Easter 2 2026

(Acts 2: 14a, 22-32, John 20: 19-end)

 

Today I want to offer you one simple sentence to carry home:

Jesus is real.

 

Some of us have worshipped in this place for many years, some of us are here because we are hoping to find something  - Whatever you are here for today, I promise you that it is not a something but a someone that you are looking for. 

 

Faith is about a relationship with someone, not an adherence to something.  When we say the words “Christ is risen.” When we say “Alleluia.”  - is it just because its the right thing to say, or is it a profound moment of realisation, of knowing that no matter who you are or what you do, you are part of someone infinitely bigger, held by someone infinitely greater, and loved by someone more loving that you could ever imagine?

Jesus is real

 

Imagine for a moment, you are one of the disciples in our reading standing in the locked room, hiding away from the authorities, no idea what to do next…because

You watched him take his last breath
You saw the spear pierce his side
You helped bury the body.

And now he’s standing in front of you.

Your whole perception of reality would tilt on its axis.

And in that moment, you realise that

Jesus is real. And if he is real, then all He told you, all he showed you, and his love for you is real too.

 

The adventurer and television presenter Bear Grylls once described how faith became real to him when he was a teenager. He had grown up hearing about Christianity, but it felt distant — like many people experience it today.

One evening he prayed a very simple prayer:
“Jesus, if you are real, please show yourself to me.”

There was no angelic chorus or blinding light  , but Bear said aferwards “That simple prayer changed my life. I discovered faith wasn’t about religion — it was about relationship.”

In other words, he realised something simple and profound:

Jesus is real.

 

A few years ago, a wildlife researcher in Scandinavia was studying wolves who had been fitted with GPS collars. For months she tracked their movements across forests and mountains on a computer screen. To her they were dots on a map. Data points. Patterns.

Then one winter morning she was hiking in the woods when a huge wolf stepped out onto the path ahead of her. She stopped, transfixed by its eyes, deep dark pools of liquid gold, watched its breath condensing into moisture that hung in the cold air, saw its muscles, tense and rippling under silver fur, and then it was gone, melted back into the trees.

Suddenly the creature she had studied for years wasn’t a statistic.

It had eyes, breath, presence

In that moment everything changed. She realised the wolf was real.”

Same animal, same knowledge, vastly different experience.

 

Jesus is real. Not words in a service booklet.  Jesus is real.

And if that is true, it changes everything. It should make us stand differently, listen and speak differently, live differently.

 

We heard in our reading from Acts how Peter stands up before the crowd. This is the same man, who terrified for his own life, denied even knowing Jesus a few days earlier. Yet here he is giving one of the greatest sermons every preached, standing before a crowd of thousands telling them with a boldness and confidence he never had before that … Jesus is real.  Peter, a man for whom everything has changed – standing differently, speaking differently, living differently. 

 

Jesus is real.

 

So….If Jesus is real — not just historically real but presently real — what does that mean for how we live on an ordinary April morning here in Marden?

If Jesus is real, then faith isn’t just believing things about Him – if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.  No, faith is believing that Jesus is actually here.  God for us, around is and within us.

 

Imagine what might happen if we took that seriously.

Imagine thinking about the state of the world today and  remembering:

Jesus is real.

Imagine facing grief or illness and whispering in the dark:

Jesus is real.

 

The first thing that happens when we realise Jesus is real is not pressure.

It is peace.

Peace that we are not alone.
Peace that death is not the end.
Peace that love is stronger than violence.

 

Remembering one small sentence.

Jesus is real.

And if that is true — truly true — then hope is real.
Forgiveness is real.
New beginnings are real.

The resurrection is not just something that happened once long ago.

It is the moment the world discovered that the living Christ still walks into locked rooms.

The locked rooms of hearts, the locked rooms of minds, the locked places of this world.

So this week, when life feels ordinary, confusing, or heavy, try carrying that sentence with you.

Let it renew your hope

Let it shape your choices.

Let it steady your courage.

Just three words.

Jesus is real.

Amen.