Why Have Your Forsaken Me?

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham.

A little later in the program we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's book, Heaven. But first, here's the message. Why have you forsaken me? Now the world is filled with many questions. There are a lot of questions that we ask and we really can't answer. These are some of the big questions, the big personal and often painful questions that we ask. Like, why did my child die? Or why can't we have a child? Or why did my husband leave?

Or why did my business collapse? The big question of why is there evil and suffering in the world, that's one we ask a lot. God, why does so much evil exist? Then there are the identity questions, the big philosophical questions of who am I and why am I here and what is my purpose for life? Some of these questions are, this side of eternity, unanswerable.

They are the inscrutable, the imponderables of life. Frankly, there are times in ministry that I simply have to say to people, I don't know the answer to that question. But we trust God who does. Well Jesus asked a question at the cross and it has to do really with the question of why evil and suffering exist and what does God say about it? What does God do about it? God hung a question mark at the cross. And chapter 27, beginning at verse 45, now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour and about the ninth hour, that's approximately noon, Jesus crying out with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? A supernatural darkness spread across the land, across the earth. A supernatural darkness, not a natural phenomenon of some kind, but a darkness caused by God and it was foreboding, it was frightening. And there was an eerie sense of silence around the cross. I don't know if you've had the experience of feeling that eerie silence, that quiet before a big storm.

If you've been in a tornado, as I have as a child, it gets very quiet and very still and very calm and very eerie and very dark before the thunderous tornado rolls through. It was something like that surrounding the cross that day, when even the sun seemed to hide its face from what was happening at Skull Hill when Jesus was dying on the cross. Jesus had been on the cross from nine o'clock to 12 o'clock at this point, approximately three hours. He had spoken three times.

Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. He had spoken words of hope to a dying prisoner, a dying man on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise. He had spoken to his beloved mother, mother, woman, behold your son and his faithful disciple John who had returned to the cross to follow Jesus.

And now, approximately three hours later, it is midnight at midday. And Jesus pierces the darkness with a loud cry. We're told that He said in a loud voice, this is a word which literally means a lion's roar.

It came from deep within. Now, men typically spoke on the cross and as people were dying on crosses there was delirious conversation and there was cursing and profanity and painful anguish that is being expressed. Jesus speaks here, this is not delirium, but rather it is a declaration of what is happening when Jesus the Creator died for our sin. He cried out with a loud voice and He spoke in His language. This is one of the occasions, one of the few occasions in Scripture that the natural common language of Jesus is given to us, Aramaic.

Elah, Elah, lama sabachthani, which is to be translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It was in anguish that Jesus asked this question, why God? The one who had lived in perfect fellowship with the Father from eternity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit united, now Jesus separated and disconnected. Not in His deity, do not, don't think for one minute that Jesus is no longer God in His essence, but He is inexperienced, separated from God the Father.

So the question is, what is happening here? Well, I see in these words of Jesus a prophecy at the cross, a prophecy that is fulfilled. Jesus is actually speaking the words recorded by David in Psalm 22. In fact, take your Bibles, keep your place there in Matthew 27, and turn with me to the 22nd Psalm, Psalm number 22. Psalm 22 is called a Messianic Psalm, which means that it is a prophetic Psalm.

It is a Psalm predictive of the Messiah, who the Messiah is, what He would be like. And the Old Testament is filled with Messianic prophecies, predictions regarding the Savior to come. Now, all the Bible centers on this question. How is man reconciled to God? How is God, who is holy, reconciled to sinful man?

And the answer is Jesus. And so throughout all of both the Old Testament and New Testament, including Psalm 22, we have these prophecies, one of the signs that you can, the signals that you can believe the Bible is fulfilled prophecy. One of the reasons we believe so strongly that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, is fulfilled prophecy, and Psalm 22 is a fantastic example of that. Jesus speaks the words of Psalm 22 verses 1 and 2, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And He goes on to say in verse 1, why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Verse 2 says, oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer Him by night, but I find no rest.

It was both night and day when Jesus was on the cross, at midday it was midnight. Some say Jesus was simply repeating or reciting words that He had learned as a little boy in synagogue, having memorized Psalm 22. That Jesus was looking back to David and was simply reciting Scripture.

No. Jesus was not simply reciting Scripture. He is fulfilling Scripture. This is not Jesus looking back to David as to what was said, but in prophecy it is David looking forward to Jesus in what Jesus would say. That's prophecy.

The predictability and the probability of prophecy, the basic prophecies of who Jesus is and what He came to do and how He would die, these declare with high degrees of improbabilities that these things could happen in the life of one individual such as Jesus of Nazareth and yet we see the prophecies of the Messiah perfectly fulfilled in Jesus. And Psalm 22 is one of them and I want to show you for example. In Psalm 22 beginning in verse 14 to 18. When David wrote this, it was 1,000 years before Jesus.

But beginning in verse 14 it says, I am poured out like water. When Jesus died, they lanced Him with a spear and out came blood and water. And all my bones are out of joint when the cross was dropped into the ground. And oh yes, this is hundreds if not a thousand years before the cross, execution by the cross was practically used. Or the Romans didn't invent it, the Phoenicians actually invented crucifixion.

But the Romans perfected it if you could call it that. And before there was such a thing as the cross, the Jewish way of execution was stoning. So before the cross, all my bones are out of joint. When you would drop a cross into its jagged hole, the bones and the sinews and the ligaments would tear apart. My heart is like wax.

It is melted within my breast. When Jesus died, His great heart burst. He said, my strength is dried up like a pot shared and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me aside in the dust of death, for dogs encompass me and the company of evil doers encircles me. The enemies of Christ round about and watch this, they have pierced my hands and my feet. Again, centuries before the cross predicted that Jesus would be pierced in hands and feet and I cannot count all my bones.

They stare and glowed over me. When Jesus died on the cross, He died in nakedness and shame. This was a great part of the humiliation of being executed on a cross.

That you would just lay bare before the world. They stared at Him. The pure and precious Son of God, they're staring at Him and gloating over Him. Verse 17, and watch this, they divide my garments among them and for my clothing, they cast lots. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message. Why have you forsaken me? Even in life's heaviest moments, the promise of heaven holds out an encouraging hope for you today. And when you understand what your future with God will be like, the burdens of the present fill lighter. That's what Pastor Graham's book, Heaven, is all about.

And it's why we want to get a copy into your hands today. Heaven is our thanks for your gift to help share the truth of the gospel to more people around the world. So call now to request your copy of Heaven when you give. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627.

You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is JackGraham.org. Now let's get back to today's message. Why have you forsaken me? I'm saying I see at the cross something very precious to me regarding the Word of God and the trustworthiness of God's Word and the trustworthiness of Jesus Himself in that I see prophecy fulfilled at the cross. Not only do I see prophecy at the cross, I see agony at the cross.

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This cry is a mysterious cry. As I said, impossible for us to understand but somehow in that moment Jesus the Savior, the Son of God is separated from God the Father. And He cries out, this has been called a cry of desolation.

It has been called the cry of alienation. It is a cry of anguish, of agony. Not only the physical torture of the cross, that was enough but this, what we're reading here today, what we're seeing here today at the cross is what caused Jesus to turn away or desire to pass on the cross when He prayed in the garden, let this cup pass from me. Jesus didn't want to die. He was willing to die, but in His humanity He did not want to die.

Why? Because of what we're seeing at the cross at this moment. The sheer horror and hell of being separated from God. Cut off from His Father. To cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's the cry of hell. When people abandoned by God in hell cry out, why have you abandoned me?

Why? That's what hell is. It is separation from God forever and ever. This is the cry of hell. Jesus is experiencing hell. He is plunging His soul into hell. He is walking the corridors of the damned.

Why? Think with me. God is holy. The chief attribute, the cornerstone attribute of God is His holiness.

Holy, holy, holy. That means completely unique, distinct and separate from evil, from wrong, from sin. God is holy. And Habakkuk 1.13 says that His eyes are even so pure that He cannot look upon evil.

That He turns His back, turns away from evil. He is so pure, so holy, so righteous. And therefore His wrath burns against sin.

Because God is not only holy, He is just. And God presides over a just system where there are consequences to evil. And we're getting close now to some of the answer about why evil exists and why suffering exists because God looks at a broken world, broken by sin. And because of sin there is suffering and pain and anguish.

So how does God fix it? How does God satisfy His justice and His holiness and at the same time love sinful man? For God so loved the world. He did it by in this act of grace offered in sacrifice.

There's a big word in theology in the Scripture which is propitiation, which means that God's righteousness, God's holiness, God's wrath is satisfied in this sacrifice not of the blood of animals but by the blood of His Son Jesus. And God laid on Jesus our sin. He who knew no sin, 2 Corinthians 5.21.

Look at it. 2 Corinthians 5.21. The one who was without sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus bears our sin. Jesus wears our sin and therefore He absorbs the wrath of God.

He absorbs the judgment of God. All of the sin of the world, past, present and future, yours and mine, was laid upon Jesus in that it pleased God that our transgressions were laid upon Him. And when He carried the cross and when He wore the cross, He was bearing our sin. He is the sin bearer. So every vile and wicked deed that you could possibly imagine, every cesspool of sin, every foul thing, every sinful thing, every murder, every rape, every lust, every perversion, all the anger, all the hate, all the wars, in that finite moment of time, the eternal weight of sin was laid on Jesus.

And He took it all for you and me. This is the meaning of the cross. This is the mystery of His suffering. This is why He cried out, my God, why have You forsaken me? My God, Jesus died alone.

In the chapter after Psalm 22, that Psalm about the cross that we just noted is Psalm 23. Jesus spoke of God being His shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd. He said, when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with Me. But when Jesus walked through the valley of the shadow at the cross, God the Father was not with Him.

He was alone. There was never anyone who suffered like Jesus. Others died on a cross. Others have died, in fact all will die. And then the judgment, the Scripture says. But no one has suffered like Jesus suffered. Not the physical torment, but the spiritual anguish of being separated from God.

I'm so glad I don't have to end this message there. A little later, Jesus would cry out on the cross, Tetelestai, it is finished! The sacrifice is complete. The imps, the demons of hell are shrieking, ah He's finished! But Jesus wasn't finished. The mission was finished. The sacrifice was given.

Tetelestai, it was not the last gasp of a dying man but the shout of a victor. And that's why I speak here at the close, not only was there prophecy fulfilled there at the cross and agony experienced there at the cross, but there is victory at the cross. Because Jesus would later say while committing His Spirit, Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.

The relationship with the Father is now restored. Into Your hands I commit My Spirit. And the sacrifice is accomplished and Jesus is buried and God the Father accepted that sacrifice and Jesus came out of the grave. And Jesus is Lord. Do you see the cross was a battle? It was a spiritual supernatural battle that has been waged from eternity past. The Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. When Satan raised up a rebellion against God in heaven and this cosmic battle, this supernatural unseen world around us is in conflict and at the cross, at the cross when Jesus died, when He suffered and sacrificed His life, this was a battle and the battle is won. He wears the victor's crown. Jesus is Lord and He's coming again.

He's coming again. I love Jesus. I praise Him for what He has done and in these moments that we have together as the cup and the bread is being offered today, symbolic of this sacrifice, His body, His blood, contemplate if you can the immeasurable, imponderable sacrifice of God's love for you. He spared not His Son for you. And if He didn't spare His own Son, will He not freely give you all things? That's Romans 8 32.

Listen to me. He was abandoned so that you could be accepted and sit at His table. He was forsaken so that you could be forgiven. And when man's hate and sin was lifted up, God's love came down and mercy and sorrow met at the cross. And therefore, because He was forsaken, He says to His own, I will never leave or forsake you. So when you have all those why questions and you wonder why you're hurting, why you're suffering, why so much pain, remember the One who suffered for you is with you.

And He said, I will never abandon you. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, Why Have You Forsaken Me? No matter what struggles you're facing today, you have hope in the promises awaiting you in heaven. And God calls you to share that hope with others today. That's why we want to encourage and inspire you today by sending you Pastor Graham's book Heaven. This exciting book takes you straight to Scripture to help you see all that awaits you in the life to come and how it impacts your life today.

You'll find hope for today and courage to share that hope with others. So don't wait to request your copy. Heaven is our special thanks for your gift to help boldly proclaim God's word through PowerPoint. So request your copy when you call today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627.

You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is JackGraham.org Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? Well it's absolutely true that Jesus asked the question, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now some people think that God never wants us to be honest with him and that's absolutely false. Sometimes we experience doubt or pain or uncertainty and fears and if we keep them inside they're all bottled up and no place to go. So what I do when I have fears and frustrations, when I have questions that I can't answer, I take them to the Lord. As I read my Bible, especially the Psalms for example, you see David and the other writers of the Psalm asking important questions about life. That's how you learn.

That's how you grow. God encourages us to humbly and reverently cry out to him when we're under pressure, when we're stressed, when we don't know the way, when we don't know the answers to our questions to the problems of life. There's another thing to remember and that is God knows what you're going through. He knows what you're thinking even if you don't express it.

So you might as well tell him anyway. God understands your difficulties even if you can't say them and we're told in the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit is our prayer partner. When we don't know what to pray, when we don't know what to say, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. And that's right in the middle of the eighth chapter of Romans, one of my favorite chapters in all of the Bible. So don't hide from God, don't hide your thoughts, your emotions from God, it's impossible anyway. Bear your heart with Him, open up to Him and be assured that He can handle any question that you bring.

He can handle any situation that you offer Him because He wants to love you, embrace you and help you through what you're going through in His own perfect timing. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Heaven as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627.

That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. On the next PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how Christ's suffering on the cross can help you faithfully endure your own. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.