Every Last Word

Guest (Male): The sky would go dark. A curtain would be torn from top to bottom. Nothing could stop the inevitable. Jesus was dying. God had turned his back on his only son. But the end is in sight. A light can be seen.

Welcome to Every Last Word, a radio and internet program with Dr. Philip Ryken, teaching the whole Bible to change your whole life. We're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel as the events of Jesus' life come to an end. Death is at hand, but so is our salvation.

Phil, today you'll speak of several miracles that happened on the day of the crucifixion. Tell us about one of them.

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken: Well, there were several miracles that day, weren't there, Mark? One of the miracles people sometimes overlook is just the fact of the great darkness that descended on the earth during the hours that Jesus was on the cross. We'll talk about that in today's message, but it's clearly a sign of God's judgment and the wrath that he was pouring out against our sin that Jesus was bearing on the cross. It's a miracle that testifies to the forgiveness of our sins.

Guest (Male): Of course, Jesus had a very brutal and difficult death. Yet, despite all that, Jesus died well. How was that possible?

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken: Well, he did die well, didn't he, Mark? He died in the very end trusting in his Father, faithful to do the work that he was given to do to the very end of his life. I think as we read the Gospel of Luke, we see two things in particular that prepared him to die well. One of them was that he knew his Bible. That's evident from all the times he quotes from the scriptures while he was hanging on the cross. He was able to feed on the Word of God even in his most difficult moments.

The other thing is that he had complete trust in his Father. This shows us how to prepare to die well, Mark, and that is by learning to trust our Father for everything and by spending time studying and learning the Word of God, which will help us in any situation in life.

Guest (Male): Okay, thanks Phil. Let's turn in our Bibles now to Luke chapter 23, verses 44 through 49, and listen to Dr. Ryken.

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken: We have been considering in our studies in the Gospel of Luke the true account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was now the brightest time of the day. The sun was striving toward its zenith, the high and shining meridian of its daily glory. It was then that the darkness descended. It was now about the sixth hour, Luke tells us in verse 44, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour while the sun's light failed.

It was the day that the sun refused to shine. So, a black curtain fell over the stage of salvation, shrouding the cross with a thick darkness. This darkness was the first of I think three crucifixion miracles recorded in the Gospel of Luke. You have the descent of darkness in verse 44, the tearing of the veil in verse 45, and the conversion of the centurion in verse 47. As we see these three miracles, we also hear the voice of Jesus from the cross in verse 46, which may not be a miracle strictly speaking, but I think is an indisputable marvel. It is the voice of the God-forsaken son praying in the darkness and trusting in the Father that he could not then see.

Let's consider these things, beginning with this miraculous darkness described in the Gospel, a literal darkness with a symbolic meaning. Luke tells us that the whole land was dark and that it was dark for about three hours, from midday to midafternoon. This claim is confirmed in Matthew and Mark and also perhaps in other ancient sources. Writing around the year 200, Tertullian confidently informed his Roman readers that this wonder is related in your own annals and is preserved in your archives to this day. Later, both Origen and Eusebius quoted an account from the historian Phlegon, who described an extraordinary darkness that occurred sometime around the year of the crucifixion.

This darkness I think must have been a miracle, a divine intervention into the ordinary course of nature. It could not have been some ordinary eclipse of the sun. For one thing, it lasted for three hours, whereas a full eclipse of the sun lasts only for a few minutes. Furthermore, of course, the crucifixion took place at the time of Passover. That coincides always with a full moon, but any astronomer could tell you that a full moon is on the wrong side of the earth for any solar eclipse. So, this darkness covering the cross for these three dread hours I think should be attributed to the sovereign intervention of Almighty God.

What was the symbolic meaning of this miraculous sign? The poet Henry Colman asked: "Nothing but darkness to be seen? What fright hath caused the day thus to be turned to night?" Colman thought he knew the answer. It was the darkness of death. God's son is dead, he wrote. No marvel then the sun doth hide its head. Darkness is often used as a symbol of evil. In fact, Jesus had used the word that way himself the night that he was betrayed. The priests and the temple police came to arrest him and he said to those evil men, as we see in chapter 22 at verse 53: "This is your hour and the power of darkness."

How appropriate then for the cruel deed of the crucifixion to be covered with darkness, as if to say that this was the most evil of all crimes. Darkness was also a sign of sorrow, a symbol of sadness and grief. I wonder if you know this prophecy from the words of Amos. In chapter 8 of his prophecy: "On that day I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight." It sounds almost like a prophecy of the crucifixion, doesn't it? Amos goes on to say: "I will make it like the mourning, that is, the weeping for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day."

Did those words not come true on the day that Jesus was crucified? The sun turned to darkness, the sky, as it were, beginning to weep for the death of the Father's only son. Here was a day when the cross was draped in the weeping sackcloth of darkness.

Darkening sky was a symbol of evil perhaps, of sadness, but the Bible especially associates darkness with divine judgment. May I say that this was a day of judgment? The son of God was suffering the wrath of God against human sin. When the ancient prophets spoke about the coming of God's judgment, they said it would be a day of dark wonders in the heavens.

Zephaniah described it. He said a day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. The day that Jesus died was that kind of day. It was a dark day because in the dark hours he spent on the cross, he was bearing the guilt of our sin. The curse of God was against him. The sky was dark because he was suffering God's wrath against human sin and the creation itself was showing what Jesus was doing on the cross: the suffering, the judgment of God against our sin.

This is the first crucifixion miracle in the Gospel of Luke: the darkness of damnation. If we believe this miracle and understand what it means, then we know that Jesus suffered the deadly penalty that we deserve for our sin and therefore that we now are free from the wrath of God because that penalty has been paid.

There was a second miracle that took place on this day. It didn't take place at Calvary where Christ was crucified, but in the temple where the priests were worshipping God. Here is the second miracle as described for us at the end of verse 45: "And the curtain of the temple was torn in two." Here too we have a literal miracle with a symbolic meaning. Luke gives it very brief mention here, but it had a monumental significance because it showed that the way was now open to God.

This curtain at the temple was a magnificent piece of linen, richly embroidered with red and blue and purple thread. You may remember its function was to separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, sometimes called the Holy of Holies. The Holy Place was where many of the priests performed their sacred duties. They were trimming the golden lampstand and they were offering incense on the altar of prayer, but then the Most Holy Place was off-limits to them.

That room behind the curtain was the most sacred space in the world. That was the place where in those days God had chosen to manifest his holy presence. That was the place where God was. Inside that Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant. There the Mercy Seat was sprinkled with sacrificial blood to make atonement for the people of God.

There was only one person who ever went inside the Holy of Holies to meet with God and he only did it once a year. It was the high priest of Israel. On the Day of Atonement, he would go inside, but never without bringing the blood of a pure sacrifice. A sacrifice had to be made for sin before anyone could enter into the presence of God. This is taught really everywhere in the scriptures, that without the shedding of blood there is no access to the presence of God.

Even when he had this sacrificial blood, the high priest feared for his life every time he pulled the curtain back and went inside to that Most Holy Place. This curtain was a form of protection. It formed a barrier between a holy God and his sinful people. It was blocking access, as if to say to sinful humanity: "This far you may come, but no farther, for I am a holy God."

That was the curtain that was torn in two the day that Jesus was crucified. Understand what a miracle this was. You have to know that this curtain was 30 feet wide and 30 feet high. It's 100 square yards of heavy material. Not some thin sheet of sheer fabric, but the width of a man's hand, tightly woven with multiple layers of thread. It must have weighed hundreds, maybe even thousands of pounds.

It would have been impossible for any person to tear in two with his bare hands. Then consider further the testimony of Matthew and Mark, that the curtain was torn from top to bottom. Not bottom to top, but from the very top of the thing down to the bottom. I suppose the only way a human being could have done that was by getting some 25-foot ladder and taking out a broadsword and hacking away at the curtain.

But you know there were always priests in the Holy Place. They were worshipping the Lord there night and day. I tell you, anyone who would try even try to do anything to that curtain to the Most Holy Place would have been seized instantly and he would have been summarily executed for perpetrating a sacrilege. No, this tearing of the veil was something that God did and only God could do, and only by his miraculous power.

I think this miracle must have made a deep impression on the priests in that community. There are references in the Jewish Talmud, dating to around the time of the crucifixion, to strange occurrences, supernatural goings-on at the temple. The priests who witnessed the tearing of the veil must have been absolutely terrified. Imagine them there making their preparations at this time. They would have been beginning to prepare for the evening sacrifice.

There would have been, as I imagine it, a kind of expectancy because this was Passover, it was the time of the high holy days. They would have been full of a sense of what the Spirit of God would do and then suddenly this holy curtain is ripped in half and they could see right through into the Holy of Holies, the place where God was.

What did this mean? And why did it take place at the very time that Jesus was crucified? I think the miracle meant that Jesus was offering his body as the last sacrifice that anyone would ever need for sin. Here is the obvious and dramatic end to the whole Old Testament system of sacrifice. No more lambs needed to be slain for Passover, no more goats for the Day of Atonement, no more blood needed to be sprinkled on the Mercy Seat.

The son of God had given himself as the final sacrifice for sin. Scripture says that Jesus has appeared at the end of the ages to put away sin once for all by the sacrifice of himself. Jesus was offering his blood as the sacrifice and therefore the time of animal sacrifice was over forever and God was showing this by tearing the curtain to the Holy of Holies.

That secret place that could only be entered by sacrificial blood and Jesus had offered the blood and therefore the way was open to God. For centuries, even since the time of Moses, the people of God had been denied any direct access to the divine presence. Here was a building, the temple, and before that the tabernacle, and it was a building to be a place for the holy presence of God and yet only the priest was allowed that kind of direct access and only once a year.

But here Jesus had opened the way to God, symbolized by the tearing of the temple veil. Now the way is open for us through the veil, so that we may have direct access to the living God. The book of Hebrews tells us that the old temple curtain was closing the way to the holy places of God, but now Jesus has opened the way. So, Hebrews goes on to say: "We have a hope, we have a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, that is, into the very place where God himself is."

It further declares that we have confidence to enter this holy place by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way that he opened for us. Listen to what Hebrews says in chapter 10, verse 20: "He opened it for us through the curtain." It uses the language of the temple and then it adds this amazing phrase: "through the curtain, that is, through his flesh."

This is the way that has been opened up. It is through the very body that Jesus offered on the cross for sins and now we have direct access to God. It means in practical terms that we can go directly to God with everything that we need. We should never think that our problems are beneath God's notice. We should never think that we have done something so terrible, so wrong, that he will never listen to our prayers again.

The Bible says that we may draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith because Jesus himself has opened the way. Do you believe this? Are you experiencing it in your own life of prayer? Many of the priests believed it. When they went into that Most Holy Place and saw the holy veil that had been miraculously torn in two, they sensed that God was doing something new in history.

Then when they heard the news of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they put it all together. They understood that the torn veil was a sign of salvation. I say that because Luke tells us the rest of their story in the book of Acts chapter 6, verse 7, where we read that a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Yes, even the priests.

This was something they were talking about, something that was right there in the middle of their experience in the worship of God and some of them, many of them, the scripture says became obedient to Christ. If you believe in this miracle of the torn veil and understand what it means, then you too will find the way to God through Jesus and become obedient to the Christian faith.

Those are two miracles here at the time of the crucifixion but there is a third that we should consider. It is the conversion of the centurion who praised God and proclaimed that Jesus was innocent. As we read through these verses, we see different people responding to the crucifixion in different ways. It's true today, isn't it? People think of the cross of Jesus Christ, they have different reactions to it. Some treat it as something that is worthy of their worship, others are confused by it. Some people just simply ignore it, they don't think it has any relevance to them.

We see a number of different reactions to the cross here. Some people, we see them in verse 48 reacting with grief. These crowds had assembled for the spectacle, Luke tells us, and when they saw what had taken place, they returned home beating their breasts as a sign of grief and dismay and distress.

The word spectacle I think suggests that they had come expecting some kind of spectacle. They had wanted to be entertained by this bloody display of cruel violence as they knew it would be, but they went away from the cross in a very different mood. After watching Jesus suffer in the darkness, they went home with heavy hearts, some of them, I wonder, perhaps lamenting the guilt of their sin.

Then you have the response of the disciples. They were sadder than anyone because they had experienced the unspeakable grief of watching the torture of someone they loved. But they were also deep in thought, they were trying to make sense of what had happened. Luke says in verse 49 that his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.

They are trying to understand the meaning of the cross. But you know there was one man there who was beginning to see it. One man who was so deeply impressed by what he had seen and heard that he could not keep silent but wanted to affirm that Jesus was without sin. We see what this man's testimony in verse 47: he saw what had taken place and he praised God, saying: "Certainly this man was innocent."

I think you could say that this was another miracle, not a physical miracle against the laws of nature like the darkness or the curtain, but a spiritual miracle in which a sinful heart is transformed by the supernatural power of God. According to the spiritual laws of human nature, the sinful heart does not want to praise God.

Isn't that the case until you come to Christ? You don't even really want to worship God. You don't have something to sing about. Your heart is running in a different direction, it's running in one sinful direction or another and that was certainly true of this man at the cross, the centurion. He had mocked and scourged the son of God.

I don't know whether he was the one who pinned Jesus to the cross or raised the hammer or held the nails or simply stood there watching guard. But in any case, he was partly responsible for the greatest crime in the history of the universe. He was one of those lawless men Luke was later to call them, who killed and crucified Jesus.

He was that kind of man and yet some kind of transformation took place. His cursing was turned to praising and he began for the first time to worship the sinless son of God. It takes a miracle to turn anyone's heart to praise. Bible doesn't tell what exactly brought this change in this man. It might have been that prayer for forgiveness that Jesus offered to his enemies.

Maybe the gracious promise of paradise he gave to the thief on the cross. Maybe the peaceful way he surrendered his spirit to the Father in verse 46 and we'll be considering that in a moment. I don't know what it was, but whatever it was, this man knew that when Jesus died it was not for anything that Jesus deserved, that he was completely innocent.

Some have looked at the words of this soldier and they have wondered whether they really go far enough. Did this man ever fully repent for his sins and trust in Jesus for his salvation? The words of his repentance are not recorded here. He doesn't specifically ask for forgiveness, he doesn't pray to receive the free gift of eternal life.

Of course, you could say that simply saying that Jesus was innocent isn't enough really to save anyone. You have to believe that he's the son of God and your savior. We don't know for certain whether the centurion confessed all of these things, but he did praise God. And in the Gospel of Luke, that's often a sign of salvation. Praise God when they were healed, they praised God when they recognized who Jesus was, and now this man was praising God.