Sermon for Lord's Day July 9,2023 The Spectacle of the Cross

The Spectacle of the Cross in Luke and Matthew

Hour and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. While the sun's light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two, then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

And having said this, he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, Certainly this man was innocent. And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home, beating their breasts.

And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood afar at a distance, at a distance watching these things. Thus far is the reading of God's holy word this morning. If you would like to put a header on your notes this morning, I'll share with you what I put on mine.

This spectacle, this spectacle, spectacle, the Greek word that's used in the text for this spectacle, this sight, this means to have a viewing or a beholding. As we sang in the song there, that very last song, come behold the wondrous mystery.

What was what took place here on the cross at Calvary this day in history was the glory of God being manifest and shown forth. It was God on display. And so that's why the gospel writer, as we have it here in the text, in verse 48 particularly, says all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they had saw what had taken place, they returned home beating their breasts.

Now in Matthew's gospel account, we see a little bit more detail, particularly concerning the earthquake. And in Matthew's gospel, we're going to see the account of the dead folks being resuscitated after Jesus was raised from the dead himself.

But I feel like it's very important for us to read the text from Matthew as well. Matthew chapter 27, Matthew chapter 27, verse 45 through 56. Again, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the synoptic gospels where one gives detail, the other may leave off or may pick up and give other detail.

Matthew chapter 27, verse 45 through 56. This is the word of God. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Elah, Elah, lama sabachani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

And coming out of their tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, truly, this was the son of God.

There were also many women there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

So here we see a really more detailed, fuller accounting of what we read in Luke's gospel and the beautiful and again, the amazing thing about the word of God, having as it is inspired, as it is inherent, as it is infallible, as it is preserved.

It is amazing that these accounts, these accounts are so in unity with one another. They are in absolute unity with one another. So considering both of these passages this morning, considering both of these passages this morning, we will examine the spectacle, this beholding of our great God.

We will behold the power of God put on display. That is what we see in this text. It's also very important for us to keep in mind that Luke's gospel, to understand the difference between Luke and Matthew's gospel, Luke's gospel is Luke, as a reporter if you would have it, taking eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus and putting them together in the gospel itself.

Matthew's account is a first-hand experience. It's a first-hand eyewitness account, but both accounts, again, please keep this in your mind, both accounts tell us the same exact story and each accounting fills in details that are not included in the others reports.

On a historical note, the dating of Matthew and Luke's gospel alike, it's very likely that both Matthew and Luke's gospel were written in the mid -60s. That's in the first century in the mid -60s, so likely somewhat maybe near 30 years after Christ's death and his resurrection.

So what we have though here in the Luke text, in our primary text, and with the aid of our supporting text today, we want to look at and I believe what we'll find is that our God is not only sovereign, but he is very, very gracious.

He is gracious to demonstrate in a very plain and at the same time in a very supernatural way the extent of the effect of the events that we are reading about here. They affected more than that moment in time, but they have lasting and eternal effects throughout all of history.

We see a number of miracles that took place here on this day. Here in Luke's account, we see about the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole land. We see this miracle, we see the tearing of the veil of the temple in verse 45, right?

Back in Matthew's gospel, we see coinciding or simultaneously taking place all of these events, basically taking place one right after the other with the exception of the resuscitation of the tearing of the veil of the temple.

And we're going to look at these things. Next, again, we see the earthquake connected with that there. We see the resuscitation of the saints and I'm using this terminology intentionally, resuscitation of some of the saints.

And we see the centurion believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, which salvation, we must not forget this, salvation is the greatest of all miracles. It is the greatest of all miracles. And again, like all of the other miracles, they are only produced by God himself.

We don't pull miracles out of our back pocket and make them happen. God is the miracle worker. So as we look through the text today, let's examine these miracles that took place. So first off, let's look at the miracle of the darkness.

Let's look at this miracle of darkness. The Believer's Study Bible, which by the way, I was excited to come across the commentary for this. I remember when I was in high school, I believe, or maybe after shortly after we were married, but I had a Believer's Study Bible.

This was put out by W .A. Criswell. It's going to be one of those older Bibles and older study things that you'll find, but the Believer's Study Bible gave a commentary on this and it was beautiful. It says this, the sixth hour reckoned according to Hebrew time would be 12 noon.

So one of the things that made the darkness that took place this day such a great miracle is that it was when the sun was at its highest point, 12 noon. So when we read in the text, the sixth hour, in Hebrew time, in Hebrew ways of telling time, the sixth hour was 12 noon.

So the third hour was 9 a .m. 9 a .m. was when everything got started with the crucifixion. The sixth hour is 12 noon. The ninth hour is 3 p .m. So keep that in mind. So a strange darkness engulfed the land.

A natural eclipse was unlikely at Passover and it does not completely explain the phenomenon. The darkness signifies a miracle of God designed to draw attention to the darkness of the hour when men crucified the Savior of love.

The Lord's cry from the cross, which was a mixture of Aramaic and Hebrew, which was quoting Psalm 22 .1, which by the way, that was intentional that we quoted that today in our responsive reading, is in many respects as impenetrable as the darkness of the hour.

Commentary went on to say this, all that is involved can never be known. This much can be ascertained though in that black hour, the judgment of the sins of the entire world was placed upon Jesus in isolation.

He alone took the sins of mankind. He alone must drink the cup of God's indignation against sin. So darkness fell over the land as we read in the text. Again, this was not a natural darkness. Eclipse was very highly unlikely and scientifically improbable to have taken place.

This darkness was a supernatural darkness from God. This darkness is not an eclipse. Why? Because it was April and the moon was full and no solar eclipse would last for three hours. Again, yes, Luke says that the sun was obscured, but it was obscured not by an eclipse, but by divine darkness.

Not naturally darkened, but supernaturally darkened. This darkness is nothing less than God's hand of judgment. It is his holy wrath poured out in full measure on his son who bore the sins of the world.

John MacArthur said this in a commentary on this verse. He said, the father forsook the son because the son took upon himself our transgressions. He took upon him our iniquities is what the book of Isaiah says.

Jesus was delivered up. Why? Because of our sin, because of our transgression. And the scriptures also tell us this, that he who knew no sin became sin for us. He became a curse for us according to Galatians.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross according to first Peter. He died for sins once and for all. The just being Christ for the unjust, the sinner, that would be us. He died for you. Jesus Christ not only bore man's sin, but actually became sin on man's behalf in order that those who believe in him might be saved from the penalty of their sin.

I would ask this question and I would ask you to consider carefully this. Do you know where you stand before God? You stand a condemned guilty sinner, whether you be man, woman, boy, or girl, because we are born in sin and shaped in iniquity.

Our hope is not in our good deeds. Our hope is not in this life. Our hope is not in this world. Our hope comes from Christ in him alone and what he has done to pay for the iniquity of us all. MacArthur went on to say this, when Christ was forsaken by the Father, their separation was not one of nature, essence, or substance.

Christ did not in any sense or any degree cease to exist as God or as a member of the Trinity. In other words, Jesus didn't stop being God. He did not cease to be the Son any more than a child who sins severely against his human father ceases to be his child.

But Jesus did for a while cease to know the intimacy of the fellowship with his heavenly Father, just as a disobedient child ceases for a while to have intimate, normal, loving fellowship with his human father.

As already mentioned, MacArthur closes with this statement, already mentioned, he said, the mystery of that separation is far too deep for even for the most mature believer to fathom, which is the truth.

But God has revealed the basic truth of it for us to accept and to understand to the limit of our abilities under and by the illumination of his Holy Spirit. And nowhere in scripture can we behold the reality of Jesus' sacrificial death and the anguish of his separation from his Father more clearly and more penetratingly than in his suffering on the cross because of sin.

So in the midst of being willingly engulfed in our sins and all the sins of men in all time, he writhed in anguish, not from the lacerations on his back or the thorns that still pierced his head or the nails that held him to the cross, but it was from the incomparably painful loss of fellowship with his heavenly father that his becoming sin for us had brought.

The scripture teaches us that in Isaiah 53, again, if we go back to Isaiah 53 very quickly for just a moment, very, very important that we look at that text. Isaiah 53, the scripture says in verse 3, he was despised and rejected by men.

He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was no stranger to grief. And as one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. But surely he has borne our griefs and he has carried our sorrows.

And yet, as if to say, despite that, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But the truth be told, he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

And with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep, Isaiah said, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So we see this great darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth hour for three hours.

That's the first miracle. The second miracle that we see here in Luke's gospel, while the sun's light failed and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Some of you may be thinking to yourself, if you don't know anything about the temple, when we mentioned that term temple, the temple was God's set up an ordained picture of worship on the earth of what it is in heaven.

Jesus himself typified the blood of the lambs and goats that were shed throughout history. And when Jesus came, the shedding of blood of bulls and goats was no longer necessary for a sacrifice for sin.

For the blood of animals was only a temporary sacrifice. But the blood of Christ was, as the scriptures teach us, the eternal sacrifice for our sins. And in the temple, there was the outer court, the inner court, the holy place.

And then there was the most holy place. And in this most holy place, it was established where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, where the priest would go beyond the veil or beyond that curtain once a year with the blood of bulls and goats and that the priest would go in once a year after having made sacrifice for his own sins to make atonement for the sins of his people.

And he would go beyond that veil. No one would see him. There was no line in there. All that was there was the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark of the Covenant was where he would go in and he would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, which Christ himself is the mercy seat.

He is the one who is just himself and justifies the sinner. But this veil, and it wasn't just a standard curtain, we're talking about a veil likely by the time of Herod's temple, was likely 30 feet tall, 60 feet wide and about four inches thick.

This veil was the veil that is being spoken of here that was torn. And it wasn't grabbed from the bottom and torn up, torn from the top down. It was torn in half. Now, when we consider this, when we think, when we think about the tearing of the veil, a good natural illustration, a good biblical illustration would be the Pharisees and the scribes, when they would be disgusted at sin, when they were disgusted at even Jesus' words, considering it to be sin, they would take and they would grab their breastplate and they would tear that breastplate.

It took all that they had, but they would break it as an act of mourning and contrition for sin. What happened when Christ died on the cross? That veil was torn. It was destroyed. It was torn in two. And what did it demonstrate to us?

It demonstrated that the way to God was now made open by and through the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon said this concerning the veil, as if shocked at the sacrilegious murder of her Lord, the temple rent her garments like one stricken with horror at some stupendous crime.

It is not a single rent through which we may see just a little, but it is a rent from the top to the bottom. There is an entrance made for the greatest of sinners. If there had only been a small hole cut through it, Spurgeon said, the lesser offenders might have crept through.

But what an act of abounding mercy is this, that the veil is rent in the midst and rent from top to the bottom so that the chief of sinners may find ample passage. What does this mean for you today? It means this, come sinner to Jesus Christ.

Believe on him today and you will be saved. Referring back to the Matthew account, because we see the darkness, we see the veil of the temple being rent. Again, we see the earthquake. We hear and we see the cry of Christ.

Even here in Luke 23, verse 46, then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said, father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And we have it in the Matthew account, the detail of what Jesus said there as well.

He cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Again, this is an echo. This is a testimony of the truth that had been prophesied hundreds of years before. If you go back to Psalm 22, Psalm 22. Again, I know we read the first four verses in our time together in response of reading.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. By night and I find no rest. Yet you are holy.

Enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and they were rescued. In you they trusted and were not put to shame. The psalmist declares in prophetic utterance concerning Christ, but I am a worm and not a man.

Scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads and they say he trusted in the Lord to deliver him. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him for he delights in him.

This was the very words that we have attested to in the inspired text of scripture that the folks, the thief on the cross, that the Pharisees standing below, they said these exact words. If he is Christ, the son of God, let him deliver him.

If he is who he says he is in mockery concerning Christ. And so Christ makes this cry, makes this declaration from the cross. And then in Matthew's account we see and we read of the earth quaking and the earth shaking.

Again, commentary on this from Spurgeon. Spurgeon said men's hearts did not respond to the agonizing cries of the Redeemer on this day. But the rocks responded. The rocks were rent. He did not die for rocks, Spurgeon said, yet rocks were more tender than the hearts of men for whom he shed his blood.

Warren Wearsby said this concerning the earthquake. The earthquake reminds us of what happened at Mount Sinai when God gave the law to Moses. The earthquake at Calvary signified that the demands of the law had been met and the curse of the law was forever abolished.

The torn veil indicates that he conquered sin. The earthquake suggests that he conquered the law and fulfilled it. And the resurrection proves that he defeated death. In his comments, in his mark commentary, Wearsby went on to say this, that through his sacrifice, Jesus had purchased not only freedom from the law, but also freedom from the entire sacrificial system.

It was no longer necessary. Moving forward, again, in the Matthew text, we see that the saints were raised, the graves were rent, and the saints came out of their graves after Jesus' resurrection. This is beautiful and this is amazing because it's important that we make this note here.

These saints came out of their graves, not at this moment when the graves were open, but they came after Jesus was raised from the dead. Because the scriptures teach us that Christ is the firstfruits from the dead.

There was nobody going to be raised from the dead before Jesus. Jesus came to life. Again, even after this, the folks that were raised were just resuscitated. They were not eternally raised to life at that moment.

So going on, these saints were revived. It's what happened. These saints were revived or resuscitated for a while, just like Lazarus, like the widow's son, like the centurion's daughter. But so that we don't wander off in the heresy of full preterism, let's be clear here.

This was not the resurrection. Capital T, capital H, capital E. You spell resurrection yourself, all capitalized letters. This was not the resurrection. This was not the general resurrection that Jesus spoke to Martha about when he told her that her brother would rise again at the resurrection.

This miracle was purely to demonstrate to the people of that day that the one who holds the power of death and life was hanging between the heavens and the earth and that he was truly who he said he was, the Messiah.

That has been prophesied to come. And then down in verse 46, here again in Luke, we hear Christ make this declaration, I father into your hands, I commit my spirit. This word commit in the Greek, or I'm sorry, my spirit.

This word commit means to hand over. Spirit is used in reference to the rational spirit, to the power of which the human being feels, thinks, and decides. Another synonymous term would be the soul. And here it is good for us to know our catechisms.

Sharing with you just from a new catechism, but it says the same thing that ours does. In Keech's catechism, question number 26, the question is asked, how did Christ being the son of God become man? And the answer, Christ, the son of God became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her.

Yet he was without sin. Christ entrusted the keeping of himself to the father. When he said, father, into your hands, I commit my spirit, he gave himself over. And then lastly, as we move to a close here, as near as we can get to a close, the death of Jesus concerning this next miracle that took place, this fifth miracle, it is the centurion's belief.

Verse 47 says, when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God. Again, you may say, so what? We see this term praised all the time. What does this mean? Well, the Greek word that's used here for praise is the word doxa.

And if you've been here any length of time, you know, at the end of the service, we raise our hands, bow our heads, and we sing, praise God from whom all blessings flow. That is called the doxology. It is praise unto God.

And so this thief, what we have here in the text, we see this centurion saw this spectacle. He saw what had taken place. He looked upon and observed all these events that went down this day. And the scripture says, he said, certainly, certainly this man was innocent.

Now in Matthew's account, we hear him make the declaration, certainly this man was the son of God. They say two different things, but they're saying the same thing. Jesus was an innocent man. Both are true statements.

And so we see this. And I want to ask you to consider this question. What did the Roman centurion believe in order to be saved? What did the Roman centurion believe to be saved this day? Quite simply, it was this, that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

And that he died on the cross for his sin. He realized and he made this recognition. What did he see? He saw Jesus suffer. He saw Jesus not only suffer, but suffer as a substitutionary and as an atoning death for sin.

He saw Jesus freely giving his life up. Father into your hands, I commit my spirit. Jesus' life was not ripped away from him, but Jesus gave his life willingly on behalf of those who would believe in him.

The centurion saw firsthand the result of creation itself, yielding to the unimaginable idea of the wrath of God being poured out on his son. The earth itself could not bear the magnitude of this event.

The natural, the natural created order, the natural created order was unable to respond naturally. It itself, what happened, we have it in the text, the graves burst open. The rocks were ripped, the graves burst open, and it was as if, you'll have to excuse this country term, but it was as if the grave, as if the grave had to tap out.

And I believe, I believe that some of the saints, the scripture doesn't say all the saints, it just says some of them. It don't give us their name. It's not for us to speculate who exactly it was, but the scripture does say in Matthew that after Christ's resurrection, the saints, some of the saints came out of the grave and they went into Jerusalem.

What a sight to see that must have been. What an amazing sight to see. And I believe they might've had a song on their hearts that day. I believe that they might've went into town saying, oh what singing, oh what shouting on that happy morning when we all shall gladly rise, oh what glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, when we meet our blessed savior yonder in the skies.

But it wasn't yet. They were just resuscitated for a little while. And so we see here in the midst of this text, in the Matthew text, we see here to 12 noon darkness, we saw miracles take place. Darkness over the land, the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

These two events in and of themselves were a spectacle to behold. However, I would say even greater than the earthquake, even greater than the rocks being rent, the greatness of these miracles did not hold a candle to the magnificence and to the splendor of our king as he hung on that cross bearing the weight of sin on our behalf.

I don't believe that it held a candle to it. The hymn writer said, when I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and I pour contempt on all of my pride.

Have you thought about the meaning of that? Pour contempt on your pride means to hate our pride because of what Christ has done. Lastly, why were these miracles necessary? Why were these miracles necessary?

And what did these miracles demonstrate? Four things. Number one, they demonstrate the power of God. Number two, they show forth the glory of God. Number three, they were necessary to give yet another testimony to the fact that Jesus was who he said he was, the only begotten son of God, full of grace and truth.

And just to have the fourth one here, I read J. C. Ryle and he said like, he said this concerning the signs. He said, signs like these on special occasions are a part of God's way of communicating with men and women, period.

And then Ryle said this, because God knows how stupid and unbelieving mankind is. God knows you. He knows your strengths and he knows your weaknesses. The Psalmist said, he knows when you're sitting down, he knows when you're standing up.

He knows when you're hiding and he knows when you're out in the open. There is nothing that is not open to the end and there is no sin that he cannot forgive you of. Come to the Lord today and be saved.

We can be sure of this fact that God does not do his work in a corner. When God works, it is evident to all people, both far and wide, both saved and lost people alike, are witnesses to the mighty work of God.

Verse 48, they returned home, the scripture says. They beheld this spectacle and they returned home. And the text specifically says this, beating their breasts. The Greek term used here is the word teupto.

Teupto, and metaphorically, this term here is used here to say that the people's consciences were wounded. They saw Christ. They saw the suffering. They saw the miracles and they were not unmoved, but they were moved.

To which I would ask you today, does the gospel still move you? And if not, if you're still breathing, goodness and the grace of almighty God, they were moved. They beat their chests. Their consciences were wounded.

What is there a scripture analogy for this? Yes, there is. We think about the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. In Acts chapter 2 verse 36, and we'll close with this text here. Acts chapter 2 verse 36.

Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost and this is what he says in verse 36. Let all the house of Israel therefore know that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, the scripture says they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Are you trusting in Christ for your salvation?

Are you trusting in Christ as your eternal hope? Do you know today that your sins have been forgiven you? And I'm not talking about saying, yeah, we heard it. We've heard it preached. We've heard it talked about.

I'm asking, do you know of a certainty? In the book of John, 1 John, we see that you can know and you can be assured that you have been saved by the grace of God, that the spirit of God dwells in you, that you daily are being sanctified and made a new creature in Christ.

Do you know this today? I cannot give this to you. None of these people in the congregation can give this to you. It comes by Christ alone and by the working of his Holy Spirit. Stand with us if you would this morning.