Easter at Rock Point 2025 | Message

The big idea

Jesus doesn't just come to give us lighter circumstances at the end of our hard seasons — He comes to give us life, even in the middle of the tunnel.

Easter is not about God simply improving our circumstances until we reach "the light at the end of the tunnel." Jesus stepped into our pain, went through His own tunnels of grief and loneliness, and suffered and rose again so that we could have real life — with Him, in the tunnel, forever.

Point 1 of 5

Pastor Bill walks through John 11, the raising of Lazarus, a week before Easter. Mary's words to Jesus, 'if only you had been there,' are unpacked as the same question many of us ask — where was God? Jesus is shown getting angry at death itself and weeping with the mourners even though He knew He was about to raise Lazarus, showing that He enters our sorrow rather than staying distant from it.

Point 2 of 5

Pastor Bill retells Gethsemane from Matthew 26 — Jesus anguished to the point of sweating blood, asking Peter, James, and John to stay awake with Him, and being let down as they fall asleep three times while Judas, the one still awake, goes to betray Him. The point is that Jesus experienced real human loneliness and betrayal from those closest to Him as a man, so that those who feel abandoned now know He has been there.

Point 3 of 5

Turning to John 19, Pastor Bill highlights Jesus' final words, 'It is finished,' explaining that it wasn't Jesus tapping out but declaring that death itself was finished. Sin separates us from a holy God, and Jesus stepped into that tunnel called the tomb and came out the other side, defeating death for good.

Point 4 of 5

From Luke 24, the angels ask the women at the tomb, 'Why are you looking for the living among the dead?' Pastor Bill applies this to the human habit of chasing the next light — marriage, kids, income, a paid-off bill — thinking that will finally bring peace, when Jesus alone is the life we were built for.

Point 5 of 5

Pastor Bill shares that his father and mother died just ten weeks apart during the church's first year, while his youngest daughter was born in between, and that he wrestled with anger and unanswered 'why' questions. He points to the unfinished punctuation on his parents' grave marker, meant to read 'we're dancing in the river,' as his way of holding onto the hope that death is not the end.

Take it into your week

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop chasing the next light and take Jesus' outstretched hand in the tunnel you're actually in.