April 19, 2025 • 32 mins
Forsaken
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Episode Transcript
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Pastor Woolsey (00:00):
Easter is one of my favorite holidays.
It's not my most favorite holiday.
My most favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.
And I think I've emphasized that.
Somebody said amen.
Thank you.
There's something about Thanksgiving and getting together and family time that is just special.
(00:20):
But Easter is another time where we get together as family.
I remember my grandmother, every Easter, we would meet at her house.
And we would just spend the entire afternoon and we would have a big meal.
You would almost think it was Thanksgiving all over again.
But there's something more important about Easter than just getting together as family.
(00:48):
There's a cross.
Easter turns our attention to the cross.
Turns our attention together to the cross.
As a family, we look upon the cross and we see our Savior.
And we see a bigger family than our own little families here on earth.
(01:16):
And on that cross, we find our togetherness.
Without the cross, we will be filled with emptiness, loneliness,
without the direction, without the purpose of life.
(01:41):
Ann was about eight years old when her parents, her family, took her for a drive.
And they drove through the hot Phoenix, Arizona sunshine back in the day when cars didn't have air conditioners.
Some of you remember those days.
I remember those days, but not from Arizona.
(02:02):
And it was hot enough where we were, much less here.
But a family went for a drive.
And you can picture going for a drive as an 8-year-old child, window down, looking out the window, just seeing the scenery pass by.
And I'm sorry, we're in Arizona.
So it's a bunch of cacti and gravel.
But for an eight-year-old, there are still things to see.
(02:26):
And slowly the car pulls into the parking lot and stops.
The family gets out of the car.
Ann's taken by the hand and led over to a tree and told to stay there.
And the family climbed back in their car and drove away.
(02:50):
leaving Ann at a tree in front of a building.
Ann was eight years old and had special needs.
She was confused.
She didn't understand what was going on.
(03:14):
The only thing that, as she reflected back, the only thing that she felt or understood was that she had been forsaken.
You see, her family had been advised by the doctors that they should take her to an institution because they were overwhelmed with the care.
(03:34):
They didn't understand how to take care of someone with special needs.
They weren't equipped.
They couldn't afford the medications.
They just were not able, and the doctors recommended that they take her to an institution
where they had doctors and nurses available and didn't understand all that.
(03:56):
All she understood was being abandoned.
Have you ever experienced that feeling, being left alone?
Can leave you feeling sad, angry, disoriented, and sometimes even hopeless.
(04:19):
Where do you turn when you've been forsaken?
Jesus had a lot of experience being forsaken.
In John chapter 6, Jesus said that he was living bread.
That whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life.
(04:41):
The Bible says many of his disciples took him literally.
And they said, that's a hard thing for us to hear.
And when you look at verse 66, it says, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.
(05:04):
they forsook him
they abandoned
the son of God
and his mission
they didn't understand
what Jesus was telling them
and so they forsook him
then there was rich young ruler
as the story is told in Matthew chapter 19
after learning
that the kingdom is more about a condition
(05:26):
of the heart than it is about
good deeds
he walked away sorrowfully
Of course, he didn't understand what he was walking away from, because if he did, he wouldn't have walked away.
But from a misunderstanding, he forsook Jesus.
(05:46):
And of course, Judas, one of his own, didn't understand the mission.
And he betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The rest of the disciples didn't understand what was going on either.
and they abandoned Jesus and left him alone to face his darkest hour.
(06:06):
They forsook him to save their own lives.
Peter, thinking he understood what was going on,
that is until he's standing there at the trial and he denied Jesus three times.
In fact, many of the people who were in the crowds just one week before were singing, Hosanna to the Son of David.
(06:36):
But at the cross, at the trial, they cried, crucify him.
Some of the same people who sang his praises forsook him within one week.
Talk about not understanding.
(06:56):
Jesus was accustomed to being forsaken.
He was used to being abandoned by people.
But when you look at what it says in John chapter 16, verse 32, Jesus has this comfort, this peace about him.
Because when you read it, it says, indeed, the hour is coming.
Yes, has now come that you will be scattered each to his own and leave me alone.
(07:20):
Jesus knew they were going to forsake him.
But the last of that verse says, and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.
Jesus was used to being forsaken by people, but he was used to his Father being with him.
That's where he drew his confidence.
That's where he drew his strength is his Father was always with him.
(07:44):
His Father would never leave him.
His Father would never forsake him.
Which really underlines our main scripture for today, Matthew 27, 46.
Jesus is on the cross.
He's been beaten.
He's been humiliated.
He's been nailed to this cross.
And he's hanging between two thieves like a common criminal.
(08:06):
At this point, he is near his end.
Personally, if that were me, I'd have been done.
If that were me, after everything that I have done for you, after the mission, after the whole purpose why I'm here, why I came, the whole reason, I loved you with everything.
(08:30):
And you're going to nail me to a cross?
That's me.
I'm sorry.
I would have forsaken you because I'm human.
That's what I would have done.
Thankfully, I'm not Jesus.
Thankfully, I am not the son of God.
because Jesus still had something to say.
(08:53):
I would have been done talking.
Enough.
You're not worth my time.
But Jesus still had things to say to his people.
With everything that he was going through,
he still had important words,
maybe some of the most important words that he would ever say.
(09:17):
Father, forgive them.
Jesus was going to the cross for the forgiveness of others.
Couldn't get more important than that.
Because the Bible says that we are all sinners.
We are all guilty.
We all deserve to be right where Jesus was.
(09:38):
But Jesus went to the cross and said, Father, forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
He knew that we didn't understand, that we didn't comprehend what was going on.
And he had forgiveness in his heart.
Verily, verily, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.
(10:00):
He's promising salvation to a sinner, which reminds us that we're all sinners.
And though we don't deserve to be saved, he's prepared a place for each one of us in his kingdom.
woman behold your son
then looking to John
(10:20):
behold your mother
though he's providing care
for his mother after he
dies and we focus on that
he honored his mother and praise God that he
did but there's more to it than that
because there's the example of how
we as a church
should care for each other
woman
(10:40):
here's your son
Here's your mother.
Take care of each other.
Be family together.
They weren't blood-related.
But each one of us, as we see the example of Christ in his darkest hour,
have this example of taking care of each other's needs.
(11:01):
And then here in Matthew 27, verse 46, Jesus says those words,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
My God.
(11:23):
Not long before, he had just expressed the confidence that his father would never leave him,
that he was never alone.
And now, in his darkest hour, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Interestingly, people misunderstood Jesus on the cross too because they thought, oh, he's calling out for Elijah.
(11:47):
And they turned it as an opportunity to ridicule Jesus some more.
Let's wait here and see if Elijah shows up and takes him down off the cross.
How much time do you have?
I've got
till my breaks at three.
(12:08):
Why have you forsaken me?
And again, people misunderstand Jesus.
They ridiculed him.
They made fun of him.
Had Jesus lost his
confidence in his father?
Is that what was going on here?
Picture it.
The Bible says that the sky's been dark for about three hours now.
(12:30):
Three hours.
And it was kind of a symbol of what Jesus was experiencing on the cross.
He was experiencing this spiritual emptiness, this spiritual darkness.
And honestly, for the creator, for the source of life to be losing his life,
was not only a dark time for Jesus, it's a dark time for humanity as well.
(12:57):
And consider that not only we, his creative beings, were the reason why he went to the cross,
we were the ones who put him on the cross.
We nailed the nails in his hands.
No, we weren't physically there.
We weren't physically alive, but our sins put him on the cross.
And I sit here and think about what if it had been me?
(13:20):
What if I had been there?
And, of course, my self-pride says I wouldn't have done that.
I wouldn't have betrayed Christ.
I've been just like Peter before the cross.
I wouldn't have done that.
Even though all your disciples who spent three and a half years with you day in and day out,
even though they forsook you, I would never forsake my Savior.
(13:41):
But then I put myself in their position.
I lose my confidence in myself.
This was humanity's darkest hour.
But do we fully understand what's happening when Jesus says this?
or are we a little bit like the people in Jesus' time who misunderstood him?
(14:03):
There's a couple things that I want you to know.
First, turn with me to Psalms 22.
We're just going to briefly look at Psalms 22 because there's been several sermons on this,
and I don't need to go too deep into it.
But there are places in Psalms 22, specifically starting in verse 1,
where it says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
(14:27):
Word for word, what Jesus said on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
But then as you read through, you'll see these other places.
Verse 7, if you're in Psalms 22 with me, verse 7, all those who see me ridicule me.
They shoot out the lip.
They shake the head saying, he trusted in the Lord.
(14:49):
Let him rescue him.
Sounds familiar.
Sounds like the scene that's happening on the cross.
Then go to verse 13.
They gape at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax.
It is melted within me.
(15:10):
My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue clings to my jaws.
Fellow Arizonans, do you know what it is to be dry?
I wake up five, six, seven, eight times during the night with my tongue stuck to my jaw.
(15:31):
And every time I do, I think of this.
When Christ said, I thirst.
Do we understand thirst here better than maybe a lot of people do?
Because it's dry.
If you've ever woken up and had a hard time pulling your tongue off of your jaw just so you could swallow some water, I think we get a little glimpse of how dry Jesus was on the cross.
(15:59):
Psalms 22, it's going through what's happening at the cross.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Jesus was saying more than just crying out in the darkness, crying out in the lostness of the cross.
(16:22):
Jesus was quoting.
He was turning everybody's attention to Psalms chapter 22.
It's like he's saying in the midst of his darkest grief, his deepest bottomless pit, he's still reaching out to the people.
His love is so strong that even as he suffered more than anyone has ever suffered, he's still
(16:47):
trying to point us to something. He's still trying to teach us something from it. My God, my God,
why is thou forsaken me? Go back and read. They didn't have Psalms chapter 22, verse 1. They
didn't have that, but they knew, or they should have known. They should have recognized because
they had the scrolls. They could have went back and they could have read through and saw what
(17:10):
Jesus was pointing to. And he's pointing them there so that they can go through and understand.
It's more than just Jesus on the plan of salvation. And then we reach this verse,
my God, my God, why have you forsaken me that he forgets about the salvation of others and he's
(17:31):
worried about himself. No, he's pointing us to Psalms chapter 22 for a reason. Because in the
Old Testament, they went through the sacrificial service. They went through, they brought this lamb
and they would, as they brought the lamb, I'm not going to go into all the gory details, but
part of the process would, they would lay their head on the lamb and they would confess their sins
(17:54):
over this lamb. It was a symbol of transferring all the sins that they committed to this lamb.
which set them free from their sins, symbolically, and then the lamb was slain.
The lamb paid the penalty for their sins.
Now, we know, folks, we know that there was nothing salvational about that lamb.
(18:17):
It was all a symbol pointing towards the cross, pointing towards the time when Jesus would come and take away the sins of the world,
as John the Baptist said, behold the lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
The Old Testament, the sacrificial service, it was all pointing to this time where Christ is on the cross.
(18:38):
It was all a symbol.
1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, where'd you go?
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The plan of salvation.
That's exactly what this was pointing to.
This was not just a New Testament theme.
(18:59):
This was the Old Testament being lived out in the New Testament time in Jesus Christ.
Now consider that Isaiah 59 verse 2 says that our sins separate us from God.
When Jesus goes to the cross, when we confess our sins and we give them to Jesus,
he takes them off of us.
In other words, our separation from God is ended.
(19:22):
And Jesus goes to the cross with our sins.
And if we are no longer separated from God, because Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,
Jesus took our sins from us.
He went to the cross to die for us.
But, brothers and sisters, those sins were separating us from God, from life itself.
(19:46):
And when Jesus took them so that we could be reconciled to the Father,
That's why Jesus took our sins.
There was a separation between us and God.
We were separated from life itself because God is who gives life.
That is the only place we can find life.
(20:07):
And when we choose sin, when we choose to take sin and we choose to hold on to our sins,
we're choosing to separate ourselves from the Father.
But if we confess our sins, Jesus already went to the cross.
He experienced our separation from the Father for us.
(20:31):
Jesus took that from us with our sins so that we could be reunited with God,
so that we once again could live.
But we were guilty of our sins.
He wasn't.
And so when he cries out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(20:55):
Jesus, for the first time, is feeling the separation from the Father.
It's the first time that he experiences, my God and I are not one.
We don't have that connection anymore because I have all the sins of the world on me,
and they have separated us.
(21:17):
See, Jesus is living out the plan of salvation on our behalf.
But I ask you, is that the message of the cross?
Is that the message of Psalm 22?
Have you ever read through the rest of Psalm 22?
Because most of our sermons, we cover this connection with the cross,
(21:37):
but then we don't go and read the rest of the chapter.
And I would suggest to you that the chapter does not end there.
You pick it up in verse 19, but you, O Lord, do not be far from me.
He's still crying out.
Oh, my strength, hasten to help me.
Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen.
(22:01):
You have answered me.
Notice the shift.
I will declare your name to my brethren.
In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him.
All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him and fear him, all you offspring of Israel.
For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him.
(22:27):
But when he cried to him, he heard.
When Christ cried out to his father, his father heard.
My praise shall be of you in the great assembly.
I will pay my vows before those who fear him.
Verse 26, the poor shall eat and be satisfied.
(22:50):
Those who seek him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever.
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nation shall worship before you.
For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship.
(23:11):
All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who cannot keep himself alive.
You notice the transition.
It goes from the forsaken, the I am not human.
I'm but a worm.
I'm despised.
I'm rejected.
I'm abandoned.
(23:31):
I'm alone.
I'm in the darkest hour to I will praise you forever.
Notice the transition.
I would suggest to you that this abandonment, this pinnacle of the cross, when Christ is in his darkest hour, when humanity is in their darkest hour, that is not the message of the cross.
(23:54):
The message of the cross is for those people who are in their darkest hour.
Christ quotes Psalm 22 to draw our attention that that's not the end of the story.
When you are in your dark hour, when you are feeling alone, when you are feeling that there is no hope,
Christ points us to Psalm 22 to say, there's another page, there's the rest of the chapter, there's the rest of the story.
(24:19):
It doesn't end here in darkness, but it continues on.
The message of the cross is for people who are in their dark hour that there is something more.
I thirst.
(24:40):
I thirst.
Jesus
is the living water.
Jesus is free to all who are thirsty, and those who drink will never thirst like that again.
Notice the transition to hope.
I thirst.
There is more.
(25:00):
People will give you sour wine.
People will give you vinegar to drink.
People will make your life miserable.
They won't satisfy.
But Jesus is the living water, and he will quench your thirst.
And the Bible promises anyone who comes to him for this living water will receive it.
It is finished.
(25:21):
What was finished?
And I suggest that the separation between God and his people is finished.
You remember the Bible says that at his death, that veil in the temple was torn.
That veil was a symbol of the separation between humanity and God because they were not allowed
to go into that area.
But now the veil is torn.
(25:43):
There's no more need for us to go to somebody to talk to God for us.
There's no need to go to somebody to plead for our forgiveness because the Bible says
we can boldly go to the throne and have mercy.
and receive his grace. We can go directly to God. It is finished. The separation is gone.
(26:06):
That feeling of abandonment is over at the cross. Jesus took our abandonment, so we no longer have
to have that. We were reconciled with our Father in heaven. Into your hands I commit my spirit.
No matter how dark our world gets, we can have faith in God that he has a path out of the darkness and into the light.
(26:31):
And with no separation, our God is close enough that we can place our life into his hands.
Close enough to touch.
Jesus, the hero of the story, died on the cross, but Psalms 22 kept going.
The plan of salvation kept going.
(26:53):
because on the third day, what happened?
He rose again.
That's what Easter is all about,
remembering that, yes, he did die on a cross,
and, yes, he rose again on the third day.
There is hope.
Psalms 22 doesn't end with the devastation of forsakenness,
of abandonment, of aloneness,
(27:14):
but instead it carries on to the praise of God
with the promise that we will continue to worship God.
We will be reunited with him.
Jesus rose again. Acts 2.26 says,
(27:43):
And then down to Acts 2.31.
that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.
(28:05):
It's the rest of Psalm 22. It's the reason why we praise God. Not only did Jesus die on a cross
to save us, but because of that, we can live forever. But Jesus was raised up again so that
we can live together with a God who loved us enough to die for us.
Living forever is great.
(28:27):
I personally don't want to go to a grave.
But it means so little if I have to live without Jesus.
It's living with Jesus for eternity that makes it all worth it.
(28:48):
without Jesus, we're just living forever.
With Jesus, we are living with someone who loves us deeper than we will ever understand.
And living with Jesus, we never have to feel forsaken.
We never have to feel abandoned or alone ever again,
(29:10):
because we will be forever through eternity with his love.
Ann, the 8-year-old girl, she struggled through her life.
She had many difficulties.
She left the institution when she was 30.
She finally gained her independence.
(29:30):
She gained her freedom.
She learned what it meant to make it in this world.
But Ann also tells of how she came to know Jesus Christ.
See, she didn't just get out of an institution, but she found her Lord and Savior.
She met Jesus, and she developed a relationship with him.
(29:53):
She never, no matter where she is, no matter what happens to her, she never feels alone anymore.
She never feels forsaken anymore because she has a God who loves her and is with her wherever she goes.
Today, she's 82.
She lives independently in Phoenix, Arizona in her own home.
(30:15):
She still shares her testimony.
She goes to churches and shares the testimony of how Jesus saved her life.
Her testimony has blessed thousands of people,
and her testimony has led many people to accept Christ as their Savior.
Her darkest hour was being forsaken in a strange place
(30:38):
without the people that she knew and loved.
But that wasn't the end of her story.
She found, she met Jesus Christ
and she has never been alone again.
And she will abide with him forever.
(31:00):
Easter reminds us that we have a God who loves us,
a God who saves us, a God who will never leave us,
a God who will never forsake us,
and he offers us eternity with him.
If you would like to spend eternity with him,
I'm not going to judge for you.
I'm going to lay out the choice that he has laid out for everyone.
(31:23):
If you would like eternity with Jesus Christ, would you join me?
Would you stand with me as we pray?
And if you are not able to stand, would you stand in your hearts?
And if you'd like to talk to me about accepting Jesus as your Savior,
please see me after church.
(31:45):
Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven, we are so thankful for Jesus.
We are thankful for the example of the cross.
There are many lessons to learn.
But maybe the biggest lesson to learn is that in our darkest hour,
no matter how bad life gets here, we always have you.
(32:09):
We always have our Savior.
Because not only did he die on a cross for us, Lord,
but you raised him again so that we could live with him forever.
Father, we look forward to that day.
And today you see a group of people standing for Jesus,
a group of people who want that eternity.
(32:31):
Lord, we pray for a special blessing on each one.
As we go from here today,
that we would not just have spent an
hour or two in your presence,
but that you would continue with us for eternity.
And we pray this in Jesus' precious name.
Amen.
Easter is one of my favorite holidays.
It's not my most favorite holiday.
My most favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.
And I think I've emphasized that.
Somebody said amen.
Thank you.
There's something about Thanksgiving and getting together and family time that is just special.
(00:20):
But Easter is another time where we get together as family.
I remember my grandmother, every Easter, we would meet at her house.
And we would just spend the entire afternoon and we would have a big meal.
You would almost think it was Thanksgiving all over again.
But there's something more important about Easter than just getting together as family.
(00:48):
There's a cross.
Easter turns our attention to the cross.
Turns our attention together to the cross.
As a family, we look upon the cross and we see our Savior.
And we see a bigger family than our own little families here on earth.
(01:16):
And on that cross, we find our togetherness.
Without the cross, we will be filled with emptiness, loneliness,
without the direction, without the purpose of life.
(01:41):
Ann was about eight years old when her parents, her family, took her for a drive.
And they drove through the hot Phoenix, Arizona sunshine back in the day when cars didn't have air conditioners.
Some of you remember those days.
I remember those days, but not from Arizona.
(02:02):
And it was hot enough where we were, much less here.
But a family went for a drive.
And you can picture going for a drive as an 8-year-old child, window down, looking out the window, just seeing the scenery pass by.
And I'm sorry, we're in Arizona.
So it's a bunch of cacti and gravel.
But for an eight-year-old, there are still things to see.
(02:26):
And slowly the car pulls into the parking lot and stops.
The family gets out of the car.
Ann's taken by the hand and led over to a tree and told to stay there.
And the family climbed back in their car and drove away.
(02:50):
leaving Ann at a tree in front of a building.
Ann was eight years old and had special needs.
She was confused.
She didn't understand what was going on.
(03:14):
The only thing that, as she reflected back, the only thing that she felt or understood was that she had been forsaken.
You see, her family had been advised by the doctors that they should take her to an institution because they were overwhelmed with the care.
(03:34):
They didn't understand how to take care of someone with special needs.
They weren't equipped.
They couldn't afford the medications.
They just were not able, and the doctors recommended that they take her to an institution
where they had doctors and nurses available and didn't understand all that.
(03:56):
All she understood was being abandoned.
Have you ever experienced that feeling, being left alone?
Can leave you feeling sad, angry, disoriented, and sometimes even hopeless.
(04:19):
Where do you turn when you've been forsaken?
Jesus had a lot of experience being forsaken.
In John chapter 6, Jesus said that he was living bread.
That whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life.
(04:41):
The Bible says many of his disciples took him literally.
And they said, that's a hard thing for us to hear.
And when you look at verse 66, it says, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.
(05:04):
they forsook him
they abandoned
the son of God
and his mission
they didn't understand
what Jesus was telling them
and so they forsook him
then there was rich young ruler
as the story is told in Matthew chapter 19
after learning
that the kingdom is more about a condition
(05:26):
of the heart than it is about
good deeds
he walked away sorrowfully
Of course, he didn't understand what he was walking away from, because if he did, he wouldn't have walked away.
But from a misunderstanding, he forsook Jesus.
(05:46):
And of course, Judas, one of his own, didn't understand the mission.
And he betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The rest of the disciples didn't understand what was going on either.
and they abandoned Jesus and left him alone to face his darkest hour.
(06:06):
They forsook him to save their own lives.
Peter, thinking he understood what was going on,
that is until he's standing there at the trial and he denied Jesus three times.
In fact, many of the people who were in the crowds just one week before were singing, Hosanna to the Son of David.
(06:36):
But at the cross, at the trial, they cried, crucify him.
Some of the same people who sang his praises forsook him within one week.
Talk about not understanding.
(06:56):
Jesus was accustomed to being forsaken.
He was used to being abandoned by people.
But when you look at what it says in John chapter 16, verse 32, Jesus has this comfort, this peace about him.
Because when you read it, it says, indeed, the hour is coming.
Yes, has now come that you will be scattered each to his own and leave me alone.
(07:20):
Jesus knew they were going to forsake him.
But the last of that verse says, and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.
Jesus was used to being forsaken by people, but he was used to his Father being with him.
That's where he drew his confidence.
That's where he drew his strength is his Father was always with him.
(07:44):
His Father would never leave him.
His Father would never forsake him.
Which really underlines our main scripture for today, Matthew 27, 46.
Jesus is on the cross.
He's been beaten.
He's been humiliated.
He's been nailed to this cross.
And he's hanging between two thieves like a common criminal.
(08:06):
At this point, he is near his end.
Personally, if that were me, I'd have been done.
If that were me, after everything that I have done for you, after the mission, after the whole purpose why I'm here, why I came, the whole reason, I loved you with everything.
(08:30):
And you're going to nail me to a cross?
That's me.
I'm sorry.
I would have forsaken you because I'm human.
That's what I would have done.
Thankfully, I'm not Jesus.
Thankfully, I am not the son of God.
because Jesus still had something to say.
(08:53):
I would have been done talking.
Enough.
You're not worth my time.
But Jesus still had things to say to his people.
With everything that he was going through,
he still had important words,
maybe some of the most important words that he would ever say.
(09:17):
Father, forgive them.
Jesus was going to the cross for the forgiveness of others.
Couldn't get more important than that.
Because the Bible says that we are all sinners.
We are all guilty.
We all deserve to be right where Jesus was.
(09:38):
But Jesus went to the cross and said, Father, forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
He knew that we didn't understand, that we didn't comprehend what was going on.
And he had forgiveness in his heart.
Verily, verily, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.
(10:00):
He's promising salvation to a sinner, which reminds us that we're all sinners.
And though we don't deserve to be saved, he's prepared a place for each one of us in his kingdom.
woman behold your son
then looking to John
(10:20):
behold your mother
though he's providing care
for his mother after he
dies and we focus on that
he honored his mother and praise God that he
did but there's more to it than that
because there's the example of how
we as a church
should care for each other
woman
(10:40):
here's your son
Here's your mother.
Take care of each other.
Be family together.
They weren't blood-related.
But each one of us, as we see the example of Christ in his darkest hour,
have this example of taking care of each other's needs.
(11:01):
And then here in Matthew 27, verse 46, Jesus says those words,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
My God.
(11:23):
Not long before, he had just expressed the confidence that his father would never leave him,
that he was never alone.
And now, in his darkest hour, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Interestingly, people misunderstood Jesus on the cross too because they thought, oh, he's calling out for Elijah.
(11:47):
And they turned it as an opportunity to ridicule Jesus some more.
Let's wait here and see if Elijah shows up and takes him down off the cross.
How much time do you have?
I've got
till my breaks at three.
(12:08):
Why have you forsaken me?
And again, people misunderstand Jesus.
They ridiculed him.
They made fun of him.
Had Jesus lost his
confidence in his father?
Is that what was going on here?
Picture it.
The Bible says that the sky's been dark for about three hours now.
(12:30):
Three hours.
And it was kind of a symbol of what Jesus was experiencing on the cross.
He was experiencing this spiritual emptiness, this spiritual darkness.
And honestly, for the creator, for the source of life to be losing his life,
was not only a dark time for Jesus, it's a dark time for humanity as well.
(12:57):
And consider that not only we, his creative beings, were the reason why he went to the cross,
we were the ones who put him on the cross.
We nailed the nails in his hands.
No, we weren't physically there.
We weren't physically alive, but our sins put him on the cross.
And I sit here and think about what if it had been me?
(13:20):
What if I had been there?
And, of course, my self-pride says I wouldn't have done that.
I wouldn't have betrayed Christ.
I've been just like Peter before the cross.
I wouldn't have done that.
Even though all your disciples who spent three and a half years with you day in and day out,
even though they forsook you, I would never forsake my Savior.
(13:41):
But then I put myself in their position.
I lose my confidence in myself.
This was humanity's darkest hour.
But do we fully understand what's happening when Jesus says this?
or are we a little bit like the people in Jesus' time who misunderstood him?
(14:03):
There's a couple things that I want you to know.
First, turn with me to Psalms 22.
We're just going to briefly look at Psalms 22 because there's been several sermons on this,
and I don't need to go too deep into it.
But there are places in Psalms 22, specifically starting in verse 1,
where it says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
(14:27):
Word for word, what Jesus said on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
But then as you read through, you'll see these other places.
Verse 7, if you're in Psalms 22 with me, verse 7, all those who see me ridicule me.
They shoot out the lip.
They shake the head saying, he trusted in the Lord.
(14:49):
Let him rescue him.
Sounds familiar.
Sounds like the scene that's happening on the cross.
Then go to verse 13.
They gape at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax.
It is melted within me.
(15:10):
My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue clings to my jaws.
Fellow Arizonans, do you know what it is to be dry?
I wake up five, six, seven, eight times during the night with my tongue stuck to my jaw.
(15:31):
And every time I do, I think of this.
When Christ said, I thirst.
Do we understand thirst here better than maybe a lot of people do?
Because it's dry.
If you've ever woken up and had a hard time pulling your tongue off of your jaw just so you could swallow some water, I think we get a little glimpse of how dry Jesus was on the cross.
(15:59):
Psalms 22, it's going through what's happening at the cross.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Jesus was saying more than just crying out in the darkness, crying out in the lostness of the cross.
(16:22):
Jesus was quoting.
He was turning everybody's attention to Psalms chapter 22.
It's like he's saying in the midst of his darkest grief, his deepest bottomless pit, he's still reaching out to the people.
His love is so strong that even as he suffered more than anyone has ever suffered, he's still
(16:47):
trying to point us to something. He's still trying to teach us something from it. My God, my God,
why is thou forsaken me? Go back and read. They didn't have Psalms chapter 22, verse 1. They
didn't have that, but they knew, or they should have known. They should have recognized because
they had the scrolls. They could have went back and they could have read through and saw what
(17:10):
Jesus was pointing to. And he's pointing them there so that they can go through and understand.
It's more than just Jesus on the plan of salvation. And then we reach this verse,
my God, my God, why have you forsaken me that he forgets about the salvation of others and he's
(17:31):
worried about himself. No, he's pointing us to Psalms chapter 22 for a reason. Because in the
Old Testament, they went through the sacrificial service. They went through, they brought this lamb
and they would, as they brought the lamb, I'm not going to go into all the gory details, but
part of the process would, they would lay their head on the lamb and they would confess their sins
(17:54):
over this lamb. It was a symbol of transferring all the sins that they committed to this lamb.
which set them free from their sins, symbolically, and then the lamb was slain.
The lamb paid the penalty for their sins.
Now, we know, folks, we know that there was nothing salvational about that lamb.
(18:17):
It was all a symbol pointing towards the cross, pointing towards the time when Jesus would come and take away the sins of the world,
as John the Baptist said, behold the lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
The Old Testament, the sacrificial service, it was all pointing to this time where Christ is on the cross.
(18:38):
It was all a symbol.
1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, where'd you go?
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The plan of salvation.
That's exactly what this was pointing to.
This was not just a New Testament theme.
(18:59):
This was the Old Testament being lived out in the New Testament time in Jesus Christ.
Now consider that Isaiah 59 verse 2 says that our sins separate us from God.
When Jesus goes to the cross, when we confess our sins and we give them to Jesus,
he takes them off of us.
In other words, our separation from God is ended.
(19:22):
And Jesus goes to the cross with our sins.
And if we are no longer separated from God, because Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,
Jesus took our sins from us.
He went to the cross to die for us.
But, brothers and sisters, those sins were separating us from God, from life itself.
(19:46):
And when Jesus took them so that we could be reconciled to the Father,
That's why Jesus took our sins.
There was a separation between us and God.
We were separated from life itself because God is who gives life.
That is the only place we can find life.
(20:07):
And when we choose sin, when we choose to take sin and we choose to hold on to our sins,
we're choosing to separate ourselves from the Father.
But if we confess our sins, Jesus already went to the cross.
He experienced our separation from the Father for us.
(20:31):
Jesus took that from us with our sins so that we could be reunited with God,
so that we once again could live.
But we were guilty of our sins.
He wasn't.
And so when he cries out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(20:55):
Jesus, for the first time, is feeling the separation from the Father.
It's the first time that he experiences, my God and I are not one.
We don't have that connection anymore because I have all the sins of the world on me,
and they have separated us.
(21:17):
See, Jesus is living out the plan of salvation on our behalf.
But I ask you, is that the message of the cross?
Is that the message of Psalm 22?
Have you ever read through the rest of Psalm 22?
Because most of our sermons, we cover this connection with the cross,
(21:37):
but then we don't go and read the rest of the chapter.
And I would suggest to you that the chapter does not end there.
You pick it up in verse 19, but you, O Lord, do not be far from me.
He's still crying out.
Oh, my strength, hasten to help me.
Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen.
(22:01):
You have answered me.
Notice the shift.
I will declare your name to my brethren.
In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him.
All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him and fear him, all you offspring of Israel.
For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him.
(22:27):
But when he cried to him, he heard.
When Christ cried out to his father, his father heard.
My praise shall be of you in the great assembly.
I will pay my vows before those who fear him.
Verse 26, the poor shall eat and be satisfied.
(22:50):
Those who seek him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever.
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nation shall worship before you.
For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship.
(23:11):
All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who cannot keep himself alive.
You notice the transition.
It goes from the forsaken, the I am not human.
I'm but a worm.
I'm despised.
I'm rejected.
I'm abandoned.
(23:31):
I'm alone.
I'm in the darkest hour to I will praise you forever.
Notice the transition.
I would suggest to you that this abandonment, this pinnacle of the cross, when Christ is in his darkest hour, when humanity is in their darkest hour, that is not the message of the cross.
(23:54):
The message of the cross is for those people who are in their darkest hour.
Christ quotes Psalm 22 to draw our attention that that's not the end of the story.
When you are in your dark hour, when you are feeling alone, when you are feeling that there is no hope,
Christ points us to Psalm 22 to say, there's another page, there's the rest of the chapter, there's the rest of the story.
(24:19):
It doesn't end here in darkness, but it continues on.
The message of the cross is for people who are in their dark hour that there is something more.
I thirst.
(24:40):
I thirst.
Jesus
is the living water.
Jesus is free to all who are thirsty, and those who drink will never thirst like that again.
Notice the transition to hope.
I thirst.
There is more.
(25:00):
People will give you sour wine.
People will give you vinegar to drink.
People will make your life miserable.
They won't satisfy.
But Jesus is the living water, and he will quench your thirst.
And the Bible promises anyone who comes to him for this living water will receive it.
It is finished.
(25:21):
What was finished?
And I suggest that the separation between God and his people is finished.
You remember the Bible says that at his death, that veil in the temple was torn.
That veil was a symbol of the separation between humanity and God because they were not allowed
to go into that area.
But now the veil is torn.
(25:43):
There's no more need for us to go to somebody to talk to God for us.
There's no need to go to somebody to plead for our forgiveness because the Bible says
we can boldly go to the throne and have mercy.
and receive his grace. We can go directly to God. It is finished. The separation is gone.
(26:06):
That feeling of abandonment is over at the cross. Jesus took our abandonment, so we no longer have
to have that. We were reconciled with our Father in heaven. Into your hands I commit my spirit.
No matter how dark our world gets, we can have faith in God that he has a path out of the darkness and into the light.
(26:31):
And with no separation, our God is close enough that we can place our life into his hands.
Close enough to touch.
Jesus, the hero of the story, died on the cross, but Psalms 22 kept going.
The plan of salvation kept going.
(26:53):
because on the third day, what happened?
He rose again.
That's what Easter is all about,
remembering that, yes, he did die on a cross,
and, yes, he rose again on the third day.
There is hope.
Psalms 22 doesn't end with the devastation of forsakenness,
of abandonment, of aloneness,
(27:14):
but instead it carries on to the praise of God
with the promise that we will continue to worship God.
We will be reunited with him.
Jesus rose again. Acts 2.26 says,
(27:43):
And then down to Acts 2.31.
that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.
(28:05):
It's the rest of Psalm 22. It's the reason why we praise God. Not only did Jesus die on a cross
to save us, but because of that, we can live forever. But Jesus was raised up again so that
we can live together with a God who loved us enough to die for us.
Living forever is great.
(28:27):
I personally don't want to go to a grave.
But it means so little if I have to live without Jesus.
It's living with Jesus for eternity that makes it all worth it.
(28:48):
without Jesus, we're just living forever.
With Jesus, we are living with someone who loves us deeper than we will ever understand.
And living with Jesus, we never have to feel forsaken.
We never have to feel abandoned or alone ever again,
(29:10):
because we will be forever through eternity with his love.
Ann, the 8-year-old girl, she struggled through her life.
She had many difficulties.
She left the institution when she was 30.
She finally gained her independence.
(29:30):
She gained her freedom.
She learned what it meant to make it in this world.
But Ann also tells of how she came to know Jesus Christ.
See, she didn't just get out of an institution, but she found her Lord and Savior.
She met Jesus, and she developed a relationship with him.
(29:53):
She never, no matter where she is, no matter what happens to her, she never feels alone anymore.
She never feels forsaken anymore because she has a God who loves her and is with her wherever she goes.
Today, she's 82.
She lives independently in Phoenix, Arizona in her own home.
(30:15):
She still shares her testimony.
She goes to churches and shares the testimony of how Jesus saved her life.
Her testimony has blessed thousands of people,
and her testimony has led many people to accept Christ as their Savior.
Her darkest hour was being forsaken in a strange place
(30:38):
without the people that she knew and loved.
But that wasn't the end of her story.
She found, she met Jesus Christ
and she has never been alone again.
And she will abide with him forever.
(31:00):
Easter reminds us that we have a God who loves us,
a God who saves us, a God who will never leave us,
a God who will never forsake us,
and he offers us eternity with him.
If you would like to spend eternity with him,
I'm not going to judge for you.
I'm going to lay out the choice that he has laid out for everyone.
(31:23):
If you would like eternity with Jesus Christ, would you join me?
Would you stand with me as we pray?
And if you are not able to stand, would you stand in your hearts?
And if you'd like to talk to me about accepting Jesus as your Savior,
please see me after church.
(31:45):
Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven, we are so thankful for Jesus.
We are thankful for the example of the cross.
There are many lessons to learn.
But maybe the biggest lesson to learn is that in our darkest hour,
no matter how bad life gets here, we always have you.
(32:09):
We always have our Savior.
Because not only did he die on a cross for us, Lord,
but you raised him again so that we could live with him forever.
Father, we look forward to that day.
And today you see a group of people standing for Jesus,
a group of people who want that eternity.
(32:31):
Lord, we pray for a special blessing on each one.
As we go from here today,
that we would not just have spent an
hour or two in your presence,
but that you would continue with us for eternity.
And we pray this in Jesus' precious name.
Amen.
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