My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? - Life of Christ Par 105

Now this week I looked up the word separation in the dictionary, and it means to lose contact with, to part company, or to disconnect. And there's all kinds of separations, but it's been my experience that most of them are painful and difficult.

It's usually not a good word. Now when I think of separation, the first thing I think of is the kind of separation that I experienced last summer. In the summer, we go out to Hume Lake Christian Camps every year. It's 6,000 feet up in the Sierras in California.

I mean, just unbelievable scenery, just breathtaking. And I go out there every year, and I speak at the camp, my children go to the camp, and I meet a good friend of mine there named Dan McKinnon. Dan used to come to our church when he was here in Washington.

He was a Reagan appointee. Now he's in New York. But he comes out every year, and he drives up from San Diego and brings up two Yamaha Cycles, and we go motocross riding up in the Sierras together. So I speak in the morning, we motocross all afternoon, and then I speak at night. So last year, we were out there riding.

It was the first day, and the first day, you know, I mean, I was having so much fun that I guess I got a little arrogant, overconfident, maybe. You know, a lot of times we get off the road and just go up vegetation. I mean, there's no trail, no nothing.

It's just where you find your own path. But we weren't doing that. We were on logging roads. It was just a big old wide dirt road, simple riding, easy stuff. And I just opened it up a little bit too much and got a little bit too careless, you know, and so we went around this big curve. He went first.

Everything seemed to be fine. So I was going around the curve, and when I went into the curve, as soon as I went into it and we turned, I said, uh-uh, I'm not going to make this. And there was silt, all this silt and dust all over the road, and I knew I'm not going to make this turn. And so when I touched the brake, the bike just went doosh and just flew right out from under me because when you're on silt like that, the bike won't bite.

It just went. And so I went straight over the handlebars in the air. I don't know how fast I was going.

They don't put spinometers on these things. And I'm in midair going over the handlebars, heading for the ground, and I got kind of visions of a Christopher Reeve type of deal here, you know. And so I was able, I yanked my head to the side like this and wham, hit right on my shoulder. And as soon as I hit, I heard something go actually kind of went like that. And oh, man, I knew I was hurt. So he came riding back down to get me, you know, and he thought this was so funny, you know, ah, pastor bites dust, ah. And I'm laying down and I'm going, Dan, listen, I think I'm really hurt, man. He's like, oh, you big old baby, get up off the ground, you big old baby.

You've been living in Washington too long. You're too soft. You know, I don't want to, you know, get up. And so I got, I said, Dan, no, really, man, I'm really hurt. My shoulder is really, really hurt.

No. So get on that bike. You know, I brought his bike all the way from San Diego. So I got back on the bike and we rode for another couple of hours. And every time I hit this bump, any bump, it was like, oh. So when we finally got down the mountain, there was a doctor there at the camp.

The camp always has a doctor. Just so happened the doctor for that week was also an orthopedics guy. So I went over to the infirmary. I said, Dan, I got to go to the infirmary. I'm really hurt, I think.

And I went over there and they got my shirt off. He said, you separated your shoulder. I said, what? He said, you separate your shoulder. I said, well, don't you need an X-ray or something to know that? And he goes, no, I've been doing this for 25 years. He said, does this hurt?

He touches it. I was like, ah, you separated your shoulder. I said, oh, he said, and you've been riding two hours with your shoulder like this? And I said, yeah. And he goes, you're really a man.

And I said, you're right. I am. I'm telling you, I have never experienced such pain in my whole life. Now, I've never given birth to a baby, obviously, but I can't imagine anything being a whole lot worse than this. I couldn't even lift my shoulder. I had to have somebody in my coming in the room.

I was in so much pain. Had to have somebody from one of the other rooms come in and get my shirt off because I could not get my arm up. In fact, I had to walk around the camp the whole time holding it like this. Now, they wanted to put it in a sling. But being a man, I said, no, I'll just carry my arm. It's cooler to carry your arm. So I'm carrying my arm around camp. I was in so much pain, this is true, that every day at lunch, I would take eight Advils just so I could go out and ride in the afternoon with Dan.

True. We rode every afternoon and I had so much Advil in me. Friends, I could have hit the Queen Mary and would never have known the difference. Man, did that hurt. You know, there's all kinds of separations.

That's one of them. And that was not fun. But the kind of separation I want to talk to you about today is a different kind of separation. It's possibly the most significant separation that's ever occurred in the history of the universe. It's a separation that occurred between God the Father and God the Son as he hung on the cross. Remember now we're doing a series looking at the last seven things Jesus said while he was hanging on the cross. And we're up to saying number four. And in saying number four, Jesus tells us about this spiritual separation that happened between him and God the Father.

So I want us to look at it together. Look at verse 45. And from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came all over the land. You may not know what the sixth hour and the ninth hour is, but the sixth hour is noon. The ninth hour would have been three o'clock in the afternoon.

Now, what do we know about this? Well, we know from noon to three o'clock is when the sun is the brightest all day long. And yet the Bible says that it was at this very period that darkness, intense darkness, covered the whole land. If you read Bible commentators, they'll tell you, many of them, that this was just a solar eclipse that happened to happen at the right minute. And all the people standing around went, ooh, and read all kinds of spiritual meaning into a plain old solar eclipse. Folks, this was not a solar eclipse.

A solar eclipse could not possibly have happened on this day. You say, oh, you'd be smart. Well, how do you know?

Well, I'll tell you how I know. Because Jesus was crucified at Passover. And Passover is always in the middle of the month.

It's always on the 14th day of Nissan. Now, the Jewish people run on a lunar calendar, meaning that every single month begins with a new moon. And so when you're halfway through the month, you're always at what kind of moon? A full moon. And a full moon is always on which side of the earth from the sun? The other side.

Did y'all go to high school? OK. Do you know this? All right. It's the sun, the earth and the moon when you got a full moon, because the moon's reflecting back all the light of the sun. Therefore, if we have a full moon because it's Passover, because it's the middle of the month, it is absolutely impossible that this could have been a solar eclipse. The moon is not anywhere near in the right position to have a solar eclipse.

This was not a solar eclipse. This was a divine act of Almighty God in bringing darkness all over the land, not just in Jerusalem, not just there at the cross. But it says it fell over all the land.

And who knows how far it extended beyond Palestine? There are people all over who will say things like, well, you know, the Bible is just a bunch of legends, just a bunch of fairy tales, none of them in the things really true. But it's interesting how much that as we dig things out of the ground in archaeology and as we study more history, it's interesting how much of the Bible actually is confirmed by history and archaeology.

And, you know, we have something from outside of the Bible that might very possibly speak to this event of the earth getting dark. A few years ago, there were some writings discovered in Egypt by a Roman writer named Dionysius. He lived at the time of Jesus Christ and he was a writer. And here's what he wrote. And I quote now he wrote in Latin. You don't want it in Latin.

This is a translation. He wrote, either the God of nature is suffering or the machine of the world is tumbling into ruin. What was he talking about? He was talking about the fact and he writes this down that in his time on a given day, for no apparent reason, all of a sudden, in the middle of the day, all of Egypt went dark. That's pretty interesting, huh?

No clouds in the sky, no nothing, just went dark for a couple of hours. Remember, he lives at the time of Jesus Christ now and he has no clue why. And he writes, either the God of nature is suffering or the machine of the world is tumbling into ruin. Very interesting. You say, is this the very thing that was going on when Jesus is this to say?

I don't know. But hey, that's pretty interesting. I mean, the world doesn't turn dark in the middle of the day very often. And this guy lives at the time of Jesus Christ and says it happened in Egypt. And I think that's pretty interesting.

Well, let's go on. During those three hours of darkness, Jesus Christ didn't utter a single word. He just hung there in silence. And then when the darkness was over, look what he said. Verse 46. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice and said, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which means in Aramaic, my God, my God, why literally did you forsake me? Now, what's going on with this darkness? I mean, what's the deal? What's happening?

Why did Jesus say, why did you forsake me? Well, let me see if I can answer the question, because this is really important. I got something here I want to show you. This is my Walkman. Actually, it's my son's Walkman. I don't own a Walkman, but that's OK. I'm going to put it on and I'm going to turn it on. Know what station I got it on? WMZQ. You like country music?

All right, good for you. Scott Carpenter's on and I'm listening to him live at Andrews Air Force Base. That's what he just told me. And he's going to play Garth Brooks in just a minute. Maybe I'll listen to Garth instead of going on with the sermon.

What do you think? No, I won't. But how come I can hear Garth Brooks in just a second? You say, I don't hear that. I'm sitting in the same room you are and I don't hear that.

Well, of course you don't. You don't have the receiver. But if you had the receiver, like I've got, you could hear Garth. You could hear soft rock. You could hear classical music. You can hear almost anything you want.

You could probably hear shortwave radio from Finland or something if you had the receiver that you need. Right? All that stuff's right here in the room. You and I don't pick it up because God didn't build a Walkman right in next to our liver.

If he'd have built one right in next to our liver, it'd be amazing what you'd pick up in this room. Now, listen, I meet people all the time who say to me, God's not around. God's far away. God's distant.

God's remote. God's not anywhere to be found. Well, that's not true.

That's not true. God's transmitting all the time, folks. The problem is not that God isn't transmitting. The problem is that you and I have a problem with our receivers. See, if God's transmitting and the receiver that we have is broken, we're not going to pick it up. And that's the problem.

You and I came into the world with broken receivers. You say, how did that happen? Well, the Bible says that Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden disobeyed God. Say, wait a minute. You don't believe that nonsense, do you?

Yeah, I do. And if you don't believe it, you ought to go get my tapes on Genesis chapters one, two and three and listen to them. And maybe by the end, I can convince you they were real people.

But I believe they were there. And God said to them, now, you see that tree in the middle of the garden? Don't eat of that because the day in which you eat of it, you will certainly die.

So we all know the story. They ate. You say, but Lon, we got a real contradiction here. They didn't die. As a matter of fact, the Bible says Adam lived to be nine hundred and thirty years old.

May I die that kind of death? Well, it's true they didn't die physically right that moment, but they did die spiritually right that moment. And the reason I know that is because of what happened next. It says in Genesis chapter three that next God came looking for them in the garden. Now, before this, they had walked with God, talked with God. They were intimate with God. They had relationship with God. But this time when God came looking for them after they had disobeyed him, the Bible says they ran away and they hid. And they were afraid of God. Well, they had never run away from God before. They had never hidden from God before. They had never been afraid of God before.

What happened? What happened is exactly what God told them was going to happen. They died spiritually right then. There was a breach in their relationship with God, a separation between them and God that had not existed before.

And suddenly their receivers were not picking up and they were scared of God and afraid of God. And the Bible says that every single one of us who are descended from them, that they were the progenitors, the originators of the human race, every one of us who are descendants of them. And, folks, that's every one of us here, that we come into the world with that same situation, with spiritual death, with our receivers turned off to God. Ephesians 2, verse 1 says that we were born dead in our trespasses and our sins. We weren't born physically dead.

That doesn't make any sense. But we were born spiritually dead. And that's why even though God is transmitting, you and I aren't picking up before we know Christ. We're just not picking up.

The receivers aren't there. We don't have the spiritual walkman we need to pick up the signal. Now the reason Jesus Christ came was to fix that problem. The problem of us being separated from God.

And how did he fix it? Well, in the Old Testament, the Bible tells us all about the sacrificial system of the Jewish people in the Old Testament. And you know what the whole sacrificial system of Israel was meant to teach the Jewish people and the world? It was meant to teach them this, that God would allow our sin to be transferred to an innocent substitute. God would allow our sin to be transferred onto an innocent substitute and then he would allow that substitute to die and pay for our sin. That's what you did when you brought a lamb or a goat. That's what they did on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

They would grab a goat and confess over him the sins of Israel and send him into the wilderness. And he took those sins symbolically away. God was trying to teach a lesson to us that he would allow this and he would accept this. But you know what? The Bible says that the blood of bulls and goats and lambs can never permanently take away sin.

That was just a temporary fix. That ultimately it had to be a human being onto whom all the sin of the world would be transferred, an innocent substitute who would pay for the sin of the world. This is why Jesus Christ came. This is why John the Baptist called him the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Listen to some of these scriptures. Isaiah 53. All of us like sheep have gone astray.

Each one of us has turned to his own way. Listen now, listen to the transfer. And the Lord has laid on him, Jesus Christ, the iniquity of us all.

You hear the transfer? Listen to this verse. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. That God made him who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, to become sin for us. He took our sin.

Here's another one. Galatians chapter 3 verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. See, the reason the law was a curse is because the law said, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, and you can earn your way to heaven. The problem is being sinful people, we can't do this, we can't do that, we can't do this, we can't do that, and we can't get to heaven. The Bible says, okay, I'll take the curse of the law and I'll lay it on him and make him a curse for you.

1 Peter chapter 2. He himself, listen to the transfer, bore our sins in his body on the cross. You hear the transfer? You say, but Lon, how did this happen? What were the mechanics? How did it work?

How do I know? I don't have a clue. I mean, we're talking about the greatest divine mystery that ever happened. How did the sin of the world get laid on Jesus Christ judicially?

How did it work? I don't have a clue. But I'll tell you, when it happened, it happened between 12 noon and 3 p.m. as he hung on the cross. And the reason the world got dark is because it was during that time that God the Father, whom the Old Testament says is so holy that he can have no liaison with sin whatsoever. It was during that time when his son became sin for us that there was a separation, there was a breach, there was a breaking in that relationship, and the darkness that covered the world was just a symbol of what was happening between God the Father and God the Son for those three hours while the sin of the world was being laid on Jesus Christ. And when it was over, when sin was paid for, when eternal life was secured for people like you and me, then the sunlight returned and then God's presence returned to Jesus Christ. And the first thing Jesus said after those three hours of hanging there is, God, why did you separate from me? I knew it was coming when I came into the world. I knew this is what I had to do, but I never dreamed it was going to be this bad.

Why did you forsake me? Folks, this is the climax of the ministry of Jesus Christ. This is the mission accomplished here. And what's interesting is he said three more things on the cross and he said them all in quick succession. Bam, bam, bam, and died.

He was dead within several minutes of 3 p.m. Why? Because as he said, last thing he ever said from the cross, it is finished. I'm done. Those three hours is everything I came to do. And now I'm done. Time to go. And in a matter of minutes, he was gone. Now, we'll cover those last three things in the next few weeks. But they all happened.

Pow, pow, pow. And he was gone. You know, just about everybody who has ever heard of Jesus Christ knows he died on the cross. I mean, I was born and raised Jewish. I'd never been to church my whole life, never read the New Testament my whole life, never listened to Billy Graham on television or had even the slightest desire to. And yet I even knew Jesus Christ died on the cross. But you know what? I didn't have the foggiest.

Why? And I think there are people all over America today who know Jesus died on the cross, but they don't have a clue why. If somebody had come up to me and said, look, Lon, in my pocket right here, I have a certified check for $10,000 and I will write your name on it and give it to you. If you can tell me why Jesus Christ died on the cross before the age of 21, I couldn't have told you. Now, in light of my background, you know, I would have gone and found out real quick if they'd have let me. But I didn't know. I had no clue.

People all over the world like that. But if you've been here today and you've listened to me today, I hope you understand why. Why did Jesus do it? Because the cross is where all the sin of the world was laid upon him. The cross is where Jesus Christ became sin for us. I don't understand how it happened, but God says it did. The cross is where Jesus Christ, in order to pay for our sins, was willing to be separated from God for a little while so that you and I would not have to be separated from God for all eternity.

Unbelievable what happened. And if you're here this morning and you've never trusted and embraced Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then I'd like to suggest to you this needs to be personalized. It's not enough to say, I believe Jesus died on the cross for the sin of the world. We've got to get it to the point where it's so personal we can say, I believe Jesus died on the cross for me. It was my sin that was nailed up there with him, my sin that he bore.

He became a curse for me. And until it becomes that personal, you haven't embraced Jesus Christ the way God wants you to. I hope you'll think about that. Now that's the end of our passage, but it leaves us with a really important question. You know the question, what is it? So what? Right. Lon, what differences does it make to me?

So what? As a Christian, I wonder if what Jesus said on the cross has ever been how you felt. My God, my God, why did you forsake me when I needed you, when I wanted you, when I was hurting, when I needed help? Where were you and where are you when I need you? How could this happen?

Why would you let this happen? You ever been there? Man, I have. In fact, I've been there a lot in the last three or four years. As many of you know, my little girl struggles with seizures and we still don't have them under control. She's four years old now.

And where our main treatment center is up at Johns Hopkins Hospital and pediatric neurology center. And so we were up there. This happened a couple of years ago. And we were sitting in the waiting room and we were waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. This lady is sitting there and she has a little baby and we get to talk with her. Find out she's a Christian.

Oh, this is cool. So we start, you know, kind of doing the little Christian talk deal. And and so she's telling us about her baby. And she said, you know, my baby had seizures when I was first born. And now we prayed for my baby. And, you know, and now all of a sudden the seizures are all gone away. We're here at Hopkins and Hopkins says they can't explain it.

They don't understand it, but it's happened. And we're so excited with God is done. You know, we're listening and Brendan are listening. And, you know, Joe's there with us, you know, and and we're just we're trying to be excited for this lady. You know, we're trying to rejoice with this lady. And she's just on cloud nine.

Finally, they called her to go back in and she went down the hall and disappeared. And there we're sitting. I want to tell you something. I was not feeling real great right about that moment. Now, I know the Bible says rejoice with those that rejoice and I was trying.

I was trying. But I'm sitting there feeling cheated and I was sitting there feeling forsaken. And I was sitting there feeling horribly alone and I was angry. Because I'll tell you what I was feeling. I was saying, all right, God, why would you do that for her and not do that for us? I don't understand this. If you can do it for that baby, why can't you do it for this baby?

And why does she get it and not us? I was pretty upset. I mean, on the outside, I wasn't throwing stuff or nothing.

I was pasting it on on the outside. The man on the inside, I was hurt. And I'll tell you, Jesus' comment, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I know I don't mean it on the level where he's meant it because, you know, that's a whole different level. But, man, I felt it. And you know what?

You don't need to be a big person with big people's problems to feel it. I had this mom who told me she had a teenage son. He pitches for one of the high school teams around here and she was telling me about him. And he went out and he threw this ball game, you know, pitching. And he got rocked. I mean, just shelled horribly.

I forget how many runs, like 10 runs or something. And he comes home and he says to her mom, he said, I get up early in the morning. I go have Bible study with the youth pastor from McLean Bible Church at 5.30 in the morning. I'm serving God, loving God. The other pitcher throws a one hitter. He's bragging about how drunk he is the night before and how hungover he is. And this isn't right.

I should throw the one hitter and the drunk ought to throw the 10 hitter. So, mom, how do you explain this? I didn't tell God when I needed him.

I'm getting up doing it right. And look what happens to me. You can be a teenager and feel, my God, why have you forsaken me? Well, what's the answer to the question?

It's a good question. If you've ever felt that way, how do you answer it? Well, I want to show you one other passage of scripture real quick. It's in Hebrews chapter 13.

Hebrews chapter 13, many of you know it by heart, verse five, and here's what it says. God has said, never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.

God has promised. Never will I leave you. And I'll never leave you alone.

I'll never desert you. Now, folks, I have to tell you, when you look at me up here early this afternoon, you're looking at a very confused man. I'm confused because I don't understand why God's doing what he's doing in my family. I don't understand why God hasn't dealt differently with my little girl. I'm a very confused man.

And sometimes I'm an angry man. But I've got a decision to make, just like you do when I feel like this, and my decision is very simple. Either I'm going to believe what God tells me or I'm not.

And when you strip it all away, either I'm going to trust God or I'm not. Either I'm going to believe that God has a bigger plan than I can understand, and I can accept that, and that he's working out a plan for good that I can't grasp, or else I'm just going to chuck this whole thing called Christianity and go do something else. But that's the decision I have to make.

That's the same decision you have to make. When you don't understand and when things don't go the way you want and when things, even the way they go, you don't like them, that's the same decision as a Christian you have to make. That's why the Bible says we don't walk by sight. We don't walk by always getting what we want. We don't walk by always understanding. We walk by faith. We walk by believing God. We walk by trusting his promises. We walk by holding on to his hand and saying, God, I don't have a clue what's happening, but I'm just going to try to hold on. Now, some of you have been there.

You know what I'm talking about. But when Jesus came back after three hours, the first words out of his mouth were not, how could you do this to me? It was my God. He hung on.

And you know what? Even though it's been very difficult, God has given us the grace. Once we made the decision that we were going to trust God as hard as it was, God has given us the grace to hang on. Hasn't been easy. It's been very difficult.

But we're still standing by the grace of God. And you know, that's exactly what God wants you to do. If you're struggling, saying, God, why did you do this to me? How could this happen?

It's not fair. I don't understand. Why did you forsake me? Where are you when I need you?

How could you let this occur? God has a simple message. And his simple message is, hey, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I got a bigger plan than you can understand. You just got to trust me. Now, will you do it? And I'll help you, but you got to make a decision.

Will you do it? And I hope if you're a Christian, you will. You know one other thing I really like about God is that God's big enough and powerful enough and he loves me enough that he can absorb all the anger that I can throw at him.

And it won't affect our relationship at all. Because I've thrown some anger at him. And I met a lady in the foyer after the second service and she said, man, she said, I'm sure glad you talked about that. She said, you know who I remind myself of?

I said, no, who? She said, did you see Forrest Gump? Do you remember when Lieutenant Dan was out there in that storm and he was just lashing out at God and just screaming at God in anger?

She said, that's who I remind myself of. And he said, it's amazing that I can do that and God still loves me. But he does. That's a huge thing that God can absorb all that anger and still love us back.

But he can. If you're angry today, my suggestion is take it to God. He can handle it. If you're confused today, my suggestion is take it to God. Let him comfort you. Walk by faith. He'll see you through. And I'm so glad that Jesus was willing to be forsaken for a little bit by God so that you and I could have a relationship through Jesus Christ with God where we never will be.

I think that's pretty sweet. Let's pray together. If you've been really struggling with anger and confusion, pain, why God's doing what he's doing and you're a Christian and you love him and you're trying to walk with him and all this bad stuff's happening, I want you to take a moment this morning to tell him about it and dump that anger and make a commitment to him.

Make a decision that with his help you're going to walk by faith. And if you're here and you've never trusted Christ as your personal savior, this would be a good moment to do it. Lord Jesus, thank you that, as we've said, you were willing to be separated from God the Father for a short time so that we through you could have a relationship with God where we'll never be separated from him. We love you for doing that for us.

We can't even begin to imagine what those three hours were like on the cross. And we thank you that you loved us enough to do that for us. And now for those of us who are Christians who are trying to walk with you through a big scary world where lots of stuff happens that we don't understand and we don't like, I pray you would remind us what you've said, that we walk by faith. We don't walk by understanding everything. We walk by trusting God. And you've promised you will never leave us, you will never forsake us. And I pray you'd help us to believe that and know it's true.

Thank you, you know the way through the wilderness. What we have to do is follow. Help us do that, God. Give us your strength. Forgive us for our anger. But Lord, I'm so grateful that you can absorb it all and it doesn't affect one bit how you love us. Thank you for being that kind of God for us. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.