Easter at Rock Point 2024 | Sermon

The big idea

Real peace isn't the absence of problems or getting what you want—it's surrendering the throne of your life to Jesus, the true King, and trusting He is with you through the hard road.

Jesus didn't come on Easter to give us the peace we think we want—an easier path, a fixed circumstance—He came to give us the peace we actually need: peace with God through His death and resurrection. That peace isn't about where you are, it's about who you're with, and it only comes when we stop trying to be king of our own lives and let Jesus take the throne.

Point 1 of 6

Pastor Bill tells a long personal story about a youth camp trip where a broken-down bus, a reckless mechanic named Doug, a fire extinguisher, and a stranded youth group spiraled into a highway disaster involving a fire, a crashed car, and a forest service helicopter. He connects it to Proverbs' warning that there's a way that seems right to a person, but it ends in death.

Point 2 of 6

Pastor Bill sets the first Easter in a turbulent, Rome-occupied Israel and reads Luke 19, where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem because the same crowd cheering Hosanna would soon cry crucify Him once He didn't deliver the political peace they wanted.

Point 3 of 6

Pastor Bill explains that Jesus didn't come to be a genie granting our wishes but to rescue us from ourselves, dying in humiliation and surrender so that we could be saved, even though the crowd didn't understand it as victory.

Point 4 of 6

Pastor Bill points to Psalm 23, noting it doesn't promise avoiding the valley of the shadow of death but promises God's presence in it. He argues peace is about who you're with, not where you're at.

Point 5 of 6

Working through John 20, Pastor Bill shows the disciples knew Jesus was raised but were still afraid and hiding, still equating peace with the absence of danger. Jesus appears, says 'peace be with you' twice, shows His wounds, and sends them out on mission.

Point 6 of 6

Pastor Bill tells the story of Handel writing the Hallelujah Chorus from Revelation 19 and of Queen Victoria, the powerful sovereign of the British Empire, trembling and rising from her wheelchair during the chorus because she refused to remain seated in the presence of the true King of Kings, even wishing she could lay her crown at His feet.

Take it into your week

Pastor Bill's charge is that you have to decide who sits on the throne of your life—you or Jesus—and stand up in surrender the way Queen Victoria did before the King of Kings.