What Comes After Resurrection?
Hello Vineyard Fam!
Welcome to the after party... Easter has a way of lifting us. We gather, we sing, we celebrate that Jesus is alive. For a moment, everything feels clear. Hope feels strong. The story feels settled.
But then… life keeps going. The emails are still there. The decisions are still unresolved. The pressures haven’t disappeared. The questions we carried into Easter don’t always leave with us. And if we’re honest, this is where many of us live.
We believe Jesus is risen… and yet there are still places in our lives that feel uncertain, guarded, or even a little afraid. So what comes after resurrection?
This Sunday, we’re going to step into what happens next in the story. The resurrection doesn’t immediately turn the disciples into bold, fearless people. In fact, it shows us something much more honest.
They gather behind locked doors. Not celebrating. Not strategizing. Afraid. Maybe that’s more familiar than we’d like to admit.
We all have places like that. Places we try to manage, places we don’t fully trust God with yet, places where we feel the need to stay in control. It might be something external, like a situation you can’t resolve or a future you can’t predict. It might be something internal, like anxiety, doubt, or just a low-level sense of pressure that never quite goes away.
Often, without realizing it, we start to believe that peace will come once those things are fixed. Once we figure it out. Once things settle down. Once we feel more certain.
But what if peace doesn’t come at the end of all that? What if it meets us in the middle of it? What if the next movement after resurrection is not immediate confidence… but Jesus stepping into the very places we’re trying to manage on our own? That’s where we’re headed this Sunday.
As you move through the rest of this week, begin to notice: Where do you feel unsettled right now? Where are you holding tension or trying to stay in control? Where does your life feel a little more like “locked doors” than open space?
You don’t need to fix those places, just bring them honestly before Jesus. A simple prayer to carry with you: “Jesus, meet me here.”
This Sunday, we’ll see what the risen Jesus does when He meets His disciples in that kind of space. We’ll begin to discover what it looks like to receive peace… instead of trying to create it.
Resurrection is not the end of the story; it’s the beginning of what Jesus does in us. Often, that begins in the places we’d rather keep closed.
Can't wait to see you on Sunday, Stay Churchy my Friends!
Adam Greenwell
Lead Pastor
Vineyard Church
www.billingsvineyard.org