Well, as we come to verse 44 in chapter 23 of the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus had been on the cross for about three hours. He was suffering. He was in excruciating pain. People stood by, looking on. Many were mocking Him, sneering at Him. Luke tells us the Jewish rulers, the people, the Roman soldiers were all mocking him. Saying things like, he saved others, let him save himself. If you're the Christ, come down from the cross. And as was the case with his being numbered among criminals. His interceding with his father on behalf of his murderers. And the soldiers casting lots to claim possession of his clothes, all of this was in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. And as Peter would preach on Pentecost, it was all according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. As they were all mocking and laughing at him, what did Jesus say in response? Nothing. He did not respond to these people. Peter tells us, while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to Him who judges righteously. He didn't speak to his oppressors, to the mockers, but the Gospels do record Jesus speaking from the cross seven times. Luke recorded three of these. And we've looked at two of those words from Jesus the past two Lord's Days. When they crucified Him, He said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And in response to the repentant thief alongside him who was crucified with Jesus and who had asked him, Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. He said, truly I say to you, today, today you shall be with me in paradise. And the account of this thief and his salvation is very important to us because it shows us the day that we die, our spirits go to be with our Lord. New Testament teaches that on the day Christ returns, He's going to raise all men bodily and rejoin our spirits to our now resurrected, glorified bodies. The Gospels record Jesus as having spoken five more times during the hours He hung dying on the cross. In John, we find that to his mother and to the apostle John, Jesus said, Woman, behold your son. And to John, he said, Behold your mother. And by these words, we know that Jesus committed to John the care of his mother Mary. Now John was the son of Mary's sister, Shalome. Some ask, why didn't Jesus commit Mary to the care of Jude or James or one of His other brothers? And you know, most believe the answer is because they did not yet believe in Jesus. We read this in John 7, 5. His brothers were not believing in Him. And so it may be a reasonable inference that Jesus would want His mother among the people of the church as the foundation of His church was being laid. Well, as Jesus was hanging on the cross, Matthew and Mark, as well as Luke, record that at noon on that Friday, something very dramatic took place. Verse 44, it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land till the ninth hour. sun was obscured, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And we saw this kind of darkness somewhere else in the Old Testament. God brought judgment, plagues on Egypt, and darkness filled that land. But this was the first sign from heaven in connection with the crucifixion of Jesus. This darkness that fell on the land from the sixth Jewish hour, hour noon, until the ninth hour, which would be hour three in the afternoon. And this darkness came when the sun would have been at its highest point, and it lasted for those three hours. Now remember, it was Passover. Passover was held at the time of the full moon. And we know now that all astronomical teaching shows us this could not have been due to a natural eclipse of the sun. Solar eclipse can't occur when the moon is full. So the only reasonable conclusion here is that this darkness was a miraculous sign from God. As were the tearing of this very thick temple veil and the earthquake that occurred that afternoon. God darkened the sun. So how extensive was this darkness? Was it the whole world? Well, half the globe was already in darkness. The answer isn't clearly stated here, but certainly this darkness covered Jerusalem and the surrounding area. And the words, the whole land here, would lead us to believe that all Judea may have been darkened. In the Judgment Plague on Egypt, to which I just referred, we read Exodus 10, 23. The Egyptians could not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings. God can do this. So what did this darkness mean? Well, throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament in the book of Revelation, we see that the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars is a symbolic phrase, a metaphor, a symbol of God coming in judgment. Exodus 10.21, The LORD said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. You notice three days and now three hours. Isaiah 1310, in speaking of God's judgment on Babylon. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light. Ezekiel 32, 7, speaking of judgment again on Egypt. And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. And then this same metaphor is used when God comes in judgment on the last day. Revelation 6, 12, I looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by the wind. So in all these, we see darkness as a sign accompanying God's judgment. Now what was this judgment that was happening? This darkness was a sign of the judgment of God on our sins. Our sins. God's wrath was being poured out on the sinless Savior as our substitute. for our sins. He suffered not only this intense physical pain and agony and the abandonment of virtually all his earthly friends, but of his heavenly Father. One writer says, in a very real sense, hell came to Calvary that day. And our Savior bore its horrors in our place. And then Luke says, in the veil of the temple, a symbol of the separation between men and God was torn in two. Now this was a very thick curtain. Something to be very difficult, even today, with our tools to tear. There were two veils in the temple. There was an outer veil that separated the sanctuary from the rest of the temple. But then there was an inner veil between the holy place where the showbread and the candlelight was, and the holy of holies. This inner curtain was very ornate. And it's described in Exodus 26, verse 31. God told Moses, you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen. It shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman. You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia, overlaid with gold, their hooks also being of gold, on four sockets of silver. You shall hang up the veil under the clasps and shall bring in the ark of the testimony there within the veil. The veil shall serve for you as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies. Now the writer of Hebrews in chapter 9, verse 3, says of this inner veil, behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the holy of holies. having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which a golden jar holding the manna and Aaron's rod, which budded in the tables of the covenant. And only one day a year, on the Day of Atonement, was anybody allowed to go in there, inside this inner veil. And this day the high priest alone was permitted to pass inside the inner veil, bringing animal blood, which he would then sprinkle on the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat, for the cleansing of the nation. But now, by his death on the cross, Jesus cleansed all his people of the guilt and the stain of their sin. That's what he was doing there. And God tore down this inner veil of the temple, a symbol of the separation that sin had made between them and God. The tearing of this inner veil as Jesus died symbolized the end of that separation between men and God. Men could now come to God through Christ. Tearing of the veil gave symbolic expression to the truth that the death of Jesus had opened the way for His people into the very presence of God. The writer of Hebrews explained, chapter 10, verse 19, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Christ opened the way, and the tearing of the veil symbolized the way to God was now reopened. Matthew and Mark record that the rending of the veil followed immediately upon Christ's death. One might say at the moment of His death. The point is this, through His death, He opened the way into the heavenly sanctuary for us, which had been closed. Matthew gives us a few more details about what happened in that hour. Matthew 27, 50, Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks were split, the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. coming out of the tombs after His resurrection. They entered the holy city and appeared to many. Jesus died about three o'clock. So the curtain must therefore have been torn about the time that the priests were preparing their evening sacrifice. Some must have seen what happened in the temple, in the Holy of Holies. This rending of the veil as the darkness was a miraculous sign from God, was another miraculous sign from God. The ministry of the priests was now ended. Christ had made the atonement for all His people. All believers could now come to God through Christ. That's what this rending of the veil meant. Because Christ has now entered into the holy of holies of heaven itself, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, with his own innocent atoning blood. The only blood that could save anybody. And as the judgment of God was being poured out on Christ for our sins. He spoke for a fourth time. And this time to His Father. These words are omitted in Luke, but they're recorded in Matthew 27, 46 and in Mark 15, 34. He cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These are the very first words of Psalm 22. They were written by Jesus' ancestor, King David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit a thousand years earlier. Jesus wasn't saying them because David wrote them. The Holy Spirit inspired David to write them because Jesus was going to speak them. And these words of our Lord, perhaps more than any others, show us the gravity of our sin against our righteous, holy, and loving God. The punishment for our sins was such that Jesus, as He felt the full weight of our sins, felt the abandonment of His Father. Just think about it. Our sin caused that. The wrath of God for our sins meant His being forsaken by His Father for a time. Cast out for a time. During those three dark hours, His heavenly Father turned away from Him. These words, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Certainly show the humanity in Jesus. But they were His expression of the isolation that He experienced as He was separated from His Father. This is what sin does, folks. It separates men from God. That's what Adam sinned, brought into the world for all his descendants. Separation from God. Every one of us comes into the world separated from God. And God's done a work by which He has reconciled His people to Himself. So here was Jesus, who was Himself without sin. He became sin for us. He experienced separation from His Father so that we might be reconciled to the Father. Let us understand. In order for the innocent Jesus to satisfy the wrath of God that we deserve, it was necessary that He be placed in the place of a guilty person at the judgment seat of God. He stood where all the unbelieving will stand on the last day. And nothing could be more dreadful than that. To stand before the living God and be found guilty. To receive the punishment for that guilt. Hebrews 10.31, the writer says, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But this is what Jesus did for us. This is what he endured, not because of any sin of his own, but in our place. Calvin wrote this. The inward sadness of his soul was so powerful and torturous that it forced him to break out into this cry. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And these words weren't just in response to the physical agony he was experiencing, but to the anguish of the soul that is the result of the punishment that comes upon sin. And let me say this, separation from God is the eternal punishment for all who don't seek to come to God through Christ, through faith in Him, through trusting in Him. All the unbelieving will be separated from God for all eternity. And they may say, well, what's the big deal? The big deal is it's eternal torture, eternal punishment, eternal misery. And so those who want to be separate from God in this life will be separate from Him in the next. Those who believe in Jesus, who trust in His offering of Himself, will never again experience that separation from God. Once you've been born again and joined to Christ, you'll never again experience that separation from God. Because in His humanity, as our brother according to the flesh, He went through it for us that day. If He hadn't, we'd have had to go through this. for all eternity. Jesus spoke three more times that day as he hung, suffering and dying on the cross. John 19.28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the Scripture, said, I'm thirsty. I am thirsty. So they brought up a jar full of sour wine vinegar. And it was standing there. They put a sponge full of the sour wine on a branch of hyssop and brought it up to his mouth. Matthew tells us after tasting it, he was unwilling to drink. In his thirst, we again see Jesus' humanity. Sour wine, some say, may have been a type of narcotic offered to crucifixion victims to dull the senses. But Luke tells us they mocked him with this vinegar. Tasted it, wouldn't drink it. But his next words, as recorded in John, were, in the opinion of many, the most significant words ever spoken. John 19, 30. Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished. And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. Now John had come back. He was the one of the twelve who was still there. He was there with Jesus as He took His last breath. And He concluded His account of the crucifixion with these words, It is finished. His mission had been completed. The redemption of His people had been accomplished. what had been declared by God in the Garden of Eden, the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, had now come to pass. The saving work was finished. All that was prophesied by Moses and David and Isaiah and others was finished. Our salvation was accomplished. Glorious words. It's done. It has been completed. And in verse 46 of Luke 23, we read Jesus' final words on the cross before his body died. Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. John tells us he gave up his spirit. Matthew says he yielded up his spirit. His body died. His spirit having been separated from His body. That's what physical death is. The spirit, your spirit is separated from your body. And His last words, into your hands I commit my spirit, Father. These are a beautiful expression of trust as He commends Himself to His Father who has sent Him to the cross. Using these words from Psalm 31. Look at these words. He's asked the Father, why have you forsaken me? But now He says, into your hands I commit my spirit. They show us Jesus was still conscious of His Father's loving presence. And that He knew that physical death is not the end of life. He knew physical death is not the end of life. And let us understand, God's Son died only in His human nature. As His human body died, He entrusted His living Spirit to His Father's care. So the Spirit of Christ as he died, this physical death on the cross, went to his father in heaven, just as the spirit of the repentant thief we saw would go to heaven to be with Jesus that day. And just as Stephen would later ask Jesus, as he was being stoned to death, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And on the third day, praise be to God, the father would restore his son's spirit to his now glorified, resurrected body, never to die again. We will have this same experience after we die. And when Christ comes back and raises all from the grave, He will reunite, rejoin our spirits to our now-resurrected, glorified bodies, which will never die again. Jesus said, I lay down my life that I may take it up again. So He could now rejoice. His work was done. He went to the cross with the assurance His Father would guard His true self, His Spirit, even in bodily death. We must go to our earthly deaths in the same way, with the same trust. We learn here, physical death will come to us all, but we live on in our spirit. Our identity is our spiritual self. And when we die, God will receive our spirits, our souls, into His presence. Paul understood this. Philippians 121, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I'm to live on in the flesh, it'll mean more fruitful labor for me. But I don't know which to choose. I'm hard-pressed from both directions, Paul said, having the desire to depart and be with Christ. those words, inspired by God the Holy Spirit. And Paul knew that was very much better to depart and be with Christ. What awaits us is way better. Death is just a gateway to the presence of God for those who trust in Christ. Verse 47, when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God. Why is he doing this? He's saying, certainly this man was innocent. Mark and Matthew also have accounts of this. Mark tells us, when the centurion saw the way he breathed his last, he said, truly this man was the Son of God. Matthew tells us the centurion and those who were with him, keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, probably referring to the darkness, they became very frightened. And they said, truly this was the Son of God. All these things were true. The centurion praised God and proclaimed Jesus to be God's Son and an innocent man. Why is he doing this? He seems to have been praising God because of the innocence he saw in Jesus. Remember, this centurion and everybody else there had experienced this darkness, had felt the earthquake, and he had seen something in Jesus that led him to praise God. In some way, this centurion saw God as glorified in everything that was occurring. darkness, earthquake, Son of God on the cross. He's praising God. One writer says this centurion must have felt the death of this righteous man. Must have somehow been in accord with the will of God. How could he know this? How could the centurion have known this? Only God could have shown him this. Same way He has shown us the truth of divine things. And what about the crowds? All the crowds, verse 48, who came together for this spectacle. All the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts. Now this is an act of mourning. Many in the crowds had come to see the spectacle. Three men were crucified that day, and executions have always drawn good crowds. Some of those in the crowds were likely among those who were demanding of Pilate, Crucify! Crucify him! This was entertainment to many. As the morning and the day wore on, they witnessed brutality upon brutality as Jesus and others suffered on those crosses. And these things began to happen. Darkness fell over the land for three hours. An earthquake. Rock split. And Matthew and Mark and Luke have all told us how the centurion was affected by it all. He's praising God. And now we learn, so were the people in the crowds affected, these onlookers. They'd come for entertainment but had witnessed, what? The terrifying judgment of God on sin. That's what they saw that day. And this evoked in them a sense of that horror. Maybe a sense of guilt. And then add to this what they saw in this humble manner of Jesus. In His conduct, in the things He said. His words of forgiveness to His murderers. And of trust in His heavenly Father. Maybe some in the crowd thought we had a role in this. Maybe some were stricken in their consciences. We're not told. Luke tells us simply, they went home beating their breasts. Lenski wrote this, they came to witness a show and they left with feelings of woe. You know, and many suspect, we don't know if this is true, that all of these things may have made some of these very people very receptive to the gospel message that was preached by Peter and the apostles seven weeks later on Pentecost when 3,000 were saved. Finally, Luke tells us, all his acquaintances and the women who accompanied him from Galilee were standing at a distance seeing these things. Now who were these people described by Luke as acquaintances? It's not a word I can remember seeing anywhere else in the Gospels. We're not told anything about them. The Gospels never refer to Jesus' disciples as acquaintances. And the women are said to have accompanied Jesus from Galilee. And that's not said about these acquaintances. So we simply don't know who these people were. But they were there. We do know much about these women from Galilee though. We've got quite a bit of information on their identity. Gospel accounts are all pretty much in accord. Mark 1540, there were also some women looking on from a distance. And he includes Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph. and Shalome. When he was in Galilee, Mark tells us, they used to follow him and minister to him. And there were many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. So many women were in this caravan that came from Galilee to Jerusalem that Passover. Matthew 27, 55. Many women were there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to him. So Matthew tells us the same thing. Among them, Mary Magdalene. Mary, the mother of James and Joseph. And the mother of the sons of Zebedee, who's identified in Mark as Shalome. And John, she's called the sister of Mary. And John chapter 19, verse 25, standing by the cross of Jesus where his mother, his mother's sister, which would be Shalome, marry the wife of Clopas, which may or may not be the mother of James and Joseph, and marry Magdalene. So we're explicitly told that these women were among those who followed Jesus from Galilee and provided support to Jesus in the Twelve. Both here and in Luke chapter 8. And there were others. These women were all witnesses. All of them were witnesses of Jesus' death, and his burial, some stayed for that, and his resurrection. The women came to the tomb, bringing their spices and perfumes. And so these women could later testify to the facts of the redemption accomplished by Jesus. They could testify, He died, He was buried, and He rose. Crowds had now departed, but these friends of Jesus were standing by Him. Love for Jesus must have helped him there. They were torn with grief. And at this point they're probably wondering what's going to become of his body. He didn't own a tomb. We'll look at that next Lord's Day. In his dying moments on the cross here, we see the heart of our Lord. We're being conformed to His image. And here's His image. It's one, He's dying on a cross and suffering immensely, and He's full of love and concern for others. Concern for the care of His mother, concern for the soul of the thief who's dying with Him, and concern even for those who were murdering Him. His preaching ministry was over, but his prayer ministry was not. And it goes on. He intercedes for all his people with the Father this hour. And then look at Jesus' response to John. John was one of those who had abandoned him just hours earlier. John comes back. Jesus doesn't rebuke him. He doesn't look upon him with scorn. Now, he gives John the privilege of taking care of his mother. If you've wandered away from Jesus, it's never too late to come back to him. You see this in John. Throughout it all, he was there saving all his people from hell. That's what this is all about. He's a good teacher? Well, sure he was. He was a prophet? Sure he was. He was there dying to save his people from hell. He suffered the penalty of hell for our sin. That's what matters, first and foremost. And make no mistake, that day, that was the day we were saved. Saved from our sins, saved from the judgment we deserve. People sometimes say, I got saved in 1995. I got saved. Not really. You were saved that day 2,000 years ago on the cross. It was finished. You may have been born again in 1995, but you were saved. Not by anything you did, but by what He did on the cross that day as a sinless offering for all of our sins. If you believe in Him. It was finished. If you believe in Him. Knowing these things in our hearts, let us always respond to what He's done for us in gratitude, worship, and obedience. And may all we think, say, and do be to His glory. Well, let's take a moment and take these words of our Lord into our hearts and minds this morning. And let us give Him an appreciation of the love He showed for us, of the gravity of our sin, of the punishment He endured because of our sin. of the mercy he has given us. And then let us each examine ourselves, and then we'll gather together at his table. Lord, thank you for this most wonderful of gifts, Christ and the forgiveness that we have in him. Lord, please just impress this word deep in our hearts. Let us never lose sight of it. In everything we encounter day by day, let us be mindful of Christ, who he is, the love he's shown us, and in his name we pray.