The Veil is Torn In Two

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Darkness in the middle of the day, a great earthquake, the veil is torn in two. Jesus Christ utters his last words before resting. This is the epic moment in history, the moment that's split B, C, and A, D, the death of the Savior.

This is Experience Truth. Today we deal more with that final word of the seven words that Jesus Christ proclaimed from the cross. I wrote a whole book about this called Last Words of Jesus.

I'm Stu Epperson. With me is Robbie Dilmore, the Christian car guy. He is a gifted talk show host in his own right, and he is going through the Scriptures with me. I love having someone with me on this.

We have different guests each week. It's always fun to have him. He's been studying the Hebrew on this stuff and really has some great insights. Robbie, when you go to the cross, we should all go there.

You know, so many songs. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burdens of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith. I received my sight, and now I'm happy all the day. It's like communion?

Yeah. Now you go to the cross. That's why we do communion.

It's to celebrate what he did for us. It's not as much to beat myself on a guilt trip of how I failed to do for him. I can't do for him. Are you kidding me? You think you can pay that back? Why don't you try that?

Give that a shot, you know? Do this in remembrance of me. Do this in remembrance of me.

It's a beautiful place. It's a celebration, really, you know? Of course, we need to be mindful of sin, and we need to confess our sin for someone. But we need to celebrate the lamb that was slain to take away our sin, and the lion that will return with a roar to take us home. Not to a home of shame, to stand before him in return, he's looking at how he screwed up, but a home of blessing, and a home of honor, because if he died for that sin on that cross, then I'm not going to stand in judgment for it.

Thank God for that. Christians, you are not under the law and condemnation. You are under grace, and your sins have been forgiven you. Now walk in that faith. Walk from victory.

Don't walk for victory like you're trying to win something that's already been won. He said it is finished. So these words profoundly, these seven words on the cross, I wrote a little poem that's in a song, kind of, that's in the book. Seven words of life he cried. Seven words with his last breath. Seven words as Jesus died. Seven words of life from the tree of death.

And these words are so profound. That tree of death, he died, he hung on the tree of death so we could eat from the tree of life. So read the passage again, Robbie, and then we're going to jump down to the veil.

We've got two or three more questions, and then we'll wrap it up as we look at these final moments. Luke 23, 44 through 49. Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Having said this, he breathed his last. So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man. And the whole crowd who came together to see the sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned. But all his acquaintances and women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. And here we are.

What a wonder this was. Imagine being there at that scene with those women. Most of the disciples, most of his followers were wheels up, heading out of there. Probably we would have been running right with them, Robbie, racing for our lives, knowing that there were crosses with our names on them. They were scared to death in the upper room when Christ appeared to them, and they were afraid for their lives. But here you have the final moments, the final breaths of Jesus Christ. And I really think it's important to point out that it says here, I love this language, he breathed his last. Did you know that no gospels recorded that he died?

No gospels use that language. Because, as we talked about last time, he fully, willingly passed into God's presence. He laid down his life. The good shepherd lays his life down on his sheep. No man can take my life from me, Jesus says in John 10, but I lay my life down willingly. Jesus was not a martyr. Jesus was not a victim. He was in full control and voluntarily sacrificed his life.

Isn't that awesome? He says, in Hebrews talks about it, he says, to do God's will, he did God's will perfectly. The first Adam failed to do God's will and sin. The second Adam did God's will perfectly.

He ran perfectly. He did what we could not do. That's why we're to fix our eyes on Jesus. He's the author and perfecter of our faith, and the only one that could perfect our faith had to be perfect, correct? So when he said, I willingly take this cup, when he refused the numbing, one of the numbing wines earlier was offered the cup three or four times at the cross, one of those was a strong anesthetic, right, to take the pain away.

He refused it so he could take the full throttle of God's playing. Here's some questions, by the way, Robbie, about death and all that. Some, you know, what is, we say R.I.P., you know, like the worst thug who hated God, the most blasphemous cantankerous person in history, but yet people put R.I.P., you know, on the social media. Like, I'm like, wait a second, that person's not in peace right now, you know. I want to be leading them to Christ so that when they, you know, but that stands for rest in peace. Question, am I prepared to face death? Am I at perfect peace with God and others?

Who am I sharing this amazing news with? Some great questions, but something happened, Robbie. The veil was torn. We talked about access to God last time.

I really, I love that, but we got to get on to this remarkable profession. Yeah, it was. How remarkable was the centurion's confession? So when you hear centurion, the word literally means 100. This is a higher rank of a Roman soldier. He would have probably been the highest ranking soldier at the cross. You know, the cross was, there was a cross section of people at the cross.

It was quite cross pollinated. I mean, you're the punster, listen to me, but you have Roman authorities like the centurion high up. You have the executioners, rank and file guys, driving the nails through his hands, constantly, you know, dipping this that, you know, watching, mining. You know, they're making sure, by the way, they're more in protective mode. They're making sure that nothing that they do to these prisons, these, in this execution to these victims of crucifixion, they're making sure that nothing is going to take their life early.

No vein is cut. They're going to make sure that nothing is going to, because they need to, they need to protract the torture, which is the whole point of crucifixion. You have Jewish leaders, you have all these rabbis, you have these people who are hurling out insults, just evil stuff, fomenting hate and fomenting things, but you have this band of women who are there, you know, who followed Jesus. To the very end, you have John, the beloved disciple who Christ addresses in John 19. And then you have all of these pastor buys. It's the height of Passover, thousands of people on this road. Imagine Ray Bolts' song, Watch the Lamb, little boy, the lamb gets away in this beautiful song.

Go Google it, folks. Watch Watch the Lamb by Ray Bolts. And the daddy, the baby says, Daddy, Daddy, you know, what's going on here? Because he stopped looking for the little lamb that they had bought for Passover that he couldn't find, but he ends up somewhere near this cross. He looks up and there's the Lamb of God, and the dad's trying to explain to him, and they realize there's something supernatural.

Then the lights go out, all those things happen, and over 100 soldiers is this centurion. Likely, highest-ranking guy, remarkable, by the way, for a pagan, a gentile, to conclude and say such things. For him to say these words is just remarkable. His confession may reflect salvation, we don't know for sure. Deep irony in this, that the centurion-like Pilate, and like Herod, and like the second thief, all four of those guys, Pilate, the centurion, the Herod, the second thief, all four of those guys confess the innocence of Christ.

You think about that. The Jews who fulfilled their prophecy perfectly to the law, they couldn't get it right. You know, they thought, this guy's a blasphemer, all these things, let's kill him, but all the gentiles got it right. And he said, certainly this was a righteous man.

Of course, we know there's only one righteous man, that's God, so what a statement. So here you have the three major responses in verse 47-49. The centurion glorified God and confessed Jesus' innocence. The crowd beat their chest, sign of intense anger and emotion, literally besieged by intense guilt. They came to see a spectacle, but they were met with hours of darkness, earthquakes, seven mighty sermons from the Messiah they murdered, only to have his innocence announced. Think about these guys, they're all there, right? They're all there to put this guy to death, he's guilty, no one across is innocent, are you kidding me?

No one in prison is innocent, no one across is innocent, and yet here the highest ranking official who's basically overseeing the steward of this execution, this debacle, this horrible, ugly, vicious, bloody scene, the highest guy says he's innocent after all of this. So this must have been just, you know, just devastating for everyone there, and you know, a lot of crucifixion victims, crucifixion victim's families would come watch, we want to see closure, just like it, you know, in modern day executions, the family shows up, we want to see this person fried, we want to see, you know, we want to see him declared dead by the state. Well, this was kind of, this was going on here. So anyway, these women, these acquaintances, they're watching at a distance, and all these details, by the way, at Luke's record, are fascinating, exactly where people are standing and things like that. You know, it's really interesting that someone said, quote, those women, last at the cross of Christ, would be the first visitors to his grave. Isn't that beautiful?

It was. Women, the dignity of women all throughout the Gospels. You know, the first Gentile convert was a woman when Paul went west. There were other Gentile converts, but when he went west in Acts 16, it's a woman business lady named Lydia, a seller of purple, was the first convert of all things. These women, you know who the second convert was? A little slave girl. He cast a demon out of her. Just moments later, in that same town of Philippi.

Isn't that wild? Beautiful. But God gives great dignity. You know, the Bible comes along and gives great dignity to women. You know, some folks on the radical, feminist, whatever you want to call them side, they say, oh, the Bible's mean-hearted.

Women were more dignified and exalted and just blessed by Jesus Christ and by the Word of God than any other belief system. It's powerful to see, and we have it here, right here. So then you have the earthquake, the splitting of the rocks, that's in Matthew 27, that's in his account. So, and Robbie, take us home with these final questions. So, how did Jesus endure darkness and wrath in my place, so I could have light and forgiveness?

And who am I sharing it with here in 2021? Yeah. So, how did he, I mean, this is the whole, this is the beauty of God. I want to close with this great verse. 2 Corinthians 5 21, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God through him. So there's this great exchange, Robbie, there's this great picture that Jesus Christ, while he suffered physically, intense, you know, the Latin word, you know, crucify comes from the word excruciating, is where we get our word excruciating, but the spiritual suffering he endured was far greater. To be rejected, to be separated from his father, to be treated like a sinner, he didn't become a sinner, but to be treated like a sinner, so that we could be treated like a son. So it's a great exchange.

It's called imputation. God imputed our sin to his son. God imputed his son's righteousness to us, so we could be sons. The glorious gospel is proclaimed. As our Savior was rejected and forsaken in darkness, we were accepted and forgiven to become sons of light. He experienced the wrath of outer darkness, so we could be redeemed and walk in the light. The serpent crusher has triumphed.

It is finished. John 19 30, and now he rests in the hands of the father with this great statement. So, Robbie, who are we going to tell about this? You know, everyone we can, and it's a beautiful opportunity for us, and I love what, I think it's in 2 Samuel, when they're running to tell David about his son Absalom, and David goes, well, that's a good man. You can see how he runs, right? And so when we're fitting our feet with the gospel, people can see how you're running. Like, do you run like you have good news? Wow. And do you run, I think his name was Ahithophel, and he's running, man.

Like, he's got something really great. Well, of course. Well, of course, if you've experienced that kind of life in walking in the truth, man, how could you not tell people?

Unreal. How lovely are the feet of them who bring the gospel of peace. That's a beautiful thing.

Romans chapter 10 talks about it. And we have the greatest message of the greatest Savior that the world is desperate to hear. That's why we're still here.

But yet, less than 10 percent of believers are even sharing the gospel. Yet we have the greatest news. So how are we taking this good news?

He died. So let's take this message. It's time to go, Robbie. It is, and that's a beautiful thing, that what he's done for you is your witness. Amen.

Wow. Who are you going to tell about Jesus? Amen. As the Father sent me, so Jesus said, so I'm sending you, go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Thank you, Robbie. Experience truth. Start by reading the Word. Start by asking God, who do you want me to go tell about you today?

Maybe walk down the hall of your house and share with that kid down there, you know. And that's where it starts, in your house, and then to the whole world. Thank you for being with us. Thank you to all our awesome affiliates. We'll be back next time in our journey through Luke, right here on Experience Truth. This is the Truth Network.