I’m Forgiven Because You Were Forsaken…
Matthew 27:45-56
November 1, 2009
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT IS FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me: I have to honest and tell you that the word “sacrifice” doesn’t describe my life a whole lot.
I gave up a career path I was happy with, and I’ve given up some things to be a pastor, but by and large, my life is very good.
I’ve got a wife I love dearly, and five awesome kiddos, and a job I really enjoy.
Last night I sacrificed a couple hours finishing this message so I could take my youngest girls around the neighborhood.
But seeing their smiles and having them race back from a house to hold hands with me made it worth it.
We: I think most of us, if we really think about it, don’t see ourselves sacrificing a lot, whether it’s for family, friends, or even strangers.
All of us can think of things we’ve given up at one time.
But compared to say, missionaries who sacrifice the comforts of home for the sake of Jesus, or those who have given their lives for our freedoms in this country, most of us haven’t sacrificed much, have we?
God: The Father in Heaven made the supreme sacrifice.
He sacrificed His Son so you and I could live forever and be free from the penalty of our sins.
Last week we saw how Jesus was mocked and scorned, and how even as He hung on the cross, the people heaped insults on Him.
And how did He respond? With forgiveness.
Today we continue to look at His crucifixion.
Matthew 27:45-46 (pp. 705-706) –
45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour (from noon till 3:00 PM) darkness came over all the land.
This was a sign of judgment and/or tragedy, and wasn’t simply a solar eclipse. Eclipses don’t last three hours.
This was an act of God to lend another sign to what was happening here.
46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He’s calling Elijah."
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him."
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52
Then Matthew tells us something that the other gospels don’t:
The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
Man, can you imagine the talk around the town when that happened?
We don’t know the details – like what these holy people did and said in the city, or what happened later.
But Matthew tells us it happened. That must have been something to behold.
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!"
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
This is a tough message for me, because while there are some specific teaching things I want you to get, I’m really hoping that you catch the heart of what I believe God wants you to get to today.
And to honest with you, I’m not sure I’m able to really communicate what that is.
So I’m going to do my best and ask God to fill in the gaps.
So here we find Jesus accomplishing the task He was sent for. To become the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The physical agony of the cross was horrific. I could read you some materials that describe the horrible torturing death brought by crucifixion.
Those who survived the scourging beforehand often took days to die hanging there.
But I won’t get into it, because as horrible and horrific as the physical aspects of Jesus’ death were, there were other aspects that were even more important.
I don’t say that lightly, believe me. But I’m speaking now about what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
And the word I want to use for that is:
REDEMPTION
In this case it means to pay the debt that we owe the Father for our sins.
Our sins bring a debt that we cannot pay on our own, outside of eternal punishment.
That’s what we deserve for our sins.
But Jesus took that debt onto Himself so that you wouldn’t have to pay it.
I’m not going to be able to explain everything that means during our time today, but there are a couple things I want to emphasize about what Jesus did as He hung on that bloody cross.
And I hope that as we go through these things that you’ll gain a stronger grasp on just what it was Jesus did for you.
First…
> Jesus became sin on our behalf.
Most, if not all of us here grew up hearing that Jesus died for our sins and that He bore them on the cross.
It means that He carried them on His shoulders, if you will. He took the weight of all our sins.
Notice I say, “our sins;” not just “sins” or “the sins of the world.”
I want you to walk out of here today convinced that Jesus didn’t just die so we could talk about some theological ideal about forgiveness and heaven.
Discussing the crucifixion of Jesus isn’t just some religious exercise to give us something philosophical to talk about over coffee at the Red Rooster.
The fact of the matter is that He died for you. He died for every individual in this room.
He died for the world – He died for those people out there, too.
But until you truly grasp the fact that He died for you, you’ll never really appreciate the good news of Jesus for the world.
Jesus bore your sins on the cross. He bore my sins on the cross.
But the Bible says that He actually became sin on our behalf.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (p. 819 – keep your finger here because we’re going to come back to that in a few minutes) –
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It’s a bit of a mystery how the one person who never committed a sin, the one person who lived a completely holy and sinless life could become the sin that you and I commit.
I can’t wrap my brain around that totally, but the Bible says it’s true.
Think of the worst sin you remember committing. He became that on the cross. For you.
He not only bore our sins, becoming sin on our behalf, but he was punished for our sins.
All of God’s wrath against sin was poured out on Jesus as He hung on the cross.
There have been times in Scripture where God showed His anger by bringing disaster, or by bringing judgment to someone for something they did.
But Jesus took all of the judgment for all our sins and the sins of those who have come before us and will come after us, and He took it all during one six-hour span.
Amazing, isn’t it?
The second thing I want to emphasize today is that…
> Jesus was abandoned because of our sin.
This was what was behind Jesus’ cry:
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
The Father literally had to abandon the Son as He hung on the cross.
In a very real sense, the Father turned His back on the Son He loved so much.
For the punishment of our sins to be complete, the Son had to face and endure the rejection that we deserve for our sins.
Jesus earlier had said that He and the Father were one. The sense of abandonment He went through must have been immeasurable.
Can any of you who are parents imagine abandoning your child to be beaten, mocked, scorned, and killed by your enemies – because their crimes needed to be punished?
But that’s what the Father did. For you.
Sin deserves punishment and rejection. Jesus took all of that on Himself.
You and I will never be able to comprehend the heartache and anger and love that moved Jesus to go through with this on our behalf.
And His reasoning was because He loves the person you see when you look in the mirror.
You: Folks, there is absolutely no way to stress this enough.
Jesus paid for your sins so you wouldn’t have to. He took the wrath that you deserve so you could know forgiveness and entrance into the Kingdom of God.
I can think of three responses that are appropriate in light of what we’ve looked at today:
1. Grateful reception of what His death bought you: forgiveness of sins, eternal life in heaven, His presence for the here and now.
Have you really put your faith in Jesus and what He did for you on the cross?
Can you say that your trust is in Jesus alone to cleanse you of your sin and give you heaven?
You can’t trust your baptism, your church membership, your charity, your good deeds, or your grandma’s religion to do this for you.
Only Jesus and what He did for you.
In a couple minutes I’m going to give you an opportunity to tell Christ that you’re putting your faith in Him and His work on the cross if you haven’t done that before.
But the first response is that if you haven’t done it before, to receive what He bought for you.
Let’s go back to 2 Corinthians 5 for a minute, because that forms the basis of these last two responses to Christ and what He did for us:
2. Grateful submission to the Savior who paid such a great price for you.
Verse 15 –
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
If you call yourself a Christian, then you are no longer your own. You belong to Jesus. He owns you, and He has the right to be the master and boss of your life.
So many people think that’s a negative. I don’t. Why?
Because He not only owns you if you’re a believer, the Bible says He created you.
He knows you inside and out, and He knows what’s best for you.
He loves you beyond measure and wants only the best for you.
Therefore all He requires of you will be for your benefit, so that you can take part in the full and abundant life He says that He wants for you.
It’s not a negative to let Jesus run the show. It’s freedom to be all that God created you to be in Him.
And here’s the third appropriate response to what Jesus has done for you:
3. Grateful acceptance of the mission He has given us.
Verses 18-19 –
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Folks, here’s where I’m gonna get in your face a little bit.
This won’t be new for you if you’ve been here any length of time, but hear me out:
God has given us a job. He has given us an assignment to be His ambassadors to a lost and dying world.
He reconciled us to Himself through Jesus. He wants others to be reconciled as well.
It’s our job to bring the message of reconciliation.
But the sad fact of the matter is that maybe 5% of Christians will lead another person to Christ.
That’s not just sad, that’s pathetic.
Now I know that not everybody is an evangelist. Not everyone is supposed to be.
But everyone is supposed to be ready to tell others how to find salvation in Christ.
That’s what the Scripture says, and I can’t stomach the idea of pussy-footing around that in order to not offend you.
You know what I think a lot of people’s favorite verse is?
“For God so loved me that He gave His one and only Son…”
So many think that if someone wants Jesus they can come looking for Him by coming to church or watching Billy Graham re-runs.
Well let me tell you a couple things:
One, Billy Graham re-runs are harder to come by as he nears the end of his life, and there are tons of churches right here in our area that don’t tell people of their need for Jesus the way the Scriptures describe.
And two, the Bible says that people don’t look for God on their own.
The Bible says it’s our job to take Jesus to them, asking the Holy Spirit to open their hearts to Him.
To keep the gospel to ourselves is sin, people!
How dare we keep it from those who face eternity in hell paying for their sins when we can tell them that there is an escape for that paid for by God Himself?
Folks, if your heart doesn’t break about that, then something’s wrong!
And I pray that you will not be able sleep tonight until you have done some business with God to help soften your heart to those outside of Christ.
And I pray that you will learn how to tell someone about Jesus, even if it’s something like, “read this little pamphlet from Billy Graham,” or “come to church this Sunday and meet some of the great people here,” and maybe they would be able to tell them about Jesus.
But folks, do something to help them find Jesus. Jesus loves them just as much as He loves you.
And He died for them just like He died for you.
Invitation
We’re going to finish in a minute by singing Amazing Love.
It’s a great song of recognizing what Christ has done for us, and of commitment to let Jesus be the King of our lives.
I hope you can sing it from your heart.
But before we sing that, I want to give an opportunity for any here who may have not yet put their faith in Jesus for forgiveness of sins and a home in heaven.
