The Worst Day In History Was The Best Day Of Your Life - April 3, 2026

Good evening. Welcome to Good Friday.

I want you to feel the weight of where we are.

Jesus has already been arrested, dragged through multiple trials.

It's around 6:00 AM. He hasn't slept.

All his disciples ran away. Peter has denied him three times

and now he's standing in front of the Roman governor and things

are about to get a lot worse. Pilot has flogged him with a

whip designed to shred skin, leather strands with bone and

metal woven in. People died from flogging alone.

Then the soldiers drama jammed a crown of thorns into his skull,

put a purple robe on him and slap him in the face and mock

him. The king of the universe takes

it, every bit of it and says nothing.

Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 53 was predicted 700 years before it

happened. He was oppressed and afflicted,

and yet he did not open his mouth.

And like a lamb led to the slaughter.

And like a sheep, like a sheep silent before her shears, he did

not open his mouth. Pilot drags him out, bleeding

thorns, purple robe and says 3 words.

Behold, the man John wants us to stop and see what's actually

happening. Who this actually is.

The Word of God who existed before a creation, The one who

raised the dead, healed the blind and the lepers, fed the

thousands standing there covered in blood and spit, letting it

happen on purpose for you. Why does he lose his dignity?

Because of what we lost in the garden, the moment Adam and Eve

sinned, they felt shame and they hid.

And we've been hiding ever since.

I know what it's like to carry shame.

I used to hide my drinking. I was ashamed that I was an

addict. But when I was honest about it

and I surrendered it to God, I was free from the shame because

I realized what Jesus did for me.

Jesus, who never did anything wrong, steps in and wears the

crown of shame so we don't have to.

Isaiah 53, five says he was pierced for our transgressions,

crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us

peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Whatever you're carrying shame about tonight, Jesus already

knew about it when he let them put that crown on his head.

He saw you. The cross says your shame

doesn't get the last word. Jesus does.

It's covered. That's why the worst Day in

History was the best day of your your life.

Then Pilate hands him over, and this is the one of the most

uncomfortable scenes in the New Testament because it's familiar.

Pilate's not confused about Jesus.

Pilate found Jesus not guilty three times.

He knew he was a righteous man and he still hands him over.

This is a man who knew the right thing and chose the easier

thing. The crowd shouts.

If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend.

That one line breaks him because Pilot's whole identity is

wrapped up in his position. The second he feels that

threatened, he folds. To not be Caesar's friend would

have cost him everything. Position, status, and ultimately

his life. He folds because of the crowd.

We do this all the time. We know what the right call is

and instead of making the right decision, we delay, we deflect.

We hope the problem goes away. Avoiding the decision is still a

decision. I can relate.

When I first started working in the high school district, there

was an incident between a staff member and a student and they

have been arguing in the. The student was about to leave

the classroom and the staff member just popped off and said

some very unchoiced words, very inappropriate words to that

student, antagonistic. And that student turns around

him, hits that staff member. And because I saw the whole

thing, I had to fill out the statement, the witness

statement, and I filled it out. And but I was afraid to include

what the staff member said because I thought the other

staff members wouldn't see me as a team player, that I wasn't on

their side. I sided with the crowd instead

of doing what was right. That's Pilot's move and I did it

too. He calls for a bowl of water and

washes his hands in front of everybody.

But think about it, you don't wash your hands of something you

weren't involved in. The hand washing was his

confession. The crowd is a different kind of

tragic. Some of these people were just

waving palm branches 5 days earlier shouting Hosanna which

means save us and now they're screaming crucify him.

What happened? Unmet expectations.

Jesus didn't show up the way they wanted so they trade him in

for Barabbas, a man literally imprisoned for murder.

Pilate says shall I crucify your king?

And they say the most devastating line in the whole

chapter. We have no king but Caesar.

Their entire identity was built on God alone being their king.

And at this moment, they throw it all away to get what they

want politically. Pilot tried everything to avoid

this decision. The crowd ran straight toward

the wrong one. 2 completely different paths, same

destination. Both walked away from Jesus.

And the question tonight is, which one are you?

Are you avoiding the decision, hoping it resolves itself?

Or have you been freely choosing something that looks like it

will satisfy you and it doesn't? Both Pilate and the crowd are

physically close to Jesus and both of them walk away.

One because of fear and 1:00 because of disappointment.

But the outcome is the same. Being close to Jesus is not the

same as being surrendered to Jesus.

Proximity is not the same as commitment.

Pilot was close, the crowd was close, but close wasn't enough.

Maybe you came tonight and you're not sure what you believe

yet. You don't need to have it all

figured out. Just follow the story before

Jesus even gets to the cross. There's this moment that I think

is one of the most Lotus scenes in all the scripture.

And it happens fast. Pilot trying one more time to

get Jesus released, offers the crowd a choice.

There was a custom at Passover where the governor would release

1 prisoner, a good as a goodwill gesture, a way of easing the

tensions during this chaotic Holy Week.

Pilot figures this is his out. He puts two men in front of the

crowd. It says you choose.

On one side you have Jesus, the man who never committed a single

crime, a teacher, a healer, someone who has spent three

years giving everything to people who needed it.

And on the other side, you have Barabbas.

And John's gospel is clear who this man was.

He was an insurrectionist, a rebel, a murderer.

He had done the very thing that Jesus is being falsely accused

of, stirring up the crowd, threatening the peace.

Barabbas. He was in a Roman prison waiting

to die. His execution date was set.

Here's what's crazy. The name Barabbas in Aramaic is

2 words Bar and ABBA which means bar which means son and ABBA

which means Father. Barabbas literally means son of

the Father. So the crowd is standing looking

at two men. One is actually the Son of the

Father, the eternal Son of God standing there innocent, and the

other is a man whose name just means Son of the Father, a

guilty murderer who deserved everything that was coming to

him. And the crowd chooses Barabbas.

They choose the counterfeit Son of the Father over the real 1.

But the camera doesn't stay on Barabbas.

It follows the one walking towards the cross in his place.

They all cried out. Take this man away.

Release Barabbas to us. Release Barabbas to us.

Think about what's actually happening in this exchange.

A guilty man goes free and an innocent man takes his place.

Barabbas walks out of that prison and Jesus walks toward

the cross. That's not just an interesting

historical detail. That is the entire gospel in one

scene. That's exactly what happens to

every one of us when we put our faith in Jesus.

The guilty one goes free, and the innocent 1 takes our

punishment. There's a reason this scene is

in all four gospels. Barabbas is not a minor

character in a courtroom drama. We are the ones who are guilty.

We are the ones who deserve the sentence.

We are the ones who, by every standard of justice, should have

been handed over. And instead, something happens.

Something happened that makes no logical sense.

Jesus took our place. The crowd chose Barabbas, and in

doing so they acted out the gospel without even knowing it.

They released the guilty and condemned the innocent.

And that is precisely what the cross is about.

Well, Pilate stalled and the crowd shouted.

Jesus stood there and he chose every second of it.

Barabbas woke up that morning on death row.

He had no idea what was about to happen.

Somewhere in that prison, he could probably hear the noise

and the crowd outside, the shouting and the chaos getting

louder and louder. Then the door opens and someone

tells him you're free, that it's over, that another man was

taking his place. I don't know what Barabbas did

next, the Bible doesn't tell us. But I wonder if he understood

what just happened to him. I wonder if you ever found out

who that other man was and what he had done.

I wonder if the weight of it ever landed on him.

Because the weight of it is supposed to land on us.

If you're in Christ, you are free tonight because someone

took your place. Not because you earned it.

Not because you deserved it or you were better than Barabbas.

Not because you have something to offer.

The door open, the sentence transferred.

Jesus walked toward the cross so you could walk out.

Barabbas walked out of that prison a freeman.

The question is whether he lived like 1.

Jesus was already beaten, bleeding, and he carries his

cross toward Golgotha. Correction, Crucifixion was not

just execution, it was a carefully designed system to

deliver as much pain as possible, for as long as

possible. Nails through your wrists and

feet, and in order to breathe, you had to pull up and press on

those very wounds just to get a breath in.

All of that in public for everyone to see.

The shame was built into the design.

Jesus went through it all, all of it.

Not because he had no choice, because He chose it for you.

Jesus didn't just die for our sins.

He didn't just die as a symbol of His love for us.

He took every sin you ever committed and every sin you ever

will commit. Every wrong word, every evil

thought. Some of us are still beating

ourselves up about things we've done.

Just for a moment, I want you to think about the worst thing

you've ever done in your life. I want you to think about that

radically evil thought you had that you would never share with

another human being. Think about it.

And if that thought or that thing you've done, that if

someone found out you'd run out of here with embarrassment and

never show your face again, Jesus paid for that 2000 years

ago on the cross so you don't have to carry it.

The thing you did last week, that thing on your phone you

don't want anyone else to see the way you treated someone, the

version of yourself you've been hiding.

Jesus paid for that. Your whole guilty record was

laid on Jesus. There was a legal transaction,

just like in a courtroom. Guilt was moved from you to Him.

The Bible says He made the one who did not know sin to be sin

for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

He didn't just die for our sins. His righteousness was put on us.

His perfect record before God, His complete obedience, His

sinless life transferred to your account.

We didn't earn it. We didn't deserve it.

He went to the cross and offered us the exchange.

It says in John 1930 when Jesus had received the sour wine, he

said it is finished. Then bowing his head, he gave up

his spirit. Some of us are still trying to

to be good enough for God, still thinking if I just read my Bible

more, if I mess up a little less, get our if I just get my

act together, then maybe God will be OK with me.

That's not the gospel, that's exhausting and it's a lie.

When Jesus said it is finished. In the Greek that one word is to

talisdai, which means the account is settled, paid in

full. You don't owe what you can't

pay. Because Jesus already paid it.

The question is whether you received it.

Here's what that looks like on Monday morning.

When the guilt comes back, and it will, you don't fight it with

willpower or trying harder. You say the account is settled.

I don't owe what I can't pay. Jesus already paid for it.

You fight guilt with the truth of what happened on the cross.

That's why the worst Day in History was the best day of your

life. The account is settled, paid in

full, and now, in the quiet, it's all over.

Two men step forward, out of the shadows.

After Jesus died, two men who had been following him in secret

finally step out. Joseph of Arimathea and

Nicodemus both believed. Both were too afraid to say it

publicly. But now Jesus is dead and both

of them come forward. Joseph goes to Pilate and asks

for the body. Jesus is dead.

There's nothing left to gain and everything to lose.

And they showed up anyway. These two men who spent years in

the shadows finally step into the light at the moment everyone

else ran away. I understand that pool to try to

stay in the shadows. A couple years ago I was

interviewing for another position in the district I

interviewed. Seemed like it went well.

Couple weeks later I get a phone call, one of those off the

record phone calls and the administrator goes, hey, I need

you to convince me why you're my guy, why you're my pick.

So I start going in all the work I've done with youth counseling,

guiding, mentoring, and then somewhere in the conversation it

came out that I knew her husband.

So I go, Oh yeah, I love him. Awesome guy.

I used to work with him, man, We always used to talk about Jesus.

It slipped and I thought I'm not getting this job.

Joseph and Nicodemus kept Jesus quiet for years trying to

protect something. I almost did it in a phone call.

I end up getting the job. Sometimes it takes the cross to

finally breakthrough what's been holding you back.

They lay him in a borrowed tomb belonging to Joseph.

Jesus, the one through whom everything is created, is buried

in a tomb that doesn't belong to him.

He came into this world at a borrowed Manger, spent his

ministry with no place to lay his head, and he leaves this

world in a borrowed grave, complete loss.

He lost his dignity, his freedom, his friends, his

strength, his life, and now even his burial place, the one who

had everything, gave up everything.

The borrowed tomb is the final picture of that complete giving.

Good Friday is 1 is the one day we sit with the loss before we

move to victory. Sunday is coming, but tonight,

let's stay here for a moment after the borrowed tomb in the

garden, in the quiet, because here's what I keep coming back

to. Barabbas was a dead man walking,

but he walked out of that prison of Freeman.

Someone told him the door was open, another man had taken his

place, and he walked out. We don't know what he did with

that. We don't know if the weight of

it ever landed on him. But it should land on us.

Just like Barabbas. We were all dead in our sins and

our trespasses, lost in this world without hope, Dead men

walking. You walked in here tonight,

maybe carrying something. Maybe it's shame, like the crown

Jesus wore. Maybe it's guilt, the debt that

Jesus says is already paid. Maybe you've been like Joseph

and Nicodemus, believing something about Jesus but

keeping him quiet, staying in the shadows, calculating the

cost. Or maybe you've never met Jesus.

Maybe you've been sitting in church your whole life and

you've never actually surrendered to Jesus.

Maybe you walked in here carrying something you never

told anyone. You were invited tonight and

you're not even sure you believe any of this.

Or maybe you walked away from your faith years ago and

something brought you back tonight.

Maybe you're exhausted from trying to hold everything

together on your own. It doesn't matter where you're

coming from, the door is open. The Creator stepped into his own

creation, born into this world by the very creation He made.

He lived among His creation. He was rejected by His creation

and judged by His creation and died for His creation, hanging

on a cross made from a tree that he created so he could redeem

everything in creation. Complete loss, complete love for

you. Jesus didn't come to make bad

men good. He came to make dead men live.

That's why the worst Day in History, it's the best day of

your life. So the only question left is the

same one Barabbas had to answer when the door swung open.

So what are you going to do with it?

I asked myself daily. Is the life I'm living worth

Christ dying for? I want to give everyone in this

room a chance to respond tonight.

None of us are good people who just need a little help from

God. You are Barabbas, We all are

guilty, deserving of the sentence, and Jesus went to the

cross in your place so that the door could be open for you.

The door is open right now. The only question is whether

you're going to walk, whether you're going to walk through

that door. 2000 years ago, God sent his Son Jesus to walk this

earth, to live a perfect life, to live the life we couldn't,

and then he died the death that we deserve to pay for our sins.

He died, was buried and rose on the third day, defeating sin and

death, giving us assurance that if we put our trust in Him as

Lord and Savior that we will rise and have eternal life and

we walk. When we walk out of this life,

we will be with God for eternity.

The Bible says that you can be saved if you declare with your

mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord.

If you're willing to ask Him for forgiveness and salvation

tonight, would everyone just bow your head and close your eyes

for a minute? That's you tonight.

You want to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, to make you

new. Would you quietly or even

silently repeat this prayer after me?

Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner and I'm lost on my own.

I can't save myself. I know I'm incapable of living

perfectly. I want you to save me.

I want to be part of your family.

I surrender everything to you. I receive your promise of

relationship, of adoption as your child, of the forgiveness

of sin, the promise of the Holy Spirit, and of eternal life.

Be my Lord, Please, Jesus, with every eye closed.

Still, if you said that prayer tonight for the first time,

would you just be brave and raise your hand for me to see?

Thank you, Amen. You couldn't open your eyes if

you prayed that prayer tonight. Welcome to the family of God.

Our prayer team is going to be coming up right now and we'd

love to pray with you. And if you raise your hand

tonight to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, we have two

tables in the back. Let's say I raised my hand.

We have a gift for you and we'd love to talk with you.

Talk with you about what it looks like to follow Jesus and

how we can walk with you on this journey.

Please stand and move as the Lord leads.