3rd April 2026 - Brendan Hurley (Good Friday)

It would be great if you can keep your Bibles

open to Matthew 27. And let's pray, let's ask

God for help as we dig now into his word. Father,

as we look at your word, please minister to us,

comfort us, challenge us, change us. Help us

to see how good it is. to know and love the Lord

Jesus. We ask this in his name. Amen. Well, as

a pastor, I get to be part of the happiest times

in people's life, as well as some of the worst

moments in people's lives. One of the happy times,

I once had to do a destination wedding in Margaret

River. had to, you know. All expenses paid weekend

away in Margs with my wife Laura. It's a tough

gig being a pastor sometimes. Everyone had a

blast. It was an amazing celebration. So much

joy and delight. Happy moments like that can

be so fun and good, can't they? Great to be part

of that. But then there are the dark moments

in people's lives. I pastored a church at a university

campus in Perth where in the same week a dear

friend of mine in the church had his wife leave

him and two sisters unexpectedly lost their mum.

I remember when I was in Geraldton I saw a woman

get sued by her own brother over their father's

inheritance. Also there I saw a woman get told

that she had cancer for the fifth time and she

passed away. And it left her husband devastated

and in deep grief. Sadly, life is full of these

dark moments. And many of you here have had to

face extremely awful moments like these yourself.

And it's not just moments, is it? There's also

the chronic pain, the chronic darkness that can

consume our lives, things that have just been

going on for years and years and years with no

resolution. Well the Bible is no stranger to

such pain. Take for example Psalm 88. It's a

psalm of one suffering intense agony and the

psalm, if you are suffering by the way, great

psalm to go to and express your pain to God.

But it ends like this. It says, your terrors

have destroyed me. All day long, they surround

me like a flood. They have completely engulfed

me. You have taken from me friend and neighbour.

Darkness is my closest friend. There are times

where we can feel that helpless and that hopeless

and that alone, aren't there? Where the only

friend left with us is the darkness, the very

thing we wish to be free from. So what do you

do during those times? Have a think about it.

What would you do during those times? Who or

what would you turn to when life is all darkness?

Some people in things can be very good. Some

can just make it all so much worse, can't they?

For some people, family and friends are a great

support, for some times they just pile on. For

some people it's escape, drugs, alcohol, endless

entertainment. Where would you turn when life

is all darkness? Have you got somewhere to turn?

Today I want to show you the best place to turn

is the cross. I've seen people turn to the cross

and find incredible strength, the richest comfort

and otherworldly peace. And this is for two reasons.

The first reason is the cross is the darkest

place ever. And so it shows that God is able

to help us in all situations, no matter how dark

they may be. But secondly, the cross gives people

a powerful hope in their pain that one day the

darkness will lift. Today we're going to look

at the cross and see why it's the best place

to turn when we're engulfed and drowning in the

darkness. And here's the one thing I hope you

take away from our talk today. When life is at

its darkness, the cross gives us hope. When life

is at its darkness, the cross gives us hope.

I'm hoping that when you're in your darkest times

that you'll turn to the cross because of the

great hope it gives. And there's two things that

Matthew, who wrote this Gospel, this chapter

that we're looking at, that he's showing us,

that we're going to look at, that will show us

when life is at its darkness, the cross gives

us hope. Here are the two things. Firstly, Jesus

suffers, yet is the glorious King. Jesus suffers,

yet is the glorious King. And secondly, Jesus

saves others by not saving himself. So let's

have a look at those two things. Firstly, Jesus

suffers yet is the glorious King. Now the suffering

that Jesus undergoes here is unparalleled in

human history. He's crucified because his disciples

abandoned him. One of them betrays him. It's

a deep wound that Jesus would have felt emotionally.

Not only that, but his countrymen, who should

have welcomed him, rejected him and handed him

over to the Roman ruler Pilate. When he's before

Pilate, he experiences profound injustice. Despite

being innocent, he's crucified. He's condemned.

And the physical pain of crucifixion was horrific.

They put nails through your wrists and in your

feet and ankles. He was beaten beforehand and

whipped. I mean, it's just awful. And this chapter

is littered with other pain, the mockery. Jesus

is given a crown of thorns to wear. We discovered

this one this morning. They're real thorns. It

actually hurts. That would have hurt to wear

something like that, wouldn't it? They have the

mockery of this sign above him. This is Jesus,

the King of the Jews. Pilate, when he put that

up, he was in there going, well, yes, Jesus is

the King of the Jews. No, this is, oh, this is

your King. We're gonna make fun of you. Look

how pathetic your King is. And people would walk

past him and say, you know, if you're so good,

Jesus, why don't you come down off the cross?

You're the son of God, aren't you? Get off that

cross. Just another way to say, you know, you're

the king, get off the cross. But the worst pain

for Jesus comes in verses 45 and 46. Have a look

with me there. From noon until three in the afternoon,

darkness came over all the land. About three

in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice,

which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken

me? There was literal darkness. And it's a sign

of God's judgment. Something cosmic, something

supernatural is happening here. It's gone dark

when it should have been bright. Something is

going on. And what's going on we get a clue with

what Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why have

you forsaken me? Jesus is God forsaken as he

dies on the cross. He's experiencing the full

force of God's wrath and anger. I mean, earlier

in the Matthew's gospel, Jesus would talk about

it as the cup that he had to drink the cup, the

cup of God's wrath down to the dregs. Jesus who

had experienced bliss and joy with his father

in eternity past is now experiencing some sort

of cosmic forsakenness, some sort of cosmic separation.

This is unimaginable pain in every sphere. Emotional,

physical, mental, relational, spiritual. It's

worth asking, what would it have been like to

feel this pain? Years ago when we lived in Perth,

I went down to Albany, about four and a half

hours south of Perth, and in Albany they've got

this convict jail that you can go into. And in

there they've got a little cell that was used

for solitary confinement. There's no light, there's

no windows, it's just, they shut the door and

it's completely dark. and it's quiet, unsettlingly

quiet, and you feel very alone. They've done

studies and they've found that actually solitary

confinement is one of the worst forms of torture.

I went into this little room, this solitary confinement

room, shut the door just there on my own, and

I was like, after a few minutes, I'm like, this

is kind of disturbing. I'd hate to be in here

for very long. Well, as Jesus dies on the cross,

he is going through the most horrific, awful,

solitary confinement on a cosmic level. But not

only that, think of the times you might have

burnt yourself or cut yourself or been humiliated

or pierced by guilt. Roll that all together and

add that to the worst pain you've ever felt.

Times it by a thousand. And we're still not even

close to what Jesus went through. That's the

pain Jesus experienced. Yet it's not random if

you have eyes to see it. Because this chapter

is full of clues as to what's going on. It's

spelled out in the Old Testament, but especially

in the place we had read to us earlier, in Psalm

22. A Psalm of David, the righteous king of Israel,

one who suffered awfully, yet eventually was

glorified and vindicated. Here's what we see

in Psalm. Do you see how it matches? Clothes

are divided by lot, which is the same in Matthew.

He's mocked for trusting God, which is the same

as what happens to Jesus. He's forsaken by God.

I mean, actually the Psalm 22 starts with, my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And that's

exactly what Jesus cries out on the cross. Jesus

is there quoting it saying, hey, if you want

to understand what's going on here and now, go

back to Psalm 22. It's because Jesus' journey

is patterned off King David's journey in Psalm

22. the path to the throne will be filled with

pain. And yet Jesus truly is the righteous King

in the line of David, the one that God would

vindicate and glorify. And that would become

abundantly clear three days later. Do you remember

what they said to him? If you are the son of

God, come down and offer the cross. Well, we'll

see later why Jesus couldn't do that, but essentially

he did, didn't he? Three days later, he rose

again. He would be vindicated even though he

was in darkness now. When we look at Jesus, we

can see that the darkness will eventually lift.

John Newton, who's the author of Amazing Grace,

was a pastor as well as a prolific letter writer.

He wrote one letter to a Christian sister in

depressive darkness, and Newton takes her on

a journey through the Easter story. Here's what

he says. Come, madam, let us leave our troubles

to themselves for a while. And let us walk to

Golgotha and there take a view of his. Now I

begin to see what sin has done. Now let me bring

my sorrows and compare, measure and weigh them

against the sorrows of my Saviour. Foolish attempt

to weigh a grain of dust against a mountain.

He then goes on to outline the whole Easter story

and And at the end, he asks her to get her scales

out metaphorically and to weigh Christ's sufferings

against hers, but also to weigh her pain against

the future glory that is to come. He says this,

let us put in our trials and griefs on one side

of these scales, you know, and they're not like

our scales that you stand on and go, oh dear,

it's gone up. It's the scales that balance out

like that. They tip one side or another. Let

us put in our trials and griefs on one side.

What an alteration. I thought them lately very

heavy. Now I find them light. The scale hardly

turns with them. But how shall we manage to put

in the weight on the other side? It is heavy

indeed. An exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

It is beyond my grasp and power. No matter. Comparison

is needless. I see with the glance of an eye,

there is no proportion. I am content. I am satisfied.

What's the net effect of all this? When immense

darkness strikes us, we need to turn to the cross.

We need to see the Lord Jesus. Leave your troubles

for a while and turn to His. Consider His trouble.

He knows and empathises with everything that

you're going through because He's gone through

that and worse. He gives us a new outlook. I

thought what I was going through is bad. Look

at what Jesus went through for you. How much

He must love you. And best of all, look at the

hope. The darkness will lift. It lifted for Jesus.

God is good. He is a vindicator of his people.

He will rescue them when the time is right. There

is a glory to come. Christian, when the darkness

is suffocating you, there's many things you can

do. places you can turn, many that you need to,

that are good for you. But also, actually most

of all, can I encourage you to pick up your Bible

and read again the Easter story? Or in your mind's

eye, remember the journey that Jesus went on.

If you have a brother or sister in Christ struggling

in the darkness, sensitively point them to what

Jesus went through like Newton did. Go to Christ's

sufferings. See the promise of the resurrection

to come. Let those things minister to your heart.

But that's not all we must see at the cross.

When the darkness won't lift, we don't just need

to see that Jesus suffers horribly and yet is

God's King. We also must see that Jesus saves

others by not saving himself. Jesus saves others

and that includes us who believe in him by not

saving himself. Have a look with me at verses

33 to 34. They came to a place called Golgotha

which means the place of the skull. There they

offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall but

after tasting it he refused to drink it. Now

the reference about gall here is I think a reference

back to Psalm 69 and another Psalm like Psalm

22 that has this righteous sufferer going on

a journey through to vindication. But why did

Jesus refuse this drink? It's wine, and we see

in Mark's Gospel it's actually got myrrh mixed

with it, a mild narcotic to dull the pain. Why

does Jesus refuse this drink? It's because he

would not anesthetise himself as he died on the

cross. That awful pain we talked about earlier,

he chose to experience all of it. Nor would he

save himself. Look at verses 41 and 42. In the

same way, the chief priests, the teachers of

the law and the elders mocked him. He saved others,

they said. But he can't save himself. He's the

king of Israel. Let him come down now from the

cross and we will believe in him. During his

earthly ministry, Jesus did save people from

life's darkness, didn't he? He healed the sick.

The wind and the waves obeyed him in the most

horrible of storms and he saved his disciples

from that. Actually demons were scared of Jesus

and they obeyed him when he told them to leave

people. Jesus even raised the dead back to life.

He had divine supernatural power. When people

came to arrest him, he could have saved himself.

As he hung there on the cross, he could have

saved himself. Why didn't he? Why wouldn't he?

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter strikes the

ear of the servant of the high priest. Not the

most militaristically impressive of feats, is

it? But Jesus says to him this, put your sword

back into its place for all who take the sword

will perish by the sword. Do you think that I

cannot appeal to my father and he will at once

send me more than 12 legions of angels? But how

then should the scriptures be fulfilled that

it must be so? Again, Jesus sees there's a plan,

a plan that the Old Testament scriptures spoke

of clearly, but in a way that was subtle and

hidden. The plan was that David's son, the Messiah,

was also the suffering servant, the one that

God promised in Isaiah who would save his people,

that he would save his people by sacrificing

himself. Here's what it says of the suffering

servant in Isaiah. But he was pierced for our

transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed. We all like

sheep have gone astray. Each of us turn to our

own way. If you've ever seen sheep, they're crazy,

aren't they? They just go here, there, and everywhere.

It's saying that's what we're like. When it comes

to God, we've sinned and sinned and sinned in

so many ways, transgressions, iniquities. We're

at war with God. And what has Jesus done? He's

healed us. He's brought peace. He's taken the

punishment for us. And the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us. All the sin that was meant

to be ours, that is ours, went on to Jesus. The

righteous anger of God for our sin then got poured

out onto Jesus. It reminds me of a soldier named

Private McGuinness. During the 2006 Iraq War,

Private McGuinness was stationed in Baghdad.

McGuinness was travelling with his unit in a

Humvee. And as they were travelling, enemy forces

threw a grenade into the Humvee. Rather than

jump out and save himself, McGuinness chose to

jump on the grenade. He saved his entire unit.

He shielded them all by absorbing the full blast

of the grenade. That's what Jesus did at the

cross. He jumped on the grenade of God's righteous

and holy anger for our sins. He chose not to

save himself in order to save us. He absorbed

the full blast of God's righteous, holy anger

to shield us. Christian, when you're experiencing

life's awful darkness, and I know it can be so

painful and ugly and horrible, but even then,

there's still things you've got to remember.

Remember there was an eternal darkness awaiting

you for the wrong things, for the sins, for the

evil that you've done in your life. And you were

so loved by Jesus that He saved you from that

by experiencing literal hell on the cross. In

the darkness, look to the cross. See again how

loved you are. See what you've been saved from.

See what you've been saved for. That the darkness

will lift, that there's an eternal paradise coming.

Let that comfort you when it feels like it's

darkness all around. When tears are pouring down

your face, feel the sadness. Feel it. It's right

to feel it. Don't hide from it. Don't avoid it.

Don't suppress it. Feel it. But then cast your

mind to the cross and remember, the wonderful

truths of what the Lord Jesus has done for you.

Well, let's draw some threads together. We started

by asking, where will you turn when life is darkness?

And we looked at the darkest moment in all human

history, where the author of life, God's loving,

righteous King, was murdered crucified. We saw

that Jesus suffers, yet is the glorious King.

We saw that Jesus saves others by not saving

himself. And the big takeaway from all this is

when life is at its darkest, the cross gives

us hope. In those moments, turn to the cross.

Now, what's this mean practically for us? If

you're new to Christian things, I want to ask

you, where will you turn in the darkness? Some

things may be good for you, some may take you

into deeper darkness, but do you have anything

as good as the Lord Jesus? Do you have anything

as good as the cross? I think for many of us

when we're new to Christian things, we're like

this guy. Did you see the centurion? He was there

at the foot of the cross. And he sees all that's

happened. And he says, surely he was the son

of God. Check these things out. Check out who

Jesus is. dig into the Bible and see if this

really is God's King. See if he really can offer

the comfort, the hope, the peace, the joy that

we've spoken about today. Consider if there's

more to Jesus than what meets the eye. If you

think this is worth checking out, we've got copies

of Mark's Gospel up the back. They're free. Feel

free to take one and read through it. See if

Jesus is the Son of God. And feel free to come

chat with me after church. If you've got questions,

I'd love to talk to you about those. But if you're

a Christian, and especially if you're in anguish

this Easter, I hope you've been reminded to turn

to the cross again. I hope you'll let Jesus'

sufferings comfort and heal you. If you've got

a fellow brother or sister who's struggling,

I hope you'll sensitively point them to the hope

and the love that Christ gives. The cross is

such sweet comfort when we sit at its feet deeply,

thoughtfully, reflectively. And I hope you can

and will this Easter. And even if right now you're

not in darkness, you'd know that there are times

where the darkness may come. I hope you prepare

yourself for that. But also, there is immense

joy to be had here. Whatever you're going through

right now, whether life is good or bad, to see

the riches of what Jesus has done for us is a

sweet blessing. Remember the cross, turn to the

cross. As a pastor, you often need to be there

for people in their darkest moments. Those stories

I mentioned at the start, many of those folk

who went through these horrible things, found

comfort, peace, joy and hope at the cross. I

remember one of them, the guy who lost his wife.

Dear friend of mine, such a great guy. It was

a struggle. It was so painful to lose someone

that he'd loved for so long. But he found such

great comfort. in turning to the cross, in going

back to Jesus and seeing again the hope that

is found in him. I've seen the cross impact people

time and time and time again. Where will you

turn when the darkness sets in? I hope it will

be the cross. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father,

we want to thank you for what the Lord Jesus

has done for us. Thank you that he jumped on

the grenade of your holy and righteous anger.

The anger that should have gone on to us for

our sin. Thank you that Jesus absorbed that anger,

absorbed that punishment. so that we'd be spared

of an eternity in hell. And thank you that through

His death, we can experience eternity in paradise.

When the darkness hits, Father, please help us

to see how much we have in Jesus. Be with us,

Father, we pray. Amen.