The Long Weekend of Easter | Trinity Sermons

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.