Joy And The Resurrection - [Luke 24]

The Supernatural Signs Surrounding the Cross and Resurrection

Well, I love.

Resurrection Sundays. This one and the other 51 of them. I'm sure with you as we celebrate the Lord's Resurrection every Sunday, but particularly this Sunday I'm sure if you boil down religions into two religions take every religion in the world and boil them down.

You probably find the religion of naturalism and the religion of Supernaturalism. You probably put everything into those two categories. I mean you could probably say divine accomplishment is one category and human achievement is another.

I also want you to think that Christianity is a religion of Supernaturalism supernatural things.

Happen.

They don't happen very often. And so we're going to look at a passage today in the Bible that helps us prepare for the most Supernatural event in all the world and that is the Lord Jesus after he bore the sins of all those who would believe Rose himself from the dead.

And again since it's not something that's so normal for all of us supernatural things. The writer that we're going to look at today has kind of greased the skids a little bit for us has set it up. So we would say to ourselves.

This is obvious. We see so many things happening. The resurrection is Obvious, so I'd like you to take your Bibles today and turn to Matthew the gospel of Jesus according to Matthew chapter 27 and our outline is super simple.

We're going to look at five Events surrounding the death of Jesus that are all supernatural. Five supernatural occurrences that help you that pave the way For you to easily understand the resurrection had to be.

So we'll see the final resurrection as the supernatural event of all time. There are going to be five other supernatural things around the the the death of Christ that you'll say that is amazing. And so we're going to look at Matthew chapter.

27 as.

The culmination of Everything the event of all events with chapter 28. My desire for you today. My prayer for you today is that you would say I have a wonderful Savior. He's not just the Savior, but he's my Savior.

He's not just the Lord, but he's My Lord that you would say with Martin Luther. Learn to sing to Jesus and say Lord Jesus. You are my righteousness. I am your sin you have taken upon yourself. What is mine and given me?

What is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was. Not. And so if you're a Christian, I want to strengthen your faith as we learn about the Lord Jesus. If you're not a Christian, I want you to see who Jesus is what he's done and that you might respond with saving faith.

And.

Belief. Before we get into these five supernatural signs that lead to the final supernatural sign the resurrection I want to just walk us through Matthew 27. I won't read every verse but many of the verses so you can get the context.

Because really the death and the resurrection of Jesus go together. Jesus is is dying for sinners and he's vindicated. By the resurrection we see that the it is finished of Jesus Is given the SS Lewis Johnson would say the Amen of the Father.

They're tied together. You have one and then you have the other and so if you turn to Matthew 27 in this gospel that records Jesus as King remember every gospel has a different slant this one Jesus as King.

Oh, you see flashes of his priesthood you see occurrences of his Prophetic office, but this is Jesus the King from anywhere from his genealogy to treachery. With Herod trying to take over Jesus the King to the credentials of the king in chapters 8 and 9, etc.

This is about Jesus the King and in chapter 27. It starts off with Jesus being delivered to Pilate remember they wanted to put him to death chapter 27 verse 1 so they delivered him to Pilate the governor right after that Judas hangs himself.

In.

Verse 11. Now Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him. Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus said you have said so but when he was accused by the chief priest and the elders he gave no answer.

Then Pilate said to him. Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he gave no him no answer not even a single charge so that the governor was greatly Amazed. And then of course, you know the next section you have a man named Barabbas.

And there's a custom around that time of year that the governor Pilate would release someone. Who do you want me to release. And I think Pilate first thought it's not going to be Barabbas. This Vigilante this murderer this bad guy.

And by the way Barabbas bar Abba means son of the father. Which son of the father do you want me to give freely? Barabbas or Jesus. And of course, we know what happened. Verse 21 of the same chapter the governor said to them again Which of the two do you want me to release to you?

And they said Barabbas. Pilate said to them then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all.

Said.

Let him be crucified. Why what evil has is done, but they shouted all the more let him be crucified. And so Pilate tries to wash his hands and it says in verse 26 He's delivered. That is Jesus to be Crucified they scourge him and they deliver him over to be crucified and of course on the way the mockings and the beatings and the pummelings and the spitting and the striking.

And the stripping of the clothes. And at the end of verse 31 they led him away to crucify him. I. Here we have phony messiah, what do you get when you cross a phony with the king this potential lord jesus.

And mark says they just kept beating him over and over and over they kept kneeling down before him playing this game to them. Crucify this man. Here's a warning for all those who don't obey.

Rome.

And that's what they did. They're going to crucify him. Verse 35. And when they had crucified him they divided his garments among them by casting lots. They sat down and kept watch over him.

There.

Nothing about medial nerves. Nothing about the pain of the nails. Nothing about the side Getting pierced. Nothing about anything here physically. It's like with one commentator said incredible restraint and they just crucified him.

They take his clothing. Probably all the clothing and then they put the rap sheet over his head. Probably a piece of wood with chalk. They write on that piece of wood. This is jesus king of the jews. Behold your king.

And remember the leaders didn't like that they didn't believe that and so the jewish leaders were saying things like Why don't you put on there? He said he was king of the jews and remember pilate said what i've written i've written Versus 38 and following there were two crucified with jesus.

They were mocking. Hey verse 40 come down from the cross if you're the son of god. Chief priests scribes elders they mocked him too saying the exact same thing. He saved others. He can't save himself.

He's the king of israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe him. And isn't that the cry of all these folks save yourself save yourself save yourself. But of course we know and are we not thankful for the lord.

Jesus Came to give himself. He saved others. He can't save himself. That's kind of an interesting thought even right there. Could he have saved himself did he have the power to do it the authority to do it obviously.

But he was sent by the father.

To die.

To die for all those who would ever believe. Verse 43. He trusts in god. Let god deliver him now. We come to the first supernatural sign. Five supernatural signs that will pave the way for you to say.

Oh, it's obvious so much supernatural stuff is going on. The resurrection. Is the exclamation point. I I expect it. You expect something at the end of a sentence a period or an explanation. Here's the Exclamation.

I almost said explanation, but that would work, too.

The.

Explanation exclamation. We're going to look at five of them. Then we'll see the resurrection the first supernatural sign. Designed for you to say wow. This is amazing. God is involved and god does supernatural things.

He injects himself into nature. Is darkness of judgment the darkness of judgment found in verse 45. Matthew 27. Verse 45. Now from the sixth hour you started counting the hours at 6 a .m. So 6 a .m. Plus 6 hours.

The 6 hours is noon. There was darkness all over the land until the ninth hour 6 a .m. Plus 9 hours is 3 p .m. There's darkness now. Jesus is on the cross and all of a sudden at noon it becomes.

Dark.

Now normally, it doesn't become dark and some people though would say there are explanations for this. Uh, there's a sorocco. Uh, there's a dust storm. Uh seems to me that in the next week or two. There's going to be a lot of people Watching the what?

The eclipse, you know, I went to home depot. Uh, excuse me. Sorry. My wife works at lowe's. I went to home cheapo. Um, I went to lowe's and uh, you know, they have the the eclipse glasses there. But it's a trick because they have the paper ones for two dollars and they have the good ones for 20.

I'm, like what am I gonna do? Save 18 and be blinded. I'm forced to buy the expensive ones. You say this is just a natural occurrence, you know at noon just once in a while it becomes dark. Is that's what is that what is happening here?

When pretty soon we're going to realize that when jesus breathes his last perfect timing it becomes light again. Is that what's happening here verse 46 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? Think about darkness in the bible. One of the best ways to interpret the bible is to know the bible and all of a sudden you should be thinking. Oh regularly and often darkness is Judgment.

Remember back in exodus with the plagues the darkness and the judgment. How about joel 2 31? Regarding judgment and darkness the sun will be turned into darkness the moon into blood. Before the great and awesome day of the lord darkness and judgment Amos 5 it's the same thing.

For what purpose will the day of the lord be to you it will be darkness and no light. Amos 8 the same thing darkness and judgment. I will make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in the broad daylight declares.

The lord.

Regularly darkness is judgment. Now you what you should be saying is If god is judging Now who is he judging? And the answer is he's judging the lord. Jesus not because jesus was the sinner He was perfect obviously, but he's bearing our sins the darkness Showed god was judging our sin on the lord.

Jesus christ. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of god in him. It was the sentence of pilate crucify him, but it was also the sentence of the father's divine plan.

The judgment is happening now at the cross God is publicly displaying. Jesus has a propitiation in his blood. Roman chapter three. My god, my god, why have you forsaken me? And one of the reasons why he says that is so we might ask the question Well, i'm glad that jesus was forsaken because now I might not be forsaken.

This is penalty substitution. This is jesus taking away the sin of the world. This is he himself bearing our sins first peter two. This is jesus the just for the unjust. Dying first peter chapter three.

This is galatians three have become a curse for us. Every one of your sins dear christian was Paid for by jesus on the cross and god was judging that sin then With darkness and there's no double jeopardy.

You don't pay for that sin ever again. It's been paid in full. Down in verse 50 jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his Spirits as his spirit. Six hours on the cross and the three hours of the darkness and jesus yields up his.

Spirit.

Now in the epistles, it says jesus died. But you know what in the gospels that never said jesus died. Like somehow it happened to him like oh he died in the evangelists. Matthew mark luke and john. Making sure that you never think jesus was a prisoner of circumstances that somehow death was inflicted upon him.

And he couldn't stop it or he didn't allow it. He didn't permit it. He didn't ordain it. The check says he yielded up his spirit. He's the one that had control john chapter 10. I have the authority to lay it down.

I have the authority to take it up again. This is all the plan of god. Did jesus die? Yes, but the point of the passage is jesus is in control of his death. Not the centurions not the scribes not the pharisees not herodian.

I mean not herod at three o 'clock. Guess what was happening around town? At three o 'clock on that very day was the day you started slaying the passover lambs for passover. What a coincidence what luck?

What serendipitous fortune? I'm, trying to think of other words that would go along with that. It's the providence of god the precise time. The supernatural darkness at noon. It wasn't a soracco. It wasn't an eclipse.

It was the judgment of god Jesus paying for our sins in full. Do you see it? Well, not only that. Number two the second supernatural sign. Because there's a whole flurry of them. Five before we get to the resurrection, which is one as well.

We can say six, but I want you to see that they're just one after another after another and then it makes sense for the resurrection. Number two the curtain is torn in two verse 51. The curtain is torn in two.

Now if you know anything about temple worship back in those days the jewish temple and maybe you can look at the The back of your bible or the front they probably have pictures of different temples or tabernacles.

Generally, you have a holy place and then you have the holy of holies. And in that holy of holies you would have the ark of the covenant with the mercy seat of the cherubim and inside that that. That box that ark of the covenant you would have things like manna and aaron's rod and the ten commandments.

And no one was allowed to go into that room except the high priest once a year. And you hope after all the sacrifices and prayer and everything else that you The high priest would make it out alive because you wouldn't want to die in there and you certainly could.

No one goes in no one comes out except once a year. And the curtain prevented you from going in verse 51 and behold behold. Look the curtain that 60 foot tall curtain that 30 35 Foot wide curtain that really wide a thick curtain.

With all the twisted plates of everything it was torn into. Not just a little rip, but it was torn into from top to bottom. Obviously, you're supposed to make the connection if it was torn and it was 60 feet tall.

There's nobody up there climbing up the ladder and then trying to cut this really thick thing. No, no, it's torn from top to bottom and you should be saying god tore that temple. Why did the curtain in the temple?

Why? Because now there's access To the father because jesus has paid for sins the death has Happened and right at the exact same time the temple Curtain is torn and that means you can go in. The presence of god is available for all.

Not just the high priest not just for priests not just for men not just for women but for gentiles, too open presence for everyone the curtain temple torn from top.

To bottom.

Able to walk into the holy of holies now the the lord jesus christ has made us have access. To the father. Listen to hebrews 10 describe this. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of jesus by new and living way.

Which he has consecrated for us through the veil. That is to say his flesh. Having a high priest over the house of god now. Let us draw near with the true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

And our bodies washed with pure water. I'm, so glad I get to be a pastor now because if I was a leader back in the time of the jews. And I was a priest basically I would be a butcher. Right and you bring me the animal and we slayed the animal and I'd arrange the pieces etc over and over and over.

Killing killing killing killing killing. Because we keep sinning so we have to keep killing. And i'd also hate it if I was the high priest and it was my job to go in to the holy of holies. Now it doesn't say it in the bible but church history says sometimes they would tie a rope around the guy's leg and put little bells on his leg so that if somehow the bell stopped tinkling.

That they would then know the guy was dead and they would pull him out because you can't go in and get the guy. Because then you're dead, too. If I had to do that, how afraid might I be? I would certainly delegate that to scott brown to go in.

Then after he was dead i'd send for deep. Then he would die. Then steve would die. Then i'd die deacons. You're next alphabetical order. The privilege of access to god. Anytime you want to pray. Anytime you want to say lord help.

Anytime you want to praise him. Anytime you want to say I need help and mercy from the throne of grace access. You don't have to go to a priest. You don't have to go to high priest. This is divine accomplishment from top to bottom as lewis johnson said.

I want you to know that if there was a jewish believer sitting in the audience. Who didn't know anything about this and came to the understanding of what it meant? That they would have to stand off outside and see Aaron go in year after year.

No one ever saw the inside of the holiest of all. They would jump three feet out of their chairs and shout a lot of hallelujahs. This doesn't mean the temple's no longer needed. Although that's true. This is the opening of the way into god's presence.

Torn into from top to bottom. Supernatural Sacrificial system is over.

Jesus.

Paid it all. Hebrews 9. How much more will the blood of christ Who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to god cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living god.

Clean holy.

Saint able to come near. And draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance. You think well that's not that big a deal. Well when we think that way it's because we think our sin isn't that big a deal.

God is not really that holy. He's this holy. We're not really this sinful. We're this sinful. And the gap to be bridged can be done with.

Being good.

Religiosity civil things etc. But if god is thrice holy and he is and we're sinful. And even somebody like abraham said i'm but dust and ashes in god's presence. Job in god's presence. I abhor myself.

Isaiah in god's presence. He's on his face. Daniel in god's presence. There's no strength in me. No wonder criminals hide their faces when they get booked into court. They try to put the jacket over their head when they've got their handcuffs on.

We're so sinful we need a mediator and a savior. And jesus pays for those sins and now ripped curtain.

Access.

Thirdly.

Not just the darkness not just the curtain torn but the third supernatural sign paving the way for you to think. Something's going on here pay attention is the earthquake in verse 51 and behold after the temple was Corn, uh, the the curtain torn the earth shook and the rocks were split.

So jesus dies. He yields up his spirit and we have the temple curtain torn and also now when he dies. There's an earthquake. Now, I don't know if i've felt the earthquake here in the last 27 years, but i've felt them in california before.

The big one I want to say it was 93 ish or something. Maybe 94. Haley was little and we lived in north hollywood. And it was I think 4 30 in the morning and all of a sudden there was this jar. And then it started going like this back and forth and I I don't know what i'm doing.

I'm looking around i'm just I. I have no idea because it was so weird and so unusual. And so I then said to myself, where's kim? And then I said to myself I better go get haley this little infant and then neither of them to be found.

And I finally go outside and there's kim and haley standing in the middle of the street. She's already rescued her and she's already taken care of her. And i'm wandering around the kitchen. Wondering where my coffee is.

You say earthquakes. We have earthquakes. I mean palestine. It's built on a on a on a ledge on a rift. Not that big a deal. The timing seems pretty interesting to me. And if you know your bible. Like knowing darkness is regularly judgment.

You will also know earthquakes are regularly judgment of god. That they're judgment. They're symbols of god's judgment and they're symbols of god's presence while you can go into the presence of god now.

Because of the mediator of the lord jesus. Here we have the presence of god. The earth is shaking at the precise moment when jesus dies. Remember on top of sinai shaking god's there giving his law. Here, there's Shaking jeremiah 10, but the lord is a true god.

He's a living god and the everlasting king at his wrath the earth quakes. And nations cannot endure his indignation. Psalm 114. The mountains skip like rams tremble. Oh earth at the presence of the lord.

At the presence of the god of jacob. Nahum one. The mountains quake before him. Who can stand before his indignation? Supernatural timing. Supernatural earthquake. Supernatural presence of god. Supernaturally god is Angry, of course, it's the plan, but these people have put him to death.

But now we come to something that maybe many of you have never thought about in your life. And if it wasn't in the bible, you wouldn't believe it. The fourth supernatural sign. The graves were open. The graves were open.

There's the darkness of judgment. Jesus is paying for our sins. He's the lamb. The curse is on a hymn, even though he's sinless. The curtain torn in two access to god because of the lord jesus. The earthquake and now the graves open.

This is wild. This is maybe weird in in the real sense the literal sense of the word. Verse 52.

And three.

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. What in the world.

We have the earthquake. We have the tombs open now. Remember when we think of burials now, we regularly think of Somebody underneath the ground six foot under. You would typically have a tomb and it would be like a cave.

And if someone died you would put that person in the cave and you put aloes and everything and dress the body. And then when everything decayed all the flesh decayed you'd pick up the bones and put them in a little bone box.

Just about a little bigger than the femur. The largest bone in the body and then you would set it up on a little shelf. And of course remember like with the lord jesus. There's the big stone that's in front of that and you want to make sure jackals can't get in or other people.

And so don't be thinking underground be thinking tombs caves. And the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep that means dead. Were raised and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection. They went to the holy city and appeared to many.

Now some of you know I in my study here I have a skull. And it's a ceramic human skull and I did that because of some of the puritans used to say to themselves I have a skull on my desk because it reminds me that one day i'll die.

So preach christ and one day everybody I preach to will die. So preach christ. It was all kind of fun and interesting for a while until you get cancer and other things and it wasn't quite as funny. Uh, but not meant to be funny.

I remember one time little elliot smith came in. And he kind of just you know, it was a little enough he just waddled in during the women's bible study and he goes path.

Is that the zombie?

I'm, like what kind of show does andrew and anitra let you watch? It's a zombie. Matter of fact, what tv shows do you watch young man? But these aren't like dead people walking. These are saints believers in the messiah to come believers in yahweh the great god.

And.

They're walking around. But they don't start walking around until the sabbath is over. Notice the text. They came out of the tombs. Stayed there. Don't travel on the sabbath as my guess. And after the resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

They're.

Raised on the lord's death, but they don't go into the city to talk to people until.

Sunday.

And that's not a whole lot of time to wait because remember in the jewish way of accounting Jesus died on friday was raised on sunday. And we say the third day he rose from the dead. Because if you're a jew you count any part of one day as a day.

Whether it's one second one minute or twenty. Three and a half hours. Then we have all day saturday 24 total hours. And then you could say three days even if jesus rose on 1201 a .m. So we're looking at something not really 48 hours even there and so they're waiting.

Now I wonder who these saints were. Do you think it maybe was moses.

David.

Noah.

The question is could you even recognize them if you were in israel. If you were in jerusalem and all of a sudden moses started walking around. Most likely it's people that just had died recently.

Think about it.

Jesus is the messiah. He's the true messiah and we believe in him. Other people say no, that's not true. We don't believe in him. We believe in someone else. He doesn't have the right pedigree doesn't do the right things.

He does things by satan. And they're saying those things your family members. They're not saved. You're saved and you're trying to evangelize them and something happens to you and you die. Jesus dies.

You wait outside the tomb. Resurrection sunday happens and now you go back. They just buried you by the way a week ago a month ago three weeks ago. You go back and say by the way Jesus is alive. He's been raised from the dead.

He's the true one. Now if I was moses or elijah or noah or david or jeremiah or isaiah or any of these other ones they're not going to know who they are, but They must know who they are. If i'm reading the text rightly that seems to be the best option.

They're not ghosts. They're not apparitions. They're not specters. The text is very very clear. They were raised the bodies. Do you see what it says in verse 52 the bodies of the saints? That's a believer who had fallen asleep.

That's a sweet way to say somebody died. It's only used of believers. They fall asleep. It looks like they're sleeping. They'll wake up again one day in the resurrection. They came out of the tomb and they appeared to many.

That's all it says.

Whether they use their mouth or whether they didn't they testify that jesus was alive. That'd be pretty interesting to me. You say well, what kind of bodies did they have? I don't think they had jesus's glorified body yet because jesus was the first fruits of the resurrection.

But they had their body back like lazarus. And poor lazarus he had to die twice, right? What happened to these people? Well, they could have got translated a lot by like elijah. Maybe that's the case, but I think they just had to die again.

You say well. It's appointed for man wants to die in the judgment. Well, that's true. Unless god makes an exception Elijah didn't die. He was assumed who else didn't die in the bible. Enoch. Does that make hebrews 9 not true?

Of course not. Some have to die twice.

By the way.

They missed out an incredible opportunity because they could have written books like heaven is for real and other stuff and made a killing. On this a lot of shackles to be made. Matthew doesn't tell us why there's a delay.

He doesn't give us any insight, but this is a super natural event. The death of jesus causes these people's bodies to be raised. God does things for a purpose and that purpose was to go back into the city and certainly tell the good news of the lord Jesus christ he has risen just as he said he has risen.

He's risen indeed. And by the way first corinthians 15 when jesus is raised from the dead it guarantees our resurrection from the dead. If jesus isn't raised we're not raised and by the way, if we're raised jesus can also be raised.

Wouldn't that have been amazing?

Wow.

That's fascinating.

I'm sure they just preached away. One day they died. I love it when jesus said i'm the resurrection life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. John chapter 14. Because I live you will also live also.

Dead men walking because of the power of the death of christ. And the goodness of god as a testimony. You might say to yourself well, who is the guy who is the woman who is the young person? That led you to the lord and preached the gospel to you.

Oh.

It was my dad. He he died. He came back and then he preached the gospel to me. I got saved.

Wow.

This is not natural. It's a supernatural. How many people for the first time ever have heard that? Come on, don't be shy. Okay. Thank you for being honest the rest of you. I don't believe. Fifth supernatural sign.

Then the resurrection is easy because we just see god working. God's working. He's working. He's working. There's earthquakes. There's darkness. There's there's curtains. There's dead bodies getting up.

This one maybe is a little more subtle, but I think it's supernatural nonetheless. Verse 54. It's the opening of a sinner's heart. As great as some other supernatural events are on the human side. This is right up there when the centurion gentile soldier is used to seeing people die.

By the way when you were crucified what you'd usually do is you would spit out blasphemies against the soldiers and everybody else that walked by and most of the time the centurion said Enough of that and they cut your tongue out.

I wonder the centurion is watching jesus. They crucified jesus and I wonder if he noticed anything different about jesus. When the centurion and those who are with him witnesses two or three witnesses keeping watch over jesus.

Saw the earthquake that is its effects and what took place.

I don't know.

What else they saw there. Darkness, obviously they were filled with awe and said truly. This was the son of god. The veils ripped open. Even gentiles can go in. Even soldiers can come in. Yes, they can.

How many people this guy see die on the cross. A lot? How many people did he see die the way jesus did? Saying to his mother jesus Behold your son and to john behold your mother to say on the cross To the thief today, you'll be with me in paradise.

To hear him say to his father father into your hands I commit my spirit.

It is finished.

I thirst.

I don't think that centurion and those other men saw one person like that ever. And so he responds truly this was a son of god and of course the writer matthew. He's wanting you to say the same thing.

Yes, that's true. I see it all with the eyes of faith. The poem goes who was the guilty who brought this upon thee? Alas, my trees and jesus hath undone thee to his eye lord. Jesus. It was I denied thee I Crucified thee and now we have the centurion who says i'm the one in charge of your crucifixion With the nails and the hammer, but i'm the one in charge of your crucifixion because it was my sin.

That held you there.

This is supernatural salvation. Every time somebody gets saved. It's the greatest miracle on earth. That god would open up a heart like lydia's in acts 16. That god would regenerate a man like nicodemus.