Major Series / New Testament / Matthew
[0:00] Well, we're going to read now in our Bibles, and we're turning back again to the end of Matthew's Gospel, where we've been for the last few weeks looking at Matthew's preaching of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[0:11] And we come this morning to nearly the end of chapter 27, so we're beginning to read chapter 27 and verse 45.
[0:21] If you have one of our visitor's Bibles, that's page 834. And we're reading through to verse 61.
[0:36] And do you notice Matthew's contrast here in this passage between darkness and light? Now, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
[0:53] And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lemah sabachthani.
[1:04] 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, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.
[1:19] But the other said, wait, let's see whether Elijah will come and save him. But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
[1:32] And behold, look, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth shook and the rocks were split and the tombs also were opened.
[1:46] And many of the 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.
[1:56] 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.
[2:13] There were also 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.
[2:29] When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
[2:40] Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock.
[2:54] And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
[3:07] Amen. And may God bless to us his word. Well, if you turn with me to the passage we read together in Matthew 27, page 834, if you have one of our church visitors' Bibles.
[3:25] The Jewish historian at Josephus wrote about the life and the death of Jesus Christ.
[3:36] And he received generally a polite response. The apostles wrote about the death of Jesus Christ, and they were beaten and imprisoned and executed.
[3:48] So why this difference? Well, of course, because the apostles of Christ told people what it meant for them and for the whole world that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead.
[4:01] And that's why this book that we're studying together is called Matthew's Gospel, not Matthew's biography of Jesus. Because he is not just documenting the events of Jesus' life, but is declaring the explanation of his life and death and resurrection as a death for sins, as a death according to the scriptures, as the apostle Paul says.
[4:23] Matthew is teaching us the meaning and the message of the implications of Jesus' death. And he's doing it in terms of the whole Old Testament's teaching about sin, about punishment, about guilt and the anger of God, about the sacrifice of atonement, that alone can bring forgiveness and peace and reconciliation between sinful people and a holy God.
[4:47] And so we've seen already that Matthew proclaims Christ's death as the ultimate Passover that delivers people from the bondage of the enemy into the promised future. It's the new covenant in his blood which is shed for the forgiveness of sins.
[5:03] It's the great redemption with the ransom price of the precious blood, the innocent blood of God the Son, where the guilty is pronounced free and the innocent put to death in their place.
[5:17] And as we saw last time, it's the great reconciliation of enemies. In the mockery and in the slander of the cross, we saw how the hatred of the world is unleashed at the cross.
[5:32] And yet at the same time, the amazing wonder of the love of God that reconciled even such enemies through the death of his Son. And now in the very climax of the passion is, of course, the climax of Matthew's message.
[5:50] And he shows us here that Christ crucified is not just the answer to sin's guilt, to sin's power, to sin's slavery, but the cross of Jesus brings the total reversal of sin's ultimate penalty, death itself.
[6:06] And the way that Matthew preaches the cross to us here in these poignant verses makes his message for us absolutely as clear as crystal as he always does.
[6:19] In a Cornhill preaching class, we will often ask the preacher for his theme sentence. What is it that actually sums up your message? And I think if you ask that to Matthew, he might well say, well, I've borrowed a verse from the Apostle Paul.
[6:32] 2 Timothy 1, verse 10. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Because the message of the death of Jesus Christ is the message of the death of death itself for all that he came to save.
[6:50] His death brings the light that overcomes all darkness in the world of human beings. Another question that we often ask the Cornhill trainees is, was there a clear structure to that message?
[7:06] Well, we've seen how carefully Matthew structures his preaching to get his point across to us. And here again, he's shaped his message very deliberately to highlight to us this great light that shines right in the midst of the darkness of this, the darkest day the world has ever seen, the day that the death of the Son of God occurred at the hands of men.
[7:29] And he shows us so very clearly the darkness and the dereliction of death for Christ the Savior. So that light of life and immortality will come for those he came to save.
[7:46] Darkness brackets this passage in Matthew's gospel just as darkness surrounded the events that day at Calvary. But at the center of it all, of Matthew's message, just as on that day is one of light shining forth brightly, breaking out into a glorious new day for this world.
[8:05] So I want us to be guided by Matthew as he shows us so vividly the light that overcomes all darkness in the very death of Jesus, the Son of God.
[8:18] See how he shows us this dreadful darkness that envelopes that day all around Jesus' death. Look at verses 45 to 50. We're faced here, first of all, with the darkness of dereliction that engulfed the Son of God himself.
[8:33] Verse 45 tells us that from the sixth hour, that's noon, until the ninth hour, 3 p.m., there was darkness over all the land. We don't know what caused the darkness, but we have absolutely no doubt as to what that darkness signified.
[8:50] Because all through the Bible, darkness signifies the presence of God in judgment. Remember back to the Exodus and the plague of darkness on Pharaoh in Egypt.
[9:02] The ninth plague spoke of a thick darkness that could be felt. It was leading up to that final judgment of the death of all the firstborn in Egypt. The prophets spoke of the day of judgment as the day of darkness.
[9:15] Amos, the prophet, spoke of a great day of judgment to come on Israel, on God's own people, because of their rebellion, their rejection of God repeatedly as their Lord.
[9:26] He said about that day, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darkness over the earth in broad daylight. There's no doubt that this is a dark, dark day for Israel.
[9:41] The day that they delivered up their own Messiah to death. And so the darkness speaks loudly of judgment. But there's more than just that.
[9:51] Notice how all the focus in this section here is on Jesus' words. Do you see? The words he spoke from the cross. Well, of course, in the darkness, you can't see anything, can you?
[10:03] But you can listen. And Matthew wants us to listen to Jesus Christ. Verse 46. What does it mean? Well, it means that the darkness of this judgment is not just upon Israel for her rejection of the Messiah.
[10:24] The judgment of this utter darkness is on Jesus himself. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's quoting from Psalm 22, which speaks about a sense of utter rejection and forsakenness of God's anointed king of Israel.
[10:41] Rejected, it seems, by God himself. And some people want to explain this away here because it seems impossible that God the Father could forsake God the Son, the Son in whom he is well pleased.
[10:59] And it's unthinkable, isn't it? But unless Jesus is wrong, unless Jesus is mistaken, that is exactly what we see in the crucifixion of Jesus.
[11:10] It would be impossible for God the Son to die, to be killed by mere human beings, unless God himself had given him up to be crucified.
[11:21] And that's what Jesus confirms in these words. And it is, as one writer says, it is the most mysterious enigma of biblical revelation.
[11:32] And yet it is entirely consistent with everything that Jesus himself had taught all through the gospel about his coming death, a death for sins.
[11:44] This explains Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. And yet it supersedes even that because this now is the dread of deep darkness, of real spiritual death.
[11:59] The darkness of sheer hell and judgment. As Jesus hung on the cross in physical agony, it was this far greater agony that he experienced so truly, so dreadfully.
[12:13] The agony of utter abandonment by God his Father. The Father really did turn his face away from his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased.
[12:26] Because, as the Apostle Paul states so starkly, he became sin. He became a curse.
[12:38] Really and truly. And therefore, the judgment of God became real and terrible and true in his experience. On the cross, Jesus really experienced the very judgment of hell itself.
[12:54] He descended into hell, says the Creed. Because he experienced that utter darkness of real spiritual death. Utter separation from the presence of God.
[13:06] That is hell. And his cry here, why? It wasn't a cry of ignorance in the sense of him looking for an intellectual answer. He knew the answer.
[13:17] That's why he was so agonized in Gethsemane. Because he anticipated what was before him. No, this was a cry of agonized dereliction. It bore witness to the awful darkness of judgment descending upon him.
[13:32] As he became sin, really and truly, for his own people. As he became the scapegoat. Cast out into the desolate wasteland of darkness.
[13:45] Outside the orbit of God's people. Outside the presence of God himself. Outside the whole universe of life itself. And for Jesus, there was utter darkness.
[13:58] There was no light at all. He lost all consciousness of any communion with the Father.
[14:09] Even in Gethsemane, he could still pray, My Father. But you notice here, it's no longer my Father. It's just in verse 46, my God. And yet, even in that darkest hour of judgment, Jesus still has faith.
[14:25] God is still his God. Even though he is the God who has turned his face away from him. In awful judgment. He obeys the Father to the end. And notice verse 47.
[14:39] Crucially. Crucially, this darkness of utter dereliction is witnessed. It's witnessed. It's witnessed by the bystanders. Although actually, they only add to his darkness through their misunderstanding and their mockery.
[14:53] Oh, he's calling Elijah, they said. The Jews had a superstitious belief that Elijah would come and help truly faithful Jews in time of trouble. He needs a Savior, is what they're thinking and saying.
[15:05] But no, he is the Savior. But he's mocked, he's misunderstood, even in the infinite horror of darkness of his separation from God.
[15:17] But they witness that agony. They witness that real and terrible darkness as he became sin, as he became a curse, as he descended into the full experience of hell itself.
[15:32] But there's one more cry, do you see, in verse 50. Matthew doesn't record the words for us, as John does.
[15:43] It is finished, it is accomplished. That's what he said. But Matthew does make the same point for us, doesn't he, in a different way. Do you see, he tells us that Jesus did not lapse involuntarily into unconsciousness.
[15:56] No, despite this darkness of utter dereliction and desolation and separation from his father, Jesus willingly yielded up his spirit to death.
[16:08] He gave his own life. And this cry was a cry of accomplishment of all that he came into this world to do, to save his people from the horrors of their sins, from the horrors of hell.
[16:21] On the cross at Calvary, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, endured the darkness of utter dereliction, of real spiritual death.
[16:34] And it was clearly witnessed. They heard all his cries, even though at the time they misunderstood it completely. And who can? Who can comprehend the utter horror of that infinite darkness?
[16:48] But of course, Matthew is also concerned that we should see very clearly that on the cross, Jesus did also endure not only the darkness of real spiritual dereliction, but the darkness of death as real physical death.
[17:07] And likewise, that was unmistakably witnessed by those around the cross. Look at verses 55 to 61. Matthew meticulously records for us that having been crucified on the cross, Jesus really was, as the creed said, crucified, dead, and buried.
[17:24] As witnessed, you see, by this man Joseph who buried him in the tomb, verse 59. And the many women who witnessed his death, verse 55. And then also, verse 61, the same women witnessing the sealing of his body in the tomb.
[17:41] It can be no mistaking, can there? That cry in verse 50 was a cry of real death. There's no mistaking the cold reality of a dead body as hard evidence of real physical death.
[17:55] And a tomb, a grave that seals it. This idea that Muslims are taught that Jesus just passed out on the cross and somehow revived later, it's absolutely preposterous, but it is totally scorched by all the historic evidence.
[18:14] This was a dead body. And that's why Joseph, as a pious Jew, wouldn't want to see a body left on display on the Sabbath day.
[18:25] That's why, in verse 57, we're told, notice, amid the gathering darkness of evening, that he goes and he asks Pilate for the body. And Pilate gives it to him, verse 58.
[18:39] Notice Joseph gets a body, a dead body. Mark's account tells us plenty that Pilate said you must ensure that he really is dead before he's released.
[18:50] Of course he did. There's no mistakes here. And so this rich man, Joseph, attends to the burial in his own family tomb. Only Matthew tells us that Joseph was a rich man.
[19:04] And again, he's reminding us that everything that happened was according to the Scriptures. Because Isaiah the prophet, in his servant song, had foretold that the Messiah would have his grave with a rich man in his death.
[19:18] Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. But notice verse 60. He's laid in a new tomb. And a great stone seals the tomb.
[19:33] And the woman saw it all sitting opposite the tomb. You see, there's no mistake, is there? The tomb speaks of the absolute finality of the darkness of real physical death.
[19:46] Darkness at midday on the cross. The darkness of dereliction. The agony. The forsakenness. The chill horror of spiritual death. He descended into hell.
[19:59] And now darkness in the evening. Amid the enclosing night. Alone and shrouded. Entombed. The cold darkness of bodily death. The stone seals the tomb in utter darkness.
[20:13] He was crucified, dead, and buried. And the witnesses, this time, well, they're not mocking, are they? They're mourning and ministering to Jesus in his death.
[20:24] And yet, still in a way, they also misunderstand, don't they? He needs servants, is what they're saying, to tend his body. But no, don't you remember? He is the servant.
[20:37] He, said as I, shall make many to be counted righteous. He will bear their iniquities. Because Jesus said the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
[20:52] To give his life. He yielded up his spirit, says verse 50, into the terrible darkness of death. Of hell itself. And of physical destruction.
[21:07] But you see, that darkness brings us to the glorious center of Matthew's message. You see, look at verses 51 to 54. They're right at the heart of it all.
[21:18] He focuses our gaze not on darkness, but on glorious light and life. The light of life. The glorious light that shines forth in dazzling brightness amid that deep, deep darkness of the cross.
[21:32] Do you see, in verse 51, what's Matthew saying? Behold, look, look. How can you look in the darkness? Well, you can't. But that's his point, because darkness is banished.
[21:46] And light has come again as the Lord Jesus yields himself up to death as the Savior. What was the darkness? From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, when Jesus cried out the last time.
[21:57] And the implication is that light returned. Darkness ceased the moment of Jesus' death. That's why in verse 57 we're told, later the evening came. In other words, it got dark again.
[22:08] So between that ninth hour, 3 p.m., and the evening, the sunset, it was light again. And certainly Matthew's words in verses 51 to 54 are filled with light, filled with glory.
[22:23] Not words in the darkness that he's drawing our attention to, but two great signs from heaven in the light of day to interpret with all the authority of Almighty God, to interpret the meaning of the death of Christ.
[22:39] You see, verse 51, the curtain of the temple is torn in two, from top to bottom, from heaven to earth. And verse 52, the tombs are opened, and the dead are raised to life.
[22:52] Why is Matthew telling us this? What does that mean? Well, it's because, he says, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And this is what the Scriptures promised.
[23:05] Look at verse 51. It tells us the temple curtain was opened, telling us that there is reconciliation. Reconciliation between God and man through what Jesus accomplished at the cross.
[23:20] That thick curtain in the temple, it separated the holiest place of the temple from everything on the outside. No one could go through that curtain into the near presence of God, except one person, the high priest, alone.
[23:35] And only on one day in the calendar alone, the day of atonement. And only one way, if he went with the blood of atonement, the blood of sacrifice to make atonement for the people's sins.
[23:47] If you went any other time, any other person, any other way, it was instant death, because of being faced with the glory and the holiness of God himself. And that curtain symbolized so vividly the great barrier separating man from God ever since he was cast out of the Garden of Eden.
[24:08] In fact, that temple had on it embroidery of the cherubim and the seraphim with the flaming swords that we read about at the end of Genesis 3, keeping man away from the presence of God.
[24:20] Because the relationship that we were made for with God has been broken by sin. Distancing us from God. No way back is what those swords said.
[24:33] And later in the tabernacle, in the temple, yes, the Lord God did come and presence himself near to his people in grace and in mercy. But the people could not enter God's presence.
[24:46] And only ever-repeating sacrifices of atonement could keep them alive even outside the tent. There was no way in to the very presence of God himself in his dwelling place.
[25:01] But now Matthew is saying, look, look, the great barrier curtain. It's been torn down from top to bottom, from heaven's side to earth. Of course, you can't see literally the temple from the place of crucifixion at Calvary.
[25:18] But Matthew is insisting on turning our eyes there and saying, look, see that through the cross, through the self-giving of the Son of God, into death's deep darkness, now there is light streaming out into the world of men again from the holy place of God's dwelling.
[25:37] Now, because of that day, as the book of Hebrews puts it, sinful people like us can enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened up to us through the curtain.
[25:53] That is, through his flesh, through his death on the cross. You see what he's saying? The gate of Eden has been reopened, darkness defeated, and Eden restored.
[26:06] The moment that Jesus died, it is accomplished forever. Heaven and earth are reunited together through Jesus Christ. The old covenant, with all its sacrifices and its temple, is finished forever.
[26:20] And the new covenant, the everlasting covenant, sealed in his blood, is established forever. And the way is open, the curtain is open, and there is reconciliation. Jesus tasted death as dereliction, as the agony separating from God that is hell.
[26:40] And he did that so that we might taste again of the tree of life that is the intimacy of fellowship with God. Luke says, Matthew, behold, all things are new.
[26:51] The curtain is open, there is restoration, there is reconciliation with God forever. And therefore, look at verse 52, because, through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have received reconciliation, the tombs are opened, and there is resurrection.
[27:07] Restoration of body and soul for man forever. The earth shook, the rocks split, and the tombs were opened. The rest of verse 52 and 53, there is a parenthesis really, telling us what this sign of the shattered tombs meant.
[27:27] Something extraordinary happened, not right then, but after Jesus' resurrection, that the bodies of many saints of old were raised and came into this tree, and were seen again by many witnesses. And that was a vivid preview of the reality that is now certain to come in the last day, when through Jesus' resurrection as the first fruits, all who are his will be raised on that day.
[27:51] But you see, what Matthew is telling us here so plainly, is that it was at that very moment that Jesus died, that the icy grip of the tombs of this earth were broken forever.
[28:04] For all the saints of God, for everyone that he came to see. But look, look, he says, it's the death of death, in the death of Jesus Christ.
[28:15] You get such a wonderful picture of that in C.S. Lewis's Narnia book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when Aslan explains to Susan and Lucy, after he has risen from his death on the stone table, when he explains to them what it all means, then he says, this is the beginning of death working backwards.
[28:36] And just as in the Narnia stories, all those creatures who've been turned into lifeless stone statues by the White Witch, they begin to come back to life as Aslan breathes on them.
[28:49] So it is here, in glorious reality, that those who are imprisoned by death are freed from the bondage of sin and death. The moment, the moment, that Jesus Christ's death for sin is accomplished.
[29:02] Because the curtain is opened, and heaven and earth are reunited forever in reconciliation. And so the body and the soul of human beings are reunited forever in resurrection to eternal life.
[29:16] The curse of sin, remember at the beginning, was to dust you will return. But the death of Jesus Christ has reversed that curse forever.
[29:29] You see how Matthew makes so clear this great exchange on the cross. Look, look at verses 60 and 61. Jesus is laid in a new tomb. The stone seals the tomb.
[29:40] The woman stand witnessing the tomb. But in the very moment of Jesus' death, verse 52, what happens? The tombs of believers are rent asunder. The darkness of death is flooded with the light of life.
[29:54] Our Savior, Jesus Christ, has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light for all who belong to him. Those who died long ago, like those saints of old, longing for the coming of the Messiah, waiting.
[30:09] And those who have died that we have known and that we have loved. Now, we miss so dearly. And all of us who today live facing death, coming in on our lives.
[30:22] Some of us much sooner than others. But death is working backwards already for everyone who knows and loves Jesus Christ because in his death is the death of death as the wages of sin.
[30:41] A wonderful thought, isn't it, that all of those bereaved in Jerusalem in those days, that amidst all their tears, here rose up these saints and came into the city and said, wipe away your tears.
[30:53] Rejoice. There's resurrection. There's a future. Because the death of Jesus Christ has broken the power of hell forever and ever. Go home later and read the prophet Isaiah from chapter 25 and chapter 26.
[31:09] There's these wonderful words when God promises a day when he will swallow up death forever. And the Lord our God will wipe away all tears from all eyes. And your dead shall live.
[31:21] And their bodies will rise. And you who dwell in the dust will arise and shout and sing for joy. Because in that day, says the Lord, I will punish the fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent, slaying at last the evil one, the one who destroyed our life and had that desperate hold of death over all of us.
[31:48] and here you see these people on that day, they saw a wonderful foretaste of that great day of resurrection and the assurance and the hope all in the face of the darkness of death because the death of Jesus Christ has broken the power of death forever.
[32:06] The moment he died, the tombs were opened. Can you see what a difference that makes to this world? I'm sure all of us, many of us anyway, will have been at funerals where there is no hope, where there is no future, where there is just the bleak devastation of grief, where there is just the despair of utter loss, the misery of a lifetime of loving relationship robbed by the jaws of the grave.
[32:39] But how different the thanksgiving services of those who have known the truth, who have known this light that banishes that darkness of death, who have known the joy of the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ.
[32:57] Of course, there are still tears for us and rightly so because we must wait as well, mustn't we, for that great day of resurrection? But there is hope. There is sure and certain hope because we've seen the preview, the tombs have been opened, and there will be resurrection, lasting, bodily resurrection, life forever for every single one who has entrusted themselves into the safekeeping of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[33:26] Our Savior, Jesus Christ, has abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. And it was made certain that moment that Jesus breathed his last and yielded up his life for us on the cross.
[33:47] But there's one final shaft of light that Matthew draws our eyes to and it's here in verse 54 which is really the climax of his whole account of the crucifixion because he wants us to see that it's in grasping the meaning and the message of the cross that our eyes are opened and that there is revelation.
[34:11] When they saw the earthquake and what took place they were filled with awe and they said truly this was the Son of God. You see what Matthew is saying to us he's saying that it's here at the cross that we find revelation.
[34:28] The ultimate revelation of who God really is and of who we really are as sinful human beings. Because first of all we see that God is a God of absolute holiness and justice who cannot look upon sin.
[34:43] Who must be separated from man by a great barrier because sin must be punished. And we see don't we in Jesus' death the sheer horror of the penalty that our sins deserve and that our sins must receive at the bar of God's justice.
[35:05] because he stood in our place wounded for our transgressions crushed for our iniquities just as the prophets foretold. You see we see at the cross what God really thinks of our lives and what our lives deserve and it is a terrible revelation a terrible eye opener.
[35:30] And there's no hiding at the cross all of us are exposed. But you see the cross also opens our eyes at the same time to the God of absolute love and mercy.
[35:42] Because this is the great act of love in all time and eternity revealing the depth of love in the heart of God for his people wayward undeserving rebellious as they are.
[35:56] Do you know that the New Testament when it speaks of the love of God for us nearly always speaks of that love in the past tense because it's focused on that great act of love revealed at the cross.
[36:08] Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God says Paul in Ephesians 5. The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me he says in Galatians 2.
[36:21] It's the cross the cross of Jesus that shows you just how much God loves you and values your life. Despite everything that should separate you from him despite all the real guilt of sin that must be punished that can't be overlooked but there he loved us because he came to save his people from their sins and the cross of Jesus is the great place of revelation the ultimate unique revelation of who God really is and what God has done for us in the judgment of the cross we see his infinite mercy towards us in the weakness of the cross we see his mighty power towards us and in the death on the cross we find his eternal life offered to us freely as sinners and that's why Matthew records these final witnesses in verse 54 do you see we've seen the mocking witnesses taunting him as he descended into real spiritual death we've seen the mourning witnesses who saw him buried in real physical death but now do you see we see these marveling witnesses these pagan soldiers who saw with their own eyes the light of life itself in Jesus
[37:39] Christ crucified when they saw the earthquake and what took place in Jesus death they were filled with awe and they said truly this was the son of God in Christ crucified is the reconciliation of heaven and earth relationship with God is restored in Christ crucified is the resurrection of the body death working backwards and in Christ crucified is the revelation that shines the light of life into even the darkest and deadest and most ignorant pagan human soul you see what Matthew is saying to us don't you it is in the darkness of the cross that the light of life is to be found only there but always there it's in the message of Christ crucified that darkness is banished and that light dawns in the souls of lost men and women and he is saying to us that if these hardened pagan ignorant soldiers can be touched by the message of the cross of Jesus if their eyes can be opened to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of
[38:54] God in the face of Jesus Christ God the Son if that can happen then friends that can happen to your ignorant pagan hardened friends your ignorant pagan hardened families your workmates to everyone you have thought is beyond the possibility of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and it can happen to you if you've thought that about yourself the gospel of Christ crucified has that power the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes power to open the heavens and restore estranged sinners to God power to open the grave and restore the bodies of frail mortals to life forever and power to open the eyes of everyone who so believes don't ever lose your confidence in the gospel of the cross of Christ we preach
[39:55] Christ crucified because in the cross in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ is the light that overcomes all darkness forever that's Matthew's preaching of the cross of Jesus to us here today amen let's pray Lord you have shined the light of the knowledge of your glory in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts and so touch us afresh we pray so that the light of Christ might also be manifest in us and that even as his death is at work in us his marvelous life might also be at work shining light from us and through us to many whom you will yet call into that marvelous light also through the power of the gospel of our
[40:57] Lord Jesus and him crucified hear us we pray and help us to make him known for Jesus sake amen