And if you would open up your Bible to Matthew chapter 27,
we're going to be looking at the crucifixion account of Jesus and what preceded it.
Kind of alluded this to in my prayer, but
maybe some of you came in this morning and you, when it comes to salvation,
when it comes to Christ crucified, your thoughts are kind of like,
yeah, that happened, I'm so happy for it.
But really, it doesn't make that much of a difference in your life.
May God stir your heart this morning through His Word.
Maybe some of you are in here this morning and you are,
you've been trying to fight pride in your life.
You've been trying to live for others, or maybe you know you should be.
But really, it's been a hard, hard thing to die in you, this desire to live for yourself.
Well, this morning, we're going to see Jesus give Himself up.
And it is such an example of humility.
We're also going to see is what the Apostle Paul calls the matter of first importance.
That which makes a difference.
That which prioritizes, is in pole position in the life of a church.
This is first things.
That Christ was crucified.
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
And the main thing, when it comes to biblical Christianity,
can be summed up in two words.
Christ crucified.
And so this morning, I'm going to read Matthew chapter 27.
And we're going to start in verse 27.
And I'm going to read through verse 61.
And then we're going to walk through it.
There are six scenes here.
And we're going to walk through each scene.
And I'm going to make a point and then bring it to bear.
But let's just read God's Word together.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters,
known as the Praetorium.
And they gathered the whole battalion before Him.
And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.
And twisting together a crown of thorns,
they put it on His head and put a reed in His right hand.
And kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying,
Hail, King of the Jews!
And they spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head.
And when they had mocked Him,
they stripped Him of the robe and put His own clothes on Him
and led Him away to crucify Him.
As they went out, they found a man of serene, Simon by name.
They compelled this man to carry His cross.
And when they came to a place called Golgotha,
which means place of a skull,
they offered Him wine to drink mixed with gall.
But when He tasted it, He would not drink it.
And when they had crucified Him,
they divided His garments among them by casting lots.
Then they sat down and kept watch over Him there.
And over His head they put the charge against Him,
which read,
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Then two robbers were crucified with Him,
one on the right and one on the left.
And those who passed by derided Him,
wagging their heads and saying,
You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
Save yourself!
If you are the Son of God,
come down from the cross.
So also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked Him,
saying,
He saved others.
He cannot save Himself.
He's the King of Israel.
Let Him come down now from the cross,
and we will believe in Him.
He trusts in God.
Let God deliver Him now,
if He desires Him.
For He said,
I'm the Son of God.
And the robbers who were crucified with Him
also reviled Him in the same way.
Verse 45.
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,
Leme Sabachthani.
That is,
My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?
And some of the bystanders hearing it said,
This man is calling Elijah.
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.
And 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.
There were also many women there,
looking from a distance,
who had followed Jesus from Galilee,
ministering to Him,
among whom were Mary Magdalene,
and Mary the mother of James and Joseph,
and this mother of the sons of Zebedee.
When it was evening,
there came a rich man from Arimathea,
named Joseph,
who also was a disciple of Jesus.
And he went to Pilate,
and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.
And Joseph took the body,
wrapped it in a clean linen shroud,
and laid it in his own new tomb,
which he had cut in the rock.
And he rolled a great stone
to the entrance of the tomb,
and went away.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there,
sitting opposite the tomb.
The main thing is to keep the main thing,
the main thing.
And here before us,
is the main thing.
Christ crucified.
So let's walk through these six scenes,
and let us see what God would have for us this morning.
Let's look at verses 27-31.
Jesus is mocked in the praetorium.
I'm not sure if you noticed this
when we read through it just moments ago,
but the way in which
these Roman soldiers were mocking Jesus.
Do you remember last week,
we talked about Jesus was before Pilate.
He was up on the charge of treason.
He's claiming to be a king.
Pilate tries to get him off.
He doesn't think he's guilty,
but the Jewish crowds are yelling,
crucify him, crucify him.
And Pilate washes his hands and says,
hey, this is your responsibility.
They say, his blood is on our heads.
And so Pilate gives in,
hands him over to the Roman soldiers.
They bring him,
they scourge him,
which is a brutal whipping.
And then in verse 27,
these soldiers,
they bring him into the praetorium
before the battalion,
which would have been about 600 soldiers,
a cohort.
They stripped him,
and they put a scarlet robe on him.
A scarlet robe would have been
akin to the royal robe of a king.
It was mockery.
It would have been one of the short,
scarlet capes of one of the Roman troopers.
It would have been obvious
that they're making fun of him.
But they don't stop there.
They put a crown of thorns together
on his head.
It was to imitate the laurel crown,
the laurel wreath that went around Caesar.
Caesar,
you're the king.
Here's your crown.
And they pressed it on his head.
Verse 29.
But it didn't stop there.
They put a scepter in his hand.
It was a reed.
You know what cattails are?
We see cattails in swamps.
That's akin to what we're talking about.
It was complete mockery.
And then they kneeled down.
Job 29 and
paid a mock homage.
Hail, king of the Jews.
It would,
a ring of hail Caesar.
So these Roman soldiers,
they couldn't resist the opportunity
of this guy who's claiming to be a king.
Now they have the opportunity
to get him ready for crucifixion.
And they're brutal.
Their mocking is awful.
They spit on him.
And they start beating his head
with that reed,
with his crown of thorns on him.
All the while,
we know what's going on.
For those of us
who've been studying Matthew together,
we know that Jesus,
he was born of a virgin,
conceived by the Holy Spirit.
His other name is Emmanuel,
God with us.
We know who these soldiers
are mocking.
They have no idea.
We know that he's a descendant of David.
That he's in fact
David's greater son,
Psalm 110.
That he is the true king of Israel.
We know that.
They don't.
And so they mock the one
who truly is the king.
What is striking here
is how Jesus responds.
He doesn't.
He's silent.
He's letting it happen.
He's not doing anything to stop it.
These Roman soldiers
don't see him for who he is.
And we,
almost 2,000 years later,
we do.
But this mockery
by these Roman soldiers,
this wasn't the worst thing
that happened
on this Friday.
This is before 9 a.m.
The trial itself
before Pilate
would have been at daybreak.
Mark tells us
that Jesus was actually
crucified at 9 a.m.
So this has happened somewhere
maybe 8 a.m.
that Friday morning.
So they get the deed done.
They mock him
behind praetorian closed doors.
And then they redress him
and then they bring him out
in order to crucify him.
And that moves us
to our next scene
in verses 32 through 38.
They bring him to Golgotha.
Verse 32,
as they went out,
they found a man of Cyrene
named Simon.
Now,
they compelled this man
to carry his cross.
What's going on here?
Why would they do that?
What's happening?
Why would they take
this guy named Simon
and force him
to carry Jesus' cross?
It wouldn't have been
the whole cross.
It would have been
the cross member.
The pentibulum
is what it was called.
And it weighed somewhere
between 75 and 100 pounds.
And so if Jesus,
who had been scourged,
had already lost
a huge amount of blood,
he is struggling.
His body is failing him.
And so they're going
to bring him out
of the city
of Jerusalem proper.
And they're going
to crucify him outside.
And so he's having
to carry this cross.
His body fails him.
And so the Roman guards,
which would have been
four of them,
they're not going
to carry his cross.
And so they're within
their legal bounds
to say,
you take up his cross
to Simon of Cyrene.
And he does.
He's got no other option.
But as soon as you hear
that name Simon,
what should be going
through your head?
Where's the rock?
And it reminds us
that Jesus has been
abandoned by his own.
Verse 33,
they come to this place
called Golgotha,
the place of a skull.
It had a reputation
for death.
And just as a side note,
when we use the word
Calvary,
Calvary comes from
a Latin word,
Calva,
which means skull.
And so when we talk
about Calva,
we're talking about
Golgotha,
the place of a skull,
the place known
for death.
In verse 34,
the soldiers offer
Jesus wine mixed
with gall.
Now you see that
in your Bible
and you're kind of like,
well that was really nice
of them.
What changed?
They're just being
to be sweet.
It wasn't.
Has anybody in the room
innocently
kind of grabbed
a glass of water
and you start drinking it
and then you realize
someone spiked it
with salt?
Has anybody
experienced that before?
You put it to your lips
and you're like,
ah!
And then you hear
the chuckles, right?
That's what's happening.
The soldiers spiked
this wine with gall.
It was very distasteful.
As soon as Jesus
puts it on his lips,
it's gross.
He's not going to drink it.
Then the Roman soldiers
are like,
gotcha!
It's more of the same.
More mockery.
Verse 35,
this is striking.
It's so understated.
And when they had
crucified him,
they divided his garments
among them
by casting lots.
Matthew's just
matter of fact.
It doesn't go into
big detail.
And the reason why
is if you're living
in the first century
and you were the
recipients of this
gospel originally,
you would be very
familiar with
crucifixion.
It was estimated
that Rome would
crucify upwards
to 10,000 people
every year.
And so you would
have been used
to seeing crucifixions
even though they're
horrific.
They're an awful
way to die.
Crucifixion was
reserved for the
worst of criminals
and the lowest
of society.
It was designed
to inflict the
maximum amount
of pain
for the longest
amount of time
in the most
humiliating of ways.
And just to give
you a sample of it,
we have an English
word, it's called
excruciate.
Have you heard
that word before?
It's one of our
words to try to get
at the worst kind
of pain we experience.
And literally,
what excruciate means,
it means out of
the cross.
X out of cru,
C-R-U-C,
that's short for
crux, cross,
out of the cross.
Our English word
for worst possible
pain has its root
in the cross.
And he was
crucified naked.
That was the Roman
way of doing things.
Probably would have
had a loincloth on
to be respectful
to the Jews,
but it would have
been humiliating.
That's why they
were dividing
his garments up
among them
and casting lots
for them.
It actually fulfills
Psalm 22, 18.
And what you're
going to see is
Psalm 22 is
backlaid against
this.
Matthew helps us
see that this is
fulfillment all over
the place.
One other thing
you need to know
is that Jews
considered someone
who was crucified
as being cursed
by God.
Paul says,
quoting Deuteronomy,
cursed is everyone
who is hanged on a
tree.
And what you need
to know is that
Jesus is coming
under the curse
of God at these
moments.
But the question
we need to start
asking is,
I thought Jesus
was innocent.
Why is he being
accursed by God?
For who is he
being accursed?
Verse 36,
the guards sit
down and keep
watch over Jesus.
They're protecting
him.
There's the possibility
someone would try
to steal someone
off a cross.
But Matthew's
really set this up
because these
Roman guards,
there's four of them
with a centurion,
they are watching
what is about
to happen.
And we know
what they're about
to see.
They have no idea
what they're about
to see.
And what they are
about to witness
is going to change
them.
They're going to be
those who say,
hail, king of the
Jews, mockingly,
to one saying,
truly, this was
the son of God.
They're going to see
something.
But they don't know
what's happening yet.
verse 37, we learn
about what was
tacked above Jesus'
head.
Criminals would
have had this sign
put above them
that would say
who they are.
This is Jesus of
Nazareth and what
they're charged with.
He's charged with
being king of the
Jews, tongue in
cheek.
It was mocking
Jesus and thumbing
their noses at the
Jews.
Here's your king.
And what we see
going on here is
very subtle, but
very important to
see.
Though they think
that it's mockery,
we know it to be
true.
This is Jesus.
Do you remember
what his name
means?
The Lord saves,
Matthew 1.21.
And it's, he's the
king of the Jews.
It's true.
And he's hanging
on a cross.
To Jews, this would
have been a
stumbling block.
To Greeks, it would
have been just a
fool's errand.
But this is the
second time now we've
seen king of the
Jews show up in our
section.
The first one was a
mocking hail king of
the Jews, but it's
true.
And now it's, it's
written on the sign
above Jesus' head on
the cross.
It's true.
verse 38, there's
two robbers crucified,
one on the other,
each side of him, and
they're called robbers,
but there's, there is
a reasonable belief to
believe that these were
more than robbers, that
these were actually other
freedom fighters, other
insurrectionists.
And the idea behind it is
Barabbas was their leader.
And he would have been
crucified in the middle of
them.
And so what's happened is,
if that's true, Jesus
gotten swapped out for
their insurrectionist
leader.
But what we see come the
end of verse 38 is the
stage has now been set.
Jesus is hanging on a
cross with these
insurrectionists on
either side.
There's the Roman guard
watching him.
And now we move to the
third scene.
The passerbys, the
leaders, the criminals,
themselves.
And what Matthew does, he
moves us from this
activity of these Roman
soldiers now to the
reviling of the Jews.
In verses 39, we read
this.
And those who passed by
derided him, wagging
their heads.
These were, these were
Jewish passerbys,
sojourners coming into
the city.
This is just everyday
activity that they've been
doing.
They're wagging their
heads is a fulfillment of
Psalm 22, 7, where we
read, all who see me,
mock me.
They make mouths at me.
They wag their heads.
And so these are ordinary
Jews walking by.
Jesus would have been
crucified in a place that
was very prominent and
public.
And so people just coming
in and out of the city,
they'd have to see it.
It was Rome's way of
saying, don't mess with
us.
And these passerbys are
saying in verse 40, you
who would destroy the
temple and rebuild it in
three days, save yourself.
This is what was accused
of Jesus and the hearing
in Caiaphas' house in
chapter 26, 61.
And they're referring to
something Jesus said back
in John chapter 2, 19,
records for us, where Jesus
wasn't actually speaking
about the temple proper in
Jerusalem.
He was talking about his
own body.
He was saying, hey, destroy
this body of mine and in
three days later it will be
raised.
And the great irony of
this all is that he is
going to give himself in
order to save others.
And then they go on to
say in verse 40, if you are
the Son of God, come down
from the cross.
These passerbys, these
Jewish passerbys, they
obviously don't understand
why the Son of God had
come.
They're thinking, hey, if
you come down from the
cross, that will prove
you're the Son of God.
But we all know that it's
because he stayed on the
cross, it proved he was the
Son of God.
And that's exactly what
you're going to see the
centurion say.
He's going to witness
everything in verse 54.
He's going to say, truly,
this was the Son of God.
He saw the way he died.
He stayed on the cross.
He'll be in his very dying
that his identity is
confirmed to those who
believe.
Well, these Jewish
passerbys persist in their
blindness.
righteousness.
And Jesus has no
response.
He doesn't say anything
from the cross to them.
And then in verse 41, we
start seeing the Jewish
leaders get in on the
play.
And it's very subtle.
There's a very subtle
shift here.
If you look in verse 40,
you see the passerby saying,
you who would destroy the
temple.
You save yourself.
You, you, you, you, you.
You.
They're speaking to him on
the cross.
And then in verse 41, the
chief priests, scribes,
elders mock him saying, he
saved others.
He cannot save himself.
They're not even giving him
the dignity of speaking to
him.
It's like their backs are
turned talking to one
another.
He, he, he can't even save
himself.
He saved others, but he
can't save.
They're not talking to him.
It's like when someone
talks about you in your
presence, but they're not
talking to you.
They're just humiliating him.
He saved others.
He cannot save himself.
The irony, of course, is
that he's giving himself to
save others.
He's the king of Israel.
Let him come down now from
the cross and we will
believe him.
Even if he did come down,
they would not believe him
because their heart are so
hard towards him.
They're thinking that, hey,
we will acknowledge the
reign of this king if he
comes down.
And the reality is he's
establishing his reign by
staying up.
There's that phrase again,
king of Israel.
In verse 43, these Jewish
leaders quoting Psalm 22,
8, he trusts in God.
Let God deliver him now if
he desires him.
For he said, I'm the son of
God.
Oh, Jesus, if he has that
special relationship with
God, if he is really God's
son and he trusts God,
then God should deliver him
if he desires that.
He will want him to be
delivered.
Again, these Jewish leaders
are thinking, hey, if he is
who he claimed to be, then
God's going to bring him
down.
He's going to rescue him
from the cross.
But they don't seem to
remember Isaiah 53, 10,
which says it was the will
of the Lord to crush him.
Jesus does trust in his
father.
And God's not going to
deliver him.
He's going to crush him.
They don't see it.
They reject Jesus as their
Messiah.
Son of God, King of Israel,
taken together equals Messiah.
They reject him.
And Jesus doesn't respond.
Verse 44, the Jewish criminals
on either side of him, they
get in on the game.
They revile him the same way
Luke tells us, are you not
the Christ?
Save yourself and us.
Us too.
We know later that one of them
will actually have a dramatic
change of heart and he will,
to that day on the cross,
will be the day of salvation
for him.
But Matthew records for us
here, it's all the Jews
in this area are heaping up
reviles on him.
It is like a chorus of
revilings of these Jewish
spectators.
The passerbys, the leadership,
the criminals on either side,
they've rejected Jesus as the
King, the Son of God, and they
revile him.
Remember, Jesus, this is not
about power.
Jesus had the authority.
He healed sick people of their
sicknesses with just a touch.
He just spoke words to raging
seas and they were peaceful.
He spoke a word of exorcism to
legions of demons and they left
their victim.
And he raised people from the
dead.
This is not an issue of ability.
It's not that Jesus cannot save
himself.
Jesus will not save himself.
He's choosing not to save himself.
He's choosing to give himself.
And these Jews around him right now,
they don't get it.
They don't see it.
But for all this Jewish reviling,
it's not the worst of it.
This isn't the worst of it.
It's what happens in 45 through 50
that's the worst of it.
And now we move to scene four.
His cry of dereliction and his
death.
In verse 45, we see darkness
coming over the land.
It's the sixth hour.
That means noon to the Roman mind.
So it's noon and there was
darkness all over the land.
It would have been very odd.
Do you remember, do you all
remember the solar eclipse this
past summer?
It was high day.
If you're in Missouri, you'd be
like, this is weird and freaky,
but kind of awesome.
Some have speculated that what's
happening here on this Friday
is a solar eclipse, but the reality
is it would have been Passover,
it would have been full moon,
and apparently you can't have a full
moon and a solar eclipse at the same
time.
So it's not a solar eclipse.
Something else is going on.
What is this darkness for me?
Jesus has been on the cross for three
hours, 9 a.m.
It's noon.
Darkness is coming over the land.
Back in Exodus, before God, the
tenth plague in which God pours out
death on the firstborn and he
provides a Passover lamb.
And before that, the ninth plague,
darkness.
Three days of darkness.
It starts getting at this sense of
judgment.
God's wrath building up.
Throughout the Old Testament, there's
a linkage between darkness and
judgment.
Now, if it's true that this gathering
darkness is a manifestation of God's
judgment, we've got to start asking a
question.
What is God's wrath being aimed at here?
Why is God's wrath being gathered
visibly?
What is happening?
We have the Son of God on the cross,
and we have darkness gathering in this
area, in this land.
Who is this judgment aimed at?
Verse 46.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
The judgment isn't on the Roman soldiers.
The judgment isn't on these reviling
Jews.
This gathering judgment is falling upon
the Son of God on the cross.
His wrath being poured out on Jesus.
In verse 46, we're told that it's the
ninth hour Jesus cried.
3 p.m.
Friday afternoon.
He's been on the cross for six hours.
This darkness has been there for three
hours.
This judgment being poured out on Jesus
for three hours.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
This is the worst part of it.
This is what Jesus has been dreading in
the garden.
This is the cup that he was going to be
drinking that he didn't really want to
drink but was willing to drink out of
obedience to his Father.
He's quoting Psalm 22.1.
Psalm 22 is about an innocent man who
suffers greatly.
It's that basic and simple and that is
exactly what's going on here.
Jesus is experiencing God forsakenness.
It's the cry of dereliction, of cry of
abandonment.
He's drinking the cup.
And we've got to ask, well, in what sense
is Jesus being forsaken here?
And there's a couple clues in the actual
quote.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
The relationship is still intact.
The second person of the Trinity has not
ceased to be the son of the first person
of the Trinity, the Father.
But in some way, in ways that we can't
fathom, there is now a hostility between
Father and Son.
There's something there that's never been
there before for all eternity past.
And we get a flavor of it.
In Matthew chapter 3, after Jesus is
baptized, we hear the Father's voice.
This is my beloved Son with whom I am
well pleased.
And then in Matthew chapter 17, after the
transfiguration, this is my beloved Son
who I'm well pleased.
Listen to Him.
And here on the defining moment of
salvation, what do we hear from the
Father?
Nothing!
We just hear the Son.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why would He forsake His Son if His Son is
innocent?
Why would He do this?
It's all according to plan.
From before the foundation of the world,
God ordained His Son to be sacrificed for
those who would one day believe, to gather a
people for Himself.
If you turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5.21,
we read this.
For our sake.
For sinners who would one day believe.
For our sake.
For our sake, He, the Father, made Him, the Son,
to be sin who knew no sin.
He was innocent.
So that in Jesus, we might become the
righteousness of God.
Why would God the Father forsake His
innocent Son?
He put our sin on Him and poured out His
wrath on it for our sake.
In Matthew 20.28, Jesus, speaking of His death,
says, I have not come to be served, but to
serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.
Right here at this moment, Jesus is ransoming
the many.
He's giving His life for all who would one day
believe in the Son and pay for their sin.
A ransom is a payment to release a slave or
for to give a debt.
And Jesus is paying the ultimate ransom price
with His life for you and for me.
The eternal wrath of God was being poured out on the
eternal Son of God.
Remember, this is Passover.
He's our Passover sacrifice whose death delivers us
from God's pending judgment.
Because we're under the blood, God's wrath is satisfied.
It's because of this ransom payment that Romans 8.1 is
something that Christians can say with full confidence.
There is therefore now no condemnation.
There's no wrath.
There's no judgment for those who were in Christ Jesus
because He ransomed me.
He paid for it.
1 Peter 3.18
For Christ also suffered once for sins on the cross.
The righteous for the unrighteous.
He's a substitute that He might bring us to God.
He ransomed sinners in order to reconcile sinners to God.
Why did God the Son,
why was He forsaken by God the Father?
To ransom sinners from their sins.
It comes all the way back to Matthew 1.21
where Jesus is named and He says,
You are the Lord saves
because you are going to save your people from their sins.
And here He is doing it.
Christ crucified.
The King of Israel.
The Son of God.
Emmanuel.
Being crucified and forsaken by His Father
in order to ransom sinners from their sins.
And then it's really odd
because if you turn back to Matthew 27
in verse 47 through 49
you have this really strange event that takes place.
The bystanders there are like,
Hey, this man is calling Elijah.
Eli, Eli sounds like Elijah.
And so they're like,
Hey, hey, hold on a second.
Maybe Elijah is going to come.
Now,
they have no idea who this is on the cross
and they have no idea what He's doing.
That He's accomplishing salvation.
In verse 50,
we read,
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice
and yielded up His spirit.
John records in 1930
what Jesus actually said.
It is finished.
What was finished?
His ransom payment was finished.
Paying for your sin and my sin was finished.
And then in the end of verse 50,
He yielded up His spirit.
It's very clear.
The language is very clear.
His life was not taken from Him.
He gave His life as a ransom for many.
He was willingly there as our substitute.
We move from scene 4
and the main thing
to seeing its immediate effects.
In verse 51,
And behold,
the curtain of the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The curtain being talked about
is the curtain between the holy place
and the holy of holies in the temple.
It was 60 feet high,
30 feet wide,
and what Matthew records,
it was rend from top to bottom.
And so it's like,
what does that mean?
Here's what it means.
Through the death of Jesus,
we all now have access
into the presence of God.
That's what that means.
There's a new way to come to God.
It's through Jesus.
That's the point of Hebrews 9
and Hebrews 10.
But there's another implication.
The temple was then and there
rendered obsolete.
No more need for it.
Because there's a new and better way
in Jesus
to come to God.
The temple now
has been rendered obsolete.
Major shift in God's saving plan
for the fullness of time.
The focal point is no longer on the temple.
The focal point becomes Jesus.
The curtain of the temple
was torn from top to bottom.
God initiated this.
God wanted all to come to Him.
Verse 51,
there's an earthquake.
The significance is
the death of Jesus
had immediate creation effect.
It literally shook things up.
One might have this anticipation
of what else is going to happen
among creation
at the start of this work of redemption.
We read that.
Tombs were opened up.
Verse 52.
Now you've got to remember
that the tombs in that day
were tombs hewn into the earth.
And so if there's an earthquake,
rock splitting,
it opens up tombs.
Now that might be a little confusing
to you to read.
The tombs also were opened up
and many bodies of the saints
who had fallen asleep were raised.
The best way to understand that is
on this Friday,
the tombs also were opened up,
complete stop,
and then that and
picks up on Sunday,
resurrection Sunday.
And many bodies of the saints
who had fallen asleep
were raised on that Sunday
and coming out of the tombs
after His resurrection,
they went into the holy city
and appeared to man.
Do you know what happened
as a result?
Old Testament saints
who trusted God
would be raised to life
and what it says is
even Old Testament faith
depended upon the Christ.
Now could you imagine
if you were there?
You'd just taken all this in.
You're just sitting around
watching this.
You're the centurions
and his three other Roman soldiers.
You've seen the revilings
of the other Jews.
You've seen how Jesus
responded to that.
You yourself had reviled him.
You nailed him to the cross.
You've seen it happen.
You saw the darkness come in.
You heard him say,
my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?
You heard him say,
it is finished.
You felt the earthquake.
And so what we read
in verse 54,
truly,
this was the Son of God.
You have the first Gentile convert
after the death of Jesus.
Jesus.
The centurion,
he's somehow,
someway recognizing
that this is God's Son.
Christ's death
opened up a way
and the immediate response
is a Gentile centurion
confessing Jesus
as the Son of God.
in verses 55 and 56,
Matthew is clear
to show that there are women there.
Though the male disciples
have bailed,
the women are there.
They're holding out.
The last scene
is the burial
in Joseph's tomb.
And that's 57 through 61.
Matt's here.
I'm going to leave that to you
to do a little bit more work
in next week.
But here's what I want you to see.
He's dead.
He really died.
He's put in a tomb.
Here's the point of it all.
This is the climax
of Matthew's gospel.
And he's showing us
what Jesus had to endure
in order to save sinners.
The worst part
wasn't the mockery
of the Roman soldiers.
The worst part
wasn't the pain
of the cross.
The worst part
wasn't the mockery,
the reviling of the Jews.
The worst part
was being forsaken
by his Father.
And he did that
for you
that you could be forgiven.
Ransomed.
He gave his life
for yours.
Let me close with one application.
It means salvation for you.
It means salvation.
If you came into this room
and you're thinking,
oh, I believe that Christ
was crucified.
My prayer
is that you would recognize
that he was crucified
for you.
It is personal.
He did it for you.
When was the last time
you took stock
and thought through
all that the Son of God endured
in order to pay
for your sin
so that you could come
into a real
and living relationship
with God,
it means salvation.
And that's something
we sing about.
That's something
that we proclaim.
That's something
that informs
our very,
very life
as a church.
This is what is of called
first importance.
The main thing
is to keep
the main thing
the main thing.
And when it comes
to biblical Christianity,
the main thing
is summed up
in two words.
Christ crucified.
Do you believe
he was crucified
for you?
And if this is the day
that lights are going on
for you
for the first time,
come on down front
after we sing.
I'd be glad
to talk to him
about you.
Let's pray.
God in heaven,
we give you
great thanks
and praise
for all that happened
to Jesus
by your will
on the cross.
we see
the outworking
of Isaiah
20,
of Psalm 22.
We see Isaiah
53 10.
It was your will
to crush him.
And we see him
willingly doing it,
lovingly doing it
to save us.
God,
would you do a work,
press this into our hearts,
change the way
that we live.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.