God's Wrath On His Son
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning.
Good Morning.
What do you call a Christmas wreath made of $100 bills?
Aretha Franklins
I am so excited for our new DOM to start! I am also so sad that I missed everything on Thursday! Continue to pray for Mullins Association and Trey and Denise as they begin the transition to our area.
Today we are going to be in Mark 15:33-41.
Last week we took a look at the first 3 hours of Jesus’ crucifixion. Those verses showed how the people’s part in Christ’s crucifixion. We saw again how the focus was not on the pain and suffering of the crucifixion, but it was focused on the rejection and humiliation of Jesus. All that was said about the crucifixion was that they crucified Jesus. We talked about the guards casting lots for Jesus’ clothing just like it was foretold in the Old Testament. We also talked about Jesus being crucified between two thieves also just like it was foretold in the Old Testament. We saw how the people passing by were making fun of Jesus and telling Him to save Himself and come down from the cross. They were tempting Jesus to miss use His power and authority. If He would have done that, He would not have been obedient to the Father. If He would have come down from the cross, there would be no salvation for anyone! Then the scribes and chief priests mocked Jesus. Saying that He saved others but cannot save Himself. They told Him to come down from the cross so that they could see and believe. Again, they were tempting Jesus. Although this was not a very good test, Jesus knew that they would not believe by seeing! He told the parable about the rich man and Lazarus. In that parable, Jesus told the rich man that his brothers would not believe even if they saw a dead person rise. We are told in the Bible that faith comes from hearing! Hearing the Word of God! That is why it is so important to guard what we allow into our ears! Our ears are a direct path to our hearts! We can either be listening to the things that will build us up, edify us, correct us, or we can be listening to the things that will tear us down. It really does make a difference when we guard our ears! When we are intentional about what we listen to and what we read, you would be surprised the difference it makes when we do that! We also talked about even the two thieves mocked Jesus. They used their last breaths to mock the Son of God! That to me is the worst thing that happened! Two men who are dying and struggling to just breathe, and they are mocking our King!!
Today we are going to see what happens when God visits Calvary! These verses all deal with God’s response to His Son on the cross. We will get to see Jesus react to what God is doing and we will end with a Gentiles response to the death of Jesus.
Please stand as we prepare to hear God’s Word!
33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 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?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 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.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 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!”
40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
We are now at the sixth hour, noon. Remember Jesus was nailed to the cross at 9 am, the third hour. Jesus was on the cross for 6 hours! Six hours of excruciating pain and every breathe a battle with that pain. To me, what Jesus went through is unimaginable. I can wrap my head around just how much pain He must have been in. All because of my sin, my rebellion. But He endured it for me, for you. That is how much He and God love you! As a father, I can’t imagine watching my son go through something like that knowing that I could stop it, but it was necessary. That He needed to go through it. That is the definition of hard!
We see that when it got to the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land. It is noon, it is supposed to be the brightest and warmest part of the day, but there was darkness!
Some people teach that this darkness represents the absence of God. I completely disagree with that teaching. God is omnipresent! He is everywhere, always. Just because we don’t fell Him or sense His presence, doesn’t mean He is not there.
I believe that this darkness represents the wrath of God. Often in the Bible, God is represented by light. We can see all through out the Old Testament. Jesus even said He was the light of the World. Now that He is being sacrificed, that light is temporarily put out as a symbol of what is happening. In Egypt God used darkness as a plague on the Egyptians. Darkness is not a sign of God’s absence.
What a contrast between the birth and death of Jesus. We are told in Luke 2:9
9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood near them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.
God’s glory was revealed as light. What does Jesus say that He is? Jesus is God glory!
God lit up the night with the birth of His Son. A joyous occasion Emanual (God with us) came and was born! Jesus is the light of the world and when He was born, He light was shown.
At His death, God took away the light for 3 hours. I think this symbolizes the three days that Jesus will be in the grave. The world rejected the Son of God and His light, so God removed the light at the peak time of the day when it should have been the brightest. Some say that this was an eclipse. No eclipse has ever lasted 3 hours! It was also not the right time of the year for an eclipse. There is no way to explain this darkness other than God blocked the sun. God was at Calvary!
We are told that the darkness lasted for three hours, until the ninth hour. At the end of the darkness, we can see that Jesus reacts to God’s wrath and punishment. Mark tells us that He cries out with a loud voice! No big deal, right. Not for Jesus, but remember where He is and what He has been through for the last 8-10 hours. For the last 6 hours, He has been rubbing His back up and down the cross to try and breathe! His back is laid open, bone exposed and possible organs also! And yet He had the energy and stamina to cry out in a loud voice. He cried out Mark 15:34 “34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “eloi, eloi, lema sabaktanei?” which is translated, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” This is what Jesus dreaded the most when He looked toward the cross, the absence of the Fatherly presence of God! Jesus cries out to His father in tender love, He says twice, my God. This is a sign of endearment and love. He is still God the Father, but at this moment, He is God the Judge! He has put all the sin on His Son and is judging Him. He had found Him guilty and has turned His back on Him. His face is not shining on Him at this time. We have a hard time understanding just what is happening here because we can never have the relationship with God that Jesus had while He was here on earth. Jesus was in perfect obedience to God and perfect communion with Him. We are not able to have that perfect relationship this side of heaven. We have a relationship with God, but it is flawed by out sin and disobedience at times. He will never forsake us, but our relationship is not perfect like Jesus’ was. It is normal for us to go through times when we don’t fell God’s presence, that was not the case for Jesus. Of all that He has gone through, to Him, this was the worst!
Some bystanders heard Him cry out and miss heard Him. They thought He was calling out to Elijah. They all knew there Old Testament and we are told in the Old Testament that Elijah must come before the Messiah. What they failed to realize was the Elijah had already come and his head was cut off. John the Baptist was the Elijah coming before the Messiah. He came to prepare the way for Jesus. In Matthew 17:12
12 But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”
Just like John the Baptist suffered, so will Jesus.
They rushed to give Him some sour wine. This was cheap wine that was commonly drank by soldiers and workers, it was often diluted. I don’t think that Jesus took any of it. We are not told that He did take it, just that they offered it. Remember last week, they offered Jesus strong wine and He refused. He was not going to drink of the fruit of the vine again until His father’s kingdom. So I do not believe that He took this wine, as cheap and diluted as it was, He still did not drink it.
We think we finally see some compassion from the crowd for Jesus, they are giving Him a drink. Like Lee Corso would say on College Game Day, Not so fast my friend! Look at what Mark tells us is the reason they gave Him the drink. They wanted to see if Elijah would come. They wanted Jesus to get some liquids in Him so He would live a little long, suffer a little longer, just so they could see if they would get to see Elijah! This was mercy, it was selfish and cruel! Absolutely no regard for Jesus or what He was going through! They just wanted to see another miracle! They wanted to see Elijah!
When this was done, Jesus again cried out with a loud voice. How does He have the energy to do that! I think this shows that Jesus is the Son of God! He was in control the whole time. He was not close to being killed. He still had plenty of energy. He could have gone on forever! No one takes the life of Jesus, He lays it down.
What did He say? Glad you asked!
46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
Jesus didn’t die, He gave up His life for us, for all who would call upon His name! The whomsoever!
Then one of the greatest things ever happens when Jesus gives up His life. The curtain of the temple was torn in two! It was torn in a very specific way, from the top to the bottom.
This was the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple. It was a sacred room, that no one could enter except for the High Priest one day a year. He wasn’t allowed to just go in and hang out with God either, he was to go in and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice and then leave. It was so holy that when he was to enter, the other priests would tie a rope around him, that way if He died in the presence of God, they could pull him out. They were not allowed to go in even to retrieve a dead body!
We have learned from Jewish historians like Josephus, that the curtain was about 4 inches thick! Two horses could not tear it. There was no man that could tear this curtain. Josephus also tells us that the curtain was 60’ tall and 30’ wide! That is a big curtain!! Only God could have torn that curtain! The sole purpose of that curtain was to separate man from God. With the death of Jesus, that separation was no longer needed! God is telling the people that they can now come to him through His Son! He is saying that we no longer need a priest to be an intermediator between Him and them. Christ is that intermediator from now on. Anyone who calls upon His name can come directly to God! Through Christ’s sacrifice, we are now sons and daughter’s of God! There was no way for the Sanhedrin to explain the tearing of the curtain! It was God!
After all this, we are told that the centurion that was there guarding the crucifixion area was facing Jesus and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” This was a leader of 100 Roman soldiers. He was an experience warrior and probably had seen several people die and more than likely killed several people himself. He recognized that this death was different! Like nothing he had ever seen before!
I continually see new things in the Bible as I dig and study for these sermons! Jesus died for both Jew and Gentile! While Jesus was on the cross, the Jew next to Him repented and believed! Now this Gentile believes! I know we are not told that he was saved, but in Acts, Peter goes to Cornelius’ house and he is told the gospel and is baptized! Cornelius was a Centurion! This could have been the same guy! We are told in Acts 10:1-2
1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.
Remember that there were extra Roman soldiers called into Jerusalem for the Passover. He could have been one of those men. There is no way to provide he was and no way to prove he wasn’t. It just got me thinking, that a Jew and a Gentile turned to God while Jesus was on the cross.
We are shown that Jesus died for both Jews and Gentiles.
Finally Mark tells us that there are several women there at the cross. He names a few of them that we are familiar with and we are told in John 19:26
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
That John was the only male disciple that stayed around at the crucifixion.
Mark tells us that these woman had been following Jesus for years and had ministered to Him. Who else are we told that ministered to Jesus? Again, I am so glad you asked! The angels! Matthew 4:11
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Now, I am not saying that these ladies were angels. It is interesting that these ladies served Jesus just like the angels did in the desert and they are the only ones at the cross.
I hope you can see that God was at Calvary that day. He was there in a mighty way! He was there as Judge, it is a side of God that we as believers will not have to experience! Jesus did that for us. We can stand before God on judgement day and Jesus will step in and say, I know him/her. I took his punishment.
The big question is, are you standing at the temple before the curtain was torn or after?
Have you repented and believed in Jesus so that you have access to the Father?
Have you taken advantage of the greatest gift ever given to humanity?
We have looked at the trial, scourging and crucifixion of Jesus. We have seen the cost of my sin, of your sin!
We have seen the perfect love of the Father! Of the Son!
He did all of that for me. He did all of that for you!
All so that we can spend eternity with Him!
It is a simple decision that has to be made.
Are you sorry for you sin and the price that had to be paid because of it?
Are you tired of trying to do it on you own and continuing to fail?
Are you ready to give control over to the only one who is truly worthy of having it?
If you are, today is the day that that can take place.
All you have to do is tell God that you repent of you sins, that you are truly sorry for your disobedience to Him.
Then you just have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, who came to die for your sins so that you could be called a son or daughter!
It is that simple. You don’t have to walk down here and say some prewritten prayer.
This is between you and God! You just need to talk to Him.
If you chose to do that, please let us know so that we can celebrate with you and we can come along side you and help you start this new life!
Liberty, I love you and I am so glad that God has called me to this church.
Liberty, we made it! We are through the worst of the verses, in my opinion. Next week we will look at the burial of Jesus and then the last Sunday of 2025 we will talk about the resurrection. Then the first Sunday of 2026, we will finish Mark!! That Sunday in 2026 we will talk about some verses that are not in every translation of the Bible. Those verses were not found in some of the earliest manuscripts, but they are in the ESV, so we will talk about them.
Let’s pray
