Highlands Fellowship The Cross: Why have you forsaken me? Transcript
Well, hey everybody and welcome to Highlands Fellowship where our mission is to help people experience life with Jesus. And so my prayer is no matter where you are, whether you're in Marian, Bristol, here in Abington, you happen to be at one of our venues online or on TV, I want to say a big welcome to each of you. And my prayer is that you truly would experience life with Jesus. And so that's our prayer for you today. If you have your Bible or Bible app, if you'll go ahead and open those up to Matthew chapter 27 in the New Testament, that's where we're going to spend some of our time together today.
And today, we're starting a new series that I believe is going to impact you in a very significant, very deep, very meaningful way as we look at some of the phrases that Jesus said while he was hanging on the cross. And that's that's the title of our series, the cross. As we prepare for for Easter coming up, we're going to prepare our hearts, when we'll talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when we celebrate the empty tomb. I thought that it would be really really meaningful for us to look at some of these phrases, really the extraordinarily powerful and deep phrases that Jesus spoke while he was hanging on the cross. So, let's go ahead and and get started in Matthew 27:es 37-43.
And to give you a little bit of context on the first few words that we're going to be talking about is just this Jesus is on the cross. So the Bible says this above his talking about Jesus above Jesus's head they place the written charge against him. This is Jesus the king of the Jews. So they're mocking him. They're saying yeah yeah whatever. You know you said that and so we're making fun of you now. Verse 38. Two rebels were crucified with him. one on his right and one on his left. So, we're going to look at the the the two rebels a little bit more in depth over the next few weeks.
But verses 39 and 40 say, "Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. Come down from the cross if you are the son of God." So they were quoting what he had said earlier basically saying you know you said you were going to do these things and so now here you are you know where is your God in the middle of this difficult difficult time. Verses 41 and 42. In the same way the chief priests the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. He saved others they said but he can't save himself. He's the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him.
And then the next four words really hit the heart of their mockery when they said this. He trusts in God. They were saying, "Where's your God?" Like, you're still going to trust in God? I mean, when when you're hanging there on a cross, he trusts in God. Let God rescue you now if he wants him. for he said, "I am the son of God." Where is your God now? Now, admittedly, if you were there looking at Jesus hanging on the cross, you might say something very much like they did. He trusts God. Where where is his God now? Because if you would have seen him, you would have been deeply disturbed.
Because scripture tells us very clearly what they did to Jesus. They beat him and abused him so severely that he didn't even look like a human being. I mean I mean think about this. They took his shirt off. They took his clothing off and they whipped him like 39 times across the back with a leather whip that would have had pieces of glass and metal and sharp objects on the end of it. A and that would literally have ripped his back open. Often this kind of scourging would have left someone with their internal organs exposed. They blindfolded him and with their big signant rings on their hand, they punched him again and again and again in the face, crying out, "Prophesy. Tell us who hits you." Until his face was black and blue and bloody.
And then they put a crown of thorns on his head just to make fun of him. the sharp thorns, if you can imagine, being pressed down where where blood just covered his face. They kicked him again and again. They spit on him. They took the creator and they put him down on the ground on these pieces of wood and they drove these stakes through his hands and through his feet. And history tells us that they would have stripped him down to be naked. And there he is looking more like an animal than a man hanging naked on a cross. And they were saying, "You still trust in God? Where is he now?" Like really, where is he now?
And trust, the root word that's translated as trust in this portion of scripture means to convince or to rely on with inward certainty. To have full confidence or complete trust like you still trust in God. You see, it's very easy to trust in God when things are going well. But it's difficult to trust in God for many of us when life goes dark. All of us must answer at some point the foundational question of life. Do you really trust God? We have to answer this question.
From the beginning of creation, every force in hell would try to undermine the character and the authority and the nature and the goodness of God. Even in the form of a serpent, the evil one came and talked and and he even said, "Are you going to trust him?" Like, did he really say, "Don't eat of that tree." Are you really going to trust God? Because it's easy to trust him in the light, but but it's much much much more difficult to trust him when life goes dark.
So, let me tell you what this looked like for me. You know, there was a season in my life when I really began to struggle with anxiety. And I'm not talking about just the feelings of stress, okay? I'm talking about full-on panic attacks. And and if you've never had one, they're really hard to explain. Like nothing around you changes, but suddenly everything inside of you does. Your heart races, your chest begins to tighten, your breathing shortens, like your your thoughts are spiraling out of control, and it feels like it really does feel like you're about to die.
You know, I remember the first time this happened to me. I was I was caught completely off guard. I I thought that something was medically wrong. I thought that I might be having a heart attack. I really did. And and my body was in this this fight or flight mode, but there was nothing to fight and there was really nowhere to run. And and in that moment, something else started whispering into my mind. Are you really going to trust him right now? Are you really going to trust him when you're going through this?
Because it's easy to preach about peace when you feel peaceful, right? It's easy to talk about God's sovereignty when your heart isn't pounding out of your chest. But when your body is betraying you and when your mind won't slow down and when darkness isn't around you but it feels like it's inside of you like that's a different test of your trust. And I remember thinking, God, I love you. I serve you. I even preach about you. So why does this feel so so out of control? And the enemy's question in the garden suddenly felt very personal. Did God really say? Is he really good? Is he really in control?
Because panic attacks feel a lot like darkness. And you can't see clearly. You can't think clearly. You just want these things to stop. And so here's what I learned. Anxiety doesn't just attack your body, okay? But it attacks your trust and what's going on in your mind and what's going on in your heart. It it tries to convince you that you're not safe, that you're alone, that God is is off way off in the distance, that something is wrong that can't be fixed.
And in those moments, I had to decide something. Not do I feel peace, but do I trust God even right now? Because if I only trust him when my nervous system is calm, if I only trust him when my thoughts are steady, like if I only trust him when when life makes sense, then do I really trust him or do I just trust the circumstances? A and this is why the cross matters so very much because at Calvary everything looked out of control. Darkness covered the land. The son of go God was bleeding. Heaven was silent.
So let's keep reading. Matthew 27 45 and 46. From noon until 3:00 in the afternoon, darkness came over the land. So, it's midnight darkness at midday as if God would say, "I'm not going to let my sunshine on this event." About 3:00 in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice. And in the Greek language, this means that he was screaming. He had endured the betrayal, the false trial, the beating, the mocking, the nails in his hands and his feet. And never once did he complain when men did the worst to him.
But when darkness fell, the moment that God withdrew his presence, Jesus cried out screaming, "Eli, Eli, Lamas Sabakani," which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In the middle of the darkness, he screamed, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That's when we hear the agony come from Jesus. You know, it's interesting to me that that all through the gospels, Jesus referred to God as his father, his Abba, his his daddy. But at this moment, something happened. And for centuries, theologians have wrestled with this moment. Even Martin Luther centuries ago said, "God forsaken by God. Who can understand it?"
And I'm not going to try to untangle every mystery wrapped up in Jesus crying out to God that day. But I do know this. The father did not stop being God and the son did not stop being divine. Scripture makes this clear. At the cross, Jesus stepped into the full weight of our sin and its consequences. He absorbed what we deserved. And in his doing so, he he embraced the deepest human question. Why?
And we've all asked the same question when we've been faced with darkness. Why did we lose them so suddenly? Why didn't the treatment work? Why did this accident happen? Why did that relationship have to collapse? Why did I get that call? And some of you, you've stood beside hospital beds. Some of you, you have stood at a graveside and in that quiet quiet time in your heart, you have whispered "God why? Why?"
And some of you are walking the road of of parenting children with significant physical or cognitive or even developmental handicaps or disabilities. And you love them more than words can say. You really do. And you advocate fiercely for them. You celebrate every single milestone in their life. And yet there are nights of exhaustion, questions about the future and and prayers that sound like, "Lord, why this road?" And it's not rebellion, it's not bitterness, it's it's just honest heartache and honest questioning. Why?
And some of you carry wounds from abuse or neglect, things that should have never happened to you, things that were were not your fault at all. And somewhere in that darkness, you've wondered, God, where are you in all of this? And the ancient whisper returns, are you really going to trust him? That's why this moment on the cross matters so very much. Because when Jesus cried, why? Why have you forsaken me? Heaven did not rebuke him. That cry is recorded in scripture, which means that God is not offended by your why. He's not intimidated by your questions. Like he's not fragile in the face of your grief. In fact, he loved you enough to actually enter into it with you.
The cross does not answer every why with an explanation. It tells us that when life goes dark, when anxiety tightens your chest, when grief hardens your heart, when confusion clouds your mind, that you are not alone in the darkness. Jesus has stood there. He knows what it's like. And if God was accomplishing redemption in the darkest three hours in history, like if he was working out salvation when it looked like abandonment, when he was sovereign when everything felt so silent, then we can trust that he is still working in each and every one of our circumstances. Not because we understand it, but because the cross has already shown his love and his commitment to redeeming us.
I I don't have to have every answer in order to have faith. Like I don't have to I don't have to have every mystery untangled. I don't have to solve every why question. Sometimes trust doesn't mean that you understand everything. In fact, it doesn't mean that you understand everything. It means accepting those things even when we don't. In fact, Paul said this very clearly in 1 Corinthians 13:12 when he was comparing now with eternity. He said this, "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall know or see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
And here's the thing. I just can't understand it all right now. I just can't. We only know part of the story. It's a little bit like this. Okay. Years ago, uh, we took our daughter Kelsey. She's she's grown up now. She's 18 years old, but years ago, we took our daughter Kelsey to the doctor to get all of her shots before she went off to school, right? And so, uh, she had to get four shots, two of them in each leg. And I'll never forget the frustration that I felt as I had to pin her down as the nurses stuck those needles in her legs with with all of my weight.
I was holding her down and she's screaming out, "Daddy, why? Don't let them do this to me. Daddy, please, no. Daddy, I don't I don't want to." And I thought, "There is no way. There's absolutely no way that I can explain this to a four-year-old girl. She is incapable of understanding just as we are often incapable of understanding God and his divine purpose even or especially in our pain. Here's what God says. Isaiah 55:es 8 and 9. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
The good news is that God's word gives us some things that that we need to remember when we don't understand. So, we're going to make these three declarations, okay? They're very simple, but we have to remember them. We have to declare them. That is that God is good, that God is for me, and God is with me. Now, how do we get from a place in life where we're like, God is nowhere to be found in the circumstances that we find ourselves in to a place where we can say without a doubt that God is present and that he is here with me because life moves. Life changes, right? There's there's a lot of things that come into our lives. Curveballs are thrown at us. But how do we get from one place to another? Well, we hold on to a God who is unchanging. That's what we do.
So, let's be honest. Some of us are not in a crisis right now. Some of you are here today and you feel blessed, right? And praise God for that. Like you feel the abundant love of God in your life and you feel it each and every day. And remembering who God is and holding on to him in your life probably looks a little bit like this. It's calming, like you spend time with him. And when you spend time with him, you're reassured that he is good and that he loves you. But in every life, the wind always changes direction and the storms of life begin to blow. The challenges, the curveballs, and the betrayals, and the things that you didn't expect.
And all of a sudden, holding on to to God or holding on to who God looks like in your life might look a little bit more like this. Sometimes in life, you get to the point where the chaos and the hurt and the confusion are are so great that holding on to the God who you love leaves you with white knuckles and worn out muscles spiritually. And today we're going to hold on to an unmoving, immovable, unchanging God. So here's something that we're going to remember is we're going to remember that God is good. We're going to remember that God is good. Mark chapter 10 and the second part of verse 18, scripture says, "No one is good except God alone." He is good.
And here's why it's important is because we tend to project our our present situation on God. Like when we're confused and when things happen that we don't understand, we say, "God, wh why have you left me in this place?" Like, "I don't get it. Where are you?" When things happen that are bad, we sometimes think that maybe God isn't good because he's allowing this thing to take place. But our God transcends circumstances. That's what we hold on to in the middle of cancer. God is good in abuse, in hurt so deep that we can't even explain it. And these things affect our lives for years. But even then, God is good in grieving loss. God is good in war and the horrible things that are taking place in our country right now. and things like genocide, God is still good forever and it will never ever change. He is always good. We remember, we hold on to that. God is always good.
The second thing we're going to remember is that that God is for me. God is for me. We have to remember this. God is for me. Romans chapter 8 in the second part of verse 31 and verse 32, Paul writes this. If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? I want you just to think about how ridiculous this idea is. It's unbelievable. God authored everything. The Bible says that he is the alpha and the omega. He is the beginning and the end. He is the great I am. Like he spoke the stars into space. And yet scripture says that he is for you.
He's for you. And if that's true and and scripture says that it is, if that's true that the God that created everything is for you, then guys, who and what circumstances could dare phase you? The all powerful God is your advocate. He believes in you. He has a dream and he has a purpose that that is beyond the confusion of today. And we hold on to that and we remember that God is always good. Like he is always for us.
And the last thing that I'm going to give you today that we need to remember is this. God is with me. God is with me. He is with us. In Hebrews chapter 13 ver the second part of verse 5, scripture says this, "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. Never. And that's good news. No matter how alone you may feel, no matter how betrayed you may have been, God promises that he will never leave, that he is good, that he is for you, and that he is always with you. Now, I want to talk for just a moment about why God the Father had to had to turn his presence from his one and only son. But I'll say this, he forsook his son and he left his son so that he would never have to forsake you.
So even when we don't understand, we can always remember that God is good, that God is for us, and that God is with us. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. So the question what I would ask you is this. Do you trust God? Because it's easy to trust God in the light, but it's much more difficult to trust God when life is dark. Proverbs 3:es 5 and 6 tells us this. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. So we're not going to understand everything, but in all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight.
And that word submit can be a really tough one, can it? But what I found is that the more I get to know God, the more I study his word, the more I understand his character and the way in which he lived, the easier it is for me to submit to him in all my ways. It says, "In all your ways, submit to God." Even when you don't understand, submit to God and he will make your path straight. So, here's what I'm finding out in my life. The better I know God, the less I ask why. And the better I know God, the more I ask this question, what?
Instead of God, why is this happening? Or God, why are you doing this? Or why aren't you doing what I want you to do? The better I know God, the more I ask, what? Like, God, what are you doing? Or what is it that you want me to see? Or what is your purpose in all this? What what is your plan? When so many people say God is nowhere to be found, I want to be somebody who says no no no because I know him. I see the presence of God in each and every circumstance that I face. Instead of asking why, I'm learning to ask what.
And you may ask why did God forsake Jesus? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Well, the answer is found in 2 Corinthians 5 21. The Bible says God made him or God made Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us. Jesus became sin. Why? So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Why did God have to forsake Jesus? It's because Jesus became sin on the crosses and murder and adultery and lust and lying. pornography and cheating and racism and hatred and any other sin that exists in this world.
Jesus came and he became sin and God had to look away because his eyes are too righteous to even look upon sin. Jesus died for our sin so that our sins could be forgiven. And when everyone around the cross didn't understand, God made Jesus take on the sin of the world, so that we can become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So no matter what you're going through, never ever forget that God is good, God is for you, and God is with you. He will never, ever, ever leave you.
You know, we struggle with the why a lot and we question, but God shows us throughout the whole process that he is with us and that he is holding our hands. But it's during the tough times when we know that one day we are actually going to be with our heavenly father in heaven. We know God is in this whole thing that we call life, right? We know he is. But it's difficult to get to that place. And really what we want is we want our will in our situations and in our circumstances. But we have to begin the process of accepting that God is God and also that God is good.
We would never choose to have loved ones pass away. We would never choose to have a child with an illness. We would never choose to have a parent or or someone in authority abuse a child. But we live in a dark world. And God may allow these things to happen. And by allowing these things to happen, we are able as survivors, we are able to tell other people that they can be forgiven and they too can forgive and they can survive and they can be healed and they can live with our heavenly father in eternity forever as well. Because of that, we can experience the love of the one true God, our heavenly father. the love that is pure and unconditional. So remember this, God is good, God is for me, and God is with me.
Would you pray with me today? God, we thank you so much for your presence in our lives. And we're asking you to do a work in our hearts and in our minds that we cannot do by ourselves. We need the power of your Holy Spirit to work within us to help us think differently to help to to look at this world through through a heavenly lens. Because if we're just looking at the here and now, we will not understand. We can't. But you, God, you see the big picture. And your thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Your ways are higher than our ways. And so we submit to you. And we trust you with complete inward confidence that you can and will do what you say.
God, you've called us to help reach a world that is broken and lost. And we're able to do this because we ourselves have been broken and lost. But when we give our hearts and lives over to you, everything changes. And it doesn't just change, but you tell us that we become a new creation in Christ Jesus because he took the punishment for our sins. We can be forgiven. And so when we think about the cross of Jesus Christ, this is such a huge moment. Help us not to forget. Help us to remember what it is that you did on that cross.
And when you said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It helps us to understand also that when we ask God why, not out of rebellion, not because uh we're bitter, but when we ask why to try to understand, you can handle those things. So, help us to give our hurts to you. Help us to give our sins completely over to you. Help us to allow you to truly work in our hearts and in our lives. And if today you have recognized the meaning of the cross in a different way, I pray that you would accept that free gift of grace that comes because of what Jesus did on the cross and that you would find forgiveness of your sins.
And if you want to do that, you can pray this prayer. You can believe it in your heart and trust God with your life. You can say, "God, I believe that you sent Jesus Christ to live a perfect life because I am a sinner and I needed someone to pay for the punishment of my sins." But Jesus took that on himself. And today I recognize it. And I want to give my life over to Christ because of what he's done for me. If you've made that decision, welcome to the family of God. We want to walk beside you each and every step of the way because I believe with all my heart that God put the body of Christ together, the church together so that we can encourage and grow and and we can be accountable to one another in ways that will allow us to become more Christlike each and every day.
But God, as we see things that are happening throughout our world with the war and in Israel and Iran and what's taking place all throughout the world in Ukraine and elsewhere and as things continue to escalate, my prayer is that we would see peace on this earth and that heaven truly would come down to earth and that we could experience these things in a great way. And we do get to see glimpses of this But God, we're praying for Christ to return to redeem all things and for us to live with you in heaven forever. We pray for all who are involved. So many innocent lives being lost. But God, we are trusting you through the storm. And we believe that your ways are higher than our ways and that your ways are good. So God, we love you. We praise you and we thank you for our time together. It's in Jesus name we pray. And everybody said, "Amen.