Three Scenes from Calvary

[0:00] Amen. Amen.

[1:00] Amen. Amen.

[2:00] Amen. Amen.

[3:00] Yes. Lest I forgive thy love for me Lest I forget thy love for me

[4:29] Lest I forgive thy love for me Lest I forgive thy love for me Lest I forgive thy love for me And lead me to Calvary Yes, Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

[5:31] Amen. Thank you, Troy.

[5:45] I've heard it said that we, as believers, never move on from the cross. We only move on to a deeper understanding of the cross. And I pray that God will use our time together today to lead us to Calvary, which is the only objective place where his love is revealed.

[6:12] God's love is not revealed in our circumstances, not revealed in the advantages that we may feel that we have in any given moment.

[6:22] And God's love is objectively revealed in one place, and that is on Calvary's Hill, where Jesus Christ took the place of sinners, bore their sins, and endured God's wrath, so that those sinners may have peace with God.

[6:47] And so may all of our hearts today be turned afresh to Calvary. For this morning, we are going to look to the Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 15.

[7:05] And the four Gospel writers give us four different perspectives of the same event of the crucifixion.

[7:20] And each of the accounts can be read in just a few minutes. But really, what they wrote in a few minutes, what we can read in a few minutes, took place over some six hours.

[7:37] And so the account of the crucifixion contains numerous scenes, but the scenes are not so compressed as we read them to be. They were spread out over some six hours of time.

[7:51] And this morning, I want to direct our attention to three of those scenes. They're found in verses 33 to 39 of Mark's Gospel, chapter 15.

[8:11] But for context, I want to begin reading in verse 16, and I will end in verse 41. So we'll read Mark 16, Mark 15, verses 16 to 41, but our focus for the sermon will be verses 33 to 39.

[8:34] Please follow along as I read. And the soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the governor's headquarters. And they called together the whole battalion.

[8:50] And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him.

[9:00] Hail, King of the Jews. And they were striking his head with a reed, and spitting on him, and kneeling down in homage to him.

[9:13] And where they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.

[9:27] And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

[9:37] And they brought him to the place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull. And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.

[9:54] And they crucified him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to decide what each should take.

[10:04] And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, The King of the Jews.

[10:18] And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right, and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, Aha!

[10:32] You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross. So also the chief priests and the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, He saved others.

[10:51] He cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

[11:08] And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lemma sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[11:38] And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, behold, he is calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, putting it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to him to take him down.

[12:03] And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, truly, this man was the Son of God.

[12:27] There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the younger and Joseph and Salome.

[12:38] when he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him. And there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

[12:56] Let's pray together. Father, we bow our hearts this morning and we pray that you would lead us afresh to Calvary.

[13:08] We pray, O Lord, that you would bring Calvary afresh in our sights, but not in familiar ways, but ways that will cause us to further comprehend the depth of the mercy and grace poured out there for sinners like us.

[13:31] Lord, I pray that you would use me as an instrument in your hands this morning to speak to the hearts of these, your people, who are gathered in this place.

[13:50] And I pray, Lord, that you will lead us all to get a fresh glimpse of that place where you demonstrated your love for sinners like us.

[14:08] We pray and we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. The first thing I want to direct our attention to this morning is the loud cry of Jesus as he hung on the cross.

[14:28] In verse 25, Mark tells us that Jesus was crucified at the third hour or 9 a.m. And to be crucified is not death itself.

[14:46] To be crucified is to be nailed to a cross and to be left there to die a slow and painful death. And historical accounts tell us that they could go on for days.

[15:01] And it was that process that was called crucifixion. Death came at the end of crucifixion. It was intended that that would be the outcome. But crucifixion itself was just a slow, painful, agonizing death.

[15:19] And in verses 33 to 34, Mark tells us that when the sixth hour had come, this would be some three hours later because Jesus was nailed to the cross at the third hour.

[15:35] so this would be 12 noon. There was a darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. That would be 3 p.m. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[16:01] I think it's important to note that the darkness that took place in that moment over the whole land was very unusual.

[16:13] If the darkness was just for a moment, that would have been unusual, but the fact that it was a persistent darkness for some three hours made it very unusual.

[16:27] and the darkness took place at 12 noon, which typically is the brightest hour of the day.

[16:42] And it was in the midst of that darkness, in the midst of that three-hour span, that Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[16:55] And we should ask the question as well, why did God forsake him? Why did Jesus in the midst of unusual darkness make this loud cry?

[17:12] Why did he not cry out when he was being crucified? Why did he not cry out when they were hammering nails into his hands and hammering nails into his feet?

[17:24] When they were mocking him and hitting him and punching him? Why did he not cry out in those moments?

[17:38] Well, the reason Jesus did not cry out in those moments is because what was happening to him in that span of the three hours of darkness was far more horrific than anything the Romans could have done to him.

[17:53] It was almost as if the Romans had finished what they would do to his body. And in that three-hour window of darkness, what Jesus was experiencing was darkness that was a spiritual darkness and it was the unrelenting righteous wrath of God that was being poured out on him for sin and for sinners.

[18:25] In the darkness, God was expressing his justice in pouring out his furious wrath against sin. Yet at the same time, he was expressing his gracious love for sinners.

[18:44] And Jesus made that loud cry on the cross as our substitute and so what happened to Jesus was really supposed to happen to us. He took our place, he bore our sins, and he absorbed our punishment.

[19:04] I don't know if you've ever reflected upon it, but the reality is that when people go to court and they are charged for different criminal offenses, I think we all know they get different sentences.

[19:19] Some are sentenced to prison for just a few months. Some are given a discharge and say, behave yourself and you won't have to go to prison. And then some even get the maximum sentence, which is a death penalty if they have committed murder.

[19:39] And the reason that those punishments differ is because of this general rule that the punishment should fit the crime.

[19:51] It's the notion of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And so it is not just when a person has knocked out someone else's tooth that you take out their eye.

[20:03] the punishment is supposed to fit the crime. And so even if under ideal circumstances, if we did not know what the crime was, we could have some idea of the crime based on the punishment.

[20:24] If it truly is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, if it is a pound of flesh for a pound of flesh. And where did we get that from?

[20:36] We got that from God. He laid it out in the law of the old covenant. He said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. He said the punishment is supposed to fit the crime because he is just.

[20:50] And brothers and sisters, when we bear that in mind and we consider the cross and we consider the punishment that Jesus endured on the cross, it helps us to see what justice looked like for sin.

[21:11] It helps us to see the way God sees sin. If God in any way exaggerated what happened to Jesus, then he is not just and he is not God. But we know he is just and we know he is God.

[21:24] And so what Jesus went through on the cross gives us a glimpse of the way God views sin. And more personally, the way God views our sin.

[21:36] Jesus did not die for sin in a vacuum. Jesus died for the sins of every single person who would ever come to believe in him and put their trust in him.

[21:50] And so that's you this morning. if you have come to put your trust in Jesus Christ, the reason Jesus endured what he endured, the reason he cried out under the wrath of God is because that is what your sin and my sin deserve.

[22:10] He took our place. He took our punishment. And his cry was our cry. cry. There are those who believe that Jesus cried out because the excruciating pain of crucifixion had gotten to him.

[22:34] But that's unlikely because Ecclade was not necessarily the norm to cry out. We have no record of the two robbers who were crucified with him crying out.

[22:46] And if Jesus cried out because of the pain of crucifixion and they did not, it would point to him being and dying far less honorably than those two robbers.

[23:01] Some say he cried out because he felt forsaken. But brothers and sisters know Jesus cried out not because he felt forsaken. Jesus cried out because he was forsaken.

[23:13] in a way that is beyond our comprehension to understand how the second person of the Godhead is able to be forsaken by his father.

[23:34] He cried out not being a drama king. He cried out not exaggerating his circumstances. as he cried out in truth my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[23:49] Because he was forsaken. He didn't feel forsaken. He was forsaken. forsaken. And he was forsaken as our substitute on the cross.

[24:03] He was forsaken because God had to treat him the way we deserve to be treated. He experienced exactly what we and our sins deserve.

[24:21] God forsaken because he was standing in our place. and he cried out as he experienced the judgment and the wrath of God.

[24:36] And here brothers and sisters, we don't appreciate the grace of God until we understand the wrath of God. It was necessary for the wrath of God to be poured out on Jesus that the grace of God may be extended to us.

[24:55] God could do it no other way. If God simply extended grace to us and said, don't worry about your sins, he would undermine his own holiness and his own justice.

[25:08] God will never will never know and will never know separation from God.

[25:30] Instead of crying out in forsakenness, grace, we can do what we did this morning. We can sing out in joy. We can sing out crowning with many crowns.

[25:44] We can sing of the mercy and grace of the Lamb who was slain. And what a joy it was to hear loud voices this morning singing out.

[25:56] But every voice that sang out this morning deserved to cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so thank God on this Good Friday that we are able to sing instead of cry.

[26:15] We're able to adore the one who made this all possible. The second scene that I want us to consider is the torn curtain.

[26:28] In verses 37 and 38, we read, and Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

[26:51] Why is Mark telling us about what seems to be an unconnected event, unconnected on its face?

[27:05] And not only unconnected on its face, it was not in the immediate vicinity of Calvary where Jesus was crucified, which would have been outside of the city, but not too far away was the temple.

[27:23] And Mark takes the time to tell us, he connects this loud cry, this last breath that Jesus breathes, and he says the curtain in the temple was torn into.

[27:35] It seems to be a random detail. But the exactness with which Mark reports it should alert us to the fact that it's not a random detail.

[27:47] He doesn't simply say the curtain was torn. He says the curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. And clearly Mark is connecting the tearing of the curtain with the death of Christ.

[28:07] For Mark, the tearing of the curtain was not just an interesting historical fact. It represents an important theological truth. And Mark wants us to see it. Now the temple would have had two curtains.

[28:22] There was one curtain that separated the holy place from the outer court. And there was another curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place.

[28:34] Mark doesn't tell us which of those curtains he is referring to. But the writer to the Hebrews gives us some insight of the point that Mark was clearly making.

[28:49] Hebrews 10 verses 19 through 25 19 to 23 sorry.

[29:00] This is what the writer says. Therefore brothers since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh.

[29:20] And so the whole idea that the writer to the Hebrews seems to be indicating that it was the curtain between the holy place and the most holy place where God would manifest his presence.

[29:31] He says in verse 21, Mark is helping us to see the theological truth.

[29:47] water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Mark is helping us to see the theological truth that the way into the presence of God has now been made open through the death of Jesus Christ.

[30:08] Christ. And when we consider the dimensions of this curtain, this curtain, we're told in scripture, would have been 60 feet high and 30 feet wide and 4 inches thick.

[30:32] No human being, or I would dare say group of human beings, could have torn that curtain at all, much less from top 60 feet up to bottom. And it really would not have been an act of vandalism that somebody just went in there and vandalized it because really at that particular hour, at 3 in the afternoon, there would have been priests in the temple offering the evening sacrifices.

[31:02] And so the point that Mark seeks to make is that that curtain, that curtain, that represented a separation between a holy God and sinful people was removed, and it was removed by God himself.

[31:18] And he didn't just remove it, he removed it through the death of his son. And Mark wants us to know that.

[31:30] Mark wants us to know that we now, through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross, have access into the presence of God at all times. Not just once a year as the priest did, but at all times.

[31:45] We're able to go before a holy God and not be consumed. As the priest was always under the threat of being consumed when he went in.

[31:56] But now, because the blood of Christ has been shed, the blood of Christ has atoned for the sins of his people, and God has made it possible that sinners can now come into his presence.

[32:11] Come into his presence at all is a wonderful thing, but come into his presence and not die. And the third and final scene that I want to draw attention to this morning is the convicted centurion.

[32:29] Mark tells us in verse 39, And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, Truly, this man was the Son of God.

[32:54] Mark does not tell us anything else about this centurion. But it is very likely that this centurion was leading the way in all of the mocking and scoffing and abuse that Jesus went through.

[33:10] This centurion would have been a leader over some 100 soldiers, and he would have been a very experienced man. More than likely this is not his first crucifixion. And so he would have seen many people crucified.

[33:26] But clearly this crucifixion was different for him. We see this no doubt hardened centurion moving from mocking and scoffing to confessing Jesus as Messiah.

[33:45] And it's interesting that he didn't just think these words. If he just thought these words, Mark would have no way of knowing his thoughts.

[33:57] But something happened to this centurion as he stood and looked at Jesus on that cross that moved him from being a scoffer to a confessor.

[34:10] that moved him from ridiculing Jesus to recognizing that Jesus is the Son of God.

[34:28] And he said them loud enough that they would be heard and that Mark is able to record them. And while it is easy to simply read over those words and think that the centurion was having regret or something, friends, there was something far more life changing that was taking place in those words.

[34:57] The centurion did not confess that Jesus was the Son of God because he all of a sudden gained religion or became more moral.

[35:09] than his fellow soldiers and the scribes and the chief priests who were mocking Jesus. Something happened to him on Calvary's Hill.

[35:25] What happened to him was God had mercy on him. What happened to him was God helped him to see that this one whom he was mocking and scoffing and abusing was the Son of God.

[35:44] No doubt most of us would remember that as Jesus was making his way to Jerusalem, he stopped at Caesarea Philippi and he says to his disciples, who do people say that I am?

[36:01] And the disciples began to say, well, some say you're Elijah, some say you're John the Baptist, come from the dead, and they gave him all kinds of reasons. Then Jesus said to them, who do you say that I am?

[36:14] And Simon Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I remember what Jesus said to Simon. Jesus said, Simon, you didn't come up with that on your own.

[36:29] He said, Simon, if the Father did not reveal that to you, you would never know it. the Father revealed that to you. And brothers and sisters, please hear me on this point as I close.

[36:44] There's no difference between the centurion on Calvary's Hill and Peter in Caesarea Philippi.

[36:57] The same reason that Peter was able to say that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, is the same reason the centurion was able to say, this man is the Son of God.

[37:09] God had mercy on him and God opened his eyes. And for every single one of us this morning who put our trust in Jesus Christ, we have done it for one reason and one reason only, God had mercy on us.

[37:29] God opened our eyes, God to be the one whom he sent into the world to be the Savior of the world.

[37:47] The centurion experienced the mercy and the grace of God that caused him to do a 180 in his life to move from mocking and scoffing Jesus to confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior.

[38:08] Savior. And I again say to all of us this morning, all of us who have come to confess that Jesus Christ is the one who has come into the world as the Son of God to give his life as a ransom for many, let us be amazed that the grace of God has come to us and opened our eyes and brought us to a place of conviction confession that he is the Son of God.

[38:39] And we are now able to live for the one who has died for us. May our hearts today be freshly amazed by the grace of God.

[38:52] May we be amazed by the loud cry remembering that Jesus cried in our place. May we be amazed by the torn curtain remembering that God taught for us, giving evidence that sinners like us now have access into the presence of God.

[39:17] And may we be amazed by the convicted centurion remembering that our experience is the same. We only saw Christ, we only believed in Christ, because God had mercy on us.

[39:32] let's pray. Father, we stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and we wonder how he could love us, sinners condemned and claim.

[39:58] Lord, I pray that you would cause us to marvel afresh today at the grace and mercy of God that has come to us through Jesus Christ.

[40:09] Lord, more than just being amazed, would you help us to, with even greater resolve, seek to love the one who first loved us, and live for the one who died for us.

[40:43] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to, at this time, partake of the Lord's Supper, and I'm going to ask the team to just lead us through one verse of, thank you for the cross, and then we are going to partake together.

[41:06] us, so let's start and sing. Thank you for the cross.

[41:30] Thank you for the cross. Lord. Thank you for the prize you paid. Bearing all our sin and shame. In love you came and gave amazing grace. Thank you for this love, Lord.

[41:55] Thank you for your helplessness. Wash me in your cleansing flow. Now all I know, your forgiveness and embrace.

[42:14] Worthy as a lamb, seated on the throne. Be proud, your God, with many crowns. You reign victorious.

[42:34] I am lifted up. Jesus, Son of God. The treasure of heaven crucified. Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the lamb.

[43:04] Worthy is the lamb. For this part of our gathering, we get to remove our masks. Those of us who are partaking of the Lord's Supper this morning.

[43:28] And if you are, you should have already received a packet of the elements. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, beginning in verse 23, we read these words from the Apostle Paul.

[44:01] Let's partake of the bread together. The Lord Jesus, on the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread.

[44:14] And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's partake of the bread together. And Paul goes on.

[44:37] And the same way after the supper, he took the cup, saying, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

[44:52] Let's partake of the cup together. Let's partake of the cup together.

[45:09] Let's partake of the cup together. Paul concludes with these words. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

[45:30] We're reminded that our Lord is going to come again. Yes, it has been about 2,000 years since he said he will return.

[45:44] But brothers and sisters, we have every reason to believe it because God has kept similarly long promises. The promise that he would send the Messiah and the Messiah would die for sin.

[45:56] He has fulfilled his word. And so our Savior will return. And he will return for those whom he has purchased by his blood. And may we all be found looking and waiting and indeed even longing for his return.

[46:14] May we all be able to say with the Apostle John, even so, come, Lord Jesus. Let's pray.

[46:24] Father, we thank you that the one who came and lived and died for sinners will come again.

[46:39] Lord, may we, who have been purchased by him, look for and long for that day.

[46:55] Lord, I pray for those who are gathered who may not know the Savior or those who are watching online.

[47:06] Oh, Father. Would you do for them what you did for the centurion? What you've done for us indeed?

[47:18] What you've done for all those who have come to put faith in you? Would you open their eyes and help them to see the Savior? Lord, may we pray for you?

[47:42] As God and Lord. And so we give you thanks, Lord. Do your work in the hearts of all those who do not know you today.

[47:53] And now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

[48:23] Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful rest of your Good Friday. If you're here and you need prayer, as the others leave, please come. I'll be a joy to pray with you.

[48:33] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the cross, Lord. Thank you for the price you paid.

[48:48] Bearing all my sin and shame, in love you came. Thank you.