Christ's Death

Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.

As we consider last week, the declaration, save yourself, he's come to declare what he's doing. He's coming to forgive us. We begin with this interaction. There's Jesus crucified. The righteousness. Criminal is left, criminal is left. Verse 39, the one criminal who opposes Jesus. We could sense maybe just the anguish, as we talked about last week, that the cross is the most shameful, painful way that the Romans do to murder somebody, to punish somebody. You become exhausted by trying to pull yourself up with the nails in your hands to breathe. And you can hear this anguish in his voice. But a man that's also clearly heartbroken. Are you the Christ? Save us and save yourself. Notice what the other criminal says. And it's important here, Jesus in the middle, that's where Barabbas is supposed to be, but here you've got one criminal crying out, railing against him, and the other criminal speaks on behalf of Jesus. Do you not fear God? What a question for reflection. How could you say such things in this moment? You're dying on a cross, and you're going to rail against this righteous man? There's an opportunity for reflection. Notice what else that criminal says,

since you are under the same sentence of condemnation.

You're going to die. You are dying in the midst of this. It's minutes, hours. You're going to be dead. Do you not fear God? And notice this other confession,

and we indeed justly.

The two criminals now speaking against each other. The one speaking against Jesus, the other criminal speaking against that criminal. We're dying justly. We deserve this.

For we are receiving the due reward for our deeds.

There's a recognition of this criminal. He cannot claim this is unjust. He cannot claim I've done nothing wrong. But then he contrasts the two criminals with Jesus. But this man, speaking of Jesus, he's done nothing wrong. If you were with us a few weeks ago, we walked through the trial of Jesus, and over and over again, Pilate and Herod were trying to get rid of Jesus. In the sense that the chief priests kept coming up with false accusations, and as they heard these accusations, they said, there's no grounding for any of these accusations. And over and over again, you heard on the lips of Pilate, This man is not guilty of anything you've charged him with. This man is innocent. He's not done any of the things you've said. Over and over again, Luke has helped us see he is a righteous man. Pilate is speaking more true than he knows. Luke wants us to hear yet again, there's nothing Jesus has done that could possibly deserve this death. He's righteous. He's not up there with justice.

This man has done nothing wrong.

We hear those words yet again. He is being unjustly punished among criminals. Then he turns to Jesus. So first he rebukes the man railing as Jesus, and now he turns to Jesus. This request,

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Three men, one criminal who's angry at Jesus because he's not helping him, another criminal who's angry at that guy for railing against Jesus, one righteous man too guilty, one fears God, and now this request. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. That's a profession of faith. All right, this is the king of the Jews over his head, but what does this guy know? Because his faith is certainly going beyond his sight. Because Jesus is hanging on a cross about to die, and this criminal, whatever he knows, is asking, when you get your kingdom over against the clarity that you're dying, remember me. This is faith that goes beyond what he sees. It's a faith based upon some knowledge of some truth that Jesus has come to claim he's king. He is Jesus, who's made many promises and is taught with authority. We don't know what he he understood already. But he he can see that Jesus is innocent. The righteous man. Undeserving. And there's something he understands that says this is the end for him. There's a kingdom coming and he wants Jesus to remember him. What a contrast with the Romans who put the sign King of the Jews. What a contrast with the other criminal that says save yourself. What a contrast with the chief of priests who are mocking him. This is a profession of faith. What a request to know Christ is going to have his kingdom. And then we see what Jesus says. We see an affirmation of faith.

Truly, I say to you.

Jesus giving him a strong of affirmation with those two first declarations. I am saying to you truly the same word we have for amen.

Today, you will be with me. in paradise.

What a promise. Last week, when the women were walking with Jesus, lamenting, mourning, Jesus told them, don't cry for me, cry for yourselves, for the persecution that's coming. He doesn't promise a paradise here and now, he promises a paradise much later, after death. notice the man asked to be remembered of the kingdom and Jesus says well today immediately you you will be with me in paradise we really have to wrestle with what this word means and and and what we associate with it because we do have a tendency to still want some kind of prosperity gospel for me every time I hear this word I associate it with my favorite song about cheeseburgers

I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57, french fried potatoes.

Let's be clear, Margaritaville is a sad, sad place. We're looking for paradise, not the one we imagine. We're looking for paradise as promised. And what's clear here, today, You will be with me. It doesn't matter where you think that might be. Paradise is anywhere you can be with God. Paradise in Genesis is God walking and talking and being with man without sin. In Revelation, paradise is God declaring, I am with you, my people, and you, my people, are with me. Sin is removed. If we want to think about paradise, it's marked by what's not there. No sin. No pain. No more consequence of sin. We think about paradise, it's marked by the things that are gone that we too often will associate with paradise. But more so, it's being with God, being in His presence. Friends, praise God for the gospel we can believe in today and no longer have to suffer the punishment for sin. You can be forgiven today and know you will never suffer the punishment for sin. you'll still have the presence of sin. It'll still hinder your worship, it'll still hinder your obedience, it'll still hinder your relationships, it'll still hinder your enjoyment of paradise. The reason we declare, come Lord Jesus, come quickly, is we get so frustrated with how our sin keeps us from enjoying regular, constant presence with God. That's what paradise is. What a promise. I believe this man has an incredible faith. Something incredible is looking beyond the exact thing he sees, but something he he's looking for the promise of God. There's a king and a kingdom coming. Just remember me, the man says. And Jesus says, No, I say to you today, you'll be with me in paradise. Do we want Christ's paradise or we want him to bless us with the things that we most desire in this world. It's an incredible promise. Let's continue and look at what I'm going to put under the word completion here. Verses 44 to 46. And there's three things that are completed. One judgment is completed. The worship is completed and Christ earthly ministry is completed. Three significant events. One, the sun stops shining, the temple curtain torn in two, and Jesus gives up his last breath. Let's start with the easy one. The sun stops shining. Verse 44.

Now it's about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed.

from about noon to three, the sunshine ended. That's remarkable to consider that for three hours, the people, we don't know if this was universal, we don't know if it's just this land, but darkness covered the land. It's midday at noon. When the sun should be shining brightest, at its highest point, the sun stops shining its light. We have to remember Luke has been put together by eyewitness accounts. He would have gone back and asked, as he interviewed folks, to make sure he gives us certainty of the things that have happened. That's how he begins the gospel. Here he tells us there's a three-hour window. Well, why would the sun stop shining? Some have said, Jesus is the light of the world. And as he's giving up his last breath, there's a way in which the darkness represents the light being temporarily put out. Okay, some biblical themes going in there. I'm not sure that's the connection we want, but some biblical themes coming together. Others I looked at or have heard declare its creation revolting against us. Declaring how could you, the sun revolting against our rebelling and killing. God, the creator of the sun. It could be a way of creation, mourning and grieving as the creator is on the cross. I think fourth, the one that seems most obvious from Amos 8, it is a witness to God's judgment against our sin. As we think about what's happening here at this event, The culmination of all our rebellion is just being displayed clearly. Man, since Genesis 3 has been rebelling against God, moving further and further away from God, declaring ourselves over God. And there's been times where God has handed us over to our sin. There's been times where God has graciously called us back to himself. Here, the creation, creatures, Specifically image bears those who were given a special unique responsibility to fill this earth with his glory a special responsibility to Spread his glory through all the earth We're trying to quench his glory By killing the light killing the Sun Now Many last What happened here? Was it a natural event or is this supernatural? All right, if it's a natural event, God ordained that an eclipse would happen at just the time Jesus is being crucified. That's pretty amazing. But I don't believe we need to think it's a natural event. I believe we need to understand that God, who upholds the entire universe, causes the sun to stop shining as he said he would, as a declaration of judgment against our sin. God promised darkness in the midday in Amos chapter 8. It was made to be a sign of the judgment for the people of Israel. In Amos 8, he declares,

I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

And then in Amos 8.10, I will make it like the morning, M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G, for an only son. Yeah, I believe the darkness is a declaration of the grief, the mourning for the judgment that God is supposed to be bringing upon the people of Israel. But what's actually happening is God is bringing a judgment upon his own son, the righteous one. It's a declaration that God's judgment is being satisfied in the death of Christ. But what we should really reflect upon, what we should take from this is the darkness is a representation of how our sin is seen by God. The darkness depicts our own hearts. The darkness shows God's judgment. There's a completion, God's judgment for our sin. Verse 45, the second statement, I want us to hang out here for a bit, and this really is the verse why I decided to break it up, because I wanna make sure we take some time here. Again, Luke, in just little words, he was crucified. We need to unpack that a little bit, but here, the curtain is torn in two. There's a completion to the entire sacramental system. There's a completion to worship. There's a completion to access.

And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

Now, the curtain is referring to the obstacle that kept people from going into the Holy of Holies. The Old Testament worship was built in a sense of, it was designed to show us distance, to protect God's holiness. There was only one person once a year who could go into the most holy place and there's a curtain there to protect anybody else from going in there because sin cannot be in the presence of a holy God. And then once he got past that curtain, there's a place for the priests and a place for the Jewish men and their place for the women, the Gentiles. And there's a distance being taught with the temple. We have a difficult time with this because we don't really have a sense of holy space or holy place. We kind of do, though. You do want to get closest to the action at a sporting event where we oftentimes worship. You want to get closest to a concert where we sometimes worship. We want to be near and close and experience things close up too. We have a sense of reverence and a holy space, but not like what scripture teaches us. Where God is at the center. And the whole order of Old Testament worship is designed to teach us there's distance. If you go back to Genesis 3, what's the consequence for Adam and Eve sinning? Well, the one promise is they would die, and that surely happened. But the other consequence is God took them out of the garden and then had to put a boundary up so they would not go back into the garden. A consequence of sin. A consequence of our rebellion is now there's a distance that we've created and God actually promotes because he is a holy and righteous God and we as sinners cannot come into his immediate presence. We see this most clearly on Mount Sinai. Moses, who alone was able to go up to the top, invited up in a special grace, And what marks Mount Sinai? Two words, distance and fear. They're terrified to go even near the mountain as Israel hears the thunder and sees the lightning and God speaks. And even Moses, who gets to go up to that special access, the closest access to God, he asked, can I see your glory? And God says, no, you cannot. You can only see my hind parts. It's all meant to teach us he's a holy God who's perfect and righteous and just. It's hard for us to keep these two things together that he can be so holy and so loving. There's a way in which we look back in the Old Testament and he's a holy God who says, you cannot come near to me or else you'll be consumed because of your sin. And there's a loving God who continues to pursue us and make promises. And you feel this friction, the holy God who knows we cannot come into his presence and the loving God who keep pursuing us and inviting us back to him. And then when you see the temple that God introduced at Mount Sinai, it's built with this structure where you're kept from a distance. This is why that passage read earlier in Hebrews 10 is so important. If you really wanna think about what this looks like, we highly encourage you to meditate upon the book of Hebrews. Christ, the perfect high priest. because he didn't have to make atonement for his own sin. He's righteous. The perfect sacrifice because he is without sin. He is a human who is not sinning. He can die in the place of our sins. In the true temple, the true presence of God is what Hebrews tells us. We draw now near to God. We're not kept back at distance. We're not supposed to be kept back in fear. We're supposed to draw near because what Christ has accomplished in his temple, what Hebrews says is his own flesh, the perfect man. He, with his own blood, made the once for all sacrifice that purifies us so we have assurance. And he, as the perfect high priest, is the mediator forever. When Luke records simply that the temple curtain was torn in two, we realize we now are given a new access to God that no one in the Old Testament ever had. An access to come to God as Father, to draw near to Him, to enter Boldly into his presence because we know unlike the Old Testament states that the sacrifice needed has come to truly take away our sin To wash us. So we have a full assurance When it says the temple curtain was torn in two Christ has accomplished what every sacrifice in the Old Testament was meant to be pointing to all the sins that got it overlooked previously are now paid for only in Christ and And all the sins that we've committed are fully paid for by Christ. The temple curtain was torn in two. We now have a new way of worship. Praise God, our worship isn't bloody. Praise God, our worship isn't from a distance. Our worship is now, we get to go into the presence of God. We get to go and desire to behold Him face to face in His glory. How? Because Christ has removed our sin from us by taking upon Himself. Then He rose again, ascended to the Father and sent His Holy Spirit to actually heal us, to indwell us, to make us truly holy. We now worship in the presence of God. We have the Holy Spirit to actually grow up into more holiness so that we can grow to enjoy that presence more. That's why Paul tells the Galatians to keep in step with the Spirit. The challenge I have for Christians, why do we act like we still need to stay distant from God? Why do we still think there's some kind of safe distance? Have we adopted a weird theology of a God of the gaps? Where God is helpful where we want him to be, but we don't want him to take control of every aspect because we're not sure we can trust him. I feel that's why Christians continue to remain distant from God. We either don't believe he can forgive us or that he will forgive us. There's a mistrust. Are we trying to enjoy the life Christ purchased for us from a distance? Hear over and over the charge of Hebrews, the cause of this action, the temple curtain being torn in two. Enter boldly into the presence of God. Do you enter boldly in prayer, in worship, with an assurance because of what Christ accomplished. We're supposed to go in boldly to enjoy nearness. We look to Jesus, he has completed all access because he died once for all to tear that curtain. And now he's the right hand of the father so that we can go up to him. The third thing completed, verse 46.

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.

This is what we believe is the last of seven sayings of Jesus that we have recorded. The first one, Luke, is also recorded.

Father, forgive them, for they know what they do.

That appears to be the first thing Jesus says on the cross that's recorded. The seventh thing is this, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. The other six are recorded in other gospels. Each gospel takes what is, did happen and, and, and, and like a good author presents the, the, the, the events they want to present for, for the, the truths they're declaring all one truth, all one gospel. But the seventh statement, he calls out with a loud voice. And again, he cries out father into your hands. I commit my spirit. It begins with a declaration of father, it ends with a declaration of father. He's speaking in the most personal way, and he appears to be quoting and alluding to Psalm 31, which is a psalm of refuge, where the psalmist is crying out, help me, oh God. And in the psalm it says,

oh Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit

, but Jesus says, instead of Yahweh, Lord, he says father. And what makes this particular prayer unusual is it really reads more like a commitment at a funeral. At the end of it, I usually say something like, this is the graveside, I commit this body to the ground. Here, Jesus seems to be crying out as a son to the father, into your hands I commit my spirit. There's a commitment to his own death. There's a handful of things we really need to wrestle with here. One, I wonder if Jesus is doing this because the Romans couldn't kill him because he's God? Is he who gives up his own life in the midst of this? Is he who is authoritative as to how, when, where he would die? Most importantly for us, we can see here It is the will of Jesus to die for us. Again, he didn't come to save himself, he came to save us. This is the final, the completion of his earthly ministry. He gives up his life, he gives up his breath, he gives up his spirit for us. He's committed his life to saving us. He's committing himself now, Father, I give up my last breath. Notice how he's sovereign even over his death. We can look elsewhere and see how Christ, before this, has declared, Father, I am returning to the glory I had with you before I came down. There's a way in which we can see this earthly stage of his ministry complete. He came to be like us in every way by being born of the Virgin. He came to live the life we've refused to live by being perfectly obedient, being the righteous man, innocent, and then he dies on the cross, and here he's giving up his last breath. Breath. What looks like the feet of an absolute victim. He died here to give us life. Our last point, verses 47 and 49. Notice there's a handful of responses. This is a typical of a story. We see the following action.

When the Centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, certainly this man was innocent.

Verse 48,

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 at a distance watching these things.

Verse 49 really goes back to how this sequence all started. After Simon is carrying his cross, it refers to these women who are crying and weeping that Jesus spoke to earlier. And it ends with them actually standing at a distance watching these things. You see the crowds. And again, the peoples here, it's kind of hard to understand. Are they there just to kind of gawk? Are they there to I wonder if he's the Messiah. Are they there as the antagonist who called for Barabbas? This crowd, after they've seen everything, they watched the spectacle. They left feet on their breasts, which is usually a symbol of mourning or grief. The woman stands out as a person, a Roman centurion, a Gentile, a pagan. Someone who would not, as we understand, probably be acquainted with the Old Testament scriptures, would not know much of Yahweh and all his promises, or at least was not of that descent. When the centurion Saul would have taken place, we know there was an earthquake. He didn't know the temple church was going to be too much likely, but he felt the earthquake. He had not seen the sunlight for three hours. He heard everything that had been said about him. He may have been one of the guys who nailed him to the cross, or he was the one overseeing those who nailed him to the cross. He may have been the one who declared, put the sign up there. This is the King of the Jews. And he observed closely all that had taken place. He praised God and declared certainly Now this insurance... We don't know what this particular statement means for him. We don't know how much he understands. We assume he's also the same centurion who praised God from the Gospel of Mark and also said,

this is the son of God.

What a grand declaration. But Luke is recording here as we want to see and know Jesus died for sins he did not commit. He came to be righteousness. There's one thing we really have to take away from this. This is marvelous. I'm in awe and I wonder that the Holy God would be so loving. The Holy God who protected us because of our sin but now draws us near would be so loving to come down to us. to come down to us, knowing this is how we would treat him, knowing this was the end, knowing this was the purpose, knowing this is the consequence. We praise God this season for Immanuel. God with us. As an important confession, we have to memorize as Christians, God with us. We have to understand that he came to be with us so that he could be God for us. He has come to save us from our own sins so that we could then be with him. Notice here the centurions making a confession. You must make a confession. You must be able to see an innocent man die. But more than that, he's the promised Messiah. He's the lamb who alone can take away your sin. He alone is the priest who can take you up into the heaven's presence with God Almighty. You must make a confession. Christian, it's a great opportunity to reflect on oneself. Will we stay in a default setting? Thinking, I want God to be at a comfortable place. I want God to be at a certain distance. We're gonna see that the God who desires to be with us has gone to this extent so that we can answer to his presence. So that we can know we can go into his presence because of Christ. He who deserves to be with us has done everything it takes for us to be with him. We repent, believing we need to get a distance. Dearly Christians, thank you for being here. We're glad you're here. I'll tell you one thing. Christ died for sinners like all of us. We all rejected God. We all have hated God. Father, we thank you. that you did not leave us alone. You made promises from the very beginning that you would stay with us. Promises that you knew would be costly. Promises that you knew would lead to great suffering. So we thank you that you keep your promises even when it does hurt. We thank you that you are not like us. Father, I pray we would know how to pause, to marvel, to have wonder, to truly consider paradise for us. We can be with you. You desire to be with us. We consider all that Christ has come to do. Help us all to see that in. We can see you face to face in your glory. Let us stand and sing our song of response to Emmanuel.