Year 2 Day 151

Year 2 Day 151

Pray (AC-ts)

Read — Matthew 27:45-50 and Psalm 88

Message Alan Burke 

“First posted Year 1 Day 120 - 19 July 20”
There are times that I cannot even begin to imagine what the person I pastor is going through, I do not try to give the answers, I do not try to give advice, all I do is listen. When there is opportunity to do so I take them to the one who can sympathise with all our weakness Jesus Christ our Lord (Heb. 4:15). He can sympathise with our weakness because he lived as one of us, experienced the things that we experience. In all the hardships that befall on us, whatever our weakness, we know the compassion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who will accompany us through it all. Not only that, in whatever we face he has concern for us and he can relieve our sufferings, helping us through all that we face. Knowing this should be an encouragement to us all, that God incarnate, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man can sympathise with our weakness. 

What is more Jesus experienced the wrath of God so that we may escape it. We read from Matthew 27:45-50, a passage that is normally used at Good Friday services and more often than not the focus is on how he was spat on (Mt 26:67), flogged, received a crown of thorns (Jn 19:1-2) and was mocked (Mt 27:31) and nailed to a cross (Mt 27:35). As awful as these things were, they were nothing in comparison to what happened on the cross, for after several hours, when the end was near, Jesus cried out …“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Mt 27:46). There he experienced something worse than we can even begin to imagine, he was forsaken, for there he bore upon himself our sin so that we can have his righteousness, he suffered in our place, the wrath of God. He who knew no sin became sin for us ( 2 Cor 5:21), he bore the curse for us (Gal 3:13). We cannot fully grasp this cry, how the trine God suffered separation, yet in it we know that we have a saviour who knew what it was to be forsaken, who can sympathise with our weakness. 

I do not know what you face this day but I know that in what ever we face we have a Saviour who is compassionate towards us, is concerned for us, who is with us through it all. If you feel forsaken at times then know if you have trusted in the saviour your are not forsaken, he will never leave us nor forsake us. Man of sorrows what a name, for the Son of God, who came, ruined sinners to reclaim: Hallelujah, what a Saviour! 

Pray (ac-TS)

Sing 

WSC 
Q39 What is the duty which God requireth of man?
The duty which God requireth of man, is obedience to his revealed will. (Mic. 6:8, 1 Sam. 15:22)
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