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Good evening to everyone. You can turn in your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Mark. Mark 15. As we gather together for the Lord's Supper, wherein we remember the shedding of our Lord's blood, the breaking of our Lord's body, the giving of himself for guilty sinners, We look then at the occasion, the narration, the true account of the shedding of his blood and the giving of his body for guilty sinners. From this, Mark's account of the crucifixion, we'll read beginning in verse 33 and finish in verse 39 of Mark 15 and have a look at the stuff of this passage. This is Mark 15 beginning in verse 33, the Word of God.

Now 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, 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 this said, look, he is calling for Elijah. Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink, saying, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to take him down.

And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 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.

Amen. Well, let us pray. God, thank you for this time now in your Holy Word. We rejoice in this opportunity. to open up the scriptures to read concerning the Son of God and Son of Man, this one Christ who gave himself for guilty sinners. We do pray that you would help us by your spirit to learn to write the things of your truth, to know our Christ, to rejoice in our triune God, and to sing the praises of your most glorious grace. We thank you and we praise you now in Christ's name, amen.

Well, we come to, of course, a very significant hour, the crucifixion of the incarnate Son of God. The hour of hours on the day of days has come, and we are confronted with gloriously and solemnly, and with measures of Christian sobriety, we're confronted with the crucifixion of the incarnate Son of God, a glorious account that is the stuff of the what of our salvation. If we look at the gospel accounts concerning Jesus Christ, largely we're given the what of Christ, what happened, and when we get to the epistles, we're given theological commentary on the what, the why of what happened. Now, with the what, we're very often given the why, and with the why, we're given the what, but usually what we find in the accounts here concerning the blessed Christ, the Son of God, who came down from heaven, sinners to save, in the gospel accounts, we see the narrative concerning the living, the doing, the dying, and the rising again of the Son of God. And here we have the crucifixion, and just in this small capturing, or this small portion of the narrative, we want to simply look at three things, the forsaken Son, the open sanctuary, and the confession of the nations. Again, that's three things.

First, the forsaken son. Secondly, the open sanctuary. And thirdly, the confession of the nation. So with this, first, the forsaken son, notice the language that we have here. First, in verse 33. Now, when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. The first thing we see here with regards to the forsaken son is this noontide darkness in verse 33.

This is no ordinary darkness. It's not a happy accident. that interestingly, in the very time on which the Son of God incarnated is crucified upon Calvary's cross, the sun is darkened. Isn't that a nice and happy accident, this cosmic reality that aligns with the death of the Son of God upon Calvary's cross? No, this is of course of cosmic significance, but it's not just a coordinating providence, it is It comes with rich theological purpose and divine ordination. This is no ordinary darkness. The event bears cosmic significance.

The hour of judgment has come and God, if you will, bedecks the land with mourning. The mourning with the U after the O with mourning. He bedecks this occasion with cosmic significance and cosmic things to mark the very high reality of what is going on here. The judgment upon the Son of God has come for the sins of His people.

When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. This darkness that falls upon the earth has rich Old Testament significance to it. We've already noted that it's not just a happy accident, but that it aligns well and perfectly with the death of the Son of God on Calvary's cross, and yet it also, like the life and death and resurrection and ascension of Christ does, aligns with Old Covenant promise and Old Covenant type. concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can turn with me to the book of Exodus for a moment in chapter 10. What is going on with this darkness that covers the land? What is going on when the sun is darkened? Notice in Exodus chapter 10 we see here in the context of the judgment that's visited by God upon upon Egypt we see this same language of darkness in the ninth plague. Exodus 10 at verse 21.

Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, And there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." So there's darkness connected here to divine judgment.

It's an interesting observation that John Gill makes, not on Exodus 10, but on Mark 15, 33. He remarks that outside of the Bible, there were extra-biblical, that's what outside the Bible means, there were extra-biblical accounts of the darkening of the day on that particular day. And in fact, there was one in Egypt who observed on the day of Christ's crucifixion, the sun itself being darkened for a number of hours. It's interesting that an observer in Egypt The land that bore this typical resemblance to the coming glory of the sun, one in Egypt on the day of the crucifixion saw the darkened sun and remarked according to it. But all of that to come back to this, that the judgment visited upon Egypt and the darkening of the sun It pointed forward, if you will, to a greater event when one would be judged, if you will, as an Egypt for the sins of his people, and he would provide deliverance after that particular darkness.

You can turn with me as well to the book of Amos, Amos chapter 8. Many theologians see here the Christological fulfillment of what's going on in the language of Amos 8. This is concerning the prophetic pronouncements against the Northern Kingdom. The judgment that is coming upon it, that is that contemporaneous reality, but there was a future and greater fulfillment concerning something greater than judgment upon apostate Israel. Notice in Amos 8 at verse 9, and it shall come to pass In that day, says the Lord, that I will make the sun, note, go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight.

So finding our way back to Mark 15 and verse 33, this is a noontide darkness. The sixth hour, if we take the first hour, which is 6 a.m., the sixth hour is noon. And so some of your translations will probably have the language of noon being indicated there. Here we have in Mark 15 and the New King James, the language of the sixth hour.

And so this darkness covers the face of the earth. We can just think about this for a moment, perhaps even in something other than darkness for a moment. something with cosmic significance happens, very often we can feel the weight of that, or it impresses upon, if not our bodies, our minds, something weighty and something heavy. If you think about when thunder rolls, especially when it cracks and it rolls directly above our heads, there's something very weighty to that. We may not have the the fear of a two-year-old, those two-year-olds that may feel and fear the thunder, but we can feel the weight of this cosmic, this cosmological, this significant thing that happens. With regards to darkness in the language of Moses, it was a darkness that could even be felt. Imagine on this particular day with these onlookers, taking in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, how that must have felt and how that must have looked.

Imagine right now if all of these windows themselves all of a sudden were just... darkened. We get very small glimpses of that when a thick dark cloud rolls in front of the sun, or if anybody's ever witnessed an eclipse. You can see just all of a sudden the whiteness of windows turning to the grayness of a light being darkened. Well, consider this.

On this day, when the Son of the Father's love was put upon Calvary's cross, and a darkness comes over the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. Three hours of darkness. The weightiness of this event is something that the text itself doesn't capture with regards to what can happen in that sort of cosmological reality when the sun is darkened and the light is taken away from the land. This signifies that judgment had come. God decks the land with mourning, showing that Christ hanged under the wrath which sinners had deserved. Think about that for a moment.

The Son of Righteousness is crucified upon Calvary's cross and the sun is darkened for three hours. This isn't again just a happy accident, not just an aligned cosmological event that took place at the same time, but divinely ordained and divinely controlled and divinely manipulated, demonstrating that Christ hanged under the wrath which we as sinners deserved.

And it also does not only that, but it also speaks judgment to apostate Israel. The Son of God is receiving, according to His humanity as mediator, He's receiving the full brunt and the full weight of divine wrath visited upon Him for the sins of His people. And praise God for that as we move towards the Lord's Supper. will remark concerning that. But as well, it's a sign of judgment upon apostate Israel for their rejection of the Son of Promise, for their rejection of the promised Messiah, for their rejection of the One who was promised to come to give Himself for guilty sinners.

One of the things, if you turn to Luke with me for a moment that we read, when we read that passage in our morning Scripture reading, one of the things that is noted here by Christ at the crucifixion is that very thing. Notice in Luke 24, excuse me, Luke 23, we are reading from this morning, and notice in verse 28, when Jesus sees this great multitude of people following Him and the women, who mourned and lamented them, Jesus says, turning to them, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, notice, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills, cover us, For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?

Jesus is pronouncing upon them, announcing the coming judgment. He had already given them that imagery, remember, of the vineyard owner and the vine dressers who rent out the vineyard and take the fruits. and kill all the messengers that are sent, including finally the son whom the vineyard owner sends, because surely they will hear the son. They put to death the one who is promised, Jesus Christ, and they will reap the whirlwind of divine justice because of that. So not only does that darkness convey and signify that Christ bore the wrath of God for all those whom the Father had given to Him, but it announces coming judgment.

Blessed are the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. What does that mean? Pastor Butler spoke about that, I think it was last Lord's Day, where in the promise of covenantal curses, it will take place that women will eat their own children. Blessed are the wombs that never bear and blessed are the breasts that never nurse.

Because judgment is coming upon Israel. Gross judgment is coming. Divine judgment is coming. Significant judgment is coming upon Israel for the crucifixion. of the Lord of glory. When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. In the very least, take this from that. This bears great cosmic significance because the Lord Christ is judged as a sinner. Having not sinned Himself, being holy, harmless, and undefiled, He's judged substitutionarily in our stead as a sinner, and the promise of judgment is coming upon apostate Israel. Notice as well the language here with regards to darkness leads to a deeper and a more dreadful mystery. And that is the Son of God crying out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

We have the noontide darkness followed by these words of dereliction or forsakenness. And this as well not insignificant considering the language first of the ninth hour. We just noticed that at the sixth hour, darkness covers the face of the earth. Three hours later, at the ninth hour, Jesus cries out with this loud voice saying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Why is Mark including here the language of the hours at which these things take place? Have you ever asked yourself that question? It's just, he's very meticulous, and he's just noting, like perhaps a lot of us would, the times at which significant events are taking place. He is meticulous, divinely inspired, carried along by the Holy Spirit for revealing the will of God in the Holy Scriptures, in our New Covenant Scriptures. But there's more than that. The ninth hour is given here to communicate the fulfillment, Christ's antitypical fulfillment, of those things that held him forth in the Old Covenant.

You can turn with me to the book of Exodus yet again. Exodus is a book about Christ. It's a book about the life and times, no doubt, as it holds it forth, the Israel, in coming out of Egypt, but its greater meaning, as it is the case with all of the scriptures, is that it points forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice in Exodus 29, you can turn with me to Exodus 29, and notice that this is given within the context of sacrifice, the appointed sacrifices that Israel was to engage in in their religious lives. Notice in Exodus 29 and verse 38. As we're considering, remember the ninth hour, Christ crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

This is verse 38, now, this is what you shall offer on the altar, two lambs of the first year, day by day, continually. One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. This is interesting because Christ is first offered up upon Calvary's cross in the morning at 9 a.m. and that same lamb is upon the cross at 3 p.m. in the evening. One lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight.

Mark is recounting the time of the crucifixion and specifically the time that the sacrifice, the lamb cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's recording that to draw the reading mind, to draw the hearing mind, to draw the Christian considering mind back to the sacrifices of the old covenant. that were but pictures, symbols, emblems of the coming Lamb of God who would give Himself for guilty sinners. Christ is given up, sacrificed at the time in which the twilight sacrifice was given in the Old Covenant.

John Gill captures it this way. This was, in a good measure, literally fulfilled in Christ. He's writing here not on Mark 15, but on Exodus 29. This was, in a good measure, literally fulfilled in Christ, namely, as to the time of slaying and offering the daily sacrifice.

For he was crucified at the third hour, that is, at nine o'clock in the morning. At the sixth hour, or at twelve o'clock at noon, darkness was upon the earth, which continued till the ninth. And then he gave up the ghost, which was three o'clock in the afternoon, the usual time of slaying and offering the daily evening sacrifice. Mark 15, 25, and this may signify the extensiveness of Christ's sacrifice, reaching from the morning of the world to the evening of it.

He was slain and offered up in the mourning of the world, in the purpose and promise of God, in the typical sacrifices of men, and in the faith of His people, who looked to Him as the atoning Savior, and in the efficacy of His blood, which reached to all of the saints from the beginning for the pardon and atonement of their sins. And it was at the end or evening of the Jewish world and state that Christ was offered up a sacrifice for sin, and the virtue of it will continue. to the end of the world.

Make no mistake, our Bibles are not just some haphazardly slapped together collection of books that articulate some religious things. It is God condescending to reveal His will from Genesis through to Revelation in page after page, chapter after chapter, pointing to Christ upon the cross working out the salvation of man. And so Exodus, with its darkness, and Exodus with its morning and evening sacrifices, point forward to this Christ, who at the ninth hour, the hour of the offering of the evening sacrifice, as the sacrifice who takes away the sins of the world, cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The richness of the Bible, the richness of the tale, the true story concerning Jesus Christ is beyond glorious.

This is not these words of Christ, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is not a random cry from the cross, but the praying of the very words of Psalm 22. Remember, as Pastor Butler has been preaching through the Psalms, he's rightly pointing to the fact that these are the words of Christ. And it's fitting then for Christ himself, upon the cross, not to cry out random words, He's the Christ, he doesn't do that. Every word that proceeds from the lips of the Savior are verity, truth, and marked to perfection. But it's fitting for the Savior to read from Psalm 22, to pray Psalm 22 up to His Father in this language, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It's a wonderful reality here that is a very solemn reality that's taking place here upon the cross, but a wonderful and a glorious one. These words are not indicative of divine severance or abandonment. They do not mean that the Father ceased to love the Son or that the unity of the Trinity was momentarily interrupted, as some have wrongly, to put it lightly, said. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

First is Christ speaking the words of His own Psalm 22, but it also speaks, of course, to the reality that He is enduring the withdrawal of we could say divine consolation. He endured the weight of divine justice as man and mediator. He experienced the withdrawal of the sensible comfort of God's presence and the full weight of divine justice against sin. The language of Cyril of Jerusalem with regards to these particular words, he writes, For my sake He was called a curse, who destroyed my curse and sin, who taketh away the sin of the world, and became a new Adam to take the place of the old.

Let's just pause there for a moment. The language of the Adam-Christ typology, the Adamic reality of Christ, that He is the second or the last Adam. Well, first of all, it's Paul who gives us that. But it's not the invention of the Reformed, and it's not the invention of the Reformed scholastics, this Adam and Christ reality. It's the stuff of the Bible and the earliest Christians identify that.

He became a new Adam to take the place of the old, just so he makes my disobedience his own as head of the whole body. This is him speaking on the words, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was not he who was forsaken either by the father or by his own Godhead, as some have thought, as if it were afraid, that is the divine essence of the passion, and therefore withdrew itself from him in his sufferings. For who compelled him either to be born on earth at all, or to be lifted up on the cross. But as I said, He was in His own person representing us. For we were the forsaken and despised before, but now, by the sufferings of Him who could not suffer, we were taken up and saved. Similarly, He makes His own our folly, and our transgressions.

And notice this, "...and says what follows in the psalm. For it is very evident that the 21st Psalm refers to Christ." He says 21st Psalm there because of what Pastor Butler has said regarding Psalms 9 and 10. In the Greek Septuagint, they're merged together. So he speaks the words of the 22nd Psalm or to Cyril of Jerusalem, the 21st Psalm, but notice what he says here.

With regards to this language, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He, prior to Calvin, prior to Luther, prior to the Reformed theologians, is speaking from the vantage point of substitutionary atonement. He's speaking that Christ is saying these words not because the Trinity is dissolved or separated somehow, it cannot be, because Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one essence, one substance, one glorious eternal essence that cannot be divided or parted or severed. He's speaking from the vantage point of as substitute bearing the sins of his people, as vicarious sacrifice taking upon himself the guilt and the condemnation that was due His people.

This is not indicative, neither is this, indicative of complaint in weakness. Another charge that's been leveled by those who are God-haters, even within the pale of a so-called confessing Christianity, these are not the words of weakness from the Savior upon the cross. He is not in weakness complaining to the Father about his particular predicament. This is hilarious the gall. also known as Hillary of Poitiers, but I think hilarious the Gaul sounds better. There is still, the heretics say, another serious and far-reaching confession of weakness, all the more so because it is in the mouth of the Lord himself.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? They construe this into the expression of a bitter complaint, that he was deserted and given over to weakness. But what a violent interpretation of an irreligious mind. How repugnant to the whole tenor of our Lord's words!

He hastened to the death, which was to glorify Him, and after which He was to sit at the right hand of power. With all those blessed expectations, could He fear death, and therefore complain that His God had betrayed Him to its necessity, when it was the entrance to eternal blessedness? These are the words, not of one in bitter complaint, not of one somehow severed from his father, but according to his assumed humanity as mediator and the one who bears our sins in our stead, he cries out to the Lord, my God, my God. why have you forsaken me? And as you've heard many times before, and as many more have said before us, the Lord Jesus Christ cries this from the cross so that His people never have to cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He bears the wrath. He bears the guilt. He bears the condemnation so that we, all those who believe in Him, do not bear the guilt and do not bear the condemnation. What a glorious Savior that we have. If you're here tonight and you're a Christian, rejoice in this. It's okay to smile in church. It really is. In spite of the preacher, you can smile. What a glorious Christ that we have who came down from heaven, sinners to save.

We didn't deserve salvation. It's not like our splendor cried out to heaven for one to condescend to save us from a particular plight. Dead in trespasses and sins, wholly marked by depravity and wickedness and transgression. There is none that are good, no not one. There are none who are righteous, none who seek after God. Not only were we not seeking after God, but we were, whether inwardly or outwardly, daily, hour upon hour, minute after minute, raising our hands to the high king of heaven and crying out in our enmity and in our anger and in our hatred for the creator, for the sustainer, for the Redeemer of God's elect. Yet this Christ condescends from on high, he assumes our nature, and he goes to the cross to bear our guilt and bear our condemnation.

And he, instead of his elect, cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? At the same time, solemn words The same time, joyful words that are booned to the soul of Christians everywhere. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Cried out that we, his people, may never have to cry them out. Before we move on, Turretin on this, these blessed words. The punishment of desertion suffered by Christ was not bodily. but a spiritual and internal suffering. It arose not from any torment, however dreadful, which he could feel in his body, for many of the martyrs might have experienced such, who nevertheless are not said to have complained of this desertion, but from a most oppressive sense of God's wrath resting upon him on account of our sins. glorious savior, glorious redeemer, glorious one who reconciles God and men by the perfection of his saving work.

And notice that we move on now to this cry of victory. So we have this cry of dereliction, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then we have, followed by this, a cry of victory, but first, There is this unbelieving ignorance concerning the significance of the occasion.

Notice in verse 35, some of those who stood by when they heard that said, look, he is calling for Elijah. They didn't understand the words that Christ here is speaking in their unbelief. Like everything else, the Lord said, and like everything else that's already taking place on the cross, the hour of these things taking place, the darkness that is covering the earth, the sight of the Son of God incarnated hanging upon Calvary's cross, they in their unbelief reject it. Look, he is calling for Elijah.

Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink, saying, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to take him down. every Christian mind here, I suspect, reads this and is filled with a measure of wholesome anger at such who would mock the Son of God incarnated hanging upon Calvary's cross.

And we ought to be wholesomely incensed, righteously incensed at such mockery and such opposition. But remember, there but by the grace of God go all of us. We would have cried out, crucify him, crucify him. We would have called out, give us Barabbas. We would have laughed and snickered and sneered. We would have belted out a chuckle when someone ran with sour wine and offered it to him to drink.

There's, I think, a modern hymn that says something like, there amongst the scoffers I hear my mocking voice. Something along those words. Among the scoffing voices that are there gathered together before the crucified Messiah, we can hear our scoffing voices call out among those scoffing the Savior. We should. And yet, in His time and according to His will, He condescended and pulled us up from the madness of such dark sin and put us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Chrysostom on these opposing Christ in this particular manner.

But mark herein also their wantonness and intemperance and folly. They thought, it is said, that it was Elias whom he called. And straightaway they gave him vinegar to drink. But another came unto him and pierced his side with a spear, bringing together these particular accounts from the other gospel writers. What could be more lawless, what more brutal, than these men? who carried their madness to so great a length, offering insult at last even to a dead body.

But mark thou, I pray thee, how he made use of their wickedness for our salvation. For after the blow, the fountains of our salvation gushed forth from thence. We can look at this and we can see the mockings, we can see the revilings, we can see the scoffings, and rightly be incensed at the opposition to the Son of the Father's love, but we can also rejoice because herein the Christ is using this for our salvation. He endures the mockings, He endures the piercings, He endures the breaking of His side and the spilling out of water and blood as of a fountain in order that He might bring many sons to glory through the perfection of His work. And then we see this cry of victory in verse 37. And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed His last. It's interesting here that Mark does not include which cry this was. Remember those seven sayings from the cross of Calvary? Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last.

So which one is this? Most likely it is the one that we read this morning in Luke 23 if we follow the close correspondence of the particular words. In verse 45 of Luke 23, Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit your spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. So if we coordinate the gospel accounts here, I think it's wholesome for us to suppose that the words of Mark 1537, are that he cried out, Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit.

It's a wonderful resolution on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. He had already cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Knowing that God had not really abandoned him, but in that moment, he was absent of that wholesome consolation, that divine reality of consolation and goodness. He endured the weight of divine justice as we had previously noted. He had, as man and mediator, experienced the withdrawal of the sensible comfort of God's presence, and yet now with this cry of victory, having rendered up an acceptable sacrifice to God the Father, Having rendered up an acceptable sacrifice to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Christ as man and mediator, resting upon his God as his refuge and strength, can cry out with a loud voice, not a voice of defeat and not a voice of despair, but a cry of victory into your hands. commit my spirit."

Again, citing a particular psalm. In fact, Pastor Butler, very conveniently and not by accident, read from Psalm 31 this evening. And in Psalm 31, we have those very words of the Lord Jesus Christ from the cross. He not only cries out Psalm 22, He is crying out the language of Psalm 35 as well. Notice in Psalm 31, excuse me, Psalm 31 and verse five.

The language there of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon Calvary's cross, into your hand I commit your spirit. You have redeemed me, O God of truth. In verse three, for you are my rock and my fortress, therefore for your name's sake, lead me and guide me, pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for you are my strength. You see how the Bible comes together, how God brings his word together, how the Christ from the cross, the psalm prayer, prays not only Psalm 22, but cries out the language of Psalm 31 5. Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Having completed the work of salvation, he commits himself to the God who sent him and the God who accepts his sacrifice. in its perfection and in the glory of its offering. Notice as we move forward here and as we seek to close shortly with these last two points, the open sanctuary. Back in Mark 15, And verse 37, we read, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last, and now notice the open sanctuary, then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

We said earlier that Mark isn't just, Mark's not just writing things down. That he is writing things down, not that he himself observed, but that he was told. Mark is writing things down here and not just in a haphazard way or a simple way of remarking concerning historical events that took place. He wants the reader, God, through Mark, wants the reader, wants the hearer to understand what is going on here.

Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. What is the significance of this? The veil itself signified that the way to God's presence was shut up against sinners. It preached exclusion and it preached separation. The veil is torn by the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself brings not separation, but communion, who is the very veil itself, according to Hebrews 10, 19 and 20. We get access to God the Father through the veil that is his flesh, a better and more glorious way that he consecrated for us through the veil, which is his flesh. Christ fulfills the reality of presence with God for His people. This symbol of separation, this signal of exclusion is taken away.

The day of atonement showed that access was possible only with blood. Once a year, the high priest going in with great care into the Holy of Holies, through the veil, into the veil, to offer up the blood of bulls and goats. Here, Christ, the high priest, the true high priest offers up himself once for the sins of his people, bringing to termination, bringing to end the reality that was only beforehand typified. The veil is taken away by the true high priest who comes to offer up not the blood of bulls and goats, but to offer up his very self. The veil was not only a curtain of separation, but a standing witness that the Old Covenant ministry itself considered could not perfect the conscience nor open up. nor open up the communion with God.

Christ here secures that, and so when Mark recounts that the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, he's remarking concerning the Christ has come, the promised one has come, the fulfillment of tabernacle and temple has come, and he is the one who secures access to the most holy through the giving of his life. upon Calvary's cross. The tearing of the veil declared that Christ's death fulfilled and ended the shadowy order. The true sacrifice is offered, the true high priest has acted, and true atonement is made. As we move to the Lord's Supper here in only a handful of minutes, these are the types of things that we are to glory in and to reflect upon and to roll around in our minds as we take of the bread and as we take of the wine. the fact that Christ, through His veil, which is His flesh, opened up access to the heavenly sanctuary, opened up access to our God, saved us from the darkness and the madness of sin, and brought us into a place of glory, brought us to a place of communion with the living and true God.

And lastly, what we see here is the confession of the nations, and we'll close with this observation. then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 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. This is a first fruits, if you will, of the gospel of Jesus Christ going out to the nations.

Psalm 22 promised the son receiving the nations for his inheritance. Psalm 22, the ends of all the earth will turn to the Lord. The suffering servant shall sprinkle many nations is the promise and prophecy of Isaiah. In your seed, God's promise to Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

We can, in a particular way, look back upon the centurion, and as Gentiles, all of us, we can rejoice in that first Gentile crying at the foot of the cross, truly this was the Son of God. If you're here this evening and you're Christian, praise God that you can say with the centurion, truly this is the Son of God.

Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but the Father who is in heaven. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, was Peter's profession, and at the cross on this day, it is the profession of this Roman centurion, this Gentile, truly this man was the Son of God. We don't necessarily have to wait, though yes, in a more fuller sense, to Pentecost and to the going forth of the gospel in the book of Acts to nations beyond Judea and Samaria, The uttermost parts of the earth are represented here at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Roman confessing. The Jews rejecting, the Jews in the context mocking. His own people rejecting him and not receiving him, yet this Roman, much to the shame of his people, that is the Jewish nation, cries out, truly this man was the son of God. If you're here and you're outside of Christ, confess this Christ.

You want to be those ones who look upon the darkness that was over the whole land until the ninth hour and rejoice in the fact that that darkness represents that Christ, the one who took upon humanity, bore the sins of his people in their place. Bore the wrath of God in their place. You don't want to be the one who looks upon the darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour and sees in it your judgment. Sees in it just a small glimmer of the coming terror that will be upon you for your rejection of the Son of God.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, this one who gave himself as a glorious sacrifice, and you will be saved. And there is so much glory, so much hope, so much everlasting bliss tied to the one who upon Calvary's cross cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Let's pray. God, we thank you for this time in your word. We rejoice in your goodness to us with regards to this gospel account of Jesus Christ crucified upon Calvary's cross. We pray that you would help us to glory in the truth of the Savior, to rejoice in this one who is very God and very man, yet one Christ and the only mediator between God and man. Let us close with him, rejoice in him as we move to the supper. Might we have glorious reflections upon the doing and the dying and the rising again of the Son of God incarnated and see in Him and find in Him our all in all. Do go with us after this in the coming week. Help us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us to daily bring honor to you as we grow in the grace and in the knowledge of so glorious a Savior. And it's in His name that we pray, amen.