And I say our future with Christ because our future as believers is a resurrection like his. Your future is not to be an ethereal floaty thing in the heavens with a harp. It's to be resurrected at the return of Christ, like he resurrected, to live with him forever. First Corinthians 15, again, verse 20. In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. So God teaches that because Jesus resurrected, those who place their faith and trust in him will resurrect too. That's what 1 Corinthians 15, and for that matter, 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, and for that matter, Revelation 21 and 22 is all about. And honestly, we just don't talk about it enough. The story of Jesus is not only a story of God redeeming sinful men by taking upon himself their punishment, the story of Jesus. Is the story of God renewing the world and resurrecting people in the pattern of Jesus before them? You have a living hope, one that outlasts the grave, because a man walked out of the grave, the God man, Jesus the Christ. So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, at the very end, when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? When Christ returns, death will be defeated and life will be new. So Christianity is not just about where you go when you die. It's about what God will do with your body, this world, and all of creation. He is not throwing it all away. He's renewing it. He's making it new. And just like Jesus walked out of the grave, one day so will his people. And a place without the pain of the present one. The Old Testament prophesies a coming day where God's people will dwell with him in peace and safety, a place without death. In Revelation, this is referred to as the new heaven and the new earth. This is a place with, and I've said it before, no strife, sickness, sorrow, or sin. No political polarization, no school shootings, lies, coercion, greed, or adultery. No more hunger and want for anything. Where grandparents don't get old and babies don't die. We long for that. The resurrection of Jesus secures that. Every funeral you've been to, every hospital you've been in standing next to someone who's lying there, every moment that felt like this is not how it's supposed to be. That ache is pointing you to the resurrection still to come, secured by Jesus' resurrection. Someone has said it before, and I quote him there is nothing in sorrow, nothing in sickness that a good resurrection can't fix. The third, because of because of Jesus' ascension, we can rest. We can rest. Let me ask you a question. I want you to think about it. Where is Jesus right now?

Your Future Bodily Resurrection

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Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father. This is what Peter says in Acts chapter 2, after he saw Jesus ascend to the heavens in Acts chapter 1. And this truth, Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father, fulfills a long prophecy 600 years before, from the prophet Daniel. Yeah, the Daniel and the lion's den Daniel. The prophecy was the passage that Miss Lucy read at the beginning. The clouds of heaven, Daniel sees, where there came one like a son

It Is Finished And Bought Back

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of man to the ancient of days. And this son of man was presented before the ancient of days, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. He says, His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall never be destroyed. Now, Revelation chapter 4 and 5 shows us this event. It shows Jesus ascending to the ancient of days, where he receives this glory and dominion and sits at the Father's right hand. I'll read it to you. This is a long passage. Please follow along. You can follow along if you want to in Revelation chapter 5. Here's what it says. John says, Then I saw at the right hand of the Father seated on his throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Father's seated on his throne. It's glorious in this throne room. He's holding a scroll. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And John says, I began to weep loudly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. So this is a really important scroll. And one of the elders said to me, Weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, and they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation. That prophecy, Daniel 7, and by your blood you ransom these people, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. So I submit to you the picture in Revelation 4 and 5. Revelation 4 is the beautiful throne room. Revelation 5, John is weeping because no one's worthy to take this scroll. The scroll, we'll talk about what is on that scroll in a minute. So it's a really important scroll. Jesus ascends like a lamb slain, but now standing. He grabs the scroll, he holds it high by the Father's right hand, and everyone around him says, Yes, he did it. The nations are his. Why is he at the Father's right hand? Because that's where he now sits. What's on the scroll? The plans of God for the end of everything. Jesus ascends to the Father's right hand to receive the deed of his church that is being built across the face of the earth. He ascended to receive the building plans of God's church and oversee its growth by the power of the Holy Spirit until its stones, you, its stones that make it up are counted in full and its building done. Jesus holds history in his hands. He would bring vindication for his people, his church. And then he would have the victory over sin and evil, over its presence, over its power, and over its principalities. Jesus sits as he waits to be sent back. Jesus is in control. So we can rest because Jesus is the king and our great shepherd, and he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. He is not shaking, he is not concerned in his position up there. So neither should we be down here. Everything that is above your head is always under his feet. But Jesus is not just seated as the king at the Father's right hand, he is seated as your great high priest. Did you know that the book of Hebrews says that priests like never sat down. Never sitting. Hebrews 10 says, and every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But the book of Hebrews also teaches us that Jesus was our great high priest, the fulfillment in the end to all the priests before him, and after his work he sat. Why does Jesus sit? Because the work of atonement is finished. Priests in the Old Testament never sat down because their work was never done. Jesus sat down because yours finally is. So we can rest. The work is done. We can rest. God will have his vengeance. We can rest. God will vindicate his church. We can rest. God will eradicate spiritual evil once and for all and eliminate all the physical effects of the fall. We can rest. God will come for us. We can rest, God will live with us. We can rest, God loves us. We can rest. God cares for us. So hear me this Easter morning. You don't have to hold your life together because the one who holds all things together holds your life. He's not stressed in heaven. And if he is not stressed in heaven, you should not be stressed on earth. You can rest. Lastly, because of Jesus' commission to you and I, we must represent him. We must. Jesus, before he ascended, gathered by his disciples, or around his disciples, said in Matthew chapter 28, The Great Commission, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son. Teach them all that I have commanded you, and lo, I'm with you until the end of the age. Jesus' last words to his church were his church's marching orders. Easter Sunday, the resurrection, does not just secure your future, it is ascending out for the sake of others. You have a new life, but also a new purpose in life. And here is the thing: the Bible tells us that you're not called to represent Jesus in your own strength alone. In Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Jesus tells his disciples, the angels, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. So the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the fuel for global mission from the church as the church goes out representing Jesus. In fact, Jesus said, Don't go, disciples, with the message that you have heard and know until I send the comforter, the Holy Spirit, until you are enabled and empowered to go with the gospel so that lives change, minds change, hearts change, lives change. And that's what they did. They waited, the apostles in the upper room. The Holy Spirit descends on them at Pentecost. They share the gospel in all these different languages. And from twelve disciples, we now have something. Well, twelve disciples, it went to about three thousand. And from three thousand today, it's about 2.6 billion people. And that's because of the Holy Spirit's work through the lives of believers, opening blind eyes and causing deaf ears to hear. As we represent faithfully. Matthew chapter 28, 18 to 20. There are four alls in the Great Commission. Four alls.

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I have a all authority.

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Therefore go to all nations and teach them all the things that I have command of you. And I'm with you until the all the days is the actual translation of it.

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All the days of your life. Notice the first all.

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The Great Commission begins with it. I have all authority in heaven and on earth. So hear me. Jesus is Lord. The Lord. Not only in the heavens, but on the earth. So when you share the gospel as you are called to, Christian, you are not telling others to accept your truth. You are calling them to bow before the one true King. You're calling them to bow with you before King Jesus. And this is no easy task. It's hard. People don't like your King because he's not them. He's not sculpted to be suited for their sin, but it's a task you've been sent to, and it's a task you've not been sent to alone. That's why we remember the last all I am with you always until the end of the age. So as we keep going, the Lord says, I will keep saving. His authority from heaven is our confidence on earth. So take courage. There is a reason Jesus hasn't returned yet. It's because he's still calling people to follow him through his church from twelve disciples to billions. We go and he saves. All this because of Jesus. So this Easter morning, what can we say because of Jesus' work? We can say because of his crucifixion, you can be redeemed. We can say because of his resurrection, you'll be raised. We can say, because of Jesus' ascension, you can rest. And we can say, because of Jesus' commission, you must go. The question is not, did this happen? The question is, what will you do with it? Will you keep trying to pay for your sin? Or will you trust the one who already has? The one who said it is finished. The call for all is to turn from sin, turn to Christ, seek his mercy, and you'll be forgiven. Not only will you be forgiven, but you will have eternal life with God forever. For the church, the call is to rest and go. Happy Easter. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this morning and our time and your word. It is our desire to glorify you in our gathering and to go, sharing the good news of the gospel with everyone we know. We draw comfort that you're alive and seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. We draw comfort that you will return. We draw comfort that we will be raised again in new life. We draw comfort that all the pain of this present world will be no more. We draw comfort from the phrase, it is finished. Lord, as we hail you, the King of Glory, will you be pleased? Will we see people in Knoxville? Because of our work empowered by your spirit, find joy and bow before the King. We love you. We thank you for your love for us. It is in your name we pray. Everybody said and