Easter Sunday - 4/5/2026

Join us each week as we learn more about Jesus and how to Follow Jesus Together at Alderwood Community Church. Our hope is that these messages can help guide and teach you in your walk with Jesus. To learn more, visit alderwood.cc or join us on a Sunday morning!

Transcript

Tempo: 120.0

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Happy Easter Alderwood. It is so great to be together this morning, celebrating the resurrection. I'm Wyatt, if we haven't had the chance to meet yet. I'm the lead pastor here at Alderwood. And whether we're meeting for the first time today or whether Alderwood is already your home, I want you to know that we've been praying for you this week. And specifically, we've been praying that this morning that you would see that the resurrection of Jesus is more than just a story that we tell on Easter, that it is the reality that can change your life forever. And that's what we're gonna talk about this morning. We're actually beginning a brand new teaching series today for the next four weeks. We're gonna be in this series called Never Alone, and we're looking at our relational world and in particular the problem of isolation and loneliness. And as we jump in this morning, I just want to ask you do you ever feel lonely? Now that might not be the easiest question to answer. You maybe didn't come to church this morning ready to talk about your feelings. Forgive me for that. You know, there's they say there's some of us men who think there's only two emotions: there's anger and fine. And so, you know, maybe you're there. Maybe you're like, I'm fine today, I don't need to think about loneliness. Uh, and and yet for some of us it's a hard question to answer because it's very real, because your everyday experience is that you're very lonely and you don't maybe even want to go there. Um, but wherever you come at that question from, I wonder if you've heard the truth that we're in a bit of a loneliness epidemic right now in society, that more people than ever are reporting that they feel isolated, that they feel lonely. This really interesting trend that it gets worse with every generation, that the younger you are, the more likely you are to report feeling lonely. And that trend, I think, it it is showing us something that there's this tragedy at the heart of the modern world. And the tragedy is that we have created all of this technology, all of this technology that makes it easy to communicate. The promise of this technology was connection, but that very technology has created a world in which it is harder than ever to really know people. Do you know what I'm talking about? Uh I I mean, if I want to talk with you today, my options are nearly limitless. If I want to talk to you, I could text you, right? I could email you, I could call you, I wouldn't, but I could, right? I I could DM you on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or X, I could Telegram you, I could WhatsApp you, I could Slack you, I could Teams you, we could Zoom, we could FaceTime, we could Google Meet. Like there's no end to this. I I could make a comment on your post, I could reply to your story, could send you a voice memo, I could thumbs up your message without ever opening my mouth. Like the options are limitless, and yet despite all of that, we're living in one of the loneliest moments in history. And I think a big part of the reason is because we've used this technology rather than connecting us with people, we've used it to distance ourselves from other people. I was thinking about this week as I was at uh my son Thatcher's T-ball game. We're right in the thick of youth sports, and we've been doing a number of seasons now. And I've been kind of laughing as I've been observing what has become the social norms among parents at these youth sports events. So my kids are young enough that uh, you know, parents are still hanging out for the whole practice. They're not dropping kids off. And so, you know, parents bring these kids and practice starts, and all the parents go to the sideline, right, during practice. And if you look at the sideline of parents, what do you see? You see a whole row of adults all with their phone out, just looking down, standing at the field. Like no one's talking to each other, no one's you know introducing each other. Parents will go the entire season and never even learn the names of the other parents on the team. Like, this is what is just normal now. And of course, I'm a pastor, so I am the weird one who goes and you know sticks my hand out and meets these people and has the conversations that people don't want to have. But this is what we do with technology. We have the world in our hand, and so we choose not to engage with the real human beings that are around us. And I'm afraid that it's just getting worse as we keep on going. I mean, we now live in the dawn of the AI era, and uh, you know, it's been interesting watching how AI usage has changed. You know, in 2023 and 2024, when ChatGPT was, you know, just coming out and the revolution was just beginning, uh, people basically just used AI as kind of a fancy Google. Like it was just to find information. But in 2025 and in 2026, the way we use these things has changed. And actually, like the mainstream usage now is really to replace things that used to be done in human relationship. And I don't just mean like the crazy stories you've heard of the people who like married their chatbot. I mean like the normal stuff that everyone's using. It's asking for advice, right? It's getting feedback on an idea, it's processing what you're feeling about something or a conflict you're having with someone. It's treating AI like a counselor, like an advisor, like a friend. And companies are starting to realize that this is what people want from this. And so they're they're going further that direction. I saw this ad campaign that's running in New York City right now from a new AI startup. It's called Friend. And uh and you can go to friend.com, and what it is, it's an AI wearable necklace that's always listening, and it's you know, it's observing the conversations you're having and what's going on, and it's always ready to talk to you about your day and what's happening. I want to make sure you can read that billboard. What is a friend? It's someone who listens, responds, and supports you. All for$199, you know, like uh amazing. I I have a hard time believing this is gonna work to solve our loneliness problem. And you probably find that to be a little bit ridiculous. I don't see any friend devices in the audience this morning. But how are you really doing here? You may not consider yourself to be somebody who's lonely, but if you're honest, like how is this part of your life really going? Do you have people surrounded? Are you surrounded by people who know you deeply more than just like catching up on what happened at work this week, you know, more than just talking about your kids, more than just, you know, talking about the baseball game last night or whatever? Like, are there people around you who know your deepest desires, who know your deepest insecurities, your regrets, your pain? Like, do you have as many close relationships as you really want? I'll be honest with you, I I don't. I think many of us are there. And so what do we do with that? And why are we talking about this on Easter? I haven't forgotten what day it is. Uh, I know why we're here. We're talking about the resurrection. And the reason why this is related is because it turns out that loneliness and isolation, they're not just social problems, they are spiritual problems. See, when you open up the Bible and you start to read the story of who God is and who we are, one of the first things you see is that we are created to be relational. We are created by a God who is himself a perfect community, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and he creates us in his image, which means from the very beginning, we are always created to be in community, to know each other and to be known and to know God and to be known by him. And yet, one of the very first things that happens as sin comes into the world is that communal reality that we were made for, it's broken. See, sin brings into the world all kinds of horrible things. It brings in pain and sickness and shame and even death. But more than that, sin breaks the family, the community that we were made to live in. And in this broken world after sin, loneliness is just a reality of the human condition. And that's why Easter has something to say about our loneliness. It's because Easter is all about God undoing the power of sin in the world, making right what we made wrong. And that means that the resurrection, it does mean that God will forgive you of your sins. And it means that you can receive eternal life and be with God and others forever. But in particular, it means that the family of God that we broke, that we haven't been able to experience because of sin, we are being invited back into. And that reality of a new family, of a new relational reality, it's actually what's on Jesus' mind the morning of Easter. When Jesus is raised to life, this new family that we get to be a part of, it's what he's thinking about. And we see that in John chapter 20 in a conversation between him and a woman named Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' closest followers, and she on Easter morning is going to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body, and she discovers that the tomb is empty, the stone has been rolled away, Jesus isn't there, and she's not excited about that, she's crushed because she doesn't think that means Jesus is alive. She thinks that means that someone stole Jesus' body, that she'll never be able to find it. And all of that changes when she encounters the living Jesus. She turns around to the tomb, and Jesus is standing there, and and she doesn't actually recognize him. She thinks that he's like the groundskeeper or something. But then Jesus says her name, Mary. And she recognizes him, and she realizes that he is alive, and she's overcome with emotion, and she hugs him. And this is what Jesus says. And I want you to look at this verse in John chapter 20, because this response from Jesus, it has so much more to say to us than I think often any of us realize. This is what it says in John chapter 20, verse 17. Don't cling to me, Jesus told her. Since I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. And these disciples, remember, they were Jesus' closest friends, they were his followers, they'd been with him for three years, and when he got arrested and taken to the cross, they had all deserted him. They had all betrayed him, even. Peter denied him, like they had scattered and they were demoralized, believing that their Savior was dead. And Jesus says, It's time to go tell them that I'm alive. But I want you to look at how Jesus says that. Okay, he he doesn't say, Mary, go get my disciples. He doesn't say, Mary, go get my followers. He doesn't say, Mary, go get my friends. He had just called them friends for the first time right before he went to the cross, but he doesn't even say that. No. He says, but go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. See what Jesus is saying here is that categories have changed. This is the first time that Jesus refers to his disciples as brothers. They've been calling him their teacher, they've been calling him, you know, their Lord, their rabbi, but they've never called Jesus their brother. And what Jesus is saying is that is different now. You are invited into the family of God. Things have changed forever. And so you're my brother if you know me. You're my sister if you know me. My father is your father. My God is your God. What I want you to see this Easter is that Jesus' resurrection is an invitation to restore our connection to God's family. God is trying to bring you back into the fold, and that is what Easter is all about. Now I wish that I could tell you that it is as simple as you believe in Jesus and then you're never lonely again because you're just in the family of God. And yet, if you've been following Jesus any length of time, you know that that's not true, that loneliness persists. You know, it takes us a long time to live into the reality of the resurrection, even though Jesus has accomplished for us all that he has said. And yet, to follow Jesus means to start seeing the world the way that Jesus sees the world, to start seeing people, the way that Jesus sees people, to start seeing yourself the way that Jesus sees you. And what we see when we look at the resurrection is that God has changed things for us. He is creating a family that means that we can relate to people differently than we could relate to them before. He's undoing the power of sin. See, one of the main reasons for our isolation, for our loneliness, is that what sin did in human relationships is that it destroyed our ability to trust one another. It's one of the very first things that happens after sin comes into the world, when Adam and Eve are in the garden and they disobey God, they they realize that they're vulnerable. And so they start to hide. They actually hide from each other first. They create clothes to hide from one another. And then Adam and Eve, you know, they hide in a bush from God. And what they're saying is they're realizing that now for the first time, people are a threat to me. God might even be a threat to me, and I need to protect myself. And they're not wrong. I mean, just one generation later, we had the first murder as Cain kills his brother Abel out of jealousy. And I hope that you've never had your life threatened by another human being. But I know that you have experienced the way that people can hurt you, that people can be a threat. You've had people mistreat you, you've had people lie about you, you've had people break their promises. Like you have learned the hard way that in this world you have to protect yourself from other people. So what happens is we keep our distance, we hide, we push people away, and we live in a world of loneliness. See, but the resurrection of Jesus is creating a family that's undoing that truth. That's a different way of living. And it isn't because Christians never hurt each other. Again, I wish I could say that, but that's not true. We actually can still hurt each other quite deeply. See, what's different in the family of God is the reality of the resurrection. It is the reality that God's power is greater than the harm that can come to us from any person here on earth. That you can open yourself up, that you can know people, and you can count on the fact that if that when you're hurt, God is not gonna let that be the end of the story, that he's gonna step in, that he's gonna redeem, that he's gonna make new, that he's gonna bring good out of even the bad that happens to us. Resurrection is the picture of that. If God can bring good even out of the death of his son, unjustly crucified, then there is nothing that's gonna happen to you in this world that God, by that same power, can't bring back to life. And so he's saying, come into the family and start to trust once again. Know that I will be the one to protect and to make new and restore. See, one of the worst parts about how sin does this, it's not just that we want to keep people at a distance. You know, it isn't just that we won't get close to people. It's that actually, even in the relationships where we want closeness, sin still brings a distance there that we can't really get rid of. And a big part of that is because of one of the early ways that we all learn on how to protect ourselves. See, one of the things that sin does is it brings shame into our life. There's a difference between who we are and who we wish we were. And one of the ways we try to gain acceptance in the world is by pretending to be a better version of us in public around other people than we actually are. We pretend to be more confident, we pretend to be more capable, right? Uh we pretend to kind of have things together. And we think that if people can see that that more put together a better version, then they'll accept us that we'll find closeness, we'll find relationship. I I know that you go know what I'm talking about here. I mean, this is why all of us had such a hard time in middle school. Was it all of us? It was me. Uh it was, I think, most of us. But like in middle school, you realize that people have opinions of you. You realize that you actually can do things and say things to change what people think of you. And that starts to, you know, change how you behave. I remember in seventh grade, I went to a new school. I left all my friends behind at a school, and uh one friend and I went to this new private Christian school, and we knew no one. And it just felt like everybody there had these long friendships, they had known each other since kindergarten, and we were the only ones who didn't. And I know that wasn't true, but that's how it felt. And I just remember the feeling of, you know, carrying your food around at lunch and trying to find somewhere to belong. And, you know, there's all these groups of people in circles, they're huddled up, they're talking, they're laughing, no one's looking up at you, catching your eye, like there's just nowhere for you to go. And I I was trying so hard to figure out like, what do I have to do to be accepted? Who do I have to be to be accepted? And it was a lonely period of my life. This is what I had going on in those days. Uh, this is me in seventh grade. Be nice now. I mean, come on. Uh and uh and uh I love this photo for a couple reasons. One, like that smile is hiding a lot of insecurity, I'll tell you that. Uh but two, I was like, I look into this, I was like, what shirt am I wearing? If you don't know, that is an Everlast shirt. And Everlast is a boxing brand. I've never boxed a day in my life, I've never watched a boxing match. Like, why am I wearing that shirt? This is a desperate attempt to connect with anyone on anything, you know? Like, just accept me. And here's the thing about this: like, I'm telling you the story about my first days in the seventh grade, but I could easily tell you a version of the same story about when I switched churches in ninth grade. I could tell you a version of the same story about when I showed up to freshman orientation at college, or when I got hired here at Alderwood, or even a few years ago when I was at the town halls being interviewed for this position as a lead pastor. You know, like we hopefully we we become a little bit more sophisticated, you know, we may become a little bit more secure. But our need to be accepted and our strategy that we will try to become whatever people want us to be, whatever we think people will like about us, we will come across that way. It never really goes away. And the problem is it doesn't work at all. And here's why it's because even when you think it's working, even when you get accepted, when you make friends, when people tell you that they love you, when people praise you even, you still know inside you haven't shown them the real you. You know they don't know it all. You know that you're keeping back the darkest, the hardest parts, the the parts that you're most ashamed of. And in your mind, you will always think, if they really knew the whole thing, then they wouldn't actually accept me. See, and this is why Jesus' family is different. It's because of the story of Easter, is that Jesus, he came to earth and he went to the cross for you, not because you fooled him, not because he didn't know who you really were. He went to the cross for you because he did know the real you. He knew all your sin. He knew all your brokenness, he knew everything you don't like about yourself and everything that you're ashamed of, and he looked at you, seeing it all, and he loved you enough to pay the penalty for your sin. And rising again to give you life that you can't deserve. And that's what Jesus' family is. It is a group of all of us who have the same story. Our story is we weren't good enough, we we we didn't have it together, we weren't going to make it, and Jesus came and saved us, and that is why we're the children of God. And what that means is that we don't have to pretend, we don't have to put that mask on. We can be honest about who we are because this family is all about Jesus, it's not about us. Ultimately, this reality that that Easter deals with our loneliness. It's true that the reason why that is is because it changes the way we can relate to each other in the family of God. But the most important thing that Easter does is it changes our relationship with our Father in heaven. You see, you were created for a relationship with an eternal being, and sin broke that. And that caused a cosmic loneliness in us that nothing else can ever fix. See, so often why we feel lonely is that we are trying to take all these human relationships we have, we're trying to make them fix something in us that no human relationship can ever fix.

unknown 22:40

Right?

SPEAKER_00 22:40

We take our friendships and we try to make them be the thing that will ultimately satisfy us, and it doesn't work. And maybe you find a spouse and you get married and you try to make your spouse be the thing that will ultimately satisfy you, and eventually you realize that's not gonna work either. So you have kids and you try to make these kids be the thing that will ultimately satisfy you, and eventually that doesn't work either. I mean, and we'll get desperate. We'll try to make even like the opinion of strangers be the thing that ultimately satisfies us. But none of that works because as a created being, you have a need for a relationship with your creator that nothing else will ever meet. And see, that's what God is inviting you back to in Easter. He is saying, look, that that separation between us, your sin, your rebellion, it's done. It's over. Jesus took care of it completely. The cross is the end, it is finished. And now you can come back into the family. And when I look at you now, I I don't see your past. I see who you are in Christ. I see the life that he earned for you. I look at you and I just see you are my son, you are my daughter. That is the invitation of Easter. What I want you to hear this morning is the reality that you were never meant to go through life alone. And because of the resurrection, you don't have to. There are many of you here this morning who uh you know Jesus, and I'm so grateful that that's true and that you're here. And and yet, just because you know the reality that God's invited you into the family, it doesn't mean that you're experiencing it. Sometimes we sometimes we choose to live in the old patterns. And maybe this morning is just that reminder to you that Jesus has something greater for you, that he's inviting you to experience even here and now, the beginnings of the reality of God's family, that he wants for you, church, to be more than just a place we go on a Sunday, more than just a message we listen to or some songs we sing, that he wants the church to be family. And man, I want so badly for you to be able to find that here at Alderwood. We're not perfect here. We still hurt each other, we still do dumb things every once in a while, but we are trying to follow Jesus together. And we want this to be a place where you don't have to hide, you don't have to protect yourself, you don't have to pretend to be someone you're not, that together we can come and say, we're here, not because we earned it, but because Jesus died for us. And we're gonna live more and more into that together every day. But I also know there are many of you here who don't yet know Jesus. And I want you to hear the same thing. You were not meant to go through life alone. And Easter is the invitation to say, you don't you don't have to keep doing that. And we spend so much of our lives just trying to be enough, right? Trying to do enough, trying to earn enough, trying to come across the right way, trying to build a future for ourselves. And loneliness, it's one of those things that God hardwired into us that might help us realize that plan is never going to work. That's why God allows you to feel it, so that you would know that you're never gonna be enough on your own. And God gives that to you in your soul so that you would recognize your need for Him. And Easter is that invitation where God says, You don't have to keep going this way. You can come back home. You can receive from me what you can never attain for yourself because of Jesus' resurrection. You can be forgiven of your sins. You can have a hope in a future, you can have a new family. This morning, I hope that you'll receive that offer. The way that you receive it is just simply through faith. It's saying, Jesus, I believe in you. I want what you're offering me. I need the forgiveness of sins that you can give. And I'm gonna make you the Lord of my life, and I'm gonna follow you. And this Easter could be the day that you make that decision for the first time. I hope that you will. I want to leave you with one of my favorite Bible verses that celebrates this reality together. It's from 1 John chapter 3, verse 1. It says, see what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God's children. And we are. That's Jesus' invitation to you this Easter. I hope you'll receive it. Would you pray with me? Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus this morning. And we come not in fear. We don't come in any sense of trying to earn your favor, but we come in the authority and in the power of Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins, who rose again to new life, and we come in his name in confidence that you accept us, that you see us as your sons and daughters, that we can run into the throne room, that we can jump onto your lap, that we can embrace you because of what Jesus has done for us. And so, Lord, we ask that you would help us to live that way more and more every day, that you would imprint that truth on our hearts, that we would be able to, by your spirit, silence the lies of the enemy that want to bring shame and distance and all of that, God. And would you help us to just live into this resurrection truth? You are our Father. Jesus is our brother now, and this family can never be taken away. We're so grateful. We give you the praise and the glory that only you are worthy of. In Jesus' name. Amen.