The Power of the 9th Hour

The title tonight is The Power of the Ninth Hour. The Power of the Ninth Hour. And if you're not sure what the ninth hour is, it's actually, they believe that's when Jesus died. And to make it a little bit more interesting, it's about right around now, 6 p.m. or so. In other words, a little bit later than that, he actually gave up his ghost, the Bible says his spirit, at that ninth hour. But first, we have to look at the power of prophecy. Mark 9 31, for as Jesus was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise. This is amazing, because Jesus actually told them what was going to happen. And if you remember, we'll talk about it a little bit Sunday, at the resurrection, they wanted to make sure, as burial actually, that they sealed the tomb, and they wanted to station a bunch of soldiers right outside of the tomb for this very reason. Because he said, he said that he will rise again. And I've got so much to share with you Sunday, I wish I could right now, a lot of thoughts are, but it's just so interesting, that they said, he said he will rise again. He rose again, and the soldiers came back and said, an angel moved the rock, will say that you were sleeping. How can you sleep up against, you're guarding this stone, they're gonna roll away a stone while you sleep? And so, but you look at even the power of pride. These religious leaders heard, these soldiers were shaken, they were afraid, look at what happened. Look at what happened, and still, they denied him. But tonight, we have to fast forward to Matthew, or actually go back a little bit, Matthew 27, when Jesus is in front of Pontius Pilate. It said, when morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death. And when they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Of course, there's a lot in there with the garden of Gethsemane, and where Jesus went through that time of just complete anguish, knowing what was going to come ahead, and they came and they got him out of that garden, and they were gonna bring him for this judgment. And then Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, it is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and the elders, he answered, nothing. He said, nothing. Then Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly. And I believe it's probably because he's never seen anyone stand before him and not say anything. At this point, many people are pleading for their life. I'm innocent. I didn't do this, but he said nothing, because he knew why he had been called. He knew what his job was and why he was there. And then Matthew 27, if we were to continue to read, it's that wonderful place where Jesus actually takes the place of Barabbas, Barabbas, and Pilate said, I have this innocent man, Jesus, or I have Barabbas, which one do you want? And they cried out, give us Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. And there was a video out many years ago that I think it was I Am Barabbas. I don't know if you ever saw that. And it showed how Jesus, that exchange took place, taking the place of Barabbas. And we see how that happened there on Calvary, or right before Calvary, right before his crucifixion. And then Pilate said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus? Okay, he's innocent. He could find nothing in him. Here's Jesus, and you want Barabbas to go free, a known murderer, what am I to do with Jesus, who is called the Christ? And they all said to him, let him be crucified. And then the governor realized at that point that this was bigger than he thought because crucifixion was the most painful way to die. And it was for legitimate criminals. And so he said, what evil has he done? But they cried out all the more saying, let him be crucified. And so this is such an important point right here because he did nothing deserving of death. What he did, he took the place of us. He became that, he satisfied God's wrath on the cross. So I owe a debt. He doesn't, but he had to take my place, your place to pay that debt. He satisfied the sin of the world. And that's why he kept silent. That's why he knew what he was called to do. And that's why there was no evil that he did. And then when Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, I don't know why, but I kind of, you know, I feel for Pilate. He's like, we got to let this guy go. What evil has he done? Even his wife said, I had a dream about this innocent man. We need to let him go. But of course he was in a pickle because he probably could have lost his life as well if there would have been a great uprising. He would have been not doing his job. And they were much more vicious back then than they are today. So he saw he could not prevail, but rather that this tumult was rising, basically an insurrection was rising. And so he took water and he washed his hands, basically saying, hey, this is not my decision. I'm washing my hands, I'm clean of this. This is on you. He put it on them to actually crucify Jesus. He would allow the soldiers to do it, but he was saying, this is not my decision. This is not Pontius Pilate making this decision to execute Jesus, religious leaders. This is your decision. You see to it. He said, I'm innocent of the blood of this just person. Isn't that amazing? The governor saw that, Pontius Pilate. And all the people answered him and said, His blood be on us and on our children. Little did they know. What a statement. That's why when people don't believe the Bible, it's like if you just start at the beginning and read and look at the consistency, the accuracy, the tie-ins, all it's just complete inerrancy and powerful. And it ministers to the brokenhearted. It convicts the sinner. And so they said, His blood be on us and on our children. In other words, they're saying, hey, if he's innocent, let that be on us. We will take that risk. And so they released Barabbas to them. And when they had scourged Jesus, that is in and of itself is tremendous pain. And then they delivered him to be crucified. And that's when the soldiers begin to mock him so we can see we're building up. We're on Good Friday. He gave up his spirit at the ninth hour, about six o'clock or so. So leading up to that, throughout the day today, and I thought of that a little bit. Can you imagine what he was going through? It wasn't just a quick thing. It was a long process throughout the day. And they took Jesus into the praetorium. Probably didn't pronounce that right, but you got it. And gathered the whole garrison around him and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, kind of like mocking him. Taking off this and putting this scarlet robe. Okay, so you say you're a king? When they twisted this crown of thorns, they put it on his head and they put this reed in his right hand like a fake crown, a fake type of instrument that a king would hold. And then this gown and they were mocking Christ. And it still happens today, doesn't it? They still mock Jesus with their pictures or their memes or their posts. And this whole thing, Christ is king that's out there. This controversial thing on social media. Some of it, of course, we know he's king, but others are using it to demean Jesus and to mock God. And nothing has really changed. And now they begin to slap him. And they bowed the knee before him and they mocked him saying, hell, king of the Jews. Oh boy, did they not know, huh? Then they sped on him. And they took the reed and they struck him on the head. So, of course, this picture, they're spitting on him and they're hitting him in the head with this. And he knows he's got to fulfill that final sacrifice. He's got, no matter what happens, he's got to make it to the cross. And when they had mocked him, they took the robe off of him, put on his own clothes and led him away to be crucified. And even cross-referencing Mark 10, 34. They mocked him and they spit on him and flogged him and they will kill him. And after three days, he will rise. They predicted this as well in Mark. And there are so many Scriptures. I could have this a two-hour sermon, but I had to get it down. I mean, if you go into the Psalms and you talk about not one bone will be broken. He was with the transgressor. He was pierced for our iniquities and the chastisement of others is upon him. And all these fulfillments and the prophetic voices talking about this moment in history. It's amazing. And if you really study it, because people say, well, they wrote that after the fact. Actually, if you look into it, they didn't. You get into the Septuagint, you get into the different writings that were the Old Testament, even before Jesus' time. You can see that it was already written before he was even born. That's why they said, what does the Scripture say? That the prophet is coming from such and such. Nothing ever good comes out of Nazareth. But if they would just read the Scriptures, it would talk about Jesus, of course. And then we see the final reason why we celebrate tonight. The King on the Cross, Matthew 27 continues. As they came out, they found a man of Cyrene. That's why they have Simon of Cyrene by his name. And they compelled him to bear his cross. Can you imagine this incredible moment? Here's Jesus. You've seen movies, I'm sure, and you've seen what that could look like. And I don't know yet if he's holding the cross at this point, but Simon, this person, not Simon Peter, a different Simon, he's actually going to carry the cross for Jesus. The pictures sometimes are just amazing. Because then you think, of course, when Jesus said, whoever wants to follow me must carry his cross, die to self. And it really shows there is a cost to following Christ. There is a cost to following Him. And that's one reason I think people fall away from the faith sometimes. I wasn't told this. They said Jesus would take away all my problems. But sometimes you'll have more. Anybody notice that? Okay? Boy, oh boy. Sometimes it brings more, because Christianity, really, it's not about this wonderful life, although it can be wonderful. It's not about your best life now, although there can be incredible things. It's not about the prosperity gospel, right? But God can prosper his people. It's not about these things. What it's about is following Jesus no matter what the cost. No matter what the cost. I die to self, and I have to follow Jesus. That could bring pain. That could bring persecution. But I have to follow Him. And what I love about that, I've not mastered it, so don't look to me, look to this. I'm here pointing you to this, right? Let me get out of the way. But what I love about this is, let's say everything falls apart. My relationship with Him isn't. Oh, there goes my 401K. Well, my Savior's still on the throne. Hey, Shane, the blood work came back. This looks like leukemia. Your white blood. That would not be good, but my Savior holds it together. We're here. That's it. And the rest is eternity. And that's why so many people get so fearful is because they don't have that genuine relationship with Jesus to hold them through. I didn't say it'd be easy going through those times. It's not because we still have our frailties inside. Is that a word? Frailties, okay. Well, if it's not, it is now. But we still have that right, that brokenness, that fear when things come up and we don't know how to deal with them. We see our kids going through things. But what are we at the end of the day? We've got to focus on Jesus and have that be what holds us together. Christianity, when people ask me, well, what do you believe? Why do you believe it? It's realizing that I am dead in my sin and trespasses. I am lost. Without Jesus saving me, there is no hope. I repented and I believed in God's sacrifice for me. Now this weight of sin has been lifted. I've been set free. Now I am no longer a slave to sin. I'm a slave to God. So that might mean not looking politically correct to the world. That might mean challenging some of the world's system. That might mean not putting the same priorities the world puts on my life. That might just, and you know there's gonna be persecution. You know there's gonna be the trials. You know you're called to pick up your cross and follow Him. And that's how you get through life. Because you don't expect roses. You expect the thorns. And when you expect that, the roses are nice. And so Simon was carrying his cross. And they came to that place. Even that word, Golgotha. Golgotha is the place of the skull. And it's up on the, as you're leaving Jerusalem, you can see the mountain area. It used to, I don't know if it does as much now, but it used to resemble a skull. And they would walk outside. The death, the execution had to happen outside of Jerusalem. And so they would make that walk, they called it Golgotha, or the place of the skull. The walk of death basically. And that's what they were heading toward. And then they gave him the sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when he had tasted it, he would not drink it. Many say because he didn't want to take anything to deaden the pain. I'm not sure you could deaden that pain anyway. But then it goes on to say, I was having a hard time choosing which gospel too, because John goes into a lot of detail. That's really important too. But Matthew just kind of gets right to the point. And they crucified him. And when they crucified him, they divided his garments and they cast lots. Do you know the Bible wrote about that? 700 years or so before Jesus was even born? It might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They divided my garments, and for my clothing they cast lots. And as I'm reading a lot, I put down my Bible and I'm like, Lord, I don't want to miss things. Please help me. Because how do they miss? Like the Pharisees, they knew the Psalms. They had to start studying at a young age. Most of them memorized a lot of them. They would know exactly what this said. Wouldn't you see this and go, uh-oh, wait a minute here. Nazareth, Bethlehem, out of Egypt I call my son. Bethlehem there shall be. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Wow, and they start to connect. And that's why I think people like Nicodemus came at night, the others, and they would say some of the religious leaders would believe. I think they started to really connect the dots and put things together. And that's a decision all of you have to make tonight if you don't know Him. You have to make that decision. Who is Jesus? And this is what they put over His head. This is Jesus, King of the Jews. And I don't think it's here, but I love this part. When they ran to Pontius Pilate like little crybabies, the religious leaders, oh no, no, rewrite that, rewrite that. Put He said He was the King of the Jews. And Pilate, I love Pilate, he just got it right back to, sometimes I love him, sometimes I don't. Don't get me wrong. But he said, no, what I have written, I have written. What I have written, I have written. This is Jesus, King of the Jews. Because it's not gonna say He said it. He's saying this is Jesus, King of the Jews. And there's another example. This is your sacrifice, oh Israel. This is the Messiah who's giving up His sins for the world. And Jesus, even from the beginning of His ministry, would talk about that fateful day. He never said He would come back and conquer Rome. He said, for this purpose, I have come. For this purpose, I shall die. It was very clear throughout Scripture. And those who passed by, they blasphemed Him. And they were moving their heads and saying, oh, look at you. You said you could destroy the temple and build it in three days. Well, why don't you save yourself? And there's always a moment of people mocking God. Don't we see that today? All over the place. If you're the Son of God, then come down from the cross. Man, I'm so glad I wasn't there. Just give it a few hours. It's gonna happen, you cocky guys. Man, oh, if you're the Son of God, come down from the cross. And the incredible thing is He couldn't come down for the cross because He had not yet fulfilled the purpose of the cross. We always want God to hurry up and finish too soon. Bring me my mate. Oh, you're not ready yet. Lord, I'm ready for this ministry. Not yet. I'm ready for this. Not yet. God knows the timing. And then He goes on to say, likewise the chief priests also, they were mocking with the scribes and the elders. He saved others. Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross and then we will believe Him. Wow. Remember, these are the guys who saw Lazarus come forth out of the grave. They saw Jairus' daughter. They saw all the miracles that were transpiring. And they started to blame it on the devil. So they were mocking Him. And then, of course, this is when Jesus finally died. Verse 45. Now in the sixth hour until the ninth hour. So this is interesting. In three in the afternoon or so to six, there was darkness over all the land. Is that interesting? I mean, clearly something's going on here. God's even giving signs back then. And then about the ninth hour, as many of us know, that's when He finally cried out with that loud voice and said, God, why are you forsaking me? Why are you leaving me? Eli, Eli, lama zabatchini. My God, my God. Why are you forsaking me? It was, many believe it was that one point in history where God the Father had to separate from the Son because the Son had now to take on that wrath of God, the darkness of sin. And He felt that disconnect from God. Where are you, God? You have forsaken me. And then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice. And I love the word He used. He yielded up His Spirit. He yielded to the will of the Father. Then you've heard me talk about this many times. Then what happened? Verse 51, then behold, it's dark out, right? And now the veil in the temple was torn all the way from the top to the bottom. Now probably not too many people saw it unless they were in the temple. But this huge veil that is probably as high as our top up there, it began to rip from the top to the bottom. Okay, what's the big deal with that? Well, remember, the only way they could deal with their sin was to go into the holies of holies, remember? So the veil is blocking the holies of holies. Here's God, here's God, and the priest, only the priest can go in and intercede on behalf of the people. And he goes in, the blood of the sacrifice, and gets out, and that's how they dealt with the sin. The veil would block that. And now the veil was completely ripped and open. Now the holies of holies is open. Man, what a picture. That's what the Scripture says. Now you can go boldly into the throne room of grace. And now when the world comes against you, you can say, yeah, you're Goliath, but I'm David, because I can go boldly into the throne room of grace. It doesn't, what can come against me? It's greater is God and me than the enemy that's out there. Boldly into the throne room of grace. They would have never thought that possible, to go boldly to God, boldly to God. Ask Muslims what they believe about that. No, no, because it's still that Old Testament type of God. And again, we don't believe in Old Testament, New Testament God, it's God of the Bible. But something dynamic, significant happened on that cross. And that veil, that big covering that basically blocked God was now removed. And then what else happened? The earth began to quake. And the rocks were split open. I'm just speculating, but I wonder if God's trying to get a wake-up call here. You know, it's not a nice summer day. There's Jesus, well, He didn't make it. I guess that was a lost cause. Let's go have some Passover. Let's go have some lamb and some goat's milk for you who are hungry. But no, it's dark. The rocks split, the earthquakes. What a, it's like a cataclysmic event. And then later, after Jesus is resurrected, because He has to be the first fruits of the resurrection, many of the bodies of the saints who were dead in the graveyard, they begin to come up out of the graves, and they went into the holy city, and they appeared to many. So now you understand verse 54. So when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they fear God greatly, saying, truly, truly, this was the Son of God. So the soldiers that are mocking Him, spitting on Him, stuck Him in the, I mean, just destroyed His physical body, some of them, at that point, I believe it reads as if it's saying that, truly, this was the Son of God. They had a moment of repentance. And guys, this is one of the hardest things with pastoring and preaching, is you see a wonderful, beautiful thing when the heart breaks and accepts God. People think that's weak. No, it's actually meek. Big difference. But then you see also on the other side, the heart getting even harder, more like stone, rock hard. And a lot of these people still did not believe. And so again, the power of the ninth hour, we're gonna get into more on Sunday that goes into this, but around this time tonight is when this happened. All three Gospels say that Christ died at the ninth hour, and according to Jewish tradition, the evening sacrifice also took place at the ninth hour. Huh, so for, wow, how many years? When did they start the sacrificial system? Moses, all through the prophets, I mean, you're talking, I don't wanna say anything, but 1,500 years, maybe, or so. Don't quote me on that, but you try to throw all these numbers together. So their sacrifice at the ninth hour through centuries, the bulls and goats, the priests, and here now is Jesus on the cross at the ninth hour. Hello, you need some more wake-up calls? And what they would do is they would blow the shofar. How many of you know what that is, that horn that they would use? They would blow that shofar, and the lamb would be sacrificed, and the Jewish people would be reminded of their sin and their need for atonement. I wonder what that sounded like, right? They'd just blow that loud shofar, and people, it would remind them, oh, an animal is being killed for me. And also when Jesus said, it is finished, he said, it is finished. So when God's shofar blows, it echoes across the whole land. When that land shook and everything that happened, and also the ninth hour is when the fire fell, when Elisha called down the fire on Mount Carmel at the ninth hour. At the ninth hour, Ezra brought the evening sacrifices, the people confessed their sins to God, and the first miracle of the apostles took place at the ninth hour when they healed the lame beggar. Listen, I'm not into numbers and this and God's formulas, but there's power in the ninth hour. There's power when we seek God with all of our heart. What about Cornelius? His vision came to him at the ninth hour. It says, I was praying and fasting at the ninth hour. God began to speak to me, and that's how his family was saved. Do you need a ninth hour miracle tonight? Think about that. Many times in the American church, we've become so used to God not doing anything. Haven't we? We just come and sing a few songs and we go. But there's the miraculous that still happens. God healing, God breaking, God restoring. And I don't know if you want to call it naive, but I'm naive enough to believe Scripture. That God, I believe, still wants to do incredible things. I'm not just saying it because it sounds good. I'm not saying, well, that's what I'm supposed to do, but I truly believe that. I truly believe the power of God to work in our lives. But of course, what we have to remember tonight is 1 Peter 2.24. He Himself bore our sin in His body on the tree. That's why we are here. That we might die to sin and live to righteousness by His wounds, you have been healed. Now, of course, many use this for physical healing, but obviously the main application is spiritual healing. Obviously, we've been healed from this body of sin and death. And so Peter is reminding us He bore our sins. In Romans 5, 6 through 10, God showed His love for us. This is the Scripture that broke me when I came back to the Lord. I still remember the place I was at. I still remember opening this. I know I've read it many times before, but my heart was hard. You know, it's hard to receive from God when your heart's hard. Am I getting much from God? Well, it's not His problem. Or I should say, it's not His fault often. And I remember reading this. God showed His love for us. And I began to even apply it to myself. Shane, God showed His love for you even while you were in your sin. Even while you were in your sin, Christ died for you. Of course, it was in the past, but the application is even in my sin, even in my rebellion, even my rejection to God, even in all of that, I had a sacrifice waiting for me to just repent and believe. And it's just, God, even doing this, even blaspheming you, even mocking you, even mocking my mom praying for me, that sacrifice is still waiting for me. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So I wanted to leave you with this thought from Isaiah 64. Many of you know that verse from Rem the Heavens that we are going to start in October. We'll bring more information about that in the months to come, where we're gonna meet every night for a week at least, nine nights it looks like. But that verse is Isaiah 64. Oh God, would you rend the heavens? Would you rip open the heavens? Come down and visit your people. So those who feel far from God, I spelled that wrong. Did they catch it? Well, good, okay. Those who feel, sorry, Lane, I know, I gotta do better on spelling. Spell check. Those who feel far from God should cry out to Him to come down and power and to make His name known. So no matter where you are, no matter what you went through, no matter your relationship with God, maybe you're a believer and you've drifted. Maybe you're a believer and you've drifted into being lukewarm or you're quenching and grieving the Spirit, or maybe you're an unbeliever. Maybe you're hearing this and you know you have to get your relationship right with God. Guess what? You don't have to do anything. You don't have to go over this. I've got a list of 10 things you need to do. All you need to do is cry out to God like Isaiah would say, cry out to God. God, come down, rip open my situation. Rip open my family, break my hard heart. Rip open my hard heart. Lord, come down and visit me. I need to hear you. I need to feel your power and your presence. I need to be saved by your grace. And that is a prayer that God will answer. I've never found where God does not answer a genuine prayer crying out to Him. You might not like the answer, but if we seek Him, we will find Him. If it's not airplanes, it's cryptocurrency. If it's not cryptocurrency, it's all kinds of everything is just falling apart. There's only, this is the time to get your life right with God. And somebody said this a while back. Will you guys just try scaring people? Well, a couple things. We're preaching the truth, so if that scares, that's what the truth, you have an issue with God's Word, not necessarily me. But also, Jesus said, fear Him. Fear Him who can cast both body and soul in hell. He said, don't fear man, but fear Him who can deal with this issue by rejecting the person because they reject Him. So we're gonna go into a time of worship. If you need to repent and believe, do that tonight. Say, God, I repent. I believe in You. I need You. I need You to save me. I need You to set me free. I'm lost. I'm fearful. And He will do that. Or if you need to get baptized as well, let us know. Maybe it's your first time getting baptized. Maybe you got baptized as a child. Maybe you got baptized, it didn't mean anything. Or maybe you feel that conviction, I've gotta make this right with God. Just keep in mind, baptism doesn't save you. Some people get that confused sometimes. It's an outward expression. You wanna show people, look at what Jesus has done for me. I wanna be saved. I wanna be baptized. So if you do, let us know. Myself or Pastor Abram, we're gonna be right next door in the prayer room. Just let us know, I wanna get baptized tonight. Also, if you need prayer for anything, if you feel any demonic type of oppression, we believe in that. We're a church that believes that the demonic realm is real because Jesus talked about it. And we believe that people can be set free. We believe that strongholds and addictions, we can pray for you. We believe that marriages can be restored. Did you know that? Marriages can be restored. Takes two people, humbling themselves, focusing God. It's a beautiful process. The prodigal son can come home. Amen. And listen, guys, there's a lot to rejoice in. I know where many of you live, spiritually speaking. I lived there for over a decade in my 20s. You know there's a God. I mean, you're a Christian, but you're not experiencing the abundant life that Christ spoke of. He said, if you believe on me, out of your belly's going to flow rivers of living water. There's joy unspeakable. Come to me all are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You can have that deep and intimate relationship with Jesus, but it does involve full surrender.