"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Review: Matt 27:46 or Mark 15:34 | Psalm 22 | Gal 3 | 2 Cor 5:21 | 1 Pet 3:19 | 2 Thes 1:9 | Matt 22:19
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:04-01:08
Open up your Bibles with me please to Matthew.
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Actually, you have a choice today.
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You can open up to Matthew 27.46 or Mark 15.34.
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Alright? You have a choice today.
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Because it's the same verse in two gospel accounts.
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Matthew 27.46.
01:27-01:29
If you're visiting with us, we're going through a series.
01:30-01:40
The Bible tells us that while Jesus was on the cross, there were seven statements that were made over the course of that six-hour period.
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And we're taking one of these statements every week and digging deep to see why the Holy Spirit has made sure that these words are preserved in God's Word.
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Matthew 27.46 says, "At about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Eloi! Eloi! Lema sebachthanai!'" That is, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" This is it.
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This is the most soul-stirring, heart-wrenching quote from our Lord.
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This is it.
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This Jesus who, while on the cross, prayed for those who were mocking and killing Him; who promised the repentant criminal a place in paradise that very day, who provided for his mom, now himself cries out, feeling abandoned.
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Now, your Bible tells you that Jesus cried out with a loud voice.
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Don't miss that.
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Because this statement wasn't whispered under hushed tones as if almost he was speaking to himself or making a quiet prayer.
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This wasn't, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Literally, according to the Greek, the word is "He screamed." He screamed, "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?" I don't know if you've ever felt forsaken.
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What does that word mean?
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Literally, the word "forsaken" means left helpless.
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You're defenseless and helpless and abandoned.
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That's what the word means.
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I don't know if you've ever felt forsaken, but I do know that no one in this room has ever felt anything like this.
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Can anything compare?
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Can anything compare to this?
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You see, it's my job as a pastor to study this, and then I get up in front of you and And I say, "This is what this passage is like, and there's nothing that compares to this." And I thought, "What about like a parent being separated from a child?" And I thought about, Aaron, do you remember, it was a couple of years ago at Ingimar, Owen took off after service.
04:46-04:50
And many of you probably remember this because there was like a search party of people from our church.
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Our son took off when we were in the school, and he somehow locked himself in a stairwell.
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You remember that?
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I don't know how long it was that we were looking for Owen, but it felt like hours.
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And I just had this horrific, sickening feeling in my stomach, "Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?" And it was horrible.
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The minutes felt like hours.
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Comparing that incident with my son to Jesus on the cross is sort of like comparing a mouthful of water to all of the oceans in the world.
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How do you think the six hours on the cross felt?
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How do you think that felt?
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Jesus had perfect fellowship with the Father from eternity past.
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A relationship, again a relationship that we have nothing to compare to.
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This was a very tough message to put together.
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This is a very tough message for me to say, "That's what this is like." What was the relationship like in the Godhead?
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The Bible says that God the Father is God, and God the Son is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God.
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How do we compare anything on this human experience to the relationship that God has in the Godhead?
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And I thought, "Well, what if I had some illustration of this married couple that's just been married for a long time?" And that doesn't really compare.
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And I thought, "Well, what about somebody who had this lifetime friend, and we went to school together and we always stayed close.
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And this friend of mine, now that doesn't really do it either.
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I thought, well, what about like this single parent that has this child and they have this bond with this child and this child is all this parent has.
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That doesn't compare either.
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And then I thought, what about like people that are twins?
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Maybe you've heard stories about how twins have like some unexplainable, almost psychic connection to each other.
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And I think of these twins that sort of grow up and stay together and always live close together.
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I've got to tell you, I got nothing.
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There is nothing that I could think of to compare to a relationship that is perfect in every way, but was perfect in every way for all of eternity past.
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Nothing compares.
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A perfect loving relationship in the Godhead who exists as three in one, or one as three.
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His nature cannot be fully understood or explained, and His relationship within the Godhead cannot be fully understood or explained.
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But now, this perfect relationship, this perfect fellowship that has always been perfect is broken.
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How can this happen?
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How can God be divided?
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I don't have an answer for that.
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I don't know.
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I do know that Jesus did not cease being God, but somehow, during His suffering on the cross, God the Father had forsaken God the Son for the first time in eternity.
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And interestingly, when you study your Bibles, every time Jesus prays, do you notice this?
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Every time Jesus prays, He refers to the Father, right?
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When He teaches to pray, when He models prayer, it's always the Father, the Father, He's my Father.
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He's like Dad.
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This is the only time that Jesus doesn't call him "Dad." He doesn't call him "Father." Notice this is the only time that Jesus refers to the Almighty as "God." Because he didn't feel the relational connection.
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He didn't say, "Dad, where are you?" Now he's feeling detached.
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He's like, "God, where are you?
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Why have you forsaken me?" Why did he say this?
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Well, this is a direct quote and fulfillment of Psalm 22.
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I just want you to jot that down.
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I want to encourage you tonight, by yourself or if you want to do it as a couple, as a family, however that looks, do it with a friend, whatever.
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I want to encourage you tonight to just read Psalm 22.
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Because this is a messianic psalm that speaks about the events of the cross that we are discussing.
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And it predicted, generations prior to the events that we are talking about here, it predicted exact events that happened while Jesus was crucified.
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For example, Psalm 22.7 talks about Jesus being mocked.
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As specific a detail as people wagging their heads at Him, just like walking by like, "I but who he thought he was, that was predicted perfectly.
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Psalm 22.16 says that they pierced his hands and feet, which is incredible because at the time the psalmist wrote this, crucifixion wasn't invented.
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But it talks about piercing hands and feet?
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It gets so specific, Psalm 22.18 talks about how they gambled for his clothes.
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which is exactly, remember, exactly what they were doing.
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While Jesus was praying that they would be forgiven, they were throwing dice for His shirt.
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So this statement of Jesus, I don't think it's just Jesus saying, "I'm going to quote a Scripture passage now." And I don't think even that this is a theological question.
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I don't think Jesus is crying out, I'm having a hard time understanding this little piece of theology.
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Could you explain it?
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I don't think that's what's going on here at all.
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I think what's happening here is Jesus is expressing the horror of abandonment.
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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Do you know what this tells us?
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You see, this tells us that everything was happening according to God's plan.
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That God was fulfilling His Word down to the letter.
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And that should be a great comfort and encouragement.
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That Jesus isn't just victim of violent circumstance, but in quoting this, We look back and we read this account and we say, "Oh, we see that this is all happening exactly as God predicted back in Psalm 22." So why would Jesus have been forsaken by God?
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Why don't you look back at verse 45.
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It says, "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." Okay, so just to give you some context here, this is important.
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This is gonna be really important here in a second.
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Jesus was crucified at the third hour.
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Now, the Jews started their day at 6 a.m.
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So the third hour would be what?
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Nine, right?
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I honestly didn't know I had to ask because I'm not good at math.
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Okay, so it starts at 6 a.m.
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and the third hour is nine.
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And the ninth hour would be what?
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According to our clock.
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Yeah, right, 3 p.m.
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So verse 45 says the sixth hour, noon, that verse 45 says from noon to 3 p.m., get this, from noon to 3 p.m. there was darkness.
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Do you see that there was darkness over all the land?
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There weren't streetlights and electric lamps outside.
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There was darkness over the entire land.
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In fact, I read this week of at least two Roman historians, secular Roman historians, talk about this darkness.
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Paraphrasing, they're like, "It was just this weird darkness "that came over our area that was inexplicable." Well, of course, some scholars, and I use that word loosely, have come along and said, "Well, this was an eclipse.
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"That's what was happening here.
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"This was an eclipse.
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That's why there was darkness and that was actually impossible.
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I know for a fact that it was not an eclipse.
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You're like, "Well, how do you know that?" Well, here's how I know that.
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Because the month always started with a new moon.
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And Passover was always in the middle of the month.
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So Passover was always during a full moon.
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So it would be impossible for it to actually be an eclipse.
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So I do have an explanation for this darkness.
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The explanation is this, God literally turned off the sun the way you would turn off the lamp on your nightstand.
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Why would God turn off the sun?
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Some people have said that God was protesting, that God was so angry that they were doing this to his son, and it was God's way of saying, "I'm just going to turn the lights out." That's not what's happening.
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Some people have said that it was God's way of hiding the shame.
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Here's his son beaten within an inch of his life and naked and nailed to a cross, and it was God's way of sort of putting a veil over that to cover the shame.
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That's not what's happening either.
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This is what was happening.
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Darkness in the Bible.
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You can trace this Old Testament to New Testament.
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You can trace this, go to Isaiah, go to Joel, go to Amos, go to Zephaniah, go all the way to the end of your Bible in Revelation.
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When God turns out the lights, that always means judgment.
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God turning out the lights is His way of saying, "I am bringing judgment down now." God here in this passage as Jesus was crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" God's commentary by turning the sun off is saying the cross is a judgment on sin.
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What's going on here?
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How is the cross a judgment on sin?
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Get this.
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On the cross.
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On the cross.
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While Jesus was nailed to the cross, while Jesus was on the cross, He literally became sin.
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What do you mean by that?
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Well listen, Galatians 3.13 says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming cursed for us, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree," and that's from Deuteronomy 21.
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So when Jesus was on the cross, he literally became a curse.
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Also 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, "For our sake, he made him to be sin." What made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God?
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So on the cross, Jesus took our sin on Himself and He actually became sin.
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He became the embodiment of sin and God was pouring out His judgment on my sin on Jesus.
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I want you to think of the sin that you've struggled with.
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Maybe there's a sin you're still struggling with right now.
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I want you to think about your sin.
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And I want you to think about your sin in light of this.
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Jesus represented your sin on the cross so that God could judge it.
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On the cross, Jesus became pride.
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Your self-centered, everything has to be my way attitude, that sin, Jesus became that on the cross.
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Your pornography addiction, Jesus became that sin on the cross.
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That greed that you have, that never get enough, I never get enough, I always want more, I'm always looking for new, different, and better.
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That greed, Jesus became greed.
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He became your greed on the cross.
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That lust, that I have a hard time looking at a woman without my mind going places, Jesus became that lust while he was on the cross.
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Your lust, Jesus took it on himself.
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He became that so that God could judge your wickedness by taking it out on Jesus, by pouring it upon Jesus.
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Jesus represented your sin.
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He became your sin so that God could judge your sin.
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By the way, Jesus...
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You know, we talk about Jesus being the only way to heaven.
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Do you know why that is?
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He's the only one that qualifies to be able to do this because He's the only one that's ever walked the earth that was sinless, you see.
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That's why Jesus was qualified.
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He was able to take your sin.
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He was able to become sin because He didn't have sin of His own.
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If Jesus sinned, if Jesus sinned and He was crucified, well, we'd be like, "Well, He just He got what was coming to Him, because He was a wicked man just like me, if He sinned.
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The crucifixion was just Him getting what He should have got, but because He didn't sin.
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Because He is God in the flesh who never sinned, He was uniquely qualified to be able to become sin, to take my sin.
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that God puts our sin on Jesus in a way that Jesus became sin and God was judging Jesus for my sin.
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And that broke the fellowship.
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Because the holiness of God cannot be in the presence of sin.
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Do you understand what's happening here?
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Jesus becomes sin.
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Holy God can't be in the presence of sin.
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Jesus in this state, feeling abandoned by His Father, cries out, "My God!
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My God!
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Why have You forsaken Me?" Right now our minds naturally wonder, "Well, how did that feel?
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How did that feel?
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What was that like?
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How did that feel?" I'm going to tell you authority of God's Word exactly how that felt. You know how that felt? How did that feel? Literally? Like hell. People have asked me, "Did Jesus go to hell when he died?" He didn't. The Bible doesn't say he went to hell. He went to paradise or heaven according to what he said to the criminal who repented, "Today you'll be with me in paradise. And sometime in those three days, he wants to proclaim his victory to the demons in prison. Jot that down, 1 Peter 3.19. This is a whole other sermon, but the Bible says many, many, many places, Luke chapter 8, it's in a Jude, 1 Peter, 2 Peter revelation, that there is a prison for demons, like the worst of the worst. There's says again 1st Peter 3 19 that Jesus went there not to hell he went to this prison to proclaim to these demons I won I won Satan thought I was defeated but I'm here to tell you I won so you need to write this down Jesus didn't descend to hell. On the cross, hell ascended to Jesus. I'm going to say that again, I'm going to explain that. Jesus didn't descend to hell. While he was on the cross, hell ascended to Jesus. What do you mean by that? 2 Thessalonians 1.9, 2 Thessalonians 1.9 says hell is the where one is eternally cast away from the presence of the Lord.
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See there's a lot of terrifying pictures that go with hell where the worm dieth not, right? Described as eternal flame. The pain of hell is the fact that you are cast out of God's presence. That is the pain of hell.
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That God says, "Okay, you'd rather have your sin than have me.
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You don't want anything to do with me.
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It's a grace." God says, "I will put you in a place where you don't have to deal with me for all of eternity.
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Here you go.
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You've chosen this." That's the suffering of hell.
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You're out of God's presence.
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But I want you to also note that hell is described as outer darkness, Matthew 22.13.
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Okay?
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Are you with me?
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Check this, Jesus in darkness, forsaken and alienated from God.
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Though He was not in hell, He was experiencing all of the reality of hell on the cross.
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And that's why I say Jesus didn't descend to hell.
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While Jesus was on the cross, hell ascended to Jesus.
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And in that moment of experiencing the full weight, the full reality, that full experience of everything that hell is, Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The horror of hell is God isn't there.
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The anguish and torment of pain being cast out of God's presence.
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Jesus on the cross was forsaken by God in the darkness, literally experiencing the full measure of God's wrath.
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Literally experiencing the full horror of hell.
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Literally being judged for my sin.
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For your sin.
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He took our sin upon Himself, He became sin, and God treated Him as sin.
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God treated Jesus the way you deserve to be treated.
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And it was the suffering that was due us.
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All the hell that you deserve was put upon Jesus and He took it.
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How do you respond to that?
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What do you say?
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What do you say?
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What do you say about that?
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Do you know how I agonized over that this week?
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Like the theology and the doctrine and what the Bible says, yeah, yeah, that's black and white, I get that.
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How do you respond to that?
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What do you say?
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What do you say, "Thank you"?
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You say "thank you" when somebody gives you a ride to the airport.
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Just saying "thank you" seems a little shallow when somebody says, "I'll go to hell for you.
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I'll experience all of the hell that you deserve.
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I'll experience it.
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I'll take it.
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Even though I've done nothing wrong and you've done everything wrong." Everything seems so shallow.
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Seems to me that the only response is to receive this gift and to live a life marked by love and gratitude for your Savior.
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And you can sit here and listen to this message or you can, maybe somebody's downloading this message online on our podcast. You can hear this message and you can choose to walk away unaffected. But I want you to know something. If you go to hell, it will be in spite of what Jesus did for you. Because there was literally hell to pay.
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"And Jesus, He paid it for you." Evidenced by the most sorrowful statement ever said by our Lord when He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
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Would you bow your heads with Me please?" Maybe there's somebody here today that you're like, "I didn't know this." And maybe you sort of looked at the cross of Jesus Christ as if almost like we're all children, and Jesus took a spanking that we should have taken, and you didn't realize.
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No, what Jesus did was He took the hell.
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The full experience of hell.
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They're not going to hell.
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Jesus took the full experience of hell.
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cast in darkness and forsaken by God. He did that so that you would never have to taste hell. He did that so that you wouldn't have to experience a half a second of hell. He did that for you. And I want to challenge you to wrestle with the thing that I had to wrestle with this week. How do I respond to that? What pay God for it, because the Bible says this was a gift that He gave.
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But to honor my God and my Savior, what I can do is I can humbly receive that gift.
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And I can let my life, the things that I do, the way that I serve Him, I can let that be done in a spirit of gratitude.
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He died for me.
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I'll live for Him.
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Maybe there's somebody here that needs to make that decision today.
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I'm going to lead us in a prayer.
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And I'll be back at guest reception.
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There will be people back in the other corner by the prayer sign that would love to pray with you if you want to talk more about what it means to receive Jesus Christ.
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Because there is hell to pay, and the options are you can pay it someday when you leave this earth, or you can accept the gift, the grace of God that He allowed His Son to be forsaken so that we would never be forsaken.
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Father in heaven, I lift up whoever is hearing this, whether it's somebody in this room now, God, I know there are people that download this off the internet and listen to it, all over the world, God.
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And whoever is hearing this, that maybe hasn't wrestled with the horrible reality that Jesus didn't just get executed.
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There've been how many countless thousands of people were crucified in history.
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This wasn't a normal crucifixion.
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This was a judgment on sin.
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That Jesus wasn't just experiencing blood loss and slow asphyxiation.
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What Jesus was experiencing was the wrath of God because of my own stupid, selfish sinfulness.
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God, Your Spirit has a way.
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Your Spirit is the only one that can turn the lights on, that can make the scales fall off, that can illuminate in the heart.
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Your Spirit is the only one who can do that.
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So Father, we cry out that Your Holy Spirit would not give rest to the person who needs to embrace Jesus Christ.
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I pray that Your Holy Spirit would not let that person sleep for a second until they fall down on their knees and cry out and receive the gift of eternal life that You have provided because You let Your Son pay our penalty.
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For those of us, God, who have received that gift, I pray that this is a reminder to serve You in thanksgiving.
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not out of obligation, not out of we're paying you back, but just out of the sense of, I love this God who created me.
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I love this God who stopped short at nothing to make sure that I could be forgiven.
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Let that transform all of us.
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Thank you for the cross.
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We thank You that Your Word explains to us exactly what that means.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Matthew 27:46
Why did Jesus say this? What does this say about what was happening on the cross
Jesus didn't "descend to hell" - on the cross, hell ascended to Jesus. Explain what this means.
In light of these glorious truths, how does this prove that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.