Mark chapter 15, beginning at verse 33. All right, let's pay close attention because this is God's Word. And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, behold, he is calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, truly, this man was the son of God. This is God's word. Let's pray together. Almighty God, we pray that as we hear your word, you may be with us today, that you may give to us the gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may behold him and believe in him, even as the centurion recognized who Jesus was at the time of his death. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. It does not take very long in life to learn that there is something very wrong with the world. But as we go through life, the question that we begin to ask ourselves, and that we begin to wonder about, and everyone searches for this answer, the question is, what does it all mean? What is the point? Where is all of this going? In other words, we want to know what is the story that we are a part of. Maybe it seems a little bit hokey to put it that way, but the truth is that we all imagine ourselves, we understand intuitively that we are part of a story. That's why we love stories so much. And that's why certain stories capture our imagination so much and why children Sometimes you wish you could be part of another story, a story that you have read about in a book or seen in a movie. We long to know that we are part of a good story. The great thing about reading stories or watching movies is that you can get through the whole story. When you get to the end of the story, however much confusion there was on the way, by the time you get to the end of the story, the confusion is gone, and you understand. You understand what the trouble was about. You understand what the struggle in the story was about, and you understand the end of the story, right? Well, one writer named Tom Clancy, maybe you've heard of him, He said one time that the difference between fact and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. Fiction has to make sense. But I think that the reason he thinks that and kind of what he implies is that fact, you know, real life, doesn't have to make sense. And that's true that so often in our lives, our lives don't seem to make any sense to us. The things that happen don't seem to make any sense to us. But there's a very simple reason for that. And that's because we haven't gotten to the end of the story yet, right? The only way to understand what does it all mean, what do our lives mean, is to get to the end of the story. Or there's another way. If the author of the story could speak to you and tell you What does the story mean? And that actually is what we find in scripture, is that the author of life has spoken to us and told us, what does it all mean? And that's what we find here in this passage. And so we can do one of two things, right? We can go on, we can kind of stumble blindly through life and wonder, what does it all mean? Or we can listen to what the author of life tells us the story means. And here, let me be very clear that here, at the cross of Christ, we find the heart of the answer. What is the story of the world? What is the story of the world? And the story of the world finds its center in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. And as we're going to find as we go through this, that this is good. This is very good. Now, I'm gonna go through this passage. I'm gonna make three points about the death of Jesus Christ. And I wanna kind of preface what I'm gonna say, first of all, by saying that there are other points, right? There are other things that we could say about the death of Christ that would be true, and you guys usually like me to be done in an hour or two, so I'm just gonna stick to three points this morning. And the first point is that the death of Christ on the cross is cosmic. Okay, it's cosmic. In other words, the death of Christ on the cross has to do with the whole world. I don't just mean everybody. I mean it has to do with all existence. It has to do with the cosmos. And the death of Christ on the cross changes everything about the world. It changes everything about the world. And we see this in how Mark describes the death of Christ on the cross And this first verse that we've read in verse 33, when Mark writes that when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land, or we could say over the whole earth until the ninth hour. There was darkness for three hours. Now, What does this mean? Now, there are some people who say that this cannot possibly be an eclipse, for example, because this is the wrong time of the month for an eclipse, right? An eclipse can only happen during a new moon, okay? And we know that Passover is not during a new moon, and so it's the wrong time of the month. Well, My good friends, what a silly objection, right? As though God, who made the sun and who made the moon and who made the earth, can't make the whole world dark whenever he wants. We could also say that another objection to seeing this as an eclipse, which is that I've been through an eclipse and they don't last for three hours. Right? The time of totality is very rapid. It comes and it goes in seconds. And this is a period of hours of darkness. And it is a miracle. The Lord is saying something to the whole earth as Christ is dying on the cross. That what is happening is affecting all the world. It is a cosmic darkness, much as the darkness that God brought on the land of Egypt, the ninth plague, was a darkness that struck that whole nation, and much as Joshua called on God to extend the daylight of a day as they pursued their enemies to give light and life to his whole nation. This darkness is a darkness that falls on the whole world. God is saying something to the whole world. This is something that the prophet Joel speaks about in some verses that maybe you are familiar with. In Joel chapter 2, it says this, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit, and I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. This is a prophecy by the prophet Joel that we see in part fulfilled here in the death of Christ, these signs that the sun will be darkened. But we also need to understand this, and it, I suppose I shouldn't have to explain this because we understand this intuitively that darkness is bad. We don't like being in the dark. We don't know what's out there. I know usually by the end of winter, I'm sick of the dark, right? It's an awful thing to be trapped in the darkness, and this darkness that falls on the earth during Christ's death is a reminder, it's a sign from God as a reminder to the whole earth that the whole earth has been in darkness. A cursed darkness. A darkness that fell on the world because of man's first sin in the garden. when man fell. And there are other places in the Bible, aside from in the book of Exodus, when we see the plague of darkness on Egypt, but there are other places where God warrants about a curse of darkness falling on people. In Deuteronomy 28, and in Isaiah 8, two passages where God speaks about darkness falling on people. And the reason, actually, that ties these three together, the plague of darkness on Egypt and the darkness that God threatens in Deuteronomy 28 and Isaiah 8, the reason that ties them all together is that those people would not listen to what God said. They would not listen to what God said. God's word is light. It is light for us, right? Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. And if we will not listen to it, right, then the result of that is that we will walk in darkness. Well, Here's the thing though, right? This incredible darkness that falls over the whole land, Mark says, lasted from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, when Christ dies. And this is very striking because what it says to us is that this darkness that is over the whole land is taken away when Christ dies. The darkness is taken away when Christ dies. Jesus' death has brought light into the world. This is a great surprise, right? And yet, God, who in the beginning said, let there be light, who by his word brought light into the world, And God, who spoke to Isaiah at the same time that he said that those who would not listen to him, those who would not turn to the law and to the prophets and to the testimony of God, that they would be thrust into the darkness, he also promises and said that the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light, and on them a light has dawned. This light is brought to the world through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. What does Paul say? The God who has shone in our hearts, the God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ. God came into this world in order to bring light to darkness. And that's what we see at the cross, that the darkness is ended at the cross. And so when we ask, what is God doing? When we ask, what do our lives mean? Then we need to remember the cross of Jesus Christ. And we need to remember that it is at the cross that the darkness is removed. And this changes not just my life, and not just your life, but it changes the whole world. The cross of Jesus Christ and his death is a cosmic event that changes everything. All right, well, why does it change everything? Why does Jesus' death on the cross change everything? And the answer is found in these words that Jesus cries out from the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? How can it be that God in Christ removes the curse that is on the whole world? How can that be? These mysterious and hard words, my God, why have you forsaken me? These explain, these show to us, if we will believe them, if we will take them to heart, then this is unveiled for us. The meaning is unveiled for us. And what is happening here, let's make no mistake, what is happening here is that Jesus is being Rejected and forsaken by His Heavenly Father, Jesus is being thrust into darkness. That is what brings light to the world. And we know from the Bible that the wages of sin is death. That the consequence of sin is God's anger and His wrath forever, in the place of torment, in the place of hell, We can remember, of course, the words that God spoke to Adam in the garden in the very beginning when he said, right, you may eat from every tree of the garden, but you may not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. You will surely die. And so, Paul writes in Romans 5, he says, therefore, just as sin came into the world, through one man, and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sinned. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. There's a lot in there that we could talk about, but hear what he's saying. He is saying that ever since Adam fell in the garden, we have been thrust into darkness. And the consequence of that is death and separation from God. But hear what he says. He says, but the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God, and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many, and the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. In other words, what's happening here in the cross is that there is a great exchange taking place. The death that we deserve and the wrath of God that our sins deserve is taken by Jesus on Himself. And in exchange, He gives us the free gift, is what Paul calls it, the free gift of His righteousness, of His innocence, of His perfect standing with His heavenly Father. There's this incredible exchange that happens The wages of sin, Jesus takes on himself. And all the good things that Jesus deserved, the acceptance by God, the power and the authority that he deserved to have to reign over the creation, all of this is given to everyone who believes in him. There's a great exchange that happens. In other words, Jesus dies on the cross as a substitute a substitute for every sinner who believes in Him. He is a sacrifice for sinners. Of course, Jesus did no wrong. He didn't deserve to die. He didn't do anything wrong. He was perfectly good in every way. He obeyed His heavenly Father. And this obedience and this righteousness that He had, He gave as a gift. to everyone who believes in Him. He gave Himself as a sacrifice to take away our sin. This is what the writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 10, as he talks about how under the Old Testament and the temple and all of the sacrifices that were being carried out day by day, there was this constant reminder of sin, as they would take animals and they would sacrifice those animals, there was this constant reminder of sin in that daily shedding of animal blood. Because the animals couldn't take away sin. But there was that reminder that the sin had to be dealt with. It had to be removed. And this is what Jesus did once and for all. It's what Jesus did once and for all. Now, folks, I know that you know this. This is all basic Christianity, right? Jesus died to take away our sins. But really, think on that. Think on that, how often we go through our lives and we are burdened With our own sin, we feel guilty about it. We don't want other people to bring it up. We can't stand when people confront us about it. And we, some of you may feel this way, right? That you just feel as though all day long, your conscience is after you and you just feel as though hour by hour, minute by minute, you are under the scrutiny of a God who resents you, who is angry with you. And so to know that in fact, there is a way of salvation, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to receive from Him this forgiveness, this acceptance with God. And really to know that Today, right? Think back. You can think back on your life. You can think back on the things that you regret. You can think back on the secrets of your life that you hope no one ever learns, right? You can think back on those things and you can know that in Jesus Christ, those sins are really gone. They're gone. as far as the east is from the west. I know some of you have a mortgage. Some of you have a car loan, right? And you probably log in every now and then to check and to see what's your balance. And of course, when you log in, you expect to see that balance. You expect to see that it's gonna be there. You may be thinking to yourself, well, it's been a few months since I checked in, maybe it's gone down a little bit, right? And in our own lives, with our own sin, right? We feel, not that the balance is going down, but we feel that the balance is going up. And sometimes we have other people who are reminding us that the balance is going up, right? And this is the amazing, surprising thing about the death of Christ on the cross. To log in and find that it's gone. It's already gone. And not only is it gone, but that in Jesus Christ, he doesn't just forgive our sins, but he gives us all the wealth of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jesus died as a substitute sinners. I think to fully realize that, each of us fully to realize that day by day, to take that to heart and to remember the cross of Jesus Christ and to know that our sins are forgiven. What a wonderful thing. What peace that brings to us. And to know that then when we pray to God, that God is not looking at us, resenting us, or remembering the things that we have done, but that He is putting those things out of mind, and that He loves you. That's an incredible thing, and that's why Christianity is such a surprise. Because God, in Jesus Christ, is reconciling sinners to Himself, not counting their sins against them anymore. That changes everything, doesn't it? Well, what that means is that in the cross of Jesus Christ, actually, we are learning something about God. God is revealing something very important to us. Christ's death is revealing something to us that before was quite hidden. Now, there's one thing that Christ's death reveals, and I'll pass over this quickly, but there's one thing that Christ's death reveals to us that is difficult and painful for us, and that is that Christ's death reveals our sin. It reveals our sin. Zechariah talks about this in Zechariah chapter 12, when he talks about how, he says, they will look on him whom they have struck, and they will mourn for him. They will mourn as for an only child. And that's because in the cross of Christ, we see our sin. We see what it is. We see its consequence. We see where it leads. And there's something dreadful and ugly about that. And we could even say that for Judas, even for Judas, that he saw his own sin in the cross of Christ. And as he went back to the chief priests and he said to them, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. The cross of Christ revealed to him the ugliness and the horror of his own sin. Not for his salvation, but it did reveal it. And we see this as well in others for their salvation. Think about the thief on the cross next to Jesus. as he saw the suffering of Christ, as he saw the death of Christ, and it made him realize that he was there on the cross himself, justly, just as Christ was there in his innocence, unjustly. And we see in Acts chapter 2, as Peter speaks to the crowds in Jerusalem and addresses them about the death of Christ on the cross, which they carried out, and their eyes are opened as they see for the first time the death of Christ for what it really is, and they are convicted. And they say, brothers, what shall we do? What shall we do? And so the death of Christ reveals And that is very important, but on its own, it is also very grim. And so it's important that we see as well that the death of Christ reveals something more. It doesn't just reveal us to ourselves. It reveals God to us. It reveals God's love for us. God created this world, and he created you, and God is deeply grieved over the state of our lives, he's deeply grieved over our sin, and he loves you. And the cross shows you that. The cross shows you the love of God, and it's a special love that God has for you because you were made in his image. You're different from the rocks and the trees and the chipmunks, right? You're different because you were made. You're even different from the angels because you're made in the image of God and the cross reveals the love of God for sinners. We catch a glimpse of this in the Old Testament in David's powerless cry when his son dies. Oh, Absalom, my son! My son, Absalom, would that I had died instead of you. How much David loved his son, his son who didn't deserve that love. But David was totally powerless in that love. And so he was powerless in his grief. But here's the thing, right? is not powerless in His love. He is not powerless in His love. In His love, He does something. In His love, He sends His Son. He sends the Lord Jesus to die on the cross. God so loved the world that He sent His Son, that He gave. And this Love is something that the Apostle John thought about a lot, and we can read about it as well in the book of 1 John, and think about what he says in 1 John 3, 16. He says, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. And that's very striking, right? I mean, if ever there was a day when people thought that they understood what love was, it's today, right? And yet here, John is telling us that if we want to know what love is, we need to look at what Jesus does for us on the cross. By this, we know love. That he laid down his life for us. It's reason for us to love one another, as John goes on to point out. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. What a powerful word. What a powerful truth. When we think of who God is, to know that God, in all that he is, is love. Perfect love. In this, the love of God was made manifest. Now, big words, right? Manifest, not a word that you probably use very much every day. Honey, where's my lunch? I will make it manifest to you. It's in the refrigerator. It's still not manifest to me. Look on the second shelf. Ah, now I see, right? Manifest is to show something and make something plain. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. That's how we know what love is. It's in the cross of Christ. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And again, another word we don't use very much, propitiation, but it's a very important one. What does that mean? Well, as we've already discussed, right, our sins make a separation between us and God. Our sins make us enemies of God and propitiation is to bring reconciliation. that the hostility between us and God is removed. And not only is the hostility removed, but that now we are at peace with God, that God loves us, that God is for us. That's propitiation. God loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is how God treated us when we were his enemies. My friends, We would not have thought this about God. We would not have thought that while we were sinning against God, while we were ignoring God, while we were hiding from Him, while we were hating Him and resenting Him, that all of this time, God was loving us. Even in His righteous anger against our sins, that God was loving us and had made this plan to save us from our sin. and to be at peace with us through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. You see, the cross and the death of Christ reveal to us the love of God. And God is the one who loved us first. We have seen and testified that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. What an incredible word. That if we believe in the Lord Jesus, if we confess that He is the Savior of the world, God lives in us. No longer any separation, no longer any hostility, no longer any record keeping, but in fact, God lives in us and with us. Well, not only does the death of Christ reveal God's love, but it also reveals God's power. God's power in Jesus Christ You know, the death of Christ was surprising. And here I mean it. The way that Jesus died on the cross surprised the people who watched. The centurion was surprised by how Jesus died. And this is a guy who killed a lot of people on crosses. He was very used to crucifixions. It was his job. But when he saw how Jesus died, he was surprised and he said, truly, this man was the Son of God. What's so surprising is that Jesus dies with a shout. This is not how crucified people die. They usually just slowly fade away in agony and end up suffocating in the end. But this, This Jesus dies with a shout, with a cry he breathes his last, a great cry, like, almost like a lion with its prey. Jesus seizes death. We know that he's able to do this because even in his death, he has an indestructible life and he is in His death and by His cross. This is a mysterious thing, but it's something that God is showing us here in His death, that Jesus is exerting great power. He's exerting great power over all things, that in His death on the cross, Paul says in Colossians 1, He is holding all things together. All things together. What about you? What are you trying to hold together? What are you trying to keep from falling apart? It could be your health. It could be your mind. Your emotional life. It could be your family. Your marriage, right? There are so many things that we struggle and we sweat and we cry to hold together. But here in the cross of Jesus Christ, God is revealing to us his power to save, his power to hold together the things that are being torn apart. Finally, the cross of Christ reveals that God's salvation is for the whole world. It is for all the nations. Jesus Christ is mighty to save. He is mighty to save not just the nation of Israel, but all the nations. He is mighty to save not just people like us, but he is mighty to save people who are not like us at all. People from foreign countries, people from the other side of town. Jesus is mighty to save, and his death shows this. You know, the book of Mark begins with God the Father opening heaven and pouring out his Spirit on his Son and declaring for all to hear, this is my Son, whom I love. And now, here at the end of the Gospel of Mark, we find that the curtain is torn open, so that no longer just Jews may enter into God's presence, but so that all the nations may enter in. And we have this assurance and we have this guarantee that here is the first confession of faith at the death of Christ from a Roman soldier. Surely, truly, this man is God's Son. This is the power of God in Jesus Christ to bring salvation to every kind of person. Who do you know that is separated from God? Who do you know who is excluded from God? Who do you know who is an enemy of God? And it may be you and it may be someone else And you may think to yourself how very different others are from you. And it may be hard for you to imagine what would it be like for these other people to follow the Lord and to be reconciled to God. But you know, this is exactly the power of the cross of Jesus Christ to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Isn't Christianity great? We have a wonderful Savior. We have tremendous good news here in the death of Christ. Let's pray. Almighty God, who through the cross gave faith to that Roman centurion, we pray, Lord, grant that the eyes of our heart may be opened to know you, to know your love, to know your power over the whole world to bring salvation to the ends of the earth so that we also may enter into the joy of your kingdom and that through our testimony, those who are far from you and enemies of you may also enter into your kingdom and find rest and peace. In Jesus' name, amen.