In Mark's Gospel, chapter 15,
we read of how Jesus, having been tried and falsely accused,
was taken away at the will of the people to be crucified. Verse 25 says, and it was the
third hour and they crucified him. And the superscription of
his accusation was written over the king of the Jews. And then
in verse 33 we read, having hung there for three hours
in the light. 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, Eloi,
Eloi, lama sabachthanai, 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. Verse 33 and when the sixth hour
was come there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth
hour. There was darkness over the whole
land until the ninth hour. We read of this darkness at the
cross between the sixth and the ninth hour, this three hours
of darkness. We read of this in Matthew's
Gospel, Mark's Gospel here in chapter 15, and also in Luke's
Gospel. They provide a three-fold testimony
to this darkness that came over the land whilst Christ hung upon
the cross. This darkness that testified
in a physical sense to what was going on spiritually as Christ
hung and suffered and died in the place of his people. the
darkness that came over the sun as the light of the sun was taken
away because of what happened to the Son of God as he hung
and died upon the cross. There was darkness. As each of
these Gospel writers records this remarkable event because
it was remarkable that there was darkness for three hours all those who beheld Christ crucified
all those who had previously passed by in the light and mocked
him and reviled him and jeered at him The soldiers who had arrayed
him in purple and put upon his head a crown of thorns and mocked
him as the king of the Jews. The chief priests and the scribes
who derided him as he hung in the light and said he saved others
himself he cannot save. The multitude who had cried out
release unto us Barabbas but away with this man crucify him
the mob that looked on and saw this innocent man hanging upon
a cross and dying all those who saw this
man upon the cross in the light then saw the light of the sun
taken away and for three hours there was darkness over the whole
land. How significant this is and how
everyone who was there at the time would have noticed it. Just
as Christ was being crucified, whom they rejected, so the light
of the world, the sun, was darkened. How terrible it must have seemed.
How strange. How they would have been aware
that something very unusual was going on. There was never darkness
in the middle of the day like this. And yet on this day, as
this man, the king of the Jews, whom they rejected, hung upon
the cross, there was darkness from the sixth hour until the
ninth hour. So remarkable and significant
was this as one of the events that occurred on that day and
at that time that Matthew, Mark and Luke in their Gospels all
record it. But John in his Gospel makes
no mention. In John's Gospel there is no
mention of these three hours of darkness. He mentions the crucifixion.
He mentions the cross. He mentions various facts concerning
it. He mentions Jesus' cry at the
end, that it is finished, and how he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. But there's no mention of the
darkness. So why do Matthew, Mark, and
Luke all record this when John doesn't? Why did John, as led
by the Holy Ghost, choose not to record the darkness at the
cross? Well, Matthew sets forth Christ
as the promised Messiah, the one who should come of the line
of David, as he who is born a son of David, a descendant of David,
as promised, as the Messiah, the King of the Jews. Mark presents Christ unto us
in the light of a servant or a messenger of God, an apostle
of God. the Apostle, the Messenger, the
Servant of God. And Luke presents Christ unto
us in his Gospel as the Saviour, the Saviour of his people. But in each, they present him
in the light of being the Son of God made man, born a man,
They present unto us His humanity. He is the Son of Man. Yes, He's
the Son of God in each Gospel, but they present Him particularly
in view of being the Son of God as a man upon this earth. He comes as the Messiah, the
King, a descendant of David. He comes as a servant. the Son
of God who humbled himself and took upon himself human flesh
and was born of Mary and lived in this world as a real man. And Luke presents him to us as
that Saviour born of Mary. But a man. But John whilst recording the fact that
God, that Christ is indeed a man also shifts the focus very much
towards the divinity of Jesus Christ. Each gospel recognises Christ
to be both the Son of God and the Son of Man but whereas the
first three give a three-fold witness as it were to his humanity
the Son of God as a man. John presents this man as being
divine. John very much presents Christ
unto us in various signs as being God, the Son of God, divine. and as God he presents him as
the light of God the light of God that comes into this world
into the darkness of this world the darkness which received him
not in his 12th chapter John states
this because these words of Christ which summarise this. When Christ
says, I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth
on me should not abide in darkness. I am come a light into the world
that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And in John's Gospel Christ is
very much presented to us as this light, as the Son of God,
as the light of God come into a dark world. The light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. This was the true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the
world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him
not. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. In John's gospel Christ the Son
of God enters this world as the light enter in the darkness. Other than the view of Christ
throughout John's gospel everything else in that gospel is seen to
be darkness. He comes into the darkness and
everything else is darkness. And yet in Christ there is no
darkness. He is the light and the only
light. And John, through the various
accounts and signs he presents unto us of Christ, presents a
view of the magnificent light of God. He shines through every
page. I am come a light into the world
that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
The context in John's gospel is that everything in Christ
is light and everything else is darkness. Therefore when he
comes to the cross and the account of Christ on the cross there's
no need for him to mention the darkness that came upon the world
because in the context in John the world was already dark. Everything was dark. The only
light is he who was crucified. and John would have us look upon
Christ upon the cross as the Son of God and the light of God
shining forth in magnificence even at the cross whilst all
around him is darkness so he has no need to draw attention
to the darkness that came about at that point because his view
is of Christ in his divinity all that he shows throughout
all the gospel is Christ as light and everything else as darkness whereas in the other three gospels who follow Christ more in the
light of him as a man the darkness that came about at the cross
is singled out because it signified what happened to him in his manhood
upon the cross. It singled out what came about
as Christ bore the sins of his people. As Christ, as a man,
bore the sins of other men. as Christ in his manhood was
made sin, as Christ suffered and died as a man. In John's Gospel, he presents unto
us the person of the Son of God, the life, the eternal life of
God, the light of God. And even when the Son of God
as a man suffered upon the tree and bore the sins of many and
was made sin in the place of sinners that could do nothing
to his perfection as God. The light still shone. It may
have been shrouded in darkness It may have been covered in the
humanity, the manhood of Christ which in those hours bore the
sins of the elect and in those hours was made sin. The judgment
and wrath of God against sin may indeed have come down upon
Christ in those hours But in John's presentation of Christ
at the cross, he's still the Son of God. He's still the light
of the world. And the darkness around about
could do nothing to take it away. I am come a light into the world
that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. The darkness as recorded in the
other three Gospels pictures the sin and death and condemnation
of sin which has come into this world through the rebellion of
man. And it pictures the substitutionary
atonement, the sacrifice of Christ in bearing that sin and bearing
the judgment and suffering the death that sin brings in. And so the Gospels tell us of
the darkness that there was. But for John, nothing could conceal
the light of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In John's Gospel
there was darkness from chapter 1 and verse 1 through to the
very last chapter of his book. Everything outside of Christ
was darkness. At the cross, before the cross,
when he bore the sins of his people when he walked in the
darkness of his people everything around was darkness there was
only light in Christ but in the other Gospels they
draw the attention to how this man was made sin and how the
darkness came upon him how the darkness came upon him as a man
and how he bore the sins of his people yes as a man he was the sin bearer
yes as a man he was made sin but as God he was light eternal
light everlasting light that could never be darkened could
never be darkened there was darkness When the sixth
hour was come there was darkness over the whole land until the
ninth hour. There was darkness. Why darkness? We read of darkness in many places
in the scripture. Throughout the scriptures from
Genesis to Revelation you will often read a contrast between
light and dark often you will read references to darkness and
in various places it is mentioned it is singled out to draw our
attention to what is figured by darkness in this world. Abraham
Abraham, when he met with his God, was given a vision of what
God would bring to pass. God promised unto Abraham that
he would be the father of a great nation, that out of his loins
the seed would come and the seed would bring with him a great
nation. And God showed unto Abraham in
type and figure and promise how he would bring this to pass.
How he would bring an offering for sin into this world. How
he would offer up his own son. And God took Abraham aside. And
on one day, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell
upon Abraham. and lo and horror of great darkness
fell upon him. And in the darkness Abraham was
brought to see what would happen, what must happen in order to
deliver him and his people from their sins. in order to deliver
him and his descendants, him and all those like him who would
be brought to believe on the Son of God from their sins. Abraham
was shown a great horror of darkness and he could see in the darkness
what would come about to the seed that God promised would
come. what would come about upon his
saviour. There would be darkness. In Exodus, Moses having been
told to bring the people out of Egypt, was by the hand of
God used to bring many plagues upon Egypt. to show unto Pharaoh
and the Egyptians the almighty power of God. And one of the
plagues, one of the most terrifying plagues which came upon Egypt
was the darkness that God brought upon the land. And Moses stretched
forth his hand toward heaven and there was a thick darkness
in all the land of Egypt for three days. darkness for three
days. How terrifying for the Egyptians
but what a picture of the gospel. What a picture of what God would
bring about when his son suffered upon the cross. That his son
must go into thick darkness to deliver his people. God delivered
the physical Hebrews, the Israelites out of the hand of Egypt through
Moses and brought them out with his mighty hand. But as a picture
of what he would do and as a picture of what he would do in Christ
to deliver the spiritual Israelites, he sent this sign unto Pharaoh. of thick darkness in all the
land of Egypt for three days. But why darkness? Because the darkness showed the
sin of mankind. The darkness showed the utter
depravity of man outside of God. and how God has repeatedly shown
us in the scriptures the contrast between the righteousness and
the holiness and the glory of God himself as shown forth in
the light and the light of the sun and the depravity, the rebellion,
the sinfulness, the iniquity of man as set forth in the darkness. in the beginning of creation
God said let there be light and he divided the light from the
darkness and he divided the night from the day and he put them
into different realms and he set forth a division and the
division between night and day set forth in this world, the
division between the light and the dark, the division between
good and evil, the division between God and man that sin has brought
in. Where are you? Where are you? Where do you dwell? Are you walking
in the light? Are you coming to the light?
Has God brought you by his gospel to the light? Has he led you
unto Jesus Christ? Or are you left in the darkness? Are you choosing to dwell in
the darkness? Do you love sin? Do you love
the things you do in the dark? the darkness is a picture of
the sinfulness of man and the judgment that comes upon it the
consequences of sin the death that sin has brought into the
world When God came unto the people of Israel, when he came
unto Moses in Exodus 20 upon Mount Sinai to deliver the law
unto the people, to deliver that law that would show them their
sin and demonstrate unto them their sin. and show them the
division between the righteousness of God and the righteousness
he demands of mankind if ever dare to know eternal life and
spare the judgment and wrath of God and the sinfulness of
man. He came upon Mount Sinai and
delivered the law but that mount was shrouded in darkness we read
that the people stood afar off and Moses drew near unto the
thick darkness where God was now God himself is light and
yet at Sinai we read that God dwelt in the darkness he was
in the darkness upon the mount because of the division between
man and God between good and evil between sinners and a holy
and a righteous God. Our sin has separated us. It has estranged us from a holy
God. And to get to the light, you
must go beyond the darkness. God at Sinai was shrouded in
thick darkness. You couldn't find your way to
him because of the darkness that was there. Read in Deuteronomy. And ye came near and stood under
the mountain and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst
of heaven with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. Although
God was there, although the fires of God's wrath came forth, burning
forth from the light of God and the righteousness of God, all
around that was darkness that people couldn't get under him
because their sins separated them. And the judgment of God,
the justice of God, came down upon their sins as a darkness
through which they could not escape. Hence Solomon says, the
Lord said that he should dwell in the thick darkness. Oh how remarkable that he who
is light should dwell in thick darkness. and at the cross when God as
Christ the Son of God came to deliver his people from sin he
came in a very real sense and dwelt in the thick darkness He
came as a man in the darkness of this world, in the sinfulness
of this world, in the death of this world. He walked amongst
living corpses. He walked amongst the living
dead. He walked amongst these people
who think they live when they're dead, when they're dead in trespasses
and sins. He came into the darkness of
this world and felt the thick darkness all around him every
day. and the darkness was all around
every person that passed him was dark, dark with sin, dark
with evil, dark with rebellion, dark with their rejection and
unbelief of him. He came as the light of God and
moved through the darkness of this world and when he came to
the cross and the darkness of this world came upon him and
as a crowd they shouted out crucify him, crucify him they as it were
came like a bandage and wrapped around him and wrapped around
tighter and tighter and the darkness came closer and closer unto the
light of God until ultimately they took him and they took him
and crucified him and God took him and seeking to deliver that
people who dwelt in darkness from their sin from death from
judgment he took their darkness he took their sin he took their
iniquity and he laid it upon his own son. Oh how the darkness came right
upon him. The Lord said that he should
dwell in the thick darkness. What is it for God to dwell in
thick darkness? for God the light to enter in
Christ to enter into the darkness of this world and to take the
sin of this world upon himself in judgment over the darkness if you know not Christ if God
by his gospel does not awaken you to your condition and lead
you by the gospel under he who is the light of the world if
he does not bring you as one of those who believe on him that
you should no longer abide in darkness then darkness is where
you will remain and the shadow of death is where you will dwell
you will dwell in the shadow of death in Job in that book
where Job an upright man who feared God was tested and tried
and brought down low where he lost all things that he had in
this world he lost family and friends he lost his riches he
lost it all that he had and he lost his health he had everything
taken away except the beating of his own heart in Job, Job
as he reasons and as he answers the friends, the companions who
so so-called friends who come upon him and accuse him of being
a great sinner accuse him of having done things that bring
this trouble upon him as he sits there in his travail and torment
he speaks often of the darkness seeing the evil so closely seeing
the consequences of sin so powerfully seeing how there
is nothing in this world if you haven't got Christ Job spake
often of the darkness and he related the darkness to death. He knew that sin brought the
darkness. He knew that sin brought down
judgment. And he knew that the ultimate
end of man if left in the darkness would be to die and to go into
outer darkness forevermore under the judgment and wrath of God.
He knew there was no escape from it. He knew there was nothing
he could do to escape from it. He knew that his only hope was
in God and His mercy. says in chapter 10 before I go
whence I shall not return even to the land of darkness and the
shadow of death a land of darkness as darkness itself and of the
shadow of death without any order and where the light is as darkness
it may seem dark here in this world at times You may at times,
if God opened your eyes in any sense, see the consequence of
sin and see the depravity of sin and see how dark it is. You may often feel in this world,
in the events in this world, in the troubles and trials of
this world, you may see a darkness. but there comes a world there
will come a time there will come a place upon you if you know
not Christ where there is darkness greater than any darkness you
can imagine where there's no escape where sin brings its ultimate
punishment where there's no light as Job says even the light is
as darkness there's no light whatsoever God doesn't dwell
there All you feel in that place is the wrath and judgment of
God. You feel, as it were, His heel crushing you. But you can never see His face.
There's no light in that place. Job felt it coming. Job could
sense that that's where he'd go. Except God showed him mercy. But in the end, Job knew the
mercy and love of God. He knew what it was to be brought
to the light. He knew what it was to be delivered. He knew what it was to be delivered.
and given sight to see and to see things as they are and to
see things in the gospel as they are and to see the truth as it
is and to see Christ as he is Oh can you see through the darkness
to the light because that's the thing about darkness when you're
in the darkness you can't see you just can't see in the dark
And those that dwell in the darkness of this world, sinners in this
world, they just can't see. They think they see, they say
that they see, but they can't see. They don't judge anything
aright. If you go out into the world
and ask people what they think of God, what they think of the
gospel, what they think of life, what they think about this or
that, all their judgments, all their answers are darkness. They have no clue. They have
no clue who God is. They have no clue what they are.
They have no clue why things are as they are. They have no
clue what's coming in the future. All their reasoning, all their
judgment, all their thoughts are wrong. They're blind. They're in the darkness. They
cannot see. And that's where you are. Accept
God, open your eyes by the gospel. Everything's dark. It's dark
in this world and it was dark at the cross. When the darkness
came upon Christ from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, those
who were there could not see. They couldn't see in the dark.
for 3 hours from the 3rd hour to the 6th hour they beheld Christ
upon the cross and they'd mocked Him they'd rejected Him, they'd
laughed at Him, they'd railed at Him but then darkness came
and they couldn't see they couldn't see He was taken from their view
and they couldn't see what happened in the darkness they couldn't
see Him and they couldn't see what was going on they didn't
know why For three hours there was darkness. For three hours
God laid upon His own Son the sins of His people. He made Him
to be sin in their stead and He poured out His wrath upon
Him. He judged their sin in His own
Son but no one could see it. They didn't know the most spiritual
of events was going on before them. The most miraculous of
events was going on before them. The most tremendous and important
of events in all time and eternity, in all history, was happening
before their very eyes and they couldn't see. And so it is like
that with the Gospel when the Gospel is preached to you and
you sit in darkness and blindness. The most important words that
could ever be uttered unto you and to your soul. The most important
truths you could ever be presented with. The most vital facts that
you could hear. The most important thing for
your life that you could ever be told concerning Jesus Christ
and His salvation. concerning deliverance from sin,
concerning deliverance from death and condemnation, are presented
in the gospel. Lo, here is my Son, God says. Lo, here is my Son, hear ye Him. And as you sit in the darkness,
you cannot see. You cannot see. unless God opens
your eyes to see the import of what happened in these hours
and to see the import of the gospel and how it concerns you
and your soul, how it concerns eternity, how it concerns God,
how it concerns you before God and where you stand before God,
how it concerns where you're going. except God opens your
eyes to see then you just sit in the darkness and except God opens your ears
to hear and to hear his voice and to hear the voice of Jesus
Christ the speech of Christ the word of God who is Christ except
he causes you to hear him who is the way the truth and the
life You just sit in darkness. And when the sixth hour was come
there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. Is
that darkness over you? Is it over your soul? Is it shrouded
over your understanding? Christ the light of God came
into the darkness of this world. darkness, sin, death and judgment
was all around him. He walked in the midst of it,
he walked amongst sinners and he shone in the midst of it.
Everything he spake was glorious, it was truth, it set forth the
majesty of God and the mercy and the grace of God and the
love of God towards sinners and those who hurt him. And lest
God open their hearts to believe, in the end, sat as it were in
darkness and said, crucify him. In the gospel, God sets before
you the light of God in Jesus Christ. He shines his light before
you. But do you see? This light came into this world
he walked in the midst of the darkness and he shone in the
midst of the darkness but he came into this world for a reason
he came for this day as recorded in Mark 15 this hour, this time,
this place the darkness was all around him but at this hour when
they nailed him to the tree when they lifted him up as the sick fowl came upon him
the darkness which was all around him came upon him the sin of sinners which was
all around him was taken and laid upon him the sin of the
world in which he walked he was made to be there was darkness
he took the sins of his people and he bore the sins of his people
that he might deliver them from the darkness that he might bring
them into the light that he might deliver them from death and bring
them into eternal life the darkness that was around
him came upon him and the light of the sun was taken away There
was darkness. A veil descended upon Christ. A veil of thick darkness came
down upon Him. He was made sin. And oh what
Christ endured in that darkness as the veil came down upon Him. Oh what He suffered in order
to deliver His people. Oh what He endured for those
whom He loved, for those who hated Him. Oh what he suffered. The psalmist writes of Christ
in Psalm 88. Oh Lord God of my salvation,
I have cried day and night before thee. Let my prayer come before
thee, incline thine ear unto my cry, for my soul is full of
troubles. and my life draweth nigh unto
the grave. I am counted with them that go
down into the pit, I am as a man that hath no strength, free among
the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest
no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid
me in the lowest pit, In darkness, in the deeps, thy wrath lieth
hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy ways. Selah. God took his own son, his beloved
son, his perfect and innocent son, the light of the world,
he took Christ, the son of God, and laid him in the lowest pit
in darkness in the deeps for his people he was veiled in darkness 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, ilai, ilai lama sabbakhvani, which
is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Verse 37, 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. Oh yes, he was veiled in darkness,
but the darkness could not keep him. The darkness could not keep
the Son of God in the grave, in the deep. The darkness, though
it came all over him, though the light of the sun was taken
away for those three hours, it could not remain dark. He triumphed
over it, it could not hold him, the grave could not hold him.
He came forth and broke forth and the veil as it were that
came upon him was rent, entwined from top to the bottom. The veil
of the temple, the law of God, the judgment and wrath of God,
the thick darkness of Sinai which came upon him because of the
sin that was laid upon him was rent. it could not keep him and
God as it were took the darkness of that veil and rent it from
top to bottom and cast it aside and the light of the Son of God
shone forth a light that could not be concealed such that the
centurion when he saw cried out truly this man was the Son of
God you cannot conceal this man because he's God he's the light
of the world he's the light of the world So in Mark 16 we read, And very
early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto
the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among
themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door
of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw
that the stone was rolled away, for it was very, very great. and entering into the sepulchre
they saw a young man sitting on the right side clothed in
a long white garment and they were affrighted and he saith
unto them be not affrighted ye seek Jesus of Nazareth which
was crucified he is risen he is not here behold the place
where they laid him are you yet in the darkness is all you seek
that which is here below in the darkness. What do you seek? Jesus of Nazareth, which was
crucified. If you want to know God, if you
want to know forgiveness, if you want to know deliverance
from your sin, if you want to know salvation, if you want to
know the light of God and eternal life, then you won't find it
in the darkness. you'll find it in the Gospel
where God displays him and where God takes the veil of the darkness
and tears it apart from top to bottom and the light of God in
Christ shined forth and you like the centurion will come unto
that light and say truly this man who was crucified was the
son of God and if you go to the grave you will find he's not
there but he's risen he's risen the sun is risen and when the sixth hour was cut
there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour but has God brought you through
the darkness and by His grace brought you to see with a centurion
the One who is the Son of God. Amen.