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MATTHEW 27:45
(Reading: Exodus 10:21-29; Matthew 27:27-46)
The Miraculous Darkness
Miracles at Calvary – No. 1
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Have you noticed how much our society is using more and more religious language?
Ice Cream used to be advertised as rich and full flavoured - now it’s divine and simply heavenly!
It’s the same with the word ‘miracle’.
It’s a favourite Newspaper Headline.
‘Miraculous Rescue’ you might read.
Another title might state, ‘It’s A Miracle!”
And that story will be about a person who is said to have been very ‘lucky’.
Maybe it was a lotto win.
Other times it’s about a close shave with death.
Then there are the many times that Christians use the word ‘miracles’ these days.
They’ll even advertise it on their church billboards, and in their newspaper notices.
‘Claim your miracle!’ they loudly say.
So anyone coming will expect something special for them that day.
All of this is a terrible pity.
Miracles aren’t what they used to be.
And, especially, miracles aren’t being seen anymore as what the Bible says a miracle is.
So, congregation, where do miracles fit into the biblical picture?
When we read God’s story in His History, are miracles like what the world – or even much of the church today – says they are?
Why do those miracles happen?
You see, the way miracles are pictured today it’s something that is a special benefit to us.
Miracles are what happen now when we get something really nice.
Like getting the right girl.
“I believe in miracles,” sings Hot Chocolate, “since you came along.”
A true miracle, though, doesn’t happen at all anymore!
How can they?
The reason why there were miracles at all has gone.
Because miracles did certainly happen.
And when they happened they were quite unforgettable and unique.
In the words of B.B. Warfield, “Miracles do not appear on the page of Scripture vagrantly, here, there and elsewhere indifferently, without assignable reason.”
And then he goes on, “They belong to revelation periods, and appear only when God is speaking to His people through accredited messengers, declaring His gracious purposes.”
So all of those miracles in the Bible - the genuine ones, that is - are tied in with what God is doing in Jesus Christ.
That’s what Scripture’s all about.
So, when you look at God’s Word you would expect that miracles are occurring more often and more powerfully when Jesus comes to this earth and fulfils His ministry upon it.
And that’s exactly what happens.
There are all kinds of signs and wonders because the great Sign and Wonder Himself has come.
There are all types of powerful healing, including people brought back from the dead, because the Divine Doctor is there.
Jesus is Himself the one convincing and permanent miracle.
Considering all this, it would follow that if there would be any particular time in the life of Jesus on earth when miracles would appear most of all, it would have to be when He is at the point of doing the very thing He came for.
The greatest miracles of them all happened then with Jesus Christ on the cross.
Then the word of God’s messenger was that messenger Himself - He was no less than the Living Word!
There’s still something more to miracles, however.
You see, they do point to Jesus Christ.
And the greatest in number and power do happen when our Lord is here.
But there’s also what is in the miracle itself.
Because you can believe through a miracle.
So a miracle isn’t something we’re simply amazed at.
“Wow - I wonder how they do that!”
Actually, a miracle tells us why God is doing all that.
Through a picture we can see - it’s clear what the message is.
It’s the most graphic sermon!
We come then to the scene of Christ on the cross.
This is the high point of why He’s here.
Though it couldn’t be more of a lower point for Him personally.
There has to be miracles here.
While Jesus can no longer do them Himself, there is yet His Father who confirms that here is the real reason for His saving work in mankind.
There are six of these miracles we meet at Calvary.
Each of them point to the One who is hanging there.
And each of them tells us something about what He is doing there.
The first we read.
In Matthew 27 verse 45, the Apostle writes, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.”
Here we have ‘The Miraculous Darkness’.
God’s judgment upon mankind is visited on His Son.
And it shows.
This miracle is quite black and white about it!
In the words of a first consideration to this text... THIS ISN’T NATURAL - IT’S SUPERNATURAL!
Congregation, Jesus Christ had been on the cross three hours.
From 9 o’clock in the morning till 12 noon, he’s been hanging there.
What He has suffered until this point has been the most terrible torment and pain.
Klaas Schilder says of this point, “Christ enters upon the second phase of His suffering.
“From the catastrophe of the crucifixion He enters into the passion of being crucified.
“Gradually, but certainly, His blood ebbs.
“His wounds become swollen; they gave Him extreme pain.
“His blood congeals because it cannot flow freely.
“Fever consumes His body.
“The work has been done; the social act, except for His extreme sacrifice, has been finished.
“The intercession for the soldiers, the opening of Paradise to the murderer, and getting John to look after His mother - that’s all happened.”
Then the heat of the noonday sun, and all its effects, is pulled away!
The darkness covers the land like a huge blanket.
At the time when the sun should have been its brightest there’s absolutely no light at all!
From three hours of noise, there’s three hours of silence.
Listen - did you hear that blood drop?
Was that the heaving chest of a man on a cross?
The contrast couldn’t be greater.
Something has happened.
Something quite extra-ordinary!
THIS ISN’T NATURAL.
But there are many who don’t like to say IT’S SUPERNATURAL!
They will suggest this is a severe thunderstorm.
But for three hours?
And even if that long, it would not have covered the whole country.
No one would think of that as special.
And, besides, what about the lightning which would have flashed?
Don’t tell me that then there is still darkness!
Others have spoken of a black sirocco storm from the desert.
But, again, that couldn’t make it this black, and for this long, at this time of the day.
Luke 23, the verses 44 and 45, appears to suggest an eclipse of some kind.
It does speak of the sun being eclipsed.
But is Luke writing astronomically?
If he was there would be problems.
For any of us who’ve seen an eclipse know how short they last.
Besides this is the time of Passover.
This is the time of the full moon when such an eclipse would have been impossible!
Congregation… THIS ISN’T NATURAL - IT’S SUPERNATURAL!
The best answer is this answer.
This is a special act of God - yes, a miracle!
We come back to what we noted earlier.
A miracle is a sign - it points to something.
As John Stott describes it, “the darkness of the sky was an outward spiritual darkness which enveloped him.
“For what is darkness in biblical symbolism but separation from God who is light and in whom ‘there is no darkness at all’ (1 Jn.1:5)?
‘Outer darkness’ is actually an expression Jesus used for hell, because hell is a total exclusion from the light of God’s presence.
Into that outer darkness God’s Son plunged for us.
Our sins blotted out the sunshine of His Father’s face.
This was when our sins sent Christ to hell.
We are moving now into the second consideration in these words.
For now we go from seeing THIS ISN’T NATURAL - IT’S SUPERNATURAL, into realising THIS ISN’T INCIDENTAL - IT’S JUDGEMENTAL!
Congregation, we can sometimes become wrapped up with the small details in this scene, instead of the whole picture.
There’s been so much said about the jealousy of the Jewish leaders, the misunderstanding of the people, the weak character of Pilate.
And then there’s the way that His own disciples, after promising the complete opposite - just took off!
Up until this point in time, the injustice of men against the God-man has been blatant.
If anyone was sacrificed on the altar of human convenience it was this One!
But, congregation, that was all necessary.
You see, Jesus Christ must stand alone.
And He must stand alone not as the victim of Jewish spite.
Nor can He stand alone as an official injustice.
Rather, He must stand alone as ‘separate from sinners.’
Christ Jesus has something in Him which fallen human nature, even under its best conditions, was morally unable to understand.
One preacher put it this way: “In his address to Pilate Jesus Christ distinctly points out the divine share of the marvellous transaction.
“He shows that he’s not to be classed with the common criminals.
”His presence at the bar is part of a great purpose which God is working out.
“Human strength would have no power, and, indeed, no opportunity, to lay wicked hands upon him had he not been given by God expressly for the sins of the world.”
THIS ISN’T INCIDENTAL - IT’S JUDGEMENTAL!
All that had been written as satisfying God’s justice is being done.
For this is no cooling off time for Jesus.
This was the impact of God’s curse shown in physical phenomenon.
The curse of God expressed in Deuteronomy come to their fullest expression against this One on the cross.
You see, this is not only the curse of Deuteronomy 21, which was against anyone hung on a tree, it’s the whole curse against a disobedient people.
Especially in Deuteronomy 28, where the LORD spells out His curses in the most comprehensive way, He said in verse 29, “At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark.
“You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.”
Those Israelites in Moses’ time knew what that was like from their own recent history.
It had been their own parents who had come out of Egypt.
The Egypt which has suffered the plague of darkness for three whole days, as we read in Exodus 10.
A darkness so heavy it could be felt!
Ugh!
Yuck!
This is the kind of darkness the prophet Amos later confirmed, when he spoke of the coming Day of the Lord.
As he quotes God Himself, in chapter 8 verse 9, “And on that day, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.”
How graphically it’s all fulfilled now!
And how clear it would have been for the Jews who made up Matthew’s original readers.
It’s their scripture being fulfilled!
THIS ISN’T INCIDENTAL - IT’S JUDGMENTAL!
It is God’s curse coming to rest.
This is why we have to note that a curse is the opposite of a blessing.
While a blessing is an announcement of God’s care, a curse is an announcement of God’s punishment.
Just think of the Lord’s blessing that kept the night away while Joshua destroyed the five Canaanite kings and all their armies.
But the person who is cursed is abandoned by grace.
They’re abandoned by God’s compassion and goodness.
Instead, they’re struck by His powerful wrath!
That’s why it went so terribly dark.
That’s why at the end of these three hours Christ cries out so hauntingly, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
All our curses are on Him!
Friend, there was no other way.
The Light of the World was in the dark!
While in Bethlehem the night became day, on Calvary the day becomes night.
With His birth the whole host of angels were singing.
At His death the devils are in their element.
Jesus Christ soberly takes it all.
Remember, He refused that drink of wine mixed with myrrh.
He was going into this fully conscience of what He was doing.
He had spoken earlier in Matthew 20:28 and 26:28 of Himself as “the ransom for many.”
Thus this was the price He had to pay.
And He didn’t count the cost.
The curse has come.
It has come with all its effects.
For on the cross the cumulative results of all mankind’s sins are thrust upon Him.
Three days there was darkness in Egypt.
There the first-born all died, the first-fruits of Egypt’s might.
There are three hours of darkness now.
And here the first-begotten dies, the first-born of the power of God.
There’s a line drawn down through history.
No one should miss it.
Whether they were from Old Testament Israel, or they are in the Church now by Christ’s blood.
But there is also no comparison.
The shadow can never match the substance.
In fact, there is no shadow at all in the dark!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, how we are humbled before the cross.
For we placed Jesus there - our sins crucified Him.
And it is for us that He hung there, going through hell itself in that darkness, that we might have the light of heaven forevermore!
May we never stop thanking You for the love of Your Son.
He perfectly fulfilled Your Will.
And dear Lord Jesus, may we always pray through You.
No one else can ever do.
Only You – our Saviour and Lord – can brings us through.
And so it is in Your Name we pray.
Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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