Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This week's message is from ACC's Worship and Small Groups Pastor Brian Morrissey. Special thanks to Perry Noble of NewSpring Church for portions of the content used in this week's message.

How are we doing ACC? Everybody good? Alright, we are currently in the middle of a series entitled Death By Love” in which we are exploring the seven statements that Jesus made as he hung on the cross. In each of these statements, the words of Jesus are filled with grace, truth, and most importantly love and God has been doing some amazing things in our church as a result of this series.

I don’t know if you read Mike’s blog on a regular basis, but he listed his five favorite series that he has preached since he’s been here at ACC and after a conversation that we had in the office last week, he may have a new number one by the time this series ends. God has got some amazing truths in store for all of us and this morning is no exception because this morning, we’re going to tackle what I believe was the most difficult thing that Jesus said while he was hanging on the cross. And it something that I believe can help us identify with Jesus more than ever.

If you have your Bibles, open them to the book of Matthew which is the first book in the New Testament. We’re going to be reading from Chapter 27 and if you don’t have your Bible this morning, we’ll have the Scripture up on the screen for you to follow along with. Up front I would like to thank Perry Noble and NewSpring Church for some of the content of this message and I believe that it is going to be life changing today.

Let’s pray and then we’ll jump into it.

Okay, let’s go. We’ll start reading in verse 45 – “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land. 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?’” (Matthew 27:45-46, NIV)

“My God, my God…why?”

At this point in the crucifixion, we come to the most gut-wrenching cry of loneliness in history, and it didn’t come from a prisoner or a widow or a patient. It came from a hill, from a cross, from a Messiah.

“My God, my God!” he screamed, “why did you abandon me!”

Never have words carried such hurt. Never has one being been so lonely.

His despair is darker than the sky. And it’s completely understandable. He has always been with his Father. Always.

Jesus, who had been with God for eternity, is now alone. The Christ, who is God with us, has been ripped apart from God. The Trinity is dismantled. The Godhead is disjointed. The unity is dissolved.

It is more than Jesus can take.

Jesus cries out in a loud voice. And the really interesting thing is that the original word for his loud cry is used only once in the New Testament. It’s only used right here in this story. And the word doesn’t indicate loud talking or even shouting. It indicates an ear-piercing scream.

When Jesus was ripped away from his Father, it overwhelmed him, forcing him to scream out the word, “Why?”

That’s a question we ask a whole lot in our own lives isn’t it – Why? You see, some people have legitimate hurts in their life. People have plans that didn’t work out the way you thought they would work

My family and I visited California this past summer and while we were there, my Brother in law rented some jet-skis for the day and invited us to come out on the Ocean with him and his family. Now, I had never been on a jet-ski before, and had always wanted to try riding one, so we decided to go down to the ocean with them.

And, I never will forget my wife’s words as we were preparing to leave – “You might want to put some sunscreen on.”

Now, you have to understand, I worked as a lifeguard for three summers. I understand the importance of when you need sunscreen and when you don’t, and I decided that we weren’t going to be outside for that long, it was a mostly cloudy day, and I needed to tan up a little anyway.

So, needless to say, I put absolutely no sunscreen on and we went down to the ocean. We had a whole lot of fun. My son Josh and I hit 70 mph on one of the jet skis and flew through the air over the wakes of other boats and I was out on the water a lot. The problem was that I had no idea of what was happening to me, specifically to my feet.

I got back to my in-laws house that evening and realized I was a little red, but the next morning, I noticed my left foot was in agony and (this is kind of gross) there was a large blister forming on my foot. Immediately, I remembered my wife’s words – “You might want to put some sunscreen on,” and I wished I had.

And because of that blister, our vacation was almost ruined. We didn’t get to go to Disneyland the next day like we were supposed to, and I sat for the next four days on the couch, away from the beautiful California weather because tragedy had struck. You see, I planned on having a great time out at the ocean on the jet skis, but I didn’t plan on the blister.

It’s like this: you planned on the marriage but you didn’t plan on the divorce. You planned on trying to have children, you didn’t plan on the miscarriage. You planned on spending the rest of your life with your spouse, you didn’t plan on their death. You never planned on attending your own children’s funeral.

What do you do? What do you do when bad things happen to good people, when life doesn’t go according to plan.

Here’s what I know about every person here today – there is something that you can look at in your past that you want to ask “God, why?”

And that’s a legitimate question. If you have questions for God, that’s fine. Questions are natural. Just know that you will never get the answer to the question “why?” You will never get that answer this side of eternity.

What I want to do today is help you to change your questions.

A lot of people that I know that are Christians get stuck in their Christian walk because we have trouble getting past the tragedy that happened to us:

The death of a friend, the disease, the cancer report. We ask: If you love me, God, why did you let that happen. Jesus was asking that on the cross. God, why have you left me? Where did you go?

In order to tackle this difficult issue, there are three principles we need to understand this morning:

1) God is good. God is good

In Matthew 7, Jesus is preaching the infamous sermon on the mount and he gets to this really awesome section where he hammers home the goodness of God. He says this: 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Now let’s suppose that we’re at the drive thru of McDonalds and you order a number one – Big Mac, Fries and a Coke and from the back seat, your son looks at you in the rear-view mirror and asks, “Daddy? I would sure like a happy meal.”

So you pull up to the window, get your number one – Big Mac, fries and a coke and you open the car door and pick up a large rock and throw that in the back seat, saying, “Nah, you don’t get a happy meal! Here’s a rock instead.” You’re probably not winning the parent of the year award for that one. But Jesus is not done. Look at this next one:

10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? Let’s say, instead of McDonalds, you decide to go to Long John Silvers for the big fish dinner, and your son looks at you and says, “Daddy? I would like a big fish dinner.” And you wheel on him and say No you get a cobra!”

If I’m in Long John Silvers and you do that, I’m calling CPS on you. That is messed up. Jesus says: 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

The point is this: God doesn’t give bad gifts

We all know that people give bad gifts – just look at Christmas I mean what is the purpose of wind chimes anyways….

In legitimate tragedy we have to understand, God is good. We have to ask ourselves this question: Are we going to allow our circumstances to determine our belief in God, or are we going to allow our belief in God to reign over our circumstances

We can’t say, God, you’re good as long as I’m married, as long as I have healthy kids and a house, as long as my job is secure, because at that point, you don’t worship God, you worship a genie because you want a God who will give you everything you ask for.

You and I are surrounded by the goodness of God. Let me show you what I mean. You woke up in a house this morning. You went to a closet and most of us had options when it came to clothing today. Many of us had a hot breakfast (or we had the option of eating food this morning). Many of us will go out to eat after the service today. Most of us rode to church today in a car. Many of us are listening to this sermon

We have a roof over our head, food on our table, shoes on our feet – that IS THE GOODNESS OF GOD

The problem is that we think that goodness is the result of our own effort. If God didn’t want us to have it, it’s gone. He’ll take it away in an instant.

God is good.

Now some people will push back and say, Well, if God is good why is there pain in my life? Sometimes God uses pain to pull something out of our lives that would eventually kill us.

Have any of you ever had appendicitis? You go to the hospital and a surgeon has to use pain and the cruelty of cutting someone in order to save their lives. It looks incredibly cruel and painful from the outside, but that surgeon is performing a life-saving procedure, drawing something out of your body that would eventually kill you.

So some others would push and say “you’re just a minister, what could you possibly know about tragedy?”

I watched as my wife miscarried a child six months into her second pregnancy. And let me tell you something – God is good.

We have got to get this down because when you and I learn to praise God in the midst of our circumstances, circumstances can change.

In the book of Habakkuk, the prophet writes these words: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Habakkuk 3:17-18, NIV) When the world was crashing down, Habakkuk praised God

God is good.

2) God is all powerful – God is not an ambulance driver who responds from accident to accident. He is all powerful.

I grew up in California and some times in college, my friends and I would go out to the ocean and if you have ever been to the ocean, you know how much fun a little game called wave jumping can be. My friends and I would go out to just where your head was above the water and would leap over the waves – well, one day I had my back to the waves and was talking to my friend, when his eyes got huge.

I turned around to see what he was looking at and got popped in the face (BAM) by this massive wave that came out of nowhere. I was tugged to the bottom of the ocean floor and then surfaced just long enough to catch my breath before – BAM – right back under and I got drug far along the ocean floor before I finally resurfaced. But I want you to understand that the waves had some serious power to them and it was almost scary how fast the waves’ power had impacted me.

So you think about all the power in the ocean and the Bible says that He holds the waters and the earth in the hollow of his hand

God is all powerful.

3) Bad things happen – When I was in high school, our neighbor that lived behind us had a trampoline. Now, trampolines today are really safe. There’s all kinds of netting and posts around them to keep you from falling off the trampoline onto the ground, but this guy’s trampoline was old-school with no nets and no posts. And we would go to his house to wrestle on the trampoline and engage in the awesome game of double bouncing. And there were times where some of us got hurt on the trampoline. One guy broke his arm one day. Bad things happen.

God isn’t the net around your trampoline. Everyone of us are going to die. Here’s more truth for you: You don’t get to pick when either. We are going to experience legitimate tragedy. Bad things are going to happen because there’s evil in the world.

Some of you would push back and say - So why doesn’t God eliminate evil? The problem with that is if he did it today at 12:00, none of us would be here at 12:01. See, we want God to take everybody else’s ability to choose but we don’t want him to take away ours.

If we were to bring you onstage and let you tell about the tragic situation that haunts you, by the end of your story, we would all be weeping because what happened to you is legitimately a bad thing in your mind and I’m not going to diminish that, but I want to share with you two things that are essential for us to learn as a church body about this.

1) God does not punish His children, He prepares them.

Some of you were taught that any time something bad happened in your life, it was because you did something bad and God is punishing you. In the book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ended up in the fire because they were being obedient to God. They didn’t do anything wrong to end up there, they were obediently following the sovereign will of God. Jesus didn’t do anything wrong to end up on the cross he was obediently following the sovereign will of God.

Sometimes we experience tragedy and bad things because we’re doing exactly what God wants us to do. The liberating truth is this: when you experience bad things, it’s not because God is punishing you – he is preparing you.

Turn in your bibles to 1 Samuel 17:34 – 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. (1 Samuel 17:34a, NIV)

David kept his father’s sheep. So let me put it into a modern context. Do we have any dog lovers here? I mean like let the dog kiss you in the mouth dog lovers?

A shepherd loved his sheep. Now, David was about 17-18 years old. David’s Facebook or Twitter status would have read, “hanging with the sheep.” I don’t know about you, but I have never known a 17-18 year old that just loved to hang out with sheep.

Look at the rest of verse 34 – When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, (1 Samuel 17:34b, NIV) Now, I want to make this very clear to you. Don’t ever call someone else’s tragedy a non-tragedy. What we see as not a big deal for one person may be a massive deal for someone else.

When a bear or lion carried off a sheep, to David, it was a tragedy.

At this point David could have sunk to the ground and cried and complained and allowed his tragedy to define him for the rest of his life. If you stay there, you’re never going to become the person God wants you to be. But look at what David did – this is crazy.

35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.” (1 Samuel 17:35a, NIV)

Picture this scene. David’s hanging out, a lion steals the sheep, and David is stunned. Then he sits up and says, Uh-uh, you don’t take my sheep. He goes after the lion, smacks it and takes back the sheep.

David refused to allow tragedy to define him. He said, I’m not going to sit here in the sheep pen and whine and complain and tell God how mean he is. He said I’m going to go smack the lion in the mouth.

If David stays in the sheep pen, guess what happens – we never read the story of David and Goliath because he’s mad at God for the rest of his life.

Sometimes we are so intimidated by our tragedy, we won’t go after it, but look what happens next.

35 – When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. (1 Samuel 17:35b, NIV)

The lion gets back-handed, and turns on David and David grabs it by its hair and puts it to death. Now that’s a bad dude. David had to have some guts to do that.

David refused to let his tragedy define him and he went after the tragedy because he says, I don’t have to be intimidated by my tragedy, and I don’t have to be defined by my tragedy.

We can either be defined by our tragedy, or we can be defined by our triumph.

1 Peter 5:8 tells us that the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion. See the Devil will roar at you through your tragedy and say “If God loves you, why would he let that happen”

I challenge you to step up and smack the lion in the mouth because he can roar, but he has no teeth because Jesus kicked them out on the cross.

Verses 36-37 – 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you. (1 Samuel 17:36-37, NIV)

God was not punishing David with the lion and the bear, God was preparing him to face Goliath. God was not punishing you when THAT happened to you. He was preparing you to face the giants that would come at you in your life.

You stop letting your tragedy define you and let Jesus’ triumph define you.

Romans 8:28 says this: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28, NIV)

I don’t know how God can bring good out of that tragedy, but I know that he can bring good out of your tragedy.

2) Crucifixion leads to resurrection

Jesus didn’t have an easy life. For his Birth – he went to Bethlehem and they couldn’t even find a Motel 6. He was born in horrible conditions. 2-3 Years old – Herod ordered the murder of every child under a certain age. Jesus had to escape to Egypt.

We don’t know at what age, but biblical evidence suggests that Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph died somewhere between the ages of 12-30 of Jesus. Tragedy.

Jesus was thought of as an illegitimate child in his own village. That’s tragic. At the start of Jesus’ ministry – After the first sermon Jesus had ever preached in the book of Luke, they grabbed him and hauled him to the cliff to throw him off.

There was a group of men who traveled around, criticized and for three years did nothing but plot how they would try to kill him.

At the Last Supper – One of his closest friends betrayed him – tragedy. In the Garden when Jesus was praying, His friends couldn’t even stay awake with Him while he prayed and then when the soldiers showed up, they all deserted and abandoned him.

He was arrested, and they spit on him, mocked him, ripped his beard out, and smashed a crown of thorns down on and into his head.

At his trial he was flogged. If you have ever seen the movie the Passion of the Christ, that’s as close a representation of what actually happened as I have ever seen.

Then they forced him to carry his cross uphill, they put nails in his wrist, nails in his feet and for six hours he hung on a cross and endured separation from the father so that you and I could be made right with God, but we would look at that and say that was tragic.

They took him down after he died, wrapped his body, and placed him in a borrowed tomb.

And every time someone walked by on Friday and Saturday, people thought it was a tragedy, but Sunday Morning, tragedy turned into triumph. Through our Lord and Savior, tragedy became triumph because crucifixion leads to resurrection, tragedy leads to triumph

And if Christ can move from tragedy to triumph, his followers can as well.

Some of you today, it’s time to get out of the sheep pen. Your hurt is real but in Christ we move towards greater things, not because we’re so good, but because he is so powerful.

Quickly look at Isaiah 43:1-3 – 1 But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; (Fear not is repeated 366 times in the Bible. We don’t have to fear because God has redeemed us.)

I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, (Not if. You will experience tragedy) I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, (I’m not going to deliver you from that tragedy, but I will walk with you through it.) you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; (Isaiah 43:1-3, NIV)

Give me any tragedy plus Jesus and I’ll go.

And as an added incentive, Hebrews 13:5 offers us this promise, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5b, NASB)

God paid a high price for us. It cost him his own Son. And because we are so valuable to him, because the price he paid for us was so high, he promises that he’ll never leave us. He’ll always be with us. He was willing to desert his Son so he wouldn’t have to desert you. He was willing to forsake his son so he wouldn’t have to forsake you.

This means that, no matter what you are going through, you’re not going through it alone. God is there. He is with you. But he is not just present. He isn’t a spectator on the sidelines. He is actively involved in your life. There are times when you may not see this. There are times when God seems silent. He may be silent, but he is not absent. In the tough times, he may be testing you. He may be teaching you. But he has not abandoned you. He promised that he would never do that.

Brian Morrissey

Tags: abandon, crucifixion, Death By Love, fear not, good, Jesus, resurrection, tragedy, triumph