My God Why Have You Forsaken Me? Series

MYY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FOSAKEN ME?

TEXT- MATTHEW 27:45-50

INTRODUCTION

I’m sure all of you remember the singing group, “Three Dog Night.” One is the loneliest number that you ever do

Two can be as bad as one

It’s the loneliest number since the number one

No, is the saddest experience you’ll ever know

Yes, it’s the saddest experience you’ll ever know

‘ cause one is the loneliest number you’ll ever do

One is the loneliest number, worse than two”

Do you know how the Psychologist define LONELINESS? Loneliness is a feeling of emptiness or hollowness inside you. You feel isolated or separated from the world, cut off from those you would like to have contact with.

I tried to think of the most current feeling of loneliness that a person might feel in the here and now.

He graduated from high school and he signed up to be a Marine. He went through a tough boot camp, and then he became a member of the Proud and the free. He was sent to Iraq and fought his way all the way to Baghdad. He was given leave and he went home to see his family and friends. They had a wonderful time, but he was re-assigned back to Iraq. He hated to go back but that was his duty and he was proud to do it.

He was sent to Fullugah to liberate that city. He met roll call that morning and like normal he received no mail from home. He felt dejected. I guess a way to say it was that he felt forsaken by his family and friends.

The mission sent his company into the heart of the city and the fighting was heavy. He was pinned down by sniper fire and he found cover between two brick walls. He would have to wait until they received reinforcements to get him out. There he was with bullets whizzing around his head not knowing if the next one would kill him. He might be there for hours if he made it alive that long. He felt isolated-forsaken.

Have you ever felt forsaken? Well, the case of this soldier is pretty bad, but the worst case of loneliness. The worst happened one day many years ago. Take your Bibles and read with me from Matthew 27:45-50

45- “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.

46- “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “ My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”

47- And some of those that were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.”

48- “Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave him a drink.

49- “But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.”

50- “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

SERMON

Now, for the last several weeks we have been studying the last seven statements that Jesus made on the cross. I guess to a casual reader of the Bible who reads about the crucifixion of Christ might get the idea that the events on GOLGOTHA lasted only an hour or so-perhaps less. But a closer examination of the Gospel writers’ accounts reveals that Jesus’ death took no less than six hours.

It began at nine o’clock in the morning on Friday when His hands and feet were nailed to the wooden beams. And then sometimes during the next three hours-between 9am until noon-He uttered His first three statements. I hope you remember from our previous sermon what they were.

“ Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

“ Today you will be with me in Paradise”

“ Woman behold your son” and to John, “ behold your mother.”

Well, not long after that third statement-at about noon-our text says that, “ darkness fell over the whole land,” and as it did an eerie silence surrounded the PLACE OF THE SKULL. Now, we need to understand that when John described this event he did not mean the sky was a little overcast, or that there was some kind of natural eclipse of the sun.

No, this was not some natural event that brought darkness to the earth that day. The sun was covered by a supernatural act of God, and this just didn’t affect Golgotha –the Bible says that DARKNESS fell over the whole land. You might say that MIDNIGHT came at MIDDAY. It was a deep darkness-darker than the darkest night. I personally believe this darkness was so dark that maybe you could not even see the hand in front of your face. I don’t believe that the stars or the moon were visible. It may have been like the light of the world had gone out. Maybe it was like in the beginning as described in Genesis when it said,