Supernatural Situations Surrounding the Cross

What a great testimony to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so glad you're here tonight The opportunity we have to spend just a moment looking at what the scriptures have to say It's so important You know, this this night is extremely significant You know, there are there are certain times throughout the year Thanksgiving Eve, Christmas Eve, Christmas Sunday Great Friday Resurrection Sunday Five occasions throughout the year that are extremely significant in the life of the believer You know, we look at these times because they really are holidays

And people love to to escape from the the monotony of life during the holidays But we truly want to embrace embrace the ministry of our Lord during those holidays And for a brief moment this evening, I want you to embrace the moment of today In fact, when you when you look at all those those days, those holidays, they really build one upon another They are my favorite services of the year Those five Christmas Eve is all about appreciation Second Corinthians 9 15 says Did I say Christmas Eve? I meant Thanksgiving Eve. I'm sorry Thanksgiving Eve is all about appreciation

It's all about thanks being to God for his indescribable gift And during November, we gather together as a church family for one brief moment to embrace all that it is to realize that the Lord said in Isaiah 43, that the people I have formed for my name, they will declare my praise And there's something about Thanksgiving that that helps us understand how to be appreciative of all that God has done And we've told you, I don't know how many times that the Thanksgiving is not a vacation It's a vocation It's our calling to give thanks to God

And right on the heels of Thanksgiving Eve comes Christmas Eve And a Thanksgiving Eve is about appreciation Then Christmas Eve simply is about anticipation Learning to anticipate all that was coming with the Messiah He is called the expected one That's one of his titles Psalm 40, Psalm 118, when he rode into Jerusalem on that triumphal entry, right before he was crucified, they would quote from Psalm 118, blessed is the coming one, because he is the expected one

John the Baptist would say, are you the expected one, the one that we were expecting to come and fill, fulfill all of our expectations? And so Christmas Eve is is all about anticipation And when you read the the Bible, you realize that there were very few people anticipating the arrival of the Messiah You have Mary and Joseph, of course You have Zacharias and Elizabeth, you have Anna and Simeon, you have the shepherds and you have the Magi Outside of that, you don't have anybody else living in anticipation of the coming expected one

So we gather together on on Christmas Eve because of its anticipation We gather together on Thanksgiving Eve because of its appreciation And then we gather together on Christmas Sunday because that's all about adulation and acclimation, the loud praise of the fact that the king has come The angel said, we bring you good news of great joy for unto you this day in the city of David has been born a savior who is Christ the Lord Glory to God in the highest Christmas Sunday is all about adulation, exuberant praise for prophecy had been fulfilled and the king has come

And then you move to to Resurrection Sunday and Resurrection Sunday is all about adoration, adoring the God who came in and died and rose again And the Bible says in Philippians chapter two that Christ became obedient unto death and therefore God highly exalted him and gave him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus, everybody will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father and resurrection Sunday is all about adoring the king, the resurrected king It's all about adoration And so if if Thanksgiving Eve is about appreciation

And Christmas Eve is about anticipation And Christmas Sunday is about adulation And Resurrection Sunday is about adoration Then this day, Great Friday Is all about absolution In fact, this is the greatest of all the holy days This is the highest Of all the holy days For he came was born To die In fact, this day, Great Friday, that's what we call it here Christ Community Church, most people call it the Friday Good or Good Friday, but it goes way beyond the goodness of God to the greatness of God This is really great Friday Because this is the greatest day of the year

There is no greater day than this day Because this is the day that is the apex of redemptive history Everything pointed to this day In fact, you can go all the way back to eternity past, because eternity past is all about the predetermination of the cross Remember, he was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world Your name as a believer was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world So in eternity past, it was all about the predetermination of the cross The Old Testament Is all about the preparation For the cross

Everything about the rituals in Israel, the ceremonies in Israel, the symbols in Israel, all about their worship was all symbolic, all preparing them for the cross And so eternity past was all about the predetermination of the cross The Old Testament was all about the preparation for the cross When you come into the New Testament, you have the Gospels, the Gospels is all about the revelation of the cross for Christ came and presented the cross and and preach the cross and emphasize the cross

And then you move from the Gospels to the Book of Acts in the Book of Acts is is all about the explanation of the cross And then you move to the epistles in the epistles are are that which explained to us the forgive me. I forgot the application of the cross You think I remember that, but the epistles are all about the application of the cross And then you move to the Book of Revelation, and that's all about the celebration of the cross And then you move into eternity future And it's all about the exaltation of the cross Because everything in the scriptures is about the cross

The cross was the mission of the Christ The cross is the message of the gospel The cross is the meaning of Christianity The cross is the is the ministry of the believer The cross is everything In fact, let's say it this way The destiny of every soul in the room lies in the promise of the cross and the ministry Of every saint in the room Lives in the pathway Of the cross Everything is about the cross Everything points to the cross Everything before it pointed toward it Everything after it points back to it again Everything In fact, you need to understand That when you get to heaven Everything

For the rest of eternity Will be about the cross How do we know that? Well, the Bible says these words about those in heaven who sing the new song The new song is new because it's a it's all about the soul being born again and being made a new again And the song that is sung in heaven is this Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing

And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them. I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever And the four living creatures kept saying amen, amen, amen, amen And the elders fell down and worshiped When you get to heaven, there's only one song to sing It's all about the lamb of God Remember, in the Old Testament, the Messiah was referred to as a lamb one time In the Gospels, two times in the epistles, two times But the book of Revelation

Twenty eight times the Messiah is referred to as the lamb of God Why? Because that is his apocalyptic name That's how he will be remembered for all eternity He is the lamb that was slain The cross is central to everything Everything about Christianity is centered on the cross of Jesus Christ, our Lord No cross, no Christianity It's just that simple And yet It is so central It is so significant It is so important that when you read about it in the Gospels and all four Gospels record the exact same English words, four words Sums it up There they crucified Him, that's it That's all there is

The restraint is overwhelming You would think that they would spend so much time discussing every intricate detail of the cross, but they don't It simply says there they crucified him Four English words, three Greek words sum up the apex of redemptive history It's remarkable But that is exactly how it goes And you would think that there would be so much more said We know from historians that there were some 30,000 crucifixions during the time of Christ by Rome, 30,000 crucifixions were very common

So the writers had really nothing to say about it because everybody already knew about it, but that is the essence of Christianity and it's on this day Absolution is found, freedom from sin is found, forgiveness is found That's why Christ cried, it is finished Redemption had been paid The price was offered The price was paid in a sacrifice And Christ died for your sins and mine That's why he came He came to die And that's why this is called Great Friday Christmas means nothing without Great Friday The resurrection means nothing without Great Friday

There's nothing to give thanks for without Great Friday It's all about the celebration of the one who came to die in your place And so for a brief moment, we gathered together to look at the crucifixion And we could spend hours looking at all the Bible says concerning it Everything about the precision of the day, everything about the perfection of the day, everything about what took place on Calvary's Mount is overwhelming But tonight, I just want to let you look with me for a moment at what we call the supernatural situations surrounding the cross

There are many situations surrounding the cross, but I just want to look at the supernatural situations surrounding the cross There are five of them First comes the darkening of the sky That's number one From that, you have the dividing of the veil in the temple From there, you have the destruction from the earthquake From there, you have the dead that are raised From there, you have the deliverance of sinners All supernatural situations surrounding the cross The Bible reads this way in Matthew's Gospel Let me read it to you Matthew 27, verse number 45

Now, from the sixth hour, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out, a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is my God, my God, why has you forsaken me? And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, this man is calling for Elijah Immediately, one of them ran and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave him a drink But the rest of them said, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and healed up his spirit

And behold, the veil of a temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split The tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised And coming out of the tombs, after the resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many Now, the centurion and those who were with him, keeping guard over Jesus when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, truly, this was the Son of God Think about it, the darkening of the sky It's noon From noon to three, everything goes dark

This is a supernatural work of God This is not an eclipse Why? Because Passover happens at full moon And so we know that this is not an eclipse We know that God did something unique and special to darken the sky So everyone around would see, all of a sudden, things become black at noontime For three hours, from noon to three, it's black Why? Because the Lord is passing judgment upon His Son You can go to the Old Testament and realize that when the sky becomes dark, that darkness is a symbol of God's judgment Read about it in Zephaniah 1, Joel 2, Matthew 24, Revelation 9

It's all over the place because darkness symbolizes the judgment of God upon His Son He was judging His Son in your place And He has purified them to behold evil God is light, and Him is no darkness at all This signifies the absence of God, the adjudication of God upon His Son, as He hung on Calvary's tree for those three dark, long hours For all hell would come to Calvary at that time He would pay for your sin and for mine He would be a substitutionary sacrifice on your behalf

And so with the darkness of the sky, you have the adjudication of God, the absence of God, the judgment of God upon His Son He cries with a loud voice, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And then, according to John's Gospel, He cries, It is finished And then He says, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit And He lays His life down No one takes it from Him, John 10 He lays it down on His own initiative, in His own time frame, whenever He wants to The price had been paid for sinners Number two, He had the dividing of the veil as soon as He dies

The veil in the temple, that huge veil that would separate man from the presence of God Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement But He was the only one Man was separated from God He could not get into the presence of God until Christ died And the veil was torn from top to bottom And access to God now was open for man For now there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus Now we have complete and total access to God You don't need a priest to get to God You are a priest You can access the presence of God

That's why He tore the veil To realize that presence was open to all men And therefore you could actually come boldly before the throne of grace To receive grace and mercy in time of need And so with the darkening of the sky, you have the adjudication of God When you have the dividing of the veil, you have access now open to God And then you had the destruction from the earthquake Think about it It says that the rocks were split Now think about this What is the magnitude of an earthquake that would cause rocks to split? Well we know there was an earthquake in San Diego on Monday. 5.2

But no rocks split in San Diego on Monday Think about the shaking of the earth and what it would take for rocks to actually split This is God shaking the earth This is the anger of God The anger of God against sin The anger of God against what sin does So He shook the earth in anger and split the rocks As a foretaste of what would happen when He comes again in judgment upon man And then number four The dead were raised Not all of them Not a few of them It says many of them were raised But they didn't go into Jerusalem, it says, until Jesus had been raised from the dead

Now I want you to think about this with me for a second Many were raised from the dead And they would go into Jerusalem And you can imagine what would take place in the city Now how many is many? I don't know Is 10 many? Is 20 many? Is 30 many? The Bible doesn't tell us It just says that many were raised from the dead Because you see, when Christ died and rose again, He didn't just raise Himself He signified the fact that He was going to raise all men by raising some of them during the crucifixion from the dead

But notice, if you will, that there is no revival in Jerusalem that takes place when these resurrected people walk into the city There is no record of any conversions There is no record of a revival in Jerusalem In fact, when you come to Acts chapter 1, 40 days after the resurrection, there is 120 nondescript disciples in the upper room And we know from 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ appeared to 500 brethren So it could be that those 500 came to saving faith because of those who were resurrected and the message that they preached But we don't know that

What we do know is that the Bible records nothing of a revival that would take place in Jerusalem because many were raised from the dead Why is that? The answer is very clear Jesus already gave us the answer He gave it to us in Luke 16 When the rich man said to Abraham, Send someone back from the dead to tell my family that they may believe And he was told they have Moses and they had the prophets If they don't believe them, they will not believe the one be raised from the dead My friends, no miracle ever saved anybody Jesus performed countless miracles But they never saved anybody

When he came into Jerusalem on that triumphal entry, they hailed him for the miracles that he did never because of the message that he preached But we live in this realm where we think that the miraculous is what we need to see It will save people Listen carefully Miracles don't save people Movies don't save people And music doesn't save people Only the message of the gospel saves people It's the power of the gospel that saves man Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by a word about the Christ Romans 10, 17. 1 Peter 1, 23 You're born again by the living and abiding word of God James 1, 18

You've been brought forth by the word of truth Psalm 19 tells us it's the law of the Lord that converts the soul This is so important One of my daughters, Anna, called me today and she said, Hey, dad, just guess what movies being played or what movie clips are being played at this Good Friday service at this church in Orange County. I called her up and said, let me guess The passion of the Christ She said, yes In fact, they're having childcare because they don't want the children in the auditorium to see what was going to be on the movie clips

And she was so disheartened to think that the church has stooped to the level of entertainment to win people, gain people, and entertain people What that does is it devalues the authority of the word of God God's word is not powerful enough to say, I got to show you something on a screen. I got to show you a movie. I got to show you a scene. I want to play on your emotions Let me tell you something Read the gospel record and people left Calvary beating their breasts and mourning and weeping But none of them were safe They weren't

And you see people go to movies and they watch them on TV and they weep and they cry Because they play on your emotions It's the word of God that saves That's why the raising of the dead in Matthew 27 and then going into Jerusalem Let me tell you something If the miracle of a resurrection doesn't save anybody, a movie is never going to save anybody It doesn't work that way It's the word of God, the power of the word of God You see, we are foolish enough to believe that God's word is so powerful It will transfer you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son

That's what the word of God does And so you need to understand that And so you have the dead who were raised, which speaks of the awesomeness of God You have the destruction from the earthquake, which speaks of the anger of God You have the dividing of the veil that speaks to the access to God You have the darkness of the sky that speaks of the adjudication of God But you have the deliverance of sinners, which speaks to the atonement of God Notice the centurion who cries out, Truly, this was the Son of God Luke's gospel says he gave glory to God

We know that there was a thief that was on one of his sides There were two, one on each side Both of them involved in cursing and mocking along with the crowds Remember, it's very important to understand that Christ was not crucified on a hill far away He was crucified eye level on the ground on the busiest highway leading out of Jerusalem So people could walk by and see Him hanging there They didn't look up and see Him on a mountain

He was down below because Rome always crucified people in the busiest places because they needed to know that fear needed to come upon everyone who would disobey their laws And Christ hung there and was crucified And people would walk by and mock Him And so those two thieves, one on either side, would join in on the mocking and the scorn But yet one thief would realize, wait a minute, this man's done nothing wrong He looks to his Lord and says, Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom He recognized that Jesus was the Lord He realized that Jesus was the King He had a kingdom

He recognized that there would be a resurrection because there was going to be a kingdom that He would go to And He wanted to be a part of that kingdom And the Lord said to him, today you will be with Me in paradise And that thief was born again He was hanging there, paying for his sins against Rome, hanging next to Jesus who was paying for his sins against God That is a supernatural situation surrounding the cross And there was a centurion who watched it all, leader of a hundred men

Probably he was one of the ones who was there who arrested Jesus and was with Him the whole process, through all the trials, heard, watched, saw, everything Everything But in the end he realized this was the Son of God The Sanhedrin says He makes Himself out to be the Son of God The centurion says, no, He was the Son of God And He gave glory to the Lord This day, above every other day of this year or any year, the day we celebrate the crucifixion of Christ, the day that we celebrate absolution, the opportunity to be set free from your sin, is the greatest of any day ever

And you have taken the moment to come You have taken a moment to be here, to understand it, to reflect back on it once again It is everything The cross of Christ We have one symbol in our church It is the cross It is the only one that makes a difference It is the only thing that matters That is why when Simon of Cyrene was compelled out of the crowd to carry the cross being of Christ, that was the living illustration, the living proclamation of all that Jesus had said If any man come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me That is the mission of the Christ

That is the message of Christianity, of the gospel, and the meaning of Christianity And Christ gave a living illustration of that as He walked along the Via Dolorosa, the road of sorrows to Calvary One man said it this way, the maker of the universe as man for man was made a curse The claims of laws which He had made unto the uttermost He paid The holy fingers made the bow where grew the thorns that crowned His brow The nails that pierced His hands were mined in secret places He designed He made the forests whence they spring, the tree on which His body hung

He died upon a cross of wood, yet made the hill on which it stood The sky which darkened o'er His head, by Him above the earth was spread The sun which hid from Him its face, by His decree was poised in space The spear that split His precious blood was tempered in the fires of God The grave in which His form was laid was hewed in rocks His hands had made The throne on which He now appears was His from everlasting years But a new glory crowns His brow, and every knee to Him shall bow This is Great Friday, the greatest of all days

And my prayer for you is that you would have bowed the knee to the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords Because on this day 2,000 years ago, absolution was provided Let's pray Father, we thank You, Lord, for this night and the opportunity You give us to look for a brief moment at the cross of Christ My prayer, Lord, is for anyone who is here, who has never given their life to Christ, that today would be the day of their salvation Knowing that the one who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him

There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood And You shed Your blood on Calvary for us So our prayer, Father, is that no one would leave tonight without the opportunity to respond in faith to Jesus Christ, our Lord, the one who was born to die and rise again for the glory of Your kingdom We pray in Jesus' name Amen.