A Death Unlike Any Other

There is no human experience that grips the mind, the emotions in the soul more than death. Whether it is facing your own death or experiencing the death of a loved one. There's nothing that grips us and entangles our mind, emotions in soul, any more than that. But today we're going to look at a death unlike any other. The death of the one who was broken, whose body was broken and whose blood was spilled out for us, the Lord Jesus. So I invite your attention this morning to Matthew chapter 27, where we find one of the gospel accounts of the death of Christ. And today we focus on the last three hours of Christ's time on the cross. A lot happened in those six hours that Jesus poured out his life for us on the cross. But the last three hours really drive home the meaning of Christ's death. And then afterwards the effects of Christ's death. And that's what we want to take a few moments to look at before we observe communion this morning. We have your place in Matthew 27. We're going to look at verses 45 to 56. First of all, in verses 45 to 50, we find, describe for us in the very death of Christ the meaning of his death. And the very first thing that stands out is that Christ's death means for us the judgment of God. Look with me, please at verse 45. Matthew 27, verse 45. From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice. Ali, Ali, lemma sabakhthani, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These two verses really describe for us the essence of God's judgment that was being poured out on the cross. We see it first in the darkness in verse 45. Notice the time frame from noon until three in practically any place in the world, but especially in the Middle East, near the equator. That's the time of the most intense power of the sun during the day. And during those hours of the most intense time of the sun's power upon this earth, there was complete darkness, immediate darkness, sudden darkness, supernatural darkness, and silence. The gospels do not record any words spoken during those three hours. We don't know for sure whether they were not word any, but we know that Jesus did not speak any during those three hours. There's no record of even his tormentors speaking during those three hours. It is as though all of creation mourns the suffering of the creator. It is as though even his tormentors are silenced, shocked, in the silence by what they are witnessing in this supernatural display of creation turning its back, and even the father turning his back upon his son as he suffers on the cross. Obviously, this is the most intense period of God's judgment on the cross, God's wrath being poured out upon the cross. But what is he judging? Why is he pouring his wrath out upon his son? What curse is being born in these three hours? The gospels and the prophets make it very clear what is happening with this time of darkness and the pouring out of God's wrath. And prophet Isaiah says it so clearly in Isaiah 53, these verses on the screen. Surely he took up the Messiah, the Christ, took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds we are healed. And then he says in that verse 6, we all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So while people may look at him and see him as being judged by God, maybe for something he's done, the prophet makes it clear. It was for our sins, our transgressions, because of his strife, we are healed, his wounds pay the penalty for our sin. And the New Testament makes that equally as clear. Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 2, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness by whose wounds you have been healed. Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, God made him, Jesus, who had no sin to be sin for us. In other words, to take our sin on him, he's made an offering to pay for our sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, how? By becoming a curse for us for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole. In other words, who is crucified on a cross. Jesus, when he died on the cross, when God was pouring out his judgment and his wrath and all of his curse, he was pouring it out on Jesus because Jesus was taking your place in my place. And it was my sin and your sin that Jesus was dying for on that cross. Our sin was poured out on him and God was judging him in our place. So in these hours of darkness, wave after wave of lies and violence and murder and lust and hatred and pride and jealousy and so many other sins are poured out on him and he dies for them all. He pays the penalty, a penalty sufficient for all sin. So God's judgment is seen in the very darkness that occurred supernaturally on that day. But it is also seen in the cry that comes from our Savior's lips at the end of that darkness. We read it in verse 46, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The darkness, the amazing display and dramatic visual demonstration of God's judgment takes place for three hours and at the end of those three hours, the silence is broken by our Savior. As he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I'm confident that shook everyone who was witnessing what they were seeing and hearing what they were hearing. Most people who died from Roman crucifixion and there were many thousands in the first century that the Romans put to death as object lessons of their power and that nobody there violated that power. Most of those who died that agonizing slow torturous death would curse because of the pain they were feeling. They would rage against their tormentors. They would plead for mercy but nothing like that comes from the lips of our Savior. Jesus thought, sir, upon the fact that he has separated from the Father and decries out his inexpressible spiritual pain at being separated from his Father. He has existed in perfect harmony and fellowship with his Father throughout eternity past and now in these hours his Father turns away from him as he pours out his wrath upon him. Jesus knows the horror of being completely separated from the Father. What he was bearing spiritually on the cross is what every lost soul will spend an eternity in hell bearing. And Jesus because he is the infinite Son of God bears all of that in a matter of hours. But he knows the horror of it. He looks deeply into the horror of being separated from his Father. It was that very horror that he saw ahead of time in the Garden of Gethsemane and it almost drained him of his life before he ever got to the cross. And now as he experiences it on the cross, he utters that cry, recognizing God's judgment on him because he is our substitute. He is taking our place. What is the meaning of the death of Christ? It is the judgment of God. But the judgment of God for your sin and my sin in the person of our substitute, the Lord Jesus. But there is a second meaning of the cross in this text of Scripture and that is the completed payment for sin. Look at verse 47. When some of those standing there heard this they said he is calling Elijah. Ali Ali that Hebrew expression, the name of God, L with the one letter on the end which means my, my God, my God. But Ali Ali they thought he was saying Elijah or calling or maybe they were doing this in jest as light returns in those final moments on the cross. Maybe they are even ingest saying he is calling Elijah in order to get the complete flow of the events of the cross. You have to put all the gospels together. So what happens right after this is not told us in Matthew's gospel but it is shared in John's gospel. John says that Jesus said something in John 19 verse 28 later knowing that everything had now been finished and so the Scripture would be fulfilled. Jesus said I am thirsty because of the intense sun in the first three hours of the cross because of the intensity of the pain and suffering and all they have suffered leading up to the cross. His mouth is parts, his throat is dry. He needs that to be moistened for this reason. Verse 48 immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on staff and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to saving. Now here's the reason why Jesus wanted some moisture in his mouth and his throat on his lips. Verse 50 and when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice he gave up his spirit. What did he cry out? What did he want to have a loud voice to make very plain and forceful and clear again? John helps us in John 19 30 when he had received the drink. Jesus said it is finished. That's what he wanted a loud voice to cry. It is finished with that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Jesus cries those words with all the power and strength in his restored voice because he wants everyone to know he has finished his work. He has finished the work the Father sent him to do. He has finished paying for sin on the cross. This is a victory shout. The word the gospel writers use is actually one word translated into our three English words. It is finished. One word which was a financial term used for completed transactions. It was actually the word that would be stamped on receipts in that day. It literally meant paid in full. When you go to the store or go to a place of business some places of business still do this. The sanitary board still does this. You hand them your bill. They will stamp paid on your receipt. That's exactly what Jesus was doing on the cross. He was stamping paid in full on the bill that was owed to God for our sin. All that was needed to pay for sin. All that was needed to erase our debt before God is finished by his work on the cross. It is completed by what Jesus did there. We dare not try to add anything to his completed work. He himself has said it's finished. It's paid in full. Nothing can be added to that. So for me to bring my church attendance or my baptism or my church membership or my good moral living or my attempts to keep the law and offer that to God. In addition to the payment that's already been made. What arrogance for me to think that I can add anything. What audacity to even attempt to add anything to the bill that has already been stamped paid in full. You can't buy your poultry efforts. Your meager efforts. Add anything to the payment that's already been paid. It is paid in full. We dare not contradict Jesus when he said it is finished. Don't try to add anything to that. Don't try to earn your way into heaven by the good things you do. Jesus paid for your sins on the cross and finished that payment in full. The meaning of Christ's death is the judgment of God for our sin. It is a completed payment for sin and it is also a voluntary giving of his life. Because verse 50 says when Jesus had cried out again and allowed voice those words that is finished. He gave up his spirit. This is truly a death unlike any other Jesus did not die an ordinary death. Again, usually people who died on a cross died from a gradual loss of strength, rendering them unable to continue to push up on that peg that their feet were nailed to so that they could get a breath. The way they were stretched out on the cross constricted their lungs and the only way they could breathe was to push up and gasp for air. Once they became so weakened through the intense suffering of the cross and could no longer push up they would slowly suffocate by not being able to breathe. But that didn't happen to Jesus. Jesus voluntarily gives up his spirit. He is in full control of his thoughts and he is fully conscious right up to the end. He asks for the drink so that his voice can be strong enough to shout those words of victory. But at the very end just before he dies, Luke's Gospel helps us here. Jesus cries out again and allowed voice in Luke 23. Father into your hands I commit my spirit that said an allowed voice not a weak dying gas for air. In a loud voice Jesus says father into your hands I commit my spirit when he had said this he breathed his last. All the gospels use expressions which forcibly describe the voluntary giving of Jesus of his life. Nobody says he died. Nobody says that. Matthew says he gave up his spirit. Mark and Luke say he breathed his last in a sense saying he voluntarily dismissed his spirit. John's Gospel says he bowed his head and gave up his spirit truly a death unlike any other. A voluntary giving of his life for us. Jesus himself had said he would do that in John chapter 10 and verses 17 and 18. He said the reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me. There will be no religious leaders that will take my life from me. There will be no Roman soldiers that take my life from me. No one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my father. What does Jesus death mean? What are we remembering here this morning? We are remembering that the judgment of God for our sins and the one who was our substitute. We are remembering the completed payment for sin and we are remembering that no one took his life from him. He voluntarily gave his life because he loved you and he loved me so much that he died for us. What we see next in Matthew's record are some events that took place immediately following the death of Christ. And they illustrate for us they serve as divine object lessons of some of the effects of the death of Christ. What effect did Christ's death have? What did it accomplish? The first in verse 51 is access into God's presence. Look at the verse, verse 51, at that moment that the moment he gave up his spirit, at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn into. From top to bottom the earth shook and the rocks split and the tombs broke open. At the moment Jesus died, the heavy curtain, the veil that was between two parts of the temple, two rooms in the temple. There was one room, there was a large open area that people would come and bring their sacrifices and they would be slain. Blood would be drained on the brazen author but there was a building in the temple and two rooms in that building in the first room only priests could go and carry out priestly duties that had to do with three pieces of furniture there in the temple. But at the end of that room where only priests could go there was a large thick curtain that separated that room from an inner room, the holy of holies or the most sacred place. The Bible calls it and into that room there was one piece of furniture called the mercy seat. The octave of the covenant on which was a lid called the mercy seat and only once a year could only the high priest go back into that inner sanctum, taking the blood of sacrificed animals, sprinkling it on that mercy seat, demonstrating that the blood covers our sin and brings the mercy of God to forgive us our sin. But every year that high priest had to do that but he was the only one allowed past that curtain and the only one one time a year is all he could go back there. Anyone who ventured into that room which signified the very presence of God would be immediately struck dead only the high priest only once a year. And when Jesus died, can you imagine being a priest in the temple that day and maybe it was your responsibility to be in the holy place, maybe you were at the table of show bread replacing the bread or the candlestick or the incense author offering incense. And all of a sudden this huge thick curtain is ripped into from top to bottom showing it was a supernatural miraculous act of God. What does that signify that the way into the presence of God has now been opened wide for any who will come by the death of Christ at the moment he dies. That symbol of restricted access into the presence of God is split and now there is open access into the presence of God. The writer of Hebrews says it so beautifully this way in Hebrews 10. Therefore brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way. The old way of dead animals is now gone by a new and living way open to us by Christ through the curtain that is his body. Okay, since we had this access he says and since we have a great priest over the house of God. Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and the full assurance that faith brings. In other words, we can draw near. We can go into the presence of God now. Jesus opened the way for us to come into his presence to be saved, to have our sins forgiven and to have a relationship with God no longer is there a barrier between God and man. The veil has been torn and we can go with confidence into the very presence of God for salvation and for fellowship and prayer. We have access into God's presence. Secondly, we have victory over death. In the next two verses verses 52 and 53 something very unusual happens that is only recorded in Matthew's Gospel. Look at verse 52. And the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. Some of the most perplexing verses in all of the Bible and you read these two verses and you just find yourself shaking your heads and what was going on there? Are there been many suggestions to try to explain what was happening? There's not much detail given here in the scriptures. It's just stated really without any explanation. I love DA Carson's explanation and his excellent commentary on the Gospel of Matthew where he says that probably what was happening was not a detail given here in the scriptures. The Gospel of Matthew where he says that probably what was happening here is that when the earth quaked when Jesus died it was enough to break open tombs but it wasn't until Jesus' resurrection on Sunday morning that God allowed some Old Testament saints to actually be resurrected and go into Jerusalem and appear to many people. Why did that happen? Why did God and who were they? I mean was it Moses? David Elijah? I say who was it? We don't know but it must have been people that would have been recognizable but they go in and appear to people. Why does God allow that? Probably to declare the victory of Christ's resurrection and this is what is possible because of Christ's resurrection. They appear long enough to establish the power of Christ in his resurrection power but also to instill an appetite in those who are probably wondering and still an appetite in them for a future resurrection accomplished only by the power of Christ. Then what happened to them? That's the most intriguing question that the Bible doesn't answer. Did they walk back into their tombs? I can't imagine that happening. I can't imagine them living and dying again. So I think probably God just took him on to heaven after a period of time where they appeared to people but the purpose of this whole thing is to show if they with a visible demonstration that Christ's death is a place where Christ is in the world. Freeze people from the bonds of death. Christ's death accomplishes a victory over death that will someday be ours when we are raised from the dead. When we die, our soul goes immediately into the presence of God. Our body is fixed up better than we've ever looked before and placed in a grave somewhere. But there's coming a day when Jesus will come back and we'll come with him. Our souls will come with him and we'll be reunited with a resurrected body that will come out of the tomb just like these people did on the morning of Christ's resurrection. Our bodies will come out of the tomb, be reunited with our spirit, immediately change to be a glorified body like Christ and will be immediately caught up to be with the Lord in heaven. And as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4 and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So this is just a foretaste of that. This is just an emblem of sign of what's to come on a much more glorious resurrection day. The effect of Christ's death, victory over death, a third effect is a confession of faith. Notice at verse 54, when the Centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed surely he was the Son of God. Who is this man? A centurion is a Roman soldier by definition centurion, a Roman soldier over a hundred other soldiers. So he's obviously the one in charge at the crucifixion scene. He has been in charge of this delegation of Roman soldiers since they encountered Christ since he was turned over to them at the beating and discouraging. He knows what the charges are. He was probably one of his soldiers that put the placard over the cross beam that Jesus carried with him to the cross that would say what he was condemned for, what he was charged with. He had seen the scourgeings and the beatings. He had seen the words on the placard on the way to the cross. He had heard Jesus interact with people on the way to the cross. And in the first three hours on the cross, he had heard the charges against him from the ridicule that was thrown his way. He had seen Jesus mother there grieving the loss of her son. He had heard the thief interact with Jesus and Jesus say to him today, you will be with me in paradise. He had encountered the three hours of creepy, horrible God judging darkness over the earth in the middle of the world. He had heard the explosively triumphant words of Christ. It is finished. Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And then he felt the earthquake. And by now, he is deeply convinced in his soul that this is no ordinary man dying, like he's seen so many before. He is willing to confess publicly that he is the son of God. And when you finally realize what Jesus did for you on the cross, how, how is it possible to not publicly say he is the son of God, he is the Savior. I embrace him by faith as my Savior. How is it possible to hold back if you realize what he did for you on the cross? But there's one final demonstration of the effect of Christ's death in verse 55. And that is an expression of love. Many women were there watching from a distance they had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of Zebadi's sons. These are women that are there for the whole six hours watching as Jesus pours out his life. They are drawn to the cross. One last expression of their love for him and their commitment to him, they cannot stay away. And we too are still drawn to the cross. We cannot stay away. We come this morning to these elements, this bread, this juice which reminds us as we hold them in our fingers, as we take them into our mouths and just them. We are visibly, tangibly reminded of the cross and what happened there. We cannot stay away because we love him. And so when we take of these elements we are saying to Jesus, I love you for what you did for me. I love you for giving your body to be broken for me the way you did. I love you for shedding your blood. You were broken and spilled out for me. And I will never get over that. I will never forget it. I will always love you for that. That's what we're saying with this. This is not a religious ritual. This is not a ceremony that we just do and go home and forget about. This is where we come to say, I love you, Jesus. I love you for what you've done for me. I love you. I can't stay away. Has that become personal to you? My question for you this morning, have you recognized and accepted Christ's death for you personally? Have you realized this was not just some great cosmic event, although it was that. But it was done for you personally, Jesus bore your sin on the cross. Do you come this morning to this table saying, I love you, Lord, for what you've done for me. Let's bow for prayer. And as we pray, I'm going to ask the men who will be serving us the elements to come. Take your place here at the front. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your great love for us. That was willing to give us your son to be our savior. Jesus, thank you for giving your life your broken body, your shed blood to pay for our sins. And Holy Spirit, thank you for making that real to us in our conversion. Lord, as we come to the table this morning, and as we receive these elements from this table, I pray that you would help us from our hearts to say once again, thank you. I love you in Jesus' name, amen.