Boundless Love — Brian Long

Thank you, Johnny, for leading us, brother. Thank you. I'd like to invite you to turn to John 13 tonight. This is where we're going to begin. 13th chapter of John. The burden that the Lord has put upon my heart tonight is that you and I would have an encounter with the boundless love of God.

Jesus’ Love for His Own in John 13

The boundless love of God. So the message tonight is boundless love. And essentially an encounter with God at Calvary. The cross of Jesus Christ. But here's where we begin. John chapter 13. And we'll start in verse 1.

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

And supper being ended, the devil, having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to Him, Lord, are You washing my feet?

Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.

Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Father, I thank You so much for Your living Word. And I'm so persuaded, Father, that You have something to say to us tonight, something to reveal to us, but no man can reveal it, not me, not anybody else.

Holy Spirit, I ask You to open our eyes tonight, to open our ears, unstop our ears, that we may hear Your voice, Lord. Open our eyes that we may see You, Jesus. Open our hearts that we may receive Your Word.

And I'm asking You, God, to fill me and anoint me with the power of Your Holy Spirit and speak through me Your words for Your glory and honor. In Jesus' name, amen. Verse one tells us that Jesus, having loved His own who were in the world, so He's talking about His disciples, those who belong to Him, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

He loved them to the end. He loved them to the fullest, that is. He loved them to the uttermost. Jesus loved them to the end. What kind of love is this that Jesus has toward His own? It is boundless love.

Boundless love. It is pure, it is perfect, it is boundless love. Boundless love in that it goes beyond boundaries. It's the love of God that knows no limitations for His own. It's the kind of love, boundless love, that Christ has for His own people, for His children, is love without limit.

It goes to the highest heavens and reaches to the lowest hell. It's farther and wider than the east is from the west. Boundless love has no boundaries. This is the kind of love that Jesus Christ loves His own with.

Eternal, immeasurable, infinite, perfect, boundless, everlasting love. That is the love of God. It's the kind of love that when you think it can't reach any higher, it goes higher still. It's the kind of love when you think that it can't reach any deeper, it reaches deeper still.

It's the kind of love that when you think it can't go any farther, it goes farther still. This is love to the uttermost. Love that goes beyond boundaries. And I want to share with you just a few things about this boundless love of Christ.

Love Beyond Self-Centeredness

The boundless love of God for His own people. First of all, it's a love that goes beyond self-centeredness. It goes beyond self-preservation. It's a love that goes beyond self. The Bible says that love seeketh not its own.

There's nothing about the love of God that's selfish. There is nothing about the love of Christ that is self-centered. This kind of love, boundless love, goes beyond self-centeredness. Now, all of us have at one time or another put up the boundary of self-preservation, self-centeredness.

Natural love says, come on, I mean, you've got to protect yourself, right? You've got to take care of yourself, so we put up a guard. We put up walls and we say, I will love that person this far, but no farther.

But I remind you, brothers and sisters, that Jesus Christ never did that when it came to loving His own. His boundless love tears down walls, and it goes beyond self-preservation. His love is totally unselfish, totally unself-centered.

It is selfless. Again, verse 1 tells us that when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father. What does that mean? Jesus knew He was about to die. Jesus knew He was about to go to the cross.

He knew that His hour had come, and He was going to die soon, yet He was not thinking of Himself. Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray Him, but He wasn't thinking about Himself. Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny Him three times, but He wasn't thinking about Himself.

Consider the timing of it all. If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, and that somebody here was embarrassed of you, and they were going to ultimately betray you, and deny that they even knew you, who would you be thinking about?

Them or you? The problem is, brothers and sisters, we're all born self-centered. The love of God is not natural. It's supernatural. We're all born selfish. If I were to take a picture, a photograph of all of you right now, and I would put it up on this screen, where would your eyes go first?

You would look for you, because our eyes are usually upon us. We're self-centered. It's the truth. Love doesn't seek its own, but we naturally seek our own. We get upset with someone when they don't notice us, when they don't say hello to us, when they don't agree with every single little thing with us, and we want to cut them off.

We'll love you this far, but no farther. We put up boundaries. Boundless love goes beyond those boundaries. Boundless love not only goes beyond self, but it goes beyond reason. Someone would say, well, you're not really being reasonable, brother Brian.

Love Beyond Reason

And that's right. The boundless love of God goes beyond reason. It goes beyond reason. It's unreasonable love in that it goes beyond reason. Jesus is not delusional here. Verse 3, He tells us that He knew, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God.

He's not delusional. He knows who He is. He is the King of kings. He is the King of glory. He is the Lord of lords. He is the Son of God. He is God. And the Father has placed all things into His hands, yet He takes those same holy hands and picks up a towel.

The night before He would go to a cross, the night in which He was betrayed, He takes those same hands that the Father put all things into, and He takes up a towel, and He picks up a basin full of water, and He begins to take those holy hands and wash the feet of His betrayer, and wash the feet of the one who would deny Him three times, and wash the dirty feet of every single one of His disciples, teaching us and teaching them.

This love goes beyond self and it goes beyond reason. It's not reasonable, is it, that God would reach down and wash dirty feet? Shouldn't the disciples be washing His feet? Shouldn't the disciples be doing this job that was only, in Jewish tradition, was only for a slave?

But boundless love goes beyond reason. The King takes up a towel. The King takes up a basin and washes the feet of His disciples. You see, folks, if you love only those who love you, if you only love the lovable, if you only love those who treat you right all the time and agree with you on everything, then you're just being reasonable.

You're staying in the bounds of reason. You're really staying in the walls and behind the walls of self-centeredness and self-preservation. If what we call love doesn't take us beyond ourselves and outside the boundaries of our comfort zones, then it's not the love of God.

If the only kind of love you know is that which is safe and shrewd and reasonable, that which is never taken to extremes, then you may have natural affection and you may have human sentiment, but you do not have love.

The love of God. You see, love is one of the most perverted words in our English vocabulary today. People don't even understand what it is. The love of God. The boundless love of God. And I hope in this message, God is going to reveal that very clearly, what it truly is.

Jesus comes to Simon Peter, and Simon Peter, look at verse 6. He says, Lord, are you washing my feet? Then he says in verse 8, you shall never wash my feet. That's totally unreasonable. What Jesus was doing seemed to be almost crazy to them.

But that's exactly where boundless love will take you. Beyond selfishness, beyond reason. It was the boundless love of God that compelled five young men to forsake their careers and leave their comforts.

Along with their wives, they traveled to the jungles of Ecuador, and they went there to a heathen people, Akha Indians who were cannibals, killing each other, eating each other. But a tribe of Indians that had never heard the name of Jesus.

It was boundless love that led them there. And one of those young men's name was Jim Elliott. He was an athletic, smart college wrestler. But the love of Christ compelled him to go. Compelled him to go somewhere that he could very likely be killed.

And those five young men bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a tribe of Akha Indians, sharing the love of God with them. Each and every one of them was speared to death. Unreasonable? Yeah, but it's boundless.

It's even more unreasonable that Jim Elliott's wife, Elizabeth, later goes back to that same group of people who killed her husband. And even more unreasonable that she takes her one and only daughter who was just a toddler at the time to preach again the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the very same men who killed her husband.

A Story of Unreasonable Compassion

This is the boundless love of God. It goes beyond reason. It goes beyond self-centeredness. It's the love of Christ. I can tell you a true story about a sister named Beth. To demonstrate this and illustrate this, Beth was in an airport.

She was waiting to board her plane. And she'd had a wonderful morning with the Lord that particular morning. She looks up and there's this old man sitting across from her. And this man is very thin. Yeah, clothes hanging off of him.

He's old. He's sitting in a wheelchair. And his hair is very, very long and very matted. And immediately she sensed the Holy Spirit began to stir in her. And so she knew where that was leading. And she said, Oh, Lord, please, please, don't have me witness to Him in front of all these people.

As people crowded all around, please just cause Him to get on the same plane as me and sit down right next to me and then I'll witness to Him for you. And the Lord said to her, Beth, I'm not asking you to witness to Him.

I'm asking you to brush His hair. She said, Lord, I will witness to Him right now. I'll go right now, no matter who's watching. Beth, I want you to brush His hair. She stood in this, oh, just embarrassment because people were gathered all around.

How am I going to do this in front of everybody? I'm embarrassed. I don't want people to see me. But she had to obey the Lord. And so this boundless, unreasonable love of God compelled her to approach this man.

What she didn't know is that he was hard hearing. And so she tries to whisper so no one notices. Sir, may I have the privilege of brushing your hair? He says, what's that? May I have the privilege of brushing your hair?

He said, little lady, if you're going to talk to me, you're going to have to talk louder than that. She says, sir, may I have the privilege of brushing your hair? By this time, everybody is looking at her and watching her.

He says, sure, if you want to. And then it dawned on her, she says, there's only one problem. I don't have a hairbrush. She was just obeying the Lord. He said, that's not a problem. There's a hairbrush in my bag behind the wheelchair.

So she opens his bag and she takes out the hairbrush and she begins to carefully brush out this man's hair. And she said at that moment, it was as if she and that old man were the only ones in the entire airport.

And she experienced the love of God pouring through her, washing over her and him as she's talking to him. Sir, she says, do you know Jesus? He said, I sure do. He said, my bride wouldn't marry me until I first came to know Jesus.

I've known him for so many years. He said, I've just been gone, had a heart surgery. My bride was too weak to go with me and I'm going back home now. And I was just sitting here thinking what a mess I am and what a mess I look.

And how disappointed, you know, to go back to my bride looking like this. And here you came and brushed my hair. She ministered to him, finished brushing his hair out nice, and he was actually assigned to get on a different plane than she was.

He boards the plane. She's gathering up her things to get on hers. And one of the flight attendants had watched all of this. And after the man boarded the plane, she came back and she was crying, tears running down her face.

She said, ma 'am, that old man is just sobbing his eyes out in there, crying in the plane. She said, why did you do that? What made you do that for him? And she began to tell this woman about Jesus. The boundless love of God not may lead you to do something unreasonable.

He will lead you to do something unreasonable. He will lead you to go beyond reason, beyond self-preservation. This is the boundless love of God. To love those that may not love you in return. To love those, to love those who may actually hate you.

The boundless love of God knows no boundaries. And there's one final thing, and I'm going to camp on this one. The love of God, brothers and sisters and friends, is not just words. It's action. The boundless love of God goes beyond words.

Love Demonstrated Through the Cross

1 John 3, verse 18. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. There must have been a holy hush in the room when Jesus picked up the towel and poured water into a basin.

But you know what? There must have also been a holy hush in heaven when Jesus picked not just a towel up, but a cross. And He was going to a hill called Calvary to die on that cross. Can you imagine all of heaven watching this?

All of the angels watching the King of Glory who had become a man, now taking up a cross. Not just telling the world that God loves you, that I love you, but showing the world that He loves us. He took up a cross and carried it all the way to a hill called Calvary.

Boundless love goes beyond words and takes action. It's supernatural love. It's the love that is only produced by the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Isn't it enough love from God that He would pick up a towel and a bowl and wash His disciples' feet?

That's love enough. It's so great a love, just the fact that God would even choose to create us. It's love enough that God would even choose to provide for us so faithfully every day. Clothing, water, food, a family, children.

We've been given so much. That would be love enough. A wife. A husband. But God's love goes beyond that. It would be love enough just the fact that God became a man and dwelt among us. But God's love goes beyond that.

The greatest love of all is that Christ died for us. The greatest love of all is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5 .8. But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were yet ungodly, Christ died for us. While we were enemies of God, Jesus Christ died for us. And I wonder if we really understand the pain and the sting and the meaning of that little word, died.

You know who understands the pain of that word? Ask a mom or a dad who has suffered the loss of a child and had a child die. They know the pain and the sting of that word, died. Ask a wife who loves her husband so much, but who suffered the loss of her husband and he died.

Even though she knows he belonged to the Lord and he's in heaven, she knows what that little word, died. The pain and the sting of that word. Ask a husband whose beloved wife has been taken from him and carried on into glory.

He knows, died. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But no one knows the sting and the pain of that word more than God Himself. And Christ Himself who died for us on a cross. And someone may say, can God really feel pain?

Does God really, really feel pain? My mind immediately runs back to Scripture in Genesis 6 and verse 5. Listen to what the Bible says about that. Genesis 6 and verse 5,. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The NIV says, and His heart was filled with pain. What I want you to see tonight is that our God, the only true God, is not an emotionless God.

He's a God who feels pain. He's a God who loves. He's a God who grieves. Jesus said, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. And how many times in Scripture do we read, Jesus wept. We serve a God who is moved with compassion.

The Father’s Love in Giving His Son

We serve a God who knows the pain and the sting of that word died. Have you ever thought about the cross from the Father God's perspective, brothers and sisters? Have you ever just meditated about what was God the Father?

What was going through His heart, His mind, as He Himself is having to pour out His judgment upon the Son of God on the cross at Calvary for sins He didn't commit, but that we all committed? It hit me the hardest when my son was suffering on a bed, as many of you know, suffering with cancer.

But I'll never forget this one particular night when he was suffering in unspeakable pain and agony, and I could do nothing to comfort him. I'd try. I would say things. I would pray over him. I would touch him.

Anything I could do. And you and I both, all of us who are parents, would rather suffer 100 ,000 times than have to see your son suffer or your daughter suffer one time. But not being able to relieve the pain.

And I remember that night praying, and suddenly it was a revelation to me. I'd never thought of it before. The cross from the Father's perspective. What was going on in the heart of God? When He gave His only begotten Son to die on a cruel cross for your sins and mine.

You think He wasn't moved by that? Christ died for the ungodly. That word died, stung, and must have filled the Father's heart with pain. Someone said we grieve to the extent that we loved. We grieve to the extent that we loved.

The more you love someone, and they're taking from you, the more you, the deeper you grieve. If that is true, and I believe it is, what was going on in the heart of Father God when Christ died for the sins of the world?

Consider how much God the Father loved His Son. Consider what He went through when Christ died on the cross. But on that cross, God is not only... On that cross, above all, God is demonstrating His love for us.

The Father is demonstrating His love for us. Christ is demonstrating His love for us. Look at John 15 with me if you would. John 15. And see what Jesus says here. Verse 9. Jesus says, "...as the Father loved Me...".

Now think about this. How much did the Father love the Son? Remember when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River? And He came up out of the water? As soon as He came up out of the water, a voice thundered from heaven.

It was the voice of God. And God said, this is My Son whom I love. This is My beloved Son. With Him I am well pleased. How much? How do you measure the love that the Father has for His only begotten Son?

It is a love that is boundless. It is a love that can't be described or explained. And here, Jesus says to me, "...as the Father loved Me, I also have loved you.". Boundless love. Chapter 16, verse 27.

Jesus again says, "...for the Father Himself loves you.". First He tells me that as the Father loved Him, He loves us. Now He tells us, "...for the Father Himself loves you.". With what kind of love? Boundless love.

John 17, verse 23, "...I in them, and you in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent Me, and have loved them as you have loved Me.". Do you hear what the Word of God is saying there?

It's incredible when you think of it. Jesus is saying that the Father has loved His own, His people, in the same way that He loved Christ, His only begotten Son. Amazing! "...have loved them as you have loved Me.".

Verse 24,. "...Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.".

Jesus, in essence, is saying, I love them so much. I pray, Father, I want them to be with Me where I am in glory. But in order for us to be with Him in glory, for that to happen, there must be a cross, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, must die on it.

For God to remain just, and yet justify the ungodly sinner, such as ourselves, Christ had to die. God could not spare both us and His Son. His Son must die. The just for the unjust in order to save us.

The Cup Jesus Drank at Gethsemane

Peter didn't understand this at the time. And so when they come to arrest Jesus, look with me, if you will, in chapter 18. When they come to arrest Jesus, it says in verse 10,. "...Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear.

The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?". To get another glimpse of this boundless love of God, it's essential that you and I understand something about this cup.

Jesus said, Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me? What is this cup? What is this cup that He's talking about here? Mark chapter 14. Turn there with me if you would. Mark chapter 14. This cup.

Beginning in verse 32. "...Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples, Sit here while I pray. And He took Peter, James, and John with Him. And He began to be troubled and deeply distressed.

Then He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch. He went a little farther, and He fell on the ground. And He prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him.

And He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.". I don't know of another place in Scripture where He says it just like this, but here Jesus says to God the Father, He cries out, Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.

Take this cup from Me. Folks, Abba in Aramaic is the same as saying, Dad, Daddy. This is Jesus crying out to His Father, saying, Dad, Daddy, please, take this cup. I say that reverently. Take this cup, Abba, from Me.

Jesus did not want to drink this cup. What was it about this cup? What was Jesus dreading so much about drinking it? Was it the physical suffering? Was it the fact that He would be whipped across the back with the whip of cattle nine tails?

Was it the fact that He would be nailed through His hands and feet? Was it the crown of thorns that He would have pressed down upon His head? Was it the cross? I think it was more than that. In this cup, first of all, were the sins of the whole world.

Now this is also beyond our comprehension. In this cup were the sins of the whole world. Isaiah 53, verse 6 says, All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The sins of us all were laid upon Christ. John 1, verse 29, John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus, remember, said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. 1 John 2, verse 2 tells us that Christ is a propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

In this cup were the sins of the whole world. Now how do you comprehend that? I want you to think of a time. Think of a time when you committed a sin against God. A terrible sin against God. Think about the time when that weight of guilt and shame came upon you.

There was guilt. There was shame. There was a sorrow. Now I want you to multiply that sin and pile upon that sin all the sins that you have ever committed in your entire life. Put them on Christ. Now it's not just your sins and all the sins you've ever committed in your entire life, but the sins of every one of us who are gathered here tonight.

Place them upon Christ. Now not just those, but all the sins of everyone who lives in Ingram and Ladysmith and all this area, all of Wisconsin. Place them upon Christ. Now pile upon the sins of the entire country of the USA, all the homosexuality, sodomy in that cup upon Christ, child abuse upon Christ, gossip upon Christ, lust, anger, murder, all of it.

All the abominations this country has committed and all the people in it upon Christ. We're still not finished. Now all of Africa and all the sins of Russia and all the sins of everyone who's ever lived in China.

Now we're talking not just about all of those sins of the whole world today, but every single person who has ever lived on the face of this planet. Past, present, future. The sins of the whole world. How do you comprehend that?

Placed in this cup. No wonder Jesus said, Abba, Abba Father, take this cup. He wrestled in the Garden of Gethsemane. He wrestled in prayer. He agonized to the degree that He literally began to sweat drops of blood.

There was sin in the cup. 2 Corinthians 5 .21 says,. For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Just as we became righteous in Christ, we received His righteousness, He received from us, took upon Himself our sins.

All of them! And the sins of the whole world. He was made sin on the cross. And why did He do it? Love. Boundless love. That's why. What else was in the sins in that cup? I think of, I heard Brother Zach say one time, Brother Zach Poonen, I'll never forget this, it made me weep.

And it's made me weep every time that I've heard him say this. He was thinking about Gethsemane. And it doesn't say this in here, it doesn't give us the details, but Brother Zach says, I've often thought about Jesus wrestling in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and this imaginary conversation going on between the Father and the Son.

Jesus valued fellowship and oneness with the Father more than anything else. And what is the wages of sin? Death. A separation from God. Jesus never knew separation from God the Father. For all eternity past, it's always been like this.

He never knew separation from the Father. Never knew one break in fellowship with the Father. And He valued that fellowship more than anything else. And in this imaginary conversation between God the Father and His Son, Brother Zach shared, he said, I wonder as Jesus struggled so in prayer, sweating drops of blood, if the Father didn't say, Son, you don't have to drink the cup.

You don't have to go to the cross. You don't have to die. You've never sinned. You've been faithful to me even as a man for 33 and a half years. You don't have to break our fellowship. You don't have to drink this cup.

You can come straight up to heaven from Gethsemane. But Zach will go to hell. And Brian will go to hell. And Dale and Jane and Rob and Esther and Matt and Alvin will go to hell. And Jesus says, Oh, I'll drink the cup.

I'll drink the cup. Why? Why? It was love. It was boundless, indescribable love. He didn't want us to go to hell. He wants us to be in glory with Him. It was love that motivated Him to say, yes, Father, not my will, but Yours be done.

God’s Wrath and Christ’s Substitution

But there's something else in this cup. It's not just the sins of the world. That's enough. What else is in this cup? Psalm 75. Psalm 75 and verse 7. It says,. But God is the judge. He puts down one and exalts another.

For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red. It is fully mixed and He pours it out. Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down. Jeremiah 25 talks all about this cup.

It's the cup of God's wrath. It's the cup of fury, the cup that would bring desolation, astonishment, hissing and a curse. The cup of God's wrath. The cup that Jesus would drink was full of the wrath of God against sin.

Wrath means anger, fury, vengeful anger with an intent to harm. Imagine this holy anger, this holy righteous anger and fury of God that is building up against sin. God hates sin. Folks, you want to know how serious sin is?

Look at the cross at Calvary. You want to know how serious bitterness is? Gossip is? Unforgiveness is? Lust is? Anger is? Pride is? Sodomy is? Adultery is? Look at what Jesus Christ had to drink and look at what Jesus Christ had to endure on the cross.

This will show you the seriousness of sin. In the cup was the wrath of God, this holy wrath that has been building up, building up like tsunami waves, building up, ready to be unleashed upon sin because God is a holy and just God.

He must judge sin and this is all building up. And Jesus has to drink this cup and what happens is on the cross, when Jesus is upon the cross, all of the sudden the dam breaks and the wrath and fury of Almighty God against sin is poured out upon His Son and His Son is literally crushed under the weight of God's wrath against sin.

In Isaiah 53, it goes so far as to say, and it pleased the Lord to crush Him. He was crushed under the wrath of Almighty God. At the cross of Jesus Christ, the perfect love of God and the perfect love of God for all of lost humanity, all of us sinners, the ungodly, the perfect love of God for us and the perfect justice of God against sin met at the cross and Christ Jesus was crucified.

Romans 8, verse 32 says, He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. Mark 15. Look at this one with me. Mark 15, verse 33.

This is when Jesus is actually on the cross. And it says, Now when the sixth hour had come, that's about noontime. When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.