Matthew 28:1-10

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

O God of our great deliverance, Great was the joy of Israel’s children when they saw Egypt perish upon the shore; but far greater is our joy today, seeing the Redeemer’s foe crushed in the dust. Jesus strides forth as the Victor, the conqueror of death, of hell, and every opposing might. He has shattered the chains of the grave, trampled the powers of darkness underfoot, and He lives forevermore. He is our gracious Guardian, the One who stood in our place to pay our debt. He has emerged from the prison house of the tomb, free and triumphant over sin, over Satan, and over death itself.

Show us, Lord, in this victory, the proof we need:

• That His sacrifice on our behalf is fully accepted;
• That the demands of justice are finally satisfied;
• That the scepter of the devil is splintered to pieces;
• And that his stolen throne is leveled to the ground.

Give us the deep assurance that in Christ we died, that in Him we rose, that in His life we truly live, that in His victory we now triumph, and that in His ascension, we too shall be glorified. Our Glorious Redeemer, You who were lifted up upon a cross have now ascended to the highest heaven. You, who as the Man of Sorrows were crowned with thorns, are now the Lord of Life, wreathed in eternal glory. Once, no shame was deeper than Yours, no agony more bitter, and no death more cruel. But now, no exaltation is higher, no life more radiant, and no Advocate more powerful. You ride in the chariot of triumph, leading Your enemies captive behind You. What more could be done than what You have done! Your death is our life, Your resurrection is our peace, Your ascension is our hope, And Your prayers are our endless comfort.

(Adapted from The Valley of Vision, Resurrection)

• This is the day every Sunday in the year points to. 
• And before we celebrate the most pivotal event in human history, the empty tomb, I want to take us back to the moment that made the resurrection possible. 

• Imagine standing in the city of Jerusalem on that Friday when our Lord was crucified and died and witnessing the events that unfolded.
• The sky darkens. Not because it was overcast.
• And the darkness doesn't lift. For three full hours, the land sits under a blanket of impenetrable darkness, while a man hangs dying on a Roman cross outside the city walls.
• As you sit in the darkness, a shout rings out from the condemned man on the cross, not the weak gasp of a dying man, but a loud and authoritative cry. 
• At that moment, the ground begins to shake, the earth convulses, rocks split open, and the great curtain in the temple tears in two from top to bottom as though ripped by an invisible hand. 
• And most astonishing of all, tombs crack open, and the unimaginable happens. 

• What kind of death does that?
• Death by crucifixion was horrifyingly common. 
• But no one ’s death ever shook the earth. No one’s death ever opened graves.
• Only one death in the entire history of the world has ever done that. 
• Only one death in the history of the world has had cosmic implications. 
• And that is what makes this death the most important event that has ever occurred and why the resurrection fills us with great hope. 
• Every one of those signs was God’s own commentary on what was happening at the cross. 

• Today, we’ll look at the signs that occurred during the crucifixion and death of our Lord. 
• They are God’s own “visual aids” demonstrating exactly what Jesus accomplished for his people. 
• If you have ever felt like God was distant, that he can’t possibly forgive you for things you have done, or have fear about death, I pray you will look to what your Savior has done for you. 

• The signs surrounding Christ’s death are God’s dramatic declaration that the death of Jesus has conquered sin, removed the barrier between God and man, and ushered in the resurrection age. 

Matthew 27:45-54

• 45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 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. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 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!”

• V45 from the sixth hour there was darkness…until the ninth hour. 
• From noon to three o’clock in the afternoon. For those three hours, what is normally the brightest time of the day, a thick, supernatural darkness covered the land.
• Matthew, whose readers were predominantly Jewish, would have understood exactly what this was. 
• This was the darkness of judgment. (9th plague; Ex 10:21-23)
• It echoes the warning of Amos the prophet of the Lord, who spoke of a day when God would “make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.” (Amos 8:9)
• This is the darkness of divine judgment falling upon the sinless Son of God, who is bearing the sins of the world in his own body. 

• And it is out of the darkness that the most anguished cry in all of Scriptures pierces the air. 
• Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
• This is the opening line of Psalm 22, a Messianic psalm.
• Jesus is not merely quoting Scripture, a psalm he would have known. He is living it!
• On the cross, the eternal Son of God, who had known unbroken communion with the Father from before the foundation of the world, experienced a desolation he had never experienced, the withdrawal of the Father’s fellowship. 

• Why was this necessary? 
• Paul writes, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21) 
• The just punishment our sin deserved, was poured out on him so that the just blessing of his righteousness could be poured out on us. 
• Jesus experienced the ultimate forsakenness so that we would never be forsaken. 

• And then he cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 
• Jesus does not have his life taken from him. He actively and sovereignly lays it down and is handed over to death. 
• As Jesus himself said, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” (John 10:18)
• Ancient Roman physicians recorded that victims of crucifixions died slow, agonizing deaths; their voices were reduced to rasping whispers. 
• Yet Jesus cries out with a loud voice moments before his death. 
• This is not the death of a victim. 
• He finished the work His Father gave him to do, and he lays his life down by his own authority and declares, “It is finished!”

• What does this mean for us today? 
• We often feel abandoned by God during difficult seasons of life.
• The One who was forsaken as he bore our sin and punishment promised that he would never leave us nor forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)
• We might be tempted to think our sin is too great for God to forgive. 
• Consider the price of our redemption. Our sins were paid for at the incalculable cost of the precious blood of the Son of God.
• What sin is so great that it cannot be forgiven if one looks to the Redeemer! 
• Maybe you’ve trusted Christ but you lie awake wondering, “Am I really saved?”
• Look at the price. The Father did not crush His Son for a salvation that might not hold. The cost of your redemption is the guarantee of your redemption! 

• 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
• The Temple in Jerusalem, called Herod’s Temple, had two massive curtains. 
• The first separating the Holy Place from the outer court and the second separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. 
• The Holy of Holies was where the Ark of the Covenant, with the Mercy Seat was placed. This is the place in the Tabernacle and Solomon’s temple that the presence of God would fill. 
• The Lord instructed Moses to construct a curtain to shield the Ark from view and human contact. 
• This veil in Herod's Temple, was sixty feet high, thirty feet wide, and roughly four inches thick, made of densely woven fabric. 
• It was embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarns and featured images of cherubim, recalling the angelic guardians that were posted at the entrance to the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve’s expulsion. 

• In other words, the veil was a theological statement in textile. 
• Every thread and weave declared: “God is holy. You are not. Do not Enter!” 
• Only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place once a year, on the Day of Atonement, after proper cleansing, and with the blood of the sacrifice to sprinkle on the Mercy Seat. 
• By the time of Jesus, the Ark of the Covenant had been lost for centuries and the Most Holy Place stood empty. God’s presence wasn’t there! 
• And yet the sacrificial system continued as though nothing had changed. 

• At the exact moment Jesus died, that massive, centuries-old barrier was torn in two. 
• Torn from top to bottom. Not from the bottom up. This wasn’t a human act. 
• God did this! God tore it! 
• God is declaring through this stunning visual sign, “The barrier is removed. The way is open. The distance between man and God has been bridged.” 
• The blood of Jesus accomplished what the blood of bulls and goats could never do. 

• Hebrews 10:19-20 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, Do you see what this means for you? 
• There is no barrier between you and God that the death of Christ has not removed. 
• You don’t need a human priest to get you in. You don’t need a ritual to cleanse you.
• The veil is torn! The way is open! 
• If you are in Christ, you have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. 
• The destruction of the temple curtain means you can walk straight into the Holy of Holies because of Christ’s work. 
• Jesus has done everything necessary to reconcile us to God. We can do nothing more! 

• You might have been taught that God is far off, that you have to earn your way to him, but the torn veil says otherwise. 
• Some of you grew up being told that God was keeping score, and that you have to pray, serve, and give enough to stay in his good graces. But the torn veil says access to him was never something you could earn. It was something he tore open for you. 
• You might feel guilty about the things you have done, the torn veil says you can come to God as you are, with all your failures, and find mercy. 
• You might still be struggling with a sinful habit and you’re riddled with shame, the torn veil says the blood of Jesus is still sufficient and powerful.

• In Scripture, earthquakes are not random geological events. 
• Mainly they are signs of God’s arrival. They are the earth’s response to the presence of the Almighty. 
• When God gave the Law at Mount Sinai, when the presence of the Lord descended on the mountain, the whole mountain trembled (Exodus 19:18). 
• When God passed by Elijah at Horeb, there was a strong wind and an earthquake (1 Kings 19:11). 
• What happened at Jesus’s death tells us something profound: God is here. God is acting. 
• Jesus’ death wasn’t just a localized event, it was a cosmic one, and creation itself is convulsing in response. 
• The old order of sin and death is being overturned.  
• The rocks split, because the bedrock of the old creation, the old covenant, the old reign of sin and death, is being shattered by the death of the Son of God. 

• When Jesus breathed his last breath on Calvary’s cross, it sent a shockwave through creation, initiating the birth pangs of the new creation. 
• Paul wrote in Romans 8, that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now (Romans 8:22). 
• When a woman goes into labor, the contractions are painful and frightening, but they signal that new life is about to arrive. 
• The earthquake at Calvary was creation going into labor. The pain was real. The shaking was violent. But something glorious was being born. 
• The new age has begun. Christ has made a way for a new creation. 
• God uses the shaking of the cross to provide us with a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28)

• God has a pattern. He shakes what is temporary to reveal what is permanent. 
• And sometimes he shakes your life, not to destroy you, but to strip away everything you’ve been leaning on that isn’t him, so you can stand upon the only foundation that cannot be moved. 
• Jesus’s death and resurrection has made a way for a new creation. 

• 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
• Now this detail is only found in Matthew’s gospel. It raises questions that the text itself does not answer.
• Presumably, the earthquake cracks the tombs open. 

• Who were the saints who had fallen asleep?
• Saints means, “holy ones” in the Greek. These were Old Covenant believers. 
• Men and women who died in faith, trusting in the coming Redeemer and hoping in the promise.
• The phrase, “fallen asleep” is the characteristic way of describing the death of believers in the NT (1 Thess 4:13-14; 1 Cor 15:6, 18, 20). 

• When were they raised? 
• The tombs were opened at the moment of Christ’s death, but the saints don’t come out of the tombs until after his resurrection. Only after Christ himself rose.
• Why is this important? Because Christ must be first. 
• 1 Cor 15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep
• Firstfruits refers to the first portion of the harvest, offered to God as a pledge that the full harvest is coming. 
• Jesus is the firstfruits of the full harvest that is coming. 
• These OT saints were the preview of the great resurrection harvest that will come at the end of the age. 

• What happened to them? 
• Matthew says they went into the holy city and appeared to many. That’s all he tells us. We don’t know who they appeared to or what happened to them afterward. 
• Matthew is not a newspaper reporter. He is making a theological declaration and that’s why he’s including this detail out of chronological order.
• He wants to declare that Jesus’s death has broken the power of death itself. 
• And the evidence of that is that dead saints are alive and walking around. 

• What is the Scriptural basis for this? 
• Ezekiel 37, the vision of the valley of dry bones.
• Ezekiel 37:12-13 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 
• For centuries, faithful Jews had read that passage and longed for its fulfillment. 
• Matthew is saying, “This is it! This is what Ezekiel saw!” 
• In the death of Jesus Christ, the age of resurrection has dawned. 

• When Jesus stepped out of the tomb on Sunday, he demonstrated his victory over humanity’s greatest enemy—death. 
• We no longer have to fear death. 
• Death does not get the last word. 
• Jesus died and came back. And because he did, everyone who trusts in him will be raised. 
• Death for the believer is no longer a prison but a waiting room.
• The text promises us that those who die in Christ are not lost. 
• The grave could not hold Christ and at his return, it won’t hold us either. 

• Some of you who have walked with the Lord for a long time and can feel your body’s frailty increasing. 
• This text and the empty tomb says to you, your body is not the final draft. 
• What is sown in weakness will be raised in power. What is sown perishable will be raised imperishable (1 Cor. 15:42-43). 
• Resurrection is coming!

• Here is the irony of the cross. The religious leaders of Israel, who had the Scriptures, who knew the prophecies, who served in the very temple whose veil had been torn—they rejected Jesus. 
• The chief priests, the scribes and elders of Israel, stood at the foot of the cross and mocked him saying, “If you’re the Son of God, come down and we will believe you. He saved others but he can’t save himself.”
• But a pagan Roman centurion, a man who likely never read a line of Moses or the Prophets, he looks at the cross, he looks upon our Savior, he sees the signs and confesses, “Truly this was the Son of God.” 

• He didn’t have the theological knowledge. He didn’t know all of Israel’s history. He didn’t live with the hope of the Messiah.
• But he had eyes to see and a heart that trembled. 
• He saw the darkness. He felt the earth shake. He watched a dying man yield his spirit with a shout of authority. And the evidence was overwhelming. 

• This is the reality of the cross. You cannot remain neutral. It confronts you. It demands a verdict. 
• It confronts us with an extraordinary truth that demands a response. 
• Some of you have been gathering evidence for years but you’ve never rendered a verdict. You’ve never looked at Christ and said, “He is my Lord and Savior.” 

• The same Jesus stands before you. The same evidence. The same question: Who is this? Is he just a good teacher? Is he a good moral example to follow?
• Or is he as the centurion confessed, as the signs declared, as the torn veil and the shaking earth and opened graves all proclaim, “Truly, He is the Son of God?

CONCLUSION

• The resurrection isn't mentioned as something that happened in isolation.
• It is woven into the very fabric of the cross. The tombs opened when Jesus died. 
• The resurrection harvest began at Calvary.
• You cannot separate the death of Christ from the resurrection of Christ.
• They are one great, unified act of God.

• This act speaks to every person in this room.
• If you've not yet trusted Christ, I want you to hear something. The centurion didn’t have to clean up his life first. He simply saw the truth and responded.  
• You don't need to have all the answers before you come to Christ and you don’t have to get yourself right before you come to Christ.
• The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
• That invitation is open to you right now. The veil is torn. The way is open. Come to Christ.

• If you are a believer, but maybe you've been living in defeat, maybe you've been carrying shame, or bitterness, or you feel spiritually exhausted, I want you to feel the earthquake.
• The power of the cross is not a past tense reality. It is a present tense power.
• The same God who shook the Earth on Friday and raised his Son on Sunday is at work in your life today.
• Paul writes in Ephesians, that the immeasurable greatness of God’s power, that worked in Christ to raise him from the dead, is at work in us who believe. (Eph 1:19)
• That resurrection power is for you. Right now. Today.

• And if you're grieving, if you are fearful of what lies ahead, see the opened tombs.
• Death is not the end. The grave is not a period but a comma.
• Because Christ lives, you will live also.
• And on the last day, when the trumpet sounds, and the dead in Christ rise, you will be among them.
• Body and soul, reunited, glorified, and forever in the presence of the God, who tore the veil so that you could come in.

• If the Earth shook, if the veil tore, if the graves opened, then nothing in your life is beyond the reach of the one who conquered the grave.
• No sin is too great. No grief is too deep. No future is too uncertain. 

• The death that defeated death has made all things new, 
• Ans there is nothing that a resurrection cannot cure! 

• Will you make the Centurion’s confession your own? 
• Will you say with me, “Truly, this is the Son of God.” 

APPLICATION AND REFLECTION

In light of today's message....

• What did I learn about the gospel?
• How can I apply what I learned about the gospel to my life?
• With whom can I share the gospel this week?