Summary

The darkness experienced for six hours one Friday is God’s commentary on the sin and the evil that is being judged at the cross. It is chilling and eerie. It’s the kind of darkness that has mothers reaching for their children and grown men with the hair standing up on the back of their neck.

Sermon Questions

1. Talk about a time in your life when you felt abandoned. In that moment did you reach out for God? If so, how did God respond?
2. Have you ever been in a moment of supernatural darkness where you felt isolated from God and every other human being? Explain how that moment felt to you.
3. This statement was made in the sermon..."Could it be, as one man put it, that in this moment on the cross, Jesus became every liar, every thief, every murderer, every rapist, every idolater, every molester, every drunk, every abuser, every stingy, greedy soul who ever lived?" He bore our sins. He became sin for us. How does that make you feel?
4. Martin Luther stated… “God forsaking God; no man can understand that.” This word from the cross is a hard word. What in your opinion makes this word so difficult?
5. Don’t lose the hope in the pathos of this cry. Don’t quote this as an endorsement to give up or to quit. Jesus didn’t. He died so well that the Centurion said of Jesus, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.” This word has some hope in it—hope for Jesus; hope for you and me. What is the hope that is found from this cry from the cross?