Please open your Bibles this evening to the Gospel according to Mark, the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 15. You may also want to put a marker in Psalm 22. Psalm 22. We'll spend a little time there, but mostly in Mark chapter 15. We'll be reading from Mark beginning in chapter 15, verse 15, through the end of the chapter. Our text will be more constrained beginning in verse 25, but we will read from verse 15, Mark chapter 15. Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified. The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace, that is the praetorium, and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, Hail, King of the Jews! Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him, and when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put on his own clothes. Then they led him out to crucify him. A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read, The King of the Jews. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. So those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, So, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself. In the same way, the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him amongst themselves. He saved others, they said, but he can't save himself. Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. At the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When some of those standing near heard this, they said, listen, he's calling Elijah. One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick and offered it to Jesus to drink. Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down, he said. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, Surely this man was the Son of God. Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, the younger, and of Joses. and Salome. In Galilee, these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there. It was preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath. So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was laid. Here ends the reading of God's Word. we're going to take up our consideration of this text this evening at verse 25 where we find Jesus on the cross. It was the third hour of the day we read for us who tell time differently. That's about nine o'clock in the morning, children. It was then that the Roman soldiers crucified Jesus. Now Mark does not detail how Jesus was crucified. He tells us really nothing of the execution other than Jesus was crucified. He had already been tortured and perhaps beaten beyond recognition but from the third hour through the ninth hour Jesus was on the cross and Mark would have us turn our attention from the body of Jesus Christ and that which was done to him and to turn our attention to see those who had gathered around the cross and to listen with a keen ear to what was said how it was said and what was left unsaid. In verse 26, we are reminded of Jesus' trial before Pilate when we see the written notice of the charge against him that read, The King of the Jews. We remember how he was tried before Pilate. We see in verse 27 that they crucified two robbers with him, one to his right and one to his left. And indeed, as verse 28 says, the scripture was fulfilled which says he was counted with the lawless ones. An appropriate reference to Isaiah 53. But because it appears to have been added after the original Gospel of Mark, you'll find it in your footnote. But it is an apt expression of that which took place that day. And so we find Jesus on the cross. And the stage is set to consider how he was ridiculed by men, forsaken by God, and recognized, finally, in his death. throughout the morning hours from the third hour nine o'clock till the ninth or the sixth hour about noon Jesus was ridiculed by men a parade of men slandering and mocking and insulting the Lord Jesus and first we meet in our text those who passed by people going out from their normal activities on a Friday afternoon getting ready for the Sabbath in and out of Jerusalem and just like the looky-loos on the freeway, they just couldn't help but notice something going on over there at Golgotha and they turned their head to see what was up. Who's that on the cross? Oh, it's that King of the Jews. We heard about him. He's the guy who was going to destroy the temple. They parked, they walked over and took the time to insult Jesus to his face and said, so, you, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from that cross and save yourself. And on they went, back to their business. And next we meet the chief priests and the teachers of the law, a much more somber group, much more serious-minded. They had been to Jesus' trial. They knew that that claim of tearing down the temple in three days and building it up was a fake. They had put men up to it. But they had heard other things that were more important things. They had heard the high priest ask him, are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? And they'd heard Jesus answer, I am. And they charged him with blasphemy. They had heard Pilate ask him, are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus says, so you say. And still they did not believe. They had plotted to destroy Jesus from the day that they met him. And now that Jesus was on the cross, he was as good as dead to them. Their job was done as just a matter of time. And so as they walked by, they didn't even bother to take the time to speak to him. They just spoke to each other, letting him overhear. And so they mocked him as they walked along. They mocked him among themselves. And they said to each other, he saved others, but he can't save himself. Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down from the cross that we may see and we may believe. And last we're told about those crucified with him who piled insults upon him. These two robbers. Now we'd be mistaken to think of these robbers as petty thieves or pickpockets. Robbers traveled in bands much like we think of gangs today. perhaps militias in some of the countries that we are aware of that have fighting going on. These bands could include hundreds of fighting men. And so throughout the Roman occupation of Israel, these bands of robbers, as they're called, were waging a guerrilla war against Rome. They were led by people such as Barabbas. Barabbas, who had been given freedom in exchange for the crucifixion of Christ. Barabbas, who John called a robber, who Mark called a rebel, and a murderer. They were insurgents, and we know what an insurgency is today, don't we? That's who robbers were. So, these men were hung on crosses by Jesus. You know, Jesus always made it plain that his kingdom was not of this world. But men had a hard time understanding that, and they always treated him as though it was. And so we read in Mark chapter 14, verse 48, that when the mob arrived to arrest him, in order to take him to be crucified, when they came to arrest him, he asked, am I leading a rebellion, that you come with swords and clubs to capture me? It's clear that he was considered an insurrectionist, And he was hung with insurrectionists. And so it was no accident that we find him between two robbers. And even these, these men portrayed to be his comrades in arms, joined in the chorus of ridicule. And they heaped insults upon him. So even as Jesus' body was pierced with the spikes that held his hands and his feet to the cross, his spirit was pierced by the ridicule of men. as John says in chapter 1 of his gospel, verses 10 and 11, He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. As we will soon see, and as I've already told you, Psalm 22 was in Jesus' mind on the cross. When he finally speaks on the cross, in Mark's account, that's all he references. That's all he speaks of. And in that psalm, King David gave us an inspired preview of the mind of Christ when he was surrounded by these mockers. If you turn back there for just a moment, I want to point you to a few verses. Verses 4, I'm sorry, 6 to 8. I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They hurl insults, shaking their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him. Then picking up at verse 14. I'm poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax and has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men has encircled me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. People stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. despised and rejected by men. Surrounded in this swirl of scorn, Jesus remains silent. He says not a word. The Apostle Peter says in his first letter, chapter 2, verse 23, When they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. And indeed, that's what Psalm 22 tells us that he did. That's what Peter says that he did. And it's certainly true. But we need to know that when Jesus entrusted himself to him who judges justly, it meant that according to God's justice, Jesus on the cross would be forsaken by God. Mark brought us into this scene of Jesus' execution so that we would hear the rabble of this ridicule and we would get a sense of the torment that was going on. And now that we're there we must not breeze past the sudden and abrupt and incredible change that takes place at the sixth hour. When the voices of ridicule were silenced and when the spotlight on Jesus was put out we read in verse 33 At the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. One verse, less than a dozen words, and we can fly right past that like it's nothing. But with these words, we arrive at a threshold that we cannot cross. For three hours he was left, we are left laboring to see through impenetrable darkness. Laboring to hear through deafening silence. Three hours of history forever closed to us. We cannot enter into see or hear all that took place. And so when we pause to consider the magnitude of that statement, it should cause us to feel troubled. It was not until the darkness was lifted three hours later at the ninth hour, and when Jesus himself shattered that silence that we get the message of the darkness. In verse 34, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? With these words from Psalm 22, verse 1, Jesus cried out to his God, his Abba, his Father, who had always heard his prayers and had always answered his prayers, but who was now not answering. In this, Jesus' darkest hour, his father did not rescue him. God had abandoned him, forsaken him, turned his face from him, as if he had never known him. This was the darkness of God's judgment. A judgment that is exemplified for us in the story of the Exodus. In Exodus chapter 10, when God plunged all of Egypt into a pitch black darkness, so dark that men had to sit still for three days, they could not see. They couldn't see each other. It was a darkness that could be felt, the scriptures say. And the ultimate expression of this darkness is reserved for the final day of judgment. The last day when the enemies of God will be thrown outside into the darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth forever. And it was just that judgment that Jesus endured on the cross from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. But only for those who will trust in him alone to save them from that judgment. Everyone else will experience it for themselves. for first comes death man's appointed to die once and then comes the judgment Jesus knew it was coming he had prayed in the garden Abba, Father, everything is possible for you take this cup from me yet not my will but your will and it was God's will that Jesus would drink this cup to the dregs a cup of his judgment against the sins of his people and he would experience in their place the unmitigated torments of hell separation from God in that darkness Jesus became sin for us he was made a curse for us the bloody sacrifice that he became was the propitiation the sacrifice to turn God's wrath away from those who believe and turned it on himself. He became the ransom that God himself paid to redeem sinners like you and like me. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 2, verse 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. William Hendrickson, the commentator, says that hell came to Calvary that day and Jesus descended into it to bear its horrors in the place of all who will trust in him. And indeed, that's what we say in our catechism. Heidelberg Catechism, question and answer 44, we ask this question. Why does the Apostles' Creed add, he descended into hell? That creed we will say tonight in the Lord's Supper. Why did Christ descend into hell? Referring to this darkness on the cross. And we answer, to assure me. To assure me that in times of my personal crisis and temptation, that Christ, our Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish and terror of soul, especially on the cross, but also earlier, has delivered me from the anguish and the torment of hell. Praise God. These inspired conclusions of scripture, this summary of our catechism, were evidently not self-evident at the cross. For we read in verses 35 and 36 some puzzling news. That some standing nearby who had witnessed all of this, either misunderstood what Jesus said when he cried out, or they deliberately twisted his words. They said, listen, he's calling Elijah. One man ran, filled a sponge with wine and vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. Now, leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down, he said. Words that are an enigma. Given the context of this entire account, it's hard not to interpret their actions as a mockery of Jesus. But if we be charitable, the most charitable we can be is to see here some who were sincere, although misguided in their hope on Elijah. And that their actions were intended to keep Jesus alive until Elijah came, so that Elijah might bring him down. But their hope was squashed in a moment, for the very next thing we read in verse 37 is that with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. Mark does not tell us what Jesus said, if anything, when he cried out this last breath. He simply tells us that he died, but in a most remarkable way. A way that led to him being finally recognized in death. Crucifixion brings death slowly. Painfully. The man crucified gradually suffocates to death by fluid in the lungs. He drowns up on a tree. And because men will fight to live for that last breath and continue to strive, men that were crucified could last for days before they finally slipped into a coma and died. It was common. That's why we read in John that the centurions broke the legs of the robbers because they had not died yet and they needed to speed things up. But Jesus did not die like other men. Yes, he really died and he was really buried. But it was not because his life was drained away by this crucifixion. Jesus died voluntarily. He gave up his life. When the work was done, he gave up his life. In John chapter 10, verses 17 and 18, Jesus said that this was his Father's will for him. He said, the reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. Jesus had told his disciples this was coming. On at least three occasions in Mark's Gospel, He told them how He must suffer, how He must be rejected, how He must be killed, and how He must rise again in the third day. They did not understand. They did not understand what He meant when He told them in chapter 10, verse 45, that He, the Son of Man, did not come to be served, but to serve, and in a particular way, to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he offered himself up voluntarily on the cross. God sent him into the world to be the price, to pay the price that must be paid to redeem his people. And this redemption required blood. For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. There must be blood. And the blood of bulls and goats would not do, but only the precious blood of the Son of God would do. Therefore, Jesus, when he instituted the supper in chapter 14, verse 24 of Mark's Gospel, said this, This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. Jesus did not die like any other man. And his death on the cross, Jesus was recognized, attested to, by his Father in heaven. We read in verse 38 that the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Now, if you remember your Old Testament, you remember the temple set up. There's curtains that separate people from the inner access to the sanctuary. The inner curtain, the second curtain, surrounded the Holy of Holies. And according to the author of Hebrews, this is the curtain that was rent that day. That curtain guarded the most holy place. And until that day on Calvary, until that ninth hour, God granted access into His presence only once a year. and only by the high priest and only by the blood of bulls and goats that atoned for the sins of the priest and for the sins of the people. Dying on the cross that day, Jesus shed his own blood as the sacrifice of atonement. The sacrifice that he himself would offer to his Father in the heavenlies, the true Holy of Holies. And that he would satisfy for all the sins of all his people, once and for all. We were reminded in our call to worship this evening from Hebrews chapter 10 that we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus. He's the new and living way, open for us through the curtain that is his body. That's what Hebrews is talking about. Good Friday, his sacrifice. He paid the price to give us access. And his father acknowledged him. He recognized him and attested to him by rending that curtain at that moment forever. Despite the desires of some, that will never serve a function again. But also in his death on the cross, Jesus was recognized and attested to by a Gentile centurion, a soldier. The man who had, in fact, supervised his crucifixion. We read in verse 39, And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, Surely this man was the Son of God. What provoked such a confession? We're not told much. All we're told is that this man who was stationed in front of Jesus, who looked at him face to face throughout his execution, responded with this confession when he heard and he saw how Jesus died. The Greek is very emphatic that he died in this way, this unique way that he had never seen before and he would never see again. And this confession is a high point in Mark's Gospel. Mark's Gospel that begins by telling us this about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. First sentence. And you can read all the way through Mark's Gospel and never find anyone called Jesus the Son of God until this man did at his cross. The religious leaders that had studied their Bibles and had interviewed Jesus and had asked him if he was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One. When he said he was, they didn't believe him and they charged him with blasphemy. The disciples never got it until after Jesus was resurrected. The demons got it, but Jesus told them to be quiet. It's not until this episode at the foot of the cross that a man calls Jesus the Son of God in a way that recognizes and attests to the fact that this man is the Son of God. The irony is palpable, it's thick, you can cut it with a knife, that this man saw it. He didn't have the benefit of a theological education like the high priests and the scribes. He didn't have the advantage of spending three years with Jesus day by day and being taught. He saw his death. And he saw his death in this way that he gave himself up. And he confessed, this man is the Son of God. We don't know whether this was a confession of true faith. There's no way for us to know. People speculate both ways. I don't think it really matters because what matters is that through his mouth, this man, testified to the truth, a truth that has become inscripturated and passed down from generation to generation so that when we see the death of Christ, anyone who reads this gospel is confronted with the truth that Jesus, this man, is the Son of God. And it is the death of this man, Jesus, the Son of God, his particular and his unique death that we confess and remember today. Good Friday. It's what makes Good Friday good. It was this man, Jesus, the Son of God, who was ridiculed by God, or by men, and forsaken by God. It's Him who we commune with tonight. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are lifted up to Him, who is now at the right hand of His Father in heaven, in the flesh. This man, the Son of God. And there we partake on his glorified humanity through faith. Through faith that lets us know that we're sinners that deserve this judgment of God. Through faith that recognizes Christ as the only one who can save us from his judgment. And through faith that drives us to live lives that more and more reflect his righteousness, reflect his holiness. And that is who is to come to the table tonight. Those who know that about themselves. That you're sinners. That you're saved only because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, this God-man. And you desire to live a life that's pleasing to him. So if you're a professing member of this congregation, or if you're made known to an elder of your professing membership in another true church, Then you are welcome to the table this evening as we partake of this man, the Son of God, who died for us at Calvary. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you that he came in the flesh and is satisfied for us, your people. That before his death, he fulfilled all righteousness in every way possible, even unto death on the cross. That through faith in him, we might enjoy his righteousness and enjoy the benefit of his blood shed for our sins. That we might come into your presence with confidence through him and never despair of the final day of judgment, for he has endured it for us on the cross. Thank you for Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.