The Death of Jesus
Luke 23:44-49 (ESV):
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour
45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spir it!” And having said this he breathed his last.
47Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!”
48And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.
49And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a dis tance watching these things.
Today, we thank God that we, as a church, can celebrate together with the rest of the world the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: His resurrection. In our celebration, we want to openly affirm our belief that without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can never achieve vic tory over Satan, sin, and death. As the apostle Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15:57 (ESV), after discussing the resurrection throughout the entire chapter, these words:
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This victory provides us with tremendous hope and courage as we confront the many challenges of life. I pray that we can hold onto this sense of victory throughout our lives until we meet our Savior face to face in heaven.
For the past six worship services, we have studied together the final statements of Jesus Christ on the cross in preparation for our Easter service. This morning, I am responsible for con cluding our sermon series by discussing His seventh word, found in verse 46 of our main text: “Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spir it!’ And having said this, he breathed his last.”
In our study of His final words, we should never overlook the remarkable grace of God toward us in allowing His one and only Son to suffer brutally for our sins. Pastor Alistair Begg ex amined the cross and made this comment:
“In the death of Jesus on the cross, we see the true essential nature of sin in all its badness and horror. The real issue of sin is not what it has done to me, or even what it has done to
you, but what it has done to God. This clearly illustrates how our sin is ter ribly horrendous if it necessitated the death of God’s only Son to remedy it.”
I cannot agree more. There is no doubt in my heart that if we truly un
derstand the sacrifice of Jesus for us, it will lead us to a deeper love and devotion to Him. John Newton, the slave trader who authored the hymn “Amazing Grace,” reflected on the cross and arrived at two profound conclusions:
1. "I am a great sinner" – he acknowledged his own sinfulness.
2. "Christ is a great Savior" – he understood that Jesus' sacrifice was the ultimate act of re demption.
Do you share the same conviction about the redemptive work of Jesus Christ? If you are not there yet, I trust the seventh statement of Jesus will seal it for you. So, going back to the text, let’s highlight three essential revelations for us:
I. THE DARKNESS OF JUDGMENT (v. 44)
As we revisit the crucifixion of Jesus, Dr. Luke describes the final three hours of Je sus on the cross. He notes that from the sixth to the ninth hour, which is from twelve noon to three in the afternoon, a supernatural event of total darkness occurred. Some Bible scholars have suggested that, in a way, the Father gave His Son some relief from suffering by protecting Him from the intense heat of the sun.
While this may be true, I believe there is a deeper spiritual significance to this darkness. When you compare this phenomenon to the rest of the Bible, you will realize that this darkness symbolizes the gravity of God’s judgment and the sorrow of the Father over the crucifixion of the innocent Son of God. Let me read to you two essential passages:
1) Exodus 10:21-22 (ESV):
21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.”
22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.
The context of this Exodus passage is the scene just before the tenth plague, where God sends an angel to kill all the firstborn children of the Egyptians. God sent Moses one final time to warn Pharaoh about the impending judgment that would occur if he did not release His people. Here, we see God casting total darkness over Egypt.
2) Isaiah 13:9-10 (ESV):
9Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.
This is a prophetic utterance regarding the coming of the Lord, when sin on earth will fi nally be judged. Notice that this time of judgment will occur against a backdrop of total dark ness in the world.
I hope we won’t miss this truth that Jesus had to experience the darkness of God’s wrath so that we could be saved out of darkness. This is the very truth that the apostle declared in Ro mans 5:9, where he said, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
I pray that we all turn to Jesus Christ, for it is only on the basis of His work on the cross that we are saved from the wrath of God. During the Great Awakening in America, Pastor Jona than Edwards famously preached a sermon entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” In this famous sermon that brought thousands of people to Jesus Christ he illustrated the danger ous position of lost sinners as people who are hanging over the flames of hell like a spider over a flame of fire. Praise God that we who have known Jesus can escape this position because of Je sus Christ!
II. THE DEATH OF DELIVERANCE (v. 46)
In verse 46, we find these words: “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.” After Jesus made His declaration, “It is finished,” He made this final statement, entrusting His spirit to the Father, revealing His obedience and surrender to His will. Then, after saying those words, He breathed His last breath and died.
Do you know that the comment about Jesus actually dying is very significant? Why? Be cause if Jesus did not actually die, then the claim of His resurrection is a hoax. Remember, it is through His resurrection that we can declare that Jesus gained victory over Satan, sin, and death. If Jesus did not die, then there was really no resurrection.
How many of you have heard about the swoon theory? Some people who are trying their best to explain away the resurrection of Jesus Christ have theorized that Jesus did not actually die; He only fainted because of all the suffering on the cross and was revived once he was bur ied due to the colder temperature inside the cave. The enemies of Christ have used this theory again and again to justify their rejection of Jesus Christ. However, the Bible is quite clear about
His death. Besides our main text, we also have John 19:31-34 (ESV):
31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not re main on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him.
33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
Notice that the Roman soldiers who broke the legs of the thieves beside Jesus did not need to break Jesus' legs because He was already dead. It has been said that breaking the legs causes the body of the crucified person to collapse, suffocating his heart. One of the books by the former atheist Lee Strobel, who became a believer in Jesus Christ, is “The Case of Easter.” He used to be an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune. After his wife became a believer and started witnessing to him, he decided to prove to his wife that her faith in Jesus was a waste by disproving the claim of Jesus’ resurrection. In his research work, one of the people he interviewed was Dr. Alexander Metherell, a prominent physician who studied extensively the historical, archaeological, and medical data concerning the death of Jesus. He holds a Medical degree from the University of Miami and a doctorate in Engineering from the University of Bris tol in England. He is board-certified in diagnosis by the American Board of Radiology and has been a consultant to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health of Bethesda, Maryland. This is what he said about the death of Jesus Christ:
“Once a person is hanging vertically, it becomes an agonizingly slow death by asphyxiation. The reason is that the stresses on the muscles and diaphragm force the chest into an in haled position; essentially, to exhale, the individual must push up on his feet to temporari ly ease the tension on the muscles. In doing so, the nail would tear through the foot, even tually locking against the tarsal bones. . . As the person slows his breathing, he enters a state known as respiratory acidosis- the carbon dioxide in the blood dissolves into carbonic acid, increasing the acidity of the blood. This ultimately leads to an irregular heartbeat. With his heart beating erratically, Jesus would have known he was at the moment of death, which is when he could say, ‘Lord, into your hands, I commit my spirit.’ Then, he died of cardiac arrest.”
Time and again, you will meet people who tell you that Jesus's resurrection is not true. I
hope none of you are deceived. Lee Strobel started in unbelief but took the time to search for the truth. In the end, after examining all the overwhelming evidence, he became a strong believer in Jesus Christ and a pastor defending the faith. So, where are you in your faith in Jesus? I hope and pray that by this time, you have settled your faith in Jesus Christ once and for all.
III. THE DECLARATIONS DUE TO HIS DEATH (vs. 45, 47-49)
Finally, after Jesus died, there are three significant declarations that followed that we should not miss.
1. The Declaration of Victory (v.45)
Reading verse 45, we see the reference to the curtain in the temple being torn in two. This event seems to have occurred simultaneously with Jesus' last statement. However, when examining Matthew 27: 50-51, the chronology becomes clearer. The curtain was torn immedi ately after Jesus uttered His final word.
50And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
51And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
The tearing of the temple curtain was very significant because it declared the re moval of the barrier between the holy God and sinful humanity. This shows that through Jesus' sacrifice, access to God is now available to all, not just the high priest or the Israelites. It is es sential to emphasize that this was a massive curtain. Bible scholars described it as being 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and about 4 inches thick. A strong wind would not have been able to tear this curtain. Also, notice that it was torn not from the bottom up, but from top to bottom. Why? It is because God Himself tore this curtain from the top. Today, we who believe in Jesus can go directly to God because of our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
2. The Declaration of Missed Opportunity (vs. 47-48)
After Jesus died, there were some worthwhile reactions, but they still fell short of an ap propriate response to Jesus Christ. First, you have the centurion, who became convinced that Jesus was an innocent man and praised God for what he experienced that day. However, there was no reference to him believing or following Jesus afterward. Then, we have the crowd; they showed sadness and remorse to the point of beating their own bodies, yet there was still no sign of faith and repentance.
The apostle Paul talked about this type of remorse in 2 Corinthians 7:10, saying, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, where-
as worldly grief produces death.” In other words, remorse without true re pentance is useless and does not lead to salvation. Consider people who have sat in church, listened to the Gospel, felt sorry for their lives, and been convict ed, but have never repented and believed in Jesus. They will regret it in the end when they are punished for their sins.
3. The Declaration of Devotion (v. 49)
This passage ends with these words, “And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.” The mention of the women who followed Jesus from Galilee demonstrates remarkable loyalty and faithfulness to their Savior Jesus. They remained devoted until Jesus died. These are the very same women who would minister to the body of Jesus, burying Him, and who would be the first witnesses of the resurrection. Interestingly, there is no direct reference to men who were followers of Jesus. Some have presumed that perhaps they avoided being arrested during those times. Without a doubt, these women ought to be commended for their devotion to Jesus Christ.
As I conclude this sermon, I believe that each of us who is familiar with what Jesus has done for us should ask ourselves whether we are responding with the same level of devotion to ward our Savior. The apostle Paul shared his perspective on how we should respond as believers to the death of Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:15 (ESV). He said:
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
The expectation is quite clear. If we benefited from the death of Christ, we are compelled to stop living for ourselves; just like Paul, our declaration should be: “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21a).