If you have a Bible, turn with me to Mark chapter 15. I'm going to continue our sermon series through the Gospel according to Mark and we'll be looking at verses 33 through 41 this morning. If you're using one of our Bibles, it's on page 1885, 1085. Here now, God's Holy and true Word from Mark chapter 15 starting in verse 33. And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, behold, he is calling Elijah and someone ran and filled his sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come and take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the Centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, truly this man was the Son of God. There were also women looking on from a distance among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, the younger and of Joseph and Solomon. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him. And there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. This is the Word of the Lord. Will you pray with me? Father, we once again just come to bow before you and thank you for your incredible mercy that you have shown to us in Christ. And so now as we look in your Word at this moment in time when your Son died on the cross, Lord, would you use this time to fill us with your love and grace, to show us how amazing our Lord Jesus is and what he has done for us? Lord, would you make us new so that we might glorify and enjoy you more and more? And Father, would you help us to believe deeply in the gospel that it would send us equipped to take the good news of Jesus to our neighbors and to the nations for it is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. So this is a pretty huge moment in the history of the world. We've seen last week that Jesus was being crucified. We saw him mocked and then crucified. And this week we continue and we see the point at which Jesus dies. And it is really amazing if you think about this in one sense, something we've been waiting for or maybe you could see even Mark in writing his gospel the way he's written it is waiting for this moment when finally someone a human being is going to confess the truth about Jesus. The very truth that Mark confesses about Jesus in the very first verse. If we went all the way back to Mark chapter 1, verse 1, then Mark's gospel begins like this. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then all through our year and a half journey, we've seen all these different demonstrations of Jesus as the Son of God. We've seen all the ways that the gospel has been proclaimed through what he has done but up to this point, people have called him Messiah and people have believed he is Savior. But it's at this point that this Roman pagan soldier after he sees Jesus die. The words come out of his mouth. Truly this man was the Son of God. So this is a huge moment and this is also a picture of how powerful Jesus' death was. That it is something that revealed to the Centurion and even reveals to us to the glory of Jesus Christ. What a powerful death. That's where we're going to head today. Looking at the death of Christ, how it opens our eyes to the finished work of redemption and a life of freedom through faith in Jesus the Son of God. Let me say that again. That the death of Christ opens our eyes to the finished work of redemption and a life of freedom through faith in Jesus the Son of God. Here's what we're going to do. If you're making an outline, we've got two things I want to focus on this morning. First, Jesus liberating death and then second, we'll talk about three life-changing freedoms that we can see in this passage. If you're taking notes, that's where we're headed. Jesus liberating death and then these three life-changing freedoms. Keep your Bible open. We're going to move right through this passage with love for you to be looking at the Word of God as we do this. Let's start by looking at verse 33 and talking about Jesus' liberating death. The key thing to realize that Jesus' death on the cross is not just some example of devotion or love. Something is happening. Jesus is actually setting people free. He's setting God's people free. 33, verse 33. When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. This is amazing. The way that Mark helps us understand what's taking place here. This darkness that comes in. This is about noon. All of a sudden, in the middle of the day, it goes completely dark and there is darkness. A couple of things that help us understand what this is telling us about this moment is number one. This is when the Passover should be happening. Jesus has celebrated the Passover meal the night before with his disciples because he knows that on the Passover that he would be crucified. It's the time of the Passover. We've talked about this a few times recently. The Passover was the celebration where they annually would have a feast and celebrate when God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt. We've talked about that recently when we talked about the Lord's supper, the last supper, which teaches us a lot about Passover as well or Passover teaches us about it. Nonetheless, if you remember, the Passover meal would be they would celebrate by sacrificing a lamb in remembrance of the fact that God delivered them from slavery in Egypt after telling them to sacrifice the lamb but when his judgment came down upon the Egyptians, it would pass over them. Remember that? It's a time for this celebration, time for a lamb to be sacrificed. Another thing to realize about the original Passover that helps us understand what's going on here. The original Passover, there had been a series of plagues and then God tells his people to sacrifice the Lamb, paint the blood on their doorframe so that when his judgment comes down, it passes over his people. But think about this. This is also in context of after several plagues. God went to send Moses to Pharaoh, told Pharaoh to let God's people go and Pharaoh said no. So God wanting his people to be free began to send these plagues. So first he turned the water in the Nile to blood and Pharaoh continued to not let God's people go. So then more plagues come from God, his judgment upon the Egyptians. He sends frogs and then gnats and then flies and then the livestock die and then there's boils and hail and locusts. So there's this whole barrage of God demonstrating his power yet Pharaoh continues to say no. He will not let God's people go until a couple of things happen. The ninth plague is very interesting. The ninth plague, if you remember, was darkness. The ninth plague was darkness. In Exodus 1022 it says Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. Now what happens next? The tenth plague was the death of the firstborn. That was the whole purpose of the Passover. The Passover was this meal that they had. They sacrificed this land, painted again the blood on their door frames, so that when this judgment of the death of the firstborn came down onto Egypt, it passed over the Israelites. But it was the death of the firstborn, particularly the death of Pharaoh's son dying that causes Pharaoh to let the Egyptians go. Exodus 2932, Pharaoh says, up, go out from among my people, both of you and the people of Israel and go serve the Lord as you have said. Take your flocks, take your herds as you have said and be gone. So if you put all this together, it's really amazing. In the original Passover, when they first began to celebrate or when they obeyed God's instructions right before they were liberated, what you had was darkness. That was the ninth plague, then the Passover meal celebrated, a lamb is sacrificed, then there's a death of a son, Pharaoh's son, and then that causes God's people to go free. And now here, Christ on the cross, the fulfillment of the Passover, what this was really pointing us to. What do we have, darkness, and then we have the death of our Passover lamb, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, that Christ is our Passover lamb, so darkness, the sacrificial lamb, Jesus is put on the cross. The death of a son, not Pharaoh's son, but of God's son. And so in the same way that that whole thing happened and God's people went free. Now, the darkness, the Passover lamb, Jesus, and God's people go free at the death of Jesus, the son of God. Jesus is not, Jesus's death is not just some example of a great amount of love. I mean, it is that. But this is actually people being set free on the cross, when Jesus died, it liberated people, it set God's people free. That's why there's so much emphasis on freedom in the New Testament. There is tons of stuff about freedom in the New Testament. If you're reading our two-year reading plan, it wasn't just a few days ago, actually not too long ago, we were in Galatians. And in Galatians 5, Paul says, Galatians 5.1, for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a Yoke of slavery, or Peter in 1 Peter 2, 16 says, live as people who are free. He's not putting your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Jesus himself in John 836 says, so if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed. In other words, Jesus' death truly liberated people, set people free. And therefore, our faith Christianity is about freedom. We should feel free, oftentimes that we don't. I know a lot of times people look at Christianity and they feel like, oh, that's a straight jacket, you'd have to do all these things, and that's a completely misunderstanding. People can't see without the eyes of faith. Once we have faith, what we see as Jesus has set us free. It's set us free to be who we were made to be. It is freedom. And therefore, it should be a faith of freedom. We should feel freedom. I have some family in front of town, and we were at the beach yesterday, which you might be able to tell, because I'm probably a little more tan than normal. If you looked right here, you would see a big spot that I've missed with the old sun tan lotion, so that's awkward. But we were on the beach, and I love it when you go to the beach, because you just sit there and you don't really have much to do. You just go swim and enjoy the time. There's this distinct feeling of freedom. Now, I'm not saying that Christianity makes every day like a day at the beach. That's not what I'm saying. Following Christ makes life hard. But the whole time, there's a sense that you know you're free. If you're not feeling that freedom, then it's not because you're not free. It's because we forget, and we even neglect to believe deeply in the fact that he literally did set us free on the cross. So let's talk about some of these life-changing freedoms that we receive through faith in Christ, not because of anything that we do, but simply through faith in Christ. So look at 34 through 39, and I want to talk about these three life-changing freedoms, things that we can see here. First, we'll talk about forgiveness, forgiveness being freedom from guilt and the fear of judgment. Check out 34. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, Lama, Sabakteni, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's quoting Psalm 22. We've seen several references to Psalm 22 in this chapter. Here's the thing. Jesus prays over 20 times in the New Testament, and this is the only time that he prays and does not address God as his father. He addresses him as God, because he is God, but there's a relationship change here. Jesus is not feeling the father's love and approval and acceptance and pleasure in this moment. He's feeling rather, he's feeling forsaken, that word also means abandoned or deserted. He's feeling that God, the father's separated from him. And that should cause us to ask, why is God forsaking Jesus? Why is he separating from Jesus who has lived his life in perfect submission to the will of the father? Because there's only in the reality is this is how we see where we get our forgiveness. There's only one thing that separates God from his people. There's only one thing that gets in the way, and that is sin. Look at Isaiah. I've got on the screen for you. Isaiah 59 verse 2, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear you. Now we talk about this. We've talked about this a lot through this series that we know that Jesus was without sin. Hebrews 4.15 says that. So we know, and we talked about this last week as well. Why is Jesus being forsaken? Why is he being abandoned? Well, one of the reasons is because our sin has been placed upon him. God has taken our sin and imputed it to his son. That's where our sin went, and then God poured out his wrath onto Jesus, the wrath that you and I deserve, the wrath that you and I should experience. We're the ones who should be abandoned, but God in His grace chooses to take our sin and impute it to Jesus and then punish Jesus so that he can extend mercy to us. We talked about that a lot last week. If you weren't here, you can listen to that online. But Jesus has paid our debt of sin. That's how we're able to be forgiven. The reason God can say, I forgive you to you and me is because Jesus has paid that debt. Paul says it in Galatians 3.13. He says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written curse is everyone who's hanged on a tree. So Jesus was setting us free from the judgment that we deserve because of our sin. And that's forgiveness. That's where forgiveness comes from the fact that Jesus has paid that debt. Therefore God can extend forgiveness and mercy to us. So we don't want to be weighed down by our guilt. We should not feel imprisoned by the things that we've done. We should feel free that the guilt is gone. We talked about that last week. So I want to move on to the to the next thing we see here the next freedom I want to talk about here is imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness. Freedom from the dread of not measuring up. We'll put it that way for now. Freedom from feeling like we're not good enough. We're not ever going to be good enough for God, which actually is true except for what we're about to see 35 verse 35. And some bystanders hearing what Jesus had said. They said behold, he is calling Elijah. Now what happens here is Jesus says Eloy, Eloy, Lama sabakani. And he's saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And when he says my God in Arabic, it sounds like Elijah. So that's why they think he's calling out for Elijah. So when they hear that and they think he's calling Elijah's name somebody runs and gets a sponge checks us out verse 36. Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a read and gave it to him to drink. What is what is happening here? They're giving him this sour wine is post go in Latin and it's it's not wine like you think of like a glass wine rather. It's more of a wine vinegar and scholars say it was an effective thirst quencher. It's something that soldiers would drink as kind of like a pick me up like a strong cup of coffee or something like that. So why in the world are they giving Jesus this stimulant and some scholars believe that they were giving this to Jesus because they wanted to stay alert. When you when somebody was being crucified, they would be fading away losing their energy, losing their ability to stay focused because of the tremendous pain. And so it's thought that they gave him this in order to kind of wake him back up and stay alert because they thought he had called Elijah look at the rest of 36 and they were saying wait let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. What does that mean? What are we talking about here? Elijah was a prophet of God in the Old Testament. We see him in a couple different places. And in second Kings chapter 2 Elijah is taken to heaven in a whirlwind apparently not having died. And so the tradition at this time what they believe those who were standing around watching Jesus crucified what they believed is that Elijah would come to the rescue of a person who was in danger if they were truly righteous. That's what they believed. They're wanting to see if Elijah will come and get Jesus down what they're really wondering is is he truly righteous because they believed that if a person is truly righteous and they're in danger Elijah will come. And so verse 37 tells us that Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. In other words Elijah didn't come and so in their minds all those standing there that believe that in their tradition they're looking at Jesus and they're thinking okay I guess he he wasn't righteous if he was righteous Elijah would come to take him down but he didn't. And so you have this image of Jesus being forsaken and at the same time he looks like he doesn't have any righteousness but you know you and I know that he did he lived a completely perfectly obedient fully righteous life he came to fulfill all righteousness so why do we see this then why is Jesus hanging there looking with like he has no righteousness and it is because of what is happening at the cross. It's because the fact that on the cross God not only imputes our sin to Jesus but he also has taken Jesus righteousness and imputes that to us. That is this beautiful doctrine of imputed righteousness the reality that on the cross God takes our sin puts that on Jesus takes Jesus righteousness this perfect life of perfect obedience perfect righteousness and gives that to us you and me who believe as a free gift. Through faith second Corinthians 521 talks about this it says for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God there's that phenomenal exchange our sin to Jesus Jesus righteousness to us let me say that again by putting names in where the pronouns are second Corinthians 521 for our sake God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin he never sinned so that in Christ we who believe could become the righteousness of God. What that means is that through faith we not only are forgiven but we also receive righteousness we are declared righteous this is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 389 he says indeed I count everything has lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes back to us. The righteousness of my own that comes through the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith Isaiah 61 10 says I greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall exalt in God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteousness Paul in Romans 3 talking about the righteousness that comes through faith in Romans 5 talking about Jesus obedience primarily his obedience to die on the cross through that he says many will be made righteous I mean this is this amazing reality that we see in the Gospel not only are we forgiven of all of our sin not only does Jesus pay our debt but he gives to us his righteousness so God looks at you and me who believe and he says I declare you righteous even sinners like me. Mark doesn't tell us what Jesus says in this last cry just as he cried out and breathed his last in John's Gospel John says that Jesus cried out it is finished it's finished what was finished not only that our sin had been paid for but also that we had been we become recipients of his righteousness I just heard it explain this way I think it's helpful. You know the if you imagine a bank and imagine showing up at the bank and finding out that you owe you know several billion dollars you know which happens all the time right but if it did if you suddenly found out that you are actually in debt for billions of dollars and if you couldn't pay that debt then you would have to go to jail. That would be obviously a very sad tragic day for you but if they said you know what you have this debt that you cannot pay but somebody who can pay it did it for you then we would celebrate we would sing right we would call our friends we would call Dave Ramsey I'm dead free you know we would be like an amazing moment but if you stop there if you stop there then we miss out on this beautiful truth about what Jesus was doing on the cross because to continue with the illustration it is not as if we show up in debt and Jesus pays our debt and now we're at zero if that were the case that would send us out running and trying to to earn some money and to earn things so that we can have what we think we need no the picture of the gospel is we show up to the bank we find out we're in debt that we can't pay we find out that somebody has paid that debt and then they also hand us the key to the vault. The gospel is not that we've gone from being in debt to God and we go to zero the good news of the gospel is that we were in debt to God because of our sin we owe him a debt of hell but Jesus took that for us on the cross but he didn't leave us at zero he also gave us his righteousness we've been declared righteous because of the righteousness of Christ which is imputed to us through faith alone. And that changes everything why is this matter so much because righteousness is what God requires of us so that he fully accepts us approves of us loves us cherishes us welcomes us into his presence righteousness is what we need forgiveness is not enough we need righteousness not being negative is not enough we need positive we need to be declared righteous and when we receive Christ as savior we receive not only his payment for sin but the righteous life. And the fact that he lived is credited to us as if we had lived it and God's permanent acceptance and full approval of us is upon us. And the thing is you can be a Christian for a long long time spin in your wheels trying to be good enough so God will finally approve of you and some of you might be living like that right now. And the thing that Jesus is God has declared you righteous he has imputed the righteousness of Christ to you through faith he fully accepts you because of Christ not because of you does he want us to grow does he want us to become like his son yeah you better believe it why so he can like us no. He has experienced the glory and the joy of being more like the one who made us and redeemed us so yes he calls us forward he calls us to grow but it has nothing to do with so that he will look can accept us does nothing to do with our righteousness before God all of that comes from Christ. And when we believe that when we believe all of our righteousness that we need all that we need so God fully accepts us when we know that that is a free gift through faith it changes us. We don't have to get so defensive when somebody points out our sin because we're still righteous in Christ we have God's smile upon us we we don't have to be crushed by our mistakes because we're not defined by our mistakes or our successes we're defined by the righteousness we have through faith in Christ we don't have to wonder how God feels about us. We know that he fully accepts us his love is upon us because of Christ and the number one thing that kills self righteousness is Christ righteousness. The number one thing that helps us not feel like we're righteous in another ourselves is the acknowledgement and belief that it is only by Christ righteousness which is imputed to us and received by faith alone that that's how we stand before God fully accepted. It is huge it's so important that we see not only Christ paid our debt but he actually gave us our righteousness as well. And that also leads us into a third freedom a third freedom for this morning we've got forgiveness we've got imputed righteousness and finally full access to God full access to God freedom from the restrictions that would be there if we wanted to approach God they are gone. Full access we have through faith in Christ freedom from restrictions for entering God's presence look at 38 it says the curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom. This is amazing it says that it's from top to bottom so that we know it's supernatural so we know that God did this. If people didn't get up there and say okay you pull and I'll pull no that didn't happen that way this curtain was massive and it just tears into from top to bottom showing us that God has done that and what does that tell us well this curtain in the temple was what was designed to show the incredibly restricted access the humanity had to God one priest once a year was able to go beyond that curtain into God's presence. And now that curtain which represents the separation of God from his people is torn into. We are given full access the author of Hebrews says therefore brothers Hebrews said 19 he says brothers since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart a full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. What an amazing reality we have this full access and interestingly enough the access has to do with who we become through faith. Look again at that verse there where it says torn where it talks about the temple curtain being torn and notice in 38 that that's actually we've seen that word one other time in this gospel. There are two times in the whole gospel of Mark that uses this word torn one is here. And the other is in the very beginning it's in Mark chapter one when Jesus was baptized. And Mark chapter one verse 10 says and when Jesus came up out of the water immediately saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice that came from heaven. You are my beloved son with you I am well pleased and the reason that we have full access to God that there are no restrictions nothing holds us back. He's always there with open arms waiting for us to receive us to love us to love on us. The reason that we have this full access is because through faith not only are we forgiven and declared righteous but we become a child of God first John three one says since see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. So we become his child that's why we have full access because God lets his children come to him anytime he wants just like the president right if you were the president or if you were the child of a president. You would have access to the president like no one else right. You know if your dad was the president or if your mom was the president you could just walk right into the oval office be like what's up I'm in the oval office. Oh you don't think I can be here that's my dad you know I mean there's like there's there's nothing that would stop you could do anything you want you could have a pillow fight in the oval office if he was your dad. And when we realize that this this beautiful reality of not only forgiven the debt of sin is paid but we're also declared righteous and then on top of that we become a child of God you have to realize that the death of Christ means that all these things are for us. And therefore God treated Jesus like he was not his son so that we could be come his sons and daughters. And as his children he looks at us like he looks at Jesus so you need to hear this and I need to hear this that if you have faith if you're a follower of Jesus what that means is when God looks at you he says you are my beloved child with whom I am well pleased. Not because anything you've ever done but because of the finished work of Christ on the cross the fact that your sin has been paid for and your righteousness has been filled up through what Christ has done for you. And the amazing thing about the gospel is anybody anybody that wants to be forgiven and to be declared righteous and have full access to God for eternity. Anybody can have these things through faith what an interesting reality who's the first person to confess Jesus as the son of God to fully recognize both his humanity and his divinity look at 39 and when the Centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last he said truly this man was the son of God how interesting that it wasn't a really religious Jewish person it wasn't even one of Jesus disciples that first. It was a pagan Roman soldier who as far as he had known his whole life Caesar was the son of God that's what it said on their money. But in this moment when Jesus dies it reveals to him who he really is and this proves the grace of God it's not about what you have done it's not about what you could do it's not about anything we could earn it is all about what Jesus has done and whether or not we receive it by faith. Forgiveness and righteousness full access to God as his children look at 1441 I'm not going to talk about these because I'm going to touch on what's going on here when we have our Easter Sunday but it's very important that you know that these women are present and that the mark makes sure we know that they're present because they play a major role in the advance of the gospel they are present at the crucifixion at the burial at the resurrection so we'll talk about them again. For now I want us to just focus on these amazing freedoms to feel the fact that our guilt is gone the sin has been paid for to feel the fact that God declares you righteous through faith and Christ to feel the fact that you have full access to God there's nothing that would stop him from hearing you loving you caring for you teaching you leading you loving you like the father he is to you and me. And when we believe that more and more and believe that we have the fathers love upon us at all times even when we make mistakes because of what Jesus has done that changes us there were two brothers two brothers and they had a really great dad and I told you about this a while ago I'll tell you again. These two brothers had this really great dad and every day their dad would come in to their room in the morning to wake him up before school and he would do the same thing every day every single day he would come in and he would slam their door open boom and then he would say good morning gentlemen it's time to get up it's going to be a great day and then he would go off into the kitchen and get his coffee and they kind of start rolling out of bed every single day boom good morning gentlemen time to get up it's going to be a great day. Well one time one time one of these brothers when the dad did this he said something the door slammed open boom good morning gentlemen it's time to get up it's going to be a great day and as their dad is walking out into the kitchen one of the brothers says why does he always do that and the dad heard so he turned around came back in and he got I level with his son and he said he said you know why it's going to be a great day because some time today I don't know when it's going to sneak up on you but some time today you're going to get it it's going to it's going to sink in you're going to realize your dad is wild about you and the reality is the death of Christ should help every single one of us hear our father's voice right now as our father in heaven says to us your father is wild about you let's pray father we pray Lord that these truths would sink in and that you would continually get them back into our hearts so that so that we can feel the freedom that Christ is one for us so that we can know that we're not trying to measure up but you instead have declared us righteous you have forgiven us of all of our sins you've given us full access to you let these truths change us empower us and send us with the good news we pray in Jesus' name for his sake amen.