Hope Church LV Sermons
The Lord's Supper :: Why Have You Forsaken Me?
In the closing pages of the gospel of Matthew, we find it recorded for us there on the eve of the crucifixion of Jesus. There was a gathering that took place of Jesus and His disciples. It was in a little upper room. In that small, very intimate, very casual gathering, in the middle of enjoying a meal, Jesus introduces a unique practice to them. It was something that as soon as He began this particular practice, you can tell as you read it that it just kind of silenced the room. They were enjoying a meal, and when you think about enjoying a meal, don't think about it like we do today. We sit in the formal kind of table with the chairs around the table kind of deal. This would have been in an upper room environment, a lot more relaxed and a lot more casual. They were more like lounging around as they were enjoying this food together. And then all at once during the meal at some point, Jesus reaches and He grabs some bread. I don't know what it was about how He grabbed the bread, but you can tell as you read the account that as Jesus grabbed the bread, He immediately had everybody's attention. Because the Bible says when He took the bread, He began to pray. He didn't have to quiet everybody down, it just says He took the bread and began to pray. Jesus, in praying over that bread, the Bible keeps it a mystery what He prayed. I can't imagine what it must have been like sitting there as Jesus poured out His heart before the Father about the reality that God had become a man. He looked at those men, the Bible says that He then broke that bread and He said, "Take, eat, this is my body." The holiness of that moment, the awe and wonder of that moment. And the disciples didn't have any prep, there was no lead-up to this moment. Just one minute they're lounging around, kind of laughing, enjoying the next minute. There's this holiness in the room. Then He takes a cup with the fruit of the vine and does the same thing. He prays over it. And after, again, I can't imagine what that prayer must have been like as He expressed and poured out His heart about the blood that He was about to shed on behalf of humanity. And after praying over it, He takes the cup and He passes it and says, "God's take." I'm sure after the prayer, nobody wanted to even get near, say, "God's take, eat. This is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me." They didn't even really understand what was happening. We think about those things, this side of the cross looking back with a lot of clarity. When Jesus unpacked this little illustration for them, they hadn't yet seen the cross. And it wouldn't be until about twenty-four hours later that they would even fully comprehend and grasp everything that Jesus was symbolizing for them in that moment. They would leave that little upper room and they would go out into a garden. And that garden Jesus would take three of them, Peter, James and John, into the very inner sanctuary of that garden. And there you'd hear Jesus cry out before the Father. Again the disciples have got to know something's up. And it's changed, there's a look in His eye we have not seen before. There's a sternness about Him that we hadn't really noticed before. And the soldiers come into the garden and they arrest Jesus and run into a series of mock trials and they beat Him and then they crucify Him. And I imagine when all of it began to play out those events of the next day that what happened the night before in that little upper room was forever seared in their mind. Today, we're going to celebrate that practice together. We call it communion or the Lord's Supper. Before we celebrate that practice, I want us to read the events of the next day. If you have your Bible, I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27 verse 45 and following and I want to read for you what happened after that gathering in the upper room. In verse 27 verse 45, if you don't have a Bible, we're going to put these words on the screen. Here's what it says. Now from the sixth hour, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, "Elai, elai, llama sabaktanai." That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, "This man is calling for Elijah." 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. But the rest of them said, "Let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." Jesus cried out with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. "Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks were split and the tombs were opened and many of the bodies who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection." They entered the holy city and appeared to many, now the centurion. Those who were keeping guard over Jesus when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening became very frightened, maybe the understatement of the text. Jesus said, "Truly, this was the Son of God." As we read those verses this morning, there's some defining moments in these words. We very, almost strange, three, what appear to be so random events that play out in the verses that I've read for you, and I want to unpack those to try to bring to our minds all that Jesus accomplished for us as we remember today in celebrating the Lord's Supper. Here's the first defining moment. There was an unusual darkness. We give verse 45 again. It says, "Now from the sixth hour, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour." It was an unusual darkness. The Bible here says it happened at the sixth hour, according to the Jewish clock. That would have been 12 o'clock noon, and it says it lasted until the ninth hour, which would have been three o'clock in the afternoon. The Bible says from noon until three o'clock. Now noon to three o'clock is when the sun is shining its brightest, and yet the Bible says from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon darkness fell over the entire land. It's difficult to say with specificity exactly how large and vast this darkness was, because the word land can mean region or it can mean the earth. Now, in Luke's account of this story, the implication of Luke is that this darkness engulfed the planet, all the earth, for this three-hour period of time. We don't have time to go into it, but there are actually extra biblical historical writings that refer to a global darkness that occurred at this particular time. What caused this darkness? Luke says it this way, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured. The word obscured, it means to fail or to cease or to stop. Here's what Luke says, for three hours in the brightest part of the day, the sun failed. It just stopped shining. Now the word for obscured is a word that can be meant to explain, and eclipse. We actually get our English word eclipse from this particular word, and some would say, "Well, what happened here was an eclipse of the sun," but remember this was the Passover. The Passover was held during full moon. Brad Espinac, an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, it's a major research lab for NASA, said that an eclipse of the sun can only occur at new moon when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. Passover happened during full moon, not during new moon. During full moon, the earth is at its farthest point, I'm sorry, the sun is at its farthest point from the moon. What we're reading about here was not an eclipse, it was a moment in time when the sun stopped shining, somebody turned off the lights. Why? Genesis 1-1, the Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the first thing the Bible says He did is He said, 'Let there be light,' and since then there's always been light when there's supposed to be light. And yet, here the lights went out, why? The darkness was a visible sign that God the Father had forsaken His Son and was pouring out His immense divine judgment for the sin of the world on His Son, Jesus. What transpired between God the Father and God the Son in those three hours was never intended for humanity to see with their own eyes. So holy was that moment. It's the moment that Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 5 when Paul said, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf." What happened in those three hours on the cross is what we read about here. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. You say, "Well, what in the world does all of that mean? I've got to be honest with you. I don't totally understand all of that means." I just know that it was in that moment on the cross that Jesus Christ took all of the wickedness and all the vileness and all the ungodliness of my sin and your sin and the sin of humanity. He took it all on Himself and God turned out the lights so that what Jesus was walking through in that moment was veiled forever from our sight. H.A. iron side said it like this, "No finite mind can fathom the depths of woe and anguish into which the soul of Jesus sank when that dread darkness spread over all the seen." It was a symbol of the spiritual darkness into which He went as the man Christ Jesus made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It was then that God laid on Him, the iniquity of us all. There was an unusual darkness, but there was a second thing that happened. There was an unexpected question, Jesus in the midst of that darkness. The way it's described in the biblical accounts, the darkness was so dark. It was a darkness that you know how when it's dark, you can feel it, it's so dark. You cannot see your hand in front of your face dark, no sunlight dark. In the midst of that absolute darkness, what breaks the silence of the dark? Lama, Shabbatini, my God, my God, why? Have you forsaken me? Complete and total darkness, and this cry is a lot of uncertainties surrounding that cry. A lot we don't know. J.C. Ryle said it this way, "It would be useless to pretend to fathom all the depth of meaning which these words contain." It's a lot we don't know, but there's two things we know for sure. One, we know the horror of sin. You see, we live in a culture today where sin is a joke. Even in Christian circles, let's just be honest, we don't call it sin anymore. It's a mistake. It's just a problem, it's an addiction, it's just a fault. Bible word for it is sin, and listen, sin is horrible. Sin caused what we read about in these verses, sin, the weight of sin on Jesus. Every time in the New Testament, Jesus cries out to the Father. Every time He always says, "Father," except here. He does not say, "Father," He says, "My God." I was reading a book this week, somebody gave me a couple of weekends ago here, it's called the utter relief of holiness by John Eldridge. If you've not read it, I highly recommend it. In that book, John Eldridge said, "Think of all the devastation caused by sin on this bleeding planet, all the hurt, all the pain, all the anguish, all the death, all the disease, all the destruction, all caused by sin. The wages of sin is death, physical, spiritual, eternal death. We talked about it a couple of weeks ago. In the cross, Jesus, when He cries out His testifying to the fact that He was suffering an agony under the full wage of sin, separation from God the Father. When we hear that cry, it screams to us the horror of sin. Let me tell you the second thing we know about it. Not only the horror of sin, the second thing it reveals to us is the holiness of God. What we see happening here is a demonstration of the holiness of God there. We could spend weeks and weeks and weeks talking about the holiness of God, but if you're going to boil the holiness of God down, it really means two things about God. Number one, it means the absence of the presence of sin, and then secondly, it means the presence of absolute moral purity. God is holy. God is holy. God cannot live in fellowship with sin. In His presence, His absolute moral purity, God is holy. Yes, it's true, God is loving, but God loves because God is holy. And His love will never violate His holiness. What's happening here on the cross is God the Father pouring out His judgment on sin, even when that sin was found on His own son, Jesus. And even when that sin was not even His, the holiness of God can do no less than judge sin. There's a lot we don't understand about this question, but Jesus gives us some clarity because what Jesus was actually crying out from the cross was a quotation from Psalm 22. Psalm 22, listen what the psalmist wrote, verse 1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning, oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer in by night, but I have no rest, yet you are," say it out loud, "holy." A.W. Pink said it this way, "God's holy character could do no less than judge sin even though it be found on Christ Himself. At the cross, then God's justice was satisfied and His holiness vindicated." Let me just stop here parenthetically and make a statement to you today. If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, if you've never embraced the glorious gospel of Jesus, what possible hope do you have standing before God in your own sin when God did not even spare His own son? Judgment, when sin found on Him didn't even belong to Him, it was mine and yours. The only hope we have to escape the judgment of God against sin is the glorious truth of the gospel and by faith, surrendering the control of our lives to the person of Jesus Christ. If there was an unusual and unexpected cry, then there's a last thing I want us to notice before we take the supper. There were several unexplained events. There's this darkness, then Jesus cries out, and then the Bible says these three things kind of rammed them, the veil of the temple was torn into, some tombs were opened and a few people were resurrected. That's kind of odd. And then this centurion, this Roman soldier, this executioner, all of a sudden says, "Truly this," was the son of God, "what were all these unexplained events?" Well, it goes back to the question, and I want you to notice something. All throughout the gospels, Jesus quotes the Old Testament. This is the only time the quote from the Old Testament is actually given to us in Hebrew. That's significant. You see, I believe every word of Scripture is inspired by God. I mean, it's God-breathed. It's chosen by God for a reason. Why, out of all the Old Testament quotations, would this be the one that the Spirit of God chose to give us? Eli, Eli, llama, sabak, tana. Why would He give us that in Hebrew? Oh, I'm so glad you asked. I took a year of Hebrew when I was in seminary. Hebrew is the most difficult language I've ever studied in my life. After a year of Hebrew, I didn't know anything. I mean, it was so hard. It's written backwards. It doesn't have vowels. All the letters are crammed together. You don't know where words stop and start. It's a tough language to understand. But I had a great Hebrew professor, Dr. David Skinner, and he taught me something about this phrase that I've never forgotten. Let me tell you what he taught me. There are two different Hebrew interrogatives, meaning two words that are translated into the English language with the little word "why." One of those words in Hebrew is the word "maduah." If Jesus had used that word, it would say, "Elai, Eli, Madua, sabak, tana." The word "madua" is a word that always looks backward and seeks the calls of an action or an event after it's taken place, meaning that if I'm saying, "Madua, why is this happening?" An event has played out and I'm looking back and I don't understand it and I'm saying, "What's the cause? Why did this happen?" That's what a lot of people think Jesus said on the cross. A lot of people think, "Jesus said, 'My God, my God, why is this happening? I don't understand.'" But he didn't say "madua." He said, "Lama," that's why he gave it to us in Hebrew, so we didn't mess it up. Lama always looks forward and is asking to give a demonstration of why an event is taking place. "Madua says, 'Lord, why, why is this happening?'" Lama says, "Give a demonstration, show 'em why." That's so good because I want you to read what happened next and behold, the veil of the temple was torn into from top to bottom. Oh, this is so good. Listen, let me explain the temple. The temple was made up of a series of courts. The outer court was called the Court of Women. It was not a court just for women. What it meant was, it was a place that was as far as a Jewish woman could go in the temple. So in the court of women, there would be both men and women, but only Jews allowed into the court of women. Inside the court of women was called the Court of Israel. Only Jewish men were allowed into the Court of Israel. Inside of the Court of Israel was what was called the Court of the Priests. All of the priests of the nation of Israel were allowed inside the Court of the Priests. Inside the Court of the Priests is what was called the holy place, or the sanctuary, where only selected priests were allowed to go to perform their priestly function. Inside of the holy place was what was called the holy of holies. It was where the Ark of the Covenant resided. It was the symbol of the presence and the power of God among his people, and nobody could go into the holy of holies, except on one day a year. The high priest, only the high priest, could enter the holy of holies to offer a blood sacrifice on the altar for the sin of the nation of Israel. It was called the Day of Atonement. It was so holy that when the priest, the high priest would go into the holy of holies, they would tie a rope around his foot, and they would tie a bell to that rope, so they would know that he was still moving around in there. Because if the high priest died, it was so holy, nobody could go in. They had to drag him out with the rope. Now what separated the holy of holies from the holy place was the veil. It was sixty feet tall. It was thirty feet wide, and it was four inches thick, sixty feet tall, thirty feet wide, four inches thick, and the veil was the constant reminder that no one has access to the presence of God. Jesus said, "My God, show them why." And the book says that the veil was torn into, not from bottom to top. Can you imagine the priest out there in the court of priests when the thing just falls apart? It's ripped from top. Let me tell you what that was. It was God saying because of Jesus, we now have access into the very presence of God Himself. I love the way JC Ryle said it. He said it taught that the way into the holiest of all was now thrown open to all mankind by Christ's death and that all barriers between man and God were forever thrown down. You see, the veil represents that through the cross we now have access to the presence of God. Then the Bible says something else happened, look at verse 52, the tombs were open. And many of the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raped. I want you to get this in your mind. There's all of a sudden this little mini-resurrection. Not everybody, just a few, wouldn't you like to have been one of those folks? The Bible says there was an earthquake and if you read carefully, this actually happened after the resurrection of Jesus is what He's telling us about here. Jesus came off the cross was buried but Matthew puts all these three things right in order to show us their connection to what Jesus cried out on the cross. These tombs were open and the Bible says many, not all, just some. Some of the believers there in Jerusalem were raised from the dead and the Bible says they entered the holy city and appeared to many. Can you imagine what that was like? You imagine you're sitting down at dinner and Uncle Henry has been dead for 12 years, and that's what the book says happened. Why in the world was there this little mini-quasine select few reservoirs? Why did that? Let me tell you why it happened because Jesus said, my God, would you show them why? Let me tell you what the tomb tells us that through the cross resurrection has been secure. When somebody says, how do you know, how do you know there's life after death? Because Jesus asked the Father to show us and He did, He proved it with a little mini-resurrection that took place right there in the city of Jerusalem. Why did that happen? Because Jesus asked the Father to give us a demonstration. Let me tell you what it was. It was just a small sampling of what's going to happen on a glorious scale one day. Then there's one more thing and we'll take this up or together. Verse 54, "Now the centurion, I love the way Matthew weaves all these things right together." The centurion, who is this centurion, he was a Roman soldier who'd witnessed hundreds of executions. He buried a lot of guys that he'd crucified. But when this one was over, the centurion says, truly, this was the son of God. What does the centurion tell us? He tells us that through the cross, lives can be changed. Jesus said, "God, would you show Him why the veil was torn, the tombs were emptied." This old lost, hard-hearted pagan Roman soldier bows his head to the sovereign Lord Jesus and says, truly, this was the son of God. That's why Paul said this, "Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. Not in cleverness of speech that the cross of Christ should be made void for the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God." And then sometime, that Sunday evening, all the disciples gathered back together with some bread and a cup. Can you imagine the emotion in the room as only a couple of evenings earlier, Jesus had done this with them and they didn't understand and then they watched the events that I've just read and described, they watched it play out in real time and then they gathered back in that little room and they took that bread. I can only imagine, whoever was given the task, I'm assuming it was probably Simon Peter, but somebody had to do what Jesus did the first time, somebody had to take the bread and bless it. I can imagine as he began to pray that the words wouldn't even come out because they just watched it. And then we were given instruction in the book of Corinthians that as the church as often as we like were to do what they did, were to take the bread, were to take the cup and were to remember. Before we do it, I want to read you a verse out of 1 Corinthians 11, verse 28, here's what it says, "But a man must examine himself and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup." Just as before we partake in this practice, we are to examine our heart. The word "examine" means to inspect closely, it's the idea of to test by questioning. It means I'm to look on the inside and ask some hard questions and I want to give you three questions that you need to wrestle with during this time. Here's the first one, do I know God? I'm not asking if you're religious, I'm not asking if you've been to church, I'm not asking if you've been baptized, I'm asking do you know God? Listen, we're about to take a practice together called the Lord's Supper that I'll be honest with you, if you don't know God, it don't mean anything. It's meaningless. It's bread in this cup, you can bomb a Walmart, right? It's meaningless without a relationship with God. But with a relationship with God and understanding its significance, now the meaning of this is what God did for me and the person of Jesus Christ and I get to celebrate it. Do you know God? Second question I want you to wrestle with is, is there anything in my life that I know is not right with God? Is there any area of unconfessed sin, any area in your life that you know God is pressing a finger on that and He wants you to surrender it and you're hanging on? Listen, before you take this practice, you need to remember the holiness of that moment and you need to just get clean before God. The Word says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's an opportunity for you to just go into the presence of God and just get clean. The third question I want you to wrestle with is, is there anything between myself and a brother, sister and Christ? He said, I don't just need to examine this relationship, I need to examine this relationship. Is there anything between you and a brother, sister and Christ, it's not right that before you take this up or you need to go to Him and make it right? Maybe somebody in this room, you need to go and ask their forgiveness before you take the Lord's up. You say, won't that be awkward, not be freeing? We're going to take the Lord's Supper together. [BLANK_AUDIO]