CRCF””3/7/10 Introduction”” Words are powerful. Words change our lives–especially those words that come from deepest in a person”™s heart! And the words spoken when someone is dying are, without a doubt, the most powerful words they”™ll ever speak””the words that will be remembered, the words that shape the rest of the lives of the loved ones who hear them. God has given us the last words of Jesus before He died in the Gospels. He spoke 7 times from the Cross. And if we”™ve ever listened to anyone”™s dying words, if the last thoughts spoken by a dying loved one have ever stuck in our hearts and minds, I trust that together we will hear the words of our Savior as He reveals . . . The Heart of the Cross: Jesus Speaks from the Cross Part 2: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:45-46 Jesus was abandoned by God so that we would never have to be! VIDEO Clip from The Passion of the Christ Have YOU ever felt abandoned by God? Jesus knows how you feel””but to an extent that you never have to feel! Matthew 27:45-49 (NLT) 45 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o”™clock. 46 At about three o”™clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” [Jesus quotes Psalm 22””thus, fulfilling a 600 year old prophecy. And while these words sound hopeless, that Psalm ends with great hope and victory, just as Jesus”™ life would in the Resurrection!] 47 Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. 48 One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. 49 But the rest said, “Wait! Let”™s see whether Elijah comes to save him.” Jesus was abandoned by God so that we would never have to be! Lucado: “God would give up His only Son before He would give up on you.” (Six Hours One Friday, 39) Jesus was abandoned by God so that we would never have to be! Commentator: It was the manifestation of God”™s hatred of sin, in some way which He has not explained, that Jesus experienced in that terrible hour. It was suffering endured by Him that was due to us, and suffering by which, and by which alone, we can be saved from eternal death. In those awful moments, Jesus was expressing His feelings of abandonment as God placed the sins of the world on Him ”“ and because of that had to “turn away” from Jesus. As Jesus was feeling that weight of sin, He was experiencing separation from God for the only time in all of eternity. Jesus became sin for us, so He felt the loneliness and abandonment that sin always produces, except that in His case, it was not His sin ”“ it was ours. Jesus was abandoned by God so that we would never have to be! Spurgeon said that in Jesus”™ darkest hour with darkness all around him and within him, Jesus still clung to God with both hands. His left hand said, “My God.” His right hand said, “My God.” Eloi. Eloi. My God, my God, was Jesus clinging to God with both hands in the midst of this horrific situation. Jesus clung to God with all his might during the darkest hour of his life. Spurgeon went on to say that it is easy to believe in God when life smiles on you, but it is much more difficult to believe in God when life frowns on you. You and I can learn from Jesus here””we can cling to God with both hands in the worst of times! Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-11 (NLT) 4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God”™s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. 10 But it was the LORD”™s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the LORD”™s good plan will prosper in his hands. 11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. Jesus was abandoned by God so that we would never have to be! Jesus took the punishment that we deserved. God put our sins on Jesus””He hung there in our place””and then punished our sins through the death of Jesus! 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus was abandoned by God so that we would never have to be! Jesus was perfect””no sin of His own. But God made the spotless Lamb of God the offering for our sins! The Father treated the Son like He should have dealt with us, pouring out all of His great wrath toward our evil on Jesus! Lucado: “Christ, in God”™s hell on humanity”™s cross . . . Christ who never sinned endured the awful forsakenness of hell. The surprise of hell is this: Christ went there so you won”™t have to” (3:16, 100) Galatians 3:13 (NLT) 13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Piper: “And in hatred for that sin, God turned away from his sin-laden Son and gave him up to suffer the full force of death and cursing.” Jesus was abandoned by God so that we would never have to be! 1 Peter 2:24 (New Living Translation) 24 He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Jesus was abandoned by God so that we would never have to be! Conclusion”” In fact, God promised this! Hebrews 13:5 (NLT) “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” Because of Jesus, because of His death on the Cross, all who trust in Him””all who believe that Jesus was abandoned by God so that we would never have to be!””all of us can rest in this promise! That”™s a good reminder for you if you”™re already God”™s child here this morning, amen? But if you don”™t yet know God as Father, if you”™ve never trusted Jesus”™ death on the Cross as the full payment for your sins, then this morning you can trust Him. And you can leave here knowing that God will never abandon YOU! Celebration of the Lord”™s Supper
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