Mark chapter 15 and verse 33. And when the sixth hour was come,
there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried
with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which
is being interpreted My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And some of them that stood by,
when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran
and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave
him to drink, saying, Let alone, let us see whether Elias will
come to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice,
and gave up the ghost, and the veil of the temple was rent in
twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion which
stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the
ghost, he said, truly this man was the son of God. there were also women looking
on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother
of James the Less, and of Joses, and Salome, who also, when he
was in Galilee, followed him and ministered unto him, and
many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. Amen. May the Lord bless to us.
this reading from his Word. We have come to that portion
of the Word of God in Mark's Gospel where the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the death of our Saviour is related to
us. The death of the Lord is the
most important event in the history of this world. Now that is not
to separate Christ's death from his birth or his resurrection
and ascension, but it is to emphasise that this moment in time and
eternity is what all heaven and earth looked to as the single
most significant element of the covenant of grace. And that the
act and accomplishment of the Lord's death and satisfaction
for sin is what the justification and the sanctification and the
redemption and ultimately the glorification of the Lord's elect
people is based upon. Indeed, all the salvation and
every blessing of grace flows to the elect upon the ground. of the death and shed blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says we are justified, that
means we are made righteous. by the blood of Christ. We are made righteous not by
the things that we do, not by the lives that we live, not by
our good works in any way at all. We are made righteous, we
are justified by the blood of Christ. That's how important
this moment is. He continues, the Apostle Paul,
we are reconciled to God by the death of Christ. Again, this
is how important this moment is because peace with God, reconciliation
with God hinges upon the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, he says we shall be
glorified through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The blood
of Christ, the death of Christ, the cross of Christ brings us
righteousness, brings us reconciliation, and ultimately will bring us
into glory in heaven in that day in which we enter into the
Lord's presence. This is the importance of the
death of our Saviour that is before us today. And John the
Apostle, also in light ways with Paul, tells us that the song
of the redeemed in heaven is this. Thou art worthy, they are
singing to Christ, thou art worthy, for thou wast slain. and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nature. Is there a family here? Is there
a language there? Is there a people? Is there a
nation from all over the world? Whoever believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ has been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. and he is worthy because he was
slain for us. Therefore, be it on earth or
in heaven, the death and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ takes the principal place in the attention of God's people. And it is his death and the meaning
of his death that we come to reflect upon today. Now I mentioned a few things
in my little note yesterday, a little introduction to today's
service, a few things that occurred at this time in the connection
with the Lord's death. And though not all of them are
mentioned in Mark's account, it is important to recognise
that there were many things went on at this time, each of the
gospel writers contributes a little bit from a particular perspective
which perhaps they were party to that no others observed or
saw. And I don't plan to mention everything
again today. However, I do think that it's
important that we should not overlook some of the strange
natural phenomena that accompanied the Lord's suffering and death. And this, I believe, should help
us to grasp the significance and the importance of what it
was that was happening here on the cross. So I have got three
points that I'm going to bring to you. The first one is this,
that at the time of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, nature
groaned. At the time of the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, nature groaned. Mark tells us that there were
three hours of darkness over the whole land. Luke goes a little
bit further. He says that it was over all
the earth and that it was the sun itself that was darkened. So that he's not suggesting that
it was just some sort of cloudy day that was going on here. Now,
we might speculate what kind of darkness this was and what
it was that caused it. But there is nothing natural
that we know of that can cause darkness to occur at noon and
extend for three hours. Indeed, at noon, the sun should
be at its brightest, directly overhead. So this was a miraculous
darkness. And for three hours God withheld
the light and the warmth of the sun and shrouded the earth in
darkness. As the Lord Jesus Christ suffered,
and as the wrath of God burned in Christ's soul against our
sin, God ordained that the sight of that suffering would be hidden
from the eyes of men and women. we might just ponder and reflect
that that was also the case in the Garden of Gethsemane. That
while the Lord Jesus Christ took those three disciples, Peter,
James, and John, and knelt down and prayed, these men's eyes
were soon closed as the Lord went into the depths of his suffering,
that he found no help there in the company of these men. And
the Lord had finished that period of suffering before his enemies
came to arrest him. So there was, in the darkness
of Gethsemane, a hiding of the souls, the soul suffering of
the Lord. And here, again, it appears to
be the case that the Lord God, during these three hours of Christ's
intense soul suffering, shrouded his cross in darkness, and that
the whole land, or to use again Luke's phrase, the whole earth
was covered in darkness. How appropriate that the sun
should be hid as Christ the son of righteousness was covered
with sin and became sin for his people. How appropriate that
the son behead as men strove to extinguish the life of him
who said, I am the light of the world. Nor was this darkness
unforeseen. God had prophesied, God had told
the prophets what he was going to do. And he told Amos, in Amos
chapter eight and verse nine, we read these words. And it shall
come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause
the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in a
clear day. Isn't that quite extraordinary
just how closely aligned that prophecy of Amos was to the events
of the Lord's death? I will cause the sun to go down
at noon. I will darken the earth in the
clear day. One wonders what the religious
Jews who knew the scriptures often knew these scriptures by
heart, argued over the meaning of these verses, had different
schools of thought where they took one line or the other line
and built their theories and their philosophies and their
theologies upon it. One wonders what these Jews thought,
knowing these Old Testament scriptures, to see them so accurately and
fully fulfilled. at this time and in these ways. But there was more than just
the darkness. Matthew tells us that the earth
shook. The earth shook. Now we all know
what earthquakes are and usually earthquakes are quite localised
and I'm not making any more claims than what the word of God says. Maybe this one was too. Maybe
it was just there in Jerusalem that there was an earthquake. Or perhaps the earth did shake. Perhaps this shaking of the earth,
like the darkening of the sun, had a much more widespread effect. the rumblings of the earth, the
rumblings from within the earth, were sufficient to split rocks
and to open the graves of saints who had died. And that event,
the darkness and the earthquake and the splitting of the rocks,
was sufficiently terrorising to cause even experienced professional
soldiers to tremble at their post of duty and to acknowledge
that the one whom they had just crucified was the Son of God. Listen to Christ's words by David
in this messianic psalm of prophecy, Psalm 18. This is what verse
four says. And we're thinking here about
the Lord Jesus Christ as he hangs upon the cross. This is what
Psalm 18, verse four says. The sorrows of death compassed
me. and the floods of ungodly men
made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed
me about, the snares of death prevented me. In my distress
I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard my voice
out of his temple and my cry came before him, even into his
ears. Well, those verses describe exactly
what is happening on the cross for the Lord Jesus Christ right
now. And this is what the Lord then says happens. Then the earth
shook and trembled. The foundations also of the hills
moved and were shaken. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
gives us the reason for that. He says, because he was wroth. Because God was angry. When the Lord Jesus Christ cried
to the Lord in his distress, being in the snares of death,
being encompassed by death, being surrounded by these ungodly men
and the sorrows of hell, The earth shook, the foundations
of the hills were moved because the Lord God was angry. John tells us in the book of
Revelation that there will be earthquakes and darkness again
in this world. He tells us that there will be
earthquakes and darkness as God judges the earth in the last
days. So warnings are being given.
Warnings have been given. When the Lord Jesus Christ died,
these things accompanied his death on the cross. And as the
Lord God sent darkness and earthquakes when Christ suffered for the
sin of the elect, so darkness and the shaking of the earth
will attend the judgment of men and women for their own sins. It terrorised these Roman soldiers
and it will terrorise men and women in these last days also. Revelation chapter 6 verse 12
says, And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo
there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth
of hair, and the moon became as blood. Whether these are pictures
or whether we will see the likes of it again, perhaps they are
typical of judgments that are coming, but let it be known that
these judgments are the hand of God and they precede and accompany
God's judgment for all eternity. Brothers and sisters, God who
created the earth God, who created the earth as he hung upon the
cross, felt the earth shake when men lifted up their hand against
him. God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
created the sun, saw the sun darken as men lifted up their
hands against him. And if these inanimate works
of creation react and recoil and hide their faces in the presence
of the Lord Jesus suffering, how much more will the terror
of the Lord rest upon those whose sin remains on their own heads
in that day of awful judgment? Flee the wrath to come, the word
of God says. If darkness and earthquakes can
terrorise men today, what will hell be like? Here's the other thing that we're
told, or another thing that we're told with respect to the Lord
Jesus Christ's death on the cross. In this time of darkness, in
these three hours, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us he was forsaken
of God. So not only did nature groan
when the Lord Jesus Christ suffered, but the Lord Jesus Christ himself
was forsaken of God. We're told that the Lord Jesus
Christ at the ninth hour, cried with a loud voice saying, Ilai,
Ilai, Lama Sabanthanai, which is being interpreted, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In fact, although we don't get
all of the sayings of the cross in all of the gospel accounts,
we discover from a comparing of them that there were seven
sayings of the Lord from the cross. This one, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me, was the middle one of the seven. Before the hours of darkness,
the Lord had spoken three times from the cross. As he was being
crucified, as he was being nailed to his cross, he uttered these
words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
As the, ah, criminal, the thief, the robber
who was being crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ, asked
for forgiveness and asked to be remembered of the Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ answered him and said, today shalt thou be
with me in paradise. And the third saying before the
hours of darkness was words that were spoken to the Lord's own
mother, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the disciple whom Jesus loved,
John, who were there at the cross. And the Lord said to his mother,
woman, behold thy son, and said to John, behold thy mother. And so these two came together
in that caring situation whereby John tells us that from that
day Jesus' mother was taken into his own home and there she lived
with John. so that we find these three sayings
of the Lord. Then was the hours of darkness. And those hours of darkness were
ended by this phrase from the cross of the Lord. My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Thereafter the Lord said three
more things. He said, I thirst. He said, it
is finished. and he said, Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit. So just before then, we're on
this middle one at the moment, just before this period of darkness
was brought to an end, having endured all the wrath and punishment
for our sins during these three hours of darkness, Our substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, reveals that he has lost all awareness
of the presence of his Father. He has lost all awareness of
the comfort and of the presence of his father, something that
was quite foreign and alien to him, something that was unique
in his experience. Having been forsaken of his disciples,
now the Lord was forsaken by his father. Now we mentioned
yesterday, and I repeat myself here, that we always should tread
carefully when we encroach upon these unique instances of God's
dealings in this way. We need to realise that as we
think about these things, that we are entering upon areas which
are unparalleled. and we must simply accept what
the scriptures tell us. We're wise not to press any further
than the Holy Spirit has revealed. And I say so because I want us
to realise that there are ways in which the Lord Jesus Christ
was forsaken of his father, and there are ways in which the Lord
Jesus Christ was not forsaken of his father. And it is wise
for us to understand these differences. So, we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ was, or, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ was the
God-Man. So what we can say with respect
to this word from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me, is that it does not suggest that in any way the two natures of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his divine nature and his human nature, were in any
way separated. This was not the man Christ Jesus
in his humanity in any way suggesting that his divine nature had separated
from his human nature. There's no dissolving of that
divine nature of Christ from his human nature. And so it is
not that Christ's humanity was bereft of Christ's divinity here. That's not what is being talked
about. Nor can we say that the Lord
Jesus Christ was separated from his father in the sense that
his father stopped loving him. The love of the father for his
son never faltered. In this moment, the Lord Jesus
Christ was fulfilling his covenant obligations to redeem his people
from their sins. And as always, the beloved Son
pleased the Father with His perfect obedience. God never changes,
He is unchangeable. And the same God who loved His
Son and was pleased with His Son before the cross, loved and
was pleased with His Son as His Son hung and suffered. nor was
there any breach in the Godhead, for though there are three persons
in the Godhead, there is but one indivisible God. And yet, as our substitute, as
the Lord Jesus Christ took our sin, and in that sin-covered
state bore the due punishment for our guiltiness to its full
extent, Christ tells us that he lost all sense of God's presence. He lost all sense of his Father's
comfort. here in his office as mediator
and representative. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
all the anger of God's wrath, all the punishment of a broken
law. He paid as surety the redemption
price that was required for the transgressions that we had committed. All the sin of all the elect
laid upon Christ. And in the darkness that enveloped
the cross, and the darkness that enveloped Christ's soul, our
Saviour lost sight of his Father. There was for Christ a loneliness
that he had never known before. There was for Christ an isolation
he had never felt before, which he called being forsaken of his
Father. But I want us to see something
very, very important in this moment. Even as the Lord is expressing
His astonishment about this feeling of being forsaken, He does so in a most wonderful manner. He does so by expressing his
faith in God. I'm calling God my God. He says twice, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He employs the words of Psalm
22 as a testimony to his faith in God's justice. He was not
saying that he had in any way abandoned God. He felt forsaken
of God, but he still trusted in God. And he called him my
God. and he expresses his faith in
God thereby. He expresses his trust in God's
promise and he is being submissive in his suffering. Isaiah speaks
about the suffering servant. This was the Lord Jesus Christ
as the servant of God in perfect obedience to God, in fulfilment
of the covenant of grace and peace, suffering in accordance
with the will of God. and the Lord Jesus Christ acknowledged
that God was his God. And I think that this is a beautiful
picture that is before us here. A few weeks ago we were thinking
about the Lord's labouring and his suffering in the Garden of
Gethsemane and particularly his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
where he said, oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will, but as thou wilt. And I said on that occasion that
I believe the Lord Jesus Christ was expressing his willingness
to bear his people's punishment for all eternity. if that's what satisfaction of
God's wrath required. That the Lord Jesus Christ was
saying, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. But if
it's not possible for this cup to pass from me, then I will
continue to bear that wrath for all eternity. if that cup of wrath did not
pass from him. Well, let me say in connection
with that something else. Here we see the Lord Jesus Christ
asking a question of his father. He says, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? And I don't think that the Lord
Jesus Christ ever asked a question of God that went unanswered.
I believe that when the Lord our Saviour cried out, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That he immediately got an answer
back from his Father. And I believe that that answer
in the Lord's soul was this, I haven't forsaken you, I'm still
here. I would never forsake you, you
are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And in proof This
reassurance was accompanied at that moment by the return of
the sunlight and the return of the comfort and the return of
the warmth on Jesus' body as his Father's comforting presence
flooded back in upon the Saviour one more time. What had happened
in that moment was that the cup had passed. The full draft had
been consumed. The satisfaction of God's justice
and the price of our redemption had been paid. The returning
light showed that God was satisfied and the debt was paid. Now let me just add something
to that. We mentioned that Christ's other words from the cross, the
next three words from the cross, was that he thirsted. And I am just thinking that there
is a connection to the fact that the cup of suffering had passed
from the Lord in that moment, and immediately the Lord Jesus
Christ says, I thirst. Is it possible that there is
a connection here? Now perhaps it was that the Lord
Jesus Christ simply was thirsty and that it was a natural craving
for water from his body. That would not be surprising
in any way. But perhaps there's more to this
statement. Perhaps the Lord Jesus Christ,
in declaring, I thirst, was confirming the passing of the cup that he
had said he was so willing to drink to all eternity. As God
brought the light to return on the Saviour there as He hung
on the cross. As the suffering came to its
end, our Lord Jesus Christ at once said, I thirst. Could He have better announced
the complete satisfaction of God's wrath than by declaring
that this cup had passed from Him and still He thirsted for
more? if there was more yet to be born. Still he desired to take more
of God's wrath if more of that judgment was required for the
redemption of his people. That the Lord still was crying
out in the depths of his being, I thirst for more of that wrath
if there's any more to be had. and that the fact that the cup
had passed proved the satisfaction for God in that moment. Christ
had drunk it to the dregs. He had finished it to the lees.
There was no more wrath to drink. And it was at this moment then
that the Lord Jesus continued by saying, it is finished. It is finished. What was finished? the drinking of the cup of God's
wrath had come to its end. Salvation was complete, his work
was over, and the Lord Jesus Christ no more suffered there
on the cross. He was still hanging on the cross,
but his work was finished. And the next thing he says is
that he is giving up the ghost. Here's the third point that I
want to make I'm running on in time, forgive me, but we'll be
a few minutes late today. Our Lord had been crucified outside
of the city wall. Within the city, the rituals
of sacrifice and celebration of Passover was going on. At
the ninth hour, when this light came back, 3pm our time, The
daily sacrifice would have been slain at the altar before the
Holy of Holies, where the high priest alone could enter in once
a year bearing the blood for the remission of people's sins.
And that's the setting of this final point that we have before
us today. Mark tells us in verse 38 of
the rending of the temple veil. as the Lord Jesus Christ finished
drinking the cup of God's wrath against our sin, and as the Father
reassured His Son of His complete satisfaction and the acceptance
of the Saviour's precious blood for our everlasting remission
of sin and the complete redemption of the elect, The veil in the
temple that hid the holy of holies from the gaze of the people was
torn in two from the top to the bottom. Now that was a clear and obvious
statement of the fact that Christ's sacrifice had been successful. And I feel sure that the Lord
Jesus Christ knew that his sacrifice had been accepted and successful
before that veil was torn. That veil was torn to tell men
and women that it was successful, not to tell the Lord that it
was successful. He already knew that that cup had passed because
he thirsted still for more if need be. And the veil wasn't
simply torn, it was rent. in two, it was ripped apart from
the top to the bottom, such that by the blood and sacrifice and
death of Christ, the separation between God and the Holy of Holies
and his people outside had now forever been removed. Jesus had
opened a new and living way by his blood. Before that, the veil
had kept people back from God. It was impossible to go into
the Holy of Holies because of this veil. It was dangerous even
to look in. The high priest was allowed to
go in once a year, providing he carried blood with him. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, accomplished our redemption by his blood and he
himself entered into God's holy presence as our forerunner and
opened a new and living way for all his blood-bought people.
The symbolism is beautiful but the reality is perfect. The victory
that was being at that very moment effected on the cross was being
reflected in the temple. The way to God was opened through
the blood of Jesus Christ. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, and having
said thus, he gave up the ghost, he not only entered personally
into his Father's embrace, into thy hands I commend my spirit,
he didn't enter only personally into his Father's embrace, but
having removed every impediment, he brought us all into the hands
and into the embrace of his father. The cup was gone. It had been
removed. It had passed. Satisfaction was
made. Victory was achieved. And your
spirit and my spirit, brothers and sisters, are as safe in the
hands of God the Father as was Christ's that day he committed
his own spirit into his father's hands. I'm about done, let me just quote
a few verses to round off our thoughts, and that's us finished. The Lord Jesus Christ once said
this, John chapter 10, verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and
I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand, My Father which gave them me is greater than
all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
I and my Father are one. How blessed we are to see in
the Lord Jesus Christ our way of salvation, our justifier with
God, our great High Priest who has entered into his Father's
presence. and brought us with him. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.