This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to our fourth day of looking through Matthew chapter 27.
We're looking at the death and then next week we're going to see the
resurrection of Jesus. But in these last few verses of chapter 27, we see what
happens in between.

What happens in between His death and resurrection? What happens the moment that
Jesus dies? What happens as He is buried?

And we can learn a lot from what happens in between. Our focus is usually on the
cross and on the tomb. But in these moments in between, we can learn some truths
about Jesus.

You learn the truth about who Jesus is and why He came from what happens
immediately after He has died. We've seen all through the trials and then even
as He's on the cross, even the soldiers, even the religious leaders, even the
people, everyone has been ridiculing Him. Everyone's been telling lies about
Him.

Even those who died alongside of Him. It's been happening all throughout the
day. At the moment of His death, the real truth about Jesus becomes clear.

Listen to verses 51 to 54. At that moment, the curtain in the sanctuary of the
temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart,
and tombs opened.

The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead.
They left the cemetery after Jesus' resurrection and went into the holy city of
Jerusalem and appeared to many people. The Roman officer and the other soldiers
at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened.

They said, "This man truly was the Son of God. " We're going to look together
today at four things from these verses that happened immediately when Jesus
died. Then tomorrow, we're going to look at three additional things that
happened just after His death.

All of them, we learn about faith. We learn why Jesus came. First thing that
happens, verse 51, the curtain was torn.

And from that, we learn that Jesus came to make you the dwelling place of God.
That's why that curtain was torn. When Jesus cries out with this loud voice, He
gives up His spirit.

At that moment, the curtain in the temple is torn in two from top to bottom. The
places where God allowed His people to experience His presence were the
tabernacle and then the temple in Jerusalem. There was a specific place that you
would go to to experience the presence of God.

If you've studied this, you know that in the temple, there was the outer room
where sacrifices were made and then there was the inner room or the Holy of
Holies. That was where the ark was. That was where the presence of God was said
to reside.

Only one person, the high priest, was allowed to enter that holy place of God's
presence and him only once a year to offer sacrifice for the sins of the people.
After he'd made purification for his own sins, he went in to offer a sacrifice
for the sins of the people. And in fact, before he went in, they would tie a
rope to him so that if he went in and he had a heart attack or something
happened and he died, the others could not go in.

Only the high priest could go in. Anyone else who went in would suffer death. So
they realized if he went in and he died, you couldn't get him out for a year
until the next high priest went in.

So they tied a rope to him so they could pull him out in case he died when he
was in there. That's how holy this place was, this dwelling place of God. And
the moment Jesus dies, this curtain, this thick curtain that separates the two,
it's torn in two.

It's not separated apart. It's torn in two. It's one solid curtain from top to
bottom.

This miraculous moment of God declaring, in essence, God is declaring, I am
changing my address. Instead of my presence residing in this temple, I'm tearing
this curtain apart to say that because of the death of Jesus and the
resurrection of Jesus that is coming, I'm now going to go and reside in the
hearts of men and the hearts of women. That is where I'm going to live.

You are now the temple of God. You are now the tabernacle of God as a follower
of Jesus. This spirit lives in your life.

And the tearing of that curtain was saying that that's exactly what God had
intended all along. That the temple, the tabernacle, they'd been looking forward
to this moment all along. The true holy of holies is your heart and the fact
that God wants to reside in your heart.

Now how can he do that? You're an imperfect person. They had to make all these
sacrifices, all these sins to make sure it was a purified place.

Jesus made the sacrifice. And when Jesus finished the sacrifice, when he gave
himself for us, at that moment the curtain was torn. What an amazing moment.

That's the first thing that we see happens in these verses. The second thing
that we see happens is the earth shakes. There's this earthquake that happens.

From that we're reminded of the truth that Jesus, why did Jesus come? He came to
set creation right. And his death shakes all of creation.

At the second coming of Jesus, all of creation will be changed. There will be a
new heaven and a new earth. We know that at the sin of Adam and Eve, there was a
fall of not just Adam and Eve, but all of creation.

All of creation was affected by their sin. All of creation lives with the
results of their sin. That's why we have earthquakes.

That's why we have wars. That's why we have natural disasters. Both the sins
that we commit and also the sins that we've committed that have affected this
creation cause us to realize this is not a stable place.

This is not a place to live for eternity. Well Jesus shook all of creation even
when he died. And it's a symbol to us.

It's a reminder to us that one day he's going to shake it again. Once more it
will be shaken, the Bible says in the book of Hebrews. But it will be shaken in
that time so that it can be changed for eternity.

Just once more. Just once more it will be shaken. And in that once more time of
being shaken, God's going to create a new heaven and a new earth that's going to
last forever.

That's why Jesus came. To look forward to that day. We're still looking forward
to some of the results of why Jesus came, why Jesus died.

A third thing happens. A little thing that happens. The dead are raised.

People come out of their tombs alive. And it's a reminder of why Jesus came.
Jesus came to give us life.

He came to give us eternal life and he came to give us abundant life. Jesus dies
and immediately some tombs are opened. Remember their tombs were not dug into
the ground like many of ours are today.

A lot of times they were in caves and you would have a rock over that cave even
as Jesus is going to be buried soon. And those rocks were broken in two or they
were split apart. And the bodies of godly men and women, they were raised from
the dead.

Now I don't know what they did for the next few days. The Bible says they left
the cemetery after Jesus' resurrection and they went into the holy city of
Jerusalem. So I don't know if they sat and played cards or what did they do for
the few days until the resurrection of Jesus.

But they did something there together. They celebrated that they were alive. And
then when Jesus is raised, they're seen to be raised.

They're seen to be resurrected. The life of Jesus is so powerful that even at
his death, people are being resurrected. Now in one sense you can say they were
resuscitated.

I understand the theology of that because they're going to die again. When Jesus
is resurrected, he gets a resurrected body that's going to live forever and ever
like you and I are going to get a body like that someday. But the fact that even
in the death of Jesus, life is being given in that moment shows you the power of
the death of Jesus.

He came to give us life. His death gives us life. And the dead are raised even
as he's dying to show us that.

And then a fourth thing happens in this moment. The soldiers give witness. These
Roman soldiers who earlier had been ridiculing Jesus, he was just another
prisoner, They'd seen it happen a hundred times, a thousand times.

So they ridiculed him like they ridiculed all the other prisoners. This one was
called a king, so they turned him into a king. One who was called a thief, they
would mock him as a thief.

Whatever crime you were accused of, they would mock you for it. But then they
watched Jesus die. And in that moment of his death, they see the power of Jesus.

These powerful men, in the moment of his death, they see the power of Jesus. And
they say, "Truly, this was the Son of God. " It's a reminder that Jesus came to
reach the lost.

Even in his death, people are recognizing the lost. The Roman soldiers who have
no relationship with him, no relationship with God, they're being drawn to him.
You and I are witnesses, but we're witnesses of Jesus and what Jesus has done.

People aren't going to be drawn to me, they're not going to be drawn to you.
Well, they might see something different in me or you, but they also see too
much that's the same, too many struggles. What they'll be drawn to is Jesus in
you.

What they'll be drawn to is what Jesus has done for you. What they'll be drawn
to is the love of Christ for you. And the soldiers saw that.

They saw Jesus. The more you and I can help people to see Jesus, the power of
Jesus, the love of Jesus, the more people are going to be drawn to him. In this
moment, powerful men are invited to see his power.

For the need of my life, the truth of who Jesus is, it's going to draw me in, in
that moment. And that's what happened. The moment that Jesus died, it tells us
who Jesus really is.

Let's take a moment to just give him praise. Thank him. Jesus, as we pray, we
thank you for who you are.

And we thank you that even at the moment of your death, we're reminded that you
came to live in us. You came to make of us a dwelling place, a temple. We're
reminded that you came to set creation right, that even now, the way that it is,
it will not be that way.

One day, there'll be a new heaven and a new earth. Once more, it will be shaken.
We're reminded that you came to give us life.

Even in your death, there is life. We're reminded that you came to reach us when
we were lost. You came to reach those around us who are lost, who don't know
you.

You're giving a witness still today. And we're grateful. We're grateful for the
truth of who you are and the fact that it speaks with such clarity thousands of
years later.

Thank you, Jesus. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Well, tomorrow, we're going to see some evidence for the resurrection of Jesus
that comes even before the resurrection of Jesus.