For generations, the stories were told.
No matter how bad the world would get…a Savior is coming.

Some days, even today, we long for a time when the hardships that we face everyday would simply…disappear.
But not this day, apparently.

Then HE appeared. The one that spoke differently, acted differently, and seemed to control the world itself after working miracle after miracle.
Could this be the ONE?

Day after day, week after week, month after month, Jesus broke the tradition of a Holy Man by the way He walked, talked, and welcomed people of every conceivable background.

The way He loved people was different…
…authentic…
…contagious.

He talked about a world that was better than this one and it was only 1 relationship away.
A relationship with the Father that could be had through the Son.
A relationship with Jesus Himself.

He performed miracle after miracle until people started to believe…
…people except for the religious elite.
For them, Jesus needed to be stopped.

It was on a Friday, 2000 years ago that they finally got enough of a voice to silence this possible Messiah and Savior of the world.

Jesus has been falsely arrested, beaten, tortured, His skin literally falling off of His body, and he was carrying a cross to a place called “Golgotha”…
…a cross that end the life of this Savior of the world.

So many times, our hopes and dreams are dashed on the rocks of our very own Friday. We forget the good and the possibility of what could be, drowning in our own sense of pity and regret.

We don’t carry a cross, but we carry our own shame and guilt, wishing that there was some way to make it right…to make us whole…for the very first time.
Maybe it really is over this time…Maybe Jesus would just die and everyone would forget Him.

The Friday before Easter has come to be called “Good Friday”.
Not because it was a day to celebrate the coming weekend.
Because it was good that Jesus took our place for our own sin.

On that Friday, when hopes were dashed and dreams were abandoned, something marvelous would happen.
On that Friday, the Savior of the world would give his life so that others could live.

If it all ended on Friday, that would have been the end of Jesus’s story.
Instead, Friday was only the beginning.
On that Friday, the Savior would die only to return in 2 more days.

Often today, we feel like we are living our own personal “Good Friday”.
Let’s not forget that Sunday is coming.

S. M. Lockridge put this in better words than I could years ago…

It’s Friday
Jesus is praying
Peter’s a sleeping
Judas is betraying
But Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday
Pilate’s struggling
The council is conspiring
The crowd is vilifying
They don’t even know
That Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday
The disciples are running
Like sheep without a shepherd
Mary’s crying
Peter is denying
But they don’t know
That Sunday’s a comin’

It’s Friday
The Romans beat my Jesus
They robe him in scarlet
They crown him with thorns
But they don’t know
That Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday
See Jesus walking to Calvary
His blood dripping
His body stumbling
And his spirit’s burdened
But you see, it’s only Friday
Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday
The world’s winning
People are sinning
And evil’s grinning

It’s Friday
The soldiers nail my Savior’s hands
To the cross
They nail my Savior’s feet
To the cross
And then they raise him up
Next to criminals

It’s Friday
But let me tell you something
Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday
The disciples are questioning
What has happened to their King
And the Pharisees are celebrating
That their scheming
Has been achieved
But they don’t know
It’s only Friday
Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday
He’s hanging on the cross
Feeling forsaken by his Father
Left alone and dying
Can nobody save him?
Ooooh
It’s Friday
But Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday
The earth trembles
The sky grows dark
My King yields his spirit

It’s Friday
Hope is lost
Death has won
Sin has conquered
and Satan’s just a laughin’

It’s Friday
Jesus is buried
A soldier stands guard
And a rock is rolled into place

But it’s Friday
It is only Friday
Sunday is a comin’!

Mark Love
Lead Pastor