I want to read to you eyes to the screens if you would I’m going to be speaking here right now this evening with a message here entitled forsaken forever for you forsaken forever for you Matthew chapter 27 I’ll read to you verse 35 then they crucified him and divided his garments casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the prophet they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast Lots out of the book of Psalms sitting down they kept a watch over him there that is

over Jesus and they put up over his head the accusation written against him this is Jesus king of the Jews then two robbers who were crucified with him one on the right hand the other on the left and those who passed by blasphemed him wagging their heads and saying you who destroy the temple and build it in 3 days save yourself if you are the Son of God come down from the cross likewise the chief priest also mocking with the scribes and Elders said he saved others himself he cannot save if he’s the Christ or the king of Israel

let him come down now from the cross and we will believe him he trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the Son of God even the robbers who were crucified with him reviled him with the same thing now from the sixth hour until the 9th hour there was Darkness over all the land so that’s 12: noon this is Hebrew time so in Roman time it was 12: noon to 3:00 in the afternoon there was Darkness over all the land and about the 9th hour 3:00 Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying

eliab that is my God my God why have you forsaken me or in the Hebrew it’s my God my God why am I left alone powerful words tonight for us to consider forsaken forever for you is the message that God is giving us everything had been proven this week in history for Jesus was the very example everybody is looking to him everybody had been listening to him and the fact that we consider these special times that consider this week everything had been proven meaning that Jesus’s life had been so examined or the space of three

and a half years that Jesus had been himself tested the very testing that came to Christ had proven that he was the one this is what’s awesome about the faith that you and I have in Jesus Christ tonight he’s not some religious conjured up one to take advantage of people the word word of God announced what Christ would look like in his coming and you could have tested him you could have held up the Bible this week in history and that you could tested everything about him and my argument to you tonight is

that Jesus Christ Alone was tested and proven to be the very Christ the one in whom all the scriptures spoke of church family the third thing or the second thing I should say about this is that Jesus had been examined and proven he was tested this week in Jerusalem in and out of the city very very special week in his Earthly Ministry I don’t know if you realize this or not but when Jesus Christ went to Jerusalem he only went to Jerusalem to observe the required feasts and then he would get out of Jerusalem

Jesus spent most of his time in Galilee not not in Jerusalem but this week he was there all week and the Bible tells us Matthew Mark Luke and John that all the things that were taking place he was presenting himself in such a way and there were things taking place this week in history where for example he shouted at the steps of the temple I’m the light of the world I’m the Living Water I am the way the truth and the life all of these profound statements that if they would have come from anybody else it would have been

was tested and proven meaning he was tested and found to be exactly who the Old Testament Prophet said he was he was examined and discovered to be exactly who the Old Testament prophets said he was and then thirdly we see this under this point that everything had been proven Jesus had been judged and was proven the Pharisees this week went up and down as it were All Around Jesus provoking at least trying to questioning him challenging his authority they try to catch him in all kinds of traps you and I love reading

the gospels when they try to wiggle in these traps to get him into a Word game and every time they would try that he would flip it on them and remember we’ve been learning in the Book of Romans on Sundays that one of the great way of a Jewish argument and Jesus of course being God and skin did it perfectly Paul must have paid close attention because he does it very well himself that when you talk to a Jew they’re brilliant it’s just the way that they’re brought up to think critically so when you ask a Jew a question they don’t

answer you oh don’t get me wrong you ask them a question they’ll start talking but they will answer your question with a question you can say to them well what about this and they’ll say ‘well I’ll answer that but what about this and they’ll really get you going they did that to Jesus they asked him all kinds of questions to try to entrap him to get him judged they were trying to get him at odds with Moses at odds with the law at odds with the prophets they tried it all and in doing that

everybody listen up same is true for you and I today as the world judges you and I they’re examining us and they’re testing us as Believers and they should we we claim to know the Creator God of the universe the Lord Jesus Christ people should test us but listen we should be able to stand and hold firm by the word of God Point number two tonight is this everybody everything is now prepared this week in history it’s not only that everything had been proven but everything is being prepared how so Jesus is now fully representing the love

of the father this week in history the love of the father is being proven all this week as Jesus is judged examined and tested so everything is being prepared not only for the Passover supper he’s going to have that with them later this week The Upper Room experience but we know this everybody that Jesus is now fully representing the love of the father Jesus earlier just not so long from this time had told the disciples who he was and Philip said why don’t you just show us the father and we’ll be happy and Jesus says have I been so long

with you and you’re still asking me to show you the father if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father the the things that I respond to the things that I say the things that I do and the things that I don’t do is in perfect alignment with the will of the father if you look at Jesus you’re looking at the Holy Spirit personified if you’re looking at Jesus you’re seeing the father and his example in Jesus he was the walking living breathing word and will of God and he’s come to Jerusalem this week

representing perfectly the love of the father and uh that love is pretty intense by the way he’s not only doing Miracles and being kind and gentle he’s also being stern and to the point and exposing Hypocrites turning over tables visiting the temple and looking around and one of those visits this week in history was in my opinion terrifying there’s one visit that Jesus makes to the temple and says nothing and goes away and every every night he slept outside the city limits of Jerusalem did you know that he wouldn’t stay this week

in history in the city limits of Jerusalem because he knew that it had forsaken him on Palm Sunday last Sunday they were shouting Hosanna but they wanted a political deliverer by the way we’re all going to vote we’re all going to get involved because we’re supposed to because this Republic has been given to us by God but listen regardless of the outcome of the election we’re not voting V in for uh our King we’re not voting for our Lord we’re not voting for our savior they wanted a political deliver

on that Palm Sunday he didn’t come for that he came to be fully tested fully examined fully judged why because he would be found fully qualified to represent the love of the Father the second thing is this is that Jesus now is totally forsaken we read it a moment ago ELO elab my God my God quoting Psalm 2 22 verse1 Psalm 22 ver1 by the way rabbis will tell you that never or rarely if ever was a Psalm just quoted like that on its own that when you start in a chapter they didn’t have chapters like we do today but starting at the first

part of Psalm 22 verse one that Jesus actually quoted the entire Psalm Psalm 22 can you can you imagine him hanging on the cross saying they pierced my hands and my feet that mean that had to make you kind of freaky to to be hearing this when he shouts out to them within their hearing my God why am I alone in this moment the humanity of Christ was in its full exposure the father had turned his back as it were on the Son of God because judgment was being laid upon him and the sense that Jesus felt as a human remember he is God the

man and he’s fully God the man he’s fully God and fully man he’s the only one and he said father when the fellowship broke when when that Coria that he experienced with God the Father turned away Jesus Cried Out totally forsaken for you and I so that you and I would never be forsaken Christ was Forsaken and then thirdly under this point is the fact that Jesus now on display for the world to see hanging on a cross this week in history nothing shy about it folks beaten bloodied Beyond human recognition Isaiah

tells us Jesus Christ is suspended on a cross this may come as a shock to you but when you go to Israel with us there’s various sites that will visit and they have found crosses and areas of crucifixion under Roman rule 2,000 years ago and the stones I should say uh the crosses are uh petrified they’re turned to stone the wood is turned to stone and you’d be shocked to find out how low when somebody was cruci ified they were crucified very low to the ground we’ve always got this Sunday school picture of them being very high

up but they were crucified very low to the ground just above your head so the crucifixion when you hear about the communication taking place it was very personal very direct as Jesus speaks everything was being provided in Christ at the cross three things very important everything was being provided Jesus was making eternal transaction that we could not do on the cross he was paying your sin debt in mine on the cross God the father was laying upon him all of our sins he was making an eternal transaction we could not do

that secondly everything’s being provided this way Jesus was paying an outstanding debt that we could never pay I don’t know about you but when I if I if I’m remotely laid on a bill I freaks me out I terrifies me my dad taught us to pay our bills 15 days before they’re due and when I get the thing that warns you you’re almost you know you’re almost I I get all nervous I don’t care if it’s a dollar or $1,000 I get all nervous because I don’t want to be late guess what Jesus Paid an

outstanding debt that you could never have paid in a thousand million lifetimes you could never repay Jesus was there paying that and then finally it’s this under this point Jesus was suffering in a way we could not suffer we have no idea what that’s like Jesus was suffering in a way that transcends all suffering that any human will ever experience in life God the son on the cross sin being heaped upon him the father leaves him alone and he suffers a loneliness and he suffers a pain that you and I will never know will never

know it it’s impossible for us to know that level of suffering no matter what you’ve ever gone through and I want you to think about that Jesus Christ suffered in a way that we could have never never known and we have a pastor coming out next to carry this service Luke chap 23:34 then Jesus said father forgive them for they do not know what they do as you read the account in Luke this prayer seems to be the first thing that Jesus says As they nailed him to that cross you see even in the midst of indescribable pain and absolute shame

Jesus’s concern was not for himself but for those who had tortured him mocked him and those who drove the spikes into his wrists and into his feet the beating before the cross was so bad that the Bible says that he would not have been able to be recognized Isaiah 52:14 says just as many were astonished at you so his Vis was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men and yet the first words out of the mouth of Christ on the cross was not cursing but praying praying for those who were crucifying him Jesus was

practicing what he preached he told the disciples to pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you and now he showed them what that really looked like Jes Jesus was not seeking to minimize their sin but he recognized their ignorance he wasn’t excusing their actions but grieved over what would come upon their own life as a result of what they were doing you see none of them were without guilt Judas knew what he was doing pilate washed his hands the religious leaders knew they put up false Witnesses but you see this was so much

bigger than what they could have ever imagined and Jesus here recognizes their ignorance irn ler puts it like this he says they knew what they had done they did not know all they had done it was much bigger than just some criminal or some good teacher no they nailed God to the cross in one of Peter’s first sermons in Acts chap 3 verse 15 and 17 he says and killed the Prince of Life whom God raised from the dead of which we Are Witnesses yet now Brethren verse 17 he says I know that you did it in ignorance as did also your rulers in

another place Paul says for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord Of Glory and you see yet even in their ignorance their need was no different it was forgiveness that was their need now don’t misunderstand Jesus here this is a a a phrase that he says on the cross that uh is is often quoted forgive them for they know not what they do but don’t misunderstand him the prayer wasn’t for those who didn’t want forgiveness but for those who would later on realize their guilt and turn to God for

forgiveness you see what Jesus was not doing Jesus was not asking for blanket forgiveness without repentance but you and I get a little window into the very Heart Of God as he’s suffering on the cross he’s praying for those who put him there and we find that even for those that crucified him second Peter 3:9 is nonetheless true the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness but his longsuffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and get this even those who

nailed Jesus to the Cross could find forgiveness in the blood of Christ that means no one is too far gone that the only sin that cannot be pardoned is the lifelong rejection of Christ as the true Son of God the Lord of Glory Matthew’s gospel account actually records for us that after Jesus died the veil was torn into two earthquakes happening Graves bursting open and that at that moment one of the centurions who was a part of the crucifixion and others around him in Matthew 27:54 says they were greatly afraid it

says so when the Centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened they feared greatly noticed saying truly this was the son of God I wonder I just wonder if you and I might see some of the very torturers and murderers of Jesus Christ himself in heaven I don’t know but how good is our God that the opportunity would be there if one of those whoever that guard was that banged each and every nail into Jesus’s body body if he repented the blood that was spiled that day would

cover that very man that is power that is Grace Stephen followed Jesus’s footsteps uh being the first martyr of the church and he cried out something similar Acts 7:60 says for Stephen then he knelt down as he was being stoned and he cried out with a loud voice just like his Lord did and said Lord do not charge them with this sin and when he had said this he fell fell asleep you see even on the cross Jesus is not only the sacrifice but the example for you and I to follow 1 Peter 4: 21- 24 says for to this you

were called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth who who when he was reviled did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten what did he do but committed himself to him who judges righteously who himself bore our sins and his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose Stripes you were healed the Bible says it was for the joy that was set before him that he endured that cross

and who was that Joy it was you and me and all who would receive the Forgiveness through his blood and just maybe even some of those who pinned him to the Rugged [Applause] Cross in Luke 23:43 we read Jesus say assuredly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise and as you likely know Jesus wasn’t the only man that was crucified on golgatha that day there were two other men one on each side of Jesus who was crucified in the middle of these men and these two unlike Jesus were absolutely deserving of being there

these men were criminals guilty of some very severe crimes and Rome didn’t just crucify anyone in everyone this type of capital punishment was reserved for the worst of the worst and these two men were some of the worst of the worst and they represent you and I in a way criminals is the word that is used to describe them that word means evildoers someone who carries out evil deliberately someone who deserves to be punished for their actions and one of these two evildoing criminals has a special experience while on the cross beside

Jesus and let’s let’s now look at what leads up to this moment where Jesus says this to this man firstly we see the cursing of the criminal towards the beginning of Jesus’s time spent on that tree we read in the gospel of Mark that both criminals were actually cursing Jesus they started out cursing and blaspheming him in Mark 15 29-32 we won’t read all of it but notice how at the bottom we read that even those who were crucified with him reviled him they join in on the blasphemy that is being committed by the