Hello! and welcome to this week's episode of
Trinity Sermons. This week we are celebrating
Easter Sunday. And in most places in Canada,
Easter Sunday is the last day in a long weekend.
And Rob is gonna talk to us about the original
long weekend, that time when Jesus is crucified
on a Friday, there's that waiting and confusion
on Saturday, and then we experience the joy of
Sunday morning. And so tune in as Rob shares
how those seasons also parallel. lives. Earlier
on the first day of the week, while it was still
dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw
that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
So she came running to Simon Peter and the other
disciple, the one Jesus loved and said, they
have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't
know where they have put him. So Peter and the
other disciples started for the tomb. Both were
running, but the other disciple outran Peter
and reached the tomb first. He bent over and
looked in at the strips of linen lying there
but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along
behind him and went straight into the tomb. He
saw the strips of linen lying there as well as
the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus'
head. The cloth was still lying in its place
separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple
who had reached the tomb first also went inside.
He saw and believed. They still did not understand
from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the
dead. Then the disciples went back to where they
were staying. Now, Mary stood outside the tomb
crying. As she wept, she went over to look into
the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated
where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and
the other at the foot. They asked her, woman,
why are you crying? They have taken my Lord away,
she said. and I don't know where they have put
him. At this, she turned around and saw Jesus
standing there, but she did not realize that
it was Jesus. He asked her, Ubin, why are you
crying? Who is it you are looking for? Thinking
he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have
carried him away, tell me where you have put
him and I will get him. Jesus said to her, Mary.
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic,
Reboni, which means teacher. Jesus said, do not
hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to
the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell
them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went to
the disciples with the news. I have seen the
Lord. and she told them that he had said these
things to her. The word of the Lord. Well, happy
Easter, everyone. And happy long weekend. Of
course, the Easter weekend is always a long weekend
here in Ontario. Anyways, we get the Friday and
we get the Saturday and we get the Sunday off.
I was looking and I think that that's true for
most places except for perhaps in Quebec. In
Quebec, I don't think you necessarily get the
Friday off. I think you might get the Monday
off. You might get neither off. C 'est dommage.
Or you might get both off, which would be sans
sas. You'd have a four -day weekend, but we get
a three -day weekend. And I don't know, what
do we like to do on those three -day weekends?
Maybe you just like to sleep in. That sounds
good. Maybe you like to spend a couple hours
making the perfect cup of coffee on a three -day
weekend. That sounds pretty good. Maybe the three
-day weekend is when you decide to finally get
around to doing that job you promised you would
do back in 2021. and you're like, okay, this
is the weekend to do it. Or maybe the three day
weekend is the weekend that you just sit around
and you binge a new TV series like Severance.
Maybe that's what you can do this weekend, right?
But if you ask me, each of the days of the long
weekend, they kind of have their own kind of
theme, right? So Friday is the day that you crash,
right? You're worn out, boom, you just crash
on Friday. Saturday, I think, is the day when
you do the odd jobs, you run the errands, you
try to get things done. And then Sunday is the
day where now you're good and rested and you
can just totally like veg out and relax and really
milk that day for all that it's worth because
you know You gotta go back to work the next day.
Unless, of course, you're a minister. How many
ministers are here? In which case, Sunday is
the busiest day, but anyways, who cares? Enough
about me. I wanna ask you the question here.
Now here's the, we're gonna do a little survey.
We're gonna do a show of hands. Which of the
three days of a three -day weekend, like Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, do you find to be your favorite
day, the best day? So let's start. Hands up if
Friday is the best day of a three -day weekend.
Oh, no. Hands up if Saturday is the best day
of a three -day weekend. And hands up if Sunday
is the best day of a three -day weekend. And
hands up if you didn't put your hand up. Yep,
there you are. Okay, I think it's a tie between
the Saturday and the Sunday and maybe the people
who are like, I don't want to put my hand up.
Guys, today, though, I want to take you back
to the very first three -day weekend, the original
long weekend, which happened 2 ,000 years ago.
2 ,000 years ago, there was a Friday, a Saturday,
and a Sunday that changed the world as we know
it. 2 ,000 years ago, there was a long weekend,
and the world has never been the same ever since.
Now that Friday of that long weekend was what
you might call the day of pain. On that Friday
it was the day that Jesus was arrested, beaten
up, tortured, and ultimately crucified to death.
It was the day of pain. The Saturday was the
day of doubt and confusion. That was the day
his disciples said, what? What do we do now?
And the Sunday was the day of joy. That was the
day when Jesus rose from the dead. There was
great victory, there was great celebration. So
you had the Friday of pain, you have the Saturday
of doubt, and you have the Sunday of joy. Now
friends, listen. Life is this long weekend. In
your life, that pattern, the Friday, the Saturday,
the Sunday, the pain, the doubt, the joy will
repeat itself over and over and over and over
again in your life. For example, some of you
right now, you are going through the Friday of
pain. You're going through some tragedy or some
real difficult thing that is happening in your
life right now. It's a Friday for you. Others
of you, you're in the Saturday of doubt. I don't
know what happened, but right now, you are doubting
everything. You are uncertain about everything.
You are wondering, what am I gonna do right now?
And you maybe are even wondering, where is God
in the middle of all of this? And some of you,
yes, hopefully, you are living in the joy of
Sunday. But over and over and over again, you
are gonna have to go through these three days.
What do you do when you find yourself in the
Friday? or in the Saturday or in the Sunday of
life. Well, the best thing that you can do is
follow the pattern that Jesus gave us. That's
right, the Bible says that God has called you
to endure suffering because Christ suffered for
you. And then get this, he also left an example
so that you could follow in his footsteps. In
other words, stay with me here, through Jesus'
death, And burial and resurrection, he left a
model that you could follow in the very worst
days of your life, in the days of doubt, in the
days of defeat, in the days of despair, in the
days of depression. He left you a model for the
Fridays and for the Saturdays and for the Sundays.
And so what we're going to do, Today, on this
long weekend, we are gonna look back 2 ,000 years
to that long weekend to figure out how to handle
whatever long weekend the world throws at us.
So we're gonna ask three questions. We're gonna
make three statements. What do you do in the
day of pain, Friday? How do you get through the
day of doubt, that's the Saturday? And how do
you get to the day of joy? That's the Sunday.
What do you do? How do you get through? And how
do you get to, right? You've all got some notes
there. I would invite you to fill this out as
we go through. And here's why. And I hate to
tell you this, but you are definitely gonna need
this at some point. I don't know if life's going
along great for you, but I guarantee you, tragedy
will come. Pain will come. Suffering will come.
And you're gonna have loss. It'll just happen.
So what are you gonna do? How are you gonna get
through the Fridays? How are you gonna get through
the Saturdays? And how are you gonna get through
the Sundays? Well, let's ask the first question.
What do you do on the Fridays of life? What do
you do in the days of pain? I'll tell you this.
For Jesus, the Friday was a day of pain. All
sorts of pain. Physical pain. Jesus was beaten
up. He was whipped. He was scourged. He was denied
sleep. He was denied food. Ultimately, he was
crucified on the cross. He knew physical pain.
He also knew emotional pain. On that day, Jesus
was abandoned by his friends. He was rejected
by his people. He was emotionally, he was humiliated.
He was stripped naked. and hung on a cross. Emotionally
he knew pain and spiritually Jesus knew pain
as well because on that day Jesus bore the weight
of all the sins of the world on his shoulders
and was separated from God his father spiritually
speaking. No one has ever experienced pain like
Jesus experienced pain on that Friday of that
long weekend 2 ,000 years ago and that means
a couple things. One is that that means he knows
what it's like when you're going through pain.
He understands your pain. Jesus understands our
weaknesses for he faced all the same trials and
all the same temptations as you do. But secondly,
and this is where we're going, not just does
Jesus understand your pain, but he can show you
a way through your pain. He gave us a pattern.
He showed us how to get through the pain in life.
In fact, Jesus did two things and we can do them
too. on our day of pain. Here's the first thing
Jesus did on his day of pain. He gathered with
friends. On the night that Jesus knew he was
gonna be arrested, betrayed, beaten up, and ultimately
crucified, do you know what he did? The first
thing he did was gathered together with his friends.
He said, guys, I need to just be with you. I
need to get together with you. I need to hang
out with you. I don't need you to preach to me.
I don't need you to lecture me. I don't need
you to tell me how it's all gonna be all right.
I just want to be with you, my friends. This
is what we sometimes call the ministry of presence.
So what he does is he gets his closest friends,
these 11 guys who had followed him around for
the last three and a half years, and he just
wants to hang out with them. Jesus took his disciples
with him to Gethsemane and he said, stay here
with me, be with me while I pray. And then he
took maybe his three closer friends of that group,
Peter, James, and John, he went a little further,
and he said, just sit here with me. Just watch
and wait with me. Isn't it just amazing that
even the Son of God needed his friends around
him in his day of pain. This, by the way, is
exactly the opposite of what we usually do. When
we are in pain what we usually do is we try to
isolate ourselves from others We don't want to
be with others But that is a huge mistake because
we were never meant to go through the day of
pain alone God meant for us to share our pain
with each other And not only did Jesus gather
with his friends, but when he gathered with them,
he was really honest and real with them. He didn't
say, oh guys, it's okay, everything's fine. I'm
sure this will blow over, no big deal. I don't
want to burden you. No, no, no. He pours out
his heart. He says, my heart is overwhelmed.
I feel crushed. I feel like I'm dying here. Now
I don't know about you, but do you have friends
in your life where you can say this kind of stuff
to them? The Bible says carry each other's burdens
and in this way you fulfill the law of Christ.
You were never meant to go through the Friday
of pain on your own. Now listen, here at Trinity.
We have these little groups of people that meet
all over our city. We call them life groups.
10 or 15 people in each group. And yes, these
groups get together and they read the Bible.
And yes, they get together and they pray. But
you know what else they do? They support each
other when they're going through the Friday of
pain. And I can give you example after example
after example of how these groups, when one of
their members was going through the Friday of
pain, do you know what they did? They all rallied
together and baked food for them. Or they said,
hey, let us watch the kids for you. You guys
need a break. Or they kept calling and texting
and checking in on them to see how they were
doing. And I have to tell you, if I'm honest,
if you are not part of a life group at this church,
I worry about you as your pastor a little bit,
actually a lot, because where's your safety net?
Where are you gonna get the care you need when
you need it? I can't do it, obviously. Who's
gonna help you in the Fridays of pain? Who's
gonna be there with you? I just gotta tell you,
Trinity right now, we got 20 or 25 of these life
groups meeting all over the place from Port Credit
to Brampton to Caledon online here in Streetsville.
If you want to get connected with a group, a
life group, then visit our website or visit the
welcome desk after the service, right? Because
here's the thing, the day is coming, the Friday
is coming, the day of pain is coming, and the
first thing we need to do, and that happens,
is gather with friends. But here's the thing,
even friends can't be there for you all the time.
I mean, friends get busy. Friends have things
to do. Friends have families of their own. Maybe
if friends get tired. That is why the next thing
Jesus does on his day of pain is so important.
You know what he did? He reached out to God through
prayer. And you know what? God is never busy.
God is never tired. God always has time for us.
And the way we reach out to God is through prayer.
And that's exactly the other thing that Jesus
did on his night of pain, on that Friday of pain.
He went and he prayed. Read this. It says that
Jesus, he fell down on his face on the ground
and he prayed, Abba, Father, I know you can do
all things and I don't want to have to drink
this cup of suffering, but nevertheless, I want
your will to be done and not mine. Now listen,
that word Abba, that is not just a Swedish rock
group. Abba is a word that a child would use
to talk to their father. In fact, Abba is one
of the first words that every little boy in the
Middle Eastern world or every little girl learns
when they're first learning to talk, right? And
so what we learn from this is that in your day
of pain and you wanna go and talk to God, you
don't have to use real fancy language. You do
not have to go to God and say, oh blessed be
thou Lord God of Israel forever and ever. All
that is in the heavens and the earth is thine.
All things come of thee and from thine own have
we given thee. No, no, no, no. You just say,
Abba, Father, help. I need help here. And notice
when Jesus prays this prayer. Notice there's
these three key parts. He prays with faith. He
says, I know you can do all things. He also prays
really honestly, I don't want this to happen
to me. But he also prays with a lot of trust.
He says, but I trust you. I know you're able,
even if I don't want this. Now if you're able
to pray a prayer like that, Father, I know that
you're able. I don't want this, but I trust you.
Then you are doing exactly what Jesus did in
his day of pain. What did he do? He reached out
and gathered with friends, and he reached out
to God in prayer. That's the Friday pattern for
us. But now we come to the second day of the
long weekend. Fridays are a day of pain, but
Saturdays, what are they? They are days of doubt
and confusion. Can you imagine how much confusion
and doubt the disciples felt that day, right?
Jesus is now dead. He is sealed in a tomb. Just
days before, they were certain he was the one.
He was the one to deliver Israel. He was the
Messiah. They had seen with their own eyes. They
had seen him walk on water. They had seen him
heal the sick. They had seen him raise the dead.
Now he was dead. What are they gonna do now?
Right it shattered them This is what doubt is
all about right, but you guys know that right
because You know how it feels to be in limbo.
You know how it feels to start that new job or
begin that new business or take that chance because
you thought it was the right thing to do and
you were sure it was gonna work out but then
you got fired or then they pulled the plug on
it or then the money dried up and you had to
walk away and you were like, how did this happen?
What am I gonna do now? Or perhaps it was the
relationship, you met that person, you married
that person, you were like, this is the person,
this is the one, I'm certain of it, I'm 100 %
sure we're gonna spend the rest of our lives
together, and then he left, and then she left,
and everything started to fall apart, and you
were like, what do I do now? We've all had Saturdays
like that, days of grief, days of regret, days
of waiting, days of silence, when nothing makes
sense. And in the Saturdays of life, you're always
tempted to think that God is absent. God is never
absent. Even if he appears to be silent, God
is working. Now Jesus had actually warned his
disciple that this is exactly what was gonna
happen to them. That very night, Jesus told them,
listen, before this night is over, you're all
gonna fall to pieces. Because of what's gonna
happen to me and all of you will desert me and
that is exactly what happened my friends when
Jesus was arrested the disciples all fell to
pieces and they all abandoned him and they ran
away from him and that by the way is one of the
things we are tempted to do on the Saturdays
of doubt is to run away from God. Where is God?
God must not be real. God let me down. God didn't
come through. God never answered my prayer. I'm
out of here. I'm walking away from faith. I'm
walking away from church. I'm walking away from
it all but that is not the way through the day
of doubt. No, no, no. The way through those Saturdays
of doubt is to do this, to remember the promises
of God. When you're going through those days,
when you haven't the slightest idea of what is
going on, when everything seems to have gone
down the toilet, you need to cling to the promises
of God, because here's the thing. His promises
are steady. when nothing else is. You might not
know what's coming next, but He knows what's
coming next. The disciples didn't know what was
coming next, but God knew what was coming next,
right? The disciples, all they could see was
their Saturday situation. They could not yet
see the Sunday celebration. In fact, Jesus gave
them a promise to hold onto, because He knew
this was gonna happen to them. He said, guys,
listen, here's what's gonna happen. Soon I'm
gonna be gone. and you're gonna be without me.
But after a while, you're gonna see me again,
I promise. You're gonna weep and you're gonna
mourn and you're gonna grieve, but don't worry,
your grief is gonna turn into joy eventually.
Jesus saying, I know this isn't gonna make any
sense, I know it's gonna be so confusing, but
hold on to this promise. And when you are in
the middle of your Saturday of doubt, when it
is quiet and dark and confusing, You gotta hold
onto the promises of God. You gotta hold onto
promises like this. I will never leave you nor
forsake you, God says. Hold onto a promise like
this. I am working all things together for good.
Hold onto a promise like this. Though sorrow
may last for a night, joy comes in the morning.
In the Saturdays of life, in those days of doubt,
you gotta be a promise person. If you're not
a promise person, you know what you will be,
you will be a worry person. You will be full
of anxiousness. You'll get upset and you'll panic.
The times of doubt will stress you out. But if
you believe the promises of God, you can make
it through. You know, in this book, this Bible,
there's something like 7 ,000 promises God makes
to people. It's crazy. God loves to make promises.
God loves to keep promises. And all of God's
promises... we are told find their yes in Jesus
Christ. In fact, I wanna give you one promise
this morning, because I don't know what kind
of train wreck your life might be, what you're
going through, what major personal setback you're
having, or career, or financial, or health setback,
or relationship setback. If it looks like everything
in your life has turned to ashes, here's a promise
for you. To all who mourn in Zion, I will give
you beauty for your ashes. I will give you joy
instead of mourning. and I will give you praise
instead of despair. I could invite dozens and
dozens and dozens of people from Trinity Streetsville
up onto the stage right now and they would be
able to tell you how this promise was what they
held onto in the Saturdays of doubt and it got
them through. What do you do in the day of pain?
You gather with friends and you reach out to
God in prayer. What do you do in the Saturday
of doubt? you remember the promises of God. But
finally, finally, how do we get to the days of
joy? How do we get to Sunday? In other words,
where are we gonna get the power to muscle through
the Fridays and push through the Saturdays? I
got news for you. It's not gonna come from yourself.
You don't have the power. You don't have that
ability. If you had the power and the insight
and the know -how to solve all of your problems,
you'd already have solved them by now. You probably
wouldn't be here this morning if you already
had that power. No, the truth is you cannot resurrect
yourself. No matter how much power you have you
cannot save yourself you need a Savior now two
thousand years ago Two women two of the most
powerless people you could ever imagine Came
to the tomb of Jesus to mourn And what happened
next was an absolute game changer. They met the
risen Jesus and Friday's pain and Saturday's
doubt was wiped away and it was replaced with
this new found power. They had so much new power
and energy that they ran immediately and they
told others and then they. received that power
and they ran and told others. And then over the
next 40 days, Jesus keeps showing up to people
after people. He shows up to a group here. He
goes on a fishing trip here. He has lunch with
some people here. He spends an hour with 500
people at once. And every single one of them,
that resurrection power, is changing their life.
They're not afraid anymore. They're not worried
anymore. They're not sad anymore. They just went
and they told everybody they could about what
had happened and that the good news is, is that
your life can be changed through the power. of
Jesus Christ and you know what guys, their joy
was so contagious that within like 300 years,
the entire Roman Empire had essentially become
Christian. Even the emperor had converted to
Christianity and why was that? Was it because
these Christians were especially powerful, smart
people? No, they had no power of their own. How
did it happen? It happened because they depended
on the power of Jesus. It wasn't their own power.
You can't get to Sunday on your own. It takes
more than self effort. If you're facing chronic
problems or chronic sickness or chronic pain
or chronic conflict or whatever, you can't just
say, I think I can't, I think I can't, I think
I can't, I think I can't, and push through it.
You can't resurrect yourself. You can't save
yourself. Jesus says, I am the resurrection.
He doesn't say, I can show you the resurrection.
I can point you to the resurrection. I can teach
you about the resurrection. He says, no, I'm
it. It's me, right? I'm the answer to your problems.
I'm the answer to getting out of Friday's pain.
I'm the answer to getting through Saturday's
doubt. I'm the way you get into Sunday's joy.
It's not some principle you have to follow. It's
a person. It's not some religion. It's not some
rule. It's not some ritual. It's a relationship
with Jesus Christ. That's where the power comes
from. That's how you get there. In fact, look
at this. This is a crazy verse. Think about this.
His power to help those who believe in him is
the same power that raised Christ from the dead.
You get that? The same power that raised Jesus
Christ from the dead is available to you each
and every day. If God can raise this dead body
back to life, God can raise a dead marriage back
to life, a dead relationship back to life, a
dead career back to life. It's a whole new ballgame,
but it depends on the power of Jesus. Now, I
don't really want you to get the wrong idea here
because some of you are gonna say, oh, well,
then why do I still have difficulty in my life?
No, no, you're still gonna go through the Fridays
and the Saturdays of life over and over again.
Jesus' power is not a power to avoid the pain
of Friday or to skip the doubt of Saturday. It
is a power to get us through the Fridays and
to get us past the Saturdays to the Sundays.
So guys, friends, on Fridays we gather with friends
and we pray to God. And yes, on Saturdays we
remember the promises, but to get to Sunday we
gotta depend on the power of Jesus. I wanna close
and I wanna invite you to pray a very simple
prayer on this long weekend. No, I didn't come
up with this prayer. It was written by a guy
named Paul. It's in the Bible. It's in this book
called Philippians. And I want you to know, I
pray this prayer for myself. I want to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection. I pray this
prayer for each of you. I want you to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection. But most of
all, I want you to leave this place today. and
be ready to pray this prayer for yourself. God,
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.
This prayer is written at the bottom of your
notes and I would encourage you even during communion,
you can go out to one of our prayer volunteers
and you can pray this prayer with them. It's
the simplest prayer because remember, the resurrection
transformed that long weekend 2 ,000 years ago
and it can transform every weekend of your life
even this weekend that we celebrate today. Thanks
be to God. Thank you for listening to this week's
episode of Trinity Sermons. This sermon was recorded
at Trinity Church Streetsville in Mississauga,
Ontario on April 20th, 2025.