Good Friday 2018: The Darkness of the Cross - Holy Week

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Jesus, I believe, in history hours is in complete agony.

Finally, in the midst of his desperation, the father, mysteriously turning his face from his son, is now taking upon himself.

All the sins of the world says that Eli Eli Lama Sabakani.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

In the death of Christ, God laid on him the sins of the people.

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We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Welcome everyone to The Road at Chapel Hills.

It's great to have you here.

And would you turn in your Bibles to Matthew 27?

If you have a Bible and it's going to be a little, maybe a little hard to see, but I'll read it.

I took Matthew 27.

The synoptic gospels, which would be Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are very, very similar.

Slightly different perspective from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And I've chosen Matthew here today.

Matthew 27, starting at verse 32.

Now, as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross.

Now, I'm not going to talk, of course, about this, but I think it's just interesting to note that Simon was a black man.

And nobody touched the cross outside of Jesus, but this black man.

This African man was in the city at that time.

Obviously, looked like he could handle the cross.

Jesus is so beaten and so broken through the lashings.

And the fact that he probably has not slept since the Last Supper.

He went into Gethsemane.

Now we know in Gethsemane his disciples did a little bit of sleeping, but he didn't.

And then they grabbed him there and they brought him to the officials.

So he hasn't slept in close to 24 hours.

And they need to pull this man in to bear the cross.

And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, the place of a skull, and you can visit that in Israel, and you can see the side of the hill.

It looks like a skull, and many scholars believe that's where the crucifixion took place.

They gave him sour wine mingled with gall to drink, and when he had tasted it, he would not drink.

Then they crucified him and divided his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet.

They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

Sitting down, they kept watch over him there, and they put up over his head the accusation written against him.

This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and another on the left, and those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, Who are you who destroy the temple and build it in three days?

Save yourself if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.

Likewise the chief priests also mocking him, the scribes and elders said, He saved others, himself he cannot save.

If he is the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him.

He trusted in God, let him deliver him.

Now, if he if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God.

Even the robbers who were crucified with him reviled him in the same thing.

Now, verse 45.

This is our key verse today.

Now from the sixth hour, that would be noon, until the ninth hour, and that would be 3 p.m., there was darkness over all the land.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli Eli Lama Sabbatani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, This man is calling for Elijah.

Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink.

The rest said, Let him alone.

Let us see if Elijah will come to save him.

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and he yielded up his spirit.

Arguably the greatest event in the history of the world, the most definitely the greatest event in humankind, is the cross at Calvary.

Even those agnostic and atheistic historians have to acknowledge that this is the event that has defined human history since ancient times up to the present.

Even with attempts to change our dating system, still most of us are aware that something happened over 2,000 years ago that altered human history.

No movement has ever come close, no army, no great kingdom, no leader has ever surpassed that of what happened after Calvary.

Arguably, it could be said that without Calvary, satanic and demonic powers would rule over the globe.

Because we know before Calvary that Satan was cast to the earth.

We can know for sure that the love of God that is flowing through Africa right now, flowing through South America right now, flowing through Russia right now, flowing through Malaysia and India, flowing out through Southeast Asia, throughout China in an unprecedented way, throughout Europe and even in this country, is because of what happened on Good Friday.

We would have no resurrection if we had not had a crucifixion.

The cross was Jesus' crowning act of obedience and love.

And this obedience and love the Father profoundly approved of and enjoyed.

Therefore, Paul says this amazing thing in Ephesians 5, 2.

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

Now listen, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.

The death of Jesus church was a fragrant aroma to God.

Well, there's so much here, but I want to camp on verse 45.

There, from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land.

So three hours of darkness, imagine that.

And we still don't know exactly what happened historically or cosmologically, but some historians in the past have thought there was an eclipse, but it was a full moon.

So that's impossible.

So we don't know what happened.

But there are records that it did happen.

And for three hours, darkness pervade either the whole earth or geographically in this particular area, but something happened between noon and three.

Now, Jesus continually predicted all through his three years of public ministry, many, many times, that there was an hour coming.

There was an hour for him to be glorified.

At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, referred to this hour.

If you recall that there were a couple situations where he had become so popular that they wanted to take him by force and make him king, and then he escaped because it was not his hour.

On another occasion, because of what he had preached, they picked up stones to stone him, and then he slipped through because it was not his hour.

On a number of occasions, where his disciples came to him and said, this is it.

This is the opportunity, Jesus, and they wanted to take him to Jerusalem using the movement of the masses of people who had seen the miracles up and down Israel, the north, the south, and the east and the west, all the healings, and then crowning it with the resurrection of Lazarus just before the Passover, Jesus again continually says, It's not my hour.

And but then at Gethsemane, so between the Lord's Supper that we just took, which was on Thursday, and our text now at Calvary, Jesus goes to Gethsemane, the soldiers come to grab him, and he says an interesting thing.

He says at Gethsemane, this is your hour and the power of darkness.

This is your hour and the power of darkness.

Now, weeks before, in a dialogue with Jesus, he makes an interesting statement.

He says, We must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.

The night cometh when no man can work.

And at Gethsemane he says, This is your hour and the power of darkness.

So what happened?

What happened in these three hours?

What happened between noon and 3 p.m.?

I want to give you three thoughts.

And here's the first.

First, it was a literal material darkness that came over the earth.

Now, whether it was geographically just in that area of Palestine or whether it was worldwide, there's room for debate.

But darkness came over the earth.

And it was symbolic of something, but it was also, men and women, literal.

It's interesting, and let's just go through Matthew, particular passages that speak of the darkness and the power of Satan and demonic powers in the darkness.

It says in Matthew 4.16, the people which sat in darkness have seen a great light.

Matthew 6.23.

Matthew 8.12.

The sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness.

Matthew 25.30, in speaking of the unprofitable servant, he says, cast him out, this unprofitable servant, into the outer darkness.

So throughout the New Testament, darkness and death are twin sisters.

And so the darkness is always seen as satanic.

Secondly, and most importantly, it is the hour of evil.

It is a time where the powers of darkness rule.

Men and women, there'll be no other time in history ever again where the powers of darkness rule like they did on Good Friday.

Why?

What is going on?

Well, I think in John chapter 1, in the prologue, the great prologue, one of the greatest passages of scripture in all of human literature, we get a glimpse.

John 1 · chapter mention

John writes, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.

In him was life, and the life, listen now, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Now that's the New King James Version, did not comprehend it.

Now what's interesting, this declaration that the darkness did not comprehend it has nothing to do with knowledge.

Poor choice of words.

The Greek word here means either to seize, to overcome, or to extinguish.

So we could read this again.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not extinguish it.

And the darkness did not overcome it.

It did not seize it.

Satan was given three hours.

Three hours to extinguish the light.

He will never have three hours to extinguish the light ever again.

This was his opportunity.

This was Satan's greatest moment.

And all of the sin and all of the cursings that you and I deserve because of our rebellion against God was laid upon Jesus from noon till three.

Look at the next verse, verse 46.

Jesus, I believe, in this three hours is in complete agony.

And finally, in the midst of his desperation, the father mysteriously turning his face from his son, who's now taking upon himself all the sins of the world, says this, Eli Eli Lama, Sabaktani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

In the death of Christ, God laid on him the sins of the people.

Isaiah 53, 6, which he hated.

He loved the Son, but he hated our sin, and he laid it all upon Christ.

And in hatred for that sin, God turned away from his sin-laden son and gave him up to suffer the full force of death and cursing.

The Father's wrath was poured out on him instead of us, so that his wrath toward us was propitiated.

That means it was removed from us.

That's why you've heard me say so many times, you can never be good enough for God, but you can certainly be bad enough.

And so when we come to Him, Jesus took all of yours and mine sin, laid it upon Christ that we might be set free.

Well, thirdly, what happened at the cross?

Well, Jesus has wrestled with the darkness for three hours.

And Colossians 2 gives us in this cryptic passage an insight into what spiritually happened on Good Friday.

And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he is made alive together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that were against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having what?

Nailed it to the cross.

So this happened before the resurrection.

This is in this three-hour span.

It's nailed to the cross, but here's what it says next.

Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

So here's the mystery: that as Jesus gives up his spirit, by the way, his spirit was not taken from him, he gave up his spirit, it became a public spectacle to Satan and demons and demonic powers and principalities, that all the sins of the world were cast upon him and everything, everything you've done wrong, everything you will do wrong has been nailed at the cross.

So thirdly, Jesus triumphed over evil during those three hours.

The darkness could not extinguish it.

Jesus gave it up.

And so the chief priest joined in the hellish taunt.

He has saved others, but he cannot save himself.

And they laughed at him.

But here's the truth, church.

Don't miss this.

In order to save others, he will not save himself.

So they said he saved others, but he cannot save himself.

In order to save others, he will not save himself.

And then the rabble said, let him come down from the cross.

Don't miss this.

He did not come down from the cross, he went up from the cross.

Why did he not save himself?

Because God is love.

And true love is never satisfied with the destruction of a sinner, but with the saving of the sinner.

Love is not about annihilation, but restoration.

Jesus did not save himself in those three hours.

He died a death, we could not die, that we might have a life we could not live except through his power.

The life that Jesus lived qualified him for the death that he died, and the death that he died qualified us for the life we can now live.

There's an ancient verse in the Old Testament that's often overlooked.

It's when Cyrus was king.

Here's what it says I will give you the treasures of darkness.

I will give you the treasures of darkness.

Isaiah forty five three.

That day at Calvary, the mystery of God forsaking his son, that we might become sons of God.

Born not of blood nor of man nor of the will of the flesh, but now born of God, He gave us the treasures of darkness.

From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, there was darkness over the land, and from the darkness have come the treasures of pardon, peace, power, and purity.

Men and women, you've been given the treasures of darkness on Good Friday.

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We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

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Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.