Sunday, November 27, 2022 PM

Luke 23, and we're going to be reading verses 44 through 49.

Let's begin with prayer. Father, we thank you for the day. We thank you for the opportunity again to read your Word together, to rejoice in its truth.

We thank you for giving us your Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior, as our King. That having given us your

Son, we know that with Him you will freely give us all things. So we pray and ask tonight that you would give us understanding of your

Word, that you would encourage us, that you would direct us, and that you would increase us in our faith, in our hope, and in our love.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right,

Luke 23, beginning in verse 44. Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, Father, into your hands

I commit my spirit. Having said this, He breathed.

So when the centurion, he glorified

God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned.

But all his acquaintances and the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things.

So we've been looking at passage after passage here in the

Gospel of Luke. A long time ago, in many, many chapters ago, we read that Jesus set

His face toward Jerusalem, because He knew that that was where He had to go.

And He told His disciples what would happen when they got there. He told them that He must suffer many things, that He would be betrayed, that He would be betrayed into the hands of the chief priests, the

Pharisees, and scribes, that He would suffer, that He would die, and that He would rise again.

So He had been telling them that this was on the agenda, this was the plan, this was going to happen.

And we finally come to the passage that focuses directly on the death of Christ.

So as we look at this passage, verses 44 through 49, there are a variety of details, and each one of them has significance.

And I want to put them under four headings tonight, and think about what parts of the story, what parts of this passage, tell us about judgment, about God's judgment upon our

Savior, or the substitute sacrifice for us, meaning Christ. And then what parts of this passage deal with fulfillment?

In what way is Christ fulfilling the expectations and promises of God from the

Old Covenant? And then let's consider the response of the people who were there.

How did they respond? What kind of people did we find, and how did they respond? And what encouragements do we receive from this text that they give us assurance of our

Savior and His ability to save? That He is a true and good

Savior. So let's begin with the first detail. Now it was about the sixth hour.

Now it was about the sixth hour. When we read the timing on this, we are told that He was crucified about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

And so counting from the morning forward, the sixth hour is high noon.

Okay, so remember the story that Jesus told about the man who went to hire workers for the vineyard?

And you remember that he had to keep going back to hire more guys to come out and work?

Now some of them he had hired at six o 'clock in the morning. Early birds got the worm, right?

They were out there ready to be hired, and they labored for how many hours?

How many hours did they labor in that man's vineyard, in his fields?

Twelve hours, right? And who were they most upset with?

They came late, and we have a saying now that's based on it. The eleventh hour, right?

Here at the eleventh hour, right? And there were some who were hired when?

Well, five o 'clock in the afternoon, only one hour left in the workday, right?

That's the eleventh hour. So when we read here that it was about the sixth hour when Christ was crucified, that is high noon.

And there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. So think about the timing.

From twelve o 'clock in the afternoon, high noon, to three o 'clock in the afternoon, there was darkness over all the earth.

We are told in verse 45 that the sun was darkened, but that there was darkness over all the earth.

Now what is significant about the timing and what is significant about the darkness?

What can we say, given what we know from the scriptures? Luke gives us these details because they are true and because they are significant.

Certainly many things happened during this time that were true, but they weren't significant to the text, not significant for the reporting of it.

These are significant details. So we've been talking about this ninth hour, three o 'clock in the afternoon, because it relates to Acts chapter 3.

That was the hour of prayer. That was the hour of the evening sacrifice.

We see here that Christ died at the hour of the evening sacrifice.

Do we find that significant? What are we told about the death of Christ as the

Lamb of God? What are we told about the way that Christ offers himself up as a sacrifice to God in his position as our great high priest?

I mean, what does the book of Hebrews tell us about all those sacrifices that were made under the

Old Covenant compared to Christ's sacrifice? Whereas the priest must, time after time, day after day, year after year, offer up sacrifices to God, Christ offered himself up once for all time.

That's right, once for all time. There is definitely a comparison in the priestly duties, a comparison in the fact that there's a sacrifice, but only for the sake of making the contrast of how much greater

Christ is in his priestly ministry, and how much greater and perfect his sacrifice is compared to those that were made there in the temple at Jerusalem.

So the timing of it is significant because we're reminded of the hour of prayer and the time of sacrifice, but also the timing of it should remind us that it shouldn't be pitch -dark, pitch -black from noon to three.

If at some point tomorrow, from noon to three, it is pitch -black outside, something is dreadfully wrong.

Something is dreadfully wrong. So we can think of, in terms of fulfillment, the timing, but what of the darkness?

What is the three hours of darkness in the middle of the day communicate? What does it signify, given what we know from the scriptures?

Right, so Joel 2 is describing something, and darkness plays a role.

What is that? Judgment, that's right.

Now Joel 2 is one example of many, but we see in the Bible that when God brings devastating judgment, that darkness is very often included in the list of metaphors and events when

God brings judgment. So the darkness indicates judgment.

Now some Bible scholars who have an allergy to miracles try to say this was some kind of eclipse.

Now if you've ever had the privilege of witnessing an eclipse, you'll know it doesn't go pitch -black, right?

It doesn't come into darkness. The Sun doesn't fail completely, and you probably have experienced that, number one.

Number two, God has made a very orderly universe, and eclipses happen on a particular schedule.

And that's a fascinating study to undergo, but there is no possible way that this was a natural eclipse, given the timing that we know that Jesus lived, and the timing of the

Passover, which it's impossible to have a solar eclipse during a full moon. It just doesn't work, and that's when you have the

Passover. So this doesn't work. It can't be an eclipse. The only thing we're left with is that this is a supernatural expression of God's judgment, and we find that the judgment does not fall upon the

Roman soldiers guarding Golgotha. They're still there. The judgment does not fall upon the

Jewish crowd who have been screaming, crucify him, and we have no king but Caesar.

The judgment does not fall upon them in this story. We find that the judgment does not fall upon the scribes, and the

Pharisees, and the Sadducees who orchestrated his death. During this three hours of darkness,

Pilate is still alive and well, though he might be a little confused as to why it's dark outside.

The disciples who abandoned Christ and fled, and did not stay loyal to him.

The judgment of God does not fall upon them. So where does the judgment of God fall?

It falls upon Christ. When Jesus cries out with a loud voice in verse 46, we recall the the sayings of Christ from the cross, as we bring together all the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and consider the things that Jesus said from the cross.

This great cry, this loud voice, corresponds with the word that Jesus gives, it is finished.

One word in the Greek, tetelestai, it is finished. It could possibly correlate with him crying out, my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But we know from the story that we're reading, in agreement with the other accounts, that this darkness is expressive of the judgment of God upon Christ, who is our substitute sacrifice.

As he is suffering physically upon the cross, the same kind of physical suffering that the two criminals are enduring on either side of him, he's also suffering in a way that is not fully explainable, in a way that satisfies the justice of God, as we're told in Romans 3, that Christ propitiated the wrath of God as a redeeming substitute sacrifice.

And so, from the darkness and from the cries of Christ, we can tell the direction in the meaning of the judgment of God.

When we read that the veil of the temple was torn into, what do we know about this veil, the veil of the temple, from perhaps the instructions about the veil made for the tabernacle in Exodus, or the descriptions of the veil that was made for Solomon's temple?

Maybe some descriptions of the veil that was hanging there, in that temple, that had been remodeled by Herod's insistence and money.

What is this veil? What does it look like? What's it made out of? Why is it there?

Yes, David? It was considered to be a barrier, not something to be easily crossed over.

It was robust, strong, something to keep people out of it. Josephus describes it as thick as a man's arm.

You can't see through that kind of veil. Dyed in blues and purples, very expensive, very ornate, extremely heavy, and people have tried to calculate the amount of force that it would take to try to rip that thing in half.

And of course, it's too much for anybody to do. It can't be explained by the earthquake, for instance, that was talked about later.

There's nothing mechanically that can describe why this veil as thick as a man's arm would be torn from top to bottom.

It just doesn't make any sense as far as trying to explain it in the mechanics of it.

So, this veil, as David mentioned, has the golden cherubim woven in.

The reason why is, well, of course, that's the way it was with the

Old Testament veil in Solomon's Temple and in the tabernacle.

The golden cherubim were woven into this veil, which of course covered the entrance to the

Holy of Holies, and that entrance faced east. The whole tabernacle faced east.

And the reason why is because the entrance to the Garden of Eden was on the east.

And the reason why there was golden cherubim woven into the veil was because God had stationed a cherubim at the east of the

Garden of Eden with a flaming sword that turned every which way to guard the path to the

Tree of Life. And it was this image that confronted the high priest when he approached the

Holy of Holies. It was as if he was treading upon the ground back into the

Garden of Eden. And he would have to pass through these golden cherubim, reminding him of the wrath and the judgment of God.

Which is why, of course, he had bells around the hem of his robe and a rope around one of his ankles, so that if his fellow priests heard the stop, the jingling stop, they would account that as God having killed the high priest for failing to be holy enough.

And they would have dragged his carcass back out, not exposing themselves to the very same judgment.

But even with the high priest going into the Holy of Holies, there was a piece of furniture, the altar of incense, which spanned the gap between the veil in such a fashion that as you would light the altar of incense, incense would begin to fill the

Holy of Holies so that it was full of smoke. Full of smoke, so that the high priest himself couldn't even see the

Ark of the Covenant when he walked in. And now, when

Jesus dies upon the cross, as he offers himself up in his high priestly position, offers his own blood as the proper sacrifice, as the

Lamb of God, this veil which covers the Holy of Holies there in Jerusalem is torn from top to bottom, so that now everybody can see in, all these

Levites, all these priests, can see in to the Holy of Holies.

And what do they behold there? Nothing. Because there was nothing in the

Holy of Holies. It's interesting, I think, I think,

Jacob, you mentioned it in the class on the history of Rome, how it was that Pompey, when he came to Jerusalem and took custody of the area, went into the temple, and indeed went into the

Holy of Holies, and found nothing there. Which is awfully confusing for a

Roman, because certainly if you're going to have some sort of ornate temple in place of worship, what would you find at the heart of it but an idol?

You'd find some stumpy thing covered over with gold, at least. But he found nothing.

Which is why the Jews gained the name atheists, because they had no gods to worship, in the view of the

Romans. Where's your little statues? They didn't have any, so they got called atheists.

But when the veil is torn in two, this is showing us something, right?

This is showing us something. Showing us something about the

Old Covenant. Showing us something about the status of the Judaism there, being operated in the

Second Temple. Your Holy of Holies is empty. There's no way of atonement here.

What do you do on the Day of Atonement, when you're supposed to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice upon the mercy seat?

There is no seat of mercy. There is no Ark of the Covenant. It is empty.

But in this, in this, is it not also, when we think of the fulfillment, also the fact the veil being torn in two, what is it saying about the nature of Christ's death?

What does the veil have on it? The golden cherubim?

You shall not pass. You are cut off from God. You cannot enter back into fellowship with God.

The path back to the Tree of Life is blocked. But what does

Christ do in his death upon the cross? He opens the way, so that now, now with him, as the author of Hebrews says, we enter with him beyond the veil.

He's our anchor past the veil. We are said to sit with Christ in the heavenly places.

As we see the enthronement of Christ in Scripture, and in the throne room of God described in the same

Holy of Holies language of the Old Testament, we are said in the New Testament to be sitting with Christ there.

That's our location, because he represents us before the

Father. And so we are assured of a, of a full salvation being brought all the way back to God by the death, by the sacrifice, by the work of Christ.

And we see that Jesus cried out with a loud voice. We've talked about that term, it is finished.

And he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last.

Now we read from Psalm 31 verse 5 that, that line, into your hands

I commit my spirit. And indeed, in the experience of David, as we see false accusation lodged against him, conspiracies being hatched for his death, and so on, that although David was ultimately delivered out of those terrible situations, we see the son of David, the one whom

David typified, Jesus Christ himself, suffering now on the cross, being slandered by his accusers, being mocked by those who hated him, and indeed they had conspired for his death.

But what does he say? Into your hands I commit my spirit.

Truly is there any safer place than the hands of God?

How did Jesus put it about his sheep, his own?

Does he not say of his own that he will not lose one, that they are in his hand, that we are in the

Father's hand? Our security, you see, is in Christ who placed himself in the

Father's hand. Not a, not a, not one, not one drop of blood is wasted, not one facet of suffering is, is, is capricious or frivolous.

Everything that Christ did upon the cross is entirely accepted and protected and preserved and honored by the

Father. He places his spirit into the hands of his

Father. So we see his trust to the uttermost. And having said this, he breathed his last.

I think it is significant that he speaks of his spirit and then we hear that he breathed his last, as the term for breath and spirit are the same in the

Hebrew. It is, I think, good for us to reflect on how it is that God made the first Adam.

He breathed the breath of life into him and he became a living being, the first Adam.

But now our attention is placed upon the last Adam, where he places his spirit into the

Father's hand and breathes his last. The, the, the first Adam has failed, but the last

Adam has succeeded. We find that the, the righteousness of the last

Adam returns life to those who were dead in the first Adam.

We can't think of spirit and breath too much without going all the way back to Genesis chapter 2.

So we see that Christ's spirit and breath are not expended in vain.

And then what of the response of the soldier, right?

We can look at that. What does he say about Jesus? What is his assessment?

How much did he know? We're not exactly told. In another passage we hear the soldier saying, truly this was the

Son of God. But again, just like Pilate who could find no fault in Christ, no fault whatsoever.

So here this soldier is saying, this man is righteous. There's nothing, he's done nothing wrong.

He is innocent, right? This man is righteous. This, of course, glorifies God in the sense that that's exactly the reason he sent his son, to be, to righteously fulfill all of his demands.

God's Lamb is perfect, without blemish, without spot. This glorifies

God because it shows the perfect, the perfections of Christ. It shows the, the nature of Christ being that satisfying sacrifice to God.

Certainly, truly, without a doubt, this was a righteous man.

This was a righteous man. And so we see a response of faith by the soldier.

This was the Son of God. Oh, this was a righteous man, believing that he is who he said he was.

So there's a response of faith, but also we have a response of the crowd. How did they respond?

Yeah, they were, they were shamed, weren't they? Yeah, they were, they were proven wrong on many levels.

When it was all said and done, they couldn't bear to stand there and look at the work that they had done.

Much like Adam and Eve, who had to go hide, and the children of Israel, who couldn't stand the sight of Sinai.

So also, these leave. They can't stand what they see there. They, they beat their breasts and they leave, and they can't, they can't be there anymore.

So we see this response of shame. So we see the response of faith, the soldier standing there, and the response of shame and rejection, the crowd leaving.

And then we have another response, verse 49. What about the acquaintances of Christ, those who knew him, who, who perhaps had followed him from time to time?

We know that at least some of the disciples are there. And then there is the women who followed him from Galilee, many of those who had contributed to his support for so long.

They stood at a distance. They stood at a distance watching these things.

So what kind of response is this? Couldn't stay there.

Yeah, a kind of sense of confounding, not sure what happens next.

So in this sense, I think we are to be reminded here of the absolute confusion that would still reign, and confounding loss of direction that would still reign over us all, if Christ had never been raised from the dead.

They'd followed Christ, they loved Christ, they knew Christ, but they're just sitting there, standing there at a distance like, yes, the veil has been torn in two.

Yes, he has breathed his last. Yes, he was declared righteous. But all is lost unless he is raised from the dead.

Unless he is raised from the dead to ascend to the right hand of the

Father and reign and bring victory and return in that victory. All is lost if he is not risen from the dead.

And I think that that's a good reminder here with these people at a distance.

They're left in the same situation as the Old Testament prophets. Like, I see something but I don't understand it.

What's there? Things do not become clear, crystal blazing amazing clear, until after Christ raises from the dead.

It begins to open their minds to understand this was necessary. Yes, yes, all right.

Well, we've run over our time. I think I hear the choir has been released.