Introduction:
Our God was giving His testimony to His Son at the cross.
He was testifying regarding His Son providentially.
He was testifying regarding His Son supernaturally.
Last week and this morning we have been looking at that supernatural testimony.
So far, we have seen three.
I. A SUPERNATURAL TESTIMONY OF JUDGMENT (vs.45-49)
II. A SUPERNATURAL TESTIMONY OF AUTHORITY (vs.50)
Our Lord dies in a way unlike anyone else who has ever lived. God gives us truth that allows us to see that Jesus dismissed His life in a way that was sovereign.
III. A SUPERNATURAL TESTIMONY OF FORGIVENESS (vs.51a)
When Matthew tells us about the veil of the temple being torn in two from top to bottom, we are now looking at what follows the death of Christ.
God was testifying WHILE JESUS WAS DYING, and now we see that God’s testimony continue AFTER JESUS DIED.
The first two supernatural testimonies had to do with who Jesus was and what He was doing.
What follows testifies to what He accomplished.
With the rending of the veil the message of open access to God through the work of His Son is clearly communicated.
It represents the ending of one era of redemptive history, and the opening of a new era of redemptive history.
Salvation has always been by the grace of God.
Salvation has always been by God’s provision for man’s sins in His Son.
But now the payment for sins was offered.
No more need for a temple and the sacrifices offered there.
No more need for Israel’s priesthood.
Jesus is the sacrifice and Jesus is the priest — the one mediator between God and men.
Now those have been forgiven have direct access to God in Christ.
IV. A SUPERNATURAL TESTIMONY OF LIBERATION (vs.51b-53)
That brings us tonight to the 4th supernatural testimony that God gave to who His Son is and what He accomplished.
It was a testimony of liberation.
WHAT HAS CHRIST ACCOMPLISHED FOR US?
HE HAS ACCOMPLISHED DELIVERANCE FOR US.
HE HAS ACCOMPLISHED A GREAT VICTORY FOR US.
HE HAS DEFEATED OUR GREAT SPIRITUAL ENEMIES
The enemy of Satan.
The enemy of sin.
The enemy of death.
The result is that we are FREE.
But that freedom has more than one aspect. We are immediately free in the sense of slavery. But we are also looking forward to the day when that freedom is fully manifested — when the spoils of Christ’s victory are fully experienced by His people.
This is why the New Testament speaks to us concerning our hope.
ESV Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
That includes the hope of resurrection.
ESV 2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened-- not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
What happens just following the death of Christ speaks of who He is and the liberation He has won.
A. THE EARTHQUAKE AND THE SPLITTING OF ROCKS SPEAKS OF WHO JESUS IS (A MESSAGE OF JUDGMENT)
Matthew is the only one of the gospel writers who mentions this earthquake. When we remember that he is specially making a case to the Jewish people, we remember that what he chooses to include often calls OT Scripture to mind.
What does this earthquake bring to mind? Passages like these.
ESV Nahum 1:1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh. 2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. 5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. 6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. 7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
ESV Micah 1:2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3 For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4 And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. 5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. 7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return. 8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. 9 For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
ESV Zechariah 14:1 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.