Church of the City New York Come to Me | Resurrection - Keithen Schwahn
Mar 23, 2026
A preacher rethinks common answers about death and meaning and challenges the view that eternity is a ticket to a place. He tells the story of Lazarus to show resurrection as a present, bodily hope. The talk contrasts secular and gnostic ideas with a relational vision of eternal life that reshapes everyday work and fear.
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High School Students Only Asked About Heaven
- Keithen Schwahn stood before an Upper East Side high school class and found almost every student asked about who gets into heaven.
- None of their questions mentioned Jesus, revealing a cultural view of heaven as a club to enter after death rather than a relationship with Christ.
Two Bad Extremes on Eternity
- Keithen maps modern options about eternity onto two bad extremes: secular materialism (death ends everything) and spiritual Gnosticism (escape the body).
- Most people default to an ambiguous mix that treats the soul as the good part and the body as disposable.
Jesus Declares Himself The Resurrection
- In John 11 Jesus tells Martha I am the resurrection and the life, confronting common afterlife views with a personal claim.
- Jesus doesn't point to a destination; he declares himself as the hope and authority over death now.
