You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching, we may present everyone mature in Christ. Father in heaven, we come before you tonight. We bow before your throne. And we come confidently with courage and with great joy in our hearts before the throne room of God, amazed at this direct access that we have. And Lord, how little at times do we avail ourselves to such a privilege and even a right as children of God. We pray now, O Lord, that as we study your word, as we look at the climactic event of all of scripture, that you would open our eyes, that you would reveal truth to our hearts, affirm the truth that we already know, convince us of it more and more, help us even as we talked last week to hate sin with a greater passion, with the holiness of God. And so we ask your blessing upon our time tonight. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right. Last week, we covered Matthew 27, verses 32 through 44. Here's a quick recap of that teaching. We saw in verse 32, Jesus being led away to the place of crucifixion, and we see as he goes, he struggles, and the Roman soldiers, they press a man named Simon of Cyrene into service. They compel him. And he is obliged to carry Jesus's cross for him to Golgotha. That's the destination where the execution process gets to. And when they're there, we saw the soldiers mockingly offer Jesus wine mixed with gall. And we also saw that Jesus refused to drink such an undrinkable mixture that was meant to further torment him and also to extend his misery and all this despite the immense thirst that he had. After the soldiers had crucified Jesus, fastening him to the cross, perhaps as early as 9 a.m. I'm correcting myself there. I think I said 11 a.m. last week. I want to say as early as 9 a.m. They divided his valuable clothing. We talked about the value of clothing in that day. And they cast lots. And again, that was a fulfillment of prophecy. Regarding Jesus's crucifixion, we observed how Jesus's death was a violent death. in excruciatingly painful death and a shameful death, then we also talked about why was it necessary for Jesus to be crucified and not drowned or not quartered? Why was it necessary for him to be crucified? The soldiers sat down to watch and to ensure that Jesus did in fact die on the cross. And Matthew explained that Jesus' reason, if we could say that, for his crucifixion was fixed above his head. It was a sign that said, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Of course, Jesus was not crucified alone. There was two wrongdoers, one on each side of him, and they were worthy of death while he was not. And we saw this picture of pilgrims entering the city, passing by the crucifixion scene, and how do they respond? They blaspheme Jesus. They tell him, if you're really able to destroy and rebuild the temple in three days, then you come down from that cross yourself. Well, the wicked chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, they also mocked Jesus. They said, we will really believe in you if you just come down from that cross through your own power right now. And citing Psalm 22, they mocked Jesus further. They said that they were certain that if God really took pleasure in you, Jesus, that surely he would deliver you from this death that is about to come to you. But we said the mockers were wrong. It's not that Jesus could not save himself. It's that he would not save himself. For after all, Matthew 121 says that he will save his people from their sins. And we saw this sense of irony that these men who reviewed or referred to Psalm 22 had themselves become the mockers that are also referenced in that psalm. The final group to insult and mock Jesus was none other than the two men crucified along with him. Even as they, too, were dying, they reviled Jesus. They reproached him, heaping insults upon him. And so last week's focus really was more about the physical aspect of Jesus' crucifixion. Tonight, we're going to talk a lot more about the spiritual aspect. And so tonight, my objective is to cover verses 45 through 54. Don't worry about the little subtitles in there. This is really just one long narrative, even into chapter 28. And the next week, we're going to come back and talk even a little bit more about the crucifixion and some of the theological implications of it before we get through verse 61 next week. But tonight, I'm just going to read verses 45 through 54. Hear now the word of the Lord. 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, lama sabachthani. That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 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 reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place. They were filled with awe and said, truly, this was the Son of God. And may the Lord write the eternal truths of his word to our hearts this Wednesday night. This brings us to teaching 98, the death of Jesus. Lord willing, it'll be teaching 100, where we observe and examine the resurrection of Jesus. But tonight, we are squarely focused on the death of Jesus. I just read for you a part of Matthew 121. I want to read it again. This goes all the way back to teaching three, where the angel tells Joseph, she will bear a son, referring to Mary, the Virgin Mary, and you shall call his name Jesus. For, here's the reason, he will save his people from their sins. It's been a long time coming, but we've now reached the point of that promise, the promised moment of salvation. That's the same promise that was given to Adam and Eve back in Genesis 3.15 with the first declaration of the gospel. But now we have reached that moment, the death of Jesus. And so looking back again to verse 45, now from the sixth hour, there was darkness. over all the land until the ninth hour." So the sixth hour is noon, 12 p.m. And of course, it would be the least likely time to ever have overwhelming darkness at noon. And it says here, Matthew says, there was darkness or gloom over all the land. There's a darkening of the sun throughout, I believe that Matthew's referring here to the region of Judea. I don't think he's referring to the entire world. But at least Judea, and why I would say that is I think there's a square or a solid implication that Jerusalem and all of Judea as a whole is under the judgment of God. It's not the only thing that's under judgment here, but it's an indication by God that these people who have rejected the Messiah and are in the process of killing him. Remember, Peter says that in Acts 2, that you're the ones who killed him, that they are under the judgment of God. Luke 23, 45, he describes it as the sun's light failing. And I think the only way that we can properly describe this is just as a special act of God. This wasn't an eclipse. This wasn't some sort of just natural occurring phenomenon. This is a supernatural act of God. And of course, we know from scripture that light is representative of God. It symbolizes God, and so darkness is quite the opposite. It evokes everything that is anti-God. The wicked, judgment, and of course, judgment is a significant theme here, and death. Now, of course, we see a period of darkness back in the Old Testament, in the 12 plagues, in Exodus 10. We see Moses stretching out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt. Notice it wasn't everywhere, but it was squarely on whose God's wrath was upon the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days." That's how dark it was. But all the people of Israel had light where they lived. The presence of God was still with them, the light of God coming through his bountiful Son. A lesser known passage, Amos 8, verses 7 through 10. figures significantly into what's happening here. The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account and everyone mourn who dwells in it and all of it rise like the Nile and be tossed about and sink again like the Nile of Egypt? And on that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon. Sun, go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head. I will make it like the morning for an only sun and the end of it like a bitter day. So there's talk, there's language in there of the sun going down at noon, darkening the earth during a time of broad daylight. And this is what happens here. I'll refer you also to Isaiah 13, verses 1 through 11, and also Isaiah 59, verses 9 and 10. And there's many, many other passages that you can look at throughout scripture that use darkness very symbolically, especially in the prophets. Of course, Jesus himself. In Luke's gospel, in Luke 22, 53, he's speaking to the religious leaders. He says, when I was with you day after day in the temple, you didn't lay hands on me, but this is, he says, your hour. He says, this is the power of darkness, the power of darkness. And so Matthew records here. that there's a three-hour period of darkness, he says, until the ninth hour, until 3 p.m. And what typically happened at 3 p.m. was the slaying and offering of the daily sacrifice at the Jewish temple. John Lightfoot, who's a older commentator, he says, God who had foretold of old that the serpent should bruise the heel of the promised seed And now that time has come, he says, had slackened the devil's chain, he says, which in regard of men the divine providence used to hold in his hand. So he's painting this picture of God allowing Satan to unleash with greater fury upon Jesus on the cross. He says, so that all the power and all the rancor of hell might freely and without restraint assault Christ, And that all that malice that was in the devil against the whole elect of God, summed up and gathered together into one head, might at one stroke and onset be brandished against Christ without measure during this period of darkness." We see a few things with this darkness and at this crucifixion scene. There's this picture of what he just referred to, this temporary power of Satan. God's displeasure on humanity, especially the people of Israel for crucifying his son, but most importantly, God's judgment on evil. This is an emblem of the judicial blindness and the darkness of the Jewish nation. So we see here in this picture of darkness and these three hours of just total blackness, we're going to talk about this picture of God's wrath burning itself out in the very heart of Jesus. So that he, as our substitute, we're going to see he suffered the most intense agony, indescribable woe, terrible isolation, and forsakenness. say that this darkness symbolized the blackness of desolation in Jesus' spirit. And in a way, we could look at this picture of God draping the heavens with this blackness in mourning for the sin of man. And this agony that Jesus suffers here during these three hours of darkness was so soul-crushing, and that's the focus here. This is an affliction of the soul. We talked about the physical things that Jesus is enduring, but now we're squarely focused on the crushing and affliction of his soul. And so during these three hours, as he's going through this affliction of his soul, we could even describe this as the flame of the one great. So not just the daily evening sacrifice, but we'll call this the great evening sacrifice as it's burning the fiercest. It's in these moments then that it causes Jesus to utter the words of the following verse, verse 46. where Matthew writes, in about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli l'ma sabachthanai. That is, and this is, you know, as strong of emotional address as you could say anything. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So it seems. that as we've reached this third hour here of this darkness at 3 p.m., we see now Jesus crying out with a loud voice. He's not whispering these words. This is a booming, but we could also say yet haunting cry. He's speaking in Aramaic here. about abandonment. These are the only words that Matthew and Mark record during the entire crucifixion scene. Of course, Luke and John, they record other statements by Jesus, but these are the only ones which they're drawing a very significant attention to through that. Of course, Matthew explains to us, the reader, what did that statement mean? Many people there would have understood that, but he explains, he says, this means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Sometimes called the cry of dereliction or the cry of abandonment. Why or for what reason have you abandoned me or deserted me? Of course, We mentioned Psalm 22 many times last week, but here, Psalm 22.1, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? And of course, those words are penned by the psalmist, but these are clearly the words of the Messiah, the suffering God man. And so this is a dark cry for a dark hour. So we could ask the question, then, as Jesus cries this out, so beyond all the physical suffering and torment that we detailed fairly comprehensively last week, what is taking place here that prompts such a cry? Well, we just need to look through Scripture. And I'm just going to give you a few verses, first from the Old Testament, Isaiah 53.6. Isaiah records, "...all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him, the God-man, the iniquity of us all." So that's what's happening, the iniquity of us all, the cumulative amount of sin of all of God's people is laid upon the God-man on the cross. 2 Corinthians 5.21, "...for our sake, the sake of the elect, he made him, that's Christ, to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So he's made to be sin. He has the sin of the world, so to speak, on him, but he's made to be sin in the eyes of God. Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse. for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." So he's also a curse. We talked about that before as well, about being outside of the camp, outside the city, hanged on a tree. In 1 Peter 2.24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. And so we have this picture before us then of Christ bearing the hell of punishment, we could say, for a world of sins. And he's serving as the representative of his people before God. And remember from our Sunday school teaching that he's fulfilling his priestly office. So of course, you know, the people are familiar with the regular daily work of their human, fallible, sinful priest. But here, Jesus is performing the greatest priestly work as he serves as the representative of the people. And so in bearing the sin of his people and becoming a curse for them, Jesus is separated from the Father. He's cast away from the enjoyment of his countenance, from the benefits. And that prompts then this cry of agony, this cry of abandonment. And it's in this moment, or it's in this time period here where we call the great exchange that's taking place. What's being exchanged? Well, we have every single sin of God's people is being transferred onto Christ as he bears our sin and as he grants to us. So there's the other part of the exchange as he grants to us sinners righteousness. And so as he bears these sins, what is he doing? He's accepting the punishment for sin. This is God's punishment for sin. And punishment for sin includes separation from God's goodness. And so we have to say this, that this is not just something that Jesus thinks is happening. This is a real abandonment. A real abandonment. It's not just a thought that is in his mind. This is a real abandonment. There is no glimpse of his father's smiling approval during these three hours of darkness. He's deprived of this intimate fellowship. He doesn't sense the favorable presence of the father. Samuel Pierce, he writes, no help or succor, which is another word for help. was to be granted him. He was to tread the winepress of the wrath of God. He was to be deeply oppressed with it. He was to be the subject of divine wrath. He was to wade through the whole sea of it. He was to overcome it in his own person and by his own strength. And as we might ask ourselves, the readers of Matthew's gospel, what crime could bring such a thing to the God-man? And of course, the answer is our sin. Our sin is what brought such a situation upon the God-man. And so Christ, in this moment, He's bearing the divine retribution, the punishment for sin, as the Father's cup of wrath is poured out upon Him in divine judgment against sin. And so this is for a finite period of time. There's three hours here described by Matthew, but it is an infinite pouring out of wrath upon Christ. And that should really cause us to think about eternity because those who are in the lake of fire, those who are engulfed in hellfire are going to experience this wrath and punishment of sin and the complete abandonment of God. But it won't be for a finite period of time. It'll be for an infinite period of time. To be forsaken by God is undoubtedly to taste his wrath. As Jesus is dying here on the cross to vicariously atone for the sins of his people, so vicarious meaning that he in our place, on our behalf, he's recognized in this moment, in this harrowing few hours here, that he is no longer experiencing communion with the Father that has characterized his entire life. This is what his life has been. He would spend the night praying. He is the man of Psalm 1 who meditates on the law of God day and night. So knowing that, we might then want to say, I have a whole lot of theological questions that I want to ask about. What does this mean regarding this separation here? What does this mean in terms of the Trinity? What does it mean about the relationship between the Father and Son? What about the human and divine natures of Christ that we studied also in Sunday school? And to that, we just simply have to say, We better tread very, very carefully, because speculating too much is going to lead to error. Matthew doesn't go beyond saying any more than what he says here in his gospel, and neither do the other gospel writers. But in this moment of abandonment, as the sin-bearing sacrifice, again from 2 Corinthians 5.21, There is this reality that Jesus must endure this temporary abandonment. So what does that say? What does that say about the heinousness of our sin? We know from scripture that sin is what drove the wicked angels out of heaven. We know that sin is what drives Adam and Eve from Eden. But here, sin even causes God to hide his face from his own beloved son while he's bearing and suffering for the sins of his people. And it is impossible, just impossible for us to really understand what this separation from God must have been like for Jesus. This is, we could say, an impenetrable mystery of the word of God. But it certainly proves out this truth that Christ in his human nature was in all things, as the writer of Hebrews says, made like unto his brethren. And he certainly had a human soul, a reasonable soul, and he endured sorrows and sufferings in it. And we certainly see that desertion was not the least of the things that he experienced. John Flavel, the Puritan, he says, it is as much as if Christ had said, oh my God, no words can express my anguish. I will not speak, but rather I will roar. I will howl out my complaint. I will pour it out in volleys of groans. But I want to also point out. That although this cry from Jesus, although it expresses a loss of contact with his father, that Jesus there using the word, my, where he says, my God shows that he has not lost his faith. His cry of abandonment, we could say, is simultaneously a cry of faith. Remember back in John 16, 32, Jesus said, Behold, the hour is coming. Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered, speaking to his disciples, and that's where they are right now, scattered, each to his own home and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone for the father is with me. And in Gethsemane, the father was with him as he prayed. three times to the father. It was the father who is strengthening him. And what was he strengthening him for? This very moment, this moment of abandonment. And so even now, as the father is turned away from the son, we see that Jesus still honors his beloved father. And even though he's experiencing the horror of God's abandonment, He still cries out to the one that he no longer senses and to the one who does not presently answer him. And what about us then? What about in our worst moments of where we might feel like we're abandoned by God? Should we not do exactly as Jesus did here? We cry out to him anyway. Whatever our darkest moments might be, it is nothing like what Jesus endured. And we know this wonderful truth that God's people are forgiven because Jesus was forsaken. So when the night seems to be at its darkest hour, God is still our light. The cross is the place where our sin was finished. where our iniquity was drowned in the atoning blood of Christ." John Chrysostom, he says, why does Jesus speak this way, crying out this phrase? He says that they, the people around, that they might see to his last breath that he honors God as his father and is no adversary of God. He spoke with the voice of scripture, uttering a cry from the psalm. Thus, even to his last hour, he is found bearing witness to the sacred text." And I would think that Jesus, no doubt, was meditating upon the entirety of Psalm 22. How does Psalm 22 end? It ends very triumphantly. I mentioned it last week. I'll mention it again. Read that Psalm. Think about the entirety of that Psalm. But Jesus knew and believed in the truth of God's Word. Even in Lamentations 3.31, for the Lord will not cast off forever. So Matthew supplies more details in verse 47. He says, some of the bystanders hearing it, this cry from Jesus, they 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 reed and gave it to him to drink. So these people, these bystanders standing nearby the crucifixion scene, they say, oh, Jesus is summoning Elijah the prophet. I tend to think, after studying this for a while, I tend to think that they are in a way mocking him additionally here. If you are really the Son of God, then perhaps this Elijah, and remember Elijah, this messianic precursor who was foretold in Malachi chapter 4, they said maybe he will come at the last second to rescue you from this cross. Now, who was the messianic precursor of Malachi 4? Yeah, John the Baptist. That was already confirmed. He had already preceded Jesus. How? He martyred him. He's dead. He was beheaded. And what did he declare? He had declared that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah. So they make this statement, maybe Elijah. I remember how Elijah, no one had seen him die. He leaves and so there was sort of this belief that they loosely held that maybe he'll come back one day since we never saw him physically die. But one of these bystanders rushes and they grab a sponge. I always like the Greek words that just clearly, spungos is the word that we use for sponge, which is kind of interesting. And I'm going to leave this to your future thinking. This is something for you to debate in your mind and study. Was this act here by this person, was this an act of compassionate spontaneity or more mockery? And I think in a certain sense, you could go both either way on that. I'll refer you to Luke 23, 36, and also you can look at John 19 verses 28 through 30 to see what's going on in those gospel narratives. But certainly we know that Jesus is thirsty. Psalm 22, again, verse 15, my strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. They made this sponge full of sour wine, which sometimes was also called wine vinegar. This is something that did relieve thirst, and it was also a very cheap beverage. But this person, they put it on a reed, or we could say a stalk or a staff, because they would have to be able to reach it all the way up to where Jesus is on the cross to his mouth. And it says, they gave it to him to drink. They lift the wine-soaked sponge up to Jesus' mouth. Again, Psalm 69, 21, they gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. I kind of take that negatively, both parts of that, and that's why I would lean more toward additional mockery. But again, I'll leave that to your further study. Verse 49, but the others said, wait! Let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. So they're saying, no, don't give him anything, because I really want to see if Elijah is going to show up here. We want to see if Elijah is going to save him from death. And that's all that Matthew has to say about that. And he just continues right on. And again, you'll probably notice that we're not covering everything from all four Gospels. We're not covering dialogue between Jesus and the robber on his side, and other things that happen there. And so I would encourage you, read all four Gospel narratives. We are trying to look at this more through the lens of the way that Matthew presents it to his readers. And so we get then right away to verse 50, and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. This is, again, a decisive cry from our Lord, and we just have to think about the amount of strength that that would require. We already detailed that the physical torment and affliction that he went through, and how he wasn't even able to carry his crossbeam. And now we've talked about this spiritual oppression of his soul, and so now he makes this vehement outcry. It shows the affection, the strong confidence that he has in God, and it certainly demonstrates that he is fearless of death. In a certain way, I would say this is a miracle because people who are on the cusp of death, usually their voice is failing them to say what they want to say, but he makes this cry. Now, in John 19.30, he says, it is finished, meaning that darkness did not have the final word. But then in Luke 23, 46, we see Luke recording that he calls out with a loud voice saying, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And I believe that before he does give up his spirit, before he dies, that we have the divine comfort and presence of the Father restored to him. Before he dies. But it says Matthew here, he says he yields up his spirit. He's the one doing the action here. So this isn't something that happens to him. This isn't something that is taken from him. He is voluntarily surrendering his soul in death. We don't have the ability to do that. He does. And so he gave up, we could even say he dismissed his life spirit or his soul breathing his last breath. He conscientiously chose to yield his life at this very moment. He doesn't just permit it to ebb away. That's generally how most people die. Their life just ebbs away from them and they can do nothing about that. Here he voluntarily lays it down indicating that he is sovereignly governing even at this moment. Remember what he said in John 10, verse 17 and 18, for this reason, the father loves me. Remember this whole chapter is the good shepherd. Because I lay down my life, there's that voluntary willful act that I might take it up again. No one takes it from me. but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again, this charge I have received from my father." And Isaiah 53, 12 says that he poured out his soul to death. So this wasn't a last gasp. This was an act of the will. And so in a certain sense, we can even see through this that he wasn't really killed so much as that he yielded up his life in obedience to the divine will. Well, what happens here as Jesus dies? We're going to talk about some theological truths here. We're not going to cover them all tonight. I'll try to get to a few more next week. But we see here that as Jesus dies, Jesus's death discharged in full the mighty debt which sinners owe to God, and it throws open, thereby through his death, this throws open the door of life to every believer. If you've heard of the word expiation before, it's a fairly technical term, but expiation, and that's sort of what I just described, it refers to the cleansing of sin and the removal of sin's guilt. How does that happen? That happens through the shedding of blood. And so there was that picture, there was that type in the Old Testament over and over and over through the shedding of blood. Of course we saw in the Old Testament they had this annual Day of Atonement where they would take the two goats and it was as if they would remove the guilt of their sin temporarily. But here it's not the annual Day of Atonement, this is the Day of Atonement on the cross. Hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 through 14 speaks of this expiation, this removal of the guilt. The writer of Hebrews says, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And so there's this discharge of that mighty death, the removal of the guilt of sin. According to Romans 3.26, we also see that Jesus' death satisfied the righteous claims of God's holy law. It allows God to be what? To be just and the justifier of the ungodly. Jesus' death was no mere example of self-sacrifice, but it was a complete atonement. and also a propitiation for man's sin. What does the word propitiation mean? Well, Ligon Duncan describes it this way, averting the wrath of God by the offering of a gift. You could also, instead of the word averting, you might think of the word appeasement, the wrath of God being appeased. It refers to the turning away of the wrath of God. as the just judgment of our sin by God's own provision of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross." So there's the offering of the gift. And through the offering of the eternal Son of God, the Father's wrath is appeased. It is turned away. John says in 1 John 4.10, in this is love. Not that we have loved God. but that He loved us and sent His Son to be that offering that appeased God's wrath, to be the propitiation for our sins. What else does Jesus' death do? It solves the difficult problem that we perceive of how God can be perfectly holy and yet also perfectly merciful. How can He be those two things through what Jesus does on the cross? Jesus' death, it opens to the world. a fountain for all sin and uncleanness." And that's why he's able to say, come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus' death was a complete victory over Satan. Referring you to Daniel 9.24. finished the transgression, made an end of sins, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness. Jesus' death proved out the sinfulness of sin where it needed such a sacrifice to atone for it. And finally, Jesus' death proved the love of God to sinners when He sent His own Son to make this atonement. There never was a death like Jesus. And there never will or could be a death such as he suffered. In verse 51 through 53, Matthew describes some things that occur upon the death of Jesus. And behold, there's that statement or that word that Matthew uses. Pay attention. This is of significance. The curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom and the earth shook. And the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many." So this curtain of the temple. And there was two veils in the sanctuary. There was an outer veil and there was an inner veil. In Exodus 26 verses 31 through 33, you see it described when the tabernacle was built. In 2 Chronicles 3.14, you see it as well as Solomon's temple is built. But I believe that the clearer reference here is to that inner veil of the sanctuary that separated the holy place from the holy of holies. Now, this wasn't just some sort of curtain that we might say, oh, it might be, you know, 10, 12 feet high. This was a curtain that was 60 feet long and 30 feet high. And many people believe that it was at least a few inches thick. This is no small thing. And so it's this inner veil, this massive thing. And what's going on in the temple right now? Sacrifices. And who's going to see this? The priest. But that inner veil, what does it veil? It veils the holy of holies. Who can go into the holy of holies? Not the people. Not the regular priests. But only the high priest could. And how often could he go in? Once a year. And even then, he went in very fearfully. They even put something around his foot in case God would strike him dead so they could drag him out so nobody else was going in there to get him. Everyone else was denied that access to violate that veil, to violate that curtain, to go into the Holy of Holies would bring the penalty of death. You might ask the question, Who or what had separated man from God in such a way? And the answer is man. We did. We caused this separation in the garden, not God. Man caused this. And so mankind in the Old Testament, they dwell in this scenario of where they always have to have this representative. They don't have this direct access to God. It must be mediated through a priest, even just to offer a sacrifice. And even the regular priests aren't even able to go where the high priest can go. And so Matthew says that this massive veil, it's torn. He says, not from bottom to top. No human hands are starting that tear, but it's from top to bottom. This is a divine act, this is a substantial act, and it declares symbolic things to the people. What does it symbolize? You could narrow it down and just try to say, we're gonna go with one thing. I'm gonna give you many things, because I think it does portray several things. Certainly it portrays and symbolizes that now, There is unrestricted access to God that is possible through Jesus's sacrifice and his atoning blood. Hebrews 10, 19 through 20, therefore, 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. Essentially, the writer of Hebrews is saying that we have confidence to enter into the presence of God, into the Holy of Holies. We have that confidence in our hearts because of what Jesus has done. And it's by virtue of the New Covenant. Remember when we talked about the New Covenant that was established through the blood of Jesus? He said, I'm going to shed my blood to ratify this covenant. It's because of that that God's people now have unprecedented access to his holy presence. The curtain, in a certain sense, was a grace from God. It was a grace from God because it prevented the death of people, because they had no right to enter into God's holy presence. But now there is nothing needed except faith to rest in the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. Well, it's not just the unrestricted access, though, but there is also peace with God. There's that reconciliation, Romans 5, 1 and 2. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. What else do we see symbolically here? We see a doing away. of the old temple, the old physical temple, and its animal sacrifices, that the temple is no longer the place, we could say, where heaven and earth joined together. So we shouldn't look at the Old Testament as, wow, those people, they didn't have any great spiritual experiences with God. No, they did. It was at the temple, it was at the tabernacle, when they offered their sacrifices, when they worshiped, that in a certain sense, there's a picture of heaven joining to earth. but never as wonderfully as it does once Jesus accomplishes what he does. And so the writer of Hebrews in chapter 8, verse 13, he says, the old covenant now is obsolete. It's been done away with by the new covenant. The anti-type is here, and so we don't need animal sacrifices anymore. They've been done away. Now that the anti-type is here, the type is irrelevant. And so when you consider what happens in the Catholic mass. What are they doing? In a certain sense, they are trying to do this very thing that the writer of Hebrews says has been done away. Of course, it's in a much more blasphemous way. The Old Testament people weren't blaspheming, but the Roman Catholics seek to do this over and over, and the writer of Hebrews says it's been done away. The ministry also of the Jewish high priest is symbolized as being ended. Why? Because now there is an eternal high priest and his name is Jesus. Hebrews 10.21. Also an abrogation or an ending of the ceremonial law. So all these things, all these Levitical rites and figures that we see in the temple, they've been fulfilled and accomplished in Jesus. And so all those ceremonies are now done away with. They've been torn apart. We don't need them anymore. There's also a picture of the removal of any division between Jews and Gentiles. I refer you to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 13 through 22, where Paul writes wonderfully about that. It's also a picture of God's judgment against Israel as a whole, against the Jewish authorities. And there is also this picture of a powerful departure of God's presence from the temple. He's no longer confined, if we could use that word, to the holy of holies. And now the Spirit of God is going to move on to all the nations. Many things there. I would encourage you especially to read through the book of Hebrews. What a wonderful book that is. But Matthew also says the earth shook. And so Jerusalem and its vicinity, they quake, it's an earthquake. And if the law came with an earthquake, you remember Moses said, according again to the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 12, 21, Moses said, I tremble with fear at the way that God thundered out his law. If that's the way that the law came, then certainly so too that is how grace came. It's an event, an earthquake was an event that often typified judgment. Isaiah 2.19, Isaiah 13.13, Joel 2.10, just to name a few references. Psalm 18.7 says, then the earth reeled and rocked. The foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry. So the earth shakes, the rocks are split. This is clearly a picture of cosmic upheaval. almost as if creation is being torn asunder at the death of Christ. You can take a look at Nahum 1.5. But now we come to a very curious and interesting verse from Matthew, because it's unique to his gospel. He says, the tombs also were opened. The tombs of the dead sprang open, and as we Think of that, this opening of tombs, and he's not saying that every single tomb opened, but some tombs opened. There's a proof in there as Jesus dies and as these events occur of Christ's power over death in the grave. And you see then this result of, he says, many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. dead believers, not unbelievers, dead believers raised to life. So he says the saints, or you could say the holy ones. Now you can only guess at who those were. Were they people that we knew from the Old Testament? Was John the Baptist one of these? I kind of lean more toward the thought that they probably were Old Testament martyrs, just as Christ was. But people who had suffered for their faithfulness to God, they are raised to bear testimony to what? To the resurrection of Jesus. And so they are appointed by God to do this. Just as Moses and Elijah, they are appointed by God to be at the Mount of Transfiguration. And so these people, as they are raised to life, are going to attest through their resurrection that they have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. There's a couple passages from the Old Testament that sort of allude to this. Ezekiel 37, which is what's going on in Ezekiel 37. Right, the vision of the dry bones in verses 12 and 13. Also Isaiah 26, 19, Isaiah writes, your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy, for your due is a due of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. But as Matthew talks in verse 53 about this resurrection, when does he say that this occurs? He says that this occurs after So these people aren't raised to life before Christ is. They are raised after His resurrection, after Jesus' awakening. So it is when God raises His own Son from the grave, which we'll get to in chapter 28, He demonstrated through the raising of Christ that he had accepted the son's atoning sacrifice. There's that final proof of acceptance in that raising from the dead, that the earlier abandonment that Christ had suffered, it was not a permanent thing, and that David's prophecies concerning Jesus in Psalm 26, Psalm 22, and Psalm 110 are all fulfilled in that raising up. And of course, we'll get to it much later in 1 Corinthians, but in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 20 through 23, Paul talks about Jesus being of the first fruits of many more to come. And some of those who were to come came immediately after him. And there's a picture there. It's a guarantee to us as believers that all of Christ's sheep are going to be gloriously resurrected. Paul says in Philippians 3. verses 20 and 21, but our citizenship is in heaven. And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. And so God's not going to permit his saints to remain as disembodied souls at the consummation of history, at the return of Christ. Souls and bodies are going to be reunited in a glorified body for the full enjoyment of the Holy Trinity for all eternity. So Matthew says that these people, these resurrected saints, where do they go? He says they go into the Holy City. What's the Holy City? Right, Jerusalem. Isaiah 52.1, Matthew 4.5, even when we saw, you know, the devil take Jesus up to that pinnacle. And also Revelation 11 too, all references to Jerusalem. And it says they appeared to many. So they testified to many that they had been raised from the dead. And Matthew doesn't say any more about it. We don't know. So we don't know if they, I tend to think not, Bob. I tend to think that they were given the glorified resurrected body. I don't think it's identical to the Lazarus story from John 11, but that's just what I think. As I just said, Matthew doesn't say any more about it. All we know is that this event happens as a testification of Jesus' death and resurrection. And clearly, the way that Matthew is thinking about this, he's not thinking so narrowly about just what happens in Jesus' death, but he has the events of his death, his repose in the grave, and his resurrection all bundled together in one thought. Verse 54, when the centurion and those who are with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, truly, this was the Son of God. I had mentioned last week. that this was this man here, this centurion, he's the one who's presiding over these soldiers who are responsible for the crucifixion. Of course, a centurion commanded about 100 men. But when these men, when they saw the earthquake, they saw this cosmic upheaval, but that's not all they saw. They also observed things. They saw Jesus' demeanor. They saw his composure as he endured all these things, as he endured anguish, as he endured mockery. The words that he said and the manner in which he died as they saw all of those things, they were filled or we could say they were overwhelmed with awe. And really, that is a sense of fear, great fear. This is the same thing that the disciples said in the boat after Jesus calmed the winds and the waves. They were filled with awe. They were filled with great fear of who this was. They're filled with great fear of who it is who has just died before them on the cross. And so they said, truly, or really, this one was the Son of God, or God's Son, and in a certain way you could look at it that they're saying, remember what Romans had to confess, in a sense they had to confess that Caesar is Lord, so you might infer here that they're saying this one, not Caesar, is God's Son, or the Son of God. In Mark, or I'm sorry, in Luke 23, verse 47, now when the centurion saw what had taken place, And in Mark 15, we see that he stood facing him and saw, Mark says, and saw that in this way he breathed his last. The centurion, he praised God saying, certainly this man was innocent. Or you could translate that just or righteous. It's a pretty amazing thing to consider because as the Jews around Jesus are celebrating the accomplishment of their goal, remember their evil plot to murder Jesus, to destroy him, and they think we have done exactly what we set out to do, a Gentile is proclaiming, or I wish to say Gentiles are proclaiming truth about Christ, which perhaps may make you think of Chapter 2, Gentiles, the Magi who come to worship Jesus proclaiming truth about Christ when there's no Jew there, no Israelite to worship him. In chapter 8, we saw another centurion, another Gentile who demonstrated faith that Jesus says, I have not found such faith in all of Israel. And so while these men make such a wonderful proclamation, we might consider as well what an indictment of the hard-hearted rejection by Jesus' own countrymen. And so whatever the full extent of what these men grasped here in observing Jesus' death, Their expression, their confession, the statement that they make is a manifestation that God's glory is going to advance to all the nations. It certainly recalls the confession of the disciples in Matthew 14, 33. They worshiped Him in the boat, saying, truly you are the Son of God. And of course, Peter, back in chapter 16, he said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. So those statements, but this statement here by the centurion and these men, it underscores a reality. And what is it? It is that Jesus is the Son of God. He is the King of the Jews. He's not just a divine man. He is and has always been the Son of the true and living God. He is God the Son. He is Emmanuel. He is Yahweh incarnate. And that's Matthew's message to his readers. His message is not, see if you can determine exactly what the centurion believed. His message to the readers is this reaffirmation that Jesus is the Son of God. And so I would ask you tonight, reader of Matthew as well, is that what you believe? Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? All throughout the gospel, according to Matthew, We've examined the life of Jesus. We've examined his purpose. We've examined his ministry. We've examined his teachings, the confessions of those around him. We talked about what Peter said when Peter confessed that. But it always comes back to us. What are we going to do with what we read? What are we going to do with this illumination from scripture? And we can see many examples in Matthew of people who rejected Christ, who turned away from Christ. As things got difficult, they left him behind. But we also see wonderful examples of people who turned in faith to Christ. Remember last week, we talked very briefly about the woman who had the 12 years of the issue of blood, and she touches Jesus and he says, your faith has saved you, has made you well. And that is what we must do. We must reach out in faith. The gospel says that Jesus died for sinners. The law tells us that we are guilty before God. And so the only way to be saved then is to see, to recognize that guilt, to see when the law says that you are not to have any other gods before you, that you are not to take his name in vain, that you are to regard the Lord's day as holy, to honor your parents. And we see how miserably we fail at all of those things. Well, that's what the law is supposed to do. But the word of God is also meant to show to us that there is mercy. to be found in Jesus Christ. There's not mercy to be found in anyone else but Jesus Christ, and so we must apprehend, we must see, not only am I guilty, but that there is hope for me. There is rescue to be found in Jesus Christ, and so you must turn from your sins to trust in Christ, the one who died here in Matthew 27, the one who yielded up his own spirit, the one who took upon him the sins of his people, and so I would ask you tonight Have you done that? Have you turned from your sin by faith to Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone? If you have, then I would remind you of Hebrews 4.16. where the writer of Hebrews once again says, let us then with confidence, or you could say with a joyful heart, draw near to the throne of grace. It's as if you could walk right into the Holy of Holies. You're not going to be struck dead. You have now confidence. The people of Israel had fear. We can't go in there, but we can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy. and find grace to help in time of need. So as I said, we did not cover everything that I would have liked to cover. And so we're going to come back. So next week, we are going to talk about the women who are there, the burial of Jesus. But I want to cover some more aspects of theological truth. We want to talk about penal substitution, the active and passive obedience of the Lord, and a few other theological themes. And even then, we're not going to cover everything. These types of studies are meant to be thorough, but also provoking to you to go study, to go study more about things like the Day of Atonement. What is the writer of Hebrews talking about in chapters 6 through 10 and beyond? And I pray that the Lord provokes your heart to study his word more diligently in these ways. So I thank you for your attention tonight, your attendance. If you have any questions, please come up front afterwards, but let's close in a word of prayer. Oh, Father in heaven, what a wonderful thing it is that you have given to us your word. We marvel at the parts of scripture that simply cannot be anything more than a mystery to us. We praise you for giving us faith that we might look at them, read them, and simply believe in them. To believe even that the God-man was abandoned on the cross because he was made to be our sin. What an expression of love. We simply cannot comprehend what type of love that was. But we do praise you for it. We pray that our lives will exemplify that we in turn, because you have loved us, love you above all else. And so may we often return to the cross. to remember what you have done for us, how you poured out your very lifeblood, all the physical afflictions, all the spiritual afflictions of the soul that we simply cannot comprehend. We praise you, O Christ. Strengthen us for all that we will do this week. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, the name of our eternal High Priest. Amen.