It would be great if you can keep your Bibles
open to Matthew 27. And let's pray, let's ask
God for help as we dig now into his word. Father,
as we look at your word, please minister to us,
comfort us, challenge us, change us. Help us
to see how good it is. to know and love the Lord
Jesus. We ask this in his name. Amen. Well, as
a pastor, I get to be part of the happiest times
in people's life, as well as some of the worst
moments in people's lives. One of the happy times,
I once had to do a destination wedding in Margaret
River. had to, you know. All expenses paid weekend
away in Margs with my wife Laura. It's a tough
gig being a pastor sometimes. Everyone had a
blast. It was an amazing celebration. So much
joy and delight. Happy moments like that can
be so fun and good, can't they? Great to be part
of that. But then there are the dark moments
in people's lives. I pastored a church at a university
campus in Perth where in the same week a dear
friend of mine in the church had his wife leave
him and two sisters unexpectedly lost their mum.
I remember when I was in Geraldton I saw a woman
get sued by her own brother over their father's
inheritance. Also there I saw a woman get told
that she had cancer for the fifth time and she
passed away. And it left her husband devastated
and in deep grief. Sadly, life is full of these
dark moments. And many of you here have had to
face extremely awful moments like these yourself.
And it's not just moments, is it? There's also
the chronic pain, the chronic darkness that can
consume our lives, things that have just been
going on for years and years and years with no
resolution. Well the Bible is no stranger to
such pain. Take for example Psalm 88. It's a
psalm of one suffering intense agony and the
psalm, if you are suffering by the way, great
psalm to go to and express your pain to God.
But it ends like this. It says, your terrors
have destroyed me. All day long, they surround
me like a flood. They have completely engulfed
me. You have taken from me friend and neighbour.
Darkness is my closest friend. There are times
where we can feel that helpless and that hopeless
and that alone, aren't there? Where the only
friend left with us is the darkness, the very
thing we wish to be free from. So what do you
do during those times? Have a think about it.
What would you do during those times? Who or
what would you turn to when life is all darkness?
Some people in things can be very good. Some
can just make it all so much worse, can't they?
For some people, family and friends are a great
support, for some times they just pile on. For
some people it's escape, drugs, alcohol, endless
entertainment. Where would you turn when life
is all darkness? Have you got somewhere to turn?
Today I want to show you the best place to turn
is the cross. I've seen people turn to the cross
and find incredible strength, the richest comfort
and otherworldly peace. And this is for two reasons.
The first reason is the cross is the darkest
place ever. And so it shows that God is able
to help us in all situations, no matter how dark
they may be. But secondly, the cross gives people
a powerful hope in their pain that one day the
darkness will lift. Today we're going to look
at the cross and see why it's the best place
to turn when we're engulfed and drowning in the
darkness. And here's the one thing I hope you
take away from our talk today. When life is at
its darkness, the cross gives us hope. When life
is at its darkness, the cross gives us hope.
I'm hoping that when you're in your darkest times
that you'll turn to the cross because of the
great hope it gives. And there's two things that
Matthew, who wrote this Gospel, this chapter
that we're looking at, that he's showing us,
that we're going to look at, that will show us
when life is at its darkness, the cross gives
us hope. Here are the two things. Firstly, Jesus
suffers, yet is the glorious King. Jesus suffers,
yet is the glorious King. And secondly, Jesus
saves others by not saving himself. So let's
have a look at those two things. Firstly, Jesus
suffers yet is the glorious King. Now the suffering
that Jesus undergoes here is unparalleled in
human history. He's crucified because his disciples
abandoned him. One of them betrays him. It's
a deep wound that Jesus would have felt emotionally.
Not only that, but his countrymen, who should
have welcomed him, rejected him and handed him
over to the Roman ruler Pilate. When he's before
Pilate, he experiences profound injustice. Despite
being innocent, he's crucified. He's condemned.
And the physical pain of crucifixion was horrific.
They put nails through your wrists and in your
feet and ankles. He was beaten beforehand and
whipped. I mean, it's just awful. And this chapter
is littered with other pain, the mockery. Jesus
is given a crown of thorns to wear. We discovered
this one this morning. They're real thorns. It
actually hurts. That would have hurt to wear
something like that, wouldn't it? They have the
mockery of this sign above him. This is Jesus,
the King of the Jews. Pilate, when he put that
up, he was in there going, well, yes, Jesus is
the King of the Jews. No, this is, oh, this is
your King. We're gonna make fun of you. Look
how pathetic your King is. And people would walk
past him and say, you know, if you're so good,
Jesus, why don't you come down off the cross?
You're the son of God, aren't you? Get off that
cross. Just another way to say, you know, you're
the king, get off the cross. But the worst pain
for Jesus comes in verses 45 and 46. Have a look
with me there. From noon until three in the afternoon,
darkness came over all the land. About three
in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken
me? There was literal darkness. And it's a sign
of God's judgment. Something cosmic, something
supernatural is happening here. It's gone dark
when it should have been bright. Something is
going on. And what's going on we get a clue with
what Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why have
you forsaken me? Jesus is God forsaken as he
dies on the cross. He's experiencing the full
force of God's wrath and anger. I mean, earlier
in the Matthew's gospel, Jesus would talk about
it as the cup that he had to drink the cup, the
cup of God's wrath down to the dregs. Jesus who
had experienced bliss and joy with his father
in eternity past is now experiencing some sort
of cosmic forsakenness, some sort of cosmic separation.
This is unimaginable pain in every sphere. Emotional,
physical, mental, relational, spiritual. It's
worth asking, what would it have been like to
feel this pain? Years ago when we lived in Perth,
I went down to Albany, about four and a half
hours south of Perth, and in Albany they've got
this convict jail that you can go into. And in
there they've got a little cell that was used
for solitary confinement. There's no light, there's
no windows, it's just, they shut the door and
it's completely dark. and it's quiet, unsettlingly
quiet, and you feel very alone. They've done
studies and they've found that actually solitary
confinement is one of the worst forms of torture.
I went into this little room, this solitary confinement
room, shut the door just there on my own, and
I was like, after a few minutes, I'm like, this
is kind of disturbing. I'd hate to be in here
for very long. Well, as Jesus dies on the cross,
he is going through the most horrific, awful,
solitary confinement on a cosmic level. But not
only that, think of the times you might have
burnt yourself or cut yourself or been humiliated
or pierced by guilt. Roll that all together and
add that to the worst pain you've ever felt.
Times it by a thousand. And we're still not even
close to what Jesus went through. That's the
pain Jesus experienced. Yet it's not random if
you have eyes to see it. Because this chapter
is full of clues as to what's going on. It's
spelled out in the Old Testament, but especially
in the place we had read to us earlier, in Psalm
22. A Psalm of David, the righteous king of Israel,
one who suffered awfully, yet eventually was
glorified and vindicated. Here's what we see
in Psalm. Do you see how it matches? Clothes
are divided by lot, which is the same in Matthew.
He's mocked for trusting God, which is the same
as what happens to Jesus. He's forsaken by God.
I mean, actually the Psalm 22 starts with, my
God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And that's
exactly what Jesus cries out on the cross. Jesus
is there quoting it saying, hey, if you want
to understand what's going on here and now, go
back to Psalm 22. It's because Jesus' journey
is patterned off King David's journey in Psalm
22. the path to the throne will be filled with
pain. And yet Jesus truly is the righteous King
in the line of David, the one that God would
vindicate and glorify. And that would become
abundantly clear three days later. Do you remember
what they said to him? If you are the son of
God, come down and offer the cross. Well, we'll
see later why Jesus couldn't do that, but essentially
he did, didn't he? Three days later, he rose
again. He would be vindicated even though he
was in darkness now. When we look at Jesus, we
can see that the darkness will eventually lift.
John Newton, who's the author of Amazing Grace,
was a pastor as well as a prolific letter writer.
He wrote one letter to a Christian sister in
depressive darkness, and Newton takes her on
a journey through the Easter story. Here's what
he says. Come, madam, let us leave our troubles
to themselves for a while. And let us walk to
Golgotha and there take a view of his. Now I
begin to see what sin has done. Now let me bring
my sorrows and compare, measure and weigh them
against the sorrows of my Saviour. Foolish attempt
to weigh a grain of dust against a mountain.
He then goes on to outline the whole Easter story
and And at the end, he asks her to get her scales
out metaphorically and to weigh Christ's sufferings
against hers, but also to weigh her pain against
the future glory that is to come. He says this,
let us put in our trials and griefs on one side
of these scales, you know, and they're not like
our scales that you stand on and go, oh dear,
it's gone up. It's the scales that balance out
like that. They tip one side or another. Let
us put in our trials and griefs on one side.
What an alteration. I thought them lately very
heavy. Now I find them light. The scale hardly
turns with them. But how shall we manage to put
in the weight on the other side? It is heavy
indeed. An exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
It is beyond my grasp and power. No matter. Comparison
is needless. I see with the glance of an eye,
there is no proportion. I am content. I am satisfied.
What's the net effect of all this? When immense
darkness strikes us, we need to turn to the cross.
We need to see the Lord Jesus. Leave your troubles
for a while and turn to His. Consider His trouble.
He knows and empathises with everything that
you're going through because He's gone through
that and worse. He gives us a new outlook. I
thought what I was going through is bad. Look
at what Jesus went through for you. How much
He must love you. And best of all, look at the
hope. The darkness will lift. It lifted for Jesus.
God is good. He is a vindicator of his people.
He will rescue them when the time is right. There
is a glory to come. Christian, when the darkness
is suffocating you, there's many things you can
do. places you can turn, many that you need to,
that are good for you. But also, actually most
of all, can I encourage you to pick up your Bible
and read again the Easter story? Or in your mind's
eye, remember the journey that Jesus went on.
If you have a brother or sister in Christ struggling
in the darkness, sensitively point them to what
Jesus went through like Newton did. Go to Christ's
sufferings. See the promise of the resurrection
to come. Let those things minister to your heart.
But that's not all we must see at the cross.
When the darkness won't lift, we don't just need
to see that Jesus suffers horribly and yet is
God's King. We also must see that Jesus saves
others by not saving himself. Jesus saves others
and that includes us who believe in him by not
saving himself. Have a look with me at verses
33 to 34. They came to a place called Golgotha
which means the place of the skull. There they
offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall but
after tasting it he refused to drink it. Now
the reference about gall here is I think a reference
back to Psalm 69 and another Psalm like Psalm
22 that has this righteous sufferer going on
a journey through to vindication. But why did
Jesus refuse this drink? It's wine, and we see
in Mark's Gospel it's actually got myrrh mixed
with it, a mild narcotic to dull the pain. Why
does Jesus refuse this drink? It's because he
would not anesthetise himself as he died on the
cross. That awful pain we talked about earlier,
he chose to experience all of it. Nor would he
save himself. Look at verses 41 and 42. In the
same way, the chief priests, the teachers of
the law and the elders mocked him. He saved others,
they said. But he can't save himself. He's the
king of Israel. Let him come down now from the
cross and we will believe in him. During his
earthly ministry, Jesus did save people from
life's darkness, didn't he? He healed the sick.
The wind and the waves obeyed him in the most
horrible of storms and he saved his disciples
from that. Actually demons were scared of Jesus
and they obeyed him when he told them to leave
people. Jesus even raised the dead back to life.
He had divine supernatural power. When people
came to arrest him, he could have saved himself.
As he hung there on the cross, he could have
saved himself. Why didn't he? Why wouldn't he?
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter strikes the
ear of the servant of the high priest. Not the
most militaristically impressive of feats, is
it? But Jesus says to him this, put your sword
back into its place for all who take the sword
will perish by the sword. Do you think that I
cannot appeal to my father and he will at once
send me more than 12 legions of angels? But how
then should the scriptures be fulfilled that
it must be so? Again, Jesus sees there's a plan,
a plan that the Old Testament scriptures spoke
of clearly, but in a way that was subtle and
hidden. The plan was that David's son, the Messiah,
was also the suffering servant, the one that
God promised in Isaiah who would save his people,
that he would save his people by sacrificing
himself. Here's what it says of the suffering
servant in Isaiah. But he was pierced for our
transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed. We all like
sheep have gone astray. Each of us turn to our
own way. If you've ever seen sheep, they're crazy,
aren't they? They just go here, there, and everywhere.
It's saying that's what we're like. When it comes
to God, we've sinned and sinned and sinned in
so many ways, transgressions, iniquities. We're
at war with God. And what has Jesus done? He's
healed us. He's brought peace. He's taken the
punishment for us. And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us. All the sin that was meant
to be ours, that is ours, went on to Jesus. The
righteous anger of God for our sin then got poured
out onto Jesus. It reminds me of a soldier named
Private McGuinness. During the 2006 Iraq War,
Private McGuinness was stationed in Baghdad.
McGuinness was travelling with his unit in a
Humvee. And as they were travelling, enemy forces
threw a grenade into the Humvee. Rather than
jump out and save himself, McGuinness chose to
jump on the grenade. He saved his entire unit.
He shielded them all by absorbing the full blast
of the grenade. That's what Jesus did at the
cross. He jumped on the grenade of God's righteous
and holy anger for our sins. He chose not to
save himself in order to save us. He absorbed
the full blast of God's righteous, holy anger
to shield us. Christian, when you're experiencing
life's awful darkness, and I know it can be so
painful and ugly and horrible, but even then,
there's still things you've got to remember.
Remember there was an eternal darkness awaiting
you for the wrong things, for the sins, for the
evil that you've done in your life. And you were
so loved by Jesus that He saved you from that
by experiencing literal hell on the cross. In
the darkness, look to the cross. See again how
loved you are. See what you've been saved from.
See what you've been saved for. That the darkness
will lift, that there's an eternal paradise coming.
Let that comfort you when it feels like it's
darkness all around. When tears are pouring down
your face, feel the sadness. Feel it. It's right
to feel it. Don't hide from it. Don't avoid it.
Don't suppress it. Feel it. But then cast your
mind to the cross and remember, the wonderful
truths of what the Lord Jesus has done for you.
Well, let's draw some threads together. We started
by asking, where will you turn when life is darkness?
And we looked at the darkest moment in all human
history, where the author of life, God's loving,
righteous King, was murdered crucified. We saw
that Jesus suffers, yet is the glorious King.
We saw that Jesus saves others by not saving
himself. And the big takeaway from all this is
when life is at its darkest, the cross gives
us hope. In those moments, turn to the cross.
Now, what's this mean practically for us? If
you're new to Christian things, I want to ask
you, where will you turn in the darkness? Some
things may be good for you, some may take you
into deeper darkness, but do you have anything
as good as the Lord Jesus? Do you have anything
as good as the cross? I think for many of us
when we're new to Christian things, we're like
this guy. Did you see the centurion? He was there
at the foot of the cross. And he sees all that's
happened. And he says, surely he was the son
of God. Check these things out. Check out who
Jesus is. dig into the Bible and see if this
really is God's King. See if he really can offer
the comfort, the hope, the peace, the joy that
we've spoken about today. Consider if there's
more to Jesus than what meets the eye. If you
think this is worth checking out, we've got copies
of Mark's Gospel up the back. They're free. Feel
free to take one and read through it. See if
Jesus is the Son of God. And feel free to come
chat with me after church. If you've got questions,
I'd love to talk to you about those. But if you're
a Christian, and especially if you're in anguish
this Easter, I hope you've been reminded to turn
to the cross again. I hope you'll let Jesus'
sufferings comfort and heal you. If you've got
a fellow brother or sister who's struggling,
I hope you'll sensitively point them to the hope
and the love that Christ gives. The cross is
such sweet comfort when we sit at its feet deeply,
thoughtfully, reflectively. And I hope you can
and will this Easter. And even if right now you're
not in darkness, you'd know that there are times
where the darkness may come. I hope you prepare
yourself for that. But also, there is immense
joy to be had here. Whatever you're going through
right now, whether life is good or bad, to see
the riches of what Jesus has done for us is a
sweet blessing. Remember the cross, turn to the
cross. As a pastor, you often need to be there
for people in their darkest moments. Those stories
I mentioned at the start, many of those folk
who went through these horrible things, found
comfort, peace, joy and hope at the cross. I
remember one of them, the guy who lost his wife.
Dear friend of mine, such a great guy. It was
a struggle. It was so painful to lose someone
that he'd loved for so long. But he found such
great comfort. in turning to the cross, in going
back to Jesus and seeing again the hope that
is found in him. I've seen the cross impact people
time and time and time again. Where will you
turn when the darkness sets in? I hope it will
be the cross. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father,
we want to thank you for what the Lord Jesus
has done for us. Thank you that he jumped on
the grenade of your holy and righteous anger.
The anger that should have gone on to us for
our sin. Thank you that Jesus absorbed that anger,
absorbed that punishment. so that we'd be spared
of an eternity in hell. And thank you that through
His death, we can experience eternity in paradise.
When the darkness hits, Father, please help us
to see how much we have in Jesus. Be with us,
Father, we pray. Amen.