Luke 23:44-49 | The Death of Jesus

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

Text: Luke 23:44-49

Big Idea: The details of Christ’s death reveal why the cross is central to the good news of the gospel. 

1. How do I relate to the details of Christ’s death? (vv. 44-46)

a. The darkness reveals to me the weight of sin

b. The torn curtain reveals to me the way of salvation

c. The trusting confession reveals to me His willing surrender

2. How do I respond to the details of Christ’s death? (vv. 47-49)

a. Let it lead you to a confident confession

b. Let it lead you to a genuine conviction 

c. Let it lead you to a consistent closeness

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So good to sing together, church. Would you join me in prayer as we go before the Lord? We're gonna come out of Psalm 14 today. Father, we're reminded as we get into your word that it's the fool who says in his heart, There is no God. That is a foolish statement. And it's said because they are all corrupt, they do abominable deeds. There is none who does good. Not one. Father, you remind us in your word that as you look down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, any who seek after God, the answer is no one. We have all turned aside, we have all become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. Which makes the good news of Jesus all the more stunning. There was one at the cross proclaimed innocent. There was one who has perfectly lived righteous before you. That you would allow many to run to you as a refuge. Open their eyes to the truth, open their hearts to the glory of Jesus Christ, hanging there for sinners on that cross. But not left there, Lord. Three days later, rising from the dead, ascending to the right hand, where he ever lives to make intercession for us. We trust you, Lord, for today. We trust you for the proclamation of your word to be empowered by your spirit to go forth and do the work that only you can do. It's through the living and abiding word of God that people are born again and change into the image of Jesus. May you do both today, we pray. In Jesus' name.

unknown 3:10

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Amen. As we continue in worship, want to have you stay standing for the reading of God's word as we read the portion of Scripture that we will address today in Luke chapter 23, Luke chapter 23, we're reading about the death of Jesus, which puts us in verse 44, and then we're going to read down to verse 49, focusing on the death of Jesus today. If you're new, welcome. We have verses on the screen so you can follow along and read with us. And if you don't own a Bible, there are Bibles on these little ledges on the sides of the worship center. We'd be delighted for you to have one. Luke chapter 23, verse 44. This is the word of the Lord for this morning. It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sunlight failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 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. Now, when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, Certainly this man was innocent. And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home, beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. Love ones, this is the word of Almighty God for this Lord's Day Sunday. May the Lord write these eternal truths on your hearts, and with that you can be seated. Good morning, church. Hope you're doing well. If you have a copy of God's word, go to Luke chapter 23. And while you're doing that, let me introduce myself. My name is Scott. I'm the lead pastor here. It's great to have you with us at Doxa in this particular season of the church's calendar as we think to Easter just a few weeks away, and here we are in the death of Jesus, the text about the death of Jesus. And next week we'll be in the text about the burial of Jesus, and then the week after we'll be in the text about the resurrection of Jesus. And all God's people said, Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. And so we're just delighted that you're here. And so we'd actually do this every week, and we'd love to have you back, not just once, but twice. And let us help you find a home in a church body that you can be a part of. So we think about Easter coming up. I know you guys have had a week, but I want to press it back on us again. How are we doing with those invites? We have a name in mind at least. Maybe not the boldness yet, but a name. Right? This is the week we pray for boldness. Last week was the week we prayed for a name. We got a name? Okay. Three people have a name. You had the whole week. What are you doing? What's going on? You have joy in the Lord, yes? This should get to others, yes? Excellent. I see lots of seats open today. Plenty of space. So if you're a little stressed, we'll make it work. Let's get people here, right? So this week, my prayer for you will be your boldness to step into those opportunities, to recognize, man, what great grace the Lord has given to you. So, so simple to say, the Lord has done so much, all I need to do is open my mouth and make an invite, right? So let's do that this week. Also, one of the things you can do is if you're not serving on Easter Sunday, please don't make Easter Sunday merely a family day. Make it a serving of the Lord Day. Make it a serving of God's people day. And so if you're coming with people, you're like, hey, I'm coming to 945. Don't give me any for coming to the 945 because I'm bringing a bunch of my people. Cool, you won't get any, but come serve at 8. Come serve at 11:30. And in particular, come serve our kids' ministry. Come serve our children. You're like, man, I just don't do it. You'll do it for one day because you love the Lord and you want to help families get in that don't normally come to church. 8 o'clock, 11:30 in particular. Could be a one-off, right? Could be like who let the dogs out. You just sing one awesome song and then you go off into the things you serve in other ways, all right? One Sunday to help us in student ministry. You can do it, I believe in you. And if you're really bad, we'll check, we'll have you check kids in, you know? So just keep you far away, but still useful. Okay? There's just no excuse, right? And we'll make the call, by the way, if you're useful or not. We'll be like, yeah, it's not, yeah. Let's keep you away from the kids. Okay? We have fun, don't we? All right. Title of the message for today The Death of Jesus. The whole thing was all such a spectacle. In fact, the word spectacle is used in verse 48. Imagine coming to this sort of execution that is kind of a form of entertainment in the first century. You you would come and you would have been involved in a massive group of people watching those who deserved it be humiliated along the pathway of a main thoroughfare into the city, not unlike where I see it, it'd be like crucifying someone on the corner of Galleria Boulevard, right? Intentional in that way. Lots of traffic, lots of people walking by, lots of gawking going on. You ever been on a freeway when there's an accident and it's like the most dangerous time, right? Because you have a bunch of rubberneckers that just want to watch the whole thing take place. It was a spectacle. And then all of a sudden, the lights go out. And immediately it reminded me of the idea. Remember back in like when we watched normal TV? And then something happened in the middle of your favorite program. Remember when we called them programs? And it was something like we interrupt this regularly scheduled program to bring you this important message. You remember that? Maybe not in that nerdy of a voice, but that idea. And it shut off your program and brought you into something else. All of a sudden, on this day, something changed. God took over the microphone, so to speak. God interrupts the stage. We interrupt this regularly scheduled program to bring you this important message. And here is the message the death of Jesus Christ was no joke. The death of Jesus Christ was the most life-shattering, earth-altering, heaven-descending thing that has ever happened. And Luke's telling us that amidst showing us that there's all kinds of different eyewitnesses. People that are pro-Jesus, people that are against Jesus, people that are Roman, people that are Jew, and all of this is meant to come together for Luke to drive our attention at what he wants us to see about the death of Jesus. And here's what he wants us to see in particular. He wants to unveil to us some of the details around the death of Jesus. We don't want to miss them because they're important. And what he's going to do is he's going to essentially lay those details out, and then he's going to say, you can't not respond to Jesus. Everyone will respond to Jesus. The death of Jesus leaves you in an impossible position if you want to play this neutral, if you want to ignore what I'm saying, it cannot be neutrally received. To be neutrally received, as in, I don't really care, I could take or leave the Lord Jesus, is impossible. Luke's pressing us on our response. And so the big idea for the day is this the details of the death of Christ, they reveal why the cross is central to the good news of the gospel. And church, the gospel is all we have. And it is more than enough. When you think about the word gospel, forgive me for being redundant. If someone's writing the big idea down and you're going, oh, that's redundant, Pastor Scott, because good news is gospel means good news. Correct. The word gospel means good news. The details of Christ's death give us the reason. Why at the center of the good news that we proclaim that we live by, that lives in us, Christian? Why the cross is central to that good news. So we're gonna ask two questions in order to figure out what is going on in the text today. One is, how do I relate to the death, the details of Christ's death? How do I do that? As I'm sitting in here, as I'm taking in the word, some 2,000 plus years later, how do I relate to the details of Christ's death? But then what Luke's gonna do is he's gonna press us in on the second point is how do I respond to the details of Christ's death? How do I respond to that? Well, let me give you the first way to relate to the details of Christ's death. The first thing is this the darkness reveals to me the weight of sin. Okay, we're gonna see the darkness come. How do I relate to it? The darkness reveals to me the weight of sin. Verse 44. It was now about the sixth hour. Okay, for context, Jewish day started roughly at 6 a.m. Sun up. Didn't have Apple watches, right? Nice to have Apple watches these days. There was a few weeks ago we just had daylight savings time, and you don't have to do anything anymore. Do you remember the days you have to set the alarm? You had to anticipate what kind of math am I doing in order to get this to go off when I need it to go off? What a beautiful thing. We just assume so much. Well on that day, sun up, 6 a.m., day starts. Jesus crucified at 9 a.m. The sixth hour is noon. That's where we are, where the darkness comes. Now, of course, what's interesting about noon is that the sun is in its yeah, that apex point. The time when you're not expecting darkness would be at noon. And there, darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed. Some trying to explain this away will say, well, it was an eclipse. It was something natural that took place, but that's impossible. Because the Passover is celebrated intentionally at or near a full moon. No, no, no, no, no. This was a sign. The party's over, folks. God turned the lights out. God was making his presence palpable. I was going on a walk during the Christmas break, and I don't know if you remember, but there were uh pretty intense rainstorms, lightning storms, and I decided to meander out towards Beale's Point, and I was alone because about five minutes into my walk, it began to pour rain. I mean, I was soaking wet, threw a sweatshirt, the whole thing. I did not care. It was glorious. Until I was kind of walking down the path, and all of a sudden I'm starting to see lightning like every two minutes. You ever been in a lightning storm where your whole life is flashing before your eyes? It was so intense. I literally stop for a moment and just go, if ever it was clear to me that I'm a sinner deserving death, now was that moment. Like, God would be completely just to take my life. That feeling that comes over you of he's right and I'm very much a sinner. Stunned by the awesome greatness of God that so often is assumed in our life, and then you step into a lightning storm, and all of a sudden you're like, okay, things are in the right order now. That sort of feel, if you've ever had that kind of experience, is but maybe a glimpse into what it would have felt like to have the lights go out. And I'm not talking about like clouds. I'm talking about a kind of darkness where you can't see the hand in front of your face. Have you been there? You've been in a cave before and you can't see. Do you know how much terror goes into you for just a second, even with your with when you're with family and you're in a cave and you turn around and you can't see them, but they're feet away from you? That's how dark it is. Think about what you may have been thinking in that moment. Were you to all of a sudden at noon in the middle of the day see a darkness so dark come over the land? And what if you were Jewish? What would you have understood about that time? Well, we know God is light, so what's this darkness? What do you mean God's involved, this present, palpable display of God's manifest presence? What do you mean? Well, we also know that God's shown up in darkness in the Old Testament, right? Think about it. What would they have understood? He shows up in darkness in acts of judgment. When he shows up in darkness in the Old Testament, it always symbolized divine wrath. It was often that day of the Lord-style divine wrath, that there's going to be a day of the Lord where wrath in its full fury is poured out rightly on those deserving. Let me point a few verses your way. Amos 8 9, listen how close this is to the situation with Jesus. And on that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. When the Lord's presence comes in judgment. Zechariah 1 15, a day of wrath is that day a day of darkness and gloom. Other texts. God brought hell to Jerusalem that day. The darkness of the judgment of God upon our sins was brought on that day. Except here. That wrath was not poured out on the deserving sinners. It was poured out on the innocent Son. The cup that Jesus prayed. Lord, if it be possible, right? Is the cup being poured out on the Lord? The fury of the wrath of God, deserving sin, is being poured out, but on the wrong recipient, it would seem. It's being poured out on his son. To think for just a second, this is how serious God takes our sin, it goes pitch black in judgment darkness. The first question that ought to come to our minds as we consider the death of Jesus and magnify the good news of the gospel is this question: do I take my sin as seriously as this picture displays? Like day to day, how do I respond to my sin? Do I understand that my sins deserve that except infinitely? That darkness should be mine, except infinitely. Do I treat sin lightly when God judges it so heavily? Three hours of darkness. Exhausting the wrath of God, deserving sin on his son. Do I take, here's a question, Christ's substitution this seriously, right? Do I understand the benefit that it is? Do I understand that a gift, the gift that Christ's substitution is? Listen, we will understand the good news better if we take our sins seriously, because we'll see the glory of the one who stepped in. Listen, to think you could never pay for your sins. You would have to pay infinitely and you would never be able to pay the debt you owe. And here, infinite wrath is absorbed by an infinite person in three hours on the cross. So to think about it like this if sin brings such darkness upon Christ, what will it bring upon you if you are apart from Christ? But of course, the good news is that on the flip, if Christ endured such darkness, what is there of God's wrath that remains for you? And the answer is none. It has been fully exhausted on the person of Jesus Christ. No one in the world should be more free than the per people in this room. No one in the world should be more free than Christians because we are not those who try to most people just downplay the sin part. We are not afraid to upplay the sin part. No, the sin part is far worse than most of us give credit for. But at the same time, our savior is. Far greater. Our forgiveness is far more extensive. That suffering on a cross was to exhaustively cover the and pay for the wrath of God deserving our sins. What a blessing. Do we take it that serious? Do we see it as we ought? The ninth hour, the darkness lifts, and the judgment on the sun means something significant. Not only does the darkness reveal the weight of sin, but the next thing we see is this torn curtain. The torn curtain now reveals to us the way of salvation. From the weight of sin to the way of salvation. And the gospel texts have this essentially happening at the moment of the tearing of Jesus' flesh. You have the tearing of this curtain. Luke notes it simply, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. That is that second curtain, to borrow Hebrews 9, 3, that separated the holy place from the holy of holies, intended to keep people out from the presence of God. Listen, you do not want to be in the presence of God in your sinful state. But of course, God made a provision that was a shadow of the substance that was to come in the Old Testament of a high priest who would go in but once a year, only for a moment to sprinkle blood as an atoning sacrifice on the mercy seat to pay for not only the priest's sins, but the sins of the people and then get back out of there quick. Imagine on this day as the priests were gathering and they were preparing to slaughter thousands of animals. This was the Passover. Imagine hearing the sound from the temple. I can't even make it, but right? That temple curtain is no joke. Four inches in depth. I was laughing this week. I I got a bunch of junk mail and I tried to put it all together and just tear it in my hands when it got to about a half inch. Alright? Don't look at me, oh you skinny. I bet someone else could do three quarters. Alright, alright, whatever. Whatever. You can't do four inches, alright? Go grab your it's the phone book thing, right? Somebody's like, I've done it before. Yeah, whatever. It's still a good illustration. I could have brought someone up here. Try to tear this phone book right now. Let me see it. I want to see you do it. We'd hear a lot of grunting. What's interesting about the gospel accounts that parallel this is when they tell you about the curtain being torn, it says it was torn from top to bottom. That curtain was 60 feet tall. God tore that curtain. The minute Christ's flesh was torn, that curtain was torn from top to bottom. So here's the question: Has God given you eyes to see the connection between the death of Christ and the opening of access to God's presence? That's the key. Don't miss the connection between the death of Christ and the opening of access to God's presence. Watch. Fury for Christ, access for people. Fury for Christ, access for people. No more barriers. Christ's torn flesh destroys the barriers to the presence of God. Let's take it a little bit deeper. If that is true, that is the greatest news in the history, in the history of the world. That is absolutely incredible. You and I who do not deserve to be in the presence of God, Christ has made a way not only to offer us the presence of God, but invite us into the presence of God. You are welcome in God's presence in and through the name of Jesus Christ. So, with such a privilege, do you take advantage of that access? Right? Are you living the good news? Is your life saturated with communion with God? That you can go to Him anytime in prayer through the blood of Jesus and you have access. You are invited in to speak to the King of Kings about everything. You with Him through everything. Do you live like that? Is that the crowning joy of your life? You wouldn't believe the communion I had with the Lord today. It set everything up for my week. You wouldn't believe the way the Lord met me in prayer today and in his word. Or, or are you Christian, practically living like the veil has still not been torn? Do you still live at a distance from God? Do you still believe He's frowning upon you? Do you still live in that separation where knowing how to get close to the Lord? Jesus Christ is the way. He's made the way. Now we can come with confidence. So what does that say about your pursuit of God? What does that say about your practice of prayer? Would you say, man, I am cashing in on the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ? I am living in regular, rich, life-altering communion with God. Because it's yours. Because it is yours in Jesus Christ. What a privilege. Christ has welcomed you in. Don't remain out. Don't remain out. You go, I have no idea how to grow in my communion with the Lord. The Lord will help you. You say, I have no idea how to deal with my sins. The Lord will help you. Literally, your entire life, the Lord will help you. I don't know how to get out of the predicament I'm in. The Lord will help you. Stop going to yourself. Stop going to your spouse. Stop going to your mom or your dad as your first thing. I'm not saying in general. But as the first thing. Stop going to your logical reasoning to get yourself out of every problem. Start going to the Lord first. Because you get to. Because he made a way. And because this he wanted to do it. Jesus wanted to do it. Which leads us to the third detail that Luke wants to show us. Not just the darkness revealing to us the weight of sin, not just the torn curtain revealing us to the way of salvation, but this trusting confession revealing to me his willing surrender. We need to see a willing Jesus. He was willing to do this. Of all the things that Luke wants to tell us about the death of Jesus, this is what he wants to show us. He wants to show us the darkness, he wants us to show us the curtain, and he wants to show us the willing confession of the Lord Jesus. Isn't that interesting? What do you play up about the death of Jesus? This is what Luke plays up. This is what Luke wants us to see. He wants us to hear Jesus calling with a loud voice from that cross. Oh, he says it with a loud voice, huh? Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Let me just tell you what happened right there. I took a deep breath, and I had to push all my air out to use a loud voice. Are you tracking with the implications of that for a man who's suffering and dying on a cross? There was some sort of amazing enablement there. Suffering on a cross for hours. Fighting for every single breath. They nail you there, and the idea is you have to lift up on the nails that are driven into your feet in order to just get a breath. The idea is that you would asphyxiate on the cross. You couldn't breathe. In fact, a lot of people, there were testimonies of the fact that you would spend hours on the cross and you would eventually start to go incoherent. You weren't saying things normal anymore. Jesus seems to be defying all of it. Not only is he coherent, he's straight up spitting verses on the cross. And he's applying it to his own work. And he's saying it in a loud voice, which is all the more, by the way, this is not how people die in these circumstances. This is wild. So calm, so trusting. Because he's not the victim of anything. Nobody put him on the cross. His life wasn't taken. He laid his life down. And he did it willingly. He did it gladly. For the joy set before him that John 10, 17 would be true, that he may take it up again. That's why he did it. I lay it down so I can take it up again. This is exactly what we see of Jesus. And he quotes this ever familiar verse. Psalm 31, verse 5, into your hands I commit my spirit. By the way, very common night prayer Jews would pray with their families. Psalm 31. Unironically, considered a prayer of a righteous sufferer. Precisely what we have in the Lord Jesus. But perhaps what's more interesting about how he prays it is both what he adds to Psalm 31, verse 5 as well as what he takes away from Psalm 31, verse 5. He adds Father as the direction of his prayer, which is not in Psalm 31, 5. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. But he also deletes something. Psalm 31, verse 5 says, For you have redeemed me. He says nothing of that because he's not needing redemption. He is the redeemer. It's a picture of his passive obedience. We needed Philippians 2 to be true, right? That this Jesus would come and be obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. We needed that for our salvation. We needed him to be obedient all the way through. And here we have that willing obedience, that faith and trust under fire. That's Christ for us for our redemption. But it's also a picture for our own faith. Because our whole life is really two phrases: Christ for us, and now Christ in us. And Christ in us says, He who by example showed us, now by his strength, empowering us by his spirit, we walk in the same things. He empowers that same kind of trust in us by his spirit. Christ for us did it in obedience for our salvation. Christ in us, by his spirit, empowering the same kind of thing, which by the way, you see a perfect example of with Stephen when he's martyred, right? When he's stoned, you hear him. He's literally echoing the words of Jesus. When you go through your trials and your troubles and your afflictions, you should be echoing the words of Jesus, Father, into your hands. I commit this situation. That can't be done in your own strength. It has to be done in the strength that the Spirit supplies. It's the Spirit of Jesus Christ. So you not just have Christ for you, you have Christ in you. There's actually none of you left. Any movement you make in your life to maturity is Christ in you. Anyways, you're seeing Christ. It's Christ by his Spirit making you like the Son. So that you might trust God not only in comfort, but also in affliction, just like Jesus displayed through the strength that he supplies. The darkness, the curtain, the confession. Shows us the weight of sin, the way of salvation, and a willing surrender of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now Luke takes, that's it. That's all we get. And now he flips the spotlight around and goes, now what say you? What say you? Yeah, man, I'll be neutral to this news about Jesus. Nobody's neutral to the news about Jesus. You were either moving towards him or you were moving away from him. And so let it let's see if we can't unfold some of what it would look like. How ought I to respond to the details of Christ's death? How should I respond? What should this look like? Remember that every time you hear of Jesus, there's a response. Remember that this is the way that God is ordained to work in people's life, through the proclamation of the Word of God. God causes people to be born again through the living and abiding word. This is why we don't do other things. This is why we do this as the main thing. God's word proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit going forth to change people's lives. Here's the first element that we might glean from in terms of response. How do we respond? First thing, let it lead you to a confident confession. Let the death of Christ and what you see lead you to a confident confession. Verse 47 says, Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God. That seems out of place, doesn't it? So much darkness for such a long period of time, freaking everybody out. And he's in awe. Saying, certainly this man was innocent. Other accounts have him saying, truly this was the son of God. Here's the thing: are you hearing the truth and are you seeing it by the eyes of faith? Have you made the good confession, if you will, confidently? This is the son of God. Have you trusted in him? Man, I think about the fact that we are two weeks away from Easter Sunday. Man, we love to baptize people on Sunday, and I can't, on Easter Sunday in particular, Sundays in general, but I can't even like the opportunity for some of you who have yet to do it, to be like, man, I am going to make the confident confession in the waters of baptism. What a better way to do that than have this place jam-packed while you come up here. Right? Most of the time that's why people don't want to come up here. Too many people. What a blessing, because part of what baptism is is making the confident confession. I am found in Jesus Christ. He paid for my sins. My life by faith is now united to him. What's true of him, he died, I've died. What's true of him, he rose, so I've risen. What? To new life in him, so that the life I live is no longer me living it, but Christ in me. What a better time to confess that than in the waters of baptism, which is in part why baptism exists, so that before your church body you might make the good confession. And there are some of you that have still not been baptized in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege it is to praise God as the centurion does and say, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. Jesus is the one who has died and has risen for me and I in him. And I get to testify to that. Well, that's your confession. This man's confession was certainly Jesus was innocent. Certainly this man was innocent, which is an interesting word because it's actually the word righteous. Which I think is saying even more. Saying someone's innocent is saying that they didn't do anything wrong. We understand that. Saying someone is righteous is saying he only does what is right. So here's the thing that's so crazy about it. The lights go out, and never has this man seen clear. Because he wasn't seeing by his eyes. He was seeing with the eyes of faith. He was seeing things that he probably wasn't even fully putting together, but we could summarize out of the Bible, say Isaiah 53, 11, the righteous one was making many to be accounted righteous bearing their iniquities. The lights went off. But the spiritual lights of his heart perceived the truth about Jesus. So take encouragement, church. Especially if you've invited somebody, or you are that somebody, you're like, eh, I'm not really religious, or I'm into a lot of things spiritual or whatever, or Jesus is not really for me. Man, consider it the centurion. Take encouragement from this man who was not a follower of Yahweh, but was radically transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ because that's the heart of God, not just to save one particular people, but to make a people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Have you made the confident confession? When you see the good news of Jesus for you, you're like, I will gladly make the confident confession. But then this, secondly, let it lead you to a genuine conviction. We see another group. We see this crowd. Luke tells us about the crowds. All the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle. That's what they thought it was. Listen to this. When they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. How would you have responded if you were there? Did you ever think about that? What would you have done? When they saw what had taken place, they went home beating their breasts. I mean, you combine it with some of the other things that you were told about in the other gospel accounts, you got earthquakes, you got rocks splitting, you got graves opening up, right? Something has happened and it is freaking them out. And they go home beating their breasts. And of course, the question is and always is how far and how long will the breast beating go? And what is that posture? It's a posture of humility, it's a posture of repentance, it's a posture of sackcloth and ashes and falling on your faces and being overwhelmed by the holiness of God. But see, it happens, it's the going home is always the tell, isn't it? It's when you get home from church that we find out how far the breastfeeding will go. I need to use another phrase. Some people are looking at me weird. That repentant heart posture. How's that? It's not the conference, though I'm so thankful for conferences. It's not the camps, though I'm so thankful for camps. I am stoked about camps, happy about what happens in camps, but here's my problem, it's been my problem for years with camps. What about after the camp? Don't give me that excitement for seven days and then go live your life completely the same as you lived it before. That shows me what has taken place is actually very little. Works great on social media, works great to see, oh, look at all the people we drew and all the ways they're throwing their hands up, but where are the lives transformed, right? What how far has that repentance sunk? Has it just shown up in a kind of expression in a weekend? Or has it changed the way you love your wife, you serve your family, you worship the Lord, you lead your life, you lead your company, you humbly pursue the Lord Jesus Christ? Does it change absolutely everything about you? So hear me as you hear about the death of Jesus. Will this revelation of the death of Jesus lay you low for a little, or will it change your life for a lifetime? We are after absolute complete life transformation. It's not a whole 360, but it is this. I'm taking every one of my normal days as serious as I took every one of my conference days. If Jesus Christ can leave me in tears, At a camp, there's no reason why you can't bring me to tears on a Monday morning when I'm on my knees before the Lord because my schedule has changed because Jesus has changed everything about me. I'm just not that impressed with camps and the effects of them at times. I'm so thankful for them because I do think they bring such good things to the surface, but the question ultimately is is it driving towards true repentance or worldly sorrow? Will you drop the excuses? Will you confess the innocence of Jesus? And will you call out to him to save you? And listen, there is a saving calling out. Like there is the first time you meet Jesus, and it's like, how do I, I don't even know how to receive the salvation Jesus wants to give you. It's so simple, Luke 18. Don't we have that example of the publican, right? Have mercy on me, a sinner. That's it. But then in our lives, there are so many ways where we come back to him again and again and again and say, Lord, have mercy on me. I need your help. Save me, deliver me, change me. So what happens when you go home? How does the word stick with you? How does the word shape you? How does it change you? And then this ultimately needs to lead to a consistent closeness with you and the Lord. It needs to lead to a consistent closeness. This is what it ought to do. I'm not saying it always does this. I'm saying this is what it ought to do. It ought to lead you to a consistent closeness. Well, why? You can go back through. The weight of sin has been dealt with. Christ's torn flesh tore the curtain open. I have access to the presence of God, so I have everything I need. A spirit dwelling in me, because of the blood of Jesus, access to the Lord, and I have everything that I need for no matter what it is in my life. And so let it lead me to a consistent closeness. Look at verse 49. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. Which let me just say, uh, can I get just a shout out to faithful women of God? Because Luke constantly puts them up as like they've been following Jesus this entire time, no idea where the men are. Like, kudos to the faithful women of God. They're from Galilee, y'all. You see any disciples around? Luke makes a lot of mention of the women in this text. Now, granted, there's more going on here. There's this truth of having been with him in a time of testing, not falling away, but also now, kind of a Psalm 38, 11, my friends and companions, they stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off. There's something of that, right? Because until the resurrection, they're not really fully grasping everything, but they're still there in one of the darkest moments. Because yes, this is the fulfillment of the great promise that the Lord had displayed in prophecy after prophecy, but the resurrection hadn't come yet. And so the question becomes really simple. So you receive the teaching about the death of Christ. Is where you're finding yourself right now a place of drifting from the Lord, or are you drawing near to the Lord? Are you taking in the truth about what Jesus or Luke is revealing about Jesus in these details so that you might take in something to testify about, to tell others about? Because not only are we to be drawing near, but that closeness is meant to be an attractive evangelistic gauge to the world, that we might proclaim with consistency between our life and our message the good news of the Lord Jesus, because Paul puts it so clearly. There is a purpose and a reason for the death, and it must be proclaimed as much as it should be enjoyed in communion. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Jesus Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Hear it again, church. That is good news. And how is it to be proclaimed? My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Let's pray to that end. Father, we pray that your word would go out in power by your Spirit. There is nothing that I can do to make anything of spiritual significance happen. I am a mere witness, God. But I hunger and long to see what only you can do in the lives of your people, saving those who don't believe and growing those who do, because it's not just Christ for us in his redemption, but now it's Christ in us by his Spirit, making practically true what's true for us the moment we place our faith, our trust, our confidence, and turn from our sins and place that faith in Jesus. Lord, be glorified as we continue in worship in Jesus' name. Amen.