Why Have You Forsaken Me?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Review:
Atonement - at-one-ment - God’s act in the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ to reconcile us to himself
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Taking hostile people and reconciling them to Himself. Note, not inviting us to reconcile ourselves, but to be reconciled.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
- saw the promise of atonement - the Son, the Suffering Servant, the Messiah.
Substitutionary sacrifice - as the Son of God, blameless & perfect sacrifice. As the Son of Man, a human and fitting substitute.
Saw that God’s plan for our rescue included the suffering that the Messiah would face, including His rejection by his people. But,
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
This is the great exchange that God made for you, and for me.
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
Cleanse
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
Justify
Why? We saw last week in the first of Jesus’s words from the Cross,
34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
Every one of us has opposed the call and command of God. We’ve rebelled against the source of Life Himself. And that means we have embraced death, and we will reap what we’ve sown,
Unless our sins can be washed away, forgiven.
Pilate, the soldiers, the religious leaders, the crowds, the passersby, even the man named Simon of Cyrene - none of them knew what they were doing. And neither do we. We minimize sin, agree with one another’s sins, we deny, we blame others, we mourn the punishment instead of the wrong, and we simply, blindly, fail to see our own need for forgiveness.
Our only hope is that God had a plan to rescue lost people who don’t even know what they’re doing. And that’s exactly what we saw. The stunning light of God’s grace is seen in those words, “Father, forgive them.”
It was the eternal plan of God that the world would be rescued through the sacrifice of God the Son on our behalf.
And today, we consider the words of Jesus from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” in Matthew 27:46.
Pray with me. <<PRAY>>
I. Sonship in the Old Testament
I. Sonship in the Old Testament
The relationship between a loving Father and devoted Son is one of the most beautiful pictures of intimacy available to us. Healthy parent-child connections are so strong when present and so longed for when absent that they shape us even when we don’t want them to.
<<PARENTING>> When we first became parents, I had this profound moment when I first held our daughter and thought, “I never knew I could love in this way.” It has amazed me with each of our children as I’ve discovered that a father’s heart isn’t like a pie chart where I have to divide a certain amount among my family. And yet, in those first few weeks, I was also afraid. What if I mess up? What if I don’t love them well enough? Even worse, what she doesn’t bond with me? I asked our pediatrician about that and he said, “Aaron, you don’t need to worry about her bonding with you. Kids bond with dads they’ve never even met. Just love her and don’t worry.”
I turned that idea over and over in my head. And I realized it goes both ways. I loved my kids before I even met them. God has made us to long for strong, healthy, loving parent-child relationships.
He built it into the fabric of creation, and He built it into humanity.
In , the Bible says
1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
gen 5.1-3
gen 5.2-3
The language of “image and likeness” reminds us of God’s own relationship to Adam and Eve. In this most basic and fundamental of ways, set apart from any other creature God made, humanity are given God’s image and likeness, like sons and daughters. This is why, when Luke gives us Jesus’s genealogy, he refers to each generation as the son of the generation before, climaxing in
38 the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
This sonship, being made in the image of God, is something that we cannot lose, but it isn’t enough by itself, because we are all runaways, longing for and fleeing from our Creator.
. Like orphans, we long to be reunited with our Father, but we don’t realize He’s there, and He loves us.
In , when Adam and Eve fell into sin and dragged the world into the turmoil of sin and death, God promised that He would one day rescue us through a son, the offspring of the woman.
When God set apart Abraham by covenant in , He promised a son, an heir, through whom all the peoples of the world would be blessed. And the children of that covenant, the people of Israel, were called out of Egypt and into a new kind of covenant with God at Mount Sinai. When He confronted Pharaoh through Moses, he declared, “Israel is my firstborn son.”
starts, “You are the sons of the LORD your God.” They were called to reflect God’s character to the world, to bear His Image by their devotion, love, and obedience, in a way that all the rest of us runaways would see and recognize.
But like the rest of us, Israel turned aside and showed that they, too needed rescue.
Through the Prophets, the LORD called Israel back.
19 “ ‘I said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.
and
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.
19 For after I had turned away, I relented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’ 20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.
jer
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.
And in the book of Hosea, the most devastating picture of God as Father and God as Husband, calling Israel to return and live, even in the midst of judgment, we see God’s heart in
And in the book of Hosea, the most devastating picture of God as Father and God as Husband, calling Israel to return and live, even in the midst of judgment, we see God’s heart in
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”
But the sonship we all share as human beings made in God’s likeness is not enough to rescue us from the darkness of our sins. The sonship that Israel shared was not enough. Israel’s kings and priests are sometimes called sons, but they could not deliver us from sin and death.
1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
But the sonship we all share as human beings made in God’s likeness is not enough to rescue us from the darkness of our sins. The sonship that Israel shared was not enough. Israel’s kings and priests are sometimes called sons, but they could not deliver us from sin and death.
And so, the Old Testament tells us, another Son would be sent:
7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
And in Isaiah,
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Somehow, He is the son of a virgin, a human son born miraculously of a human mother, and his name, Immanuel, means God with us.
In , we learn that this son is born to us and given to us, and yet, He is called Mighty God. He’s eternal, and his throne and peace will never end, and yet He is a child, a son, of the line of King David.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
This Son is the one whom the Bible calls the Son of God, and the Son of Man. He’s called the Messiah, the Christ, the Prince of Peace. He is both God and the King of Israel. Our Redeemer. The one who would reconcile us to God. Our Atonement.
isa 9.
II. The Sonship of Jesus in the Gospels
II. The Sonship of Jesus in the Gospels
And at the beginning of the Gospels, those Old Testament promises are proclaimed to be fulfilled in Jesus.
tells us that Jesus was the son of the virgin called Immanuel. An angel visits Mary and tells her
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
When He was baptized by John the Baptist signaling the beginning of His public ministry,
After Joseph and Mary take the child to Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous designs, they return in fulfillment of the words “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
When He was baptized by John the Baptist signaling the beginning of His public ministry,
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
mat 3.
When Jesus took Peter, and James, and John to the mountain where He was transfigured and they beheld His glory,
5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
mat 17.5-6
Chapter 1 of John’s Gospel calls Him the Word made Flesh, the only Son from the Father. When Lazarus lay dead in his grave, before Jesus raised him to life, Martha said to Jesus, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
Angels, men and women, even heaven itself declared this truth about Jesus.
He even said it Himself.
As a child, when Mary and Joseph departed Jerusalem, and they returned to find Him seated in the Temple speaking with the teachers there, He tells them, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Throughout His ministry, He taught that He was the Son of God in a different way than Adam, or humanity, or Israel. He was the only Son from the Father, the unique Son, the eternal Son. He taught us to call God “our Father,” but He never called upon God in that way. Every time, He said, “my Father.”
Set apart from everyone, Jesus alone was the Son who could say,
25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
In , Jesus tells His disciples
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
And on the night when He was betrayed, as He prayed for His disciples in the upper room after the Last Supper, we see that everything that took place the next day was the fulfillment of the plans that God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, had set in place before the world existed.
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
john 17.
The Sonship of Jesus leaps off every page of the Gospels, reminding us of the unique relationship between the Father and the Son, and His mission to redeem us and reconcile us to God. His first words from the Cross begin, “Father, forgive them.” The last words from the cross recorded in Luke are, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Every prayer of Jesus addresses his Father. Every prayer
Every prayer of Jesus addresses his Father. Every prayer
But one.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
III. Sonship in the darkness
III. Sonship in the darkness
It was dark when he uttered the cry. Unnaturally dark. Supernaturally dark. Like a veil. It fell dark at noon, the day after Passover had begun, in the middle of a full moon when no eclipse could cause the darkness.
In Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, and Zephaniah, darkness would accompany the Day of the Lord, when He finally condemned sin and vindicated His holiness. For Isaiah and the Psalms, darkness symbolized the veil of death, the shadow of death.
But darkness also meant something else on the Passover. In , when Pharaoh held Israel as slaves, and would not let them free, and the LORD sent ten plagues upon Egypt, the ninth plague was three days of darkness so deep you could feel it.
And immediately after the darkness, the tenth plague, the one that finally broke Egypt’s hold on Israel, was the death of the firstborn. But God made a distinction between Egypt and Israel. The Israelites were commanded to take a young lamb and kill it at twilight, and to put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the house. They were to roast and eat the lamb in haste. And God told Israel, “It is the LORD’s passover.”
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
exod 12.12-13
It was the blood of the Passover lamb that covered Israel. The darkness on Golgotha at noonday during Passover was an unmistakable word from God: This is my Lamb. Your Passover.
Here alone, in the dark, Jesus calls out not “My Father,” but “my God.”
Why have you forsaken me? Here, between “Father forgive them” and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” intimacy is replaced with distance. “Why have you forsaken me?”
The answer is seen everywhere around us, and everywhere around verse 46. Jesus was forsaken by the Father in order to redeem those who had forsaken God.
In spite of every evidence and every prophecy, including , the passersby say in verse 40, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross,” echoing the words of Satan at Jesus’ temptation, when he said, “IF you are the Son of God,” in .
The chief priests and religious leaders in verses 41-43 say,
43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ”
Look again at verse 46.
Even at His cry, they mock Him. Matthew doesn’t want us to miss this point: He spells it out for us. Jesus was speaking their language. Even though Matthew usually quotes Jesus in Greek, here he gives us the Aramaic & Hebrew: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani.”
It’s the first verse of , “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” A well-known text in their own tongue. A Psalm about a Messianic figure wrongly executed. But even still, the bystanders refuse to understand. “He’s calling Elijah,” some say, and then stop a compassionate bystander from giving him something to drink. “No, wait - if he’s really innocent, surely Elijah will show up any minute to help him.”
And here, despised and rejected, verse 50 says that Jesus cries out again and gives up his spirit.
Why was the Son forsaken?
IV. Sonship for the Rebel (vv51-54)
IV. Sonship for the Rebel (vv51-54)
The answer comes immediately in verses 51-54.
The curtain in the temple symbolized the fact that sinners could not come before the Holy God. But now the curtain is ripped in two.
Sin not only alienates us from God and one another, but is the wellspring of physical and spiritual death. But now the tombs have been opened, and a foretaste of the Resurrection is seen in the raising of many saints.
And after Jesus had been betrayed, beaten, spat upon, paraded down the road and hung on a tree with the mocking sign above him that said, “King of the Jews,” and after the passersby mocked His claim to be the Son of God, after the darkness passed, and Jesus died, and the earth shook and rocks were split, the centurion and soldiers looked in awe and said “It was true. He was the Son of God.”
Because the Son was rejected by men. And He was crushed by the Father. Just as Isaiah had told us.
soldiers looked in awe and said
He was forsaken for you.
The darkness that lay on that hill showed that Jesus, the beloved Son in whom the Father was well-pleased, now bore the wrath of God that our sins deserved. And Jesus knew and willingly shouldered that horrible burden because He loves you.
Because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, before the world was made, rejoiced in the glory of redeeming rebels and adopting them as sons and daughters.
<<GETHSEMANE>>
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
On the Cross, the only Son of God was set apart as the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. Our Passover Lamb. So that in His death, and in His resurrection, we who believe in Him would receive what Paul calls blessing, holiness, the riches of His grace.
To be
Atonement. Eternal life united with Him.
And this brings us to the question our text calls us to answer:
Q. How will we respond to the Son who was forsaken for us?
Q. How will we respond to the Son who was forsaken for us?
Will we mock and misunderstand Him, like so many who saw Him suffer that day?
I. W
Even today, there are many who mock the Son without realizing it. When you look at how God foretold the coming of the Messiah, calling people to return to Him, demonstrating His steadfast love and faithfulness, and proving through the life, ministry, and death and resurrection of Jesus that here is the very One sent to save us, and interpret His death any other way than as our Redeemer and Substitute, you are like the passersby and religious leaders who dismissed Him.
Look at Jesus’s words and deeds and you will discover that He is exactly who He claimed to be, the Son of God, and the Son of Man. Do not look at His death and say, “What a tragedy, what a waste, here is an innocent man crucified.” Rome crucified many innocent men, but only one of them was our Passover. Our Savior. Do not look at His death and say, “This is simply an example for us to follow.” We are called to love as Jesus did, but His death was not merely an example. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. There is no other Lamb, no other Son who can take your sins away.
Look at Jesus and see your Redeemer on the Cross. Forsaken for you.
Consider those who willingly misunderstood his cry and said “He’s calling Elijah.” Will we deliberately ignore and turn away from His call?
Will we ignore Jesus’s call to us, like those who deliberately misunderstood His cry as a call to Elijah?
So many hear the Gospel and pretend to understand and respond. Jesus calls them to recognize that their only hope is that He has paid their debts. He calls you to abandon the self-oriented life that kills and come to Him, poor and needy, and receive life. But the hardened heart says, “That can’t be right. I can’t be poor and needy. What I really need is just a little spiritual shot in the arm.”
Look at those words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The only reason why the perfect, sinless, beloved Son would be forsaken is if your sins demanded it! You don’t need a little help. You need rescue. Redemption. Come to Him and receive it.
Friends, today we find ourselves re-examining so many things in our lives. The empty streets, the empty shelves at the grocery store, the closed shops, the layoffs all speak of humanity’s fear of death. Sometimes you’ll find a person who claims not to be afraid, but today we see the lie in that. Even those who are not afraid of their own deaths are afraid of their loved ones’ deaths.
So now is the time to look at the death of Jesus and get this right.
In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. And He willingly laid down that life in order to take it back up and raise you with Him. So don’t wait. Respond in faith, and become children of God, alive in Jesus, the Son.