CROSS TO COMMISSION | The Message of The Cross | Matthew 27:45-56 | Philip Anthony Mitchell

You're seated. If you're a guest, we want to welcome you to 2819 Church, to this sacred place, these sacred gatherings. our imperfect body of believers striving for the spread of the gospel and the multiplying of disciples. This is the great commission of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to all of our digital disciples watching live across the nation and around the world in these final hours of the church age, we pray for you. You are our family. The extensions of the kingdom of God and the extensions of our family, 2819, on every continent on the planet, wherever you are, you represent the work of this great house, this growing global family of end-time disciples that God is raising up in this hour. And if you're not a follower of Christ, you crept into this room or crept into this chat, we welcome you to this sacred place. We want you to know that you can belong before you believe. And you can be amongst us before you believe. And we pray for you like many who followed last week that a moment would come in one of these sacred gatherings. You would feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit whooing you to Christ himself. And you would pivot before time has run out on you. For tomorrow's promise to no man. And in the day you hear the gospel harden not your heart for someone in this room today might be the day of salvation for you we are near the end of a three year teaching through the book of Matthew and our final series called Cross to Commission in which we are studying Matthew 26 to 28 together and landing the plane on this series on Resurrection Sunday. Our text today is coming from Matthew chapter 27 verses 45 through 56. Spirit of the living God, have your way as the word that you offered is proclaimed through this weakened earthen vessel. Awaken in this hour, your sons and daughters of the kingdom across America and around the world. Open our eyes and stir our hearts to prayer and to mission. Let us feel the weight of this text that calls us to remembrance and to action. Touch the heart of the believer and trouble the unbeliever. Ask in the mighty and the majestic in the matchless name of our soon coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of God's people said amen. And amen. And amen. Family, this morning as I stand here to proclaim God's word to you, our nation is in war. With adversaries in the Middle East. A war that has stirred opinions. From both sides. Both those who see this war as prophetic. Fulfilling biblical prophecy. And those who cry hatred against such wars. And right now as I'm talking to you. Not only is there a war being fought right now. With our nation. But I wonder how many people right now. are paying attention to the events that's happening in history that this war right now is set in place at a time that we are living in the final hours of the church age that this war will be remembered amongst events that happened very close to the return of the lord jesus christ a clock that he put on humanity that is coming down to the end a clock that began with the text that we approached this morning as a spiritual family for in our history there have been very few empires like the empire of rome who ruled over a part of the world from India to Africa for some 1,500 years. During that period, it is reported in history that Rome executed and crucified some 300,000 to some 2 million people during his days of its empire. And during that time, those are nameless faces of men mostly and some women who have been crucified and have come and gone and for the most part none of us know their names their lives have had no great bearing on history to this day and all we had was reports of this barbaric form of execution that Rome had perfected that was engineered by man the most evil form of capital punishment ever designed until 1968 in an archaeological dig when they found a skeleton to give testimony to this barbaric form of execution. Give me my image control room. When this ankle bone of a late 20-something year old was found in a dig in Jerusalem, a seven inch spike through his ankle bone testifying to the barbaric brutality of execution through the capital punishment of crucifixion that Rome has strung up some millions and millions of people who were executed this way his name was also found when they found his skeleton but his name has no bearing on society his name did nothing in history nobody talks about his name nobody celebrates his name he is unimportant in the annals of history however there was a man that was crucified during the temper of Rome there was a man who was executed during the time of Rome who because of that man all of society is split around of his life into years bc before christ and years a.d and new domini latin for in the year of our lord there was one man that rome did execute that had a great effect on history that man who we come to in the text between where we are right now in history and where we come to in the text the most important event in human history is what we approach right now in the text the event that started the time clock that is counting backwards right now the time clock that is soon to come to an end how christ was arrested tried condemned to death how he was abused and abandoned and led out to be executed by roman soldiers how he was helped by a man named simon who helped him carry that cross to the top of gargotha and how four soldiers nailed the body of christ to a wooden cross beam and hung up the lord on a cross beam and left him there to die between two criminals in the first century AD. Spikes through the wrists and spikes through the ankle bone. And then what we come to in our text is the fulfillment of the most important event in human history. As Christ hung on that cross between two criminals, Matthew writes in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 45. Now, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. Mark, Matthew now punctuates the time in which Christ was hanging on the cross. He leaves out a detail that Mark would give us, that Mark writes, that Christ was crucified at the third hour of the beginning of the Jewish time clock, which means Christ was crucified at 9 a.m. And then Matthew says from the sixth hour, darkness came over all of the land until the ninth hour. So when we put together Mark's account with Matthew's account, we understand that at nine o'clock, Christ is hung up on the cross and Jesus hangs in the light. for three four hours while he's hanging in the light for three hours the lord will speak from the cross from the cross the lord will ask for forgiveness for the men who persecuted him and the men who nailed him to that cross demonstrating for you and i the christian ethic of forgiveness in its highest extreme reminding you and i that we have no right to hold anybody in our heart for nobody has done anything to you to the level of crucifixion in which you feel you have the right to hold anybody in their heart from abuse to rape from molestation to betrayal Christ has demonstrated for you and I that your heart can never be an apartment for anybody we must evict everybody from our heart so when we look upon the cross we have no right to hold people in unforgiveness in those first three hours while jesus hung in the light he also looks down at his mother and he says to his mother mother behold your son and he says to john john behold your mother demonstrating for us the power of biblical community the future of the beauty in the church he was about to form reminding us that all of us need people in our lives we all need comfort we all need community nobody will make it to the end by ourselves and on the cross he looks over to a repentant criminal and he says today you will be with me in paradise reminding us of the christian theology that for the one who is in christ to die in christ is to be present with the lord giving us a theology that our life goes beyond death and that we have hope beyond this life and not even a funeral can rob the believer of the hope that has been promised to us in the Lord Jesus Christ and then at 12 noon Matthew tells us that an ominous darkness comes over the land of Palestine Christ goes silent and the sky above him goes black as God supernaturally sends on the land a darkness that covered all of Palestine. This was not an eclipse. This was not a sandstorm. This was God Almighty turning out the lights of the sun. Using creation to grieve over the creator. who had now been hanging on that cross for three hours and now blackness comes over the land God in the Old Testament testifies I feel the spirit of his miraculous power over the elements of nature when he prophesied to a prophet named Amos 700 years before Christ was crucified when he says to a prophet named Amos in Amos chapter 8 and verse 9 and on that day speaking of what was coming 700 years later declares who the lord god i will make the sun go down at noon biblical prophecy being fulfilled not found in the quran not found in the pearl of great price not found in any religious book I just keep showing you how hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament have come to pass accurately in the era in which we live. God prophesied 700 years before the day we expose in our text. And on that day declares God, I will make the sun go down at noon. And darken the earth in broad daylight. 700 years he fulfills that prophecy when at 12 o'clock in the afternoon as the lamb of god is strung out on the cross god turns off the light of the sun blackness comes over the land the people standing there watching christ bleed out are confused that in the middle of the day when the sun should be at its highest it is completely black over Palestine. There must be fear in some of their hearts that it is black over Palestine. God now not only using creation to grieve the dying creator, but now God also using creation to speak from the cross. Why? Because all throughout the Old Testament, darkness is synonymous with judgment. and if you read from Isaiah and multiple prophets you will see that when darkness shows up in the Old Testament judgment shows up in the Old Testament and now God is speaking from the cross not only using creation to grieve the creator but now God is speaking a message from the cross that he's using that blackness to send a message to all humanity that judgment now was coming upon humanity but judgment of what? judgment of the thing you and I love and play around with so much sin and from the cross God declares judgment upon sin judgment upon all works of iniquity that from the cross God declares his hatred for sin that what Christ is feeling and what God is doing he is using that blackness to speak to mankind his judgment on sin that he's now laying upon the back of his son upon the cross and there is Christ hanging now in darkness and as Christ is hanging in darkness he is silent because what's happening right now is Christ now is becoming sin. For you and I. He's so overwhelmed by what's happening, he can't even speak. That for almost three hours he says nothing. As the Father now makes the Son sin for you and me. the apostle Paul in the future would write about this moment in second Corinthians 5 verse 20 when he says therefore you and I are ambassadors for Christ you should represent him God making his appeal through us why we implore you on behalf of Christ why be reconciled to God stop playing with God be sold out to God stop running from God why what did he do for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God so on the cross in the second three hours of pitch blackness the father now is laying upon the son the sins of all humanity past present future and right there in that moment christ now is absorbing sin christ now becomes sin as he's hanging on the cross christ would now feel the pain of becoming sin he will feel the pain of absorbing the sin of men what christ was feeling was worse than the nails was worse than his beating was worse than his scourging was worse than his mocking was worse than the crown of thorns the worst thing christ felt on that day was absorbing all your sin debt and mine the man who had never known sin the man who had never committed sin now in this moment he not only absorbs sin, he becomes sin. Now I know for you and I, in our sinful nature, who played with sin and love sin and unholy in nature, we don't understand the significance of this moment. It only takes those of us who have grown in maturity, who hate our sinful nature, who be frustrated with our own mistakes. Man, I can barely bear my own flesh, let alone trying to bear the sins of all humanity. Every man, woman, and child for all eternity trying to bear their sins. Man, we can't even conceive the weight of what Jesus felt in that moment. But the evidence that the Lord was feeling the pain of becoming sin is what happens next in verse 46. That at about the ninth hour, That is three hours later, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabaccini. That is being interpreted in our English language. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus, I feel the spirit of God. The Lord now shouts at the top of his lungs. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The Lord is shouting about the abandonment of the Father. Because now God, who the scripture says in Habakkuk, cannot look upon sin. he now has to turn his back on the son and now the father and the son who have been in perfect fellowship for the endless ages of eternity for the first and only time now their fellowship has been broken why? because the God is so holy he cannot look upon sin. So now in some hard to understand theological situation God turns his back on the son. And what the son feels is a momentary abandonment from the father. Now for the first time there is a breach between Jesus and the Father. And now Christ feels for the first time what we are born into separation from God. And because he feels that separation from God, he now cries out in the blackness from that cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So first he cries this out because he's feeling the separation from his father. But he also cries this out because in his wisdom, he's preaching from the cross. Jews are standing all around him who know the Old Testament. And Jesus shouts from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? he is actually from the cross preaching his own identity upon the cross for those who mock him and did not know he was the son of God he quotes to them the first verse of Psalm 22 which was a messianic psalm that prophesied about the death of the Messiah the son of God so as he shouts my God my God why have you forsaken me what those Jews would have heard and remembered was Psalm 22 verse 1. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? And what we have here in this Psalm is a theological thing called the law of double reference, where a person is writing by inspiration of the Spirit, but also prophesying about something that was coming in the future David writing this psalm by the spirit not realizing he's actually writing about the future crucifixion of the son of God so as Christ is saying my God my God why have you forsaken me the people at the bottom should have remembered this psalm and immediately they should have known oh my God the person we just strung up was the promised Messiah the promised son of God they should remember other verses like verse 6 through 8 but I am a worm and not a man scorned by mankind and despised by people all who see me mock me they make mouths at me they wag their heads he trusts in his lord let him deliver him let him rescue him for he delights in him they should have seen verse 14 through 15 i am poured out like water all my bones are out of joint my heart is like wax it is melted within my breast my strength is dried up like a pot's hurt and my tongue sticks to my jaws you lay me in the dust of the earth they should remember verse 18 and they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots. And so Jesus is preaching from the cross identifying himself as the Messiah and those who had any common sense would have heard that immediately know this was the son of God. But I want to draw your attention to the word my. not only is Jesus saying my God my God why have you forsaken me because he feels separation watch not only is he preaching from the cross his identity but the word my is very important that even in him feeling abandoned he still puts ownership in front of God he didn't say God God why have you abandoned me but my God my God why have you abandoned me showing us the christian ethic of what it feels like to be in a jam or to be in a season when god feels distant from you or when you feel like he's not answering your prayers or not moving on behalf but does not rob himself of the confession that he is still in fellowship with him that he has watched this word trust in the person who has turned his back that even when this is over I will be resurrected and restored back to fellowship with my God This is a reminder for you and I that in those seasons when you going through hardship and trials and difficulty and all of us have felt what it felt like to feel like the Lord is far from me. The Lord is not answering my prayers. The Lord has allowed me to go through too much trials and tribulation yet I do not allow my emotions to override my theology that although I may be in pain and will be in pain I will not be forsaken this is you feeling like the Lord is not listening to me but in your theology you remember but he has not abandoned me so he cries out my god my god demonstrating trust in the one who right now he cannot feel gosh verse 47 and some of the bystanders hearing it said this man is calling for Elijah and one of them at once ran and took a sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink but the other said wait let us see whether or not Elijah will come to save him the word my God my God in hebrew sounds very same close to the word elijah in hebrew elijah was a prophet who god raptured up who never died a guy that god took from earth and brought him to heaven a man who never saw physical death these bystanders are still mocking the lord they're listening to him cry elai elai and thinking he's crying for elijah and then they say well let us wait to see whether or not Elijah will come from heaven. In their mind, Jesus is in a situation he cannot escape. They think that he is hanging on the cross because of nails, but he's hanging there because of love, absorbing the sin debt of your and mine. They misinterpret what he was saying. And because they misinterpret what he's saying from the cross, they respond to his words wrong. family this happens all the time in your life and mine where we hear the word of God preached to us and we misinterpret what God is saying or we misinterpret what we are reading and as a result of that we close our heart to the revelation that we should be getting in that moment that what should be happening is they should have heard what he was saying and remember Psalm 22 that what I'm saying to you is whenever the word is being preached to you with fidelity and with integrity and theological clarity. That is an opportunity for you to repent. It's an opportunity for you to be changed. It's an opportunity for you to be challenged. It's an opportunity for you to be corrected, to be inspired, to be encouraged, to be coached, to be led back to the word, to be strengthened, to be renewed, to be guided, to be led, to be lifted, to be healed. that there are things that the Holy Spirit intends will happen in your life when we hear the word of God preached to us correctly one man has compassion he runs out to give Jesus a drink the rest continue to mock him while he's dying and the next verse one of the most important verses in all the scripture verse 50 and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit Lord help us Lord now Matthew does not record what Jesus said that last time. What John did. John recorded what Jesus said in that last moment of his life. It is finished. It's what Jesus cried out from the cross. It is finished. That in this moment, as Christ hung on the cross his last words was it is finished he had accomplished the mission for which he was sent for he said of his own life that he came to die to make a way of escape for humanity who could not deal with their sin debt for themselves and in this moment Christ yells to all humanity it is finished. I have now paid the full debt of sin and have satisfied the wrath of God towards humanity. The old covenant has been satisfied. The sacrificial system has been satisfied. The fulfillment of the law has been satisfied. I have finished the work that I have been given And now mankind has the opportunity to receive righteousness so that when they die, they can be justified before holy God. That without this moment, no person can be justified before God. No person is headed to heaven. You say, but Pastor, wait, what about the Old Testament saints? man they was the same recipients of grace just like we are right now because you and i live in time god does not live in time that's why god says jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world so that although this was coming in time those in the old testament who placed their faith in God. He credited to them the grace of the cross in AD 33 was credited back retroactively to anybody they place their face in God. That's why we know Abraham is in glory and David is in glory and Ruth is in glory and Esther is in glory. and that's why the scripture said David or Abraham believed God and it was credited to him and now in the first century in verse 50 the greatest event in human history has taken place the event that set off the clock that we are on right now the death of the Lamb of God that made a wave escape from hell for you and I and created an opportunity for you to be seen as righteous before God. Without this death, no pardon for you and I. And I just want you to peep in the text that says after he cried out, he gave up his spirit. Meaning nobody took his life. that when the gospel writers write about the death of jesus they don't write about his death like your death and mine they write about his death with a theology of voluntariness to say that the lord was not his life was not taken from him but when he saw you and when he saw me he laid his life down you gotta peep all the details in the text anybody else being executed like this would have been exhausted by this time but Matthew tells us in detail he cried out with a loud voice to show us that he still had the strength to keep hanging there if he wanted to. But when he was ready, when he was ready, when he had finished absorbing sin, when he had done the work that the Father sent him to do, he said, it is finished. Now into your hands, Lord, I commit my spirit. that's so powerful to me the Lord stayed alive long enough to deal with your sin debt and when he paid the price for your sin in full said now I'm finished I took care of Philip I took care of James I took care of Milton. I took care of Rhonda. I took care of Don. I took care of my children. Now into your hands, Lord. I commit my spirit. He stayed alive. long enough to make sure that when you die, you would remain alive. He stayed alive long enough to make sure that my body would not remain in a grave forever. He stayed alive long enough to take care of what's your good behavior, your church attendance your morality could never take care of let's finish the text and then with the last three hours the last bit of time when Christ said it is finished and he gave up his spirit now God from heaven unleashes apocalyptic events on the earth to make sure the whole world knows that y'all just crucified my son I'm going to make sure that my son is spoken for through the power of the natural order verse 51 after the death of Christ and Matthew said behold that is pay attention the curtain of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom And the earth shook And the rocks were split And the tombs were open. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep. Oh my God. was raised from the dead and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection. They went into the holy city of Jerusalem and appeared to many. Immediately after Christ died, in the temple, pay attention, there was a massive curtain, thick, ornate, impossible to rip with hands. It separated the holiest place in the temple from every place else. And once a year, a priest would have to go behind that curtain to make a temporary atonement for the sins of man. That curtain represent the separation of God from human beings. Oh my God. so God now in the death of Christ takes his finger and he rips the curtain from the top all the way down to the bottom signifying to all humanity no longer would my presence dwell away from you now all people have access directly to me. The Christian has access. The repentant sinner has access. That's why the unknown writer P. Bruker says, we should approach his throne. How? Boldly. because now because of the death of Christ you and I watch the word I love this word have access this sinful man from Queens, New York I have access to a holy God who now allows me to come into his presence through a whisper and prayer because blood made it possible for me to go in there how then can we see prayer as a chore and not as a joy and a liberty that any place, any time, anywhere, in any posture, I can go into the presence of my Savior no matter what is going on in my life. God shook the whole earth. When Christ died, that people in Jerusalem would have known this was not some ordinary man. And people on the other side of the world would have felt something that's happened in the year AD 33. He shook the entire globe. And he will shake it again when Christ returns in glory and power to set up his kingdom. in Jerusalem he will shake the earth again when the stars fall from heaven and then he says because of a massive earthquake tombs that stayed above ground shattered on Friday that there's a period in the text, which means it happened on Friday. The period points is then two days later to Sunday when Matthew said, then after Jesus is raised, those bodies came out of those tombs. Watch. And they walked into the city, knocked on the door of family members. I was once dead. some way somehow I am alive God testifying in the cross it's power to deal with death and the hope of the resurrection that was coming after that a hope for you and me that's why there's no need to fear death because if we are in Christ we will not sleep nor would our bodies see decay they will mourn at my funeral while I'm walking the streets of gold so we fear who? for what? gosh man gosh man this is the power of the cross it is the message of the cross and when the centurion the boss of those who have persecuted Christ those who are with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what had taken place. They were filled with awe and even the ones who nailed him to that cross testified of his identity. Truly, this was the Son of God. That I don't have to fight to prove my identity to nobody. the Lord knows how to vindicate all his children make all the videos about me you want we see in the end the Lord knows how to vindicate all his children all his real prophets all his true servants we'll see you in the end and see who was real and who was fake and there was also many women there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering to him among whom were Mary Magdalene who he cast seven demons out of and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, James and John. While men abandoned him, women stayed close to him. They were faithful. They were devoted. They were dedicated. And I say to all my women, this is what Jesus wants of you and I say to all my men these are the women we should honor that we should love them for their devotion and not just only try to abuse them with infatuation that where we see godly women like this honor them and there is the message of the cross there is right here in the text the message of the cross that in the cross God condemns sin that in the cross God speaks help and that on the cross he hung up the savior of the world and that you and I should have a unified response to the cross that when we see it on top of a steeple or swinging from somebody's neck or tattooed on somebody's arm wherever we see the cross it should give us a hatred for sin a hatred for the thing that put Christ there and it should speak to us a type of hope for the future that whenever I see the cross I see the image of God's love for me and for all its humanity that when I see the cross I see the thing I must despise sin and when I see the cross I see the hope of my future resurrection and when I see the cross I see the one who absorbed my sin debt that the only response to the cross is a life fully surrendered any other response it's unacceptable so father in the name of the one you hung up on the cross in the name of Yahshua the king I pray God the unbeliever listening to me right now would throw themselves down at the foot of the cross and cry out for mercy and for the forgiveness of their sins lest they die and be separated from you in judgment for all of their life for the endless ages of eternity and Father God I pray for the son and daughter under the sound of my voice that we would look upon God the cross and from that place we would begin to hate the sin in our own hearts, the sin of our own mouths, the sin of our own thoughts, the sin of our own lives. And from the cross, we would have hope for our future. And from the cross, we would be compelled to live for the one who fully absorbed our sin debt. The one who died in the dark, that we may live in the light. may our eyes our hearts and our lives be burned by the message of the cross and we never be the same I ask in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our soon coming king the Lord Jesus Christ if you're thankful for what Jesus did on the cross somebody take the roof off this place and give him praise