“IT´S FRIDAY; BUT SUNDAY’S COMING!”

The world is living as if it was in its own Good Friday. That first Good Friday of the Passion of the Christ, when the machinations against Jesus Christ – Yahshua seemed to be overcoming, they were not realising that Resurrection Easter Sunday was coming. Today, the world is under a comparable situation, they don’t realize that the Kingdom of God is coming, the day of the end, the day of judgement as in the days of Noah before the flood, the Second Coming of Christ is coming, and all this because Jesus overcame on the Cross.

This is the prophetical and spiritual parallelism that we Christians must learn and share with the world, because the time is near, and even though we are in time of social darkness and that the world goes from bad to worse, like in Good Friday, the hope of the Resurrection prevails, because Christ raised and we await His promised coming at the end. In the same way, each one of us may be living as if it were the Good Friday of his life, where it seems that all goes against him, that there is no hope, but let us not forget that for each one of us, thanks to Jesus, a new day full of life is coming, a liberating Sunday during our lives, and then, at the end the Sunday of the humanity believers in Christ. Do you want to enter into the Sunday of your life and in the one of God by the hand of Jesus Christ? Keep reading…

THE STORY OF A FAMOUS SERMON

Many of you will know which I would call one of the best and more profound sermons of the XX century, with the title: It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming! It seems to go back to the ministry of the Baptist Pastor from California, Dr. S.M. Lockridge. It tells the Passion of Christ making emphasis in the way the apostles tell us the story of the Stations of the Cross, or Way of the Cross, at the beginning it looked as if the devil was who was winning the battle by achieving that Jesus would be betrayed by Judas, delivered to His enemies from the Sanhedrin, denied by Peter, the great apostle, condemned to death by crucifixion after an unjust judgement by Pontius Pilate, by the accusation and complot of the religious leaders of Israel, despised by Herod, tortured by the roman soldiers, and rejected by the Jews and by the Romans, crucified next to two thieves, and His side trespassed. Describing the situation until the Calvary, the crucifixion and death of the Lord, and His tomb; it tall seemed lost, at first site. But it was only Friday, Sunday was coming. (Matthew 26 & 27 – Mark 14 & 15 – Luke 22 & 23 – John 18 & 19).

Each event of the Stations of the Cross, Lockridge would initiate it with the exclamation “is Friday” and would finish it with another “but Sunday’s coming”. When ending the story, the second part of the title of the sermon comes in place making emphasis in “but Sunday’s coming”, Easter Sunday of Resurrection, when the world changes forever, where humanity would learn that from that day the door of Paradise is open by faith in the grace of God in Christ. In a part of the sermon says “…do you realise? They only know its Friday, in other words, they think they have overcome, but they don’t know that Sunday’s coming”, they believe that a regular first day of the week is coming, but from that one, it would be the first Easter Sunday of Resurrection of the calendar of history, referring to what it meant which would change history forever, it would change it all.

The sermon ends in a majestic way with the exclamation of the Roman centurion who was standing at the foot of the Cross of Christ: “Truly this Man was the Son of God!” Mark 15:39. This Roman soldier was experienced in seeing men die on crosses and in dealing with prisoners in a merciless and cruel way. For him to see that a man could give His life to God and die in the particular moment chosen by Him, after having forgiven his executioners, was a new and shocking situation, for never, nor before, nor after Jesus, would anyone die this way, proving to have control of His own life. This has been a sermon preached by years by many pastors, and I thought that this Easter Week, in a world that is going through situations of tribulation that we could call the Friday of the world, it would remind us in another way that we must be rejoicing in hope and patient in tribulation (Romans 12:12), because the Sunday of the world is coming, the Kingdom of God, the Second Coming of Christ. “It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming!”

HISTORICAL APPLICATION FOR THE WORLD

Another important way of looking at our history and learn that we be living a Friday but have the hope of a Sunday this Easter Week, is remembering and applying our faith and hope when comparing it with the great events of history and the victories that God has given to His people, and opportunities to the world that also seemed as moments with no hope, of darkness and judgment, but that those who had faith overcame, as passing from Friday to Sunday.

Adam and Eve sinned, and were thrown out of paradise; all was lost, the first Friday of humanity, but a Sunday of restoration has already had its victory in the resurrection of Christ, the second Adam, (Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:45) and those saved will go to paradise for eternity, (Matthew 25:46). Noah, entering the ark with his family and the animals before the flood, leaving behind a perverse generation, passing from a situation of destruction, of loss, like the suffering of Good Friday, but God saved a remnant, like Easter Sunday of Resurrection, (Genesis 7). Abraham taking out of Sodom his nephew Lot before God would destroy it, (Genesis 19). Joseph in Egypt as the servant of the prisoners was living his particular Friday, but God made him governor of Egypt, without a doubt a Sunday of the plan of God, (Genesis 41:37-45). Israel slaved in Egypt as the suffering of a Friday, until Moses is sent to deliver them after 430 year of suffering, to the Promised Land, crossing the Red Sea as a Sunday of triumph for His people, (Exodus 14). Job and his test of tribulation, from Friday to the personal Sunday of a believer, Book of Job. Jonas in the belly of the great fish is a story of which Jesus Himself makes a reference to compare His own experience of three days and three nights from Good Friday to Easter Sunday of Resurrection, (Book of Jonas 2 and Matthew 12:40-42). The persecution of the apostles and their victory fulfilling the Great Commission, (Matthew 28:16-20, the Book of Acts of the Apostles, and the Letters of the New Testament).

We find more Fridays and Sundays in history, like the persecution at the beginning of the Church by Nero, it seemed that he was erasing it, but he died and finally Constantine the emperor made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Or the Catholic Friday, and the Sunday of light that the Protestant Reformation brought, when Christianity returned to the Way of the truth on the Word of God translated to common languages so that the people would no longer be deceived, and that the tradition and the corruption could be avoided in Christianity.

The Friday of slavery, the majority of them Africans taken to the West, and their Sunday of liberation which began it eradication by the British parliamentary William Wilberforce and John Newton, who had been a slave’s trader, converted to Christianity and repented, who was a friend of Wilberforce. The decomposition of the West in the XVIII century as a Friday, and a new kind of Promised Land lifted with the Bible in mind, the United States of America as a Sunday of opportunity that man has been ruining, as all he touches, due to sin.

The Holocaust against the Jews, their particular Friday, but in their Sunday of liberation they received the nation of Israel in 1948 by the United Nations, after WW II. A communist Friday, and a Sunday with the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989. The Cold War, which seems to come back, and other events, like the current world influenced through AI and social media badly used, after Internet, that show to man that God gives us opportunities and that we don’t use them well, until His Kingdom Comes, the only solution for the world, for man.

“The world is mad!” many say these days, but really it is only living Bible prophecies, what the prophets already foretold and the Lord Jesus Christ – Yahshua Himself to the apostles and to John in the Book of Revelation. It is a world condemned to disappear, but those of us who love and follow Christ will be taken to the paradise of God: “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” 2 Peter 3:13. “It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming!”

PERSONAL APPLICATION

Our good Lord Jesus is the master of suffering, who has the passion for love to us, coming from His throne next to the Father to become a Man and limit Himself to our dimension, was despised by His own family at the beginning, left by His apostles in the moment of trail, discarded by the scribes and Pharisees, and by the leaders of His people, tortured and crucified by the Roman, left on His own and abandoned to die on the Cross. Helped to carry the cross by SIMON OF CYRENE and buried by his rich followers, JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA and Nicodemus.

But Sunday of Resurrection came, the first Sunday of the Christian era with its meaning of a new day of rest for those of us who believe in Him and await Him to take us to His Kingdom. Then He was received by all of who saw Him raised, eat with Him and saw Him ascend to heaven, from where He will come at the end. More than 500 brothers saw Him resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:6-8).

We must also go through tribulation along our lives, and although we cannot compare them with the passion of Christ, some are so hard like the loss of a much loved one, torture, abuse, and some dye waiting the mercy of others and of God. But those who know Christ, even though they go through tribulations and desperation, even though it seems as a Friday of a valley of darkness, the hope of a new day of blessing and grace, of a new Sunday of Resurrection is anchored already in our heart. Many times we are taken out of tribulation that the Lord knows and we can give thanks, and it is there were we see that God keeps doing miracles every day. Who have gone through impossible tests, have claimed and prayed to God, and have come out of them, know what I am talking about.

We see that the great liberations of God come after great tribulations. Do you have tribulation in your life, but have trusted God and claim to Jesus Christ, your Saviour? Wait in Him, because He will do, (Psalm 37:5). Personal situations, sicknesses, family problems, financial, in the church; we shall never stop crying out to the Lord, because He will do, He will always set his people free, to all that love Him, even if it seems He takes long, even when patience ends, faith will sustain us to trust in God, because Jesus was carrying His cross on Easter Friday, but Good Sunday of Resurrection was to come, only three days and three nights, and would change the history of the world, and of the Church.

Jesus answered to Peter when He was being arrested by the detachment of troops and officers of the chief priests and of the Pharisees, when Peter drew his sward and struck cutting the right ear to Malchus, servant of the high priest: “Put your sward into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me? John 18:1-11. Sometimes we also must drink cups that God gives us and go through tribulations, and only God knows the reason, even though afterwards, sometimes we can get to understand why, because the Holy Spirit who dwells in us does not abandon us, and teaches us all things, (John 14:26). So let us be: “…rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation; continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing for the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Romans 12:12-17.

That joy is possible because our Lord, that Good Friday shed His blood on the cross of Calvary to cleanse us from sin, He offered Himself as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, and by the grace of God has given us faith in His work. To go deeper about the expiration of Christ for us, read about the blood of Christ in BIBLE DOCTRINES. “It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming!”

CONCLUSION

It’s Friday, the world is mad, your life is getting complicated, the wars, the hunger, the injustice, the violence, the suffering, the expectation of judgment, the prophecies of the end of the world are fulfilling, (Matthew 24, Luke 21, Revelation).

But Sunday is coming, Jesus Christ – Yahshua is coming according to His own promises (Revelation 1:7). In the same way as His first coming was fulfilled as the suffering Messiah to give His life in our place to save us and give us eternal life in the Kingdom of God, (Isaiah 53).

Jesus gave His life for us to the Father and rose. Resurrection is real and it awaits us all. Death no longer has power over us, which is only temporary. It all stays focused on the faith, where who receives it knows that one day he will raise and find himself next to God and will live in His Kingdom forever.

Therefore, if you are going through a Friday in your life, remember that soon Sunday will come for you. But not only that, the Sunday of the world is coming, because the Kingdom of God is coming for eternity. “It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming!” Amen.