Last Words

Last Words

Matthew 27:46

Often times we can learn a lot about a person’s life from their last words

We can also delve deep into their inner being and truly see what they are experiencing among their last moments here on earth

Here are a few examples of some famous last words

P.T. Barnum - 1891: “How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?”

Humphrey Bogart - 1942: “I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis”

Writer, Oscar Wilde - 1900: he died saying “Either that wallpaper goes or I do”

Lady Nancy Astor - 1964: “Am I dying, or is it my birthday”

Author, James M Barrie: “I can’t sleep”

General John Sedgwick: killed in battle during the Civil War in 1864 saying “They couldn’t hit an elephant from this dist….”

Robert Erskins Childers - 1922: executed by firing squad said “Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way”

Paul Claudel - 1955: asked “Doctor, do you think it could have been the sausage?”

And we all know what a redneck’s famous last words are

“Hey! Watch this!”

This morning we are going to look at some last words of our Savior as he hung on the cross

Luke 23:46 records Jesus’ last words as “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”

Signifying that He gave Himself for us

No one took His life

He willingly gave it

John 19:30 records them as “It is finished”

He had fulfilled His task

The single Greek word used here which is translated “it is finished” has been found placed on receipts for taxes

Meaning “paid in full”

Jesus came to finish God’s work of salvation

But the last words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 37:46 and also in Mark 15:34 are

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani”

Which means “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

These are the words we will focus on today

PRAY!

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

This very moment is the whole reason Jesus came to earth

This very moment changed all of history

For this was the moment that our Savior took upon Himself all of the sin burden this world has ever faced

This is the moment He was relinquished by the Father

I. Relinquished

To relinquish is to abandon something

To give something up or put something aside

That is what God had to do

Because God can not look upon sin

And Jesus was made sin for us

So He had to be abandoned

But this relinquishment of the Son had a two fold outcome

First this is the moment of atonement

A. Atonement

Atonement means “making amends for an offense, cleansing”

Romans 3:25 “God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement”

As one who would turn aside His wrath, taking away sin

These words reveal the awful price He had to pay to atone for our sin

From noon till 3 pm there was darkness

Luke 23:44-45 says “it was now the sixth hour (noon) and darkness came over the whole land…for the sun stopped shining”

We do not know how this darkness occurred, but it is clear God caused it

We also do not know what happened to our Lord Jesus during those three hours

The darkness was nature’s sympathy with its Creator

Nature itself testified to the gravity of Jesus’ death

Extraordinary light attended His birth

Extraordinary attended His death

The darkness that afternoon was both physical and spiritual

For not only was there darkness of nature, but there was darkness in the soul of our Savior

At last the silence is broken by a cry

MY GOD! MY GOD!

Only once did the Lord Jesus call upon His Father as God

And it was here

He appeals to God as the Creator

And that is the very lowest ground

In the darkness He has not lost the knowledge or fact of His Son-ship to the Father

He has lost the right, for the time being, on account of taking our place

You will notice this is a question

The only question ever uttered to the Father from those lips

And how startling it is to find that to that solitary question there was no reply

This question was a deep expression of the anguish He felt when He took on the sins of the world

Which caused Him to be separated from His Father

This was what Jesus dreaded as He prayed to God in the garden to take the cup from Him

The physical agony was horrible

But even worse was the period of spiritual separation from God

Jesus suffered this double death so that we would never have to experience eternal separation from God

B. Separation - Forsaken

Just listen to the agony in Jesus’ voice as He cried those words