Sermon in Outlook 21.03.2008

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we will continue our services this evening with that prayer in our heart that the Heavenly Father would give unto us graciously as He sees that we need.

And so, for our text this evening, we'll read from the 27th chapter, according to the Gospel of St. Matthew, its 46th verse. And these words are in Jesus' name as follows: "And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Amen.

First of all, I'd like to bring you many, many greetings of love and God's peace from the brothers and sisters there in Cocado. Before we even begin to study the scriptures, I'd like to ask if I could believe my sins and fears and doubts also forgiven. I certainly desire to believe with you.

This morning when I woke up and we had six inches of snow on the ground and it was snowing very heavily, I thought, well, I'll run down to the airport and go through the motions and then I can return home, thinking that my flight would be canceled. I know you, dear brother servants, understand the feeling because oftentimes we do find ourselves feeling so empty and poor.

I was relating unto a brother that this is the first time in over 31 years of marriage that I haven't been home for Easter. But it's good to be here in your midst. Indeed, Easter is a very special time of year. It brings to remembrance unto us the infinite love of our Heavenly Father, His grace and His mercy.

And it is important for us as mothers and fathers, as children in living faith, that we bring our children, our youth, one another, and walk down this way of pain of our Lord and Savior Jesus; that we would be reminded of that work of reconciliation that He did on our behalf.

And so often we are reminded during this Passion Week of this gift of God unto us, this labor of love. Jesus suffered and died for your sins and mine and the sins of Adam and Eve and every person that has lived and died to this day and the sins of every person that is living today.

This day is Good Friday, the final day of our Lord and Savior Jesus here upon the earth. The way of pain began already there in the Garden of Gethsemane where He prayed unto the Heavenly Father on your behalf and mine. Already there in the Garden He began to feel the weight and the burden of the sin debt of the entire world. He began to sweat so much that He began to sweat blood.

They were there on that hillside of the Mount of Olives that night and they could see the servants of the high priests and the soldiers coming up the path with their lighted torches. And Jesus could have very easily fled but this was not the will of our Heavenly Father.

And so they apprehended Him and they took Him to the high priests and before the council where they condemned Him to death. There He experienced the ridicule and the scorn of the 70 member council where they blindfolded Him and they spat in His face, which was the greatest insult, and they ridiculed and mocked Him, and then they hit Him in His face with their fist and with their palms.

And then He was taken before Pilate and again in the end was condemned. He was taken out and scourged 39 times. 39 times because usually if one was scourged 40 times one died. It was a scourging with a leather whip with bone and metal attached to the end. He was tied hunched over against a pillar and 39 times lashed.

They pressed a crown of thorns upon His head, pressed it into His flesh. Blood spilled from His body. And then they placed the cross beam upon His shoulders and He stood there at the cabasa, the pavement, and began and continued the way of pain.

History relates unto us that He stumbled and fell several times. In the end they needed to grab Simon to carry the cross. And they came to the place of the skull on Golgotha and there they drove spikes into His wrists into the beam. There they placed His ankles together and drove a spike through both ankles into the post.

And they raised Him up on the cross. He looked up to the Heavenly Father and He prayed unto Him, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." This is the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

But dear brothers and sisters, it was not the spikes that held Him to that cross. It was the love that He had for your undying soul. The love that He had for the undying soul of mankind.

In our text it states unto us of the desperation, the pain, the suffering, the forsaking that He experienced in that hour: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

When our Heavenly Father spoke unto Adam and Eve at the beginning of this world after they had fallen into sin, He made them that promise that there will come one who will crush the head of the serpent. Throughout time He renewed that promise unto His prophets, unto His own, unto mankind.

The final words of our Lord and Savior Jesus were uttered: "It is finished." The work of reconciliation, the fulfilling of the promise of our Heavenly Father unto you and I.

It states unto us here that at that moment when Jesus died, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent and the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after His resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many.

Now when the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things which were done, they feared greatly saying, "Truly this was the Son of God."

The veil in the temple which divided the holy room from the holiest of holy, into which the priest went once a year to atone for the sins of the people, was rent into. No longer was this needed. The time of the Old Testament had ended, and the time of the sweet message of the gospel began.

Jesus experienced the wrath of God. He experienced the judgment of God. He experienced the damnation of God for one reason.

And the Easter morning proclamation brings that clearly unto us. The angel of God told the women, "He is not dead but lives." He was forsaken at that hour so that you and I never need to be forsaken by our Heavenly Father.

The writer unto the Hebrews reminds us how God will never leave thee nor forsake thee. This joyous message of this time of year is so important for us: He is not dead but He lives. And we live through Him.

There on that hill of Golgotha was a picture unto us in simplicity of the world. There on one side of Jesus hung a criminal who had done such terrible deeds that now he was paying his debt to society by the death of crucifixion, and he derided Christ as many did in that crowd that passed by, "If thou be Christ save thyself and us."

The other criminal on the other hand, on the other side, he had been watching also in great pain at what had been taken place. He heard that prayer of the Lord and Savior Jesus, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

His eyes were opened. He was able to comprehend that here on this very spot of the skull indeed was the Savior of mankind. And he firstly rebuked the one on the other side. And then he looked upon Jesus and he simply said, "Remember me."

And Jesus said unto him, "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise."

Here is a picture unto us of mankind, the possibilities that man has. In the middle was the Lord and Savior Jesus.

When this world ends, and that day is coming, we may not be here but our children might or our children's children or our children's children's children, but that day is coming when from on that eastern horizon our Lord and Savior Jesus appears and then the life is simplified.

No longer the Satan cause pain and grief and sorrow. Jesus will divide the goats from the lambs. No longer will people be constructing the stairways onto heaven, be it whatever denomination, whatever religion, faith they may be on that day.

Life is simplified. There will only be the believers and the unbelievers.

As there was on that Good Friday, there on Golgotha, on the one side was the unbeliever, on the other side was a believer who had committed grievous sin to that extent that he also was condemned to death by crucifixion.

There was no difference in their merit, but the one on the right his eyes had been opened to comprehend that here is the Lord of life. He still paid society that debt that he owed. He also died that day and so did the other one on the left.

But oh, what great reward he received. He received the gift of living faith.

Here we can see what our merit and what the work of man can gain nothing. Solely by the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus, solely by grace is one able to get to the doors of salvation.

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was forsaken then on that Good Friday so that you and I would never be forsaken.

This is that joyous Easter tiding unto us how and by and through grace and mercy we are saved.

I ask you dear brother and sister, how has it been? How has the endeavor of faith been? Have you been successful? Can you hold your head high and say that I have been a good child of God?

I am sure that you would agree with me, and as the apostle himself has written, "The good that I want to do I do not, and the evil that I do not want to do, that I do."

Is it not miraculous this Easter glad tiding unto us that we are saved solely by the work of reconciliation of our Lord and Savior Jesus?

Our salvation has not been left in our sinful hands, but all that is required of us is simply to believe the gospel, to remain in the place of a child and trusting upon Him who has promised to lead us to eternal salvation.

Oh, the simplicity of living faith, that all that is required of us simply to believe the gospel message, and this love of Christ then constrains us to serve God, to thank God, to praise God.

Sometimes when we think of this, when we hear to serve God, it is a very simple thing. You beloved wives, when you serve your husbands, you are serving God, and vice versa. You husbands, when you serve your wives, you are serving God.

It begins there in the home. You children, when you serve your parents, you are serving God, and your parents, when you are serving your children, you are serving God.

God, the service of God begins in your little home congregation and then it extends here, and when you serve one another in whatever duty and capacity that has been given unto you, you are serving God.

And then it extends out that when you serve your unbelieving neighbor, who are serving God.

Oh, the simplicity of living faith, and may God keep us as little children trusting solely on His merit work and thanking God that He has chosen you and I. We have not chosen Him; He has chosen us.

And certainly even this evening we have this prayer in our heart above all that God would keep us in the place of a child.

Peter reminds us, oh Peter, oh Peter, who experienced much during this time of Passion Week, who depended upon his own power and strength but was given to see that it is only through the grace and mercy of Christ.

He reminds us not just to be as little children but he says as newborn babies desiring the sincere milk of the word and to live thereby.

That is why we have come here this evening as a child to hear what God has to say unto us, and so simply we believe.

And so it is so important, dear brothers and sisters, that when we come here, thinking of God's word, we do not come to hear a certain servant but we come here with that prayer in our heart that God would open His word unto us so that we may live thereby.

So oftentimes we are beset by difficulties and obstacles that the enemy of the soul sets before us.

This weekend as we read and study more of this time of Passion Week and Easter, we will be reminded of what difficulties the disciples had.

Sometimes the obstacles that Satan places before us seem almost unsurmountable, that how could I possibly get by this?

And yet our Heavenly Father through His written word reminds us, "When God is with us, who can be against us?"

And this is that loving Heavenly Father who granted unto us His beloved Son so that we would never need to be forsaken, that we would never be left.

When we endeavor in the place of a child listening to that voice of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit which speaks here in the church, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the church," and believing in the place of a child endeavoring to do the will of our Heavenly Father, it is not difficult in that sense.

All that is required of us is simply to believe.

Dear children, beloved youth, dear mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, grandfathers and grandmothers, all beloved brothers and sisters in faith, sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

Believe this gospel and that salvation that God has promised unto us will be ours. Believe just as you are in your place of watching, no worse and no better, that all sins and doubts are forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

And I yet again desire to hear that I believe my many doubts and sins are also forgiven. I desire to believe with you.

We have a very loving Heavenly Father. He has gifted unto us this begun faith and He has promised, "I will never leave thee and I will never forsake you."

There is much reason to thank God for what He has done unto us in Jesus' name. Amen.