The reality of resurrection means death is not the end. The risen Jesus meets Mary, the disciples and Thomas, breathing on them and giving them His Spirit and commissioning them to continue the mission that the Father sent him to do. Pastor Lachlan encourages us to embrace the risen Jesus who knows our pain, knows our name, knows our doubts and sends us out.

As Jesus dies on the cross, he reigns as king. His exaltation is his humiliation, his victory is his death, his coronation is the cross. Jesus is a radically different kind of king. He offers up his life for his people. Far from being an oppressive king or irrelevant royal, Jesus kingship brings life, salvation and redemption to a world that’s desperately in need of freedom and love.

Habakkuk was a Hebrew prophet who spoke with God and spoke to the people. He was a prophet and intercessor in a time of evil and injustice. Ronald Lieu invites us to consider what trusting God looks like in a messy world full of injustice and unrighteousness.

As Jesus goes to the cross, he leads the way. Unlike most captives, he seems to be carrying the most authority and composure while those around him stumble and crumble. As author Joshua Ryan Butler says, “the cross isn’t happening to Jesus, Jesus is happening to the cross.” Pastor Lachlan invites us to let our entire beings be led by this leader, the GOAT, who loves us so much that he paved his own way to death, so we might be rescued. He’s the boss of the cross.

John concludes the discipleship discourse with a whole chapter of Jesus praying. Jesus prays to be glorified, for his disciples and for us, the future church and followers of Christ. His prayer is for his people to be united with one another, the Father and himself. Pastor Lachlan invites us to consider what our union with Christ means for our communion with God and community with each other, as we live in the reality of what the Lord prayed.

The third pillar of our vision as a church is mission. We want to be a community of disciples following the way of Jesus… for the sake of the world. God calls, sends, empowers and equips his people to be ambassadors of His Kingdom. To be on mission is to be the people of God, sold out for Jesus and His Way, living a different life as salt and light in the world. We share His love and show His kindness and compassion proclaiming good news in both word and deed.

Jesus has two interesting promises for those who follow him. That there will be trouble in this world and that he has overcome the world. The promises seem to be in tension but Jesus stands in between and says “take heart”. He give love, hope, victory and peace. In this sermon Pastor Lachlan invites us into the Christ empowered posture of hopeful realism, engaging in our ‘Easter Saturday’ world between death and resurrection, with Jesus promises and presence anchoring our lives and perspective of everything.

Jesus has some promises for his followers which are hard to hear. If the world hates you he says, it’s because the world hated me first. In fact if you’re persecuted this might not be such bad news, even though it will be painful, because it demonstrates that you are Jesus people. It’s not you, it’s me, Jesus says. And though living in and loving our post-Christian city as a follower of Jesus will be difficult at times, Jesus says that He will send help and give us everything we need, namely the Holy Spirit. Listen in as Pastor Lachlan shares Jesus’ advice for how to live as dual citizens, children of the Kingdom of God and inhabitants and contributors to the world.

We all like the idea of love, but putting it into practice is the hard part. Jesus commands us to love each other. He says to love each other like He loves us and his kind of love is a love where you lay down your life for your friends. It's the kind of love which can only flow out of the resources of Jesus himself, the fruit of abiding in the vine. And just like a cherry tomato plant bears cherry tomatoes, it’s a Jesus person who bears Jesus love. Pastor Lachlan talks about practicing the difficult art of loving people well.

Central to discipleship to Jesus is his invitation to abide in him, the true the vine. To abide means to make our home there, to dwell in Jesus and live with him. The second metaphor of the vine means he’s also our root system and we are fruit bearing branches bringing life to the world through our nourishment in Him. Pastor Lachlan explains what this looks like in his life and how we can live into this reality.