The Cost of the Cross

Matthew 27:45-51

Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Sermon Transcript:

but I’m very excited to be, um, with you guys this morning and we’re gonna be reading here first in, uh, Matthew chapter 27 verse 45, um, through 51.

It says this now, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, That is my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a read and gave it to him to drink.

But the other said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split. Would you pray with me this morning?

Father, we come before you. Today, God. And

after hearing that song, God, I just, that’s, that’s who we want to be. That’s what we want to do, Lord. We want to be people that lift your name up, Lord. It’s one of the greatest callings you’ve ever given us, is to bring glory back to you, God. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do this morning. God, I just really hope that you’d make this not about the worship team, um, not about me or anybody else, Lord, but only that your name would be exalted.

That your word would be exalted Lord, in that, through that Lord, your spirit would move in us. God, pray that you, uh, would pour out your spirit this morning, Lord, that you would work in our hearts. God, I do pray against all distractions. God, I pray against all distractions in Jesus’ name. That your, your word, your spirit would be the loudest things in this room.

God, be with us. Um, come close this morning. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Last week, pastor Mark talked about, um, Thursday, the, the week, uh, the Holy Thursday coming up leading to, um, the celebration of Easter. Today we’ll be talking about, um, Friday, good Friday. Uh, it’s historically called. And uh, last week it was talking about, um, Jesus celebrates the Passover, um, with US disciples.

He institutes the Lord’s Supper with his disciples. He, he gives them some final thoughts and commands and, um, has this long discourse, um, with his disciples. And that was all happening on, um, Thursday of Holy Week. And actually a fun fact that I had learned not too long ago, pastor Mark actually told me this and I Googled it to make sure you’re right and you were, the Jewish day actually starts.

At nightfall. So th Friday is actually what we would consider like Thursday at nightfall. So Friday actually starts, the events that happen on Thursday, later in that night is actually what happens Friday. So we’re gonna be looking through that. And there’s a lot, there is about six or more chapters all going on on Friday.

So I hope you guys are ready to just buckle in. We’ll be here for a couple hours, I mean, uh, 40 minutes. Um, but I do want to just, uh, there’s, there’s a lot going on here and I just want to direct if you’re keeping along with the Common Life book, Um, there is a map in there. I just kind of wanna direct our attention to it of kind of just what happens where, this is Jesus’s travel.

So we’ll start in the garden of sse, right where Jesus is arrested. He goes and he appears before, uh, Caiaphas in the high priest. Then he goes to the, uh, he’s brought before the Sanon, and from the Sanhedrin, he goes to pilot, pilot sends him to Herod, he goes back to pilot, is condemned to the cross. He takes the journey to the cross, um, to, uh, go Gotha.

He’s crucified and buried, right? Um, around there as well. So there’s a, there’s a lot going on and I, and if you’re not keeping up with the Common Life book or if you haven’t gone through it, I really would encourage you to just take it through. There’s actually four accounts, believe it or not, the gospel’s all, uh, you know, that’s a pretty important event.

So I would encourage you to go through it because there’s a lot that we probably won’t be able to cover. Um, this morning, but this morning I do want to focus on one thing and that’s the cost of the cross. What did it cost? Jesus? How did it affect him? How can we even begin to understand what he endured?

For our sake, we’ll be looking at this great cost of the cross in three different categories. And first, um, I wanna talk about what it cost emotionally. What was the emotional cost? What did Jesus experience emotionally on this day in history? Uh, we’re gonna do a really fun exercise. I want everyone to close your eyes.

Okay? Close your eyes. It’s not weird, , I told you it’d be fun. I want you to take a second and close your eyes. I want you to think about the most heart-wrenching experience you’ve ever experienced. I want you to think about one of the most painful emotional times you’ve ever been through. Maybe it was a breakup or a divorce.

Maybe it was the breaking apart of your family, the loss of a loved one, the betrayal of your spouse, the pain of watching your parents become sicker and sicker or, or a child. I want us to think about that this morning. You can open your eyes. I want us to think just what we’ve experienced emotionally, the worst that we’ve ever experienced, because what Christ is going through on Friday is heart-wrenching.

It is absolutely agonizing what he’s going through on this Friday, and I really want us to do this, to think deeply, not just, I just want us to sit in this for a little bit to think, what did this cost our savior Jesus on the day he was gonna be crucified. Was in complete agony and heartbreak. Matthew 26, 36 through 39 says this.

Then Jesus went with them to a place called GSE and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray, and taking with him, Peter and the two sons of Zeti. He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to him, my soul is very Sol sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me.

And going a little far farther, he fell on his face and prayed saying, father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. I want us to put ourselves in the shoes of Jesus here. You know exactly what weights you. You know the death prepared for you, the horrific pain you’re going to endure.

You know it’s gonna come and there’s nothing you can do to escape it. It and all you want, right? All you want in this painful experience. Maybe this was in your life, when you’re going through your painful experience, what do you want? You want friends to come alongside you, to put your arm around you, to pat you on your back, pick you up when you’re down.

And this is exactly what Jesus wants. He brings some of his closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, and he says, just come with me and pray. He says, I’m sorrowful unto death. Just come. Just pray with me. Just be with me. And he goes out and he prays and he comes back and his disciples are praying fervently for him right now.

They fall asleep and he wakes ’em up and he says, would you just please just pray? Just pray with me now. And he comes back, not once, not twice, but three times. They fall asleep on him. He’s in complete agony. They see him and Luke, it actually describes that he’s sweating blood. This is how much emotional pain that he’s going through, and he’s desperate for his friends to be there for him, and they’re falling asleep.

And not only that, but at this very moment, one of his best friends is exchanging money to betray him over to the religious leaders. They come, they rest him, and the disciples scatter. They run away. They’re scared. He sees one of the, this guy who he spent three years with, come over and kiss him, call him rabbi, and betray him to the religious leaders.

Jesus goes, and he, he goes before the many councils and, and, uh, um, uh, judgments that he goes to see. And Peter actually follows along and says, Peter and John actually follow along with him and we’re like, oh, this is perfect. Look, Peter’s supporting him. No, that’s not actually what happens. Peter actually has the time that Jesus predicted before at the Lord Supper.

He says he denied him not once, not twice, but again three times. This was his brother. This was the guy. Jesus said, I’m going to build my church on you, Peter. You’re gonna be my rock Peter. And he’s denying that he even knows his friend Jesus when he needed him the most. All of his brothers for three years Now, in an instance, turn betray him, the deny him, run from him.

What was this pain of betrayal like? How did this feel to Jesus? How did he endure this? And we know from the map that we looked at earlier, he appeared before the high priest, the San Heeder and the ha herd and pilot. And at each trial, they falsely accused him, mocked him, mocked his kingship and majesty.

Here he is Jesus king of the universe, and they’re mocking him and accusing him of things he’s never done. He’s innocent before them,

and no one there is to defend him. No one. And he stays silent and he takes on the abuse, the, the verbal, the physical abuse, the shame, the embarrassment that he felt being stripped naked and put on a cross is a spectacle for all to see on the cross. His mother was in the crowd along with many other women who supported his ministry, the pain of watching his mother watch her son die right in front of her.

What was this like? The pain of watching the people you’ve loved and served over your whole ministry be the same exact people that have put you on this cross. God’s chosen people, the Jews have accused him, asked for his crucifix. Crucifixion. These people he’s only loved and served and looked out for are now the ones putting him to death.

This, this was the emotional cost. This was his cost. This was the heart wrenching, sorrowful unto death cost that he endured for us, and he did it for us. That’s the emotional cost. Now, I want to talk through the physical cost. What did he endure physically, right? Some of us jump right here. We only think about the physical things and, and we don’t think, or some of us might be a little bit more emotional when we think about the emotional right, but what did he endure physically for us?

At each of his trials, he was beaten, spit on, beaten with a rod, had a crown of thorns push into his head, and possibly the worst of all, he was scourged. This was a common practice that they would do to people that were going to be crucified. They would take a whip that had many leather straps on it that would break open their back.

It actually had metal or bone pieces attached to it. So over and over again, you’re getting contusions and your back is lacerating open, getting split open on the back. Why did they do this? Was it painful? Yes. Did it exhaust them? Yes, because what happened on crucifixion, the Bible kind of saves us the details.

Right. Just says, and he was crucified. Well, partly because everyone knew what that was, but the actual act of crucifixion, they would nail him to the cross. . And what you actually would end up dying from most of the time was suffocation, because your arms were pulled out, you couldn’t get a breath. So you could either die from suffocation or exhaustion or a heart attack induced by stress or dehydration.

And what would happen is in order to get a breath, you’d have to push against these nails, driven through your feet to try to push up and get a breath, which would cause all the wounds in your back to scrape against this wooden, splinter filled cross. We can’t even imagine what this was like. And Jesus actually was offered a painkiller.

Someone tries to give them, um, gall, which would’ve numbed the pain, and he refused it. He refused to have any painkiller. He wanted to endure the full weight and pain of the punishment. Crucifixion was the most horrifying way to die, and he did it for us. You had to carry the cross. And actually we know by scripture that he actually was not even strong enough to carry the cross, so they make some guy named Simon do it, and it was right outside the city so that everyone could see, everyone could come and witness the crucifixion of Jesus.

The pain, the physical pain that he endured, we can’t even imagine. This was the physical cost of Jesus. This is what he endured. This is what he endured for us. And the last cost, but the worst of all was the spiritual cost Jesus endured for us. Yes. The emotional, almost pain, the betrayal of his friends was painful.

Yes, the, the, the physical pain that he endured was terrible and agonizing, but the weight of the spiritual cost was worse of all. Jesus sinless, righteous, completely filled out the law, had the full weight of our sin and the wrath of God, of from God the father poured out on him. Jesus took on the punishment, the guilt, and the shame of the whole world, sin on the cross.

Jesus, for the first time in history, was separated from the Father. The greatest turmoil anyone could ever experience is separation from. Matthew 27 46. We read it earlier, but it says about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli Lama Saba. That is my God. My God. Why have you forsaken me?

This wasn’t just a word that he said. It wasn’t just saying, God, why are you doing this to me? Right? He was saying, why have you forsaken me? Why have you left me? He was separated from his father for the first time in history. He was in pure agony. Apart from the Father. This, this, this was the cost of the cross to be separated from God, the Father, the God had separated.

Right? We can’t even wrap our heads around it. What was that like for him? Isaiah 53, um, verses four through 10 says that it was the will of God to do this. I just want to read it. It says, surely he took up our pain. and bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and inflicted, 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 has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. Next slide, and as a sheep before cheers his silence. So he did not open his mouth by oppression and judgment, he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested where he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people, he was punished.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich. In his death, though he had done no violence, no words, any deceit in his mouth, yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him.

In other versions, it says it delighted the Lord to crush him. This is what he endured for us. This was the cost of the cross. I just want to sit. Yeah. I told you this was not gonna be a fun sermon, right? I just want us to sit in this. What did it cost him? What was it like being separated by the father?

This was the true cost of the cross. But why did he endure this for us? Well, it was because of his great love for us. And well, maybe you’re asking, okay, it Well, why? Why did it have, why? Why was the cross necessary? Why was the cross necessary for this to happen? Why did Jesus have to go through all this pain to get to us?

All right. Well, I want to take us all the way back into the Garden of Eden. God’s plan was always to be with his people. God’s plan was always to be in the presence of his people. It actually says in in Genesis that Adam Eve walked with God. This was his plan from the very beginning of time that God would be with his.

But we know how this story ends, right? Um, Adam and Eve choose sin. They choose disobedience, and we know God is a holy God. He can, he’s separated from sin, right? So when, when Adam and Eve chose this disobedience, they created a separation. They were kicked out of the garden. Two chair bi are now guarding this garden.

Now they’re saying you are separated from God. Now there’s a separation that happened. You used to walk with him, and now because of your sin, there’s a separation. . And from that point there was a separation. But even back then, God had a plan of redemption for his people. He had a plan to be back in the presence of his people.

The first, um, actualized version of this we see is in the wilderness. Um, God commands them to set up a tabernacle, right? That his spirit, that his presence would reside in, and they actually put up their camp all around this tabernacle. And the, the fire, the, uh, act, the symbol of God’s presence would hover over is, and they put their whole camp around the tabernacle.

Not only this, God set up a sacrificial system, okay? And if you’re familiar with this, right, there’s a separation that has happened because of sin. So God sets up a sacrificial system with animals, right? That there needed to be atonement, that there needs to be a. That we could enter now into the presence of God because of his holiness, because of his separation from sin, because of his almightiness, there needed to be atonement before we, uh, stepped into his presence.

So he established a priest line right through Aaron, and he establish a sacrificial system that there would be blood shed, right? And these priests would go through all these rituals so that they could be ceremonially clean, that they could go in the presence of God and not be separated with him, but actually go in because of the tone of these sacrifices.

But these were temporary sacrifices. This was a temporary plan. This was a temporary place for God. It was a tent for goodness sake. But when Israel gets into the chosen, uh, land, Israel, Solomon builds a, a somewhat what we see a permanent home for God. It’s the temple, right? And it was the same thing. God’s presence resided in that temple.

And the priest would go before, um, the people as well, um, into this temple, and they’d still do the sacrifices, and they still do all these ceremonial washings so that they could go and be with God and be with God for the people of Israel. But the question is how, um, how could God be with his people? If people were in sin and he was holy?

The only way that God would really open up the doors to this was through the cross. This was the only way. This is why the cross needed to happen. There was still separation. Even with this system, even with the sacrificial system, there was still a separation that happened and at some point, While Jesus was on the cross, an exchange happened.

Jesus took our place. Right? When we know that, the scripture says the wages of sin is death. Jesus took our place that was rightly ours, that we rightly deserved. And instead of us, that God’s wrath was poured out on God’s wrath, was poured out on his son Jesus. And in John 1930, Jesus with his last breath, cries out.

It is finished. And in Greek, this is one word, tole, which means to close, to finish, to come to end some. Sometimes it even means to make a payment. There was an exchange that happened. The work was done. The punishment of sin, the separation was complete. The punishment, the wrath that was necessary because of our sin was poured out, not on us, not on the people.

But on Jesus, the righteous one, the debt was paid in full. The work of Christ was finished on that cross. So with his last breath, he says, it is finished. The results of what Jesus did on that cross is the reason we can be in relationship with the Father Today. There was a separation that only the cross could fix, that only the cross commend.

Matthew 27 50 through 51 says this. It says, and when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit and that. And at that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn into, from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rock split. Matthew in is one of the gospels that really emphasizes that this veil of the temple was split.

And I just want to camp out here for a little bit and just talk about the significance of this temple, uh, veil being torn because it’s incredible. It was so significant. And I just wanna pull up, um, the picture of the temple. So just so we can see it. This is actually the tabernacle, but it is set up very similar as in the temple, if you guys can see this.

So there was multiple veils, there’s multiple parts of the temple and the tabernacle. This part of the temple would’ve been called the holy place. This is where priests would come into, they’d come into this first section here behind the curtain the most. No one else other than the priest could enter into that place.

But past the second curtain here, this is called the Holy of Holies. Okay? The most holy place. And once a year. The high priests would be able to enter into the Holy of Holies once a year, just once, and they’d go through their ceremonial watchings and they’d, and they’d offer multiple sacrifices, and they’d go in with the blood of a bull and they’d sacrifice one for their sins, but they’d do a sacrifice for the whole of Israel as a nation.

They were going into a tone for Israel’s sins for one year, right? It was a sacrifice that lasted one year, and they’d go into this holy place and they had to be completely ceremonial and clean because what happened? We know this. God is a holy God. He cannot be in the presence of sin. And what could actually happen is that, If he wasn’t ceremonial clean, if there wasn’t sin confessed and in not out in the open, he actually would drop dead in the presence of God.

And there’s a myth, um, we don’t actually know if it’s true or not, but it sounds really cool, so I’m gonna share it right, that there was a rope that they would tie around the high priest. Why? Because if this high priest drops dead, there’s not another guy that can go in there for a whole nother year to get this man out.

This was the holiness of God. This was God’s presence. It’s dangerous for sin. There was a literal separation. The veil shows us a separation between God and man. And this wasn’t like, like you think about a veil, I think about like a shower curtain or like my, uh, curtains for my window and my living room.

Right. This thing was up to 20 to 30 feet wide. It was up to 60 feet high, and it was anywhere, um, from three to six inches thick. This was, I don’t even know what to call. It was a, the veil of the veils, right. This thing was huge, and it says the Temple veil was torn from top to bottom. This is not something that a human could weave.

This is not something that a human could tear. This was the work of God. And there’s a lot of symbolism here in, um, the, the temple, there was actually it, the veil was worn out of the most royal, um, fabrics of purples and reds and blues. And it actually had cherubim angels weaved in to the veil. And in the temple there was actually two Cher statues over 12 feet tall that were in front of the arc of the covenant, the mercy seat where God’s presence was supposed to be.

Two Cher bi guarding. It sounds super familiar, right? That the two Cher him were guarding the place of Eden, the presence of God. There was a separation in his angels were ma making sure that there was one. So when this veil is torn, right, this is a monumental symbol for those who are in Christ Jesus.

This is a big deal. No longer, once a year, a high priest will enter no. What is Jesus doing? What Jesus accomplished on the cross is saying, we now those in Christ Jesus are in the full presence of the Father. Amen. Amen. This is a big deal. This is what Christ accomplished on Good Friday. Dr. Daniel, uh, Gertner writes this about the veil.

He says, the veil was a physical visible barrier indicating that access to God was strictly prohibited because of his holiness. It is imperative to remember that the holiness of God remains unchanged from all eternity, even after the veil is torn. What has changed then is that the toning death of Jesus on the cross has provided the appropriate wrath bearing sacrifice, one, which the bulls and the goats of the old covenant could not provide.

That system, the sacrificial system, the sacrificial of bulls and lambs and goats was a temporary sacrifice. What Jesus did on the cross was eternal. The high priests would go in before to sacrifice atonement for all of Israel. Once a year in that sacrifice would end, and one year later, what Jesus has done is eternal.

The work is done. He said, it is finished. You’re welcome now into my presence.

His holiness didn’t change. What changed was the work of Jesus Christ. That now covers. I want to share a couple verses from the book of Hebrews, um, that just absolutely, um, explained this way better than human word could ever, um, explain it. First is Hebrews four, 14 through 16. It says this, therefore, since we have a great high priest, that’s Jesus, our great high priest now is Jesus who is a send it into heaven.

Jesus, the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we pres profess for. We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but he, we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are. Yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of.

What does this mean? This is a huge deal for God’s people. This is a huge deal for those who are on Christ Jesus. Some of us have still wrapped ourselves in the veil. We’re like, we don’t want to go before the Presidents of God. We’re scared. I’m covered in sin. I’m dirty. No, our high priest is not a human priest anymore.

It’s king Jesus. And he was tempted and he was tried and he endured pain and he endured pain on the cross and, but he was perfect in every way without sin. So verse 16 says, let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. Why? So that we may receive mercy so that we might find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 10, 19 through 23 says this, therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, opened up for us through the curtain. That is his body. And soon we have a great priest over the house of God. Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with full assurance that faith brings, having our heart sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water led us hold Unser inly to, to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful.

The veil being torn is a monumental thing.

Just as his body was broken, the veil was broken. We will never fully understand just how great the cost of the cross was. But we can understand is that because of the cross, the debt of our sin has been paid. We’ve been sprinkled, we’ve been washed clean by his sacrifice. Through the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus.

This is a one and done sacrifice. Some of you right now are still trying to atone for your sin. Some of you are not a sacrifice in bulls and goats, but some of you are trying to get your good works and you’re like, wait, if I just stack these up enough, I can atone for all these sins. Stop. Embrace God’s sacrifice and don’t hear me this.

Don’t say, oh, embrace God’s sacrifice. I can live however I want. No, no, no, where he’s saying boldly approach the throne cuz we’ve been sprinkled and clean with a clear conscience, hearts filled with faith. Now that we can boldly approach the throne of God so that we can now boldly live for him. Jesus is now our great high priest that intercedes for us.

We are covered by the purifying perfect blood of Jesus. We may now boldly approach the throne of God. So yeah, when we call this Good Friday, this was a good Friday, this was a really good Friday. There was a separation between man and God, and it was always God’s desire. Read through the scriptures, you can see it.

It’s always his desire to be in the presence with his people. And when this veil was torn, it blew the doors open to his presence. Now, full access to the father.

This is a really, really good Friday. This is worthy of a celebration and we know the celebration will only get better with Sunday’s resurrection. But with Good Friday, I just don’t want to miss the cost of the cross. What it accomplished when he said it is finished. What did that mean? His work was complete.

The Messiah came. It didn’t conquer the Romans like they thought he was going to. He conquered sin and the debt that was weighing over us, he purchased it with the son of his blood. This is certainly a good Friday. Celebrate. Look, would you pray with me,

Lord, man, how special are we, God, that we can come just right now. Lord, we’re just boldly approaching your throne. We’re boldly approaching your presence, God. And now we can actually pray with confidence, say, God, let your presence be known to us. And that used to be a scary thing. or yet because of the work of your son, those who are in Christ Jesus can boldly approach a throne in God.

And Lord, I pray and I wanna pray specifically right now. Lord, I just feel like you’re putting this on my heart, Lord, for those out there right now, God that aren’t in Christ Jesus, that are still trying to make these sacrifices for their sin, that are still trying to make these atonements that might last for a day or might last for a year, Lord, and the sacrifice that you’ve done for us is eternal God.

Your holiness didn’t change. What changed is that your son, the wrath was poured out on him, not us Lord. So I pray that you would call Lord, those who are still trying to make these sacrifices for the sins and just make it so clear to them the work is done, it’s finished for them, the work was completed for them.

God, enter your great love for us. That covers our sin. Nothing that we could do. And that’s why I, I have assurance, God, me, myself, Lord, knowing my sin, my misgivings Lord, I know that I’ll sin probably later today and tomorrow, Lord, but the work is complete. I’ve been covered by her blood. And Lord, I praise you.

This is a good Friday. God, let us sit in the cost of the cross and what it cost you, Lord, and let us share in your sufferings today. Lord, pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.