Sermon: Dead Men Walking

Matthew’s Crucifixion Narrative and the Reading of the Text

If you would, open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew. The Gospel according to Matthew 27. If you're new to the Bible, it's the first book in the New Testament canon that we have in all your Bibles.

Matthew 27. We're going to be reading from verses 45 -54. 45 -54. Hear now the word of the living and the true God. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge filled 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 then 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. Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired Word, let's pray together as His people. Lord, we are humbled. Before Your revelation, this is Your own self-disclosure.

This is You speaking to us. This is a true record of what took place in history. What You accomplished in history. And so we come to You as Your people redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, forgiven because of this moment that's before us in Your Word.

We come to You and ask You to bless us as we hear Your Word. We pray that You would speak by Your Spirit today that, Lord, people will forget me and remember You and what they've learned from Your Word.

We pray that You'd guard my heart and my mind as a pastor of Your people. We pray that You would guide, You would teach, You would renew our minds, strengthen us, give us peace and joy because of the testimony in this particular text.

In Jesus' name, Amen. So this is a big one. It's interesting, I mentioned as we started today that I find this particular text in this section exciting. I think it's so very exciting because of what took place in this historical moment that is this miraculous vindication of the work of Christ.

There's so much that takes place in this text. We've been here for a long time, but we've been unpacking how this connects to Old Testament prophecy. We've been unpacking how this particular event is an event that took place within human history.

This is not myth and fable and telling tales. This is historical narrative. This is the story of God purchasing His people. This is the story of God keeping His promises to His people. This is the story of Jesus accomplishing our redemption.

It's a powerful scene. And there's so many amazing details you can just unpack and just, it's hard to see every aspect of the glory of this moment of the passion of the Messiah. This long-anticipated moment finally here.

We look back on it, but they were looking forward to it, and now they were sitting in the midst of it. And I find this particular text exciting and hard. I mentioned that a lot of people don't want to even touch this particular text.

Some commentators spend very little time on it, essentially ignore it. There are people who find it so difficult that they'll say, well, I'll preach through Matthew, but we'll just sort of get right past that point because it leaves so many unanswered questions.

There's people that deny that it actually took place. There's people that profess the name of Christ. They want to call it simple symbolism. And it provokes so many questions. I mean, doesn't it? Who in the world is this?

Who's just raised from the dead after the resurrection of Jesus and just walking around Jerusalem, appearing to people, who is it?

Do you ever read this and wonder?

Like, huh, that's odd, right? It's a strange moment. It brings questions. We're gonna talk about some of those questions today, and I have good news for you. It's true, and I have bad news for you. I don't know, and neither do you, but it's fun to speculate in terms of who exactly were these people?

I mean, it's unanswered questions. I mean, were these people who recently died in Jerusalem? Were these examples of resuscitations? Resurrections, but really resuscitations like Jairus's daughter and Lazarus, people who literally died, were literally raised from the dead, but then lived their lives again, and then died again.

So there's the possibility that these are resuscitations. People who recently died, family members, friends who died, tombs were opened up, and then after Jesus' resurrection, they come parading around in Jerusalem, testifying to the glory of Jesus, His accomplished work, and the resurrection that He accomplishes.

Or, and people speculate about this, were these Old Testament saints and heroes raised from the dead, testifying, walking around Jerusalem? So many questions, right? Like, if they were resurrected Old Testament saints, were they given at that moment glorified bodies in preparation for the ultimate resurrection?

Are there some Old Testament saints in heaven today that have fully glorified bodies like Jesus, who was the firstfruits of the resurrection, the first truly raised, raised from the dead? There's questions, thought-provoking questions, right?

So it's interesting, but we do need to address the big picture. Why is this here? Why is it important? And something to announce in terms of what makes this particular passage so difficult is that Matthew is just right in the midst of historical narrative the whole time.

He's talking about centurions and Pilate and Herod, eyewitnesses, he names the women who are there watching the crucifixion, he names them by name. He's talking about real events in history, darkness.

He gives you the time. He's even telling you the sixth hour, the ninth hour. I mean, this is historical narrative. And then Matthew is the only one. Out of all four gospels, he's the only one who mentions this, and he sort of just throws it in there.

Oh yeah, by the way, some dead people came back to life and walked around the city, peering at people. Like just sort of, and on to the next scene. And you're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Matthew.

Wait, wait, wait, I know this is divine inspiration, you're being guided by the Holy Spirit, but what are you talking about? He just mentions it, like by the way, dead men walking.

It happens.

And then he's just on to the next part of the story, right? But Matthew's the only one that mentions it, and so it provokes a lot of questions. And again, there are elements, as we've talked about before, in the word of God, where you say, this is the word of God, it's God's self-disclosure.

This is the theanoustos, breathe out revelation from God. This is the objective truth. This is the reference point. And so God said it, I believe it. That's history, that's the truth. But it does have other things related to it where you have to just be honest and be humble, be humble enough to simply say, I don't know.

I don't know, it's interesting, good question. Is it Moses walking around, Abraham? Was it David? Was it Nehemiah? Who's walking around? Was it Lucy, who just passed away on Wednesday? I don't know, but it happens.

So we're gonna talk about it. So it's exciting and it's hard because Matthew's the only one that talks about it. So there are some options as you come to this particular text. I'll read it to you again, starting in verse 51.

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.

Now there's some options. Now I'm sure there's a lot more that can be said about this text, but if you don't wanna be in Matthew for 10 more years, I'm gonna summarize, okay? Options, number one, first option.

As you look at this text of dead men walking, people raised, who had fallen asleep is how the Bible refers to the death of God's saints. These are holy ones, saints walking around Jerusalem. Here's an option, first option.

It never happens. Supernatural isn't possible, okay? That's an option. That's how a lot of skeptics of the Bible and atheists will look at a text like this. They'll say, A, it never happens. Supernatural things like that are not possible.

Second option, as you look at a text like this, is that it's symbolism, all right? So you look at a person like Dr. Mike Lycona, Christian apologist. He has talked about this particular text. I find his explanation extremely bad.

It comes, it's fraught with problems, but he'll say, well, this is symbolism. This didn't actually happen. It's more like the old hyperbolic statements people would make, like the sky is falling down, you know, and things like that.

Like the world is crashing and burning, you know? Is it symbolism, hyperbolic stuff? It's sort of like, you know, mythology from pagans. Well, they'll, you know, they'll take an event that took place with Caesar or Kim Jong-il or Un or whatever, and they'll say, there's all this sort of like myth that follows them and their death.

Like when the dear leader of North Korea died, they say that like, it started snowing. Like it was the wrong time of year, it started snowing. You know, there's mythology like that that raises up with these moments in history.

And so Dr. Lycona, who is a professing Christian, says that this didn't actually take place. It wasn't literally saints raised from the dead appearing to people in the city. It's more symbolism and, you know, sort of connected to the kind of, or parallel with the mythology of, you know, pagans.

I find that a horrifying explanation. That's the second option. Popular, maybe in some circles. Here's the third option. I think you'll know where I fall on this.

It happens.

It happens, period.

It happens.

So there's three options. One, it never happens. Supernatural is impossible. Two, it's symbolism, didn't really happen. Sort of a Christian tradition that rose up and is more in line with mythology. Or third option, the text says it clearly.

This is what happens. It's a real historical event.

It actually happened.

Obviously, honestly, comes with questions. It's okay. It doesn't change the fact that it's historical narrative and it happened, period. Here's the refutation of the first one. The first one claims that it never happened.

Why?

The supernatural isn't possible. Now we need to think about this for a second. This is Matthew 27. As you move into Matthew 28, there is another story of a supremely powerful resurrection and that's the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And so I'm gonna just say as we start this, this entire revelation from God is filled with the supernatural. It's filled with the miraculous. And I wanna just say this to challenge you as a Christian, do not be fearful of the atheist who criticizes the Bible because of the miraculous.

Because I wanna just express to you this, because you accept God's revelation, because you believe it and you hold to it and you stand on it, you are the only ones who can appropriately and effectively and justifiably look at a miraculous story and say, that's weird, that's not supposed to happen.

Let me expand that just a little bit more. The atheist comes to you one day and says, hey, I don't believe in the Bible because it's got stories of resurrections and water turning to wine and seas parting and all that stuff.

I can't believe that, it's crazy stuff. That sort of stuff doesn't happen in this world. Now, you need to, at the moment, ask the unbeliever to stop borrowing capital from your worldview. In other words, when the unbeliever, the atheist or the skeptic comes to you and says, miracles are impossible, the supernatural doesn't happen.

This universe is ordered, it functions like a machine. It's law-like, it's ordered. We know that tomorrow's gonna be like today. What are they doing? They're borrowing your worldview. Christians are the only ones that should look at stories like this and say, that's weird, why?

Because what do we believe?

Think about it.

What do you believe about history, origins and life today?

What do you believe?

You believe that there is a sovereign God, amen? He's in control of all things. He's the creator of all things. He created the world, he set it in motion and he declares the end from the beginning. God has given the universe, according to a Christian worldview, a fixed order.

It actually says in the book of Hebrews that Jesus carries the universe along. He carries everything along to its intended destination. Why do you think that modern science got its massive pop?

How?

Did he get it from the atheistic worldview? Nope, he got it from the Christian worldview, why? Because the Christian worldview believes in certain essential things like this. The universe is created, guided and governed, get this, it is not simply chaos in motion.

There is a sovereign God who orders the universe and he carries it along to its intended destination. Don't miss this. You, as a Christian with the word of God, are the ones that have a claim to the scientific method, that the universe is ordered, that it's fixed, that the laws of physics actually hold, why?

Because you don't hold to the atheist worldview that says, well, there was nothing and then there was something. You don't hold to the atheistic perspective that says it's just time and chance acting on a material universe.

You don't hold to the atheist perspective that believes that fish, through a long chain of evolutionary processes unguided, became philosophers. You don't hold to the atheistic perspective that says inorganic matter became through a magical, crazy configuration, organic.

Non-living material becomes living all by its lonesome. You see, when the atheist challenges the Christian worldview in the area of miracles, they have to borrow from the Christian worldview to do it.

You following that? Because Christians believe in a sovereign God who orders the universe and carries it along. Christians believe that things are fixed and so we can believe that tomorrow will be like today or the next five minutes will be, or the next five minutes will be like the past because we believe in a sovereign God who governs the universe.

So, Christians, because of God who carries the universe along, look at a story of a resurrection from the dead and we go, that's weird. That's not supposed to happen.

Why?

Because we don't believe in time and chance acting on a matter. The universe is not just chaos in motion. We believe in a fixed order that is law-like because you have a law-giver. So when the atheist says, miracles don't happen, you should say, in the Christian worldview, that's strange.

You're borrowing from God because in your worldview, where it's time and chance acting on matter, anything's possible, baby. I mean, don't you believe that human beings evolve from bacteria? Don't you believe that information just appeared in human DNA?

That the story of all of life and information is just there and it all is ordered and it makes sense and it's rational? Don't you believe that that just happens all by itself? Don't you look at the design of everything in life down to the smallest human cell and say, it just happened in this universe of time and chance acting on matter.

You see, the unbeliever has to secretly stand on the Christian worldview in order to actually balk at miracles. So when the unbeliever says, I can't believe that revelation because it has miracles, you should say, stop stealing from my worldview, bro.

That's mine. Let's talk. You see, I have a justification to look at a story like this and say, that's weird, but I got more for you. It isn't just Old Testament or whoever, holy ones, saints, raising from the dead and appearing in Jerusalem.

It is the supreme example of the son of God himself being crucified and murdered on a tree, rising again on the third day. There's more miracles than just this one. So the unbeliever has no justification to say the supernatural is impossible because they reject the foundation of the Christian worldview.

The supernatural is absolutely possible in their worldview. It's chaos, time and chance acting on matter. So when the unbeliever looks at a text like this and says, I reject it because the supernatural is impossible, he has to essentially borrow from the Christian worldview in order to say it.

Second thing, it's symbolism. It's symbolism. Here's the problem. When you have someone like Dr. Michael Icona saying, well, I'm a Christian. I believe in the resurrection of the son of God that Jesus actually physically rose from the dead.

But a story like this, I don't think it really happened. Well, there's no justification in the text to say there's a problem with the text. There's no translational issues in the text that would cause you to reject the text itself.

And so what is it about the text that makes you think that it's just symbolism? Here's how you know that it's not just symbolism. Number one, Matthew is historical narrative. Matthew is historical narrative.

Just consider this, in the very text itself, really just a few verses prior to the text where it talks about these people appearing after the resurrection of Jesus, it tells you the actual time of day.

Sixth hour, ninth hour, that's in 27, 45 through 46. Next, in the historical narrative before us in Matthew, Matthew is referring to the witnesses of the events at this time of Jesus' life and ministry.

He refers to the disciples throughout this narrative in the text of the crucifixion and before. He refers to Peter and Peter's betrayal of Jesus as an eyewitness of what's taking place. He refers to Herod, a real historic figure in history.

He refers to the bystanders who were there before the cross this very day. He refers, of course, to who else? He refers to Pilate, a real historical figure, a governor. He even names the women in Matthew 27, 55 through 56.

He names the actual women who were witnessing. Listen to the text. There were also, verse 55, many women there looking on 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 the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

So Matthew's an historical narrative. He's telling you events that transpired. He's even naming witnesses and bystanders who are present witnessing the events themselves. He mentions the Roman soldiers.

He mentions after this, starting in verse 57, Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph of Arimathea, a specific person in history. Now here's what's really important about the Christian witness here. I want you to look for a moment because I mentioned that Matthew refers actually a lot to Peter.

He mentions Peter and the denial of Peter. He mentions Peter essentially hiding in the background during the trials of Jesus. I want you to hear what Peter says in terms of the Christian witness of this as real historic narrative.

If you go to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. Listen to how Peter speaks about his testimony as an apostle. 2 Peter 1, verse 16. Here's what the apostle says. He says, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

That's the Christian faith. This isn't secret hidden knowledge. This is open and in the public square. That's where Jesus was crucified, in the public square. And so Matthew's gospel is of course connecting the Old Testament revelation to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

But Matthew's gospel is telling you the story as it played out. He's giving you real historic events. He's talking about the things that took place that day. He's talking about the people who were present that witnessed it.

And you can hear one of the witnesses that Matthew refers to, Peter, telling you this wasn't cleverly devised tales and myths. We were eyewitnesses to his majesty. So Matthew's historical narrative, he's mentioning all of the events that transpire in this very moment, leading up to this moment.

Notice also that Matthew refers to a physical darkness that fell over the land. The kind of thing that causes the Roman soldiers to say what? Truly this was the son of God. The events that they saw, and it wasn't actually the resurrection of these holy ones.

The events that they saw were the events of the darkness, the death of Christ and the earthquake. And they say, truly this was the son of God. Matthew refers to the tearing of the veil. Question for someone like Mike Licona.

If you're going to randomly, hodgepodge, jump in and out of historical narrative to symbolic never really happened event, my question is, what about the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Is that symbol? Why not?

If you're gonna arbitrarily jump between texts and say, well, this is historic narrative, this really took place, but this one over here, that's clearly symbolism. Says who? You? Because you think it's odd or strange?

Why?

Seems totally arbitrary, but that's what you have to deal with. The question would be, how about that tearing of the veil? Is that symbolism? Did that not really happen? Because brothers and sisters, what do we know about that veil tearing?

It's in the text, it's right here, right before the resurrection of these holy ones. What about the temple veil? Is that significant? Is it significant in heaven and on earth? Doesn't it speak to the actual reality of what was accomplished by Jesus Christ in his actual, literal death on the cross?

What do we say about that? Is that just symbolism? Did the veil not really tear in the temple? You see the danger of going from historic narrative to, well, that didn't actually take place, places you in a position where it becomes totally arbitrary.

A consistent reading of this text shows us that Matthew is giving you actual history. It's divinely inspired, but he's giving you actual history. The time, the place, that location, the events that surrounded it, the veil itself, an earthquake, darkness, the witnesses who were there.

You hear about the physical phenomenon, that earthquake. Matthew mentions throughout the gospel of Matthew, healings. He mentions resurrection. Matthew mentions, of course, that famous scene of the transfiguration.

Question for someone like Mike Licona, is the transfiguration also symbolism, myth? Did it not actually take place? Because that story is actually really fantastic.

Have you read it?

That story is actually really awe-inspiring, where they actually, for just a moment, a glimpse. You see, Jesus, as Pastor James has said before in a number of debates, he isn't walking around Jerusalem hovering.

He's not glowing as he's walking down the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus is the God-man, truly God and truly man. But just for a glimpse, a moment, the apostles themselves on the Mount of Transfiguration get to see sort of a tearing of the veil, a moving away of what they're used to with Jesus to where they are essentially blinded by the light, the glory of the one who's truly in front of them.

Here's my challenge. That's a miraculous event. Did that not really happen? Is it just symbolism? And how do you decide arbitrarily between events? Because one of them makes you uncomfortable. Here's the challenge.

You either believe this revelation or you don't. You either believe this took place or you don't. We can't stand between two positions. Is there symbolism in the Bible?

Yeah.

And how do you spot it? You spot it in its context. You spot it in its narrative. Does God use symbolism and hyperbole in his word? Yes, actually quite a lot. In ways that make a lot of evangelicals very uncomfortable.

Like when he talks about Israel, his bride, he talks about her unfaithfulness. He does it in a way that hits you in the guts. It cuts you at the jugular. He does it in a way that humans understand best.

He says his wife is a harlot. She's like a hooker. She's a prostitute. She offers herself to everyone on the side of the road and gets paid nothing for what she does.

Ouch.

But that is the kind of language that God uses. God uses all kinds of symbolic language in his word. He says that he will cover you in the shadow of his wings. Does he have feathers? He says our God is a consuming fire.

Really?

Like burn you, glass furnace, fire? Does God use symbolism?

Yeah.

But you can always tell in terms of poetic literature, song, symbolism, vision, those sorts of things. But that's not what Matthew's doing, is it? Matthew's telling you the story of history. Here is what took place at the crucifixion of the Son of God.

And so Matthew is telling you history surrounding the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. But also Matthew ends his gospel with the resurrection of the Son of Man and the ascension of Jesus, that promised resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

It is not myth or legend. It is historic narrative. And one more point as a cherry on top of that, just consider the text itself. What's it say takes place? It says the tombs also were opened, verse 52, 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. Notice that Matthew makes the point that they're raised from the dead and they appeared to many. It's eyewitness.

It's appearing. It's eyewitness testimony. And that's what Matthew ultimately highlights is that they came to life, they came into Jerusalem, and they appeared to many people. In other words, there were witnesses to what I'm telling you.

It's not a fable. It's not a tale. It's not mythology. It's an actual resurrection that many people saw. These people actually appeared to people in the holy city. So here's the point.

It happens. It happens.

And here's what makes it amazing. I said I'm excited about it, right? Here's what makes it amazing. It happened because, are you ready? This was and is the expectation of God's people.

What?

Resurrection from the dead. Resurrection from the dead. We like to hide ourselves. We've talked about this often. We like to hide ourselves in this generation from death. I've mentioned to you so many times that the old way of building churches and Dr. R .C. Sproul's church in Florida, St. Andrews is just like this.

I love it's the old school way. They built that church. It is amazing in terms of the story it tells when you walk inside. But outside that church building is a field and Dr. R .C. Sproul's body is right there in it.

And there's a bunch of other graves because the old way of building churches was you actually had a graveyard connected to the church of all the saints who were there and established all of that before you got there.

You're passing by their dead bodies. We like to hide ourselves from death. However, you're gonna feel it. You're gonna experience it. You're gonna taste it. You're gonna be around it. You're gonna grieve over it.

Death is your ultimate and my ultimate enemy. It's coming for us all. It's coming for us all. So it makes this particular moment exciting is that you have the story of our redemption and ultimately the meaning of the resurrection and how it connects to all of God's people.

You have it there in the text before you, but you have this little glimpse, this moment where Matthew mentions, oh, by the way, in the middle of this whole scene of the death of Christ and the resurrection, these tombs were split open.

And then after the resurrection of Jesus, these saints, these holy ones, they come to life and they start walking around the city appearing to many witnesses. What was that? A miraculous vindication of what had just taken place with Jesus.

And wouldn't that be the case?

Think about it.

Wouldn't it be the case that God is all about in this moment giving you this miraculous vindication of what's taking place? Is it so strange? Is it so strange to us that God would actually give us a miraculous vindication in terms of resurrection like this?

I mean, the text itself has what taking place? Humanity's darkest day. We hate God so much that if He can come down here and put flesh on Him, we'd kill Him. And we did. And in this moment where God incarnate is being killed, murdered, the truly righteous one, the truly innocent one, the darkest act of the hands of humanity in this very moment, and what does God do?

He turns the lights out on creation. Doing what? Testifying to the horror of this moment. Jesus is the light of the world. And when they snuffed out His life, the world went dark. There was a physical earthquake, phenomena like that.

The veil itself in the temple that separated, that testified to the separation of God's people from the presence of God. That's ripped in half. This ginormous curtain is torn from top to bottom. God in this moment is all about these things that are happening in actual physical space, testifying to the miracle of the redemption that's taking place in this moment.

Why is it so strange to us that God would actually testify to the resurrection of the holy ones, the saints of God that are raised and walking around Jerusalem, testifying to the power of His resurrection?

So, let's talk about this for a moment in terms of why this is so meaningful. Why do you think that Matthew would, first of all, tell the story to begin with, the story of Jesus and His death and resurrection, but the story of these holy ones, these saints rising again from the dead and appearing to people in the holy city?

Well, we need to talk about this. Very important in terms of foundations. This story doesn't drop out of the sky with nothing behind it. This is God's revelation in history. It's a continuing story. Well, the reason why is because the resurrection of the Messiah was prophesied.

You remember the scene? It's one of my favorites. It's where Jesus is on the road to Emmaus. I've talked about it a lot. Luke 24, road to Emmaus, and you've got the disciples there, and they're all a bunch of sad saps, all upset over the fact that they thought Jesus was the Messiah, but now He's dead, and I guess He wasn't the one.

They're all sad saps walking on this road. They don't even realize Jesus is alive walking next to them, and they're like, you haven't been here? You don't know what's going on in Jerusalem? What does Jesus challenge them about in that moment?

What's He say to them? He says, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. What were they supposed to understand? That the Messiah had to die and was gonna rise again from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, though they could not comprehend it, it was in the Old Testament Scriptures.

The resurrection of the Messiah was prophesied. It was prophesied in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, we can't do all these texts today, but Isaiah 53 says that this servant, this righteous servant of God, the Messiah Himself, would justify the many as He would bear their iniquities.

He'd be pierced through for our transgressions. The Lord Yahweh was pleased to lay on Him the iniquity of us all. It said that He'd be cut off out of the land of the living. And yet as you read Isaiah 53, you see that actually He sees His offspring.

He prolongs His days. You've got a death and a resurrection, Isaiah 53, 700 years before Jesus accomplishes it. The resurrection of the Messiah was prophesied. It was part and parcel to the Jewish worldview.

Psalm 22 is that famous song in the Old Testament hymnal that tells you about the passion of the Messiah about a thousand years before it takes place. They pierce my hands and my feet. They wag their heads at me like dogs.

They surround me. For my clothing, they cast lots. It says clearly that He's laid in the dust of death in Psalm 22. But then it actually says that all the families of the earth will return to worship Yahweh.

That He would speak of God's name among His brothers. It's in Psalm 22, death and living again. You also have what Gabe read before today in the Psalm of our service today. In Psalm 16, verse 10, the promise was that God's Holy One would not be left to decay.

This is quoted from in the New Testament, Acts 13 .35, as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He was not left to decay. He was raised again from the dead. So here's the point, ready? Resurrection from the dead is at the center of God's revelation.