Encouragement For ‘silence Saturdays’ Series

The Day After: The disciples were confused and depressed on the “Silence Saturday.”

- John 19:30; John 20:13, 19.

- I want to introduce a term to you: “Silence Saturday.”

- When we think of Holy Week, we think of the various important days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday. Generally we overlook Saturday of Holy Week as being inconsequential. I want to argue in this sermon series that we’re missing an opportunity in ignoring Saturday. I propose calling it “Silence Saturday.” Over the next three weeks I want to talk about some of the ways it speaks to important parts of our faith.

- The first of those ideas is our focus for the sermon this morning.

- Jesus had died on Friday and was placed in a tomb. We know the miracle that’s going to happen on Sunday, but let’s not run past what the disciples felt for Saturday. I’m sure they were scared, confused, brokenhearted, depressed, uncertain, and questioning. (See John 20:13, 19.) They had been confident that Jesus was the Messiah, but now that belief lay in shambles.

- And Saturday God was silent.

- What do we do with moments like that? How do we respond when we face a season in our life when we’re living through a “Silence Saturday”? Ours may last a lot longer than one day, though. I want to talk about a few encouraging truths to help make it through the “Silence Saturday” times in your life.

Encouragement For “Silence Saturdays”:

1. Find comfort that “Silence Saturdays” are part of the walk of faith.

- Jesus is our Savior and our Lord, but His life also serves as a pattern for ours. Some of the things we learn from the most important week of all time (Holy Week) is the importance of those we surround ourselves with (Maundy Thursday), the need for sacrifice and atonement (Good Friday), and the hope of new life (Easter Sunday). One of other things we learn is that there are moments when God is silent (Silence Saturday). This is part of the pattern of faith. This is something that every believer goes through.

- You can’t get to Sunday without going through Saturday.

- You can’t get to the answer without going through the struggle.

- We should find comfort in the thought that this isn’t unusual. It helps to know that we’re not the first to go through this.

- Silence for a season doesn’t mean that you’re forsaken forever.

- We may struggle more with this issue than most throughout history because we are so unaccustomed to waiting. We can pull up information instantaneously on Google, we can text or call anyone around the globe instantly, we can order anything on Amazon Prime and have it here in two days, we can access any show we want on our DVR anytime.

- Go back through the Scriptures and you see story after story with this. Abram waits for a child. David waits for the throne. Israel waits for a Messiah.

- God doesn’t seem particularly interested in our impatience.

2. The disciples were uncertain but were in the middle of God’s will.

- Certainly Jesus had told the disciples ahead of time that He was going to be turned over and killed, but they never figured out what exactly that meant. What that meant after Jesus’ death was that they were consumed with uncertainty on that Saturday.

- What kind of uncertainty?

a. Why did Jesus die?

b. Wasn’t Jesus the Messiah?

c. If Jesus wasn’t the Messiah, how did He do all those miracles?

d. What’s going to happen to us now?

e. Are we going to be arrested by the religious leaders who killed Jesus?

- There were lots of questions to consume them.

- When we face similar times, we can presume that we’ve gotten off track.

- Examples:

a. We can’t figure out which way to go as we try to figure out a major in college.

b. Our church can’t find a clear direction on who our next pastor should be.

c. Where does God want me to serve?

d. Why is God allowing this sickness in my life?

e. Why am I not getting an answer to this prayer?

- We can face many uncertainties in our lives.

- The point that I want to draw out here is that the disciples were uncertain and yet they were right in the middle of God’s will. Yes, they were in the middle of a “silence Saturday,” but God had a plan and the answer was on its way.

- It’s easy to presume in such moments that we are off track or have made a mistake of some sort. We’ve listened to preachers who lead us to believe that a faithful Christian will have a life of smooth sailing and perpetual blessings.