[0:00] So, this is Easter, right? This is Resurrection Sunday. This is the day we focus on the significance of a risen, victorious Savior.
[0:14] So, why today are we focusing in Mark on his death? Can't we just skip forward? Well, I want you to recognize and remember, and this will make sense to you, that the resurrection is meaningless apart from his death.
[0:36] His death and resurrection together is the good news. Without both of them, his death and resurrection, our faith is futile, and we are still in our sins.
[0:52] It is the meaning and purpose of Jesus' death that makes the resurrection so glorious. Not only was his resurrection a triumph, his death was a triumph.
[1:06] His death was a victory. It is by his death that we are saved. We are saved by his redemption at the cross, his justification at the cross, his reconciliation at the cross.
[1:19] Can I add a bunch of other Asian words? Propitiation and sanctification. All of that work was done at the cross.
[1:31] So, in Mark 15, so far, as we've been walking through this gospel, we have seen in this chapter Jesus rejected by his own people. We have seen him condemned to death by the governor, the Roman governor.
[1:46] We've seen him mocked by the soldiers and the people. And we see him crucified on a cross, literally nailed to a cross and hung on a tree, which in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy says, cursed is the man who hangs on a tree.
[2:12] Christ becomes a curse. And now, as we come to verse 33 through 39, we see him die. We see his suffering come to an end.
[2:26] We see him finishing all of his work. For he chooses the time of his death. And he does not die until he has fulfilled everything he was to do.
[2:41] He's conscious of that. John tells us, the gospel of John tells us, he's conscious of that on the cross. So as Jesus dies here in Mark 15, we see now, beginning at verse 33, a change in the way he is responded to.
[3:01] Before the responses have been negative. At the end of chapter 14, as he is standing before the Sanhedrin and the high priest is accusing him, the high priest says, are you the Christ, the son of the blessed one?
[3:16] And Jesus boldly says, yes, I am. And you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of glory and coming on the clouds of heaven, to which the high priest responds, blasphemy.
[3:36] So Jesus confesses who he is. The response is negative, blasphemy. Beginning at chapter 15 in Mark, we see that Jesus is before Pilate, the Roman governor who questions him.
[3:50] You are the king of the Jews. And Jesus' response is a bit ambiguous, you say. But then the crowd's response to Pilate, what shall I do with him?
[4:04] The crowd responds, crucify him, crucify him. And then on the cross, at the crucifixion, on the cross, Mark doesn't tell us that he says anything, but the other gospels tell us of seven different sayings Jesus says.
[4:22] And one of those sayings was, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. to which the crowd responds with mocking and taunting, negative responses all throughout this process.
[4:43] But now as we come to verse 33 to 39, it changes. Because with Jesus' last words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[4:54] And then his words, it is finished. And then his words, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Jesus breathes his last.
[5:06] And now there's a, Mark tells us there's a different response. And it's not a response of a Jew, it's a response of a Roman centurion who says, this is the Son of God.
[5:22] A radically different response at his death. What makes Jesus' death so significant? Something that the centurion saw affected him.
[5:36] Something in the way that Jesus dies. And this man, as a centurion, as a leader of the execution squad, has seen many men die.
[5:48] And it was the way Jesus died that caused him to say, this man is different. This man is extraordinary.
[6:02] He is the Son of God. Which for a Roman was saying something. Because they believed in divinity, that their emperors were divine. And he's saying, not Caesar is God, but he's saying, this man who just died in front of me is the Son of God.
[6:23] He didn't mean all that we give significance to that term, but he meant it as the highest praise he could have given. So what is the significance of Jesus' death?
[6:38] What actually happened when he died? Mark shows us two ramifications of Jesus' death.
[6:50] He records two extraordinary signs as Jesus dies that signify for us the meaning of his death. In verse 33, there is darkness, an extraordinary, unusual, three-hour darkness in the middle of the day.
[7:08] And then in verse 38, when Jesus dies, Mark tells us that the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Not a man thing to do because it's 30 feet high.
[7:21] It splits from the top to the bottom. A sign. An unusual, extraordinary event.
[7:32] So these two things, Mark tells us, help us understand what is really going on. The darkness, with the darkness, Jesus cries out, why have you forsaken me?
[7:46] With the veil split, right before that, Jesus had cried out and breathed his last. So we have two signs and two cries from Jesus that link together and help us understand.
[7:57] So let us look at these two signs. First of all, in verse 33, the darkness, the darkness over all the land, which would probably mean the local land of Judea, not a worldwide darkness, until the ninth hour.
[8:16] So from noon till 3 p.m., what we would call 3 p.m. What is this darkness? An unusual darkness. Well, darkness in Scripture indicates God's judgment of sin.
[8:28] See, we understand Christ hanging on the cross. The Scriptures tell us that that means that He's paying our debt. He's bearing our sin.
[8:38] He who was not sin became sin on our behalf. Darkness is God is judging. God is acting. So look at how Mark describes in verse 33.
[8:50] When the sixth hour, 12 noon, had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 3 p.m. So beginning at noon, in the very middle of the day, at the apex of sunlight, darkness comes for three hours.
[9:09] What is happening? What is this? Well, in the Bible, it is a sign of God's judgment, kind of an ominous sign. We remember back in the Old Testament, in Exodus 12, as God is showing sign and plague upon Egypt one after another.
[9:26] The ninth plague, the ninth sign was darkness. And Exodus describes this darkness as so thick that they felt it.
[9:38] They could not see. And for three days, Egypt was covered in darkness. While in the other part of the land, Israel was in light.
[9:48] God had distinguished and was indicating his judgment against Egypt. He's turning out their lights. He's judging the rebellious pride of Pharaoh.
[10:03] Again, we see in Amos 8, Amos is actually a book of the Bible. Perhaps you have not heard of it. It's one of the small prophets, Amos, A-M-O-S. Chapter 8, he talks about God's warning and his warning comes through darkness.
[10:17] A biblical sign when God is dealing with sin. He says in Amos chapter 8, verse 9, And on that day, there's a coming day, God says, on that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
[10:42] I will turn your feast into morning. Now remember, when this darkness comes, this is a feast. This is Passover. This is actually as Jesus dies, the Gospel of John tells us, the very moment Jesus dies is the very moment that they kill the lamb and prepare him for the Passover meal.
[11:05] Rich in significance here. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head.
[11:19] Is baldness bad? Sounds bad here. And I will make it like the morning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
[11:32] So darkness is this physical presence, this physical picture of God's judgment. God turning out the light.
[11:45] Then we see at the ninth hour, verse 34, Jesus cries out in despair. He cries out with a loud voice, Mark tells us.
[11:58] A great voice, a great sound. He's not whispering. He is expressing, feeling, deep emotion, his agony and despair.
[12:11] And you can hear the despair in the question that he asks. Unusual for Jesus to say, my God, usually he's saying, my Father. But here he feels different.
[12:24] This is a very unusual description of Jesus. My God, God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[12:35] Why have you deserted me? Why have you abandoned me? Where are you? Jesus in his humanness at this moment feels separation from the Father that he's never felt before.
[12:50] And it is most likely that when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was this moment that he was asking to have the cup pass.
[13:02] Let this cup pass for me, but not my will, but yours be done. It wasn't the physical suffering I'm convinced that Jesus was afraid of. It's the spiritual suffering, the emotional separation from God, the becoming a curse, becoming sin.
[13:18] All of that was foreign to his mind. And now he's experiencing it. And this experience makes him feel alone. We cannot relate to the depth of this, but we can relate in some way to this.
[13:36] Certainly, we all have felt moments when God was far from us, when God has pulled back from us, when God has separated from us. We cannot get an answer to our prayer.
[13:47] We do not feel his presence. Those are real feelings. The Psalms often express this. As a man, Jesus feels alone, separated from the Father.
[14:07] And what's significant is this very phrase is from Psalm 22, verse 1. So in other words, even in this moment, even as he feels God separated from him, even as he feels alone, Jesus' response is a biblical response.
[14:29] Even in a moment of agony, he's crying out a biblical prayer. He is quoting scripture. He's thinking scripture.
[14:39] In these moments where he feels like the Father has pulled back. Why? Because he has become sin. Because he has become the curse.
[14:53] Jesus cries this out. Now, we ask a question. Doesn't Jesus understand what's going on? His question is, like he's bewildered, like he doesn't understand.
[15:06] Why have you forsaken me? This isn't a logical question. It's an emotional question. Of course Jesus understood what was going on. He knew what was in store for him when he went to the cross.
[15:19] Earlier in Mark 10, he had said, the son goes to lay down his life as a ransom for others. I know I have come not to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for others.
[15:34] In the upper room when he talks about the table, he talks about the bread and the cup. He changes the meaning of those words of Passover to the bread is now my body, which is for you, and the cup is now my blood, the blood of the covenant, which covers sin.
[15:52] So did Jesus know what he was doing? Yes. This question of why, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's not a logical question. It's not a question of misunderstanding.
[16:07] It's a question of feeling. It's what he feels in the moment. He is, see, a true man. He is fully experiencing what we experience.
[16:21] And his experience of this kind of forsakenness is much deeper than we would ever know, though we have those feelings too. And so when we have those feelings too, guess who gets it?
[16:36] Jesus gets it. He gets it. He's been there and experienced it to the utmost. Then it lets out this cry of despair.
[16:51] Some of the bystanders hear it and think that he's calling for Elijah. He's calling for a deliverer. Eli, Eli. See, in Hebrew or Aramaic, actually he was, Jesus was speaking.
[17:06] Mark gives us an Aramaic translation, which was the language of the day. That was the language Jesus spoke every day with his fellow Jews. He spoke in Aramaic.
[17:17] Jesus also knew Hebrew and he also spoke Greek because to speak with Romans and Gentiles, you spoke Greek. That was what everybody spoke. But here, in his intimate moment, he's just speaking his regular everyday language of Aramaic.
[17:34] Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. You gotta spit when you say that. Hebrew. And Aramaic is kind of an offshoot of Hebrew.
[17:45] It's very, very similar. And so when you read Psalm 22, it sounds just like that. But what the bystanders hear is Eli.
[18:01] He's saying, my God. El, God, I, my. Eli, my God. But they hear Eli. Like Elijah.
[18:12] He's calling Elijah. So they mistakenly hear him. They still misunderstand his words. They think he's calling for Elijah.
[18:25] Now, why would he call for Elijah? Well, the Jews expected Elijah to return. Remember, he was one of those characters in the Old Testament that apparently did not die.
[18:37] When he returned to heaven, remember, he went in a chariot of fire and he goes up in a whirlwind into heaven. So an unusual person.
[18:50] And then at the end of the Old Testament, Malachi tells us that God would send on the day, before the day of the Lord, he will send Elijah. And so clearly, they're expecting Elijah to come back.
[19:02] So why this mention of Elijah? Well, in the Gospel of Mark, Elijah by name is mentioned nine times. He's kind of a regular recurring theme.
[19:13] Back in chapter six, when they asked, when Jesus asked, who do people say that John the Baptist is? Well, some think he's Elijah. Some think he's the prophet.
[19:25] Later in chapter eight, when Jesus asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? Some say, you're John the Baptist back to life. Some say, you're Elijah. Some say, you're prophet. Some say, you're the Christ.
[19:36] They keep bringing up Elijah. at the transfiguration in Mark chapter nine. Who is it that appears with Jesus on the mount? It is Moses and Elijah, the lawgiver and the prophet of God.
[19:53] So Elijah keeps showing up and Jesus confirmed in chapter nine that yes, Elijah would come back and restore all things. And by the way, he already came and links him to John the Baptist was that Elijah who came.
[20:13] So here, we have this odd statement about this Elijah and someone goes and fills a sponge and gives Jesus sour wine, which was kind of a stimulant.
[20:24] It was actually the wine that the soldiers had nearby. It was cheap wine, kind of a refreshing drink, a little bit of a stimulant in it, kind of a Red Bull kind of thing.
[20:37] So it was what the soldiers drank and someone takes a sponge and dips it in their jar. Apparently, they gave permission and then reaches up. So Jesus was high up. Since they had to take a rod and extend it up, he was high up.
[20:49] Normally, they're right down on the ground, but apparently for some reason Jesus was hung higher. Perhaps Pilate wanted him to be seen above all others. So he extends, and Jesus takes the drink.
[21:02] And perhaps that's where the other gospels talk about Jesus says, I thirst. And maybe it's to that response, I don't know. Mark doesn't tell us. He just mentions this.
[21:15] Well, where does that leave us? Well, these people were wrong. Jesus was not calling for Elijah. His call was to his father.
[21:26] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And as I was thinking about this whole picture of darkness, the picture of judgment, the picture of God dealing with sin, some people would say, I don't think a loving God would do that.
[21:51] How can God be loving and torture his son? God? Why would God do? I don't believe in that kind of God.
[22:02] Some people say that. Well, you have to recognize that God is God. And he is not only forgiving and loving and merciful and gracious, he is also holy and righteous and just.
[22:23] Otherwise, he would not be God if he was just loving and let everything go. He's not a God I want to worship. Often we talk about, I want justice for this.
[22:36] So people complain either way. How come these bad things happen, but we want a loving God? Well, what is that? How can God be a loving God and do this whole darkness and judgment thing?
[22:49] Well, listen to what Paul says in Romans 5. Paul says that God actually shows his love in this very thing. Romans 5.
[22:59] 8 says God shows his love for us. How? In that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[23:11] It's a demonstration of his love that Jesus died in darkness and agony. It's a demonstration of love. Since, therefore, Paul says, we have now been justified, in other words, declared righteous by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
[23:33] In other words, what we deserve. Paul says, if while we were enemies, were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
[23:47] In other words, Paul's saying, the death of Jesus reconciles us to God, brings us peace with God. His resurrection brings us salvation, the completion.
[24:01] Those two are linked. So why does God, how can a loving God do this? It is his love for sinners that does this.
[24:14] He pours out his holy judgment on his son, who willingly, willingly takes our place to pay our debt.
[24:26] This is a holy, just God who cannot ignore rebellion, who cannot ignore rejection. And so God, in his wisdom, is able to save and forgive sinners by sending his son to take our place.
[24:49] That's the meaning of the cross. His love. That's not how we would make it up. It's not how we would think of it.
[25:00] Only God would think of this. So the first sign we see that Mark shows us the significance of Jesus' death is in this darkness, in this picture of judgment that Jesus is bearing in our behalf.
[25:15] life. And now we come to verse 37, we see a second sign, a torn veil, a torn curtain in the temple. And this torn curtain in the temple, what does that tell us?
[25:27] It proclaims to us that now open to us is the access to God the Father. Before we were shut out, now the curtain has been removed, and now we go behind and into the very presence of God.
[25:42] the torn veil proclaims access with God never before had. But first we see, Mark tells us, verse 37, first we see Christ surrendering with his cry.
[25:59] Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. Again, it's loud. Now, those who have studied crucifixion tell us that this would be extremely unusual, that at the death for a crucified man to have the strength to utter a loud cry.
[26:22] Because typically, those who are crucified die of utter exhaustion. They lack breath, they lack strength, they've been hanging on so long.
[26:34] now. How does Jesus have strength to cry out with a loud cry? And we know what he said. He said things like, it is finished.
[26:48] And Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. But how could he say it with a loud voice? I'm convinced that Jesus chose the moment of his death.
[27:00] I'm convinced that he, it didn't just, he was a victim. I'm convinced that he, as he said in John 10, no one takes my life from me.
[27:11] I lay it down of my own initiative. I lay it down. John says that he, or Mark here says that he breathed his last.
[27:24] Literally, he breathed out. He expires. He lets go a cry. The gospel of John tells us that right before Jesus cried, John tells us that Jesus, knowing that he had fulfilled all of scripture, down to the last one saying, I thirst, and getting the sponge fed to him.
[27:48] Then Jesus said, it is finished. And John tells us he breathes his last. Matthew says, literally, he let go his spirit.
[28:03] He's choosing to let go his spirit. Luke says, he makes a statement. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
[28:13] So he's choosing to let go. He chooses to die. And he dies.
[28:25] Jesus. Then we're told in verse 38, something absolutely extraordinary happens. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
[28:42] The curtain in the temple. What is that curtain? It was a curtain, a veil. Book of Exodus describes that it was to be made with yarn, rich colors, blue, violet, scarlet, all woven together.
[29:03] And then as well as those colors, to be woven into that was also images of cherubim, the heavenly angels, the cherubim.
[29:17] why this color? Why these colors? What do those colors remind you of? Blue, violet, scarlet?
[29:27] Where do you see those colors? Where do you see those colors? Rainbow, sunset, sunrise, sky, heaven.
[29:38] Where are cherubim? Heaven. heaven. This veil, this curtain is a picture, as the whole temple is, a picture of heaven.
[29:51] In other words, if you go past this curtain, you are going into heaven. You are going into the very presence of God. And we know that behind that curtain is what? It's called the Holy of Holies.
[30:03] Remember the temple. I don't have as much room because the cameras now. So you enter into the temple, you get into the farthest outer court, which is the court of the Gentiles. They're the farthest away from the Holy of Holies.
[30:15] You come then, if you're a woman of Israel, you can come past the Gentiles into the court of women. If you're then a man of Israel, you can go a little bit further into the court of Israel. If you're a priest, then you can go a little bit further into the actual temple where you enter and on the right is the table where they put the bread of the presence.
[30:36] You have the, in front of the curtain, you have the table of incense, which is symbolic of prayer going up right before the presence of God. And over on the other side, you have the seven, seven, something lampstand, seven branch, lampstand, the light of God.
[30:55] So you have those things, and the priest would go in daily into that first part. He would put out the bread, make sure that the candles are lit, make sure that the incense is burning.
[31:10] But they did not go past that because there is that curtain that separates where the priest did daily work from God's presence where sat what?
[31:23] What was behind that curtain? What's the last big piece of furniture? The Ark of the Covenant. And on the Ark of the Covenant, remember, are the cherubim over the Ark where the mercy seat sits, where only once a year, remember, just one priest, the high priest, would go in on the Day of Atonement, bring blood, sprinkle blood, and people's sins would be covered for another year.
[31:50] So this is the temple. So imagine now, you go in, now only a priest would have seen this curtain split because the outer curtain, isn't the one the book of Hebrews tells us was the one that was split.
[32:05] It would have been in the inner one. And how significant for a priest to enter doing his daily things on that day to see suddenly he can see the Ark. And there on the Ark, God says, is his holy presence.
[32:24] And remember, the high priest didn't go in there without a rope tied to him in case he went in and stopped living because no one's going in after him. They drag him out.
[32:37] Suddenly it's open. And if this unusual act happened, no doubt the priest would come out of the temple screaming, the veil is torn and word would spread rapidly.
[32:54] What is it with this curtain curtain being split? When Christ dies, God acts and splits the curtain.
[33:07] What is the significance of this? The veil is that which separates man from God. The message of the veil is stay out and stay alive.
[33:19] Do not come near. This is holy ground. ground. Do not come at any time. It bars access.
[33:32] And so the picture is once the veil is split, what is the message? It's clearly you're no longer barred from access. Access is wide open.
[33:46] This is what Paul described, or not Paul, whoever wrote the book of Hebrews, probably Barnabas. Hebrews 10 describes the significance of the curtain, what it means. He writes, therefore, brothers, listen to his language, since we have confidence to enter the holy places.
[34:06] He's talking about entering into the presence of God. He's talking about that picture of the temple. Since we have confidence, confidence to enter the holy places, by what?
[34:18] By the blood of Jesus, by the new, this is new, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, the veil, that big piece of cloth that was split in two, that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh.
[34:44] There's the real curtain. The curtain in the temple was just a symbolic one, the curtain of Jesus' flesh was the real curtain that was split and allows us to have access to God.
[35:00] We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, that is Jesus, the great priest, what's the ramification?
[35:15] Let us draw near. Let us come. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. It's okay to come with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
[35:31] It means more. Since Christ has opened the gate, let us also hold fast the confession of our hope. We have hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.
[35:42] And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some and is the habit of us right now, not by intention.
[36:01] But normally we want to gather together. Why? Because we're a body, because we are Christ's body. We are his representatives. We need to encourage one another and stir up one another to love.
[36:16] See, in other words, what the writer of Hebrews is saying is because Jesus died, we are welcome into the presence of God. We have hope and we have a local body of other believers and brothers and sisters who encourage us and we encourage them.
[36:39] And that's what Rick was talking about today. We're still doing that even though we can't physically be together. We can still text and email and other things that people do with their technology.
[36:50] You still call. You use a phone. You can still do that. You can still write letters. You can still do that. Now, finally, I want you to notice the reaction in verse 39.
[37:03] after Jesus breathes his last, the curtain is torn, there's a reaction and a confession that Jesus is the Son of God.
[37:20] Lord, this is done by a centurion. We see in verse 39, when the centurion, who would have been about equal to a captain to our ranks, a captain, his name means commander of a hundred people, hundred men.
[37:40] In this case, he is captain of four men, who is the execution squad. So he's standing there. In other words, he's a witness. And when the centurion who stood facing him, that's his job, to watch the victim, to watch the execution, to ensure that it is carried out, to ensure that the man dies.
[38:01] He's watching him. And Mark says, when he stood facing him, he saw that in this way, Jesus breathed his last.
[38:18] He saw how Jesus died. Now, remember, this is a Gentile. This is not one of the Jews. This is not a believer.
[38:29] This is simply a Roman soldier. He's a Gentile. He's an outsider. How often is it in the Gospels we see outsiders coming to Jesus? You know, instead of the Jews, it's like the...
[38:40] And by the way, centurions are portrayed very favorably by the Gospels. We have a centurion who came to Jesus, remember, who said, I'm not worthy for you to come to my house.
[38:50] Just say the word and my servant will be healed. Later in Acts, we have the centurion Cornelius, who's a believer. And then later, Paul has a centurion in the boat with him on the shipwreck, Julius.
[39:04] Time over time, we have these centurions popping up in the Gospels and in the Scriptures that are shown favorably. Interesting. So here is another one. We don't know if he's connected to one of the...
[39:17] Does this turn out to be Cornelius? Is this... We're not told that. Likely if it was, we would have his name. But here's another outsider.
[39:27] He sees how Jesus died and is affected, is stirred, is moved.
[39:40] He has not seen anything like this. He has witnessed hundreds of deaths, no death. And the way Jesus dies is absolutely unique.
[39:53] Was it all that went on? Is it the darkness that was there? Is it the words Jesus says from the cross? Is it just the manner of Jesus and yielding his life?
[40:05] We're not told exactly what. He just says how how he died. Caused him to confess truly, truly, actually, in contrast with appearances.
[40:22] What's really going on? In other words, he's saying truly. What's really going on is not just some poor victim dying. What's truly going on, what's the real reality, is this man is the son of God.
[40:36] That's his conclusion. That's what's really going on. Now, you can dismiss that. You can dismiss that. It's just unique, I think, that Mark has an outside Gentile centurion proclaim the theme of his gospel.
[40:55] We haven't seen the term son of God since verse one of the gospel of John where he says this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God.
[41:05] And then after that, he doesn't say anything until we come to the end of chapter 15 here. Just interesting how Mark is writing. This man is not like any other.
[41:16] He's an extraordinary man. Something about him tells me this is the son of God. He was moved and stirred. So let me ask you, does the death of Jesus move you?
[41:33] Does it stir you? Are you affected by his voluntarily bearing of our sin?
[41:44] Does that affect you? Does it move you? Do you believe that he died in the place of rebels? That in fact he died died for you?
[41:57] Do you believe that? If you're not sure, I would ask you to pray. Ask God to show you truth. Ask him, if you sense a need in your heart, to change your heart.
[42:11] Ask him to change your heart. Ask him to give you eyes to see. Ask him to take your sin. And to give you peace. And to give you peace. And to give you hope.
[42:22] To show you the meaning of Christ's death. Ask him if God is moving in you. So how do we know that his death is so significant?
[42:36] How do we know that this darkness really was God judging sin? How do we know that the torn veil in the temple really does mean we have open access to God? How do we know that comes true?
[42:48] Three days later, he dies on Thursday. He's in the grave three days and three nights. And on the first day of the week, he rose again.
[43:01] He rose again. His resurrection confirms that the Father accepted his sacrifice. That the Father glorifies him and lifts him up.
[43:16] That our sins are forgiven. That our debt is paid. That Jesus fully fulfilled the law in our behalf.
[43:28] And he exchanges with us. He takes our sin. And he gives us his righteousness. An incredible exchange.
[43:39] This is the good news. His death has meaning. His death is a victory that saves us from separation with God.
[43:53] It saves us from guilt. It saves us from destruction. It saves us from meaninglessness. It saves us from hopelessness. His death brings life.
[44:06] It brings peace. It brings living hope. Not just a, I wish I had hope. He is risen.
[44:18] Yeah, okay, okay. You're still awake. Okay, good, good, good. Let's pray and then we'll sing our final song. Father, we thank you for your immeasurable grace, your amazing wisdom.
[44:32] We thank you that in this horrifying to our eyes picture of Jesus' suffering is a demonstration of how much you love sinners.
[44:48] You love sinners. And you would go to this extent to send your son. And Jesus would go to the extent of humbling himself.
[44:58] and willingly bearing and paying and winning our freedom.
[45:13] We thank you. Lift up Jesus before our eyes this day and the days to come. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.