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My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?   What words of anguish we hear in our Lord Jesus’ cry on the cross! My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Surely our mind is filled with questions when we consider this cry of our Lord. For this very word forsaken is a word full of woe.  The word forsaken is defined as “To leave altogether; to desert; to abandon; to depart or withdraw from”.  Why would God forsake his loving, faithful, and righteous son?  Why would God abandon the one who has been most faithful to Him?  Surely, we could understand if God forsook the wicked, but why the Christ? What is the answer to Jesus’ question?  Why is God forsaking him?

Passage: Psalm 22; Matthew 27:27-54
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Good Friday Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/21/2008 in Novato, CA.

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O Lord, Save Us! – A Palm Sunday Sermon

Our sermon for today is on Psalm 118, which was the psalm that was taken up on the lips of the Jews and applied to Jesus during the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday.  In our reading from Matthew we saw that the crowd of Jews exclaimed, “Hosanna,” meaning, “save” or “save now”.  They exclaimed “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!  Hosanna in the highest!”  And so as we celebrate Palm Sunday today, and remember the start of what is often called the Passion Week or the Holy Week, it is quite fitting that we consider this psalm today.  This psalm was in the back of the minds of those who cried out to Jesus on that Palm Sunday some 2000 years ago.  And so as we look at this psalm, we’ll learn a little bit more about what may have been in the mind of those Jews who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday.  But more importantly, as we analyze this psalm and understand its meaning, we’ll see how it ultimately finds its fulfillment in Christ and the cross.

Passage: Psalm 118
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/16/2008 in Novato, CA.
Other Scripture Readings: Matthew 21:1-17; 1 Peter 2:1-10

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Coming Boldly to the Throne of Grace

Passage: Hebrews 4:14-16
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 01/20/2008 in Novato, CA.

Our sermon for today is our third and final sermon in our series on the means of grace. Prayer in some sense might seem a bit different as a means of grace than the others. In the Word and Sacraments, the emphasis clearly is on God’s initiation. In the Word, God speaks first to us. In the Sacraments, a minister, who is a representative of God, administers the sacrament to us. But in prayer, we come to God. In prayer, according to the WSC, we come to him, “offering up our desires to God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies” (WSC 98). And yet, though there is a sense in which prayer may seem like something we initiate, our passage for today reminds us that even prayer is an ordinance of God. Even our prayer is something that he ultimately initiates, because he has commanded us to pray. Our prayers are even effective because of the work Christ has done in redeeming us and reconciling us to God. And so in the words here of Hebrews 4:16, we are called by God to “come boldly to the throne of grace.” And so, even in prayer, we find that this is God’s gracious provision for us.

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Participation in the Body and Blood of Christ

Passage: 1 Corinthians 10:1-22
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 01/13/2008 in Novato, CA.

This morning’s sermon is continuing our 3 week series where we have been looking at the means of grace.  Last week we looked at the Word of God as we read in 1 Corinthians 1 about the power of preaching Christ crucified.  This week we are looking at the sacraments, and next week we’ll look at prayer.

And yet when we turn to this passage in 1 Corinthians 10, you should notice right away that this is not a doctrinal discussion on the Lord’s Supper.  Actually the passage is about idolatry.  But as Paul deals with this problem of idolatry among the Corinthians he points back to the Lord’s Supper, showing how the Supper calls them away from idolatry and to Christ.  And as Paul mentions the Supper, we learn about some of its importance for the life and ministry of the church.  And so to that end, as we examine what this passage is saying with regards to the Corinthians and idolatry, we’ll ultimately see what it tells us about the Lord’s Supper and its importance for the church.

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