“There are moments that transform the course of history…
• Without Easter, without the resurrection, we’re of all men hopeless… and the world is rudderless in finding the true Messiah and our Creator…
Psalm 22
• This is Jesus’ desperate cry as He feels overwhelmed on the cross, feeling a sense of separation from God the Father that He’d never known before… Though God’s presence is everywhere, in those final moments, the protective presence of God was removed from Him…
• And though he had never sinned and would never taste sin, he took upon himself the sins of the whole world as a sin offering given at our place… He took upon His back the weight and the justice of our sin…
Jesus can identify with those feelings when it feels like Heaven’s doors are closed… Though He didn’t feel heard, He knew He was… we cannot allow our feelings to dictate our prayer life…
The very fact he was on the cross reflects His trust in the Lord… He cried out to the Lord in the garden the night before, sweating great drops of blood, asking the Father that this cup would pass from him… And God’s answer, God the Father’s answer was that the cup would not pass, that He would have to die on the cross… and He trusted the Father… He was in fact dying to deliver all of humanity, to rescue all of humanity… He truly did delight in the Lord, and trusted the Father…
Jesus again reminds Himself of the nature and character of His Father… the sense is trust, even in this moment: ‘you’ve heard my prayer, and I trust you to deliver me from the hands of my enemy… and death…’
V22-31 This is a vow to praise the Lord when the deliverance comes…
• (22-25) He anticipates the call to praise and the author was going to join in…
• (25-31) There is an ever growing number of people who will take up the praise of God… a worldwide community from every station in life… from generation to generation is going to praise God…
• “No psalm or prophecy contains a grander vision of the scope of the throng of worshippers who will join in the praise of God’s saving acts”
• The one who rescues and liberates those who trust Him from the eternal results of sin and restores them to a relationship with God… He gathers around himself brothers, and together they honor God… together we honor God as He gathers us around Himself…
• Jesus rises from the depths of this despair, and is restored to joy and peace…
V24 “nor has He hidden His face from Him” God the Father may have seemed passive in this moment of history, but He wasn’t… Every pain Jesus endured, every suffering, The Father sympathized with… Jesus would suffer greatly, but following His suffering, His reward would be great…
Philippians 2:8-11
V30-31 God is calling us to do something in the celebration… “It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation” … children and adults alike need to know about the Lord…
• The church is founded on the rock of Christ, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it… the church will go through seasons of waxing and waning, but there will always be a church… Don’t allow the world’s current situation to cause you to lose hope, He is still God… I’ve read the back of the book, He’s going to win…
• The Father would fully vindicate the Son… And 2000 years later here in Hays KS we’re declaring His good work…
Hebrews 12:1-2
If you’re here today and you know Christ, your part of that joy… Along with seeing the glory of the Father accomplished, part of that glory is born out in us when we receive Jesus, Jesus came to “seek and save those that were lost…”
• Jesus ultimately did triumph… and because of His resurrection we don’t stay in the grave when we pass from this life… but we have a Heavenly home…”