Who’s Right about Jesus?

Sermon Transcript

Before I begin I want you Highway Tabernacle folks to know that we thank God for your willingness to worship with us on this Good Friday. Good Friday is a time we set aside to remember the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, and it’s a blessing to do that with another church that shares our faith in that sacrifice. As we often would at one of our Good Friday services, we’ve read selected portions of the narrative of Jesus’ death recorded in Scripture. I’m going to focus on verses 51-54 of Matthew 27, the verses just after Jesus’ death. But before these verses, one of the things happening in the narrative is a debate. The debate concerns who Jesus is. Early in the Gospel of Matthew, a voice from heaven declares that Jesus is God’s Son, with whom God is well pleased. But not everyone heard that. As Jesus drove out demons, they declared Him to be the Son of God. Jesus identified Himself as such. When He asked His disciples who He was, they identified Him as such. And on trial, in verse 63 of chapter 26, the question Jesus is forced to answer is whether He is the Christ, the Son of God. He affirms it, but instead of bowing down and worshiping Him, the people of Israel dwelling in Jerusalem at the time charge Him with blasphemy and hand him over to the Romans to crucify Him. On His way to the cross, some mocked him: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (v. 40). “He trusts in God; let God deliver him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (v. 43). So who’s right? Who is Jesus, truly? The question is not who do we think He is, how do we like to think of Him, who do we want Him to be, but who is He, truly? And the answer verses 51-54 give us is: Jesus truly is the Son of God, and the text gives us three proofs: The curtain was torn, the dead were raised, and even the Gentiles recognized Him.

 

The curtain was torn

 

The section on which we are focusing tonight began in verse 51. It tells us that the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, the earth shook, and the rocks were split. Some background might help you understand what is going on here. The whole Bible begins with the story of God creating all things, including the land which we see shaking here, and the rocks we see splitting. In doing this, God was creating a temple: A place for Him to dwell with His people. The earth was created to be His temple. Within that temple, there was an even holier place, where the people could be even closer to God, called the Garden of Eden. When God created the first humans, that’s where He put them, and they enjoyed unfettered communion with God.

 

But sometime thereafter, the people rejected God’s loving authority, and God, in His justice, judged their sin by sending them out of the garden, and pronounced a curse on the earth. To show them that they had to stay outside of the garden, God put cherubim, warrior angels, with a flaming sword in front of the garden. A children’s book I’ve been reading with my son recently says they were like a big “keep out” sign. Because of our sin, we couldn’t go in. But God was still committed to dwelling with His people, so He told them to build a building called the temple, in which He would dwell. However, He had them build it with two curtains: One at the entrance, and another at the entrance to the most Holy Place, where God especially dwelt. On that curtain into the Most Holy Place, God told them to embroider cherubim, those warrior angels, just like He had stationed at the entrance of the garden, as another reminder that although it is wonderful to live with Him, because of our sin, we can’t come in.

 

Nonetheless, God instituted the priesthood and the sacrificial system, through which, once per year, with the proper sacrifices offered, the priest could enter into the most holy place as a representative of Israel. So the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices: These were the way to God for the people of Israel. The temple was at the center of Jerusalem and at the center of the life of Israel for hundreds of years when Jesus comes. It was, in a sense, the counterclaim of the Jews in Jerusalem at that time to Jesus’ claims. He claimed to be the Son of God, but they had the temple! They must be in the right.

 

But when Jesus died, the temple curtain was torn in two. We can’t say for sure which curtain it was, the outer or the inner, but the point is the same: It is torn from top to bottom, indicating that God is the one tearing it, saying, in effect, “This is no longer the way to me.” It’s an act of judgment, which explains why it comes along with the shaking of the earth and the splitting of the rocks: Remember when God first judged sin, He removed the people from the garden and pronounced a curse on the earth. Throughout the rest of the Bible story, the earth quaking is a sign of God’s judgment. God is now rendering His verdict on what happened to Jesus. Instead of coming with blessing on Jerusalem for executing a blasphemer, God comes in judgment on Jerusalem for murdering His Son. He rips up their temple and curses their ground. And so God’s vote is in: Truly this was the Son of God.

 

And here’s the warning for us today: The judgment on the temple and the ground was only a preview of a great judgment to come. God tore up the curtain of the temple, but in AD 70, He sent the Romans to destroy the temple, bringing an end to the priesthood and sacrificial system, a priesthood and sacrificial system that is still dead to this day. And the day is coming when His judgment will come upon the whole earth. Many of us today long for a restoration of justice to the earth, for a judgment of evil and a righting of the wrongs, for a judgment of our enemies even, but have you really considered what this means? It means judgment is also coming on you. Unless you say with the Centurion that truly this Jesus is the Son of God and trust Him with your heart, you will face God’s judgment and be cast out of His favorable presence forever. It’s so easy for other things in our lives to seem like a really big deal, but if there truly is a judgment coming on all the earth and Jesus truly is the Son of God, then where you stand with Him is the biggest deal in your life. Are there doubts and questions keeping you from Christ? You aren’t alone, but if there is a judgment coming, you need to really face those doubts and questions rather than remaining in a constant state of indecision with Christ. Maybe your career, your family, or even your next paycheck seems like too much right now for you stop and deal with your relationship to Christ. But if a judgment is coming, where you stand with Christ is the most urgent thing in your life. Perhaps you’ve been reconciled to God, but the world looks really attractive to you right now. Remember: This world, for all of its glory, will be shaken again, and we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. It’s never safe to drift from Him.

Judgment isn’t the only sign God gives here that Jesus is the Son of God, though. There is also a sign of salvation that comes next. The second reason from this passage that we know Jesus truly is the Son of God is because the dead were raised.

 

The dead were raised

 

With the shaking of the earth, many tombs were opened, verse 52 tells us, and not all, but many of the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. They had died of course, but the phrase “fallen asleep” is used to indicate the hope that one day they will be risen from the dead, and so they were here. Verse 53 tells us that after Jesus’ resurrection they came out of their tombs and appeared to many in the holy city, that is, Jerusalem. So in verse 54 Matthew tells us the centurion saw the earthquake, but not these risen bodies, which wouldn’t appear in Jerusalem until a couple days later. Nonetheless, Matthew includes it here for our sake, to give us yet another reason to agree with the centurion’s verdict in verse 54.

 

There are interesting questions it raises: What happened to these bodies afterwards, why don’t the other Gospel writers record this account, but Matthew doesn’t answer those questions. God tells us everything we need to know in Scripture, not everything we might want to know. So why does He tell us this? There were a few places in the Bible before the coming of Christ that predicted a day the dead would come out of their tombs. Though the curse of death was part of the curse God pronounced on sin, which we talked about earlier, God also promised redemption even from death. He promised the redemption of all things really, and the one through whom that redemption was to come was His Son. The fact that this happens now is another proof that Jesus is that promised Son of God.

 

But He had been the promised Son of God on earth for 30 some years now, and the dead hadn’t come out of their graves until now. What’s the connection specifically between His death and their resurrection from the dead? Remember, death was God’s curse on humanity’s sin, and specifically on God’s first human son, Adam. But now the perfect Son of God has come and offered the obedience Adam and we failed to offer. So when He died on the cross, it wasn’t to bear the curse for His own sins. It was to bear the curse for ours. That curse being borne, death lost its rightful claim on the saints, those who died trusting in the Son of God. Have you ever seen a movie where someone breaks into a prison and opens all the doors, so that all the prisoners can now go free? That’s a bit like what Jesus has done to death. The moment He dies the doors of death open for all the saints, and after He rises from the dead, they rise with Him.

 

And just as the judgment on the temple and the ground signified a greater coming judgment, so this resurrection of many saints signifies a greater resurrection, when Jesus will come again, and those who have died with Him will be risen with Him, to live and reign forever in a resurrected earth. Do you know this little scene here is a snippet of your future if you are in Christ? Do you know it’s a snippet of the future for those you love who have died in Christ? God will shake the earth again, the tombs will open, and the dead in Christ will rise with Him. Death is a terrible scourge on this present age. Every 4 seconds, someone in the world dies. We’ve had plenty of opportunity to think about death over the past year as over 500,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. Have you also thought about the resurrection of the dead? The resurrection of the body? I’m as thankful as any that God provided us with a vaccine for COVID-19, but our hope as Christians is always in something better than a vaccine. We have multiple COVID-19 vaccines now, but no vaccine for car accidents, cancer, or violent crime. There is no vaccine for death. But in the death of Christ, death died. Truly this is the Son of God. As you look to the future, set your hopes on Him. Don’t say, “Well yeah that’s the future, but what about now?” This hope is what you need now! Nothing else in this world can offer this kind of solid, lasting hope.

 

And finally, we know that He is truly the Son of God because even the Gentiles recognized Him.

 

Even the Gentiles recognized Him

 

So in verse 54, those who acknowledge Christ to be the Son of God are not the Israelites, the people who had the Scriptures and the promises, but a Roman centurion and those who were with him. They don’t even see the dead raised. They see the earthquake, the rocks splitting, and perhaps even the temple curtain being torn, though it’s not clear they would have been able to see it from where they were standing. They had been there for the dispute, and now seeing what they saw, they recognized that God was giving His verdict in favor of Christ, vindicating Him as the true Son of God, and they acknowledged Him as such with their mouths.

 

This too was a fulfillment of something that had been promised of the Son of God. God sent Him for His people Israel, but He also promised to make Him a light to the nations, that His salvation might reach the ends of the earth. You see, another implication of the curtain of the temple being torn is that now the Spirit of God, who dwelled in the temple, breaks out. When God dwelled in the temple, the way back to God’s presence was only through Israel. But when Jesus died on the cross, He opened a new back to God: Himself. Now both Jew and Gentile alike have access to God through Him in one Spirit. Though we are sinners, we have a new and better priest, a new and better curtain, through whom we can draw near to God with confidence, with our sins washed clean by the blood of Christ.

 

So why do we hesitate to draw near to Him? Why do we keep Him at arm’s length? Yes, He is a just judge, who threatens sin with the worst imaginable judgments. Yes, His judgment is coming; we’ve seen that in this passage. And yes, you are a sinner, deserving of those very judgments. Our consciences testify to us that this is the case, and so we may try to obey the rules, but we keep God at arm’s length. There is another way. Jesus truly is the Son of God, and He shed His blood for your sins on the cross. You’re a mess; I know; so am I; but you’re His mess now. The proper sacrifice has been offered. If you enter through faith in Jesus, you can enter into the most holy place without fear. Last year on Good Friday, just after the pandemic began, I recorded a sermon that also touched on this curtain being torn, and suggested in a time when so many of our ordinary comfort were taken away, that it might be a time to draw near to God in prayer like you never have before. I’ve talked to a number of you who have experienced joyous fellowship with God over the past year, even when our fellowship with one another has been so strained. And even if you haven’t, the call to drawn near to God still stands tonight. The curtain is torn; don’t let your guilt and shame stop you from drawing near to Him. Talk to Him, confess your sins to Him, receive His forgiveness, rejoice.

 

And just as the judgment was a sign of a future judgment, the resurrection the sign of a future resurrection, so the faith of the centurion was the sign of more to come. From this point on, the Spirit of God was going to break out to all nations. When Jesus returns and the dead come out of their tombs, it won’t just be the saints of Israel, the saints of America, or the saints of a particular racial group. It will be the saints of every tribe, tongue, and nation. It will be people like that neighbor or friend who you think would never believe. There is no curtain between the Spirit and them; who can stop Him if He chooses to save? And on Sunday we’ll get a little preview of how that will happen. Draw near to God tonight, not with your, “I’ve done by best” or “I’ll do better I promise”s, but by the blood of Christ alone. Join the Centurion and say, “Truly this is the Son of God.” Offer yourself to God, to be used by His Spirit in calling the nations to the Son. God has handed down His verdict; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.