Matthew 27:45-56 - Putting Death To Death

Chapter 27.

As we continue on through this first gospel of our Christian New Testaments.

If you're using the Pew Bible, you can find that on page 885, Matthew chapter 27.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

We'll be looking this morning at verses 45 to 56.

Matthew 27, 45 through 56.

This is God's word.

From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole land.

About three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloy, Eloi, Lama Sabakhthani, that is, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

When some of those standing there heard this, they said, He's calling for Elijah.

Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered him a drink.

But the rest said, Let's see if Elijah comes to save him.

But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.

Suddenly the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.

The earth quaked, and the rocks were split.

The tombs were also opened, and many of the bodies who had fallen asleep were raised, and they came out of the tombs after his resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.

When the centurion and those with him who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and looked after him were there, watching from a distance.

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

Let's pray again.

Father, we're asking for you to help us today to be trusting in the work of Jesus Christ, a work that we need.

We see the weight of our own disobedient inclinations, the thoughts and attitudes of our heart that rightly calls out judgment.

And yet we see the beauty of mercy, the beauty of substitute and the sacrifice of another.

So we pray that as we even consider this passage this morning, you would help us to take confidence to know that though there is death in the world and death in some ways still at work in us, yet our Christ has accomplished all that's necessary to defeat death.

That indeed it was finished upon that cross, that we have this assurance through Scripture.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

In 1648, John Owen, he's a Puritan pastor, published a book called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.

Let me, did you catch that title?

The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.

This is how he begins.

He's got a note to the reader, and he says, If you are as many in this pretending age, a title gazer, and you come into books as Cato into the theater to go out again, you have had your entertainment.

Farewell.

He wasn't really someone who was trying to pump up his sales and flatter the public.

But as he gets actually into the substance of the book, he opens with a couple of questions.

Why did the father send the son into the world?

And what did the son of God actually accomplish when he came into the world?

And then he surveys a number of passages right at the beginning of the book.

And the summary we could say from that survey, one way to summarize it would be to say that the father sent the son into the world to put death to death.

And that what Jesus actually accomplished when he came into the world was to put death to death.

Now, it's he's not the easiest person to read.

But why do I start there?

Well, I start there because the title of the sermon today is Putting Death to Death.

So if that title sounds a little bit familiar, I'm telling you, it's it's an illusion there.

Don't accuse me of plagiarism.

But even more important, much more important than John Owen warrant, we have biblical warrant.

2 Timothy chapter 1 tells us that God saved us and called us to a holy calling.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Not because of our own works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which has now been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death.

So it's right there in Scripture.

This is what Jesus came to do.

This is what he did.

I also mentioned that book by John Owen because of the way he starts it with if you're just a title gazer and you're not ready to apply your mind, yeah, find something else.

Sometimes when we come to familiar portions of scripture, we don't really come ready to engage our whole heart and soul and strength and mind as God's people.

But these are some familiar words for those of us who know the Lord.

Come ready to listen today, come ready to hear the details of this passage and all that it tells us.

And most importantly, it's not a topical sermon, obviously, on John Owen or any book that he wrote.

It's a sermon on this passage in Matthew.

And if you look at verse number 50, right at the heart of our passage, it says that Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.

Jesus died.

It's right there at the heart of this passage.

But what's the significance of his death?

I'm gonna argue this morning that Jesus put death to death.

That's the big argument.

And there's a lot of clues that will point us in that direction.

So if we're willing to accept that argument that Jesus put death to death, then that demands a response from us.

And we'll come to that response at the end.

Jesus put death to death.

Here's the first step of the argument.

First step is this Jesus truly experienced death.

Now we just saw that in verse 50.

You can look at that again.

Jesus gave up his spirit.

So he didn't just talk at death from a distance.

He didn't speak about death.

He didn't come to do kind of cosmic battle back and forth with death.

It is true.

Hebrews tells us he came to destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.

So there is battle going on there.

But he entered into the deepest and darkest human experience, an experience that we're all going to have to go through one day.

And he died.

He wasn't caught off guard or taken by surprise.

As he himself said, I lay my life down, I take it up again, no one can take it from me.

So even in this very act of death, Jesus was active in giving himself over to the Father.

You hear in the book of Acts, Stephen will say when he's being stoned, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

It's a prayer.

It doesn't say that Stephen gave up his spirit, the way that Jesus did that right here.

And the gospel writers all record this testimony because they want us to know that Jesus is accomplishing something in his death.

And the reason why he has authority, even in this moment of very human weakness and staggering suffering, he's still in control because he's not merely a human being.

He's God of gods.

The creed that we recited this morning rehearsed that truth, that he's indeed begotten and God of gods from eternity past.

And if it's true that Jesus is God, we're already entering very deep and mysterious waters.

First Timothy six.

God is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who alone is immortal.

God cannot die.

That's part of what it means to be God.

So when we say Jesus is truly God, but he died, how can we fit that together?

This is already a lot of mystery here.

But remember that though Jesus was truly God from eternity past, he's also truly human.

This is a marvelous thing that he experienced death through his human nature.

We sing a song called An Can It Be.

There's a verse of that song, it's not in our hymn book, but there's a verse that begins this way Tis mystery all, the immortal dies.

Who can explore his strange design?

Now, even to be able to say that the son experienced death through his human nature, that's still so harrowing and humbling.

Why would he do that?

He did it for us.

It wasn't a parlor trick to show his ability to have two natures and one person.

He came for us and for our salvation to live and to die.

And that brings us to the next step of the argument.

So Jesus put death to death.

He did that by experiencing death, truly experiencing death.

And in that experience of death, he bore the judgment of God.

He actually bore the judgment of God.

We know this is true from what the whole Bible says, but where do I get that from our passage here in Matthew?

Well, there are a number of clues.

So I go back to what I said at the beginning.

Keep our minds engaged with all the clues that Matthew gives us to show us through this narrative that when Jesus dies, he's bearing the judgment of God.

First, just the very fact that he died.

Now I'm repeating myself, but why do people die at all?

Why did Adam and Eve die in the beginning?

Because they had sinned and the judgment of God was coming on them.

Why did people die in the flood?

God was giving his judgment.

So the very existence of death in the world at all is a sign of God's judgment.

Romans 6 23 says, the wages of sin is death.

And the Lord rightly pays out those wages.

But there's another clue here.

The second clue that Jesus was bearing the judgment of God in his death is that it says darkness came over the whole land.

Verse 45.

Interesting detail, kind of ominous.

Yes, but it's more than that.

Exodus chapter 10 records this.

Exodus 10 · chapter mention

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt.

So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days.

God brought darkness over the whole land of Egypt, way back in the Old Testament, as one of the plagues that was a sign of judgment against the Egyptians.

There was darkness over the whole land of Egypt, and now there's darkness over the whole land of Israel, because God is bringing judgment.

Israel is just as sinful as Egypt.

And just as Egypt and just as Israel, we too deserve the darkness of judgment.

Amos chapter 8, verses 9 and 10.

Amos 8:9

In that day, this is the declaration of the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon.

What did we just read about in Matthew?

It goes dark at noon.

I will darken the land in the daytime.

I will turn your feasts into mourning, Amos says, all your songs into lamentation.

I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved.

I will make that grief like mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.

Amos takes the events of the plagues in Egypt, the darkness and the death of the firstborn son, and he says, that's a pattern.

It's a pattern, it's going to happen again.

And we see it right here in the crucifixion that there's darkness and the death, not this time the death of Egyptians' firstborn or even Israel's firstborn, the death of God's firstborn son.

A third clue Jesus is offered sour wine.

Verse 48, immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered him a drink.

This seems like it's one of the more compassionate, small compassionate acts amidst the crucifixion.

It seems like someone's trying to help dull the pain.

Right?

Like when you watch an old western and the cowboy takes a quick swig of whiskey before he cuts the bullet out of his own leg with his pocket knife.

Seems like that's what's going on here.

But listen to Psalm 75, verse 8.

Psalms 75:8

There is a cup in the Lord's hand, full of wine blended with spices, and he pours from it all the wicked of the earth will drink, drain it to the dregs.

Revelation 14, 10 says that those who worship the beast will drink the wine of his wrath, which is poured full strength into the cup of his anger.

Why is Jesus offered this sour wine?

There's judgment imagery here.

Fourth clue.

Isaiah 29, verses 5 and 6.

Isaiah 29:5

Your many foes will be like fine dust, and many of the ruthless like blowing chaff.

Then suddenly, in an instant, you will be punished by the Lord of armies with thunder, earthquake, and loud noise.

Jeremiah 10, 10.

But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God and eternal king.

The earth quakes at his wrath, and the nations cannot endure his fury.

So I'm not saying that every single time there's an earthquake, God is specifically judging someone, or that every single time the sky gets dark, God is specifically judging someone, or that every time you have a glass of wine, God is specifically judging.

But what I am saying is here, Matthew, under God's inspiration, is giving us all these narrative details, things that actually happened, but he's recording the details that happened in light of the scriptures that have come before it and connecting it in with other scriptures to show us that in the event of the crucifixion, when Jesus experiences death, he's bearing the judgment of God.

God is pouring out his wrath on the Son.

And that leads us to the most important and most clear clue of that.

Jesus cries out that he's abandoned by God.

Verse 46.

And Matthew records it and then even translates it into Greek for his listeners.

But this dramatic cry, Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabacthani, and then Matthew makes clear that he's saying, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Some of your translations use the word forsaken.

This is more than a cry of loneliness.

This is not Jesus came to earth like you know, you go to summer camp and he's just missing his heavenly home.

It's not that at all.

He's experiencing the very weight of God's wrath, and that's why he cries out.

And it's the physical pain, but it's much more than just the physical pain.

You see this here in the way that he doesn't cry out, my hands or my wrists or my head.

He cries out, my God, my God.

This is the same Jesus who said in Matthew 11 27, All things have been entrusted to me by my Father.

No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son.

In John 10 30, Jesus says, I and my father are one.

Can you can you just even imagine from all eternity a personal relationship that is pure and whole and seamless and unbroken, absolute mutuality and love, experienced not just for the seasons of our human lives with parents or spouses or children, but forever.

And now he he cries out in anguish.

What must that have been like for our Lord?

We we can't imagine.

Again, these are waters that are too deep for us.

It's a mystery still that the Son, who's one with the Father, can speak of being abandoned.

Now, Jesus didn't himself deserve judgment, but he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

It pleased the Father to bruise him.

The punishment that brought peace was on him, and it's with his stripes that were healed, friends.

This is for his people.

And that brings us to the next step of this argument.

Before we turn to our response, Jesus put death to death.

But then he also secured the covenant blessings of salvation.

So, friends, listen, this is much more than just salvation from, this is salvation to.

This is more than just salvation from the wrath of God.

This is salvation to the covenant blessings.

We get to enjoy a relationship with God.

We're not just spared from his judgment, we can actually call him our father, just as Jesus called him our father.

And we see a couple of clues for that as well here in the passage.

First, look at verse 51.

It says, suddenly the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.

Now, wait a minute.

The crucifixion is out on a hill on Golgotha.

Where did a sanctuary and a curtain come from?

Matthew is telling us, as the narrator, inspired by God, he tells us about what's going on somewhere else.

It's like a movie where the action's going on, and then all of a sudden it flashes to something that happens in a different location.

He's telling us about what's going on in the sanctuary or the temple, as some of your translations have.

This is the temple in Jerusalem, a temple that God had first established, it had been rebuilt.

And that temple had a curtain that separated off the most holy place, the holy of holies.

This is where the Ark of the Covenant is stored, the throne room.

Of God, God's very presence.

But only the high priest could go in that room once a year.

He goes in on the Day of Atonement to offer a sacrifice.

That temple, that room, that curtain, that high priest, they were operating according to the pattern of the old covenant.

The covenant God had established.

But that's why I say that Jesus secured covenant blessings because he came to inaugurate a new covenant in his blood.

And as the curtain is torn in two, it's the end of the old covenant because the new is here.

And we see very clearly it has to be the work of God because the text tells us it's torn in two from top to bottom.

Don't think of like a shower curtain in your bathroom.

This was a curtain that was 60 feet high, seven inches thick.

For it to be, this fabric to be torn in two from top to bottom, it's clearly God's testimony that it's his activity that's taking place here.

So at the very same time that God is pouring out judgment on his son, he's affirming the reality and success of the son's work in establishing this new covenant.

And now it's not the high priest that can go in once a year, the curtain's open for all who come through Jesus Christ.

That's you and me.

If we come turning from our sins, trusting in Christ, we have access to the Father.

What privileges and blessings are ours through Christ?

It's amazing.

There's another clue here that Jesus secured those covenant blessings of salvation.

There's many more that you'll have to read the whole Bible to see all the covenant blessings that are secured, but just access to God is right here that I point out.

There's another clue, verses 52 and 53.

Let's look at those again.

The tombs were also opened, and then Matthew gives us this detail, interestingly.

Many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and they came out of the tombs after his resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.

When's the last time you heard those two verses for a Good Friday sermon?

We've heard the cry, Why have you forsaken me?

We've heard the curtain torn in two.

Don't usually get those verses for the Good Friday sermon.

Now, those verses bring up some questions.

I can't answer all those questions.

Who were these saints?

How many were they?

Like after they got resurrected, they have to die again, or they just get to go to heaven like Elijah did.

I don't know.

But Matthew records this event because it shows us that death has been defeated.

That when Jesus died, death's not going to have the last word.

The saints are coming to life.

And what's true of Jesus is true of his people.

He's the first fruits.

And what's true of those saints will be true of us.

Now we'll come in a couple of weeks here to Christ's own resurrection, but just note now for the present time that the covenant blessings of resurrection life have been secured through the death of Christ.

And it's stamped with the certainty of these saints' resurrection.

Death can't hold them once Christ Himself has died and defeated death.

Christ through this work, he didn't do a little bit.

He didn't try to help us along.

No, the Lord was successful in all of his work.

And that brings us finally to our response.

So Jesus put death to death.

He did that in his experience of death.

He did that by burying the judgment of God as he died.

He secured the covenant blessings of access to God and resurrection life.

What's our response to that?

First response should be awe.

Look at verse 54.

When the centurion and those with him who were keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

We sometimes see those images of Jesus hanging on a cross, and it evokes pity.

And that's an appropriate response.

Jesus was cruelly and wrongly killed.

But pity does not capture the entirety of what is going on in this momentous event.

You could translate the verse this way these soldiers were filled with fear extremely.

Holy terror is not something to avoid.

We live in a world that just always wants to make everything light.

Holy terror is not something to avoid, especially when we come to an event that has eternal and momentous weight like this event.

We should embrace holy terror and awe.

Come behold the wondrous mystery, slain by death, the God of life.

Stop and stand in awe.

Another response should be a response of trust.

You don't see this, I'll admit, explicitly in this passage.

We don't know for certain the centurion, these soldiers, did they have a true heart faith that recognized the Messiah?

Perhaps they did.

But in light of all that we've seen in the passage about the reality of what Christ accomplished, how can we not trust him?

Trusting him means that we turn from our sins.

We see the horror of what sin did to Christ.

We see the horror of what sin did in our own lives.

Isaiah that we'll come to after Matthew, and we're going to be looking at tonight, Isaiah will talk much about the horror that sin brings.

So turn and trust.

Trust means that we take what's revealed in Scripture and we lean into it.

And some of you might be saying, Well, wait a minute, Micah.

You're saying that Jesus put death to death.

That's a nice story, but I don't see it.

I see death all around.

I see death in the world.

That's not the end of the story.

The eyes of faith seize hold of what happens here.

And it's not a blind faith.

We'll talk about Christ's resurrection as witnesses of the resurrection, but faith seizes hold of God's word above the limitations of our own experiences.

And just as there is a delay, Christ's death and resurrection, Christ's death, the resurrection of these saints, our resurrection, it has to be worked out over time.

But in God's plan, all that was necessary to defeat death has been accomplished.

And trust grabs hold of God's word and says, Yes, I want that more than what I see with my own eyes.

Sometimes as we get older, we see the effects of death in our bodies.

And we're just, we're just discouraged.

Say, well, I know, I know death is defeated, but I just don't feel it right now.

I feel like I didn't sleep last night and I want to go sleep right now.

Be encouraged that our bodies will pass through death.

And no matter what difficulties we're experiencing in our bodies, as one of our former pastors said, it's nothing a good resurrection won't fix.

Trust, friends, that the work is complete, that you have access to God, you can go in and pray to God through Jesus Christ.

You can be saved and find forgiveness.

The weight of that judgment that you feel in your own souls, that can be gone because of what Jesus did.

You don't need another mediator.

Trust in Christ alone.

If you think, well, I need a parent or a priest or a pastor or a politician, or if you think you need someone else to give you the good life or get you to God, that's that's the opposite of trust.

Trust grabs hold of the reality of Jesus, the crucified one, who finished the work.

Hebrews 8, 9, 12.

He entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

He didn't try to obtain eternal redemption, he obtained eternal redemption.

Trust in him.

We can't supplement the work of Jesus.

Sometimes we can even think of our own faith or repentance as a kind of supplement to the work of Christ.

Like, yeah, he did a lot on the cross.

And then, you know, I got my life in order and I prayed to him.

And no, yes, God wants us to repent and trust in him, but it's not a supplement to the work of Jesus.

He did it all.

And we embrace his full work.

Venture on him, venture holy, let no other trust intrude.

Final response this morning.

A response of awe and trust, and then a response of allegiance.

Look at verse 55.

Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee looked after him there, watching from a distance.

Don't take that watching from a distance as though they're about to abandon their faith.

It's actually just the opposite.

They have followed him consistently from Galilee, not an insignificant distance, and they've been ministering to him.

There's almost a contrast here between Peter, who watched the trial from a distance, but then he denied Christ.

And these are going to remain as close as they can to Christ.

These women who have served him, who have ministered to him.

This is the Mary who anointed Jesus with perfume, who poured it all out for her Lord.

These are women who are loyal to Christ because they stand in awe of who he is and they trust him.

True allegiance stems from awe-inspired trust.

And this is where I want to encourage all of us today, for those that know the Lord, if we're trusting in the Lord, we can minister to the Lord by simply being faithful to Him.

These women are ordinary women.

God loves that.

The Lord embraces that.

Keep trusting Him.

Don't say, Well, I can't do as much as I used to be able to do.

But you're still here.

You're still following the Savior.

And that's what we all need to encourage one another to do.

Jesus put death to death.

And we have to trust in him supremely, certainly beyond our own confidence or ability to even keep walking with him.

He put death to death, that any terror of conscience that might be in our minds, take that to the cross of Christ.

See here that judgment's been forever taken.

Any lack of service you find in yourself, realize that Christ has covered it all through his blood.

And so when we sing here in just a moment, sing with all of your heart.

We're going to sing even words that echo this passage of curtain torn in two, dead are raised to life, finish the victory cry.

All the work has been done, and it's left for us to trust and rejoice in our Savior.

Let's pray.

Lord, oh Lord, how we want to know more of Christ, how we want to worship Him more fully with our heart and soul and strength and mind.

And thank you for weaving all the events of this passage together in such harmonious ways, sobering ways, gripping ways.

Thank you that Jesus indeed put death to death.

And so we pray that as we're singing, resurrection life would be at work in us, that we're a new creation in Jesus Christ.

The old has passed and the new has come.

And so we're singing as new creatures.

We're looking back at the cross, but also walking forward in humble trust in this Savior who not only died but now lives and reigns.

So, Lord, please, as we sing through your spirit, fill our hearts with worship, we pray, this Lord's day in Jesus' name.

Amen.