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Matthew: As a friend says, it’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming. Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

This is Key Life. We’re here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Jerry Perry has been teaching us all week. Jerry serves as pastor at Christian Family Worship Center House of Grace, and he’s the author of The Making of a Blended Family.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hi Jerry.

Jerry Perry: Hey sir. It’s been a great week.

Steve Brown: Yeah, it really has. You always teach great, but I think you teach better when it's your birthday. Monday was Jerry’s birthday.

Jerry Perry: Yeah, you taking me out to dinner tonight?

Steve Brown: I will! But that’s the good news. The bad news is we’re going to McDonald’s, okay?

You know we’ve been looking at the Gospel of Matthew this week and looking at the stories that are involved there. John the Baptist. You’ve taught us that grace is free and wonderful, but it’s not easy sometimes. There are dark places in life. Frankly, I was kind of depressed after yesterday. So, I expect you today to pull me out of the morass of darkness that you put me in yesterday. Let’s talk about Sunday.

Jerry Perry: Yes. One of the things that I love about the book of Matthew is that he didn’t run away from difficult things, but there were a lot of great things. He talked about the feeding of the 5,000, how Jesus took two fish and five barley loaves of bread and fed 5,000—miraculous miracles. He talked about Jesus walking on the water in the midst of a storm and bringing Peter out.

There are a lot of great things, but he just dealt with life as it would be. You have some good moments and you have some bad moments. But here’s the thing: through all of the things, whether they’re good or bad, Jesus is always involved. And that’s the good news about the story in the book of Matthew.

Steve Brown: When we look at the resurrection of Christ—and Matthew is very clear about that. In fact, those are exciting passages in Matthew about a dead man getting up and walking around. He did that because he did it, but he did it for us to remind us about another resurrection, another Easter Sunday, another time when the light would shine brilliantly and there would be no more tears, no more pain, no more questions, no more doubt, and no more hardship.

Jerry Perry: Absolutely. The scripture talks about how we died with Christ and we were raised with Christ. Steve, I remember when Mary went to the tomb of Lazarus and Jesus said, "You’ll see him again." She said, "I know I’ll see him again in the resurrection." Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he was dead, yet shall he live." And here’s my favorite part of that scripture: "And he that believeth in me shall never die."

So, we are living in eternal life right now. We never die because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this story that Matthew talks about in the last chapter, he goes into the Last Supper. He talks about Peter denying Jesus. He talks about even Judas betraying Jesus.

But none of that stopped Jesus from rising from the grave for them. And nothing that you do has stopped Jesus from rising from the grave for you, which has given you the eternal life that you have. And that’s the good news of the gospel: you and I will live forever.

Steve Brown: It really is. I miss Tony Campolo. We didn’t agree politically, but I loved him and he was my very beloved friend. I’ve heard him preach that famous sermon a thousand times: "It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming." If you read the sermon, it’s not a great sermon. But the way Tony preached it would blow you away, and the congregation gets involved in it.

As we get involved in the reality of the resurrection, Tony would say, "It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming," and the congregation would say it back to him. Pretty soon they got a good thing going back and forth, and you want to stand up and dance and shout because of the good news that you just mentioned. It gets Friday and it’s not easy.

Jerry Perry: Friday midnight is a tough time. The crucifixion was a tough day for Jesus. It really was a tough day for him. Leading up to the crucifixion was a tough day. When he was in Gethsemane—one of my favorite parts about the story of Gethsemane is when he’s there praying and he goes and he tells the disciples, "You couldn’t pray with me for one hour?" He’s adamant. "Get up! Get up!"

He goes back and he prays again, and he comes back and he fusses at them again. "Get up, pray with me for one hour." Then he goes back after he prays and he says, "Father, not my will, but thy will be done." When you submit to the will of God for your life even on Friday, it may not be what you want, but there’s a peace that comes over you that makes you say, "Sleep on. Me and Jesus got this." I’m going to rest in Jesus because I know that after Friday, Sunday is coming.

Steve Brown: That’s so good. If Matthew were here, he would say, "You got it! That’s what I was teaching. That’s what I wanted everybody to understand about Jesus, is that he’s there."

One of the things that we probably ought to cover, especially after yesterday when we were talking about the dark things that we don’t like but God is still faithful and His mercy is still available, is that sometimes he says yes, doesn't he?

Jerry Perry: Oh, yeah. Sometimes he fixes things, and sometimes he makes things right, and sometimes he brings the light before we get to heaven. That’s good too. He’s a healer. Let’s not forget that. He’s a way-maker. He’s a door-opener. Don’t let me preach it here, Steve.

He makes ways out of no ways, he turns darkness into light, and he does it in our lives each and every day. I say that God is definitely—I’m one of his favorites. He has got me out of so much stuff. He has blessed me beyond measure. We talked about this; I had been diagnosed with cancer.

Prior to me even knowing it, I went to the doctor for something else and they said, "Hey, you have a mass on your prostate and it’s cancerous." I never knew it was there. But not only that—I never shared this on the story—but three or four months later, they found a mass on my kidney by mistake.

It was cancerous. So, I had to go get a portion of my kidney removed. The doctor looked at me and said, "Hey, I just got one question for you. What church do you go to? And what angels are around you that keep causing you to find out something’s going wrong before you even know it?" He said, "Jesus must really love you. I need to come to your church and be a part of whatever you’re doing." That’s God’s grace and goodness that he throws upon us, and I’m just grateful for it.

Steve Brown: I’ll never forget that day. You’d just been to the doctor when you came into my study and we were going to record that day. I said, "How you doing?" You say often, "God’s favor is on me, I’m one of his favorites." I said, "I knew that."

Then you said, "But I just came from the doctor and I’ve got cancer." I said, "What are you crazy? There’s something wrong with you." Then we went from my study into this studio to teach. And you taught us on God’s favor even when the news is not great.

Jerry Perry: But the healing process that we were talking about—I am cancer-free. That’s God’s grace over our lives. I want to encourage those of you that are praying and asking God to heal to remember he’s still a healer, he’s still a deliverer, and he’s still a way-maker.

He always heals, either here or there. It’ll be fine when there’ll be no more tears, no more pain, no more questions. Even John, doubting there at the end of his life—we do that. Life is not for sissies. It’s a very hard thing, and Jesus is always present and he’s always faithful.

Steve Brown: Here is the thing that you said: "It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming." It really is. I might say in closing, the good news is you’re going to heaven and the bad news is you’re going on Thursday. But you’re going! Jerry, this has been a great week as we’ve talked about Matthew.

Jerry Perry: Thank you, Dr. Steve.

Steve Brown: Listen, don't just waste this. Get your Bible out and go read the Gospel of Matthew. It’ll bless you, and it’ll bless you even more because you’ll know it’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming. Hey, we gotta go, but first I need to say, you think about that. Amen.

Matthew: And with that we wrap up the first installment of our Survey of the Gospels series. Thank you, Steve and Jerry, for that examination of Matthew. We will delve into Mark, Luke, and John later this year with our other voices of Key Life. Tomorrow, Steve will return, this time with another voice of Key Life, Pete Alanson, for Friday Q&A. Hope you’ll join us for that.

When a best-selling author writes a book unlike anything he’s done before, you have my attention. And that is exactly what happened with Pat Morley. We spoke with him recently on Steve Brown, Etc., discussing evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that God is who he says he is. The book is called, What if Christianity is True?

We put that entire conversation on a CD that we would love to mail to you today for free. So, call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at steve@keylife.org to order that CD, or go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the US and Canada. Again, just ask for the CD featuring Pat Morley.

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