It's Friday, BUT Sunday is Coming.

I feel like there are so many things that I could say in regards to Easter.  The week that “makes up” Easter week contains so many things that define who we are as Christians.  Our whole belief system, if you will, is largely upon the activities that took places and things that Jesus did from the time of the Triumphal Entry to the moment He rose from the grave.    

Through my years I have read a lot of books, heard a lot of sermons and sang a lot of songs all based on Easter.  While many of them have been great, two, in particular, have stuck with me.  As I sit here thinking about what I should share with you today, they both keep coming to my mind.  I have sat at my desk for the last 30-45 minutes debating which one I should share and then it hit me…”Duh Meredith, why don’t you just talk about both of them!”  Genius I tell you.. Genius!  Ha!

Anyway, the first thing that I want to share with you is a video.  The words are actually part of a sermon preached years ago.  However, the impact is still powerful today.  Please…take a moment and listen.  You won’t regret it.

It’s Friday…BUT Sunday’s a comin’.

Did you listen?  If you didn’t then, shame on you.

It was Friday and things were happening.  From the outside it looks like everything was falling apart.  Judas is betraying, the council is conspiring, Mary is crying, Peter is denying, the Romans beat my Jesus, the world is winning, people are sinning, the soldiers nail my saviors hands and feet to the cross and then they raise Him up next to criminals, the disciples are questioning, the earth trembles, the sky grows dark, my King yields His spirit, hope is lost, death has won, sin has conquered, satan is just a laughin’, Jesus is buried and a rock is rolled into place.  Life as we know it is falling about.  BUT, it’s just Friday and Sunday is coming.  

So many times in life we simply see all of the bad thing that are going on and all the crap that we are going through.  We can’t see past those things, much less see the end and coming out on the other side.  I am 99% sure that Mary, the disciples and a lot of people during the time of Jesus’ crucifixion could not see past Friday.  They were overwhelmed and wrapped up in what was going on at that moment.  Everything good that had been happening had now stopped and everything had turned bad.  Everything they gave their whole life for was coming to quite an abrupt end.  They didn’t understand.  They could not see that Sunday was coming.  Then, Sunday came.  Jesus walked out of the grave conquering death, defeating satan and creating a sacrifice and propitiation for our sins.  Friday looked grim and hopeless, but Sunday shed light on things and brought salvation. 

I do not know what you are going through, have been through or are preparing to go through, but hold fast, your Sunday is coming.  Just as Jesus did not forsake and abandon His children on that Friday, He will not forsake and abandon you on your Friday. 

Why do we have this assurance?  We have this assurance because of three small, but powerful words that Jesus spoke from the cross, “It is finished.”  In John’s account of the crucifixion in John 19, these are the last three things that Jesus spoke before He died.  It. Is. Finished.  There have been many, many debates over the years about what these three words mean, but I am not going to bore you with that.  I want to simply tell you what they mean to me.  

To me, they bring closure.  As Jesus hung on the cross He bore all my sins, even though I was not even born yet.  Not only did He bear my sins, but He bore yours too.  He was the ultimate (and final) sacrifice for the sins of the world.  He took on all of our sins and when He died He took them to the ground and buried them.  Then three days later, He conquered death and those sins and we are free.  We are free from the punishment of death that we deserve for all sins that we have committed and all the sins that we are yet to commit.  We are free because it is finished.  He completed it for us.  We do not have to suffer or die because He did it for us.   We do not have to worry, we do not have to fret, He finished it for us.  Does this mean we can just live life like we want to?  No, absolutely not.  First and foremost, we have to accept this gift of salvation that He has provided.  If this is something you have not done and want to know more about, please, please do not hesitate to contact me (meredith@glamministires.org), I will be more than happy to tell you more.  However, just accepting Jesus and His forgiveness and getting this “free forgiveness pass” is not enough.  We are called to give Him our lives.  We are called to daily die to our will, our wants and our ways and seek and follow Him and the plan that He has for us.   God has big plans for you, you simply have to give your life to Him.

I have known that Jesus said, “It is finished” for years, but it became excruciatingly real to me several months ago when I heard this song, “It is Finished” by Matt Papa.  Take a moment and listen.

“It is finished, it is done, to the world salvation comes.
Hallelujah, we're alive! Hell was silenced when You cried:

It is finished.
It is finished.”

When He died on the cross, the greatest gift you could ever have was finished.  Have you accepted that gift?

It is finished.