The Road To Easter | Week 2 | Full Service · Rewind

The Road To Easter | Week 2 | Full Service · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Mar 29, 2026

Big Idea

Quoting the message: The darkest day did the deepest good, end quote. — the cross shows that when life feels dark, God isn't judging you or abandoning you, He's inviting you into His love.

Good Friday, the darkest day in human history, became the day of our deepest rescue because Jesus took the judgment, the abandonment, and the separation that should have been ours. Because of the cross, our dark days don't have to mean God has left us — they can become good days when we remember His cross, His cry, and His curtain.

Key points

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1When life gets dark, remember His cross
Pastor Bill walks through Matthew 27:45-51 and points out that the three hours of darkness at noon, the brightest part of the day, was not a natural eclipse but a sign of God's judgment falling on the land. He explains that this darkness fell on Jesus, not on us, because Jesus took God's judgment for sin on Himself so it wouldn't fall on us.
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2Darkness in your life is not proof God has abandoned you
Pastor Bill explains that because Jesus already absorbed God's judgment, our dark seasons are not God punishing us, even though some darkness is the consequence of our own choices. Staring at the problem and worrying doesn't help; remembering the cross reminds us of both the seriousness of our sin and the depth of God's love.
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3When you feel alone, remember His cry
Pastor Bill unpacks Jesus' cry from the cross, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, quoting Psalm 22, explaining that in that moment Jesus, though fully God, felt genuinely abandoned as He bore all sin. He shares his own story of breaking down after his father's death and his mother's terminal illness, and how his wife held him and whispered that he was not alone, illustrating what Jesus does for us in our own dark cries.
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4Jesus' cry was honest feeling, not lost faith
Pastor Bill notes that Jesus said my God, not just God, showing this was faith in the dark rather than disbelief. He teaches that God wants honesty about our feelings, while trusting that the feeling of abandonment isn't the final truth.
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5When God feels far, remember His curtain
Pastor Bill describes the thick temple curtain that separated people from the Holy of Holies, and how only the high priest could enter once a year, tied with a rope in case God's holiness struck him dead. When Jesus died, that curtain tore top to bottom, showing God Himself opened the way into His presence, meaning if God feels far away it is not because He moved but because we're choosing to stay in the rubble instead of walking through.
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6A good day is defined by faithfulness, not by favorable circumstances
Pastor Bill tells the story of his father, a veteran of the Battle of Iwo Jima, who taught him that a good day isn't one where everything goes your way but one where you stayed faithful and are still in the fight. He connects this to Jesus staying faithful on the cross and rising again, redefining Good Friday as the pattern for how we can call our hardest days good.
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7Communion is God's picture of how to have a good day
Pastor Bill explains that the bread represents the seriousness of our sin and the cup represents the depth of God's love shown in the new covenant. He invites the church to use communion as a moment to confess sin honestly, remember they are not alone, and choose to walk through the curtain into God's presence.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to figure out which side of the cross you're refusing to look at — your sin or God's love — and step out of the rubble into the room with Him.

Remember His cross when it gets dark
Whenever darkness hits, whether caused by your own choices, someone else, or circumstances, stop staring at the problem and remember that Jesus already took God's judgment for you.
Remember His cry when you feel alone
Be honest with God about feeling abandoned, like Jesus was on the cross, while trusting that the feeling isn't the final truth — He is holding you even when you can't sense it.
Stop sitting in the rubble
Examine which side you're refusing to face: are you minimizing your sin, or refusing to trust how deeply God loves you? Confess, pray, and take your sin seriously so you can walk through the torn curtain into His presence.
Redefine what makes a day good
Instead of measuring a good day by whether circumstances went your way, ask whether you stayed faithful and are still in the fight, trusting that faithfulness is what makes it good.
Meet Jesus at the cross through communion
As you take the bread and cup, confess what needs confessing and receive the reminder that you are not alone; if you've never trusted Jesus, put your faith in Him for the first time.

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“his last words, he was quoting from Psalm chapter 22 and it says this, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help”
From the transcript
“So we're in Matthew 27. I'm just gonna read six verses. These are the last words that Jesus says, and it's when he dies on the cross, he's been hanging”
From the transcript
“So it says here in verse 45, at noon darkness fell across the whole land until 03:00. At about 03:00, Jesus called out with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”
From the transcript
“Look at what he cried out on the cross in verse 46. At 03:00, after three hours of darkness, the darkness was the judgment. So when all the sin was laid on him”
From the transcript
“Because that what he says there, he's directly quoting Psalms 22 verse one. Johnny read it earlier. That's called the shepherd, the suffering servant psalm”
From the transcript
“remember his curtain. The cross, the cry, the curtain. Verse 51 says this, at that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart”
From the transcript
“The Bible says it in the book of Romans, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It means that all of us cannot meet up to God's glorious holiness”
From the transcript
“The Bible says if if if you can fess with your mouth and believe with your heart, Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. So you need to have the very first good day, and that's put your faith in Jesus”

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Day 1

Darkness came over the whole land from noon until three in the afternoon on the day Jesus died. That's not a poetic detail — it's a theological one. Pastor Bill pointed out that the darkness falling on Jesus was God's judgment landing on Him instead of on us. That changes everything about how we read the dark seasons of our own lives. When a diagnosis comes, when a relationship fractures, when the ground shifts under you, the instinct is to wonder whether God is punishing you. The cross says no. Jesus absorbed that weight completely. There is nothing left of divine condemnation for those who belong to Him. That doesn't make the darkness less real or less painful. Hard things are genuinely hard, and loss is genuinely loss. But there is a difference between suffering and being forsaken. Jesus entered the first so we would never face the second. Whatever darkness you're sitting in today, it is not a signal that God has turned His back. He already turned His face toward the cross so He could keep His face toward you.

For reflection

When you're going through something hard, what's your first instinct — to assume God is punishing you, or to remember that His judgment already fell on Jesus? What shapes that instinct?

Pray

Pray for the ability to see your current circumstances in the light of the cross, not apart from it.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Good Friday is called 'good' for a reason that only makes sense when you look straight at the darkness — and that tension is exactly what this message sits in.

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 27:45, darkness covers the land while Jesus is on the cross. Pastor Bill pointed out that this darkness was God's judgment landing on Jesus instead of on us. What does that reframe for us about what darkness in our own lives actually means?
2
In Matthew 27:46, Jesus quotes Psalm 22:1 and cries out, 'My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?' — a raw, feeling-filled prayer in the middle of real suffering. What does it tell us about prayer that Jesus Himself prayed like this?
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When the curtain in the temple tore from top to bottom in Matthew 27:51, Pastor Bill noted that it tore from the top — meaning God opened it, not people. If the curtain is already torn, what might it look like for someone to stay in the rubble of their circumstances rather than walking through into God's presence?
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Pastor Bill described two ways people tend to get stuck: minimizing their sin, or not fully believing how deeply God loves them. Why do you think both of those — not just one — are needed for a person to move forward?
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Pastor Bill framed communion as God's invitation to define what a good day really is — confessing sin, professing faith, and walking back through the curtain. How might that picture of a 'good day' challenge the way we normally think about what makes a day go well?
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Looking at all three anchors Pastor Bill drew from the cross — the darkness, the cry, and the curtain — which one do you think is hardest for people to hold onto when life actually gets hard, and why?

Pray together

Gratitude that the curtain is already torn — and courage to walk through it rather than stay in the rubble

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Topics

Confession and Communion Facing Darkness God's Judgment God's Presence The Cross

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