Please take your Bibles and open them to Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 23. Lord willing, someday we will finish with that chapter. Luke 23. If you would please stand, I'll begin reading in verse 44. And I'll read through verse 49. Now it was about the sixth hour and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 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 my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man. And the whole crowd who came together to that site, seeing what had been done, beat their breast and returned. But all his acquaintances and the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. You may be seated. Commentators often point out that in relationship to the verses that I read in your hearing this morning, we find three miracles. We focused our attention last week on the first miracle, and that is the darkness that began at noon and lasted until three in the afternoon. The explanations that the unbelieving and the ungodly would give as to why there was three hours of darkness simply do not suffice. We find that the darkness was a supernatural darkness caused by God himself and very symbolic in its meaning. It meant that God was present. It meant that God was present in justice. It meant that God was present in his holy wrath as his son became sin for us. When Jesus experienced that darkness, you might remember that he cried out to God, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The holy God could not look upon his Son with favor as his Son was bearing our sins, but had to turn his gaze away from the Son. The fellowship that the Son enjoys with the Father at that moment had been broken. You remember that in Scripture we find that sin is what separates us from God, is what causes God to turn His face away from us and not to look upon us in His favor. And so that was taking place on the cross. of Calvary. There is a second miracle that takes place and that is the miracle of the veil being rent in two. There's great symbolical meaning in the ripping apart of the veil and that's what I want us to focus our attention on this afternoon. The third miracle is the conversion of the centurion. Much like the penitent thief on the cross, the centurion seems to come to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we'll look at that next week. Luke tells us that after the period of darkness, that the veil of the temple was torn in two. This second miracle did not take place at Calvary where Jesus was crucified, but instead took place in the temple, like the curtain of darkness that covered the cross The tearing of the veil was a literal miracle with a symbolical meaning. Although Luke gives it little more than a brief mention, this miracle has monumental significance for the eternal destiny of the people of God because it showed that the way was now open to the presence of God. We know from the biblical record that the temple had two veils or curtains, an outer veil and an inner veil. The outer veil separated the temple from the courtyard of the temple. This veil would have been visible to everyone facing the temple, but only the priests were allowed to go behind that veil and into the holy place. The holy place, you remember, contained the table of showbread, the large seven-branched lampstand, and the altar of incense. The function of the inner veil was to separate the holy place from the most holy place, also known as the Holy of Holies. And the Most Holy Place was strictly off limits. The room behind the inner veil was the most sacred space in the world, the place where God had chosen to manifest His Holy Presence. And inside the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant. There the lid called the mercy seat was sprinkled with the sacrificial blood of the covenant to make atonement for the sins of God's people. And the only person who was ever allowed to go through that veil was the high priest. And the high priest was only allowed to go into the Most Holy Place one time a year. And he could not enter that holy place without blood. And when he entered into that holy place with blood, he sprinkled that blood in the holy place, particularly on the lid of the mercy seat to make atonement for the sins of God's covenant-breaking people. And so on the day of atonement, the high priest went behind the veil. And it was a great honor for the high priest to do that. But he did not do that without fear and trembling. In fact, ancient rabbis tell us that before going into the holy place, the high priest had bells sewn on to his robe. And he had a rope tied around his ankle. Why? Well, because as long as they heard the bells tickling, they knew that the priest was alive. But if they stopped, what did they know? They knew that he'd been struck dead. and they would pull him out by that rope tied around his ankle. Why? Because they didn't want to go into the holy place. They weren't allowed to go into the holy place. If they entered the holy place themselves, even to retrieve the body of the high priest, they would suffer the same fate. And so the thick, beautiful curtain that separated the holy of holies from the holy place was a form of protection. It formed a barrier between a holy God and his sinful people, and it blocked access. It said, in essence, this far, but no farther. It said, in effect, stay out, do not enter. According to Exodus 26 verse 31, that inner veil was made with cherubim. And that's important for us to know, that these cherubim, were sewn or embroidered upon the inner veil of the tabernacle and later the temple. We first meet these types of angels in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 24 we read, so he drove the man out. and at the east of the Garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life. In other words, when Adam and Eve sinned, they were expelled from the garden. And God stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword at the entrance to the garden to prevent them from coming back in. God was saying to our first parents, stay out! You no longer have access to the garden. And so the very presence of the veil itself and these cherubim that were sewn into that veil were there to remind God's people that access to God was extremely limited and was off limits to the vast majority of them. Now that magnificent veil was torn in two when Jesus Christ died. And to understand how miraculous this was, it is important for us to know how large and how heavy that veil was. The inner veil was a piece of linen fabric that was richly embroidered with red, blue, and purple thread. The curtain was roughly 30 feet by 30 feet. And it had the thickness, now can you imagine this? It had the thickness of a man's hand, which would have meant that it was approximately between a half and an inch thick. According to ancient rabbis, the veil was so heavy that it took 300 priests to put it in place. It must have weighed several hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds. and it would have been absolutely impossible for human beings to tear it apart. Now there are some who think that the veil was torn in part when the earthquake that Luke doesn't mention, but the other gospel writers do mention, when that earthquake took place. The problem with that view is that In the writings, I believe it's of Matthew, the earthquake takes place after the veil was rent in two. Add to that what probably would have happened if the veil had not been rent in two is not that the earthquake would have torn it in two, but the earthquake would have caused it to fall to the ground. And so the veil was torn in two, and special mention is made by Matthew and Mark that it was torn in two, not from bottom to top. And when material rots, it usually separates, how? From the bottom to top. Matthew and Mark both mentioned that it was torn from top to bottom. What are they emphasizing? They're emphasizing again that this was the supernatural act of God. Now the veil symbolized by its very presence that under the old covenant administration the way to God was not yet open. There was not yet a freedom of access to Jehovah to all men. And this point is clearly brought out by the writer of Hebrews in chapter 9 verses 6 through 8. There we read, Now when these things have been prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship. But into the second only the High Priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit is signifying this. So if you want to know what this means, it's explained in Hebrews chapter 9. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing. In other words, the Holy Spirit tells us that as long as the curtain remained in place, men had no hope of immediate access to God. The old Puritan John Owen wrote this, The whole church was forbidden its use in this way, and it was appointed for no other end than to signify that in due time there should be a way open unto believers into the presence of God. And now that time had come. Jesus has opened the way to God. Hebrews uses temple language to say that we have a hope to enter into the inner place, behind the curtain. Then it declares that we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and everlasting way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh. Now by faith we have direct access to God through Jesus Christ. Now in practical terms, that means that we have direct access to God. that we can go to Him at any time of day or night, that we can go to Him with our needs, with our cares, with our concerns, as well as with our praise and our thanksgiving. It means that God welcomes us into His presence and that His ears are open to our cries. Do you know what a marvelous thing it is for us to have that kind of access, direct access to God? Through who? through Jesus Christ. Again, the writer of Hebrews says, Now then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. The tearing of the veil means that we have access to God. And access that the old covenant people did not. The tearing of the veil encourages us to make use of that access. To go boldly into the presence of God through our great high priest and the only mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. And as we go through Jesus Christ, God welcomes us into his presence and he hears the prayers of his people. He no longer says, stay out. Instead, he says, come in. And I wonder how many of us take advantage of that access that we have. How often, dear brothers and sisters, that you go boldly into God's presence through Jesus Christ, that you might make your prayers and petitions made known to Him, that you might find mercy and grace to help in your time of need. So often I fear that even in times of difficulty and trouble, our first response is not to enter into God's throne room through Christ in prayer. I was thinking of that this week. Greg called on Wednesday and he was going through his week of orientation and he was expressing the anxiety that he was feeling and wanted us to pray for him. And so I thought of all kinds of different things. You know, do some deep breathing. Take a deep breath, it helps relax you. I thought of some other things. And this is a shame on me, okay. A couple days later I thought, you know when I was going through a period of great anxiety when Josh was first diagnosed. that the verses that meant the most to me were the verses of the Apostle Paul from Philippians chapter 4. Now listen to this. Be anxious for nothing. Oh, but I am. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And here's the promise. Not that everything will turn out rosy. Not that there will be unicorns and butterflies. This is the promise. And the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and mine in Christ Jesus. What's the antidote to anxiety? Not deep breathing. Not yoga. Not some other psychological ploy. The antidote is prayer. Where we pour out our hearts to God. And then he makes all our troubles disappear and go away. Absolutely not. But he does guard our hearts and our minds and gives us peace in the midst of extreme difficulty. And my personal experience can tell you that when you do that, God will do what that verse says. Well, not only does this tell us in practical terms that the way to God has been open to us so that we can come to Him at any time in prayer, but it also tells us that the only way we can come to God is through Jesus Christ in prayer, and that is why we pray what? We can either begin our prayers or we end our prayers with, in the name of Jesus Christ. There's no other access that's granted to people in prayer to God except through Christ. And so all those who are praying, apart from any faith in Christ, are praying in vain. And it also tells us that the only way of salvation is through Jesus Christ, through His death for our sins. And we trust in that death, that Christ is satisfied, the divine justice of God that the veil has been rented to, and now we can come to God through Christ to be saved from our sins. One commentator said this, confidence of access to God apart from Jesus Christ is presumption, and God abhors it. When people try to come unto Him apart from Jesus Christ to seek access to God without going through the veil of Christ, this is not only futile, and ineffectual, but it is also sinful. It is wicked. It says that Christ is not the only way of salvation, of everlasting life. It rejects the efficiency of Jesus' sacrifice. Such people trample the cross of Jesus Christ as worthless. Our faith, trust, and confidence must be directed to Jesus alone. The rent veil was the proclamation of grace. The mediator kept the law, has conquered death, removed the curse of the law, and won the victory for all who would believe in him. That's the message of this split veil when sin is gone. The burial. is gone. Nothing now divides the sinner from the reconciled God. Your sins have been paid for in full by the death of Christ. It also signifies, and I'll conclude with this, that the old covenant way of worship has been done away with. No more sacrifices. The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient. No more priesthood because Christ is our great high priest and he has opened the way for us that we might have access to God. No more festival days, no more animal sacrifices, no more temple, no more veil. It's all been done away with because Christ has fulfilled all the types and the symbols of those things. And because he has, We as a church gather together in His name for the express purpose of worshiping the Lord our God through Jesus Christ in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We are gathered together today as His people and all of us have access to the Father through Christ. Brothers and sisters, rejoice in the torn veil and what that symbolizes. Do take advantage, won't you, of a free access you have in prayer to the Father. And if you are here today and you do not know Christ, then come today. that you might be saved through the only Savior of sinners, and that is Jesus Christ, for there is no other way of access to the Father. No other way into paradise but through Him. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, how thankful we are for the miracles that we see perform as Christ was hanging on the cross. The miracle of darkness and all that that symbolized and all that that means for us. Now the veil of the temple being rent in two, indicating that the access that had once been denied to your covenant people is now open to all your covenant people, that they might come to you boldly in prayer. Father, we thank you for all that you have accomplished for us, all that you have done for us by your sovereign grace through the death of your son. And Father, may we rejoice in what he accomplished and may we take advantage of the opportunity that we have to come into your presence, to make our prayers and petitions made known to you, and oh, Father, let us never take that great privilege for granted. Father, we would ask that you would bless us, that you would cause us to grow, and that you would cause us to pray without ceasing. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.