Matthew 27:50-66 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational we call this a textual community let's rejoice and learn God's Word in an interactive and enjoyable new way in the Gospel of Luke Jesus said something really heartwarming to his own apostles his disciples it says when his hour had come Jesus sat down and his apostles with him and he said to them with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer or I suffer to eat this Passover with you before I suffer it reveals the Heart of Jesus in wanting a time of fellowship intimacy camaraderie with the men that were with him for three and a half years a fervent desire was in him to eat the Passover with them the very meal that spoke prophetically of what he would do a few hours from then on the cross it was something Jesus longed for he was anticipating and now the hour had come this is it boys I've longed for this moment to share with you I don't know how you view communion but I have those sentiments every month the morning of the time we're going to take the Lord's Supper like this morning I thought I can't wait for tonight it's communion it's the Lord's Supper it's that time we celebrate our emancipation our true freedom as God's people I've longed all day for it with fervent desire to eat this / with you the Lord's Supper and it just happens to be that we're in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 27 it's a long chapter so we're gonna finish out that chapter and then we're gonna take the elements together we wouldn't be able to make it through 27 and into 28 and do it justice so we're going to linger over chapter 27 and then we'll take the Lord's Supper we're going to begin in verse 50 let's pray together father we pause in your presence after having a glorious time of worship singing loudly and fervently we just turned the volume down and in silence before you ask you to search us and to know us we know that you know us completely intimately deeply but we pray that in this time you would reveal to us those things that are a part of our nature that needs changing addressing confronting certain attributes of you that we need to consider in how we relate to you into those attributes those characteristics so we approach your word after whatever kind of a day that we have had after whatever kind of encounters problems issues that have gone on so far in our week we've come to meet with you with eachother yes but with you in a special way because you gather together with your people collectively in a special and a unique manner so as we consider father the rest of this chapter and the immense suffering that Jesus underwent for us we pray that we might glean we might learn we might be refreshed we might become more appreciative more worshipful as we consider your death and anticipate your resurrection in Jesus name Amen death by crucifixion was perhaps the worst possible means of death in the ancient world that is because it was designed to exact the greatest amount of pain and delay death as long as possible as we've told you before a victim could last for days on a cross languishing in pain unable to die muscle spasms asphyxiation loss of blood but that could go on for days and days the Romans as we have already noted did not invent crucifixion but they did adopt it as sort of their chief means of executing the very worst kind of criminals the Romans got it from the Persians before them the Persians invented death by crucifixion because of their belief in mother earth being holy and so that a person wouldn't defile mother earth the executed victim was lifted up off the earth on a stake or on a cross so that they wouldn't die in the ground after all this was a criminal you're putting to death you're executing the worst of the worst the Romans reserved death by crucifixion only for slaves or those they considered slaves anyone who wasn't a Roman citizen a non-person was a slave and it was the very worst of the non-citizens the very worst of the slaves murder armed robbery revolutionary activity or insurrection those were the principle crimes for which crucifixion was utilized by the Roman government Jesus was sentenced by punches pilot to death by crucifixion now Paul the Apostle later on when they bind him and they're about to beat him and they want to kill him pulls out the Roman citizen card you remember and he says no wait a minute why are you binding me to flog me don't you know I'm a Roman citizen now Paul knew that would work because the Romans dare not touch a Roman citizen flogging but especially crucifixion one of the philosophers of their pasts one of their statesman and orator 'he's a guy named cicero in his writings said this and i'm quoting to bind a roman as a crime to flog him an abomination to kill him an act of murder but to crucify him there is no fitting word that could describe so horrible an act and it was Cicero who thought that the very term crucifixion should be stricken from the Roman mind and not even used in the conversation it was this kind of a death as Jesus was consigned to now we often when we talk about the cross discuss the human suffering the grueling pain that's from a human perspective if you look at the cross from a divine perspective for after all Jesus was God in flesh it's incomprehensible that Jesus on the cross at the greatest moment of that pain and anguish from a divine standpoint said my God my God why have you forsaken me Jesus always walked in fellowship with the father it was never unbroken sure he had Judas forsake him he had Peter forsake him and eventually all of the 12 followers for sukham but never ever did he have the father leave his side or the intimate fellowship that he enjoyed with his father in heaven until now on the cross there was three hours of this relational spiritual separation as all of the sin of mankind mine and yours was placed upon Jesus as he felt that separation what's most sobering about the whole event that we have considered in Matthew and consider again tonight in Matthew 27 the most sobering thing is that Jesus did it for me you can talk all about his death you can talk all about his suffering you can get graphic and get medical and understand what the human body does during that time or try to enter into the divine mind from God's perspective but all of that to say that he did it for me and you personally and this is the night that we personalize it you're going to be taking the elements personalizing it in a few moments it's what Paul did in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 when he said I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not i but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me I hope you enter into it personally relationally tonight I'll never forget when I was a young Christian and I read that little quip you may have seen it written by somebody unknown who said I asked Jesus how much he loved me and he said this much and he stretched out his arms and died I'll never forget the impression that made on me I love you this much enough to stretch out my arms and die for you now this brings up an important point and I know we haven't even entered into the first verse of our study tonight but what's new we've done this before the question is often raised whenever we talk about the crucifixion people want to know well who's responsible for crucifying Jesus Christ you could point to Judas and say well he's responsible he sold Jesus to the religious authorities and then the Roman government for thirty pieces of silver and certainly Judas bears an enormous amount of guilt he's called in the scripture the son of perdition he's always named last in the disciples and always as the betrayer and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed Jesus that's always always listed Peter in the book of Acts will say that Judas went to his own place when he died he went to his own place as if to intimate that he is suffering eternity for his betrayal of Jesus Christ and forever in hell he will bear that responsibility so we could point to Judas some will point to punch his Pilate and say well it was Pilate who gave the order he confronted Christ and asked him if he was a king and asked him his credentials and said he didn't want to know the truth and he was the one who gave the order so the fault could lie squarely on the shoulders of Pontius Pilate the Roman procurator but then what about the Roman soldiers who actually flogged Jesus who drove the nails into his hands and feet and the sword or the spear into his side they bare some of the guilt others historically have pointed to the chief priests of the Jews the Sanhedrin and even the Jewish nation that rejected him for after all in the book of Acts Peter will say you have taken him by ruthless hands and crucified and put him to death you killed the Prince of life but as we're pointing the finger at different people we finally get around to ourselves and we point the finger at us and we have to say I'm responsible for putting Jesus on the cross he died for my sins Jesus said he came to give his life a ransom for many for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so you and I because Jesus died for the sin of the world said John the Baptist I added to the sin of the world did you I did my fair share of sinning in my time and still do today so I crucified Him but as you're going around saying who crucified Jesus because we have to deal with another issue the sovereignty of God we have to say God the Father did it was his plan from the beginning wasn't an accident it wasn't like God in heaven said oh my goodness look what they're doing to my son it was his plan Isaiah 53 predicted the event and said it pleased the Lord to bruise him and to make his soul an offering for sin and that's what Peter understood when in the book of Acts he approaches the Jews at Jerusalem and said concerning Christ him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God you have taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain yea you did it but it was the will of the Father so he gave his son it was part of the plan of salvation the plan of God to present his son to the world so that he might die the death of every man and woman so that in that separation in anguish you and I could have life he took my sin how did he take my sin by taking my place I don't have to suffer punishment for my sin I don't have to go to purgatory and burn off my sins I don't have to enter into eternity and have a measure of suffering because Jesus work on the cross wasn't enough it was enough he took my sin because he took my place I owed a debt I could not pay he paid a debt he did not oh I don't know if you've ever had somebody pay off one of your debts it's awfully wonderful feeling I don't know if you've ever been in a place where like you ordered a meal and you forgot your wallet I mean you really did and somebody was there to pick up the tab for you years ago when we first were married Lenny and I got a little backward one year on our income tax trying to figure out what do we do we got to pay this off and somebody stepped in and helped us out in giving us a chunk to pay off our end of the year income tax because I'm deathly afraid of offending the IRS it was a wonderful gesture so Jesus death on the cross we call it a vicarious atonement that is a substitutionary atonement he took your spot he took your place you should have died you didn't do it because he did it he took your sin because he took your place how many of you remember the Lion King remember Simba the little lion who was going to be the king one day and his father Mufasa was going to move him into that position and yet he had an uncle uncle scar and scar was upset that he was sort of bumped from the lineage and he should be the next in line for the authority in that lion Kingdom and so scar hatched a plot against the lion cub Simba to get him killed by inciting a bunch of hyenas to cause a bunch of wildebeest to Stampede hopefully in the process killing that lion cub Simba Mufasa his father hearing about the plot and seeing what was coming at the last moment in the nick of time pod scooped young Simba to safety only to be killed by the Stampede himself he died that his son might live and reign in this instance God the Father had his son died that we might live which takes us to verse 50 and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit now Matthew just says he yelled something he doesn't tell us what he cried out John in his gospel on the other hand tells us exactly what Jesus cried out I'll just read that account without you turning to it now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there and they filled it with a sponge put it on hyssop and put it to his mouth so when Jesus had received the sour wine he said it is finished that was what he cried out one word in Greek tetelestai it is finished the debt is paid in full the word was sometimes used for merchants that way who paid off a debt the picture is now complete artists would use the word to tell a stye when the artwork was now fully completed paid in full the picture is now complete the task has been finished a servant would say to his master to tell a sty it's finished when he had done all that the master commanded him to do that's what Jesus cried out with a loud voice on the cross it is finished now don't don't misunderstand what he this is not a cry of defeat it's a cry of victory Jesus isn't a victim he's a Victoire he's not saying I'm finished he said it is finished the task is finished the Old Testament is completed Satan my enemy is defeated it is finished the task is now complete it says he gave up his spirit Matthew says he yielded up his spirit he yielded up his spirit in other words he dismissed his spirit he's on the cross and he said to his own spirit it's time now you can go you see Jesus death it's different than any other human beings death because he was totally in control he couldn't die until he was ready and yielded up his spirit that's what Jesus said in John 10 you remember when he said no one takes my life from me I lay it down of myself I have the power to lay it down and to take it up again so it was time the transaction was complete Jesus cried out with a loud voice Matthew tells us John said that he said it is finished then verse 51 then behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth quaked and the rocks were split it was an earthquake and it was a hefty earthquake so that the very rock started shaking and splitting cracking it was a rock concert like none other the veil of the temple was torn that was unheard of because of the thickness of the veil itself let me explain to you the temple was modeled after something else in the Old Testament what was it Tabernacle Tabernacle was made out of cloth it was a temporary flimsy structure and between that little tent called the holy place and the Holy of Holies there was a veil a very thin veil and the high priest would go through or on the other side of that veil once a year on the Day of Atonement where the Ark of the Covenant stood the temple was like the tabernacle but it was permanent this was a huge building that had courts men could go to one court women could occupy another court but not go over into the court of the men the priests had their own court and men or women couldn't go into the court of the priests it was very divided it was very segregated it was very restricted now there was one other court the outer Court the furthest away from where the action was happening that was the court of the Gentiles I could go to that court if there were a temple but I couldn't go any further because if I as a Gentile let's say it's it's it's like Passover and I think man this is I've heard about this I've read about this I want to check out the temple so I start running toward the center court I would be confronted not only by guards but I would be confronted by a wall that had a sign on it a posted sign that said death to any Gentile who crosses this wall or goes beyond this point I would be killed that is if the Roman government allowed the Jews to kill me for doing that because they had the right of capital punishment but it was very divided it was very segregated now by the time a temple stood the veil was very different it wasn't a flimsy cloth it was about four to five inches thick according to Alfred edersheim a Jewish scholar he said in the temple the veil of the temple that huge curtain was about 60 feet tall but the peak of this building is around 30 feet so double that that's how tall it was 60 feet tall 30 feet wide and as wide or the width of the veil was a hands width so several inches thick the thickness of a man's hand Josephus said it was an ornate mostly blue veil with twenty four sections twenty-four squares of cloth and they just kept sewing it and adding it to it year by year so you couldn't tear this thing it says it was torn from top to bottom so somebody had to get way up there 60 feet tall and tear something four inches thick and start being able to tear it and even those guys who tear phone books couldn't do that you get the point it wasn't torn from bottom to top it was torn from top to bottom God tore it God was disturbing their worship service can you match his 3:00 in the afternoon people are packed in the temple and there's this huge earthquake and the veil of the temple make a tremendous noise God was disturbing their worship service with a message what was the message well all of those courts and that wall and that system had one message keep out keep out keep out God lives here keep out God was saying come in come in come in their message keep out God's message come in there's no border anymore there's no boundary there's no separation I am removing all of the previous borders that kept you from the closest intimacy with God only one high priest one day a year could enjoy it you can enjoy it all year long come in he was saying the torn Bale according to one account in history the Jewish nation sewed the veil back up tragic isn't it they sewed it back up and they continued their sacrificial system of animals until 70 AD when the Romans destroyed their temple how typical God simplifies something we complicated he tears the veil we sew it back up he removes the border we put more borders what an insult to God any religious system that complicates what God has simplified is an insult to God any religious systems that that put men in between men and God or men and women in God that you have to go through this person this mediator is an insult to God for the scripture says there's one God and there's one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus the temple said keep out God was saying at the crucifixion come in have you taken advantage of the torn veil how often do you take advantage of the torn veil how often do you enter in and communicate with the Father you see in those days the idea of a personal relationship with God was they didn't even think in those terms it wasn't such a thing there's this corporate Sasser total sacrificial institutional relationship but not personal private relationship with God how often do you take advantage and press in as it says in Hebrews 10 we don't have time to chase that down good we covered two verses but look at the next one and the graves and the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the graves after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many okay this is getting bizarre from an earthquake to a veil being torn to now Night of the Living Dead or dead men walking now notice it doesn't say all of those but many of those who had died were raised as if to say God selectively raised up Old Testament Saints Old Testament believers those who believed in him and had died and they were awaiting resurrection God raised them up out of order pre resurrection date that is as I take this to read and it was a one-time occurrence the spirits of those people who had died the spirits that were in the abode of the Dead Abraham's bosom it says in another place where a person went in the Old Testament when they died in faith and they were kept awaiting for when Christ would come that from the abode of the spirits the dead spirits the spirit and the resurrected body joined again together and they walked around Jerusalem now I just wonder who showed up imagine what it would have been like if King David would have come back to life or what if John the Baptist would have come back and maybe like holding his head alright guys we're not told whom but we're just told many and coming out of the graves after his resurrection they went into the holy city and they appeared to many now why did this happen what was this all about Matthew records it but this is significant why did it happen what was God saying he was demonstrating that he has conquered death not just Jesus death but we would call this a biblical trailer to put it in movie terms and I know I talked about this in the scripture there's a lot of trailers that show up in the Bible you know when you see a movie before you see a movie they put out the trailer and believe me typically trailers are the highlights of the movie the best parts are in the trailer you see the trailer you've seen the you've seen the movie except for the plot this is a biblical trailer God was showing a preview of coming attractions that just as God raised up Jesus from the dead he's raising up other people selectively to show this is what is gonna happen to you one day there's gonna be a resurrection you see when you die your body and your spirit separate right now they are together your body is housing your spirit the real you is spirit your body is a temporary house to convey the real you to the world through your voice through your hands your body language your ability to communicate who you are your spirit through your body when you die your spirit leaves your body your body or flesh your muscles your skin your sinews they're corrupt they decay they go into the ground and you are with the Lord in spirit a waiting resurrection 1st Thessalonians 4 the dead in Christ will rise on Resurrection Day which for us is the rapture our spirit will join with a resurrected newly constructed maid for eternity body the new model now I'm saying that because when you read about dead people getting about a graves and thinking man don't they look icky yucky no we're not talking zombies here think of Lazarus who was raised from the dead but he was fixed when he came out of that tomb and people saw him and could relate to him in a normal fashion so when the Centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that happened they feared greatly saying truly this was the son of God now just just a word about earthquakes if I may this was a notable earthquake shook up the town and I bring it up because the Bible predicts in the end times there will be earthquakes in different places and in the book of Revelation that mentions earthquakes five different times and in revelation 11 a great earthquake that happens in Jerusalem same town as we're reading about here but it devastates one tenth of the city and seven thousand people get killed instantly by that one earthquake now why do I bring it up because I read an article in The Jerusalem Post recently about seismic activity in the Middle East and they said we're in what we call a seismic gap we're awaiting the big one they said in Israel and what the article went on to say is that there is a there are several faults but one major fault called the Dead Sea fault it's the biggest one in the region where two tectonic plates meet under the area of the Dead Sea and they say we have been able to register seismic activity from the time of Josephus and we've seen major major earthquakes in Israel in the Middle East about once every four hundred years however there's nothing on record for over a millennium so far so he said we're waiting for the big one and the seismic gap is over 600 years old we should have had a couple we've only had one a thousand years ago we should have had a few there is going to be a pretty big one according to the book of Revelation and another really big one when Jesus comes from heaven and touches his foot on the Mount of Olives and it splits in two that will cause some pretty incredible seismic damage but this is here in the gospel so there was a Centurion a guy who was a ruler over a hundred Roman soldiers and those with them those were the soldiers underneath him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that happen and they feared greatly saying truly this was the son of God I can't read that verse without the impression I had as a young boy seeing a movie on television I think it was called the greatest story ever told where this Centurion in the story was played by none other than John Wayne and of course John Wayne was John Wayne you didn't like put on an accent or anything he just said truly this is the son of God and I just remember like wow John Wayne man that guy's awesome so I every time I read this I think John Wayne saying truly this is the son of God what I love about this story however is that it seems that the Roman centurion is the first convert after the death of Christ because in Luke's account it says the Centurion who was there at the cross seeing these things glorified God he glorified God here Matthew records one of the things he said Luke says he glorified God it could be that it was this Centurion this battle-hardened soldier he'd seen it all he'd done it all he'd seen men die before in front of in seeing Jesus die and the earthquake and all that happened gave glory to God and believed I will not be surprised to see him in heaven what an awesome thought is there somebody that you think of that you know who has hardened their heart and you think they're impossible though they'll never get saved I remember thinking that about people there was one guy I went to my high school reunion there was one guy in high school this guy was like you just don't mess with John Boothe he was the guy everyone looked up to he was the star athlete he comes up to me at my high school reunion which even that was a long time ago and came up to me and said skip praise God I want to tell you about Jesus Christ he didn't know that I was saved so I just kind of let him go on I was enjoying the witness and I thought John booth saved who would have ever imagined or the hardened atheist that I spoke to years ago when I worked on an Israeli kibbutz Cambridge graduate advanced in the sciences an evolutionist hardened against Christ hardened against the gospel calls me up one day at my home when I was living in Huntington Beach and said skip this is Tony I know Jesus Christ who would have ever thought those people that you think are beyond reach beyond hope impossible too hard too tough how could you think that some of you have heard of the renowned atheist Antony flew who at age 15 denounced God disavowing any idea of a God but it was through studying an argument called the teleological argument or the argument from design that he came to believe that there is a God a designer and he was like this spokesperson the poster child for all of the atheists Antony flew the great atheists now Antony few flew the theist impossible like this Centurion God reached out and touched him and many women who follow Jesus verse 55 from Galilee ministering to him noticed that women ministering the word Di Canio is the Greek word we get our term deacon or Deaconess from that they ministered to him they were looking on from afar among whom were Mary Magdalene that woman of whom seven demons were cast out Mary the mother of James and Joseph James not the brother of John the son of Zebedee but James call James the less an apostle James the less he's called James the less because much less is said about him than the other James I know it's not a great name to have and Jesus and say hey James the lesser dude but he was known by the name James but he's called James a let's just cuz nothing really is known of him except he was a follower and and the mother of Zebedee's sons that Salome a Zebedee wife the mother of James the greater and John the Apostle so these woman were there with Jesus ministering to Jesus how were they ministering to Jesus Luke chapter 8 says they provided out of their substance that is they gave financial support as Jesus was ministering in Galilee Judea they probably followed along with the Apostles the disciples cooking cleaning helping ministering from their finances in order to help Jesus in his ministry now just a note about that last gal that is mentioned and the mother of Zebedee's sons do you remember the request that this woman had of Jesus before the crucifixion Jesus I have one small request that my two boys Jimmy and Johnny would sit at your right hand in your left hand in the kingdom and Jesus said woman you don't know what you're asking are you able to drink the cup that I am gonna drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am gonna be baptized with and they said sure yeah we're able to do that he was speaking of the suffering and death of the cross maybe those words are coming back to her just about now that foolish request of Jimmy and Johnny sitting at your right and left hand knowing oh this is what he meant by that now an evening had come now Matthew transitions to speak about the burial of Jesus Christ because he's going to prepare us for the resurrection narrative that we're gonna look at next time in Matthew 28 he wants to show us how the Jews were preparing for burial Joseph of Arimathea in particular preparing for the burial of Jesus the elaborate preparations that were made as well as the precautions that were taken by the Jewish people it's gonna be a setup for the resurrection now an evening had come there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who himself had become a disciple of Jesus Arimathea is a town about we believe 20 miles north of Jerusalem it was the town if I remember correctly in First Samuel chapter 1 samuel was from there rom atha I'm Joe phim that's the Old Testament name in the New Testament Aramis AI so it's the birthplace of Samuel young Samuel the Prophet Joseph a prominent member of the Sanhedrin it says who himself had become a disciple of Jesus this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus then Pilate commanded the body to be given him when Joseph had taken the body he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and he laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of rock and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and he departed because this was a Roman execution permission by the Roman government needed to be obtained to get access to the body so joseph of arimathea steps in he owned a tomb right there in jerusalem typically when somebody died it was the responsibility of the family or close friends who had all forsaken Jesus to take the body in to bury it and the way burials were done is you didn't have like a little 6-foot deep hole in the ground that measured the width of your body in the length of your body you were buried above-ground in a rock cave a tomb a limestone tomb and you didn't have your own tomb you'd occupy that great place with your entire family for generations you say for generations aren't the bodies gonna stack up well your grandparents get buried in they're wrapped up but after a while their flesh will decay and their bones will be left and so the bones would be collected and placed in a little tiny box called an ossuary and then you shove the ossuary to the back and you'd have room for new bodies so generations of bodies could be stored there but this was a brand-new tomb that Joseph owned he owned the property it was going to be for him probably for his family but he gave it to Jesus fulfilling the prediction in the prophet Isaiah chapter 53 who said that Jesus would be numbered with the transgressions with the transgressors when he died but buried with the rich upon his death it was predicted so Jesus was crucified between two insurrectionists two criminals he was taken off the cross and placed in the rich man's tomb the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea you should note that all four Gospels mentioned Joseph and they all mention him in the narrative of the post crucifixion time he's given space but only dealing with Jesus burial before his resurrection here it says he had become a disciple of Jesus Luke says he was waiting for the kingdom of God John says he was a secret disciple secret disciple he believed in Jesus he was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin he was a secret disciple he was fearful now you can relate to that I'm saying I'm trying to help you personalize it because how many sermons have been preached against Joseph of Arimathea the secret disciple who wouldn't have enough strength to stand up for Jesus I beg your pardon this secret disciple put everything on the line including his neck possibly certainly his status when he approaches Pilate and asked for the body that it might be placed in a tomb word could get out to all of his Sanhedrin buddies why is Joseph doing that thing that kindness for Jesus yeah Joseph of Arimathea a secret disciple for now but where were the other more prominent disciples Peter talked a lot Peter made a great confession of you are the Christ the Son of the Living God I will never forsake you and so did all the other prominent disciples they didn't show up sometimes those secret disciples do more than the disciples who walk on the water and give the speeches they show their strength in times like this so did joseph of arimathea and Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb on the next day which follow the day of preparation the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together to Pilate now this final paragraph of Matthew 27 is information given only by Matthew Matthew turns from what the Friends of Jesus have done for him the women Joseph of Arimathea the secret disciple to what the enemies of Jesus are talking about and conspiring and thinking about again Matthew is setting you up for the resurrection narrative in chapter 28 so it says on the next day which followed the day of preparation the next day would be Saturday the day of preparation was the day when you would prepare for the Sabbath that was Friday you prepare for the Sabbath on Friday you get ready for it Friday evening at sunset the Sabbath begins so on the Saturday following Friday the day of preparation the day Jesus died the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together to Pilate saying sir we remember that while he was still alive how that deceiver said after three days I will rise for a command that the tomb be made secure until the third day lest his disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the people he has risen from the dead and so the last deception will be worse than the first boy is this interesting Jesus own enemies remember that Jesus predicted his own resurrection and yet Jesus friends had forgotten that he predicted his own resurrection don't you find that interesting every time Jesus spoke about his impending arrest and death and resurrection they didn't get it they didn't remember it that's why they were so despondent when he died said odd said let's go home you don't have one of the disciples going hot-diggity-dog few more days he's rising from the dead he said he would Jesus enemies remembered Jesus friends had forgotten the skeptics believed the believers were skeptical I sometimes find unbelievers have a great more deal of faith than even believers believers argue and squabble over petty stupid ridiculous stuff well I don't know you know I really have to have that outlined and proven and shown to me you get some unbeliever they just get touched by God I believe they said that deceiver said that's what they're calling Jesus after three days I will rise for command the tomb be made secure until the third day lest the disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the people he has risen from the dead so the last deception will be worse than the first the first deception in their view was his claim to be their Messiah the last deception and their thinking would be that somebody would say he rose from the dead so Pilate said to them you have a guard go your way and make it secure as you know how I wonder what that means I think it means it could mean a couple things but I think it means okay here take a guard I'm granting you a Roman guard between 10 and 16 well our men go ahead here take a guard make it as secure as you can good luck make it as secure as you know how because if he's a deceiver why guard it if he's real your guard my guard is it gonna stop it make it as secure as you know how the stone that Jesus had rolled or that the soldiers rolled in front of the tomb that Jesus laid in was about two tons now I have seen these stones and if you've been with us to Israel we pointed out several tombs from the first century this era and you can see the size they're round they're rolled into a channel the channel is on an incline so that the stone is rolled down into the channel and the only way to move a 2-ton stone is you've got to move it uphill so it's pretty secure it can be moved it's usually with the help of the leverage of wooden implements too to move it up and and lots of people so there's between 10 and 16 Roman soldiers trained well armed men there's a stone and there's a seal now a Roman seal you'd have a clay pack on one side of the stone and a clay pack on the other side of the stone usually a signet ring or some kind of a stamp impression was pushed into the clay that bore the seal of the Roman government a rope was placed between the two seals and if anybody broke the seal it was death unless you had permission by the Roman government you come and break the seal so they're making it secure it's armed they're soldiers there's a stone there's the Roman seal or safe now what they did is a great favour for us because they simply underlined underscored the fact of the resurrection they removed the ability for there to be a rumor that the disciples stole his body because if somebody said the disciples stole the body say well let's see there were 10 to 16 well-armed Roman soldiers there was a two-ton stone rolled downhill into a channel there were clay plaques packs with Romans sealed death to any man who breaks him I don't think so yeah but he's gone what explanation do we have well you can't use that one because you mitigated against that by going to Pilate thank you very much for doing that by the way you remove that doubt completely interesting sight note and I'm moving quickly because I don't want to linger we have one burst to go so hold on Justin Martyr the historian of the early church said that around 200 AD this rumor surfaced again that well there really wasn't a resurrection there's an explanation for the supposed resurrection the disciples stole the body yet the documents say what happened and I'm glad Matthew recorded what the Jewish leaders wanted but that rumor surfaced again but it's easy to dispute 466 last verse of the chapter before we take the Lord's Supper so they went and they made the tomb secure setting the stone sealing the stone and setting the guard so they walked to wait smile on their face job's done I feel satisfied we can go home yeah but just wait till chapter 28 verse 1 boys it's a whole new chapter or like the old sermon preached it's Friday but Sundays are coming when everything's about to change want to know something curious because Pilate goes off the pages of history what happened to punch his Pilate according to history about a year after this Pilate resigned some say he was forcibly resigned because of an insurrection that happened up in Samaria I'm not gonna bore you with those details we don't have the time but nonetheless he left his post he resigned and he went to Gaul ancient Gaul is modern-day Austria and the on clave of Vienna Austria he committed suicide the man who is face to face with Jesus the the man who said what is truth and then he left the room without waiting for a reply the man who could have known the truth and perhaps the man who had this incident of the RET of the crucifixion weighing on him and the resurrection weighing on him haunted by it his wife warned him leave him alone I've had a dream about this just man but he wouldn't listen to his wife it's a lesson man listen to your wives and perhaps it haunted him and he took his own life he goes off the pages of history we hear about him no more question to you as we close have you tried to set a guard over your life over your heart against Christ have you tried to seal up your mind and your thoughts every time somebody brings you to church or you get closer to the truth you have such a good way of marginalizing and fighting it off and pushing him away and setting a guard and sealing the stone and yet the more you do that he keeps coming back and he taps on your heart he says I'm still here I love you I wand you all forgive you someday you'll walk off the pages of history will you end like Pilate or you end up in heaven with Christ because you know him let's pray father thank you for the death the suffering thank you for the pain thank you for the separation that Jesus Christ your son endured it sounds odd that we would say such a thing but it's because he paid that debt that he did not owe that our debt is taken away and we know you it's because Jesus took our place that he took our sin as Paul later articulated so clearly God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in him so thank you that Jesus took it so that we could have life and now I pray for those who are here and for any who has not yet received Christ personally I pray rather than walling up their heart rather than putting a stone against you and a guard against you that they would open up and let you occupy their lives as your head is bowed as your eyes are closed and we're closing the service and about to take the Lord's Supper is there anyone here who hasn't made peace with God yet you haven't given him your life personally oh you may have had some kind of a belief you may go to church even but you don't have a relationship or you've said Lord take over my life I'm turning from my sin and I'm turning to you as my personal Savior you've never had that kind of a transaction but you're sick and tired because your past and all of your pursuits have not given you satisfaction and you're ready tonight to do business with God if if that is the truth that that is the case I want you to raise your hand up right now as we're about to close in prayer raise it up so I can see your hand and you're saying in effect skip here's my hand pray for me I'm gonna give my life to Christ I'm going to surrender to him tonight raise your hand up so I can see it god bless you toward the back thank you for waving it a bit also in the back a couple of you anyone else yes sir right on the aisle and again in the back on the aisle right over here to my right her father we pray for these who have raised their hands we pray for the lives the hearts the experiences that are uniquely theirs we pray that you will fill every corner bring peace and satisfaction as you bring forgiveness into these lives if you raised your hand right where you're sitting would you say these words I'll say them you say them after me you can say them out loud you could say him in your heart you say Lord I know I'm a sinner please forgive me I believe that Jesus died on the cross and that he rose from the dead I turn from my sin I turn to you as my savior I want to live for you as Lord fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to live a life pleasing to you in Jesus name Amen yes thank you lord

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 4,134

Rating: 4.942029 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Sermon, Matthew, Calvary Church, Cicero, Pontius Pilate, Josephus, John Wayne, Antony Flew, Justin Martyr, Christ, Pilate, tomb, Arimathea, Sanhedrin, diakonousai, Son of God, Jerusalem, Earthquake, resurrection, torn veil, temple, spirit, Death by crucifixion, crucifixion, Death, Lord's Supper, Communion

Id: FdiD8WZ-eF8

Length: 63min 2sec (3782 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2018