Introduction: Welcome to Expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible. Our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God as we explore the Word of God in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational.

Would you turn in your Bibles, please, to the gospel of Mark, chapter 15. You can see by the elements that you have on your seat that we are going to culminate this service by taking the Lord's Supper together in this manner. And once again, God is good, we are at the perfect place of considering in the Scripture the sufferings of Jesus as we take the Lord's Supper together. So, it was my intention to finish chapter 15 last week, but that's always my intention, and we've made it through about half of the chapter. So, we'll finish out chapter 15 tonight, take the Lord's Supper. Why don't we pray?

Our Father in heaven, we sit here all of us having a variety of experiences that we have come through or are presently engaged in, some of which trouble us. Our hearts are heavy; they're burdened. What a tremendous relief and release it has been to in worship, by praise, give those things over to you intentionally. Lord, others here have just been blessed throughout the week. It's been just filled with joy, there's no burden at all, and we're just so grateful and glad that that is the case.

No matter what condition we find ourselves in tonight, Lord, would you please speak your truth into our very experience, where we're at. Cause us to grow, cause us to learn, as we line upon line, precept upon precept consider the crucifixion, the sufferings of our Lord, as we consider language and history and context, as we compare Scripture with Scripture and get a full-orbed understanding of these events. I pray, as Peter wrote, that we would "grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." It's in his name we pray, amen.

I was seven years old when I took my First Holy Communion, it was called. Most of you know I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, and age seven was considered the age of accountability in that faith. And they prepared me for my First Holy Communion. And my mother prepared me. She quaffed my hair. My robe was ironed. We practiced the processional down the midsection of Saint Joan of Arc Church. And I looked like a perfect angel. [laughter]

It was deception. I wasn't a perfect angel. There were all sorts of things going on in my life. But I do recall, I still remember as if it were yesterday, the anticipation of taking communion. That feeling faded rather rapidly. Pretty soon I fit into just the rote and ritual and regiment of taking communion every week. It didn't mean the same. When I was eighteen years of age I had a real encounter with Jesus. It was real. I was saved. I remember how it happened.

I've told you many times how that happened. And subsequent to that I remember my first communion as a real believer. It wasn't in a Catholic Church, it was in a commune this time, filled with hippies. It was in a house commune where everybody was living together, a lot of people off the streets. But I remember the sense of reality and satisfaction of taking the Lord's Supper and knowing what it meant.

And just like that very first time at seven years of age, at eighteen years of age it's still a very vivid memory. But even that experience had a tendency to fade as it does even for all authentic believers. Because we do it so often and we hear about it so regularly that the idea of the death and resurrection of Christ---we hear it every week. We take the Lord's Supper often, as Jesus said, but because we do it sort of has a tendency to lose its edge.

I remember reading a story about a family that lived out on a farm on a dirt road. Cars rarely even passed that way. But on one particular day while the youngest boy was riding his bicycle out in the dirt road, a car came through that neighborhood at top speed, and it hit the little boy on the bicycle and he was killed. Later that day as the father went out onto the dirt road to pick up that twisted, mangled bicycle, the older brother who was there with his father and wrote about it later, said, "I remember vividly my father sobbing out loud uncontrollable for the first time I remember in my entire life."

"He just broke down and sobbed. And he took that bicycle and he put it out in the barn in a place where we seldom did much or had much, and we just put it in a corner. And as time went on my father's sorrow faded. But every time he walked to that part of the barn and saw that bicycle, even as the years went on, the tears flowed freely."

And the older brother who wrote this account said, "May the memory of your Son's death be as fresh as that to me. So that when I take communion, my heart would be stirred as if your Son died only yesterday. So that this communion wouldn't just become another ritual and a formality, but it would be a tender reality in my life." I pray that quite often and frequently for myself and for you, that it would be rich, it would be real. It wouldn't just be routine and rote, but a tender reality.

Now, as I mentioned, we finished half of Mark 15. We're right in the midst of Jesus being put on a cross and being crucified. We saw how Jesus was brought before the fifth governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. And though Mark doesn't record it, Matthew does record that Pilate befuddled with what to do with Jesus, asks the question, Matthew 27, "What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?" Well, we know what he did. The question is answered in the narrative itself. He caved. He folded.

Man, he became so weak in the midst of the religious pressure to "crucify him!" And instead of---because he knew Jesus was innocent---letting him go, he just crumbled and caved in to the pressure. Now, if you have ever wondered, and I hope you have---why would a Roman governor with all of that power vested in him by Rome itself, Imperial Rome, cave in to the policies and politics of backwater religious group like the Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees in Judea?

I mean, he's the Roman representative, why would he, if he knows Jesus is innocent, why wouldn't he let him go? Well, let me tell you why. If you've ever wondered that, and I hope you have, let me tell you why that is: Pilate was walking on thin ice at this time. There had been several, well, at least three infractions that put him at odds with Caesar Tiberias in Rome.

Episode number one, let's call it strike number one, was when Pontius Pilate put signs, ensigns with the image of Caesar and marched them through the city of Jerusalem to show the power of Rome. Now, if you know anything about Judaism, and you know the Ten Commandments, you know the second commandment is that, "You shall have no image at all of anything in heaven or on earth." God or man, no images whatsoever. That's why you find no icons, no images at all in synagogues. It was forbidden.

When Pilate put an image of Caesar in Rome, the Jews sent a delegation to his headquarters in Caesarea by the sea demanding that Pilate take away those ensigns. Pilate thought that he would persuade the Jewish delegation by force. He herded them all into that great amphitheater in Caesarea that I have taken those of you who have been to Israel with us. He herded them into that amphitheater and said, "Another word from you and I will slice your heads off," thinking the Jews would cower in fear.

Rather, they laid down on the ground, pulled their shirts down, and bared their necks, as if to say, "Cut our heads off; we will not relent." Now Pilate knew that he's dealing with people who would rather die instead of breaking the second commandment. So, inside he's going, "Uh-oh. Boy, these are stiff-necked people." That was number one.

Number two, Pontius Pilate raided the temple treasury stealing money from the Jews to fund a Roman aqueduct from Caesarea to Jerusalem. They protested again. Upon that protest those who were out protesting in front of his throne, he sent soldiers in the midst of the crowd, Roman soldiers disguised as civilians with daggers and clubs, and upon his cue started killing and beating the delegation that protested him stealing their money. Now, Caesar found out about both of these infractions.

Strike number three came when Pontius Pilate decided to take shields with the image, once again, of Tiberias Caesar, and put them on the front of the shield, and hang them inside the Antonia Fortress in Jerusalem. When the Jews found out that again he brought an image inside their city, they appealed directly to Caesar in Rome. And Caesar put Pilate on a short leash, as if to say, "One more infraction, and you're done."

Now, I say that because you need to know this: at the trial of Jesus by Pilate, when Pilate wants to let Jesus go, some of the Jewish leaders say one sentence to him that changes his mind. It's recorded in the gospel of John. And they say, "If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend." That stopped his heart. It was a threat.

"Hey, we've told Caesar on you before, we'll tell him on you again. You let this man go, because he opposes Caesar, he opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar, you will not be Caesar's friend." Now he heard those words and he knew what that meant. And he delivered Jesus over to be crucified, because he knew that that would be it for him. So, if you've ever wondered how Rome could cave in to Jewish leadership, that's why.

At nine in the morning on this day, Jesus was hung on a cross. He was there for a few hours, six hours or thereabouts. For the first few hours Jesus made three statements on the cross. He said, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing." That was statement number one. Statement number two was to one of the criminals that he was crucified next to. "Today you will be with me in paradise," he said.

His third statement was to his mother: "Woman, behold your Son. Son, behold your mother!" But then from twelve noon to three p.m. darkness fell upon the land for a solid three hours. It was intense. We'll read that in a moment, God willing. But then at the end of those three hours, the silence was broken by Jesus himself who cried out in a loud voice, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That was his fourth statement on the cross.

His fifth statement, "I thirst." His sixth statement, "It is finished!" And his seventh statement, "Father, into your hands I commit [or commend] my spirit." And with that Jesus died. We're reading the account, and we left off somewhere in verses, oh, between 22 and 34. But in verse 20 it said, "They let him out to crucify him." One of the things you'll notice about Mark, is Mark was very conservative with words. He didn't elaborate on the crucifixion much at all. And that's for a very good reason. He didn't need to.

Everybody who read his words "crucify" would understand what that meant. It was very common in those days. In 40 BC on one particular day for one Roman ruler, just for the sake of entertainment, he had two thousand men crucified so he could watch. In 70 AD as many as five hundred people were crucified every single day. So to simply write, "He was crucified," was enough. His audience certainly would have understood.

"And they brought him," verse 22, "to the place Golgotha, which is translated, the Place of a Skull. And they gave him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it. And when they crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take."

Now, if you know your Scriptures, you know Psalm 22 predicts this. "And they divided my garments by casting lots." That prediction written hundreds of years before this event was fulfilled by the Roman government coming in and taking over the land. And according to Roman law, the property of the victim became the property of the executioners. That's what this is about.

"Casting lots to determine what every man should take. Now it was about the third hour, and they crucified him. And the inscription of his accusation was written above: THE KING OF THE JEWS." The prisoner was stripped. The prisoner was nailed, his two arms, to the patibulum I told you about last week, that crossbeam that weighed seventy-five to a hundred pounds that Jesus himself carried, at least part way. Simon of Cyrene carried it the rest of the way.

The victim would be nailed to the patibulum, raised up with his full weight dangling by the crossbeam. It would be affixed to the crux simplex, that one single vertical beam that was already in place at the place of execution. The feet would then be nailed. And part way up on that vertical beam would be a post which the victim could sit on for a little bit of relief. At least some of the archaeological records and historical records say that that would be the case.

Crucifixion was a very slow death. Jesus died very rapidly. Six hours---unheard of. Pilate will have his mind blown when he find out, "Jesus is dead already?" It took two to three days normally, whereby thirst, exhaustion, and asphyxiation, that slow, painful death would set in. Now, something you should know: the early church because they saw Jesus carrying that patibulum, that piece of wood, to Golgotha that place of execution, the early church saw that as a fulfillment of a prefigurement or a symbol from the Old Testament.

When Isaac carried the wood and went up to Mount Moriah, the same mountain that Abraham spotted, and Abraham almost had that knife plunged into his son, but he was forestalled by the angel, the early church saw Jesus carrying that wood and Isaac as a type of Christ. It just brought to their biblical memory that Old Testament story, which when I found that out, it interested me, because I---not knowing that the early church saw that symbolism---have also noticed that symbolism.

I find it interesting that Abraham had two sons: Ishmael and Isaac. Both of them were alive when Isaac was taken toward Mount Moriah. And, yet, God said these words to him, "Take now your son, your only son." Interesting, interesting that we have a picture of a father sacrificing what God calls his "only son" on the very spot that Jesus would be killed years later.

What's also arresting is that the very first time the word "love" is used in the Bible, it was used in Genesis 22. "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love." So the very first time "love" is used in the Bible, it is used of a father giving his only son as a sacrifice on the very mountain that God the Father would give his only Son as sacrifice for the world. No wonder the early church and their writing saw the tie-in.

If we were to have been in Jerusalem at the time of Abraham where there was no temple and there really was no city, there was just a little outcropping of houses called Salem, and God said, "Take your son, your only son to that mountain and sacrifice him," you would naturally assume he's going to the top of Mount Moriah.

Now, if you go there today, and you want to find the top of Mount Moriah, many of the tour guides will say, "Well, there it is, right in front of you. It's the Temple Mount where the temple stood. That's where Abraham sacrificed his son. That's where David bought the threshing floor from Ornan. That's where the temple was built," etcetera, etcetera.

Here's the problem with that: topographically the City of David, which is the Old Testament Jerusalem, is some 660 meters above sea level, a little bit higher on Mount Moriah, but on the slope. A little higher is the Temple Mount, that thirty-five acres flattened by Herod the Great for a temple. That level is 741 meters above sea level, but it's still not the top of the mountain.

If you keep going north, it peaks out at 770 meters above sea level. So, we figure that that is the top of Mount Moriah originally. What's interesting about that spot just north of the Temple Mount is the place called Golgotha. Right there at the very peak is Golgotha, 770 meters. So it slopes down on this side toward the Temple Mount toward the City of David.

It slopes down on the other side out into the valley, which means that historically and topographically Abraham would have taken his son Isaac to the same spot where Jesus would be crucified. Now, listen to what the Lord said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, to the place that I will show you." And he says, "In the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen." That is when God forestalls Abraham from killing his son, and he says the Lord will provide himself a lamb. "The Lord will provide himself a lamb."

"In the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen." I mean, it is so prophetic, and the early church put that together. So Jesus is at the place of crucifixion. They crucified him. They divided his garments. And verse 26 tells us that an inscription of accusation was written: "THE KING OF THE JEWS. With him they also crucified two robbers, one on his right and the other on his left." This inscription was a Roman announcement or pronouncement of the crimes of the one who was being killed.

So, if you were a murderer---"This is George. He's a murderer." That would be paraded through the city of Jerusalem, and placed atop the cross you were being crucified on, if you were George the murderer. But because Jesus was not guilty, and Pilate knew that Jesus was not guilty, what's he going to write? He says, "THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS." Now I'm quoting what I believe was written in totality.

Matthew's gospel records part of the saying. Mark, Luke, and John record part of the saying. But all together, you have to read all four gospels, the whole sign said, "THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS." Why would he write that? I think he's taking a parting shot at the religious leaders who forced him into this deliberation of death. He knew that Jesus was innocent. He knew that out of envy they sold Jesus with false witness into this place.

So, to take a parting shot, it's like "Yeah, well, I'm still the governor. I'm gonna write what I want to write." So in John's gospel it says they protested: "Well, don't put that, that he's the 'King of the Jews,' put that 'He said, "I'm the king of the Jews." ' " And Pilate said, "What I have written, I have written." "THE KING OF THE JEWS."

According to John's account it was written in three languages: Hebrew, the language of religion; Greek, the language of commerce and culture; Latin, the language of law and order. Three languages, those were the three languages that everyone would know. Someone would know one of those languages. Three languages, really a sign saying that Jesus is the king of the Jews, he died for all of the world. So, universal kind of a statement.

"So the Scripture was fulfilled," verse 28, "which says, 'And he was numbered with the transgressors.' " That's out of Isaiah, chapter 53. Now, these two robbers we don't know. We don't know exactly what their deal was. We don't their background. We don't know much about them except that they both hurled insults at Jesus. And then at some point during the crucifixion event one of them changed his heart. Both of them started out hardened, one of them softened, and the one that softened we expect to see in heaven.

You're going to one day meet the man who had the first deathbed conversion. [laughter] The man who was on his way to hell, but said, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." There's a lot in that statement that Jesus said, "I'm telling you the truth, dude. Today you're going to be with me in paradise." It could be---this is my belief---that he was part of the gang with Barabbas. They take the rap, Barabbas goes free. They were part of his gang. He was an insurrectionist. He was a murderer.

He was trouble for the Roman government. They were part of the gang, they get the rap, but because of it one goes to heaven. I've always really---I've marveled at the whole thing of these two guys next to Jesus. I mean, think of it, two men equally close to Jesus, equally close---one is saved, one is lost; one goes to heaven, one goes to hell. Both just as close, same opportunity, forever separated---one in glory, one in eternal punishment.

And so it is and so it always will be that Jesus is the dividing line between death and life, heaven and hell. And what makes the difference is the choice, the condition of the heart. "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus didn't say, "Well, boy, I'd love to help you, but you're going to have to first be baptized, and live a righteous life for a while so we can see fruit."

Just that little germ of faith that started to bud, Jesus said, "You're in." You say, "He didn't do anything." That's the point---Jesus did everything for him. He tapped into the work Jesus was doing. That's the whole idea of Christianity---you don't get to heaven by being a good little boy, Jesus died for rotten little boys. So, "I looked like an angel," I said. [laughter] I needed his sacrifice. And when I was eighteen it was real to me. It wasn't religion, it was real relationship.

"Those who passed by blasphemed him." And the word is indeed blasphemed; blasphémeó in Greek. It's usually a word that is reserved for people blaspheming God. So to say he blasphemed Jesus is tantamount to saying that Jesus is deity, because by their insults they're blaspheming God. They "blasphemed him, wagging their heads saying, 'Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from cross!' Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, 'He saved others; himself he cannot save.' "

Wow! Do you realize how profound that statement is? Do you realize how true that statement is? "He saved others; himself he cannot save." Boy, they spoke a mouthful. They didn't know what they were saying, but it was profound, it was deep, and it was right. For you see, if Jesus would have saved himself, he couldn't have saved others.

If Jesus would have gotten down from that cross and not gone through with drinking the cup that he took from the Father, then nobody could be saved. So it is true, because he stayed on the cross and didn't save himself, it's the only way he could save others. Of course, that's not what they meant by it, but it was profound nonetheless.

"Let the Christ"---verse 32, again, in a mocking tone. "Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe." How many times have you heard that? "Well, if God will just show me a miracle, then I'll believe. If I can see, then I'll believe." No, you won't. But I will say this: if you believe, you'll see.

One of my first dates with my wife Lenya was to the Huntington Beach Pier. Food was cheap, ocean breeze does anybody good, but we went out there. I said, "Lenya, I'm gonna take you street witnessing tonight." She looked at me like, "Uh?" And then she said, "What is that?" I said, "This is where we're going to go out and just tell people about Jesus on the street. But we'll go to the pier, because, I mean, every possible strata of culture hangs out there from the goofiest to the grandest."

So we went out and I remember talking to one young lady who kept saying, "I have so many questions about the Christian faith. I need to see more before I can believe." So we talked and we talked, and she kept bringing this up, kept bringing it up. I said, "Tell you what, I'll make a deal with you."

Because she was so close, I said, "You are so close, and we've been at this for a long time now. Tell you what, pray right now to receive Christ, write down those questions you have. Here's my number, call me tomorrow, and we'll sit and talk as long as you have those questions till they're answered." She said, "That's a good deal. I'll take you up on that." So she prayed.

She bowed her head, she bowed her heart, she prayed, she broke down in tears, and she wiped the tears off her eyes. Took her a while. I mean, the Lord just got a hold of her heart. She looked up and she goes, "I don't think I have those questions anymore." She goes, "I see now. I see." She believed and she saw. They said, "We won't believe until we see."

"Even those who were crucified with him reviled him. Now, when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour." That is twelve noon to three p.m. there was darkness. I want you to know something. The Bible says this, but did you know that secular history also attests to it? Do you remember last week in our study we talked about Origen, O R-I-G-E-N, that second-century North African from Alexandria, scholar, Bible interpreter, teacher, philosopher?

Origen talked about a Roman historian, cites a Roman historian who mentions darkness that covered the whole land, a secular historian. Then there was Tertullian who wrote to a pagan friend, again, second or third century AD, writes to a pagan friend saying about this darkness, "Of which event is recorded in your annals and reserved in your archives until this day," making reference to this.

And then it seems that Pontius Pilate even wrote a letter to Caesar Tiberias, assuming that he was aware of this darkness that pervaded the land, that whole Middle Eastern region for three hours. It's mentioned in secular history and attested to. But the real question is: Why the darkness? What is this about?

Jesus is about to die, he's on the cross, and then darkness covers the earth. Let me give you a few suggestions. Number one, this was a darkness of secrecy. What do I mean by secrecy? Well, in the Old Testament the high priest on Yom Kippur alone went in through the veil in darkness to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat and make the transaction alone and in secret and under the cover of darkness, no light. It was a holy transaction between earth and heaven that took place in the dark.

Jesus had lived his whole public life out in the open, teaching out in the open for people to hear and see thirty-three years, three and a half years of it public ministry. But now in this transaction, this holy transaction between heaven and earth, he's alone with his Father. Number two possibility, this is a darkness that speaks of wickedness. They were already living in darkness, this physical reality speaks of a spiritual reality. What they can see physically speaks of something they can't see.

You know how the idea of darkness speaks of evil in the Bible and light speaks of righteousness in the Bible. The Bible talks about those who walk in darkness, those who walk in the light. Here the crucifixion is the most heinous wickedness ever committed by humanity. They tried to extinguish the Light of the World; they couldn't do it. "The light shined in the darkness, the darkness could not put it out," but they tried. Here they are killing the "Prince of life," as Peter said in the book of Acts.

Third possibility, this is a darkness of judgment. In the Jewish mind because of the writings of the Jewish Talmud, which I explained last week to you, the Jewish Talmud said that God reserves darkness to punish unusual sin, deep and unusual sin God will reserve darkness. Now, the reason they said that is you remember what the ninth plague was back in the book of Exodus? Before the Passover lamb was killed, the ninth plague was darkness over all of Egypt for three days.

A darkness they could feel, it was palpable, they couldn't move---it was that dark. It was part of God's judgment. In Revelation, chapter 16, the fifth bowl judgment is darkness. "The bowl is poured out on the throne of the Antichrist and darkness fills his kingdom; and they gnawed their tongues in pain." Judgment for unusual sin.

Have you ever stopped to think about the corollary of the Old Testament book of Exodus and the crucifixion? There's darkness that covered the land for three days, and then the Passover lamb was killed. There's darkness on the cross for three hours, then the Passover Lamb was killed. The tenth plague was the death of the firstborn; here the death of God's firstborn Jesus the preeminent One. "Firstborn" he's called in Colossians. The Lamb of God is dying for the sin of the world.

Darkness covered the land. "At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice." And this is really the only saying that Mark records of all the seven that he records Jesus saying. "He cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' which is translated, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, 'Look, he is calling Elijah!' "

The Aramaic is given, the Hebrew would not be "Eloi, Eloi," it would be "Éli, Éli." And it sounds similar to the name of Elijah in Hebrew, Eliyahu. So they couldn't hear, they were at a distance. He's saying his words, "Eloi, Eloi" and they're thinking, "What, is he calling on Elijah?" You know why they thought that? There was a Jewish belief that if you were in a time of great distress, you could pray to Elijah and he would deliver you.

I grew up with, not Elijah, but it was you'd call on Saint Jude, and if you were really in trouble---I think it was Saint Jude the saint of bailing you out of great difficulties. It was the same idea of great superstition. Believe me, I was talking to Saint Jude my whole upbringing because I was always in trouble---didn't help. With that same superstitious background they're thinking, "Oh, he's just praying to Elijah for him to get bailed out of this." So they say, "Well, let's just give him some time. Let's just see if Elijah will bail him out." You'll see that as we go.

"Someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, and put it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink, saying, 'Let him alone; let us see if Elijah will come and take him down.' " Now this saying of Jesus on the cross has puzzled a lot of people: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It really bothered Martin Luther. He said he went into seclusion for days to figure this out. And when he came back after meditating on it day and night for days, he came back out of his seclusion more confused than when he went in. He didn't quite get it.

What is going on here? Well, there has been a gradual forsaking of Jesus. He had many followers. He gets closer to the cross. He's with just twelve followers in the upper room. During that upper room, that Last Supper, one of them gets up and leaves. His name is?---Judas. So now he has, not twelve, but eleven. With eleven he goes into the garden of Gethsemane. He isolates three out of the eleven, Peter, James, and John, and says, "I need you guys with me, watch and pray."

What do they do? Fall asleep. So now he's forsaken even by his good buddies. He gets taken toward the house of Caiaphas the high priest. Two disciples are with him. Which ones? Peter and John. Peter denies him three times. John can only follow so far into the second courtyard. Gradually through the night Jesus is forsaken, until finally he cries out quoting Psalm 22 verse 1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

What he is expressing is judicial rather than relational. Let me explain what that means. You need to know what this means. It's judicial rather than relational. Jesus was feeling a separation from the Father due to God acting as Judge judging sin upon Jesus. Let me give you the Scripture that explains that: Second Corinthians 5:21, "God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him." In other words, if I can paraphrase, "God treated Jesus like you and I deserve to be treated, so he could treat you and I like Jesus deserved to be treated."

At the cross when God pours his wrath out on sin in the person of Jesus Christ, he is treating his only begotten Son as if he had committed every single sin---past, present, and future. That brought a separation, something Jesus had never known before. He knew what it was like to be rejected by a nation, and even forsaken by his own friends, and betrayed by one of his own disciples, but now his Father? In some way, in some form, God turned away in fellowship because of the judicial dealing with sin upon his Son.

"Jesus cried out," verse 37, "with a loud voice"---John tells us what he said, one word: Tetelestai, "It is finished"---"and he breathed his last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Wow! Now, Mark only tells us that. You have to read the other accounts to know that that's not the only phenomena that took place. There was an earthquake that took place, the rocks were torn, graves were open.

And, I mean, it was Night of the Living Dead. Dead people from past started walking around Jerusalem, right? The Bible tells us that, along with the veil of the temple was torn. Now, because it is written in the passive voice, it says, "The veil of the temple was torn." It doesn't say the veil of the temple tore, but it "was torn," implying somebody tore it. It's in the passive voice.

"The veil of the temple was torn," and the direction is given, "from top to bottom." It's sixty feet tall. No man can get up there unless they have scaffolding. It took three hundred priests to hang a veil. The veil of the temple was sixty feet tall, thirty feet wide, and the thickness of the palm of your hand. It took three hundred priest to maneuver.

It ripped from top to bottom. God was disturbing their worship service. He was making a statement to them. Something else, there are four independent historical testimonies that bear witness to the tearing of the veil: Tacitus the Roman historian, Josephus the Jewish historian, the early Christian writings, and a fourth that I will think of in just a moment when it comes to my head. Four of them corroborate this---oh, the Jewish Talmud speaks about this as well.

What's interesting about the Talmud that speaks about that is that it says that the gates of the temple---there was a veil, but there were also gates that open up into one of the courtyards. They were always open. But at the time the veil was torn, the gates seemingly closed by themselves. According to Flavius Josephus the Jewish historian, he says at the time of the tearing of the veil something happened inside the sanctuary.

You know the menorah---you know what is the menorah is? The seven-branched golden candlestick that lights the Holy Place---the center light mysteriously burned out. So, we have four independent records besides that of the Evangelists, the four gospels that tells of the ripping of the veil. But because it was torn from top to bottom, the real message was God was saying, "Come, come in."

And I think it's important that we understand, because the whole temple, the statement of the whole temple court system, the message was "keep out." There were the court of the men, there was the court of the women, there were the court of the Gentiles. And a Gentile couldn't go in the court of the Jewish women; the Jewish women couldn't come in the court of the Jewish men; the Jewish men couldn't go in the court of the priests.

And there was a wall at the border of the court of the Gentiles and the court of the women that said, "On the penalty of death, you walk past this point, we will arrest you and kill you." So the temple, the message there was "keep out," and nobody could go beyond that veil.

Now God rips the veil and says, "Come in." Not, "keep out"; "come in." Not, "stay away"; "Come close, I'm offering fellowship where there has been only separation in the past." Because of the Lamb of God that was slain that opened up the door of fellowship and tore the veil of separation so that man and God could now have fellowship---a grand act.

"So when the centurion, who stood opposite him, saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!' " That's quite a statement for a Roman centurion to make, is it not? "Truly this man is the Son of God!" I've told you before, but you know who I'm thinking of right now? John Wayne, [laughter] because I remember as a kid watching that movie. I don't even remember the name of it---was it The Greatest Story Ever Told? Was that the one where John Wayne played the centurion?

I mean, it's an old movie, so a lot of you guys like---whatever. So I could tell you anything right now. [laughter] But John Wayne played this centurion, and I remember as a little kid watching this, and being impressed by John Wayne who said, "Truly, this man is the Son of God," like a cowboy would. [laughter] So that's what I think of every time I read these Scriptures---forever ruined for me. Only the voice is ruined for me, but not the story.

In Luke's account of this, it says that this centurion didn't just say this, it said, "He glorified God," which may indicate that he becomes a believer. And wouldn't it be amazing to think that the first postcrucifixion convert was a Roman soldier who was there, who witnessed all that happened, and put two and two together, and glorified God in making this confession from the heart.

"There were also women," verse 40, "looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, who followed him and ministered to him when was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem." If you come with us next time we go to Israel, and we go on a boat ride from one part of the lake of Galilee to the other, off to our left side---because we always take the same route---off to our left side I'll point out the little village of Magdala.

The ruins are being excavated to this day. That's where Mary was from. Mary of Magdalene was from Magdala. That's why she was called the Magdalene, because she was from the town of Magdala. The Jewish Talmud said that Magdala was infamous as a town of prostitution. We can't be sure, but many scholars conjecture that Mary, before she came to Christ, was a prostitute. Her attraction to Jesus was---here is somebody who could give to her what no man had ever been able to give to her; and that is, forgiveness.

The Bible says out of her were cast seven demons. A demon- possessed woman of ill repute, possibly a prostitute, needing forgiveness, follows Jesus after her conversion and is there at the cross. Don't you find it interesting that the courageous ones were really the women? All the disciples are gone. John is mentioned; he there at least in the first part of the cross. We don't know if he remained for the whole part of it.

But the women were there---last at the cross, first at the tomb. I often find women to be more courageous many times than men. Sorry, guys, it's---I won't keep going, because I'm gonna get some e-mails. [laughter] Get enough of those.

"Now when evening had come because it was a Day of Preparation, that is, the day before Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea"---mentioned in all four gospel accounts. Matthew calls him "rich." Luke calls him "righteous," "just," and the Bible doesn't toss that term around loosely. The idea is that here was a just man waiting for the Messiah, studying the Scripture, part of the prominent council of the Sanhedrin, very wealthy, a righteous man---that is, the root of his faith produced the fruit of his works.

You'll see that here in what he does with Jesus. Because you touch a dead body, you're defiled, how are you going to celebrate the Passover or the Sabbath? But he was one who did that. The gospel of John calls Joseph of Arimathea a "secret disciple." And people have made fun of him, "Oh, he was weak. He was secret." Well, a lot of young believers are always afraid of what other people think of them. But here he's not so secret, he very bold.

For notice what it says, "He was a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate marveled that he was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if he had been dead for some time. So when he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph."

Joseph being courageous, stepping forward, and getting the body of Jesus would have risked his reputation with the other Sanhedrin members and also would have risked defilement. "Then he bought fine linen, took him down, wrapped him in the linen. And laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses observed"---the word means observed with interest---"where he was laid."

Why with interest? They're coming back. They're coming back when the Sabbath is over, according to the next chapter, the first verse, to anoint the body of Jesus. So they're checking out where he was buried because they want to come back and pay their last respects in a formal ceremonial way and anoint the body of Jesus, only to discover he's not there. That's where the hope lies---the resurrection.

I love how you lit up when we were singing about the resurrection, and how he conquered the grave, and how, you know, you were hooting it up over that. And that is our hope. It's the great hope of the believer. This is the pinnacle of the redemptive history, but the resurrection is where he conquers death and offers life. With that in mind, would you take the elements that you have and peel the top off and take the bread in your hand.

As you hold the bread, you remember that Jesus took bread with his disciples on that Passover evening, bread that spoke of the bread of affliction, bread that was broken during the ceremony, and Jesus applied to his own body, and he said, "Take and eat this. This is my body which is broken for you." Father, you gave your Son in our place, in our stead. So that we wouldn't have to die, he took death. He tasted death for every man as your Word in Hebrews 12 tells us. He took the hell so we could have heaven.

And so, Lord, we take this bread, and in taking it we say, we apply the work of Jesus, the bruising of Jesus, the breaking of Jesus to our own lives and we're so thankful. And like that father holding that bicycle with tears streaming down, we realize this death of Jesus is not some little event, it's the event in history especially for us. We love it because we love you, and we take this bread in your honor. Let's take together.

Jesus took at the Last Supper the wine, the third cup of the four cups, the cup of redemption, and he applied that to his own blood. Soon he would be on a cross shedding his blood, and the disciples would understand. Just think for a moment as you take this what Jesus endured---extreme thirst, separation from God the Father, intense suffering. It sounds like hell. Hell is eternal thirst, eternal separation, eternal suffering.

Jesus took hell so you could live with him in heaven. He took the shame so that you might receive the mercy. And this is the "blood of the covenant," Jesus called it. The blood of his covenant shed for you for the remission of sins. Father, we thank you that the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us, a man, a woman, from all sin. You said if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do that now, Father, that we might walk in newness of life in Jesus' name, amen.