Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing Bible study in the book of Luke. We're in chapter
23 this morning. And in our last lesson, we were
in chapter 23, verse 43, where the thief on the cross that turned
to the Lord and said, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. And the Lord said unto him, verily
I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
And we spent the time last time looking over how that came to
be, what caused that thief in particular to turn to the Lord
and the appointment that he had with the gospel there on the
cross. And then we looked at that term paradise and what that
meant. An interesting word there. It kind of gives a sense to be
lofty, to be lifted up. And there's various terms that
we found in the Scriptures. We didn't get a chance to look
into all of them last time, but sometimes it's referred to as
the City of God, or Mount Zion, or Heaven, and all those things. And then we have the interesting
one where Jesus is speaking about the poor man and Lazarus. the rich man in Lazarus, and
he said he was gone to Abraham's bosom. Interesting term there. And that bosom, we find that
that's where the Apostle John was one that was at that Last
Supper, and he was like leaning on Jesus' bosom. And that gives
us that sense of a place of security, a place of comfort, a place of
trust. And we find all those things
in Christ. And so maybe we decided that
maybe paradise isn't so much of a place as a state of being
with Christ. And in Revelation, You know,
a lot of the things that we take for granted and we try to assign
those kind of thoughts and ideas to the hereafter, but in Revelation
it says there's no sun there because Jesus is the light thereof. And there's no temple there because
Jesus is the temple. And so we find He fulfills all
those things. that we kind of look to in a
physical sense, he fulfills all those things in a spiritual sense
for us. And so wherever he is, for us,
that's where paradise is. And so maybe it's a state of
being with him more than it's a Oh, I'm going to my mansion
in the sky, or I'm going to my little cabin in the... Everybody
has their idea what heaven is, you know, and maybe it's not
so much how we think it is as how it will be when we're with
the Lord. Now, they're on the cross, and
the three of them have been crucified there. We're taking up our record
here in Luke 23, verse 44. And it was about the sixth hour,
and there was darkness all over the earth until the ninth hour.
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent
in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, He said, Father, into my hands I commend my spirit.
And having said thus, He gave up the ghost. Now when the centurion
saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was
a righteous man. And all the people that came
together to that site, beholding the things which were done, smote
their breasts and returned. And all his acquaintance and
the women that followed him from Galilee stood far off, beholding
these things." And that's kind of the portion that we're going
to cover today. the end of chapter 23 and the beginning of 24 cover
all the elements of the gospel that's written about. And Paul,
the Apostle Paul simplified, he summed it up, the simplicity
of the gospel of God in Christ in 1 Corinthians 15, for I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, now that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that's what
we just read taking place. physically in time there in Luke
23. And that he was buried. And that
comes along here at the end of chapter 23, where Joseph of Arimathea
begs the body of Christ and And we'll look at that in a bit
here. And that he rose again the third
day, all according to the scriptures. That's from 1 Corinthians 15,
3 and 4. And then Paul, as Norm mentioned
here, I think it was Wednesday night. that the Apostle Paul
was declaring the Gospel. In Romans 1, verse 1, he said
he was a servant of Christ called to be an apostle, separated unto
the Gospel, or designated or assigned to be a preacher of
the Gospel. of God, and then we have a parenthetical
statement that says, which He had promised, that's God the
Father had promised, afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
So all those Old Testament prophecies that we have in all the Scriptures
about Christ, starting with Genesis and all the way through. which he had aforepromised by
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh." And here's an interesting part that we won't have time
to delve into that here. And then since I'm going to be
gone for a while, it might be a while before we look at this,
but he says, and declared to be the son of God with power,
according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead. So the resurrection accomplished
something. The resurrection stated something. The resurrection declared something,
that He was the Son of God with power according to the Spirit
of holiness. So those things that Paul declared
are being in our text in Luke chapter 23, and we find in Matthew
27 and John 19 and Mark 15, those things recorded for us that are
taking place at that time. And in this text that we have
recorded by Luke, this very gospel, the events of the death of Jesus
on the cross, lifted up suspended between God and man, the daisman,
the one who could lay a hand on his both, that was foretold
from the beginning. And so Luke here gives us a brief
description of some of the events which occurred just prior to
him giving up the ghost or laying down his life. No man taketh
it from me. I lay it down of myself. And
we mentioned that he survived the flogging, the abuse that
they heaped on Him all night long and into the morning. And
then they crucified Him. And that could take days for
that death to occur. And we'll delve into that a bit
here later in the lesson. So we have a description of some
of the events that occurred just prior to the death of Jesus that
Luke records, and other things are brought to our attention
in John and Matthew and Mark. And in verse 44, it says, it
was about the sixth hour And there was a darkness over all
the earth until the ninth hour. Now the Sabbath was approaching.
The Sabbath would have been taking place that evening. And the Sabbath
of rest is recorded the time when men were to cease work and
reflect on the completed and finished work of God. How all this is so appropriately
fit together to reflect all that. And so it was the day of the
crucifixion and in Luke chapter 23 verse 54 it said, And it was the crucifixion and
the Sabbath drew on. It would have occurred, it would
have started at sunset that day. And in the Jewish clock, the
sunrise or zero hour would be dawn. And then the first hour
would be about, it would go like in hours from that
point. And the sixth hour would have
been about noon. From six in the morning till
noon would have been the sixth hour. And then three more hours
would have been the ninth hour. That would have been about three
in the afternoon. And then the 12th hour would have been
about 6 p.m. or sunset. And then that would
be the official beginning of the Sabbath. And the Jews couldn't
have anything to do with a dead person there. in the Sabbath,
that would have been a violation of their law. And so the Sabbath
of rest would begin then at sundown. And, you know, we've got those
verses in Hebrews that attest to believers whose names were written in heaven, that
they rested The Sabbath meant more to them like, well, it's
just the day when we don't do any work. It's a day of rest,
trusting completely in the finished work of Christ who was slain
from the foundation of the world. And that tells us all that in
Hebrews chapter 4. Verse 3 says, For we which have
believed do enter into rest. That's so important for us to
get a grip on. When we're given belief in Christ
and what He did and His finished work, we give up on all of our
own efforts to attain our own salvation or works of righteousness,
anything that we're using create our own sense of security
and salvation in God. Well, I go to church every Sunday,
and Friday night Bible study, and Wednesday night Bible study,
and blah, blah, blah. I go door to door handing
out tracts, or I do this, or I do that. I'm going on a mission to somewhere. Some religions send all their
kids on a mission for two years when they get to be 18. And they have to go. So it's
just more works. And he's, for we, which have
believed, enter into rest. As he said, as I've sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. For he that has
entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works. as God did from His, and we find
that recorded in Genesis 2, verse 2 and 3. And that was a picture
of recognizing the finished work
of God in creation, as well as salvation, and then resting in
His completed work and dwelling on that and thinking about it. And then we find we have, as
recorded here in Luke chapter 23, three hours of darkness.
Three hours of darkness in the middle of the day. And astronomers
have concluded that there was no possibility for any kind of
a natural occurring eclipse during that time, because that's pretty
well laid out in astronomy. But three hours of darkness takes
us back to Genesis as well. We looked about the ceasing from
works as recorded in Genesis chapter two, but when we look
at darkness, we have that first thing recorded for us in Genesis
chapter one, verse two, which I think is just a wonderful picture
of the gospel. And the earth in Genesis one,
two, Well, in 1.1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. And the earth was without form
and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And then
we have the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters.
And God said, let there be light. And there was light. What a picture
of the darkness that we have in the fall. We have Jesus, the
light of the world that lighteth every man in John 1, verse 4. Jesus who is dying for the sins
of His people and taking the punishment that we deserve. And that's what this darkness
implies. He's hanging there on the cross. been there for some time, and
then at the sixth hour, in the broadest peak of the day, darkness. There was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Darkness, when we look back in
the Old Testament, is often a sign of God's judgment. In Exodus chapter 10, Verse 21, the Lord said unto
Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may
be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness that may
be felt. It was so thick that you could
just tangibly feel it. And Moses stretched forth his
hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the
land of Egypt three days. three days where it was darkness
so thick that you couldn't see the hand in front of your face. Thick darkness. What a picture
of our condition in our natural fallen state. Three hours of
darkness. And you know, perhaps that was
a prelude to what was to come regarding the Jews as a nation
of unbelievers. Darkness. It was just a display
of God's judgment on sin. When it talks about darkness
in the New Testament, it describes a condition as being so far removed
from God as to be almost infinite in scope. Let's look over in
Matthew 8, verse 11. And I say to you that many shall
come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." So that's spiritual
Israel that it's talking about there. The elect of God from
every kindred, tongue, nation. sitting down with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom,
the physical kingdom, those that trusted to Abraham their father
and keeping the works and keeping the law, the children of the
kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. and there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Not just darkness, but outer
darkness. And that word outer gives you
a sense of away. It's darkness that's away, far
away, separated from God. And at the wedding, when he's
talking about the wedding feast and the one that shows up without
the right garment and everything in Matthew 22, 13, then said
the king to his servants, bind him hand and foot and take him
away and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth." What a sense we get of God's judgment against sin. He says, for many are called,
but few are chosen. Outer darkness. What a terrible
place to be. Separated from God. And that's
kind of what that describes. And that's what the Lord was
experiencing on the cross there. darkness over all the earth.
It says even the sun was darkened. And he just seems to convey a place
so far removed from God. And in one of the other Gospels,
or two of the other Gospels that's recorded, he said, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? If you can try to imagine for
a minute the eternal nature of God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit being one. being in unity and fellowship,
being in unity about the church and saving the elect, and in
all things operating as one, suddenly that is taken away from
you, that you've known for eternity and for this time on the cross. You're cut off. That's what it
tells us in Daniel. Messiah shall be cut off, but
not for Himself. Cut off from God. And my God,
my God, why has Thou forsaken me? Darkness is the opposite of God. In 1 John 1 verse 5 it says,
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. So a condition
of darkness is a total removal of Him. And it just speaks volumes to
the break in fellowship that the Lord suffered from the Father
in our place. He took that. in our stead. Even the sun itself
was darkened, which speaks to the almighty power of God. We
just kind of read that and say, yeah, it was dark. We read a Scripture last week
that said, He created all things, and by Him all things consist.
And we've seen Scriptures that say, well, He caused the sun
to go backwards so many degrees. And for him to just overrule
things and say, there'll be darkness in the midst of the day, at the
sun, when the sun was at its acme, its highest peak, its zenith
in the sky, as we would view it from Earth. Darkness. not a naturally occurring event
that speaks to the power of Almighty God. And there is a sense that There was no natural light in
the world that could offer up any comfort in His judgment over
what was taking place at that time. It kind of gives us a spiritual
picture that the things that we depend on in this world are
the flesh profiteth nothing. At the ninth hour, our text tells
us that Jesus spoke to the Father having endured all the suffering
in the place of the people whom God the Father had given him. In Luke's account, he records
only one of the final things that Jesus said. There's like
seven things that he said from the cross. And Luke just records
this one instance. And he said, Father, into thy
hands, I commend my spirit. And having said that, He gave
up the ghost. And we can find the other things
that He said in Mark, Matthew, and John. I'm not going to explore
those today, but there's volumes written on those seven sayings
of Jesus on the cross. But today we're looking at this
Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit. Matthew and Mark record him crying
out with a loud voice and then giving up the ghost after he
said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? But Matthew
tells us that, and Luke here too, it says that the veil of
the temple was rent in the midst, is how Luke phrases it. In Matthew
27, 50 and 51, Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice,
yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple
was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And the earth
did quake and the rocks were rent. And then there are some
other things that went on there. Many people that were dead rose
and traipsed around Jerusalem. And that must have been an astonishing
thing as well. But the one thing that I did
want to emphasize that's not recorded in Luke, but in John
chapter 19, It's memorialized, the precious
words that he uttered. It is finished. It is finished, which in the
Greek is a term that states that the debt was paid. The debt was
discharged. Payment was completely and fully
made. No debt remained. Isn't that
a wonderful term? It's finished. I lay down my life for the sheep.
Their debt is fully paid. There's no more debt. I paid
for all. The ones that haven't been born
yet that are going to be sinners, the sins that we commit even
after we've been born again, The debt has been cleared. The
debt has been paid. It's all been taken care of.
And so what a, what a slap in the face it is to God the Father
to say, that's not enough. I can take care of part of this
myself. when the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
The debt has been wiped clean. And so much of religion says,
well, you need to do certain things and then you need to accept
Jesus as your Savior and then invite Him into your heart and
do all these things that they have on television all the time. all this do-do stuff that they
try to get you to do is the equivalent of saying the debt is not wiped
clean. There's still a little bit of
debt there, but I can take care of that part. I can do this much,
and I only need this much Jesus to make up the rest. I only need
a little bit. But it turns out we need all. We need it all. The sins of the elect of God
of all time and in all places was entirely paid for, and the
debt owed was satisfied by our substitute." And that's what
it tells us in Isaiah 53, 11. He, God, the Father, shall see
the travail of his soul, that's of Jesus, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant, that would be Jesus, justify many, for he shall bear
their iniquities. And he's satisfied with that. The words of Jesus which Luke
recorded for us show the complete faith of Christ in completing
the work which Father had given Him to do. Father, into Thy hands
I commend my spirit. I finish the work which Thou
hast given me to do. That's what He said in His prayer. And having said thus, He gave
up the ghost. And again, as we mentioned a
minute ago, that at this point it's recorded here in Luke as
well as Matthew, Mark, that the veil of the temple was rent or
torn into. In Luke 23, 45, it said the veil
of the temple was rent in the midst. Well, that would have
been the middle of it. And the other gospels say it
was torn from the top to the bottom, parted. And that was a pretty heavy garment,
you know, when Norm went through the tabernacle and all those
things in the Old Testament. And that was a pretty heavy duty
piece of fabric that had embroidery on it. And you couldn't see through it.
It was heavy enough that you couldn't, because the priest,
remember they had those little bells and pomegranates on the
bottom so that they could hear them tinkling around in there
and make sure they weren't dead anymore. They could make sure
they were still alive. I think even I read somewhere
where they sometimes would tie a rope around their ankle and
then that way they could, if they keeled over, they could
drag them out because nobody was allowed to go in there but
the high priest. So they could drag them out and
say, well, that didn't work. Who's next? You know, if we go back to the
context of what's going on here, it was the preparation for the
Sabbath. And this was a Passover Sabbath. So there was preparations being
made. Remember, there was millions
of Jews in Jerusalem from all over the world there to accomplish
their participation. Passover, and so there were things
to do to get ready for that. The priests had all their duties
to get everything ready in the temple, and the animals that
were going to be sacrificed were being sold and prepared. So there was probably some priests
in the temple getting things ready. And the purpose of this
veil was to separate the part of the temple or the tabernacle
where the priests conducted their business from the holy of holies. In the tabernacle it would have
the Ark of the Covenant and Aaron's rod that budded and the mercy
seat and all that kind of thing in there. And no one was allowed
in there, but the high priest could enter in once a year after
having sacrificed for his sins. Then he would be able to enter
in there and do the annual duty there that was required. So this
veil separated that out. And it was a picture that no
man could go in there, because that's
where God dwelt. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me, is what Jesus said. And so when He died on the cross,
that veil was rent in two. And then there's some interesting
things written in the scriptures here. It was rent from the top
to the bottom, which only God could accomplish. I don't know how tall that thing
was. It tells us how many cubits high it was and everything, but
it was up there. Nobody was just going to walk up to it and rip
it in half easily. This signified that the barrier
had been removed because of the sacrifice of God's dear son.
The veil that separated the Holy of Holies where God dwelt from
the rest of the temple where more men were allowed in that
outer area. Only the high priest was allowed
to enter once a year after the sacrifice of the Lamb. And we
have all that described to us in Hebrews chapter 9, and I think
we're going to read that from Hebrews 9 and 10, and then we'll
be out of time for the day. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 1 it
says then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine
service and a worldly sanctuary which describes that outer portion for there was a tabernacle made
in the first, wherein there was the candlestick and the table
and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. So when you walked
in there, on the one side would be the table for the showbread
and the candlestick and all those things that are described there.
And that's called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. So on the other
side of that veil, that separated these two areas was the holiest
of all, which had a golden censer, the Ark of the Covenant overlaid
round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna,
and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant.
And over it the cherubims of glory overshadowing the mercy
seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now, when these
things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the
first tabernacle accomplishing the service of God. And that
was probably what was kind of getting ready to go on as Jesus
was crucified. Certainly, probably some of the
elders and the high priests and things were at the up the crucifixion
site, but the regular priests were going about their duties,
accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went
the high priest alone once every year and not without blood, which
he offered for himself and the heirs of the people. The Holy
Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was
not yet made manifest that in that speaking of Christ, while
the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure. a shadow, a type, a metaphor,
is a figure for the time then present in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that were just typical, that were
just pictures, that were just symbols of recognizing the lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world. They were offered
gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did this service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience which stood only in
meats and drinks Diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed
on them until the time of reformation. But Christ, being come an high
priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. So this type of the temple was
completed in Christ and was now no longer needed as Jesus had
come in the fullness of time and been sacrificed and fulfilled
all the types foreshadowed, and by His blood and merit, All those
for whom He died now have access to the Father by Him." And we
can read that in the short time we have left. We're going to
read John 14, 6, and then we're going to Hebrews 10. John 14,
6, saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by Me. And that's so typified here in
this temple, in this veil being rent. So as we go now to Hebrews
10, verse 19, it says, having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Where before,
if we would have tried to enter in without that, it would have
been death. Now we have boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say, his flesh. And having an high priest over
the house of God, let us now draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Be free
to enter into the holiest. Be free to go to Abba Father
by the blood of the Lamb. And we'll stop there and thank
you for your attention. Until next time.