Well, as we've continued to say throughout the course of our study, the cross is the focal point of Christianity. It is on the cross that Jesus offers up his perfect life as a ransom for sinners. It's on the cross that the penalty of sin is paid and the wrath of God is satisfied. It is on the cross that forgiveness is earned and the groundwork of justification is laid. Quite simply, on the cross, Jesus Christ accomplishes our salvation. We know this because the Bible over and over again tells us these things. Colossians 1.20, through Christ all things are reconciled to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Colossians 2.14, all our transgressions, our certificate of debt that is held against us, he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Verse after verse telling us what the cross has done by way of forgiveness, reconciliation, and salvation. But even at Calvary, at Golgotha, after Jesus had died, there were several signs that took place whereby the effects of the cross were not just declared but also demonstrated. And even in the moments after Jesus had passed, God was declaring and illustrating the divine work of salvation for all who would believe. And so today I want to examine with you three miracles at Calvary. Three miracles at Calvary. If you want to go ahead and turn to Matthew 27 in your copy of scripture, Matthew chapter 27, we're going to be looking at verses 51 to 54 today in Matthew 27. Chapter 27 has walked through the events of Good Friday, starting with the early morning trials of Jesus before the Jewish authorities, followed by the examination by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, and even though Pilate finds no fault in him, he's innocent, he still delivers Jesus over to be scourged and crucified. And so Jesus is mercilessly flogged by the Roman soldiers. He is mocked and beaten and then marched out to the gates of the city walls and placed in an area that is known as Golgotha in Aramaic, Calvary in Latin. It is known as the place of the skull. And it is there that he is nailed, hands and feet, to the cross. A crown of thorns has been placed and pressed into his head. There Jesus is crucified at the third hour of the day, right around nine o'clock in the morning. where he remains there for six hours. At the sixth hour, the Bible tells us, midday, the sky grows dark, pitch black, and God the Father pours out the full measure of divine wrath onto the son, causing the son to cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Finally, when the work of salvation has been accomplished, Jesus declares in John 19, verse 30, it is finished. In the Greek, it's tetelestai, paid in full. And then he cries out with a loud voice, and the Bible says he yields up his spirit and he dies. But what happens next, after that moment, shocks and terrifies every person that is standing there that day. And in the very next moments, we read this in Matthew 27, verse 51. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now the centurion And those who were with him, keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, truly, this was the Son of God. And so often, we read the story of Calvary, and when the story is told, these elements are either minimized or left out altogether. I can't remember very many Easter pageants where the tombs are opened and zombies get up and walk around the city. That's not something normal to our Easter cantata. And yet, this is part of the story, isn't it? It's right there in the Scriptures. They're recorded here in Matthew. And for a very important purpose, I believe, and I trust we're going to come to understand why this is here. And so what follows the death of Jesus Christ are no less than three divine miracles that take place as Jesus expires. And now a keen observer will note that there are certainly several more, but for our purposes today, I want to look at the three most dominant miracles of this passage. And so if you want to follow along with me, I'm just going to go one, two, three. Number one, we're going to look at the torn veil. The torn veil, the first miracle. Immediately following Jesus' death, Matthew records a remarkable occurrence in the first half of verse 51. He writes, And the question is, well, what's going on here? We know the temple in Jerusalem was built according to divine specifications spelled out in Exodus, particularly chapters 25, 26, and 27. And so here's how this is laid out. Within the temple complex, there's a building in the center, the most prominent building. It's known as the Holy Place. And inside this building is housed the altar of incense and the lampstand and the table for the showbread. This is all prescribed in the Bible in the early in Exodus and even repeated elsewhere in the law. Of course, every component of the temple, every element that was there, pointed to a larger and greater spiritual reality. They weren't just pieces of furniture for the sake of furniture. They all meant something. They pointed to something greater. But inside of this building, in this complex here, it was separated, this holy place, there was another room even set inside of that room. The holy place is the outer, but inside that holy place is the holy of holies, the most holy place. This place contained the Ark of the Covenant as well as the mercy seat. It is the place on earth where God's presence would dwell. And separating this most holy place, the Holy of Holies, from the rest of the temple was a large curtain or a veil. Furthermore, only the high priest was permitted to enter through this veil once a year on the Day of Atonement. But this veil, or thick curtain, acted as a physical barrier to demonstrate the barrier between the people of God and the presence of Holy God Himself. As for the veil, this curtain, it was approximately 60 feet high by 30 feet wide. More than just a veil, it was an elaborately woven curtain. It was four inches thick, comprised of blue and purple and scarlet thread. According to Jewish historian Josephus, the curtain was so thick and so durable, in fact, that two horses pulling in different directions would not be able to tear this veil in two. Yet on Friday of Passover, at the exact moment that Jesus dies, this curtain, this four-inch thick veil is torn from top to bottom in two. These are two astonishing curiosities about this. The first is that this veil, which could not be torn by horses, is torn without hands when Jesus dies. And the second curiosity is that it wasn't torn from the bottom as done by human beings. No, 60 feet up in the air, it was torn from top to bottom, illustrating that this was none other than God who tore this veil in two. But what does it mean? That's the question. What does the tearing of this veil mean? Well, the temple veil, again, was the physical, visible representation of the separation between God and His people. And yet, at the death of Jesus, there was a way that was created. Access to God was now granted through Christ. How does this happen? Well, the Bible tells us that Jesus is our great high priest. Whereas the great high priest inside of the temple was able to go in and have access through this veil, our great high priest, the supreme high priest, is able to do so. And once atonement has been made, according to Hebrews 9 verse 11, says that Christ appeared as our high priest of the good things that is to come, that he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands and not according to the blood of bulls and goats, but through his own blood. He entered the holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption. This is so important because no more did the Jews have to make sacrifice. No more did they have to be separated from God. Now they could have full and final access to God through Jesus Christ. The way of that truth was demonstrated to the Jews in the temple on that Friday afternoon. Again, many of them, the priests and the workers there were ministering in the temple, in the temple courts, and they see as they're standing in the holy place, this ripping of the sanctuary veil from top to bottom and the pieces of this huge curtain lay on the ground. Now all of a sudden they with their own eyes standing in the temple can see. They now have visible access to the holiest of holy places. Now they can see the ark of the covenant. They can see the mercy seat. But not just the Jews in Jerusalem. Because this access to God has been granted for all who come through Christ. Hebrews 10, verses 19-22, 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 and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. That is what the cross provides. It provides us direct access to God. No longer is God far off. No longer are we walled off and separated from Him. But again, this only comes because our sins are paid for by Christ. And we are credited with Christ's righteousness, which makes us acceptable to God in His sight. Jesus had already said this in John 14, 6 when He said to the disciples, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. His words are prefiguring the work He's going to do. And now because of Jesus Christ, we have a way, we have a truthful way and access to God the Father through The miraculous sacrifice of Christ. And then we have a second miracle happening at Calvary. Number two, the emptied tombs. The emptied tombs. At the end of verse 51 now, verse 51 says, at that same moment, the earth shook and the rocks were split. Now, you read some of the scholars and they say, well, this is also a divine miracle. Of course it is, absolutely. In fact, this is a supernatural phenomenon which is not unlike the three hours of darkness that just took place before this. There are other things that are happening on the cross and yet, this divinely instigated earthquake produces something else. It's not the earthquake I really want to focus on, it's what it produces. Verse 52 says that this incredible earthquake was so intense that the tombs were opened. Imagine an earthquake happening so aggressively that everything across the street right here, all these tombs and graves, the ground sinks in and the tombs are now opened. Imagine the sight of that. Imagine the kind of magnitude of an earthquake it would take to open up all the graves in this town. That's what happens here. The earth is shaking and it begins to split the rocks and shatter foundations. And numerous tombs here in Jerusalem are cracked open and they expose the dried out bones that are lying within it. And now verse 52, it does not offer, if you were to read it just straight, not any kind of a pause in the grammar here, but many scholars believe that there really should be a pause here. And the pause should be taking place after the phrase, the tombs were opened, pause. Well, why? Well, because it's clear that the tombs are opened, cracked open by the earthquake that takes place on Friday afternoon. But the actual miracle of the raising of the saints inside the tombs doesn't occur, the Bible says right here, until after Christ's resurrection. Well, when is that? That's on Sunday. So there's a time division here between when the rocks are split and the tombs are opened up and when the miracle actually takes place. But Matthew, as the storyteller, he's writing this years later, he includes the entire event in one foul swoop. In one short account, he's showcasing the powerful effects of Calvary. And so the earthquake opens the tombs on Friday when Christ dies, and then the dead saints who are in the tombs come to life when Jesus resurrects on Sunday. And that brings me to my next point, titled, excuse me, what? That's my next point. What are we talking about here? What do you mean the dead are raised and came to life and walked around? Again, we don't tend to talk about this, do we? This is not a life verse for believers when they get saved. This is not something we're teaching our children, but we should be. Why? Because it's right here. But this is a great curiosity. And here's the thing, Matthew is the only one who records this event. Luke doesn't talk about it, Mark doesn't talk about it, John forgets about it. Matthew records this, and he notes that after the resurrection of Christ, many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. Now, we don't know how many bodies. We have no idea. He only says many, many. And we know that these are only saints who are raised. It's not everybody who had died and raised. I know I made a joke and said there's zombies before, but there's not zombies. These are saints. These are believers who are raised and come back to life. Matthew records the phrase that they had fallen asleep, fallen asleep. Well, this refers to their death because it's oftentimes the Bible refers to the death of a believer as falling asleep because it separates it from final death. When a person dies, they're gone, they're dead, and they're being punished for sin. Believers don't die, they are simply falling asleep temporarily until they're resurrected to be with the Lord. We see this imagery in John chapter 11. When Lazarus dies, Jesus tells the disciples, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. He says, but I go that I may awaken him out of sleep. And then we know that he goes after Lazarus had been dead for four days. and even was smelling bad on the ground, that Jesus goes and resurrects him from death to life and reanimates him and brings him back to life and Lazarus goes back and has dinner and lives the rest of his life until whenever he passes away. And so as Jesus resurrects on Sunday morning, this whole mass of believers who had died and were buried suddenly came to life. Look at verse 53. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. This is a remarkable thing. Unexpectedly, all of these deceased believers have come out of their tombs. And they're now going into the holy city, into Jerusalem, and they begin to walk around and they appear to many. They have conversations with people, they're engaging with people, they're walking around. People see them alive again. This would have been utterly shocking and bewildering to everybody there. And many have asked, well, where do these saints go afterward? I mean, do they go back to their lives like Lazarus and then die of old age later? Do they ascend with Jesus back into heaven after 40 days? Well, the Bible doesn't tell us. Matthew doesn't record what happens to them afterwards. Frankly, that detail is not as important as why they're there. All we know is that a multitude of saints who were once dead have been resurrected to life because of the life-giving power of Jesus Christ. That's all we have, that's all we know. Now, again, it's also commonly asked, all right, okay, this verse is here, we don't tend to talk about it very much, what does it mean? Usually there's question marks over our heads. What does this event mean? Why do these departed saints resurrect now? Why does Matthew include this here? And why does nobody else include it? The most generally accepted answer is to demonstrate that there is a coming resurrection of all believers. That one day, because of the power of Christ, we will all rise again with him on the last day to join the Lord in heaven forever. And that's certainly true. This is a sign to point to the future resurrection of all believers. There's gonna come a day, even after you pass away, even after you die, that you, if you are in Christ, will resurrect and come back to life and be with him in a glorified body, in a glorified state, in his glorified presence. However, I think there's another reason, a more specific reason why this is here and why this occurred when it did and how it did. And I think it has everything to do with the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Turn with me over to Ezekiel chapter 37. I'm getting excited now, guys. We're going to Ezekiel. This is exciting. I'm excited. Ezekiel 37. Now the prophet Ezekiel, he's writing to the Jewish exiles in Babylon during the 6th century B.C. He delivers a series of messages to the people. Now again, these are saints who have been exiled, and he's calling them to repentance, but he's also offering them hope for the future. And if you were to read Ezekiel, his entire prophecy here, chapters 33 through 39 deal with the future restoration of Israel as a nation. And not just referring to their restoration after Babylon, but also in the last days. So he's seeing a future where they're restored out of captivity, but he kind of looks past that restoration and goes all the way to the end of days. And so these messages have a, I don't want to say double fulfillment, but there's certainly glimmers of the future. In chapter 36, this is very famous, Ezekiel prophesies the new covenant. The new covenant whereby the hearts of God's people will be remade and renewed. We're very familiar with this passage. God talks about, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my ways. We know that passage really well. That's the new covenant. But it's the very next chapter, chapter 37, however, that goes a step further. He goes further, he records a vision that's given to Ezekiel, one where he's standing in this valley, the valley of dry bones, and he's awaiting the resurrecting power of God. And so look at this with me, Ezekiel chapter 37, starting in verse one. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley. and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about. And behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, Son of Man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, you know. Again, he said to me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you may come to life. I will put sinews on you and make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you so that you may come alive and you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bones. And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them. And they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. And so this vision, beloved, this vision of a whole valley of dried bones that suddenly come together, rattle together, reanimate, and come to life before his very eyes. And the Lord offers the explanation in verse 11. Look at this, verse 11. He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off. Therefore, prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God. Look at this. Behold, I will open your graves. and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel, then you will know that I am the Lord. When I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people, and I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you in your own land, then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, declares the Lord." He's prophesying the spiritual revival of a nation, the nation of Israel, demonstrated by the picture here of dead bones becoming a living people. Now, we know that this prophecy is regarding the end of the age. There's coming a day in the future when God will do this with this people Israel. But there are remarkable parallels between this passage and the resurrection that takes place in Matthew 27. And think about this with me. In his vision, Ezekiel is standing in a valley full of dry bones. Jesus is crucified at a spot called the place of the skull. Ezekiel identifies the bones as being the whole house of Israel, while Matthew records that these, those who come alive are Jewish saints, those who are of the house of Israel. Ezekiel 37, 12 describes graves being opened and people coming out to walk through the land of Israel. Matthew tells us that these resurrected saints, they come out of their graves and they enter the holy city. Literally, they're walking around the capital city of Israel. Again, Ezekiel 37 will ultimately be fulfilled at a later time. But now we have this sort of mini resurrection on Easter Sunday that is nothing short of a precursory fulfillment of this Old Testament prophecy. What is the message? What is the message here? The Lord God is bringing life and resurrection to the people of Israel through Jesus Christ. Of course, it's not hard to see that there's even more connections. And once I saw this this week, and I'll tell you, not all commentators see this. And when I found this, I'm thinking, there's gotta be someone else who sees it. I looked book after book after book. Finally, I found two that made a reference to this. I'm thinking, maybe I'm onto something here. But there's more going on. Think about this with me. The bones in the valley are resurrected to make up a what? A body. Christ who was killed at the place of the skull is resurrected to be the head of the body. And so even prophetically, metaphorically, you have Christ, the head of the body, resurrecting first, and then bringing forth the resurrection of the body, his church. Even then you see this prophetic fulfillment, and this church then follows him to glory. But again, why does this happen? It was to demonstrate to Israel that Christ's resurrection precedes and produces the resurrection of his people. There is life coming in Christ. They will see him one day alive and ascend with him to heaven. This is remarkable. Remarkable fulfillment. Precursory fulfillment. of the prophecy in Ezekiel 37. This brings us to then the third miracle of Calvary, the third miracle. Number three, the awakened soldier, the awakened soldier. Verse 54, now the centurion those who are with him keeping guard over Jesus when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening became very frightened and said truly this was the Son of God." Now this occurrence is also recorded in Mark and in Luke. Noting specifically here that there's an individual Roman centurion, even though Matthew notes that there's others with him, there's several other soldiers around, but Mark actually references this man and says that this is the centurion who was standing right in front of Jesus when he's hanging on the cross. And so it is this centurion specifically who witnesses all the sayings of Jesus, there are seven sayings of Christ on the cross, he hears all of those. He beholds the three hours of darkness surrounding Jesus. He hears Jesus speaking to God. And as soon as Jesus bows his head and gives up his spirit, there's a massive earthquake that breaks out. This man is standing right there, ground zero, as all this is taking place. He beholds all of these things, and the text says that he and those who are with him become very frightened. The NIV translates this, terrified. ESV renders this filled with awe. Probably a confluence of emotions here. There's a lot going on. He doesn't know what's going on around him. But as he stands there, the centurion arrives at the conclusion, and Luke 23, 47 records that Jesus is not the criminal that they all believed he was, rather the soldier confesses in Luke, certainly this man was innocent. That's the first conclusion, this man was innocent, clearly. And yet he goes beyond this in Matthew, and Matthew records, he says this, truly, This was the Son of God. And now Matthew has been tracing this theme through his gospel. We looked at this a couple weeks ago. And we note that the first time this notion, this concept of the Son of God, the first time this is uttered in Matthew's gospel comes in Matthew 4. But it's Satan who brings this theme forward. But it comes in the form of a challenge. Remember, he says, if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. He's tempting, he's testing Jesus, and he's challenging him as the Son of God. The next time we see Son of God is in Matthew 8, 29, and this time it's a group of demons. Demons identify, they recognize Jesus as the Son of God. Yet even the religious leaders of Israel can't acknowledge this truth. And we see this when he's on trial, the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, they completely disregard him altogether and they say, are you the son of God? Is that who you claim to be? Yet the first time that a positive affirmation of Jesus as the son of God comes from Peter, in Matthew 16, 16, whereby he says to Jesus, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. That's the first time. This is a true profession, the first true profession of saving faith in the New Testament, to which Jesus, who hears this profession, acknowledges very quickly, he says, blessed are you, Simon, son of John, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. So not only does Jesus acknowledge the blessedness of Peter's profession, but he also acknowledges the origin of it. Saving faith comes from the Lord. We don't drum it up. Faith doesn't come through weighing the evidence and coming to a logical conclusion, even though there is some logic attached to it, of course. Because the gospel is logical, the Bible is logical, it makes sense to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. And yet we understand that saving faith is not something that we create, that we produce. We don't muscle it up. No, saving faith comes from the Lord. It descends down from top to bottom. It's a divine grace. More than that, it's a divine miracle. Why do I say it that way? Because only the Lord can recreate the heart. Only the Lord can open up eyes and give you understanding. You know, we wrestle with our unbelieving friends and family and those around us. We wrestle. We try to convince them. It feels like sometimes we're walking into a wall. You preach the Gospel. You share the Gospel. You talk about the Bible. You express these truths. And it feels like you're talking to a wall sometimes. The most brilliant people in the world Oftentimes do not see these things, yet little children see these things. Why is that? Why is that that the smart, the wise, the brilliant cannot see these things because they're divinely discerned? God has to open up the mind. He has to open up the ears and the eyes. He has to enliven the heart. He has to breathe from the four winds the spirit of a living God to come into a person and awaken them. This is a divine miracle. It's only after this happens, Matthew 16, 16, when Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, the only other time that this happens in Matthew is here in chapter 27 with the profession of the centurion. The centurion. Because again, based on what we've seen elsewhere in Matthew, this is nothing short of a miraculous, divinely revealed profession of saving faith made by a man who beheld Jesus on the cross. This is a Gentile soldier who was responsible for putting Jesus to death. He had no earthly business being a Christian. He wasn't even a Jew. He didn't even know anything. He knew nothing. If anything, he was the one with his hand on the nail with a hammer. We don't even know which one he was. But we know he's standing there, making sure he couldn't get off the cross. And yet it was that man, That man standing in front of Jesus who becomes terrified and declares truly, this was the Son of God. Again, seeing Christ on the cross is one thing. Believing that He is the Son of God who has given His life for sinners is completely another. 1 John 5, 20, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding in order that we might know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is true God and eternal life. The only way a person comes to faith in Jesus is when God moves in them. Our spiritual bones have to be rattled together. God has to put our marrow back into our bones. He has to knit them together and cover them with skin. He has to put breath into our lungs and cause our heart to beat blood again. God has to do it. If God doesn't revive the heart, there is no life. So therefore, all life, all regeneration, all resurrection, all spiritual faith, all of these things are gifts from God. God awakens the soul. God revives the heart. God illuminates the understanding. All praise for salvation belongs to our God. And so we have these three miracles that take place on Golgotha as Jesus dies on the cross. First, we have the temple veil, which is torn from top to bottom, demonstrating that in Christ we have full access to God. The way is open for us now. Next, we have the tombs of departed saints opened in fulfillment of biblical prophecy, showing that in Christ, new life and resurrection are possible. Only He can turn dry bones into living souls. And then third, the centurion soldier is awakened unto saving faith in the Son of God, showing us that only the only true response to the cross, the right response to the cross, is belief. When you look at the cross, what do you see? Do you see a poor, helpless martyr who was crucified for being a radical? Do you see some Jewish teacher who had a couple of good things to say, but too bad he died? Do you see a notable figure in the course of human history? Do you see a great leader, a great man? All of those things, of course, but what do you see? Do you see him as the God man? Do you see him as Jesus Christ, the Messiah? Do you see him as the son of God coming into the world to take away sin and deliver us into the hands of a loving father? Do you see him as God incarnate winning and delivering his people? That's what we ought to see. That's what the soldier saw. Truly, this was the son of God. By faith in Christ, you can have access to God unhindered. There's no more barrier in Christ. By faith in Christ, you can experience new life, not just now, but forever. By faith in Christ, you can receive a heart of belief that sees Jesus for who He really is, the Son of God. And this all leads us again back to the cross to bring us to a place where we say, do you believe the gospel? Do you believe the message of salvation that Jesus Christ has given his life? He didn't lose it. It wasn't taken away from him. He gave it. He gave his life as a ransom for many. He gave his life for you so that you might believe and by believing have new life in his name. He died to take away the punishment, the penalty of sin. He died to open access between us and God. He died so that we could have forgiveness for our sins. He died so we could have new life and resurrection. What is our response to be? Repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ. And the Bible says you will live. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for your word. We thank you for these Remarkable miracles. These occurrences that by themselves make us scratch our head, and maybe at face value we don't see how they're connected, but we know that every single jot and tittle, every single letter, every single punctuation mark in the scriptures is here for a specific purpose. That you wove out the events of history together in such a way, you recorded them in such a way to lead us to the perfect conclusion that Jesus Christ has come to give life, to give access, to give forgiveness, to give salvation. And Lord, I pray that you would awaken our hearts. If we're sluggish, if we're dry, if we feel like maybe our bones are drying out here this morning, I pray that you would invigorate, inject new spiritual marrow into our bones, invigorate our hearts, oh Lord. Give our minds understanding and light. Give us passion for You. Give us a desire to repent, a desire to pursue holiness. Let us run back to You unhindered. And Lord, if there are any here who don't yet know You, if they've been standing far off and saying, well, I don't know, I'm not sure, I'm a bystander. Lord, bring them to the foot of the cross. Make them stand there and behold what took place that day. Let them stand there and reckon with Jesus. Look into His face and see their sin hanging on His body. And yet let them also see the face of God unhindered. Let them see the beloved Christ who gave His life for them that they might repent and turn away and believe on him for salvation and have new life in Christ. Let this be the day of salvation. Thank you, oh Lord, for giving us your word. Thank you, oh Lord, for giving us your gospel and for giving us the son of God, the living God, who has given himself for us. We thank you for all of these things in Jesus' name, amen.