Matthew chapter 27. So we are in a sermon series called Noon to Three. Noon to Three, it was that three hours of darkness that happened around the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Noon to Three. So we're looking at 10 verses. I would challenge someone to find me 10 more powerful verses than these that we are reading and studying right now. So, noon to three, 10 powerful verses. Last week, we looked at two statements that Jesus made while he was on the cross, right before his death. Two statements. He said, first of all, my God, my God, why have I forsaken? Why have you forsaken me? He's on the cross for the first time in his life. God was not there at a point in his death. And he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And we also looked at another statement last week. And it's this, you remember he cried out with a loud voice, it is finished. He says, the Luke in the Matthew account says he gave up his spirit. Okay, I want you to know, he said, I'm voluntarily dying for you. He wasn't forced to. His body could have held on, but he knew it was time. How did he know it was time? Well, it was the time that was, get this now, from eternity past, from before the foundation of the earth, a time had been given in which he was gonna die to pay our sin penalty. It also happened to fall in conjunction with a Passover at that particular time. So he died as the Lamb of God, as the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in Jerusalem. Wow. Who figured all of that out? None other than a sovereign God figured all that out. So that's kind of where we're at in the scripture. I'll read it again to you, starting in verse 45, Matthew 27, 45. That is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You remember he said in Matthew 3, 17, this is my beloved son whom I love with him, I am well pleased. And then in a time of need of that beloved son, the father wasn't there. And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. Verse 49, but others said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And then the second powerful statement, and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. He died voluntarily for you and I to pay our sin penalty. Verse 51, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, truly, this is the Son of God. Roman soldiers who knew nothing about Christianity, it was revealed to them, this person being crucified was somebody special. He was the Son of God. So all the gospel accounts report the death of Jesus Christ. But only Matthew records all the miracles that took place during this time. So you remember when he was born, there were some miracles that surrounded his birth. Remember that? We're gonna look at them in particular. But you know, so as we think about there was miracles at his birth, it shouldn't surprise us that there's miracles at his death. because it was just as significant as his birth. So never in my reading, how many times have we read the book of Matthew? Never in all of those times have I seen the miracles as such as they really are in the scripture and the importance of them. So I've been challenged to take a closer look at the miracles because I think they're important. And I think there's much learning and much doctrine that we can get from them. The birth miracles and our discussing them is common. What do we talk about? Virgin birth, visitation of the angels, the star that guided the wise men to where he was. Those occurred at his birth, but how about at his death? Why don't we talk about those that much? Well, I tell you, I think there's a reason. So on Friday, what happened? He died and got buried, right? What happened on Sunday morning? He's resurrected. So we get to his burial and we kind of move immediately to the resurrection. It's understandable because that really is good news, is it not? So that's probably what was going on. But I want you to understand that Matthew, Mark, and Luke do record these miraculous events that took place during the crucifixion. It just happens to be for us, since we're in Matthew, Matthew is where we're at, and he's also the most detailed about the things that happened. So here's the way that they're seen. And I am so thankful. Matter of fact, I was just reading a little bit in preparation for the epistle study. And so I have a new little paperback commentary. And so this morning I was just reading the preface in that as we began the study of the epistle of James. Okay, that's where we're going. And so you know what the Epistle of James is all about. Anybody want to sum it up? Be ye not just hearers of the word, be ye also doers. So that's kind of the gist. And so I was looking at my new commentary. Well, guess when this guy lived? 1620 to 1677. His name is Thomas Manton. Do you realize he would be a contemporary of John Bunyan? And so, all of these different people, Spurgeon, J.C. Rowland, all those, just talking about the mind of this man. I am so thankful. Listen, you don't know how privileged you are if you want to read and study about the things of God. Because we've got so much. We've got this in any translation you want it in. And then we've got all of these people from the past that godly people have made available to us. If we are ignorant, it's by doing nothing. Amen? It's a choice. That's a good word, Tammy. Thank you. So here are the seven miracles. You got them in your notes? I think you do. Darkness from noon to three. We're going to look at that one this morning. Separation of the divine. How could God the Father and God the Son being one, all of a sudden being separated? We'll look at that this morning. The voluntary and self-giving death. The veil torn in two. Huge. You've probably heard sermons on the veil being torn in two. We'll look at that also. The earthquakes, the rolling of the way of the stones. And Donna, I thought about this one. When I think about Donna, I come to Ephesians chapter one, verse six, chapter two, verse six. I always think about Donna. The overcoming of death. And you remember that scripture? Somebody could tell me where it's at. It's not coming to my mind right now. He led captive in his train. You remember that? He led captives in his train. Well, we get to see a touch of that. He was resurrected. He was resurrected. The graves burst open and what happened? People that were dead were risen and followed him in resurrection. What a promise. And then it's really probably the biggest miracle of all seven is a Roman soldier that knew nothing about Jesus until he got there that day, got saved. Let me tell you, Brother Bob thinks the greatest miracle that still exists today, there is one miracle that continues today. You know what that is? He takes a lost dead man that has no interest in the God and makes him alive in Christ Jesus. And I pray we've all experienced that. So today, supernatural darkness and divine separation. So we're back in the exposition of the text. We're back in verse 45. I'm just gonna touch on 45 through 50 because we looked at it last week. So from the sixth hour, noon, there was darkness over the entire land until the ninth hour. Okay, that's in the Middle East. It's in April. There's a full moon. There's no way you could have darkness, complete darkness in the middle of the day. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lema sabbathothoni, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, wait, let's see if whether Elijah will come to save him. Just more mocking, more making fun of this man. So we have this statement, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then we get down quickly to the second statement and he yielded up his spirit. Do you understand that Jesus Christ willingly died to pay our sin penalty? He wasn't forced to do it. Then we get in verse 51, which we haven't looked closely at yet. Now, I want you to get these, do you know how far, how tall it is to maybe that tallest point in this building? Maybe 25 feet. The curtain in the temple was 60 feet tall, 30 feet wide. This massive curtain, six inches thick. Listen, we're gonna get to look at this. I wanna preach it now, but we're gonna have to wait. We're gonna get to look at this. The priest is in the temple one time a year. And when he is in the temple, the curtain splits in two. He's thinking something is going on here. Was he right? Absolutely. So no one was allowed in there. I've been thinking about this. Who went in there and dusted that place? I mean, the priest couldn't go in there without blood. And I'm thinking to myself, you only go in there once a year, it must be dusty by this time. I don't understand all of that, but I've been thinking about it. Torn in two, the temple is torn in two. In other words, now there is no separation between God and God's people. The separation has been taken down by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the earth shook. Palestine, and I am so thankful for maps. I'm so thankful for answers in Genesis. I need to call Darwin. Matter of fact, I'll see him next Monday. I need to thank him for bringing us answers in Genesis and maps. Man, I'm telling you, your Bibles have maps in the back of it for a reason. It gets you to where it was happening. I'm so thankful for that. So, Palestine sits on a place that there's lots of earthquakes. So an earthquake wasn't uncommon, but an earthquake that caused all that happened to happen was pretty uncommon. The tombs also were open and many bodies of the saints That's a good word, right? Who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the tomb after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. We're gonna look at that in detail. So the splitting of the rocks and the opening of the tomb is a major testimony to the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection. Let me just tell you, saints who had died, who had fallen asleep, were brought back to life. And listen, they're still alive today. In other words, I don't think they went back in the tomb. I think when Jesus ascended, they went with him. So just keep in mind, at this time, we're looking at all Old Testament people, basically. So what does that tell you about Old Testament people? They were looking to the sacrifice to come. They were looking ahead to the cross. Praise God, hindsight is great, right? We can look back. They had to look to something that hadn't even happened yet. So I want you to know the Old Testament people's salvation and resurrected depended upon his death and resurrection. So just as the future resurrection of Jesus' disciples today depends on Christ's death and subsequent resurrection, the coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city. The wording suggests that these people were not brought back to life like Lazarus. Lazarus was brought back to life. What happened to Lazarus later on? He died again. These were raised with new resurrection bodies. And we'll look at that closer when we look at that miracle. So when the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake, and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, truly, this was the Son of God. The centurion and his guards were accustomed to seeing crucifixions." Can you imagine these Roman soldiers? Were there 6,000 Roman soldiers in and around Jerusalem? I kind of lost the number, but there were 600 that came to arrest Jesus. This was a group that probably had special duties around the temple area at that time, and they're guarding Jesus. They were just Roman soldiers. They weren't Jews. They knew nothing about the prophecy of Jesus, the coming of Jesus. They knew nothing about that. These supernatural events coupled with the, listen, not only were weird things happening, miracles happening with the world, but they watched a guy die that they had never watched any other die like him before. It was different. His self-control, his purity, and the love shown by Jesus in his death, made the centurion realize that this was the son of God. So today, as we've looked at these 10 verses and these two statements, today we begin to look at these particular miracles. Supernatural darkness and divine separation. So here's the supernatural darkness. When Jesus was born, the night sky around Bethlehem was filled with supernatural life. You've got the verses there in front of you if you're falling alone. Luke 2.9 says, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear. What event were we talking about? We're talking about his birth, okay? These miracles that were happening. But the first miracle that accompanied the death of Jesus was not glorious light, but dreaded darkness. Why the darkness? You know, my worldly thinking wants to think we couldn't have, the normal person couldn't have stood to witness what was going on. Kind of to hide what was going on from us having to see it. That was my first thought. That's not probably what was actually happened. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour, three o'clock, noon to three, Middle East, April. That's not common, that's not normal. We had darkness and broad daylight. I mean, the way I understand it, the historians say they had to go get torches just to carry on the business around the cross. It was that dark. So for the sky to grow dark is really no miracle. We had quite an eclipse, April the 8th, about the time that happened. That was pretty, I'm telling you, I didn't think many people were gonna show up and not many people showed up in Howard County, That eclipse was way more phenomenal to me than I thought it would be. You know who made that happen? You know how many times it happened before? You know how long that had been planned? I know, since before the foundation of the earth, that eclipse and that day was planned. I mean, to think that there's no creator, to think that there's no genius, genesis behind all of this is absolutely insane. It really is. It happened in Pompeii in AD 79 when Vesuvius erupted, a volcano. It got dark. probably all the ashes and things that were going on. An eclipse can cause darkness, but there's no volcanoes in Israel. It seldom rains in Israel and it was not an eclipse. An eclipse lasts only for a few minutes. This darkness lasted for three hours. but it took place during the Passover, which means that it was a full moon and eclipse don't happen with full moons. So lots was going on. So let me tell you what this was. This darkness, are y'all ready for this? You're gonna be surprised at what I'm gonna say here, okay? I want you to get this now. This eclipse was absolute divine intervention. It was a genuine miracle. Yeah. The sky grew dark in the middle of the day. It happened at 12 noon and it lasted to 3 p.m. Tertullian, a ancient historian, said, it was striking, sober, and well-observed. It was phenomenal. He was impressed that it was recorded in their records. In other words, this was recorded not only biblically, but historically it was recorded. So with this in mind, all of the evangelists are restrained in the reporting. You know, Matthew in all his detail, he doesn't go into, he just says it happened. I mean, he didn't try to explain it. He could have, but he didn't. He just does what? They just report the facts. It happened. But I want you to know the darkness and the silence are telling. So these hours represent a gap kind in the narrative. Quite a bit had gone on, much had been said, but now nothing was said at all. So what happened during these three hours? I'm thinking this, it was the amount of time that the wrath of God that we deserved, it took that amount of time for the wrath of God to be poured out. Listen, what we can't forget from this scripture is this, the awfulness of our sins Cause to happen what happened to Jesus. Nothing else. The awfulness of our sins. Darkening of the sun, listen carefully. Darkening of the sun is always an indication of divine judgment. All right, I wanna read some scripture to you. You can circle them in your program if you wanna go back and look at them. Isaiah 13, 10 and 11, listen. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light. This is prophecy. The sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil. and the wicked for their iniquity. I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant." Do you hear what God's saying? I'm about to judge the world. Amos 5 20 says, is not the day of the Lord darkness? When the Lord comes again, it's gonna be a day of darkness and not light and gloom and gloom with no brightness in it. Zephaniah 1, 14 and 15 says, the great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast. The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter. The mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and angst, a day of ruined devastation. Listen to this, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. What's all the darkness about? The judgment of mankind was laid upon Christ. In these passages and others, judgment is directly associated with darkness. The cross was a place of enormous judgment. Listen carefully. Where the punishment of our sins was vicariously placed on Jesus. Our sins were placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He took our place. Judgment is always the active, listen carefully, and I kind of prayed about this this morning. Listen carefully. This troubles me. Judgment is always the activity of God when there is no repentance. Read your Bible. Individuals, nations, churches, when under conviction, known in willful sin, and they do not repent, tell me what they can look for. Judgment. So, darkness. Number two, divine separation. This is a tough one. It's a tough one for me to swallow. God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, one. Three persons, one Trinity. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lema sabbatchathoni. That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. John MacArthur says there was a second miracle that happened about the ninth hour. In some way, Christ was separated from God. That had never happened until this moment. It took something significant to make it happen, to cause it to happen. This Eli, Eli, lemus sabbatu thani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Christ was protesting not being in the presence of the Father anymore. For a moment in time. Somehow the divine son of God was separated from his father. How about some Psalms? How about some law and some prophecy, okay? How about Psalm 22? Look at verse one and two. You've got it right there in your program. You hear these words before? 1500s. 1,500 BC, okay? 1,500 years before the death of Christ, listen to this. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I find no rest. In this strange miracle, Jesus was crying out in anguish. For the first time, listen carefully, for the first time and the only time in eternity, past, present, and future, Jesus was ever separated from the Father. It's the only recorded time that Jesus, listen to it, every other time that Jesus addresses God the Father, He calls Him Father. This is the only time that He didn't call Him Father. Why? Listen carefully. Are you listening carefully? You ought to be able to explain this to your children. Let me tell you exactly what was happening. At that time, The Son had taken up on Himself our sins, and so God could not look upon Him. There's no other explanation. In some way, and by some means, the God-man was separated from God. For a brief time at Calvary, the fury and the wrath of God was poured out upon his sinless son. You know, the wrath of God will be satisfied. It was bad enough for Jesus to satisfy it for a few hours. Can you imagine having to satisfy the wrath of God, listen carefully, for an eternity? And if our wrath of God is not been satisfied that we deserved, that was due to us, if it was not satisfied by Him, we will have to suffer the wrath of God for, I'm telling you, we're not playing. We're talking about an eternal soul that's going to spend an eternity in one of two places. Bring me your Bible and show me that's not so. By, listen, Listen to this word, by the grace of God, by the pure grace of God, he became sin for us. God literally turned his back when Jesus was on the cross because God cannot look upon sin, even perhaps and especially in his own son. Do you understand in a fatherly way how abhorrent it must have been to see his son take sin upon himself? Because Jesus died as a substitute sacrifice for the sins of the saved, the righteous heavenly father had to judge him fully according to those sins. Let me tell you about our sins again. They weren't little. They weren't insignificant. They were awful. So the father forsook the son because the son took our sins upon himself. You remember the atonement? You remember the scapegoat that they brought out? You remember the priest laid his hands on the head of the goat and transferred symbolically the sins of the people to the goat? They were all watching and they led the goat out of the camp, taking their sins away. And you remember if the sins of the people didn't get transferred to the goat, they were still on the people. Same with us. Either our sins have been transferred to Christ and Him on the cross, and we're forgiven, or the wrath of God remains on us. 1 Corinthians 15, 3, for I deliver to you, for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received. Y'all want it from me or you want it from the scripture? that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for our sake, for our sake, he made him, God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. I'm guaranteed that's the best deal you've ever had. He took your sins and he gave you Jesus's righteousness. Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Jesus actually became sin. The chief reason that he came was to give himself as a ransom for many. I love it, Matthew 20, 28. And we're gonna look at that really closely as we get into James, but this is the truth of the matter. Even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So Jesus came as a servant. So all of us have come to be what? Yeah. Of who? And of? Yeah, God and Christ. Tell me another one. Others. Yeah. So listen, this separation was not one of nature, essence, or substance. Christ did not cease to be God. He was still a part of the Trinity. He did not cease to be the Son. Now listen, here's what happened. Just like an earthly child that sins, do you have a child? They sin, right? And when they sin, they are still our child, but they're sinners. Okay, so get this. Just like an earthly child that sins, he's still a child, yet out of fellowship with us. Same way with Jesus on the cross. He was still the Son of God, but he was out of fellowship, not for his sins, but for my sins. It wasn't His fault. Now our sins are our fault. Our kids' sin are their fault. Jesus is having our sins laid upon Him. You know what He was doing? He was just absolutely being fully obedient to do what the Father sent Him here to do. And you know what? He cried out with a loud voice and said, what? It is nothing more to do. So for a moment, Jesus no longer had close fellowship with the Father. Maybe only for a blink of the eye, I don't know. As the fierce wrath of God was poured out on his only perfect and obedient son. As he who knew no sin became sin for us. So two miracles. It got dark and Christ was separated from God the Father. Now, let me ask you this. What have you done with Jesus? I'm telling you, if you haven't taken appropriate action regarding Jesus, you are still in your sins. Now, why does that matter? It matters because we have all what? We've all fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is what? But while we were yet sinners, what did Christ do for us? You know what Romans 10, 9 through 13 says? Something like this. But if you confess with your mouth, what did the centurion do? What did one of the thieves do? But if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he died and that God raised him from the dead, you will be what? Saved. For it is with a mouth you confess and are saved and with your heart you believe. You become a follower of God. You've got to do this. You've got to acknowledge yourself as a... It's something you got to do. And you've got to acknowledge Jesus Christ that He is the Savior, the Lord. And you've got to some way be able to explain to Him that you know, believe, and trust in His death for your forgiveness. You become a follower of Jesus. So let me ask you, what have you done with this sacrifice? What have you done with Jesus? And then you have for some discussion questions at home. And I've been so encouraged this week to hear people talk about them and the reading of the scripture. And I pray that you'd go home and talk to your family about these as well. Dear Lord, the people have been so patient. I pray that you've been gracious by your spirit to do with this message, what you see fit to do for your honor and glory. Lord, we love you. We praise you. And it's in Jesus' name that we do. Amen.