WEBVTT 00:00:09.130 --> 00:00:13.455 You know, nobody really prepared me for getting old. 00:00:13.455 --> 00:00:18.807 Like my capacity to hold things in my brain. 00:00:18.807 --> 00:00:22.102 It kind of begins to diminish after a few seconds. 00:00:22.102 --> 00:00:28.251 One day last week at home I came, I saw I forgot what I was doing. 00:00:28.251 --> 00:00:34.512 I retraced my steps, I got lost on the way back and I had no idea what was going on. 00:00:34.512 --> 00:00:36.145 Have you ever had that happen? 00:00:36.145 --> 00:00:38.000 But I'll tell you what. 00:00:38.161 --> 00:01:07.067 Fortunately, I do know what's been going on in the Gospel of Mark, which we've been studying for some time now, and we are in the final pages of the Gospel of Mark looking at Jesus' crucifixion last time and today we're going to finish, looking at those events surrounding the crucifixion and also what the work of Christ means for us. 00:01:07.067 --> 00:01:15.703 If you'd like a sermon outline or borrow Bible while we study this passage in Mark 15, can raise your hand or usher us to be happy to help you. 00:01:15.703 --> 00:01:35.004 I am going to read the passage again, beginning in Mark 15, 33, where Jesus is crucified and then what immediately follows. 00:01:35.004 --> 00:01:46.292 When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. 00:01:46.292 --> 00:01:59.769 At the ninth hour, jesus cried out with a loud voice Eloi, eloi Lama Sabaktani, which translated as my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:01:59.769 --> 00:02:05.009 When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying behold, he's calling for Elijah. 00:02:05.009 --> 00:02:14.568 Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave him a drink, saying let's see whether Elijah will come and take him down. 00:02:14.568 --> 00:02:19.389 Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 00:02:19.389 --> 00:02:23.688 The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 00:02:23.688 --> 00:02:33.889 When the centurion who was standing right in front of him saw the way he breathed his last, he said truly, this man was the Son of God. 00:02:35.421 --> 00:02:42.866 As I mentioned last time, mark mentions two very significant events that happened when Jesus was crucified. 00:02:42.866 --> 00:02:50.306 Today we're going to carry on in a few minutes and look at the two significant events that happened right after he died. 00:02:50.306 --> 00:03:00.329 Matthew, luke and John tell us a number of other things that happened when Jesus was hanging on the cross and at the moment of his death. 00:03:00.329 --> 00:03:13.312 Mark doesn't mention all the events, but the ones he does mention are meant to call our attention and understand better what Jesus' death means for us. 00:03:13.312 --> 00:03:23.849 In case you've forgotten, I want to review the first two events we saw last time when Jesus was crucified, before we move on to the events at his death. 00:03:24.580 --> 00:03:36.251 The first profound event Mark mentions for us is the deep darkness that came down over the whole land from the sixth to the ninth hour, or from noon until 3 pm. 00:03:36.251 --> 00:03:42.670 As we said last time, this word darkness is intentional and deliberate. 00:03:42.670 --> 00:03:46.227 It was observed by all who were there. 00:03:46.227 --> 00:03:49.103 It was not a natural darkness we talked about this. 00:03:49.103 --> 00:04:00.592 Only explanation had to be a supernatural darkness, like we see first mentioned in the book of Genesis, at Creation, genesis 1-3,. 00:04:00.592 --> 00:04:04.550 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 00:04:04.550 --> 00:04:11.031 The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep. 00:04:11.031 --> 00:04:23.528 Notice, before God steps in, it's all dark and the Spirit of God is moving over the surface of the water. 00:04:23.528 --> 00:04:29.149 Then God said let there be light, and there was light. 00:04:29.149 --> 00:04:38.913 Any time we go through the Bible, someone or something moves away from God. 00:04:38.913 --> 00:04:48.399 He's not present, things revert back to uncreation, darkness, empty, formless, empty, empty, empty, empty, empty. 00:04:48.399 --> 00:05:08.382 Moving away from God and we talked about this last time will result in being disoriented, like being in a cave with no light, and things will start to fall apart, because God is a source of life and light. 00:05:09.564 --> 00:05:24.516 Many times in the Bible, darkness describes a situation where God himself is moving away from us, ouch, and he does that to bring his judgment and wrath for our sin. 00:05:24.516 --> 00:05:26.562 We see it in the Scripture. 00:05:26.562 --> 00:05:34.288 The prophets pictured this state of darkness in their description of the coming worldwide judgment called the day of the Lord. 00:05:34.288 --> 00:05:39.682 One place you see this is in Amos, chapter 5, verses 18 to 20. 00:05:39.682 --> 00:05:47.221 He says Alas, you who are longing for the day of the Lord, what purpose will the day be to you? 00:05:47.221 --> 00:05:56.529 It will be darkness, not light, as when a man flees from a lion and a bear meets him, or goes home and leans his hand against the wall and a snake bites him. 00:05:56.529 --> 00:06:04.372 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, even gloom, with no brightness in it? 00:06:04.372 --> 00:06:18.223 In the darkness of God's judgment, when he pulls away, things start to fall apart, like they did when God judged Egypt to deliver the people of Israel. 00:06:18.944 --> 00:06:31.680 In the book of Exodus, the 10 plagues in Egypt were a foretaste of the judgment, of our judgment day coming to the world, when God removes himself and the world goes back to chaos. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:39.475 We read about it in Exodus 7 to 12. 00:06:39.475 --> 00:06:41.377 Just think with me. 00:06:41.377 --> 00:06:42.701 I'll just go through this quickly. 00:06:42.701 --> 00:06:57.014 When Moses raised the rod of God's judgment over Egypt, they began to experience the horrors of disorientation, disintegration and chaos and uncreation. 00:06:57.014 --> 00:07:02.225 Under God's judgment, nature did not look like nature anymore. 00:07:02.225 --> 00:07:06.572 Water did not work like water. 00:07:06.572 --> 00:07:08.656 It became blood. 00:07:08.656 --> 00:07:17.213 Creatures were loosed and ran wild Frogs, lice, gnats, locusts Exodus 8. 00:07:17.213 --> 00:07:21.341 Disease and plagues became epidemic Exodus 9. 00:07:21.341 --> 00:07:28.973 Darkness blotted out the light Exodus 10. 00:07:28.973 --> 00:07:33.559 All of that ended in death Exodus 11. 00:07:33.559 --> 00:07:48.690 Either the death of the firstborn, of every person who did not have refuge under the blood of the Lamb at their door, or death of a substitute sacrificial lamb there will be a death involved. 00:07:51.014 --> 00:07:59.178 That helps us understand somewhat the meaning of the darkness Jesus received when he was on the cross. 00:07:59.178 --> 00:08:03.625 The darkness that he received was our judgment day. 00:08:03.625 --> 00:08:10.463 The Scripture says Jesus became sin by taking all our sin on himself. 00:08:10.463 --> 00:08:19.182 When he did that, the Scripture says he became a curse for us, cursed of God so that we could be redeemed. 00:08:19.182 --> 00:08:21.987 Find it in Galatians 3.13. 00:08:21.987 --> 00:08:42.830 The apostle Paul says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, but he's written cursed as everyone who hangs on the cross in the cemetery, in order that Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:52.808 Darkness was the first event surrounding Jesus' crucifixion. 00:08:52.808 --> 00:09:03.779 Last time we also talked about the event that Mark pointedly mentions when Jesus cried out to God, his heavenly Father, at the ninth hour. 00:09:03.779 --> 00:09:11.392 Remember, jesus did not cry out in pain over the piercing agony in his head. 00:09:11.392 --> 00:09:19.630 He didn't cry out about the piercing torment in his hands and feet, something infinitely worse he cried out about. 00:09:19.630 --> 00:09:25.025 He cried my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:09:25.025 --> 00:09:27.750 What's happening here? 00:09:27.750 --> 00:09:32.822 God the Father is withdrawing Darkness covering the land. 00:09:32.822 --> 00:09:38.970 Jesus is going to receive our judgment. 00:09:38.970 --> 00:09:53.388 When God the Father pulled away to judge him for our sins, the infinite exclusion from God's life and light was the ultimate torment of hell itself. 00:09:53.388 --> 00:10:07.844 Jesus is getting divine wrath for the sins we committed when he's on the cross and the sins of the whole world. 00:10:09.133 --> 00:10:16.302 1 John 2 says the darkness coming out down on Jesus was our judgment day. 00:10:16.302 --> 00:10:22.777 He's getting what we would have gotten had we faced the judgment of God without his sacrifice. 00:10:22.777 --> 00:10:27.605 Now, look, this is all. 00:10:27.605 --> 00:10:33.095 This is what the good news of the gospel proclaims and declares. 00:10:33.095 --> 00:10:34.356 It's news. 00:10:34.356 --> 00:10:41.575 When someone believes in Jesus, they pass out of God's judgment. 00:10:41.575 --> 00:10:45.263 They don't come into it because of what he did. 00:10:45.263 --> 00:10:49.192 When we pass out of judgment into life. 00:10:49.192 --> 00:10:51.537 Listen to what Jesus said in John 5.24. 00:10:51.537 --> 00:11:03.010 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you're reading your Bible and whenever Jesus says, truly, truly, he is saying I swear to you that this is true. 00:11:03.010 --> 00:11:10.644 Truly truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him, who sent me, has eternal life. 00:11:10.644 --> 00:11:16.019 He does not come into judgment when it's passed from death into life. 00:11:16.019 --> 00:11:21.493 That's the gospel, that's the good news, that's what he did. 00:11:21.493 --> 00:11:26.480 Okay, enough of review. 00:11:27.061 --> 00:11:33.395 Let's move on to the last two significant events that happened right after Jesus died. 00:11:33.395 --> 00:11:40.779 In Mark's gospel, again, mark is singling out these specific events to help us learn some things. 00:11:40.779 --> 00:11:53.687 So the first thing that happens we see is that verse 38, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. 00:11:53.687 --> 00:12:03.086 When he breathed his last At that moment, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. 00:12:03.086 --> 00:12:06.453 What's the significance of that veil being torn? 00:12:06.453 --> 00:12:08.398 Well, let me back up. 00:12:09.379 --> 00:12:15.933 This veil was in the temple and the temple in Jerusalem had several areas. 00:12:15.933 --> 00:12:19.143 Could you back it up just a minute or go to the next one? 00:12:19.143 --> 00:12:21.490 Yeah, keep going. 00:12:21.490 --> 00:12:30.159 Yeah, we're a little behind on the slides here. 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:36.287 Anyway, the temple in Jerusalem had several areas. 00:12:36.287 --> 00:12:46.811 There's the outer court and inside here we have the Holy of Holies and the veil is across the front of it. 00:12:46.811 --> 00:12:53.504 The innermost part, called the Holy of Holies, is where the Ark of the Covenant was placed. 00:12:56.190 --> 00:13:03.682 In that area, the Holy of Holies was off limits to everyone except the high priest. 00:13:03.682 --> 00:13:16.412 He could enter after a thorough ritual cleansing once a year on the Day of Atonement, to offer the blood sacrifice for the sins of the people. 00:13:16.412 --> 00:13:26.177 It was a dangerous thing to go into the presence of God Without the proper preparations for yourself. 00:13:26.177 --> 00:13:28.865 The high priest would have been killed. 00:13:28.865 --> 00:13:36.909 Anybody else going in there, the holiness and glory of God, you can't live, god says in my presence. 00:13:36.909 --> 00:13:38.793 It'll kill you. 00:13:40.817 --> 00:13:45.625 The veil in the temple that Mark speaks of was hung over the door like that. 00:13:45.625 --> 00:13:47.831 It was massive. 00:13:47.831 --> 00:13:54.965 It was huge, thick, embroidered and curtain as heavy as a carpet. 00:13:54.965 --> 00:14:00.402 In estimates that I read, it's probably 30 feet tall and 30 feet wide. 00:14:00.402 --> 00:14:15.375 The minute Christ died, this incredibly thick, heavy, tall curtain was ripped from top to bottom just to let us know who did it. 00:14:15.375 --> 00:14:24.855 When it was ripped, it was God's way of saying that Jesus' sacrifice was the sacrifice that ended all other sacrifices. 00:14:24.855 --> 00:14:25.875 That's it. 00:14:25.875 --> 00:14:30.082 Come on in to my presence. 00:14:30.082 --> 00:14:38.783 Jesus' work finished the sacrificial system necessary to be in God's presence. 00:14:39.225 --> 00:14:42.936 But there's one more event at Jesus' death that's significant. 00:14:42.936 --> 00:14:47.147 It's really the climax of the Gospel of Mark. 00:14:47.147 --> 00:14:52.504 We see it in the response of the centurion who's standing right in front of the cross. 00:14:52.504 --> 00:15:01.985 In the Roman army, a centurion commanded a group of a hundred men, the name centurion. 00:15:01.985 --> 00:15:11.854 Centurions were the backbone of the military in Rome and were prized for their leadership, their obedience and their calmness. 00:15:11.854 --> 00:15:17.951 Under pressure, centurions were enlisted men who had risen up through the ranks. 00:15:17.951 --> 00:15:24.630 One of their main responsibilities, you see here in the Gospel, was exacting punishments of criminals. 00:15:24.630 --> 00:15:36.761 This one here was charged with superintending Jesus crucifixion and death from his scourging all the way to when he breathed his last. 00:15:36.761 --> 00:15:40.052 You have to understand the reading I've done on this. 00:15:40.052 --> 00:15:46.629 Centurions were very tough, battle-hardened men who had proven themselves on the battlefield. 00:15:46.629 --> 00:15:52.860 They had seen a lot of gruesome deaths and inflicted a lot of death. 00:15:54.383 --> 00:16:08.033 Yet for this centurion, something penetrated his darkness, something when he stood in front of Jesus on the cross and watched how he died. 00:16:08.033 --> 00:16:21.380 Listen, 1539, when the centurion standing nearby in front of him saw how he died, he said truly, this man was the Son of God. 00:16:21.380 --> 00:16:27.552 Centurion's confession really is the climax of Mark's Gospel. 00:16:27.552 --> 00:16:38.590 Mark, if you remember Mark 1.1, begins his Gospel by saying this is his Gospel about Jesus, the Son of God. 00:16:38.590 --> 00:16:46.306 Ironically, it's the centurion's testimony that confirms it. 00:16:46.798 --> 00:16:49.673 This centurion was not a disciple of Jesus. 00:16:49.673 --> 00:16:54.022 He's not even a Jew Spiritually. 00:16:54.022 --> 00:16:58.015 He's lived in darkness among a culture that worshiped idols. 00:16:58.015 --> 00:17:01.563 He doesn't know the Hebrew Scriptures. 00:17:01.563 --> 00:17:11.951 Yet this centurion becomes the first person to respond to the truth of Jesus' death by confessing and believing that he's the Son of God. 00:17:11.951 --> 00:17:13.796 Why? 00:17:13.796 --> 00:17:17.682 What penetrated his darkness? 00:17:18.384 --> 00:17:24.674 Well, the text tells us he heard Jesus cry and he saw how he died. 00:17:24.674 --> 00:17:31.665 Something melted him in what he heard and what he saw. 00:17:31.665 --> 00:17:40.242 Now I've seen a number of people breathe their last breath and die. 00:17:40.242 --> 00:17:42.247 You don't forget it. 00:17:42.247 --> 00:17:46.435 You don't see it that often In the ministry. 00:17:46.435 --> 00:17:51.044 I've seen it over the years in my own family and others' families. 00:17:51.044 --> 00:17:53.295 But this centurion is different. 00:17:53.295 --> 00:17:57.123 This centurion had fought and killed people. 00:17:57.123 --> 00:18:00.173 He had executed a lot of people. 00:18:00.173 --> 00:18:06.084 He'd seen a lot of people die, but Jesus' death caught him. 00:18:06.084 --> 00:18:08.311 It was unique. 00:18:08.311 --> 00:18:17.314 In his frame of reference, the centurion saw something in Jesus' death that was unlike every other death. 00:18:17.314 --> 00:18:26.373 He saw Something about the tenderness of his death must have pierced right through his own hardness. 00:18:26.373 --> 00:18:33.631 Something about the beauty of Jesus' death must have pierced right through his darkness. 00:18:33.631 --> 00:18:40.278 What did the centurion see that melted him? 00:18:40.278 --> 00:18:51.789 So I don't know, but the text says he's standing right in front of Jesus and heard his cry. 00:18:55.997 --> 00:19:15.599 Ancient sources tell us that crucifixions, which were common in the centurion's day, were marked by screams of rage, pain, curses, shouts of despair by the victims. 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:20.686 What did the centurion hear from Jesus? 00:19:20.686 --> 00:19:31.182 Something totally out of line with what's happening, something tender. 00:19:31.182 --> 00:19:35.528 I think. 00:19:35.528 --> 00:19:51.036 If God can lift our hardness and free us from our darkness, maybe it's because we need to listen to Jesus' cry my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:19:51.036 --> 00:19:55.702 This is the language of love and intimacy. 00:19:55.702 --> 00:20:07.922 The pain goes deepest to lose the one person in the whole universe who really knows you and loves you. 00:20:07.922 --> 00:20:10.464 That's the deepest pain. 00:20:13.509 --> 00:20:22.422 Jesus is not crying about the betrayal of his friends, the humiliation he suffered, the pain from the crown of thorns and the nails of the sins. 00:20:22.422 --> 00:20:26.494 He's crying about the loss of the one he loves the most. 00:20:26.494 --> 00:20:35.185 His Heavenly Father was pulled away so he could receive our judgment. 00:20:35.185 --> 00:20:42.575 Jesus is experiencing hell. 00:20:42.575 --> 00:20:51.744 No one has ever suffered like Jesus. 00:20:51.744 --> 00:20:57.030 Jesus is entrusting everything to his Heavenly Father. 00:20:57.030 --> 00:21:01.741 He doesn't yell at God and say you're cruel to me. 00:21:01.741 --> 00:21:07.171 He says my God, my God. 00:21:08.071 --> 00:21:12.580 While he's being cursed, he's trusting God. 00:21:12.580 --> 00:21:18.251 While he's being damned to hell, he's trusting God, his Father. 00:21:18.251 --> 00:21:19.654 What do we do? 00:21:19.654 --> 00:21:27.327 Listen to me, that's never happened before and it won't ever happen again. 00:21:27.327 --> 00:21:32.377 No one has obeyed God like that ever. 00:21:32.377 --> 00:21:38.852 No one has ever trusted like God like that ever. 00:21:38.852 --> 00:21:42.398 Why? 00:21:42.398 --> 00:21:52.010 Why is he obeying and enduring the infinite suffering For you, for me? 00:21:52.010 --> 00:21:57.884 Jesus came to live the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. 00:21:57.884 --> 00:22:00.934 He's doing both for us in this cry. 00:22:00.934 --> 00:22:08.711 He's doing obedience to God on our behalf and dying on our behalf. 00:22:08.711 --> 00:22:22.314 Standing in our place, he offers perfect obedience to God and the perfect sacrifice for our sin. 00:22:22.314 --> 00:22:25.634 Listen, I wish I could spend an hour on this. 00:22:26.005 --> 00:22:27.570 Listen to Hebrews, chapter 10. 00:22:27.570 --> 00:22:31.470 I'm gonna read a few verses there, verses four and five. 00:22:31.470 --> 00:22:39.990 The writer says it's impossible, the old sacrificial system, it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 00:22:39.990 --> 00:22:56.472 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said they had this conversation in heaven with his father sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me, with burnt offerings and sin offerings, you were not pleased. 00:22:56.472 --> 00:23:00.654 And Hebrews 10, seven and 10 says then I said here I am. 00:23:00.654 --> 00:23:03.632 It's written about me in the scroll. 00:23:03.632 --> 00:23:15.832 I've come to do your will, my God, and by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 00:23:17.986 --> 00:23:31.115 As I said earlier, mark doesn't mention all the events associated with Jesus' death on the cross, but I would like to slide in another event we learned from John's gospel that I think is also extremely significant. 00:23:31.115 --> 00:23:51.585 In the Gospel of John, chapter 19, verse 30, just before Jesus breathes last on the cross, john who, by the way, was there tells us that Jesus called out a word in Greek to telesteye, to telesteye, and then breathes his last. 00:23:51.585 --> 00:23:54.855 It means it is finished. 00:23:54.855 --> 00:23:58.691 What, what was finished? 00:23:58.691 --> 00:24:02.314 The divine judgment for our sins, now and forever. 00:24:02.314 --> 00:24:13.835 It's done, perfect obedience, perfect sacrifice, and if we believed in Jesus from that point on, we're no longer under the condemnation of sin. 00:24:15.464 --> 00:24:20.712 The centurion, you see, didn't have all the theological categories that was involved in Jesus' death. 00:24:20.712 --> 00:24:30.832 He just beheld the Son and concluded this this was the Son of God. 00:24:30.832 --> 00:24:41.771 Now, if you ever think that you could never become a Christian because of all the bad things you've done. 00:24:41.771 --> 00:24:44.613 I want you to consider this centurion. 00:24:44.613 --> 00:24:49.073 You know he was part of the Roman mafioso. 00:24:49.073 --> 00:24:51.834 He was a hit man. 00:24:51.834 --> 00:24:55.875 He tortured and killed people for a living. 00:24:58.691 --> 00:25:01.982 And because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, listen to me. 00:25:01.982 --> 00:25:15.384 All the barriers for us to go right into the presence of God are all gone, taken away, except one One that he could not remove. 00:25:15.384 --> 00:25:20.579 You know what that final barrier is, you. 00:25:20.579 --> 00:25:24.284 It's waiting for you to come in. 00:25:24.284 --> 00:25:32.765 Will you soften your heart, like the centurion, and believe in Jesus, the Son of God, as your Savior? 00:25:32.765 --> 00:25:36.965 If you have not, I urge you to Now. 00:25:36.965 --> 00:25:40.002 Maybe you are a Christian, you put your faith in Jesus Christ. 00:25:40.992 --> 00:25:42.124 But I got something else to say. 00:25:42.124 --> 00:25:47.744 Let's say perhaps you're suffering, going through a hard time. 00:25:47.744 --> 00:25:54.156 The truth is, look as we wait for Jesus' return while we're in this broken world. 00:25:54.156 --> 00:26:03.785 If you are a human being, you will either suffer soon, or have suffered or about to suffer. 00:26:03.785 --> 00:26:05.234 That's just the way it is. 00:26:05.234 --> 00:26:10.104 But the thing is, how are we going to receive this? 00:26:10.104 --> 00:26:12.554 But the thing is, how are we going to respond? 00:26:12.684 --> 00:26:15.428 Suffering happens to all of us, whether you're not, you're a Christian. 00:26:15.428 --> 00:26:18.712 When you suffer, do you say why? 00:26:18.712 --> 00:26:24.285 God, you realize that Christianity is the only faith that says that. 00:26:24.285 --> 00:26:26.648 God himself cried that out in his suffering. 00:26:26.648 --> 00:26:32.538 Why, so what? 00:26:33.984 --> 00:26:40.712 Well, if you look at the cross of Jesus Christ while we are suffering, will that give us the reason for what we're going through? 00:26:40.712 --> 00:26:46.473 No, looking at the cross won't tell you the reason you're suffering. 00:26:46.473 --> 00:26:56.757 But I will tell you this Looking at the cross of Jesus will tell you the reason that isn't for your suffering. 00:26:56.757 --> 00:27:08.346 We may not know why, but here's what we do know, based on what happened to Jesus on the cross, who died on our behalf. 00:27:08.346 --> 00:27:20.310 We know that the reason we are suffering cannot be because God doesn't love us. 00:27:20.310 --> 00:27:25.569 Can't be, not if you look at Jesus on the cross. 00:27:25.569 --> 00:27:27.655 Can't be that. 00:27:27.655 --> 00:27:32.164 It cannot be because God has abandoned us. 00:27:32.164 --> 00:27:34.252 He abandoned Jesus for you. 00:27:34.252 --> 00:27:36.231 It can't be that reason. 00:27:36.231 --> 00:27:41.034 It can't be because God doesn't care. 00:27:41.034 --> 00:27:44.575 It can't be because God doesn't have a plan for you. 00:27:45.567 --> 00:27:56.097 Whatever the reason, because of what Jesus did, we no longer have to doubt God's love for us, his goodness to us, his faithfulness to us, and you know what? 00:27:56.097 --> 00:28:01.635 That can't be enough to get us through. 00:28:01.635 --> 00:28:11.171 The only darkness that can destroy you can destroy you forever. 00:28:11.171 --> 00:28:14.791 Fell on Jesus when you believe in Him as your Savior. 00:28:14.791 --> 00:28:20.528 It will never fall on you Again. 00:28:22.352 --> 00:28:24.717 I urge you to believe in Jesus, the Son of God. 00:28:26.366 --> 00:28:45.655 If this battle-hardened, murderous centurion can recognize it Just from the glimpse and words, how much more should we who have all of this, the record, the eyewitness record of Jesus right before us. 00:28:45.655 --> 00:28:48.449 Let's pray, father. 00:28:48.449 --> 00:28:55.093 Thank you that when Jesus died on the cross, the work of redemption was finished. 00:28:55.093 --> 00:29:03.038 Thank you that you tore down the veil that separated us from being in your presence under threat of death. 00:29:03.038 --> 00:29:22.806 Help us to see, perhaps, what the centurion saw the tender beauty of Jesus and his death for us and confess, like he did he's the Son of God, lord of all. 00:29:22.806 --> 00:29:34.035 Help us to realize the truth that, because Jesus lost you on the cross, you could adopt us than as your sons and daughters. 00:29:34.035 --> 00:29:36.105 We thank you for all these things. 00:29:36.105 --> 00:29:37.130 We thank you for Jesus. 00:29:37.130 --> 00:29:40.173 We thank you for bringing us to faith in Him. 00:29:40.173 --> 00:29:46.817 We thank you for this assembly who gathered to praise your name and Jesus. 00:29:46.817 --> 00:29:51.916 We just thank you for the fellowship we share in the Spirit in him. 00:29:51.916 --> 00:29:57.137 We ask you to bless the rest of our time together today, in Jesus' name, amen.